>> someone who bragged about i only hire the best people can't seem to keep people. >> i'm looking forward to the president having the cabinet that he deserves. >> the special counsel is looking now into trump businesses. >> its investigation 101 to follow the money. >> the president believes very strongly there is no collusion. >> there is no individual in the united states who is above the law. >> it was loud. it sounded like a bomb. when i looked closely, cars were squooshed. >> we want to do our best to find out exactly what happened here. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> welcome to your "new day." it's thursday, march 16, 8:00 in the east. cnn reporting that president trump is ready to oust his national security adviser general h.r. mcmaster and is considering even more changes to his embattled cabinet.

a major development in the russia investigation. special counsel bob mueller has subpoenaed documents from the trump organization. "the new york times" reporting that the mueller team has been asking witnesses about a potential real estate deal in moscow. now, coming up, we're going to talk to a man at the middle of that potential deal. a russian-born businessman who says he was trying to help broker a deal to build a trump tower in moscow. get this. he also claims to be an american spy. >> we have a lot to talk about now with democratic congressman jim himes, a member of the house intelligence committee. good morning. >> good morning. >> let's talk about h.r. mcmaster. are you concerned that his position appears to be precarious, particularly at this time of national security concerns? >> yeah, i'm very concerned, alisyn. i'll tell you what i'm concerned about, it's about the fact that the adults are leaving the building. with gary cohn leaving, rex

tillerson leaving, h.r. mcmaster leaving, these are the people that a guy like me and the american people may look at and say you may have the anthony scaramucci's of the world runs around but at least you have adults in the room. the thing that a guy like me worries about, the domestic turmoil is one thing, but the possibility that the president wakes up one morning and decides it's time to go to war because of something he saw on fox news. i think it's h.r. mcmaster and the adults in the room that have talked him down. it's scary to see them leaving. >> what do you think it means there's this turmoil before president trump gets ready to sit down with kim jong-un? >> it's not surprising that there's this turmoil. we've sort of become inured to the fact that the president wakes up and makes policy in all caps tweets without consulting

the state department, without consulting his people. a guy like h.r. mcmaster, rex tillerson, who grew up in organizations where decision making is done very carefully and real prudence, they're not going to thrive in that kind of environment. what is scary here -- you asked about north korea -- there aren't a lot of foreign policy challenges where we know less about the person sitting across the table in which sort of subtlety and care and steady application of pressure are probably more nuanced. this is diplomatic brain surgery. this is not something you do spontaneously. as i said, the adults are leaving the building. that is not good timing. >> moving on to russia. are you heartened that the administration has now imposed sanctions on russia that were mandated by congress? >> yes, it's a small step in the right direction, but it's not enough. and i don't just level that criticism at the trump administration. i level that criticism at the previous administration as well.

we had a very serious attack on the mechanism of our democracy and we responded with a little slap on the wrist. the previous president shut down two diplomatic facilities, kicked a bunch of russians out of the country. now, a year into this administration, the president isn't speaking with a vigorous voice against russia, but, yes, we see these fairly light sanctions. if we want this not to happen again, vladimir putin understands power and the exercise of power and not much else. we need to do more to make it clear that we won't tolerate this kind of thing or that we won't tolerate what we saw in the united kingdom, the murder of an ex-spy by russian agents. >> when you say we need to do more and this isn't enough, what would more look like? >> well, you would do this carefully. i understand this was controversial in the last administration, but had i been in the administration when this happened, i would have urged an exercise of our own cyber

capabilities, and i wouldn't have done it in a way that would have created casualties in russia, but you can imagine any number of things, half of moscow to find out their computers don't work for two weeks or a number of people in moscow with ill-gotten gains discovering their bank balances are zero, whatever it might be. you can imagine the united states has strong capabilities in this area and i would have made the russians hurt in that area to demonstrate our capabilities and send a clear warning we won't tolerate this kind of attack on our elections. >> those are the very things they are attempting to do to our infrastructure. the homeland security department announced they attempted this cyber attack on our various sectors. so energy, aviation, nuclear, water, commercial. what are we to make of that?

