-- position of the trump campaign come and outside the federal courthouse, paul manafort has been found guilty on eight of 18 charges. we expect to her from the prosecutor. 10 charges were thrown out by the judge. the jurors unable to reach a verdict, but on bank and fraud charges, paul manafort found guilty on eight charges. we are monitoring the situation in new york where michael cohen has pled guilty and is before fbi officials. he pled guilty in connection to financial fraud investigation against him, part of a deal with prosecutors that will include jail time. that's according to a number of news sources. that is the scene outside of the new york city courtroom, and in alexandria, virginia. we want to get your reaction. phone lines are open. you can begin dialing up. here are the numbers --

we have not heard from president fred. he is in -- from president trump. he is in west virginia. he will make comments about the guilty verdict for paul monfort. -- medford. , who up untilhen a few months ago was the president's personal lawyer, now before a judge in new york city pleading guilty to fbi officials. all of this part of the investigation by robert mueller, the investigation that began into allegations of collusion by the russian government in the 2016 campaign, allegations that the president continues to deny, but a guilty verdict of paul manafort found guilty on eight

of 18 charges. jurors have been dismissed. they have been told not to release their names. this will mean jail time unless there is a pardon by president trump, which is within the realm of possibility based on presidential authority. tell us what you think. eric minder, the president in west virginia. live coverage at 7:00 p.m. tonight. we will watch the scene outside back introoms, and come a moment with your calls and reactions.

>> a live scene outside the courtroom in alexandria, and paul manafort found guilty on five counts of tax fraud, one count of failing to disclose his foreign bank accounts, and two

counts of bank fraud. a mistrial has been declared in the 10 other counts. the jurors have been released. a guilty verdict on eight of the 18 counts for paul manafort. we will get your reaction to that. we are monitoring the courtroom in new york city where michael cohen pleading guilty in connection to financial fraud investigations, including the money that he provided the stormy daniels. i mentioned that because stormy daniels' attorney in new hampshire of the weekend. he is considering his own presidential bid in 2020 as the democratic nominee. add them from rocky hill, new jersey. your reaction? guest: i am curious -- caller: i am curious to know what the role ukraine played in this trial? host: we will hear from the attorneys in the case. let's watch the scene in just a moment.

host: attorneys involved in the case and mrs. paul manafort who had been in the courtroom, a during hersence husband's trial and four days of deliberations that began last late todayrapped up when the jurors issued a letter to the judge saying that, what we can't reach a verdict on one of the counts. they could0 counts not reach a verdict on but on eight, paul manafort found

guilty. from new milford, pennsylvania. independent line. good afternoon. caller: how you doing today? i'm curious, as all this unwinds, how the fruits of the poisonous tree will play in on appeals, since all this seems to stemming from the false conclusionof russian next,we'll go to diane democrat's line in baltimore. paul manafort found guilty on eight counts. caller: are you talking to me? host: i am. caller: i'm glad he's guilty but question, how do presidential pardons work? an across-the-board pardon -- i know he's going up for trial in september or something? host: next monday, actually.

caller: can president trump border?im across across the host: he has the authority to him on any and all counts. guess it doesn't matter. he'll probably get a pardon anyway. got --hen gerald ford issued a pardon to richard nixon, it was related to all counts on watergate. the republican line, james is next from wisconsin. good afternoon. caller: good afternoon, how are you? host: we're fine, thanks. comment on like to one thing. was, of all, paul manafort nag fin egglers, ok. has nothing to do with donald trump or the republican party.

he was an opportunist and i think he got what he deserved. is happening the same time former trump attorney tohael cohen pleading guilty news,ial fraud, from fox pointing out that a source familiar with the deal telling fox news that it includes a plea and jail time between three and five years. the deal does not involve a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors. michael cohen scheduled to appear in new york's federal that hearing underway this hour. the a.p. reported he will plead guilty to charges including campaign finance violations, bank fraud and tax evasion. cohen's office were raided in by investigators looking into financial dealings including alleged practice of silentwomen to stay about claims they had affairs with donald trump. michael cohen was behind the $130,000 payment to adult film star stormy daniels as well as

separate payment to former playboy model karen mcdougal who had an affair with donald trump in 2006. tapeel cohen releasing a of a conversation from 2016 between him and donald trump to kareng payments mcdougal so that's happening outside the new york city and weom at this hour expect to hear from prosecuting attorneys in alexandria, with the guilty verdict for paul manafort, eight of 18 counts. go to independent line, from miami. to the i was listening manafort. i'm an independent. that's the reason there's so corruption, you know, whether it be democrats or republican or whoever, that these individuals are not held accountable for years and years. they continue to do what they do. of all, there should be ifm limits and second, pardons thismp

individual, he's as corrupt as this individual. it's not right. that politicians are accountable for what they're doing because it's not right. i'm glad that is happening. i'm glad that the attorney and he wasd him given due process. he went to a trial and now he's so therefore he should go to jail because it's not right what's going on in this country. fair.ot you know, republicans or democrats, i don't care who it is. it's about time people are held accountable, all these politicians. host: thank you for the call from miami. as you look at the scene outside alexandria,m, virginia, it is a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. as we wait for the reaction from the prosecuting attorneys and they'll file for a retrial on the 10 counts jurors

to reach agreement on. we're getting your reaction to this. barbara in ludlow, vermont. independent line. go ahead. caller: i'm really glad manafort was found guilty. the same thing happens even more so for cohen for the allegations against president trump. historybe like repeating itself if trump decides to pardon manafort. i really don't think politically he's going to do that but one this crazy president. host: barbara, thank you. is en routeresident on air force one, now in west virginia for a campaign-style will get underway at 7:00 eastern time. we'll have it for you live on c-span. nathan in spicewood, texas.

what do you think of today's development? caller: i think it's unfortunate that he's a criminal but if he serve theime, he must punishment. i think it's odd that the iselligence agencies persecuting everyone that has to do with trump's agenda when they persecuting pizzagate. kokomo,hn next in indiana. caller: pizzagate was completely bogus. everybody knows that that has looked into the issue. it's good that manafort was guilty. because he is guilty. and there's checks and balances trumps nation and donald is trying to eliminate all these think and balances and i that he never showed his tax returns. ifsomeone would look into -- they could subpoena his tax returns, you know he's just as

fraudulent as manafort. bless, america. good job, courts, thanks. manafort, he's been found guilty on five counts of fraud. to disclose failing his foreign bank accounts. two counts of bank fraud and mistrial has been declared on the additional counts so a beforef 18 counts put paul manafort. long-time republican strategist with links to the gerald ford campaign, bob dole campaign, more recently with donald trump former colleague, rick gates, pled guilty to charges and he was the key prosecuting witness in the trial. paul manafort facing certain today'se based on convictions. the other 10 counts were thrown out because the jurors could not that andgreement on again, the judge in this case, judge ellis, telling the jurors quiet and not release contact information to the media. cathy is joining us. clinton, maryland, democrats line.

good afternoon. caller: good afternoon, thank you, c-span. hi. so glad for i'm robert mueller for doing this hope he's able to continue going forward to show the corruption going on and hopefully people start understanding, regardless if democrat, republican, independent, we have to get the it's out of politics and time. we, as american people, we have class, middle class -- you know, it's time. it's our time. we've seen time and time again that they steal from us. we had to bail out big banks. taking. money they're we're getting our medicare cut, seecaid cut and we have to our 401, 403 disappear. we have nothing to show for it. it's time for us now. progressive,voting or voting for a candidate that's going to work for you and that's

not taking corporate money and that's going working for us. education.e it's time to start saying it's socialism. thing aso such socialism, it's your right. reneé in san jose, california. line.ndent your reaction? caller:thanks for taking my call. this as a format or role model. i'm glad this person was found and there's something being done but it's been a very process from the elections before trump is president and that when he supported the campaign of hillary clinton was running years before that so i think this is a new model of our freedom that breached. i feel this is a bad thing. that everything has to be about money. host: michael cohen is in new york city, let's watch the scene outside the courtroom for a

moment. [crowd noise] [indiscernible] host: let's just recap what happened. michael cohen, quick glimpse of him as he knot into -- got into and departed a federal courthouse in new york city, former trump attorney pleading guilty in connection with

financial fraud charges against him, part of a plea deal with prosecutors that includes jail to fox news,ng that it will include guilty plea and jail time between three and five years. the deal does not involve a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors so we expect hear more, a statement expected within five minutes. onll have that for you live c-span and c-span radio. also in alexandria, virginia, lined up for reaction from the attorneys involved in the paul manafort case. on eight counts. we saw some of the defense short while out a ago. not sure if there will be reaction from paul manafort's attorneys but presumably we will hear from the prosecuting attorneys. rick gates was the key witness in that and the defense trying to poke holes into rick gates' testimony but did not work with jury. him guilty onding eight counts. the other 10 counts were

dismissed and we'll hear whether not there will be a retrial on those charges. a washington,in d.c. courtroom next month for an additional list of charges. let's get your reaction to all this. ernie is joining us next from conway, south carolina, republican line. what do you think? caller: thank you for taking my call. think that the problem is a lot of it at the federal government. they let all those people go committed all them crimes. and yes, they were crimes. then they go after hard working people. i understand fraud is fraud. these people from the f.b.i. go is terrible. barack obama was the worst could ever have had and he caused a lot of this corruption and this decisiveness

between the people. it is terrible. god wouldn't want this for this country. host: ernie, thanks for the call. to share with you what the siren,report with a indicating breaking news at this hour, saying that michael cohen violated campaign law at the direction of the candidate, a reference to donald trump. thegain, we'll hear more in next couple of minutes from those involved in this plea agreement. looking at the scene outside of alexandria, virginia. we're also outside the courtroom in new york city. happenings simultaneously. city,jean from fall oregon, republican line. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. this --lly upset with all this going on with the republicans. democrats. the democrats are getting away with murder. and this is getting really ridiculous.

