you saw the real michael cohen. we haven't even seen what michael cohen -- what kind of information he has for the intelligence committee. what we did see in michael cohen was a man as close to the president as anybody could be and closer, in many ways, than his wife. he used michael cohen to verify a lie that stormy daniels didn't exist, for all intents and purposes. not that there was a mountain of new revelations that came out yesterday. i think what was most important, we saw a man as close to the president as you could be, telling us that essentially the president was in on exactly these lies. for example, the check that he produced, the stormy daniels check, that that was overtally between cohen and the president. the president has had to admit that since, after disclaiming it all together. so i think that the intelligence committee ought to listen hard to michael cohen because he was as close to the president doing his dirty deeds or not, as anybody you're going to hear from. >> you also just heard that felix

cohen to the white house and it upset michael cohen tremendously. so dean was at the center of the cancer on the presidency and michael cohen was in new york still working for donald trump and working for him during the campaign. so there's a big difference. >> but you know, gloria, and everybody knows right now that michael cohen tape recorded -- taped a lot of his phone conversations, if not all of his phone conversations, including with donald trump. >> right. and we don't, you know, honestly, wolf, we have the tape that cnn played. i'm not so sure there are other significant tapes with donald trump at all. but we're going to have to see what cohen testifies to. >> one thing to keep in mind is one of the issues that cohen is expected to testify about is potential finance crimes. these are areas in which they do tend to produce documents. you could imagine a situation in which michael cohen tells his story and it's now the work of congress an investigators to pick that you baton and go out and use that road map to find precisely the corroborating

we understand why michael cohen would lie. he was being loyal and trying to protect and it is not a good thing but we understand. he said he was being loyal, trying to protect this man. he thought he was larger than life. but why is -- if the president is lying, why is he lying and cover it up? and that is the question that needs to be answered. but just looking at it, once you get into this piece of wikileaks and roger stone, julian assange and this pouring out of wikileaks, there are tentacles that could lead to other places. and what is the cover-up? what are they trying to hide and cover up. that is the issue. >> harry, can i just once again -- because we're talking about two big issues that developed today. russia investigation with trump tower and the wikileaks connection and also the hush money payments. the checks that we saw, a couple that michael cohen submitted as part of his exhibits. donald trump signing and paying to michael cohen and weisselberg and donald trump jr. involved while he was president. can you expla

he knew that michael cohen was going to make the history that michael cohen made today. we have all the experts assembled who we need for this momentous night, but for me, i wouldn't want to do this show tonight without that one mutual friend who michael cohen and i have, and he will join us in a moment. the democrats now have the smoking gun. today michael cohen wrote the first article of impeachment against president trump in his testimony in the house of representatives, the place where impeachment of a president begins. democrats believe michael cohen gave them the smoking gun today. that's what democratic congressman ro khanna called this contribute that michael cohen introduced in the all-day hearing. this check made to michael cohen carries the now recognizable signature of donald trump and was signed by the president six months into his presidency. it marks the first time in american history that we have seen a check signed by a president for an illegal purpose. >> as exhibit 5a to my testimony shows, i am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that president trump

that's the michael cohen, the only michael cohen that lot of us saw. this morning i called him, said that he could be a thug and i thought he was one of the meanest, most humiliating people i've dealt with in a half century of politics. i don't doubt that he threatened a lot of peep. . when i say threatened, i'm sure it was lawsuits, you won't get to talk to the. the candidate, or that kind of thing. not threaten physically. >> dana: i got one of those voice mails in june of 2015 that was so bad, that my assistant at the time refused to let me listen to it and just deleted it. >> i don't have assistants who are so helpful in terms of screening things. quickly, in october of 2015, this is after we had the first debate, in which i asked donald trump about all of the bankruptcies that he had been, his companies had been part of, he was not happy with me. now i'm trying in october of 2015 to get an interview. i called michael cohen up, he could not have been more insulting. i said some time between now and 2016. he said let me tell you, i could book this g

>> no. >> then why did michael cohen -- >> you'd have to ask michael cohen. michael's 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. >> so joyce vance, that's the guy who congressman gaetz is trying to defend by calling michael cohen some who lies to his own family -- the trouble is his client there, in effect donald trump, is right there on video lying to everyone in america when he says, no, he didn't know about the payments to stormy daniels. and that's what we're going to be hearing about in the hearing tomorrow. >> donald trump has definitely flunked the matt gaetz test, right, for honesty and integrity. >> right there on air force one. >> the most interesting thing about this, and this happened so often for prosecutors in trials and it's true here, too, nothing that cohen is going to testify to tomorrow will come as a surprise to the president. the president lived through these experiences with cohen. none of this is new. and the danger to trump from cohen is cohen is really the fi

is this threatening michael cohen? >> is the hearing itself threatening michael cohen? >> no, is matt gaetz's tweet suggesting that does his father-in-law or wife know about girlfriends. >> that has all the signs of a threat. and i don't think it'll affect michael cohen, not at this point. but i don't know what he could do about it. who's he going to tell it to and how credible is he. >> what do you want to hear in detail from him? >> you know, there's some frustration here because there are two committees. the intelligence committee and our committee. so we may be left with the salacious stuff like stormy daniels, and of course that gets pretty close to the president. particularly if the president told cohen to lie, and we already know there are campaign violations. but if he lied this close to an election, then it looks like he may have been trying to, of course, influence the election and that gets to be pretty dicy. >> it's been reported that cohen is going to be bringing documents with him to back up his testimony. "the wall street journal" reported that. he notifi

the breaking news on michael cohen's testimony. also with me elie honig, jennifer rodgers, michael dantonio. let's get to it. i find it very interesting. i'm going to let you do this. he addresses the chairman. he says ranking member jordan, chairman cummings, ranking member jordan, and he says i recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. it is for this reason that i have incorporated into this opening statement documents that are irrefutable and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate and truthful. those documents are? >> well, he has a check. one of the things he says is he has a check that the president himself paid him for the hush money. it was part of the payment, part of the plan. this is his opening statement. it's 20 pages that he intends to read. michael cohen tomorrow before members of congress. i mean, he's not holding back here, don. >> let me read this. "i am providing the committee today with several documents. these documents include a copy of a check mr. trump wrote fro

and i think that michael cohen and allies of michael cohen feel like he has been betrayed by the president and his family. i think you will see a fair amount of that in there. i think of everything that you see? what he says, that is the piece that is going to be i think the hardest for him to stand up. >> yeah. look. he does, though, go out of his way to elbow donald trump jr. there. which he didn't have to do. i don't think that necessarily lends anything to his legal argument there. it is interesting he close to do that. >> absolutely. the point about him feeling she thrown under the bus. >> yet again the president isn't being investigated for being an alleged racist. michael cohen goes out of his way to call the president is a racist. he tells varies stories, michael cohen claims he the president once asked me if i can mention a company run by a black person that whan a sh -- hole. this was when barack obama was president of the united states. >> i think you see michael cohen prepare to address this, yet i continued to work for him, clearly recognizing in those statements that this is

his attention is on michael cohen. plus breaking news, the house just voting to overturn trump's national emergency. trump is now threatening his first veto of his presidency. can we talk? you hardly ever play catch with the grandkids or show them how to give a good handshake anymore. now look at me... i'm all bent out of shape. (vo tv) if you have bent fingers and can't lay your hand flat, talk to your doctor. it may be dupuytren's contracture. (gary) see ya! (hand) you're all about friendly service, and you rarely shake hands? come on! (vo) your hand is talking. isn't it time you listened? there are non-surgical options. take the first step and learn more about dupuytren's at factsonhand.com. what do you look for i want free access to research. yep, td ameritrade's got that. free access to every platform. yeah, that too. i don't want any trade minimums. yeah, i totally agree, they don't have any of those. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. do you just say yes to everything? hm. well i say no to

it wasn't michael cohen. michael cohen wasn't running for president. michael cohen didn't have a relationship with stormy daniels. michael cohen was a facilitator. he was the one who got the money to stormy daniels. that, you know, as -- as, you know, the four words that seem to define the trump presidency for me are, you know, shorkiare shocking but not surprising. all of this makes perfect sense. the story has an internal logic that this was the eve of the election. this was a very close election. this would have been deeply embarrassing to candidate donald trump had it come out. so he paid the money to make the problem go away. to bury the problem for the current -- for the period leading up to the election. how did he do it? he used michael cohen. and he did it through the subterfuge of cohen laying out the money in the first place. but why would michael cohen do that unless the president told him to do it. it doesn't make sense otherwise. >> do you see new legal jeopardy for president trump in terms of what michael cohen will testify to in a coupl

but michael cohen son his mind. he has attacked his credibility earlier on twitter ahead of everything we're about to share with you. let's bring in jim sciutto, ellie, and john avlon, and abby phillips, and mj lee, national political correspondent. oh my gosh, we have so much to talk to all of you about. so let's dive in. ellie, let's talk about first jeopardy that michael cohen is presenting. here are some of the new things that will be presented in his testimony today according to the written statement. he will say a lot of people have asked me about whether mr. trump knew about the release of the hacked democratic national committee e-mails ahead of time. the appearannswer is yes. he then goes on to explain how he knows that mr. trump knew beforehand and here is michael cohen what he plans to testify to. in july of 2016, days before the democratic convention, i was in mr. trump's office when his secretary announced that roger stone was on the phone. mr. trump put mr. stone on speaker phone. mr. stone told mr. tr

they were trying to tear down michael cohen. the fact that michael cohen provided evidence and provided names of other people who might be able to speak on some of his allegations makes it difficult to continue that strategy as a republican tries to tarnish his credibility. they may not be able to do the same for the other people involved. >> cohen referenced his role in alleged wrongdoing here. you have to imagine he'll be called to the hill. only the special counsel has heard this testimony. now it might be heard in public. >> that's right. i think that would be pretty substantially different from what we heard yesterday. it was vivid and powerful in many respects to hear the words directly from michael cohen's mouth in front of a house committee like that. i don't know that there are that many americans who will be stunned at some of the things he said at this point. the american people never heard from alan weisselberg or anybody else in the trump administration who has not been put forward by the president and his allies at

>> no, no. >> why did michael cohen make this. >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael's an attorney and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make ha payment? >> i don't know, no. >> but michael cohen says that is a lie. as possible evidence, cohen is handing over a copy of this on your screen right now. $35,000 check that he says was drawn from donald trump's personal account and signed by the president himself on august 1st, 2017, while he was already in office. cohen will say the payment was made as reimbursement forty legal hush money that cohen paid on the president's behalf. he alleges it was one of 11 payments made by president trump while he was in office. what's more, cohen is expected to produce what he describes as a similar reimbursement signed this time by donald trump jr. and allen weisselberg, the cfo of the trump organization. and then there's the hacked democratic national committee e-mails. cohen is expected to testify that donald trump newspaper about the hacking of the e-mails before they were made public

so what does michael cohen tell us about that? we could learn some new information there, and i think that's going to be something that the democrats will be pressing him for because they'll want to look for efrvidence, an it will also be something that the republicans will really hit him hard on as to how does he back this up? we also know michael cohen is expected to talk about donald trump's business matters during the campaign, and one of them is trump tower moscow. michael cohen already admitted he lied to the senate about him conducting business on trump tower moscow during the campaign. we're also told cohen will bring documents with him. what are these documents? what do they prove or not prove? it's an issue we'll see play out tomorrow. michael cohen's credibility will be on the line as well as kind of the first opportunity we'll hear from him to not only tell his version of the story but be quizzed about it. what additional information and details that come out of this is something i think we'll all be looking for. >> an

anything new from michael cohen. he said that would be an understatement. how would you characterize his testimony that he delivered today behind closed doors? >> i agree with eric. we learned a lot of new things. it gave me a sense of just how big a hole legally president trump and his family could be in, not just from the special counsel but from the southern district of new york and the investigations that they are -- that they have undertaken. >> which is a bigger threat? >> in the long run -- it's hard to say. of course, the special counsel has conducted their own investigation. they have been pretty tight lipped about it. the southern district of new york, the investigations there are very real and could outlast, i think, the special counsel's work. >> the special counsel seems to be wrapping up. in new york, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york seems to be only just beginning. can you share details on what you learned, some of the new information you learned? i know there's sensitive informa

cohen addressed exactly how he, michael cohen, came to lie about it to congress. he said he had help with that part. >> there were at least a half a dozen times between the iowa caucus in january of 2016 and the end of june when he would ask me, how's it going in russia? referring to the moscow tower project. you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations before i gave it. so to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. he lied about it because he never expected to win. he also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the moscow real estate project. >> on page 5 of your statement, you say, and i quote, "you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations." who were those attorneys? >> jay sekulow from the white house. >> yes. >> jay sekulow. i believe abbe lowell as well.

it was all attacks on michael cohen. but elijah cummings gave them the room and the space to do that. he pushed back when jim jordan raised a spurious issue about a form that cohen had signed and whether he represented foreign government or foreign entities or whatever and claimed that he had signed it in error and later it was discovered that, no, actually he had complied with the regulation, but cummings gave that space to play out. he even wait a minute to the defense of mark meadows when he pulled out that really insulting stunt of bringing in an african-american woman as a prop to demonstrate to the world how in the world could donald trump be racist. why here's a friend of his, who he happened to appoint to a hud position after he planned eric's wedding. but he gave them space to do that. yet he kept it all on track. i thought it was just a magnificent job of orchestrating what was a weird piece of theater. >> donnie. >> first of all, i just wanted to step back as far as trump's counterprogramming theory. michael h

