Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, and his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, are now talking freely with special counsel Robert Mueller.
Trump is probably spending some restless nights in the White House.
Manafort and Trump have been friends for decades. If anyone knows about Trump’s relationship with Russian cash it’s him.
Cohen was Trump’s attorney and personal fixer for years. If anyone knows where Trump’s skeletons are buried it’s him.
Mueller has an uphill battle to prove allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, and that Trump has sought to obstruct his investigation.
But if it happened, Cohen and Manafort know it and hold the keys to Trump’s fate.
The Manafort case, the first one the Mueller team has sent to trial, saw a jury find the former Trump campaign chairman guilty on eight counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and financial account reporting violations.
While the evidence was strong, the case was focused on Manafort’s dealings separate to the 2016 campaign and not directly related to Russia.
The Cohen case, tried by New York federal prosecutors on a referral from Mueller, also lacked a Russian collusion angle.
Cohen pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax fraud in his personal business, and campaign finance violations related to hush payments to two alleged former Trump girlfriends.
In the latter, however, he stunningly implicated the president in a felony, declaring Trump himself had ordered the payments to influence the election.
Even if not about collusion, both cases underscored that Mueller is not pursuing frivolous charges. Mueller, a taciturn 74-year-old former FBI director, is working quickly and efficiently.
Since he was named in May 2017, he hasn’t commented publicly on the progress of his operation or responded to the president’s almost daily attacks.
But he has issued indictments against 33 individuals, and three companies.
Five have negotiated guilty pleas on reduced charges, including Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn; former deputy campaign chair and Manafort aide Richard Gates; and former foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos.
By comparison, it took special prosecutor Ken Starr four years to produce an indictment against president Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
The walls are closing in on Trump. If he has anything to hide, Robert Mueller knows about it, and the American people will too.