she is karen mcdougal. with this most unusual cover, the readers of men's journal magazine are invited to, as you see there, get karen mcdougal's workout. you know what? this is kind of a departure for this magazine. can you spot which of these kids is not like the other? we did have a warning about this was coming. when i saw the warning that it was coming, i didn't totally believe it would arrive but it has arrived. a few weeks ago, the "wall street journal" gave the warning that we should look for this. when they pointed pout karen mcdougal, a former playboy model, a woman who said she had a long running affair with president trump, the journal reported that she would be placed on of all things, men's journal for their september issue. despite what appeared to be total bewilderment by the magazine's own staff. mcdougal would be a rare solo woman on the cover of the high-end men's lifestyle magazine which typically show cases male celebrities. the male's chief ref new officer and content officer have told

back that $150,000 that they paid out to karen mcdougal to make ha story go away. so now there's two new things. number one is this. american media really has now taken this somewhat hilarious step. where's my ben affleck, dwayne the rock johnson? they've take this somewhat hilarious step to try to make it look like that contract they signed karen mcdougal up to right before the election, they're trying to make it look like that contract had nothing to do with catching and killing her story about an alleged affair with trump. they're now trying to make it seem like that was a legit publishing contract because they really did want to lock up the cover story rights to karen mcdougal's workout for men's journal. if the "wall street journal" is right, american media went to such lengths to scrape this together at the last minute that they didn't even actually take her picture for their magazine cover. or even talk to her for this magazine cover. "ms. mcdougal has not participated in a photography shoot or interview with the staff according to american media employees.

in a new interview, the president acknowledges the hush money payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougall, quote, came from me. end quote. in doing so, he appears to be admitting a role in violating campaign finance laws. the president also changed another part of the story saying he only learned about cohen's payments, quote, later on. i'll speak with democratic congressman mike quigley, a member of the house intelligence committee. and our correspondents, experts and analysts they are all standing by. but let's begin with cnn's kaitlan collins at the white house. there ice n there's not many answers today but in a story directly from the president. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. as the president is facing enormous pressure here, he's attempting to rewrite history of when he knew about those payments that michael cohen made to the two women who claim that they had affairs with the president. that's causing a headache for his aides back here at the white house who are rattled by the news that michael cohen made yesterday and are still struggling to mound a defense of any kind in respons

when michael cohen says that he helped orchestrate $150,000 payment to karen mcdougall, $130,000 payment to stormy daniels at -- in his words in coordination and the direction of the candidate of federal office he's referring to the then republican candidate. weeks before the presidential election donald trump. >> that's absolutely right. so threat's look at big picture here. all right, wolf? no matter how you slice this and the political spin, this is a horrific day for the white house. horrific. all right? you will have pundits come out, say various things. let's speak facts if we can for a minute. everyone speaks to the issue of cooperation. not predicated on the agreement? are you kidding me? what he said in the court, implicit in the alloc ution. the judge want it is know you can answer questions responsibly. in answer to the question, he says that in coordination and at the direction of someone, right? we know that someone of and concerning the president. implicit in his statements that he's making to the court is his cooperation in stating that, look, i did break these laws but i

that's karen mcdougal. we know she was paid $150,000 in a catch and kill agreement by ami, american media, david pecker, the company he runs. you know this guy by now. michael cohen pled to eight counts earlier this week, including two on campaign finance tied to the donations to karen mcdougal and stormy daniels, the porn star who got paid $130,000 11 days before the election for her silence that we know was set up through a shell company that cohen set up and was paid back by donald trump. less attention given by still a pending piece of litigation, summer zervos has sued donald trump. she said she had an affair with him in the 2000s. he's denied it. she said he defamed her in the process. there's a lawsuit in which discovery is happening now. go to the bottom, this is a trump international hotel. this is in d.c., the old post office. this ties to amollment, which is a way of saying donald trump is benefitting from the fact his name is on this hotel. foreign dignitaries stay here to cozy up to him. that c

we are talking about stormy daniels, karen mcdougall, russian collusion, all of this is about 2016. it is simple. you know more than the rest of us. did we have free and fair elections? >> jake, our committee's going to finish this process. we've already finished on election security and also confirmed that the russians intervened to help trump and hurt clinton. we have elections in 65 odd days and as we have seen in the last 24 hours, as well, from microsoft, facebook and twitter, our foreign adversaries are still using the internet to try to interfere in our political debate and in our election cycle. >> senator warner, vice chairman of the intelligence committee, thank you so much. >> thank you. >>> a congressman on a nice european vacation? not a big deal. spending hundreds of thousands of dollars at target, tequila shots from campaign funds, that lands you in legal trouble. we'll explain why and who. there that 1 in 30 boomers has, yet most don't even know it. a virus that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. hep c can hide in the body for years without symptoms. left unt

