it may be that mueller has a lot more questions for don jr. now after this latest round of leaks coming from michael cohen's team. certainly, the story around this meeting in trump tower that don jr. has told partially, partially last summer whenmy colleagues here at the "times" first reported on it has continued to change. it is the latest iteration. the president denies that he knew about this. this certainly puts that whole meeting in a new light. >> so you have this, what cohen is now saying, which is different from what cohen had testified, what don jr. testified on the hill, that he knew about it. number two, this morning news from vladimir putin that he is now invited trump to moscow and has accepted this invitation a few days late to come to washington. tell me what bunk that. >> well, it's fascinating. after all the negative reports and the summit at the news conference, he then issued this invitation via twitter and he said it would be coming through his national security adviser, for putin to come. and then in moscow, it was receiv

on july 8, 2017, don jr. down played the meeting that happened a year and a month earlier, saying in a statement they primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children. reports surfaced nearly a month later that president trump helped draft that statement himself, while aboard air force o one, calling the meeting, quote, not a campaign issue at the time. on july 9, just a day later, don jr. walked that back a bit acknowledging that he did meet with the russians, for campaign information, but the meeting turned out to be about adoptions. two days later, on july 11, don jr. appeared on "fox news" and said this. >> a lot of people are going to want to know this about your father. did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i mean i wouldn't even have remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. it was just a waste of 20 minutes. >> then the next day in an exclusive interview with reuters, the president asked if he knew the

don jr. taxi cabs, maybe. he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. gee, i wonder if they helped him malk the choice. times change. the president, his allies, repeatedly, public times inned that the president was unaware of the meeting until just a few days before it made headlines a year ago. in other words, a year after it happened. here is it -- >> did you know that -- >> no, i didn't know anything about it. it must have been a very unimportant meeting, bought i didn't even heard of it. >> no one even told you a word about it? >> nobody -- i didn't know that. it's -- it sounded like a very unimportant meeting. >> let's just go to the details of this unimportant meeting. team trump has changed its story many times. don jr. originally said he never met with my russians, and then the emails forced him to admit that he did south sit down with a russian lawyer who promised to have dirt on hillary clinton. as the meeting gets through, significance as we found out who was there and the

and allen, don jr.'s lawyer, came out with this vague and opaque statement, just blanketly saying that they're confident the information that don jr. provided was accurate but not really getting to the heart of the matter which was, this did not take place, he not the tell his father about it. so we're seeing the larger implications, not just potential collusion but another part of the robert mueller investigation, obstruction of justice. if it can be shown that don jr. lied. not for perjury but false statements. if it can be shown that trump did know about it, he crafted the false statement on air force one. that's huge implications. >> everybody, stand by. we now have the photo. this was taken by politico. what we have spotlighted, i cannot believe what we have been discussing. this is reagan airport in washington, d.c., the man spotlighted on the left of the screen, just sitting there. this is robert mueller. this is the special counsel who is the one we've been saying knows way more than we all. do h

the morning after don jr.'s denials on fox news, the president's lawyer, jay sekulow, told cnn this -- >> the president was not aware of the meeting, did not attend the meeting, and was only made aware of the e-mails very recently by counsel. i wasn't involved in the statement drafting at all, nors what the president. >> reporter: a week later, a strong denial from the president himself, during this taped interview with "the new york times." >> did you know at the time? >> no, i didn't. >> but you didn't -- >> it must have been a very unimportant meeting because i never even heard about it. >> no one told you a word, nothing? >> it's a very unimportant -- sounded like a very unimportant -- >> reporter: if that's true and the president didn't know anything about it as he says, how does he explain what happened next? "the washington post" reported last july that the president himself decided to say the meeting was about adoption. and dictated the misleading statement don jr. gave "the new york times." the paper s

why is it that don jr. was there. why is i conversation because i'm take one. >> is it that he doesn't want to take one or doesn't have enough on the president? >> i think that -- well, it could be both. like i said before, i've had plenty of clients who have taken plea deals that swore they weren't guilty. apparently, he hasn't come to the amount of money it's taking to defend himself or to the pressure to lie or simply maybe he's just saying he doesn't have anything to do with it and he's going to toughen up and i would try and bring in as much information that it is the, quote, be unquote, witch hunt, and my client is being offered up because of the polarization of the politics. >> but that's not really going to fly in a court of law. let's talk about who has accepted a plea deal. rick gates, george papadopoulos, mike flynn, the attorney, former trump adviser to rick gates. that, again, what kardashian karen just brought up is the pr strategy. is that going to flow in a court of law here as manafort's defense? >> t

then about three seconds later, he hear him say don jr. he might not even be talking to don jr.may be saying don jr. is going to come here. don jr. isn't going to come here. >> yes, so what. what does any of that have to do with the hush money -- >> he was doctoring tapes. he doctored at the word "check," he cut the tape off. >> okay, what's the legal strategy here? and from a legal perspective, will it work? >> well, i mean, this is out of the defense manual 101 you get when we're out of law school. a guy close to the target and he's in the process of flipping so you attack his credibility. it turns out he has a tape on your client, well, it must be doctored. i always found it funny when they used to accuse me of being in bed with a cooperator, kind of sponsoring their lies. i would turn around to a jury and say, look, this wasn't my guy, you were with him for ten years. he was your fixer man. and now you blame me. i mean, when there's a criminal conspiracy, you want to learn about that conspiracy. those are bad people on the inside. they're liars. they're thieves. they're murd

time for don jr. to come back before the senate judiciary committee to answer them, but this time in public under oath. right now don jr.'s lawyer is declining to comment. tom winter, jonathan alter, eli stokols, joyce vance, thank you vep. >>> and the president's long-time money man has been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury investigating michael cohen. how worried should donald trump be? that is next. ...and told peoplet geico... (harmonica interrupts) how they could save 15% or more by... (harmonica interrupts) ...by just calling or going online to geico.com. (harmonica interrupts) (sighs and chuckles) sorry, are you gonna... (harmonica interrupts) everytime. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. where we're changing withs? contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com. come hok., babe. nasty nighttime heartburn? try new alka-seltzer pm g

today a democrat of the judiciary committee said he wants don jr. to come back before the committee to answer questions, again in public, regarding cohen's claims. on the same day we learned michael cohen may provide key evidence about potential collusion, "the new york times" reported that robert mueller is examining donald trump's tweets as part of his wide ranging obstruction inquiry. the times reports mueller is scrutinizing trump's tweeted attacks on jeff sessions and former fbi director james comey under a section of the u.s. code titled tampering with a witness, victim or an informant. meanwhile, "the wall street journal" reported that the trump organization's finance chief has been called to testify before a federal grand jury in the michael cohen probe. a former trump organization employee told me allen knows where all of the financial bodies are buried within the trump organization. interesting choice of words there. joining us now is jason johnson, politics ed door at the root.com. another joining us ruth marcus, and daniel goldman, forme

the guy whose name is don jr. whose whole life is owed it to don sr. would tell don sr. don jr. t he could do something for don, sr., he would probably tell him. >> tucker: based on your intimate knowledge. i'm just trying to get to the bottom of it. people should stop pretending it's real because it's fake. as you would put it we knoww th that. it's good to see you. dan bongino former secret service agent joins us now. i'm starting to conclude that we are actually complicit in this insanity by playing along with it. someone who paid money to a foreign national to get dirt from t the russians whips around and accuses someone else, you shouldn't take it seriously but we all are taking it seriously. why are we adding to the sum total of the craziness? >> i liked chris off the air air lot but i think we are all dumber for having seen g that. we may have lost about ten iq points because you notice how he scrambled when you asked him a simple question. this is a complicated case, let me distill this down to one simpleg thing. we cannot figure out how in one case this is the crime of t

the morning after don jr.'denials on forks n fox news, jaw told cnn this. >> the president was not aware of the meeting, did not attend the meet, and wing, and was onla waiver the ech aware of the e-mails recently. >> reporter: and then a strong denial by the president himself during this interview. >> did you know at the time that they had the meeting? >> no, i didn't know anything about the meeting. but it must have been a very unimportant meeting because i never heard about it. >> no one told you a word? >> no, it was a very -- sounded like a very unimportant meeting. >> reporter: if that is true, how does he explain what happened next? the "washington post" reported last july that the president himself decided to say the meeting was about adoption and dictated the misleading statement don jr. gave the "new york times." the paper said the dictated the statement aboard air force one the day the story first broke on his way back to washington from the g-20 summit in germany. and then in january this year, the

