Tomorrow. I know what you are going to do. You have heard Stormy Danielss lawyer, Michael Avenatti say repeatedly on this program that Michael Cohen will turn against his ie dal, friend, former client, donald trump and cooperate with prosecutors if faced with criminal charges. And now we know that President Trump has heard that too. The president has probably heard Michael Avenatti say it on this program and elsewhere, but the president definitely heard it on friday, on the telephone from his favorite lawyer. Manhattan attorney jay goldberg has a framed, typewritten letter, hanging in the living room of his Upper East Side penthouse which says, among other things, there has never been a lawyer more important to me than you. It is very important to me that you know that. That letter is signed by donald trump. The wall street journal is reporting tonight that jay goldberg told the president on the phone on friday, michael will never stand up for you if charged by the government. The wall street journal reports mr. Trump made the call seeking advice from jay goldberg. Mr. Gold erg said he cautioned the president not to trust mr. Cohen. On a scale of 100 to 1, where 100 is fully protecting the president , mr. Cohen isnt he a one he said he told mr. Trump. Jay goldberg represented donald trump in what was the most important litigation of Donald Trumps life, until now, Donald Trumps first divorce. That was the case in which Donald Trumps first wife, and mother of his first three children, accused him of raping her during their marriage. Michael cohen was the ignorant lawyer who said, when the trump marital rape story was revisited during the president ial campaign, that it is legally impossible for a husband to rape his wife. Jay goldberg, who handled that case, an accomplished lit ga or the, knows better and successfully steered donald trump through what had already become a very messy scandalous divorce before jay goldberg became Donald Trumps lawyer. The wall street journal reports that the white house confirmed that President Trump did indeed pick up the phone and call jay goldberg seeking legal advice on friday. Friday. When Michael Cohen was foolishly hanging out in manhattan pretending not to be worried and Smoking Cigars at the same time Michael Cohens lawyers were trying to get the judge to block the fbi from reviewing documents received when they raided his home and office. During the case, judge wood was asking if Michael Cohen was a real lawyer and has clients that deserve attorney client. The most important client, donald trump, was on the phone with his old lawyer getting an earful of who and what he should be afraid of. Jay goldberg told the wall street journal that he told the president that because of the pressure the government can put on Michael Cohen there is more danger to the president from the cohen case than there is from special prosecutor Robert Muellers investigation. Mr. Golden said mr. Trump told him on friday that mr. Cohen is very strong. Jay goldberg wasnt buying that. In the call mr. Goldberg, a former prosecutor who represented mr. Trump in divorce and real estate matters said he stressed to the president that mr. Cohen could even agree to wear a wire and try to record conversations with mr. Trump. You have to be alert mr. Goldberg said he told the president , i dont care what michael says. Jay goldberg said that he warned the president not to submit to an interview with the special prosecutor. Mr. Goldberg said he also warned mr. Trump in the friday call about the risks of submitting to an interview with Robert Muellers office. He also said he recommended mr. Trump fire Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general who appointed mr. Mueller. Mr. Goldberg who is 85 years old, said he suggested mr. Trump add a well known new york lawyer to his legal team. The president then sought legal help in new york city and hired the law firm of spears and iams where his lead counsel is former federal prosecutor joana hendon. He said he warned mr. Trump against submitting to an interview with mr. Muellers team adding it is a certain trap, dont ever do it. Michael cohens because of his roll in silencing women who had stories to tell during the president ial campaign against donald trump, hes also being prosecuted for bank fraud and arranging a 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, arranging a 150,000 from National Enquirer to Karen Mcdougal. Michael cohen is being investigated because of stupidity. The stupidity of the schemes that he participated in and designed to silence those women. The National Inquirer is also being investigated because of the same stupidity. But the National Inquirer broke its stupid streak on this today, because today the National Inquirer dropped its case against Karen Mcdougal to force her silence. She is now free to tell her story of