michael cohen, roger stone, michael flynn? as u.s. attorney at sdny, geoff berman says he was told by trump appointees to bring a prosecution against president obama's white house counsel, despite the fact that that man had committed no crime. trump's attorney general also told berman's office to stop investigating anybody else who was involved in the campaign finance felonies that put the president's lawyer in prison. campaign finance felonies that directly involved the president himself and were committed for his benefit. they also tried to undo michael cohen's guilty plea. they did not suck see in that, but they did delay by months any further investigation into other people involved in cohen's crimes. and that's not it. look at this from berman's new book. trump's justice department tells sdny not only that they want to evaluate the basis of cohen's plea and they want sdny to stop investigating anybody else who might have been involved in those crimes committed by the trump campaign to try to cover up evidence of alleged affairs.

with me now to break it all down, michael cohen himself.podcast, mea culpa, with michael cohen. and author of the soon to be released book, revenge, how donald trump weaponize the u.s. department of justice against his critics. michael, it's great to talk to you,. great to be here. a lot of folks wanted to talk to you on wednesday as a book was released. did you know is coming? >> no and i was very thankful, and i'm surprised because i was sitting in 19 watching the television, when tish james just mentioned by name and thanked me for everything that i had done. something that i had been working on now with them, even while i was -- i was incarcerated i had the district attorney, three times, came to visit >> petros: > i was talking to -- who said it's as if it's an open and shut case because it seems as if the attorney general has the paperwork to back of her suit, right? what corroborating evidence, i

but for michael cohen, who knows how this would have ended up. but for other people in trump's orbit keeping their mouths shut, maybe he wouldn't get away with as much as he gets away with. the last thing that's important to talk about is, this is a civil case. your invocation of the fifth amendment right can be used against you. you can get the jury or the court to make an adverse inference. donald trump in an exercise of great discipline which he didn't engage in when there's a microphone, he took the fifth 440 times in this investigation. allen weisselberg did the same thing. if he had nothing to hide, why is he keeping quiet 440 times? >> he has something to hide. >> there's a parallel to how he governed as president. we wouldn't have actually known about many things that happened in the lead-up to january 6 and attempts to overturn the election if people didn't speak out. many people close to him stayed local and kept their mouths shut. it's people like michael cohen and whistle-blowers who have come forward. >> many are still keeping silent

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the one and only michael cohen is here with receipts and more. next. >> i think they took my will. i found out yesterday. i said where is -- >> am i in it? >> i think they took my will. could cause a lot of problems if that gets published from people who won't be so happy or maybe will be very happy. the tenth pick is in the new all-american club. that's a “club” i want to join! let's hear from simone. chuck, that's a club i want to join! i literally just said that. i like her better than you the new subway series. what's your pick? you deserve to feel safe the new subway series. with the confidence that you're protected online. introducing mcafee plus, all in one protection that goes beyond your devices. it protects you, your identity and privacy with credit and dark web monitoring, removing your personal info from sites that sell it, and more - all backed by one million dollars in identity theft coverage. with mcafee plus, you can enjoy life online confidently because safety has a feeling all its own. choosing a treatment for your chronic migraine - 15 or more headache days a mon

michael cohen was donald trump's personal attorney for years.as you saw there, his testimony before the house oversight committee back in 2019 writ led directly to today's lawsuit. he is the host of the mea culpa podcast, and author of the book revenge, out next month. listening to the recitation by letitia james of the scope of these fraudulent practices, what was your reaction? did that sound familiar? >> it was interesting because like everyone else i was watching. i had no idea what general tish james was going to say. so when she mentioned my name i was obviously quite elated, to be honest, because i'm finally getting the recognition for what i've been sitting on the mountain tops yelling for three and a half, four years, which is that the trump organization is a criminal enterprise and that i got thrown under the bus by dear old donald simply, as you stated in your intro, somebody has to always fall on the sword for him. right now it looks like it will probably be one or both of his kids. and possibly himself as well. the one correction i

. >> i will remind everyone that this investigation only started after michael cohen, the formerlawyer testified before congress and shed light on this misconduct. >> you might recall that cohen disclosed trump's financial dealings to congress under questioning from democrats on the house oversight committee. >> did the president or his company ever inflate assets or revenues? >> yes. >> did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company? >> yes. >> who else knows that the president did this? >> allen weisselberg, ron liebermann and matthew calamari. >> where would the committee find more information on this? do you think we need to review his financial statements and his tax returns in order to compare them? >> yes, you would find at the trump work. >> michael cohen will join me onset right here in just a moment to discuss what he witnessed in the trump organization. you might have heard there, he mentioned a guy named allen weisselberg, that is the longtime chief financial officer of the trump org. you might remember that just last month, that individual tha

committed the same misconduct. >> joining us is the former personal attorney of donald trump, michael cohenmichael, great to have you here. >> good to see you both. >> she gave you credit that you launched this investigation. i remember, we all do, when you testified in front of congress and said that there was a lot of fudging of the numbers going on. did you know the scope of it? did you know that there were 200 false or misleading statements about his assets over the years? >> there may have been two or three that i wasn't aware of, but the rest i was. and these were part of the topics that i spoke with not only the attorney general, not only the district attorney, but seven different congressional committees. i've just got to say, thank got for attorney general james. she's tenacious and ferocious, she's what over attorney general should be like and i give her the absolute greatest of props. >> donald trump is at the center of a web of investigations. we can put it up on the screen just to show how many. but this investigation, what was announced today, the valuations, what it goes on,

a crime that michael cohen could not have committed without donald trump. impossible to commit the trick crime without donald trump. i cannot sit here beginning to understand why donald trump has not been charged with that crime, which would've been the responsibility of merrick garland's justice department, because it couldn't have occurred until donald trump was no longer president. so it wasn't even possible under justice department policy that, highly questionable positively. this seems to be a situation where the justice department is simply asking us to forget what we heard in court that day from michael cohen under oath? forget what we read in the prosecutors pleadings because we will never explain to you ever, why this other person who was involved in committing the crime was not charged. >> because there is also a rule and important to the workings of the department of justice that people who are investigated but not charged or not discussed. so in my book, dozens of people who i could've mentioned that we investigated but didn't indict and they ar

i would just say that i want to emphasize something about michael cohen's testimony. his break with donald trump was important for lots of reasons. and it did spur letitia james' investigation. one of the most crucial investigations of cohen's testimony was essentially right at the heart of intention, possible criminal intent. this will come up if the department of justice decides to pick this up. either at the irs level or at main justice. cohen said that the information that donald trump gave about the square footage, the valuation, the amount of sales he had at a particular property, all of those were inflated when it behooved him financially. they were deflated when it behooved him financially. in other words, for the irs, it might be good to say something was worth less money. to the customer who is coming to buy or the bank that's considering giving you a loan, it might be a good dwrod say it was worth a lot more. it's that criminal intent, the knowing that you're telling people one thing if it helps you financially and you're telling them the opposite if it help

they decided michael cohen was not a promising foundation to build a fraud case on.s case is going to trial. this will take years. >> it's just one of several cases, laura. how is father-in-law -- what is his reaction? we saw him with sean hannity last night. what is the family response to this at this point? >> well, it's disappointing, martha. you know, sadly this has become common place for all of us in the trump family. this sort of treatment and investigation and these allegations that always end up being false. you know what we're holding up fine. there was no wrongdoing. nothing happened here. but sadly, this just goes to speak to i think where we are in america that you can target your political adversaries in this sort of way. let's be clear about the attorney general. 47 days from now, she's up for re-election. she's behind in the polls, behind her republican opponent. she promised and campaigned on the fact that she was going to take down donald trump. so now she's got to bring something forward here as she's closing in the gap towards the mid-term electio

i will remind everyone that this investigation only started after michael cohen, the former lawyer -- his former lawyer testified before congress and shed light on this misconduct. the remedies are consistent with what we have sought for other businesses that committed the same misconduct. this investigation revealed that donald trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to achieve -- to deceive banks and the people of the great state of new york. claiming you have money to you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal. it's the art of the steal. and there cannot be different rules for different people in this country or in this state. former presidents are no different. so today, we are making good on that promise, on our commitment, because no one -- no one is above the law. and i would like for them to understand this investigation was led by kevin walace, senior counsel andrew amer, assistant attorney general colleen faherty, assistant attorney general alex finkelstein, assistant attorney general stephanie toray, assistant attorney general austin

attorney, was able to open it up again. >> let me dig in on the michael cohen. >> so this is your deputies running this case. there is a 41-page document that repeatedly invoked individual one and that was donald trump. he's described as an unindicted co-conspirator. >> let me stop you there. >> by analysts who read the document. >> okay. >> but what you're book reveals an investigation into the activity around cohen was stopped. was donald trump under investigation and main doj stopped that investigation. >> i can't say who was part of the investigation, the campaign finance violation investigation. but what i can say is, the investigation was stopped. but the office persevered and it was opened again. and audrey straus was in charge of that investigation and there were no charges brought ultimately but i have every confidence that she handled herself in traditional southern district fashion with integrity and independence. >> so she was able to take the michael cohen and pursue the hush money. >> yes. >> and nobody put their finger on the scale and told you to

plus, we'll hear from michael cohen, who knows all too well about the decades and decades of intentional fraud, forth by the ex-president and his company and its leaders after yesterday's blockbuster lawsuit, we'll show you what michael cohen says could be the end of the con for the don. and later, the spouse of a supreme court justice, ginny thomas, will come in and speak with the january 6t committee. we'll bring you all of those stories and more after "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. " continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. oh, that i can't believe i scored this price feeling! s wayfair always delivers.. small prices for big dreams. ♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ as a business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind. so start saving by switching to the mobile service designed for

i will talk to michael cohen himself this morning. plus, senator tim kaine is here to talk about the highest stakes midterms in memory. the danger of this -- vladimir putin and more. also, it's banned book week. we will have a special edition of the banned book club today, with someone who works squarely at the rights of human rights democracy, and literature, velshi starts now. good morning i'm ali velshi, and it is saturday the 24th. it is day 213 of russia's brutal and barbaric war on ukraine which, remember, putin planned would take all of three days would capture the capital. something that never happened. if you need more proof on just how brutal and barbaric this war, is take a look at this front page headline out of msnbc news.com this morning. russian troops raped and tortured children in ukraine, against the backdrop of the un general assembly, a new report about the independent national crumpet -- commission inquiry of documents scores of war crimes committed in ukraine. among, them children as young as four years old have

everybody remembers michael cohen a fierce defender of donald trump for years and now an enemy.ou think, geraldo? >> letitia james is the most political politician and the most political state in the union, in new york. she led the charge against governor andrew cuomo and then once the various cases that she conjured up failed in terms of criminal prosecution, she announced that she would run to replace andrew cuomo as governor. it is absolutely shocking to me mar-a-largo, just take that as an example, which she says the fable, the state in palm beach is work $75 million. larry ellison just bought gemini, a probability for $173 million south of mar-a-largo. so twice what her low-ball estimation of mar-a-largo, which is or certainly could be the most valuable personal property in the united states of america. she's a political animal. this is all about she campaigned that she was going to go after trump. you know, she went after him before she was attorney general. she's devoted a good hunk of that office in the troubled empire state to getting trump and his kids. i think it's ve

michael cohen and i have had a long conversation about what he is doing now.e's asking for his entire file. doj came back first and said, no, we've got nothing. we got nothing on this. nope. and then they came back and said -- so, he gave them evidence of an email or two that he had found, and they go, yeah, we've got something like 40,000 pages or 40,000 documents, one of those. and by the way, it will take about 50 years because we can't give you any more than 500 at a time. he's pursuing this, and everybody impacted should be pursuing their own cases to see what happened. and so should kerry, who we learned from this reporting was a target of trump. >> kerry was a target for criminal prosecution, and what's made clear in what the "times" is reporting about the berman book, mike schmidt, is something that you reported about the mueller investigation. what trump tweeted very clearly directed his justice department. i mean, trump attacks kerry, the justice department, and sdny is asked to investigate john kerry, i think, for violations of the logan act, becaus

and i represented michael cohen, so i'm well familiar with it, and that wasn't his bid to be releasedfederal prison, after he was unconstitutionally and ended. and as for people who filed a disciplinary complaint against rudy giuliani. so, you're kind of aware that it's kind of a slow boil, but when you put it all together right now, it really is remarkable, and it really goes to what we've been hearing from people like michael cohen for a long time. that there is a tremendous amount of pressure by the former president on his advisers to, as you say, do his bidding. and we've seen that for a long time now. and if anything, it's only, it pressure has only increased, as we see now with a more recent lawyers who are hiring the lawyers. and it's interesting to say, a russian nesting tall, where lawyers who have managed to avoid criminal or other investigations are now representing some of the lawyers who are now under investigation. from reporting and common sense, it's a little hard, for obvious reasons, for former president trump to -- the state. >> david, let's talk about the dynamics

so has the attorney general come up with new material that michael cohen didn't know about, that's at it would have to be very, very strong material i think from the southern district to go along with the case. >>> coming up russian president vladimir putin has, again, issued a not so veiled nuclear threat over the war in ukraine, calling up hundreds of thousands more russian troops to join the fight. it's the biggest escalation of the war since the invasion. i'll talk with "the new yoyork times" tom freeman next. [zoom call] ...pivot... work bye. vacation hi! book with priceline. 'cause when you save more, you can “no way!” more. no wayyyy. no waaayyy! no way! [phone ringing] hmno way! no way! pricine. every trip is a big deal. when cold symptoms keep you up, try vicks nyquil severe. just one dose starts to relieve 9 of your worst cold and flu symptoms, to help take you from 9 to none. for max strength nighttime relief, nyquil severe: ♪ only on prime video. the steelers. the browns. our hopes and dreams out on this field right here. how does he do it time after time? an afc showdown

and michael cohen, the president's lawyer and fixer. and it's time to even things out by indicting a democrat before the midterms. >> the bombshell new allegations from former u.s. attorney geoffrey berman that trump and willier barr wanted him to put his thumb on the scales of justice and go after trump's political rivals. >> also tonight, we have come to know lindsay graham as the most cravenly opportunistic politician in america, and that's saying a lot. and now two months after saying that states should decide on abortion, he is pushing for a federal ban. >> and giuliani biographer andrew curtsman joins me on rudy's disgraceful dissent. he was once called america's mayor, and now he's a laughing maga stock. >> trump saw the governmental ageany as his. it's run by the attorney general, but when said attorney general is one william barr, things get murky. which brings us to geoffrey berman, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york who trump fired in 2020 after he refused barr's request that he resign. a lot has happened

in that case, that they actually cite, michael cohen asked for a special master the same day that the search occurred. that was about the possibility of the fbi coming upon documents that involved other clients, cases that had nothing to do with what the fbi was investigating. and that attorney client privilege with those other parties should be protected, and there should be a way to do that. that is the basic world of the special master. until now, where they are asking for special masters in an environment where the head never been one before. for documents that had never been the subject of this kind of inspection before. how do you referee this? >> it's pretty easy to referee it, lawrence, the special master -- if you want one, you ask for one right away, the day of the search, as michael cohen did. you don't wait for the government to read everything, and then ask for one later. you ask for it for documents that are uniquely yours, not somebody else's. here, these government documents have been stolen by trump, their government documents. and said there is no case for a special

what does michael cohen think about all of this? well, we will ask him.ah, ma. it was so easy! i found the perfect car, under budget too! and i get seven days to love it or my money back... i love it! i thought online meant no one to help me, but susan from carvana had all the answers. she didn't try to upsell me. not once, because they're not salespeople! what are you...? guess who just checked in on me? mom... susan from carvana! [laughs] we'll drive you happy at carvana. with directv i can get live tv and on demand together: football, housewives, football, housewives... whoops. i just want to talk! get your tv together. call 1-800-directv to save up to $120. hold on... you're a night manager and mom. and the bill payer, baker, and nightlight maker? that's a lot. so, adding “and student” might feel daunting. but what if a school could be there for all of you? career, and family and finances and mental health. happy birthday. well, it can. national university, supporting the whole you. >> tech: when you have auto glass damage... choose safelite. we can c

trump's attorney saying it's only fair since it was done for michael cohen.'m sandra smith. >> john: and i'm john roberts. we'll see you tomorrow for friday, our favorite day. "the story" with martha starts right now. >> martha: good afternoon. i'm martha maccallum. breaking update on former president trump's special master request. we'll have more on that as we follow that story out of west palm beach, florida in just a moment. first, the nation just got our report card in on the pandemic education situation. those who oversaw it are calling it a very sobering look at the devastating impact that all of it had on our children. so this new federal study is of 9-year-olds across the country and shows that from 2020

michael cohen said this as well because it's essentially a paper trail. there's evidence, there is a preponderance of evidence as barbara put. it let's take a listen to a michael had to say to me, and then we will talk. >> they have all of the documents. they receive the documents not only from the irs after a very like the, typical donald trump the deflect, the flex, deflect, delay, delay, delay scenario. they asked for it, he says, no they sued, they lost, he appealed, they lost, supreme court, they lost. then they got all of the documents. the corroborates the 2011, 2012, 2013 personal financial statements. assuming the documents are provided, as well as the road map. >> he also went on to say, suzanne, that he greenlight everything. the former president signs off on all of this stuff, he is the final stop. i am wondering if they have the evidence to back that up as well. >> he does, it's a very small organization. a lot of people talked about that. a small group of people. the complaint is powerful because it has the documents, they also have corrobora

. >> letitia james's reference to michael cohen's testimony, the house oversight testimony in 2019 beingwsuit. let's take a listen to that exchange with alexander ocasio-cortez and then we'll talk. >> to to your knowledge did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company. >> who else knows that the president did this. >> allen weisselberg. >> where would the committee find more information on this? do you think we need to review his financial statements and tax statements to call for them? >> yes, you will find them at the trump ork. >> i'm surprised michael cohen isn't on given how outsupposen he has been and it is part of the first part of the investigation that really launched it all. . >> yes, michael cohen i think has been very frustrated with the fact that there wasn't action taken on some of the allegations that he presented about the trump org sooner. i think this shows us just how difficult these cases are, and how long they take. so as you were saying, that happened back in 2019, here we are today, in 2022, talking about the fruition of those allegations, a

so has the attorney general come up with new material that michael cohen didn't know about, that's a would have to be very very strong material for the southern district to go with criminal case. >> paul kind great to see you, david cay johnston as well. russian president vladimir putin has again issued a not so veiled nuclear threat over ukraine and it's kind of hundreds of thousands of more troops to join the fight it's a biggest escalation of the war since the invasion of the new york times's tom freeman next. you go by lots of titles. veteran, dad, hair stylist. so adding a student title might feel daunting. national university is here to support all your titles. national university. supporting the whole you. with directv i can get live tv and on demand together: football, housewives, football, housewives... whoops. i just want to talk! get your tv together. call 1-800-directv to save up to $120. only on prime video. the steelers. the browns. our hopes and dreams out on this field right here. how does he do it time after time? an afc showdown. it's the steel city and the dawg pou

again, michael cohen had an aggressive fallout, falling out with donald trump.rch that was done in mar-a-lago, donald trump has other homes around the country. he has trump tower in new york, bedminster in new jersey, places he frequents. why has doj and fbi not executed a search of those properties or would we know if they've gotten anything back from those properties? >> look, the fact that donald trump announced there was a search of this particular property leads me to believe if there had been searches of any of his other properties we would know about it. that being said, why haven't they done searches of those properties? we don't know what witnesses -- we know there are multiple civilian witnesses -- we don't know what the witnesses have told the fbi about the existence of documents at mar-a-lago and to what extent witnesses told the fbi about other documents that may be other places. i will point out to you that there's something very odd about the certification that was signed by christina and its says she was authorized by the office of donald j. trum

tisch james today name dropped michael cohen, at least called him out for his role in this. sparking or being the genesis of the investigation. we'll show you some of what he had testified to publicly next. >>> plus, the ex-president's problems, of course, do not start and stop with letitia james. the january 6th committee will hold another public hearing one week from today. we'll look at all the things that have changed in this country since we last heard from them in a public way, including a huge ramp-up of the justice department's parallel probe into january 6th. >>> and trying to isolate another world leader on the world stage, president biden this morning on the dangerous aggression coming from russia's vladimir putin. who today doubled down on threats of using nuclear weapons. we'll talk about all that when "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. with our flea and tick meds. it's not peanut butter. i know, i know. but every time the box comes, we get the peanut butter. yes, because mom takes the meds out of the box and puts them in th

. >> and that's an ultimate question now, and of course, michael cohen, who she says it was his testimony before congress in february 2019 that helped spark her inquiry, and meaning this has been going on now for several years, and was the one that sparked her inquiry and we know he went before federal prosecutors in the southern district of new york tied to some campaign finance violations and payments to two women who say they were paid to be quiet leading up to the 2016 election for their alleged affairs with the former president, is part of that, and part of his cooperation agreement, with both the special counsel's office and sdny, he spoke with them and sdny said they had concerns about cohen's credibility, based on their discussions, so it will be interesting to see now, going forward, do they take a look at this, is this all information they've referred before that maybe just doesn't fit within the confines of federal criminal statutes? is this something we're in the course of this investigation, and we have to remember that the manhattan district attorney's office, which fought o

joining me now, as you can see, michael cohen. the former personal attorney and fixer for trump. he is the host of mea culpa podcast, which i've appeared on several times. author of the upcoming, books revenge, how donald trump weaponize the department of justice against his critics. he is also credited, by the way, by new york attorney general letitia james this week, for helping her investigation into the trump organizations fraudulent business practices. no better per -- person to talk to about. this nice to see you. >> good to see you. >> i just had a whole lot of, things what stands out to you? most >> there are so many investigations, and you wouldn't believe. if this was a television, show you would turn around and say, those -- >> you would say this is too complicated -- >> it's stupid! i can't watch this, it's stupid, it can never happen. but it is happening, in real time in our lives. our democracy is in peril because of one man. one man who goes ahead and weaponizes the a united states department, against its credits. against its country. anybody who was not one of his

there were no convictions. >> your office also prosecuted michael cohen, of course, president trump'sn that case? >> a couple different ways. the first instance on the eve of cohen's guilty plea, main justice tried to get our office to remove any reference to individual one who was president trump. they were unsuccessful in that venture. they were unsuccessful in every attempt to politically interfere with our office. we held the line in every instance. >> i never understood if president trump is individual one in that case, which we know that he is, if he was directing michael cohen to violate the law, how come he wasn't prosecuted? >> well, the decision to prosecute is a very complex one. it depends -- evidence against one individual doesn't necessarily apply as equally against another person. and so, you know, it's a complex situation. no charges were ever brought against anyone but michael cohen in that case. >> as i said, the details you have here are pretty stunning. before you were fired, you appeared before congress and refused to take on this question of political interferenc

i also think that michael cohen clip that you play there is fascinating. you know, i don't know whether his speculation is accurate, but there is this concept in government when it comes to classified documents known as gray male, that is this idea that a person has access to classified information can threaten to disclose them if they are prosecuted criminally. and so, that argument that he was holding them as leverage in case he ever got into trouble, michael cohen is speculating but there is a merit to that strategy that we have seen occur in past cases. >> that's a scary speculation, barb, we also saw headline today suggesting the special master is testing trump's lawyers, what could be going on there? >> yeah, i think that's right, stephanie. we've heard donald trump say in the public, in the media that the fbi planted evidence when they seized those documents at mar-a-lago that included classified documents. you know, of course his defense has changed, it was declassified, they weren't there, all kinds of different defenses. one of the things that ju

. >> the attorney general noted the vindication began after former trump lawyer michael cohen testified before congress back in 2019. did >> the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company? >> yes. >> was the president interested real reducing his local real estate tax bills? >> yes. >> and how did you do that? >> what you do is, you deflate the value of the asset and then you put in a request to the tax department for a deduction. >> new york state lawsuit seeks to recover 250 million bucks from the trump organization, and james says she hopes to essentially ban trump and his kids from running any businesses in new york. trump's lawyer says the attorney general's claims are quote, merit-less, and tonight on fox news, for a full hour, trump himself said it was up to the banks to make sure his company is telling the truth. >> we have a disclaimer. right on the front. it basically says, get your own people, be at your own risk. what we do is, ears the financial statement, but be careful, because it may not be accurate. it may be way off. i think it's close to a page and

one of donald trump's former attorneys, michael cohen. nce for making hush money payments to women who claimed they had affairs with donald trump. cohen is the host of the mea culpa and the author of a new book. that will be released october 11th. it's been a few years. >> it's been a while. >> thank you for being here. what do you think? you were one of trump's lawyers. are you surprised to hear things like i just read from one of his attorneys? >> absolutely not. it's something i've been saying for a long time now. that place is completely open. it's directly above the catering hall. it's not just guests. it's not just members. it's anybody that is there hypothetically for a wedding or a christening, bar mitzvah, any event they have. all that separated these individuals from top secret classified documents, ten stairs and one little master lock key. >> one of trump's attorneys, i read one of her quotes there, raised eyebrows for mcomments talking about what charges donald trump could face. let me play some of this sound and get your thou

your take on michael cohen's assessment. >> remember, cohen is the source of this entire lawsuit. 200lly, it is a pretty basic pattern. he takes properties and he over values them grotesquely and a way that is not subjective. 30,000 foot apartment when it's 10,000. that's what you do to get bank loans. that is for his whole empire. you did it in new york. -- and then you lowball it when you're looking to pay taxes. look, i am among the many. i haven't said before that he's going down. since access hollywood, we have been thinking, could he really hang in there? this is a sledgehammer of a lawsuit. it is so detailed. it goes to the entire brand. my main pragmatic evaluation, i don't think he can go to trial on this. it is a burden of proof. he himself, as did eric, it took the fifth amendment hundreds of times. you would have it in front of jury again and again i asked mr. trump, why did you do 30,000 when it was 10,000? his answer, i refused to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me. you can use it as evidence. this is the kind of what casework where the jury can come back a

in this interview he talks about the michael cohen case.n respond to why former president trump was noted in the indictment as individual number one but never prosecuted. he said he didn't have enough evidence. he said evidence against one individual doesn't evenly apply against another individual.

complicated thing to do and re-do everything that he had already put aside and reject it. >> i know michael cohen has been jumping up and down screaming there should be a prosecution here. i didn't understand how there wasn't. you've done a lot of the really fantastic reporting that's brought out a lot of just the fundamental fraud of donald trump's whole origin story, that he is the self-made man that took a mere $1 million loan from his father and built it into $1 billion. not true, not true, not true. in your reporting, are any of these properties, trump tower, 40 wall street, mar-a-lago, doral, all of the but under the circumstances et cetera, is any of it profitable? >> well, it's a good question. the trump organization is private, so we haven't had a good look at its financials. i believe mar-a-lago is profitable. its revenue has gone up as more and more people who want to be closer to the president have flocked there. the trump hotel, there were a number of properties that were not profitable. if i had to look at those things and say what was profitable, probably las vegas, doral, and mar-

. >> the testimony, michael cohen, his onetime lawyer. and here we are at the end of that with the announcement of these charges and they punishment that they're looking for is is pretty harsh. there were a number of things that she said they were seeking. i'll just highlight a few of the big ones. first of all, they want to bar the former president and his children per serving as an officer or director of any corporation or entity in new york. to bar trump from any commercial real estate activity in new york for at least 5 years and then permanently ban any of his current businesses from operating in new york ever against. and then you heard her say they also want restitution. the right fielder is about 250 million dollars of ill-gotten gains that they want him to more than just basically in new york, which l- is what she is saying she wants and the money back that she says he. >> basically stole. but also she said flat out there turning this over to the irs and to federal prosecutors. so that's where the case could go next. we'll see wh

new york attorney general letitia james said her investigation started after michael cohen testified before congress. he is here next. >> it was my experience that mr. trump inflated his total assets won it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed amongst the wealthiest people in forbes and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes. when a normal day is anything but normal, we fit your schedule, with our unique tub over tub process installed in as little as a day. bath fitter. it just fits. visit bathfitter.com to book your free consultation. ♪ hey, sorry i missed your game. it's okay. you see that? that's when i realized it's time to finally do the thing we've been talking about for years. so we're making plans for right now. ♪ careful. ♪ you know, opera isn't so bad. do you like it? start your plan today with a northwestern mutual financial advisor and spend your life living. ♪ why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate-to-severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me. by hitting eczema where it counts, dupixent helps heal your skin

if there's any one who knows about trump's braggadocious behavior, it's his fixer, michael cohen. i want you to hear what he said just a little while ago on msnbc. >> this chase with tish james is the one keeping him up at night. he believes that the georgia case, he'll be able to defeat by battling the issue of mens rhea, the guilty mind. he did not know that he was doing anything. he believed that there was 11,700 and something votes that were stolen from him, so he was just telling them to go find the stolen votes, not looking to break the law. the tish james case destroys, him because he's a fragile ego. his whole life is all about his financial wealth. >> david, i wonder what you make of cohen's assessment there. >> i think michael cohen is right on the money there. donald has a long history of not just inflating assets when it will help him to get more money and deflating assets when he can pay less tax. he has actually gone to farcical levels to hide documents, claiming they were destroyed by a broken water pipe and then it were literally at the door, we just accidentally w

and that breaking news you revealed tonight about an individual one complaint in the michael cohen case, turns out it was twice as long in the original drafts, and the bill barr people at the justice department got it cut in half. it's still was hugely condemning of individual one. and the thing i've been wondering about, not since that time but since the new administration came in is, why hasn't donald trump been prosecuted as individual one in that case we understand the while he was president, william barr was gonna say that you can't prosecutor sitting president, but as soon as he wasn't president, i fully expected that he was going to be indicted on the elements of the individual one case, that are identical to the michael cohen case. and you know, there's so much about that prosecutorial discretion and things like that that is by necessity secret. so of course, if you are being improperly pressure to do something a looks like prosecutorial discretion, you shouldn't be quiet about it, you should tell people about it. that sort of the curtain that jeffrey berman has pulled back now.

nobody knows that better than a guy like michael cohen who he said he was about to criticize the presidentack into prison by bill barr's department of justice and he successfully filed the great writ, the writ of habeas corpus and a federal judge in new york said you were just burnished by your government for your first amendment free speech rights. that is horrific. >> and there's all these concentric circles of chicanery around trump so you have barr who auditioned in a memo said please, sir, put me in, coach and i'll take care of you as a.g., and then you've got bannon, stealing people's money to fake build a walled and then you've got trump doing the same thing. this is a "new york times" piece, a federal grand jury in washington is examining the formation of and spending by a fund-raising operation created by donald j. trump after his loss in the 2020 election as he was soliciting millions of dollars by baselessly asserting that the election was fraud by widespread spread. this was a giant grist like everything bannon did and everything trump did. does trump go the way of bannon for d