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The law generally treats violating campaign finance law as a relatively minor offense, typically requiring the offending campaign to pay a fine. In one of the most egregious cases, Taiwan native Johnny Chung pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate campaign finance law, as well as bank fraud and tax evasion. He gave the Democratic National Committee $366,000, including $35,000 that came from China’s military intelligence service.

His sentence? Five years of probation and community service.

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Another figure in the 1990s campaign fundraising scandals was John Huang — a Chinese-American who served as deputy assistant secretary for international economic affairs under President Bill Clinton. He admitted in 1999 that he arranged $156,000 in illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic Party. A judge sentenced him to a year of probation and fined him $10,000.

A third figure, Yah-Lin “Charlie” Trie, made an illegal attempt to contribute $450,000 to Clinton’s legal defense fund and was convicted of making political donations in someone else’s name and lying to the FEC. A judge sentenced him to three years of probation, including four months of home detention.

Smith, the former FEC commissioner, said a campaign-finance violation is thin gruel on which to build an impeachment case — especially since it has not been established the president even was aware of the aides’ conduct. He noted the June 2016 meeting is reason to be concerned, given Russian attempts to influence the race. But he said much or all of it falls outside the scope of law enforcement officials.

“A lot of this is really politics,” he said. “To me, it’s more of a political question than a legal one.”[lz_pagination]