good evening. where to begin? the president says a decision on striking syria is coming, in his words, fairly soon. also, and this could be very big, about those raids on michael cohen, the president's personal attorney, new reporting that the president's allies are worried the feds may have seized tape recordings made by mr. cohen. that, and this, as well. another alleged trump-related hush payment comes to light.

this one, to a former trump doorman who told a story about an affair mr. trump had with his housekeeper and allegations he fathered a child with her. also tonight, cnn exclusive reporting on white house preparations to undermine rod rosenstein, and the republican party has just laub ched a major war against fired fbi director james comey in response to his upcoming tell-all. then, late today, details from that book began emerging, some revealing, some outright salacious. remarkable scenes from meetings with president obama and president trump at some of the most critical moments in american history. randi kaye has all the latest. what have you learned about the details in this book? >> reporter: anderson, in "the washington post," james comey says donald trump brought up the intelligence dossier. that dossier alleged that russians had a so-called pee tape of prostitutes that trump paid to urinate on each other and his bed in a russian hotel

suite. comey reportedly writes in the book that trump wanted comey to investigate the allegations. comey reportedly writes, he brought up what he called the golden showers thing. adding that it bothered him if there was even a 1% chance his wife melania thought it was true. the paper said that comey goes on to write, in an apparent play for my sympathy, trump said that he has a beautiful wife and the whole thing has been very painful for her, he asked what we could do to lift the cloud. the former fbi director reportedly writes that trump offered varying explanations and a phone call as to why there was no tape. i'm a germaphobe. there's no way i would let anyone do that. >> i'm not sure how to follow that up. >> reporter: sure. comey writes when he met trump, the 6'3" president-elect looked shorter than he did on

television. his face appeared slightly orange, comey reportedly writes, with bright white half moons under his eyes, where i assumed he placed small tanning goggles, and impressive by coifed bright blond hair which looked to be all his. "the post" says comey observed the president's hands, writing, i made a mental note to his check hand size. it was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so. anderson? >> what does comey say about how president trump runs the white house? >> reporter: this is interesting. "the washington post" says that comey wrote that the president built a cocoon of alternative reality that was he busily wrapping around all of us. "the post" says comey describes trump as a congenital liar, an unethical leader, devoid of human emotion and driven by personal ego. according to the paper, comey likens his interactions with the president to flashbacks to my earlier career as a preosecutor against the mob. the silent circle of assent.

the boss in complete control. the loyalty oaths. the us versus them worldview. the lying about all things large and small. the result, "the post" says comey writes is the forest fire that is the trump presidency. anderson? >> and just getting back to that dossier, what does comey say about how he was chosen to tell the president about it initially? >> reporter: well, comey and james clapper reportedly briefed president obama about it first. then, according to the book, obama asked, well, who plans to tell donald trump? clapper reportedly said that comey would, according to the paper, comey writes in the book that obama turned his head to his left and looked directly at me, he raised and lowered both of his eyebrows with emphasis and then looked away. comey reportedly wrote that he thought obama's, quote, grow choe marx eyebrow raise was subtle humor and an expression of concern. it was almost as if he was saying, good luck with that. anderson this is a 304-page

tell-all. this is really just scratching the surface. >> randi, thank you there's late word from pam brown and jeff zeleny, as well. white house officials telling them there are no plans at this point to respond to anything from the book tonight. people familiar with the matter said the white house and the rnc do not plan to respond to each individual report or allegation in the book. largely because they don't have the book and no less about these incidents, in many cases, than we do i want to bring in our panel. gloria, i mean, comey certainly does not seem to be pulling many punches here, in fact, he seems to be kind of poking the president, talking about his hand size and the white circles under his eyes from tanning. >> yeah, i think revenge is best served cold, and i think that is partly what this is. i mean, don't forget, this is a president who fired him. comey was fired in a way that no one would want to be fired. he didn't know about it. he was halfway across the country. i think he has some scores to settle here, but moreover, i think it really gives us an

