Get a jump on the days news with Christine Romans and Dave Briggs. Close associate to Paul Manafort for 12 years, but now hes flipped, he pleaded guilty, and hes telling all he knows to prosecutors. So, it will be interesting when he is back on the stand for more Cross Examination this morning. Christine and phil . Jessica, thank you for that. Legal woes multiplying for michael cohen. The Wall Street Journal reporting President Trumps former lawyer and fixer is now under investigation for tax fraud. Sources tell the journal the federal prosecutor in manhattan is looking into whether cohen underreported income from his taxi medallion business. The Taxi Licenses yielded hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last five years. The Wall Street Journal also reporting federal investigators are looking into possible fraud against the bank that financed cohens taxi medallion business. Cohen has not been charged with a crime, and the journal reports he previously denied wrongdoing. Firefighte
minutes from now, we are expecting to hear a judge s initial ruling in cnn s lawsuit over press access to the white house. a judge set to decide if jim acosta will temporarily get his press conference back. but the battle far from over. so today the decision is expected to be just on the temporary restraining order, the emergency relief that cnn sought to get his pass restored but would likely give an indication to the judge s approach of the broader question. think about this as the top layer of the cake. the temporary restraining order is an argument that every day acosta is kept out of the white house it is a violation of the first amendment. so it is an ongoing damage. that s why cnn is saying give
witness, painting rick gates as a cheater and a thief who can t be trusted. firefighters gain some ground on the largest wildfire in california history, but the battle far from over. tesla boss elon musk stuns wall street with a public declaration of his private ambitions. welcome back to early start. i m phil mattingly. i m christine romans. it is 31 minutes past the hour. nice to have you here. phil, let s begin with the elections last night. if ohio s 12th district is any indication, a blue wave may be coming in november. in a special election many considered a bellwether for the midterms, the race between republican troy balderson and democrat danny o connor is too close to call this morning. now, it s an encouraging outcome for democrats in a deep red district, no matter how this plays out. there are still more than 8,000 outstanding provisional and absentee ballots that could take days to count. balderson currently leads o connor by less than one percentage point, less
a case that is probably going to end up in the supreme court. the legal battle far from over. the political battle getting pitched to. you saw the president going over the judge robart. the president calling robart a so-called judge, raising questions about him implying if there were to be future attack the blame would lay at feet of this judge. you have heard republicans coming out says there s a difference between disagreeing with the ruling which the president does, and working to delegitimate or question the legitimacy of a federal judge. you are seeing republicans distancing themselves.
atheist going over a nativity scene. getting folks to very angry. the city canceled all displays altogether, including the nativity scene. the judge upholding that end the legal battle far from over. and plus you think this would be the time of year that a turkey would want to dodge people. but not this guy. what may explain a turkey love when we come back.