A Democratic congressman has predicted Donald Trump’s potential legal troubles could signal the end of his presidency after his longtime former personal lawyer was sentenced to prison time this week.
Denny Heck, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said he believed the “beginning of the end” was near for the Trump administration due to the president’s alleged involvement in violating campaign finance laws to silence women who claim o have had affairs with him. Mr Trump denies the affairs.
“I’m gonna say something tonight I haven’t said before,” the Democrat said in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett. “But in light of what happened today, in light of all of the events of the last few weeks, in light of all the sentencing memos that have been filed now, 36 indictments, three prison terms … I’m prepared to say something I’ve never said.”
“The writing’s on the wall, the walls are closing in and this is the begging of the end for the Trump administration,” he added.
The lawmaker’s comments arrived hours after Michael Cohen — the president’s former lawyer and ex-deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee’s finance committee — was sentenced to three years in federal prison for campaign finance violations and a series of other financial crimes.
In court Wednesday, Cohen said: “Recently the president tweeted a statement calling me weak, and it was correct but for a much different reason than he was implying … It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds." Mr Trump has said that he has done nothing wrong.
When asked whether he believed the latest news meant Mr Trump would ultimately face impeachment, Mr Heck responded: “I don’t know precisely what it means except for what I intend for it to mean is this: that the Mueller investigation is getting closer and closer.”
“Now, they now have the president as an unindicted co-conspirator for breaking campaign finance laws,” he continued. “But we also know that they’re going down two other tracks: they’re going down of course the Russian interference track, which was their core mission. We already know that there was collusion.”
Despite the president’s claims Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is a “witch hunt,” the probe has yielded over 30 criminal indictments.
It remains unclear when the investigation is expected to reach its conclusion, though recent reports have suggested the special counsel is finalising its report.
That could spell disaster for Mr Trump’s presidency, Mr Heck warned, who said Wednesday: “I don’t think that Bob Mueller is going to be deterred here.”
