. >> and with me now to talk about this is former special counsel to donald trump, michael cohen. ael, great to see you. he's the host of hit podcast mea culpa with michael cohen, and the book "revenge: how donald trump weapon jazzed the department of justice against his critics." michael, great to see you. thanks for joining us. it's been a long time. great to talk to you again. what about what rudy giuliani is saying there? what is your response to that? >> rudy, i mean, could you imagine this once guy was once considered america's mayor? it is the most flawed statement that anybody could have possibly made. it's almost as if he prepared for this flawed statement. first of all, that's not what the espionage act says. it's almost like going into a bank and saying i just want to take the money from the bank, i'll put it in another security location, in mar-a-lago. he doesn't know many of the documents seized by the fbi were in trump's office which are above the ballroom, not in a basement. so, again, one of the biggest problems that people seem to be forgetting is that mar-a-lago i

michael cohen, and now the host of the podcast miacopa with michael cohen. her the upcoming book, revenge, how donald trump weaponize the u.s. department of justice against his critics. michael, thank you. listen, what a week. the president and his allies are really flooding the zone with different explanations for why so many top secret documents were found in mar-a-lago. is this the trump playbook overwhelming the story with distraction in deflection? >> with donald trump, as i always call him, captain chaos, it's to throw as much as the american public that he can in order to confuse them, because he truly believes that the american public has a two day maybe if you're, bright a three-day window of remembering what was going on. he will just keep flooding, it but that is not why donald trump is doing it. you're right. he's scared and he's scared of the documents that they now have possession and control over, because this is documentary evidence. it's evidence that they can use against him. >> you say that with the walls closing in around him his next move

with michael cohen, and principle of crisis x. ichael, thank you for joining us tonight. >> good evening, laura. >> nice to see you. i have been eager to ask you in particular about what is going on because you are intimately aware of not only would it is like to have had your home searched, the idea of what donald trump might think about this, but also you were around -- and the case anyone forgot about this -- i want to remind our viewers about what you are old biles had to say about people who take the fifth. listen to this. >> have you seen what is going on in front of congress? fifth amendment, fifth amendment, fifth amendment. horrible, horrible. the mob takes the fifth. if you are innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment? >> when you have your staff taking the fifth amendment, taking the fifth so they are not prosecuted, i think it's disgraceful. >> i want to let you make of him taking the fifth for literally hours today, michael? >> yeah, it's one of the first times i am going to agree with him in a long time, only

we are joined now by michael cohen.f the mea culpa podcast, and he has walked us through some of these issues here. >> welcome back. >> good to see you, ari. >> you hear that type of criticism. that was on you. now the search hit home in a big way for trump. what is he doing here? did he misplay this. >> he definitively misplayed it. it's definitely karma boomerang. he didn't believe anything he was saying about me. it's always about him, and that's what he now has to contend with. it's funny you ask me, what was in the safe? i today i received two dozen calls plus from journalists saying, what do you think was in the safe? i would say everyone stop and allow the process to go forward. they don't want to believe what i truly belief is in the safe, which is the same thing you would have in the safe, which would be family documents, it would be the trust, it would probably be some birth certificates. donald is a licensed firearm owner. he may have that in there. i also believe there was probably a lot of cash in there, be

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michael cohen, who you just heard, of course, pleaded guilty to eight counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, and then also camping finance violations back in 2018, those campaign violations stem from a scheme in trump's first this came to pay hush money kemba -- the checks of course side by donald. from cohen also -- negotiated hush payments for another trump ally. the former finance chairman, elliott broidy, remember him? brody step down from his position at the head of the rnc finance committee when it was revealed that he played paid a former play ball model one point $6 million to cover their affair. also -- now, that of course, in and of itself is not illegal, but of course, you might have forgotten this one, he also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the foreign agents registration act back in 2020 for his work as an unregistered lafayette east on behalf of the malaysian development company. broidy was also allegedly embroiled in a scheme with a man by the name of georgia nato. he met with trump campaign, hasn't liaisons with them, the scheme was to lobby the trump w

