Scandals Disrupt Trump Administration

Photo courtesy of Axios

Photo courtesy of Axios

Riley Hazel, Lead Writer and Editor

A special counsel found two former employees of President Trump guilty of fraud.

Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort are guilty upon numerous accounts of fraud and campaign finance violations. Both are former employees of President Trump. Robert Mueller, the special counsel of the Russia investigation revealed hidden allegations to Trump’s presidential campaign.

Manafort, who had worked closely with the president on the 2016 presidential campaign, has been convicted of eight counts of tax fraud, hiding foreign bank accounts, and bank fraud.

Cohen, Trump’s lawyer from 2006 up until May of this year has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud for the “principal purpose of influencing [the] election.”

Trump has spoken out against the allegations made against him in court by Cohen. He called the Manafort trial a “witch hunt” via Twitter.

“Paul Manafort is a good man. … It doesn’t involve me but it’s a very sad thing… It had nothing to do with Russian collusion,” Trump said.

Manafort joined Trump’s presidential campaign team in March of 2016 and was Campaign Chairman from June to August 2016. He has had many years of experience working in politics. Manafort was the southern coordinator for Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign and the deputy political director at the Republican National Committee. Manafort also was an adviser to the presidential campaigns of George H. W. Bush in 1988 and Bob Dole in 1996.

Cohen was Trump’s lawyer from 2006 up until May of 2018, a month before the federal investigation began. He was the Vice President of the Trump Organization and the Special Counsel to Trump. In June of 2018, Cohen resigned as Finance Chairman of the Republican Committee.

Since the FBI raided Cohen’s New York hotel room back in April, reports have been released about various documents including a payment to a pornographic film actress. Others reveal that the President’s son, Donald Trump Jr., allegedly met with Russian officials that were interested in interfering with the 2016 Presidential Election.

How will this situation affect the upcoming primaries? Ms.Gaskill, an English teacher at Winter Springs High School put it this way.

“I think that the people of this country will be affected. People who are hard right and who side with Trump will be loyal to him. But people who are leftist, they will be easy to sway. This country is polarized, meaning that it is divided more than ever.”

Franc Martongelli says, “People in the Trump organization are definitely up to something. If the general public doesn’t like what it see, they will for sure make their voices heard through the polls.”

“Department of Justice employees are entrusted with the authority to enforce the laws of the United States and with the responsibility to do so in a neutral and impartial manner. This is particularly important in an election year,” Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a memo to DOJ employees in March of 2012 “Simply put, politics must play no role in the decisions of federal investigators or prosecutors regarding any investigations.”

Manafort is scheduled to go on trial in September on charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, failing to register as a foreign agent, money laundering, and witness tampering and making false statements.

For Cohen, the judge declared a mistrial. Prosecutors have the option to bring the remaining charges against him again, until a verdict is reached