. >>> michael cohen pled guilty under eight counts today. >> michael cohen of the president's fixer. >> if anybody else in his mind was going after his boss, he was going to fight back. >> and the keeper of his secrets. >> of all the individuals in trump's organization who knew where the bodies were buried, if you will, michael cohen was at the top of the list. >> swearing to do anything to protect the president. >> he told me he'd take a bullet for the president. >> an fbi changed everything. >> i just heard they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, frankly, a real disgrace. >> investigators seized e-mails, tax documents, and business records. >> and then another bomb shell, a taped conversation with the president leaked to the media. >> we'll have to pay him something. >> it is credible to believe that this was absolutely about hush money. >> now instead of being the president's problem solver, he's one of the president's biggest problems. >> good or bad? michael cohen would be bought of american history. >> when my call cohen arrived outside of federal court in m

this is sort of a returning to his roots moment for michael cohen many you rememb cohen. you will remember for many years he was a democrat and it was only after the election when the rnc wanted him to become a deputy campaign chairman that michael cohen switched back to becoming a republican. now michael cohen is a democrat and he is saying -- or is at least signaling he is willing to campaign for democrats against trump. >> amazing how things change. mj, thank you very much. >>> you know, gloria, remember how michael cohen used to speak about donald trump? we've got a clip. >> lovingly. >> let me play this. it is brief. >> one thing donald trump is, he's a compassionate man. he is a man of great intellect, great intuition and great abilities. >> mr. trump's memory is fantastic, and i've never come across a situation where mr. trump has said something that's not accurate. >> mr. trump truly cares about america. he loves this country. >> he's an amazing negotiator, maybe the best ever in the history of this world. >> well, he doesn't say that anymore. >> no, not the best

you have to talk to my personal lawyer michael cohen." by may you have giuliani on his first day on the job actually i implicating the president in what appears to be a campaign finance crime by saying it just wasn't illegal. the whole story is muddled from beginning to end. but that doesn't help either of them. the truth is michael cohen doesn't come out looking like the most credible person. nor does donald trump. but there's so much evidence that michael cohen was a fixer for donald trump and so many accusations around payoffs related to donald trump including that tape recording if you remember about karen mcdougal. >> that lanny davis played. >> that lanny davis played. certainly there's a lot of indication that this was the relationship between donald trump and michael cohen. what stands up in court is a different story, but we know michael cohen has been talking to investigators. >> as a former fed you know what you feds can do to people. eli stokols, can trump distance himself any more from cohen? has obviously just decided he's g

you have to talk to my personal lawyer michael cohen." by may you have giuliani on his first day on the job actually i am reply -- implicating the personal finance plan saying it wasn't legal. the whole story is muddled from beginning to end. michael cohen doesn't come out looking like the most credible person. nor does donald trump, but there is so much evidence that michael cohen was a fixer for donald trump and so many accusations related to playoffs, including that recording, if you remember, about karen mcdougal. this was the relationship between donald trump and michael cohen. what stands up in court is a different story, but we know michael cohen has been talking to investigators. >> eli, can trump distance himself any more from cohen? he has obviously just decided he's going to weaponize this witness. >> yeah, he's decided this is the response to all of the investigations, to fight these legal battles in the court of public opinion and to just trash everybody who is coming after him, and now that includes michael cohen. as maya sa

to michael cohen since and then went on to say that all the things that michael cohen, that got him in trouble, had nothing to do with him as the president, that they had to do -- they had to do with his other business dealings. that is not true, given that -- given what two of the charges michael cohen pleaded to regarded those payments, involvement with the president, but you know, he's correct that some of the other things that drew prosecutors' attention to him did not involve the president, but the question when it comes to those two payments the president denying that he had done anything wrong, michael cohen had a very different opinion sort of and the federal court had a very different opinion a couple months ago. >> harry, from a legal perspective, this michael cohen case is with the southern district of new york, where you used to work. does it say to you? >> we've seen the reporting that michael cohen's being meeting with prosecutors since he pled guilty, supposedly he's had 50 hours of meetings with prosecutors where they would be debriefing him about activities involvin

