Trump dealt unsettling news as lawyer pleads guilty, ex-campaign chair convicted

President Donald Trump received very unsettling news Tuesday when his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, came out on the wrong end of the law.

In New York, Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court to eight felony counts of tax fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

Three hundred miles south, in Alexandria, Va., a jury found Manafort guilty of eight unrelated felonies: Five counts of felony tax fraud, one count of failing to report a foreign bank account, and two counts of bank fraud.

As part of his plea bargain, Cohen admitted to paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, “at the direction of the candidate.” Trump wasn’t identified by name in Cohen’s allocution, but he was the only candidate who Cohen was working for at the time.

Cohen also admitted to conspiring with a media company, perceived as the publisher of The National Enquirer, to silence another woman, Karen McDougal, during the 2016 presidential election.

Both Daniels and McDougal allege that Trump engaged in extramarital sexual relationships with them. The White House has denied the claims.

Read also: Investigators probe Trump’s former lawyer over $20m loan

“Whether or not called an unindicted co-conspirator, that’s what the sitting president IS as of close of business today, August 21, 2018, a day that will live in legal infamy. That’s the import of two of Michael Cohen’s guilty pleas,” Harvard legal professor Laurence Tribe said on Twitter.

The significance of Cohen’s declaration under oath that Trump directed him to commit the two felony campaign finance violations also drew the attention of Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Cohen. “Michael Cohen in a courtroom in SDNY, under oath, declared that the President directed him to commit a federal crime,” Bharara, who was fired by Trump in 2017, wrote Tuesday on Twitter.

As the parallel dramas unfolded in federal courthouses Tuesday afternoon, Trump was uncharacteristically silent as he traveled to a campaign rally in West Virginia. Upon landing, the president even seemed to deliberately ignore the events of what is so far the worst afternoon of his presidency. “Just landed in West Virginia. Big crowd, looking forward to seeing everyone soon! #MAGA” Trump tweeted on his way to the rally.

Futures markets, however, responded quickly to Cohen’s implication of the president in criminal acts, with S&P futures slipping in after-hours trading.

Trump is expected to address the events of Tuesday afternoon more fully during his rally, scheduled to begin at 7PM.

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now