heroic figure, but he does have credibility. he released a tape that completely demontdedemolished t denial of having an affair and having anything to do with hush payments. we hear him actually saying on the tape, pay him in cash, the president of the united states. and so, i think cohen has every reason at this point to actually be telling the truth. assuming he is and knowing, frankly, president trump has lied about every aspect of this on the record. he lied about donald trump jr. s meeting, he lied about the purpose of the meeting. he dictated the letter that lied about the purpose of the meeting and made up a story about it being about adoptions. so, why would we put any credibility in any denial from this president? i think if you pause at that, this development is the missing piece in the collusion and
sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. and angry that cohen released a secretly recorded tape of trump discussing a payoff to an alleged mistress. in public, though, his aides insist that the president is not angry. trump s lawyer, rudy giuliani, sitting down with cnn s chris cuomo. i saw the president when the president first found out that he had been taped. and the president was completely shocked. i believe that. and he wasn t angry. what s his mood like at the end of such a week like this? very positive, upbeat. reporter: meantime, president trump meeting with his national security council behind closed doors to discuss election interference a week after appearing to doubt that russia would meddle in this year s midterms. is russia still targeting the u.s., mr. president? reporter: and after the white house pushed off an invitation
they are at risk, we know that from trump s own appointees and the fbi. dan coates, the director of intelligence, said the red light is blinking on the 2018 elections. the big question, though, is what in the world would possess a united states president to question his own intelligence community and accept the word of a russian dictator? what in the world wouldle make the american president accept an offer or seem to accept an offer from a russian thug, like vladimir putin, to actually put at risk american diplomats and ship them to moscow to be interrogated by russian officials? and this leads us back to the cohen question you began with, jim, which is, there is something there that s ugly and that trump obviously does not want us to see. we ll be speaking to bill browder, who russia wants to be brought back for these charges.
down at the moment. as you can see is, obviously, the streets around here quickly getting cleared by the police that are around really a one-block radius all around trump tower at this point. abundance of caution. thanks very much. if you re just joining us now, the nypd looking into reports of three suspicious packages inside, it appears, trump tower in new york. the white house north, as it s known. we should note the president not currently at trump tower but certainly a serious question there about security. we ll stay with this story throughout this hour. meanwhile, prosecutors from special counsel robert mueller s office have just released a list of potential witnesses in the upcoming trial of former trump campaign chairman, paul manafort. cnn justice correspondent evan perez has been following the details. evan, this list, it s long, almost three dozen people. that s right, jim. this is a list of 35 names that the special counsel has now released. niece are the people who
reporter: piz his former personal lawyer, michael cohen, willing to contradict the president under oath. sources tell cnn that cohen is ready to tell special counsel robert mueller that trump knew in advance about the now infamous trump tower meeting. morning, don. reporter: in which donald trump jr. was expecting he would get dirt from the russians on the clinton campaign. what is on the rest of the tapes? reporter: cohen has privately asserted he and others were present. when donald trump jr. informed trump of the russian offer and that trump gave the go ahead to have the meeting. the bombshell claim directly contradicts what trump junior told congressional investigators last year. asked by the senate judiciary committee, did you inform your father about the meeting or the underlying offer prior to the meeting, trump junior responded, no, i did not. he also said he did not know the identity of the person he called three times before and after that meeting. and whose number