then about three seconds later, you hear him say don jr.e might not even be talking to donald jr., he may be saying don jr. is going to come here, isn't going to come here. >> yes, so what. what does any of that have to do with hush money for the playboy model? >> he was doctoring tapes. he doctored at the word check he cut the tape off. that's called doctoring a tape. >> or maybe the tape turned off or tape record -- >> yeah right, just turned off and turned back on. >> that's where it ends. >> it does not end on the word -- they at least said good-bye. didn't end on the word check. this is getting to be a silly conversation. >> it is getting to be a silly conversation. let's talk about the larger issue. in the southern district of new york, if the subject of an investigation were loudly criticizing the investigation, were tweeting about it, was calling witnesses names, would you think this subject of that investigation was getting a little bit nervous? >> no, i would think it was an innocent man who was maybe tired of the fact he was inve

so it was the exact same thing that don jr. had been promised in the e-mail he got from the publicist rod goldstone, which were her dealings in russia. you have to believe in a lot of coincidences to think that they were promised that in an e-mail and then the president came out and talked about it publicly. and then of course never gave the speech because maybe they had the meeting they didn't get what they wanted. >> and there's 20 times at least they said oh no, he didn't know about it ahead of time and rudy giuliani still saying that now although he may change his tune tomorrow. >> or tonight. >> ben wittes and matt miller, thank you both. >> cheers. >> coming up the first trial in relation to the mueller probe set to begin tomorrow morning. federal court. the charges against former trump campaign chair paul manafort. what to expect from that trial in two minutes. from the very beginning ... it was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and

explain how that is very different, if you would. >> well, here is the difference when it comes to don jr what michael cohen is saying true and donald trump sr. knew about the meeting, donald trump jr. [inaudible]. that's a crime. >> tucker: hold, hold on. >> if it's no big deal, why are they all lying about it? >> tucker: okay. i stipulated at the out set, this will come as a surprise to clinton defenders it's a crime we ought to take seriously if anyone lies under oath. we believe in punishing crimes. >> and donald trump jr. lied. >> tucker: i don't know that. i don't know if cohen is telling the truth. i don't know why cohen would hire trump in the first place. the core accusation that it's immoral to meet with the russian source to get dirt on your opponent is what hillary clinton did. but it's treason when trump does. explain how that works. >> what the email to don jr. said it is how the russian government hopes to aid your father. that was in the email. if that email had gone to barack obama or hillary clinton the same people in congress who spent 3 years investigating who wrote th

this is a problem for don jr. he has testified to the nsenate committee four times that he did not tell his father about the meeting. that's a perjury problem. i took note this giuliani placed rick gates at those meetings. his name came up in the conversation. why is that important? because rick gates is already a cooperating witness with the mueller investigation. he pled guilty to charges in early february. if he can corroborate what cohen says you have two people against the multiple denials that team trump is giving, that is a huge problem for don jr. >> when i see a problem, i mean the way giuliani framed this today. i have tremendous admiration. i think he was the best mayor in american history. >> do you think's doing his client any favors? >> i don't know what he's doing. he had me thoroughly confused. when he was talking about collusion, is it a crime or not, he was almost like a law professor. but that's not where we are in the realm of theoretical law. this is about a political kangaroo court that the s

do you believe don jr. and donald trump? or do you believe these reports that michael cohen says there was something to tell, and they were in on it? here are the other indications that trump had some kind of heads up, three hours after don jr. confirmed the trump tower meeting in an e-mail, then candidate trump promised a press conference with, yes, new dirt on clinton. >> i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week. and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons. i think you're going to find it very informative, and very, very interesting. >> don jr. says the russians didn't give him any actionable dirt and the promised press conference on the clintons never occurred. the russians did appear to score a victory with this access to the campaign at the highest levels. of course, we're also learning that the russian lawyer at the meting was not only connected to the kremlin, she was a high-level trusted adviser, e-mails disclosed showed she worked as a ghost wri

