• President Donald Trump's name wasn't said a single time during a roughly 45-minute court proceeding during which his former longtime lawyer entered eight guilty pleas to federal charges.
• But Trump took center stage at the hearing.
• Here's what went down inside the courtroom.

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump's name wasn't said a single time during a roughly 45-minute court proceeding where his former longtime lawyer entered eight guilty pleas to federal charges that could land him in prison for the rest of his life.

It didn't matter.

As Michael Cohen explained to US District Judge William H. Pauley why he was pleading guilty to all of the charges — including charges that he made illegal campaign and corporate contributions to an unnamed candidate in 2016 — the president's name was impossible to avoid.

Cohen, the man who worked alongside the president for more than a decade, admitted in federal court, as part of a plea deal he struck with the government, that Trump directed him to knowingly break the law to boost his own candidacy.

As Cohen explained that he committed the campaign-finance violations "at the direction of the candidate" and with the "purpose of influencing the election," there were audible gasps in the lower Manhattan courtroom packed with reporters.

Aside from explaining why he was pleading guilty to the eight charges he faced, which also included five counts of tax evasion and one count of making false statements to a bank, Cohen said almost nothing in the hearing. Cohen admitted he had one stiff drink on Monday night ahead of the proceeding — a Glenlivet, 12-year-old single malt scotch on the rocks.

He said such a drink was not customary for him. Then again, little would be customary for him about the 24 hours that followed.

Cohen implicates Trump

Cohen first said that in the summer of 2016, at "a candidate's" direction, he moved to keep an individual from publicly disclosing damaging information that would hurt that candidate's campaign. That person was former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who says she had an affair with Trump years ago.

Her story was purchased by American Media Inc., whose head, David Pecker, is a longtime friend of Trump. The National Enquirer, owned by AMI, purchased the rights to McDougal's story for $150,000 in August 2016 but never published it. That practice is known as "catch and kill."

In court, Cohen said "we accomplished" the goal regarding preventing that information from coming out.

"I participated in this conduct with the principal purpose of influencing" the election, he added.

Cohen said the same candidate later "directed" him to make a second payment to keep another individual from disclosing damaging information about him. That was a reference to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Just days before the 2016 presidential election, Cohen facilitated a $130,000 payment to Daniels to keep her quiet about her allegation of having a 2006 affair with Trump — an allegation Trump has denied. The FBI was looking for documents related to that payment and similar arrangements with other women when it raided Cohen's home, office, and hotel in April at the onset of the probe.

Cohen initially said this payment was not for the purpose of influencing an election but to prevent Trump's family from learning of the embarrassing information. Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, made the same claim.

"I knew what I was doing was wrong and illegal," Cohen said in court Tuesday.

The federal prosecutors Cohen struck a deal with said they had evidence proving Cohen's guilt in the matter, stemming from records obtained from him that included audio tapes, texts, phone records, emails, witnesses with knowledge of the transactions, and records from The National Enquirer.

Pauley then read Cohen each count one by one, asking him to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.

"Guilty," Cohen repeated eight times. Pauley announced a sentencing hearing for Cohen on December 12. Bail was set at $500,000. As Cohen left the courthouse, he was greeted to chants of "lock him up" from onlookers, a reference to a popular chant Trump's supporters directed at former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Soon after, Giuliani offered up a response. He called Cohen a liar.

"There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government's charges against Mr. Cohen," Giuliani said. "It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time."

Lanny Davis, one of Cohen's attorneys, questioned how his client's admission of guilt didn't also implicate the president.

"Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election," Davis said. "If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for Donald Trump?"

Ahead of a rally in West Virginia, Trump was asked about the Cohen news, along with the news that Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, was found guilty on eight counts.

He said nothing about Cohen.

SEE ALSO: Michael Cohen has reached a plea deal with prosecutors — and he says he made the illegal campaign contribution 'at the direction of' Trump

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• Cereal Killer Café in London sells cereal in every way imaginable.
• It was opened in 2014 by twin brothers Alan and Gary Keery.
• You can choose from over 50 types of cereal. The café imports them from all over the world.
• It has three stores in the UK and others in Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar.

Cereal Killer Café in London is a cereal lover's dream.

"At Cereal Killer Café, we don't just sell a bowl of cereal. We sell cereal in every way imaginable," owner Alan Keery Told Business Insider. "We have cornflake chicken, we have cereal milk ice cream. We've got alcohol with cereal in it. We've got basically any way that you can enjoy cereal."

Cereal Killer Café was opened in 2014 by twin brothers Alan and Gary Keery. Since then it has sold over one million bowls.

You can choose from over 50 types of cereal. The café imports them from all over the world. Countries include South Africa, America, Spain, France, New Zealand, and Australia.

"We have literally scoured the globe to try and find the best of what cereal has to offer," said owner Gary Keery.

It has three stores in the UK and others in Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar.

It also recently launched its own brand of cereals.

Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo

SEE ALSO: This London restaurant only sells mac ‘n’ cheese — here are the six different types it makes

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• We've all been taught to wash our hands after using the restroom. But not everyone does.
• Scientific research suggests that washing up after going to the bathroom, especially if you might have feces on your hands, is an effective way to combat infection and illness. 
• In a pinch, even rinsing your hands with cold water helps prevent the spread of bacteria.

We all know what we're supposed to do after using the toilet.  

But survey after survey (including one in which scientists secretly camped out in bathrooms) have revealed a dirty truth: people don't always wash their hands before they leave the bathroom. One study suggested that only 67% of people wash their hands after they go. 

Don Schaffner, a professor of food science at Rutgers, has been studying hand washing for years and says the conventional wisdom shouldn't be ignored. 

"It doesn't matter whether you're peeing or you're pooping, you should wash your hands," he told Business Insider.

Here's why.

Germs can hang out in bathrooms for a long time

Each trip to the restroom is its own unique journey into germ land. So some occasions probably require more washing up than others.

"If you've got diarrhea all over your hands, it's way more important that you wash your hands than if... you didn't get any obvious poop on your fingers," Schaffner said. "My gosh, if you've got poop on your hands and you have the time, certainly, get in there, lather up real good and do a real good job." 

Compared to feces, urine can be pretty clean when we're not harboring any infections, though it's not totally sterile.

"People who use urinals probably think they don't need to wash their hands," Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said to the New York Times. (In studies, women tend to be better about adhering to hand washing than men.)

But it's best to wash your hands after every trip to the toilet because human feces carry pathogens like E. coli, Shigella, Streptococcus, hepatitis A and E, and more. 

You can also easily catch norovirus by touching bathroom surfaces that have been contaminated with a sick person's poo or vomit, then putting your hands into your mouth. The super-contagious illness is the most common food poisoning culprit, and causes diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain. 

A wide variety of other microbes and bacteria can be found in bathrooms, too. Some strains of Staphylococcus, or staph, are "found on almost every hand," as a team of hand washing researchers pointed out in a 2004 study. Public toilets can house many different drug-resistant strains of that bacteria.

