Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20180523

How the trump tax cuts for harleydavidson led to hundreds of people losing their jobs. Thank you, Harley Davidson, for building things in america. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Breaking news tonight and it looks like potentially bad news for one Michael Cohen potentially even worse news for donald trump. New york times first breaking the story now confirmed by nbc news that cohens longtime Business Partner gene freedman has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors after pleading guilty today to stealing around 5 million worth of taxi fees from new york state. In exchange, free man will be avoid jail time and been assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations according to a person briefed on the matter. Friedman who faces a slew of lawsuits over alleged professional misconduct is quite the character. Russian immigrant known as the taxi king once controlled as many as a thousand new York City Taxi medallions the licenses that allow drivers to legally operate new york taxicabs which in the preuber days were going for 1. 2 million a pop cohen was also in the taxi medallion business. In fact, new york state says Taxi Companies can owned by cohen or his family owe the city unpaid taxes. Friedman has managed cohens medallions for more than 16 years. Theyre tight describing cohen as both a close personal friend and a wonderful client. Trumps longtime lawyer and fixer was already as we know in quite significant legal trouble. Last month federal agents raided his offices and home and hotel. Trumps lawyers were reportedly worried even resigned about cohen cooperating with federal prosecutors. Now, it friedmans decision to cooperate could the make cohens problems that is much worse and potentially increase the pressure on cohen to tell prosecutors everything he knows about the man who now occupies the presidency. For more on the legal implications, daniel gold man and former u. S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant attorney general harry litman. Friedman himself texting a New York Daily News Court Reporter i pled guilty to a felony, i am humbled and shamed. This is me taking responsibility has nothing do with mc, Michael Cohen. There are two things to make of it. Hes trying to indicate hes not cooperating. The other is a sort of delicate dance hes doing here by saying this meaning this guilty plea today which related to charges originally brought against him last june before Michael Cohen was in any hot water, this particular guilty plea has nothing to do with anything related to Michael Cohen and based on the little bit that we know of this case, it does seem like this was sort ive simple, not a simple. This was a tax evasion, grand larceny case pled down to probation and repaying 5 million that he took. So in that instance, it still is consistent with the idea that he is cooperating with the new york state ags office and potentially the Southern District of new york. I want to come back to you on that possibility. Harry, the sort of theory people have here is the way this is gone about and even a federal judge beak said this to muellers people in court, right, that youre rolling up people to get to the person at the top. The dominos here arent that par removed from the president. Friedmans in business with cohen, freedman cooperates hopefully to put pressure on cohen to cooperate to talk about the president. Does that make sense . Sure its a friedman to cohenton trump play if indeed thats whats going on. He did say this was just pleading to these charges. He also said in open court that he really appreciated and understood what a good deal he was getting. And that indicates that you know, he had been charged with over 5 million in tax evasion. Hes pleading only to 50,000, only one felony. He knows hes getting a sweetheart deal. Why would he be getting it . There are several possibilities but at least right now, everyones thoughts turn to his fellow taxi royalty Michael Cohen. Prince, the medallion prince so heres the question for you. I should say his lawyer also said the New York Times report assumes facts not in the record. My client enter aid plea this morning. I cannot comment on any speculation regarding what the entry of plea indicates regarding any case other than my clients. Heres the thing though. This case was brought by the new York Attorney general, used to be eric schneiderman, now barbara underwood. What is the significance in terms of the cooperating with the Southern District where you used to work. Its significant its not the District Attorneys Office which generally speaking does not have the join investigations with the Southern District of new York Attorney Generals Office has a number of joint investigations with the Southern District of new york, traditionally, and we know that they are working with federal prosecutors whether the Southern District or muellers team. Were not entirely sure, but they are all working together jointly on some of these issues related to russia and some of the people who have been charged. I want to be clear. There is a thing that has happened in the past that the Attorney Generals Office works with the new york ag and the Southern District Work Together and have witnesses that might cooperate in one place or the other. Correct. And that they use joint resources and joint Law Enforcement agents and build a case together that ultimately is usually charged in the Southern District of new york because the attorney general does not have its own court like the District Attorney does. Right. So this is very consistent with what we know to be the cooperation going on between the Attorney Generals Office and federal prosecutors in connection to the trump investigation so to