Former longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight counts — including two campaign finance violations involving payments to silence women he believed could be detrimental to the 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen testified in federal court, according to his lawyer, that Donald Trump himself directed Cohen to commit a crime.
Cohen’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12, with bail set at $500,0000. The government calculates he should spend between 51 and 63 months in prison.
The news came the same hour that Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was also found guilty on eight counts related to financial fraud.
Federal prosecutors claimed Cohen concealed more than $4 million from the IRS and, in 2016, made $280,000 in payments to two women who planned to speak publicly about their affairs with a “presidential candidate.”
Deputy U.S. attorney Robert Khuzami said in a statement outside the courthouse that Cohen sought reimbursement for the payments from the candidate’s company. Khuzami called that a “sham.” Khuzami declined to name the candidate — but court documents describe “Individual-1” as someone “who at that point had become the president of the United States.”
In all, Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion; one count of making false statements to a financial institution; one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporation contribution; and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate.