according to this reporting tonight, it was donald trump jr. michael cohen says that he and all the other people there then heard donald trump sr. assent to the meeting and say it should go forward. he approved it happening. if that's the case, this is -- this is very serious, not just in terms of what this means about michael cohen's case and who is leaking what. this could be a very serious criminal matter for the president. >> and immediate perjury case for the likes of congress for donald trump jr. because he told one of the congressional committees that he absolutely never ever told his father about this meeting. >> right. and, so, perjury claims, the question of who spoken to the special counsel, who has been interviewed. that will all become important here, as will the specific nature of what the then candidate now president was advised as to what those russians were bringing. if he was advised, they got her e-mails, this was hacked information. if he was advised this was stuff the russian government somehow obtained by criminal means, th

donald trump, jr., and his father talked about donald trump, jr.'s work on behalf of the campaign throughout the pendency of the campaign. and of course there were the actions donald trump took after the meeting was exposed in his efforts to try and cover up the meeting by trying to dictate the statement that donald trump, jr., gave to the press. it's not really a surprise, but now is the time for michael cohen to cooperate with bob mueller. and if this was a real investigation on the house side, we would be bringing michael cohen and donald trump, jr., back in. but unfortunately the republicans prematurely and irresponsibly ended our investigation. so this is all on mueller now. >> matt miller, talk about the optics of this. if this really is evidence of collusion, why put it out this way? why put it out in the media instead of sharing it with people investigating collusion with russia? >> it's a great question. it's hard to answer for sure because we don't know who this came from. we don't know if it came from michael cohen where you would presume

i want to ask you because donald trump jr. told the senate judiciary committee his father knew nothing about the meeting. you have michael cohen, a man who claims to have been in the room when donald trump jr. told his father about this meeting. do you believe that donald trump jr. needs to be called back before congress to answer to this? >> well, i don't think there's any question that once it becomes clear that michael cohen is prepared to offer that testimony under oath, to the special counsel or to one of the congressional committees, that it's absolutely appropriate for donald trump jr. to be brought back to explain what appears to be untruthful testimony. look. everyone understands the interest in protecting your dad, especially if your father's the president of the united states but you're required to tell the truth. congressional committees have a right to expect that. there are legal consequences. it's a crime if you lie under oath. i think the congressional committee should be very interested in bringing back donald

by donald trump jr., his son. by cohen's account, trump approved going ahead with that meeting with the russians. i should note, johdon, cohen do not have audio recordings to corroborate this claim. and cohen's house testimony, remember, he testified on the hill, he did not testify at that time that trump had advanced knowledge. and the reports filed by both republicans and democrats on the house intelligence committee did not mention these claims. >> okay. so then what about the president's side? what's the response? >> so we reached out to everyone involved here. let's start with the attorney the donald trump jr. he tells cnn, i'm quoting, donald trump jr. has been professional and responsible throughout the mueller and congressional investigations. we are very confident in the accuracy and reliability of the information that has been provided by mr. trump junior and on his behalf. we also contacted one of cohen's attorneys, that is lanny davis. he declined to comment. as you mentioned, don, rudy giuliani, the pr

donald trump jr. lawyer told cnn the following that donald trump jr. has been professional and responsible throughout the investigation. we are very confident of the accuracy and reliability of the information provided by donald trump jr. cohens attorney declined to comment. on air you remember this. on chris cuomo, giuliani attacked cohens credibility. >> saying he's been lying all week. and for years. jack, i want to bring you in. if this cohen allegation is true and can be proven. was there a crime committed? >> well, if this can be demonstrated. if it can be corroborated. that's the important word. it furthers the narrative the trump campaign was not only willing but eager to get the support of foreign powers like adversaries like russia. and motive for an obstruction case. if this is proven to be true. i think that we have to step back for a moment and put it in the context of the an investigation that doubtless is focusing on the fact that the president invited russia to come up with the 30,000 hillary clinton e-mails. subsequent attack on the her

donald trump jr. told congress that his father did not know. more importantly, it would establish that donald trump, the candidate if he was aware of the circumstances of this meeting, he was prepared to allow his son to meet with the foreign government to accept dirt on his opponent. it raises the question that what other meetings that donald trump was willing to accept and whether he was opened essentially to colluding with russia and lastly it raises the spectrum of obstruction of justice. he's been lying to the public and the american people and it is a huge deal. >> after the meeting was set up before it took place, president trump said this to a campaign crowd. >> i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week and we'll be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clinton clintons. i think you will find it informative and interesting. >> so explain this significance of that. the speech that he's referencing and promising, that speech never happened. >> it never happened. craig, we have known about this

donald trump jr.'s lawyer, he told cnn that donald trump jr. has been professional and responsible through the the mueller investigation. we are confident of the accuracy and the information that was relied on mr. trump jr. and on his behalf. he declined to comment. you remember this on chris cuo o cuomo's show. he attacked cohen's credibility. >> right, that he's been lying all week and for years. >> jack, if this coalition is truth, was there a crime committee? >> well, if this can be demonstrated or come rated. the narrative that the trump campaign was not willing and eager to get the support of foreign powers including adversary like russia. it would provide a motive for obstruction case if this was proven to be true. i think there is a step back for a moment and put this into context of an investigation that is also focusing on the fact that the president invited rush that to come off with the 30,000 hillary clinton e-mails, subsequent attack on her personal servers. and subsequent on dnc and the clinton campaign and the release of those th

there is an e-mail documentation of that, donald trump jr. believed she was offering dirt on hillary clinton. in the midst of this, as you know, president trump seems very willing to have yet another summit with vladimir putin a little more than a week after a summit that even republicans panned as disastrous. what is putin trying to do here by being open to another summit with president trump? what advantage is he seeking? >> well, let's just put this in very simple perspective. vladimir putin has got an economy the size of the state of new york. he's got a military budget, which is 10% of the united states. and here he is, sitting at the top table with the most powerful man in the free world. just having that meeting is an enormous credibility boost for vladimir putin. i don't think that meeting should have ever taken place in the first place because of all the bad stuff he's done and how unimportant he is on an objective basis. vladimir putin showed up an hour late to a meeting with the most powerful man in the free world. he's turned down

you know, who were at the meeting and said that donald trump never knew about it, we sought to build the closeness in relationship between donald trump jr. and his father. and what we established was that donald trump jr. often relayed to his father the most minute information that was coming from the campaign. so, again, to suggest that he wouldn't bring to his father something as powerful as the russians seeking to help his campaign and hurt his opponent, it's just -- it doesn't add up. >> yeah. congressman swalwell, thanks so much. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >>> more now on the many legal implications for the president, his son, and michael cohen. joining us are carrie cordero and asha rangappa. carrie, the president has never been under oath about this. so i mean if michael cohen not only tells this to robert mueller but also has people who can corroborate it, legally speaking is there any risk for the president? >> well, there's risk in terms of the broader russia investigation. so a lot of times we talk about collusion. >> right. >> but what that really means if we want to translate it into the legal framework is conspiracy. a

for instance, donald trump jr. called an unlisted number shortly after that meeting. get cell phone numbers leading to donald trump himself would be very strong evidence. >> brian, the president verbally silent, publicly speaking. you go to twitter and in a tweet says cohen is "trying to make up stories" to get himself out of an unrelated jam. different than the tone when the pr president called cohen a great guy. can you make heads or tails what this looks like? >> estranged now and unlikely to ever come back. michael cohen has turned on the president. he has in public actively is trying to undermine the president's story on this, and those tweets are really significant, because the president has put in black and white on the record what his version of events is, and there's no going back from that. that is incredibly significant. i'd note right now. you can see the weather in bedminster is incredibly good. in the 80s, sunny. significant. the president will be golfing, distracted. the last time the president sent a rainy weekend in bedminster, more than a year ago in

when donald trump jr. informed trump of the russian offer and that trump gave the go ahead to have the meeting. the bombshell claim directly contradicts what donald trump jr. told investigator last year. asked by the senate judiciary committee, did you inform your father about the meeting or the underlying offer prior to the meeting? trump jr. responded, no, i did not. he also said he did not know the identity of the person he called three times before and after the meeting. and whose number was blocked. the news also calls into question cohen's own testimony before congress and the past public statements. a source tells cnn that cohen did not tell the house intelligence committee last year that trump had advance knowledge of the meeting. after trump jr. said he didn't tell his father about the meeting -- >> there was nothing to tell. >> reporter: -- cohen tweeted, so glad he was so honest and transparent with the american people. and pushed back on the long-time fixer. i did not know of the meeting with my

