He will actually appear in Court Next Week on december 12. Charles . Charles david lee miller, thanks. Michael cohen not cooperating the way we thought he was. The five starts now. Hello, everybody. 5 oclock in New York City and this is the five. Fox news alert. We are monitoring 3 huge news stories. Prosecutors made their bombshell filing in the case against extrump lawyer Michael Cohen recommending substantial prison time. We are awaiting specials Robert Muellers memos on Paul Manafort after james comey just finished speaking to reporters following his closed door testimony to the
house judiciary and oversight committees. Chief intelligence Correspondent Catherine will break it all down. A lot of Breaking News in the last halfhour. One step at a time. On the filing for Michael Cohen, the recommendation is substantial jail time and a fine of 500,000. I want to read about the payments to women on behalf of donald trump. They said Cohen Aranged for the payment through a Media Company and disguised it as a contract. After the election, he arranged for his own reimbursement by a
fraudulent invoice. It continues. This was not a blind act of loyalty as cohen suggested. His actions suggest that cohen relished the status of a fixer, a role he embraced as recently as may of 2018. The argument they are making is that he is not cooperating to the extent that they had wished. They are also making the argument that the fraud was a very deep and complex fraud and a fraud that was perpetrated over a lengthy period of time. We are waiting for another filing from the Special Counsel for sentencing for Michael Cohen and another filing here in washington on the issue of the former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. Manafort cut a Plea Agreement with the Special Counsel. Prosecutors allege he broke the agreement and was not truthful. This is a point he disputes. All of this is happening on the same day we have an extraordinary and unprecedented situation on capitol hill when a former fbi director was under subpoena and came up and testified Behind Closed Doors for 6 hours. We anticipate a transcript could be released as early as tomorrow. The key thing here is that the director comey will come back in a couple of weeks. Republicans made the case that he did not directly answer their questions. There is a dispute over why the republicans say a Government Lawyer was shutting down their lines of questioning. Democrats say this was very legitimate because of the ongoing investigation. The first piece of sound from the former director. The republicans came out and said the Government Lawyers ran
interference and shutdown specific lines of questioning. Did that happen and what topics were not discussed . When you read the transcript, i think you will not see that happening. In addition, fox news was able to ask him a question about the antitrump dossier. The Research Funded by the dnc and the clinton campaign. If you look at the surveillance warrant paperwork, you can see from the redactions this is a significant element of the surveillance application. Just a few weeks before the president ial election for Trump Campaign aide carter page. Republicans alleged that this was not credible information, that it should never have made it into the surveillance warrant application. We put that issue to comey also. I have total confidence that the fisa process was followed
and the entire case was handled in a thoughtful and responsible way by the doj and the fbi. The notion that fisa was abused is nonsense. How do you think Robert Muellers investigation is going . I see it proceeding quickly and professionally. The most important indication if you dont anything about it until he files something in court and thats the way it should be. You cant emphasize enough how extraordinary the session was on capitol hill to have a former fbi director under oath for a transcribed interview. On the way out of the session the republicans said they would speak publicly but only after the transcript is released. Folks at home can read the transcript and decide whether the former director was forthcoming about the clinton
emails investigation and the trump russian Collusion Investigation or whether there was unfair interference by a Government Lawyer to shutdown the lines of inquiry. Thank you very much. Stick around. We will bring you back in a little bit. We want to bring in special reports bret baier to discuss some of the issues surrounding Michael Cohen. Welcome to the five. They recommend prison time for Michael Cohen. The range was around 5 years. Was that 5 year recommendation, was that strictly based on a Campaign Finance violation . Or are there more things that got cohen in trouble . Its a long list. There are 2 different recommendations. One is from the Southern District of new york dealing with all of the charges that deal with payments and the
operation with the Trump Organization. And then the second filing is from the mueller special Counsel Office. They suggest that he cooperated more than the Southern District of new york does. They recommend a lighter sentence. Then you have the other filing that is coming out which we have not seen yet. Thats the manafort filing. Going back to the Southern District of new york. They detailed the cooperation and say it was not as great as everybody thought. They are recommending this substantial sentence. Cohens criminal violation of Election Laws were stirred by his own ambittion and greed. He expected to be given a prominent role in the new administration. When that did not materialize, he found a way to monettize his
relationship and he made more than 4 million before contract were terminated. They say that cohen had monthly invoices he sent to the Trump Organization for 35,000 payments indicating they were sent as a retainer. These are the pavements to pay off some of the women that we have talked about and their allegations. Its curious to see what the president s exposure here will be. Considering this happened before he became president. Kennedy . Hi. There was one aspect of the filing that said in some of Michael Cohens text messages, he expected a plum role in the administration. I wonder if his narcissism were
repellent to Special Counsel. Yeah, it seems like that. At least the Southern District of new york. We are looking at the mueller filing, kennedy. This is separate. We have three things going in addition to comey testifying. The Southern District of new york, and the Special Counsel details and the Special Counsel on manafort and why they think he is lying to them. Mueller contends that comey lied to congress and the trump tower deal could have made his Company Hundreds of Million Dollars from russian sources. The thought of a Trump Tower In Moscow. Cohen alleging that he lied to congress saying this project was in the works and continued to go and be talked about. Are they intimating that the project was illegal . No, they just said he lied