Even if your own hands are clean and poo-free, can you say the same for the last person who touched that toilet handle, used the sink, or opened the bathroom door?

Hand washing is a life-saving routine 

Religious traditions have urged cleanliness via ritual hand washing for thousands of years. But it wasn't until the 1800s that health care professionals linked good hand hygiene to lower infection rates.

Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that when doctors and medical students handled cadavers before touching patients in the maternity ward, more mothers developed fevers and even died. He instituted an unpopular chlorine-washing rule and saw the death rates tumble.

Similarly, during the Crimean War, nurse Florence Nightingale initiated hand-washing rules and other hygiene measures in the British hospital where she worked. Death rates there dropped by two-thirds, providing some of the first hard evidence that proper hygiene saves lives.

We're still far from perfect at preventing infections. People generally contract diarrhea — which kills around 525,000 children under five annually around the world — by drinking dirty water, eating contaminated food (often soiled by dirty hands), and from person to person contact "as a result of poor hygiene," according to the World Health Organization.

Better hand washing could cut diarrhea death rates in half and save more than a million lives (adults and children) every year, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimate. Regular hand washing can also cut your risk of developing a respiratory infection by 16%.

'Wash your hands any time you feel that they might be dirty'

We all come in contact with unsavory substances regularly, especially after touching public doorknobs, our cell phones, and moist kitchen towels — all of which are likely dirtier than a clean toilet seat, which typically houses just 50 bacteria per square inch. So hand washing at any time of day can help stop the spread of many kinds of bacteria, yeasts, and viruses. 

"I think a good general rule of thumb is you should wash your hands any time you feel that they might be dirty," Schaffner said. In other words, seize the opportunity when you're near a sink. 

He said he's not "super paranoid" about making sure his own hands are always squeaky clean, but some of his favorite times of day to wash up are after walking the dog, working in the dirt, or handling raw meat. 

Even a quick "splash ’n dash," as researchers like to call the practice of rinsing with water but no soap, can help fight off some bacteria that causes infections. But that shortcut is not advised if you might have raw meat or feces on your mitts, and a lather with soap and water is more effective at disinfecting hands than any wipe or sanitizer.

Here are Schaffner's best tips for your next journey to the toilet

Follow this simple, three-step hand-washing plan to lower your chances of getting colds, self-inflicted food poisoning, and diarrhea.

First, don't worry about the temperature of the water; Schaffner's studies have confirmed that doesn't make a difference. He suggests that you "adjust the water temperature so it's a nice comfortable temperature, so you can do a good job."

Second, give yourself enough time to "get some soap in there, lather it up real good, clean under your finger nails," Schaffner said. Spending even five seconds washing your hands can help reduce the amount of bacteria on them, but 20 seconds is better. The Centers for Disease Control recommends humming the Happy Birthday song to yourself twice as a timer. 

Third, dry off before you leave the room. This step is key because wet hands transfer more bacteria than dry ones. 

"If your hands are still wet, you go to touch that door of the bathroom, having your wet hand might actually help transfer bacteria," Schaffner said. He'll even dry his palms on his pants if there's no paper towel around. 

Despite all the evidence demonstrating the health benefits of regular hand washing, Schaffner knows his advice can only go so far.

"I'm not in charge of you washing your hands, just because I'm a guy who did some science and did some research on hand-washing," he said. "You do what you want."

SEE ALSO: How often you actually need to shower, according to science

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George Clooney was the world's highest-paid actor in the last year, according to Forbes. 

Clooney took home an industry-leading pre-tax paycheck of $239 million in the calendar year between June 1, 2017 and June 1, 2018, Forbes reported. 

Though he didn't appear in a film during that period, Clooney brought in his career-high salary on the strength of the $700 million sale of his tequila brand, Casamigas Tequila, in June 2017.

He was followed on Forbes' list by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Robert Downey Jr., and seven other actors.

Forbes said that its pre-tax earnings estimates are "based on data from Nielsen, ComScore, Box Office Mojo and IMDB, as well as interviews with industry insiders."

Here are the ten highest-paid actors in the world, according to Forbes:

SEE ALSO: The Rock was the highest-paid actor in the history of Forbes' Celebrity 100 for this year's list at $124 million

10. Chris Evans — $34 million

Evans' paycheck primarily stemmed from his role as Captain America in Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including the 2018 blockbuster "Avengers: Infinity War." 

9. Salman Khan — $38.5 million

Khan, a Bollywood star, earned $38.5 million from a combination of successful films that he starred in and produced, including 2017's "Tiger Zinda Hai," and endorsement deals for consumer items like Suzuki motorcycles and Chlormint gum. 

8. Adam Sandler — $39.5 million

Sandler made millions from his Netflix movie deal, which he signed in 2014 and extended for four films in 2017. Forbes said he also earned six-figures for each live comedy act he performed in the last year.

• A federal air marshal was removed from a United Airlines subsidiary flight on Monday night after a flight attendant saw the gun he was carrying and issued an emergency alert, the Star Tribune reported.
• The air marshal and another man were taken off the plane and handcuffed before being questioned by the FBI at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the report said.
• The Transportation Security Administration said the flight attendant mistook the air marshal for a passenger. But the Star Tribune reported that the air marshal showed the flight attendant his gun and that it was why an emergency was declared. 

A federal air marshal was hauled off a United Airlines regional partner plane in handcuffs after a flight attendant saw the gun he was carrying and issued an emergency alert in concert with the crew, the Star Tribune reported on Tuesday.

The incident occurred late Monday on United Airlines Flight 3531, a nonstop flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The flight was operated by Republic Airlines, an Indianapolis-based regional partner of United Airlines and other major carriers.

A representative for Republic Airlines, Jon Austin, told Business Insider in a statement: "The safety and security of our customers and employees is our top priority. We are aware of this incident and are working with investigators."

Neither the Transportation Security Administration nor United responded to Business Insider request for comment.

In a statement to the Star Tribune, the TSA said: "A Federal Air Marshal on official business onboard a flight was mistaken for a passenger by a flight attendant. Protocols for notification of law enforcement presence aboard an aircraft are in place to avoid an incident like this. TSA is working with the airline to determine the specific circumstances in this case."

According to CBS4 Minnesota, the flight landed in Minneapolis at 11:30 p.m. but did not make it to the gate. A woman on the flight told the Star Tribune that passengers were told the landing was delayed because of an occupied gate. She said that police cars surrounded the plane after it landed and that two men dressed in slacks and button-down shirts were removed from the plane and handcuffed.

While the TSA indicated the flight attendant was to blame, it appears the air marshal may have violated protocol.

Citing recordings from Liveatc.net, the Star Tribune reported that it was confirmed rather quickly during the flight that the two men were air marshals and that one of them showed the flight attendant his gun. From there, the flight attendant alerted the cockpit.

