this is g w news live from berlin u.s. president donald trump at the center of historic events on both sides of the globe in a few hours trump and north korean leader kim jong un are expected to sign a joint agreement capping their second summit what if any progress has been made in denuclearizing north korea and is there any substance in trump's bid to turn an enemy into a friend. but in the u.s. capital it's the words of a former trump friend turned that captured most of the attention as michael cohen

from former fixer and attorney told congress that the commander in chief is really a commander in chief. keef's of rhesus. he is a con man. and he's a cheat i fear that if he loses the election in two thousand and twenty that there will never be a peaceful transition of power. i'm berghoff it's good to have you with us it is eight am in hanoi vietnam and today both the u.s. president and the north korean leader are expected to tell us whether their talks have brought the world closer or further from the threat of nuclear conflict donald trump and kim jong un will sign a joint agreement a few hours from now our reporters are there and we'll have team coverage from annoy but it is what happened. in washington on capitol hill yesterday that

continues to captivate much of the u.s. and the world for more than seven hours before a house oversight committee the man who once said that he would take a bullet for donald trump fired off one damning indictment after another against the u.s. president trump's former fixer and personal lawyer said the president had prior knowledge of leaked e-mails from the democratic party during the twenty sixteen presidential campaign he also said trump instructed him to break campaign finance law. mr kohut said only it's the beginning of the process not the end ladies and gentleman the days of this committee protecting the president at all costs over. the democratic controlled house flex this muscle with michael cohen's live testimony and they couldn't have chosen a more colorful witness to kick off their public oversight hearings i am ashamed

because i know what mr trump is he is a racist he is a con man. and he is a cheat cohen was president trump's personal lawyer for a decade before he was caught up in the probe of russian interference in the twenty sixteen presidential election he was called to capitol hill to testify on possible criminal conduct by the president and his inner circle including his son in law son and campaign manager related to the election and beyond cohen said the president had directed him to break campaign finance laws with hush money payments to porn star stormy daniels. i am providing a copy of a thirty five thousand dollars check that president trump personally signed from his personal bank account on august first of twenty seventeen when he was president of the united states pursuant to the coverup which was the basis of my

guilty plea to reimburse me cohen also painted a portrait of a candidate who encouraged associates to do anything to get him elected that included communicating with wiki leaks about email stolen from his opponent hillary clinton and stone told mr trump that he had just gotten off the phone with julian a song and that mr stange told mr stone that within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of e-mails that would damage hillary clinton's campaign mr trump responded by stating to the effect without the great drums personal financial cohen provided no smoking gun of the trump campaign's collusion with russia he suspects it he said but he has no concrete evidence but if wednesday's hearing is any indication the rest of the trump presidency will be dogged by inquiry as congressional democrats expand their investigation of the president's business and political affairs. lights well let's take this story now to the u.s.

capitol where correspondent held a humphrey is standing by in washington good evening to you how well the testimony of why cocoa will redefine the trial presidency many people have been saying that just today do you agree well brant i think it's fair to say that the democrats will certainly be hoping that they hope that this testimony will spark impeachment proceedings i mean certainly this was a moment of political history here in washington from ten am bars were open for hearing watching parties everybody was glued to their t.v. sets essentially a mystic cohen set out to he painted a picture of mr trump being something akin to a mole false minus your body counts and many people adoring parallels to his testimony and certainly another defining moment about being one nine hundred seventy three on the testimony of another presidential lawyer john dean in the

watergate scandal now off to his testimony was delivered that was a turning point in that investigation and richard nixon actually resigned the year their office said what we saw maps wasn't so inflammatory in terms of painting the president as a lie a racist and cheat i think that mud has been thrown for the past two years now and what the democrats were looking for was a smoking gun and they certainly found some gunpowder what would you say was the most damning indictment that was leveled by cohen a good strong yesterday. i think what the democrats will be pinning their hopes on is the smoking a revolver was when mr cohen produced the check a copy of that check to congress to the tune of thirty five thousand dollars which he said was paid to him to reimburse him for the payments the hush money payments he made to stormy daniels and not check was dated august twenty seventeen of course when president trump was well and truly ensconced in his role as president two of

the things that i think a worth pointing out though is that mr cohen says that he is aware of a further investigation into illegality potentially committed by mr trump which we cannot speak about because it's currently under investigation by federal prosecutors in new york and something else i think that's been largely glossed over is testimony to congress and how the president trumps annoy is also shaped that that testimony from mr cohen which of course had led to his conviction our correspondent helen humphrey of the story for us in washington d.c. tonight i want to thank you very much all right from washington politics to global geopolitics day two of the second summit between u.s. president donald trump and north korean leader kim jong un has begun the leaders met for a short time wednesday evening longer talks are planned for today when they're expected to sign a joint declaration truck wants to push him to give up his nuclear weapons program