what she thought was a genuine love and sexual affair with donald trump that lasted about a year, beginning at the same time the president of the United States allegedly had sex with Stormy Daniels. A sexual encounter that the president has never actually denied. But the president did finally take to twitter today about Stormy Daniels for the very first time. And he did not deny having sex with Stormy Daniels. He did not deny being spanked by Stormy Daniels with a magazine that had a picture of him and his family on the cover. He did not deny telling Stormy Daniels that he lives in fear of sharks. He did not deny telling Stormy Daniels that he might put her on his tv show. He did not deny that he called and pursued Stormy Daniels for the better part of a year. Instead, the president tweeted about the sketch of the person Stormy Daniels says threatened her on behalf of donald trump several years ago, which was revealed yesterday on the view a sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A toll con job. Playing the Fake News Media for fools. Michael avenatti has said that hes now thinking of suing President Trump for liable. The legal quick sand that Michael Cohen is drowning in and dragging donald trump into was avoidable if Michael Cohen and donald trump followed my suggestion on this program several weeks ago and made the obvious choice to drop their civil case against Stormy Daniels. As the National Enquirer showed today, a civil case is something each side is in control of. At any moment, each side can decide to quit and let the other have its way. Thats what the National Enquirer did today. Better late than never. Karen mcdougals story is out there. And because Michael Cohen and donald trump couldnt see that, they have continued to try to put tooth paste back in the tube. Continued to pursue the Stormy Daniels case long after she had publically told her story. And they provoked the fbi raid on Michael Cohen that has Donald Trumps most trusted lawyer, jay goldberg, now telling him, he has more to fear in the Michael Cohen case than in the Robert Mueller investigation. Leading off our discussion now, john hileman, jennifer rubin, and judge sugarman. Professor sugarman i want to start with you on this matter. The National Enquirer found its way, finally, and late in the game, to doing the only thing that made sense for it, which is drop this case this civil case involving Karen Mcdougal. That doesnt do anything to slow down the federal criminal investigation which has already been provoked by all of this, but at least they got out of the way of the civil case that could put them into revealing things publically in the civil case that theyre going to have to reveal in the criminal case. Donald trump and Michael Cohen continue to make the same mistake on their sides of it, they havent dropped their civil case against Stormy Daniels, but at least they got out of the way of the civil case that could put them into revealing things publically in the civil case that theyre going to have to reveal in the criminal case. Donald trump and Michael Cohen continue to make the same mistake on their sides of it, they havent dropped their civil case against Stormy Daniels, which they should have done a long time ago. The big thing thats happening is you have a series of federal and state crimes happening in parallel. Michael cohen is facing what i list as 10 different areas of state crimes. And state crimes are unaffected by federal president ial pardons. And President Trump cannot fire state prosecutors. When i hear the story about the trump lawyer, goldberg, i think its obvious. Any lawyer will tell Michael Cohen, theres no pardon, firing that can save you. Whether its the Stormy Daniels that raises the bank fraud or false statements or whether its new york election law or new york obstruction of justice law, theres a top ten list that a new york prosecutor can start with and Michael Cohen is facing many years in state prison, not just federal prison. John hileman, the white house confirms that the president , while the judge wood hearing was going on on friday, picks up the phone calls the most trusted lawyer of his life, jay goldberg. And jay goldberg tells us he told the president , Michael Cohen will not stand up for you, i dont care what michael says. Yeah. Look, lawrence, the one heartening thing about this is jay goldberg represents the notion at some point in his life, donald trump hired actual lawyers who had actual brains in their heads and could make basic legal and strategic assumptions before hiring clowns like Michael Cohen who dont qualify as lawyers in any meaningful way. Jay goldberg is making the obvious observation. Its the same observation that Michael Avenatti, who ive been spending a lot of time with this week, ive been with him for the last three days, hes convinced, as goldberg is, that