it seems the national enquirer. it seems the national enquirer.t seems the national enquirer didn't even publish the story. it is a tabloid newspaper owned by a friend of donald trump and there were suggestions that what took place was a kind of catch and kill, that's a statement used to talk about whenever a publication buys a story and then doesn't publish it. effectively ibehre is the story. but a nondisclosure agreement means that person cannot talk about it with anyone else —— effectively it varies. michael cohen was donald trump's lawyer during that period and also was seen as this mist fixit —— varies. essentially he sorted out problems for donald trump —— mr fixit. —— varies. in they talk about potentially buying they talk about potentially buying the rights to the story from the national enquirer, which would in effect mean they could stop that story from ever being published because it included a nondisclosure agreement by karen mcdougal. 0f course, that is something that is being denied by the trumpet agreement, the trump campaign. they

in 2006 she sold her story to the national enquirer.s all was denied he has had that effect and also denied he knew anything about a payment by the national enquirer. it seems the national enquirer did not even published a story. it is a tabloid newspaper owned by a friend of bernal trump. it was used as a catch and kill, that is a statement used when a newspaper effectively buries the story. because of an agreement, that person cannot talk to anybody else about the story. michael cohen was donald trump's rawa and seen as mrfix was donald trump's rawa and seen as mr fix it. was donald trump's rawa and seen as mrfix it. —— lawyer. it was seen by fbi officers during a raid at his officers. donald trump apparently described this payment and they talk about potentially buying the rights to the story from the national enquirer which could effectively mean they could stop the story from ever being published because it included a nondisclosure agreement. that is something denied by the trump campaign. they have said that, as far as they are co

four days before the election, the "wall street journal" revealed the "national enquirer." hope hicks who was the trump campaign spokeswoman at the time told the "wall street journal," they have no knowledge of this. legal strategy telling nbc news he was unaware that he was being recorded. lanny davis issues the following statement. obviously there is an ongoing investigation and we are sensitive to that. but suf fis it to say, that the recording will not hurt mr. cohen. >> joining us. thanks to all of you for being with us. michael, who reported this to start with, let me begin with you and begin to take us through the basics here. this is about a conversation that took place in the fall of 2016 during the campaign at that point, the "national enquirer r had the rights to this story and the conversation was about paying the "national enquirer" for that? >> this was going to be the payment to buy the rights to the story to essentially ensure that it continued remain silent. this was in september just two months before the election. as you pointed out in november, the campa

and it seems the national enquirer did not even publish the story.is a tabloid newspaper that is owned by a friend of donald trump, and there have suggestions that what took place was a kind of "catch and kill" — that is a statement that is used to talk about whenever a publication buys a story and then doesn't publish it, effectively it buries the story. but a non—disclosure agreement means that that person cannot talk about it to anyone else. michael cohen is donald trump's lawyer, he was his lawyer during that period and also seen as his "mr fix it". essentially he sorted out problems for donald trump. and it seems, on this tape recording, that was seized by fbi officers during a raid on his officers, that michael cohen and donald trump discussed this payment that took place between the national enquirer and karen mcdougal, and they talk about potentially buying the rights to the story from the national enquirer, which would in effect mean they could stop that story from ever being published because it included a nondisclosure agreement by karen m

always denied that hehaid the affair and he denied he knew anything about a payment by the "national enquirer." it seems theti "al enquirer" didn't publish the story. it is a tabloid owned by friends of donald trump and there are suggestions it was a caption kill. a lot of statements used when a publication buys sto and doesn't publish it effectivelye buhe story but a known disclosure agreement means the person can't talk about it. michael cohen is donald trump's lawyer. he was his lawyer during that period and seen as h mr. fix-it. he sorted out problems for donald trump. it seems on this tape recording that was seized by f.b.i. of rcers in aaid on his offices that michaelen coh and donald trump discuss this payment that took place between the "national enquirer" and karen mcdougal and talk about potentially buying the rights to the story from the nation enquirer" would mean they could stop it from being published because it included ano isclosure agreement by her. that is something being denied by the trump agreement and campaign. they said as far as they are concerned no payment was made e

be gone shortly after his wife gave birth to their son and it was he trying to reimburse the national enquirer in order to buy the rights to this story and as you just heard that could constitute an illegal campaign contribution and more legal trouble for the president yes i would say there is damage done in the electorate at large they're likely to become more and more they already are becoming more and more exasperated with mr trump if only because he doesn't seem to tell the truth in many instances and in this case he could be revealed not to be telling the truth about his affair with his playboy model not only is it unseemly but it's deeply disturbing to the american electorate at large his core supporters who maybe twenty five to thirty percent of the american electorate they believe everything he says they were gar all of this as a trumped up conspiracy to trap the president by the mainstream media and none of this is likely to face his core supporters still to come here on the news hour lingering questions about how much influence the military just buckstone adds to the poll it's. also

now, the payments were made by the national enquirer newspaper here in america.bought her story, effectively, so she told them about the allegations of the affair with donald trump. however, they never published it. and the national enquirer newspaper is owned by a personal friend of donald trump. it's led some here to claim that it was a case of what is known as "catch and kill". effectively what you do is you buy a story and then you choose whether or not to publish it, and if you don't publish it, you effectively kill the story. now, the question is, was that done specifically to stop her speaking, which could be damaging allegations ahead the vote taking place? now, that would be one thing for a magazine, but of course it's different for the campaign itself. and it seems on this tape that michael cohen and donald trump discuss the potential of buying that agreement from the national enquirer newspaper, so as effectively they would gain the rights to the story, and it would stop karen mcdougal from being able to talk about it, and that they would hold the cont

were broken that payment to karen mcdougal was made by american media and could publish is a national enquirer and others but it was with the express purpose it seems to to not publish her story about her alleged affair with donald trump don't trump is always denies he had he had an affair with her back so the question is then was that because m i had colluded with michael current on trump's lawyer in a bid to try to help donald trump's election campaign if that's the case and that one hundred fifty thousand dollars payment could be seen as a campaign contribution it's illegal for corporations to make to conspire with political campaigns for electoral advantage and anyway individual contributions going to be around the five thousand dollars if it is found that michael curran was acting with donald trump's blessing in order to in order trying to affect the election that could be very serious trouble for donald trump has more trouble than i think we've heard from the special counsel's investigation into and there's russian collusion thanks very much let's talk now to bill schneider bill is a pol

mcguy dal had sold her story for $150,000 to the publisher of "the national enquirer." they apparently bought it in order to bury it, a practice known as catch and kill. hicks claimed, "we have no knowledge of any of this." but in a conversation secretly recorded two months earlier, a very different story emerges. >> what's up, mike? >> reporter: trump and his former attorney and fixer michael cohen apparently discussing a plan to buy the rights to her story themselves from "the enquirer's" publisher, american media incorporated, which is owned by trump's close friend, david pecker. cohen proposes using a shell company to do the deal. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david, you know, so that -- >> yeah. >> i'm going to do that right away. >> reporter: cohen says he's already set the wheels in motion with a top trump organization official. and trump apparently mentions a price tag. $150,000, the same amount a.i.m. paid the former playmeat. >> i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with

first of all, we don't know if they did that story from the national enquirer.he questions about the payment to the former pawn actress stormy daniels, and in this particular case as well, are really to do with the timing of it. if money was paid to stop a damaging story being published, it could rake campaignfinance story being published, it could rake campaign finance rules. so effectively it is not illegal, but it could breach campaign finance rules, and then it would be illegal. now michael coen, his own lawyer has been speaking. we should just put this in context with whom michael coen is. michael coen was the personal lawyer for donald trump, but it really went beyond that. he was regarded as a mr fixit. he essentially stopped problems from donald trump, a stop them from being issues and in some cases it seems he made payments in orderfor things to go away. now his own lawyer, this is michael coen‘s lawyer, has released a statement in which he says there is an ongoing investigation and we are sensitive to that, because at this stage michael coen has not be

the national enquirer bought this story, however, they did not publish it.end of donald trump. it has led to claims in the us that it is what is known as catch and kill. effectively they take a story and they suffered being published. allegedly, in this conversation, this tape that has been taken, mr trump and mrcohen this tape that has been taken, mr trump and mr cohen are discussing the potential of buying the rights to that story from the national enquirer magazine, which would of course mean that karen dougal could not talk about the story going forward. the concern here, and the concern for the white house, is that that could potentially lead mr trump potentially breaking campaign finance laws. it could be seen, because of the timing, just before the 2016 presidential election, that he was trying to stop a negative story from coming out before he ran for president. another one to watch. chris buckler, thank you very much. the surviving victim of the novichok poisoning in amesbury in wiltshire, charlie rowley, has been discharged from hospital. he's thou

the "national enquirer" had purchased her story. her name is karen mcdougle. national "national enquirer" pa $150,000 for the apparent purpose of getting her story and then killing it, or preventing it from showing up anywhere else. trump and cohen were considering buying the rights to the story themselves from the head of the enquirer's parent company, a man named david pecker, with whom the president is close. listen to this. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, david? so that i'm going to do that right away. i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding -- yes. it's all the stuff. all the stuff. i'm all over that. i spoke to allen about it. when it comes time for the financing which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay -- >> cash. >> no, no, no. >> let me go kara. there is a discussion of, quote, "all the stuff." >> poppy, you're right, there is a lot in this tape that we are now examining. on one hand you hear cohen and trump discussing this potential paym

ami, the close company of "national enquirer." sources tell when pecker took over he imposed a moratorium on negative stories about mr. trump. throughout016 presidential campaign, ami t you get it from lanny davis. or you get a transcript of it, this one would you think is being forth coming. i can remember that nixon tried to give a big pile of transcripts. if you give the tape out, it seems like you are closer to the truth. your thoughts. >> without a doubt. that is not to say you can't doctor audio. >> intelligible if you don't like a line or two. was it edited. >> i can't speak to that. if you are trying to project confidence, releasing a tape is stronger than releasing transcript. needing to slow things down, look at a transcript, it doesn't look right. >> what do you think that most americans would think when they hear the president is talking to his fixer lawyer in this conversation. comfort with the conversation. >> what is striking is how cavalier the president's tone is in his audio. he talks about paying off a tabloid c

trump's longtime friends with david packer, ceo of american media, the national enquirer's parent company. the timing of any payments made by mr. trump's former lawyer are being examined needed to find out if they violated finance campaign laws. rudy giuliani, the president's current lawyer said that these recordings are proof the president did nothing wrong, he said he never paid mcdougal and the recordings show that he had no knowledge that the national enquirer was paying her either. angelica alvarez, cbs news, the white house. >>> new information on a tour boat tragedy in missouri, weather warnings were issued in the hours before a boat sank during the storm. it happened last night on table rock lake near branson, a popular tourist destination. 17 people died, 9 of the victims were a member of one family from indiana. the boat went down in 60 mile- per-hour winds in full view of other tourists's on the lake. rescuers pulled 13 people out alive, the focus for now according to the missouri governor should be helping the families of the victims. >> these things happen, they are tragic ev

we have another case of a cover-up, the "national enquirer" acting as a political organization. we have a trusted lawyer breaking that confidence, or at least the lawyer's lawyer breaking that confidence to say i'm ready to speak, i'm ready to talk. >> you're saying he said no snitching. i think it was kanye who said i got a lawyer to keep what's in my safe safe, and tonight we're learning what's in michael cohen's safe is not safe anymore. special thanks to john flannery and madison otto. >>> coming up, michael avenatti is here live to talk about what he think the tapes mean. >>> top aides gets grilled on capitol hill. >> did the president tell you that he discussed relaxing russia sanctions or not, yes or no? >> the president is entitled to have private meetings. >> new hints about the trump bubble. enraged when a tv near him was not turned to fox news. very special panel on a special edition of the beat, celebrating a one-year anniversary. i'm ari mel lber. ♪ but it's all coming back me. ♪ baby, baby, baby. ♪ if you touch me like this ♪ and when you hold me like that. ♪ all y

the owner of "the national enquirer," and former "playboy" model, karen mcdougal. who claimed she had an affair with the president. the fbi seizing the recording during a raid of cohen's office and home, and tonight, the president did not know he was being recorded. >>> the deadly tragedy on the water. tonight, the death toll rising. 17 people killed when a duck boat sinks during a violent storm. and there are reports of nine members of the same family were killed, ages 1 to 70. what we have now learned. >>> as we come on the air this friday night, there are new twisters, and this evening, 40 million americans on alert right now. a tornado watch, severe thunderstorm watches across several states. and it's all moving east just as the weekend begins. rob with the new track. >>> breaking news tonight. a well-known cardiologist, once former president george h.w. bush's doctor, gunned down while riding his bike in houston. we have late reporting. >>> the warning involving mcdonald's tonight. reports more than 160 people have already been sickened. >>> and the video toni

the people from the "national enquirer" then, mr.donald trump, his lawyer and this person, alan, who was and still is general counsel to the trump organization, they engaged in fraud. therefore there is no attorney-client privilege and bob mueller can listen to the tapes and use them. >> harris: i want to step in because there are different types of fraud and this is not necessarily criminal fraud, it could be civil. >> correct. criminal fraud is where you dupe somebody out of money to line your own pockets. civil fraud is where you dupe somebody out of money to harm them. key word in both, you trick them, you made a material rep emac misrepresentation. this is civil fraud but both types of fraud are covered under the crime fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege rule, meaning if a client and the lawyer discussed the commission of a civil fraud, that conversation is not protected. >> harris: what is the end game with the tape, do you think? >> that is a great question. i think the president should be concerned because the en

the interesting part of this is in the "new york times" report about the national confer -- enquirer she was paid 150 thuds to helter story before the election. they ended up sitting on this story. it's catch and kill. there could be some sort of investigators could try to be matching up that this payment made by the national enquirer to get this story and tell her story and do an interview there was a way to make sure it didn't come out before the election. the reason that this is interesting that it was national enquirer the chairman there is friends with donald trump. there could be some sort of line to draw that. that might be an avenue they trying to go down. >> the coulds, woulds. no one denying that this conversation took place on either side. it took place. there's a tape of it. rudy guiliani on behalf of the president says, there's nothing illegal here. you can talk about whether or not you agree that the conversation should have happened in a personal way but professionally as far as the president running for the highest office, there's nothing potentially criminal about wh

i did nothing wrong. >> the "national enquirer" bought the story but never ran it. no word on if the recording will be released. >> you should know it is the top story on our websiteful there is a lot more you can read there about the developments. >>> tonight a candlelight memorial in the town of branson, missouri. this stems from last night's accident when 17 people died after a tour boat capsized during a severe storm. the victims ranging in age from 1 to 7. 29 passengers two crew members were on board. this is cell phone video showing the duck boat swallowed by intense waves and winds gusting to more than 60 miles an hour. investigators are looking for witnesses. they will release a preliminary report by next month. this is among most deadly boating accidents in recent history. >>> tonight, a mountain biker riding on a trail in the state park fell down a steep embankment. he ended 50 feet off the trail in a tough spot to reach. >> luckily he had his phone with him. >> we sent crews from the bottom. we ended up finding him. >> it is the second time a chopper crew

" paying her in the final stages of the election as well. . >> you bring up "the national enquirerr of many of these scandals. just remember that david pecker, the publisher of ami, this is the parent company of the nation"national enquirer," as w been reporting for a long time, he has a very close relationship with donald trump and a lot of information has been coming out in the past couple of months in revealing that donald trump could approve stories or not approve stories that are weighing in on him. so this might have been another story that ami has been trying to attack and coh during the election, any story that went through "the national enquirer" or any ami publication, if that's what michael cohen handled, are there other recordings with michael cohen or somebody else is discussing these kinds of payments that were made or that they were trying to make to women or other individuals who had potentially damaging stories about donald trump. >> real quick, m.j, just to make sure i have this right. do we know, does the "new york times" say that this recording is one of the thi

playboy playmate karen mcdougal that was made by a third party, david pecker, as head of the "national enquirer." this all happened in the months before the election. now, this is not a great quality recording, and that will be relevant to its analysis. so first i want to play you the entire recording, not all of which is relevant to the payment. so listen for yourself. >> let me know what's happening, okay? oh. oh. maybe because of this, it would be better if you didn't go, you know? maybe because of this, for that one -- you know -- get rid of this because it's so false what they're saying. it's such bullshit. um -- i think -- i think this goes away quickly. i think what -- i think it's probably better do the charleston thing just this time. yeah. in two weeks, it's fine. i think right now it's better, you know? okay, honey. you take care of yourself. thanks. yep. i'm proud of you. so long. bye. what's up, mike? >> great poll by the way. >> making progress. >> big time. >> and your guy's a good guy. >> pastor scott? >> what's happening? >> oh, no. >> can we use him anymore? >> oh, yeah. you'r

was speaking about a friend of the president and chairman of american media which owns the "national enquirer karen mcdougal claims she had an affair with donald trump in 2006. the "enquirer" never published her story before the election. >>> president trump's star on the hollywood walk of fame was destroyed. a pickaxe was found near the scene. police think the man who reported the vandalism around 3:30 this morning is responsible. this isn't the first time the president's star has been destroyed. a construction worker took a sledgehammer to it in 2016. >>> san jose liquor store sold the only winning ticket in the nation for last night's $522 million mega millions lottery jackpot and jackie ward has more from the the east side with reaction from the store's owner because he is a winner as well. >> reporter: can you imagine? no kidding. more than $1 billion was at stake and that person, whoever it is, is processing all of that this morning. i'm sure that's just an incredible amount of money to wrap your head around. so the winning ticket was sold here at ernie's liquors in san jose and it was

money above and beyond an arrange nlt with the "national enquirer's" parent company, ami, to buy miss mcdougal's story and kill. this conversation took place two months before the election, september 2016. several weeks later, just a few days before the election, the campaign denied any knowledge of the alleged affair, or the "national enquirer" deal but that's getting ahead of the story. let's start at the beginning as told to me exclusively by karen mcdougal earlier this year. so tell me about your first date. >> our first date, i was told we were going to go to the beverly hills hotel for dinner. so he had told me that keith, his bodyguard, was going to pick me up at a certain time, and he did. and then we were driving over to the beverly hills hotel, and keith drove around to the back and he said, we have to get out here because we don't want to walk through the hotel. and at that minute, i'm li, lik thinking to myself, are we going to a room? thought we were having dinner at the beverly hills hotel. >> in the actual restaurant. >> right. we did have dinner at the beverly hills ho

jane: it has been suggested that they were discussing a reimbursement to "the national enquirer," which hadt the rights to karen mcdougal's story. is that different from a direct payment to karen mcdougal? kim: federal campaign laws are interested in whether the campaign receipts something of value. the effect of a loan from "the national enquirer" is a value to the cam controlling potentially negative information related to the candidate. it would fall within election laws. jane: you mentioned there may be more tips. how dangerous could michael cohen, the man who knows all caps secrets -- knows donald trump's secrets be? m: he holds the keys to the ot just because of the hush money to women, negotiating the deal on trump tower in moscow leading up to the campaign, mentioned in the infamous steele dossier on having traveledmeith alleged dications with the campaign. he denies that. also a deal with ukraine and russia to resolve their international dispute. he has information that would be problematic if it got introthe hands ofcutors. jane: how usual is it for a lawyer to record a client

the national enquirer, owned by one of donald trump make friends, never published it.ign team denied knowing anything about the payment that it seems donald trump did talk about it with this man, his former lawyer and so—called fixer michael cohen who is currently under investigation for a series of possible offences. in a raid on mr cohen's officers, fbi agents apparently seized a secret recording in which mr trump discussed with his lawyer the possibility of paying money to keep karen mcdougal quiet, perhaps by buying the rights to her story. the president left washington for a week and one of his golf clubs without answering that question. but payments to bury embarrassing stories about an election candidate could potentially be seen as breaking campaign finance laws. although his representatives insist that no cash was actually handed over. in a statement, michael cohen's own lawyer said: donald trump's political opponents are also still trying to discover exactly what he said to vladimir putin during their private meeting in helsinki amid the controversy over plan

