♪ been a long, long time coming ♪ >> wait! ♪ change don't come >> now go. >> you really have a terrible voice. >> i see you, john oliver. i see you. i salute you. i thank you. and maybe you inspired all of us. that is our show. thanks for watching "the beat with ari melber." we'll be back 6:00 p.m. eastern. "hardball" starts now. the third man. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. today in a new york city courtroom, the trump circus came to town. donald trump's fixer lawyer michael cohen asked a judge to keep federal prosecutors from looking at documents they seized after raiding every place cohen could have hidden anything. but the most explosive moment came when cohen's lawyer was forced to divulge the identity of one of cohen's clients who

had been kept secret. in preparation for today's hearing, mr. cohen told a federal judge that he had three legal clients in the past two years. the president, a gop fundraiser, and a third client whose identity he asked to keep secret. the unnamed client turned out to be fox news host sean hannity. hannity, who is on air when the news broke explained his relationship with michael cohen. >> michael never represented me in any matter. i never retained him in the traditional sense as retaining a lawyer. i never received an invoice from michael. i never paid legal fees to michael, but i have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which i wanted his input and perspective. >> well, hannity, who had never disclosed his relationship with cohen on the air devoted a number of segments on his program after the raid of

cohen's office last week. let's watch. >> robert mueller is so far beyond his mandate. this is now spiraling out of control. everything that we have warn you'd about is now coming to fruition. and mueller has ostensibly tonight declared war against the president of the united states. clearly his objective is to remove him from office. now i told you, and i told anyone who will listen, mueller's team is corrupt, starting with him. and it has been from the very beginning. >> well, the disclosure was made in front of a packed courtroom today which included stormy daniels. daniels was swarmed by reporters as she entered the courthouse early in the day. and after the hearing, she made this statement to the press. >> for years mr. cohen has acted like he is above the law. he has considered himself an openly referred to himself as mr. trump's fixer. he has played by a different set of rules, or shall we say no rules at all. he has never thought that the

little man or especially women even more, women like me mattered. that ends now. >> well, despite that dramatic scene playing out today, the main legal fight today was over materials seized by or from cohen, rather. cohen's under criminal investigation by the u.s. attorney's office. according to cohen's filing, more than a dozen electronic devices were taken by federal authorities. a dozen. well, late last night, president trump's own lawyer also asked the court to temporarily block prosecutors from reviewing the material. his lawyer requested the judge let cohen review copies of the material and then allowed trump to decide whether or not to assert his privileges, client privilege over them. well, late today the judge rejected cohen's motion for a preliminary injunction calling it premature. for more i'm joined by tom winter, nbc news investigative reporter. he was at cohen's hearing today. . reporter for daily beast and msnbc contributor.

kim wehle. and yamiche, a political contributor here. what happened today in terms of the law? we're out here. everybody is watching this. we're hearing it from "the times" and other sources, the "new york times" that this investigation, this possible development or end game in this whole thing involving michael cohen may be a bigger danger to trump than anything else he faces. along that line, what happened today? >> so, chris, what happened today is we had kind of a split decision if you're going to think of it from a boxing standpoint. so basically, the judge today said, you know, what the president is asking for, he is not going to totally get. what michael cohen is asking for, he is not going to completely get. what the government is asking for, they're not going to completely get. the judge says that she wants more time. basically, what she is saying is i want the sides to get together. i want both koecohen's side ande government's side to put a

couple of names for a general master, think of a referee, somebody toe oversee the privileged documents to give to the government what they're entitled to under the search warrant or not. so she wants some names for somebody who could do that. she also keeps open this idea, and she said something i think is really important, chris. she said the u.s. attorney's office is unimpeachable in their integrity and what they bring to the table as far as their ability to conduct an investigation using their own filter team, which could look at these documents or hard drives or any sort of this material and decide whether or not it's attorney-client privilege or decide whether or not it should be in fact handed over to the investigative team so they can continue this investigation into michael cohen. so nobody got entirely what they wanted today. but basically, both sides are going to come together. they're going to share these materials. so trump, the trump organization and michael cohen will have a chance to see exactly what material they were able to get. you mentioned all the cell phones. they took ten boxes of files.

we found that out today. so basically, chris, we're going to wait for another day to exactly find out how this goes. but the judge definitely got the idea that this needed to proceed quickly. she doesn't want to delay things today. basically, she is hoping for an answer that both sides can work out, some time in the near future. >> one thing that's become increasingly clear is the cohen case represents a clear and friend danger, as i said, to this president. in the wake of the raid, "the new york times" reports mr. cohen and mr. trump were scrambling to assess the damage, unsure what had been taken even. "the times" further report that advisers concluded cohen's investigation a greater and more imminent threat to the president than even the special counsel's investigation. kim, let's talk about this. once they have done all the haggling and the back and forth and they reach a synthesis here, the bottom line it seems to me a lot of material about the president's relationship with his lawyer of his, his fixer, is

going to be in the public realm. we're going visit. >> certainly the prosecutors will ultimately have it. we don't know how much of it is covered by the privilege. of course there has been a myth -- >> but he is not a real lawyer. what could he cover? what kind of legal counsel has he ever given trump? >> we don't know. but i think that's the great point. the privilege is not a blanket that any time you talk to a lawyer it's comfortable. it has to be for the purpose of giving and receiving legal advice. i'm not really surprised that the judge did this. and i think it's important that the justice department is unimpeepable here. the ploy was really to make the argument that the justice department cannot be trusted, that cohen and mr. trump had to come in and make the first cut at what was privileged on the theory that the justice department can't do it in a way that's noncorrupt. and she said no to that. i think the special master makes sense. she is basically saying if you guys can't work it out, i'm going have a third party do it. remember, in the government's paper that. >> basically said we're going do the first cut. our team is going to do the first cut.

if we think there is anything privilege or maybe privileged, we'll give to it mr. cohen and let that be resolved by the judge. so if you read the government's papers, there is already a compromise in there to make sure that a third party gets to calm. >> i'm here, i'm a little guy watching a political story. of course there is legal machinations going on and things have to be done correctly. of course they should. so the question. what's trump got to worry about? and what does the prosecutor have in new york? what did they have on him right now that they could use to squeeze michael cohen and possibly follow the path towards prague to get to a possible deal where there is money paid on behalf of trump to the russians to pay for the hacking of the democratic committee and other things. how close will this take us if they get all that material from those offices? >> from all the reporting that i've done, it's pretty clear that president trump is at least worried about this. michael cohen was someone who worked for him for years. he is someone who was very, very loyal to the president. he is someone who is essentially a keeper of secrets for him, a gate keeper to the president,

someone who is constantly giving him advice, someone who is obviously paying off women on his behalf. there is this idea that whatever they seized has to be of high value because they were basically trying to say let's not take that search warrant. you should have allowed us to figure out what to give you. and the government was saying, no we got this legally through a search warrant. and we need to see what's going on here. the people that i've talked to say michael cohen is someone who did regularly have tapes. that was known kind of thing in the trump circle that he was recording people. so my reporting says there are tapes out there somewhere. whether or not they were seized, whether or not they're even something that's illegal is a whole another story. >> avenatti is the lawyer for stormy daniels said michael cohen will be in big trouble if he has those tapes because you need two-party approval to do it. >> well, in new york from my understanding, you only need one party. >> he says you need two. >> my understanding as a reporter and someone who has read it is you need one party. the quicker and bigger question is not oh, it legal to record this person. i think the bigger problem is what was set on the tapes.

>> on friday mcclatchy news service reported to two anonymous sources familiar with the matter that cohen made a late summer trip to prague. he entered the czech republic through germany through august or september of 2016, as the ex-spy reported. that's in the dossier. if true, the reporting would bolster the credibility of allegations initially made in the infamous or notorious steele dossier. playing a key role in the trump campaign and kremlin relationship. in that capacity, he had travelled to prague, that's cohen, in august or september. msnbc has not confirmed this story. in response cohen reported bad reporting, bad information, bad story. no matter how many times they write it, i've never been to prague. i was in l.a. with my son. proven. >> that's a whole lot right there. it's really important to remember just how hard michael cohen has pushed back against these prague allegations.

he takes these allegations very seriously. >> well, he should. collusion with the russians. >> the fact of whether or not he went to prague is at the heart of the dossier. thus far we haven't seen any public evidence that this is true. mcclatchy didn't report that he went to prague. he just reported that mule mayor have some sex offender that he did. if he had gone to prague, of course, that would have been incredibly consequential. >> what do you mean some evidence? >> i'm not sure. that's how mcclatchy characterized it, the verbiage they used. cohen has gone on an offense against these allegations. see suing buzzfeed. the discovery process is a very interesting one specifically related to the fact that the dossier said he had gone to prauchlgt. >> let's talk about this sean hannity piece. sean hannity has been very tough on mueller. that's whose side he is on. now it comes out he had some relationship with mueller that -- cohen. if he said i've not had him as a

lawyer, i've never paid him a nickel, ask kim. if he never paid a nickel, is he his client? >> he said he has asked for legal advice. >> sure, you don't need to pay someone to be covered by the attorney-client privilege. if he is saying he wasn't my lawyer, he can waive those conversations. >> why would mr. cohen -- i don't know the guy. i can't quite figure him out. i thought that ben stiller had a take on him on saturday night that was pretty good. what's it mean when he says i only got three clients on this earth. two of them are these republican guys, trump and this other guy, the fat cat whoa had the abortion case he was involved with paying for. and then this third guy. and the audience in the court goes ooh, the third man. what was the three about? because this is the kind of case the guy handles? >> the judge had basically put them in a koempbt. you filed this extraordinary motion for temporary restraining order. you say you have thousands of conversations.

give me a list. they almost blew themselves up with their own bomb. >> i guess if a guy says he's not my lawyer and the other guy says he is his lawyer, who wins that argument? >> the bottom line is the argument is won by the guy who is in court who the judge just ordered on the spot as she did today who is this mystery third client? at that point you've mad a statement before a judge there is no back out there. the interesting thing about this, chris, this pertained to clients in the past two years. so the way that they phrased this, these were clients in 2017 or 2018 where michael cohen was involved. obviously, he was the personal attorney to trump. they said that. obviously he was involved with elliott brodie. and the third person, she compelled them. she said i want to know right now who it is. and they kept saying well, we'll file it under seal. we'll give you this note. they actually had a note in an envelope. and he unfurled it and read sean

hannity's name. this is a situation where they told the court this is somebody who we have done legal work for. i think this is really cut and dry. and i can guarantee you in the interactions that i've had with attorneys whether they be ones that work here at nbc, whether they be ones that i've been involved with in a personal matter, i can tell you right now, they are very clear whether or not they have worked for me, they have worked on behalf me, on behalf of my interests, or they're just somebody i have called for a story. i don't understand where there is any confusion out there, i guess, in the public realm. it's very clear that michael cohen considers sean hannity a client. >> i want to hear from betsy and yamiche. what do you think of a small circle? everything is one degree of separation. this like a little world? it's not six degrees of separation like kevin bacon and that thing. it's like one degree. they're all in this world together. >> the most interesting member of this small world is sean hasn't. >> the it's not surprising michael cohen and donald trump

are all close with each other. we see it on the big side where lawyer will have multiple clients where they're all kind of friends there is this association. what is unusual is hannity's collection. >> this is a very controversial character. >> tom hagan, i have a particular clientele in the godfather. have i one client. in this case he says three clients. >> i think it's almost a non-start they're he was a client, sean hannity. even if he was doing it as a favor and didn't actually pay him money, he was giving legal advice that said before a judge he was client. the most important thing is sean hannity's reporting on michael cohen every day, he is talking to millions of people. as a reporter you have to call into question whether you can objectively start talking about whether or not this lawyer is problematic if he is now someone who has given you legal advice and you are his client. >> george stephanopoulos mentioned the fact he worked for the clintons all those years when he interviewed comey yesterday? i'm asking the same question. >> i have no idea.

