Why Trump Can't Understand the Cases Against Manafort and Cohen

Justice is blind, but she is also often tardy.

This week, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen were each convicted of eight counts in federal court, but the crimes they committed happened some time ago. Manafort has been operating on the fringes of the law for decades, sometimes worrying his business partners. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment cited alleged crimes going back to 2006. Cohen pleaded guilty to evading taxes from 2012 to 2016, as well as to lying to a bank and committing campaign-finance violations that he said Donald Trump directed.

In other words, the behavior for which Manafort and Cohen are now likely to go to prison long predates the Trump presidency. These were not one-time acts, but chronic patterns of behavior. And , they probably would have gotten away with it if not