joining me now is the one and only michael cohen, got trump's former personal attorney. times bestselling author, host of the cobb podcast, and author of this, the upcoming book, revenge. how dumb weaponize the u.s. department of justice. michael, welcome. we're gonna get to the book in a second. what do you make of this? is this something that trump might do, blowing the basis, doing something to secure those fbi personnel, knowing that it is going to risk the safety. could they keep threatening to really sit and never actually follow through? >> obviously, we have already seen that air came out swinging first. eric trump, claiming that they're going to release the tape sometime soon without discussing whether or not they were going to obscure the faces or anything like that. if they believed that the tape benefited them, i promise you that tape would have already been released. as we are speaking now. obviously, they know that it doesn't. there are dozens and dozens of cameras throughout mar-a-lago. i can assure you that at the time the raid was taking place that they

michael cohen went to prison.ric herschmann will have to testify before the doj. >> you know what none of those people did until it was too late was quit and come forward, maybe eric herschmann. they all went along with it for the most part until they got indicted, in michael cohen's case, or got subpoenaed bify th january 6th committee. as a lawyer you have a lot of power, especially if you're lawyer for the united states and you have consequences if you don't use it properly. >> that list reminds us of the vortex his lawyers can get drawn into. >> i just want to stop and say, i talked to michael cohen about this last night, they get into more trouble than he does. being a lawyer for donald trump is more hazardous than being donald trump. >> so far, yeah. but i think it is that vortex effect that he has. also who he chooses to surround himself with and what he's asking his people to protect him from. but this is the lesson his lawyers are learning, which republicans continue to learn, which is this is winston chu

and as you say, this is not the case like the michael cohen case or the rudy giuliani case where search warrants were carried out on the office or home of an attorney like michael cohen or the digital devices of rudy giuliani. there may be some incidental stuff that the department in an abuddance of caution is treating potentially as attorney/client privilege, but it's improbable any of that stuff is going to have much to do with the core of the government's case. >> before you go, tomorrow there's another deadline, and that is for doj to issue a more detailed list of what was taken from mar-a-lago. if the judge does order doj to share that list with former president trump's legal team, how do you think that would impact their case? how much would they be able to use that in their case? >> well, if the court orders the department to share with mr. trump and his representatives a more detailed inventory, more detailed inventory is made public, this is going to be another case of be careful what you wish for, because it's going to be more derogatory and pulverizing in its force than the f

and that was when michael cohen's offices were searched.ocuments that could be attorney-client privilege, not just between michael cohen and donald trump but between michael cohen and other clients, we are reviewed by judge barbara jones, retired federal judge, he was appointed as a master. the only problem with it here is that there were so many documents, and if you have one person reviewing them, obviously is going to take longer than if you have a team in place to do the review. so maybe you need multiple special masters, so that it does not cause an undue delay in reviewing the documents. >> so sorry, i'm gonna play some sound for trump's lawyers on fox news. you have trump who has been publicly saying to release the affidavit, release the affidavit. but his lawyers have not done any of the paperwork, which is going to actually make that happen. take a listen to her explanation. >> i understand that you chose to do that, but i am wondering, are you not concerned that because you didn't join any of these motions for, again, the full rel

michael cohen pled guilty to federal crimes. the time in prison. rudy giuliani who replaced michael cohen is currently the target of a criminal inquiry in georgia for the work he did on behalf of the president. to the white house counsel who found that path cipollone -- testified in inquiries -- you can understand if people didn't want to represent him. it seems like this is where you end up. >> the problem with the lawyering here is that it's so contrived. i let me give you an example. [inaudible] they say there's an importance to executive privilege for confidentiality, and confidential communication. the next sentence says, classified information -- [inaudible] chris, that's what this is. about this is not about the confidentiality of presidential communication, this is about the potential classified information, the current administration would like to know what's classified information within these boxes, was in that house. to which people had access. that is a terribly critical issue for the current administration. and nothing -- says otherwi

that was about privilege between an attorney and his client, michael cohen. the argument the trump team is making is about executive privilege. but trump's not the executive now, biden's the executive. that's a huge important distinction, is it not? how can you claim executive privilege when you're no longer the executive? >> you've hit the nail on the head, precisely. usually an executive, the one who is in office at the time, the incumbent, says i need my documents and my material so my confidence is protected from some other body. we've seen skirmishes between the executive branch and the legislative branch going back decades. here you have a former president trying to assert an executive privilege, although the incumbent president does not assert it. the national archives are supposed to be the ones who retain these documents and maintain them because they belong to the united states government, they belong to the executive branch. and so it doesn't make a lot of sense. that's another reason why maybe the government wants to spend a little more time in it

