if that name sounds familiar it's the same davidson who represented both karen mcdougal and stormy danielsaron bashard had pending cases. davidson denies those claims. just weeks after the fbi raid on his home and office with the legal pressure on michael cohen building, he invoked his fifth amendment right in stormy daniels' other lawsuit. the one against trump and michael cohen to invalidate her nda. and in a live call-in to fox and friends on april 26 the president was still defending cohen and himself amid speculation that campaign funds were used to pay off daniels. >> he did absolutely nothing wrong. there were no campaign funds going anywhere. >> then why is he pleading the fifth? >> because he's got other things, he's got businesses. but i'm not involved. >> in that civil litigation with stormy daniels, cohen and trump would later fold. withdrawing their part of the suit and saying -- they wouldn't enforce the nda. but as michael cohen's problems multiplied, many wondered how long his self-professed loyalty to donald trump would even last. >> mr. president, could michael cohen flip

, that payment to stormy daniels was legal. here's what he said in part, mr. cohen an attorney receive aid monthly retainer not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign and money from the campaign or campaign contributions played no role in in transaction. this was around the time stories were coming out about karen mcdougal's allegations about trump. are you following along with me? first stormy daniels and then karen mcdougal. here's what karen mcdougal told my colleague anderson cooper. >> well, then, the republican he won the republican nomination and ami was interested in the story again. >> once donald trump won the republican nomination. >> right, correct. >> you're saying ami suddenly came back to you with interesting stories? >> well, to keith, yes, for us for the story, yes. >> why do you think it was -- that it was after donald trump was the republican nominee that they came back? >> they wanted to squash the story. >> you're saying they wanted to protect donald trump? >> i'm assuming so, yeah. >>

president, did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no. >> why did michael cohen make this if there was no truth to the allegations? >> well, you have to ask michael cohen. michael's my attorney and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know. no. >> a straight-up denial, just a straight-up lie. he said he didn't know about the moment. we know that's now true. the president wasn't telling the truth. in may, rudy giuliani then spilled the beans on "hannity." >> having something to do with paying some stormy daniels woman $130,000, i mean, which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money. sorry. i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. so -- >> they funneled it through a law firm? >> funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh. i didn't know, he did. >> yeah, wow. okay. so that was the first time they admitted that. so at that point the story then became the pres

i meant karen mcdougal and stormy daniels.learly -- >> you got your presidential scandals mixed up. >> clearly. but karen mcdougal and stormy daniels. that was the allegation. laura coates, mueller is not slowing down at all. >> i think the president has been characterizing this entire thing as a witch hunt. looks to me more like a six-healed hi six-healed hydra. the president of the united states has tried to be dismissive up to now but what we're seeing is a methodical approach by mueller to alert the courts in different jurisdictions that he has ongoing investigations that he is not privy to giving information to everything for. just compare for a second, wolf, the michael flynn filing, full of deraredactions, talking abou least three investigations, only one of which was special counsel. compare it to what happened in paul manafort today. the person who was formerly the chairman of the campaign, mueller's team says at the very end of the document, if you have questions about other ongoing investigations, we'll tell you ex

it is the one with stormy daniels and karen mcdougal and if that still matters. >> yes.rust the american people to make up their own minds about it. you and i have talked about this before. i think part of the problem, and both sides believe this in washington, d.c., both sides think they are smarter than the rest of america. i trust the american people to make up their own minds. now some of them clearly don't like president trump. others do. i mean, you know, half of america says every day give the guy a break, and the other half says how did this happen. but i trust the american people to make up their own mind. we'll get another shot at it in two years. >> i want to ask you about the moment in the oval office with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi about the border wall funding. let me play for you a moment of what happened yesterday. >> okay. >> we don't get what we want one way or the other, whether it's through you, through military, through anything you want to call, i will shut down the government. >> okay, fair enough. we disagree. we disagree. >> i am proud to shu

he didn't know about the stormy daniels payment. he said the guy was a pr agent, then he says he's his lawyer. then nothing happened, then we have the tape with his voice on it. the facts are overwhelming. they really are. >> the facts are not overwhelming. >> that's why i ask. >> oh, thank you, in a took you 25 minutes. it doesn't expose him to anything now. >> it is not the law of the land, but it is the guidance of the doj, and until it changes, i don't know how they could indict him. >> i'm asking you, i'm asking you, what relevance all of this has to the -- >> telling the truth to the american people. >> lying about doing deals with russia? >> no, you're not telling the truth. you're not telling the truth. >> to get ride of sanctions, at the same time you're at a convention taking it easy on russia? >> oh, come on. you're making excuses. >> this is coincidental for things that need answers. >> for a president you never wanted elected. and a president you won't cover fairly. you should just own it. >> that's a distraction. i'll

these are the payments that we have been talking about all year to karen mcdougal and to stormy daniels, two women who alleged to have had affairs with donald trump. not only -- this is really interesting -- not only does the filing just lay out how michael cohen tried to affect the outcome of the election by coordinating these hush payments to these two women, it also goes to some length to say how michael cohen was effectively hurting the democratic process, how he was deceiving the american people and american voters and how he orchestrated secret and illegal payments to silence two women who otherwise probably would have gone forward, gone public with their stories about donald trump. and even though, erin, the filing doesn't actually come out and say that michael cohen was delusional or perhaps in denial, the suggestion is at least there. it says that he has a rose colored view of the seriousness of his crimes, and that he is asking for extraordinary leniency even though the crimes that he commit are the so, so serious, and i just want to quickly read a key passage from this sdny f

we know that he lied about the stormy daniels payment because he lied on air force one about the trump tower meeting. >> and the thing is -- >> and the stoerrmy daniels payment. the lies won't be hard. >> for the ten years michael cohen worked for donald trump he was the guy lying on his behalf. why do you believe michael cohen has had such a change of heart? because what you are asking and michael cohen is asking is for people to listen to cold, hard truth and the facts but we know he's a liar and chose to lie professionally for quite sometime. >> so i have two quick answers to that. one is he owns what he has done for trump. and as expressed his regretds. b -- regrets. but he has a hard road with people like yourself and me when i first decided to represent him, that he is genuinely changed and transformed. the second answer to your question is you would have asked that question even worse of someone named john dean who was in the middle of an obstruction of justice, tampering with witnesses and hush money payments on behalf of the president of the united states. you would have been

"time" reports president trump's lawyers say stormy daniels should pay nearly $800,000 in attorney fees penalties for filing a failed defamation suit against mr. trump. one attorney told a federal judge in los angeles that his firm put in more than 500 hours on the case. he wants nearly $390,000 in fees and an equal amount in sanctions to deter daniels from filing another allegedly frivolous lawsuit. her attorney, michael avenatti, called the suggested sanctions absurd. >>> "the pittsburgh post-gazette" reports a fourth soldier has died from wounds suffered last week in a roadside bomb in afghanistan. 24-year-old sergeant jason mcclary of export, pennsylvania, died sunday at a military hospital in germany. three other service members were killed in the attack, and two were wounded. the taliban claimed responsibility. mcclary leaves behind a wife and two sons. >>> and "usa today" says a classroom assistant at a preschool in hawaii served children pinesol instead of apple juice. she got the container off a cleanup cart and mistook it for juice. she poured it into serving cups, and three c

stormy daniels signed in accra with trump. —— signed a nda.signed a nda. are they going to sue stormy daniels for breach of contract? i think the dam breached broke, burst, whatever expression you want. with the harvey weinstein thing. people said enough is enough, and people don't go along with it. they don't like fat cats hiding behind the law. giles, again, absolutely right. the climate for the oligarchs has changed hugely. hot, dirty monday, london and the place that it was once. let's finish with a picture of 20, who as the times told us, envisioned... —— twiggy. she has been named a game. i was trying to explain recently the importance of twiggy as a sort of cultural icon to my iii—year—old, who of course has grown up with many supermodels in her cultural upbringing. ijust supermodels in her cultural upbringing. i just checked supermodels in her cultural upbringing. ijust checked to her how different twiggy was, and you immediately rumoured what her real name is. congratulations, dame twiggy. 0r name is. congratulations, dame twiggy. or

that is the concern from which stormy daniels will be paid. on october 26th, the first republic bank informs cohen of a deposit. that comes from the trump organization e-mail. and the next day, michael cohen wires $130,000 to an attorney for stormy daniels. >> he directed me to make the payments. he directed me to become involved in these matters. >> i never directed him to do anything wrong. whatever he did, he did on his own. >> that sets the table for us. eddie joins me now, as well as julian tett, bill collins and mya wiley. mya, let me start with you. we're looking at the hoistory, we're looking at the frame of mind of the president as all of this is happening. help us understand the import of what happened if in a federal courthouse this week in man hat cran. how does this change the story and the trajectory of this investigation? >> first of all, the story has been unfolding for months now. what we really have is confirmation by prosecutors that they believe michael cohen, that donald trump directed him to make those payments to women i

or fox news or or just print out this image of stormy daniels and. mash in mash it up against your face. actually that's just a c.n.n. version if you want the m.s.m. p.c. version mash it against your face and then have someone punch the other side. now that we got that out of our system we have more important stuff to talk about such as the fact that about half of you are viewing this on a television in a prison cell yes besides being on a mount rushmore the grand canyon in times square america is also home to the world's most thriving and bustling prison states but there are far fewer souvenir mugs telling that achievement there really are. a new report has come out showing that half of all u.s. adults have an immediate family member of currently or previously incarcerated half of us are directly connected to this brave wonderful all american prison industry you know and to those a year locked up right now thank you for helping america stand out from all those other little nations who finally have the prisoners. yet i don't want to do it right. so t

mine us the $29 3,000 she has to pay trump, so in total, huh, stormy daniels paid $16 3,000 to have sex, maybe he is the master deal maker after all, people. maybe he is. that is a pretty sweet deal. (applause) in fact, in fact, this could be trump's new plan to fund the border wall. he's just going go have sex with everyone in mexico. send me down there, folks, i just need two red bulls and some vas lynn, v vaiz ds lynne, we will get that lawn. and nienlly in 4ed lines, yesterday the c.e.o. of google went to congress to answer questions from lawmakers about some of his company's practices including whether or not the search engine is rigged. and some of the questions maybe seemed too tough to answer. >> right now if you google the word "ideo" under-- idiot under images, a picture of donald trump comes up, i just did that how would that happen? how does that search work so that that would occur. >> trevor: hmmmm. hmmmm. why does a picture of trump come up when i search for "idio tks" hmmmm, hold on, let me see here, hmmmm. hmmmm. maybe because he is! all right, let's move on to our main

. >> here's another one-- stormy daniels. >> yes, that entire saga started 2k-18. >> that's right. america pretending this was the year they first saw stormy daniels. ( laughter ) >> oh, oh, and the thai cave rescue this year. >> trump calling africa shithole countries, this year. >> the 2016 elections, that was this year. >> oh, god, it feels at least two years ago. >> the fall of the berlin wall, this year. >> also, alexander graham bell, inventing the telephone, this year. forget the iphone xs. our boy changed the game back in april. >> back in january, there were still dinosaurs roaming the earth, remember that? and then they all went extinct in march. >> oh, yeah, the asteroid. >> trevor? >> no more weed before shows. >> thanks, guys. now on its face, on its face, this might seem like a racism. but dulce sloan thinks that there's another issue at play. >> have you been accused of racism just because you called 911 on a black person for no reason? >> he grabbed my ass. >> have you suffered from shame, national humiliation, and severe burns on black twitter? well, it may not be

you asked about michael cohen and his guilty plea over payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. what did he say? >> i should say the interview was conducted be my and my two colleagues. we did ask him about that. he said, first of all, about michael cohen, he was his lawyer and relied on him, and michael cohen should have known the rules. he went on to say the payments did not violate campaign finance laws, but if they did it would only be civil. but again he said it wasn't a violation. he had a caveat. he said, a, there was nothing wrong with it, but if there was something wrong with it, it would be a civil violation. >> did he say why he lied about it publicly? >> we didn't talk about that specifically. he did say "we" suggesting that they were both involved in the payments. >> with the growing understanding of the connections between the campaign and russia that are being revealed, 16 by cnn's current count. what did the president say about that? >> we referenced that and talked about the number of people who worked for him before the campaign and during the campaign, who had

president, did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels?en -- >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney and you'll have to ask michael. >> reporter: in august, his story changed again when trump was asked by, yes, another fox news anchor, if he knew about the payments. >> later on i knew. later on. but you have to understand, ainsley, what he did -- and they weren't taken out of campaign finances. >> reporter: experts say that argument may not hold water, especially because the president, according to a source, was at a meeting in august of 2015 discussing hush money payments with cohen and david pecker, the ceo of the "national enquirer's" parent company. >>> does it give him an out to say that i knew about it later? >> no, it doesn't give him an out that he knew about it later. once he knew about it, he was party to the violation. >> reporter: another shift in the story comes from trump's legal advisor rudy giuliani. on may 2nd, giuliani told fox that cohen, who had taken out a personal home equity line to pay for stormy da