he says donald trump jr. actually told his father about that trump tower meeting in new york city with the russians in advance. but that's not what we hear, what donald trump jr. told your committee, the judiciary committee. is that right? >> that is correct. and there is mounting evidence that donald trump jr. misled or even more likely, perjured himself before our committee and possibly other committees because he denied telling his father about that meeting before it happened. remember, this meeting was critical. it was the meeting in trump tower that was supposed to be the opportunity to get dirt on hillary clinton from natalia veselnitskaya and other russian agents, and if he is correct, michael cohen, and donald trump, father, knew about this meeting beforehand, it certainly is very compelling evidence. >> because if you lie before a congressional committee, even if it's behind closed doors, that's a crime. >> it is a crime, and donald trump jr. is in increasing jeopardy of being prosecutable for that ki

we found in our investigation that donald trump and donald trump jr. talked every day by phone, in person, about the most minute details of the campaign. it is hard to believe that donald trump jr. would not have told his father about it. it is actually stranger if that is what occurred. >> so finally, is this the blue print for what would you do with subpoena power after the mid terms? donald trump jr. and the other staff? and what do you say to people who feel like, that would be two more years of fixating on 2016 election events? >> our investigations should always be about the future. we look back to inform us as to how we can best protect our democracy from something like the happening again. pling schiff has that, and i agree, if bob mueller's investigation and the senate investigation are not able to produce reforms going forward, of course we'll do our duty and go back and see what is unanswered. if they do their job and bob mueller can tell the country what happened, i don't think we want to reopen it. it is also not too late for republicans si

we also found in our investigation that donald trump and donald trump jr. ed every day by phone in person about the most minute details of the campaign. so it's just hard to believe that donald trump jr. would not have told his father about this meeting. it's actually stranger if that is what occurred. >> and so finally, is this the blueprint for what you would do with subpoena power after the midterms? you would bear down on donald trump jr. and these other staff and what do you say to people who feel like that would can then two more years of fix eighting on 2016 election events? >> our investigations should always be about the future. we look back to inform us how we can best protect our democracy from something like this happening again. i know mr. schiff has said and i agree with him that if bob mueller's investigation and the senate investigation are not able to produce i think refors that are needed to protect the ballot box going forward, of course, we're going to do our duty and go back and look at what is unanswered but if they do their job and bob

donald trump jr.'s attorney issuing a new statement, expressing confidence in his client's denials under oath his father had advanced warning. this as the president and his lawyer are escalating attacks on mr. trump's former fix errandere man putting the pieces together, special counsel robert mueller. our correspondents and analysts are standing by. first, let's go to the chief white house correspondent jim acosta. new attacks, a lot of deflection and denials from the trump team. >> reporter: wolf s, it seemed like a fog of confusion. they're ramping up attacks on robert mueller at a critical time in the investigation. one of the president's outside attorneys rudy guiliani is moving the goalpost for the probe, making the assertion colluding with the russians isn't even a crime, an odd line of attack as the president repeatedly said he is not guilty of collusion. >> mr. president, mr. president, do you think other -- >> reporter: as his aides were nearly screaming in the ears of reporters asking questi

although donald trump jr. have a problem because he under oath to congressional committee said he did not discuss this with his father in advance. so if michael cohen is telling the truth, donald trump jr. may have a problem. but it's also important to remember why this issue is important. this isn't just some random meeting. this is a meeting between the representatives of the russian government giving dirt, so the trump campaign thought, to the leaderses of the trump campaign. so every time the president says there was no collusion, i had nothing to do with any russians, this meeting, if in fact he knew about it at the time, shows that all of those statements, every time he said no collusion, is a lie. so it's not just sort of a random lie about the size of the inauguration crowd. it's lying about his involvement with the russian government in the campaign. >> and carl, if a meeting was squeaky clean with nothing improper, why have there been so many iterations to, you know, to who is there, who knew about it

donald trump knew about this meeting. but if we're getting to the specifics here about whether donald trump and don jr. are telling the truth against now michael cohen, i believe donald trump and don jr. and let me also say for one quick reason, and you'll understand this once we get into the weeds. remember, goldstone, who works for the agalarov family, he sent that e-mail directly to don jr. if you look at the e-mails, it was never forwarded to rhona graff, then donald trump's executive assistant, but essentially like his chief of staff. >> right. there was, however, a blocked number call made by donald trump jr., both, i think, before and after the meeting, the candidate, mr. trump at the tell graphed that there's going to be some big revelation coming out about hillary clinton regarding russia that he never followed through on after the meeting took place. it just seems to me that if you're donald trump jr. and you get this e-mail informing you that the russian government is supporting your dad's campaign, that would seem to me to be a pretty big deal to not inform your dad about. that's what the e-

