mr. cohen wanted him to do it. he was in contact with mr. cohen, who is encouraging him to go out on television and tell his story, presumably to support mr. cohen. i guess mr. davidson is now the new mr. schwartz. mr. schwartz has been replaced now by mr. davidson. it's remarkable. >> michael avenatti, appreciate it. thanks very much. stay with us. a great deal to get to tonight. in the next hour, new reporting on the mueller team questioning russian oligarchs about possibly illegal cash donations. also a flurry of activity about sending national guard troops to the u.s.-mexico border. we'll be right back. ♪ with t-mobile, get the fastest network ever, now on the fasters samsung ever. because fast should be fast. ♪ now at t-mobile, buy one samsung galaxy s9 and get one free. ♪ before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, claire could only imagine enjoying chocolate cake. now she can have her cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without hear

mr. cohen: it was a surprise offensive. the viet cong guerrillas took over the embassy briefly. the country was attacked, the city of huey was taken over. at home politically it had a huge effect on the american people. it convinced people the war was lost and it needed to be winding down somehow. host: where did it put hubert humphrey? mr. cohen: he was a classic liberal, someone who had been a big supporter of civil rights legislation. when he became vice president for johnson, he became a big supporter. in some ways, humphrey was a bigger supporter of the war than johnson is. he became the public face of trying to sell the war to the american people. this created a lot of problems for him within his own party and liberals saw him as turning his back on the party and on his liberal beliefs. amongst some groups in the party , he was still popular, but for a lot of democrats come he was seen negatively as johnson was. we will talk about your father, but i want to ask about eugene mccarthy, the

frankly, mr. cohen has to invoke the 5th on a question by question basis formally in order to assert the right. so, i don't think it's going to have a huge impact on our ability to dee positive him in connection with the civil case. >> and you still believe -- i know i got in a lot of trouble saying bob mueller, you make me regret those words every day. do you believe you'll at some point depose the president in your case as well? >> i like making you regret those words. >> you win. >> we haven't won anything yet. we won a couple battles, but we're going to win the war. >> all right. well, michael avenatti, thank you for keeping us posted. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> when we come back after his performance today, will the president's lawyers ever let him sit down with special counsel robert mueller? on our planet than people. we're putting ai into everything, and everything into the cloud. it's all so... smart. but how do you work with it? ask this farmer. he's using satellite data to help

former attorneys, quote, on the scale of 100 to 1, where 100 is fully protecting the president, mr. cohen isn't even a 1. he said he told mr. trump. and from alan dershowitz, trump's tv lawyer of choice and is reported by politico, quote, that's what they'll threaten him with, life imprisonment. they're going to threaten him with a long prison term and turn him into a canary that sings. notably, no one even pretends that cohen isn't in a position to damage the president, not even for appearances. for all the lies people in the trump orbit tell, this is a surprising area of candor. with us from the washington post, national political reporter and moderator of washington week, robert costa. frank figliuzzi, former fbi sa assistant director for counter intelligence. kmarly sykes, contributing ed r ed tort weekly standard and daily standard podcast. elise jordan, former aide in the george bush white house. former press secretary for president obama, and chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and former senior fbi official, all lucky us, are now msnbc analysts and contributors. >>> let me start

mr. cohen's lawyers. i'm also going to introduce our panel who thought they were here to talk about very different topics, but here we are talking about porn stars again. statement from mr. cohen's lawyer reads, today the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york executed a series of search warrants and seized the privilege communications between my client michael cohen and his clients. i have been advised by federal prosecutors that the new york action is, in part, a referral by the office of special counsel robert mueller. the decision by the u.s. attorney's office in new york to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary. it resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protecting attorney/client communications between a lawyer and his clients. these government tactics are also wrong because mr. cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities including providing thousands of nonprivileged documents to the congress and sitting f

or mr. cohen and the president. >> neil: i'm going to ask a stupid question. >> they're never stupid. >> so when manafort's home was raided, don't you think there's a heightened awareness, my office, my home could be raided? so would that a smart lawyer like cohen could have raided-proof his offices? >> he could have. we don't know what the fbi obtained. when a search warrant is given the fbi, the fbi is supposed to file a return. the return lists everything they seized. the return is secret. it goes to the judge that signed the search warrant. it will only be made public if ever, if there is a prosecution as a result of any information obtained from the search warrant. they're required to give mr. cohen a return so that he knows what they took from him. do they give him time to copy what they took? absolutely not. do they take the time to read what they're looking to make sure -- >> would he have been there when the raid took place? >> probably. >> do they take time to read what they're looking a