trump has become. attorneyl manafort's coming before the microphones, presumably. we'll listen. theou may have heard that jury reached a verdict on only eight of the 18 counts. they didthose counts, not reach a verdict. is disappointed of not getting acquittals all the way through or a complete hung on all counts. however, he would like to thank granting him a fair trial, thank the jury for and hard fought deliberations. of hisvaluating all options at this point. thank you, everyone.

brief statement from kevin downing, lead defense attorney for paul manafort, delivering his remarks outside the courtroom in alexandria, virginia. reaction as we hear from you and monitor the situation in new york city. next, spalding, michigan, republican line. caller: hello, this is doris and upset by this.te bill clinton, when he was having everywhere, even in the white house, nothing was done with him. this is -- this was an man at the time that was -- he was married, yes. he committed adultery,s in. yes. host: we're going back to new york city on the michael cohen investigation. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. my name's robert kazami, deputy

theed states attorney for southern district of new york, attorney for the united states in this matter. is bill sweeney, assistant director in charge of the new york field office of the f.b.i. and james rodnet, supervisory agent in charge for the new york office of the i.r.s. also with me are the prosecutors the united states attorneys office in the southern district of new york who prosecuted the matter. i'm going to have a brief statement and will not be taking any questions. as you heard, michael cohen pled guilty to eight charges, five of those dealt with tax evasion for the through 2016 in which he failed to report $4.1 million in income. approximately $2.5 of that money was from interest payments from a personal loan he failed to report. approximately $1.3 million of

was from the operation of his taxi medallion business. approximately $100,000 of that money was from brokerage $200,000ns and over was from consulting fees. million over a3 five-year period which theslates into a loss to united states treasury of approximately $1.3 million. in addition, in count six, mr. cohen pled guilty to making false statements to a financial institution in connection with application for a home equity line of credit. application, he failed to disclose more than $14 he had anddebt that as a result of that concealment, $500,000 lineat of credit which he would not hee been entitled to had been candid and honest. in addition, mr. cohen pled

guilty to two campaign finance anrges, one for causing unlawful corporate contribution and a second one for personally excessive personal contribution, both for the 2016se of influencing the election. in addition, what he did was he money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign and to the candidate and the campaign. in addition, mr. cohen sought for that money by submitting invoices to the candidate's company, which were untrue and false. the indicated that reimbursement was for services year 2017,r the when, in fact, those invoices were a sham. no legal services year 2017 and it was

simply a means to obtain the unlawful for campaign contribution. a couple of points i'd like to make. serioushese are very charges and reflect a pattern of dishonesty over an extended period of time. they are significant in their own right. particularly significant when done by a lawyer, a lawyer who, throw training and tradition understands what it means to be a lawyer, to engage in honest fair dealing and adherence to the law. thatohen disregarded training, disregarded that tradition and decided that he was above the law and for that going to pay a very, very serious price. to the campaign finance violations, the campaign finance laws are designed to prevent the use of illegal money in elections and to maintain the of those elections. forcohen made guilty pleas

those campaign violations and those are core violations and was, he -- these pleas remind us that it is corporations to make contributions to candidates, and illegal to make contributions in excess of the amount that congress set for individuals. that is a strong message today not be -- we will prosecuting additional corporation campaign finance cases. perhaps most importantly, this case is unique in many ways. witness the gathering of all of you here today. and in other ways it's unique, as well. but in a really important way, this case is not unlike many that my office, the united states attorney's office brings, that the entire department of justice brings and that the law enforcement agencies do, as

and, including the f.b.i. i.r.s. this case has more in common with all those cases because the same message and that message is that the law applies and that for whom arecement, all of gathered here, it is our pursueent that we will to vindicate those who chose break the law and vindicate the majority of people who live lives, who follow honest and fair dealing and live of lawful behavior. the message is that we are here, prosecutors are here, law enforcement is here, the department of justice is here, areenforcement agencies here. we are a nation of laws and the isence of this case is about justice and that is an equal all persons inor the eyes of the law and that is mr. cohen learned

today and it is a very harsh one for him. much.you very i'd also like to introduce -- sorry -- my fault. to thankwant mr. sweeney, and james rodnet of and i.r.s. and the agents who work for them. with them, many cases and fairetermination dealing and vigor with which they pursue their case is really inspirational. the prosecutors in my office, i cannot express the gratitude for the hard work that they did this case and that is assistant united states griswold, nicka e rachel cayman, tom mckay and the chief of the corruption unit. for all of these people, i could

about their virtues but the important thing is they are asisfied with being known public servants, prosecutors and law enforcement agents doing their job. much.you very [indiscernible question] >> can they tell us who the candidate is? are listening to deputy assistant attorney. michael cohen, often referred to fixer,ld trump's pleading guilty to federal authorities today and appearing city courtroom.

plea will mean jail time for michael cohen. felonies,ted to eight including campaign finance violations, indicating that the direction. violations came from the headline at the drudge report. that would have been donald trump. hear more in the hours ahead and in alexandria, virginia, paul manafort, found guilty on eight of the 18 charges, including bank fraud. these charges separate from the 2016tigation of the campaign of russian collusion. that trial will be in washington, d.c. next month. we expect to hear from the prosecuting attorneys on whether they will proceed with the remaining 10 charges that jurorsrown out because were unable to retch -- reach a verdict. joseph is joining us from mobile, alabama, democrats line.

good afternoon. caller: good afternoon. i would like to thank c-span for the information available to the citizens of the united states and like to indicate that thatxposure of information was found in the trial will continue to be a matter of record which will be available study the who wish to jurisprudence in the united states. thank you. host: to joe from kentucky, line.ican caller: how many other -- what may have done before he joined trump's campaign. was private interests, had nothing to do with the campaign. and they're prosecuting him for

dones that had been throughout the years by people his position. you can go back 100 years and find presidents who it is have thing.e same host: thank you. outside the courtroom in alexandria, virginia. last hour a federal jury in virginia convicting paul former campaign manager for donald trump, on eight counts of bank fraud, as as fax fraud. no verdict could be reached on faced duringges he the trial that began with 12 days of arguments and a paper gates,hat included rick one-time assistant to paul manafort, proving to be the prosecutor's key witness in this case and paul manafort, now 69 years old, facing another set of trials on charges next month in d.c. courtroom, not far from the u.s. capitol.

in dallas,ining us texas. independent line. afternoon. happy -- i'm libertarian but i'm happy justice was served. i believe in our laws and think people should be punished when they break them but i think it do that it had nothing to with russia, which is what they insteadking for, so they settled on convicting two of trump's buddies. host: you know the russian part is the trial that begins next month in washington, d.c. this is the first of two. caller: ok. saying it seems like they're just slinging -- against sticks. and seeing what host: let's go to gary joining us from nevada. republican line. good afternoon. caller: i want to the say this in a couple of comments. from the clintons all the way up to obama, this country's been

going backwards in a a lot of ways. can you hear me? host: sure can. ahead. caller: that old russian said back, krushchev, you're going to hurt from within. this country's going through a a trick in there's each trade from carpenter to police department to up the and everybody does it and when you say it's not there like that, you're a liar. host: to mary, ridgewood, new jersey. what do you think of these in two separate courtrooms today. caller: i'm a republican and i'm happy to say justice was served. it is a fact that they were found guilty factual information. people should look that up making comments. that republicans like myself are not liable to to a partynd adhered

that doesn't put their country first. i'm glad that the jury found justice and it was served and -- people have to understand that people found guilty are related to who's in now.hite house right host: want to quote a number of news sources, including cnn, nbc, and cbs news all saying that michael cohen inside the yes, he violated campaign law, he did so at the direction of the candidate. also paul manafort, on a reviewing all is options as he continues -- decides whether or not to appeal the cases on the eight convictions that were handed faces another he set of -- another trial next washington.n mary in ridgewood -- actually, gerald from eldon, missouri, independent line. there. hi,

my name is gerald and i'm happy to see the verdicts issued today, showing that the swamp cleaned.ct, being seems like trump is getting close to the swamp as it gets drained. laura, santa cruz, california, democrats line. your reaction? him up.lock it's time for the democrats to take that slogan and make it entirecause the republican crew is full of crooks and liars and i'm grad to to -- glad to see them start to go down thompt peter in wesley republicanrida, line. what do you think? caller: how are you today? really concerned about several factors. first of all, i thought the investigation was to deal with russia and you said that's going to happen next month. but they convicted manafort evasiony on income tax and basically you can almost

convict anybody on income tax fraud. i think millions of americans across the nation somehow fudge tax forms and that's what basically they found counts on.e don'ther 10, i hope they charge him on those. as far as cohen goes. the poor guy, he really tried to do the right thing. in something up and he will do time, probably a camp in a nice climate. unfortunately, i would love to see them investigate the clinton going back to when she worked at the rosewood law firm. she made $100,000 off of the sale of cattle. andink we need to be fair equitable. if the mueller investigation is going to go after one political party, i think, as many of your call-ins have stated in the last minutes, people have indicated that let's be fair,

let's go after hillary and bill clinton. that would make it fair for everybody and to show that there is, as the prosecutor -- i name. his host: robert mueller. it's the rose law firm. not rosewood. appreciate your call. in the is from nbc news, as paul led out of the courtroom in alexandria, virginia. he whispered into the ear of his attorney, and nodded at manafort,kathleen seated in the front row of the courtroom. nine years in to prison. prosecutors have until the end theyxt week to decide what will do about the 10 mistrial charges. daysury deliberating four after hearing 12 days of arguments, evidence and courtroominside the in alexandria, virginia. your reaction, ed, from erie, pennsylvania, independent line. good afternoon. caller: good afternoon.

one wsee tv 35 to another. hi. ed.: hello, your reaction? keep listening to are sayinge that should go back and investigate bill clinton and hillary clinton. the statute of limitations has run out on that. anyway -- was it carter, is was in newrter, that --k host: michael cohen. caller: cohen. ok. was convicted of -- host: he pled guilty to eight

felony counts. the "new york times" reporting over the weekend that he's been involved in allegations of the used by the new york taxicab industry. investigators working to if cohen committed bank fraud on $20 million worth of loans related to his taxi business so it's involved with the campaign, his relationship own donald trump, and his private if businesses. fraud that hethe committed with trump. is that going to get buried? host: we're actually covering both stories right now and i think that as you look at the headlines tonight and tomorrow, it's been a split-screen afternoon because as developments were taking place in alexandria, virginia, we got we got word that michael cohen would appear in a new york city courtroom. he was whisked out of the courtroom. this is what the "new york

reporting, as he was heading to the courtroom today to plead guilty. a photograph of him leaving his apartment. he'd worked for donald trump and organization well over a decade. at the start of the campaign, he accessto person to get to donald trump and he was directly behind the payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, now allegations that was a campaign finance violation, which is also part of the investigation. we'll go on to albatter in fort lauderdale, florida, democrats line. good afternoon. caller: hi, how are you? host: fine. how are you? caller: ok. i have been looking at in the off and on since it started and should give him more time but it ain't over yet. blame clinton to and obama for all this mess? no. this started when this new in there.got swamp?a clean up the he cleaning up the swamp. they should clear him out along with the rest of them. the my opinion. thank you.

host: going back to the "new key part of this where michael cohen said he paid directioniels at the of the candidate, referring to donald trump, for the purpose of influencing the election. that was one of the lines of questioning that we did not get an answer from with the deputy attorney for the southern york as michael cohen left the courthouse today. he is facing between three to years in prison for his admission and no direct connection between that and will cooperatehe with the robert mueller investigation based on what we hour.t this lewis in hamilton, virginia. republican line. good afternoon. theer: i'm so proud of principles by which they follow. today is a sad day for america. have to look at it from the eyes of the founders of america. in america, we have people that don't care about our laws. they have disrespect for anybody working and trying to

do good. there are a lot of good somerats out there and fantastic republicans out there. i'm proud to help on their campaigns. is a very sad day for america. we are going to see more of this, unfortunately, i believe. we have to appreciate this know that justice does get served and we do move on. host: thank you very much for the call. just want to share with you also int the president is charleston, west virginia, arriving at this hour for an that will take place at 7:00 eastern time. we will have it live for you. a moment ago, michael cohen leaving the courthouse in new york city. reporters. scrum of you can see him departing the courtroom. let's watch. ok. good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. khazami, i'mert

the deputy united states the southern district of new york and attorney for the united states in this matter. with me is bill sweeney, in charge ofector the new york field office of the is.i. and james rodnet, who the supervisory neaj charge for thenew york office of i.r.s. prosecutors are the from the united states attorney's office in the southern district of new york the cohen matter. i'm going to have a brief statement and will not be taking questions. today, as you heard, michael cohen pled guilty to eight felony charges, five of those dealt with tax evasion for the years 2012 through 2016 in which he failed to report approximately $4.1 million in reported income. approximately $2.5 of that money was from interest payments from a personal loan he failed to report. approximately $1.3 million of that money was from the

operation of his taxi medallion business. approximately $100,000 of that money was from brokerage commissions and over $200,000 was from consulting fees. that's over $4.3 million over a five-year period which translates into a loss to the united states treasury of approximately $1.3 million. in addition, in count six, mr. cohen pled guilty to making false statements to a financial institution in connection with an application for a home equity line of credit. in that application, he failed to disclose more than $14 million in debt that he had and as a result of that concealment, he obtained that $500,000 line of credit which he would not have been entitled to had he been candid and honest. in addition, mr. cohen pled guilty to two campaign finance

charges, one for causing an unlawful corporate contribution and a second one for personally making an excessive personal contribution, both for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election. in addition, what he did was he worked to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign and to the candidate and the campaign. in addition, mr. cohen sought reimbursement for that money by submitting invoices to the candidate's company, which were untrue and false. they indicated that the reimbursement was for services rendered for the year 2017, when, in fact, those invoices were a sham. he provided no legal services for the year 2017 and it was simply a means to obtain reimbursement for the unlawful

campaign contribution. a couple of points i'd like to make. first, these are very serious charges and reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time. they are significant in their own right. they are particularly significant when done by a lawyer, a lawyer who, through training and tradition understands what it means to be a lawyer, to engage in honest and fair dealing and adherence to the law. mr. cohen disregarded that training, disregarded that tradition and decided that he was above the law and for that he was going to pay a very, very serious price. with respect to the campaign finance violations, the campaign finance laws are designed to prevent the use of illegal money in elections and to maintain the integrity of those elections. mr. cohen made guilty pleas for those campaign violations and

those are core violations and what he did was, he -- these pleas remind us that it is illegal for corporations to make contributions to candidates, and it is illegal to make contributions in excess of the amount that congress set for individuals. that is a strong message today and we will not be -- we will not fear prosecuting additional corporation campaign finance cases. lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this case is unique in many ways. just witness the gathering of all of you here today. and in other ways it's unique, as well. but in a really important way, this case is not unlike many cases that my office, the united states attorney's office brings, that the entire department of justice brings and that the law enforcement agencies do, as well, including the f.b.i. and i.r.s.

this case has more in common with all those cases because they all share the same message and that message is that the rule of law applies and that for law enforcement, all of whom are gathered here, it is our commitment that we will pursue and vindicate those who chose to break the law and vindicate the majority of people who live law-abiding lives, who follow honest and fair dealing and live lives of lawful behavior. the message is that we are here, prosecutors are here, law enforcement is here, the department of justice is here, law enforcement agencies are here. we are a nation of laws and the essence of this case is about is justice and that is an equal playing field for all persons in the eyes of the law and that is a lesson that mr. cohen learned today and it is a very harsh one

for him. thank you very much. i'm sorry, i'd also like to introduce -- sorry -- my fault. i really want to thank mr. sweeney, and james rodnet of the f.b.i. and i.r.s. and the agents who work for them. we do many, many cases with them and their determination and fair dealing and vigor with which they pursue their cases is really inspirational. to the prosecutors in my office, i cannot express the gratitude for the hard work that they did in this case and that is assistant united states attorneys andrea griswold, nick rusand e rachel mayman, tom mckay and the deputy chief of the corruption unit. the chief of the cousins unit. for all of these people, i could go on about their virtues but

the important thing is they are satisfied with being known as public servants, prosecutors and law enforcement agents doing their job. thank you very much. [indiscernible question] >> can they tell us who the candidate is? host:that was within the last half hour. khuzami, u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. these are the headlines. saying hehen coordinated with donald trump to women before the 2016 election. specifically to the michael cohen story because the president's personal attorney pleading guilty to eight counts in a federal courtroom in new york city,

including five counts of tax count of falsifying submissions to a bank and two involving unlawful campaign contributions. then saying he made excessive contributions in the summer of 2016 as well as october 2016 just before the direction ofthe donald trump. cohen did not name the president specifically. clear, though, that he was referring to the given time line to circumstances referring donald trump. the story from "the washington post," and your reaction to all inthis, let's go to kevin township, new jersey. independent line. afternoon. caller: there are some people referring to almost like a witch nothing toe it has do with the russia investigation but they open the investigation and as they do the investigation, they're finding crimes so they're prosecuting the crimes even though they have do -- and but what are you going to do, just ignore

these crimes? that's all i have to say and thank you for what you do. host: kevin, thank you. course, the lawyer for stormy theses bringing many of charges to the forefront. "the washington post" with a confirmation that according to cohen, the president's attorney, that he worked to silence two women in trumpnation with donald in advance of the 2016 election. the headline at washingtonpost.com. we'll go to bill in jacksonville, florida, republican line. good afternoon. caller: hey, good afternoon. i have a question for you. you mentioned that next month be another trial that will involve the russia connection, correct? you elaborate on that? host: that's in a federal d.c.house in washington, what happened in alexandria, virginia, looking at the scene outside of that courtroom, based thehe financial dealings of personal business involvement of paul manafort. in fact, donald trump's name was even mentioned inside the courtroom but next month will be

the trumptions of campaign working with russian election.in the 2016 two separate trials but all part manafort -- the robert mueller investigation. caller: yeah, i understand that. i know that this particular trial didn't bring up any type of russia connection and cohen didn't. about the other trial that you were referring to the russiaring up connection between trump and the russians. host: correct. again, the president has continued to deny any allegations, saying there was no collusion, referring to this as a witch hunt. president is in west virginia and we'll have live coverage of his campaign-style scheduled to get underway in an hour and 12 minutes. herb in milwaukee, wisconsin, democrats line.

