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Donald Trump said the campaign finance violations his former lawyer claims to have committed at the direction of the president are 'not a crime' as he laid out his own defense on Wednesday morning in tweets.

Trump pointed to his predecessor, Barack Obama's, campaign finance violations in 2012, and argued that they were 'easily settled' and did not result in jail time.

The president suggested that Cohen is not very bright after his ex-attorney's attorney appeared on a sea of news programs to claim the sitting president is guilty of criminal acts.

'If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!' the president said of the former legal counsel to the Trump Organization. 

The evening prior, Trump signaled that he felt 'badly' for Cohen, his longtime fixer and former lawyer, who pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud and campaign finance violations to avoid a trail that could end with a sentence of life in prison.

He said he was disgusted with the judicial system that led his ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to be found guilty of eight financial crimes, as well.

Trump changed his tune on Cohen, however, after his former attorney's lawyer jumped on television and said his guilty client was only following the president's orders. 

Cohen's lawyer claimed in multiple appearances that Trump participated in illegal acts, and his client doesn't need to offer evidence - the president's lawyers have already done that.

Lanny Davis said his client's guilty plea draws on a letter that Trump's current attorneys sent special counsel Robert Mueller admitting the president 'directed' Cohen to make the Stormy Daniels hush-money payoff. 

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Donald Trump hit his former lawyer with a searing-one liner on Wednesday morning after Michael Cohen's attorney appeared on a sea of news programs to claim the sitting president is guilty of criminal acts

The evening prior, Trump signaled that he felt 'badly' for Cohen, his longtime fixer and former lawyer, who pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud and campaign finance violations to avoid a trail that could end with a sentence of life in prison 

He said he was disgusted with the judicial system that led his ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to be found guilty of eight financial crimes, as well

Trump changed his tune on Cohen, however, after his former attorney's lawyer jumped on television and said his guilty client was only following the president's orders

'Let me make 100 percent clear: the evidence was provided definitively by Donald Trump's lawyers,' Davis said Wednesday. 'It's not a dispute. It's not about credibility. It's his lawyers in a letter used the word directed.' 

Invoking Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who claimed it's not a crime to lie to the American people, Davis said that it is federal crime to make illegal campaign contributions like the one that Cohen pleaded guilty to making on Tuesday afternoon.

'President Trump committed a criminal act that corrupted our democracy,' Davis on 'Good Morning America' charged. 'That's what the campaign finance laws are about.'

Davis told CBS, 'He committed a crime. He should be indicted if he were not president, he clearly would be indicted and jailed for that crime. Whether he can be indicted as president of course, is not yet decided by the Supreme Court.'

'It's not about evidence, it is definitive indisputable that Donald Trump's lawyers said in a letter to the Special Counsel that President Trump directed, the same word that Michael Cohen used in court yesterday under oath, directed Cohen to make illegal payments,' he said on the network's flagship morning program.  

'And why did he direct? Because he didn't want his signature on the check. Why?' Davis said. 'Because he was covering up right before the election. Or else, why didn't he do it himself?'

Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis says his client doesn't need to provide evidence that Donald Trump directed him to commit crimes - the president's lawyers have already done that

Trump did not dispute his involvement in the hush-money payoff to Daniels on Wednesday, including the claim that he 'directed' it. Rather, he argued that campaign finance violations are not crimes and Cohen should never have plead guilty to the charges.

'Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime. President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!' he said.

Trump preemptively accused Cohen of fabricating other claims he might have made to prosecutors as part of his plea deal, saying in a tweet: 'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. “Justice” took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to “break” - make up stories in order to get a “deal.” Such respect for a brave man!'

He went on to note that 'a large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case,' which he called a 'Witch Hunt!' - his preferred term for the special counsel probe. 

In his reference to Obama, Trump appeared to be referring to the $375,000 in fines the Federal Election Commission levied on the former president's 2012 campaign apparatus for repeatedly missing reporting deadlines.

The then-president's campaign shrugged off the fee - one of the largest in American history - as the cost of doing business in a billion-dollar campaign that raised a record-breaking amount of money at an extremely fast pace. 

Celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz suggested Tuesday evening that Trump could get himself off the hook by similarly arguing that that violating FEC rules is not akin to committing a major crime.

'Violation of election laws are regarded as kind of jaywalking in the realm of things about elections,' Dershowitz told Fox News. 'Every administration violates the election laws, every candidate violates the election laws when they run for president.'

Cohen's crime was that he exceeded campaign contribution limits when he paid off a woman who said she had an affair with the president in order to influence the outcome of a presidential election. 