>> not a surprise, alisyn. it's not just the russians, of course. we're living in this wired world where it's not just the power company. it's your refrigerator and toaster talking to the internet. we have a lot of work to do for people to understand the vulnerability is there for the government to do what it needs to do to keep our network safe. look, back to russia. for decades we did not have a nuclear war with russia because we all understood deterrents. that's why i go back to saying there should have been a stronger response. you bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun. that's the language that putin understands. >> what does it say to you that the press secretary and the white house could not answer the question friend or foe. watch this moment. hold on. >> in simple terms, is putin a

friend or foe of the united states? >> i think that's something that russia is going to have to make that determination, decide whether they want to be a good actor or bad actor. i think you can see from the actions we've taken up until this point, we're going to be tough on russia until they decide to change their behavior. >> what's you response to that, congressman? >> shouldn't be a hard question. and i think sarah sanders probably looked at rex tillerson, probably looked at h.r. mcmaster and said one of the quickest ways to get fired in this building is to say tough things about russia. but let me let her off the hook partly. the reality is that russia is very interested in our country being in chaos and all sorts of people losing faith in our country. but let me throw her a lifeline and say russia is also really important to us as we negotiate with north korea, russia is important to us in terms of keeping the iranians from having a nuclear weapon. i would say they're a dangerous

antagonistic power. like it or not, like the chinese, we're going to need to work with them to keep the peace in the world. >> okay. good to get your nuanced perspective on all that, congressman. thank you very much. we're following breaking news here. the death toll is rising in that pedestrian bridge collapse at florida international university in miami. police will brief the media in the next hour on the recovery efforts. cnn's rosa flores is live at the scene with breaking details. we know they've been working through the night. what's the latest? >> reporter: chris, we just learned from police that at least five victims are still pinned in the rubble that you see behind me. this is 950 tons of concrete. homicide detectives are working side by side to try to get to the bodies and also to preserve evidence. this is going to be a painstaking process.

>> oh, my gosh. knowing that there are still people pinned in there is just a horrible development. rosa, thank you very much. please keep us posted. >> we know they're working very hard because whether it's search and rescue, which means they believe people are alive or recovery where they believe people have died, it's so important to the families to get closure. we know they're working very hard. we'll table you through any developments as we get them. another story this morning. special counsel bob mueller slapping the trump organization with a subpoena. we're going to speak with a russian-born businessman who is at the center of much of the intrigue involving the trump organization and the russia probe. >> also, you know the expression time's up now and me too. this group of female journalists are coming together to change our business. >> there's a feeling that we're not crazy. this isn't one network. this problem is systemwide. >> they are vowing to press forward, as they say, in their fight against sexual harassment.

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moscow to build trump hotel. it didn't happen but it is certainly important to this overall story and the russia probe. joining us is that man, felix sager. >> thanks for having me. >> you have made the decision to come forward and speak why. ordinarily counsel will advise people don't talk. you want to speak now why? >> some document have been unsealed about my work with various national security agencies on behalf of our country. i was approached by two reporters who said there are pieces of this who are coming out and it's going to come out. you have to sit down and tell the truth. otherwise it's going to get piecemealed. after 20 years of work protecting our country, i didn't want it to come out the wrong way and i wanted to give a full

picture of everything i've done in protecting our country. >> there is this whole intelligence assets/spy story that goes along with your involvement here. it's interesting and we'll talk about it. it is interesting to me that's motivating you to come out, not all these other questions that have been swirling around about you. to this point, whom have you gone and spoken to from the government about your involvement with trump and potential connections to russia. have you taken to mueller's investigators? >> i'm not at liberty to discuss on going investigations. >> you can talk about who you spoke to, not the content of what you discussed? >> speaking about existing investigations, i can only say that i have, in fact, testified in front of the senate, in front of the house intel committee, but the rest of it i can't discuss until it actually comes

