>> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." last week president trump former personal attorney, michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison. joining us now is his former attorney, lanny davis. who now because of the sentencing is no longer serving as attorney but as a friend of the spokesperson and counselor. the president tweeted this morning about your former clie client, remember michael cohen only became a rat after the fbi did something that was absolutely unthinkable and unheard of they broke into an attorney's office. what is your response to that? >> this is a tough law enforc enforcement officer in our system of government calling somebody who decides to tell the government the truth, a rat. that's language of a mobster not of a president but michael cohen

took ownership and personal responsibility for lying and he's going to jail as consequence, he authorized me several times to say, he wouldn't take a pardon from donald trump if it was handed to him. so now -- >> brennan: never discussed? >> never. but he announced ahead of time, wouldn't take it even if it was handed to him. and let's remember that michael cohen has corroborating evidence for everything he said. mr. mueller does on the purpose of the money paid to stormy daniels, same man who called michael cohen a rat, denied on air force one that he knew anything about stormy daniels, mr. guiliani who this american was on television accusing michael cohen of lying. the very next day waved attorn attorney-client privilege said, no, his client did pay stormy daniels. michael cohen is now taking ownership in his statement to the court of his personal responsibility for his behavior when he worked nor donald trump.

now that he saw donald trump as president he underwent a genuine transformation because he feared for his country and his family when donald trump was president. >> brennan: to clarify the president said the fbi broke into his office i believe michael cohen said that it was okay transaction with the fbi something he consend to. >> not only consented to, he thanked them for their courtesy as they left and you have a president denouncing the fbi, lying about a warrant and legal search he's the top law enforcement officer of the country and who does he praise? he praises people who have lied and refused to cooperate. the opposite of what a president should do. >> brennan: you said that michael cohen has evidence to back up his allegations here. >> yes. >> brennan: in the sentencing memo that the special counsel wrote that he provided useful information concerning russia russia-related matters core to its investigation. does that mean, are you saying that cohen actually has evidence

of conspiracy with russia? >> one thing i can't do, is to get in front of mr. mueller's findings i can't answer your question. but i will tell you this. >> brennan: what did you mean by evidence then? >> what did mr. cohen mean by mr. evidence or mr. mueller mean by evidence? i can't tell you anything about what mr. mueller meant. let's wait. when he used the words "core issues" those words are about the russian investigation and mr. mueller is careful with his words. and he also mentioned that mr. cohen provided information regarding the moscow trump tower and that he was contacted by a senior government official and press secretary to vladimir putin there's a lot in the mueller memo that tells you how forthcoming for 70 hours and seven meetings michael cohen was with mr. mueller. >> brennan: prosecutor's office said he provided information concerning contacts with persons connected to the

white house during 2017-2018. can you tell us who he was in contact with? >> again, i can't tell you, i'll wait for mr. mueller to tell y you. just think about it. he publishes ahead of time, which mr. mueller politicized him for the testimony that was a lie about moscow trump tower. he calls the white house and the president knows from the publi published testimony that he is about to lie. not one person from the white house i can tell you this, ever said, don't lie. >> brennan: did he need to be told that? >> well, guess he did need to be told that because he ended up lying he was regretted it he's going to jail for it and he said to the court in his heartfelt way, i take ownership and i don't blame anybody but myself. and apologized for that. >> brennan: the president's attorney, rudy guiliani is defending his client and saying that michael cohen is just a liar, serial liar and he's poi pointing to the idea that there's no way he was ever loyal

to president trump since he surreptitiously recorded him. why did he do that? >> i can see why mr. guiliani mentions recordings because he flat out lied when he said there was no mention of cash by president trump on the tape recording that i went on cnn to play. it was mr. guiliani who lied about that tape recording is evidence that the primary purpose of the pay off of the hush money to miss daniels. the election, it says so on the tape. others corroborate it. mr. guiliani going on the air, ignoring the fact the ftc never ruled that what john edwards did was appropriate. that's a lie. there was ever a ruling. and we will see what the facts, which is something alien to mr , let's see what the facts show. >> brennan: we're going to talk about what all of this means for the president, thank means for the president, thank you, ahead on "face the nation" we'll have some analysis.

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♪ no, you goof. i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. nice. i know, right? ♪ [nose plays a jazzy saxophone tune] believe it. geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance. >> brennan: today's "washington post" that nearly every organization that he's led in the past decade is under investigation. to help us make sense of where we are in some of those investigations, we're joined by trevor potter, the former chairman of the federal election commission and cbs news correspondent, paula reed who has been covering the investigations. you have your plateful there,

that's a good description. first off let you respond, was there anything there in the defense of michael cohen from lanny davis that stood out to you? >> you hit it. did he need to be told not to lie that's common theme that we see emerging. the president, his attorneys and their associates having trouble with the truth. caught lying, having to plead guilty to lie can, that is consistent theme you asked the perfect question, did the white house need to tell him not to lie. >> brennan: something that came up with michael flynn to the president, some defending him saying, it wasn't disclosed that he shouldn't lie when he was speaking to fbi agents. is that entrapment as is being suggested? >> absolutely not. special counsel came out hitting pretty hard this week against these claims by flynn and his lawyers, he was quality off guard by his fbi attorney. they were saying look, you got a call from the deputy director of the fbi, you silt up voluntary

interview at the location of your choice, you have three decades of public service, you have worked with the fbi, you know not to lie. we didn't do this to you, did you it to yourself. >> brennan: trevor, enan op ed you say that the president could become the target of a very serious campaign finance investigation. a criminal one. one of the defenders say, this is small ball, this isn't something that actually gets -- gets to the doorstep of the president it doesn't actually become something that could really become a legal issue for him. why do you disagree? >> well, it's been an extraordinary week. you had the president's lawyer, mr. guiliani say, it's not a big deal, no one was killed. that is not the standard for the president of the united states in terms of complying with the law or all of these people around him. if it were, we wouldn't have bank fraud prosecutions, money laundering, all sorts of other issues. what we have is a law that is central to our election system, to our democracy that requires

full disclosure of campaign spending, prohibits corporate money from being given to a candidate. >> brennan: that's where the ami disclosure matters. >> correct. the owners of the national inquirer who agreed, apparently in a meeting with candidate trump to use their corporate money to buy the story and prevent the american public from knowing about it right in the middle of the run-off to the general election. >> brennan: the president's attorney, rudy guiliani, says none of this really is illegal because it wasn't direct campaign finance money. these were private payments. >> well, they were private payments, it turns out they were by a corporation or by mr. cohen in amounts in excess of what he could give. the bigger picture here is the attempt to hide all of this from the public. the supreme court has said that central to our campaign finance system is full disclosure of money being spent. instead what we have seen is this pattern of trying to di

disreceive the public and hide sources of money in some cases would argue legal sources of money. >> brennan: paula, when it comes to the special counsel investigation, putting the other one aside, how close are we to the conclusion of this? >> rudy guiliani and others consistently said for months that it's wrapping up i think just couple of moments, just on parking particular e. it's not just true. it's not few for a few reasons. we still have prosecution of paul manafort. he won't even be sentenced until february then march in another case. we also know that the grand jury continues to hear from witness witnesses, we know called witnesses regarding roger stone, there are talks about possibly deal. and to resolve all of these things this is going to take months. anyone that would suggest that this is all wrapping up that is just not true. >> brennan: you're projecting out to the spring? >> at least until march when manafort will be sentenced.

the special counsel is still investigating. >> brennan: you take a weak view of what all of this means for the state of the country. you say there's really just deterioration, respect for the rule of law. >> i think the point there is, that you have the defenders of the president as well as the president himself saying that violations of law don't matter. i don't think that's where we are. as a country. we believe in the rule of law. you can make the argument, well, more or less important, i obviously think it's more important. but to say we're just going to ignore violations of law because it's politically convenient, we don't want to talk about it is, i think real problem for the country. these are laws that were enacted after the watergate reforms, when we learned the problems of corruption, of secret money in elections, of payments of hush money. richard nixon's lawyer went to jail for payments of hush money

that were cash payments not disclosed. i think the point that paula makes is important one that a lot of investigations all of a sudden, open every door and there is potentially illegal activity behind it. the inaugural committee we now know about. last week thely by the russian woman who was working with the nra and organizing trips to moscow and organizing russians to mean american politicians, all of this connected to different aspects of the trump campaign with a number of u.s. attorneys' offices looking at it. not just the special continental at this stage and all involve people who are close to the president including family members. >> brennan: trevor, thank yo you, paula, always good to have you on. we'll be right back with our political panel, stay with us.

