Just bring to light why Trump is swimming in hot water ........
First, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on
eight out of 18 tax and bank fraud charges brought against him by
Trump-Russia special prosecutor Robert Mueller. Truth be told, that had
been expected by many observers, but it gave Mueller renewed momentum.
More electrifying was the announcement — it all happened within the
space of a few minutes — that the president’s onetime lawyer, Michael
Cohen, pleaded guilty not only to tax charges involving his personal
business but also to a campaign finance violation stemming from the
$130,000 in hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, the fading porn actress
who had a sexual encounter with Trump back in 2006 but threatened to go
public with the story right before the 2016 election.
This was what got everyone so excited: The allegation was that the
payoff was, in effect, an illegal contribution to the Trump campaign
because it was intended to keep Daniels quiet and thus increase Trump’s
chances of winning the election. As such, it violated strict limits on
what individuals, like Cohen, can contribute to a campaign. Cohen
pleaded to a felony.
Most importantly, during the course of the plea, Cohen said that he
arranged the Daniels payoff ‘in coordination with and at the direction
of a candidate for federal office,’ and that he did it ‘for the
principal purpose of influencing the election’— language taken straight
from the statute.
The ‘candidate’ was obviously Trump, and by saying he broke the law
at Trump’s direction, Cohen implicated Trump in committing a crime.
It’s hard to exaggerate how excited the Washington punditocracy
became upon hearing this news. The president’s close associate says
Trump committed a felony!
