Michael Cohen plead guilty to tax evasion, false statement financial institution, willful cause of unlawful corporate contribtuion and excessive campaign contribution. He plead guilty to making hush money payments to influence an election. Here is what Cohen actually said:“I participated in the conduct for the purposes of influencing the election.” Everyone assumes he is talking about Donald Trump.

When you listen to the hyperventilating on CNN, remember one thing. The Federal Prosecutors in New York does not have the authority to investigate Donald Trump. They report to Donald Trump. That is why a Special Counsel, Mueller was appointed to investigate alleged Russian collusion. Mueller handed the case off to local Federal Prosecutors. While CNN is day dreaming of the legal noose closing in on Trump, Federal prosecutors aren’t even investigating Trump and they aren’t going to be investigating Trump. That is why they never mentioned his name.

Paul Manafort was found guilty on 8 counts. He was found guilty of filing a false tax return. He was found guilty of not filing a form to report a foreign bank account. He was convicted of two instances of bank fraud. None of this even mentioned Donald Trump. My prediction is that this case will be appealed and probably won’t be resolved until after Trump’s re-election. I wouldn’t even be surprised to see this eventually overturned on appeal because it is not clear that Mueller was authorized to investigate this. It is not even clear that the second trial will take place.

Manafort was in custody, to avoid him tampering with a jury. Once the trials are over, he will likely be released on bail. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Manafort to start serving time in a federal prison.

Trump won’t consider a pardon or anythng else for Manafort until all legal proceedings are over and that is likely to take years.

At some point the reality of this will sink in on the usual suspects, reminding us all of the last verse to Casey at the Bat:

“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright, the band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, and somewhere men are laughing, and somewwhere children shout, but there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Mueller has struck out.”

TDM