"That is completely against SOP [standard operating procedure] for them to show their firearm," the pilot said in the recordings, according to the Star Tribune. "So that's the reason we declared an emergency."

Following their removal from the plane, the two men were questioned by the FBI at the airport, according to the Star Tribune. The publication said the TSA confirmed that both were federal air marshals.

CBS4 Minnesota reported that the FBI was investigating the incident.

SEE ALSO: United Airlines will start charging more for some economy seats, and it's part of a costly trend that's plaguing the industry

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• Many travelers believe the most beautiful McDonald's in the world is in Porto, a coastal city in northwest Portugal.
• Opened in 1995, the restaurant is located in a renovated space previously occupied by Cafe Imperial, a famous coffee shop open in the city since the 1930s.
• I stopped by "the McDonald's Imperial" to see if it truly is the "World's Most Beautiful McDonald's."

You've probably eaten a Big Mac or McNuggets at dozens of McDonald's restaurants throughout your life, but have you ever stopped to think which of the chain's 36,899 locations is the most beautiful?

Many travelers believe the most beautiful McDonald's in the world is in Porto, an age-old coastal city in northwest Portugal known for its gorgeous cobblestone streets and historic medieval city center.

Opened in 1995, the restaurant is located in a renovated space previously occupied by Cafe Imperial, a famous coffee shop open in the city since the 1930s. The coffee shop was seen as a prime example of Art Deco architecture of the period and, thus, McDonald's retained most of the main architectural features when it took over the location.

One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to visit American fast food joints in other countries — you never know how much companies cater to local tastes. When I visited China in April, I found that KFC is by far the most popular American fast food chain there and it is far better than in the US.

When I got to Porto earlier this week, I decided that I had to check out the McDonald's Imperial — as it is called by locals — to see if it lived up to the hype as the "World's Most Beautiful McDonald's."

Here's what it was like:

SEE ALSO: KFC is by far the most popular fast food chain in China and it's nothing like the US brand — here's what it's like

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The McDonald's was pretty busy when I stopped by for a late afternoon lunch one day this past week. It being summer in Portugal, there were tons of tourists dining al fresco. The restaurant is located in Liberdade Square in the center of the city and near many attractions.

The first thing you notice upon approaching the McDonald's is the giant bronze eagle by Portuguese sculptor Henrique Moreira. When Cafe Imperial opened in 1936, the entrance had a revolving door, but that is long gone.

Source: Hard Musica Portugal

When you first enter the restaurant, you notice the hallmarks of the Art Deco style (think Empire State Building-style): the ornate friezes along the ceiling, the crystal chandeliers, and, most famously, the massive stained glass window behind the counter.

Source: Hard Musica Portugal

The most common questions most people have about the upcoming iPhone are as follows:

1. When is it coming out?
2. What's going to be new?

Apple doesn't give release dates or details about upcoming products before they're officially announced. The company usually reveals new features as well as when you can a new product at one of its annual launch events.

But based on previous years, you can predict pretty closely when you can buy the latest iPhone model, and it's coming up soon: September. 

And based on analysts and reports, we have an idea what Apple could be launching this fall.

Here's everything you need to know about the 2018 iPhone lineup: 

You will almost certainly be able to buy it this September.

Since 2012, Apple has unveiled its latest iPhone in September. Typically, the new iPhone is available to preorder a few days after Apple's announcement. 

The current speculation suggests Apple's most likely date for launch is September 13.

Here's the recent history:

2012: iPhone 5 was announced on Wednesday, September 12, and started shipping on Friday, September 21.

2013: iPhone 5S was announced on Wednesday, September 10, and started shipping on Friday, September 20.

2014: iPhone 6 was announced on Tuesday, September 9, and started shipping on Friday, September 19.

2015: iPhone 6S was announced on Wednesday, September 9, and started shipping on Friday, September 25.

2016: iPhone 7 was announced on Wednesday, September 7, and started shipping on September 16. 

2017: iPhone 8 and iPhone X were announced together on Tuesday, September 12. The iPhone 8 started shipping on September 22. In a change from previous years, iPhone X started shipping on November 3, almost two months after the announcement.

Reliable analysts and journalists have predicted Apple will release three new iPhones.

The short answer to what to expect from the new iPhones is more Face ID, Apple's facial recognition software that replaced the fingerprint sensor on the iPhone X. Signs are pointing to it becoming a default feature on this year's models. 

Apple watchers are expecting three new iPhones this year: One that looks like the iPhone X but with updated components, a super-sized version of the iPhone X, and a less expensive iPhone with an edge-to-edge LCD screen and facial recognition that costs between $649 and $749.

The two higher-end iPhones could be pricey. This year's iPhone X started at $999. A "plus" version could be even more expensive.

• Lanny Davis, an attorney for President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen, told Business Insider on Wednesday that his client felt "liberated" after cutting a deal with prosecutors.
• Davis challenged Trump to deny Cohen's assertions "under oath," as Cohen was when he made them to a federal judge on Tuesday.
• Cohen pleaded guilty on Tuesday to eight counts.
• Cohen said under oath that Trump directed him to violate campaign-finance laws just before the 2016 presidential election in order to boost his candidacy. 

Lanny Davis, an attorney for President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen, told Business Insider on Wednesday that his client felt "liberated" after cutting a deal with prosecutors, saying the "final straw" for Cohen was Trump's widely criticized summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.

In cutting a deal with federal prosecutors, Cohen pleaded guilty on Tuesday to five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution, and two counts related to campaign-finance violations. Cohen said under oath that Trump directed him to violate campaign-finance laws just before the 2016 presidential election in order to boost his candidacy.

The latter two charges were in connection to payments to the former Playboy model Karen McDougal and the porn actress Stormy Daniels to silence their allegations of affairs with Trump.

Davis said he spoke with Cohen to gather his feelings on the plea deal once he agreed to it. Cohen initially faced the potential of 65 years in prison, but the deal narrowed that sentence down to a much more palatable three to five years, though the judge reserves the right to impose a more severe punishment at a December sentencing.

"I said it's a mixture of pain for his family and the thought of going to prison combined with relief that it's over — the uncertainty, cloud, whatever you call it, is over," Davis said. "And he's free in the mental sense of being able to speak his mind."

Davis said Cohen told him that description "nailed" how he was feeling. Cohen was also feeling a sense of "liberation," Davis added.

"This is the time he knows he's going to jail, and he feels liberated that he can finally speak his mind about his concerns about Donald Trump without a criminal lawyer telling him to 'be quiet' because 'you'll upset the prosecutors,'" he said.

Davis, who rose to prominence as an attorney and spokesman for former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, said Trump's summit with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, was the "straw that broke the camel's back" for Cohen. After that performance, Cohen "got very emotional," Davis said.

