Said on hannity that the president reimbursed Michael Cohen for the 130,000 payment as the nondisclosure agreement. But he cast the payment as a retainer for Services Rendered and expenses incurred on Michael Cohens behalf, that the president was not reimbursing him for paying off Stormy Daniels. Merely reimbursing Michael Cohen for expenses he said he had. At the heart of the case is the potential for the violation according to Rudy Giuliani. A that is what he believes he is pursuing. And the fact that the president reimbursed cohen for the payment to Stormy Daniels takes it off the table. Listen to what he said. He was definitely reimbursed. No doubt about it. Why did he say he wasnt . Maybe, maybe first of all, if we had to defend this as not being a campaign contribution, we could do that. This was for personal reasons. The president had been hurt personally. Not politically. Personally so much. And the first lady by some of the false allegations that one more false allegations six years old. He was trying to help the family. Giuliani insisted this had nothing to do with the Trump Campaign and nothing to do with protecting President Trump as a client and had everything to do with protecting him as a person. But then giuliani said this. Listen here. Imagine if that came out on october 15, 2016. Sure. In the middle of the last debate with hillary clinton. So to make it go away they made this didnt even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job. Stormy daniels attorney who is pictured on the right of Stormy Daniels is spinning this as big trouble for the president. I think our case just got exponentially better in the last 24 hours. We knew we would be able to prove this. Its not what happened in 2006 or 2007. I have been saying this all along. This is about a coverup. This is about lies told the American People and people trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes, citizens of this country. A gray area even if you believe the tale that the president reimbursed cohen for expenses incurred. Cohen took out a loan on his home line of equity and it could be deemed as a loan to be repaid that could put it in a legal area not favorable to the president. Report from nbc news that Michael Cohens phones and his email, rather his Text Messages were tapped by the f. B. I. In the week leading up to the raid on his house. And that possibly a phone call from the white house was intercepted. That really got giulianis back up, telling robert costa of the Washington Post that would make a mockery out of the attorneyclient privilege. The source also told me if the president s phone call with the attorney was wiretapped with the f. B. I. That would be serious, serious problem, a serious you know, i dont want to say what he said because i cant say it on tv. Dana i was going to say. We dont want to bleep you. It would raise a lot of issues. Put it that way. One other thing, dana. The way this all went down last night where the president and jay sekulow and Rudy Giuliani agreed on this and didnt tell anybody, even the white House Counsel at the white house. Morale is just, its in the dumps here right now. A lot of people Walking Around saying what are we doing here . Its had some effect at 1600 pennsylvania. Dana it will make the White House Briefing set to start in 26 minutes from now very interesting. Well catch you there. And watch your question. Thank you so much, john. Thank you. Dana more now on the big legal picture with the former Justice Department prosecutor virgincarr. You are a partner at foley and lardner in d. C. You have had experience in the Justice Department and private practice. Let me get your take on the news from nbc there was possibly, the f. B. I. Had obtained a permit to listen and look at email. Listen to phone calls and look at emails emails from michael. What is the strin generalsy of the stringensy of the process and would rod rosensteiner someone like that have to approve that. And is this Michael Cohen issue and the Stormy Daniels separate from the Mueller Investigation . Thanks, dana. Starting with the last question. I think based on the facts that we have seen that have come out, it does seem like the Stormy Daniels investigation is separate and apart from everything that the special counsel is looking into. As a result of that, i think when the prosecutors there in that case, which seems to be the Southern District of new york applied for a title three wiretap here, they would have had to meet a pretty high standard. In all cases where you do have a wiretap of a subject of an investigation, its a pretty high standard. But given the profile of the people involved here, the fact its an attorney, let alone the president s attorney it creates a high burden im sure the prosecutors would want to meet. Remember on top of all of that , these are only signed off after the federal judge looks at the application and approves it. I think Rudy Giuliani has a lot to say about that in terms of attorneyclient privilege and Michael Cohen. Listen to what he said about that aspect of the mueller probe. Before they raided a lawyers office, which would turn out to be violation of the attorneyclient privilege. Before they put out the questions, and completely soil the atmosphere, the chances were pretty good. Now we are going to have convincing to do. Dana rohan, i think because the stories are coming so fast that there is a lot of conflating here. The Mueller Investigation is not the one that called for the raid on Michael Cohens office. That was the Southern District of new york as you said. Also the questions that were released this week, they werent necessarily from the mueller team. The Washington Post reports jay sekulow took the range of topics that muellers team said they wanted to ask about and he drafted question like if you were getting someone prepared for a press interview. Let me ask you about the question regarding the payments and the financial issue regarding campaign violations. In many cases, as i understand it, these would be considered misdemeanors. Is that right . Thats right. Dana and so, when you get to this issue of was it a Campaign Finance violation and if it wasnt, did the president sign off on a faulty or a false Financial Report to the f. C. C. Would the jury look at this and say we have a problem here or is this the least bad news for the trump team this week . A federal charge misdemeanor or felony is a serious thing and my experience is juries take their jobs seriously. The fact it might be a misdemeanor only comes into play after you have been convict and you are trying to figure out the sentence you might be seeing. In my experience any time somebody is charged with a federal crime of any kind its a serious issue. Courts and the juries take that job very seriously [very seriously. I know they want me to wrap. I have a last question for you. We hear people saying and Rudy Giuliani said this americaning when it comes to russian collusion that there has been no evidence of that. I have a question from d. O. J. Standpoint. Why would we actually have any of the evidence . So far muellers team has been pretty leakfree. What evidence would we have known about . I think the public is unlikely to have a lot of evidence. Muellers team is made up of experienced, well respected prosecutors and all of them know that there are restrictions in place when you have a grand jury open and dealing with the classified National Security information. So the likelihood of the public getting information fromtary investigation is very low. Dana rohan, im glad you were here today. Thank you. Thank you. Dana now for the political implications, terry holt, founder and partner of hgmk and Fox News Contributor leslie marshall, syndicated radio talk show host. We got some legal grand work taken care of and now talk about the politics. Terry, there are a lot of different takes on the right, ranging from this is no big deal to this is great, we finally have the trump team on the offensive. I think that is right. What Rudy Giuliani did with the interview last night was to go from being in a defensive posture where they were taking incoming and having to deal with the scrutiny of these lawsuits and turned it on its head. Flipped the script on the prosecutors. Said we are going to deal with this Stormy Daniels thing separate and apart. To me its a shift in legal strategy that portends a shift in strategy where the white house is on an offense and can set this aside. Wile we chew it over in the media, they can go back to do the job they were elected to do. This sends a signal that giuliani and the legal team are done playing defense and they are going to play offense. Dana leslie, im sure democrats look at this from a different perspective. Id love to get your take on it. We look at it from a very different perspective. There are core trump voters who dont care if he lied about this, if there was an affair and there was a payout, they will whole heartedly vote for the president again. There are others that are getting tired of it. You can see it in the polls. Not just the lies but the disarray and the chaos coming out of the white house. I think what Rudy Giuliani did actually is he made it easier for Michael Cohen and harder for his client the president. I think a lot of people, many legal experts were perplexed by that. We democrats on the left are looking at this helping, what we hope for a blue wave or a blue tsunami in november in the Midterm Election because the president is a republican. And he is linked to the republican party. And there is a question of trust. We just heard morale is low in the white house. I think morale is low for some of the people that voted for trump and are not so sure about him and his administration going forward. Dana we will talk about the midterms later in this hour with karl rove. Terry, what did you think of this . Rudy giuliani last night was talking about ivanka, the president s daughter and defending her. When they were asked what about the soninlaw . He said, jared is a fine man, but men are disposable. But a fine woman like evanca, cmon. Ivanka, cmon. Some people read too much into that but what did you think . It sounds like a proud father who takes any opportunity to give her a nice plug. That is what i read into that. Dana stick around. We want to bring you back after the break happening in a few minutes. All right. Dana there are reports that three americans held hostage in north korea could soon be released. Well have the latest on that. Patrick woke up with a sore back. But hes got work to do. So he took aleve this morning. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Tylenol cant do that. Aleve. All day strong. All day long. The brand more doctors recommend for minor arthritis pain. Dana as we move closer to a summit president s day trump and kim jong un there are reports that the three americans detained in north korea could soon be free. Meanwhile, south korean officials express seeing optimism that the summit will provide a complete solution to the north Korean Nuclear issue. Im joined by the New York Times bestselling author of us versus them. Congratulations on landing on the list. Thank you. Dana your book came out at a good time. Before i get to that part of it let me ask you about north korea. If the hostages get released that is an incredible outcome leading into the summit. A big win. Trump did offer something. Summit, big deal to legitimate kim jong un and the North Koreans want that. In return, North Koreans suspended Nuclear Tests and icbm tests and they didnt have to do. Trump himself said red line, missiles hitting the lower 48. Well, this is definitely moving in the right direction before the meeting, before trump. If they let go of the Political Prisoners this is a sticking point, this is run like a concentration camp it shows that the North Koreans are taking this seriously. Dana what might we learn from the hostages if they are released from the labor camp. What might we glean from that . Massive mistreatment. They have been kept out of communication. Im sure i would be surprised if they were tortured. But having said that, i mean, you know, there is enormous amount of interrogation and the things there is no human rights for the people when they go over. Dana last week you had a tweet you put out that said trump, moon together gets vote for the peace prize. You said you havent seen as much backlash on a tweet as from that. If we find peace in north korea it should be nomination for the prize. The backlash to me was about trump. They werent saying how could you say kim jong un. Dana that is my part i circled. He is a little worse. Even if you cant stand trump and a lot of people cant stand trump. Even someone like me that is critical of trumps Foreign Policy. More often than not i think trump got it wrong on Foreign Policy. But if i say he gets anything right, north korea its not just bumbling into it. The Trump Administration put much more pressure on the chinese to squeeze for sanctions. They put much more fresh on the North Koreans to realize they need to engage and pressure on South Koreans to realize they have to do something and that is moving the needle in a way that obama and bush were unable to. I say that and people are not prepared to handle it. Dana if the book you talk about us versus them is that part of it . That there is a feeling, that even if he does something great he cant get credit for it . We have gone to the point where a breaking half tweet this morning, a half tweet with. Not even finished yet is breaking news we have to cover. That happened to me on the news this morning. Its not. Trump will be gone in four years or eight years time and there is presumption that it will fix the problems but actually, the reason trump was elected president is you went completely outside the established norms of what a democrat or republican president would be because people, average people in United States feel like this country and the establishment no longer serves them. That is true economically, culturally, its true in terms of the military and in terms of technology. Those are deep, deepseeded things that are just not getting fixed. We are not unique. Thats the way they feel in britain and canada and new zealand. Its the way they feel across the continental e. U. Its only in japan they dont feel this way because no immigrants, population shrinking. No military with fights all over the world. They are the one country that has rejected globalism so no one is complaining. Dana in the minute i have left, let me ask about another area. We have President Trumps delegation on his way to china. They are there to discuss the tariff issue to work on the trade imbalance. Do you think that is a place where the president is well positioned to get a good deal for the United States . Much harder, right . First, its a big delegation. They are not aligned. They dont all agree they want the same thing. That makes it harder to get a deal done with the chinese. I dont think we want a trade war with china. On the technology piece we are hitting them hard and we are hitting them hard on an issue that they made the dominant strategic issue for the chinese presidency. They want to be the dominant Technology Power by 2025. We dont want that. Dana no. This is going to create a fight. I dont see us backing off that up many. Even though there will be a trade war in terms of the tariffs going down the pike, there will be a little bit, we are heading more confrontation with china. Dana smart to do something on technology . More smart to do it with the allies. The fact that europeans are not with us is a problem for trumps Foreign Policy. Maybe they will listen to you. Us versus them failure of globalism. Thanks, ian. The White House Briefing minutes away on a busy news day. Stick around for that. Plus the most Expensive Campaign in the country now getting nasty, as Indiana Republicans fight for the chance to unseat democratic senator joe donnelly. Hey we didnt have a homeowners claim last year so allstate is giving us money back on our bill. Well, that seems fair. We didnt use it. Wish we got money back on gym memberships. Get money back hilarious. With claimfree rewards. Switching to allstate is worth it. Alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. And help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks ill take that. Yeeeeeah ensure high protein. With 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. Ensure. Always be you. Mr. Elliot, whats your wiwifi . Ssword . Wifis ordinary. Basic. Do i look basic . Nope which is why i have xfinity xfi. Its super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey lets basement. And thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. So sophie, i have an xfi password, and its daditude. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity. The future of awesome. Dana the pentagon ordering stores on u. S. Military bases worldwide to ban phones by two chinese companies. U. S. Intelligence warning china could use the device to spy on the military. The devices are made by wallway and zte. The officials telling fox news that the pentagon recently terminated the use of blackberries am only uses iphones which are also assembled in china. Indiana senate race getting red hot in the final days of the primary campaign. Two sitting congressman and a former state lawmaker fighting for the republican nomination. The winner will face democratic senator joe donnelly in the battle to flip the seat from blue to red. Mike tobin is live in indianapolis. How important is this race, mike . Well, dana, the race has the attention of the white house. Whoever wins will ultimately get personal attention from President Trump. This race pits republican congressman todd rokita against republican congressman luke messer. Late add is businessman mike braun. He campaigns as a political outsider even though he served as a state legislature. Whoever wins goes against the incumbent, democrat joe donnelly. White house official told fox news that senator joe donnelly targeted as red state obstructionist and seeing him as vulnerable the president will throw the race of the white house to the race. The political wing of the white house is looking at this as the most important race in the country. We started and still have five blue seats that were in play. Campaign just made it official a short time ago. The president and Vice President mike pence will show up in south bend, indiana, to campaign two days after this primary. Dana . Dana i bet they are on pins and needles waiting for a tweet. Mike, this primary in indiana has been particularly nasty so far, hasnt it . Nasty and expensive. The airwaves are filled with jabs at each others voting records, personal and petty insults. Democrats are looking at this race suggesting the republicans are doing Opposition Research for them. Watchers have said they have take an right leaning state and turned it into a tossup. However, each of the candidates defends its position. Im not waiting until october to so donnelly can stick a fork in one of my two opponents. We have to get the information out now. That is what a primary is about. We are going to win this race. We are going to win this primary. When we do, we will bring together all the republicans to make sure we take the case to joe donnelly this fall. Now the president won indiana by 19 points in 2016. Therefore each of the candidates a branding himself most like trump and best suited to support the president s agenda. Dana . Dana all right, mike tobin. Thank you. Americas Dairy Farmers asking the government for help as the profits plummet. More than 50 groups across the country banding together, asking congress to establish a minimum price for milk production and purchase surpluses as numerous farms have shut down in recent years. In wisconsin alone 500 dairy farms closed in 2017. 150 stopped milking this year. There are now 7600 herds down 20 from five years ago. Live to the white house where we are awaiting a briefing with Sarah Sanders as the deadline on the Iran Nuclear Deal looms with tehran saying they will not renegotiate anything. How might the white house respond . Stick around. You do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Dana live now to the state department where we are awaiting their briefing to begin. We are also monitoring the White House Briefing. We have our eyes everywhere. Jillian turner live at the state department with an update from there. Thats right, dana. Kim jong un has long been using american hostages as bargaining chips or leverage in his dealings with the international community. But according to the Trump Administration, three of those may soon be getting released. President trump tweeting last night that everybody is aware the past administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a north korean labor camp but to no avail. Stay tuned. The president s new Legal CounselRudy Giuliani tells fox news this morning that, we got kim jong un impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today. But the white house began backtracking on the comments a few hours after he made them. The Senior Administration official told fox news giuliani may have gotten ahead of the curve and there is still work to do to get the hostages released. They are three koreanamericans and one has been detained since october of 2015 and the other two since 2017. A few weeks ago all three were reportedly relocated from a labor camp to hotel in pyongyang ahead of the Trumpkim Jong un summit. They did discuss the american hostages when they met in pyongyang over easter weekend that was intended to lay the ground wok for the potential kim jong un summit this spring. Preparations are in full swing at the white house as well. Statement from Vice President pences office reads in part, the Vice President is delaying his trip to brazil in order to ensure all diplomatic and National Security resources are available as President Trumps prepares for his historic talk with the kim jong un regime. The state Department Region will get underway shortly and well have more out of that. Dana thank you very much. For more with the retired fourstar general jack keane chairman of institute for study of war and fox news senior strategic analyst. This must be fascinating for you to watch. In the long sweep of history, the changes happening here with north korea and the south korea and the United States possibly all coming together to have a summit. That is happening at rapid speed. That is actually the issue. Its a little over 90 days when they began the initiative to participate in the south korean olympics. There has been one concession after another. Its the speed and urgency that kim jong un is exercising that created the drama. It was unexpected. If the opportunity presents itself and we can denuclearize, that is an open question for sure and history not good but if that is the reality we havent seen a diplomat achievement like this since the end of world war ii when we did the Marshall Plan in europe. Dana i hear Sarah Sanders just started the briefing. Can you hang with me for a moment . Listen to Sarah Sanders now at the White House Briefing. Sarah denied the victim and the families of the military plane crash of savannah, georgia. Nine members of the Puerto Rico National guard combined 167 years of service were on an official mission. The president has been briefed with the incident and will work with the department of defense to provide resources the Puerto Rico National guard. As you know, President Trumps nominee to lead the c. I. A. Haskill is scheduled to be at the facility next year. In her years of the agency she has held senior positions around the globe to oversea counterterrorism efforts to protect the homeland. One of the most qualify and capable individuals nominated to lead the c. I. A. We are seeing widespread support across political spectrum. People that worked at the c. I. A. And led the c. I. A. Supporting the acting director haskell. Chief of staff under the c. I. A. Called acting director haskell the rare person that both party it should love. With planning and preparations underway with the summit for north korea and secretary pompeo engaged from the state department, republicans and the democrats should come together and confirm gina haspel as the director of the c. I. A. And there was a bomb in afghanistan that claimed the lives of ten journalists. Many journalists did their job at great risk every day. The United States stands in solidarity with the men and women who work for free and open societies. With that, i will take your questions. Reporter first, a quick question about iran. The video saying that iran would not renegotiate or add on to the jcpoa. How does it affect the president s thinking . Sarah we dont have announcements at this time. When the president has a final decision on what he will do with the jcpoa well let you know. Reporter sectly, can you explain why the president when he spoke, asked the questions to reporters a few weeks ago about the 130,000 payment for Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels why the president was not truthful with the American People . Sarah as mayor giuliani stated and ill refer you back to his comments this was information that the president didnt know at the time but eventually learned. Reporter a broader view, i know you cant talk about the details. Can i ask you when the president so often says things that turn out not to be true, when the president of the white house show what appears to be a play blatant disregard of the truth how is the American People expected to believe what is said here or the president . Sarah we give the best information we have at the time. I do that every single day and will continue to do that every day under this position. Reporter when the story came out that ty cobb would be leaving and flood would be coming in, the president said fake news, it was not true. When he talks about the prisoners in north korea he said the Previous Administration failed to get them out. Two of them were taken prisoner while donald trump was president. Obviously, totally conflicting statements on the Stormy Daniels story. These are statements that are just not true. Sarah when it comes to north korea, i think you could also look at Otto Warmbier who was detained in the Previous Administration as one of the current detainees. And so that would reflect the president s comments that he made. When it comes to the other, the last instance you mentioned as mayor giuliani stated this wasnt something that was initially known but later learned. We give the best information possible at the time. We will continue to do that every day. Reporter Michael Cohen back in february of last year, the reimbursement happened long before the president was asked about this. Sarah is that a question . Im saying how could he not have known, he was paying him back . Sarah i wont get into the detail and i refer you to the statement, the lengthy statements made by giuliani both last night and this morning as well as the president s tweets where they spoke about that. Jim . Reporter to followup on that, the president did talk about monthly retainers in his tweet. And mayor giuliani said the president only knew about this ten days to two weeks ago. How can you only be aware of something ten days to two weeks ago but at the same time in the process of paying monthly retainers that apparently covered this reimbursement to Michael Cohen . Sarah again, i cant get in the details of the ongoing litigation. You would refer you back to the president. Reporter to followup on it, you said march 7 there was no knowledge of any payments from the president and he has denied all the allegations. Were you lying to us at the time . Or were you in the dark . Sarah the president denied and continues to deny the underlying claim and again, i have given the best information i had the time and i refer you back to the comments you yourself just mentioned a few minutes ago about the time line from mayor giuliani. Reporter that statement was in reference to the reimbursement, the payment. Sarah again, i gave you the best information i had. You were in the dark . You didnt know at the time . Sarah the allegation, the president has continued to deny were you in the dark . That is a fairly simple question. Sarah its a fairly simple answer that i have given you several times now to give you the best information i had and i will continue to do my best to do that every day. Reporter can you give us an update on the three americans held in north korea . Rudy giuliani said they were going to be released today. Is that true . Sarah we cant confirm the validity of the reports currently out about their release but we certainly would see this as a sign of good will if north korea were to release the three americans ahead of discussions between President Trump and kim jong un. Reporter in addition to being an attorney for the president , does mr. Giuliani, mayor giuliani have a wider reason to talk about things like Foreign Policy . Sarah not that im aware of. Reporter i want to ask about the reports citing u. S. Intelligence that the chinese have installed new missile platforms on the islands in the south china sea. They