lanny: yes.rom my misremembering that the lawyers used the word dictate, it's the federal prosecutors that approved the statement that donald trump correlated and dictated to michael: that he make those payments -- coordinated and dictated to michael cohen that he make those payments to the women. kevin: if michael cohen has evidence of it, why not come forward with it? lanny: the evidence was spelled out in the statement he made in federal court and it will be spelled out as the case emerges of what the federal government has. what michael cohen has come forward with is that michael was trump do this. trump signed the checks from the company paid to mcdougal as well as to stormy daniels. kevin: does he have tapes or emails or other evidence that will come out? lanny: i don't know the answer to that. kevin: you don't know? lanny: i don't know what evidence he has, but the information document states that there were campaign officials that we don't know the identities of. the prosecutors have not

lanny davis. thank you for joining us this evening. first off, have you spoken to michael? >> yes. >> how is he doing, what does he say? >> a combination of relief, suffering for his family, his children, the life he's been forced to lead with the cloud of doubt facing a criminal prosecution. but there is also a liberation in michael's voice. this is a man with a very big heart, who loves his family, lochl loves his country and has been unable to speak because of this cloud after the massive search warrant was executed, including even his children's telephones. well, now he has stepped up to the line and he can now speak again and he feels liberated. >> how far is he willing to go? because i just want to ask because, you know, for years he's been saying, i will protect this president. i'm very loyal to donald trump. i'm not going to flip on him. i would never hurt him. and now we've come to this. >> when i first spoke to michael cohen and took several weeks for the two of us to get to know each ot

lanny davis here. i want you to ask yourself at home is lanny davis working in the best interests of his client, mr. cohen or izzy working in the best interest of his own personal political beliefs. watch this clip. >> will michael cohen seek a pardon from the president of the night states for any of this? >> the answer is definitively no, under no circumstances since he came to the judgment after mr. trump's election to the presidency. that his suitability is a serious risk to our country. certainly after helsinki, creates serious questions about his loyalty to our country. his answer would be no, i do not want a pardon from this man. >> jason: are you kidding me? if you are an attorney for some buddy who is now pleading guilty to a felony, you wouldn't accept a pardon from the president of the united states? how in the world can you make a case that that's in the best interests of his client, mr. cohen? kendall, what are your thoughts? >> well, i think it sounds like positioning. i am sure lanny davi

lanny, thank you for being with us in open court. in open court yesterday, michael cohen said he made these payments in coordination with and at the direction of the president of the united states. that's michael cohen's words. what other proof, what other evidence is there to back that up? >> donald trump's own lawyers are the best evidence. they stated in a letter to the special counsel that donald trump directed, that's the word they used, michael cohen to make these payments to hush up these two women. and donald trump didn't sign the check to own up, he told michael cohen, according to his lawyers, who would be witnesses against him, so there's no dispute by his own lawyers, that donald trump directed michael cohen to do this. >> what letter? what letter? i have heard you refer to this letter. we have not seen this letter. what letter? when was it written? which lawyers? >> i am stunned because it is public. it was reported by many news outlets that donald trump's lawyers sent a letter to this special counsel in which they used

should anyone use lanny davis as anonymous source? >> lanny davis has an agenda.thing wrong with using him as a source but to beware of his again today. when you give people cover of anonymity you have to be really sure about this. gofundme page, has a client in a lot of trouble. involved in a lot of dubious activities. calculated the way he gets out of trouble, to turn against his former client, donald trump. liz: there was another story that lanny davis recanted that donald trump knew about the ahead of time about the wikileaks receipt of the dnc hacked emails. >> right. liz: now he is saying that is not true either. what is your take on that? >> just as interesting he did confirm as michael cohen said early on, that michael cohen didn't go to prague as the steele dossier is reported. funny when you get clarity weeks or months later it can be the opposite what you were first told. the story is all out there. how many people still believe it. liz: now they're talking about impeach trump. got to leave it there. bill mcgurn. come back soon. we love having you on. >

