Special counsel Robert Mueller has caught and witnessed the conviction of two of President Donald Trump’s pals. His campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has been found guilty of filing false income tax returns for five consecutive years, and two verdicts of $4.4 million in bank fraud. The other Trump friend, his dormer attorney no less, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty to evading income taxes, bank fraud, and paying candidate Trump’s hush money to two women. In that latter charge, Cohen implicated Donald Trump, telling the federal court he made that payment “at the direction of the candidate.”
As these two criminals begin to “sing” under oath, the truth of Trump’s connection to law breaking has gotten uncomfortably close to the Oval Office. Trump, of course, denies any part of the corrupt deals put together by his shady buddies, but most people have by now recognized Donald Trump’s habitual lying. His first and perhaps most famous lie was that whopper about Barrack Obama’s place of birth. Later a director of the FBI warned us, under oath, that Trump lies “plain and simple.”
Never before has a president been accused of telling so many lies. Yes, some residents of the Oval Office have been less than truthful, but frankly most of the untruths told by our presidents have been for the purpose of protecting our military and space secrets. No other president has attempted to make truth irrelevant, created false equivalencies, or purposely and continuously mislead the people throughout his presidency.
Trump’s pal Cohen once said he “would take a bullet for the president,” but now prepares to “rat out” his old friend. Trump, the corner cutting billionaire, should have chosen his friends more wisely, or could it be our president purposely selected his friends based on there abilities in deceit, guile, debasement, and lawlessness?
Pat Williams
Former Montana U. S. congressman