follow him on twitter. his middle name does not start with v. go figure. i want to thank in particular senator king for joining us and to his dog for watching. there you see maddie watching the senator. we will be back next week from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. good night from washington. he is brash. >> he is someone who is a pit bull. his first inclination is to fight. >> tough talking. >> the disgusting liberal mainstream media have attempted to label mr. donald trump as racist. >> in his mind, going after his boss, he was going to fight back. it's a lawyer that trump would want. >> the self-proclaimed fixer to the president. >> the job here is to protect the king. that is something that michael cohen apparently did very well.

>> before michael cohen became entangled in a presidential scandal, he was the kid from the suburbs who revered donald trump. >> michael was drawn to him, his personality, his brashness, his approach to life. >> i think they both defined they wi themselves by what they wear, drive, what they can buy and sell. >> will that admiration and loyalty be enough to protect the president? >> i just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, good man. >> attorney client privilege is not a magic wind. if he is helping you commit a crime. >> if he flips, you are in trouble. >> he said he would take a bullet for the president. when he said it, he sounded like he meant it.

hello. welcome to a special edition of "headliners." in a political landscape full of colorful characters michael cohen stands out. he leapt to the front page with plot twists worthy of a legal thriller. how did he get here? >> breaking news. it's a bombshell. >> tonight, a dramatic fbi raid at the new york office and hotel room of michael cohen. >> cohen at the center of two political and legal storms for donald trump. >> he is in the news night after night. michael cohen hardly seemed december t destined to become a tough talking pit bull when he was growing up in a suburb of long island, new york. >> his father was a polish born h holocaust survivor. he went to an elite academy. they seemed destined in a sense

for the sort of american middle class, upper middle class dream. >> michael started working as a young age. he was born knowing he wanted to work hard and to get somewhere in new york. not unlike donald trump. >> look at my next guest, donald trump, 33 years old. wants to buy the world trade center. >> as cohen entered his teenage years in the 1980s, trump was becoming a national celebrity. >> i purchased the old commodore hotel. we converted that into a $110 million hotel. >> the brash new york real estate developer nicknamed the donald captured cohen's attention. >> he said as a teenager, he admired donald trump not only for real estate but seemed to admire his personality, his brashness, his approach to life. michael was drawn to him. >> when cohen was in high

school, he met the woman who become his wife. >> they were introduced. she was a ukrainian born woman. cohen visited her. he had a lot of friends in brighten beach where there were russian immigrants. one friend who told me that he wanted to emulate that tough guy russian ukrainian emigrant persona. >> a friend from brooklyn that cohen developed a bond with, even doing real estate deals with him over the years. some of the deals will be important to this story later. after high school, cohen left new york and headed to washington, d.c. to attend american university. during his junior year in the fall of '87, trump's first book was a best seller. mr. trump is an ambitious man. you have to wonder if he ran and won, would this become trump

mansion? >> cohen said he read that book twice. wanted to emulate mr. trump. >> just like his role model, cohen liked luxury. his father's success as a doctor meant michael drove a porsche in college. >> i think they both define themselves by what they wear, and what they can put in their pockets and what they drive and what they can buy and what they can sell. i think that's an important part of both men's identity and certainly was a bond between them. >> after graduating with a ba in law, cohen tried out politics. >> we're coming on strong across this country. >> michael cohen volunteered for the campaign. >> cohen began law school in michigan. >> michael could handle stress. he was a bright guy. he had a good sense of humor.

i liked that. >> he was very personable. >> i would say he was very motivated. he had his eye on ball. there was no question about that. he was a very good student. >> he was a guy that sat up front. i think he raised his hand a lot. he was a talker. he was going to be a lawyer and do big deals and be successful in new york city. >> soon after cohen graduated, he landed that job in new york city with a personal injury lawyer. in 1994, he and laura got married at the pierre hotel. it opened doors for cohen. >> michael got involved in business and personal dealings with people who his wife's family associated with. >> some of the family entanglements were complicated. before the wedding, laura's father pleaded guilty to federal income tax fraud charges connected to his taxi business. as a newlywed cohen was

practicing law. >> he had been working as an attorney. he also had sort of a side business. >> following in his father-in-law's footsteps, the business that pushed him into the financial big leagues with a an investment in taxicabs. >> he was affiliated with 200 cabs in new york city. he owned some in chicago. in about 2012, he was reporting about $90,000 a month in income from his taxi business. >> cohen partnered with a ukrainian immigrant, aka, the taxi king. >> yellow cab, new york, chicago. >> he made some over the top tv ads owned a taxi fleet in moscow. >> he also is someone who was convicted of crimes. he is convicted of assault in new york. and he pleads guilty to criminal

mi mischief in new jersey for breaking into someone's house. >> he was fined $1.6 million for charging his cabbies bogus fees. >> these are unrelated to michael cohen. the company he keeps is noticeable. >> cohen again tried his hand in politics. as a candidate this time when he ran for new york city counsel in 2003, switching parties to republican. he suffered a bruising loss, defeated by over 78% of the vote. >> you are fired. >> as donald trump launched his reality tv career in the early 2 2000s, cohen moved on to real estate. >> i bought a million dollar condo and a $5 million property at another trump building. trump park avenue where ivanka lived. >> cohen caught trump's attention when he became treasurer of the board for the trump world tower. >> donald trump is impressed by

the effort that michael cohen helped lead to oppose a tenants' movement to reorganize the building. >> he took trump's side against the other owners in the building. trump was grateful. >> after counseling the real estate mogul on legal matters, cohen received a job offer from the man he long admired. cohen became trump's special counsel and executive vice-president of the trump organization in 2006. >> it was a pretty alluring universe to be in trump tower. this is a man who idolized him for years before he ended up wo working there. it was a dream come true. >> michael cohen who voted for obama in 2008 threw his support behind donald trump. cohen's business and political ambitions merged. >> i think before the election, michael cohen was perhaps more

political than donald trump was. this is someone who encouraged donald trump to run for president. had been involved in campaigns before. >> cohen took a trip to iowa in trump's plane to meet republican operatives. >> michael cohen was the one who set up this website, should trump run. >> trump mentioned the site in a campaign video that aired on aol in 2011. >> recently, a group formed, an independent group, shou shouldtrumprun.com. they have over 400,000 people that joined. >> that website triggered a federal election commission investigation. >> the complaint alleged that michael cohen couldn't be independent of donald trump because he worked for donald trump, even though he said shouldtrumprun was independent of donald trump. it's an interesting precursor about whether michael cohen made illegal campaign contributions

in the whole stormy daniels affair. >> the fec sided in cohen's fairer in 2011 and trump's lawyer supporter continued to stand by his man. >> the way he described it to me was a father/son relationship. when i asked him why he had done certain things or why he has blind loyalty, he threw the question back to me is, would you do this for your father. >> michael cohen and others outside of the orbit of the trump family can say they are like family. at the end of the day, the only people donald trump considers as family are his own family members. anyone who considers themselves to be almost a trump family member should really take a reality check. they tend not to stay around very long. >> over the next few years, cohen would stay. and take his loyalty to a whole new level. >> coming up, the price of

loyalty. michael cohen has been a devoted fixer for president trump for years in public and private. more on that when we return. as king midas, i expect things to last a looong time. and so should you. midas has a lifetime guarantee on these parts. that's right. on things like struts, brakes, shocks. all kinds of automobile parts. guaranteed for life. does he turn everything to gold? not everything. luckily he's not a dog person. always a touch better means limited lifetime guarantees on every brake job. now get $100 back on a 2-axle brake service with your midas credit card. now get $100 back on a 2-axle brake service

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sign up for xfinity mobile and add a new line of unlimited. xfinity mobile. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. click, call or visit an xfinity store today. welcome back to "he "headliners." up with questi one question is asked again and again. what does he do for his most famous client? he has been called aggressive, brash, brazen. there are reports cohen likes one comparin to a character pled b robert duval in a classic gangster film. >> some people refer to michael cohen as the tom hagen character. >> i have a special practice. i handle one client. >> someone who will do what is necessary to protect the man he serves.

>> that role is one that cohen gladly played for years. >> he is someone who is a pit bull. this is someone who never shied away from a fight. someone who never hesitated to defend donald trump and the trump family. he has intimated over and over again that he would do just about anything to stand up for them, whether that means tough talk or action. >> that tough talk in defense of donald trump was on display in this interview on cnn. >> you say it's not a shakeup. you guys are down. it makes -- >> says who? says who? >> most polls. all of them. >> says who? >> cohen prided himself on being trump's fixer. he tried to set up a deal in putin's russia with his old brooklyn pal. >> michael cohen and felix sader

tried to propose a construction of a -- of a new trump tower in moscow during the presidential campaign. donald trump was aware of that effort. >> indeed, the perception that cohen was willing to do anything for trump found its way into the document that came to be known as the steele dossier. >> the steele dossier is the report put together by the former british agent that was paid for by the hillary clinton campaign. there are allegations that had to do with whether the trump campaign included with russia. there's an unsubstantiated allegation that michael cohen was in prague and met with russians to discuss hacking of democrats. >> it's a claim that cohen has repeatedly denied. >> i spent a great amount of time rebuffing the claim he had been in prague. he would show me his passport. this is something that never happened. >> he filed suit against buzzfeed, the organization that

published the dozssier. he dropped that suit. his lawyers said they are don dropping this for practical reasons. he continues to deny the allegations that were made concerning him in the dossier. >> what's not in dispute is that over the years, cohen has used tough tactics in an effort to protect donald trump. >> now to a war of words between a beauty queen and organizers of the miss usa pageant. pennsylvania's representative claims the competition is rigged. >> two days after competing in the 2012 miss usa pageant, a woman resigned her title saying she heard from another conte contestant the top five fini finishers were predetermined. >> i would like the truth to be made known. >> in response to her claims, her father said cohen called and read him the riot act. >> it's terrifying for someone like michael cohen working for

someone like donald trump to get you on the phone and intimidate you. part of what a lawyer in that position is supposed to be doing is intimidating people. to keep them away from the king. >> donald trump would pursue and win a judgement against her for deaf nation. cohen's alleged bullying would be unleashed on members of the press. at the first republican debate in 2016 hosted by fox news, megyn kelly challenged donald trump. >> you called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. your twitter -- >> only rosie o'donnell. >> cohen took to twitter to strike back. >> he tweeted, let's gut her, about megyn kelly who trump was critical of during the campaign. she was upset about this, understandably so. >> it's very simply. if anybody was in his mind going after his boss, he was going to

fight back. it's a lawyer that trump would want. >> a news website also felt cohen's wrath. >> they wrote a story about a deposition that trump's first wife had given in a case. in that deposition, she said that she had been raped by trump. >> it's a claim she later withdrew. according to the daily beast, when their reporter called cohen for comment, he unleashed a verbal assault on him. >> i believe the sentiment was, he was going to ruin his life. this is not the way that most attorneys operate. this is why he became a valued member of the trump organization. >> cohen was not afraid to go nose to nose with politicians he saw as a threat to donald trump. air being schneider man alleged fraud against donald trump's for profit college business.

>> we have their playbook instructing the teachers how to constantly do a bait and switch. this is disgraceful conduct. any attorney general would be pursuing this. >> cohen warned the damage would be so significant, quote, he will possibly have to resign. he didn't. the suit was settled in february 2018. donald trump did not admit wrongdoing. >> does michael curse? i'm going to go after you. i'm going to take you down. that's what people do in business. >> we're going to make our country great again. >> "the new york times" reported in the middle of the presidential campaign of 2016, the "national enquirer's" parent company entered an agreement with karen mcdougal. she claimed a relationship with the mogul in 2006 and tweeted photos of them. >> there had been about a dozen women come forward. >> i believe we're in a time of

crisis. >> with stories of alleged affairs and assaults. the fact that another woman would have come forward was something that no one on the trump campaign would have wanted. >> the "national enquirer's" parent company purchased rights to her story. >> they paid karen mcdougal $150,000 for her life rights to that story. the story was not published before the election. >> mcdougal said she was silenced with a tabloid tactic, a claim that the media giant denied. >> it's a process called catch and kill where they pay you for the rights to the story. then they kill it. it never sees the light of day. if she had told her story publically, this would have been something that voters would have considered when they went to the polls. it would have been something he had to respond to. it's the stuff you want to avoid at all costs and by catch and kill, he was able to avoid it.

>> though cohen's lawyers have declined to comment, she claimed in a lawsuit that cohen was in contact with her attorney to monitor and shape the outcome april protect donald trump. >> it's been alleged that michael cohen was somewhat the pupp puppet master and was ensuring the story was purchased and killed. >> cohen's most infamous efforts to silence a woman involved stormy daniels. she said she met donald trump at a golf tournament as shown in this photograph on her my space page. daniels said the parent company of "in touch" offered to pay her $15,000 for her story. >> it's our understanding that then they reached out to mr. cohen for comment in advance of running the story.

mr. cohen was able to convince them or threaten them that if they ran the story, there would be serious consequences. they decided not to proceed with publishing the story. >> shortly thereafter, daniels said she received a threatening threat. >> storl stormy daniels alleged was in a parking lot with her daughter and that someone approached her with her daughter in the back seat saying, stop talking about donald trump, it would be a shame for your young daughter to grow up without her mother. this is something that terrified her. her hands were shaking. for years, it has stuck with her. >> i think it's an outrage to send a thug to a woman's car door with her daughter in the back of the car. it has no place in america, period. >> cohen has rejected the implication he played any role in the alleged threat. >> he denied it. he said, i have never threatened

her. i have never spoken to her. i never e-mailed her, texted her, seen her in person. i don't have any knowledge of any threats being made to her. certainly, i was not the one to make those threats. >> stormy daniels is not convinced. >> for years, mr. cohen has played by a different set of rules or should we say no rules at all. my attorney and i are committed to making sure that everyone finds out the truth. >> according to wall street journal, in the midst of trump's campaign, daniels began shopping her story around. >> after the access hollywood story came out where trump is talking about grabbing women in an inappropriate way -- >> you can do anything. grab them by the [ bleep ]. >> the concern of michael cohen was that stormy daniels was going to tell her story about her allegations that she had a sexual encounter in 2006 with donald trump. >> michael cohen ended up taking

out he says a home equity credit line without telling donald trump. he paid $130,000 to stormy daniels so she would not speak about this story before election day. donald trump did tell reporters that he was not aware of this payoff. >> michael is my attorney. >> just a couple weeks later, president trump seemingly acknowledged cohen's role when he called in to "fox & friends". >> he represents me with this crazy daniels deal. he represented me. from what i see, he did absolutely nothing wrong. >> cohen's business dealings with mcdougal and daniels are the subject of a criminal investigation. during his court hearing, it was revealed cohen represented two other donald trump friends, sean

hannity. court filings show he arranged a payoff to a former playboy playmate to keep secret her alleged sexual encounter with him. >> the president lawyer's has sworn he will plead the fifth. >> michael cohen, a man who pledged he would never betray his boss announced on april 25, he would invoke his fifth amendment right in the stormy daniels case. now it appears the self-proclaimed fixer may need a fixer of his own. when we return, we will go inside the federal raid that changed michael cohen's life and put pressure on the president. this is the ocean. just listen.

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welcome back to "headliners." the day everything changed for michael began with a knock on his door by federal agents. it was a surprise that shook cohen's world. michael cohen, the president's fixer in chief, didn't see it coming. until monday, april 9, he deflected or denies donald trump's alleged infidelity

takitake i -- he took most of the heat. by the end of the day, the president's newest problem was mo michael cohen. >> we have a new report in. the fbi is raiding the office of president trump's lawyers. >> they ceased e-mails and business recorders. >> bombing a ins are dropping. >> michael cohen woke up in the hotel where he has been living. his apartment is under renovation because there was a flood. his family has been living at the hotel on park avenue. >> a journalist interviewed michael on several occasions. >> at 7:30, about a dozen fbi agents walked into the hotel where he has been staying, knocked on the door. they did not break it down. snatched the cellphone out of

his hand and began a raid in his hotel room. this was not something michael expected. he was looking ahead to what was going to play out next with stormy daniels. when the fbi knocked on his door that morning, it was out of left field. >> simultaneous fbi searches took place at cohen's rockefeller center office and his apartment. >> the goal is to execute the search warrants simultaneously to make sure nobody gets tipped off and that evidence doesn't disappear. >> fbi agents seized a mass sufficient haul of information, including documents, computer hard drives, phones and other devices. the searches were immediately cast as fbi raids by the media and president trump's supporters. >> i don't like the term raid. raid suggests a type of lawlessness. in fact, these are search warrants authorized by a federal judge, tethered to the fourth amendment. >> they did not bust down the door with guns blazing as some

said immediately after it happened. >> agents will secure the premises. they will secure the office. they will make sure that there's nobody else in a back room. they might ask people to step outside. this is not a show of force type of search. this is a thoughtful, dignified process. >> michael's recollection is that they were exceedingly polite and respectful of not only him and his family but also his physical property. he thanked the fbi agents for taking such good care of his things and family and for being as courteous as they were to him. >> the search warrant sent shock waves around the news, social media and the white house. >> we know after the raid, michael cohen was in touch with people around trump. it's our guess that's probably how trump first heard about t. the president addressed the media about it. it stark terms really went after the justice department.

>> president trump interrupted a critical national security meeting about looming military action against syria to denounce robert mueller and the fbi. >> i heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man. it's a disgrace. it's frankly a real disgrace. it's an attack on our country in a true sense. it's an taattack on what we sta for. >> it's not a task the fbi takes lightly, especially the attorney for the president of the united states. >> before they get the warrant signed, there are all sorts of safety procedures, if you will, safety meaning we're going into a lawyer's office. we don't want to violate the attorney/client privilege. you talk about whether you can subpoena them. you talk about whether you can ask for the documents or materials. by the time you decide, we need a search warrant, it's for a reason. they must have had to believe cohen wouldn't fully comply with

the subpoena. or that he would try to destroy some of the documents and materials. >> at 4:00 a.m. the next morning, the still enraged president was firing off tweets, including attorney/client privilege is dead. the justice department does have authority to seize potentially privileged materials in certain cases. >> attorney/client privilege is not a magic wand. anything you say to an attorney is not by definition privileged. it's certainly not privileged if the attorney is helping you commit a crime or conceal a crime. >> it's not common, but it's not unheard of. part of why it's not common is that most lawyers don't break the law. >> cohen was not charged with any crimes. the president still had reason for concern, because "the washington post" confirmed cohen routinely recorded phone calls. >> any time you bring recorded conversations into an investigation, it changes things. the recording is certainly

something that does not lie. there's no indication that we have that there's any tapes directly related to the president. >> michael cohen said he never r recorded trump. that doesn't mean he didn't. >> if michael cohen recorded conversations with trump, then that's manna from heaven. there's nothing like a recorded conversation as hard evidence of possible wrongdoing. >> some trump supporters allege robert mueller overstepped his authority. later in the day, michael cohen's oewn lawyer revealed mueller did not order the search warrant. >> it sounded like he uncovered evidence of wrongdoing by mike cohen. he in consultation with the deputy attorney general referred it to the southern district of new york.

>> the southern district of new york has broad investigative jurisdiction, financial fraud, tax fraud, bank robbery, drug cases, gun crimes. they have broad jurisdiction. mueller has more narrow jurisdicti jurisdiction. >> trump supporters accuse the department of justice and the fbi of a politically biased witch hunt. almost all of the investigation's key players are republicans, some appointed by the president himself. >> the fbi director is a republican. the attorney general is a republican. the deputy attorney general, who appointed bob mueller, is a republican. bob mueller has been a republican. >> two weeks after the raid, the president was still fuming. in a live call to fox on april 26, the president denied he is linked to cohen's legal jeopardy. >> he did nothing wrong. there were no campaign funds going -- >> why is he pleading the fifth? >> because he has got other things. he has businesses. i'm not involved. >> while trump insists he is not involved in michaelhen's businesses, he still is fighting

for attorney/client privilege with cohen. one thing is clear, michael cohen had very deep ties to donald trump. >> i asked him if there was something that would perhaps make him stray away from this public persona as an incredibly loyal figure in donald trump's life. the response he gave back to me was that he would take a bullet for the president. when he said it, he sounded like he meant it. >> if evidence gathered leads to charges and cohen is convicted, he could ultimately face prison time. that has president trump, his inner circle and many other observers asking a simple question. >> could michael cohen flip? >> everybody flips. >> what is he worried michael cohen could flip over? >> if he flips, you are in trouble. >> when we come back, what's next for the attorney and the client? our panel of experts weighs in. insurance that won't replace

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mr. president, what about michael cohen? are you considering -- >> thank you very much. stupid question. >> the president and the attorney now linked in ways neither could have predicted when they began their work together. this bond clearly being tested.

the big question for both men is what happens now. we turn to our expert panel tonight. harry litman, megan tuey and attorney mya wiley. thanks to all of you for being part of our special coverage. given this reporting, what risk does the cohen and trump relationship pose for both men? >> that's an interesting question. i was one of the investigative reporters who after the election really started digging into michael cohen. he has been listed as special counsel to the trump organization for a decade. if you comb through the various business deals that the trump organization did over that time, if you look at the major lawsuits that emerged, cohen wasn't involved. what we learned in the last 15 months when you are asking, what was cohen doing in this close relationship with trump for all that time, there's three things we learned. one is that he was involved --

we learned in recent months he was involved in covering up potentially damaging information that could come out about the president. that he had made this payment to stormy daniels at a time when she was threatening to go public with her story of an affair with him, a sexual encounter with him while he was married. we realize he was in communication with regards to another basically coverup of a woman who was going to make a similar claim. we also have realized that he was involved in matters related to russia during the campaign. he was involved -- we still don't know the truth about the claim in the steele dossier that he met with russians during the campaign to do active collusion. we do know for a fact -- my reporting turned up the fact that he had been involved in efforts, back channel plan that would have lifted russian

sanctions and in faufvor of vladimir putin. i learned that he had been actively involved in efforts at a trump tower in moscow during the presidential campaign. he is clearly also somebody who is connected into the russia world, certainly during the campaign. then third, we have learned that he was, in addition to serving as special counsel to the trump organization, running separate businesses. that he has been long involved in a taxi business. at one point, he had been involved in trying to get a casino project off the ground. many of his associates were basically found to have been involved in criminal activity. these are sort of three potential areas of interest that could basically kind of come back to hurt trump in some way, depending on what they found in seizing all of these documents.

>> same question to you, mya. >> i agree. michael cohen right now is probably thinking about ride or die. i don't think he is there yet. i think when you see the kind of warrant being executed we have seen, as we have said, if it's attorn attorney/client, it might be good because of the crime fraud. there's a lot for donald trump to worry about. michael cohen has a lot of things he will have to think about over the coming months as this unfolds. >> much for donald trump to worry about, harry. also, a set of history that doesn't necessarily make donald trump look consistent. here he was talking about people who plead the fifth amendment.

>> five people taking the fifth amendment. like you see on the mob. you see the mob take the fifth. if you are innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment? >> harry, i put the president's question to his own lawyer, to you tonight. >> the first thing i would say is that'sn entitled to do. the inference that trump is drawing to anyone is going to apply to his own fixer. it could apply expressly in the civil suit. the suit that has been stayed. if it goes forward and he winds up taking the fifth, the judge can instruct the jury in the stormy daniels case they can draw an adverse inference, something they can't do in the criminal proceedings. a lot of smoke there, obviously. >> you are making an important legal point. even though you have this right, in the stormy daniels case, the fact that michael cohen intends

to plead the fifth hurts him. that's before we find out what the feds do or don't do with the evidence they have gathered. that goes to another question to you as a person experienced in what federal prosecutors do. how are they going to use what they gathered in the searches as they make a case about what they wantcohen ability what they want from him. >> first they have the what seems to be the strongest case. everything emerging from the stormy daniels affair. which seems to give possible rise to wire fraud. bank fraud. and federal election laws. and then who knows what falls between 2006 and 2016 and what thabs he has. they'll put it together and not only serve it up to him and say you're looking at a long jail sentence, i think they will use other evidence to say, you know trump doesn't really respect you. he's treated you poorly. he didn't bring you into the

