Federal prosecutors have accused President Trump of committing a federal crime by directing illegal hush money during the presidential campaign to two women—adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal—during the presidential election. The accusation is contained in a sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, who has admitted that Trump directed him to pay the women in order to prevent them from speaking to the media during the campaign about their alleged affairs with Trump. Incoming House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler says the payments could be an impeachable offense. He was interviewed on Sunday by CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Jake Tapper: “If it’s proven, are those impeachable offenses?”
Rep. Jerry Nadler: “Well, they would be impeachable offenses. Whether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question. But certainly they’d be impeachable offenses, because even though they were committed before the president became president, they were committed in the service of fraudulently obtaining the office. That would be the—that would be an impeachable offense.”
Michael Cohen is being prosecuted for the payments by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York. On Friday, special counsel Robert Mueller also issued a sentencing memo for Cohen as well as Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort as part of the probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. We will have more on the significance of the filings after headlines.