Anderson Cooper takes viewers beyond the headlines with indepth reporting and investigations. Took the stand at his trial and the testimony was damaging to say the least. As for the former madam, Kristin Davis, today we learned she talked with muellers team. Shimon proyew pez joins us with the latest. Lets talk about what came to light on this day four of the trial. Certainly damaging testimony, as you say, for Paul Manafort. An accountant taking the stand who really is the first person who has direct knowledge of manaforts alleged scheme. She was given immunity to testify. Her name is cindy la porter. She was a long time accountant for him, and really a big day for prosecutors here in that really what she showed was that manafort had asked her to falsify documents. Some of this activity, you know, when he was running the Trump Campaign in 2016. In one case, she says that he asked her to say that money that he had in offshore accounts was a loan when it was, in fact, income which reduced his taxes by 500,000. Theres also all sorts of emails that the government used
done some work, i think, for his website or social media stuff. Shimon, appreciate it. I want to turn next to Asha Rangappa by phone. Also joining us is the director of a fascinating documentary, get me roger stone. Is it on netflix now . Yes. First of all, you interviewed ms. Davis extensively for the documentary. What is their relationship . Whats her role in all this . So its been manifold. Roger stone ran her campaign for governor when she challenged andrew cuomo. He ran her campaign for new york city comptroller. I didnt even realize she had run in those two yeah. It was a pretty loony race. They are very close friends, and the race for comptroller in 2013 was derailed when Kristin Davis was brought up on charges for dealing illegally prescription
be wikileaks, and its about how guccifer 2. 0, which hacked into the emails, was coordinating on the release with organization one. In that section, there is a portion that says that guccifer 2. 0 was also in touch with the senior with a person who had contacts with senior members of the Trump Campaign, and they were contacting him. How this relates back to davis is that davis was on roger stones payroll in late 2016 when these contacts would have happened with the person with contacts to the senior trump officials. So if that is roger stone and she was on the payroll doing clerical work, which is apparently what she was doing, she may have seen email traffic or other communications either between stone and wikileaks or other entities. So if she is the person referred to in the indictment, that could be the nexus that they are trying to look into further. Morgan, youve obviously spent a lot of time with roger
associate, rick gates. Right. This is an Uphill Battle For Manafort because the crux of the allegations is that he lied to banks in terms of representing his income and his other liabilities in getting loans, and that he also lied to the irs in his tax returns. Now, he signed his own tax returns, which you do under penalty of perjury. But what the prosecution also has are communications between manafort and his cpa in which the cpa is directly asking him questions like, do you have any Foreign Bank Accounts to report . And manafort responds, no. So what his lawyers are going to try to say is that he knew nothing about his Foreign Bank Accounts, and thats just not going to fly in my opinion given that he was using those Bank Accounts for all the lavish spending that weve seen. Hes also communicating directly with the cpa, and i expect that gates is going to also have
testimony and probably written communications showing that they were both coordinating on this scheme of trying to lie and conceal some of their financial dealings. Hes even buying clothes and cars and stuff with wire transfers directly from Foreign Bank Accounts, which is obviously, i assume, a way to avoid, you know, the tax burden of it. Morgan, in describing Paul Manafort, i want to get the quote right. You said that he was a Diabolical Specter Who materialized in far off lands to meddle in their affairs and then dissolved back into the shadows when his work was done and his sizeable fee connected. Thats im sorry. Collected. You interviewed him for the documentary. Is that how you found him . You know, Paul Manafort is a brilliant political operative, and one of his great innovations was that, you know, when roger stone and Paul Manafort started off as political consultants, there werent a lot. So you could make a lot of money in america. But then there was an explosion in the industry, so they had to
go find new, you know, troughs of money. And so they went and looked abroad. And the people abroad, people like viktor yanukovych, were willing to pay much higher rates for those services, and it was much harder to track the monies that they were taking in. This seems like it may ultimately have been Paul Manaforts undoing. It ended up being a very lucrative proposition for him for several decades. I was a little bit surprised by manafort being so savvy that all this kind of hamfistedness that we seem to be seeing in the trial could have taken place, but certainly that is how manafort became a very wealthy person. Its so fascinating. Finally, asha, though who describe mueller as being methodical in his approach and not one for fishing expeditions, is that description consistent with what youve seen in the first week of this trial . Yes. I think so. I mean they are trying to prove all of the elements of this crime. Do you mean with the charges
generally, just that hes gone after this . I just mean in the way that you know, the way the trial is unfolding, you know, kind of setting it up methodically. Yeah, i think that, you know, they are going to follow these prosecutors do bank fraud and tax fraud cases quite frequently. There is a way of presenting the evidence. I think as you mentioned earlier, the judge is being pretty aggressive in both making sure that evidence that could be prejudicial to the jury, for example, overemphasizing manaforts spending and, you know, which is not in and of itself evidence of a crime to limit that, but also make sure that theyre going through all the witnesses very quickly and the evidence quickly to keep the prosecution streamlined, means that, you know, muellers team is going to do this the right way by the book. I dont think that theres anything unusual about the way theyre presenting this evidence. Appreciate it. Again, the documentary is get me roger stone. Its on netflix. Its really good. Thank you. Appreciate it. Just ahead, beyond just manafort and perhaps stone, more on what Robert Mueller may have in store in the weeks and months ahead. A look at clues at what might be on his to do list. Also the president s uneasy relationship with facts, the truth. New reporting shows its getting worst by the Washington Post. The untruths according to them are accelerating. Im talk with someone who has been documenting it as well as one of the president s top campaign advisers. Were the most isolated population on the planet. Hawaii is the first state in the u. S. To have 100 Renewable Energy goal. Were a very small electric utility. But, if we dont make this move were going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaiis economy. Verizon provided us a solution using Smart Sensors on their network that lets us collect near Real Time Data on our power grid. colton this technology is helping us integrate rooftop solar, which is a very important element of getting us to our Renewable Energy goals. shelee if we can create our own energy, we can take care of this beautiful place that i grew up in. Its willingham, edge of the box, willingham shoots. Goooooooaaaaaaaallllllll that. Was. Magic. Willingham tucks it in and puts the championship to bed. Sweet dreams, nighty night. As long as Soccer Players celebrate with a slide, you can count on geico saving folks money. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Pressure, what pressure . The players on the. We saw plenty of new developments today that could factor into Robert Muellers larger russia probe. Theres also plenty we have not seen. Team mueller doesnt leak. That said we do have some inkling of where things could be heading. Jim sciutto reports. Reporter openly denounced by the white house. I call it the rigged witch hunt. Reporter yet pressing forward without interruption, Special CounselRobert Muellers investigation has produced a steady stream of indictments and arrests over the last 14 months. It enters a new phase with the start of the first of two trials for Paul Manafort, trumps former campaign chairman. In virginia he faces charges of bank and tax fraud. In washington, hes accused of failing to register as a lobbyist for a Foreign Government and obstruction of justice. And mueller may not be done with manafort. This memo indicates that the Special Counsel is still investigating whether manafort was, quote, colluding with russian government officials,
end quote, to interfere in the 2016 election. There is no evidence that mr. Manafort or the Trump Campaign colluded with the russian government. Reporter manaforts former Business Partner and former Deputy Chairman of the Trump Campaign, rick gates, has already pleaded guilty and will testify against manafort. Among the others the Special Counsel has indicted, Michael Flynn, trumps former National Security adviser, and george papadopoulos, a former campaign aide. Both pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors, and both are cooperating with the investigation. Konstantin kilimnik, an associate of manaforts, who is described in Court Documents as a suspected russian intelligence operative. Also indicted, 13 russian nationals and three russian entities charged with interfering in the 2016 election. And most recently, another group of 12 russian nationals charged with hacking the Democratic National committee and the clinton campaign. Could more charges be coming . His team has interviewed at least two dozen members of the
trump administration and other trump associates. Bob mueller is not making deals left and right. Rick gates, george papadopoulos, and Michael Flynn all traded some pieces of information for their respective plea deals. Thats presumably incredibly important information. Reporter one crucial remaining question, what has mueller found out about that june 2016 trump tower meeting between donald trump jr. , Paul Manafort, jared kushner, and russians who promised to share dirt on Hillary Clinton . Trump junior has said that he never told his father about the meeting. There was nothing to tell. It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame. Reporter but sources tell cnn that trumps former personal Attorney Michael Cohen is now claiming that trump knew of the meeting in advance and that cohen is prepared to tell mueller. Cohen himself may not be on muellers todo list, though, having referred his case to federal investigators in new york. So it effectively brings the issue of collusion or conspiracy right to the president s feet. Reporter muellers latest indictment of the Russian Hackers hinted that he may still be looks at the role of other u. S. Persons. The conspirators corresponded with several americans during the course of the conspiracy through the internet. Reporter some speculate that may include roger stone who claimed several times during the campaign to be communicating with wikileaks, which u. S. Intelligence believes acted as a middleman. Its innocence. Theres no evidence of collusion or conspiracy or coordination. Reporter the Department Of Justice also recently released the fisa warrant obtained by the fbi during the campaign to surveil another former Trump Campaign adviser, carter page. At the time, the fbi told the court it believed page was the subject of recruitment by the russian government. Ive never been an agent of a foreign power in any by any stretch of the imagination. Reporter questions also remain about blackwater founder
erik princes mysterious meetings in the seychelles with an unofficial representative of the united arab emirates. No one was aware from the trump team that i was there. It was private business that had nothing to do with the u. S. Government. Reporter cnn has reported the purpose of that meeting was to arrange a possible back Channel Communication between the u. S. And russia, but the uae connection could expand muellers investigation to concerns of additional foreign influence in the 2016 election. Nader has been cooperating with investigators. The big question is what if Anything Mueller has in store to President Trump, including whether he obstructed justice. I think really that Obstruction Piece will be the final element of this and that what were going to more likely see is, you know, sort of these dots in the center being connected. Reporter looming large is whether the Special Counsel will demand a sitdown interview with President Trump himself. Ive always wanted to do an
interview because, look, theres been no collusion. Reporter for now, mr. Trumps attorney, Rudy Giuliani, says any interview is still under negotiation. I think he shouldnt. I know how convinced he is that he didnt do anything wrong and wants to explain it, and ive seen other people get into trouble thinking that, innocent people. Reporter to be clear, none of the charges that manafort faces so far relate directly to russias interference in the 2016 election. However, he was working for, getting paid millions of dollars for working for the then prorussian president of ukraine, who has been accused of corruption and murder, and who jailed his political opponents. Jim sciutto, cnn, washington. Jim set the stage. I want to dig deeper. Back with me, alan dershowitz, author of the case against impeaching trump. Also john dean. Professor dershowitz, the president continues to call the entire russia situation a hoax, a witch hunt. He sometimes just focuses on the notion of collusion as being the hoax and the witch hunt but oftentimes he just paints a very broad picture of it like that. It does seem to ignore the fact that mueller has already brought dozens of criminal charges against more than 20 defendants, including four trump associates. Well, i think more important, his own Intelligence Agencies have warned us about continuing russian attempts to intervene in the election. I give much more weight to that than i do to indictments. Indictments are, after all, just charges. They havent been proved. But the Intelligence Agencies who are appointed by President Trump are saying categorically that there is a continuing and ongoing effort to intrude into the election. And so i think that has to be taken pretty much as a given at this point. The president , though, even when he was reading a statement after helsinki to kind of clean up, and he said, you know, russia is responsible, he also then adlibbed, could be other people. Theres a lot of you know, theres a lot of groups out
there. Yes, he did. And he continues to adlib on his at his rallies, discounting what his intelligence chiefs are telling him. You know, a normal president would have taken that occasion to be present, probably would have done it in the east room, probably would have introduced them all and tried to emphasize the importance of what they were about to say. Hes done just the opposite. He put them out in the briefing room, which steps it down a couple notches right away, and then hes undercut it today in statements hes made about it just being a hoax again. Professor dershowitz, when we look go ahead. I was going to say hes in strange company. Just the other day noel chom ski, the radical, also said it was something of a joke that russia tried to intrude in our election. The real villains, he said, are
israel because theyre the ones who intruded in the election. Because thats nom chom ski. Thats not to be taken seriously. But i think the Intelligence Agencies have to be taken seriously. When we look at the people who have made deals with mueller, rick gates, Michael Flynn, george papadopoulos, we still dont know what theyve given mueller because prosecutors dont offer leniency out of the goodness of their hearts. This he have to be getting something in return, dont they . Theres no question. You have to make the proffer. Youre give a queen for a day. That is what you give in the proffer cant be used against you.