out. >> but if you don't say i haven't spoken to the mueller investigator -- certainly you could tell me if you haven't. there's no penalty to saying i didn't speak to mueller's investigators. if you're not telling me i haven't spoken to the investigators, the assumption is that you have. do you allow that analogy? it's an interesting analogy. the most important analogy is i was doing a real estate transaction in moscow. >> if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. >> i cannot answer about anything that may be on on going investigation. >> true, except you could say if you haven't spoken to the investigators. you could say that. >> i choose not to. >> if the information about this subpoena is accurate and they want to know about this trump tower deal. part of the intrigue is how it was explained by you in an e-mail, that this could be something where we'll get putin

on board and he'll help bring our boy, as you were describing, then candidate trump, help him win. buddy our boy can become president of the united states and we can engineer it. i will get all of putin's team to buy into this. i will manage the process. is that the truth of the matter asserted? >> chris, i came here as a 7-year-old immigrant. i grew up in this country. went to elementary school, junior high school, high school. i believe i'm the furthest thing from russia. i wasn't born in russia. i was born in the soviet union which has, thank god, collapsed. the e-mail i wrote was to a friend i knew since childhood, michael cohen. the excitement about having worked for someone who is now running for president, especially being an immigrant

kid myself, i was beyond enthusiastic about it. in terms of who would or would not have gotten on board, i was trying to use this opportunity because i had tried to build trump tower in moscow as well as london and paris. >> you did licensing agreements involving the trump name, also, which was a huge revenue flow. >> absolutely. i did it in new york, in ft. lauderdale. i tried to do it in phoenix, arizona i worked on numerous trump deals in my career. >> what does this have to do with whether or not this was true. was it true you had access to putin and he had an interest in trying to elect trump. >> i didn't know putin. as a real estate developer which i've said on a previous interview is three parts enthusiast and one part realist. you look at a piece of dirt and envision a beautiful building in front of you, the tallest building in the world or tallest building in europe as what i

envisioned and what you were trying to accomplish, you would need buy-ins from governments, finance institutions, architects and everybody else. the truth of the matter is, had this project moved forward, of course i would have started working the phones, started contacting my business contacts. >> you didn't know anybody close to putin or connected to putin who was telling you they wanted to help trump become president of the united states. >> no, i did not. >> you didn't have any knowledge of any government actor in russia who wanted to help get trump elected president? >> i wouldn't involve myself with a government actor or any other government against our country for any reason, donald trump or anyone else. >> this was just hype and enthusiasm, it wasn't a legitimate offer? >> this was beyond enthusiasm. it wasn't hype. at the end of the day, i'd start finding people that knew putin. i'd start finding people that

could get donald on top of this proje project. i would have, believe me, turned over every rock to make sure everyone was involved. >> i get you. the danger and the suggestion is that it would be proof that there were people connected to putin or close to putin that had a vested interest in trying to help motivate trump's campaign. if you're saying that's not what it was abilities, we'll take you at your word until any other proof comes up about it. >> chris, i'm more than happy for all the proof to come out. i was trying to build a billion dollar project. >> it did not happen. >> it did not happen. >> there was never any money exchanged, never any type of relationship developed between putin and anyone close to him and the trump organization to your knowledge? >> to my knowledge and anything i was involved with, absolutely not. >> michael cohen said he never even went to russia on this deal? >> he did not go to russia on this deal with me. >> and the idea that you went to russia with trump's children to advance business interests.

is that true? >> that is true. >> you know the general counsel of the trump organization says it's not true, felix was in russia at the time the kids were there, it wasn't coordinated. is that true? >> the president asked me to be in russia at the same time as them to look after them. >> the president asked you? >> yes, sir. >> directly. >> directly. >> why do i ask you? because the president has seemed to distance himself from you saying if the guy is in the room right now, i wouldn't know who he was. >> you'd have to ask thement why he said that. >> do you think if you were in a room, do you think he would know who you were. you'd have to ask him. >> do you think he'd know who you sfwhr. >> if he was in this room, i'd know who he was. i can't answer for him. >> why are you being so protective? >> you had a business card, everyone knows you had residence in trump organization. you know we know a lot of the same people here in new york city. i've looked into you. there's no question whether it

