word in mueller s court filings. so it s hard to know what s true this time. there is already public evidence supporting the latest report. michael cohen s own lawyers claim that in the case of his false statements, the conduct was intended to benefit client one and in accordance with client one s directive. that central allegation that the president of the united states told cohen to live, maybe the clear cut of all the crimes this president has been accused. so much so that came up earlier this week in the conformation hearing for his nominee of attorney general as an example of an obvious crime. you wrote on page one a person persuading a person to commit perjury would be an obstruction. is that right? they yes. any person who persuades another you also said a president or any person convincing a witness
of this deal based on the pleading of michael cohen about lying to congress, right and what the times reported about the questions. that key question of how long were you engaged in the deal and why were you lying? is obviously central here. and what was the rest of your relationship with the russian federation? this is the story from last week about counterintelligence investigation whether the president had inappropriate relations with the president. and you don t have to call them impeachment inquiries, but oversight. because the special counsel s office is looking for which the standard is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. but the standard which we can accept on behalf of a foreigned averse aerb, that s not beyond a reasonable doubt. the american people should be
just a little while ago ben smith responding in response to the special counsel spokesman. we stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, we urge you to make the special counsel make clear thanks for having me on, chris. i think your description was accurate. and the special counsel issued this very vague statement. we re eager to know what he s talking about. do you stand by the reporting that is a scoop no one else has or has confirmed? yes, we have two federal law enforcement officials, no game plan with those titles, who have told us that president trump directed michael cohen to lie to congress about building a trump tower unmoscow.
article which may very well be true. they ve been right a lot of the time. but we didn t have corroboration from any of the other places. i would agree we have to bring the american people along, i would agree we need have hearings and there s a lot at stake besides just this. we also know that there s a real issue here about don jr. and what he testified to about this and there were really interesting questions the spence counsel asked the president about this, when did you discuss during the campaign this russian trump tower and who did you discuss it with? all these are out there and he responded to them before he knew cohen was cooperating. there s so much with the special counsel and i want to get to it as bad as anyone but i want to make sure it s done right. the subject of the duration
moved away from that concept, that use of ami as to some of these other payments, was for this exact concern. that s why the $130,000 payment to my client, for instance, was not made through ami. that s why the two additional payments that i referenced last night were not made through ami for this exact reason. they wanted to close the circle, if you will, so that the president thought he had greater protection with his fixer, michael cohen, who turned out not to be tough and not to be too smart. do you have reason to know or believe what ami got in return for spending this money? no. but i can i can speculate that it would have to be access or preferential treatment. i don t think they did it out of the gracious good graces of their heart. no. i mean, that s not what corporations are known for. and it s not each what their fiduciary duties provide for. as to michael cohen s assessment, a potential factual assertion that donald trump did