plan to buy the rights to karen mcdou l mcdougal's story which she sold to parent company of "national enquirerfor $100,000. when she sold the story to the tabloid they chose not to run it. the interesting thing there, the parent company is a friend of the president's. you could certainly see here how michael cohen could become a huge legal liability for the president in a way he wasn't a few short days ago. >> can you tell me what you know about this call between secretary of state mike pompeo and sergey lavrov. >> what we know about the call interestingly comes from russian foreign ministry. it really fits a pattern of the russians being the ones to make things known surrounding helsinki summit, certainly before but in some cases smpd of the white house. the russians say pompeo and lavrov talked about syria, u.s. detention of russian national maria butina who is being held on charges of conspiracy and for failing to register as a foreign agent. again, this is all coming from the russians. we don't have any official readout from the u.s. side, alex. >> geoff bennett from the white house. appre

the parent company of "national enquirer," ami, paid mcdougal $150,000. and had her sign a disclosure agreements. the deal appears to be a so-called catch and kill.

in case anything happens to the "national enquirer" ." >> greg: they weren't selling shells at all. >> juan: thank you, gregory. i think the key point here is you have the "national enquirer" buying a story in the immediate run up to the election, so clearly this is about avoiding this embarrassing story breaking. >> jesse: a campaign finance violation punished by $15,000 fine? >> greg: i love the fact that cohen, just months ago, and on trust she -- untrustworthy slimeball. now they are in bed with him. i think it's important. what is the end game? i think cnn, i don't blame them for doing this story. it's interesting. but where do you want this to go? impeachment? >> dana: i don't think the media has an agenda. i think they want to the story to keep going. i want to know, what is lanny davis' end game? what's that strategy? >> greg: i think there are people in the media want trump out. the problem is, they haven't thought about 66 million people who think you just got rid of a popular president. >> dana: 65% of democrats do not want to push for impeachment. it's like they've gotten

we should add to this really unfolding drama the parent company of the "national enquirer" known by a man named david pecker who happens to be a friend of the president. you can see how how all the ties exist. it can be really complicating for this president should this really happen to come to the fore in this investigation. >> regarding the practice catch and kill. thanks to all of you for the time. >>> was michael cohen's recording legal, does he seem more likely to flip another president? i'll ask alan dershowitz who joins me live in just a second. salads should look like this. crisp leaves of lettuce. freshly made dressing. clean food that looks this good. delivered to your desk. now delivering to home or office. panera. food as it should be. stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man. start winning today. book now at lq.com capital one and hotels.com are giving venture cardholders 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. brrrr! i have the chills.

at the time the story belonged to american media, which owns the "national enquirer." here are the last nine secretary of the tape, listen closely. >> we normally put the words on the screen, but the tape is garbled and impossible to verb eight and that's the primary issue, exactly what did donald trump say? the white house and trump attorney rudy giuliani maintained mr. trump said "don't pay with cash. michael cohen's attorney lanny davis who gave the tape to cnn indicates that trump wanted to pay with cash. davis even went on to say that only drug dealers and mobsters pay with cash, but "the washington post," abc and nbc, not exactly trump-loving media outlets, all agree the exact wording on the tape is unintelligible. today the president tweeted "what kind of lawyer would tape a client? so sad. is this a first? never heard of it before. why was the tape so abruptly terminated, cut while i was prism will be saying positive things? i hear there are other clients and many reporters that are tapes -- can this be so? too bad! suggesting the audio had been edited or docto

," the company that owns the "national enquirer" were never purchased. that transaction did not -- >> that's another thing that's absurd. what it makes clear is, this is -- at most -- an attempt to do something. i don't know of any attempt to this category of crime they are looking at. in any event, i don't think anyone can suggest that this represents anything where the president did anything wrong. that's the reason why he waived it. would we have put it out had it not been leaked? no, we wouldn't have put it out if it had not been leaked. >> laura: were you given a heads-up that this was coming out tonight at all or was it a surprise? >> we found out at 6:00 this afternoon. we have been over the tape over the weekend about five times. what i urge people to do is go online and listen to your broadcast. play the tape. if play it three times. the third time you play it, it will become clear. i have been listening to tapes even longer than alan dershowitz. about 4,000 hours of mafia people on tape. i know how to listen to them i know how to transcribe the

they may say it's a reimbursement to the "national enquirer," but what we do know is donald trump lied about this. his white house lied about this. and, chris, let me just say this. we lived through eight years of barack obama when the drama that we had with barack obama was him ordering honey dijon mustard and wearing tan suits. my question to everyone watching is what if this was barack obama? we have not one playboy playmate but two. >> well, if trump had his way, we also would have had the president marred in whether or not he was born in this country. but, rick santorum, it seems that team trump is happy this tape came out. why? >> well, first off, there was no payment made. i don't know what bakari is talking about. there was no payment made. there was payment discussed. and if you're going to make a payment to violate campaign finance rules and if you're going to make a payment to somehow obfuscate the law, you don't say -- donald trump at least according to the recording as reported, said, do i write a check? that's not -- that's not obviously someone trying to hide anything. s

reportedly he said that cohen wanted this to be a cash deal for a potential payment to the "national enquirer's" parent company to keep karen mcdougal's story from going public. now he says his position is simply that trump wanted the deal done right. now, cohen's lawyer says it was the president who suggested to pay in cash. now, why does that matter? cash could indicate an intention to hide the transaction. but it could also not mean that. and we're going to deal with what it could matter and why. but first let's deal with what is. all right? we're going run that portion of this one more time. let's just run it again. this is the important part. okay? >> wait a sec. what financing? >> well, i'll have to pay him something -- >> pay with cash. >> no, no, no. >> check. >> how are you? >> and in the end is the -- who the new call. said what? this is the enhanced version. okay? >> what financing? >> i'll have to pay him something -- >> pay with cash. >> no, no, no, i got -- no. >> hey, how are you? >> i'm going to play it for you again. what do you hear the president say? >> what financing? >> wel

is that david pecker of a.m.i., the publisher of the "national enquirer"? or is that david i think dennison, the pseudonym that trump used to mask his role in some of these payments? i don't know. >> it sounds like in these comments it's probably david pecker because he's talking about setting up a company to deliver money to cover the story that dafvid pecker ended up delivering money to buy and then kill at the "national enquirer." >> i think what's significant here, lawrence, is that i don't know how much legal exposure donald trump will get because of what michael cohen has done. but michael cohen is exposing donald trump to all sorts of legal peril. and in this particular conversation they reference alan weisselberg i think at least twice and they refer to the fact that alan knows about the structure of these llcs they're using to manage payments. alan weiss'llberg was fred trump's accountant, the cfo of the trump organization for years. he knows far more about the finances of the trump organization than michael cohen ever did. and to the extent that a

take a listen. >> sure. >> was the "national enquirer" acting as the arm of donald trump and michael cohen, if so, is there something wrong with that? >> we strongly suspect they were. >> can you prove it? >> if the lawsuit had continued, we would have been able to prove it. >> john? >> yes. well, here's the thing about the abuse. i think what we have is we have a long standing relationship, which has been well reported, between ami, mr. pecker, and mr. trump, and in which they have helped each other from time to time, and both favoring mr. trump and killing other stories. what they did with the mcdougal story was they paid her 150,000 and then kill it had story and tried to tie her down with that contract. that's an abusive situation in which they said this is a story that's going to run. you don't pay $150,000 for a dog and then they didn't run it. the only person who profits from that is candidate trump. and so these conversations -- they did that in august. so these conversations in september only a month later seem to fit naturally with an ongoing scheme. should we now pay her d

american media owns the national enquirer. pecker is a long-time friend of donald trump and jared kushner. michael cohen did set up a company, essential consultants, just a month or so after the tape was made. that is the company reportedly used to pay off stormy daniels. so let's get back to the tape. a key point of contention this morning surrounds what trump is heard saying at the end when he mentions financing. according to cohen's attorney, lanny davis, it sounds like he's asking whether to pay with cash, while trump's attorney, rudy giuliani, claims the president is saying don't pay with cash. why is that significant? if the president was talking about reimbursing american media with cash, it could indicate an intent to hide the payment. giuliani says the truth is just the opposite, that the president encouraged any payment to be made by check, specifically so there would be a paper trail. quote, it shows the president wanted it done in a way that was memorialized. they also talked about doing it through a corporation, w

