A look at Breaking News, politics and reports from around the world. Federal crime. Tonight, the president is changing his story again, claiming that he learned about Michael Cohens Hush Money Payments to women later on. His words, later on. That contradicts the evidence and cohens assertion under oath that he was acting on the directions of mr. Trump. The white house insists the president has done nothing wrong. But the cohen plea deal, along with Paul Manaforts criminal conviction, have escalated a legal and political crisis being likened to watergate. This hour ill talk with Michael Cohens lawyer, lanny davis, and House Intelligence Committee member jim himes. And our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. First lets go to our White House Correspondent kaitlyn collins. Kaitlyn, we heard from the president in a new interview. We also heard from him on twitter. Reporter thats right, wolf. The president s first public remarks since Michael Cohen implicated him in a crime yesterday. And the president is attempting to rewrite history about when he
him as a liar who isnt a credible person. But of course its hard for the white house to distance themselves from cohen because hes someone that the president hired that knew the president for over a decade and did a lot of work for him. And the president s on tape saying that he likes him and saying that he is a good guy. So look for that strategy from the white house, but wolf, this comes as those who know the president best are admitting that he is backed into a corner at this point and its pretty hard to determine what it is the president is going to do next. Wolf . Especially when he is backed into that corner. Kaitlan, thank you very much. As the president tries to spin the cohen plea deal, hes getting multiple facts wrong. Hes falsely claiming, for example, that his former lawyers Campaign Violations dont amount to a crime. They do. And hes trying to bolster his argument by stressing that he paid back cohen, not his president ial campaign. Lets bring in our crime and justice reporter simon prokup z prokupecz. The president told fox news that the Hush Money Payments to the women did not come from the
at least through november. So whats going on there . Hes still cooperating. Rick gates, who just finished testifying, hes still cooperating. That came up during the trial. Remember, at a Bench Conference they talked about the government and the defense team talked about his cooperation. The judge did not want it out there publicly. He sealed that Bench Conference. So what is rick gates still working on with the government . So wolf, clearly in all honesty what we dont know is probably more concerning and should be more troubling in this investigation for the president and the people close to the president than anything else. What are you hearing about roger stone and any possible legal involvement affecting him . . Well, wolf, quite frankly, we also we have some idea that we know that the former madam was in to see the grand jury. We know that there are two other people, a person who was close to roger stone, Andrew Miller who worked with him on the campaign, who did some other personal work for him, has been fighting the subpoena. We dont exactly know why. All of that is sealed. So we dont know why hes fighting to subpoena. A judge held him in contempt when he didnt show up. So that is still ongoing. And there are probably other parts of this investigation, financial. The whole russia Collusion Thing we believe is ongoing. There are grand juries that are still active and hearing from witnesses. So theres really, really a lot thats still ongoing, and we really dont have any idea about when this is going to end. And then the big question really, wolf, is in the end what will the president finally do . Will he go and meet with mueller, sit down with investigators and answer their questions . All excellent points. Thanks so much, shimon prokupecz. With that, lets talk about all of this and more. Michael cohens attorney lanny davis is with us here in the Situation Room right now. Lanny, thanks very much for coming in. Wolf. And i know youve been busy over these past several days. Lets talk about the president s latest statement in this new interview which im sure youve seen the excerpts and with fox news the president says he only learned about the Hush Money Payments to those two women and he says you only heard later
later on but he also says they werent Campaign Violations because they came he says from me. Whats your reaction . Its an incorrect understanding of the law. The law pertains to whether it comes from him as a personal donation, which is what the interpretation is, or as a Campaign Fund donation. The law has limits and requires disclosure. What the prosecutors found is that the money was paid two weeks from the election, motivated by a fear and a threat from miss daniels that she was going to go public right before the election. So the finding of the Prosecutor Subject to a jury in a trial is that the motivation as a principal political purpose made that donation illegal and a felony. And if its a felony for Michael Cohen, my client, who pled guilty, its certainly a felony for the man who according to the prosecutors directed and
coordinated the payment of that illegal thats the way he phrased it. Michael cohen in court yesterday, he was directed to do so, it was coordinated by the then president ial candidate donald trump. Just so you understand, its true. He did use those words. But those words were worked out and corroborated with the prosecutors. Thats their view of the case. And they did not indict so u. S. Attorneys for the Southern District of new york, the prosecutors, they knew he was going to say that. Correct. Did they have Backup Evidence to support what he was going to say about the president . Yes, they put out an information, its called an information, which explains the case. Referred to unnamed individuals from the campaign that provided evidence and individuals from the Trump Organization with wire transfers and documentation of the transfer of the money that mr. Trump knew about and indeed Rudy Giuliani admitted even after mr. Trump lied about it on Air Force One when he said i
dont know anything about it. Giuliani said mr. Cohen was reimbursed for what turned out to be a loan. But was there any other person who heard, directly heard the president coordinate direct Michael Cohen to go ahead with these payments to these two women . Well, the information filed by the the answer is not explicitly named in the information filed by the prosecutors but the prosecutors leave anonymous the individuals from the campaign and the individuals from the organization who would have been aware of mr. Trumps knowledge if not direction and making it illegal, his distinction between personal and Campaign Funds. Somebodys given him bad legal advice, maybe its Rudy Giuliani. But who are those individuals that you suggest knew about all of this that could back up what Michael Cohen said in court yesterday . We dont know because the prosecutors chose to name them individual 1, individual 2. And i assume that those names will be either revealed or not
revealed depending upon what the prosecutors decide. But for mr. Cohen he certainly agreed that mr. Trump directed him to do this. But has your client, Michael Cohen, told you who those two individuals are . No. And hes not actually sure. Its hard to guess because there are a lot of people who were involved and aware about the Stormy Daniels issue, her threat to go public, the concern about the impact on the president ial race, and the decision for him to do the financing from his home to pay her the 130,000. But the individuals we can guess who they might be. But the prosecutors did not share that. But i just want to be precise. Youre saying a lot of people knew about this in advance . Certainly according to the information there were several people. Mr. Cohen would say a lot of people because in the Trump Organization it was pretty commonly known as you know President Trump has a door that
lots of people are in and out of and the culture around mr. Trump was that most people knew most everything. So when the president said in that fox news interview today that he only learned about the payments, the Hush Money Payment to Karen Mcdougal later on, was he lying . I dont know if he was lying. Its not plausible to me that he didnt know about this arrangement. But that would be up to a jury to decide on credibility. I would respectfully suggest that a president that lies so much is not exactly going to make a credible witness but there is that Audio Recording that Michael Cohen made that you released to cnn that shows the president talking about the payments in advance. And he says now he only learned about it later on. Well, as i said, President Trumps record on telling the tru truth, he has a lawyer who says the truth is not the truth. I would not take his credibility at a high level. But the other thing in that tape you should listen to is the way the conversation began with a discussion about the polls. That the polls were looking better in the middle of october. Which they were for mr. Trump. So the context of the conversation was politics. Then the decision to pay miss daniels and maybe a juror would believe mr. Trump, that he never thought about the impact on his campaign if his affair with a porn star came out right before election day. There may be some people who believe that. Im a little confused. Why are you not saying that the president today lied . Well, i do think the president lied. But that would be a redundancy because this president has lied thousands of times beginning with the biggest inauguration parade in american history, or barack obama not being an american citizen. It is a problem for mr. Trump that even his supporters laugh about. They know hes lying. He knows they know hes lying. And in this case were the prosecutors to bring a case against President Trump as an incumbent president unlikely, they would not have a hard time convincing a jury i think of the
inference that he was motivated to make an illegal contribution for political purposes, which makes if a crime. Lets go through some of the specifics. The prosecutors say the invoices that Michael Cohen submitted for reimbursement for the Hush Money Payments to those two women, the prosecutors say that was all a sham. To whom did cohen submit those invoices . I dont know. I think the invoices for youre talking about the technology the invoices to get reimbursed for the 150,000 for Karen Mcdougal, the 130,000 for Stormy Daniels plus the it was also bolstered because he wanted to make sure that Michael Cohen, who had to pay taxes on that money work get a lot i think it came to around 400,000 total that the prosecutors say he was reimbursed. So the Trump Organization he borrowed the money based on an equity line on his house, Way Overcovered by the equity in his house. He used that money, 130,000, at
the direction according to the information of mr. Trump and paid the hush money to miss daniels. So no story came out he worked with American Media to get the 150,000 to Karen Mcdougal. Correct. Then after the election he was paid 35,000 a month according to mr. Giuliani as well as the record over the course of a year so that he was paid the gross amount, then after taxes down to 130,000, plus additional money for some services that he provided to the company. So the answer to your question, he was paid by the Trump Organization. What did he send those invoices to to get reimbursed . To the Trump Organization. I know. But who there . Which individuals . I dont know. I actually forget the mans name who was the controller, the individual, the chief Financial Officer. The chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg whos now been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury. Im guessing, and i dont know that the invoices were sent
to mr. Weselberg. Weisselberg. Weisselberg. I always have a problem with you suggest your client Michael Cohen has information that will be very useful to the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller. What is that information . Well, i pick my words carefully. Im not quibbling. I said would be of interest. That i believe that he observed and saw mr. Trump being aware of the use of emails to damage Hillary Clintons campaign. That could only have been derives through illegal hacking from a Russian Agency called wick rae wikileaks. I believe there is some information mr. Cohen could provide to mr. Mueller that would be of interest to mr. Mueller. I dont know if its a smoking gun or how decisive it is. What im suggesting is that mr. Cohen was an observer and was a witness to mr. Trumps awareness of those emails before they were dropped, and it would
pertain to the hacking of the email accounts. Has your client, Michael Cohen, already sat down with Robert Mueller or his Special Counsel team . So there are certain questions as an attorney i cant answer. I hate not answering your questions after all these years, wolf. By cannot answer that question. Why . Why is that so sensitive . Because if the answer were either no or yes it would violate a confidentiality understanding with the Special Counsel, whether you see him or not. And the last thing we want to do is violate Confidentiality Understandings, whether its with the prosecutors who mr. Cohen greatly respects, he wanted me to mention especially on your program that when he was booked and processed he was treated very courteously, even when he was raided by a massive search warrant, even his childrens telephones on a sunday, he thanked the fbi agents for their politeness. So the answer is that mr. Cohen
took his responsibility, pled guilty, and now hes committed to one thing and one thing only, which is to tell the truth and to tell the truth about mr. So hes ready now. Hes already pled guilty. Hes ready now to cooperate with the Special Counsel Robert Mueller, assuming that mueller wants him to get some more information. What woe anticipate receiving in return . A reduced sentence . Nothing has been offered. Nothing is on the table. There was no deal. He will serve time based upon the guidelines on sentencing. Hes without resources, owes a lot of money, and weve set up a Go Fund Me Site Calling called Michael Cohen excuse me, Michael Cohen facts fund. Com. Or truth fund. Com. Excuse me. Michael cohen truth fund. Com as a way of asking people who
supported his commitment to tell the truth, especially about mr. Trump. He does need the help. But you understand that by not saying whether or not hes already met with mueller and his team youre leaving open the possibility that he already has met with them. I am leaving open that possibility. So we have to assume that its likely that they did meet. Possibility isnt likely. But i have to say im leaving open the possibility. But you cant tell us . Is that what youre saying . Because of what, attorneyclient privilege . Is that what youre saying . Both that and the Confidentiality Understandings when were dealing with people making investigations we dont talk about any meetings, yes or no. Because there are a lot of other people who have met with the Special Counsel and done extensive q a. Theyve already announced it. It isnt a secret if you go ahead and answer questions from the Special Counsel. Well, for a good period of time mr. Cohen was under criminal investigation. Now hes awaiting sentencing. And he is not going to discuss his conversations with the prosecutors or if he had any
with mr. Mueller. But i am telling your audience that mr. Cohen hired me when he decided to turn to the truth and to declare his independence from mr. Trump. I never would have taken him on as a client if i didnt believe he meant what he said. He has a great heart and a great family and under great distress. Yesterday was very interesting. In the courtroom the judge said this to Michael Cohen. He said, mr. Cohen, when you took all of these acts that youve described, did you know you that were doing that what you were doing was wrong and illegal and Michael Cohen responded yes, your honor. So when he was making these Hush Money Payments, arranging these Hush Money Payments for the then republican president ial candidate donald trump, he knew he was acting criminally. So thats what he said, and thats what he meant. And he did it under oath. Reply question is mr. Trump is still fencing with talking to mr. Mueller not under oath. Would mr. Trump have his interview instead of with fox, would he do it under oath and then see whether he tells the truth under oath . Mr. Giuliani claims that that would be a perjury trap. We all know that when you tell the truth theres no perjury. So when the president was in Michael Cohens words directing and coordinating with him to go ahead and make these Hush Money Payments, do you believe the president knew this potentially could be illegal . Theres no question. Or why would he keep it secret . He did it through mr. Cohen, 130,000 with mr. Cohen having to borrow from his equity line. If he didnt want to keep it a secret, why didnt he write a check and sign the check himself . Well, he could make the john edwards argument, he was trying to keep it secret so his wife wouldnt know about it. But your question is why did he do it . Was he trying to keep it secret . The answer is if he wasnt trying to keep it secret He Wouldnt Have used mr. Cohen as a conduit rather than doing it
openly and say im not doing it for political purposes, im doing it to protect the information from my wife. But that could be reasonably argued before a jury. It looks like he was motivated two weeks before the election by political purposes and thats what the prosecutors found. And it would be up to mr. Trump if hes willing to testify under oath to say no, i did it for other reasons. Did donald trump, then the republican president ial candidate, admit to your client, Michael Cohen, that he was having these alleged affairs with these two women . I dont want to answer that question because i think the private conversations about his personal life with mr. Cohen is not what i was hired to talk about. He broke the law in my opinion and in the opinion of the prosecutors by making a contribution that was politically motivated. Doesnt 3459 erwhether it was f Campaign Funds or personal. He got that wrong in the interview. But when he breaks the law, thats a corruption of the democratic process. By making that Campaign Contribution to avoid the news coming out. Just as the russian meddling was a corruption of ours democracy. Heres what i dont understand, lanny. Your client has just pled guilty. Hes facing potentially five years in jail. Half a milliondollar fine. He says he wants to fully cooperate. He wants transparency. He wants to testify before Congress Even without a subpoena. You said he doesnt even want any pardon from the president , he wouldnt accept a pardon from the president of the United States. So why are you reluctant to answer these kinds of sensitive questions right now . What does your client Michael Cohen have to lose if you answer these questions . You asked me whether Michael Cohen and mr. Trump discussed mr. Trumps personal activities with women. And i dont think thats the issue. I think the issue is the Black Letter Law that he violated, which is a felony and a corruption of the democratic process by paying 130,000 to prevent news from coming out
that would hurt his candidacy. The Election Laws are to keep democracy clean. He made it dirt y yy according the prosecutors. If he disagrees he can offer to testify under oath the way that mr. Cohen voluntarily accepted responsibility under oath. So Michael Cohen testified under oath yesterday that he was involved together with the president in directing and coordinating the Hush Money Payments for these two women. Has your client, Michael Cohen, told you that similar Hush Money Payments were made to other women . I have not discussed that with mr. Cohen, and its a subject that i would be interested in discussing why . Im interested in illegality. And what makes this Hush Money Check of 130,000 directed by mr. Cohen illegal under the Black Letter Law, not the law made up by mr. Trump, is that it was according to the prosecutors principally for the purpose of
avoiding the bad publicity that would come from disclosure at the end of the campaign of this affair with miss daniels. Will Michael Cohen, whether before the Special Counsel or if he testifies before congress, the house or the senate, that President Trump had advance knowledge of the russian hacking, of the Democratic National committee, and the Clinton Campaign chairman John Podestas emails . I cant answer that question, and im not sure what his answer would be. But i have given you my intuition that what he knows would be of interest on that subject to mr. Mueller, whether he would testify exactly as you stated. I just cant answer as his lawyer. What evidence does Michael Cohen have that the president knew in advance about that controversial Trump Tower Meeting that his son, his soninlaw, the Campaign Chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, had with these russians leading up to the 2016 election . So again, at this juncture i
can only say that he was present during a discussion with junior and dad and beyond that his testimony to the Senate Intelligence and House Intelligence Committees was accurate. As you know, the new York State Department of taxation and finance today subpoenaed your client, Michael Cohen, to be part of their investigation into the overall trump foundation. Will he testify . Will he go forward and cooperate with this New York State investigation . So i havent talked to him today specifically, but i will say based on everything hes told me about not only cooperating but wanting to tell the truth, especially about mr. Trump and questions concerning his foundation that had been published and are widely known, he would cooperate with that investigation. But thats my guess. Well, weve got a lot of questions, as you know, and you were very generous with your time to come in. Wed love to you come back when you have a followup conversation with Michael Cohen. Maybe we can get some answers to
