Analysis and discussion of the days top stories and compelling issues from Lawrence ODonnell. Presidency took a giant step toward impeachment. It happened in a courtroom in manhattan when these words were spoken. At the direction of, meaning at the direction of the president of the United States. And when a defendant is Pleading Guilty in court, it is very difficult for the defendant to Say Something more important than the word guilty. Thats usually the most important word a defendant speaks during a guilty plea session. But today in Federal Court in manhattan Michael Cohen said guilty, your honor eight times and hes also said at the direction of twice. And both times he meant at the direction of the president of the United States. And so today donald trump made history by becoming the first president of the United States to be accused under oath in Federal Court of ordering someone to commit a federal crime to win a president ial election. At the direction of. Have to be illegally pu
Sentence in this case and you agree to cooperate. And i think from Robert Muellers perspective it would be worth it because even if Paul Manafort doesnt have anything incriminating i think Robert Muellers quest is to get to the truth and Paul Manafort certainly knows a lot of what happened. He was present at that june 2016 meeting at trump tower. He has all the connections with the russians and the ukrainians and so it seems that hes in a position to know a lot of what was happening with regard to any connections with russia. So i think we might see that. Barbara mcquade, former u. S. Attorney in michigan. Thank you, barb. Really good to have you here tonight. Thanks, rachel. What a day. That does it for us for right this second. See you again tomorrow. Now its time for The Last Word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, lawrence. Good evening, rachel. And i was so struck by your interview with lanny davis which is making news in that last hour. Not only did he tell you that Michael Co
developments in mr. cohen s plea agreement will not preclude him from an appearance before our committee as needed for ongoing investigation. john heilemann, not surprisingly, they d like to hear from him again. not surprisingly at all. and look, i mean, there s obviously going to be a lot of focus now, there already has been a lot on michael cohen. i do think it s important, we re seeing this reporting coming out, maggie haberman, you cited the tweet earlier where she says the white house is now much more focused on impeachment than it was before. and i think it s important to understand part of why. they have spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort since may of last year trying to discredit the special counsel, trying to discredit the deep state, now trying to discredit john brennan. all these people who relate to the thing the president likes to talk-b which is the collusion issue, the russia story. again, we all think that s a legitimate story but they ve spent a lot o
significant period of time. your reaction to rudy giuliani. you know, lawrence, it just gets more comical by the day. i mean, the truth isn t the truth. this is if you look at the statement, it s a parsed statement. he s playing word games relating to government charges. the american people can read these documents that are available online. you ve noted them tonight. it s clear as day what michael cohen has said, that the president told him and conspired him to do these acts. and the sequence in the courtroom today, the prosecutor said it first. the prosecutor made a presentation saying that this was done at the direction of the candidate and michael cohen said it even more emphatically with his own words when it was his turn.