that it's preventing him from creating this beneficial relationship with putin that one's been table to get. more importantly, it shows how improvisational policy is in this administration and the president is on his own track. whatever anybody says, in the end, he's on his own track. >> that's certainly true. all right, guys, thanks very much. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, michael cohen's secret client. why is sean hannity seeking legal advice from the president's personal lawyer? plus, a setback in court from cohen's legal team involving all those documents. everything seized by the fbi. just how damaging could the case be to president trump? and trump reportedly backing off a plan to hit russia with new sanctions, a day after his administration promised they were coming today. why? let's go "outfront." and good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the breaking news. president trump's lawyer facing

a judge in federal court today. stormy daniels was there, but that was not the bombshell to have the day. no, that honor goes to what we learned about michael cohen's clients. cohen claiming in federal court today that he has three legal clients. one, two, three. just three. we know one is president donald trump, because he says so himself. >> i just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, good man. >> we know another is top rnc donor, and until last week, top rnc official, eliot brody. former, because on his behalf, cohen negotiated a $1.6 million payment to a pregnant playmate. and today cohen claimed that there is this third client. cohen trying to protect the d t identity of this person. his lawyer telling the judge his name should be protected because of attorney/client privilege and that person would be embarrassed to be outed as a michael cohen

client. the judge said, too bad. put it out there. so there he is, sean hannity. the same sean hannity who raced to can he knohen's defense justk ago, the day fbi raided cohen's home and office. >> we've now entered a dangerous new phase, and there's no turning back from this. it has been clear, as i have been warning, mueller is out to get the president and it appears at any cost. here's what happened, upon referral from special counselor robert mueller, the fbi has raided the office, the home, and the hotel room of michael cohen, the personal attorney of the president of the united states. keep in mind, cohen was never part of the trump administration or the trump campaign. this is now officially an all-hands-on-deck effort to totally malign and if possible, impeach the president of the united states. >> no disclosure there about any relationship with cohen. in fact, today hannity says, guys, what is all this about, because there's just nothing to see.

>> michael never represented me in any matter. i never retained him in the traditional sense, as retaining a lawyer. i never received an invoice from michael. i never paid legal fees to michael. but i have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which i wanted his input and perspective. >> brief discussions. okay, that just does not fit with chone's story, right? which is that this relationship should be protected by attorney/client privilege, because hannity was one of just three legal clients. again, one of whom is the president of the united states. so, it's a pretty impressive, important group of three, right? cohen is the kind of lawyer who deals with problems. his own attorney told me he's the kind of lawyer you call at 3:00 a.m. with a problem. >> believe me, michael cohen got calls at 3:00 in the morning, michael and i would be at dinner, the boss would be calling him all the time.

>> i'm sure. >> now, of course, we know one area of cohen's expertise was paying off women who allegedly slept with two of his clients, including stormy daniels allegedly with president trump and an unnamed playmate with eliot brody. there's no reason to think that is the issue with hannity, but that track record makes it clear why hannity today immediately said his interactions with michael cohen dealt, quote, almost exclusively about real estate. and said their discussions were, quote, de minimis. all right, here's what we know. hannity and cohen go way back. this is a tweet from sean hannity. he sent it out himself. it's him in casual attire with cohen, using the hashtag, trump phenomenon. that goes back to august 2015. and at the president's inauguration, hannity said he and cohen have been, quote, friends for a long time. the bottom line is this. we need to know the full nature of sean hannity's nature with cohen, because hannity is donald trump's single greatest advocate on the mass air waves. >> i don't hold back that i'll be voting for donald trump in november. for all the accomplishments of the president, keeping his

promise, checking off his list. take a look on your screen right there. here is a list of president trump's accomplishments for 2017. >> he said it's a list too long for him to even read. and that is a praise that president donald trump generously returns. tweeting in part, quote, big show tonight on sean hannity, that was just last week. the president obviously already well aware of happnnity's show rundown that night, which is when hannity slammed bob mueller as part of a, quote, crime family. in fact, the president regularly shows his love to hannity. >> i will say this, you have been so great. i am very proud of you. and hannity! how good is hannity, do you say? how good is hannity? and he's a great guy. and he's an honest guy. hannity, who's a really nice guy, too. >> sean hannity is not a journalist. he is an advocate. his love/love relationship with the president is not news. obviously, they're open about it. but the president's personal attorney is now under criminal

investigation and he claims today that sean hannity is one of only three legal clients. if the conversations between hannity and cohen were, as hannity claimed today, so, quote, de minimis, why would cohen describe hannity today as one of only three clients and seek attorney/client privilege to protect those conversations? that is the big question tonight. what is the nature of this relationship? and why does michael cohen want to keep it private? let's go to the courthouse where brynn gingras is "outfront." brynn, unexpected drama in the courtroom today spaen h. sean hannity. >> reporter: yeah, and it was very dramatic fashion in which his name came out in the courtroom. it's not like the judge asked for the name and the lawyer said, sean happen ty. what happened leading up to that was actually very, very minutes long. as you've already laid out for your viewers, cohen's attorney said this would be embarrassing to disclose this third client's name. at one point, they even offered to the judge to hand her a note,

a sealed note with sean hannity's name on it and the judge wasn't accepting any of that. and that's why sean hannity's name eventually came out. it certainly does beg this question of why did they take such care and concern to conceal sean hannity's name, certainly in the after-effect of sean hannity saying he only asked the for legal advice from michael cohen. but getting back to exactly why we were here today. of course, that's because of all the documents that were seized in that fbi raid last week, of michael cohen's home and his office and his hotel room. and essentially, the judge made somewhat of a ruling today, and that ruling was really in favor of all parties involved. the u.s. attorney's office is now going to have to hand over all of those documents to michael cohen's attorneys, and they're told by the judge to sift through them, see what the volume is of those that are protected by attorney/client privilege. and the prosecutors are going to do the same. they're going to reconvene and determine that volume and how this now moves forward.

really, not a major ruling today. the big drama was certainly around sean hannity's name. >> let's go "outfront" now to david gergen, former adviser to four presidents, including nixon and clinton, and john avlon, editor in chief of the daily beast. brynn describes the drama around this. it's hard to describe, in a world where one can no longer be surprised, how surprising this moment was for those of us today. cohen is trying very hard to keep any communications he had with sean hannity private, claiming attorney/client privilege. >> it was a spit take. the last name we expected to hear was sean hannity. we know they're all really tight, but we never imagined the president's personal fixer was also representing his number one advocate on tv. it just -- it's the kind of stuff if it was in a script or a novel, it would get thrown out for being implausible.

but it's there. now hannity is saying, he was never my attorney. that creates additional problems for michael cohen, who claimed attorney/client privilege going forward. >> here's the thing. the two stories just do not square. michael cohen saying, i've only got three clients. one of them's the president. one of them is the other guy with the playmate playoff. and the other is sean hannity and i claim attorney/client privilege. and sean hannity is going, oh, ste it was a couple of real estate transactions. >> cohen's attorney claiming that it would be embarrassing to have the name revealed, it is embarrassing and suspicious and incestuous. and a lot of people arguing, he's dealing with a mob scene, with a mob. people who have a network of relationships and sean hannity has got to get himself out of that situation so he's not attached to it. i think fox has a real responsibility to get to the bottom of this and go public. >> i mean, this is the thing.

laura, again, it just doesn't -- it doesn't make sense. if there's nothing to hide, why is michael cohen trying so hard to hide something? >> well, we said it's very embarrassing. perhaps he meant, it will be very embarrassing to confirm that this is actually not my client and i needed to have a third name to have the appearance they had a more credible client list. you see, normally the accidental client is a lawyer's worst nightmare. somebody who thinks that you are my client and i don't think we're actually in a relationship. well, here you have the opposite puch an attorney who thinks we actually had an attorney/client relationship. why that's so important, erin, because the only person who can control the disclosure of information is the client. if the attorney wants to tell everything they know and the client says no, they can't do it. but the reverse happens as well. and here you have hannity saying, oh, he wasn't my attorney. say whatever you want and you've got cohen saying, please, please say that we are an attorney/client, because i need to protect this information. it's very suspicious. >> i don't understand, though.

if one of your clients is the president of the united states, why does it look any better to have two or three? it doesn't! i got one and it's the big guy, okay. >> it's as big as they get. but the problem is the second one we now know is an rnc donor, former member of the finance committee, who he paid off a playmate for, $1.6 million. this is not a lawyer you call for real estate advice. this guy is a fixer. and there is no attorney/consigliere privilege, as david wrote last week. this is a problem for cohen and the ability to keep these documents private. >> sean hannity's story has been shifting throughout the day. at first he was arguing, i never sought attorney/client privilege, just assumed it, but later on he said, aggressively sought it. i wanted to make sure my conversations were him were protected. so this wasn't just casual real estate, should i invest in a condo somewhere. there was something more serious. >> and that opens the question,

you're talking about the president's single-most powerful and most vocal advocate in mainstream media. >> you know, it's so important, erin, to think about that context. essentially it tells you that there may be somebody who was a conduit for false information, which is a very big concern for the american people and also one that raises other issues for an underlying investigation. remember, in order to get that search warrant in the first place, a judge had to be persuaded that there was enough there to show there was not going to be privilege at the end of that tunnel. that there was enough information and evidence to suggest that there was something nefarious or criminal going on. so if a judge is asking michael cohen's attorneys, please explain to me why this should be out of the grasp of the government who already got a warrant against you, you have to come with something more than a hope and a prayer there was a conversation over cocktails. and it's so important to talk about the person you were talking about, unlike an attorney who is bound by the ethical obligations. you had michael cohen and stormy daniels' case talking about, did

he involve donald trump and if he did not, was it a violation? you yourself named sean hannity as somebody who was not a journalist and wouldn't be bound by the same ethical constraints as an attorney or a journalist. >> and the bottom line is it opens the door. it opens the door to what was there? what were these conversations? what was this information that was gicven to sean hannity? what was he doing with it, and what was the nature to this? >> the an, we don't know, but i will be shocked if it's casual real estate advice. that's not what michael cohen specializes in. and that information, especially if he has been recording conversations, as has been reported, that could be explosive, because we know they're sharing talking points. what else have they been sharing. >> i don't think we know for certain that there's anything really illegal or inappropriate, but there's something terribly suspicious and it does look incestuous and fox and hannity have to come clean on exactly what it's all about. >> you just wouldn't put him down as a third client unless there was something there, period. all right, thank you all very

much. next, more on the breaking news. a judge rejecting michael coh cohen's attempt to block prosecutors starting to go through everything they seized from his home and office. just how damaging could the case be to trump? plus, the president backs off a plan to hit russia with new sanctions the very day they were promised. why? and new revelations tonight from jim comey as trump unleashes new attacks on the fired fbi director. 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. how much is it? well, if you have a discover card, it's free. no way! yes way! we just think it's important for you to be in the know. all right! hey... ewww! everything ok? being in the know is very good. yeah, it is. ooo don't shake! don't shake! ahhh! know if your social security number is found on risky sites.

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breaking news. a federal judge rejecting team trump's request to block prosecutors from immediately going through information seized in the raids of the president's personal lawyer, michael cohen's home, office and hotel room. but the judge did say she's considering appointing a person to review the documents along with prosecutors and she said team trump can have copies of what was seized, so then it's going to set up a debate over what's allowed to get out and not. and jim mccarthy is former chief u.s. assistant prosecutor in new york. julie hirschfield davis and john dean also join us. john, how significant is this ruling by the judge not allowing there to be a delay here. they can go through immediately. >> i think it's a partial win for the white house, in that they get at least a log. it will tell them whether -- >> what's in there. >> what's in there. give them a hint. so it's not a total loss.

but they didn't have a good day in court. they're not happy to be in this court, either. >> no, i mean, certainly not. and given with the whole sean hannity situation, not at all. this also comes with the "new york times" says, fine, you have this very aggressive warrant and all of this, but michael cohen has been under investigation for months. >> right. >> and people close to the president say this is a more imminent and bigger threat, this investigation, to the president, than bob mueller's. >> yeah, well, erin, two things about that. number one, the fact that they've been investigating for as long as they have, as the t government says, makes the raids of last week almost an afterthought. because the attorney/client communications have been a live issue for months. we haven't known about it, because the investigation wasn't revealed the way it was last week, up until now. but even if the government had given them everything back from the raids, you would still have this issue with the attorney-client privilege, because of the way the investigation has been conducted. apparently, with monitoring of

his e-mails. >> they have been monitoring him. >> right. >> so that's ongoing. >> so, you know, you've worked, obviously, on these sorts of things in the district. is this the biggest threat to the president? >> well, i would say so. for this reason. mueller's investigation, first and foremost is a counterintelligence investigation. it's got this important component of whether there was collusion in russia's effort to interfere in the election. it's got this obstruction angle, which is legally very debatable, but it's a counter intelligence investigation, first and foremost, which means russia would be the main interest in it, whereas in the southern district, the case is flat-out a criminal investigation and warrants would not have been issued, had there not been probable cause found by a judge that there was evidence of crimes in thaese locations. zpls >> julie, stormy daniels's attorney was at the courthouse today. he said, these documents that -- all these documents that were

seized, which they can now start going through, could be a major problem for the president and here's how he put it. >> depending on what is contained within those documents, i think there is significant danger to the president. the president trusted -- the president trusted mr. cohen as his fixer for years. he trusted him with his inner must have most secrets and i think that the chickens are about to come home to roost. >> julie, what are you hearing from your sources about the president's reaction to what happened today and to this cohen criminal investigation? >> well, listen, he's incredibly concerned. he's very angry. he has been lashing out, as you've seen, actually, on twitter about how unfair it was that these documents were seized in the first place. privately, there is no question that he does see this as a major threat to himself, because as your guests are pointing out, this is an actual corruption investigation, a criminal investigation. it's not about, you know, a legal debate of, was something

obstruction or not obstruction? this is live and it's in court now. and a lot of the concern on the part of the president's side is, they don't necessarily know what all the investigators now have. and that was part of the reason behind this filing today. they need to know what they have, before they can figure out how they're going to respond to it. and as michael avenatti pointed out, outside the courthouse today, he has -- cohen has worked for donald trump for many, many years. so there is the possibility that they have a lot of information about things that donald trump would not want out, and obviously, potentially, some, you know, some fairly serious charges of crimes that were committed, in which he may or may not have been involved. so i do think that he continues to be incredibly concerned and angry about the way this is playing out. >> john, you know what's interesting here, back to the point -- if michael cohen is saying there were three clients and one is sean hannity, and we don't have any idea what that means or does not mean, the big one was donald trump, for at least 12 years, all right?

and i know from many conversations with michael cohen, in a way they would communicate -- -- because the president would not use e-mail, he would come in with a sheet of paper and sharpie and write bullet points on his ideas, whatever the matter was, and he would hand it to donald trump and donald trump would look at it. so there's possibly lots of evidence, even if it's not in e-mail form. >> and it's possible that it is in e-mail form, it's possible that michael kept his own notes and dictated things and passed things on to others in e-mails, and made records that way. but i think his biggest worry is that we're in the southern district and people understand the kind of crimes that are prosecuted up here in the southern district. counter intelligence is kind of nuanced. and a president can fudge that a lot. saying, i'm being tough on russia. and i'm not really in putin's pocket, whereas if they catch him in something up here in money laundering or some other activity that michael cohen's involved in, they'll understand that. >> and andy, here's the thing.

michael cohen is donald trump in a lot of ways, right? every single thing he did, almost every single thing he did is going to go back to the president, whether he was doing with his direct knowledge or not, these are the questions that are out there. michael cohen has been a passionate defender of the president. even as things started going south for him. but here's a few of the examples even here on the show. >> they're looking for leadership. they're looking for somebody that can actually do for america what only donald trump can do. donald trump is presidential. he looks presidential, he speaks presidential. he wants to be the president of the united states of america because he knows that he can fix the country's problems. he knows that he can really make a difference for so many people. >> does he turn on trump, on the president? >> well, you know, if he turns on him, what i always say when people ask a question like that, it depend on whether he has criminal -- incriminating evidence on him, right? so he could have an incentive to turn on him. and he could have done 99 things for him, but if 99 or 98 1/2 of

them were completely legit and one of them was a little fuzzy, you know, it really depends on the most important thing is, what are they investigating? because it's not a crime for donald trump to retain a lawyer and it's not a crime to have him work on matters, but if he worked on something that he worked together that's criminal, that's problematic. >> the president could say, the president could pardon him so cohen would never turn. this is federal district of new york. are we at a point where the president would not have the ability to pardon -- >> no, it's still federal. >> still, at this point -- >> -- could be looking right over his shoulder, sharing information, and they're being very careful in this case not to create a double jeopardy situation. so things can be passed off. that's true in both the mueller and i think the southern district, as well. >> all right. thank you all very much. i appreciate it. andy, john, julie. next, the white house once again with a strange russia

decision, backing off sanlction. new reporting tonight on why the white house is hitting the breaks on new sanctions that were promised for today. and michael cohen's collaborate. how he and another lawyer brokered the agreements with some of the names you knnow kno like stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, and others that we are just learning about tonight. ous are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo! while saving for the things with exciting new dishes like lobdueling lobster tails.r. and lobster truffle mac & cheese. classics like lobster lover's dream are here too. so enjoy these 10 lobsterlicious dishes now. because lobsterfest ends april 22nd.

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disgruntled. he, mccabe and the others committed many crimes, exclamation point. the comment hours after comey's interview in which he was scathing of president trump, including saying trump is morally unfit to be president of the united states. >> i don't think he's medically unfit to be president, i think he's morally unfit to be president. a person who sees moral equivalence in charlottesville, who talks about and treats women like they're pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the american people believe it, that person is not fit to be president of the united states on moral grounds. >> "outfront" now, former fbi special agent, tim clemente, and former assistant secretary for the department of homeland security, juliette kayyem. ji tim, let me start with you. has comey gone too far? >> i think he's gone into the gutter and he didn't need to. mark twain had a famous quote, when you argue with an idiot, they bring you down to their

level and win by virtue of experience. why write a book about the hand size, the marital problems that he might have, rather than writing about running the greatest law enforcement agency in the world. that would have been something that would inspire people to follow comey continuously rather than to look down on him now. i talked to a lot of former agents, friends of mine, they all kind of feel the same way. this was really going into the gutter for him. and there's no reason for it. >> juliette, to what tim is saying, some of the thing the president said about comey in the last week, i'll just read a few of them. this is just the past week. i could have gotten much longer. i'm being specific. slippery, out of whack, worst fbi director in history, proven leaker and liar, weak and untruthful slimeball. okay, that is petty, that is juvenile. i don't think anybody would disagree with that. okay, here is what comey has said about trump in his book and in interviews, again, over the past few days, unethical,

untethered to truth, slightly orange up close, morally unfit to be president. trump's hands, quote, were smaller than mine, was smaller than mine, one hand, i guess, the hand she whe was shaking wi which is a reference to the whole marco rubio thing and hand size. is comey in the gutter too? >> i think he is, at times. and i think we're all searching for a single narrative about someone, like, are day good or bad, a savior or the devil? and i think just the way to look at comey now is, as an fbi director, he clearly was flawed. as a person prone to self-reflection, i think the jury is still out. i didn't think he was very good in sort of telling us about 2016. as a witness so obstruction of justice, i find him very credible. but finally, as a person relevant to what's going on in the nation right now in terms of this investigation, i would say he's dated. i mean, it's been a year, the

mueller investigation has disclosed layer upon layer of information, of which comey wasn't privy to. so in the end, i just don't think he's going to be that relevant. it's just a fight between two men, which is sort of background noise to the russia investigation. >> right, noise, and of course, can create institutional damage, i guess is what you're raising. there's a clip that didn't air last night i want to play for both of you. abc released it today. comey is talking about right after the elections, meets with president obama, goes into the oval office, and he tells president obama he's dreading working for trump. at this point, he is the sitting fbi director, he has not yet met president trump, but here's what he says he told obama. here's comey. >> and also, i told him that i dread the next four years, but in many ways, i feel great pressure to stay, to try to protect the institution i lead. >> what were you dreading? >> well, i had some sense of the nature and character of the new president of the united states. and i worried very much that there would be an effort to

erode the independence of the fbi. >> does he convince you there? he's saying i was concerned about my constitution. that's why i was dreading it, not because it was a political point of view. >> i don't know. i don't understand why it would be "dread." i can see that you can have some concern that the president might disagree with you on some things. louis freeh in his career as the fbi director had issues with bill clinton and only met with him one time. louis used to sit in the hallway outside the oval office and wouldn't be allowed in for meetings that he had been invited to. so, you know, there's obviously conflict, sometimes, between presidents and the fbi director. but again, why is james comey getting to this level, talking about this? it doesn't matter. it's -- it is, as just mentioned, is history. it doesn't help the debate now for him to be saying these things, because the american people, or at least half of them, voted for him to be politically. you can disagree with him, disagree with the color of his

skin and whether or not he uses a tanning booth, but it has nothing to do with the mission of the fbi. the mission of the fbi is to find the truth wherever it hides and hopefully that's what bob mueller is doing now. >> juliette, what do you make of that sound bite when he says, i dread the next four years? >> i came out of that interview thinking, it's all about jim comey. i was somewhat sympathetic to him, what he had to encounter and how he was fired, less sympathetic towards him in his judgment calls in the 2016 election. but i think comey has a history he wants to write and one in which he's the hero and i think most people aren't buying it. >> all right, thank you very much. and of course, now it's coming down to a duel between those two men and that should not be where the russia investigation is right now. next, trump abandoning a promised fisa investigation to hit russia with sanctions. it was promised, if they weren't done yesterday, already, they were going to be done today. but then they weren't. and the president's attorney, michael cohen, allegedly had some help in hatching those alleged hush

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tonight, president trump hitting pause on sanctions against russia. "the washington post" reporting that trump is holding office, reversing what his own u.n. ambassador, the administration's rising star, nikki haley, promised yesterday. >> so you will see that russian

sanctions will be coming down. secretary mnuchin will be announcing those on monday, if he hasn't already, and they will go directly to any sort of companies with equipment related to assad and chemical weapons use. >> michelle kosinski isou "outfront." so what happened? >> reporter: this is hardly the first time we've heard mixed messages coming from this administration. but nikki haley made it sound like this was such a done deal, it might even be announced while she was speaking. she's outspoken, most of the time, but she's not one to usually be out of line with the white house, either. but then these sanctions just never happened. there was this odd silence today on this -- from the state department, from the treasury department, then the white house said no decision has yet been made. now, we know as of last night, there was a list already drawn up of potential targets for sanctions. these are more than a dozen russian companies and banks that are seen as helping syria with its chemical weapons program.

and as of last night, there was still some questions about who exactly on that list would be sanctioned today, because many expected this really to happen today. also, some questions, though about whether u.s. allies would jump onboard with these sanctions, based on the evidence that is there. but tonight, "the washington post" is reporting that it was the president himself, even though his administration would have been comfortable moving forward with at least some of this, he didn't feel like now is the time. so this is, of course, raising more questions about an administration who's been accused of delaying sanctions, against russia, specifically, in the past. erin? >> all right, thank you very much, michelle. as michelle says, the list was already drawn up, and "the post" is reporting the president himself is the one who put the brakes on it. "outfront" now, democratic congresswoman, jackie speier. you just thaerd nikki haley, it was a done deal, right? as michelle said, it could have been announced while she was in

that interview. well, not only was it not announced, but the president himself not to go ahead with the sanctions and wasn't ready to do it. why not? >> well, the administration is once again showing that it is a circus. that is agreed to one day is disagreed with the next. now, there's no way that nikki haley went out there and in such a clear, decisive manner, spelled out the sanctions and which companies would be sanctioned without getting the okay from mnuchin and the presidency. so there's something here that we have yet to ferret out. >> all right, so, that report, right, that "the post" is saying that it was the president himself that made that decision, whatever his reason may be, we don't know. another "washington post" report out today details the president's angry over the united states expelling more diplomats than european countries, which, of course, we all know is in response to the russian poisoning of that spy in

the uk. "the washington post" says, quote, we'll match their numbers, trump instructed, according to a senior administration official. we are not taking the lead. we're matching. and then it goes on to say, growing angrier, trump insisted that his aids had misled him about the magnitude of the expulsions. there were curse words, the official said, a lot of curse words. congresswoman, can you think of a logical explanation on why the president would, a, not want to lead, b, not want to expel so many diplomats, and c, throw around so many curse words when he found out that the u.s. did, in fact, lead and expel more diplomats? >> compromat. the russians shut down our offices in st. petersburg, one of the largest consulates we have around the world. so there is no equality here.

the russians have been far more aggressive in shutting down our functionaries in their country than we have here in the united states. >> so you said compromat. and i want to play for you what the former fbi director jim comey said in his interview when he was specifically asked whether the president could have something to blackmail the president, about this issue of so-called compromat and here's how comey responded. >> do you think the russians have something on donald trump? >> i think it's possible. i don't know. these are more words i never thought i would utter about a president of the united states, but i think it's possible? that's stunning. you can't say for certain that the president of the united states is not compromised by the russians. >> it is stunning. and i wish i wasn't saying it, but it's just -- it's the truth. it always struck me and still strikes me as unlikely. and i would have been able to say with high confidence about any other president i dealt, but i can't. it's possible. >> congresswoman, what was your reaction when you heard those

words, you investigated russian meddling in the election, do you have any reason to believe the russians actually have material that could compromise or blackmail president trump? >> i think that's very feasible. i mean, that's what they specialize in. when u.s. businessmen and women go to russia, they are observed during their entire visits, they are looking for compromat. now, the fact that jared flynn and jared kushner, early on in the administration, were trying to create a back-channel with russia, suggests to me that there's something going on here that we still haven't gotten to the bottom of. >> congresswoman, appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. next, michael cohen's cozy relationship with the lawyer who represented the women. so the two lawyers are buddies, but the people are on opposite sides? smells funny, doesn't it. and jeanne moos on why

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for their silence. represented by keith davidson. porn star stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, an unnamed play mate model. all three using the same lawyer. sara sidner is out front. >> reporter: cnn has learned some of the cases that the fbi is investigating involved not just cohen but also los angeles based attorney keith davidson according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. >> i get involved in a situation when a relationship has gone bad. >> reporter: everybody knows about the two big cases two

women who say they had sex with donald trump both initially represented by keith davidson. both of those deals was silenced seems like a strange coincidence that they both landed in your lap. >> not at all. i have an active practice and few attorneys that would go against large corporations, powerful celebrities and that is one thing that i am known for. >> reporter: there are three other cases involving both attorneys. davidson represented a playboy model who say broidy got her pregnant during their affair. negotiating a deal to pay her

$1.6 million and to keep quiet about the deal. and then the case of chuck labela. davidson filed a cease and desist letter on his behalf. a source says cohen also steered another strange case to davidson involving a gofundme account set up for a woman trying to protect donald trump's star. all these cases hint at a coziness between donald trump's attorney and keith davidson and that is what karen mcdougal is alleging in a lawsuit against ami. she believes ami conspired to

kill her story with the help of davidson and cohen. >> it just seems odd that you would pick up the phone to call micha michael cohen and say hey. >> i understand the questions and why you may think that or other people may think that but that is not the place. >> reporter: i want to remind you of our exclusive reporting. we have learned that the fbi seized voice recordings made by michael cohen. well, the cases that you just learned about are at least connected to donald trump. >> a lot to be a coincidence. thanks so much. and next, jim comey.

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call today. tonight avoiding president trump and how jim comey's attempts completely failed. here is jeanne moos. >> you are looking at the former fbi director trying to blend in with the curtains. a story we have been hearing about for months. but now it is coming straight from the horse's mouth. >> right nerxt to me is this ble curtain. >> one cartoonist joining the president. >> trump pulls down the shades. but who needs a hiku when we

have comey himself. >> i am thinking how great is that. i have camouflaged. so i pressed myself against the blue curtain. >> prompting a supporter scratching back, he is not hiding anymore. with a president engulfed in greenery, the blue curtain didn't save comey. >> he's become more famous than me. >> my family had a lot of fun watching my face. saying that is my oh no face. >> when the president fired the fbi director, it was curtains for comey.

but he will always be remembered for trying to blend into that curtain. all 6'8" of him. jeanne moos cnn new york. >> pictures like that throw me. donald trump is a tall guy and ha is bizarre. thanks for joining us. ac 360 starts now. good evening, thanks for joining us today. an adult film actor was in court today with the lawyer of the president of the united states. at the hearing in new york, the judge decided whether the president, michael cohen's legal team will get to review files seized by the fbi before prosecutors do. the most stunning moment came when michael cohen