and the publisher who bought karen mcdougal's story. and said impeachment proceedings would reduce america to poverty. his conversation came when he had high praise for himself. >> i give myself and a-plus. i don't think any president has done what i've done. we haven't even been two years. >> and he warns what he believes would happen if he were ever impeached. >> i don't know how you can impeach somebody who's done a great job. i tell you what, if i ever got impeached, i think the market would crash, i think everybody would be very poor. >> as for factors that might lead to impeachment or expose him liability, he said buying the silence of two women in the closing days of his campaign is not against the law even though michael cohen has pled guilty to exactly that saying he broke the law. the president continued to try to distance himself from his former lawyer. didn't do big deals, did small deals. not that much. they made it sound like i didn't live without him. >> confessing to crimes and the kind of things mob bosses -- >> he made

., if we would have all known about stormy daniels and karen mcdougal two week before the election, do you think that that would have made a difference? >> it is hard to say because we know about it now, but that is after a year plus of trump and trump surrogates sort of bashes us over on the head with these stories of fake news and witch hunts and so it is all -- i don't want to say it is normalized, none of this is normal, but it is all part of this big noise pattern that wasn't there quite yet in the months leading up to the election.

we can get the karen mcdougal case is going to flplay a role this. donald trump may be very, very nervous at this point, when you have these different people who have been in his life who are now speaking with the prosecutors and being given immunity in this case. >> sara sidner, thank you. much more on david pecker's deal with the feds and the impact this could have on trump. next, our legal analysts will weigh in. >>> also a juror in the paul manafort trial is now speaking out. revealing what happened behind the scenes during those intense deliberations including how one holdout juror prevented guilty charges on all the counts. >>> and president trump now making the case against his own impeachment. warning, quote, everybody would be poor, if he were forced out. is this governing by fear? we'll discuss. pah! that will never work. no, no, no, nah. a bulb of light?!? aha ha ha! a flying machine? impossible! a personal' computer?! ha! smart neighborhoods running on a microgrid. a stadium powered with solar. a hospital that doesn't lose power. amazing.

they could keep -- that certainly is what pecker said to me in very explicit terms, we bought karen mcdougal's story because we wanted to protect our friend, the president. that apparently was the guiding principle for all of the editorial decisions at "the national enquirer." what's so fascinating about this story, they were so concerned pecker might leave they wanted to get their hands on all the dirt so that pecker, even if he was gone, they'd still be protected. >> not like you're speculating about that. we heard it on the tape. >> they say it. >> they said it out loud. >> what did he say, if you get hit by a truck, a very new york way of putting it. >> we're guessing it's a euphemism. >> if you're listening, i am remembering the senator santorum who, perhaps, would have been deeply concerned about decades of dirt and maybe scurrilous dirt on a presidential candidate now president, i'm guessing at this point that the president supporters, doesn't move them at all, i imagine, this is what you're going to tell me, they already baked it into the cake, the "access hollywood" tape didn't move i

when he paid off karen mcdougal and stormy daniels. so the president's argument that cohen didn't commit a crime just isn't true. how do we know? title 52 of the u.s. code. all right? now, you compare that to the obama campaign violation. it's like comparing apples to, you know, elephants. the obama matter was settled as a civil matter with the f.e.c. all right? cohen intentionally committed a crime and is going to prison. and by the way, if the president wants to compare his campaign to obama's, this is why i popped this up. trump's team also got in trouble in 2016 for improperly handling campaign contributions. about 1,100 donations were made to trump's campaign in violation of campaign finance laws including donations that exceeded the allowable limit in a year. so not only did obama not do what trump did, but yes, trump did do what obama's campaign did. now, cohen paying his peccadillos, for his peccadillos. him saying he didn't know. the real problem here is lying. so first trump said i know nothing about these women, i know nothi