and john, president trump in accusing michael cohen of being a liar tells the lie that michael cohen with as just a sm player in his operation that had very little to do with donald trump. >> yes, barely knew him. it's hard to imagine he's had an opinion of michael cohen. he's heard of him none whatsoever. the only thing he said was he did very little legal work for donald trump because he's not really a lawyer. he also didn't do much pr work, although he did represent trump in the press to some extent. what he did for trump in the decade or so he worked for trump, not a little bit but a lot for many hours every day, and if you ever dealt with trump you knew michael cohen was the guy you had to talk to have any kind of interaction with donald trump. what he did was not legal work or pr work, but he was the guy who cleaned up donald trump's problems. the ray donovan guy, the guy who wept to moskow and many other countries around the world. is trump telling the truth michael cohen was not much of a lawyer for him? yes. is donald trump telling the truth about anything else related to mi

he was expecting michael cohen to be his fixer and sharing his innermost secrets with michael cohen. >> where do things stand now? there's two cases pending in los angeles. one of them has stayed, the other is proceeding, and we're going to find out more here in the next 60 days. >> thank you very much. i want to check in with chris, for what he's working on for cuomo prime time. >> many years ago at abc news, we did a team investigation into the net worth of donald trump, it was a real adventure in journali journalism. couldn't get anywhere near the number he wanted us to report. whenever we said we can't report that number. he threatened to sue. the new york times has fulfilled many of the dreams we had back then about getting access to things and getting a full picture. i've never seen anything like it. >> they worked a year and a half one of the reporters was telling me. >> the depth, the dimension, what it says about the truth about donald trump is something that has to be told. it took a long time to go through it, we're breaking it down. and we have a great guest to give us pe

. >> there are clearly things michael cohen knows no one else knows. >> reporter: tonight cohen is showing no signs of letting up from a dramatic split that is dramatic even by washington standards, between two men analysts say now have it in for each other. >> michael cohen is a guy bringing a knife to a fight. it doesn't often with donald trump. most people cave in and say to hell with it but cohen is bitterly apgry. it has affected his whole life. >> reporter: cnn's source says so far cohen has not had meaningful conversations with democratic leaders about hitting the campaign trail. analysts say it is not clear if any democratic candidates will want cohen to campaign for him because of all of his controversies and the fact he could soon be serving jail time. a spokesperson for the democratic national committee would not comment on the possibility of michael cohen campaigning for the democrats. wolf. >> interesting. cohen now has grudging support from someone he once was an enemy of, is that right? >> reporter: that's right. stormy daniels told don lemon for a long time she harbored ill

you've spoken to michael cohen, and you've spoken about this on air. he's back with the feds today. >> uh-huh. >> what do you see as the important part of this story? >> the important part of this story is that donald trump is frighten frightened, and that's obvious. there's something that donald trump may have forgotten about. there's an actual audiotape of him really telling michael what to do, directing michael. but this is donald trump, the sky is not blue. it's green. there's no reality to realness. michael is very clear on where he is right now. michael wants to be on the right side of history. michael is doing everything he can to help the mueller investigation. what is also an outright lie, because i dealt with trump, the trump organization, michael for ten years through business, through television. michael was donald's right-hand man. >> sure. >> other than his three children and probably more so than eric because eric was much younger, there was never an interaction i had with donald about anything where michael was not involves. michael was

. >>> "outfront" next, breaking news, michael cohen, the president's former fixer, meeting with state and federal investigators. what they're looking for from the president's former fixer. >>> also, breaking, expectations growing tonight that robert mueller is getting ready to deliver key findings from the russia investigation, possibly within weeks. >>> and the man taking on republican ted cruz comes out swinging. >> he's dishonest. it's why the president called him lying ted, and it's why the nickname stuck. >> but will the attacks work? stay with us. when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. to help you grow and protect your wealth. your company is and the decisions you make have far reaching implications. the right relationship with a corporate bank w

