Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, said the president told him to pay off an adult film star and a former Playboy model, and that the payments were “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.”
Mr. Cohen made the claim as he pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations in federal court.

He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that “I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have, for months, said privately that they considered Mr. Cohen’s case to be potentially more problematic for the president than the investigation by the special counsel.