The United States calls El Salvador’s decision to ditch diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of China a “grave concern.” Washington warned that China’s economic inducements could come at a high price for its new friends. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
…

The prospect of a quick deal between Mexico and the United States retreated Friday as disagreements over energy flared up and conflict over autos persisted in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Since talks resumed last month, U.S. and Mexican negotiators have focused on reaching common ground, but in the past few days differing views on energy policy between the outgoing and incoming Mexican administrations have put up a fresh hurdle.

Oil and gas issues

Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s camp has doubts about enshrining the 2013-14 opening of the oil and gas sector enacted by current president Enrique Pena Nieto in the new pact, three sources close to the talks said.

“The energy issue is holding everything up,” said one of them Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Asked this week about the energy issue, Lopez Obrador’s designated trade negotiator, Jesus Seade, sought to downplay the matter, saying that while his team wanted to check the issue’s “consistency with the constitution,” it was not “substantive.”

Lopez Obrador, a leftist, opposed Pena Nieto’s energy reform, and the issue is divisive within his own camp.

Business-friendly aides back greater private investment in the oil and gas sector, while more nationalist allies are against it.

Elected July 1, Lopez Obrador takes office Dec. 1. Another sticking point at the talks has been new rules of origin for automobile manufacturing, which U.S. negotiators hope will bring more production to the region.

US budges little

U.S. President Donald Trump prompted the NAFTA revamp over a year ago, complaining the 24-year-old trade pact has benefited Mexico to the detriment of U.S. workers and manufacturing.

Trump has threatened to withdraw from if it is not reworked to the advantage of the United States.

Industry officials have said the U.S. team had barely moved from its demands last May of a 75 percent overall regional content threshold with 40-45 percent content from high-wage zones, effectively the United States and Canada, with the only substantial change a slightly longer phase-in time.

“It seems that the issues on autos are far from being resolved,” said the industry source.

Initial optimism over an imminent deal has gradually faded.

Mexico negotiators stay over

Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, who Wednesday said a bilateral breakthrough could be just hours away, said he and his team would stay in Washington over the weekend to keep negotiating with U.S. officials.

Asked about issues between the ingoing and outgoing governments on the energy chapter, Guajardo said: “We are working as one team, a team called Mexico, and we have to make sure that everybody feels comfortable with this agreement.”

Speaking outside the offices of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Guajardo commented on the difficulty of securing a final deal: “as you know … there are always last moment things that can come between you and your goals.”

Canada waiting 

Canada has sat out the latest round of talks waiting for the Mexican and U.S. teams to work out their issues.

Asked if talks had made headway on a U.S. “sunset” proposal that could terminate NAFTA after five years, Guajardo said it was an issue that would be dealt with once Canada came back.

Canada’s foreign minister Chrystia Freeland dodged questions on when she would return to talks when speaking at a steel manufacturing facility in Vancouver, but said she had been encouraged by optimistic reports from Canada’s NAFTA partners.

“As I’ve said, it really depends on how quickly the U.S. and Mexico are able to resolve those bilateral issues,” she said. “The U.S. and Mexico issues inside NAFTA are really complicated.”
…

The top U.S. envoy on Iran criticized a European Union decision to give $20.7 million in aid to Tehran on Friday, saying it sent “the wrong message at the wrong time,” and he urged Brussels to help Washington end the Iranian threat to global stability.

“Foreign aid from European taxpayers perpetuates the regime’s ability to neglect the needs of its people and stifles meaningful policy changes,” Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, said in a statement.

“The Iranian people face very real economic pressures caused by their government’s corruption, mismanagement, and deep investment in terrorism and foreign conflicts,” he added. “The United States and the European Union should be working together instead to find lasting solutions that truly support Iran’s people and end the regime’s threats to regional and global stability.”

The EU decision on Thursday to provide 18 million euros ($20.7 million) in aid to Iran was aimed at offsetting the impact of U.S. sanctions as European countries try to salvage the 2015 agreement that saw Tehran limit its nuclear ambitions.

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal in May and is reimposing sanctions on Tehran, even as other parties to the accord are trying to find ways to save the agreement.

The EU funding is part of a wider package of 50 million euros earmarked in the EU budget for Iran, which has threatened to stop complying with the nuclear accord if it fails to see the economic benefit of relief from sanctions.

The United States is pressing other countries to comply with its sanctions.

“More money in the hands of the ayatollah means more money to conduct assassinations in those very European countries,” Hook said in his statement.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told Reuters during a visit to Israel earlier this week that the return of U.S. sanctions was having a strong effect on Iran’s economy and popular opinion.

The U.S. sanctions dusted off this month targeted Iran’s car industry, trade in gold and other precious metals, and purchases of U.S. dollars crucial to international financing and investment and trade relations. Farther-reaching sanctions are to follow in November on Iran’s banking sector and oil exports.
…

President Donald Trump escalated his long-running feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions Friday, calling on him to probe a litany of recurring complaints against those investigating his administration and Democrats.

Responding to Sessions’ declaration that he would not be influenced by politics, Trump tweeted that Sessions must “look into all of the corruption on the “other side,”” later adding:  “Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!”

The president’s pushback marked the second day of highly public smack down between Trump and his beleaguered attorney general.

Earlier this week, Trump, concerned by the legal downfall of two former advisers, accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department. Sessions punched back Thursday, saying that he and his department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

Trump’s anger with Sessions boiled over in an interview with Fox News in which the president also expressed frustration with the plea agreement his onetime legal “fixer” Michael Cohen cut with prosecutors, including implicating Trump in a crime that Cohen admitted. Trump said it might be better if “flipping” — cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for more favorable treatment— were illegal because people cooperating with the government “just make up lies” to get favorable treatment.

On Twitter Friday, Trump also complained about the five-year sentence given to a former government contractor convicted of mailing a classified U.S. report to a news organization.

Trump said “this is “small potatoes” compared to what Hillary Clinton did.” Prosecutors are calling that sentence handed down to 26-year-old Reality Winner the longest sentence imposed for a federal crime involving leaks to the media.

In the wide-ranging Fox interview, Trump also defended himself against talk of impeachment — “the market would crash … everybody would be very poor” — tried to distance himself from Cohen — “I would see him sometimes” — and said anew that he hadn’t known in advance about Cohen’s hush money payments to silence women alleging sexual relationships with the celebrity businessman.

Trump’s latest shots against law enforcement came as he appeared increasingly vulnerable to long-running investigations after this week’s one-two punch of Cohen’s plea deal and the conviction of Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort.

Trump has spent more than a year publicly and privately venting over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the federal Russia-collusion investigation because he’d worked on Trump’s campaign. Trump, who blames that decision for the eventual appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, told “Fox and Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt that Sessions “never took control of the Justice Department and it’s a sort of an incredible thing.”

“What kind of man is this?” Trump said.

“You know the only reason I gave him the job? Because I felt loyalty, he was an original supporter,” Trump said of Sessions, an Alabama Republican who was the first senator to endorse Trump’s bid.

Sessions has made clear to associates that he has no intention of leaving his job voluntarily despite Trump’s constant criticism. But his tone in his statement on Thursday made clear he is tired of the president’s attacks.

“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the President’s agenda.” Then he declared, that while he’s attorney general the actions of the department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action.”

In New York, meanwhile, it was reported that federal prosecutors have granted immunity to David Pecker, the publisher of National Enquirer, which bought and killed the stories of two women. And people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that the publication kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Trump leading up to 2016 election.

Allies, including Republican members of Congress have long advised Trump that firing Sessions — especially before the upcoming midterm elections — would be deeply damaging to the party.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who in March said firing Sessions would “blow up” the Judiciary Committee, has been shifting his tone.

“I think there will come a time, sooner rather than later, where it will be time to have a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice,” he told reporters on Thursday. “Clearly, Attorney General Jeff Sessions doesn’t have the confidence of the president.”

Others stood by Sessions.

Republican Ben Sasse of Nebraska told Senate colleagues, “Everybody in this body knows that Jeff Sessions is doing his job honorably, and the attorney general of the United States should not be fired for acting honorably and for being faithful to the rule of law.” He said it would be really difficult to confirm a successor “if he is fired because he is executing his job rather that choosing to act as a partisan hack.”

People close to the president said they were not aware of any immediate plans to dismiss Sessions, at least before the November congressional elections.

Cohen’s claims that Trump orchestrated a campaign cover-up to buy the silence of two women who claimed he had affairs with them has shaken the White House and the president, who has expressed worry and frustration behind closed doors that a man intimately familiar with his political, personal and business dealings for more than a decade had turned on him.

His anger was palpable overnight as he bellowed to the world in an all-caps tweet at 1:10 a.m.: “NO COLLUSION – RIGGED WITCH HUNT!”

In his interview with “Fox & Friends,” which was taped at the White House on Wednesday and aired Thursday, Trump railed against Cohen for “flipping.” That arrangement “almost ought to be outlawed. It’s not fair,” Trump said, adding that it creates an incentive to “say bad things about somebody … just make up lies.”

That drew immediate rebukes from the legal community.

Neal Katyal, Supreme Court lawyer and former acting solicitor general, compared Trump’s comments in a tweet to “what one expects from a mobster, not the President of the United States.” He later said it was outrageous that Trump had “decided to condemn the entire practice of flipping nationwide, which is essential to law enforcement operations.”

 
…

The U.S. State Department says that U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have discussed South Africa’s land reform. A spokesperson said Thursday that the president asked Pompeo to investigate reports that the South African government is expropriating land owned by white farmers without compensation. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Pretoria has reacted angrily to Trump’s tweet citing “large scale killing of farmers.”
…

Mired in financial woes, Michael Cohen is sticking his hand out and asking the public for help paying for his legal defense, and one anonymous donor already has ponied up $50,000.

Through his lawyer, Donald Trump’s former “fixer” says collecting contributions through a GoFundMe page set up after his guilty plea this week is the only way to ensure the truth comes out about the president.

It’s also the latest sign that Cohen is broke.

Trump’s former personal lawyer owes at least $1.4 million to the IRS after pleading guilty Tuesday to tax evasion, campaign finance violations and bank fraud, and has racked up millions of dollars in debt. Because of his plea, he’s being forced to give up his New York City taxi medallions, which have shrunk in value as Uber and Lyft shake up the industry.

“He’s without resources and owes a lot of money,” Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, said in a battery of television interviews on Wednesday.

Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, commented in court on Tuesday that Trump directed him to arrange payments of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels and $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to buy their silence about alleged affairs before the election.

While Trump denies the affairs, his account of his knowledge of the payments has shifted. In April, Trump denied he knew anything about the Daniels payment. He told Fox News in an interview aired Thursday that he knew about payments “later on.”

By Thursday afternoon, the GoFundMe page dubbed the “Michael Cohen Truth Fund” had raised more than $145,000 from about 2,600 donations. Most reaction on social media was incredulous and unsympathetic, but one $5 donor was encouraging, writing: “The USA would love you for your honesty.”

Confusion over the web address for the fundraising page, michaelcohentruthfund.com, led someone on Wednesday to anonymously register a shorter version, michaelcohentruth.com, that redirects to Trump’s re-election campaign website.

Cohen’s crowdfunding campaign, which has a goal of raising $500,000, could be a way for Cohen to bolster his whistleblower status by appealing to Democrats and others who want to see Trump taken down.

It’s not the first time someone who felt wronged by Trump has asked the public to pony up. Fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe raked in more than $500,000 in just five days of his legal defense campaign, and Daniels funded her lawsuit against the president with about $500,000 raised from nearly 17,000 donors.

​Loans, debt

Cohen could ultimately need much more to wipe his books clean.

Court papers filed in connection with Cohen’s guilty plea detailed his precarious financial state, as well as his side gigs as a taxicab magnate, high-interest lender, and broker of real estate and handbag deals.

In one arrangement, according to the papers, Cohen used a line of credit he obtained at 5 percent interest to float a $6 million loan to a Chicago taxi operator at 12 percent interest.

Later, when applying for the $500,000 home equity credit line used to finance the Daniels payment, the papers say Cohen failed to disclose $14 million in medallion-related debt. Cohen and his wife claimed on the loan paperwork that they had a positive net worth of more than $40 million.

In April, transaction records show, Cohen put up his multimillion-dollar Trump Park Avenue home — valued at $9 million — as collateral on some of his taxi-related loans.

The value of medallions, the physical plates affixed to cabs that owners are required to display, have dropped precipitously in recent years from highs of over $1 million apiece in New York just a few years ago to nearly a quarter of that amount today.

Cohen has been involved in the gritty New York City yellow cab industry since the 1990s. He’s owned about 30 medallions with his wife and father-in-law, as well as a fleet of 22 cabs in Chicago, records show. Some of them are held through companies with names such as Love Bug Cab Corp. and Tailgater Cab Corp.

In addition to his Trump and taxi work, the court papers say Cohen made $100,000 in 2014 for brokering the sale of a piece of property in a Florida aviation community and $30,000 in 2015 for brokering the sale of a Birkin bag, a highly coveted French handbag.