important hint about what he has been saying to the special counsel. and what his testimony would be. about this question of obstruction. here he says, you know, i'm not going to tell you whether i believe this is obstruction or this isn't obstruction, but he does give you chapter and verse about what the president was concerned about in certain -- in certain areas. largely, also, by the way, it seems the president regarded the fbi as his own sort of personal thief dom and that he could use somebody like james comey as his own personal investigator to help him out, particularly on the issue of the tapes and the question about whether melania would be upset about it, et cetera, et cetera. so, yeah, it gives you a picture of a president that doesn't really understand the appropriate relationship between the -- his office and an

independent branch of government. >> phil, given your experience with the fbi, director comey apparently kind of demurred and said it might not look good for the president if people found out that he was asked to look into this. does it surprise you, i mean, that's not -- is that appropriate for a president to ask the fbi to do? >> it is not. look, i -- the indication to me is, you have outsiders, that is the trump team, coming into washington, d.c. and thinking that the fbi is somehow going to investigate something for the president because the first lady is concerned. the fbi is the chief federal investigative agency for the united states government. they investigate based on probable cause, violations of federal law. if the first lady of the united states is concerned about allegations in the press about what her husband has done, it's not clear to me why the fbi director should go down that path. the indication, anderson, from that story, to me, is not just about the fbi, it's about a president who comes into washington, d.c. and whether he's dealing with the defense department, the state

department, the fbi or the cia, looking at them, saying, i should ask you a personal favor because you work for me as president. he does not understand his responsibility as commander in chief. >> another point in the book, according to "the new york post," comey notes that the president said it bothered him that there was a 1% chance that melania thought it was true, the allegations about the stuff in the hotel room in russia. to which comey went on to say, to what kind of man does a spouse conclude there's only a 99% chance her husband didn't do that? i mean, again, that is really harsh. >> sure. and this is, you know, problem is, this is the kind of marriage that the president has. and to phil's point, it's not the fbi's responsibility to lift the cloud, with regard to these allegations. and to gloria's point, this book, in large part, is about him getting revenge. this is more than anything about him getting revenge against the president for firing him. and while, talk about the prostitutes in the hotel room in

the dossier is going to make headlines and sell books and what people will talk about, the big picture, what this book is about, it's not about those details. in my view, the big picture of the book, we haven't read it, but this is more about comey's view about the toxic con consequences of lying and it's about the problems with loyalty to one person over the truth and his view, as the fbi director, having a president try and get him to drop an investigation with michael flynn, which he had a huge problem with. and that is the overall takeaway from this book. while the other part is salacious and it's what we'll be discussing, i view that as the takeaway. >> also frank, the fbi director is comparing the president to a mob boss. >> yeah, as was said in the introduction, there's no minced words here. i think from what we've seen of it, we haven't read it, it's an extremely shrewdly done book. comey makes a point of talking about the fact that he worked in three administrations. he makes a point of criticizing people from each of those prior administrations. it's clear he's doing that so when he then tells you that

donald trump is violating all the norms of the presidency, that donald trump is a danger to the country, that this lying isn't just something casual, but it's a real threat to democracy, he wants you to see in someone that is willing to criticize a wide group of people who comes at this with great depth of experience, with a view to his creditabili creditability. >> phil, you were shaking your head. >> no, i don't agree with this. there are two books here. the president trying to intercede in conversations about investigations with his staff and maybe he himself were involved with, and meanwhile, we get the former fbi director commenting on the president's hand and if his hand was small and he was tan. if i were the fbi director, i would say, if you want to inform the american people, stick with the facts and be careful about being seen as partisan. it's two books and i'm afraid the salacious stories is going

to divert from the first book. how is this president as a national security leader? >> gloria, it does provide ammunition to those who, you know, obviously in the gop and el elsewhere who are going to want to come after comey hard, to phil's point. it's not, you know, sort of straight down the middle. even the idea of writing a book like this, so soon after serving in an administration, you know, revealing behind the scenes details and stuff, you know, rubbing people the wrong way. >> i agree with phil. i think you walk a fine line here, but i think that comey may appear more partisan than he should want to appear. because these are very serious issues he's dealing with, about separation of power, about the toxicity that he believes emanates from this white house, throughout the government, stemming directly from the president. and those are -- those are serious charges and serious issues. and then, when you talk about, well, i was kind of looking to see what size his hand was, you know -- it doesn't -- it's just

not funny. it's kind of, like, either you're serious or you're not, or you're not serious about this. and i think that comey is trying to raise a lot of ethical issues here, not only in the way he was treated, but in the way people have to pay to donald trump if they work for him. even if they believe that he is not telling the truth. and those are really, really important issues, so, the question i have is, again, we haven't read the whole book, so, we need to do that, is, why would you diminish those very serious points with other things? >> and i think that's part of what sells books, clearly, those details about the hands and the s suntan, those were -- those are going to be the things that people pick up on, but in my view, what we're hearing about the overall context, the loyalty, the obedience to someone that has a loose

association with the truth, but also, in my view, this is comey's way of making a stand for the fbi, which, for a president that he viewed constantly undermined the law enforcement arm of the fbi, and many of our law enforcement agencies, and this is his way of setting the record straight that he views as attacking the fbi. >> we also don't know how much real estate the stuff about the color of his face and hands. >> that stuff is sent out to -- >> we've seen journalists tease out the stuff that is the most salacious and gossipy, because that's what we put in our articles. that could be a minor portion of the real estate of the book. >> t"the post" quotes comey as saying, they lose the ability to distinguish of what's true and not. they surround themselves with other liars. this creates a culture which becomes an entire way of life. i mean, pretty stunning stuff. >> right. >> yeah. >> i think he thinks it's toxic. he thinks it's a toxic

administration and he wants to sort of get that across. what we also know, and we have to read in this book, is comey's defense of himself and what he did during the election to hurt hillary clinton's chances for re-election, by releasing information about investigations into her e-mail, and i haven't read that yet, but i'm very curious about what he's going to say about himself, because he has been criticized extremely by democrats on that. >> right. >> there's clearly a self-serving dimension to the book. we know that he says obama turned to him. he recounts obama turning to him and sort of saying, i know you tried your best. he recounts chuck schumer coming up to him with tears in his eyes, saying, you're in an impossible position. for sure, some of this book is going to be read as extremely self-regarding and maybe less credible for it, but from what we've seen, it's this book equal parts cry from the heart and sort of extension shl sigh of

concern about what he sees happening in the white house and who he sees inhabiting the white house. >> we have to take a quick break. more on this, including comey's account of a critical conversation with john kelly and why kelly counseled comey -- excuse me, why comey counseled kelly to stay on the job. later, a cnn exclusive. what we're learning about white house planning to undermine deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. this car is literally my baby. which is why i use armor all ultra shine wash wipes. they effectively remove dirt, dust and grime with no water.

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comey's memoir. excerpts have been released. the salacious parents are getting a lot of attention. there's also the picture he paints and here's a bit more about john kelly. coe me writing, he said he was sick about my firing and he said he didn't want to work for dishonorable people who would treat someone like me in such a manag manner. i urged kelly not to do that, arguing that the country needed principled people around this president, especially this president. back to the panel. you know, frank, it's going to be interesting to see what the response of the president is. the rnc are the ones officially going to be launching broadsides against comey, but what is the white house, the president himself going to be saying? >> well, there's no chance in the world that over the next day that the president doesn't tweet something about this, because he's clearly shown he's willing to go after james comey. just monday in that kind of meltdown at the white house about the mueller investigation, he made a point of digressing to talk about what a horrible person comey is. i think it's going to be

interesting to see what the president's behavior is. over the last week, over the last month, federal officials, all of it has poked ever deeper into recesses of his life he never expected to be invaded. and now, this book comes out, and is telling tales on the white house, and i think it's got to make him feel very exposed and defensive. >> he'll be able to have a little breathing room with regard to responding to this, given the -- he's getting a lot of support from the rnc and members of the republican party. i talked to a lot of members of congress who, they have the president's back on this, and they are fully pushing back on comey. they say that he has a history of contradictory statements. they say he's acted in ways that violate the doj protocol and they were constantly reminding people about the many democrats who are now supporting comey that have asked for him to resign when he brought up the hillary clinton investigation. nancy pelosi, harry reid, bernie sanders, all of them. republicans will push back for trump and i would like to think he could show restraint and not comment on this, because he's going to have a lot of cover.

>> phil, again, we have not read the entire thing, and again, it's on excerpts and those are often the most headline-grabbing, but what do you think the objective for comey is in this book? >> i think there are two objectives. number one, reporting as the fbi has done since its inception in 1908 about the facts of what he's seen at a historic moment in american history. i think there's a second objective that i'm still struggling to understand, anderson, and that is, when james comey spoke about hillary clinton, when he spoke in a hearing and i think there was -- this was an element of his hearing in the spring of last year, about huma about day deba she had been cleared, he came across not as just a chief federal investigators, chief federal law enforcement officer in the united states, but as sort of the school principal for america. i have views on hillary clinton, we decided not to charge her. here are my views on how she treated national security information. we're seeing the same thing again. he's got views on the president, some of which relate,

appropriately, to an investigation. some of which were on his personal views on whether he thinks the president was moral or amoral. i'm not sure i agree with that, but i think we're going to see him as school principal. that's what we got in part of this book. >> gloria, one of the things he writes, according to "the new york times," comey says he never saw president trump laugh, a sign of, quote, deep insecurity, his inability to be vulnerable or risk himself by appreciating the humor of others, which on reflection is really sad and a little scary in a president. >> yeah, look, i mean, a lot of us have not seen a lot of self-deprecating humor coming from this president. and he's free, look, this is a personal memoir, so, he's free to make whatever remarks he wants. that, honestly, is less interesting to me than the questions about what the president said to him when -- about general flynn and others, and his meeting with jeff

sessions, which he also writes about, because he clearly told jeff sessions, you need to get between me and the president. you cannot leave me alone with the president. and let me make it -- you know, just one more comment about the context into which this book is now appearing. it's not in a vacuum. we have stories now about his -- the president's personal lawyer's office being raided, which has enraged the president. we have stories coming out in publications about the president's extramarital relationships. stormy, karen mcdougal, you know, go on and on. we have the president now, we know, asking james comey to disprove this story about women in russia. you put all of this together and then the comey book coming out, which, the president will hear a lot about, if he doesn't read it, will hear a lot about. and this is going to create this

incredible storm inside the white house and inside the president's head about how to react and how to lash out. at the same time, we are clearly considering some sort of action in syria. the president has a meeting with north korea coming up. is he going to testify in his own defense before the special counsel? and i think when you -- when you put all of this together, it's kind of a stunning maelstrom. >> it certainly is. >> but there's also a little bit about, there's so much, as gloria says, it's become white noise to people in middle america. i speak to gop groups across the country. it's white noise. they look at it as yet another incident that we knew about the president before he was elected. he was still elected president. they are concerned with what is he doing to create jobs and to provide tax cuts, and middle

americans really are not super focused on this right now, as long as they're creating jobs and keeping america safe, so, they're really watching what he does with syria. >> thanks to everyone. appreciate it. gloria called it a storm. feels like it tonight. next, did michael cohen make audio tapes of his business on behalf of president trump? his conversations on the phone. does the fbi now have them? we have new reporting on that. also, a cnn exclusive. how the white house is preparing to try to undermine the credibility after deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. t it's very, very tough on bacteria, yet it's very gentle on the denture itself. polident consists of 4 powerful ingredients that work together to deep clean your denture in hard to reach places. that work together ♪ directv now gives you more for your thing. your letting go thing. your sorry not sorry thing. your out with the old in with the new, onto bigger and better thing.

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in advance of the comey book, or what everyone thought in advance of it, the republican national committee launched a website aimed at what seems is besmirching him. on top of that, cnn has learned that the white house is gearing up for war against deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. sara murray has the exclusive. so, what have you learned about these talking points? >> reporter: well, anderson, sources familiar with this say there was at least a preliminary plan that the white house was developing to try to discredit rod rosenstein, and of course, this comings at a time when president trump has been weighing whether or not he wants to fire his deputy attorney general in the wake of these raids against michael cohen. now, they've come up with a couple of different lines of attack against roden stein. the broad idea is that he's too conflicted to oversee the russia investigation. the notion that rosenstein was

behind this memo that president trump used to justify his decision to fire james comey, but some what illogically, they point to another reason, white house made the case that rosenstein and james comey are actually good friends and so the reason rosenstein has approved this sort of ever expanding probe against president trump is to try to get retribution against the fact that his good friend james comey was fired. a source familiar with their relationship between rosenstein and comey says yes, they were colleagues, but they weren't exactly close friends. when i spoke to a white house spokesperson about this this evening, this person said, look, this effort against rosenstein, this is not accord nated effort coming from the white house. they tried to down play this messaging and say this is not the same as what you're seeing when it comes to james comey, which was a coordinated effort with the republican national committee. >> if that's not true and this is, you know, coordinated messaging, sending out talking points, it sounds like they are just trying to lay the groundwork for firing

rosenstein. >> reporter: well, certainly think there are a number of white house aides who remember what it was like the day the president decided to fire james comey, where they essentially had to come up with the reasoning after the fact about how they were going to explain that. i think they've had a number of surrogates, allies of the president outside of the white house who we've seen publicly making the case the president should fire rod rosenstein. they're not all doing that in coordination with the word, but people want to be prepared if the president decides to go that route. how are they going to justify it? how are they going to explain it? and i think these are the inklings of maybe that reasoning. >> the question is, will the president read those memos? because with comey, obviously, when the white house came out that night to explain why he had been fired, basically this next day, the president completely contradicted what they said, that it was about russian yashgs wasn't able hillary clinton, as they came out that evening. sara murray, thank you. more breaking news from "the washington post," their headline tonight, trump's allies worried that federal investigators may have seized recordings made by his attorney, michael cohen, whose office and home and hotel

room were raided this week. josh dawsey is with us on the phone. what are you learning about these possible recordings? >> anderson, what we're learning is that michael cohen, the president's long-time personal lawyer, worked within the trump organization as his personal lawyer, often recorded his conversations, at times he would even play back recordings of conversations with folks to other people. and he would even play them for p president trump. what his allies are concerned about, when he came into his office, hotel room, his home this week, they took all of his computers, all of his phones, his electronic devices. and in those devices were likely the recordings that he's made of different phone calls that he's had over the years. and that's a concerning idea to a lot of people around the president, because, you know, you have these recordings, what's better evidence for a special counsel's office other than, you know, actual people talking to each other on tape?

>> so, if he made recordings and played them for associates and also for the president, or then citizen donald trump, i mean, i guess -- was it known that he recorded conversations? i mean, it must have been at least among some people. >> amongst some folks, they've heard him play the recordings, and knew that he did it. i don't know that most people who spoke to him knew they did it. new york is a one party consent state. both sides do not have to agree to the conversation being recorded. that said, the recordings could actually prove to backfire here, if they show activity. one of the other things we reported tonight is that he also did business transactions to have leverage. in political conversations, he would play the recordings for president trump. he would talk to different people about the president and then he would show the recordings and let the president

hear, i guess he wasn't the president at the time, but now the president, hear the recordings. whether the people on the other end knew they were being recorded or not is unclear, it's unlikely. but he was recording them. >> so, these were both conversations about politics he might have, although he didn't have an official role in the campaign, but also about business and legal matters? >> right. well, michael cohen was involved in the campaign and the president's business relationship. it's hard to overstate the amount of influence he's had in the president's life. he's been his fixer, as we know with the stormy daniels thing and other matters. he's given him advice on politics. he's helped him close business deals. when you look at his projects in russia, trump projects over there, michael cohen was the point person. i mean, every facet of the president's life, michael cohen was there. from politics to personal to business. and he sees himself, he's been quoted as the president's ultimate lawyer, like the person that would do anything for

