she is karen mcdougal. with this most unusual cover, the readers of men's journal magazine are invited to, as you see there, get karen mcdougal's workout. you know what? this is kind of a departure for this magazine. can you spot which of these kids is not like the other? we did have a warning about this was coming. when i saw the warning that it was coming, i didn't totally believe it would arrive but it has arrived. a few weeks ago, the "wall street journal" gave the warning that we should look for this. when they pointed pout karen mcdougal, a former playboy model, a woman who said she had a long running affair with president trump, the journal reported that she would be placed on of all things, men's journal for their september issue. despite what appeared to be total bewilderment by the magazine's own staff. mcdougal would be a rare solo woman on the cover of the high-end men's lifestyle magazine which typically show cases male celebrities. the male's chief ref new officer and content officer have told

despite what appeared to be total bewilderment by the magazine's own staff "miss mcdougal would be a rare solo cover on the cover of the high end men's magazine which typically showcases ben affleck, professional wrestler john cena. the chief revenue officer and content officer have told some employees they unsuccessfully appealed to david pecker, the ceo of american media which owns the magazine and who reportedly ordered the cover. they asked him to reconsider placing her on the men's journal cover. the executive said they argued the mcdougal cover would hurt the magazine's reputation making it harder to attract top talent for future covers and posessionly alienating hard one advertisers. but nevertheless, there she is. get her workout. guys. it says right there in the fine print. four days before the presidential election in 2016, "the wall street journal" pub lished the first report that this company, american media, most famous for owning the national enquirer the journal reported four days before the election that american media headed by donald trump's friend david picker the

mcdougall alleged an affair with now president trump. in michael cohen's own words today, he's described that he committed campaign finance violations in coordination and at the direction of the candidate for federal office. he did not identify president trump by name. but we know by the activities that he was working for trump. he has been trump's long time fixer. he's worked for him for ten years. as the president's personal attorney. wolf? >> this is a huge, huge deal. as you know, kara, a huge problem for the president of the united states when long time lawyer and fixer implicates him in this federal courthouse. >> reporter: it's really a stunning development, wolf. i mean, the president is not charged, of course, in this matter. the justice department guidelines preclude indicting a sitting president. michael cohen in his own words defying his long time ally. he has said he would take a bullet for president trump. and now he's publicly saying in court under oath that he committed these crimes in coordination and at the direction of

mcdougal's story was hushed up after she told-- she sold the rights to it to the "national enquirer" for $150,000. that's $20,000 more than stormy daniels. ( laughter ) karen must have spanked him with two magazines. ( laughter and applause ) now-- ( cheers ) ( piano riff ) now, trump denies the affair and any knowledge of that payment, but last night, cnn obtained one of the 12 secret trump-cohen tapes, this one from september 2016. and you can tell it's from 2016 because they're both making a lot of harambe jokes. ( laughter ) and despite his denials, the audio confirms that trump knew about the payments during the presidential campaign. donald trump lied. so now they have to reset the sign on the white house lawn. >> audience: boo! ( laughter and applause ) yeah. shocking. ( cheers ) it's shocking. got to. the tape, it starts off with trump on the phone talking about some controversy that trump's all embroiled in. >> stephen: "the charleston thing"? ( laughter ) i'm from charleston. which charleston thing are you talking about? the food and wine fest gospel brunch? the u.s.s. "yor

a new version of his story about michael cohen's hush money payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougall but it contradicts audio and videotapes of what he said before. did the president just unknowingly admit he broke did law? >>> duck and cover. the white house insists the president did nothing wrong and hasn't been charged with a crime. as president trump takes to twitter to attack michael cohen and praise paul manafort. how long can republicans up on capitol hill dodge questions about impeachment? >>> discrediting cohen. cnn learns details of the white house strategy to distance from michael cohen, a strategy on the twitter account. will attacking the man end up backfiring? >>> and prosecutors duty. in the wake of cohen's guilty plea, will federal prosecutors in new york deliver a report accusing the president of breaking the law and calling him an unindicted co-conspirator. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> we're following breaking news as the trump white house dodges hard questions about the president's former personal attorney implicating him in a crime. in a n

that's karen mcdougal.d $150,000 in a catch and kill agreement by ami, american media, david pecker, the company he runs. you know this guy by now. michael cohen pled to eight counts earlier this week, including two on campaign finance tied to the donations to karen mcdougal and stormy daniels, the porn star who got paid $130,000 11 days before the election for her silence that we know was set up through a shell company that cohen set up and was paid back by donald trump. less attention given by still a pending piece of litigation, summer zervos has sued donald trump. she said she had an affair with him in the 2000s. he's denied it. she said he defamed her in the process. there's a lawsuit in which discovery is happening now. go to the bottom, this is a trump international hotel. this is in d.c., the old post office. this ties to amollment, which is a way of saying donald trump is benefitting from the fact his name is on this hotel. foreign dignitaries stay here to cozy up to him. that case is ongoing. judg

the stormy payment exceeded the $2,700 limit on individual campaign payments and the mcdougal paymentnlawful payment by a corporation on behalf of a president. omarosa says these payments were no secret. >> we all knew that this was going to be used as a hush money kind of payment from campaign finances. >> you knew at the time? >> we knew, and -- >> so 150 to mcdougal and the 130 to stormy daniels all that money -- >> unfortunately, there are a lot of donors, a lot of people who came to this campaign expecting it would go toward a victory but instead it was going to shut these women up and that is illegal. >>> joining me now is jessica leave inson and nick akerman. thanks to both of you. jessica, donald trump tweeted this morning that its not even a crime that campaign finance violations. do you know what that means? >> i don't, because it could be a crime. so campaign finance violations can lead to civil fines and this can also lead to criminal liability and what michael cohen said in open court yesterday when he pled to violating federal election laws is that i did this at the dire

in a secretly recorded conversation, cohen and trump seem to discuss a plan to buy the rights to mcdougal's story from the "enquirer" publisher themselves. cohen saying he'd already discussed the matter with that top trump executive, allen weisselberg. >> i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding. >> so, what do you we got to pay for this, 150 -- >> yes. >> reporter: they can also be heard discussing money. >> when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay. >> cash? >> no, no, no, no, no. i got -- no, no, no. >> check. >> reporter: but after the conversation, the campaign spokeswoman denied trump knew anything about the mcdougal agreement. on air force one, the president said he knew nothing about the payment to stormy daniels either. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no, no. what else? >> reporter: the president's story has changed again and again. this is what he's saying this week. >> did you know about the payments? >> later on, i knew. later on. >> reporter: but on one

in which donald trump can be clearly heard discussing a potential payment to playboy model karen mcdougall and president trump verified that tape tweeting at the time, what kind of a lawyer would tape a client? decent question, after all. let's get to abby phillip at the white house for us. press secretary sanders insisted president trump did nothing wrong and he's not been charged with a crime and she also refused to square the president's claim he did not know about payments when they happened with that audio tape. >> reporter: that's exactly right, jake. a day after two bombshell news announcements yesterday. white house press secretary sarah sanders came to the podium and offered very little in the way of new information. she refused to answer how president trump in an interview today could imply that he didn't know about the payments made to women by his attorney before they happened when he's on tape discussing them with michael cohen. sarah sanders remaining mum about that, repeating talking points and also not talking very much about whether president trump might pardon paul manafo

. >> yeah. >> the mcdougal one.tormy daniels. >> the fundamental question is did the president know these payments were being made, and michael cohen's recording suggested he knew about the payments being made. >> he knew there were going to be payments, excuse me, didn't know there would be payments, but he knew there would be issues and michael would be handling the issues. the recording, when i listen to it, it's about david pecker and about the karen mcdougal issue. therefore, he definitely knew about that one. but uh don't necessarily think he knew about stormy daniels. the irony of it is, i don't think they should have paid off stormy daniels from a political point of view because it wouldn't have cost them a vote. if it were to come out they were negotiating, it would have been worse. >> giuliani disagrees with you. he says in october, can you imagine what would have happened if it would have come out in the middle of october. his assessment, this had a lot of political implications. >> that's their argument.

we can get the karen mcdougal case is going to flplay a role this. donald trump may be very, very nervous at this point, when you have these different people who have been in his life who are now speaking with the prosecutors and being given immunity in this case. >> sara sidner, thank you. much more on david pecker's deal with the feds and the impact this could have on trump. next, our legal analysts will weigh in. >>> also a juror in the paul manafort trial is now speaking out. revealing what happened behind the scenes during those intense deliberations including how one holdout juror prevented guilty charges on all the counts. >>> and president trump now making the case against his own impeachment. warning, quote, everybody would be poor, if he were forced out. is this governing by fear? we'll discuss. pah! that will never work. no, no, no, nah. a bulb of light?!? aha ha ha! a flying machine? impossible! a personal' computer?! ha! smart neighborhoods running on a microgrid. a stadium powered with solar. a hospital that doesn't lose power. amazing.

she said miss mcdougal's claim of an affair with donald trump is entirely not true. this is what michael cohen is contradicting. >> since then we've seen the president lose confidence in michael cohen. we've seen the changing attitude and tweeting that he has taken on since that time -- it has been report thaed sees cohen as getting weak and getting less secure and less confident in his relationship with trump. we haven't seen cohen say he'll take a bullet for trump in quite some time and that's because we've had reporting saying that cohen's concerned about his kids, cohen's concerned about money. these are things manafort has to worry about in terms of having young kids. >> i'm confused about the novartis at&t, that whole aspect of it. although they may be not done with it. >> i think for reasons i can't entirely figure out i think the whole prosecutorial team here, and you have to assume that mueller and the southern district know what the other hand is doing. they decided, the prosecutors decided they wanted to lay down a marker with cohen. i don't think they're

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absolutely, we spent a lot of time together. >> reporter: just before the election mcdougal sold hertory to the publisher of "the national enquirer." they bought it and buried it, a practice known as catch and kill. trump denied knowing about that payment too, but cohen secretly recorded a 2016 conversation where the two men seemed to discuss buying the rights to mcdougal's story from the publisher of "the enquirer." >> when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay -- >> pay cash. >> no, no, no, no. i got -- no, no, no. >> reporter: michael cohen worked for donald trump for more than a decade. >> i'll do anything to protect mr. trump. i'm obviously very loyal and very dedicated to mr. trump. >> reporter: back in april when his home, office, and hotel were raided by the fbi, president president was outraged. >> it's a disgrace. real disgraced. it's an attack on our country in a true sense, an attack on what we stand for. >> reporter: trump was confident cohen wa not turn on him but the pressure only grew. it was clear he was looking to

this is from karen mcdougal's attorney. to all media asking our firm to comment on "national inquirer" publisher edavid pecker getting immunity, here is our official statement. told you so. >>> when we come back, a new legal challenge for the president, one you can't fire his way out of. ep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. and now, all beds are on sale. save 50% on the new sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, free home delivery. ends saturday. ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun♪ ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller transitions™ light under control™ with its historical records... ...you could learn you're from ireland... ...donegal, ireland... ...and your ancestor was a fisherman. with blue eyes. just like you. begin your journey at ancestry.com. to speak with dozens of actually customers of the aarp auto insurance program from the hartford. - my cars do make me proud, so when the accident

this is from karen mcdougal's attorney. to all media asking our firm to comment on "national inquirer" publisher david pecker getting immunity, here is our official statement. told you so. >>> when we come back, a new legal challenge for the president, one you can't fire his way out of. your new brother-in-law. you like him. he's one of those guys who always smells good. his 5 o'clock shadow is always at 5 o'clock. you like him. your mom says he's done really well for himself. he has stocks and bonds your dad wants to go fishing with him. your dad doesn't even like fishing. you like your brother-in-law. but you'd like him better if you made more money than he does. don't get mad at your brother-in-law. get e*trade >>> back now with kristen powers and ryan lizza and chris cillizza. welcome back. new tonight, "the new york times" is reporting that the manhattan district attorney's office is considering criminal charges against the trump organization, two senior company officials in connection with the hush money payments to s

and the publisher who bought karen mcdougal's story. and said impeachment proceedings would reduce america to poverty. his conversation came when he had high praise for himself. >> i give myself and a-plus. i don't think any president has done what i've done. we haven't even been two years. >> and he warns what he believes would happen if he were ever impeached. >> i don't know how you can impeach somebody who's done a great job. i tell you what, if i ever got impeached, i think the market would crash, i think everybody would be very poor. >> as for factors that might lead to impeachment or expose him liability, he said buying the silence of two women in the closing days of his campaign is not against the law even though michael cohen has pled guilty to exactly that saying he broke the law. the president continued to try to distance himself from his former lawyer. didn't do big deals, did small deals. not that much. they made it sound like i didn't live without him. >> confessing to crimes and the kind of things mob bosses -- >> he made

he did connect donald trump to the payments to stormy daniels and to karen mcdougal.guest: yes, that is absolutely right. host: we're talking with ben schreckinger, his team of reporters at politico. we did hear from the president very briefly late this afternoon, saying he feels bad for paul manafort. some speculating that might lead , potentially, to a presidential pardon. guest: that is right. that has been hanging over the entire mueller probe, other investigations, trump associates like the one we have seen with michael cohen. political bombshell likely if you try to do that before the midterms, certainly if you did that in the next week or so before the government has to decide whether or not to retry mr. manafort on those other 10 counts, it is likely that it would lead to a retrial on those 10 counts. but it also appears to have informed manafort's strategy, his unwillingness to cooperate at all with others to flip on president trump. it may have been motivated in part by the prospect of a pardon, so we will see if that happens. host: ben schreckinger, we will

about mcdougal's story. was asked today if the president lied to the american public about it, she refused to answer, said it was a ridiculous question. i would think that would be the easiest question of all for her to answer. >> well, i -- i think the american public, even some of the president's strongest supporters, have got to be questioning at this point. and the idea that mr. trump also tells the truth, i think that has been refuted on almost a daily basis and when you've got live video of him saying one thing and then saying another thing, again, mr. cohen has got his own credibility problems, but in this case, in terms of the payments or the timeline, the recordings, the video of trump denies even knowledge of this person, all to me is pretty compelling that in this case, at least, i would bet on the fact that mr. trump knew and was deeply involved in this inprompt payoff. >> and just lastly, sarah sanders would not rule out a pardon for paul manafort. you said that any attempt to pardon manafort wo

when he paid off karen mcdougal and stormy daniels. so the president's argument that cohen didn't commit a crime just isn't true. how do we know? title 52 of the u.s. code. all right? now, you compare that to the obama campaign violation. it's like comparing apples to, you know, elephants. the obama matter was settled as a civil matter with the f.e.c. all right? cohen intentionally committed a crime and is going to prison. and by the way, if the president wants to compare his campaign to obama's, this is why i popped this up. trump's team also got in trouble in 2016 for improperly handling campaign contributions. about 1,100 donations were made to trump's campaign in violation of campaign finance laws including donations that exceeded the allowable limit in a year. so not only did obama not do what trump did, but yes, trump did do what obama's campaign did. now, cohen paying his peccadillos, for his peccadillos. him saying he didn't know. the real problem here is lying. so first trump said i know nothing about these women, i know nothi

. >> and s.e., if we would have all known about stormy daniels and karen mcdougal two week before the election, do you think that that would have made a difference? >> it is hard to say because we know about it now, but that is after a year plus of trump and trump surrogates sort of bashes us over on the head with these stories of fake news and witch hunts and so it is all -- i don't want to say it is normalized, none of this is normal, but it is all part of this big noise pattern that wasn't there quite yet in the months leading up to the election.

just before the election, mcdougal sold her story to the publisher of the "national enquirer." they bought it and buried it. a practice known as catch and kill. trump denied knowing about that payment, too, but cohen secretly recorded a 2016 conversation where the two men seemed to discuss buying the rights to mcdougal's story from the "enquirer" publisher. >> when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay -- >> cash? >> no, no, no, no, no. i got -- no, no, no. >> check. >> reporter: cohen worked for president trump for more than a decade. >> i will do anything to protect mr. trump. i'm obviously very loyal and very dedicated to mr. trump. >> reporter: when his home, office and hotel room were raided by the fbi, the president was outraged. >> it's a disgrace. it's frankly a real disgrace. it's an attack on our country in a true sense. it's an attack on what we all stand for. >> reporter: trump said he was confident cohen would not turn on him. but the pressure on cohen only grew. in june, it was clear he was looking to cut a deal,

