attorney for the southern district of new york and also an msnbc legal analyst. kelly, what is the white house saying? what is the white house not saying about this? >> not engaging. we just saw the president who had a chance to respond to questions asked by reporters part of the small pool inside the oval office when he was meeting with the european commission president jean-claude juncker and the president did not engage, did not respond, and thanked reporters. after a bit of back and forth of the thanking and no responses, they exited the room. so the white house is pushing everyone to the outside lawyers for the president and rudy giuliani has been saying that this is information that is exculpatory of the president because it did not, in his view, come to a conclusion of a payment being authorized, a decision being made. what you pointed out was the notion that the president didn't seem surprised in the recording, it was almost as if we were picking up a conversation that had been a part of previous

puck, the building is located at lafayette in southern new york. and this illustration shows president theodore roosevelt at the white house. looks like the brooklyn bridge, and the puck building. what does this represent? >> well, what happened was, puck liked roosevelt at the beginning, and then decided roosevelt was too big for his bridges and he endorsed. so this cartoon is published the week after roosevelt won reelection in 1904, and this is shaking hands and making up cartoons. >> we're going to come back to that in a moment. hunting ground, how he made a game of the politicians. this is 1885, and this is right after the election of 1884, and this is puck's idea of bragging. in the election of 1884, puck had supported the democrat, cleveland, and opposed the republican blame in the big- time opposition. you can see puck is standing and hold ago carcass. the head of the carcass is james blaine, who ran against cleveland. you see the dog on the left. the collar satire. what puck is trying to say, satire -- the republican party. this is the fir

attorney for the southern district of new york? >> they might have potential charges they could sit down with him and say, listen, this is what could happen, and he could do what is known as a proffer. they'll have an exchange, a conversation about what information heck give in exchange for some kind of leniency from the government. surely we know from what's been made public that he's vulnerable on a number of fronts, bank fraud, issues relating to his former taxicab service, as well as these payments made. in addition to his contacts with the russians and prior to or during the campaign. there's a lot of intersections here that puts him really in the center of this story. he really has the keys to the trump kingdom in a lot of ways. i think mr. trump has got to be concerned. >> the fact he authorized lanny davis to release that audiotape of a conversation he had that he secretly recorded with donald trump, just before the presidential election, sounds to me that's a declaration of war and there's no opportunity for michael cohen

but in this case, this is the southern district of new york. that means among other news stories of national significance, this is the prosecutor who has been supervising the criminal investigation into michael cohen, president trump's personal lawyer. that criminal investigation thus far has not resulted in any charges against michael cohen, but as you know, multiple search warrants have been executed in the case. the government has seized millions of document. s and files from michael cohen's office and home. mr. cohen himself is talking openly to the press now what his plans are if he does end up criminally charged in that investigation. this case in the southern district of new york against the president's lawyer does seem to be really ramping up. but now the woman supervising it, the head of the public corruption unit in the southern district of new york, she has resigned her job. she has left the office reportedly to go make a ton of money in the private sector. and sure, why not? the timing seems great. today we also learned about an equ

is the southern district of new york. that means among other news stories, thisprosecutor who has been supervising the investigation into michael cohen, president trump's personal lawyer. that criminal investigation thus far has not resulted in any charges against michael cohen. but as you know, multiple search warrants have been executed. the government has received millions of documents? >> & items from michael cohen's hole. he is talking openly to the press about what his plans are. this case in the southern district of new york against the president's lawyer does seem to be really ramping up. now the head of the southern corruption unit, she has left her job. she has left to go make ton of money in the private sector. and sure. the timing seems great. we also learned about an earthquake level resignation/retirement at the justice department headquarters in washington. this is not rod rosenstein, not jeff sessions resigning, but it is someone very senior and somebody intimately involved in the mueller investigation. an

attorney for the southern district of new york. how would you view it if someone put out a tape like that without first informing you? >> poorly. you'd view it very poorly. look, prosecutors are trying to do their job. they like to keep buttoned down, keep their heads down. they like to have control of information that's disseminated from their investigations. and if you have a concern that people who you may be thinking about bringing in as witnesses, whether they are flipping or they're innocent third parties who are witnesses, you don't like the idea based on things that they've done that when they come in and talk to your prosecutors they're going to march right out to a camera and say what questions they were asked and spib things, a, because you don't want people to know about your investigation. and b, they create a record of statements that can be more easily contradicted by other folks on cross-examination later. there was a story a few weeks ago reported that there was supposed to be a meeting between folks in my old offi