was when you were with barock in the early 2000s and started doing licensing deals for trump and other commercial opportunities or when you got back into the business after some hard times, you were in residence at the trump organization, on the business card you call yourself a senior adviser. >> the trump organization issued me that business card. >> you know donald trump, yes or no? >> i know donald trump. >> you have met him in person in. >> yes, sir. >> you have shaken his hand? >> many times. >> you've looked him in the eye. >> yes, sir. >> spoken to him on the phone? >> yes, sir. >> he knows you. felix, if you want to tell the truth -- we're living in this age where people don't know what's fact or fiction. either you know the guy or you don't. >> chris, you're asking me what somebody else said. i can only answer for myself. >> the president of the united states saying i don't know who this guy is smacks of trying to distance himself from facts.

it's not to bust your chops, it's to try to create a record of what we should know in this situation. that's why i'm asking. similarly, another big point of intrigue, you meet with michael cohen and somebody else. he takes the meeting because he knows you, cohen says. at the meeting you make a proposal for a ukrainian piece, right. this is what we need to do to stop it, give to michael and say would you deliver this to michael flynn. is that the truth of what happened at this meet? >> close. i gave the proposal to michael cohen who said he would deliver it to michael flynn. >> what was in that proposaprop? what was that about? >> the proposal was -- i was working at that time on a very large deal to fix and rehabilitate the nuclear power plants in the ukraine which are basically chernobyl-ready, which could cause catastrophe. the funny part is, it was the most anti russian transaction

you could work out because it was a way for ukraine to become energy independent from russia as well as sell excess energy to poland and other european countries which are now in the choke hold of russian energy policy. >> who was the other man at the table. >> andre art men co-a senator from ukraine. >> it is true he has connections to oligarchs in russia? >> i don't know. i really don't know. >> is it true he had business interests involved with what was going to happen in the ukraine? >> i'm sure he does have business interests. he approached me through a business contact about the power plant deal. that's all i was working on. the power plant deal would have caused russia basically to collapse. it was the most anti russian deal ever. during the course of all those negotiations and working on the nuclear power plants, andre comes to me and says, felix, people are being killed in eastern ukraine. >> it's true. i've been there. when that plane got shot down and people thought that was the

beginning of the situation, it was an introduction to an ongoing civil war, largely motivated by russian resources. that is the reality there. do you know if anything ever happened with the administration and that proposal? >> i don't know. where my involvement ended was, andre said we're working on this deal, but people are getting killed. i have a proposal for a peace plan. it's a why to break the logjam on crimea. sanctions will never be lifted while they're in crimea. i think that's sort of a hong kong style transaction where hong kong is independent for 50 years. they vote on their own independence. can you get this to the administration to which i answered no. i can get it to michael cohen. he can get it to the administration. >> that's as far as it went? >> that's as far as it went as far as i'm concerned. >> once this is all settled, you need to come back and tell your

story about your involvement with the american government because it's fascinating on its own. there's a connection to the last question which is this. what insight can you offer as to why donald trump, a man you know very well, regardless of what he says, is so anxious to take on opponents, so anxious to be strong, be forceful and to be seen that way, but not when it comes to russia? why when it comes to russia does he always have a light touch? >> the conversations i had with the president many years ago about russia were not about a light touch, not about coddling them. it was about bringing u.s. oil down to $25 a barrel which would spark an economic revival in this country unseen in the last 100 years and at the same time cripple russia. so suggestions of him liking them, i don't know. from my conversations, i know it

was always the idea of make america -- have an amazing economic resurgence and cripple russia in the process. that's are the conversations i remember. >> we wanted to allow you to create a record on the suggestions out there with respect to the russia probe. we'll continue this conversation. thank you for this. appreciate you being here. >> thank you very much. now to another continuing conversation in the unto can. what is the next step in the me too movement? a group of women in tv news who had run-ins with matt lauer, mark halperin and more, are coming together for the first time ever to fight bad behavior. their plan next. tra. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. so we give farmers like win more plants. to grow more delicious coffee. which helps provide for win's family. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters. that i served. of the fact

