First off, it's perfectly legal to use your own money to pay someone on a NDA. Secondly, a president cannot be impeached for something that happened prior to being president (especially when perfectly legal).
What is going on now is that Mueller is trying to get something (anything?) to discredit Trump and make him un-electable in 2020. This is in retaliation for firing Comey and to keep Hillary safe. Trump is very honorable and has let the investigation run. Trump is a good human being.
Was Trump running a campaign for political office at the time of the payment? Was the payment made in any manner from campaign funds or via funds from donators? We can ask John Edwards about the legal side of these type of payments.
No campaign violation at all and definitely not at a criminal level. As I have said for the longest time, I would do everything possible to get mueller to bring a charge on that- and indeed he sees that as one of his last straws to grasp at, so good. At a certain point, you know that a witch-hunter will try for some kind of scalp so you hope that they go for an issue where they will lose. No conviction of trump at any time on obstruction, no conviction at any time on campaign financing, no conviction on "collusion" at anytime. Tax issues, financing of condos in Crapistan, etc. All possible/I don't know. Tis the nature of a witch-hunt you identify the man and then go and find a crime to go with it, but no convictions on the issues central to the appointment of a special counsel. I wonder if a special prosecutor who approached Camp Hillary with the goal of finding some crime, somewhere would find anything? You would need a goddam wheelbarrow to carry all of the charging documents over to the courthouse. But, hey, when you have Tarmac Mediation Services on your side, HQ Specials, insurance policies, and the entire Justice Department is your defense team that does not happen.
In fact, yes, a President can be. Especially when the impeachable acts/omissions are related to obtaining a Federal office.
The House will make the case that a president can be impeached for anything. However, he would never be convicted as a president cannot be convicted and removed from office for something that occurred prior to taking office. In addition, these were not crimes. If they were, then Obama would have been impeached for the campaign finance violation(s) that they paid a 300k fine for.
Thanks for your reply. I only addressed the question as to whether a U.S. President can be impeached for acts/omissions committed prior to holding office. But to address your comment: I think it's futile now to debate properness/likelihoods of convictions, without knowing the results of the Mueller investigation.
Correct. However, it now is clearly a non-collusion investigation aimed at crippling Trump and his re-election bid and his next 2 yrs in office. This is revenge for the firing of Comey.