mr. cohen's been on sean hannity's program more than a dozen times. certainly an interesting development. >> there's no evidence, to be clear, that sean hannity did anything wrong or that michael cohen represented sean hannity in anything untoward or anything that people would be outraged by. i want to be really clear. >> sean is saying it's raeeal estate. >> that may be true. we don't know. i know there's documents that were seized in connection with the raids with sean hannity's name or involvement on the documents. how do i know that? because the context in which this was raised was the names of clients whose documents would be protected in the event of a review in connection with the case. so if there were no documents, sean hannity's name doesn't come up. it doesn't make any sense. >> take me to law school for a second. so they keep losing all of these arguments they're trying to make to protect attorney/client privilege. the president is so mad about that that he's been tweeting since the raid attorney/client privilege is dead. what sorts of thin

mr. cohen's conduct in terms of releasing the name." the judge said, "well, if i order that it be released, he has no problem with respect to his own ethics." cohen's lawyer says, "if we give it to you and i have some assurance that we're not violating that client's right not to be disclosed publicly today, then i can do this. i can write it down and put it in an envelope right now." the judge says, "all right. if you hand the name up, i'll maintain it under seal." but it seems to me the government, perhaps mr. mckay, the lead prosecutor, should know who it is so he can identify whether that person had any responsive documents." and now in the transcript, new character. mr. balin. who are you? mr. balin, "your honor, i apologize for interrupting. i'm a lawyer representing the press. abc, the new york times, associated press, cnn, and newsday." the judge says, "i think you'd better come to the podium." mr. balin says, "i think i'd better, too, your honor. i've sat and listened until we got to the point where i realized there's a public ac

it essentially outlines what clients mr. cohen has and what specific issues he may have as relates to those clients and attorney/client privilege. one of the things cohen brought up, an idea if the u.s. attorneys that are part of this privileged team or filter team if there's some way those u.s. attorneys were able to get access to communications involving other people. actually, right behind me mow, michael cohen. i step aside as he enters the courthouse. see him with the umbrella in his right hand and going through the turnstile, main entrance of 500 pearl. asked by the judge to be here in attendance, and -- he's here obviously and expected to be here as well as stormy daniels is expected to be here. we've seen her lawyer already here today, craig. this hearing getting under way in about an hour from now. as i was saying before, really, this is a question about privilege, and what cohen says the u.s. attorney should be able to look at versus what he says are the privileges that he has to protect some of the material. that's kind

mr. cohen's assistant. he even went so far as saying mr. cohen's spouse could be called to the stand depending on what that relationship is. so the judge really grappling, trying to understand how this overlaps with the new york case. they're still trying to figure out whether that stay would be implemented today for 90 days as the cohen team is asking, perhaps shorter if the judge decides that. if there is no stay at all, or in the unlikely possibility that cohen drops the entire case and stormy daniels is free to say whatever she wants. wolf? >> we'll watch the drama unfold over the next few hours. you'll bring us the latest as soon as you get it, miguel marquez in los angeles. thank you very much. let's bring in our senior analyst laura coates. what do you make of this development that the lawyer representing michael cohen, brent blakely, that cohen himself could be indicted in the next 90 days in a federal court in new york city? >> it seems like a pot shot of michael avenatti saying, you clearly would agree to delay this case because yo

mr. trump, his lawyer michael cohen and mr. pecker have strategized about protecting him and lashing out at his political enemies. the federal inquiry could pose serious legal implications for the president and his campaign committee. >>> joining us now from the washington post, white house bureau chief phil rucker. at the table nick, political reporter for "the new york times," and rick, former under secretary of state for public diplomacy and former managing editor for time magazine. barbara mcquade is still with us, of course. nick, let me start with you since your paper had a lot of this report being today. your thoughts? >> well, look, the important thing is not the affair and the rumor which we're not going to discuss too much because it's unverified. >> right. >> we can't tell if it's true. an apparent fact here is that the president's lawyer had worked with ami to provide a payment to this gentleman to not tell his story and that gets us more into this question of is ami essentially an agent of the trump campaign? are t

it's mr. cohen as well. >> after the reports emerged broidy acknowledged the payments and the affair. but he didn't admit to being the father. in a statement he said, quote, it is unfortunate that this personal matter between two consenting adults is the subject of national discussion just because of michael cohen's involvement. i retained mr. cohen after he informed me about his prior relationship with mr. davidson. >> i thought his statement was fascinating. because what his statement said was mr. cohen contacted him and said there is a matter involving you. and the lawyer for the other party has reached out to me and i know him. that's what we know has happened. when you think about that or when the public thinks about that, they have to think about it in the context of everything else we know. this isn't jane doe and john smith, in which case, you know, you give people the benefit of the doubt, you don't jump to conclusions. this is michael cohen and keith davidson. >> this may have been the fir

then cording to the "journal" after trump won the presidency mr. cohen was reportedly disgruntled and upset again because he told people at the time he had expected that he would be named white house chief of staff. neither of those things happened, obviously. michael cohen stayed in new york city when trump became president and moved to washington. the "journal" reports tonight that in a phone call this past november mr. cohen reportedly sort of pleaded his case with the president in emotional terms. "boss, i miss you so much." "i wish i was down there with you. it's really hard for me to be here." and that was before we know federal investigators started their criminal investigation into mr. cohen. and that is sort of a sad sack tale of somebody being left behind when somebody they thought they were close to moves on up. but aside from the interpersonal stuff there, that may have a whole new urgency to it if that person who feels disgruntled and abandoned is now being pressured by federal prosecutors to flip against a guy who he's apparently convinced

he seemed to undercut that claim by saying mr. cohen legal work for him and he doesn't believe anything cohen is being investigated for touches on his legal practice as an attorney. is it your sense looking at that that that does actually sort of undercut what cohen and trump have been doing to try to defend themselves in that case? >> absolutely. 100%. this is the precise reason that lawyers advise their clients not to talk when they're under investigation. this is the kind of clip that law professors will use to train law students about why you advise clients not to talk about their own case because they might inadvertently undermine something their lawyer is trying to do as a matter of legal strategy, and i think president trump did that today. >> did it surprise you when prosecutors in the southern district turned around the president's remarks so quickly? i mean, the president made these remarks this morning at breakfast time. by lunchtime they were incorporated into a federal filing by prosecutors from the southern district, citin

trump and mr. cohen regard the warrant as an attempt by special counsel robert mueller to pry into mr. trump's personal life using other prosecutors as his proxy. that's a little nuts. i mean, if there is evidence of a crime and they've referred it to another office, that has nothing to do with some grand strategy by mr. mueller. where do you think that sentiment is coming from? is that the president's point of view about the cohen raid? >> yeah, from our reporting and even folks that i was just talking to today, to the president this is just mueller extending his handsome where else. and if you look at the way the president sees things, deep state, you know, conspiracies, those type of things, you can see why he would think that. he's deeply distrustful of the justice department. he does not like rod rosenstein. he does not like jeff sessions so he sees this happen. he has no trust in them. and he assumes the worst possible thing. >>> now, there's no indication to us there is any tie to this back to rus

these events call mr. cohen to be closer to cooperating, that is something that will be troubling to trump. >> danny, you agree? >> i do. the factor here is who's going to offer michael cohen the best deal in a deal is ever offered? on the one hand, donald trump could arguably pardon him, but on the other hand, the government in theory could offer a nonprosecution agreement. which is not preferred by the u.s. attorney's policy but it's something that would be even better than a pardon. so michael cohen is really feeling the pressure. irrespective of the fact they definitely could be considered to have won today in court. >> danny cevellos, seth waxman, thank you. we appreciate their expertise. on any other day, the big news would be the withdrawal of the president's nominee to head the va or the grilling of epa administrator scott pruitt on capitol hill. for a laundry list of alleged ethical lapses, accusations he called half truths and twisted. but all of that has been eclipsed by the stunning presidential inte

presumably in making that referral, came to a conclusion that what was at issue in the investigation of mr. cohens not at the core of mr. mueller's mandate, namely, whether or not there was any interference in the election on the part of russians, and a connection between that interference and the trump campaign. it's hard to see how these things will become connected again. connected down the road. so i kind of doubt it. i am really curious about the fact that among the materials sought by the southern district of new york, where materials relating to the access hollywood tape, i've been scratching my head about that all day, how that might connect. the only thing i come up with, is that the access hollywood tape has meaning for all of these investigations as far as i'm concerned only in that it was just, what, 27 minutes, or 57 minutes after that access hollywood tape was released that wikileaks released this treasure trove of emails and, you know, that begins to connect up with the investigation of russia's involvement in the hacking of democratic national committee emails. which by the way, i

