Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Michael Cohen Admits Making Illegal Payments To Porn Star ‘At Direction’ Of Trump

This is a developing story.

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former longtime personal attorney, has pleaded guilty to eight counts in federal court.

Cohen pled guilty to evading personal income taxes, making an unlawful corporate campaign contribution, making a false statement to a financial institution and making an excessive campaign contribution in October 2016, the Washington Post reported. He could face a prison sentence of 46 to 63 months, the judge said.

Cohen was shaking head and appeared to be holding back emotions as the potential prison sentence was announced, according to the Post.

Cohen’s lawyer said the hearing was a powerful statement against Trump, noting that Cohen swore under oath that Trump directed him.

“If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?” Lanny Davis said.

Cohen acknowledged the charges and said he was directed to violate campaign law at the direction of a candidate for federal office. Cohen said he paid $130,000 to somebody to keep them quiet, per the same candidate’s orders. It was later repaid by the candidate. He didn’t identify the candidate or silenced person, but the facts match Cohen’s payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleged that she and Trump had an affair, as well as Trump’s repayment of Cohen’s efforts.

Cohen also said that the purpose of the payments were to swing the results of the election, which Trump won.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.