US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan court to violating campaign finance laws.
He said he did so at the direction of “the candidate” for the “principal purpose of influencing [the] election.”
Mr. Cohen’s admission was related to hush money paid to Mr. Trump’s alleged mistresses.
The 51-year-old admitted eight counts, including tax and bank fraud in a plea deal with prosecutors.
Mr. Cohen said he had been directed by “a candidate for federal office” – presumed to be Mr. Trump himself – to break federal election laws.
The indictment against Mr. Cohen carries up to 65 years in prison.
But his plea deal includes a much more lenient custodial sentence of up to five years and three months, said Judge William Pauley.
Mr. Cohen has pleaded guilty to:
* Five counts of tax evasion
* One count of making false statements to a financial institution
* One count of wilfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution
* One count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate or campaign.
His sentencing was set for 12 December.
He was released after posting a bail of $500,000 (£390,000).
Reporters in court said Mr. Cohen’s voice quavered as he answered routine questions from the judge.
He was asked whether he had consumed any alcohol or drugs before making his guilty plea.
Mr. Cohen told the judge he had only had a glass of 12-year-old Glenlivet, a single-malt scotch, with dinner the night before.
Speaking to reporters outside court, a prosecutor said Mr. Cohen’s crimes were “particularly significant” because he is a trained lawyer.
Robert Khuzami, the deputy US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said: “Mr. Cohen disregarded that training, disregarded that tradition and decided that he was above the law, and for that he will pay a very, very serious price.”
Federal investigators have been scrutinising Mr. Cohen’s business activities for months, including a taxi business owned by him and his family.
Mr. Khuzami said Mr. Cohen had failed over the past five years to report income on $1.3m from his taxi business, $100,000 from brokerage commissions, and $200,000 from consultancy fees.
He said Mr. Cohen had provided “sham” invoices to the campaign for legal fees that he allegedly provided last year.
The prosecutor also said Mr. Cohen had sought reimbursement for his “excessive campaign contribution” by submitting the bogus invoices to the campaign.
The plea deal does not necessarily entail that Mr. Cohen is co-operating against the president.
Trump ex-campaign chief, Manafort, guilty of multiple fraud charges
Ex-Trump campaign chief, Paul Manafort, has been found guilty on eight charges of tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to disclose foreign banks accounts.
But the jury at his trial in Virginia failed to reach a verdict on 10 other charges and the judge declared a mistrial on those.
It was the first criminal trial arising from the justice department probe into alleged Russian election meddling.
But none of the charges relate to collusion with Russia in the election.
Responding to the charges, President Donald Trump said that Manafort’s conviction was part of a “witch hunt” following the 2016 presidential election.
“It’s a very sad thing that happened,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he arrived at a rally in West Virginia on Tuesday evening, adding that it had “nothing to do with Russian collusion.”
Manafort, 69, was a key figure in Mr. Trump’s inner circle, but the president has since sought to distance himself from his former adviser.
The jury came back on the fourth day of deliberations.
The judge has given prosecutors until August 29, to decide whether to ask for a fresh trial on the charges the jury was deadlocked on.
A lawyer for Manafort, Kevin Downing, said his client was “disappointed” with the verdict and was “evaluating all of his options at this point.”
A date for sentencing has yet to be set.
Prosecutors presented evidence of Manafort’s luxurious lifestyle – including photos of a $15,000 (£11,000) ostrich coat.
Judge TS Ellis scolded the prosecution for spending too much time on Mr. Manafort’s wealth, saying it “isn’t a crime to have a lot of money.”
But prosecutors had emphasised Manafort’s extravagant spending was only possible because of his bank and tax fraud.
He was accused of using 31 foreign bank accounts in three different countries to evade taxes on millions of dollars.
The prosecution’s star witness was Manafort’s former associate and fellow Trump campaign staffer Rick Gates.
Gates has admitted embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mr. Manafort while allegedly helping his boss commit tax crimes.
