Why Michael Cohen's Sentencing Docs Are Huge Trouble for Trump
Michael Cohen is likely headed to prison. And Donald Trump is in danger of joining him.
There are two big takeaways from the criminal sentencing memos released Friday for Cohen — the president’s former lawyer and fixer — by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
First, as revealed by Mueller, Trump personally directed Cohen to conduct outreach with the Russian government in 2015 — earlier in the presidential campaign than has previously been understood — and continued to pursue a lucrative deal on a potential Trump Tower in Moscow deep into 2016, when the Kremlin was actively interfering on behalf of Trump’s campaign.
Second, according to the New York feds, Donald Trump “directed” Cohen’s commission of felony campaign finance violations when Cohen paid out hush money to two women alleging they’d had affairs with the real estate tycoon — silencing scandals that could have impacted Trump’s pursuit of the presidency.
The first big reveal underscores that Trump had a huge financial incentive to please the Kremlin — and potentially a multi-million dollar motive for collusion. The second revelation may be even more dangerous for the president. He is now formally implicated in the commission of a crime, resulting from an investigation separate from the Mueller probe — meaning he can’t end it even if he axes the Special Counsel. “The real news right now,” tweeted former Acting Solicitor General (Supreme Court lawyer) Neal Katyal, “is about the conclusion by federal prosecutors that Donald J. Trump has committed a serious felony.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/michael-cohen-trump-crime-766564/