Dem rep: Why shouldn’t Americans believe Trump is as corrupt as his friends?

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Sunday argued that the evidence is stacked against President Trump after his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller.

“Why shouldn’t the American people believe he is just as corrupt as his friends?” Jayapal asked in a tweet.

The congresswoman shared a clip of an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where she acknowledged that the link between the president and Russia is still absent, but expressed skepticism that Trump was unaware of the misdeeds of his closest advisers.

“What we’re seeing is top advisers — people who ran the campaign, the campaign manager, the deputy campaign manager, the president’s personal lawyer — have all pleaded guilty,” she said. “And you have to begin to wonder how it could possibly be the case that the president knew nothing about what was going on.”

Manafort pleaded guilty. So have four of @realDonaldTrump‘s top advisors.

Why shouldn’t the American people believe he is just as corrupt as his friends? pic.twitter.com/RANQYDh88D

— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) September 16, 2018

{mosads}Jayapal has been a fierce critic of Trump’s. She was among the Democratic lawmakers who boycotted his State of the Union address in January, and she voted to advance an effort to launch impeachment proceedings against the president last December.

Manafort, who was convicted last month in Virginia on charges of bank and tax fraud, pleaded guilty on Friday to two federal charges and reached a deal to cooperate with Mueller and avoid a second trial on additional charges in Washington, D.C.

The deal includes an agreement to cooperate “fully and truthfully” with the special counsel.

The White House has insisted that Manafort’s crimes had nothing to do with Trump, and maintained that his crimes are unrelated to potential collusion with Russia.

Manafort is the fourth former Trump associate to reach an agreement to cooperate with Mueller, joining Michael Flynn, Richard Gates and George Papadopoulos.

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen has also pleaded guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations in federal court in Manhattan, though his plea did not include a cooperation agreement.