Trump defends hush money payments as ‘simple private transaction’
President blames former lawyer on Twitter after Democrats raise the 'real prospect of jail time'
US President Donald Trump on Monday defended hush money payments reported by his former lawyer a day after Democrats said he could face impeachment and jail time if the transactions are proved to be campaign finance violations. Trump, in early morning tweets, said Democrats were wrongly targeting “a simple private transaction” after court filings last week drew renewed attention to six-figure payments by his personal lawyer to two women during the 2016 campaign so they would not discuss affairs with Trump. On Sunday, Jerrold Nadler, who will lead the judiciary committee when Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in January, said if the payments were found to violate campaign finance laws it would be an impeachable offence. His Democratic counterpart on the intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, said Trump could be indicted and could “face the real prospect of jail time”. Under US law, campaign contributions, defined as things of value given to a campaign to influence ...
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