donald trump jr. michael cohen says that he and all the other people there then heard donald trump sr. assent to the meeting and say it should go forward. he approved it happening. if that's the case, this is -- this is very serious, not just in terms of what this means about michael cohen's case and who is leaking what. this could be a very serious criminal matter for the president. >> and immediate perjury case for the likes of congress for donald trump jr. because he told one of the congressional committees that he absolutely never ever told his father about this meeting. >> right. and, so, perjury claims, the question of who spoken to the special counsel, who has been interviewed. that will all become important here, as will the specific nature of what the then candidate now president was advised as to what those russians were bringing. if he was advised, they got her e-mails, this was hacked information. if he was advised this was stuff the russian government somehow obtained by criminal means, t

. >> reporter: donald trump jr. and the special counsel are making news today for the most random of reasons that perhaps could only happen here in washington, d.c. a photo emerged in politico of them at the same airport today. you can see donald trump jr. there in the hat, the special counsel at the gate. peter carr, a spokesman for the special counsel and doesn't often put out statements said that's mr. mueller waiting to board a flight. if that's donald trump jr., mr. mueller was not aware of him and had no interaction with him. it's a very small town, jim. >> thank you very much. >>> joining me now is congressman cisil ni. thank you for tabling the time on this friday. >> my pleasure. >> in light of cnn's reporting here and the president's denial today, essentially you have michael cohen, the president's long-time former attorney and fixer and the president in a he said/he said situation. who do you trust, cohen or trump? >> well, i think first of all, we should understand that mr. mueller has a lot more informa

donald trump, jr., and his father talked about donald trump, jr.'s work on behalf of the campaign throughout the pendency of the campaign. and of course there were the actions donald trump took after the meeting was exposed in his efforts to try and cover up the meeting by trying to dictate the statement that donald trump, jr., gave to the press. it's not really a surprise, but now is the time for michael cohen to cooperate with bob mueller. and if this was a real investigation on the house side, we would be bringing michael cohen and donald trump, jr., back in. but unfortunately the republicans prematurely and irresponsibly ended our investigation. so this is all on mueller now. >> matt miller, talk about the optics of this. if this really is evidence of collusion, why put it out this way? why put it out in the media instead of sharing it with people investigating collusion with russia? >> it's a great question. it's hard to answer for sure because we don't know who this came from. we don't know if it came from michael cohen where you would presume

verses of donald trump jr. said and sarah sanders, at some point all those stories don't match, all of those stories will be in trouble. a lot of these investigative situations, people don't go line for the over line crime, they go down for an under line obstruction or perjury or lying to committee or something like that. this whole thing has been unfolding. that's what i have been wondering about. who has said what to what committee or under oath. >> let's just put aside tonight's breaking news and you consider the different story that's been told of this meeting and they denied he had anything to do of the drafting and hope hicks and on and on. do you believe any of this at this point? their explanations. do you believe the president did not know anything about this meeting? >> i don't know who to believe. i heard a lot of explanations about this meeting and shifting stories. i don't find several of the people involved in it and credible of what they have said. i don't know what to believe. i do know this. wh

by donald trump jr., his son. by cohen's account, trump approved going ahead with that meeting with the russians. i should note, don, cohen does not have evidence such as audio recordings to corroborate this claim. i should also add that a source familiar with cohen's house testimony -- remember he testified on the hill -- said he did not testify at that time that trump had advance knowledge and the reports filed by republicans and democrats on that house intelligence committee did not mention these claims. >> okay. so then what about the president's side? what's the response? >> so we reached out to everyone involved here. let's start with the attorney for donald trump jr. he tells cnn, i'm quoting, donald trump jr. has been professional and responsible throughout the mueller and congressional investigations. we are very confident in the accuracy and reliability of the information that has been provided by mr. trump jr. and on his behalf. attorneys, that is lanny davis. we also contacted one of cohen's attorneys,

donald trump jr., does anyone believe donald trump jr. is going to take a meeting like this and not tell his father? i don't know him. but i have seen him. when he testifies donald trump jr., before it's the house intel. he alleges and some attorney client privilege. there's no lawyer in the room. he claims that stage he can't talk about it because there was a lawyer in the room. we don't know who it was. we know michael cohen was still donald trumps lawyer. june 9, everyone. that's the date that everyone is focussed on. >> think about it. i have gone to trump tower. there's different floors. the configuration is everyone's office is in a row. with glass. you can see. and then right in the middle when you walk in the conference room, at least where they conduct business. the conference room is right by the elevator and the entrance. everyone can see everything. david, take a look at what rudy giuliani said. about michael cohen. to chris. watch this. >> the man is a liar. a proven liar. there's no way you'll bring down the president of the

"donald trump jr. has been professional and responsible throughout the mueller and congressional investigations." i will go to how quickly this story has moved. here we are at the end of july, these two sides are at open war and one may be cooperating with the mueller investigation and those are big tectonic changes. >> ken, as a reminder to our viewers and listeners here, trump and their camp has consistently denied that then candidate trump knew. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i would not remembered it until you start scouring through this stuff? >> did you know at the time? >> no, i did not know anything at the time. >> the president says he became aware of it recently right before this came out. that was when he was notified. >> it must have been an important meeting because i never heard of it. >> this incident, this is all of it. >> this is everything. assuming that cohen is telling the truth here, ken, he's willing to testify

when donald trump jr. informed trump of the russian offer and that trump gave the go ahead to have the meeting. the bombshell claim directly contradicts what donald trump jr. told investigator last year. asked by the senate judiciary committee, did you inform your father about the meeting or the underlying offer prior to the meeting? trump jr. responded, no, i did not. he also said he did not know the identity of the person he called three times before and after the meeting. and whose number was blocked. the news also calls into question cohen's own testimony before congress and the past public statements. a source tells cnn that cohen did not tell the house intelligence committee last year that trump had advance knowledge of the meeting. after trump jr. said he didn't tell his father about the meeting -- >> there was nothing to tell. >> reporter: -- cohen tweeted, so glad he was so honest and transparent with the american people. and pushed back on the long-time fixer. i did not know of the meeting with m

donald trump jr.'s lawyer, he told cnn that donald trump jr. has been professional and responsible through the the mueller investigation. we are confident of the accuracy and the information that was relied on mr. trump jr. and on his behalf. he declined to comment. you remember this on chris cuo o cuomo's show. he attacked cohen's credibility. >> right, that he's been lying all week and for years. >> jack, if this coalition is truth, was there a crime committee? >> well, if this can be demonstrated or come rated. the narrative that the trump campaign was not willing and eager to get the support of foreign powers including adversary like russia. it would provide a motive for obstruction case if this was proven to be true. i think there is a step back for a moment and put this into context of an investigation that is also focusing on the fact that the president invited rush that to come off with the 30,000 hillary clinton e-mails, subsequent attack on her personal servers. and subsequent on dnc and the clinton campaign and the release of those t

and what we established was that donald trump jr. often relayed to his father the most minute information that was coming from the campaign. so, again, to suggest that he wouldn't bring to his father something as powerful as the russians seeking to help his campaign and hurt his opponent, it's just -- it doesn't add up. >> yeah. congressman swalwell, thanks so much. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >>> more now on the many legal implications for the president, his son, and michael cohen. joining us are carrie cordero and asha rangappa. carrie, the president has never been under oath about this. so i mean if michael cohen not only tells this to robert mueller but also has people who can corroborate it, legally speaking is there any risk for the president? >> well, there's risk in terms of the broader russia investigation. so a lot of times we talk about collusion. >> right. >> but what that really means if we want to translate it into the legal framework is conspiracy. and it's very clear that the mueller investigation is conducting a b

when donald trump jr. informed trump of the russian offer and that trump gave the go ahead to have the meeting. the bombshell claim directly contradicts what trump junior told congressional investigators last year. asked by the senate judiciary committee, did you inform your father about the meeting or the underlying offer prior to the meeting, trump junior responded, no, i did not. he also said he did not know the identity of the person he called three times before and after that meeting. and whose number was blocked. and whether that person was his father. the news also calls into question cohen's own testimony before congress and his past public statements. a source tells cnn that cohen did not tell the house intelligence committee last year that trump had advance knowledge of the meeting. after trump junior said he did not tell his father about the meeting -- >> there was nothing to tell. >> reporter: -- cohen tweeted, so brought of donald trump jr. for being open, honest and transparent to the america

donald trump jr. in 2016. >> mr. president, did you know about the meeting at trump tower? >> reporter: but his only response has come on twitter. i did not know of the meeting with my son, don junior. then suggests a motive for cohen under investigation. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jab. amid the controversy, the white house is celebrating. new signs the economy is thriving. >> we're on track to hit the highest annual average growth rate in over 13 years. >> reporter: and, alex, sometimes there is just the unusual situation of two figures well known being in a space where you might not expect them and that happens from time to time at washington's reagan national airport and on friday politico captured an image showing special counsel robert mueller waiting in gate 35x. a number of different destinations in the same location in the waiting area. so robert mueller seated there in the lower left frame and in the upper right side of t

we found in our investigation that donald trump and donald trump jr. talked every day by phone, in person, about the most minute details of the campaign. it is hard to believe that donald trump jr. would not have told his father about it. it is actually stranger if that is what occurred. >> so finally, is this the blue print for what would you do with subpoena power after the mid terms? donald trump jr. and the other staff? and what do you say to people who feel like, that would be two more years of fixating on 2016 election events? >> our investigations should always be about the future. we look back to inform us as to how we can best protect our democracy from something like the happening again. pling schiff has that, and i agree, if bob mueller's investigation and the senate investigation are not able to produce reforms going forward, of course we'll do our duty and go back and see what is unanswered. if they do their job and bob mueller can tell the country what happened, i don't think we want to reopen it. it is also not too late for republicans s

he says donald trump jr. actually told his father about that trump tower meeting in new york city with the russians in advance. but that's not what we hear, what donald trump jr. told your committee, the judiciary committee. is that right? >> that is correct. and there is mounting evidence that donald trump jr. misled or even more likely, perjured himself before our committee and possibly other committees because he denied telling his father about that meeting before it happened. remember, this meeting was critical. it was the meeting in trump tower that was supposed to be the opportunity to get dirt on hillary clinton from natalia veselnitskaya and other russian agents, and if he is correct, michael cohen, and donald trump, father, knew about this meeting beforehand, it certainly is very compelling evidence. >> because if you lie before a congressional committee, even if it's behind closed doors, that's a crime. >> it is a crime, and donald trump jr. is in increasing jeopardy of being prosecutable for that k

when donald trump jr. was asked about questions about the june meeting he refused to answer and the republicans did not want to subpoena him to compel him so they didn't want to know. it was a take them at their word investigation, which i think we are now seeing was so irresponsible because we're learning more and more every day. i'm an optimist, though. i still believe in the goodness of people and it's never too late to do the right thing. if people at home tell their representatives at home this is wrong, we should show what happened and there's still an opportunity to reopen this investigation, we can still do that and i think people should tell their representatives on the intel committee they expect that. >> why do you think the trump tower meeting has proved so problematic for the trump team to get their stories straight? >> well, it's not about what donald trump did with that meeting. i think what is significant is what he did not do. if he knew that the meeting was to take place, he did not tell

donald trump jr. formally accepted that meeting, candidate trump touted a big upcoming speech about hillary clinton. >> i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons. i think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. >> candidate trump did not make that monday speech. as trump now repeated his denials about any advanced knowledge of the meeting, it's critical to note this is a meeting that team trump already lied about. his own lawyers up and admitting to mueller trump dictated that misleading statement about the meeting originally. first they lied about what happened in the meeting, then they lied about trump's defense of the meeting which he was choosing to offer even though he also claimed he didn't know anything about the meeting. now the question is whether trump lied about the worst possible thing, not the pr afterward, but whether donald trump took actions or

