There to be more crime in this country . It doesnt make any sense. Its promoting fear. Its fearmongering. It is fearmongering. I would answer the question this way. You tell me youve got a bunch of murderers and, you know, drug mules who are coming in illegally, and the wall will stop it . Im all in, great. Build the befophysical barriers. You want to tell me that the problem down there is that . Youre a liar. Because the problem is kids. Thats what you hear from his officials he put in place. He doesnt deal with it because it doesnt sell, don. Fear and anger sell in politics. He knew it during the election. He carried through with it on the wall. Thats great, you got the wall. He wrote about it in his emergency declaration. He didnt driver eliver on it. This is they. The people he says are going to let people go, thats him. Those are his people doing what they have to under his watch. Its tough listening to some of those sound bites. I listen to it because i have to. But theres so much propaganda and so many lies. We would spend lets just say that we ran that whole thing. We would spend more time than the president actually spoke, for an hour and whatever, just doing the fact checks, just correcting what he said, just explaining what he said or thats why his friends want the standard ofony or its fine. Thats why theyre jumping up and down. The starr report, this was 300 and some odd pages, the starr report was 400 pages. We were both around then and lived it. The starr report came out on a wednesday. You know when the public had the starr report . Minus the underlying evidence and sources and methods. On a friday, two days later. Ill give him the grand jury. I dont see the exigency of tomorrow, but you have to get it as soon as you can get it. They may slow walk it for good and bad reasons. Good reasons, it takes time, you dont want to get a judge sideways on what they process and what they dont. And the bad reason is they want to slow walk it because they like this victory and they know there are bad things coming their way in that. How do they know . Barr told us. Mueller couldnt make a call on obstruction. That means there has to be evidence of wrongdoing that he was worried about that has to be true even on russian interference. It has to be true with counterintelligence. There has to be wrongdoing. Did it rise to the level of a crime . Obviously not, at least on the one count. You know who else said that . The very smart and articulate judge on fox news, judge n napolita napolitano. Italians, very savvy. You cannot want transparency we want someone with transparency to investigate the smollett case in chicago and not want transparency when it comes to your own case. Sure you can, its called politics. People expect nothing and theyre never disappointed. Mr. Cuomo, missed you last night. Hope you tuned in. I didnt miss you, i watched you, i thought you did a good job. I thought it was robust, exactly what a town hall is supposed to be about. I was happy to carry the load for you afterwards. You deserved the rest. Thank you, it was good because people get to hear directly from the candidate. And their questions are always better than hours because they talk about whats important to them. Oh, yeah, theres no guesswork, this is actually their lives. But boy, did booker make you look small. Tiny. Little don. Little don, thats going to be my new nickname. Thank you, cuomo. Ill be watching tonight, great guests. Thank you. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. We have to talk about what the president said a little while ago at his maga rally in michigan, i state he won in 2016. He needs to win it again in 2020. The president spoke for a whopping hour and 25 minutes saying exactly what you would expect him to say. The collusion delusion is over. The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction. Total exoneration. Complete vindication. So he says it over and over and over. Which doesnt make it true. We know very little right now about what is actually in Robert Muellers report. Just the summary. Handful of quotes and the attorney generals letter. But weve got some important new details for you tonight. The primary obstacle to getting the full Mueller Report is the grand jury information it includes. That is according to a democratic staffer who says congress may get a court order to release the information from the grand jury. And we now know Something Else about the Mueller Report that is really pretty significant. Its between 300 and 400 pages long. Thats a question the doj declined to answer when we asked about it just two days ago. But now we have some numbers from two separate sources. Heres why thats important, because it comes down to arithmetic, simple math. Lets take the low end of that estimate, okay . Say the Mueller Report is 300 pages long. Barrs summary letter is just four pages. With only a handful of quotes from mueller. So why would anybody just accept the attorney generals summary, which is at best only a 1. 33 of the length of muellers report . Why would they do that without seeing the full report . The American People need to know whats in muellers report. You need to know whats in that report. This is your country. This is our country. Prident con falsely, that he has been completely exonerated. Even though he acknowledges he hasnt seen the report himself. Uh, beautiful conclusion. But the result was great. No obstruction. No collusion. No anything. Guess what we know about that . That its not true, what he just said. One of the few quotes, one of the few quotes from mueller in barrs letter says so. It directly contradicts what the president just said. While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. And even though mueller is quoted in barrs letter as saying the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities, americans arent so sure about that. How do i know . Because 56 in our cnn poll say the report does not exonerate the president on collusion. All the more reason that we should all see the full report. So we know the facts rather than relying on the attorney generals summary. That is certainly what Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks. I have said and ill say again, no, thank you, mr. Attorney general, we do not need your interpretation. Show us the report. And we can draw our own conclusions. We dont need you interpreting for us. It was condescending. It was arrogant. And it wasnt the right thing to do. So the sooner they can give us the information, the sooner we can all make a judgment about it. But as the president falsely claims, as he claims he was totally exonerated, his congressional allies are on the attack against one of his harshest critics, congressman adam schiff who chairs the house intel committee. The nine republican members of that committee calling on schiff to resign. Guess what . Hes definitely not backing down. Listen to his heated response today. My colleagues may think its okay that the russians offered dirt on a democratic candidate for president as part of what was described as the russian governments effort to help the Trump Campaign. You might think thats okay. My colleagues might think its okay that when that was offered to the son of the president , who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the president s son did not call the fbi, he did not adamantly refuse that foreign help. No, instead that son said that he would love the help of the russians. You might think its okay that he took that meeting. You might say thats all okay. You might say thats just what you need to do to win. But i dont think its okay. I think its immoral. I think its unethical. I think its unpatriotic. And yes, i think its corrupt. And evidence of collusion. That made a whole lot of people mad. Are you going to let us talk . Are you going to yield your time . Man. Crazy. You should know tonight im going to talk to the man who set up that Infamous Trump tower meeting, Rob Goldstone. Hes going to be here in just a few minutes. But there is Something Else that the president wanted to talk about tonight. Jussie smollett. How about in chicago, he s d sasai said he said he was attacked by maga country. Did you ever hear that one . Maybe the only time ive ever agreed with the mayor of chicago, ever. Thats a terrible situation. Thats an embarrassment not only to chicago. That is an embarrassment to our country, what took place there. Remember that. But theyre looking at it. Transparency in chicago. Investigate, release the records. But when it comes to the Mueller Report, oh, no, no, summarys good. By the way, im pretty sure that rahm emanuel wouldnt say that he agrees with the president. But the city of chicago wants more than 130,000 from Jussie Smollett to cover the cost of the investigation into his claim that he was attacked in a hate crime. Heres rahm emanuel, the mayor. When he does pay the city back, im just purely what the taxpayers have fronted. In that memo section he can write, im sorry and im accountable for what ive done. Tonight you should know, you should stick around, remember the witnesses and the people and that surveillance tape, they were trying to figure out who they are were and they caught up with them and they turned out to be brothers who he knew from the set, nigerians, it went on and on. Well talk to the attorney of the brothers that police say were paid by Jussie Smollett to stage the attack. You dont want to miss that interview. And the man who set up that Infamous Trump tower meeting with russians, he is speaking out tonight. His name is Rob Goldstone. Hes going to be here onset with me, next. I landed. I saw my leg did not look right. I was just finishing a ride. I felt this awful pain in my chest. I had a pe blood clot in my lung. I was scared. I had a dvt blood clot. Having one really puts you in danger of having another. My doctor and i chose xarelto®. Xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Xarelto® is a latestgeneration blood thinner thats. Proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. In clinical studies, almost 98 of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. Xarelto® works differently. Warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your bodys natural bloodclotting factors. Xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase risk of blood clots. 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Thats some great paint. Thats some great paint. Behr ultra, a toprated interior and exterior paint. Paint, prime, protect all in one. Now thats some great paint find it exclusively at the home depot. Tonight the man who so the up the Infamous Trump tower meeting between members of team trump and russians is speaking out. Before we talk to him, let me refresh your memory. On june 3rd, 2016, publicist Rob Goldstone who represented businessman and singer Emin Agalarov wrote in an email, the crown prosecutor of russia met with his father aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump Campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful no your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information. Don junior responded, writing in part, if its what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer. Rob goldstone is the author of pop stars, pageants, and president s how an email trumped my life. Thank you, sir, i appreciate you joining us here. Many people see this letter as an attempt at collusion, right . They thought it was evidence of collusion. Are they wrong . They are wrong. And people say to me, was i surprised by what weve learned so far from the Mueller Report, i. E. No collusion. I always thought, if my email and the subsequent meeting at trump tower formed a cornerstone of that investigation and collusion, then this would be the finding they would have, because i know why i wrote the email the way i did, and i know what went on in that meeting because i happened to be there. You think it was a cornerstone or just not possible evidence of one attempt at collusion . Because remember, muellers report never said they found no evidence of collusion. They said the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government. That means didnt meet the legal threshold. I think, you know, there are people that are far smarter than me and far higher pay grades than me that have spent two years investigating this. All i know is what i know and its what ive testified five times, ive spoken to the grand jury, ive been on capitol hill, ive spoken to the mueller team. On each occasion i felt that the story needed context. And when people understood the context, the collusion side of it became less important. Let me ask you this before we go on. Because we do know, because this is one of the quotes from Robert Mueller in the summary letter, that russians did interfere in the election, do you feel or have some regret that you may have helped them in that . You know, ive been asked in the past, what if anything do i regret. I regret two things. One is that i sent the email. Lets be really clear. If i could wind the clock back, when i tried to scourge my client from having me do should have fought maybe a bit harder. I would read later that he told other people that he also had doubts about setting up this meeting. If he had even had an inkling of that, if i had had an inkling that he thought that, i would have fought back. The second thing i regret is naming Hillary Clinton, because it really had nothing to do with hillary. If joe biden had been the candidate, if you had been the candidate, it would have been your name that i used. But you said it was hyperbole, but you mentioned the candidate and said it was damaging and there was a russian connection. I want to read something from your oped in the Washington Post tonight, you said you would have said anything in that meeting. Why would you say that the russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton in an effort to support trump . Of all things, why would you choose that . Because i didnt make up the email. I made the scant details that my client had given me better or worse, depending on which side youre on. Let me ask you, why did you think that would appeal to anyone in trumps orbit . Because as a publicist, i pitch people all the time. I have done for almost 30 years. If i pitched you for somebody on your show and said, its okay, its kind of interesting, you wouldnt even read the email. If i puffed it up, you would parole re probably read it. To me, the most important line i wrote in that email was, to don junior, maybe you should speak with emin directly. When he responded, i love it, i thought, hes getting it, that i have no idea what im really talking about. And then he goes, youre right, perhaps ill just speak with emin. As soon as that was said, i didnt care anymore. I thought, let those two people sort it out. All ive been asked to do is to create a meeting. I have to i dont think it makes much sense. It makes sense to me. I hype an email based on scant information that my client has given me which, again, is public record. He had said to me it was an attorney who was wellconnected. I pushed back a couple of times, what does wellconnected mean . And i said flippantly, connected to what . The power grid . Its obvious to me who this attorney is connected to. So then if this attorney, as im then told, as potentially damaging information about illegal russian funding to the democrats and their candidates campaign, the rest of it i puffed up. But i didnt make it up. I puffed those facts up. Okay. So youre saying, rob, that you were i was a publicist. I get that. I dont mean this in a derogatory way, that you were ignorant of the outcome, of the severity of what you were writing. But then you say, i knew enough about what i was writing that they would entertain it, i knew exactly because you said they were the russian government was supporting who would think that . I would, because i was in russia with donald trump during miss universe. I saw how he charmed the sternestlooking russians i had ever seen in my life, they were like something out of central casting. Ive been to russia many times. I had seen on tv what putin had said about trump and what trump had said about putin. And im entitled to my own opinion, in what was a private email from me, a private citizen, to donald junior, his father, there was as much chance of donald duck becoming president as donald trump in most peoples opinion. Im not a publicist. I have to say this. If i sent to an official campaign, an official candidate, and im mentioning a Foreign Government, i would know enough, like this could really get me in trouble because if this actually happens, this is something that people turn over to Law Enforcement. Two things. I did not know that. I did not even think that for one second. Am i saying thats good . No, ive never said that. But i didnt think that. Also, i didnt im guy say that without sounding derogatory. I never considered don junior really a part of the campaign. I get it, its in public testimony. I questioned whether i should send it to mr. Trump via some method, whether its his assistant. Then i decided to go way down on the food chain and i chose don junior because i met him a couple of times, to run it past him enough to put it him in touch with my client. So i didnt consider that i was you didnt think he had enough juice with his own father to this is what i think. I think i was ignorant and oblivious and i think if i had to guess, he was marginally more or marginally less ignorant and oblivious than i was. But there was a Campaign Chairman in that meeting. I dont mean to throw Paul Manafort under a bus because he threw himself under his own bus, but i do think, people say all the time, how could you, Rob Goldstone, publicist from england who works in the music industry, not know this was potentially a crime . The chairman of the campaign was in that meeting. And his soninlaw. Shouldnt one of of them have said, you cant do this . And Rob Goldstone would have gone, oh, thats interesting, stop. Thats kind of my point. What do you think . Should they have said that . Knowing what i know now, yes. Okay. And i know youre like and i know i know it sounds ludicrous. And thats why people on social media vilify me. Okay. I get that. And thats awful when people do that. By the way, dont read social media. Right. Ill read it the minute i go off the air. The reason i said that, because, shouldnt they know better, they should have turned it over to Law Enforcement officials. And i think barr thinks so too. Thats why people say, maybe it didnt rise to the level of criminality, but it was an attempt at collusion. In barrs letter he said, multiple offers from russianaffiliated individuals to assist the Trump Campaign. Do you think that you did that what you did was right, if its not criminal, you think it was right to do . I think having sat in on the meeting, that it was a classic case of a bait and switch. And when people say everyone told lies about it being about adoption and how could it be about adoption, what ive learned since that meeting and in the last two years, adoptions is a huge part of the magnitsky act. As you know, its the sanction that russia put in place. At the time i never heard of magnitsky or an act. Adoption to me sounded strange. But its the only thing i took away from that meeting. The only thing i remembered. If someone had said to me what was that meeting about, i would have said adoption. It was weird, but it was about adoptions. Why was it weird . Because the premise of my email based on emins facts was this lawyer had something to say about funding to the democrats. Whats that got to do with adoptions . As it so happens, it had everything to do with it because what she said was that people like bill browder and the ziff brothers were funding the clintons and they were architects of the magnitsky act act. So it completes the circle. But it makes no sense to people when taken out of context. When all of this was happening, the president allegedly helped them draft a letter saying it was about adoption, the magnitsky act a, were you saying, oh something is not sitting right here in the moment . No. And i know its hard for people to understand. If someone had put a gun to my head and said what was that meeting about, i would have said it was about adoptions also. Are you aware of any other russian offers or attempts to assist the Trump Campaign . No. Youre not . All right. I want you to take a listen to the chairman of the house intelligence committee. This is what he said today. My colleagues may think its okay that the russians offered dirt on a democratic candidate for president as part of what was described as the russian governments effort to help the Trump Campaign. You might think thats okay. My colleagues might think its okay that when that was offered to the son of the president who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the president s son did not call the fbi. He did not adamantly refuse that foreign help. No, instead that son said that he would love the help of the russians. I think its immoral. I think its unethical. I think its unpatriotic. What do you think . Ive seen that a few times today. One of the things that strikes me whenever people say it, in this case it happens to be a politician, is that they state what is in my email without stating that ive explained in great detail, much greater detail than weve had time today, including to congressman schiffs committee, why i wrote what i wrote, what it was based on, and that it isnt what they thought it was. So its almost like youre saying something it would be like me saying youre wearing a gray suit and you putting on a blue jacket. Ive already explained why that was, that it wasnt some official outreach from the russian government as far as i was giving it. I had given my explanation why those words were used the way they were used. Okay, i get that. Thats on your behalf. But as you said, someone, the Campaign Manager who happened to be in the meeting and other people, one would think they would know better. Now that youre on the other side, once you realize that, you dont think thats evidence that they were trying to get dirt and in a way conspire in some way to help the russians . I would have thought that if i hadnt attended the meeting. People say to me, werent you mad that you were asked to say . Im actually glad i stayed because i heard what was said. If this was a bait and switch, whether emin chose to or didnt know enough to tell me what it was really about, the dangling of the carrot about the funding to hillarys campaign was still all to do with magnitsky. I just didnt know that at the time. Do you think you were a dupe . Ill explain in just one second why i ask you that. I dont know. And i hoped that either the Mueller Report, which, remember, none of us have seen, weve seen these four pages or whatever, or one of these congressional committees, and i have to say, i never thought that until i heard the lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya, say i am an informant and i nearly fell off my chair, i was like, wait, that could mean everything i wrote and puffed up may have been 100 correct, but i didnt know that. So you hope the Mueller Report shows you were a dupe . No, i hope the Mueller Report would show, if there was something untoward, that i dont know about it. Okay, so listen, the reason i asked you that is because there were people on television, there were people out there in the media who were on the president s behalf that were saying, well, they knew nothing, it was nothing, for one example. Rudy giuliani was asked by chuck todd about that meeting and he said, you know, you ask me, do you think that they knew anything about russians, and then he responded, and im paraphrasing, i just think that she had a russian name and they knew nothing about her. You would know at that point that hes lying because of what you said. That didnt set off any alarm bells for you, wait a minute, theres a whole lot of lying going on here . As ive said, over the course of the two years ive heard things said, including by the attorney herself, that caused me to go, wait a second. Probably the most major one for me was the one saying, i am an informant. There was a report in the New York Times that she had shown a report to some official in russia. I didnt know any of that. That makes me think, who were these people . I didnt know who they were but i didnt need to know. My client kept saying, it doesnt matter, all im asking you to do is set up a meeting. Do you think the full Mueller Report should be released . I think when those of us that did the grand jury, i believe youre assured that this is confidential and private and confidential, so i understand why theres issues with that. But outside of that, yes. Did you think you were going to go to prison . Did you think you would suffer consequences from this . I thought besides the social media backlash and sleepless nights . No. You said when the Mueller Report came out, the Mueller Report and the letter from bob barr, from the attorney general william barr, you said what . Its the first time in about 500 nights that i had slept without this feeling of being scared. And it wasnt being scared for something i had done. It was scared of the unknown. When you live your life under a microscope for almost two years, and we live in a social media world where things are said all the time and picked up by Mainstream Media outlets, ive been called everything from a kgb puppet to a democratic plant to sabotage trump. So the reality is, and it was actually your colleague chris cuomo that said it one day when i tuned in almost 18 months ago, i was a publicist doing my job. And if you speak to a thousand publicists youll get a thousand Amazing Stories when theyve gone over and above what anybody would expect to keep their clients happy. But not breaking the law. Its not breaking the law, sending an email wasnt breaking the law. You can read Rob Goldstones account of what its been like for him in the Washington Post and you can also read his book, pop stars, pageants, and president s. I appreciate your time, thank you. The president is saying, quote, the collusion delusion is over. But we still havent seen the full Mueller Report. Should the president be reserving judgment until we actually get the contents of the report, especially since he said that he wouldnt mind if the American People got to see it . [laughter] im okay. Rob goldstone, the publicist who set up the 2016 trump tower meeting with russians, is speaking out tonight. You heard what he has to say. Now lets hear what they have to say. Ryan lizza is here, kristen powers and john dean. Good evening, everyone. Kristen, give me the reaction, of what you heard from the man who set up the Infamous Trump tower meeting. The biggest take away i had from it was at a bare minimum you had donald trump junior, Paul Manafort, jared kushner, being receptive to a meeting with somebody representing, as he claims, maybe it was bogus, maybe it was just to get in the door, but they were open to a meeting were someone tied to the russian government was going to give them, quote unquote, dirt on Hillary Clinton. Now, thats not a crime. But its very, very shady behavior. Its very problematic behavior. And, you know, i dont think its something that completely exonerates the trump organization, that that happened. Its not a crime according to kirsten, im not an attorney, john, but if youre on the other end of that and youre receiving this information, and you know it is a hostile foreign entity and youre having a meeting and there are direct relations to the russian government, what does that say . It says more than rob has said to you. His email really says it all. Theyre responding to his email which was obviously passed around, and as a result people like Paul Manafort showed up at the meeting. He certainly knew that dealing with a Foreign Government was not something you do in a u. S. Campaign. Hes an old hand at this. But yet he was interested in coming to the meeting. It may well be that rob was a cutout, as he describes himself. The Mueller Report certainly tracked on beyond him to his clients and got some answers that we dont know. I was sitting there, i hate to do all this whataboutism, but i was just thinking, i wonder if this was an associate or someone who was connected to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the same thing had happened, i wonder what the other side would be saying. Yeah, i dont think you have to really wonder that much. It would be massive. Imagine that. But this is nothing at all. Remember when the email investigation ended and comey wrote a 300page report and gave it to Loretta Lynch and Loretta Lynch put out a fourpage press release saying, theres no crime here, everyone. Imagine what people on the right would say. We should take her at her word, dont you think . Im being facetious. What i find incredible about rob is hes open to the idea of being a dupe. The lawyer said she was an informant and he learned a little bit more about her background in the russian system, he did think, well, maybe i was put up to something here. But in the end but thats someone who can be honest, i think, and examine their own behavior, and someone who has been through this and come on and take those questions, because not many people will come on and do that. There are people who are associated with the Trump Campaign or administration that are afraid to come on because they know the show is about truth and they wont do it because theyre afraid of what the truth will expose. I have to ask you before we go on, what he said dabout don junior, basically saying don junior is not that bright, that was kind of surprising. When he said i went to don junior, he was a nobody, i actually dont buy that, everybody knows, hes the president s son, he was involved with the campaign. The responsibility was for the trump people to say, we dont take meetings with russian agents offering dirt. We go to the fbi. That was my point i asked john about. Thats what i was going to say, it doesnt really matter what he was trying to bring to them or what he was promising to bring to them or whether he had anything or not. Its what they thought he was bringing to them. Exactly, its how they reacted to him, and that they didnt turn it over to Law Enforcement. John, here is what the president had to say about the investigations by congress. The democrats have to now decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullshit. [ cheers and applause ] partisan investigations. Or whether they will apologize to the American People and join us to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, bring down the cost of health care and prescription drugs which were doing incredibly, help us fix our broken trade deals. John, ridiculous, redemption, apologize, whats your reaction . Everything he says, the opposite is the truth. Its just remarkable. This business of the democrats need to apologize, hes the one that needs to apologize. He doesnt get it yet. I hope the democrats dont back off. We dont have the Mueller Report. We need it. Theyre covering up at this point. Its been around for six days. Im quite confident that when mueller prepared that, hes probably got an annotated copy, he knows where everything came from, and they can very easily clean it up and put it out. And we dont even know how long it is for sure, we know its 300 pages plus. I read today on cnn that it may go as high as a thousand words. A thousand pages . It could be a thousand pages, yes. But i think hes going to have to back off on this celebration hes on, taking victory laps. Its going to wear thin very quickly. And hes going to be caught short on it. Thank you. Thats all we have time for. I appreciate your time, everyone. Theres been a lot of backlash since prosecutors dropped charges against Jussie Smollett including from the president tonight. Well speak to someone at the center of the investigation, the lawyer who worked with the brothers who said they helped stage the alleged attack. She joins me next. Tmobile will do the math for you. Right now, when you join tmobile, you get two lines of unlimited with two of the latest phones included for just one hundred bucks a month. Its not small. But its not just big either. Its the kind of big where youll never have to ask, should i scooch up . Its big that looks at a sunroof and wonders why it cant just be most of the roof. Its big thats better because we built it that way. The spacious, 121 cubic feet of cargo space ford expedition. danny the spacious, after a long day of hard work. You have to do more work . vo automatically sort your expenses and save over 40 hours a month. danny every day youre nearly fried to a crisp, professionally vo you earned it, were here to make sure you get it. Quickbooks. Backing you. President trump blasting Jussie Smollett at his rally tonight. How about in chicago . He said [ audience reacts ] he said he was attacked by maga country. Did you ever hear that one . Thats after chicago mayor rahm emanuel sent smollett a bill for 130,000 to cover the resources used in the investigation of smolletts claims of a hate crime. So Laurie Schmidt is here, the attorney who worked with the osundairo brothers. Police allege Jussie Smollett paid them to stage an attack on him in january. Gloria, thank you so much for joining us. So lets talk about this. The president says that this case is an embarrassment. What do you make of the charges being dropped . Well, you know, i have to agree with the characterization of this being an embarrassment. I originally, okay, was planning on going on spring break with my family. We were literally in my living room packing. I had told the states attorney, you know, im going on spring break with my family, ill see you next week. I had just been in touch with them a few days ago, okay . And then i see the news, just like everyone else, and was baffled. Baffled. So you got no warning. Correct me if im wrong, brothers who you represented, were they cooperating witnesses and if they were, one would think that they would be notified of any changes in this case, am i wrong . Well, they were cooperating witnesses to the extent that they were witnesses and they wanted to cooperate. But i dont want that to get confused with like a cooperation agreement. There wasnt any kind of deal or plea deal or immunity offered. But they were witnesses who were fully committed to cooperating. And they had nothing had changed. Something that i dont think im sorry, go ahead. You said something you dont think what . Something, i dont think many people realize this, i had just been in touch with the States Attorneys Office just days ago. They had assigned a Victim Advocate for each of my clients. We were going to be present at the april 17th hearing. I had a front row seat at the march 7th hearing. So this was coordinating with us. For the States Attorneys Office not to give my client and me at that time any notice of these proceedings, its very uncourteous. Okay. So, listen, we our time is short here because we is so much news. If you can answer quickly, the brothers stand behind their story. Sure. They stand behind their story yes. That they were maid to paid this. 3,500 check to stage this event. You told Anderson Cooper that check was for training purposes and told george stephanopoul stephanopoulstephanopoulo stephanopoulos it was for both. It was for both. Yes, they stand behind the fact that jussie had also promised them 500 when they came back from nigeria for their role in this attack. So they never recanted sta e story . They never recanted their story. Do they face the possibility of charges . Are they going to be charged in this case . Because if he didnt no, because they didnt then i mean, what charges could they face . Because they were not they did not commit a hate crime. They did not stalk jussie out and attack him for his Sexual Orientation or for his race. This was completely a publicity