rat, denied on air force one that he knew anything about stormy daniels, mr. guiliani who this american was on television accusing michael cohen of lying. the very next day waved attorn attorney-client privilege said, no, his client did pay stormy daniels. michael cohen is now taking ownership in his statement to the court of his personal responsibility for his behavior when he worked nor donald trump. now that he saw donald trump as president he underwent a genuine transformation because he feared for his country and his family when donald trump was president. >> brennan: to clarify the president said the fbi broke into his office i believe michael cohen said that it was okay transaction with the fbi something he consend to. >> not only consented to, he thanked them for their courtesy as they left and you have a president denouncing the fbi, lying about a warrant and legal search he's the top law enforcement officer of the country and who does he praise? he praises people who have lied and refused to cooperate. the opposite of what a president should do. >> b

when asked about the stormy daniels payments. so i do think it is hard for president trump to totally distance himself from michael cohen who was such a strong ally of his for so long. i do think that michael cohen does have credibility issues, so i think in a trial or in something like that where he's under oath, you know, he has had credibility issues in the past, so they do have some room to maneuver, but this is -- up, whether michael cohen has an incentive any longer to not tell the truth, and he frankly comes across as pretty incredible right now in some of the things that he's saying about stormy daniels and about president trump. and it also lends itself to what other evidence has he given to investigators to prove his accounts, which michael cohen is saying he has provided additional evidence. >> and to your point, the president was referring to him as his personal attorney as recently as april of this year prior to the april 9 raid on his office and his personal property there. that's when things dramatically changed. d

one directly through cohen too stormy daniels. and one through ami to karen mcdougal.nother through ami to squash this trump love child story. this only pertains to the mcdougal transaction. it doesn't reference the other ami related payment, which is interesting. >> it's open ended in terms of the information ami is being asked to give to prosecutors. >> it's fascinating. thank you so much. >>> see what chris is working on for prime time. >> they're going to have to continue to ask, answer questions from prosecutors for this nonprosecution agreement. that's what triggered everybody's eyebrows. what else do they have to offer? a little bit of trickery with the fact there is. one of the things david pecker was upset about is that he wasn't paid by by trump when he was supposed to be. well, it never got completed as a transaction, so there's not anything wrong with it, but the reason we fought so hard to get that tape of the president then candidate trump talking to michael cohen was because we knew that what the president knew and when was going to be relevant on this,

the second response to these allegations of paying off stormy daniels was, well, cohen did it. neither the trump campaign or organization was a party to the transaction with ms. clifford. this was before he was cooperating with prosecutors. then we heard from the president and the excuse was i knew nothing. take a listen from air force one. >> do you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no. >> then why did michael cohen make it if there was no truth to the allegation? >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael's my attorney. you'll have to ask michael. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> no, i don't know. >> well, that was not true from the president. he did not -- he of course knew about it. then yesterday in an interview with fox it became i didn't do it. >> let me tell you, i never directed him to do anything wrong. whatever he did, he did on his own. he's a lawyer. >> and of course by today it is so what. the rudy giuliani event. nobody got killed. nobody got robbed. this was not a big crime. i noticed today sarah sanders, geoff be

if you want to impeach the president over the stormy daniels thing, you can if you choose to. we tried this with clinton. it started out with some bad business deals. sexual harassment lawsuits are always about sex. you don't want the most important part person in the world to undermine the legal system. that's what it was about to me. if you think this is worthy of impeachment in the house? go ahead. i think most americans probably won't agree with you. >> neil: just to put a bow on this for now, because there are other things i want to talk about, the china situation, saudi arabia. much is made about whether the if if you do approve a payment like this, and you are running for president of the united states and you time it in the middle of an election year, whether they are campaign funds are not. i'm not a lawyer, oh, i don't know if you are -- i defer to your legal expertise, that's a slippery slope if the president knew. speak with weren't campaign funds for they tried this with john edwards. they are saying you are using money from campaigns they'll make money from the c