we're talking about the $150,000 payment to karen mcdougal. it reads here, cohen caused corporation one to make an advance $150,000 payment to woman one, including through the promise of reimbursement so as to ensure that woman one did not publicize damaging allegations before the 2016 presidential election and there by influence the election. nick ackerman, tom is being generous saying it implicates the campaign. the president has repeatedly denied knowledge of these things and repeatedly denied while president and while in office. this implicates the president of the united states. >> there's no question about it. this makes the president of the united states an unindicted coconspirator. this is the first time this has happened since richard nixon was named as an unindicted coconspirator in the watergate trial. this is a big deal. >> i don't tend to disagree with you much, but you are actually wrong because rudy giuliani has just released a statement that counters exactly what you're saying. he's saying there is no allegation of any wrongdoi

on august 5th, 2016, playboy model karen mcdougal signed a nondisclosure agreement with american media incorporated, the parent company of "the national enquirer." she received $150,000 from the company which was owned by trump friend david pecker to keep quiet about her alleged affair with trump. two months later on, october 7th, the "access hollywood" tape showing mr. trump bragging about assaulting women was released. later that month on the 27th, michael cohen paid adult film star stormy daniels $130,000 to keep her affair with the presidential candidate quiet. the next day daniels signed an nda covering the affair and the payment. 11 days after that, donald trump was elected president of the united states. now according to the criminal information filed in cohen's case, he created fake invoices sending the first one out on february 14th, 2017, the same day the president asked then fbi director james comey to let the flynn matter go. on april 5th of this year, the president told reporters on air force one he didn't know about the payments cohen arranged while he was president he sa

stormy daniels and karen mcdougall. third potential problem for the president, remember, this development really contradicts what his new personal attorney, rudy giuliani told sean hannity back in may. remember that rudy giuliani said back then that the president made $130,000 payment the stormy daniels, but insisted that it did not break any campaign finance laws. for context, watch the sound bite. >> having something to do with paying some stormy daniels woman $130,000 which turns out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money. sorry, i am giving you a fact now that you don't know. it is not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> they followed it through the law firm? >> some went through the law firm, and the president repaid it. >> some say that had nothing to do with the president's campaig campaign. in new york city, the broke damping finance was that we need is to so get more details. the other thing to watch here is that stormy daniels attorney, michael avenatti is tweeting out that he b

the recording, when i listen to it, it's about david pecker and about the karen mcdougal issue. therefore, he definitely knew about that one. but uh don't necessarily think he knew about stormy daniels. the irony of it is, i don't think they should have paid off stormy daniels from a political point of view because it wouldn't have cost them a vote. if it were to come out they were negotiating, it would have been worse. >> giuliani disagrees with you. he says in october, can you imagine what would have happened if it would have come out in the middle of october. his assessment, this had a lot of political implications. >> that's their argument. my argument would be, for reasons i don't believe that once again michael pled guilty to this, he wasn't found guilty by a jury, this is the first time anyone has pled guilty, to my understanding, because we had the edwards case, but to my understanding this is the first time i think that the argument is, i think that things like this may have happened in the past, michael handled things like this. when you look at the statue, you can arg

trump was also involved in the karen mcdougal arrangement. the david you're going to hear is likely david picker of the national enquirer's parent company. allen is the chief financial officer. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david. so that i'm going to do that right away. i have come up -- i have spoken to allen about how to set the whole thing up with funding. yes. and it's all the stuff, all the stuff. because you never know where that company, what he's going to be. >> if he gets hit by a truck. >> correct, so i'm all over that. i spoke to allen about it. when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay. >> cash? >> no, no. i got -- no, no, no. >> when the recording first hit, many observers remarked it kind of sounded like a pair of crooks conspiring. today in court, michael cohen told the judge under oath that's basically just what it was. if more on the cohen plea deal, i want to go to shimon who is reading through the details of the

this is from karen mcdougal's attorney. to all media asking our firm to comment on "national inquirer" publisher edavid pecker getting immunity, here is our official statement. told you so. >>> when we come back, a new legal challenge for the president, one you can't fire his way out of. ep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. and now, all beds are on sale. save 50% on the new sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, free home delivery. ends saturday. ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun♪ ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller transitions™ light under control™ with its historical records... ...you could learn you're from ireland... ...donegal, ireland... ...and your ancestor was a fisherman. with blue eyes. just like you. begin your journey at ancestry.com. to speak with dozens of actually customers of the aarp auto insurance program from the hartford. - my cars do make me proud, so w

this is from karen mcdougal's attorney. to all media asking our firm to comment on "national inquirer" publisher david pecker getting immunity, here is our official statement. told you so. >>> when we come back, a new legal challenge for the president, one you can't fire his way out of. your new brother-in-law. you like him. he's one of those guys who always smells good. his 5 o'clock shadow is always at 5 o'clock. you like him. your mom says he's done really well for himself. he has stocks and bonds your dad wants to go fishing with him. your dad doesn't even like fishing. you like your brother-in-law. but you'd like him better if you made more money than he does. don't get mad at your brother-in-law. get e*trade >>> back now with kristen powers and ryan lizza and chris cillizza. welcome back. new tonight, "the new york times" is reporting that the manhattan district attorney's office is considering criminal charges against the trump organization, two senior company officials in connection with the hush money payments to s

mcdougal who also claims she had an affair with trump a decade ago and it's not clear from the tape of trump suggested paying in cash or by check the president's current legal advisers rudy giuliani has gone from describing cohen as an honest honorable man to slamming him. land rights activists has been.

mcdougal. cohen's plea deal raises the possibility he will provide other information to mueller. cooperation from another foomer truck they'd like -- trump aid michael flynn. he pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about rrssian official ccntact for >> good to see you, doug. breake had such a story before, is this likely to have an impact on donald trump? >> donald trump has been tefloo until now. pe fights back, deeies, dodges, he will never take the blame himself. to deflect blame, if not onto democrats onto opponentt who criticize them, most usually via he has yet to tweet on this turn oo events. this was a bad day for donald trump. even by the standards of a presidency that has seen a lot of scandals and crises. his former lawyer and former campaign manager coming under convictions of guill, crimes that directly implicate donall trump in one case because it was done at his whether it will affectthim is another question. he has had that firewall of republicans behind him not anding out of fear

he was asked about killing stories and the hush money payment made to karen mcdougal who claims to have an affair with thees ident. and investigators are talking with pecker about the involvement of the president in that payment and the involvement of michael cohen in that payment. we had the cohen plea. he pled guilty to eht federal crimes that implicated the president. and thel, attorney gene jeff sessions, fighting back after the president wab bashing him t recusining himself. the only praise from the president came from paul manafort, who he respects for notng brea the president valuing loyalty and those limits being tested week. >> susan mcginnis. thanks. >>>yft wants you to vote on election day. yesterday, it announced it will offer discounted and freeides to polls. it will distribute across the country. and it's partnering with nonprofits so that people in underserved communities will ride free. 70 days to go before america goes to the polls for the midterms. we'll he the deahen it gets closer. >>> a hearing in the man charged in the mder of a d.c. family and their housekeeper. t

host: karen mcdougal. guest: paying both? host: money for karen mcdougal's story. guest: i do not believe either of them but i could be wrong. it doesn't matter. i think one of the things i am not wild about the president for , the only political thing, not building the wall but i am from connecticut and we do not think it is good to brag about your wealth. if you do and hang around with reality tv stars and playboy bunnies, you will probably get a lot of nuisance lawsuits. --o not think karen mcdougal she said she had an affair for one year but not any evidence? i can date a boy for a week and give you five pieces of evidence. you have no cufflinks? no answering machine message? the other one claims a one-time role in the sack and overlaying all of that, remember that donald trump is a germ of oh -- german phobic -- has made a big mistake. me -- a hero of the college owns case -- college jonesase was -- paula case, she let people latch onto her and got her to do a playboy spread to bring her down. that is what lanny davis is doing with cohen and now both sides hat

trump was also involved in the karen mcdougal arrangement, the david you'll hear in this tape is david pecker of ami. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that information regarding our friend david. so that i'm going to do that right away. i've spoken to allen about how to set the whole thing up with -- >> so what are we going to do? >> yes. and it's all the stuff, all the stuff. because you don't know what he's going to do. correct. so i'm all over that. and i spoke to allen about it. when it comes time for the financing which will be -- >> what financing? >> well, i have to pay you. >> pay the cash? >> no. no. no. >> how are you? >> when the recording first hit, many observers rashsaid it soun like a couple of crooks conspiring. that's just what it was. for more on the cohen plea deal, i want to go to our reporter who is still reading through the details of the extraordinary charging documents. the references to president trump all over this document, correct? >> there are. and honestly, i think we're all surprised by the way in which prosecuto prosecutors here

karen mcdougall, as well. there's a pattern of corporations created to pay off and silence around the time of the actual election and going forward you think about this. bank and tax fraud charges are very, very big charges. big felony cases to make. just ask paul manafort about that. to add on the campaign finance violations whether there's no cooperation agreement available for michael cohen suggests that perhaps he is aware that he is alone and he is retaliating against the president of the united states to include that. they would still need to have a basis upon which toen collude that as a charge they could prove but we shouldn't take it lightly that he made a decision to plead guilty to two things that the president of the united states has already commented on, on camera. >> amanda, your take on all of this? >> we have to absorb the magnitude of the situation for anyone in the white house. paul manafort who represented the head of the campaign is awaiting a verdict. michael cohen who is the biggest play

this is one of the two people that were bought off, because everything about the karen mcdougal story, stormy daniels -- she's an opportunist, too. >> right. >> that was a real relationship as far as karen mcdougal was concerned and that is the one they thought is politically the most lethal to the president. what do you think? >> i don't know it's more lethal than stormy daniels. it was probably more lethal to his family relationships potentially and, you know, on the terms of the timing of it. >> right. >> in terms of the fact, you're right, it was a real relationship, it was long-term, long-term for trump in terms of relationships assuming all of it is true. you know, so from that vantage point, you know, somebody who is emotionally wounded is more likely to say very damaging things at press. >> howard, the president is accused of being a liar by his long-time personal lawyer. is the country surprised? >> no. >> does this -- what is -- we know what fall out would be in another era. i think we're all trying to figure out, is this guy immune to this? no other president could survive

mcdougal. payments michael cohen says were directed and coordinated by the then-presidential candidate donald trump. today the president talked about cohen's deal. listen to this. >> it's called flipping, and it almost ought to be illegal. you get ten years in jail, but if you say bad things about somebody, in other words make up stories if you don't know, they just make up lies. alan dershowitz stayed composed. i've seen it many times. they go from ten years to a national hero. they have a statue erected in their honor. it's not a fair thing. but that's why he did it. he made a very good deal. >> all right. let's immediately go to our white house correspondent kaitlan collins at the white house. this is a big deal that a long-time friend and associate of the president of the united states, david pecker of american media, cooperating with federal prosecutors in exchange for immunity. what are you hearing of these latest attacks and the revelations about david pecker's role in helping michael co

i think it lends further credence and credibility to the stormy daniels story, the karen mcdougal story, you know. so, all those things i think add fuel to the fire in terms of the president and who he is, what he was about, and the fact that he did have those other alleged affairs. there's nothing in and of itself about paying a doorman to be quiet that would be illegal, inappropriate or improper, but if you take the collective week in and of itself of the president and you look, it's just damning, right? you look at immunity deal for the money man at the trump organization, what he knows about taxes, about finances, about transactions. he can now speak. and just to be clear, immunity is the biggest inducement, victor, to spill and to tell all about what you know, who you know, when you know and why you know it. then you look at the ami chairman, mr. pecker, and he has immunity to speak to the issues of payoffs as it relates to doormen or stormy daniels or anyone else, karen mcdougal. you look at the guilty verdict as it relates to manafort. you look at cohen's plea and implicating the

so michael cohen is referring there to paying for the rights to karen mcdougal's story. and there's more. this is a quote. "on or about october of 2016, in coordination with and at the direction of the same candidate, i arranged to make a payment to a second individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign to keep the individual from disclosing the information." that's a reference to the hush money payment to stormy daniels. and if that is not clear enough, there's this. the judge asking, "mr. cohen, when you took all of these acts that you described, did you know that what you were doing was wrong and illegal?" cohen answering, "yes, your honor." and as to the president's claim he only knew about the payments later on, his own words prove that that's a lie. listen to trump and michael cohen discussing payment to silence karen mcdougal. >> correct. so i'm all over that. and i spoke to allan about it. when it comes time to the financing which will be -- >> listen, what financing? >> we'll have to pay -- >> pay with cash. >> no, no, no

long-time viewers of "stormy watch" will recall that karen mcdougal is the "playboy" playmate who claims she had a ten-month affair with donald trump. mcdougal's story was hushed up after she told-- she sold the rights to it to the "national enquirer" for $150,000. that's $20,000 more than stormy daniels. ( laughter ) karen must have spanked him with two magazines. ( laughter and applause ) now-- ( cheers ) ( piano riff ) now, trump denies the affair and any knowledge of that payment, but last night, cnn obtained one of the 12 secret trump-cohen tapes, this one from september 2016. and you can tell it's from 2016 because they're both making a lot of harambe jokes. ( laughter ) and despite his denials, the audio confirms that trump knew about the payments during the presidential campaign. donald trump lied. so now they have to reset the sign on the white house lawn. >> audience: boo! ( laughter and applause ) yeah. shocking. ( cheers ) it's shocking. got to. the tape, it starts off with trump on the phone talking about some controversy that trump's all embroiled in. >> stephen: "the charl

court documents say that american media paid forr "playboy" model karen mcdougal for the rights of her story to keep her alleged relationship with mr. trump a secret ahead of the election. the arrangement was known as catch and kill. they acquired the rights to the story but never publishes. later in the hour, susan cginnis will join us from capitol hill to break down the latest de tlopments. >>s morning, tension between president trump and attorney general jeff sessions is growing. there's speculation whether session willeep his job after the midterm elections. and it comes from this comment by the president on fox news.ut >> in an attorney general that never took control of the justice department. he never took control of the justice department. he took the job and said, i'm going to recuse myself. what kind of man is this? >> sessions isnoighting back he said in a statement, i took control of the department of justice the day i was sworn in. while i am attorney general, the actions of the justice l department wt be improperly iluenced by political considerations. >>> california cong

mcdougal or stephanie clifford? >> we addressed this numerous times. >> you say there have been no discussions about potential pardon for paul manafort, so you're not ruling it out entirely if there's no discussions about it at this point, the president hasn't said he won't do it, it is possible there could be a pardon for him in the future, correct? >> the only comment the president has made on this is when he was asked by the news outlet earlier this week and he said no, he was not considering that. beyond there, there have been no other discussions. >> that was before paul manafort was convicted on 8 of the 18 counts at the time when the president was asked that. so i'm asking now that he has been convicted. >> i am answering there have been no discussions at the white house on that matter. >> on a different point, last time we were in here you read off some ex-officials and one current official the president was considering taking away their security clearance. i want to follow-up on that and ask you who was con

cohen says he spoke to weisselberg about buying the rights to karen mcdougal's story. the "new york times" citing two officials reports his family company could be the next target of a criminal investigation. the stunning news comes as the president's former lawyer michael cohen awaits sentencing after stating in open court that he was directed to commit willful violations of campaign finance law by then candidate trump. and it is not just the president. but his children could be in jen arrest did i. let's take a look at how this money was funneled through cohen. according to the criminal information, which michael cohen admitted in court is true, the lawyer paid stormy daniels $130,000 through you a wire transfer on october 27th, 2016 for the principal purpose of influencing the election. if there is nothing else from this last year, this last week, that you've paid attention to, it should be this sentence, for the principal purpose of influencing the election. and at the direction of the candidate, cohen said in court. on november 1, just days before the election, da

he did connect donald trump to the payments to stormy daniels and to karen mcdougal. guest: yes, that is absolutely right. host: we're talking with ben schreckinger, his team of reporters at politico. we did hear from the president very briefly late this afternoon, saying he feels bad for paul manafort. some speculating that might lead , potentially, to a presidential pardon. guest: that is right. that has been hanging over the entire mueller probe, other investigations, trump associates like the one we have seen with michael cohen. political bombshell likely if you try to do that before the midterms, certainly if you did that in the next week or so before the government has to decide whether or not to retry mr. manafort on those other 10 counts, it is likely that it would lead to a retrial on those 10 counts. but it also appears to have informed manafort's strategy, his unwillingness to cooperate at all with others to flip on president trump. it may have been motivated in part by the prospect of a pardon, so we will see if that happens. host: ben schreckinger, we wil

stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. at the direction of president donald j. trump. >> tom winter was in the courtroom. what did you see tonight? >> the first couple of hearings because arguments over several months about who should look at the evidence that was seized from michael cohen and how should that process go through and a tremendous amount of media attention, stormy daniels was in line. it felt more like a new york city nightclub than a hearing. today it was different. as soon as michael cohen entered the courtroom, the entire courtroom quieted down. no gasps or any sort of outburst from the crowd at all. the thing that was interesting, is he started to talk about the actual campaign. he starts talking about the president and everybody at that moment had this kind of stunning sense of wait a minute, michael cohen, the president's former personal attorney is directly implicated him to the crimes he is pleading guilty today. >> under oath, this man says, i mean always this question about what he is going it plead to and so many different stories, bank

michael cohen says he made that payment, facilitated that payment to karen mcdougal, quote, for the purpose of influencing the election. that was all done through american media. the parent company of the national enquirer. and cohen says president trump repaid him for the stormy daniels $130,000 payment, as well. those comments from inside this federal courtroom today about the president of the united states. go ahead and give us your reaction. >> well, and remember, who has benefited from all of this? who benefited from the fact that these two women were silenced? wasn't michael cohen. michael cohen wasn't the one who was running for president. it was donald trump. so if you wanted to look at the way prosecutors generally view culpability, they look at who benefits. who made the money. who was at the top of the pyramid. here, there's not even close to a debate about that. this was something done for the benefit of donald trump, who, according to michael cohen, directed the entire illegal conspiracy. remember that phrase, at the direction of. cohen said this whole illegal activity, these i

i've always represented that was about karen mcdougal and david pecker. you better check your facts. however, the point remains the same, steve, i'll toss it to you trump didn't pay pecker. >> he knew about what was being done on his behalf. that's why michael cohen had to plead guilty to two counts. >> they were discussing maying for something and they never paid for it facts are important. they discussed paying. >> you are making a distinction that makes no difference in the analysis. >> it makes all the difference in the world. i can talk about pieing a house. >> did you know he considered buying a house or not? did you know or not? >> that's not material. >> it absolutely is material. >> jennifer, grands home, what's your case? really, steve, bless your heart for trying to get trump out of this soup, but he snu that he was paying off women. that's the bottom line. and it's a good thing that we've got evidence. other than michael cohen's testimony. there's the tape and who knows what other evidence that the mueller investigation has that's documentary

host: karen mcdougal has been brought up as well. ann: was it paying both of them are only stormy daniels? host: it was money for karen mcdougal's story. ann: i don't believe either of them. it doesn't matter. one of the things i'm not wild about the president for, the only political thing i am angry with him for is not but i'm the wall, um, from connecticut and we don't consider it tasteful to be bragging about your wealth. but if you're going to go around bragging about your wealth and hanging around with reality tv stars and playboy bunnies, you are probably going to get a lot of suits. fort of nuisance suits and one thing, i don't think the karen mcdougal 1 -- she said she had an affair with him for one year and does not have evidence. i could take a boy for a week and give you five pieces of evidence. he didn't leave cufflink behind, no answering machine message? the other one claims a one-time role in the sack and i think overlaying all of this, it is worth remembering that, um, donald trump is a german folk. i don't believe it

shortly before the election, pecker's company paid for the story of former "playboy" playmate karen mcdougal but never ran it. >> we're you in love with him? >> i was, yes. >> do you think he was in love with you? >> he was, yes. >> reporter: in a secretly recorded conversation, cohen and trump seem to discuss a plan to buy the rights to mcdougal's story from the "enquirer" publisher themselves. cohen saying he'd already discussed the matter with that top trump executive, allen weisselberg. >> i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding. >> so, what do you we got to pay for this, 150 -- >> yes. >> reporter: they can also be heard discussing money. >> when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay. >> cash? >> no, no, no, no, no. i got -- no, no, no. >> check. >> reporter: but after the conversation, the campaign spokeswoman denied trump knew anything about the mcdougal agreement. on air force one, the president said he knew nothing about the payment to stormy daniels either. >> did you know about the $130,0

that included a $150,000 pay-out to karen mcdougal and the $130,000 payment to porn star stormy daniels, which american media execs were involved in. we saw cohen today looking care-free on a stroll from his residence to the four seasons. free on bail right now and facing a new subpoena and a demand that he dissolve his taxi business. he was issued a subpoena by the new york tax department, which they want to know if trump foundation violated state tax laws. in new york, the taxi and limousine commission has given him two weeks to sell his taxi medallions. they aretetetete taxixixixiin the citititit and has plummeted. and he could be called back to capitol hill. he testified before the senate ce c c c c c c c ceeeeeeeeayayae didididi'tnow if the president d advance offff t t t t trump tower meeting witititit russian. so the intel committee says we recently reengaged with mr. cohen and his team. as to whether he stood by his testimony, they responded that he did stand by his testimony. >> there's information about russia, mr. cohen has information about russia, we want to know that. we s