some of these sensitive issues you really didnt want to discuss. But it was always good to have you here in our Situation Room. Great to be here. Thank you very much, lanny, for that. Appreciate it. Joining us now, congressman jim himes. Hes a democrat who serves on the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Good evening, wolf. Lets go through some of these sensitive issues. As you know, President Trump says he learned of the Hush Money Payments now only later on, his words, later on. But they came from him, not the campaign, so they werent necessarily Campaign Finance violations, he says. What do you make of that argument . Well, i dont know what he means by later on. I do know that there is a tape of the president saying he knows nothing about these payments and then of course now he says he does know about those payments but later on. But i have been around the Campaign World long enough to know that his interpretation of the law, that is to say, that if i use my personal money to and i almost hate to reiterate
this. To buy the silence of a porn star two weeks before the election, thats not an f. E. C. , federal election commission, violation. It is. There are disclosure requirements. Anything you do that contributes to a Campaign Must at a minimum be disclosed. And there are limits and there are all sorts of rules around it. So the president is just plain wrong that that is not a violation of law. Now, this gets us into the fine points about whether the president will be indicted. Im not a lawyer, but i doubt it very much. The remedy here is political. Which is particularly frustrating for somebody like me. I mean, we sort of lose the Forest For The Trees here. Were arguing about whether this particular indictment had to do with conclusion sorry, collusion. Were sort of forgetting the fact that what were talking about here is alleged but credible violation of the law by the president to pay off a porn star and a playmate around an
outside of the completed investigation, and i put emphasis on the word completed, because a day does not go by when my constituents dont ask me whether donald trump is going to stop muellers work, fire mueller, stop that from happening. The president needs, if he believes hes going to be cleared, that investigation to finish sxshs certainly the American People need that to be finished. And congress shouldnt start throwing around the concept of impeachment until we have all the facts. What are the chances, congressman, that republicans, the Majority Members of your committee, the House Intelligence Committee, will bring back Michael Cohen to testify . I dont have to think too hard about that to tell you the chances of that happening are zero. You know, sadly, our investigation was ended by chairman devin nunes. This comes after a year of chairman nunes using that investigation largely or
using the resources of the committee largely to defend the president. And by the way, thats basically his words. There was that tape of him at a fundraiser in california saying that you know, we are all that stands between this president and impeachment or the democrats going after him. So were back to our regular work of oversight of the intelligence community. I dont think well take this up. We democrats continue to try to talk to witnesses because we think that the truth must come out. Of course the Senate Investigation continues. And most importantly, most importantly, of course, bob muellers investigation continues. And as we have seen dramatically yesterday, far from being anything but a witch hunt, it is a very carefully done, competently executed investigation that has produced a lot of results. Michael cohen says the president knew about that Trump Tower Meeting ahead of time. How credible do you think his claim is . Well, you know, i can only
answer that question in a general sense in the way that lanny davis talked about it. I dont know exactly what the president knew or didnt know. Thats why he should go before the Special Counsel for an interview. What i can tell you is what everybody knows, which is that the president is incapable of telling the truth on just about anything. And again, thats not a debatable proposition. There is videotape showing him on all sides of this particular issue. And its interesting. Again, from the political Point Of View, as lanny davis said when you were talking to him, that doesnt seem to matter. To his supporters. And i think his supporters, not just out there but in the United States congress, really need to look themselves in the mirror and say weve got a president of the United States who is a serial liar, who apparently was covering up affairs, violating federal law, whose top people, manafort, gates, flynn, papadopoulos, his two biggest supporters in congress, collins, duncan hunter, are going to
