Michael Cohen claims Trump 'directed him' to make 'campaign finance violations' as he pleads guilty to 8 felony charges

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, has pleaded guilty to eight felony charges including tax evasion and campaign finance violations stemming from payments during the 2016 presidential campaign to women who claim they had an extramarital affair with the president.

During a court appearance in Manhattan on Tuesday, Mr Cohen told the judge that he was aware of what he was doing before pleading guilty to the charges, shocking those in attendance by admitting that he worked "at the direction of candidate" Trump to attempt to silence Karen McDougal — a former Playboy playmate who has claimed she had an affair with Mr Trump — in 2016, and worked "with and at the direction of the same candidate" to deliver a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to silence her own claims of an affair.

Mr Cohen is known for his previously close relationship with Mr Trump, and has repeatedly been described as his "fixer" for difficult matters. That proximity means Mr Cohen could potentially create substantial legal headaches for Mr Trump, whose 2016 presidential campaign is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller for any potential cooperation with Russian election meddling.

The case against Mr Cohen was referred to New York's Southern District by that special counsel, and any cooperation could help Mr Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election. There was no mention of a cooperation agreement between Mr Cohen and federal prosecutors on Tuesday. The lawyer was let free after the court appearance on $500,000 in bond, and will return in December for his sentencing.

In addition to the payments to Mr Trump's alleged mistresses, prosecutors have been investigating Mr Cohen for over $20m worth of bank and tax fraud, and Mr Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion on Tuesday, and one count of providing a false statement to a bank.

Mr Trump and Mr Cohen have a relationship that stretches back to the mid-2000s, when the lawyer took the Mr Trump's side in a legal dispute with the condo board at Trump World Tower in Manhattan. Mr Cohen, who owned condominiums in multiple Trump branded buildings in New York City, eventually went to work for the Trump Organisation, where he held positions including special counsel to Mr Trump and executive vice president of the organisation.

That work for Mr Trump extended into the 2016 election campaign, when Mr Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in reported hush money to try and keep her silent about an alleged affair between the actress and Mr Trump in 2006, just after the future president had had a child with Melania Trump. Mr Trump has denied the affair ever occurred, and has previously denied having any knowledge of the payment at the time it was made just before the general election.

But the apparent close relationship between the two appears to have soured in recent months, especially after the FBI raided Mr Cohen's offices, hotel, and home. Since then, the man who has said he would take a bullet for Mr Trump has signalled publicly that his allegiances may not always lie with Mr Trump, saying a month ago on ABC News that he would put his "family and country first" if he was offered a lenient sentence from prosecutors in exchange for providing information on Mr Trump. That statement followed after Mr Cohen's lawyer, Lanny J Davis, released a secret audio recoding of a conversation with Mr Trump that appeared to show him admitting to knowledge of the hush-money that was provided to Daniels.

Reacting to the news, Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti tweeted to Mr Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, taunting the attorney for the way has handled the case and saying that Mr Cohen's case will make it easier for he and his client to compel the president to submit to a deposition under oath as a part of the civil case they have brought against him.

"Buckle up Buttercup. You and your client completely misplayed this," Mr Avenatti tweeted after news broke that Mr Cohen was set to appear in court Tuesday.

Mr Trump has repeatedly decried the special counsel investigation as a "witch hunt", and has claimed that Mr Mueller and his team are conducting a partisan smear effort to try and bring down his campaign.

That investigation has already led to several indictments of individuals associated with the president's 2016 campaign, including guilty pleas from five individuals beyond Mr Cohen. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was among those indicted in relation to the Mueller investigation, and was convicted on Tuesday of eight felony charges on Tuesday by a federal jury in Virginia, within minutes of Mr Cohen's guilty pleas.