Justice: Two guilty verdicts in one day ~ Manafort and Cohen

The rule of law - echo opinion by Frank Montoya Jr. 

Talk about historic. It was an act of justice that one rarely sees in American politics.  (MaineWriter: Justice *TRUMPS* politics.)

Two guilty verdicts in one day. Echo opinion published in the New York Daily News 

They literally came within moments of one another and each, in their own ways, signaled an inevitability that not even the President of the United States can diminish with an angry tweet. 

Or a whole host of them, for that matter.

The rule of law in these United States is alive and well.

In the first, a jury of his American peers found Paul Manafort guilty on eight counts of violating tax laws and committing bank fraud. 

It could not reach a verdict on 10 other counts of fraud.

In the second, Michael Cohen, the President’s long-time personal lawyer and “fixer,” pleaded guilty to violation of campaign finance laws, bank fraud and tax laws.

Predictably, the President announced the Manafort verdict was “a disgrace” and had “nothing to do with collusion.”

He’s so far chosen silence in reaction to Cohen’s plea.

It really doesn’t matter.

Fact is, today’s verdicts — one which was the direct result of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in our democracy and the other based on a referral from him to the Southern District of New York (SDNY) — are proof positive of illegal behavior amongst people who were close, one so much so that he famously remarked he’d take a “bullet for him,” to Donald Trump in his run to the White House.

Why is that important and what does it have to do with the President? Plenty.

Manafort’s next trial, scheduled for September, pertains to allegedly illicit relationships with foreigners (Russians and Ukrainians with ties to the Vladimir Putin). Like in the first trial, the evidence presented will likely not make a direct connection between those same Russians and Trump. But they will demonstrate that Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign manager for a critical part of the campaign, did.

As for Cohen, his plea had nothing to do with Russians, either. But observers should pay heed to several key aspects of today’s agreement. In particular were Cohen’s reported comments that he acted at the direction of a “candidate running for Federal office” to “influence” the outcome of the election in which that candidate was running.

Also left unsaid was the possibility that Cohen has agreed to cooperate with investigators and prosecutors in either the SDNY (New York), or in the Special Counsel’s office, on matters relevant to the Russia investigation. If that’s true and Cohen has information of value — did he go to Prague on Trump’s behalf? Why? To influence the outcome of an election at the direction of his master? — the benefit to the Russia investigation could be significant.

But even if neither of these convicts has much to offer, it still does not detract from another inevitability. The Russia investigation is approaching what promises to be a dramatic end. Step by patient step, the Special Counsel is putting together a tapestry of guilty pleas and jury convictions that is inevitably leading to one man. And judging from the President’s own incriminating tweet storms of late, it’s not hard to figure out who he is.

If that happens, it’ll be a fitting end for someone so unfit to lead what was a great country long before he tried to screw it up.

Montoya is a retired FBI senior official who served as the national counterintelligence executive, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and special agent in charge of two FBI field offices.