Greeted three american detainees who were freed from north korea back to the united states. Violence in the middle east is unraveling. 248 hours after trump officially pulled the plug on the iran nuclear deal, israel said it attacked dozens of iranian tarts inside neighboring syria. Trumps troubles at home are also spiraling. New questions today as new details surface over payments that his personal Attorney Michael Cohen took from companies for potential access to the president. Cohen seemed unphased. Todays Washington Post headline quotes cohen as saying, im crushing i. How Michael Cohen, touting his access to President Trump convinced companies to pay millions. Joining us with the latest from the white house is jeff bennett. Jeff, the president has he left or is he leaving. He hasnt left just yet. On his way. He has a night set up for a rally when all of these things are going on in washington . Thats right. And the white house still isnt answering questions about Michael Cohen. On
Half a Million Dollars from a russian oligarch. Much more on that in just about 30 seconds. But first we want to catch you up on tonights primary races across the country. If youve been watching, you know weve been keeping a close eye on that West Virginia Republican Senate primary. President trump weighed in on that contest, urging voters to choose anybody but Don Blankenship. It appears they have done just that. Nbc news has called this race for Patrick Morrisey tonight in West Virginia. Blankenship, the coal baron excon came in third. We have complete results from Steve Kornacki at the big board coming up a bit later on in our broadcast. Back to our lead story. More on this bombshell news that the Company Michael cohen used to pay 130,000 to a porn star also received massive sums of money from an Investment Firm with ties to a russian oligarch, who was in turn close to vladimir putin. A document first released tonight by Stormy Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, laid out the allega
Including from a company lechged to a Russian Oligarch, with close ties to the kremlin. All of this raises questions about his business dealings. Were not getting any answers tonight from the white house. Dont you think the public has a right to get the answers . There are payments coming from a russianconnected entity, or russian individuals connected with the kremlin through a Shell Company controlled by mr. Cohen to pay off whoever . Doesnt the American People have the right to have information about that . I think there are appropriate venues and channels to do that. Ive encouraged you to do exactly what you outlined . As the white house dodges inconvenient questions about the man last month told us was still his personal attorney. Remember what candidate trump said charging Hillary Clinton with, wait for it, pay for play. The s have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves. Theyve made hundreds of magazine of dollars selling access, selling faces.
Of these detainees. What do you know . Reporter thats right. Two pieces of significant breaking news broken by the president on twitter this morning. The president is really making this announcement weeks away from a potential meeting with kim jongun that would be historic in nature and he says this morning, i am please today inform you that the secretary of state mike pompeo is in the air and on his way back from north korea with the three wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with kim jongun, time and place set. Pompeo and his guests will be landing at 2 00 a. M. In the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting. Now this development is really significant in part because the white house had been asked for quite some time what would it take to get the president in that room with kim jongun. The issue of the detainees had been hanging over the situation and last week we got the first indications
Just the beginning. The Washington Post reports cohen reached out to multiple companies bragging about what he could offer, quote, he showed photos of himself with trump and mentioned how frequently they spoke, even asking people to share news articles describing him as the president s fixer. Im crushing it, he said. Cohens defense it wasnt me well, at least it wasnt all me. His Attorney Says some of the transactions listed in the original financial document posted online by Stormy Daniels attorney were wrongfully attributed to Michael Cohen, the president s fixer. Some of them were to other Michael Cohens. One is in israel, another is from canada. So cohen is off the hook, right . Not quite. The moneys that went to the other Michael Cohens amounted to about 20,000. The total monies listed were more than 4 million. Cohens attorney isnt disputing two of the biggest payments, the 1. 2 million from novartis and 600,000 from at t. Those two companies confirmed they had given information to