Responsibility. Candidate trump brought manafort in to rescue his nomination. Paul manafort has done an amazing job. And praised him for not making a plea deal. This whole thing about flipping, they call it. It almost ought to be outlawed. What can manafort tell prosecutors about the trump tower meeting . What does he know about trump its campaign connection. And could trump still pardon him. My guests this morning, the leading democrat on the house intelligence committee, adam schiff and allen dershowitz. Joining me for insight and analysis are adam wall street columnist and the host of the pbs news hour. Welcome to sunday, its meet the press. Good sunday morning, we have two huge stories this morning, the flooding from Hurricane Florence, what fema calls a mike tyson punch to the carolina coast. And Paul Manaforts decision to plead guilty and cooperate with the special counsel. But first, Hurricane Florence has weakened to a prom tropical depression, rain continues to fall, up to 30
Senators in order to try make them comfortable with the idea of voting for him. We learned in the hearings that he really does hold quite outside the main stream views about whether or not a president should be protected from any investigation or any legal liability while he or she is in office. Chats signaled that they thought it might be way out of keeping from normal conservative lawyering. And they had suggested, particularly cory book her suggested that those out of keeping with normal conservative legal views positions, specificly on a president s susceptibility, senator booker and others had suggested that maybe kavanaughs views on that subject might have been why kavanaugh was picked for the nomination in the first place. Brett kavanaugh did not disabuse anyone of that notion this week which ultimately culminated in this rather dramatic declaration from Richard Nixons white House Counsel john dean today as the testimony wrapped up. Under judge kavanaughs recommendation, if a pr
Interesting. The special counsel occasionally turns up in relevant filings and stuff but it seems like the heb lifting being done by the u. S. Attorney. A few months later, Robert Mueller bruth another indictment against a different set of russians. His indictment of a dozen Russian Military intelligence officers. That was again brought initially under the auspices of the special counsels office. But that one right away they handed off so that ongoing prosecution is not being handled by prosecutors who work directly for mueller. Its instead being handled by career prosecutor whos work at the National Security division at main justice, the Main Justice Department in washington, d. C. The prosecution of Michael Cohen was also handed off from the special counsels office. The inquiry into Michael Cohen including into his finances that was begun initially by the special counsels office, by prosecutors working for Robert Mueller but then mueller handed that one off, too. Handed cope case off
Winter. Talk us through the headlines this morning, particularly with david pecker, this immunity deal and what prosecutors think he knows. Hallie, it is a great question. This is specific to count 7 that Michael Cohen pled guilty to on tuesday. Basically, the American Media company was involved. According to the court filings, and what Michael Cohen said in court, they were involved in a payment to karen mcdougal, who says she had an affair with the president of the United States. The president has denied that affair. However, what was set up here was to pay her for her story. Then kill the story, in other words, not publish the story. This is all part of count 7. Basically, if youre federal prosecutors moving toward an indictment, our reporting is that they were going to indict Michael Cohen yesterday. Instead, late last week, he decided, and over last weekend, he decided he wanted to come in and perhaps put together a plea. Basically, if youre going to set up and have a trial, you n
Are intersecting and involve Donald Trumps 2016 campaign and increasing legal pressure. First the wall street journal tonight with new details on trumps central role in payoffs to Stormy Daniels and karen mcdougal, which includes an ad with david trump meeting in trump tower. Guess what he did . He said he needed help. Not just any help, but help for the campaign. Pecker said in response they could use the National Enquirer to buy the silence of women that made sayings against trump. They emerge as his guilty lawyer Michael Cohen arranged those deals is cooperating with bob mueller. You see on the screen the efforts to protect mueller from trumps new pick at the doj. Thousands marching in cities all over the country. A big story you may not have heard about. Newly empowered democrats promising to hold donald trump accountable. He should recuse himself. To be track with you, im shocked that he has not already recused himself. He is the absolute wrong person to have in this position. Thi