He subsequently lied about the nature of the payment to the government, claiming falsely that income he generated in 2017 was for work he was doing on behalf of the president, when he was really recouping costs from the $130,000 hush-money payoff as part of an orchestrated cover-up.

In his guilty plea, Cohen says that he committed the crimes 'in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office' that was clearly Trump. 

Cohen's lawyer has claimed in multiple appearances since that Trump participated in illegal acts, and his client doesn't need to offer evidence - the president's lawyers have already done that. 

Davis also settled the debate over whether Cohen should be pardoned by the president for the crimes he says he committed at Trump's behest in another appearance, an interview on NBC's 'Today.'

The attorney who's best known for his defense of Bill Clinton in the former president's impeachment scandal claimed that Cohen would neither request a pardon nor accept a get-out-jail-free card if the White House came calling.

'Not only is he not hoping for it, he would not accept a pardon. He considers a pardon from somebody who has acted so corruptly as president to be something he would never accept,' Davis said.

On the attack: Trump hit out at Cohen as a liar and said the attorney;s guilty plea did not mean 

Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations 'in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office' earlier on Tuesday. His lawyer confirmed that the candidate referenced is Trump

President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort (left in his mugshot and right in a court sketch) was found guilty on eight counts of fraud following a Virginia trial on Tuesday

Davis blitzed the networks on Tuesday evening and appeared on three cable shows Wednesday morning to explain why his client turned on Trump.

Cohen's attorney told ABC News that his client, who said previously that he'd take a bullet for Trump, decided 'that his family and his country were his priorities.'

'He certainly found Donald Trump as president to be unsuitable to hold the office after Helsinki,' where the the president stood next to the Russian leader and cast doubt on the intelligence community's assessment that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election. 'He worried about the future of our country with somebody who was aligning himself with Mr. Putin,' Davis stated.

Cohen is prepared to tell investigators 'all he knows' about the President and the 'conspiracy to collude and corrupt the 2016 election,' Davis said Tuesday of the president's former attorney and fixer.

He said Cohen is also willing to give special counsel Robert Mueller information about the DNC hack in the run-up to the election 'and whether or not Mr. Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on.'  

Asked to clarify Wednesday on CBS, Davis replied, 'He had matters that would be of interest to the special counsel relating to pre-knowledge of computer hacking by Donald Trump. Which if true, if true, would constitute knowledge of a crime committed by a foreign government in hacking our computers which was part of the indictment of 12 Russians that the special counsel has already published. 

'So my observation is that he can speak to that and beyond that I can't go, it will have to play out with the special counsel," 

Among other claims, Davis says Trump ordered his client to make hush-money payments to Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep them quiet about alleged affairs, which makes him similarly guilty of major crimes.

Davis said Trump's ex-lawyer only made the payment 'at the direction' of the president making the president 'as much guilty of a felony.'

'(Trump) just hasn't owned up to it, but he tried to hide by asking his lawyer to do something he wasn't willing to do because he feared the electoral consequences,' he said.

In a Wednesday interview on NBC with talk-show host Megyn Kelly, Davis, 'There is no question having plead to a felony yesterday and saying that Mr. Trump directed him to do what he did, that Mr. Trump would be guilty of the same crime.

'One could not be true without the other being true. And there is no denying that Rudy Giuliani himself said that when Trump lied on Air Force One and said that he didn’t know anything about this, he really did. He knew about it. There’s Rudy Giuliani throwing a client under a bus.'

Davis has also warned that Cohen was Trump's personal lawyer for 'many, many years' and so he 'knows almost everything about Mr. Trump.'

'Mr. Cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest to the special counsel and is more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows,' Davis said on the 'Rachel Maddow Show.'

'Not just about the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democracy system in the 2016 election, which the Trump Tower meeting was all about, but also knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Mr Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on,' he added. 

Davis warned that Cohen had information about Trump 'that would be of interest in Washington and in New York state in a subtle threat to the president who on Tuesday found himself unexpectedly under siege. 

WHERE'S RUDY? The president's current attorney was nowhere to be found on Wednesday as Trump world burned down

Two of Trump's former confidantes went down on Tuesday, all within the span of a half-hour, in back-to-back announcements that they were guilty of federal crimes that could land them in prison for years.

Cohen could have been assessed a 65-year term if he'd been found guilty of committing financial crimes and violating campaign finance laws. Instead, he'll be sentenced to a maximum term of 63 months. 

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is looking at life in prison after he was found guilty on eight counts of tax and bank fraud charges. 

'This is not a great day. It's a bad day for the president, and I'm sure he understands that,' former New Jersey Gov. and Trump transition team head Chris Christie said Wednesday on 'GMA.' 

