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this individual worked on the 26th floor of trump tower, same floor donald trump was on. he had a trump organization business card so he's very close to donald trump and very involved in the trump tower moscow deal. there will be public benefit to understand why a presidential candidate was seeking to put a tower in moscow at the same time that we're starting to learn about russia's attacks on our democracy. i think that will be very illuminating. >> is he coming to your committee voluntarily, or has he been subpoenaed? >> i don't want to misspeak on that, wolf. so i'm not clear. i'll just say we do saek to have every witness come forward voluntarily. i'm not aware of a subpoena that's been issued. >> why did you, adam schiff and your committee decide to have this testimony be done in public? >> because of the public value of understanding, again, you have a candidate for president of the united states, somebody who is also a business person and he's mixing the two. he's doing business in moscow throughout the presidential campaign, beyond the iowa caucus, the new hampshi

chairman says his committee will interview another key figure in two weeks, the promoter of the trump tower moscow project. house democrats are putting their investigations of the president into overdrive right now, fuelled by michael cohen's ha marathon testimony. that includes the hours cohen spent on television yesterday accusing mr. trump of illegal and immoral behavior. this hour, i will talk to a house intelligence committee member involved in questioning cohen today, congressman castro. first, let's go to our justice correspondent jessica schneider. lawmakers have heard a lot from michael cohen. they have more questions. >> reporter: they do have more questions. that's exactly why michael cohen will be back here on capitol hill to answer more questions on wednesday. he divulged plenty of details. it was in a secure room for 7 1/2 hours today. the chairman said that cohen was fully cooperative and answered all the questions. schiff, as well as other committee leaders, they say that there is a lot more to uncover. michael cohen is not going away any time soon, after spending all day be

was there a recall from roger stone into the trump tower or donald trump himself., that's what we mean when we talk about corroboration. something that backs up an important part of the story. and in looking at that connection between when the president knew about the hack, the wikileaks release, remember, again, doj has, to an extent, corroborated that. in roger stone's indictment, doj talks about how various senior campaign officials knew about and directed roger stone. and wikileaks there's that conspicuous use of the passive voice saying one of the senior trump officials was directed to get in touch with wikileaks. there's a lot of speculation, who would be the passive voice and who would direct senior officials. i consider that partial corroboration for what he's saying there. >> going beyond partial corroboration, elie, roger stone is on trial how much more pivotal does that make that trial? >> that trial will go to trial if stone doesn't plea out or get pardoned. stone is on trial for lying. in any trial, there's collateral damage. there's other people not s

us from washington thank you well this is what michael cohen said about the negotiations for a trump tower moscow that's a project the president has repeatedly distanced himself from the last time i appeared before congress i came to protect mr trump today i am here to tell the truth about mr i lied to congress when mr trump stop negotiating the moscow tower project in russia i stated that we stop to go shooting in january of two thousand and sixteen that was false our negotiations continued for months later during the campaign mr trump did not directly tell me to lie to congress that's not how he operates. in conversations we had during the campaign at the same time i was actively negotiating in russia for him he would look me in the eye and tell me there's no russian business and then go on to lie to the american people by saying the same thing in his way he was telling me to live see how britain is joining us from washington and specifically on that point see how on the trump tower project not only did he. talk about what the president who had said about it but he also said that the ent

i want to go back to what matt was saying about the lies around trump tower. this is one of those things regardless of why they lied, why he lied, it's a huge deal. this was a fraud on the american public. this was donald trump -- we know from the cohen plea documents -- was in communication with michael cohen, knowing michael cohen was talking to the putin government about a project that needed vladimir putin's approval. while the russians were attacking our country, attacking our election. and he lied about it. he said it wasn't happening. would he have been elected president if the voters knew that information? regardless of why it hand, it's a huge deal on its face i think, nicolle. >> ken, i know you're freezing, hate asking you one more question but i'm going to ask you one more question. you make the perfect point. we're having this narrow legal conversation. as someone who spent my career on the political side of this, it is a political scandal of epic proportions. if the voters had known he was trying to do a deal with russia while running for presiden