jail, or at least have been indicted. Do i really want to hitch my wagon to that . And i understand the political realities for republicans. Its a scary, scary thing to oppose the president of your own party, certainly going into an election. But youd like to believe that integrity and honor require something other than political calculation. The president today praised Paul Manafort, his former Campaign Chairman who was found guilty yesterday on eight federal counts. The president saying unlike Michael Cohen he refused to break, make up stories in order to get a deal. Such respect for a brave man. Those are the president s words. If the president ial goes ahead and pardons Paul Manafort, what will you do . Well, well have a long conversation that is irrelevant as to whether the president can pardon. Of course the president can pardon. The president has an unconditional right to pardon. However and i would say two
things about it. Number one, a pardon can be part of obstruction of justice, which is a crime. So if the president pardons someone for the purpose of stopping an investigation or interfering with an investigation, that can be a crime. Secondarily, and again, i keep saying this, the remedy to this problem at the end of the day is political. If the president were to start pardoning convicted or admitted felons, all of whom happen to be his guys, you know, whats the difference between the oval office and the mafia . How are americans to think differently about the president than they would from some sort of kleptocratic mafia boss or vladimir putin. I would expect if the president starts pardoning those people who have admitted committing crimes on his behalf, if he cancels the mueller investigation, you are going to see a level of anger in this
country that will have one heck of a lot of political force. Ill just point out to you, i did some research. Sheriff arpaio in arizona, as you know, a close political ally of the president , he was found guilty of criminal contempt on july 31st, 2017. The president issued a pardon of Sheriff Arpaio on august 25th, 2017. Less than a month later. His sentencing had been scheduled for October Of 2017 but he went ahead with the pardon. I wouldnt be surprised, and i want your reaction, honest reaction, if the president does the same thing for Paul Manafort. Well, again, i am not very good at climbing into the president s head and understanding what goes on in there. But i can speak with a little bit of authority on the political repercussions of such a move. Again, if the president starts pardoning people who broke the laws in his service or who were
very closely attached to him and try as the president might, Paul Manafort was his Campaign Chairman. Rick gates was the Vice Chairman of his campaign. If he starts saying that if youre associated with me and youre a criminal youre okay, i think an awful lot of americans are going to realize that thats not the country that we are, thats not the president that we want, that is not a precedent that we want to establish in the country. That is gangsterism. Theres no other way to describe it. And i do think that that will cause a reaction that would be stunning, frankly, in its political impact. Congressman jim himes, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. Just ahead, Michael Cohen once said hed take a bullet for donald trump. Now hes the target of the president s attacks on twitter. So what kind of legal troubles could he make for the president . And does cohen have anything to tell the Special Counsel Robert Mueller . Infection caused by a virus may be possible. Tell your doctor if you have an Infection Experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms, or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio®. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. Entyvio®. Relief and remission within reach. My ci can worry about it,ine. Or do something about it. Garlique® helps maintain healthy cholesterol naturally. And its odor free. And pharmacist recommended. Garlique. ® were following all the Breaking News on the fallout from the Michael Cohen plea deal after the former trump fixer implicated the president of the United States in Campaign Finance crimes. The white house sticking to the mantra that mr. Trump did nothing wrong, even as the president changes his story yet again. Lets bring in our analysts to assess. Joey jackson, the white house says the president did nothing wrong. Those are the words that Sarah Sanders kept saying. I want you to listen today to how the president explained the Hush Money Payments to those two women during an interview with fox news. Listen to this. Later on i knew. Later on. But you have to understand, what he did and they werent taken out of Campaign Finance. Thats a big thing. In fact, my first question when i heard about it was did they come out of the campaign . Because that could be a little dicey. And they didnt come out of the campaign. And thats big. But they werent thats not its not even a campaign violation. All right. So whats your reaction to that . Because so many people, experts have said it is a campaign violation. Whats the president s strategy here . So wolf, its very difficult for me to discern the president s strategy when i dont think he knows what the strategy is. You cannot say one thing on monday, i did know, another thing on tuesday, i didnt know, another thing on wednesday. I could only guess that his strategy is to develop a narrative that fits and comports with his Point Of View and what he thinks the evidence is. Thats not how it goes. Theres something in law called
