everybody on my team of that moment when michael cohen was testifying, talking about the way donald trump operates. he doesn't say anything in writing. he doesn't send text messages or emails. he doesn't necessarily say i want you to do this directly, but everyone knows what he means. here is michael cohen from about a year ago now with justin amash. >>. >> you suggested that the president sometimes communicates his wishes indirectly. for example, you said, quote, mr. trump did not directly tell me to lie to congress. that's not how he operates, end quote. can you explain how he does this? >> sure. it would be no different if i said that's the nicest looking tie i've ever seen. isn't it? what are you going to do? are you going to fight with him? the answer is no. the answer is yes, it's the nicest looking tie i've ever seen. he doesn't give you questions or orders. he speaks in a code, and i understand the code, because i've been around him for a decade. >> it was from february 27th.

appreciate t when we come back, michael cohen -- yes, that michael cohen, the fixer, is reportedly cooperatingnhattan district attorney and he is a central figure in an investigation that is closing in on donald trump's personal tax returns, his corporate tax returns and possibly other business practices. former federal prosecutor will join us next. i have moderate to severe pnow, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or

appreciate t when we come back, michael cohen -- yes, that michael cohen, the fixer, is reportedly cooperatings a central figure in an investigation that is closing in on donald trump's personal tax returns, his corporate tax returns and possibly other business practices. former federal prosecutor will join us next. prosecutor will join us next saturdays happen. pain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. performance comes in lots of flavors. ♪ (dramatic orchestra) there's the amped-up, over-tuned, feeding-frenzy-of sheet-metal-kind. and then there's performance that just leaves you feeling better as a result. that's the kind lincoln's about. ♪ bleech! aww! awww! ♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft for the win win. you wanna see something thatamazing?ing. go to hilton instead of a travel site and you'll experience a whole new range of emotions like... the relaxing feeling of knowing you're getting the best price. these'll work. the utter delight of free wi-fi... . oh man this is the best part. isn't that you

michael cohen testified in front of congress. he took an oath to tell the truth.ng the truth in that instance, then what heather reported is exactly what michael cohen was talking about. if i'm cyrus vance, the manhattan d.a., i am subpoenaing these records tomorrow. i want to take depositions. i want to take -- get these records in my office and figure out what the heck's going on here. you can't have two sets of books. if it's true, it's clearly fraudulent. >> well, having two sets of books, you hear about that in the movies, right, when people are doing -- >> that's what michael cohen was talking about, and that's clearly what heather is reporting. >> you said the city is looking into the antenna issue because that's supposed to be income off of that. cnn legal analyst anne milgram told you that prosecutors would have a lot of questions about what you found. do you have any sense that this is being looked at by investigators? >> you know, it's so early. i mean we just published the story today, and i don't know honestly. there are -- there have been a lot of ef

they did it with michael cohen.tein and these are cases that they know the boss doesn't like and they're making it clear the presence is intact. secondly, if they read an indictment and it is an ongoing conspiracy. four people were named in the indictment and it is a very strong and very brief indictment. it's clearly an ongoing and potential in the indictment. they say the conspiracy is continuing and as they said in the press conference, they're still investigating. >> so, donald, look, this comes as "the washington post" is reporting at least four national security officials and i don't know if you heard the reporter and we should know that at least, with emphasis on at least raised alarms about what was happening with ukraine specifically about digging up dirt on the bidens and the debunked conspiracy theory on their role in the election and that they were doing so before the call. and when they heard the call within hours it got moved to the super secret server. it certainly screams at this point that there wer

president, how much of your legal work was handled by michael cohen? >> well, as a percentage of my overall legal work, a tiny, tiny little fraction. but michael would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me like with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented me. and, you know, from what i see, he did absolutely nothing wrong. >> well, we'll see how much longer giuliani stays on as trump's attorney. this is just one element, one element in a bad day, in a bad week. a very bad day and a very bad week for president trump as the impeachment inquiry picks up steam. center stage on capitol hill today, marie yovanovitch, the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, who was removed from that post earlier this year by trump, testifying behind closed doors. "the new york times" got a copy of her statement to congress. in her statement, she told investigators this. i do not know mr. giuliani's motives for attacking me. but individuals who had been named in the press as contacts of mr. giuliani may well have believed that their personal finan