of course, wolf, the lawyer for donald trump jr. is trying to tamp down stories precipated by -- precipated by this. >> you lie to congress, that's a crime. >> exactly. we'll see what happens. thank you very much. joining us, mazie horona, senator, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> you know president trump has repeatedly claimed there was no collusion, now his lawyer rudy guiliani is arguing collusion isn't even a crime necessarily, so what does that signal to you? >> i think that the news is closing. guiliani is like a loose cannon, so is the president frankly. conspiracy is a crime and obstruction of justice is a crime. and it all points to how important it is for the mueller investigation to continue. >> donald trump jr.'s lawyer you just heard says they are fully confident the accuracy and reliability of the information that has been provided by donald trump jr. and various investigations, based on what we've learned, do you think that reflects the information he provided to your committee during his q and a session? >>

it just seems to me that if you're donald trump jr. and you get this e-mail informing you that the russian government is supporting your dad's campaign, that would seem to me to be a pretty big deal to not inform your dad about. that's what the e-mail said. the russians are supporting your dad's campaign. that's a major thing. you would think if i'm donald trump and somebody in my campaign gets that e-mail and they don't tell me about it i would be surprised and angered, i would think. >> really? i don't know. i've seen a lot of campaign associates, campaign consultants from both sides of the aisle, we would never talk to a foreign government, you just don't do that. first of all, there's no law on that. the fec is clear on that. i would have accepted that meeting because they were talking about a sealed indictment in a russian court about hillary clinton. sealed indictments have been released in the past during campaigns. you recall in 2004 there was a stat senat state senator in illinois who was running against a republican who had a

and donald trump jr. who between with the two of them have denied the president's knowledge of the meeting nine times. >> oh, it's a political problem to be sure, but i don't think it's a legal problem. even if the president knew of the meeting, knew exactly the role of the woman who was there that she was representing the russian government, and even knew that they were going to go to try to collect dirt that had already been gotten by the russians on hillary clinton, that would be a political sin, but it wouldn't be a federal crime. and i think if this is the best that cohen has to offer, i don't think he's going to be given immunity by the federal prosecutors. he may have to compose and not only sing to get that because this isn't very much from a legal point of view. it's a big deal from a political and public relations point of view, but legally it's a 3 on a scale of 10 maybe. >> what's also interesting about cohen's story on this, and again, if it turns out to be true, he claims there are other peo

the problem here is that donald trump jr. has a history of making false and misleading statements about this infamous trump tower meeting. he said he had no role in setting up a meeting with russian nationals that were relevant to the campaign. that, of course, was not true. he then said the meeting was all about this issue of russian adoptions which also trned out not to be true when the e-mail came out showing this was about the transfer of the damaging information about hillary clinton's campaign. they stand by the credibility of the information that donald trump jr. provided to the congress ap committee. lying to congress is a crime that comes with up to five years in prison. >> let's keep our focus on capitol hill. there were two dualing reports on russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. let me read a little bit here from the minority report. the one prepared by democrats on the committee. while the committee has not pursued leads to determine who called trump junior at this time from a blocked number, co

donald trump and the people around him, certainly his son have said that donald trump, jr., the candidate, didn't know about this trump tower meeting, was never informed of it in advance or not even immediately afterward. this suggests that that's not true. is michael cohen telling the truth about this? >> but if he is, then what is president trump guilty of? what crime? >> well, i don't know what he is guilty of. it certainly raises the question of whether the trump campaign and the president and the people around him are guilty of the conspiracy that has been charged by robert mueller at least on the russian side to interfere with the campaign illegally, the social media case, the hacking case. the question is did the trump campaign aid and abet and assist the russians in trying to get hillary clinton -- >> as i'm reading the statement from the president, this is as stark as you can get. we are told michael cohen wants to tell the special counsel that donald trump the president now the united states of did know, the president of the united states saying i did not know. >> that's right.

