First, I should say that I am absolutely in favor of the political leaking going on in this election cycle. The Democrats can do no better than to accuse "the Russians" of being responsible for many of those leaks. My position is, the more leaks, the better. John Young correctly pointed out that leakers have their own motivations and biases, too. Well, we really can't do much about that: I would much rather have leaks than to not have them.
But there's a matter that should be considered. Less than a week ago, an audio recording of Donald Trump and Billy Bush was released, made about 11 years ago. The reports are unclear, but hey may have been made in New York state or California. News reports suggest that these recordings were made without the consent (or the knowledge) of Trump and Bush. That's significant, because New York is a "one-party consent state", meaning that it is illegal to record audio of a conversation unless at least one party is aware of that recording. California is a "two-party consent state", which means that all parties to the conversation must be aware of, and consent to, the recording. While Bush apparently eventually learned of the recording, that knowledge and consent did not exist at the time of the recording.
So, making that recording was illegal, in fact a crime under New York laws. However, due to the very likely expiration of the limitations period ("statute of limitations"), the act of that recording almost certainly can probably no longer be prosecuted. Yet, the relevant New York Statute apparently criminalizes not merely the act of recording, but also and separately the act of disclosing the recording.
It's very likely that NBC did not have either Billy Bush or Donald Trump's consent to disclose that audio. And, it is conceivable that since the original recording was illegally made, subsequent consent would be ineffective to allow disclosure. Therefore, a crime has probably been committed, and likely by the NBC staff.
It is said in recent news reports that Billy Bush bragged about his knowledge of this recording at the recent Rio Olympics, presumably leading to staff to search their archives for it. Well, evidently they found it, and they delayed releasing this information until a month before the election. These facts strongly suggests that these NBC staff actually committed a new crime, disclosure of this illegally-recorded audio, and did so less than one week ago. This will probably be prosecutable for a few years in the state of New York.
We don't have to think any better of Trump due to this (il)legal aspect to this recording and disclosure. But I think we should think much worse of the MSM (MainStream Media), who we now see are willing to commit crimes in order to defeat Trump. Their hypocrisy is exposed by the contrast between their apparent criticism of Russia's alleged hacking and leaking of various emails, such as DNC, Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, and others.
Jim Bell