Michael D. Cohen, the attorney who spent many years working as President Donald Trump's personal "fixer," has agreed to plead guilty to campaign finance charges. Cohen will apparently make the extraordinary admission that he paid off adult film actress Stormy Daniels "at the direction of the candidate," referring to Trump, during the 2016 presidential campaign in order to squash reports about her alleged affair with Trump, according to the New York Times.
The Times reports that Cohen told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payment was "for the principal purpose of influencing the election" for president in 2016.
Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and making false statements regarding a credit decision, according to reports from the federal courtroom in Manhattan.
Trump's longtime personal attorney has been under criminal investigation for some time regarding his personal financial dealings.
This investigation placed Cohen under immense pressure in the Southern District of New York, while special counsel Robert Mueller continues his separate investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. (Some of the evidence incriminating Cohen was reportedly uncovered by Mueller's investigators, who then handed it over to federal prosecutors.)
If Cohen agrees to cooperate with federal investigators as part of his plea deal, it is possible that the information he provides could also assist Mueller's ongoing investigation into alleged collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russian agents.
It is not yet clear whether Cohen has decided to cooperate, although that would be an expected element of any criminal plea bargain. Earlier this month Cohen indicated that his loyalty to Trump might be wavering, telling ABC News he would "put my family and country first" before the president.
"My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will. I put family and country first," Cohen told ABC's George Stephanopoulos.
Cohen also said he would stand up for himself if President Trump or his surrogates attacked him in order to discredit anything that Cohen may tell Mueller or federal prosecutors.
"I will not be a punching bag as part of anyone’s defense strategy. I am not a villain of this story, and I will not allow others to try to depict me that way," Cohen told Stephanopoulos.
The search warrant authorizing the FBI raid on Cohen's home, office and hotel room last April sought a range of documents. Those included records related to his New York taxi medallion business, loan documents from banks and records of payments made to squash reports about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. That latter category clearly includes the $130,000 payment Cohen made days before the election to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006. Trump continues to deny the affair.
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The publisher of the National Enquirer, American Media Inc., which gave a $150,000 contract during the 2016 election to former Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal, is also under scrutiny. A White House spokesperson denied Trump had a relationship with McDougal, calling the reporting "an old story that is just more fake news."
It remains unknown how any plea agreement reached with Cohen might impact other entities that have been examined by investigators as part of the Cohen investigation.
Federal prosecutors are also looking into the more than $20 million in loans obtained for Cohen and his family's taxi business, The New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
According to the Times, federal investigators in New York are attempting to determine whether Cohen misrepresented the value of his assets to obtain loans from two financial institutions that have catered to the taxi industry, Sterling National Bank and the Melrose Credit Union. They are also examining whether he failed to publicly report his income from taxi medallions to tax authorities, the Times reported.
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