>> you'll have to ask michael cohen. michael was my attorney. you'll have to ask michael. >> do you know where he got the money? >> no, i don't know. >> cohen will say that he paid and mr. trump wrote him a series of illegal reimbursement checks. quote. he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair and to lie to his wife about it which i did. lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets. she is a kind, good person. i respect her greatly and she did is not deserve that. >> president trump making it to vietnam, he never fought in the war there, of course, receiving a medical deferment. and michael cohen plans to share a conversation about that deferment. he's set to tell lawmakers mr. trump claimed it was because of a bone spur but when they asked for medical records he gave me none and said there was no surgery. he told me not to answer specific questions by reporters but rather offer the fact that he received a medical deferment. he finished the conversation with the following comment. you think i'm stupid. i wasn'

we have serious questions of michael cohen. the fact that he's a soul witness and the fact that he lied once to congress and he's a convicted felon who was disbarred this week from the new york bar. the credibility factor with michael cohen is the lowest we have seen for a major witness in congressional testimony history. >> you are raising questions of your committee chairman, elijah cummings that you feel he's not doing a fair job in organizing this hearing today? >> absolutely. every hearing that i have been apart of, on the agriculture committee or education committee, the minority side has a witness that they can question as well. we were not given that opportunity. many of us would like to attest and subpoena rod rose stenstein. i think that you know if you are going to be fair and be fair and valid then you have to have a fair and valid groups of people testifying. michael cohen who obviously has a grudge and convicted felon. he's someone in my eyes is a very selfish person. he's someone that's supposed to be representin

moving on to michael cohen. we've seen a lot of what he's preparing to say and draft that's have been obtained by nbc news. we're seeing potential that michael cohen will produce a signed check, one by president trump, one by don jr. what will cohen say that will be of interest to bob mueller or the southern district of new york? >> i think you hit it on the head. the opening statement and accompanying documents that his team is making available that nbc obtained show that this will not just be a he said-he said between two character that's both can have some of the credibility impugned. a president who lies more than any in history according to "the washington post". because of the documents he's bringing. as you say, some of the materials go right to the open probe in new york. who else was involved with it and how many people helped mislead the authorities or hide what michael cohen says were campaign related expenses? so all of that is documented apparently. so that's going to be really fascinating. and he i

as michael cohen testified. and he has a lot of baggage and issues and should be scrutinized but it's not the practice of an average person to ouft of his on pocket pay $130,000 without consulting for the person whose benefit that large amount of money has been paid and he goes on to detail stories that are not just factually interesting and inl criminating about how donald trump who has a history of not paying people took great care in this instance to make sure what put forward as a guise of a retainer but was a payback method to michael cohen, that donald trump took that seriously and paid him check after check, one of which he brought to congress today and has president trump's signature. on top of all of that, all the lying and sneaking about the fact that the payment was made and that donald trump knew about it. you have testimony that says donald trump specifically toeld michael cohen to lie to a reporter and say donald trump knew nothing about the payment. you have the document. you have the fact of the

michael cohen said he might have talked in codes. happy easter is not a code world, but they knew exactly what was happening which that was he was trying to influence john dean's testimony to prosecutors. >> thank you liz holtsman. part of the committee that voted to impeach nixon. we also have jessica levinston. thank you to all three of you, michael cohen's final day of testimony on capitol hill comes as his former boss makes his way home after a meeting with kim jong-un came to an abrupt end. a planned working lunch and signing ceremony were canceled when trump refused to lift the sanctions against north korea. the white house said the president called the leaders of south korea and japan to update them on what happened in hanoi. he said the meeting was not a complete failure. >> we had some options and at this time we decided not to do any options and we'll see where that goes but it was a very interesting two days, sometimes you have to walk and this was one of those times. >> kelly o'donnell joins us now from hanoi. it is the m