>> andrew: why would mueller then have given the case up to the southern district of new york? if they thought that michael cohen was the key to getting at trump. a federal crime? >> kennedy: i think you gave it to the southern district of new york to separated from the federal issue that mueller is overseeing. then it becomes unpardonable. >> andrew: i think he could always do that down the road. but i think if they thought that michael cohen was the key to making a collusion case where there was a real concern to be doing espionage that there is no reason. >> melissa: what if it's a totally different crime? what if they're just looking for anything that would be a crime? >> harris: i do think any of us would be open to a crime but what we would be open to that has been this whole trap argument of if there's any point of inconsistency, but that look like flying and ending memory can force you to do that. a lot of things. i think that's where we may be laid bare with that. >> andrew: this has been the big objection to the investigation. at the beginning of the investigation, wi

attorney in that pivotal southern district of new york and starting today an msnbc legal contributor. welcome, sir, to our network. >> thank you. >> and tonight's panel, sah sahil kapur, hugh hewitt and anita dunn, former communications director under president obama. mr. goldman, i want to start with you on kind of the legal conjectures here. i mean there are many theories as to why mr. cohen is doing what he is doing now. what in your view is the most plausible explanation? >> i really just think it's simply a pr blitz. i think michael cohen has been run through the wringer for the last several months and i think that he's had to be quiet. he's not someone who generally likes to be quiet, as some of those recordings that came out in recent weeks indicate. he's a brash, somewhat crass and can be threatening person. he's a big personality. and he's really been trashed over the last couple of weeks. he's talked for months about his concern about his family. that is always something that witness watchers, defendant watchers should pay close attention to because that is often the clue to

he should cooperate with the southern district of new york. and in terms of any public release, i would defer to the prosecutors. it's my hope that he will decide to cooperate. i would imagine that the southern district of new york right now is going through that mountain of evidence that they seized from michael cohen. they probably are not in a position where they can offer a deal to michael cohen until they can assess what evidence they have. the last thing the prosecutors are going to want to do is agree, this will be the limit of your liability pursuant to an agreement to cooperate and then find out that there is evidence of far more serious offenses that they've just effectively given away. so i can understand why it will take some time for new york, the prosecutors in new york, to make that decision. but again, my hope is that he will fully cooperate and we'll have the benefit of this evidence and any other in his possession. >> congressman, i want to switch gears and ask you about some of the other events. the president has had a rocky

attorneys and southern district in new york and with robert mueller. so you have this movement here of being able to question weisselberg and michael cohen. and for michael cohen to survive, he is going to have to tell all. i am surprised that the president has been as moderate in his tweeting today as he has been. >> and remember that our friend david pecker ami, they ran a hit piece on michael cohen. the drudge report posted it as a rat. >> what people are not clear about is the strategy. a lawyer can explain this better than i can. presumably doing it behind closed doors. perhaps he is signaling for some type of pardon. >> i have no idea what michael cohen is doing and i have no idea what lanny davis are doing. thank you both for being with me. legal analyst jill wine banks. and attorney ali mistal. jill, let me start with you. a quote from the new york times that rudy giuliani is talking about. in response to the idea that the special prosecutor is looking at various public statements by the president, tweets and other things. he says if you are go

cohen is in the southern district of new york. his whole case is based in the southern district of new york. the case has nothing to do with mueller so i don't think it's correct to say that it was the cohen issue that stimulated him to write the tweets about mueller. look, if the president thinks that mueller should be recused, his lawyers have a right to go to court and seek recusal. i have strongly urged that that be done with rod rosenstein. rod rosenstein has the clearest possible conflict of interest if there is an obstruction of justice investigation against the president. because he wrote the letter and becomes a major witness in the case. >> does he have a leg to stand on in calling for the special prosecutor to recuse in your view? >> it does not sound like a strong case to me, but it sounds like an credibly compelling case to ask to have rod rosenstein. i don't even see the argument on the other side. you cannot be both the major witness in an investigation and heading the investigation itself. i don't know why rod rose

there's some open questions in terms of collusion between the southern district of new york and team mueller when it comes to flipping mr. cohen. i'm concerned if i was representing somebody from the white house that there may be some argument that are back on the table about the scope limitations that are supposed to be in place for the mueller team. if they are ignoring them by proxy this thing could go for a while. >> rudy guiliani will be on fox news sunday with chris wallace. thank you. >>> could the michael cohen controversy have an impact on president's approval rating and the midterm election? plus fresh evidence of a booming economy but are the new gdp numbers enough to convince investors. what thus mean for your money. >> you turned it all around. once again, we are the economic envy of the entire world. when i meet the leaders first thing they say, is mr. president, so nice to meet you. congratulations on your economy. >> we're now on track to hit average gdp annual growth of over 3% and it could be substantially over 3%. each point, by the way, means approximately $3 tril

