OPINION:
Paul Manafort surrendered to Robert Mueller on Monday.
And all the left-leaning media go: President Donald Trump is going down! Too bad the press couldn’t be as gung-ho when it came to investigating Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and a little thing called Uranium One.
But on conclusions about the Manafort indictments: Let’s hold the phone a little bit on this. The indictments are far away from collusion.
As Rep. Trey Gowdy said early on Fox News, before the specific charges were publicly released: We don’t know who exactly is ultimately going to be charged in this whole investigation. We don’t know what they’re being charged with, specifically. And, oh yes, don’t forget this small matter — disclosing federal grand jury information is a violation of law. How convenient for the anti-Trumpers of the country, yes?
Well, now we know, at least in part.
Shortly after the announcement of Manafort’s surrender, it was revealed that there are a dozen tax-related, money-tied, conspiracy charges that were affixed to both Manafort and his longtime associate, Rick Gates, who was also asked to surrender.
But the unclarity that marked the initial announcement of the indictments was significant — particularly when the media jumped the guns to tie Manafort’s charges to Team Trump.
From The New York Times: “Paul Manafort who once ran Trump campaign told to surrender.”
From the Wall Street Journal: “Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort Charged in Russia Probe.”
But yet, the elephant in the room was, and is, this: Do these charges show Trump colluded with Russia?
Nope. Not at all. As Trump wrote in a quick tweet: “Also, there is NO COLLUSION!”
But that’s not likely to halt a hungry media with full steam aim to impeach Trump.
Manafort, as well as his associate, Gates, no matter their guilt, no matter their innocence, are now gold-tipped tools of the special prosecutors and the left-leaning media — or, as some might say, the anti-Trump special prosecutors and media. Let the feeding frenzy begin. Anything to distract from Hillary Clinton, right?
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