We begin today’s roundup with Michelle Goldberg’s analysis at The New York Times on the latest revelation that Donald Trump, contrary to his public claims, was actively pursuing a massive deal in Russia during the 2016 campaign:
We still don’t know for certain if Russia has used leverage over Trump. But there should no longer be any doubt that Russia has leverage over him. [...] So we now know that Trump lied to the American people about at least one part of his business relationship with Russia, a geopolitical foe that interfered in our election process on his behalf.
[...] we can see that Putin has been in possession of crucial information about Trump’s business interests that the president deliberately hid from the American people. In a normal political world, Republicans would have enough patriotism to find this alarming and humiliating. Every day of the Trump presidency is a national security emergency. The question now is whether Senate Republicans, who could actually do something about it, will ever be moved to care.
The New York Times:
“I was campaigning. There was a good chance that I wouldn’t have won, in which case I would have gotten back into the business, and why should I lose lots of opportunities?” was how Mr. Trump explained away Mr. Cohen’s conviction on Thursday. It’s a deflection that the president will rely on again, if history is any indication: Hours before Mr. Cohen appeared in court, the president was, for the umpteenth time, ranting and raving about Mr. Mueller, accusing him of searching for crimes that don’t exist.
But, as Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea demonstrates, the crimes are real. What’s more, there are already numerous cases filed in various federal districts that will likely bare others. It’s only a matter of time before even Mr. Trump won’t be able to tweet them away.
Karoun Demirjian at The Washington Post highlights how useless the Republican’s report on Russia was:
The Republicans’ report became mired in controversy long before it was made public in April, with the panel descending into all-out partisan warfare over the probe.
Cohen’s false statements go largely unchallenged in the report. After Cohen wrote in a letter to the Senate and House Intelligence committees that the attempt to establish a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, the Republicans stated in their report that “it appears . . . the project failed” at that time. It is now known those efforts continued for many more months. [...] Based on Cohen’s statements to lawmakers, the committee’s Republicans determined that “neither candidate Trump nor Cohen traveled to Moscow in support of the [Trump Tower] deal.” The plea deal announced Thursday by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicates that information also is inaccurate.
John Nichols, meanwhile, previews how Democrats may pursue a new line of inquiry in the House:
Amid a chaotic flurry of presidential tweets attacking Cohen as “a weak person,” speculation about whether the president might pardon former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and pronouncements from lawyers, it fell to Jerrold Nadler to remind Americans of what they now know—and of what is now at stake. Nadler, the New York Democrat who in January will become the chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, got to the heart of the matter, saying: “Lying to Congress is a serious crime with serious consequences. Mr. Cohen has now admitted to lying about his contacts with Russian officials on behalf of President Trump. His guilty plea contemplates Mr. Cohen’s further cooperation with investigators. Anyone who still believes that this is a “witch hunt” must now face the reality that the investigation appears to be closing in on the president.”
At USA Today, Republican lawyer Chris Truax says the evidence is clear that Trump and his associates have repeatedly lied to the public and to Congress:
What can we make of all this? First, while maybe there isn't a smoking gun, yet, on the Trump campaign working with the Russians to help Trump win the election, there is now a smoking gun proving that the Russians colluded with Trump and his people to lie to Congress. [...]
Let me make this clear: On Donald Trump’s behalf, Michael Cohen and the Russians lied to two Republican-led congressional committees with the specific intent of derailing the Mueller investigation. Trump knew all about this and, at a minimum, did absolutely nothing to stop it or to correct the record. And none of this would ever have come to light were it not for Mueller’s dogged efforts to expose the truth and protect our democratic institutions.
Is this impeachable? I don’t know. As a practical matter, “high crimes and misdemeanors” are whatever Congress decides they are. But Trump’s cynical lies make the very people he claims to lead look like utter fools. By endorsing Cohen’s perjury, Trump could not make his contempt for Congress and the Republican majority more clear.
Speaking of legal analysis, Jeffrey Toobin dives into the details:
The timing of Cohen’s guilty plea is significant. It seems that the prosecution team, led by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, delayed Cohen’s admission of guilt until after Trump and his legal team had submitted the President’s written answers to Mueller’s questions, which he did earlier this month. Mueller surely asked Trump about the Moscow negotiation, and the President’s answers were likely locked in before he and his lawyers could factor in Cohen’s admissions. If those answers were to conflict with Cohen’s latest version of events, it would potentially be a matter of great peril for the President. Mueller’s prosecutors made it clear in court on Thursday that they believe that Cohen is now telling the truth. The charging document from the guilty plea, prepared by the Mueller office, shows that Cohen’s account is corroborated by multiple contemporaneous e-mails between him and an “Individual 2,” who is likely Felix Sater, a frequent Trump business associate. (Sater is not named in the document.)
On a final note, don’t miss Frank Rich’s latest:
It also adds up that Trump remains in the panic that has consumed him since he returned from his calamitous trip to rainy Paris nearly three weeks ago. He just keeps tweeting maniacally about his innocence and Mueller’s “witch hunt” even as heads to the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, Mueller’s tale of his collusion with Russia gains traction by the moment. A Washington Post scoop overnight detailing profuse late-night phone calls between Stone and Trump at crucial junctures in 2016 suggests that it was Trump himself, not merely “the Trump campaign,” who had direct knowledge of Russia’s conspiracy to tip the election in his favor. Today has brought Michael Cohen’s surprise guilty plea in a Manhattan court, where he conceded he was lying to Congress when he claimed that Trump had stopped pursuing business deals in Russia in early 2016. Given that Trump has vehemently denied such dealings, Cohen’s revelation is another big chapter of the story. Who knows what additional plot twists will arrive tomorrow when Mueller’s prosecutors face off against Manafort’s lawyers in a federal courtroom — as ordered by a judge this week after Manafort broke his plea deal.