He will actually appear in Court Next Week on december 12. Charles . Charles david lee miller, thanks. Michael cohen not cooperating the way we thought he was. The five starts now. Hello, everybody. 5 oclock in New York City and this is the five. Fox news alert. We are monitoring 3 huge news stories. Prosecutors made their bombshell filing in the case against extrump lawyer Michael Cohen recommending substantial prison time. We are awaiting specials Robert Muellers memos on Paul Manafort after james comey just finished speaking to reporters following his closed door testimony to the
house judiciary and oversight committees. Chief intelligence Correspondent Catherine will break it all down. A lot of Breaking News in the last halfhour. One step at a time. On the filing for Michael Cohen, the recommendation is substantial jail time and a fine of 500,000. I want to read about the payments to women on behalf of donald trump. They said Cohen Aranged for the payment through a Media Company and disguised it as a contract. After the election, he arranged for his own reimbursement by a
fraudulent invoice. It continues. This was not a blind act of loyalty as cohen suggested. His actions suggest that cohen relished the status of a fixer, a role he embraced as recently as may of 2018. The argument they are making is that he is not cooperating to the extent that they had wished. They are also making the argument that the fraud was a very deep and complex fraud and a fraud that was perpetrated over a lengthy period of time. We are waiting for another filing from the Special Counsel for sentencing for Michael Cohen and another filing here in washington on the issue of the former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. Manafort cut a Plea Agreement with the Special Counsel. Prosecutors allege he broke the agreement and was not truthful. This is a point he disputes. All of this is happening on the same day we have an extraordinary and unprecedented situation on capitol hill when a former fbi director was under subpoena and came up and testified Behind Closed Doors for 6 hours. We anticipate a transcript could be released as early as tomorrow. The key thing here is that the director comey will come back in a couple of weeks. Republicans made the case that he did not directly answer their questions. There is a dispute over why the republicans say a Government Lawyer was shutting down their lines of questioning. Democrats say this was very legitimate because of the ongoing investigation. The first piece of sound from the former director. The republicans came out and said the Government Lawyers ran
interference and shutdown specific lines of questioning. Did that happen and what topics were not discussed . When you read the transcript, i think you will not see that happening. In addition, fox news was able to ask him a question about the antitrump dossier. The Research Funded by the dnc and the clinton campaign. If you look at the surveillance warrant paperwork, you can see from the redactions this is a significant element of the surveillance application. Just a few weeks before the president ial election for Trump Campaign aide carter page. Republicans alleged that this was not credible information, that it should never have made it into the surveillance warrant application. We put that issue to comey also. I have total confidence that the fisa process was followed
and the entire case was handled in a thoughtful and responsible way by the doj and the fbi. The notion that fisa was abused is nonsense. How do you think Robert Muellers investigation is going . I see it proceeding quickly and professionally. The most important indication if you dont anything about it until he files something in court and thats the way it should be. You cant emphasize enough how extraordinary the session was on capitol hill to have a former fbi director under oath for a transcribed interview. On the way out of the session the republicans said they would speak publicly but only after the transcript is released. Folks at home can read the transcript and decide whether the former director was forthcoming about the clinton
emails investigation and the trump russian Collusion Investigation or whether there was unfair interference by a Government Lawyer to shutdown the lines of inquiry. Thank you very much. Stick around. We will bring you back in a little bit. We want to bring in special reports bret baier to discuss some of the issues surrounding Michael Cohen. Welcome to the five. They recommend prison time for Michael Cohen. The range was around 5 years. Was that 5 year recommendation, was that strictly based on a Campaign Finance violation . Or are there more things that got cohen in trouble . Its a long list. There are 2 different recommendations. One is from the Southern District of new york dealing with all of the charges that deal with payments and the
operation with the Trump Organization. And then the second filing is from the mueller special Counsel Office. They suggest that he cooperated more than the Southern District of new york does. They recommend a lighter sentence. Then you have the other filing that is coming out which we have not seen yet. Thats the manafort filing. Going back to the Southern District of new york. They detailed the cooperation and say it was not as great as everybody thought. They are recommending this substantial sentence. Cohens criminal violation of Election Laws were stirred by his own ambittion and greed. He expected to be given a prominent role in the new administration. When that did not materialize, he found a way to monettize his
