so when donald trump is asked about felix sater, this was a few years ago, hireere's what h said. >> out how many times have you conversed with mr. sater? >> over the years? >> over the years. >> not many. if he were sitting in the room right now, i really wouldn't know what he looked like. >> this is chilling. chilling to think that russian problem sister wou mobster would have an office on the same floor and i do think, you know, this is the first of a number of people we're going to see who will be testifying both in public or in private as a result of michael cohen's testimony. he has put a spotlight on people that congress will feel emboldened now to bring in and push hard. >> and it is chilling when you think about it, right, an officer on the same floor as the future president of the united states. a person with ties to the russian mob, a ties whose person said senior adviser to the president of the united states -- sorry, to donald trump who was not yet president. and when donald trump was asked about this guy, said i wouldn't know him if he walked in here. that is chilling to

two primary players in the deal, michael cohen and felix sater will have given testimony under oath oday less than a week before sater's testimony, the developer that was supposed to build trump tower moscow. in the latest edition of the trump inc pod cast, wnyc go through this letter by the russian developer felix sater e recruited pitched himself to michael cohen. cohen testified he was keeping his boss donald trump apprised of all these developments. in this letter, the developer andre describes his qualifications and projects of suburban development and a giant mall in north dakota and an office building in new york city. maybe not the resume of someone prepared to build a giant moscow skyscraper but okay. what today's trump inc podcast discovered is even those accomplishments were over sold. the suburban development as never been completed. the mall in north dakota was never built. they did create this nice imaging of it and the building in new york city, well, here is what happened when two reporters went to that building. >> they asked to talk with the super, david whose been

. >> yeah. >> reporter: felix sater.ows up on the sale documents as an authorized signatory. >> the one actual building this developer appears to have actually owned, he owned for a year, and felix sater was the only guy who ever went there or signed any paperwork. that's what the developer is holding out as a qualification to build trump tower moscow, billed the as the tallest building in europe because apparently that was good enough for donald trump. he signed a letter of intent for the developer, r mr. rozov to do just that on the third day of the republican presidential primary debate, a primary he went on to win while saying nice things about vladimir putin. joining us now is andra bernstein. thank you so much for being here tonight. >> great to be here. >> okay. there is the letter of intent signed by drama and andre rozov to build this trump tower moscow. there is an architectural rendering of it. was there any other qualification this gentleman had to build the largest tower in europe? >> this is the strange thi

>> i never met felix sater. know about felix satervis-a-vis me, when i was in my voluntary they asked me about trump moscow many times. bief left the voluntary, they asked me if i knew anything about trump tower and i think felix sater is consequential, because he seems to be the person who was the key point outside person on trump tower moscow. when i was working for trump up until august 3rd of 2015, i had no idea about trump tower moscow, i never heard about it. michael has said that subsequently after i left he spoke to cory lewandowski about scheduling a trip to moscow. on one hand, it could help trump saying, look, we weren't talking about trump tower moscow before he announced that year. on the other hand, yes, we were talking about it up until around june of 2016. at least trump was lying to the public about it. >> give me your assessment of what michael cohen has yet to say behind closed doors. he's coming back wednesday to the house intel committee. how damaging do you think his testimony is ultimately

>> yes. >> to conviction russian mobster felix sater pay rent for his office?no, he did not. >> so based on those facts, isn't it true that president worst,isled, at best, or light under oath? >> yes. amy: 10 seconds, marcy wheeler, the significance of this? guy broke green the tower deal all through the election and trump made similar commenents during the election about not knowing felix sater, when in fact, he was negotiating a $300 million real estate deal russians forced of immigrant elijah cummings at the end of the hearing. do believe the president committed crime while in office? looking at the text anand l listening to mr. cohen,t appears that he did. amy: "it appears he committed a crime," said the house committee chair elijah cummings. that does it for our coverage today.

