. >> and this originated in the southern district of new york and not out of robert mueller's office. this is not from the special counsel. the search warrant originated from the southern district is what the article said. >> no, after receiving a referral from the special counsel -- >> i think they have to go to him since he has broader -- >> i'm not going to opine on that. >> we'll bring in more lawyers to talk about that. i want to read a statement from steven ryan, the lawyer for michael cohen. 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 and his clients. i've been advised by federal prosecutors that the new york action is in part of a referral by the office of special counsel robert mueller. i have laura coats on the phone, former federal prosecutor. laura, your reaction to this? i'm no lawyer but it seems rather unusual for an attorney's office to be raided by the fbi. >> it is normally very unusual for that to happen. ands you have the attorney-clients privil

attorney in the southern district of new york, hired by the first woman u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york, mary jo white, who was selected for the job by liberal democratic senator daniel patrick moynihan and officially nominated by president bill clinton. if joanna hendon were on robert mueller's team, donald trump would be calling her a democrat loyalist. instead of paying her to defend him tonight, which is what he is doing. but that's not the best part. the most maddening thing for donald trump about the law firm he has hired, spears & imes, the founders of that law firm, spears & imes, david spears and linda imes were assistant u.s. attorneys serving with assistant u.s. attorney james b. comey. spears and imes and comey all worked in the criminal division of the united states attorneys office for southern district of new york, the same unit that donald trump is now fighting in court. spears and imes are friends of james comey's. and this is the part that no one, really no one should tell donald trump. this is the part that will produce one

attorney for the southern district of new york. as they should do, frankly. >> but this is still in the federal system. the u.s. attorney is still a federal prosecutor. there is still a lot of, i won't say partnering because that may be overstating it. but a lot of coordination obviously between the fbi and the u.s. attorney's office, is that right? >> yeah, i don't think partnering is overstating it at all. there is complete coordination and partnership between the fbi and between the u.s. attorney's office. and between different fbi offices around the country and between different u.s. attorney's offices around the country. i don't want to portray it as one seamless web where balls never get dropped because occasionally they do. but in the main, nicolle, prosecutors and agents around the country work together. another thing i think is important here for context, if bob mueller and his team come across something that they believe to be a federal crime or evidence of a federal crime, they have a binary choice. they either do somethi

so the southern district of new york is notoriously -- it's my alma mater so i can take some pride inas 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? tell us why you believe that's important. >> i testified before senator grassley's committee back in june, and the import of my testimony was that the judiciary committee needed to protect robert mueller against the potential for firing, just what's been discussed and what has been reported to have been the case back in june, when the president supposedly asked his counsel, d

attorney in the southern district of new york where these prosecutors are investigating michael cohen. trump's appointee to lead the southern district of new york is named jeffrey berman. he's a trump donor. he is somebody who worked on the trump transition, somebody who took a personal interview with trump for the job before he was named to it which is something presidents don't usually do with u.s. attorneys. he is also not incidentally rudy giuliani's law partner. because of all those things, it was not the world's greatest shock when we learned that jeffrey berman also despite the fact that he leads this office, he is not involved in the michael cohen case. we learned that right after -- we learned recently right after he took over the southern district of new york's job in january, mr. berman notified justice officials in washington he had a possible appearance of a conflict of interest in the michael cohen case. those officials at d.o.j. in washington reportedly determined that jeff berman shouldn't oversee the cohen investigation even as he took this job in the southern distric

which is extraordinarily important but not if you're being chased by bob mueller in the southern district of new yorkot rudy giuliani who doesn't know a lot of people in the southern district of new york, even john dowd, his former lawyer, said it makes no sense that hiring and he's got a couple other people that obviously are willing to work for free he has really no legal strategy and then you've got michael cohen, donny deutsch, and michael cohen humiliated time and time again. he was humiliated when he wasn't allowed to be on the campaign. this story illustrates in the "wall street journal" how much he was humiliated and hurt when donald trump would take him down to washington, d.c. because he said he was a bull in a china shop that broke too much china. and then one story after another about humiliation that he had to put up with with donald trump and yesterday he wakes up, watches trump on tv say that he's not a big part of his life, that cohen is just a small, small part of his life, only did a couple of cases like that crazy stormy daniels case and that's it. and also told prosecutors -- basi

of democracy. those have to be jungled by the congress. with the republican majority he would not be convicted. in new york state and the southern district york, he would be judged by a criminal jury, and that's where he would likely be found guilty. so there are activities that he's been engaged in there and activists in his business world over the years, whether it's been the casino business or in the building business, have certainly come close to crossing the barriers of legal and illegal. >> i'm hearing you cross those barriers suggesting you know something in which he definitively did have some kind of criminal wrong doing. do you know some evidence that robert mueller may have that hasn't been made public yet? >> no, i can't say that. i've done lots of civil cases where he's been found to be as possible and judgments taken against him, not just skbrupsz trump university, but civil case where there's preponderance of the evidence that he violated a duty he owned to his his fellow man and there are situations similar to that that it could be in new york and within the records of michael cohen. and the issue about attorney/client, yo

new york alongside a judge who approved it to see if the severance were okay. by the way if you read the brief that my former colleagues filed in the southern district of new yorkjudge wood, a fine well respected judge the southern district of new york. they're meticulous in explaining the reasons why they had to engage in this process, among other things michael cohen from everything you see in the brief is barely a lawyer. >> right he is a fixer is the argument made by the government. while the president wages war on that front he also wages war on the comey front. listen to what comey said this week about the unconfirmed allegations from the steele dossier. >> i honestly never thought the words would come out of my mouth. but i don't know whether the current president of the united states was with prostitutes peeing on each other in moscow in 2013. it's possible. but i don't know. >> it's possible but i don't know. now, comey is criticized by people saying it's possible but i don't know is the same thing as saying i have no evidence to confirm it's true. isn't comey the critics say putting himself out there for criticism by phrase going that way. >> i suppos

attorney in the southern district of new york he sees it as master minded by mueller all the way. fire the u.s. attorney of the southern district of new york, he has a few days left to do that because his temporary appointment expires on may 5th. the president has not gotten a u.s. attorney confirmed for the southern district of new york. so when this one expires, as you know, it falls to the judges in that circuit, they are the ones who will decide who the next u.s. attorney is, and that u.s. attorney serves until the senate confirms a u.s. attorney. >> that's exactly right, lawrence. and the white house has leeked out earlier they were planning to nominate jeffrey berman to this position. of course, it would take some time for that nomination to go through the senate. i think given the president's vindictiveness it's unlikely we'll see that go forward. there was reporting that he was angry behind the scenes. he launched into this tirade where he was supposed to talk about the chemical weapons strike in syria. in the spring of last year we saw the president coming unhinged about

i'd be happy to do that. >> let me ask you, did anybody go from, did anybody go from the southern district of new yorko the mueller team? i know in some cases, prosecutors are joined from across the country. >> there was one. >> in terms of the makeup of that team, do you feel like they're proceeding along a path and by means that you recognize as good practice as a prosecutor? >> yeah, i mean, the one prosecutor that did go from our office was a, is a terrific prosecutor. >> who's that? >> andrew goldstein. a lawyer and person of great integrity, as someone who will follow the facts and the evidence and follow the law, wherever that leads, and that will be, that has been his only concern, and i expect that's the way he will conduct himself. so i don't know everyone on that team. the people i do know are people of that mold, who are, who are in the business of prosecuting for the right reasons. they are public servants who could be out in the private sector making a ton more money, but who believe in the mission of justice. so, again, i'm an outsider. i don't know everyone there, and when i see, i hav

attorney in the southern district of new york. you'll recall that rosenstein told mueller originally that he could work on collusion between russia and the campaign, anything that arose out of those allegations, and then any efforts to terminate, to obstruct justice or commit perjury in the course of that investigation. but now we're seeing a piece of this investigation that's apparently not related to collusion with russia, but that did derive, that was somehow unleashed in this investigation, and it's been sent to a new jurisdiction. that possibly indicates that mueller is defining rosenstein's jurisdiction very narrowly and very carefully, and that what people have assumed to be wide ranging investigation, not all of it related to russia and collusion, perhaps it really does tie back in, and perhaps these early pieces with flynn and manafort will come full circle. we've seen a little bit of that this week where we've seen some tie-in with nadir. this may be a lot more russia centric than people have originally expected. >> let m

proof that it expanded beyond its limits and that's why this had to be referred to the southern district of new yorkueller himself couldn't do it? >> this say greis a great examp robert mueller knowing his limits. it wasn't in his jurisdiction, he sent to the southern district of new york. it's their decision to request the search warrants and a judge authorized them. congresswoman kathleen rice and i wrote a letter to the fbi asking them to investigate michael cohen because the $130,000 payment looked like a massive violation of campaign finance laws. >> that's going to be the extent of it? >> certainly possible. the public reporting shows there may have been bank fraud dating back several years. but we know the judge thought mike cohen wasn't going to cooperate. one of the requirements they have to show, they could have t gotten this information no other way. >> they felt like they didn't have the cooperation at all. you heard what the president said there, the attorney general made a mistake when he recused himself. we would have put a different attorney general in. he made a big mistake for the

attorney's office in the southern district of new york had good cause to execute search warrants at cohen's premises and seized certain electronic devices in lieu of less intrusive means." why did they have that good cause to go after the stuff with the search warrant instead of less intrusive means? redacted, redacted, redacted. "accordingly, the nature of the investigation and the nature of the offenses weighed heavily in favor of the decision to execute search warrants. furthermore, in the course of its investigation, the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district of new york has learned that" -- redacted, redacted, redacted. "as a result, absent a search warrant, these records could have been deleted without record." so they have very specific reasons, they say, why they had to go after michael cohen with a search warrant. why they used a search warrant, they didn't just subpoena michael cohen and tell him to hand this stuff over. they have very specific reasons why they had to go that much more aggressive route. and we have no idea what those specific reasons are. because it's all

mueller team needed to do an investigation that involved property records in new york city, which is the southern district of new york, that they would need to get a search warrant even in connection with their own investigation. and to do that generally you have to go through the local u.s. attorney's office. so in lots of instances my office would have been involved with getting the search warrant because the property that was being searched was in the southern district of new york. even though it was someone else's case. i'm not saying that this is a mueller special, but until i see more reporting i think that's possible. >> preet bharara, appreciate it. >> thanks. >> thank you very much. a lot more to get to on this raid of michael cohen's office. michael avenatti joins us next. he has plenty to say. later the president's decision on syria. which he now says will be made tonight or "shortly thereafter." he is make it apparently in an anger over other things and we will explore the implications tonight. we're finally back out in our yard, but so are they. introducing scotts turf builder triple action. it

deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who had referred this michael cohen matter to the southern district of new yorkd the president at a recent meeting that he is not a target in the investigation of michael cohen. now, obviously the southern district of new york had been looking into this in a very serious way for months before mueller referred whatever mueller referred to them that happened to be about cohen. what does this mean when rod rosenstein tells the president don't worry. you're not under criminal investigation right now? >> i think it means two things. first, the target of the investigation -- only the target the government decides once the government decides they're ready to indict. with the mueller investigation, is the president the subject? we don't know the answer to that. the second -- >> you're saying it's the cherry on the top. you don't hear about it until it's done. >> at the very end of the investigation. the other thing is the real concern as has been reported is the southern district investigation into cohen is very strong, and that cohen has the motivation to cooperate. and

. >> the southern district of new york in the office which i lead are all republican and all people who have been hand picked by president trump. if it is true the southern district of new york is taking over the investigation from the referral from robert mueller's office because it is serious and warranted and a significant nature you will risk doing something sensitive like raiding a laws office. >> and jeff sessions and rod rosenstein are also, of course, republicans. >>> now "the new york times" reports that robert mueller's team is looking into a $150,000 payment to the donald j. trump foundation by ukrainian billionaire. this was solicited my michael cohen for a 2015 speech that candidate trump gave to a conference in ukraine. this is sponsored by the ukraine billionaire. this was the largest donation in the campaign in 2015. this was quote unusual for such a short speech. "the times" reports it was discovered when the subpoena was issued for information on foreign business deals. >>> tough talk from president trump in the wake of the latest deadly chemical attack in syria. the p

so the southern district of new york, the u.s. has a treasure trove of material after spending the better part of a day inside a hotel room where michael cohen is living where there are renovations in his apartment and law offices. you said the raid of his office was a seismic event. what makes you think it is? >> it's like a nuclear strike with multiple warheads. first remembered the to go through multibillion level -- me levels of review by trump appointees. the assistant attorney general for the criminal division, the acting u.s. attorney in new york, not to mention rod rosenstein, the director of the fbi, they're all trump appointees. the raid on a lawyer's office is an extraordinary event, for a prosecutor as i was to contemplate is just a remarkable act of audacity when the lawyer is the sitting president ice lawyer. he has the keys to the kingdom. he notices all the secrets about donald trump and if he were to cooperate it would be indeed a transformative event so the raid is seismic and remember that when this kind of act

the southern district of new york obtained this warrant. this is not robert mueller exceeding the scope of his investigation. and i am concerned that president trump is going to try to use this as an excuse to fire the attorney general, to fire robert mueller. that's going to create a constitutional crisis if he does that. what we have is evidence that was uncovered of money laundering or other financial crimes outside the scope of the russia investigation, but that are being investigated by the attorney, the united states attorney in the southern district of new york, under the law. and the president of the united states is not above the law. and if he tries to fire the attorney general, fire robert mueller, rod rosenstein or anyone else as a result of this, he is going to be in violation of his office under the constitution and he will be obstructing justice. this investigation is going to have to proceed and it's certainly very worrisome that a lawyer for the president of the united states is engaged in conduct so sufficiently egregious t

district of new york. i think one possibility though is that the southern district of new york provided the dirty team that goes in and takes the first cut on what is produced in the search to make sure that the prosecutors who are handling the case don't see anything that might force them to be removed from the team because they have seen material that foints vr in violates attorney/client privilege. so that is one possibility. and then either of the reasons that you suggest is a possibility for why this portion of the investigation might be turned over to rod rosenstein and bob mueller in its entirety to the southern district of new york seems more probable to me that it would be turned over because of the resource restriction. mueller has limited team, they are obviously fully occupied, it would have been hard to stand up a taint team and maintain his prosecutorial team. but also strategically if this is a piece that is distinct from the russian court, his investigation, then there could be some jurisdictional reason to let the southern district of new york proceed. >> joyce vance, thank you so much for

attorneys in the southern district of new york. according to the "new york times," the fbi seized e-mails, tax documents, and business records from cohen's office. thetimes says the seized reports include communication with president trump. the move today by the fbi acting on a tip from the special counsel's office raise as lot of questions. why did mueller involve another law enforcement agency? what exactly was seized from cohen's office? how did the southern district obtain the search warrant? and is there another legal probe into someone in president trump's upper circle? joining me on the phone, mimi rocha action former federal prosecutor for the southern district of new york. she worked in that very office that conducted today's raid. mimi good to have you. first off, why a search warrant and not a subpoena? >> hi katy. a couple of reasons are possible. first of all you use a search warrant when you are concerned that someone isn't going to fully comply with a subpoena. that could mean a couple of things, that you are afraid

harry, when you talk about the southern district of new york, there's confusion over who ordered whatthe southern district, then it's unclear. jeffrey bermen is the top federal prosecutor here in mat hatton now. he was recused from the michael cohen investigation before the search warrants were issued. we know he request ed that. but our source didn't know the reason why. obviously, he of course is truch's trump's appointee. what's your sense of what happened here? sq >> it's hard the to know, to engage in a small bit of speculation. it's b possible that he believed that his decision, whether to execute the search warrant or not and to seek the search warrant, would be subject to second guessing either way. if there was a referral, that means he didn't have to pursue the search warrant, but yuan independent decision was going to be made by prosecutors in his offi office. so if he were to decline, someone might say you're trying to curry favor and if he made it, some might say he was bending over backwards. meanwhile, you have someone here who has extremely talented people beneath him.

prosecutors in the southern district of new york there came to main justice and got sign off from theminal division here. rod rosenstein someone who is in the cross hairs of president trump. yesterday we heard those comments. he was made aware of warrant before it was executed yesterday. >> jeffrey burman didn't sign off on this raid yesterday, who did? >> reporter: we're looking into that with additional reporting. he has a deputy that he put in in january and there's the public corruption section at the southern district of new york. >> good reporting. thank you. the man who held the job until he was fired by frumpresident t. what does it tell you that the top prosecutor has recused himself? >> it tells me that the new interim u.s. attorney thought for optical reasons or otherwise he should step aside from that case. sometimes it's true that you're required to step down because the career ethics folks both in your own office and the department of justice in washington tell you you must recuse. on other occasions even if there wasn't a requirement, according to the rules, sometimes i