relationship and he made more than 4 million before contract were terminated. They say that cohen had monthly invoices he sent to the Trump Organization for 35,000 payments indicating they were sent as a retainer. These are the pavements to pay off some of the women that we have talked about and their allegations. Its curious to see what the president s exposure here will be. Considering this happened before he became president. Kennedy . Hi. There was one aspect of the filing that said in some of Michael Cohens text messages, he expected a plum role in the administration. I wonder if his narcissism were
repellent to Special Counsel. Yeah, it seems like that. At least the Southern District of new york. We are looking at the mueller filing, kennedy. This is separate. We have three things going in addition to comey testifying. The Southern District of new york, and the Special Counsel details and the Special Counsel on manafort and why they think he is lying to them. Mueller contends that comey lied to congress and the trump tower deal could have made his Company Hundreds of Million Dollars from russian sources. The thought of a Trump Tower In Moscow. Cohen alleging that he lied to congress saying this project was in the works and continued to go and be talked about. Are they intimating that the project was illegal . No, they just said he lied
about it before congress. That it was still going forward. You get to the heart of the matter here. This is what the president has tweeted about. Is it legal or is it not . He was a businessman looking for opportunities . Did he do something illegal by talking to a project . Where the complication comes is how it strings together with the other russia part of the investigation. We dont see yet in this document that detail of where the Mueller Probe is heading on that front. Again, i have not seen the manafort document yet. All right. Bret, put the cohen filing into context of Everything Else that happened this week and the manafort filing which we are waiting for. We had the Flynn Sentencing Memo. He was cooperating on three separate investigations. Now the cohen memo. And we are waiting for manafort. Put that in context for the kind of week the president is looking at on the Special Counsel . I dont think we know yet. I think the flynn filing, if you listen to people who really covered this closely like michael and others who say people are reading too much into it. You dont know what is behind the redactions. Its possible they could be involved in other crimes dealing with other people and other lobbyists. Again, we dont know on that front. As far as these fileings, the most damning thing so far is the payments. Ings, the most damning thing so far is the payments. Whether you character those as a Campaign Finance investigation. Russian collusion i have shifted through 40 pages and i have not
seen anything along those lines. I feel like the news just threw up on me. [laughing]. I am trying. What you just said is the key thing. This was supposed to be about Something Else which was this mythical beast which was collusion. Instead we have these complications and these documents and these details and we dont know what is legal or illegal. For the media this will feel like christmas. Yeah. Campaign finance violations there are legitimate concerns. There are laws, obviously. If you are talking about substantial evident of collusion with russia. So far i am not seeing anything that references that. Lets see what the manafort filing says. You are right, greg, its been a lot of talk about what could possibly come. Like its an exciting moment. So far this is like chinese food for those folks. They may want to have a little bit more food because they dont have enough information here. Does that make sense . Yes, it does. A quick question for bret baier . I do. Can you explain to us more, resign to run laws are not applicable in the private sector. We wanted to talk about the collusion. We didnt get that. For folks getting worked up over Campaign Finance issues, resign to run laws dont apply to the private sector, why would cohen lie about the potential relationship other than it may open up the president s campaign to black mail . That doesnt mean it would happen. Its things that may not happen. Is it just a media tactic . I dont know if we can get to his motivation for lying about
it. The campaign had been asked about ties to russia and there have been denials from the candidates. After that, it seemed like it had all finished. The Trump Tower Plan had gone further than anybody thought it was if you believe cohens testimony the second time to the essentials. Special counsel. The legality, you are right. Its legal. He was a businessman at the time. How it fits into his answers about his dealings with russia later after he gets elected, i think thats what everybody is hanging their hat on. Bret, thank you very much. We will catch you at 6 oclock. Special report with bret baier a big hour. John roberts from the white house. What is the reaction down there . Well, we have not gotten new
