mj lee and former federal prosecutor, jennifer rogers. evan, to you first. covering the case from the beginning. michael cohen in court facing prison time. length of that prison sentence to be determined any minute. essentially saying, i have done wrong but and the but being that most of what i have done wrong was at the direction of donald trump. the businessman, then the candidate, now the president. >> look, this is what you call singing for your supper. it is clear that michael cohen knows the weight of every one of those words. history will not judge him to be the the villain. talking about the fact that the things he did to cover up for these crimes was out of loyalty to the president, talking about how he's taking responsibility for crimes including those involving the president. he's doing everything he can to twist the knife further in the back of the president because he knows that what he's doing, his performance here is what's going to help the special counsel in their investigation and the new york investigators as well in whatever case they're

. >> former federal prosecutor, jennifer rogers, is joining us now.oliday weekend with us. i really appreciate it. our reporting, based upon multiple sources, and i want to read you this key line exactly as it's written. trump pressed whittaker why more wasn't being done to control prosecutors in new york who brought the charges in the first place suggesting they were going rogue. is that obstruction of justice? >> well, that's the big question, right? one of the problems is the president does have the right at some level to oversee the entire executive branch. that includes the department of justice. the fact is while it's not technically a legal violation, the president never does and should never really inquire into any matter that involves him. instead, the mechanism for making sure his oversight is appropriate is congressional. i think congressman schiff is right to say they should inquire into that in hearings. i don't think it's likely to be obstruction of justice as far as a criminal charge goes and something congress should look into, and it'

joining us, former federal prosecutor, cnn analyst jennifer rogers and former prosecutor rebecca royfyou be watching for? >> i'm watching for what we don't know. with respect to flynn, we don't know what he's been telling robert mueller and his team. we haven't seen the cases that will be developed from that information. the memo will go through the offense conduct and talk about cooperation and say he helped us in this way, these are the things that he toll d us that resulted in the prosecution of others. the question is what are they going to let drop today and what are they going to hold back? that's what's going to be the most interesting stuff. >> rebecca, who should be worried? >> a lot of people should be worried. the prosecution as you said has been progressing in this way, that increasing number of people have been shown -- close to trump's circle has been lying. there has to be some motivation for that lying. i think trump's family should be worried, close advisors and maybe trump himself. >> we also talked about michael cohen and paul manafort and how they, too, have some im

joining me is cnn legal analyst jennifer rogers. ant is it that mueller's team requested that transcript and it now will be handed over? >> if i was reading the tea leaves, i would say they're close to wrapping up with roger stone and that probably means indicting them. mueller is interested for only two reasons, either they're going to be witnesses or targets. in roger stone's case they've had a lot of months where they've been trying to speak to other people around him but did not speak to him, which signals he's a target. he has testified in congress. they really wanted to get his testimony to see if it's inconsistent with the evidence they have, consistent, whether it raises a charge of perjury for lying to congress. that's what they're doing here is readying to invite roger stone. >> again, we don't really know exactly because robert mueller's team, they operate in silence, it's sort of a black hole. meantime we have reporting that cnn is reporting today acting attorney general matt whitaker decided not to recuse himself from th

cnn's legal analyst jennifer rogers and paul callan join me. what does it tell you about their investigation of the president? >> there's no question that they're going to pick up some of these investigative threads that the republican-led house was not willing to do. i hope instead of trying to duplicate efforts of the mueller team, that they focus on the conflicts of interest have been present since the presidency started, the questions of whether the president and his business interests are driving policy with saudi arabia and russia. but there are also going to be all sorts of other threads that come out of the mueller investigation and they'll need these kinds of lawyers and investigators to do that work. >> does that include the president's taxes? we think the mueller team may be looking into that. is this an for democrats to finally get those taxes and put them in the public? >> definitely. it covers all sorts of subjects. they're look forking for a grou con d lawyer who is can investigate a lot of conduct. >> there's a senate intelligen

also former president full prosecutor lisa coats, and cnn legal analyst, jennifer rogers. good to have you on set with us, jennifer. take us up to 30,000 feet. what do you see this morning? >> i see a president that is in trouble now. for the first time we actually have a prosecutor's office saying he committed a federal felony. the question is what are they going to do about it? what is mueller going to do about his piece of it? i think they are ultimately going to have to wait. the olc's opinions say you can't indict a sitting president, and they can indictment him after he leaves office, but they are unlikely to proceed with the criminal case as of now. >> are you referring to the one where michael cohen at the direction of individual one, who we know to be donald trump, instructed him to pay the hush money. >> they just don't have cohen's statement, because cohen is not a cooperator and they can't rely on his testimony. they have other evidence that is consistent with that and that's what they spelled out in the memo on friday meaning the president could be charged if

