there's a lot for donald trump to worry about. michael cohenthings he will have to think about over the coming months as this unfolds. >> much for donald trump to worry about, harry. also, a set of history that doesn't necessarily make donald trump look consistent. here he was talking about people who plead the fifth amendment. >> five people taking the fifth amendment. like you see on the mob. you see the mob take the fifth. if you are innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment? >> harry, i put the president's question to his own lawyer, to you tonight. >> the first thing i would say is that's something you are entitled to do. the inference that trump is drawing to anyone is going to apply to his own fixer. it could apply expressly in the civil suit. the suit that has been stayed. if it goes forward and he winds up taking the fifth, the judge can instruct the jury in the stormy daniels case they can draw an adverse inference, something they can't do in the criminal proceedings. a lot of smoke there, obviously. >> you are making an import

michael cohen never told donald trump? donald trump never got a piece of the action? because i'm going to tell you that when michael cohen is charged, and there is no question -- there is absolutely zero question in my mind he is going to be charged. but when he is charged, i can assure you that one of the critical pieces of inquiry will be what did donald trump know about these payments? what was the arrangement, if any? was he in on it? did he get a piece of the action? if he knew about it, what did he do to shut it down? this is going to be a treasure trove. you can speak to this better than i can. this is going to be a treasure trove potentially of inquiry. >> quickly we have to go to a break. because of what michael avenue knotty just said, what i just heard him describing, you're the prosecutor here, but what i heard him describing the concept that at&t is paying, say, $50,000 a month or any amount a month to michael cohen and donald trump as has a piece of that, or novartis is paying $100,000 a month and donald trump has a piece of that, what i just heard in tha

michael cohen -- is that cohen is in big trouble. deepening trouble, and that means big and deepening trouble for trump. and what is emerging here is a picture of michael cohen as a key figure in donald trump's relationships to the russians. his involvement preelection, in contacts with the russians and now post election in receiving a payment from a russian oilgarch through a conduit. but at the very time he is going to donald trump in the oval office and dlif delivering a message about how lifting sanctions should be done. and then a written message to the security adviser, michael flynn about lifting sanctions. >> senator stay with me. i want to add a reporter, amy sorenson. she questions if michael cohen's llc was effectively a slush fund for donald trump. you have a turn of phase in here that's pretty striking. viewers are familiar with the tendency for us to discuss many developments in these stories as big or bombshells or turning points but this one does feel different because of the evidence of it, the money trail, which cannot be explained away. you don't mind if i read you, you, do you? >> just go ahead. >> tuesday's revelations felt a bit like the moment in november 1986

admits it made a big mistake by hiring michael cohen donald trump's personal lawyer contractual payments amounting to six hundred thousand dollars and now under the spotlight as cohen is under federal investigation he was hired to advise a t.n.t. on the trumpet ministration which the firm's c.e.o. now says was a serious misjudgment the lawyer for adult film star stormy daniels revealed earlier this week that a slew of companies paid cohen to get information on the presidency all this could harm a planned eighty five billion dollars deal to buy time warner disliked by trump. and supporters on wall street forus against shares of time warner haven't really suffered much since the cohen affair came to light is a sign investors see the eight hundred thousand time warner tie up as doomed anyway all that the cohen issue is purely political well at the end it's not the decision of donald trump at this point if the deal comes through or not but the whole case is a debate over is there a justice department under decision here is to do probably on june twelfth but so far wall street does not believ

and donald trump knew that, these are the kinds of things that people like michael cohen do for people like donald trump. so rudy giuliani gave it an even wider blanket of knowledge in effect to donald trump about the general operations of michael cohen, which i have to say sounds realistic, and also intersects, kind of importantly, with the story you're talking about in terms of the michael cohen raid material and what's in it and how donald trump and michael cohen aren't really telling the president's lawyers what they think is in it. >> michael schmidt just reporting on our air moments ago that the president's lawyers don't know what's in those documents because michael cohen and president trump won't tell them. michael cohen and president trump definitely know what's in those documents but they won't tell trump's own lawyers what's in them, so president trump's lawyers can't prepare what to make of that case or what threat the president might be under in that case. but it now sounds like rudy giuliani -- the way you describe it it's like he's prepping it like there's

michael d. cohen, esquire, personal attorney to president donald j. trump. michael avenatti in another tweet pointed out, mr. giuliani claimed that mr. cohen is no longer mr. trump's lawyer as of when? because as of april 11, 2018, this year, he was still his lawyer as evidenced by the e-mail i just posted. see also mr. trump's comments on air force one that same month. michael avenatti has not revealed how he obtained an e-mail from michael cohen to attorney keith davidson. joining our discussion now, harry litman, tim o'brien, and jennifer rogers, former federal prosecutor. she is now executive director for the center of advancement of integrity at columbia law school. that signature block on michael cohen's e-mail is fascinating because this is the new phone he had to get after the fbi seized all of his phones, more than a dozen of thechl apparem apparen. so he had to deliberately type onto there after the fbi raid, personal attorney to donald trump. what's your reading of that? >> it's also the title he was very unabashed about using apparently around the

michael cohen. now after the michael cohen raid, when donald trump looks at michael cohen's name appearing repeatedlyo scare donald trump all the more. >> well, lawrence, i mean the pucker factor that must be apparent with mr. trump at this point relating to mr. cohen is probably immeasurable. and each day it gets even worse and worse. i mean we saw that -- we saw now -- or we see an attempt by mr. trump through, you know, his friends at the "national enquirer" to start undermining the credibility of michael cohen by calling him a liar, et cetera. >> here, the "national enquirer" cover, which is controlled by donald trump, is attacking michael cohen this week. >> and you're going to see -- i'm going to predict that you're going to see in the coming days and weeks an even further effort by donald trump to distance himself from michael cohen because it is becoming apparent to him, something we've been talking about for a long time on this show, lawrence, michael cohen is going to roll over on the president, and he wants to try to undermine his credibility. and i'm going to predict within the next two t

, 1:00am in london and 8:00pm in the evening in washington, where it's alleged donald trump's personal lawyer michael cohenived a secret payment of at least $400,000 to arrange talks between the ukrainian president and president trump. that is the claim made by those with direct knowledge of the process, who've spoken to the bbc. they say the money was sent to mr cohen by intermediaries, acting for the ukrainian leader, petro poroshenko. the ukrainian government has denied the claims. mr cohen, his partner felix sater and the two intermediaries also deny involvement, as our correspondent paul wood reports. donald trump's run for the us presidency was watched with alarm by ukraine's government, dismayed by his apparently pro—russian rhetoric. then trump had a setback. his campaign manager, paul manafort, was forced to resign, accused of getting millions of dollars from russian interests in the ukraine. the leak that brought manafort down came from the very top of the ukrainian government, according to sources here and outside the ukraine. if that's true, the ukrainians badly miscalculated backing the losing

michael cohen's apartment, hotel and office. so now we're being asked to believe that donald trump didn't know, until after the raid, that donald trump had already reimbursed michael cohen with a series of reimbursement checks that began a year before. rudy giuliani believes, like most trump associates and lawyers, that donald trump is completely incapable of speaking to the special prosecutor without committing a crime right before the prosecutor's eyes. >> now they go to obstruction of justice, collusion among their -- the players. what they're really trying to do is trap him into perjury, and we're not suckers. >> no. we're not suckers. because we're not going to let the president commit a crime right in front of the special prosecutor. a crime that he can only commit if the president chooses to commit the crime of perjury. because, of course, there is no such thing as a perjury trap. a trap is something that you can't get out of. all you have to do to avoid a perjury trap is tell the truth. something donald trump's lawyers believe he absolutely cannot do. joining us now barbara mcquade, matt miller, msnbc contributor, and mi

michael cohen is obviously having a rough time here. i think there are a lot of people in michael cohen's world, and in the world of donald trump, i should say, who believe that michael cohen, with these lobbying clients, overstated his contacts with the president, once donald trump left trump tower and left the transition and went into the white house. so, you know, i had a source telling me today that michael cohen never talked to the president about substance once he got into the white house. yes, when michael cohen worked for him, sure, but there are lots of questions being raised about how michael cohen was representing himself to these clients as somebody who could get to the president and knew things, and, in fact, that's what novartis said today. novartis said, we wanted him to advise us on health care. we had one meeting with him, and oh, by the way, after that meeting, we decided that he wasn't of any use to us, but because of the nature of our contract, we then had to continue paying him $100,000 a month until the contract was over. >> it's amazing. one meeting, decided it wasn't going to work out and still paid him for the re

michael cohen. you worked with donald trump. you've witnessed the way they do business. how they interact with each other. would you be surprised if michael cohen was doing this and donald trump had no knowledge of it? >> yes -- no, no, excuse me. i wouldn't be surprised. >> why? >> once again -- i've told this to jon repeatedly, i've told this to ken. i think i've told this to you. the president hates people making money off of him. only one person that gets away with it in his face is lewandowski. he hates it. now look, one of the clients you named is at&t. how did that work out for at&t, katy? they're in a fight right now -- >> hold on, old on. october 22nd at&t said it wants to buy time warner and trump tweets about it. too much concentration of power in the hands of too few. he talks about it on october 22nd. on november 21st, the next month, he says i'm not going to get involved in litigation but personally i've felt that it was a deal that's not good for the country. do you think that because at&t was paying michael cohen, michael cohen was basically charged with t

that is the new deadline for donald trump's lawyers and michael cohen's lawyers to review all of the evidence obtained by the fbi in raids on michael cohen's home, office, and hotel room. by june 15th, donald trump and michael cohen must file all of their requests to protect attorney/client privileged communication revealed in those documents. michael cohen's lawyer today said, that's impossible. he told judge kimba wood, that he has 15 lawyers working full time on sifting through all of that evidence. he said, we are moving heaven and earth. we have people working all night. we have people sleeping on couches in p our offices. we have people who worked all through the memorial day weekend. i had an associate yesterday who felt a tremor in his hand from lack of sleep. i had to send him home late last night. he came back at 7:30 this morning. we are working around the clock. judge kimba wood was unmoved. federal prosecutors asked for a deadline of mid june, michael cohen and donald trump's lawyers asked for a deadline of mid july. and judge wood said okay, mid june is the date. in mich

michael cohen is having a rough time here. i think there are a lot of people in michael cohen's world and in the world of donald trump i should ay who believe that michael cohen with these lobbying clients over stated his contacts with the president once donald trump left trump tower and left the transition and went into the white house. so, you know, i had a source telling me today that michael cohen never talked to the president about substance. once he got into the white house. and yes, when michael cohen worked for him sure. but lots of questions about how michael cohen was representing himself to these clients as somebody who could get to the president and knew things and in fact, that is what novartis said. we wanted him to advise us on health care. because of the nature of the contract we had to continue to paying him $100,000 a month until the contract was over. >> one meeting and decided it wasn't going to work out and still paid him. nice work if you can get it. ahead, the white house seems to be already trying to distance themselves from michael cohen. really an impossible task. we will look at the president's long

admits it made a big mistake by hiring michael cohen donald trump's personal lawyer contractual payments amounted to six hundred thousand dollars and now under the spotlight as cohen is under federal investigation he was hired to advise eighty entailed on the new trump of ministration which the firm's c.e.o. now says was a serious misjudgment. the lawyer for adult film star stormy daniels revealed earlier this week that a slew of companies paid cohen to get information on the presidency the disclosure of the company's relationship with cohen could affect whether an eighty five billion dollars deal to buy time warner gets approval next month one which donald trump called not good for the country. and yes quarters on wall street forus against shares of time warner haven't really suffered much since the cowen affair came to light is this a sign investors see the a.t.m. tea time warner tie up as doomed anyway all that the cohen issue is purely political. well at the end it's not the decision of donald trump at this point if the deal comes through or not but the whole case is a debate it was

but, you know, the reporting that michael cohen was upset because donald trump had not repaid him the0,000 and then michael cohen's apartment is raided and he's obviously presumed to be the target of a criminal investigation. i'd certainly want to know if any of that payment came subsequent to that raid because if it was, there could be a world of problems for president if that money was paid. that would look very troubling in terms of the timing of a payment like that. >> mimi, what's interesting about the hiring of a prominent white shoe lawyer in washington is that he's joining in real-time this legal team that is a moving target. they have made various arguments just today. i want to play for our audience, rudy giuliani from tonight on fox news talking about why the president really fired james comey, and that will be followed by what the president told lester holt about why he fired james comey. >> he fired comey because comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn't a target of the investigation. he's entitled to that. hillary clinton got that, and he couldn't get that.

that's not good news for michael cohen or donald trump. his latest is a doozy. that story which you want to see it coming in two minutes. but i'm not standing still... and with godaddy, i've made my ideas real. ♪ i made my own way, now it's time to make yours. ♪ everything is working, just like it should ♪ i'm 85 years old in a job where. i have to wear a giant hot dog suit. what? where's that coming from? i don't know. i started my 401k early, i diversified... i'm not a big spender. sounds like you're doing a lot. but i still feel like i'm not gonna have enough for retirement. like there's something else i should be doing. with the right conversation, you might find you're doing okay. so, no hot dog suit? not unless you want to. no. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today with td ameritrade®. stormy daniels lawyer, perhaps you heard of him michael avenatti has been teasing a bombshell story tweeting out images showing a qatarry investor entering trump tower with avenatti claiming that investor bragged about bribing trump officials. he was indeed in

michael cohen. and that's what this is about. the president has no loyalty to anyone. the loyalty is a one-way street. and it only goes to donald trumps not go back, especially when, you know, people are expecting a self-centered narcissist to have their back. michael cohen thought donald trump was going to have his back in all of this? that was yet one of many, many mistakes he's made. >> i just think if you're the guy that cleans up after the porn star stuff, it's a reasonable expectation. >>> an eyebrow raising night from mike pence. wait till you hear he's calling a tireless champion of the rule of law. it's not rod rosenstein. don't juggle your home life and work life without it. ♪ ♪ don't skip that office meeting for a board meeting without it. don't keep it real... keep it going... or simply keep it in the family without it. and don't turn that business trip, into an overdue family trip without it. ♪ ♪ the more you live between life and business, the more you need someone at your back. the powerful backing of american express. don't live life without it. ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the

donald trump. she is trying to get out of an nda. michael cohen, up until recently, filed an arbitration case in qaa ska to keep her quiet, and has been essentially threatening her and putting pressure on her to keep her quiet. she wants to tell her story without the threat of having to pay donald trump millions of dollars. that's what's happening. >> all right, guys. what's happening also you will come back in a little bit and we will talk about that wildly inappropriate comment from the would you say aide about senator john mccain. come on. >>> boiler point. what ignited a new tirade from the president aimed at one of his cabinet members. it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's wh

same person who was also at the inauguration for donald trump and the person who runs the company that funneled, that paid the $500,000 to michael cohen's central consultancy was literally also a campaign clintor to donald trump. to the tune of $150,000 and there might be a question about that money as well. so all there is to say you know if your neighbors live in a swamp, where do you live? >> mm-hmm. jack quinn. i know where you live, more or less in the swamp. but you might not be of the swamp. not everyone in washington is. i guess the final question for you, sir, is you were just outlining why it's suspicious to get so much money when you don't have a lobbying practice and you don't have the experience and it's not clear why such big companies would come to cohen in the first place. it seems to me the implied and careful implication you are drawing is these may have been elicit payments. what do you see is the legal line for prosecutors to actually try to prove that? >> i don't think you know most of the these companies who are hiring him because he had a relationship with you know newly elected president trump, i don't think that

that's not good news for michael cohen or donald trump. his latest is a doozy. that story which you want to see it coming in two minutes. feel the clarity of non-drowsy claritin and relief from symptoms caused by over 200 allergens. like those from buddy. because stuffed animals are clearly no substitute for real ones. feel the clarity. and live claritin clear. at ally, we're doing digital financial services right. but if that's not enough, we have more than 8000 allys looking out for one thing: you. call in the next ten minutes... and if that's not enough, we'll look after your every dollar. put down the phone. and if that's not enough, we'll look after your every cent. grab your wallet. (beeping sound) (computer voice) access denied. and if that's still not enough to help you save... oh the new one! we'll bring out the dogs. mush! (dogs barking) the old one's just fine! we'll do anything, seriously anything, to help our customers. thanks. ally. do it right. stormy daniels lawyer, perhaps you heard of him michael avenatti has been teasing a bombshell story twee

michael cohen and this payment to stormy daniels. this, of course, is that $130,000 payment that michael cohen secretly made to stormy daniels back in 2016 to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with donald trump, now giuliani if you remember stunned people last week when he went on fox news and said donald trump paid back michael cohen for that $130,000 payment and you might also remember he defended michael cohen's payment saying there's nothing to see here, lawyers do these kind of things all the time. here he is. >> that was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way i would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, doesn't matter. like i take care of things like this for my clients. i don't burden them with every single thing that comes along. these are busy people. >> that law firm, greenberg traurig is add dreadsing those comments. here's what they said "we cannot speak to mr. giuliani, speaking for ourselves, we would not condone payments of the nature alleged without the knowledge and direction of a client." i should note that giuliani said he meant to go on temporary leave from his role at this law firm but he has now decided to make that resignation permanent so that he can c

michael cohen was able to get his clients. d.o.d., we know that the korean aerospace company is trying to get a contract there. novartis, their stocks are skyrocketing today because donald trump backed off his pledge to go after drug pricing. everywhere that michael cohen's clients were interested, they seem to be winning. we're going to pull out the documents that show meetings with public officials and these companies. we already found one by accident. we sued for the fcc chairman's calendar last year and we decided to check it today. one month after michael cohen was hired, the ceo of at&t and the gentleman who was fired today met with fcc chairman in barcelona for a private dinner. that's pretty good access. >> so what does that mean? >> when you're trying to prosecute one of these cases or make the moral case in the public, you need to know whether influence was actually peddled. >> so let's pause there. what you're really saying is the defense that's expected from cohen is everyone was wasting their money and he was lightly, not fully defrauding, just lightly misleading them he could do more than he could. you're saying if you get enough records, minutes, fec meetings,

because i highly doubt that donald trump would let it sit in michael cohen's account. >> well remember donald trump during the dpan had come out very strongly against the at&t/time warner merger. so at&t had reason to be concerned when donald trump was going to be elected. michael cohen is not a lobbyist. he's not a registered lobbyist. this was a payment to a guy they thought had the ear of donald trump. might be able to put his thumb on the scale. and make the deal go through. a new report says on the very first business day of the trump administration, the president's personal attorney, michael cohen, signed a contract with at&t to receive $600,000 to consult on long-term planning as well as its pending merger with time warner, which the justice department eventually sued to block last november. documents obtained by the "washington post" show cohen made the deal on january 23rd, 2017. within three days of president trump's inauguration. and just four days after cohen publicly announced he would represent trump as president, and would resign from the trump administration, the organi

, michael cohen, donald trump'shave been lying to the american people about this for a very long time now. so they were trying to hide something. it's incumbent on bob mueller to figure out what that is and if it's criminal activity that can be charged in a court. >> steve, i want to bring you in now. vekselberg's cousin was a doan forethe rnc. he donated $250,000. trump's inauguration committee, $35,000 to a fundraising committee for trump's reelection and the republican national committee. do you have any concerns about this at all? >> you know, i don't, at least yet. and by the way, he is an american when we talk about his cousin, last i checked. being of russian descent in and of itself is not a crime. look, here is the deal. i think michael cohen has to answer some of these questions. and there are legitimate questions to be asked of him that is a legitimate line of inquiry. what is not legitimate in my view is to say that because they paid -- and by the way, if we're to accept the story is true and nbc, for ex

payment to stormy daniels in 2016, donny deutsch from "morning joe" fame caught up with michael cohen, donald trump's attorney, earlier this week. he had this to say about that encounter. >> i spoke with michael cohen yesterday, and his quote about giuliani was he doesn't know what he's talking about. he also said that, look, there are two people that know exactly what happened -- myself and the president, and you'll be hearing my side of the story. and he was obviously very frustrated at what had come out yesterday. >> that sounds, danny, like an ominous sign if you're on donald trump's side of this thing. >> it does. i was actually on that same segment, and when i heard that the first -- the clause that i seized upon was "we will hear michael cohen's side of the story." who will actually hear that side of the story? will it be federal investigators? will it be at trial? why does michael cohen believe, if he's telling donny deutsch this, that he's going to have the opportunity to tell his side of the story? because i can tell you when we won't hear it, and that's in the near future. because if he's

linked oligarch was sending large amounts of money to the president's fixer michael cohen during the period when donald trump was president in a manner that probably violated federal and state law, which has major implications for michael cohen. that michael cohen who like donald trump has talked about being wealthy, to live in a $9 million home in new york and may not be wealthy or broke or in debt which would explain the decisions and if he did break any of those laws, including state law, there is a tremendous amount of pressure to provide information or cooperate that cannot be undone by a presidential pardon. >> that is extremely helpful summary of where we are right now. so let's try to figure out a few parts of this. because there the vekselberg russia angle and then another part of this. what you mentioned in terms of whether he violated any laws. so noah, starting with you, your reporting confirms the contours of this story, that is right. we had for a long time -- that cohen had received payments of up to a million dollars from victor vekselberg's cousin, a guy named andrew and they have a company

to stormy daniels in 2016, donny deutsch from morning joe fame actually caught up with michael cohen, donald trump's attorney, earl year this week. he had this to say about that encounter. >> i spoke with michael cohen yesterday, and his quote about giuliani was he doesn't know what he's talking about. he also said that, look, there are two people that know exactly what happened -- myself and the president, and you'll be hearing my side of the story. and he was obviously very frustrated at what had come out yesterday. >> that sounds, danny, like an ominous sign if you're on donald trump's side of this thing. >> it does. i was actually on that same segment, and when i heard that the first -- the clause that i seized upon was "we will hear e7ez story." who will actually hear that side with donald trump, these things are all relative. what you see there is his average approval rating has climbed over the last several weeks to 44%. by historical standards, that's not much to write home about. by donald trump's standards, that's the highest he's been in more than a year. so for donald trump actually as t

trump. and cohen signs off here in this e-mail, michael d. cohen, esquire, personal attorney donald j. trump. to avenatti's point here last night about how much the president could have known about the slush fund, cohen basically going on to identify himself as the attorney to trump. the other thing is the date april 11th. this is two days after the feds raided michael cohen's home and office and hotel room. the avenatti argument is the two men had no ongoing legal matter going on at the time so the e-mail could look like an attempt by cohen to obstruct justice or worse. that's the question he raises about his adversary. now, it's unclear, to be clear and to be fair, whether as avenatti claims these two men had no legal matters between them. we don't really know. mr. avenatti also saying "i've been trying to get those documents from mr. davidson for months. the e-mail was provided to me within the last 24 hours and raise serious questions as to why cohen was attempting to contact keith davidson less than 48 hours after the fbi raids. thaech that e-mail may be evidence of an attempt by m

michael zeldin, if there are phone conversations recorded between michael cohen and donald trump, and tweet michael avenatti said, nixon 2.0. seems to be suggesting that there may be these kinds of taped conversations potentially that could be explosive. >> it depends on what's on the tapes and what they relate to, of course. so there are two lawsuits going on here. one is avenatti's stormy daniels i want deposition testimony of the president because it relates to my achievement's nondisclosure agreement. if those tapes bear on that, and when the freeze on that case is lifted, presumably michael avenatti will get to ask the president what is on those tapes. so there's a forum for which those can be released. then there's the southern district of new york case, which if there is evidence of criminal where wrongdoing, the judge is not going to release those to michael avenatti. that's when they will come out in the course of that, you know, either indictment or trial. so michael avenatti, in this one-man public relations campaign, i think is laying grounds for communications among repor

donald trump. they were paying michael cohen $50,000 a month for a look inside the mind of donald trump. and six months into paying that, this book came out, from michael wolff, 30 bucks could have saved that half, at least, of the $600,000, they pay to michael cohen. >> as the old joke goes the inner workings of the mind of donald trump would be the shortest book ever written. i don't think they needed to pay $50,000 a month for that. i think that raises a lot of questions. i think the payments from the kore korean aerospace company raise questions as does novartis. the most troubling is the russian oligarch, we don't know whatever advice was being sought there. and it's against the story of various russian efforts throughout 2016 to work with the trump campaign to try to influence our election. that's the one thing here, lawrence, all the red flags is the reddest of the red flags. >> dionna your reaction to that? >> absolutely. i think what's also interesting with the payment made by the vekselberg company, is there was a contribution to the trump inaugural committee, $250,000 paid, so

michael cohen be doing all of this without trump's knowledge? i spoke to a ceo this morning who knows michael cohen and he knows donald trump.e said watch out, there's a good chance cohen built this side-hustle around the president without trump even being aware. and if that's the case, the president's not going to like that. >> here's one we do know about donald trump, though, he hates it when people in his circle of trust monetize his name. monetize his brand. they got into big trouble when they went to china. >> yeah. >> he doesn't like it. he calls it conflict. and michael cohen has wanted trump's affection. he's wanted to be in trump's good graces. it seems unlikely given the track record and given that michael cohen reveres donald trump that he would freelance. and the other point i want to make is, donald trump is known for not paying his debts. he didn't just overpay. and the fact the amount of money he would have given michael cohen on retainer far exceeded what stormy daniels was needed for payoff. donald trump isn't known for paying more than a dime than he has to. >> what does it say that neither rudy giuliani no

it's michael cohen, it's donald trump.hese guys have a pretty low boundary for ethical behavior to begin with. none of this surprises me, but we're going to have some more hilarity on this because this is a guy who decided as i like to say there's a golden pyramid of sleaze, and he's hat the peak of the damn thing. >> sorry. >> we're going to follow that, don? >> i'm sorry. i'm just like marilyn monroe, skirt blowing up. anyways, all right. so today sarah sanders essentially dodged questions about reports michael cohen received payments from businesses seeking access to the administration. listen to this. >> is the president concerned about any aspect of what we've learned in the last 24 hours? >> as you know due to the complication of the different components of this investigation i would refer you to the president's outside counsel to address those concerns. >> do you believe michael cohen was in anyway qualified to buy insight into this administration? >> i'm not going to get into somebody else's qualifications. that's

suit, this doesn't even get to where things go then with the other lawsuit filed against michael cohen, donald trump'ssonal attorney, now on hold. michael cohen is facing a criminal case. this is a tangled web. thank you. great to see you, thank you. >>> coming up next, why the white house walked back a major statement on the status of iran's nuclear program next. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss.

michael cohen because they have been made public. imagine what robert mueller has. >> yeah. >> assuming he has all of donald trump's bank records, all hael cohen's bank records, presumably their tax returns. imagine what he is sitting on and what it could tell us when it's finally made public. >> and essential consultants which should be really essential consultant. michael cohen, audience of one. is that the first and only time there has been a shell account set up or not? that's another question bob mueller may already have the answer to. >>> ahead, it was a year ago today that trump said this russia thing was behind the comey firing. why that moment matters in the firing. >>> and biden says decency has hit rock bottom and what democrats are doing about all of that when we come back in 60 seconds. [cougar growling] (passenger) what are you doing? (driver) i can't believe that worked. i dropped the keys. (burke) and we covered it. talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ you might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for your brai