WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Russia probe. His former lawyer\u2019s records \u2014 and memory. Two women with lawsuits. A third with tapes. President Donald Trump is\u2026<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Russia probe. His former lawyer\u2019s records \u2014 and memory. Two women with lawsuits. A third with tapes.
President Donald Trump is facing real political threats following one electrifying hour Tuesday that brought a plea deal by his onetime lawyer, Michael Cohen, and the conviction of Paul Manafort, the former chairman of the his 2016 presidential campaign.
Much of the potential hazard comes from digging by special counsel Robert Mueller, New York prosecutors and lawyers for the women suing him. Other threats come from Cohen, who implicated the president in campaign finance crimes and made clear he\u2019s happy to keep talking.
Trump has called the developments part of a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d and \u201cfake news.\u201d
Hovering over everything are the November midterm elections, when Americans will deliver another kind of verdict on Republican control of the presidency and Congress.
What\u2019s known: The president who demands loyalty from his allies can\u2019t depend on them for it. What\u2019s not: from whom, and where in the Trumpian landscape, another bolt might strike.
Here\u2019s a look at the threats facing the president, his family and the Republicans defending their congressional majorities:
BOOM
The legal system dumped two political hazards this week on Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty and said he and Trump arranged payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep them silent about their alleged affairs with him. And Manafort, Trump\u2019s campaign chairman during a key stretch of the 2016 race, was convicted by a jury of eight counts of bank and tax fraud.
The combination set up a world of uncertainty for everyone allied with the president.
MUELLER
The special counsel is still investigating Russia\u2019s attempts to sway voters in the 2016 election. The probe includes the hacking of Democrats\u2019 emails, whether the Trump campaign may have cooperated with Russia and if the president obstructed justice. Key to Mueller\u2019s investigation is a 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in New York between Donald Trump Jr., Manafort, the president\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner and people with ties to Russia. Trump calls the probe a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d and has not said whether he will sit for an interview with Mueller.
A final report from Mueller could go to Congress \u2014 a move that would become more significant if Democrats win control in this year\u2019s elections.
COHEN
Through his lawyer, Lanny Davis, Cohen has made clear he\u2019s happy to keep talking \u2014 to Mueller and even to Congress, should lawmakers call him to testify. Already, the Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have said they\u2019ve \u201crecently re-engaged\u201d with Cohen on the Trump Tower meeting.
Cohen, 51, once said he\u2019d take a bullet for Trump. On Tuesday he pleaded guilty to eight felony counts, including tax evasion. He could get about four to five years in prison at sentencing Dec. 12. Cohen initially denied making the payments to McDougal and Daniels ahead of the 2016 elections to buy their silence about their alleged 2006 affairs with Trump. But in his plea deal, Cohen explicitly says he did so at Trump\u2019s direction with the intention of influencing the 2016 election. The payments could be regarded as an illegal campaign expenditure.
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a little pushback in terms of Mr. Cohen\u2019s credibility,\u201d said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. \u201cI don\u2019t think the full story\u2019s been written yet.\u201d
MANAFORT
His criminal convictions do not intersect with the Trump campaign or White House, but they almost certainly mean years of prison time for him. He faces a trial later this year in Washington on federal charges of conspiracy and witness tampering. The verdicts Tuesday raised immediate questions of whether the president would seek to pardon Manafort. The president has not revealed his thinking but spoke sympathetically throughout the trial, and on Wednesday he called Manafort \u201cbrave\u201d while accusing Cohen of making up \u201cstories in order to get a \u2018deal’\u201d from prosecutors.
FLYNN
Also Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys for former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn agreed to postpone his sentencing after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian official. It was a sign that Flynn\u2019s cooperation was still needed \u2014 and possible \u2014 in the Mueller probe. Trump fired Flynn for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian officials; Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
STONE
A grand jury is hearing testimony about Roger Stone, Trump\u2019s longtime on-again-off-again adviser, in the investigation into Russian hacking of Hillary Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Stone is believed to be the Trump-connected person Russian military intelligence officers contacted in August 2016 with an offer of campaign help. The contact was revealed in an indictment last month against 12 Russians, accusing them of releasing thousands of private communications in a sweeping Kremlin-orchestrated conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 U. S. election.
Stone, through his attorney, has acknowledged having a \u201c24-word exchange with someone on Twitter claiming to be Guccifer 2.0\u201d \u2014 the online persona used by Russian hackers.
DANIELS AND MCDOUGAL
The two women who say they were Trump\u2019s onetime paramours are suing to invalidate agreements designed to silence them. Testimony or discovery could yield more information on how Trump operates.
OMAROSA
Trump\u2019s onetime protege and presidential adviser has a stash of video, emails, text messages and documentation supporting claims in her tell-all book about her time in the Trump White House. Manigault Newman has made clear she intends to continue releasing the pieces of evidence if Trump continues to attack her credibility. He\u2019s called her \u201cthat dog.\u201d She\u2019s dribbled out audio and video recordings.
SWAMPY
Not helping Trump\u2019s \u201cdrain the swamp\u201d claim, or the GOP\u2019s defense of the House: The indictments on corruption charges of the first two House Republicans to endorse Trump in the Republican presidential primaries. On Tuesday, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California was indicted on charges that include spending more than $250,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses. Rep. Chris Collins of New York was indicted earlier this month on insider trading charges. Both have proclaimed their innocence.<\/p>\n

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