masters before and we've seen them appointed for not one, but two of donald trump's prior lawyers, michael cohen and rudy giuliani when each of those men had their offices searched after federal judges concluded there was probable cause that each of donald trump's two lawyers had evidence of crime in their possession. and in each of those cases, a special master was appointed. it was the same special master and know each case, barbara jones a former judge to review some of the materials that were seized by the fbi agents from michael cohen to rudy giuliani to see if there was any attorney client privilege that might not be relevant to the crime that was being investigated such that the fbi and the doj didn't really have a right to it and it might violate attorney client privilege. this feels different alicia. this is donald trump and his associates. let's call it what it is what it is. stealing government documents, government materials, taking them from the federal government down to mar-a-lago in violation of any number of statutes, and to me it seems a little in congress to say, i want the do

michael cohen's case is a great example. sometime after michael cohen was charged and in fact pled guilty, we then saw the voluminous affidavits that were presented to magistrate judge in the southern district of new york. that happened in 2019. i don't have those on my computer taking up way too much space. because, the amount of detail and then that is basically like a speaking indictment, telling you who violated what law, and for what reasons, on a moment by moment bases. telling you the who went where and why of one might become a case against either the former president or those close to him. >> would an affidavit offer a name of someone who brought forth information? >> it is hard to say. in all likelihood, that person is described by their role in their proximity, but not by name. and if they are described by name, even if we ever see that document, chances are that person's name will be redacted. because again, as you know to alex, the reporting is complete now that there was otherwise we would call a confidential i

in the trump world with the michael cohen case, he already had a special master, but it is important to think about, just because you request a special master does not somehow convert all of the existing documents into privileged data that couldn't be seen. i note that in the case involving michael cohen when the special master happened out of new york, something like .2% of the materials ended up actually being privileged. so if that were to be the past being the prologue here, it's not going to convert what was not ever entitled as privileged to suddenly be that, but you're seeing again the idea of hoping that entitlement and one's position as the former president will shield you from having to make straight faced and evidence based arguments in court. >> all right, we need to leave it there. thank you all for your time and for your insights. and a programming note, laura coates will be back for cnn tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. >> now, coming up, more on the top secret documents that donald trump stored at mar-a-lago. we'll take a closer look at potential national security ri

. >> let's listen in someone who did speculate me specific with it, michael cohen, who agrees that it could be someone very close. here's what he told my colleague velshi. >> he's not sure if it's melania, he's not travis one of the kids. you may remember, for over a year now i have been saying that the -- kushner seems awfully odd in the fight that he who was secretary of everything in the white house, secretary of everything, that he seems to be escaping any sort of attention, any legal issues, i personally have always thought that kushner was the guy that when an up turning on his father-in-law. >> so mary, i'm not going to put words in your mouth. that said, i did hear you on a podcast in which you would tend to agree with michael cohen's assessment there. was it not necessarily saying it's him, but someone close to him potentially? >> alice, i think we need to look at this two ways. first of all, who, as jim said, was around to see what was going on and was it somebody who finally had had enough and believed that had crossed a line in wanted to make it stop. on the other hand, we

michael cohen's always great. i was on his podcast earlier this week.trying to keep a straight face -- >> got my finger on the button. >> he's beautiful. all right, thank you michael good to see you as always my friend thank you. michael steele is the former chairman the republican national committee. stick around after velshi to hear more from michael as he said he's filling in for the sunday show this morning. starts of the top of the hour. at 10 am eastern. i'm gonna have the conversation when we were just talking about after a quick break. k break. ever notice how stiff clothes can feel rough on your skin? for softer clothes that are gentle on your skin, try downy free & gentle downy will soften your clothes without dyes or perfumes. the towel washed with downy is softer, and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. godaddy payments offers fast and secure payments for customers at the lowest transaction fees. so you can keep more of the money you make and continue to grow your business. if you've got it, we've got you. start today at godaddy.c

. >> former trump lawyer, michael cohen, reacting to trump's handling of documents in the fbi searchgo. joining me, now stephanie grisham, former white house communications director and press secretary. she is also served as press secretary and chief of staff to former first lady, melania trump. stephen he resigned on january 6th, 2021. stephanie, it's good to have you back on the broadcast. thanks for joining me. you listen to michael cohen, there do you agree with his characterization of how donald trump spins the narrative to portray himself as the victim? >> absolutely. michael was completely spot on. i was actually shaking my head watching him because it was so spot on. it's interesting because it takes so long for so many of us, michael and myself included, to wake up to that. while i sit there and shake my head i also continue to get mad at myself that took me so long to realize that. >> you know, why do you think it took you so long? i mean, i'm not trying to have you delve into your psyche. was it just the environment that you are in? was it disclosed environment? and that's

he likes -- he used to like michael cohen. michael cohen is a convicted felon.well. well, sidney powell is facing many civil lawsuits because of her conduct with the former president. so the kinds of pressures that you're put under, if you're representing somebody like donald trump, are ones that if you're at the top of your field, you really can think to yourself, i don't need this. >> all right. ken dilanian, thanks. andrew wiseman, our thanks to you. but you'll stay with us. >>> this morning, rudy giuliani is appearing before the georgia grand jury on interference in the 2020 election. we'll have the latest from outside the court. >>> and tomorrow, longtype trump executive allen weisselberg is expected to plead guilty in a tax case tied to the trump organization's business dealings. what it means for the larger investigation, next. what it means for the larger investigation, next. some people can get it bad. and for those who do get it bad, it may be because they have a high-risk factor - such as heart disease, diabetes, being overweight, asthma, or smoking.

with me now is michael cohen, donald trump's former attorney and fixer.e too served jail time for tax fraud and campaign finance fraud related to donald trump's business affairs. also with us is cnn senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, elie honig. michael, you know alan weisselberg well. how do you feel about what he did today pleading guilty? >> well, he had no other choice but to plead guilty as kara just said. he was looking at 15 years based upon crimes that i had provided them documentation on, that proved without a doubt that he would have been found guilty. >> so, you were instrumental in providing them evidence that they used against alan weisselberg. >> yes, i provided it to them, the southern district of new york, i provided it to the attorney general. i talked about it, including at the house oversight committee. >> in that case, knowing what you know, do you think that five months is too little time for whatever his crimes are? >> 100%. i mean, look, it's not my call. it's obviously the judge's call. the southern district, the w

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and i just want to add, it was barbara jones, former judge barbara jones, and the michael cohen case that was the special master that i was referring to. i also want to point out that it is very unusual for some of this stuff that's being asked for to be released at this point, while there is an ongoing investigation. and so, the redactions, while, they're going to be extensive in this case couldn't let us learn things like what kind of conversations happened with president trump, and with his lawyers, to get this, to avoid having to have a search warrant? it seems to me, from what we know, that there were extensive discussions to avoid the extreme step of a search warrant. and that is very persuasive to me, and i think it would be even to trump supporters, that he refused to give back documents that clearly, probable cause was established to go with the search. and if you had any doubt about it, you now know that the probable cause was accurate, because when they left, they had top secret, special sensitive compartmented information in those files. so the top secret information was

michael cohen is the former personal attorney for donald trump and the host of the -- podcast and the author of the upcoming book revenge. we will have word with the former president, illicitly took with him when he left office and the national security implications of his actions throughout the show plus we will bring you the latest on the war in ukraine which is now exactly six months and the toll that it is taking on that country's youngest citizens and i'll be joined onset by member of the ukraine's parliament. but up next, the red together rosenberg and roy cohn. history of american should know history of american should know and the age of trump♪ ♪i got bongos thumping in my chest♪ ♪and something tells me they don't beat me♪ ♪ ♪ ♪he'd better not take the ring from me.♪ welcome to your world. your why. what drives you? what do you want to leave behind? what do you want to give back? what do you want to be remembered for? that's your why. it's your purpose, and we will work with you every step of the way to achieve it. at pnc private bank, we'll help you take care of the how. so t

trump's former fixer, michael cohen went through a similar situation. see what he has to say next. plus, a florida court says a pregnant teen with no parents and no job is not mature enough to have an abortion. but she is mature enough to give birth and razor child on her own? at 16? i will break that, down it seems really a logical and that ruling will be explained by a retired judge familiar with these kinds of cases. that is coming up. that is coming up. i typed in grandma's name and birth year... and there she was, working at the five and dime. my dad's been wondering about his childhood address for 70 years... and i found it in five minutes. ...that little leaf helped me learn all the names from the old neighborhood... it felt like a treasure hunt. the 1950 census adds vivid new detail to your family story. and it's available now on ancestry. people remember ads the 1950 census adds vivid new detailwith young peopletory. having a good time. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's a pool party. ♪ good times. insurance! ♪ only pay for w

