Wall Street Journal: Michael Cohen’s Plea Puts Trump Under Legal Scrutiny

Michael Cohen’s assertion that President Trump directed him to violate campaign-finance laws through payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Mr. Trump has thrust the president closer than ever to legal scrutiny. …

“The simple fact that a sitting president is implicated is pretty astounding and something we haven’t seen in decades, if ever,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, a Washington-based group that had filed a complaint with the Justice Department about the payments. …

In the Cohen case, a challenge for prosecutors would be showing that Mr. Trump knew he was breaking the law when he directed the payments, Mr. Ryan said. …

Mr. Ryan said the fact pattern in the Trump campaign case is stronger. The jury in the Edwards case wasn’t certain the payments, months before any primary votes were cast, were made related to his campaign, versus to concealing the affair from his sick wife.

By contrast, Mr. Ryan said, the payments to the women who alleged affairs with Mr. Trump came just weeks before the general election.