president trump. but with these recordings, it could give fbi agents and, you know, the southern district of new york that's investigating, it could give them some ammunition. >> do you know, did he record conversations with president trump or with, you know, then citizen donald trump? >> anderson, that's one of the answers we don't know. we have no reason to believe he did or didn't. we've heard, in our reporting, conversations recorded with others. we do not have in our recording, we do not have first-hand knowledge of conversations being recorded with president trump. so, we're not asserting that. >> josh, appreciate it. fascinating reporting tonight. thank you. up next, our legal experts give their take on all of this. the possible recordings. what appears to be a white house preparing for action, or war against rod rosenstein. all of that ahead. you won't see these folks at the post office

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more on our breaking news. "the washington post" reporting al wlies of president trump are conce concerned that recordings have been seized from michael cohen, and that the white house is working on talking points in an eveffort against rod rosenstein.

alan dershowitz, jeffrey toobin here with us. jeff, in terms of the rosenstein talking points, can there be any justification for the white house doing this, other than to undermine rod rosenstein? >> that's the purpose. and think about how disgraceful this is. here is the deputy attorney general, who is being investigated by the white house, by the people who employ him, solely because he is doing the job he's supposed to do. rod rosenstein is supervising the mueller investigation in an honorable way, reflecting his integrity, and that's not good enough for this white house, they want to get rid of him. >> but you say he's a witness. >> of course he's the witness, he's the first witness. he's the my prayprimary witness. any decent lawyer asks -- calls rosenstein as the first witness and says, did you write the memo at the time? at the time you wrote the memo, did you think you were obstructing justice? did you think there was justification?

did you ask the president if he had any corrupt motives? you can't be a witness and at the same time supervise prosecution -- >> but do you really believe that's what the intent of the president is, in terms of getting rid of rosenstein? >> i don't know the mind of the president. all i'm saying is that there's a legitimate argument that could be made for him, a, to recuse himself, and if he doesn't do that, to go to court and seek a recusal. there's a big difference between recusal and firing. firing is an act by the president. i would be very much opposed to that. it would be a terrible mistake. >> you would be against him firing rosenstein? >> yes, or firing mueller, firing anybody. that's a big difference between that and his lawyers taking a legitimate step that many lawyers would take of seeking recusal. >> rod rosenstein has been -- it's been known that he was involved in writing this letter since the day comey was appoi appointed last may. >> since the day mueller was appointed. >> since mueller was appointed. where have they been with his complaints --

>> that's a fair point. that's a fair point. >> it's a completely bogus pretext to try to get rid of rod rosenstein. it has nothing to do with rosenstein's integrity, has nothing to do with any purported conflict of interest. this is about getting rod rosenstein because he is pursuing this investigation and allowing mueller to pursue this investigation. >> i'm not even sure it has an advantage for the president, if rosenstein is recused, somebody else will take over, especially now, there's a case in new york, there's a case here from the special counsel. so, i think from a tactical point of view, it just doesn't make any sense to try to interfere with the current personnel conducting the investigation. i would be focusing on defense, i would be focusing on trying to make a deal with the prosecution, to have a minimally intrusive series of questions. >> seems to me, if you have done nothing wrong, isn't the fastest way to get yourself cleared to have rosenstein, to have mueller

complete this investigation and clear you? >> but you know the old argument, if you have done nothing wrong, what do you care if somebody searches your premises. innocent people also have some tactical advantages sometimes, and taking legal actions. but a lawyer has to think hard about the balance, because when you move to recuse somebody, it can have unintended consequences. >> this idea that -- about michael cohen having perhaps recorded things, jeff, how serious would that be if there are actually recordings with the president, recordings with other attorneys, or a.m.i., "the national enquirer," whoever? >> it's a gold mine for investigators. there is nothing you want more than contemporaneous records, actual records of what was said by people who are suspects and witnesses in a criminal investigation. >> so long as it's not privileged. >> right, so long -- obviously

they are not allowed to have access to it if it is privileged. if you go in to search somewhere, the more the merrier. more e-mails, more -- more, you know, financial records and tapes -- >> which gets to your point about the taint teams. >> that's the problem. the taint team -- >> just explain for viewer what a taint team -- >> here's what happens. they go in, and the more the merrier. they pick up everything. they pick up things that are clearly in the end going to turn out to be lawyer/client privilege information. then, what they do is, they give it to a taint team, fbi agents and assistant u.s. attorneys. they get to listen to the tapes. they get to read them -- >> and that team is separate from the investigation. >> that's separate. they only turn over the nonprivileged material. but government agents have listened to your confession to your priest, to your statement to your doctor, to your intimate conversations with your wife and to your statements to your lawyer. so, i propose legislation, i'm doing a column today and i'm going to be speaking to legislators about it tomorrow,

to change the taint rules when it comes to lawyer/client privilege communications. requiring that a judge, a judicial officer be present during the search of any lawyer's office, and before anything can be seized, a preliminary determination has to be made by a judicial officer. only that judicial officer will listen and watch, and if he determines that anything is privileged, no government agent gets to see it. that way, first of all, no government agent does get to see it, there's no leak, because judges don't leak. if it does leak, we know who did it, because there's only one person -- what's wrong with that? >> lawyers, doctors, priests, are not above the law. >> i want to make it the law. >> let me finish. they are not above the law. their offices can be searched just like anyone elses. and there are plenty of reasons to search offices of doctors, priests and physicians and, you know, to create an additional barrier to these in searches, i

think, is inappropriate. the system is not broken. the taint teams work. yes, it is true that privileges should be honored, but just because you have a privilege doesn't mean you should be exempt from being under the scrutiny of law enforcement. >> i'm not exempting them. i'm talking about the client, the client, the patient. it's their rights that are being violated. and there's no reason why any government agent should ever be able to see that kind of material. >> a judge sees it. it's a violation if a judge sees it. >> it's much less of a violation. >> you trust judges -- >> judges are more trustworthy. they don't leak. we know the justice department and the fbi are like a sieve. members of the taint team with a wink and a nod can communicate effectively. that's how the oliver north case was lost. we should not be trusted. the aclu came out today and

justified and defended the serb ch without going into his of these issues. if this had been hillary clinton's lawyer, can you imagine the aclu justifying this search? >> i don't know what the aclu did today, i'm not familiar with that. i think this was an orderly, fair law enforcement investigation, multiply reviewed by levels of the justice department. let's see what they get. let's see if there's a case to be made. >> you're missing the point. maybe there is a case to be made, but it's too late to undo the fact that fbi agents have seen confidential material. that's what i'm trying to stop. >> not me. >> thank you. coming up, new reporter about another alleged effort to buy and bury a story, a story critical of president trump. this time, the story involved a rumored affair the president had with a housekeeper in a trump building, an affair that allegedly produced a child. i'm speak with ronan farro next. e a place with 24-hour valet service... and upholstery classes

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well tonight another alleged example of ami the parent company of the "national enquirer" paying someone to keep a potentially damaging from the story about get out. this time a doorman and a house keerer who are had a rumored

affair with donald trump. today the doorman said in a statement i can confirm working at world tower i was instructed not to criticize the housekeeper dug to prior relationship she had with president trump who which produced child. he joins me now, you're not able to confirm the doorman's story. for you the focus is this is another example of ami catching and then killing a story. >> exactly. as colorful as the underlying claim is, really the crux of this for many sources stepping forward was reporting was halted. they allege, on direct orders from david pecker, the head of the company. >> ami reporters quote unquote had gone out. >> right. >> and investigated the claims made by the doorman. >> the parent company of the national inquirer spent weeks investigating this. there was a positive polygraph result saying it seems in their eyes he had been told. >> ami polygraph. >> ami administered a polygraph

