Security posts a memo about the border wall, and its missing a few words, but dont worry . President build wall high. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We begin with the politics lead. While his personal lawyer and fixer is heading to prison, President Trump is trying to shift the blame and spin the story claiming he did not direct Michael Cohen to break the law which is, of course, a complete contradiction with assertions made by the u. S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of new york which stated directly in court that the illegal hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and to Karen Mcdougal were done in coordination with and at the direction of President Trump. Mr. Trump also today questioning if the mcdougal payment was ever even made, and technically the president might be correct in that while mcdougal was paid for her silence by the National Enquirer Parent Company ami, theres not yet any evidence that mr. Trump or his organization paid them back. The wall street journ
One of the sources i spoke to said now the president and his lawyers are still very much opposed to any interview. We know, john, the president s legal team has resumed some discussion with special counsel, with the special counsel in the weeks since the president responded to written questions. Mostly regarding collusion and the time period before the inauguration. The two sides had agreed to hold off on discussing any interview while the president wrote responses to those questions which were returned, as youll recall, just before thanksgiving. That was seen as a first step to concluding more than a year of back and forth between the two sides. And the president s lawyers had hoped would bring mueller closer to finishing his probe. But were learning that muellers interest in talking with the president continues, and it includes an interest in asking questions about the president s state of mind in regards to actions under scrutiny in the obstruction probe. Now we should note there ha
David ignatius, sam stein, matt miller and heidi prisbelli. Good to have you all with us this morning. And mika, that was quite a list of all the things that are coming at the president. I know he had to be shocked yesterday with the vote, the United States senate condemning the president over the khashoggi murder as it pertained, of course, to yemen. So now that problem is manifesting itself in policy. Very real policy matters and, of course, as the wall street journal editorializing this morning, it only gets worse with democrats taking over the house in a month. Its all shocking and theres a lot going on. I was off yesterday for a family matter, as you mentioned, but i wanted to address a term that i used on this show on wednesday that was vulgar. I knew it right away and i tweeted that it was a terrible choice of words and that i was sorry. But please allow me to say this facetoface. The term is crass and offensive and i apologize to everyone, especially the Lgbtq Community and to
Legal team has resumed some discussion with special counsel, with the special counsel in the weeks since the president responded to written questions. Mostly regarding collusion and the time period before the inauguration. The two sides had agreed to hold off on discussing any interview while the president wrote responses to those questions which were returned, as youll recall, just before thanksgiving. That was seen as a first step to concluding more than a year of back and forth between the two sides. And the president s lawyers had hoped would bring mueller closer to finishing his probe. But were learning that muellers interest in talking with the president continues, and it includes an interest in asking questions about the president s state of mind in regards to actions under scrutiny in the obstruction probe. Now we should note there has been no indication mueller is moving to subpoena the president. Youll recall there was a threat to do so by muellers Team Last Year according to
That he was in the room during hush money discussions in 2015. A source telling nbc news that donald trump was, in fact, in the room when Michael Cohen and the National Enquirer publisher david pecker discussed ways to socalled catch and kill stories about trumps alleged relationships with women, in effect, hush money, to make damaging stories go away. The meeting took place in august 2015, just two months after trump announced his president ial run. On wednesday, the National Enquirers Parent Company, american media, inc. , entered into a prosecution agreement with the feds in the statement of fact section attached to that agreement, a. M. I. As its known admitted it paid 150,000 in hush monday toy silence damaging allegations against trump just before the 2016 election. Also says that in august of 2015, pecker met with Michael Cohen and, quote, at least one other member of the campaign. Wall street journal first reported, nbc news has since confirmed that the president is that, quote