Wikileaks. We know that while the russians were trying to sway the u. S. Election, they were reaching out to key members of trumps family and key members of his campaign. According to the latest Court Documents, the russians offered trumps personal Attorney Michael Cohen political sin si a wealthy russian family offered donald junior dirt. He wrote in an email to trumps son quote this is obviously very high level and Sensitive Information but it is part of russia and its Government Support for mr. Trump. At no point that we know of at least did a Single Member of trumps family or his campaign alert anyone, not even the fbi about these contacts and offers of help. Instead, in some cases, we know they accepted the help. Trump junior famously responded to the offers of clinton dirt by emaili emailing, if its what you say i love it and set up a meeting at trump tower. Jared kushner was there and Paul Manafort and a russian government attorney who describes herself as an infor informant. Trump himself even called on the russians for help. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Trump says that was a joke. But according to Court Documents, on or around the same day trump asked for those emails, russians began attacking new email accounts tied to Hillary Clinton for the first time. It didnt end there. After the election, contacts between the trump team and russians continued. According to the washington post, Jared Kushner went so far to suggest a secret back channel with the russians, one that would prevent u. S. Intelligence from eves dr from eavesdropping. They talked about easing sanctions during the transition and still amid the contacts and offers and acceptance of help, trump for some reason repeatedly and continues to deny russia was behind the democratic hacks. Could be russia or china or lots of other people. It could be sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay . Hacking is interesting. Once they hack, if you dont catch them in the act, youre not going to catch them. They have no idea if its russia or china or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed someplace. I think it was russia, but i think it was probably other people and or countries and i see nothing wrong with that statement. Nobody really knows. Those repeated denials against the evidence are mysterious at best, suspicious at worst and now we learned that during much of this time, trump had a vested business interest in creating cozy ties with russia. As he was campaigning and becoming the gop nominee for president , muellers latest filing says he was secretly hah hashi hashing out a deal. This was going on during the runup to the election and trump never let voters know about this. Instead, he said this. I have no business, have no loans from russia. I have no dealings with russia. I have no deals in russia. I have no deals that could happen in russia because weve stayed away. We know trump isnt the only one who was less than forthcoming about his dealings with russia. Sessions, paul ma manafort is accused of lying and Michael Cohen also admits he lied about his russia contacts. So here is what he wants you to believe. As russia reached out to his campaign and the campaign accepted, didnt report and lied about the russian help and even as this was happening while he troofs w was trying to close a business deal with russia, he insists there is absolutely no collusion and nothing to prove otherwise. With us to weigh in on all of this now, cnn legal commentator and former white house attorney jim schultz and federal prosecutor remembnaldo. As of right now, mueller hasnt shown evidence of collusion on its face but cases are presented every day without a smoking gun. Is that the evidence out there damming enough . Well, there is certainly a lot of evidence. Youve done a very nice job laying all of that out, anna. There is more out there that you didnt layout. You had a few minutes to do it. You probably could have done a whole onehour show at this point. We saw a vent firecent filing. What does that mean offering a Foreign Government offering political cynergy with the time that candidate is seeking help from that government as to a business deal. That is corrupt at best. Unlawful at worst. Now i will say that the Mueller Investigation is still not at the stage where there is any charges that have been brought relating, that relate to this with the president. But thats because like any other grand jury investigation, its operating in secret. The new york obviously, which were not talking about the new york federal prosecutors did produce charges that implicated the president on friday and that is totally separate problem but having to do with the hush money payments. Exactly. Exactly right. Can a case be made by whats known so far . Look, we dont have enough information at this point. You know, i think it was senator marco rubio today that said look, there is a lot of information thats in these filings, but there is no charge of conspiracy, there is no allegation that the president or his campaign was engaged in it. Yes, manafort was doing things he shouldnt have been doing and was he acting on his own because he was endebted and on behalf of the campaign . A lot of that hasnt been shown and there is a lot of redaxs cts in that filing. I want to come back to that court filing on friday from the Southern District of new york. That says now Michael Cohen broke Campaign Finance laws when he paid the hush money payments for the women that claimed to have affairs with President Trump and he said cohen did that that essentially implicates the president and two alleged felonies. Listen to what adam schiff says about that. My take away is there is a real prospect on the day donald trump leaves office, the Justice Deputy may indict him and he may be the first president to face real jail time. Adam schiff be right . It goes back to the jon edwards case where he had similar conduct and he was charged but that was an unsec l unsuccessful prosecution, not guilty and a number the jury didnt make a decision on. So i think that there is a real question as to whether these are real violations or not. The fact that Michael Cohen played guilty to them is not in and of it selfthe issue as to whether there is ill legali ill. Whether this is a personal issue is a legal issue thats going to be taken up by the courts at some point in time. Maybe not in connection with this largely because this is really coming down to a political question because there is an issue if congress decides to take it up and review this issue in connection with an impeachment investigation or hearing, they are going to have to make a determination on this whether its a high crime or misdemeanor and take it before the senate. This is not something that will go before the court of law as it relates to the president. Thats because doj guidelines say you dont indict a sitting president but what if when hes no longer president , thats the possibility here that adam schiff is laying out. Youre a former federal prosecutor. Do you think the doj would pursue charges against the president and say two or six years from now for Campaign Finance violations . Certainly the statute of limitations runs until 2021, which if President Trump lost in the upcoming election or didnt run for whatever reason, he could be prosecuted at that time. He thought the statute of limitations could be told past the time of the president s term, the second term. Its possible if that argument is valid, you can imagine an indictment at that time. I advice clients now at times under investigation if i was advising the president in this situation, i would tell him he needs to be prepared for a potential indictment for the Southern District of new york after hes in office. The Southern District of new york made very clear that the same crimes that Michael Cohen is going to be serving time for were directed by him. They have concluded it based on whatever evidence