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sexual harassment cataclysm that has taken down major names on tv. after roger ailes and matt lauer were ousted, what will change? that is the question that

brought together a group of women in network news who experienced sexual harassment themselves. i sat down with them and spoke about how to fix what's wrought ten in newsrooms and beyond. it started with roger ailes of fox news. >> breaking news, a meade yoo bombshell. roger ailes officially out. >> over the next 16 months, some of the biggest names in the news business fell like dominos. bill o'reilly at fox. >> an embarrassing end to a 20-year run. >> mark halperin at nbc news. >> a plot of sexual harassment allegations reached the program morning joe. >> i was so scared to come forward. i can remember a moment of relief when i got a phone call that said, oh, my gosh, another person has come forward. >> charlie rose at cbs. >> for decades he covered the headlines, now he is one. >> reporter: matt lauer at nbc.

>> this is a sad morning at "today" and nbc news. >> i think it was a feeling we're not crazy. this isn't one network. this problem is systemwide. >> reporter: this week ten current and former journalists came together, some meeting for the first time, to try to stop bad behavior in newsrooms. >> everyone knew it was true and yet there was obviously no structure to bring about change. >> a show of hands. how many women were sexually harassed? and how many of you feel that that moment did change the trajectory of your careers? how many of you are still nervous or reluctant to speak out and tell your full story today? >> i'm still a working journalist. i feel a tremendous amount of risk speaking with you here to day, but this industry which i've dreamed of since i was 13 or 14 years old has given me

tremendous extraordinary experiences and a life of tremendous adventure and magic, but it's also brought a lot of pain. >> you did speak out. what happened after that? >> i felt very exposed. i felt incredibly vulnerable. i didn't realize the severity of it. it's brutal, brutal. >> reporter: in december addy decided to tell the story of what happened to her nearly 18 years ago when she was a production assistant on the "today" show. she says the host, matt lauer, at the time the biggest name in tv news began pursuing her for sex. >> i was in a position that he knew he could take advantage of. he wasn't going to go after a senior producer. he was going to go after the intern or the pa. >> it's about abuse of power. sexual harassment, consent, appropriate behavior, and all of these things are things that we are delving into. >> reporter: that was their

motivation to create press forward, a new initiative to stop harassment in newsrooms an make them safer for future journalists. on tuesday, press forward launched at the national press club in washington. he was a day of high hopes and high emotion. >> i landed my dream job at "world news" at abc. because of the culture in television of sexual harassment, i left. there were many reasons that made me pivot my career and i still believe in the news. >> i was the most vulnerable and i believe i was violated by the most powerful and put in a situation where i didn't have the agency to make a good decision. and when you're a young woman and you know you were an active participant in something that wasn't right, you carry that shame with you forever. >> reporter: press forward assembled a distinguished board

of advisers with journalists like cnn's jake tapper and the long-time host of "night line" ted koppel, who made the provocative suggestion that perhaps should dress differently. >> that i'm sure is an unpopular notion today. the fact of the matter is, i would feel just as upset by a guy coming in wearing a t-shirt and torn jeans to come to work at the office as i am by a woman who comes in wearing a skirt that is so short that it is provocative. >> reporter: that's listed groans followed by awkward silence. >> i found his comment very provocati provocative, but really interesting. let me bring you along, you can't just shut him down and be like, what? let me explain to you why i feel

that viewpoint is misguided. >> if we want to create change, we have to invite men into the conversation. they're going to say things that may shock us and surprise us, but we have to work together. >> i work with men every day and they're wonderful. we love guys. so i don't want people to feel like this is just a woman's issue or a gender issue. it's a human decency issue. >> press forward has ideas for how to change newsrooms they hope will ripple across other industries including more sexual harassment training, raising money for a legal defense fund, hosting town halls and conducting industry assessments. >> to me it's really black and white. you should not have a button under your desk that shuts the door. you should not parade naked in a towel if your assistant is in the room. you should not really master bait during a job interview. that's pretty black and white to me. >> my favorite one on the

website is, if you can't say what you're about to say to a woman to that woman's mother, just don't say it. it's not appropriate. >> how would you all finish this sentence, a year from now newsrooms will be -- >> better. >> safer. >> inspiring and elevating place to work for every single person, not just the big stars, but the younger assistants and producers. >> a place where the best and brightest want to be. >> more enlightened. >> empowered. >> what would you tell college students today who say they want to become journalists and are idealistic? what would you tell them? >> you deserve to be in a place where you can succeed without conditions, where your potential will be supported, where your focus will be your job, and that's it. >> just because you're ambitious, hard working and

excited about your chosen career, it doesn't mean you should be exploited for having those qualities. >> we hope they have the courage to, if and when this happens to them, to do something. >> we need you. we need you to succeed. we need you to stay in the business and figure out some of the challenges that lie ahead, so don't give up. >> so that group is called press forward. it asked me to be on their advisory board which i'm honored to be a part of. i'll keep you updated on the tangible changes made in tv news and beyond. >> great conversation. you had to fold in the stuff by ted because that's how culture changes. of course, that energy all has to go up. it has to go out, get as many people involved as possible. then it has to go up because culture has changed -- >> for sure. they also do believe it will have a ripple effect on other industries. the guidelines they're trying to set they think can be a blueprint for any sort of industry. the more we talk about it, the more change happens. >> it will be interesting to see what corporations make real moves. thanks for bringing us there.

important stuff. >> thank you. the lawyer for stormy daniels claims she was being physically threatened to stay silent about her alleged affair with president trump. proof? we have the attorney next. whoamike and jen doyle?than i thought. yeah. time for medicare, huh. i have no idea how we're going to get through this. follow me. choosing a plan can be super-complicated. but it doesn't have to be. unitedhealthcare can guide you through the confusion, with helpful people, tools and plans. including the only plans with the aarp name.

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z . all right. we have developments that have to be discussed. the lawyer for stormy daniels claims his client was being physically threatened to stay silent about her alleged affair with president trump. there's some other news in this story as well. joining us now is stormy daniels' attorney michael avenatti. you're starting the drive the news cycle a little bit on this. i wanted to talk to you about it. there are actually two developments, maybe three we have to get to. let's start with that one. again, state for us here what are you alleging was done to your client in terms of pressure to stay quiet? >> well, i'm not alleging anything. i'm stating a fact, and the fact is that my client was physically threatened to stay silent about what she knew about donald trump. the details surrounding that

she's going to discuss, i'm sure, on the "60 minutes" interview on march 25, and the american people are going to weigh her voracity and whether she can be trusted, whether she appears to be credible and whether it happened or not, and they're going to learn the details surrounding that. we're going to let them judge for themselves whether she's being honest. >> first of all, that means the interview is going to air as far as you know. we're hearing not this sunday, but next -- the 25th. >> "the washington post" reported i think yesterday it is going to air on march 25. >> they haven't communicated with you, cbs news and given you the courtesy of letting you know -- >> they have communicated with us. i don't know the definitive date. that is handled internally at cbs. >> why the vacillation with the network? >> i don't know there's a vacillation. the issue is they're trying to make sure they get it riert, crossing every t, dotting every i. they don't run off half cocked and air something without

vetting. >> there was never an earlier date that was moved, it was always in flux? >> my understanding is it's always been in flux. the determining factor was first they're going to get it right and determine when it airs. >> that's the way you're supposed to do the job. they're the top of the craft. >> no doubt. >> just trying to create a clear record. >> you have to have proof of this. i say it's an allegation. you say it's a fact. the difference between the two is proof. you're saying she will have proof, when she says she was threatened, she'll say by whom and how? >> what i'm saying is she's going to be able to provide very specific details about what happened here. >> including who made the threat? >> i'm confident that the american people after this interview are going to come away and have little to no doubt that this woman is credible, she's telling the truth, and she knows what she's talking about. >> just not to dance around that, she has to say who issued

the threat. the threat is only as good as it's source. >> i think i've answered the question. i think when people tune in on the 25th of march, they'll know she's shooting straight. >> you can yes-no on that. you're a lawyer, not a pr guy. it's not about hyping the interview. >> i don't have to hype this interview. >> i hear you, and you shouldn't. you're the lawyer, not a pr guy. but the idea of was this somebody close to the president of the united states? >> again, i'm not looking to hype the interview because the interview is going to get whatever ratings -- >> will that question be answered? >> i think when people tune in, they'll learn what happened. >> another suggestion is that you say since your representation, you have received information from other women who have mdas that may or may not be jermaine to what's happening with stormy daniels. is that true? >> we've been approached by six

different women who have claim to have stories similar to my client. two of them have ndas. we're in the very early stages of vetting those stories. i want to preach caution and restraint. we are not vouching for these stories. we are investigating them. we're not going to stake our reputation on them until we have confidence that they're telling the truth, we have 100% confidence that ms. clifford is telling the truth. >> got to vet them. that's smart for you and your reputation. do these women in terms of what their allegations are at this point before you vet them, do they all involve the president of the united states? >> yes. >> and only two of the women have ndas. >> no, that's not what i said. i said at least two. >> you don't know if the others do? >> correct. >> then we get to the relevance. why would the american people

care if six women came forward and saying they had affairs with the president of the united states? >> i don't know that they would care. >> why would you represent them? >> we haven't made a determination as to whether we're going to represent them. we eesh in the early stages of examining these allegations, learning the facts, start making accusations or doing anything. we may not even end up representing them. but i think i will speculate that ultimate the american people may be interested if, in fact -- and it's an if, if, in fact, one of these women had a similar circumstance related to my client as related to the intimidation tactics, the bullying tactics and the efforts to muzzle and gag these women from telling their story. >> are you suggesting that your client entered into this nda with michael cohen under duress? that would mean it's not a real contract because she did it because she felt pressured to have to do it, it wasn't a real bargain for exchange. is that what you're saying? >> i think when people tune in

to this interview, they'll learn the details, the circumstances under which she signed the original agreement as well as what happened thereafter relating to the threats and coercive tactics that were used to shut my client up. >> all right. but the timing matters, right? if the fact pattern is she came, wanted a deal because she was shopping herself and story to networks -- >> that's not what happened. >> we've got to see that proven, radio it? that's one thing, and says, i want to -- i'm going to speak unless we can figure out a deal. fine, legal, as long as it wasn't being coercive. she makes that deal, she doesn't like that deal and wants to speak. that's one disposition under the law. if it was, well, i have to do this because i'm afraid if i don't do it, something will happen to me because that has been articulated, that's something else. which was it? >> something else. >> this is new. i haven't heard you say this before. >> i'm assuming that's why you had me on the show. you don't want me to repeat what

i say on every show. >> if you knew she had done this under duress, you wouldn't be doing under this fine print law about whether it's executed to everybody. if it were done under duress, you should say it's not a real deal because they threatened her if she didn't do it. >> as you know, proving duress is a very, very difficult thing under the law. why prove duress if you can point to the agreement -- >> huge difference, huge difference. not only perhaps in terms of legal sufficiency but in terms of court of public opinion. we're having this conversation here, not in front of a magistrate, for a reason. if she was threatened into a deal, it ooels a lot different than she wanted to be quiet and the time and now she doesn't anymore. you come back and we'll discuss what matters to the american people. michael avenatti, thank you for taking the time. >> appreciate it. >> alisyn? >> alisyn? >> "the good stuff" is next.

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ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. good morning everyone. john berman here. breaking news. moments ago right here on cnn, a lawyer for adult film actress stephanie clifford, aka stormy daniels says she's been physically threatened to stay silent about what she knows about president trump. she alleges they had an affair and was paidh