Brynn gingras joins us now with the latest on her and how she may factor into Robert Muellers case. Do we have any idea what they asked her . We dont right now, anderson. What was asked by muellers team to davis. But we know this woman, known as manhattan madam voluntarily spoke with investigators. And what she knows and how she fits isnt exactly clear. But sources tell cnn muellers team would like her to testify in front of a grand jury. This really points to the fact that the Special Counsel seems to be focusing on stone as they continue this Overarching Investigation into russias interference in the 2016 election. And davis really has a very close relationship with stone. Theyve known each other for a decade. Stone is the godfather to davis 2yearold son. Stone put davis on his payroll. And conversely, when davis made a new york gubernatorial run, stoneworked on her campaign. Perhaps she has information on his finance, his connections, his friendships, any other personal life matters. We should mentioned, anderson, that stone did release a statement saying this, quote, Kristin Davis is a longtime
Anderson Cooper takes viewers beyond the headlines with indepth reporting and investigations. Even bragged about having connections to wikileaks. So that would obviously be of interest to investigators. But stone hasnt been interviewed by muellers team as far as we know. We have to make that point. Brynn gingras, appreciate it. Now the former chairman, his trial and what appear to be his growing legal troubles, accountants took the stand. What they have to say about his taxes will leave a mark. Shimon prokupecz joins us for that part. It was big day really for the prosecution. They had their first person of testifying really with direct knowledge of manaforts alleged scheme obviously to hide money in offshore accounts, to lie on his taxes. This witness who testified, cindy laporta, she was one of the witnesses Given Immunity. She was one of the five Given Immunity by the Special Counsels office. And really, anderson, it was big day for prosecutors. Damaging testimony for manafort. She testified that manafort asked her to falsify document, and some of this activity while
he was running the Trump Campaign in 2016. In one case she said that money that manned for claimed he had in offshore account, that it was loan when in fact it was income he had made that by doing so, that reduced his taxes by 500,000. There is emails of communications between her and paul manafort. Really, this is setting up quite the number of witnesses that are going to be coming and really all the evidence that prosecutors seem to have against paul manafort. Did the accountant explained why she lied for manafort initially . She was regretful. She said he was an important client to her and she simply did not want to fight him. She didnt stand up to him. But in the end, really her only reason for not doing it was because she felt he was too important a client. Do we know when rick gates is going to testify . Thats going to be a big day. We thought maybe it could start today. We now think it is likely, if there is any chance that it
could probably be monday. The earliest. It could be on tuesday. They have to finish with this accountant on monday afternoon. She is going to be back in court on monday, and he could, rick gates could testify after that, which would either be monday or tuesday, anderson. Shimon prokupecz, thanks. Between manafort, the former madam and roger stone as well, there is plenty to talk about. Plenty to ask our best legal times in. Harvard law schools al dershowi dershowitz, john dean, author tom some years back of blind ambition. The fact that is that what this only be about . It seems very likely. Look, i think everybody hopes this doesnt become what happened in the Bill Clinton Investigation where it started out as whitewater and end upped
with sordid sex. This is a serious investigation. It should focus, of course, on russia and russias involvement in the american election. And i hope thats where the focus remains. John, This Isnt The First associate of roger stone that the Special Counsel has talked to. Sam nunberg, Michael Caputo were also questioned by the mueller team about him. It appears that theyre trying to get a very tight timeline on his activities, his contacts with guccifer 2, to find out what his relationship may or may not have been. To either exonerate him or find to press him to admit whatever role he may or may not have had. So, yes, a lot of his associates, much to his chagrin, are being questioned as well as his relationship with other people. Professor dershowitz, we know the Special Counsels team hasnt talked to roger stone yet. Is this typically the way works, get all the information from people around someone and then call them in . Without a doubt. You always want the know the answers to the questions youre going to ask before you call somebody in. You dont want any surprises. Its rare that interviewing somebody like stone would be for purposes of gathering information. Its for purposes of validating information youve already got from others and perhaps, and this is always speculative, trying to squeeze him by getting him to Say Something thats untrue and then use that to try to squeeze him to provide information he may not want to provide. Thats with t way prosecutors operate. Its fairly typical. In the man moafort trial, th think thats Whats Going On here . That this is an effort ultimately to squeeze manafort . Thatses no me. Thats judge ellis who knows an enormous amount about