reaction to the Sentencing Memo that muellers office put out. President trump suggested that Michael Cohen lied to try to get a lenient sentence and that Michael Cohen deserves a long sentence. It looks like that is what he is going to get. The office of Special Counsel recommending a modest reduction from the guidelines, 51 to 63 months. Its interesting, too, its almost in a mocking tone that the Special Counsels office goes after Michael Cohens request for no jail time saying the effect on his family and loss of law license is punishment enough and he should be credited time served and not go to jail at all. The special Counsel Office said well, thats not the case. Your crimes were substantial and you deserve to go to jail for
sometime. If we hear something from the president or his legal team i reached out to Rudy Giuliani. He said something about the Michael Cohen guilty plea a short time ago. I think we will hear that cohen is getting what the president s legal team believe he deserves. Since the payment to stormy and other women. They were not out of the campaign. They were made by donald trump the citizen at the time. Can he argue that this was not campaignrelated and therefore its not a Campaign Expenditure . This is something he was doing to protect his personal life. People spend a lot of money. Just because it happened right before the election doesnt make it necessarily related to the election and necessitate an sec filing. The great thing about the
United States you can argue anything you want. Whether or not it flies is another question. This is an argument that the president has made. This was a personal matter. It wasnt a campaign donation. The u. S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of new york and the District Judge there beg to differ, to say this was antifa an Illegal Campaign contribution on Michael Cohens part and said the president had knowledge and was cooperateing in the efforts to silence Karen Mcdougal and stormy daniels. Whether or not this could be tied to the president , i think is a matter of some debate. There is the Justice Department memo from the 1990s that said a sitting president cant be indicted. But they suggested that the president knew all about this. Regardless of what he might
argue, this constitutes an Illegal Campaign do nation and making false statements about it, Michael Cohen deserves time behind bars. One document we got from the Southern District ever new york, it outlines the instances that Michael Cohen provided to the Special Counsel. Hes been in many hours of interviews with the Special Counsel. It doesnt give details but talks about Michael Cohen give information about certain Russian Nationals who were reaching out to the campaign and have synergy with the campaign. Not a lot of details about the russian aspect but bread crumbs. What do you expect the white house to say about this filing today . We have not gotten anything from the white house first of all or from the president s
outside legal team Rudy Giuliani. If we hear something from Sarah Sanders i think they would say there is no evidence of collusion here that is demonstrated. Michael cohen maybe talked about contacts with russians but no evidence of collusion. Thats been their story all along and a story they are sticking to. What might be more interesting to see than the Michael CohenSentencing Memorandum and attacked addendum is what comes out in the Manafort Case and if thats as heavily redacted aside the Michael Cohen one was. That might have more information about collusion and the Trump Campaign and russians in terms of trying to influence the outcome of the election. The mantra all along from the white house from the Trump Campaign and president s legal team there is no evidence in anything we have seen so far of collusion between the trump
campaign and russia to throw the election. Thank you very much. Alan dershowitz. Harvard law professor who is following this closely. You have seen the memorandum and the filing on cohen. What jumps out at you specifically . There are two possibilities. One that cohen hasnt provided much. Or two, by recommending a harsh sentence, they are putting more pressure on cohen maybe to come up with even more information because the government has the power to get the sentence reduced afterward if they can tell a court that there was cooperation. Right now, it does not sound like its good news for mueller. It doesnt sound like in cohen they found a witness that will give them the key to the kingom. So far the only solid evidence
that he has provided is the Campaign Contribution issue. Its a very, very weak case because the president is entitled to pay off women in order to help his family, help his brand. Even if it was to help the campaign, remember the timing, he would not have had to file anything until after the election. I think many courts would say no harm, no dowel. Foul. Even if he filed it after the election, it would not have impacted the election. The Campaign Contribution case is weak. The evident of him wanting to build a tower in moscow. Thats not a crime. Its not collusion. If the president offered putin as some people suggested a penthouse on the top the building to get the license to build the building, that would be different. But i see no evidence to support
