Cohen sentence 'utterly refutes' Trump’s claim that paying off mistresses was a civil offense: MSNBC national security analyst

MSNBC national security analyst Ken Dilanian said Tuesday that the 36-month sentence handed down to President Donald Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen "utterly refutes" the president's claim that paying off porn actress Stormy Daniels and others was nothing more than a civil offense.

The president's efforts to distance himself from his recent political associates, including Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and now Michael Cohen, would come to naught, Dilanian told anchor Andrea Mitchell.

"It is not sustainable in the sense that they all appear to be, except for in the case of Manafort, providing the special counsel with damaging information about Donald Trump," Dilanian said.

"The idea that Michael Cohen is sentenced to three years in prison," Dilanian added, "really underscores that the idea that President Trump is talking about this as a civil matter and that there was no campaign violation -- it just utterly refutes that."

"This was a serious crime in which the president is implicated and that's just on the campaign finance side," he continued. "We still don't know what Michael Cohen has told the special counsel about Russia connections, but we know it is a lot.