Okay. Let's talk about a few reasons today's Cohen plea is significant.
First: it expressly contemplates Cohen's cooperation, which Cohen's previous agreement did not. Suggests that Mueller is satisfied that Cohen's cooperating enough to give him an agreement. /1
Second: it's not primarily ABOUT Cohen. See, this is bouncing the rubble. It adds one more felony to those Cohen has already taken, with no real marginal effect. It will have an extremely negligible effect, IF ANY, on his sentence. So why bother? /2
Well, normally a federal prosecutor WOULDN'T bother with a plea that has no impact. But here, the impact is telling the story of the investigation as a whole, and promoting the case that the entire Trump Organization was lying about its degree of involvement with Russia. /3
Though Trump isn't named explicitly, he and his organization figure prominently and obviously in the charging document and plea. That's not something federal prosecutors do lightly.
This strongly implies further action against someone. /4
/5 Now, we don't have the written factual basis yet (the statement of supporting facts that Cohen agrees to). But reports of Cohen's plea suggest he admitted to these lies to help Trump and Trump's narrative, but notably NOT claiming that Trump knew he'd lie to Congress.
/6 But the conclusion that the President of the United States knew that his personal counsel was repeatedly lying to the Congress of the United States about the President's business is inescapable under these circumstances. /end
/7 Postcript: dogged journalists should look to see which other Trump figures said the same things under oath or in statements to investigators.
Thread by @Popehat: "Okay. Let's talk about a few reasons today's Cohen plea is significant. First: it expressly contemplates Cohen's cooperation, which Cohen's […]"