cohen for free along with democratic members of congress and michael cohen himself. here's the evidence. let's take a look. >> what did you talk to mr. schiff about? >> i spoke to mr. schiff about topics that were going to be raised at the upcoming hearing. >> whoa. not just what time to show up. actually what you're going to talk about? >> the gentleman's time expired. >> wow. >> sean: oh, now we tell people what we're going to ask them ahead of time so they can prepare all their answers. lying adam schiff. he was caught colluding again. also congressman jordan got to the heart of why the president's former personal attorney is now participating in this political hit job against his former boss. >> how long did you -- how long did you work in the white house? >> i never worked in the white house. >> that's the point, isn't it, mr. cohen? >> no, sir. >> yes, it is. >> no, sir. >> you didn't get brought to the dance. >> i was extremely proud to be personal attorney to the president of the united states of america. i do not want to go to the white house. . >> sean: the

now, michael cohen, who was for ten yea rs now, michael cohen, who was for ten years donald trump's lawyer and fixer has been giving explosive testimony to a us congress committee describing the president as a racist, cheat and conman. michael cohen is already facing jail for lying to congress and the us government about his tax returns. the white house says mr cohen is lying again in the hope of reducing his sentence and getting a book or movie deal. this from nick bryant. michael cohen once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump. but on capitol hill today, the president's former lawyer, his personal mr fixit, carried out a political hitjob on his one—time boss. i know what mr trump is. he is a racist. he is a con man. and he is a cheat. one of his most explosive allegations concerned this man, roger stone, a trump ally and self—styled political dirty trickster, recently indicted by the special counsel robert mueller. during the 2016 presidential campaign, he claimed donald trump was told ahead of time that wikileaks and its founder, julian assange, were about to leak e—mails that

this is in a way a trial run for michael cohen. i think that gates' tweet amps up, best publicity for michael cohen, they found somebody lower than michael cohen on the food chain. >> lonnie, this loathe some, it deserves the censure of his colleagues and perhaps of the house itself as attempted intimidation of a witness testifying before a house committee. more important though, what does this say about the degree of panic among trump allies about cohen's testimony. >> it is inconceivable, someone with the president before he was president, was intimately familiar with his business dealings and familiar with his life and conduct of his affairs would not have anything interesting to say. we'll see what happens tomorrow. people are going to try and get folks all excited about what's going to happen, i'm sure this will be a revealing 8 hours of testimony, but fundamentally, i think michael cohen has interesting things to reveal. >> if we're lucky. think of how many senate intel folks there are, i think there's 14 on the intel committ

they were saying that michael cohen just -- michael cohen was saying a year ago that he just did this because he was donald trump's lawyer and this is the type of thing a lawyer does for his clients. what this shows, in fact, donald trump was involved from the very beginning. michael cohen testified yesterday that donald trump told him to use his home equity line of credit, and that donald trump was involved in the actual paying back of michael cohen for the money he used to pay stormy daniels. so donald trump is very much involved in it. we now have proof that donald trump is very much involved in it. and also he was involved in putting together the scheme to hide the money. and the reason that's important is for this to be a criminal violation of the campaign finance laws, it has to be a knowing and willful violation. that means you have to have known what you were doing was illegal. one of the things that is evidence of a knowing and willful violation is efforts to hide what wur doing. it was very clear from michael cohen's testimony that the whole goal in donald trump of doing thi

first of all, there's the question of the ultimate dispensation of michael cohen. he is going to prison in a month. there is also wrangling over whether -- over the course of the next month before he goes to prison he will testify to congress. we can surmise that there is something important going on with his case and his role in the larger russia investigation because of that wrangling, because the house intelligence committee announced yesterday that michael cohen's planned testimony tomorrow is being delayed, quote, in the interests of the investigation. and they won't say what exactly they mean by that, but they did go ahead and reschedule him to testify february 28th. by deduction, we can tell that means they think something's going to happen between now and february 28th, something that needs to be done and out of the way before they take michael cohen's testimony at the intelligence committee. we don't know what that is -- what that thing is. what's going to happen between now and february 28th that will make it possible for him to testify, but presumably we

>> you have to ask michael cohen, michael's my attorney and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> but cohen will tell the house committee on oversight he paid, and that trump wrote him a series of illegal reimbursement checks. quote, he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair and to lie to the first lady which i did. lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets. she is a kind first lady and she did not deserve that. >> and according to his testimony, cohen will inform lawmakers mr. trump once told him that black people would never vote for him because they were, quote, too stupid. he's going to testify trump once asked him if he could name a country run by a black person that wasn't a quote, shithole. trump posed that question when barack obama was president. >> president trump finally making it to vietnam. he never thought receiving a medical deferment. and michael cohen plans to share a conversation about that deferment when he testifies. he's set to tell lawmakers will trump claimed it was because of a bone spur. when i asked for records, he told m

it is not just michael cohen. we have incident after incident from the 1970s when he essentially had a race discrimination housing claim against him. personally i'm still trying to get over the fact that he used the phrase "the blacks" that is actually not common phraseology for people who are very far evolved on issues of race. >> and he pointed out his african-american at a rally once. >> yes, the point about someone that worked for one of his hotels that was black who he didn't trust because he was black. this is not -- this is not something where michael cohen is the only person coming forward saying that donald trump has a race problem. i think the bigger issue is that voters voted for him anyway. >> i think the bigger question is here, we can talk legally speaking about what sort of trouble this puts the president in, if you can indict a sitting president. if he committed a campaign violation, what does that mean? did he do it while he was sitting in the oval office, while he was president of the united stat

cohen, things that michael cohen could not talk about. i did not expect him to intimate in any way that he's continuing. he's saying he's continuing to cooperate with the southern district of new york. he was providing information. two months after the raid or someone -- i can't talk about it because it is under investigation. those are the shocking moments. >> is the president facing criminal charges here if you listen to what michael cohen said today? >> i don't think the southern district is going to buck the doj. i think doj can do a lot of damage and pass their findings onto congress and lodge an indictment under seal. i think a lot of structural way the southern district poses a serious threat. mueller is running out of time. he's in the process of wrapping up. the southern district is going nowhere. they'll be there for a long time. mueller is cabin in what he can lo look at. he can look at financial issues or inaugural or trump or where ever the evidence take the southern district they can go. coming out of that office, i know tha

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he did so with michael cohen. that's going to be one of things people bring up with michael cohen and his credibility tomorrow. but we have sort of reason to believe that democrats on capitol hill believe that don junior shared some of those same lies about the trump tower moskow deal with the congressional committees during his own hearings and that those transcripts were handed over from the house intelligence committee to robert mueller's probe just in the last couple of weeks. >> let's talk about the national enquirer, reportedly kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments, other damaging stories they killed as part of this relationship with donald trump. will we learn if there were other women tomorrow, garret? >> well, so this is going to be the really interesting question here, right, that no one sitting in this room tomorrow is going to take michael cohen at his word. remember prosecutors have seized 292,000 documents, texts, e-mails, telephone calls, recordings from michael cohen in that april

hello donald trump's former personal lawyer michael cohen has spoken candidly to congress about what his job entailed in his testimony he called trump or racists and spoke at length about his suspicions over his former boss his connections to russia before and during the twenty sixteen election campaign cohen also apologized for some of his behavior while in trump's employment i am ashamed that i chose to take part in concealing mr trump. rather than listening to my own conscience i am ashamed because i know what mr trump is. he is a racist he is a con man and he used to cheat. he was the presidential candidate who knew that roger stone was talking with julia songe about a week you'll each draw on democratic national committee e-mails let's speak to steve clemons he's the washington editor of laura's for the atlantic is joining us from washington d.c. thanks for speaking to us so that congressional hearing still going on from what you've heard so far steve clemons what's the most damaging what's the most explosive well right now the most damaging thing in this nailbiting hearing we h

now expect republicans to go after michael cohen and his credibility, but no doubt about it, michael cohen is one of donald trump's closest aides, that will be testifying on capitol hill. now, it is true that donald trump has of course distanced himself from michael cohen since he pleaded guilty, but that doesn't mean that he won't offer some interesting new information that lawmakers will be asking him about. now, what will be interesting to see is whether he provides documentation to corroborate some of what he says. of course he said previously that the president directed him to pay off those two women during the election. so that is something else to look out for. but certainly there is a lot of anticipation to hear from michael cohen on capitol hill this week. back to you. >> pamela brown, thanks. rod rosenstein appears to be suggesting that the justice department may not be completely transparent with robert mueller's report. he man a appearance last night at an event hosted by the center for strategic and international studies. he offered no time line for the russian report an

they have described that through michael cohen's a-- if michael cohen is going to provide evidence to that effect, if michael cohen is going to give congress evidence tomorrow that implicatings the president in having committed financial crimes while he has been serving as president, what is congress supposed to do with that? i mean, what is supposed to happen next after hypothetically the congress tomorrow gets evidence of the president committing crimes in office? i mean, this is not a totally, totally unprecedented situation. it's unprecedented in a lot of ways, but it at least has cousins, right? in the case of vice president spiro agnew, federal prosecutors obtained rock solid evidence that vice president agnew took envelopes full of cash kick backs while serving in office. when prosecutors responded to that evidence when it came to the vice president in 1972, 1973, is they prepared a 40-count indictment against vice president agnew and they let the nixon-/agnew white house that they had done that, that they had prepared that indictment. agnew and his lawyers argued publicly that

michael cohen once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump. but on capitol hill today, the president's former lawyer, his personal mr fixit, carried out a political hitjob on his one—time boss. i know what mr trump is. he is a racist. he is a con man. and he is a cheat. one of his most explosive allegations concerned this man, roger stone, a trump ally and self—styled political dirty trickster, recently indicted by the special counsel robert mueller. during the 2016 presidential campaign, he claimed donald trump was told ahead of time that wikileaks and its founder, julian assange, were about to leak e—mails that would hurt hillary clinton. those e—mails were hacked by the russians. mr stone told mr trump that he had just gotten off the phone withjulian assange and that mr assange told mr stone that within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of e—mails that would damage hillary clinton's campaign. mr trump responded by stating to the effect, "wouldn't that be great?" michael cohen also claims mr trump told him to pay hush

you get out -- attacking michael cohen as a liar is one thing. defending the president is a dangerous branch to crawl out on. you never know when he's going to saw it off and leave you standing at the end. he's done it repeatedly to people who have defended him. as we see the investigations go forward and you see more hearings like this, i think it just underlines how tough a position the republicans are in. they may to continue to defend him religiously, but it's very tough to do that with a factual defense. you can attack witnesses, try to undermine them. defending the president's actions there doesn't appear to be appetite for that. >> i'm going to let that be the last word. we have breaking news. thanks to all of you. much more we could be talking about. >>> we have breaking news out of israel where prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been indicted for bribery and fraud. he's been in office since 2009. matt bradley joins us now with the details. what do we know? >> reporter: well, so far what we're hearing is kind of scant on details. but w

ask michael cohen. michael is my lawyer. of course he knew about this because by then he had received several of them. so that i thought was very damning. and also a lot of gratuitous stuff about vietnam while the president was in vietnam. he talked about the first lady. so i thought it was michael cohen trying to get his pound of flesh full. one thing that i think was the most perhaps not believable thing he didn't want a job in the white house. yes, mook d rk, michael cohen d job in the white house. he was upset when he didn't get that job. i'm not sure why he went down that road. >> i have to say, michael cohen is a liar. he is an admitted liar. but checks don't lie. >> but what they say is how do we know that that wasn't for some retainer. >> the only person i believe on this is rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani told me when he was talking through sean hannity in that interview that michael cohen was paid. >> they funneled it, that was the word he used. >> so i don't know that there is is a big ah-ha there. michael cohen says

michael cohen says president trump took part in criminal scheme while he was president, connected to the hush money payment to porn star stormy daniels. and prosecutors are investigating the president for other possible crimes. cohen also claims the president knew in advance about a wikileaks dump of democratic e-mails and indirectly suggested cohen should lie to congress about plans do build a trump to youer in moscow. details on that and more in a moment. a word we heard a lot today from both cohen and the lawmakers questioning him, lying. michael cohen says that was and still is a requirement for working for president trump. >> everybody's job at the trump organization is to protect mr. trump. every day, most of us knew we were coming in and we were going to lie for him on something. and that became the norm. and that's exactly what is happening right now, in this country, and it's exactly what is happening here in government, sir. >> dana: president trump says michael cohen did bad things unrelated to trump and is lying to reduce his prison time. cohen of course pleaded guilty to

cohen will michael cohen be asked today so the thing that lawmakers are going to want to try to do here is they're trying to make actual. connection a firm connection showing that donald trump then candidate trump during the campaign knew about what michael cohen was doing knew about what this whole other cast of characters that we've been talking about for the past two years doing that includes you know is for a campaign manager paul manna for roger stone one of his advisors all these people who have now been taken in by a lot of force and pled guilty and go into jail they're trying to prove that donald trump knew what was going on that he had advance knowledge that he directed what was going to happen that he told people to lie that he told people to start a justice of the type of questions that we're going to be looking at are things like. you know you've denied certain allegations before were you instructed to deny these allegations by trump did president trump to your knowledge know about this infamous meeting between don jr and this russian lawyer that took place in trump tower in