that so many people who were involved feel so little responsibilityut to the michael cohen, after don jr. was interviewed, said i'm so glad he told the entire truth about his meeting in trump tower and obviously the president knew nothing about it. now michael cohen said, actually, the president did know all about it. rudy giuliani, a few weeks ago, said, michael cohen is an incredibly honest man. i trust him. ew he says, he's been a liar hisire life. you know, when you're hearing this -- from both sides -- it makes itery difficult. robert: trying to keep him contained and he explodes out with this information. nancy: but at the same time if people are willing to change their stories -- not a little bit. this is not tweaking around the margins. these are 180-degree turns and it really makes you wonder who, if anydy, is telling the truth. joshua: to me it makes the existence of tapes all the more important because as you said, you've had rudy giuliani cling him a great lawyer, a terrible lawyer. you've had cohen defending trump, tn going against him. i'm not sure who's really got credibil

we are very confident of the accuracy and reliability of the information that has been provided by don jr. for now, no proof of whatever went down, a he said, they said situation. >> as for donald trump jr., he was spotted at the airport yesterday waiting for a flight just a few feet from none other than the special counsel, robert mueller spokes person said the two did not interact in this picture that was released by politico play book but it's one of those d.c. moments you just can't make up. >> thank you so much. >>> let's bring in reporter for the hill and a chief washington correspondent. good morning to you both. >> good morning. >> kevin, let's start with you. the particular allegation was not recorded by michael cohen so if this is a he said she said situation like hallie just put it who has more credibility? president trump or michael cohen? >> well it depends on who you support, but look, i think in terms of credibility for the purposes of the investigation, bob mueller isn't going to look at that. he's going to look at what the facts are. and what's interesting here about this

i did not know of the meeting with my son, don jr., the president tweeted this morning.nds like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. taxi cabs maybe? he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. boy, i wonder if they helped him make the choice. no reaction on his way to another weekend at the golf course. but the forecast is for rain. so look, there may be more tweeting this weekend. also, no reaction from don jr., seen here today in what must have been a somewhat awkward moment, waiting close behind a seated robert mueller to board the same flight at reagan national airport in washington. the two did not speak, making it the one meeting we absolutely positively know all there is to know about. no need to take anyone's word on that, especially not say, michael cohen's. here is the president's rudy giuliani talking to chris cuomo about the president's former confidante. >> i expected something from this from cohen. he has been lying all week. he has been lying for years. >> reporter: "lying for years," he says, which

there's mueller on the left, don jr., on the right. said that he had no interaction with don jr. and didn't notice him. which explains why don jr. walked up to him and said, "dad?" [ laughter ] [ applause ] meanwhile eric trump missed the flight 'cause he was walking the wrong way on a moving platform. he was like -- [ laughter ] "i can't -- i keep getting farther away." yep. they both said they had no interaction and didn't notice the other person. and it's a very interesting photo. we managed to find out what everybody in it was thinking when it was taken. [ light laughter ] check this out. donald trump jr. is thinking, "my camouflage hat says i want to blend in. but my turquoise shirt says, 'i want to stand out.'" [ laughter ] the woman sitting in front of mueller is thinking, "i can't believe robert de niro is on my flight." [ laughter ] the secret service agent with don jr. is thinking, "what happened to me? i used to hang with obama." [ laughter ] and finally, the guy in the center is thinking, "i'm flying with mueller and don jr

this is him saying don jr. spoke to a russian about this meeting. don jr.ont of testimony that he had no recollection of the phone call. >> it's a big deal because it helps us flesh out the timeline leading up to the trump tower meeting. there's a nebulousness about who they spoke with. the testimony last year said he had phone calls with manafort and kushner and agalarov, all of which he said he doesn't remember speaking. so that lends to the idea that donald trump jr. is not being forthright. that's important because he is still the primary person telling us what happened in that meeting. so yet again we've seen this pattern of obfuscation. i mean, this is agalarov making this claim but all of the evidence suggests they spoke. trump jr. insisted he couldn't remember whether it happened. it's another reason to suggest trump jr. may not have been forthright about what happened. >> interesting times. noah, aisha, phil, guys, thank you very much. >>> ahead, finding common ground on dangerous terrain. until her laptop crashed this morning. her salon was booked