stormy daniels and karen mcdougall. third potential problem for the president, remember, this development really contradicts what his new personal attorney, rudy giuliani told sean hannity back in may. remember that rudy giuliani said back then that the president made $130,000 payment the stormy daniels, but insisted that it did not break any campaign finance laws. for context, watch the sound bite. >> having something to do with paying some stormy daniels woman $130,000 which turns out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money. sorry, i am giving you a fact now that you don't know. it is not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> they followed it through the law firm? >> some went through the law firm, and the president repaid it. >> some say that had nothing to do with the president's campaig campaign. in new york city, the broke damping finance was that we need is to so get more details. the other thing to watch here is that stormy daniels attorney, michael avenatti is tweeting out that he b

trying to buy from the "national enquirer"'s publisher, more dirt than stormy daniels and karen mcdougalou all about it on "360." ...grew up the youngest of three kids... ...raised a good sport... ...and became a second-generation firefighter. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor, and he prescribed lyrica. nerve damage from diabetes cause diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is fda approved to treat this pain from moderate to even severe diabetic nerve pain. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs, and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. now i have less diabetic ner

>> he was, yeah. >> reporter: the mcdougal story never ran in the tabloid. cohen says he worked with pecker to bury it, operating at the request of the candidate for the principle purpose of influencing the election. cohen later secretly recorded a conversation with trump where they seemingly discussed buying the rights to mcdougal's story from pecker's company. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david, you know, so that -- >> yeah. >> i'm going to do that right away. >> reporter: a source tells abc news pecker told prosecutors he also worked with cohen to buy the silence of porn star stormy daniels, and that trump knew about that deal, too. the president's own story has been changing for months. this is what he told fox news this week. >> did you know about the payments? >> later on i knew. later on. >> reporter: and the president furious cohen has now turned against him. >> everything's wonderful and then they get ten years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can

we're talking about the $150,000 payment to karen mcdougal. it reads here, cohen caused corporation one to make an advance $150,000 payment to woman one, including through the promise of reimbursement so as to ensure that woman one did not publicize damaging allegations before the 2016 presidential election and there by influence the election. nick ackerman, tom is being generous saying it implicates the campaign. the president has repeatedly denied knowledge of these things and repeatedly denied while president and while in office. this implicates the president of the united states. >> there's no question about it. this makes the president of the united states an unindicted coconspirator. this is the first time this has happened since richard nixon was named as an unindicted coconspirator in the watergate trial. this is a big deal. >> i don't tend to disagree with you much, but you are actually wrong because rudy giuliani has just released a statement that counters exactly what you're saying. he's saying there is no allegation of any wrongdoi

january when he had a different story regarding payments to stormy daniels and to ami for karen mcdougal, why is he now credible? >> i think michael cohen is not getting anything for his admission. he's pleaded guilty without an agreement so he's acknowledged that. he also has a tape recording. we listened to it, of a conversation he had with the president in which they discussed the payments. the president said he didn't know about them, he didn't provide the money. we know there's actually evidence to corroborate mr. cohen's story, and he doesn't really have incentive to makeup a story to land him in jail, so i think we need to examine the facts, allow mr. mueller to finish his investigation and present his report to congress, and then we need to take appropriate action. what we need to hear from republican colleagues is some commitment to the rule of law. these are serious offenses committed against the united states. these are serious convictions of trump's inner circle. and they ought to be expressing disappointment and concern rather than trying to act like their responsibility is

trump was also involved in the karen mcdougal arrangement. the david you're going to hear is likely david picker of the national enquirer's parent company. allen is the chief financial officer. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david. so that i'm going to do that right away. i have come up -- i have spoken to allen about how to set the whole thing up with funding. yes. and it's all the stuff, all the stuff. because you never know where that company, what he's going to be. >> if he gets hit by a truck. >> correct, so i'm all over that. i spoke to allen about it. when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay. >> cash? >> no, no. i got -- no, no, no. >> when the recording first hit, many observers remarked it kind of sounded like a pair of crooks conspiring. today in court, michael cohen told the judge under oath that's basically just what it was. if more on the cohen plea deal, i want to go to shimon who is reading through the details of the

