through two different prosecutors said that individual one, president trump, coordinated and directed an illegal activity. and when you say that, you mean the campaign financial violation? that s right. that s right. and that doesn t even address obstruction of justice or collusion. but now we have a crime for which mr. cohen will be sentenced that was directed and coordinated by individual one. do you believe that s an impeachable offense? absolutely. whether or not we proceed to impeachment, that s a political question. but it seems to me all of us have to understand the gravity of what happened friday. we take an oath to uphold the constitution of the united states, and therefore we have a sacred obligation to the country to respect the process of impeachment and use it very sparingly and very judiciously. but when we re faced with the kind of evidence we got friday i think we have to start to look
one is a first name and a last name. individual one, mr. one. it s not me, it s individual one. mr. one, whoever that is. that could be the only way the president believes that he is absolved by these filings. because a plain reading of these filings reveals that the government now believes that president trump or individual one directed michael cohen to commit campaign finance law crimes, which are crimes that the government cares about. they are defensible crimes, as we ve learned from the john edwards case. they are crimes you could possibly get a not guilty on or a hung jury. but they are indeed crimes. it s safe to say that winging it is not a sound legal strategy, right? not at all. the strangest part to me is the notion that they re going to prepare a counter report. this is perhaps the largest white collar style investigation
in on the watergate hearings, voted for impeachment and helped draft the rules, the guidelines for what was then a special prosecutor. former deputy assistant attorney general harry litman, also joins us, and nick akerman is staying with us. nick was a former watergate prosecutor and is an msnbc legal analyst. thanks to all three of you, liz, let s start with you. you have written a book called the case for impeachment, i believe it s called. this is as close as it s gotten. it s not new information in that we knew from michael cohen s earlier testimony and the information against him that he said he was directed by individual one, but now the sdny seems to be saying they believe that to be the case. right. i mean, i think you see something very serious. the real question that comes out is what is the implication of the prosecution, the conviction of michael cohen for president trump? right, that s the question. during watergate the grand jury secretly indicted richard
that is our show for today. thanks for watching. a.m. joy with joy reid will be back next saturday. but up next, alex witt has the latest. i have really missed joy certainly because she s a good trend, b friend, but if anyone is going to fill her very large shoes, that is you. good job. and good day it all of you. i m alex witt. it is high noon here in the east. 9:00 a.m. out west. and here is what is happening. push to impeach? a call for action in the wake of the russia prone be filings. the president was at the center of a massive fraud. the key phrase is directed by individual one. this is prosecutorial abuse. show his cards soon. we have to find out what was
there s a loved one, there s a family member or someone that they fear that they want to protect. so, that s the kind of thing, because it s in michael cohen s best self-interests to be fully cooperative. everything he tells them they re not going to used against him, they re going to use in the prosecution of other people. so the conclusions that come to my mind are either someone he wants to protect or there s someone he fears. well said. thank you, natasha bertrand, david and ken dilania nnk and barbara mcquade and ari melber for joining us from the beat. much more on today s breaking news. senator richard blumenthal with the senate judiciary committee, will join us next to discuss the court filings and what we learned today about russia, about criminality, about a president who s been, well, he s got his name mentioned. he s called individual one. and according to that filing from the southern district of new york, he directed the criminality in that campaign violation. in an