we had michael cohen speaking. coming into tears when he was saying, it broke his heart that the shame and the pain he's brought on to his family by committing these crimes. his family members were emotional. friends and family, his daughter right behind him, his wife, son, his mother, father, in-law, cousins, they all came over after the sentencing which seemed like an absolute shock to them. you could hear some sobbing in the courtroom as he was told he was going to have 36 months, three years in prison and they came over and they all hugged him. there was a lot of, you know, intense embraces, long embraces, everyone looked very shocked and i think they were expecting him to have a much lighter sentence, if not any time at all, john. >> dramatic inside the courtroom. appreciate that insight from straight inside the emotions playing out. michael cohen facing three years in prison. he can try to reduce that by cooperating further. both on his own personal financial crimes and then the special counsel, among the off

michael cohen is speaking. at some point we should hear from the judge. >> what impact that has on the judge's decision, what impact that also has on his sentence? we will soon find out. thank you so much. we will get a quick break and bring it right back to new york city courtroom. michael cohen's fate, what is the impact and also on the president? >>> following breaking news out of the federal courthouse in new york city. michael cohen just wrapped up speaking before the court pleading for his liberty and in doing so, going right at the president of the united states, donald trump. here's what he said in part. recently, the president tweeted a statement calling me weak and it was correct, but for a much different reason that he was implying. it was because time and again, michael cohen says, i felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds. shamone is outside of the courthouse. he's trying to save his tail today. >> reporter: what dirty deeds is he talking about? we know one he's alleged. the campaign financ

we haven't heard the last of michael cohen. he is going off to prison but the statement by lanny davis that he -- michael cohen will be an important witness in the congressional investigations to unravel what happened with russian election interference, i think is really significant, because cohen was an intimate of donald trump for years. if there was a russia conspiracy it stands to reason that cohen would know about it. he would also know if there wasn't a russian conspiracy, he would know why so many trump people affiliated with trump lied about their contacts with russians. what were the conversations around that whole saga? cohen was there. cohen was a witness to history and while he lied to congress, he doesn't seem to have lied to ru robert mueller. i think we haven't seen the last of michael cohen, andrea. >> my thanks to you, ken. to danny, dan, to mimi, chuck here and, of course, secretary cohen and phil. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online, on facebook, at twitter. here

i can't match the michael cohen i just saw there with the michael cohen who would yell at me on the phone in 2012 -- or 2013, or 2015, when defending the president and telling me how perfect the president is about how fiercely loyal he was to the president. there's the quote there at the end for michael cohen. i gave loyalty to somebody who truthfully does not deserve loyalty. >> there's something else he says in the sound bite where he said he thinks trump has changed in this job, and he southeadoes understand the system, and we have seen the president repeated repeatedly denigrate the justice system. where i would personally disagree with michael, i don't think mr. trump is different than he used to be, but i think the pressure of the job is intense, and michael cohen's version of events have changed over time, and donald trump's version doesn't make sense from what we have heard in court and what prosecutors say happened, and we know prosecutors interviewed the ceo, and we have to assume he gave something that matched up with what cohen said happened. donald trump gave an explanation t

our michael cohen whisperer. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> i understand that you have spoken with mr. cohen since the sentencing? >> i was in court today. i saw him and his family actually enter the court as they happen to be entering at the same time. it was a -- it was interesting, because half the room was reporters, right? so half the people have notebooks in their lap and were writing everything down, and half the room it felt like were people who were cohen's family and very close friends. and so, you had a group of, let's call them looky lous trying to absorb all the information we were getting and it was a lot of information. and a group of people that were emotional about the decision. this was something not just a piece in the puzzle of mueller's investigation or a plot line in this insane thing we're living through every day, this is a very personal, human thing to half of that room, and so to have that split was fascinating to watch, and i don't think anyone, whate

cohen just on the word of michael cohen alone because michael cohen is a liar. now, that is actually now something we can all agree on. michael cohen is a liar. or at least was a liar. even michael cohen agrees on that. he pleaded guilty to lying to congress. but after michael cohen was sentenced today, for the first time in the investigation of the president of the united states federal prosecutors put out a press release about the case. robert mueller's special counsel's office and the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan have been showing their work only in court, only in formal legal filings in court and in statements to judges in court. but today after the court session where michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan issued a press release saying that michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, which everyone already knew. the press release described every element of michael cohen's sentence in detail which everyone already knew was already public information. every detail of michael cohen's senten

