ETHICS/LEGAL/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “After one day where truth and facts triumphed, America is back to its alternative realities. The convictions of two close associates of President Donald Trump in a mind-bending double-header drama in two cities on Tuesday [8-21-18] were a moment of clarity in the legal morass that has thickened around the White House over the last 19 months. Yet anyone who thought that being implicated in a crime in one of the most sensational political moments of recent history would soon temper Trump’s behavior, stop his White House peddling untruths or reshape the political terrain that sustains his presidency is being disappointed — at least for now. Certainly, in years to come that tumultuous hour on Tuesday could turn out to be the moment when the Trump presidency began to unravel and the Teflon armor that shielded the President from scandals and outrages that would doom normal politicians was finally penetrated. After all, months of obfuscation and attacks on Robert Mueller could not halt the legal process that’s likely to send former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the President’s former fixer Michael Cohen to jail for years. And the real meat of the special counsel’s investigation into alleged collusion with Russia is yet to be revealed.”
-Stephen Collinson, “A reckoning could be coming for Trump,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 23, 2018 2:17 pm