Fox host fears Trump trial will deter men who 'paid off a girl' from running for president

Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt expressed concern on Monday that the Trump hush-money trial could set a negative precedent for future presidential candidates who have paid hush money to cover up affairs.

In particular, Earhardt seemed disturbed at prosecutors' contention that Trump's hush-money payment was an improper attempt to conceal information from the American public ahead of the 2016 presidential election, as she said that other men who engaged in such schemes may now be deterred from seeking the highest office in the land.

"Does this set a precedent for other people who want to run for president?" she asked. "What if they've done something like this in the past and they can say, 'Oh, well, they told me in the 8th grade they want to run for president, so since they paid off a girl when they were 30 years old, then that was election interference.'"

Of course, Trump did not pay off Stormy Daniels years before he decided to run for president.

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In fact, prosecutors allege that he paid her off in October 2016, shortly after the release of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, as a way to stop more damaging stories from coming out ahead of the election.

Despite this crucial distinction, Fox News legal editor Kerry Kupec Urbahn agreed with Earhardt's assessment of the negative precedent that could be set by a guilty verdict.

"Exactly, this whole thing is crazy!" she said. "But again, it shows, quite troubling, the power of a prosecutor to crush a political enemy if they want to."

The hush-money trial is far from the only legal jeopardy Trump finds himself in, as he has also been indicted for allegedly trying to defraud the United States in his efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election and for refusing to return top-secret government documents he'd taken from the White House even after being served with a lawful subpoena for them.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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