The latest news from around the world with hosts John Berman and Poppy Harlow. To its the same thing as an indictment. The prosecutors just didnt have to go through getting a grand jury to sit. The information doesnt have this language about the president. Michael cohen, of course, in his allocution to his guilty plea stood up and stated he did these Campaign Finance law violations at the best of the president. But you think its notable its not included on paper . I do. Theres the buzzword unindicted coconspirator. The president is not technically an unindicted coconspirator. Hes not mentioned in the information so i think that was a real move on the part of the prosecutors not to go one step deeper. It would have been different if they named him in the information. What do you think they didnt, paul . Its an interesting set of charges against cohen. The charge essentially is that the payment to stormy daniels
and Karen Mcdougal were Campaign Contributions that were unreported and they were corporate Campaign Contributions. Right. Now the idea here is that cohen clearly is guilty of this, hes admitted it but if the president was using cohen to make the contribution its an entirely different thing because the president has the right to contribute to his own campaign. But he has to disclose it. He has to disclose it. And we know it wasnt disclosed . Thats right. So the only thing the president would be guilty of is a failure to report it whereas the theory against cohen is more serious and elaborate. Can we talk about cooperation. So many headlines this morning and last night were oh, and cohen isnt cooperating. Thats not totally the case. There is a bargain that says in return for pleading guilty the
sdny wont bring charges but i think its interesting that thats only the sdny or the tax division. It doesnt include the doj or the Special Counsel here. Thats the leverage they have in their tool kit. The commentary is correct that the usual course in terms of procedurally you would enter the Cooperation Agreement. However that by no means means a Cooperation Agreement is excluded. Some of you have gone so far to think that theres an agreement under seal. I dont tend to agree with that but there could be cooperation down the road. Why wouldnt Michael Cohen if hes already pleaded guilty, why wouldnt he cooperate to get less prison time . I think he would be eager to cooperate and i think that cohen will supply ultimately a possible road to imkrit nate the president in a far more serious way than what were talking
about today. Which is what . Can we play lanny davis Michael Cohens lawyer said as much. Lets listen to him. But to answer your question, i do know that Michael Cohen has information that would be of interest to mr. Mueller in his probe of a conspiracy to Corrupt American Democracy very similar to the indictment of the 12 russians. I believe mr. Cohen would be able to provide information useful to the Special Counsel. I wont call it smoking gun information, somebody else will have to judge that. Don lemon then asked him are you talking about the trump tower meeting with the russians and he said no, its something else. Well, this may be something entirely off the radar that people dont know about, lanny davis does obviously but ive always thought Michael Cohen is the Achilles Heel of donald trump because for so long he was the guy who for the trump
organization solved the difficult problems in whatever way he had to and in that Business World my suspicion is if you push on cohen, youre going to find that donald trump may have been involved in Business Transactions or Family Members of the trumps were involved in Business Transactions that will create liability and exposure for them. So thats probably a greater problem for mr. Trump than this case. Quickly, i would say that perhaps the only reason cohen may not cooperate would be if he thinks he would some way get a pardon for the president. Clearly the president doesnt like him very much. And lanny davis says hes not looking for that. But it was just a few months ago the president Pardoned Dinesh Di Souza for Campaign Finance violations. And his defense was that it was a vindictive prosecution. That was a clear signal. I think one of the things people arent considering is maybe the Southern District prosecutors dont want or need Michael Cohens cooperation. They may not think hes a credible enough witness. And that credibility is so important. Thank you both. Extrump Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort also found guilty on eight charges. A win for the mueller team. What does it mean moving forward . Next, a former watergate prosecutor who was texting with rudy giuliani, the president s lawyer, yesterday in all this chaos will join me. What he heard from the president s lawyer. Also, hes a Founding Member of the trump caucus. One of the president s first supporters in congress. Now republican congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife have been indicted, accused of using Campaign Funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle. And in iowa, a small town is grieving a great loss and an autopsy is said if the body believed to be molly tibbetts, an undocumented immigrant charged with her murder. Gotcha ah nooooo. Noooooo. Nooooo. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. Ahoy laughing bounty, the quicker picker upper. Introducing e trade personalized investments professionally managed portfolios customized to help meet your financial goals. Youll know what youre invested in and how its performing. So you can spend more Time Floating about on your inflatable swan. [ding]
its a major victory for Special Counsel mueller. Paufrlt who ran the president s campaign for five months convicted on eight counts, facing eight years in prison. The president still, though, after that guilty verdict came down calling him a good man, thises after he was convicted of eight different counts of financial crimes and its not over yet. Another big trial looks ahead in a few weeks. Jessica schneider is in washington and joins me now. What a day, watching you live, jess. As this news was coming out of the court, it was quite a day. What can you tell us . It was a whirlwind day. Every minute there was something happening. The president talked about Paul Manafort and when he did it he referenced paufrtds previous political work for other president s including ronald reagan, interestingly, thats
something manaforts defense team did in closing arguments and that Didnt Work Out so well given the conviction on those eight counts. When the president spoke about this as well, he tried to distance himself from Paul Manafort despite the fact that manafort was his Campaign Chairman. Take a listen. Manaforts a good man. He was with ronald reagan. He was with a lot of different people over the years and i feel very sad about that. It doesnt involve me but i still feel, you know, its a very sad thing that happened. This started as russian collusion. This has absolutely nothing to do. This is a witchhunt and its a disgrace. So the president trying to stress there that Paul Manaforts conviction had nothing to do with him and, of course, the 12 member jury they did find Paul Manafort guilty on eight of the 18 charges. They were all related to financial fraud. The judge declared a mistrial on the remaining ten counts because the jury couldnt come to a unanimous agreement so you see
there what manafort has been convicted of. Five counts of tax fraud, one count of hiding a foreign bank account. So those last two counts of bank fraud carry up to 30 years in prison each and now prosecutors will have to decide whether or not to bring a retrail for those remaining ten counts of bank fraud and failing to file reports for foreign bank accounts. Whats different and why he wasnt convicted, perhaps, on all of those counts is because even though they were similar they span different years and they involve different banks here so poppy, prosecutors now have to decide by one week from today whether they will bring a retra retrial for those other ten counts and then Paul Manafort is scheduled to go to trial on washington, d. C. For separate counts. We many is john sale, a criminal defense lawyer. Hes also a former Assistant Special Prosecutor in the
watergate case and a close friend of rudy giuliani. Nice to have you. Thanks, poppy, nice to be with you. I know you were texting with giuliani yesterday, hes on vacation . Hes on vacation. I which i could make Breaking News and headlines but the question was how are you enjoying his vacation . And his response was its great. A very difficult news cycle for him and the president so let me get you on Paul Manafort. The president said hes a good guy, this has nothing to do with me or russia or my campaign. Heres the thing, though. When you read the dates on the counts he was convicted guilty of. Counts 25 and 27 are about proud lent issues with banks, bnk loans and they extend into march of 2016, thats when he started with the trump campaign. Problematic . Significant . I think theyre still
personal Financial Issues of mr. Manafort. The real issue for manafort is everyone is saying they dont know why he didnt make a deal earlier, now its inevitable he will make a deal. The problem with that is nobody knows if hes inclined what he would say and everybody is assuming hes in the position to hurt the president if he wants to testify against the president. Well maybe he is, but maybe he isnt because we have no indication of what he would say if he wanted to make a deal but hes in a difficult situation. Im in miami and i woke up to see the miami herald, the headline said president suffers onetwo punch. My reaction was that is a catchy headline but what came to my mind is rocky balboa who suffered more than that and
remained standing so we dont know. All right, stick with me for this. We just heard from the president on both manafort and cohen so let me read it to you hear. I feel very badly for manafort and his wonderful family, the president writes. Justice, in quotes, took a 12yearold tax case among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him, unlike Michael Cohen he being Paul Manafort refused to break, make up stories in order to get a deal. Such respect for a brave man. You just told me you think it is inevitab inevitable that manafort makes a deal with muellers team and we hear the president calling him a brave man. What do you make of the president and the white house strategy . If i said that i dont think its inevitable. I said some people think its inevitable. I do not because we dont know what he would say and the lead into this piece, the reporter said hes facing 30 years in