that quid pro quo. All right. Kennedy has a question. I wonder about the cooperation and how Robert Mueller reached Michael Cohen and what he might have offered him and whether he yanked the rug out. This memorandum from Special Counsel talks about the 4 ways that cohen was helpful in regards to russia. His own contact. Russia reaching out to the campaign. Russia reaching out to trump executives and his response to congressional inquiry. Why less cooperative for him than mueller . Cooperating with the government is risky. If the government has too much control. In the Manafort Case they dont like what he said. They will say hes lying. The deal is off. Here they can say he gave us this information. But we still recommend a harsh sentence. I think it sends a message. Be wary of cooperating with the Special Counsel. In the end, you may not get much. As someone who never cooperated with the federal government. Greg gutfeld. Thats for certain. If you work in a political campaign, you better hope you lose, right . If you win, there will be a trap set for you in which the whole trap is designed to ask you so many questions that you are bound to lie on one or two of them. I would never take a Government Job because i am going to lie. Well, if i was your lawyer, i would not let you lie. I hope that Hillary Clinton had
won and they were going after her and i was defending her the same way i am defending trump, i would be the hero of marthas vineyard. They would put up statues. That will make the darling of the liberals. The same arguments are helping the demon president youre absolutely right. If you win, they are going after you. Maybe losing it better. Thats why you are respected. You are consistent on either side. You would do the same thing . Yes, but i am also hated for that because people want me to be on their side. You have to pick a side. Amen, true. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. We will go to catherine who is still down there on capitol
hill. Do we have you . Yes. I am coming right back. Stand by one second. I was just working on 6 oclock. You know how it goes. I totally understand. Dr. Nicole sapphire has a question. I have a question for you. Its off the cuff. Cohen has had problems with truth and grace. Just because he cooperated with the investigation, i dont know why people are surprised they are still recommending sentencing. He committed crimes. He admited to it. He needs to under go sentencing. My question, there were some crumbs dropped about russians who reached out during the
campaign. That didnt mean that Doesnt Parallel Withclusion with President Trump. That means there was communication. How do we know it wasnt cohen . We know he reached out to people to consult for money. Could he not have done that with russia . Right. Yes, i just got the section right here. We are on the air still. I will put the light back on. [laughing]. Beautiful. Moving targets today up here on capitol hill. [laughing]. I dont think thats ever happened to me before. It happens every once in a while. I think the point number 1 is that cohen is someone who has an admitted track record for lying. The issues are fraud, seeking financial gain for himself. You are saying how credible is he . The bread crumbs that are buried in the filing are right here. It says the defend provided information about attempts by other Russian Nationals to reach the campaign. Cohen provided the special Counsel Office with useful information about discreet russia related matters during the campaign. Cohen provided relevant information about his contact with persons connected to the white house during the 2017 and 2018 period. It it goes to the core of what you are saying. They documented through cohen there was outreach by the russians to the campaign but it doesnt tell us if it was coordinated or working together or collusion. Having covered this for so long, i am not sure its that surprising. We know about the june 2016 trump tower meeting. This was an effort by the
russians to get an in coming administration to take a sympathetic view of their lobbying issue. These documents are providing a big, broad picture of the scope of the investigation. We dont know who these individuals were. Who they contacted within the campaign and if any promises were made. The moscow real estate process was discussed but it never went forward. It said this russians were seeking to arrange a meeting with donald trump and that never materialized. Felix admits to that in the emails with Michael Cohen which have been in the Public Domain for over a year. The New York Times or the Washington Post first got a handle on those emails. He was the developer working with cohen and trying to get an introduction to putins office. Cohen was having a hard time to get that into the senior levels of the russian government and the president Vladimir Putin. Did he make those connections . Did it go anywhere . Did the filing today answer that question for us . You have been up on the hill all day covering jim comey and now the news on Michael Cohen. We are still waiting for the manafort filing. Have you gotten any reaction from senior members on the republican or democratic side up on the hill to all of this news today . What are you hearing from members up there . Well, the timing is not with us here. I dont want to speculate. The ticktock. Just after 4 15 eastern the
