Thats all the time we have. I hand it over to don lemon. 360 will be back tomorrow. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. The magnitude of this day is unbelievable. It is historic. It is a moment when our country is on the brink. On the brink of what could turn into a constitutional crisis and potentially on the brink of military acts in syria. A furious President Trump surrounded by grimfaced military leaders in what was planned to be a meeting of syria, his arms folded, blasted the fbi raid today on his personal attorney Michael Cohen. I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, good man,
and its a disgraceful situation. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time. Ive wanted to keep it down. Weve given, i believe, over a million pages worth of documents to the Special Counsel. So let me be absolutely clear about this. The president is absolutely wrong. Nobody broke into Michael Cohens office. And nobody, not even the president , is above the law. A dozen Fbi Agents Armed With Search Warrants legally seized documents from cohens office, his hotel room, and reportedly his home. A source telling cnn those documents are related to Stormy Daniels. Another source telling Cnn The Search Warrant was very broad and included bank records. But ominously, President Trump views this as an attack on him and on the country. Sources telling cnn tonight that the cohen raid sent the president over the edge, because his attorney is like a surrogate
family member. Its a disgrace. Its frankly a real disgrace. Its an attack on our country and its an attack on what we all stand for. So when i saw this and when i heard it, i heard it like you did. I said, that is really now on a whole new level of unfairness. So he believes its unfair and its an attack on him. And he believes its politically motivated. Never mind that these are the facts. Its his own handpicked Deputy Attorney general overseeing the Mueller Investigation. And todays raid was authorized by the u. S. Attorney in manhattan who was handpicked by guess who . President trump. They found no collusion whatsoever with russia. The reason they found it is there was no collusion at all. No collusion. This is the most biased group of
people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest ive ever seen. Democrats all, just about all, the democrats are a couple republicans that worked for president obama. Do you see the Body Language there . The Mueller Investigation is not over. So the president is wrong, wrong when he claims they found no collusion. And the fact is, Robert Mueller is a republican. But sources warn the president s anger could lead to him firing mueller. Why dont i just fire mueller . Yes, fire the guy. Well, i think its a disgrace Whats Going On. Well see what happens, but i think its a really sad situation when you look at what happened. Many people have said, you should fire him. Again, they found nothing. And in finding nothing, thats a big statement. Remember the investigation is not over yet. They havent found nothing. And its not just mueller who could be on the president s
austin, you heard the president. He is angry. Cnn is reporting the raids on Michael Cohens office, reporting a raid on one of his homes as well. At least a dozen fbi agents involved. This is aggressive. Its aggressive, but i think we need to be clear about what was going on here. This would have been executed pursuant to a Search Warrant, which means that the fbi obtained permission from a judge to enter these facilities. They would have had to show probable cause that in these locations and in specified places, documents, devices, they were going to find evidence of a crime. And a judge would have had to agree to that in order for them to do it. This was i think calling it a breakin is really characterizing this as something that its not. And the crimes here apparently
are related to bank fraud, which is obtaining money through illegal means from a financial institution, and potentially Campaign Finance violations, likely contributions that would have been disclosed as required by law. Lets talk a little more about that, because our Gloria Borger is reporting that the Search Warrant was related to Stormy Daniels, and Search Warrant was very broad in terms of items sought and the search included bank records. Why do a raid like this instead of calling up Michael Cohens attorney and saying, we need you to turn everything over . I think there is a false assumption that everything is handled, when youre talking about courts of law with gentlemens agreements saying, why dont you fight this in a court of law . They may not be comprehensively
giving you everything you need, so you have the right to get a Search Warrant, especially since there could be something fleetingly going away, like certain documents. Dont confuse the two investigations. This was a referral by Special Counsel mueller handed over to an independent u. S. Attorney who is of manhattan, somebody who was chosen by the president. The president actually had a hand of interviewing, much to the chagrin of many people, who replaced the people he fired just last year. The reason thats significant here is that there is an illusion that somehow mueller has been orchestrating this entire thing. What happened is a referral meaning, i may have seen something. This may interest you. It is not within my particular mandate. If you would like to, or you feel so desired to do so, please investigate it. It was not a mandate for the sdny u. S. Attorney to do
anything about it. It showed an exercise of prosecutorial discretion, and backed up by more than just mueller. A magistrate and the sdny attorney. So the president has conflated the term to be a witch hunt to include these two things that are quite distinct. Quick question before i go to michael. The attorneyclient privilege, does it apply here or not apply here, laura . We have to see, because every communication between Michael Cohen and donald trump did not necessarily fall under privilege. It would have to be counsel sought him on legal advice. If someone was in the room on a communication, cc in some way, it would not apply. And if the communication between the attorney and the client was somehow in furtherance of a crime, then poof, it goes away, would not be honored. This is not up to mueller, this is up to a court of law to decide. Michael, youve worked with mueller, correct . Yeah. Ive got a couple questions for you here. The first one is why would the Southern District of new york be investigating or looking into possible election crimes . Because its a crime to willfully violate the federal election laws. And they were given a referral, it appears, from mueller to say that this may be ongoing and worth your inquiry. We dont know also, though, whether or not this pre exists muellers investigation. It could well be that the Stormy Daniels aspect of this is one aspect. There may be other women similarly situated or other people similarly situated that the investigation was ongoing, just like we had in flynn, where it was ongoing when mueller stepped into it. He found something additional. It was related. He passed it on. The rule of law was upheld and the process was adhered to. And so thats what prosecutors do. They look at crime and make prosecutorial decisions about whether its worth prosecuting. And mueller cant if he finds something that looks like a crime or something unusual, he just cant ignore it, right . Thats right. And if the reporting is accurate and its early and we have to be very careful to not be, you know, too far ahead of ourselves, but if mueller came across something he thought needed a criminal investigation and worthy of inquiry and its outside his mandate, then he is to go to rosenstein. Rosenstein then makes the decision whether to leave it with mueller and expand the mandate, or take other action as appropriate. It appears from the reporting that he felt other action is appropriate, was the appropriate step to take, and he gave it to new york. Then what laura said, because she said Dont Conflate or confuse the two. These are different investigations. This raid was actually referred, as we said, by mueller to the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. Then on top of that was authorized by the u. S. Attorney in manhattan, jeffrey or jeff
b b berman, who is the president s own pick for that office. So the idea that this is a witch hunt just seems ridiculous. If you look at the deciding officials that would be involved in a case like this, and you have to remember, don, that when you go into an attorneys office, it really requires permissions at the highest level. So you probably had christopher wray, the head of the fbi, Rod Rosenstein, the acting attorney general. The interim u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, berman, and the head of the Criminal Division in the main Justice Department, all of whom are seasoned lawyers, all of them happen to be republicans, which i think is irrelevant, but the notion that that crew would somehow conspire to engage in a witch hunt against the president s lawyer for allegations of Campaign Finance violations doesnt hold
true to me. I agree that its relevant, but i think its important to point out that the president keeps saying its a witch hunt, its the democrats, why arent you looking at Hillary Clinton or barack obama, when these are his own handpicked people. I dont know who is better to answer this, if its osha or if its laura. The reason i ask why Didnt The Federal Government investigate this, would that be the eeoc . Is that laura . Ill jump in, mike. Its true it is the fbc. The notion that the fbc has been a toothless dog when it comes to a lot of these cases, because you have to have the Majority Rule but also have to be unanimous issues about these very issues, about Campaign Finance, et cetera. Even when they had the opportunity like the john edwards case to look at these examples of what may be campaign
contributions, this counsel don mcgann was on the committee and he said, lets not go ahead and prosecute this the same way, although it ended up having an acquittal and hung jury. The fact that you have these kids being wrang he would by the fbi or the fbc could be because theyve been a notable toothless dog in some ways. She can speak all of next segment. The Justice Department and the Fec Have Concurrent Jurisdiction in matters such as this. The fec does the civil side of it, the u. S. Attorneys does the criminal side of it. They both have concurrent jurisdictions, one criminal, one civil. Osha, he keeps saying this was a breakin. These are anything but unlawful. This was anything but unlawful. This was a breakin raid, correct . This was pursuant to a Search Warrant. One thing going off what laura said that the president needs to understand is that this is happening. The fact this has referred to was beyond mueller. Its not going to stop the investigations. Its not going to stop the investigations coming out of other offices across the country. If mueller goes himself, the same thing will happen when he fired comey. These are now in the Criminal Justice system. Judges have seen the evidence. Search warrants have been issued. Grand juries have been on it, indictments have been done. I think he is sorely mistaken if he thinks that getting rid of mueller will stop anything thats already been started in our justice system. She has spoken. Dont go away. We have much more to come on the raid. The breakin of Michael Cohen couldnt have come at a worst time when the trump team is coming up empty. Lincoln mkx, more horsepower than the lexus rx350 and a quiet interior from which to admire them. The Lincoln Spring Sales event is here. For a limited time get zero percent apr on the lincoln mkx. Hurry in today to your lincoln dealer. In birds eye protein blends. Ok. Theyre delicious side dishes with the protein of beans, whole grains. And veggies mmm, good. My work here is dooooone birds eye protein blends. So veggie good. Janice, mom told me you bought a house. Okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ Camera Shutter Clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. Quiet. Im blasting my quads. Janice, look. Im in a meeting. Janice, look. [ chuckles ] look, look. Im looking. Its easy. You just answer some simple questions online, and you get Coverage Options to choose from. Youre ruining my workout. Cycling is my passion. Youre ruining my workout. With expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. His anger tonight over the fbi raid of his attorney Michael Cohen. Anger, sources fear, could push him over the edge. Osha, let me ask you, maggie hagen reported tonight in the New York Times and she tweeted, trump is angrier than hes ever been, including the two news cycles. What that translates to is unclear, but mboth trump and cohen believe this is really mueller and that farming it out to sdny was a figure leaf. Both sources say that this has crossed the red line that trump laid out for mueller going outside his purview. Has he crossed the line . We need to understand that when mueller has an appointment with rosenstein, he has a
subject kind of scoped. If he encounters something thats beyond the scope, he doesnt just shrug his shoulders and walk away. What if he discovers a Human Trafficking ring or pornography . Does he say, oh, thats beyond my scope, carry on no. The Department Of Justice is required by law to investigate any evidence of criminal activity. So it will be passed on, as it was in this case. What this tells me is that rosenstein is actually taking his Oversight Responsibilities very seriously. Hes not allowing mueller to continue something that might be very far outside his scope, not letting him cross that red line. Instead he is allowing the regular prosecutors in the appropriate offices of the Department Of Justice go along with this. And again, in this case its a u. S. Attorney that was interviewed by trump himself. So, again, as i mentioned before, he will be disappointed if he believes that getting rid of mueller or rosenstein or sessions is in any way going to
stop this ball from rolling. This is coming at a time when the president s legal team is really diminished, and some say frankly they are outgunned by muellers team. Is that the way you see it, laura . I see the time ing is very curious given last week the president looking to sit down with mueller and his professional team. Yet again you have someone conflating two issues, most likely investigations, with the hope that if you undermine the credibility of the investigation, it will give the president of the United States political cover to possibly say either he wont voluntarily sit down with that team per advice of counsel, or hell be subpoenaed by mueller and his team and will be able to plead the fifth and say, its not political suicide here. What im doing is not going to answer questions in a witch hunt because we know that mueller is farming things out for fig leaf purposes as well. I think the fact he had his
diminishing legal team is only going to exacerbate the president s narrative that for him to feel he has cover that mueller is run ning a witch hun and hes trying to hoodwink the entire american public, none of which have played out in the facts. So it was told to lou dobbs that he wants to consider impeachment. And the grounds for impeachment is following the law . Its not really a sensible position. What Rod Rosenstein did is what he swore under oath to do, which is uphold the law, as did christopher wray. The base of it, it appears, is they dont like how theyre exercising their constitutional obligations because it is pillaring someone that they like politically. Thats not what impeachment is about. That doesnt meet any one standard of definition of a highcrime misdemeanor style abuse of office, so i think its rhetorically sort of convenient but not practically doable. What kind of charges can come from all of this . Go on. I was just going to point out that increasingly, the deep state is consisting almost entirely of republicans, which is very odd. And i think that should be a clue that the only deep state that exists right now is the deep state of denial in the white house and among his lawyers that this is getting very bad for them. And he needs to get better legal advice on how to handle it, including potentially not talking about Obstruction Of Justice on Television Like he did today. Michael, what did you want to say . Im agreeing with asha for s