cohen, which michael cohen revealed -- and you mentioned michael avenatti -- all of this, michael cohen did reveal a lot about the president's hypocri hypocrisies and lies. when you think about all of this that everyone overlooks, that whole, like, the moral majority or the moral authority or we believe in this and we believe in the bible, and we believe what god says and all that, that is really olivia's word, b.s., because -- >> sorry. >> no, don't apologize. you said it. because it's obvious you don't believe in it because you continue to allow someone who goes against every principle that you have espoused in the past, and you accept it. so it means that it never really did mean anything to you. april? >> right. yes. there is such hypocrisy all over the board right now as we look at the republican party, as we look at this administration, as we look at religious leaders, as we look at even michael cohen. you know, michael cohen -- and let's look at that piece. michael cohen is right. go vote. no matter who you vote for, go vote. but at the same time, he's a man scorned, you know. th

he said that michael cohen was not in trouble for what he did for me. that actually is a false statement. he said that michael cohen was a very low-level public relations person. and that cohen wants to try to get a lighter sentence for what he did. that last part is very much true. that is what michael cohen is interested in right now. he wants to get a lighter sentence. he wants to protect his family, and clearly, he has decided one way to do that is to continue talking to investigators and tell them as much as he can about donald trump. >> when he pled guilty on august 21st, he imp kalted, as you said, the president in the crime, said he directed him to do this. as he's talking to prosecutors now about the president's personal business, his private sector businesses, is the implication he's discussing potential crimes by the president as well? >> we obviously don't know what kind of conversations are happening behind closed doors but that's one good guess. and we know that there's a lot potentially that michael cohen could say about donald trump's bu

michael cohen had found it. >> it was alluring to be in trump tower. this is a man who idolized him for years before he ended up working there. it was a dream come true. >>> coming up --

>> well, you would have to ask michael cohen. michael's my -- an attorney, and you would have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know, no. >> so we now know that's not true, either. that being said, nowhere in today's story is there any suggestion that any laws were broken, but it does paint a picture of a candidate willing to do anything to bury parts of his past and also involve his son in this. joining me now is stormy daniels' attorney, michael avenatti. all along, you were pointing out the inconsistencies. for instance, all along, you were pointing that michael cohen was representing himself as a trump organization attorney. you talked about this attorney who was involved in the arbitration, who also was a trump organization attorney. they were just saying stuff that wasn't true. >> the entire time. not only in the clips that you referenced, anderson, but there's a number of clips, five, six, seven clips from your own show, multiple shows, many, many months. they cons

if you told people who turn up in the michael cohen case materials that they're in the michael cohen case materials, that would screw up the ongoing investigation? and so those people don't -- really? so there's a lot going on in the michael cohen case we don't know about. with this filing today, we get a little more visibility into what we don't know into shoes that we didn't know were going to drop that are apparently going to drop in the future. >>> in addition to that, there is something going on in the special counsel's investigation right now that is a complete mystery. last week cnn was first to report in a couple paragraphs in an otherwise longer piece on a whole bunch of different subjects. they were first to mention in a report last week that there appeared to be some secret legal wrangling happening where mueller's grand jury sits in that jurisdiction. the judge overseeing that grand jury had apparently held two sealed hearings with prosecutors from mueller's team. it's a sealed hearing, so that means that no reporters, no member of the public can go in there and report on

. >>> and michael cohen is now just a p.r. person who did some small leg work. the president continues to downplay michael cohen's role and now accusing him of lying under oath. >>> if the republicans lose control of the house of representatives next month, the president makes it clear it's not his fault. your insurance rates skyrocket after a scratch so small you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i saw my leg did not look right. i landed. i was just finishing a ride. i felt this awful pain in my chest. i had a pe blood clot in my lung. i was scared. i had a dvt blood clot. having one really puts you in danger of having another. my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®. to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner

that's where michael cohen comes into play. that's where paul manafort comes mayo play, that's where people in the trump organization come into play. so mueller may release the findings on his report on collusion and obstruction of justice, but those court cases can unfurl much further than that. >> ai think collusion is going o be very big. >> you think they're going to find conspiracy. >> yeah, and obstruction. i don't know if it's enough to convict. trump got all alarmed this week, the witch hunt stuff and all of this. and that was after a story appeared that cohen spent 50 hours with justice people. trump accuses cohen of lying, right? >> he did lie for trump a lot. >> wait a second. but the lie he's accusing him of is saying trump was knowledgeable about the crime to which he pled guilty. the justice department has to believe that when they accept a plea that it's truthful. >> right. >> it's not like -- it's not some movie he flipped and he starts lying about it. so they have evidence that makes them believe that cohen was

and michael cohen has already made it clear he wants to go after president trump. he's -- we've heard from our sources telling mj lee that he is willing to campaign with democrats in this next cycle. this is all about michael cohen settling scores against someone who has burned him in a major way. and president trump continues to try to diminish him in the media in part because of this dynamic. >> you saw what the president said in an associated press interview earlier this week. basically, he was some low level pr guy. he had a little work, minor work, i barely knew the guy, although he spent ten years working with him. >> ten long years. michael cohen has made a decision he is going to protect himself and he is going to protect himself and he is going to go after president trump. i think it's also worth noting with regard to avenatti getting access to this material, unlike the feds, avenatti is much more likely to leak some of this information out and strategically place this information in the public space in order to embarrass the president. thing is the kind o

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have to talk to michael cohen. the president denies everything but in fact we know he was intimately involved. >> shepard: viewers may have a memory because sometimes information will trigger a memory on such things. remember the president was on air force one and he came back to where the press was. the press asked him about it and he said, you will have to ask my lawyer about that. veith five right, he acted like he never knew anything about it. >> shepard: the importance of who led this, it really can't be overstated because of the bigger investigation involved. >> michael: that's right. michael: pleaded guilty in setting court that the president had directed him to make this deal on the first place and also coordinate on karen mcdougall, a "playboy" model that had been paid by the "national enquirer" before the elections. that may still play out in other investigations that are ongoing. >> shepard: the president further made the argument that keeping things quiet about matters of this nature was done for the re

it's now low-level michael cohen. what the president said about his former fixer in his under oath testimony. stay with us. ♪ ignition sequence starts. 10... 9... guidance is internal. 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... ♪ the meeting of the executive finance committee is now in session. and... adjourned. business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. where people go to learn about their medicare options before they're on medicare. come on in. you're turning 65 soon? yep. and you're retiring at 67? that's the plan! it's also a great time to learn about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. here's why...medicare part b doesn't pay for everything. this part is up to you. a medicare supplement plan helps pay for some of what medicare doesn't. call unitedhealthcare insurance company today to request this free decision guide. and learn about t

what else -- >> why did michael cohen make it? >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney, and you will have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know, no. >> we already knew that the president was not being truthful when he gave that answer based on what we learned since then. the president's adviser have frequently said it is the stormy daniel's case that worry them more about the mueller probe. >> you see that people did ask michael cohen about it. now that he has worked out a deal with prosecutors, it is something that sources say really concerns the president and the administration, and it offers just one more example of what michael cohen may have that we don't know yet, right? it's michael cohen's name being thrown out there once again, dangling information that the president does not want the public to know. i also go back to the point about the significance of eric trump being involved because you see the administration and the president respond by saying, oh, i was talking to him in th

it is true michael cohen was not the chief lawyer in the trump organization and it is true that michael cohen was a spokesperson at times for the trump organization, and a part of the trump campaign. that's not what michael cohen's chief role was in the trump organization. we heard a conversation -- >> on the tapes you rare what his role was. >> they are literally talking about paying off women. >> the dirty work. >> i was in court the day that cohen pleaded guilty. it was voluntary for him to get up and say that he was directed by a candidate who was president trump to make these payments to women and the charge that he was pleading guilty to. he didn't have to say any of that. he had written down notes and got up out of his chair and read that he was directed by the president to make that payment. he was under oath. there is no reason why someone would be under oath and voluntarily lie in a court of law. the president is not under oath when he's giving this interview to the associated press. >> are you saying we should not take the president's denials at face value? >> has the preside

i take it, m.j., you had a chance to catch one michael cohen? tell us about that. >> reporter: that's right, we just cause up with michael cohen outside his manhattan home. even though a brief interview, his message was clear. he wants the american people to go out and vote against president trump. take a listen. >> reporter: how have you been doing? >> i'm okay. i'm okay. >> reporter: your lawyers say you're in and out a democrat. what made you do that? >> i've been a democrat pretty much my whole entire life. i switched because of the request from the rnc. >> reporter: and you tweeted over the weekend the election would be the most important. get out and vote. >> listen. here's my recommendation, grab your family u. year friends, your neighbors, get to the polls if not you'll have another two or six years of this craziness. make sure you vote. >> reporter: we know that you had meetings with investigators yesterday, anything about that? now, wolf, this was remarkable for a number of reasons. one of the reasons is he hasn't been openly talking t

no. >> why did michael cohen make that statement -- >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael's my, an attorney, and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> reporter: trump consistently denied any affair with daniels who spoke with anderson cooper about the allegationed encounter in march. >> you had sex with him? >> yes. >> you were 27. he was 60. were you physically attractsed to him? >> no. >> how do we know you're telling the truth? >> i have no reason to lie. >> reporter: coordinating the effort involving eric trump and an outside lawyer telling trump legal costs, don't worry, he told coen. i'll pay for everything. the "wall street journal" first reporting the story days later had a second phone call withen in the manhattan office and eric trump runs the organization with his brother don jr. signed off on the ar trags paperwork rosen's firm prepared. a person close to the situation told the "journal" eric acted as the president's son not as a company executive. essential consultantses llc allegations the hush money was not enforceable because daniels hadn't signed it

she mentioned michael cohen. so jewel yarks let's talk about michael cohen. i wonder how much trouble or maybe how worried the president should be because here is what the reporting is, right -- is that the administration or the president and his people are more concerned. their big concern really is what's happening in the southern district of new york. >> that's right. that would be untouchable by whatever, mostly untouchable by whatever changes might occur to rosenstein. i think for a long time, i guess michael cohen has been demoted to like, you know, caterer. i don't know what he is anymore. >> he's a freelance temp hired by a temp agency. >> right. >> came in to do a little stenography every once in a while. >> that's right. but whatever he was, he actually did have a lot of documents. those have been raided and those have been taken in fbi sweeps. that's going to have a lot of information about the sort of -- the business side of the trump legacy and the institution and the businesses. i will say, don't forget, michael cohen is also mentioned in the st

no. >> why did michael cohen make it? >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney, and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know, no. >> so there we have trump denying that he knew anything about this payment, and according to the journal, trump two months earlier was involved in directing cohen and his son eric trump to try to seek an arbitration to silence stormy daniels. so poppy, jim, we now see that the president did know about this in advance, and michael cohen pled guilty in august, he said he had paid stormy daniels at the direction of the president. >> right. all important points. cara, thank you for the reporting. >> the president was also being misleading because later he denied michael cohen worked for him much. minimizing his role. there, he confirmed he worked for him for years. >> new cnn polls show two crucial senate races are neck and neck with five weeks untidmidterms and the control of the senate hanging in the balance. we'll discuss that next. a bigger roo

they're talking to michael cohen. we may see more indictments once we get through the mid terms, and then we will see what is included in the report, whether the president is implicated in anything, his family is implicated in anything, whether others in his orbit are implicated in that. we are expecting it to come out before the end of the year. whether the american public will see it, or we will see it, that's a different question. >> go ahead, jeffrey. >> i was going to say under the regulation mueller was appointed under, that report goes to his supervisor, goes to rod rosenstein at the moment. but if rosenstein is gone, maybe noelle francisco, the solicitor general, will be the supervisor, and that person, whoever it turns out to be, will have to make the decision about what happens to the report, does congress see it, does the public see it. that decision is, of course, enormously important. >> how is the president, kaitlan, going to react? you cover the white house, to rod rosenstein saying the mueller investig

