[QUOTE=Wales-Bales;4865463]It matters in the political world as it is beneficial to have dirt on people in order to control and manipulate them.[/QUOTE

I guess the important thing is compared with political donations or support that the dirt on your past is far less transparent. When you become someone where, theoretically the expectations and spotlight of holding public office in a democracy are higher than when you are a private citizen then the risk magnifies.

I was taken by reading a "tribute" to Paul Ryan by a fellow Republican politician who said he was honoured to have worked with him over the last twenty years. Ryan is 48 so has spent quite a bit of his life within a framework that sets standards on public ethics. Trump is a 71 year old who has spent most of his life operating at the top of his own corporate governance within whatever code of ethics that existed for his organisation.

Regardless of how ethical that code was the likelihood is that he has decades of behaving in a less restrictive way than if you were seeking or holding public office. Doesn't make it any easier on him when he does though.