you know, and i would say if anybody knows donald trump better than i do, it would be michael cohen. i think that that's certainly a possibility. i think that there were -- maybe the possibility to profit off of some of the information that was taken. i mean, we don't know. only donald trump knows. hopefully it will come out, but there was -- there would be no need to take a lot of what is being reported right now, you know, national defense documents. so there had to be something behind that. these are not just mowemento of his love letters with kgu and putin, et cetera. >> prosecutors told the court they were concerned evidence might be destroyed. all those discussions we had on the show about trump and his habit of improperly disposing white house documents, you know, flushing them.gamut. all of that seems pretty relevant now. >> it does, and this is a pattern of behavior that we've seen with donald trump when it comes to obstructing things and destroying documents and evidence, and you know, the investigation will play out as it should, but we've also seen before the january 6th

we want, the michael cohen says we don't believe, you need more people take a listen to what michael cohen had to say and take a listen on the other side. >> well, he had no other choice but to plead guilty as you know, he kind of just stated. he was looking at 15 years based upon crimes. i had provided them documentation on. that proved without a doubt that he would have been found guilty. island will ultimately be providing testimony. that is against donald, no matter how you want to parted inwards, it does not matter and you will be providing testimony. >> all, right the weisselberg situation of course out of new york, why do you think? dean there's a lot of people sorry, david what do you think there's a lot of people who, even the rumor that his family is the one who flipped on or on the fbi. what do you think will happen? >> i mean 70 folks are flipping on the inside. this is like dominoes, once you knock one down, the raskin a lot easier to knock down. here is something you should keep in mind when you talk about trump's legal problems. i will say that one of my early mentors s

again, one of the things you first mentioned and i remember this right when michael cohen had his fbi, they showed up at his door, right? they want the electronic devices, they want the computers, they want the cell phones. that's fine. one thing we know about the former president, right, is that he's not somebody who is putting things in email and on a computer and laptop. that's not where you're going to find some treasure-trove in his particular case. it's not as if there's -- well, who knows, right? but that there's some secret cell phone hidden in the safe, while it could be, what stands out to you about the word safe and why he is as stephanie said clearly trying to get ahead of that specifically? >> well, erin, it is very common for search warrants to seek access to documents or records, whether they're paper documents or electronic documents, and the rule basically is for the most part when you cexecute a search warrant, you have a right to go into any area where those items could be stored. if we're talking about paper documents or a cell phone or a laptop, that would certain

trump's former personal lawyer, michael cohen, will give public testimony before the house oversightive. >> in his opening statement, which we got last night, he said the president was a racist, a con man, and a cheat. and my reaction was tell us something we don't know, you don't? so, you know, i'm basically looking at him like renegade refugee from an organized crime family. and he's gonna tell us sort of the internal dynamics of the trump operation. >> the big story, in my mind, is that we have a president who has turned the government of the united states of america into a moneymaking operation for himself, for his family, for his business, and for his friends. and so, we want to try to get the best, portrait we can of what's taking place within the trump operation. and then, we gotta start asking questions about whether this is the president was an actual threat to the character of our republic. [inaudible] >> if you would please rise, and i will begin to swear you in. raise your right hand. >> my loyalty to mr. trump has cost me everything. my family's happiness, friendships, m

cnn spoke with former trump attorney michael cohen about the new york civil case. >> yeah, it is one of the first times i'm going to agree with him in a long time, right? only gangsters, mobsters and guilty people take the fifth. he always cries the victim when he knows that he is going to lose. the problem for donald and whoever it is that provided him the information, as you are well aware, pleading the fifth does nothing for you in a civil matter. this is not a criminal matter where you could take the fifth and you cannot make an inference that taking the fifth sort of puts you in the guilty position. in a civil matter it is exactly that, they now have the ability can which is what the attorney general wanted anyway, she has now the ability to go ahead and to presume that by not answering the questions that he is guilty of it. that is just how it works in a civil matter. >> we'll continue to follow this developing story and bring you the very latest as we learn new details. >>> we're keeping an eye on u.s. stock futures as well with just hours until the opening bell on wall street