let's pull up the timetable here if we could, donald trump jr. was pitched some information on hillary clinton and his campaign. donald trump teased a major speech on the clintons. june 9th, this meeting takes place. june 27th we hear that call from president trump to the russians to find those 30,000 plus hillary clinton e-mails. the same day, russians attempt to hack the clinton e-mails and the democratic national committee. >> the president asserts he does nothing wrong here. . he was told about it by his son. that certainly wasn't the case. people here at the white house seem to think the earliest movement could come on the donald trump jr. part of this. since have you republicans calling forehim to testify about what he knew and when many donald trump jr. sat behind closed doors, clearly and unequivocally, that he did not tell his dad then candidate donald trump ahead of time about this meeting. the problem here is that donald trump jr. has a history of making false and misleading statements about this infamous trump tower meeting. he said he

if michael cohen is telling the truth and it can be corroborated and proven, donald trump, jr. could have a perjury problem. >> donald trump, jr. is the only one we know has testified under oath, and that's significant. michael cohen has yet to actually go to the special counsel to give this information. if and when he does, that will be significant because then he will be sworn on that issue. and also the president of the united states we know because we've been talking about it for months and months and months has not agreed to testify under oath about this. >> josh, help me understand that. why wouldn't robert mueller have talked to michael cohen? why wouldn't robert mueller reach out to michael cohen? >> there's so much about the mueller case we don't know. as we kind of get information from sources, but there's still a lot we don't know. what we can surmise is that a lot of times in an investigation you're going to try to compile as much information as you can before you sit down with the major subject like michael cohen. you want to build that case so you can confront them

>> well, number one, this conforms to everything we knew about donald trump and donald trump jr. except for the denials, we had the denials but what we know about donald trump and what we know about his son and desire for his father's approval and the relationship, the way the organization worked and the way the campaign worked, it seemed inconceivable that he didn't know probably before that meeting and certainly right after, there are those phone calls. we know he made phone calls to a blocked number right before, right after the meeting. >> blasted out that he had some dirt. >> significant that there is a witness now who is going to say i was there at the meeting where he was told. >> i think it brings him closer to the co-conspirator. that was the phrase, if he knew about this meeting then he could have been involved in any conspiracy that could have come out of it. there is a lot of if's there. >> what are the if's? if there is collusion. >> what about the intent to get dirt on hillary. >> so intent -- >> his son and his campaign manager showed up for this russian to get dirt

jr. if what michael cohen is saying true and donald trump sr. knew about the meeting, donald trump jr.audible]. 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 the talking points would have hearing after hearing. congress needs to do its job and have a hearing.

have you back on. >> thank you. >> the trump tower meeting, is it possible in your mind that donald trump jr. or someone, paul manafort or kushner, would not have told donald trump either in advance or after this meeting that it had occurred? >> in the totality during the campaign, i would assume perhaps donald trump knew about this meeting. but if we're getting to the specifics here about whether donald trump and don junior are telling the truth against now michael cohen, i believe donald trump and don junior. and let me also say for one quick reason, and you'll understand this once we get into the weeds. remember, goldstone, who works for the avelar family, he sent that e-mail directly to don junior. if you look at the e-mails, it was never forwarded to rona graph, then donald trump's executive assistant, but essentially like his chief of staff. >> right. there was however a blocked number call made by donald trump jr. both i think before and after the meeting. the candidate mr. trump at the time, not the president, telegraphed that there was going to be some revelation coming out about hi

donald trump jr.'s lawyer says 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, bo

about two years ago in june 2016, e-mails show donald trump jr. wrote to british publicist rob goldstone. quote, how about 3 at our offices? thanks, rob. appreciate you helping set it up. the "it" prefers to the trump tower meeting. in that same e-mail exchange don junior was offered dirt on hillary clinton to which he replied, if it is what you say, i love it. just hours later candidate donald trump appeared at a campaign event to tease an upcoming speech that would reveal incriminating information about the clintons. take a listen. >> 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. >> two days later the meeting happened. it involved donald trump jr., then campaign chair paul manafort and son-in-law jared kushner met with a russian lawyer, a former russian spy and others. the public didn't find out about it until a year later after the election. one year ago, jul

