New York Prosecutors Are Coming for Trump’s Associates
The state indictment of Paul Manafort — right after his federal sentencing — signals
trouble for the president.
The indictment of Paul Manafort by New York state prosecutors on Wednesday is a shot across the bow of the presidency — a warning and possible harbinger of future prosecutions of Donald Trump’s associates, children and even the man himself by the state.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. strongly implied
the purpose of the prosecution: It was undertaken to ensure that Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, would serve prison time even if the president were to pardon him of the federal charges to which he has now been convicted. “No one is beyond the law in New York,” Vance said
in a news release announcing the indictment.
The timing was directly coordinated with Manafort’s
second federal sentencing, in which a judge in Washington increased his prison time to seven-and-a-half years. That’s another indication that Vance wants to use the power of New York State to address a matter that has already been addressed by federal prosecutors.
Until now, there’s been lots of speculation about whether state officials would use criminal law to go where federal charges and investigations might not go, or where they might be thwarted.
The Manafort state indictment moves us from the realm of speculation to the realm of concrete reality. New York’s assault on the Trump presidency is underway.
Under ordinary circumstances, the prosecution of Manafort for, essentially, lying on his
mortgage application, would be highly unusual.
