 Toward the end of the trial, the prosecutors focused on a New York statute that forbids attempts to influence an election through unlawful means. Their theory, all of these shenanigans were designed to hide Mr. Trump's immorality from the voters ahead of the 2016 election, and it might be true. There is, however, a problem with this theory. The payments to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen were unlawfully categorized as legal fees after the 2016 election. Hmm.