I asked Mr. Hopkins if he saw anything criminal in all this and he did not think so. I know you may have read other people saying otherwise, but Mr. Hopkins does not see anything criminal.  Remember the sui generis.  There is no precedent for anything like went on, probably because it would take a Donald Trump to make it happen and he is also on the sui generis side.  A lot of tax crimes require an element of willfulness, which would be very difficult to prove in this case.

Mr. Hopkins also noted that a skillful advocate would be able to provide other ways of looking at what happened.  Here is one I came up with.  The foundation wanted to help veterans.  I mean, who doesn’t?  The veterans’ groups reached out to the campaign because it was more prominent and had more infrastructure.  By involving the campaign in the donation you were highlighting Mr. Trump’s concern about veterans as he mourned the debilitating foot condition that cut off his own military career at the high school cadet level.  But. But. You are also giving more publicity to organizations like the Puppy Jake Foundation, which really is a very worthy cause.  Maybe that is what the foundation had in mind and it was the foundation exploiting the campaign for charitable purposes and not the campaign exploiting the foundation for political purposes.  Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.