It’s not just a theory anymore. It’s not just an idea that can be shooed away with bitter tweets or shouted down with “Witch hunt!” The Trump White House is now in actual political and legal peril.
President Trump’s own attorney (at least until recently) has admitted he broke the law to help protect Trump during the presidential campaign; that he paid-off women who allegedly had affairs with Trump to keep them silent. Furthermore, Michael Cohen has said under oath that Trump directed him to do it.
On the same day, Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of tax evasion and bank fraud. Of course, Trump supporters have quickly shifted into damage control, calling Cohen a liar (oh, the irony,) and saying he can’t be trusted. Asked about the Cohen claim, his Press Secretary repeated over and over, word for word, the president’s persistent claim about himself: “He did nothing wrong, there are no charges against him.” The president is additionally howling (correctly) that the Manafort conviction has nothing to do with any supposed collusion with the Russians. But those assertions are fighting to be heard over the roar of now indisputable truths.
3 Trump truths in the wake of Manafort, Cohen legal bombshells
1) Donald Trump, who has long bragged that he hires only the best people, in fact – at least in these cases – has kept close company with convicted and admitted criminals.
2) The President of the United States is now similar to an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal endeavor, even though that doesn’t mean he’ll ever be officially charged, found guilty, or exonerated.
3) The Mueller investigation has produced real results, it has real teeth, and it’s really not over. Not even close.
All of this has ignited a whole new firestorm of talk here in DC about the possibility of impeachment. In political terms that remains a stretch. But if the Democrats make big gains in Congress this fall, the likelihood draws considerably closer. Like I said, it's not just a theory anymore. Because truth matters. Facts matter. And right now many of them are cutting hard against Donald Trump.
CNN’s Tom Foreman is the author of the book “My Year of Running Dangerously.
