Subject: Re: 34 Felony Counts
Dope1: <You can pay off a pron star and have her sign an NDA so your wife doesn't find out; that's not illegal.

Except Trump directed Cohen to delay making the payment to Daniels for "as long as possible". He reasoned that if he could delay the payment until after the election, he could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story became public.

IOW, the payment was to influence the election, not to keep Melania from learning of the payment.

Pecker will certainly confirm this point.