speak and some of the Campaign Officials that may be working for him. So in that regard, the information is again consistent with the notion that friedman might be cooperating with and he would be cooperating with both, with the Attorney Generals Office and he would be cooperating with the federal prosecutors, most likely in the Southern District of new york because thats where the Michael Cohen case is. By the way, small point. Underwood is a former federal prosecutor, former federal doj employee more likely to be involved with, familiar with the federal system. Sorry, go ahead. If youre walking down the street in manhattan and happen to see Michael Cohen outside his hotel puffing on a cigar hanging with his boys and he solicits legal advice from you at this point, what is the lay of the land from where you see it . Wow. Well, you know, its hot and getting hotter for him. I mean eventually, the question that i think im sure hes thinking of daily is just at what point is he going to give the information he has that will keep him out of trouble. And thats obviously against the man he said he would take a bullet for. But al at some point, i think he is going to be or prosecutors will hope hell realize not simply the stakes in terms of years but also the sort of psychological bond hes formed with trump should be broken, that he in fact has been abused by trump and is is not someone he should continue to put his life down for. We should note that the daily beast reporting Michael Cohen has become a trump world pariah, they avoid calling him because theyre worried. Have you been through sort of the psychology of this before . Im sure you have. Many times. And what i would suggest people look at are a couple of things. One thing is when targets of investigations Start Talking about their families, Start Talking about the stress that theyre under, thats something thatting is an indication of cooperation. The other thing is youve got to remember that are and what were seeing with the essential consultants and what were seeing with the way that Michael Cohen conducted business is this was a man who was very selfinterested. And if you are selfinterested, youre then going to do whats best for you in every case. And when it gets to you may say in theory ill take a bullet for someone. But when youre looking down the barrel of six, eight, ten years in jail for what now appears to be increasingly serious crimes they are looking at him for, your selfinterest is going to be i dont want to go to jail and donald trump, maybe i would have taken a bullet for him before i was facing ten years but not for that. It could be 15. The man has not been charged. Innocent till proven guilty. Hes been raided and has a person that is a friend and Business Partner now cooperating with. Author of trump nation, the art of being the donald joining me now. No one should be condemned by their social network or associations. People rub up against all sorts of people, a friend of a friend. But that said, donald trump is not too. Stone throws away from people that are in pretty sketchy territory, gray areas of the law with some pretty close proximity to criminal behavior. Even prior to this investigation. Donald trumps has associations going back to Atlantic City with organized crime figures. He built the Trump Soho Hotel with felix sater, a career criminal. This isnt New Territory for him. I think one of the reasons in recent weeks youve seen him amp up attack mode on institutions and Civil Servant who are roundly involved with the rule of law and civil procedure that we all sort of commonly used to respect is because hes afraid. I think hes afraid hes going to get implicated. Im projecting that. I dont know. But generally when trump gets in a corner, he lashes out. Not someone to sit on his hands. Its significant this past weekend as all of these things coalesced around him, he decided he was going to depend the Justice Department interfere with an investigation that was possibly targeting him, his children and his associates. And at the same time, youve got his lawyer like Rudy Guiliani who is both sort of trying to prosecute the prosecutor, relaying all sorts of conversations he had, and he just said this about the new stance on russian collusion. He said it was sort of like a gift of the Campaign Material stolen by russia. It was a gift. The emails were a gift. The potential proposals to get projects done in moscow were gifts. One of the things that bob mueller has to be looking at that i is possibly the most threatening to trump are financial quid pro quos in exchange for policy shifts whether it involved the lifting of economic sanctions in russia or change in attitude toward ukraine. Obviously mueller is looking at those things. I dont think rudy is probably being judicious when he describes these as gifts. Mike cohen, Donald Trumps someone who has a very tight circle with his family. Doesnt seem to have a lot of friends as far as i can tell. He does not have a lot of friends. The Trump Organization is essentially a boutique operation. Thats one of the reasons im somewhat skeptical that will Michael Cohen been ultimately be the straw that breaks the camels back in all of this. Why is that. Because hes relatively new to the organization. He joined in the late towels. By the end of that period towards the beginning of the election, he and trump were on the outs. Trump openly disapparentlied him. The children didnt have time for him. Hes not the lawyer who kept all the secrets. The lawyer in the Trump Organization who kept all the secrets is jason greenblatt, now special envoy to israel. The figure in the Trump Organization who kept most of the Financial Secrets was allen wiesel berg. Hes still there. He runs trumps trust with his sons. If this investigation goes deeply into