President Donald Trump put on defense as Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen fall in court

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump calls Manafort conviction 'a disgrace' President Donald Trump says the conviction of Paul Manafort on tax and bank fraud charges "has nothing to do with Russian collusion," and he called it "a disgrace." (Aug. 21)

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump suffered back-to-back legal blows Tuesday, a whiplash series of court dramas that threatened to consume his agenda and overshadow his efforts to help the Republican Party in the November midterm elections.

As the president flew to West Virginia for a rally, a federal jury in Virginia found his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, guilty of bank and tax fraud. At almost the same time, longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen acknowledged violating campaign-finance laws and said that he did so at Trump’s direction.

With two former aides to the president facing jail time, observers said the outcome of the separate, high-profile prosecutions on Tuesday could represent a turning point in Trump’s presidency in which the months-long investigations into his former dealings begin to leave a mark.

"The walls appear to be closing in," said Matt Mackowiak, a Texas-based Republican political consultant.

But Mackowiak noted that Trump has been able to glide through difficult news cycles many times before.

"His legal team will argue that he was protecting his family, and he would have done it in the middle of a campaign or if there was no campaign," he said.

As the legal developments unfolded on what was arguably the most perilous day of his presidency, Trump boarded Air Force One for the trip to Charleston, West Virginia, part of an all-out political strategy to keep the House and Senate in Republican hands in the midterm elections this year.

The stakes for Trump are now legal as well as political: A Democratic-led House could start impeachment proceedings, which could lead to a trial in the Senate.

More: Michael Cohen said he paid hush money at 'direction' of Trump

More: Paul Manafort trial: Jury finds former Trump campaign manager guilty on 8 counts in tax fraud case

It was not immediately clear if the outcome of either case had legal ramifications for the president, who has repeatedly dismissed both efforts. The Manafort convictions stemmed from his prior business dealings in Ukraine, not his work on Trump's campaign.

But the conclusion of the two sagas involving men close to Trump nevertheless put the White House on defense politically.

“It’s obviously not a happy day for the president,” said Renato Mariotti, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. “When you direct someone to commit a crime, you are responsible for the underlying crime. Period.”

If Trump was concerned about widening impact from the downfall of his former aides, he showed little sign of it Tuesday. After landing in Charleston for the rally, the president said the Manafort verdict didn’t have anything to do with him.

“Paul Manafort is a good man,” Trump said. “It doesn’t involve me, but it’s a very sad thing.”

Trump, speaking to reporters on the tarmac, declined to answer questions about Cohen.

Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, said there were no allegations of wrongdoing against the president in the Cohen case.

“It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time,” Giuliani said.

Discrediting special counsel Mueller’s investigation as “rigged,” Trump has managed to parry several difficult news cycles during his presidency, maintaining a high approval among Republicans even as Democrats have blasted the president.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his dealings with Russian agents. Deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates took a plea deal in February in exchange for testifying against Manafort.

Robert Strong, a politics professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, said presidents tend to rise above major scandals. The obvious exception was President Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 after fellow Republicans turned on him.

"When is the breaking point for the current Republican political establishment – when will the evidence be so clear, so overwhelming?" Strong said. "I'm not sure that’s today."

Cohen’s guilty plea could expose the president to extraordinary legal jeopardy, implicating him in a plot to pay hush money to a porn actress to buy her silence on the eve of the 2016 presidential election in violation of campaign-finance laws.

The plea was the latest consequence of a stunning break between Trump and his one-time fixer, who once said he would “take a bullet” for the president. The bitter split burst into view last month when Cohen revealed he taped a conversation with then-candidate Trump discussing the payment.

While Trump continues to criticize the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt,” the president's fate will be determined by how the inquiry proceeds – and that will depend on decisions by Manafort and Cohen. Cohen's guilty plea on charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign-finance violations did not include a cooperation agreement with prosecutors.

Aside from the potential legal effects, Republican operatives noted the outcome means the White House will be forced to continue to respond to the probes rather than discussing an agenda or trying to address the headwinds the GOP already faces as the November midterm approaches.

Several Republican consultants acknowledged that the news Tuesday was not good for Trump, they but said it was too early to say how it may affect voters.

Liz Mair, a Republican strategist, said "the good news" is that Trump is accused of a campaign-finance violation, and "voters don’t understand campaign-finance law nearly as well as they understand, say, burglary or murder or tax fraud, and they are inclined to trust Trump more than a lot of other people."

Those are just the Republicans, however.

"I imagine this further damages Trump and Republicans with swing voters, independents and, of course, Democrats," Mair said.

Democrats, including Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, were quick to argue that the turn of events Tuesday underscored the importance of Mueller’s work.

“This verdict makes it absolutely clear that the Mueller probe is not a ‘witch hunt,’” he said.