Business news and analysis. Violations. It could land him in prison from 35 years. Mercedes, that issue will come up whether mr. Cohen has decided to do this to get at this out of the way and hope and pray for a pardon down the road. Certainly what our calling is done as wonder if they are going to get cooperation. Frankly, they could have a discussion with mueller later on and find out what he knew. Whether President Trump knew of the meeting and what the meeting was taking place. And the payment to Stormy Daniels. Whether the president knew about either of them. And, of course he has come forward and said, look, i think you did know. The backandforth can whether there are some continuation of discussion with mueller is left to be seen. He is without a doubt looking at
something down the road. No lawyer wants to sit, even with that, no lawyer wants to sit in 35 years. That is a significant amount of time. Neil the former doj prosecutor, still better than what he could have made. The p
A look at the days top news and headlines. Because under the guidelines, the Department Of Justice believes you cannot charge a sitting president with a crime. But the talk around here these days is of impeachment. If democrats were to flip 24 seats in november, which is a possibility, they would then control the house and it is the house that would begin impeachment proceedings. Even if the president were impeached, a conviction in the senate is unlikely, that would take a twothirds vote. Nobody could see that many republicans defecting to try to take down the president. Dana also its never happened in americas history. John, thank you. For more, lets bring in james trusty, former d. O. A. Prosecutor. Lets start with what the president told ainslie earhart, if he was paying the money himself that could not have been a campaign violation. What do you make of that . Well im not an expert on Campaign Finance law. There may be . Truth to it. Theres an added layer, just that any Campaign F
which means he really has to specifically be knowledgeable about the law and intending to break it. i think that could still be a pretty solid area of defense for president trump. not that the payments weren t taking place but that he wasn t trying to unilaterally affect the campaign and use campaign finances for it. dana: let me ask you about a cooperation agreement. is it typical in a situation like this, that the public would get to read the cooperation agreement between michael cohen and the prosecutors? most of the time the cooperation component of a plea letter is camouflaged, filed under seal or the agreement is under seal. you can t tell whether it s a cooperator deal. i don t think any of us have seen the plea letter, i d love to see it. you have the unusual circumstance of his lawyer trumpeting he s a cooperator. that s not particularly common territory to have the attorney run around announcing he s ready to cooperate. is it possible, this is a
cooperate before he gets sentence appeared we are not seeing the full pitcher even when we get the plea letter. neil: would he be sentence as soonest today? no, it is very rare that a person leaves guilty and gets sentence on the same day. neil: would he be considered a flight risk? the judge has that option. i would say, generally speaking, in a white-collar case where a client walks in the court voluntarily and is not trying to evade justice in any way, most likely they walked back out. there might be some conditions and restrictions, but it does not ring like the type of case where cohen will be going out the exit instead of going out to his car. neil: it would not be a paul manafort situation, regardless of how this issue works out for him, it is the first wave of indictments we have seen on 18 different counts. even if he were to survive them all, he has to wait and do for the second wave that comes later
something down the road. no lawyer wants to sit, even with that, no lawyer wants to sit in 3-5 years. that is a significant amount of time. neil: the former doj prosecutor, still better than what he could have made. the plea deal is something, as odd as it looks, a better alternative. almost by definition. if it is a plea agreement, each side is giving up something. realistically, mr. cohen must have thought he had greater exposure than 3-5 years. we have to look at the plea letter. it will be fascinating if and when we get a chance to look at it to see how it characterizes his involvement, what the statement of facts look like. is it really creating the ceiling and floor of 3-5 years. that is very unusual. even if it is an on-call operator plea letter, that is not rule out that he pulls the bullet back out of himself and