the Trump Organization, which we have no idea whether or not its going to, clearly theyve subpoenaed records and looking at that, jason green lat and alan will have far more information than Michael Cohen. Thanks for being with me in light of the ever tightening noose around trumps cronies, no wonder his defense is moving into high gear. We are all witnessing in daylight a coordinated campaign between the president of the United States, his personal legal team defending him donald trump as a person, republicans in congress and trump media to sabotage an ongoing criminal investigation into the president s campaign, his associates and family and the president himself. We are all watching it happen day by day. That investigation which has already resulted in 19 indictments and five guilty pleas including people that worked for the president and his campaign has yet to reach a conclusion on the key question of whether the president conspired with a foreign adversary to sabotage the 2016 election in his favor. And now the president and his allies are trying to make sure we never get the answer. Of course, they dont admit in public that that is what they are up to. Instead, they hide behind loft principles like congressional oversight and the rule of law. The latest red herring is the baseless claim a confidential informant was part of a political conspiracy against the president is using to try and extract classified material on the Mueller Probe. As you know, the congress would like to see documents open up. A lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign. If they had spies in my campaign, that would be a disgrace to this country. It would make probably every political event ever look like small potatoeses. General kelly is going to be setting up a meeting between congress and the various representatives, and theyll be able to open up documents, take a look and find out what happened. Again, and this is important, we have zero evidence of a political conspiracy against the Trump Campaign coming from the fbi. Remember, key point, the fbi talked publicly and leaked openly about its investigation of Hillary Clinton during that campaign hurting her campaign while keeping its probe of the Trump Campaign happening at the same time completely secret. And despite all their posturing, the president and law schoolize keep tipping their hand whats going on. Yesterday after the white house announced it would arrange a briefing for congressional leaders, cluck schumer called not unreasonably for the meeting to be bipartisan to prevent it from being polite sized. Today the white house revealed that would not be the case. It is scheduled to take place on thursday of this week. The individuals that are expected tore attend are chairman nunes, chairman gowdy, fbi director wray, dni director coates and doj official ed ocala han. No one from the white house will attend. Would the white House Democrats at the meeting . To my knowledge, the democrats have not requested that information. I would refer you back to them why they would consider themselves randomly invited to see something theyve never asked to. Randomly invited. Nunes and gowdy along with the fbi director, director of National Intelligence and senior official from the Justice Department. Mazie hirono has oversight of the Justice Department. What do you think about the fact this meeting will happen with no democrats present . I think its ridiculous and out the wiit them. So the rule of law with regard to this president is of no consequences. He does not respect the rule of law. Rod rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general is the person overseeing and supervising is the Mueller Probe because Jeff Sessions is recused. The president was asked about his confidence in him today. I want to get your reaction what the president said. Do you have confidence in Rod Rosenstein . Whats your next question please. Im a reporter. Excuse me, i have the president of south korea here. Yes, i have a question. He doesnt want to hear these questions if you dont mind. After a fiveminute rant about a meeting happening over classified information with devin nunes. What do you make of that reaction . I think the president who started with a big lie that the Mueller Investigation is a witch hunt is proceeding with that. I think he is setting the stage for something to happen with regard to Rod Rosenstein. Maybe hes assuaged because theres a meeting going to occur which doesnt make any sense. It is a meeting that involves nunes who is totally compromised. Its all part of the plan to protect the president at all costs. You know with, this president , its all about him every day all the time, every time. Should the meeting not happen . It shouldnt happen. Im really disappointed that Rod Rosenstein who up till now has said that the fbi cannot be coerced, et cetera, et cetera that hes doing this. And disclosing i hope not disclosing confidential information to just one republican person and his mignon who have already indicated that they have no intention of supporting bob mueller and his investigation. So the whole thing is very questionable to me, but it is all of a piece to protect this president come what may. Can devin nunes be trusted with classified information at this point . Of course not. Of course, not. Hes totally compromised. And so his Ranking Member adam schiff has questioned this meeting. Of course, if theyre going to go ahead with the meeting, my goodness, you should have democrats there. So the fact they dont go through the charade of having anything objective coming out of this meeting or what theyre planning, i think it just shows that its all a plan to on behalf of President Trump and his big lie which is that the Mueller Investigation is a witch hunt. We already know that a witch