MUELLER’S RUSSIA PROBE

The sentencing of Michael Cohen was never going to be about Michael Cohen. It was always going to be about Donald Trump. The president’s former lawyer and ixer got 3 years in prison Wednesday for what a federal judge in Manhattan called a “veritable smorgasbord” of crimes. But the colorful language paled in comparison to the potential implications for Cohen’s former boss. Pre-sentencing, an attorney with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference told the judge that Cohen had provided “credible and reliable information about core Russia-related issues under investigation.” Post-sentencing, Cohen attorney Lanny Davis said his client will tell publicly all he knows once Mueller’s investigation is inished, and that Cohen has cooperated fully with the probe into “possible Trump campaign collusion with Russian meddling.” That can’t be good for Trump, even allowing for some Davis spin. It surely is more ominous than Wednesday’s announcement that the parent company of the National Enquirer, operated by a Trump buddy, admitted making a $150,000 payment to a former Playboy model in 2016 in concert with Trump’s campaign to suppress her story and “prevent it from inluencing the election,” a deal brokered by Cohen. Violating campaign inance rules is one thing. Colluding with a foreign adversary and/or obstructing an investigation into that is something else entirely. In the end, Russian meddling or any efforts to stop the investigation of it is what matters.