mr. weiselberg did the digging. this is someone who knows everything. >> yeah.p world this has got to be the most terrifying possible scenario when you think about it, that kwlyour fixer is flipp on you and the guy who has all the financial secrets is flipping on you. in terms of -- we've said for some time the trump white house recognizes that michael cohen might pose the greatest existential threat to the presidency even more so than the russian collusion allegations. but now it seems to be weaponized. >> southern district of new york, we talk a lot about the mueller investigation. before there was a mueller investigation, sdny was sort of the -- where all the all-stars came to prosecute the toughest and most important cases. this certainly looks like, has the hallmarks of the way southern district prosecutes a case like the cohen case. >> absolutely. this is a classic southern district case frankly. so this isn't going to be new to them. i mean, you know, it's higher profile. >> right. >> plenty of high profile -- >> just the president's tapes, conversation t

mr. weiselberg is a considered a witness. >> shepard: a.b. stoddard is here with us from real clear politics and friend of the program. hello. >> hi, shep. >> shepard: your thoughts. >> well, the news about mr. weiselberg, who is an incredibly pivotal figure in the life and business dealings of donald trump makes the allies of president trump a little nervous because beyond hush payments to adult film stars, the concern has always been that the mueller probe or the probe of the southern district of new york could get into the financial dealings of the trump organization and potential financial crimes. that's why we saw president trump say emphatically a year ago to "the new york times" that would be a red line for mueller to go into his business dealings. it has to remain the probe on russia, whether or not there was collusion with the campaign and meddling by the russian federation and the russia government. he does not think it's permissible, appropriate for the special counsel to look into his business. so the idea that both michael cohen

mr. costa, here's a name that stood out to me. in this tape, you hear them reference alan weiselberg. this guy is deep in the weeds. if this guy is now caught in the crosshairs of all of this, this could crack wide open, much wider than if you paid cash or check or if hope hicks lied. >> it could have consequences for the trump organization, not just some transaction between michael cohen and candidate trump. this was something that other people were aware of. it's going to come back to ken's point. if the federal government decides to make a case on election law and misuse of election law and paying people off without reporting it, then other players involved could be called to testify or could be in legal hot water. >> what's the punishment for something like this? in the tape, michael cohen talks about setting up a company to transfer it to our friend david. he's talking about david pecker, who runs american media, who owns the national enquirer, who paid miss mcdougal 150 grand. let's say there's campaign finance violations. what's the actual punishment? if we're sitting here saying, oh, my goodness, the presid