today michael cohen said under oath "donald trump made me do it. my boss made me do it. he told me to break the law." at the direction of. michael cohen then pleaded guilty today to two counts of campaign finance violations. reading from notes michael cohen then described to the judge in his own words how he committed those crimes. he said as to count number 7 on or about the summer of 2016 in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office i and the cref a media company at the request of the candidate worked together to keep an individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign from publicly disclosing this information. "after a number of discussions we eventually accomplished the goal by the media company entering into a contract with the individual under which she received compensation of $150,000." he was describing how he arranged at donald trump's direction for the publisher of the "national enquirer," david pecker, to pay $150,000 to karen mcdougal so that the "national enquirer" could bury her story abou

are there financial records that show that michael cohen is telling the truth when he says that donald trump committed a crime. that is an enormously important question. we don't know the answer to that yes. >> david cay johnston, here's what michael cohen said in open court under oath "the payment to mcdougal was made at the direction of a candidate for federal office." adding it was made for the principle purpose of influence the election. the daniels payment was made at the coordination and direction for that same candidate for that same reason. tell us your thought this is morning. >> well, i think this points directly to a conspiracy, including one under new york state law and my column today at d.c. report" is about how cyrus vance, the district attorney of manhattan and barbara underwood, the attorney general of new york should be going after these issues because some of the crimes that cohen has confessed to are also state crimes and this is an opening to get into these matters in the event the mueller investigation is shut down. but we clearly now have from michael cohen statements

and donald trump didn't sign the check to own up, he told michael cohen, according to his lawyers, who would be witnesses against him, so there's no dispute by his own lawyers, that donald trump directed michael cohen to do this. >> what letter? what letter? i have heard you refer to this letter. we have not seen this letter. what letter? when was it written? which lawyers? >> i am stunned because it is public. it was reported by many news outlets that donald trump's lawyers sent a letter to this special counsel in which they used the word directed concerning these payments. and rudy giuliani very famously threw his client under the bus and said, he wasn't telling the truth on air force one when he said he knew nothing about this, he was actually not telling the truth, but that's not a crime. and rudy giuliani confirmed and used the word reimbursement, which in and of itself is a campaign violation, because a reimbursement is a donation for the purpose of political protection. >> lanny, the letters that we have seen that the president's lawyers have written to the special counsel have

cohen had paid the porn star $130,000. trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, says trump later reimbursed cohen. on april 13th, president trump called michaelohen to, quote, check in before cohen appeared in court regarding his office raid. before trump became president, there was nearly constant contact between the two men. >> believe me, michael cohen got calls at 3:00 in the morning. michael and i would be at dinner. the boss would be calling him. >> sure. >> all the time. >> reporter: those days are long gone, replaced by a bitter feud, magnified after cohen released a secret audio recording in which he and trump spoke about a payment related to a playboy model's story about her alleged affair with trump. >> when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay -- >> won't pay with cash? >> no, no, no. >> reporter: to donald trump, it was the ultimate betrayal, the president tweeting, what kind of a lawyer would tape a client? so sad. the relationship soured even more after a revelation that cohen was prepared to tell robert mueller that then-candidate trump knew in advance about the june 2016 me

michael cohen, the president's longtime personal attorney and fixer at the trump organization, sayinge was instructed to do so in order to impact the election. now, the court documents do not say specifically who the "candidate" is. that said, the only candidate michael cohen was working for at the time was then-candidate donald trump. michael cohen now faces jail time for these charges. meanwhile, paul manafort, the president's former campaign chairman, found guilty on eight charges of fraud. this is a victory for special counsel robert mueller's investigation team, which has of course focused on mr. manafort for his financial dealings. we have new reaction from president trump in the last hour. he is set to speak to supporters in charleston, west virginia, within the next hour. he told reporters that he was defending paul manafort, calling sayingvery good man," there was no evidence of russian collusion. he went on to say that this was a sad day. just last week, the president made similar comments to reporters here at the white house. this is the first we are hearing from the presid

and we have a pending motion to depose michael cohen and donald trump. ere's zero chance we don't get a deposition of michael cohen, and i think there's a significant likelihood that we're going to get a deposition of donald trump. and so what that's going to mean is that i'm going to have an opportunity to ask michael cohen and donald trump questions under oath, under oath. you know, it's one thing to lie to you or other members of the press. it's an entirely different thing to lie under oath. i'm going to get a chance to did some very difficult questions of michael cohen and donald trump about what they knew, when they knew it, what they did about it, and what they did to cover it up. >> cohen, much more of a straight-line analysis. he asked for the stay. we've all read -- those who are following this, we get what that was about. that may be over. i don't see anything in the plea deal that stops him from being in action. in fact they say the opposite, that it doesn't forestall any other legal activities that are out of the bounds of this agreement. not

trump. alexandra: you are right. michael cohen was more than a personal attorney. was donald trump's fixer, managing his personal sensitive matters and personal business. so, it will be interesting however into what extent he is willining to cooperate w with federal authorities. we do not have any official confirmation for this. as we understand it there is no formal cooperation agreement, but it does not mean that cohen is not willing to cooperate. and when we see he's -- his ugilty plea today, -- his guilty plea today, this is the first direct link to the president and to his campaign. brent: less of questions about dirty money -- lots of questions about dirty money in the campaign to get donald trump elected as president. alexandra, thank you. staying in the united states, software giant microsoft says it has thwarted attempts by kremlin-backed hackers to launch a cyber attacks on u.s. political groups. the hahacking group p known as y bear reportedly tried to steal data from the websites of conservative american think tanks and the u.s. senate. microsoft's pres

does that change since michael cohen directly implicated donald trump today? yesterday or five minutes before michael cohen did that. doesn't that -- does that make a difference? >> not in -- when you -- what rick was saying is that the president calls this whole thing a witch hunt, what he's referring to is the mueller investigation trying to create a conspiracy case around the president's campaign, and he's repeatedly said there was no such thing, and now we're saying, oh, my gosh, two people around him have gotten into trouble. neither one of them has anything to do with what that was originally about. and what democrats talk about every time they can, about mueller, which is russian collusion, neither one of these two things has anything to do with that. >> go ahead, rick, what were you saying? >> this is the first couple steps in a long waltz. and this is never going to get better. and robert mueller is circling around closer and closer, the cohen thing was ancillary. to the southern district of new york because it was ancillary, the individual charges and

ran a story hyping it up as a bombshell claiming that trump's lawyer michael cohen had info that trump knew about his son's infamous trump tower meeting with a few russians in advance citing anonymous sources sources with knowledge to myself and call that michael cohen claims then candidate donald trump knew in advance about the june twenty sixth trump tower crucially these sources tell us that cohen is willing to make that assertion to the special counsel while cohen's attorney admitted that it was false on that very same network c.n.n. the reporting of this story got mixed up so michael cohen does not have information that president trump knew about the from terror meeting with the russians beforehand or you know does not now even though cohen's attorney retracted those claims on c.n.n. c.n.n. decided to run the story anyway and then defended their decision to run the story check it out we stand by our story and are confident in our reporting of it and it gets even better lanny davis cohen's lawyer admitted that he was one of cnn's anonymous sources saying that he can't corroborate c

president trump former campaigm presence former personal lawyer, michael cohen. cohen testified under oath in a new york cohen testified under w york court that during the 2016 electi candid $150,000 each for their silence about affairs with mister trump. after court him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the l those payments were a crime for michael cohen then why wouldn't they be a crime for donald trump? at a republican campaign rally in west virginia tuesday night president trump made no mention of the two cases on his way earlier to the rally he dismissed any suggestion that the manafort verdict would impact him. the president attacked special prosecutor robert mueller's investigation saying it has failed to prove the trump campaign was connected to russian meddling in the 2016 election. >> this has nothing to do with russian collusion. this started as russian collusion and has absolutely nothing to do . this is a witchhunt and a disgrace. a former dean at the university of san francisco law school worked in the justice department. >> taken

trump. the $130,000 was hush money. michael cohen closely with donald trump, so for a while, was paul manafort, campaign managers, and the 2016 election, where have we got to in his case, nick? well this extraordinary day where it'll be happening in this courthouse behind her, and a lot of action going on right now, in alexandria, in virginia, where the jury is still deliberating over the 18 charges against paul manafort, donald trump's former campaign manager charged with such things as money laundering and conspiracy against the united states. we understand that the jury cannot reach an agreement on one of those counts, so they have to reach an agreement on 17 of those counts, but it's up to the judge earlier, asking for guidance about what to do if they could not reach consensus about what to do about one of those counts. we don't know which one it is and where they are with the other 17 counts either. but it does seem like those deliberations are nearing completion and a verdict could be imminent. we do know that michael: will be

michael flynn and ex-trump lawyer michael cohen are both already cooperating with federal investigators. and ami ceo david pecker was also given immunity so that he could talk about helping trump hide an affair with lauren mcdoingal. all of this comes on the heels of the ultimate betrayal, michael cohen, telling a federal judge that donald trump directed him to legally bind the silence of two women who allegedly had an affair with him. according to the associated press again, the president was under siege and his aides have become accustomed to being smacked with bad news when they look up at the television. johnson la mere, white house reporter for the associated press. kim weld, a former federal prosecutor, and and jonathan al. let's start with you, allen. tell us about weiselberg, it seems we got the chief bookkeeper, the chief financial officer, he's so close to the family, he's the only one not a family at the top of the trump organization. what's his immunity, give him the allowance to tell without prosecution and also makes him basically vulnerable. he can't take the fifth anymor

michael cohen's plea deal today. joining us now, the attorney, michael avenatti, you represent stormy daniels in her legal battle against michael cohen and president trumpfor that matter. michael, thank you so much for joining us. how do you and your client, stormy daniels, feel today? what's your reaction when you hear michael cohen plead guilty and hear him say he committed campaign finance violations in coordination and at the direction of president trump? >> well, i spoke to my client about an hour ago. we feel incredibly vindicated, wolf. there's a lot of people like one of your next guests, richard blumenthal, who have taken unnecessary shots at me and my client about our legal strategy and how we have gone about this. we have been absolutely vindicated. people like richard blumenthal and others have proven to be wrong. we have proven to be right, which is always a good thing. but more importantly, wolf, we've got a lot of work to do. we're going to get to the bottom of what this president knew and when he knew it and what he did about it. and the details of this coverup. on september 10th, the court is going to lift the stay, i anticipate, in the

ran a story hyping it up as a bombshell claiming that trump's lawyer michael cohen had info that trump knew about his son's infamous trump tower meeting with a few russians in advance citing anonymous sources sources with knowledge tell myself and call that michael cohen claims then candidate donald trump knew in advance about the june twenty sixth trump tower crucially these sources tell us that cohen is willing to make that assertion to the special counsel robert mueller cohen's attorney admitted that it was false on that very same network c.n.n. the reporting of this story got mixed up so michael cohen does not have information that president trump knew about the from terror meeting with the russians beforehand or you know does not now even though cohen's attorney retracted those claims on c.n.n. c.n.n. decided to run the story anyway and then defended their decision to run the story check it out we stand by our story and are confident in our reporting of it and it gets even better lanny davis cohen's lawyer admitted that he was one of cnn's anonymous sources saying that he can't co

and now michael cohen is asserting that it was done at the direction of donald trump. so why would michael cohen be exclusively prosecuted and not donald trump? for a crime like this. but remember, he is president of the united states. and there is a justice department policy. it's a policy. it is not a law. not in the constitution. it doesn't necessarily have to be followed. but it is a policy that the president cannot be indicted. but what we have here and what went on in open court today is a very explicit statement by michael cohen in effect endorsed by the southern district of new york that donald trump also committed a federal crime in campaign finance violations. >> it's significant, mark preston, that the president when he walked down the stairs of air force one, he went over to reporters, made a strong statement in support of paul manafort, found guilty on eight counts, felony courts today in virginia, but he didn't say anything about michael cohen at all. this is a president who's usually not shy about speaking out but he avoided anything in response to shoute

michael cohen knows a lot about trump's business practices including business deals with russian oligarchs going back at least a decade michael cohen knows all sorts of things about the trump organization and potentially the trump foundation trump's imperiled founded a charitable foundation and it seems likely that he would know some stuff of interest to robert muller but i think that it's an important to note that donald trump's liabilities are include russia but argo much broader than that and michael cohen is a deep threat to his entire presidency donald trump cannot stop these investigations directly he would have to start firing a series of people at the justice department in order to make these investigations go away and as of now it appears that he can he would wish to do that but he cannot do it because there must be some hidden reservoirs of spine among congressional republicans who said that that would be a bridge too far they've obviously been willing to go very far with donald trump but i think terminating this investigation is a bridge too far for congressional republicans so

it is difficult for me to watch people try to demonize michael cohen when he was doing what he was told. in "unhinged" i talk about the a donald trumpg cohen to pay the payment. here, it is coming to fruition. >> why would michael cohen, given what you're talking about here, you believe michael cohen is credible. >> i do. >> why would he take out a personal loan to help donald trump cover up the alleged affairs? >> he was so loyal to donald trump. to see that tweet this morning from the president saying he was a bad lawyer, that speaks more to donald trump than michael cohen. i'd push back on the assertions. michael cohen was effective at carrying out the things that donald trump directed him and asked him to do. i think that that's important to note. donald trump went back to him again and again, not just the women you know, but women you may not even know. donald trump should be careful when it comes to michael toecoh. he knows a great deal about all the behavior donald trump was engaged in. >> you have been aware that donald trump was directing cohen to make the payments. >> he was -- >> how did you become aware? >> i've been a p

donald trump and michael cohen -- now michael cohen has implicated then-candidate trump in this -- had already struck a deal with the playboy model karen mcdougal, and the enquirer and metaphorically put it in that safe. so mr. cohen said mr. trump directed this, hey, you know, this is not good. my secrets are with a third party. a good friend, david pecker, but an act of god may smite him, a truck may strike him, and then my secrets are no longer so safe. so they hatched a plan to do this deal. this deal does not happen. all we know is from the prosecutor's documents last week that the mcdougal deal almost happens, where contracts are signed, money almost changes hands, where they're going to buy her story. >> do we know what the ballpark would have been? what kind of money they were willing to pay for this? >> i don't know the ballpark. the mcdougal story, they were paying $125,000 more. that would have been a loss for the enquirer, because the enquirer bought her story for 150, plus some other things i guess they were going to get to hold on to. so we don't know dollar figure, and w

if nothing else, this is a good reminder that michael cohen during his ten years with the trump organization had his hands in all kinds of deals, there was, of course, the trump tower moscow project that cohen and trump were pursuing during the presidential election while simultaneous denying any such deals were being pursued. plus projects cohen was involved in with eastern europe the new yorker's adam davidson has reported were likely hot beds of money laundering. there's a lot we don't know about the inner workings of the trump organization which is why it probably made michael cohen, donald trump, and everyone else in the trump organization really nervous when the news broke today that the man who knows everything that has gone on inside that company for decades, well, he's been granted immunity by federal prosecutors, this man you are looking at, allen weisselberg. he's the chief financial officer of the trump organization. he's in his 70s. he's worked for the trump family his entire adult life. he started off working for the president's father. he has been at the trump organization app

but michael cohen's lawyer lanny davis said his client had testified that quote donald trump to wrecked it him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principle purpose of influencing an election if those payments were a crime for michael cohen then why wouldn't they be a crime for donald trump michael cohen now faces up to five years in prison he's a man who once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump now people are wondering how much of a mark his case will leave on the president of the united states presidents only al jazeera new york. and as cohen was in court in new york a jury in virginia found the president's former campaign chairman guilty of tax fraud bank fraud and breaching electoral finance laws pull manifolds now facing a lengthy prison term as i got to report. was he was once one of the most influential men in washington now poor man afford his facing life behind bars after a trial lasting three weeks the jury found him guilty on a charges of tax and bank fraud over the course of the trial the jury was told man afford had millions of dollars in foreign

what can only be an effort to discredit michael cohen and to call him a liar who simply can't be trusted. you saw a preview of that message from president trumphis morning on twitter. he accused michael cohen of breaking but said that he -- implied he was a bad lawyer. implying also that anything that michael cohen might have offered up in exchange for his plea deal could not be relied on. however, it's clear that this is not going to be a case of michael cohen's word against the president's. there would also have to be proof. that's something that the president did not discuss at all in his morning tweet about cohen. >> what's the mood over there inside the white house right now? how did staffers react when this really significant, historic news broke about manafort and cohen? >> that's right, wolf. double barreled bad news day for the white house yesterday. left so many white house staffers simply stunned by these developments. earlier in the day, when these aides saw that the jury came back with a question about one count, about not being able to reach a conclusion on one count, sources say they were pretty buoyed by that. they thought thi

cohen said he committed a crime and the judge said he committed a crime. but what you seem to be avoiding -- you don't believe the trump organization was billed by michael cohent the trump organization paid back michael cohen? >> there's a dispute about the facts. the president said today that he paid the money out of his own pocket. >> well, he just said he paid. >> if it was a corporate contribution, that's very different. >> okay, if it was a corporate contribution, you're saying that is a problem? >> of course. it's all a problem. i'm not here to defend trump. it's a problem. it's a problem because -- >> the president's saying it's not a problem. >> lying is a problem. >> it's a problem. i'm not here to defend the president. i'm here to say that it's a complicated issue and that if a candidate makes a contribution on his own to pay hush money, that sounds terrible, it's a political sin. i'm here to say, you have to distinguish between political sin and federal felonies, and a lot of the commentary so far has failed to do that. >> you said that all candidates for president violate campaign election laws. >> let me tell you -- don't tell me what i said. >>

well basically he's been saying that michael cohen is more than happy to help with the miller investigation that has huge implications for president trump michael cohen is been president trump's longtime fixer and personal lawyer someone who once said that he would take a bullet for the president but let's take a step back for a moment to that court case yesterday and how everything unfolded there basically michael cohen starting court admitted to financial fraud but basically implicated the president of the united states that's apart from the fact that he's now saying that he would help in the miller investigation if michael cohen has information about that now infamous trump tower meeting in which donald trump jr attended a meeting where he met a russian lawyer to get dirt on a political opponent that could have massive implications implications for donald trump as well as the fact that michael cohen stood up and said that the sitting president of the united states is my coconspirator in two payments made to alleged lovers to which broke campaign finance laws so this is essential in a double hurricane for the president not to forget t

much more evidence that is going to come out about the crimes that donald trump is now accused of having committed with michael cohen and other members of the trump campaign. we have seen not even the tip of the iceberg of the evidence that michael cohen has, and that is why the fbi took the unprecedented step of raiding michael cohen's home and office and hotel room. they don't do that with attorneys every day, very, very rare. they did it because they had reason to believe just how rich that evidence trove would be. we know david pecker is in trouble tonight, and we have ever reason to believe that david pecker, like michael cohen, will do nothing to protect donald trump when he has to choose between telling the fbi the truth or protecting donald trump. that's an easy choice. and it is an easy choice for hope hicks or kellyanne conway or whoever the members of the trump campaign are who helped michael cohen commit those crimes. they are not going to take any chances now trying to protect donald trump now that the man who once boasted he would take a bullet for donald trump has delivered the smoking gun in the inve

trump. if this were any other attorney this would probably not be a new story but this is the u.s. president's former personal attorney michael cohen is the man who was once quoted as saying that he would take a bullet for donald trump no he is talking to federal prosecutors and he may be talking about the u.s. president and what does all of this mean for u.s. president doldrum. yes only a couple of weeks ago michael cohen said that now he's not ready anymore to take a bullet for the president and now he's saying he thinks that the u.s. his home country and his family is more important for him that and it than anything else and i think his decision to cooperate with the story was small today to by trying to help his family by trying to make a deal to reduce his jail time so it will be interesting what information he can reveal and of course when we talk about this plea to. plea it's leading guilt guilty to come pain finance violations that is a direct link to the vest and so he's come to pay and president and he's attorneys have recently to distance themselves from michael cohen but now no distancing is possible anymore yeah that's

and then in the wake of revelations that michael cohen secretly recorded a conversation with him, president trump began to lash out saying what kind of a lawyer would tape a client, so sad. and that's when we really started to see his rhetoric escalate. the president's been asked if he thinks whether michael cohen will flip on him. the last time he was asked he said, no, i'm not worried because i did nothing wrong. bottom line though, this was the president's former fixer, personal attorney. a lot of people think that he knows just about everything there is to know when it comes to then candidate trump and some of those questions swirling around his candidacy and that the prospect of him cooperating with federal investigators could be a potential problem for the president. he's going to be watching this very closely. now, the president departs for west virginia a little later on today, steve. we're hoping that the rain holds off so we can ask him about all of these developments because undoubtedly he has hi es eyes o this. >> we've been alluding to that tape of september 2016, donald trump and mi