good afternoon. afternoon.d i am so glad that it at least appears that justice is trying be done with regards to the so-called powerful. all surprised, however, that some still have the obamasy to blame and the clintons. thank you. houston,th is next, texas. independent line. texas.n we'll go to beverly in long view, texas. afternoon, beverly. caller: hi. that cohen, if he dealingsake what his with donald trump, this would the forefront to so i'm glad that he did do that of donald the truth trump being a crook and hopefully next month we can end

this all. is in collusion with russia and we just need -- i a democrat orit's a republican, independent. as long as you work for the people. but donald trump is out for himself and he is a crook along children. host: beverly, thank you. if you're wondering why we're the screen outside the courthouse in alexandria, theinia, we are awaiting prosecuting attorneys in the paul manafort case. we did hear briefly from kevin do you kevin -- downing who was paul manafort's defense attorney but to hear from the prosecutors, as well. a couple of questions to be answered. thrown out, will they try to bring them again? paul manafort facing seven to years in jail for his conviction on eight charges of evasion.d and tax beverly from long view, texas, democrats line. go ahead. caller: manafort, also he's going to be tried for the

russian investigation, correct? host: correct. caller: did he not fly over to russia right after trump was hected and some people say delivered money. so what is the real truth? manafort ever speak the truth, do you think? host: thank you. some more color from nbc news, testrial, the first public of special counsel robert mueller's investigation. wase the special counsel vindicated, the victory was not total with 10 charges thrown out. jury was in the courtroom and verdict read, nbc news reporting that paul offering no expression, staring straight ahead, not looking at the jury. teamrs of the defense often turning their heads to look at the jury. manafort was asked to step to podium after the jury left the room. judge ellis telling manafort he on aeen found guilty variety of counts and manafort would have a role to play in the reportence investigation that the judge relies on to determine sentencing.

as paul manafort was led out of whispered to his defense attorney and nodded to his wife. knoller of cbs news reporting on twitter that president telling reporters he the verdictad about against paul manafort, calling him a good man, but says the doesn't involve me, says it has nothing to do the russia collusion, calls prosecution, a witch hunt. joliet, joining us from illinois, independent line. go ahead. caller: yes. as the manafort the jury.s, i commend witha person that deals investigating things and dealing emotions.ather than on the cohen, i think that it him to comer forward and make his pronouncements. think the corruption that exists in politics is not just

on the republican side. believe it's also on the democrat side. about a lot of questions the former administration. i think of sharpton versus nelson and their tax eivations and how the media that but because this is linked to our current aesident whom i respect as pragmatist, not a democrat or not a republican. there solving problems. i think he loves this nation. to that's about all i have say on the situation. thank you for the time. host: linda, thanks for the call. let's go to joan in la quinta, california, republican line. caller: naturally, i don't know the crimes manafort's guilty of but i do think it was a display of cruelty and raw power to put solitary confinement for 23 hours and, of course, to try to getdone trump. commentlike it make a

about the fact that it has been fired 93 attorneys the he came into power from department of justico -- so firing from a president, nothing about that. host: joan, thank you. joining us from "the washington is mash -- mark fischer, looking into this for us for "the washington post." fory of dueling headlines washingtonpost.com. -- explain what this means. take a step back and explain mark, duelings, headlines involving michael manafort.paul caller: it's quite a day, could conceivably go down as a turning point should president trump find himself in further trouble

as a result of this but this is he's going to find very difficult to deal with because he has his former chairman being convicted of crimes and clearly under tremendous pressure to cooperate with federal the trump roleut in any possible collusion with russia during the campaign and then far more damaging to the bysident is the guilty plea michael cohen to conspirey charges -- i'm sorry, to charges of tax -- failing to report on.me and so and this is really an agreement between people to violate the law. has's what michael cohen said he did. he said he coordinated with and of donaldhe direction trump, candidate for federal office, in making the payments stormy daniels and to the ofional "enquirer" on behalf karen mcdougal. so this is the closest we've

any any official action, guilty plea. in this case, michael cohen quote, foras acting, the principal purpose of influencing the election. see when the president appears at a rally in west howinia later this evening, he responds to that but for all accounts he is angry at this turn of events. host: michael cohen didn't mention donald trump's name, saying he did so at the candidate,f the preference to donald trump and the president saying he feels badly for paul some to, leading speculate whether or not he will issue a pardon. guest: it will be interesting to see. manafort faces another trial coming up on matters that are closer to the core of the investigation so while it is certainly the president's to pardon manafort now, it seems unlikely he would do so

trial cominger hard on the heels of this one. indeed, it's unlikely that sentencedill be before the other trial begins. host: mark fischer, i know it's busy news day. let me conclude with this question -- what are your questions moving ahead with paul manafort and michael cohen? question for manafort is what is it that has him going trials.these the government's case against him was very solid. the jury moving relatively through very complex material to come to their conclusion. this? why is he doing who is he protecting? what -- is he looking to cut a deal with the prosecution or hope for a pardon from the president? case, michael cohen's he's obviously concluded that he's burned his bridges with the president so the question there is what does he have in all of those millions of documents and tapes that the f.b.i. seized in their raised on his home and

office and what does that say what isnald trump and the president fearing from michael cohen who is his close adviser and attorney for more than a decade and whose job it problems what is the president go away wheempt a news day, huh? guest: just extraordinary. host: mark fischer, a team of reporters at "the washington post," his work available online. thank you. calls in ar phone moment. ,02-737-0002 earlier the scene outside the federal courthouse in new city and michael cohen pleading guilty to felony charges, referencing payments to and star stormy daniels playmate karen mcdougal.

you can watch that event on our website, c-span.org. michael cohen leaving the courthouse shortly after 5:00 eastern time. looked like.it very quick look at michael cohen as he departed the courthouse scrum of reporters trying to capture that moment. us on theoining republican line. good afternoon. you.r: thank i'm against crime and not ashamed to admit it and i'm so isd that our government working towards cleaning up crime within itself and forming a and stronger union. host: let's go to jason from independent line. caller: i liked your last caller. i'm also against corruption and

stole.t, he do the time. person.e any cohen, same thing. stormy daniels, she's a stripper. what, she was she was trying to, what do they call that? when somebody tries to pull somebody up for money? host: hostage? caller: yes. they are going to ruin his image. what is wrong with that? look at hillary and bill. i am a veteran. i voted for obama the first who rounds, the second i did not. he basically lied to us all. host: thank you for your call. the president is in washington, d.c. we will have live coverage of his remarks in one hour.

in the meantime, we will have your calls and reactions. paul manafort convicted on eight counts. yourther 10 dismissed pleading guilty to a felony charges, facing a possibility of three to five years in jail, directly connecting the president to campaign finance violations. the president arriving in west a few minutes ago. he left air force one and made brief comments to letters. reporters. here is what he had to say. reporter: mr. president, any reaction to the news out of the metaphor trial? >> any reaction to michael cohen?

[inaudible] president, any reaction? pres. trump: i feel badly. paul manafort is a good man. he was with ronald reagan. he was with a lot of different people over the years. i feel very . bad about that. it does not involve me, but it is a very sad thing. it does not have to do with russian collusion. this has nothing to do -- it is a witchhunt, and it is a disgrace. they started out looking for

russian involvement in our campaign. there were not. i feel very badly for paul manafort. again, he worked for bob dole, ronald reagan, many people. and this is the way it ends up. it was not the original mission, believe me. withs nothing to do russian collusion third they continue the witchhunt. thank you. >> mr. president, any comment on michael cohen? host: the president in charleston, west virginia, life tonight 7:00 p.m. eastern time from the civic center, the make america great again rally, we live one to liv it for you c-span. from the "washington times," michael cohen pleading guilty to bank fraud and does face prison

your accounts include five counts of tax evasion, one count of falsifying admissions to a bank, and two counts involving unlawful campaign collusion spiri. we will follow all of this into different courtrooms, new york city and the paul manafort trial in alexandria, virginia. ray on the democrats line. what do you think? ray, are you with us? caller: hello. host: yes, you are on the air. caller: i understand that trump will be able to pardon and do away with all that has happened today. that is unfair to me. host: it is within the authority of the president. it is in the constitution. caller: yeah, well, that is like pardoning yourself. host: let's go to joe

interesting, south carolina, independent line. caller: good morning. i am sorry, i'm so used to -- host: [laughs] don't worry about it, joe. i have said it myself. good afternoon. caller: it is the same thing, politics in america. steve, i would like to go back to what chris only said with regards to campaign contributions. host: so our audience is clear committee is the deputy district attorney for new york. caller: i followed c-span for too many years to counter i have maintained the money controls thetics, and the problem is -- money is the temptor.

victory is so sweet, that people will do anything to achieve victory, and the influence or the contributors falls right beyond that. -- i do not believe , now i am anord independent. i want to do some soul-searching. do you really think that the are notans or democrats going to give excessive contributions to people? i'm not think he has achieved the office without it. with theem is, my guy constitution party never sees the national stage. the only gets on shows like c-span, jeannie "washington jou" and we are thankful for that, but our guys are always left out because of lack of money. we end up with money controlling private politics, and it is just that. until we remove the temptation

of money, we will be stuck with two parties that will do almost anything to get elected, and is just as really being applied it possibleegard maybe allegations with regard to excessive campaign contributions? host: hey, joe, thanks for adding your voice to the conversation today, this afternoon. [laughs] caller: thank you, steve. host: features and join us for "washington journal" tomorrow morning, 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. said,y what michael cohan the headline from the "new york times," michael cohen saying president trump asked for the actress payoff for stormy daniels and karenthe headline fk mcdougal. you can see a very brief appearance.

is coming almost simultaneously as we were getting the guilty verdict on 18 counts for paul manafort in alexandria, virginia. madison,ining us in connecticut, republican line. caller: i think it is kind of unfortunate for donald trump. it is a shame he does not have a loretta lynch he can pull out of his back pocket. i do not know if you have been watching the rest of the news, but this tibbetts thing, they found her body, and it was an illegal immigrant that murdered her. host: yes, i saw the headline. caller: and drug overdoses, which is not too far down from where i live in madison here. another thing, being charged supplies.f the k2 we as a public and have to stay focused on where we are headed. theave to stay focused on

jobs that trump has created. if donald trump had a loretto lynch, he could have -- loretta lynch, because of lit out of his pocket -- he could have pulled it out of his pocket. host: thank you. paul manafort, eight to 18 charges, facing five years on tax evasion and bank fraud. prosecutors have until the end of next week to see if they want to proceed on the 10 charges that were essentially thrown out, because jurors were unable to reach a consensus. charisse is joining us. independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: absolutely. caller: i am happy about this. i think the trump family has been milking this country. if i stole a loaf of bread, i

would go to jail. i am thankful for this. i am thankful for the officers who pursue this and follow through. a free country, and it is not a country of lawlessness. thank you. host: thank you. to give you an idea of what it looks inside the courtroom in alexandria, virginia, our reporters are out there. the rain has stopped in washington, d.c. and northern virginia. also awaiting word whether or not we will hear from the prosecutors' attorneys in this case, a conviction of eight charges, and whether or not they will proceed on the next 10 charges. we are awaiting that, and the president speaking in charleston, west virginia in about 50 minutes. this headline from the "wall street journal" -- "michael cohen pleading guilty, saying he acted on the president's direction." from alabama, larry, you are

next. turn the volume down on yourself. go ahead with your comment. caller: i think the general public in the united states is about tired of all of this crap. i am not a democrat. i am not a republican. but president trump is a legally president of this country. robert mueller is on a witchhunt. he is supposed to be investigating russian collusion. host: larry, that is going to come out next week, or in two weeks, in a washington, d.c. courtroom. caller: i understand that, but hey, he is a dearly elected president. people need to lay off of him. he is helping this nation. thank you, larry, from

alabama. the lawyer for paul manafort speaking to reporters. it was brief. here is what kevin downing had to thank you, larry, from alabama. say. [video clip] kevin: you may have heard the verdict. host: that was the lawyer walking out. i think we were able to hear from him as well. we will try to get that fro for you. let's go to bill, republican line. extortion, is the word young man was looking for, i believe, on daniel's. this is a concerted effort on trial. -- on trump. i am not excusing any blame, but i can think of on the top of my

head at least six democrats that should have been investigated, and there were other people involved. christopher dodd, waters, for the involvement in the banks, he andutierre, many others that you can name that could have been prosecuted deeper. that was a total loss cause. you can name, you can go through the democratic party and find dozens of things that happened during obama's reign, and this goes on, and it is never as deeply investigated as it has been against trunk. -- trump. host: bill, based on what you are saying, do you believe donald trump there's any

responsibility. michael flynn, who is now guilty charges, we saw what happened and thehael cohen, conviction of paul manafort, does donald trump bear any responsibility to this? caller: no. i can set you in a chair, and i can draw a lie out of view. what is the charge, perjury? host: it is also bank fraud, tax evasion, campaign finance laws. caller: yeah. let's not even go there. [laughs] host: ok. thank you for the call. we saw kevin downing. he essentially spoke on behalf of paul manafort, thanking the judge, ts ellis iii, in the no comment on whether

they will file an appeal in the eight guilty verdicts. the prosecuting attorneys have until august 29th of decide whether or not they want to reach out and have another case, , another trial on the remaining 10 charges. meanwhile, the president is in charleston, west virginia at the civic center. he will speak to the crowd. we go to raymond on the democrats line. caller: hi. thank you, c-span, for taking my call. [indiscernible] in the verdict today. i understand if the president of the united states fired mr. manafort, why would the president of the united states fire somebody and then pardoned them? that does not make sense. it is a cover up.

you fire demand, but now you will pardon him because he has something on your? is the smartest person because the bride comes, he is not following you anymore. up.new his day was he pleaded guilty on the charges. he has a family to support. if you get off with probation or whatever, the president is not going to pardon him. and he has it on tape. the young lady gunfire, i do not want to put black and white on it, but sheacetates. -- she has tapes. he was calling her a dog. people dwhite people do not like this because he is white. the president, people are taking it and turning around, and donald trump is doing things that will take all that weight. the president of united was

trying to help the environment, but donald trump wants to take that away. the: brandon, thank you for call. one of the charges against michael cohen was he in the ceo of a media company involved with the "national enquirer" maybe payment -- made a payment, that of course a relation to care mcdougal, who said she had a relationship with donald trump. and stormy daniels, totaling $130,000. with michael avenatti. the paul manafort guilty party coming down -- verdict coming down this afternoon. kevin downing speaking to reporters a short while ago. [video clip] kevin: you may have heard that the jury reached a verdict on only eight of the 18 counts.

on 10 of those counts, they cannot reach a verdict. disappointed on not getting acquittals all the way through for a complete hung jury on all counts, however, he would like to thank judge ellis for granting him a fair trial, thank the jury for their very long and hard thought deliberation. he is evaluating all of his options at this point. thank you, everyone. that was about 40 minutes ago from the alexandria, virginia courtroom, kevin downing, the lead defense lawyer for paul manafort. back to your phone calls. phyllis in south carolina, independent line. go ahead, please. caller: i want to comment by saying i thought michael: and

paul manafort were the swamp that the president inadvertently hired, and it reflects on him as far as in hiring them, i really do not think there is no "there" there. he violated campaign violations, i think there is a penalty for the, but i do not see where it goes down to impeachment where i think democrats want to get rid of him for any reason, and i think they want to try to use that as their method to get rid of him, which i think will not go anywhere. host: thank you for the call. the "chicago tribune," you said it before, but it bears repeating. it has been a day of dueling see from two different courtrooms side-by-side. here is how it looks from the "chicago tribune" website or the file photo of paul manafort come inside the courtroom, now facing seven years to nine years in jail for the charges today.

we are expecting to hear from the prosecuting attorneys. meantime, we want to hear from you. more in island park, new york. republican line. caller: i get a kick out of how the mainstream media is getting glee, happy, and salivating that convicted.rt was he had 18 counts, and they are saying it is a great win from or mueller. he got eight. so that is than 50%, not a victory for mueller. manafort, with ukraine, his brother, each of these charges against manafort against his brother, did he have any foreign bank accounts? did he do any tax evasion? no, he got immunity. they never even looked at that stuff. so what is good for the goose is

good for beginner, but not when it comes for donald trump. thank you for the call. harris in new york, democrats line. good afternoon. caller: good afternoon, sir. how are you doing, and thanks for the phone call. i would like to say a couple of different things, and i will be as quick as i possibly can. this all issue is about vetting the presidential candidates before they become candidates and/or president. usa jobs, ands a as a plumber, there was a position for a plumber, but because it was overseas, in by afghanistan, donald trump would not even be able to be vetted as a plumber for the federal government, more or less anything else, because of all of his connections to all of these different things.

