so, yes, he looked at jay sekulow because he had the imprint of hannity. victoria tun sing, joseph digenova, these are people who are seen as hannity-blessed. that doesn't mean they have full say, that they're going to go all the way with president trump, but they have an entry because of hannity. >> peter baker, let's swing back around to the west wing. this president by all accounts needs counsel. he needs lawyers, needs them urgently and badly, though it's tough to find especially because this case already has left the station. a million documents or thereabouts have changed hands. he needs an agenda. so what is the level of unsettledness in the west wing that you can report? >> well, you know, the thing is we ask that question a lot, and the truth is they get sort of inured to these constant gyrations. people who have been there 15 months and people that have been there only the last few months have learned that topsy-turvy is the order of the day. so they are stressed. they're beaten down, and they're tired, but they're not surprised i think by a lot

jay sekulow told me his team doesn't talk about real or alleged allegations. will the interview happen, won't it happen, what kind of pressure is robert mueller putting on the president? with us now, legal analyst katie phang on the show. lay it out, the difference between a subject and a target? >> i'll roll it bag further, halle, there's a witness is which is what you really want to be. the worse case scenario for you is you are a target. when you are a subject of a criminal investigation that means you are playing in the playground of what mueller is looking into. but whether you become a target, right now we know the language is donald trump is not currently a target. a target means this criminal charges are going to be filed against you. the doj, halle, has a policy that if you are the target you must be notified. meaning the rules of engagement change when you're a target. meaning when you sit down for that interview you may not be sitting down for that interview. the next question is, will donald trump, now that he has this idea that perhaps he's not th

. >> so you now have jay sekulow who are a personal. about four people have declined to serve the president in the suck low manner. >> i have to say i think it's probably a good thing that jay sekulow is prepping him just in case. at least get the president acclimated to the kind of presidents they know why they're doing this. the fact that the president can't find a lawyer is just so remarkable, and i think that has -- not just has something to do with trump as a client, but i think also what animates everyone's concern about coming into this administration, it's challenges of people coming in is that everyone getting close to trump, or anyone. it could be a very, very messy ordeal. you don't know if trump will do pardons. you don't know what he'll want to do. >> we have depositions that the president took oath during mtv. he was asked a question about whether the crucial had some questions. i just want to play the response so. hoor is the president. >> do you attribute that because people associate you with the hotels and they want to

>> juan: jay sekulow was working for him. he has lots of ties to lots of people, beyond donald trump. you get rudy giuliani, and he, in addition to being the former mayor of new york was a former prosecutor, very successful prosecutor. he has some insight there. he has been out of the game for a while. that's not to the president's advantage. you notice the president was calling a lot of his former lawyers. just last week the "wall street journal" reported one of the former lawyer said go ahead, fire some of these guys. get rid of rosenstein. don't be bashful. devon really don't talk to the investigators. i think he is reaching out to the old gang because he can't get the best of the current criminal lawyers. >> kimberly: i think that's a false statement. he listens to a variety of different opinions and rudy giuliani is very well respected. i would not say in any way he is out of the game and not going to give -- he still wields a tremendous amount of influence. he was an outstanding prosecuto prosecutor. i think he's going

i think this would be a running gun battle, a legal battle between the jay sekulows of the world and bob mueller. i put my money on bob mueller. i think the trump team may have thought they might have had to take this all the way to the supreme court, which is why they might need to find an appellate lawyer like ted olson, but of course ted olson said no. >> we heard from sally yates tonight, interviewed by our friend matt apuzzo at georgetown law school. >> i think it would be a huge problem for our country if he fired director mueller. we're not talking about some tangential issue here. we're talking about the issue as to a foreign adversary's attack on our democracy. and who was involved in that, if anyone, in the trump campaign or the president himself. you know, those are issues we need to get to the bottom of. >> do you have any sense, carol leonnig, from your reporting and really taking our knowledge as a viewing public to the next level and understanding that the president is not merely a witness in the russia investigation, or the obstruction of justice probe, he is a subjec