and the heads of american media who "in coordination with michael cohen agreed to help with stories been donald trump'selationships with women." david is said to have taken an active part in the criminal schemes to which michael cohen pled guilty. david pecker is not indicted. here's the question. this is an answerable question. all those individual people and companies and entities are described in this plea deal as having taken part in the crimes that michael cohen pled guilty to. we know there's constitutional questions whether or not the president can be indicted if he directed these crimes michael cohen swore under oath yesterday that he did. what about the other people described as taking part in these criminal schemes? are they now at risk of being indicted? if they haven't been indicted already should we watch for them in the future and if not should we assume they're cooperating with prosecutors? these are answerable questions. hold that thought. come away with me barnabas! but i am a simple farmer. my life is here... [telephone ring] ahoy-hoy. alexander graham bell here... no, no, my number i

patricia: el ex abogado del presidente trump, michael cohen cambio de parecer conoce publicÓ aquel vÍdeogara detalles de sus encuentros contra. cohen sostiene que nono este verdor. enrique: james mattis ha estado de gira por amÉrica latina. el objetivo del viaje es estrechar los lazos de cooperaciÓn y de información con otros paÍses en amÉrica latina, pero ademÁs habrÍa tenido la crisis de venezuela presente en varias de sus conversaciones, como nos dice pablo gato. pablo: el secretario de defensa fue recibido literalmente a bombo y platillo en colombia, chile, brasil y argentina. ¿ pero a quÉ fue exactamente?qÓ reuniones privadas con los lÍderes de esos países? >> [ habla en inglÉs] pablo: segÚn expertos, es un secreto a voces que la crisis polÍtica y humanitaria en venezuela es la prioridad. >> ha llegado la hora de la recuperaciÓn económica. pablo: en especial tras lo que caracas dice, fue un intento de asesinato contra maduro. este analista afirma que uno de los objetivos de mattisse es hacer planes militares de contingencia respecto a venezuela. >> estados unidos tiene siete bases m

president donald trump pushing back against accusations made by his former attorney, michael cohen. trump says hush money paid to two womemen during the elelectin campmpaign was t totally legall. he says it was his own money, not campaign funds. but tuesday remains the darkest day so far in the trump presidency. we'll asksk what happens next.t. also coming up, zimbabwe's constitutional court hears a challenge to president emmerson mnangagwa's election victory. opposition claims there was tampering. and "d.w. news" goes to the spanish territory of sauta in northern africa, following migrants determined to get across. brent: tonight donald trump is hitting back from what could be called black tuesday. trump's former lawyer, michael cohen, told prosecutors that trump used campaign funds for hush money to keep two women from going public with damaging stories about the u.s. president. trump claimed that the payments were not even a campaign violation because they came from his personal funds. trump was on the campaign trail today where he found supporters who didn't seem to care what was

but michael cohen's lawyer lanny davis said his client had testified that quote donald trump to wreck to him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principle purpose of influencing an election if those payments were a crime for michael cohen then why wouldn't they be a crime for donald trump michael cohen now faces up to five years in prison he's a man who once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump now people are wondering how much of a mark his case will leave on the president of the united states presidents only al jazeera new york well in a separate trial a jury found trump's former campaign chairman guilty of eight challenges pullman affords now facing sentencing for breaching campaign finance laws tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts trump insists this has nothing to do with . the. way. you know russia has dismissed claims from microsoft that it's been targeting u.s. political groups through cyber attacks the world's biggest software company says it stopped fake websites that were set up to steal log information from visitors ahead of the

today in legal cases involving two men with close ties to president trump, that could send each of them to prison for years. michael cohenrt both facing sentencing for felony financial crimes. in the case of president trump's former attorney, michael cohen today, cohen also implicated the president in campaign fraud. good evening, i'm julie haener. >> and i'm frank somerville. the agreement did not name president trump, but the dates and amounts coincide with alleged hush money payments made to stormy daniels and playboy model karen mcdougal before the 26 election. both women claimed that they had affairs with mr. trump years before. in the plea deal, michael cohen says the payments were made at the direction of a quote candidate for federal office, for the purpose of influencing the election. >>