so why trust lanny davis?lanny davis is someone who has been along to washington for some time, he's a lawyer and he was a lawyer for michael cohen. so when we at "the washington post" and other news organizations were trying to confirm the broadcast report that michael: had advance knowledge about -- the president had advance knowledge of this meeting in trump tower. we went to michael cohen's lawyer and said to come is this true, can you confirm this? he offered us that confirmation telling us, that the president had some advanced knowledge that someone, some people had dirt, as he put it, on hillary clinton and was prepared to offer it. he subsequently tells us that he regrets that he didn't tell us -- he did not have full confidence that that nation was true and we publish that as a separate news story. >> he was asked by cnn during an interview with anderson cooper whether there was evidence that trump knew about the meeting before it happened. he said it, no there's not. it seems like a more declarative

lanny davis's presence is a huge question mark.close proximity with hillary clinton and the democratic machine. it really makes you wonder why is lanny davis sitting in the middle of this? i think it's a huge stretch and leap for him to suggest -- >> sandra: i went on to ask him what changed considering his client once said he would take a bullet for president trump for donald trump, why all of a sudden are we seeing the change? his response was well, that's a good question and he referred back to helsinki and that he had a change of heart. it was out of patriotism that he came -- >> i think it had to do more with his personal finances and the trouble he was running into. why is lanny davis -- all the attorneys in the world, right? no shortage of attorneys. you pick hillary clinton's attorney? i think it's highly suspicious. let's pretend for a moment that those payments were real. there are lots of reasons that you can do that. to say and suggest it would sway the election, it wasn't going to sway the election. >> sandra: more fro

you have heard lanny davis.davis said he believes that michael cohen has information that the special council would be interested in. michael avant atty believes that lani dave dropped a bombshell when he talked about the possibility of a record of a wire transfer from the trump organization. what do you make of this? >> there's a popular saying, that justice rides a slow horse, she eventually gets there. i would say today she got there. you know, just overwhelming news on the legal front for the trump team. what happened with paul manafort in terms of eight counts where he's found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion. and now, you know, michael cohen, the long time fixer and personal lawyer for the president pleading guilty to eight counts, two of which directly involve the president of the united states. clearly an unpress dented day for the government, for the president. shocking revelation by lanny davis that this isn't over, when i looked at that interview, what it said to me is, we have a long way to go, a

this is something everybody has to know about lanny.tand, he is myopic when it comes to the clintons. it's him. i accept it. he's also smart, he wrote a book, "tell the truth," and he uses his own advice, and he admitted it. maybe got a little ahead of it but cnn should just admit it. >> they should. we've seen this from the media researchm center, 92% of the coverage of this president is negative, backed up by harvard and the pew. the fact is there is no objectivity left. there is a pursuit of taking down the president when it comes to mainstream media and regardless of how blatant a mistake and the lie is in the air freight will do nothing to back down from it because the overarching goal is to push back against the president as hard as possible. >> sean: you covered really well in your book. i know -- >> thank you. part of it was to go out and give examples to people and make them understand how these stories are done. that is what the book really walks through. >> sean: the good news is is is a "new york times" best seller. congratu

thank you for your time, lanny.ited discussion, we will see you next time. >> lanny: you bet. >> martha: so after being blasted by his critics for straining relations with united united kingdom, the u.k. foreign secretary joins me, nex next. ♪ with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. where life meets legal. the first survivor of alzis out there.ase and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen. but we won't get there without you. join the fight with the alzheimer's association. it's a pea-protein, gluten-free pâté.gman? (whistles) 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 fe

michael cohen 'lawyer lanny davis now claims that he fed the story to cnn.. >> chris, tonight, sources with knowledge tell myself that michael cohen claims that then candidate donald trump knew in advance about the june 2016t meeting at trump tower in which russians were expected to offerh his campaign dirt on hillary clinton. crucially, these sources tell us that cohen is willing to make that assertion to robert mueller. irt should say one of his attorneys, lanny davis, declined to comment and i know chris, you are speaking to rudy giuliani, the president's attorney. i believe his response to you. >> tucker: and so on 26, cnn said with a straight face that f lanny davis did not comment on the story, that was a lie.ie not only did he comment, he was a main source and he admits that now. he also says he can't actually corroborate most of the story. >> you said that michael cohen wasn't present with the meeting with don jr. and the trump tower meeting. that's an incredibly important issue. he also said michael: testify truthfully to the senate committeete and

>> viewer warning, ignore lanny davis. gregg: i've yet to see truth come out of his mind. >> you back up 20 years ago, he was lying and spinning about his former employer the clintons and frankly if you applied the lanny davis formula to the clintons, they would be serving out their life sentences together in prison right now. so, lanny davis is to be ignored and look, the rest of the hysteria has been calling for impeachment since election night. there is no -- nothing new here. what is more interesting with respect to the difference between the legal standard and the political standard is that impeachment is a political process, not a legal process. and so, should the leadership change hands in the house come november, you will see 24/7, 365 and featuring hysteria and nothing but that. >> if you look at article to come a section for the constitution, it's fairly broad. gives you about a latitude and discretion. high crimes and misdemeanors. i'm not even seeing a little piddly misdemeanor that would be the equivalent of a

cohen's attorney lanny davis was with us just moments ago here on "new day." he hinted cohen has information about the russian attack on the 2016 election and the president's knowledge of it. >> mr. cohen has knowledge that would be of interest to the special counsel about the issue of whether donald trump ahead of time knew about the hacking of e-mails, which is a computer crime that was the subject of the indictment of the 12 russians. >> it's a clear and deliberate tease from cohen's attorney lanny davis because davis would not tell us anything near about what that information allegedly is. davis says cohen is willing to testify without immunity publicly before congress and on top of all of this, the

i am shocked i am shocked that lanny davis would lie actually i'm trying to be funny he has a long long history of lying and now it's clear that he lied not once but twice or maybe three times. russia gate is the coin of the realm here if you have a story no matter how false you're out with it before anybody pays any attention to the sourcing call bernstein thank god he has to be good on board a gate but that was in the seventy's now he's one of the people that regurgitates what he's told so we have. we have a sleazy bunch of lawyers and i'd have to ed pundits and reporters who now are caught in this web of misinformation. speaking at all kinds of euphemisms for lying now there's an interesting aspect to all this glenn greenwald's who happens to be a good reporter an excellent analyst and who is virtually alone and poking fun at the cable and the outlets in t.v. outlets in their passion to make sure that russia gate legend holes holes that the new yorker who is one of the main proponents of russia gate. its latest edition october third is than there are i've printed it out because it's

lanny davis was actually the major source for the entire story. he was also the anonymous source that confirmed its other outlets. now this week he came clean telling "the washington post" that he is not certain the claim is accurate and that he could not independently verify it. and yesterday, he tells buzzfeed news that he regrets his whole role as an independent source in a subsequent denial of his involvement in the story. if you can follow that. davis merely saying he "made a mistake." but he actually didn't. lanny davis is an old clinton fixer who has been spinning information and using the press to do his bidding for decades. this was deliberate. and the folks at cnn were only too happy to join him in this misinformation charade. why?. because they have a common enemy: donald j. trump. so davis floats a malicious and salacious story to target a political adversary and the media gleefully disseminated. now cnn's bernstein delighted in this tale of trump's misdeeds because it fits the pathetic russian narrative that they havt been trying to s

meanwhile, got to ask you about lanny davis.cently representing michael cohen who just entered into that guilty plea. he has now admitted that he was the anonymous source for this story on the trump tower meeting and he is now sharing his regrets over his ever as he's calling it. what are your thoughts on all of this as it unfolds? >> lanny is a friend of mine and a terrific lawyer and it's commendable that he has admitted his mistake. this is the problem that happens when you have a flipped witness who has an incentive not only to sing but also to compose and it may very well be that michael cullen began to collaborate and embellish a little bit in an effort to get a better deal and cohen may have told lanny davis these stories and lanny has now checked them out and there's no corroboration for them so he is performing a very important service and telling the public that no, he withdraws that he is working it back and you shouldn't presume that either the president knew about the meeting before it occurred or that the president

>> i take lanny davis at his word on that. i don't think there's any chance michael cohen receives a pardon, even if he did, it wouldn't necessarily shut him up. manafort, we need to watch carefully, 69-year-old man, time in prison that could be all or much of the rest of his natural life. he doesn't have too many outs left anymore. one of them is cooperating, but that's a big river to cross, and the other one is a pardon. i think what the president may be doing, as maya pointed out, is setting the stage for a pardon. because if the president pardoned manafort, i think we would all see what's going on, he wants to keep him quiet, keep him from cooperating and take away that other option. but by saying, oh, he's been so unfairly prosecuted, it enables the president to say, no, this is what pardons are for. i believe it's an unjust prosecution, maybe you disagree with me, but i'm the president, and i can do that if i want. >> we'll see what happens after the trial in d.c. >>> before i go, in the spring, you said the democrats ha

one was lanny davis,er might have been michael cohen. but cnn said lanny davis had no comment. but we now know according to him he was one of the sources. that's a problem, right? >> if they had these other sears, give him the benefit of the doubt. why not say we had other sources. if you are a news outlet your main goal should be to report accurate news. that's kind of what you are supposed to do. you are not supposed to just report news in a way you want in terms of what you are trying to project and not correct it when you made a mistake. if you have other sources, say so. but they are not saying so. guy: now the public knows for a fact based on lanny davis' apology, he was the source, he was wrong. he was incorrect, and they are just digging in their heels and saying we stand by the story, we are totally fine. if they continue to stick with that line, do they fall within the fake news trap and doesn't it make real news harder to break through because the white house can point to this as an example of dishonesty. >> donald trump should sit down with bob mueller and answer th

lanny, i do have a question for you.e has a tremendous amount to potentially offer robert mueller and the special counsel's team. why make that statement publicly? why not go directly to the special counsel? how does it serve michael cohen to be saying publicly we have a lot of things to offer? >> well, i haven't quantified it. i certainly think your interpretation is a reasonable one. i made my observation, we do not want to interfere in mr. mueller's investigation. i have said that michael cohen is going to be telling the truth to whoever asks him. and there are some issues that i think would be of interest. but i do want to go back to family. he and his family are suffering. he is asking for help. we've set up a website. michael cohen truth fund.com to help him tell the truth about donald trump. we need help. and michael is asking for anybody interested in helping him to go to this website that we just set up, michaelcohentruthfund.com and we ask everybody who is interested in michael being able to tell the truth to h

in the code that is lanny davis. talk about the significance of what he is saying and what kind of information he is offering to robert mueller. >> it is not quite clear. mueller did not take him up on that, at least as far as has been made public. clearly, cohen implicated trump in the hush payments, but he is not, as part of yesterday's plea agreements, he has not publicly implicated trump in any of the russia-related crimes. so i'm not convinced this guilty plea is more important thann manafort's guilty verdict yesterday, because trump a long time ago said, "i think i'm ok as long as the manafort does that flip on me. paul manafort is really the old one that can bring me down." cohen claims he has information about when trump knew certain things about the hack and leak. but even omarosa says she already talked to mueller's people about that, so it is possible -- several things are possible. one is that cohen is right and he will go talk to mueller and he will get some lesser sentence because he does it. it is poss

michael cohen's lawyer lanny davis claims that he fed this story to cnn. >> tonight, sources to tellthat michael cohen claims that donald trump knew in advance about the meeting in trump tower were which they were expected to offer campaign dirt on hillary clinton. crucially he is willing to make that assertion to the special counsel robert mueller. i should lanny davis declined to comment and chris, i know you are speaking to rudy giuliani, the president's attorney. >> tucker: and so on july 26th, cnn said with a straight face that lanny davis did not comment on the story. that was a lie. not only did he comment but that was a main source. he also says that he cannot actually cooperate most of the story. >> he said that michael cohen was meeting about the the trump tower meeting. he also said that michael: testify truthfully to the senate intelligence committee and according to the chair and vice chair of the committee, he told them he had no knowledge of the meeting. he either knew about them anymore he didn't know about the meeting. >> while i think, the reporting of the story got

