*WASHINGTON – There is a very good chance that August 21, 2018, willforever be known as the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.*
On Tuesday afternoon in New York, Michael Cohen Trump’s former lawyerpleaded guilty to a litany of criminal offenses, including bank and taxfraud.
But the most troubling piece of news for President Trump is that Cohenpleaded guilty to a campaign finance law violation, in which he admitted inopen court to acting “in coordination with and at the direction of” afederal candidate in ensuring the silence of Stormy Daniels and KarenMcDougal. Who is that federal candidate? Donald Trump.
What is perhaps most shocking about this outcome is that Cohen did notvolunteer this information as part of a cooperation deal with federalprosecutors. There is, however, nothing to stop him from working with thefederal government in the future in order to lighten his prison sentence,which means that the legal and political vise on the president could geteven tighter.
As if all this is not bad enough for Trump, at practically the same momentthat Cohen was pleading guilty, a federal jury in Alexandria, Va.,delivered guilty verdicts on eight counts against Trump’s former campaignmanager, Paul Manafort.
It is somewhat inexplicable that Manafort has not made a deal withprosecutors to tell them what he knows about possible collusion by theTrump campaign with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Maybe hedoesn’t know anything or maybe he’s hoping for a presidential pardon.Whatever the case, if Manafort decides to talk to prosecutors in return forleniency in sentencing, Trump could be in even greater political and legalperil.
President Trump confronted one of the most perilous moments of hispresidency Tuesday after two former members of his inner circlesimultaneously were labeled “guilty” of criminal charges.
But no matter what Cohen and Manafort decide to do, one thing is clear —the stench of corruption emanating from the White House has becomeoverpowering. Since the Mueller investigation began, the president’s formercampaign manager, former deputy campaign manager, former foreign policyaide, former national security adviser, and former lawyer and fixer haveall either pleaded guilty or been found guilty of federal crimes. That is,to coin a phrase, a heck of a lot of witches.
But all of this news as well as the probable indictments and plea deals tocome — should not allow us to miss the most important takeaway from whathappened today: The president of the United States has been implicated inthe commission of a federal crime. Cohen’s plea agreement was clear innaming Trump as a co-conspirator in at least some of criminal endeavors.
There is no precedent for a legal bombshell like this being dropped: noteven during Watergate. One might even surmise that the only reason Trumpwasn’t indicted and charged with a crime Tuesday is because of the JusticeDepartment’s prohibition on the indictment of a sitting president.
Instead, the only mechanism for dealing with a president who is implicatedin a federal crime is to impeach him, which means that the ball is now inCongress’s court.
The time has clearly come — and is, in fact, long overdue — for Congress tobegin impeachment proceedings against Trump. A failure to do so wouldrepresent one of the most stunning abdications of congressionalresponsibility in modern American history. If Congress does not act, thennot only will impeachment be on the ballot in November, but so too will bethe future of the rule of law in America.