later on. >> reporter: now he calls the stormy daniels deal a "simple private transaction," pointing the finger back at michael cohen. but today in court, cohen emotionally declared he'll fight to make sure history doesn't remember him as the villain. his voice cracking, he described the shame he'd brought on wife, children and elderly parents, all of whom were in court. but the judge was unmoved, sentencing cohen to three years in prison for what he called "a veritable smorgasbord" of fraud. saying cohen had "lost his moral compass." >> pierre thomas joins us live tonight from federal court in lower manhattan. and pierre, prosecutors from the southern district of new york saying today that cohen was motivated by greed and ambition. we know he's also been cooperating with special counsel robert mueller, that's a separate case. and mueller's team did give him some credit today in court for his help in their case. >> reporter: david, cohen has spent more than 70 hours with robert mueller's investigators, and today, the special counsel's prosecutors told the court he sistance, including

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stormy daniels' lawyer said he made the decisions at the request of his family but remains concerned the democratic party will nominate someone with no chance of beating president trump. as for who remains, jimmy fallon weighed in. >> the new poll found that the top three democratic contenders are joe biden, bernie sanders, and beto o'rourke. [ applause ] biden's got the best experience. bern bernie's got the best fund-raising. and beto's got the best chance of being alive in 2020. >> mean but funny. >> you think age will be an issue? i do not. >> i've heard that age is different today than it was even a generation ago. some of the candidates are incredibly healthy. somebody who doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, runs six miles a way. that's a different candidate today than it was a 70-year-old than it was -- >> and experience is an issue. we should see. >>> ahead, they didn't complain when they were in power. now republicans in wisconsin and michigan are trying to strip power from incoming democratic leaders. heyi'm craving somethingkin! we're missing. the ceramides in cerave. they help

in this case, stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, allegedly. >> yeah.law, according to the southern district of new york. i mean, it's all so unbelievable. i'm still reeling from the dave bossie thing, fired at newt gingrich's gingrich's insistence because he was such an out of control sort of character. then went into sort of various sleazy direct mail things and so forth for 15 years. then was a big trump guy because, why not? you know, birds of a feather and all of that. the fact he could be chief of staff is so jaw-dropping, it almost trumps everything else. but errorrin hatch, it's just pathetic. >> i have to say, what's interesting is, you have a portion of his statement from 1999 dealing with president clinton. and i was reading earlier, there was this other piece. i know none of us enjoy sitting in judgment of the president. our fellow human being. but that is our job, and we cannot ignore our responsibility. i believe most of us will do a sincere job of trying to fulfill our oath to do impartial justice. and i just would ask him, what happened

ask your doctor about taltz. >>> a judge as ordered stormy daniels to pay legal fees after the judge tossed off her d defamation suit against the president. news continues. i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo primetime." >> thank you, anderson. welcome to "primetime." general michael flynn just entered his response to his sentencing. it is some 178 pages long. we're getting it online. we're going through it and we're going to get you the latest in a minute. all right. but there's more news on our watch. the president with a new take on impeachment. he just made a statement about his future that i doubt his lawyers will ever let him make again. we're also going to go deep on the main question facing the mueller probe. is i

michael -- just to go back, remember donald trump also publicly denied making any payments to stormy daniels. so in addition to the record that we already have that daniel has gone over, we've talked about, he's lied publicly about it. why would he lie about it if he actually was relying on legal advice from an attorney, believing it was perfectly legal? >> this is why you guys are lawyers and former feds and the rest of us are lay people. and to the other layperson on this panel, peter, save me here. first of all, obviously the president tried to exude calm and confidence today, a lot of in effect nothing to see here. what is your best reporting tonight, 11:15 eastern time, on what it is like inside this white house? >> now, i don't think it's calm inside this white house. this is a white house having multiple problems all at once. look what happened in the last few days. we've got the cohen situation. we've got michael flynn about to head back to court. we've got manafort in trouble once again. we've got the russian maria butina in court today. it's like robert mueller and the southern dis

like with this crazy stormy daniels deal, you represented me.s time a clarification from mr trump's lawyer rudi giulliani. that money was not campaign money, sorry, i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. so they funnelled through a law firm. funnelled through a law firm and the president repaid it. the next day — trump tweeted... maybe... but when michael cohen plead guilty in august — he told prosecutors the money was paid to help trump's campaign. that allegation has been backed up by the publisher american media inc, owner of the national enquirer, who told prosecutors its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman's story so as to prevent it from influencing the election." today came a different rebuttal. i never directed michael cohen to break the law, he said. it is called "advice of counsel," and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. with us now to discuss the legal implications of michael cohen's sentencing and where the mueller probe may

