People have made to congress to buttress the russian side of the collusion investigation. Thank you for that. We thank you for watching this hour of msnbc live throughout, i mean, from the very beginning craig melvin whos about to pick up our coverage from the day that Robert Mueller was appointed thrappoin appointed, this story has never been far from the headlines. Among these many days, this is huge. This is an infection pointing deep. Were going to continue our coverage. Good morning, craig melvin, msnbc headquarters here in new york city. That Breaking News on the Mueller Investigation is where we start. Shortly before President Trump left for his meeting with World Leaders in argentina, last hour just a few moments ago he called his onetime attorney and fixer Michael Cohen a quote, weak person, who is lying. Cohen made a surprise appearance in a Federal Courtroom in manhattan this morning. He named the president. He named President Trump in a shocking new plea deal involving Trum
about his entire adult life, which is money. real estate projects. that seems to have been like he didn t want to get on the president s, russian president s vladimir putin s bad side when he was campaigning for president. it s really telling that in the court documents, michael cohen said he wanted to wait for any potential trip that donald trump was going to take to russia until after he actually became the formal nominee for president suggesting that he thought that donald trump s position there could provide further leverage to make this deal actually happen, and that s one of the things that he lied apparently to congress about saying that this all happened before the iowa caucuses, before donald trump was actually the presumed nominee. so there is a lot here, but i think that one of the biggest, again, takeaways is that the president was actively pursuing a business deal in russia during the 2016 election, which is a major conflict of interest. like ken said it was not made known
pled guilty to charges brought by the special counsel s office. in august you ll remember that cohen pled guilty to federal prosecutors who oversee the southern district of new york. those charges involved tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. today the special counsel landed a guilty plea for lying to congress. the president lashing out at the special counsel s investigation just hours before that new plea deal was announced. one read in part, quote, did you ever see an investigation more in search of a crime? here to break it all down for us, top of the hour nbc s intelligence national security ken delaney, ari melber is with us, and natasha bertrand has been closely following the russia investigation since it started. let me start with you. cohen naming the president in the indictment, tell us a little bit more about that ari melber.
cohen continues to respond and provide truthful information regarding any and all manners as to which this office deems relevant. what does that mean, ken? it means, craig, and i m grateful to tom for buttoning that up for us. it means that michael cohen is now working for robert mueller. we said this about paul manafort, right, and that turned out not to be the case in the end, but tom reports that inside the courtroom michael cohen seemed absolutely serene, at peace, understanding what was happening. in contrast to his previous appearance where he pleaded guilty to those campaign finance and fraud charges where he seemed very rattled. this is a man and in his public appearances and interviews in the months since that time, he has seemed to be at peace with his decision to tell the truth, to cooperate with the mueller inquiry, and go where that takes him, even if it s hostile to the interests of the man he once said he would take a bullet for.
that he does not expect a plea deal, that he does not expect a pardon, that he does not want a pardon, and he has said his loyalty is to the country, not to the president. this is someone who as ken said earlier, he has said he would take a bullet for the president. that s a complete 180. i can imagine it s really freaked out the president. according to my sources, michael cohen has not been sharing any information with the president s legal team. there has been no joint defense agreement. there never was between him and the president. that also has left trump s legal team in the dark. so i think the fact that cohen now has just gone all in on his cooperation with mueller, something that the president sees as, you know, a betrayal, but as anyone else would see as, you know, cooperating with law enforcement authorities has really rattled him, and of course he s about to go on this big trip where he will be preoccupied meeting with among many other leaders the russian president, so he wo