. >> reporter: special masters were appointed in cases of m michael cohen and rudy giuliani., are they usually judges, lawyers? >> they are usually maybe former judges, lawyers, oftentimes for financial issues, they wouldn't be, they may be people who are former accountants, have that financial expertise. you want someone who has a mastery of the subject matter area. >> reporter: but a legal analyst says in the mar-a-lago investigation, finding the right special master will be especially difficult. >> there are classified materials involved here and some of the most high us classified materials, those sci materials, you probably will need a special master who has the clearance to look at the documents. >> reporter: and so it will be determined whether trump and his lawyers can exert executive privilege. trump and his lawyers say even a former president can excerpt executive privilege but there is a lot of dispute over that. brian todd, cnn, washington. >>> and zeroing in further on the mar-a-lago or course, let's bring in author of "a spy in plain sight." nice to see you agai

the department of justice does and based on experiences we've had in the past, for example the michael cohen case or joh eastman's recent experience, the department of justice details with specificity what they're looking for and why including what criminal statutes they believe they have probable cause to understand were violated. trump knows at least which statutes the department of justice is looking into, it's on the very facef this one-page search warrant and the fact he's saying the ownous is on the department of justice to explain why it didt plant evidence is backwards and upside down. >> thank you-all so much for arting us off. lisa ruben, we'll talk to you again later thisour. >>> the cost of everything from groceries to rent is still sky high but could we be getting closer to a turning poi? we're learning from an inflation rert this morning? >>> president biden signed a bill that became an unexpected politicalight helping veterans that got sick from toxic burn ts. what exactly it does and why it took so long to get here. >>> wel go inside the biden's administration plan to stretch

michael cohen had report it -- why do we think that there's something that's gonna be so bad that he actually kept for this many months? >> that alone, stephanie, would be even a different crime. so, the absence of the documents could itself be somewhat informative here. we don't know what was in that affidavit. that remains under seal. and an affidavit that accompanies a search warrant, is a document that demonstrates the case of probable cause, the demonstrates to a judge of the specific item search for will be found on the premises. we don't have it back story, but we know they're 15 boxes and documents were returned to the national archives. perhaps he did it inventory those archives, and found that certain documents were missing. why were they missing? we don't know. but, there is some real damage that could occur if those documents are missing. when that may have been destroyed. they could also fall into the wrong hands. it doesn't necessarily need to be some foreign spy or international intrigue. but, if it just gets out there, it's sometimes referred to as a spill of classifi

back when michael cohen was arrested, seized, and searched, the justice department collected a lot ofnformation that he's claimed was his attorney/client work product for donald trump. and what happens in that sort of situation is someone like trump's attorneys could go to court, and they could file a claim that says, please, court, provide a third party to look through these things. we knoll the justice department will use a filter team to make sure there aren't really privileged things there in whatever the investigators ultimately get. but they haven't filed anything to try and challenge to this point. and then on the executive privilege issue, i mean, there's two things there. one, it's a criminal investigation, it's very, very difficult to claim executive privilege in a similar investigation. the law just isn't on the side of the presidency there, when someone, the person or the former president is under investigation of people around him. and also if he's claiming executive privilege on documents he says are his private property and are not presidential records which is being in

it happened in i believe both the michael cohen search and the rudy giuliani search, where a judge in the southern district of new york appointed a special master, a retired federal judge, to serve on the filter team. so it makes some sense and it may make a lot of sense here given the keen public interest in this particular case. >> chuck rosenberg, ken dilanian, and jackie, thanks for starting us off. >> the uvalde police chief has been fired. >> and kemp is in court testifying about team trump's effort to change the results. what his attorneys claim has to wait until at least the end of november. >> and the answer to curing addiction, what a month's long study revealed about a psychedelic treatment. udy reveaa psychedelic treatment. gestive s. metamucil's plant-based fiber forms a gel to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down, helps lower cholesterol and promotes healthy blood sugar levels. while its collagen peptides help support your joint structures. so, start feeling lighter and more energetic by taking metamucil every day. try metamucil fiber gummies made with a prebio

ex-trump attorney and fixer michael cohen offered his opinion. >> i believe that donald was going to use it as a get out of jail free card, to ultimately extort america in order to prevent them from incarcerating him or at least indicting him. put me in handcuffs, this goes out to china, north korea, russia. would he use information to blackmail the country in order to keep him free? absolutely 100%. >> trump and his defenders claim he had a standing order to declassify the materials but 18 ex-trump officials dispute any such order was ever given. the latest from arlette saenz. >> reporter: the white house has largely refrained from weighing in on the fbi search of mar-a-lago, but cnn has learned that u.s. official has expressed concern over the classified developments taken by former president trump. especially when it comes to what it could mean for the intelligence community moving forward. now, the white house does not have any window into what exactly was contained in that material. but officials are concerned that it could put the sources and methods that the intelligence commu

