Last week's bombshells in the Robert Mueller investigation turned out to be nothing of the sort. Paul Manafort's crimes, lying to prosecutors about his contacts with Ukrainian business partners, were unrelated to his work on the Trump campaign. As for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, he admitted to lying about his contact with a a Russian national who reached out to the Trump campaign, but nothing transpired.
"So a Russian wanted to insinuate himself into the Trump orbit but nothing happened," the Wall Street Journal editorial board summarizes. "Why drop this into a sentencing memo?"
They conclude:
"All of this argues for Mr. Mueller to wrap up his probe and let America get on with the political debate over its meaning for Mr. Trump’s Presidency," the Wall Street Journal urges. "Mr. Mueller has been investigating for 19 months, and the FBI’s counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign began in July 2016, if not earlier. The country deserves an account of what Mr. Mueller knows, not more factual dribs and drabs in sentencing memos."
To some Democrats, however, Friday's information dump was earth shattering. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said Michael Cohen's admitting to hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal may even be an "impeachable offense" for the president. Trump rejected that notion on Monday and said the payments were a private matter. (Please forgive the misspelling of "smoking," which earned its own Twitter trend.)
“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun...No Collusion.” @FoxNews That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2018
....which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s - but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2018
By the way, as the WSJ notes, how are Democrats legitimately going to try and impeach Trump for trying to cover up a supposed sex scandal, when their party defended President Bill Clinton during his White House affair? "Good luck trying to impeach Mr. Trump for campaign-finance violations," they write.
Oh, and what does this have to do with Trump's supposedly colluding with Russia?