Paul Manafort Squealed, Now He’s In the Hot Seat

Hey, remember that meeting last year between Don Jr. and the Russian attorney? The one that was set up because the attorney promised some dirt on Hillary Clinton? Sure you do. But how did anyone find out about that, anyway? Bloomberg tells us today that Paul Manafort was the snitch:

Manafort had alerted authorities to a controversial meeting on June 9, 2016, involving Trump’s son Donald Jr., other campaign representatives and a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to people familiar with the matter. The president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were dragged into the matter as details repeatedly emerged that contradicted the initial accounts of that meeting.

Hmmm. Isn’t that interesting? Maybe it explains why Donald Trump’s pals at the National Enquirer have suddenly decided to go after Manafort:

This is the kind of revenge that happens in movies but not in real life. In the Trump Era, however, reality TV is real life.

By the way, it’s worth noting that Trump’s connection to the Enquirer is yet another way for him to talk to his base. DC reporters don’t read the Enquirer, after all, nor do they take it seriously. But Trump’s fans do. Between Twitter, Trump’s rallies, Fox News, Drudge, the Enquirer, and talk radio, Trump supporters are fed a full media spectrum of alternate reality. There’s probably about a quarter of the country that’s literally as out of touch with the real world as any North Korean peasant.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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