Trump ex-campaign chief, ex-lawyer guilty of criminal charges

The former campaign chairman for US President Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, was found guilty on eight of 18 criminal charges of bank and tax fraud by a jury on Tuesday in federal court in northern Virginia, according to multiple news reports.

Manafort's conviction is the first secured at trial by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team.

Five of the guilty verdicts were for filing false tax documents, and the other three involved foreign bank account registration and bank fraud.

The result came on the fourth day of deliberations by six male and six female jurors and weeks of exchanges of evidence and testimony in the trial. Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial in the other 10 charges, on which jurors said they could not reach a verdict.

On the same day, Trump's former longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges at a federal court in Manhattan.

The charges include campaign-finance violations, tax evasion and bank fraud.

Cohen claimed that Trump directed him to make payments that violated campaign finance laws in an effort to stop Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film actress, and Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model, from going public about alleged extramarital affairs with Trump. In entering the plea, Cohen did not name the two women or Trump.

"This is the worst hour of Trump's entire presidency－no, make that entire life," tweeted Norman Eisen, who was a former special counsel for ethics and government reform to former president Barack Obama.

But Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed the government's charges against Cohen contained "no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president", Reuters reported.

US media said that the outcomes have raised grave questions about Trump's judgment, given that since Trump's election, his national security adviser, personal lawyer, campaign chairman, deputy campaign manager and a foreign policy aide have all admitted or been convicted of crimes.

The cases arose from Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

CNN hailed the verdict as "a major if not complete victory" for the ongoing Mueller probe, while Fox News called it "a highly publicized showdown" between the White House and Mueller in the past few weeks. Trump has repeatedly attacked the Mueller probe as a "rigged witch hunt".

Sentencing dates in the two cases have not yet been set.

Manafort is also facing a separate trial in September in Washington, DC, on charges of money laundering and fraud conspiracy.