i spent about 10 hours with michael cohen. and he was largely unhelpful and didn't recall a lot of what was asked of him. but we still learned a lot in just 10 hours, where he was not cooperative. so i can only imagine what the mueller team has learned with 50 hours of full cooperation. >> and just to put a point on that, you're suggesting, you believe that he's far more forthright with mueller than he was originally when he was fighting with you guys? >> yeah, like many of the trump witnesses, you know, they had all learned the phrase, "i don't recall," and they tried to distance themselves as far away from donald trump as possible. you would think that they were all just, you know, pen pals and rarely interacted with each other from donald trump's body guy to his personal secretary, to michael cohen, but i imagine that 50 hours is, you know, coloring in a lot of the gaps that we weren't able to find. and we weren't able to press on, because republicans wouldn't use the subpoena power in our investigation. >> right. a lot goi

also with michael cohen. as you point out, he met with state and federal investigators to talk about the a trump family business, the charitable foundation, but he has met with mueller's team. we are not sure what they are cooperating on. we know that the special counsel had questions for them. who knows what kind of investigations or what other players they could provide intel on. >> is it clear at this point, you know, if this does end, whether some public report will actually be issued? there is no guarantee that there would be a public report by mueller, correct? >> exactly. there are plenty of americans who have watched this play out, who have heard us talk about this, who wonder what the special counsel and his team have been up to. the way the rules are written, the special counsel has to hand over a report to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. it's up to him to decide what he wants to make public. this will be a report that explains why mueller decided to prosecute the things he did and why he de

so michael cohen has spent a great deal of time wanting to share what he knows about his time in the trump organization, which is a lot. it is the kinds of e-mails that i reported about tonight. it is the kind of stuff that is very interesting to you and me, but it's also the kind of stuff that is clearly very interesting to investigators. and it is very clear for my reporting that there is nothing that cohen wants to hold back. there is nothing that he wants to protect the president from, nothing that he wants to protect the president's family from. he is interested in telling the truth and getting out there all the things that he was directed to do as an employee of the trump organization. and he doesn't want to leave anything out of those conversations. >> he doesn't have a cooperation agreement that requires him to do this. >> from my reporting, there is no cooperation agreement that has been struck. this is stuff that cohen is voluntarily telling investigators. >> and do you have any insight into why -- i mean, have -- i'm not a lawyer and i've never been in this situation perso

>> oh, absolutely, he's lying, and michael cohen was a p.r. person who die small legal work, very small legal work. he was not low level, he was not a p.r. guy, he was the president's right hand man in a lot of his dirty work. >> and that should credit john la mere who asked that specific question. michael cohen entered a federal plea deal saying that president trump directed these efforts to pay off women in the days before the 2016 campaign and the president is trying to distance himself from him. but the fact that he entered the deal, is testimony that the investigation team to take it seriously. so say that he was only a p.r. man, does not bear out with what we saw michael cohen do all those years. >> this is what the president does. actually to that point, when you asked about paul manafort, and the president said who, did he legitimately not hear the question or was it a stylistic -- >> that is a fair critique and i don't know. i can't say his goal there. he also read over and doubled down on his comments about stormy daniels. his tweets

so with michael cohen, why would he say that michael cohen was lying when he said that the president knew about and directed his actions with the payments of the women? why would he say that? >> i have no idea. the issues going on in the southe southern district of new york is beyond the perview of congress. >> he has to know i'm in possession of the tape that proves he knows what cohen was doing and endorsed it. >> yeah. i honestly have no idea what is going on in the southern district. if michael cohen is lying or telling the truth. it looks like michael cohen is a pretty od individual if you look at the way he threatened reporters and seemed like a tough guy when he wasn't. he's not somebody i'm a big fan of and not somebody that has a lot of credibility in the eyes of the american people. >> except he was doing what the president asked him to do. he would say it all the time. and you're right, it's not your perview. you're not handling that investigation. 100% true. but it's not about what is happening in the southern district. it's about what the president is saying about his la