give him an office in trump tower. >> isn't it true president trump knew convicted russian mobster felix sater made that statement? >> yes. >> isitant true because of mr. sater's relationship to the trump organization that he had an office in the trump tower? >> and on the 26th floor. >> and that's important why? >> because it's mr. trump's floor. >> isn't it true that president trump misled, at best, or worst, lied under oath? >> yes. >> and so look this question of sater the trump tower deal. co cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congress. what could sater -- what light could he shed? >> where to begin? it's a completely open secret. and they've told me he has the office on the 26th floor. he had a standing meeting every week. and i think that he could probably speak to the extent that negotiations actually went on and it's another corroborating witness to what michael cohen has told the committee. he's not the most credible person in the world but when you call felix sater before the panel and can him to describe all the efforts to pursue this deal with russian contacts. and you ask him tago

where to even begin with felix sater?es have told me that he had this office on the 26th floor and he had a standing meeting with trump every week. when he was an adviser to the trump organization. i think he can probably speak to the extent that the negotiations actually went on right, it is just another corroborating witness to what michael cohen told the committee. michael cohen is not the most credible person in the world. when you ask sater to describe all the efforts he took to pursue this massive real estate deal in 2016 with his russian contact, he boasted of knowing about it and he boasted about knowing all sorts of high kremlin officials. i think he would be willing to go into details because he's not at the trump camp at this moment. his allegiance right now is whoever can help him to avoid trouble. cohen can then gain some stability. >> manafort's lawyer filed a precinct memo tonight. it appears to be an attack on robert mueller. special counsel attempt t to villify mr. manafort as a long life felon is beyond.

, this russian american businessman as early as next week. >> felix sater was key to trump towerw. he have the one standing to benefit financially. was sending e-mails to michael cohen about our friend putin and how great this is going to be for donald trump. why we need to get this deal done. he was the one who continued pushing the deal, even after that january. i think sater is kind of a key figure here that they are going to want to hear from. >> we will get more on this. let's take a quick break. we'll be right back. so... you're driven, and you have a ton of goals... but you're stuck in the vicious cycle of credit card payments. it's time to get a personal loan from sofi. borrow up to $100k to pay off your credit cards, and then pay us back with one monthly payment. and it's all with zero fees. get a personal loan, and pay no fees. ( ♪ ) get a personal loan, and pay no fees. (burke) at fso we know how ton almost evercover almost anything. even rooftop parking. strange forces at work? only if you're referring to gravity-and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or

obviously michael cohen testified previously and felix sater testified previously. with felix sater, the republicans scheduled his interview in new york at a time when we had votes so none of the members were able to be present and none of the members were able to evaluate the credibility of that witness. we obviously know more than we did the last time he was interviewed as well. so you know, we are going through our witness list to prioritize obviously, but also to determine which witnesses need to be brought back. a number of witnesses refused to answer whole categories of questions and when we start to get the republicans to insist on answers they were unwilling which is a pretty good sign they were not committed to following the facts. so some of those witnesses are certainly going to have to come back. we will be working with the other committees to determine which committees they come back to, and whether in the way we are doing joint document requests, we might consider joint testimony. i don't know if that will be practical because the size of the committee

e-mail between michael cohen and felix sater in which felix sater says, our boy, buddy our boy, can be elected as u.s. president and we can help engineer that. and he says something to the effect of, and i'll make sure that the whole putin team gets behind it. so we don't know -- >> ouch. >> it could just be all big talk. we never know. we don't know what actions were undertaken to follow-up on that. but that would be certainly a line of inquiry that the representatives would want to pursue, and i would guess, given the mueller investigation, they would have to do that in a closed door session. >> it is an interesting situation where you have all these blustery exaggerators who say things and it's hard to determine whether they were bragging about something over which they had no power or whether they actually went and did something and made phone calls and arranged meetings. thanks to both of you. ariana berg, former prosecutor with the southern district of new york and mark with the washington post. >>> the president took a dictator's word. this time kim jong-un's insistence he wa

trump himself in 2013 distanced himself from felix sater saying he didn't know him well. that was in a deposition. a major line of questioning will be sater's role in the trump tower moscow project. he had extensive conversations with michael cohen. at one point he offered a penthouse -- suggested offering a penthouse to vladimir putin as part of the project as a way to sweeten the deal. so all of that will be a sign they want to focus -- democrats do -- on the president's finances and any ties he has to russia. business dealings with russia. that's a reason why it will be in a public setting in march. >> really interesting. thank you very much. back in the u.s., after walking away from the talks with north korea back to slamming michael cohen, the set backs are mounting. how does it play out politically? and pakistan expected to release an indian pilot shot down over kashmir. the gesture, will it ease growing tensions? india saying pakistan is doing us no favor with this. we are on it. >>> and lucky number 13. relatively unknown on a national stage, democratic governor of

he knew the names like michael cohen and felix sater. it was totally outside the experiences of anything that anyone had ever heard about a presidential candidate. some of the dossiers have been corroborated but much of it has not including its sexual allegations. in the closing days of 2016 as president obama struggled to respond to a president assault, the steele dossier was largely unknowned to the publ unknown to the public. by the time it was public to buzz feed in 2016, donald trump had already won the election. >> i am very concerned. >> i am concerned that donald trump is behaving like someone who may have been compromised or blackmailed by russia. that's something we need to get to the bottom of. we need to ge to the bottom of coming up. >> we have the president of the united states literally defending the president of russia. i switched to liberty mutual because they let me customize my insurance, and as a fitness junkie, i customize everything. like my bike and my calves. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you onl

i think you will see us do that with felix sater on the 14th.ichael cohen has important information on that but when you think about it not the central issue of whether there was a conspiracy to break the law between the trump campaign and the russians. >> i'm glad you brought up felix sater. the chairman thinks it's important for the public to hear from him in public. what is your sense of the first couple of questionings that you would like to put to him? >> look at. you have a project of trump tower moscow, might be the most lucrative in the trump organization. don't they think that's a weird thing to do, running for president and then you have the russians engaging in this presumably also untroubled by the fact. think about this. supposed to be legitimate russian business men engaged in a transaction and also unconcern ds that their counter party might be president of the united states. you think that screws up the transaction. point is, why was this financial entanglement occurring in early 2016 and why did the trump people feel so worried

simultaneous to that announcement about the delay of sater's testimony, we also learned that felix sater sued by a bank in a former soviet state that accuses him of trying to launder hundreds of millions of stolen dollars through trump properties. so there's that. sater's lawyers are calling the lawsuit a cheap and desperate retaliation lawsuit, but it sure looks like all this stuff isn't settled at all. ultimately with the release of the mueller report, we're going to learn more, but with sater's testimony postponed tomorrow, we're not going to learn anything from him any time soon. stay with us. >>> wherein we put the vision back in television. barbara quaid's analogy where there wouldn't be a prosecution for obstruction of justice, that would be like if the patriots used tom brady for every other play in the game, but when it came down to the buzzer and the attempted winning play, bill bellichek took brady out and came in and put himself in as quarterback to finish out the game. barb made that analogy on tv, and i'm saying i would have agreed with barb on that, anyway, but look. didn'

felix sater and his office there, why would the president say he could not even effective recognize felix sater? a lot of people there. i would imagine there's mingling and the president knows who is exactly on that floor. >> i don't know that for a fact. i wouldn't recognize himself. i spent a great deal of time with the president. he spends time about with a lot of people. i don't know if he would recognize me. he's got a very full day. maybe he was exaggerating a bit. i don't know. but felix sater was several doors down from the president. he wasn't there all that long. it was some time ago. remember, michael cohen said he had the office that michael cohen had up till the end. michael cohen's been there over ten years. if felix sater was there in the same office, it was over a decade ago. >> point well taken. one of the most consequential allegations from michael cohen that was the then candidate trump had had the advance knowledge from his long time adviser roger stone that wikileaks was going to release e-mails from the dnc. let's listen to this. >> mr. stone told mr. trump that he h

will tell the house intelligence committee tomorrow when he testifies behind closed doors and what felix satersion next week. >> they are irritated by michael cohen. the president has said, this is someone who lied in front of congress before. why is everyone trusting him now? the thing that the white house and officials can't deny is michael cohen knows about the president. maybe he is not always truthful. he is not the most reliable person given his history. he knows a lot about the president, how he ran trump organization, about the president's children. that's the fear for the president. that's why you saw him so annoyed after cohen testified while he was in vietnam meeting with kim jong-un, because michael cohen is out there laying out all the president's dirty secrets. whether they're illegal, unethical, whatever, he knows a lot. >> the chairman of the house intelligence committee says at some point they will release the transcripts of all of the closed door hearings, which will be important reading for us. >>> we have more breaking news coming up. we are learning of another investigatio

felix sater was working along with michael cohen to try to make it happen. >> the felix sater issue bringsat could be -- not a contradiction but a conundrum for democrats with the mueller report. look, we know robert mueller's investigators looked into the trump tower project in moscow. we know it because michael cohen was charged and pleaded guilty to lying about this. this is something mueller has investigated and thoroughly. so what will congress's role be beyond robert mueller, if mueller doesn't charge anyone with crimes regarding this? >> let me say this. yes, we know -- i mean, michael cohen has said it. the republicans certainly reminded us that michael cohen lied to congress last year. but let me say this. what was the motivation for michael cohen lying to congress? we believe it was to cover up any wrongdoing by the president. to distort the timeline of the president's involvement in the trump tower in moscow. michael cohen gave one timeline in an open setting -- or when he testified to congress last year, but before the oversight committee he said the negotiations went well into

simultaneous to that announcement about the delay of sater's testimony, we also learned that felix satere that accuses him of trying to launder hundreds of millions of stolen dollars through trump properties. so there's that. sater's lawyers are calling the lawsuit a cheap and desperate retaliation lawsuit, but it sure looks like all this stuff isn't settled at all. ultimately with the release of the mueller report, we're going to learn more, but with sater's testimony postponed tomorrow, we're not going to learn anything from him any time soon. stay with us. (avo) take prilosec otc and take control of heartburn. so you don't have to stash antacids here.... here... or here. kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. uh, well, this will be the kitchen. and we'd like to put a fire pit out there, and a dock with a boat, maybe. why haven't you started building? well, tyler's off to college... and mom's getting older... and eventually we would like to retire. yeah, it's a lot. but td ameritrade can help you build a plan for today and tomorrow. great.

forget felix sater. introduce you to at the top of the next hour who wants to haul in another trump confidant in front of congress. they want to haul in sean hannity. didn't they hear what i just said? we're going to talk to the congressman. he's going to make his case, next. high blood pressure and need cold medicine that works fast, the choice is simple. coricidin hbp is the #1 brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your blood pressure. coricidin hbp. ♪ ♪ i can do more to lower my a1c. because my body can still make its own insulin. and i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like it's supposed to. trulicity is not insulin. it starts acting in my body from the first dose and continues to work when i need it, 24/7. trulicity is an injection to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. don't use it as the first medicine to treat diabetes, or if you have type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity

felix sater.so learned today that the house intelligence committee plans to call the trump organization alan weisselberg to get testimony from him. we also have reports that gulp, the president's adult children, donald junior and ivanka trump, they should not be surprised if they, too, get called before congress sometime soon with anybody else who michael cohen named in his testimony yesterday before the oversight committee. lawmakers appear to be serious and quick about following up and getting in additional witnesses after everything cohen said yesterday. so if michael cohen said your name yesterday, you should be watching your inbox. michael cohen's legal advisor lanny davis who you saw sitting just over cohen's shoulder throughout his testimony yesterday will be our guest next. stay with us. be our guest next stay with us (girl) nooooooooooo! (man) nooooo! (vo) quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker, and is two times more absorbent. bounty, the quicker picker upper. >>

