ms. mcdougal. >> absolutely. >> if this payment to ms. al is of interest to prosecutors who are pursuing this as a criminal matter, is there any reason they can't get that stuff from ami too? >> no reason at all. in fact, they're going to get all this stuff and probably more than what would have come out in civil discovery. nothing about this settlement undermines or undercuts the work that the federal agents and prosecutors are going to do. they get this stuff. they get to put people in the grand jury. we've seen from other indictments in the mueller case for instance how good federal prosecutors are at following the money. they're going to follow the money. >> that's the key issue here, i guess. on this issue then of the criminal case,i haven't had a chance yet to ask you what you make of the jurisdiction issues here. obviously this is described as -- this matter involving cohen is described as something that started with a referral from the special counsel's office to the prosecutors in new york. i get that's how it happened. i'm still

ms. mcdougal. if this payment to ms. mcdougal is of interest to prosecutors pursuing this as a criminal matter? >> no reason at all they're going to get all the stuff. probably more than would have come out in civil discovery. so nothing abut th aing abou ai undercuts the work federal prosecutors will do. they get this stuff. put people on the grand jury. we have seen from indictments in the mueller case, for instance, how good federal prosecutors are of following the money. they will follow the money. >> that's the key issue here i guess for me. on this issue of the criminal case, i haven't had a chance yet to ask you what you make of -- the jurisdiction issues here. obviously this is described as -- this matter with involving cohen, started with a referral from the special counsel office off to the prosecutors in new york. i am not, i get that is how it happened. still not quite sure how unusual that is or important that is. what is your take on the dynamic? >> not that unusual. there is 94 u.s. attorneys offices around

ms. mcdougal's attorney also said that part of the owner of national inquirer, ami's motion to dismiss msugal's case was to avoid pretrial discovery. the move would compel both sides to share e-mail ands other records. it could have provided information that would not be available through the material the fbi seized from mr. cohen. >>> how much of the actions that you've seen since the raid do you think come from fear of all of these parties, everyone we started talking about, some of the tools in the president's arsenal failing him, the system of catch and kill, the national inquirer, the kind of nda that your client stormy had? how are these tools holding up? >> well, i think the tools are deteriorating by the moment. and i think that panic has begun to set in and for good reason. if i was the president, i would be incredibly panicked at this point. and it's only going to get worse. you know, i want to go back and touch on the mcdougal settlement. you know, i think the settlement was too friendly to ami personally. i think she could have done far better. i think that they should have wa

ms. mcdougal had breached the attorney-client privilege and thereby waived it. of them had, and he was encouraging me and informing me as to his opinion. he suggested that it would be appropriate for me to go out into the media and spill my guts. >> are you here at the behest of michael cohen? >> no. no. no, not in any way, shape, or form. >> but he did tell you to go out and spill your guts? >> right. yes. >> why do you think that is? >> well, you'd have to ask him. >> reporter: attorney keith davidson is one of just a handful of people involved in two of the most controversy and salacious cases involving president donald trump in the months before the presidential election. davidson was hired by former playboy model karen mcdougal. >> were you in love with him? >> i was, yeah. >> reporter: and hired by porn star and director stormy daniels. >> did you have sex with him again? >> no. >> reporter: davidson is now speaking exclusively to cnn following months of keeping quiet about these cases, after both women hired new attorneys and filed separate lawsuits. >> d

ms. mcdougal had solidified the deal with ami.out there that the press is poking around about stormy daniels, did you have information on that? >> reporter: did you at the time? >> no. >> reporter: do you see how it might have been nefarious? >> not at all. a natural phone call for anybody to make. circle back and ask if circumstances have changed. it was an inquiry. >> reporter: that led to c confidentiality agreement. >> yes. >> reporter: and back then, did he say you to, i am having to take a loan out of my house to get this done. is this a yes? >> no. never any conversation about that. >> reporter: days after the agreement was signed, trump unexpectedly won the 2016 election. >> what i can say is that timing is everything. >> reporter: daniels has filed a suit against donald trump, michael cohen and the company that paid her off. putting out on twitter a picture of a dvd or cd giving the idea that there is a lot of evidence that they have. can you tell us if there is anything on that dvd that you are aware of? >> i have no ide

ms. mcdougal says they tricked her because she says ami and her own lawyer were secretly coordinating withersonal attorney. she thought she had a lawyer but she edidn't. it was part of a scheme to make her go away. and that payment from ami is now reportedly one of the things the fbi was searching for evidence about when they raided the office and hotel room monday. so, yeah, it's the national inqui inquirer. these are apparently right at the center of the personal attorney this week. hold that thought. no matter how much you clean, does your house still smell stuffy? that's because your home is filled with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. so, try febreze fabric refresher. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics and cleans them away as it dries. use febreze every time you tidy up to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. fabric refresher even works for clothes you want to wear another day. make febreze part of your clean routine for whole home freshness. experience a blend of...and raw power,nship... engineered to take the crown. presenting the all

ms. mcdougal said, and her lawyers have said, there was collusion between her lawyer and mr.ange for that payoff and that she wasn't really getting true representation from her lawyer. that's a serious charge in and of itself. and so if all of this was to disguise a favor to mr. trump by his friend david pecker, then there is another potential for fraud. so the southern district of new york is notoriously -- it's my alma mater so i can take some pride in this and i was head of the official corruption section before i went down to washington to work on the watergate case. >> let me get your quick reaction to the chairman of the senate judiciary committee, chuck grassley, reacting today when he was asked about the possibility if the president could fire robert mueller. listen to this. >> i think it would be suicide for the president to fire him. i think the less the president says about this whole thing, the better off he will be. and i think that mueller is a person of stature and respected, and i respect him. just let the thing go forward. >> that is hugely important. >> why?

ms. mcdougal had breached the attorney-client privilege, and thereby waived it. was his assertion each of them had, and he was encouraging me and informal me as to his opinion. and he suggested it would be appropriate for me to go out into the media and spill my guts. >> are you here at the behest of michael cohen? >> no. no, no. not in any way, shape, or form. >> but he did tell you to go out and spill your guts? >> right, yes. >> why do you think that is? >> well, you would have to ask him. >> now, cnn is learning after the daniels deal was done, cohen referred a client to davidson. davidson tells us the client was chuck labella, a producer on the apprentice, the miss usa pageant, and ms. universe, all involving donald trump. labella had an issue with actor tom arnold who tweeted several times last fall that labella possessed damning information about trump that arnold claims involved russian president vladimir putin. davidson says he wrote a cease and desist letter to arnold's attorney on labella's behalf. labella told cnn a friend did call davidson on his beh

ms. mcdougal and the access hollywood tape. they're obviously looking for other instances where mr. cohen paid women to shut up. where is the intersection between your case specifically, which is about invalue daidatin nda. >> i could be bank fraud, campaign finance violations as it relates this $130,000 payment. we can very easily see charges in either of those three spheres in connection with this $130,000 payment. remember, al capone was not convicted of murder. he was convicted of tax evasion. >> i know. it's so much less sexy, though. thank you so much. >>> when we come back, sean hannity was back on the air last night, but in a different position than usual, on the defense against one of his own friendly guests about failing to disclose to his viewer that is the raid he assailed last week was of his own lawyer's office. >>> also ahead, james comey warns of another third rail of american politics being crossed and donald trump goes there rus. ♪ with expedia, you can book a flight, hotel, car, and activity... ...all in one place. everything you need to go. expedia so allstate is

ms. mcdougal talk more now that she's been released from this kind of strangle-hold on her.and this is going to be a drum beat constantly combined with stormy daniels, combine with michael cohen and the special counsel and what he's coming out with in the next days, weeks or months ahead, and this weighs on the entirety of public perception as we head toward the possibility of impeachment proceedings, public perception becomes very important, because the representatives of the public, the congress, will have to make decisions with regard to potential impeachment. so all this weighs heavily on the president, none of it is helpful. and the stress is increased while bob mueller is trying to negotiate the possibility of an interview with the possibility, which is becoming less and less likely in my opinion. >> and ruth, before i let you go, tammy duckworth, senator, first senator to give birth while a senator, she's just had this baby a couple weeks ago, and now they have had a vote in the rules committee on whether she could bring the baby. now, she's tweeted, bring the baby to

ms. mcdougal, former playmate-turned-model, for stormy daniels, adult film star, is now working for the government. it's been reported tonight he was unhappy to learn that potential recordings of his phone calls with michael cohen were vacuumed up in this fbi raid. now, how damaging -- he's not one of the larger figures in this investigation, but how damaging might just that, flipping that one person be? >> well, i think what i read is that he's cooperating by giving documents and materials. and what i expect them to be looking for is his communications with michael cohen and with ami, who was the one who entered into the nondisclosure agreement with karen mcdougal. what the prosecutors are looking for is to see whether there was any, for lack of a better word, collusion between michael cohen and ami to make these payments because now once you have two or three, there's also the payment to trump's doorman from ami, and you have multiple payments right on the precipice of the election. now that starts to look like a conspiracy to violate the campaign finance laws, and it's a stronger case when you

ms. mcdougal. the president, we should say, denies having any involvement with either of these women. but we have also learned today that a federal judge in los angeles has set a hearing for tomorrow on this bid by trump and michael cohen to delay a lawsuit that stormy daniels and her attorney, michael avenatti filed to have that non-disclosure agreement rendered invalid. michael avenatti, who is michael cohen's chief nemesis in the media put out this tweet. he says this. we will appear in the morning and vehemently argue against the attempt by mr. cohen and mr. trump to delay this case. the american people deserve the truth as quickly as possible. separately we have learned that cohen and his attorney dropped into lie bell lawsuits one against buzz feed and other against gps over that steele dossier. cohen's attorney said those lawsuits sucked up too much time and resources and that they are now focused intently on this federal investigation. >> geoff bennett for us in florida, where the president is. could the man who has been supremely loyal to donald trump for years flip on his bo

ms. mcdougal's case had nothing to do with our case. >> back to your case versus the cohen criminal case.rmation that could come forward in the case that you are bringing against michael cohen that could wind up implicating him in crimes that relate to the case against him that the federal government is prosecuting? >> i think that's possible and that's one of the issues as it relates to this motion for stay. they want to delay our case, ideally they would delay our case forever because they don't want to give me an opportunity to seek what's called discovery, which is -- includes depositions, sworn testimony under oath where people are forced to answer questions about what transpired and of course we have a pending motion to take a deposition of michael cohen and a deposition of the president of the united states and i think the more facts we learn and with each passing day the likelihood of that motion being granted goes up. i think that the concern, joy, is on the other side is that if i get an opportunity to cross-examine michael cohen and mr. trump about what transpired with this agr

mcdougal. >> what did he say to you? >> he called to offer his opinion as to whether or not ms. daniels and ms.iels had breached the attorney/client privilege and thereby waved it. it was his assertion that each of them had. he was encouraging me and informing me as of his opinion and suggested it would be appropriate for me to go out into the media and spill my guts. >> reporter: are you here at the behest of michael cohen? >> no, no. no. not in any way, shape or form. >> but he did tell you to go out and spill your guts? >> yes, right. >> reporter: why do you think that is? >> well, you'd have to ask him. >> reporter: cnn is learning after the daniels deal was done, cohen referred a client to davidson, it was chuck labellea. he had an issue with actor tom arnold, who tweeted several times last fall that labella possessed damning information about trump that arnold claims involved russian president vladimir putin. davidson says he wrote a cease and desist letter to arnold's attorney on labella's behalf. labella said a friend did call davidson on his behalf but he never considered davidson his

karen mcdougal and she both claimed they had affairs with citizen trump. the white house has denied the affairs. a source tells us msniels is cooperating with federal investigators look into her 2016 nondisclosure i agreement and the $130,000 hush money payment that was facilitated in michael cohen's words. joining me now is michael avenatti. first of all, you may not be able to talk about it, but this idea that she's cooperating with the feds, can you say anything about it? >> here's what i will say. we were contacted by various attorneys from the government that are looking into this. we're going to cooperate fully. we're going to be as user friendly as possible. we're going to respect the proce process. we understand the seriousness of this. this took on a whole other level in the last 48 hours. >> can you say when you were con tangted? >> i'm not going to say when we were contacted. what i will say is we're going to cooperate and do whatever we can to assist that investigation. we're not going to require fbi raids to cooperate or tell the truth. our entire intent for the last five or six weeks of this case has b