The right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board said the guilty verdict against President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and guilty plea from his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, show the president “at his worst.”
[More: Trump’s ‘bad week’: Manafort found guilty, Cohen enters plea deal]
In an editorial published Tuesday night, the Journal said Tuesday’s bombshell news about both men make clear the type of people Trump has associated with for years.
“All of this reveals Mr. Trump at his worst and shows why so many Republicans had doubts about making him the party’s nominee,” the paper said.
Manafort was found guilty on multiple counts of financial fraud while a mistrial was declared on eight other charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. None of the charges directly related to allegations of collusion with Russia.
Cohen reached his plea deal on the same day, admitting to tax evasion and also that he violated campaign finance laws in paying the porn actress Stormy Daniels off in exchange for her silence ahead of the 2016 election about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump, which Trump has denied. Cohen said in his plea that he made the payment at the direction of “the candidate.”
The Journal said in its editorial that the convictions raise the possibility that Democrats, if they take the House in the midterm election this year, will impeach Trump.
“The Cohen and Manafort convictions raise the stakes for Mr. Trump and his presidency,” the paper said, “but voters may want to see more than evidence about payments to a porn star to overturn the results of a presidential election.”
