stupid question. that s president trump down playing the questions about whether he would pardon michael cohen. our reporting tonight adds some intrigue. cohen encouraged by trump s tweets as a sign to stay strong. even if no pardon is being discussed formally, he thinks these are messages that trump is watching out for him. why should trump be worried at all? how some people in trump land could have wilder criminal liebt than they realize and hay jor tool this mueller s pocket. the law that i m talking about is something everyone knows in general. bribery. here s what s key. while traditionally government bribery sounds like something only government officials can do. something an issue after trump takes off. there s indications that mueller could reach back further than that. there s way that federal prescribe bribery laws can apply the moment he becomes a nominee.
the letter goes into some detail as to what ethical issues and criminal issues could be at stake here. correct. it talks about potential bribery laws being violated, ethical violations. basically the whole gist of it is, you know, a public official has to put national interests first, personal interests second and the whole question here with jared kushner is whether he reversed it and put his personal interest first at the expense of the public interest. do you i guess what is your reaction to learning the office of white house counsel is doing this investigation? on the one hand, it is remarkable that a senior white house official is undergoing this sort of ethics while serving. on the other hand, i don t know whether an investigation by don mcgahn would keep me up at night. i m from illinois. we have a strong sense of smell
surprise and so now we re following up. when the government ethics office, part of the news they broke is that they said that the white house counsel s office is already looking into this matter as an ethics issue. the letter goes into some detail as to what ethical issues and criminal issues could be at stake here. correct. it talks about potential bribery laws being violated, ethical violations. basically the whole gist of it is, you know, a public official has to put national interests first, personal interests second and the whole question here with jared kushner is whether he reversed it and put his personal interest first at the expense of the public interest. do you i guess what is your reaction to learning the office of white house counsel is doing this investigation? i mean, on the one hand, it is remarkable that a senior white house official is undergoing this sort of ethics query while still serving in the white house after having been stripped of his security cleara
you don t become a member of the mar-a-largo without shelling out i believe $200,000. and they doubled the initiation fee after he became president of the united states or was elected. so this is clearly payment of cash in return for access to the president. it is not bribery under the bribery laws as interpreted by the united states supreme court which recently ruled that payment of cash for access to a politician is not itself criminal bribery. but it s something that s certainly should be of grave concern to the american people. let me just tell you what the trump organization s outside ethics adviser bobby birchfield said according to politico, i personally don t see any issues raised. it s not a campaign event, it s a normal business, new year s
good evening. bret: i want to talk about menendez and i want to talk about your show. eight weeks. it was kind of no-nonsense. he didn t throw up the case early based on the supreme court, bob mcdonald ruling. he didn t say it was a mistrial. the jury is going to get this case and what are your thoughts? it s going to be critical, the fact that the jury instructions will be such a big deal because of the case last year with former virginia governor bob mcdonald where the supreme court said if we went by some of these bribery laws, they are so vague that if you have a conversation or cup of coffee with someone on the hill, those things could get an elected official in trouble. his attorneys are going to push really hard for the jury instructions to follow that, to say it s got to be super specific. here, i am giving you this gift in return for you making this phone call. they are saying if it is vague, it can t count. those instructions will be