hunt that produces all these indictments and all these guilty pleas nothing could be further from the truth. It indicates a president who feels very much under the gun and hes just flailing away. But you know what . Hes the president of the United States and he thinks that he can demand that the department of justice, which by the way he keeps calling my department, of justice, again no adherence to the rule of law at all. Let me ask you a final question. I could keep going. Since i have you here, you represent the great state of hawaii which has been having has been dealing with volcanic eruptions left and right. I want to ask how the state is coping, how your constituents are doing. I visited with many of the people who were evacuated. Those who were at shelters this past sunday to make sure that we were that i could hear what their concerns were. There are about 12 federal agencies either on the ground or in communication with the First Responders not to mention all of the state and county people who are basically 24 7 monitoring whats going on with the air, with the volcanic flow, et cetera. So were doing everything we can to make sure that the people get the accurate information. Been by the way, there are not eruptions all over the place. Its one part of one island. The big island. It is not the rest of the state. That sounds like the senator that represents the state very dependent on tourism dollars. Front of mind. Its a fact. It is a fact that the whoa state is not being inundated by lava. Lets get the facts straight. The visit hawaii if youre thinking of it. Well do everything we can. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Aloha. For more on the gop sabotage campaign, im joined by david jolly. Heres my view of this. Its a pinscher movement. Rather than going at straight at mueller, its the white house comes from this side and the house comes from there side. And mark meadows and all these guys and nunes. Theyre trying to squeeze from each side. Thats it. This is no longer about getting to the truth. For house prnz this is about insulating and protecting the president of the United States from accountability, doing so out of partisan loyalty not out of their duty. You serve with these guys. I did. Guys i should note. You served with these guys. Is this bad faith heres what i cant tell. Do they sit and watch fox news and read breitbart and think genuinely think there was a deep state political conspiracy to take down the president of the United States. A lot of them do. A lot of their constituency does. Look at the contrast with the senate. The intel chair and ranking are not going down to view this because they know its bad for and they shouldnt be doing it. This is not about the truth. If theres an investigation into suspicious activity of a National Political Campaign Provided due process followed, that is not spying. That is Law Enforcement doing their job. And my party has joined with donald trump in undermining Law Enforcement. The Republican Party is no longer the party that supports Law Enforcement no matter what they say because they are undermining them by word and deed throughout this investigation. Louis gohmert gave away the game a little bit today on the latest strategy to subvert the investigation that deals with calling for a Second Special counsel. I want to get your response. It was june of last year, i told President Trump look, nobody needs firing more than robert mueller, but you cant be the one to fire him because weve got some weak needed republicans out there who will say theyll come after you if you fire the guy that needs firing. But you can appoint a special counsel and thats what we needed then. Its what we needed now and like any good idea, it just takes an while for it to catch on. Being very clear. Of course. He played a strategy in public. This is about undermining bob muler who republicans were happy to embrace who they lauded with superlatives over his record and now because hes getting close to the president , theyre trying to cut him off at the knees. At least theyre honest about it. House republicans right now are completely dee void of being a kuo coequal branch. We are a weaker nations because of what House Republicans are doing. Do you think its working . With the base, absolutely. So from a political standpoint with the base, but in terms of the institutions, you heard sir hirono say she was disappointed rosenstein agreed to the meeting. Theres worry were seeing erosion. They are brow beating the norms we are used to and tearing apart the fabric of the house, of the congress. We were happy to stand at all when we disagreed with president obama. Theyre folding like cheap suits on the hill to protect the political fortunes of a president most of them did not trust till he won. Then they tied their sails to him. Have they changed their minds . Theyre doing this because a large part of the Party Supports donald trump. A lot of members. This is Donald Trumps party. Even if they dont, theyre doing it to protect themselves. Thanks for joining me. Coming up, trump tax cut was supposed to keep jobs in america. Take a look how Harley Davidson used its big Corporate Tax break. Thats next. From the very beginning. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. 