, allen weisselberg in the office with me was allen weisselberg. so allen weisselberg is the chief financial officer. >> allen weisselberg as you just heard cohen mention there is the top money man within the trump organization. he handles not only the company's finance but he oversaw the president's personal transactions like checks and other dealings. trump reimbursed him for hush money cohen paid to silent the story of stormy daniels. weisselberg has limited immunity in the hush money case but what does that mean for his role regarding the other allegations cohen brought up, ie, trump misusing his charity or filing false information to avoid taxes. all questions people will be exploring. barbra rez is back. how one woman changed the face of construction. she was an executive vice president at the trump organization working for donald trump for 18 years. >> on and off. >> on and off for 18 years. let's run through some of these names. we just talked about allen weisselberg. >> he came from brooklyn and he did the billing and the paying the bills.

and/oral an weisselberg. but always allen weisselberg on the check. >> and you think the executive was donald trump jr. >> yes. >> you knew that the payments were false and illegal, correct? >> i can make that conclusion. >> you told representative kelly that the president was aware of this scheme, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> i just want the american public to understand the explosive nature of your testimony in this document. are you telling us, mr. cohen, that the president directed transactions in conspiracy with all allen weisselberg and his son, donald trump jr., as part of a civil/criminal -- as part of a criminal conspiracy of financial fraud? is that your testimony today? >> yes. >> and do you know if this criminal financial scheme that the president, allen weisselberg and donald trump jr. are involved in is being investigated by the southern district of new york? >> i'd rather not discuss that question, because it could be part of investigations currently ongoing. >> i just want the americ

and cosigned by the cfo of the trump organization, allen weisselberg. cohen says there are nine other checks in total, all that add up to his reimbursement for making those illegal campaign contributions. he says he will provide those other nine checks to the committee as well. cohen also said today that this is potentially a matter of ongoing investigation in, naturally, the southern district of new york. so what does this mean? obviously michael cohen is already going to prison for this. what does this mean now that he's produced these documents and made these allegations? what does this mean for the other entities who he says were wittingly involved in this crime, the president's business, its executives, including his eldest son donald jr. who signed that check, who mr. cohen today said was executive to in his own criminal charges documents. that's don jr. what does it -- what does it mean also for individual 1 as president trump is described in mr. cohen's charging documents? if the president is already identified as a conspirator in those felonies

and the trump organization cfo allen weisselberg. is that correct? >> that is correct. >> as federal prosecutors laid out in their criminal charges, payments lucky this check resulted in numerous false statements in the books and records of the trump organization. it's important for the american public to understand this. nothing to do with collusion. this is financial fraud, garden variety financial fraud. it was disguised as a payment for legal services to you, but this was not a payment for legal service, was it, mr. cohen? >> no, sir. >> it could give rise to serious state and federal criminal liability if a corporation is cooking its books. based on your testimony today, donald trump jr. and allen weisselberg directed this payment to you and approved this payment. is that right? >> mr. trump initially acknowledged the obligation, the debt. myself and allen weisselberg went back to his office, and i was instructed by allen at the time that they were going to do this over 12 installments. and what he decided to do then was to have me send an invoi

the bottom signature i believe is allen weisselberg's. allen weisselberg. allen weisselberg.s signed by allen weisselberg. >> are there other people we should be meeting with? >> so allen weisselberg. >> chuck rosenberg, kaiser sosa the cohen hearings of the perhaps investigations out of the sdny. allen weisselberg i understand had narrow limited immunity around certain questions but not a cooperating witness. will he become one? why is he so important? >> he's important nicolle because he's been around the trump organization and mr. trump for a long time. these are the types of people who are important witnesses because they see stuff, they read stuff, they hear stuff, they just hang around. so weisselberg couldn't be having a good day yesterday. he's probably not having a particularly good day today either. and i imagine -- i should say there's a problem with him testifying before congress, which is that he very well may have a fifth amendment issue, meaning that a truthful answer to questions may tend to incriminate him. he would only want to testify with immunity. and thi

and/oral an weisselberg. but always allen weisselberg on the check. >> and you think the executive was donald trump jr. >> yes. >> you knew that the payments were false and illegal, correct? >> i can make that conclusion. >> you told representative kelly that the president was aware of this scheme, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> i just want the american public to understand the explosive nature of your testimony in this document. are you telling us, mr. cohen, that the president directed transactions in conspiracy with all allen weisselberg and his son, donald trump jr., as part of a civil/criminal -- as part of a criminal conspiracy of financial fraud? is that your testimony today? >> yes. >> and do you know if this criminal financial scheme that the president, allen weisselberg and donald trump jr. are involved in is being investigated by the southern district of new york? >> i'd rather not discuss that question, because it could be part of investigations currently ongoing. >> i just want the americ

so far the president says he believes weisselberg has not betrayed him. >> 100% he didn't.rter: but others think the deal with the money man could yet bring big returns. it is not clear how much weisselberg might tell investigators and so far we don't know of him saying anything damaging to president trump. but the mere fact he's talking to them about trump and all of his deals possibly sharing information trump has vigorously fought to keep private is a big deal in itself. >>> and next jeanne on kim jong-un's dashing security detail. alright, i brought in ensure max protein... to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. (straining) i'll take that. (cheers) 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. in two great flavors. this is the avery's trying the hottest new bistro.ery's. wait...and the hottest taqueria? and the hottest...what are those? oh, pierogis? and this is the avery's wondering if eating out is eating into saving for their first home. this is jc... (team member) welcome to wells fargo, how may i help? (vo) who's here to h

weisselberg, weisselberg.hink there is a real chance that the committee will call him to testify. maybe the other name we heard, rhona graf. donald trump's longtime assistant who has sat outside his door for decades, frequently with the door open hearing everything that's going on. and some of these people may have already spoken to the southern district or to mueller. and we just don't know yet. >> i used to interview donald trump when he was a private citizen. for about 20 years. maybe once or twice a year i'd go to that office and see rona graf and allen weisselberg. they were sitting there. they know a lot. >> every time michael cohen was asked, who else would know about that? who was in the room? weisselberg was the name he constantly went back to. even in the '90s when michael cohen didn't even work for donald trump. he said i can tell you one person that would know about that, weisselberg. he was provided with limited immunity. >> tell us what that means. limited immunity in exchange for his cooperation

allen weisselberg. alan garten of the trump organization, as well. >> who else knows that the president did this? >> allen weisselberg, ron lieberman, and matthew calamari. >> would don jr. or mr. weisselberg have more information about that? >> mr. weisselberg, for sure. >> "for sure." now, donald trump jr. and ivanka trump name checked by cohen. our cameras caught don junior at a conservative conference today, where he was basically trying to dodge any of those questions that many people have about what cohen said. you can dodge, you know, cameras, but you can't ignore investigators in the house when they have subpoenas. the house intel committee planning to call allen weisselberg, donald trump's cfo in, to testify. so this is what we are seeing and hearing from congress today. what we don't know is what else is happening with investigators who have even more tools in the southern district of new york. cohen hinting that they have investigations that are basically undisclosed. and he says he's in cons

and/oral an weisselberg. but always allen weisselberg on the check. >> and you think the executive was donald trump jr. >> yes. >> you knew that the payments were false and illegal, correct? >> i can make that conclusion. >> you told representative kelly that the president was aware of this scheme, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> i just want the american public to understand the explosive nature of your testimony in this document. are you telling us, mr. cohen, that the president directed transactions in conspiracy with all allen weisselberg and his son, donald trump jr., as part of a civil/criminal -- as part of a criminal conspiracy of financial fraud? is that your testimony today? >> yes. >> and do you know if this criminal financial scheme that the president, allen weisselberg and donald trump jr. are involved in is being investigated by the southern district of new york? >> i'd rather not discuss that question, because it could be part of investigations currently ongoing. >> i just want the americ

allan weisselberg and donald trump jr. directed cooking the books and paying him in a way that was financial fraud. it is being investigated by the southern district of new york, the president is implicated, i want to hear who else in the trump's family is part of that investigation. >> i think one of the push backs that we'll hear from republicans when it is said and done, he came out and said he had no direct evidence of collusion. this was a guy side by side with donald trump for ten years, he did not see any direct evidence of collusion with the russians. what do you make of that part? >> the russia investigation will be apart of adam schiff's investigation. they're two different things. mueller is looking into of the russia investigation. the southern district of new york is looking into financial crimes that the president and his son and weisselberg may have been involved in and they were involved in it after the president took office. i mean the idea that the president was directing illegal payment schemes from the

and allen weisselberg. see for that example 5b. the president of the united states thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws, and you can find the details of that scheme directed by mr. trump in the pleadings in the u.s. district court for the southern district of new york. so picture this scene, in february of 2017, one month into his presidency, i'm visiting president trump in the oval office for the first time and it's truly awe inspiring. he's showing me all around and pointing to different paintings, and he says to me something to the effect of, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. they were fed-ex'd from new york and it takes a while for that to get through the white house system. as he promised, i received the first check for the reimbursement of $70,000 not long thereafter. when i say con man, i'm talking about a man who declares himself brilliant, but directed me to threaten his high school, his college

. >> weisselberg. weisselberg.lberg. >> reporter: allen weisselberg the long time chief financial officer of the trump family business. >> do you know if this criminal financial scam that which isle ba weisselberg and donald trump jr. is being investigated? >> i'd rather not answer because it could be part of an investigation that is ongoing. >> reporter: now democrats say that they could bring weisselberg and the president's son in for questions. trump's son has denied knowing about the payments and also denied talking to roger stone about wikileaks. >> did you ever talk to him about wikileaks? >> no. >> reporter: but michael cohen contradicted that as well. >> it was a short conversation and he said mr. trump, i just want to let you know that i just got off the phone with julian assange and in a couple of days there is going to be a massive dump of e-mails that will severely hurt the clinton campaign. >> reporter: wikileaks and stone both deny the call. the hearing was at times a spectacle. republicans taking jab

chairman, what do you -- >> allen weisselberg allen weisselberg, donald trump jr., weisselberg, will you talk to them? >> yeah, we probably will. there are certain areas we've got to be careful with because special counsel and southern district of new york and others have basically said that there are things that they're looking in to. there are a number of areas that we couldn't even get into and didn't get into that they're looking in to. this is -- i think that there are still a number of shoes to drop. >> so on the number of shoes to drop, right, and so many people obviously have been making such a huge deal about mueller and potential collusion but really isn't this about finances, sdny -- >> it's about new york. >> it's about new york. >> absolutely. maybe trump can't be prosecuted but the trump organization can be and it derives its liability for any crimes from the people who act within it, so that's well within the prospects i think for the southern district or the attorney general of new york. >> are you surprised and i know allen weisselberg allen weisselberg presumably ma

it could be part of an investigation currently ongoing. >> reporter: weisselberg is the cfo. he provided testimony in exchange for limited immunity. cummings says he may call both men in for questioning before house oversight. cohen opened the door to financial and tax fraud investigations. handing over the 2011 and 2013 financial statements trump allegedly gave deutsche bank as the basis for a loan to buy the buffalo bills. cohen suggested trump inflated his worth for this loan and in other instances when it suited his interest. >> did the president provide inflated assets to an insurance company? >> yes. >> do you think we need to review -- >> reporter: we know that michael cohen has talked about investigations by the southern district of new york. we reported that prosecutors out of new york are investigating the trump inaugural committee as well as executives from the trump organization. there is still a lot more to come here on capitol hill. michael cohen will be back here on capitol hill for more closed door testimony. that will happen on wednesday. now we know that on

and ceo allen weisselberg, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> you said monthly invoices containing false information to an individual identified as executive one, weisselberg is executive one, correct? >> yes. >> the criminal charge against you then states that executive one forwarded your invoice to someone referred to as executive two, presumably donald trump jr., who's signing this check at executive two, correct? >> i believe so. >> as federal prosecutors laid out in their criminal charges, payments like this check resulted in numerous false statements in the records and books of the trump organization. it's important for america to understand this, nothing to do with collusion, this is garden variety variety and fraud. it was disguised as a payment for legal services but this was not a payment for legal services, was it, mr. cohen? >> no, sir. >> it could rise to federal, state and criminal liability if a corporation is cooking its books. based on your testimony today, donald trump jr. and allen weisselberg directed t

do they want to call allen weisselberg? if the weisselberg and donald trump jr. take the fifth, do they want to give them immunity? i mean, and doing an investigation is hard and tedious and could take a long time. and you know, elijah cummings and the leadership is going to have to make these decisions. but, there's clearly a grounds for a much more extensive investigation. >> carrie, just from a legal standpoint, what do you do? >> well, one of the things that i'm most interested from a legal and a national security standpoint is the interaction with wikileaks. and michael cohen said today that he believed that donald trump had advanced knowledge, regarding the release of hacked information, so it relates to the crime of hacking the dnc and unauthorized access into hillary clinton and her campaign's e-mails. cohen says trump knew in advance. and what's happening is that there is a two-week timeline in july of 2016 that is now becoming more clear when we connect information that is in the special counsel indictments of the russian agents, combined with now other

weisselberg's name came up. we do know that he has talked to prosecutors already. i don't know if he would necessarily come before a committee like this in a public setting given as michael cohen indicated that there are still ongoing investigative measures and law enforcement probes going on on a number of these fronts, which is also an interesting revelation from cohen, sort of coming right up to the line of saying what the southern district and other prosecutors are still look at before pulling back. but rest assured, if these prosecutors are still looking at any other things that cohen talked about that deal with the trump organization they're probably going to be talking to, working with or trying to work with allen weisselberg. >> after this long day's journey into night, our big three guests wearing three invisible hats, and we're very happy they agreed to come on our broadcast tonight. our thanks to barbara mcquade, to frank figliuzzi, and to ken vogel. really appreciate it. and coming up tonight, one of today's biggest revelations about trump's hush money

weisselberg play into this?president's business potentially implicated here as a business entity? >> i think we know already from the charging documents from august that were filed in the manhattan, did the manhattan u.s. attorney's office that the -- that officers of the trump organization are implicated. we've reported that executive one who is named in the documents is allen weisselberg, the company's long-time cfo and we know michael cohen is going to testify tomorrow and has already told prosecutors that weisselberg was involved in trying to cover up this stormy daniels payment. we also have reported that sdny since michael cohen's guilty plea broadened the organization to look at the trump organization and possible campaign finance violations by the company. i think the degree to which the president is implicated in the investigation into the company remains to be seen. he of course has turned over management of the company to his adult sons and mr. weisselberg and does still retain ownership of the compan

only one of them, alan weisselbe weisselberg, he had limited immunity.en exposed in front of congre congress. you may be able to expose that and say what's to lose you already have that immunity. >> lesson from the freshman to the elders, less speeches and more information eliciting testimony. >>> is it too late for joe biden to run in 2020? that's next. i'm a dancer, casting directors will send me a video of choreography. i need my phone to work while i'm on the subway. you'll see me streaming a video, trying not to fall. (laughs) (vo) there when it matters. get $300 off our best phones. only on verizon. (coughing) need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel sites and filters by cabin class, wi-fi and more. so you can be confident you're getting the right flight at the best price. kayak. search one and done. means they won't hike your rates over one mistake. see, liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $78

and allen weisselberg and for that example see 5b. the president of the united states thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws and you can find the details of that scheme directed by mr. trump in the pleadings in the u.s. district court for the southern district of new york. so picture this scene. in february of 2017 one month into his presidency i'm visiting president trump in the oval office for the first time and it's truly awe inspiring. he is showing me all around and pointing to different paintings and he says to me something to the effect of, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. they were fedexed from new york and it takes a while for that to get through the white house system as he promised. i received the first check for the reimbursement of $70,000 not long thereafter. when i say con man, i'm talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges and

allen weisselberg was there this entire time. it goes back to the dad. >> yeah, i think allen weisselberg is somebody we need to talk to and donald trump jr. is someone it's looking like we need to talk to. i think we need to go back through all of the testimony from today, the lines of questioning, digest it and strategize from here. it with australia lot to take in. >> but you want to call don jr., allen weisselberg? >> i would like to. i don't get to make that call ultimately, but i think that's certainly where my head is at right now. >> just in terms of what stood out to you today, i mean obviously your advantage point is different than the viewers at home. what do you think were the most important takeaways? >> i guess it depends on what you're looking for. i mean, one of the big takeaways for me is it really does look like a sitting president committed a crime. very serious crime. while he was this the oval office. and all of the other pieces -- >> and that crime is the -- going through with the hush payments, reimbursing

or alan weisselberg. >> they knew this payment was false and illegal? >> i can't make that conclusion. >> you told representative kelly that the president was aware of this scheme. >> that's correct. grip the american public to understand the explosive nature of your testimony in this document. are you telling us mr. cohen, that the president directed transactions in conspiracy with alan weisselberg and his son, donald trump jr., part of criminal conspiracy of financial fraud? >> yes. >> do you know with this criminal financial scheme that the president, alan weisselberg and donald trump jr. involved in is investigated by the southern district of new york? >> i'd rather not discuss that question because it could be part of an investigation going on. >> i want the american public to understand. it's only a part from bob mueller's investigation, there's garden variety financial fraud in your allegation and the smoking gun documents suggest, the president, his son and cfo maybe involved in a criminal conspiracy. isn't it true, mr. cohen this criminal consp

elij elijah cummings told me they'll bring alan weisselberg and donald trump jr. who was a name signed on one of the checks to come to capitol hill as part of an investigation into those hush money payments. adam schiff he had shed they will drill down tomorrow when cohen comes back to a classified setting about the topics but today's testimony only going to fuel the investigation on capitol hill and will that begin that discussion over impeachment proceedings. right now the democrat leaders are trying to tamp that down. cummings i asked if there were impeachable offenses and said that, well, i want to proceed very cautiously. they want the investigation to continue. they want to see what the mueller report ultimately produces, but this information significant to how the democrats will plan to pursue and how the federal prosecutors also decide to pursue it. at least we know that -- the southern district of new york is still investigating the president according to what cohen said today. >> certainly, pretty blunt about it. he was cooperating and in the hopes that

are they going to call alan weisselberg? if they call him, are they going to vote to give him immunity in the likely event he decides to take the fifth? what about ivanka, donald trump jr.? should they be open sessions or closed sessions? do they want to subpoena documents as well as individuals? all of this could be done but, you know, it would take a ramping up that the democrats have not done in a long time. and it will certainly generate a lot of criticism from republicans. we'll see if they want to do it. >> whether they're in the majority of the house of representatives right now. they're doing what the republicans wouldn't do. once again that underscores elections have consequences. felix sater. we'll be learning a lot more about this guy over the next couple of weeks. rather complicated background as we heard from evan perez, once in business with the russian maf mafia, later convicted. became an fbi informant, at one point was intimately involved with planning the development of a trump tower in moscow that could ha

and allen weisselberg. and see for that example 5 b. the president of the united states thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws. and you can find the details of that scheme directed by mr. trump in the pleadings in the u.s. district court for the southern district of new york. so picture in scene. in february of 2017, one month into his presidency, i'm visiting president trump in the oval office for the first time. and it's truly you a inspiring. he is showing me all around and pointing to different paintings. and he says to me something to the effect of, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. they were fedexed from new york. and it takes a while for that to get through the white house system. as he promised, i received the first check for the reimbursement of $70,000 not long there after. when i say conman, i'm talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleg

and or allen weisselberg but always allen weisselberg on the check. paymentknew that this was false and illegal, correct? >> i can't make that conclusion. >> you told representative kelly that the president was aware of this scheme. >> that's correct. >> i want the american public to understand the explosive nature of your testimony in this document. are you telling us that the president directed transactions in conspiracy with allen weisselberg and his son, donald civi -- aor, as part of a criminal conspiracy of financial fraud, is that your testimony? >> yes. >> do you know if this scheme that the president, allen weisselberg, and donald trump jr. are involved in is being investigated by the southern district of new york? discuss that not question because it could be part of an investigation that currently ongoing. >> i want the american public to understand that apart from bob mueller's investigation there is garden-variety financial fraud in your allegation and the ,ocument suggests the president his son and his cfo maybe be involved in a criminal

>> weisselberg, he was mentioned more than anyone. his name kept coming up. so if i were to single one particular person it would be him. he seems to have been involved in the tax insurance possible fraud, the campaign finance violations and the ethics violations. i would have to -- there are so many leads. i guess i would go to the russian collusion interaction area to question him. >> i'm interested finally congresswoman in where congress goes from here. what did you learn yesterday that was most critical to where you believe congress should take this next? >> well, what i learned was how deeply he was involved meaning the president in all of the decisions. and there was concrete proof of shown in my opinion of a campaign finance violation with the payments right before the election to stormy daniels, the hush money. i think the leaving off the disclosure on your financial disclosure form is a violation of law. and that seemed to be very clear that that was a clear violation of law. i guess i would look at the clear violations of law that came forward. and

. >> trump organization chief financial officer allen weisselberger was mentioned several times.edia outlets reported he received immunity to testify before a grand jury in new york during the course of the investigation into the hush money payments. three people with knowledge of that matter tell nbc news that weisselberg is not cooperating and has never been a cooperating witness and has proved limited details in the course of his testimony. a person close to the trump organization telling nbc news that weisselberg is still with the trump organization and defends trump and the company. >> michael cohen was grilled about president trump's alleged history of tax fraud and offered up names of who he believes would have access to that information. >> to your knowledge did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company? >> yes. >> who else knows that the president did this? >> allen weisselberg, ron lieberman and matthew calamari. >> and where would the committee find more information on this? do you think we need to review his financial statements and tax return

the committees now, particularly in the house, where they are in control, will call allen weisselberg. they may call donald trump jr. they're going to -- you know, they're going to try and get to the bottom of this in public. >> yeah. >> because what they need to do is convince the public because impeachment, after all, is a political act. >> yeah. >> and, you know, trump in a way -- republicans say to me, who have talked to him about it, well, he kind of welcomes it because then he has a fight, and he can say you're trying to just take the election. >> last word, pamela. they're going to have a lot to work at, especially considering what he said about he inflated and deflated the value and all this stuff on his taxes or whatever. they're going to have a lot to look at coming up. >> right. as gloria said, one of the people you can imagine they're going to want to talk to in front of the committee is allen weisselberg. in fact, cummings alluded to that today because he is noekno as the financial gatekeeper. and his name kept coming up in the hearing by cohen. at one point he seemed to

weisselbe weisselberg. >> he knows everything about donald. in terms of the money trail, donald can be hurt, i believe, a great deal by allen weisselberg. >> he knows every single financial transaction? >> i do believe that he got more and more involved as time went on, and donald trusted him. he was almost a family member. >> how bad could that be for trump, jack, when you think about allen weisselberg who has been granted immunity? >> oh, it's serious stuff, and i think juliette hit it on the head, trump doesn't care about the country but he cares about himself and he cares about his family's liberty. the sorts of things that the southern district is going to be investigating, i would assume, would include violations of the foreign corrupt practices act. remember, there was that "new yorker" story about trump wrongdoing in the former soviet republics to help people paying off local officials to get trump buildings built. there is the intriguing issue of the deutsche bank subpoena. remember, deutsche bank is the only financial institution tha

that is weisselberg, donald trump jr., and the president in this criminal conspiracy.hat, you know, an investigator would have to do is start pulling apart those facts. for example, what account did that can come -- did those checks come from? are they the same account? are they different accounts? what is the paperwork underlying the payment of those checks? alisyn, you, oak jokijoeking ite nice if it says hush money payment to porn star, but there is probably some paperwork somewhere about what this check is for. in an exculpatory sense it could be reimburse meant for travel expenseors legal fees related to something entirely different. but if you are a real criminal investigator, you go and look for the underlying paperwork. and that would certainly be the place where you'd go. b one of the things that we know about the mueller investigation is that donald trump jr. has never been interviewed. one of the very few key figures who has not been interviewed. >> what does that tell you? >> well, it tells you that his behavior is under scrutiny from mueller. just as roger

and allen weisselberg. see, for example, exhibit 5-b. the president of the united states thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws. you can find the details of that scheme directed by mr. trump in the pleadings in the u.s. district court for the southern district of new york. so picture this scene, in february of 2017, one month into his presidency, i'm visiting president trump in the oval office for the first time. it's truly awe-inspiring. he's showing me all around and pointing to different paintings, and he says to me something to the effect of, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. they were fedexed from new york and it takes a while for that to get through the white house system. as he promised, i received the first check for the reimbursement of $70,000 not long thereafter. when i say con man, i'm talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and th

allen weisselberg, who we know has also testified before the special counsel. if allen weisselberg since there and says, "yes, president trump president trump," okayed the hush money payment which would be a campaign finance violation, we don't know. that's a big "if." if he backs up what cohen says, it has added credibility. >> marie: chris, marie harf here. i wonder if we might see testimony from other people michael cohen has been referring to today. i will put a democrat asked him if they were of the people we should call before this committee and to give a whole list of people including david packer from ami, allen weisselberg, and others. do you think that would be one of the consequences of this hearing today? >> chris: it'll be interesting to see. those oversight committee has specifically said they aren't getting into it -- although they touched on it a bit today, into the russia investigation. that is under the purview and jurisdiction of the house intelligence committee. but i agree with you. i thought it was very interesting on one of those democrat

i would have prefer it had that way but in order to be able to put it on to the books, alan weisselberg made the decision that it should be paid over the 12 months so that it would look like a retainer. >> and did mr. trump know about this reimbursement method? >> oh, he knew about everything, yes. >> thank you, mr. cohen. so the president now only knew about the payments, he knew and hope to hide the payments and the reimbursement to you? >> we discussed it. everything had to go through mr. trump and it had to be approved by mr. trump. >> and now you're going to prison and he's -- >> i'm going to prison, yes, ma'am. >> i yield back. >> if i -- >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> i yield my time. >> earlier you said -- i'm assuming new york is a one party -- one person can record the other one without it being illegal? >> correct. >> you also were a member of the new york bar? >> i was, yes. >> how would you rate recording clients in the ethical realm of being a lawyer? >> it's not illegal -- >> i'm not asking if its illegal, i'm asking if it's ethical. >> i don't know. >> so i think every o

. >> allen weisselberg. allen weisselberg. in the office with me was allen weisselberg.weisselberg is the chief financial officer. >> cfo, has been counting money for trump since it was his father running the business. now, when there are this many politicians talking in front of a camera, all right, it's going to be telling not just what they say, but you have to start listen for what isn't being said. on the republican side, like i said, no curiosity about what cohen was saying, no pushing for mfgs about wrongdoing. not one of them was able to defend the actions of the president of the united states. all of them called cohen unbelievable entirely. even though, remember, cohen took several opportunities today to bootstrap their defense of the president. he admitted he had no proof of collusion. he wouldn't say that trump told stone to talk with wikileaks. he said mr. trump would never hurt his wife. and as for the major theme for gopers today, all that counts is credibility and cohen has none. listen. >> if you lied, you are a liar. >> everything's been made of your lie

i would have preferred it that way but to be able to put it on to the books alan weisselberg made the decision that it should be paid over the 12 months so that it would look like a retainer. >> did mr. trump know about this method? >> everything, yes. >> well, thank you, mr. cohen. the president not only knew about the payments he knhelped hide the payments? >> it had to be approved by mr. trump. >> now you're going to prison and -- >> and i'm going to prison. yes, ma'am. >> i yield back. >> if i -- >> thank you, mr. chairman. earlier you -- >> yes, i yield my time. >> earlier you'd said, i'm assuming new york's a one-party consent state? one person can record the other without it being ill sfleel. >> correct. >> you are a member of the new york bar? >> i was, yes. >> how would you rate recording clients in the ethical realm of being a lawyer? >> it's not illegal. and i did -- >> i'm asking if it's ethical. >> i don't know. we'd have to leave judgment of the bar association. >> so, well, i think every other lawyer in here knows where it is in the ethical standard. when you said you h

guys like weisselberg who understands the mechanics of the trump's scheme his organization and on everyends or the charity fraud or the way that donald trump does business or to the fact that he and stone were making phone calls when stone denied it and he denied it consistently. there is a lot of evidence that could be run down because of michael cohen testimony. he does not have to be a good dude to be credible. i don't know if there are any perfect witnesses, some of the things and many of this things he said can't be corroborated at least as of now. we don't know that. >> if you were sitting there and watching these hearings, republicans seem like they were obsessed with whether cohen is going get a book deal. they're uninterested in figuring out the story were true or what the evidence meant. was that a mistake? >> they believe the democrats are going to try to impeach the president. their leadership is saying no, we are not going to do that. the democratic basis going to force them into something. i work for newt gingrich in the '90s and i saw how it happens. you whine up going to

. >> trump organization chief financial officer alan weisselberg was mentioned several times.utlets reported last summer that he had received immunity to testify before a federal grand jury in new york during the course of the investigation into hush money payments. but three people with knowledge of the matter tell nbc news that weisselberg is not cooperating, has never been a cooperating witness and has provided limited details in the course of his testimony. a person close to the trump organization telling nbc news that weisselberg is still with trump organization, defends trump and the company. let's talk about this. joining us now politico's daniel litman and u.s. attorney for northern district of alabama, joyce vance. joyce, let me start with you. give us your biggest takeaways from yesterday's testimony? >> the biggest question going into yesterday was whether or not we would seek credibility from michael cohen, would he be believable after being convicted of lying to congress? and the answer on all accounts was yes. he was restrained. he appeared to tell the truth. he

ivanka, weisselberg, the vfo cf and of course cohen. they all have different roles. do we know whether anybody has corroborating evidence? >> well, the executives within the trump organization have been talking to investigators into a variety of cases over the last nine months. and particularly in the last couple of months specifically the inaugural committee. so allen weisselberg was given limited immunity to testify before the grand jury in the hush money payments. now, we don't know exactly who else he has talked to, but presumably every time a prosecutor goes to the trump organization and they say we would like to speak to weisselberg or another lawyer or any number of trump executive, they say yes, of course, we'll talk to you. so that is an ongoing process and has been going on for many months. >> i have one question for you. you deal with the roger stone,c people. that came up yesterday. was there anything that surprised you there in the references to roger stone and wikileaks and what donald trump knew and what michael cohen alleges he told him to do? >> it d

