It’s difficult to imagine a worse day in the presidency of Donald Trump than Tuesday, when two gripping legal dramas, one involving his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and the other embroiling his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, collided in a surreal split screen crescendo.
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 named, but the implication was clear. 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.
“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.
As the parallel dramas unfolded in federal courthouses Tuesday afternoon, Trump was uncharacteristically silent as he traveled aboard Air Force One to a campaign rally in West Virginia.
Futures markets, however, responded quickly to Cohen’s implication of the president in criminal acts, with S&P futures slipping in after-hours trading.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