cohen would flip on trump. saying he warned president trump michael will never stand up for you. goldberg represented trump for 15 years, a former prosecutor himself. he knew the system and cohen. and right here on "the beat" he explained his view of that lawyer. >> if you spend five minutes with michael cohen, you know that he's not strong, he's weak. that he would cave in with respect to any wrongdoing. >> cave in. well, cohen did cooperate with the feds. tonight guiliani has been insisting he hasn't heard from prosecutors and this week he's been defying a subpoena from congress. several trump lawyers find themselves not only defending their client but sometimes defending themselves. will guiliani follow the cohen path or will he ultimately beat any potential case and emerge triumphant? joining me now is former federal prosecutor and attorney for trump for over a decade, jay goldberg. he's the author of "the courtroom is my theater" and he knows these issues well. i'm also joined by msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. thanks to both of you for being here. >> thanks for having us

rudy giuliani and michael cohen. rudy giuliani and mike flynn.n there is rudy giuliani and don mcgahn. don mcgahn ultimately cooperated with the mueller probe, when he had to face uncomfortable choices sort of chose the country, tried to walk that line and still work for the president. rudy giuliani seems to make different choices. >> yeah, decidedly and defiantly different choices, and as you said, nicolle, it seems to me that the main -- the main implication of what you're saying, which strikes me as obviously true, is that michael cohen is in jail and paul manafort is in jail and don mcgahn is not in jail, and if you had to ask me which side of the line rudy giuliani's in danger of being, that's another way in which not just his attitude and his temperament but i think that as this thing expands and deepens, simultaneously, i think the questions surrounding rudy giuliani's criminal exposure are going to become central to this investigation and i'm not predicting where that will end. i'm not saying he will end up in the same place as paul manaf

he is michael cohen 2.0. before he had rudy giuliani trump and michael cohen and michael cohen was the president's fixer and bag man and took care of hush money payments and real estate deals and took care of keeping things out of the newspaper and now, well, michael cohen is in prison. he's not like writing briefs going before a court. the president has new lawyers to do that. the lawyers take care of that. rudy giuliani is just a fixer with a law degree, and he has apparently been tasked with a pretty clear mission by the president which is to manufacture dirt on my political enemies so that i can get re-elected. instead of running a foreign policy for the people of the country that represents our collective interests, donald trump and rudy giuliani are running and have been running a shadow foreign policy that has nothing to do with the interests of the united states. i mean, that is basically what donald trump told the president of ukraine right there clear as day in the white house call notes they wrote.

is rudy going to be the new michael cohen?rump seeming to throw him under the bus much like he did to michael cohen who now sits in prison. comes as rudy appears more and more exposed in a federal investigation that's already swept up two of his top fixers in ukraine. "the washington post" reporting, quote, a person familiar with the investigation said federal agents are skrcrutinizing dealings. as the fbi examine the pa ir's finances. rudy giuliani for his part not backing down. and he is standing by his mech men. giuliani said he had no reason to believe he was under investigation by the fbi and said, quote, i certainly am not going to disavow them. i have no reason to doubt them. everything i've known about them says they would not commit a crime. the table's back. i mean, so, okay. sdny didn't think so. >> obviously if rudy is their principal lawyer, he's not a very good one because they got arrested going from the first-class lounge to their plane at dulles yesterday. i think there are many questions here. number one is w

so i don't -- you know, with the comparison with michael cohen, i don't think it's that clear cut. so you know, i think president trump has you know, this week we did see him try to distance himself a little from giuliani. however, this recent golf outing does raise some eyebrows. >> sure does. tharc thar thanks for the chat. >>> conservative lawyers urging democrat to keep the impeachment process going. i'll talk to one of the lawyers who signed that letter next. f t who signed that letter next. gre. you just saved a bunch of money by switching your boat insurance to geico. it was easy. folks, can it get any better than this? is that what i think it is? that is an armada of tiny sushi boats. awesome! i forgot to pack lunch. you had one job... chopsticks wasabi and soy! comin' in a little hot. it only gets better when you switch and save with geico. ♪ work so hard ♪ give it everything you got it only gets better ♪ strength of a lioness ♪ tough as a knot ♪ rocking the stage ♪ and we never gonna stop ♪ all strength, no sweat. ♪ just in case you forgot ♪ all strength. ♪ no sweat secre