trump jr.'s vulnerability is what we keep coming back to. what donald trump jr. has said is that he has told the truth to whole time. his dad was not at the meeting and he didn't tell him about meeting afterwards. trump said he didn't find out until before it break last summer. this is information you believe. upg it's all true. you've worked in this town long enough. if someone's told somebody on capitol hill, we'd know it. we'd know it five minutes after it happened. so yeah, i believe it. 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

not far away behind him there, you see donald trump jr. standing in line. tonight, mueller's office issuing a statement after that photo, and here's abc's chief justice correspondent, pierre thomas. >> reporter: tonight president trump fiercely denying the explosive allegation from his former lawyer and fixer, michael cohen. multiple sources tell abc news cohen claims trump knew in advance about that infamous june 2016 trump tower meeting. his son, donald junior, son-in-law jared kushner and campaign chairman paul manafort, sitting down with a russian lawyer with ties to the kremlin. trump jr. had been promised high level and sensitive documents that would incriminate hillary clinton as part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump. the president's son has said repeatedly his father didn't learn of the meeting until well after the election. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i mean, i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through this stuff. it was literall

donald trump's father. your thoughts? >> i think the statements outside of donald trump, jr.t is possible that he committed perjury when he testified. and i think that's most significant but perhaps the announcement of the 4.1 gdp where we are this year as we head into the midterm elections to quote james carville, it's the economy. and it's doing well because the economy is doing well. >> and what did you want to say? >> i was just going to say the economy is doing great in this quarter but i don't think that's reflecting any polling numbers in ohio, michigan, arizona or wisconsin where republicans should be doing better. >> i'm going to beg the question to you, what do you think is not getting as much attention as it deserves? >> you know, to turn our eye abroad, the u.s. state department senior diplomats who handle south asia, they are negotiating or are actually having talks with the taliban, one-on-one talks in douha, qata. that's not getting attention. we have 15,000 american troops in afghanistan. a lot of people forget that. people die there and get injured. the fact

two, donald trump was just one floor above in the building at the time that the meeting took place. three, donald trump is very close, we learned, to his son, donald trump jr., and they talked every day about the smallest details of the campaign, and then of course there's the cover-up behavior. once this meeting was exposed a year later, donald trump dictated to his son the inaccurate statement that donald trump jr. gave the media, so i think that's a consciousness of guilt as well. so it was never really a question to us about whether he knew. it was just whether he'd be straight with the american people about whether he knew. >> so there's this question about credibility, who's telling the truth, trump's attorneys say michael cohen is a proven liar. you've spoken about his trustworthiness, maybe he had this sort of come to jesus moment, but if there is evidence that his story has changed here, would you feel comfortable, as a former prosecutor, putting him before a jury? >> yes. if i had other corroborating witness. and you know, there's an instruction that jurors receive all the time when you only have a single witness to prove a fact. it says if you b

others were present when then-candidate donald trump gave his nod of approval for the meeting to move forward. that contradicts repeated denials from donald trump jr. and others in donald trump's orbit. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> the president said he became aware of it very recently, right before this came out, and that's when he was notified. >> joining me now is jeff bennett, msnbc's white house correspondent, natasha bertrand, and kevin is with us, as well. help us sort through the confusion, kevin delaney is with us, as well, four in total. let us sort through the confusion, not only who's on with me, but this story, as well. part of a trio of tweets from president trump, in which he's trying to answer the question before it's even asked here about what he knew when, what he was told. give us the latest, if you would, jeff. >> hey there, david. well, president trump insists he did not have advanced knowledge of this infamous trump tower meeting in june 2016, and the reason why this is

da guess the one getting all the attention now is the report that the president knew before donald trump, jr. met with that russian layer at trump tower in the middle of 2016the. 's denying it. we talked to nick schifrin about it earlier, but arewe looking at serious political jeopardy? the meme who believe the president are sti believing him, everybody else is saying ah-ha? how do we loat this? >> i'm looking at the allegations against michael cohen, whether he'slievable, if youe you were a journalist yu wouldn't want say it definitely was true. on the other hand i have been a skeptic of the russia thing, so from 0 to 10 i have been a 3 because i think there was no campaign to collude, and i'm moving up to 5 or 6 these days just because there have been clouds of behavior that does begin to sisell fhy, clouds of behavior surrounding whetheria ru actually got analytics from the democrat's computer and handed it therump campaign, weird timings with the russian at all times connected to the trump tweets and statements. then on the obstruction of justice side, mueller looking over the tweets and

