The Washington Post: Update: Did the Trump Campaign Violate Federal Law by Using a Trump Organization Speechwriter?

Date

"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.

"It's very hard to tell exactly what's going on," Noble said, "but it's possible that what they're doing is paying in advance for the use of staff." 

That the letter is on Trump Organization letterhead is also problem by itself. "The Trump Organization should not be providing anything to the campaign that it's not getting paid for," Noble said -- including letterhead. It also reinforces the idea that McIver wasn't working for the campaign at all, as legally required. The letter contains no suggestion that McIver was a campaign employee at any point. Noble points out that she offered to resign her position, but which position? For it to have been legal, she was working for the campaign -- but it seems clear that she offered to resign from her theoretically unrelated Trump Organization job. 

Read the full article