let s bring in tonight s leadoff panel, phil rucker, white house bureau chief for the washington post and an msnbc political analyst. the aforementioned catherine lucy, white house reporter for the associated press, who asked trump questions aboard air force one, and barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. let me start with you, catherine, since you put those questions to the president. i m not sure when you were growing up you thought you would come to the day where you would ask the leader of the free world about an alleged affair with a porn star, but talk to us about that exchange and the revelations from the president s responses. yes, thanks, nicole. great to be here. yes, we had the president come talk to reporters on air force one today. sometimes he does come back and visit with reporters, talk a little bit about the events or what s going on that day. he wanted, obviously, to chat after his event on taxes in west virginia. but the sit
2006. as we ve reported, daniels is now suing president trump to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement on the grounds that the president never signed it. the white house has repeatedly denied that president trump had an affair with daniels. michael cohen has said the payment came from his own personal funds and not the trump campaign or the trump organization. cohen s attorney commented on the president s remarks tonight, saying, quote, this is an accurate assessment of the facts. this is exactly what i ve been saying all along. michael cohen made the payment to protect reputation, family, and businesses. it had nothing to do with the election. meanwhile, here s what stormy daniels attorney, michael avenatti, told lawrence o donnell about the president s remarks. we think this is basically game over as it relates to our claim. we ve heard, lawrence, for the better part of a month now that this was a rock-solid, airtight agreement. you have david schwartz out
telling, anyway. and the story doesn t make any sense. so that may be the connection between russia and stormy daniels. let me hit you, jill. i m so glad we have you right now, because i was just handed some breaking news from politico. let me read the headline to both of you. mueller moves to seize bank accounts in manafort probe. special counsel robert mueller s office moved to seize bank accounts at three different financial institutions last year just one day before former trump campaign chairman paul manafort was indicted, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing thursday. the previously up known move against the bank accounts was revealed in a list of search and seizure warrants prosecutors submitted to a federal court in washington after manafort s defense team complained that the government was withholding too many details about how the warrants were obtained. jill, explain this.
from air force one, he s not answered all the questions. he s his spokespeople have denied stormy daniels account of events, but trump himself has not addressed the american people at all about what happened, what didn t happen, what is she saying that s true, what is she saying that s not true? and we still don t have answers to those questions. you know, catherine, one of the things i thought of when i watched that tape come in was of all the statements that sarah huckabee sanders has made from behind the podium, when peppered by all of you about this topic. she said that he prevailed in arbitration. that doesn t seem to be consistent with the president s responses that he knows nothing of the payment. if sarah huckabee s statement from behind the podium was, one, there was no affair, two, there was an arbitration in which our side won.
prevail if there s a valid and enforceable contract. because it is a provision of the contract that it shall been enforced in arbitration, not in court. if the contract is not valid, then the arbitration clause is equally invalid. so, i think that stormy daniels is going to have her day in court. and of course, i think what she may really want is an opportunity to take president trump s deposition, which could happen in the future. phil, i ve interviewed michael avenatti and on that day, he was focused it was in the aftermath of the 60 minutes interview where trevor where former election law expert was out saying that one of the most serious legal threats to the president in the whole stormy daniels escapade, while it may not be the sexiest detail, is the campaign finance violation aspect. how much of that part of the story concerns the white house?