. >> then why did michael cohen make it if -- >> you have to ask michael cohen. is my attorney, and you'll have to ask michael. i don't know how he knows these people. >> they're his clients. >> what? >> they're his clients. >> he's got a lot of clients. i haven't spoken to rudy about it. i don't know. i don't know those gentlemen. that was possible i have a picture with them because i have a picture with everybody. i don't know them. i don't know about them. i don't know what they do. but i don't know. maybe they were clients of rudy. you'd have to ask rudy. >> i don't know, but rudy does. rudy sure knows him and i'm not sure how much i know rudy giuliani anymore it seemed to be what the president was saying. >> this is what he did with michael cohen. this is what he does. oh, michael cohen is a great guy until he's a liar and the worst guy in the world and we may see the same development with rudy. the president should be worried to the extent that southern district of new york is going to go after the potential crimes in this ukrainian scandal and maybe ensnar

before he had rudy giuliani, trump and michael cohen, and michael cohen was the hush man, the bag man, took care of real estate deals and keeping things out of the newspaper. now michael cohen is in prison so he's got rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani, he's not really his attorney in any real sense. he's not writing legal briefs that are going before courts. the president has real lawyers to do that. believe me. he's in court a lot. the lawyers take care of that. rudy giuliani is just a fixer with a law degree. and he's apparently been tasked with a clear mission by the president which is to manufacture dirt on my political enemy so i can get reelected. instead of running a foreign policy for the people of the country that represents our collective interest, donald trump and rudy giuliani are running and have been running a shadow foreign policy that has nothing to do with the interest of the united states. i mean, that is basically what donald trump told the president of ukraine. right there. clear as day in the white house call notes they released. after he said i would like you to do us

he did stair down the michael cohen investigation. he did go through the mueller investigation and he came out of those intact. >> can you just speak to what you've reported about the intersections of this firing and smearing of the reputation of marie yovanovitch? you reported on an effort by ambassadors volker and sondland to get zelensky to commit to investigating the bidens and an undercurrent in all of the machination. was either weakening, solelying the reputation of or ultimately removing marie yovanovitch. why? >> well, giuliani sort of is the thing that connects all of this. he believed that she was not doing enough to, quote/unquote, quite corruption. but in his mind, that was doing the investigations related to hunter biden and related to the 2016 election. this is part of a larger effort by him to have her ousted and ultimately something that he succeeded in. and if you look at all of these strands, giuliani is the thing that runs through them all. in terms of the statement that the american diplomats tried to get the ukra

we now know is public and that these are the same guys that were in charge of the case against michael cohen. the president's former personal attorney. you see now that not only is the current, the president's current personal attorney involved in this case obviously, but these are the same people who did the mikan cohen case and we all know how that turned out. >> where is he? that's right. >> reporter: in prison. >> in prison. evan perez, thank you very much. let's get smart analysis with these brilliant ladies, former fbi special agent and now cnn legal anatural l anatural sift gangel back with us today. and starting with you just with your legal hat on, the fact that this investigation is focusing on whether this foreign -- influence, was trying to take advantage of giuliani's business ties and perhaps influence things over here, how big is that? >> that's very big. because it means that whether or not rudy giuliani may have committed a crime, the fbi believes that he may pose a national security threat to the united states. >> he may pose a national security threat -- >> to the united s

the frenzy surrounding the hinging on the word of his former attorney, michael cohen. >> if this michael cohen when evidence stands up, if michael cohen does stand up to this, this is a potentially huge, potentially something that could prove the president colluded, and that is an impeachable offense. >> laura: girl, max headroom! who could forget the goofballs predicting a story peddled by a porn star could topple trump? >> if it seems to be credible, that could bring down this presidency. >> >> laura: oh, donnie. throughout all of it, the media's massive heart pounding buildup of the mueller probe. >> we are seeing the collusion piece of this piece by piece starting to be built out. >> the president looks like somebody who is increasingly desperate. >> laura: the crisis cliches never stopped. >> it feels like we are finally at a tipping point. the walls are closing in on president trump. >> laura: closing in! but always wrong, never in doubt. and never a correction or a mea culpa. their goal from day one is to drive trump out of office, the facts be damned. the last 48 hours, the get t