i asked lanny davis about it just before air time. the central push back is that michael cohen lied about these payments, that he's a liar. he told "the new york times" back in february that either the trump organization or the trump campaign was a party with the transaction of miss clifford and reimburse me directly or indirectly. that was a lie. he said payments to miss clifford was lawful and not a campaign expenditure. that was a lie. why should the public believe him now? >> well, first of all, he's admitted to lying and he has taken a course he hopes shows he's taking responsibility. secondly, the prosecutors did a thorough job of investigating the facts. and what he said in what is called the allocution where he is talking to the judge about what he is admitting to, on the key issues involving president trump. he said that he was, according to the words of the allocution, that he specifically was directed and coordinated through president trump's direction the payment of this money to miss daniels and he took responsibility und

well now i just spoke to lanny davis, he was on tv, lanny davis is saying that's not the case, cohen doesn't have information exactly the that president trump knew beforehand and richard burr of the intelligence community yesterday and mark warner came out and said they reached out the cohen to reach out. >> i don't know what mr. cohen actually knows and what is in his head but i believe what repowe know that he wanted to tell the prosecutors that he knew that trump had advanced knowledge of that meeting. but in terms of what the facts are as opposed to what his representatives and people purporting to be speaking before and about him with knowledge of what he supposedly knew and was. >>> -- "shopping around," that's as far as the story went. but in terms of what the actual facts are, that's exactly why he needs to be thoroughly interrogated by the prosecutors and by the congress as well. >> carl, we have already heard some republicans begin what i believe will be the talking point today which is you can't trust michael cohen. he's had different stories, he's a known liar, look, he's

lanny davis admitted he made a mistake.s said his client would tell mueller essential to the theme of collusion which the president says is phoney. it's central to the claim, that without that, all of the bombshell report is just a bomb. this goes to the problem we have, which is tweet and verify never. as long as it's negative, negative, negative. why won't cnn say it was based on false reporting and we apologize? they fired 3 reporters at cnn because they lied about anthony scaramucci. why are they only giving the interview to the mother ship fox news, and senator cruz just gave a cnn reporter a 15-minute on camera intruchlt people make mistakes. those who are assailing everybody are loathe to admit it. i appreciate you running the president's tweets. when the president talks about fake news, he is talking about two big things. inaccurate and unfair reporting and since of omission. not just comission. why are you excluding the information from america? why aren't you telling them about the economy and the drug-free commun

and you know it was lanny spends a lot of time on mainstream media has been doing so for a long time as a crisis manager so he whipped the mainstream media into a frenzy very quickly over impeachment impeachment a pitcher we have to remember in this country and i'm not a lawyer but impeachment is only for high crimes and misdemeanors brok obama. campaign was found guilty of a larger amount three hundred thousand dollars or so election law violation these sorts of violations are certainly not high crimes the house at present is controlled by republicans even nancy pelosi is as she is little appetite for impeachment now so you know what we know so far i doubt that that indictment which is impeachment would begin prior to the election and i'm fairly certain that they would not be able to muster the sixty votes that are required sixty six votes i believe are sixty or sixty six votes are required to convict so you know this is a lot of hoopla and them an establishment press hoping that dollar drop will go away and i think donald trump is very much here to say very much energized and very

i'll ask michael cohen's lawyer, lanny davis-b the legal perl for mr. trump as his client offers to tell all to robert mueller. the president is paining his former campaign chairman turned convicted felon. is he laying groundwork to give paul manafort a get out of jail free card? and russians attacking again. facebook shuts down hundreds of sites linked to moscow as the democratic national committee uncovers a sophisticated new attempt to hack into voter information. we're following the growing threat to the 2018 midterm election. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following breaking news. president trump trying to confuse, downplay, and distract from the fact that his former lawyer implicated him in a federal crime. tonight, the president is changing his story again, claiming that he learned about michael cohen's hush money payments to women later on. his words, "later on." that contradicts the evidence and cohen's