>> but you do rend area judgment on trump. >> i will say as a reporter, if i'm someone who has connections to the person that i'm interviewing, i probably would mention that i'm not saying that george stephanopoulos -- >> "the washington post," every time that jeff bezos' name is mentioned, they have a prent thinks, he owning this newspaper. >> should george stephanopoulos mention he had a relationship with the clintons for all those years? >> thing is a strong case to be made. the difference between stephanopoulos and hannity, it was widely known he worked with the clintons. it was not widely known today. >> thank you. surprising people. tom winter and thank you betty woodruff, kim wehle and yamiche alcindor. calls comey a slime ball. is this the corner of kensington in allegheny? is this a fight that helps the

president or makes him think he looks like he has something to hide? plus, trump says mission accomplished in syria. he used that phrase. and by the way, what is our mission with syria? and does anyone this think this is serious policy? do we want them gone or staying or what? where is trump's mind? what is he thinking about when he goes to bed? robert mueller and the russia investigation. "saturday night live" nailed it this weekend with this kid featuring the great ben stiller as cohen and robert de niro as bob mueller. >> look, mr. mueller, this entire russia investigation is a witch-hunt and your whole team is prejudiced against the president. >> not true. in fact, we used code names so personal feelings ever come in into it. >> what's president trump's code name? >> it used to be putin's little bitch. now it's stormy's little bitch. >> it gets worse. trump may have right to fear the cohen investigation even more than the russia probe. finally, let me finish tonight with a profile in

courage from a republican with an even handed sense of justice on the russia probe. this is "hardball," where the action is. that schwab billboard. oh, not so fast, carl. ♪ oh no. schwab, again? index investing for that low? that's three times less than fidelity... ...and four times less than vanguard. what's next, no minimums? ...no minimums. schwab has lowered the cost of investing again. introducing the lowest cost index funds in the industry with no minimums. i bet they're calling about the schwab news. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. he'let's see whatll forensics thinks.. sorry i'm late. what did i miss? wanna get away? now you can

with southwest fares as low as 49 dollars one-way. that's transfarency. well, the 2018 pulitzer prizes were announced today with a number of "hardball" regulars taking home awards. the "new york times" and "washington post" shared the national reporting prize for their ongoing coverage of the russia investigation. 11 reporters contributed to "the washington post" winning entry with nearly all of them pictured in this selfie there is a lot of recognizable faces for those who watch this program including carol leonnig, ashley parker and tom hamburger. nearly a dozen reporters contributed to "the new york times" as russia coverage including our colleagues michael schmidt. he got two prizes and. and the run-up to the alabama special election won for

commentary. congratulations. pulitzer prizes. what a lifetime achievement. we'll be right back. ♪ today is a good day to make a plan for your financial goals and your everyday ones too. pnc can help. we'll be with you every step of the way. let's start today.

i actually believe he is morally unfit to be president. and i say that because someone who is able to see moral equivalence in charlottesville or to speak and treat women like they're pieces of meat, and to lie constantly, and who appears to lack an external moral framework that collection of attributes makes a person morally unfit to be a leader, no less the president of the united states. >> that was james comey's harsh assessment of president trump. it's one of the many explosive charges the former fbi director has made in promoting his new book, "a higher loyalty." in his latest interview with susan page of usa today, comey would not rule out the possibility that the president has been compromised by russia. >> do you think president trump has been compromised by the russians?

>> i don't know. and these are words i never thought would come out of my mouth about an american president. but it's possible. there is a nonzero possibility that the russians have some -- some sway over him that is rooted in his personal experience. i don't know whether that's the business about the activity in a moscow hotel room or finances or something else. but again, i don't want to overstate it. i'm not saying it's likely. to be honest with you, i have to say it's possible. >> despite the whirlwind of breaking news, comey's book is making headlines in advance of its official release tomorrow. that coverage has clearly antagonized the president who has responded with a series of preemptive attacks using twitter, calling the former fbi director disgruntled. trump said comey and others committed in m crimes. writes that the big questions in comey's badly reviewed book aren't answered like how come he

gave up classified information? jail. and that he will go down as the worst fbi director in history, by far. that's trump. susan for usa today and chuck rosenberg, former senior fbi attorney and msnbc contributor. i want to ask you, chuck, and i don't know if this is within your purview to answer, but i know it's my question. i read the long form of the transcript, the part of it that grabbed me, that george did with him. i think it's a great interview. i don't think he should have identified the clinton thing, but let's go on. he said other and over again his loyalty was to the institution and to his country. i saw it three or four times in a row. i think he really wanted to get into the interview early on. loyalty to the fbi. you can talk about what it is because you were there. do agents of the bureau think of their loyalty to the bureau as basically an identity as loyalty to the country? because that's the way it came across. >> thing is some truth to that,