At a press conference at the summit, Trump cast doubt on the US intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election. He also attacked his Democratic opponents and the FBI, and he said when asked about the election meddling that he held both countries accountable for their state of relations.

But before the summit, Cohen "started to unload on me about Trump's suitability to be president, his temperament, the Twitter, the venom, the anger," Davis said.

Cohen, of course, was one of Trump's biggest boosters and closest allies during the presidential campaign. He previously said he would "take a bullet" for Trump.

But Davis said Cohen eventually told him that "he never imagined in a million years that this man he knew and worried about as a businessman would ever be president of the United States."

'Let's put Donald Trump under oath and deny it'

It's Cohen's previous praise and support of Trump that the president and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani have pointed to in recent weeks to label the president's former fixer a "liar."

On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that Cohen invented "stories in order to get a 'deal.'" And in a statement following Cohen's guilty plea, Giuliani said, "Cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time."

But Davis said that if you're doubting Cohen's credibility, you're also doubting the credibility of the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Federal prosecutors, as part of the deal, had Cohen admit to the crimes described in the way that he did.

"It was their statement that he read," Davis said. "He didn't write that — he had to own up to it."

Davis said reimbursement checks further backed up Cohen's statements, which were said under oath and penalty of perjury.

"To challenge his credibility while they were paying him back is illogical," Davis said. "It increases his credibility that they paid him back, and it was Trump who paid him back."

Davis added that "if there's anyone challenging the credibility of someone, it shouldn't be Giuliani and Trump," noting that Trump said aboard Air Force One earlier this year that he knew nothing of the Daniels payment, a statement that was later proved false.

"So we simply say, under oath, [Cohen] testified in front of a federal judge that he was directed by and coordinated with Donald Trump to commit a campaign violation that is a felony," Davis said. "So if they think he lacks credibility, even though it was the US attorney that caused him to say that, because that was their evidence, then let's put Donald Trump under oath and deny it."

Davis spoke with Business Insider amid a whirlwind day. Already by noon Wednesday, he said he had participated in no fewer than 20 interviews and was set to speak with various media outlets throughout the rest of the day. He said he felt "meshuga," the Yiddish word for "crazy."

One problem with doing so many interviews? He said he was running out of things to say.

"I don't have that much [more] to say, which is making it increasingly awkward," he said.

SEE ALSO: Inside Michael Cohen's surreal day in court, where Trump took center stage without ever being mentioned

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• Former Nazi guard Jakiw Palij was deported form the US to Germany on Monday. 
• But a German official told CNN on Wednesday that Palij will likely not face prosecution for working at the Trawniki concentration camp.
• Jens Rommel says prosecutors would have to prove that Palij committed murder or helped others murder in order to press charges, and there's no evidence he did either.

The former Nazi death camp guard who was deported from his home in New York City to Germany on Monday will likely not be prosecuted, a German official said Wednesday.

Jens Rommel, of the Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, told CNN that there's no evidence 95-year-old Polish-born Jakiw Palij killed anyone during his time working as a guard at the Trawniki concentration camp, in what is today the Ukraine.

"Mere membership in the SS or even training in the Trawniki camp is no longer prosecutable under our current law," Rommel told CNN. "That means we would have to prove, here in Germany, that an individual has either committed a murder on his own or has supported the murders of others through his actions."

While Palij has admitted to being a guard at the camp, and lying to US immigration officials about his wartime work when he immigrated in 1949, he claims he never hurt anyone.

Not much information actually exists about the Trawniki camp since virtually all of the prisoners there were executed, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

It's estimated that 6,000 Jewish men, women and children were shot to death at the camp on November 3, 1943, in what was one of the largest single Holocaust massacres.

The lack of information about the camp and Palij's work there is part of the reason why his case languished for so long.

A judge actually ordered Palij deported in 2004, after the man admitted to lying to US immigration officials about his wartime work. At that point, US officials petitioned Germany, Poland, and the Ukraine to take him — but all three refused.

After increased pressure from President Donald Trump, German officials eventually conceded and agreed to take Palij.

"His transfer from the USA doesn’t change anything about the state of evidence," Rommel told The Guardian. "In theory, prosecutors in Würzburg could resume their proceedings in case something changed, but for that, proof would be necessary in particular, which would bring the person into direct connection with the crimes, and that is what has been missing so far."

In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said he has regularly asked German officials to reconsider taking Palij.

He said newer officials, including Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Interior Minister Horse Sheehofer, understood it was a "moral obligation" to accept Palij, as he "served in the name of the former German government."

So what happens to Palij now? He'll likely spend his few remaining days in government care. After arriving in Germany on Tuesday, he was transferred to a senior home in the town of Ahlen.

SEE ALSO: 'Please DO NOT mislead your viewers by rewriting history': Polish embassy slams Fox News over coverage of deported Nazi guard

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As the year flies by, the list of canceled TV shows piles up.

While there's been somewhat of a quiet period since May, some networks are still cutting shows throughout the summer.

The most recent cancellation comes Netflix, which got rid of two talk shows in August: "The Break with Michelle Wolf" and "The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale."

ABC also canceled the previously renewed "Roseanne" revival in late May, after Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. However, ABC announced a spin-off called "The Conners" without Barr coming this fall.

Amazon kicked off the year with a slew of cancellations, announcing the end of three quirky comedies, including the Golden Globe nominee "I Love Dick" and the comedian Tig Notaro's semi-autobiographical show, "One Mississippi." It canceled Golden Globe nominee "Mozart in the Jungle" in April, after four seasons, and recently canceled "Transparent," which will end after the upcoming fifth season.

The long-running "The Jerry Springer Show" is ending after 27 seasons and 4,000 episodes. NBC's "Timeless," was also canceled for the second year in a row. NBC reversed its first decision to cancel the show last year after fan outcry. However, fans may have a movie to look forward to that gives the series a proper finale, though no official decision has been made.

We'll update this list as more are announced.

Here are all the shows that have been canceled this year, including those from networks and Netflix:

SEE ALSO: The worst TV show of every year since 2000, according to critics

Amazon

"Jean-Claude Van Johnson" — Amazon, one season

"I Love Dick" — Amazon, one season

• Michael Cohen's lawyer suggested that Cohen has information about President Donald Trump's knowledge of Russia's election interference and failure to report that to the FBI.
• One legal scholar said that if Cohen does have such information and it can be corroborated, "I think that's HUGE."
• Cohen's plea deal does not include a cooperation agreement, and his lawyer most likely dangled information about his client's willingness to work with the special counsel Robert Mueller in order to secure one.

Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates here»

Lanny Davis, the defense attorney representing Michael Cohen, on Wednesday dropped another bombshell about his client's potential knowledge of President Donald Trump's actions.

He suggested that Cohen has information about Trump's knowledge of Russia's election interference and failure to report that to the FBI.

Cohen, Trump's former longtime personal lawyer, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to eight counts related to tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, and campaign-finance violations. He said he broke campaign-finance law at Trump's direction.