Christie, a former U.S. attorney himself, said that it's 'outrageous' that Davis would be asking the American people to trust his client now, considering his client acknowledged defrauding the federal government $1.3 million in unpaid taxes on $4 million of unreported income. 

But even the Trump friend admitted there are lingering questions that the president and his attorney's must account for.

'What we've got to know is what was the president's motive in directing these payments to be made? Was this pattern and practice that had gone on other times through the years before he was a candidate or was this specific to influence the election? Did it influence the election?' he said. 'So those are all questions we've got to get answered.'

Giuliani and another Trump attorney, Jay Sekulow, were unusually quiet on Wednesday as Cohen's attorney ran roughshod all over them.

Sekulow did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com. 

The former mayor of New York, Giuliani has been a fixture on major news programs as of late as part of a strategy to pressure Mueller and shape national opinion on the special counsel case. But even he was missing in action on Tuesday night and early Wednesday.  

Giuliani instead released a tightly-worded statement on Tuesday evening, in response to Cohen's claims, that said: 'There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government's charges against Mr. Cohen.

'It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.'

Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis (pictured) has suggested that Donald Trump is just as guilty as his client after he 'directed' him to make the hush money payments 

'Mr. Cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest to the special counsel and is more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows,' Davis said on MSNBC's 'Rachel Maddow Show'

Davis has hinted that Cohen may have incriminating information about the Trump Foundation, in addition to its founder and former executive.

The New York Attorney General has filed a civil suit against Trump and his three eldest children alleging 'persistently illegal conduct' with respect to foundation money and using the money in their own self-interest.

'We'll see if the level of corruption alleged concerning the Trump Foundation is a topic of concern for the New York Attorney General,' Davis said after being asked if Cohen could offer any new information about Trump's alleged wrongdoing or criminal activity. 'We know that the pardon power wouldn't apply in New York state.' 

Davis said that Trump should be prepared to see 'a liberated Michael Cohen speaking truth to power' and that he is prepared to spill 'everything about Donald Trump that he knows.'

'It's truth that Michael Cohen is committed to, and it's the truth that so threatens the president of the United States. 

Davis would not say whether Cohen has already been in contact with the special counsel, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential obstruction of justice by Trump, yet said that Mueller 'will have a lot of interest in what Michael has to say.'

Even with the potential new revelations aside, Davis said that Trump could face federal charges after Cohen stated under oath that the then-presidential candidate directed him to commit a crime 'making Donald Trump as much guilty of that felony as my client Mr. Cohen.' 

'Why didn't President Trump do this himself? Why didn't he write or sign the check himself? Was he covering up because he knew that there was something wrong in what he was doing, so he directed his lawyer to do something that he didn't want anyone to know that he did? I think the answer to that is obvious,' Davis said Tuesday.

He said that Trump 'didn't have the courage or at least didn't want to expose himself politically so soon before the election so he directed his lawyer to do that which he was not willing to do.'

'So there's a cover up by our now President of the United States which is undeniable.' 

Numerous legal experts say Trump most likely will avoid charges while in office – though he could be indicted after he leaves and can be forced to give testimony in other legal matters. 

Michael Cohen's lawyer suggested that Donald Trump was also guilty of a federal crime after he reportedly directed his client to make hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels (pictured with Trump, left) and former Playboy model Karen McDougal (with Trump, right)

Davis told Maddow he had no qualms about saying that Trump had directed his client, because the president's own lawyer, Giuliani, had 'thrown his client under the bus' by admitting that himself.

What Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to doing 

Five counts of tax evasion. Avoided declaring $4.1 million in income earned in 2012 through 2016, depriving the government of about $1.3 million in tax revenue.

Making false statements to a bank. Failed to disclose a $14 million line of credit when taking out loans, including for the purchase of an $8.5 million summer home. Declared a net worth of $40 million when applying for a home equity loan, omitting the $14 million debt.

Campaign finance violations. Helped deal with 'Individual-1's relationships with women' by identifying stories and keeping them from being published. Negotiated $150,000 payment to 'model and actress' and made a $130,000 payment to 'an adult film actress.' He caused and made the payments 'in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.' 

He faced up to 65 years in prison for what he is being charged with had he not pleaded guilty. 

'The word "directed" came from Donald Trump's lawyers who wrote the special counsel and said that Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to make that payment,' he added.

Davis also said Cohen had reservations about Trump's suitability to be president. He told CNN's Chris Cuomo that his client was 'motivated for his country' and 'will tell the truth.' 

Trump said Tuesday evening that he felt very sorry for Manafort ahead of a Charleston, West Virginia, rally speech. Yet, he completely ignored Cohen's implication that he participated in federal crimes.

He then avoided mentioning Manafort and Cohen at his hour-long rally.

He tore into the Mueller probe, thoough, calling it the 'Russian witch hunt' hours after investigators achieved their biggest conviction yet.

'Fake news. Fake. How fake, how fake are they?' Trump asked rhetorically. 'Fake news and the Russian witch hunt. We got a whole big combination. Where is the collusion? You know they're still looking for collusion. Where is the collusion? Find some collusion. We want to find the collusion,' Trump said. 

'How ya like me now?' Stormy Daniels gloats after Michael Cohen's guilty plea as the porn star's lawyer claims plea will allow him to DEPOSE Trump in civil suit

Stormy Daniels weighed in after PresidentDonald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to a hush money payoff to the porn star.

'How ya like me now?!' Daniels tweeted on Tuesday night, hours after Cohen pleaded guilty in a New York court to eight criminal counts including tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

Daniel's attorney, Michael Avenatti, said that the guilty plea would bolster her civil suit against Cohen - and claimed that he would now be able to force Trump to give a sworn deposition in the suit.

'The developments of today will permit us to have the stay lifted in the civil case & should also permit us to proceed with an expedited deposition of Trump under oath about what he knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it. We will disclose it all to the public,' Avenatti wrote in a tweet. 

Stormy Daniels (seen Monday on Loose Women) chimed in with glee following Cohen's plea

Avenatti added: 'We. Are. Coming. We are going to end this dumpster fire of a presidency one way or another.' 

It is unclear whether Cohen's court testimony would in fact convince a judge to attempt to compel Trump to give a sworn deposition. 

Sitting presidents are normally exempt from court processes. But Bill Clinton, while in office, did give a deposition in a sexual harassment civil suit, and his sworn statements about Monica Lewinsky led to his impeachment on perjury and obstruction charges. 

Avenatti (above) said Cohen's plea and statements in court would allow him to depose Trump in an ongoing civil suit that Daniels has filed against Cohen

The two payments were intended to silence two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump and were made prior to the 2016 presidential election. One was for $130,000 given to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. The other for $150,000 related to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Trump has denied having affairs with the women. His lawyer Rudy Giuliani has said the payments were made to spare Trump and his family embarrassment and were unrelated to the campaign.

Cohen made the payments from his own money, and then was reportedly reimbursed by Trump. Prosecutors said that the payments constituted an illegal campaign contribution by Cohen. 

Cohen said in court he arranged to make payments 'for (the) principal purpose of influencing (the) election'.  

Trump told reporters traveling with him to West Virginia that he felt 'very badly' for his ex-campaign chairman, who is now facing life in prison after being convicted on eight of 18 charges in a financial crimes case brought by prosecutors tasked with probing Russian election meddling.

'I feel very sad about that, because it doesn't involve me, but I still feel, you know, it's a very sad thing that happened,' Trump said from the tarmac ahead of his Charleston rally.

The president was in Charleston to pump up his base and energize voters in West Virginia to support Republicans in the mid-term elections.

But back-to-back blows in the criminal cases of Manafort and Cohen cast a shadow over Trump's travel, and the president appeared unusually downtrodden.

Walking over to reporters shouting on the tarmac about the former Trump associates the president said: 'I feel badly for both.'

'I must tell you that, Paul Manafort's a good man,' he said.

In another interview with CNN on Tuesday, Davis also hinted that Cohen may have incriminating information about the Trump Foundation

A federal charging document that prosecutors made public hours earlier laid out how Cohen helped deal with a person identified as 'Individual-1's relationships with women' by identifying stories and keeping them from being published.

The documents note that the individual was a candidate for president. 

Cohen negotiated $150,000 payment to 'model and actress' and made a $130,000 payment to 'an adult film actress,' according to the documents stated the offenses he pleaded guilty to. Cohen caused and made the payments 'in order to influence the 2016 presidential election,' he is admitting.

The White House didn't hold a press briefing amid the turmoil, dealing with reporters instead through the safer medium of conference calls. President Trump's spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, pushed off requests for comment on outside counsel and directed reporters to the president's tarmac reaction. 

Cohen appeared in federal court on Tuesday following a series of reports he would plead guilty to federal crimes that would land him in jail for up to four years 

According to U.S. attorney Robert Khuzami, Cohen failed to report income of $4.1 million, costing the U.S. Treasury approximately $1.3 million 

Statement to the press by U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami 

'What he did was he worked to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign and to the candidate and the campaign.'

