Seemed to dial things back a bit. Particularly with regard to previous reporting about what cohen was prepared to tell the Special Counsel about President Trump and that meeting at trump tower. So Michael Cohen does not have information that President Trump knew about the trump tower meeting with the russians beforehand . No. Does not. At some point, mr. Cohen might be able to be useful to the Special Counsel about whether President Trump knew ahead of time about the hacking of the Hillary Clinton emails, and its not a certainty the way he recalls it. May or may not be useful to mr. Mueller. You can tell, perhaps, the hour is late. Its been a long week already. And people are exhausted. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Jonathan lamere, peter baker, and Carol Lenning is back with us. Good evening to the three of you and welcome. Jonathan, you were inside the west wing for the split screen day we had yesterday. What can you report about what that was like and what today was like there . So this is a west wing that has become accustomed to bad headlines. Yesterday was a particularly striking one. It was a day for the history books. Seeing that image. The dual images of cohen in court, manafort in court. Both of them getting the word guilty attached to their names. The west wing was silent. Doors closed, aides disappeared. Eventually we got a terse twosentence response from sara sanders about the reaction to those denounced in the moment. This is a white house that is still reeling. Its gone to the president , as well. According to our reporting, hes been far more subdued the last
theyre still reeling. Peter, your paper with fresh reporting tonight that this was a consequential event yesterday. Two of them, actually, and this is a subdued president adding to the sense the feeling of moment. No question about it. This is a day that sort of put the question of impeachment on the table in a way it hadnt been before. Any white house, of course, would be reeling as jonathan describes given that political reality. Not that the Republican Congress is going to necessarily take up that kind of action against him but it reinforces the consequences and the stakes involved in this fall Midterm Elections that now is on the table. Allegations against the president Go Beyond The Russia Case where there has been, you know, no firm conclusion by prosecutors yet of, you know, allegations the president has done participated in something that is a crime by his personal lawyer. That changes things. And that now, for the next two months, until the election, youre going to hear a lot of discussion about what the proper remedy is. Sarah sanders says the president hasnt been charged with any crimes. This is the same white house that said the president cant be charged with any crimes. Under the constitution, their theory, anyway, and the Justice Department prevailing policy is the president is not capable of being indicted while in office. When she says hes not charged with any crimes, thats not telling us anything. The real question, again, comes to congress and the political process and the midterms being held in the next couple of months. Carol, youve covered Law Enforcement and justice for a long time. Perhaps without knowing how exciting the beat might become someday. You have your own reporting for the Washington Post tonight on Michael Cohen specifically. Walk us through the condensed version of what he might know and what might have motivated this decision by him. What he might know is something his attorney has described in many different ways
over the course even of today. So sometimes thats a moving target, brian. But as for what has happened with his Plea Agreement, it came together rather rapidly starting after basically late july. Its not very common for a Plea Agreement to come together in two, three, four weeks. Thats really what happened here. And he was under a lot of pressure. He was facing potentially decades in prison. Based on charges that he lied on Numerous Bank forms. Line of credit. He lied to get, you know, millions of dollars in loans. And he also faced the potential threat that his family was in danger because some of those loans were ones his wife might have actually been a part of or a party to. And what he decided, and a lot of people would say he made the right call, what he decided was
to go for the cap on the amount of time hed spend in prison. Instead of 40 or 50 years, as Rudy Giuliani said to me today, hes limited this to five. Hes agreed to plead to three different categories of charges. And the weakest of the charges is the most explosive. The Campaign Finance violations. Jonathan, theres no other way to ask this except to ask it. And that is what is the level of concern among the folks you talk to that this president ial term does not end at its organic calendar scheduled ending but ends before that . Theres certainly some republicans quietly who are wondering about that. Those closest to the president arent ready to go there yet. They are at their battle stations. This is a big day. This is a big moment. They have a lot of stuff they need to wade through in the weeks and months ahead. Theres still the president himself, though, frustrated and perhaps a little subdued or distracted. Hes not one who is going to throw in the towel. Weve seen him hes most unpredictable when his back is against the wall. Remember the access Hollywood Tape it was two days later before the second president ial debate with Hillary Clinton when he surprised the press corps. Including me with a bill clinton attackers and a really dramatic turn around to change the conversation. It was a dark moment for sure. Certainly. It would not predict that again but certainly he has stuff that hell find a way to change the conversation to move forward. That said, this is something the impeachment word is sort of resurfacing here in the last couple of days as peter started to say a short time ago. Whether the democrats want to embrace that idea, if they are to capture the house, assuming they dont control the senate as well, which seems unlikely. Some republicans would almost welcome that fight. Steve bannon said to me and others repeatedly lets make it
well, you know, it would be explosive thing for him to do. You know, every president who has waded into, you know, the investigations of people around him with a pardon ends up paying a political price. They usually do it after their last election when theyre on the way out of office. Thats when george h. W. Bush pardoned Casper Weinberger and bill clinton pardoned mark rich and others on the way out the door. For President Trump to do it in the middle of the first term and the middle of the Midterm Election season. To pardon the person who was his Campaign Chairman just convicted on a number of serious tax and bank fraud violations, that would be a political firestorm. It may not accomplish what he wants it to accomplish. Hes praising Paul Manafort today for not breaking, for not giving the prosecutors information, in effect. Giving a pardon wouldnt necessarily prevent that happening. Then Paul Manafort would no longer have the right to avoid testifying because of selfincrimination. That would mean that prosecutors would be able to put him on the stand the next day and say you have to tell us everything there is to know about President Trump. Carol, is it fair to assume that donald trump has not done Due Diligence as a client and told his legal Team Everything mr. Cohen might know because in plain english, mr. Cohen handled just about everything. Whatever the president s effort to diminish him tonight that we showed earlier. And a lot of it is unpleasant business. You know im so glad you asked me that, brian. It is something that perplexed me for months. And im just stunned talking to the sources that i talk to or close to the president who say, you know, weve never really asked him. Its kind of uncomfortable. I mean, every lawyer its like lawyering defense 101. You go to your client and you say tell me everything. Tell it to me now. Lets figure it out. Then we can deal with it. It seems like the people who would most likely be able to really give the president a good defense dont really know every detail. And its odd. Ill also mention one more thing that is odd to me, brian you raised it at the beginning of the program. Did the president know . Didnt the president know . The tape you played where Michael Cohen is talking to the president about purchasing the rights to Playboy Center fold Karen Mcdougals story. Theres two women here. Theres a lot of information to suggest and evidence and sources certainly to confirm this. The president knew about the Karen Mcdougal story. Knew it was out there. Knew that david pecker probably bought it. Knew they wanted to try to maybe consider buying it themselves. But what is interesting is that the Stormy Daniels story explodes right in the days
before the election. And theres some evidence to suggest that the president may not entirely have known what Michael Cohen was, quote, unquote, fixing at that point. He may not have known all the details. Its a really intriguing thing. Back to your great question, im just shocked at how few of the defenders, the people who should know what the president knows dont. I cant thank you enough for starting our broadcast off tonight. Coming up for us, how manaforts conviction and cohens plea put the president in a new kind of legal jeopardy. Later, the latest on the Duncan Hunter scandal. One of the president s first supporters now indicted for misusing Campaign Funds. Like the president , he supports the congressman says the Justice Department is on a witch hunt. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a wednesday evening. Just a day after Michael Cohen implicated trump in breaking Campaign Finance laws, the Associated Press was first to report this Afternoon Investigators in New York State issued a subpoena to cohen as part of their investigation into the trump foundation. There are reports that cohen reached out to the states tax department. This is both important and was expected because any State Charges against cohen would not be subject to a pardon by the president. Even though we heard cohens lawyer say cohen is not seeking and would not accept a pardon. Paul manaforts conviction also hanging over the white house tonight. His nightmare is just starting. 69yearold already facing a lengthy Prison Sentence as he prepares for another and perhaps tougher trial in washington, d. C. He, of course, could change his mind and choose to cooperate at any time. With us to talk about all
matters legal related, cynthia, and arianna berg, a former federal prosecutor. Cynthia, starting with you, one of the great words in the law is allocution. Its a fancy thing for what happened yesterday. Michael cohen gets up in open court, his attorneys are seated behind him, in front of him is a federal judge. He says allow what is agreeing. What hes admitting to. What hes copping to. Then he said that about being at the direction of his boss. Person one who went on to become the president of the United States. Were you surprised by that . Is it true that nothing happens by accident in allocution . That must mean the feds knew he was going there. Well, im sure they knew, but usually in an allocution you sort of keep things as simple as possible. He obviously felt the need to burn the bridge behind him and just go a little farther. He seems to need to needle trump and they have a relationship that he has to fight back, even as hes pleading guilty. And, arianna, this Legal Development yesterday kind of collided with the pr narrative that the president and his team has been spooling out. Yes, it did. We cannot overstate the magnitude of what happened yesterday. Particularly with respect to Michael Cohens guilty plea in Federal Court under oath implicating President Trump in the commission of a federal crime. Now, the pr and legal strategy in the past 24 hours of the
white House Administration and President Trump has been threefold. To say i didnt do it. If i did it, it wasnt a crime. Even if it was a crime, everyone is doing it. And i guess that the implication of everyone is doing it is therefore we shouldnt care that hes potentially committed a crime. But none of that really distracts from the magnitude of what happened yesterday. Michael cohen said that he committed Campaign Finance violations at the direction of President Trump and for the express purpose of violating of affecting the election results. Cynthia, i want to play for you something that happened On The Air Tonight on cnn. A new york attorney, long time friend of donald trump appeared with chris cuomo tonight. The following took place. Alleging concern the public that the president cant be counted on to tell the truth. I would agree with you. I mean, im a good friend of the president and i dont condone lying to the public. So thats where we are, cynthia. Jay gold bergs, who has known donald trump for a long time, has to go on Television Tonight and say he doesnt condone lying to the public. The Washington Post estimates he lies about 7. 6 times a day. Theyre going to have to up it after this week. I dont think theres any question about that. Itll be interesting to see how mueller looks at those lies and what they do to corroborate cohens lies. Because cohen has lied, too. Over the last year or so. There are interesting little nuggets in the indictment about other people in the campaign who knew about the payments to Stormy Daniels and to ms. Macdougal. And i would predict that now were going to see concentrated effort by this
Southern District of new york to interview about everybody to find out exactly who did know and, of course, do some debriefing of cohen to find out, you know, how exactly theyre going to handle his cooperation. And knowing something about mueller in the way he operates, what is your gut on whether hell regard labor day as this kind of beginning of forced rest period where pencils down, we have to act like nothing is going on until the midterms . Labor day is a day of work in the department of justice. Thank you for the reminder. Labor day is a day of work. Theres a difference between not making news and affecting the election and not working. Remember, as people are talking about oh, no, theres no real cooperation. The Southern District of new york is also under the same rules about not affecting election that mueller is under. So they sort of had to get this plea done and quickly before labor day. Yep. Now they can be quiet. Stay off television, make sure nobody is moving around in front of the grand jury. Theyre not indicting anybody. Theyre not doing anything in public. In private theyre dealing with the Cohen Question and whether or not hes going to have a full Cooperation Agreement or not. They can find out who are the other people in the indictment who supposedly knew about the things with the president and the payoffs to the porn stars. And this Time Beginning in labor day, really, just means more labor for the poor people who work for bob mueller. Arianna, since weve been On The Air Tonight, one of the jurors has broken their silence and granted an interview. She told fox news it was one holdout among them. Thats the reason they didnt Nick Manafort 180. Instead it was 810. But in your view, arianna, does that change or maintain muellers stance in this case . Is a win a win . Undoubtedly this was a win for the government. Whether its eight counts that he was quitted on or 18 counts. Paul manafort was found guilty of all three categories of crimes from the indictment. Thats a win for the government. I should also end this conversation with something of coda from the Wall Street Journal tonight. Theyre reporting that Michael Cohen is the son of a holocaust survivor named maurice, who is quoted as saying, i did not survive the holocaust for the cohen family name to be sullied. The point of the article is that Michael Cohen was influenced by his father to fight these charges. Cynthia, ariana, thank you so much. Coming up for us, as we
approach our next break, back in october of 2016, some Trump Supporters were calling the upcoming election a referendum on government corruption. Safe to say its not working out quite the way they have planned or predicted when we come back. Im April Kennedy and im an arborist
since the onset of the drought, more than 129 Million Trees have died in california. Pg e prunes and removes over a Million Trees every year to ensure that Hazardous Trees cant impact power lines. And since the onset of the drought weve doubled our efforts. I grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly its heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. What guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. It was Just Announced yesterday that the fbi is reopening their investigation into the criminal and illegal
conduct of Hillary Clinton. This is the biggest political scandal since watergate. When we win on november 8th, we are going to drain the swamp. We are going to drain the swamp. Drain that swamp. If she were to win it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Hillary is likely to be under investigation for many years. Probably concluding in a criminal trial. The final days of the 2016 Campaign Amid chants of lock her up. Trumps closing is the anticorruption candidate. Remember, returning washington to the rule of law. Theyre still chanting lock her up at trump rallies as recently as last night in west virginia. But circumstances have charged for donald trump now. 19 months in the white house,
five of his closest associates have been convicted or pleading guilty to crimes. First two supporters in congress are both now under indictment. And the president himself was implicated in a crime yesterday. So there is that. Joining us tonight two men who remember those waning days of the 2016 campaign. Ely, i was watching you watching the clips, wondering if we needed to call in counselors. I know theres a ptsd factor. What do you make of that looking at it now in the rear view mirror . You were at a lot of those events we just showed. Immediately was thinking to myself sometimes in the moment you dont realize how much hes projecting. You dont realize exactly how ironic it will seem. How surreal it will look. With two yaers of hindsight. You know, you have to remember that at that time, there was in
the news, the fbi had just reopened comey announced they would reopen the investigation into hillarys email server in the closing days of the campaign. We know the history. That gave what he was saying, i think, to voters at the time an aura of believability for people who might have wanted to believe it and certainly wanted to depress some votes who were considering about coming out for clinton. You think it was impactful. Now it looks absurd. I think at that time thinking back to it on the trail, you know, that was the election was hanging in the balance there. And that was his closing argument. John, its often said that on fox news Hillary Clinton is president and Hillary Clinton is president in Donald Trumps mind. What percentage of his base do you think cast a vote for better government . For Good Government . For cleaning up government and who do they see about that now . I think there was probably more when i detected in the period and throughout the entire
trump phenomena from may of 2015 through to the election day is not so much about Good Government and about draining the swamp. It was about blowing up everything. Yeah. Burning down the house. Roll a stick of dynamite into washington and blow it up and see which way the rubble falls. I dont think they would think the washington theyre blowing is so similar in so many ways, in some ways more swampy than they imagined under donald trump. And the way the blowing up was going to be done under him. You watch the clips and the sense of projection that trump is projecting his own problems. You go back a little bit. Play the tape back a couple of weeks before that. What he was running on then was its a rigged deal. Yeah. Its a rigged deal. The system is rigged. Trying to undermine the legitimacy of the election because he was going to lose. Of course, it turns out now especially in light of the
