No. Tonight the first personal through ever plead the fifth to invoke his silence in court is now basically taking that same strategy to the streets. Where he has virtually no comment. His documents is inaccurate. But the cohentrump camp is not offering much proof for that little rebuttal there of quote inaccuracy. In tonights news, hes raising profound questions about, yes, potential evidence of russian collusion. The russian billion fair behind the firm that secretly funded cohen publicly claims he was not involved in the payments to cohen. Is that what he told bob mueller . Muellers attorneys questioned him earlier this year. Cohen also facing heat for over 4 million of payments from these other companies, as i mentioned, theyre explaining them, not denying them. What were they paying Michael Cohen for . He didnt represent them in court. He doesnt say he registered as a lobbyist for them. Today one of the companies, trying to get ahead of the scandal says it was cohen who reached out to them promising access. Youve got millions of dollars deposited in this account. Michael cohen appears to be selling access to the president of the United States. You know the face you just saw, that is Michael Cohens opponent or maybe at this point nemesis michael aven photo. Hes behind these leaks. He has been pushing the case. As we always emphasize, we want to give you the context. He has his own perspective in this. You will note what that company saided is same thing Michael Avenotti said, two different courses saying cohen was trying to sell access. That would be a separate crime. To the company that said this novartis got a pulled into a potential scheme. It would have a legal and fiduciary duty to tell the feds about it. As i mentioned theyre saying tonight this was something cohen said for access to donald trump, for the government. I can tell you. I think you might agree, this is the kind of thing bob mueller would want to know. Well, we have more for you tonight. The news that had not leaked when this all came out last night. That companys staff has already told bob mueller about all of this over half a year ago. Thats according to novartis officials speaking out today emphasizing their cooperation. Up until last night, there were no public financial documents linking trump world this directly to the putin ol gash g oligarchs. Tonight there are. Up until last night, there was no sign that cohens incriminating records would leak like this and tonight i can report Something Else for you, the u. S. Treasury department now investigating if someone leaked those sensitive baking records, which on the one hand is important because those records are supposed to be private, but also further suggests those records are real records, accurate. Meanwhile, as all of this goes on, everything i just ran through, Donald Trumps legal Team Continues its slow motion convulsions over the fallout from Rudy Guilianis criticory defenses of the money paid to Stormy Daniels. And while few want to relive those odd guiliani interviews, they do look different in light of these disclosures tonight. If Rudy Guiliani knew exactly how bad this money trail was, maybe thats why he was in such a rush to change Donald Trumps story about it, even columnsly, even ad hoc even in a rush and even if it meant admitting that Michael Cohen and donald trump had, yes, been lying about this same money trail all along. Im joined now by new york citys mayor and legal analyst on the beat as well as jack flynn a former white House Counsel to bill clinton. Mia wiley, is there a link here between what looks so bad for cohen, what i went through as being piecemeal verified and why Rudy Guiliani seemed to be in that clumsy rush . You mean why guiliani talked about funneling money . We are certainly seeing in these records are a suggestion that there was certainly funneling of money. I think the question that we do not have the answer to yet mueller might have much more of an answer to it, is whether there was a relationship between say the 500,000 that columbus nova, right, the company that the Russian Oligarch was connected to, actually what happened with that money and whether or not that was related to any payments that benefitted trump in protecting his election campaign. So you are saying the money in is suspicious and the money out could form a crime . Its unclear. Jack quinn, funneling money, funny money, whats your verdict . Well, you left out one thing we knew and that was that Michael Cohen brought a very modest client tell to this business before he was able to line up, you know, a major drug company, a foreign aerospace company, that was interested in having him rework theirking systems and so on. Up until now, we knew that he was working on funneling money to Stormy Daniels. We knew that he represented a republican donor who had impregnated a playboy playmate and sean hannity. Now, you know, i have been in this town a very long time and doing this kind of work for most people is based on experience, expertise, yes, relationship, but relationships that are based on a long history of trust based on the kind of experience and trust i talked about. And Michael Cohen brought none of this to the table. So its concerning and raises the red flags, but none more than the Victor Vekselberg access here. The fact that they were paying this kind of money and i understand, it was a subsidiary of a related company and but still, it ties together the Michael Cohen legal story with the russia investigation and do you think, just to pause on that point, do you think its so stupid as to be hard to believed . Its breath takingly i mean, look. You open a Shell Company to pay off Stormy Daniels on october 2016. A Shell Company is just that. You could open a second or a third. You literally start using the same chel company to funnel money from this russianlinked firm while the Mueller Probe is opened. I might have a different view or no more than i do. I suppose that itself the reason why the spirks activity reports included transactions involving otherwise legitimate corporations. Yeah. Were going to get to this in various activity reports, before we get there, it biologys the mind and they can be stupidity tore desperation. Its possible, we never mentioned this on this show before, its possible that all these people who talk tough maybe arent tough and all those people that talk about being rich maybe arent rich and maybe they werent just stupid, they were desperate because they literally didnt have the cash flow to deal with these problems. One of the things we know about Michael Cohen is he started taking credit of up to a quarter of a Million Dollars during the president ial campaign apparently in order to take care of these problems that trump might have along the way. That raises serious questions about what he was telling banks about what he was either what the value of the property was he was using for collateral, so there are all kind of legal issues there. But i think its also critically important to recognize that this Russian Oligarch was someone who Michael Flynn sat with at that meeting with putin in 2015. He was the same person who was also at the inauguration for donald trump and the person who runs the company that funneled, that paid the 500,000 to Michael Cohens central consultancy was literally also a campaign clintor to donald trump. To the tune of 150,000 and there might be a question about that money as well. So all there is to say you know if your neighbors live in a swamp, where do you live . Mmhmm. Jack quinn. I know where you live, more or less in the swamp. But you might not be of the swamp. Not everyone in washington is. I guess the final question for you, sir, is you were just outlining why its suspicious to get so much money when you dont have a lobbying practice and you dont have the experience and its not clear why such Big Companies would come to cohen in the first place. It seems to me the implied and careful implication you are drawing is these may have been elicit payments. What do you see is the legal line for prosecutors to actually try to prove that . I dont think you know most of the these companies who are hiring him because he had a relationship with you know newly elected president trump, i dont think that that makes their payments elicit. You know, that is not against the law to hire somebody because they have a relationship. What if you fire i hire them and they dont do any work and you are seeking a government favor in return, for example, preferential treatment on a merger . Certainly, there are theories of the case that could involve, im not alleging that. Im not the proos security. As a legal analysis, it is more problematic when you are paying a fixer bag man to a fixer account. It doesnt look as good when you hire a lobbying firm to do registered business. Exactly. Look, cohen has a problem here on the registration side. But to your question, you know, if there was any kind of quid pro quo, obviously, everybodys got a serious legal problem. But there is no indication that that kind of quid pro quo was there. All we know so far is that people working for some of these companies wasted the companys money. Right, what you are saying is not to be rude, at a minimum, you know Michael Cohens services were literally worthless. As i said, he had a modest business in getting involved with these companies. He didnt improve upon his portfolio. No i dont want to be too literary here. There is a lit crunch in his narrative than a great uplist of his career, which is going to be accurate. Former white House Counsel jack kwirngs always appreciate your insights. Mia wiley, i want to come to you later in the show for different questions. I turn to eric falwell. He interviewed Michael Cohen last fall. You know more than we do and some of it you told us before you are not at liberty to discuss. What does stand out to you about what has now become public on this very strange case . Good evening, ari, just like most trump family members or trump employees or Trump Campaign team members, you know, any tree that you shaic in this trump forest, a russian falls out. And thats what were seeing here. Of course, there was a russian involved. Now what we were not able to find. This is all the more reason it was premature for us to ends our investigation, there were a lot of questions around Michael Cohens finances and his dealings with russians. We had asked for bank records, travel records, phone locks and the republicans were unwilling to use the subpoena power they had to