'In addition, Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement for that money by submitting invoices to the candidate's company which were untrue and false. They indicated that the reimbursement was for services rendered for the year 2017, when in fact those invoices were a sham. He provided no legal services for the year 2017 and it was simply a means to obtain reimbursement for the unlawful campaign contribution.'

'First, these are very serious charges and reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time. They are significant in their own rights. They are particularly significant when done by a lawyer. A lawyer who through training and tradition understands what it means to be a lawyer, to engage in honest and fair dealing and adherence to the law. Mr. Cohen disregarded that training. Disregarded that tradition and decided that he was above the law, and for that he is going to pay a very, very serious price ...'

'Mr Cohen made guilty pleas for those campaign violations and those are core violations. These remind us that it is illegal for corps to make contributions to candidates and it is illegal to make contributions in excess of the amount that congress set for individuals. That is a strong message today and we will not fear prosecuting additional campaign finance cases ...'

'We are a nation of laws and the essence of this case is about is justice and that is an equal playing field for all persons in the eyes of the law and that is a lesson that Mr. Cohen learned today and it is a very harsh one for him.'

Cohen appeared in federal court on Tuesday following a series of reports he would plead guilty to federal crimes that would land him in jail for up to four years. 

According to U.S. attorney Robert Khuzami, Cohen failed to report income of $4.1 million, costing the U.S. Treasury approximately $1.3 million.

He also failed to disclose $14 million when he applied for a home-equity loan he used to get funds to pay the porn star.

Khuzami furtherlaid out Cohen's campaign finance guilty plea as it related to Daniels and McDougal – though he never mentioned the name of the president, Playboy model or porn star. 

'In addition what he did was he worked to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign and to the candidate and the campaign,' Khuzami said.

'In addition, Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement for that money by submitting invoices to the candidate's company which were untrue and false. They indicated that the reimbursement was for services rendered for the year 2017, when in fact those invoices were a sham. He provided no legal services for the year 2017 and it was simply a means to obtain reimbursement for the unlawful campaign contribution,' Khuzami said. 

Investigators were said to be looking into more than $20 million in loans which were made to taxi companies owned by Cohen and his family prior to the guilty please. The amounts reportedly involved increased the pressure on Cohen to plead out before he was asked to navigate a variety of business deals he helped to negotiate for Trump.

Financial statements showed that Cohen used his 32 taxi medallions, then worth around $1 million each, as collateral for the loans from Sterling National Bank. Melrose Credit Union also supplied some of the loans made to 16 separate companies controlled by the Cohens. Cohen and his wife also personally guaranteed the loans, according to public documents.

Investigators were looking to determine whether Cohen misrepresented the true value of his assets to obtain the loans. 

PAUL MANAFORT FOUND GUILTY OF EIGHT COUNTS OF FRAUD

Paul Manafort was found guilty of tax and bank fraud by a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday, a verdict that will likely bolster special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and undermine arguments from President Trump's supporters that the probe is baseless and politically motivated.

After four days of deliberation, the jury found Manafort guilty of eight counts of bank and tax fraud, which could send the former Trump campaign manager to prison for up to 80 years. 

The jury said it was unable to reach a verdict on the 10 additional counts, leading Judge T.S. Ellis to declare a mistrial on these items.  Judge Ellis said he will not schedule the sentencing until the government decides whether to retry Manafort extra 10 charges. 

Manafort, 69, stood next to his team of lawyers and displayed no emotion during the reading of the verdict. He will have a chance to make a statement during his sentencing.  

 Now what happens: Judge T.S. Ellis III will decide whether to drop the ten charges which the jury said they could not reach a verdict on. Regardless, Manafort will be sentenced on eight fraud charges which could carry a sentence as high as 80 years in prison

The government has recommended to the court anywhere between eight to 10 years in prison for falsifying tax returns, bank fraud conspiracy and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial records.

The conviction is the first major court victory for Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian election tampering, a probe that has divided Americans and come under attack from the White House.

The jury's verdict defies Donald Trump, who last Friday called Manafort 'a very good person' and the trial 'sad'.

Manafort had initially been charged with a total 18 counts of fraud. The jury deadlocked on the majority of the most serious counts, including seven of the nine bank fraud charges which each carried 30 years maximum prison time.

Manafort was convicted on all five counts of filing inaccurate tax returns for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. These each carry a three year minimum sentence.