actually happened the way don jr. said it happened. if they did get help, no big deal. people close to president trump and team trump are now seem tog acknowledge that maybe he was told after the fact despite the fact president trump said the opposite. i want you to listen to sound from anthony scaramucci and sam nunburg. >> could he have known after the fact? i think possible. >> i would be surprised when you have paul manafort, jared kushner and don jr. in this meeting if the president was made aware about it sometime after tfact if not before. >> do you think they are also kind of moving the goal post and preparing people for the revelation that maybe president trump was told before this story was about to break in 2017? >> yes, i think they're hedging. i'm wearing mustard. reasonable doubt is a mustard seed. they're trying to plant it. in case this comes out against our favor, let me plant the seeds that we were being truthful, we avoid things like perjury traps. or we could avoid things like being called liars or conspirators or everything else and just trying to g

i did not know of the meeting with my son don jr. sounds like someone is trying to make up stories to get out of an unrelated jam. >> i expected something like this. he's lying all week, for years. >> reporter: that is not how giuliani characterized cohen just weeks ago an cnn's "state of the union." >> i do not expect michael cohen will lie. i think he'll tell the truth. >> reporter: democrats said this opens a new front in the russia probe. >> effectively brings the collusion conclusion to the president's feet. >> reporter: capping the very very turbulent week is this bit of remarkable news. reporting this afternoon, a photo of robert mueller waiting to board a flight at reagan national airport in d.c. and look behind him. that same gate, donald trump jr. wearing that green t-shirt and baseball cap. mueller's office says if the other person in the photo was indeed trump jr. then, quote, mr. mueller was not aware of him and had no interaction with him. and, of course, jake now the question is, will when will trump jr. have an intera

this year steve bannon told michael wolfe in fire and fury he thought that, quote: the chance that don jrd not walk these jamos up to his father's august on the 26th floor is zero. trump jr. has said he never briefed his dad not even after the meeting it was such a nothing there wasn't nothing to tell. i wouldn't have remembered until you start youring through the stuff. it was literally a wasted 20 minutes which is a shame. >> that's a claim the president has corroborated. today president bush pushed back on cohen's claims reports that the special counsel is scrolling through the president's twitter feed to see if negative statements about james comey or jeff sessions obstructed justice justice. the president writes in part did i not november the meeting with my son don jr. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. taxicabs, maybe? he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. gee, i wonder if they helped him make the choice. now the president's new lawyer rudy giuliani is trying to introduce doubt about cohen's credibil

i did not know of the meeting with my son don jr. someone trying to make up stories in order to get himself how of a unrelated jam. taxi cab maybe. he retained bill and crooked hillary clinton lawyer. this morning on the south lawn, the president was -- there were many questions from reporters directed at the president about michael cohen. he did not engage this morning. >> peter, what are we learn about the next trump-putin sit down? >> reporter: it might be in russia. white house press secretary sarah sanders said this today. president trump looking forward to have a summit with president putin in russia. the president has delayed the putin sit down here in d.c. until the conclusion of the mueller probe. which they believe is the beginning of next year. putin invited him to moscow. we wait and see if a formal invitation comes if the president could rsvp to. >> we'll see what happens. thank you. >>> for more on that the former d.o.j. prosecutor. let's get back to this issue where michael cohen is possibly doing. you're a former pros

she crossed paths with donald trump and his son, don jr., in july of 2015. >> did the russians need anmerican partner with whom to collude? given that they were able to get access to all this information anyway. >> in the past every one of these campaigns, these active measures campaigns that they've done, they have benefited by having people in place, sources and spies, that could help them understand and aim and direct the work they've done. in this case i would suspect there is too. whether they're specifically tied to the trump campaign, i don't know. but if the past is any explanation, yes, they've always had people on the ground that can help them direct the kind of activity they're doing here. >> reporter: while mueller continues his work to find out if anyone lent the russians a hand in election meddling, on the pr front it seems putin got a huge lift today from the american president. on russian television he seemed delighted, calling trump very qualified and an interesting conversation partner. and in a post-summit interview with chris wallace of fox news -- >> may i give thi