. >> over the year, mr. cohenof the president's most trusted legal and business advisers. he doesn't shy away from being called a fixer. >> in dozens of conversations with cohen, he has emphasized to me repeatedly that he is a loyal friend to president trump and proud of it. the signature line in his e-mail says he is personal attorney to president donald j. trump and just last month the two had dinner together on the eve of stormy daniels' 60 miutes interview. awe second criminal investigation >> this signals there is a second criminal investigation into the president's inner circle. it was approved at the highest levels of the justice department. so this decision to take evidence that was uncovered by special counsel and hand it over to u.s. attorney's office in new york that would have to be approved by deputy attorney general rod rosen stein, a frequent target of the president's criticism. he is the one who oversees the special counsel. makes sure they stay within their mandate. and more bad news, news for the

although i had not previously hired mr. cohen, i retained mr. r he informed me about his prior relationship with mr. davidson. i will have no further comment about this matter and i request the media respect my family's privacy. that statement just coming in to nbc news from the man at the center of all of this. this top republican fund-raiser. speaking of mr. davidson here, the attorney involved in this case, is it true, michael, that this is also the same attorney who is involved with the stormy daniels case, also represented stormy daniels at one point? >> that's right. mr. davidson represented stormy daniels as well as karen mcdougal, so he and mr. cohen knew each other actually through both of those agreements, because karen mcdougal was a playmate paid three months before the election by the owner of the national enquirer, $150,000 not to talk about her alleged affair with president trump, now president trump, and stormy daniels of course, the ex-porn star who was paid $130,000, mr. cohen negotiated that directly. cohen and davidson had wor

mr. cohen, do you think that the liberals and politics will be able to make things daylight very clear how things work when each party is in charge of our country and then who comes along and has to fix things? host: thank you, brian. mr. cohen: that is more of a contemporary question, i suppose. i guess this goes back to the first question from greg and i want to thank him for his service. one of ironies about vietnam is it was democrats who were the ones who propagated the war and lyndon johnson programs most liberal presidents we ever had who led the war effort. it created a lot of opposition for democrats not just in the party but in general about their ability to handle foreign policy and military affairs. the irony of vietnam is johnson in part was to minimize the fallout from letting it fall to the communists and it was something that came back from the debate in the 1950's. the way for democrats to avoid that label was fight in vietnam and the result was that it basically showed a lot o

davidson and mr. cohen as it relates to my client and the communications that took place not just around the negotiation time period of the agreement but as equally important or more importantly recently. it's our understanding that mr. davidson and mr. cohen had consistent communications in the last four, six, eight weeks relating to my client. that's very troublesome to us. we want to get to the bottom of it. >> putting out a statement denying any inappropriate relationship with michael cohen saying any characterization with mr. cohen is anything other than adversarial yet professional is false. >> i think the facts speak for themselves. there's no question this was an unusual relationship, the level of communication. >> that's an allegation that karen mcdougal had made against keith davidson. >> and in fact you only need look at the interview when he commented on the fact he was communicating with mr. cohen who was encouraging him to go out and do interviews and disclose attorney-client information he ha

or affiliates of mr. cohension was made under traditional guidelines that, listen, the southern district has more interest in this, they have more expertise because this is kind of their turf, their bailiwick, and the evidence is there. so we'll delegate this and let mr. mueller focus on his core jurisdiction in the investigation. >> the fact you're dealing with the president of the united states, you're dealing with his long-time personal attorney, the issue of attorney-client privilege comes up. all of these steps would have had to have been approved at the highest levels of the department of justice. >> absolutely, both because we're talking about someone as close to the president as he is, because he is an attorney, a personal attorney of the president, and because of, you know, the national political significance of this. and don't forget, we do have a third party here, a federal judge who made the determination that there was potential evidence of crimes in all three of these locations. so this is not a p

