but tonight, jeff, cohen is a free man after posting a half million dollar's bail and giving up his passport. >> glor: weijia jiang in n ijia, thanks. we move now to a federal courthouse in alexandria, virginia, where on the fourth emy of deliberations, the jury returned a partial verdict of guilty in the paul manafort case. paula reid is there. >> reporter: paul manafort liowed no emotion in court this afternoon as a jury handed special counsel robert mueller his first conviction in the ongoing investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. the jury found manafort guilty on eight of 18 charges. manafort was indicted by special counsel robert mueller in february of 2018. after deliberating for four f ys, the jury found manafort guilty of five counts of filing false tax returns, guilty on one count of not filing financial accounts, and guilty on two counts of misleading lenders for loans he applied for. the jury, however, could not come to a unanimous verdict on ten charges. most of those involve other loan loaud charges and failures to file financial reports. manafort's attorneys

i have jeff cohen, the cmo to come shat with us. good to see you. >> good to see you.hanks for having me. >> you were an expert on selling on amazon. it is a bohemith. if you are a brand, i manufacture something, i sell something, how do i get it so my amazon sales do not cannibalize my own sales? >> a lot of people struggle with do i want to promote traffic to my site or sell on amazon? your shoppers are shopping on both. you have to be on both. unfortunately, if you don't put your product on amazon, there's a good chance somebody else will. you want to control that channel or cycle to know what your shopper is going to see when they are on amazon and your site. you own the brand, the voice, the message. >> how do you decide whether to send them to amazon or your site? for most people, it's easier to buy on amazon, but you make less money. >> when trying to decide to send shoppers to amazon or your site, think about what is the bigger sales opportunity? amazon has a lot of shoppers looking for products like yours and your competitors. if you can use a little bit of yo

talk about internet retail or any retail without talking about amazon and that's why i've invited jeff cohen to come chat with us. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> i mean, thank you for coming to talk to us. you are an expert on selling on amazon. it does so much good and causes so much trouble for companies, so if you are a brand, right, i manufacture something, i sell something, how do i get it so that my amazon sales do not cannibalize my own sales? a lot of brands struggle with the idea of do i want to promote on -- my traffic to amazon? do i want to sell on amazon? the truth of the matter is your shoppers are shopping on both. and so you have to be on both. and unfortunately, if you don't put your product on amazon, there's a good chance somebody else will. so you want to control that channel, that cycle so that you can know what your shopper is going to see when they are on amazon and when they are on your site. you own the brand, you own the voice, you own the message. ? and how do you decide whether you send them to amazon or your site because for most people it's goin

looking for a good lawyer, i would strongly suggest you that don't retain the services of michael cohen. jeffegues is here. good morning. >> good morning. for months the pressure had been building on michael cohen and he was telling reporters that he expected to be charged. in the end he gave up and surrendered to prosecutors. cohen once bragged that he would take a bullet for president trump, but yesterday he took a plea deal from prosecutors instead. michael cohen left the u.s. district court in manhattan after admitting to tax evasion and campaign finance violations. >> michael, what's your message to the president? >> cohen's voice cracked in court as he answered the judge's questions and admitted that mr. trump directed him to make hush money payments to adult film star stormy daniels and "playboy" model karen mcdougal. cohen said it was at the direction of the same candidate and that it was done to keep the women from disclosing information for the principal purpose of influencing the election. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no, no. you'll have to ask m

cohen he refused to break. make up stories in order to get a deal. such respect for a brave man." that certainly, jeff, seems to indicate a very different attitude towards manafort and cohen and maybe dangling a pardon. >> absolutely. look, we can just analyze that tweet. that suggests that he thinks that cohen is making up stories or did make up stories as part of his guilty plea and it suggesting he may be considering a pardon for manafort. he's been praising manafort repeatedly. he did so, as kristen noted, last week when we were outside before the president was leaving to board marine one. we in our reuters interview with the president this week also asked him if he was considering a pardon for manafort and he declined to comment then just as he declined to comment last week. but the fact that he continues to give sort of positive praise to him and certainly not to cohen does raise that question. >> and let's take a look at what lanny davis, michael cohen's lawyer was saying. this was lanny davis to rachel maddow last night. >> mr. cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest

are a lot more lies that michael cohen told that are going to unravel over the coming weeks and months, i would suspect. >> senator santorum, appreciate it, jen psaki, jeff toobin as well. >> as we touched on a bit while michael cohen was entering guilty pleas, the jury in the paul manafort trial came back with its verdict. we'll walk you through what happened in that case. this is not a bed. it's a revolution in sleep. the new sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now, from $899, during sleep number's 'biggest sale of the year'. it senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it even helps with this. so you wake up ready to put your pedal to the metal. and now, all beds are on sale. save 50% on the new sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 24-month financing and free home delivery. ends saturday. sleep number. proven, quality sleep. no, what?? i just switched to geico and got more. more? got a company i can trust. that's a heck of a lot more. over 75 years of great savings and service. you can't argue with more. why would ya? geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. >>> the president said almost noth

are a lot more lies that michael cohen told that are going to unravel over the coming weeks and months, i would suspect. >> senator santorum, appreciate it, jen psaki, jeff toobin as well. >> as we touched on a bit while michael cohen was entering guilty pleas, the jury in the paul manafort trial came back with its verdict. we'll walk you through what happened in that case. it's a burrito filled with plants pretending to be meat. here we see the artist making an attempt to bare his soul. it's just a gray dot. there are multiples on the table: one is cash, three are fha, one is va. so what can you do? she's saying a whole lotta people want to buy this house. but you got this! rocket mortgage by quicken loans makes the complex simple. understand the details and get approved in as few as 8 minutes by america's largest mortgage lender. i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do

jeff sessions. we talked about a lot of things. wide ranging issues. we will air the entire thing in its entirety. here is the president talking about cohen, manafort and jeff sessions. ainsley: mr. president, thank you so much for sitting down with me. how are you doing? >> i'm doing great. we had an incredible rally last knight in west virginia. it was beautiful. tremendous crowd. going to win a big race over there. i guess you could say that our numbers in winning whether it's for the senate or for congress or governor has been very good. ainsley: how is our country's first lady doing and how are your children? >> she is doing great. she is a terrific woman. she goes through a lot with all of this publicity. she is a terrific woman. she is doing great. ainsley: how do you handle all of that? >> well, it's part of my life. my whole life has been this way. somebody said oh gee always such controversy. and, i don't know, i have had always had controversy in my life and i have always succeeded and i always whop. it was controversial when i ran and i won. and now the country is doing better than it's ever done. we have the best economy we h

ainsley earhart, where he's praising paul manafort and talks about how much he dislikes michael cohen and jeff session. there was a palpable sense in the president's mind that he was really making progress in undercutting the mueller probe, that public sentiment was going in his favor. that he had gotten a lot more people to see it his way. and i think the events this week have changed that, in the eyes of many of the white house and the president's eyes, where there's really momentum now for law enforcement and the different investigations into him. >> josh, you also have interesting reporting into a morning meeting yesterday, with the president's top advisers. you say that it was bill shine, the deputy chief of staff in communicationses with sarah sanders, kellyanne conway, john kelly, where they tried to figure out how they were going to do damage control and address this. and we got a taste of that yesterday when matt schlapp, one of the president's staunchest supporters came on and said to us, quite surprisingly, we thought at the time, no crime here. there's no crime. this is not a crime

>> all this negative coverage about manafort and cohen and the feud with jeff sessions leads to republicans not being able to get their message out about how good the economy is doing, how good the jobs numbers are and the other things that the republicans are working on like the judicial confirmation of kavanaugh. >> you think, dan, that the president may pardon paul manafort. as a donor to him, as a donor to the party, as a republican who wants to see republicans maintain control of congress, what would you say to the president on that? >> i would say it's possible he could pardon him. i think first of all, i think he shouldn't do it. he shouldn't pardon anyone as it relates to the russia investigation and the russia collusion investigation at all. in addition, i think that if he is going to bar do ing ting to should wait until after the conclusion of mueller's investigation. >> it's interesting, because you have been critical of what this week has meant for the president. largely because of what michael cohen testified to under oath, said under oath in a federal courthouse this week. you

