The Federal Election Commission has brought an abrupt end to its investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged hush-money payments to adult-film star Stormy Daniels. The FEC was looking into whether the former president broke election laws when his lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels—who claims she had an affair with Trump—just weeks before his election win in 2016. However, according to The New York Times, the commission decided not to move forward with the probe during a closed-door meeting in February. The decision has been criticized by Cohen, who told the Times: “Like me, Trump should have been found guilty.” The move was also condemned by Democratic commissioners Ellen Weintraub and Shana Broussard, who wrote in a statement: “To conclude that a payment, made 13 days before Election Day to hush up a suddenly newsworthy 10-year-old story, was not campaign-related, without so much as conducting an investigation, defies reality.” To date, Trump has faced no legal punishment for the payments.
