The “veterans of the Trump campaign who are now felons” club accepted two new members Tuesday. Michael Cohen, pleading guilty in a Manhattan courtroom to eight counts of tax evasion, filing false statements, and violating federal election law, said Donald Trump was his co-conspirator in those violations. Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman, was convicted by a Virginia jury of eight counts of tax and bank fraud.
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Unindicted co-conspirator in chief: Cohen copped a plea deal with federal prosecutors and admitted to violating campaign-finance law “at the direction” of an unnamed candidate in 2016. Spoiler: That’s Trump. He pleaded out to two campaign-finance charges related to hush-money payments to Trump’s alleged mistresses: causing an unlawful corporate contribution to Trump’s campaign and an excessive personal contribution to Trump’s campaign, along with five counts of filing false tax returns, and one count of bank fraud. Fox News reported the deal could net Cohen three to five years in prison.