Has Michael Cohen made a Trump impeachment more likely?

Impeachment proceedings against President Trump went from a theoretical danger to a vivid reality with yesterday’s guilty plea by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, sources close to the White House tell Axios.

The big picture: Cohen’s guilty plea (with the president identified as “Individual-1”) said Trump directed him to arrange hush money during the 2016 campaign to keep women from speaking out about affairs — so Cohen was accusing Trump of pushing him to commit a crime. Look for Cohen’s statement to form the basis of a 2019 impeachment attempt if Democrats win control of the House in November.

The plea by Cohen, paired in a split screen with the near-simultaneous conviction of Paul Manafort, is what Trump’s aides feared all along:

• The Mueller investigation would lead these hardened investigators down rabbit holes that only Trump and his murky associates knew about.
• The crimes detailed yesterday have nothing to do with colluding with Putin to throw an election — but are felonies, nonetheless.
• And, in a stunning twist, the president’s former attorney — the guy who would yell obscenities at reporters and threaten them in the obsequious, unquestioningly loyal service of his boss — is now the greatest known threat to the Trump presidency.

Trump friends say for the first time that they’re worried about the president:….

More…