this meeting at trump tower. >> yeah. i wonder, richard haass, how close michael cohen can get to showing some sort of proof or cooperation and connection between trump and knowing about those meetings. gosh, when you think about the meeting he is about to have right now, it is amazing the arc -- the journey of.j. trump running for president and now as president meeting with kim jong un in a private one-on-one, let's hope they keep the translators and keep the note takers, giving donald trump's track record we don't know and can't trust. how important do you think what michael cohen has to say about this russian meeting is in terms of the fact it's just his version. i'm not a lawyer, mika. it seems to me, essentially confirms the narrative that's out there. i don't see any new evidence that would fundamentally change people's conclusion. what you were talking about to me is so interesting about today. the juxtaposition, literally and figuratively the split screen. here, you have a president embattled on a lot of issues com

tower project. you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyer reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations before i gave it. "to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. he lied about it because he never expected to win the election. he also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the moscow real estate project. so i lied about it too because mr. trump had made it clear to me through his personal statements to me that we both knew were false and through his lies to the country that he wanted me to lie. and he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before i gave it to congress." jennifer? >> yeah. so you know, the lying during the campaign is not the problem. right? it's the testimony. it is the suborning perjury, the first time michael cohen went in front of congress and lied. the question is what did trump do in connection with that? he said

tower project. you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations before i gave it. that is what he is accused of lying about to congress and he's saying that president trump then candidate trump knew very well that they had an ongoing interest in moscow. it's because michael cohen will say they never believed they would win and he wanted to keep this iron in the fire, was very interested in keeping this iron in the fire because he stood to make millions of dollars from it. >> so, alisyn think there the trump tower piece, i'm sorry, the moscow tower piece of this perfectly sort of captures in how many different buckets these -- this story falls into in terms of the precarious position that the president is in in terms of directly lying himself. michael cohen straight up says the president lied about the moscow tower project because he knew that this was a lucrative project and the negotiations, the talk about this continued much more than

investigation as well. >> i want to listen to two things that were said today about the -- related to the trump towerone is a question by congresswoman wasserman schultz about the way the trump family shares information. let's listen to that. >> if mr. trump and his daughter ivanka and son donald jr. are involved in the russian trump tower deal, is it possible the whole family is conflicted or compromised with a foreign adversary in the months before the election? >> yes. >> and with that possibility, let's now also listen to what was michael cohen's description of donald trump jr. discussing that trump tower meeting before it happened with his father. let's listen to this. >> i recalled don jr. leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which i could clearly hear, and saying, "the meeting is all set." and i remember mr. trump saying, "okay, good. let me know." so i concluded that don jr. was referring to that june 2016 trump tower meeting about dirt on hillary with the russian representatives when he walked behind his dad's desk that day. >> that's the point you're going to be looking f

s three mysterious phone calls before and after the now infamous 2016 trump tower meeting were not with his father. this is according to new information obtained by senate investigators showing the blocked calls were between don junior and two of his business associates. president trump seizing on the news tonight tweeting, "just out, the big deal very mysterious don junior telephone calls after the innocent trump tower meeting that the media and dems said were made to his father, me, were just conclusively found not to be made to me. they were made to friends and business associates of don. really sad." didn't credit us with the reporting because that's where it came from exclusively, from cnn. but it's clearly a positive development for the trump family. but let's not forget that trump jr. did meet with russians about getting dirt on hillary clinton. let's discuss now all of this. shimon prokupecz, susan glasser, phil mudd and harry litman. good evening to all of you. i just think it's ironic that he's saying the media is claiming all this stuff and it was us who report td and we're s

payments to stormy daniels, something else the president claims he has no knowledge of, that 2016 trump tower meeting where donald trump jr. and other campaign officials sought dirt on hillary clinton from someone they were told was a russian lawyer. here again is cohen. >> donald trump jr. came into the room and walked behind his father's desk, which in and of itself was unusual. people didn't just walk behind mr. trump's desk to talk to him. i recall don jr. leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which i could clearly hear and saying, the meeting is all set and i remember mr. trump saying, okay, good. let me know. >> for many republicans at the hearing there's a clear line of attack. cohen's tenuous relationship with the truth, his financial troubles and perhaps, perhaps even a little sour grapes. >> mr. cohen, how long did you work in the white house? >> i never worked in the white house. >> and that's the point, isn't it, mr. cohen? >> no, sir. >> yes, it is. >> no, sir. >> you wanted to work in the white house. you didn't get brought to the dance and now -- >> i was extr

russia, trump tower moscow?ink there will be a lot more focus on those things than what you saw today. there'll be other things. a lot of what you saw today, but the details of it following up with documentation. >> congressman, when -- first of all, what are you hoping to get out of tomorrow? >> well, i didn't watch it today and i chose not to watch it and turns out i had a busy day anyway. i wanted to go into this and make my own observations to be able to see him face to face and make some evaluations and not have it filtered threw other people. there are certain things that i certainly want to ask of him. the first and most obvious is, can you share with us any observations between collusion. between the trump campaign and russia, which is the genesis of this investigation and the things that intel is focused on. i want to know, did he travel to prague, can he verify any information which is the accusations made in this steele dossier, for example. i would like to ask this, and i think this is critical, and

the issue of the trump tower moscow project. michael cohen said he was asking about it repeatedly, and donald trump didn't think he would win the election and stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from the project. it is one that vladimir putin would have had to approve. michael cohen say that he briefed the family on it more than ten times. when he was asked what he knew about it, he said i was aware of it but most of my knowledge has been gained recently. let's listen to michael cohen's testimony on trump tower moscow. >> so be clear he knew about the trump tower prospects because he never thought he would win. he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the moscow real estate project. >> i want to ask you, in your filing with the special project, they discussed the project with individual one and briefed family members of individual one about the project. mr. cohen, who are you referring to here when we say refer to individual one. >> donald j. trump. >> the company? >> the trump organization through a subsidia

in terms of some of the evidence you also had conversations around the potential building of trump towery, many planks and allegations, which potentially is most perilous for donald trump?” think the roger stone allegation is potentially perilous because it does indicate maybe some level of collusion between the trump campaign and the kremlin although michael cohen did not say that explicitly and he did not say he had a smoking gun. all he said was he had suspicions on that front and that is a line that robert miller, the special council, will be pursuing. the allegation that donald trump ordered into the # need payments which is in violation of campaign finance laws, that is evidence of criminality. also about the tax arrangements of donald trump, that he had inflated his income to get onto the forbes rich list but deflated his income when it came to paying taxes. that gives an opening for the democratic committees to start investigating his tax. he has famously refused to hand over his tax returns which is what sitting presidents normally do. that opens up an area of potential legal je

cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congress in 2017 about the trump organization's pursuit of a trump tower moscow project. he initially downplayed trump's role and lied by saying talks ended in january 2016. but now says the president is more involved than he said. >> there were at least a dozen times between the iowa caucus and january 2016 and the end of june when he would ask me, how is it going in russia? referring to the moscow tower project. edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations. >> cohen also said there were ongoing investigations that he couldn't discuss. >> is there any other wrongdoing or illegal act that you are aware of regarding donald trump that we haven't yet discussed today? >> yes, and again, those are part of the investigation that's currently being looked at by the southern district of new york. >> republicans brought up cohen's past and how he has lied repeatedly and to congress for which he's heading to prison for in may, along with other crimes he pleaded guilty to. cohen was pressed on why he worked for trump for so long if

but i think the trump tower meeting revelation might be more important. because that gets to the issue of whether trump himself knew that the kremlin was trying to help his campaign. not whether they got dirt or not. it came with with an email but this is part of a kremlin plan to help trump. who saw that? trump jr. and paul manafort. they were told russia wants to help them. now they kept saying no russian intervention and trump said the same thing that if he knew about that meeting, he knew the russians were up to something to help him and he lied to the public through the rest of the campaign. >> first oall of cohen's testimony, of course donald trump micromanaged all this stuff and persuasive. my take away is of course all these people knew what they were doing. the kremlin knows what donald trump's doing when he says please hack the emails. and at least he's a strong leader for his country and we can probably drop sanctions. and crimea probably wants to be part of russia. and donald trump knows what's happening. no one needed to tell theucter party >>

was referring to the 2016 trump tower meeting about dirt with hillary. ion. >> like the allegation about wikileaks and like the picture of the trump organization is a criminal organization. all of these goes into the mueller investigation and brick in the investigation by the southern district of new york. if indeed cohen is telling the truth, it is the morter between those bricks and the contents. we have to assume that mueller is beginning to tell a full story and now we are seeing the foundation of that story is partly through this extraordinary witness. this is a potential john dean moment that we are about to see. john dean who was once the president lawyer at the white house and went before congress and testified against president nixon and we know what happened in the weeks and months followed. is this today potentially a john dean's moment? >> the dynamic is a john dean moment but there are big differences. cohen was never in the white house al house. also, this guy was a fluixer. if you look at the history of the relationship between the two men,

in moscow. >> who were the family members that you briefed on the trump tower moscow tower? don trump junior and ivanka trump. >> did the president or family request the briefings? >> this is the regular course of business. >> the project was ultimate scrapped by cohen's account of these events could create problems for donald trump jr. in his testimony in 2017. trump jr. was asked did you have any involvement in this potential deal in moscow. trump responded, like i said, i was peripherally aware of it, but most of my knowledge has been gained since as it relates to hearing about it over the last few weeks. >> also yesterday michael cohen brought to congress a check with donald trump jr.'s signature that cohen says was part of his reimbursement for buying the silence of porn star stormy daniels, stopping her from speaking out about an alleged affair with the president in the final days of the campaign, but trump jr. seemed unconcerned by cohen's testimony tweeting this, this sounds like a breakup letter and i'm keeping your sweatshi sweatshirt. and later when cohen said all

whisperred to donald trump about the june 2016 trump tower meeting.e assumes that's what the is, but ehe didn't see any direct evidence, never witnessed any direct collusion. in term oz of creating the impression a credible impression, verses proving the case legally, what's the next step? >> you prove it by all the little details you can get. i thought business of going behind the desk and thinking he knew exact lawhat that was. that was maybe the weakest part of his testimony unmy mind. when the president was suborn perjury on this or how he wanted to answer on the stormy dan iel was very effective. >> trump, did he in some way tell michael eocon to lie? cohen has talked to mueller's team. he's facing prison a couple weeks from now. are these questions that the prosecutors in new york have answers to already? >> almost certainly. and really near the end of the day when he was asked about his final interaction, he said it's under criminal investigation in new york. and steve, as you know, we've been following this closely when you think all of the ot

here's why. >> who were the family members that you briefed on the trump tower moscow project? nka trump. >> if mr. trump and his daughter, ivanka, and donald trump jr. are involved in the rump -- in the russian trump tower deal, is it possible the whole thing is conflicted or compromised with a foreign adversary in the months before the election? >> yes. >> all right. you don't have to be a lawyer to see what's going on. democrats digging into what the trumps, plural, knew and when, in light of facts that the president's business dealings with russia extended far into his presidential campaign, something that would mean that the president has not told you the truth about. congressman steven lynch, you were there, thank you very much for being here, after a very long day. >> good to be with you. >> two big questions. first, did you believe cohen? and if so, on everything or what? >> i found him believable. and as you've noted before, if he was going to just do a hatchet job on trump, he would not have stopped at the point of saying, no, i can't say there was collusion. there wer

and that's extraordinary important for the american public to know. >> you mentioned the trump tower meeting. i want to remind viewers of what then candidate trump said about his business interests in russia. >> i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could happen in russia. i have nothing to do with russia. how many times do i have to answer this question. russia is a ruse. >> you are saying the president was lying there. >> the president was lying. i think when the president talks about and senator graham talks about this all being about collusion and if we suspend the reality of mr. manafort meeting and giving him polling data and other evidence of collusion, if we suspend all of that, here is what the american public has a right to know that the president of the united states as a candidate and as the president, did he sell out the american public? we learned so much about the saudi deal and what the administration is trying to do from the investigation of mr. flynn. mr. cohen and others have taught us about the trump tower moscow dealing. was the president looking out for

called his dad after the trump tower meeting were wrong, the blocked call was not his father. >>> one more brutal day of cold before a weekend warm-up relatively speaking. >> after football i'm going to play baseball. and then after baseball, i'm going to play hamlet. >> alas, a million -- >> yes, almost time to play football. excitement building ahead of super bowl liii on sunday. and guess who is there? dave briggs is there. is there anything tom brady can't do? good morning, it is 4:00 a.m. in the east. welcome to "early start." >> and you are a bit under the weather, my friend. i'm dave briggs here in atlanta, just outside this beautiful mercedes-benz stadium, right now it is time to head home for on folks in atlanta because during super bowl week they allow the bars to stay open until 4:00 a.m. rams and patriots hopefully getting a new night's rest though. this is a new routine for most rams players, only four have super bowl experience. patriots however this is old hat here for the fourth time in five years. and for tom brady, a mind boggling ninth super bowl. and as he you saw,

new div elements in the infamous trump tower meeting during the 2016 campaign. calls has possibly been solved. if the reports are true, this could be a big setback for democrat allegations that president trump knew of that meeting beforehand. details, next. ♪ at outback, your steak & lobster wish is our command. steak & lobster is back by popular demand, starting at only $15.99. hurry in to outback! steak & lobster is only here for a limited time. your insurance rates skyrocket you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ >> jessica: a mystery in the 2016 trump tower meeting may have been solved. there are no reports that investigators on the senate intel committee have learned details of at least two calls donald trump jr. got from blocked numbers after

first the trump tower. so, you were negotiating for this, as you said, it was to be the tallest building in europe. in your guilty plea with special counsel, you quote say, it quotes, cohen asked individual one, is that president trump? >> yes. >> about the possibility of president trump traveling to russia in connection with the moscow project and asked a senior campaign official about potential business travel to russia. when did this conversation happen, do you recall? >> early on in the campaign. >> and who was the campaign official? >> corey lewandowski. >> what did you discuss in this meeting? >> possibility of which dates that mr. trump would have availability if, in fact, that we were going to go over to russia to take a look at the project. i'm sorry, sir. unfortunately, it never came to fruition because we were never successful in getting the first part of what i needed, which was ownership or control over a piece of property. until such time, there was no reason to come up with a date. when i fir

and second, that he had strong suspicions that donald trump knew about the trump tower meeting in june 2016, approved it, and that he would not have allowed donald junior to do anything without donald trump sr.'s permission. >> there was a whispered conversation he says he heard between don junior and his father. matt miller, following up on that, the implications for the president, assuming that the justice department procedures and reg s obtain, and that ther isn't going to be legal action against the president, what are the implications of this kind of testimony? >> i think it depends, if the justice department is able to corroborate it. if you look at the allegations he made, this conversation that he says that he overheard the president have with roger stone, there probably would be corroboration of that. at the very least, there would be phone records of roger stone calling the president's office, bob mueller would be able to obtain that. if you go back and look at the indictment of roger stone, mueller alleged in that filing that stone had contacted senior campaign officials, he

s calls with a blocked number around that infamous 2016 trump tower meeting were not with his father.ces. and we're told that there were records provided to the senate intelligence committee showing that the calls were actually between trump jr. and two of his business associates. we have not been able to identify them yet. but this is significant, anderson, because it appears to contradict democrats' long-held suspicions that the blocked number was from then candidate donald trump. so it settles the lingering issue of whether donald trump was on those calls, but what it doesn't settle is what don jr. discussed with those business associates, and whether he communicated in other means with his father about that meeting, though, as we know, the president and donald trump jr. both denied they ever talked about the meeting around the time it happened. don jr.'s attorney declined to comment for our story, anderson. >> i'm sorry, did you say -- it is known the identity of the business people -- >> reporter: they know. we just haven't reported the identities of the two business associates.

investigators have obtained new information that shows phone calls to a blocked number made around the trump towerhe russians in 2016 were not to then candidate trump. as you know a lot of your fellow democrats have expressed a lot of concern and fear that they were to the president, that they had knowledge of the meeting. the chair of the house intel committee that you sit on congressman adam shif has called a subpoena to talk about the conversations. he said it was one of his first priorities. knowing what we know now, should it be? >> i think that congressman shif is correct to want to call mr. don jr. in. >> on this, on the calls. now that we know this from senate intel documents, do you feel at peace knowing that or do you feel like you need to question don jr. on those calls? >> we need more information. we need more information about what the records were that were produced because it wasn't produced to the house intel committee. secondly, we don't know if don jr. went down the hallway and talked to his father at trump tower. he might have had meetings that had nothing to do with phone call

. >> when were the family members that you briefed on the trump tower moscow project? don trump jr. and ivanka trump. >> do you recall how many briefings there might have been? >> approximately ten. in total. >> cohen also claims that his testimony to congress about the trump tower project in 2017 was changed by white house lawyers at the last minute. >> which specific lawyers edited your statement to congress on the moscow tower negotiations and did they make any changes to your statement? >> there were changes, additions. jay sekulow for one. >> were there changes about the timing? >> there were several changes that were made including how we were going to handle that message. >> jay sekulow denies the claim. he says, quote, today's testimony by michael cohen that attorneys for the president he had it i had -- edited or changed his statement to congress to alter the duration of the trump tower moscow negotiations is completely false. >>> we're expecting an important report on the american economy, that's next. >>> and plus beto o'rourke maki making a decision about h

he has ties with president trump dating back 20 years to a failed project of building a trump tower inw. nina is in london. nina, tell us about this businessman and why senate investigators are interested in his story. >> it's interesting because we haven't heard his name raised so far in russian meddling in the 2016 elections. his ties, as you say, go back two decades with donald trump. he's also worked for other key figures in the russian investigation. most notably he ran part of oleg deripasco's business. it was a 2015 visit by donald trump to moscow where he showed him around to two real estate moguls that appears to have piqued senate intelligence interests. they also retained some original testimony that told them this is a key figure they should be speaking to to finally unravel the mystery of whether russia has any potentially embarrassing material on the president. all of this, of course, coming with speculation that robert mueller's probe is set to wrap up at a time, of course, when this individual remains in russia and hasn't been back to the united states since 2017. that

this is the moment where he is accused of and plead guilt to lying to congress about the trump tower moscow deal and how long they were in discussion about it. he made it clear to you he wanted you to lie. one of the reasons is mr. trump's lawyers reviewed and edited -- and i just want to get to the facts here. which lawyers reviewed and edited your statement to congress. >> there was additional changes. >> was there changing about the timing. >> there was several changes made including how we were going to handle that message. the message of course being the length of time the moscow trump tower promise stayed alive. >> so he is not saying that donald trump directed him to lie in front of congress he did say that donald trump spoke a kind of code and we understood that code. and he took that to mean i should lie to congress. >> that is right. i reached out to abbie lowell, and look, you're absolutely right in your assessment. i would add that when you look at the plea documents and the southern district prosecutor, they don't quite describe this episode in the same way. there is no m

we know he's expected to that infamous trump tower meeting in july of 2016, plans for a trump tower henows about that in moskow, and he was in touch with wikileaks. so how worried should he be about being indicted? >> well, he should be nervous for two reasons, actually, above and beyond that which you said. the first is that mueller has not interviewed him. he hasn't sought out an interview. he hasn't tried to sit down for questions with don june. and at this point in a prosecution, in a probe like mueller's that's actually a danger sign. that's not a good sign. that's more likely to mean that you are the target of the investigation rather than an innocent bystander to it. and second is as we were sort of talking about earlier tonight, the challenge for don junior it appears to be in some of his own congressional testimony. you know, robert mueller has already shown that he's willing to prosecute people for lying to congress. he did so with michael cohen. that's going to be one of things people bring up with michael cohen and his credibility tomorrow. but we have sort of reason to bel

trump has always denied that he knew about the current suspects trump knew about the meeting at trump tower between donald trump jr and various russian nationals ostensibly about getting dirt on hillary clinton but michael cohen is going to make it clear he has no direct evidence of any russia collusion which will be disappointing to those who are desperately still trying to find that remember robert mueller has yet to indict anyone for russia collusion in the trunk campaign ordered from him so he has but there's no there are no indictments about that but he will certainly say that there are there is circumstantial evidence that the trunk at least was aware of issues involving russia and that donald trump's lawyers certainly knew that michael cohen was going to lie to congress about the negotiations that are been underway in twenty six you know over developing a trump tower in moscow so those are causing a great stir here in washington because we didn't expect to hear anything about russia or tool in addition to. a first donald trump is concerned what is concerning is his his timing is bein