He was convicted on one of four counts, for the year 2012, of failing to disclose the existence of his offshore bank accounts. The jury could not agree on whether he was also guilty of this for the years 2011, 2013 and 2014. The single count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Manafort was also convicted of providing false financial information to obtain a $1 million loan from the Bank of California and a $3.4 million loan from Citizens Bank. These charges each carry a maximum of 30 years in prison.

He was not convicted of seven additional bank fraud charges, including conspiracy to fraudulently obtain a bank loan and providing false financial information to Federal Savings Bank.

It is a stunning fall from grace for the jet-setting political consultant, who once spent $15,000 on an ostrich jacket and millions on high-tech gear for his Hamptons home, but now faces the rest of his life in a jail cell.

He will be sentenced by Judge T.S. Ellis after background reports and argument from both prosecution and defense over what sentence is appropriate. 

The campaign finance violations related to the $130,000 payment were funds that Cohen paid to Daniels weeks before the 2016 election to keep her quiet about an alleged affair she says she had with Trump.

The president said in April that he did not know about payments Cohen made to Daniels – although Giuliani later said Trump reimbursed his longtime lawyer for payout.

Cohen admitted on Tuesday that the payment was a violation of strict federal limits on political contributions. Prosecutors deemed the payment an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign because it helped shelve potentially damaging information about the then-presidential candidate.    

A former lawyer to and close associate of the president, Cohen also had a role in the national Republican Party apparatus. In June he resigned his post as deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee, however, once it emerged that he was under criminal investigation.

'This important role requires the full time attention and dedication of each member,' he said in a formal letter. 'Given the ongoing Mueller and [Southern District of New York] investigations, that simply is impossible for me to do.'

Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation in relation to a $150,000 payment that American Media Inc. made to Playboy model Karen McDougal. AMI publisher David Pecker (c) was part of the deal

Mueller's final tally: Trump's inner circle of convicts and turncoats - and 25 wanted Russian trolls

GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN 

Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence

Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor and Robert Mueller's most senior scalp to date. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired. 

He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.

GUILTY AND JAILED: MICHAEL COHEN

Pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and two campaign finance violations in August 2018. Pleaded guilty to further count of lying to Congress in November 2018. Sentenced to three years in prison and $2 million in fines and forfeitures in December 2018

Cohen was investigated by Mueller but the case was handed off to the Southern District of New York,leaving Manhattan's ferocious and fiercely independent federal prosecutors to run his case. 

Cohen was Trump's longtime personal attorney, starting working for him and the Trump Organization in 2007. He is the longest-serving member of Trump's inner circle to be implicated by Mueller. Cohen professed unswerving devotion to Trump - and organized payments to silence two women who alleged they had sex with the-then candidate: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. He admitted that payments to both women were felony campaign finance violations - and admitted that he acted at the 'direction' of 'Candidate-1': Donald Trump. 

He also admitted tax fraud by lying about his income from loans he made, money from  taxi medallions he owned, and other sources of income, at a cost to the Treasury of $1.3 million.

And he admitted lying to Congress in a rare use of the offense. The judge in his case let him report for prison on March 6 and  recommended he serve it in a medium-security facility close to New York City.

GUILTY AND JAILED: PAUL MANAFORT

Found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August 2018. Sentenced to 47 months in March 2019. Pleaded guilty to two further charges - witness tampering and conspiracy against the United States. Jailed for total of seven and a half years in two separate sentences. Additionally indicted for mortgage fraud by Manhattan District Attorney, using evidence previously presented by Mueller 

Manafort worked for Trump's campaign from March 2016 and chaired it from June to August 2016, overseeing Trump being adopted as Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is the most senior campaign official to be implicated by Mueller. Manafort was one of Washington D.C.'s longest-term and most influential lobbyists but in 2015, his money dried up and the next year he turned to Trump for help, offering to be his campaign chairman for free - in the hope of making more money afterwards. But Mueller unwound his previous finances and discovered years of tax and bank fraud as he coined in cash from pro-Russia political parties and oligarchs in Ukraine.

Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud but was convicted of eight counts in August 2018. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges. A second trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent due in September did not happen when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and witness tampering in a plea bargain. He was supposed to co-operate with Mueller but failed to. 

Minutes after his second sentencing hearing in March 2019, he was indicted on 16 counts of fraud and conspiracy by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., using evidence which included documents previously presented at his first federal trial. The president has no pardon power over charges by district and state attorneys.

GUILTY AND GOING TO WEEKEND JAIL: RICK GATES 

Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Sentenced to 45 days weekend jail and three years probation, December 17, 2018

Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns.

GUILTY AND JAILED: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS

Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Sentenced to 14 days in September 2018, and reported to prison in November. Served 12 days and released on December 7, 2018

 Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank.  