The defence sought to undercut Gates’ credibility by citing his “secret life,” and noting that he had told so many lies he could not keep track of them all.
The judge also said he had received death threats related to the Manafort case and was under US Marshal Service protection.
He added that he would not release jurors’ names due to safety concerns.
Malcolm Turnbull: PM loses ministers in leadership battle
SOURCE: BBC. com
Ten government ministers in Australia have offered to resign following a failed bid to oust Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as party leader.
Mr. Turnbull narrowly survived a vote against a senior government colleague on Tuesday, but is now likely to face a second leadership challenge.
He has accepted the resignation of only two ministers including the challenger, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
The division in the ruling party has thrown national politics into upheaval.
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The prime minister has been under pressure following a by-election loss in Queensland and poor results in polls.
Australia is due to hold its next election before May next year.
The opposition Labour party has accused the government of being in “chaos.”
Mr. Dutton has said he is still actively campaigning for the leadership and has lobbied other MPs for their support in a second vote.
“You do not go into a ballot believing that you can lose and if I believe that a majority of colleagues supports me then I would consider my position,” he was quoted as saying.
Mr. Turnbull initiated the first vote among cabinet members on Tuesday in an attempt to end growing speculation about his position as leader of the Liberal party.
He won by a margin of just 13 votes.
“The iron laws of arithmetic confirmed my leadership,” he told reporters on Wednesday when asked about his future.
He has also abandoned a policy to set an emissions reduction target in law, in an attempt to ward off party conflict.
Mr. Turnbull confirmed he had asked eight ministers to stay on in his ministry despite their offers to stand down.
Along with Mr. Dutton’s resignation, he also let go the International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Turnbull said: “What I’m endeavouring to do is to obviously ensure that the party is stable, to maintain the stability of the government of Australia.”
Many Australians online have responded to the battle in Canberra with a sense of frustration and dismay.
The Labour opposition, which tried to move a motion of no confidence against the prime minister in parliament on Tuesday, has called the situation chaotic.
“While chaos reigns, the country is not governed,” Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said.
Facebook and Twitter remove accounts linked to Russia and Iran campaigns
Facebook and Twitter say they have suspended or removed accounts linked to Iran and Russia over “inauthentic” or “manipulating” behaviour.
More than 650 Facebook pages and groups were said to have been identified as “misleading,” according to founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg.
Meanwhile Twitter said it suspended 284 accounts with apparent links to Iran.
It comes a day after Microsoft said it had thwarted Russian cyber-attacks against US conservative groups.
On Tuesday, Facebook said it had discovered multiple accounts that displayed “inauthentic behaviour” linked to campaigns that originated in Iran and Russia following investigations that spanned “many months.”
“We ban this kind of behaviour because we want people to be able to trust the connections they make,” the company said in a statement.
Although the investigation was still in progress, the social media network added, the campaign appeared to be targeting people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, the UK and the US.
The social media companies acted on a tip from cyber security firm FireEye, which revealed what it said were a number of accounts promoting Iranian propaganda.
Facebook then reportedly linked the accounts – including 76 Instagram pages – to Iranian state media, according to the company statement.
It added that further “misleading behaviour” was also traced to Russia, but that the activity did not appear to be linked to the Iranian campaign it had uncovered.
Some of the campaigns, which date back to 2011, featured content about Middle East politics in Arabic and Farsi.
The accounts also shared content about politics in the UK and the US in English, Facebook said.
Other accounts that linked to sources previously identified by the US government as Russian military intelligence services were also removed from the site.
The company added that it had shared the findings of its investigations with the US and UK governments.
Twitter, meanwhile, said its analysis of numerous accounts pointed towards “co-ordinated manipulation.”
On Monday, Microsoft said Russian hackers had tried to steal data from political organisations, including the International Republican Institute and the Hudson Institute think tanks.
However the software company said these attempts had been thwarted after its security staff won control of six net domains mimicking their websites.
Microsoft said the Fancy Bear hacking group had been behind the attacks.
Microsoft’s action comes a month after the US charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking computer networks used by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.
