only learned about it a year later, when "the new york times" went to the president with knowledge of the meetings including e-mails from donald trump jr. responding to the meeting offer by saying "i love it," i love this idea that the russians had this dirt. we should also note that the president himself has, when asked about this, denied knowledge of this meeting. he said on july 12th, 2017, he, quote, only heard about it two or three days ago. a week later he repeated that, saying, again, i'm quoting, he didn't know anything about the meeting, because, again, quoting, nobody told me about it. cohen saying he's willing to go to the special counsel and testify that that's not true, that the president did know about it, he was told about it by his son and that he approved of the meeting. that's what michael cohen is claiming to know. >> john dean, let me bring you in here. john, we had a similar conversation about the recording, remember, earlier in the week. >> yes. >> now we have this. so first of all, before i ask you, give me your assessment of