WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty to making false statements in connection with the federal investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 US election, according to a court hearing.

Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to one count of making false statements to Congress in its investigation into whether Trump’s campaign worked with Russia to sway the election. Cohen said in the hearing that he submitted a false written statement about a Trump Organisation real estate project in Moscow.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and bank fraud in a case brought by federal prosecutors in New York.

A guilty plea may signal Cohen is hoping for a lighter sentence on the charges in exchange for continuing to cooperate with Mueller’s probe. “I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual 1’s political messaging and out of loyalty to individual 1,” Cohen said in court. He previously identified individual one as Trump.

Reuters