. >> it's the same response, we've seen it with michael cohen.re starting to even see it in some ways with giuliani. >> you think he's pulling back? >> 100%. and that's why the video is so important. it happens. the distancing game, i hardly know this guy. you throw that video up for a jury -- >> when he says, well, i hope rudy giuliani doesn't get indicted. there's so much we still don't know that is part of this environment. 100%, there are things -- there are intercepts, there's all kinds of work that the fbi has been doing on this. the fact they weren't ready to bring this case, they had to rush this indictment through, because the men were getting on the plane, it's a lot here. >> thank you, guys. >> thank you. >>> will the president be judged by the company he keeps? by the company he keeps? i'll ask leading them to discover: we're woven together by the moments we share. everything you need, all in one place. expedia. pain happens. saturdays happen. aleve it. aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day

he first indicated that all of those questions should be directed to michael cohen.it became clear that the president's narrative was shifting he distanced himself from cohen, especially as cohen began to cooperate with investigators. the difference, of course, here is while with the stormy daniels case, the prosecutors were relying on cohen's testimony on conversations he had privately with the president. with respect to rudy giuliani, there is a transcript of a summary of a call in which the president is invoking rudy giuliani himself and offering his assistance in his capacity as the president's personal attorney if they open up an investigation into joe biden and his son. so it's difficult for the president to pretend he acting volition. >> how much trouble potentially is rudy giuliani in right now? >> there's been a lot of reports of scrutiny of giuliani's finances. of course his long-time associates the two people indicted yesterday doesn't help matters. and clearly there's an indication this investigation, they said yesterday it's ongoing. they're going to tal

when michael cohen was first in trouble with things that michael cohen did for him it became first he defended him, then he said he's my attorney on a few things. oh, he's an attorney who sort of worked for me briefly and then he became a rat. you feel that pattern is developing. every elected republican on capitol hill is hoping rudy becomes the fall guy. some see it as the most expedient way out of this political mess the republican party finds itself in. throw rudy under the bus, make him take the fall and move on. >> we'll keep watching. as always, chuck, thanks so much. >> for sure. >> last week was a fiery "meet the press." look forward to sunday for sure. chuck will have exclusive interviews with former defense secretary general james mattis, represent rand paul and tune in to "meet the press" at 8:00 a.m. we hope you stick here. larry will be back in 40 minutes for our weekly political segment and look at the whistle-blower allegation, multiple allegations that president trump pressured ucrepe's president to pursue claims about joe biden and his son. your job never ends, larry

. >> ask michael cohen, asha, how it goes when it's donald trump or you who is going to wind up paying michael cohen made hs mistakes but the fact that the president is not punished for any of the stuff that michael cohen did and he's sitting in jail right now, rudy giuliani has got to be worried. >> rudy giuliani should be very worried about his own personal liability. up kno you know, he does not have the kind of immunities and protections that the president enjoys. but as elliott -- >> nor the support. >> exactly. >> remember, politicians will decide the president's fate. >> that's right. but going back to the president's conduct, which is really at issue because as elliott pointed out, rudy giuliani was acting in service of the president. so whatever he did was doing it for the president's benefit. and i'll just point out that not only has every witness who has come forward so far appeared to corroborate both the whistle-blower complaint and each other, i have not yet seen any exculpatory evidence or information coming out in any of the reporting from these witnesses that would mit

but i'm telling you, that sort of issue is going to be facing michael cohen with a book publisher.hing you can, saying how great he was here, but now you're saying he's the worst thing in the world. that is going to be a problem. but what we do know in these private conversations is at the top of his list, when he gets out in three years, he wants to write the book. for all i know he's writing it now. i think he needs to be present and out of jail to actually pitch it, to be honest with you. i'm sure being a lawyer, he could do it but this is as much as i know. liz: thank you very much. while charlie was talking, we just hit market session highs. 324 points. 327 now. it's like a casino, isn't it? speaking of which, you are about to meet the man who looked at the markets and said i'm going to trade them like a casino and guess what? he started life as a blind, dyslexic kind of poor kid from brooklyn who went on to become one of the top wizards of wall street. larry hite, the founder of mint investment, is here exclusively to share his story of overcoming all the odd to run a legenda

time to, you know, roll the bus on over him, and michael cohen flipped. i don't know that donald trump will ever roll the bus right over giuliani, but it seemed on friday he was trying to create some distance and you're right to note it was a full embrace over the weekend, which to me suggests the president still sees some usefulness in this dealing with this ukraine affair, and the impeachment inquiry with rudy giuliani still very much in his orbit. >> the president did have lunch on saturday course out in suburban virginia here in washington. everybody stand by. there's a lot more we need to cover on all of the breaking news. we will right after this. drive . but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? it also has the highest growth in manufacturing jobs in the us. it's a competition

