i'm joined by katie phang and jonathan allen reporter for nbc news digital. tie, there's so much news. this simple question, what would be illegal about michael cohen, the president's lawyer/fixer for arranging payments to eem through the "national enquire enquirer"'s ownership to keep stories out of the public eye for political purposes? >> so the answer to that is michael cohen would be trying to do an end run around campaign finance laws so instead of the direct individual contribution that we've heard about that's been alleged that he did to stormy daniels in the amount of $130,000, putting aside the salaciousness and who characterize about the underlying facts of this doorman, it's the idea of using ami as a conduit to funnel money instead of going directly from donald trump or michael cohen's pocketbook to that of the trump doorman, they use ami to catch and kill. so you achieve two goals. you beak shut the guy up because you bought the story. you never run it and beak you don't ever have to declare the $30,000 in terms of it having an influence in the o

jason johnson, nick confessore and katie phang. up next the hard table is coming around with a look at james comey's explosive new book. this is "hardball" where the action is. even "close claws." [driver] so, we took your shortcut, which was a bad idea. [cougar growling] [passenger] what are you doing? [driver] i can't believe that worked. i dropped the keys. [burke] 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 ♪ but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. my digestive system used to make my feel sluggish. but those days are over. now, i take metamucil every day. it naturally traps and removes the waste that weighs me down. so i feel... lighter. try metamucil and begin to feel what lighter feels like. take the metamucil 2-week challenge and begin to feel what lighter feels like. log on and

. >>> joining me to discuss it, msnbc legal analyst katie phang. let's get to how avenatti and the daniels team uses these comments to their advantage. how do you see it? >> in the court of public opinion and maybe potentially your jury pool if this goes to a jury trial, alex, you're definitely winning if you are michael avenatti and stormy daniels. i mean this is the 30,000-foot view analysis. this is why nobody wants to represent donald trump. think about the fact that this guy may have to sit with a depot with michael avenatti, who is a total bull dog, he may be sitting soon for an interview with robert mueller and his team. donald trump is impetuous, arrogant, undisciplined and he won't listen to counsel. because this is what he did. on air force one. and instead of on twitter. which would have been just as bad. he denies knowing about the $130,000 payment and then he says, ask my lawyer, michael cohen. everybody wants to talk to michael cohen these days. robert mueller wants to, michael avenatti wants to depose michael cohen. the fact that tru

. >> thank you, katy phang. >> up next, ahead of his requirement of congress chl.hy do lawmakers only speak the truth when they are heading out the door? you are watching "hardball"? . you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? most pills don't finish the job because they don't relieve nasal congestion. flonase allergy relief is different. flonase relieves sneezing, itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose, plus nasal congestion, which pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. and 6 is greater than 1. start your day with flonase for more complete allergy relief. flonase. this changes everything. when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. li

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 the target currently will voluntarily sit down with mueller and he apparently seems reassured and relievered. i think he's going to be inclined to do it. remember,

. >> katie phang, thank you, blake mccoy, thank you. here's another tragic story on so many levels.uerto rico this hour, power has largely been restored after an islandwide blackout struck the u.s. territory yesterday. officials say that blackout was caused by a private contractor whose workers bulldozed a major power line while removing a fallen tower. today puerto rico's sole power provider says the sub contractor involved has been fired for the latest blackout and for its involvement in a major outage last week as well. but as restoration efforts persist, something to keep in mind here. more than 41,000 people have nod had any power since hurricane maria hit sev months ago, september 20th. i'm joined now on the phone by the former governor of puerto rico. governor, thanks for your time today as always, sir. the island's power authority have taken action by firing the sub contractor. is that enough? does that go far enough to ensure that something like this does not continue to happen? >> well, first of all, thank you for having me. as you said in the introduction, puerto ricans a

here with more, msnbc legal analyst katie phang.et's get into the judge's decision here, which is really tying together these two separate cases against cohen. the criminal investigation and the lawsuit brought by stormy daniels. how do they affect each other. do they? >> they do. they're on both sides of the coast of the united states. you wouldn't think they would be related, but they are. michael cohen has said to the judge and the judge has agreed that a 90-day stay is appropriate because michael cohen said if he had to he would invoke the fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. the judges found there's significant factual overlap between what's happening to michael cohen in the southern district of new york case and what's happening in the civil lawsuit that's revolving around stormy daniels, basically the judge has said because michael cohen would have to protect himself from making any statements that would incriminate himself in the southern district of new york case he's going to allow michael cohen 90 days or thr

. >> for more i'm joined by legal analyst katie phang. i'm going to ask you the question.hat's the worst could happen to the president in this fandango? the worst. >> the worst that could happen to the president is already happening, chris. and that is robert mueller. so what do i mean by that. >> robert mueller has already put his sights upon michael cohen. we just heard in the last segment that he's looking with an exceptional level of scrutiny at trump organization deals with russia, georgia, the ukraine, kazakhstan and he wants to look at specifically michael cohen's involvement. what does stormy daniels have anything to do with this? the reason why trump and do you feel that chill? that is donald trump leaving michael cohen out in the cold. donald trump is denying any knowledge or involvement in this stormy daniels deal because he does not want to be a co-conspirator with michael cohen for any fec campaign finance violations or anything else that could have to do with michael cohen. but the problem for donald trump is this. even though presumptively there is a privile

i'm joined by katie phang and julia ansley, national security and justice correspondent. both of you are experts. id think i'm a regular generalist. i watched a guy this morning say i don't know the guy. katie, it was unbelievable. he said he's in business on his own. i don't know what it is. i only had a tiny bit of thing with him. if i were michael cohen, but i know what it's like to be this morning at 7:30 watching "fox & friends," watching a guy you've been supporting, you love and he's just disowned you and said i don't really know the guy. katie? >> even a dog knows the difference between when it's tripped over and when it's being kicked. i think michael cohen got a swift kick this morning during that tirade that trump went on on fox and "friends." what's legally damning this morninging is what you pointed out which is on april 5th on air force one, trump says i have no idea about this,000ed payment to stormy daniels. he today an he says he knew about it. donald trump just walked himself into a chair to sit for a deposition in at a minimum the stormy daniels lawsuit

our legal analyst katy phang is on the phone with us. i want to ask you about as a matter of course, his legal team will immediately file appeal, but on what grounds is the question, number one. and what's the likelihood that, given now we're at a second trial, the jury came back very clearly about what they believed, what's the chances do you see for an appeal here? >> so there are material differences between the first trial that ended up being a hung jury last year and this second retrial. one of the biggest differences is the fact that there was five additional victims, in addition to andrea constand, that were permitted by judge o'neal to be able to testify about their similar experiences with bill cosby. as a result, that could be one of the substantive legal grounds for purposes of an appeal. in the meantime, mr. cosby's been out on bail. you do have to post what you call a superseding bond, meaning you have to post a bond to ensure that you stay out of custody while an appeal is pending, if that's where they go. but another major