federal prosecutor jennifer rogers and former federal prosecutor kim waily. he worked on the white house investigation. federal prosecutors are now directly implicating donald trump in a federal crime. how big of a deal is this? >> it's a huge deal. i mean, we knew from the plea of mielk cohen that he was saying that the president directed him in doing this, but this is different because prosecutors are very careful with their words. had they wanted to, they could have just said mielk cohen says that the president directed him, but instead they use different language. they said as mielk cohen has admitted, the president directed it. that means to me that they have other evidence independent of cohen's say-so that shows that the president is the one who directed this crime. let me read you a quote. it has to do with michael cohen's lies. this from mueller's team. the defendant amplified his false statements by repeating and releasing his lies to the public, including to other potential witnesses. a publicly presenting this false narrative, the defendant delibe

i want to discuss with harry litman and jennifer rogers.eresting day for the investigation. we see the norms being violated and people, you know, shooting down institutions. this is a good day for the rule of law you think? >> i think so. you have a judge with an incredibly important case in front of him. the sentencing of michael flynn and he has a sentencing memo from the defense misrepresenting facts and blaming the fbi and has to say well, listen, if you back off of this situation here and say that you were tricked, he has to ensure the defendant was guilty. that's what he does and he does it in very strong language and goes after the seriousness of the offense. he wants people to know, including michael flynn standing there in front of him lying to the fbi when you're a senior member of the white house is a big deal. he's talking to everybody in the country including trump and followers trying to undermine the judiciary and our institutions. i think it was a good day in that way. >> what do you think? >> i agree. it's the crucible of t

jennifer rogers gives us the explanation of what is s severability. >> it means if one small part ofe statute is unconstitutional but you can tell from congress's intent when they passed the law they would have intended for the rest of the law to remain in place even though one piece is unconstitutional, and this judge did not do that. he said i am finding all of the affordable care act to be unconstitutional. that's not the doctrine and it's not what the appellant judges will say. i believe this will be overturned and most legal scholars seem to agree. >> how worried should people be that have pre-existing conditions or children with pre-existing conditions that it will get overturned? >> severability is like jenga, and you presume it stays. that's why this opinion is a hot mess. the judge tries to say, what was reid thinking? you don't need to guess. you do not read congress's mind, you look at what they did, and if they wanted it to be nonseverable, they would have said so and the statute does not say that. i think this ruling is doomed. >> in the short term, there are two things

. >> joining us, jennifer rogers and joe lockhart. we are in the midst of what i am calling it the 12 days of russia. today it's like five guilty please, four turtle doves -- >> i like the metaphor you are going with. >> michael cohen will be sentenced today. this is a big development. this is the president's personal attorney. he is going to jail for perhaps a pretty long time for over some of the things he did, that lawyers said he did at the cooperation of the president. what do you expect? >> i think he will get three to four years in that range. he pleaded to a wide variety of crimes, the campaign finance you mentioned with the president and tax fraud and bank fraud and other things. there are serious crimes. the fact that he didn't cooperate means he will not get the full benefit of the cooperation. >> his original crime was undying loyalty to donald trump. yes, i think he has tax evasion, which is the predominant reason he is going to jail, but he can't get his head around that he is going to prison for three to four years prob

jennifer rogers teaches law at clum columbia university. i'm not sure where to again. the cohen matters, what are your big take aways from what was discovered today on cohen? >> there's too many to talk a bt about in a period of time. the distinction between the people in my former office in the southern district had towards michael cohen, his veraci veracity, helpfulness and that of mueller. >> mueller thought he had more veracity. >> it was a much kinder and gentler submission. my old office submission is scathing in how they talk about how michael cohen brought this upon himself. he engaged in serious crimes. the fact he was doing this and will forego a pardon does not make him a hero. how he was not complete in his cooperation. the suggestions was unpersuasive to the government. submission by michael cohen's lawyer, the response to that is it was incomplete. it didn't go into detail about the things michael cohen didn't want to talk about. the particular way you cooperate in the southern district of new york, it's a very high thresholds. in some other districts to