>> no. >> why did michael cohen made that payment. >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney and you'll have to ask michael. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> no, i don't know. >> just four days later, cohen would face a crisis of his own. >> we have this new report in. the fbi has reportedly raiding the office of president trump's long-time personal lawyer. >> investigators seized emails, tax documents and business reports. >> bombs are dropping. >> april 9th michael cohen woke up in the hotel where he has been living at about 7:30, about a dozen fbi agents knocked on the door, they did not break it down. and snatched the cell phone out of his hand and began a raid into his hotel room. >> simultaneously the fbi searched cohen's apartment and his office at rockefeller center. >> the goal is to execute the search warrants simultaneously for surprise and to make sure that nobody gets tipped off and the evidence doesn't disappear. >> fbi agents seized a massive haul of information, including documents, computer hard drives, pho

you know michael cohen, you've dealt with michael cohen. what is it that would prevent michael cohen from becoming a fully cooperating witness in the southern district and today be getting a recommendation for leniency st. instead of the recommendation for substantial prison time because he has not been cooperating? >> i suspect and this is just a suspicion, that it's the same thing that's made paul manafort, you know, go back on his word multiple times. i think it's worth remembering about michael cohen and paul manafort came from rough and tumble business worlds with rough and tumble clients. in both cases they had clients in eastern europe, they had investors from eastern europe. michael cohen went to high school with felix seder who's a career criminal. they did these deals together. we know that manafort was tied to a number of ukraine billionaires and a very prominent russian oligarch. and so i suspect at some level they're trying to protect either their families or their own hides from retribution given the kinds of careers they've h

he picked michael cohen. michael cohen never had a good legal repetition. he never had a reputation as someone who was a particularly good lawyer. he was a bit of a thug and the president hired him. so there is no escaping that. last year i wrote a column saying the president needed to sever michael cohen as fast as he could before this mcdermitt and daniels things are in the white house. instead, the president brought him closer. he had a very famous dinner with him at mar-a-lago. those were mistakes. >> harris: jonathan, it's harris. i'm actually joined by another legal mind, tom dupree. i wanted to get the two of you talking, because we talked before the show about a prison sentence and signals its end. then we heard from a reporters who said "hey, there might be room for renegotiation in the year." jonathan, what do you think? i'm going to ask tom take over. >> i do think that there is a real possibility of the prosecutors coming back. mueller claims that he's not done with: , and there is some lingering questions that some of us have. mueller has sugge

well, you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my -- an attorney. and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> reporter: despite the mounting legal worries for the president, he insists he's not afraid of being impeached, telling reuters, i'm not concerned. no. i think that the people would revolt if that happened. but a source close to the president told cnn, mr. trump sees impeachment as a real possibility. as explained to voters before the mid terms. >> they like to use the impeach word. impeach trump. maxine waters, we will impeach him. but he didn't do anything wrong. it doesn't matter, we will impeach him! how do you impeach somebody that's doing a great job. that hasn't done anything wrong? our economy is good. how do you do it? >> reporter: the president is blaming the mistress money on his former attorney, saying michael cohen is a lawyer. i'm assuming he would know what he's doing. and as for other campaign aides and associates en snared in the russia probe, mr. trump campaigns, the stuff you're talking about is peanuts stuff. >> the last time

of michael cohen's legal team. mr. davis, good to have you here. thanks for coming in. >> thanks, rachel. >> why until today? you are no longer a lawyer associated with michael cohen? >> well, lawyers have constraints, and the cases over the sentencing process is completed. now my media ability to talk and explain and i can speak much more freely, and i'm now exercising my first amendment rights. >> okay. you have said in the wake of today's proceedings, and actually heading into today's proceedings, that mr. cohen wants to not only to continue to cooperate with the mueller investigation and continue to speak with prosecutors, but he wants to speak publicly about what he knows about president trump. what do you mean by that? >> i am thinking of john dean in 1974, whose crimes included very serious obstruction of justice, tampering with witnesses, doing a lot of the evil work in the nixon white house that he ultimately owned up to. but there was a moment, and he and i have talked about that moment where he needed to

