Swamped by scandal
Will Trump survive?
The conviction of Donald Trump’s former lawyer and self-styled “Mr Fix-it” fuelled speculation this week that the president could face impeachment. Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in a federal court to breaching campaign finance laws in 2016 by buying the silence of two women who had threatened to talk publicly about their alleged affairs with Trump. And under a plea bargain with prosecutors he implicated Trump, claiming that he had explicitly authorised the pay-off from campaign funds. Adding to the president’s embarrassment, his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted of eight charges of tax fraud.
Turning on his critics, Trump denied committing any crime and accused Cohen of “flipping” – agreeing to help the prosecution in return for a more lenient sentence. He also warned that any attempt to remove him from office could trigger an economic “crash” in the US ( see page 15).
What the editorials said
Trump’s impeachment after the midterm elections is now “all but certain”, said The Wall Street Journal, as polls suggest the Democrats will gain a “narrow but solid” majority in the House of Representatives in November: and you can be sure the party faithful won’t be denied their prize. “Liberals want this president to be politically humiliated and legally punished.” Understandably so, said The New York Times. If Trump fixed secret payments to these women – a porn actress and a Playboy model – he was conspiring to deny voters information that might have damaged his chances at the polls. That strikes at the integrity of the whole electoral system.
Let’s keep this in proportion, said National Review. It’s unclear that Trump broke the law even if he did order the payments. Paying “hush money” is not in itself illegal, and the president claims he paid the money from his own account, not from official campaign funds. Besides, his alleged offence, “sleazy as it is”, hardly rises to the level of the “high crimes or misdemeanours” demanded as the standard for impeachment.