we had michael cohen speaking. coming into tears when he was saying, it broke his heart that the shame and the pain he's brought on to his family by committing these crimes. his family members were emotional. friends and family, his daughter right behind him, his wife, son, his mother, father, in-law, cousins, they all came over after the sentencing which seemed like an absolute shock to them. you could hear some sobbing in the courtroom as he was told he was going to have 36 months, three years in prison and they came over and they all hugged him. there was a lot of, you know, intense embraces, long embraces, everyone looked very shocked and i think they were expecting him to have a much lighter sentence, if not any time at all, john. >> dramatic inside the courtroom. appreciate that insight from straight inside the emotions playing out. michael cohen facing three years in prison. he can try to reduce that by cooperating further. both on his own personal financial crimes and then the special counsel, among the off

cohen. mr. cohen, the defendant, thank you. and then, if you've never seen one of these things, the real life drama you don't realize until you're in the middle of it, is that right after the defendant, michael cohen in this case, makes this tearful, standing, man-to-man, you know, beseeching and personal plea to the judge, right then, the judge lays it down. there's no buffer there. it just -- it's dramatic. here's how that part of the transcript go. the judge says, you may be seated mr. cohen, mr. cohen says, thank you, and then the judge says, the defendant, michael cohen, comes before this court having plead guilty to five counts of income tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a banking inconstitution, one count of causing an unlawful corporate contribution and one count of an excessive campaign contribution and one count of making false states to the u.s. congress. each of these crimes is a serious offense against the united states. and this is immediately after cohen is standing there crying and beseeching

cohen potentially facing substantial prison time after pleading guilty -- twice. >> michael cohen has clearly made the decision that he is going all in in terms of his cooperation. >> donald trump seemed blind-sided by the latest michael cohen plea. he stood up on the south lawn and called michael co-an liar. >> he's a weak person and he's trying to get a reduced sentence. so he's lying about a project that everybody knew about. >> before cohen cooperated with the mueller investigation, he was the president's loyal fixer. >> if anybody else was in his mind going after his boss, he was going to fight back. >> he vowed to protect donald trump at all costs. >> he told me that he would take a bullet for the president. >> could the man who was the president's go-to problem solver now be his greatest problem? >> he is such a wild card in terms of the danger he poses to president trump. >> if i were donald trump i would be very worried about what else is out there. >> good or bad. michael cohen will be part of american history. >>> president trump's former long-time personal attorney, michae

to advocate to the judge in cohen's case that cohen not do any additional prison time for the one felonyey persuaded him to plead guilty to, but in the course of making that case we learn a lot from mueller and from how cohen's -- about how cohen's case fits into the overall scandal. so remember here what happened is that cohen initially plead guilty to eight felonies in federal district court in new york. that was a deal he worked out with prosecutors in the southern district of new york. we know from today's other filing in the cohen case that they ended up subsequently not that happy with the cooperation they got from him as a witness, and they think that the judge should put him in jail for a long time. thereafter, cohen plead guilty to another explain based on his work with prosecutors from the special counsel's office. they got him to plead guilty to lying to congress about the trump tower moscow project. and so essentially what they're saying here is yes we got him to plead guilty to an additional felony, but we don't think that that should give him any additional jail time. so th

michael cohen is speaking.ld hear from the judge. >> what impact that has on the judge's decision, what impact that also has on his sentence? we will soon find out. thank you so much. we will get a quick break and bring it right back to new york city courtroom. michael cohen's fate, what is the impact and also on the president? >>> following breaking news out of the federal courthouse in new york city. michael cohen just wrapped up speaking before the court pleading for his liberty and in doing so, going right at the president of the united states, donald trump. here's what he said in part. recently, the president tweeted a statement calling me weak and it was correct, but for a much different reason that he was implying. it was because time and again, michael cohen says, i felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds. shamone is outside of the courthouse. he's trying to save his tail today. >> reporter: what dirty deeds is he talking about? we know one he's alleged. the campaign finance charges but all said

cohen must pay a $50,000 fine. cohen was ordered to report to prison in march. wolf? >> you know, athena, at the same time cohen was sentenced, prosecutors made public for the first time that the owner of the national enquirer admitted its role in the payoffs to the two women that donald trump allegedly had affairs with. what does the company say about the campaign that they knew about the hush money? >> this is important and interesting. as part of this nonprosecution agreement, ami admitted to making the hush payment to karen mcdougal for political reasons. we also know that ami met with at least one other person on the trump campaign, meaning that cohen didn't act alone here. here is a key quote from the agreement. ami made a payment in the amount of $150,000 in cooperation, consultation and concert with, and at the request and suggestion of one or more members or agents of a candidate's 2016 presidential campaign to ensure that a woman did not publicize damaging allegations about that candidate before the 2016 presidential election, and thereby influence that elec

that's how it ended today for cohen. cohen will report for prison in the first week of march. today, he left the courtroom and then he left the courthouse in lower manhattan without saying another word. but there are pieces of this that follow him out. and part of it is the question of his ongoing cooperation, and again, more on that coming up on the show tonight, including from people who have spoken with him as he approached his sentencing today. there's also the very brief russia specific comments made by the special counsel's office in court today, too. very brief comments for the prosecutor, from the special counsel's office saying that he has helped substantively on the core questions that relate to russia, that are at the heart of the special counsel's inquiry. there are questions as to what michael cohen can help with when it comes to the russia part of this. but here's the thing that i think is most immediate, and the most important big new thing that happened here today. right after michael cohen was sentenced today, the federal prosecutor's office, the same prosecut

cohen. cohen saying that nothing to reporters as he walks into the courthouse. prosecutors have asked for a substantial term of imprisonment. this is "outnumbered," i melissa francis. here today is harris faulkner, town hall editor an end fox news contributor katie pavlich, fox news analyst and cohost of "benson & harf" on fox news radio, marie harf. joining us on the couch, tom dupree. former assistant attorney general under president george w. bush. boy, we have a lot of legal issues to get to today. we need your expert opinion and your smile and laugh. >> tom: absolutely. ready to get to it. >> melissa: michael cohen could learn his fate today. reports from inside the courtroom are that cohen says he takes "full responsibility for crimes" including campaign finance violations and lying to congress. prosecutors claim that the president directed cohen to pay off two women who alleged that they had affairs with the president. earlier, president trump distancing himself from any alleged invol

>> president cohen: thank you. ladies and gentlemen, please rise and join me saying the pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance] >> president cohen: thank you. you may be seated. madam clerk, are there any communications? >> clerk: yes, madam president. we have a quick one. we have received a communication from six members of the board declaring the call of the board for a special meeting on december 18 at 12:30 p.m. >> president cohen: thank you. before proceeding with today's meeting, i would like to take a moment of silence to remember our beloved mayor, ed lee, who passed away on december 12, just last year. >> president cohen: thank you. today we're approving the minutes from the november 2, 2018 meeting. motion made. seconded. without objection? excellent. without objection, the meeting minutes will be approved after public comment. madam clerk, please call item 1, our 2:00 p.m. special order. >> clerk: item 1, here today in the chamber, we have honorable mayor london breed to engage with us in a formal p

one that cohen hasn't provided much.two, by recommending a harsh sentence, they are putting more pressure on cohen maybe to come up with even more information because the government has the power to get the sentence reduced afterward if they can tell a court that there was cooperation. right now, it does not sound like it's good news for mueller. it doesn't sound like in cohen they found a witness that will give them the key to the kingom. so far the only solid evidence that he has provided is the campaign contribution issue. it's a very, very weak case because the president is entitled to pay off women in order to help his family, help his brand. even if it was to help the campaign, remember the timing, he would not have had to file anything until after the election. i think many courts would say no harm, no dowel. -- foul. even if he filed it after the election, it would not have impacted the election. the campaign contribution case is weak. the evident of him wanting to build a tower in moscow. that's not a crime. it'

cohen was there. cohen was a witness to history and while he lied to congress, he doesn't seem to have lied to ru robert mueller. i think we haven't seen the last of michael cohen, andrea. >> my thanks to you, ken. to danny, dan, to mimi, chuck here and, of course, secretary cohen and phil. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online, on facebook, at twitter. here's ali velshi and stephanie ruhle for "velshi & ruhle." >> thank you. we'll continue the coverage now. good afternoon, everyone. i'm ali velshi. >> i'm stephanie ruhle. it's wednesday, december 12th. let's get smarter. >> we are watching a shot now live of michael cohen getting out of his car. here he comes. he is getting ready to head into court. >> just hearing he was sentenced, michael cohen the president's former attorney, and personal fixer was sentenced to 36 months of prison time. >> a deeply emotional michael cohen breaking down several times. in the course of speaking to judge pawly. when he was

president, your reaction to michael cohen -- >> reporter: the president is in a fix as cohen heads toricer for his role in hush money payments to two women who alleged affairs with mr. trump before the election. cohen, who once said that when you go to prison for perjury, your room and board will be free, told prosecutors he was directed to make the payments by the president. that's not how the president explained it to reporters earlier this year. >> mr. president, did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no, no. well, you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my -- an attorney, and you will have to ask michael cohen. >> reporter: despite the mounting legal worries for the president, he insists he is not afraid of being impeached, telling reuters, "i'm not concerned, no, i think that the people would revolt if that happened." a source close to the president told cnn mr. trump sees impeachment as a real possibility. as explained to voters before the mid terms. >> they like to use the impeach word. impeach trump. maxine waters, we will impeach him, but he didn't do

the united states versus michael cohen.ou've been looking very closely at the lies of michael cohen and how the being -- they're influencing this recommendation. >> that's right. and i think this really complements what mj was saying. mj was saying, in the southern district case, the campaign contributions, the illegal campaign contributions, which was the money for the women he was having the affairs with, that karen mcdougal in particular, that was an illegal campaign contribution. it was designed to help donald trump get elected president. there's another way in the mueller document that is about getting donald trump elected president. the lie he told -- the lie he told to congress about when the negotiations were going on for trump tower moscow, was all about the campaign. the reason he lied was to help donald trump get and stay elected president. here is -- by publicly presenting this false narrative, that is that the negotiations ended in 2015, the defendant deliberately shifted the time line of what had occurred in h

he knows michael cohen and michael cohen knows him. michael cohen knows where the dirty laundry is., michael cohen has receipts. the important part about the tape you obtained several weeks ago is the fact michael cohen is showing he has receipts. remember, they raided his office, they raided his hotel room. they got the paperwork. i guess the reason they are believing somebody has lied in the past is because there is corroborating truth and corroborating evidence not only in what he has, but what some of the other people are saying you've got a deal here where you've got two liars -- donald trump is a liar, we've seen him lie time and time and time again and michael cohen has lied time and time and time again. but now michael cohen, the guy who is going to take the bullet has the gunpointing at him and is in a real bind and i bet you he's got some evidence. he's got more to show than just his work. >> sources close to him say that's exactly what's going on, that he has more to tell. it is of relevance to congress, relevance to the merrill probe on all that, steve. just to be clear,

you know michael cohen, you've dealt with michael cohen. what is it that would prevent michael cohen from becoming a fully cooperating witness in the southern district and today be getting a recommendation for leniency st. instead of the recommendation for substantial prison time because he has not been cooperating? >> i suspect and this is just a suspicion, that it's the same thing that's made paul manafort, you know, go back on his word multiple times. i think it's worth remembering about michael cohen and paul manafort came from rough and tumble business worlds with rough and tumble clients. in both cases they had clients in eastern europe, they had investors from eastern europe. michael cohen went to high school with felix seder who's a career criminal. they did these deals together. we know that manafort was tied to a number of ukraine billionaires and a very prominent russian oligarch. and so i suspect at some level they're trying to protect either their families or their own hides from retribution given the kinds of careers they've h

in the crime that cohen pled guilty to we sort of knew it, cohen said it, it was in the information, now it's explicit. the point i want to make is that if the government is saying it in its sentencing papers and the way they said it is, if i remember correctly, is now that cohen has acknowledged. right. so this is something the government can prove. that trump was part of this campaign finance scheme. that he helped direct it. that's huge. i mean, again he's the president, so he's probably not getting charged. but this is not just cohen's say-so. so trump can call him a liar, but this is about evidence that the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district of new york appears to have. that to me is extremely significant. we are not talking about one person former lawyer who he's going to call a liar. >> this would be calling the united states government a liar is what you're saying? >> yes, which trump surprisingly does as well. but we are talking about -- it's -- we're talking about evidence. and that's something we have to keep coming back to. the things that the southern distri

all these things which, to donald trump's point, that michael cohen is a liar, cohen hasn't done himself in favors in the public statements that he has made, back when he was supporting donald trump. >> right, exactly. you can see, i mean, from the documents that were released this week as part of the plea agreement with the mueller investigation, they are saying, essentially, that what michael cohen was doing is he was lying to -- essentially, he aligned himself with the false statements that were being told by the campaign. at least according to these court documents. what michael cohen was doing was lying in order to match the lies that were going on elsewhere. that's the level of loyalty that he had to then-candidate trump and later president trump. >> yeah. a lot of lies flying around. hard to keep it straight. gloria, thank you. evan, as well. joining us now, laura coates and jeffrey toobin. also chief investigative correspondent of yahoo! joins us. co-author of "russian roulette," putin's war in america and the election of donald trump. fascinating read. also, congressional corres

just on the word of michael cohen alone because michael cohen is a liar. now, that is actually now something we can all agree on. michael cohen is a liar. or at least was a liar. even michael cohen agrees on that. he pleaded guilty to lying to congress. but after michael cohen was sentenced today, for the first time in the investigation of the president of the united states federal prosecutors put out a press release about the case. robert mueller's special counsel's office and the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan have been showing their work only in court, only in formal legal filings in court and in statements to judges in court. but today after the court session where michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan issued a press release saying that michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, which everyone already knew. the press release described every element of michael cohen's sentence in detail which everyone already knew was already public information. every detail of michael cohen's senten

cohen is no hero.rse, erin, no one is saying that michael cohen is a hero here, but you cannot ignore that that is wrong because this filing directly names the president, referring to him as individual one, and later stating that he became president of the united states, and it emphasizes the fact that michael cohen implicated the president in a crime, saying that he was the person who directed him to violate those campaign finance laws, but erin, what that is likely speaking to is a larger concern from president trump. we know about michael cohen over paul manafort, because he sees him as more of a threat to his presidency because he is cooperating with prosecutors and he can give them access to so much information. so, that's their response right now, not a surprise that they are trying to down play it tonight. >> thank you very much, kaitlan. >>> i want to go to evan perez and harry sandick and jen and mark, former white house director of legislative affairs for president trump. evan, all right, we

cohen great credit. so maybe the southern district of new york is a tale of two prosecutors. >> or maybe it's that they're going after a different crimes. >> they are absolutely different crimes. the difference between a bank false statement which is an unintentional error, that's what they charged him with. unintentional error on a loan covered more than ten times by the equity in his house and that's what they focused on. he pled guilty and he took responsibility versus the president of the united states potentially being guilty of colluding with a hostile foreign government. mr. mueller took the latter more seriously than the southern district took the three crimes that were pled to so this is a tale of two prosecutors. i'm not challenging the integrity of the southern district prosecutors. they have their own rules. but it depends on your definition of the word cooperate. >> also, can't you separate the two? the southern district of new york could be going after businesses related to mr. cohen aez h

michael cohen. the judge taking the seat here. we know that cohen is in court, according to our team in the courtroom, his lawyers, prosecutors are all in place. we're going to have craig melvin pick up that coverage of this developing story now. >> all right, good to see you, hallie jackson. craig melvin msnbc headquarters in new york. two big stories we're following, that breaking news hallie just mentioned, michael cohen being sentenced. president trump's former lawyer and his former fixer michael cohen facing that judge. how much prison time could he get for his role in a hush money scandal involving a president, a porn star and a playboy model. >>> also, exit interview, outgoing united nations ambassador nikki haley sitting down exclusively in her first interview since announcing her departure to talk about how her boss's unpredictable rhetoric affected her job and whether she has her own oval office ambitions. we'll get to that in just a moment. we start off with the fate of president trump's one-time personal attorney and p

repaying cohen. eight months ago, he erupted when authorities raided cohen's home and office. >> so i just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, good man. and it's a disgraceful situation. >> reporter: when cohen started cooperating with prosecutors, trump changed his tune and turned on him. >> he's a weak person. and not a very smart person. what he's trying to do is end -- and it's very simple. he's got himself a big prison sentence. and he's trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up a story. >> yet cohen may have the last word, telling the judge -- i will continue to cooperate with the government. and jake, those words there, i will continue to cooperate with the government, certainly are unsettling to some here at the white house. and indeed around washington. a sign that michael cohen is not yet finished potentially having his say in this and offering information to the special counsel or other prosecutors. but as for the president, jake, it was by

i can't match the michael cohen i just saw there with the michael cohen who would yell at me on the phone in 2012 -- or 2013, or 2015, when defending the president and telling me how perfect the president is about how fiercely loyal he was to the president. there's the quote there at the end for michael cohen. i gave loyalty to somebody who truthfully does not deserve loyalty. >> there's something else he says in the sound bite where he said he thinks trump has changed in this job, and he southeadoes understand the system, and we have seen the president repeated repeatedly denigrate the justice system. where i would personally disagree with michael, i don't think mr. trump is different than he used to be, but i think the pressure of the job is intense, and michael cohen's version of events have changed over time, and donald trump's version doesn't make sense from what we have heard in court and what prosecutors say happened, and we know prosecutors interviewed the ceo, and we have to assume he gave something that matched up with what cohen said happened. donald trump gave an explanation t

the first time they talked to him was on august 7, quote, on cohen's request and they said cohen provided relevant information to parts of the probe but then because they knew what they were doing when they sprung on him questions about the moscow project they write, quote, cohen provided false answers in what he later explained was an effort not to contradict his congressional testimony which we now know was perjury. john flannery, what does that tell you about the way they gathered and squeezed cohen and the way they're revealing it now? >> i think they're revealing it so we know what they're dealing with and that they have the advantage to press him to tell the truth by taking his tape recordings and his letters and e-mails and the other witnesses they had to talk about him and to confirm what he had to say. also in there, they say, that we have by other means confirmed what he's telling us and that they were helpful and that he made some corrections even as he was taking to them about matter which gave him credibility as a cooperating witness and the special counsel investigation. so

and they say michael cohen had that same mentality. if you want to call it the trump organization mentality, it is we'll just get away with it, the rules don't apply. i mean, this was a two by four striking michael cohen in the head over and over today. and this is someone who went out there and did media leaks and tried to say he was doing it both ways or he was going to do this because it was for the good of the country, or he said he wasn't taking a pardon, as if this was something for him that's sitting around on a silver platter, i mean, the privilege of that. and this is the federal prosecutors, as you're alluding to, saying no, it doesn't work like that. you're busted. that's why you're in trouble. you're busted. that's why you're sort of cooperating. and it still wasn't good enough, so you should do hard time. that comes against another thing i think's going to royal the city you're in, the manafort filing, which is getting attention, although it's partly redacted. chris, it says in here on page nine -- we only dealt with this

cohen's lawyer says cohen will be talking a lot more comparing him to the key witness in watergate saying quote, remember john dine? it's just beginning. cohen is ready to tell the truth about the president of the united states. lies are stubborn things. a stunning turn around from the man at the center of trump's inner circle. >> i'm loyal and dedicated to mr. trump. >> the words the media should be using are generous, compassionate, principled, everyokind, humble, honest and genuine. >> i'm going to be the personal attorney to mr. trump. >> he's more to us than just the boss. he's a mentor. he's a sage. he's like family. >> i imagine those words have now changed. cohen must surrender on march 6th. with me investigative reporter for the new york times. dan i'm going to start with you. you got the color from inside that courtroom. what was it like? >> i've been in hundreds of sentencing not dissimilar to that. this was an extraordinary one. the sub text to just about everything was individual one. even the judge referenced the fact, i think somewhat gratuitously that michael cohen committ

be too harsh on michael cohen. they argued that, yes, michael cohen had committed serious crimes, including withholding information related to the russia investigation. not just from the senate and the house intelligence committees, but also from the special counsel's office. but mueller's office also argued that michael cohen had in recent months gone to, quote, significant lengths to assist the special counsel's investigation. they said -- the information cohen provided to them was, quote, credible and consistent with other evidence obtained in the special counsel's ongoing investigation. the special counsel's office pointed out that michael cohen had met with them multiple times and given them, quote, information about michael cohen's own conduct and that of others on core topics under investigation by the special counsel's office. which is very intriguing, but who knows. the special counsel's office does not leak. we do not know what cohen told them. we may never know. meanwhile, today we got what looks like ro

we're also getting new insight into what cohen, michael cohen has told the special counsel in the ongoingbe of potential coalition synergyism with russia they call it. the russians call it that according to a filing from the mueller's office, cohen not only provided information about the moscow real estate project over there that trump pursued during the election, but also provided information about attempts by other russian nationals, trusted nationals they're called to reach the campaign and set up a sort of synergy between the trump in the campaign against hillary. so it's russia and trump against hillary. anyway, simply prosecutors detailed how paul manafort lied to them repeatedly while he was supposedly cooperating with them. for more i'm joined by u.s. senator richard blumenthal of connecticut who sits on the judiciary committee. senator, a lot tonight. what are you -- how do you react to the southern district of new york's report that the president directed the criminal violation of the campaign laws to cover up his affairs with susan mcdougal and with stormy daniels? >> this sent

once in the cohen filing. it refers to activity in the white house in 2018 which last i checked is this year. >> remember, trump has spent a lot of time saying he barely knows manafort. he was there for a short period of time and he has nothing to do with us. it's hard to imagine the circumstance under which he was communicating with somebody in the white house. >> it shows -- anyone who met manafort and interviewed him knew he was sleazy but it's a certain level of sleaze. he's supposedly cooperating with mueller but he's also lying to mueller and in contact with people in the white house and the president is now openly talking about pardons not off the table. >> the president's lawyer had discussed the possibility of a pardon with manafort's lawyer even before manafort agreed to cooperate. as we wrote, manafort's team was providing information still to trump's folks and it was part of a jda and that's normal. our understanding is it's pretty unusual to do that much of a reveal. >> can anything happen to mana

the sentencing happened off camera with michael cohen saying th this -- cohen's sentence the most so up in the president's orbit. let's go to chris cillizza, when we talk about the trump orbit, not just michael cohen, who has been charged, convicted, jailed? >> let me remind you that all of this will run counter to donald trump's attempts to cast this as a witch hunt or hoax. michael cohen over here, three years in jail for what he pleaded guilty to. that's our news. remember, george papadopoulos, who started this whole thing by bragging out for drinks with an australian diplomat, by bragging the russian himself dirt on hillary clinton way back when, he's already served his jail time. manafort is going to be sentenced. this may wind up being the longest sentence. michael flynn and rick gates, deputy campaign manager and former national security adviser, both of these guys are still awaiting their fates as it relates to any prison time, though i will note that bob mueller's office, special counsel office, has recommended flynn not serve any time. but this is not what a hoax or a parti

in these documents today, cohen -- the prosecutors say cohen had contacts with the white house in 2017, even in 2018 having to do with these allegations. and, so, this is a very, very different story than the one that the white house has been pitching for the last couple years and it is a real resounding statement about truth and the prosecutors and institutions. i know a lot of americans have, for the last couple years, felt like there is no one protecting the rule of law and so on. tonight the southern district of new york prosecutors, career prosecutors and trump's own justice department said, you know, in no uncertain terms, cohen you committed a felony and the man that directed you to commit that felony is donald j. trump. >> i'll tell you what, let's put up the language of what cohen and obviously was corroborated somehow by the special counsel, which is why they find it credible and say it in there. cohen received contact information for and spoke with a russian national who claimed to be a trusted person in the russian federation who could offer to campaign political synergy on

they believe he directed michael cohen to do that.he white house initially said he only weighed in on the statement about his son's meeting with russians at trump tower, that said it was aboudos when it was really about dirt on hilary clinton. directed the statement, the communications. we know mueller's team has asked the president and his legal team about those communication goes and the crafting of that statement. now we're understanding why that is so important to mueller's team, because they knew all of this as an effort to create a narrative in order to limit the russia investigation. so it certainly puts all of the president's public comments into focus. >> also, the communication on the trump tower moscow. we also know there was more communication with the president on that than we had known initially and that michael cohen has, you know, testified to that. so you have all of these people -- manafort, gates, cohen -- lying, lying. >> yes, and this document that mueller has submitted, the government's submission in its support

only michael cohen knows that. been doing this completely on his own accord and try to pocket some of the difference, right? we don't know any of it. don't know any of it. >> when everything was a total mess. even people who are huge fans of the president, huge supporters this, is a total mess right now because this is when they were going through the transition period before the inauguration happened trying to figure out who was going to take what position and even people around for the darkest days of the campaign say the transition period was one of the worst because it was such a mess. it was so all over the place. they say that period it was so chaotic and contributed to a lot of the problems that they are having now with people like michael flynn and michael cohen. >> mueller has been probing the inaugural committee, and there hasn't been a ton about it in the press and did refer a case to the u.s. attorney in washington. >> right. >> and in august the u.s. attorney's office in august on that referral obtaine

cohen said, we're paying for all

>> so moved. >> president cohen: thank you. motion made by malia cohen, seconded by supervisor peskin. madam clerk, is that acceptable? >> clerk: without objection. >> president cohen: we take that without objection. item tabled. >> clerk: item 26, resolution to retroactively authorize the police department to accept and expend a $5.3 million department of justice grant to assist with the reporting transition efforts from october, 2018, to september 21, 2021. >> president cohen: same house, same call. this resolution is adopted without objection. madam clerk. >> clerk: item 27, resolution that authorizes the director of property to execute a commercial lease with artspan at 45onondaga avenue for annual rent of $51,000 to authorize the reimbursement for tenant improvements for $410,000, 10-year term and approve the ceqa. >> supervisor safai: thank you. wanted to highlight what was discussed in budget committee. this is a special situation. this is not a $1-a-year lease opportunity with two local nonprofits. these are city-owned

no. >> why did michael cohen make it -- >> well, you have to ask michael cohen.ichael's my -- an attorney, you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know. no. >> a straight-up denial, just a straight-up lie. he said he didn't know about no. the president wasn't telling the truth. in may, rudy giuliani then spilled the beans on "hannity." >> having something to do with paying some stormy daniels woman $130,0 $130,000, i mean, which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money. sorry. i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. so -- >> they funneled it through a law firm? >> funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh. i didn't know, he did. >> yeah, wow. okay. so that was the first time they admitted that. so that point the story then became the president not only knew about the payments, forget what he said before, he paid cohen back for it. but up until then, the white house kept saying tha

>> president cohen: yes, it does. thank you. >> thank you. >> president cohen: supervisor fewer. >> supervisor fewer: sure. i just want to echo what president cohen has said, because i also think there's an overreliance on the registry. i think that, you know, my question is the same, why aren't these permanent full-time positions? when we look at registering nurses, they are per diem, and that we should be actually working -- if we are consistently over, then this is something actually i think should be addressed during the budget process, but to have a reliance on this registry, we are looking for actually two secure more full-time, you know, employees that are actually employees of the city and county of san francisco rather than on this relying on this registry. and, you know, the fact that these nurses are paid per diem and are full-time nursing staff or adequately compensated, i just think that there is a big difference in the discrepancy and, you know, who we pay and how much we pay and what benefits we have, a

why did michael cohen make that? >> you have to ask michael cohen.e to ask michael cohen. michael cohen admitted he lied on behalf of the president many, many times. >> the man doesn't tell the truth and it's sad. i should take responsibility for his dirty deeds. >> you lied for him for a long time. >> more than ten years. >> he's saying very clearly that he never directed you to do anything wrong. is that true? >> he directed me to make the payments. he directed me to become involved in these matters including the one with mcdougal which was between him and daivi pecker and david pecker's counsel. >> david pecker is the ceo of ami. here is what ami told the wall street journal about the payments back in 2016 right before the election. quote, ami has not paid people to kill damaging stories about mr. trump. except that's not what they told federal prosecutors when they struck a cooperation deal. quote, ami admitted that it did make the $150,000 payment in concert with the candidate's presidential campaign and in order to ensure that the women did not