we just heard from lanny davis. he's making these claims that con has additional information, so the big question here is what is that information, do we see cohen arrive to meet with the special counsel in washington, d.c., and where does it go from here? at this point that is unclear. but the one thing that's for sure is that cohen will be sentenced on december 12th unless there is some unusual or new development with the special counsel that would give them some pause to tell the judge that they want more time before cohen is sentenced. but at this stage cohen's deal with the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan is just with that office so he'll be sentenced in about four months, erica. >> lanny davis, michael cohen's attorneys, has made claims there is an incriminating letter in which the trump legal team acknowledges that payment of the hsh mone hush money, the directive. where does that stand? >> there were some questions about the letter. no one could seem to pinpoint what that letter was. our john berman spok

you were able to hear what lanny davis attorney for healthcare just said. given the pleas yesterday, what legal jeopardy is president trump in right now? >> legal jeopardy, not much. political jeopardy, that depends, i guess, on how thebl receives this, but the question is really what gal jeopardy lanny davis' client was in, and i would suggest to you that he was in legal jeopardy thincipally from the charges you didn't discuss ot segment and not from the charge that you did. >> woodruff: what are you referring to?>> ell, he was facing a whitman sampler holiday assortment of federal charges including tax fraud, income tax evasion and the like. those charges, i believe he had noefense to. the charge that you were discussing was this charge of making an illegal or undicasclod aign contribution and that charge i think he clearly had ao defense to ah nift his interest, i think, to plead guilty so he could implicate somebody else, ie th president, and disclose thema infon that would give him leniency on all charges. >> woodruff: focusing onthe last point, michae

but then lanny davis, hillary's creepy fixture.t's revealed that creepy davis was the anonymous creepy source who supplied creepy cnn with the creepy info that the network milked to death while lecturing us on ethics. cnn is any creepy pickle. there source for the biggest rivera's giving us the grapes. are you following this? i need to run my soul through car wash after all this. i am like the rest of the media -- unlike the rest of the media who eat this stuff up. like a drunk frat boy. they will eat a pop tart off the floor as long as there is schedule. when michael avenatti comes knocking, cnn shrieks. why? because it perpetuates a story the media can't stop feeding on. two years, they were gorging on electing trump. now they gorge on impeaching him. avenatti, cohen, davis. three square meals they devour daily. what's called reporting i was a rumor, spoon-fed from creep seeking money, power, or fame. i wish i could ignore them all. what is it that guy keeps saying? >> long week? relax with a glass. office to figure out. what do

brian: in other words, lanny davis is not getting paid so he set up a go fund me to get lanny davis paid of the president of the united states. that is unacceptable. >> keep in mind lanny davis also represents a guy who has pleaded guilty to 8 serious crimes. guilty of tax evasion, bank fraud, illegal payments, breaking campaign finance laws. he faced up to 65 years behind bars. you might ask why the plea? now he will likely get three to five. steve: it all comes down to this. people are saying the president may face some sort of legal jeopardy or peril because michael cohen told the judge that donald trump directed him to pay stormy daniels and this other woman as well through the national enquirer setup they had there. big question is whether or not those payments are in violation of campaign finance laws. alan dershowitz who knows more about the law than pert near anybody has this to say about that. listen to, this ainsley violation of election laws are regarded as kin of jay walking in the realm of things about elections. every candidate violates the election laws when they run for p

cnn lanny davis was feeding them a bill of lies. he says it's not true. it's completely backtracked about his dreams, claims related to trump-russia collusion. cnn stands by their reporting. amazing. coming up, i have a message for fake news cnn and other media reporters. they watch this show because it's more interesting. maybe they need to watch their own network. a strong new economic indicator. more evidence that the economy is blowing it through the roof. all of that plus we are tracking primary races in multiple state states. moments ago, it was announced that fox news is projecting that trump ally ron desantis will win the republican primary for florida governor and fox news is projecting that governor rick scott, who's done a great job in florida, he will win the g.o.p. senate primary and he'll be going up against bill nelson. we'll bring you the results as we have them. but first, sit tight, and buckle up, time for our jam-packed opening monologue edition. ♪ >> sean: tonight we are blowing this case about bruce ohr, fisa abuse, wide open. i've be

