Interviews with political figures and news updates. Will he offer Paul Manafort a pardon . That remains to be seen when our own Peter Alexander asked him that question last week. He said hes not really thinking about the. But he didnt dismiss that its on the table. I would also point out, andrea, it was striking to hear the president last night at that Campaign Rally in West Virginia. Yes, he referred to the witch hunt. Yes, he took aim at the media, some of his familiar targets. But he really largely stayed on message. And you have to ask the question, if some of the wind has been taken out of his sails when to comes to attacking the Special Counsel, andrea. On his way to West Virginia as he was arriving, he said he felt badly for both manafort and cohen, clearly he was asked about both, he said he feels badly for both. Thats before the transcript from the court was released. Once the transcript was released and it was very clear that Michael Cohen had very explicitly implicated the
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prosecutors count on him. he is a complicated witness, but he s also corroborated by others. there s a david pecker, for example, who we know was just in the grand jury, and then there s a mountain of checks, documents , emails, texts, a tape of a conversation between cohen and trump. if it were going alone, you d have questions. but cohen plus never changing his story, plus all that other evidence makes him a strong witness that prosecutors can count on me. bring ellie into this conversation. ellie howard. defense lawyers likely, though, to attack cohen s credibility if there are real risks with calling michael cohen as a witness, i ve gotten to know michael cohen. i respect the turnaround that he s made in his life, but we need to be clear about what s going to happen when he takes the stand. there is no avoiding the fact that michael cohen has been convicted of perjury has been convicted of financial fraud and tax fraud, having nothing to do with donald trump, by the way on his own.
he went on as an attorney, a former attorney for michael cohen to attack cohen s credibility. that s significant because colon is really at the center of this case, so it s unclear right now. the grand jury will meet tomorrow if they will hear from another witness that we know it is possible now if there is a vote on an indictment this week, and if the former president is indicted, we are told that his initial appearance in court would not be until next week. and notably, trump has an event in waco, texas, this weekend. we ll see if he follows through with that, if he is, in fact indicted paula reid from new york. thank you so much, paula. let s get to cnn legal analyst jennifer rogers. she is a former federal prosecutor. jennifer this pause in the action as apologists described it, the reporting that they re taking a moment to regroup. what do you make of that? well not too much, boris. because we don t know exactly what it means. i mean, we know that they had a witness in on
i think this is regular business. it s unfortunate but not highly unusual given mr. trump s behavior. i want to ask you to step into the district attorney s shoes for a moment. alvin bragg is relying on michael cohen to be his star witness. as we saw with bob costello yesterday, the defense is probably if trump is dieted, probably going to attack cohen s credibility. well, i ve been in that role of star witness. i was on the stand in ten days in the case against nixon s top former aides. and it s a heavy load to carry. and the cross-examination will be livelily. but when you re telling the truth and you have corroboration, as here with michael, i had nixon tapes that corroborated a lot of my testimony. it was my word against one of them. and then the tapes came out and corroborated what i had earlier testified to. so, you know, it s not an
counterproductive and violent. so hopefully, unlike january 6th, there is adequate measures being taken by all law enforcement agencies, and they will be prepared if protesters take to the streets or do anything to protest what would be a lawful issuance of an indictment. i don t understand their logic. somehow he s supposed to be above the law? other people have been indicted and there s no call for protests. as we mentioned, attorney robert costello, former legal adviser for michael cohen, is expected to testify monday before the new york grand jury investigating trump s role in the stormy daniels hush money payments. at the request of trump s defense team, they of course are hoping costello will attack cohen s credibility. if he does that what impact will it likely have? we know one thing, rosemary, that is michael cohen is on standby. so if robert costello goes into that grand jury room and gives