he bought the silence of stormy daniels and karen mcdougal right before the election. as for it not be a crime, perhaps mr. cohen should tell that to the judge at his sentencing. beyond this legal claim which we'll discuss shortly with jeff toobin and allen dershowitz, he said that those payments were lawful. here's what he said to fox. >> did you know about the payment? >> later on i knew. later on. but, you have to understand, what he did and they weren't taking out of campaign finance. that is a much bigger thing. did they come out of the campaign. they didn't. they came from me. i tweeted about it. i don't know if you know, but i tweeted about the payments. but they didn't come out of campaign. in fact, my first question when i heard about it was did they come out of the campaign because that could be a little dicey. and they didn't come out of the campaign. and that's big. but they weren't -- that's not a -- 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 vi

he was asked about killing stories and the hush money payment made to karen mcdougal who claims to have an affair with thees ident. and investigators are talking with pecker about the involvement of the president in that payment and the involvement of michael cohen in that payment. we had 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. t

karen mcdougal is speaking out. she filed a suit against ami, in that tweet, her lawyer says, i told you so. >> thank you very much. >>> joining us now is michael avenatti, thank you so much for joining us. what do you say, what does it say to you that the government was willing to grant immunity to david pecker? >> well, it says that the president is no a lot of trouble, wolf. the timing of all this grant, immunity is very important and let me tell you why. if the immunity was granted early on in the invasiestigatio with using the testimony to get the michael cohen, that's one thing. if the immunity is granted later in the investigation when they already believed that they had michael cohen, that's an entirely different thing. why do i say what? because if they granted the immunity that mr. pecker knowing that they already had michael cohen's sewn sewn up as it rel convictions, that'll tell me that the government is looking beyond michael cohen to another party to use mr. pecker's system against and the only other

if so, then it's like the daniels and mcdougal deal. it's part of the bigger picture of let's pay these folks money which will benefit the campaign and if you are going to do that, even though the president himself is not limited in how much he can spend, you have to report it. you have to track that money and clearly that was not done here. >> page, i thank you for your contribution. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> coming up, the ugly start to the florida governor's race. the trump-backed candidate under fire for saying voters would, quote, monkey this up if they elected the first african-american opponent. that's coming up. >>> plus, the arizona memorial services for senator john mccain set to begin moments from now. stay with us. it's time for the 'biggest sale of the year' on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. and now, all beds are on sale. it's the last chance to save 50% on the new sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. ends labor day. happy

clear that the wommn are pornr bbrn star -- are star stormy daniels and former playboy model karen mcdougalcohen's plea deal raises the possibility he will provide other information to mueller. cooperation from another foomer truck they'd like -- trump aid michael flynn. he pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about rrssian official ccntact for >> good to see you, doug. breake had such a story before, is this likely to have an impact on donald trump? >> donald trump has been tefloo until now. pe fights back, deeies, dodges, he will never take the blame himself. to deflect blame, if not onto democrats onto opponentt who criticize them, most usually via he has yet to tweet on this turn oo events. this was a bad day for donald trump. even by the standards of a presidency that has seen a lot of scandals and crises. his former lawyer and former campaign manager coming under convictions of guill, crimes that directly implicate donall trump in one case because it was done at his whether it will affectthim is another question. he has had that firewall of republicans behind him not anding out of fear

as devices and a dozen audio recordings including one discussing payment to a playboy model karen mcdougal who also claims she had an affair with trump a decade ago and it's not clear from the tape of trump suggested paying in cash or by check the president's current legal advisers rudy giuliani has gone from describing cohen as an honest honorable man to slamming him. land rights activists has been.