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Last december, President Trump signed the republican tax bill into law touting the great volume of jobs it would bring back to america. The Corporate Tax rate as you know will be lowered from 35 to 21 . That means that more products will be made in the usa. A lot of things are going to be happening in the usa. Were going to bring back our companies. Theyve already started coming back. Less than a month later it was announced about 800 workers in kansas city missouri, were told they would lose their jobs. The Company Announced the purchase of up to 15 million shares of stock putting nearly 700 million back in the hands of their shareholders. Then just a couple weeks ago, labor union for the workers met with nancy pelosi to raise concerns about harley announcing the opening of an Assembly Plant in thailand. To talk more, im joined by rick pence, a machinist at the kansas city plant and director of urban policy at new school. Let me start with you, rick. When were you told that the factory you work at will be closing. On the morning of january 30th, we werent even allowed in the front door. They had a bunch of folding chairs set up at the main hall. Werent allowed in to sit down, a few minutes later go, home. They said were closing this plant. Go home for the rest of the day and show up tomorrow and ready to work. So the announcement happened, the plant is going to stay open for a little while. A month after the big tax cut bill . About five weeks. Did you think that that, the passage that have bill would generally be good for your company . We thought it would. We thought it would. Harley netted a billion dollars last year. That was a pretty good tax cut they got. We figured they would put some of it into us. The company says 400 of the jobs will go to a plant in pennsylvania. 4 lun are disappearing. What did they tell you about the thailand factory. They announced may of 2017. Its about completed now. Theyre going to start making bikes over there shortly. Let me ask you, derek, the basic theory behind the tax cut other than you know, rewarding donors was you cut taxes you make companies more competitive. They invest more. Theres going to be an increase in Capital Investment like opening faerktss and more people will get jobs. Right . If we summarize that, that is the guise of trickle down economics, the idea with the greater resources that the company gets, theyll be able to invest more in the workforce and build more american products. Has that happened so far . It clearly has not happened in the case of Harley Davidson. If we find little examples where it does happen, the question is it permanent or really just an example of politics trying to demonstrate that it might have occurred when in fact, at the end of the day, the firm is interested in profit maximization and trying to enrich itself, not necessarily to workers benefits. You wanted to say something, rich. I was going to agree with the other mans comment. He was exactly right. So what he is the sort of mood like in the factory . I imagine those are folks who i dont know is the voting behavior but i imagine theres a fair amount of trump voters and a bunch of republicans who thought the tax cut was a good idea and thought the jobs would stay at home. Whats the mood like in the factory . Yeah, thats exactly what it was. I guess maybe 40 of my plant vote ford President Trump. They were it was very upsetting. A lot of people were very upset. Its still hard to believe even today. Its been a coup months now. We still shake our heads. Theyre pulling the rug out from underneath us, putting 800 people on the street and our families, too. Harley says sales are down and said the thailandened plant is to build things abroad. Whats your reaction to that . Weve been building bikes in our plant for 21 years that go overseas every day. Every day they go overseas is somewhere for a harley customer to buy. Weve been fighting tariffs for 21 years. All at once, any pulled the plug on us. Darrick, one of the things that happened is the stock buy back boom. Explain what it is and who it benefits. He will well, it benefits the shareholders. It provides greater power for the company that is doing the buy back. And it was the liquidity that came about from the tax cut that empowered them to do the buybacks. With greater liquidity and financial resources, they can rely less on the market and trying to raise liquidity in that way. Youve got more cash, you can invest in opening a new factory, you could raise wages or you could do a buyback. Those are different options you can do with that pool of money sitting there. Thats right. Im glad you framed that way because at big question is, what else could we have done. Even with the tax cut, what else . Is there a different strategy than trying to do what we have been doing for the past 40 years of cajoling or bribing the private sector with tax incentives and deregulation in the hopes they will hire more why dont we invest directly into the workers . There are plenty of ideas we can do. Why doesnt account federal government offer direct jobs . Why doesnt federal government offer what several of my colleagues have been talking about and the democrats are starting to take up, literally a federal job guarantee. Which has been an item that Christian Gillibrand and other folks have been celebrating. Finally let me ask you this, rick. The other idea behind the tax cut was that everyone would get more money in their paycheck. I wonder if personally like, whats the tradeoff look like from where youre sitsing . Well, when the tax cut finally rolled down to us, i got about 16, 17 more a week. And but now harley is giving me a heck of a tax cut. I wont have no income at all next year. My tax will be zero. Rick pence, im sorry what happened to you. Wishing you all the best and the folks that work with you in the plant there in kansas city, missouri and darrick, hamilton. Still to come, meet elliott brady, the former finance chair for the republican money who had his own hush money scandal which looked similar to trumps hush money scandal. Plus tonights thing 1, thing 2 starts next. Okay, so. My mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. And if they come out gross. She washes them again. So what does the dishwasher do . New cascade platinum