Could a Trump conviction really change the presidential election?

The first time I heard the name ‘Michael Cohen’ was in 2015, from a Republican political operative who told me: ‘It’s his job to clean up Trump’s messes with women.’ He went on to explain how Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, would pay a large amount in cash to whichever actress-model-stripper-pornstar was claiming to have been screwed, dumped or knocked-up by The Donald. And, crucially, Cohen – Trump’s ‘designated thug’ as he called himself – would scare the hell out of the women concerned to make sure they signed an airtight NDA (or non-disclosure agreement). Over the years, this story has turned out to be far more durable than the allegation that Trump was a Russian agent and today Cohen testified in a Manhattan court that cleaning up the ‘messes with women’ had in fact been his job, his main job, while Trump was running president.  

In The People of the State of New York vs Donald Trump, Trump is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. Cohen