white house. you shouldn't be giving up your life for him. the tricks of the trade the feds use against the sammy the bulls of the world: will be deployed against cohen. >> another thing we're learning, is some clues from the national enquirer the new copy here. a basically talks about secrets and liars of donald trumps fixer michael cohen. i hold this up not because the national enquirer is known for its journalism. but rather because it's controlled by a trump ally. and it is in the center of this mess. as we have reported in our special. because it was involved in the payments to try to silence another trump accuser. i'll read to you what cohen adversary is saying about this now. he's tweeting that ami starting a campaign to under mine cohen's credibility and could lead to

him flipping. walk us through this admittedly confusing situation. the enquirer is in the middle of this mess. >> viewers would be forgiven for having a hard time untangling the various players who have been involved in the who were involved in the initial settlement the payment to stormy daniels. to silence her during the presidential race. and then also in the case of karen mcdougal who was also prepared to tell her story publicly. during the race. and ami which run ts the national enquirer which normally is in the business of publicizing salacious storying. stepped in and purchased the story from her. said listen we'll buy the exclusive rights to this story and promised her she would be featured in the various publications and went onto settle with her. >> and folks recall some of that. what do you take of the

significance today of the enquirer going after cohen. >> what's interesting is there was evidence, we at the "new york times" were able to identify that we were zoom in on the day that ami struck that deal. with karen mcdougal. and the fact that michael cohen was in communication with karen mcdual's lawyer. he wasn't supposed to be party to this legal arrangement to this deal between ami and karen mcdougal. it's clear he was having communication with ami while it was going on. and communication with her lawyer. the day that this agreement was struck. and so there's questions about the role that ami played here. ami is in the hot seat. her attorney keith davidson who was the attorney for karen mcdougal and stormy daniels. has been in the hot seat. has been coming under scrutiny. and we know that he appears to be talking to the feds.

in this criminal investigation. and so there's i think there's what we're seeing today is it's possible these various players who were involved in these secret settlements will turn on each other. that could be happening here with the national enquirer turning on michael cohen. in order to protect themselves. >> i was going to say. michael cohen has become the crypt nite to the case. and all the super-mans are trying to fly as far as they can. that's really what's happening here. cohen is going to have credibility problems. the reality is everyone has creditability problems. that is connected to this investigation because there's been so many falsehoods and lying. so many people close to trump who have actually been indicted have been indicted for perjury. and have actually started cooperating pled guilty to perjury. michael cohen is going to have issues around credibility too i would predict.

but so is donald trump. >> right. it raises one question here, which is with so many people who know potentially negative things about each other, does that create a race in public as we see in the enquirer ore private with the feds and authorities. to turn on each other in ways that could be devastating and clearly were not expecting when they were working together. a fascinating set of questions on the table. my special thanks to harry, megaen and mya for joining the special coverage. there is more of "headliners." when we return. that's right. on things like struts, brakes, shocks. all kinds of automobile parts. guaranteed for life. does he turn everything to gold? not everything. luckily he's not a dog person. always a touch better means limited lifetime guarantees on every brake job. now get $100 back on a 2-axle brake service with your midas credit card.

kyle, we talked about this. there's no monsters. but you said they'd be watching us all the time. no, no. no, honey, we meant that progressive would be protecting us 24/7. we just bundled home and auto and saved money. that's nothing to be afraid of. -but -- -good night, kyle. [ switch clicks, door closes ] ♪ i told you i was just checking the wiring in here, kyle. he's never like this. i think something's going on at school. -[ sighs ] -he's not engaging.

one thing we learned tonight. he was so inspired by trump he would do almost anything for him. now the feds raided his office and associates with being interviewed the big questions everyone is asking. a support ere of critic. is will cohen stay loyal.

what does he know and what will the feds do with the evidence they sized. we thank you for watching this special edition of "headliners." on assignment is next. happy to have you with us tonight. it has been a week of many, many legal filings and all sorts of cases involving donald trump and associates of donald trump. if you're like me you were looking forward to curling up this weekend with a big stack of courtroom transcripts. you haven't yet had time to digest. but here's one thing we learned this week from a filing by prosecutors in the case against former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. we learned this week from prosecutors what they were looking for when fbi agents raided paul manafort's house last summer. we learned a whole list of specific stuff they were looking for that included, "communications, records, documents and other files