the thing i never understood about this meeting is that don jr. would be told by someone allegedly representing the russian government that the russians were supporting his father's campaign and would not tell his father, either about that major fact or the meeting taking place or the meeting had taken place. given what you know about how the trump organization works, does it make sense to you donald trump would not have been informed about this? >> impossible. >> impossible. >> in my opinion, based on my experience working with trump and everybody that worked for trump. something major, something newsworthy, something press-worthy, would always go before trump. always. >> because he wanted to know. he wanted to be aware -- >> yes. he wanted to be on top of things. >> and, i mean, is it possible that donald trump jr. might have, as a child of mr. trump, would have more latitude than an employee? >> i don't think so, no. the reason trump jr. is in the position he's in, ivanka is in the position, jared, is that trump has historically believed that h

what we know is that don jr.is meeting to a blocked number which was the modum operandi for him calling his father. one was before and one was after. we also know from movements that trum was physically present during that meeting and we know within hours afterwards, he was meeting up with paul manafort at a luncheon just down the street. so there would have been every opportunity for the president to have been briefed and, again, to take you back to steve bannon's remarks in the book. it is incredulous to believe the president hadn't been debriefed. that may come out as a lie. >>> still ahead, a man who knows more about the trump organization's finances than anyone has been subpoenaed to testify in the criminal probe against michael cohen. we'll talk about why this is pivotal. but first, here is bill karins on the check with the forecast. >> we're waking up to horrific news out of northern california because of the carr fire. it exploded last night and crossed over the sacramento river. california highway patrol

i did not know about of the meeting with my son don, jr.eone is trying to make up stories to get himself out of an unrelated jack, taxicabs, maybe. he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. gee, where wonder if they helped him make the choice. we also have standing by cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin. >> carl bernstein broke the story. >> carl, has broken so many stories. tell us the significance of this one today. >> well, the significance is that the lawyer for the president of united states or the former lawyer for the president is alleging and has told a fair number of people that the president knew in advance of this meeting to take place at which russian operatives were to deliver dirt on hillary clinton for use in his campaign. it would be a stunning development if indeed the president of the united states then about to become the nominee of his party knew of that meeting in advance because the meeting itself that did take place suggests a kind of collusion in the sense that those present expected to receive informati

businessman enjoying microphone, jay sekulow. ( laughter ) he wrote the letter admitting trump drafted don, jrid on "meet the press." >> the president was not, did not draft the response. the response came from donald trump, jr. the president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement. it came from donald trump, jr. >> stephen: wow, he is good. ( laughter ) but there is a very subtle tell when a president's lawyer is lying. see if you can spot it. right... here! where he appears on tv. ( laughter ) now it's possible that sekulow just got bum information from trump. so either he was lying to us, or the president was lying to him. though, to be fair, it was probably both. and sekulow's not alone. sarah huck-a-sanders also denied it last year. >> he certainly didn't dictate, but, you know, he-- like i said, he weighed in and offered suggestions like any father would do. >> stephen: yes, advice on hiding your crimes from the feds is what any father would do. ( laughter ) i'm sorry. that's what any "godfather" would do. the point is-- ( cheers and applause ) t

the idea that the president knew about this, the idea that don jr. had told him and that all of these people, if that's true, had gone out there. they lied to congress about it. they publicly made statements that were inaccurate. the fact that the president's legal team was sort of willing to put that out there is just pretty extraordinary, all in the service of trying to undercut michael cohen, of trying to hurt his case here. >> what are you hearing, betsy, in terms of don jr., the likelihood of being brought back to capitol hill and having to testify again? >> i don't think -- i haven't received any information to that effect. it's unlikely that republicans on capitol hill will want to sort of put him through the wringer again. from testifying before, they have his comments. if he testified and goes against the claims michael cohen intends to make, that could cause discussion. but as long as republicans control congress, i think it's unlikely they would try and bring don jr. back for a second round of interviews. i just don't see that happening. >

do you believe don jr.o come back in front of your committee to answer more questions about it? >> absolutely. i would love to see don jr. come back. until recently, we were hopeful mr. cohen could come in front of our committee. >> do you believe that won't happen? >> i think given the current state of play, it will be very difficult to make him do that, especially given the amount of cooperation that seems to be going on with the special counsel. >> have you been told by michael cohen's team that he will not come in front of the committee? >> i have not been told that. >> has the committee reached out to don jr.? >> you would have to ask the chair. >> before i let you go, there's been this discussion, this seeming legal strategy that the president has coalesced around to say the president didn't collude, but even if he did, it doesn't matter because it's not a crime. does that strategy hold any water? >> none. >> why not? >> if there was collusion, there are huge implications and questions about legality.

