i know its bad but is it illegal? (from the enquirer side of the equation that is)

They agreed to cooperate with investigators in exchange for a lack of prosecution.

im not sure how to feel about that. not printing a story is now a crime? or was it part of a conspiracy that led to the lack of a prosecution?

First, AMI admitted that, in coordination with Trump's presidential campaign, it had paid McDougal $150,000 in the run-up to the election for the exclusive rights to her story that she had an affair with Donald Trump a decade earlier.

Here's the exact wording from the SDNY press release on Wednesday (bolding is mine):

"AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate's presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election."

So, AMI is acknowledging for the first time that not only did it make the payment to McDougal, which it has long lied about publicly, but it also did so in concert with Trump's campaign.

The AMI settlement jibes with what we learned last week in the SDNY sentencing document on Cohen, in which the office makes clear they believe that Cohen made and sought to hide the payment to McDougal (as well as another six-figure payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels) at the direction and coordination of Trump. Trump, for what it's worth, has repeatedly expressed ignorance about the payments to Daniels and McDougal as well as where the money came from. We know the money came from Trump and, according to federal prosecutors, he directed the entire hush money operation.

Perhaps the most important thing that the AMI settlement does, however, is make clear that the payment and the coordination with the Trump campaign was, according to the SDNY release, done by AMI "to suppress the woman's story so as to prevent it from influencing the election."

That's of critical import, because Trump's latest argument is that while Daniels and McDougal were clearly paid off -- remember that he has long denied that -- it had nothing to do with his campaign or his prospects of winning. "So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution, which it was not," he tweeted on Monday.

Cool so he obviously committed campaign finance laws but nobody will care. When do we place him square into collusion with russia? Then a few more people might care.

It keeps piling up.

But can there be a satisfying conclusion? I just don't know at this point. I feel like outside of complete financial ruin and substantial jail time for Donald and all his children, it'll just feel anticlimactic.

Punishing the guilty is so much less useful a goal than uncovering the truth.

Punishing the guilty is so much less useful a goal than uncovering the truth.

It keeps piling up.

But can there be a satisfying conclusion? I just don't know at this point. I feel like outside of complete financial ruin and substantial jail time for Donald and all his children, it'll just feel anticlimactic.

That's exactly what it's going to be too.