A dark cloud of criminality now hangs over the Trump White House, with the president odiously praising former campaign manager Paul Manafort for refusing to "break" _ read that as "snitch" _ while laying into his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen for telling the truth.
Meantime, Trump digs himself deeper into a ditch of obfuscation: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wednesday denied the boss had done anything wrong, even as Trump told Fox News that payments to Stormy Daniels, which in April he denied knowing about entirely _ and which Cohen copped to as illegal campaign spending _ "came from me."
Governments in Albany and Washington must scramble to adjust to the new reality that a president who is increasingly cornered will flail in ever more furious fashion.
First task: Pass state legislation to allow law enforcement here to pursue state crimes even in the event of a federal pardon, which is exactly what Trump is dangling for Manafort as he approaches a second trial and sentencing.
In most states, that authority would be unquestioned. New York, where Manafort and Trump and Cohen all have done most of their business, happens to have a restrictive double-jeopardy statute. Fix it.
Congress must step up, too. A day before the Manafort convictions, Trump was calling Special Counsel Bob Mueller "disgraced," his investigators "thugs" and the probe, of course, a "witch hunt."
Pass a bill to protect Mueller. Let Trump veto it _ and, for the umpteenth time, reveal his true colors.
