law and order and we are seeing tempering interference with potential prosecution of the former president. we learned from the new york times it was already last march when trump's attorneys asked jim jordan to interfere in brags investigation and his grand jury proceedings. today we learned that jordan comer said mr. trump, we will do that. which begs the question, what else has donald trump asked most republicans to do and what have they said yes to and guaranteed to cooperate and protect the former president? >> there you are. david jolly and donna elwood, thank you so much. we really appreciate you.. >> david jolly and donna edwards, thank you both.)%qj that's all in o,] this tue[dry night.xd alex wagnerqw3t( tonight start

now. thank you for this delightfuln■handoff. >> it's my pleasure tolp do so an old friend. >> an old friend. great show tonight,fá my e1frie. thanks for joining us.q we start the wall street journal broke the story about the;xp &h% alleged hush moneyt( payments tr stormy daniels to buy her silence over anxd alleged sexua encounter withok donald trump. the manhattan district attorney atñijf theñi time opened an investigation after the news broke. michael cohen went before congress in 2019 and he threwok the gates wide open. notq only revealed new details about trump's direct involvement that hush money scheme he alsoe droppedfb■] this bombshell. >> mr. trump is a cheat.

as previously to thezv■q committee today thre years of mr. trump'sfá personal financial statements from eqebñ

the scope of the inquiry had widened and for his part the manhattan d.a.çó broadened out s criminal investigation aslp wel. he wasv."w going to include those same allegations of fraud. michael cohen went to federal prison for the hushe1w3 money payments.e1 cy vance made it thefá central focuse1 of his investigation. heçó concluded that there was enough evidence toñr obtain an indi"lñ to. on january 1st, 2022 a new district attorney took office.r at( mançó namedq alvin bragg, h decided to refocusa5■ his offic focus. the invs. gagse1 into trump'sh0% alleged fraudulent business practices was reportedly pushed to the side. meanwhile the new york attorney general's sprawling three-year

investigatione1fá culminated in office filing a civil lawsuitx#1 from new york state against donald trump and his three adult children andñr his business. that lawsuit accuses trump, his e5#amily ofi] staggering fraud. it's slated to go to trial later this year. that's how we got here today. where+■ donald trump finds himsf in the middle of twonb■ massive investigations from prosecutors st motion at the same qtime. these two big cases are now on the frontxd burner andfá they b have the sameçó!u■ beginnings.i] they're both nowko■ coming to a head.ok this morning, inñiçó lower manhattan, donald trump's attorneys were courtr delay the civilt( lawsuit broug by a.g. james. he employed his standard tactic, delay, r but before the hearing in that case can get underxd way it was

delayed. indeed. after a reported bombçó threat s called into the courthouse. after theñi security threat was cleared itxd went on. the judge innb■ that case said s case ist(5a■ quote, complex but complicated. meanwhile, on mr. bragg's hush money case the whole country +! termed indictmentxd watch. we have reports that an indictment coulde1xd potentiall come as early as tomorrow, as the day after this one. that reportedly the grand jury is set tot( hear tomorrow -- reportedly the grand jury isxd t to hear frome1 at least one morq witness. that reporting is notq confirme by nbc news.

set a memo todayfá mandating al police officers wear uniforms manhattan grand jury is slated to meet tomorrow. donald trump's legal headaches are it seems coming front and center from every possible ñr angle. joining us now are suzanne craigokñi investigative reporter "the new york times." also with us, açólp former d.a. the nb■çómanhattan's district attorney's office. thank you for coming to the set. let meq -- when you trace back sort of humble origins of all of this, this 2018 wall street journal story thatñr talks abou hush money payments to a

important star and the way in which that moment sets in motion thesee1 kind ofxdçóñi cataclysm investigations, on the eve of what may be a really explosive moment>&&r donald trump andw3 t trump s this man andq thisñi organizati quite well from your reporting d your the straw as it were that broke the camel's back? >> i think you never expect what it's going to be. youjfxd nevera5■ expect what's o ìjt the fall. i didn't think all ofq%ñ this w going to come from that. i'm not surprised. iñrç"actually think the valuati case ir threatening case legally for him. he's got thee1xd civil case com forward, it's going to trial in the fall, in ñ2zbject, andñi it

manhattan d.a. they can still move forward with it. l%55 case,ñixd is it your expectatio he's been notified by that hññi facing potentialñi charges to d with something that came out of the attorney general's office

andé@■qñi that's he made misrena financial institution. that story broke the same week we heard about the fact that there was a grand jury impanelled. he'sc facing potential charges, over a million dollars. that's not five months at rikers. that's very serious time. the question right now, we don' cooperate?pa&h(lc% he's cooperated so far, you wonder how far that goes oncez( he's facing real prison time and if he decides i'mlp going to q &h(lc% become real, he could cooperate in that case and it could reviv% it.

he was the cfo of the trump organization, key pl can they gett( thei] cooperatio pursue a broader fraud case? the reason the case is where it is now, more focused on hush money payments. >> i thinkok that fraud trial ?o)s" have been extremely hard testifying about the former

president's involvement and his state of fámind. and so i do think -- this is speculation -- the disagreement between the lawyers whoxd leftte office and alvin bragg had to bá around the strength of%rq case to prove intent without a cooperating i]witness. it could change the!u■ calculat if theyñr hadi] weisselberg on r side building this case. this case is a simple, more straight forward case. >> there's a lot of hand wringing in certain legal circles in how clean cut this is, in order to make itñi a fely it can't be one crime it needs to effectively be two. it's cooking the books, and then

içó didn't say simple. from onexd who's tried cases an ch particularxd statut alvinñi bragg has consistently said we still haveçó that case open. ifr weisselberg and potential criminal exposure to change his mind. >> i do wonder whether, you

know, when weu >> i thought about this for a long time. why are you creating a false

busin37■ record? a tax deduction. >> yes. >> at the recent trump q to wonder why they would create a false business record. michael cohen, "the new york times" has his taxesçó -- theñi trump'se1ñr and trumpi] organizs taxes. tlp's no direct linex filed this to the tax lpline. rude j giulianir remark that it wasñir fees.ñrxd alvin bragg may 5a■çóknow.

there's just a lot we don't know right nowxd that we'llfá learn n indictment goes t(forward. >> the campaign finance violation the way thexd case is built, bears similarities to the mq■ john edwards in çóu given the3w■ past case against edwards who beat criminalxd cñ!tges that hush money used to hide an extramaritallp affair amounted toñi anr contribution.fáq a totalled $1 million.qfálpfá it seems like that -- if that failed in court, if edwards got off forçó that, isn't a tighter

case the one bragg is building? >> well, again, we don't know the details. i'ma5■ not sure whether it woule a tighter case and it wasé@■ mo money. ie1 do think, you know,w3 there some úäm■ about building that case and there are some difficulties. certainly it would be much more straightforward ifñrxd there ta implications here. also charged with the falsification of business records to bump it from a q misdemeanor to a felony.ñi why do people create false business records? >> so i mean it would befá a straightñr forward, more clear case for theçó jury and it wouldn't runñi into the complications of whether it'snb state law or federale1q law. >> i want to talk about james'! investigation because ñiñiit's massive. just talk if you will, the hush

money payment thing comes with its peril, thet( potential the perpwalk, the history of it all, i mean what do you see as the most threateningñi part of the tish james' investigation in terms of penalties if he's found guilty. >> $250 million that's a big ñi( money. she's also going after, there are technicalñi terms on it. she wants him run out of new york. she want$/■ to limit the loans they could make, how they can do business inmy■ new york. there's a listht■ of things she wants. it would be devastating for and it looks like it's marching forward in october.jftk"pthey d.

>> howxdok are trump's business these days? >> for theok most part they continue to lose money. he's putting in money to prop a lot of them up. these were very expensive properties that he owns that c >> some would say that's beingja bad businessman. >> yeah.a5■ e1 thank you so much forñie1 joining me tonight. xde1 still to comsñ trump is rallying his base with racist and antisemitic dog whistles. does that sound familiar. plus, how añi story about trump, a porn star a week couldxdw3xd ev8 up making

history. that's next.

i screwed up. mhm.

i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck.

did you know that the tabloids ran op-eds. i didn't not. in 2015, national enquirer was the paper where candi0 in case youu

that same month of thatw3 op-ed trump had a meeting withq the publisher of the okñijfenquirer pecker, he promised tolp publis positive stories about trump and negative stories about hisñi opponentt( hillary clinton. most importantly at that august 2015 meeting theé@■ publisher o ñagreed to work with trump's personal lawyer to suppress stories that could damage trump, añi practice know as catch and kill.lpq

it's worth taking a step back and remembering how absolutely tawdry this story appears to be. the adult film actress stormy daniels was half donald trump's age when she said they met in 2016 at lake tahoe. daniels claims that trump5a■ invited her known only as. pornfáqt( star heñi met.i] she claims her )n the beverly hills hotel wherew3 daniels claims that help invite

her up to her room and when she got there they just watched sharki] week on tv.'c■ originallyq it was tabloid u not "the new york times" juicy. the first time daniels tried to sell this story was in 2011 upset that jffátrump's story to onv fruition. á was soñi absurd. it was literally a punch line. >> donald trump has said run for president because ir was running as a joke. >> he's not laughing there.fá plan trump hachdlp with the

publisher of the national enquirer that plan went into action. trump's lawyer michael■cohen bought the story, he caught it andi] killedñiñi it. .q&%uuu allegedly paid cohen ba for that. you could argue that we would not be where wew3 are right now

i'dlp love to know, you know, a we look at the magnitude of what may be oni] deck ahead of us, whether this all begins with a porn star who's angry about not getting a cameo onó[■ ñ3[■"appuq can you take me back to what was happening? how this dynamic was ⌝%q■ worked its way over national enquirer between stormy daniels and donald trump.u >> sure, yes, i think it does.a■ stormy daniels is a porn star,ñ was a ñiporn star,xd but she aspirations. she appeared in w3mainstream ñi

movies. when donald trumpçóçó invites h they meet by chance. help invites her to his room an she sleeps with him, but this perhaps toñrñ put her on apprene is meaningful to her, it's sort of anxd opportunity and then wh he -- she said9■ shet(qu

>> he liked her. he gavelpt( her beu e■ pageant tickets. he invited her to trumpw3 vodka partya5■ launch. ére. maintaining these various relationshipsñre1 according to i women's stories which he w3deni. but sheçó -- they kept talking about thee1lp apprentice andxd eventually heçóq didçó tell her wasn't going to getq her on. i believe therei]t( was anothñrn actress who may have been on thó apprentice.çó

@qiu5a1■and in allñi of thiád a came out yesterday in a pretuv public way andñr impugned micha cohen's credibility. doxd we have at(q pictureq -- ha holding a pictureq of your fábo. the fact thatfá michael cohen couldn't be trusted. what do you make of michael cohen as key witness in allfá og because he'st( lied. he lied to congress about trump hotel in moscow that he was trying to build. he plea80■ guilty toe1 qñthat. he hasn't beenñi 100% truthful p that's something trump's lawyers

are going tor assuming he'sxd indicted and if there comes a trial they'll be able to attack michael cohen's credibility and have concreteñrr examples. there's a lot of supporting evidence, there's the picture of them together, there's the fact surrogate. >> house speakerw3 mccarthy tod suggested that trump wasn't■óñi trying to hide hisxd payments t stormy daniels. from your reporting, we know thatxd michael cohen first of a took out a home equity line of credit and then wired to stormy daniels lawyer and thenñi wired(

stormy daniels, is that right in. íók] yes. >> that seems like so%t trying tot(çó hide io%ething. >> yes. >> was itv down those payments? >>5a■ yeah, i mean, we had gott informationfá about the -- we0l didn't get records of the actual payments at the time but we had multiple sources about what happened and we pieced it together.ñi we foundñr the shell and we wer able to report that michael cohen paid her the 130,000. it was painxd staking reporting (a"t appreciate:çuñ having you on thp show e1$x■today.

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me. they're after you. and i just happen to be the person that's inxd the way. that's what they're after. it's been going onñi for xdyear. >>ñi in january 2022 judges in fultone1 county,fxygeorgia, the granted district attorney willi] permission to impanel aq grand jury+■q investigating donald tr.

in september when new york a.g. james filed a la)fmit against trump, his business and his adult children for financial ñi fraud,q trump lashed out atx:bu once again. another ym■witch-hunt by/xj rac attorne:oç u earlier this monthñi trump referred to willis as thexd ract districtw3 attorney in atlanta. there's a clear pattern t(here. when ! alleged crimes is advancing, )cáh his backxd against the wal he callse1 them racists. they're out to get t(them. it won't stop there. the black governmentfá prosecuts areñi going to come

that's a trump fáplay. one we saw him run this weekend. heçó announcd that he expected o be arrested in new york today. trumpym■ told his supporters th should protest, takeñi our nati back and he wrote, we just can'd allow this anymore. they'reñi sit backok and watch. t- ing bragg ae1 soros racist ine1 reverse. trump released thisxd video yes c rñ george sorosçó fundedd bragg is known as the worst d.a. ov i'mñie1 the only thing stand

between the american dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos, and that's3w■ what it is. i'mçó representing you. i'm just here. always remember they're coming after me because i am fighting ì(lc% that's what's happening. >> it's hard to say with certainty what being a e1 soros-funded racist means in tru-! signallinglp that the jewishçó billionaire george s'nos is somehowñr out to get e1them.ñie1 whether or not that whatt( trum means to say. one right-wing broadcaster took trump's remarks about who's racist and who's he took it a step farther ñi yesterday. >> the criminalsçó in this country, ifeojuáu wantñi them h accountable, the criminals are barack obama,xd eric holder, sun rice, military join us and put

allt( of them up against the ée[ must do to save not just our countryt( the entire world. >> that's where we are right c9ñ right-wingjf media personalityf calling for the execution of black politicians because trump might be indicted for alleged crimes. we nb■recently learned on satur trump willçó hold his first ral since announcing his impending indictment in waco, ñitexas. 30-year anniversary of the armek standoff of david çólpkoresh. again, it'sw3çó hard to know if trump knows that. if he's going there because of that, or not. this decision to hold this rally there will mean e;lmething. they'll bejf listeningxd to everything he says.

when we com'y back, w examine what exactly itñi might toy out of trump's hands. out of trump's hands. that's next.an so you can both stay comfortable all night. out of trump's hands. that's next.an save up to $1,600 on the sleep number 360 i10 smart bed when you add an adjustable base. ends monday.

>> obviously thisñr is sham.

president trump announces he's going to run for re-election and now we're going to pursue it. >> this i believe is the e pit mization of the weaponization of çó andw3 departments againstt( political opponents. >> it's going to blow up our country and this is bunch of b.s. >>qfá as donald trump faces aok historic potential indictment. republicans are defense. helpw3 trump r>úu÷shore-up his the presidential primary. z already expressing somee1 reservations about trump as a candidate. nbc news poll from earlier this year, 23% of primaryxd voters support trump moreñi than theyì% support the republican party. 62% support theçó partyok overñ

donald trump. thank you for joining the program. given the title of the book, i wonder where you think the party stands in this moment, certainly some 33% of the gop are trump die-hard what about that 62 fá .that are going to witness unfolding oflpxd potentially a historic criminal indictment, where do you think this leaves them in their support for donald trump? >> youok know, i think pollw3 i little misleading because the republicani] party has become donald trump. so it's not really much of a choice. there's no anti-trump movement of any size in the republicanfá party. what happens if you oppose trump, you're liz xdcheneyed th throw a cheney out of thee1 par. an easy sjng to say i don'tt(

support donald trump. i support t(dp party than donal trump when you're sayingfá thex same thing. listen, this is whereq the sááq they began when they acceptedrw% donald trump. when donald trump went out and called forñi a muslim ban in december 2015, everyone knew in the party if the party stood for anything it was a competition, they knew this, but they didn't stand upw3 to trump and you kno there was this that republican ]p)tyok used to say, that character count, that'slp right now this ise1e1 all unfolding. it's just beginning. majority of republicans don't believe that joe bidenw3 isn't e president. oesñifá that mean? they leave in an occupied country. not only a reason to do whatever it takes for some it gives them an obligation and i think this

is just beginning. i think the republicanqht■ part shameful in not standing up for the rule of law, which is what this is.u the reason there's a former presad nt being indicted because they elected a criminal. >> whatçó do you think, one of e thingsx#u$at trumpe1 has been saying in recent days, if they can get me they can get you, can you unpack that a littlee1 bit 1 me and why you think that's sox resonate withñi the gopñr in th particular moment sf. >> it's all about grieve theñi organizingfá principle of qe■ is s3tp). it's fear of thesá rapists andxe criminalsxdjf comingq from mexi. it's fear that there are these large powerful forces in the world out thereq that havexd controllers, theçóçó party want

9ñ when ronald reaganxd was president -- inequalities in thó america. trumpe1 to be born in america means you're ar forceslp od sofá once you become into this victim'só[■ mentality that's wh trump isñ rallying. really it's all about race.q it's always been about race. whenxdçó they tried all the vot they said were illegal on january 6th, when 57% of theu party voted not tou

so what do youq do with that? i don'te1 see how that's anyñi definition ofq patriotism of putting the country e1first, it putting the party first for power. >> thank you for your time true tonight, sir.it really appreciate it. we'll be right back.uali that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage- go with the general.

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we have somew3 late-breakin news tonight related to the hush money investigation. cnn reports tonight that communications between stormyçó daniels and a lawyer currentlyq defendingxd donald trump, thosec these communications raise añ possibility that tacopina could be sidelined forq now from defending trump. he and says he never met with nor spoke with daniels. stay tuned. that is it for us. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next.