. >> stormy daniels, one of the allegations, the guilty, now convicted of is the southern district of new york, the payments to stormy daniels and in the payments to karen mcdougal, being the adult film actress and the playboy center fold, alleges michael cohen and then candidate donald trump named individual number one in the documents with campaign finance laws. that's why he's in the courthouse here. he's someone who likes attention. trying to have a conversation about things that actually matter, sorry, mike. here in washington in the sense that we don't know how the president is going to react to this. he cannot say this is the coffee boy, george pape d, but this wa right-hand man in all things sort of gray if you will. >> it's really difficult for the president to separate himself from michael cohen. where he's been leaning and i think likely he'll continue to lean that much of what cohen is being sentenced with here didn't have anything to do with donald trump directly. but one piece of it did and that's the campaign finance violation. that is directly related to donald trump a

president, did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels?ichael cohen make this, if there was no truth to her allegations? >> you'll have to ask michael. mike's my attorney and you'll have to ask michael. >> reporter: his story changed again. >> later on i knew, later on. but you have to understand what he did, and they weren't taken outs of campaign finance. >> reporter: experts say that argument may not hold water especially because the president according to a source was at a meeting in august of 2015 discussing hush money payments with cohen and david pecker, the ceo of the national enquirer's parent company. does it give him an out to say that i knew about it later? >> no, it doesn't give him an out if he knew about it later. once he knew about it, he was party to the violation. >> reporter: another shift in the story comes from trump's legal advisor rudy giuliani. on may 2nd giuliani told fox that cohen who had taken out a home personal equity line was paid back by trump. >> has the president reimbursed that. >> that the an admission t

. >> nancy pelosi, stormy daniels. >> putin. >> comey. >> khashoggi. >> witch hunt. >> felony. >> i am sick of all the chaos. >> i say bring it. >>> with the "year's 10 most." >> and with that, welcome to "the year's 10 most." i'm brian williams. >> and i'm nicole wallace. >> as you may know, we tried this last year, thinking, what could be worse than 2017? what could be more eventful than 2017? surely they won't ask us to do this again. >> but here we are. >> here we are. we have been compiling our list of ten items that were the most, fill in the blank. >> yeah, we cover these stories night after night after night, but there are some that stay with you, that you go home and you're still thinking about them. you talk about them with people outside of the business. that's usually a good indicator of what broke through. >> it is hard to believe what we witnessed and lived through. >> and it's why they feel like dog years. so much happened. >> and we should be honest, this was difficult, because we had way more kind of honorable mentions, people, places, moments than we had firm categori

affairs with stormy daniels and thaother one, prosecutor claim t was to help swing 2016 election, accord tokinaccording to a repon read a statement, i want to be clear, it was my own weakness. and a blind loyalty to this man. that is heavy, he said, my weakness can be characterized as a blind loyal to to donald trump but i was weak for not having strength and question and refusing his demand. cohen also claimed hig he flippn the president out of a sense of duty to his family and country. st should be pointed out cohen is a known liar. his true motives may never have been known. avenatti had harsh words for cohen, and a big warning for the president, ooh watch. >> michael cohen will report to federal prison, one year after we filed the case on behalf of stormy daniels. michael cohen was sentenced today, donald trump is next. kennedy: oh, all right, slowdown hop along. the question tonight, does cohen saga help or hurt president trump. joining me now, former cia officer, it is buck sexton, what do you make of this circus? >> a good thing for cohen that avenatti exists, at least is complica

michael cohen made a payment to stormy daniels to silence her so she wouldn't come forward with her claimsf an affair with the president. he organized a payment, he organized -- orchestrated a payment that went through american media, the parent company of the national enquirer that purchased a story of another woman who is going to go forward. so what we realized is that repayments to michael cohen went through allen weissleberg at the trump organization and done in a way that they were filed as legal expenses. so in the filings on friday, and in what we have learned since then, my colleagues and their sources have been able to piece together questions about what the legal implications are for at least weissleberg. we know that he's talked to the prosecutors at least with regards to what he knew about cohen's involvement. i think the question now with cohen being relegated to the sidelines, who else comes into focus as being involved in criminal activity? >> according to "the new york times" article, $420,000 or so was shelled out to michael cohen for legal practices, it seems. the chief

