By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published on August 22, 2018
Yesterday was a hellish day in President Donald Trump’s world. Michael Cohen, his personal attorney and self-proclaimed “fixer”, pled guilty in federal court to eight felonies – five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, and two counts of violating federal campaign finance laws. This was a stunning development.
In his guilty plea, Cohen admitted that he paid "hush" money in 2016 to legendary porn actress Stormy Daniels at the direction of then-Republican nominee Donald Trump. According to media reports, the source of this "hush" money payment was Trump's presidential campaign funds. Trump denies this claim.
Phony invoices were reportedly generated and used to facilitate the payments.
Daniels has claimed she and Trump had a sexual encounter while Trump was married to his third-wife, Melania Trump. The President has denied this charge.
On the same day, a federal court jury in Virginia convicted Paul Manafort, Trump’s presidential campaign manager in 2016, on eight felony counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, and hiding assets in foreign bank accounts. A mistrial was declared on ten other charges.
Yesterday, Trump was still standing by Manafort and praising him as a "good man". Today, he praised Manafort again for not "breaking" like Michael Cohen.
Yesterday's bad news occurred after Trump flame-thrower Rudy Giuliani boldly declared on “Meet The Press”last Sunday that “truth isn’t truth”. This statement, on its face, summarized the Trump legal team’s new and absurd mantra – nothing is true, except what President Trump says.
On Sunday, I will provide an in-depth legal analysis on these breaking developments and what they mean for Donald Trump, his presidency, and the ongoing Robert Mueller probe.
Stay tuned!
PHOTO: President Donald Trump
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