>> reporter: we did just catch up with michael cohen outside his manhattan home. he had something to say, and that is that he wants the american people to vote donald trump out of the white house. >> reporter: a couple things i'd like to ask you. how are you doing? >> i'm okay. >> reporter: your lawyers said you're now a democrat. what made you do that? >> i was a democrat my entire life. i switched because of the request from the rnc, couldn't be the vice chair of the rnc and be a democrat. >> reporter: and you tweeted over the weekend that the upcoming elections will be the most important in our lifetime. up sa you said people should get out and vote. what did you mean? >> listen, here's my recommendation. grab your family, grab your friends, grab your neighbors. get to the years and get to the polls because if not you'll have another two to six years of this craziness. >> reporter: you had a meeting with investigators yesterday. anything about that? >> this interview was remarkable for a couple of reasons. michael cohen has not done an on-camera interview in a

the grand jury investigation into michael cohen is ongoing? even though he has pled guilty to eight felonies, he has reportedly spent more than 50 hours speaking with prosecutors in the special counsel's office in the southern district of new york and more since he pled guilty to those felonies. second of you'll, this filing says it's a grand jury investigation into michael cohen and others. what others? who are these other people who are the subject of an ongoing investigation in new york? we didn't know about that. then there's this. quote, unsealing of the materials at the present time would interfere with this investigation and implicate significant privacy concerns for numerous uncharged third parties named in the materials. oh, numerous uncharged third parties who are named, like who? well, there's this is probably the most revealing part of it. this footnote from the prosecutor's filing the governor has not notified the uncharged third parties that they were named in the materials, in part, because disclosure of that fact, to concern e

if michael cohen is lying or telling the truth. it looks like cohen is a pretty odd individual if you look at the way he threatened reporters and kind of seemed like a tough guy when he wasn't -- he's not somebody i'm a big fan of and not somebody that has a lot of credibility in the eyes of the american people. >> except he was doing what the president would ask him to do. but it's not about what's happening in the southern district. it's about what the president is saying about his lawyer and i can play a tape. i don't want to waste the time. you heard it on the show before. the president is not telling the truth when he says michael cohen lied about being told to do those things. that's all i'm asking about. are you okay with that? >> yeah, again, the context of the president's communications with michael cohen is something that i am not privy to. i do believe that rudy giuliani has made claims there was selective editing and not a full conversation to give us context of that discussion, but, again, i'm not one that has any uniq

michael cohen. >> trump pointed out michael cohen did. >> that's why he pointed the finger at donald trump that cohen pled guilty to. he has no choice but to say that cohen is lying under oath. we have heard that michael cohen has met with prosecutors from bob mueller's office and with the southern district of new york and the new york attorney general's office. that's the whole gammet of investigations going on. >> we don't know what he said. >> if he's met with them for 50 hours, which is what has been reported, he's got information they care about. if what he were to do is to say, you know what, donald was a good guy. he didn't do anything. he wasn't involved in anything. neither were his kids. the trump organization is on the up and up. that's a few hours. >> i don't think i have 50 hours worth of any information. >> what they likely are doing, particularly in the trump investigation run out of new york offices both federal and state, they are going back through years and years and years of materials and they have documents. they are showing them to michael cohen. this investigat

so since you said -- and you mentioned michael cohen. did you know, there's another twist. did you know the president's son eric trump was also involved in the effort to silence your client? >> i was not aware of that. but i'm not surprised by it. i think it goes to show how serious donald trump considered this and the steps that he was willing to take to cover this up. but, don, if you go back and look at the denials, and i've been on your show many times over the last six months and other shows we had david schwartz attempting to defend michael cohen and others. all of that was a bunch of nonsense. i mean, all of these folks were trotted out to lie to the american people and now come to find out, what we've been saying all along is true and that is that is donald trump was aware of the $130,000 payment and was doing everything in his power to cover it up including enlisting the help of his son. >> what does that say about someone they would enlist the help of their son to help pay off a mistress? is this open? number one, what does it say about the president? but number t