and all roads lead back to rudy and for president trump he could take the michael cohen route and saye did it without me but these ambassadors particularly sondland will know how closely president trump was working with rudy giuliani on ambassador yovanovitch being recalled to washington and the security system. >> and we reported last week that the president had a meeting with the energy secretary, with sondland, with volker and said to them, they had just come back from the inauguration and pumped about how great zelensky would be and the president said well i'm not so sure, you have to talk to rudy. so rudy giuliani is key here. >> jeffrey, i want you -- >> let me get jeffrey to weigh in on that point. go ahead, jeffrey. >> it is just that he is a witness now in many different parts of this investigation. and one of the bedroom principles of being a lawyer is that you can't be both a lawyer and a witness and he's i think will have to decide or the president may decide for him that it is time for him to be a witness. not to be a lawyer. but it is an untenable situation to be both. >

unlike the storm ji daniels payment where they were saying this is michael cohen's thing. the president's on this call with the president of ukraine. it's hard to distract him from this. there is a feeling inside the white house and we've all lived through three years of people both inside the building and outside saying my goodness, it feels like it's unraveling or feels crazy there. i'm hearing that a lot this week. i don't know that that's dispositive about anything. this white house has proven fairly durable at withstanding hurricanes that are occurring within. so we'll see what happens in the next week. but i just don't understand yesterday which seemed at first to be trying to distract from gorgon sondland's testimony, replacing it with other scandals? i don't understand what they thought they were going. >> that was an interesting strategy to pivot to the doral emoluments clause came out. of course that lit people's hair on fire. >> even if you take out the emoluments clause issue, it's just a pure conflict of interest. i don't remember another time where you have h

. >> a about michael cohen at the outset, a good lawyer, ethical guy. >> all fun and games until. >> he's a skrocoundrel. >> would it be to potentially threaten them with jail time if we're looking at criminal charges and use that as a way to get them to talk about the extent to which rudy giuliani was or was not involved. >> respect to if the government has an interest in giuliani, something we don't know, then these guys who have worked with him on this matter, that they're under indictment for, and with the ukraine policy more broadly would be their primary source of information. >> let's talk about how this all gets back to president trump, right, because it's always like two or three degrees of separation with president trump, and i like to think that president trump prizes loyalty, specifically when you're loyal to him, but not necessarily the other way around. this is what the president said yesterday on the south lawn about the situation with rudy giuliani. take a very close listen to how he frames this. >> i don't know those gentlemen. now, it's possible i have a picture wit

and dirty, donald trump, you know, said, in i have no knowledge of what is going on, michael cohen,that, that is not really my lawyer. giuliani has a serious problem right now. this is a continuing investigation, according to the southern district of new york, dara, and because of that, i would be exceptionally nervous that donald trump is now appearing to cutting ties with rudy giuliani, if i was giuliani himself, and giuliani also has ties to victoria tendin and joe degenava who rez donald trump and there is a big tentacle kind of web of deceit that is going on here, but the bottom line is this, giuliani is looking at federal offenses and if parnas and fruman start talking, who knows whether or not giuliani will ultimately be indicted by the feds. >> and melissa, giuliani is not named in the indictment and he told msnbc news that he is unaware of the investigation and the activity, and wouldn't be aware if he was the subject of an investigation at this point? >> she be aware by now. the fact that his partners were arrested at dulles wednesday hours after having lunch with him shou

sent michael cohen, formerly a longtime trump loyalist to prison.ended up turning on the president in a very dramatic, very public fashion, and michael cohen and rudy giuliani ended up becoming very public enemies and trading words with each other as that whole legal saga went on. so it's a bit of a -- i don't even know if the term is shakespeareian here. maybe more soap opera, that giuliani is the one in the hot seat and the one who has the feds bearing down on him in one way or the other. >> put it all together. what do you make of the recent reporting around the doj moving the criminal investigation potentially looking at rudy giuliani. is this protective in some way? if you were to think of the attorney general not necessarily taking on his legal ah hat but his political hat instead? >> i'm not sure about that. if you think you fu look at the charges against the two giuliani associates, it's clear part of what they're being charged for is their effort to influence u.s. politics related to ukraine, which is also something that rudy giuliani was d

