i think this thing is enormous. in the russia investigation so far, the new york times points out today that mueller has, quote, issued more than 100 criminal counts against 33 people and three companies. they include cohen, former trump campaign aides, trump s former campaign chairman, dozens of russians and the president s former national security advisor. so far, there have been seven guilty plea. we should note lobbyist sam paton s charge stemmed from mueller what was brought by prosecutors in washington. we ve asked frank figliuzzi and jeremy bash to remain with us for just a few more minutes to take a few more questions. jeremy, it appears the president will never put pen to paper and sign a bill that protects robert mueller. but do you think mueller has de facto protections of his own now? and are you convinced he already has left an unbreakable and indelible mark on this presidency thus far?
that was a message that trump worked hard to repeat on the campaign trail. i will tell you right now, zero i have nothing to do with russia. i have no relationship to russia whatsoever. what do i know about the russians? what do i know about the russians? then they said, he borrowed money i don t borrow money from the russians. i promise you, i don t have any deals with russia. i had miss universe there a couple years ago. other than that, no. i have nothing to do michael cohen is to be sentenced in two weeks, december 12. he has already pleaded guilty to a range of other charges campaign, paying mistresses for their silence before the presidential election. that guilty plea was with the southern district of new york. here is how the president reacted to today s guilty plea from michael cohen. he s a weak person and what he s trying to do is get a reduced sentence. when i run for president,
political messaging and out of loyalty to donald trump. cohen admitted to making false statements to lawmakers on senate and house intel committees in 2017. the court filing refers to individual, one, who cohen confirmed in court was donald trump. it reveals cohen told lawmakers that the development effort, quote, ended in january 2016 and was not discussed extensively with others in the company. meaning the trump organization. now cohen admits the project, quote, was discussed multiple times within the company and did not end in january 2016. he added, the discussions went on until june 2016, that he spoke with trump at least three times, and with trump s family members about the project. cohen told congress in 2017 that he, quote, never agreed to travel to russia for the project and never considered asking trump to travel. he now says he, quote, agreed to travel to russia and began
like the night before katrina. they know, brian. robert mueller, whatever the report says, is clearly painting a picture, a pattern of behavior within president trump s inner circle. whether it s roger stone or michael cohen, there is a time line that is being laid out. giuliani told me they are being asked about the time line, asked about the trump tower meeting, they were asked about the president s knowledge of different discussions, different exchanges. robert mueller is trying to build a case. maybe not a legal case that would lead to an indictment of a president, but a case about his behavior, about what he has done. but republicans believe the institutional credibility of the media has been eroded by the president s fake news charges, and that there are people like greg jarrett, other conservatives out there, who will be on the barricades politically for president trump. have you paused for a second today, bob, to consider that during those days early on in the campaign, you
assertion that mr. cohen and mr. trump have now given prosecutors much the same account. giuliani maintains that trump s written answers to the special counsel match what michael cohen told that judge today. cohen s surprise court appearance comes nine days after trump submitted responses to robert mueller. with us to talk about all of it, cynthia, veteran of the justice department who has worked with robert mueller, and bob bauer, former white house counsel to president obama. bob, it s good to have you back on the broadcast after a long absence. i have to start with you with this question. by my account we have in the space of this week seen the president of the united states referred to in court documents twice as individual one. that can t be good, can it? no, of course it s not good. with all the attention today on michael cohen s plea agreement,