hannity was willing to disclose his legal relationship with jay sekulow. why did he want to keep his relationship with michael cohen secret? and because the spring of 2018 is clearly drunk and it needs to go home, one of the women who mr. cohen says he paid just days before the election with his own money to stop her from talking about her alleged relationship with the president, stormy daniels, she is not only part of this court case in lower manhattan, she now has everywhere to tell the story that michael cohen paid her $130,000 not to tell. >> i worked very, very hard the last ten years or so to really be known as a female director in the adult business, i was in the process of, like, moving onto some mainstream things, i directed some music videos. i had a passion project of mine in the works for the last several years to direct a horror movie and those people that were my investors have ghosted me. like, they've completely abandoned me. >> will trump be in the movie? >> maybe. >> well-played. >> well -- >> speaking of that, early this month, he broke

another attorney for the president, jay sekulow told nbc news, quote, we the not discuss real or alleged conversations between our legal team and the office of special counsel. also, the first punishment was handed down in special counsel's russia investigation. dutch lawyer alex van der zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison for lying to federal agents in their investigation into former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. >>> president trump plans to deploy the military to the u.s.-mexico border in order to confront what his administration calls a growing threat of illegal immigrants, drugs and crime spewing into the u.s. from central america. the announcement came on the president's third straight day of complaining about weak border security and as he met with leaders of three baltic nations. chris pollone in washington. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. the president has been promising to build a border wall for 33 months now, but he has largely been stymied at that. congress refusing to pay for it. mexico as well. the president has been painting a very dire pictur

new york." ( audience reacts ) and if that happens, trump's legal team will be down to ty cobb, jay sekulow, and a dvd of "matlock." ( laughter ) ( applause ) he's a good lawyer, that matlock. sheriff andy. stormy daniels' lawyer michael avenatti says that trump's denial is good for his client. >> you can't have an agreement if one party claims they knew nothing about one of the principal terms of the agreement. it's like christmas and hanukkah all rolled into one. ( laughter ) >> stephen: i don't remember the part in the christmas story where one of the wise men hooks up with a porn star. ( laughter ) hannukah, i believe. "and, lo, the massage oil lasted eight nights." ( laughter ) and avenatti hinted that "60 minutes" left an important detail out of their interview with stormy daniels. >> "60 minutes" and cbs, as you know, they are a conservative network. i mean, there is a lot of information that was said during that interview that did not make it into the final "60 minutes." >> conservative like highbrow, you don't mean politically conservative. >> they play it very close to the vest. f

right now he can't get top-flight lawyer, he's basically got jay sekulow and ty cobb. and then a guy with essentially unlimited money, president of the united states, national security case, possible impeachment, criminal charges all over the place, it just boggles the mind that this is his leaguele team. it makes you think if and when he does sit down with robert mueller, who prepared is this guy going to be? there is this inherent -- whatever euphemism chris christie used instead of saying lying. >> mr. crowley mentions a better-than-average lawyer who is currently unemployed in new jersey who we saw the clip of and that's former new jersey governor chris christie. do you think at this level of play chris christie took advantage of an appearance on "this week" this past sunday to telegraph one more time to the president i know you think can you ace the interview with mueller, this couldn't be a worse idea? >> i don't think it was even that subtle, to be perfectly honest and i don't think chris christie is the only one advising the president not to do this. for a whil

the two attorneys left behind, jay sekulow and ty cobb, are very much in the tent with the president. ones who think it might be, still with him. >> one of the important things for everyone to remember is that the justice department regulations, everything in tradition and all of these other things, no way is the president going to be charged with a crime period. the penalty for presidents is political. not in court. no one's going to arrest the president. that's not what robert mueller is talking about doing and never was. for his legal team, talking about what is the exposure? the exposure for the president's political and with congress, that's where the danger is. it's not a criminal danger. i would say this, the president says he is clean. he says he has not done wrong and there is no collusion, and there's no indication from mueller that mueller is trying to rig the game or that he's doing something wicked or nefarious. all the evidence about mueller is saying he's being forthright in that investigation. if that's true, why would the president sit down with him and get this concl

and in jay sekulow you have someone who he's argued a bunch of cases before the supreme court. he's best known for arguing on religious liberty not white collar defense. he does have some people working under him who we don't hear that much about who aren't the big names but who have been working on this case. and the thing with ty cobb in the white house, i don't think he sees himself as the president's lawyer. i think he sees himself more as a lawyer of the institution of the president danes and for the white house. and he sees his job more as facilitating a relationship with the office of the special counsel rather than being part of the president's defense team. >> matt apuzzo, you were agreeing with that. >> and i believe ty cobb does not represent the president personally, i actually think cobb and sekulow could probably get through this next stage where the president has to negotiate some sort of interview with mueller. the question is who is going to do the lawyering at the next stage, of whatever comes out of this investigation, whether some sort of referrals, somethin

another of the president's attorneys, jay sekulow, told nbc news, "we do not discuss real or alleged conversations between our legal team and the office of special counsel." and as if this news wasn't enough, we also saw the first sentencing today in the russia investigation. attorney alex vander zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison, fined $20,000 for lying to investigators about contacts he had with storm trump aide rick fates and ukrainian businessman with alleged ties to russian intelligence. for more and because of the news we're covering tonight, we bring in our expanded leadoff panel for a tuesday night. robert costa whose byline appears on the breaking news from the "washington post." he is the paper's national political reporter. moderator of "washington week" on pbs. also back with us ashley parker, white house reporter for the "washington post" who also contributed to tonight's reporting. also with us jennifer rogers, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. and jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and pentagon and former counsel to hou

jay sekulow and ty cobb seemed to be telling him, we have reports today prepare for the possibility ofdo what do you say? >> dana: it is all speculation and hypotheticals. i don't deal in any of it. i deal in reality and what we know. you can spend the hour you have to give on television anyway you want. i do think the democrats have seeded so much policy ground in talking about russia that they have got to figure out a way to pivot. they are in a perfect position this year, the way the politics are and the math, they could win back the house. if they don't start talking about democratic policies of why it would be better to vote for democrats than republicans, they are wasting their time. >> juan: greg, it is like the wicked witch. the democrats are like, will she come after them? >> greg: if msnbc is fantasy island, chris matthews has to be tattoo. what joy did, it's what i do at the gym. i daydream. what would happen if i win the lottery? you run through your mind to make yourself feel good. she verbalized it which is kind of interesting. could be an interesting segment we all do wh

we got a statement from jay sekulow who declined to comment. he said we do not discuss conversations we've had with the special counsel. >> so it's not clear if the president is reconsidering or considering still sitting down with the special koun snell. >> we're told that this raid definitely has upended those discussions. i think people we've talked to have told us that it certainly is making them reassess whether or not anything that came about from this raid, whether that changes the calculations for the president. after all, michael cohen's most important client is president trump. so if there's materials that were recovered here by the fbi, that changes the calculations. they're going to have to take that into account. >> thanks very much. let's get right back to the panel. josh, i saw a tweet you sent it earlier today, you said you were talking to a former colleague of yours at the fbi about search warrants being issued on an attorney's office. and just -- what did your former colleague say about this the? >> how rare it is. what he was

that up into the air and giuliani joining the team with two other attorneys, wolf, according to jay sekulow saying a husband and wife will also be joining the legal team and three lawyers we are learning about to join the team. ruely giuliani and jane and marty raskin. wolf? >> very interesting. stand by for a moment. want to get congressman heck's reaction. what is your reaction when he says that mueller's should be allowed -- this is giuliani. mueller should be allowed to do the job, he is entitled to do his job? does that suggest he can sit down and interview the president? >> well, first of all, i agree with mr. giuliani. i think mr. mueller ought to be allowed to conclude his work. i received that information with great skepticism. i feel like it's lucy with the football to charlie brown and pulled away at the last minute. that's been the history of the invest thus far. no reason the president couldn't have sat down except for the resolving door of attorneys. wolf, the number of attorneys the president asked to have on the team and turned him down are the number of teattorneys on th te

and his lawyer jay sekulow is saying if they are insisting you have nothing to hide, why not sit down with the special counsel? we saw this morning trey gowdy saying if the president feels that he did nothing wrong, he should sit down with robert mueller. but just last week we saw mueller's team actually gave trump's attorneys a list of questions, a list of topics t wt co be covered in such an interview. of course that resolved around potential obstruction of justice, questions included such things as james comey's firing, the firing of former national security adviser michael flynn. we saw that one of the suggestions put out there was that if trump were to sit down for an interview with robert mueller he would have to tend probe by a certainly date. there's a give or take that's going on here. >> betsy, you get our big question, what happens to robert mueller's report once he submits it to rod rosenstein? >> i can't speak to his mind currently but folks in the inner circle are deeply frustrated with rosenstein. they view him as someone who hasn't been a team player in the broader que

i think he's down to basically one attorney, jay sekulow, representing him. do you think today's developments impede or impact that search? >> well, the question is is there someone really around the president, providing him with legal advice that he's going to listen to and that will be actually helpful to him? i don't know if sekulow is that person. sekulow has not known the president for that long. he doesn't have that deep of a relationship with him. i'm not sure anyone can control the president, but i'm not sure certainly that sekulow is that person. is someone like john kelly around the president at all, weighing in on any of this, or is the president simply off talking to people on the phone that are reinforcing his views like jeanine pirro, a fox news analyst that he has relied on increa increasingly. those are folks who have told him not to interview with mueller and take a more adversarial tone. the question now is who are the legal voices in the president's head? as we always know with the president, he thinks he's his best lawyer and spokesman and

but he seems to be relying on two people, jay sekulow, who came on last year as part of the legal team, someone more versed in constitutional issues than regular white collar criminal issues, but someone that the president has grown to trust. the other person who's back in the picture is kasowitz, marc kasowitz, his longtime new york lawyer, who had been fired last summer when dowd came in. trump at the time going with sort of a more established washington white collar lawyer. nowcast now kasowitz coming in, the sort of scrappy new york lawyer who represented the president in different litigation. kasowitz back last summer wants to have a more adversarial tone towards mueller, was pushing the president in that direction. dowd came in, went with something more conciliatory. and i think the president thinks that lighter, nicer tone with mueller didn't get him very far. >> phil rucker, you're tweeting about another lawyer perhaps in the model of a kasowitz, alander shall oh wits. tell you what you learned tonight. >> so alan dershowitz, the retired harvard law school professor, who's a fr

criminal defense field, not just some folks who wandered in who have a supreme court practice like jay sekulow or spend a lot of time on fox news or something else. you need -- he is -- i don't know if he is in serious criminal trouble, but he is in the middle of a serious criminal investigation, and you don't want to be hiring lawyers from tv to that. you want to be hiring these kind of lawyers. >> so jonathan capehart, when donald trump recognizes that he is in very serious legal trouble, and he has a very serious legal matter on his hands, he seems to behave the same way robert mueller does with a serious legal matter on his hand and reach out to hire the same kinds of people. >> yeah, the best, most qualified people who will as ruth said, give him the best representation that he needs and he could possibly have and hasn't had since we've been talking about the special counsel mueller and this investigation. >> and harry, the president of course i'm sure does not know that the leaders of the law firm he hired wrote that letter to rod rosenstein calling for a special prosecutor. what do you

jay sekulow as well as ty cobb. do you think they're up to the task? >> i don't think that's enough band width to prepare the president. i think that they need additional people, experienced prosecutors who have done this before. i know sekulow has a prosecutor who's working with him on a part-time basis, but if i were advising the president, i would suggest he bring in a couple of additional full-time former prosecutors, maybe some who have worked with mueller or worked with others associated on the mueller team so they understand what mueller is like to work with or be interviewed by. and have them lead the prep sessions, as i say, i have analogized it to preparing for a presidential debate. i don't know how the president prepared for his presidential debates, but i know how others do, and it's a serious mock court sort of process where you are running through the various questions and answers that you anticipate will come your way so that when they come your way, you don't hear them for the first time. >> when i was preparing for this segment, i was

the president's attorney, jay sekulow, would not comment on the specific meeting saying we do not discuss conversations we have had or have not had with the special counsel. >> pamela brown, thank you. i want to bring in now ryan lizza, april ryan, and laura cotes. good evening to all of you. where do i start? i get new notes, new information up until the last second of this show every day. as i said in the open, it's only tuesday. laura, i want to get your take on the president considering firing the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to check mueller. is that where this is headed? >> well, it certainly could be. remember, he's been on the chopping block, or at least on the list, the short list of people that he could fire. because he, just like jeff sessions, serves as the pleasure of the president of the united states. these people have both been bipartisanly supported in their positions, but the key here is that rod rosenstein is the person who mueller reports to. he's not the person where obviously it will influence in every facet what mueller will investigate and what extent he

we should note that the president's lawyers, jay sekulow and ty cobb declined to comment for the story. >> so john you have expert knowledge in this field. how do you prepare a president -- prep a president for an interview like this? is he particularly challenging or a challenging client giving his free wheeling style? >> i think he would be extraordinary challenging. this is not a president you could go off -- not like nixon or a bill clinton or hillary clinton who prepared for 11 hours before the benghazi committee. so he is somebody they will have to creep up on to get him informed and be cautious. so i think it is a real rough assignment. >> and this president doesn't often listen -- but doesn't often listen to advise of his attorneys or of his advisers. and that is why john dowd resigned. how do you think the president's personality will factor into this. >> i think it is a obstacle for him and his counsel preparing him and it will come into play as to what the parameters of the interview may be. it might seem counter intuitive and both sides have an interest in having a negotiat

he was dining at the white house tonight with his personal attorney jay sekulow as well as alan dershowitz. alan dershowitz says they were talking mitty's policy but he has also called mueller apolitical zealot in charge of the justice department, already violated michael cohen michael cohen's constitutional right by raiding his homes in office. his perspective meshing with the anger the president expressed last night. the president saying it was disgusting that cohen had faced those raids. two's distinct tweets that said much the same, far fewer words. attorney-client privilege is dead, he tweeted. then added a total witch untied. tonight, cnn reporting a president is considering whether to fire deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who has given mueller wide latitude, and when apparently he came to rosenstein, the deputy attorney general authorize the fbi and the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york to move forward with those grades. firing rosenstein could have in the mueller probe without ending it. "the new york times" is reporting that the president saw two fires beef

i had really only known the name jay sekulow dealing with the president on these concerns because ty cobb and done mcgahn work for the white house but eight different firms got money here which means the president is accurate. he does have a ton of lawyers who were working for him and willing t do so because there are eight different firms. >> julie pace, david chalian, thank you very much. >>> this is a big day today. james comey has gone out there the former head of the fbi and he's put his story out, but now it is time for everything he said to be put back on him and, boy, is he sitting across from someone capable of doing that today? jake tapper, james comey live at 4:00 p.m. eastern on "the lead" right here on cnn. >> looking forward to that. lawmakers emerging, quote, unnerved from a classified briefing about the white house strategy in syria. one of them bob corker will join us next to talk about that and more. to take the crown. presenting the all-new lexus ls 500 and ls 500h. experience amazing, at your lexus dealer. but having his parents over was enlightening. ♪ you don't

jay sekulow can't tell the president that's a stupid idea.iani can say that's a stupid idea, mr. president, in legal strategy. >> he has stature and he has been on the record saying the mueller investigation you had at to be allowed to run its course. i think this is a very important point in that if he sticks to that point of view i think it will be a healthy point of view to bring into that orbit because it's not clear everything b everybody else is going to be able to as you say talk the president back. >> that's the point i see in this. rudy would be like whoa, whoa, you don't want to do that. >> he understands the law and the politics, both. >> and he has the benefit of being someone the president is familiar with. he was around the campaign all the time. which also raises other questions about whether he fits in in terms of legal strategy, mutualer. >> that's where i want to get to in this. rudy was rumor amongering, stirring the pot. i hear, my sources in the fbi tell me this of the he was the whispering of what's coming with clinton a

the president's attorney, ty cobb, declined to comment while his lawyer jay sekulow said, quote, we do not discuss real or alleged conversations between our legal team and the office of special counsel. i want to bring in the man who wrote this extraordinary piece for "the washington post." he is also moderator of "washington week" on pbs. roberto. this is so the people. i want to share this quote. in private negotiations in early march about a possible presidential interview, mueller described trump as a subject of his investigation into russia's interference in 2016. he's not a target but he's a subject of the investigation. walk me through the difference. because this morning when i woke up, i actually turned on "fox and friends" and i saw that headline, he's not the target, like a huge win. but i think that might not be the case. >> it is a complicated legal situation. working with my colleague carol lenig at "the washington post," we reported that robert mueller is trying to get an interview with the president of the united states. in the discussions to try to make that sit-down h

both white house lawyer ty cobb and the president's attorney, jay sekulow, declined to comment. >> in the past, the president has publicly at least seemed receptive to sitting for an interview. is that still the case? >> reporter: it's different, what you hear from the president publicly and then behind doors, i'm told by sources. they say outwardly he is enthusiastic. behind doors, though, he sort of wavers, equivocates at the prospect of sitting down with mueller's team. he has said as you'll recall, just in january, that he wouldn't mind going to do an interview with robert mueller, that he would love to do it under oath. but privately he's sort of wavered as those around him, his friends, his advisers caution him of the risks of speaking to prosecutors who have already charged 19 individuals with criminal offenses including lying to the fbi. now, multiple aides to the president continue to describe him as obsessed with the russia investigation, becoming increasingly agitated as details of the probe emerge. trump himself feels that this investigation undermines his presidency. he h

all three of these new legal additions will be reporting -- working with jay sekulow and white house lawyer ty cobb. as the president settles on his legal team, there is new reporting tonight concerning deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. bloomberg news is reporting that at a white house meeting a week ago, rosenstein told trump that he is, quote, not a target in any part of the mueller investigation or the one concerning his personal lawyer here in new york, michael cohen. now, according to bloomberg, that may have, quote, helped tamp down the president's desire to remove rosenstein or mueller, something the president alluded to, you'll recall, just yesterday. >> have you concluded that it's not worth the political fallout to remove either special counsel mueller or deputy attorney general rosenstein? >> they've been saying i'm going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months, and they're still here. so we want to get the investigation over with. >> bloomberg news also reports that investigators started scrutinizing paul manafort because they suspecte

to understand where the president is to understand he has a smallie team that's down to just jay sekulow, john dowd recently quit. they're trying to rebuild the team as they figure out what's going on. >> what we know i think we know about michael cohen's role with donald trump is he goes to mr. cohen for secret things involving him personally, embarrassing relationships he's had. people he wants to quiet, to shut up, to put it bluntly. he will use whatever means he can to accomplish that goal. what legal vulnerability does that place the president in? is it because he's afraid michael cohen might it be facing serious charges and therefore, will flip? >> that's what we don't know and that's what the president's lawyers don't know. what it is they have about the presidential relationship with cohen, what does it show, what is it that cohen was helping the president do? was it campaign finance issues where cohen was helping get money to women to silence them before the election? is that something that ties back to the president? is it things about business matters? is it stuff about cohen'

. >> it's like his attorney jay sekulow telling me, i don't want anyone looking at the georgia deal. that i think any prosecutor hearing a lawyer or someone under investigation saying please don't look at there one deal, you're going to look at that deal. >> so barbara, what do you make -- i'm having a hard time sifting through the various reports we're getting what the feds were or were not looking for in the case of michael cohen yesterday. we've seen a bunch of different things. taxicab medallion business, possibilities of bank fraud. items pertaining to stormy daniels or karen mcdougal, payments thereof, campaign finance. what would this search warrant look like and could it applausely have a variety of different areas listed together? >> what we do know is a judge made a finding of probable cause that evidence of a crime would be found at these premises. you have to articulate what the crime is and the facts in support of that probable cause determination. they'd have to specify. i imagine that in robert mueller's investigation he has come across some evidence that supports this

he's going to be doing it at an unpaid capacity, and he joins a team of lawyers including ty cobb, jay sekulowwo additional white collar attorneys, based in florida, who are also joining the team, the president's legal team announced this week. the president really trying to staff up ahead of what seems to be a growing investigation, not just from the special counsel, but also into his personal lawyer, michael cohen. john? >> abby phillip for us in florida, thank you very much. >>> another interesting story this morning, a former reporter for "forbes" magazine says he was tricked, deceived, conned by donald trump decades ago. he said that donald trump pretended to be someone named john barron, got on the phone and lied about his wealth to get on the "forbes 400" list. listen to the audio he said he rediscovered here. >> most of the assets have been consolidated to mr. trump. you i would like to talk to you off the record, if i can, to make your thing easier. >> sure, that's fine. >> but you can just consolidate it. i think last year someone showed me the article, i think you had 200 and 200 an

