2016 ELECTION/LEGAL/PAUL MANAFORT/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump briefly slammed the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 campaign during his rally in West Virginia on Tuesday [8-21-18], hours after his campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on charges stemming from that investigation…Trump largely avoided the topic of the investigation during the first portion of his rally and after making these remarks, he quickly returned to his scripted remarks. He had earlier praised Manafort as a ‘good man’ just hours after he was convicted on eight federal counts of bank and tax fraud. Trump seized on the guilty verdict to decry Mueller’s investigation as a ‘witch hunt’ and a ‘disgrace,’ noting that the charges were not related to Russian interference in the 2016 campaign…The comments were the President’s first since the double-header of Manafort’s conviction and Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen’s guilty plea on eight unrelated federal charges — both stories breaking within minutes of each other. Trump declined to answer questions about Cohen’s guilty verdict, which could put the President in legal jeopardy. Among other charges, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws ‘in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office,’ Trump.”
–Jeremy Diamond, “Trump decries Manafort verdict, says Mueller investigation a ‘disgrace’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 21, 2018 8:23 pm