chris, that in the justice department and the fbi we think about ourselves as being part of an institution. so we're institutionalists. and that our job is to serve the nation consistent with our oath to the constitution. so they're bound up together. jim is an institutionalist. i think that's a fair description. i mean, he led at the department of justice as the deputy attorney general, as a u.s. attorney, and as the director of the fbi. >> see, this gets to my question about motive. i think he is motived by institutional loyalty. now the clinton people don't like him, and i understand they don't like him because of the effect of what he did 11 days throughout the election. he did something that hurt hillary. i don't go along with lanny davis and all those people, oh, they're out to get hillary. i think his loyalty was to the institution as it was throughout which hurt both sides. what do you think from your reporting? >> you know how distress head is by president trump's behavior in office. >> he says so. >> he says so. >> he is a straight arrow, this guy. he doesn't like a guy who has

messed around his whole life and has no moral compass at all. >> he also says if he knew that he was going to be helping to elect president trump, he still wouldn't have done anything differently. because as you say, as chuck says, his interest is to the institution and to the kind of the basic standards that are outlined, whoever the effect of that may turn out to be. >> i have a sense, i think i wrote this somewhere today, i did on a tweet, that if this president goes down in history as a fallen, defeated president by the law, it's his mistake was to go after an institution which has identified itself with the interests of this country more profoundly and durably than he'll ever do it, and that that would be the battle. i really think he made a mistake firing comey. how is that for a light comment about a heavy fact? he went to war with an institution. >> other presidents have disagreements with institutions. this is -- seems to be much more than that, chris. and here is the problem. the institution has been around for more than 100 years.

it will remain. presidents come and go. but the men and women of the fbi, of the justice department, of the dea do their jobs day in and day out. this will continue. and there is nothing the president can say that is going to stop these folks from doing their job. >> let's talk about the moral issue, which you were mentioning and we just showed it. is that -- people got angry with him for doing that kind of thing to hillary clinton when he had his report on her, where he went behind his ken. instead of saying i'm going to indict her or nothing said, which you're supposed to say nothing said. he said i'm not going to indict her. i'm going smack her around a little basically, rhetorically. a lot of people say that was not within his right to do that. what does he say than? i think george hit him on that. >> he is a man of few apologies. he does not express many regrets. he says there are a few things he might have done differently, but they tend to be on the margins. the only thing he told us he thought may have been a mistake with benefit of hind tight

citing is telling mr. trump at the first meeting he wasn't under investigation. that he said had ramifications that were still unfolding. >> how he said he gave honest loyalty. >> in the book he talks about how he ended up with honest loyalty because he was trying to not say loyalty. >> how did the trump persona that we've come to know, what gave him the idea that he could use the fbi director as his personal person? where did he get the idea he could make this his made man? >> the only thing coy think of is that's how he operated in a very different environment. but the fbi, the when and women of law enforcement, they're not new york city developers. they take an oath. >> you can't pay off the guy with 5%, or whatever. no. let me ask you a news question. you are on the front page so often, who is going to win this battle of the headlines, trump or comey, this week? just this week? >> well, i think that director comey has had a pretty effective roll-out here.

and i think the reason you see such feverish tweets back from the president is because he feels embattled and he is concerned that americans are going to believe comey, not trump. >> well, they do. >> so that would mean this would be -- >> and the headlines even taking an active war against syria, which may have well been 100% justified didn't knock comey off the front page. it didn't wag the dog. >> it's also a pretty important story. we have a surplus of important stories going on these days. >> you are so straight, susan page, thank you. i can't even get you get into the mood i'm into. the political mood i'm always into. thank you, susan praj, and thank you, chuck. you're great at what you do. president trump is taking a victory lap about their military strike in syria. what is their long-term strategy of dealing with bashar al assad? does he have a strategy towards this guy? are we going to get mired down in the same situation for two years? are we going to have another one that never ends? remember "mo more stupid wars"?