vance's office wanted to take a look at the same contact that landed michael cohen in jail, namely theoff to stormy daniels in the days of the 2016 campaign that was not treated as a campaign finance violation and landed michael cohen in jail. a legit -- and the president was deemed to be a participant. the da's office leaves they have ategitimate reason to look the books. they are taking advantage of a books and record law that maintains companies that are based in new york have to keep accurate books and records and not fudge numbers to hide illicit activity. now they have evidence of the illicit activity and now they can go after the term organization for hiding that. vonnie: we know the president has a reprieve for the moment until the next set of arguments is considered, but the fact that the president and his team lost the fight early this morning before the appeal -- was that a surprise? be a there was supposed to decision. we have been waiting for this day for a month. the complete loss of the president's argument at this federal court was not a total surprise. au always hope t

ahead of michael cohen's congressional testimony. remember that? the threat that if cohen testified, this congressman would tell michael cohen's family about all his supposed girlfriends. so he better not testify if he knows what's good for him. right? i mean, this was a weird crew, at least the guys right up front there at the microphones, but it also included the number two republican in congress, steve scalise. and it wasn't just a little clown car of these guys. it was dozens of them. and as "bloomberg news" was first to report today, what these guys did today, physically storming the hearing room to stop the impeachment proceedings, chasing that witness out of the room to block her from testifying, according to "bloomberg news" today, this is something that the president put these members of congress up to. president trump knew yesterday that they were going to do this and he told them that they should go ahead and do it. "according to four people familiar with the matter, president trump had advanced knowledge of and supported a

michael cohen. another reason this matters, well, and i haven't even hit this in much detail yet because this has got a cull couple of pieces. if you stop right here and said that's a lot of different stuff, think about this one fact in this indictments the links to donald trump, not only by giuliani but also by following the money. both these men broke the law with illegal donations to a trump pac and tried to funnel money to a russian national who wanted to get funds to trump. you take this all together right now, what you have is any one of these things quite damning, not only for these individuals who we always mention are presumed innocent legally, but who are facing a written indictment and a paper trail, but also damning for mr. rudy giuliani because the best case scenario for him now tonight is that all of this stuff is documented but he is not charged or hit with anything, and that's a possibility. but even that is really bad because these are the people who are carrying out the ukraine plo

he sort of reached out and comforted michael cohen but also spoke to greater questions about where the country is and where the country's headed. >> you know, willie, he had his finger on a different pulse. a lot of times in politics people, you know, just -- just the top line stuff, you know, who's up, who's down, who's winning, who's losing? the one thing that i learned from my experience as former state chairman, republican state chairman of maryland, former lieutenant-governor of maryland, i had the opportunity to work with and battle with elijah, and he always his finger on the pulse of the people. he always understood what was needed, what was necessary. he cared so deeply about not just the city of baltimore, but the state of maryland and the country of the united states, the people of the united states. and he brought that passion to his work every day in the congress. i remember doing -- when i ran for the u.s. senate in 2006 i was talking to him you have those moments, those chance moments during the campaign you run into the, quote, opposition. i looked at him and i said, lo

michael cohen has got to be sitting asking himself why didn't anyone see this sooner? >> why me? he's saying why -- >> saying a lot of things. >> probably watching now. why me? >> let's get to the news. >>> this is a cnn special hour, "the white house in crisis: the impeachment inquiry." i'm laura coates. tonight i'm going to take you through the top headlines and late breaking news on the impeachment inquiry into donald trump. headlines and breaking news rudy giuliani reported to be under investigation by federal prosecutors according to "the new york times," sources telling the times inves gators are looking into whether he broke lobbying laws in his dealings in ukrainian, that as president trump says he doesn't know if giuliani is still his lawyer. both giuliani and president trump in focus on capitol hill today as marie i canyovanovitch testified about what she calls false claims. and what she calls false claims. the president facing major set backs in court after five rulings against him including one over his financial records. what does it mean for the impeachment inquiry?

