Trump’s tower of Russia lies

Thursday delivered a splash of cold water and several large ice cubes in the faces of President Donald Trump and his supporters, who’ve spent months caricaturing special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe as a desperate partisan witch hunt straying ever further from the collusion it initially sought to uncover.

Just two days after Mueller charged former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort with breaking his plea agreement by lying to prosecutors, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen admitted in federal court to making false statements to Congress about business dealings between the president-to-be and Russians.

Last year, Cohen declared that Trump’s interest in building a Moscow skyscraper ended in January 2016; the fact: it continued throughout the year. Crucially, these weren’t conversations with Russian banks or developers: Cohen exchanged details with Vladimir Putin’s press secretary and tried to arrange a Trump personal trip to Moscow.

Negotiations were still ongoing as of June 9, 2016 — the date of the infamous Trump Tower Manhattan meeting where Russian operatives offered Manafort, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s response to this bombshell? Cohen is “very weak” and “lying” to get a reduced sentence, although separately, Trump’s lawyers assert his written testimony to Mueller didn’t contradict Cohen.

Mueller may or may not have caught Trump committing criminal acts or obstructing justice, but he has already exposed the teetering tower of public lies on which the president stands.