lets your dishwasher be the dish washer. These new actionpacs unleash three different cleaning agents that dissolve food, lift it off, and rinse it away the first time. Wow thats clean and less work for my mom. New cascade platinum. Nothing cleans better. The first survivor of ais out there. Sease and the Alzheimers Association is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Visit alz. Org to join the fight. Of thing 1 tonight, since he took office, donald trump has tweeted over 3,300 times. Thats a lot, although glass houses i admit. With that many anyone would have their share after spelling errors. We never got an explanation for the covfefe tweet last may. That came a few weeks after he tweeted about the white House Counsel and got schooled bid Miriam Webster about the difference between the two counsels. Surprisingly, he still hasnt learned that lesson. There was the time he accused president obama of tapping his phones and spelled tap wrong. There was this is tweet about his wife melania who had gotten out of the hospital where he called her melanie. If you ever wondered how the leader of the free world could mr. To make all those mistakes, the white house dollars it on purpose. Thats things two in 60 seconds. That, do i . Actually, you do. Harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line, and if youre not taking care of your gums, youre not taking care of your mouth. So now i use this. Crest gum detoxify. Introducing new crest gum detoxify. It works below the gum line and is clinically proven to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. New gum detoxify, from crest. Gums are good. So is my check up crest. Healthy, beautiful smiles for life. But im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, just like it should Donald Trumps errorfilled tweets umpb seem impull sib. In a new report, they want us to believe the mistakes are done deliberately. Its not always trump tapping out a tweet. West wing employees who draft proposed tweets employ suspect grammar and staccato syntax in order to mimic his style. They overuse the exclamation point and capitalize random words, loosely connected ideas, all part of a process that is not as spontaneous as trumps twitter feed appears. Which might be more believable if someone could explain the strategy behind all the other mistakes by calling the president s Plane Air Force once or misspelling is the word education about the secretary of education or getting theresa mays name wrong so it matched the spelling of a former foorn star. It must be exhausting to work so hard to get so much wrong. Dray, when he was younger, he loved to smile; and we knew he would need braces because his teeth were coming in funny. Thats when he had the bunny rabbits. We called him the bunny rabbit. Now, those are the same two front teeth, there, that they are now. Then dray ended up having to wear braces for 5 years because he never made it to appointments, because he was busy playing basketball. If he missed practice, he dont get to play in the game. This is the picture that was on the front page of the newspaper. All you can notice is the braces then, once he got to michigan state, he broke the retainer my bottom teeth, they were really crooked, and i just wasnt getting braces again. Smile direct club fits into my lifestyle so well. The liner is so great. Its easy to just grab it and go and then i can change on the road. I did photoshoots with my aligners in and you cant see them. I wish smile direct club would have been around when i was paying for them. I wouldnt have to take him out of school. I wouldnt have had missed work. Its like a great feeling to have good teeth. A smile is a first impression, thats why i think having a great smile is so important. If youve been following the scandals in the white house, theres a big cast of characteristics. I Pay Attention for a limping and it can get a little much. Theres one man we think is the next key figure to watch, Elliott Broidy who was the deputy finance chair for the Republican Party. Thats a pretty big deal. His name came up before notably when the wall street journal in april published an odd story about him. They reported Donald Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen how know had negotiated a 1. 6 million settlement for a playboy model to cover up an affair she had with broidy and which resulted in a pregnancy that she terminated. Now, if that sounds like it has more than a little resemblance to pay off of Stormy Daniels get ready for more coincidences. Cohen received paints in this case and the daniels case through the same llc he set up. The nondisclosure agreement in both cases for broidy and his alleged affair person and for donald trump and his in, both cases used the same pseudonyms, david deny i nonand Peggy Peterson and both contracts involved the same lawyer, Keith Davidson representing the women in question. But it gets weirder. As were now learning based on emails that broidys lawyer called fabricated broidy like everyone else around the president was looking to get his. According to the a. P. , he was working with lebanese american george nader to convince saudi arabia and the uae of his influence with the president and therefore, land lucrative contracts. And the coincidences continue. New York Magazine reports the first payment of the agreement with shera be shard thats the woman paid off was supposed to be due. He paid thisst, 2017. Then the very next day broidy gets a face to face meeting with none other than President Trump. He pays the money, then he gets the meeting with the president. Then the app reports days after the meeting with trump the eau awarded broidy the intelligence contract. He pays off this woman through Michael Cohen, the president s lawyer using the same very similar contract. Then