President Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight counts of financial crimes. Cohen surrendered to the FBI earlier Tuesday and appeared in federal court in Manhattan where he admitted to campaign finance violations as well as tax and bank fraud. The deal includes the possibility of up to five years in prison for Cohen, CNN reports.
New York Daily News reporter Stephen Brown detailed the charges, which include five counts of tax evasion, one count of giving a false statement to a financial institution, one count of "willful cause of unlawful corporate contribution," and one count of "excessive campaign contribution." The latter refers to the $130,000 payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006. Cohen, detailing the crimes he was pleading to in court, said he'd made the payments to Daniels, as well as to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The fraud case had been referred to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team. When asked about Cohen's plea, as well as the conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "I don't have anything for you on that."
-
How astronaut Jim Lovell 'inspired generations'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
The push for a progressive mayor has arrived in SeattleThe Explainer Two liberals will face off in this November's election
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutinySpeed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