former fbi director comey came out and talked to reporters. We didnt hear much from lawmakers after that. They were waiting for the transcripts to be made public. What we heard earlier in the day is that they felt it was absolutely essential on the democratic side that the Special Counsel investigation be allowed to run its course. Republicans were not so much focussed on the Mueller Probe. They were more focussed on their core issues over whether there was special treatment for Hillary Clinton during the emails investigation by the fbi and if there was abuse by the trump Camp Campaign in 2016. Thank you very much. We appreciate all of those great reports. Bret baier looking over this memo closely. Do you have anything to share about the russian connection . Well, we found a key part in
the Special Counsel filing when it comes to cope. Cohen. It ties this to russia per the Special Counsel. Page 5 through 7. Talks about cohens cooperation with the government. Saying he was useful in 4 different areas. Providing information about his own contacts with russian interests during the campaign and discussions with others making those contacts. Detailed account of his involvement in the moscow development. He received Contact InformationNovember 2015 for a Russian National who he claimed was a trusted person in the Russian Federation who could offer the Campaign Political synergy on a government level. This person proposed a meeting between individual one, donald
trump and the president of russia. He told cohen the meeting could have a phenomenal impact in the political and business dimension referring to the Trump Tower In Moscow because this is no bigger warrant in any project than consent of the president of russia. Cohen did not follow occupy this invitation. He provided the Special Counsel with Discreet Russian related matters. Core to the investigation that he obtained by his contact with the Trump Organization executives during the campaign. 3rd, this is interesting. Cohen provided relevant information about his contacts with persons connected to the white house during 2017 and 2018 time period. Thats last year and this year. 4th, cohen described the circumstances of circulating his response to congress and
continuing to accept responsibilities for the false statements within it. The circulating and response part is getting some look. That means circulating what he would say under oath with the people inside the white house. Thats a key part there. There is a foot note on page 4 that says cohen talked to individual number 1 donald trump about the russian government. Interesting. Kennedy . You bring up a great point, bret. Obviously this is the thrust of the investigation. This is the reason there is Special Counsel in the first place. Its the interaction between the Trump Campaign and the russian government trying to figure out if collusion existed. Although the Special Counsel memo did a good job of organizing it into 4 distinct
areas, you have to think given this is the crux of the investigation and the critical component. If Michael Cohen had dealings in 4 different areas in regards to russia, he didnt provide a lot of information. Perhaps the case involving russia is not very strong. We will see. They dont detail all of that evident in this document. Going through the Southern District of new york and the Special Counsel papers, the 40 plus pages, it did not jump out. Then there was this section on russia which deals with what the Special Counsel is tasked to do. We dont know what other evidence he has lined up from other witnesses. We really dont know how this all stitches together. Some of this they would not put in this filing unless he was leading to something or perhaps there is some other element we dont know about that they are
going to come forward with. It doesnt t that he is making the case that it happened. At least not in this document. It says what cohen told them. I am overwhelmed by the amount of video of Michael Cohen walking that we have. Good job, everybody. I am waiting anxiously for donald trump to tweet. I predict he will say as i said no collusion, fake news, witch hunt . What do you think his response will be . Witch hunt, fake news and noclusion. A different order. I think it will be the same response. Bret, when you listed these socalled connections between Michael Cohen and russia. The Special Counsel did. When you read those off from the Special Counsel memo, it seems like there is a lot of smoke but no fire. You said there could be 2
possibilities. Could one of the possibilities be that the Special Counsel is not necessarily leading to the Promised Land of the major russian collusion . Could they be creating a narrative and putting everything out there on the table without in the end having any there, there . Its possible. That is one possibility. Understand that this has to when a final report comes it goes through the Justice Department and to the acting attorney general. If it happens after bill barr is confirmed it will go to him. These filings are public and they are laying this thread. Everybody is looking at every word to see where it leads. What this section told us is
