call today. the president declared "mission accomplished" on syria. the question is, what does that mean in the weeks and months to come? what does it mean to the u.s.' role and credibility in the region, and what if anything will it mean for the people of syria? first, cnn's barbara starr joins us with the latest. >> reporter: a message from donald trump to bashar al assad and his russian masters. firing more than 100 missiles into the heart of syria's chemical weapons program. >> i spoke to the president this

morning. and he said if the syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the united states is locked and loaded. >> reporter: defense secretary james mattis, in a late night pentagon briefing, not shutting the door to future military action, but also not saying what would lead to more air strikes. >> right now this is a one-time shot. and i believe that it has sent a very strong message to dissuade him, to deter him from doing this again. >> reporter: it was shortly after these horrific videos emerged of an april 7th chemical weapons attack in a damascus suburb that the pentagon began planning for military strikes. the target list, a chemical research center in damascus, and two chemical weapons and equipment storage facilities located west of homs. after first light, as the damage emerged, the pentagon said there were no reports of civilian

casualties and all the military objectives for this strike were achieved. >> i believe that we took the heart of it out with the attacks that we accomplished last night. i'm not going to say that they're going to be unable to conduct a chemical attack in the future. i suspect, however, they'll think long and hard about it based on the activities of last night. >> reporter: the strike on syria began at 4:00 a.m. with a barrage of 105 missiles launched by the u.s., french, and british militaries. it was carried out by three u.s. warships and a u.s. submarine. the french also launched missiles from a frigate ship. in the air, two b-1 bombers launched strikes along with french and british fighter jets. one site, a research and development facility, is located in damascus. missiles made it past heavy air defenses without being shot down. >> as you can see, it does not exist anymore. we believe they've lost a lot of equipment and material. it's going to have a significant

effect on them. i think the words "cripple" and "degrade" are accurate words. >> reporter: but bashar al assad calmly walked into work today. it's unclear if he is hearing those words. >> barbara starr joins us. where does it go from here? >> reporter: this is a difficult question. i think everybody is wondering right now what is president trump's new red lines, what would cause him to order military action again. another chlorine attack? there have been dozens of those and no u.s. military response. a nerve agent? that was a year ago when the u.s. did take military action. unlikely bashar al assad thinks he's totally deterred even if the u.s. hopes he is. so the question is, when will there next be military action and what will provoke it, anderson. >> can you talk about the

feeling at the pentagon, what you're hearing there? >> reporter: there's a significant worry here that you would see russian military forces in syria act, that there would be some kind of escalation. so far there hasn't been. a lot of angry words from moscow but no military reaction from the russians. that's the good news. but this is one of the calculations. this is a very limited strike. you want to do enough to try and send a message to bashar al assad, but not so much that you're going to unsettle vladimir putin and he feels he has to step in. that's the fine line that secretary of defense jim mattis is walking right now. that's really part of the debate he has with the white house. how much do you want to do. and as always with the u.s. military, how much risk are you really willing to take, anderson. >> barbara starr, thanks. meantime, the president spoke with allies today and, of course, tweeted. jim acosta joins us from the white house.

what has the president had to say since last night? >> reporter: he did talk to british prime minister theresa may, and french president emmanuel macron. but it was the president's tweet that got everybody's attention obviously earlier this morning when he tweeted the words "mission accomplished." i talked to a trump adviser earlier today who said in not so many words, i can't quote this person directly because i'm taking out the "f" words, essentially why was it they would allow the president to tweet something like this, because that conjures up memories of 2003 when george w. bush declared that the war in iraq was essentially wrapped up, they had accomplished their mission, and that war dragged on for eight more years. over here at the white house they did have a conference call with reporters earlier today. they did say definitively they believe it's incontrovertible that syria used chemical weapons against civilians that prompted this response that you saw last night.

but anderson, one interesting comment made by one official essentially saying, if this step does not correct syria's behavior here, that the u.s. will be prepared to do something again. and that exactly goes back to this question that barbara was talking about earlier, which is where is the red line drawn and how many times can they essentially enforce that red line, as nikki haley was saying earlier today, before the russians feel like they have to respond. that is the big question moving forward. >> jim, just reminding viewers, you were referring to the banner behind george w. bush saying "mission accomplished" on that aircraft carrier. >> reporter: that's right. >> do we know anything more about the conversations the president has had with british and french leaders? >> reporter: not at this point. we know they were all on the same page. the president has a very good relationship with french president emanuel macron, has not always had a good relationship with theresa may. it's notable that all three countries were able to work together to hold bashar al assad

accountable here. at the same time, as each of these instances arise, the question is going to be, you know, can these governments again come together to hold bashar al assad accountable? we do know the president will be having a state visit from emanuel macron in a few weeks. they do have a good relationship. and the french were certainly out in front on all this. the president will be meeting with shinzo abe, the prime minister of japan, at mar-a-lago later this week. the president is supposed to have a press conference. the question will be asked of the president, where is this red line drawn, how do you define mission accomplished, and how do you deal with mission creep, which every administration has to deal with, when they start getting involved in interventions overseas. it's unclear whether president trump will be able to avoid it with syria because he's drawn

this red line so brightly. >> the same questions the obama administration faced. jim acosta, thanks. cnn's sam kiley is in moscow. how that is the kremlin responded? >> reporter: the kremlin has responded, anderson, in a rather predictable way, saying these air strikes are a violation of international law, conducted without mandate from the united nations security council. people lower down the food chain from vladimir putin have even suggested that there would be some kind of payback. but i think we really need to see that as rhetoric. what else could they say following an attack on their ally in syria? the truth is that behind the scenes, these very limited attacks, very, very limited indeed, made absolutely no difference whatsoever to the military capabilities of bashar al assad or his russian allies. and i think the test will be the extent to which they continue their attacks on civilians when

it comes to their next target which netanyahuably will be the rebel-held area of idlib where most of the rebels are located. >> what do we know about the russian military equipment near the air strikes? >> reporter: they have a complex system to deconflict the operations of the allies led by the united states in the fight against the so-called islamic state. that route was used and is used, was used before and after these attacks, to make sure that the airspace was clear, that there couldn't be any accidental clashes. but the pentagon has said and the russians have confirmed this, there was absolutely no communication directly about the imminent attacks on the chemical facilities, the cruise missiles attacks bit united states ay thd

her allies. that was a surprise although it had been telegraphed by donald trump since the tuesday before. >> sam kiley, appreciate it, from moscow. now, where the strike fits into a larger strategy for syria. cnn's fareed zakaria is the host of "gps" on sundays on cnn. fareed, "mission accomplished" is a phrase we're all used to, of course, for better or worse. was he right, was the mission accomplished? >> the mission by the administration was defined narrowly. they are careful about it, the president was careful about it. it's about chemical weapons, it's about making assad pay a price for the use of chemical weapons. and in that sense, the mission is accomplished. the message was sent. the punishment was inflicted, if you will. but the mission was not accomplished in a larger sense which is the syrian civil war continues. it continues to spiral out of control. and more importantly, assad continues to win.

assad is more firmly in control and in power than he was two years ago, than he was four years ago. in that sense, it's a more complicated story. >> if you're bashar al assad, i'm wondering if you're relieved today. it seems like this could very well be the extent of the strikes, at least for the time being, if chemical weapons aren't continued to be used. >> i think you're right. if you're assad or if you're the russians, there must have been some level of relief, particularly given trump's rhetoric, the tweets, the mercurial character and nature of donald trump. the strike was actually remarkably restrained, in some ways even more restrained than the first one last january. it didn't target russians. it was not in any way targeting the regime. it didn't try to cripple the regime or in some way induce the beginnings of regime change. no, it was very tight, very focused, very limited. and i think that the way assad

looks at it, this is over, and i'm still running syria, by the way. >> i want to play what the president had to say about russia's involvement in syria last night. >> to iran and to russia i ask, what kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children? russia must decide if it will continue down this dark path or if it will join with civilized nations as a force for stability and peace. >> he also criticized russia directly for, he said, not living up to a promise they made in 2013 when they got involved in syria about limiting chemical weapons. were you surprised to hear him, you know, have words directly to russia? >> i was very pleasantly surprised, i thought he did it very well. it was the right moral tone to strike. i think it's somewhat naive to believe that you're going to

shame vladimir putin into, you know, better behavior internationally. that isn't what putin does. but i think it's important for the president of the united states to speak out for these -- on these kind of issues and speak out for these values. and yeah, it was nice to hear him doing it, particularly with a country and a president who has been relucta lu-- who he ha reluctant to criticize for a long time. >> it's difficult to send a strong signal that chemical weapons attacks won't be tolerated while at the same time not wanting to get involved in the actual civil war, not calling for regime change or trying to effect regime change. >> this is the dilemma the united states has faced. in that sense, ironically, donald trump is morphing into barack obama, which is, obama faced exactly this dilemma and came to pretty much the same conclusion, that while the united states was going to do things to damage assad, to help

whatever few good guys you could find who ended up being the kurds, to try to, you know, usher in a political process that got rid of assad, it was not willing to pay the price. the enormous price that it would take to actually dislodge assad from power, to, you know, occupy syria, to in some way, you know, shape the future of this country. that that was just not a price worth paying, it was too complicated, to risky. and so while you had preferences, you didn't have the -- you were not going to pay the price. in that sense donald trump's strategy looks remarkably like barack obama's. >> fareed zakaria, thanks so much. we'll talk about this with our panel right after a quick break. discover card. hey, i'm curious about your social security alerts. oh! just sign up online and we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites. that sounds super helpful.

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was it one and done for now, as the secretary of defense said, or the start of a sustained campaign, as the president said? and is president trump's syria strategy a clone of president obama's? paul begala, were you surprised to see the words "mission accomplished" in the president's tweet this morning? >> yeah, that was really unfortunate. i say this as somebody who thinks it was the right thing to

punish assad for using chemical weapons. it calls to mind something that president george w. bush later regretted, he said that it was one of the few regrets he had while president, standing there overstating the case that the war was over in may of 2003. my goodness. and that banner which will haunt the bush legacy for the rest of his life. it was really unwise for president trump to associate himself with that. >> paris, do you think the president stepped on his own message after the success of last night's strike? >> at the end of the day, the president feels that the execution of the air strikes in syria was a successful event and that the mission that he set out, the mission was accomplished with the coalition. there is a political message about what happened with president bush who i was proud to work for. the whole story of that issue was that the ship and the troops that were there on that ship had

a long history of working, and they had accomplished their mission. and so what happened was the banner was interpreted as matching the words of president bush saying the mission of the war was over and accomplished and won. it was sort of a convoluted message. president trump, if he used the term "mission accomplished," i think he meant that it was a successful mission, it was a coalition of the willing who believed that this regime in syria cannot continue to use chemical weapons. and it was a strong signal. they crossed the red line and he dealt with it and accomplished what he set out to do. >> ryan, paris points out that the president meant it when he said it. the question is is he aware of the connotation connected to the phrase. >> i think paris is right, the carrier in the bush situation had accomplished its limited, specific mission. of course it became a metaphor for the fact that iraq was a complete and utter disaster.

and of course the mission was not accomplished at that moment. so it looked silly for bush to give that speech below that banner. similarly here, the specific narrow mission of these limited air strikes on these facilities allegedly associated with chemical weapons, that mission has been accomplished. but the idea that we should be celebrating in any way a mission accomplished with respect to syria which is one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in the modern era, i think it sounds a little tone deaf. and we don't really have a specific strategy, a long term goal or a syria policy. we have this very limited, narrow policy of, if you use these very specific weapons, we will in a very targeted, limited way strike you. and so the only way to really know if the mission is accomplished is if assad doesn't

use chemical weapons again, right? because the only goal here was to deter him from using chemical weapons. so we won't know if that mission is accomplished unless we see him not use them. >> paul, i mean, ryan brings up the difficulty, frankly, that the obama administration faced as well, which is, you know, u.s. really has no appetite to get involved in the war in syria, with the intrusion of troops on the ground, or even, it seems, regime change, no matter how many civilians or innocents are killed by the regime of bashar al assad, despite all the hundreds of thousands of people who have died over the last seven or so years. >> right, this is part of the legacy of the war in iraq. donald trump was bitter in his denunciation of that war and remains bitter in his denunciation of it. and so that's why the politics of this actually is not so much republican versus democrat as it is within the republican party. the trump republicans against the traditional republicans. donald trump in front of jeb bush, remember in the debate,

said that president bush did not keep us safe and the iraq war was a disaster. john bolton, his new national security adviser, was one of the chief architects of that war. but, and this may upset the president, as fareed said, it's a lot like president obama. every president needs to be chastened by iraq, 15 years in, thousands dead, and a huge geostrategic disadvantage. it's admirable that just like barack obama, president trump does not want to invade, conquer, and occupy huge countries that are really no direct threat to the united states. but i think -- >> paris? >> looking at what president obama did in 2013, he said if you cross a red line and use chemical weapons, we're going to act. that didn't happen. he punted to congress and congress took over a year before actions took place. i think what president trump said, when he sees this horrific

action taking place, he acts and this is the second time he's done that. paul, you'll know this quite well, we can look back at president clinton and how he horribly botched -- not even botched, just didn't intercede when it came to the genocide going on in rwanda and it came back to haunt him terribly, forcing him to apologize for it. president trump, i believe, does not want to look at humanitarian things like this happening, chemical weapons on these children, seeing those images, and looking at and saying, i did not do anything about it, i didn't wait for congress, i consulted with the coalition of the willing, i listened to my generals, and we acted. i think that was the right thing to do in this limited form. >> paris, if president trump really, really was deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis in syria, i think he would do a number of things. one, he would have some kind of refugee program and allow some of the refugees to come to the united states. two, he would look at much, much

broader policies for intervening and trying to alleviate some of the suffering. i don't think any of the choices are very good, but at the very least he would reconsider the refugee policy. i want to make one other point. if you listen to nikki haley today at the u.n., she didn't frame this as obama screwed this up and trump is making it all right. it was the opposite. she said in 2013, obama was going to go to attack, he then backed off, agreed to a russian plan to get all the chemical weapons plan out of the country. and what she argued was that trump in these attacks, both in april of 2017 and yesterday, was essentially enforcing that obama era agreement. assad said he would remove the chemical weapons and would never use them again, so it was proper for the united states to respond to that. >> thank you, appreciate it. up next, we'll focus more sharply on the syrian people. the war obviously continues, including the survivors of the attack last week. do they think last night's

military action will make a difference to them? when we continue. ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪

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again, president trump has declared mission accomplished after air strikes in syria because of a chemical attack in douma where more than 40 people were killed.

most of douma now is in ruins. refugees are at a refugee camp on the border with turkey. so what are you seeing, what are you hearing on the ground? >> reporter: anderson, it's the kind of fear and horror that people can't even put into words. it's best described by the children. we were talking to one mother who said when this alleged chemical attack took place she felt as if she lost control of her body and was trying to crawl upstairs with her two young twin daughters, just 7 years old. when they were packing up to leave, one of her daughters put their little doll inside a box and was talking to the doll, saying you might suffocate in here but at least you'll be safe from the bombing. when they arrived at the refugee camp her children began digging a trench for the ants outside of their tent so they too could stay safe of the bombing.

that gives you an idea of the trauma these people have been going through. >> looking at the war the past six or seven years, the refugees you've spoken with, what are they telling you about these air strikes? >> reporter: you know, there is a sense that these air strikes are not necessarily meant to protect them but that they're a lot more part of a broader chess game, a power play that's happening between russia and the u.s. and the syrian regime. they do largely feel abandoned because there is no long term strategy. the air strikes might temporarily stop the regime from carrying out chemical attacks but they won't stop the regime from using the rest of their arsenal. that's nothing to protect them from the air strikes, the artillery, the barrel bombs. there's nothing to ensure even in these refugee camps, anderson, that they're actually safe. >> as long as the u.s. -- as far

as the u.s., great britain, and france is concerned, it may sound harsh, as long as bashar al assad doesn't use sarin and chlorine, he can continue to kill people as much as he wants and there's very little chance of an intervention. >> reporter: yeah, and people are very aware of that. and this has been a sentiment that has been growing over the years. when you go and you talk to them, a lot of them say, why should we talk to you, we've been crying out for so long, we've been begging for someone to somehow stop the violence, just bring about some sort of enduring solution, and it hasn't happened. and they really feel as if these global leaders and the other powers are just toying with their lives and have absolutely no consideration whatsoever for their own wellbeing. and you talk to parents, and they are beside themselves, because they don't know how to protect their children. every single family, anderson,

we spoke to inside this refugee camp had lost someone who they loved. and just to remind people as well, this particular area that they fled from outside in damascus, this is the same area that was hit in the 2013 chemical strike when then president obama's red line was crossed. this has an area that has come under constant bombardment. people have been living underground to such a degree, that just going outside to feel sunlight was something of a luxury but also a risk because the bombings did not stop. >> incredible when you see those pictures of douma, what's left of that city. it's stunning that anyone was able to live amidst that wreckage for as long as they have arwa damon, thanks very much. coming up, the president grows on the president's attorney michael cohen. a closer look at the president's

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a judge has ordered michael cohen to be in court on monday as president trump's lawyers try

to stop prosecutors from being able to seize records they seized from his home and hotel room. we don't know what cohen is under investigation for. he's been the president's fixer for years. gloria borger has more. >> reporter: in a the soap oprah in which a porn star accepts a payoff to be silent about donald trump, there's got to be a guy who gets it done. >> where is this guy? >> reporter: michael cohen is where he's been since 2007, standing behind donald trump, or closer -- in his back pocket. >> i always like to say michael was the radon oy donovan of the office. michael was taking care of it. he's the guy you could call at 3:00 a.m. >> reporter: do you know stories of donald trump calling him at 3:00 a.m.? >> donald trump has called him

at all hours of the night. every dinner i've been at with michael, the boss has called. >> reporter: but cohen did not call the boss, he says, when he decided to pay stormy daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket. 11 days before the election. >> i think it's ludicrous. >> reporter: so you believe 100% donald trump knew? >> 100%. >> there's not a meeting that takes place, not an expenditure that is authorized, that he didn't know about it. >> reporter: cohen wouldn't go on the record for this piece. but his friends say it's his job to give the boss deniability and protection. >> if you know the relationship between the two people, he took care of a lot of things for mr. trump without mr. trump knowing about it. that's part of the overall structure, that michael had great latitude to take care of matters. >> reporter: in michael cohen, trump hired his consigler, a version of his long time mentor,

the lawyer roy cohn, a controversial pitbull and aggressive defender of all things trump, no questions academy. after d'antonio finished his book on trump, he got the cohen treatment in what turned out to be an empty threat. >> then he got mad. it was, "you just bought yourself an f'ing lawsuit, buddy, i'll see you in court." >> reporter: in 2011, michael cohen described his job this way. >> i protect mr. trump. if there's an issue that relates to mr. trump that is of concern to him, it is of course of concern to me. i will use my little skills within which to protect mr. trump to the best of my ability. >> reporter: cohen, a sometimes democrat, first came to trump's attention after buying apartments in trump developments. then went to the mat for trump against one of his condo boards and won. >> trump loved him for it.

that was the beginning of it. and then after that, they became close. it was much more than an attorney/client relationship. it was something much deeper, almost father and son kind of thing. always hot and cold. donald trump could be yelling at him one second and saying he's the greatest person in the world the next second. donald trump knew that michael always had his back. >> reporter: for trump, it wasn't about pedigree. cohen, who is 51, got his degree from western michigan's cooley law school and had some initial success in the less than genteel world of new york taxicab medallions. >> before he started working for the trump board, it wasn't like he came from a white shoe law firm. he came from a hard nosed new york trial firm. trump has an eye for talent. and this was somebody that he

used to call him his bulldog, his tough guy. >> reporter: at the trump organization he's done a bit of everything. running a mixed martial arts company, securing real estate branding deals, and even taking care of transportation. >> the famous trump plane, there was an engine issue that he actually took care of and got a really good deal on. watching him is -- it's like a reality show. he's got three phones. he's got the hard line. he's got two lines. he's texting. he's on the computer. >> you can almost say this is donald trump's mini me. for a guy who started really in the middle class, on long island, to now be quite wealthy himself, known internationally, and yes, he's in a bit of a jam with the russia scandal. >> reporter: in the eye not only of stormy but now under criminal investigation in new york. and also of interest to the special counsel bob mueller and congress. >> i look forward to giving all

the information that they're looking for. >> reporter: during the campaign, when trump said he had no contact with russia, cohen was privately trying to cut a deal for a trump tower moscow. it never happened, but mueller has asked about it. >> the sad reality is that michael pursuing that trump tower deal in december is another factor that goes into this whole russian narrative. >> reporter: cohen's name was in the infamous dossier which alleges he traveled to prague to meet with russians. he denies it and is suing buzzfeed about it. >> it's immeasurable, the damage to him and his family. >> reporter: when trump became president, he did not bring his brash wingman to washington. do you think he wanted to be in the white house, be white house counsel? >> there must have been a part of him that was dreaming of a great job at 1600 pennsylvania avenue.

but he's also the guy who not only knows where all the bodies are buried, he buried a lot of them himself. and that ironically disqualified him. >> they say i'm mr. trump's pitbull, that i'm his right-hand man. i mean, i've been called many different things around here. >> reporter: now he may be called to testify. with the stormy daniels case in federal court. >> i know michael cohen for over 21 years. and i know that he will not rest. he will not sleep. he doesn't sleep anyway, right? until he recovers every single penny from stormy that's due the llc. >> i've seen a lot of attorneys use intimidation tactics. the problem is, is if that is your speed, and if you are a one-trick pony, and you use that in every case, when all of a sudden you run up against somebody that doubles down and that isn't intimidated, then you're lost. >> reporter: cohen flew to

mar-a-lago to dine with the president the night before stormy daniels appeared on "60 minutes." because if you're michael cohen, you're the ultimate loyalist. >> the words the media should be using to describe mr. trump are generous, compassionate. >> reporter: and you still believe donald trump will be loyal. >> kind, humble, honest. >> reporter: to you. gloria borger, cnn, washington. >> what kind of legal trouble could michael cohen actually be in? what are the implications for the president? and what happens next? we'll talk about all that when we come back. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job

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mark geragos, "the new york times" reported that president trump's legal advisers have come to the conclusion that the cohen investigation poses a greater and more imminent threat to the president than mueller's. do you agree, and what should the president's legal team be doing? >> i do agree with that. i think this, especially if it's a doj investigation that's been going on for months, and the southern district is not just the "a" team, that would give me pause if i were the client. i would have had him there on friday, because i think the judge wants to hear from him. one of the problems with this setup, if you will, on search warrants that are executed on attorneys' offices is in the federal system, they don't have the same kind of system that they do in some states. for instance, if this were

california, in the state court, they would have had what's called a special master, an independent lawyer or retired judge come along with the cops to sit there so that you could assert, michael cohen could say, wait a second, this stuff you just scooped up, this is attorney/client, and this may be from another client, this may not be from the president, blah blah just because president's trump believes that the cohen inve inve investigation doesn't mean it poses a threat. >> we don't know what it it is at issue in the investigation of cohen. he clearly has a lot of legal problems. the search warrant says this is a month's long investigation and quote, sounds in fraud in evidences a lack of truthfulness and two full lines of redacted of information about the charges he is under inquiry of.

we don't know for sure how cohen relates to citizen trump in private dealings. acting as a lawyer rather than a business person. the search of his office is in the a search of the law office, more of a businessman's office who happens to have a law degree. we have a fraud investigation against businessman cohen who worked for donald trump and we don't know the nexus between cohen's respective criminality and the trump investigation. that's what we have to wait and see. >> is that fair. i talked to the prefes sore dershowitz. if michael cohen was involved in

negotiating a payment of something. even if it is not technically -- i mean, just the fact that he is a lawyer does that mean it is covered by attorney/client privilege? >> just because he is a lawyer, doesn't mean it is covered by attorney/client privilege. it covers legal advice. if you are asking for guidance and advice on the law. we have a lot of indications here. the best in my mind is that you have michael cohen paying out of his own pocket. lawyers don't generally do that. and there's other instances where he is not acting as a legal capacity but acting as a businessman. the first question of the judge he has to answer was he acting as a lawyer. if the answer is no, its the same as any other search

warrant. and if he was, it may be a mix of the two. maybe he was on some occasions and and the taint team would have to come in and review the documents. >> the judge asking cohen's attorney tell me the clients on his behalf he was working on as a lawyer and he has no answers. so not able to present clients with respect to he provided legal advice that implicated attorney/client privilege. >> how is it possible, with all of the time that michael cohen had to talk to his attorney that is they would not be able to say who his clients were if he had any clients? >> well, see, this is the problem i think in one of the flaws of the federal system. if this were the state system what you would be required to do during the hearing is after they

come in and do the search, then you have the opportunity to do a list. and that list is called a privilege log. you name what it is the client you are doing it on and assert the privilege. judge, this is precisely why you can't get this. numbe numbers stamped or however you want to refer to the document. this document is privileged and you do a laundry list. the judge's frustration is you are in here and telling the lawyers and asking me to take action. you are telling me that you don't want me to let the government have the return on the documents that they've already gotten a judge's sign off on and if you are going to do that i need you to do a privilege log or assert what clients they are. the one other thing i would say is the idea of a mix between lawyers and businessmen, every

large firm in the world right now has a mix and when they give advice, whether you are representing apple versus samsung or doing any kind of litigation. law firms advertise themselves as bet the company litigation. that's a promotional device by big firms. >> and you don't often have attorneys representing themselves as mr. fix it man and rad rad ray, donovan. >> the president said he doesn't know anything about the transactions. he said i didn't know anything about t. it looks like michael cohen was doing a strategy job other than the job as a lawyer for the president of the united states. and again, the right question was it all or part, to me, it doesn't feel like he is doing legal work in a lot of the these

questions being raised. >> thank you very much. fascinating stuff. we'll be right back. so draw the line. roundup for lawns is formulated to kill lawn weeds to the root without harming a single blade of grass. roundup, trusted for over forty years. it's these new fresh-fx car air fresheners from armor all. each scent can create a different mood in my car. like tranquil skies. armor all, it's easy to smell good.

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a quick programming note before we go. before the break we talked about president's trump personal attorney michael cohen and the issues around him. a special look hush money

trouble for trump, airing 10:00 p.m. eastern tonight. "cnn newsroom" and ana cabrera. this is cnn breaking news. >> it is 9:00 eastern here in new york, 4:00 in the morning damascus syria welcome. this is a special cnn live coverage. global fallout. it was on this show one week ago that we saw the first images of an attack in the suburbs of damascus. we are going to take you live in the wake of coalition air strikes inside syria. political fallout as news continues to drop tell-all book, the white house in full attack mode. trying to discredit the man trump fired nearly one year ago. newly r