he has ty cobb in the white house and jay sekulow as well, so the president is trying to get as much he can, especially now that he is also dealing with this matter involving his personal attorney, michael cohen. >> and on the subject of michael cohen, cnn learned, abby, that the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, told the president he wasn't a target in that investigation, correct? >> reporter: that's right. we've learned that in this meeting rosenstein told trump he wasn't the target. now, of course that can always change, but that was at least to the president something of a relief considering how much this ohen matter has really others around both the special counsel investigation and the investigation into michael cohen. >> all right, abby philip, thank you very much. appreciate it. back with me now phil mudd and caroline polisi. rudy giuliani was a u.s. attorney, an accomplished prosecutor, but hasn't tried a case in 20, 30 years. what do you make of this situation? >> he's a big name, big personality, former united states attorney for the southern district of new york wh

the president's attorney jay sekulow declined to discuss the meeting saying we do not discuss conversations we have had or not had with the special counsel, anderson. >> and just lastly, i understand we're learning more about what the fbi was seeking in the searches yesterday. >> reporter: that is right. we have learned that the search warrant carried out by the public corruption unit of the fbi, the manhattan federal attorney's office sought information about karen mcdougal, an ex-"playboy" model who claims she carried on a year-long affair with mr. trump shortly after the birth of his son in 2006. now mcdougal was paid $150,000 by american media inc. the inquirier parent company whose chief executive is a friend of mr. trump. agents were also searching the office for information rell late -- related to stormy daniels who said she had sex with mr. trump while was married which they have denied and they acknowledged the $150,000 was part avenue nondisclosure agreement to secure her silence days before the 2016 presidential election. anderson. >> pam brown, thank you very much. >>> news that

. >> brangham: the atlantic today put out a report today reporting that another lawyer, jay sekulow,done work with sean hannity in regards to a radio station in oklahoma. what do you make of that if true? >> what i make of it, ifrue, is it seems to suggest this is a very close circle that includes president trump, his attorneys, and the people he wors most closely with and depends most closely on in the mead. -- media. it's not a separation and an adversarial or independent kind of setup. it's all very tight knit, we're all on the same team. >> brangham: a lot still to be figureout about all of this. margaret sullivan, thank you very much. >> thank you. sh woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the nr: how the trump administration approaches asylum requests from women from abroad who are victims of abuse. the latest on the trial of bill cos plus, how a small utah town is using the arts as an economic engine.t rst, the chicago public schools system is one of the largest in the country, and o historically othe most troubled. ars problems, and its efforts to turn things aroundoften watche

thing for the president to do, to sit down, if they can come up with some agreement, ty cobb and jay sekulowounsel on this. maybe it's just the two hours and you sit down and you check that off the list and you move on. >> mike: it is a trap. and. >> harris: you think it is? >> mike: donald trump shoots from the hip. let's all recognize it. he is not a man that goes by the script. and if he says something in that interview that in any way differs from something he has said in public, whether under oath or not, then they can say he lied to the fbi when he was being interviewed, then he is in real trouble. that's why his lawyers don't want him to do it. >> harris: am i polyanish to think that the leader of the most powerful person free world can't handle a two hour interview? >> mike: i think he can handle it. the question is can anybody go through that fbi process? because when they want to get you, they will find a way to get to. >> maria: as long as he tells the truth though, it's not a trap. only if he walks into it. >> mike: the truth can be told exactly the truth. if it's the truth with

the white house's interests in this investigation, my understanding is he does not have a very -- jay sekulowstitutional lawyer and my understanding is he does not have someone with a lot of white collar chops. >> let's talk a little bit about paul manafort. we're continuing, carol, to hear news about paul manafort. yet another search warrant for paul manafort. why is he still such a major focus or seem to be such a major focus for this investigation? julia? i'm sorry. i'm looking at the camera. >> i work a lot with carol. that's a compliment. paul manafort, of course continues to be a focus. it's funny, katy, thinking back to the fall, we saw paul manafort as the first person to be charged in this along with his partner rick gates. it's been a really long time where we tried to figure out why manafort hasn't agreed to cooperate in the same way rick gates has. we're assuming rick gates is cooperating because of his guilty plea, but it seems we're getting more information of why mueller is continuing to go after manafort and why he's continuing to generate these headlines, and a lot of this ca