a prior inconsistent statement. What does that mean . It means you instruct the jury that if someone says Something Different one, two, three, four different times it goes to their inability to tell the truth. And at the end of the day you have to wonder. Its a timing issue with me. Why is he changing his story the day after his fixer was in Court Speaking to the issue of this guy, right . A person for federal office, the president , coordinated and directed me to do something. And so it smacks of perhaps cohen is the reality and has spoken the reality and the president doesnt like that reality sew has to teso he has all the people that follow him Something Different. I think its a loser of a strategy. The president acknowledging yes, he did know about the payments. Is he acknowledging a crime was committed . So the president actually seems to be confused about the law. Hes saying no Campaign Funds were used no, Campaign Funds were used. Well, actually, if campaign
funds were used, that probably wouldnt be a violation of the law assuming they properly reported it to the federal elections commission. The crime here is facilitating a private individual to make a Campaign Contribution in excess of the limit and also facilitating a corporation making a Campaign Donation here. So i think hes actually sort of potentially incriminating himself by what he appears to be mounting as his defense. Beyond that i think we have to acknowledge its just not credible at this point that the president was not aware of this at the time that these payments were made. Michael cohen has now stated this under oath. He has audiotape that appears to corroborate his story. This notion that Michael Cohen was acting on behalf of the president to bind him in these nondisclosure agreements without his knowledge or consent strained belief from the outset. I think at this point were beyond the breaking point. April. April ryan is with us. You were there at the white house today when the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, she kept repeating the words no charges against the president ,
he did nothing wrong. Whats going through your mind as you hear repeatedly time in almost response to every question on this subject she said no charges . Well, whats going through my mind is the fact they had tried to work on a message that they worked since yesterday on. And i wanted to see how, one, how they were handling it. They tried to operate from a stance of strength. But it didnt work so well. Granted, the president is not charged. But this man who was in his inner circle has evidence that could be damaging and damning for the president. And the president could also be named as an unindicted coconspirator in this. And its not just about this. This white house is shaken and in shock from the way im understanding. If you look at the president , how he handle d the ceremony today he was not himself. Trying to operate from a stance of strength. But this isnt it. These tapes and this plea deal, this is not it. Theyve got the issue of june 9th and what happened at trump
tower. Theres more to come. And theyre trying to figure out how to deal with it, trying to get their base to understand, hey, were still good, were still good, when indeed its not. They are in crisis mode. From a legal standpoint, david swerdlick, how worried should the president be right now . Well, i think its evident Fromfrom Thant view with ainsley earhart. I agree with Everything Joey and susan said. But to your point, aprilb the president trying to operate from a position of strength, when he was in that interview its either that he didnt understand the law or that hes counting on the public not to understand what a Campaign Finance violation is. And by saying this money didnt come out of the Campaign Coffers its possible that what hes trying to say is if it didnt come out of the Campaign Coffers why is anybody even making a big deal out of it even though, as you said, susan, what it is is that his campaign gained something of value from these payments. You know, its interesting, joey jackson. Yesterday Michael Cohen, you know, he pleaded guilty to eight felony counts, but paul
manafort, the former trump Campaign Chairman, he was found guilty of eight felony counts, financial crimes, tax evasion, bank fraud. On twitter, though, this morning the president tweeted this. And ill read it to you. I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. Justice and the word justice is in quotes. Took a 12yearold tax case among other thingsa plied tremendous pressure on him and unlike Michael Cohen he refused to break, make up stories in order to get a deal. Such respect for a brave man. It sounds like the president is setting the stage for a pardon. It certainly does. So lets review a couple of things, wolf, to be clear. Number one, lets review our judicial process. We have a jury, and weve talked about how the jury spent so much time deliberating over these 18 counts, coming up with eight. The president is assailing the jury process. Right . Because you have members who served and who focused and paid attention and they reached a conclusion. Not convicting him of everything but convicting him on what they thought was appropriate. Number two, the president is making a reference to now a convicted felon. So this is who you feel bad about, after a jury made a determination about . Number three, what i think the president s doing is sending a signal, a, that certainly hes going to pardon him but any and all of you out there who are unindicted. You will be pardoned, too. I think thats the overall message from what the president said. David, there was a bizarre sound by The Last Night in the Campaign Rally last night, talking about