Did the Trump campaign violate federal law by using a Trump Organization speechwriter?

[RandySF]

"My name is Meredith McIver," it began, "and I'm an in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization." McIver explains how she was working with Melania on the speech when the candidate's wife read out some passages from Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech. Those passages were then accidentally included in the draft Trump used, for which McIver, later in the note, apologizes. Done and done; the truth has come out.

But there's another problem. Notice the letterhead of the statement: The Trump Organization, which is to say Donald Trump's personal business. And notice how McIver describes herself: As an employee of the Trump Organization, not the campaign.

If Trump used corporate resources to write a political speech, that could be illegal.

"On the face of it, this looks like a corporate violation," explained Lawrence Noble, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. And that is "a violation of federal law. It can result in civil penalties to the corporation and the campaign." If the campaign used corporate resources "willingly and knowingly," the offense is a criminal one.

Noble notes, however, that the campaign has regularly used corporate staff for the campaign -- but have properly accounted for that use by paying the staff from the campaign. Trump's campaign can use Trump Organization staffers if those staffers are paid for that work by the campaign.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/20/did-the-trump-campaign-violate-federal-law-by-using-a-trump-organization-speechwriter/

[brooklynite]

1. No (discussed before)

At worst, this is an in-kind contribution that can be reported to FEC; more likely, since she's not the candidate, nobody's going to press the issue of her giving a speech saying she likes her husband.

[gopiscrap]

2. probably

but no one is going to do anything about it