The likely next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee believes President Trump committed an impeachable offense if he directed Michael Cohen, his former fixer, to pay hush money during the 2016 campaign to women claiming to have had extramarital affairs with him years ago.

“They would be impeachable offenses, whether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question, but certainly they’d [be] impeachable offenses because even though they were committed before the president became president, they were committed in the service of fraudulently obtaining the office,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., told CNN.

“The new Congress will not try to shield the president,” he added. “We will try to get to the bottom of this in order to serve the American people and to stop this massive fraud on the American people.”

Nadler, however, stopped short of saying those offenses would automatically lead to impeachment proceedings.

“An impeachment is an attempt to, in effect, overturn or change the result of the last election, and you should do it only in very serious situations, so that’s always the question,” he said.

Nadler’s comments come after federal prosecutors in New York filed a sentencing memo Friday recommending that Cohen spend a “substantial” amount of time in prison. In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to a range of charges, including two related to efforts ahead of the 2016 election to silence women like porn star Stormy Daniels from going public about their alleged affairs with Trump.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York on Friday also said Cohen told them he had committed some of the crimes “in coordination with and at the direction of individual one,” who is widely believed to be Trump.

As John Kelly leaves his position as White House chief of staff, it’s worth considering just how much this good man has given to the nation.

Because it’s just about everything.

A Marine who chose to enlist during the Vietnam War, Kelly then went onto college to complete his education. After graduating, Kelly took a commission as an infantry officer. He would wear the uniform of the Corps for the next 41 years, commanding forces in Iraq and rising to the rank four-star general. His sons would follow their father’s tradition of military service, with one, Robert F. Kelly, giving everything for the nation in Afghanistan in 2011.

Many might have decided to enjoy the peace of retirement following such long service and striking loss. But not Kelly. Following his military retirement, Kelly rejoined government as secretary of Homeland Security. While some in the media have derided Kelly’s time in this role, he was greatly respected by those under his command and he cut through the often lethargic bureaucracy governing deportations.

That said, it is Kelly’s concluding tenure as White House chief of staff that perhaps best encapsulates his relentless love of country. After all, how many of us would have wanted to take up the position Kelly did on July 28, 2017? It was obviously going to be an almost impossible responsibility: ensuring the effective administration of the president’s inner team, managing the president’s time and priorities, and ensuring that cabinet officers were working effectively. And how must Kelly have felt about the backbiting and leaks from White House staffers? These characteristics bear little in common with military ethos. Yet as defines him, Kelly chose to keep serving.

Let us hope that he can now enjoy many years of relaxation with his family.

Special counsel Robert Mueller filed papers in court over the past week that show he’s getting significant cooperation from former national security adviser Michael Flynn and President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.

But while some think that bodes poorly for Trump, Mueller also indicated that former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is going against his agreement to help Mueller, and instead appears to be working against him.

Here’s a look at just how much Trump’s former senior staff members are helping Mueller, or not:

Paul Manafort

At first, the former chairman of Trump’s campaign was a cooperator, but Paul Manafort has since slipped up.

In filing Friday night, Mueller’s team said it can pinpoint five things Manafort lied about — even after he accepted a plea agreement in September in Washington to work with authorities.

In the plea deal in September, Manafort pleaded guilty to two felony charges — one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice for tampering with witnesses.

The plea agreement also required him to “fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly” cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation and any other matters in which the government deems his cooperation relevant. That included interviews, handing over documents and testifying before the grand jury in Washington and in any other trials.

But on Friday, Manafort is accused of lying throughout 12 meetings with the special counsel’s office.

Those alleged lies were about things like his contacts with the Trump administration in 2018 and his communications with reputed Russian intelligence agent Konstantin Kilimnik.

“Manafort told multiple discernible lies — these were not instances of mere memory lapses,” the prosecutors wrote in the memo to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington.

Though he had told prosecutors when he reached his plea deal that he had “no direct or indirect communications” with any Trump administration official while they were in government, Manafort had in fact kept in touch with a senior official through February 2018, prosecutors said. And in May 2018, he authorized someone else to speak with a Trump appointee on his behalf, they alleged.