this is someone who comes in, he has tweets of what don jr. testified in jong was truthful or accurate. he's saying opposite of don jr. and he has recordings and threatened people. he has lied through his twitter account and other times as well. and so with someone like that, you need to really corroborate him. we are a long way away from michael cohen's testimony being the lynch pin of the case. >> who would leak this and why? >> i don't believe this is at all in donald trump's interest to leak this. this looks bad for him and there is a lot out there on twitter that trump is leaking this to try to pull the sting out of cohen's information so he can't corroborate. that does not make sense to me as a prosecutor. it is not helpful for the prosecution for this to be out there. it makes no sense, it is still out there. it is still evidence and if michael cohen wants to cooperate, he's going to come in and talk to prosecutors and it is going to be the cases. it does not make sense for michael cohen to leak this because prosecutors don't want evide

here we are so you have the june meeting where don jr. is meeting with russians and for the purpose of getting bad information about hillary clinton. and six weeks later, you have donald trump telling russia now they're fine. the other line that immediately comes to mind is right before that meeting, don jr. have with the russians and donald trump said in a campaign -- >> we also have a question of rudy giuliani when he was on fox news saying something would happen in a week. i know it is not apart of the indictment. >> yes, there is a lot of examples of people affiliated with donald trump and his campaign and affiliated with him in a personal or official capacity, roger stones, making predictions of what would come out during the campaign and those elections. those elections are explosive. when you -- let me ask you this question. have you been interviewed by the special counsel. >> i have not. >> do you expect some point to be interviewed to get your side on the campaign. do you think it is going to happen? >> i don't know. perhaps if t

. >> this is a problem for don jr. because he has testified that he did not tell his father about the meeting. >> i'm ready to meet any time they want to. i think it's an appropriate thing to do. >> he slams the obama/iran deal, but he's adopting the barack obama position that he's willing to sit down with some of these folks without preconditions. >> yet another example of chaotic foreign policy. >> announcer: this is "new day" with ally con cam rata and john berman. >> tuesday, july 31st, how did that happen? it's 6:00 here in new york. john berman is off, david gregory joins me. great to have you. >> good morning. i think rudy giuliani may still be talking to you, making news in ways we didn't realize. >> i got him a lot more coffee. that played throughout the evening. >> that's your strategy. >> we'll play you what happened after rudy giuliani sat down with. >>> robert mueller faces his first test. paul manafort's trial gets under way today. it's on tax evasion and bank fraud. to be clear, russian interference and

"i did not know about the meeting with my son don jr.sounds like someone is trying to make up stories. he retained bill and hillary's lawyer. i wonder if he helped them make the choice." gregg jarrett is here, author of "the russia hoax." and he knows the story inside and out. good to see you tonight. let's start with the fusion side of this. they have been tight-lipped about who the sources were for the dossier. and the judge is trying to get them, have them deposed on it. what with regoing to learn there? >> the head of fusion gps testified he hired christopher steel to get dirt on trump. the dossier with the product. 17 memos. i read them all and i laugh every time. it's absurd, fabricated, anonymous, quadruple hearsay. the use of the dossier, paid for by the clinton campaign and not properly accounted for could be at a minimum, civil violation of the federal campaign election act. at worst, it could be money laundering. >> martha: here is jake tapper talking about the topic. let's listen. i want to ask about this. >> the bottom line,

next thing you hear is don jr. must be talking to don jr. so he erased them. the expert is going through them trying to figure out a few things like is is a recording of a recording? that he cut it off at the time the? did to go back to laboratory whatever he had and cut it off? >> harris: it didn't stop there, also went after cohen reclaim the president knew about that 2016 trump tower meeting between trump campaign officials and a russian attorney. giuliani says it's flat-out not true. >> is wild, crazy, and are out of their minds. he did not participate in any meeting of the russian transaction. the other meeting said he was never there. at least four separate witnesses who say that against a guy who has been proven to be one of the biggest liars in america. >> harris: one top democrat is not dismissing michael cohen's allegations. senator patrick leahy says it's time for donald trump jr. to come back before the senate judiciary committee to answer them, but this time in public under oath. what do you think? where are we? is the story moving forward where w