we know in more recent history about the contracts like the one involving karen mcdougal. ami also had insight into stormy daniels. there was a lot at risk in that building for mr. trump at the time. of course, david pecker was loyal. they could rely on him. maybe he gets hit by a truck. >> that was my next question. pecker becoming a central figure in this drama. you report that on trump and cohen's concerns about pecker and his future, he wasn't necessarily talking about the possibility of him getting hit by a truck in serious manner, but they were in a larger sense concerned about where he might end up in future. what were they worried about? >> well, there were rumors, at least michael cohen was hearing rumors that mr. pecker might go to "time." there were rumors he would want something to do with "time." i haven't heard him about leaving ami for that. i had wondered -- i've been covering this for ten months. what i nevered into ed intunde would the candidate trump trust any third party. that seemed to be dawning on them as well. >> excellent reporting from "the new yo

mcdougall. this new report in "the wall street journal" said that he was granted immunity to speak to prosecutors is a new wrinkle in it and, we are trying to chase this down. it wouldn't be surprising because if you are a part federal prosecutor and going after a bigger fish, and the one that you are talking to, you grant the smaller fish immunity so that that person will flip on the bigger fish. then the bigger fish which in this case was michael cohen would then flip on president trump. so now, it brings forward the argument, if indeed david packer did say under immunity that president trump knew about the american media/"national enquirer" deal regarding karen mcdougall, before the payment was being made, and while it was being arranged, then that shifts the timeline again, that was on fox and friends this morning that he learned about these payments long after the fact. the president insisted he didn't know about the payment to stormy daniels and he has feigned ignorance about -- or maybe n

this time to former playboy model karen mcdougal. >> when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> i have to pay -- >> cash. >> no, no, no. >> on august 21st, cohen officially flipped on his former boss and plead guilty to campaign finance charges stemming from those payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdoug ap. he also told the federal judge the mcdougal payment was for the principal purpose of influencing the election. we should note that president trump denies these affairs with these two women. joining us now, utah congressman chris stewart, a republican. a key member of the house intelligence committee. very nice of you, congressman, to join us today. so many of your republican colleagues are sort of run away from tv cameras right now. but thanks so much for joining us. i want to get your reaction clearly to michael cohen, the president's longtime personal attorney and fixer. what he told this federal court yesterday about the president's direct coordination, direction in these payoffs to these two women. >> well, wolf, it's a mess. and, look, i h

mcdougall. remember that payment she received from the "national enquirer" was $150,000 and that was classified as an unlawful corporate contribution and a contribution of $130,000 to stormy daniels that was made on october 27th just a week before the election. again, cohen saying he did this on behalf of and the direction of and in coordination with a candidate for federal office, that person unnamed. just heard from rudy giuliani a second ago about all of this because people are talking about a connection between these payments and president trump, he's saying to fox news there is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president, against mr. cohen it's clear as the prosecutor noted his actions reflect the pattern of lies and dishonesty but were a significant period of time. it doesn't look like the special prosecutor or the southern district of new york will have much of an act to hold over michael cohen's head to because he and his attorneys have agrees to sentencing, somewhere between t

that's how joe at the journal first came up with the karen mcdougal story. there are other pieces of this elsewhere. things we don't know exactly how much stuff is there. the safe was known to i would say not everyone but it was a known thing within a lot of the staff. this was like an old school combination lock-type vault. dating back i don't know how many apparently a pretty old thing. where those documents went of course we don't know. we don't know if they had been functionally turned over to the government. we don't know if they've been destroyed. we don't know if they've been moved somewhere else for safe keeping. just that they're no long wear they used to be. >> fascinating stuff. thanks to both of you, to zefer and to tom winter. >>> the president trolling jeff sessions on twitter just this morning as the escalating public feud between the two explodes out into a dramatic smackdown. except, that is, when they actually meet face-to-face. are the days, though, for the attorney general numbered? ple f. my life is here... [telephone ring] ahoy-hoy. ale

trump's involvement in payoffs to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. after months of being on the receiving end of presidential jabs almost daily, the attorney general is actually punching back, and that's where we begin tonight with the escalating fight between the president and his attorney general. here was president trump this morning. >> i mean he was worse than anybody, in my opinion. he got nothing. he's a democrat, he got nothing. the reason he got nothing, because the dems are very strong in the justice department. i put an attorney general that never took control of the justice department, jeff sessions. never took control of the justice department. >> sessions, who was at the white house this afternoon, by the way, for a previously scheduled event, pushed back with a statement directly responding to that last line from the president. quote, i took control of the department of justice the day i was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success in effectuating the president's agenda. while i am attorney general, the actions of the d