Michael Cohen pleading, we know it was a rigged deal but by donald trump and his people. That doesnt get to Russian Collusion and the way in which the election may have been rigged that way. The president , turns out, if cohen is believed participated in the massive fraud in the last days of the 2016 campaign. It was rigged. What he was saying about drain the swamp. Do we take him literally or seriously or neither . But at the time he was telling us that drain the swamp was a slogan to him. He would tell the crowds at the rallies i didnt like draining the swamp. I thought it sounded cheesy but people loved it. He was gauging it on the crowd liked it. Maybe it made sense to people and it was believable because he was wearing the outsiders mantra. He was carrying that im going to d. C. And im going to shake things up. And that certainly turned out to be true. But, you know, the anticorruption aspect of drain the swamp, people projected
that on to what he was saying. And never ever meant that. A time out has been called on the field of play. Both guests agreed to stick around. When we come back, our friend chuck todd, who he says could be a hero in the Republican Party. man managing my type 2 diabetes wasnt my top priority. Until i held her. I found my tresiba® reason. Now im doing more to lower my a1c. I take tresiba® once a day. Tresiba® controls blood sugar for 24 hours for powerful a1c reduction. woman wed been counting down to his retirement. It was our tresiba® reason. He needs insulin to control his High Blood Sugar and, at his age, hes at greater risk for low blood sugar. Tresiba® releases slow and steady and works all day and night like the bodys insulin. vo tresiba® is a longacting insulin used to control High Blood Sugar in adults with diabetes. Dont use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Dont share needles or insulin pens. Dont reuse needles. The most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. Check your blood sugar. Low blood sugar can be serious and may be lifethreatening. Injection site reactions may occur. Tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions. Taking tzds with insulins like tresiba® may cause serious side effects like heart failure. Your insulin dose shouldnt be changed without asking your prescriber. Get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, fast heartbeat, extreme drowsiness, swelling of your face, tongue or throat, dizziness or confusion. man i found my tresiba® reason. Find yours. vo ask your Health Care Provider about tresiba®. Covered by most commercial Health Insurance and Medicare Part d plans. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. Brief reminder here 76 days to go until the Midterm Elections. Chuck todd raised the idea of one person who could help shield republicans from any trump political fallout. I do think paul ryan needs to think long and hard about the future of the Republican Party. This is your last chance off this train. And it looks like manafort and cohen only have more to say. Only may cooperate more. This could get worse. Ryan is retiring. I think he actually could do the party a favor and if you start the procedure in the house judiciary committee, you give some home, you know, some place for republicans getting nervous
to say, you know, lets start an investigation and well go from there. Eli and john remain with us. They declined comment on chuck todds notion. John, i heard david gergen tonight suggest to the republicans at least look like you have rigor behind your processes. Put forward a resolution protecting mueller. Pass a law protecting mueller. Put forward a revolution saying mr. President , stop Waving Pard Ones around in the middle of an investigation. You can look tough and sound tough but still be trump republicans. I heard you today at 4 00 say the only thing that will turn republicans against trump is the day after the Midterm Elections, if they lose those. Thats right. I had various views about some of these people on the basis of some things paul ryan did during the campaign. He occasionally stood up to
trump in the campaign. I had some hope that some of these republicans would behaich in a more responsible way. I lost all hope. To me, i think the house, in particular, is just a math problem for them. Theyre guided by polls. Its not that different from the nixon era. The nixon era republicans turned against nixon because facts came out. The public turned against nixon. They were not the leading edge. They were a lagging i would kay for. Its the case now it may be worse, in that sense. They lost 40 seats. Exactly. Crucial. So at this point, theyve been doing the math and every day a rot of them worried about getting primaried, and the math is painful to stick with trump, but divorce myself from trump would be more painful. The calculus youll do in your head is different. What are the costs of staying