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kelsey, are you cancelling your christmas plans? >> i am not cancelling -- i would say that depending on -- guess is about 50-50 or maybe a little bit less than 50-50 that a shut down will happen. there really is still the possibility that they could pass something short term not a big spending bill that gets them through the end of the year on that remanning 5% of the government. but something sort. maybe until middle of january or beginning of february just to give them some breathing room to keep negotiating that seems likeliest scenario because it's the easiest thing to write and easiest thing to pass. >> brennan: that opens a new can of worms because you have a different complexion in congress starting in january. >> you absolutely do. also big challenge, particularly for democrats who don't want to get into this fight right at the very beginning of taking power. have to be facing off against the president, potentially making compromises that many of these people were elected saying that they would never compromise on. it would be more difficult for some democrats in particular to

move this conversation to january. >> the president realizes that, which is exactly why we saw what happened this week. the president, we have to keep in mind his role within this kind of shut down potential battle going to be different than other republicans when chuck schumer and nancy pelosi showed up at the white house and said shut down that would make the president back off he clearly leaned into it instead. that factors into his calculation. he may be alone in that, one of the factors that i think we have to keep in mind here is that the incoming chief of staff may have strong opinions. we don't know what shows are that could factor into that. >> brennan: you're hearing from republicans and heard some description from senator barrasso this isn't a whole scale shut down, this is shut down light. not that big of a deal, is it, margaret? >> it happens to affect border agents and tsa agents when both

poes and tavelers id everyone's mind. two factors that i see at play here one is that the president himself has been fascinated with the idea of having the shut down to get a message across for months. maybe for more than a year, let's say, basically since the beginning of the administration. inside the white house as well as on the hill lot of republicans, he so attracted to the idea. on the other idea he wants to be having this fight with democrats his own party. i think if there's a patch of four weeks or something like that, that's the fight that he gets to have. maybe that's the way this will shake out. >> brennan: one of the president's closest advisors said, he's ready to go to shut down. do you think -- >> he's ready. although he is scheduled to go to mar-a-lago. but many people inside the white house as well as on the hill, mitch mcconnell, senate republicans like, you know,

maybe -- there have been ongoing conversations between the house team and those republican leaderships in the house for now and in the senate how to stave it off. but that ultimate conversation the president wants to have about immigration reform, daca, place where some kind of compromise could be possible, is probably not really possible until next year, if at all. >> brennan: i want to ask you, we saw a rare very open crack between the entirety of the republican party and democrats on capitol hill breaking from the president's defense of the crown prince of saudi arabia and having this symbolic resolution, but still a statement saying, they believe the cia even if the president doesn't, in terms of culpability for the killing of thisam k s. this just symbolic, does this indicate some sort of shift at all with the party?

>> i think it shows that both republicans and democrats wanted to say back the narrative of american values and sort of the values that we place beyond human rights and other issues like this. and push back strongly against the more transactional nature of president trump's policies. i think that going into the new year in 2019 will see more that both houses will take up the yemen war resolution again and also rebuke against -- more debate on that. i think that there are strong momentum in both sides to push forward with that. >> brennan: are we misreading it to say it's a break from the president or is congress handing the white house diplomatic tool by saying, oh, look, here is some leverage in your relationship to potentially force some changes in saudi arabia? >> we haven't sensed any motivation on the part of the white house to really push forward with changes or with press or any of the policies.

