In one of the most remarkable moments yet in the Trump presidency, Michael Cohen, Trump’s long time personal attorney, has implicated President Trump in a federal courtroom.
Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, pleaded guilty today to campaign finance and other charges, making the extraordinary admission that he paid a pornographic actress during the 2016 presidential campaign to secure her silence about an affair she said she had with Trump.
Cohen said he made the payments it “in coordination with, and at the direction of” Donald Trump.
Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bank and tax fraud, bringing to a close a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange financial deals with women connected to Trump.
Investigators have been looking at payments to silence two women who say they had affairs with Trump: Stephanie Clifford, an adult film actress better known as Stormy Daniels, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Clifford’s attorney Michael Avenatti said, “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.”