President Trump took to Twitter this morning to rage about yesterday’s stunning guilty plea from longtime lawyer Michael Cohen and the conviction of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Both men were extremely guilty of a slew of financial crimes which go back decades, a testament to the ease with which the rich and the powerful get away with flagrant violations of the law while we pack the poor and unlucky into prisons by the millions for fairly insignificant misdeeds.
The president pulled out all the stops, opening up his tirade with a simply breathtaking indictment of his own ability to judge people’s characters.
If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
Donald Trump retained the services of Michael Cohen for twelve years.
But Cohen, having pleaded guilty, is now in the doghouse and was quickly brushed aside in order to praise Paul Manafort, who did not admit any guilt and is obviously banking on a pardon in exchange for his silence — a boon that the president hinted at in his “message” to his “campaign manager” that was “riddled” with serious grammatical errors.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
But of course, it wouldn’t be a Trump tantrum without an out-of-context cheap shot at President Obama.
Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime. President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
The two issues could not be more different. It’s true that President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was found guilty of failing to report certain campaign contributions within the required 48 hours. They admitted to their inadvertent logistical errors and paid a huge $375,000 civil penalty for it and that was was that.
But that is not the same thing as using a shell company to pay huge sums of money to a presidential candidates’ ex-mistresses in order to buy their silence and prevent them from influencing an election, which is absolutely a serious crime.
“It is a crime to make excessive, unreported campaign contributions, even to pay off a mistress, if done for the purpose of influencing the campaign. That’s what Cohen admitted to, and if done willfully, it is a crime” confirmed election law expert Rick Hasen to VOX.
The two situations could not be more different, but silly little things like facts or the truth have never mattered very much to our increasingly desperate president, who can clearly feel the walls closing in around him,