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did he do it? did our generals do a great job? did our military do a great job? and, you know, with way over 100 missiles shot in, they didn't shoot one down. the equipment didn't work too well, their equipment. and they didn't shoot one. you know, you heard oh, they shot 40 down. and then they shot 50. did they? no, sir. every single one hit its target. think of that.

not one was shot. >> wow. welcome back to "hardball" that was president trump today boasting about the air strikes he ordered on syria in response to that, count country's use of chemical weapons. the military could not have had a better result. mission accomplished. there is a phrase we've heard. despite the situation there hasn't really changed. the military action appears to have been little more than an empty gesture and likely did not do much to alter bashar al assad's military calculus. another military expert said a series of microcosmic u.s. foreign policy we never had a strategy child lischly selecting our goals based on what we wanted, not what was necessary or even possible. the inevitable result was failure. the president has fluctuated from wanting to withdraw troops

to the mill strike. white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders told reporters today that, quote, our policy hasn't changed. we're still committed to defeating isis. i'm joined now by jonathan swan, who is a political national reporter for isis. well, we already dealt with size sis. and the question is what are we going to do with the government there. and i don't get it, do you? what's our policy? >> well, if you ask people in the trump administration what the policy is, and i've tried this, there is a long pause. and then they start, you know, talking about well, we won't let him use chemical weapons. okay. that's fine. but barack obama in 2011 said that assad must step down. and it was just totally hollow. they never did anything about it. he sat there and he is still there. and assad is stronger than ever. he has russia and iran cook cooping him. he was out the next day killing opponents. yes, very narrowly they shot a few. they fired some missiles into some chemical weapons facilities. but beyond that, facade is as strong as ever. and when nikki haley guess on tv

sunday saying we're going to work through a diplomatic process, you know, to get him out of power. what motivation does assad have to engage? >> he can't leave because the alawites would kill him on the way to the airport because they'll all get killed if he leaves. isn't that the fact? >> he also knows that there is no pressure on him to leave. the u.s. -- trump wants to get out. >> look, trump. let's go with the broad strokes here. trump said he was against stupid wars. we've got two going and still going. that's iraq and afghanistan. now we're involved in this continuing mishmash over there. we've got the kurds on our side, but we don't really back them up all the way. they want their own country. we're not giving them their own country. the turks are ready to jump them if they try. this thing isn't going to end. and, you know, i get the feeling we're going to have the same conversation. i think 30 or 40 years from now what are we going to do to binky assad, the next grandson, whatever his name is. >> they've controlled the country i think it's 50 years between he and his father. trump came into office genuinely

wanting to pull all troops out of afghanistan. and he was talked around by his generals. the only people around him who were supporting that idea of basically very fast withdrawal was steve bannon. and trump at one point was listening to him and then mattis and the generals talked him around a bit last year. you could easily see the same thing happening on syria. >> somebody warned -- the russians apparently worked a deal with so he couldn't kill any russians. that was a good deal. that was smart. did somebody warn the syrian people, the guys who work overnight guarding the chemical plants? how come there was nobody there when the bombs dropped? nobody got killed. did the warning, don't take the night shift tonight? i'm serious. >> no it's a fair question. because there were no -- >> no casualties. >> i don't know. >> how do you drop 100 missiles and nobody gets hit? >> i do know that they were moving planes out of certain facilities in anticipation of that. >> was this a kabuki? was this just for show and say okay, slap our hands, but we're pulling our hand away?

>> it's hard to no. >> something strange about a war that nobody gets killed and every missile hits a target. thank you, jonathan swan. michael cohen and the russia investigation. trump spent the weekend fuming about the raid on michael cohen's office. maybe that's because he seeing the cohen investigation as the biggest threat to him. you're watching "hardball." don't make a first impression... or a lasting impression without it. ♪ ♪ don't turn your house into a home without it. ♪ ♪ don't go live...

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can you believe what they're doing to poor mr. trump? it's a disgrace. this whole raid was a complete violation of attorney-criminal privilege. >> well, if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about. >> is that a joke? look, we've got a real problem here, jeff. you know how much evidence i have in my office? i'm donald trump's lawyer. i got a whole hard drive that is just labeled yikes. >> that is great work by ben stiller on "saturday night live." anyway, back on "hardball," that was perfectly embodying trump's

fixer lawyer michael cohen on "saturday night live." the show had a field day offering its take on potential meeting between cohen and special counsel robert mueller. here it is when the two guys meet. let's watch it. >> look, mr. mueller, this entire russia investigation is a witch-hunt, and your whole team is prejudiced against the president. >> not true. in fact, we uses code names so personal feelings never come into it. >> oh, yeah? what's president trump's quote name? >> it used to be putin's little bitch. now it's stormy's little bitch. >> what about ivanka's code name? >> girlfriend. >> jared kushner? >> other girlfriend. >> don jr. and eric? >> two fredos. >> what about my code name? >> dead man walking. >> look, i don't have to take this from you. have i rights. >> now you listen to me, you little weasel. i don't know what righteous

