Chris Wallace on Trump’s Tweet: No, Manafort Judge Did Not Give POTUS a ‘Clean Bill of Health on Russian Collusion’

Fox News’ Chris Wallace knocked President Donald Trump‘s tweet today misrepresenting the comments made by the Paul Manafort judge regarding Russian collusion.

Wallace spoke with Ed Henry, who noted the heat Michael Cohen‘s facing over previous talks about pardons before bringing up Paul Manafort‘s light sentence and the judge making a point of saying Manafort was “not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government.”

The president reacted today by saying the judge stated “there was NO COLLUSION with Russia”:

Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2019

As Wallace noted this afternoon, that’s not correct:

“I think we need to make an important distinction there. He is saying the particular case that he heard had nothing to do with Russian collusion, and it didn’t. It was all about private business dealings between Paul Manafort and various business associates––some of them American, some of them foreign, some of them Ukrainian. Before he ever worked for the Trump campaign. And that’s why he was convicted of bank fraud and tax fraud. It had nothing to do, and no one ever said, it had anything to do with Russian collusion. That does not mean, however, as the president seemed to indicate, that the judge was giving he, the president, a clean bill of health on Russian collusion. He was just saying the Manafort case has nothing to do with that.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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