michael cohen, the president's former fixer, behind closed doors at this hour. nearly seven hours into his first of three days of testimony on capitol hill. in which he's expected to raise the curtain in granular details on donald trump's alleged criminal conduct, racist views, and designs on a trump tower in moscow. ahead of his long anticipated public testimony tomorrow, cohen is today facing a grilling from the senate intel committee. that's where he lied in a prior appearance. that lie about the length of time donald trump spent trying to build trump tower moscow now under scrutiny as part of the constellation of lies told by the men closest to donald trump. "the new york times" reports today, "among the most explosive and potentially damning aspects of mr. cohen's testimony will be providing evidence of potential criminal conduct since mr. trump became president." that's according to a person familiar with the plans. that potential conduct stems from reimbursements that were made to mr. cohen in 2017 for hush money payments he made to stormy daniels, a porn

this is going to be michael cohen the human being. this is going to be michael cohen choosing his own words. choosing his own words about someone he now says has been threatening him. and talking about how they committed some crimes together during the presidential campaign in order to influence the vote in the presidential campaign so that donald trump could win. america's going to hear someone testifying under oath about exactly that and that can change everything. >> completely. it's likely going to be riveting. think back to watergate. there was all kinds of reports back there, but when you actually had all of the president's men in the -- in the dock, in the senate to saying back and forth in candid terms it's a game changer, exactly as you say. oh, by the way, cohen's not -- he's appearing voluntarily, not under subpoena, and that will make the interview or the testimony more free-ranging. it won't be constrained by worries about its effect on mueller's testimony. so you'll have some really vivid questioning by the democrats. th

whatever michael cohen says today about donald trump, michael cohen is a bad guy. he's a guy who did a lot of bad things and he had conscious decisions to make as a lawyer and he made thoem. it also reflects on the president because the president allowed this guy to be close to him, gave him responsibility and access. >> what cohen is going to testify is the president had me around to do these dirty deeds for him. >> george, listen, i know that's what michael is going to say and he's going to present evidence to corroborate that, but also, george, you have to make the conscious decision as a lawyer to do this. i think dan knows this too. we're trained from the time we get into law school that our first responsibility to the law. it's clear that michael cohen is going to admit today that he failed in that regard. that doesn't exonerate the president but it puts michael cohen in the right context. >> the question, dan, how much does that impugn his credibility? >> there's no question he's a flawed witness. he has credibility problems, but every day in courtrooms arou

michael cohen is not finished on capitol hill. he is scheduled to appear tomorrow before a closed door session of the house intelligence committee. coming up, i'll talk to two members of the committee, a republican and democrat about what they expect to hear. and more on today in a meet where one member accused another of using a guest in the room as a racial prop. it did not end there. we'll show you what happened. it's absolute confidence in 30,000 precision parts. or it isn't. it's inspected by mercedes-benz factory-trained technicians. or it isn't. it's backed by an unlimited mileage warranty, or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned, or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. now through february 28th. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. just as important as what you get out of it? our broccoli cheddar is made with aged melted cheddar, simmered broccoli, and no artificial flavors. enjoy 100% clean soup today. panera. food as it should be. coaching me

michael cohen worked for the trump organization for a decade. he was around for an awful lot of discussions and an awful lot of transactions that took place. and presumably he has stories to tell. >> do you know how something like this comes about? i mean, why wasn't this information that michael cohen gave to them a while back? i mean, he has certainly been involved in the southern district now for quite some time. and you talked about also information he might give in the future. is it not the kind of situation where they just ask him to download all his information that he has in his head? >> it's a great question. remember that michael cohen did not strike a -- a cooperation deal with the southern district. that would have required him to basically sit and answer whatever questions they wanted about whatever topic they wanted in his life, any crimes he may have knowledge about, or partake in himself or been aware. he chose not to do that. and that is believed to be part of why he got the pretty large sentence that he got. there is always the

and president trump's former fixer on capitol hill michael cohen reportedly plans to accuse his former boss of breaking the law while in office. and reveals some of the president's private financial information. the news begins now. >> i'm trace gallagher in for shepard smith. president trump east former lawyer and fixer michael cohen kicking off three days of testimony capitol hill. nothing is off limits and cohen should expect to get questions from anywhere about anything. today's hearing is a closed-door session with the senate intelligence committee. tomorrow we'll get to see cohen testify publicly before the house oversight committee and on thursday he will go back behind closed doors to take questions from the house intelligence committee. at tomorrow's public session there is word cohen will provide evidence the president broke the law while in office. that's according to our corporate cousin the "wall street journal." it reports the crime is related to a hush money payment to a woman who claims she had sex with the president. the president denies the affair and blames cohen for