additionally as donald trump jr. was planning the meeting, he had two phone conversations with somebody with a blocked number. we know from other witness testimony that trump senior has blocked phone lines in his primary residence. trump thought he was getting juicy dirt on hillary clinton and the fact that he may have been working with his son. >> a lot of people are saying, we need corroboration from michael cohen. i think he has corroborated what we already know. i look at this evidence as a career federal prosecutor. and the first thing i thought of when i saw the e-mail string, when you have don jr. receiving e-mail information that says russia wants your father elected. the russian government is in your father's corner and they are ready to provide you with dirt. human nature would tell us that he would have run to his father's office. pop, pop, russia wants you to win. human nature tells us he had to do that if he didn't know that russia was already in pop's corner. if he doesn't do that, what can we infer fro

donald trump jr. his son, and jared kushner kushner, and then paul manafort. that's what rudy giuliani said today. he wasn't arguing about that statement from michael cohen, who is alleging that president trump did know about that meeting before it occurred. rudy giuliani only said that he could state for the record that president trump did not attend that meeting with chose russian officials, which is not something that was in question in the first place. it was whether or not president trump knew about it, which is something that his aides and president trump himself have denied for months now, including that president trump said he just found out about it in july of 2017, a year after it happened. and donald trump jr. testified in front of lawmakers that his father did not know about it before. so it would be increasingly problematic. that is the question now, anderson. it is essentially the president's word versus michael cohen's. but the white house does not seem to be at all enthusiastic about t

so donald trump jr. is in trouble here and donald trump sr. is in trouble here potentially if michael cohen is telling the truth and there's any corroborating evidence. >> liz, let me press you on that because of course officials with president trump, those in his camp, are going to say, hey, wait a minute, that moment you just talked about was possibly the pivotal moment of watergate, one of several. but one of the biggest. do you really say and what makes you think this could be that pivotal? >> it could be. because what we have is a meeting. we know that this was a meeting that represent end the russian government's support for donald trump's election as president. secondly, we know that the campaign was meeting to get dirt on hillary clinton to further donald trump's election as president. so if donald trump knew about it beforehand and presumably senior and presumably allowed it to go forward, then we could have the kind of collusion conspiracy between him and his campaign and the russian government that could involve a lot of other charg

if what michael cohen is saying true and donald trump sr. knew about the meeting, donald trump jr. [inaudible]. that's a crime. >> tucker: hold, hold on. >> if it's no big deal, why are they all lying about it? >> tucker: okay. i stipulated at the out set, this will come as a surprise to clinton defenders it's a crime we ought to take seriously if anyone lies under oath. we believe in punishing crimes. >> and donald trump jr. lied. >> tucker: i don't know that. i don't know if cohen is telling the truth. i don't know why cohen would hire trump in the first place. the core accusation that it's immoral to meet with the russian source to get dirt on your opponent is what hillary clinton did. but it's treason when trump does. explain how that works. >> what the email to don jr. said it is how the russian government hopes to aid your father. that was in the email. if that email had gone to barack obama or hillary clinton the same people in congress who spent 3 years investigating who wrote the talking points would have hearing after hearing. congress needs to do its job and have a heari

what donald trump jr. has said is that he has told the truth to whole time. his dad was not at the meeting and he didn't tell him about meeting afterwards. trump said he didn't find out until before it break last summer. this is information you believe. upg it's all true. you've worked in this town long enough. if someone's told somebody on capitol hill, we'd know it. we'd know it five minutes after it happened. so yeah, i believe it. actually happened the way don jr. said it happened. if they did get help, no big deal. people close to president trump and team trump are now seem tog acknowledge that maybe he was told after the fact despite the fact president trump said the opposite. i want you to listen to sound from anthony scaramucci and sam nunburg. >> could he have known after the fact? i think possible. >> i would be surprised when you have paul manafort, jared kushner and don jr. in this meeting if the president was made aware about it sometime after tfact if not before. >> do you think they are also kind of moving the goal post and preparing people for

donald trump jr.'s lawyer says we are very confident of the accuracy and reliability of the information that has been provided by don jr. for now, no proof of whatever went down, a he said, they said situation. >> as for donald trump jr., he was spotted at the airport yesterday waiting for a flight just a few feet from none other than the special counsel, robert mueller spokes person said the two did not interact in this picture that was released by politico play book but it's one of those d.c. moments you just can't make up. >> thank you so much. >>> let's bring in reporter for the hill and a chief washington correspondent. good morning to you both. >> good morning. >> kevin, let's start with you. the particular allegation was not recorded by michael cohen so 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, bo