attorneys office for the southern district of new york executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communication between my client -- michael cohen is his client. i have been advised it's in part a referral by the office of special counsel. wolf, what this means is that robert mueller in the course of his investigation uncovered something he believed was outside of the jurisdiction of his investigation which is to look into russian meddling in the 2016 election and he decided to consult with rod rod rosenstein who's the acting attorney general for the purposes of this investigation. he oversees all of this and they decided to kick it over to federal prosecutors in new york who carried out the raid. now, we're told that one of the locations that was raided was michael cohen's office in 30 rockefeller center which is where nbc is located, obviously. it's inside an office -- a law firm which put out a statement saying they had nothing to do with this, simply that he was renting office space from this law firm. we don't know what other locations the fbi and u.s. attorney

like in this case they found evidence suggesting a crime and they referred it over to the southern district of new york. again, in this filing makes clear the southern district of new york and investigators there have then investigated it for months and in that investigation they see -- did a search warrant that has been unknown until today for e-mails related to michael cohen. so, these are historical e-mails. >> i have that. let me put that up. you're getting in the weeds and you're lucky our viewers have all earned honorary law degrees. let me put that part of the filing up. so u.s. attorney has already obtained search warrants. covert until this point, as you just said, on multiple different e-mail accounts maintained by co-skpen has conducted a privileged review of the materials obtained. the results of that review indicate that cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work and that zero e-mails were exchanged with president trump. >>> the take aways being, one, the president doesn't use e-mail. but two, to your point, these matters that we're just learning about now have been under scrutiny

attorney's office for the southern district of new york. e manhattan federal prosecutor's office. but that raid came after a referral from the office of special counsel robert mueller. "several law enforcement officials confirmed to nbc news that the search of cohen's office was not the work of mueller's prosecutors. it involves a matter that the mueller team came across which the team concluded did not fall under its mandate and they passed it on to the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan." that decision, though, they're this issue of whatever they came across within the mandate of the special counsel's office, that decision was not ultimately made by robert mueller himself. the person who appears to have signed off on that decision is deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. attorney general jeff sessions has recused himself from all matters related to the russia investigation. rod rosenstein is the number 2 at the department. and he's in charge of all matters pertaining to the special counsel's office and the russia matter more broadly. as

i just don't believe that the southern district of new york is raiding the president's lawyer's office, safety deposit box and his electronic devices because of a complicated case. there are clues in the document that was published on friday that this is much more obvious, clear crimes that related to michael cohen's business dealings. whether that relates to trump or not, we don't know, but we do know that all the evidence they have gathered undoubtedly relates to the president because of cohen's relationship with the president. and michael maybe can answer this a little more clearer, but i assume as long as there are no attorney/client issues, if they find new evidence of criminal wrong doing that relates to trump that his relationship with cohen, that's fair game, and that's why to go back to your question, the advisers are worried. >> michael, what about that? >> the way the attorney/client privilege works is the client has to go to a lawyer and ask for legal advice. if he does, then that communication is a privileged communication. if a lawyer is providing business advice to a cli

and number two, does rudy have that much charm in the southern district of new york to derail an investigation like this? >> i think alan dershowitz has some legitimate points, but i think he goes too far in many of the things that he says. by saying that everything is criminalized if you want to find it is wrong. it's flat-out wrong. i don't know that alan dershowitz is trying to send a message to michael cohen or otherwise. i think the better message might have been the scooter libby pardon, that if you stick around, i'll take care of you, like i did with scooter libby. but at the end of the day, the southern district of new york is going to go forward with their investigation and they're going to follow it to the end. rudy giuliani is, obviously, a very well-respected former u.s. attorney there. but when i was there, i dealt with former u.s. attorneys. i dealt with former executives and once you leave the government, you're on the defense side, you're no different than anyone else. so, either mueller or the southern district. they're going to finish their investigation and rudy giuliani may

attorney's office for the southern district of new york and signed off on by rosen stein. this morning the president sent this tweet. much of the bad blood with russia is caused by the fake and corrupt russia investigation. headed up by the all democrat loyalists or people that work for obama. mueller is most conflicted of all except rosen stein who signed fisa and comey letter. no collusion so they go crazy. here's how the white house responded when asked about the investigation. >> the president has been clear that he has a very deep concern about the direction that the special counsel and other investigations have taken. this investigation started off as russia collusion of which there was none. that has been very clear that nothing has come up over the last year. >> let's bring in the lead off panel for a wednesday night. robert costa is a national reporter for "the washington post" and moderator on pbs. carroll is a political investigations reporter for t"te washington post" and former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. all three are msnbc analysts. le