Mueller’s team has left open the possibility that it could file new charges against Manafort, who has been jailed since June after allegations that he tampered with witnesses.

Manafort has already been convicted on eight charges of bank and tax fraud in Virginia as part of Mueller’s probe.

Michael Flynn

The first court filing on Tuesday dealt with Michael Flynn, who had a short stint as Trump’s national security adviser. Flynn also served Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and during his presidential transition.

The 13-page document is mostly redacted, but it makes clear that Flynn has been cooperating with the Mueller investigation and has provided “substantial” help. It said Flynn gave 19 interviews that federal prosecutors called “particularly valuable,” and also provided “documents and communications.”

Flynn provided Mueller with “substantial assistance in a criminal investigation” in addition to the special counsel’s probe of “any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald J. Trump.”

“While this [document] seeks to provide a comprehensive description of the benefit the government has thus far obtained from the defendant’s substantial assistance, some of that benefit may not be fully realized at this time because the investigations in which he has provided assistance are ongoing,” Mueller’s office said.

Flynn pleaded guilty to a single felony count of making false statements to the FBI in December 2017. The former U.S. Army Lieutenant General lied about the conversations he had with Russia’s ambassador in December 2016 about sanctions the U.S. was imposing.

According to a statement of offense filed in court, Flynn conducted had three calls with senior officials on the Trump transition team about his discussions with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak related to sanctions.

Those senior officials are widely believed to be Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and KT McFarland.

“[I]t seems like Michael Flynn has been providing quite a volume of information. And, you know, in his position as national security adviser, someone involved in the campaign and the transition, it does suggest that he is someone who had potentially quite a bit of information and that he has come through in sharing that information in ways that Mueller and his team have found productive,” former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told NPR on Wednesday.

Michael Cohen

On Friday, prosecutors for Mueller’s team indicated that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, is also cooperating.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including violating campaign finance laws in a case being investigated by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. Last week, he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in a separate case brought by the special counsel.

Federal prosecutors in New York said Cohen has not cooperated in their investigation and argued he should receive a “substantial” prison sentence of roughly 42 months. But Mueller’s office was more lenient and detailed how Cohen has has helped, noting he has meet with investigators on seven occasions, giving “lengthy” interviews.

And though Cohen lied during their first interview in August, he has since been forthcoming and even corrected former untruthful statements.

“In recent months, however, the defendant has taken significant steps to mitigate his criminal conduct. He chose to accept responsibility for his false statements and admit to his conduct in open court. He also has gone to significant lengths to assist the Special Counsel’s investigation. He has met with the SCO on seven occasions, voluntarily provided the SCO with information about his own conduct and that of others on core topics under investigation by the SCO, and committed to continuing to assist the SCO’s investigation,” wrote Mueller’s team.

Cohen appears to be cooperating specifically on the question of whether Trump pushed Cohen to violate campaign finance laws in 2016.

“With respect to both payments, Cohen acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election,” the New York filing said. “Cohen coordinated his actions with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls, about the fact, nature, and timing of the payments. In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1,” or President Trump.

The document said Cohen recorded conversations with Trump in which the payments Cohen made to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels were discussed. It said those payments, which were aimed at keeping the women quiet about their alleged affairs with Trump, were effectively campaign contributions in excess of federal limits.

Trump’s former lawyer also seems to be cooperating by providing information about the Trump campaign’s links to Russia. Cohen told Mueller’s office that he’d spoken with a Russian national who claimed to be a “trusted person” in the Russia Federation and could offer Trump’s campaign “political synergy.”

Mueller’s office said Cohen provided certain Russian-related information that got to the “core” of the special counsel investigation, and that he gave “relevant and useful” information about his contacts with those “connected to the White House” from 2017 to 2018.

As John Kelly leaves his position as White House chief of staff, it’s worth considering just how much this good man has given to the nation.

Because it’s just about everything.

