President Trump speaks at a rally at the Charleston Civic Center on August 21, 2018 in Charleston, West Virginia. President Trump talked about immigration, the upcoming midterm elections and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation at tonight's rally in West Virginia, but he never once mentioned Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. Why this matters: Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, was found guilty today on eight counts of financial crimes. This is the first case Mueller brought to trial as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, pleaded guilty in Manhattan today to eight counts. The charges included tax fraud, false statements to a bank and campaign finance violations tied to his work for Trump, including payments Cohen made or helped orchestrate that were designed to silence women who claimed affairs with the then-candidate. The Cohen investigation was referred to the Southern District of New York by special counsel Robert Mueller. The plea deal does not include cooperation by Cohen, and it is unclear if he will follow through on his previous assertion to friends, according to sources, that he is willing to talk to Mueller. Trump has repeatedly called the Mueller probe a "witch hunt" that hasn't found evidence of Russian collusion with his campaign, and his allies in and out of the White House say the special counsel should wrap things up.<doc-sep>Charleston, WEST VIRGINIA -- Mere hours after President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman was convicted on eight charges and his former personal attorney sought to implicate him in a guilty plea for violating campaign finance laws, Trump took the stage at a campaign rally in West Virginia ready to rile up his thousands of supporters in the audience. While Trump initially didn’t directly mention Paul Manafort or Michael Cohen, at one point he spoke of the Russia investigation repeatedly asking the crowd: “Where is the collusion? !” “Fake news on the Russian witch hunt," Trump said. "We got a whole big combination. Where is the collusion? They are still looking for collusion -- where is the collusion? Find some collusion. We want to find some collusion.” Trump kicked off his routine with an opening shot at ESPN, for the company's recent announcement they will no longer broadcast the national anthem in their coverage of Monday Night Football. "Rather than defending our anthem, and defending our flag, they’ve decided that they just won’t broadcast when they plan the national anthem," Trump said. "So while the players are kneeling, you’re all proudly standing for our national anthem. The ESPN thing is terrible, it just came out." Earlier upon landing in Charleston, Trump offered his first response to his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort being found guilty on eight different counts in a tax fraud trial in Alexandria, Virginia, telling reporters he feels "very badly" for Manafort. "It doesn't involve me but I still feel -- you know, it's a very sad thing that happened this has nothing to do with Russian collusion," Trump said. "This is a witch hunt, and it's a disgrace.” The president did not respond to questions regarding his former personal attorney Michael Cohen's guilty plea to federal prosecutors in New York just hours earlier. According to the Trump campaign, Tuesday's Charleston appearance marks Trump's third rally in West Virginia since he announced his presidential run in 2015. Trump's visit to the state comes as he looks to gin up support for West Virginia attorney general Patrick Morrisey in his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in the November midterm elections. "He does not stop. He will fight for you like no one has ever fought for the people of West Virginia," Trump said of Morrisey as he invited the candidate up to deliver brief remarks. "I like Joe, but Joe doesn't vote, he just doesn't vote for us," Trump told the crowd to boos. "It's a vote for Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, their new leader, Maxine Waters." Trump's rally followed an earlier announcement Tuesday by the EPA of a policy intended to roll back a sweeping Obama-era Clean Power Plan that Trump and GOP allies have argued put too many restrictions on companies that produce power from coal. The replacement plan from the Trump administration aims to make it easier for electricity produced from coal to compete with natural gas and renewable sources by eliminating requirements for coal plants to install pollution-reducing technology. With multiple attendees wearing mining hard-hats in his backdrop, Trump touted the announcement as a victory in his administration's efforts to eliminate regulations. "The so-called Clean Power Plan. Doesn't that sound nice?" Trump said. “We've got the cleanest country in the planet right now. There is nobody cleaner than us and it's getting better and better.” "We are putting our great coal miners back to work!" Trump said to cheers earlier in the rally. Almost 40 percent of coal-fired power plants in the U.S. have retired or announced plans to retire between 2010 and 2018, according to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. The replacement for the Clean Power Plan predicts that coal will become a bigger part of the nation's energy infrastructure by 2035 but when it comes to jobs coal has seen only slight increases while renewable energy industries like solar and wind energy are some of the fastest growing industries. In 2016, coal production was at the lowest annual production level since 1979. ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs and MaryAlice Parks contributed reporting to this article.<doc-sep>President Trump is set to hold a campaign rally speech in Charleston, West Virginia tonight in order in support of Patrick Morrisey‘s senate campaign against Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin. The event is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EST, coming just hours after bombshell developments in the cases against former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. Beyond Trump’s greatest hits, it’s likely he’ll take time tonight to address the groundbreaking news. Cohen, his former personal attorney, pled guilty to bank fraud, tax evasion, and violations of campaign finance laws for paying off a porn star and a Playboy model claiming to have had affairs with Trump. Meanwhile, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, plead guilty to eight counts of financial crimes in his own trial. Trump addressed the Manafort verdict when he arrived in West Virginia, but did not make any remarks on Cohen: WATCH: President Trump, arriving in West Virginia, says he feels “very badly” for Paul Manafort after he was found guilty of financial fraud. https://t.co/5n1oTNG7iW pic.twitter.com/kPqov6Djy0 — CBS News (@CBSNews) August 21, 2018 Watch above, via CBS News. [Image via screengrab] — — >> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter Have a tip we should know? [email protected]<doc-sep>
Supporters of President Donald Trump attending his political rally in West Virginia on Tuesday chanted “lock her up” at the first mention of Hillary Clinton. That, to put it mildly, is incredibly rich with irony today. About three hours before the evening rally, Trump’s longtime fixer and personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felony counts. That’s not all: A Virginia court convicted Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort of eight felony counts, including tax fraud, bank fraud, and hiding a foreign bank account. Cohen and Manafort are likely soon headed to prison — in other words, they will actually be locked up. Cohen also implicated Trump in breaking campaign finance laws, saying he coordinated with a candidate for office (Trump) when he made a $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, who had claimed she had an affair with Trump, during the 2016 presidential campaign. But that didn’t matter to the Trump-friendly crowd in Charleston. When Republican Senate candidate Patrick Morrisey spoke after the president welcomed him on stage, he quickly mentioned Clinton and how she once said, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” The crowd then erupted in chants of “lock her up.” There were also some who joined in with a “drain the swamp” chant of their own. It’s quite the irony: rally-goers hoping someone they don’t like goes to jail, while seemingly missing that someone they admire surrounded himself with criminals — many of whom are very swampy themselves. That, perhaps, is one of the greatest symbols of our current political moment. You can watch the video of the moment below: