he told them that deal had been wrapped up and closed up much earlier. so what mueller and the southern district, they both have been doing is painting this picture, setting the scene for the multiple lies that michael cohen, a very, very close ally, formerly, to president trump was telling over the course of a long period of time. and in fact, cohen was lying about the moscow project until september of this year. it was only in september that he came clean about the extent to which they wanted to pursue this russia deal. so there was a ton of news that came out of the court papers on friday. frank, let me ask you about the russia piece of it because this idea of what michael cohen is now saying and this idea of trump, the folks around trump pursuing a deal, a business deal in russia well into the 2016 campaign counter against what cohen had previously told congress. how does that intersect? does it intersect with this question of potential collusion
and june, he somehow understood that there s a chance i could become president. so in january when he didn t think it was a possibility, he was actively negotiating with the russians about trump tower. in june, it s near the convention,py god, it looks like i m going to be the republican candidate. so then cohen stops working on that deal, but we know don, jr., now was very involved with the russians. so one question for mueller is even in june, did the deal with the russian stop him with trump tower or did it shift from cohen to donald trump, jr. we know the trump moscow project did span from january actually 2015 until june of 2016. it was during that same period of time that trump repeatedly praised vladimir putin on the campaign trail. why is he warming up this guy as he s trying to make money with him. by the way, he s asking him to help with his deal, asking him
purchaowe purgeering himself. he replied, other than we hosted that miss america pageant there, they don t exist. specifically, don jr. says he is prifally aware of a moscow project that cohen was pursuing. usa today is saying they are reviewing trump jr. s interviews. abc news is reporting after the plea democrats in the house are going to their own transcripts to check for donald junior s truthfulness. we have three or four minutes. i will let you go. you know this more than anybody i know. i have always thought the fail/safe point for trump. i m firing everybody. no more cooperation, is when they approach the door of the family? let s one step back. the plea deal yesterday. not plea deal the guilty plea shows that bob mueller is really dead serious about prosecuting
it could be 50. it could be 100. it could be a thousand. every now ap then we get two pieces that fit together. we try and say oh is that a leg? maybe eighth face and to try and figure out what this puzzle is. but i think what every time mueller reveals something, i think it just emphasizes to us how much we don t know. we did not know this was going to be an issue, that this deal had been going on. it s one more tiny little thing we realize we don t know. let me go to david on this, the politics. sometimes i think it s trump pulling the great deal, the big play with russia. i think it s these mash notes they re sending back and forth. i like you. i like you. it s something i m passing from desk to desk in school the motive here for trump, does he want to be the great presidential leader of the west that cuts a deal to the east or another guy trying to make more money? which is it or both? i think for donald trump,
there is no separation between his personal interest and family fortune and his role as president. that s created this legal jeopardy. i would suggest, very importantly, take the mueller thing completely out of the picture. go to congress, the national leaders, it s this. the reason lying is important. if michael cohen was lying or donald trump were lying. it s just that they weren t lying that they were expolesed in a russia deal. the lie, itself, exposes the president of the united states and the decision-making on matters of foreign policy. you know who knows that michael cohen lied before congress, the russians and the russian versus known cohen lied. so if donald trump has been lying the one party that knows donald trump is lieing is vladimir putin. lying is vladimir putin. it can shape the reason why americans shake their head. you are right the former soviet union of russia which is acting like the former soviet