Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20180417 : comparemela.co

Nothing political. Other kids in springfield are sobs. That kind of lapping wage has no place on or off tv and thats my two cents. I dont know all those sobs. What the. Yeah. Good morning, everyone, its tuesday, april 17th. Welcome to morning joe. With us we have National Affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc. How was the circus yesterday. Oh, boy. Sometimes its a metaphor and sometimes its literal. Yesterday it was literal. We were talk, tom wolf volunteer wo have been embarrassed to lay it out. You had the president , the president s lawyers, you had cymbal woods, you had the porn star. Stormy. You had the press conference on the steps, and then hannity. Hannity. If tom wolf had passed this by his wife when he was writing bonfire too much. He lets not do that. It was a great Old Fashioned new york city legal political tabloid maihem scene. And just to inject sean hannity what was going to be circus environment, stick sean hannity in that, all over the place. This was right here, daily news. Ka boom. Okay. Theres that. He says it was just little, and he didnt need to mention it. Steve radnors here, msnbc legal analyst danny sa vol lis joins us as well and jonathan materially. He says he didnt have to mention that mention it despite the fact he had gone on earlier this week savaging the ra raid on mike cal cohens offices. I dont know how you get around that its completely staggering dishonest with his viewers, with i mean, look, how you can cover the story and not say youre a part of it. Willie, what do you think . I would fire someone who did that on my network. Go ahead. Of course theres no question it should have been disclosed. With that said i find thune surprising completely. I think theres an assumption that sean hannity is working and in glove with the president of the United States. He has dinner at the white house, dinner at maralago. He said outloud i want him to be president of the United States during the campaign. Its not like a journalist whos covering the story has not disclosed that hes for sean hannity. He should have said it, you of course. But im saying no one can be surprised that sean hannity is perhaps in bed with donald trump. Right. Lets say it was a massive, massive law office and he used a separate attorney. But how many clients does Michael Cohen have . Three. Three, oh. And two of them are men who were looking at payoffs to women and the third shan knitty. The only thing only thing. Do you not disclose this . The difference between knowing that sean hannity was a huge trump fan and has been an apologist for him and been a pit paul fall for him nonstop and is proud of that, thats far different than him being part of a story, john, that nobody knows hes part. Were going a little light on mr. Hannity here. Documents that were seized in the raid last week are documents that almost inevitably involve correspondence between mr. Cohen and his client mr. Hannity. So last week when he was complaining about this being a politically motivated witch hunt and how inappropriate and ridiculous it was, do not disclose that you were actually a participant, you were involved in this. Youre explainicomplaining abou document that affects you because audio recordings of him and Michael Cohen were the things that were raid. Its not commented on it that way its just an outrageous violation of journalistic we dont know the exact timing when he had his consultations with mr. Cohen. But why if you were immersed in all these president ial shenanigans and all this stuff would you go to the lawyer . There are a million lawyers in new york. Why would you go to the one thats the president s lawyer. If you talk to trump every day and he says i have a good lawyer zblour i kn i dont know. It is such a small deal, oh, its a small deal. Right. In fact, he actually said i never even gave him a dime. So there really wasnt even Attorney Client privilege so i guess why not mention it . Theres nothing to theres nothing to be protected. So he now seems to be like he would be stopped from going back to the court saying you have to protect our communications because he said theres no Attorney Client privilege there, i never gave him a dime. With that said, if it wasnt a big deal, then you should have told your viewers. Hey, its not a big deal, ive talked to him for legal advice myself. B but this raid is still wrong. Never giving him a dime Means Nothing in trump world because theres tons of favors being done and fixes being done, and thats what weve learned about Michael Cohen. Michael cohen is not a real estate lawyer and there are plenty of Real Estate Lawyers in new york. And just to be clear, im not going light on sean hannity, he should have disclosed that of course. But is anyone on the panel surprised by this news anyway . Im a little surprised. Im not surprised that Shawn Hannity is close to people that Donald Trumps close to. Did not disclose. I think it is the case that Attorney Client privilege can add to a relationship where a lawyer where no money changes hands. If youre going to decide youre going to represent me. It is. Sean hannity said i never gave you money, he wasnt even my lawyer, i just talked to him then suddenly youre youre actually on that line. So, again, to my second point then. This is not the the context for this was cohens attorneys were saying they fought for days to not have this name disclosed. They claimed that Michael Cohen this three big clients. So the notion that sean hannity is saying i asked him for a couple pieces of legal advice at a Backyard Barbecue. Tell us. If thats not a big deal, why are they fighting in court over in front of a federal judge against a Southern Districts prosecutors. Someones lying. In fact sean hannity had very little contact with him and hes blowing it up, or hannity is lying about the extent of relationship. But they made a big deal out of this. If it wasnt a big deal they shouldnt have made it a big deal. How did it play out in court . It played out between kpan tended colloquy between judge wood and cohens attorneys saying were trying to figure out whether Attorney Client privilege pertains to these documents and how to figure that out. But she was saying you need disclose who this clients name is and they went on saying we shouldnt have to do that, we dont want to do it can we give it to you in a sealed document and envelope . The reason it was so dramatic in court was because it came tend of 20 minutes of argumentative back and forth in which it seems that cohens attorneys were ready to lay themselves down on the Railroad Tracks to stop the disclosure of this name. Why . And they did maintain at one point that they were not just representing Michael Cohens interest but they were doing it on behalf of the client. Hannity said yesterday dint want him do this. But somebodys lying because they made a big deal about trying to keep this secret and they were basically order and forced in court to disclose the name. Why were they so desperate to keep his name out of the public. Leer by the way is how the sean hannity disclosure played out live on fox news. Inned its proceedings that are under way right now, steven ryan, one of cohens attorneys was asked by the judge to specifically name the other name because they said it would not fall under Attorney Client privilege to withhold that name. And he stoold stod up and name sean hannity. Of course for us the elephant in the room for the moment is that sean hannity is said to be a third client of Michael Cohen. Theres a statement at the Hollywood Reporter from hahn knit that i says weve been friends for a long time, he did some legal work for me. Hannitys producers are looking to contact him, well report on it when we know the rest of it. A lot of people here know his number so well get on that in just a second. Wow, the reporter wanted to move on quickly. She dp did not want to. My god, how awkward. The only reason why his identity was revealed was because of trumps and cohens request to review the material seized in last weeks raid. As for that, yesterday the judge denied the president s motion to temporarily block prosecutors from reviewing the material, however, she did not rule out the possibility of using a taint team or special master to determine which of the seized evidence is protected by Attorney Client privilege. Judge cymbal wood said, quote, i have faith in the Southern District attorneys office. Their integrity is unimpeachable. A think a taint team is a viable option. She asked all of the lawyers to reconvene for the best course of action after they have finished seegs documents from cohen. Sitting right behind conin court is porn star Stormy Daniels who is suing to be released from the noun u nondisclosure agreement he arranged. She walked into court surrounded by photographers literally tripping over each other. What a circus in the courted it. In terms of stormy. You were in the middle of that. Tell us about it. I mean, it was a scene and, you know, its funny. Watching this case play out from a distance over the course of the Stormy Daniels case that is, you have to see it through the way its mediated from the eyes of the press. Shes become less than the global sensation put walk around with michael whos going to be on the show later today, hes become a famous super lawyer in the vein of some of the people who were in the o. J. Simpson case and the spres obsessioned with her. And when she came ought to do her statement, basically the scrum of 400 reporters and camera men or whatever it was, they were there to see her, they were not there to even see Michael Cohen or the lawyers, they wanted to hear Stormy Daniels speak and shes got to be one of the most famous women in the world right now. She is. Jonathan, it may seem strange to express any concerns. Let me be, as always, the difficult one here. To be concerned about constitutional norms and the rule of law and whether it was applied fairly to a man who spends an hour every night doing whatever he can to, i think, undermine constitutional norms and the rule of law in his defense of donald trump and his slandering of Robert Mueller. But, i just cant help i cant help but be concerned by the fact that this Robert Mueller investigation which started with collusion just like bill clintons investigation started with a failed land deal has now spiraled out of control and all were talking about are playboy bunnies and porn stars and relationships with other women, something that all of america knew before donald trump was elected and possible payoffs, which is not illegal in and of itself. And were seeing, at least arkansas as a lawyeas a lawyer, not a good lawyer but a lawyer all the same, we see a seizing of attorneys files and for some reason Sean Hannitys name being revealed when it seems to me a judge could have very easily take ten in chambers and said here are your three clients and then figured out how to sort it out there. I understand that sean hannity has acted in such a loathsome manner that there are few people that have any sympathy for him whatsoever. That said, thats why we are given constitutional protection, that even the most loathsome among us are protected from a sort of mob mentality here. What could the court have not done this differently . Well, ive always been very critical of this rule. What cymbal woods was on good ground when she said that she could require that the name be disclose dollars. Theres a case called vengali in the Second Circuit that says the name of the client itself is not protected by Attorney Client privilege. Thats the thing ive always objected to because i believe people should be able to have confidentiality including sean hannity when they contact an attorney. Theres theresan exception under this dhas says if the disclosure of the attorneys name would be tantamount to the disclosure of a communication it is protected. And judge wood was really sort of probing that and coned you load i dont that really the disclosure of the third name does not appear to be raising some confidential communication. Right. Thats what i think is very unfortunate, because many people want to talk to attorneys and the fact that he spoke to an attorney does put them at risk or embarrasses them. If you allow this rule to be applied as it has, not just by judge wood but other judges, people are reluctant to talk to attorneys if this could come out. And by the way youve guchb an example before. You go to a certain attorney and that attorney lets say that someone whos a Financial Adviser go to a bankruptcy attorney for whatever reasons, he o she should be able to do that. Or a divorce attorney. Yeah. Some attorneys only do divorce and so if you spoke to them, thats probably the subject matter. Okay, lets move on to the other question i have. Just overall, whats it is a about this investigation . And, again, nobody knows what Robert Mueller is doing right now because he runs a very, very tight ship. But just as far as the prwise, it seems were a long, long way from the Russian Ambassador whispering sweet nogs to Jarrod Kushner in the transition or Jared Kushner going to banks or donald trump trying to get him to help russians win him wisconsin. We started talking about collusion and then rightly hes investigating obstruction of justice. How did this spin so wildly out of control that over the past month all weve been talking about are porn stars and playboy bunnies . Unfortunately, this is much of the doing of the Trump Legal Team specifically Michael Cohen. He made the every possible wrong move. He allowed this case to metastasize. He could have avoided this. There is no good news coming out of new york for the president. The only good news sat least the judge said someone was unimpeachable but unfortunately that was the prosecutors. The district of new york prosecutors, exactly. So that doesnt work out as well as you had hoped. So what youre saying is that donald trump, which weve accused him of one selfinflicted wound after another politically, youre saying the same thing has happened legally that, in fact theyre find themselves in this position, not because of Robert Mueller, not because of the Southern District of new york, but because of one selfinflicted wound after another by Donald Trumps legal team . Yeah. And specifically Michael Cohen. Its really ironic that much of this hearing was the question of Attorney Client privilege because weve all still been debating what Michael Cohen is. Many of us still do not know whether he was acting as an attorney for trump in things like the Stormy Daniels case. So this could not be a more telling moment for Michael Cohen. Now, putting that aside, you dont have to be a good lawyer to be a lawyer. And so, you know, he has grounds to say i am the attorney for obviously President Trump and also for sean hannity put also dont have to accept money in order to trigger an Attorney Client conversation. So all of that hes on good ground. But he obviously has now lost the ability to retain some of this information. You know, the use of these filter teams or taint teams have long been controversial and youre right, joe, this should be a concern for people. This is a serious matter when Attorney Client material is handed to the department of justice and they make the determination of whats privileged. And in answer to your first question, i think it would have been much better to be able to have done what cohens lawyers asked for, that is to give the third name to the court under seal. I dont understand why courts dont do that more often. The court could have looked at that and said im going to give these names to the filter team or the magistrate, lets separate out all the material that deal with these three names, set it aside. Right. And then take that first group and you can go ahead and proceed with that and then well fight over the second group. It seemed gratuitous that Sean Hannitys name was thrown out there. I was going to say, it seems gratuitous and, again, it made a lot of headlines, you got a lot of people talking, but its something that the judge could have said, come on, lets take it in chambers, well see who the third client is and if theres a public need to know, thats fine. But if were gijust embarrassin third client were not going to do it. The reason they were in court is because of the president of the United States tried to say this raid has happened, the search warrants were granted, all this stuff was taken, now they have to figure out whats covered by the prif lanl and what privilege and whats not. The position was not that the prosecutors or the Justice Department of the National Affairs<\/a> analyst for nbc news and msnbc. How was the circus yesterday. Oh, boy. Sometimes its a metaphor and sometimes its literal. Yesterday it was literal. We were talk, tom wolf volunteer wo have been embarrassed to lay it out. You had the president , the president s lawyers, you had cymbal woods, you had the porn star. Stormy. You had the press conference on the steps, and then hannity. Hannity. If tom wolf had passed this by his wife when he was writing bonfire too much. He lets not do that. It was a great Old Fashioned<\/a> new york city legal political tabloid maihem scene. And just to inject sean hannity what was going to be circus environment, stick sean hannity in that, all over the place. This was right here, daily news. Ka boom. Okay. Theres that. He says it was just little, and he didnt need to mention it. Steve radnors here, msnbc legal analyst danny sa vol lis joins us as well and jonathan materially. He says he didnt have to mention that mention it despite the fact he had gone on earlier this week savaging the ra raid on mike cal cohens offices. I dont know how you get around that its completely staggering dishonest with his viewers, with i mean, look, how you can cover the story and not say youre a part of it. Willie, what do you think . I would fire someone who did that on my network. Go ahead. Of course theres no question it should have been disclosed. With that said i find thune surprising completely. I think theres an assumption that sean hannity is working and in glove with the president of the United States<\/a>. He has dinner at the white house, dinner at maralago. He said outloud i want him to be president of the United States<\/a> during the campaign. Its not like a journalist whos covering the story has not disclosed that hes for sean hannity. He should have said it, you of course. But im saying no one can be surprised that sean hannity is perhaps in bed with donald trump. Right. Lets say it was a massive, massive law office and he used a separate attorney. But how many clients does Michael Cohen<\/a> have . Three. Three, oh. And two of them are men who were looking at payoffs to women and the third shan knitty. The only