hershfield magic once again this time he's expected to beef up the saudi arabia's military might by boeing warships and despite protesters calls for prince solomon to be given the cold shoulder it looks like those deep pockets are set to keep governments in the west on friendly terms with saudi arabia. r.t. paris. more news in just under thirty minutes the start international. taking had to take matters into its own heads to provide its own security and securing the border it is now this is a very vivid agents of of course however who are the french to be there who are the americans to be there who are the british doing.

what's it like waging a legal war against the president of the united states will have a one on one with stormy daniels outspoken attorney michael of a not a on this edition of politics. the politicking on larry king by now you know the framework of the story an actress in the adult film industry stormy daniels real name stephanie clifford claims she insists in donald trump had a sexual encounter then in the four waning weeks of the twenty sixteen presidential election she was paid a hundred thirty thousand dollars in hush money by mr trump's personal attorney michael cohen cohens office and hotel room were raided this week by the f.b.i. as authorities reportedly are looking into details about that payment for his part president trump has denied the encounter with ms daniels it's also called the raid

on his attorney's office a disgrace what's the impact of this raid on the dangles versus strong case and where will her attorney take this fight from here let's find out as michael levin out he joins us now he's the attorney representing strongly dangles in her legal battle with president tom piece in new york city for this interview my dad invented the great lawyer was a dear friend of mine and he told me once. that when he represented a client usually in criminal cases his instructions where the client never speaks only the lawyers speaks. you have a client who speaks out is that good for this case. well you know larry i would agree with that opinion quite honestly in most cases i think that this is a very unique case for a variety of reasons and quite frankly no one will ever be able to muzzle stormy daniels again certainly not in this context so i could attempt to

instruct her not to talk or not to communicate but i would be wasting my breath i think that she is i think she's very self-aware i think that she wants to tell her story i think that she's active on social media and that's just the way it is it comes with the territory and so we just have to roll with it if you're vising mr trump you would you advise him not to speak at all about this. larry i did buys mr trump a whole host of things i don't know how many hours that would take but that would be a multi-day meeting by that b. and i think the problem with that is is. well it certainly would be i mean i don't think he should mention the statements or made the statements that he did on air force one i think that was a critical mistake i think his recent comments attacking the good members the f.b.i. and as well as the u.s. attorneys in connection with this warrant these warrants that were issued in the

raids i think that was a critical mistake you know generally this guy can't get out of his own way and that's a very dangerous thing when you're a litigant a party in litigation isn't. lawyers office if you're looking for information between a lawyer and a client the supposed to be confidential. well it's a very high bar in order to get those warrants issued and i can assure you that due to the high profile nature of this that every t. was crossed and every i dotted this had to go through multiple layers a review before these warrants were even presented to the judge i'm sure that the judge the magistrate judge scrutinize them in great detail before authorizing the searches there's little doubt in my mind that there was more than adequate probable cause for these searches under the circumstances it's a high bar to search a lawyers office and home in general let alone the personal lawyer to the president

i would states. his own money to pay one hundred thirty thousand dollars of his own money what do you know any lawyer who do that. you know i know a lot of generous lawyers i know a lot of lawyers that are very good to their clients larry i don't know a single lawyer that would do that and in fact think it's even more ridiculous larry because you left the part of the story out where mr trump and mr cohen want the american people to believe that this payment was actually made to someone that they thought was a liar and had no credibility the whole story makes no sense and it stinks. mr trump says that he knows nothing about it if he knows nothing about is how can it be a party to the suit and has in the going to be involved we don't know anything about this agreement larry we are confident is going to be tossed out because mr trump according to his statements didn't know anything about it he never signed it and

we're confident that the court's going to see through this one of my girl have you decided to be so public in this. because we've decided that that's an approach that works in this case under the unique circumstances of this case due to its high profile nature due to the parties involved i think you know there was a lot of individuals that question that approach at least initially five or six weeks ago but as the last five or six weeks have shown larry i think we've been spot on i think we've been damn near perfect. michael you told rolling stone you believe that michael cohen the president's attorney has been set up to take the fall. explain. well i think it it started seven to ten days ago with some of the rhetoric that we heard from individuals associated with mr trump i think it continued last thursday when he

made the statements on air force one he basically put the bull's eye on his personal attorneys chest relating to his claims that he didn't know anything about the agreement that everyone would have to ask michael cohen about the payment except the problem with this approach larry is that strategy only works if you can rely on your fixer to keep his mouth shut and to actually take the bullet for you and i don't think at the end of the day michael cohen is built in a way to do that i don't think he's smart enough and i don't think he has the metal to withstand the considerable amount of pressure and heat that is ultimately going to fall upon him do you know michael cohen. i know of him i've met him on one occasion i've had a lot of time to chat with a lot of people that know him personally i've seen

a lot of the statements that he's made i've spent a lot of time researching him and learning about him and you know larry i just don't i just don't see it i mean the problem is if you're gonna if you're going to pick a fixer at that level a guy that you're going to entrust significant personal secrets with you better pick somebody who is really smart and you better pick somebody that's really tough and i don't think michael cohen is either of those two alan dershowitz taking another viewpoint slams the a.c.l.u. for being silent during all of this he said they should be jumping up and down about the raid on the lawyers office was this and then they usually it was on time . well i don't think it's an invasion that's unconstitutional it's not it's not the first time that an attorney's office has been raided by the f.b.i. there's considerable protections that are put in place associated with that it's

not going to be the last time it into an attorney's office is rated by the f.b.i. either you know i have an enormous amount of respect for alan based on his history and is decades of experience but i'm not surprised that the a.c.l.u. is not jumping up and down and i don't think as anything to do with the fact that michael cohen is a republican versus a democrat i think it has everything to do with the fact that there's nothing that suggests that this was improper are you going to get to depose the president do you think. we hope so larry we think there's considerable grounds to do so we cite in our papers the jones to be clinton decision we think that due to the legal positions that the president and michael cohen are taking in connection with our case that there's a decent chance we're going to get to depose the president and michael cohen although at this stage i'm shocked if michael cohen was deposed if he did not plead the fifth amendment that would be shocking to me although i will tell you larry

that there's a lot of things in this case of the last five to six weeks that have shocked me so i'm almost callous to it at this time your client has a major interview telling intent has magazine in which she says she answers all the questions and anderson cooper didn't ask do you know the time tend to do that interview. you know i don't but the more and more reporting that occurs on it the more nervous i get larry quite honestly so maybe i need to find out sooner rather than later so both lawyers have to be nervous about both clients. yeah but i think i've got to be a lot less nervous than the other side you know i think i have the smarter of the clients larry you recently tweeted that you should expect a major announcement regarding the efforts to identify those who threatened your client in las vegas parking lot how close are we to know what's the major announcement. well i think we're

a lot closer now than we were forty eight hours ago larry you know this case is moving at a breakneck pace lots happened in the last forty eight hours with the f.b.i. raids there's been some other developments relating to the idea or to nitty of the assailant i'm not at liberty to get into the details quite yet but suffice it to say that our case gets better every day you predict that things could end very very badly for donald trump. very defined very very what's the worst case scenario for him. well i think the worst case scenario larry is that michael cohen in an effort to save him and save his family a lot of heartache. turn state's evidence and rolls over on the president and provides very incriminating damaging information in testimony and evidence against the president now where it goes from there you know i think it's common sense that

it could all to me at least lead to charges being brought against the president or possibly his impeachment i mean people that are far more qualified and far smarter than i will or that i am wall to merely make those determinations but that's what is meant by very very badly brian todd attacked the incoming president of los angeles bar association told the l.a. times you could be the person for the president because you understand trump and trump's head. it's true how did you how did you get that how did you get i know forty years in wooldridge how did you get that knowledge. you know larry that's an interesting question i mean you know brian's comments are very kind i don't know if he's right or wrong you know i'm right now i'm doing a job to the very best of my abilities i feel like i do have a unique skill set based on my life experiences that that has allowed me to pursue

this case in the way that we have things have worked out very very well for us but it's early i mean if this is the first quarter we're midway through the first quarter of this case there's a lot of football left to play there's a lot of case left to play we don't all to mentally know how this is going to work out so you know while the adulation and the kind words are very much appreciated we're not reading all those headlines and resting on our laurels at this point they needed to get to the heavy territory. taking on. the leader of the free world. well there's no question about that i mean this is a fairly surreal process i thought long and hard before i agreed to take on this case this was not just a snap decision there are serious consequences associated with taking this case on not just on a on a professional level but on a personal level larry my own personal belief is that this is just from my

perspective this is either going to and very very well for me personally or it's going to end very very badly for me personally and i don't know ultimately how it's going to end but i took the case because it was a worthy cause because i believed in my client i thought my client had gotten a raw deal i thought that she was being intimidated and threatened by people that were far more powerful than she was i was offended by that and so at this point i'm just trying to get over the goal line my girl gave a talk to and if you look slow to seeing thanks for your time. thank you larry we'll be right back with more.

to. come on.

politicking speaker of the house paul ryan announce whedon's day he is leaving congress at the end of his current term citing a desire to spend more time with his children and wife ryan's plan the parchin now says believe this shit battle for the g.o.p. which will likely play out between house majority leader kevin mccarthy of california and house whip steve school b.c. of louisiana will the president weigh in on which he prefers and what does his leadership vacuum in the house mean for the upcoming midterms so that we turn to david jolly. good representative from florida so describe bullmoose republican he joins us from tampa what do you make of ryan's leaving david i don't think it's a huge surprise you know he reluctant lee accepted the role of speaker just about three years ago and even at that time was speaking with concern about the fact that

he had teenage kids that he really wanted to spend time with but look politically you can't overlook the fact that this is the bottom falling out for republicans they're clearly looking at november knowing that the house very well might be lost if paul ryan were to come back avin lost the house for republicans then his own leadership of the party would be in jeopardy so i think paul ryan decided do the right thing for paul ryan frankly and the party can determine its future now without him so if they lose the house mccarthy school e.c. or someone else will be minority leader if they win the house do you think it will be mccarthy a school e.c. do you think the president prefers one over the other. you know i think the likelihood is we see kevin mccarthy become the leader of the g.o.p. if it's in the minority it's minority leader in the majority as speaker of the house i was in the house when john boehner retired and we had the race at that time with kevin mccarthy is seemingly the front runner the votes just weren't there for

kevin last time i was one of the holdouts that said i didn't think the time was right for kevin to leave the house g.o.p. but i remember saying at that time a few years back when i voted against kevin that his loss then might have ensured that he is the future leader of the party and frankly since kevin lost that he kept his head down he's done the hard work of the house campaign for his colleagues i think kevin's position to take the top spot the president speaks highly of each of them we'll see what this president does if he tries to tilt the skill but what we know is whoever the next leader of the g.o.p. is on the house will have the thumbprint of donald trump on them because it will only happen with his support so he is the republican party he is the republican party and and with the departure of paul ryan we are losing part of these last vestiges of what we used to think of the republican party the deficit cutting tax cutting regulation cutting free trade party all that's been thrown out the window there are some healthy criticisms of paul ryan right now today that when he had the

opportunity to push that agenda he couldn't get out front of donald trump and the president's philosophies and frankly this party now has become the party of donald trump congressional democrats are pushing consume immediate action legislation to protect. the g.o.p. is warning the president not to act against moeller as well do you think he's going to follow moly. i think he will i think every indication is that he's going to fire a mole or i think the president takes this as a personal affront and we have seen what happens when he feels as though he's being personally attacked he attacks back i don't think the president pays too much mind to the constitutional parameters of the office that he holds and at the end of the day i think he has to bring this investigation to a close before democrats possibly take control the house because the democrats likely won't run on impeachment if democrats take control the house and this investigation is ongoing or there is

a damning report of the president's behavior i do believe first of the year they'll begin to have hearings at least asking questions about what presidential behavior is rise to the level of an impeachable offense frankly the standards set during bill clinton administration suggest that's a pretty low bar the republicans were able to impeach bill clinton on civil perjury and the likelihood is we might already see donald trump as has committed that based on some of the current legal actions we have just rosen stand for. yes so this is interesting the way muller gets gets ultimately terminated is rosenstein has to go so the president and states could dismiss rosenstein have been replaced with a loyalist that would agree to fire miller or shake up something between sessions and rosenstein to make that happen at the end of the day the president cannot directly fire moeller but he can fire the person who has that authority and replace that person with somebody who will in fact terminate bob mueller the f.b.i.

raid on the president's lawyer michael cohen do you think that is the end of attorney client privilege or do you go to discus to says mccord signed off on the war in the war was legal. that's right that's the justice system working and this would not have been a warrant signed off on lightly this clearly went to the very top of our department of justice for the f.b.i. to even seek that warrant what we know happened as a result of this is there is there there is suspected criminal activity that was engaged in between cohn and one of his clients and we presume with with good information that that client as donald trump this is a very rare act to raid an attorney's office and take what would otherwise be considered privilege files but the reality is if there was some advancement of a fraud or a crime between conan the president that privilege does not exist so attorney client privilege still exists today but it may not apply in the case of trump and

cohen because they violated the law in the process of their communications david as always thanks for your time today. great to be with you thank you larry against a backdrop of national security shake ups and multiple investigations the president faces dangerous decisions about syria including an expected response to a recent deadly chemical attack in a town held by rebels for a little perspective on all this let's turn to former deputy assistant secretary of state joel rubin he joins me from washington he's president of the washington strategy strategy group the national security advisory and lobby for what options does the president have for responding to this attack. larry has no good options first and foremost the president is really in a box in some ways of his own making because he did talk about red lines in syria related to chemical weapons and that the u.s.

would forcefully respond so now he in many ways has to respond to his own red line outside of that however the problem is that the united states currently doesn't have a clear vision of where we want to go in syria and what we want the end state to be so it makes this kind of a decision incredibly difficult because it's not clear what this will actually achieve in the long run in early morning tweet wednesday trump said russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria get ready russia because they will be coming nice and new and smart what do you make of that is that helpful. the last thing the united states needs is to have a hot war conflict with russia that is not something that any national security leader once there certainly tensions between the united states and russia but we don't need to be in gauging in taunton if we're going to engage in a military action in syria it has to be clear it has to be focused it has to be

a reason for it it has to create deterrence against future chemical attacks if this is the justification but a war with russia a military action that leads to nowhere good and we need to really pull back from that kind of rhetoric the russian soldiers in syria is that fact through the course . as the. russian soldiers. and well larry this is the problem with syria right now there are so many different groups in gauge to military action there are remnants of al qaida there's the islamic state there's hizbollah there's the islamic revolutionary guard corps from iran the assad regime you name it the kurds the americans we have troops there as well any bombing raid runs the risk of ancillary casualties and casualties that were not intended such as iranians such as russians and and that's why it's so complicated and that's why it's so important that we don't just conduct a bombing strike willy nilly in this sense to use the technical term we really need

to be engaged with our allies and partners there to stop this kind of chemical attack and if we're going to raid militarily through airstrikes we need to make it clear to all those adversaries russia and iran in this case that we're not aiming for them because if we do hit them that could lead to further escalation of the president's talk to the prime minister of england the president of france does he need congressional approval for military response you've really put your finger on the button with this question already there are bipartisan voices in the senate and in the house. calling for military authorization there currently is no american military authorization in syria the only authorization is for fighting the islamic state not for attacking assad and this is what caught president obama about five years ago in fits because he wanted to initially bomb syria but then realized he

needed to go to congress for authorization and congress didn't want to authorize it so president trump if he goes forward with strikes will be doing so without authorization and that could create a major crisis with congress because congress is going to ask the hard questions of the defense department the state department when they come in testify what's the authorization what's the end game what's the plan and they're not going to have very strong answers trumbo said he would never tip his hand yet he announced that the u.s. military would be leaving syria john mccain said that that american in action bold. to do what he does do you agree. well i certainly agree with the idea that one should not tip their hand too early but if they're going to say what they want to do militarily or in a country with in terms of our policy and in this case what president trump wants to do in syria he needs to make a clear statement it can't just be a single one off line it's time to go in this case is what he said and leave that

he's to lay out of very clear policy for the american people we have american soldiers on the ground right now they're american troops and they deserve to be told by their commander in chief what he has them fighting for and why they're there and why their lives are at risk and the president has failed to do that he has not yet explained to the american people why our troops are there and what his vision is for syria he could then telegraph his policy if he explains that but he should really refrain from just making statements offhand and not putting them into a clear policy context obama drew a line in the sand you're saying he didn't bomb because congress wasn't going to approve but the republicans blame him for not bombing. yes it's a perfect political catch twenty two for president obama it certainly was at a time where he did not get congressional authorization because he was going to congress and realized he wouldn't get it and if we remember back then just days prior to the decision to go to congress the british parliament voted down bombing

as well and so there really was here as well as in britain a lack of public support for american military intervention so it's simple for the republicans to blame president obama for not bombing but he didn't have the authorization and they were rushing to give it to him they had control of congress they didn't put any authorization bills on the floor really there where we are right now is a situation where the american people will be asking the question why are we bombing in syria what are the objectives what are our troops there for and who are we bombing on behalf of these are legitimate questions and congress needs to be weighing in on them jones always thanks so much feel perspective thank you sir good to talk to larry and thank you our viewers for joining me on this edition of politicking remember you can join the conversation on i say page or tweet me at kings things don't forget use the politics. that's all for this edition of

politicking.

u.s. defense secretary admits that his country has no concrete evidence that there was a chemical attack in the syrian city of dumas but might strike preemptively to defend american troops there. after a lengthy cabinet meeting and theresa may fail to shed much light on london's course of action on syria merely stressing a need to coordinate with allies meanwhile the german chancellor gives a firm no to military strikes against damascus. good chance for the position even to induce became inside each of us from my. own community of us not to need to tie looking. also this hour the u.k.'s foreign secretary is in no doubt russia was behind this group poisoning after a un watchdog confirms the substance used in the attack that's despite investigations that not confirming russia as the source of.