US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty in a New York court to violating campaign finance laws.

He said he had done so at the direction of “the candidate”, for the “principal purpose of influencing [the] election”.

The admission was related to hush money paid to Mr Trump’s alleged mistresses.

Mr Trump has not commented. In May, he admitted reimbursing Cohen for paying one of the women, having earlier denied any knowledge of it.

Mr Cohen, 51, admitted eight counts, including tax and bank fraud in a plea deal with prosecutors.

Could Trump himself be prosecuted?

“If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?” Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, asked after Tuesday’s proceedings.

However, Mr Trump is unlikely to face criminal charges as long as he remains president, legal experts say.

What is conceivable is that he could be sacked by Congress under the US constitution’s provision for impeaching a president over “high crimes and misdemeanours”.

For that to happen, Mr Trump’s opponents in the Democratic Party would have to win control of both houses.