Im don lemon. Its 11 00 p. M. Here on the east coast. Live with the breaking news include lg this. Reporting the attorney general Jeff Sessions has been pressuring the fbi director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe. That the public urging of President Trump. We have lots of get to tonight. We want to get to pam brown. What is the white house saying . The white house did release a statement. Let me read it here. This is from White House PressPrinciple Deputy press secretary. As you see heres what he said. The president has enormous respect for thousands of rarng and file fbi agents. Who make up the worlds most professional and talented Law Enforcement agency. He believes politically motivated Senior Leaders including former fbi director comey. And others he empowered have tainted the Agency Reputation for unbias pursuit of justice. The president appointed chris wray because hes a man of true character, and integrity, and the right choice to clean up the misconduct at the highest level of the fbi. And give the rank and file confidence in their leadership. So there you see the statement, don, clearly the white house isnt denying this reporting. That wray felt pressure. The fbi director felt pressure from the attorney general sessions. And was upset about it. The white house not denying that. Its unclear parts of this are uncloer in terms of that he had the right choice to clean up the misconduct at the highest level of the fbi. It seems as though theyre talking about andy mccabe. The deputy fbi director expected to retire soon. I think that tells you something. It certainly does. She ran to the studio to fwet to us. So we know youre out of breath. Lets be transparent. Thank you for get. This is new reporting to get on the air. Youre the best person to do it. Listen, the white house are they worried about the optics of the second fbi director being fired and trumps first year . Was that a big concern . According to to the reporting there was concern of pressuring wray. And concern that perhaps wray would loef. That he would leaf the job. And the optics of an fbi director two trekt directors loefing within the same year. They were gun shy after james comey was fired. And the media fire storm that caused. The white house doesnt want another one of those. And the optics arent good for the white house. The idea that the second fbi director under president Trumps Administration has felt political pressure. Is not a good thing when you think about the fbi director is supposed to be independent from politics and pressure. This is not the kind of story that the white house would want. Given everything especially that happened with the former fbi director james comey. Thank you for being a trooper. We appreciate you running in. Thank you so much. Lets discuss this now. The breaking News National security analysis is here. And cnn legal analyst. Former federal prosecutor. Running for attorney general in illinois. Lets discuss. Interesting reporting here. Steve the former dwi director tweeted about this. A moment ago. Heres what he said. People standing up for what they believe in. The ultimate measure of a man where he stand in challenge and controversy. By obviously dr. Martin luther king, jr. A quote there. What would the reaction been if wray resigned over the pressure to fire mccabe . I think it would have been catastrophic. I have a lot of respect for former director comey. Hes saying the right thing in terms of individual people standing up. This is a bigger issue. I have served in developing democracies that are younger and less peerngsed than ours. This is extremely typical for autocrats figuring out democracies work. When you become the president or Prime Minister you dont get to pick and choose without over sight based on your personal likes. How you feel that day or your politics who youll keep and fire. To do that in this country damaging to our democracy. The fbi is a complicated organization. Its unique. Its not only the federal Law Enforcement. But its also the federal counter intelligence. Which takes us to the question of the russia investigation. Which is what this is about. We have a president who is doing everything he can to try to under mine anything that might call into question the election in the russian involvement in that. And the possible cooperation between he and his team. And this is just not the way things ought to work in the country. Page, you heard the statement from white house. Thats not a denial, is it . It doesnt sound like a denial at all. Its clear trump likely talked to session and pressured wray to remove mccabe. One thing about that, the constitution really allows a president to remove whomever he wants from the Justice Department. So we think about the fbi being a inindependent agency. If we have a president to change the way investigations are taking place, he can do that under the constitution. As long as hes not doing it with a corrupt intent. So if this is about russia, if this is about something to protect himself or his businesses, or his associates, then he has more of a problem. Im certain the special Counsel Office is trying to find out about the discussions and what pressure was brought to bare on where i say wray. I want to bring you in. At issue here is President Trumps insis tans Andrew Mccabe and his wife are allies of the clintons and believes that tainted the investigation into the clinton emails. This is what he tweeted in july. In charge of clinton investigation but got big dollars. 