Manafort faces. The judge told them to get back to work though. So could it mean we are any closer to a verdict. But we start with some Breaking News. An nbc news exclusive. Former trump personal Attorney Michael Cohen is discussing a plea deal with federal prosecutors. One that could come as early as this afternoon. Thats according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke with nbc news. Tom winter is the nbc news investigations reporter who helped break the story. Our guest is a former u. S. District attorney for the Southern District of new york which is conducting the cohen investigation. Let me begin with you, tom, lay this out. What else did the sources say . How close the possibility of seeing some kind of deal emerge today . Sure. So ayman, as ellie can probably well tell you, no prosecutor counts their chickens and counts a plea deal until they have it. Then insigned. And the person is in court. I think were still a little a ways away from that, based upon
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jewels. and, you know, people are saying well paul manafort is going to wait for the pardon. well, if, in fact, he faces, you know, a long prison sentence, it s amazing how that tends to focus the mind. and so once again donald trump has to, you know, ask what does bob mueller know? how deep does it go? and that answer cannot be reassuring to him. to that point, which case from the ones you re watching, the paul manafort case, the possible deal with michael cohen, which one of those presents the greatest possible threat to president trump? i think it s less that one is greater than the other. it s that all of these are building up in this sort of crescendo effect. i mean, even if manafort got off completely, in three weeks from now, we do this all over again. in another case. in another court here in d.c.
areas of trump life cohen could possibly connect for prosecutors. well, michael cohen knew enough to negotiate deals with people that donald trump had affairs with, then certainly he s going to have a working trusted knowledge of donald trump s financials. that has to be what interest the government, the prosecutors, the southern district of new york and as i m sure they will share the information with the mueller team, possibly the mueller team. but when you look at this case, the situation with michael cohen, the likelihood that michael cohen was going to eventually enter a plea was essentially inevitable. the modern criminal justice system. the prosecutors hold the keys to that precious 5-k1 motion for financial assistance. michael cohen doesn t get the benefit of acceptance of responsibility at the plea, i m sorry, unless he pleads. so it was a certainty that michael cohen would at least
analyst dan yny cevallos. he s at the courthouse. let me play the now infamous tape. a recording cohen made with then candidate donald trump discussing what cohen says was a possible payment to a former playboy model. we should note the trump camps disputes the characterization. when it comes time for the financing, which will be no, no. no, i got it. so what are the implications for trump? where s his vulnerable exposure so to speak? it would mostly be campaign finance law. was he aware in contradiction to the statement he made on air force one, aware that these payments all right it seems like we re having some audio problems with danny cevallos.
prosecutor s offices. i think a big way the southern district got to cohen was by utilizing evgeny froeman who was a state cooperator. so if the question ultimately is can the southern district share cohen with mueller, absolutely. i would expect that to happen. if the question is what is your question as to what can cohen give mueller based on the reporting that s out there, we only have the sort of narrow view, but two things. one is the payments, the hush money to the various women who have made allegations about donald trump. that could be a campaign finance problem if those payments were not recorded as contributions. and the second, the big one to me is the trump tower meeting. and there was a reporting a couple weeks ago that michael cohen has information that shows donald trump knew about that meeting in advance. if so and, importantly, if it can be cooperated, michael cohen s going to have some credibility issues. the prosecutors have their work cut out for them. if that s tru