I had CNN in the background while I was making dinner (I haven’t yet figured out how to change TV channels where I’m staying this week.) and was struck by the wording of one of the stories. The anchor referred to the paying of hush money by Donald Trump to a porn star with whom he had an “alleged affair.”

When journalists use the word alleged they are covering their legal butts. Citizens facing criminal charges have a presumption of innocence. You remain an “alleged murderer” until the jury delivers its verdict, even if you were arrested standing over the corpse with a gun in your hand. Media companies’ legal departments have said you have to use “alleged” to stop lawsuits in the case of an acquittal.

Donald Trump though is not on trial for having an affair. Infidelity isn’t against American law, though you would think God might have something to say on the matter. Not to mention Trump’s wife.

Whether an admitted adulterer should be elected president is a matter for the American people to decide. But there is nothing alleged about the affair. It happened. If it didn’t, then there would be no attempt on the part of Trump or his staff to cover it up.

Whether the $130,000 payment, supposedly from campaign contributions, broke US election law is something that I leave to those who who are better versed than I am in that law. In Canada you can’t use campaign funds for such purposes, but in Canada we also have campaign contribution limits.

If the affair didn’t happen, then there would be no need to make the payment. If Donald Trump authorized paying out that much money to a person he had no relationship with, Americans would be right to question his “alleged” sanity.