Davis, who is listed as the creator of Cohen’s fundraising page, told The Associated Press last month that Cohen was footing the bill for his defense after pivoting from loyalty to Trump to looking out for himself, but was “thinking of trying to get some help.”

Ethical issues

A description on the GoFundMe page describes it as a “transparent trust account, with all donations going to help Michael Cohen and his family” as he goes forward with telling the truth about Trump.

Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson said crowdfunding campaigns raise ethical concerns because they allow people to contribute to a political cause similarly to a campaign contribution, but without the same transparency and regulation.

“Who does the lawyer and client feel grateful to?” Levinson said. “Right now, there is no clear way of finding out.”

GoFundMe no longer allows fundraisers to download a list of donor’s information such as email addresses, citing new data protection regulations. Fundraisers can communicate with donors through the GoFundMe site. And although there is an option to make donations appear anonymously on the public-facing part of the website, it appears that the fundraiser can still view the name of these donors.

GoFundMe did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The money also could add to Cohen’s already sizeable tax bill.

Robert Rizzi, a lawyer specializing in tax and government ethics, said the law is unclear whether Cohen would have to pay taxes on the fundraising proceeds. Taxes would apply if the money counts as income, but not if it’s a gift — but gifts must be given “out of detached and disinterested generosity,” Rizzi said.

“There would be an irony in being taxed on money he raised to defend himself for tax evasion,” Rizzi said.
…

President Donald Trump drew a sharp rebuttal from his attorney general on Thursday after he gave a scathing assessment of Jeff Sessions as being unable to take control of the Justice Department.

Trump intensified his criticism of the Justice Department in a Fox News interview broadcast on Thursday as the White House grappled to respond to the conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on multiple fraud counts and a plea deal struck by Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen that implicated the president.

He reprised a litany of complaints about the Justice Department and the FBI, attacking both without providing evidence they had treated him and his supporters unfairly.

Trump also renewed his criticism of Sessions, blaming him for what he called corruption at Justice.

“I put in an attorney general who never took control of the Justice Department,” Trump said.

Sessions, in a rare rebuttal to Trump, issued a statement defending the integrity of his department.

“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in,” he said. “… While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

Sessions, a longtime U.S. senator and early supporter of Trump’s presidential bid, drew Trump’s ire when he recused himself in March 2017 from issues involving the 2016 White House race.

That removed him from oversight of the federal special counsel’s investigation of Russia’s role in the election and whether Trump’s campaign worked with Moscow to influence the vote. Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a witch hunt.

“Jeff Sessions recused himself, which he shouldn’t have done,” Trump said. “He took the job and then he said, ‘I’m going to recuse myself.’ I said, ‘What kind of a man is this?'” However, Trump told “Fox & Friends” he would not interfere in department matters.

“I will stay uninvolved and maybe that’s the best thing to do,” he said in the interview.

At the U.S. Capitol, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is both close to Trump and a defender of Sessions, said he believed Trump would appoint a new attorney general but should wait until after November congressional elections.

“The idea of having a new attorney general in the first term of President Trump’s administration I think is very likely, Graham said.

‘Every lobbyist in Washington does it’

Trump told Fox he respected Manafort for work he had done for prominent Republican politicians, adding that “some of the charges they threw against him, every consultant, every lobbyist in Washington probably does.”

The Fox News reporter who interviewed Trump said on Wednesday Trump told her he would consider pardoning Manafort. But in the interview that aired Thursday, Trump never said he was considering the pardon.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the campaign as part of an effort to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. The Kremlin has denied the allegations and Trump has denied any collusion.

Trump said Manafort and Cohen were charged with matters totally unrelated to his presidential campaign, although Cohen told a federal court in New York that Trump had directed him to arrange payments before the 2016 election to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump.

Asked if he directed Cohen to make the payments, Trump said only that Cohen made both deals. He attacked Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, for agreeing to a plea deal with prosecutors that made Trump look bad. “It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal,” he said.

Trump was asked whether he thought Democrats would move to impeach him if they won control of the House of Representatives in November. “I don’t know how you would impeach somebody who’s done a great job,” he said. “If I got impeached, I think the market would crash.”
…

U.S. federal prosecutors have reportedly granted immunity to the owner of a tabloid that is a central focus of the investigation into President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen. 

The CEO of the company that owns the National Enquirer, David Pecker, met with prosecutors to describe his involvement with Cohen, Trump, and the hush money that was paid to two women before the 2016 presidential election, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.