stunt that my clients had trusted with their friend and once this got so big and they saw that this was affecting so many people, they stood up and said, were not going to be part of this fraud. And thats what happened. They were committed to doing that. One more thing before i let you go, one of the attorneys said that the brothers could have been wearing whiteface that night . I i heard that, and i think thats absolutely just atrocious. It adds to, i think, why people are giving lawyers a bad name. Its to distract from the real issues here and by putting out conspiracy theories that, perhaps, my clients were wearing whiteface, it just adds to the ridiculous and the offensiveness of this entire thing. Gloria schmidt, thank you for your time. Thank you, don. Thank you. Weve got a lot more to talk about when it comes to the Jussie Smollett case. A former cook county prosecutor is going to break it all down, next. Lls. Thats some great paint. Thats some great paint. Thats some great paint. Behr ultra, a toprated interior and exterior paint. Paint, prime, protect all in one. Now thats some great paint find it exclusively at the home depot. I switched to geico and saved hundreds. Thats a win. But its not the only reason i switched. Geicos a company i can trust, with over 75 years of great savings and service. Now thats a winwin. Switch to geico. Its a winwin. So why havent youul swistarted building . Tylers off to college. And moms getting older. And eventually we would like to retire. Td ameritrade can help you build a plan for today and tomorrow. Come with a goal. Leave with a plan. Td ameritrade. So back with the latest on the Jussie Smollett case. Chicago mayor rahm emanuel wants Jussie Smollett to pay more than 130,000 to cover the resources used in the investigation into smolletts claims of a hate crime. The attorney general has also been asked to review the handling of the case. Joining me, someone who knows full well his way around a courtroom, knows about the charges. He was there when the charges were dropped. His name is andrew weis buburg, criminal defense attorney and cook county prosecutor. Am i correct, were you there when the charges were dropped . Yes, don. Good evening. Thank you. Lets talk about this. What in the world is going on here . The cook county the cook county states attorney issued a statement saying, this is kim foxx, did not formally recuse herself from the smollett case, rather she informally separated herself from the decisionmaking. What does that mean . Well, thats my conconfusing. She recused herself, w from the matter, shes back on the back end discussing the case. I was there at the time this happened. Just happened to be in the courtroom. When i heard the decision to drop the charges, i was stunned and my jaw dropped. Why . Because you had never heard anything tlike it . Why . Ive dealt like many cases like this that end in a similar fashion. Its not uncommon in cook county for the States Attorneys Office to offer some kind of pretrial diversion program. Generally the program that they run is a oneyear program so you accept this and you have to earn it through the period of one year, stay out of trouble, go to court once every three months, see a probation officer, Community Service and if you complete it after nine months to a year, the charges are dropped. The pace at which this case is dismi dismissed is this ive never seen before. Andrew, what happened here . What do you think happened . No one seems to understand. Well, i dont know that i do, either. Ive been racking my brain trying to figure out how we got here. What really puzzles me, the case was set initially for april 17th and they decided to advance the case, run in early on march 26th, whatever the exact was and dismiss the case kind of quietly so that raises some questions. I dont believe anything nefarious took place, dont think anything corrupt took place. Theres some explanation for why this had to be so quickly dismissed and i have not been able to figure it out yet. Andrew weisburg, thank you, i appreciate your time. Any time, don, thank you. The president is railing against smollett tonight. Why smollett is his latest favorite target and what it signals to his base. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. The city of chicago going after empire actor Jussie Smollett demanding he pay more than 130,000 to cover the cost of the investigation into his claims that he was the victim of a hate crime. Smollett was charged with staging the attack against himself, but prosecutors dropped all the charges against him on tuesday. Stunning just about everyone, including mayor rahm emanuel. Given that he doesnt feel any sense of contrition and remor remorse, my recommendation is when he writes the check in the memo section, he can put the word, im accountable for the hoax. Even President Trump is condemning the move by prosecutors to drop the case saying this tonight at a political rally in michigan. He said he was attacked by maga country. You ever hear of that one . Maybe the only time ive ever agreed with the mayor of chicago. Maybe. Thats a terrible situation. Thats an embarrassment, not only t