so june 3rd is when donald trump jr. first received this e-mail from rob gold stone talking about the government support for the trump campaign. three days later you have donald trump giving a speech saying he was going to talk about hillary clinton. it made it very obvious because he never gave the speech of the and june 8th right before the day of the trump tower meeting you have d.c. leaks, which was the russian government-owned website that was going to release all of the hacked dnc e-mails that was created. june 9th was the actual trump tower meeting. >> it's an amazing detail that's emerged from this. june 8th, the russian gru agents create d.c. leaks, which is a website to disseminate hacked information about hillary clinton. >> yes. >> the next day is the trump tower meeting. >> yes, correct. and that exactly -- that kind of timeline and all of this evidence put together is what prosecutors are going to be looking at. they're going to say these were probably separate events, but were they separate events in a larg

tell the special counsel that trump knew in advance about the planned meeting between his son, donald trump jr., son-in-law jared kushner, then campaign chairman paul manafort and the russian lawyer, cohen says that trump knew because donald junior told him about it. the timeline here is important. trump's tease of a very, very interesting speech about the clintons happened on june 7. just a few hours after trump junior agreed to a date with the meeting. a meeting in which trump junior believed he would receive incriminating information about hillary clinton. reportedly from a russian government official. the actual meeting took place on june 9 in trump tower. trump continues to deny he knew about the hearing ahead of time. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> did you know at the time that they had the meeting. >> no, i didn't know anything about the meeting. >> the president said he became aware of it very recently, right before this came out.

and that his son donald trump jr. is the one who told him about it, donald trump jr. could face perjury charges, as you well know, donald trump jr. told a senate panel that he did not tell his dad about this meeting in advance. so as the russia investigation, the cohen investigations continue. the president is faced with an immediate political problem. you have his long time friend and fixer undercutting the message that the president has tried to push all along. not only that there was no collusion. but the russia investigation is a witch hunt. >> the plot thickens. jeff bennett, thank you. >> joining me to discuss all of this is benji and jordan fabian. white house correspondent for the hill. we have the president, his family, his legal team, they always denied that trump knew about that 2016 meeting we were talking about with a russian lawyer. watch this. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> did you know at the time of th

right now there's an acvaluation donald trump jr. lied to judiciary committee. think they would want to run this down. >> here is the thing in this whole russia probe. so much of it is not digest i believe, this is. if you can kind of see the lines where they are drawn. >> it's an easy thing, a meeting, somethinge denied twice, caught denying about the meeting, statements. especially when you look at this meeting, 60-daytime line june 1st to july 31st, this meeting grows in importance by the week. >> absolutely. real quickly, 100 days days to midterm ection, how is it falling out. >> we had a poll, intense democratic interest and enthusiasm for the election. that's in sie surp. there's a devoted base to the president that's loyal to him that you see increasing enthusiasm on the democratic side a bit higher. for me the bigea ty what was happening with independents. democrats are trouncing republicans among independents. every election in this centur '06, '10 and '14 indepen nts went with winning parties in big numbers. if this holds blue wave is coming. republica

special counsel robert mueller knew in advance about the now infamous trump tower meeting in which donald trump jr. was expected to get dirt on the clinton campaign. cohen is privately asserting he and others were present when donald trump junior informed trump of the offer and trump gave the go ahead to have the meeting. the bomb chel contradicts what jump junior told investigators last year. asked by the senate judiciary committee, did you inform your father about the under lying off prior to the meeting? trump junior responded, no, i did not. he said he did not know the identity of the person he called three times before and after that meeting and whose number was bought and weather that person was his father. the news always calls into question cohen's own testimony before congress and his past public statements. a source tells cnn cohen did to the tell the house intelligence last year he had knowledge about the meeting. >> there was nothing to tell. >> reporter: cohen treated so proud of donald trump junior for being so open an honest to the american people. trump pushed back on 26th to his l

