Katy Tur hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Counsel. How much specificity would we get here in seeing a plea deal . Would there be things that are sort of kept from public view or would it be pretty clear what the guts are here . I dont think the first filing i dont think will reveal everything. In other words, i think the first filing, announcing the plea deal and that sort of thing is probably not going to spell out in great detail exactly what Information Cohen has to provide. We may have to await several weeks, several months down the road to find out the full scope of his cooperation and the full breadth of his information. Kristen welker, i think we have you standing by as well. The other aspect of this, we set this up at the top, Michael Cohen so close to donald trump for so long, that famous line where he said he would take a bullet for donald trump. Obviously in the last few weeks, yes, it sounds like hes been telegraphing this possi
from that and what s the timeline we might see it? well, joy, technically it s due by midnight, but i m told there are some technical glitches involving redactions, so the document may have been filed but the judge still needs to approve mueller-proposed redactions so we may not see it in the file tonight. in terms of the michael cohen reporting, i m pleased to tell you nbc news has confirmed much of that reporting tonight, joy. multiple sources tell us that cohen did in fact meet with southern district prosecutors. he s providing them information relevant to their investigations into the trump organization and the trauma inaugural committee and he s doing it, joy, because he s looking for a sentencing break. don t forget he s already been sentenced to three years in prison. he s due to report in a couple of months and but the prosecutors can still ask a judge to reduce that sentence if they decide that he has cooperated. and that s what he s trying to do now. and we have learned t
lumped in with bank fraud and tax fraud. we re looking at a number of years in jail that michael cohen would be facing. we re sitting here about an hour and a half before the guilty plea, steve, when we will know the answer whether or not this is a cooperation agreement or a plea agreement. just to explain it a little bit, because i think people just assume that all plea agreements are cooperation agreements. that is not at all the case. most plea agreements are simply a defendant going to court and admitting to the crimes. he gets a little bit of a sentencing break for doing that and not putting the government to the test of a trial. a cooperation agreement is a different thing which requires many meetings between the doeft and t defendant and the prosecution and evaluating that individual to determine whether they want to offer him a cooperation agreement. as part of the cooperation agreement process, generally people have to admit to every crime they committed which is
who both prosecuted and defended individuals in similar circumstanc circumstances. but let s start with what we know. we know that michael flynn pled guilty we know he did so pursuant to a written agreement. we know that he will cooperate. and that he will get a sentencing break so long as he fulfills his end of the bargain. and we know he pled guilty to the felony of falsehood which will make his credibility problematic, in front of any jury that may evaluate his testimony. that s what we know. now in the realm of my own legal analysis, here s some observations, it occurs to me that if they had something else on flynn, they would probably have charged him with it. because this former three-star general is now an admitted liar. and from the standpoint of his use as a future witness, he would be better off having admitted to kidnapping than lying. a defense lawyer in the future will have a field day based on what flynn has admitted to.
national security adviser pled guilty to lying to the fbi about the conversations with the russia ambassador and disclosed that he s cooperating with a special counsel s office. in a moment, i ll welcome someone who both prosecuted and defended individuals in similar circumstances. but let s start with what we know. we know that michael flynn pled guilty. we know that he did so pursuant to a written agreement. we know that he will cooperate and that he will get a sentencing break, so long as he fulfills his end of the bargain. and we know he pled guilty to the felony of falsehood which would make his credibility problematic in front of any jury that may evaluate his testimony. that s what we know. now, in the realm of my own legal analysis, here s some observations. it occurs to me that if they had something else on flynn, it would probably have charged him with it because this former three-star general is now an admitted liar. and from the standpoint of his use as a future witness, he