US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty in a New York court to violating campaign finance laws.
He said he had done so at the direction of “the candidate”, for the “principal purpose of influencing [the] election”.
The admission was related to hush money paid to Mr Trump’s alleged mistresses.
Mr Trump has not commented. In May, he admitted reimbursing Cohen for paying one of the women, having earlier denied any knowledge of it.
Mr Cohen, 51, admitted eight counts, including tax and bank fraud in a plea deal with prosecutors.
The plea came as a jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of bank and tax fraud charges.
Could Trump himself be prosecuted?
“If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?” Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, asked after Tuesday’s proceedings.
Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?
— Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) August 21, 2018
However, Mr Trump is unlikely to face criminal charges as long as he remains president, legal experts say.
What is conceivable is that he could be sacked by Congress under the US constitution’s provision for impeaching a president over “high crimes and misdemeanours”.
For that to happen, Mr Trump’s opponents in the Democratic Party would have to win control of both houses.
Even if they did well in the mid-term elections in November, they would almost certainly need to persuade members of Mr Trump’s Republicans to change sides over the issue.
No US president has ever been removed from office on the basis of impeachment.
What happened in court?
Cohen said he had been directed by “a candidate for federal office” – presumed to be Mr Trump himself – to break federal election laws.
The indictment against Cohen carries up to 65 years in prison but his plea deal includes a much more lenient custodial sentence of up to five years and three months, said Judge William Pauley.
Cohen pleaded guilty to:
- Five counts of tax evasion
- One count of making false statements to a financial institution
- One count of wilfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution
- One count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate or campaign
His sentencing was set for 12 December and he was released after posting bail of $500,000 (£390,000).
Cohen’s voice quavered as he answered routine questions from the judge, reporters in court say.
He was asked whether he had consumed any alcohol or drugs before making his guilty plea.
Cohen told the judge he had only had a glass of 12-year-old Glenlivet, a single-malt scotch, with dinner the night before.
What did prosecutors say?
Speaking to reporters outside court, a prosecutor said Cohen’s crimes had been “particularly significant” because he was a trained lawyer.
Robert Khuzami, the deputy US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said: “Mr Cohen disregarded that training, disregarded that tradition and decided that he was above the law, and for that he will pay a very, very serious price.”
Federal investigators have been scrutinising Cohen’s business activities for months, including a taxi business owned by him and his family.
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Mr Khuzami said Cohen had failed over the past five years to report income on $1.3m from his taxi business, $100,000 from brokerage commissions and $200,000 from consultancy fees.
He said Cohen had provided “sham” invoices to the campaign for legal fees that he allegedly provided last year.
The prosecutor also said Cohen had sought reimbursement for his “excessive campaign contribution” by submitting the bogus invoices to the campaign.
The plea deal does not necessarily mean that Cohen is co-operating against the president.
It could simply mean he has agreed to plead guilty in order to spare both sides a lengthy trial.
Why was hush money paid?
Porn star Stormy Daniels says she was paid $130,000 by Cohen just days before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair she says she had a decade earlier with Mr Trump.
Cohen also recorded a conversation with Mr Trump two months before the election in which they discussed buying the rights to a kiss-and-tell story by former Playboy model Karen McDougal who says she had an affair with Mr Trump.
Ms McDougal is referred to in court documents as “Woman-1”, while Ms Daniels is “Woman-2” and “an adult film actress”.
Undisclosed payments to bury embarrassing stories about a political candidate can be treated as a violation of US campaign finance laws.
The lawyer for Ms Daniels – who is suing both Mr Trump and Cohen for defamation – tweeted that the court developments boosted her case against the president.
The developments of today will permit us to have the stay lifted in the civil case & should also permit us to proceed with an expedited deposition of Trump under oath about what he knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it. We will disclose it all to the public.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) August 21, 2018