in exchange for economic development we hear that the mood there appears to be positive young is talking of ground breaking results at the summit world trump has held a very special relationship between him and the north korean leader. well i'm joined now by being bigger here in the studio with me he's a senior fellow in asia expert at the german council on foreign relations it's good to have you here mr berger and our correspondent last year hard to get following events for us on the ground in hanoi let me start with you walk us through the schedule for the two leaders over the next few hours. yeah it's morning here in illinois and the two leaders are about to kick off the second day of their summit with a one on one bilateral meeting which is going to take place at that hotel where

they had dinner last night then that's scheduled to last about forty five minutes and then that will be expanded and delegations will be divide invited in that's going to be followed by a working lunch at noon and then there will be that agreement signing ceremony and we're all of course waiting to see what's going to be in that agreement if it's going to be any more concrete any more specific then what came out of the singapore summit last june and then and that's going to be interesting there's going to be or there's on the schedule at least there's a press conference but all trump now looking back to the singapore summit that press conference lasted really long because donald trump was seemed extremely confident after after that summit in singapore now we're all of course waiting to see if that's going to be the same today because surely reporters will be asking a lot of questions about what the news coming out of washington that also reverberated here because last night there were some reporters were barred from

that dinner event some reporters from the white house press pool after they had a as i had asked questions about the cohen affair and the very good point bussed in this summit now being overshadowed by events in washington a bit let me ask you if we look at this through the eyes of the north korean leader after their first summit of the world said he was the one who actually came out looking like a winner what is what is he looking to get out of this second some who are really needs some relief of sanctions he needs something that you can bring home and then term so forth and come to me that you can start what he has begun here has turned propaganda inside north korea to what's good cannot be growth and opening and he needs to deliver on that but he doesn't have to make any more. promises of deep nuclearization well there were long talks before the summit and one of the key points that were unclear until the end was the common wording on what newt denuclearization actually means and what the common goals actually are and that's

very leave that factor which will looking forward to what really the wording be because that this we're trying to take home so who do you think is in a stronger position at this point the u.s. president or the north korean leader i think it's more like a conflict resolution process for both sides need to check what is possible and then they try to take what they can get at the end of it a small steps that matter at the moment but the big deals so i think if you get something like a symbolic act like it and go for agreement and most of them both in the grim and the process being set up then it's a great success let me pull bussy back in boston so we know that both leaders are set to sign this joint agreement today what do you hearing there are we expecting there to be something in this joint agreement that is going to be unprecedented or is this going to be more of a p.r. window dressing which the u.s. president is known for. well that's

a very good question and it's really a bit early to to know there's nothing no information leaking out as to as to what might be in that agreement but of course a lot of people are expecting. for example some sort of framework that might be used then to gauge the progress towards denuclearization if that might happen because that was what was missing in the singapore agreement completely that was really vaguely worded and there's nothing really that you could hold the leaders accountable by and in fact there were reports saying that kim jong il and the north korean regime were they push forward with their with their nuclear plans and the development of their nuclear stockpile and increase that stockpile even now. of course waiting to see today if some if there's if there will be something in that agreement that will allow for. a gaging of that problem progress as it were brant

and bussy you know if you compare this summit with the first summit and what came out of the first summit i don't trump was was criticized for being too lenient or perhaps being just weak against the north korean leader and there was also criticism that there just wasn't a lot of substance that came out of that first substance first summit do you get the sense though that people are expecting the second summit to produce something that is more substantive. absolutely absolutely that's what the expectations are even though donald trump already played down those expectations in the run up to the summit saying he would already be happy if north korea continued to not test nuclear weapons and to not test missiles but yes the expectations are definitely there that after that first summit where everyone said ok it was a first meeting there were there was a lot of criticism but at least you got the process started and then the

negotiations started and he did sit down with the north korean leader for the very first time and they started this diplomatic process but now of course they're waiting to see concrete steps because they're saying ok look i mean there's got to be there's got to come to a point where we where we actually make progress on this you know it's a very good point and after that first summit people were shocked that the u.s. president agreed to cancel those joint military exercises with south korea are you expecting do you think it's possible that the president could pull something out of his hat this time. it was not to shock so that i wouldn't think he has to prove something about this moratorium of the trick since there's a quote normal standards and such agreements and at this stage the only thing that he could pull out is the end of four greenman which legally doesn't mean anything but it sounds very good in a simple there can something that he can sell it for him or we watching to see what comes out of that bear here in the studio with me and question harvey in annoy both

of you thank you very much you're watching news from berlin up next the documentary venice and i'll be back at the top of the hour with our special coverage from annoying of this second summit and to see that. first day in school in the jungle. for first climbing less of a minute door as grand a moment arrives. joining a reckoning on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary story and on writing returns home on t w dot com tang's.