DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement in response to Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and a former deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, pleading guilty to multiple crimes:

“No one was closer to Donald Trump than Michael Cohen. As his longtime lawyer and ‘fixer,’ Cohen was at the center of Trump’s inner circle, and today he admitted to breaking the law at Trump’s direction in order to influence the 2016 presidential election. The seriousness of this development cannot be overstated. The culture of corruption that Donald Trump brings with him everywhere is a disgrace to the presidency and a threat to our democracy.”