Do you think that, if it can be established that Cohen paid the money on Trump's behalf (nevermind the campaign), it might still run afoul of campaign finance laws since Trump was a candidate at the time (he has been perpetually one since at least 2015)? I don't know enough about hard money/campaign finance law
to know.

But if not, I'm really not sure how it'd be possible to tie Cohen's transaction to the campaign (and therefore construe it as a campaign contribution).

But even still, the gift tax or other tax evasion angle is interesting, though for all we know I suppose, it's possible Cohen paid gift or other taxes on the 130k, right?