ask you to threaten an individual or entity on his behalf? quite a few times. 50 times? more. a hundred times? more. 200 times? more. 500 times? probably. reporter: and knowing full-well that the president was likely watching in vietnam, cohen made this claim. mr. trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the vietnam draft. he told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters, but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment. he finished the conversation with the following comment you think i m stupid? i m not going to vietnam. and i find it ironic, mr. president, that you are in vietnam right now. reporter: through it all, republicans trying to discredit cohen, attacking his character and credibility. michael cohen. fraudster, cheat, convicted felon, and in two months, a federal inmate.
but even on the other side of the world, the president had an eye on washington. tweeting from vietnam, michael cohen, quote, is lying in order to reduce his prison time. mr. president, do you have any reaction to michael cohen and his testimony? thank you. reporter: no answer. the president trying to stay on message as he sat down to dinner. jon karl with us live tonight from hanoi. and jon, president trump tonight furious with that split screen of sorts i mentioned, playing out between the summit here in vietnam and michael cohen s testimony back home. reporter: david, i am told the president is furious about cohen s betrayal, furious to see it playing out while he is on the world stage. and i expect we will see that anger first-hand after his meetings with kim jong-un when he plans to hold a press conference right here in hanoi. david? jon karl with us here in vietnam. jon, thank you. let s get right to martha raddatz with us tonight. because martha, there was already
truth about mr. trump. reporter: he came armed with a long list of accusations. he says the president knew ahead of time that wikileaks founder julian assange was going to release hacked dnc e-mails that were damaging to hillary clinton, because he heard trump talk about it in a 2016 call with his adviser, roger stone. mr. trump put mr. stone on the speakerphone. mr. stone told mr. trump that he had just gotten off the phone with julian assange and that mr. assange told mr. stone that 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? reporter: both the president and roger stone deny this ever happened. cohen also claims trump expected him to lie to congress about a trump tower moscow project, a deal cohen now admits trump s team was negotiating with russia well into the campaign.
we figure the president won t miss an opportunity to weigh in on this particular topic. cohen, as you know, will be sentenced for eight federal crimes he pleaded guilty to back in august as well as a separate charge of lying to congress that he pleaded guilty to in connection with the mueller investigation. part of the plea deal cohen agrees to cooperate with special counsel investigation which could prove pivotal as the probe continues. i want to say what the president about cohen s request about no time he said michael cohen asked the judge for no prison time. he could do things fraud, loans, taxes, etc. and not serve a long prison term? he makes up stories to get a great and already reduced deal for himself and get his wife and father-in-law, who has the money, question mark, off scot-free. he lied for this outcome and should in my opinion serve a full and complete sentence. presidents don t usually weigh in on this before they re
strategic in leaking material to get the damage out early. grand jury cases leaks always come from the defense. never from prosecutors. you think they maybe getting it out early before the midterm? so the damage is already been done. this is baked into the cake. well, the damage they re worried about is to themselves and interfering in whatever deal cohen is going to try to make. they may not need cohen to make cases. that s a thing we don t know. so walter, today we learned that long time trump organization cfo who has worked with the trump family for decades has been subpoenaed to testify in the criminal case against cohen. he s known as trumps under boss so to speak. what could they get from him? my understanding is he s been enti mathly involved in the