Michael Cohen, President Trump’s hapless lawyer and fixer, pleaded guilty this afternoon to eight criminal charges. Significantly, while allocuting to his crimes under oath, Cohen implicated Trump, sealing this president’s fate as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Cohen … pleaded guilty on Tuesday to campaign finance and other charges. He made the extraordinary admission that he paid a pornographic actress [Stormy Daniels] ‘at the direction of the candidate,’ referring to Mr. Trump, to secure her silence about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump. …
One collateral effect of Mr. Cohen’s plea agreement is that it may allow Michael Avenatti, [Ms. Daniels’s] lawyer, to proceed with a deposition of Mr. Trump in a lawsuit that Ms. [Daniels] filed accusing the president of breaking a nondisclosure agreement concerning their affair. [Cohen faces four to six years in prison.]
(The New York Times, August 21, 2018)
Then we were treated to an uncanny bit of coincidence and symmetry. Because, within minutes of Cohen’s plea, a jury found Paul Manafort, Trump’s swampy campaign chairman, guilty on eight criminal charges.
A jury has found former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort guilty after a three-week trial on tax and bank fraud charges. …
Manafort’s guilty verdict may strengthen [special counsel Robert S.] Mueller’s hand as he continues to investigate possible conspiracy and seeks an interview with the president; an acquittal could have led to a broader effort by conservatives to shut down the special counsel’s office. [Manafort, 69, faces 80 years in prison.]
(The Washington Post, August 21, 2018)
The damning implications of these developments should be clear to everyone. Unfortunately, far too many Americans live in Trump world, where “truth isn’t truth” and you can’t believe what you see, read, or hear; that is unless you see it on Fox News, read it on Trump’s Twitter, or hear it from Trump or his spinmeisters.
Therefore, don’t despair over Trump and his Trumpletons fulminating about what a great day this was for Trump: “NO COLLUSION!” To be fair, though, no matter how much Cohen or Manafort implicates Trump (or how much he incriminates himself), it seems Mueller will abide Justice Department policy, which holds that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
This is why the ultimate verdict will be the one Americans – who live in the real world – hand down on Election Day this November. Because the only way to hold Trump accountable is to elect Democrats – who, in exercising their constitutional duties of oversight, will duly impeach him for the many high crimes and misdemeanors he has already committed.
So, don’t gloat, VOTE!
Meanwhile, Cohen and Manafort are just the latest on a growing list of ‘all the president’s men’ who are either under indictment or convicted felons. The others, among the “best and brightest” he often boasts about hiring, are:
- George Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser (pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI)
- Michael Flynn, former Trump national security adviser (pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI)
- Rick Gates, former Trump campaign aide (pleaded guilty in February to lying to FBI and conspiracy)
- Chris Collins (R-NY), the first congressman to endorse Trump’s candidacy (indicted earlier this month on insider trading)
- Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the second congressman to endorse Trump’s candidacy (indicted today on misusing campaign funds and filing false reports)
And Mueller is just getting started. That’s why Trump is becoming even more Unhinged than usual. BELIEVE ME!
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