As a result of the information provided at the meeting, Pecker was granted immunity and will not be criminally charged, the Journal said.

Cohen reached a plea agreement with prosecutors earlier this week after detailing the tabloid’s role in payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to remain silent about alleged affairs with Trump.

Court papers showed how Pecker offered to help Trump prevent the publication of negative stories about Trump during the campaign.  The documents said Pecker “offered to help deal with negative stories about (Trump’s) relationships with women … by identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.”

Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight criminal charges, including campaign-finance violations that are linked to the payments.

Pecker, who owns the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., is a long-time friend of Cohen’s.  

The Wall Street Journal report said at Cohen’s urging the Enquirer started promoting a potential Trump presidential candidacy in 2010 and referred readers to a Trump-friendly website that Cohen helped develop.  Former staffers said the tabloid began questioning President Barack Obama’s birthplace and his U.S. citizenship, a campaign Trump promoted for several years.

The Enquirer endorsed Trump for president in 2016, the first time it had officially supported a candidate. 

There was no immediate comment from the White House.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump is speaking publicly about the possibility of his impeachment.

“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash,” Trump remarked in a television interview from the White House that aired Thursday morning on the Fox News Channel.

“I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse,” Trump said pointing to his head.

The president then questioned how he could be impeached when has “done a great job.”

Impeachment talk has increased over the past two days after Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted of eight counts of fraud by a federal court jury in Virginia.

The president’s long-time attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, entered a plea in federal court in New York, admitting he paid hush money during the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign to two women who had affairs with Trump and that he did so at the candidate’s direction.

Trump, on Twitter and in the taped television interview, has accused Cohen of saying things that are not true in order to gain favorable treatment from prosecutors.

“For 30, 40 years I’ve been watching flippers,” the president said in the interview. “Everything’s wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go.”

Some political pundits suggest Cohen’s admission to campaign finance violations and implicating the president could be grounds for impeachment, but others are expressing skepticism.

What is certain is that interest in the topic increased tremendously following Tuesday’s dramatic courtroom developments. Queries to the top global search engine, Google, that included the word “impeachment” spiked.

But there is almost no chance at present that lawmakers will pursue impeachment because both houses of Congress are in the hands of Trump’s Republican party, which with few exceptions remains loyal to the president.

If the opposition Democrats are able to gain control of the House of Representatives in the November mid-term election, though, they would be in a position to initiate such proceedings against Trump.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday impeachment is the only message congressional Democrats “seem to have going into the midterms.”

Democratic party leaders seem to be cautious, however, about embracing impeachment as a campaign rallying theme.

“If there’s evidence that the president should be impeached, let that emerge,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

“I think Republicans would like us to run with the subject of impeachment,” added Pelosi, speaking to reporters in San Francisco. “Let me say this about impeachment: you can’t be political about it. You can’t be political in doing it. And you can’t be political in not doing it. We have to seek the truth.”

Some party strategists express caution that too much talk on the campaign trail ahead of this November’s election could alienate independent voters and rally Trump’s base.

Midterms generally swing in favor of the party out of power and usually generate lower voter turnout than for presidential elections.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday criticized the integrity and legal skills of his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, saying on Twitter that anyone looking for a good lawyer should not retain the services of Cohen. Trump was making his first public statements about his former personal attorney, who a day earlier implicated Trump in a campaign cover-up and faces four to five years in prison when sentenced in December. 

Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to campaign finance law violations as well as bank and tax fraud. Cohen’s pleas came after he testified that Trump directed him to commit a crime by paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign to influence the 2016 election. Both women said they had affairs with Trump before the election. Trump denies involvement.

At about the same time Cohen pleaded guilty, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of eight of 18 bank and tax fraud charges. The charges against Manafort were brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the election and potential obstruction of justice.

The charges against Manafort were unrelated to the core of Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to subvert the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Trump’s favor.

Manafort’s conviction, however, vindicates Mueller’s work as investigators continue to explore potential violations by Trump and those associated with him. Mueller also submitted evidence in the Cohen case to federal prosecutors in New York. 

Trump questioned the integrity of the Manafort case, noting a verdict “could not even be decided” on the 10 remaining charges against his former campaign chief, and again called the Mueller probe a “Witch Hunt!”

