promoearn: Manafort? Guilty. Cohen? Guilty. Now all eyes on Trump at rally

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Manafort? Guilty. Cohen? Guilty. Now all eyes on Trump at rally

Paul Manafort poses for a mugshot at the Alexandria

Jury finds Manafort guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty

Just two years ago, Paul Manafort helped President Donald Trump secure the Republican nomination for the White House. Today, a federal jury found Manafort guilty on eight of 18 counts in a financial fraud trial. As for the other 10 charges, Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial after jurors could not reach consensus. Manafort faces a maximum of 80 years in prison. While the Manafort prosecution is not related to Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's election meddling, the case has been seen as an important initial test for Mueller, whose legitimacy has been repeatedly questioned by Trump and his Republican allies.

As for Trump's ex-fixer ...

The president's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen made the extraordinary admission that he paid a pornographic actress "at the direction of the candidate," referring to Donald Trump, to secure her silence about an affair she said she had with Trump. Cohen's claim came as he pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges, including campaign finance fraud stemming from hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal. Other charges involve bank fraud and income tax evasion, and as part of his plea deal, Cohen agreed not to challenge any sentence from 46 to 63 months. Cohen's plea follows months of scrutiny from federal investigations and a falling out with the president, whom he previously said he'd "take a bullet" for.

Standby for West Virginia

Trump is holding a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET. Before leaving Washington, he called Manafort's guilty verdict "very sad," but said it had "nothing to do" with Russian collusion. Trump didn't respond to questions about Cohen's plea. Follow USA TODAY for coverage of the rally.

Undocumented immigrant charged with murder in Mollie Tibbetts case

The intensive, month-long search for University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts came to a tragic end Tuesday with the discovery of a body on rural property 10 miles from her hometown of Brooklyn. Authorities said an undocumented immigrant is in custody charged with first-degree murder. Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, has been in the area for four to six years and approached Tibbetts while she was on a run last month, authorities said. "It never crossed our mind that she wouldn't come home safe," Brooklyn city clerk Sheri Sharer said. Who was Mollie Tibbetts? The 20-year-old University of Iowa student was a Harry Potter fan. She was a loyal friend. She wasn't "just a flyer," her boyfriend said.

Asia Argento 'deeply shocked and hurt' by 'absolutely false' allegations

A leader of the #MeToo movement and Harvey Weinstein accuser, Asia Argento has denied the shocking allegations that she had sex with a 17-year-old when she was 37, detailed in a New York Times story posted Sunday. "I never had any sexual relationship with (Jimmy) Bennett," Argento said in a statement Tuesday. As for the allegation that the Italian actress paid the former child star hush money to stay quiet about the assault shortly after she publicly accused Weinstein of raping her? Argento admitted that she and her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain arranged to pay $380,000 to Bennett, who Argento described as "undergoing severe economic problems" and Bourdain thought was "dangerous."

No, Yellowstone's supervolcano isn't going to end the world

A smoldering supervolcano responsible for some of the largest eruptions ever recorded isn't going to burst any time soon , experts say. But, the Yellowstone caldera that's roughly the size of Rhode Island will likely explode again – maybe in thousands of years, or maybe not at all. The volcanic crater has been described as a ticking time bomb, and false rumors about ground swelling have contributed to apocalyptic conspiracy theories. Experts say we'll have at least a few decades of warning before it blows, none of which are there now. Bottom line: No need to cancel that vacation out west. But maybe don't go during a big earthquake.

What else we're reading:

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•	What do President Trump and segregationist George Wallace have in common? Decades before Trump, Wallace tapped into American voters racial fears.
•	Coal comeback? A Trump administration plan would prolong life for power plants and replace Obama's signature, climate-change-fighting Clean Power Plan.