Two courtroom dramas leave Trump's presidency on a cliffhanger

(CNN)  It was like binge-watching history as two of the President's men went down.

A twisting saga of intertwined legal plots and human drama dripping with hubris, vengeance, betrayal and defiance suddenly combined Tuesday in a frenetic, barely believable burst that left Donald Trump's presidency stained by a tide of crime and corruption.

Michael Cohen, the Trump clan's attack dog, and Paul Manafort, the ultimate Washington swamp creature with the ostrich skin jacket, paid dearly for their association with their former boss in near-simultaneous convictions that will mean years in jail.
Trump's riotous, rule-breaking political career is often compared to the voyeurism of a reality show -- a perfect forum for his spinning of alternative truths and narratives.

But Tuesday's theater -- unfolding in courtrooms about 240 miles apart -- was more like the compelling denouement of a slow-building Netflix drama that came together in frenetic, shocking final moments that made their own statement: Truth and facts still matter in America.

Like all good season finales, this surreal cliffhanger tied up some plots but unleashed deeper, more consequential intrigues to tee up more compelling sequels to come. And that may evolve into existential questions for the Trump presidency itself.

For at the end of an afternoon that rocked Washington to its core, the President himself stood accused, under oath -- by his former lawyer, who once vowed to take a bullet for his boss but has now turned a smoking gun directly at him -- of conspiring in and directing a crime.

 

Last edited by Goose (8/22/2018 6:01 am)