what do you make of companies trying to use this type of figure to get close to the white house. i think this happens a lot. people do when they leave the white house they often set up lobbying companies with somebody who is a top republican, a top democrat and one of the things they do is they can interpret what s going on inside if you re worried about a regulation coming down or something like that it s been done since time immemorial. what we re looking for is not that. it is distinguishable by the fact that there was registered. as he should have. it s a slimy proposition. but i come back to the russian related company. interests no obvious corporate reason why they want to know what s going on. i mean, do you guys do you not think it s at least suspicious do you think it s suspicious the $500,000 that went to cohen do you think that s suspicious. i absolutely do david. i do. and i think they wasted their money because they got nothing from team trump.
has been to be significant, has to be someone he needs to speak to. he wants to know from the oligarch who are you talking to, what are you doing, what are you will go for? there is a ton of questions. the fact that at&t and novartis happen to be art of the bank records would be a question of what else is he doing? what s happening here? i don t think it necessarily falls in the same category as russia. but it s still of interest because there is no it s in this account. there is a lot of questions. quick last word david then a break. look there is every possibility that this money is not about buying access, the $500 but is a pay off for past services. we don t know that. but one of the things that s important and guess wak to paul s point is that mueller was interviewing them six months ago and guess what happened then. they raided the offices cohen because they thought a crime had been committed. they thought they had evidence. it s not a neutral fact when at the go into the o
with me davidian gergen, and and david i want to start with you. and there is a lot of russian this and that. this is a american company linked to a russian oligarch. pretty directly linked. and this company paid michael cohen $500,000. right. presidential hangers on, it s nothing new. but getting $500,000 from a company linked to a russian oligarch when there is a russia investigation going on, is that suspicious or just stupid? or all of the above. it doesn t pass the laugh test. listen, i think there is a distinction to be made between this company lake and the companies like novartis and at&t there is a reason they need to know what s going on in the white house. i think it was in terrible taste on everybody s part. this company has no business that really is at hand at stake. and a $500,000 looks like it s a pay off or a brib or it s
deeper question of have we taken any efforts to stop american elections from being haktd in the future? i think that s where we really have problems. one second robin i want to let you jump in. david go ahead. the fundamental argued you may is the russian made a terrible investment and haven t gotten anything. we don t know that yet. we don t know that until we figure out how much of meddling they did and how much of an influence they had on the elections. one second. it s way premature. can i respond. michigan who died to elect him blue collar people who have been the forgotten workers of america they didn t vote because of russia they voted because donald trump spoke to their anxiety i don t want to talk about wisconsin and michigan. it s important. because the payments to michael cohen happened after the election. in this case they re not important one bit. what i want to ask you, rob we heard a little bit from steven we hear from trump affiliates
talked to the russian oligarch, asking questions with these payments that there were conversation was novartis. we know it s a piece of the conversation that they re having in the investigation. and one other things to talk about the investigation to the election hacking, mueller s team is clearly investigating russian involvement and whether the trump campaign had any there is an investigation into that question of whether whether the trump campaign collude i hate that word expiring and aiding and abetting the russians in that. what hasn t been done is the deeper question of have we taken any efforts to stop american elections from being haktd in the future? i think that s where we really have problems. one second robin i want to let you jump in. david go ahead. the fundamental argued you may is the russian made a terrible investment and haven t gotten anything. we don t know that yet. we don t know that until we figure out how much of meddling they did and how much of an