about it before congress. That it was still going forward. You get to the heart of the matter here. This is what the president has tweeted about. Is it legal or is it not . He was a businessman looking for opportunities . Did he do something illegal by talking to a project . Where the complication comes is how it strings together with the other russia part of the investigation. We dont see yet in this document that detail of where the Mueller Probe is heading on that front. Again, i have not seen the manafort document yet. All right. Bret, put the cohen filing into context of Everything Else that happened this week and the manafort filing which we are waiting for. We had the Flynn Sentencing Memo. He was cooperating on three separate investigations. Now the cohen memo. And we are waiting for manafort. Put that in context for the kind of week the president is looking at on the Special Counsel . I dont think we know yet. I think the flynn filing, if you listen to people who really covered this closely like michael and others who say people are reading too much into it. You dont know what is behind the redactions. Its possible they could be involved in other crimes dealing with other people and other lobbyists. Again, we dont know on that front. As far as these fileings, the most damning thing so far is the payments. Ings, the most damning thing so far is the payments. Whether you character those as a Campaign Finance investigation. Russian collusion i have shifted through 40 pages and i have not
seen anything along those lines. I feel like the news just threw up on me. [laughing]. I am trying. What you just said is the key thing. This was supposed to be about Something Else which was this mythical beast which was collusion. Instead we have these complications and these documents and these details and we dont know what is legal or illegal. For the media this will feel like christmas. Yeah. Campaign finance violations there are legitimate concerns. There are laws, obviously. If you are talking about substantial evident of collusion with russia. So far i am not seeing anything that references that. Lets see what the manafort filing says. You are right, greg, its been a lot of talk about what could possibly come. Like its an exciting moment. So far this is like chinese food for those folks. They may want to have a little bit more food because they dont have enough information here. Does that make sense . Yes, it does. A quick question for bret baier . I do. Can you explain to us more, resign to run laws are not applicable in the private sector. We wanted to talk about the collusion. We didnt get that. For folks getting worked up over Campaign Finance issues, resign to run laws dont apply to the private sector, why would cohen lie about the potential relationship other than it may open up the president s campaign to black mail . That doesnt mean it would happen. Its things that may not happen. Is it just a media tactic . I dont know if we can get to his motivation for lying about
it. The campaign had been asked about ties to russia and there have been denials from the candidates. After that, it seemed like it had all finished. The Trump Tower Plan had gone further than anybody thought it was if you believe cohens testimony the second time to the essentials. Special counsel. The legality, you are right. Its legal. He was a businessman at the time. How it fits into his answers about his dealings with russia later after he gets elected, i think thats what everybody is hanging their hat on. Bret, thank you very much. We will catch you at 6 oclock. Special report with bret baier a big hour. John roberts from the white house. What is the reaction down there . Well, we have not gotten new
reaction to the Sentencing Memo that muellers office put out. President trump suggested that Michael Cohen lied to try to get a lenient sentence and that Michael Cohen deserves a long sentence. It looks like that is what he is going to get. The office of Special Counsel recommending a modest reduction from the guidelines, 51 to 63 months. Its interesting, too, its almost in a mocking tone that the Special Counsels office goes after Michael Cohens request for no jail time saying the effect on his family and loss of law license is punishment enough and he should be credited time served and not go to jail at all. The special Counsel Office said well, thats not the case. Your crimes were substantial and you deserve to go to jail for
sometime. If we hear something from the president or his legal team i reached out to Rudy Giuliani. He said something about the Michael Cohen guilty plea a short time ago. I think we will hear that cohen is getting what the president s legal team believe he deserves. Since the payment to stormy and other women. They were not out of the campaign. They were made by donald trump the citizen at the time. Can he argue that this was not campaignrelated and therefore its not a Campaign Expenditure . This is something he was doing to protect his personal life. People spend a lot of money. Just because it happened right before the election doesnt make it necessarily related to the election and necessitate an sec filing. The great thing about theUnited States you can argue anything you want. Whether or not it flies is another question. This is an argument that the president has made. This was a personal matter. It wasnt a campaign donation. The u. S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of new york and the District Judge there beg to differ, to say this was antifa an Illegal Campaign contribution on Michael Cohens part and said the president had knowledge and was cooperateing in the efforts to silence Karen Mcdougal and stormy daniels. Whether or not this could be tied to the president , i think is a matter of some debate. There is the Justice Department memo from the 1990s that said a sitting president cant be indicted. But they suggested that the president knew all about this. Regardless of what he might
argue, this constitutes an Illegal Campaign do nation and making false statements about it, Michael Cohen deserves time behind bars. One document we got from the Southern District ever new york, it outlines the instances that Michael Cohen provided to the Special Counsel. Hes been in many hours of interviews with the Special Counsel. It doesnt give details but talks about Michael Cohen give information about certain Russian Nationals who were reaching out to the campaign and have synergy with the campaign. Not a lot of details about the russian aspect but bread crumbs. What do you expect the white house to say about this filing today . We have not gotten anything from the white house first of all or from the president s
outside legal team Rudy Giuliani. If we hear something from Sarah Sanders i think they would say there is no evidence of collusion here that is demonstrated. Michael cohen maybe talked about contacts with russians but no evidence of collusion. Thats been their story all along and a story they are sticking to. What might be more interesting to see than the Michael CohenSentencing Memorandum and attacked addendum is what comes out in the Manafort Case and if thats as heavily redacted aside the Michael Cohen one was. That might have more information about collusion and the Trump Campaign and russians in terms of trying to influence the outcome of the election. The mantra all along from the white house from the Trump Campaign and president s legal team there is no evidence in anything we have seen so far of collusion between the trump
campaign and russia to throw the election. Thank you very much. Alan dershowitz. Harvard law professor who is following this closely. You have seen the memorandum and the filing on cohen. What jumps out at you specifically . There are two possibilities. One that cohen hasnt provided much. Or two, by recommending a harsh sentence, they are putting more pressure on cohen maybe to come up with even more information because the government has the power to get