the journal reports, mr. pecker granted immunity for his grand jury testimony, told investigators about mr. trump's involvement in the mcdougal deal. joining us now, barbara mcquade, a former u.s. attorney and an msnbc legal contributor, and david corn is back with us. barbara, your reading of the legal implications of this "wall street journal" reporting? >> well, it's a very painstaking walk through the very same criminal information that michael cohen pleaded guilty to. but they filled in a lot of gaps here and filled in a lot of blanks. you know, it is protocol at the justice department when you're not going to charge someone, to refer to them by a pseudonym, candidate one, executive one, et cetera. and based on the reporting, we now know that president trump himself, if this report is true, was intimately involved in every step of the way, which makes him essentially an unindicted co-conspirator. but for the justice department policy of not charging a sitting president, they would certainly have all the pieces of the