What does Michael Cohen’s downfall mean for President Trump?

Michael Cohen went down swinging at his former boss, saying it was his job and misfortune to have to cover up the ‘dirty deeds’ of the President.

The burning question from the spectacular fall of Donald Trump’s crooked former personal lawyer Michael Cohen is what does this mean for the President?

At his sentencing today Cohen went down swinging at his former boss saying it was his job and misfortune to have to cover up the ‘dirty deeds’ of the president. It was Trump, he said, who was the true villain.

Democrats are energised because the prosecution of Cohen, who was sentenced today to three years jail for a multitude of offences, has directly implicated Trump in potential campaign finance violations, a felony charge.

Among the many charges to which Cohen pleaded guilty was excessive campaign contributions — a reference to the hush money payments which he says Trump directed him to pay to two women who claim to have had affairs with the now president.

Cohen testified that the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal were made shortly before the 2016 election ‘at the direction’ of Trump and ‘with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election.’ In other words, to prevent voters from learning of the alleged affairs before they cast their vote for president.

Trump denies everything. He denies the affairs with the women and he initially denied knowledge of the hush money payments before being forced to backtrack by the clear evidence of such payments. However, he has denied directing the payments to the women and this week he described them as ‘a simple private transaction’ rather than spending which relate to campaign finance laws. What’s more, Trump says that any offences would be civil ones not criminal and were Cohen’s fault. “Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me,” Trump tweeted.

As things stand Trump is currently an alleged unindicated co-conspirator in Cohen’s campaign finance crimes.

Some Democrats are now saying this is the smoking gun which could lead to legal charges against the president and possible impeachment. But such a conclusion is premature.

The only obvious precedent for campaign finance violations involving sex-related hush money is the 2012 prosecution of former Senator John Edwards over payments to hide a pregnant mistress while he was running for president in 2008.

However, a jury struggled to determine whether such actions were aimed at trying to win an election or the protection of his personal life.

The case ended with a mistrial on five charges and an acquittal on one.

What’s more, there is no precedent for bringing such charges against a sitting president, with lawyers divided over whether this is legally possible, much less whether any conviction would result.

Any decision by Democrats to pursue an impeachment of Trump in the house is a political one rather than a legal one. The house can impeach him if a majority believes his conduct rises to the level of ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’.

But as things stand, any impeachment by the house would fail to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate which requires a two-thirds majority to impeach and remove a president from office.

So while Trump is likely to survive Cohen’s campaign finance allegations the much larger and more dangerous report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller still looms.

That will be the moment of reckoning for the Trump presidency.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia