Bernstein: Trump ‘is boxed in by Mueller’

Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein said Sunday that President Trump has been cornered for the first time in his life. 

“He is boxed in by Mueller and the people around him know that he is and it’s on the question of … possible collusion with Russia and unquestionably a massive obstruction of justice that is now demonstrable for all to see, led by the president of the United States to cover up whatever the dealings of himself, his family, his aides were with Russia,” Bernstein told CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday, following several bombshell legal filings last week by Robert Mueller’s special counsel team regarding people close to the president.

“It certainly looks like they are the kind of offense that would call for impeachment hearings into the conduct of the president of the United States,” Bernstein said.

“There’s something much more important than just impeachment going on and that is the fact that Donald Trump for the first time in his life was cornered.”{mosads}

“We could be in for a very, very rough ride the next few months as Trump tries to fight this. We’ve never been in this territory with Donald Trump. We were there with Richard Nixon, but Trump is a very different figure who has absolutely no regard for the rule of law,” he added.

Mueller released a heavily redacted filing Friday that detailed allegations that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort lied to Mueller’s team, violating the terms of his plea deal to cooperate.

The same day, federal prosecutors in New York who were originally tipped off by Mueller said Trump directed his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to break campaign finance law.

Those documents did not explicitly mention Trump by name, but make reference to a “Individual-1” who is described as having become president in January 2017.

Bernstein said Sunday that the developments mean that Trump is boxed in for the first time in his life. 

“As a business man he always could bully his way out of a corner, he always could buy his way out, cheat his way out,” said Bernstein, who has been a longtime critic of the president.

Mueller is expected to submit his final report soon and has indicted 33 people and three companies, but none have been charged with colluding with Russia on behalf of the Trump campaign. 

“We don’t know what those dealings are in detail,” Bernstein added. “But it’s clear that Mueller is now connecting the dots between a massive obstruction intended to hide the truth about the Trump campaign, Trump, his business organization, and his family from the investigators.”