I disagree with you. I know some folks from that neck of the woods. The consensus on Manafort is that he’s a crooked swamp-dweller who was probably a Deep State mole in the Trump campaign and deserves everything he has coming to him. And they see Cohen as a shyster NYC lawyer who only worked for Trump because he got lost on his way to a job interview at the Clinton campaign headquarters in Brooklyn.
Trump hired Cohen because he was convenient. He was renting an office in Trump Tower.
Regardless of Manafort’s virtue, he was prosecuted exclusively on the basis of his above-board and perfectly lawful and ethical relationship to Trump.
I believe most people understand this implicitly.
“And they see Cohen as a shyster NYC lawyer who only worked for Trump because he got lost on his way to a job interview at the Clinton campaign headquarters in Brooklyn.”
Good one. Badda-bing! Badda-boom!