New Complaint Alleges Trump Campaign Concealed Settlements with Women

A new complaint alleges Donald Trump's 2016 campaign intentionally obscured settlement payments to women who raised discrimination or harassment claims. The allegations come from a former Trump aide and have prompted calls for a federal investigation. In a sworn court declaration this week, A.J. Delgado, who advised Trump's 2016 bid, said she has "information and reason to believe" the campaign routed payouts to complaining women through outside legal firms to avoid public disclosure. Delgado made the claims as part of her ongoing sex discrimination lawsuit against the campaign.

Delgado specifically cited a 2017 exchange where a top Trump lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, allegedly proposed funneling a potential settlement payment to her through his firm. "What we would do is the campaign pays me and then I cut a check to you guys," Kasowitz allegedly said, dismissing concerns about federal reporting requirements. The proposed arrangement seems designed to sidestep laws mandating campaigns to publicly disclose payment recipients and purposes. Delgado said it reflected the campaign's intent "to keep this confidential" from voters and regulators. On Friday, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission demanding an investigation into Delgado's accusations of an alleged "cover-up." CREW cited Delgado's sworn testimony about Kasowitz's comments as direct evidence the campaign schemed to unlawfully conceal settlement payouts, as per Daily Beast.

Her allegations have reinvigorated scrutiny of Trump's track record of obfuscating embarrassing expenditures – fueling demands that federal regulators investigate whether his campaign broke the law. CREW's complaint also flags millions paid to Kasowitz's firm and the campaign's compliance vendor, Red Curve Solutions, after the 2020 election as potentially linked to undisclosed settlements with women alleging discrimination or harassment. The group's president said the public deserves to know how political money is truly spent. The complaint draws parallels to the hush-money case that led to criminal charges against Trump in New York, where he reimbursed fixer Michael Cohen through a shell company for payments to bury allegations of affairs. Trump has signaled he believes channeling payments through lawyers can legitimately cloak their purposes as "legal expenses."

However, CREW stressed that routing settlements or other payments through intermediaries to avoid disclosure blatantly violates federal campaign finance transparency laws. "No candidate or campaign is above the law, not even Trump," the group stated as per the Raw Story. For her part, Delgado is a Harvard-educated lawyer pursuing a lawsuit alleging she was sidelined from the Trump campaign after becoming pregnant by her then-supervisor in 2016, top Trump advisor Jason Miller. The complaint accuses the campaign of unlawfully discriminating against Delgado due to her pregnancy. While denying wrongdoing, Trump's legal team in that case recently quit, citing an "irreparable breakdown" with the campaign. Delgado, who is now representing herself, believes the massive payments to Kasowitz's firm include coverups of similar complaints against Trump's political operation. A spokesman for Kasowitz's firm dismissed Delgado's accusations as "pure fantasy and false."