GUILTY AND JAILED: RICHARD PINEDO

Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Sentenced to a year in prison

Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities.  

GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN

Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence and was deported to the Netherlands on his release

Van der Zwaan was a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012. 

He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik. His law firm say he was fired.

GUILTY:  W. SAMUEL PATTEN

Pleaded guilty in August 2018 to failing to register as a lobbyist while doing work for a Ukrainian political party. Sentenced to three years probation April 2019

Patten, a long-time D.C. lobbyist was a business partner of Paul Manafort. He pleaded guilty to admitting to arranging an illegal $50,000 donation to Trump's inauguration.

He arranged for an American 'straw donor' to pay $50,000 to the inaugural committee, knowing that it was actually for a Ukrainian businessman.

Neither the American or the Ukrainian have been named.   

CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK

Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. At large, probably in Russia

Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S.

He has been linked to  Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team.

INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS 

Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. They remain at large in Russia

Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud. 

Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S. 

INDICTED: MICHAEL FLYNN'S BUSINESS PARTNERS

Bijan Kian (left), number two in now disgraced former national security adviser Mike Flynn's lobbying company, and the two's business partner Ekim Alptekin (right) were indicted for conspiracy to lobby illegally.

 Kian, an Iranian-American was arrested and appeared in court charged with a conspiracy to illegally lobby the U.S government without registering as a foreign agent. Their co-conspirator was Flynn, who is called 'Person A' in the indictment and is not charged, offering some insight into what charges he escaped with his plea deal.

Kian, vice-president of Flynn's former lobbying firm, is alleged to have plotted with Alptekin to try to change U.S. policy on an exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania and who is accused by Turkey's strongman president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of trying to depose him.

Erdogan's government wanted him extradited from the U.S. and paid Flynn's firm through Alptekin for lobbying, including an op-ed in The Hill calling for Gulen to be ejected. Flynn and Kian both lied that the op-ed was not paid for by the Turkish government. 

The indictment is a sign of how Mueller is taking an interest in more than just Russian involvement in the 2016 election.

GUILTY AND AWAITING SENTENCE: ROGER STONE 

Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign official and longtime informal advisor to Trump, was indited on seven counts including obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and lying to Congress about his communications with WikiLeaks in January 2019. Convicted on all counts November 15, 2019, awaiting sentence

Stone was a person of interest to Mueller's investigators long before his January indictment, thanks in part due to his public pronouncements as well as internal emails about his contacts with WikiLeks.

In campaign texts and emails, many of which had already been publicly revealed before showing up in Mueller's indictment, Stone communicated with associates about WikiLeaks following reports the organization had obtained a cache of Clinton-related emails.

Stone, a former Nixon campaign adviser who has the disgraced former president's face permanently tattooed on his back, has long been portrayed as a central figure in the election interference scandal.

'They got nothing,' he said of the special counsel's investigation. 

Stone gave 'false and misleading' testimony about his requests for information from WikiLeaks. He then pressured a witness, comedian Randy Credico, to take the Fifth Amendment rather than testify, and pressured him in a series of emails. Following a prolonged dispute over testimony, he called him a 'rat' and threatened to 'take that dog away from you', in reference to Credico's pet, Bianca. Stone warned him: 'Let's get it on. Prepare to die.'  

CLEARED: GREG CRAIG

Greg Craig, President Barack Obama's White House counsel, was indicted for failing to register as a foreign agent.  Mueller's investigators uncovered Craig's work on behalf the government of Ukraine while probing Manafort, who did business with Craig.

Prosecutors released a grand jury indictment of Craig in April 2019, after Craig's law firm of  Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP agreed to pay more than $4.6 million as part of a settlement. The prominent firm also acknowledged it had failed to register, and placed much of the blame on Craig, a senior partner there.

Craig's lawyer blasted the decision as an abuse of prosecutorial discretion, and prepared to argue that omission of information during an interview is not tantamount to making false statements.

The charges stem from a 2012 report Craig and the firm produced on behalf of the Ukrainian government on opposition figure and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She was an opponent of Manafort's client , former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Craig was cleared on September 9 2019. 

Mueller's investigators prosecuted Manafort. In the case of Cohen, they handed information they uncovered during their probe to the SDNY for prosecution – although any plea deal could include cooperating with the Russia probe. 

FBI agents previously raided the former Trump attorney's his home, leading Cohen to boldly state that he would do what is best for his family.

He told ABC's 'Good Morning America' last month that: 'My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will.' He added: 'I put family and country first.' 

Trump has criticized the probe into his former attorney, calling the raids an 'attack on our country in a true sense.' 

