Donald Trump is facing one of the most perilous moments of his presidency after two former members of his inner circle were labelled “guilty” of criminal charges.
His former lawyer Michael Cohen admitted violating campaign finance laws during the 2016 election. He said he did so in “coordination with and at the direction” of “the candidate” – Donald Trump – in order to influence the outcome of the election.
The 51-year-old’s admission relates to “hush money” payments to two women who accused the then future president of sexual misconduct.
Almost simultaneously, Paul Manafort, the political operative who for months led Trump’s winning presidential campaign, was found guilty of eight financial crimes.
Manafort’s conviction is the first trial victory of the special counsel Robert Mueller investigation into alleged collusion between the president’s associates and Russia. A judge declared a mistrial on 10 other counts the jury could not agree on.
Cohen said in court that he made one payment “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office” and the other “under direction of the same candidate”.
The amounts and dates all line up with the payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
In April, when asked by a reporter on Air Force One whether he knew about the payment to Stormy Daniels, Trump said “no”.
Prosecutors did not go as far as Cohen did in open court in pointing the finger at the president, saying Cohen acted “in coordination with a candidate or campaign for federal office for purposes of influencing the election”.
The Cohen case was not part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, but could result in his team approaching Cohen for information.
The other charges Cohen pleaded guilty to involve bank fraud and income tax evasion.
As part of his plea agreement, Cohen agreed not to challenge any sentence from 46 to 63 months.
Trump’s lawyers have been negotiating with Mueller about whether the president would be interviewed as part of his Russia investigation.
Now Stormy Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti says he will renew efforts to get Trump to submit to a deposition in a lawsuit the porn star filed to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she signed ahead of the 2016 election.
Ms Daniels’ case is currently on hold, but Mr Avenatti said he will be looking to get the hold lifted.
Meanwhile one of Cohen’s lawyers, Lanny Davis, tweeted that if making the payments was a crime for his client, then “why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
The US Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice and guidance to executive branch agencies, has held that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Trump’s lawyers have said that Mueller plans to adhere to that guidance, though Mueller’s office has never independently confirmed that.
There would be no bar against charging a president after he or she leaves the White House.
Although this is a critical moment for Trump, ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore says three elements may help him weather the storm.
Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of financial crimes at nearly the same moment Cohen pleaded guilty on Tuesday.
Manafort was convicted in Virginia on charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The jury returned the decision after deliberating four days on the charges of tax evasion and bank fraud.
The outcome almost certainly guarantees years of prison for Manafort and established the ability of special counsel Mueller’s team to persuade a jury of average citizens despite months of partisan attacks — including from President Trump — on the investigation’s integrity.
The verdict raised immediate questions of whether the president would seek to pardon Manafort, the lone American charged by Mueller to opt for trial instead of cooperate.
The president has not revealed his thinking but spoke sympathetically throughout the trial of his onetime aide, at one point suggesting he had been treated worse than gangster Al Capone.
The more-than-two-week trial, presided over by US District Judge TS Ellis III, has captured President Trump’s attention as he works to undermine Mr Mueller’s investigation through a constant Twitter barrage and increasingly antagonistic statements from his lawyer-spokesman, Rudy Giuliani.
But President Trump and his campaign were only a small part of Manafort’s trial, as jurors instead heard days of testimony about Manafort’s finances and what prosecutors say was a years-long tax-evasion and fraud scheme.
Manafort decided not to put on any witnesses or testify himself in the trial. His lawyers said he made the decision because he did not believe the government had met its burden of proof.
Tuesday’s developments appeared to bring the investigation closer than ever to the president, but at a rally in Charleston yesterday evening he largely ignored what had happened.
Instead, Mr Trump spent more than an hour painting a rosy view of his accomplishments in office, ticking off developments on trade, taxes, North Korea and even his plans for a space force.
“What we’re doing is winning,” Trump told cheering supporters.
“Where is the collusion?” he demanded. “You know they’re still looking for collusion.”
Trump did say he felt “badly for both” men, and earlier said that the Manafort conviction was “a disgrace”.
Trump’s current attorney, Rudy Giuliani, sought to cast the blame solely on Cohen, saying: “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government’s charges against Mr Cohen.”