2016 ELECTION/MICHAEL COHEN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen testified on Tuesday [8-21-18] that Trump had directed him to commit a crime by arranging payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump. Cohen’s voice cracked several times as he pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges in federal court in Manhattan, including tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. Facing up to five years in prison, the admissions were a dramatic change from Cohen’s earlier boasts that he was Trump’s ‘fixer’ and would ‘take a bullet’ for the president. Most legal experts say a sitting president cannot be indicted for a crime, but the Constitution allows Congress to impeach and remove a president from office for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’ Cohen’s accusation increases political pressure for Trump ahead of November’s congressional elections where Democrats are trying to regain control of the House of Representatives and Senate.”
–Brendan Pierson, “Cohen testifies Trump told him to commit crime by paying off women,” Reuters, August 21, 2018 9:10 am