>> you know, i've never seen that side of mr. cohen to be clear, i never worked at the trump organization. i was at the campaign. they were two separate entities on two different parts of the building. what it sounds like sean hannity has said was, michael cohen was a friend and he called him for advice, never had a contractual obligation. we have to be very concerned if that makes it a crime in the world of the fbi. many people call attorneys for requests and advice. that doesn't mean you have attorney client privilege. >> martha: as somebody very involved in the campaign and is still close to the president and discusses things with him, this is the -- really goes to the questions of assumptions. now you can say someone's name in this courthouse and suddenly they're swept into some sort of malstrom that connects them to criminalality. we have to take a step back here. this is the week that we know with increasing certainty that we're entering the last phase of the trump presidency. he said it feels like a simple statement of the truth

trump sending mr. cohen to russia, to open a trump tower in moscow, on the face of that, that doesn't seem to be privilege. that sounds like a business transaction, so mr. trump's going to need to explain to his lawyers how that could be seeking legal advice because if it's not, it's not privileged. >> let me read a little more just from the letter and go back around the horn again. this is brand-new, seth. the firm here -- they're speaking on behalf of the president tonight. our own associates are well-qualified. they hail from the country's best law schools and work directly with partners on the firm. awe reference to their ability to go through this material they want before the feds have it with regard to the attorney/client privilege that the president may have and they say, our client, that's donald trump, will make himself available as-needed to aid in our privilege review on his behalf. what does that even mean, seth? would that be donald trump and michael cohen and these other lawyers sitting around

now as to the allegations of an affair, mr. cohenterated his strong denial of the affair on several separate occasions. >> has michael cohen been pressed on why he facilitated a payment to stormy daniels if he didn't believe the accounts of the affair were true? >> he's been pressed repeatedly. he said he made the payment as a defensive maneuver. a couple months ago when he acknowledged making the payment cohen said in a statement "just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can not cause you harm or damage. >> brian todd, thanks very much. coming up, breaking news, new details emerging right now as federal agents raid the office of president trump's personal lawyer, sources say they've received documents relating to porn star stormy daniels. what role did robert mueller play in triggering this extraordinary raid? the day after chemo might mean a trip back to the doctor's office, just for a shot. but why go back there, when you can stay home with neulasta onpro? strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. neulas

>> mr. cohen the law. >> tonight why a federal judge just rejected trump's attempt to intervene. the documents the president doesn't want his own justice department to see. >>> and michael cohen's mystery client revealed. >> the mainstream media has gone completely off the rails over the raid on michael cohen. >> russia sanctions will be coming down.

it would be painful for mr. cohen to do it that way, that's why he's trying to do it this way and solve those blanket holes the judge saw. he could have it go forward that way. as far as the criminal case, i don't think it would affect it one way or another. he's invoked his fifth amendment, so he's not going to answer any questions we know that. as to the criminal case it's not going to impact it one way or another, whether it's on a case by case or this blanket statement. >> michael, would we be here tonight, would there have been a raid of michael cohen's home, his office, if stormy daniels hadn't filed the lawsuit, if president trump hadn't said what he said on air force one about ask michael cohen? are those necessary steps that ended up in a raid? >> i don't think so, lawrence. i don't think we're here talking about this filing and where we are today without the efforts of my client and the bravery and courage she has shown for the last six to seven weeks. i don't think we would be sitting here today in this pos

he was in contact with mr. cohenevision and tell his story, presumably to support mr. cohen. i guess mr. davidson is now the new mr. schwartz. mr. schwartz has been replaced now by mr. davidson. it's remarkable. >> michael avenatti, appreciate it. thanks very much. >>> stay with us. a great deal to get to tonight. in the next hour, new reporting on the mueller team questioning russian oligarchs about possibly illegal cash donations. also a flurry of activity about sending national guard troops to the u.s.-mexico border. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪ blue moon is a well-crafted belgian style wheat beer brewed with valencia orange peel for a refreshing taste that shines brighter. blue moon. with advil liqui-gels, what bad shoulder? what headache? advil is relief that's fast strength that lasts you'll ask... what pain? with advil liqui-gel