Davis told MSNBC on Wednesday that Cohen "knows information that would be of interest to the special counsel, in my opinion, regarding both knowledge about a conspiracy to corrupt American democracy by the Russians and the failure to report that knowledge to the FBI."

Davis previously teased that Cohen had "knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest to the special counsel" leading the Russia investigation, Robert Mueller. But he came right out and suggested a smoking gun on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

'That's HUGE'

Responding to Davis' comments, Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School, said, "I think that's HUGE."

"If Cohen will testify that Trump was aware of — and approved of — contacts between his campaign and Russia, then that's a real game-changer for the Mueller investigation," he told Business Insider.

Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor in Chicago, echoed that view.

Davis' claim that Cohen has evidence of a Trump-Russia conspiracy is "extremely important if true and can be corroborated," Cramer said. But he added that it was unclear why Davis would announce it on national television.

"If he does have verifiable information, then give a call to the prosecutors," he said. "I'm sure they'd listen."

Cohen's guilty plea did not come as part of the Russia investigation, but a Manhattan US attorney's office investigation into whether he committed bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign-finance violations while working for Trump.

His plea deal does not include a cooperation agreement, and legal scholars suggested that could be because prosecutors did not feel he has enough information to warrant a further reduction in his sentence, which is likely to be three to five years.

But if Mueller feels Cohen has information of value related to the Russia investigation, he could argue for a more lenient sentence for Trump's former lawyer.

Cohen says Trump knew about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting

Mueller is tasked with investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow, and whether Trump sought to obstruct justice during the course of the investigation.

While the president is the central subject of Mueller's obstruction inquiry, his role in the collusion thread remains murkier.

In recent months, Trump attracted increased scrutiny after several of his associates suggested he knew more than he was letting on about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his campaign officials and two Russian lobbyists offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Last month, it emerged that Cohen had said Trump knew in advance about the meeting. CNN reported that Cohen claimed he was one of several people who were present when Donald Trump Jr. informed Trump of the offer. Cohen reportedly said Trump greenlit the meeting after hearing about it from his son.

The president maintains he did not know about the meeting until after news outlets reported it. He also recently acknowledged on Twitter that Trump Jr. took the meeting to get dirt on Clinton and not, as he said in previous statements, to discuss Russian adoption policy.

Davis may have been 'dangling information' to get Cohen a better deal

Cohen is a subject of interest in several threads of the Russia investigation, including:

• The Trump Organization's push to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
• The creation of a Russia-friendly "peace plan" during the early days of Trump's presidency.
• Any involvement in an unconfirmed trip to Prague during the summer of 2016 to meet with Kremlin-linked officials.

"Given Cohen's level of intimacy with Trump and his circle, it is at least highly likely that Cohen has information touching on those people in regards to Russian interference," said Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor who has worked with members of Mueller's team in the past.

He added that while it's unusual for a defendant to plead guilty before securing a cooperation agreement, it's not unheard of for the parties to want to enter the plea first and work out the details of cooperation later.

Cotter said he expected that was the case here. If the parties were to work out a deal later, Cohen could get a lighter sentence if he's a cooperating witness for Mueller's investigation.

Speculation mounted in June that Cohen was moving toward a plea deal when he hired Guy Petrillo as his new defense lawyer. Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor, told Business Insider at the time that Petrillo was "the kind of lawyer you would hire if you wanted to keep open the option of cooperation."

That speculation doubled in July when Cohen brought Davis, a Washington powerhouse famously associated with the Clinton family, onto his team.

"As soon as he hired Davis, it was clear Cohen wanted to cooperate," Cramer said. "He's not the guy you hire if you want to go to trial."

Davis told Business Insider's Allan Smith on Wednesday that Cohen "feels liberated that he can finally speak his mind about his concerns about Donald Trump."

By dropping hints about Cohen's potential knowledge pertaining to the Russia investigation, Davis may have been "dangling information" to secure a cooperation deal for his client, Ohlin said.

"Or maybe he's just giving everyone a preview of what Cohen might say," he added.

SEE ALSO: Michael Cohen's attorney: The 'final straw' for Cohen was Trump's disastrous summit with Putin, and he now feels 'liberated' after making a deal with prosecutors

READ MORE: 'The worst day of the Trump presidency': Manafort's conviction and Cohen's plea deal land within striking distance of the White House

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• Some Republicans offered up a similar defense for President Donald Trump following a day when two of his top allies either pleaded guilty to federal crimes or were convicted of them.
• Both of those instances had nothing to do with Russian collusion, Republicans said.
• Others were slightly more critical.

Many Republicans came to the defense of President Donald Trump following a day when his former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted of eight felony charges and his former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to the same number of felony charges.

The convictions, they said, had nothing to do with Russian collusion.

Manafort was found guilty on charges that came out of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, though they did not directly relate to his time on the Trump campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to charges that included committing campaign-finance violations at Trump's "direction" to benefit his candidacy.

But some on Capitol Hill tried to give the president some breathing room away from the courtroom drama in Virginia and New York.

"If Manafort and Cohen did things that (they) shouldn't have done, which it sounds like they did, I think they ought to be held responsible for it but I don't see any of this having anything to do with the president and Russia," Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told reporters. 

Referencing Cohen's admissions, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been critical of Trump but is also a golf partner of the president, told reporters Tuesday that he didn't "know what will come" from campaign finance violations.

"But the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia, anything short of that is probably going to fall into partisan camp," he said.

He also said in a statement that "there have yet to be any charges or convictions for colluding with the Russian government by any member of the Trump campaign in the 2016 election."

Included in Republican Party talking points on Cohen that circulated Wednesday morning, meanwhile, was that "this has nothing to do with collusion with Russia."

Conservatives in the media echoed that point, with Fox News host Sean Hannity saying the Cohen plea deal "has nothing to do with Russia." Matt Schlapp, the president of the American Conservative Union, brushed aside the cases too, tweeting, "So all this legal activity strange I see no 'Russian collusion' in any breaking news."

"Odd," he added.

Other Republicans weren't as dismissive of Tuesday's legal progressions. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a Trump ally, told reporters Wednesday morning that the charges were "serious," though he steered clear of placing any blame on the president.

"Well I'm not very happy about it," he said of the hush money payments. "It should never have happened to begin with."

But the "president should not be held responsible for the actions of the people he's trusted," he added.

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has been critical of Trump, was more heavy-handed in his response to the news.

"Paul Manafort is a founding member of the DC swamp and Michael Cohen is the Gotham version of the same," Sasse said. "Neither one of these felons should have been anywhere near the presidency."

And Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee joined Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee's ranking member, in issuing a joint statement Tuesday afternoon that they "reengaged" Cohen and were hopeful he could speak before their committee again.