Eric Holder, the attorney general under President Barack Obama’s administration, said on Twitter, “In spite of spurious, unjustified and unprecedented attacks, people in federal law enforcement did their jobs and, as usual, did them well. Guilty plea. Guilty verdict. Criminal acts. This is not a witch hunt.”

Despite the widening criminal investigation that raises questions about Trump’s own legal jeopardy and threatens to hurt his Republican Party’s chances in the November mid-term elections, there were no immediate calls for Trump’s impeachment and Republican lawmakers have remained mostly silent.

Democrats, however, quickly reacted to the Cohen and Manafort cases, maintaining they strengthened their belief the Trump White House is beset by scandal.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a frequent Trump critic and possible presidential contender in 2020, called for legislation to protect Mueller instead of pursuing impeachment proceedings.

“I think that what Congress needs to do right now is we need to make sure that special prosecutor Mueller is fully protected from being fired by Donald Trump,” Warren said during a CNN interview.

The cases have prompted Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to call on Republicans to delay Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, describing the developments as “a game changer.” 

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said Cohen’s “admitted crimes helped Donald Trump win the election. And going forward, if the president were to pardon Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort, I think that would constitute a significant attack on the rule of law in America.” 

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi issued a statement denouncing Trump, but did not call for impeachmentment, saying it is “not a priority” and that Democrats should instead focus on the president’s actions and allow Mueller to complete his investigation.

The senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, is urging committee chairman Bob Goodlatte to hold immediate hearings on Trump’s repeated attacks on the Justice Department and the FBI. Nadler said Cohen’s guilty plea means “the president of the United States is now directly implicated in a criminal conspiracy.”

Democratic Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro said, “The American people deserve answers regarding the President’s role in these corrupt and criminal actions.”

Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani defended his client, saying, “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen. 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.”

Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis said in a series of television interviews Tuesday Cohen has information “that would be of interest” to Mueller. Davis said on MSNBC Cohen has details on the  “computer crime of hacking” and “whether or not Mr. Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on.”

Davis added that Mueller “will have a great deal of interest in what Michael has to say.”

Five Trump associates have either pleaded guilty or been charged with crimes since Trump assumed the presidency, including his former national security adviser, his deputy campaign chairman and an ex-campaign policy adviser.

Trump’s loyalists reiterated the White House’s position that a sitting president cannot be indicted, citing a Justice Department legal opinion that was issued in 2000. Trump’s attorneys have said Mueller would comply with the ruling, but Mueller’s office has not independently confirmed it.

The long-term impact of the cases will likely depend on how they affect voter turnout in November. A string of Democratic victories would limit Trump’s ability to achieve legislative victories and increase the risk of calls for his impeachment.

Some analysts, like Andy Smith of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, believe Trump may be able to capitalize on Tuesday’s political setbacks by convincing his core supporters he is under siege. 

“In mid-term elections, the president’s party tends to be less interested and less motivated to vote. But one thing that will motivate people to get out and vote is if they believe the party is being attacked unfairly,” said Smith.

The cases are unlikely to erode support from Trump’s political base or the Republican establishment, according to Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

“I don’t think there’s any change at all,” he said. “That’s the amazing part of it. The Trump base and virtually the entire Republican Party could care less. The polls will bear me out.”

Josh McGrew traveled more than 85 kilometers (50 miles) from Huntington, West Virginia to support Trump at a campaign rally Tuesday night in Charleston, just hours after Cohen’s guilty pleas and Manafort’s convictions. He labeled the investigations a smear campaign and said his support for Trump remained as strong as ever.
…

President Donald Trump has repeatedly used immigration as a means of rallying voters, both during his campaign and his presidency and is returning to it as a wedge issue for the November elections.

At a rally Tuesday in West Virginia, shortly after news broke that his former campaign manager Paul Manafort was found guilty of financial fraud, and his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, the president railed against illegal immigration by citing the murder of an Iowa college student, allegedly by an undocumented immigrant.

“You heard about today, with the illegal alien coming in very sadly from Mexico, and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman,” Trump said. “It should have never happened. Illegally in our country — we’ve had a huge impact, but the laws are so bad. The immigration laws are such a disgrace.”

Trump was referring to the case of Mollie Tibbetts, 18, who had been missing since July 18 when she went for a jog in Brooklyn, in the midwest U.S. state of Iowa, setting off a massive search. Her body was found early Tuesday when Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, led authorities to a cornfield not far from Brooklyn. Soon after he was charged with murder.

