A former Watergate prosecutor said Wednesday that President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE's legal situation has changed after his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to several federal charges, implicating Trump in the process.

“Of course, this is what its all about,” former assistant special Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman said on MSNBC when asked by host Ali Velshi if this was the moment Trump's legitimacy as president came into question.

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“You’ve got him now involved as a co-conspirator with Michael Cohen. This is not some simple campaign violation."

Akerman added that "what makes this different than a normal civil violation is the fact that they used phony documents," referring to how Trump's team allegedly falsified documentation to make it appear as though Cohen was doing legitimate legal work.

The comments from Akerman came one day after Cohen pleaded guilty to eight federal charges, including five counts of tax evasion and one count of making a false statement to a federally insured bank.

Cohen says he violated campaign finance law at Trump's instruction with the $130,000 nondisclosure payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair the president more than a decade ago.

Akerman said that much of what has surfaced about Trump's alleged payments to women in an effort to silence them about affairs have the "badges of fraud."

Trump responded to Tuesday's news on Twitter by falsely claiming that Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations that are not actually criminal.