The several indictments handed down Monday morning against President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort may have finally struck a nerve with the elder Trump.
According to breaking reports from inside the White House, and confirmed by the Washington Post with 20 senior administration officials and Trump friends, Trump didn’t go into the Oval Office the way he starts his usual day. Instead, several West Wing staff were held up, not knowing why Trump hadn’t arrived yet. He was found still inside his White House residence yelling at his television while the media showed coverage of the arrest of Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates.
Not only that, but Trump called his lawyers repeatedly, worried what the revelations could mean for him and his administration.
Trump isn’t the only one. As several of Trump’s top aides and staffers get lawyers of their own in the growing Russia investigation, which some say is designed to take effect in phases the way federal prosecutors have been known to go against mafia crime families, things around the White House have been pretty tense.
“The walls are closing in,” said one senior Republican. “Everyone is freaking out.”
Publicly, however, Trump is trying to set a different tone much unlike the stress-free talk he exudes when talking to his Twitter followers, or describing how great one of his properties is.
Trump claimed on Monday that the indictments were from “years ago,” and took place before Manafort was a part of his campaign. He tweeted this as he was watching his television in his private White House residence.
But, this was short-lived, because shortly after the indictments it was also revealed that former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos signed a sealed guilty plea, saying he made a false statement to the FBI and did in fact set in motion moves to have a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It was also revealed that Papadopoulos struck a plea deal with Robert Mueller and might have been wearing a wire inside the White House for months since originally being arrested back on July 27th. That’s also another reason Mueller kept the arrest secret, so as not to tip off his further investigation.
While working on the campaign, Papadopolous met with a man offering “dirt” on HRC, accompanied by a woman he believed to be Putin’s niece. pic.twitter.com/YfeUZ1CCFq
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) October 30, 2017
This apparently set Trump off into more of a rage, since loyalty is one of his highest prerogatives by who he chooses to surround himself within the White House. Many of Trump’s own aides fumed as to why they still let Papadopoulos in the inner circle, even though Manafort was long gone at this point.