tower project. you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations before i gave it. so to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. he lied about it because he never expected to win. he also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the moscow real estate project. >> on page 5 of your statement, you say, and i quote, "you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations." who were those attorneys? >> jay sekulow from the white house. >> yes. >> jay sekulow. i believe abbe lowell as well. >> joining us now is congresswoman jackie speier of california. she is a member of the oversight committee and also a member of the house where mr. cohen will be testifying tomorrow in a closed-door hearing. congresswoman speier, i imagine your time is very, very

i don't understand your question. >> why did the pursuit of trump tower that mr. trump is now said, of course, he pursued it because he thought he might go back in the development business, why was the reason the deal was stopped? >> because he won the presidency. >> okay. so in that interim period of time, it looks troubling that now that we know what foreign influence was attempting to do whether there was collusion or not is certainly appears troubling that you were, mr. trump was part of this negotiation at the same time what we know, perhaps separately, that the russians were engaged in our election? >> i don't know about them being engaged in the election. i can only talk for myself. here i would say to mr. trump in response to his question, what's going on with russia, i'm still waiting for documents and that night at a rally he would turn around and do his battle cry of no russia, no collusion, no involvement witch-hunt. >> on a separate subject but somewhat related, on january 17 of this year "the wall street journal" published a statement saying you hired

to be overly dramatic, the extent to which he can give us a bird's-eye view of what went on in trump towers, in the trump organization, has documents to back it up, could be very compelling. >> california congresswoman jackie speier, we appreciate it. >>> and the president is about to meet with kim jong-un. we have reporting on what could be on the table. but right after this break, russia will be the focus of tomorrow's testimony, but the men who wrote the book on donald trump's relationship with russia have some suggested questions for lawmakers, and they run the gamut from beyond russia as well. they join me next. well they join me next. "four on four" with a barbershop quartet? [quartet singing] bum bum bum bum... pass the ball... pass the rock.. ...we're open just pass the ball! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. yea. [quartet singing] shoot the j! shoot, shoot, shoot the jaaaaaay... believe it! geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. bei found a companyeans tove who believes in me.rt. they look out for

that lie about the length of time donald trump spent trying to build trump tower moscow now under scrutiny as part of the constellation of lies told by the men closest to donald trump. "the new york times" reports today, "among the most explosive and potentially damning aspects of mr. cohen's testimony will be providing evidence of potential criminal conduct since mr. trump became president." that's according to a person familiar with the plans. that potential conduct stems from reimbursements that were made to mr. cohen in 2017 for hush money payments he made to stormy daniels, a pornographic film access." as attacks come in from the white house and surrogates in congress, a few things to keep in mind, there is no one in trump world who served as a more perfect embodiment of donald trump's appetite for corruption and immorality than michael cohen. cohen was an extension of donald trump's id, an enabler of donald trump's most primal demands. cohen's resume with trump included covering up sex with porn stars, rigging political polls and inflating trump's wealth. only the truly unscrupulous

hours of testimony wednesday, drilling down on revelations that the president was working on the trump tower moscow deal for most of the campaign, that roger stone, according to cohen, has a connection to wikileaks and told trump about it, and any white house role. across the world in vietnam, president trump responded to a question about cohen's charges. >> he called you a liar, a con man, a racist. what's your response to michael cohen? >> well, it's correctiincorrect it's very interesting, i tried to watch as much as i could, i wasn't able to watch too much because i've been a little bit busy. he lied a lot. it was very interesting because he didn't lie about one thing, he said no collusion with the russian hoax. i said, i wonder why he didn't just lie about that too like he did about everything else? he said no collusion. and i was a little bit impressed bring that, frankly, he could have gone all out. he only went about 95% instead of 100%. we'll see what happens. but it was pretty shameful, i think. >> joining me now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams, nbc white house corresponde

it comes to russia trump was still engaged in negotiations or at least conversations about the trump tower moscow project when he was also running for office he was also alleged to be at least to know about a meeting between his son donald jr and russian connections at the trump tower in manhattan and thirdly of course those hush money payments to stormy daniels the adult film actress although we knew that they did did take place what we hadn't yet heard in terms of analysis allegation from mr cohen was that that check reimbursement to him to the tune of thirty five thousand dollars was written when mr trump was already in office in august twenty seventeen or less until the super reaction to all this. a range of reaction online as you would expect ranging from people saying that mr cohen essentially now is a puppet of the democrats other people saying that this is so explosive that this is the beginning of impeachment proceedings there's another social media sideshow going on as well regarding much gates the representative from florida for the republicans last night he tweeted that mr cohe