but if lanny davis is trying to make the case that, they paid a fine. so i don't know >> i think what he's trying to do is create a framework in which we understand and what he wants to say is this is a payment to effect the election. the technical legal crime is not a payment to effect the election. you are allowed to pay for nondisclosure, you are allowed to pay for some silence. nondisclosure agreements happen all the time. the crying here is exceeding the $2700 limit. that's the crime. to prove it against trump, and what we always have to stress is when the president is implicated in misconduct, the sitting president is not going to be indicted on the justice department guidance. so it's always about impeachment with respect to the president. and the question is, is it misconduct that the house would find? >> also to your point, michael cohen said lanny davis actually disputed that. he said that's what he played it, but he himself didn't feel that. >> that was basically agreeing with the facts of the case. i think that if donald trump wasn't preside

lanny davis is one of two attorneys representing michael cohen, mr. trump's former personal lawyer.nn davis, welcome to the "newshour". >> thank you. >> woodruff: you probably know aresident trump is saying today that he did knowbout the payments michael cohen made to two women who lege they have had affairs with president trumr buident trump saying he only knew about it later and he's also saying, as he tweeted a few months o, that this was money that was his own money, it wasn't from the campaign. how does that square with what mr. cohen is saying? >> let's talk about the law and then i'll answer your question about what mr. cohen is saying. the w says it n't matter whether personal or campaign money, you have to report the donation, and it must be by a limit of $2,400 as usual, mr. trump doesn't eith care about thefacts or what the law is, but i'm telling you what the law is. as to what mr. cohen is saying, he is simply saying that, along with the u.s. attorneyor prosec that he decided to plead guilty to these offenses. the rds chosen collaborative

lanny davis blew it, lanny davis -- -- lanny davis, he put a tweet today.stood up and testified under oathec that donald trump directed him to commit a crime. you are a dummy, lanny. when making payments to two women's for the principal purpose of influencing election. if that was a crime, then why wouldn't they be acquired for donald trump? they weren't a crime for michael cohen. they are fhimself, and not a crime for donald trump either. now move along and go back into your corner with hillary clinton. >> sean: obviously, he is a huge clinton sycophant. so there is 2016 campion, 77 days out, now becoming, as i have said for a long time, impeachment, keeping obamacare, wanting their problems back, eliminating i.c.e., openig borders, and stopping the investigation into what ii say s the biggest abuse of power. here's what i want to ask you. so we now have hillary rodham clinton obstructing, violating the espionage act, no indictment. we w have her paying for what turns out to be a foreign entity, a foreign agent, putting together russian lies that are disse

certainly lanny davis is making it sound like that's where he wants to go. >> speaking of lanny davis showed a couple of clips, one more about how he came to actually represent michael cohen. watch. >> we talked at length about what had changed his mind about donald trump to the point where he now was ready to say i'm hitting the reset button, i'm going to now tell the truth about donald trump. and that was the beginning of my decision to represent him. >> dana: i don't know what it is owe like to go out and try to find a defense lawyer, obviously lanny davis has a long history of representing lots of democrats and he's represented them well. what do you make of this idea that michael cohen had decided to go with lanny davis who is a very public figure, likes to get out there, mix it up, he likes to be on television, take his case to the public through the television. has that been beneficial to michael cohen? >> well, we will have to wait and see. i mean, it way be that lanny is driving the train more than mr. cohen is in terms of some of these decisions. ultimately, it is the client

i have lanny on. you did a great job. i'll have lanny on as well as michael avenatti and other players in this. chris, thank you. noise job. interviewed the interviews. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. here's our breaking news. only the best people. donald trump promised you he would hire only the best people, and tonight two of those people hand picked by donald trump are facing years behind bars. one of the president's closest confidants pleading guilty to eight criminal counts in new york. at almost the same time, same moment that a jury in virginia finds his former campaign chairman guilty of eight counts of financial crimes, charges so serious that all together they carry a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison. first, there's michael cohen, the president's former fixer and keeper of secrets who at one time held a position of deputy finance chair of the republican national committee pleading guilty today. stating that, quote, it's a quote, in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.