also appear to now be placing fighter jets there. Meanwhile, pilots are being warned that Chinese Military personnel are pointing lasers at u. S. Military aircraft in jabuti in africa injuring american pilots. Does any of this cross a red line for the president and how does the administration intend to respond . Sarah we are well aware of chinese militarization of the south china sea. We have raised concerns directly with the chinese about this. There will be nearterm and longterm consequences and well keep you up to date. Reporter thank you, sarah. Were you caught offguard by mayor giulianis comments on fox news last night . Sarah im not part of the legal team and wouldnt be part of those discussions. Reporter is the administration, the president , is he pleased with the job that mayor giuliani is doing right now . It seemses a if he seems as if he has opened the president up to criminal liability relating to the federal Elections Campaign violations. Sarah i havent discussed that with the president. I wouldnt be part of the conversations. Reporter so the president is pleased with the job giuliani is doing . Sarah i havent had the conversation with the president. Thats not something id be part of. Reporter when was the last time that the president talked to Michael Cohen . Is Michael Cohen still his attorney . And also, is the white house concerned or is the president concerned that any conversations he would have had with Michael Cohen would have been picked up by the wiretap we learned about today . Sarah let me see if i can get all the questions since there were quite a few all together. Im not sure when the conversation took place. On the second part im not aware of specific places where he is representing the president. And on the last one i refer you to the president s outside counsel about any concerns of wiretapping. Reporter let me clarify. When did you specifically know that the president repaid mr. Cohen for the 130,000 . You personally. Sarah the first awareness i had was in the interview last night. Major . Reporter you said earlier when you give answers on the general topic you gave us the best information you had at the time. Now it appears that your position is not going to comment because its ongoing litigation. Have you been advised not to wade into this to protect yourself from any potential legal exposure by giving you false information or information that proves later not to be able to speak in court . Sarah no but i also advise against giving false information. Reporter if you give information that you think is the best at the time but it turns out to be inaccurate, are you limiting the liability by not dealing with the questions now and pushing it all off saying its ongoing litigation . Sarah im giving the best information i have. Some information i am aware of and some i am not. When i can answer i will. But beyond that i dont have anything to add. Reporter i want to ask something that the mayor said last night not related to the questions you have gotten so far. He said he, meaning the president , fired comey because comey would not among other things say he wasnt a target of the investigation. Is that the White House Position now explaining why james comey was fired . Sarah there were a number of reasons that james comey was fired. The president named several of them. But the bottom line he doesnt have to justify his decision. The president has the authority to fire and hire and every single day we have seen he made the right decision in firing james comey. [inaudible question] i think there are a number of reasons he was fired. Certainly james comey was fired for lying, leaking and politicizing the f. B. I. The president has been repeatedly day after day been proven to be exactly right in his decision to fire james comey. Sorry, major, im going to keep going. Sarah, can you the tainted investigation, do you agree with that . Sarah shannon, go ahead. Can you clear up the timeline when exactly did the president learn that the payments were going to Michael Cohen to cover the Stormy Daniels . Sarah i refer you back to Rudy Giulianis comment for anything further. Reporter did the president know that mr. Giuliani would specifically be talking about the payments on hannity last night . Sarah i dont know. You have to ask the mayor. Reporter followup to jeffs question. Rudy giuliani commented publicly on the north korean hostages. Are they involved in the efforts to secure their release . Sarah not that im aware of. Reporter why are they commenting on it . Sarah youd have to ask them. I dont speak for people on the outside. Reporter is the president concerned that the Justice Department may have had wiretap to gather information about communications with his personal attorney . Sarah im not sure about the claims of that report. Youd have to talk with the department of justice and the president outside counsel. Sarah when he learned of the reporting that Michael Cohens phones were wiretapped . Sarah i havent talked about that. I cant verify the validity of the report. Reporter back to the payments question, how many payments did the president make to Michael Cohen after the election . 