SEE ALSO: Inside Michael Cohen's surreal day in court, where Trump took center stage without ever being mentioned

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During the tax evasion trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, prosecutors entertained the jury with details of the political consultant's lavish lifestyle.

They said Manafort earned more than $60 million working on political campaigns in Ukraine, and detailed the ways he used that money to buy a closet full of custom-made suits, luxury cars for his wife and kids, and homes up and down the East Coast.

But when one of his clients fled to Russia and the consulting work dried up, Manafort lied about his wealth to avoid paying his taxes, prosecutors said.

Manafort pleaded not guilty, but the jury found him guilty on August 21 on two counts of bank fraud, five counts of tax fraud, and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. They were unable to reach a verdict on the other 10 counts he was accused of, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.

Here are the extravagant items prosecutors accused Manafort of spending all that money on.

SEE ALSO: Paul Manafort found guilty of 8 counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign bank accounts

READ MORE: Rick Gates testifies that he committed crimes with Paul Manafort and embezzled money from him

A focal point of Manafort's tax-fraud trial was his suit collection. They said he paid for his custom suits by transferring money from foreign bank accounts.

Source: Business Insider

By keeping his wealth in shell companies, Manafort was better able to hide just how much he was making — and spending — from the IRS, prosecutors said. This snazzy fur coat was one of several introduced into evidence during Manafort's trial.

Source: Business Insider

One of the more bizarre items that investigators found in their raid on his home was this $15,000 hooded jacket made of ostrich.

Source: Business Insider

• Investigators in New York state have issued a subpoena to Michael Cohen as part of their criminal probe into the Trump Foundation.
• As a close Trump confidant, Cohen could potentially be a significant source of information for investigators looking into whether Trump or his charity broke state law or lied about their tax liability.
• New York state's inquiry into the Trump Foundation's activities originally began as a civil lawsuit filed by acting Attorney General Barbara Underwood in June.

Just a day after Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felony counts in the Southern District of New York, investigators in New York state have issued a subpoena to President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer as part of their criminal probe into the Trump Foundation.

A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's tax department confirmed the subpoena to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The subpoena was issued after Cohen's attorney said Cohen has information that would be of interest to prosecutors at both the state and federal level.

As a close Trump confidant, Cohen could potentially be a significant source of information for state investigators looking into whether Trump or his charity broke state law or lied about their tax liability.

Anyone charged with a state crime could not be pardoned by the president.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Three of the four West Virginia newspapers included President Donald Trump's rally on the front pages on Wednesday rather than the guilty convictions of his former attorney Michael Cohen and campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
• All four newspaper front pages included Trump's decision this week to do away with coal emission standards the Obama administration implemented.
• It shows just how different the news can be for Americans.

Three of the four West Virginia newspapers included President Donald Trump's rally on their Wednesday front pages rather than the guilty convictions of his former attorney Michael Cohen and campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

All four newspaper front pages included Trump's decision this week to do away with coal emission standards the Obama administration implemented.

The only West Virginia newspaper to include the Cohen and Manafort guilty convictions on its front page was the Charleston Gazette-Mail, which placed both stories in sidebars to the right of its main story on the coal news.

The Huntington-based Herald-Dispatch, the Beckley-based Register-Herald, and the Morgantown-based Dominion Post all ran Trump's West Virginia rally and his decision to roll back the Clean Power Plan as the lead stories for Wednesday.

The Register-Herald mentioned Cohen and Manafort in two blurbs at the bottom of their front page.

As Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget commented on Twitter, "This makes it much easier to understand why Americans have such divergent views of what is actually happening."

At his rally in Charleston on Tuesday night, Trump barely discussed the guilty convictions of Cohen and Manafort.

Cohen struck a deal on Tuesday afternoon with prosecutors to plead guilty to eight federal crimes, including five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, two counts of campaign finance violations.

During his plea entry, Cohen said Trump directed him to make the illegal campaign and corporate contributions in order to influence the election.

Meanwhile, a jury found Manafort guilty of eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign bank accounts.

They were unable to reach a verdict on the other 10 counts he was accused of, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.

"It doesn't involve me, but it's a very sad thing that happened," Trump said on the Manafort conviction after landing in West Virginia. "This has nothing to do with Russian collusion."

SEE ALSO: Manafort and Cohen dominate the front pages of major newspapers after Trump's nightmare Tuesday

DON'T MISS: 'It's like a parallel universe': Trump supporters chant 'lock her up' at West Virginia rally hours after courts dealt major blows to the president

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NOW WATCH: A North Korean defector's harrowing story of escape

Dogs have been the most popular pet for a president to have during his time in the White House — 30 of the 44 presidents have had at least one dog in the West Wing.

The first to have had a dog during his presidency was George Washington, while Barack Obama most recently had two dogs during his presidency.

So far, President Donald Trump has yet to have a pet since entering the White House. The last president to not have a dog in the White House was William McKinley over 100 years ago.

Here are 25 photos of some of the most adorable and well-known canines to grace the Oval Office.

SEE ALSO: These dogs had the time of their lives meeting Meghan Markle and Prince Harry — and the pictures are melting people's hearts

SEE ALSO: Here's what every president's signature looks like

Grover Cleveland's cocker spaniel named Gallagher had a brown coat and ears of "inconvenient length."

Source: America Comes Alive

Warren Harding's terrier, named Laddie Boy, was six months old when he moved into the White House.

Source: America Comes Alive

Calvin Coolidge's collie Rob Roy was named after the popular cocktail.

Source: Presidential Pet Museum

• The body of Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Iowa who went missing in July, has reportedly been found.
• Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an immigrant to the US from Mexico, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder in connection to Tibbetts' death.
• Law-enforcement officials allegedly said Rivera is undocumented and in the country illegally, though the suspect's lawyer has disputed these claims.
• President Donald Trump and some right-leaning media outlets used the local news event to promote connections between illegal immigration and violent crime.
• However, statistics actually show illegal immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens.

Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Iowa, was last seen alive while jogging the evening of July 18.

This week, authorities said they believe she had been killed and her body dumped in a corn field.

On Tuesday, police arrested Cristhian Bahena Rivera as a suspect. Rivera, an immigrant from Mexico, allegedly confessed to police that he pursued Tibbetts and later concealed her body, according to a warrant filed by the Poweshiek County Sheriff's office.

Police also charged Rivera with first-degree murder, which in Iowa comes with a possible penalty of life in prison.

By Wednesday, law-enforcement officials claimed Rivera was an undocumented immigrant living in the US illegally, and that he'd somehow passed the government's E-Verify system as an eligible worker — allegedly because he used stolen identification, The Washington Post reported one law-enforcement official as saying.

The case is ongoing, and Rivera's lawyer reportedly disputed claims that his client is in the US illegally.

ABC News also reported that Rivera had worked for up to seven years at Yarrabee Farms, a company owned by Craig Lang, a former president of the Iowa Farm Bureau and "an active member" of the state's Republican Party.