attorney for the southern district of new york, berman, and the head of the criminal division in the main justice department, all of whom are seasoned lawyers, all of them happen to be republicans, which i think is irrelevant, but the notion that that crew would somehow conspire to engage in a witch hunt against the president's lawyer for allegations of campaign finance violations doesn't hold true to me. >> i agree that it's relevant, but i think it's important to point out that the president keeps saying it's a witch hunt, it's the democrats, why aren't you looking at hillary clinton or barack obama, when these are his own hand-picked people. i don't know who is better to answer this, if it's asha or if it's laura. the reason i ask why didn't the federal government investigate this, would that be the eeoc? is that laura? >> i'll jump in, mike. it's true it is the fbc. the notion that the fbc has been a toothless dog when it comes to a lot of these cases, because you have to have the majority rule but also have to be unanimous decisions about these very issues, about campaign financ

attorney for the southern district of new york, talk about all the procedural safeguards that are put in place to make sure that bob mueller or in this case the southern u.s. district attorney had sufficient evidence to go in and do what he did. >> so this was actually far from being a raid. this was the execution of a search warrant that was first vetted inside of the u.s. attorney's office that would have been approved at the highest levels of the justice department and ultimately woufb signed off on by a federal judge. under the fourth amendment of the constitution, the justice department can't execute a search warrant unless it has probable cause to believe that the specific locations that it's searching either crime was conducted there or they will find evidence that the proof of that crime or the fruits of that crime. so it's a very specific quantum of proof done through an avid from the agents that details all

there's 220 prosecutors in the southern district of new york. they know what they're doing. there's a new front on this, independent and i think that this idea that things are going to go away if bob mueller gets fired is just wrong. >> yes. so as i said earlier that steve bannon was talking to aides in the west wing. so what does this say about the mood in the white house right now among trump aides? >> where is john kelly? i mean i think we know where he is. there's no chief of staff anymore. because if you're john kelly your goal would be get white house people, let's remind everyone who we're paying for, to focus on policy, a potential missile attack on stereo, -- syria. whatever else is going on in the agencies. you know, the fact that bannon has really ingratiated himself with whomever and who knows who those people are suggests that kelly has lost any control. >> the reporting tonight is cell y has found himself on a downward spiral. also he's a retired marine general. is horrified the highly made against mueller and the search of cohen. >> in front of the general. >>

attorney's office here in the southern district of new york, talks have broken off. the other big headline from nbc news from this fantastic team that joins us now, that the obstruction of justice report or an obstruction of justice report may be on an accelerated time line now, that they do not need to wait for, prepare for and incorporate whatever they glean from an interview with the president. >>> carol lee, let's just go through some of those flashpoints that we know from other witnesses and attorneys representing other witnesses that have been investigated. one of them that we know more about than others because of the divide among two former trump staffers is that crafting of a statement aboard air force one to try to explain away the purpose and what had happened in the meeting with the president's son, donald trump, jr., his son-in-law, jared kushner, and the russians who, i don't know if it's fair to say lured them there, but got them there by promising dirt on hillary clinton. we've known from mark corallo, a one-time member of the president's legal team, a

decision not to expand the special prosecutor's jurisdiction but instead to send it to the southern district of new york which has a lot of expertise in which is the area in which mr. cohen actually resides. because mr. cohen is an attorney, the internal justice department guidelines which bind the special prosecutor as well as the southern district of new york, as you mentioned, require that this be a last resort tool, essentially before they go out and seek this warrant. it requires a signoff not only by the attorney general but also by the criminal division of the department of justice and it requires probable cause under the fourth amendment that is sufficient for a federal judge, a math straight judge, to signoff on this this was a lot of people with eyes on this in i think a nonpartisan professional way and i say that having been someone who worked in the white water investigation and was an assistant united states attorney. these are professionals handling this. >> and one of the people who looked at this was this guy jeffrey berman, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york was app

the other point worth making here is you know, now that this is in the southern district of new york,his is an extremely high profile unusual investigation because it was referred from the special counsel. but the southern district of new york has high profile cases all the time. >> yes, they do. >> worldcom, martha stewart it, terrorism investigations. there are certain consultation requirements for example, they consulted with the office of enforcement operations on the search warrant. that's something you have to do anytime you're seeking a search warrant for a lawyer. they don't have to consult with the attorney general on really much of anything. now, again, it's high profile. they might want to. he may want to have a some say. at the end of the day, most of the calls in this case should come from the southern district of new york. if they don't, that's a sign to me something's wrong. >> that's interesting. i guess one thing i'm having a hard time figuring out is the reporting in the beginning this was referred out of the investigation, the mueller investigation because there was