700,000 for his wives political run from clinton. And haddand her representatives. Drain the swamp. Does he have a legitimate gripe . Or should the political aspirations be kept separate . He doesnt have a legitimate political gripe. More importantly i think what hes doing is very irresponsible. What hes suggesting and said in that statement that you read that the reporter read out of breath a minute ago was saying that the leadership of the fbi has is politically motivated and engaging in misconduct. A president of the United States shouldnt make accusations against fbi leadership so casually like that. This is literally the independent watchdogs that watch to make sure crimes arent being committed by people in our government. And for the president of the United States to be going after them in this way making accusations very irresponsibly. When hes also himself under investigation. Regardless of whether or not its obstruction of justice. Theres a moment ago we discussed whether the corrupt intent that would be required. Regardless of that, the president of the United States shouldnt be going after the Law Enforcement leadership. Its wrong. Its antidemocratic. These are the people who are supposed to be watching out independently. Watching the people in government to make sure they are not committing crime. Frankly its disappointing to me its become a norm that people on both sides of the aisle arent condemning that. It should be a nonpartisan issue. You agree with that, steve . Absolutely. You cant say it enough. This is the United States of america. It is a an American Issue with regard to whether its russia or whether or not this president was involved. Those are partisan questions. Those are questions with regard to america. To who we are. You cant lets not be naive. Theres no politics involved in whos the director of the fbi or director of the cia. You need to understand or think about the idea donald trump is doing is sounding a dog whistle to the base. Okay this is another deep state thing. When he says its the Senior Leadership of fill in the blank. The fbi. Or when its the cia has a bunch of people who are associated with nazis. What hes saying to the base is you cant trust these people im here to help you. But i have the traitors inside the fbi leadership. Inside the Intelligence Committee who are fighting against me and trying to make the whole its ridiculous. Its not funny. Because its extremely damaging to really important institutions of our democracy. If fbi director wray had left, he would have been the second fbi director to be fired or leave his position in the first year. That would be incredible. I think its unprecedent. And its really inconsistent with President Trump saying he appointed chris wray because he has a great reputation and rebuild the fbi. And doesnt trust him to do his job. He wants to interfere and tell wray who he ought to have as deputy dregt director. Who he should hire and fire. I have known chris wrays reputation. Impeccable reputation. Let him do his job. Let him run the fbi as he sees fit. Dont interfere. It hurts your credibility but the agents who are doing the daytoday job of enforcing the law in court across the country. If the public doesnt respect the fbi because of what the president is saying, it really makes a difficult for them to do their job. Thank you. I appreciate it. When we come back the washington Watchdog Group claims the six figure payment to a porn star alleged to have an affair with President Trump broke the law. And is asking agencies to investigate. The lawyer will join me next to explain. It in under an hour, and you can too. Build a better website in under an hour. With gocentral from godaddy. I knew at that exact moment. Im beating this. My main focus was to find a team of doctors. Its not just picking a surgeon, its picking the care team and feeling secure in where you are. Visit cancercenter. Com breast we have new developments tonight in the story of the porn star who had an affair with donald trump in 2006. Stormy daniels appearing in public at a strip club in south carolina. Over the weekend. But there is more. Now the group common cause is lodging complaints alleging that a reported 130,000 hush money payment to daniels constitutes a Campaign Finance violation. Lets get to cnn brian todd. The lathes on this story. Good evening to you. Storeny daniels isnt talking about her experience with trump. But is nightclub adult nightclub in south carolina. Over the week. The trophy club. I spoke to the owner of the club who told me this was a record crowd that came to see her. He charged double the usual 20 cover charge. But not quite as much as he charges to book some other popular events. He denies hes gouging his customers here. He was taking care of them. We understand from him and others who were involved in booking this event, that she is going to continue to capitalize on this. Were told shee is booked several other adult nightclubs throughout the country in nashville and oklahoma city. That she could be booked through the month of june. From people in the industry say thats not unusual for a porn star to appear at these club. Shes a popular entity. There were journalists at the club on saturday. Wanting to speak to her about the alleged affair with donald trump. Of course she was cage ji about that. And refused to give details. Saying what her life has been like in the last week since this broke. She said her life has been kind of stressful. But amusing. She told reporters. That would be an interesting assignment. I would imagine. They were there working. I want to speak with a lawyer soon, coming up next. From common cause. They filed complaints with the department