“Tremors become earthquake in Russia probe, shaking Trump,” headlined The Boston Globe on the morning after the indictments, at the instance of Robert Mueller, of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. The story, by Astead W. Herndon and Annie Linskey, began thus:
The criminal investigation President Trump often dismisses as “fake news” went from disquieting tremors to a full-fledged political earthquake Monday, creating further cracks in the Trump administration’s credibility and its ability to pursue his agenda. Trump’s countless tweets about the Russia probe—“no collusion!” he said again Monday—suddenly seem more hollow in the face of grand jury indictments. His broad denials of campaign-related misconduct will face heightened scrutiny after federal prosecutors revealed a case that is far more intensely developed than anticipated. Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and longtime sidekick Rick Gates pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges of operating a money-laundering scheme separate from the campaign.
Er, how do the words “separate from the campaign” not invalidate everything that has come before them? How are they not a vindication, rather than a disproof, of Mr. Trump’s claim of “No Collusion”? These are questions that do not occur to the authors or to their editors at the Globe, which suggests that the authors are writing about the effect of the indictments not on Mr. Trump but on themselves and their hopes of his downfall and political destruction.
Peter Baker of The New York Timeswas slightly more understated than
