Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera 20180825

CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera August 25, 2018

Department and killeen blackwell former ohio secretary of state and adviser to the trump transition team. Michael let me start with you. Is the president publicly instructing the attorney general how to redirect doj investigative resources, specifically away from trumps inner circle on to people he sees at political adverses . Is that your interpretation. It can be read that way. The president has the prerogative to the set the priorities for the Justice Department. He is entitled in some respect to set those priorities. But, really this seems more directed at sessions failure to control mueller. And thats something the president has no control over short of firing mueller. And sessions is recused from. So these are really rants against sessions, almost, you know, inexplicably because the president can fire sessions if he wants to. Theoretically he can fire mueller. He has it within his power to do so. In some sense put up or shut up. Either move the way you want to move or stop, you know, this complaining. Ken, whats your take . How do you make sense of the president s comments . Look, there has been no one more successful than Jeff Sessions in moving the president s agenda, whether its religious liberty or immigration or reining in uncontrolled legislation on capital formation. But at the end of the day Jeff Sessions has been fighting sfrong political head winds. I think the president is between a rock and hard place. Because michael skipped over rubenstein. You mean rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general. Excuse me rosenstein. Rosenstein has the authority over over mueller. Right. But he in fact is not acting. If the president wanted to fire rosenstein, sessions, then who runs the Justice Department . There is a prescribed order. And it has to be somebody in a confirmable position. And that hands over the whole the whole ag operation, the Justice Department, to the deep state or the administrative state. And that would cause more headaches than not. This is about. Actually that. This is about an agenda. Thats actually thats not correct. Because the succession order goes from the attorney general to the Deputy Attorney general. Okay. So the associate attorney general, also a politically appointed position, to the slister general, also politically appointed position. In order for you to get to career people running the department of justice you got to fire six or eight people. Who is in the third position . Michael who is in that third position right now. The associate attorney general. Its nobody nobody is there. And why would you turn. Hold on just a second guys hold on just a second guys let me ask you. Why would you go to solicitor general when hes running your defense across the department that would be fool zbliesh what im saying is this really is all about the russia investigation. And the president doesnt like that sessions doesnt have control of the russia investigation. He wants somebody completely loyal to him personally to be in charge because the russia investigation has to do with his political campaign. And see what im hearing you say . No, the president is not going to get rid of Jeff Sessions. At the end of the day his agenda is larger than muellers investigation. The Mueller Investigation is a frustration. But, look, this president is a fighter. And so he is not going to follow the traditional path. He is going to push back. He is going to push back verbally. He is going to engage in the public arena. And thats sort of frustrates, you know, folks who are used to regular order. It is not the regular order. Well but the problem is that he has created a mess for himself, which is all these railings against sessions for failing to rein in mueller and the threat he is going to fire him because of his failure to rein in mueller creates a situation for him that if he does do that then he will start being looked at for obstructionist or abuse of power behavior. He has made a terrible bed for himself. If he had kept quiet he could have exercised his constitutional prerogatives to fire people that he has the right to fire and put somebody else in that position. But he has created a mess for himself where he now politically really cant extricate himself from it without raising problems for himself illegal. Before you respond, ken. Okay. I want to play comments that trump made that started this this open war of words. Lets listen. He took the job and then he said im going to recuse myself. I said, what kind of a man is this . And by the way, he was on the campaign. You know, the only reason i gave him the job because i felt loyalty. He was an original supporter. He was on the campaign. Ken, remember james comey had claimed the president asked for a loyalty pledge. Do the president s comments on sessions we just heard give comey now more credibility . I dont think so. Look, the president is the mohamed ali of president ial politics. They talked about ali and his lift. The president will beat you with words. He will force you into a corner. He is always trying to make his opponents react to him. Yes, he does turn the page when he wants to turn the page. And he has been successful in doing it. And dont think he is going to stop. He is not going to stop doing it no matter how many times that causes some of us to wring our hands, stomp our feet, wave our arms. This is his style. Look im from snaert and mark twain said if he herd the world was ening he would get to cincinnati because things happen there after. He is from new york and he likes to be in control and he does it by in fact controlling the conversation and the narratives. And he is pretty good at it. I hear what you are saying but im not sure you answered my question about how that comment could actually play into and in fact boost what comey has said about how the president. No, i think i think comey. Loyalty . I think comeys record in toto speaks for itself. I dont think the president has to say anything else about comey. And comey will in fact go under of his own weight. Michael, you had something . Well, i wanted to say that the president is just flat out wrong about the time line as it relates to sessions. He says repeatedly if sessions had told me he was going to recuse himself i would have appointed i would not have appointed him. But of course he was appointed sessions he was sworn in on february 9th. On february 9th there was no Ongoing Investigation of the president from which sessions would have had to have recused himself. It wasnt until after the fact that it became clear that there was an investigation. And then under doj guidelines, because sessions was part of the complaint, he had to recuse himself. So its just flat out wrong what the president is saying as a matter of the sessions recusal, the time line, and what really is at play here is a desire as the president said himself to have his own roy cohen in charge of his investigation to make it go away. And thats whats going to get him in trouble from an abuse of power or obstruction standpoint if he continues this zbliefr michael, ken, got to leave it there. Good to see. You appreciate you both weighing in a cnn exclusive. A former trump request employee may be airing claims about the past the exdoorman now released from a contract with the Parent Company of the National