Mere hours after Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, implicated his old client in possible collusion with the Russians both before and after he was elected president, the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin compiled a list of problems for the president that should have him running for cover.
Saying Trump "should be freaked out," Rubin provided a laundry list of factors that will likely have the White House panicking.
First off, Rubin asserted, is that fact that Cohen's appearance came after Trump reportedly turned in written answers to special counsel Robert Mueller's questions after months of haggling.
"If Mueller asked about the Moscow Trump Tower deal and Trump lied, saying that it had ended in January, that would be a strong basis for a perjury charge. Trump might say that he didn’t know Cohen was continuing in talks with Russia, but the tantalizing detail from the indictment, namely that Cohen communicated with Individual 1 (presumably Trump) three times, suggests that Mueller may have some definitive evidence of the conversations," she wrote. "In other words, both Cohen and Trump tried to disguise the extent of Trump’s ties with Russia, which, in the context of the campaign, may have been part of a conspiracy to help get him elected."
Rubin went on to say the day's events likely had a bearing on Trump choosing to cancel a sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin this weekend in Buenos Aries.
"Cohen plainly is cooperating with Mueller — and not communicating with Trump," Rubin stated. "That creates enormous uncertainty and risk. Trump may already have contradicted himself under oath."
Fourth, she continued was "Cohen’s plea agreement shows that the Mueller probe is not a 'witch hunt,'" she wrote, adding that the Democrats were quick to issue a statement saying, in part: "The Special Counsel has now secured guilty pleas from President Trump’s personal attorney, his campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, a foreign policy advisor to his campaign, and his National Security Advisor."
The statement concluded with a dire warning, stating: "No one is above the law, not even the President, and our job will be to check his impulse to abuse his office to protect himself. We will do everything in our power to allow the Special Counsel to finish his work and follow the facts and the law to their conclusion."
Rubin then pointed out that the latest revelations likely will force some previously reluctant Republicans to back a bill that would protect Robert Mueller's job.
Finally, the Washington Post conservative said that Cohen's confession put's Trump's previous praise of Putin under a new wave of scrutiny in light of Thursday's developments.
"If Cohen is telling the truth, Trump lied during the campaign in flatly denying any deals in Russia," Rubin concluded. "That in itself is a big deal. Trump took a bizarrely pro-Putin stance during the campaign and in the debates specifically. The notion that a candidate would take the side of a foreign foe of the United States while negotiating business deals in that country should be seen as wholly unacceptable, perhaps even an attempt to defraud voters. If he was doing it to assist his own economic interests, it can be seen as a quid pro quo."
You can read the whole piece here.
