Trump's longtime attorney and legal thug Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress early this morning.
More specifically, Cohen admitted that he lied about his work to secure a Trump Tower real-estate project in Moscow. Cohen originally testified that work on the project ceased in January of 2016, but this morning he admitted that work continued far beyond that time.
Cohen's plea marked the first time that Trump and his private business dealings in Moscow were named in open court as part of Mueller's investigation into Russia's ties to the Trump campaign. Trump had said during his campaign in 2016 that he had no business interests in Russia, but Cohen, 52, said in his plea that those business interests were not severed and in fact continued into the summer of 2016.
Prosecutors said Cohen lied in order to minimize links between Trump and his Moscow building project, and to give the false impression that the project had ended before the Iowa caucuses, which took place in February of 2016.
According to Cohen's new version of events, negotiations for the Moscow project continued until at least June of 2016. June of 2016 is also when Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met a group of Russians at Trump Tower in Manhattan; Russians who promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
This is just the latest revelation that directly implicates Trump himself, but I believe this also places Donald Trump Jr on the hot seat. Donny Jr and his brother Eric run the Trump Organization and they would have known about Cohen's continued negotiations with the Russians about a major real-estate project when Don Jr agreed to meet the Russians at Trump Tower.
Cohen's guilty plea says he briefed Trump himself and his children about his negotiations, or as the court document spells out: "Individual 1 and their family"
Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to charges filed by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York earlier this year, but today's charge was filed by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. The information Cohen has dished out has been spread among too many different federal offices and the public record to disappear it at this point. Even Trump must realize that this is has already gone too far for him to bury it.
Once Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in January, Republicans won't be able to make this go away.