for years mr cohen has acted like he is above the law he is considered himself an openly referred to himself as mr trump fixer he is played by a different set of rules or should we say no rules at all he has never thought that the little man or especially women and even more women like me matter that in now my attorney and i are committed to making sure that everyone finds out the truth and the facts of what happened and i give my word that we will not rest until that happens thank you very much for our correspondent kristen salumi joins me live now from new york kristen what's sean hannity's relevance to this case well it's interesting sean hannity is one of the reasons that lawyers for michael cohen and lawyers for president trump were using to. make their case that they should be able to review these documents they wanted to review all of the documents that were taken in the raid before they were handed over to prosecutors and the reason they gave is because of attorney client privilege and cohen had other clients who could be exposed their sensitive information could be exposed b

mr. cohen will be able to protect his fifth amendment rights but we'll be able to proceed with discovery in the case. what this may result in, quite frankly, we may be able to take the deposition of the president first rather than second. we were going to proceed with it after mr. cohen's deposition. we'll see what the court fashions as an appropriate remedy. i will tell you, lawrence, that i don't think it's possible tonight to overstate the importance of what happened hours ago. this is the personal attorney to the president of the united states for at least the last ten to 12 years, and that attorney, you showed the clip, and i was on your show that night, the night that the president made the statements on air force one, it was about two, three weeks ago. that same individual that the president pointed you, other members of the media, and the american people to for answers is now refusing to provide those answers and claiming he can't answer the questions because the answers will incriminat

cohen. one is mr. ryan, who is here in washington, d.c.. and there's a mr. harrison who's a new york attorney. both of the attorneys for cohen made every attempt to argue with the judge that this name should not be released, the prosecute ir, the u.s. attorney in this case got up and said they were not taking a position on this, and they wanted to make it clear, and then moments later, there were some other arguments, and then basically mr. ryan, who's representing mr. cohen, said the name, and that is when there was reaction, visible reaction from people in a courtroom, and that's when several of us got up and left and that's when i came down here. >> do you have any idea outside of the name sean hannity, what matter it was involving between michael cohen and sean hannity? >> no. the only thing we know is, during the arguments mr. ryan, cohen's attorneys argue this was a person who had some notoriety obviously, that's why they didn't want the name getting out there. there was always concern of embarrassment. but as to what their dealings were, in what way, o

trump told him on friday that mr. cohen is very strong. jay goldberg wasn't buying that. in the call mr. goldberg, a former prosecutor who represented mr. trump in divorce and real estate matters said he stressed to the president that mr. cohen could even agree to wear a wire and try to record conversations with mr. trump. you have to be alert mr. goldberg said he told the president, i don't care what michael says. jay goldberg said that he warned the president not to submit to an interview with the special prosecutor. mr. goldberg said he also warned mr. trump in the friday call about the risks of submitting to an interview with robert mueller's office. he also said he recommended mr. trump fire rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed mr. mueller. mr. goldberg who is r85 years old, said he suggested mr. trump add a well known new york lawyer to his legal team. the president then sought legal help in new york city and hired the law firm of spears and iams where his lead counsel is former federal prosecutor joana hendon. he said he warned mr. trump against

the judge said, mr. cohenm going to put you on the stand and administer the oath to you and ask you myself hot third client is unless you tell us. whispers into the ear the third client was sean hannity. >> harris: we'll quickly -- reay about sean, he said he was never a client he wants attorney-client privilege. >> i love him. i worked with him for 20 years. he can't have it both ways. if he was a client, then his confidential communications to mr. cohen are privileged. if mr. cohen was never his lawyer, then nothing that he said mr. cohen is privileged. >> harris: cohen says he was a client. sean hannity says he wasn't. he may have given him 10es. i heard people say if you give anybody a value it creates that attorney-client privilege. >> that's a myth. the attorney-client privilege requires formal relationship reduced to writing for a specific legal purpose. >> harris: so anything that is there regarding sean hannity can be revealed. >> in my view, yes. >> harris: one last question for you. where are we goi