michael cohen alleged this.he said the president would inflate his assets or deflate them in order to get a better outcome on his tax returns. you were able to see the i.t. 201 from 2001 to 2019. what is an it 201? >> so it the one we saw was a two-page document. page one would describe the year the document was being filed for. antly, at the bottom of the page, it would describe occupancy of the building. on page two was the revenue of the building and the expenses of the building and, therefore, the net cash flow of the building. >> and he did in these it 201s? >> so he would present just what was supposedly going on in the building at that time. it was prepared by a law firm. >> and how did it impacompare te loan documents? was there less money here than there was over here? >> so there is a lot of numbers. so i started sorting it out for pro publica. and when i started doing was develop trendlines. i'm a former real estate investor, analyst for a number of firms. so i would try to match up the numbers, make

we saw this with michael cohen despite all the evidence to suggest that michael cohen was involved insly lied about that. i think we're seeing that go on with rudy giuliani. behind the scenes a lot of people would like to see juli giuliani go away. that may be the case now. the case with these two associates with giuliani is very serious. they're digging in. they want to know what giuliani's entire involvement with these individuals is. they're scrutinizing the money. they want to know who was paying him, who was paying the russians, how was the money going back and forth. in the indictment it mentioned that a russian national, foreign national number one is a russian person. that would raise all sorts of alarm bells for folks, the fact that the russians may be behind what was going on here. >> i want to ask you about people wanting giuliani to go away. the republicans on capitol hill so far have not come out against the president for his dealings in ukraine. in fact, they've defended him saying that he was just trying to root out corruption. but do you think those people, his closest

the president personal lawyer, michael cohen, lives in jail. the president's former lawyer, rudy giuliani, has professed over the last several days to be bewildered and flabbergasted after multiple reports that after the prosecutor's office reportedly has mr. giuliani himself under investigation. a whole bunch of different news outlets have reported that over the past week or so. well, tonight "the wall street journal" advances that story considerably. the journal reporting that, yes, federal prosecutors in manhattan are investigating former mayor rudy giuliani for his potential role in the conspiracy that prosecutors have chashlgrged agt his clients? his associates? his dining come ppanionscompani. lev parnas and igor fruman are the two men. in addition to the question of whether or not mayor giuliani was involved in a scheme for which his buddies have just been arrested, according to "the wall street journal," prosecutors are also looking at mayor giuliani's business dealings in the nation of ukraine, including his finances, his meetings, his

this is the same machinations that the president went through with michael cohen.son, to i'm not so sure what his status is to complete disavowal and calling him nams i won't repeat. donald trump can sense there's bad news coming down the pipe with rudy giuliani and he's trying to distance himself from it. >> i want to get to the immigration status that came down last night in two different cases where the judge ruled the president's national security declaration for the border is unlawful and the judges in washington state and california. what is your reaction and how far is this going go? >> i don't know if they keep records for this kind of thing. if you include the tax decision and border wall funding and immigration decisions is really remarkable. look. the key legal phrase here is arbitrary and capricious which is the legal way of saying they have no basis, they're common sense and rational public policy. let's remember, he made immigration one of the keystones of his political campaign and he's overstepped time and again, whether it's with the border wall or

ask michael cohen. but the president's involvement in this scheme, his direction of this scheme. that is what the house is going to impeach him for. there is no mystery there. it started with press reports about there being a whistle-blower claim, and then we got the claim, and then we got documents, and then the president's own admission, and then the president doing it again on camera in front of everybody. the factual basis for this accusation that he is asking foreign rivals to help him in his re-election effort, it is proven. it's not in dispute. the white house and the president himself admitted it, they have done it out loud. that is done. that is the top line. that is impeachment. that is the most important thing to understand. but still there is so much movement and so many developing stories below that, right? one level below that top line is the tsunami of news. it has made the last ten days so packed and frenetic. let's talk a little bit now about what happened today with this news and where we're at. i think in the history books, if this all goes where it looks like

he thinks it has been sullied by the mueller report, by the investigations of michael cohen and this is the only way that he could sort of help trump coming into 2020. is to go to ukrain to find things that would help him and he thought perhaps this ambassador was something that was standing in the way of rooting out that corruption and it ties back in, obviously to the call the president had with ukrainian president in july where he's asking for those type of investigations. giuliani was frustrated with the ambassador and thought the ambas c -- ambassador was stopping or not doing enough. >> you have covered a lot of sensitive criminal congressional investigations in the trump era, which some would note is a target rich environment. i'm interested on what you do know what kind of case this looks like to you. does this look like a complex multi-year case or something where the "new york times" just arrested giuliani was associates and they might move swiftly one way or the other? >> i think what's going on is giuliani has been open about it. he goes on television and talks about it.

