cohen in this because it seems like according to anthony cormier and the buzzfeed story, this is not information that has come from michael cohen. michael cohen gave his testimony. he then spoke to the mueller investigation several times. it s quite possible, it s likely this is all known by the mueller investigation. michael cohen spent 70 hours with investigators. i don t think that he left anything, particularly this kind of explosive information, out of those interviews. we know that the mueller team was very satisfied with cohen s cooperation. correct. we didn t get any view into what they were satisfied with or why they were perhaps so satisfied. in fact, the fact he lied to congress and recommend he receive no additional jail time for that indicated they were very satisfied with his cooperation. now we re getting a glimpse into what he was told. this is not some of the test we ll hear when cohen goes to testify in front of congress on february 7th. there are limits to what
he says, out of respect for mr. mueller and the office of special counsel s investigation mr. cohen declined to respond to reporters and so do i. anthony, thank you for your reporting. anthony cormier, buzzfeed news. i want to bring in our leadoff panel. philip rucker for the washington post. barbara mcquade. and emily jane fox, senior reporter for vanity fair who also is the author of born trump: inside america s first family. we have exactly the right people to talk about this. first, i want to start with you, phil. you have reached out to the president s attorney, rudy giuliani, for a response. what have you got? that s right. his response is sort of a nondenial denial. he s basically saying, look, if you believe michael cohen, i have the brooklyn bridge to sell you which, of course, he doesn t.
to mueller s team, he then sort of put that investigation over the top. he put the cherry on top. i think said, yes, this is true, this is how it went down. it s incredible reporting. we haven t obviously been able to confirm this, ourselves, at nbc. we re relying on your reporting, but it is truly some incredible things in here. including the detail and frequency, anthony, with which it appears that donald trump and/or ivanka trump and donald trump junior were, in fact, briefed and the degree to which donald trump was involved in this, despite simultaneously denying during the campaign and subsequently that he had meaningful dealings with russia. right. he said, again, on the campaign trail that he has no business with russia, nothing to see here, when, in fact, behind the scenes, he was encouraging mr. cohen to set up a meeting overseas in russia with vladimir
actively encouraging it to happen. we have a response from lanny davis, michael cohen s legal and communications adviser about this buzzfeed story. he says out of respect for mr. mueller and mr. cohen declined to anthony, thank you for your reporting. anthony cormie frrks buzzfeed news. i want to bring in our leadoff panel. philip rucker for the washington post. barbara mcquade. and emily jane fox, senior reporter for vanity fair who also is the author of born trump: inside america s first family. we have exactly the right people to talk about this. first, i want to start you,
up by cohen to visit russia during the presidential campaign in order to personally meet president vladimir putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. make it happen the sources said trump told cohen. even as trump told the public he had no business deals with russia, the sources said trump and his children, ivanka and donald trump junior, received regular detailed updates about the real estate development from cohen whom they put in charge of the project. we ll have more with our panel in just a moment. first i m joined by one of the two reporters on this story, anthony cormier, investigative reporter with buzzfeed news. anthony, very strong reporting here by you and your colleagues. tell me where you how you came about this information and what you ve learned tonight. so we spoke with two federal law enforcement officials who are wed into the inner workers of the trump tower moscow investigation and they relayed this story to us as it emerged in the last couple weeks that mich