there may be an effort to stitch together an obstruction case. The suggestion of the circula circulating response before he makes it under oath. The suggestion of talking to insiders in the white house in 2017 and 2018. You dont know where this is going. Thats the thing we have had to say every day with these filings. They just give us pieces of the picture. We dont have the whole puzzle. Bret, it feels like with this filing, we got another window into Michael Cohen who worked for donald trump and has a lot of insight into the financial dealings the president has had for many years as a businessman. The flynn filing gave us a window into the National Security is advisor and campaign apparatus. Manafort will give us insight into the campaign manager. A lot of the pieces of the puzzle are being put out but we
dont know what the whole picture looks like but each is a different part of Donald Trumps world . Sure. I think we will learn less. I know the manafort filing will be under seal. It was supposed to be filed by 5 p. M. I think it will be under seal. That means its part of a larger investigation. Dont they have until 11 59 . But they posted under seal. There are different pieces we are learning here. What we really can definitely say is Michael Cohen is in trouble. Yes. He is facing some serious jail time. The other one. Paul manafort is in trouble and facing serious jail time. It seems like this is coming to a head a little more. I have a question for you. I am a medical doctor and not a lawyer here. Break it down for me and other people that are not understanding. I am referring to the foot note on page 4 where cohen said he conferd with then donald trump about a potential meeting to gauge russias interest about meeting together. That meeting never happened. I know that cohen had been with trump for a long time. Perhaps was cohen saying he wanted to have this discussion for potential financial future if President Trump didnt get elected . Sure. Youre absolutely right. The president said that himself leaving to marine1 on the south lawn. He said there was a good chance i was not going to get elected. He said that to reporters while leaving the white house. He said i was doing business. He could probably say the exact
same thing after this filing. Thats what was happening. They were talking about discussions about business. Fast forward and you get to the election and where is that interaction with russians after that point . Where he laid down the marker and said there is no there, there. It does not detail when these connections happened. Cohen is talking about his interactions with russians. Bret, thank you very much. Everybody can see you in about 20 minutes on special report. This is making kevin hart feel better. Alan dershowitz, constitutional scholar from harvard who has had more time to look at this memo. Are you learning anything more as you read through this thing . Yeah. I think we are seeing a coming
attraction. A trailer for the Mueller Report, in which in the end, he is going to layout a circumstantial case of political sin rather than federal crime. Took the words right out of my mouth. [laughing]. Its not just that the rules say you cant indict a sitting president. They wont find any crimes. Lets take collusion. The president said there is no collusion. Even if there were evidence of collusion, even if this was a deal made between the president and putin, help me get elected president. I dont favor sanctions. That would be a terrible political sin. But i can search up and down the federal statutes and i cant find a crime. How about the conspiracy to defraud the United States . There is no such crime. Its an absurd notion. A conspiracy to defraud the United States of america by engageing in constitutionally protected campaign activities. Liberals think of themselves as protectors of the constitution are so prepared to violate their own notions to stretch the criminal law to fit somebody they dont like. If Hillary Clinton was elected, the republicans would do the same thing to her. Oh my god, destroying those emails, that was a conspiracy. You cant makeup crimes. Crimes are on the statute back. They are there for a reason. They have to be construed narrowly. There is a principal of law. You must interpret the statute in the way that favors the criminal defendant. I think we will see a report that lays out a lot of alleged since and activities that americans wont be happy with, but wont find crimes unless they stretch the law to fit the crime. Remember, witnesses like cohen can be used in a report because they will never be crossexaminationed. In a court of law they would be devastated on crossexamination because these are admitted liars. You cant use a liar as a credible witness in an actual trial. Can you use them in a report. Its essential that both sides get a chance to respond and issue their reports simultaneously. In the Sentencing Memo from
the Southern District of new york, they talk about cohens greed and his pattern of deception and the difficulty in a court of law and having this be a buildielievable witness. He was not a cooperating witness but cohen was operating as though he had such an agreement. Of course. You need an implicit agreement. A nod of the head. If you are cooperative and give us information, we will reciprocate and give you the benefit. Obviously he didnt give them enough of a benefit and it sound like he will get more than 2 or 3 years. Maybe as many as 4 years in prison. It just shows how risky it is to
