Indepth interviews with leading newsmakers, plus discussions with Americas preeminent political minds. Important meeting because i never even heard that. As far as you know, this is all of it. This is everything. This is everything. All right. So who do you believe . Joining me now to break this down, former state Department Senior adviser. Paul butler, Professor Of Law at georgetown law school. Former fbi agent. Clint watts author of messing with the enemy. David k johnson and former watergate prosecutor. Wow, we just have an embarrassment of riches. Im going to go Around The Horn and talk about. Im going to start with you paul. Just on how this changes the legal case. Trump tower meeting. June 3. Donald trump jr. Gets email from Rob Goldstone saying moscow supports his fathers candidacy. He responded if its what you say it is, i love it. Trump junior and goldstone finalize a date. Same day trump teases this major speech. June 8 russian intelligence
these are places where he should be
Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Government had informed state Election Officials that russians tried to target Election Systems in 21 states in the leadup to the 2016 election. Of course, the other thing we know the u. S. Deterrence campaign isnt working based on the reporting of the daily beast that russians trying to infiltrate the emails of staffers of senator claire mccaskill. They were sunsuccessful. Thats why they say there need tos to be a coheercherent strategy can i ask you, though, about the mood in that building behind you there, geoff. In terms of the headlines that involve former trump Attorney Michael Cohen and the Trump Tower Meeting and russia and his allegations that President Trump knew about that meeting in advance. Whats the mood there . Reporter well, a source close to the president described
that is a crime. And it also opens up all sorts of possibilities because, if the president knew that the russians were
Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. He was indicted for payments made to a mistress, how much stronger would an Election Fraud kbas in this instance if you throw in cohens testimony . They tell me it would be much stronger for the following reasons. They say these were not made to the campaign, they were made to keep them from john edwards wife. Michael cohen prepared to go into court and say yes, these payments were related to the campaign. Motherover the payments from john edwards were two years before he ran for president. These happened just a few months before the election, and there is a tape now where it is being made clear to him that this
Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Tower in 2016. This contradicts the president and juniors accounts, so if this is a true, how damaging could this be . Im not sure how big of a deal it would be when it comes legally i think there could
Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. If this is a he said she said situation like hallie just put it who has more credibility . President trump or Michael Cohen . Well it depends on who you support, but look, i think in terms of credibility for the purposes of the investigation, bob mueller isnt going to look at that. Hes going to look at what the facts are. And whats interesting here about this is that there is no recording of this particular incident like there was with other incidents. Now, Michael Cohens attorney, a former clintonite has really pushed out that Michael Cohen is now fully cooperating with with the investigation and with investigators. Whats interesting is that yesterday at the white house, and all week at the white house has hallie just alluded to, the president has not issued any type of direct comment on these latest allegations. Thats unique. And until he does about whether or not he did in fact, have knowledge of that june 2016
Here is Rudy Giuliani, President Trumps attorney in an interview this morning. We know of Something Like 183 unique conversations. That are on tape. One involving the president. There are 12 others, maybe 11 or 12 others out of 183 in which the president is discussed at any length by cohen, mostly with reporters. All clearly corroborating what the president has said in detail on many of those tweets. He didnt know about the payments to either one. He only found out later. Cohen made them not for the kpa campaign. Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Hes been saying that for a few days. Hes been backtracking from Last Night On Whether The Cohen Tape was doctored. There is way to define this strategy from Rudy Giuliani or does it make sense to you. How can anybody know the truth here. I think its baffling. A lot of observers have expressed concern over the strategy. Jay has gone on the record saying ta Rudy Giuliani is doing the preside