WASHINGTON, D.C. Aug. 22 (DPI) – Yesterday’s double-barreled legal developments – a guilty plea from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and a jury conviction on eight counts of bank and tax fraud of Paul Manafort – have changed the political calculus for Trump, who – based on the array of facts as we know them now – is now likely to become the first sitting president either to be indicted or removed from office via impeachment.
Comment boards on news sites across the political spectrum were clogged with now-familiar themes: That Trump is a bald-faced liar, Trump is engaging in textbook psychological projection (“Robert Mueller is like Joe McCarthy”) and the recent development could finally be the turning point that will lead to the removal of this president. “MAGA: My Attorney Got Arrested,” popped up one post on WSJ.com.
The most popular comments on WSJ.com today echoed all those sentiments:
I thought Trump hired only the best. . . Was he lying then, or lying now?
Whether Trump actually violated campaign finance laws or not, he clearly tried to buy the silence of two porn stars, and he did so so ineptly and dishonestly, with the services of his own inept lawyer. This episode also shows that Trump surrounds himself with sleazy, lying, morally bankrupt, crooks. He is an embarrassment to our country on so many levels.
Silence can be a virtue and Trump just can’t keep his mouth shut. He steps in it constantly.
If he’s a poor lawyer, then why did Trump choose him? Trump expects loyalty but doesn’t show it himself.
It’s always reassuring to see a convergence of sentiment on comment boards of new sites with largely opposing views:
The pollution of the White House must end. “It had nothing to do with Russian collusion.” “Where is the collusion? Find some collusion.” Let us pretend for a moment that there is no collusion to find. (I think there is, but bear with me.) Trump’s long-time personal attorney or “fixer,” whatever that is, and his former campaign manager broke the law in ways that make it highly unlikely that Trump did not know of their criminality. Nixon resigned over less. This absurdly unfit person must be removed from the presidency. There may indeed be such a terrible plague upon the land that we can’t have anything but a Republican in our highest office until 2020, but can’t we at least have one who isn’t a known crime boss? Must Republicans be so blatant in their corruption, immorality, lust for power, and disregard of the law?
Trump could be gone in a matter of weeks or months, and Pence is waiting in the wings.
Commentators here fail to grasp the importance of both convictions. Cohen and Manafort now face many years wearing an orange jumpsuit in a US federal prison where parole is no longer an option. Both men will be desperate to try to lighten their sentence by singing like canaries to the Feds about everything they know. Next domino to fall? Donald Trump junior or Kushner. This is how crime families are dismantled, one gangster at a time, starting with the made men, then the capos, then the Capo de Capi.
Trump — never fear, your own time to face the music too is not to far off.