with him or apan don abandoning him . I think after it comes to pass the democrats take control of the house. That calculus will shift dramatically in the house and senate. Eli, the part of this we may not see meaning the three of us is the rich folks who write checks and provide the financial underpinning to the Republican Party in races across the country, they might get wobbly and pull back. They might. Or they might say we got tax reform. We got conservative justice. Thats when mcconnell is going to say. Thats what trump will try to say. Gorsuch. Immigration. Right. I think, you know, there are things for conservatives. Its hard to generalize because there are Different Things that turn out different segments of voters. I think its a Base Election the safe republican seats probably stay republican. The republicans ive talked to still think they have a decent chance of holding the senate. But the house is the problem. The white house talk about sending the president on the Campaign Trail a lot. Theyre not talking about sending him to house races in swing districts. They dont know its going to be helpful in the districts that are going to matter. The suburban districts. And there so many more of them that are competitive coming into november. And donald trump in those districts is not an asset. Hes a liability. Theres a difficult thing that these candidates face now in having to not just sort of wriggle out a question about trump but questions about trump related to the investigation. Not the fact that manafort and cohen are guilty and it just gets harder and harder to make that calculation. Do you think gergen is right, though . Just as a hedge they should try put some law in place to protect mueller. The reality for all the water mueller has taken on, its still a twothirds or onethird proposition in the country. Twothirds of the country wants bob mueller to finish his job. Republicans are worried about 2018. Theyve got to be worried about that. After watergate, the republicans didnt win the house back for 20 years. Right now its november, but for paul ryan its the future of the party. Our thanks. Were back with more news after this. Congressional seat, he received notoriety for becoming the first combat veteran from iraq and afghanistan elected to congress. Hunter quit his job after 9 11 and joined the marine corps and served in combat with distinction. The problem is, tonight he is under criminal investigation. Along with his wife for allegedly misusing a quarter Million Dollars in Campaign Funds on themselves. The federal grand jury indictment is staggering. 60 counts, 47 pages, the hunters are accused of lying to use veterans groups as a charitable cover for Skimming Money for themselves. For example, hunter is said to have bought Hawaii Shorts at a Golf Pro Shop so the purchase could be falsely labeled as some golf balls for the wounded warriors. The indictment also alleged they spent over 14,000 in Campaign Funds on a Family Vacation to italy even though a planned stop at a u. S. Base in italy which was going to be the cover for the trip fell through. The indictment contains
purchases large and small, 11,000 at costco, lots of golf, lots of trips including tahoe and vegas and london. Theres cosmetics and video games and tablecloths and pillows all allegedly purchased with Campaign Money as their own Bank Accounts went dry. Records show the hunters overdrew their balance 1100 times over seven years. Theyre alleged to have used Campaign Funds as their bank despite warnings not to do so. This has to hurt. His Hometown Paper the San Diego Union tribune writes representative Duncan Hunter, do the honorable thing. Resign. They say hes become corrupt to the point of caricature. Hes disgraced himself and doesnt deserve the privilege of representing californians in congress. Hunter says hell stay and fight. Its a deep red district. Hes on the ballot now for the midterms. The local u. S. Attorney bringing these charges, by the way, is a donald trump appointee. Hunter was the second sitting member of congress to endorse donald trump for president. The first member of congress to do so, that would be Chris Collins of Upstate New York under criminal indictment. House Speaker Paul Ryan says Duncan Hunter will be removed from his Committee Assignments pending the resolution of this matter. Coming up for us after a break, why our thoughts tonight are with the people of a beautiful part of the United States of america. Well have a late update when we continue. From the very beginning. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. Islands, the storm does. Tonight it remains about 300 miles off the nearest shore. Its slowly on the move north and west. Its already weakened from a five to a four and so our hopes are that it will weaken further. Still, forecasters are warning of a lifethreatening event. Theres the cone of the storm versus the islands. The storm could linger through the weekend. The summer of 2018 has been challenging in paradise. After erupting into a nonstop lava flow for weeks on end, kilauea has thankfully gone somewhat dormant after adding miles to hawaiis land mass in the form of that brandnew Volcanic Rock it delivered to the coastline. It has delivered a hard hit to the states economy as will this is storm. Our thoughts tonight are with the folks in the 50th state. Thats our broadcast on a wednesday evening. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Good night from nbc news
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