Obama ethics chief: Trump is ‘not going to survive Manafort testimony’

Former President Obama’s ethics chief, Norm Eisen, said Sunday that he thinks President Trump will not “survive” the testimony of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

“He’s not going to survive Manafort’s testimony,” Eisen, a frequent critic of Trump, told ABC’s “This Week.”

“I think there’s a substantial possibility that this evidence that Manafort is offering will implicate somebody up the chain,” Eisen added. “Who is up the chain from Paul Manafort, who was the chair of the Trump campaign?”

Former Obama chief ethics lawyer @NormEisen says he believes this is “not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning for Donald Trump.”

“We have seen the new chapter. He’s not going to survive Manafort’s testimony,” he adds https://t.co/Qtasc7GudN #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/371R1yMmSm

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 16, 2018

Manafort pleaded guilty to two federal charges last Friday, agreeing to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump 2016 campaign and Russia.{mosads}

The two charges included money laundering and illegally lobbying for a Kremlin-friendly group in Ukraine. 

The president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has said that Trump has nothing to worry about from Manafort’s cooperation.

“This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “It is totally unrelated.”

Eisen added on Sunday that pardoning Manafort would not help Trump. 

“The pardon will only … hurt Trump,” Eisen told ABC. “It will only dig the hole deeper.”

Former Obama chief ethics lawyer @NormEisen tells @jonkarl that pardoning Paul Manafort “will only hurt Trump” and “will only dig his … hole deeper” https://t.co/Qtasc7GudN #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/iOxmtdTOP9

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 16, 2018