. >> reporter: so nothing today from the president on michael cohen but that's not the case for jeff sessions as that feud escalates after the attorney general's declaration of justice department independence, the president today seemed to sarcastically encourage him saying he should investigate corruption on the other side. >> how about the news to north korea, the president pushing pause on further talks. >> reporter: he is. for the first time the president is acknowledging the high-stakes negotiations hit a major hurdle, a lack of progress on denuclearization. the president's now asking secretary of state mike pompeo not to travel to pyongyang and he partly blamed china for not turning up the heat enough on kim jong-un. >> hallie jackson, thank you. >>> let's turn to the flood disaster in hawaii. a state of emergency as hurricane lane slams the islands where some places have seen nearly three feet of rainfall. in a moment, we'll be joined by al roker but first, our national correspondent miguel almaguer is in honolulu tonight with the latest. >> reporter: lester, good evening. the

russia investigation and reported claims of his former attorney michael cohen, the president stepping up feud with attorney general jeff sessions over his decision to recuse himself from the russia investigation and his leadership of the justice department. hello, everyone, welcome to brand new hour inside of america's news headquarters, i'm mike emanuel. >> claiming cohen is prepare today tell robert mule they're mr. trump knew about the june 2016 trump tower meeting, his campaign officials had with russian lawyer. president trump tweeting this morning. michael cohen's attorney clarifying the record saying president trump does not know about trump tower meeting of which came nothing, the answer is that i did not know about the meeting, just another phoney by the fake news media. garrett tenney live in washington, garrett. >> molly, a little bit of context to that tweet, michael cohen was to testify he did knew about meeting ahead of time. the reports cited anonymous sources, this week michael's attorney conceded that he was one of the sources and confirmed the reports even though he didn't actually know whether or not

cohen. >> that's right. and robert could you zamy who has been leading this prosecution because the u.s. attorney, jeff berman, was recused from this case originally, he's going to make comments outside of court. so at this point we have a plea agreement involving michael cohen but the exact terms of this and what he's pleaing to, we don't have that. >> all the recording of discussions of a plea deal here and now the scheduling of this hearing, they're not saying in their plea deal but you have confirmed this would be for the purposes -- >> this is for the purpose of a plea agreement, that's correct. at that time or shortly the plea agreement will become unsealed in federal court here in manhattan and at that point we'll be able to look and see what this is all about. but we have it and we know that we're going to have a court proceeding at 4:00 today. >> tom dupree, you've been through working on that side of the law many plea deals. take us through what would be going right now between now and 4:00 when this hearing takes place and what will happen in that hearing. >> right now it sounds like they've

jeff. president trump telling allen weiselberg that cohen did not cooperate in the investigation. weiselberg reimbursed cohen for the hush money to stormy daniels. the president doesn't seem concerned about the cfo talking. >> 100%. he is a wonderful guy. it was a very limited little period of time. >> trump refused to say whether he knew before the election about the stormy daniels payment despite past claims he did not. trump knocked the threat of democrats trying to impeach him. saying i don't think they can impeach somebody doing a great job. he says it would set a precedent making it too easy to remove future presidents. >>> president trump defending his response to john mccain's passing. >> we had our disagreements. they were strong disagreements. i disagreed with men of the things -- with many of the things i assumed he believed in. with that said, i respect his service to the country. >> the white house press secretary sarah sanders was in the room. she joked he was having a nervous breakdown with the answers about mccain. >>> the senator's body arriving from arizona. he w

united states which he seems to be basing on the fact that jeff sessions did not step in to stop the prosecution of paul manafort or michael cohen>> i can understand the president wanting to have an attorney general who would in his opinion be a strong advocate for his positions but you have to understand that jeff sessions is also truly a man of principle and if he believes that it would violate the principles that he's supposed to uphold, he will do the right thing and he will stand his ground. i just -- i can't express enough how much confidence we have in jeff. jeff has different opinions on a number of things than what i do but i can tell you this much, jeff will always try to do what he believes is right and that's something the american people can have confidence in. >> the president was accused under oath in open court of breaking the law to help win the election. what should congress do about that? >> i think you're -- excuse me. the premise that you're using here, i think you're drawing some conclusions to begin with. i would probably disagree with them. i think what you're taking are statements in which mr. cohen has

cohen's sentencing. that does not necessarily mean jeff, that it will be 43 to 63 months. lot of room to bring that down. >> correct. historically they were confined into that box but this judge can go down as far as they feel necessary. certainly, there may be input from the prosecutors. they will give the pros and cons and leave it up to the judge. he is not locked into anything. joe: jeffrey, based on your read on manafort, the mix of guilty verdicts between the tax fraud and base fraud -- bank fraud, what is your general assessment of the results? >> if you were a prosecutor, you are smiling and you have done your job. the fact that there were a handful of counts that the jury could not agree to is fine. -- itl be interesting would be interesting if there was a close verdict or if it was one or two holdouts. all of the evidence still gets assumed into the sentencing. if you are mr. manafort, a 69-year-old man, you're looking at double digits in prison. for him, this is probably the worst day of his life. that, thatr point to is the way this was handled. there were ques

will talk to hillary clinton and his arizona lleague jeff flake and plus presidentrump's nightmare week, michael cohen pleads guil and manafort found guiltys the presiden allies abandoning him. how is all of this impacted president trump's approval ratings. we have a brand new poll taken before and after the cohen/manafort stories broke. joining me is andrea mitchell,h e jackson, susan page, and david brody. welcome to sunday for a special edition of "meet the press." from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chk todd. good sunday morning, he was a warrior, a politician and a maverick. the news he died late it was not unexpected but less tragic. some deaths leave a greater hole in our national physche. his wife cindy wrote, "my hearm is broken, i lucky to live the adventure of this man for 38 years." he passed away in the place he loved best. he was a prison of war five and a half years in hanoi, a two times presidential candidate and ways his own man, a maverick as he was so fond off saying himself. his last moment in the senate came in

cohen. he continues to taunt jeff sessions for doing his job really and recusing himself from the russia investigation. so the president has an entirely different view of his roam nle only as the leader of the executive branch, but as the president when it comes to how he should comport himself when it comes to these investigations. >> all right. thanks to all of you for your time. we'll talk a bit more about sessions in a little bit. >>> an update on another story, the condition of john mccain. his family putting out a statement saying that the former military veteran and prisoner of war will no longer receive treatment for brain cancer. john mccain served in the senate for over 30 years. he's made a run for the presidency twice and cindy, his wife, tweeted out that the entire mccain family is overwell md outwell himmed by the outpouring of love. >>> and sprd calling for jeff sessions to investigate democrats. will the attorney general do what his boss wants? by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm up for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk bet

. >> cohen, of course, a long-time loyalist of the president's and so was attorney general jeff sessions. but he, too, was a target this morning. >> the only reason i gave him the job because i felt loyalty. he was an original supporter. >> loyalty a clear theme today and as republicans grapple with how to handle the fallout from this legal storm, the president has a warning. listen to this. >> i'll tell you what, if i ever got impeached i think the market would crash. i think everybody would be very poor. >> okay. abby philip is at the white house with more. it is 2018, not 1984. but walk us through what has happened overnight at the white house. i understand the lights were on pretty light. >> that's right, poppy. clearly something is keeping the president up pretty late at night and it's this legal controversy that is encircling him on all fronts. the president clearly agitated about this situation, especially the one with michael cohen, the one that seems to deal with so many of the things the president has said were off limits, his personal life, his business life. but also now this

wonder if in one week we see the president lose not just two allies in michael cohen and david pecker, but his attorney, jeff sessions as well, who was one of the first high-profile members of congress to endorse him. this language that i hear sessions use, the justice department will not be bowled over by politics, is what i hear deputy attorney general rod rosenstein say repeatedly when he has a chance to speak publicly. and until now i haven't seen the two match up in that kind of -- again i agree defiant isn't quite the right word, but that sort of defiant rhetoric towards the president. here they are finally aligned against the president in terms of his attacks on the justice department, specifically it raises the question of what could happen next if the president keeps blaming jeff sessions for everything that's happened to him so far. >> here is a hint. senator lindsey graham a moment ago said that maybe the president should fire jeff sessions. but if he does, do it after the midterms. listen. >> the president's entitled to an attorney general he has faith in. somebody that's qualified for the job. a

the president with very harsh words for michael cohen, for his attorney general jeff sessions, for the russia probe, in general taking fresh aim at all of those various targets. so the sense here is that he is growing increasingly more infuriated about all of this. as you mentioned. >> and you may or may not be able to hear marine one behind me getting ready to take him to drews and on to ohio. we are hoping reporters can get questions before he takes off. >> we just found out that, no, he did not take any questions from reporters. looks like he is not walking to the cameras. somebody is keeping him away from reporters who are, obviously, going to want to ask him a lot of questions about what is going on. ken dilanian, talking about donald trump's strategy here, his explanation for what he knew or did not know has evolved, has changed. first he didn't know about the payments at all. then they are okay because he paid out of his own pocket. then nothing about this is illegal. everybody does this sort of thing. campaign finance violations are very common. >> yeah, that's right. i mean, h

cohen describe the violations. >> and does he link it to the president. i want to hear from all of you but i want to go to jeff toobin. what are your thoughts? >> well, the fact that michael cohen is pleading guilty is an enormous development in the history of the trump president. no one was closer to the developer, pre-president donald trump. no one knows more or almost no one knows more of his secrets and the fact that he's pleading guilty apparently to a riwide range of felonies in many different areas suggest that donald trump placed his trust in someone who was a very elaborately -- a very extensively credentialed criminal. the question we all want to know is will he cooperate in a way that is at all damaging to donald trump and i wouldn't want to presume that one way or the other. you know, given the breath of these crimes he's apparently pleading guilty to, the question of what was the president's involvement in any of them is certainly one that we're all going to want to know the answer to. >> so what about the point in terms of president's involvement. when michael cohen is standing there today before

street journal" reported yesterday that michael cohen's accountant, jeffrey getzel has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors. a report by cnn.com says jeff my getzel was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors before the raid by the fbi on michael cohen's office, hotel room, and home in april. these reports also indicated that michael cohen is being investigated for bank fraud, including lying about his assets when applying for loans. now the penalties for tax evasion and bank fraud are much, much more severe than possible penalties for violation of campaign finance law that investigators were already considering in relation to michael cohen's arrangements to pay women for their silence about their relationships with donald trump during the presidential campaign. we will be right back with a last word on the troubles michael cohen has now. (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything so we know how to cover almost anything. even "vengeful vermin." not so cute when they're angry. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ it's a high-tech slee

we have cohen plea, pleading guilty to eight federal crimes. jeff sessions fighting back.s of moving parts this week. only praise for paul manafort, the former chairman who was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraunt the presias been talking to his lawyers about the possibility of pardoning manafort. >> susan,hank you. >>> lyft wants you to get out and vote on election day. yesterday, it announced it will offer discounted and free rides to polls on november 6th. it will distribute 50% off codes across the country. and it's partnering with ro nots so that people in underserved communities will ride free. 73 days to go before america goes to the polls for the midterms. we'll have the deals when it gets close >>> a aring in the man charged in the murder of a d.c. family and their housekeeper. this is over the prosecutors wantg a protective order to limit the details of the investigation and prng the privacy of police witnesses.of back in ma015, he held the victims captive, extorted money and set their house on fire. his trial is scheduled to start next monthtnd could

jeff flake. plus, president trump's nightmare week. michael cohenleads guilty, paul manafort found guilty, the president's allies abandoning him. talking with the house judiciary committee. how has this affected president trump's approval rating? we have a new "wall street journal" poll taken before and after the stories broke. joining me this morning are tom brokaw, andrea mitchell, jackson, joshua johnson, susan paige, and david brody, welcome to sunday for a special edition of "meet the press." >>> this nbc news washington, longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >>> good sunday morning. a warrior, a politician, a statesman, and the news that senator john mccain died late yesterday in his home in arizona was not unexpected, but it was no less tragic. some deaths leave a greater hole in our national psyche. let's do straight talk. given the political voirenviron, the loss of a man who built bridges rather than burn them is poig nannan poignant. his wife writes, my heart is broken. he passed the way he

russia investigation and reported claims of his former attorney michael cohen, the president stepping up feud with attorney general jeff investigation and his leadership of the justice department. hello, everyone, welcome to brand new hour inside of america's news headquarters, i'm mike emanuel. >> claiming cohen is prepare today tell robert mule they're mr. trump knew about the june 2016 trump tower meeting, his campaign officials had with russian lawyer. president trump tweeting this morning. michael

street journal" reported yesterday that michael cohen's accountant, jeffrey getzel has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors. a report by cnn.com says jeff my getzel was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors before the raid by the fbi on michael cohen's office, hotel room, and home in april. these reports also indicated that michael cohen is being investigated for bank fraud, including lying about his assets when applying for loans. now the penalties for tax evasion and bank fraud are much, much more severe than possible penalties for violation of campaign finance law that investigators were already considering in relation to michael cohen's arrangements to pay women for their silence about their relationships with donald trump during the presidential campaign. we will be right back with a last word on the troubles michael cohen has now. u know. jardiance is the only type 2 diabetes pill proven to both reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who have type 2 diabetes and heart disease... ...and lower a1c, with diet and exercise. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration. this may cause you to feel dizzy, faint,

cohen, directly implicating the president. and aprobe growing around the trump organization. >> jeff bennett from the white house starting us off. appreciate that. joining me now, john harwood, cnbc editor at large. political correspondent. we welcomed you'd both again. john, start with you. we have the national enquirer safe. who do we know about what stories could be held there, do we have any facts on that. >> any speculation at this time? anything we have not heard of before? there's definitely a chance. david pecker killed tons of stories about president trump and other people that will we have not -- that have not been unearthed for the reason they were sitting in that safe. this is very consequence s. even though jeff was just saying that people close to trump talked about how calm he is. he did not look calm to me with this desperate flailing he's doing on twitter and some of the messages he's been giving in public. >> so, aaron, would it matter at all for the president's standing and how so if it does, if it all national enquirer stories out there, both to base and beyond. >> alex, that's exactly the right question. yo

jeff sessions pushing back. the "wall street journal" has some pretty amazing details about the cohen case. tell me about how you got those. >> last might david pecker, the chairman of american media, that owns the national inquirer, was cooperating with investigators and telling them what he knew about the hush money payments. one to karen mcdougal, the catch and kill story that the national inquirer bought and the other is the payment to stormy daniels. david pecker was in on it because he knew that stormy daniels was getting ready to sell her story. so it's a big deal that he was granted immunity and talking to prosecutors. he's a close friend of president trump and close with michael cohen. i can only imagine that president trump is feeling quite betrayed right now. >> dana: even with that, with david pecker getting immunity, there's a question as to whether the campaign finance laws were violated or if the president would be in trouble for that. >> right. president trump is saying they're not crimes. david pecker is in a tight spot here. corporations cannot contribute to campaigns. so

cohen for turninon him. >> it's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal. >>> also tonight, jeff sessions fires back at the boss. in an extraordinary public war of words, the president slamming sessions again over not controlling the russia investigation. >> what kind of a man is this? >> but this time sessions hits back. >>> a state of emergency as a major hurricane slams hawaii. residents and resorts hunker down bracing for a disaster. >>> an imposture caught at the airport trying to get into the

cohen plea. he pled guilty to eht federal crimes that implicated the president. and thel, attorney gene jeff sessions, fighting back after the president wab bashing him t recusining himself. the only praise from the president came from paul manafort, who he respects for notng brea the president valuing loyalty and those limits being tested week. >> susan mcginnis. thanks. >>>yft wants you to vote on election day. yesterday, it announced it will offer discounted and freeides to polls. it will distribute across the country. and it's partnering with nonprofits so that people in underserved communities will ride free. 70 days to go before america goes to the polls for the midterms. we'll he the deahen it gets closer. >>> a hearing in the man charged in the mder of a d.c. family and their housekeeper. this is over the prosecutors wanting a protective order to limit the details of the investigation and protecting the privacy of police witnesses back in may of 2015,el he hd the victims ivca extorted money and set their house on fire. >>> we know the name of the workerle kduring a construction accid

he blamed attorney general jeff sessions for his former lawyer's prosecution. the president tweeted michael coheninance violations that are not a crime. so then president obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled. yes, he talked about that. trump was referring to a late filing on small dollar donations by the obama campaign which resulted in a large fine given the scale of the operation, but is different than knowingly concealing campaign spending as pleaded to by cohen.en. which is routinely prosecuted in criminal court as with the fraud case against john edwards under the obama justice department. speaking, of course, to fox news -- that's where i told you he's go -- president trump said it had nothing to do with who is leading doj. it has everything to do the with it. my first question when i heard about it was did it come out of the campaign? because that could be dicey. but that's not even a campaign violation. if you look at president obama, he had a massive campaign violation. but he had a different attorney general and they viewed it a lot differently. >> ben, t

cohen for turninon him. >> it's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal. >>> also tonight, jeff sessions fires back at the boss. in an extraordinary public war of words, the president slamming sessions again over not controlling the russia investigation. >> what kind of a man is this? >> but this time sessions hits back. >>> a state of emergency as a major hurricane slams hawaii. residents and resorts hunker down bracing for a disaster. >>> an imposture caught at the airport trying to get into the country. the brand-new security technique that scanned his face and found he wasn't who he claimed to be. >>> and authorities 8-year-old walk the dog alone. >> she was gone for five minutes and the police were at the door. >> that sparking a debate. parents divided. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening, everyone. the hard limits of loyalty testing president trump on two fronts tonight including a surprise government immunity deal involving a friend of his. as if that wasn't enough, the president got serious pushback from his attorney general jeff sessions today after

court papers spell out how pecker helped cohen deal with negative stories about then- candidate trump's relationships with those women, and, jeffnight, the associated press is reporting the "national enquirer" even kept a safe that was filled with documents about those payments and other damaging stories, to protect mr. trump. >> glor: all right, weijia, thanks. htat again is david pecker, whose company owns the "national enquirer." thank you, weijia. new details were released today in the murder of mollie tibbetts. dhe 20-year-old iowa college student whose body was found this week a month after she disappeared. adriana diaz is in brooklyn, iowa tonight. >> reporter: 20-year-old mollie tibbetts died from multiple sharp force injuries, according f iowa state medical examiner. they ruled her death a homicide. cristhian bahena rivera, who has been charged with her murder, told investigators tibbetts was bleeding from her head, before he left her body in a cornfield down this road. ae owners of the dairy farm where rivera worked said he used false identification to pass a background check. the iowa department of transportation als

jeff sessions. remember, he has said time and time again where is my roy cohen? , i want someone loyal to me like bobby kennedy was. >> nancy, i do want to talk about your article as well. unrelated to the jeff sessions news of the date. but you do write about the president and his detachment from reality as it would seem. you write in part, quote, the president is painting his own reality here. the president in an interview on fox news this morning was asked about the michael cohen payment. this is just part of what president trump said. >> did you direct him to make these payments? >> he made the deals. and, by the way, he pled to two counts that aren't a crime. which nobody understands. i watched a number of shows, sometimes you get some pretty good information by watching shows. those two counts aren't even a crime. >> clearly the president has been watching this show. but that notwithstanding, nancy, how do white house officials -- how do they try to even explain answers like that? >> well, i think there's a few things going on. one, i don't think there's a v

let me bring in jeff jacobowitz who represented clinton officials. t if you're michael cohenve? >> we have a combination. there's one other alternative, as well, which is they can indict him under seal and not reveal it until after the election. they're following the rules of not indicting somebody after august if there is an election. if you're cohen, you're trying to cooperate. there was distinct silence the last few weeks, and everybody thought cohen might have been cooperating. could have been it hasn't worked out. either, one, you're gearing up to fight the case or, two, you're starting to produce the tapes and cooperating to mueller or the southern district. boy, they're listening to a lot of tapes, between omarosa and cohen. >> do you get any sense though that cohen is trying to fight with prosecutors here? it seems like all of his public signals have been, yo, i'm not buds with presidentgiving the signals back. there is a report from "politico" that his lawyer is talking to john dean, who we mentioned last segment. your thoughts? >> the sense is, he's trying to cooper

. >> reporter: while the president demands loyalty from jeff sessions, three of his close associates, former fixer michael coheno alan weisselberg, and friend and former "national enquirer" publisher david pecker all cooperating with investigators in a campaign finance probe. whit? >> all right, tara palmeri at the white house for us, thanks so much. a lot of questions about how all of that will play out and how it relates to the mueller investigation in the future. >> it is a dicey and very interesting time, and it definitely looks like jeff sessions is taking the brunt. >> absolutely. >>> in the meantime here, coming up, the former vatican official calling for pope francis to resign. we'll be right back. investigation in the future. >> it is a dicey m for college. fvatican official calling for pope francis to resign. we'll be right back. ovatican of calling for pope francis to resign. we'll be right back. rvatican of calling for pope francis to resign. we'll be right back. mevatican o calling for pope francis to resign. we'll be right back. rvatican of calling for pope francis to resign. we'll be right back.

cohen's guilty plea. i'll talk to republican senator jeff flake of arizona. and democratic congressman john nadleer in new york, and we also have brand-new nbc news wall street journal poll numbers on what impact the news has had on the president's job rating. but when we come back, we're going to remember the many moments we shared with john mccain over the years right in this studio right here on "meet the press. >> i may not be the youngest candidate in this race but i'm certainly the most prepared and i'm prepared to lead the country. i don't need any on the job training. ready to do the hard things, not the easy things and that's what i intend to do. the easy things and that's what i intend to do hopes you drive safely. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? mother...nature! sure

cohen. he hired jeff sessions who he is fighting with. he hired omarosa who he now calls a low life. them. >> jon: also fair to say it's a pretty unusual investigation in that, you know, robert mueller started with russian collusion and russian campaign meddling and now we have brought in the former -- or the cfo of the president's own organization, the one that he built and has now essentially handed over to his sons and to weisselberg to run. you have got him being subpoenaed. you've got the head of the "national enquirer" talking about apparently payments made to women to sort of sanitize the campaign. it's a long way from russian meddling. >> yeah. and people who say hey, the press spent a year talking about russian collusion, russian collusion, where is mueller's evidence of that have a perfectly valid point. now, this particular case about michael cohen and infirier and hush money payments also involving stormy daniels, mueller handed this off to the prosecutors in the southern district of new york. still it began with mueller. i'm reminded of 1998 when ken starr who was suppos

cohen. and also stepping up his feud with attorney general, jeff sessions over his recusal in the russia probe and the handling of the justice department. hello everyone and welcome to a brand-new hour inside "americas news headquarters". i am molly. >> hi molly! >> i am happy to see you. >> mike emanuel. and a plea deal with federal prosecutors this week in a separate case. the president again reiterating that there was no collusion and slamming recent reports that michael cohen was raised to tell special counsel he was aware of a trump care meeting that campaign officials had with a russian lawyer. the president think what the attorney does not know if they knew about the meeting. i did which came nothing. the answer is that i did not know about the meeting. just another phony story by the fake news media. molly: garrett tenney is live at the white house with the latest. molly: the president has said all along he has no advanced knowledge of the infamous trump tower meeting. but last month a number of media outlets reported michael cohen was prepared to testify the opposite and same mr. trum

doug cohen, and on the news line, former hedge fund manager jeff matthews who wrote books "secrets in plain sight" as well as "warren buffett's successor, who it is, why it matters. gentlemen, thanks for joining us doug, i'll start with you. as someone that invested in the company, anything you heard from warren buffett that changes your the thesis. >> we should all be that vibrant at 88. as pertains to berkshire hathaway, i think there was meaningful news, mike touched on it about mid july they came out, relaxed buy back criteria. fairly modest amount several months, it was a meaningful moment for the stock, it traded better since then. he said this morning they have been buying some stock it was also in regard to apple i thought that was interesting, indicative of his mindset. would almost see it trade down 10%, knowing they could buy back stock. that's more endorsement of buy backs broadly than we heard from warren over time. >> the berkshire b shares are outperforming broader markets, up 12% on all of the buy back news jeff, i want to get your thoughts as well you used to be inves

cohen? >> some say the pecker problem is small because campaign finance violations -- what? i wasn't making a joke. rarely prosecuted in court. let's talk about jeff attorney general. what an extraordinary turn of events. the president has bullied him for better than a year. and yesterday, sessions with rare push back. fighting back against the president. then lindsey graham says this about the future for jeff sessions surviving in the trump administration last night on fox. >> jeff did the right thing legally, but mueller is now very deep into this investigation. this conflict is far beyond mueller and recusarecusal. there is not a good, healthy working relationship from what i can tell. for the good of the nation, i think we need an attorney general that has the confidence of the president and i'm not blaming jeff sessions. >> okay. that is interesting words from lindsey graham. the president is known for two words. you're fired. is lindsey graham giving him a nudge? >> he hasn't said them because republicans on the hill have been telling him do not fire jeff sessions. the wall of protection around sessions we have seen for the past year is star

one hand slamming his own attorney general, jeff sessions, the man he put in there saying he did it because of his loyalty, he also went after michael cohen. but seems that at least floating the idea through various comments, either through rudy giuliani or ambiguous answers on fox news that he is considering a pardon for paul manafort. what do you make of this? >> well, i -- you know, i'm going to go back to watergate, and i'm going to say that part of the articles of impeachment that was voted by the house judiciary committee had to do with offers of pardons to the burglars to keep them quiet. let's just not forget that. that was part of it. the president of the united states authorized pardons for people, the burglars, to keep them quiet. >> are you seeing parallels? >> of course. >> what are the parallels? is it the tone? >> maybe back then they were more explicit. we're not having a single person from the white house coming out and saying yes, he will pardon paul manafort. >> you don't need to say yes, he will. that was very secret, the pardons, hush money was secret, what are the parallels, the president of the united states knows d

any effort to pardon michael cohen or paul manafort in and of itself would be a gross assault on the rule of law and constitute high crimes. he wants to fire jeff wants to paul manafort. >> he wants to fire you, too. all of us. [ laughter ] >> and pardon michael cohen and pardon paul manafort. pardon anyone who might testify against the president. what can he do? >> he can, essential, he can, as jill said he has the ability to pardon. but this is the thing about john's point that is right. in a precise way the rules of justice or timing of justice and the legal system and politics will come to a head now. because the president has got to make a decision about whether he's going to pardon paul manafort in a time frame almost certainly before november and the election. and what does that do to the politics of the midterm elections? does that generate enthusiasm in his wanted base? which is as we discussed a little bit of a shinny object. can they be more enthusiastic? does it gain him anything there. does it just cause the voters who really matter in the election, which is largely democrats who are already stirred up, but particularly a bunch of