cohen, he should give michael cohen zero time in jail. well, what the prosecutors in the southern district of new york filed today with the judge was a blistering response to that. and that is a long one. this is a 40-page-long filing. and honestly, they needed every single one of these 40 pages to fully express to the judge how mad they are at michael cohen. and mad at him is not a legal term of art, but i'm not a lawyer. i'm just telling you how i read it. and if you read it too, you will understand why i feel that way. all right. quoting from this filing, quote, defendant michael cohen is scheduled to be sentenced on december 12th, 2018. it's next wednesday. the united states attorney's office for the southern district of new york respectfully submits this memorandum in connection with that sentencing and in response to the defendant's sentencing memorandum, which was dated november 30th, 2018. cohen, an attorney and businessman, committed four distinct federal crimes over a period of federal years -- excuse me, period of several years

>> well, you have to ask michael cohen. michael's my attorney and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know. no. >> a straight-up denial, just a straight-up lie. he said he didn't know about the moment. we know that's now true. the president wasn't telling the truth. in may, rudy giuliani then spilled the beans on "hannity." >> having something to do with paying some stormy daniels woman $130,000, i mean, which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money. sorry. i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. so -- >> they funneled it through a law firm? >> funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh. i didn't know, he did. >> yeah, wow. okay. so that was the first time they admitted that. so at that point the story then became the president not only knew about the payments, forget what he said before, he paid cohen back for it. but up until then, the

be too harsh on michael cohen. they argued, yes, michael cohen committed serious crimes, including withholding information related to the russia investigation. not just from the senate and the house intelligence committees, but also from the special counsel's office. but mueller's office also argued that michael cohen had in recent months gone to, quote, significant lengths to assist the special counsel's investigation. they said the information cohen provided to them was, quote, credible and consistent with other evidence obtained in the special counsel's ongoing investigation. the special counsel's office pointed out michael cohen met with them multiple times and given them information about michael cohen's own conduct and others core topics in investigation by the special counsel's office. which is very intriguing, but who knows? the special counsel's office does not leak. we do not know what cohen told them. we may never know. >>> meanwhile today, we got what looks like round two of mcclatchy reporters digging

only michael cohen knows that. look, michael cohen might have been doing this completely on his own accord and try to pocket some of the difference, right? we don't know any of it. don't know any of it. >> when everything was a total mess. even people who are huge fans of the president, huge supporters this, is a total mess right now because this is when they were going through the transition period before the inauguration happened trying to figure out who was going to take what position and even people around for the darkest days of the campaign say the transition period was one of the worst because it was such a mess. it was so all over the place. they say that period it was so chaotic and contributed to a lot of the problems that they are having now with people like michael flynn and michael cohen. >> mueller has been probing the inaugural committee, and there hasn't been a ton about it in the press and did refer a case to the u.s. attorney in washington. >> right. >> and in august the u.s. attorney's office in

he talked often with michael cohen. if that is the case, if he's doing that with this payoff, then he was probably likely involved in the trump tower moscow deal. he probably knew about the june 9 trump tower meeting where russians offered dirt on hillary clinton. that's why i think it poses larger problems for his presidency. >> again, it goes back to the notion that, you know, donald trump, jr., and paul manafort and jared kushner all of whom were in the room with the russians at trump tower, learned in the introductory e-mail even that the russian government is backing donald trump as a candidate or wants him to win. the idea that donald trump, jr., or somebody didn't tell the candidate that, given donald trump's involvement in all these other smaller details or more specific details, i mean, it's hard to imagine that he wasn't informed. >> it would be out of character for the way that donald trump, the candidate, operated in the way that the children and the campaign team worked as well. and also today donald trump

they believe he directed michael cohen to do that. the white house initially said he only weighed in on the statement about his son's meeting with russians at trump tower, that said it was aboudos when it was really about dirt on hilary clinton. directed the statement, the communications. we know mueller's team has asked the president and his legal team about those communication goes and the crafting of that statement. now we're understanding why that is so important to mueller's team, because they knew all of this as an effort to create a narrative in order to limit the russia investigation. so it certainly puts all of the president's public comments into focus. >> also, the communication on the trump tower moscow. we also know there was more communication with the president on that than we had known initially and that michael cohen has, you know, testified to that. so you have all of these people -- manafort, gates, cohen -- lying, lying. >> yes, and this document that mueller has submitted, the government's submission in its suppor

>> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney. you'll have to ask michael. >> he made the deal. they weren't campaign finance. >> also the tabloids that caught and killed damaging stories about trump is cooperating with the fed admitting it made the payment in concert with trump's campaign. every one involved agrees the hush money was about the election except the president. now a man who was so loyal to trump vowed the take a bullet for him is ready to tell all. his former lawyer telling nbc news cohen will expose trump's laying saying remember john dean? it's just the beginning. john dean was nixon's loyal white house counsel who flipped blowing the lids off the watergate cover up. >> i began by telling the president there was a cancer growing on the presidency and if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it. i also told him that it was important that this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more tdeadly every day. >> joining me former congresswoman on the house judiciary committee

>> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney, and you'll have to ask michael. >> step two, the partial admission followed by the insistence that whatever the bad act was it definitely was not a crime. >> it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. so -- >> they funneled it through a law firm. >> funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh, i didn't know -- >> he did. >> i always love that video. it's awesome. step three comes next. that was the bad act was a crime but donald trump didn't do it. >> i never directed him to do anything wrong. whatever he did, he did on his own. he's a lawyer. a lawyer who represents a client is supposed to do the right thing. that's why you pay them a lot of money, et cetera, et cetera. >> finally, step four, where we are now which is, okay, okay, it was a crime but, you know, not all crimes are created equal. here's a rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer, what he said this week. nobody got killed. nobody got robbed. this was not a big crime. g

we could hear from michael cohen directly. and hear exactly what he has to say on this and all the other matters before them. i think this report tonight from cnn only underscores the obligation that congress, that democrats in congress and the house, really now have. senate could do it, too. it is still under republican control, but there is nothing to stop them either. to bring forth, you know, the key, fact witnesses in all this matter, have them testify in public, just like what happened in watergate. just like what happened in iran-contra. just like what happened during whitewater. all the major scandals in recent history, public hearings, public testimony. enough of this beliend clohind doors stuff, in which we're relying on leaks from sources, all who have their own agendas. >> julie, i mean, michael raises a fascinating idea there. given that there's so much concern about any final report that mueller might write up, and who actually will see it, and that's something that, obviously, the acting attorney general whitake

cohen, even though michael cohen was according to mr. mueller guilty of a serious crime and pre-publicized the false statement to congress so the president of the united states and the white house would know that he's conforming to their lies, yet he gave mr. cohen great credit. so maybe the southern district of new york is a tale of two prosecutors. >> or maybe it's that they're going after a different crimes. >> they are absolutely different crimes. the difference between a bank false statement which is an unintentional error, that's what they charged him with. unintentional error on a loan covered more than ten times by the equity in his house and that's what they focused on. he pled guilty and he took responsibility versus the president of the united states potentially being guilty of colluding with a hostile foreign government. mr. mueller took the latter more seriously than the southern district took the three crimes that were pled to so this is a tale of two prosecutors. i'm not challenging the integrity of the southern district p

this person reached out to michael cohen around november 2015. this person, who as you heard evan say, could be a totally new person close to putin that we did not know about, offers the campaign, quote, political synergy and synergy on a government level. repeatedly proposes meetings between trump and president putin, and says, a meeting could have a phenomenal impact in political and business dimensions. these details are all in here. >> yep. and you read this, and how can anyone say with a straight face, no collusion or no contacts with russia. this is through michael cohen, someone who was very close to the president for many years, and different from the moscow project. now, it does say the meeting did not happen, but it says in the -- >> between putin and trump, it does say that meeting did not happen. >> it also says cohen did not pursue his dealings, but that was according to the mueller filing because cohen had other connections that he thought would be more productive than this new russian figure so there's contact with russia everywher

the united states versus michael cohen. you've been looking very closely at the lies of michael cohen and how the being -- they're influencing this recommendation. >> that's right. and i think this really complements what mj was saying. mj was saying, in the southern district case, the campaign contributions, the illegal campaign contributions, which was the money for the women he was having the affairs with, that karen mcdougal in particular, that was an illegal campaign contribution. it was designed to help donald trump get elected president. there's another way in the mueller document that is about getting donald trump elected president. the lie he told -- the lie he told to congress about when the negotiations were going on for trump tower moscow, was all about the campaign. the reason he lied was to help donald trump get and stay elected president. here is -- by publicly presenting this false narrative, that is that the negotiations ended in 2015, the defendant deliberately shifted the time line of what had occurred in

michael cohen. the judge taking the seat here. we know that cohen is in court, according to our team in the courtroom, his lawyers, prosecutors are all in place. we're going to have craig melvin pick up that coverage of this developing story now. >> all right, good to see you, hallie jackson. craig melvin msnbc headquarters in new york. two big stories we're following, that breaking news hallie just mentioned, michael cohen being sentenced. president trump's former lawyer and his former fixer michael cohen facing that judge. how much prison time could he get for his role in a hush money scandal involving a president, a porn star and a playboy model. >>> also, exit interview, outgoing united nations ambassador nikki haley sitting down exclusively in her first interview since announcing her departure to talk about how her boss's unpredictable rhetoric affected her job and whether she has her own oval office ambitions. we'll get to that in just a moment. we start off with the fate of president trump's one-time personal attorney and p

he knows michael cohen and michael cohen knows him. michael cohen knows where the dirty laundry is. not only that, michael cohen has receipts. the important part about the tape you obtained several weeks ago is the fact michael cohen is showing he has receipts. remember, they raided his office, they raided his hotel room. they got the paperwork. i guess the reason they are believing somebody has lied in the past is because there is corroborating truth and corroborating evidence not only in what he has, but what some of the other people are saying you've got a deal here where you've got two liars -- donald trump is a liar, we've seen him lie time and time and time again and michael cohen has lied time and time and time again. but now michael cohen, the guy who is going to take the bullet has the gunpointing at him and is in a real bind and i bet you he's got some evidence. he's got more to show than just his work. >> sources close to him say that's exactly what's going on, that he has more to tell. it is of relevance to congress, relevance to the merrill probe on all that, steve. jus

why was michael cohen coming in and doing it this way? there's a tantalizing footnote on page three of this footnote one that you may have referred to briefly that goes into how cohen got to mueller's team anyway, saying at cohen's request he proactively sought to come in and voluntarily provide information. and when the moscow project came up, the classic situation where something that cohen didn't know they knew as much about was put on him, then he lied in that first meeting. this is a fanarrative from muelr that's not contested at this hour by michael cohen who's now largely cooperated that basically says he came in to lie about that, and to push a narrative on other stuff. then he realized how much hot water he was in and began cooperating, according to mueller, truthfully in these later meetings. so the core question, who knew about that, who orchestrated it, who in the white house, government lawyers, donald trump himself? there are a lot of people that could be on the hook for obstruction in and around the white house, and yes, a

michael cohen sentenced to three years in jail. meanwhile in london and we have some live pictures here, a secret vote that is under way that will not only decide theresa may's fate but will have global implications. stay with us. your insurance rates skyrocket after a scratch so small you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience an

cohen was sent to prison. >> 'did you hire michael cohen? that was his title. a fixer. why did you need him? >> he did more public relations than he did lie. he was okay on television. years ago, many years, like 12 or 13 years ago. he did me a favor. he was on a committee and he was so responsive and so good, i said he was a nice guy. >> that was the favor? people have been asking, what is the favor he did the favor. he was on a committee? >> it was a condominium committee and he was a very big supporter of mine on that committee. >> i want to bring in chief political support dana bash and se kupp. not buying the explanation. but we heard this before when other associates have been charged. they were a low level employee. he said this about someone in charge of his campaign. was michael cohen a low level employee? >> look, the answer is when you are talking about the trump organization, you had donald trump and you had his children and a few other people. so it depends on how you look at it. the reality is anybody who maybe during that time

president trump suggested that michael cohen lied to try to get a lenient sentence and that michael cohen deserves a long sentence. it looks like that is what he is going to get. the office of special counsel recommending a modest reduction from the guidelines, 51 to 63 months. it's interesting, too, it's almost in a mocking tone that the special counsel's office goes after michael cohen's request for no jail time saying the effect on his family and loss of law license is punishment enough and he should be credited time served and not go to jail at all. the special counsel office said well, that's not the case. your crimes were substantial and you deserve to go to jail for sometime. if we hear something from the president or his legal team -- i reached out to rudy giuliani. he said something about the michael cohen guilty plea a short time ago. i think we will hear that cohen is getting what the president's legal team believe he deserves. >> since the payment to stormy and other women. they were not out of the campaign. they were made by donald trump the citizen at the time. can he argue

and so, again, if michael cohen, if it's important for michael cohen to get some sympathy out of this, he needs to say, i was a bad guy. i did bad things. i did what was demanded of me, and i was surrounded by bad people. and i'm trying to do now what i think is right. and i'll pay my dues and pay my -- you know, serve my time. but i did bad things. he can't play a victim here. >> phil, i hear your angry breath. >> hopefully not at me. >> michael cohen is not sad. michael cohen is sad because he got caught. it wasn't like he did this for 20 minutes. i have more sympathy for the weeds in my front yard. here's the question i have for him. if you are so sad about what you did, why did the southern district say you still don't cooperate? why? >> i have the answer. you think that it's not just that he's not coughing up more information. you're saying he might have implicated his own family if he cooperated more. >> he didn't want to answer anything. he said i'm not answering that. it's possible. then the question you have to ask is who is he protecting. >> it's possible that it's not just

donald trump and michael cohen. david pecker and the president go back decades and they are friends. what lengths would pecker go to protect trump? >> well, erin, i think, you know, over the years david pecker has proven his friendship but there were, you know, obviously there were limits, and obviously david pecker became aware that he was getting in over his head with this guy. you know, as larry said, the bombshell today is that he was in the room. regardless of rudy giuliani saying that, you know, this was just a civil matter or the president's denial, the president's finally conceding that, okay, i was in the room, you know, up until weeks ago, he had no knowledge of any of this. >> right. >> it's just -- it's just he's just burying himself further. >> well, and he keeps moving the goal posts. first he knew nothing about it, then, okay, then, well, maybe if i was -- but not -- they're saying he's in the room and he's saying michael cohen did it without him knowing about it or not being directed, which obviously

we sdatart with the two filings regarding michael cohen. let's talk about the filing by the southern district on cohen. what did we learn? >> exactly what you said. it's significant in the sense it's the first time that the u.s. attorney's office hire in new york, the department of justice is accusing the president of coordinating and directing michael cohen in making those payments. it was the hush payments to stormy daniels to keep folks quiet from revealing any information that could hurt the campaign. michael cohen stood up in court when he pleablee pleaded guilty i did this with the president. this is the first time this is in a court filing that's put together by the u.s. attorney's office and that is what is so significant about that. >> there's also the mueller filing about cohen. what does that tell us? >> that gives us a lot of information on where the investigation is and where michael cohen has been helpful as it relates to the trump campaign and other aspects of the russia collusion investigation. in this filing, it's interesti

michael cohen was the fixer. he dealt with all the uncomfortable areas that donald trump was involved in, and it would -- it certainly would not surprise me that there's more to come. >> the "the wall street journal" is reporting this new investigation that we're just learning about and how it represents in their words another potential legal threat to people who are or were in mr. trump's orbit. >> right, because now we're learning about yet another investigation relating to president trump. while he's not directly implicated in this, you have now the mueller russia investigation. you have the sdny investigation into michael cohen and the payments to the women, and now this other sdny investigation that we're learning about that's in its early stages leading to the president's inaugural committee. this is certainly not good news for the president and will be -- will continue to be a distraction for him. i was just texting with someone who used to the work in the white house, and they basically said, look, this i