can we play lanny davis -- michael cohen's lawyer said as much.et's listen to him. >> but to answer your question, i do know that michael cohen has information that would be of interest to mr. mueller in his probe of a conspiracy to corrupt american democracy very similar to the indictment of the 12 russians. i believe mr. cohen would be able to provide information useful to the special counsel. i won't call it smoking gun information, somebody else will have to judge that. >> don lemon then asked him are you talking about the trump tower meeting with the russians and he said no, it's something else. >> well, this may be something entirely off the radar that people don't know about, lanny davis does obviously but i've always thought michael cohen is the achilles heel of donald trump because for so long he was the guy who for the trump organization solved the difficult problems in whatever way he had to and in that business world my suspicion is if you push on cohen, you're going to find that donald trump may have been involved in business transact

lanny davis or the president is probably going to call him lying lanny walking ba b. react lindsey graham, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. katie: appreciate it. >> got mixed up for a very long time. katie: a mix up or a lie. i just think it was -- i don't want to call him a liar but the story did not hold water. steve: well, it was an extraordinary story though. last week when michael cohen was announced that he had cut a deal that was gigantic and then on top of that, lanny's going out with that tantalizing prospect that he might have something to tell mueller which was not true. >> word of caution to the public a lot of people try to convict president trump don't be so fast. i have seen no evidence of collusion after two years. mueller is looking at it we will see what he says. plenty of corruption at the department of justice and the fbi should be stunning. not one democrat seems to care. reverse the roles. steve: what do you mean? >> well, okay, just imagine if the republican heart hired a foreign agent to go to russia to get dirt on hillary clinto

katie: using lanny davis as an anonymous source and lanny davis changing his story publicly but cnn not piece. steve: cnn still stands by the report aslany said i got it wrong. two parts to this story as the president has pointed out. when you start seeing anonymous sources coming from fake news systems that are dedicated to left wing ideas, you ought to ask yourself why is the source that anonymous. as i just saw on the show a few minutes ago have you all these things mueller could go after about all the weird things going on in the fbi. the way in which they got the fisa warrants, all of that stuff. none of which he wants to touch. now have you lanely davis. i have known lanny for years. lanely ilanny is a great lawyer. you now have defended hillary showing up defending a republican. lanelalanly is wrapped up not quite knowing who he told the story. brian: it matters. knew about the meeting at trump tower, that's a big story. if it didn't happen, that's a bigger story especially when you don't admit that your sources has dried up and one has admitted they weren't telling the truth. fo

lanny davis is his lawyer. that's a purposeful decision.t to send a message but lanny davis is a well-known democratic fund-raiser and a democratic lawyer. since hired lanny davis, he's taken an independent approach as they begin these negotiations. there will be a proffer and lanny is going to proffer what michael cohen knows. the reason michael cohen wants to cooperate right away once they raided their office, the best of trump but he knows the worst of trump. >> that's the other thing. combine it with omarosa manigault-newman also taping the president and has tapes. what kind of people is president trump surrounding himself? >> all the people that president trump is willing to surround himself with, michael cohen never known as the stellar attorney that everyone had to have. it was president trump who hired him and a lot of people didn't know why and didn't understand the relationship and president trump also -- wasn't the coziest relationship you have ever seen and president trump quite cruel to him in some cases and seeing the power dy

lanny davis says his client is willing to spill a whole lot more. >> mr. cohen has knowledge of certain suspects that would be of interest to the special counsel. and is happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows. not just about the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the american democracy system in the 2016 election which the trump tower meeting was all about. but also, knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not mr. trump knew ahead of time. >> lanny davis will be joining me in just a moment. so stick around. the president's involvement of a federal crime. despite having been caught, his role. despite the audio tape we have all heard, the president and cohen planning the mcdougal payment. the president says he didn't know about the hush money until after the facts. >> did you know about the payments? >> later on, i knew. later on i knew. but you have to understand ainsley, what he did, and they weren't taken out of campaign finance. they didn't come out of the campaign. they came from me and i tweeted