The media are in a frenzy louder than feeding time at the zoo over the guilty pleas by Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, and Michael Cohen, Trump's (former) personal lawyer.  Manafort's plea was unrelated to Trump.  Cohen pleaded to tax evasion (also unrelated to Trump), but also two counts of working with Trump to violate campaign finance laws. As an attorney, I can tell you, pretty definitively, that Trump has violated no campaign laws. Cohen's plea deal states that Cohen violated campaign finance laws by making payments to one of Trump's alleged mistresses, "Stormy Daniels," and made payments to the National Enquirer to compensate the Enquirer for paying off another of Trump's alleged mistresses.  Cohen, in turn, was reimbursed by Trump for these expenses, so Trump was the ultimate source of the money for these payments. Michael Cohen (photo credit: Iowapolitics.com via Flickr). The...(Read Full Post)