Thread by @emptywheel

Here's a Q: If @maggieNYT, @jonathanvswan, @jdawsey1 don't even MENTION that Paul Manafort is a confessed money launderer, if @kaitlancollins suggests we don't have to start hyperventilating over his hire yet, how do they think voters would find out if Manafort did it again?

That is, if journos are provably incompetent in describing how Manafort engaged in money laundering in the past to hide that his influence operations were really paid for by RU-backed oligarchs, who would tell us if he did it this go-around?

The risk to Manafort joining the Trump campaign, in ANY capacity, is that he has proven adept in the past at hiding Russian & Ukrainian oligarchs bankrolling his political work, & he did so PRECISELY to pretend it was real democratic persuasion. He confessed to this!

And both Manafort and Trump walk into this relationship believing if they can pull off victory again, they'll have impunity for any crimes they commit--including accepting foreign donations--to win. Hell, FEC has NEVER held Trump accountable for campaign finance crimes.

I get that some of you have relied on Manafort as a source before and that impairs your judgment abt what he actually confessed to, abt who he is. I get that at least one of you has downplayed his past crimes.

But show the least little concern about Russia running this election?

And y'all saying, "Well, if he only works the Convention, that's not a big deal" are naive as fuck. For two reasons.

First, Trump doesn't need help at the Convention this time. Never-Trumpers are worried abt assassination threats, not winning delegates.

Second the same journos who didn't mention he's a confessed money launderer ALSO falsely believe Manafort only came in, at first, 8 years ago, to run Convention.

That's not what Ukrainian Oligarchs understood. They knew IN DECEMBER 2015 (per Sam Patten) he'd run the campaign.

Yesterday was a test of whether journalists would respond, appropriately, with flashing sirens 🚨🚨🚨 if Trump did something to show he might let Russia run his campaign. And NYT and WaPo failed that test, miserably. They're not up to the job of defending democracy.