be close to a man who gets elected president and who is very, very controversial. Everybody who has been close to the president and the candidate is in trouble. The trouble is largely of their own making. They were not always the most honest people. But they would have lived their lives out had they not been close to this president. Because Special Counsel is obviously determined to [inaudible]. Not only do these witnesses sometimes sing, sometimes they improve the story to get a better deal. You pointed out that the indictments and pleas that came down in this case came after the introduction of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel. No one has been charged with something that happened between the time that donald trump announced his candidacy for
president . Yes, with a few exceptions the russians. Some of the financial cases. The only thing relating in any way to the president s campaign is the weak Campaign Contribution argument. Its been lies that were told after the Special Counsel got appointed. He was not appointed to get people to lie. He was appointed to uncover actual crimes committed in the past before he was appointed. By that standard he hasnt been a success up to now. We have to keep an open mind whether or not he comes up with something in the report which we have not seen yet. It occurred to me. If we are talking about hush manny to pay for an outside source, what about the taxpayers paying hush money . Well, the taxpayers are paying for the prosecutors. Prosecutors actually make money. Although it costs a lot to have prosecutors, they get a lot of fines and prosecutors often operate at a profit. I dont think that is as big of an issue as people make it out to be. The bigger issue is they have so much power. Let me tell you an interesting thing. If a Defense Lawyer or the president were to talk to a witness and say give me good evidence, evidence i can use, i will give you a benefit. They would be in jail in a second. Thats Witness Tampering and obstruction of justice. But prosecutors can do that. They can offer people an enormous amount. They can offer them money, freedom, life for good information. There was one court gutsy enough
that said thats a bribe too. Anyone who offers a witness anything of Material Value to influence their testimony is guilty of a crime. Unfortunately that Wise Decision was overruled. Now prosecutors can do what Defense Attorneys cant do offer material benefits to get witnesses to give them evidence favorable to their side. Thank you very much. John roberts. Still down at the white house. What is the latest . Well, still no reaction from the president to this or from any member of the president s legal team. We keep on checking on it. The president weighed in on twitter about the James Comey Testimony today. He said james comey was told not to answer the most important questions. Forced him to answer questions under oath. So far nothing on the cohen Sentencing Memorandum. Despite the fact that it says in here that cohen facilitated some contacts with the russian government. The nature of those we dont know. He was trying to build a Trump Tower In Moscow and reached out to Vladimir Putins spokesperson. There was some allegation which counsel close to the president shot down as being ridiculous that there was an idea to offer Vladimir Putin a 50million Penthouse Apartment in trump tower if it got built. That allegation came from felix sader. One of the driving forces behind Trump Tower In Moscow. Other than that the president who is up in the resident. He got back from kansas city a short time ago. Hes likely watching the
coverage. I dont know if he is going through the document or waiting for advice from attorneys on the implications of this or not. The twitter oddly silent about Michael Cohen particularly after the president earlier in the week, the president said that Michael Cohen deserves the full force and weight of the law in terms of sentencing because of his crimes. It looks like he will get. They recommended between 48 months and 60 months. 51 to 63 is the guidelines. Thats about 5 years. Thats a lot of time. Yes, it is. They recommended a modest reduction but shot down all of Michael Cohens claims to no jail time. Saying they were laughable. You can read between the lines there. If you are looking at a modest reduction, you might be looking at 45 months. What kind of jail would he go to . One of those comfortable ones . It might be the sort of jail you would be enjoy being in, greg. I thought about it. Free meals. We dont know if it would be a Country Club Type of federal facility. The federal minimum facilities are not like singsing. Its nicole. My question for you, it seems the prosecutors are trying to line up direct communication between the Trump Administration and russia. Do you think when the final Mueller Report comes out it will be more of a laundry list of unseemly acts versus criminal activity. But do you think what came out today is showing alignment or just dropping little bit of information to work people up . Sorry i keep looking down. I am waiting to see if the president tweets something here. I have gone through the documents. I went through the Flynn Sentencing Memo as well. A lot is redacted so you dont know what might be in there. There doesnt appear to be anything that connects the dots of collusion to throw the election here. There are a lot of dots to be connected between the Trump Organization and individuals in moscow to varying degrees of business. Particularly on this issue of trump tower. We know that the president had the Miss Universe pageant in moscow. The president was well acquainted with many people in russia. The president himself has gone to visit there on at least one occasion if not more. As to whether or not there are any dots to be connected so far to say well, there were these conversations about emails and