>>> mr. cohen has acted like he is above the law.ght that the little man or especially women -- even more, women like me, mattered. that ends now. my attorney and i are committed to making sure that everyone finds out the truth and the facts of what happened. and i give my word that we will not rest until that happens. >> new this morning the "washington post" reporting that stormy daniels former lawyer has been cooperating with federal authorities investigation of michael cohen. joining me now, msnbc legal analyst katie fang. what information might stormy daniels former lawyer have that investigators are looking for? >> we know there was an unusually close relationship between keith davison, her former lawyer and michael cohen. how do we know that? both lawyers were involved in stormy daniels, both were involved in i will yot broidy, the chair of the rnc in his hush payment that was made to the former playboy model. what can keith davidson offer? maybe inside track conversations with michael cohen perhaps already on tape as we heard

cohen. and here's part of that story. for years, mr. trump treated mr. poorly with gratuitous insults, dismissive statements and at least twice threats of being fired. mr. trump's lawyers and advisers have been resigned to the strong possibility that mr. cohen, who has a wife and two children, and faces the prospect of devastating legal fees, if not criminal charges, could end up cooperating with federal officials who are investigating him. >> you know, look, the attorneys -- u.s. attorneys have a tremendous power to put that kind of pressure on somebody. to basically threaten bankruptcy if they don't cooperate. because they'll continue along in arduous prosecution, which someone can't afford. so it's -- let's say this. it's happened before. because that kind of pressure. i don't know. i don't know what michael cohen is going to do. i don't think anybody knows what michael cohen is going to do. but i think it points to the larger issue, which you said, the big picture. the russia investigation, other than finding out what russia's role in the election is

during the inaugural festivities mr. cohen and his guests weren't given priority access to the festives, noting the hurt was visible on mr. cohen's face. he was always just at the edges. you've work in the the southern district of new york. when you hear stories like this, and this is just a few of many, is this a guy you could get to turn on that guy? >> you would absolutely wrap this into your pitch. your initial pitch is, you're facing a lot of time, you're going to go to jail. if there are personal things you can use to say, hey, this person you're cooperating against, don't hesitate, don't hold back, this person doesn't have you in their best interests, this person pulled you into this mess, now they're going to abandon you, you need to look out for yourself. these kinds of stories, the bar admits value and the inauguration, three or four others in that article, they are very good fodder. >> also it's when president trump, when donald trump needed michael cohen on his own terms, on trump's own terms, cohen was there like

do you agree with his assessment of mr. cohenion that it is idiotic for him to record conversations? >> it's exactly what i have been saying for the last 72 hours. i have enormous amount of respect for lindsey graham. very experienced attorney. i couldn't agree with him more than to say that. it's outrageous. it's beyond stupid. what is amazing is that this is the guy that the president put at his right hand. this is the man that the president basically trusted his secrets to. it is astounding. >> earlier today on the show senator king independent of maine on the senate intelligence committee said that tcohen seem to be cropping up whether with the russia investigation. do you know of anything that might link the two? >> i'm not at liberty to get into a lot of details but suffice it to say on friday while we were all in court trying to deal with this tro and the judge was asking questions of his counsel and the counsel did not have answers to the simple questions the judge wasn't happy about it, michael cohen was video taped and

but there is one thing the judge did say about the case when it comes to mr. cohen. he said, look, there are big holes in your request for a stay. the biggest hole is that there is no declaration from michael cohen himself that he wants to basically put into the record that he does not want to waive his fifth amendment rights. those issues and that declaration does not exist. so his attorney, brent blakely, says okay, we will put that into the record. he has to do that by wednesday. one more thing the judge said to michael avenatti saying, look, you are arguing this is hurting your client, you are arguing that she is being threatened with penalties of up to a million dollars so that she doesn't speak but it hasn't affected her. she spoke to "60 minutes," she spoke to "the view o," you've bn speaking quite a bit. i asked mr. avenatti about that. >> we're very pleased with today's hearing. it's apparent to us that the court recognized to quote the court that there are gaping holes in the application by mr. cohen and mr. trump to delay this matter. it has always been our

trump to entice mr. cohendo anything in connection with that, positive or negative, could potentially be obstruction. >> do you think that a pardon -- some sort of preemptive pardon for what we know they got close to the authorize that raid of his homes and offices, do you have any insight just on your role in this case into how that intersects with what mueller's looking at? >> i don't have any district insight. but i will say i don't think it's going to be a preemptive if it happens. we'll speculate it's going to happen for the purposes of our discussion. >> he's tweeting over the weekend about pardoning a boxer because sylvester stallone called him and suggested it. >> i don't think if it happens it's going to be preemptive. if it is preemptive that would be pretty smart because he would be not pardoning him for specific crimes under federal law. they would want to see what charging decisions were made by federal prosecutors so cohen could then argue down the road that any subsequent charges brought by the

