Spectre of impeachment looms after Donald Trump's 'fixer' Michael Cohen admits paying porn star Stormy Daniels

Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations relating to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and a Playboy Playmate to cover up their alleged affairs with the president.
AP
David Gardner22 August 2018

Impeachment fears were sweeping Washington today amid speculation that Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen has more White House secrets to spill.

Mr Cohen, the president’s long-time “fixer” pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations relating to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and a Playboy Playmate to cover up their alleged affairs with the president.

It plunged the presidency into crisis after Mr Cohen admitted in court to buying off the women just before the 2016 election at Mr Trump’s “direction.”

“If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?” asked Mr Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis.

Ms Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti responded by tweeting: “We. Are. Coming, We are going to end this dumpster fire of a presidency one way or another.”

Michael Cohen, the president’s long-time “fixer” pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations
REUTERS

With the Democrats hoping to seize power of both houses of US Congress from Mr Trump’s Republican Party in the November mid-term elections, Washington insiders believe Mr Cohen’s intimate knowledge of the president’s personal and business affairs could fuel impeachment proceedings and possibly lead to his administration being toppled.

“I think impeachment is now squarely going to define the midterms,” Republican strategist Rob Stutzman told the New York Times. “It’s inescapable now that Democrats can legitimately raise that issue.”

Speaking in court in Manhattan yesterday, Mr Cohen said he was told by the billionaire former reality star to make the payments “for the purposes of influencing the election.”

Mr Trump's presidency has been plunged into crisis
REUTERS

The lawyer pleaded guilty on eight counts of eight tax evasion, financial fraud and campaign finance charges.

Although he didn’t mention the president by name, Mr Cohen admitted arranging a $150,000 payment to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal and $130,000 to adult actress Daniels “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”

Both women have claimed they were paid off to hush up their claims of affairs with Mr Trump before the last election.

The president insists the flings never happened. Under US law, campaign donations are strictly monitored and must be declared.

Mr Cohen admitted arranging a $150,000 payment to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal
Getty Images

Later, Mr Davis made it clear that Mr Cohen was prepared to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election.

He warned that Mr Cohen had been the president’s personal lawyer for “many, many years” and so “knows almost everything about Mr Trump.”

Among Mr Cohen’s allegations about his former boss are that he knew at the time about his son, Donald Jr’s infamous Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton during the election campaign. Mr Trump has insisted he ‘didn’t know anything about the meeting.”

“Mr Cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest to the special counsel and is more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows,” Mr Davis told MSNBC TV network.

“Not just about the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democracy system in the 2016 election, which the Trump Tower meeting was all about, but also knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Mr Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on,” he added.

Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s current lawyer, told reporters that there had been “no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president” in the charges against Mr Cohen.

Mr Cohen will be sentenced on 12 December and he was released on bail of $500,000 (£390,000).

In the darkest day in his one-and-a-half year presidency, Mr Trump suffered a double blow yesterday with the conviction of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was on trial in Virginia accused of tax and bank fraud.

Mr Manafort was found guilty on eight counts and even though the case didn’t directly relate to his role in Mr Trump’s campaign, the verdict is seen as the most significant yet for Mr Mueller’s investigation.

Side-stepping questions about Mr Cohen, the grim-faced president called Mr Manafort a “good man” and claimed he had become embroiled in a probe that had gone way beyond its remit.

“It doesn’t involve me, but I still feel it’s a very sad thing that happened,” he said before addressing a rally in West Virginia.

“It has nothing to do with Russian collusion. It’s a witch hunt and it’s a disgrace.”

Mr Cohen’s guilty plea and Mr Manafort’s conviction came within minutes of each other.

“This is the worst hour of Trump’s entire presidency – no, make that entire life,” tweeted Norman Eisen, a former special counsel to President Barack Obama for ethics and government reform.

Mr Trump’s bad day continued last night when it was announced that Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, one of the president’s earliest supporters in Congress, was indicted on federal charges for allegedly using campaign funds for personal expenses.

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