karen mcdougall, as well. there's a pattern of corporations created to pay off and silence around the time of the actual election and going forward you think about this. bank and tax fraud charges are very, very big charges. big felony cases to make. just ask paul manafort about that. to add on the campaign finance violations whether there's no cooperation agreement available for michael cohen suggests that perhaps he is aware that he is alone and he is retaliating against the president of the united states to include that. they would still need to have a basis upon which toen collude that as a charge they could prove but we shouldn't take it lightly that he made a decision to plead guilty to two things that the president of the united states has already commented on, on camera. >> amanda, your take on all of this? >> we have to absorb the magnitude of the situation for anyone in the white house. paul manafort who represented the head of the campaign is awaiting a verdict. michael cohen who is the biggest play

trump was also involved in the karen mcdougal arrangement, the david you'll hear in this tape is david pecker of ami. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that information regarding our friend david. so that i'm going to do that right away. i've spoken to allen about how to set the whole thing up with -- >> so what are we going to do? >> yes. and it's all the stuff, all the stuff. because you don't know what he's going to do. correct. so i'm all over that. and i spoke to allen about it. when it comes time for the financing which will be -- >> what financing? >> well, i have to pay you. >> pay the cash? >> no. no. no. >> how are you? >> when the recording first hit, many observers rashsaid it soun like a couple of crooks conspiring. that's just what it was. for more on the cohen plea deal, i want to go to our reporter who is still reading through the details of the extraordinary charging documents. the references to president trump all over this document, correct? >> there are. and honestly, i think we're all surprised by the way in which prosecuto prosecutors here

host: karen mcdougal. guest: paying both? host: money for karen mcdougal's story. guest: i do not believe either of them but i could be wrong. it doesn't matter. i think one of the things i am not wild about the president for , the only political thing, not building the wall but i am from connecticut and we do not think it is good to brag about your wealth. if you do and hang around with reality tv stars and playboy bunnies, you will probably get a lot of nuisance lawsuits. --o not think karen mcdougal she said she had an affair for one year but not any evidence? i can date a boy for a week and give you five pieces of evidence. you have no cufflinks? no answering machine message? the other one claims a one-time role in the sack and overlaying all of that, remember that donald trump is a germ of oh -- german phobic -- has made a big mistake. me -- a hero of the college owns case -- college jonesase was -- paula case, she let people latch onto her and got her to do a playboy spread to bring her down. that is what lanny davis is doing with cohen and now both sides hat

this time to former playboy model karen mcdougal. >> when it comes time for the financing, which will-- >> what financing? >> i have to pay -- >> cash. >> no, no, no. >> on august 21st, cohen officially flipped on his former boss and plead guilty to campaign finance charges stemming from those payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdoug ap. he also told the federal judge the mcdougal payment was for the principal purpose of influencing the election. we should note that president trump denies these affairs with these two women. joining us now, utah congressman chris stewart, a republican. a key member of the house intelligence committee. very nice of you, congressman, to join us today. so many of your republican colleagues are sort of run away from tv cameras right now. but thanks so much for joining us. i want to get your reaction clearly to michael cohen, the president's longtime personal attorney and fixer. what he told this federal court yesterday about the president's direct coordination, direction in these payoffs to these two women. >> well, wolf, it's a mess. and, look, i hones

pecker gave prosecutors details on the payments made by michael cohen to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. payments michael cohen says were directed and coordinated by the then-presidential candidate donald trump. today the president talked about cohen's deal. listen to this. >> it's called flipping, and it almost ought to be illegal. you get ten years in jail, but if you say bad things about somebody, in other words make up stories if you don't know, they just make up lies. alan dershowitz stayed composed. i've seen it many times. they go from ten years to a national hero. they have a statue erected in their honor. it's not a fair thing. but that's why he did it. he made a very good deal. >> all right. let's immediately go to our white house correspondent kaitlan collins at the white house. this is a big deal that a long-time friend and associate of the president of the united states, david pecker of american media, cooperating with federal prosecutors in exchange for immunity. what are you hearing of these latest attacks and the revelations about david pecker's role in helping michael c

in the case he agrees to reimburse the "national enquirer" to the payment made to mcdougall.ordination with the chairman of the coronation david packer and one or more officials from the campaign. it's the first indication from the plea agreement, a lot of developments today. let's focus on the cohen part. >> i think we'll talk about both cases. what we are seeing here is his personal fixer, he worked closely for many years about how these payments that we've been reporting on and talking about. back in april, i was on air force one with the president and asked him about if he knew about the 130,000 payment to stormy daniels. at the time he said he didn't know anything about it. the president isn't named in the court paperwork. but he's named by lanny davis and certainly it is pretty clear that this is who he is spoken about. >> bret: the inner circle for more than a decade, where potentially does this go? >> i think you see the outlines of the coming legal debate and it all centers around the legality of this payment. we ran through the tape with john edwards some years ago