investigation of clinton's relations with monica lewinsky, and the fbi raid and investigation of michael cohen, the president's lawyer while donald trump was in office. this is one of the most sensitive things of the justice department has ever done. the political implications are too soon to tell, we don't know where we are in the donald trump story, what other shoes may drop, jennifer mentioned the chances that there are other subpoenas or search warrants to come. it is a remarkable statement about this moment in history that when word leaked last night about the fbi search of mar-a-lago, there were a half- dozen possible cases turning their way to the federal government that it might have been related to, and it took several hours for us to even begin to imagine which specific case investigating donald trump this was related to. >> and remember, all we know is not from the doj or the fbi, explaining that, and being specific. it's all coming from the person who has a copy of the search warrant and has not released it, donald trump. thank you, jennifer and garrett, nice talking to both of you

michael cohen, the former trump fixer turned foe, served time himself himself. >> they didn't flip over. what is it about donald trump that inspires such loyalty, that someone is going to go to prison? >> yeah. stupidity is the only way i can describe it. i talk about it all the time. it's why i ended up working with him. it's stupidity, and lack of better judgment. >> the trial against the trump organization is scheduled to start with jury selection on october 24th. meanwhile, allen weisselberg remains out on bail. >>> let's bring rebecca back in here. rebecca, you used to work at the d.a.'s office. does five months seem right to you for this cooperation we're seeing? >> you know, it seemed really low to me. it was the wanted sentence prior to the reporting that he was going to cooperate against the organization. but it does seem right to me, given the fact that he is pleading guilty, which, you know, relieves the government of having to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. and he has the option to cooperate against them. >> it's hard for us to judge on the outside, unti

michael cohen has more on that. >> reporter: new developments this weekend in the investigation of donald trump's handling or possible mishandling of classified documents. the top u.s. intelligence official says intel agencies are conducting a damage assessment of the documents that trump took with him when the white house to mar-a-lago. the director of national intelligence told u.s. lawmakers in a letter that her team and justice department are reviewing the materials recovered from mar-a-lago to see what is still classified. she also said once that is done, her office will, quote, lead an intelligence community assessment of the potential risks to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents. now, this all can comes shortly after the doj released the fbi affidavit that investigators used to secure that historic search warrant of mar-a-lago. doj refused to release the affidavit but they were ordered by a federal judge to make public a partially un redacted version and that affidavit once we got to see what was inside of it, it showed how investigator

i mean, if you compare this to what happened with trump's two former attorneys, michael cohen and rudyliani, both of those situations, search warrants were searched on both of those people. lots of documents, lots of data was taken. and there were both lawyers who had a real privilege. i mean they had arguments of privilege over these documents. so it made sense in those cases to appoint a special master. here, trump has no privilege. even though his document that he piled today claims they're trying to protect executive privilege, protecting conversations between trump and people who worked with him. and none of that makes any sense. he has already been there. he's done it, and he's washed in front of the supreme court 8 to 1 on that issue. there is no executive privilege that belongs to him. head belongs to the executive, the current executive, and this entire brief, i mean, quite frankly it looks like it was written by negligence or insurance lawyer, because they just don't understand the privilege issues here. if trump really had an issue with attorney-client privilege, if he was c

twice before a special master was used to to make sure in raids of searches from documents of michael cohen former trump legal adviser rudy giuliani to make sure records taken from them were not privileged, especially attorney/client privilege. now the special master was the same person in those cases, and they were trying to just be an objective, independent expert, but looked at this material before the feds did. in this case, it's hard to see what donald trump's attorney/client or executive privilege is. donald trump in his lawsuit claimed that all documents are presumptively privileged. the problem here is the national archives and the fbi and the division of the department of justice have been pressing donald trump for now going on seven months for a series of records asking for those especially that are classified and then in a separate search found that despite the trump aides' claims there's nothing classified to see here anymore, there was more classified information to see and it was in mar-a-lago, ultimately in the former president's constructive possession. the idea of a special

