Donald Trump had directed Cohen to pay a porn star and Playboy model with campaign money, Cohen's lawyer said. With talk of impeachment in the air, lawmakers said Cohen's plea adds to the "president's legal jeopardy."
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading a probe into Russian collusion with Trump's presidential campaign, referred Cohen's case to prosecutors in New York. His case is not formally part of the Russia probe.
As part of a plea deal, Cohen admitted to using campaign funds to pay porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal in exchange for their keeping silent about their relations Trump.
Cohen said "a candidate for federal office" personally directed him to pay the porn star and Playboy model "for the principal purpose of influencing the election."
Cohen's lawyer, Danny Davis, named Trump as the culprit.
Michael Cohen's lawyer said his client felt "liberated to tell the truth"Image: Reuters/J. Rosenberg
'Motivated by family'
DW's Washington Bureau Chief Alexandra von Nahmen said Cohen's decision to reach a plea deal was likely "motivated by trying to help his family and reach a deal to reduce his jail time."
What does this mean for Trump?
Adam Schiff, a Democratic lawmaker and House intelligence committee member, said the "factual basis of the plea" could add to the "president's legal jeopardy."
Asked whether Trump could be indicted, Tyson Barker, a political analyst at the Berlin-based Aspen Institute, told DW that there is "no precedent for an indictment of a president."
Is impeachment likely?
Although Trump could be impeached for directing his lawyer to commit a crime, such as violating campaign finance laws, it is unlikely to happen in the coming months.
The House of Representatives has the power to launch impeachment proceedings on the basis of criminal allegations, but it is dominated by Republicans. Trump continues to enjoy wide support from Republican lawmakers in Congress, who have leveraged his message for their campaigns.
However, that could change in November, when the US is set for midterm elections.
Instead of a legal process, the main avenue for the latest developments to blow back on Trump is through political channels, Barker of the Aspen Institute said.
This includes impeachment proceedings in Congress if the Republicans were to lose the House to Democrats in November's midterm elections, Barker said.
The fall of Michael Cohen
Lawyer Michael Cohen once was a man who would "take a bullet" for US President Donald Trump. After pleading guilty in a New York court, he may now implicate the American president in campaign finance violations.
Image: Reuters/J. Rosenberg
Take a bullet for Trump
For years, Michael Cohen described himself as being staunchly loyal to President Trump, going as far as saying that he would "take a bullet" for him. But according to <i>The New York Times</i>, Trump treated Cohen "poorly, with gratuitous insults, dismissive statements and, at least twice, threats of being fired."
Image: picture alliance/Zuma Wire/Go Nakamura
Hush money
In February, Cohen (middle) admitted to paying $130,000 (about €112,000) to porn star Stormy Daniels (right) to keep quiet about an affair she had with Trump (right). Prosecutors had been trying to ascertain whether Cohen violated any campaign-finance laws by making the payment ahead of 2016 election.
Image: picture alliance/AP
FBI raid
In April, FBI agents raided Cohen's office, apartment and hotel room on a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in swaying the 2016 presidential election. They took away millions of electronic files from his various devices and reams of documents, including pieces of paper from a shredder.
Image: picture alliance/Zuma Wire/Go Nakamura
You're fired!
In June, Trump said Cohen was no longer his attorney, adding that he hadn't spoken to him in a long time. Trump's new attorney Rudy Giuliani had said earlier that Cohen was not representing the US president after the FBI raids on his home and office.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/N. Kamm
Public break up
In July, Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, released a secret audio recording in which Trump was seemingly heard admitting to knowledge of a hush-money payment made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had an affair with him. It was Cohen, who had made the recording that Trump said was "perhaps illegal."
Image: Reuters/B. McDermid
Plea deal
On Tuesday, Trump's former fixer entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to tax and bank fraud charges and campaign finance violations.
Cohen is set to be sentenced on December 12, according to initial reports, with bail set at $500,000 (€430,000).
The broadcaster CNN reported that Cohen's plea deal will likely involve 36 to 60 months of jail time for Trump's once loyal "fixer."
The Cohen case is likely to draw the interest of Mueller's Russia probe.
Davis, Cohen's lawyer, told CNN that his client had "information that would be of interest to Mueller in his probe of conspiracy to corrupt American democracy."
"There is no doubt that Donald Trump committed a crime and, more than that, a cover-up of the crime. Because he did not want to write the check to Stormy Daniels," Davis said.
President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Donald Trump was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2017. Here's how magazine covers depicted him over the last year.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/EPA/Time Magazine
The new statesman
This cover from the end of 2016 most likely pleased the newly elected US president. Time magazine picked Donald Trump as Person of the Year, a title that was also once given to Konrad Adenauer, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King — as well as Hitler and Stalin. The annual end-of-year feature picks someone who, "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/EPA/Time Magazine
With a Hitler mustache
Even before Trump's election, the Mexican magazine Letras Libres made its opinion on Trump absolutely clear, using the words "American fascist" to form a Hitler mustache on his portrait. Building a wall on the US-Mexico border and clamping down on Mexican immigrants were some of Trump's electoral promises.
