What we learned on Mueller Monday

After five months of investigation, former FBI Director Robert Mueller issued his first three products as special counsel: indictments of Trump campaign hands Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, and a guilty plea of a young foreign-policy adviser, George Papadopoulos.

At the same time Tony Podesta, the Democratic superlobbyist and bundler was implicated in the investigation and has stepped down from the lobbying firm he cofounded with his brother, Clinton confidant John Podesta.

Amid the noise and the speculation, what have we learned? What do we know today that we didn’t know months ago?

The indictment, if the charges are true, tells us mostly what we already suspected. Manafort was a shady lobbyist representing maleficent clients and covering it up. From the beginning of the investigation, we have editorialized that hiring Manafort as campaign chairman was a grave mistake that showed a gross lack of judgment.

One tip-off should have been the fact that Manafort worked for Trump for free. If you’re not paying for something, the saying goes, then you’re not the customer, you’re the product. Putin-allied interests were the real customers, it seems, and access to Trump was what Manafort was delivering.