thing only thing. Do you not disclose this . The difference between knowing that sean hannity was a huge trump fan and has been an apologist for him and been a pit paul fall for him nonstop and is proud of that, thats far different than him being part of a story, john, that nobody knows hes part. Were going a little light on mr. Hannity here. Documents that were seized in the raid last week are documents that almost inevitably involve correspondence between mr. Cohen and his client mr. Hannity. So last week when he was complaining about this being a politically motivated witch hunt and how inappropriate and ridiculous it was, do not disclose that you were actually a participant, you were involved in this. Youre explainicomplaining abou document that affects you because audio recordings of him and Michael Cohen<\/a> were the things that were raid. Its not commented on it that way its just an outrageous violation of journalistic we dont know the exact timing when he had his consultations with mr. Cohen. But why if you were immersed in all these president ial shenanigans and all this stuff would you go to the lawyer . There are a million lawyers in new york. Why would you go to the one thats the president s lawyer. If you talk to trump every day and he says i have a good lawyer zblour i kn i dont know. It is such a small deal, oh, its a small deal. Right. In fact, he actually said i never even gave him a dime. So there really wasnt even Attorney Client<\/a> privilege so i guess why not mention it . Theres nothing to theres nothing to be protected. So he now seems to be like he would be stopped from going back to the court saying you have to protect our communications because he said theres no Attorney Client<\/a> privilege there, i never gave him a dime. With that said, if it wasnt a big deal, then you should have told your viewers. Hey, its not a big deal, ive talked to him for legal advice myself. B but this raid is still wrong. Never giving him a dime Means Nothing<\/a> in trump world because theres tons of favors being done and fixes being done, and thats what weve learned about Michael Cohen<\/a>. Michael cohen is not a real estate lawyer and there are plenty of Real Estate Lawyers<\/a> in new york. And just to be clear, im not going light on sean hannity, he should have disclosed that of course. But is anyone on the panel surprised by this news anyway . Im a little surprised. Im not surprised that Shawn Hannity<\/a> is close to people that Donald Trumps<\/a> close to. Did not disclose. I think it is the case that Attorney Client<\/a> privilege can add to a relationship where a lawyer where no money changes hands. If youre going to decide youre going to represent me. It is. Sean hannity said i never gave you money, he wasnt even my lawyer, i just talked to him then suddenly youre youre actually on that line. So, again, to my second point then. This is not the the context for this was cohens attorneys were saying they fought for days to not have this name disclosed. They claimed that Michael Cohen<\/a> this three big clients. So the notion that sean hannity is saying i asked him for a couple pieces of legal advice at a Backyard Barbecue<\/a>. Tell us. If thats not a big deal, why are they fighting in court over in front of a federal judge against a Southern District<\/a>s prosecutors. Someones lying. In fact sean hannity had very little contact with him and hes blowing it up, or hannity is lying about the extent of relationship. But they made a big deal out of this. If it wasnt a big deal they shouldnt have made it a big deal. How did it play out in court . It played out between kpan tended colloquy between judge wood and cohens attorneys saying were trying to figure out whether Attorney Client<\/a> privilege pertains to these documents and how to figure that out. But she was saying you need disclose who this clients name is and they went on saying we shouldnt have to do that, we dont want to do it can we give it to you in a sealed document and envelope . The reason it was so dramatic in court was because it came tend of 20 minutes of argumentative back and forth in which it seems that cohens attorneys were ready to lay themselves down on the Railroad Tracks<\/a> to stop the disclosure of this name. Why . And they did maintain at one point that they were not just representing Michael Cohen<\/a>s interest but they were doing it on behalf of the client. Hannity said yesterday dint want him do this. But somebodys lying because they made a big deal about trying to keep this secret and they were basically order and forced in court to disclose the name. Why were they so desperate to keep his name out of the public. Leer by the way is how the sean hannity disclosure played out live on fox news. Inned its proceedings that are under way right now, steven ryan, one of cohens attorneys was asked by the judge to specifically name the other name because they said it would not fall under Attorney Client<\/a> privilege to withhold that name. And he stoold stod up and name sean hannity. Of course for us the elephant in the room for the moment is that sean hannity is said to be a third client of Michael Cohen<\/a>. Theres a statement at the Hollywood Reporter<\/a> from hahn knit that i says weve been friends for a long time, he did some legal work for me. Hannitys producers are looking to contact him, well report on it when we know the rest of it. A lot of people here know his number so well get on that in just a second. Wow, the reporter wanted to move on quickly. She dp did not want to. My god, how awkward. The only reason why his identity was revealed was because of trumps and cohens request to review the material seized in last weeks raid. As for that, yesterday the judge denied the president s motion to temporarily block prosecutors from reviewing the material, however, she did not rule out the possibility of using a taint team or special master to determine which of the seized evidence is protected by Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. Judge cymbal wood said, quote, i have faith in the Southern District<\/a> attorneys office. Their integrity is unimpeachable. A think a taint team is a viable option. She asked all of the lawyers to reconvene for the best course of action after they have finished seegs documents from cohen. Sitting right behind conin court is porn star Stormy Daniels<\/a> who is suing to be released from the noun u nondisclosure agreement he arranged. She walked into court surrounded by photographers literally tripping over each other. What a circus in the courted it. In terms of stormy. You were in the middle of that. Tell us about it. I mean, it was a scene and, you know, its funny. Watching this case play out from a distance over the course of the Stormy Daniels<\/a> case that is, you have to see it through the way its mediated from the eyes of the press. Shes become less than the global sensation put walk around with michael whos going to be on the show later today, hes become a famous super lawyer in the vein of some of the people who were in the o. J. Simpson case and the spres obsessioned with her. And when she came ought to do her statement, basically the scrum of 400 reporters and camera men or whatever it was, they were there to see her, they were not there to even see Michael Cohen<\/a> or the lawyers, they wanted to hear Stormy Daniels<\/a> speak and shes got to be one of the most famous women in the world right now. She is. Jonathan, it may seem strange to express any concerns. Let me be, as always, the difficult one here. To be concerned about constitutional norms and the rule of law and whether it was applied fairly to a man who spends an hour every night doing whatever he can to, i think, undermine constitutional norms and the rule of law in his defense of donald trump and his slandering of Robert Mueller<\/a>. But, i just cant help i cant help but be concerned by the fact that this Robert Mueller<\/a> investigation which started with collusion just like bill clintons investigation started with a failed land deal has now spiraled out of control and all were talking about are playboy bunnies and porn stars and relationships with other women, something that all of america knew before donald trump was elected and possible payoffs, which is not illegal in and of itself. And were seeing, at least arkansas as a lawyeas a lawyer, not a good lawyer but a lawyer all the same, we see a seizing of attorneys files and for some reason Sean Hannitys<\/a> name being revealed when it seems to me a judge could have very easily take ten in chambers and said here are your three clients and then figured out how to sort it out there. I understand that sean hannity has acted in such a loathsome manner that there are few people that have any sympathy for him whatsoever. That said, thats why we are given constitutional protection, that even the most loathsome among us are protected from a sort of mob mentality here. What could the court have not done this differently . Well, ive always been very critical of this rule. What cymbal woods was on good ground when she said that she could require that the name be disclose dollars. Theres a case called vengali in the Second Circuit<\/a> that says the name of the client itself is not protected by Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. Thats the thing ive always objected to because i believe people should be able to have confidentiality including sean hannity when they contact an attorney. Theres theresan exception under this dhas says if the disclosure of the attorneys name would be tantamount to the disclosure of a communication it is protected. And judge wood was really sort of probing that and coned you load i dont that really the disclosure of the third name does not appear to be raising some confidential communication. Right. Thats what i think is very unfortunate, because many people want to talk to attorneys and the fact that he spoke to an attorney does put them at risk or embarrasses them. If you allow this rule to be applied as it has, not just by judge wood but other judges, people are reluctant to talk to attorneys if this could come out. And by the way youve guchb an example before. You go to a certain attorney and that attorney lets say that someone whos a Financial Adviser<\/a> go to a bankruptcy attorney for whatever reasons, he o she should be able to do that. Or a divorce attorney. Yeah. Some attorneys only do divorce and so if you spoke to them, thats probably the subject matter. Okay, lets move on to the other question i have. Just overall, whats it is a about this investigation . And, again, nobody knows what Robert Mueller<\/a> is doing right now because he runs a very, very tight ship. But just as far as the prwise, it seems were a long, long way from the Russian Ambassador<\/a> whispering sweet nogs to Jarrod Kushner<\/a> in the transition or Jared Kushner<\/a> going to banks or donald trump trying to get him to help russians win him wisconsin. We started talking about collusion and then rightly hes investigating obstruction of justice. How did this spin so wildly out of control that over the past month all weve been talking about are porn stars and playboy bunnies . Unfortunately, this is much of the doing of the Trump Legal Team<\/a> specifically Michael Cohen<\/a>. He made the every possible wrong move. He allowed this case to metastasize. He could have avoided this. There is no good news coming out of new york for the president. The only good news sat least the judge said someone was unimpeachable but unfortunately that was the prosecutors. The district of new york prosecutors, exactly. So that doesnt work out as well as you had hoped. So what youre saying is that donald trump, which weve accused him of one selfinflicted wound after another politically, youre saying the same thing has happened legally that, in fact theyre find themselves in this position, not because of Robert Mueller<\/a>, not because of the Southern District<\/a> of new york, but because of one selfinflicted wound after another by Donald Trumps<\/a> legal team . Yeah. And specifically Michael Cohen<\/a>. Its really ironic that much of this hearing was the question of Attorney Client<\/a> privilege because weve all still been debating what Michael Cohen<\/a> is. Many of us still do not know whether he was acting as an attorney for trump in things like the Stormy Daniels<\/a> case. So this could not be a more telling moment for Michael Cohen<\/a>. Now, putting that aside, you dont have to be a good lawyer to be a lawyer. And so, you know, he has grounds to say i am the attorney for obviously President Trump<\/a> and also for sean hannity put also dont have to accept money in order to trigger an Attorney Client<\/a> conversation. So all of that hes on good ground. But he obviously has now lost the ability to retain some of this information. You know, the use of these filter teams or taint teams have long been controversial and youre right, joe, this should be a concern for people. This is a serious matter when Attorney Client<\/a> material is handed to the department of justice and they make the determination of whats privileged. And in answer to your first question, i think it would have been much better to be able to have done what cohens lawyers asked for, that is to give the third name to the court under seal. I dont understand why courts dont do that more often. The court could have looked at that and said im going to give these names to the filter team or the magistrate, lets separate out all the material that deal with these three names, set it aside. Right. And then take that first group and you can go ahead and proceed with that and then well fight over the second group. It seemed gratuitous that Sean Hannitys<\/a> name was thrown out there. I was going to say, it seems gratuitous and, again, it made a lot of headlines, you got a lot of people talking, but its something that the judge could have said, come on, lets take it in chambers, well see who the third client is and if theres a public need to know, thats fine. But if were gijust embarrassin third client were not going to do it. The reason they were in court is because of the president of the United States<\/a> tried to say this raid has happened, the search warrants were granted, all this stuff was taken, now they have to figure out whats covered by the prif lanl and what privilege and whats not. The position was not that the prosecutors or the Justice Department<\/a> of the Southern District<\/a> should be able to make that determination or not even a special magistrate. The proposition was that they should be the ones to decide if the if they had not pressed for that, its likely that Sean Hannitys<\/a> name would never have come out because if they hadnt made this motion and tried to get that outcome, you wouldnt have been having this hearing, the special the normal prosecutors or special master would have looked at this and said, yeah, sean hannity is covered by Attorney Client<\/a> privilege his name would never come out. So part of the reason were in court yesterday say ridiculous position by the president s lawyers and Michael Cohen<\/a>s lawyers. That they should be the ones that determine whats privilege and not is absurd. So the substance of this hearing yesterday, what happens from here . Because its a significant hearing. The trump team wanted access to what they believe would be Attorney Client<\/a> privileged material that was seized during the Michael Cohen<\/a> raid yesterday. They didnt get that but the government didnt get yet precisely what it wanted. Do you think ends with a taint team . Does it end with a special master and if so whats the significance of either . It ends with either a taint team which is government review process, or it ends with a special master. The request by trumps team while a valiant one was really never going to happen. The notion that a search warrant would seize documents and those same documents would be handed back to the client or to cohen to review for privilege is just not likely to happen. After all, if they trusted Michael Cohen<\/a> to go through and look at documents to see whats privileged, they would have just saved subpoena. They served a search warrant because they were concerned that documents would go byebye. So in this situation, the judges decision yesterday was essentially to decide this issue another day. The parties are going to reconvene, shes going to make sure the government gives copies of all the documents seized so the parties can argue it out later on as to what is privilege and what is not. Its a fair result for the time being, but ultimately the judge has to make a decision. All right. Thank you both. Yeah, thank you so much. And as jonathan pointed out yesterday, mika, the defining line as i thought from the entire hearing was when the judge said that the that the Southern District<\/a> of new york prosecutors integrity was unimpeachable which basically says what theyre going to do, what theyre going to do and theyre going to get my support because theyve worked before me and from everything ive heard their integrity is unimpeachable. Im curious, ive expressed my concerns about Sean Hannitys<\/a> name being dragged out into the public the way that it was, regard ls of what sean hannity has done over the past ten years. But i do wonder, though, this still leaves a very big problem for sean hannity and fox news. While sean is putting up pictures of Robert Mueller<\/a>. Exactly. A vietnam war hero, purple heart winner and several awarded several medals and devoted his entire life to Public Service<\/a> and he puts bob muellers name and face up and starts attaching lines and talks about the mueller crime family which is such a great insult to everything that is right in this country, it really is. And then you actually ironically at the same time hes trashing mueller and trashing the raid that he was subject to, but he didnt tell his viewers put actually could put sean hannity up top or donald trump and start drawing lines to Michael Cohen<\/a> and sean hannity and this rnc guy and others. I mean, how does fox news not well thats the question this morning with fox. Not address this when he was central to this story . It seems like he is, at least today for sure. I mean, its a story with a lot of different tent tack cals. But i have to say for knows who were at charge in fox, have you to be asking yourself maybe they know more and more will come out. But given what you described, the hours and hours of television that he has done, very vit cal of the raid on mike cal cohens office and very positive for trumpet was named as for trump. He was named as a third client of Michael Cohen<\/a>. Its not like a johnson day. No, theres not 100 clients. I think its a question of why that came out in public first and then private later. Did he tell his s bos im a third client of Michael Cohen<\/a> but im going on the air tonight . Because if he did not and he protd dotd coverage that hes been doing for months honestly and what he you know, it appears he intends to continue doing, hes lying to his viewers. Bold face lying to his viewers to not disclose that hes a third client of Michael Cohen<\/a>. But yet to do these incredible hit jobs on the raid on Michael Cohen<\/a>s office of which his stuff is being raided and taken away. This is crazy. This is crazy town in the news business. If you do not take him into the office and figure out how to go forward with this host on fox news, then i dont i dont know what youre doing over there. I dont know what has happened over there. And the problem the problems exacerbated because theres been a lot of friction between sean and a couple of other late night hosts and the rest of fox news. You hear it all the time. And, you know, shep smith and a lot of others that are do the hard news over at fox news. Theres some great people that do hard news over at fox news. Absolutely. And im not going to start listing the names because i wouldnt get to all of them. But theyve been saying for some time theyre embarrassed by what hes doing. So i wonder if this adds even more friction. Well, you saw it written on sheps face yesterday when he had to cover that story. He tries to be fair. I agree with everything you said. In a normal world, of course this would be a massive problem and it be should be. But remember who sean hannity is to his viewers. He is the great defender of donald j. Trump and has been from the beginning. So fox has to decide who they are. But to Sean Hannitys<\/a> millions of viewers and listensers, hes the great defender of donald trump. If he was helping them out and represented by the same lawyer, theyll throw up their hands. But fox has a responsibility to look at this. Fox news has a business problem here. Hes the top rated host in cable, i believe, and theres i huge economic interest in this just as they used to have that problem with bill oreilly now they have it with sean hannity. But its clear that he seems to be saying this was not a big enough deal that i had to tell anyone. Really . Thats what he said in his Statement Last<\/a> night. He seems to be representing that did he not tell bosses. He said i didnt think was important enough to disclose to anyone. All right. He said there was a few casual questions about a real estate deal. But to mikas pointed, according to what he said yesterday it doesnt seem that he told his bosses. Heres the quote before we go. My discussions with Michael Cohen<\/a> never rose to any level that i needed to tell anyone that i was asking him questions. Well, they seem to feel to need to mention it in court when asked what the third client was. As john heilman said, if it wasnt such a big deal, why did the president s lawyers fight so hard for so long to keep Sean Hannitys<\/a> name out of spotlight. Why was he a client . If there wasnt an Attorney Client<\/a> privilege there. Still ahead on morning joe well talk to Stormy Daniels<\/a>s attorney here onset. Last time he stopped by he revealed that bomb stel shell story. But first nikki haley had a big announcement on sunday announcing new sanctions on russia. President trump doesnt like either of that, the announcement or the sanctions themselves. Go nikki. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Of course for us sean hannity said to be a third client of Michael Cohen<\/a>. Theres a reporter from hannity that says weve been friends for a long time, he did some legal work for me. Hannitys producers are work fog contact him since its part of the story well report on it when we know the rest of it. A lot of us here know his number so well get on that in just a second. But my Student Loans<\/a> are going nowhere. Itll take me 20 years to pay them off, but i finally found a way to pay them off sooner, and save money by refinancing with sofi. Sofi has helped over 200,000 people get ahead of their debt, contact him since its part of see how much you can save in just two minutes at sofi. Com sooner bps natural gas teams use smart App Technology<\/a> to share data from any well instantly. So they can analyze trends contact him since its part of because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. When it comes to travel, i sweat the details. Late checkout. Downalternative pillows. And of course, price. Tripadvisor helps you book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. Youll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day. Ou . Complicated relationship with milk . Pour on the lactaid, 100 real milk, just without that annoying lactose. Mmm, thats good. Lets turn now to the saga over sanctiontion russia and the mixed messages from the Trump Administration<\/a>. Two days ago u. N. Ambassador nikki haley who has been leading the governments charge against russia said new sanctions would be unveiled yesterday. So you will see that russian sanctions will be coming down. Secretary mnuchin will be announce those on monday if he hasnt already. And they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to assad and chemical weapons use. Thats pretty clear. I can just say that nikki haley has been a clear voice, she has carried through americas traditional traditional Foreign Policy<\/a> views post war. And its great to have her at the United Nations<\/a>. There are a lot of people that were skeptical from inside the administration. Dragged her name through the gutter. Some people who dragged her name through the gutter, but, man, shes a clear, strong voice that we need at the United Nations<\/a> and im glad shes there. That was great that she said what she said. And she doesnt fly off the handle that arent considered and evaluate and consult with the administration. Of course not. Well, yesterday came and went but the president pu the kibosh on the plan by nikki haley. Search people familiar with the matter tell the Washington Post<\/a> shortly is after the comments he told his National Security<\/a> team he was upset and uncomfortable executing new sanctions on russia. And an Administration Official<\/a> tells the New York Times<\/a> trump was annoyed that ambassador hail li a nounsed it first. A rush foreign minister told the white house that they told Russias Embassy<\/a> that no new sanctions eminent. Yesterday sara sanders said that the administration is, quote, evaluating additional sanctions and a decision will be made in the near future. Sanders also said yesterday that President Trump<\/a> still wants to sit down for a meeting with Vladimir Putin<\/a>. Wow. Its just a problem because this is what the admiral was talking about yesterday, youre supposed to leave everyone guessing but not your cabinet, not your ambassador to youre supposed to actually be working together. Well, nikki haley is of course the voice of the United States<\/a> at the United Nations<\/a> and she obviously was talking to the treasury secretary and they were moving forward with the responsible Foreign Policy<\/a> plan. And then the president just undercuts it. Well, yes. And obviously the not speaking with one voice say problem. But what seems to be the larger problem is were back to this question. After a year and a half of donald trump never saying anything about Vladimir Putin<\/a> all of a sudden last week in the wake of the Chemical Attacks<\/a> in syria suddenly trump made his first criticism Vladimir Putin<\/a> and for three days escalating rhetoric on twitter he suddenly reverses course and decides to get tough and now we had the air strikes last weekend and all the sudden were back to donald trump being very very nervous, skittish, soft as you were about to say. On putin, once again. A flaccid approach to not hard line towards putin. Right. Willie. Joining us now the Investigative Reporter<\/a> for the Washington Post<\/a>, msnbc contributor and now Pulitzer Prize<\/a> winner. The Washington Post<\/a> won to put u Pulitzer Prize<\/a>s yesterday for the 2016 election and the coverage of the 2017 race in alabama. Carol was part of the reporting team that won for the papers russian interference stories. Carol, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, willie. Thank you all team. It was a team effort at the Washington Post<\/a>, a lot of great colleagues. Come on, carol. Come on. Just come on. Take it. Carol, i can ask you, you can get a chain and like put the pulitzer around your neck or something . Im wearing it now. I mean, meacham does it all the time. My brother wears the polar star. Its a big tiffany rock. I dont know if id be able to carry it around all day. Its like the stanley cup you pass it around the staff. Your reporting continues you didnt have much time to celebrate because you were orking on your latest story about trump dedeclining add sanctions against russia. How did this go down exactly . As we said nikki haley the u. N. Ambassador does not go out on her own and make statements about u. S. Policy. At what point did President Trump<\/a> hear them and become annoyed by them . This has been the most bizarre little story, to me, because, youre right, willie, nikki haley does not she does her homework and she confers with the president directly. Shes not somebody whos going to Say Something<\/a> on National Television<\/a> that she doesnt believe to be the case. And what we understood was that essentially behind the scenes the president was more than annoyed, really quite angry, almost confused that his team had prepared him for a set of a menu of sanctions as he had asked for in march and that was on the menu and that is what was coming down the pike and then he said, im not so hot on this idea. Why is it that we are continually bashing this country . Theres a deeper story behind this, but it looks to me like such a strange episode because theres been such a series of changing stories. First, the white house was telling us behind the scenes that nikki had made a mistake and that they had to mop it up. Later literally within an hour it was that she was going to be issuing a correction. No such correction was issued. Later it was that the president was annoyed and disappointed that this was announced and he wasnt in charge of it. Later there was yet another version. So i have a feeling well have another story about this, so stay tuned. How does that happen . People listening are going to say how is that possible that something this significant, something with this big of International Ramifications<\/a> is unknown to the president to the point where he hears about them on tv or wherever he hears about them and he gets angry with nikki haley. How was this not passed along to him or was it and hes telling a different story . Well, think there are two possible and likely options. One, he was resurprised that this was on the menu and felt liking there had been a series of sanctions already that were quite hefty, bombing for example, the raids. And then there are the other option is that he became increasingly uncomfortable with being hard on putin and hard on russia. Keep in mind that when nikki made these remarks, forgive me, nikki haley made these remarks, there was some counterpunching from russia. And in moscow putin spokesperson talked about coming back at the u. S. With some countersanctions. And the language involved a punch in the gut to the u. S. Was coming. And somewhere along the line after a contact between the white house and the Russian Ambassador<\/a> saying never mind, never mind, were not going to have the second or third element of sanctions, the russians also changed their tune and became more conciliatory and said they wanted to postpone discussing countersanctions against the u. S. Thank you very much and congratulations once again. Congrats, carol. Is it too early to say hailey 2020 . The time is now. That would be such a great such i great primary. Theres a lot of stuff thats going to happen between now and then. Shed win, by the way. Nikki haley, i think she would beat donald trump in. A republican primary . Youd be shocked. Id like to do a whole segment on that. Id like to hear your reasoning for that. Im not saying youre wrong im curious what youre thinking. I actually think if she plan in 2020, and this is not me making trouble, its really not if she ran in 2020 she would have a good chance of being the first woman president of the United States<\/a>. Wow. And on the cover of time. What an extraordinary story. To knock off a sitting president of her own party. That would also be an immigrant. Of course, yes. Immigrant family coming to this country and actually proving, proving donald trump wrong on all counts. And a woman. And a woman. And a woman. Standing up for american values, standing up for reagan Foreign Policy<\/a> values, for the republican base, conservative twoterm governor from the south, from south carolina, they get an early primary there. Suddenly nikki haley has to win iowa or New Hampshire<\/a> and shes won two of the big three. You could be her raging cajun. No, it absolutely makes too much sense. Its kind of a great image to imagine. All ro. What did radnors charts say . Thae that thats ahead on morning joe. Wha . Thats ahead on morning joe. Wha . Thats ahead on morning joe. Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . Jimmys gotten used to his whole yup, hes gone noseblind. Odors. He thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this. Luckily for all your hardtowash fabrics. Theres febreze fabric refresher. Febreze doesnt just mask, it eliminates odors youve. Gone noseblind to. And try Febreze Unstopables<\/a> for fabric. With up to twice the fresh scent power, youll want to try it. Again and again and maybe just one more time. Indulge in irresistible freshness. Febreze unstopables. Breathe happy. At t gives you more for your thing. Your getting the best but paying way less thing. Now get 50 off a smartphone. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Visit att. Com hey, im curious about your Social Security<\/a> alerts. Oh well alert you if we find your Social Security<\/a> number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so youll be in the know. Ewww being in the know is very good. Dont shake ahhh sign up online for free. Discover Social Security<\/a> alerts. No one thought much of itm at all. L people said it just made a mess until exxonmobil scientists put it to the test. They thought someday it could become fuel and power our cars wouldnt that be cool . And thats why exxonmobil scientists think its not small at all. Energy lives here. The new nbc wall street journal poll gives democrats a seven point advantage over republicans who and who want to see in control of congress after this years midterm elections. On the rishs democrats have doubledigit leads on dealing with sexual harassment, healthcare and gun violence. And smaller edges on immigration and russia. Republicans are in the lead on the economy by seven points on reducing the deficit and protecting u. S. Trade. You do have to reducing the deficit. That is that is put that up. Because i know nobody would believe that. But actually republicans have the lead on reducing the deficit when they have the most shameful record over the past year on deficits of any party. They have the most shameful record over the last 20 years. Youd think this tax cut would be fresh in peoples mind and the reports that well have a trillion dollar deficit soon. Its increasing spending to the highest level ever, its the biggest spending they passed the largest spending bill in the history of the republic without even reading it. Crazy. So, you know, americans obviously mika, they docontinueo feel the tax bill say bad idea. Majority feel it will have a negative impact by increasing the deaf fit and helping only the wealthy and the corporations. Joining us now host of msnbc plaques nation and reverend al sharpton. Well get to steve sharps in a second, but everybody was predict there would be record buy backs, that these corporations would get hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars and of course donald trump was out saying, hey, this corporation is giving 1,000 to certain number of employees. But the overwhelming amount of money went to these massive stock buybacks, its record stock buybacks just like critics were predicting. No, we never saw the money going to the employees that he promised, not in mass anyway. Right. And we havent seen the trickle down jobs either. I think that it is the to the political advantage of the democrats the question is will they mess it up . Yes, yes they will. And many of them yes. That have watched this down through the years as democrats have said, if anybody can mess it up, its the democrats. From Barack Obamas<\/a> yes we can to yes they will. I mean, the fact steve radnor, that the democrats are behind on the economy, the democrats are behind on taxes, the democrats are behind on the deficit, the democrats are behind, i mean, on any of these issues shows just how inept the partys message is right now. Im not saying theyre not going to win big in the fall, they probably are because the intensity among their base is higher than ever before. It really does mirror what happened in 2010 for the republicans. But still, theyre not looking great in a lot of numbers. But until that tax bill unbelievably unpopular. Unbelievably unpopular and theyll bible to run against that tox bill. I dont disagree with you about the lack of a positive message at the moment. But if you look at another important factor thats on their side which is the president s Approval Rating<\/a> you can get an idea of what could happen in this election. So what this chart shows is basically all those little red dots are the last 50 years, roughly, of midterm elections plotted against the president s Approval Rating<\/a> at the time. So if you take someone who had a 50 Approval Rating<\/a> and you draw a line oh, my goodness. Overhead shot. Thats an awesoming ae ing a. Behind the scenes of chart you guys do you want to come over here and do this . Im terrible on those things. Go ahead, steve. Im listening. No. Are you done . Were done yes wilso yes, im sorry were having fun. If you have a president like a 50 Approval Rating<\/a>, they would expect to lose 30 seats. Donald trump is down here at 40 , so you can see him in the minus 60 to minus 70 seat category. If you look at some of the other examples. This red dot right here, make this a little clearer. This red dot right here is 2010, when we all remember what happened, the rise of the tea party. Barack obama was only at 45 there, he wasnt even at 40 and lost over 60 seats. Look at 1944, where the economy was reasonably good, but the president had gone, you know, had raised taxes, actually, and had had some the Health Care Plan<\/a> and all this other stuff, he was at 45 and he lost over 50 seats. So the historic record, correlation is about 70 , much higher than on unemployment. The second thing, there are two other factors to keep in mind. One is the way that the the way that the electorate in effect has tilted republican. So what this chart does is goes back to 1980 and basically says, what is the embedded margin of advantage relative to a president ial race on the senate side and on the house side. As you can see, over those 35 years, its grown from roughly zero to roughly 5 or 6, as much as 6 . And its done it for Different Reasons<\/a> on the house side than on the senate side. On the house side, its basically enginegerrymandering. On the house side, two senators per state, small states have an advantage. More and more democrats from places like california, who still only have two senators, so you get an advantage in favor of the republicans. Lets continue that last block. We talked about nikki haley citizen a possible republican president ial candidate in 2020. Your lineup of speakers, reverend niall, at the National Action<\/a> this week features a whos who of potential contenders. We start the convention tomorrow in new jersey with governor murphy and governor cuomo. We have senator kamala harris, senator Bernie Sanders<\/a>, senator Elizabeth Warren<\/a>, senator cory booker, many of whom have been mentioned as possible candidates along with other leading congressional and senate officials. It is going to be the black vote thats going to be critical in a lot of these primaries. Because no one has really captured let me ask you that. If Bernie Sanders<\/a> had a problem gaining any traction in the black community, what does he need to do . What does Elizabeth Warren<\/a> need to do, who i also seems to be more from the Bernie Sanders<\/a> wing of the Democratic Party<\/a> and may be a bit more detached from the black community than say, a joe biden. I think that people have never really talked about the fact that many progressives are progressive on many issues, other than race. They have dealt aggressively on a lot of issues, but they dont deal with the racial divide. I think theyve got to address that, because you cant just be a progressive and then you, yourself, live in ivory tower and not deal with the issues on the ground of unemployment, of racial disparities. And i think that theyve got to address that. To be out there right on the issues, but not on the ground in our communities, we dont know you. And i think that thats what theyve got to connect at National Action<\/a> networks convention and ongoing. Thai theyve got to have the balance. Just because you say the right things does not mean i feel like you represent my interests. Right. What about joe biden . You interviewed joe, didnt you . Zw i had a very good conversation with him. I think hes really seriously considering it, but hes really concerned about his family. I think hes torn. I think he would be a formidable candidate if he came in, but if not, were going to see this weekend National Action<\/a> network, whos got the right stuff. It was funny to listen to the way he talked to rev about it. If you asked me right now, i wouldnt do it. Of course, there are all these polls saying i would win, but he says, dont ask me right now, but actually, by the end of the year, i dont know. I can take a slow conversion i know a lot of people who want him to run. Reverend al sharpton, thank you so much. Thank you. Up next, the man who literally wrote the book on fox news. Ga gabe sherman reacts to the news that sean hannity has also enlisted the help of Donald Trumps<\/a> fixer, Michael Cohen<\/a>. Hes the third client for cohen, one to have three. Plus, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels<\/a>, michael avenue natti j us right here onset. Morning joe is coming right back. I no wondering, what if . Uncertainties of hep c. I let go of all those feelings. 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We see two travelers so at a comfort innal with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com youll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day. Ou . Complicated relationship with milk . Pour on the lactaid, 100 real milk, just without that annoying lactose. Mmm, thats good. This is what getting your car serviced at lincoln looks like. Complementary pickup and delivery servicing now comes with every new lincoln. I won. Giving you, the luxury of time. Thats the lincoln way. And this is a fox news alert. President trumps longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen<\/a> is my attorney and i defended him right here on this program. Can anybody say conflict of interest . A huge conflict of interest. Fox news has largely ignored to put it another way sean hannity should be fired. Like yesterday. Wow. Wow, he just kind of said it all. That that helps. Incriminating. Wow do you believe he just came out and said that. Hes being transparent, which is what a host is supposed to do. You know, if you are covering a story and you have a direct connection to the story, your responsibility to your viewers boy, this is awkward. Is to tell your viewers from the getgo what that conflict of interest might be. And to be honest. If anybody on this set used Michael Cohen<\/a> as an attorney and was his client and then was covering hours and hours and hours onair and ravaging the trade on Trumps Office<\/a> and i would disclose. Welcome back to morning joe. Hes really the ring leader of the circus, john heilemann. That would be dishonest. Also joining the conversation. Sleazy. Associate editor of the Washington Post<\/a>, eugene robinson. Gene is not wearing his pulitzer today, but he should. Were trying to get meacham to get a chain and wear it around his neck zplp i think that would be great on meacham. It would be awesome on meacham. In fact, ill speak for the pulitzer board. Well design a special thing just for meacham a great big gold sort of it so looks like flavor flav. If you could do that so when hes wearing his polo golf shirt, wearing into the bell mead country club to have mint juleps in nashville, i think that would make him a very former assistant United States<\/a> attorney everybody in in the Criminal Division<\/a> im thinking well have him kind of looking like flavor flav with the big clock my suggestion pink and green. Ill try this again. Former assistant United States<\/a> attorney in the Criminal Division<\/a> of the u. S. Attorneys office for the Southern District<\/a> of new york, Daniel Goldman<\/a> is here. Special correspondent for vanity fair and contributor to msnbc, gabe sherman. He is a trouble maker. Yes, he is. Do my best. Wrote the book on fox. And former u. S. Attorney for the Northern District<\/a> of alabama, msnbc contributor joyce vance is with us as well. So, ive got so many questions to ask and so little time. Why dont i sort of lay it out for everyone. We tend to back into thing here is. Can we show the shep clip again. Shep, he tries very hard to keep it right down the middle. Do it. Lets this new legal twist, mika. The raid of Donald Trumps<\/a> personal attorney, Michael Cohen<\/a>. Hes best known for arranging hush money payments to women who allege affairs with powerful men like trump and former rnc official, elliott brody, who stepped down after it was revealed that cohen negotiated a settlement between him and a playboy model that got pregnant by him. And now weve learned that cohen also represented a third client and they used the word client. Trump defender and fox news host, sean hannity. Were told he used cohens Services Last<\/a> year and or this year, though he never disclosed that to his audience, ever, once while defending cohen on the air. Here is fox news, the fox news host himself playing down his relationship with the lawyer. Michael cohen never represented me in any legal matter. I never retained his services. I never received an invoice. I never paid Michael Cohen<\/a> for legal fees. I did have occasional brief conversations with Michael Cohen<\/a>. Hes a great attorney. About legal questions i had or i was looking for input and perspective. My discussions with Michael Cohen<\/a> never rose to any level that i needed to tell anyone that i was asking him questions. And to be absolutely clear, they never involved any matter, any sorry to disappoint so many matter between me or a third party, a third group at all. And our my questions, almost exclusively focused on real estate. I said many times on my radio show, i hate the stock market, i prefer real estate. Michael knows real estate. So but hes not a real estate attorney, is he . Im confused. Mika . Yeah. It seemed so limited. The only time he ever asked so many questions, hey, when sal went in front of the fisa court to try to get a warrant against the russians, it sounds like those were the sort of questions he asked if thats the case, his name shouldnt have been revealed and she shouldnt he shouldnt be considered a client. He never asked for his services and never billed by him. Then hes not a client. Lets not talk in shorthand. John heilemann, make the point you made last hour that if there was nothing to see here and that he wasnt an attorney, there wasnt an Attorney Client<\/a> relationship, then explain how hard the president s team and cohens team fought to keep this from the public. I mean, this was the central drama of the 2 1 2hour Long Court Hearing<\/a> yesterday, in front of kimball wood, which is, there were a variety of things that were discussed, but the moment in the court was over this question. And the Michael Cohen<\/a>s attorney and the president s attorneys, basically, starting last week, and into this week, were maintaining they did not want to disclose the name of this client. And that they were going to fight the disclosure of this clients name. And that they kept making various arguments about why the name shouldnt be exposed. And that they only had three clients and they werent going to say what kind of client . What . Why is he a client . I dont think anybody knows the answer to that. We know what sean hannity says. But eventually, it came to the point where kimball wood had to order them in court and say, no, you must tell us who this clients name is. And if their relationship was so incidental and so casual, why were the president and Michael Cohen<\/a>s lawyers fighting to keep it secret . If it were merely a Backyard Barbecue<\/a> discussion over real estate i dont think it was. Why would you care and fight so hard to try to keep it secret . Well, and why would the president s attorneys and cohens attorneys actually call him a client . Because a client is a person or an organization using the services of a lawyer or other professional person or company. Thats a client. And ill just one last thing, their argument was, when they started this argument, they said they were arguing not just on behalf of Michael Cohen<\/a>, but they were arguie ining on behal this mystery client. Now sean hannity says, i didnt want them to do that, yet that is what they said. The only theory, gabe and i were talking about this in the green room, that may make some sense here, given hannitys relationship with the president and his background is when the judge ordered cohen to give this list on monday, yesterday, clearly it was relevant to the proceeding. And it would be helpful for Michael Cohen<\/a> to have more clients, because the government was arguing, you dont have he barely practices law, he has few clients. So you can imagine a scenario where there was a conversation with hannity. And lets say hannitys representation is accurate. That that was all they discussed. And hannity says, look, if my name doesnt come out, you can use me. And if that will help you and that will help your argument it doesnt help you can use me what youre saying is, it can accrue to Michael Cohen<\/a>s benefit in front of the judge that hainnity was a client right, because if hes not a client and all he has is trump and the government has searched cohens emails and says, there are no email communications, then it supports the governments argue that this guy is not really a lawyer, only a fixer for drronald trump. And this Attorney Client<\/a> thing for trump is overblown. Inside fox news, this broke for the rest of us. Everyone was shocked. And sources inside were speculating, talking about the things that theyve heard hannity hired cohen to do. One of which was to help advise him during this leftwing boycott last year, when people during the seth rich conspiracy. The other thing is hannity was accused, it appears falsely, of sexual harassment. Thats another thing he may have hired cohen to advise him on. And hannity pushed back and said thats all bunk. Like, i talked to this guy very incidentally, as you said, for a real estate transaction, and i texted him back, and i said, what, for your house in naples . Why is he a client . It doesnt make sense that you would reach out to Michael Cohen<\/a> for real estate advice, on its face pinpoint may. It may be true, this is what hannity said, but i think theres smoke here. So joyce, why is it anybodys business . Why is it the presss business that sean hannity is a client of Michael Cohen<\/a>. Why did the judge listen to lawyers for News Organization<\/a>s and think the public had a right to know this when really, what does it add to the case . It became the publics business, i think because of a miscalculation that cohens lawyers made, if you read this original letter brief that they submitted to the court near the end, they begin to talk about three clients. Two who they name, one who they indicate is so prominent that theyre not going to release the name of that client. And this, of course, piqued the interest of a number of News Organization<\/a> organizations. So the way this played out yesterday at the hearing, an independent lawyer representing a number of News Organization<\/a>s, who stands up during the proceedings when the judge indicates shes not going to release the name, and that it will remain secret, and then indicates that the News Organization<\/a>s have an interest in knowing the name, because they represent, in essence, the public. So this is how we get to the point where the judge then considers law that says that the name of a client itself is not covered by the Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. And under the applicable law, she then releases the name. Its a little bit of a tortured path, but its triggered really by the remarkable filing that cohen makes, asking for relief from a search warrant that no ones entitled to. So joyce concludes, willie, the same thing that jonathan concludes, which is that this happened to sean hannity because of misclalculations on the president s lawyers part. So you have a lawyer whos more of a fixer and a tv host whos really more of a media fixer than a journalist. So youve got a network of fixers here. Yeah, and Sean Hannitys<\/a> defense last night was, i have an expectation, a reasonable expectation of privacy, that i have a right to privacy. Do you buy that, dan . Do you think his name should have been made public . And the answer to the question of, why do they want to hide it, is maybe what happened today and what happened last night, is that it blows up when his name is in the headlines. Once they assert that there is a secret third client, theyve put this issue at play. The judge then said, well, i need to know who this third client is, and then once the judge says i need to know it and they try to do it in secret, thats where the media interest comes into play. So they really put this in play by this filing that joyce rem referenced. But whats getting lost in all of this, they basically won this motion. The hannity stuff completely overblew everything else, but the judge ordered the government to turn over the materials that were seized, which is a shock to all of us. And it got lost in all of the coverage of hannity. To some extent, while they may have made a miscalculation to hannity, they did a pretty good job of getting what they wanted in this hearing, ultimately. At least getting a third party. They didnt get the material directly. Well, they did. The government was ordered to provide the material to Michael Cohen<\/a> and then and they got to keep a copy of it, of course. But Michael Cohen<\/a> gets to review it. And both partiy ies review it t see whats privileged or whats not. But that is not how these search warrants ordinarily work. Usually, the target of the search warrant wouldnt see this until if and when theyre charged. So were all focused on hannity, and its pretty startling, the revelation, particularly given his position, i get that. But to the extent that the lawyers made a miscalculation on hannity, they made a pretty persuasive argument to the judge on the merit that said, the judge made it clear that if there was a disagreement, the tie went to the runner, and the runner in this case was the Southern District<\/a> of new york, whose integrity, she said, was unimpeachable, right . I think the tie will go to her. At the end of the day, the way this is getting ne tin ting teey these things naturally go, theres going to be disagreement and its going to have to go before the judge. Reading her language and her body, she seems to be steering the towards the notion of actually appointing a special master to eventually adjudicate, that both sides will be make proposals about what should be covered and the special master will eventually decide. That seems to be where shes headed. But i want to ask gene robinson, i want to pull back a little bit in a slightly wider context. Sunday night we had james comey with George Stephanopoulos<\/a> saying the things he said about the president. And yesterday we had Michael Cohen<\/a> and the spectacle in new york, and finally james comeys book is finally coming out. Hes beginning his real fullscale media blitz. So the president s embattlements seem front and center. Give me a sense where you think not where the most legal peril is. Theres two tracks, legal peril, political peril, Public Relations<\/a> peril. Go. I think the thing the president will be fuming and raging about and potentially tweeting about the most will be Michael Cohen<\/a>. Because Michael Cohen<\/a>, you know, what was Michael Cohen<\/a>s job for a decade with donald trump . It was, he brought deals into the door and he made problems go away. And nobody, i think, nobody but he and trump know all of the stuff that he did. I think people in the Trump Organization<\/a> and people in the white house would have to be worried about what sort of skeletons are hidden in the dark corners of that closet. And the fact that this is all likely to come out. And i think President Trump<\/a> will be worried about that more because everything is personal with him, i think hell be more worried about that than anything else. And then, of course, there is also, i think, at the sort of next level down, his personal pique at james comey for, you know, not being loyal and for causing all of this trouble and all of that. So i think that will be driving him crazy, too. I think it will be a bad sort of week inside the white house and inside his head. Gabe, of course, sean hannity has been the great protector of donald trump from day one, continues to be. He had a show last week as it relates to Michael Cohen<\/a>, who now we know was his attorney in some manner. He had a show where people were attacking the raid on Michael Cohen<\/a>s offices, where you had Newt Gingrich<\/a> saying they were gestapo tactics, that they were like stalin. They were calling for the firing for rod rosenstein. There was some question as to whether donald trump had called and perhaps helped to orchestrate that practice and at least drove viewers to it because he knew what was coming. Does fox have a problem or is there just an expectation and understanding, and in fact, applause from Sean Hannitys<\/a> audience that hes helping this president. People like shep smith, Chris Wallace<\/a> are aghast at whats going on, because it damages any credibility that they had worked hard to accrue, given the fact that they are working inside of basically state television. The audience doesnt care. Obviously, hannitys ratings have held very strong. And fundamentally, this is a question for management. And i was told Rupert Murdoch<\/a> made his first appearance back at the office yesterday, coincidentally, after a back injury. So he is going to be back in the mix, making decisions on this. I think they will see how the story plays out in the days ahead. But just to back up to one point about hannity saying he never paid Michael Cohen<\/a>, which raises the other question. Was the president s lawyer giving sean hannity free legal advice . Which is also, on its face, a conflict that youre getting something, a benefit, because youre promoting donald trump on television. So if he was a client, which unless they were wrong in court yesterday when they were revealing the name of the third client, and sean hannity never paid him, then he was receiving dwi gifts from the very person hes covering and protecting. That is a conflict of interest. Thats completely inappropriate. And anybody running a News Organization<\/a> would not want that kind of thing happening on their watch. And then you name some of the journalists at fox. I cant imagine they will turn the other way and just look away at this. What does Chris Wallace<\/a> think of this . What does shep smith think of this . What does brit hume think of this . What does bretbe baier think of this . This has been the essential, existential question for these guys, working inside of a network that roger ailes built to advance political interests. And yes, they employ some journalists and try to do the best that they can within this very difficult situation. But hannity, in the age of trump, has demonstrated that he is untouchable. You know, he has the biggest audience, he has a direct relationship with the president. It seems very hard to me, if he if fox disciplines sean hannity, what if Donald Trump Tweets<\/a> out, everyone, dont watch fox news, they just punished my friend, sean hannity . That is a ratings problem for the network. So, in my sense, this scandal will be a test of who has more power, fox news or donald trump . Joyce vance, do you see any legal issues here . Were sort of looking at this as it pertains to journalism and news networks, but what about the overall case . So i think it is in the first instance a journalism sort of an issue, an ethical issue for lawyers who deal with First Amendment<\/a> and press and internal network news, in terms of the cohen case. Its an interesting issue that you raise, whether or not there was some sort of an exchange of free legal advice for other work. I think thats awfully speculative based on what we know here, but certainly something to keep an eye on as this case moves forward. Joyce, i want to follow up and ask you sort of a question that i posed to Jonathan Turley<\/a>. What dupg aboo you think about this case is . It started i cant help but think as someone who went through the impeachment of bill clint clinton, watching throughout the 1990s a failed land deal turn into the impeachment over the president s extraordinary bad personal judgment. And we we were a long way from where we began in white water. And most people look at Kenneth Starrs<\/a> investigation and are critical of how that happened. Here, were talking about collusion with russia and asking a lot of questions that i think need to be asked. And i do have confidence in Robert Mueller<\/a> and we dont know what cards hes holding, because he is Robert Mueller<\/a> and hes extraordinarily disciplined. That said, the last two weeks has been a circus of porn stars, fixers, playboy bunnies, payoffs, attorneys records being seized. Potential to blackmail. Sean hannitys name being outed. It just we seem far afield, do we not from and i understand the Southern District<\/a> of new york is pursuing this themselves, but i think for most americans, theyre looking at this and theyre wondering, wait a minute, are we repeating the mistakes of the 1990s . Is Robert Mueller<\/a> going to end up being the ken starr of 2018 . The question answers itself, but you can certainly understand why some people might be concerned about how collusion has morphed into bonfire the vanities. I think, joe, that theres a stark difference between whats going on under this special counsel and what went on when ken starr was the independent counsel, because youre absolutely accurate that during stars tenure, we morphed the from that original set of allegations and ended up somehow with a blue dress. Whats going on here is very different. The entire Stormy Daniels<\/a> drama is a separate lawsuit, raised by miss daniels and her lawyer. And it has nothing really to do with the mueller case. Its incidental. It could have occurred whether or not mueller was the counsel. The most interesting thing here is that the case that the Southern District<\/a> of new york is now pursuing against cohen. We know it arose somehow because of the mueller investigation, and mueller took very different tactic from the sort of approach that ken starr took. He went back to the Deputy Attorney<\/a> general, they talked about the case, and it was sent to the Southern District<\/a> of new york. And i think that the right analogy here is this. If a prosecutor is investigating a bank robbery and they somehow discover a murder, they dont say, oh, well, im just looking at a bank robbery, so well push this murder off to the side. They send is murder on to the right prosecutors. And thats exactly what muellers done here. John . Lets just say one thing. Last week we had a report from mcclatchy which said that Michael Cohen<\/a>, that the search that bob mueller has evidence that Michael Cohen<\/a> did, in fact, take this now alleged, infamous, alleged trip to prague, thats alleged in the steele dossier, which is where some of the streams cross here. But has anybody confirmed that other than mcclatchy . No one has confirmed it as of now. Are you comfortable repeating that on the air . That mcclatchy reported it, theyre a reputable News Organization<\/a>. Im not saying its true. But isnt it interesting that something that is that serious. Thats my fear as well. That everybody is getting out of i saw this time and time again in the 90s with bill clinton. Hes going to be off office by the end of the week im not saying this. I know, i understand. But again, prague. Was he there, was he not there . We have one source telling one reporter he was there. Well, with maymaybe. We may have multiple sources telling that reporter that. But my only poison about this is just to say, the question joyce raises is, somehow this Michael Cohen<\/a> criminal investigation, a serious thing, where to get these warrants obtained took a very High Standard<\/a> to get to allow these things to happen. I will say, an extraordinary standard there. I do need to say that. For you to go into an office is one thing. For you to go into a Lawyers Office<\/a> is another thing. For you to go into another persons home, you have to have more than just probable cause. You have to have a strong indication of crimes being committed. Go ahead. So then the question becomes, what was it that bob mueller was looking at around Michael Cohen<\/a> that could have led to these to the referral. And one of the things that clearly bob mueller would be looking at in the context of a collusion investigation is this assertion in the steele dossier that Michael Cohen<\/a> was at the center of that. Hes the president s fixer. Was he in Eastern Europe<\/a> or not . Again, the mcclatchy report says that mueller has evidence of that. Im not saying thats true. But im saying that this is where you can see the connection between these two things. And its possible that in making that investigation that was well within muellers purview, that he stumbled upon other criminal activity skbrand just made the referral to the Southern District<\/a>. Joyce advance, michael sherman, thank you all. Eugene robinson, you as well. Well be reading your column in todays Washington Post<\/a>. Still ahead on morning joe, the attorney representing Stormy Daniels<\/a> in all of this, Michael Avenatti<\/a> is standing by. He joins us in a few minutes. Plus, republican senator thom tillis wants legislation to protect the special counsel and has a blunt message to fellow republicans who are criticizing him for it. His twoword response is next. Those could be any two words. Next on morning joe. Wait, is mom here yet . Wheres mom . Shes in this car. What the heck . Whoa. Yo, whose car is this . This is the allnew chevy traverse. This is beautiful. It has apple carplay compatibility. Do those apps look familiar . Ohhhhh. Do you want to hit this button . Theres a hidden compartment. Uhh, whoa. Mom, when im older can you buy me this car . I wanna buy me this car. My mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . New cascade platinum lets your dishwasher be the dish washer. Three cleaning agents dissolve, lift and rinse away food the first time. New cascade platinum. Iit was the last song of theh my brnight. It felt like my heart was skipping beats. I went to the er. They said i had afib. Afib . Whats afib . I knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. I needed answers. Once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto\u00ae. Xarelto\u00ae. To help keep me protected from a stroke. Oncedaily xarelto\u00ae, a latestgeneration blood thinner significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. In a clinical study, over 96 of people taking xarelto\u00ae remained strokefree. Xarelto\u00ae works differently. Warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your bodys natural bloodclotting factors. Xarelto\u00ae is selective, targeting just one critical factor. For afib patients well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto\u00ae compares in reducing the risk of stroke. Dont stop taking xarelto\u00ae without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of stroke. While taking, you may bruise more easily or take longer for bleeding to stop. Xarelto\u00ae can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. Do not take xarelto\u00ae if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. 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 a stroke. Talk to your doctor about xarelto\u00ae. And its also a story mail aabout people and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States<\/a> postal service. Priority you a republican senator is speaking out against republican criticism of his bill to safe gard the office of special counsel Robert Mueller<\/a>. Spare me is the message from thom tillis, who is cosponsoring Bipartisan Legislation<\/a> with senators Lindsey Graham<\/a>, cory booker, and chr chris kunis. If we were dealing with hillary clinton, spare me your righteous indignation. Dear lord joipg me nning me now. Havent you been looking for a couple of righteous republican senators. How about someone who knows the difference between right and wrong . Thom tillis, because we attack republicans so much, lets do an honor roll, really quickly. Thom tillis, Lindsey Graham<\/a> spoken out on this. Senator langford, has that guy hes from one of the most conservative states in america and he has been a straight shooter and a man of integrity all along. Of course, ben sasse, american hero. John mccain, from the very beginning. Lindsay has been surprise imp ingly fair. And senator tillis has been on this issue for months. Joining us the recall of law and history will hold him in Good Standing<\/a> for a long time to come. Joining us now, a member of the intelligence committee, democratic congressman jim himes of connecticut. Eugene robinson is back with us as well and he has the first question. Gene . Well, congressman hemes, just following up, can Congress Protect<\/a> bob mueller and how can it do that . And what are the prospects . Good question. Im not sure anybody the ants. Whether there are a couple more Thom Tillises<\/a> out there. A guy who joins a very small club of nonretiring republicans who are willing to stand up and say, hey, this is the right thing. This is about the rule of law. So we dont know. I mean, i on my side of the capitol, in the house, youve got an awful lot of republican legislators facing republican primaries, where even in places like the northeast, there is a small group of republican primary voters who are interested not in what the truth is here, but in supporting their guy. By the way, partly because of the good work of sean hannity, and others who have sort of set this up, not as, you know, lets let this investigation finish, so that we can discover the truth, but, our guy is under attack. So anyway, where i work in the house of representatives, you have an awful lot of representatives, republicans, who are facing primaries would face very, very difficult political wins at home. Im not excusing that, im explaining why theres not a lot of backbone being shown in the house of representatives today. Congressman, its willie geist, good to see you. The president on friday launched Coalition Strikes<\/a> with the uk and france in syria. You have said that he should have come to Congress First<\/a> to get authorization. Youre certainly not alone in that assessment, up on capitol hill. Would you have voted yes if the president had come to congress and said, im going to launch in response to the chemical attack by syria, im going to launch missiles led by the United States<\/a>. How would you have voted . You know, willie, its a good question and it harkens me back to when obama was going to come to the kopg acongress and ask te question. Heres what my thought process would have been. First of all, thank you, mr. President , for breaking with the tradition of too Many Republican<\/a> and democratic president s, who have launched military strikes without the approval of congress. That is illegal and unconstitutional and we need to stop doing it. I guess i would have asked a couple of questions, but ill tell you right upfront, the use of chemical weapons, particularly the persistent use of chemical weapons in the face of an attempt to take those weapons away is so egregious. And look, i get that the conventional weapons in syria have done an awful lot more damage than chemical weapons, but i would have leaned favorably. I would have asked the president , whats the overall hostage, what do we do next day . Is this another strike like we saw a year ago, except twice the number of missiles. I would have had some tough questions, i do believe that when somebody so outsteps the bounds of reasonable behavior like assad did, there needs to be a very strong message sent. So i would have been favorably inclined to consider a request by the president for authorization. So, congressman, what should be the standard for American Intervention<\/a> overseas. Military intervention overseas. As you said, half a million, half a million syrians over the last seven years have been killed by this regime. Most of them with conventional weapons. Whats the difference to you with chemical weapons . Why get in there and not previously when some of those other deaths could have been prevented . Its a great question. Look, some pundit pointed out that our policy with respect to with respect to syria seems to be that we get really angry when assad murders people with chemical weapons, not conventional weapons. But, look, theres two obvious standards. Number one, if were going to commit money and treasure of the United States<\/a>, two tests at least need to be met. Number one, it needs to be the right thing to do. In an ethical sense. And number two, it obviously needs to be in the interest of the United States<\/a> to do so. And it is in my mind clearly in the interest of the United States<\/a>, which whether you like it or not, and we see this time and again, we are the worlds policeman. Im not sure that makes me happy, but that is the reality. If the u. S. Is the only country who can step in and exact a price from murderers whosoever overstep the bounds of things like the geneva connection the Geneva Convention<\/a> sorry, i need to do cup of coffee you know, that puts us in a position where it may be us, hopefully working with our allies or nobody. Hey, gene, really quickly, what choice do we have . We allowed assad to cross the red line before. Vladimir putin has moved in. Iran has moved in. Isis exploded. What choice do we have but to have a presence there . Well, its unclear, joe. You know, there has never been a good option in syria. There wasnt at the beginning, there wasnt in the middle. There isnt now. But it gets worse, thats the problem. You know, the bad choices were less bad at the beginning, i think, than they are now. So now, yes, we have a presence in syria. That sort of commits to us trying to figure out what the end game is in syria and you figure that out. I have no idea how syria survives, as a as one entity or maybe it splits up. Who has power in various regions. Its just a mess. And now were in. I mean, weve got i dont see how we kind of step away entirely and just kind of roll the dice and see what happens in syria. So theres never been a good choice. Congressman jim himes, thank you very much for being can i ask a quick question . A really quick one. Because we have avenatti standing by. How are you going to get reelected as long as its only 30 and 40 and raining in your district every single day in april . In fact, im looking at the extended forecast and we have 30s and 40s through the end of april. And raining. What are you going to do about that, congressman . You know what im going to do . Im going to pester the next governor, governor scarborough, to do something about the weather in connecticut. If nominated, i will not run. And i wont be nominated. So were all good. But you need to take care of this. Enough, you too Jack Scarborough<\/a> as governor. Jack loves connecticut. Coming up, Michael Avenatti<\/a> broke news here on morning joe that Stormy Daniels<\/a> was physically threatened not to reveal her alleged affair with donald trump. Today he is set to reveal the sketch of the person who allegedly did it. Michael avenatti joins us next. I hope its not heilemann. On morning joe. Helets see whatll forensics thinks. Sorry im late. What did i miss . Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 49 dollars oneway. Thats transfarency. Better than all the rest applebees new bigger bolder grill combos. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. All right. Joining us now is Michael Avenatti<\/a>, the lawyer representing Stormy Daniels<\/a>. What a day in court yesterday. What a day. So, help us out with the sean hannity deal. Why would Sean Hannitys<\/a> name be dragged into all of this . Why would cohens because wave heard now twice from two legal experts, one who you work with, Jonathan Turley<\/a>, that Sean Hannitys<\/a> name wasnt dragged into the public because of something that the Southern District<\/a> of new york did, but it was one mistake after another from trumps own lawyers. Why was his name dragged into this . The irony, joe, is that they effectively threw him under the bus by way of their conduct and what they did. They teed hannity up really on a silver platter, and here we are. Whos they . Well, Michael Cohen<\/a>s attorneys and the trump attorneys, to a lesser degree. They really teed him up and here he awakes now this morning and hes got this scandal to deal with. But he says its privileged, that theres, you know, its nothing, he wasnt a client. He never paid a bill. Why would his name be in there in the first place, as a client . Mika, youve got to understand the context in which this came up. Last friday the judge asked for the names of the clients for which they were seeking to protect documents based on the Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. Documents, okay . Thats a critical, critical issue. Because what this means to me is that the reason why Sean Hannitys<\/a> name was disclosed yesterday is because there are documents relating to whatever legal advice Michael Cohen<\/a> gave sean hannity. And theyre seeking to protect those documents under the Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. So theyre actually they may be hannity may be telling the truth. Maybe he never was a client, but you have actually trump and cohen trying to protect those documents from discovery by claiming an Attorney Client<\/a> privilege that may or may not exist. Joe, i think thats absolutely right. But let me say this. I dont understand how you square Sean Hannitys<\/a> comments relating to him not being a client with the representations that were made to judge wood, a federal judge, that he was a client. I dont understand how you square those. I think thats how your viewers again, it sounds like if theyre trying to protect documents, it sounds like they misrepresented they could have misrepresented their position to the judge so they could protect documents, right . Correct. I mean, sean hannity may have never been a client. And they may be seeking to call him a client, because they dont want these documents to get out there in the eithther that show whatever they show. And we dont know what they show. But you cannot square the representations that were made to judge wood with the representations were hearing now from sean hannity. They dont square. Either the president s lawyers are lying or sean hannity is lying . Or Michael Cohen<\/a>s lawyers correct. What a mess. Well, the president s lawyer. Theyre unsquarable. One side has to be lying. I agree. 100 . You said last night at the end of all of this, as we started to look forward, you said last night, you made two predictions. One prediction is, Michael Cohen<\/a> will get indicted in the next 90 days. And the other is that Michael Cohen<\/a> is going to roll on the president. Please explain the reasoning behind both of those predictions. Well, i think this investigation has taken on an enormous amount of momentum. I think the amount of information that was obtained is significant. From what ive heard, from what ive seen, theres no question that Michael Cohen<\/a> is going to be charged. Its only a question of when and i think its going to happen within the next 90 days. Based on my experience in white collar criminal investigations and prosecutions, the likelihood of him not rolling over is very, very slim. I cant imagine hes going to go to trial or potentially face 10, 15, 20, 25 years in a federal penitentiary for anybody, let alone a guy, donald trump, who left him behind when he went to washington, d. C. I mean, dont forget that Michael Cohen<\/a> was supposedly his righthand fixer, et cetera, and when donald trump was finally elected, he blew Michael Cohen<\/a> off. Michael cohen wanted to work on the campaign. He was stiff armed. He wanted to go to washington, d. C. , he was stiff armed, because trump didnt think he was good enough to be in washington. Correct. So how many times are you stiff armed before you say, as they say in italian, basta, enough. Do you think Michael Cohen<\/a>s wife is going to advise him to take a 20year bullet for the president. His daughter. What about his children . I doubt it. Donny deutsch knows Michael Cohen<\/a> and we know other people who know Michael Cohen<\/a>. He loves his kids. He loves his family. And he loves his kids more than he loves donald trump. I understand the loyalty and all that other stuff that only goes so far. That only goes so far when your own children are saying, dad, whats going on . Its either trump or not watch your kids grow up . What are you going to pick when that question is put to you. On the hannity question, as far as you know, does Michael Cohen<\/a> cover real estate law . You know, with each passing day we find out that Michael Cohen<\/a> covers all kinds of things that he probably shouldnt be covering. I dont think he covers any law well. Well, i ask only because sean hannity said, yeah, we had a casual conversation about real estate and i may have given him ten bucks. You were on the show with us about a month ago. I asked him if you think you had any doubt in your mind that the president of the United States<\/a> directed the payment Stormy Daniels<\/a> through Michael Cohen<\/a>, 130,000. You said you have no doubt in your mind. Do you still feel that way . Absolutely, now more than ever. I think the last four weeks have shown that our predictions and what weve stated was true, is true, in fact, and i think that weve been vindicated along the way. And i think our record of predicting what was going to happen in this situation is damned near perfect. So you did the big 60 minutes interview, have been on tv a bunch, why havent we seen a hint of evidence that the president directed it . This is a piece of litigation, and were being strategic and methodical, like any other case. Were not going to show up on National Television<\/a> and lay out all of our evidence, et cetera. Joe, i know youve had some criticisms along the way of the way weve handled this from time to time. This is a very special case. Its a very unique case. If i try a case in south carolina, im not going to necessarily try that same case in the same way if im trying it in los angeles. It all depends on the facts and the circumstances and this case calls upon a very special skill set. And were utilizing that skill set. Let me say one other thing, as it relates to how much Media Attention<\/a> and publicity that weve received. And that weve participated in. You know, up until about six weeks ago, the American People<\/a> had only heard from one side. The president and Michael Cohen<\/a>. Mostly from Michael Cohen<\/a>. And what we did five or six weeks ago, joe, is that weapon sent a mental and the message was this. My turn. Its my turn. Enough of the nonsense and the lies to the American People<\/a> about what happened in connection with this payment. And were going to continue to control the narrative and the microphone until somebody rips it from our hands. Michael, i said during the republican primary to the republican candidates, and i have said to democrats now, that the only way beat donald trump is you say in his face, you smo smother him, keep on him, keep hitting him. I was critical, i have been critical from time to time, but as john and i were discussing last night, it seems that you have outplayed donald trump at his own game time and time again. So, i mean, there is the legal side of it, but when youre going after donald trump, obviously, theres also Public Relations<\/a> is very important. And i will say, on this score, has anybody, have we seen anybody since donald trump who has become a public figure, 2 1 2 years ago, a political figure get in Donald Trumps<\/a> more than michael . No, we have not. But and in Donald Trumps<\/a> head. So that is a effective, especially when you get the attorneys misplaying their hand. So, you know i appreciate no, i appreciate that. Let me say one thing, though. Were not going to get come place sent. Were in the middle of the first quarter. Theres a lot of football left to play here. I never would expect you to get complacent. I believe in equal treatment towards women, and i too, was critical of you, and you only mentioned, so ill say, i was critical of the cd thing the dvd zp. The dvd. Are you putting anything out in the course of this case, including that, that does not ultimately have the goods in it . Snow, that would be foolish. And if you think im bluffing, you should so theres something on that dvd. I do not bluff, yes. Because you led people to believe that we would see that on 60 minutes. Im going to push back because i did not do that. I did not lead people to believe they would see that on 60 minutes. We fired a warning shot, mika, to Michael Cohen<\/a> and the president by sending that dvd out to basically say, if you make a public announcement or if you come out after 60 minutes and you call into question the veracity and the honesty of my client theres going to be consequences and you know what . The warning shot worked. And again, we were critical of that, but i will say in terms of pr, it worked. Because donald trump has remained silent and his lawyers have made one mistake after another and again its the reason why Sean Hannitys<\/a> name was dragged into the public yesterday because of the mistalks they made. So you revealed on this show that Stormy Daniels<\/a> allegedly was physically threatened. And today you will have more on that, a sketch of this person . Thats correct. Are we getting closer to knowing who this is . I certainly hope so. My client sat down with a world renowned forensic artist. Were going to release that sketch later this morning along with the details of the assailant. Were hopeful were about on the 4 yard line. Were hopeful the public will help tighten up that identification for us. Are there any witnesses to that threat . No, not that we know of. Any security footage from the parking lot or anything like that . Is this a potential name that you have in mind. We have some names in mind but were not going to release them. But someone involved with trump in the past . Im t no going to answer that. There has been a media storm over your client. What does she want . Ill ask that question again. Weve gone through all of this. Look at the press scrum. Break it down for people, again, who were just asking whats this all about. What does she want . At this point she wants the truth and 100 of the truth. She wants the American People<\/a> to have all the facts relating to the payment, what the president knew, when he knew it, the details of Michael Cohen<\/a>s conduct, the threats, the intimidation and look, to the extent theres a counterset of facts that the president or Michael Cohen<\/a> wants to put forward, let them come forward and lets lay it out on the table. The American People<\/a> are smart. Theyll sort it out. You were looking at other payoffs, have any of those panned out . Weve vetted eight of them. A couple of them seem to be very, very solid. We havent made a determination whether were going to represent these other women. Theres some positives with that and we also have negatives. We have our hands full relating to representing ms. Daniels. Are these payoffs around the same time that was made to Stormy Daniels<\/a> . I dont want to get into the details of that question. You said you have evidence that the president directed these payments. Is it directly from the president and is it explicit or is it from another party representing the president . I think its from a surrogate. Thats the best way for me to do it. I dont want to exclude there may be direct evidence. Were in the early stages. We still have our motion pending relating to taking the deposition of Michael Cohen<\/a> and the president and i think theyre going to make what happened yesterday, the courtroom with sean hannity look like a warmup lap. Whats the possibility of getting the president in front of you to depose him . I think its pretty good and each day it gets better. Every time we set a trap they step right in the center of it. Why is that . Why is it that the president this president does not i mean, we talked about it off camera as wurp walking on just briefly. This president doesnt get the best and the brightest representing him on legal matters. Thats what he promised the American People<\/a> was he would surround himself with the best and the brighter. In administrations past the president of the United States<\/a> could immediately get an awe agreement to represent him and put 20 people on the case. And im talking about chess players, people that im used to going up against in other cases. People say to me what are you you most surprised about in this case . Im surprised about the level of competition on the other side this time. I expected something far greater. I think a lot of people who voted for him did. Thanks michael. Well bring in chief Legal Correspondent<\/a> and new reporting that Michael Cohen<\/a> is frustrated that members of the president s inner circle are not coming to his defense. Get used to that. The sound you hear thats the funniest thing i ever heard. The beeping thing you heard is the bus backing up. Vanity fair joins us with that and President Trump<\/a> undermines another cabinet member. This time nikki haley who announced new sanctions against russia on sunday. Were joined with new reporting. Morning joe is coming right back. Hey, sir losealot thou hast the patchy beard of a prepubescent squire thy armor was forged by a feeblefingered peasant woman. Your mom as long as hecklers love to heckle, you can count on geico saving folks money. Boring fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Your digestive system has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. Try align, the 1 doctor recommended probiotic. With a unique strain that realigns your system. Realign yourself, with align. He gets the best deal on the Perfect Hotel<\/a> by using. Tripadvisor thats because tripadvisor lets you start your trip on the right foot. By comparing prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. Saving you up to 30 youll be bathing in savings tripadvisor. Check the latest reviews and lowest prices. Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . I do want to say that really think that you should have disclosed your relationship with cohen when you talked about him on this show. You could have said just that you had asked him for advice or whatever, but think it would have been much, much better had you disclosed that relationship. If you were to understand the nature of it, ill deal with it later if h the show, it was minimal. You should have asaid that. I have a right to privacy, i do. It was such a minor professor, it was such a minor relationship in terms of it had to do with real estate and nothing political. All the kids in springfield, theyre sobs. This has no place on or off tv and thats my two cents. What the . Yeah, good morning, everyone. Its tuesday, april 17th. Welcome to morning joe. With us we have National Affairs<\/a> analyst for nbc news, john heilman. Tom would have been embarrassed to lay it out. You had the president , the president s lawyers, you had kemba woods, you had the porn star. Stormy. The press conference on the steps. And then hannity. I mean. Like newman on seinfeld. Thats what he is. She would have too much. Laugh of the matter of the room. It was a great Old Fashioned<\/a> new york city legal political tabloid mayhem scene and just to inject sean hannity into what was already going to be a circus environment, stick hannity in the middle of that, all over the place. Former treasury official and economic analyst. And this was right here. Daily news. Okay. Theres that. Theres that. He says it was just little and he didnt need to mention it. Steve rattner is here. Danny joins us as well and law professor from George Washington<\/a> university, jonathan tur lee. So what do you think . He says he didnt have to mention it despite the fact that he had gone on last week, i guess earlier this week savaging the raid on Michael Cohen<\/a>s offices. I dont know how you get around that. Its completely staggeringly dishonest with his viewers, with i mean, look, how can you cover the story and not say youre a part of it . Willie, what do you think . I would fire someone bho dwh that on my net work. I find this unsurprising completely. I think theres an assumption that sean hannity is working hand and glove with the president of the United States<\/a>. He said out loud i want him to be president of the United States<\/a> during the campaign. Its not like a journalist whos covering the story has not disclosed it he should have said it. But all im saying is no one should be surprised that hannity is perhaps in bed with donald trump. And lets say it was a massive massive law office and he used a separate attorney, but how many clients does Michael Cohen<\/a> have . Shall we get a long three. Oh. And two of them are men who were looking at payoffs to women and the third was hannity. And he didnt disclose this . The different between knowing that sean hannity was a huge trump fan and has been a pit bull for him not stop and hes proud of that, that is far different than him being part of a story, john, that nobody knows hes part of. Yeah, were going a little light on mr. Hannity here. The documents that were seized in the raid last week are documents that almost inevitably involve correspondence between mr. Cohen and his client mr. Hannity. When he was complaining this is a politically motivated witch hunt, to not disclose that you are actually a participant, that youre involved in this, that youre complaining about an action that directly affects you because his documents, his email perhaps audio recordings of him and Michael Cohen<\/a> were the thing that were raided. To not disclose that while youre commenting on it at television is an outrageous violation of journalism ethics. We dont know exact time when he had his consultations with mr. Cohen, but why the youre immersed in all this stuff would you go to the lawyer, a million lawyers in new york. Why would you go to the one who is the president s lawyer . He talked to trump every day and he says i have a good lawyer for you. Thats like why would i get thats not what he says to himself. I hear ya. And if it is such a small deal as he was saying, oh its a small deal, he actually said i never even gave him a dime. So there wasnt any Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. Why not mention it . Theres nothing to be protected so he now seems to be like hes be stopped from going back to the court saying you have to protect our communications. If it wasnt a big deal, as allen said, then you should have told your viewers, hey, its not a big deal. Ive talked to him for legal advice myself but this raid is still wrong. That would have been very easy to say. Never giving him a dime Means Nothing<\/a> in trump world because theres tons of favors and fixes being done. That Means Nothing<\/a>. To say it was for real estate, Michael Cohen<\/a> is not a real estate lawyer and there are plenty of Real Estate Lawyers<\/a> in new york. If there were about real estate who youd go to and pay a lot of money to. Im not going light on hannity. He should have disclosed that as of course but is anyone on the panel actually surprised by this news . Im a little surprised. Im not surprised that hannity is close to people that donald trump is close to. To not disclose. Two of the things here, to be technical i think the Attorney Client<\/a> privilege obtained where no money was exchanged. If you were to decide to represent me im saying hannity said i never gave him money. Really wasnt even my lawyer. I just talked to him. Then suddenly youre youre actually on that line. So to my second point then, this is not the context for this was, cohens attorneys were saying they fought for days to not have this name disclosed. They claim that Michael Cohen<\/a> had really only three big clients. So the notion that i mean hannity is saying hey, i asked him for a couple of pieces of legal advice at a backyard bbq, but if thats the true, if thats not a big deal why are they fighting in front of a federal judge for days. So someones lying. Either Michael Cohen<\/a> is lying and in fact hannity had very little relationship with him and he was blowing the relationship out of proportion that is cohen and trying to protect the confidentiality or hannity is lying about the extent of the relationship. They made a big deal about this. How did this play out in court exactly . It played out with over the course of the extended discussion teen judge wood and Michael Cohen<\/a>s tasaying were trying to figure out if Attorney Client<\/a> privilege pertains to these documents. But she was saying you need to disclose who this clients name is and they went on for a relatively extended period of time saying we shouldnt have to do that, we dont want to do that. Can we give it to you in a sealed document, in a sealed envelope, this is the thing they fought over. The reason why it was so dramatic in court because it came at the end of 20 minutes of argumentative back and forth in which it seems cohens attorneys were ready to lay themselves down on the Railroad Tracks<\/a> to stop the disclosure of this name and they why . And they did maintain at one point that they were not just representing Michael Cohen<\/a>s interests but they were doing this on behalf of the client. Hannity again says i didnt want him to stop this but someone is lying about that because they made a very big deal about trying to keep this secret. And then they were forced, basically ordered and forced in court to disclose the name. Which is why they were so desperate to keep his name out of the public. Steven ryan, one of cohens attorneys was asked by the judge to specifically name the other name because they said it would not fall under Attorney Client<\/a> privilege to with hold that name. And he stood up and named him as sean hannity. So moving on of course for us the elephant in the room at the moment is that sean hannity is said to have been a third client of Michael Cohen<\/a>. Theres a statement at the Hollywood Reporter<\/a> supposedly from hannity says weve been friends a long time, he did some legal work for me. Hannitys producers are working to contact him. Well report on it when we know the rest of it. Well get on that in just a second. So the reporter wanted to move on quickly. The only he did not want to. Thats interesting. How awkward. Still ahead on morning joe, more on this wild story including how exactly hannitys name was revealed in court yesterday. Hes got his friend and Apparent Company<\/a> Michael Cohen<\/a> to thank for that. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. As a control enthusiast, im allbusiness when i travel. Even when i travel. For leisure. So i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle without starting any conversations or paying any upcharges. What can i say . Control suits me. Go national. Go like a pro. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Does your moisturizing romine does. An mvp . Aveeno\u00ae skin relief. With oat oil and natural shea butter, it softens very dry skin and lasts for 24 hours. Aveeno\u00ae. Its a game changer. The only reason hannitys identify was revealed because of trump and cohens request to review the documents seized in the raid. However, she did not rule out the possibility of using a so called tank team or special master to determine which of the seized evidence is protected by Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. Judge kemba woods said quote, i have faith in the Southern District<\/a> attorneys office. Their integrity is unimpeachable. I think a tank team is a viable option. She asked all the lawyer to reconvene to determine the best course of action after the government has finished producing materials seized from cohen. Sitting right behind Michael Cohen<\/a> in court, the porn star Stormy Daniels<\/a> who is suing to be released from the nondisclosure agreement that he arranged. She walked into court amid a media circus surrounded by photographers, literally tripping over each other. A circus in the court today. In terms of stormy, i got to tell you. And you were in the middle of that. Tell us about a it. I mean, it was just it was a scene and you know, it its funny, watching this case play out from a little bit of a distance, the Stormy Daniels<\/a> case youve got to see how its mediated through the eyes of the press. Shes become the global sensation. You walk around the michael after net avenatti, hes become i mean, the press is obsessed with her. When she came out to do her statement there was basically the scrum of 400 reporters and cameramen or whatever it was, they were there to see her. They were not there to see even Michael Cohen<\/a> or the lawyers, they wanted to hear Stormy Daniels<\/a> speak and shes i mean, shes got to be now among the most famous women in the world. Jonathan tur lley, i understd that sean hannity has acted in such a loathsome manner that there are few people that are any sympathy for him i think rightly whatsoever. That said, thats why we are given constitutional protection that even the loathsome among us are protected from a sort of mob mentality here. What could the court have not done this differently . Well, ive always been very critical of this rule. Woods was on good fround when she said that she could require that the name be disclosed. Theres a case called venngally that says the name of your client is not itself protected by Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. Thats the thing ive always objected to because frankly i believe people should be able to have confidentiality including sean hannity when they contact an attorney. There is an exception under the case and these other cases that says if the disclosure of the attorneys name would be tant amount to a confidential communication it is protected and judge wood was really sort of probing that and concluded i dont that really the disclosure of the third name does not appear to be raising some confidential communication. Thats what i think is very unfortunate because many people want to talk to attorneys, and the fact that they spoke to an attorney does put them at risk or embarrasses them. If you allow this rule to be applied as it has, not just by judge wood but other judges, people are reluctant to talk to attorneys. And by the way, youve given an example before. You go to a certain attorney and lets say its a financial advisor, has to go to a bankruptcy attorney for whatever reasons. He or she should be able to do that. Or a divorce attorney. Some attorneys only do divorce and so if you spoke to them you probably thats probably the subject matter. Okay. Well, lets move on to the other question i have. Just overall, whats it say about this investigation and again, nobody knows what Robert Mueller<\/a> is doing right now because he runs a very, very tight ship. How did this spin so wildly out of control that over the past month all weve been talking about are porn stars and playboy bunnies . Well, unfortunately, this is much of the doing of the Trump Legal Team<\/a> specifically, Michael Cohen<\/a>. He made every possible wrong move. He allowed this case to metastasize. They could have avoided this. There is no good news coming out of new york for the president. Coming up on morning joe, the white house story on russian sanctions changed over and over and over again. And its all because the president wasnt quite ready to punish the kremlin after all. The Washington Post<\/a> has new reporting on that next on morning joe. I thought i was managing my moderate to severe Crohns Disease<\/a>. Then i realized something was missing. Me. My symptoms were keeping me from being there. So, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease<\/a> after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . Fullbodied. We see two travelers so at a comfort innal with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com joining us now the Investigative Reporter<\/a> for the Washington Post<\/a> and now Pulitzer Prize<\/a> winner. Carol lenic, the Washington Post<\/a> won two Pulitzer Prize<\/a>s yesterday for the investigation of the russia interference in the 2016 election and the 2007 senate race in alabama. Carol was part of the reporting team that won for the papers russian interference stories. Carol, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, willie, all team. It was a team effort at the Washington Post<\/a>. A lot of great oh, come on o carol. Just come on. Can i just ask you, is there a can you get a chain and like put the pulitzer around your neck or something . Yeah, wear it. I mean, meacham does it all the time. Its a big its a big tiffany rock. I dont know if id be really able to carry it around all day. You get it for the day. You pass it around the staff. But your reporting continues. You didnt have much time to celebrate because you were working on your latest story about trump declining to add sanctions against russia. How did this go down exactly . As we said nikki haley does not go out on her own and make statements about u. S. Policy. At what point did President Trump<\/a> hear them and become quote annoyed by them . This has been the most bizarre little story to me because youre right, nikki haley does not shes a person who does her homework and she confers with the president directly. Shes not somebody whos going to Say Something<\/a> on National Television<\/a> that she doesnt believe to be the case and what we understood was that essentially behind the scenes the president was more than annoyed. Really quite angry, almost confused that his team had prepared him for a set of a mean you of sanctions as he had asked for in march and this was on the menu and this was what was coming down the pike and then he said im not so im not so hot on that idea, why is it that we are continually bashing this country. Theres a deeper story behind this, but it looks to me like such a strange episode because theres been sump a series of changing stories. First, the white house was telling us behind the scenes that nikki had made a mistake and that they had to mop it up. Later, literally within an hour, it was that she was going to be issuing a correction. No such correction was issued. Later it was that the president was annoyed and disappointed that this was announced and he wasnt in charge of it. Later there was yet another version, so i have a feeling well have another story about this. So stay tuned. How does that happen . I think people listening are going to say how is that even possible that something this significant, something with this big of International Ramifications<\/a> is unknown to the president , to the point where he hears about them on tv or wherever he hears about them and he gets angry with nikki haley. How was this not passed along to him or was it and hes telling a different story. I think there are two possible and likely options. One he was resurprised that this was on the menu and felt like there had been a series of sanctions already that were quite hefty. Bombing, for example, the raids and then there are the other option is he became increasingly uncomfortable with being hard on putin and hard on russia. Keep in mind that when nikki made these remarks, forgive me, nikki haley made these remarks, there was some counterpunching from russia and in moscow, putins Spokes Person<\/a> talked about coming back at the u. S. With some countersanctions. And the language involved a punch in the gut to the u. S. Was coming. And somewhere along the line after a contact between the white house and the Russian Ambassador<\/a> saying never mind, never mind, were not going to have this second or third element of sanctions, the russians also changed their tune and became more conciliatory and said they really wanted to postpone discussing countersanctions against the u. S. And coming up on morning joe, manhattans federal courthouse has seen many wild scenes over the years and yesterday was no exception. Vanity fair was there for the Michael Cohen<\/a> saga and she joins us next. All next on morning joe. How do you win at business . Stay at laquinta. Where were changing with contemporary makeovers. Then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. Who has the upper hand now . Start winning today. Book now at lq. Com. The reason why Sean Hannitys<\/a> name was disclosed yesterday is because there are documents relating to whatever legal advice Michael Cohen<\/a> gave sean hannity and theyre seeking to protect those documents under the Attorney Client<\/a> privilege. They may be seeking to call him a client because they dont want these documents to get out there in the ether that show whatever they show. Either the president s lawyers are lying or sean hannity is lying. Or Michael Cohen<\/a> is lying. The attorney representing Stormy Daniels<\/a> Michael Avenatti<\/a> speaking with us last hour. Joining us now, chief Legal Correspondent<\/a> and host of the beat, and Senior Reporter<\/a> at vanity fair and msnbc contributor, Emily Jane Fox<\/a> who was at the courthouse for the Michael Cohen<\/a> hearing both yesterday and on friday. What a scene that must have been. And emily, move the story forward. What can you tell us . So people i spoke with over the weekend before yesterday at the courthouse said that michaels moods have been vacillating between a very trumpian business as usual, i want to be my own offense here, and understanding the gravity of the situation. One person or two people actually told me that one of the things that michael was considering over the weekend was should i represent myself because im the best person to defend myself and in court yesterday, i could see him, you know, scribbling notes and passing them to his lawyer and at one point once the judge had ordered that the temporary restraining order, she would not grant the restraining order his lawyer put his hand on his arm as if he could tell that michael wanted to get up and Say Something<\/a> in court. Hes definitely under constraint which is something hes not used to and i dont think he likes it. Were talking about loyalty, trump loyalty to trumps family but also what can you tell us about his own family and the loyalty he feels towards his own family . I think he feels loyalty to his own family like many people do. He has two children who are old enough to definitely understand what is going on. He has a wife, he has parents, siblings, and so this is definitely been incredibly difficult on them. Can you explain the contrast between Michael Cohen<\/a> who i think anybody most of us have squared off against from time to time, the tough sort of street punk Michael Cohen<\/a> that you see on tv and then the Michael Cohen<\/a> that we hear from people that like Michael Cohen<\/a> and say you know, get him off tv. Hes a really fies gunice guy. Hes very pleasant to be around and in this way he is sort of like donald trump where you have an image he puts forward in the public and privately hes charming and pleasant to be around. Or at least he was and Michael Cohen<\/a> is very much the same way. I think you dont get to be sort of a schmoozer and a man around town if people dont like you. So one of the big revelations yesterday or the big one was sean hannity as Michael Cohen<\/a>s third client. Go. What are some of the issues with that that that raises . If theres nothing wrong with this, why were you both hiding it. If youre not really a lawyer as the feds allege, then what were you doing for sean hannity . If you have evidence of a crimes in multiple locations according to the feds and an independent judge found probable cause to search them do those crimes involve sean hannity. And if hannity is claiming no Attorney Client<\/a> privilege why is he seeking privilege . You cant be halfway privileged and what you have thats what the kids say. That is a very famous saying as you know in the Millennial Community<\/a> right now. What you have here is something that is very problematic for both people involved. They went to Great Lengths<\/a> to protect it and