Image: Letras libras
Walling in
Two weeks after Donald Trump's election, the New Yorker creatively commented on the president's border wall project. From subtle to explicitly insensitive depictions, international magazine covers featured a broad range of styles while commenting on Trump's policies throughout the year.
Image: The New Yorker
A rhetorical question
Renowned for its confrontational style, Charlie Hebdo also took on the newly elected US president. In a depiction referring to Trump's infamous "grab women by the pussy" comments, the November 16, 2016, issue asked: "Did we have to entrust him with the nuclear button?"
Image: Charlie Hebdo
The prescience of the Simpsons
Donald Trump as US president: What was supposed to be a joke in The Simpsons turned out to be true 16 years later. British tabloid The Sun referred to the sitcom's prophecy on its cover, showing Homer shocked by the turn of events, reacting with his catchphrase, "D'oh!"
Image: The Sun
American psycho
The center-left French newspaper Libération reacted to the election with biting sarcasm. The headline was borrowed from a Bret Easton Ellis novel, "American Psycho." Its narrator and main character, Patrick Bateman, is rich, superficial and narcissistic. There are numerous parallels to be drawn with the US president — but the fictional character is also a serial killer.
Image: Libération
Nothing to see here
Some commentators hoped Trump would soften the tone he used during his campaign once he took office. On this Time magazine cover, illustrator Tim O'Brien used fine paintbrush strokes to depict Trump's chaotic first weeks in the White House.
Image: Time Magazine
At the wheel
After Trump's inauguration, the New Yorker commented on the childish behavior of the man who would from then on be steering the country. "Every so often, you hear stories on the news about a toddler who somehow manages to start the family car and drive the vehicle across town, where the law finally apprehends him," said the artist behind the cover, Barry Blitt.
Image: The New Yorker
An insurgent in the White House
The British weekly The Economist was inspired by Banksy's famous artwork of a rioter throwing flowers for last February's issue. It reacted to Trump's first weeks in office, when he "lobbed the first Molotov cocktail of policies and executive orders against the capital's brilliant-white porticos," wrote the magazine's editor, adding, "With Trump, chaos seems to be part of the plan."
Image: The Economist
Beheading freedom
A cartoon figure of Trump holding a bloodied knife and the Statue of Liberty's head: The cover of German weekly Der Spiegel made headlines worldwide. It reacted to Trump's "America First" policy and his threats to democracy, including his executive order to bar people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country. The cover divided opinions within the country and abroad.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K.-U. Wärner
Take your kids to work every day
It's both a challenge and a goldmine for satirists: Trump's politics and habits are often more bizarre than satire itself. On this cover, Mad magazine commented on the White House role given to the president's daughter Ivanka and to his son-in-law and presidential adviser, Jared Kushner, who was morphed into the traits of the magazine's iconic mascot, Alfred E. Neuman.
Image: Mad
The mouthpiece of white supremacists
After a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a participant drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring 19 people. Trump then declared that there were "very fine people" marching with the white supremacists that day, a comment which drew praise from former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke. The Economist reacted with this cover.
Image: The Economist
Tailwind from the president
Following the Charlottesville rally events, The New Yorker also took aim at Trump's remarks equating neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan to the counter-protesters. "President Trump's weak pushback to hate groups — as if he was trying not to alienate them as voters — compelled me to take up my pen," said artist David Plunkert of his cover, entitled "Blowhard."
Image: The New Yorker
Breaking a taboo: a Hitler comparison
The German weekly Stern went one step further by unsubtly portraying Trump draped in the American flag and giving a Nazi salute. The cover story was headlined "Sein Kampf," (His Struggle), a play on Adolf Hitler's infamous "Mein Kampf" book. It drew sharp criticism from the Central Council of Jews for belittling Hitler's crimes. Misappropriating Nazi symbols is taboo in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Sohn
Lazy boy
In early August, Newsweek magazine depicted Trump as a fast food-eating, bored TV junkie — descriptions also found in the book "Fire and Fury." Headlined "LAZY BOY: Donald Trump is bored and tired. Imagine how bad he'd feel if he did any work," the issue also pointed out that during his six months in office, he had spent 40 days at golf clubs, but had seen zero pieces of major legislation passed.
Image: Newsweek
A prominent phony
Trump likes to describe any media criticizing him as " fake news," but he's also renowned for his own twisting of the truth. This fake Time magazine cover praising Trump's TV show "The Apprentice" in 2009 was framed and on prominent display in at least five of his golf clubs. When the story came out last June, it felt like the perfect embodiment of Trump's narcissism and lies.
Russian bride of the year
Twitter went wild after the fake Time magazine cover story came out. Thousands of memes poking fun at Trump were created using the magazine's iconic template. This one photoshopped the Person of the Year issue to turn Donald Trump into the "Russian bride of the Year," commenting on Trump's questionable Russian ties.