At the same time, some right-leaning politicians, figureheads, and media outlets appeared eager to exploit the developments and push false narratives about illegal immigrants and violent crime.

How the right is trying to exploit Tibbetts' death

President Donald Trump — who in June 2015 falsely claimed that "many" immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug-traffickers, and who recently approved policies that prompted the separation of thousands of migrant children — received extensive news coverage for weighing in on Tibbetts' death.

Trump on Wednesday evening posted a video saying Tibbetts was "permanently separated" from her family, using a phrase that has gained moment in right-leaning circles to describe American victims of crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants.

"This is one instance of many," Trump claimed. "We have tremendous crime trying to come through the borders."

Fox News chose Tibbetts' death to dominate its news coverage on TV and online Tuesday and, in a post on Wednesday, claimed several major media outlets "ignored" the "bombshell development" regarding Rivera's alleged status.

The news broke shortly after two of Trump's closest associates were convicted of crimes, one of whom — Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen — implicated the president in several felonies.

Meanwhile, Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State in Kansas and a Republican candidate for governor there, reportedly said of Tibbetts' death: "Every crime committed by an illegal alien is a crime that should never have occurred and would never have occurred if the illegal alien were not in our country."

What is implied in such statements is that fixing illegal immigration in the US will, by extension, effectively fix the country's violent crime rates.

This would be a compelling idea — if the best evidence available didn't show it to be very misleading, if not false.

What statistics actually show about crime and immigration

No set of data is perfect, and organizations that seek to restrict immigration have identified several issues with statistics regarding criminality and immigrant status.

However, multiple studies using federal and state data found no suggestion that rising immigration rates leads to more violent crime.

The charts below come from data in a December 2016 study published in the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice. They show that US saw a 118% increase in its overall immigrant population (documented and undocumented) from 1980 through 2016.

Yet during this same period, the rate of violent crimes — homicide, rape, robbery, and assault, according to the FBI — fell by 36% to about 386 incidents per 100,000 residents.

A study published in February by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, further rejects the idea that illegal immigration is tied to increases in rates of violent crime.

The study looked at conviction data in Texas — which has the second-largest population of foreign-born residents — for native-born, undocumented immigrant, and legal immigrant residents.

The research found that native-born residents were most likely to commit and be convicted of crimes, while illegal immigrants saw a conviction rate that was 56% lower. Legal immigrants appeared to be the most law-abiding, with 86% fewer convictions than native-born Texans.

There's also a Criminology journal study from March which examines states' reported rates of violent crime and undocumented immigration. From 1990 through 2014, those data found a negative correlation — meaning that the more a population is comprised of undocumented immigrants, the lower the violent crime rate seemed to be.

So while tragic stories of murder are worthy of public attention and the victims of justice, they are still single trees in a forest of data. These recent studies encompassing large data sets suggest that increased immigration — both legal and illegal — is not tied to higher rates of violent crime, and in fact appears correlated with its decrease.

Leanna Garfield and Shayanne Gal contributed to this report.

This story has been updated.

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NOW WATCH: Animated map shows the history of immigration to the US

• President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen's plea agreement could open up a new legal front involving the Trump Organization.
• Prosecutors laid out how executives at Trump's business helped reimburse Cohen for the "election-related expenses" and labeled the payments as legal fees.
• Experts said this could open up a couple of new fronts.

There could be a new round of legal headaches for the Trump Organization after a pair of unnamed employees were listed in the charges pressed against President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Cohen on Tuesday pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution, and two counts related to campaign-finance violations. Cohen said under oath that Trump directed him to violate campaign-finance laws just before the 2016 presidential election in order to boost his candidacy.

The latter two charges were in connection to payments to the former Playboy model Karen McDougal and the porn actress Stormy Daniels to silence their allegations of affairs with Trump.

In the information made public by federal prosecutors, they laid out how executives at Trump's business helped reimburse Cohen for the "election-related expenses." According to the court filings, Cohen submitted an invoice in January 2017 requesting $180,000 — which included $130,000 for the payment he facilitated to Daniels and $50,000 for "tech services." 

The Trump Organization officials listed in the filings allegedly inflated that total to $420,000, which would be paid to Cohen in installments of $35,000, a monthly retainer fee throughout 2017.

The company accounted for those monthly payments as legal expenses, according to the court filing.

"In truth and in fact, there was no such retainer agreement, and the monthly invoices Cohen submitted were not in connection with any legal services he had provided in 2017," prosecutors wrote.

Though the two executives named in the document were not named, many were quick to point to Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's chief financial officer, as likely to be one of the two. 

Last month, Weisselberg found himself dragged into the Cohen saga after his attorney, Lanny Davis, released an audio recording Cohen made of a conversation with Trump in September 2016. In the recording, which Cohen apparently made without Trump's knowledge, the two men discuss buying the rights to McDougal's story. 

Cohen mentioned Weisselberg at a couple of key points during the recording, which was seized by the FBI in its April raids of Cohen's home, office, and hotel room as part of the investigation.

Soon after, it was reported that Weisselberg was summoned to testify before a grand jury in the Cohen investigation.

Experts said the section highlighting the actions of the two Trump Organization executives could pose legal problems for the company.

Jenny Johnson Ware, partner at the Chicago tax litigation firm Johnson Moore, said the allegations made by prosecutors, if true, made it a near certainty that at least one of the Trump entities was filing false tax returns. The section of the information also suggested that prosecutors could soon target Trump Organization executives if they continue to press forward in the Cohen investigation.

Mitchell Epner, an attorney at Rottenberg Lipman Rich who was previously an assistant US attorney for the District of New Jersey, told Business Insider in an email that the language used by prosecutors in the filing "raises the possibility in my mind of a potential prosecution for money laundering."

Roland Riopelle, a partner at Sercarz & Riopelle who was formerly a federal prosecutor with the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, pointed to Weisselberg being summoned to testify testimony to the grand jury and told Business Insider the executive "may already have immunity and may already have told the SDNY what they know."

"If that is so, it explains why the SDNY does not need Cohen to testify as to campaign finance issues," Riopelle added. "That testimony has already been obtained. If the employees do not have immunity, it is possible they, too could be charged with crimes, if the government can show they knew they were violating the law and covering up the illicit payments."

A representative for the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Alan Futerfas, an attorney for the company, also did not return a request for comment.

SEE ALSO: Inside Michael Cohen's surreal day in court, where Trump took center stage without ever being mentioned

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• A juror who participated in the trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said just one holdout prevented the jury from convicting Manafort on all of the 18 federal charges he faced.
• In a Fox News interview on Wednesday, Paula Duncan, a self-described Trump supporter, said the unidentified juror was not convinced that Manafort was guilty of all 18 criminal charges he faced.
• The jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts, including bank fraud, tax fraud, and failure to disclose a foreign account. The judge in the case declared a mistrial on the remaining 10 charges.
• "We all tried to convince her to look at the paper trail, we laid it out in front of her again and again," Duncan said of the holdout juror.
• Duncan also described the room in which the jurors, some of them emotional, deliberated Manafort's case: "Crazily enough, there were even tears."