of justice sdp the federal Election Commission alleging that payment of 130,000. Through Stormy Daniels through llc constitutes a Campaign Finance violation. Just remind us of what happened with john edwards. Remember. This was in 2008. The president ial campaign. There seems to be possible similarities. There could be similarities. John edwards was prosecuted in 2012. For what happened in 2008. Prosecutors accusing himover getting a Million Dollars in Illegal Campaign contributions to keep his mistress silent during the 2008 campaign. Now edwards was prosecuted but not convicted. I believe the jury found him not guilty on one count. And deadlocked on the other. Five counts. So proving that maybe tough. But common cause is going to try to bring the case and get to investigate. Whether this was an Illegal Campaign contribution. Since the payment was made in the weeks just before the 2016 election. Common cause arguing that it may not have been an illegal contribution. If it was Donald Trumps own money. But there may have been a reporting violation since they reported it to no one. So that could be part of the litigation. Lets talk about that. Brian todd, thank you very much. I want to bring in the Vice President of the policy and litigation. Paul s. Ryan. Did Donald Trumps lawyer Michael Cohen break Campaign Finance law by paying Stormy Daniels 130,000 . It certainly looks like that happened. There was a violation or multiple vilss of the law. The law says that any money spent or paid by a candidate or agent of the a candidate for the purpose of influencing an election. Thats both a contribution from the candidate to their campaign. Thats an expenditure. Both which have to be reported. That didnt happen. Thats the violation number one. That were alleging. The second part is if the money didnt come from trumps pocket. That adds on another count. Were talking about illegal contribution. Illegal corporate contribution to the campaign. Or if it was from an individual an illegally excessive contribution. In excess of 2,700 limit. Few possible violations in play. We think theres enough evidence to warrant investigation into all of them. We think its highly likely at a minimum theres a reporting violation. So Michael Cohen provided a statement to cnn tonight. He says the common cause the attorney supposedly did the payment and set up the all that. The complaint is baseless along with the allegation that President Trump filed a false report to the fec. Now paul, when my producer asked why it was baseless he said he would explain in due time. What do you think of that . He sure will. If hes continuing to represnt the president. Or has involvement with the campaign committee. Hell be explaining himself. He sounded nervous to me. Okay. Why do you think that sounds nervous . Overly defensive. In my opinion. Its cheer from wall street journal he set up an llc and they made an 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels lawyer. That has been reported and confirmed. Hes declaring that seemingly declaring none of it happened. Yeah. What do the doj have to prove. Ha evidence do they have to find . They have different enforcement authority. Civil authority. Doesnt have to prove violation beyond a reasonable doubt. The department of justice is in charge of criminal prosecution. That would mean a criminal trial to prove violations or of the law beyond a reasonable doubt. So burden of proof is different in both cases. And what were calling for at this stage is an investigation. Thats the job of both of the agencies early on. Theres a violation here. There are a couple of differences important differences in the scenarios before the trump daniels. And the edwards prosecution. Namely that with respect to john edwards there was no evidence in the record that miss hunter. The girlfriend in the matter was about to talk to the press. And talk. They made big deal of that. Thats not the case here. We know she was talking to god morning america. Talking to slate. This was all coming also remember a week after the access Hollywood Tape leaked. So were talking about a Trump Campaign that was reeling from that earlier scandal. Right before the general election. So this certainly looks like a payment to influence the election. Well, what if, this is a what if, what it donald trump nor any officials knew Michael Cohen set up this payment. As i ask you that, he was sort of a de facto campaign person because he was on tv a lot defending this president. You get what im asking . If neither trump nor Campaign Staff knew about this. It becomes a harder case to prove. A much closer call in whether there was a violation. Its only a violation if the candidate or the Candidates Campaign or agents arranged this payment. It would get into the legal question of what Michael Cohen acting as an agent of President Trump. Or his committee. Thats a tougher call. If hes acting on his own theres no there there. Its a tougher case to make. You have to argue along the lines you eluded to. He was representing the campaign. He was a surrogate of the campaign. You have to get more than that. Prove under the law he was acting as an agent within the scope of his agency doing this. That would be a tougher case. What are the chances he would be acting on behalf of the president as his attorney and making decisions for him and not telling him about the sdis decisions . Incredibly low. This looks like enough ground for an investigation. 130,000 hes the head lawyer at the trurp organization. The personal lawyer. Enough for an investigation. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. When w