what did you talk to don jr. about at that time?eeting? >> i wouldn't know if he spoke with the president. and i've spoken to don jr. a few times in my life over the phone. and can't -- at this point, i can't recollect if i don't even remember what year it is right now when -- about what i have spoken to him three or four years ago. >> are you not answering because you fear some kind of legal exposure? >> no, i'm not answering simply because it's an investigation as far as i know, i think it's a criminal investigation involving the current president of the united states. >> have you talked to robert mueller or the fbi about that? >> i haven't. >> reporter: for now, emin is staying out of the united states, keeping him out of mueller's reach. but he and his father have had business ties with president trump going back to the 2013 miss universe pageant in moscow. the agalarovs helped trump bring the pageant to russia. and that year donald trump appeared in one of emin's music videos. >> i'm really tired of you. you're fired. >> report

meeting, which don jr. said his father didn't know about.ld trump -- all of these people say it is no big deal if donald trump knew about the meeting, it is a big deal for don jr. because he committed perjury if that's the case. but, you know, it is just like trump lying about that meeting means that something went on in that meeting that they wanted to hide, and now you've got rudy saying, well, but, you know, we're not going to say it didn't happen because we don't know if it did or not. well, yeah, they do know whether it happened or not. >> this is both incredibly taxing and incredibly tedious to have this put upon us this early in the day. i mean he begins one of those segments by talking about a meeting that took place, and in the very same segment, in the very same 30-second clip we played he goes from there was a meeting that occurred that we wanted to get out to get ahead of the news on, and ten seconds later he is calling it an alleged meeting as if the meeting he just referred to didn't take place. i mean what time of night was he

. >> in fact, don jr. said. >> don jr. said. >> don jr. is busy, but don jr. said and i heard other trump people say this, too, barack obama never even got above 2 percentage points for one quarter. isn't that amazing? donald trump got 4.1. never. >> we're going to do a little fact check on that but the fact is that obama got above 4% in three quarters. look, the tax cut is still incredibly unpopular. only minority of americans support it. there's a story on the front page of the times that the republicans are not campaigning on it. remember john heilemann will know more about this than i do, 42 open republican seats, something like that not running for re-election. so now these are open seats that the democrats can take on in the house. >> dana roar balker running, too. if he would just stop speaking russians, maybe the republicans can hold that seat down. devin nunes, that sort of distracting. there are a lot of people that are facing a tougher time than they thought. but it's really interesting. we always say that people vote their pocketbooks and been sayi

it puts his son don, jr. in a worse decision. he testified before congress that the president knew nothing about the meeting before it took place. if that is true, it is possible that don junior has committed the crime of perjury by lying before a congressional committee under oath. so don junior has the big problem here that was created by the president, really. >> when you talk about cohen the thing is, he has no corroborating evidence of this, the allegation that president trump knew and approved of this meeting. there are no recordings, no documentation as far as we know. but we do know that the meeting hammond. with that said,otalk to me about the importance of the intention of that meeting, whether it was known or not the intention is also in question here. >> right. we know from donald trump junior's revealed communications he expressed an interest about receiving dirt about hillary clinton from these russian nationals who had links to the russian government. we also know that this proffer turned out to be largely false th

that now-infamous june, 2016, trump tower meeting between campaign officials including his own son, don jr., and a russian lawyer. the president has since denied any knowledge of the meeting and seems to be trying to distance himself from russia. >> they say i'm friendly with russia. russia's not happy about what i did with nato -- russia's not happy about all of this tremendous amount of money that now is flowing into these countries. >> with more is nbc's white house correspondent, jeff bennett. jeff, let me ask you first of all how the trump team is handling these recent revelations. we saw the tweet from the president answering the question before it was asked about whether he knew about the meeting in advance. what is president trump and his legal team saying? >> reporter: david, the white house is referring all of our questions about michael cohen as is custom to the president's outside legal team. the president's outside legal team, namely rudolph giuliani, is now portraying michael cohen as a disgruntled former employee with an axe to grind. it wasn't always that way. take a look a