00 you have to ask the president sarah you have to ask the president s outside counsel. Reporter sarah, can i ask about Rudy Giulianis comments . Giuliani said this morning imagine the amount on october 15, 2015, in the middle of the last debate with hillary clinton, reference to the payment. So does the white house acknowledge that the payment was made with politics in mind . Sarah again, im not aware of the backandforth and i refer you to the president s outside counsel. Reporter yesterday, the president threatened to get involved in the Justice Department if memos were not turned over in a timely manner to the house intelligence committee. What action is the president considering taking and what does timely manner mean to the president . How soon does he want the unredacted version of it . Sarah probably yesterday. But in terms of what he might do as the president likes to say well see what happens. Reporter on the haspel, remind us what the president s position is regarding the use of the tactics that meet International Definition of torture . Sarah im not sure what you are trying to connect. I know the acting director haspel has done everything appropriate under the law and she will be a great c. I. A. Director and we look forward to her being confirmed. Reporter thank you, sarah. Question on russia. This morning the Financial Times reported that alexi, a former close associate of president putin and a strong push for warmer relationship with the United States is joining the government. You said the president would have a summit with mr. Putin sometime in the near future. Can you give us any clues when that will be . Anything to determine on a possible trumpputin summit . Sarah nothing has been finalized on that front. I think the next big summit, if you will, for your words that the president will engage in will likely be president between president and kim jong un. Beyond that i dont have an update. Reporter no meetings, likely there is no meetings with president putin before the kimtrump summit . Sarah not that im aware of. Nothing is finalized at this point but the president would be open to sitting down with leader of russia. Reporter thank you. Following up on the question in regard to the memos and the congressional oversight, rosenstein is saying that this is extortion. What is the white house response to him calling it extortion . Does the president support the freedom caucuses articles of impeachment for rosenstein . Sarah the president would like to see the request of congress to d. O. J. Met. I havent had a conversation with him about the articles of impeachment. Reporter you just said that james comey was fired for lying. What did he lie about before he was fired and what did he leak before he was fired . Sarah there are a number of allegations. One in which he lied in congressional testimony. And has been continually i think had a number of contradiction since then, which i pointed out that the president said he has learned every day since firing comey that it was the right thing to do. Certainly he has been justified in doing so. But again, going back to the president frankly doesnt have to have a justification. He can hire and fire whoever he wants. And he made the decision to fire james comey. That certainly is a decision he stands by. And one that he feels very justified in since. Julie . Reporter was giuliani correct in saying he was fired in part because he wouldnt tell the president he wasnt part of the investigation . Sarah i cant speak for mayor giuliani. I havent talked to the president about that. Reporter the president filed report that did not include a loan from Michael Cohen or any company affiliated with him . There was no loan . Sarah i dont know. You have to talk to president s outside counsel. Reporter why is he talking to giuliani about the north korean prisoners given he doesnt have a highlevel clearance . Sarah im not aware they spoke about that. I dont know. Reporter was he aware giuliani would talk about them on tv . Sarah im not aware they spoke about it. I cant answer that. Reporter does the president believe he is above the law . Sarah no. Reporter does he prefer to sit down sarah ill answer the first question. No. Go ahead. Reporter does he prefer to sit down with kim jong un versus bob mueller . Sarah i think that the president feels like stopping a nuclear rar and helping pro nuclear war and helping protect the safety and the security of people across globe would be the number one priority of the president of the United States. And certainly i would think would be the priority that most americans would share in support the president doing. One last question. Reporter sarah, two questions. Youre not ready. Youre not ready. Reporter ill come to you next. At this point can you tell us definitively if the president plans to answer any questions from bob muler . If not, what is now in place at the white house to go through that process of a subpoena, possible indictment and possible grand jury . Sarah those are questions to refer to the outside counsel. Reporter so now going to Rudy Giuliani. Did Rudy Giuliani do harm to the president today and last night in the conversations with fox . Sarah i dont believe so. Last question. Reporter why didnt he talk to the White House Press office about his impacting stellar statement about what was happening . Sarah the White House Press office wouldnt coordinate with the president s outside legal team on legal strategy. Reporter you said yourself he was blindsided. Sarah i didnt use the term. Reporter i said it. You were blindsided with what you said. Sarah with all due respect you dont know much about me in what i feel and what i dont. Reporter i understand how it operates. Sarah go ahead. Reporter the chinese president in china, how does the white house see the meeting between the two leaders in china with the relationship . Sarah we dont have an official policy but we think its always good when other World Leaders are getting along and when we can cooperate, that is a good thing. We have great relationship with both countries an we hope to continue to do so. Thanks, guys. Dana all right. That is Sarah Sanders finishing the White House Briefing today. Lets bring in former White House Deputy chief of staff karl rove and welcome back to retired general jack keane and rohan virginkar, retired prosecutor. Sarah sanders answering questions from the White House Press corps saying you didnt know what Rudy Giuliani was going to say last night and it turns out that the president did know about the payments. You said he