for example, the search of a lawyer's office, when michael cohen's office and residence were search a special master was appointed in that circumstance. here, what makes this weird, is that it is actually, the trump is asserting executive privilege. which is really protected executive branch deliberation and the branch of government that is seizing the documents is the executive branch. i don't expect this to go anywhere. there is a team procedure set up in place regarding attorney/client privilege documents where the judge is the ultimate decider there. so i have trouble seeing that being granted here. >> do you see that as just simply buying time or trying in some way to kind of color public opinion just by, you know, the former president putting it out there? >> i think the latter. it really, that last filing regarding the special master really was the sort of thing that i would not let a junior lawyer under my supervision submit to the court. it was kind of all over the place. a lot of just, you know, p.r. statements. things that really weren't supported by and didn't have a basis

as we look at people, michael cohen was searching back in 2018, he ended up getting charged. rudy giuliani, searched in 2021, never charged. these two, they were searched recently, still too early. we don't know if this is going to result in a charge. remains to be seen. >> this very helpful, thank you very much. >> let's bring in former federal prosecutor and lead council on former president trump's first impeachment, daniel goldman running for congress. cnn chief political correspondent and co-afternoon they are of state of union dana bash, michael d'antonio, and melissa fairer griffin, she was a trump white house communications director. michael, i want to ask you a question, as an outsider, you spent a considerable amount of time as biographer of donald trump with him and family members. what do you think is going through their minds and their lives? >> i think they're delighted. i think they've been planning for this for years. donald trump first did his reaction to the fbi actually having his lawyer call them gestapo and storm troopers 50 years ago. so, he's been prepar

michael cohen offered his opinion.>> i believe donald was going to use it as a get out of jail free card. i think he was going to look to ultimately extort america in order to prevent them from incarcerating him or at least indicting him. you put me in handcuffs, this goes out to china, north korea, it goes out to russia, would he use information to blackmail the country in order to keep him free? absolutely 100%. >> now, the biden administration isn't commenting on the search of donald trump's home in florida. but privately many officials admit they're concerned that top secret documents were seized from the former president. trump claims he issued a standing order to declassify the materials, but 18 ex-trump officials dispute that any such order was ever given. cnn's arlette saenz has the latest. >> reporter: the white house has largely refrained from weighing in on the fbi's search of mar-a-lago, but cnn has learned that a u.s. official has expressed concern over those classified documents taken by former president

ordinarily, anna, you have a special master in cases involving attorney-client privilege like the michael cohenase. they raided his office, his residence and so on. of course you're going to get a lot of attorney-client privilege materials there. here what the justice department did, they set up a system where a separate team of lawyers did a privilege review and then any questions were dealt with by the judge who issued the search warrant who is, of course, a third party, he's a part of the judicial branch of government. that review is already done and those attorney-client issues which are limited have already been dealt with. the justice department here i think is probably reacting to the fact that the trump camp is actually seeking a review regarding executive privilege which i have to say from a legal perspective really doesn't make a lot of sense because the executive branch is the branch of government that seized all the documents. so using executive privilege to keep documents away from the executive branch would be like me telling my clients that they couldn't have their documents back

there was one in the michael cohen case when the fbi raided his home and office and took a bunch of documents from him. so if that's what the judge decides to do, the justice department will live with it. it may delay things. they've already gone through reams and reams of documents. it's been two weeks since is search so it's unclear what is left to go and what impact it would have if they appoint a special master. >> barbara, the information reported by the times is pretty detailed. it's pretty clear some of it had to come from people in government. how do you think this information would be released and why would it be released? >> yeah, i'm not sure what the source is, but we are learning about, for example, the fact there were 300 documents about concerns that the surveillance video showed people coming and going and removing documents from the room. so difficult to know where it comes from. i will suggest this though. people always assume these kinds of leaks come from within the government. as a prosecutor, i often found they were actually coming from lawyers for the witnesses. so if t

and michael cohen, unlike the others who all deny wrongdoing, he was actually charged with crimes, includingas cost me everything. >> reporter: to be clear, defending a client is legal, even if that client has committed a crime. indeed, it is an attorney's duty. but potentially helping a client commit a crime can quickly make a lawyer need a lawyer, too. poppy? >> that's exactly right. tom, thank you very much. "outfront" now, john dean, former nixon whiteout counsel. john, you know better than anyone what the rules are for lawyers when they sign documents like this. do you think trump's attorney, christina bobb, could be in legal jeopardy now? >> it simply appears that way. we know from that letter she signed the certification. she did rely on others. she reports in that certification and we don't know what amount of effort she put into it. but she's at high risk signing a document like that, if she's not put some effort into it. that's what can cause her jeopardy. >> as i mentioned, you were the white house counsel for president nixon. but your decision to not help nixon cover up his role