he gets a meeting with the president and he gets this very lucrative contract from people who thinks he has an in with the president. Something you ought to know about broidy is hes already pleaded guilty to bribing government officials, including their girlfriends. Its the story of our nation. John chiangs father came here with little money, but big dreams for a better future. Now john has a chance to make history. A champion of the underdog, john took on wells fargo when it ripped off working families. And against the odds, he helped saved california from financial disaster during the great recession. Leaving more to invest in progressive priorities like education, healthcare and affordable housing. John chiang. The proven, progressive leader we need for californias future. So theres one more thing you should know about Elliott Broidy. He has a history of bribing Public Officials. Broidy paid nearly 1 million in a kickback scheme back over a decade ago. He didnt just bribe Public Officials. Broidy paid over 90,000 to the girlfriend of a high ranking official from april 2000 through october 2005. And he paid 4 4 44,000 to the relative of said girlfriend. Was that payment really about covering up an affair with Elliott Broidy or about Something Else . Here to help me figure out whats going on lisa green and paul campos. Broidy may have been covering for trump in that play mate affair. You wrote a piece a few weeks back. You used some new evidence about the meeting. What is your theory here . My theory is quite straightforward. Its that Elliott Broidy paid the 1. 6 million that bashard had. Elliott did this in order to increase his influence peddling business and he was extraordinarily successful. As you noted, he got a meeting in the oval office with the president. He was able to use that piece of information to impress his clients in the United Arab Emirates enough to get himself a 600 Million Contract because he was trying to influence the u. S. Policy visavis the gulf states. Thats a pretty good payoff. What is most remarkable about this story is that the truth is just, i think, hidden in plain sight here. Donald trump has affairs with playboy play mates and pays them off to be silent. Elliott broidy bribes Public Officials to enhance his business interests. This should have set off red flags when broidy told his frankly preposterous story to the wall street journal and the New York Times and cnn back on april 13th in which he claimed he had had an affair with shara bashard. This is a theory of yours. There is no hard evidence. Theres a lot of circumstantial evidence. You dont have any hard evidence of this . I think theres a tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence. People go to prison in this country every day on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Theres very much hard evidence that donald trump has affairs with playmates and pays them off to keep them quiet and Elliott Broidy bribes Public Officials. Thats what they do. Even if you dont think that pauls theory is correct, there are two things that strike me. Am i wrong that its weird to use the same template for these two ndas, one for President Trump and one for Elliott Broidy. Am i wrong thats weird . Without necessarily validating the theory of the case and its a fascinating one i think we can agree that Michael Cohen yet again moves he is not necessarily in the first tier of lawyers. Who would ever recycle the essential elements of an nda to make it preposterously similar. I agree that is suggestive of some sort of incredible recycling effort on cohens part where he wanted to reserve resources and only do the same thing over and over, or another connection yet to be seen. Keith davidson is the lawyer for three people. Stormy daniels, Karen Mcdougal and then shara bashard. Michael cohen and Keith Davidson keep hammering out these ndas. That also looks weird to me. Theres a current estimate there are about 1. 4 million lawyers in the United States. It is odd that somehow all that business goes to two guys. Its beyond odd. Its not a coincidence all these women have fired Keith Davidson because theyve all come to the conclusion he was actually in cahoots with Michael Cohen. Is that true that all three, that Stormy Daniels obviously Michael Avenatti represents her here. Karen mcdougal and shara bashard fired him . Thats right. They concluded Keith Davidson wasnt on the up and up. To elaborate on lisas point about using Michael Cohen, whos obviously one of the worst lawyers in the United States, why would Elliott Broidy, a man who in all his other Legal Affairs uses only the top tier representation, go to this barely lawyer, basically thug to work an an nda on this incredibly sensitive matter . Its completely preposterous on its face. Its amazing that the media continues to essentially transcribe the story theyve been fed that there is no evidence for. Thats a good point about who he chose for his representation. We also know that only three clients for Michael Cohen, broidy, hannity and trump. You can now listen to all in as a podcast. There is our brand new podcast why is this happening. Its on the rule of law in the era of donald trump featuring kate shaw who also happens to be my wife. It is a fun one. Thats all for this evening. The breaking news were covering tonight. Michael cohens Business Partner takes a deal and agrees to cooperate with investigators. That has turned up the heat on the president s long time personal lawyer and fixer. Plus the Homeland Security secretary, the woman in charge of election security, says shes not aware russia wanted to help trump win in 2016. Speaking of elections, we have primary results tonight. And we may or may not have a summit with north korea. All of it as the 11th hour gets under way on a tuesday ni