Enquirer. The doorman claims he has knowledge of a secret relationship years ago between trump and a former house skeerp that the doorman says resulted in a child. The contract prevented him from talking about the claims. Exactly why he is allowed to talk about it now isnt clear. But lets get right to cnn White House Reporter Sarah Westwood standing by outside the white house. And sarah cnn obtained a copy of the contract which we just put up. What can you tell us. Obviously the contract represents another legal setback for a president enduring several already. We learn the former doorman was paid 30,000 in exchange for silence over what he claimed to know of an affair trump had with a former house skeerp years ago. The doorman claims that relationship produced a child. Now american media, inc, ami, the Parent Company of the National Enquirer would have collected 1 million from the doorman if he breached the confidentiality agreement while in effect. Signed in november 2015, several months after trump launched his president ial campaign. While we dont know exactly why the doorman was released from his confidentiality agreement now, we know that it comes as david pecker wsh the chairman of ami is under scrutiny from investigators he was granted immunity to speak to authorities about several transactions involving women during the 2016 race who had damaging stories to tell about President Trump. They too like this doorman entered into whats called the catch and kill agreements with ami where they would paid for rights to the stories in exchange for silence. The doorman episode obviously raises more questions about just how many people trump and ami did pay off during the president ial race. Ana. Any response from the white house or the president on this . Ana, the white house so far not answering any questions about this doorman agreement. Theyve been very careful to stay away from the issues related to ami, related to the women, trying to put it out on outside counsel. We are not getting clarity about President Trumps conflicting statements as to how much he knew of these deals and when. Sarah westwood at the white house. Thank you. The legal walls are starting to close in around donald trump. After a pair of immunity deals and a guilty plea from those in his inner circle. What this means for the president. Plus, verizon under fire after the company slowed its wireless data speeds for crews battling the largest wildfire in california history to a crawl. So bad in fact much of the hightech tracking equipment was totally useless. Later for better or worse, embattled republican congressman Duncan Hunter pointing fingers at his wife. Why he says she is solely to blame for allegedly misusing a quarter of a Million Dollars in Campaign Funds. You are live in the cnn newsroom. 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Immunity given to a few members of his inner circle in exchange for testimony. Joining us now chief investigative correspondent for yahoo news michael issakofp he broke the story of monica lunsky. He is the author of russian roulette. So much to talk about. First the parallels between the bill clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal and President Trumps hush money payments to two women. The scandal got the president impeached. Could President Trump face the same outcome. There are parallels. It is interesting. At the end of the day, a Republican House impeached bill clinton for lying under oath. And obstructing justice in a Sexual Harassment lawsuit because he denied falsely his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. In this case, we dont yet know the full level of President Trumps culpability. The most Significant Development in my mind is when Michael Cohen got up in court and said he made those hush money payments, which he acknowledged were for the purpose of influencing the election, at the direction of donald trump. What we dont know is the the assistant u. S. Attorney, present at the at that guilty plea, made reference to multiple tapes, text messages, emails, recordings, we dont know the degree to which those that evidence will back up what Michael Cohen said in court. Is this going to rely solely on Michael Cohens testimony . Or is there evidentiary material that will corroborate it . And also of course we now have the immunity given to the accountant, allen weisselberg, another potential witness. Yes. So i think that, you know, the important point that is probably worth making is that if if the evidence does implicate the president , it will be about seeking to conceal a sexual relationship, much as bill clinton was impeached for concealing a sexual relationship. Back 20 years ago when i was reporting on all this, republicans thought that was deserving of impeachment. And democrats, including some who are in key positions today, especially if the democrats get back control of the house, argued that concealing a sexual a consensual sexual relationship did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanor. So it does put democrats in a little bit of an awkward position if they try to move for impeachment on just this matter. Well, and i want to ask you a little bit more about kind of the political maneuvering and strategy on this. Because it could lead to some tricky territory for members of both parties. I want you to listen to democratic congressman germd nadaler speaking out from the house floor against impeaching president clinton back in 1998. Perjury on a private matter, perjury regarding sex is not a great and dangerous offense against the nation. It is not an abuse of uniquely president ial power. It does not threaten our form of government. It is not an impeachable offense. So how do you see this playing out realistically. Exactly what i was referring to. Now and especially because Gerald Nadler is poised to be chairman of the house judiciary if they get back control of the house and would be the key figure in moving articles of impeachment if the democrats go that route. Now, you know, one pushback to that, saying its not it would not be pure hypocrisy for him to you push for impeachment is that the Campaign Finance violation that cohen pled guilty to was about influencing an election and therefore by making the hush money payments, the trump campaign, cohen and possibly trump himself denied voters thfgs that was relevant to his election as president. That is an argument. But i suspect that if the democrats are moving for impeachment and there will be enormous pressure to do so if they get control of the house theyll want other articles on other matters, particularly. Right. The russia matter. Well and thats. And they are not going to want to rely just on this matter. So thats where i wanted to go next. Because thats the bottom line here. Yeah. This is all what we have learned this week and we are talking about what does it mean for this president based on what we know at this time. But the Mueller Investigation continues. We dont know if there is going to be any criminality he finds involving the president directly. But when it pertains to what we know of Michael Cohen, his guilty plea this week his accusation that President Trump asked for the money to be paid to the women those are big headlines. You had a conversation i understand with cohens attorney this we can and he suggested that cohen may have testimony potentially damaging

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