talked to michael cohen. i don t know if it happened or didn t happen. it might be attorney, client privilege. you just said you talked to him about his testimony. so what if he talked to him about it. so what, right? i think the issue here is so what is it does matter because that is the essence of the crime that michael cohen has said he lied to congress. of course, this all relates to the buzz feed story that broke late last week in which they said there was evidence that the special counsel s had that directed michael cohen to lie. the special counsel s office shot down the report saying it was not accurate. thank you so much. a lot to follow per usual. thanks rudy giuliani. let s cut through it. rudy giuliani, now with the possibility that the president was negotiating with russia to build a trump tower in moscow
russia. but at the same time that he was saying that, these discussions per rudy giuliani to chuck todd on meet the press were ongoing. what is legally potentially problematic and what is politically potentially problematic? so politically, this is a little bit of a more difficult path for the president. because he ll have to react to people being angry that they were lied to and ultimately the impact is this leads into impeachment, as less a requirement prosecutors like me look to where you re concerned about proving all the technical element, and proving that the president acted with intent for the lie to occur, and as congress potentially might consider this for impeachment purposes, that calculus would be very different. the kremlin has come out now i think it was dimitri preskov, the spokesman there, saying no, we never talked to anybody. the kremlin did not hold talks
but it is clear that there has been enormous sensitivity. this concealing this date and this time line was something that was so important that trump s lawyer and perhaps trump himself were willing to see untruths be told about how long these continued. we know there was a point in time when trump already began negotiating with russians over policy. also these negotiations for the trump building in moscow would have continued to the point where he was asking russia to help that famous comment he made, russia if you re listening. so while we don t know the precise meaning of the lie, we do know to those telling it, it hassignificance. legally versus politically there does potentially seem to be a distinction here. the president repeatedly said he had no business dealings with
away, and the damage that could be forthcoming would be if cohen can credibly test my when he s up on capitol hill during february. if he can credibly testify that the president did more than just remain silent about his proposed testimony. one of the things that s been driving the discussion has been this rare statement from the special counsel robert mueller about the buzzfeed story that dropped thursday night, basically saying buzzfeed was not accurate in pieces of the story it reported about whether or not donald trump directed michael cohen to lie. the former white house attorney tells the washington post why he thinks the special counsel took this extraordinary step of stepping in. the rumor he debunked would have quickly snowballed into a sensational accusation leading to an irresistible impulse for impeachment hearings. he took the responsible course, to shut the issue down. i think he did. they don t want to get into
get your take on the timing when he might be confirmed, first week in february, i think, is what we talked about. but let me get your take on this, because you never bought into that story that buzzfeed reported, right? you never believed the president asked michael cohen to lie. no. listen, if there was a conspiracy with the president of the united states to lie to congress, that s the first thing michael cohen would have led with months ago, and it s the first thing the special counsel would have included. michael cohen wouldn t have pled to lying to congress, he would have pled to a conspiracy to lie to congress that involved the president. so i never for a second thought there was anything to that buzzfeed story, and i m glad the special counsel corrected the record. maria: so the fact is now we re learning him say, oh, i was directed by the president after he s already been sentenced, he s going to go to jail for lying to congress. okay, let me move on, because we did also get s