Adark cloud of criminality now hangs over the Trump White House, with the president odiously praising former campaign manager Paul Manafort for refusing to “break” — read that as “snitch” — while laying into his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen for telling the truth.
Adark cloud of criminality now hangs over the Trump White House, with the president odiously praising former campaign manager Paul Manafort for refusing to “break” — read that as “snitch” — while laying into his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen for telling the truth.
Meantime, Trump digs himself deeper into a ditch of obfuscation: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wednesday denied the boss had done anything wrong, even as Trump told Fox News that payments to Stormy Daniels, which in April he denied knowing about entirely — and which Cohen copped to as illegal campaign spending — “came from me.”
Governments in Albany and Washington must scramble to adjust to the new reality that a president who is increasingly cornered will flail in ever more furious fashion.
First task: Pass state legislation to allow law enforcement here in New York to pursue state crimes even in the event of a federal pardon, which is exactly what Trump is dangling for Manafort as he approaches a second trial and sentencing.
In most states, that authority would be unquestioned. New York, where Manafort and Trump and Cohen all have done most of their business, happens to have a restrictive double-jeopardy statute. Fix it.
Congress must step up, too. A day before the Manafort convictions, Trump was calling Special Counsel Bob Mueller “disgraced,” his investigators “thugs” and the probe, of course, a “witch hunt.”
Pass a bill to protect Mueller. Let Trump veto it — and, for the umpteenth time, reveal his true colors.
— New York Daily News
