This is cnn blakicnn break im wolf blitzer in the situation room. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Were following Breaking News on the president s former fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen, and the russia investigation. Two Court Filings just released, one by the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, the other by prosecutors in new york, and theres new information about cohens cooperation. What it could mean for President Trump and for Michael Cohen as the feds in new york argue he should get substantial prison time. Right now, Robert Mueller also is set to file a secret document on Paul Manafort, the former Trump Campaign chairman, and why prosecutors believe manafort lied. Theres lots of news to unfold right now. I want to go first to our
political correspondent sara murray. Sara, muellers document makes it clear that Michael Cohen was cooperating but hes not necessarily suggesting he shouldnt get a substantial prison sentence. No, i think theres
it does not say the director can only forward this if it involves a person under the director s jurisdiction. and that seems to be the sticking point that the director is clinging to at this point. or that the director can only forward this if it doesn t implicate executive branch privilege in some way, which seems to be the other thing they re claiming. not a word about that. one thing, lawrence, i would be very interested in figuring out is whether remember the way this happened, went from the whistle blower to the inspector general for the intelligence community. the inspector general gave it to the dni. dni gave it to congress. where it goss stuck is that last point. what i want to know is if the inspector general who is going to testify tomorrow, can the inspector general hand it over given that the dni is weirdly defying the law and sitting on it? in my reading of the law the inspector general cannot but listen to who can. there s more to this law. it says if the inspec
messaging battle and political battle over what the report might say before her was submitted to the attorney general. democrats have been doing the same thing and now they re trying to win the battle to say even if it doesn t implicate president trump. even if it s not politically problematic, it is in here is what we think so. this political battle is going to head all the way into the 2020 election. the president himself common even though it s been a quiet couple of days one of talking about this as often as talked about it so far. most of the news during the investigation that was generated was often generated because the president felt the need to speak out and defend himself, which of course raise the issue and kept it on the front burner. i don t think any of this is going anywhere. sandra: what is the political battle look like on capitol hill after it leaves the initial results of this report are
important thing is the concentration of capital, and it means that we seek and prioritize profit and the accumulation of money above all else and we seek it at any human an environmental cost. to me, that ideology is not sustainable and cannot be redeemed. quite something. new polling by the des moines register crohn indicates an appetite of democratic voters for socialism with bernie sanders trailing only joe biden as first choice for president. of course, there is the mueller report. while democrats have fought for it be made public, it s reported the 2020 campaign teams have wrestled how to handle the myriad scenarios they could potentially face in the wake of its release and what to do if it doesn t implicate the president. democrats already felt some of that burden this week what they saw as a light prison sentence
pardon, that is highly problematic. that is even the kind of thing our new attorney general william barr suggested he would see as a potential charge is it legally problematic? it can be construed as obstruction of justice, witness tampering. holding out the idea of a pardon, the promise of a pardon in exchange for the person not testifying, or testifying in a way that doesn t implicate you. so it s highly problematic. but not surprising. how are you as a former federal prosecutor make sense of this? as stephanie said, michael cohen went to congress last week, apologized for lying the last time. finds himself were a jail sentence because he lied to congress the last time. is it conceivable that he lied again last week? i feel like everything is conceivable at this point. as i said, it s hard to know what to make here. we have two very flawed witnesses going against one another. you can t as a prosecutor or investigator, treat these witnesses the same way.