that's not reliable. the eyes of the experts. but in the eyes of the reporter that would ab point they would double down. instead in transaction happened, a $30,000 payment and subsequently in what these sources described as very unusual, anderson, a million dollar damages clause. >> damages clause saying that what that if the doorman spoke. >> he signed an amendment saying that if he ever spoke about this he would have to pay $1 million. >> that's according to the former ami people you talked to. >> according to documentation, emails and texts we saw. yes according to many other sources not a standard operating procedure. there was an elevated level of scrutiny on this particular story and this transaction. >> ami, have they said whether or not they -- have they said they don't believe him but they paid the money. >> they have. >> so obviously $30,000 i mean it's less than paid to karen mcdougal which is the other

story you broke, $150,000 was paid to her. this came -- do you know that this came directly from david pecker >> that's what we report as a claim from several of the sources involved. you know, they say he was calling regularly about this. now ami we should point out has flatly denied that. a source close to the white house referred us back to am. they're referring to each other. i think with the raids happening and the probes happening that fbi raid this week focusing specifically on finding these kinds of transactions and communications related to them with michael cohen more may come to light about how involved he was. >> did you talk -- i believe you talked to some ami employees believing that michael cohen may have been in communication with ami during this time. >> that's exactly what they have said. and, again, ami denies that. but the sources we talk to on the inside did say that was happening. >> which again points to -- if there are audio recordings taken from michael cohen offense and there were communications between michael cohen monitoring

that they were working in tandem to protect donald trump, that's extraordinary. >> during an election cycle, which election law experts pointed out is seeing-- not sufficient to establish, but suggestive intent to influence election. >> the bigger question is a is sort of a pattern emerging of how michael cohen allegedly dealt with allegations like this, rumors like this, stories like this. we have seen three -- three examples really thanks to your reporting. and also, the idea that the big idea is that if there are more stories out there that ami and the "national enquirer" bought and killed they have files of. that's leverage they have over the president of the united states. >> throughout the reporting of all stories sources said over and over ben, including sources close to ami we are concerned about the national security implications because we have seen how this company uses dirt it has on other celebrities to influence them.

and that now may be playing out in their eyes with the president. >> they used dirt -- they allegedly used dirt on other celebrities to get the celebrities to tell stories about other people? >> in that case it would be to tell stories about other people, to participate in exclusives and photo shoots. banal stuff but obviously the stakes it different with a of the of the united states. >> it was reported that david pecker visited the white house with a friend of his who has connections to saudi arabia who has business dealings. >> i'll stick very carefully to what we report and others reported so far without any speculation. but certainly that has been reported. and a string of close interactions have been reported. and you know the sources that we talked to did say we think this was a transactional relationship that got deeper and deeper as the election went on, potentially with mutual benefit. >> it's a fascinating story. ronan farrow from the north americaer thanks. >> thanks. >> james comey says the trump presidency it's not normal, not fake news, not okay that's a line from the upcoming book and

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termites, we're on the move.24/7. roger. hey rick, all good? oh yeah, we're good. we're good. termites never stop trying to get in, we never stop working to keep them out. terminix. defenders of home. a president who is unethical and untethered to truth. the words of fbi director james comey by way of "new york times" tonight.

on the table his new book leak leaking out and he has much to say about the presidency. and nuts about robert mueller. what could be the last word. breaking news about the stormy daniels case way the president's attorney is seeking a delay. michael avenatti joins us with that. we begin with the comey memoir and the window into what makes the president tick and what keeps him up at night. jim sciutto has been going over the excerpts joins with us more. what does he say about how the president runs the white house. >> he says he runs it like a mob family. s in based on the "washington post" excerpts. he describes a cocoon of alternative reality that he was busily wrapping around all of us. he describes him in blunt terms as a conjentle liar and unethical leader, devoid of human emotion. driven by personal ego.