Net closes in as Russia links probe marches on

Why is Donald Trump in trouble? He is facing allegations his campaign team colluded with the Russians to undermine his election opponent Hillary Clinton.

Separately, he is accused of breaking election rules by giving hush money during the campaign to the two women who allege they had affairs with him.

In a space of a few minutes, key figures in both these stories were convicted by the American courts.

What is the significance of the Manafort verdict? Paul Manafort is a key witness in the inquiry by special counsel Robert Mueller into alleged Russian interference in the election and possible co-ordination with the Trump campaign team.

This includes claims Russian hackers accessed the Democrat Party database and that the information was used to smear Mrs Clinton.

Manafort was forced to resign from the Trump campaign in 2016 over his ties to pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs. Mueller is also looking at a meeting – two weeks after Trump secured the nomination – between a Kremlin-linked lawyer and Donald Trump Jr, Manafort and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

So far Mueller has secured indictments of four Trump campaign officials, including Manafort.

All but Manafort have reached plea bargains. He has remained loyal to the President but he could seek a plea deal in return for a more lenient sentence.

It is said that Cohen knows if Trump knew about computer hacking

What is the significance of the Cohen case? Michael Cohen once said he would take a bullet for Trump. The relationship between the pair collapsed after the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room in April.

Now, Cohen’s lawyer has said he is “more than happy” to co-operate with the Mueller inquiry and his client has knowledge of whether Trump knew in advance about the computer hacking of the Democrat Party.

How damaging is this for the President? Most politicians would have been floored by either the Manafort or the Cohen revelations.

The President continues to insist he is innocent and says there is no evidence of collusion with Russia.

Will he be impeached? There is no precedent for a sitting President to be charged in a federal court.

But the US constitution allows Congress to impeach and remove a president for “high crimes and misdemeanours”. It needs the majority of the House of Representatives to vote in favour and a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Only two presidents have been impeached – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton – and both survived because of a lack of a majority in the Senate.

Richard Nixon resigned as President in 1974 before impeachment proceedings began. The Republicans currently have control of the House of Representatives and the Senate but this could change after the midterm elections.

If the Republicans retain control of the Senate it will take a sizeable number of the President’s party to turn against him for a successful impeachment.