 | | | Politics | | In the most dramatic day yet in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, federal prosecutors secured the conviction of Trump’s former campaign manager and a plea agreement from the president’s longtime attorney. | | | | Paul Manafort’s $15,000 ostrich skin jacket and other evidence of the former Trump campaign chairman’s conspicuous consumption grabbed the headlines during his tax and bank fraud trial. But it was the detailed and methodical testimony of an FBI forensic accountant who traced Manafort’s money that may have sealed his fate. | | | | | Commentary | | The messy meaning of the Manafort and Cohen cases. The mixed verdict in the trial of Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, along with the guilty plea on campaign finance violations by the U.S. president’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, point to a broader destabilization in U.S. politics, writes Reuters global affairs columnist Peter Apps. Trump is “getting better at manipulating Washington’s levers of power,” and as he relies on whipping up his electoral base ahead of the November midterms, “he’s increasingly likely to turn the latest legal developments to his advantage.”
| | | | The right way to sanction Putin’s Russia. This week the United States unveiled new sanctions against Russia, and is expected to impose even more in the future. But as Washington weighs its options, it should bear in mind that sanctions are most effective if they offer an incentive to good behavior – without isolating Russia from the rest of the world, writes William Courtney. | | | | | |