i know you have talked about the political contributions, but all of the taxes, the rhetoric, they do a full psychological set up on your, i mean, a full psychological examination on you, and i'm telling you, he would not have passed. if you do not believe me, go to usa jobs, look for plumber, and look for background. then they go into what they ask you as far as getting the job. what your qualifications are, what you have to be, what you have to do -- he would not even pass it to be a plumber. host: thanks for calling. looking at the scene in alexandria, virginia. washington, d.c. has had an enormous amount of rain along the mid-atlantic area, so the crew is going to be breaking down for weather reasons because band of heavy rain is expected to come into the northern virginia, d c area. it has been a summer of heavy rain. bandwe are talking about the

conviction of paul manafort on eight of 18 charges, the admission of guilt by michael cohen inside a new york city courtroom. there is also news this morning of congressman hunter and his wife being charged with campaign-finance violations involving several hundred thousand dollars of misappropriated money. that story is breaking as we speak here we go to jason and lorain, ohio, independent line three good evening. caller: good evening. there has been a lot of talk about our democracy eroding, and regardless of whether you are a pumpkin, democrat, or independent, i think it is about democracy and the fact that the principles and values in our country, our constitution should remain intact, and i think it is a beautiful day for our country and countries watching us abroad. host: vero beach, florida,

republican line. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i want to make a brief comment. because you money, the people have money, they can think that they do not have to follow the rules. i am on a social security benefit. i worked all of my life, and the person managed my 401(k) tom udall. i never got it. host: how much money, teresa? caller: i lost over $100,000. host: did you file a lawsuit? caller: yes, sir, but this is not about me to visit the fact that the law is the law, regardless of who you are or how much money you make. if the people would look at mueller, when they assigned him as special counsel, it is that any crimes that came across would be referred. i'm using my own words, when i read, he would be referred to

correct judicial system. manafort got away with murder, and he spent his money, and i pay my taxes, and he does not pay taxes or follow the rules. michael cohen does not follow the rules. host: teresa, thank you for the call. we move on to brian in new jersey and show you the "wall street journal" website and an artist sketch of what it looks like inside the cal courtroom. paul manafort convicted of eight counts of fraud. go ahead, brian. caller: i would say michael cohen is guilty of extortion. i worked for the campaign in new jersey. everybody believes in donald trump's job, he is here to make america great again, and i am standing for him. host: brian, thank you.

we will hear from the president reviews in charleston, west virginia. he arrived shortly before 6:00. a rally at 7:00 p.m. eastern time from the civic center in charleston, west virginia. robert in aldi, virginia, democrats line. go ahead, please. caller: good evening, sir. it is great to be online with you. it is great with c-span does. i just want to say this is a great day for america. this is keeping america great again. we need to remember that this jury in alexandria, virginia came in with eight counts, but now it goes to d.c. d.c. always convicts, and d.c. will show there is an unindicted co-conspirator in the white house, the first time -- in my lifetime -- since richard nixon. host: that is the headline from michael cohen-

's plea deal exposing the president to political and legal trouble. katie in texas. caller: hi. i would like to say the reason this is happening is because they are going after donald trump. i have never seen anybody go after the president before. there is no mention that hillary got away with all that she did, putting our country at risk. i am getting tired of hearing people, waving that banner, that flak for hillary clinton. all of this as people go out and break up her hard drive with hammers and then bleached it, and then turn around after that and plead the fifth. so of course they are not going after them. host: nancy, let me ask you -- i totally understand -- [overlapping chatter] caller: we have an

administration that has been gone after like nobody in the history of this country, and you can cut me off if you want to, but this is bull crap. host: i do not want to cut you off, but i totally understand you about hillary clinton and the allegations she faced with the private server, but do you think the president, based on what we saw with paul manafort, his one-time personal lawyer michael cohen, does he bear any responsibility in what is happening with some of his closest advisors in confidence? caller: no, sir. i believe this is aci absolutely, positively a witchhunt. i believe this president is trying to help people of all countries and any nationality. he just wants people to come to our country legally. what is wrong with that? host: this is not about legal immigration. caller: wait a minute, we have a young girl, the tibbetts girl, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant?

why don't we want to talk about that. people want to come here and kill our kids, and we do not want to say anything about it. for goodness sake, we open our doors to people, and they come here and kill our kids? are you kidding me? host: that story breaking at the same time as the allegation that the illegal immigrant and kill the 20-year-old college student. provide was found in a rural .art of iowa that developing late this afternoon as confirmation came in. jim, and was stopped, california, democrats line. good evening. caller: good evening. most of america knows exactly who donald tramp is. tramp is what his name is. birther boy.

50 years of donald tramp scum, nothing but scum. the whole family, the kids, the every dayoken the law for 52 years. host: jim, thank you. the new york times has this story, paul manafort, former campaign chairman, found guilty of eight charges of fraud. kevin downey made a brief appearance today outside the courtroom, and paul manafort held inside the jail, 12 days of arguments, four days of jury deliberation, the birders coming down shortly before 5:00 eastern time. eleanor is joining us from brooklyn, new york. it is on the irs. jailry needs to go today

with her husband, her daughter, the whole crew, comey, brennan, loretta lynch, susan rice, they all need to go to jail, that whole crew. host: eleanor from brooklyn, new york. robert was on the is the district attorney for new york, and he spoke outside the court after michael cohen arrived in the courtroom shortly before 4:00 p.m. and is guilty to a felony charges facing john thain. based -- jail time, based on reporting from "new york times" and others. [video clip] robert: good afternoon, everyone. my name is robert --, and i am the attorney for the united states in this matter. is still sweeney,

assistant director in charge of the new york field office of the fbi, and james rodney, the supervisory agent in charge of the new york office of the irs. joining me on the prosecutors who prosecuted the cohen matter. i am going to have a restatement and will not be taking any questions. today, as you heard, michael cohen plan guilty to a felony charges. with taxhose dealt evasion for the years 2012 the 26th in, in which he failed to report approximately $4.1 million in reported income, approximately $2.5 million of that money was from interest payments from a personal loan that he failed to report. approximately $1.3 million of that money was from the operation of his tax medallion business. approximately $100,000 of that money was from brokerage commissions. and over $200,000 was from

consulting fees. that is over $4.3 million over a five-year period, which translates into a laws to the united states treasury of approximately $1.3 million. in addition, and cap six, mr. cohen played guilty to making false statements to a financial institution in connection to an application for a home equity line of credit. in that application, he failed to disclose more than $14 million in debt that he had, and as a result of that concealment, he obtained that $500,000 line of credit, which he would not have been entitled to had he been candid and honest. pleadition, mr. cohen guilty to two campaign-finance charges, one for causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and a second one for personally making an excessive personal

contribution, both for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election. in addition, what he did was to silence toney women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 26th in campaign and to the candidate and the campaign. in addition, mr. cohen sought reimbursement for that money by committing invoices to the candidate's company, which were untrue and false. indicated that the reimbursement was for services rendered for the year 2017, when in fact those invoices were a sham. he provided no legal services for the year 2017, and it was obtaina means to reimbursement for the unlawful campaign contribution. a couple points i would like to make. first, these are very serious

charges and reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty overextended period of time. they are significant in their own right. they are particularly significant when done by a lawyer, a lawyer who, through training and tradition, understands what it means to be a lawyer, to engage in honest and fair dealings. disregarded that training, disregarded that tradition and decided that he was above the law, and for that, pay a very to serious price. with respect to the campaign-finance violations, the campaign finance laws are designed to prevent the use of illegal money in elections and to maintain the integrity of those elections. mr. cohen made guilty plea for those campaign violations, and those are four violations. was, it is did

illegal for corporations to make contributions to candidates, and it is illegal to make contributions in excess of the amount that congress set for individuals. that is a strong message today, and we we will not fear prosecuting additional corporation -- campaign-finance case. lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this case is unique in many ways. -- astness, the gathering witnessed by the gathering of all of you today. in a really important way, this many cases unlock that my office, the united states attorney's office, the department just as friends, and the departments do as well and the fbi and irs to this case has more in common than all those cases have they all share the same message, and that message is that the rule of

law applies, and that for law enforcement, all of whom are gathered here, it is our commitment that we will pursue and vindicate those who choose to break the law and vindicate the majority of people who live law-abiding lives, who follow honest and fair dealings, and live lives of lawful behavior. that we are here, prosecutors are here, the department of justice is here, the law enforcement agency is here. there a nation of laws, and essence of what this case is about is justice, and that is an equal playing field for all persons in the eyes of the law, and that is a lesson that mr. cohen learned today and a very harsh one for him. thank you very much. >> who is the candidate you are talking about?

robert: one other thing. i am sorry. my fault. i really want to make mr. swinney and james rodney of the fbi and the irs and the agents to work with them. we do many cases with them, and their determination and their fair dealings and the vigor with which they pursue , i cannot express the gratitude for the hard work that case, andn this that is the attorneys on israel griswold, nick ruth, rachel naiman, tom mckay, as well as the deputy chief of the public theuption unit and capone, chief of the public corruption unit. on, but they are satisfied simply being known as public service, prosecutors in

law enforcement, who are doing their job. thank you very much. >> can they tell us who the candidate is? host: outside of new york city courtroom to this headline from bloomberg news, "michael cohen admitting to illegal contributions in a blow to donald trump." naming the candidate who is behind those allegations, the payments to foreign star -- porn star stormy daniels and playboy playmate karen mcdougal, both of whom at relations with the president. congressman duncan hunter represents the san diego area. he is running for reelection. "and wife indicted on charges they use campaign money for personal expenses." hunter and his wife, margaret, are accused of spending more

than $250,000 in campaign funds on family vacations, school theater tickets, and other personal expenses, according to the justice department. it is all under investigation, including charges for an italian vacation, dental work, purchases ata surf shop, huge tabs bars in washington, d.c. and san diego, and airfare for a pet rabbit to fly with the family. they say it was mistakenly charged to the wrong account. heter, a former marine, says rejects the charges. a republican from california, along with his wife, indicted on d campaign money for personal expenses.

