On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "All In," anchor Chris Hayes marked the guilty plea of former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg with a list of all the major Trump allies who have similarly found themselves pleading to or being convicted of crimes.
"Now, I have been looking at politics for about two decades, and generally, the rule of thumb, it's not a good thing when a politician, or their associates, are charged with a crime or convicted of a crime," said Hayes. "But it happens a lot to people in Donald Trump's circle. Let's just take a step back."
Among those in Trump's orbit convicted of crimes Hayes listed off, included his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, for bank fraud, tax evasion, and campaign finance violations; RNC official Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act for his role trying to quash investigation of the 1MDB scandal; George Nader, a Broidy associate now in prison for child sex offenses; and RNC official Tom Barrack, who also violated FARA.
"Barrack was one who told Trump to hire Paul Manafort back in 2016," noted Hayes. "And Manafort ultimately pleaded guilty on conspiracy charges, relating to money he earned working as an unregistered foreign agent in Ukraine, sensing a theme from the first campaign? Manafort was also pardoned by Donald Trump. Manafort's close ally, Rick Gates, who was Trump's campaign manager, pleaded guilty for assisting Manafort in laundering Ukrainian money as well as lying to the FBI."
Also pardoned by Trump were George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone, all Trump allies who lied to investigators in the Russia probe. In Papadopoulos' case, the pardon was actually handed down after he already served his sentence.
"Trump campaign CEO and senior adviser Steve Bannon, he's an interesting case," Hayes continued, noting that he too received a pardon after his indictment in the "We Build The Wall" scheme where he defrauded Trump supporters of their money. "But Bannon was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the January 6 Committee. Speaking of contempt of Congress, Peter Navarro, he is also been indicted for his refusal to cooperate with the committee. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial."
And meanwhile, Hayes noted, all this comes as Trump lawyer Giuliani has been informed he is criminal target of the Fulton County, Georgia DA's probe into efforts to steal the election — for which he spent six hours testifying to a grand jury today.
"That is a lot," concluded Hayes. "I mean, it's more than any politician I have ever covered in my life. It's more than any politician that I would be willing to bet that anyone has covered in last few decades. The cult of criminality surrounding Donald Trump has been present since he first ran for president. So, Trump executive Allen Weisselberg is really just the latest in a very long list of people charged with crimes in Trump's orbit — and it shows no sign of slowing down."
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