this also puts donald trump jr. in a very bad situation because if he has said no, president trump didn't know about this at all and now you have somebody refuting it. the one thing i would note, though, at this point it's just he said versus he said. it's just two people saying different versions of an event and you have to have someone corroborate that. >> glenn, if there is any electronic trail to any of this, mueller has it already. the issue here is that we now have news that mueller is looking at the president's tweets to try and determine either intent or what he knew and what he didn't know. so that becomes relevant. what clint just said is that the president and other people, like roger stone, had throughout been sort of dropping bread crumbs and hints about information that they would have on hillary clinton and e-mails and servers and things like that. how relevant is all of that to a potential either prosecution or case that mueller is making that may be presented to congress? >> well, ali, it's all relev

and donald trump, jr. is saying, oh, my god, i'm afraid i got to get away from this. >> as kelly o., a lot of different captions to that mine was just awkward. let's talk about the 2016 trump tower meeting in the month of june and the allegations that michael cohen is putting out there saying, look, donald trump, our president, then candidate, knew in advance about this meeting. >> right. >> both cohen and donald trump, jr. have testified before your committee. i know you can't confirm or deny. >> you know i can't. and won't as well. >> but what are your thoughts on this? >> so, i think the walls are closing in. i said that to you, i think, a week or so ago. this is yet another proof positive that the investigation is getting closer and closer in many regards. the fact of the matter is this is donald trump's worst nightmare, it's not just this revelation or allegation because it's yet to be corroborated but it's the fact there are 99 additional tapes into the one that was revealed this week. so, i think wha

. >> reporter: on june 3, 2016, in an e-mail prosecute publicist rod goldstone, donald trump jr. is promise the incriminating information about hillary clinton. his response -- if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer. six days later, don junior met with russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya at trump tower. joining him, trump's campaign chairman at the time, paul manafort, and his son-in-law, jared kushner. when "the new york times" broke the story last year about the secret meeting, don junior didn't initially disclose the intended purpose of the meeting. instead, he said the purpose was to discuss the adoption of

at thatmeeting, the trump team including donald trump jr. expectedussians to give them dirt on hillary clinton. on twitter, the president denied knowing about the meeting in advance. >> nbc news politicalanirector "meet the press" moderator chsk todd joined at 6:00 to talk about the growing divide cltween michael cohen and his former nt. he start bid talking about that secretly recorded conversation between cohen and donald trump. audio that was leaked byohen's lawyers. >> yes, they did leak the recording. they decided to make it public because they fel as if michael cohen was being unfairly labeles ore of the criminal in this when rudy giuliani was describing it. that was mayor motivation to do that. they do not take credit for leaking this information that somehow michael cohens ready to finger the president as knowing about theou infams trump tower meeting. i would just take a step back and say the bigger significance, michael cohen want to cut a deal. ther thing is, for him to eecome credible, when you have somebody who hasn caught lying

long-time lawyer michael cohen asserts the then candidate knew about the meeting between his son donald trump, jr. and a russian lawyer. and in what could be avestigati, s special counsel robert mueller that trump's son informed him about the sit-down beforehand. at that meeting russians wexpec information on hillary clinton. don junior has previously denied that his father knew anything about it. nbc's tracie potts is joining us live from washington with the latest on this twist in the russia probe. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. not only did donald trump jr. deny, the president denied he knew about this meeting in advance. now, sources and people who have been following this say this could be a smoking gun if the prosecutor is able to prove that the president knew about this in advance. it could be the beginning of a case of collusion. donald trump, jr.'s attorney says it is simply not true. and the president's attorney is questioning the credibility of where this information is coming from. the president's former lawyer, michael cohen who is now under federal investigation. >> there'

should donald trump jr. be worried about this indictment. >> donald trump jr. he is you know living in a country that actually has laws that he is held accountable to should be worried for a very long time. donald trump jr. put e-mails on twitter about a year ago showing that he had elicitly conspired with russia revealing that whole meeting. i'm a little concerned he thought he could do that openly and be no consequences. other russia mafia members of the mafia/kremlin officials have been in plain site. that's a pattern you see throughout the republican party. donald trump jr. is not unique in this respect. now there finally are indictments, there are consequences. if that's going to continue, yes, donald trump jr. certainly somebody who should be concerned. >> let me come to you now on part two of this because there's the nra piece of it. you've written an entire book about this thing called the family and the religious right and power. quickly, at the 2016 and 2015 national prayer breakfast events, butina met with unnamed american officials and very influent