so michael cohen is referring there to paying for the rights to karen mcdougal's story. and there's more. this is a quote. "on or about october of 2016, in coordination with and at the direction of the same candidate, i arranged to make a payment to a second individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign to keep the individual from disclosing the information." that's a reference to the hush money payment to stormy daniels. and if that is not clear enough, there's this. the judge asking, "mr. cohen, when you took all of these acts that you described, did you know that what you were doing was wrong and illegal?" cohen answering, "yes, your honor." and as to the president's claim he only knew about the payments later on, his own words prove that that's a lie. listen to trump and michael cohen discussing payment to silence karen mcdougal. >> correct. so i'm all over that. and i spoke to allan about it. when it comes time to the financing which will be -- >> listen, what financing? >> we'll have to pay -- >> pay with cash. >> no, no, no

has been a powerful ally to trump and facilitated a hush money payment to playboy playmate karen mcdougal has corroborated cohen's account of the payment. and as the walls appear to be closing in, the president is engaged in an all-out push to save himself and his presidency. he gave his first major interview since two of his close associates became convicted felons. speaking of fox news, trump unloaded a laundry list of grievances and threats. he suggested he could pardon paul manafort. >> are you considering pardoning paul manafort? >> i have great respect for what he has done in terms of what he has gone through. i would say what he did, some of the charges they threw against him, every consultant, every lobbyist in washington probably does. >> he said the practice of flipping under legal pressure should be illegal. >> i have had many friends involved in this stuff. it's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal. >> old regrets about hiring attorney general jeff sessions who, by the way, is at the white house right now. >> jeff sessions recused himself, which he shouldn't have

cohen under oath pleaded guilty to, among other things, paying a stormy daniels and karen mcdougal and he said he did this under the direction of president trump. >> the president has stated many times that he has done nothing wrong and there are no charges against him. we have commented on this extensively. >> nine -- why not report [indiscernible] >> as a president has stated on numerous occasions, he did nothing wrong, there are no charges against him. just because michael cohen made a plea deal does not mean he is implicated on anything. the president in this matter has done nothing wrong and there are no charges against him area -- him. >> the president said to fox news that this could not the an illegal campaign contribution, he put more than $60 million of his own money into the campaign. how do you draw the line between what was a campaign contribution and what might have been a payment to someone for other purposes? >> i will not get to the back-and-forth of the legal part of this, i would refer you to the president outside counsel. aat the president has stated number of times

of "the national enquirer," the same company that allegedly paid off former playboy model karen mcdougal, in order to keep her allegations of an affair with the president from being published. >> cnn's ryan nobles is at the white house. so, the former doorman says he wasn't free to speak until now. what do we know, ryan? and good morning. >> reporter: good morning, christi and victor. from the white house, and perhaps the details behind this doorman's alleged knowledge of an affair between the president and an unknown woman isn't as important as what it means for the ongoing problems the president faces with the former associates with which he once had a tight relationship. according to the report, the doorman, dino sajudin, had a deal with ami, the parent company of "the national enquirer," struck back in 2015, and that deal basically said that he was not allowed to tell his story about what he thinks he knows about this affair which may have led to a child born out of wedlock that the president would be the father of it. he's remained quiet about this for some time but now said he's be

and reimbursed a tabloid for burying a story about karen mcdougal, claiming an affair with presidentmp, saying on or about the summer of 2016 in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federals of on, i and the ceo of a media company at the request of the candidate worked together to keep an individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign from publicly disclosing this information. >> mr. cohen, disregarded that training, disregarded that tradition, and decided that he was above the law and for that he is going to pay a very, very serious price. >> cohen's lawyer says yes, his client lied for years, claims he hit the reset button when he saw the president's news conference with russia's leader. >> one person is left who denies his own intelligence community, who stood publicly at helsinki, a major turning point for michael cohen. and sided with vladimir putin over his own intelligence community. so there have been a number of incidents that i believe have been influential on mr. cohen in deciding. >> nothing in the plea deal requires