'They broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and it’s a disgraceful situation,' Trump said at a White House event with military leaders on April 9 just after the raid was conducted. 'It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time. I’ve wanted to keep it down.'

Michael Cohen, left, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, leaves his apartment building past his doorman, in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. NBC reported he was in talks about a possible guilty plea

Cohen caught the attention of the Manhattan US Attorney's Office during  Mueller's probe into Russian hacking in the 2016 presidential race. 

If convicted of tax- and bank-fraud, Cohen, could have been subjected to heavy jail time.  

Cohen was Trump's personal attorney for years and has deep ties to the Trump Organization. 

He is reportedly prepared to tell Mueller that the president knew about the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer beforehand and approved of it.

That meeting was attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a lawyer with ties to the Kremlin who claimed to have dirt on Trump's presidential rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump has denied he knew about the meeting before it took place. 

The gathering at Trump Tower has become a central focus of Mueller's look into what role Russian played in the 2016 presidential election. 

Federal prosecutors were also taking a deep dive into Cohen's business dealings after Mueller's team handed over documents discovered in the April 9 FBI raid.

They were looking closely at Cohen's relationship with Sterling National Bank, which provided financing for his taxi-medallion business. 

Federal prosecutors subpoenaed Jeffrey Getzel, Cohen's former accountant who was responsible for preparing many of Cohen's financial statements. 

As of April 2018, Cohen owned 22 medallions in Chicago, and either he or his wife, Laura, controlled 32 medallions in New York City.

Taxi medallions were considered a solid investment that are bought and sold on a secondary market. Some in New York sold for an average $1.25 million per medallion in 2013 and 2014.

But their value has fallen sharply in recent years due to competition from ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. Some estimate the value of each medallion has dropped to $200,000 to $225,000.  

Evgeny A. Freidman, a Russian immigrant known as 'the Taxi King' and who partnered with Cohen in the taxi medallion business, avoided jail time and received five years probation when he pleaded guilty to tax evasion in May.

As a condition, he is cooperating with prosecutors, who may have found him to be a valuable witness as they investigated Cohen on potential tax, campaign finance, and bank fraud charges.

His deal came after the raid on Cohen's home, office, and a hotel where he was staying. They scooped up 3.7 million in digital documents. 

Indictment or impeachment: What happens to Trump next?

By Chris Pleasance 

President Trump appeared in peril as Paul Manafort was found guilty and Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to charges leveled as part of Robert Mueller's election meddling probe.

So what comes next for Donald Trump himself?

Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, insists Trump is implicated in a crime because he ordered Cohen to make hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal before the 2016 election.

Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the Russian election meddling probe as a 'rigged witch hunt', but on Tuesday it delivered two guilty parties

But the prevailing legal opinion is that Trump will not face criminal prosecution while in office, though there is nothing in the Constitution that strictly forbids it.

The text of Article 2, Section 4, and Article 1, Second 3, when taken together  imply that a president must be impeached and convicted by the Senate before he can be prosecuted, but does not outright say it.

Article 2, Section 4, makes clear what the impeachment power is.  

'The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,' it says. 

Article 1, Second 3, sets out the existence of the Senate and says: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. 

'When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

'Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.' 

That has led to legal debate in the past and the question even ended up before the Supreme Court in 1974 during the Watergate scandal, but a ruling was never made.

Justice Department guidelines say that a sitting President shouldn't be charged with a crime while in office, but that could be subject to a challenge.

Even if Trump cannot be indicted on criminal charges, he could still be impeached for 'treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors'.

Lanny David (left), the attorney for Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen (right), argues that Trump is implicated in the crime - but it is unlikely a sitting president would be indicted on criminal charges

Impeachment requires a majority in the House to pass articles of impeachment against the president. 

The House Judiciary Committee then prosecutes the president in front of the Senate, with the Chief Justice presiding. 

There needs to be a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to convict.

As things stand the Republicans control both houses, so it is highly unlikely that Trump will face impeachment so long as the status quo holds.

However, the Democrats are hoping that mid-term elections in November will hand control of both houses back to them, which would put Trump in trouble.

As one Republican lawyer told Politico, Cohen's allegations that Trump forced him to make payments provides the perfect fodder for impeachment.

'It's the only excuse they'll need. And believe me, they won't need much of an excuse,' he said.

On Tuesday, Trump urged people to vote Republican in the elections, warning that voting Democrat would lead to 'open borders and crime'.

Trump could be impeached, though that is unlikely to happen unless the November mid-terms hand control of the House and Senate back to the Democrats

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