we are talking madams. >> this has gone to the southern district of new york. this came up and mueller may benefit if cohen is going to cooperate. >> it is to squeeze michael cohen hoping he has something, they are hoping and praying. >> i don't understand why attorney-client privilege doesn't prevail over everything. >> of trump gave up attorney-client privilege. >> it is the seminal question and doesn't mean he gave up every other piece of documentation. i think that is concerning that everybody should -- >> it is perplexing to me the president and his team went this out there and pretend we didn't know it was coming. >> i suspect there will be a lot more. thank you. the socialist sensation who grew up in westchester but won a stunning primary taking a message, alexandria cortez is getting backup from the most recognizable socialist in the country. >> i want to thank you for having me and showing that girls from the bronx are welcome everywhere. working people share the same values, the same values as people anywhere else. >> we must have gotten off at the wr

of new york is why is michael cohen perceived as being disloyal? is it because he's telling the truth or not telling the truth? we don't really know. >> on these financial transactions and mr. weisselberg, who we don't hear from, smartly on his behalf, i think is in many ways the more consequential witness in that he knows about the internal financing and doesn't have the public credibility of the others. we know about the imt pas for one issue. we have this tape that michael cohen decided to release of the president. here is rudy giuliani who says we have taken this to forensic experts and we think michael cohen doctored it. >> he abruptly ended thatrd roing as soon as the president said the word check. what we're investigating is how did that happen? what actually did happen? what was eliminated? and then he's got to raise that question with every one of these tapes. we have determined the fact that he tampered with the tape in the sense that he abruptly mid conversation turned it off. now, we know he didn't do that for a good reason. >> again, t

this case is with juliette, the southern district of new york. so why give me a distinction. what's going on. why is he willing to make it to the special counsel? not the southern district. >> we -- the honest truth is we don't know michael cohens strategy. >> i just answered. i know the answer to my own question. robert mueller is investigating the collusion. and possibility of collusion. i get that. >> the and new york -- >> i totally want to say the gym reporting is. jim will never tell us as she shouldn't. is michael cohen the source. we don't know that at this stage. if the report as the reporting is accurate. what does that say. that says that this is the first time a news organization has reported that someone in the room or close to the discussion about that june 9 meeting is willing to testify in some manner that donald trump knew about it before. donald trump knew about it after and lied about it. he's the one in the air force 1. drafting this fake press release about the russian adoption. so he knows about it before. had knows about it after. one has to assume he k

he's got a lawyer, new lawyer, don't forget with close ties to the southern district of new york, the u.s. attorney's office investigating him for bank fraud, tax fraud, and wire fraud, and as you said, today was the deadline for the trump organization to go through these thousands and thousands of documents out of 4 million files the feds seized from cohen's office and home to see which ones of these were privileged. the real story is a very small number of them, however this shakes out, are going to be deemed to have been privileged and the vast majority of them will go to federal prosecutors and that cannot be good news for president trump because michael cohen was involved in some of the most sensitive dealings that donald trump had over the last decade, including paying off two women who alleged they had affairs with trump and that trump tower moscow deal while donald trump was running in the republican primary. michael cohen was trying to get a deal to build a tower in moscow. he knows a lot. whether he knows about illegality is another question. but it's -- it can't be good new

. >> this investigation into cohen is being led by the southern district of new york, not mueller. so how would he be involved in any possible plea deal? >> these things don't happen in a vacuum. and they had a cooperating witness charged with a crime in another district, there would be a terms of plea agreements, cooperation, that sort of thing. so nothing is happening in a vac aopl. i think it was a smart thing to have it handled in the southern district of new york and there shouldn't have been any doubt that cohen was going to flip. we've been talking about that for some time and here he goes. what's interesting and i think what we'll find is that bob mueller probably already has the corroborating information necessary to move forward on cohen's testimony. he may have matched the anonymous number dialled off thereof. he's probably talked to other witnesses. they may have looked at logs about who was in the building that time or before hand and maybe looked to see emails. we don't know. so my guess is that krauberation piece has already been made and on to the races for michael

