Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DEATH THREATS AND TELLY ROW
A bleak week for the Donald, but this sorry saga will run and run
THIS week’s events have been very damaging for Trump, but there is still a long way to go before this scandal reaches its conclusion.
Paul Manafort, the President’s former campaign chairman, was convicted of fraud on Tuesday.
On the same day, Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former personal attorney, pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges. Both men are facing jail sentences.
For now, Cohen’s plea is more significant. Cohen testified that he facilitated payments to two women, “in co-ordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office” in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen’s lawyer later confirmed that this candidate was Donald Trump. Special
Counsel Robert Mueller is unlikely to bring charges against Trump, however, because he is the sitting president.
DANGER
This means that the main danger to Trump is his removal from office via Congress. Firstly, the president must be impeached through a simple majority in the House of Representatives.
After that, Trump would only be removed after a trial in the US Senate. A conviction requires two-thirds of senators to vote in favour.
No president has ever been removed this way. Richard Nixon resigned before his impeachment vote, while the Senate acquitted Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. The process is steeped in politics and there are a number of issues that need to be resolved before Trump’s fate becomes clear.
Most importantly, the Republicans have majority control of the House of Representatives, so any impeachment attempt would almost certainly fail in Washington’s highly partisan political climate.
However, Congressional elections are in November and if the Democrats gain control, then impeachment becomes significantly more likely.
Secondly, the Mueller probe was established primarily to investigate “links and/or co-ordination between the Russian government” and Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign.
Mueller has not yet addressed this key issue of collusion directly. If he finds evidence that the Trump campaign co-ordinated with the Russian government, and that Trump knew, the President’s chances of political survival would dip dramatically.
DENIALS CONVICTED Trump aide Paul Manafort