A federal jury on Tuesday found Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, guilty on eight of the 18 charges he faced in his tax and bank fraud trial.
The verdict delivered a painful fall from grace for a top political operative who has advised presidents from Gerald Ford to Donald Trump and a shot in the arm to an investigation derided by Trump as a "witch hunt."
Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial on the other 10 counts. The Justice Department has a choice about whether to attempt to retry Manafort on those counts. Prosecutors have until Aug. 29 to notify the judge as to what they've decided.
The Manafort trial marked the first public court test of the work by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed nearly 15 months ago to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election and any American conspirators.
As is their practice, government lawyers made no comment after the verdict. Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing told reporters outside the courthouse that Manafort is evaluating his options.
"Mr. Manafort is disappointed at not getting acquittals all the way through or a complete hung jury on all counts," Downing said.
Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, has pleaded guilty to eight counts in federal court in New York, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday evening.
They include five counts of tax evasion, one count of falsifying submissions to a bank and two counts involving unlawful campaign contributions.
Cohen's conduct "reflects a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time," said Robert Khuzami, deputy U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan.
The counts related to campaign finance violations involved payments that were made to keep two women quiet during the campaign, Khuzami said, noting that Cohen was "repaid at the direction of the candidate."
Khuzami noted that Cohen was repaid by the campaign with invoices for "services rendered." Those "invoices were a sham," Khuzami said. They were "merely reimbursement for illegal campaign contributions."
Cohen said in court that he made the excessive contributions in the summer of 2016, and in October of 2016 at the direction of a federal candidate. While Cohen did not name President Trump, it's clear that is who he is referring to given the timeline and circumstances.