Trump's Former Campaign Chairman and Former Personal Attorney Are Both Felons
By: Kayla Pasacreta
then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, photo via HuffPost
It's a bad day for the Trump Administration. His former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of tax and bank fraud, and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen plead guilty to eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations during the 2016 campaign.
Why does this matter for Trump?
Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations...made at 'the direction' of then-candidate Trump, of course. Should Cohen be found guilty, the grand legal question will linger: isn't Trump guilty too? The court document states the following:
“Individual-1” and “did so by making and causing to be made an expenditure, in cooperation, consultation, and concert with, and at the request and suggestion of one or more members of the campaign, to wit, COHEN made a $130,000 payment to Woman-2 to ensure that she not publicize damaging allegation before the 2016 presidential election and thereby influence that election.”
Michael Cohen, photo via Associated Press
Cohen stated, "I participated in this conduct for the principal purpose." Cohen's lawyer is saying that if his client is guilty, Trump should be too, "Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for Donald Trump?"
Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avanetti chimed in on the news, "He’s got a lot of explaining to do — he’s in trouble," Avanetti's client Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 in hush money by Michael Cohen to stay quiet about her affair with Donald Trump. It's unclear if Trump will face any consequences, but there's a common consensus: Trump is likely in trouble.
Social media had a field day with today's findings:
