hello, i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks so much for joining us. it's been a steady whirlwind of admittance, denials and

flat-out lies. president trump denied paying back michael cohen for that payment. rudy giuliani leaking that payment. comey would not clear the president. why this is an explosive revelation. and giuliani, of all people, said the three americans detained in north korea will be released today. why is the president's personal attorney announcing this as the u.s. government remains silent? but we begin with president trump and his shifting story over that payment to porn star stormy daniels. this comes on the heels of a stunning admission of attorney giuliani that the president repaid $130,000 in hush money given to daniels just before the election. >> that money was not campaign money. sorry, i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> so they funneled it through a

law firm. >> funneled it through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> he did? >> yeah. >> there is no campaign finance law. >> zero. >> the president tried to explain in a series of tweets. he said this morning, quote, mr. cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign which he entered into through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties. the agreement was used to stop the false allegations by her, stormy, of an affair. this was a private agreement. the president denied knowing anything about the payment when reporters asked him about it on air force i just 18 days ago. >> do you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy

daniels? >> no. no. what else? >> then why did michael cohen make this if there was no truth to her allegation? >> let's go to chief correspondent jim acosta. how do these line up with what we heard from the administration, because it's not just the president that's made misleading comments about this in the past, you heard the same from sarah sanders. >> jim, it's a beautiful day in washington, but the storm clouds are over the white house with the story of stormy daniels. the inconsistencies line up because they are, by all appearances, falsehoods and in some cases outright lies. the president has been asked on multiple occasions about this. at one briefing sarah sanders said the president didn't know anything about this, although sarah sanders may have been in the dark about all of this. here's how sarah sanders answered this question a couple

months ago. >> i've had conversations with the president about this, and as i outlined earlier that this case had already been won in arbitration and that there was no knowledge of any payments from the president and he's denied all of these allegations. >> the president strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims, and the only person who has been inconsistent is the one making the claims. >> do you know anything about a $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no. no. what else? >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> no. i don't know. >> we'll have a briefing in about an hour, jim, and sarah sanders will try to answer these questions. she tried to answer them this morning basically saying the same thing, you'll have to talk to the president's outside legal team about this, that she didn't want to comment on that sort of thing. but it will be difficult saying that over and over again when they consistently have given false statements, either knowingly or unknowingly, to the

american people on this. i talked to a source earlier that were in the discussions of the latter stages of the 2016 campaign. these were discussions going on inside a high-level campaign who told me that then donald trump denied having this relationship with stormy daniels way back then. according to the source familiar with these discussions, there are a lot of people in trump world who are disillusioned about all of this and puts it in the same category as monica lewinsky and bill clinton. inside the white house officials telling us they're shocked, they're surprised, and one senior white house member tried to be charitable and described giuliani's statement as sloppy. it was pretty sloppy in terms of its rollout with rudy giuliani referring to fbi agents as

stormtroopers and describing donald trump's son-in-law as disclosure. >> jim acosta, at the white house as always. beyond what is apparently an abject lie told by the president and his spokesperson. laura coates, from a legal perspective, why is it important that the president reimbursed for this payment? >> because you have campaign finance laws that have two prongs. one is for transparency, that you know where the money is coming from, and also to ensure there is a threshold of a limited amount of money you can actually contribute to a campaign. so if what michael cohen did was give an excessive contribution to the campaign. obviously $130,000 is more than $120,000, then you have to report it. you not only have to report that loan to the campaign but a reimbursement is necessary as well.

they could have just said, loan the campaign some money, we'll go around the disclosure, i'll pay you back at the election. you basically undermined campaign finance laws. then giuliani walks you into willful and intentional violation when they say they tried to funnel it through a law firm to try to make it so no one could detect where the money came from. this is not just an fcc issue anymore, it's a doj and potential crime violations. >> you said this was intentional, that rudy giuliani -- whether you believe that or not, it's possible he's covering up for being clumsy. is it possible they would let this out there to protect them from some other legal danger? >> it could certainly be knowing that michael cohen's office is home and his hotel room has been raided. i'm sure whatever was found, they've already detected a paper trail there. so perhaps they're getting out

ahead of an inevitable disclosure k. it could be, though, that giuliani prefers the taste of only his foot in his mouth. if this were true it's legal. so what here? we're talking about a fine and nothing more. we're talking about a retainer and nothing more. >> another revelation in that interview, giuliani on fox last night was giuliani talking about why this payment was made. have a listen. >> so you're saying that stephanie clifford made these allegations, told donald trump's lawyer, look -- >> and denied them, then said it wasn't true. however, imagine if that came out on october 15, 2016 in the middle of the last debate. >> so to make it go away -- >> cohen didn't even ask. cohen made it go away. he did his job. >> if it -- what if it came out,

he asked there, right before the election? that makes a direct connection, does it not? >> you're not supposed to say that. i don't know if donald trump has made this argument, but people who are defending the president and this payment to being totally unrelated to any campaign finance laws will argue that it was just coincidental that the payment was made right before the campaign. so there is really no benefit to the campaign. the argument sgz that donald trump has gone back am a series before he was running for president. this was more about protecting his reputation, protecting his family, protecting the reputation of the trump brand. it wasn't related to the campaign. that's the argument. rudy giuliani says, you know, of course we had to do this that week. he could have lost the election if this came out. so that seems to be a famous --

kinsley gaffe where he made a mistake by telling the truth. >> amy stoddard, i imagine folks at home might have trouble keeping track of this, right? every day there are revelations, sometimes there are 14 revelations in this whole broad investigation of this administration. what's particularly significant in your view is. >> i think that revelation, that it bounced from an in-kind contribution. if you listen to trump's tweeting this morning, that he definitely didn't do anything wrong, all rich people do these kinds of things. and that he really didn't have an affair, all this kind. -- there's news breaking now --

that michael cohen's area was raided, his home, his office, his hotel room. i think they're going to say it was a campaign finance violation. he shouldn't have used the word "funnel" but i think giuliani was trying to send that out to michael cohen. then this morning he goes on "fox & friends" while admitting it. i think the eye of the hurricane is michael cohen. that is what's panicking the president, and that's really where most of his legal exposure might lie. that's what we'll see in the days ahead. >> it's a story that we're looking into now. >> we know that the e-mails were monitored so it wouldn't be shocking to look at that, if it's corroborated. >> giuliani also said, many

interviews he learned today, that the president did not learn details of the settlement in the last couple weeks. we know that the "wall street journal" printed details of this nba in january. does it stretch the bounds of credibility to believe that the president did not know anything about this until the last couple weeks? >> well, it does, especially since the president surrogates, including sarah huckabee sanders, has been talking about this issue that predated several weeks ago. so you have that issue here. but the uncertainty is not when the president knew about it, bu skrul jew giuliani last night, that he didn't know the personal history

but he made a reimbursement, it simply says i had a hand in this, and you're right about the point you made. it's very odd to me that they would trade up legal exposure. to trade in michael cohen who may have an fcc violation to now implicate the president of the united states to what he knew about the willful and intentional funding mechanism to it. if it was intentional, what were they trying to prevent or deflate from coming out later. >> there is so much significance to this. the lie seems to be maybe the least consequential of it because we've seen so many of them. it sounds like there is a real legal jeopardy here. laura, ryan, please stay here. we have a lot more to talk about. more explosive rez velations fr giuliani, calling james comey a very perverted -- you heard that right -- man.

three americans held in north korea are set to be released today. that's according to giuliani but not from the white house. why an ex-trump aide is sounding the alarm.

you might take something for your heart... or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember.

welcome back. the firing of james comey is in the heart of the special counsel's question about possible obstruction of justice by the president in the russia investigation. but now rudy giuliani, newly part of the president's legal team, is offering a new explanation of why then-fbi director comey was shown the door. >> he fired comey because comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn't a target of the investigation. he's entitled to that. hillary clinton got that. and he couldn't get that. so he fired him, then he said, i'm free of this guy. >> so before we address yet

another lie em natuanating from administration as to why he was fired because there's been multiple explanations. is the president entitled to be told by the fbi that he's not the target of an investigation? >> no, but he is entitled to the deference given by somebody who is serving at the pleasure of the president. the fbi director is different in that they serve multiple terms that outlasts any president. what he's asking for, really, is the hillary clinton treatment, which would be odd that you would want that given, if james comey came forward and said that you're not presently a target of the investigation, just as what happened with hillary clinton, it would then trigger the response and the requirement to then correct that if that ever changed and enlighten the public again. so it's odd he would want that treatment. also the president of the united states, not just by regulation but by custom and practice, is supposed to be detached from this investigation, let alone one that has to do with his own orbit. in many respects he thought he was entitled to what he truly is not entitled to, for defamation

reasons, regulatory reasons and otherwise. >> for lack of a better word, we now know that the printed explanation for comey's firing a thousand years ago, last may when he was fired, was about his handling of the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails drafted by no one else other than the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, that that was false. that was a false explanation. the president said so much in an interview with nbc last year, but now you have the president's attorney saying he was fired also because of the russia probe. >> the president kept saying many times, the rosenstein memo, the rosenstein memo. then he gave the interview to lester holt and said, i thought about this and i was going to fire him, really throwing him

off the bus. but for rudy giuliani saying that's why he did it. in the midst of him saying there is no obstruction to be built here, and giuliani's description of what he deduced from the list of 49 questions is that they're desperate, they don't have anything. as if the final questions are the last report of the special counsel. it's really important. donald trump's word cannot be taken seriously by friend and foe alike by subjects large and small. rudy giuliani needs to maintain some credibility here, and he really lost it between last night and this morning. >> ryan, up to this point, we have not heard any mention of ivanka trump, the president's daughter, being involved in this investigation in any way, but it did come up last night with rudy giuliani who made it seem really issuing somewhat of a warning, a threat there, of being off limits. >> they do do ivanka, which i doubt they will, the whole

country will be in an uproar. his own daughter? a fine woman like ivanka? come on. >> did the president's personal attorney just say the president's son-in-law is disposable? >> this got completely overshadowed by the admission that trump paid michael cohen $130,000. by everyone's reaction watching this, this was astonishing. he basicaly was saying -- one, he's making a political argument that the person that should be prosecuted, it depends on their popularity with the country. we don't prosecute people who are popular, and if the country turns on that prosecutor, that prosecution is somehow not warranted. that's ridiculous, and i'm not a lawyer, but i don't think that's how it works in the justice department. secondly, making this weird argument about gender and that women are sympathetic, but men,

who cares about them. and then third, saying that this president's son-in-law is disposable. could you imagine if you're jared kushner today and saw that the president's newly appointed lawyer who has taken over this case going out on his first public interview is saying you're disposable? if you're sitting there and you're mueller, you're thinking, well, i guess they won't go back on that one. >>fr freelancing there, but rudy giuliani the president's new lawyer. did you sense that warning was based on something perhaps the president knew? did they get a question related to ivanka trump? is there something behind it? >> there could be. we heard about the 666 building. i do find it odd that this person is holding up the conflict. but the idea of him being

dismissed could be a warning shot, warning about the idea that the president's loyalty is one-sided in one way. it's not reciprocal outside the family. this is based on the michael cohen raid of his home, his office and his hotel. remember, a very small, according to the president of the united states, legal advice or legal scenarios was with cohen. so a lot of his business deals with lined up with jared kushner. so the idea that he will say, i know what you found, i know what's in those documents, michael cohen tried to give an indication to people in the courtroom when he said, here are my clients. do you want to sign on to be my clients? there may be documents there. this was giuliani expressing that to the public. >> of the many things that happened in the last 24 hours, one i really don't think we should forget about is michael

caputo, a long-time trump aide, came out kind of a changed man in his interview with the special counsel, not only expressing respect for the special counsel, having witnessed the investigation multiple times, but saying he's very much on the track of russian collusion. that is truly a question that mueller is very interested in, and he seems to know more about the campaign that we did. he seems to have something to back that up. >> toward the end of anderson's interview, and i listened very carefully, caputo made it very clear that he didn't think they had anything on caputo. what michael caputo made clear was they're not messing around, they're not on a phishing expedition, it's not a witch are you not, but they have texts, they have e-mails, they have it

all. they know the case better than you do. they know all the players. he made it clear it's not something to be blown off, which is really interesting right after giuliani's description of this as devastation. every single question is something robert mueller knows the answer to. they're looking for president trump's answer. >> everyone comes out of that non descript federal office. >> thank you all very much. kellyanne conway's husband at it again, this time trolling trump over his violation of campaign finance laws.

i ever spent in my life. life line screening. the power of prevention. call now to learn more.

if you'd have told me three years ago... that we'd be downloading in seconds, what used to take... minutes. that guests would compliment our wifi. that we could video conference... and do it like that. (snaps) if you'd have told me that i could afford... a gig-speed. a gig-speed network. it's like 20 times faster than what most people have. i'd of said... i'd of said you're dreaming. dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. kellyanne conway's husband

is trolling the white house again, this time over the bombshell admission of rudy giuliani that trump repaid his attorney $130,000 hush money for porn star stormy daniels. legal experts say this admission could put trump in legal jeopardy and conway's husband seems to agree. this morning he tweeted, the ffc rules on loans and how they are considered campaign expenses. kaitlyn collins is live outside the white house. kaitlyn, this isn't the first time the public has questioned the president's actions, essentially undermining the white house's boss. have we seen any reaction from the white house? >> they haven't responded to that particularly today, but they know kellyanne's husband is tweeting things out there about this, and because president trump repaid michael cohen that

$130,000 payment that he made to stormy daniels that it does not constitute as a campaign finance violation. clearly george conway disagrees with that. that is obviously notable because his wife is one of the highest ranking women in this administration, one of the highest ranking people in this administration, and he seems to be arguing against what the president and giuliani are both saying, that it could have very well been a campaign finance violation. it just goes to show what strange times we are living in here, jim. >> no question, she is very senior and she's also been unyielding in defending the president left and right. i'd like to know what their conversations at home about that are like. in another issue that you've bin d dig digging into, another official announcing they're leaving, the third to do so this week. what's behind it? >> liz bowman, the head of public affairs, and she is resigning. the third epa official to resign this week. she certainly did not have an easy job, especially lately, with the dozens of scandals

brought to light because of epa chief scott pruitt who has a dozen inquiries looking into his spending, where he was living. he had an apartment owned by a lobbyist, of course, several jobs like that. but it does go to show a lot of people are departing the epa, some close to scott pruitt, the other two left this week. now there is a third departure. there is a chance, jim, we could continue to see more of these departures as these scandals continue at the epa. right now the white house is sticking by scott pruitt, waiting to see what the outcome of these investigations are. there is one person sticking by scott pruitt and that is the president. >> it's the only one that matters. kaitlyn collins, thank you very much. more on our breaking news. the president coming clean on the hush agreement with stormy daniels as his lawyer ties it all back to the 2016 election. plus an ominous warning to the president. do not sit down with robert mueller. why an ex-trump aide describes

the special counsel has deadly accurate in their investigation. we're going to have details next. guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide. it could help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. these types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. rates are competitive, and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. remember - these plans let you apply all year round. so call today. because now's the perfect time to learn more.

go long. when it comes to travel, i sweat the details. late checkout... ...down-alternative pillows... ...and of course, price. tripadvisor helps you book a... ...hotel without breaking a sweat. because we now instantly... ...search over 200 booking sites ...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want. don't sweat your booking. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. your company is and the decisions you make have far reaching implications. the right relationship with a corporate bank who understands your industry and your world

can help you make well informed choices and stay ahead of opportunities. pnc brings you the resources of one of the nation's largest banks, and a local approach with a focus on customized insights. so you and your company are ready for today. hesumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's go to sumatra. where's sumatra? good question. this is win. and that's win's goat, adi. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. making the coffee erupt with flavor. so we give farmers like win more plants. to grow more delicious coffee. that erupts with even more flavor. which helps provide for win's family. and adi the goat's family too. because his kids eat a lot. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters. packed with goodness.

(vo)have to happen?idn't i didn't see it. (vo) what if we could go back? what if our car... could stop itself? in iihs front-end crash prevention testing, nobody beats the subaru impreza. not toyota. not honda. not ford. the subaru impreza. more than a car, it's a subaru.

a former trump campaign aide who has met with special counsel investigators has an ominous warning for president trump. do not sit down with robert mueller. have a listen. >> even if i didn't go through the interview today and i found out how well prepared they are and what they're looking at, i think the president shouldn't go anywhere near this. i think it's, in a lot of ways, a trap. i think the president is clear on potential russian collusion. i think the campaign's in the clear. in the end if they want to get the president, they're going to try to trip him up in an interview like this, and my advice after being through it is

stay away. >> that was former trump campaign aide michael caputo. he talked to cnn just hours after leaving the special counsel's interview room and then again this morning. i want to bring in my colleague crime and justice report shimon prokupecz and josh campbell as well. shimon, starting with you, the president has said repeatedly to many of his aides skpal liand a collusion is dead, it's a dead issue. there you have a trump campaign aide saying they seem to have something on it, at least they're intent on going down that path. >> the focus, according to michael caputo, was on russian collusion, and he commented on just how well prepared the fbi agents were and the u.s. attorney and just a mound of information they had. and here's what he said about that to anderson cooper last night. >> i think they're very focused on russian collusion. i think they believe that they'll get to something. they didn't tell me not to talk about this, they asked me not to

interfere in the investigation as i exited the room, and i really don't want to give too much details because i feel that interferes with the investigation. however, they're talking about wikileaks, they're talking about d. d.c., all the stuff you would suspect they're looking into, and i'm concerned for some of my friends that are in jail. >> and some of those friends he's talking about in peril is roger stone. there seems to be a lot of focus on roger stone, certainly on wikileaks. i think what we should take from his experience with the special counsel is just how much they really know. i think that's what caught him off guard the most. he was shaken by this interview. he called it an interrogation, but you could just tell it extremely affected him in what he went through. >> josh campbell, long experience in the fbi. to your knowledge, with your experience, does special counsel ask questions along those lines

if he does not have evidence to create the curiosity for the answers to those questions? >> yeah. so we can bet the investigators, whether the prosecutors, fbi agents that are in that interview are going to know the answers to most of the questions they are asking. first of all, you want to norm this person out. are they being truthful on easy questions, and that will help you determine whether they're being truthful on the more difficult questions. also you're going to sprinkle in questions you don't know the answer to. investigators don't know everything. that's why they bring in these witnesses. it was very interesting to hear caputo talk about it in the aftermath. it was startling to see how rattled he was. i disagree with him with respect to saying the president shouldn't sit down with the lawyers because it was a trap or they're somehow going to trick him into something. that's not what the fbi wants, they're interested in getting the facts. but just an unvarnished observation here, any good lawyer would not let the president anywhere near the special counsel team after seeing how rattled mr. caputo

was. he wasn't rattled because they were disrespectful, he was rattled because of how prepared they were. >> michael caputo, he, as you were saying earlier, just described how thorough the special counsel robert mueller was. i think he compared it to ra pr cto logy exam -- i apologize for that image. >> he explained about the amount of information they ever, the text messages, the spreadsheet of e-mails and the depth of knowledge the special counsel has. here's what he said about that, jim. >> they knew more about what i did in 2016 than i knew myself. and think they know more about the campaign. they had spread sheets full of information like they probably

have on anyone they're going to interview. it felt more like an interrogation than an interview. >> that's the thing, he was really just shocked by the depth of knowledge. by now they've spoken to so many people part of this campaign, that people had knowledge of this. but there is also information built off intelligence that they have worked on over a year now, and other sources that we know nothing about. it's clear that they are sitting on a lot of information that has just not been made public yet. >> and the fizzling out of this investigation have been hoped for by many, but it just doesn't look like that's the case. >> that's right. >> shimon, thank you very much. after being retained in north korea, rudy giuliani says the three americans are being released today. this before president trump has a sit-down with kim jong-un.

and we wait for the briefing in the white house there. just like the president, they deny any knowledge of this hush money. please stay with us. ♪ come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. ♪ ♪ come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. ♪ it was always our singular focus. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and never lose sight of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share

the same vision. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. and these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com appointments available now.

>> look, they're going to be released probably today. i don't know if based on north korea, we should emphasize, they want something in return. food assistance.

i was involved in several of these successfully but this time what they're getting in return is a summit with the president, something that they've always wanted to deal with the u.s. directly and they don't want to -- they don't want to have problems before the summit even starts. so i would suspect other gestures like this, other statements like kim jong un, you know, not having -- knocking out the nuclear facilities, not using it are forthcoming. but this is welcome for the families. they've suffered -- but these were trumped up charges and they should be released soon. >> you describe exactly what they are. it's really hostage taking by this country. on the bigger picture issue, though, in your view do you see a fundamental change in north korea's approach to this? it's possible that north korea is willing to deal on the central issue, which is its nuclear program. do you find it credible that north korea would give up its nuclear program in light of frankly how dependent it is on

it for at least the regime's survival? >> i believe they're ready to deal total denuclearization, dismantling their nuclear facility. there's a slight chance. i think they're ready to put some limits, some curbing of the use, technology, limiting, freezing, that's a favorite word of their existing arsenal and maybe some positive measures that deal with conventional forces with south korea, with japan. no more missile tests. but full denuclearization. my worry is that this is something that the united states expects and wants. dismantling. that's a good goal. i think if we set up a process and not expect too much at the summit of a negotiated settlement that involves

dramatic use of nuclear weapons reduction by the north koreans, it's worth of effort. although i worry that we won't be prepared, jim. i'm worried that we won't have a sound strategy. >> fair question, bill richardson, governor, thanks very much for joining us. thank you. >> stunning revolutions over the hush money paid to stormy daniels over multiple denials, the president now admits it, contradicting himself. all eyes are on the press briefing as the white house gets ready to face reporters questions.

almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance.

does your business internet provider promise a lot? let's see who delivers more. comcast business gives you gig-speed in more places. the others don't. we offer up to 6 hours of 4g wireless network backup. everyone else, no way. we let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. them, not so much. we let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. the others? nope! get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go on line today. hello, i'm erika hill in today for brooke baldwin. the white house briefing is moments away. there are a lot of questions today about the bombshell that we heard last night and this morning from the president's most high profile attorney, rudy giuliani.