or at least the publisher of the national enquirer ostensibly to get the total rights of macdougal story of this alleged affair with donald trump was donald trump has always maintained didn't happen and to give her a column on health care. but what actually the national enquirer was doing was what's called a caption kill that is buy the rights so that the story never emerges no one can ever actually cover the story she can never tell her story to the media this happening so close to the presidential election leads to the question was this deal done with michael cohen's involvement in order to help donald trump's presidential campaign in which case that could constitute a campaign finance contribution and it's illegal for corporations to directly coordinate with all the titians on campaigns in an election cycle and anyway the maximum campaign contribution is around five thousand five thousand dollars so if that is the case this could be very serious for michael cohen and potentially for the far more serious than anything we've heard off as far as russian collusion from the special i

we have tmz, the national enquirer, with her scandalous papers back then? "the national police gazette" stands out as one of the most outrageous. yellow journalism was at its height in this time so all papers were trying to sell with the most outrageous titles in the most wild stories, so mainstream papers were covering these stories. and they had headlines that indicated that this was a pattern, a lot of titles had to do with, again it is the coachman, or another coachman scandal, so we get the sense this was going on over and over. newspapers were assuming their readers had read this before, we can certainly tell this by the title and the fact that there was a lot of humor going on and theese coachmen scandals. host: and this is prevalent in the 19th century? carolee: yes, late 19th, early 20th century. host: why did you pursue this area? carolee: i sort of stumbled upon this project. i was curious about what a coach driver does and i thought it might lead me to a few hours of googling and finding something out and moving on to whatever also was researchin

of course david pecker is the ceo of ami, the publisher of the "national enquirer." and has damaging information that might come out before the election. and cohen is proposing to the president, then, the gop nominee that they buy the rights from david pecker just to be on the safe side. just to have this material certainly in his hands rather than ami's hands. one month after karen mcdougal who claims she had a ten-month affair. she can't talk anything about it. and interestingly that trump friendly publisher sits on the story and does not with it either. here is what is weird to me. what it appears is the claim about the context of this, is it is not about stormy daniels, it is about karen mcdougal. and they did open some kind of shell company to make the payment, but that shell company never does make the payment and then have to open another shell company to do the other paying, is that right? >> we don't know what happens with the creation of that company other than we know they did not buy the rights from ami. that deal did not go through. >> let me stop you th

the parent company of "national enquirer," ami, paid mcdougal $150,000. and had her sign a disclosure agreements. the deal appears to be a so-called catch and kill. that brings us to today's revelation which was broken by the "new york times" and confirmed by rudy giuliani. federal investigators seized a recording of a conversation made. the two men discussed the payment of mcdougal. the president was unaware that he was being recorded and cnn is reporting tonight that when informed about the recording, trump said i can't believe michael would do this to me. federal investigators have more tape. the "washington post" reported that cohen sometimes taped conversations with associates. the white house is not commenting on the mcdougal tapes. i want to bring in one of the reporters who broke the story. reporter with the "new york times," coauthor of the report who broke the news. matt, good to see you. you and i talked earlier today. do we now know anything more about what was said on that tape? >> we know that the story from the trump team has changed a litt

to catch and kill a story at the national enquirer. clearly from the context, it sounds like this isn't the first time this has happened. you don't hear an elaborate explanation as to why i have to set up a company to do this, so i think it's very damaging for the president. >> laura, here's an important point, though, and i wonder legally how you think it matters. there is no evidence that the money, the payment being discussed here to keep a story under wraps, was ever paid. and giuliani, the president's lawyer, insists it was never paid. end of story? >> well, no, because remember, the reason they're actually going on this preemptive strike against michael cohen, they said we're not even going to entertain the basis of this conversation, maybe they don't want a debate about it, and also they're trying to set you up for thinking about the long-term game about stormy daniels and the conditicensual payoff. he's trying to have a he said-she said battle. he's trying to bank on people saying, well, there is a seed of doubt here as to whet