new york as well as you go up into the higher elevations. but here's what we're looking at as far as what is left over the next couple days. notice new york city maybe gets about half an inch to an inch out of this the next couple days, but working out towards boston, greater amounts possible. and once again, eastern pennsylvania, an area of concern there with heavy rainfall, but with all that said, notice some of the coolest temperatures on the eastern half of the country are situated there because of all the rainfall into the upper 70s around the northeast. guys? >> pedram, thank you. >>> he may be leaving the senate, but utah's orrin hatch wants the world to know he's not dead, despite what the internet says. hatch on monday posted a screen shot of his own google search result that said he died on september 11st, 2017. the 84-year-old had some fun with the fatal error, telling google, "we might need to talk." the longtime republican also posted proof of life, hatch in his office reading salt lake's "deseret news." google got the message,

and then the southern district of new york may decide, you know what. we don't prosecute these cases of failing to register as a lobbyist. maybe we'll fine these people. >> as you point out, none of these individuals has been charged with anything. it's unclear if they will be charged. tony podesta, by the way, the brother of john podesta, the campaign chairman for hillary clinton. >> stand by because there's more breaking news we're following now. new details emerging of what the supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh has been privately telling u.s. senators about the russia investigation as he makes the rounds up on capitol hill. our senior congressional correspondent manu raju has been working the story for us. manu, what are you learning? >> yeah, how brett kavanaugh views the mueller investigation has been a big question going forward as he's made the rounds on capitol hill, and of course, that huge implication for the president and his associates. i have been told that brett kavanaugh has privately relaid to senators that he believes the justice de

district of new york. that investigation so far outside of the knowledge and control of the president. it is the assessment of the president's advisers and friends that the cohen investigation poses far more of a direct threat to the president than does the special counsel russia investigation. we got a public glimpse of the president's exasperation about this the day after the fbi raid into cohen's private properties. the president was sitting in the cabinet room surrounded by senior military leadership and the president called the raid an attack on the country in a true sense. that was a quote the president used. so that reaction, the tweet today, you can certainly see how the president views his former longtime attorney as significant legal liability, david. >> let me read to you one of your tweets electric yesterday. i into to a person familiar with the president's legal strategy and he told me the president was unaware he was being recorded in the cohen tapes. the president's legal tapes not aware of

it's also a strong possibility that mueller's team or the southern district of new york would not want a cooperating witness leaking information or putting information out there. so it seems one of our assumptions may be wrong. but if this strategy is part of the cohen team's plan to minimize or improve cohen's image, it's not all that helpful, because it shows cohen complicit in all these activities. it doesn't make him a -- an unappetizing cooperating witness per se, but it is a step in the direction that mueller or the southern district of new york may like him a little less. >> and referring to coenh, the president tweeted i did not know of the meeting with my son donald jr. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of unrelated jam. how could these attacks on cohen come back to legally jeopardize president trump? >> as if cohen can corroborate his story. right now we don't see that much corroboration with cohen's story. we see a whole lot of trump team members saying that trump had no idea, no idea that this meeting was going on. if cohen a

england going through thursday flash flood warnings continue in southern new york and also central pennsylvania we have roughly 30 million people under flash flood watches. the heavy rain overnight was in pennsylvania, now into new york. a little band going through new york city. additional heavy rain in areas of eastern north carolina that will plague the outer banks, virginia beach and norfolk areas. out west, this is the story. fatalities because of the heat still under excessive heat warnings for l.a. and tucson triple digit heat continues today. we could be as hot as 120 in palm springs l.a. near 100, near record highs once again for phoenix to tucson it doesn't cool off until saturday in the southwest. back to you. >> 120 degrees in tucson wow. bill karins, thank you very much >>> this weather is more than just annoying, it's dangerous. but it is also expensive joining us now is evan gold from plananalytics. when you get a certain age, you think weather is unusual, every year there is unusual weather. right now about 50 million americans are experiencing some kind of extreme weather event

attorney for the southern district of new york for possible bank and wire fraud. prosecutors are digging into his $130,000 hush payment to porn star stormy daniels. the president claimed to know nothing about it. >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael's my attorney, and you'll have to ask michael. cohen insisted he acted on his own initiative. but now, when i asked if the president directed him to pay off the porn star, cohen hedged, telling me, "i want to answer. one day i will answer. but for now, i can't comment further on advice of my counsel." in april, fbi agents raided cohen's home and office, seizing documents and more than a dozen phones and electronic devices. >> i just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and it's a disgraceful situation. >> reporter: but cohen told me he doesn't agree with "those who demonize or vilify the fbi," adding, "the agents were respectful, courteous and professional. i thanked them for their service and as they left, we shook hands." cohen also refused to criticize special couns

but who he needs to be speaking to is the southern district of new york. >> i just think those conversations are better had in private. >> of course. >> we all agree. >> can michael cohen be sued or stopped by the president in any way if he's seen to be breaking some sort of attorney/client privilege, renato? >> no, if he did that, if the president wanted to do that, he would be putting the truth of all these matters at issue in that lawsuit. so if i was advising the president, i would tell him, stay very far away from that. >> and we have to remember, michael cohen has not been charged with anything, that's if he is charged with anything, right, then it will play out that we've been -- that you guys have put forward here. >> right. and don, also, remember, you can't assert the privilege now for some of these cases. rudy giuliani and his team, especially on the cash versus check telephone conversation that was recorded, you can do that in a one-party-consent jurisdiction, they waived it. he already preempted the ability to do so, which is probably the most interesting strategy of all. he has

a veteran of the southern district of new york. he was the head of the criminal division there, so, he knows these prosecutors well. secondly, and this is very, very significant. when guy petrillo formally comes onboard, that will mark the end of the joint defense agreement that michael cohen's lawyers have had with president trump and his attorneys and their allies' attorneys, to share information, to share strategy. once he comes onboard, that agreement is going to be over. that means the sides could be in a much mored a ver ed adversari position. >> george stephanopoulos with that exclusive interview tonight. george, thank you. >>> next tonight, news about that deadly boat explosion in the bahamas. american tourists onboard. investigators looking into what caused the blast that killed a mother and injured at least nine other people. one of the victims, a daer losing her legs while on a family vacation. here's abc's erielle reshef. >> reporter: tonight, officials in the bahamas investigating what caused e enneur boat to explode,

attorneys office for the southern district of new york. he began his career as a mob prosecutor. he know what is the burdens of proof are. he knows what federal prosecutors need to do when they want to bring a case in front of a jury. he's not acting like a lawyer right now. he's out there to run interference for the president because there is a mounting fact pattern that doesn't look good for them on a number of fronts. they are now willing issues around financial problems, the way they structured payments to paramours of the president. they have issued around collusion. and i think rudy giuliani was brought in to try to discredit the media and discredit law enforcement that is trying to assess what has occurred with this president because it is getting very ugly. >> and congressman, also i would like you to consider everything we're analyzing here tonight as a former prosecutor yourself. and i'd just like to give you an open space here to react to this new report that michael cohen is willing to tell the special prosecutor that donald trump knew about the meeting with russians

that came on top of a report that a man has been subpoenaed in the southern district of new york. the federal grand jury considering the criminal investigation into the long time personal attorney michael cohen. the michael cohen case, big picture, it is still basically one big open question in terms of what kind of legal trouble might lie ahead for the president himself if his long time attorney who apparently timed his conversations with president trump among other things, whether he is criminally charged by federal prosecutors in new york. we don't know if that will be an issue for the president himself. we don't know how that will play out. serve bank very closely. with you if this guy has been subpoenaed, if this is right, that honestly has way bigger implications than just the case against michael cohen. allen wicelberg isn't a household name. he has been at the trump organization since its inception. he is known to be not only a very senior figure in the trump organization. he's been directly involved in a number of financial dealings related to the president and his busine

remember, michael cohen is under investigation by the southern district of new york, in a case that's currently, at least, separate from the russia investigation. my guess is, those investigators aren't ready to talk to michael cohen because they want to see every piece of evidence that was removed from his office. and the privilege review hasn't been completed. until they see every piece of evidence, i don't they they'll talk to him. they want to know the extent of criminal exposure before they sit down with him and decide to make any offers or accept any cooperation. is this coming from michael cohen? i'd be annoyed with cohen if he is the one releasing this information because he is diminishing his value as a cooperator, if he is out there talking to the world before he is talking to prosecutors. >> michael cohen, speaking of, we've been showing pictures and video of him today. he is now in squarely the crosshairs of donald trump and his team. betsy, you've been writing about this today. anita, you've been covering this. i want to play a little then and now for rudy giuliani. the i

all of those concepts to an fbi agent, to someone like mueller or the southern district of new york, all smack of possible crime. money laundering. why are you creating a company? why would you need to create a company? have you done this before? the word cash, do you mean you're trying to avoid suspicious -- you are concerned about triggering suspicious activity reports of large sums of money transacting. when you say check, are you trying to avoid the cash transaction that would trigger a suspicious activity report? so those few seconds of audio actually have tremendous inherent meaning. >> katie, i want to get your perspective on this, as well, just about what the future use of this tape might be. how do you translate something that's been played, heard, processed in the court of public opinion into a courtroom potentially? how's something like this cross that threshold into the court? >> from a legal perspective, we know trump and his team waived any type of claim of privilege, so that deals with any possible obstacle that mueller or anybody at the southern district of new york m

district of new york. these are two separate investigations we're talking about here. >> right. yes, but they're under the same umbrella. they're under a federal prosecutor who was brought in to do one thing and now is investigating the president's liaison, potential liaison with a porn star and his payment to her to keep quiet. rudy is right. that might not be illegal. it would be illegal if it was campaign finance violation, but we don't know it was. this is where the public, i think, looks at this and throws their hands in the air and says these folks are all crooked, they're all fighting. >> what chuck knows and what every lawyer knows is that, you know, when you're investigating and you come across what might be evidence of a crime, that you're obligated to pursue that. that's what -- that is what mueller has done and mueller appropriately passed that off to the southern district and is continuing with the mueller probe. >> but we're having a discussion about the politics and the public nature of thes

attorney for the southern district of new york. gentlemen, good to see you. lie begins about the concept that this was about adoptions. more detailed than a lot of people want to get into, but russia stopped the adoptions of russian babies to america to protest the magnitsky act, which punished oligarchs with assets in america which is personal to vladimir putin. concept that there was this meeting about adoptions that had nothing to do with anything else is not plausible. >> it turned out to be a lie as you just illustrated for us. a lot of people are saying we're in a he said-he said situation. and a as a prosecutor, when you get in that situation it's not just a throw up your hands and say who knows, you have to look at the corroborating evidence. what do the external facts tell us. the first one i would go to is the lies. why lie? why -- >> there's a lot of lying going on. >> you would ask a jury. why is everybody who was in that room lying about it, with this adoption cover? that's number 1. there's other corroboration that supports cohen too. phone reco

get the southern district of new york author back. what is the goal? is it tried to embarrass the president? to say there are other tapes means there better be better tapes than that one. if you put out another tape, it's worth in -- worse than soggy cigarette? it's a sparkler you can't use again. here's the other thing. this is the second time the administration is put out information that turns out to befall slater on. so reporters, for example, that went out and said in november of last year we hear there is a payment that was made to karen mcdougal. no, never heard of it. no, no, no. and then it turns out it's true. >> jesse: does that go back to the everybody lies about sex mantra in the '90s? >> dana: i don't know. i don't know anything about any of this. >> greg: the golden rule is you deny, deny until it really happened. >> jesse: why the strategy? why leak the tape? to show you have independence, make the president nervous? >> juan: according to lanny davis, rudy giuliani was demeaning his client and badmouthing him. they wan

district of new york. robert mueller's team referred the cohen matter to that office, but significantly, mueller's investigators have not conducted an interview with cohen. his interview also raises the question whether cohen might be trying to sign a plea to the president or signal a plea to the president for a possible pardon. here's how the president responded when asked about that just a few months ago. >> mr. president, what about michael cohen? are you -- >> thank you very much. stupid question. >> stupid question. let's bring in our lead-off panel for a monday night. jill colvin is the white house reporter for the associated press. you saw her just moments ago in that clip. harry litman is a former district attorney and also a former clerk for supreme court justices thurgood marshall and anthony kennedy. and daniel goldman, with me here in studio is a former assistant attorney for the southern district of new york and a fellow at the brennan center for justice. in the past, he has worked with michae

lawyer, guy patrillo, the former prosecutor for the southern district of new york. patrillo did not return our calls or e-mails. >> thank you very much. >>> breaking news next. the trump administration won't commit to meeting a judge's deadline to meeting to reunite separated immigrant families. >>> and this man does have a connection to the trump campaign. ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪ so let's promote our summer travel deal on choicehotels.com like this. surfs up. earn a $50 gift card when you stay just twice this summer. or, badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com does your business internet provider promise a lot? let's see who delivers more. comcast business gives you gig-speed in more places. the others don't. we offer up to 6 hours of 4g wireless network backup. everyone else, no way. we let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. them, not so much. we let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. the others? nope! get internet on our gig-speed

attorney for the southern district of new york. kimberly atkins for the boston herald. welcome to you both. you are here in our new york studios and i will begin with you based on home field advantage alone. you think this is actually what it is purported to be? >> i don't think they are talking about a deal at this point. >> let's go there. do the feds get angry if they say our guy got wobbley and he wants to talk about the deal you offered? >> it's unclear if they offered a deal and that's not how it would work. i think they wouldn't be angry, so to speak, but the usefulness diminished if he is behaving badly. manafort wanted a com of months of a delay and got six days. that's not going to help him. the advantage to assure the delay goes to the prosecution that can stream line the case and get all their ducks in a row. this was a win for the prosecution. >> we noted that on the new start date for the trial, the white house announced that the president plans to go to a rally that night in tampa, florida. what should we make of that? >> i predict it will be the stem win

the other is the southern district of new york. this is not whether he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and get away it, the other is the evidence being amassed by mueller. cohen recorded trump, because he knew who he was dealing with, michael cohen had a practice, or so it's been reported, that he had a practice of recording people regularly. was the president's caught by surprise, as he suggested was the case? up ahead, the president received a lot of criticism for what he said in helsinki, but what i think is more interesting is what he refused to say. >>> and one journali stand up for another. why did he do it? >>> and triplets reunited years later by pure chance. the astonishing story has been made into a documentary. i will soon sit down with the director. greatness of an suv? is it to carry cargo... or to carry on a legacy? its show of strength... or its sign of intelligence? in crossing harsh terrain... or breaking new ground? this is the time to get an exceptional offer on the mercedes of your midsummer dreams at the m

district of new york. the federal grand jury considering the criminal investigation into the president's long-time personal attorney michael cohen. now, the michael cohen case big picture, it's still beak one big open question. in terms of what kind of legal trouble might lie ahead for the president himself if his long-time attorney michael cohen who apparently taped his conversations with president trump among other things, whether he's ultimately criminally charged by federal prosecutors in new york. we don't know if that's going to be an issue for the president himself. we still don't know how that is all going to play out. everybody's watching that very closely. but with this guy, if alan weiselberg has been subpoenaed, if this report in the journal is right, that honestly has way bigger implications than just the case against michael cohen. allen weisselberg is not a household name but he is in the trump household. he's in his 70s. he's worked for the trump family his entire adult life. he started off

let's see what they do in southern district of new york to correct the record. >> most of the fisa has been redacted but some of the material in there is there. let's talk about some of the things in there. it says quote the fbi believes carter page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the russian government and then it's redacted and says undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 election in violation of u.s. criminal law. it says that the russians were trying to recruit you. we know that you've said that you went to russia in the summer of 2016, to deliver a commerce. address. is it not a possibility that russians were trying to recruit you, even if you didn't take the bait? is that not possible? it seems to me that would be their job and you were working for trump and you would work with the kremlin in the past. that would be a reasonable thing for them to try to do. >> it's totally unreasonable, jake. it actually speaks to another misleading testimony related to the indictments that eric holder and preek submitted on january 2015 talking about that prior case. and

this is at southern district of new york. the person overseeing that investigation is a trump appointed. so the southern district of new york, be it acting or permit or whatever the position is is reporting to donald trump's department of justice. what happens in the mueller investigation, sorry, what happens in the michael cohen investigation part of this department of justice, not robert mueller. i think that there are, i think that any day now we're going to hear about an indictment or adl. i do know which way it's going to go. remember that there would be certain information that is privileged in terms of attorney-client. but it's important to know when you talk to attorney-client privilege, just because you are my attorney and you and i talk about something, that doesn't mean meeting we discussed is privileged. it has to be matter what i retain you to represent me. if i hire you to represent me on a tax matter and your my tax attorney and i say to you, by the way, i've been beating up my dog and i think it charged with a

this of course is a separate investigation by the southern district of new york. and then possibly the furthest reaches of this might be sending a signal to the president, hey, if i do get indicted and convicted i might be interested in a pardon from you. >> we have a criminal defense attorney here. caroline, you're the perfect one to ask this. if you had a client who has been through what michael cohen has been through, under what circumstances or for what purpose would you say good idea to do this interview? >> in no circumstances would i say it's a good idea to do this interview, which is why i think the pardon theory has gained more steam on the twittersphere as of late. because the question is why, if you really were interested in the cooperation agreement, ken's right, that would be something that his lawyer would pick up the phone and call the southern district prosecutors. i tend to think that the pardon theory gives michael cohen a little bit too much credit. i don't think he's overthinking this. the distinction between the courtroom and the media has bee

federal prosecutors in new york's southern district are investigating cohen for alleged violations of election law and possible financial crimes associated with his personal business dealings, including his payment of $130,000 in hush money to porn star stormy daniels. cohen hasn't been charged with any crime, but there has been speculation about whether he intends to cooperate with prosecutors. cohen in the past said he would do what is necessary to protect trump, including taking a bullet for him. this weekend, he sat down with george stephanopoulos of abc news for an offcamera interview, and cohen said this when asked what he would do if prosecutors offered him a deal in exchange for information on the president. >> my wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will. i put family and country first. >> cohen was asked by abc how he would respond to an attack by the president or his legal team, and he said, quote, he will not be a punching bag as part of anyone's defense strategy. i am not a villain of this story, and i will not allow others to try to depict me tha

mueller pushed it towards the southern district of new york. what happens here. >> these tapes are sitting in the evidence room of fbi in new york. jointly reviewed by the federal prosecutors. and it is probable that if michael cohen was taping this conversation, he was taping others. all reports are indicative of that. and i think that means that michael cohen is far more likely to cooperate. we can't rule out the possibility that he is already cooperating with the feds or in discussion with what that cooperation would look like. and as barbara said, you are piecing together all of the pieces of the puzzle that include numerous tapes probably. and now you have got more solid evidence and if they were talking about fictitious accounts set up to pay the playboy model. that in itself could create separate violations. >> what the potential offenses could be here. if it wasn't about keeping a story out of the press at a particular time when it would have been influential to voters in the united states, it gets less serious. the issue here, the thin

the cohen has been moved into the southern district of new york. it is looking into cohen's business dealings. we don't know exactly what the special council may or may not do. this is what rudy giuliani is saying about the special council motivation. he said his goal and motivation is to under cut the special council investigation, on the part of his client, the president. richard. >> at the white house, jeff bennett. now, to the former u.s. attorney, and former director for counter intelligence with us. >> frank, what are you seeing? you heard the reporting, that jeff bennett gave us, from your sources, on this very topic, is this a shift? why now? >> it is a shift. giuliani and the defense team are trying to move the goal posts it is clear from the defense lawyers i have heard from, no really anybody under investigation wants to sit down with a prosecutor. a prosecutor is not there to help you. they are there, in those questions, they want to find out what you know to help their case. they want to find out if they can find out if there is perjur

the southern district of new york is looking into his business dealings. now you have this float of information to different sources tonight that he has more information about president trump's activity and contact conduct and a candidate. whether he is looking for a pardon or looking to cooperate with federal investigators. there's a debate inside of cohen's orb about whether he is making smart moves at this moment if he is trying to save himself legally. >> all right counsel man, what would be the legal implications of learning that the president knew in advance about this meeting? >> the crime involved here would be there's a campaign finance law that says you can't accept aid from a foreign government during the campaign. under that law is not a criminal violation unless you act willfully which means you knew you were violating the law. mueller would have to prove, first of all, that cohen is telling the truth. that president trump knew about the meeting. he would have to prove that president trump knew it was a violation of law to accept aid from a fo

new york. give me a distinction here. what's going on? >> we don't know michael cohen's strategy. >> i totally want to say of jim's reporting, what jim will never tell us as he should not is michael cohen is the source. we don't know that at this stage. if the reporting is accurate, what does it say? that says this is the first time and news organization has reported that someone in the room or close to the discussion of the june 9th meeting is willing to testify in some manner that donald trump knew about it before. he knew about it after and he lied about it. he's the one that air force one, drafting the faith press relief about the russians. he knows about it before. one has to assume that he knows the substance. >> can i pose this to you? this is from a legal mind. i think i can go to jack. >> this person says you have to remember, 90% of crime cases involved with key testimony. it is the basic m.o. of prosecutors, putting those witnesses on the stand and more importantly corroborating info

she handed almost all of them over to the prosecutors in the southern district of new york. they have been weighing that evidence while they decide whether or not they will bring criminal charges. that process has been going on far long time. it will not go on indefinitely. it will come to a close and then if prosecutors are going to bring charges mr. cohen and his lawyers will have to talk about the kinds of charges cohen might face and the prospect that he might try to get a break from the government in exchange for his cooperation. cooperation doesn't mean he agrees to be nice. cooperation means he agrees that he will give him some information, information that would be of greater value to those prosecutors than whatever value they might see. if they have the goods on you and you're facing serious charges you to have something really good to give them in order to persuade the pr prosecutors to accept that information in exchange for not nailing you to the wall. all right. the worst trouble you're in the better story you have to give prosecutors about something else that r