Authorities said Rivera is an undocumented immigrant who had been in the area for at least four years, during which time he worked at a nearby dairy farm.Yarrabee Farms said in a statement Tuesday that Rivera had been an employee in good standing.

Rivera’s Facebook page describes him as being from Guayabillo, a community of less than 500 people in the Mexican state of Guerrero.

Iowa’s governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican, also spoke out about immigration policies in a Tuesday statement.

“As Iowans,” she said, “we are heartbroken, and we are angry.We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can bring justice to Mollie’s killer.”

Iowa senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, both Republicans, echoed Reynolds in a joint statement. But Congressman Steve King who represents Brooklyn in the House of Representatives confined himself to sympathy for Tibbetts and her family.

Republican King is normally an outspoken conservative voice for immigration reform.

In a statement posted on Facebook Tibbett’s aunt, Jo Calderwood, called for inclusiveness.

“Please remember EVIL comes in every color,” she saidO “Our family has been blessed to be surrounded by love, friendship and support throughout this entire by friends from all different nations and races.From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”

Sarah Root

Iowa has been the focus of the immigration debate before, in April, 2016 when Sarah Root, 21, was killed by a drunk driver who was in the country illegally in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Root became a political rallying point.

“One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders,” Trump called her during his 2016 campaign.

The American Immigration Council, a lobbying group founded by immigration lawyers, states on its website several studies have shown immigrants are less likely to be arrested for violent crimes than native-born Americans

“For more than a century, innumerable studies have confirmed two simple yet powerful truths about the relationship between immigration and crime: immigrants are less likely to commit serious crimes or be behind bars than the native-born, and high rates of immigration are associated with lower rates of violent crime and property crime.”

But the studies have not prevented the conservative media from prominently reporting a story like Tibbett’s. The choice has sparked mixed reactions on Twitter:
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Washington may be buzzing about presumed double legal blows to President Donald Trump, with the Paul Manafort verdict and Michael Cohen’s guilty plea, but little of it appeared to matter to his supporters in West Virginia.

Trump’s backers dismissed the developments as more proof that his critics are determined to stop him from keeping his campaign promises.

The president spoke Tuesday night at a campaign-style rally in Charleston, hours after Manafort, his former campaign chairman, was found guilty of eight financial crimes, and his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including two counts of violating federal campaign finance law.

During his rally remarks, Trump returned to several of his favorite themes — calling the media “fake news,” and calling special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election a “witch hunt.” But he did not specifically mention Manafort or Cohen.

Trump supporters dismissed the legal developments and focused on his economic track record.

Kevin Abbott, a coal miner from Gilbert, West Virginia, who lost his job during the Obama administration and gained it back after Trump was elected, lamented what he sees as obstructionist behavior from the president’s critics.

“If people quit road-blocking him, I think he can do amazing things. He has already done so much,” he said. Abbott’s wife Michelle agreed, adding that their lives have “changed tremendously under Trump.”

Reaction from women

The latest polls show that nationally, Trump’s popularity among women has fallen to some of its lowest levels since he took office.

The most recent Gallup polling shows just 35 percent of women approve of the president’s performance, compared with 49 percent of men.

Women at the rally who spoke to VOA said they were unconcerned about Cohen’s admission that Trump directed him to pay two women during the 2016 campaign to keep them from speaking publicly about their affairs with Trump.

“I really don’t think the American people are worried about that,” said Patti Beavers from Mingo County, West Virginia, who was wearing a pink “Trump 2020” hat. She said what matters to her is what Trump can do “for the economy and for America,” and that “he’s keeping his promises, just like he said.”

Beavers said it wasn’t for her to make a moral opinion on Trump. “We all have to be judged in God’s eyes,” she said.

Bonnie Dorman drove five hours from Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, to see the president speak. She applauded Melania Trump, whom she considers a “beautiful, powerful woman” who is “standing by the president’s side every day.”

Dorman said she empathized with women who have been cheated on, and respected the first lady’s decision to “forgive him and put God in her life.”

Shawnery Patrick from Wharncliffe, West Virginia, said everyone has skeletons in their past, but she doesn’t care what Trump did before he became president, only what he has done since.

“That’s what counts to me,” she said. “I feel that he’s done nothing but good.”

White working-class women voted for Trump in huge numbers in the 2016 election, and he may need to count on their support again in the November midterms. They could be the key to whether Republicans — particularly in areas that supported Trump in 2016 — can hold on to their seats.
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