reporting the federal prosecutors in manhattan are investigating whether president trump s inaugural committee misspent some of the money it raised from donations. this is part of a criminal probe examining whether some top donors gave money to the inaugural committee in exchange for access to the trump administration for specific quid pro quos. the investigation partly arises out of material seize theed in the federal raids of the offices of michael cohen. sources tell the journal. let s talk about this. first of all, we should acknowledge up front, and i m not excusing anything, but inaugural committees a legend airline sleazy operations. they are exempt from all sorts of rules and disclosures. people try to raise as much money as they can from corporations. they are like conventions that way. there s a big problem in politics in general. money moving into these campaigns, including the inaugurations and it s it s hard to say that no it doesn t have any impact whatsoever. it wo
in it. also, chris, flynn represents the quo. there s a quid pro quo, you know, in every transaction. and you had the russians offering dirt, donald trump jr. accepting the dirt, and then candidate trump telling the russians if you re listening you ll be rewarded if you give us more dirt. so what was the quo after the russians delivered by interfering? well, flynn represents part of it by telling the ambassador, hold off on any retaliation against us. but the other question that is outstanding, as we learn about the saudis and the turks is, are there other countries and are there other quos? it looks like this president was open to do business with anyone that wanted to help him. that s a great point. i want to ask you about turkey in a moment. tim, go to you, though, you wrote this piece that caught my eye. a very senior member of the presidential transition team directed flynn to make an overture to kislyak about the sanctions vote, the thing he
there s a quid pro quo, you know, in every transaction. and you had the russians offering dirt, donald trump jr. accepting the dirt, and then candidate trump telling the russians if you re listening you ll be rewarded if you give us more dirt. so what was the quo after the russians delivered by interfering? well, flynn represents part of it by telling the ambassador, hold off on any retaliation against us. but the other question that is outstanding, as we learn about the saudis and the turks is, are there other countries and are there other quos? it looks like this president was open to do business with anyone that wanted to help him. that s a great point. i want to ask you about turkey in a moment. tim, go to you, though, you wrote this piece that caught my eye. a very senior member of the presidential transition team directed flynn to make an overture to kislyak about the sanctions vote, the thing he lied about that got him into trouble. and nbc news, kushner was the
was asked specifically can the president offer a pardon to someone so they don t testify against them that i think a lot of people are scratching their heads about this morning. is it surprising that brett kavanaugh did not answer that question? no, it is not surprising because he took the safe route, don t answer any controversial questions, but he is correct that the issue of self-pardons and pardons in exchange for some quid pro quo are issues that have never really come before not only the supreme court but arguably any court, maybe even including state courts. it is an issue that hasn t really been addressed, whether or not the president can give pardons out in return for goodies or favors or quid pro quos or something that would approach the world of bribery or extortion. before you joined us we were talking about the exchange of kamala harris, too. one of the more poignant comments. absolutely. let s listen and talk about it. how can you not remember
to the president. part of it goes to the portfolio. michael cohen was solving problems as they arose. mr. weissleberg had, to use the parlance, the receipts, he has all the receipts. michael cohen didn t do any classic legal work for donald trump, he was a fixer, in the roy cohn mode. he only came into the organization in 2006. weissleberg and another person, jason greenblatt, were the two pivotal people in the company who knew about finances and dealmaking. the president wouldn t do anything unless the two of them were involved to some extent. this presents a real vulnerability. ultimately it goes to things in the probe that might touch on financial quid pro quos. it goes to whether there are crimes related to money, even