cohen had in fact been very cooperative so it appears that there was a sense that michael cohen was holding back some information and perhaps that was reflected in the decision by the judge when he did hand down a rather stiff sentence but not the full sentence as the sentence guideline guidelines rather would have or could have allowed to many thanks very much kimberly how could life force in washington. a question of salumi is live outside the courthouse in new york where that sentence was handed down so kristin you were in there describe the scene that forced. what was a packed courthouse has a packed outside the court as well as you can see lots of interest in this case obviously implicating the president we heard from michael cohen himself and begging for mercy from the judge for a more lenient sentence and. we heard him apologize to his family and to the american people for hiding the truth for them he argued that he would become free today for the first time in years since accepting a job with the media with a real estate mogul that he admired he said he was motivated by blin

"let's talk to michael cohen?" >> i think it wouldn't surprise me at all, actually, if the democrats on the house decided to do that. obviously we control the majority in the senate. i doubt that the senate democrats are going to be able to call witnesses, that will be the republicans that would do that in the senate. that's a real possibility. there is a gap there, it's something that they might entertain in terms of trying to trade draw more attention to this and embarrass the president. frankly, a better use of a time would be to work with the republicans and be the presiden an agenda that would help the make up people prayed not wasting their times attacking the president and launching investigations. i think that's counterproductive in the best interest of the country. >> harris: would you may may be put up anything oppositional to what they do in the house? i think i got a little bit of that from you. i want to move on and talk about democrats now. the president is sitting down with nancy pelosi house leaders

why did michael cohen make that? >> you have to ask michael cohen. s >> you'll have to ask michael cohen. michael cohen admitted he lied on behalf of the president many, many times. >> the man doesn't tell the truth and it's sad. i should take responsibility for his dirty deeds. >> you lied for him for a long time. >> more than ten years. >> he's saying very clearly that he never directed you to do anything wrong. is that true? >> he directed me to make the payments. he directed me to become involved in these matters including the one with mcdougal which was between him and daivi pecker and david pecker's counsel. >> david pecker is the ceo of ami. here is what ami told the wall street journal about the payments back in 2016 right before the election. quote, ami has not paid people to kill damaging stories about mr. trump. except that's not what they told federal prosecutors when they struck a cooperation deal. quote, ami admitted that it did make the $150,000 payment in concert with the candidate's presidential campaign and in order to ensure that t

michael cohen. he has lied about things. a bruiner group of people saying it was a project to hide the affairs. yesterday was significant. >> i agree with that. an additional piece of evidence is the manner in which the monies were paid and repaid. michael cohen sets up a limited liability company and schedules something or other and designed specifically for this payment and repaid through essentially being a an employee and they jack is it up and they give him a bonus for doing it. all that speaks to knowledge of the organization of which trump is the ceo, as you called him. it under mines the notion that i relied on counsel. the other point is that for the campaign, his fec counsel was don mcgahn. if he wanted to do it properly, he would ask don mcgahn how to do it. not this way with cohen. >> from a guy who is his fixer and lawyer. michael cohen said he shared his testimony and lied. michael cohen said the trump tower moscow conversations ended early in 2016 and mr. trump is becoming a serious c

michael cohen. so if you read that full document, the prosecutors trash michael cohen, make it crystal clear that they do not necessarily trust him or think he's the most truthful and upright person ever. but then they very definitively make clear that michael cohen was directed by trump to commit these crimes, crimes by the way that cohen pled guilty for. he was charged and pled guilty for. and they also have citations in there that make it clear that the probation department, a totally separate arm of the government, also came to the same conclusion. so that's big news. it doesn't mean that they could necessarily prove it beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. but what it does mean is that is where the evidence points to. that is their conclusion. and that is not mueller. that is the trump justice department making that conclusion. >> okay. so you're a federal prosecutor. we have the southern district of new york implicating the president of a crime. what do they do about it because they answer, as y