The Story
Yesterday, two former Trump aides became felons.
One at a time, please.
Let's start with President Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. For a long time, Cohen was Trump's go-to guy. Cohen even said he'd "take a bullet" for him. Then a few months ago, the FBI said 'don't mind us' and raided Cohen's apartment, hotel room, and office. After that, Cohen said 'did I say bullet?' And seems to have flipped.
Why?
Because yesterday, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of violating campaign finance law, tax evasion, and bank fraud. The latter two are personal problems. But the campaign finance violation is where Trump comes in.
How?
Remember Stormy Daniels? She's the porn star who claims to have had an affair with Trump. And who Cohen paid $130,000 to so she'd keep quiet about it. Yesterday, Cohen told the court 'Trump made me do it.' Something Trump has denied in the past. Cohen also admitted to paying to make a story about another alleged Trump affair go away. And said he did these things "for the principal purpose of influencing the election."
That doesn't sound great.
It's not. Cohen just implicated the president of the United States in a federal crime.
Yikes. So who's the other guy?
Paul Manafort. Yesterday, Trump's former campaign chairman was found guilty of eight counts of tax and bank fraud. But the jury couldn't decide on the 10 other charges. TBD what happens with those. Next month, he gets to face another trial. This time on charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy related to his lobbying work in Ukraine. Fun.
What's Trump saying?
That he feels "very badly" for Manafort. But that this proves nothing related to him. He's said nothing on Cohen.
theSkimm
Neither of these cases are directly related to whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. But special counsel Robert Mueller now has leverage on people in Trump's inner circle as the list of criminal charges continues to grow.
PS: Michael Cohen isn't leaving your newsfeed anytime soon. Get our app to hear more about him.
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