think you have, you broke the law, and now we're going to catch all of you little fokkers, you got that? >> great outrageous writing. "the new york times" reports president trump sees the wider inquiry into coyne, michael cohen as a greater threat to mueller's investigation itself. the question now, what is the nature of that threat? why is michael cohen's situation rattling trump so much? that's next with the round table. there they are. there they are! who governed thousands... commanded armies... yielded to no one. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests. order your kit at ancestrydna.com now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests. introducing walit's a great days. for a great deal! tender, center-cut sirloin or chicken on the barbie,

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back to "hardball." president trump spent much of his weekend raging at former fbi director james comey. but it's reportedly the investigation into his fixer attorney that tipped off much of trump's recent fury, portraying michael cohen on "snl," ben stiller joked about how much evidence they may have. the investigation into cohen could bring about the end stages. you like that? the end stages of trump's presidency. of course trump is raging and furious and terrified. prosecutors are now looking at his core. cohen was the key intermediary between the trump family and his partners around the world. he was chief sconsigliere and deal maker throughout the period of expansion into global partnership with sketchy oligarchs. the name of the book is "inside: the story of putin's war on america and the election of donald trump."

ruth marcus and michael steele, msnbc political analyst. i'm going to start with ruth. no, you're mr. russia. the connection between michael cohen not just a fixer of women problems and all that, which we know about, the stormy thing, the karen mcdougal, the fact that he was at the tower in june of 2016, he may well have been according to mcclatchy, he may well have been in prague, handing over money to russians for hacking into the dnc. tell us how they can squeeze him on the criminal business stuff to get trump caught in collusion with the russians? >> i used to say that the russian investigation, the whole scandal was an iceberg. >> i still say. >> and we're seeing the tip of it and what mueller is doing. now we have a whole separate iceberg. the raid on cohen's office run by the u.s. attorney's office in new york for business matters. maybe related to stormy daniels. related to tax medallions and

everything else. it seems like these two icebergs are colliding. and michael cohen does have a foot on each one. he was very much involved in donald trump's deal, a secret deal he didn't tell the public when he was running for president. he was trying to build a tower in moscow. he was working in this former felon named felix sater who happens to be a high school buddy of michael cohen. going to michael cohen and trying to get this deal, which trump didn't tell the public about. you go fast forward to the steele dossier. what's the first memo say. the russians are trying to cultivate trump by dangling business opportunities in front of him. so cohen knows about that part of the deal. he knows about the stormy daniels. i don't know what trump has to do with taxi medallions. vp. >> they're not worth what they used to be thanks to uber. >> rose you know all this too. what are you worrying about if you're trump lying in his bed tonight if he ever goes to

sleep? >> i think he actually has a lot of troubles to counter, icebergs, to go with david's metaphor. because, look, mueller remains a problem for trump. mueller has -- trump has issues relating to mueller that go both to his conduct during the campaign and to his conduct in office, the obstruction end of the inquiry, starting with firing -- not starting with, but including firing comey. and then -- so that's one thing. and trump has thought maybe i can get rid of mueller. maybe i can make this problem go away. now with the a, he can't. that's difficult to do. but b, no we have this simultaneous parallel investigation going on in the southern district of new york that involves michael cohen, that both can outlast mueller if trump finds some way to get rid of mueller and that investigation, and that can touch -- as david was explaining so well, can touch on trump's business dealings going back before the campaign and his family business dealings going back before the campaign.

