Another guilty plea

TTHE WASHINGTON POST he question of whether President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to tilt the 2016 election is important. But it’s not the only important question in the Russia investigation, as revelations Thursday from special counsel Robert Mueller make clear.

Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal lawyer and fixer, admitted in court Thursday that he lied to Congress about Trump’s effort to develop a marquee building in Moscow. Cohen had said previously that the effort ended before the 2016 Iowa caucuses. According to the special counsel’s documents, it continued into June 2016, when Trump was the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. Cohen was apparently in touch with Russians and briefing Trump on the status of the Moscow project. Cohen told a Manhattan judge Thursday that he lied about the Moscow planning to help Trump’s political messaging. The president responded by lashing out, saying that his former lawyer is now lying. Trump apparently did not know or did not care that the special counsel had released email evidence bolstering Cohen’s current position. Perhaps sensing that no reasonable person would believe him, Trump simultaneously maintained that it would not have been a problem if he had pursued the Moscow project during the campaign.

That was not Trump’s attitude before, when he flatly denied Russia connections. “The Dems said maybe it is Russia dealing with Trump. Crazy!” Trump tweeted in July 2016. “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.”

The collusion question is still outstanding. But there is little room for doubt that Trump wanted to conceal his business goals in Russia. His denials are not credible.