Federal prosecutors filed three briefs late on Friday portending grave danger for three men: the former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, the former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, and President Donald Trump. In an age when Americans usually get mere squibs of breaking news from Twitter, Facebook, and red-faced cable shouters, many started their weekend poring over complex legal filings and peering suspiciously at blacked-out paragraphs. The documents were stunning, even for 2018.
In brief No. 1, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office argues that Paul Manafort breached his cooperation agreement with the government by lying to the FBI and the Special Counsel’s Office in the course of 12 meetings.
In brief No. 2, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York asks a federal judge to sentence the former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to a “substantial term of imprisonment”—meaning between three and four years
And that brings us to brief No. 3: Special Counsel Mueller’s separate sentencing brief in Cohen’s lying-to-Congress case. He does not recommend a sentence but informs the court about the nature of Cohen’s assistance to his office. Mueller discloses that Cohen has “taken significant steps to mitigate his criminal conduct” by pleading guilty to lying to Congress and meeting with the special counsel seven times to discuss his own conduct and other “core topics under investigation.” That includes information about multiple cases of contact between other Trump-campaign officials and the Russian government, and about Cohen’s contact with the White House in 2017 and 2018, suggesting an ongoing inquiry into obstruction of justice. Most significant, the special counsel indicates that Cohen “described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional inquiries
Read the full report -https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/mueller-briefs-bad-news-trump-manafort-and-cohen/577681/
Brief 3 means nothing without 1 and 2 but it is the one that Trump's cadre of criminals fears most. Yes it implicates Trump himself but it doesn't stop with him. Mitch McConnell, Devon Nunes and Paul Ryan, at the very least, should be very worried at this point. Any evidence that any or all of them knowingly acted to conceal evidence of violations of The Constitution and threats to the sovereignty of the United States by a hostile foreign power places them in imminent danger of seeing the inside of a prison cell themselves.
For the GOP it's no longer about protecting Trump, it's no longer about protecting the party, it's about protecting themselves and that, each of them has proven repeatedly, will always be their first loyalty.