called his dad after the trump tower meeting were wrong, the blocked call was not his father. >>> one more brutal day of cold before a weekend warm-up relatively speaking. >>> after football i'm going to play baseball. and then after baseball, i'm going to play hamlet. alas, a million -- >> yes, almost time to play football. excitement building ahead of super bowl liii on sunday. and guess who is there? greatest of all time here, dave briggs. it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. welcome to "early start." >> you're an inspiration, in sick. we appreciate it. i'm dave briggs live in atlanta for super bowl liii. not even shakespeare could have imagined the career tom brady has had. there is a live look at the beautiful mercedes-benz stadium, site of super bowl liii. what a beautiful crown jewel that is of this city. super bowl experience, how valuable is it. well, we will find out on sunday because 36 patriots have some type of super bowl experience, but only four rams have ever played in this game. patriots however here for the fourth time in five year, third straight year, tom brady's 90s super

he's living part time in trump tower. he offers donald trump his services for nothing. and we know he had, shall we say, mounting financial obligations in his personal life. >> that's right. and we also know, brian, that those mounting financial obligations led to this desire of his to be made whole. and there is great reason to suspect, including on the backs of some fantastic investigative reporting that he actually took this position at the helm of the trump campaign not in order to have another successful campaign under his belt, as a republican political operative, but precisely to be made whole. so it's interesting that time and again, including in this august 2, 2016, interaction with this associate of russian intelligence, konstantin kilimnik we saw paul manafort discussing things that could have significant material value for the russians. there's this idea of a ukrainian peace plan, which is more -- which is less ukraine can peace plan and more all-out victory for the russians because it would essentially bestow upon them sanctions relief. that's something tha

>> never did. >> clarify the trump tower moscow proposal, right? we learned since the campaign that this went on longer through the campaign. >> let me tell you about trump tower. this is a very unimportant deal, okay? this was a very unimportant deal. >> you told people that you did not have business there. >> that was not business there. that was essentially -- i had no money invested. >> the president further down play his involvement with other associates and entities which are the subject of investigations including michael cohen and carter page and george papadopoulos and the entire russia investigation. he claims to have no knowledge of nearly every major aspect of robert mueller's investigation. our big question today, what does the president know? joining me now is nbc news intelligence, ken dilanian and annie carney and arron blake and jessica roth. she's currently a professor in law school. jessica, let me start with you, i know you are the one out many the cold. what do we expect to hear today? there could be a gag order for roger stone

can you provide more information about the substance of your conversations with trump about the trump tower moscow project and then questions about in these payments that cohen allegedly made to these two women stormy daniels and karen mcdougal who allegedly had affairs with trump and who were allegedly paid off to keep these affairs under wraps so questions about you know how much did you discuss with trump beforehand how much did you know about what happened between trump and these women did how much did you discuss the payments did he know when you were making the payments and how much for one interesting thing that cohen lays out in his testimony is that. all right my we see now that cohen has taken with dan he's made his oath let's listen in for you know recognize to give oral presentation of your testimony. your my corn. chairman cummings ranking member jordan and members of the committee thank you for inviting me here today. i have is this committee to ensure that my family be protected from presidential throats and that the committee be sensitive to the questions pertaining to ongoi

the kremlin says in response to this that look, we were contacted of course about this trump tower deale directed the trump organization to the st. petersburg economic forum, put them in touch with businessmen involved in this, the kremlin says it has nothing to do with building projects, but we were never told the kremlin says that donald trump ways personal was personally involved in those negotiations. >> and this happening as you have president trump's domestic challenges happening in the midst of these crucial international negotiations. and clearly frustrating the president. >> that is sure. and he did talk about that. interesting about russia too, sergey lavrov was here in hanoi and was sort of crowing a bit about how the u.s. had asked russia for their advice. >> and the president thanked russia in the press conference as well. >> that is all that we have time for right now. thanks for joining our special coverage of this summit, the second one between the u.s. president and north korean leader. it has just concluded and cnn's breaking news will continue. >> more news next on "e