. >>> the next key person we'll be hearing from is felix sater. he claimed he led the trump tower moscow negotiations, and he's got quite the resume. in 1991, sater got into a bar fight and slashed a guy with a margarita glass. in 1998, sater pleaded guilty to a stock fraud scheme involving the mob. only a few years later, sater says he began working with the trumps on real estate deals. in 2015, sater e-mailed michael cohen, then-lawyer for mr. trump, and talked about how the trump tower moscow project would help mr. trump to convince america of his skills and win the white house. >> reporter: felix sater is the man at the center of donald trump's moscow trump tower project, and now he'll testify before congress, sharing with the world what he knows about the president's business dealings. >> i was trying to use this opportunity because i had tried to build trump towers in moscow as well as london and paris. >> reporter: lawmakers will likely grill sater on what trump knew about the deal and when and on possible financing sources. in 2018 sater t

forget felix sater.'re going to introduce you to at the top of the next hour who wants to haul in another trump confidant in front of congress. they want to haul in sean hannity. didn't they hear what i just said? we're going to talk to the congressman. he's going to make his case, next. cancer...epilepsy... mental health...hiv. patients with serious diseases are being targeted for cuts to their medicare drug coverage. new government restrictions would allow insurance companies to come between doctor and patient... and deny access to individualized therapies millions depend on. call and tell congress. protect medicare patients. stop cuts to part d drug coverage. >>> hey, everybody. i'm chris cuomo. don lemon is on vacation. he's got his birthday. happy beautiful, you beautiful man. prime time is two hours, a little overtime on this friday. it was pay bad week for the president. could be worse in the weeks coming. michael cohen is going back to

the following week, on march 14th, we will have an open interview with felix sater on moscow trump tower >> michael cohen was known as the president's fixer for about a decade. he's due to go to prison for lying to congress, which led to many republicans challenging his credibility. republican mentor to like member of the intelligence panel says he did not provide any bombshells behind closed doors. >> is very clear in the committee, but i won't speak about that. i will speak about what he said in the previous day's hearing. he was very clear. "i have no direct evidence, i have no evidence there was any collusion or conspiracy." >> after the open hearing on wednesday, republicans jim jordan and mark meadows made a criminal referral accusing cohen of lying to congress. cohen attorney lanny davis responded, "mr. cohen testified truthfully before the house oversight committee. he took full responsibility for his guilty pleas prayed he also backed up much of his testimony with documents. it may not be surprising that two pro-trump committee members have a baseless criminal referral. in my op

we learned today that in addition to that partially open testimony next wednesday, felix sater will also testify to jerry had inner's judiciary committee behind closed doors the following day, a week from tomorrow, next thursday. the deputy chairman of president trump's campaign rick gates, who also served as the number two official in the trump inaugural, his lawyers today told the judiciary committee that rick gates cannot at this point cooperate with their request for information, but only because federal prosecutors have advised him that might be a bad idea. quote, having received input from the various prosecution offices, i have concluded that for the time being, it is not in the interests of my client to provide testimony of documents to congressional investigators. rick gates, of course, is still awaiting sentencing on felony charges. prosecutors said as recently as last week that his cooperation with prosecutors is still ongoing and it's still relevant to multiple pending and open investigations. so it's not a huge surprise that with that open criminal case against gates and wit

cynthia, let's talk felix sater.his is the russian-born, one-time business associate of the president. he's the guy who worked on that plan, the moscow trump tower project with michael cohen. he's going to be testifying publicly on march 14th, before the house intel committee. what could this thing -- what could he really bring to the table? i mean, we've seen him do tv interviews before. >> he brings to the table -- yeah, he brings to the table the corroboration of cohen about the manner in which the deal was negotiated. he may be able to shed some light on conversations with the children. for example, don junior apparently said something in his senate testimony, that he knew, tangentially, that sater was aware. so it will be interesting to see whether he corroborates don junior or contradicts don junior and where that meets. we know that adam schiff thinks that don junior lied when it came to this specific area. he could provide prior consistent statements about what cohen was telling them about the briefing. he co