that is a picture of a trump not getting a lot of sleep. >> remember, michael, you're almost my age. remember vilachi? remember the guy going public with the mob? it's a classic case. it's fratangelo. they got to get to him because he's got the stuff. >> that's right. >> there is michael cohen. >> from italy. >> they bring the brother over. you got michael cohen. you've got flynn. you've got, you know, manafort eventually some day. you've got papadopoulos. you've got all these characters, rick gates potentially. all these people that have stuff. and trump knows each one. he knows what i they know. >> the degree of importance really rests on cohen right now. because he has been the longest and the closest to the president. i love the iceberg metaphor that david put out there. but here is the rub. two icebergs that crash into each other, you hope they don't break apart and trump sitting there with two fractured

icebergs [ overlapping dialog ] >> let's stick -- go ahead. >> this is my point. my point is there seems to be a lot of energy in this direction that, you know, somehow now trump is trapped between these competing interests and forces. the question still runs back to what does cohen know and how much does he share of what he knows? what is the pressure point that they're going put on. >> they say mail fraud. it sounds like they're stacking up. >> a guy who says i'll take one for the team. i'll take one for trump. >> oh, come on. >> it seems to me -- >> seems like that giendkind of guy. >> that trump, when he looks at the russian stuff, he might actually believes what he says. >> i think he believes it. >> i'm not sure. >> he says it all the time. >> he didn't know what was going on. but maybe he should have. whatever. whatever collusion or cooperation or associations between his crew and russia, he might not have known about. >> like he didn't know about the $130,000. >> but -- >> you're stealing my point from me but when it comes to what michael cohen did, whether it's the $130,000 payment or business

deals in russia, any place else, he knows than. >> the round table is sticking with us. he knows about the 130 because that guy lies. i saw ben stiller safe. he lied on that lie detector. they'll be back with us to tell me somebody i didn't know. you're watching "hardball." finally, it was like the sun rose again and i was going to start fighting back now. when those patients come to me and say, "you saved my life...." my life was saved by a two week old targeted therapy drug. that's what really drives me to- to save lives. looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor.

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and can focus more on the things they're passionate about. talk with your advisor about shield annuities from brighthouse financial- established by metlife. we're back with the round table. david, tell me something. >> jim comey and the report that came out and andrew mccabe both raised issues about the new york field office of the fbi, that they were going rogue, leaking information against the clintons before the election, something that hasn't been looked at strongly that needs a good scrutiny. >> ruth? >> you might know this, but president trump doesn't. the attorney-client privilege is not dead. it's alive and well. it's being protected in the southern district of new york and with judge whim ca wood. >> all the other excitement takes away from the real story out there. scott pruitt, $43,000 soundproof phone booth in his office at

especially pal. it keeps piling on from him and it's getting worse and worse. here is another shoe that is going to drop. >> thank you, david corn, ruth marcus, michael steele. when we return, let me finish tonight with a profile in courage. you're watching "hardball."

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let me finish tonight with a profile in courage. senator thom tillis of north carolina is co-sponsoring legislation to protect special counsel robert mueller from being fired by president trump. the measure would give the special counsel like mueller the opportunity to fight such a presidential move. what's remarkable is that the senator pushing it is a republican from a state that voted for donald trump. senator tillis is taking heat for his stand, as you might expect. what is far more impressive is one, his stand itself, and two, his retort to those criticizing it. here is what he says to them. the same people who would criticize me for filing this bill would be absolutely angry if i wasn't pounding the table for this bill if we were dealing with hillary clinton. so spare me your righteous

indignation. spare me your righteous indignation. he is right, of course. the same people attack him for protecting robert mueller from a capricious firing would be demanding he do so if mueller was investigating the former secretary of state. they would be clamoring for hillary's head and attacking anyone who stood in the way. a word about senator tillis. i believe you get it, sir. this isn't about right or left, but right and wrong. let me quote you from the greatest of all conservatives, edmund burke. here is burke paying tribute to a leader who dared do what was right, knowing he would be attacked for doing so. he well knows what snares are spread about his path from personal animosity and possibly from popular delusion. but he has put his ease, his security, his power, even his darling popularity, he is reduce odd to abuse for supposed motives. ewill remembobliquy is a necess

ingredient. he can never succeed what he does this day. senator thom tillis, for the principle of even handed justice, a profile in courage. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> i'm obviously very loyal and very dedicated to mr. trump. >> a high stakes hearing for the president in federal court. what do investigators have on trump's personal lawyer? >> mr. cohen has acted like he is above the law. >> tonight why a federal judge just rejected trump's attempt to intervene. the documents the president doesn't want his own justice department to see. and michael cohen's mystery client revealed. >> the mainstream media has gone completely off the rails over the raid on michael cohen. >> russia sanctions will be coming down.