red walls and carpet?

Oops. That so-called president must be an unlucky fellow. Not since Tony Soprano can one person have been so surrounded by people under criminal suspicion or prosecution. Maybe he just doesn't ask the right questions?

But then again, Trump and his multifarious corporations have been involved in over 3,500 legal suits. Trump or one of his companies were plaintiffs in 1,900; defendants in 1,450; and bankruptcy, third party, or other in 150.

Maybe he's used to a certain undercurrent running through his daily life? A whole slew of his one-time friends and associates seem to have had a hard time.

There's that lower profile Rick Gates who kind of started the ball rolling. Last February he was found guilty of conspiring against the United States. Another 23 counts of tax fraud were dismissed without prejudice possibly because Mr Gates helped on other matters. He testified that he and Paul Manafort effected elaborate offshore tax-evasion and bank fraud schemes using offshore shell companies and bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the UK to funnel millions of dollars from their political consulting work in Ukraine.

Then there's the usually ten thousand dollar suited Paul Manafort. He's just been found guilty of a bunch of financial crimes, although 10 of 18 charges were closed as a mistrial with one juror opposing the conviction. Manafort still has another set of charges, to which he pleads not guilty.

These 7 counts are: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Luckily his buddy Trump has said he'll look into ways to getting Manafort off the hook and to somehow pardon the 80 years or so of potential sentence.

The very same day as Manafort's sentence, we get Michael Cohen's guilty plea to eight charges: five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate or campaign.

Now there is a 28 page plea deal, although I suspect there may be further supplements over the next few days.

It is also interesting to see that Cohen is able to walk around on bail, a mere $500k, compared against his undeclared income in the document of around $4 million.

The document is also somehow reminiscent of the tawdry mechanics of some of those mob movies.

One of the counts is from profiteering on proceeds from a Birkin handbag. Unrelated, but cheery Jane Birkin herself had reason to cry 'Non' when there were questions of cruelty to the crocodile swamp dwellers in the name of her bag.

Back to Cohen. Other Soprano-like counts involve laundering money via Chicago taxi operators. Then there's the two women paid off (Woman-1 and Woman-2) and the implicated other person the so-called Individual-1. Maybe Magazine-1 will be able to shed further light?

It makes that simple George Papadopoulos conviction for lying about working with the Russians seem almost clear cut.

And that Micheal Flynn prosecution too. It seems to be about interfering in US/Russian sanctions.

The specific inferences around paying off women for silence seem to be at the hub of current developments and although they can be built up, they are comparatively slender charges compared with (for example) Russian electoral interference, money laundering and clandestine tax avoidance. There's already technicalities being used to try to demean the current accusations.

The Trumpers appear to be getting increasingly desperate to put a stop to all of this. Surely, just because a number of his personally selected advisors have been a bit swampy doesn't mean they all are?

With those mid-terms looming they'll apply pressure to try to shut all of this down. Guiliani is already making moves. And I suppose someone would profit from everything else staying under the increasingly red stained White House carpet?