For the first time, US President Donald Trump has been directly implicated in a conspiracy to influence the outcome of America's 2016 election.
His former lawyer, Michael Cohen, struck a plea agreement with prosecutors in New York and conceded that he made a series of payments to women, presumed to include the adult film star Stormy Daniels who claims she had an affair with Mr, Trump.
Mr. Cohen faces up to five years in jail for his crimes….and President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort is facing an even longer sentence after he was convicted of several counts of fraud by a jury in Virginia.
Our US Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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The welter of developments came as Donald Trump was in the air…on Air Force One….heading to a campaign rally in West Virginia.
When he left the White House, he could still claim that hadn't been implicated in any criminal conspiracies relating to the Presidential election.
By the time he landed, that was no longer possible.
Michael Cohen, his former lawyer….a man who worked for Donald Trump and his organization for years, and who, we now know, taped some of his conversations with the President….entered a guilty plea in Manhattan to a series of crimes for which he faces just over five years in jail.
They include hush money payments made to several women on behalf of President Trump - or the candidate and "Individual One", as he's referred to in court documents.
Deputy US Attorney Robert Khuzami
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Those women include the porn star Stormy Daniels, who - upon receipt of a one hundred thousand dollar payment - cancelled a network TV interview in which she was planning to tell her story.
"I participated in the conduct for the purposes of influencing the election", Mr. Cohen told the court.
Words that will haunt Donald Trump for the remainder of his Presidency.
But there was more to come.
In Virginia, the President's former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted by a jury on eight counts of defrauding the Internal Revenue Service and several American banks.
He faces decades in jail….and another trial in Washington DC next month.
Mr. Trump, in Ohio, said he felt "very sad" about his former aide's conviction.
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That is an astonishing thing to say about prosecutors who have now proved that two members of the President's inner circle defrauded America's taxing authorities to the tune of millions of dollars….and that one of them - Michael Cohen - tried to defraud the electorate as well.
And most troubling for the President and the men and women who still choose to serve in his administration is the implication that he was also a conspirator in Mr. Cohen's crimes.
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, notching up one court-room victory after another, is edging ever closer to the Oval Office.
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