donald trump in the people he surrounds himself with. michael cohen retaining lanny davis in this role, a long time clinton aide and form white house council, lanny davis a huge critic of trump because he says he s a liarwho can t be trusted. now he of course is working with cohen which would suggest against trump. take a listen to mr. davis. i ve never worked for a client that has lied to me or that i could trust not lying to me. that s the reason he can t find a great lawyer. it s because he has lied to the american people. we know that, but he s also lied to his own lawyers. and no lawyer will take a client who lies. are we seeing this new lanny davis chapter on behalf of cohen this week, and what do you think is holding them back moving forward to get a cooperation agreement or getting it done if that s the goal? well, i think a lot of things
everything you just heard, what is the legal significance? well, in terms of the law the campaign violations are an obvious one. but in terms of the strength of the evidence to show that, i thought the times story just before the quote that you had was significant because it shows knowledge of both men, cohen and trump, of what ami is doing with playmate mcdougal. he says, should we buy her story directly or should we buy it from ami? and then the question is should we pay in the check or should we do it by cash, and he s encouraging cohen. trump is encouraging cohen to do it by check, which strikes me as bizarre. and you have to wonder if this was also a pattern to reimburse ami for what they d already done. you re talking about the national inquirer parent company and about whether there was an illicit plot to misuse or abuse
and this is another example, ari, of the lack of judgment by donald trump and the people that he surrounds himself with. michael cohen, retaining lanny davis in this role, a long-time clinton aide and a former white house counsel, something we reported, something you tracked, something that seemed significant, lanny davis is a huge critic of trump because he says he s a liar who can t be trusted. now he, of course, is working with cohen, which would suggest against trump. take a listen to mr. davis. i ve never worked for a client that has lied to me or that i could trust not lying to me. that s the reason he can t find a great lawyer. it s because he has lied to the american people. we know that. but he s also lied to his own lawyers. and no lawyer will take a client who lies. are we seeing this new lanny davis chapter on behalf of cohen this week? is that why this stuff is leaking? and what do you think is holding them back from moving forward and trying to get a cooperation
tonight. michael cohen taped donald trump two months before the 2016 election, and they discussed secret payments potentially to be made to former playboy model karen mcdougal who had a relationship with trump in 2006. she has we ll get to that. what else do you need to know? investigators have this tape. the fbi seizing it from cohen s office in april after that raid cohen s opponent in the stormy daniels case made some news on this show by declaring he knew for a fact this type of tape existed. i know for a fact that donald trump is on at least one of these recordings, ari. how do you know that? i m not going to get into details of how i know that, ari. would you say that in court? absolutely. donald trump is on one of the recordings, at least one of them, i know that for a fact. i stand behind it. stands behind it. and today that fact being reported, michael joins me tonight with more. the white house is making clear
we ll get to that. what else do you need to know? investigators have this tape. the fbi seizing it from cohen s office in april. after that raid cohen s opponent in the case, michael avenatti, made some news on this show by declaring he knew for a fact this type of tape existed. i know for a fact donald trump is on at least one of these recordings already. how do you know that? i m not going to get into the details would you say that in court? absolutely. donald trump is on one of the recordings, at least one of them. i know that for a fact, i stand behind it. stands behind it and today that fact being reported. michael avenatti joins me with more. the white house is making clear it doesn t like this news at all and trump saying he didn t know he was being recorded while his lawyers are probing what other potential tapes could be revealed. and also putting out wording that any other tapes that might be revealed are quote, not