not far away behind him there, you see donald trump jr. standing in line. tonight, mueller's office issuing a statement after that photo, and here's abc's chief justice correspondent, pierre thomas. >> reporter: tonight president trump fiercely denying the explosive allegation from his former lawyer and fixer, michael cohen. multiple sources tell abc news cohen claims trump knew in advance about that infamous june 2016 trump tower meeting. his son, donald junior, son-in-law jared kushner and campaign chairman paul manafort, sitting down with a russian lawyer with ties to the kremlin. trump jr. had been promised high level and sensitive documents that would incriminate hillary clinton as part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump. the president's son has said repeatedly his father didn't learn of the meeting until well after the election. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i mean, i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through this stuff. it was literal

i don't think they'll call in donald trump, jr. but michael cohen's testimonials places trump junior in jeopardy because he apparently did lie to congress saying his father knew nothing about this meeting. >> your committee on what the judiciary committee is doing right now just caused a blank stare. that's all i have to say, like what. the op-ed which you wrote which says, tapes don't lie, even if the president did. this is after a recording that cohen made after a discussion about money to "playboy" model karen mcdougal was leaked. i want to play you what michael avenatti said last night. >> i have three clients that have hired me as their counsel. each of them had a relationship with mr. trump. each of them were paid hush money prior to 2016. >> does at least one of them involve ami? >> yes. >> and that would be previously indiscuss closed, it's not karen mcdougal, correct? >> correct. >> put on your hat as federal prosecutor, is this a big deal? >> it is a big deal, i know as a former prosecute, when defendants change their sto

that donald trump jr. gave the media, so i think that's a consciousness of guilt as well. so it was never really a question to us about whether he knew. it was just whether he'd be straight with the american people about whether he knew. >> so there's this question about credibility, who's telling the truth, trump's attorneys say michael cohen is a proven liar. you've spoken about his trustworthiness, maybe he had this sort of come to jesus moment, but if there is evidence that his story has changed here, would you feel comfortable, as a former prosecutor, putting him before a jury? >> yes. if i had other corroborating witness. and you know, there's an instruction that jurors receive all the time when you only have a single witness to prove a fact. it says if you believe that witness, you can rely on just one witness and it doesn't have to be dna evidence or having the crime committed on videotape. but you need some other circumstantial evidence, and again, i laid out some of it. there was also this issue

trump jr. had been promised "dirt" on hilla clinton. the president denied the accusations on twitter"ioday, sayingid not know of the meeting," and that cohen was "trying to make up stories." we will look at what the latest revelations mean for the russia probe, later in the program. president trump and russia's president putin are making plans for round two after last week's explosive helsin summit. putin said this morning that he had invited mr. trump to moscow. the white house responded that the president is "open" to the meeting, and looks forward to hosting putin in washington next year. defense secretary james mattis also said that he is considering talks with his russian counterpart. flying from north to south korea an plane carried precious cargo, said to be the remains of u.s. soldiers killed in the korean war. it coincides with the 65thve anary of the armisticewn drawing hat conflict-- although it never officially ended.ld the transfer cean a major promise delivered by north korean lea

that contradicts repeated denials from donald trump jr. and others in donald trump's orbit. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> the president said he became aware of it very recently, right before this came out, and that's when he was notified. >> joining me now is jeff bennett, msnbc's white house correspondent, natasha bertrand, and kevin is with us, as well. help us sort through the confusion, kevin delaney is with us, as well, four in total. let us sort through the confusion, not only who's on with me, but this story, as well. part of a trio of tweets from president trump, in which he's trying to answer the question before it's even asked here about what he knew when, what he was told. give us the latest, if you would, jeff. >> hey there, david. well, president trump insists he did not have advanced knowledge of this infamous trump tower meeting in june 2016, and the reason why this is

