President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Manhattan courthouse to eight violations of banking, tax and campaign finance laws, telling a federal judge that he worked to silence two women before the 2016 election at the direction of then-candidate Trump. He told the court that he worked with Trump to pay off two women to keep their stories of alleged affairs with Trump from becoming public before Election Day. Cohen — long the self-professed “fixer” for Trump — pleaded guilty after prosecutors claimed he risked more than a dozen years in prison, according to a person familiar with the matter. In October 2016, Cohen used a home-equity line of credit to finance a $130,000 payment to Daniels. But Cohen said Tuesday that Trump repaid him the money for the purpose of influencing the campaign.

Source: Washington Post August 21, 2018 18:16 UTC