Who is Michael Cohen and what crimes has Donald Trump's former lawyer been jailed for?
But who is Cohen, and what exactly was he jailed for? Here's everything you need to know.
Who is Michael Cohen?
The 52-year-old was born on Long Island and his father was a surgeon who survived a Nazi concentration camp in Poland and his mother a nurse.
He graduated from American University in Washington and Cooley Law School in western Michigan before returning to New York.
As well as working in a law firm, he also ran a successful taxi business and made a failed bid to get elected to New York City Council.
Cohen married Ukraine-born Laura Shusterman in 1994 and the couple have a daughter.
When did he work for Donald Trump?
Cohen worked for the President from 2006 to 2018.
But even before they met was a firm admirer of Trump, reportedly reading the property tycoon's The Art of the Deal book several times.
He first entered into Donald Trump’s orbit when his family purchased a number of properties in the Trump World Tower, near the United Nations in New York.
Cohen had become the treasurer of the building's board and later acquired more properties.
He was introduced to Trump by his son, Donald Jr, in 2006 and after advising him on a few legal matters, was surprised to be offered a job in 2007.
Cohen soon acquired a reputation as a fiercely loyal and aggressive defender of his boss, once saying he would “take a bullet” for Trump and was also described as a “pit bull”.
He became executive vice-president of the Trump Organisation and pushed for his boss to run for the presidency even launching a website Should Trump Run? to gauge public opinion.
As the scandal over payments to Stormy Daniels began to gather pace, Cohen was replaced by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as Trump’s personal attorney in May 2018.
Why did he plead guilty?
Cohen has admitted charges relating to two separate inquiries both of which are potentially hugely damaging for the President.
The first set of charges relate to payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
The second set relate to the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into whether Trump colluded Russia to sway the 2016 election.
Daniels, 39, real name Stephanie Clifford, alleges that she slept with Trump following a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada in 2006.
She has regularly claimed the payment made to her was hush money – to stop her being interviewed about her alleged affair with the now US President.
On April 9 the FBI raided Cohen's offices in Manhattan seizing records relating to the payment.
In August Cohen admitted paying Daniels £92,000 days before the US election in 2016.
Cohen pleaded guilty to violating finance laws during the 2016 presidential election by handling payments to Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also claims she slept with Trump.
Prior to that Cohen's lawyer released audio of a conversation he had with Trump about the Stormy payment.
In September, Cohen's lawyer said his client had been providing "critical information" to Mueller's probe.
Then on November 29, Cohen admitted he lied about a Trump property deal in Russia during the 2016 election.
During a court hearing in Manhattan he admitted submitting a false written statement about a Trump Organisation plan to build a skyscraper in the Russian capital.
Cohen was interviewed in October 2017 behind closed doors by the House and Senate Intelligence committees.
They are conducting their own investigation into whether Mr Trump's campaign worked with Russia to sway the US election two years ago.
According to the criminal complaint, Cohen told lawmakers that talks over the Moscow project had lasted from September 2015 until January 2016, while Mr Trump was running for the White House.
Cohen told the committees he had had limited contact with Trump about the project, when in fact it had been "more extensive".
In the plea agreement, prosecutors say while Trump insisted repeatedly in the campaign he had no business dealings in Russia, Cohen was pursing the Trump Tower Moscow project weeks after his boss won the Republican nomination.
What has Cohen been jailed for?
The president's ex-lawyer was sentenced to three years in prison on December 12 for his role in making illegal hush-money payments to women to help Trump's 2016 election campaign and lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia.
US District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan sentenced Cohen to 36 months for the payments, which violated campaign finance law, and to two months for the false statements to Congress.
The two terms will run simultaneously.
The judge set March 6 for Cohen's voluntary surrender.
As part of the sentence, the judge ordered Cohen to forfeit £39,529 and pay restitution of nearly £1.1million for the campaign finance law violations.
The three-year sentence imposed by the judge was a modest reduction from the four to five years recommended under federal guidelines, but still underscored the seriousness of the charges.
"While Mr. Cohen pledges to help in further investigations that is not something the court can consider now," Pauley said.
In a bombshell interview after his sentencing, Cohen warned president he won’t be a scapegoat after ten years of loyalty in a bombshell interview.
Cohen broke his silence last week saying he refuses to be “the villain” and that the US president needs to take responsibility for his "dirty deeds".
He told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America: “He knows the truth, I know the truth and others know the truth.”
“I lied for more than ten years out of loyalty to him, now I have my freedom and I will not be the villain of his story.
He added that Trump directed him to make payments to women and "knew that it was wrong".
However Cohen has postponed giving his testimony to Congress after the president threatened him and his family, his adviser said.
He was due to appear before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on 7 February.
Cohen's adviser Lanny Davis said that the 52-year-old put off his appearance because of "ongoing threats against his family from Trump".
Trump, however, has always denied being involved in any romantic affairs.
Davis said: "There is no question that his threatening and calling out his father-in-law, who – quote – 'has all the money', is not only improper and unseemly for a bully using the bully pulpit of the presidency, but the very definition of intimidation and witness tampering."
Trump said: "I would say he's been threatened by the truth. He's only been threatened by the truth.
"And he doesn't want to do that probably for me or other of his clients.
"He has other clients also, I assume, and he doesn't want to tell the truth for me or other of his clients."
What's the latest?
Cohen will testify next week at a closed hearing of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee after postponing an appearance before another congressional panel, citing threats from Trump.
He had expressed concern about testifying because of threats against his family from Trump.
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said in a statement: "Mr. Cohen has relayed to the Committee his legitimate concerns for his own safety as well as that of his family, which have been fuelled by improper comments made by the President and his lawyer."
How did Trump respond to the prison sentence?
Despite Cohen claiming to have been acting in the interest, and under the instruction, of Trump, the President claimed otherwise.
In a tweet on Thursday morning he said: "I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law.
The tweet continued: "It is called 'advice of counsel,' and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid.
"Despite that many campaign finance lawyers have strongly stated that I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance.
"Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me, but he plead to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not guilty even on a civil basis.
"Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much reduced prison sentence, which he did – including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook.
"As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!"
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