The Morning Briefing: Manafort, Cohen, Mollie and Much, Much More

Good Wednesday Morning.

Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:

The president has lunch with the secretary of Defense
President Trump presents the Medal of Honor

We had a NEWS BONANZA yesterday. Buckle up, Brief-heads!

Manafort mistrial on 10, convicted on 8 charges

Yesterday, the jury returned with some verdicts in the Paul Manafort case. Manafort was charged with being a sleazy political consultant like many, many others who operate inside the beltway. Did I mention almost everyone in the consulting business in the D.C. area is a sleaze bucket? Oh yes. Manafort’s conviction has nothing to do with RUSSIA and nothing to do with Trump. He was put on trial because he worked for Trump so that the left can interfere with Trump’s presidency by clouding everything he does with the threat of looming criminal investigations. That way the hyenas on the cable news network have something to squeak about on their nightly clown shows and most importantly, so that no one wants to work for Trump because the cost is too high. Manafort is 69 years old and he faces decades of prison time. He has another trial with more charges in Washington, D.C., and that starts next month.

The never-Trump maniacs danced around in glee in their sad Twitter reality, but no one, and I mean no one, could withstand the scrutiny of a federal investigation of this magnitude. I’d love to see any of these never-Trump sad sacks come out clean after a probe by a massive army of government lawyers and investigators.

Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of shifty stuff

Virtually at the same time as the Manafort jury was announcing its verdict, Michael Cohen, the president’s sleazy personal lawyer, pleaded guilty to a bucket of offenses after he made a deal with prosecutors in New York State. This particular case isn’t being handled by Mueller.

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime personal attorney, admitted Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws by arranging hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal “at the direction” of then-candidate Trump.

In entering the plea, Cohen did not specifically name the two women or even Trump, recounting instead that he worked with an “unnamed candidate.” But the amounts and the dates all lined up with the payments made to Daniels and McDougal.

In total, Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution.

It sure sounds like some ladies were blackmailing the president and he paid them off. Why aren’t the blackmailers being charged? Is it illegal to pay a blackmailer? I don’t think so. Clinton friend Lanny Davis, Cohen’s lawyer, said if these hush payments were a crime (are they?) then Trump is guilty. Cohen also “admitted” that he was directed to violate campaign finance laws at the direction of the president. I’m not sure what this means or how campaign finance laws were violated. If Trump paid money for something when he was running for president, is that necessarily a campaign expenditure? If he bought a new car while running for office, is that an official campaign expenditure? What about a pizza? That doesn’t sound right.

Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said about Cohen’s guilty plea: “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen. It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen’s actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.”

Clinton associate and Cohen lawyer Davis announced that Cohen is “more than happy” to tell “all that he knows,” whatever that means. Cohen’s plea agreement did not include his cooperation on other matters with authorities. Davis also remarked on Rachel Maddow’s mental hospital show:

The obvious possibility [exists] of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democracy system in the 2016 election, which the Trump Tower meeting was all about. But also [there’s the possibility of] knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Mr. Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and cheered it on.

Right on, Lanny, you ignorant slut.

NYT’s Bret Stephens: Trump should resign or be impeached after Cohen guilty plea

Lanny Davis Suggests Michael Cohen Has Information About Campaign-Related Hacking

Two courtroom dramas leave Trump’s presidency on a cliffhanger

Judge throws out defamation lawsuit against Christopher Steele over dossier

Mueller seeks to push back Flynn sentencing again

Mollie Tibbetts’ body found

At the same time as the Manafort jury was announcing their verdict and Michael Cohen was pleading guilty to his agreed upon charges, the police in Iowa announced that the body of college student Mollie Tibbetts was found and that she was killed by an illegal immigrant who had been in the US for 4-6 years.

Oh boy.

We don’t know all the details but the suspect claims he followed Mollie while she was jogging and then “blacked out,” presumably after he killed her. How convenient. She was found in a cornfield about 10 miles from her boyfriend’s house where she was staying.

The media doesn’t want to cover this story because it does not further their agenda. In fact, it appeals to something that is of utmost importance to all but the most hardened resistance lemmings: public safety. Instead, they complained that Fox News reported on the police’s press conference. Now I was watching FNC and I saw how they covered it. The network reported on the police conference (for two minutes!) while it was also reporting the Manafort jury and the Cohen plea. But that was not good enough for the media elites. Fresh off their outrage over Trump’s deportation of a bonafide Nazi, media personalities took to Twitter to share their outrage.

Your daily WTF:

Judge Gives No Jail Time To Imran Awan, Attorney Claims He Was Building ‘Women’s Shelter’

Historical picture of the day:

A long line of mourners file past the body of slain Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, at the Alcazar funeral parlor in Mexico City, Aug. 22, 1940. Trotsky was attacked Aug 20. with a pickax by Ramon Mercader, aka Jacques Mornard and Frank Jackson, and fatally wounded. (AP Photo/Montes de Oca)

Other morsels:

Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife indicted in use of campaign funds for personal expenses

Good. Police seek protesters who toppled Confederate statue in North Carolina

Terrible. Israel bans Juul e-cigarettes

128 illegal immigrants found abandoned in Arizona, Border Patrol says

Facebook removes hundreds of pages, groups and accounts linked to ‘inauthentic behavior’ in Russia, Iran

California Used Loopholes To Keep Thousands on SNAP From Having to Work

The Wait Is Over: PETA Finally Got Rid Of Those Destructive Barnam’s Animal Cracker Boxes

US Slaps Russia With More Sanctions, Threatens ‘Economic Pain’ If Russia Doesn’t Change Its Behavior

Trump will spend 40 days campaigning for midterms

Teen lit friend on fire during barbecue dispute: cops

Antifa Activists Beat Down Liberal Protester for Holding American Flag (WATCH)