Trump’s ex-lawyer to be sentenced in New York

Michael D. Cohen, the former lawyer for President Trump, is to be sentenced on Wednesday morning for his role in a hush-money scandal that could threaten Trump’s presidency by implicating him in a scheme to buy the silence of two women who said they had affairs with him.

Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty in August to charges by federal prosecutors in New York that, just before the election, he paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 and helped arrange a $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal so the women would keep quiet about their relationships with Trump, who is married. Trump denies having the affairs.

Cohen also admitted to unrelated tax and bank fraud. He faces sentencing on a separate charge of lying to Congress brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia. Cohen pleaded guilty to that charge last month.

Trump at first denied knowing anything about the payments, but then acknowledged them. This week, he insisted that the payments were “a simple private transaction” — not election-related spending subject to campaign-finance laws.

Trump has denied any collusion with Russia and has accused Mueller's team of pressuring his former aides to lie about him, his campaign and his business dealings. Russia has denied U.S. allegations of interfering in the election to help Trump.

Prosecutors and Cohen both say the hush money payments violated campaign finance laws and were directed by Trump himself to cover up affairs he had in 2006 and 2007. Federal law requires that the contribution of "anything of value" to a campaign must be disclosed, and an individual donation cannot exceed $2,700.

Though Cohen asked in a November 30 court filing to be given no jail time based on his assistance in the investigation, prosecutors on Friday asked that Cohen be given a "substantial term of imprisonment" for his crimes with only a "modest" reduction to the roughly four to five-year term they say he faces under sentencing guidelines.