southern district with a completely separate set of issues and potential crimes they're investigating. >> yeah. this is a big deal, nicolle, as you're alluding to. you have the southern district of new york, which is one of the, you know, preeminent -- and i'm not saying that just because i worked there -- preeminent u.s. attorney's offices in the country. it's known for bringing very complicat complicated, complex, aggressive cases against all sorts of people, whether it be terrorism, drug dealers, organized crime cases, and public corruption cases. and guess what, those public corruption cases have been brought against democrats, have been brought against republicans. it's not about whose party they're in. it's about what crimes they've committed. and it's not just the u.s. attorney's office. my understanding from the reporting -- and this makes sense given what i know about the u.s. attorney's office, is that the public corruption squad from the fbi in new york is working on this case with the u.s. attorney's office as they would normally. >> what does that mean about what they seized and what they were looking for in michael cohen's home and his offices? >> well, that's a very percep

attorney of the southern district of new york. the charges could have been referred to him. he is a trump appointee. the idea that this is politicized is nonsense. moving to the spupurpose of the raid, we have substantial reason to believe that when cohen opened the bank account, he was not truthful and honest with the bank as to the truthfulness of the account and what they were designed to be used for. that could be one basis for the raids. but again, i think this is a very, very serious matter. a strong likelihood in my opinion that be the u.s. attorney's office or special counsel will be able to pierce the attorney client privilege between michael cohen and mr. trump. i can't overstate the seriousness of this. >> that is what i think a lot of people don't realize about attorney/client privilege, if there is fraud perpetrated, the privilege can it several be pierced. >> you can't use your attorney to effectively carry out a crime and claim the conversations with out of bounds. i think there is a high likelihood if in fact communications between michael cohen and donald tru

, i tend to degree, i think in less than 90 days michael cohen will be indicted by the southern district of new yorkthat's the southern district of new york. that's not mueller. there's a separate mueller investigation that's going on that does include michael cohen. so michael cohen is looking at least a few criminal fronts in terms of having exposure. >> michael avenatti has a point i want to play that he made here. but the president was calling in to fox news, he admitted cohen representing him in the stormy daniels matter. let's take a listen to what he said. >> as a percentage of my overall legal work, a tiny, tiny little fraction. but michael would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me like with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented me. >> hugely damaging admission by the president. because according to what he said on air force one a few weeks ago he didn't know anything about the agreement. he didn't know anything about the payment. michael cohen went off and did this on a lark and mr. trump knew nothing about it we now find out that that's bogus. >> so do y

attorney for the southern district of new york. again, if you're just joining us, trump lawyer michael cohen asserting in writing in court for the first time, he will plead the fifth. something that you do because on the advice of counsel or based on what you know about what you've done, you don't want to confess to a crime. seth? >> of course he is. of course he is. you have a federal prosecution or investigation centering in on you. your home, your apartment, your hotel room has been raided and you've got some civil lawsuit out there. i know in the context of this case that civil lawsuit is getting all kinds of attention but a civil proceeding is far, far down the line and in degrees of importance when your life and your liberty are at stake in the southern district of new york. so, of course, he's pleading the fifth because he has to do everything he can to protect himself right now. >> senator blumenthal, your reaction. >> speaking as a former federal prosecutor, i think donald trump's position in doing an interview is completel

southern district in new york by the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district of new york that somehow robert mueller passed this matter off. >> which is a total referral which we don't know. >> it's unlikely and i'll tell you why. you have to have the southern district of new york as the locus to get the search warrant. that's what the statute says. secondly, i was in that office for over eight years. no one ever came in from the department of justice to get a search warrant. it was always done by the assistants in the southern district of new york. that's why they call it the sovereign district. >> sovereign district of new york. nick ackerman going all the way in. neera, nick said the press has gotten some of this wrong. i would just add that's what we do. i don't know if you were around in 2016 but. >> i can spend a little time on what the press got wrong in 2016. >> i read your twitter, i know about it. >> as we're learning from mark zuckerberg's today and russian interference and a whole host of issues. but i think -- look, the central issue is we don't know what bob mueller knows. we know -- we can only see how