No. of Recommendations: 2
...the prosecution’s entire case against former President Donald Trump under a criminal theory that still has many of us baffled. It is not clear what crime Trump was supposedly trying to conceal...
I know this is one of the themes, but I think of it as there are different types of speech. Normal speech, business speech, and political speech. (I think it's normal speech, name may be different) Political speech is highly protected, normal speech - not so much, and we regulate business speech so consumers aren't mislead and people don't place billboards in their front yards in some areas.
If you pay hush money for normal speech, not illegal. But if you are running for office, it's no longer normal speech, it's political speech, and is highly protected. So the courts have made it such that you can say more about a candidate running for office and not be subject to libel or slander, and also the protection is extended to make it more difficult to suppress political speech. This is not to be confused with normal editorial and news story choices made by newspapers, etc. - that is normal editorial and story choice. However, to enter into a conspiracy where the intent is to "catch and kill" stories that could hurt the candidate -that is suppression of political speech.
So the payment to Stormy was suppression of protected political speech, even if Stormy wanted the money instead of telling the story.