so june 3rd is when donald trump jr. first received this e-mail from rob gold stone talking about the government support for the trump campaign. three days later you have donald trump giving a speech saying he was going to talk about hillary clinton. it made it very obvious because he never gave the speech of the and june 8th right before the day of the trump tower meeting you have d.c. leaks, which was the russian government-owned website that was going to release all of the hacked dnc e-mails that was created. june 9th was the actual trump tower meeting. >> it's an amazing detail that's emerged from this. june 8th, the russian gru agents create d.c. leaks, which is a website to disseminate hacked information about hillary clinton. >> yes. >> the next day is the trump tower meeting. >> yes, correct. and that exactly -- that kind of timeline and all of this evidence put together is what prosecutors are going to be looking at. they're going to say these were probably separate events, but were they separate events in a lar

right now there's an acvaluation donald trump jr. lied to judiciary committee. you wod think they would want to run this down. >> here is the thing in this whole russia probe. so much of it is not digest i believe, this is. if you can kind of see the lines where they are drawn. >> it's an easy thing, a meeting, somethinge denied twice, caught denying about the meeting, statements. especially when you look at this meeting, 60-daytime line june 1st to july 31st, this meeting grows in importance by the week. >> absolutely. real quickly, 100 days days to midterm ection, how is it falling out. >> we had a poll, intense democratic interest and enthusiasm for the election. that's in sie surp. there's a devoted base to the president that's loyal to him that you see increasing enthusiasm on the democratic side a bit higher. for me the bigea ty what was happening with independents. democrats are trouncing republicans among independents. every election in this centur '06, '10 and '14 indepen nts went with winning parties in big numbers. if this holds blue wave is coming. r

trump tower meeting. june 3. donald trump jr. gets e-mail from rob goldstone saying moscow supports his father's candidacy. he responded if it's 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 officers launch dc leaks. june 9, trump tower meeting happened. june 14, dnc announces it servers had been hacked. >> now that we have at least one person willing to say that donald trump himself knew that that chain of events was related to the russian infiltration, does this bring us closer to what we call collusion or conspiracy. >> absolutely. so first the caution, michael cohen is shady. he's trying to snitch. he's looking for a deal. and so anything he says has to be corroborated. having said that, this is seismic. now we have president trump implicated in in cluin collusio. if it's true, it corroborates a lot of things we already know. the dossier says the reason michael cohen went to strategize with the russians about how to cover up trum

donald trump, jr. have testified before your committee. i know you can't confirm or deny. >> you know i can't. and won't as well. >> but what are your thoughts on this? >> so, i think the walls are closing in. i said that to you, i think, a week or so ago. this is yet another proof positive that the investigation is getting closer and closer in many regards. the fact of the matter is this is donald trump's worst nightmare, it's not just this revelation or allegation because it's yet to be corroborated but it's the fact there are 99 additional tapes into the one that was revealed this week. so, i think what is of material significa significance, here, alex, we've moved from the area to conspiracy. with the meeting hiding in plain sight when he admonished the russians to go ahead and get hillary clinton's e-mails. now with prior knowledge and intent, we're now beginning to inch into the territory of conspiracy. and what's the difference? well, collusion isn't a federal crime. conspiracy is. >> who do you

and that his son donald trump jr. is the one who told him about it, donald trump jr. could face perjury charges, as you well know, donald trump jr. told a senate panel that he did not tell his dad about this meeting in advance. so as the russia investigation, the cohen investigations continue. the president is faced with an immediate political problem. you have his long time friend and fixer undercutting the message that the president has tried to push all along. not only that there was no collusion. but the russia investigation is a witch hunt. >> the plot thickens. jeff bennett, thank you. >> joining me to discuss all of this is benji and jordan fabian. white house correspondent for the hill. we have the president, his family, his legal team, they always denied that trump knew about that 2016 meeting we were talking about with a russian lawyer. watch this. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> did you know at the time of t

meeting in which donald trump jr. was expected to get dirt on the clinton campaign. cohen is privately asserting he and others were present when donald trump junior informed trump of the offer and trump gave the go ahead to have the meeting. the bomb chel contradicts what jump junior told investigators last year. asked by the senate judiciary committee, did you inform your father about the under lying off prior to the meeting? trump junior responded, no, i did not. he said he did not know the identity of the person he called three times before and after that meeting and whose number was bought and weather that person was his father. the news always calls into question cohen's own testimony before congress and his past public statements. a source tells cnn cohen did to the tell the house intelligence last year he had knowledge about the meeting. >> there was nothing to tell. >> reporter: cohen treated so proud of donald trump junior for being so open an honest to the american people. trump pushed back on 26th to his lo

