>>>and George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI.
>
>Papadopoulos isn't just another useful idiot drawn into Russian intrigue as an opportunity to aggrandize himself with the Trump campaign: everybody knows that if somebody sidles up to you and offers illegal goods, that makes you guilty even if you refuse. So of course Trump is guilty and it's also his fault Papadopoulos lied to the FBI about it. After all, I saw a picture of Papadopoulos when he was a Trump campaign volunteer, sitting at the same table as Trump and about 20 others. OMG! Impeach him!

But that is not what happened nor is it what he was charged with. Papadopoulos, while working for Trump as foreign policy adviser, had contacts with the Russians - then lied to the FBI about it - which is what he pled guilty too. Soooo - while Trump was on Twitter insisting that the indictment of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was meaningless because it involved activities unrelated to Trump or the campaign - the news of this broke. This is actually a much bigger problem for Trump than the Manafort indictment.

>Certainly reports over recent months now are confirmed, with veteran swamper Manafort indicted as a tax evader and liar conspiring with yet-to-be-named others like the Podesta Group. Of course Trump should have known Manafort had been taking secret illegal payments and secretly conspiring for years, or else Trump is guilty too even if he fired him when he found out.

It reflects on Trumps lack of judgment in inability (or unwillingness) to properly vet people. This isn't like a parking ticket or something - it's a dozen federal crimes (so far) -- and based on my understanding it appears some of these charges had to be done pretty quickly as the statute of limitations was about to expire - so I wouldn't be surprised if there are more charges for this guy in the future.

>It's like the schoolyard game of "It": doesn't matter how strenuously you try to stay clean, if they can lay a finger on you, then you're "It" and everybody must run away from you screaming. That's how life works: if you unknowingly sit at the same table or employ or even (gasp!) shake hands with somebody who has great references but turns out to be a crook, you should be jailed immediately.

That makes no sense as it is not at all what's happened here.