that's why. >> use your own wonds against you regarding the possible indictment of mr. cohen. saying that "you've said it on tv." he's going to be indicted within the next 90 days, then later back off in court. the matter of the indictment, do you think mr. cohen will be indicted soon? >> absolutely i do. i don't know the scope of that indictment and think that was the point i raised in court. what i stated in the press is not evidence. the court is interested in competent evidence before the court, and, look. this investigation could take a long time. there could be subsequent indictments. we don't exactly know. high own personal belief is someone with 18 years of experience who has some knowledge of what's going on, yes, i believe the indictment will be issued within the next 90 days. if not, that doesn't mean it would n won't be issued. the u.s. attorneys office in the southern district of new york are some of the best mow aggressive in the country and will not unseal an indictment until they are ducks are in a row. >>> we'll continue to listen to this and if any news made

i think it's very clear that mr. cohen served as an attorney to mr. trump. >> cohen and his attorneys presented this secret third client that was a client. i want to you about something you said on fox yesterday. you said that jim comey failed to protect americans during the boston marathon since he was fbi director. the fact is he was not fbi director for another five months. he served as the head of the boston office at the same time i think mr. mueller served as the u.s. attorney in the state of ma h massachuset massachusetts. >> not during the boston marath marathon. >> i believe that jim comey was the head of the fbi. >> he had nothing to do with it but if you're looking at jim comey's record as a man who has positioned himself as an individual who is above reproach, i think we have to start looking at what he accomplished or didn't accomplish as an fbi agent. >> let me ask you about the dossier that has -- we don't know what the facts are about the dossier but how do you know it's not true? >> that's like saying do you -- here's how the country w

. >> i think we're going to see an unsealed indictment against mr. cohen for a host of very serious offenses. >> "cnn newsroom" starts now. >>> hello again, everyone. thanks so much for ng with me. i'm fredricka whitfield in washington, d.c. this just in to cnn, we're learning new details about the medical condition of former first lady barbara bush. special correspondent jamie gangel joining me on the phone. what more do you know about the health condition of the former first lady? >> we unfortunately have some sad news to report, that 92-year-old former first lady barbara bush is in failing health according to sources close to the bush family. they've actually now put out a statement saying that she has decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care. she is at home, at their home in houston. her husband, former george h.w. bush is with her as are her children, three of her children, dora, marvin and neil, also her son, former president george w. bush, and former governor jeb bush has been in and out visiting this

hannity or mr. coheny nda type of involvement or anything of that nature, but what i do know is i think it's going to be far more extensive than people have been led to believe. >> do you have some sore of mole that's giving you clues about what's going on? you hinted before there was even a raid on cohen's office. >> i don't have a mole. i have a fair amount of information at my disposal. i'm really at ground zero of this. i have about two decades of experience. i've been involved in similarities cases, but my intuition is pretty spot on. we'll keep shooting until we miss, and we haven't missed yet. >> you're out there saying that you think the president will resign on what's to come. are you feeding on anybody's fantasy? >> no, i'm not. if you look at all the people in mr. trump's orbit, and who would have the most damaging information on mr. trump other than himself, that person is michael cohen. mooically cohen has not had his office, home and hotel room raided. he is clearly not that bright, unfortun

take a listen to this part on cohen. >> mr. president, how much of your legal work was handled by michael cohen? >> well, as a percentage of my over all legal work, a tiny tiny fraction. michael would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me, like, with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented me. and from what i see, he did absolutely nothing wrong. >> karen, what is your analysis of that? go ahead. >> well, there's -- there's one you have whoever has trump for a client is a client without a filter which is a problem. but the issue is he's now saying to the former judge that's reviewing for attorney/client that the vast amount of this is not attorney/client. and he makes it hard to the extent that the attorneys for the president or for mr. cohen are going to try to protect things broadly when you have the president saying oh, no, there would only be a really tiny part, and then there's the what he handed to obviously miss daniels by saying he represented me in that case. you know, there are plenty of