a lot of this again, Michael Cohen<\/a> may want to be his own lawyer, but theres questions about the legal strategy. They, Michael Cohen<\/a> and the president of the United States<\/a> int interseeding picked this fight and that forced the feds to say some of the things that have been so damning including this key accusation that hes not really a lawyer. And joe, this raises a big question that you and others have been circling with the premises of some of your questions. If youre not really a lawyer and youre not really litigating for these people, what do you do for them . Yeah. There are these payments that were made. Theres paperwork that proves them. He was doing some sort of service. You also have the trump tower moscow stuff that we know about so its not just the payments. There are business things that Michael Cohen<\/a> was involved about that this investigation has brought into the public. And this also goes to the time line. In other words, you can think of the bob Mueller Probe<\/a> as i know what you did last summer and its him bearing down on this key period of time in 2016 and anything that arises out of that. But now you have this much longer legitimate timeline of jurisdiction in the Southern District<\/a> of new york where theyre digging into what Michael Cohen<\/a> has been doing for donald trump potentially as far back as 2006. If that makes donald trump more nervous than 2016, why . And this is the thing to come back to your point about before when we were talking about how this fit within the four corners of what mueller was supposed to be investigating. For the course of this entire time Michael Cohen<\/a> has been involved in the Trump Organization<\/a>s. Theres a period of their global expansion. The effort to try to put the trump name on buildings all over the world including moscow. Michael cohen was intimately involved in that letter of intent that we learned was signed in october of 2015 when trump was running for president. He was still trying to make trump tower moscow happen. Michael cohen was in the middle of those deals. That put them in contact with shady fanciers, organized crime if a variety of places and that opens up a giant pandoras box because that is what Michael Cohen<\/a> was doing. He was doing bisdev in some of the shadiest parts of the world and some of the shadiest businesses of the world. Saying it was a circus at the courthouse yesterday. Stormy daniels is there, you know, Michael Cohen<\/a> is representing the president of the United States<\/a> there. When you comb through what actually happened in the courtroom though, the judges ruling on who gets to see what and when, what was the significance of that. The judge is moving towards letting the feds go through all this stuff. But the notion that Michael Cohen<\/a> or donald trump is going to prescreen all this before the feds is pretty much out the window and thats a big loss. It was fascinating to see Donald Trumps<\/a> lawyer under pressure and his new lawyers fighting with the Justice Department<\/a> lawyers that he oversees. I mean, this was extraordinary. Seth meyers made the joke that this looks a little bit like the Season Finale<\/a> of a long running show where they get a characters into one place and some of that attests to Stormy Daniels<\/a> and michael avenue nettys strategy because they were again, this is a criminal proceeding. They are in a civil case, but they marched in there and involved themselves in it as well. Fitits like crash. The finale of crash. Theyre all in the same place. Youve known Michael Cohen<\/a>. Were you surprised when there was a big audible gasp when Sean Hannitys<\/a> name was revealed as the third client . No, because there was this pause before the name was released and mr. Cohens lawyer said i can give it to you in a sealed letter and it felt like they were going to toss to commercial break or something. It was like a real Reality Tv Show<\/a> moment and when he said it the room felt like it was going to explode. It was just like how can this be happening . One guy next to me put his hands over his eyes so yes, i think everybody was in that room was surprised. One of the points that avehe made yesterday, theres a chance to your point very early in the show, he might have opened up the name and said well, thats interesting. Ill take that under advisement and go back to chambers. At every step they make the tactical error and there was no reason for them to read the name out live in court. Probably should have they bubbled right into it. Why not try the sealed on paper option . All morning ive been trying to get legal experts to say that its possible that the court the prosecutors, the entire process, that they overreached, that they should have protected Sean Hannitys<\/a> name and throughout the entire morning, even with Jonathan Turley<\/a> who has been hes been more skeptical on all of this than anybody else whether its collusion or obstruction, they have all said the same thing. Everybody said the same thing, that it was Michael Cohen<\/a> and Donald Trumps<\/a> attorneys, their missteps, their overplaying of their hand that actually at the end exposed saeean hannity. The thing that surprised him the most is how weak the group of lawyers has been. Then to just blurt it out in the courtroom, thats the irony of it. If they had the option of sliding that envelope to the judge and not leading to conversations all over tv about why the man representing the president represented sean hannity. Its like the washington general playing the harlem globe trotters. All right. Thank you. Well see you at 6 00 eastern on msnbc. Phone bills arent cheap but nothing like this. A watchdog says they violated a phone booth for scott pruitt. That story is still to come on morning joe. Hands go here. Feet go here. You know what goes here. And your Approval Rating<\/a>. Goes here. Test drive the ztrak z540r at your john deere dealer and learn why its not how fast you mow, its how well you mow fast. Nothing runs like a deere. Save 250 dollars when you test drive and buy a john deere residential z540r ztrak mower. Am i willing to pay the price for loving you . Youll make my morning, but ruin my day. Complicated relationship with milk . Pour on the lactaid. Its delicious 100 real milk, just without that annoying lactose. Mmm, thats good. Lactaid. The real milk that doesnt mess with you. And try calcium enriched lactaid. 100 real milk with 20 more calcium. Still no lactose. With expedia, you can book a flight, hotel, car, and activity. All in one place. Everything you need to go. Expedia you totanobodys hurt, new car. But there will still be pain. It comes when your Insurance Company<\/a> says theyll only pay threequarters of what it takes to replace it. What are you supposed to do . Drive threequarters of a car . Now if you had Liberty Mutual<\/a> new car replacement\u2122, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. With Liberty Mutual<\/a> new car replacement\u2122, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty stands with you\u2122. Liberty mutual insurance. He says you should go to jail. That is not normal. That is not okay. First of all, hes just making stuff up but most importantly the president of the United States<\/a> is calling for the imprisonment of a private citizen as hes done for a whole lot of people who criticize him, that is not acceptable in this country. We wake up in the morning and see the president of the United States<\/a> is accusing people of crimes without evidence and pronouncing them guilty and saying they should be in jail. That should wake all of us up with a start but theres been so much of it that were a little bit numb and thats dangerous. Thats true. Former fbi director james comey responding this morning to the president s tweets over the weekend. Has anybody been surprised, hes gotten hammered, comey, from even anti trump conservatives who are kind of like less sanctimony. I think comey who wants to put himself out against the president and he has not been embraced at all. I think hes probably not finding the book will sell a million copies but i think culturally hes not finding the reception he thought he might in the places he might find it. Time now for business for the bell with cnbcs sarah eisen is back with us. I need a picture of the baby. Next time ill have one for you guys. You can check my instagram too. Ill do that. Despite growing trade concerns, chinas economy surpassed expectations with nearly 7 growth in its first quarter. Yes, this is an enviable growth rate for any economy in the world but it speaks to the fact that the economy is chugging along nicely right now with the big threats of big tensions disrupting the apple cart. China saw strong consumption. It also say double digit export growth to the United States<\/a>, but kmuss say that growth rate shouldnt last because china is going to curb some Infrastructure Projects<\/a> to try to get rid of rising debt and then there are those factory issues as trade tensions rise. And there is some evidence that china laid out a plan to phase out some of its tough rules for foreign auto makers to have to share factories and profits with chinese companies. Its something that the Trump Administration<\/a> had been complaining about. China is going to phase out that rule by 2022, so maybe an olive branch to President Trump<\/a>. Also wanted to mention tesla because tesla turns out now is going to be delaying its model 3 production for a few days to work out some of the kirngs in the factories. This is important because the model 3 is seen as critical for teslas business. This is the first mass produced car thats la is making starting at 35,000. All sorts of production delays. Elon musk has said its production hell, but its ironic because he just took the cbs morning show inside that model expressing optimism and now another delay. This is sort of comes with the territory with tesla. Big expectations and then complications when it comes to getting the production off the ground. I checked your instagram and samuel is really cute oh, my gosh hes so smiley now. Four months is a fun age. Thats the best and it only gets better. Thank you so much. Great to see you. Up next, a swamp gets thicker and once again its because of epa chief scott pruitt. What he did this time, next on morning joe. Anna and mark are heading into retirement. And a little nervous. But not so much about what market volatility may do to their retirement savings. Thats because they have a shield annuity from Brighthouse Financial<\/a>, which allows them to take advantage of Growth Opportunities<\/a> in up markets, while maintaining a level of protection in down markets. So they can focus on new things like exotic snacks. Talk with your advisor about shield annuities from Brighthouse Financial<\/a> established by metlife. burke so we know how to cover almost anything. En almost everything even close claws. driver so, we took your shortcut, which was a bad idea. [cougar growling] passenger what are you doing . driver i cant believe that worked. I dropped the keys. burke and we covered it. Talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum at bp, everyone on an offshore rig depends on one another. Thats why entire teams train together in simulators, to know exactly what to do before they have to do it. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. At t gives you more for your thing. Your getting the best but paying way less thing. Now get 50 off a smartphone. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Visit att. Com from here on, everything is class a security. Heres what i want you to do. Wait a minute, chief. Didnt you just say class a security . I did. Well, then shouldnt we do you want me to leave the room . That wont be necessary, hodgkins. We can talk under the cone of silence. The cone of silence. I am deeply concerned about the conference room. You know what, im sorry, alex, i gotta ask, who had the Maxwell Smart<\/a> reference in there . Now i know why they were laughing in the newsroom. It was a team effort. We brought it back. We used it a couple months ago. Jason said bring it back. Get smart. Thats some good stuff. The cone of silence may be the best thing in all of the get smart gags. Thats what our producers imagine Epas Scott Pruitt<\/a> sounds like. Remaining questions about that booth. According to the General Accountability Office<\/a> yesterday, he told members of the senate that the 43,000 price tag for the setup violated spending laws requiring notice to congress. The chairman is demanding epa give a full Public Accounting<\/a> of this expenditure and explain why the Agency Thinks<\/a> it was complying with the law. The epa has defended the booth has necessary for pruitts work. But it would not say whether the system actually certified to handle sensitive or classified information or if it was more like the cone of silence. Prior epa administrators did not have similar setups and pruitt already had access to secure Communications Equipment<\/a> elsewhere at the epas headquarters. You know, mika, this guy this guy talk about an napoleonic complex, the grandiosity hes grandiose. Weve gone through it before. This guy drive als through washington. He orders people to put sirens on. They say its not protocol. He fires them. Hes got this huge security team. Hes got this this secure booth. Hes acting like hes the director of the cia. Its incredible. How long will donald trump put up with this sort of graft and this grandiosity . I think it might be the least of his problems. Joining us now, president of planned Parenthood Federation<\/a> of america and planned Parenthood Action Fund<\/a> cecile richard. Her new book is make trouble, standing up ex, speaking out. The timing of your book could not be more perfect. Thanks, great to be here. What lessons can women get from reading your book about doing exactly that . Because i feel like there is such a hunger for this message. Absolutely. I just got off two weeks of book tour where women are coming out everywhere. I think women are the most powerful Political Force<\/a> in the country right now. Not only taking action but also running for office in record numbers. So this is a handbook on not only my own memoir, you know, having this firsthand look at what it means to run for office. Incredible story, your mom. What do they ask you . I think mainly what women want to know is how can i make a difference. So i think thats really the theme of this. It can be Something Big<\/a> or small. I think this is the time for women to do more than they ever thought possible. Were seeing women turn out in record numbers as voters. I was back in texas. 58 of the primary voters were women. They want to step up . They really do. Theyre going to make the difference this november. Yes. Willie. Given you were such a prominent activist and given your Family History<\/a> which you mentioned with your mother being the great ann richards, a lot of people are wondering if youre stepping away from planned parenthood to get into elected politics yourself. Is that something on your mind . Never say never, willie. I think that may be something down the road. I dont know. I know right now im completely focused on this november. As we know, the enthusiasm of voters is critical to making a difference. I think what were seeing is a huge democratic advantage in enthusiasm for getting out to vote. For the horizon, thats something you could see for yourself . Theres tons of women out there, i want to do everything i can to get them elected. Lets talk about them a little more. Its an incredibly striking figure. 500 women running for congress if my math is right, theres only 435 seats. Thats right. So thats more than one woman per seat. Do an analysis of whats motivating these women what sets them apart from previous women who ran for office . Yes. What is it about this moment thats causing this wave . Weve seen this administration, this congress, really take aim at women in so many way, including access to Affordable Health<\/a> care and planned parenthood. Women are motivated by that. What im seeing now is when my mom ran for office, it was everyone had to wait their turn and i think women are saying look, im going to start before im ready and not wait for someone to ask me. I was just actually i dont think its just women running for congress. Women from wisconsin driving over who are now running for the statehouse, state senate. Its kind of women all across the board. What can somebody whos prolife learn from this book . I think how to because obviously, there are a lot of prolife women out there running as well. And what message in here is universal . I think universal message is that women cant wait until its their turn. I really do think thats true. We now see women in the United States<\/a> senate, 23 women, record numbers. But still were debating over basic Health Care Issues<\/a> for women. A lot of this book, too, is really, joe, about the fact that you can be prolife and you can also understand that isnt something necessarily that government should be deciding for every woman in america. Thats overwhelmingly where people are. Even in this time with donald trump taking aim at womens rights and womens health, the strongest support for planned parenthood, even foxs fox news own poll two weeks ago. So you can poll americans and its its closer if you talk about limiting abortions after 20 weeks. Theres always been a seesaw back and forth. As youre leaving planned parenthood, why is it there are some people who are even prolife that will tell pollsteres if you just look at the numbers that they dont want funding for planned parenthood cut . Its very rare oh, im sorry, i didnt hear your point. No, its because i think they understand that planned parenthood does more to prevent unintended pregnancy than any other organization in this country. The progress weve made, were actually at a record low for teenage pregnancy in the u. S. And 30year low for unintended pregnancy. Thats something pretty much everyone can agree on. Question authority, its not the work, its who you work with. Dont wait for instructions. These are great, great pieces of advice for women. Say yes to opportunities. The new book is make trouble, standing up, speaking out and finding the courage to lead. Thank you so much, congratulations. Thank you so much. And that does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Thanks, mika, thanks, joe. Hi there, im Stephanie Ruhle<\/a> with a lot to cover today, starting with a courtroom bombshell. Sean hannity, thats right, revealed, as Michael Cohen<\/a>s mystery client. The fox news host certainly downplaying the connection. I never paid Michael Cohen<\/a> for legal fees. I did have occasional brief conversations with Michael Cohen<\/a>. Not so fast. 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