same adam schiff, whose staff met with michael cohen, met with michael cohen, for 10 hours before he testified and we kicked off this congress. that is what the administration sees and i don't blame them. >> neil: the president tweeted saying, i would love to send ambassador sondland, a great man, unfortunately to your point, he would be testifying before compromised kangaroo court, where republicans rights have been taken away and true facts are not allowed for the public to see. ambassador sondland's tweet stated, i believe you are incorrect about president trump's intention, the president has been crystal clear, no quid quo pro of any kind that says it all. he is referring to back and forth at the time with kurt volker, right? that seems to maybe be the source of the president agitation with this. the democrats seem to think it is going their way, they have the votes. they are not holding a general vote to start a formal inquiry, where do you think that part stands? >> yeah, if they would release the transcripts from ambassador volker's testimony and interview last week, you would

himself and michael cohen.l me with giuliani it's a little more complicated. trump has a much more emotional relationship with him. he's known him the better part of 30 years. they came up together in '80s and '90s new york. so trump cutting giuliani loose is still far off. >> house democrats are continuing to push the impeachment inquiry. they held a conference call last night and this week house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff saying more witnesses and subpoenas may be coming and warning that the white house, you know, needs to play ball. take a listen. >> the failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of congress. >> so, michael, that really is serving as like a warning. standing in the way of subpoenas, of documents or people means abuse of power -- that case of abuse of power only gets further bolstered. >> yes. and there's no question that whatever the recent obstruction is in

this was in the hearing with michael cohen earlier this year. and i think it gets to the passion that he has for his work. and his love for america. so listen to chairman cummings. >> this is a part of your destiny. and hopefully this portion of your destiny will lead to a better, a better, a better michael cohen. a better donald trump. a better united states of america. and a better world. and i mean that from the depths of my heart. when we're dancing with the angels, the question will be asked in 2019 what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact. did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing? >> dana bash, when we're dancing with the angels, the question will be what did we do to keep our democracy intact. he's talking about the goings-on this year, but bigger sense he's talking about the work he did in congress for decades. >> yes. and according to his own account, that is a phrase that he used in the one private meeting he had with donald trump at the beginning of the trump presidency when elijah cummings went and asked him to w

we have seen this in the past with the president's former personal attorney michael cohen.et comment on this. he says he is still the president's lawyer and that there are no ukraine issues, which he says he finished in march. of course, anderson, ukraine is at the heart of the democrats' impeachment probe after it was revealed the president asked ukraine's president to investigate his political rival. it's giuliani involved with this effort to dig up dirt on biden and two of his associates as we know helped with that effort. they were just indicted on campaign finance charges just yesterday. my colleague kaitlan collins is reporting tonight that in the wake of that, trump has been privately expressing concerns about giuliani's involvement with those two men and doubts as well. if you heard what he said today that you just played, that wasn't a ringing endorsement of his personal attorney. >> for a moment i thought he was going to say, i don't know how to answer that. it was just i don't know. we will see. pamela brown, thanks very much. >>> joining us to discuss this, form

after the other scandal with stormy daniels he said you'll have to ask michael cohen because i don't it sounds very similar to me. >> it's stunning to me, just watching that and going through giuliani, his interview with chris cuomo where he said no, i didn't ask the ukrainians to investigate joe biden and then 20 seconds later he said he did. he was saying shut up, shut up. you don't know what you're talking about, you idiot. it's surprising that you can still describe rudy giuliani as president donald trump's attorney. maybe not for much longer. to me it's remarkable rudy giuliani has lasted this long. perhaps because they have known each other for a long time and he's loyal and goes on tvhat relationship does not look good for donald trump. >> marie yovanovitch fired, eventually removed from her post, is scheduled to appear tomorrow before the house. do you think she will, will the state department try to block her under orders from the white house? >> last minute last week but when it comes to yovanovitch, every single person who knows her, who has spoken out about her calls her

as a reminder, the president's former personal attorney, michael cohen, spending a three-year sentence in federal prison for his role in those payments in violation of campaign finance rule in the case where the president was named an un-indicted co-conspirator. for more, we welcome to this broadcast, andrea bernstein, senior editor for politics at public radio nyc where she is the host of the podcast trump inc. welcome to you. >> thank you. >> i know you were surprised by the outcome in court today. why is that? >> i won't say i was surprised by the outcome, but the ferocity and strength of the opinion was something else. the judge said he basically rejected out of hand the trump attorneys' arguments and said -- you remember during the mueller investigation, mueller said, okay, it's justice department policy. you cannot indict a sitting president. well, what the judge said is that trump's lawyers are arguing you cannot only not indict a sitting president, but you can't investigate a sitting president, nor can you investigate anyone around that president. >> that would put a president