getting a deal with north korea and then he noted that people were complaining it was taking too long. Listen to this. Sure. Can you get this done immediately . I said it doesnt work that way, i dont want to go too fast, the deal wont be good if we do that. We have to gestate. Like when you cook a turkey. My mother would say 8 hours. I said 8 hours . She made the greatest turkey i ever had. So people are wondering what was all that about. Two things going on there. One is the Campaign Rallies serve as an opportunity for the president to throw everything at the kitchen sink, hope theres something for everybody in the crowd, everybody will like at least one thing they hear. If they want to hear about north korea, he is going to talk about it. The other thing, the president likes to portray himself as the ultimate deal maker. Since theres no deal, he has to have a narrative. That narrative is it is cooking, simmering, it is in the background. Wait and see. He was clearly in a fowl mood. All right. Ha. A cyber attack thats frighteningly sophisticated. And as concerns about midterm elections is growing, why has Election Security bill hit a wall in congress . Let someone else do the heavy lifting. Tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. So you barely have to lift a finger. Or a wing. Tripadvisor. You dont see psoriasis. You see clear skin. You see me. But if you saw me before cosentyx. I was covered. It was awful. But i didnt give up. I kept fighting. I got clear skin with cosentyx. 3 years and counting. Clear skin can last. See if cosentyx could make a difference for you. Cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis find clear skin that can last. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting cosentyx,
you should be checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. Or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions may occur. See me now. Im still clear. How sexy are these elbows . Get clear skin that can last. Ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. Hi, kids im carl and im a broker. Do you offer 4. 95 online Equity Trades . Great question. See, for a full Service Brokerage like ours, thats tough to do. Schwab does it. Next question. Do you offer a Satisfaction Guarantee . A what now . A Satisfaction Guarantee. Like schwab does. Man scoffing what are you teaching these kids . Ask your broker if they offer awardwinning full service and low costs, backed by a Satisfaction Guarantee. If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. On the new sleep number 360 smart bed. It senses your movement and automatically adjusts
to keep you both comfortable. And now, all beds are on sale. Save 50 on the new sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus, free home delivery. Ends saturday. From federal agencies. One said his take away is that the russians are quote, still at it to an extent it is unnerving. We learned also today hackers that still are unidentified targeted the dnc in another attempt to gain access to democratic voter files. The democratic partys Voter Database targeted with a sophisticated hacking attempt. A bogus website designed to look just like the access page used by democratic officials and campaigns across the country. A socalled speer phishing attack, trying to get them to use that fake page to get user names and passwords. The dnc told cnn it doesnt think the plot was successful, is investigating who is behind the attempted attack. We know theyre attempting to manipulate us through a variety of means. So any attack on a Political Party or campaign is important for us all to take seriously. Reporter with fewer than three months before midterm elections, the department of Homeland Security gave a rare look at the nerve center where it monitors the countrys critical infrastructure, including elections. The room filled with members of different federal agencies and the private sector who would coordinate responses during an emergency. Every day we get new reminders the threat to our democracy and election is real and it is not unfortunately going away. Reporter this as facebook announced removal of over 650 pages linked to iranian and russian state actors. Global Disinformation Campaigns targeting the middle east, latin america, uk and the u. S. That reached 1 million people. In many cases, accounts linked to Iranian State media, posting o propalestinian, antibrexit, antitrump memes. Among other things. Twitter kicking almost 300 accounts off its platform from
iran, emerging cyber threat. This week, microsoft uncovered evidence of a new russian hack, announcing it had taken control of six Phony Speer Phishing Websites created by hackers, backed by Russian Military intelligence. The sites targeting the u. S. Senate and two conservative think tanks critical of russia. Theres no doubt they were responsible for these six sites. Theres no doubt they were responsible for really the most serious attacks in 2016 and the attacks we saw in france in the president ial election there last year. Reporter they were from the same group of hackers known as fancy bear behind the attack on the 2016 president ial election, indicted by the Special Counsel investigation. Microsoft said the most recent attempted attack on the conservative think tanks is evidence of Russia Broadening attacks. While Big Tech Companies like facebook, twitter, microsoft are getting praise for recent actions, one group that isnt is
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.