he says michael cohen was always talking about links to the mob. trump world is turning all the investigators into trump world. allen weisselberg has cut a deal of sorts for the cohen case. david pecker has left the canadian media company all over the scrutiny on him for what he did with cohen to pay off multiple women. three trump world associates apparently turning on their boss and their once loyal friend. joining me now is jay goldberg, donald trump's exclusive litigator for 15 years, a new book coming out this winter "the courtroom is my theater," men of honor, and more, and another seasoned attorney, maya wiley also at the table. jay, let's take a look at your prediction, which has proven correct, in part, that cohen would buckle under the pressure. you also talked about other crimes he might be affiliated with. take a look. >> we hear a lot now about potential money laundering and the maffia. why do you think that comes up with michael cohen? >> people involved in the building trades are at the mercy of the mob. >> do you think michael cohen's job

purpose of influencing an election if those payments were a crime for michael cohen then why wouldn't they be a crime for donald trump michael cohen now faces up to five years in prison he's a man who once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump now people are wondering how much of a mark his case will leave on the president of the united states presidents only al jazeera new york and as cohen was in court in new york a jury in virginia found the president's former campaign chairman guilty of tax fraud bank fraud and breaching electoral finance laws all metaphors now faces a lengthy prison term as any gallica reports. was he was once one of the most influential men in washington now poor man afford his facing life behind bars after a trial lasting three weeks the jury found him guilty on eight charges of tax and bank fraud over the course of the trial the jury was to. old man a ford had millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts and paid for a lavish lifestyle with loans he lied to get. president trump was in west virginia when the verdict came down he called man a fort a good man but says the case is not about ru

you said that michael cohen was present for a meeting with donald trump p and don jr. about the trump tower meeting. this is important. you also said that michael cohen testified truthfully to the senate intelligence committee and according to the chair and vice chair, he told them he had no knowledge of the meeting until he saw it in the press. how can both of those things be true? either he knew about the meeting or he didn't know about the meeting. >> well, i think the reporting of the story got mixed up in the course of a criminal investigation. we were not the source of the story. and the question of a criminal investigation, the advice we were given, those of us dealing with the media is that we could not do anything other than stay silent. >> so can you say now whether in fact michael cohen has information that president trump was aware either before the trump tower meeting that don jr. was part of with russian attorney from the kremlin with dirt on hillary clinton, either that michael cohen has information that president knew about it in advance or knew about it

and we will then be seeking to have our pending motion which seeks a deposition of michael cohen and donald trumpl be seeking to have that ruled on by the judge in los angeles. i believe the likelihood of us getting a deposition of michael cohen is near 100%. and i believe the likelihood of us getting a deposition of donald trump is significantly higher than 50%. and we'll seek to depose each about what they knew, what the communications were, what they did about it, what the president did to cover it up, what his involvement has been. >> and other than the damages you where seeking, what remains to be learned now that michael cohen has pleaded guilty to paying stormy daniels money with the intent of influencing the election and that donald trump on fox admitted that he reimbursed michael cohen, what is it that you still want to hear from donald trump and want the country to know about donald trump? >> well, we're seeking to invalidate the nda on the grounds set forth in our complain complaint. the chief ground is that it was a violation of campaign finance law. so we want a judicial finding that

administration trump insists he's done nothing wrong and is accusing cohen of making up stories and gallagher has this report. he once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump now michael cohen is offering to help an investigation the president has repeatedly called a witch hunt on tuesday done on trump's longtime lawyer and fixer pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations cohen told the court he was directed by trump to make payments to two women he's alleged to have had affairs with cohen's lawyer says the fifty one year old is now more than happy to help special counsel robert muller's investigation into alleged collusion between the trump campaign and russia my observation is that michael cohen knows information that would be of interest to the special counsel in my opinion where guarding both knowledge about a conspiracy to corrupt american democracy by the russians robert maas investigation centers on a meeting between campaign aides in a russian delegation that promised to dish political dirt on hillary clinton cohen's lawyer has indicated his client has direct knowledge of the meeting with claims don trump knew it was happening something the president denied

cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time. confenformigt trump was man wouldn't turn on him. michael cohen once saying he'd take a bullet for the president cut a deal.clearly looking to court documents showing donald j. trump was the candidate cohen was helping when he was committing those crimes. >> janai norman, thanks so much. >>> a "new york times" reporter who covers the president and has for years tweeted this analysis after cohen's guilty plea. maggie haberman saying trump folks are worried about impeachment more than before. the thinking goes like this, this is something tangible, not a theoretical, and it didn't come from mueller. it does not mean it will happen but this has moved to a different stage in their minds. >>> well, now to president trump's former campaign chairman, paul manafort, who could face the rest of his life behind bars. the jury in his tax fraud trial has found him guilty on eight counts. it's the first prosecution by special counsel robert mueller's team. >> mrs. manafort, any response? >> reporter: the verdict for paul manafort came after four y on eigh

michael cohen's lawyer who's been talking again this morning in the u.s. about michael cohen talking further about donald trump which which could be more bad news for the u.s. president. i mean an extraordinary twenty four hours for the trumpet ministration as you said michael cohen's lawyer saying that he is more than happy to help with the miller inquiry saying specifically there is information on that now. that meeting in trump tower where they were digging for dirt on an opponent so it seems that he's more than happy to help president trump himself has just tweeted out in the last few minutes saying something along the lines of if you want to hire a lawyer i suggest you do not retain the services of michael cohen that's the only thing the president has said so far he did make a comment yesterday after the poor man a verdict came down saying that he was a good man he then went on to list all the administrations that pomona fort hood worked for in previous years in an attempt i guess to distance himself from someone who was his campaign manager for a short amount of time so this is essentially a double hurri

trump feels like he has a problem. >> so we now heard the president has distanced himself from michael cohenr. is trump's best defense here to paint cohen as a liar? what is the best strategy for president trump? >> he really only had one strategy, which is to dirty up the witness against him. that's who michael cohen is now after what he said in court yesterday. and i want to be very clear with the viewers, in federal court, a judge takes an allocution, or a factual basis, done under oath, this is a very big deal what michael cohen said yesterday, so the only avenue that trump has is to attack cohen. i don't really think it will be successful given the fact that there are tapes of the conversation involving the payouts. so he -- president trump is limited in his defense, and i think this is really going to become more of a public relations issue. and to be quite honest, giuliani is not doing a very good job defending him. >> you talked about giuliani. interesting you bring that point up. i want to play you the contradicting statements from both trump and giuliani on the stormy daniels payme

>> well, i think for donald trump he should be very concerned today because michael cohen has made a commitment that he is going to look out for himself and his family over his extreme to donald trump. we all knew this was going to be used as a hush money payment. >> you knew at the time? >> oh, we knew. >> the 150 it mcdoingal, and 130 to stormy daniels. a lot of money. taken effectively to get him elected. >> a lot of donors. expecting it would go towards the victory. but instead it was going to shut these women up and that is illegal. >> how is this going to sell among kellyanne and the white house. did they believe cohen or the president. >> kellyanne believes to alternative facts. and in trump world, that's what goes. the truth is relative. the reality today is that the hammer came down both on donald trump with cohen and manafort. >> mr. cohen faced thousands of years in prison. going away for hard time for five years, why would you take that as the best deal you can get unless you face horrendously longer time. >> when the judge read to him and asked him as part of this process

president trump's lawyer and campaign chair, president trump's longtime personal lawyer and fixer michael cohen has to eight criminal charges, including tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. cohen admitted in court that trump had directed him to pay off two women, adult film star stormy daniels and playboy model karen mcdougal, to keep them quiet during the 2016 campaign. cohen's lawyer lanny davis wrote on twitter -- "if those payments were a crime for michael cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for donald trump?" davis then appeared on msnbc and said cohen is willing to speak with special counsel robert mueller about a conspiracy to collude with russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. davis later also told the "washington post" michael cohen knows about trump's participation in a criminal conspiracy to hack into democratic party officials' emails during the 2016 election. meanwhile in virginia, a jury found trump's former campaign chair paul manafort guilty of eight charges related to tax fraud, bank fraud, and one charge of hiding a foreign bank account. he face