So if Trump pardoned Manafort, my bet is that he would be prosecuted for state crimes; from Manafort’s point of view, the essential difference is that he would end up in a state prison rather than a federal prison. It’s said that Jared Kushner was among those advocating to hire Manafort, so the obvious question is: Why? President Trump tweeted this morning that there was “no collusion” and again urged greater focus on the supposed crimes of Hillary Clinton. One peril ahead is that President Trump may engage in riskier or more aggressive behavior vis-à-vis North Korea so that people will rally around the flag. Any firing of Mueller would lead many fair-minded people to assume that Trump is hiding criminal behavior, perhaps treason.

Source: New York Times October 30, 2017 16:41 UTC