joan1984 · 281890
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and even if I’m telling the truth, that makes me a liar.
The president’s longtime personal lawyer, who pleaded guilty to eight violations of banking, tax and campaign finance laws on Tuesday, faces a recommended jail sentence of between four and five years.
Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a bank and two campaign finance violations: making an unlawful corporate campaign contribution and making an excessive campaign contribution.
Cohen is the fifth Trump associate to have pleaded guilty or be charged with criminal wrongdoing since Trump took office, including his former national security adviser, his deputy campaign chairman and a former campaign policy adviser.
Manafort was convicted on five counts of filing false tax returns, one count of not filing a required IRS form, and two bank fraud counts.
That lawyer, Michel Cohen, just pleaded guilty in New York court saying he not only paid off those women to help Trump win the election — a potential campaign finance violation — but that the did it “in coordination and at the direction of” Trump.
And it’s infinitely harder for Trump to logically claim he’s the one telling the truth when the other person faces jail time for telling a court his version of events.“This is a disaster for Trump,” said Cornell Law Vice Dean and legal analyst Jens David Ohlin. “The president is now smack in the middle of a campaign finance violation case. . . . Prosecutors not only have audio recordings of these conversations but will have Cohen’s testimony on top of that. Cohen can both authenticate the tapes and also explain what happened before and after the recordings.”
Trump has argued that, much like him, Manafort is being treated unfairly by investigators. The broader message is that Mueller’s investigation and related ones are is a politically motivated maneuver to get him.
After Tuesday, to continue to argue that, he’ll have to try to discredit not only Mueller but a federal judge and a 12 anonymous jurors who didn’t think the charges were unfair.
Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, has already reached a similar plea deal to cooperate with Mueller. On Tuesday, so did Cohen. Manafort refused, and a jury just convicted him of eight serious charges that Mueller himself brought. None of this looks like a political witch hunt or hoax. It looks like key members of Trump’s inner circle in 2016 are in serious legal trouble, and Trump’s defenses around those people are crumbling.
In acknowledging the charges against him, Cohen said he was directed to violate campaign law at the direction of a candidate for federal office. At the same candidate’s direction, he said he paid $130,000 to somebody to keep them quiet, which was later repaid by the candidate. He didn’t identify the candidate or the person who was paid, but those facts match Cohen’s payment to Clifford and Trump’s repayment.