. >> reporter: on june 3, 2016, in an e-mail prosecute publicist rod goldstone, donald trump jr. is promise the incriminating information about hillary clinton. his response -- if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer. six days later, don junior met with russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya at trump tower. joining him, trump's campaign chairman at the time, paul manafort, and his son-in-law, jared kushner. when "the new york times" broke the story last year about the secret meeting, don junior didn't initially disclose the intended purpose of the meeting. instead, he said the purpose was to discuss the adoption of

at thatmeeting, the trump team including donald trump jr. expectedussians to give them dirt on hillary clinton. on twitter, the president denied knowing about the meeting in advance. >> nbc news politicalanirector "meet the press" moderator chsk todd joined at 6:00 to talk about the growing divide cltween michael cohen and his former nt. he start bid talking about that secretly recorded conversation between cohen and donald trump. audio that was leaked byohen's lawyers. >> yes, they did leak the recording. they decided to make it public because they fel as if michael cohen was being unfairly labeles ore of the criminal in this when rudy giuliani was describing it. that was mayor motivation to do that. they do not take credit for leaking this information that somehow michael cohens ready to finger the president as knowing about theou infams trump tower meeting. i would just take a step back and say the bigger significance, michael cohen want to cut a deal. ther thing is, for him to eecome credible, when you have somebody who hasn caught lying

anyway donald trump jr. told congressional investigators the same thing in testimony before the senate judiciary committee. he said, quote, i wouldn't have wasted his time with it. i never spoke to my father about it. don junior is standing by that this morning. remember, he cannot say he lied to congress because that would be a crime. his attorney telling nbc news, quote, we are very confident of the accuracy and reliability of the information that has been provided by mr. trump jr. and on his behalf. michael cohen's lawyer, lanny davis, said he had no comment, so we still don't know who's telling the truth or what donald trump knew. but here's what then candidate donald trump said, remember this, four days after his son was first contacted about the meeting and offered dirt on hillary clinton and two days before the meeting actually took place. >> i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week, and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons. i

donald trump, jr.'s attorney says it is simply not true. and the president's attorney is questioning the credibility of where this information is coming from. the president's former lawyer, michael cohen who is now under federal investigation. >> there's no doubt in my mind that he's just not credible. i would not accept him as a witness as aosecutor. if mueller has any other kind of case, this is the kind of witness that can really destroy your whole case because any finder of fact loses confidence in the case when you rely on a guy like this, when you rely on a guy where before you finish with him, you're going to have such a string of lies, you just can't trust him. >> reporter: the man he's talking about is under investigation for hush money payments to women who claim they had affairs with president trump that he denies. one of the women, stormy daniels, her attorney now represents three more women who claim they were paid hush money as well. so the plot thickens. we'll continue to not only monitor developments on this, but of course t

donald trump jr. be worried about this indictment. >> donald trump jr. if he is you know living in a country that actually has laws that he is held accountable to should be worried for a very long time. donald trump jr. put e-mails on twitter about a year ago showing that he had elicitly conspired with russia revealing that whole meeting. i'm a little concerned he thought he could do that openly and be no consequences. other russia mafia members of the mafia/kremlin officials have been in plain site. that's a pattern you see throughout the republican party. donald trump jr. is not unique in this respect. now there finally are indictments, there are consequences. if that's going to continue, yes, donald trump jr. certainly somebody who should be concerned. >> let me come to you now on part two of this because there's the nra piece of it. you've written an entire book about this thing called the family and the religious right and power. quickly, at the 2016 and 2015 national prayer breakfast events, but