they have, the Probation Department totally separate form of government came to the same conclusion and if the judge agrees with the prosecution and the Probation Department, which i suspect the judge will, then youve got another branch of government concluding the same thing. Thats a lot of jeopardy for him and regardless of what happens in the meantime, after he leaves office, there is a very significant question as toliabi mueller accused three people close to the president of lying about their russian contacts, michael flynn, Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. Flynn was working in the white house and in contact with the white house around the time they alledgedly guyed accolied. With open lines to the white House Keeping deceptive. Well, it looks in every single instance the folks had other problems outside of all of the issues in connection with the campaign or their official roles or otherwise. They had issues as it related to Paul Manaforts case, the foreign agents registration act and issues there and a number of issues beyond that bank fraud and financial fraud. Right, but then he pleaded guilty and was supposed to be cooperating. He kept lying. Thats the thing, right. This administration including as recently as may of 2018, thats this year. Why would he lie with the Senior Member . We dont know what other exposure he may have. This is largely unknown. To make the conclusion that hes doing it to protect administration or to protect the president is a real leap and somewhat irresponsible but he may have had other problems, personal reasons why he continued down this road and the Justice Department doesnt believe him. Sail thing wi same thing with Michael Cohen. The Justice Department charged him with further lying and makes the folks very difficult witnesses when it comes down to the rubber hitting the road to put them on the stand or otherwise rely upon what they are saying without other corroborating evidence. In a few seconds, ill give you the final thought, renaldo. I wonder why people in the Trump Administration were having continued contact with a man who is indicted in multiple courts with felonies and why he was going around his lawyers on the slide to contact members of the administration when the ordinary course was to go through trumps lawyers to do that. It suggestions there is something manafort and other individuals didnt want their lawyers to know about. Thank you both, gentlemen. Good to have you with us and your expertise is always appreciated. We have news just in, nick ayers says thanks but no thank, President Trump is considering for the job. I just got my ancestrydna results 74 italian. And i found out that im from the big toe of that sexy italian boot so this Holiday Season its ancestrydna per tutti order your kit now at ancestry. Com i saw my leg did not look right. I landed. I was just finishing a ride. I felt this awful pain in my chest. I had a pe blood clot in my lung. I was scared. I had a dvt blood clot. 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Before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. Learn all you can. To help protect yourself from another dvt or pe. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. Just in, President Trump is considering four and a senior white house official saying nick ayres will be leaving all together. Back to the four President Trump is considering. The source would not give all names but says the president is expected to make a decision, one name floated is mark meadows of north carolina. White house senior staffers have asked outside advisors what they think of meadows for chief of staff. Meadows chairman of the House Freedom caucus is known to be close to President Trump. Staff writer for the atlantic and National Reporter for bloomberg news. Your reaction to the meadows chief of staff idea . Obviously, House Republicans will be in the minority right now. Mark meadows and the Freedom Caucus will have power but the power has a share actually going to go up because many of the people swept out are moderates. They have power and meadow and allies are going to set themselves up to have powerful positions atop of the committees as ranking members. Whether meadows is in the house or white house, hes going to be one of the president s most vocal and prominent defenders. Whoever ends up being the chief of staff could have to face the fallout of the Mueller Probe and be in the white house during that time whenever the final report is issued. We have President Trump this week dipping into the playbook of denial and distraction of the revelations. The president says hes happy with the mueller situation and that the latest Court Document totally clears the president. Hes saying no collusion but you report when muellers report does drop, there is no strategy how to respond. The only plan is to fight. What does that look like. When i write that, Rudy Giuliani told me the only clear response pattern they prepped for is if the president issued a subpoena and if trump is looking for a chief of staff is relevant because when there is no plan whatsoever for how to respond to muellers report when it does drop, you have to think if youre one of trumps choices to be chief of staff, is that what i want to walk into . That will be top of mind for him if he made a formal offer for the position. The president is deflecting. He seems to be in the full throttle mode, nothing to see here, look over there. In the meantime mueller keeps plugging away and has been methodical. The president s strategy is more of a political strategy trying to undermine the investigation if it comes to him in court. This is going to be at the end of the day a matter for congress and Republican Voters approve of this president by margins of 85 to 90 and that will scare away republican members of congress in the senate right now which is where it matters most from wanting to take action to confront. There is a piece of legislation in the senate that would protect the special counsel investigation and there are only two republicans on the record sharing they support it and want to do it. One is jeff flake, one is susan collins, the only republican senator from a blue state up for reelection in 2020. By in large, senators are sticking with the president and ill note in the event, in the hypothetical event, this house tries to im peach the president and succeeds, it will take 20 republican senators to remove him from office. Thats a towering bar to cross with his approval that high. There are so many questions. Are trumps continual distractions impacting his lawyers abilitiouilities to de him . One thing i saw interesting as i reported my story, anna, is when i spoke to people in the Clinton White house was there, they said it never occurred the president had not been honest about the worstcase scenario, sort of the worst findings in the report might be and because of that, they felt they had several plans in place and kind of knew what they would do whatever, you know, ken star was to reveal. Thats not necessarily the case in this white house. You have people close to the president and including his own lawyers that may not feel they have been given the full story. When thats the case, there is not much you can do but wing it or quote unquote fight back when the report drops. So if there is not a real strategy, i have to wonder does the president just think his own strategy, his reactions, communications is better than anything his team could come up with collectively . Right, that seems to be the case. The president is winging it and going at it and shooting from the hip on this because he believes his instinct are going to keep voters on his side and that at the end of the day as i mentioned is his strategy when it comes down to it. He is in the words of one white house, a former white house aid i spoke to unprepared for a Democratic House with subpoena power and this aid that i talked to doesnt believe the