tr >> woodruff: so, renato mariotti, trying to understand this, once mr. weisselberg has been granted legal immunity, is he then expected to talk about that eirntcollection of business information that he has about the trump empire? ouat are federal investigators able to ask him at and expect an answer on? >> well, typilly, judy, in exchange for immunity, you agree to cooperate with the government fu o stop. er words, you're not cooperating with just one component to have the justic department, you're -- component of the justice department,re yoooperating with the pletely.department com typically state and federal organizations work hand in hand and i would expect he agr to cooperate with state authorities as well. and the real question is, you know, what else are federal prosecutors looking at? to be clear, as i pointed out a moment ag, eveif they're just looking at these ansactions, there are various assorted crimes and, as was mentioned a moment ago, that trust, for aample, was mentioned in the cohen charged mr. weisselberg and then there's another indi

so, renato mariotti, to you fit, what exactly do we understand this immunity agreement with mr. weisselberg to mean? what does it represent? well, it means, first all, that mr. weisselberg himself had criminal liability. you don't need an immunity deal if you weren't involvedin potentiallommitting a crime. that's the first thing. second of all, it indicates that prosecutors believe that there is sething valuable that they were getting in exchange for his testimony. prosecutors don't just gie away immunity like candy. they have a specific reason for doing so. so, here, it appears mr. weisselberg's coopthation was, avery least, helpful to prosecutors in securing the conviction of michael cohen, who pled guilty earlier this week. i think the question is is there other potential lue in that testimony beyond that and i think that's an important question going fward. >> woodruff: that's what i wanted to ask you, staying with o you, renariotti, in the "wall street journal," reports of him testifying to the grand jury last month. the question is, is it just around the michael cohen paym

former federal prosecutor jennifer rodgers and another former federal prosecutor, cnn analyst renato mariottirenato, you said rick gates was the most important gates in the manafort trial by far. there was an accountant in the last couple of days who testified. how damaging was his testimony today saying he lied at the direction of mr. manafort, and because the defense was going to bring it up, prosecutors wanted to get it out as quickly as possible from rick gates that he lied to manafort and stole from manafort and broke the law. >> well, very important testimony, anderson. there's no question that it was important. one of the key things that gates did is he said on the witness stand that he committed crimes along with paul manafort. i will tell you from my experience trying white collar cases, it is always very damaging to the defendant when a flipper, a cooperator like mr. gates takes the stand and says i committed crimes. so did that man, and here's how we did it together. so that's something very help to the prosecution. but as you point out, there is all of this baggage that comes alon

jennifer rodgers, renato mariotti, thanks very much. >>> the military parade that the president wantedn washington, asked for, it's now off, at least until next year. just ahead, who the president is now blaming for the postponement, and where he said he's going to go instead. ♪ you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia. add-on advantage. (thomas) nice choices! you see, now verizon lets you mix and match your family unlimited plans like you mix and match your flavors. so you get what you want, without paying for things you don't. number 6. i know. where do i put it? in my belly. (vo) one family. different unlimited plans. starting at $40 per line on the network you deserve. no, what?? i just switched to geico and got more. more? got a company i can trust. that's a heck of a lot more. over 75 years of great savings and service. you can't argue with more. why would ya? geico. expect great savings and a whole lot

also with us renato mariotti.etail of the extramarital affair, his embezzling money from manafort's own offshore account for what the defense claims was to pay for the affair, how effective a defense strategy do you think that is? clearly prosecutors tried to weaken that by getting in front of it, essentially, and having gates talk about his laws and the illegal acts that he took part in when he was on the stand. >> yeah, that's the standard approach, anderson. they want the effectiveness of that by making sure it doesn't seem as though the cooperating witness gets blind side by anything. so that's a pretty normal approach. i do need to add that anything i am talking about is not based on anything confidential or attorney-client privilege. >> sure. but why focus on the affair? just in the range of things that rick gates has already said he did, is -- i mean, do you think the affair would have that big an impact on the jurors? >> it could. again, with cooperators, off times the cross-examination wants to portray al

. >> so, i want to bring in now cnn legal analyst renato mariotti and glenn kirschner, also a former ral prosecutor. gentlemen, good evening. it's good to have you on right now. here's what i want to know. renato, rudy giuliani seems to think the doj guidelines are applicable in this situation. what exactly are these justice department guidelines? >> well, the guideline that he is -- he's talking about, he just conjured out of thin air or out of somewhere else. but the guideline that he may be thinking of is there is a guideline about not taking certain actions before an election, a guideline discussed at length in relation to the actions of james comey before the last presidential election. but there's no guideline, justice department guideline that says you have to shut down your investigation if an election happens to be coming soon. regardless of who you are investigating. imagine how silly that would be if a crime was discovered and the investigation was began, let's say, six months before an election, the justice department would have to complete the investigation in a few month

ron brown steen is with me, and renato mariotti.anthony scaramucci had to say about this. >> when you're protesting you don't have to be a shakespearean scholar, but when you're protesting and the words "doth protest too much" why are you protesting? if you're right on the facts the facts will unfold in a way that's favorable to you and you'll be better served not talking about it. >> doth the president protest too much? >> the scaramucci era. look, i think to me the core -- it's fascinating watching this debate within the president's camp because the idea that a sitting president would refuse to talk to a special counsel investigating a foreign government's attempt to influence the 2016 election seems politically incredible by historical standards. the issue hasn't been litigated but in the past bill clinton sat down with ken starr in part because they recognized that the signal it sends to the american public if you refuse to answer yeses about your behavior is dramatic and as republicans brace for what's happening in ohio today w