“NO COLLUSION – RIGGED WITCH HUNT!” was randomly tweeted between a plethora of insults and condolences on Wednesday by President Donald Trump. These tweets were posted one day after Michael Cohen plead guilty and Paul Manafort was convicted on eight charges.
A witch-hunt has never exposed as many witches as this one has seemed to expose. This comes as no surprise to many, as Trump’s opinions always seem to shift on certain topics, such as differing statements about his opinion on whether or not Russia meddled in the election.
On Tuesday Paul Manafort, at one time Trump’s campaign chairman, was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The other 10 counts were ruled a mistrial by the judge after the jury was unable to reach a verdict. President Trump later stated at a rally in West Virginia that Manafort’s conviction had “nothing to do with Russian Collusion” and that Manafort was a “good man.”
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Later that Tuesday morning Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen plead guilty to five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, one count of making an unlawful corporate contribution and one count of making an illegal campaign finance contribution. During the trial, Cohen implied that these payments were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
Even though Cohen never explicitly said Trump’s name, the dates given by Cohen line up perfectly with the pay-offs of Stephanie Clifford, often better known as Stormy Daniels, and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate. Cohen in his criminal complaint also noted that this candidate, known as “Individual 1”, became president in January 2017. With these facts given, a court of law has a fair amount of evidence against Donald Trump.
The Trump administration was quick to defend Manafort as an honest and loyal man, while the administration attempted to demonize Cohen because of his decision to implicate Trump in a number of crimes. “It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen’s actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time,” said Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
What Giuliani fails to note, however, is that the character of Cohen was greatly influenced by Trump during the time in question. Cohen under oath pleaded guilty to the charges against him and gave details of the process of his personal wrongdoings. Though Cohen may have been dishonest, he spilled the beans as to why he had been this way at one time. The reason he had been this way was “at the direction of a candidate for federal office”.
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Trump himself also dug into Cohen’s character and defended Manafort’s in a tweet reading “I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. ‘Justice’ took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to ‘break’ – make up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’ Such respect for a brave man!”
These “made-up” stories have evidence behind them, these statements can be connected quite simply to the evidence as well in a court of law.
Trump will continue to call others liars until his lies have been exposed beyond a reasonable doubt. Until then he will continue to lie out of great fear of being convicted. On the Manafort front, Trump will always show a superficial sense of loyalty to those who have given loyalty to him, but he would never go down for the things he had directed.
A half-hearted Twitter condolence to Manafort’s family does not seem to be a proportional response for the fall the former campaign chairman took for Trump. Trump, a man who seems to preach loyalty and patriotism, does not demonstrate these qualities himself. His supporters either do not notice this, or they don’t seem to mind.
What has this done for connecting Trump to Russian collusion? Quite possibly nothing, but Al Capone was not convicted for racketeering. Al Capone was convicted of simple income tax evasion. It is quite apparent Trump is guilty of certain crimes; it is time to try this man and take him out of the White House.
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