we had david swartz attempting to defend michael cohen and others. all of that was a bunch of nonsense. i mean, all of these folks were trotted out to lie to the american people and now come to find out, what we've been saying all along is true and that is that is donald trump was aware of the $130,000 payment and was doing everything in his power to cover it up including enlisting the help of his son. >> what does that say about someone they would enlist the help of their son to help pay off a mistress? is this open? number one, what does it say about the president? but number two, does this open eric trump, is he in legal jeopardy in any way? >> he could we'll be in legal jeopardy if he knew of this effort to silence her and had anything to do with the routing of the $130,000 payment. it further calls into question account involvement of the trump organization and what role the organization had in the $130,000 payment. there could be liability there, but the fact that he would enlist his own son, don, to assist in the cover-up of $130,000 payment t

a "michael cohen was a pr person who did small legal work, very small legal work. it's a very low level and what he was was also a public relations person.

of course, michael avenatti points out there's still another case pending against both michael cohen, essential consultants, then also of course donald trump. >> i want to stay on michael cohen because there's a "vanity fair" report out about him specifically that says despite not having a formal cooperation agreement with the government, cohen has willingly assisted and provided information critical to several ongoing investigations. we know he recently registered as a democrat. he's kind of doing this quiet tour around new york city. he's turned over a new leaf. he's a new guy. he's a good guy. what the heck is going on here? >> it's interesting -- >> doubling down on his civic duty. >> the claim against michael cohen steps from his statement essential that'll just because things aren't true don't mean they don't hurt, dot dot dot, i will always protect mr. trump, which as we can see now, there has been a marked change in that attitude. now, we may not know and probably do not know the full extent of any agreement, whether written or otherwise, that michael cohen has with the govern

president, what about michael cohen? mr. president, any comment on michael cohen? >> as the white house down-played the significance of the two cases, paul manafort's second trial in washington, d.c. loomed. on friday, september 14th with jury selection just days away, a stunning announcement. >> major breaking news this hour in the mueller investigation. president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort pleading guilty today to two charges. >> paul manafort reached a plea deal with prosecutors agreeing to cooperate fully and truthfully in the special counsel's probe. the former trump insider pleaded guilty to two charges, conspiracy against the united states and conspiracy to obstruct justice. >> the conspiracy against the united states charge encompassed the bank fraud, tax fraud. the obstruction count had to do with his alleged witness tampering more recently where he reached out to witnesses to get them to change their stories. >> it deal required manafort to forfeit ill-gotten gains made through his garage lnt schemes. five new york properties in total,

the trump organization and finances there, and when michael cohen is in the news the president can't help but comment about it. listen to what the president told the associated press. he was not in trouble for what he did for me, but what he did for other people. he represented me little, it's a very low level -- i am having a hard time reading this because it's not complete sentences. now if he wants to try and get a little lighter sentence for what he did, dot, dot, dot, totally uninvolved. of course the problem with that is that michael cohen pleaded guilty to something he did do for the president, paying off women to stay quiet about their alleged affairs and he testified in open court that he did it at the behest of the president. >> also, don't forget the president says he is lying. >> which time? >> he's absolutely lying, and even though before he said he was a small time pr. >> yeah, paul manafort had nothing to do with his campaign, and now michael cohen, he spoke to him while on air force one, but barely knew the guy. that's just what we are going to be confronting, the pre

in june trump told reporters that he always liked michael cohen. and the month before, trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani defended cohen as a quote honest, honorable lawyer. when you put these together, stormy together with michael cohen and the category we have created on "morning joe" where we can't be surprised but we can continue to be disgusted by the things we hear. with michael cohen, it's absurd the way he is running away from him. >> i do hope i never stop being surprised because we shouldn't forget that these things should be surprising from the president of the united states. i think it is noteworthy, we have gone several weeks without the president focussed in on kind of this piece of the universe that we are living in. the russia probe had been on the back burner in the face of our conversations about kavanaugh and other issues. i think it is pretty clear here that the president recognizes, what does he do some when something is a threat to him? he tries to minimize it in public. i think it is telling that he is doing this now. >>