the week after that, he also said the committee will call in trump associate felix sater on march 14ths described as a partially closed, which means partially open hearing, march 14th, felix sater. we also learned today that the house intelligence committee plans to call in the trump organization's chief financial officer, allen weissleberg, so they can get some. we also have reports that, gulp, the president's adult children, donald jr. and ivanka trump they should not be surprised if they too get called before congress some time soon along with anybody else who michael cohen named in his testimony yesterday before the oversight committee. lawmakers appear to be serious and quick about following up and getting in additional witnesses after everything cohen said yesterday. so if michael cohen said your name yesterday, you should be watching your inbox. michael cohen's legal adviser lanny davis, who you saw sitting just over cohen's shoulder throughout his testimony yesterday is going to be our guest here next live. stay with us. ♪ - hoo! - ever get to your hotel only to realize the pho

office in trump tower. >> the following week, on march 14th, we'll have an open interview with felix sater on moscow trump tower. i should tell you, just to set your expectations, not every hearing is going to be like the open hearing with michael cohen. we're going to try to do as much as we can in open session. some we can and some we can't. >> nbc news has confirmed reporting by the daily beast that the house intelligence committee intends to call allen weisselberg, the trump business chief financial officer, to testify before the committee according to a source with direct knowledge of that situation. the move comes after michael cohen repeatedly cited allen weisselberg as having firsthand knowledge of the crimes michael cohen described in his testimony involving payoffs to women during the presidential campaign for their silence. >> i want to ask a little bit about your conversation with my colleague from missouri about asset inflation. to your knowledge, did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company? >> yes. >> who else knows that the president did this? >> a

felix sater, why? sater gets to the core problem of donald trump's business history and presidency. you have a man who dealt with dirty people for decades, organized crimes, he went to jail himself for assault. he ended up having a very suspect operation, two floors beneath the trump organization in trump tower, they built the trump hotel together. one of the former principle at bay rock, he believes bay rock was laundering money out of eastern europe. other money came into bay rock came into iceland. there was a likelihood that money was being laundered possibly from russia. this is what the u.s. attorney is going to have to look at. it makes him to be played by the kremlin in order for policy favors. >> is it informant that he's been telling on trump? >> there is a strong possibility that sater plays both sides. it is a bit of a miracle that he's still alive. >> it is amazing. it is a glass house, timothy o'brien, he knows a lot about trump. more "am joy" after the break. ♪ when heartburn hits, fight

that felix sater hearing was scheduled next week and has now been delayed until later in march. heidi przybyla, thank you for spending time with us and your reporting. harry litman for your good looks and your genius. always great every time you're on the show. thank you both. >>> when we come back, break out your west wing departure bingo cards, white house communications chief bill shine is out after less than a year. a new report rea the fox news alum managed to wind up on trump's bad side in the beat of a heart or beat of an eye or something. also mile inside the white house who leaked the dirt on jared and ivanka's security clearances to investigators in congress. and he's not even in the race yet but the hits against joe biden are already coming. i spoke to one prominent democrat who is saying, thanks but no thanks. we will see that video a little later. stay with us. we've got a lot coming. only fidelity offers four zero expense ratio index funds directly to investors. at fidelity, those zeros really add up. ♪ so maybe i'll win, saved by zero ♪ not this john smith. or thi

intelligence committee signaling he will eegr into a scratched trump tower russia project calling felix sater to testify, a russian-born executive who worked for the trump organization. >> we're going to try to do as much as we can in open session. so a we can some we can't. >> reporter: it all comes as "the new york times" reports that president trump granted his chief of staff last year to grant a top secret security clearance to jared kushne the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, despite concerns from intelligence asked about that report tonight, the white house declining to comment on security clearances. >> and tonight a source tells nbc news that the house mi intelligence cee will call allen weissleberg, the chief financia organization, to testify. blayne alexander, nbc news, washington. >>> new details in the search for a missing ride share driver. he hasn't been seen since last month. d.c. police released this missing p fsoner. tonight the man's brother came to the district from syracuse new york,o find out how detectives are doing with the hsearch. leonris is in our newsroom

katie, business at doj, why is felix sater critical in the conversations to president trump?sential dealings. also keep in mind, michael cohen has pled guilty and he and felix sater are closely aligned as well. >> randy in the meantime, many have suggested that the southern district of new york investigation into president trump is the most trouble ing a legally problematic thing that he has out there. you kind of heard the congresswoman saying there's so many different branches of this investigation. do you akind kind of agree with? >> i do. this is why we walk back into the mandate. >> into the special counsel's man daylight. >> the special counsel's mandate. is related to the russian influence into 2016 and related matters. >> yeah. >> which means everything unrelated is for everyone else to do in the southern district. are they interested in russian interference? are they interested in things like campaign finance violations, unrelated to russia? >> well, which is why the president says this is starting to look like a fishing expedition. >> 7fine, then what do you have to

about the moscow trump tower deal, about the issue of money laundering, n fact, we were bringing felix sater to talk about trump tower in a couple of weeks so any number of witness whose can shed light on whether america's marble security is compromised because the president has been pursuing financial interests with the russians. >> brennan: well, michael cohen i know will be testifying again for your committee this week. what kind of corroborating materials do you expect him to bring to that meeting? >> well, mr. cohen testified that in open session and i can't go into our closed session interview, but about his pals testimony before our committee previously and how that written statement had gone through the different drafts or iterations. he testified in open session that others had reviewed that testimony and we have obviously a deep and compelling interest in whether others were knowing of those false statements that he would make to congress, whether there are any other acts or evidence of obstruction of justice which is also a core part of our investigation. >> brennan: cohen said, t

"russia, putin, trump -- let's connect them," whether it was trying to build a trump tower, and felix sater, a russian-american who worked for president trump saying, "if we connect vladimir putin and donald trump, we can engineer this and make our boy president." he never turned down those offers. in fact, after it was revealed that the russians were attacking our democracy, he went to a press conference and said, "russia, keep doing it," essentially. >> we're familiar with that sequence of events. >> and that's evidence. that's evidence. >> no, but as a prosecutor, that wouldn't be evidence in court. i mean, as a prosecutor, you know the difference between hard evidence and circumstantial evidence. >> i think an admission by a defendant is the most powerful evidence, and saying -- asking somebody to continue to commit a crime, after they've already committed a crime -- i mean, that is eagerness to collude. i don't know what else to call it. and then i think you have consciousness of guilt by all of these follow-up cover-up actions. again, people only tell someone else to lie, people only

late today it announced that felix sater who worked with cohen on the trump tower moscow deal will testify at a public hearing march 14th. our panel standing by to join us, but first we want to go to one of the four reporters on this multiple sourced, multiple by line breaking story. washington correspondent mike monaco joins us tonight by telephone. this was troubling enough. this development with jared kushner's security clearance application that senior aides were hiding contemporaneous evidence in realtime about the case that can't be a good sign. >> no. there was deep concern about this and how the process was playing out. and these folks wanted to document how the president had overridden what the intelligence community was saying, what his own white house lawyer, the white house counsel, don mcgahn who recommended that kushner not get this. but the president controls security clearances. it's something he derives as the head of the executive branch and he ignored that and did what he wanted. >> remind us why he had been flagged in the first place. why did they come back from the ful

felix sater is going to be testifying publicly.ssue to your point, liz, there is no committee and central warehouse and to your point, dan, impeachment provides a narrative frame work because the question is that's the thing that you're filling in otherwise it's scatter. >> right. important for the press to keep reminding you of that because it becomes too normalizing. >> do you think there is -- what do you think about the political point that is being made about democrats? i can't figure out the degree to which that is a kind of story from the outside and how much is reflective of an organic thing they are working through? >> it's a legitimate story. they have a political problem. >> the thing i keep coming back to is the straightforward and simple story right in front of us, which is that the president's hinchman fixer pleaded guilty to a federal felony that he's going to do time for, that he says was directed by the president and has evidence was done by the president, he has a phone recording conspireing for the president to d