this case. He said in open court this is not about manafort. It sounds like a fairly typical tax evasion case. Was it a loan . Was it income . But the goal was to get him convicted to give him a goal of dying in prison or turning on his former associate. John, do you agree thats what this is about . Theyre not really interested in the charges of bank fraud, money launders, evading taxes . Its ultimately about squeezing him . That is a possibility. They certainly appear to have stacked up some charges. The reason there are two case, there is one in d. C. And one in virginia is that manafort refused to waive the venue issue, otherwise these would have all been tried together. As you watch the trial, you watch the information, whats curious is that manafort went to work for trump when the guy apparently was flat broke and asked for no salary. So this suggests somebody as the commentators are saying who might have been ripe for
pickings by the russians. And that might be the cliff this trial leads us on. Professor dershowitz, this is within the purview of muellers team. The Special Counsel is authorized to investigate any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. Thats a pretty broad man day. I think thats right. And i think the judge wrote the right decision when he refused to dismiss it. But nonetheless, the judge did say that the purpose is obviously to try to get manafort. Look, manafort was smart not waiving venue because he is much better off with judge ellis and a virginia jury than he would be with a judge who revoked his bail in washington, d. C. And a d. C. Jury, which is going to be largely democrat. And so but it gives the prosecution two shots. Its risky on both sides, but in the end they will probably get a conviction and probably try very hard to squeeze manafort. We cant know at this point
whether manafort will, a, sing or compose, or b, whether hell be pardoned. It was interesting, john, to hear all the details how far manafort went to attempt to hide a very significant amount of income and how many different ways he allegedly went about trying to do it. Yes. His accountants on the stand today were certainly revealing his Modus Operandi and how little they knew about some of his affair, yet they were enough aware the fact that his taxes were not accurate, and they put that into evidence today. And this defense of blaming everything on gates is getting tougher and tougher as they record that manafort himself was signing many of these documents. Professor dershowitz, about gates, he is expected to testify monday. How important do you think his testimony is going to be in the case . Because certainly defense has been trying to paint him as the bad guy from the start. Well, a little less important than i previously thought because this accountant, who doesnt seem to have an ax to grind did testify pretty
persuasively. Of course she could conceivably have been prosecuted because she did sign the tax returns. But thats rarely done. So gates will still be important. He will be easy picks for a good crossexaminer because he has gotten the deal and he can be shown to have an interest in being stating testimony that would be acceptable to prosecution. But if he has corroborated testimony and if hes corrobora corroborated by the accountant, then his testimony can be per sways alternative a jury. John, it is possible to make a deal once the trial start . Absolutely. As the professor im sure could instruct us, and maybe in his own experience, i understand that you can you take a plea up to the time the jury is even out to deliberating. Circumstances that right, professor . Yes. And that has happened. There is a famous case where Rudy Giuliani was a young assistant district attorney, and a congressman was on trial, and the plea was obtained after
giuliani devastated him on crossexamine. He then submitted a plea. There is another famous case where while the jury was out, they accepted a plea, and then the jury came back and acquitted. Nonetheless, the guilty plea was accepted. So you can do it any time. Thank you. John dean as well. Were going to talk to you in the next hour of 360. There is a lot more ahead tonight in this hour, including the question of why the president always seems to be at odds with the rest of his administration on russias threat to his administration. If theyve ever seen anything like this before. And a judge gives a tonguelashing and all the kids who have not been reunited with their families. See how he is keeping them honest tonight on 360. I like chillaxin. Save up to 60 on hotels with priceline. I wok Harmonica Interrupts ld. And told people about geico. Harmonica Interrupts how they could save 15 or more by. Harmonica Interrupts . By just calling or going online to geico. Com. Harmonica Interrupts sighs and chuckles sorry, are you gonna. Harmonica Interrupts everytime. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. If you have moderate to thsevere rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. Ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. Humira can help stop the clock. Prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections,
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plus 1,000 bonus cash. Back pain cant win. Now introducing aleve back and muscle pain. Only aleve targets tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve back muscle. All day strong. All day long. Is this at t innovations . Yeah, wow. This must be for one of our new unlimited wireless plans. It comes with a ton of entertainment options. Great, can you sign for this . Yeah. Hey, uh. Whats in that one . Thats a shark. New and only with at t, you can get unlimited data, 30 channels of live tv, and your choice of things like hbo or amazon music. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Visit att dot com. Kremlin today lashed out at the russia investigation. A a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