didnt know. She basically said i give the best information i have at the time. She did say that the first time she learned about the information that was revealed last night by Rudy Giuliani was during the interview, itself. Your thoughts . Well, she earned her combat pay today. That is for certain. We saw tricks that i know you know as a former White House Press secretary yourself. If you got a bad question, go to a friendly reporter. If you want to get out of the whole interview, go to the guy from india. She is an untenable place. One is structural and one is driven by vents. The structural disadvantage is look, the white house outside counsel not part of the white house staff and has to speak with its own voice. That voice should not be spoken through the white house president secretary. But there has to be better coordination than we saw here. Second of all, she has the problem is she has been up there echoing what the president said on air force one that he was not aware of the payment to Michael Cohen and had nothing to do with it. That story is now as we say inoperative in washington, d. C. Dana rohan, let me ask you quickly. I believe i know the answer and the answer is no. She is under no legal concerns here, right . None. That was a cheap shot question. Absolutely. Dana i want to get it from the lawyer. Rohan, can you confirm my legal instincts are correct. It does seem that way. We are talking about past conduct here. Dana do you think there is anything more to be known about, any sort of coordination . Karl said there could be more coordination from the president s outside counsel to the White House Press office, in some way that goes to the chief of staff to keep it clear or the white House Counsels office. Is there anything inappropriate about the White House Press office talking to outside counsel . I dont think so. That is entirely up to the discretion of counsel. Dana right. While you are here, i want you to take a listen to general jack keane who joins me. He was here beforehand. This is not about Stormy Daniels, general, so i will ask you something about a woman we want to talk about. Gina haspel. Sarah sanders opened up briefing talking about her. She is the president s nominee to be the new director of the c. I. A. Her hearing is next week and it is expected to be quite controversial. Even though she has widespread support across multiple administrations, republicans and democrats. Yet, what do you think she will go through next week . Well, frankly, she is going to go through some very tough questioning to be sure. I will tell you, i will underscore what you just said. I have spoken to many people here about her in the Central Intelligence agency and those that work around it like the United States military. Her support among her peers and subordinates and superiors is universal. There is no negative comment about her. So that is really quite remarkable. She was executing a directive and she was executing something that was found to be legal as she oversaw wearedboarding taking place waterboarding taking place. Dana karl, by the end of gina haspels nomination process next week could it be you saw something that happened with mike pompeo . All the leadup and controversy and at the end the president got his way. He got the nominee he wanted. And actually, it seems to be working pretty well. Could it actually happen for him next week . It could. Not only did he get the nominee in the case of pompeo but i think the general public reaction to all of that was to president s benefit and pompeos benefit and particularly when he immediately hit the ground running. I think the same thing could be true about the nominee for the c. I. A. I think the American People will see a very accomplished public servant, patriot and the bipartisan support she will have outside congress will do well for the president and for her. Dana well, let me wrap this up then. Talking going back to the news of the day in the briefing room. We talked earlier in the show about the american hostages who are being held in north korea. They are koreanamericans. They are likely to be released. Apparently there is more work to be done there. Well continue to follow the story. Rohan, ill go back to you and ask the question about mayor giuliani, Rudy Giuliani now the president s lawyer making Pretty Amazing news last night about the Stormy Daniels affair. I just want to reiterate and get one more time from you your thoughts about how people are conflating the two issues, that there is a case when you deal with Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels and the rest on one side. And that the Mueller Investigation is a separate case. And yet people continue to conflate them. Ill have you explain that to us as we try to close it out here. Sure. I think we dont know necessarily what we dont know in all the evidence. But based on the public reporting it seems like the case involving Adriana Michael n has referral from the special counsels office to the federal prosecutors in manhattan and relates to separate conduct. Apart from the underlying allegations in the Mueller Investigation. Dana all right. Rohan virginkar, thank you for being here. Karl rove in austin and general jack keane thank you for joining us on a business day. Next up, shepard smith. Shepard rudy throws a wrench in the president s stories. From the hush money payment, to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, the firing of james comey and the possible sitdown interview with President Trump and the special counsel, robert mueller, new explanations and new concerns by a white house staff said to have been floored by what rudy guliani revealed. Details ahead. First, the story of the president and the porn star. This is not about an affair. Its about whether money paid amounted to a crime under Campaign Finance laws. Thats the question