let's start with felix sater. what do you think that's going to lead to?y who's been of interest for a long time. he's been operating on the periphery of that inner circle. >> it's going to lead to everything. i think it will lead to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the truth and any other metaphors. it will lead to a plate of pastries. here's what i think we've learned from this week. when you heard michael cohen naming all those names, it was mainly as a result of democrats on the other sight committee asking questions and getting receipts. i mean, we're way behind on this investigation because republicans were in charge and we're talking about watergate during the hearing or during the break, and they weren't asking questions. they weren't asking any questions about any of these names. this is a really important investigation and we should have had these questions being asked last year when the republicans were in charge. that's why elections have consequences. the democrats asked michael cohen, who's been with the president by his side for ye

listen, i've got to ask you about felix sater's testimony to your committee.e's a russian born trump business associate who worked with michael cohen on the moscow project. where does he fit into your committee's investigation? >> what i can tell you, don, is we are particularly interested played a major role inump terms of his discussions, negotiations, if you will, and communications with michael cohen so we're particularly interested in talking to him about the extent of the president's involvement or those around the president to attempt to make that deal happen that may have certainly provided some grounds or motivation that centered around the 2016 elections. >> earlier today the president tweeted that there should be no mueller report just a day after the house unanimously passed a resolution to support this. why do you think the president wants these findings out of the public eye? why don't you think he wants no one to see it? >> isn't it interesting? this person who says there is no collusion, it's a witch hunt. he should be the first person. he shou

michael cohen knows about trump tower moscow and other trump business ties, whether it involves felix sater, bay rock capital or other entities that could influence the trump organization or the president. >> shannon, in our time we ever heard the president talk a time or two about his polling numbers. not so much since reaching the presidency, but a lot during the i'm going to put two of them, most recent polling numbers on the screen, and ask you how this might be going over in the west wing. has trump committed crimes as president? yes, 45%, no 43. do you believe trump committed crimes before becoming president. a much wider margin there, 64%, yes. i imagine those numbers won't go over well internally. >> i know one number he just tweeted out today was his approval among republicans. so he is able to find bright spots in all this. i mean, the fascinating thing, when you go back to that famous line he gave about being able to shoot someone on fifth avenue, i guess the question everyone will have to answer in 2020 for themselves is maybe two-thirds of people believe he has committed crimes

committee plans to question trump organization cfo allen weisselberg and real estate developer, felix sater. the house financial services committee will investigate whether trump exaggerated his wealth to get bank loans and lower his insurance premiums. and his trump foundation. and the house ways and means committee will investigate trump's tax returns. glen, what kind of legal exposure does this give to the president? >> you know, rev, he has got legal exposure on so many fronts. whether it is his fake charitable organization, his continuing criminal enterprise of the trump organization, whether it is an inauguration run amok, it looks like, taking illegal, foreign donations and doling out or promising goodness knows what to those people who donated. and it's his presidency. you know, when we put together criminal investigations and prosecutions, it's like assembling a puzzle, where no one piece of the puzzle shows the entire picture. but once that puzzle is assembled, it shows a pretty compelling picture of a president and an organization and an administration that has just sort of run r

i got to ask you about felix sater testimony. it has been postponed until the end of the month.he trump tower and moscow project. where does he fit into your committee's investigation, can you talk about that? >> we are interested in the russia, the trump moscow deal and mr. sater has played a major role in terms of his discussion negotiations if you will and communications with michael cohen. we are particularly interested in talking to him about the extent of the president's involvement or those around the president to make that deal happen that may certainly provided some ground or motivation that centered around around the 2016 election. >> earlier today the president tweeted that there should be no mueller report just a day after the house unanimously passed the resolution of the release of the support. w why do you think he wants no one to see it? >> again, this person who says there is no collusion, witch hunt, he should be the first person and release the report as soon as he receives it. >> if it exonerates him, right? >> exactly. and it just amazes me and we have seen