A Marine who chose to enlist during the Vietnam War, Kelly then went onto college to complete his education. After graduating, Kelly took a commission as an infantry officer. He would wear the uniform of the Corps for the next 41 years, commanding forces in Iraq and rising to the rank four-star general. His sons would follow their father’s tradition of military service, with one, Robert F. Kelly, giving everything for the nation in Afghanistan in 2011.

Many might have decided to enjoy the peace of retirement following such long service and striking loss. But not Kelly. Following his military retirement, Kelly rejoined government as secretary of Homeland Security. While some in the media have derided Kelly’s time in this role, he was greatly respected by those under his command and he cut through the often lethargic bureaucracy governing deportations.

That said, it is Kelly’s concluding tenure as White House chief of staff that perhaps best encapsulates his relentless love of country. After all, how many of us would have wanted to take up the position Kelly did on July 28, 2017? It was obviously going to be an almost impossible responsibility: ensuring the effective administration of the president’s inner team, managing the president’s time and priorities, and ensuring that cabinet officers were working effectively. And how must Kelly have felt about the backbiting and leaks from White House staffers? These characteristics bear little in common with military ethos. Yet as defines him, Kelly chose to keep serving.

Let us hope that he can now enjoy many years of relaxation with his family.

Legal trouble for President Trump is coming from all sides. There’s evidence Paul Manafort was still communicating with the White House this year. There’s evidence suggesting the Russian government was offering “synergy” with the Trump campaign. There’s further evidence Trump directed Michael Cohen to make the hush-money payments to pornographer Stormy Daniels.

It’s still very unclear whether Trump broke any laws. It’s perfectly clear, however, that Trump got himself in this perfectly avoidable mess through bad behavior.

For starters: Had Trump not cheated on his wife with a porn actress, he would not have found himself during his presidential campaign, arranging for hush money to be paid to said porn actress. Now we learn that this hush money might have been illegal.

The legal argument is questionable, to be sure: The six-figure payment to the porn actress was made explicitly to protect Trump’s reputation during the campaign, and thus to aid in his election. Therefore, the reasoning goes, it was a campaign expenditure. A campaign expenditure has to be disclosed and made from the campaign committee account. Therefore it could have been an illegal, undisclosed campaign expenditure.

There’s a logic to that argument, but it’s a bit perverse.

A haircut could help a candidate’s odds of winning. Is paying for a haircut from your own pocket a campaign finance violation? When candidates are criticized for unpaid personal debts, do they need to repay the debts from the campaign committee because the payment helps their election chances? What about when politicians buy trinkets at gift shops in Des Moines or Manchester? Clearly these purchases are aimed at getting elected.

Trump could argue that it’s absurd to count as a campaign finance expenditure everything that enhances a politician’s reputation, and that the hush money was no different than a haircut. But take a step back and consider the position of the president here: He’s making a legalistic defense of hush money his shady lawyer paid to a porn actress to cover up the extramarital affair he had with her just after his wife had given birth to his son.

Trump wouldn’t be in the position had he followed the fairly basic rule in life, implied in the Sixth Commandment, but also held by most cultures, that one not cheat on one’s wife.

The other legal problems likewise could have been avoided had Trump simply followed basic rules of prudence and good living. Paul Manafort was a shady foreign agent, yet Trump hired him, and kept communicating with him after his habits of deception and corrupt ties to murderous strongmen were known. Stay away from Manafort, and many of these problems wouldn’t have happened.

Similarly, Russian President Vladimir Putin, by 2015, was known to be a murderous strongman with imperial designs. High ethical standards would have cautioned the Trump campaign from special back-channel outreach—whether or not it was “collusion”—with Putin.

This isn’t to say Democrats wouldn’t be calling for impeachment in any event. And surely, one can get in legal trouble for far smaller misdeeds, and even for no misdeeds at all. But unethical behavior makes legal trouble more likely and trickier to get out of.

Don’t cheat on your wife. Don’t cavort with murderous strongmen. Don’t cavort with dirty operatives. If Trump and his campaign had followed these basic rules, they wouldn’t face the legal headaches they face today.