Rand Paul defends Trump by questioning whether financial crimes actually count as crimes. [View all]

[DetlefK]

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-december-9-2018-n945771

SEN. RAND PAUL:

You know, I think what's interesting about this is people forget history. The Federal Elections Commission actually ruled on this with John Edwards. They actually came up with a ruling and said that, "You know what? The paying of his mistress was not a -- was not a campaign finance violation." But I think it's bigger than this. And I think we have to decide in our society if -- there are thousands and thousands of rules. It's incredibly complicated, campaign finance. We have to decide whether or not really criminal penalties are the way we should approach criminal finance. I personally think that if someone makes an error in filing paperwork or in not categorizing a campaign contribution correctly, it shouldn't be jail time. It ought to be a fine. And so it's just like a lot of other things that we've done in Washington. We've over criminalized campaign finance.

Oopsie-doodle.

Don't you hate it when you are all innocently structuring the payoff of your mistress through a shell corporation to make her shut up in time for your electoral campaign, and then all of a sudden people start pointing fingers at you?

Or when the US has sanctions that say "Don't do business with Russia" but you really, really want to do business with Russia?

Or when you are all innocently selling US real-estate to the shell-corporation of a foreigner, for triple the price, for cash, and without a contract that documents who actually bought that real-estate and where the money came from?