prison. Thats not realistic because under the sentencing guidelines, hes facing much less. But hes 69 years old so hes facing a lot of time so theres a lot of pressure on him to socalled flip but we dont know if he would, if he wants to or hes in inclined to. We dont know what he would say. But of course there is pardon out there when the president s words like that that he feels sorry for him. I dont know if there will be a pardon or not but thats something that the Manafort Team has to be thinking about. But hes going into a much more difficult trial in washington. You are in your own words very good friends with rudy giuliani, close to him. Whats your read on a potential pardon for manafort . I dont talk to rudy about anything involving what might be privileged information so i have nor does the president. So i dont know. I just think that as a citizen
when the president is saying good man, i feel sorry for him, loyal, those are pardontype words. I dont know if hes going to pardon him or not and i dont know if its proeptd or not. But pardontype words in your words. Let me ask you about Michael Cohen. The fact he said in court under oath yesterday that the president of the United States ordered him in coordination with and at the direction of the president of the United States to pay off a porn star and former playboy playmate to mislead the American People in the days before the election. How much of a world of hurt do you think that presideuts the president . That, if true, is a crime. Its a crime. It could find its way into mr. Muellers report and be characterized as a crime. Its also potentially a quote
high crime and misdemeanor for the Congress However everybody is overlooking, it may be true, it may not be true but by mr. Cohen saying it its an accusation on the part of mr. Cohen. Im not saying its false. Its just an accusation but i want to say one thing if i may. Please. Its unusual that he does not have a Cooperation Deal and it may very well be that neither the Special Prosecutor nor the Southern District of new york needs him and i was surprised that lanny davis is going all over television saying he has information of interest to mr. Mueller. The reason im surprise at that is if it were me representing mr. Cohen, i would not be peddling that type of information trying to get mr. Muellers attention. The only person we dont see on television is mr. Mueller and im certain if hes interested in mr. Cohens testimony they
will obtain in the the proper way but it wont be, in my opinion, from one of his lawyers trying to sell it on television. That suggests to me they dont need it. And that could be read as being concerning to the white house . Absolutely. John sale important information, thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me. 14,000 vacations. 11,000 runs to costco. Heres the problem a republican congressman and his wife allegedly used Campaign Money to pay for it. Details about their indictment ah
ahead. Rvivor of alzheimers disease is out there. And the Alzheimers Association is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Join the fight with the Alzheimers Association. With tough food, your dentures may slip and fall. New fixodent ultramax hold gives you the strongest hold ever to lock your dentures. So now you can eat tough food without worry. Fixodent and forget it. More Breaking News. A republican congressman and his wife indicted on charges that they funded a lavish lifestyle with campaign donations. According to prosecutors, congressman Duncan Hunter of california and his wife margaret lived large, enjoying look at this a 14,000 thanksgiving vacation to italy, a 6,500 hawaiian vacation, over 11,000 in personal purchases at costco, 5700 spent on themselves and kids at walmart, 2,000 on tickets for a Family Member to go to a steelers game and the list goes on. This is despite warnings from the congressmans own treasurer to stop the personal Campaign Spending with campaign donations. Hunter was a Founding Member of the trump caucus during the 2016 campaign. How is he responding this morning . What happens now . Lets go to Suzanne Malveaux who
joins me on the hill. A while ago when this started percolating before the indictment was unsealed he told a local tv station in san diego, yes, there was wrong Campaign Spending but it wasnt done by me so now what do we know. We know that hes part of this trump caucus. Now he joins this exclusive club. It was Chris Collins of new york recently facing federal charges. Now hung can hunter and his wife are facing massive charges. I want to go through these. Youre talking about wire fraud and conspiracy. Campaign violations as well as numerous other charges for that lavish spending, the lifestyle you talked about all using the Campaign Funds for these personal expenses and also trying to hide them in reporting. One example is that they went to a golf course and bought
personal clothing at this golf course instead saying these were golf balls were purchasing for the Veterans Group wounded warriors. Now so far what he has done in his response is through a spokesman say look, this is all a politically motivated, thats very close to the midterm elections. They point to a letter give on the Rod Rosenstein saying two prosecutors attended a Hillary Clinton fundraiser and should be recused. That was thrown out. It should also be noted it was a