The payoff to Stormy Daniels that has a Manhattan grand jury weighing criminal charges against Mr. Trump can trace its lineage to political skulduggery in 1968 and 1980.
PBS NewsHour celebrated the return of the ancient “October Surprise” election conspiracy theory the unsubstantiated rumor that Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, led by William Casey, delayed the release of the 52 American hostages in Iran in order to win election over Democrat Jimmy Carter. The original version was advanced by former Carter aide Gary Sick before being discredited in both follow-up news accounts and subsequent congressional hearings, which found the accusers shady and lacking in credibility.
Please see this follow-up item. If you were part of media and political circles in the early 1990s, then you were certainly aware of sensational accusations by Gary Sick, a top national security official in the Carter administration, that Ronald Reagan's campaign had sabotaged efforts to bring the Iranian hostage crisis to a close during…
The New York Times recently confirmed a long-whispered rumor that the 1980 Reagan campaign back-channeled the Iranian government to delay the release of hostages as part of its effort to defeat President Jimmy Carter.