The Stormy Daniels payment isn’t the story. Michael Cohen is.

the more compelling and consequential issue is the Trump-Cohen relationship.

.. given Trump’s odd account that he repaid Cohen for his services “sometimes” and not others, he may well argue that he did not, in the first instance, recognize an obligation for the Daniels payment

.. Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, said earlier this month that Trump’s “reimbursement” was in the neighborhood of $470,000, considerably more than three times the sum paid to Daniels.

.. It is far less threatening than questions of bribery, extortion, mail or wire fraud, or direct or indirect indebtedness to a foreign power.