what do you say to critics who say you and your team seem to be dragging out negotiations in order to energize the gop base. you could argue either way about the political effect, trying to be like comey and figure out the political implications of an investigation. you could also say it might energize the other base because they are so intent some have come out for impeachment before the investigation. be that as it may, the most important thing is that we shouldn t be carrying on this investigation any longer than we have to. it can get done by early september. they have all of the information they need to write a report and either raise questions, do whatever they want to do. the ultimate decision-making will be rosenstein, not mueller. you re still arguing about the interview and whether or not there should be that mueller can even ask about any of the dealings with comey. well, i mean, i should be
trying to figure out the political implications of an investigation, you could also say it might energize the other base because they are so inte intent some have come out for impeachment before the investigation. be that as it may, the most important thing is that we shouldn t be carrying on this investigation any longer than we have to. it can get done by early september. they have all of the information they need to write a report and either raise questions, do whatever they want to do. the ultimate decision-making will be rosenstein, not mueller. you re still arguing about the interview and whether or not there should be that mueller can even ask about any of the dealings with comey. well, i mean, i should be clear, we re not going to take any questions on comey because we believe that we would be almost committing malpractice by doing that. they ve they ve made it clear they will not indicate to us
that he underreported his income as a tax evasion scheme. final question on this. this is all being run in the southern district in new york. not mueller s team looking into this. correct. prosecutors out of manhattan. thank you very much. thank you. for more i am joined by editor of the legal blog above the law. and jill wine-banks. you got shiraz, popcorn watching the trial. established narrative is that this has nothing to do with trump, manafort is out on his own, it is all about tax evasion.
whether he can hammer out a deal. but it definitely appears headed in that direction. at this point cohen has been, i think publicly critical of the president both himself and through his attorney. this investigation into cohen is being led by the southern district of new york, not mueller. so how would he be involved in any possible plea deal? these things don t happen in a vacuum. and they had a cooperating witness charged with a crime in another district, there would be a terms of plea agreements, cooperation, that sort of thing. so nothing is happening in a vac aopl. i think it was a smart thing to have it handled in the southern district of new york and there shouldn t have been any doubt that cohen was going to flip. we ve been talking about that for some time and here he goes. what s interesting and i think what we ll find is that bob
calls or other theupblgs that can help corroborate at least some portion of what cohen s saying. and we know mueller s already gotten a couple of people for lying. that s been the undoing of some of these people that have gone before mueller s team of investigators. that s right. and remember there s nothing unusual about this case as it relates to a case. rats don t stay on a sinking ship. that s why you see in drug cases time and time again. people involved in the conspiracy start telling on people on up the chain. when they start to feel the noose tighten and they re not going to stand with the president. if they re beginning to recognize that in fact bob mueller and his team or the southern district of new york has information that is now going to be used against them and so we re seeing that with michael cohen and we may see that with other people in the room. trump s legal strategy