Whoa! That Was a Double Whammy - Jury Verdict and Plea Deal Edition!

Sometimes it seems that news comes at us fast and furious, especially in the current political landscape.  It almost seems that those in power want to throw everything at us at once in hopes that we get overwhelmed and give up trying to find out the truth.  This is especially true in terms of the Mueller probe, reports of possible Russian interference (though the mainstream media seems to overlook that there was a home grown element that wanted to steal the election for Donny as well).  This means there are moments when it's best to take things in and get as much information as possible before writing or posting something.  However, today events happened that require immediate posting.

Let's start with the news the media was awaiting but wondering what would happen.  This afternoon Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight counts of financial crimes in a Federal courthouse in Virginia.  These counts include five charges of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of hiding a foreign bank account.  The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges electoral vote winner Donny's former campaign manager faced so the judge declared a mistrial. 

Manafort's attorney says he's currently considering his options and is disapointed in the verdict.  However, this part of the story isn't over yet as Manafort could possibly appeal the conviction.  However, Manafort is also facing another trial in Washington D.C. later this fall from other charges related to the Russia probe.  What that means is there's the possibility of a plea deal in exchange for cooperating with investigators (which may not be more of a possibility given Paul Manafort faces 80 years in Federal prison [i.e.: a life sentence basically]).  There's also the possibility that electoral vote winner Donny would suddenly pardon Manafort.  However, while Donny has been pardoning quite a few horrible people this instance could be a case where the optics would be so bad that blowback would be inevitable and fairly swift. 

Then there's the news about Michael Cohen, electoral vote winner Donny's former lawyer and "fixer," who today reached a plea deal and plead guilty to eight criminal counts.  Among these counts are tax fraud and false statements to a bank.  In that sense there is some similarity to the charges Manafort was convicted of a few states southward.  However Cohen's plea has a unique twist in that he plead guilty to campaign finance violations.  The latter refers to his admission that he made payments to two women "at the direction of a candidate,"

Yes, apparently Cohen admitted that he arranged the payouts to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal at electoral vote winner Donny's direction.  He told the judge that the payments were "for the principal purpose of influencing the election."  To add a strange layer of the bizarre to these news reports news broke of them occurring at pretty much exactly the same time.. giving news organizations a double whammy to report on.  As part of the plea deal Cohen faces far less time than Manafort (46-53 months in prison) but this plea is a sign that Mueller has something. 

It's also a sign that, for the first time since news of possible Russian interference and other assorted election meddling broke, reports of electoral vote winner Donny being complicit in this shit show has gone from a conjecture that many people felt was possible to Michael Cohen telling a judge under oath that he was involved.

So where does that leave electoral vote winner Donny?  Hard to say.  So far Donny's claiming that Manafort's conviction has nothing to do with him though one has to wonder why he didn't ask questions that he would run Donny's campaign without pay).  However, since he now almost definitely has prison time ahead Paul Manafort might see this as a chance to reach some deal on other charges and cooperate.  If that happens this could lead to a lot of heat on those around Donny from those we know about (Donny's son Little Donny, his son in law Jared et al in the meeting with the Russian attorney at Trump Tower) to maybe even someone who has so far escaped scrutiny (people seem to overlook that Manafort picked co-electoral vote winner Mikey and made the arrangements for Mikey and Donny to meet and cement the deal). 

Will this be the beginning of the end for Donny and Mikey and their minions?  Will electoral vote winner Donny start a war as a diversion (which can also help him quash any dissent against his tremendous reign, bigly)?  Will the Democrats slowly plot to impeach Donny and co if they win the midterms?  While it does appear that there's something that fits the high crimes and misdemeanors here time will tell what goes down.  What can be said here though is that we now have proof that Donny's paying off women he cheated on his wife fits a campaign finance violation and that his fixer has flipped (proving what many have suggested when he hired long time Bill and Hillary Clinton ally Lanny Davis as his attorney).

That Manfort's conviction and Cohen's plea deal happened isn't necessarily a big deal (though some worried that jurors may have been influenced by Donny's tweets and may get a mistrial for Manafort on all counts).  However, that both went down at the same time reveals that today was a big day for the Mueller probe and the various tentacles that have spun off to other courts and the like.  This may not be a smoking gun but the barrel is beginning to simmer a little on these fronts.