not a good day for stormy daniels and michael avenatti. for men.tice that my hips are off the ground. [ engine revving ] and then, i'm gonna pike my hips back into downward dog. [ rhythmic tapping ] hey, the rain stopped. -a bad day on the road still beats a good one off it. -tell me about that dental procedure again! -i can still taste it in my mouth! -progressive helps keep you out there. the >> sean: breaking news, this is a fox news alert. ap is now reporting that general michael flynn has requested probation and community service. earlier today there was also a deadly shooting in france which is now being treated as a terror incident. trace gallagher joins us live in our west coast newsroom tonight for the latest on both of these stories. >> let's begin with the shooting. the attack happened near the stroudsburg famous christmas market which is one of the city's biggest attractions. the same christmas market was the focus of an al qaeda plot back in 2,000, although it remains unclear if the market was targeted this this evening. the gunfire ca

why it was made. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no. >> then why did michael cohen make that payment if it was -- >> you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> three weeks later, trump acknowledged that he did have a deal with daniels and that cohen was representing him in the deal. >> michael would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me like with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented me. >> well then giuliani let it slip that they reimbursed cohen for stormy daniels. >> that was not campaign money. sorry i've giving you a fact that you don't know. it is not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> so they funneled it through the law firm. >> funneled through the law firm and the president repaid it. >> the next day giuliani suggested the payment had everything to do with suppressing a negative story -- catch this -- during the election. >> so you were -- you're saying that stephanie clifford made these allegations, told donald trump's lawyer, look i'm -- >> and denied them and said it wasn't tr

it was the first in the shifting stories over this stormy daniels payment. first that he didn't do it. he didn't have any relationship with her. we didn't pay her any money and then oh, we did but it was to avoid private embarrassment. >> i did not give money to that woman. >> exactly right. and eventually shifted to, oh, well, maybe it was, but it wasn't a crime. you have this question of whether he knew it was a violation of law. the problem about that lie is that it shows that he knew something was wrong. because if he didn't know it was -- there was something wrong, if he didn't know it was a crime, why was he lying about it and trying to cover it up. when people lie about their crimes, it shows consciousness of guilt. if we ever get to the point that this is either before the congress or part of an impeachment charge or he's left office and he's on trial in the southern district of new york, you will see that statement played at trial or played in impeachment hearing to show the president lied about this because he knew what he did was wrong, and he was

that also diminishes it a little bit besides the fact it's stormy daniels, et cetera. if i was the president and his defenders, i would worry about the following things. first of all, michael flynn had 19 separate sessions with the mueller team. michael cohen talked to the mueller team for 70 hours. now that wasn't all about stormy daniels and ms. mcdougall, it was about other things presumably. you have to decide whether mueller is an ice flow just on top of the sea or whether he's an iceberg and we haven't heard from weiselberg. you mentioned him. he hasn't been mentioned in months. this is follow the rubles, follow the dollars. the whole theory of the prosecution is that donald trump had so many ties to russian actors, oligarchs to putin. we're viewing some of this upside down. carol, correct me if i'm wrong here, it isn't just the russians trying to get influence with trump, it was trump trying to get influence in moscow. >> yeah. >> he had loans there. he had tenants there. he had a whole web of financial transactions. we still don't know anything about them that

president, did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels?orter: did michael cohen pay that? >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my -- an attorney. you have to ask michael. >> reporter: in august his story changed again when trump was asked by, yes, another "fox news" anchor if he knew about the payments? >> later on i knew. later o but you have to understand, ainsley, what he did -- and they weren't taken out of campaign finances. >> reporter: experts say that argument may not hold water, especially because the president according to a source was at a meeting in august of 2015 discussing hush money payments with cohen and david pecker, the ceo of "the national enquirer's" parent company. >> does it give him an out to say that, "i knew about it later?" >> no, it doesn't give him an out that he knew about it later. once he knew about it, he was party to the violation. >> reporter: another shift in the story comes from trump's legal adviser rudy guilliani. he told fox that cohen who took out a home equity loan to pay stormy daniels, he