busy afternoon. busy, busy. leo on the democrats line. caller: in light of the accusations in the things that have been proven about the misdeeds of our current president, how can you follow him so blind and say that nothing went wrong, that this is a witchhunt? he is guilty as sin. i am a former marine, and i did not serve this country to have a guy in the white house like this. thank you. carlo in athens, tennessee. thank you. caller: i was wondering why the charges with mr. manafort for evading taxes when we are looking for trump collusion. how do things like this happen? why doesn't the attorney general get involved in these things? the other one, people have to realize that we do not elect a saint in the white house.

we elect a man to stand for the country. i have lived here for years. lifeold me when in your you see the economy booming like it is now. if you don't believe me, come to athens, i tennessee, and everywhere, we need people. the program that we have now, we have so many in the news that hate donald trump. i do not see why. i mean, look what he has done for the united states. and it is true, he caught a faint -- he is a man, just like me and you. these people do not pay taxes, i wonder how many we have chased there wasn't, how many lawyers will be out of there? lawyers havemany chased mr. manafort. i have lived in the united states or 30 years, and i've

never seen in my life this economy. i can put my past with any lawyer that chased and persecute mr. manafort, and i wonder one of them, how many millions of dollars? it is now mr. manafort is in the corner, and i do not see why we keep chasing it and chasing and chasing it. what are we chasing it for? we started with russian collusion. mueller, where are we going to end up? are we going to chase the whole united states? starting with donald trump, what do you prove? nothing. host: carlos, thank you for the call. this afternoon, senator burke, the chair of the senate intelligence committee, and senator warner, vice chair, both reacting to today's developments, speaking to reporters on capitol hill. [video clip] >> there you go.

r: the vice-chairman and i have a statement as it relates to michael cohen. all of today'sve reporting about michael cohen with great interest. he seems to be pleading guilty on very serious charges, however, we have no insight into any agreements he and his legal team at allegedly reached with the prosecutors in new york. what we can say is that we recently reengage mr. cohen and his team following press reports that suggested he had advanced knowledge of a june 16 meeting between campaign officials and the n.a. russian lawyer at the trump tower. mr. cohen has testified before the committee that he was not aware of any meeting prior to this disclosure in the press last summer. as such, the committee inquired mr. cohen's legal team asked whether cohen stood by his testimony. they responded that he did stand

by his testimony. we hope that today's developments in mr. cohen's plea agreement will not preclude him from an appearance before the committee, as needed, for our ongoing investigation. thank you, guys. in jail, from his previous agreement -- int: senator richard burr behind him, senator mark warren, the chair and vice chair of the senate intelligence committee, which is conducting its own investigation into russia and allegations of meddling in the 2016 election, and new allegations that russia is still involved in 2018. we have headlines involving microsoft. senator richard blumenthal, democrat of connecticut and a fierce critic of donald trump "no what tweeet -- is above the law, not manafort and not his former boss, donald trump. not a witch hunt for a hoax. this milestone verdict is a

message -- the special counsel is for real getting results through real facts and evidence compelling to a jury of americans." host: the president is in charleston, west virginia. a rally. we will have it for you live at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. on our line for independents, good evening. caller: hello. i would like to indicate the peak coming on the phone, and wondering what paul manafort convictions has to do with the russia investigation. how manafort came on the investigation to russia when he fled ukraine along with the dictator of ukraine. host: paul manafort is a u.s. citizen. he did not flee to ukraine. he did work for the ukrainian president, but he did

-- caller: he left the president. the president fled, and he left also, and he left broke. so he came to this campaign -- he has a direct link to the russian government, because he worked in that capacity. so people are acting like they cannot draw that conclusion. i'm a business major with a doctorate to i say we look at every case, every instance, and there are clear signs of collusion and beer see that are and conspiracy that are so overt, and people need to stop loving at president and start looking at all the money laundering efforts in his hotels that have been going on for 25 to 30 years. host: caroline, thank you so much for the call from louisiana. a key player in all of this has been michael avenatti. he has been on the cable shows

and talking about his client, stormy daniels. he tweeted this -- "the developments of today will stayt us to have the listed in the civil case and should also permit us to proceed expeditedcident at deposition of trump under oath about what he knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it. we will disclose it all to the public." making a clear reference to donald trump. the weather has passed in northern virginia, so our cameras are still outside the federal courthouse in alexandria, virginia. we had expected that we would hear from the prosecuting attorneys. of nexte until the end week to determine whether or not they want to retry the 10 charges in which paul manafort was not convicted. ondid find a guilty charge eight charges of bank fraud and tax evasion.

we will continue to monitor that in alexandria, virginia. meanwhile, the president and charleston, west virginia. air force one arriving shortly before 6:00 eastern time. the president andmeanwhile, thef the plane and having these remarks. [video clip] pres. trump: >> mr. president, any reaction to the news out of the manafort trial, or to the michael cohen -- >> michael cohen -- >> any reaction, mr. president, to michael cohen? [inaudible]

>> mr. president! mr. president, any reaction? pres. trump: i feel badly. paul manafort is a good man. he was with ronald reagan. he was with a lot of different people over the years. i feel very bad about that. it does not involve me, but it still feel -- it is a very sad thing. this has nothing to do with russian collusion. this started with russian collusion. this has nothing to do -- it is a witchhunt, and it is a disgrace. this has nothing to do with what they started out looking for russian involvement in our campaign. there were none. i feel very badly for paul manafort. again, he worked for bob dole, he worked for ronald reagan, he worked for many people.

and this is the way it ends up. it was not the original mission, believe me. it has nothing to do with russian collusion. they continue the witchhunt. thank you. >> mr. president, any comment on michael cohen? host: that was the president just about hour ago, and this is live inside the civic center in charleston, west virginia, the president calling it a make america great again again rally, promises made, promises cap, with the american flag front and center, and we will have it for you live. of course virginia is a key senate race in which a democratic senator is running for a reelection in a state where president trump won easily. joe manchin is the former governor and now the freshman senator running for a second time. the president hoping he can flip the state and put a republican

in that seat. meanwhile, politico has the headline "paul manafort found guilty on eight counts." reaction to all of this. wendy in middle river, maryland. democrats line. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i want to say this is a great day for america and a lesson to everyone -- follow the rule of law. it is for everyone, rich in poor. manafort was found guilty on eight counts, and i hope they charge him on the other 10 charges. if president trump tries to pardon him, we will march and we will protest. if he tries to fire mueller, we will march and we will did, yous never cohen can bet that trump has done that and then some. where are his tax returns?

everybody talking about what hillary did, she sat through, what, 30 hours of testimony? she has been accused of everything for decades, yet she has been found to have zero indictments, so stop reflecting. host: let me move on to a wendy from caller, maryland, thank you, angela on the republican line. go ahead, angela. caller: hi. i want to say that i do believe this is nothing but a witchhunt, and myself and all the other women that i know, that even changed to vote republican, we all voted on behalf of senator , and schaefer from georgia how some people forget about her and all of the other stuff, and that is exactly what we voted for trump. i would vote for him again, and i do believe that this is nothing but a witchhunt. you know what, why would anybody believe these shyster lawyers

and somebody who has been in the porno industry connected to drugs, human trafficking, the exploitation of women, and her lawyer, who now says he wants to run for president. but like i said, all the women that i know that voted for him and will vote for him again, we voted on behalf of senator nancy schaefer from georgia, and god rest her soul. thank you and god bless. host: thank you for the call. again, the scene in alexandria, virginia, and the rain has returned to northern virginia. heavy been a day with rain. protective gear, doing their live shot some of on the conviction, eight charges for paul manafort. join us on the phone is ben, who has been following all of this for political. -- politico.