returning to it, and im quote hearing the twoyear hysteria surrounding russian interference in 2016 elections that did not happen. It sounds almost exactly like what President Trump said last night. Speaking at a rally in eastern pennsylvania, the president had warm words about his summit with Vladimir Putin, harsh words about the russia probe. We got along really well. By the way, thats a good thing, not a bad thing. Thats a really good thing. Now were being hindered by the russian hoax. Its a hoax. Ill tell you what, russia is very unhappy that trump won, that i can tell you. But i got along great with putin. Were being hindered by the russian hoax, he said. Now the president sometimes clarifies what he means by that, saying any notion of collusion is a hoax, but he often doesnt make that distinct, seems to imply the entire Mueller Probe into the Election Attack is a hoax, or the attack itself is one. Thats where his claim russia is
happy. He won. There really isnt much evidence of that. As putin himself said in helsinki on camera in a Press Conference next to trump that he wanted trump to win. And the president has rarely if ever attacked putin the way he has other world leaders, even allies of the u. S. He determines the Foreign Policy course he wants to set for the country. Thats not the issue. Keeping him honest, this is. The president s position on russia often undercut his administrations position and the tough statements his own advisers make, which raises the obvious question, is the president trying to have it both ways . Or it is now explicit white house policy to speak out of both sides of its mouth on a Vital National security issue . Regardless of the motivation, this is something thats been happening over and over again, the president undercutting his own National Security team after the fact or undermining their message beforehand. Again, here is what the president said last night. Now were being hindered by the russian hoax. Its a hoax, okay . All right. He says its a hoax. Here is what his top national
security and counterintelligence officials said on his orders at the white house just a few hours before he said that. Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs. What we see is the russians are looking for every opportunity regardless of party, regardless of whether or not it applies to the election to continue their pervasive efforts to undermine our fundamental values. I fully share the Intelligence Community and the odis past efforts and those today to interfere with our election and of the current threat. They step upped their game bigtime in 2016. Thinking is a threat we need to take extremely seriously, and to tackle and respond to with fierce determination and focus. Have you heard the the president say anything like that . These are the president s own top advisers and Cabinet Members sent out with his blessing to push a message that he himself doesnt seem to fully accept. Here is the secretary of Homeland Security again,
kirstjen nielsen again on thursday. A foreign power launched a brazen multifaceted influence campaign to undermine public faith in our democratic process and to distort our president ial election. Let me be clear, our Intelligence Community has it right. It was the russians. We know that. They know that. It was directed from the highest levels. And we cannot and will not allow that to happen again. Again, that was tuesday. A day later, the president tweeted, not backing nielsen up, but instead he tweeted about the one aspect of the russia probe that seems to bother him. The democrats paid for the phony and discredited dossier which was along with strzok and his lovely lover lease a page used to begin the witchhunt. Disgraceful. He didnt condemn and certainly didnt use the opportunity to backhis own secretary of Homeland Security, not then and not a couple of weeks before. Here is fbi director christopher wray, two davis the president had generous words for putt anyone in helsinki and for putins denial he interfered in the 2016 election. The Intelligence Communitys assessment has not changed. My view has not changed. Which is that russia attempted to interfere with the last election, and that it continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day. Thats pretty clear. But even as the networks were broadcasting that, they were also still broadcasting this from the president just a day before. I accept our Intelligence Communitys conclusion that russias meddling in the 2016 election took place. It could be other people also. A lot of people out there. Two contradictory messages on
russia at the entire moment the entire world was asking what the message really was, and two contradictory messages in the very same president ial statement, one written by the president s staff that he retardant, and barely a beat later the president s own ad lib thoughts on the matter that it could be other people there is a lot of people throughout. As we said, this happens again and again. Dni coats in february. Take a look. We need to inform the American Public that this is real, that is going to be happening and the resilience needed for us to stand up and say were not