i think that this is authentic rebuke by congress against the president. >> but keep in mind the context which is that congress has for 18 years really cede the power that face the -- we're still operating under the same -- authorization of the use of military force, the same sort of regime that was put in place after 9/11. congress has kicked the can on this issue time and again i do think it's significant, it is symbolic but it is significant but i think it needs to lead to more steps in order to actually have any real power, otherwise this is just sort of congress saying, yes, we're still here and pretending as if -- time and again congress likes to ceede is power to the administrative branch then complain about it. because it's a lot easier to do that than to make hard choices. >> brennan: we're also seeing the financial market show some nervousness right now about the trade dispute with china, about slow down in europe, about br

brexiit, where do we start the new year on the foreign policy front, ed? >> the trade war what china is the main sort of question that looms overall of this. they have that sort of 90 day grace period which the president said he wouldn't raise tariffs and in theory they are supposed to negotiate during that period. but i've heard that within the white house people are still very entrenched in their view and ride out the 90 days. that will lead to more unsteady movement in the markets and also i think the shut down that we talked about will also shake up the market, i think that the republicans that have to be thinking about that. >> brennan: margaret, mick mulvaney, now moving from onb and is also now chief of staff for the president, you have the interior secretary, ryan zinke departing, who is next or is the president done shaking up his team? >> i don't think that shake up is done. in fact it was only a week ago

when thought that the presiden president's next chief of staff, if he had come in under that arrangement they were discussing it would ha of been interim arrangement. he wasn't comfortable with that a week ago. part that have would have been to execute the sort of staff over hall haul, shake up, whatever you want to call sit now slow rolling underway. when mick mulvaney executed, possibly. all up to the president so some of the other folks who may or may not be on the chopping blo block, education secretary, commerce secretary. ultimately be up to the president, always would have been for months now they have been looking at the mid term elections as a reset point, understanding that if the democrats took the house it would change the dynamic of the second two years of the president's term. now the president is trying to go into this new era in the strongest position as possible so folks who have maggage, political weakness that could drag him down he wants to be able to transi can them out.

some of these places including interior, number two in command would be able to step into that job without some of that political baggage, yes, they are looking right now in the next few months at how many other positions can turn over and who could step in. >> brennan: but the president will need time to confirm. >> that is something that i have been talking to many senators about, their concerns about backlogging the number of peop people. they still need to nominate, approve an attorney general. but the thing that i think is interesting about the white house strategy they are looking forward to democrats in the house, planning a number of investigations. and i've heard democrats say that they don't think that just getting rid of the head of an agency is going to forestall those investigations. the white house intent to avoid that this may not be the strategy that actually gets the outcome that they're hoping for. >> brennan: prepare yourself. we have an interesting thing that may be happening in the next few days in washiton with criminal justice reform be

promised, this is jared kushne kushner's project that he feels personally invested in. there's been disagreement within the republican party that should see the light of day. what does this signal that he he was able to get mitch mcconnell to give some precious time to this bill? >> i think it's very significa significant. the fact is that there have been a real push within the republican coalition for criminal justice reform at the state level backed by the koch brothers and other groups wanted to see it as something that was part of the republican policy portfolio. that really was short circuited by the existence of the donald trump 2016 candidacy running on law and order message that sounded more familiar to those who think that we might be living in the late '70s, frankly nomination of jeff sections as attorney general was something that short circuited that. jared kushner worked very hard within white house to try to push this forward i think it's

significant that this was -- something that finally seeing the light of day. >> brennan: thanks to all of you. we'll be right back. (burke) parking splat. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ new johnson's cottontouch™ a wholwash and lotionre for newborns is born made with real cotton and enhances your gentle touch a new soft a new touch a new gentle new johnson's cottontouch™ (baby cooing) choose gentle i'm sorry, i don't understand-king german) ♪

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>> brennan: that's it for us today. thank you for >> brennan: that's it for us today. we'll see you next week. for "face the nation" i'm margaret brennan. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ the government shutdown showdown. a friday deadline looms with the debate over border wall funding taking center stage. >> we're going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall. >> they're playing games with people's lives. they're playing games with the shutdown. also tonight -- return to paradise. evacuation orders are finally lifted in a town wiped out by a historic wildfire. >> hard to believe that your most expensive things mean ts t. growing outrage over the death of a migrant girl in border patrol custody. her father disputes claims she went without food or water for