putting them out at specific times to try to discredit Hillary Clinton and her campaign and sway more voters to donald trump, i dont think there is anything like so far. Certainly nothing has come out in the charges levelled at other players that would suggest that. We need to wait and see what comes out in the sentencing in the Manafort Case. If that is heavily redacted. Yes. John, right now, we are hearing that its going to be largely secret. We wont be able to read too many tea leaves out of it. Thats a shame. I am not sure what we can do with that. He violated his deal with the Special Counsel. According to the Special Counsel. He said he didnt and they are trying to strong arm him. I spoke to Rudy Giuliani last
week. They have a joint Defense Agreement with Paul Manafort and Kevin Downing his turn. Attorney. And they have been pummelling Paul Manafort dragging him out of Solitary Confinement and asking him questions about donald trump and they dont like the answers they are getting. Thats probably part what have led mueller to believe that manafort had violated the terms of his cooperation agreement. I dont think he was telling the truth about President Trump. Rudy giuliani said President Trump is upset about the way they are treating it manafort. He is being treated more akin to a Terror Suspect than a person who allegedly committed these
crimes. And kennedy, do you have a question . John roberts, so nice to talk to you. I have a question about the cooperation. Oh, look, manafort. A picture of manafort. But no pictures of manafort walking. John roberts, tell me about the cooperation between the Southern District of new york and Special Counsels office. They cross reference each other. How are they working are they working in concert on sentencing, recommendations . Are the investigations working in tandem at all with some of these key witnesses particularly Michael Cohen . Well, certainly there is cooperation. They are both arms of the department of justice and tray tradeoff cases back and forth across jurisdictions whether it is deemed necessary. The Special Counsel came up with this information about Michael Cohen. But didnt think it fell within
the perview of the immediate russia obstruction investigation. They handed it off to the Southern District of new york. When the Southern District of new york makes these sentencing recommendation, i dont know that they sent them to the office of the Special Counsel for approval. Certainly the Special Counsel would have briefed on everything the Southern District of new york knows and anything relevant would be referred back. There is no question there has to be open lines of communication here. The department of justice, the righthand needs to know what the lefthand is doing here. We have done almost a full hour on this. Are you as angry as i am that there are no animals video today . Will you watch the greg gutfeld show tomorrow night at 10 oclock . Every time i come out here, i
prepare to be in the first section of the bret baier show. I look forward to the animals. I am dismaid there was not one today i will be watching tomorrow for a Special Edition of that. For you, anything. All right. Its been an hour. It feels like three hours. I feel like cohen am i think have a gone away for 60 months. [laughing]. I think there are a few key issues here. Alan dershowitz stole my line. The thrust of the Mueller Probe. It looks like so far if you look at flynn and manafort and Michael Cohen. He is building a circ circumstantial case. Somebody told a different story to a federal investigator, but the actual Collusion Investigation and obstruction
case may not materialize in the final report. You may get something along the lines, President Trump surrounded by a lot of bad guys that did bad things in the past. And it doesnt really rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. The truth is we dont know. There is so much that Robert Mueller has that we are not privy to. There is a legal and a political case. Impeachments and investigations are political decisions and not legal ones. This is a bit of the iceberg above the water. There is still so much underwater. The only person who knows what that looks like is Robert Mueller. Its hard to guess what the final report will look like. The insight that Alan Dershowitz gives. If this is a circumstantial case that could be damaging
politically but not the death nel for impeachment. I said it all along. There are disgusting people on many sides. You are next to one. [laughing]. Dont talk about jesse that way. He is a great american. It shows there are people in russia. There are people in the United States who are busy bodies and low hards and do whatever they can. We didnt get to talk about kevin hart and the oscars. We didnt do Fan Mail Friday either holding my breath. One of the concerning things that bret mentioned in the memo. Michael cohen was trying to get his stories straight before the congressional testimony. That could lead in dangerous directions. The democrats wanted to know if there was an intent to blackmail with russia. They didnt get there yet. Its a circumstantial case which