Michael Cohen who donald trump did not take him to washington d. C. When Michael Cohen wanted to go, that Michael Cohen, whos going to be looking at significant jail time in Michael Avenattis view and apparently in goldbergs view, that this man is going to stare down jail time and stand up for donald trump and say im going to go to prison rather than roll over on donald trump who has not treated me particularly well, has not stood up for me in this case, has done a series of things to screw me over in this case and didnt want to take me with him to d. C. The notion cohen is going to be the tough guy and take the prison time is lludicrous. When you have your former lawyer and fiercest opponent agreeing on a matter, its probably true. Jennifer, President Trump is surrounded by lawyers all day, he has ty cobb, the lawyers engaged to handle the special prosecutors investigation, whats left of them anyway, and his white house counsel. But he picks up the phone on friday when there is this extraordinary evidentiary hearing in federal court in new york city, provoked by Michael Cohen and the raid on Michael Cohen and he wants to talk to jay goldberg, and jay goldberg tells him, Michael Cohen not only will not stand up for you, Michael Cohen might wear a wire to entrap you. So jay goldberg who knows these players, is saying something in stronger terms than Michael Avenatti has ever used. I think Michael Avenatti is watching Michael Cohen from the similar distance of the rest of us and doesnt know him the way that jay goldberg knows this situation. Donald trump made that call because he values that advice and now donald trump has to consider that advice as he goes forward. I think he should pick up the phone and call somebody else. Jay goldberg should not have been blabbing to the wall street journal about the advice he gave his client. That is attorney client. So goldberg in my book is not behaving like a sane and sensible lawyer. Secondly he gave trump the worlds worst advice, suggesting he could choose not to sit down with special prosecutor Robert Mueller. That is false. Its not a choice. You can decide he doesnt want to cooperate, but eventually hell get a subpoena and eventually hell have to go talk to him. Im not sure what mr. Goldbergs game is, but donald trump should go out and get a real, real lawyer. Now as far as go ahead. As far as the advice for mr. Cohen, i think it is inconceivable that cohen doesnt know things that are going to help both the new york prosecutor and the special prosecutor. Remember, Michael Cohen was the one who was pursuing the trump tower in moscow deal. Felix saider is the one who lived in the building and helped funds Donald Trumps project. Michael cohen is the one who has the connection both to russia and the women. Hes the nexus for both these parallel scandals going on. I agree with john on this point, theres no way in heck, Michael Cohen is going to jail for anybody. So to the extent he knows both things that are going to be of interest to the special prosecutor, as well as things that may be of use to the new york prosecutors, he is a fairly important character. And donald trump, you forgot to mention, of course, who spoke to Michael Cohen on friday, another dumb move, because what is he doing talking to a key witness, is really, according to white house sources, everything we know has got donald trump absolutely panicked. Judge sugarman we know that the president did take jay goldbergs advice about getting solid new york lawyers to handle this. The president has Joanna Hendon handling the case, former federal prosecutor herself. But now to Michael Avenattis point, which is echoed by jay goldberg, that Michael Cohen will probably face charges in this, is that an assessment that you can almost bet on because of how high the bar is in getting search warrants to go after a lawyer. Its remarkable that the search warrant they had to go through attorney client, and get what they had. I would say given the news reports, just about the Campaign Finance, it was so clear that Michael Cohen was left under the bus, was thrown under the bus for a Campaign Finance violation we know this investigation was going on before that admission. Also theres a lot of reporting about Michael Cohens background, over a decade and all the work he was doing behind the scenes opinion it wouldnt be surprising if it was much more than Campaign Finance violations that prosecutors had solid probable cause for. John hileman go ahead. In the period of time that Michael Cohen has worked for the donald trump and the Trump Organization, its the period of time that the Trump Organization was on its Global Expansion spree. Weve read a lot about the fact that Michael Cohen was the one who engineered the letter of intent to put up a trump tower in moscow as late as october of 2015, when donald trump was an active p