force mr. Cohen to deliver that to us or to answer questions around it. He was able to you know hide behind the voluntary construct that the republicans set up. I think now, ari, frankly the president is in a position where he and his lawyer are deceiving the American People. President who lies is a president who is weak the best thing he can do is open up the books for the public so that we can put this to bed. Do you think that the federal prosecutors in new york or special counsels office have Michael Cohens tax returns . Yes. I think they are taking an ri of the finances of the Trump Organization of the campaign and the individuals from the president down to Michael Cohen and his assistance and thats the way that you run an investigation the American People deserve to hear that from our investigation, too, ari the difference the daylight between our investigation and bob muellers is that the public will only learn through bob muellers investigation, if he can prove beyond a reasonable doubt criminally. Our investigation brought up a lot of facts and would produce a lot of facts that may not be able to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt but demonstrate conduct the American People would want to know as it relates to trump family members, business members and the russians. You mentioned russians falling out of the proverbial treatment what if what is discovered here are domestic crimes that dont involve an act says with russia but include the governme you a because of government power, a quid pro quo when you see the off the book slush funds, whether or not they originate with the shell account to pay off a porn actress. In that case, if that ensnares Michael Cohen and donald trump. Do you think thats something bob mueller should pursue or it should be left to the side . You know, no person is above the law, ari. This investigation like any investigation investigators are allowed to investigate crimes in plain view. If they go into a house and see drugs, they dont have to seize the drugs. I think bob mueller appropriately referred some of these investigations to the Southern District of new york, but there may be other issues particularly Campaign Finance issues reeling to the president that will fall under his purview. It may ultimately come to the House Judiciary Committee where i sit. I hope we are able to conduct thorough investigations. Ones that republicans are fought willing to do right now so we can tell the American People whether this president is acting outside the rule of law and assure the American People we would make sure he would be held accountable. I think you mean with the midterms. You closed this out with a plain view exception reference to fourth seizure laws. I hope i get credit for that. We dont do cle credit here. Thankfully, were past. That thats a reference to continuing education to someone who is not already turned off by the legal references. Coming up, new reporting on putins oligarchs. We will show the history that shed so much light. How investigators are following the money. Well have an expert on trumps world. Did you know the first person convicted in the Mueller Probe is going to prison today. Hes a lawyer. Well explain c that matters. 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Mr. Elliot, whats your wiwifi . Ssword . Wifis ordinary. Basic. Do i look basic . Nope which is why i have xfinity xfi. Its super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey lets basement. And thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. So sophie, i have an xfi password, and its daditude. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity. The future of awesome. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen facing heat for half a Million Dollars he took from this Russian Oligarch. Many asking if it was a scheme going rogue or a part of a larger plot involving Vladimir Putin or donald trump or both of them. Viktor vekselberg has been questioned. They think he must know something and knows putin holds his way over the i russian economy, that includes a pricey favor veck vekselberg did for putp. He returned nine faberge eggs in 1984. He publicly praises the leader as a detail oriented man concerned with russias well being. Former Intelligence Officer is the author of the plot to hack america, how putin cyber size and wikileaks stride to steal the 2016 election. When we see someone like this pop up in the news, obviously the mueller questioning is notable. We dont know automatically where he fits in. What is your view of the significance . Is this some guy or more than that . Well, first you have to understand just exactly are the oligarchy fits into the russian chain of command. They are civilian, captains of industry the robber barons of the former soviet union who became rich after the soviet union collapsed and when russia liquidated all of its assets and became a capitalist society. These men became insanely rich. Vladimir putin, himself, was sort of like a junior oligarch when he helped liquidate the city of st. Petersburg and used kgb assets and russian intelligence assets to bring if line the mafia. When he moved on into the kremlin, thats when he realized he would bring under control all of the richest people in russia in order to maintain