A juror who participated in the trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said just one holdout prevented the jury from convicting Manafort on all of the 18 federal charges he faced.

In a Fox News interview on Wednesday, Paula Duncan, a self-described Trump supporter, said the unidentified juror was not convinced that Manafort was guilty of all 18 criminal charges he faced.

"We all tried to convince her to look at the paper trail, we laid it out in front of her again and again," Duncan said during an interview with Fox News host Shannon Bream.

Manafort was ultimately convicted on eight counts on five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failure to report a foreign bank account. The judge declared a mistrial on the remaining 10 counts.

Duncan claimed that the holdout juror is the one who prompted them to send a note to Judge T.S. Ellis asking for an explanation of the term, "reasonable doubt."

"Most of us did not want that question out there ... we felt a little foolish," Duncan said.

The interview Wednesday night marked the first time a juror has publicly identified themselves after the trial. Judge Ellis cautioned against publicizing the juror's identities, citing the high-profile nature of the case. Ellis previously said he had personally received "criticism and threats" while presiding over the trial.

"I don't feel a threat," Duncan said. "I'm an American, I'm a citizen, I feel I did my civic duty. I don't think I need to hide behind anything. I'm not afraid at all."

Duncan said she wanted to come forward because "the public, America, needed to know how close this was."

"The evidence was overwhelming," Duncan said. "I did not want Paul Manafort to be guilty, but he was, and no one is above the law. So it was our obligation to look through all of the evidence."

"The charges were legitimate but the prosecution tried to make the case about the Russian collusion right from the beginning, and of course the judge shut them down on that," Duncan added. "We did waste a bit of time with that shenanigans."

Asked if she believed there were jurors whose personal political views influenced their decisions, Duncan said she did not believe so.

"I think we all went in there, like we were supposed to and assumed Mr. Manafort was innocent. We did due diligence, we applied the evidence, our notes, the witnesses, and we came up with the guilty verdicts on the eight counts."

Duncan also described the room in which the jurors, some of them emotional, deliberated Manafort's case: "Crazily enough, there were even tears," Duncan said.

Manafort was found guilty of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign bank accounts. He was indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

Manafort will face a new judge and jury in another trial in September on charges that include obstructing justice and failing to register as a foreign agent.

After Manafort's arrest, Trump distanced himself from his former surrogate and said "it doesn't involve me."

In several tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump referred to Manafort as "a brave man," and contrasted his behavior with that of Michael Cohen, his longtime personal attorney, who implicated Trump as a participant in his crimes in a plea deal he signed a day earlier.

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's attorney, says the two of them discussed the pros and cons of pardoning Manafort, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Giuliani echoed Trump's assertion that he believes Manafort was treated "horribly" by the justice system.

SEE ALSO: Michael Cohen's lawyer says his client has information about Trump 'that should be of interest' to Mueller

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• Michael Cohen, formerly one of President Donald Trump's closest allies, shocked the world when he implicated Trump in two federal crimes during his guilty plea to eight felonies on Tuesday.
• One lawyer told Business Insider that, given the severity of the charges Cohen is facing, he likely had no choice but to take a plea deal or potentially risk spending the rest of his life in prison. 
• Lanny Davis, one of Cohen's attorneys, gave Business Insider some insight into what motivated Cohen to turn on Trump.

Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer and fixer to President Donald Trump, shocked the world on Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to eight federal crimes in the Southern District of New York, and directly implicated President Donald Trump in two of them.

Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, one count linked to an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count stemming from an illegal campaign contribution. During his hearing, Cohen said he committed the latter two offenses "at the direction" of then-candidate Trump with the intent of influencing the 2016 election.

Both the illegal corporate and campaign contributions refer to Cohen's efforts to quash negative stories about Trump's alleged affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, just weeks before the election.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York initially began investigating Cohen for potential campaign finance law violations in part because of a $130,000 hush-money payout to Stormy Daniels, but the inquiry expanded to Cohen's potential tax and bank fraud relating to his taxi medallion business. 

But Cohen's transformation is perhaps most notable because of the dramatic manner in which he turn away from Trump; having gone from saying he would "take a bullet" for Trump, to incriminating him in two serious federal crimes, possibly throwing the US into uncharted constitutional territory. 

Jeffrey Cohen, a practicing attorney in New York City (no relation to Michael Cohen), told Business Insider in a Wednesday phone call that, given the severity of the federal charges involved, taking a plea deal was, in his view, the best way for Cohen to hedge his bets in this matter.

"His lawyers almost definitely knew he was going to lose," he said. "If you take a plea before trial, you do better than if you try to approach a deal after the government has invested the time and money in trying the case, In this case, my feeling is that he just didn't have a choice." 

Deputy US Attorney Robert Khuzami said Cohen's conduct reflected a "pattern of lies and dishonesty" in a press conference after Cohen's hearing and said they were "particularly significant when done by a lawyer."

"They were going to crucify him," Jeffrey Cohen speculated. "If he went to trial and he lost, he would have gone to jail for the rest of his life." 

Lanny Davis, a lawyer who represents Michael Cohen, told Business Insider on Wednesday that, if his client has chosen to go to trial, he could have faced up to 65 years of prison, if convicted. Under the plea agreement, Cohen will likely serve three to five years.

An official sentence will be handed down on December 12.

'The straw that broke the camel's back'

Cohen's claim that he violated federal laws specifically at the behest of Trump was believed to have caught some by surprise. Prosecutors did not explicitly lay out that connection in Cohen's court documents and Cohen did not have to reveal that information.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti explained the significance in an article for Politico Magazine. 

"It’s not clear whether federal prosecutors knew in advance that Cohen would implicate Trump, but if they had any reason not to believe him, they were obligated not to permit Cohen to lie to the judge," he wrote. "Because they didn’t, we know that his statements were consistent with the other evidence in their possession."

In his remarks to Business Insider, Lanny Davis said Cohen "started to unload on me about Trump's suitability to be president, his temperament, the Twitter, the venom, the anger," long before Tuesday's announcement.

Davis described Trump's controversial summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the "straw that broke the camel's back" for his client. 

He said that Trump's public doubting of his intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in favor of Putin's denial made his client "very emotional." He described Cohen as feeling "liberated" after entering his guilty pleas and having the freedom to now speak his mind. 

SEE ALSO: New York state has subpoenaed Michael Cohen as part of a probe into the Trump Foundation

SEE ALSO: 'The worst day of the Trump presidency': Manafort's conviction and Cohen's plea deal land within striking distance of the White House

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Meet the woman behind Trump's $20 million merch empire