allen weisselberg is cooperating with robert mueller. >> is he though? >> from what we understand he's cooperating. i don't think he's fearing prosecution for himself. >> we know weisselberg knows a lot. >> that's it. we just don't know what he knows. so i'm hesitant to speculate what he knows. it's really he said/he said at this point. we will see what the report says when it comes out. >> i want to share what the republicans said yesterday when they were asked to speak and had questions. we have a little mash-up for you. >> fraudster, chief, convicted felon and in two months a federal inmate. >> he's going to prison for lying to congress and he's the star witness to congress. >> you're a pathological liar. >> convicted liar, lying to congress. a criminal. >> oakie doke. did republicans -- listen, they took their time to call michael cohen a liar, which we know he is. he's going to jail. did they miss an opportunity to actually defend president trump against the allegations? because i actually didn't hear much of that. >> no, and they missed that opport

allan weisselberg is someone who needs to be questions in some form.g to be tricky because he's going it need some kind of immunity or he's going it get charged by someone. there's sort of two paths here for him. but he is the next central figure here i think to talk. and of course the documents at the end of the day are really what's going to tell the case. whether you have a cohen or weisselberg, they're going to walk through the documents. they're going to be the narrators. >> to go back to the big picture of this, you haven't had a shot at this. what do you think was the most important evidence in the hearing today? >> first of all, i think there was more evidence about subornisuborn ing perjury or false statements. i think there was a big question last night about the allegations of what was trump doing and it was a shortcoming of the prepared statement. it was really vague. i was concerned coming in what evidence did cohen have that trump was directly involved. not during the election. that wasn't significant. that wasn't sufficient enough. i thi

one of the other checks was signed by alan weisselberg, the cfo of the organization and donald trump junior. there's plenty of ground to continue this investigation, notably by asking weisselberg and donald trump jr. about this whole affair. but, and of course what's so significant about this check is that it's dated august, 2017, when donald trump was president. that's now out there in the world and the country's going to have to decide whether it cares or not, whether he should be prosecuted or not, and i think that's a very big deal. >> david gregory, your big takeaway from the seven hours. >> i think that cohen played into the partisan divide about trump. i think his statement that was so compelling was also incredibly personal. he really seemed intent on hurting president trump. you saw his own wounds in his life. and so he played into the partisanship. there were a lot of gratuitous attacks on the president that i think is a danger for democrats because i think it detracts from some the notable things he said about ongoing investigations. but i think there's no question that th

talked a little bit about how the stormy daniels payment took shape and he mentioned that allen weisselberg was deeply involved in that. >> the cfo. >> the cfo of the trump organization, and of course, that the president was involved at every step in that process, which of course, the president has denied. the other thing i thought was interesting, congressman clay, it came up, that he says he submitted knowingly false financial statements to deutsche bank in order to get a loan to buy the buffalo bills. that loan was never given. they never bought the buffalo bills, but if he did. >> right. >> -- knowingly submit a financial statement that was false that's a crime in and of itself so that, i'll bet, pricked up the ears of prosecutors out and about. >> speaking of questions that i wish had been followed up and there were several, i found it striking that i think it was congresswoman maloney, but i might be mistaken asked about any other hush money payments made to any other individuals and cohen said something along the lines of i'd have to think about that which i find a little hard to bel

trump, and alan weisselberg. >> so it was carefully worded. >> yes. >> a reporter said she interviewed you the next day about the payment and reimbursement and she wrote last february 14th i interviewed cohen in his office about the statement he gave the fec which were he said trump didn't recall the payment. i couldn't hear much but he wanted to go over what the public messaging would be. is that accurate? >> it is. >> did the president call you to coordinate on public messaging about the payments to ms. clifford's in or around 2018? >> yes. >> what did the president ask you to say? >> he was not knowledgeable of these reimbursements and he wasn't knowledgeable of my actions. >> he asked you to say that? >> yes, ma'am. >> great. in addition to the personal check for $35,000 in july 2017, is there additional corroborating evidence that mr. trump directly reimbursed you hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws. >> there are 11 checks that i received for the year. the reason why 11 because as i stated before one had two checks. >> and you have copies of al

and allen weisselberg, the cfo of the trump organization. and then there's the hacked democratic national committee e-mails. cohen is expected to testify that donald trump newspaper about the hacking of the e-mails before they were made public and welcomed their release. he says "s in july, 2016, days before the democratic convention, i was iin mr. trump's office when his secretary announced that roger stone was on the telephone. mr. trump put mr. stone on speakerphone and mr. stone told mr. trump that he j had just gotten off the phone with julian assange and that mr. assange told mr. stone within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of e-mails that would damage hillary clinton's campaign. mr. trump responded by stating to the effect, wouldn't that be great." now remember, the question of how much the president knew about those e-mails before they were released is key to robert mueller's investigation into any ties between russia and the trump campaign. and finally, michael cohen is expected to tell congress that the reason he lie