thank you so much for joining us on a very busy morning. the conviction of eight charges, 10 that were thrown out here to the jury said they were unable to reach a verdict in those indictments, and so the prosecution has until the end of next week to determine whether or not it will retry or refile charges in those 10 cases. what are you hearing? are not hearing much from paul manafort's defense team. they came out, his wife, first of all, came out and said nothing. his lead lawyer, kevin downing, came out and said that he would be considering the options before mr. manafort. it was not clear if he would take a pardon for the president authority to thank the judge and the jury for the trial, little bighorn for president trump to wasm that manafort's trial

unfair. what is more serious is the michael cohen guilty plea that happened at almost exactly the same time that does appear to completely implicate the president in a campaign finance contribution. in his court appearance in new york city, he does face jail time. we do not know whether or not he is scoring with prosecutors in the robert mueller investigation, but clearly on the charges of campaign-finance violations relating to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, correct? guest: i should clarify that i do not believe there has been an indication that he is cooperating with those prosecutors. he has implicated the president as part of his plea, which is something that is in his own interest, possibly, and we do know that the fbi has seized a

large number of devices and records from cohen. it is not clear that they need much active cooperation from them in the case, but i've not seen an indication that he is cooperating. it is possible that i missed it -- host: no, you are correct. he did connect donald trump to the payments to stormy daniels and to karen mcdougal. guest: yes, that is absolutely right. host: we're talking with ben schreckinger, his team of reporters at politico. we did hear from the president very briefly late this afternoon, saying he feels bad for paul manafort. some speculating that might lead , potentially, to a presidential pardon. guest: that is right. that has been hanging over the entire mueller probe, other investigations, trump associates like the one we have seen with michael cohen. political bombshell likely if you try to do that before the midterms, certainly

if you did that in the next week or so before the government has to decide whether or not to retry mr. manafort on those other 10 counts, it is likely that it would lead to a retrial on those 10 counts. but it also appears to have informed manafort's strategy, his unwillingness to cooperate at all with others to flip on president trump. it may have been motivated in part by the prospect of a pardon, so we will see if that happens. host: ben schreckinger, we will hear from the president in just a couple of minutes. he is in charleston, west virginia. based on what we have seen a couple of hours ago, he seems combative and ready to fight. guest: yes. par for the course for president trump. there are often events that come up in the news at these campaign rallies that keep the

president's focus not on the race that he is coming to make an endorsement in or to campaign in but instead on news directly about his white house. today is no exception, and i would add that while the president is expected to be on stage, omarosa manigault newman is expected to be on msnbc, releasing some new reporting orating to the white house trump associates, which is just the nonstop to firehose of news that we have seen today. host: ben schreckinger, you may not be following this story because so much is happening, so i apologize if i put you on the spot, but the late development involving republican donald hunter, he is facing charges of misuse of hundreds of thousands of campaign-finance money over the last couple of years, both he and his wife will appear in a

courtroom later this week. just how worried should republicans be about this one seems in the san diego area? guest: well, every seat counts. it is expected that the support of the house will be close. the more you have getting indicted, the harder it is to holding onto the eats. these retirement than indictments do add up one by one and do make it easier for the democrats to take back the house. i would add, one thing that is sort of extraordinary about this indictment, duncan hunter was one of the first members of congress to endorse the president way back in the early primary one very few members of touch him, ando chris cullen also recently it is indictment

after indictment after indictment of trump loyalists and trump associates, it is extraordinary. host: we are hearing that those feel strongly in favor of supporting him. guest: that is right. i don't think that most of trump's supporters were voting based on the idea that he was the most outstanding, ethical , or that he associated with the most outstanding, ethical people. cases, moreany about a dislike for hillary clinton, the need for an outsider, channeling anger, and we have seen it again and again and again that scandal does not seem to be dissuading trump supporters after a year and a half of scandals, his popularity

has gone up among republicans over the course of his presidency. no indication that the events of today or what will cause large portions of his base to abandon him. host: ben schreckinger at politico.com, and this headline, paul manafort guilty on eight counts. saying he paid hush money at candidate trump's direction. a live development on this tuesday afternoon and tuesday evening. thanks for being with us. guest: thanks for having me. host: ben schreckinger mentioned donald trump supporters, thousands of them have the civic center in charleston, west virginia. we will have live coverage of his speech when it gets underway. meantime, more of your headlines. phone calls. this headline from the "wall street journal," saying trump told him to pay off the women. charisse in virginia. caller: yes, i know those two wanted to plead guilty of money

laundry. spendtrump attorney will decades behind bars. what is going on with those people? even donald trump supporters, they voted for him, why was that going on with him? , andis the reason why hillary clinton and protesters decide to blame donald trump, and they say they just try with the decision to make up with this, and they need some education. -- the credit cards, they need to save money without credit cards? host: charisse, thank you for the call. line,to dale, republican

washington, good evening. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i listen to a lot of these listeners, and i think a lot of them live in a bubble, in my opinion. so what,guy in there, he did a few things wrong before he ever got in office. who hasn't? for thisne more country in a year and a half van the last three presidents did in 16 years, and they will not let it go. aboutobert khuzami michael cohen, he is spouting off what a good job they did and oh, they prosecuted him, well, they gohe hell didn't after hillary and bill clinton and their daughter for what they have done? and yet they keep after this guy that wants to do something for this country, build our military up. i am as army and that.

anyhow, you get the people that michael, that blumenthal, and they do not say a damn thing about him. andi served in vietnam things like that, yet they are always after this guy, and it gets old after a while. host: we have been hearing from both sides. dale, let me ask you this, how do we get beyond the political divide between the hillary campaign and the truck campaign in this country, just from your standpoint as you look at this? caller: that is exactly what it is. why didn't they investigate her in just rolling underneath the carpet like they have been doing? you know she did some wrong, like the iranian deal and that. people do not realize mueller was in on that with her. he went to russia with her to sell that. host: where do you get that information? i have not heard that at all.

it is robert mueller, by the way. caller: mueller, yeah, robert mueller, he actually went to russia with her to make a deal with them. host: a deal for what? caller: to sell this uranium that we have over here. host: and your source for that, dale? caller: pardon? host: your source? caller: i read a book, i think it was by casey, he wrote a book, it just came out, it was a bestseller, about two months ago. host: that is totally news to to and we have been trying follow this closely. i will take your word for it, but i have not heard of a. caller: he was just on a talk show the other day, too, talking about the book and all of the people, casey and all of them were involved in all of this stuff. host: i would imagine if that

were true, you would be hearing from the president and for republicans up and down the island that. caller: well, he has been on there. it was a bestseller, and i loaned it to my brother, and i cannot remember the author right now. he covered all of this, fbi agents, and everything else that was involved in all of this. host: ok. we're going to move on, but dale, thanks for the call from washington state. on the independent line, patrick from houston, texas. we are awaiting the president, who is expected to speak with any hour in charleston, west virginia. caller: thanks for taking my call. i am an independent. i concur strongly with your last caller. it is amazing how the prosecutor was so sanctimonious, saying "no one is above the law," after what crooked hillary did. it is amazing to me. it is remarkable. we all see through it. we know it is a witchhunt. it is a joke.

you posed a question -- how is the divide going to get settled? /host: on both sides. caller: i will tell you how the divide is going to get settled. more and more people are getting to work, getting their jobs back, getting raises some of stock market is going up, 401k's are increasing. president trump is doing a fantastic job nationally, situations that were completely bungled by hillary and obama, that is how the divide will get conquered. more and more people were realizing, and they will jump on the truck train. no doubt in my mind. host: we have not seen a tweet from the president, but we did hear from the president. he is in west virginia. he will be speaking shortly after house speaker nancy pelosi writes the following -- "today's verdict

against campaign chairman paul manafort and the guilty plea by the president's personal lawyer michael cohen are further evidence of the rampant #culture of corruption and criminality at the heart of trump's inner circle." she goes on to say " cohen's admission of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in hush money at the direction of the candidate to influence the 2016 election shows donald trump's claims of ignorance to be far from accurate and places him in even greater legal jeopardy." the center in charleston, west virginia is passed to capacity. willy is joining us from kansas, democrats line, reacting to today's developments. my name is willie cole, united states green beret, retired.

trump says he likes uneducated howle, and this shows ignorant -- and i do not mean to say that negative about americans, but a sergeant major who commanded soldiers in the green berets and special forces who got killed because people lie and die. everybody knows that no program can be implemented, like this tax cut, and the guy who called talking about jobs and all that years takes damn near two for a program to the infamous it. the lady who called talking about hillary clinton. let's be real, ok? you want to talk about hillary and then all of a sudden when it then trump is, the almighty think. lou talkingssman

about the conviction of all metaphor and the indictment of congressman duncan hunter " reaffirm three principles that are self-evident -- truth is truth, corruption is corruption, the law is the law." "truth is truth" the fourth a reference to lawyer rudy giuliani, who told "meet the press' todd that "the truth is not always the truth." of course we carry "meet the press." stephen west virginia, republican line, where the president is. i am kind of different. i want republicans clean. i want them good. if these guys have any dirt in their background, let's get it out and get rid of it. we do not need them. wonder why they keep

getting clobbered in these elections. they won't do that. table cover for these people. saysnot care what anybody -- even obama's lawyer admitted that one certificate he submitted was false. theit was fake. but they keep this ongoing cover-up for him. clean them up. get rid of them. and i am a persian gulf veteran in the 1980's when we were escorting the tankers over there from kuwait, and i can tell you right now that the u.s. navy is in bad shape. i monitor one facebook page for the people that still do my job, was 18 months long, and now they are sending out people to do that same type of job with less than six to eight weeks training at most.

is what eight years of barack obama did for this country. host: thanks for the call. we go to martha in cypress, texas, independent line. from the "washington post" -- "paul manafort convicted on eight counts, and 10 other charges thrown out. the jurors unable to reach a conviction on those charges." the headline from the "washington post." martha, go ahead. caller: i think it is an absolute joke. robert mueller is a joke. if he cared about the russian collusion, why doesn't he look about obama the great and killary. host: from charleston, west virginia, the president of writing about an hour and a half ago and addressing supporters at a make america great again rally. live coverage here on c-span and c-span radio app. also posted on our website