Reminder, dont miss full circle on facebook. You get to pick some of the stories we cover. You can see it week nights at 6 25 p. M. Eastern on facebook. Com Anderson Cooper full circle. The news continues on this very busy tuesday night. Im going to hand it over to chris. Cuomo prime time starts now. Thank you. I am chris cuomo. Welcome to prime time. We have new information and key players for you in the big breaking story. Michael cohen says a candidate for federal office, aka the president , directed him to commit felonies. Those Hush Money Payments to women before the election, cohen says they were made at the direction of trump himself, and they were crimes. This is uncharted territory. A president directly implicated in criminal behavior In Open Court by his lawyer. Were going to have cohens counsel joining us for what lies ahead. And what does this exposure mean for the president Going Forward . Thats where Michael Avenatti,
the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, one of the recipients of those payments thats where he comes in. He is here with a message to trump. You are a liar, and were coming for you. Also, now a convicted felon, the president s former Campaign Chair, paul manafort. Look, any way you look at it, this is a bad day in trump world, and it may be a bad day for america. Lots to figure out. What do you say . Lets get after it. All right. So just minutes ago the president finished up a rally in West Virginia, and, boy, could he use the support. This afternoon, a jury of americans said, mr. President , you are wrong to call the manafort case a witch hunt. They convicted trumps former Campaign Chair on eight counts and his former personal lawyer, the man who once said he would take a bullet for the president , pleaded guilty on the exact same day. And this is unprecedented. He admitted that trump directed
him to commit crimes for the principal purpose of influencing the election. In the world of trump, this might seem like just another day of headlines that all blend together in the noise. No. This is different. These are charges and claims by Michael Cohen that could put trump right next to him in court or indicted but for his being president right now. Lucky guy. But this is not over for the president. Cohen has information. Manafort may. And right now they have no reason legally to stay quiet. And you know what . The president knows that. So does mueller. So does the new York Attorney general who is investigating the Trump Foundation, and so does Michael Avenatti. Its probably the reason why when asked about cohen today, the president responded in a way he rarely does. He said nothing. Not a tweet. Not a word even at the rally in West Virginia. He just dummied up. Now, if youve been following this, it all started with a
going to come back, and its going to hurt this president , and it should. You know, you can fool people for a long period of time, but you cant fool all the people all the time. And i think what youre beginning to see is this makebelieve world that the president has created, as you does from day in and day out, based on lies and fabrications this is falling apart, and people like Michael Cohen, people like paul manafort, theyre going to disclose what they know because theyre interested in saving themselves and their families. So you say dont see today as an end, that, yes, you got a guilty plea from cohen on a bunch of counts. You have Manafort Being found guilty. But you dont think its the end. Why . No. I think were in the First Quarter or maybe the Second Quarter of a fourquarter game, and the reason is because both of these men now are going to seek to reduce their sentences at the criminal level. Theyre going to want to cooperate. I know for a fact that Michael Cohen is cooperating and providing information to federal prosecutors. Theres no reason why they would have entered into this Plea Agreement that they did were he
Chris Cuomo asks the tough questions to newsmakers in Washington and around the world. Does mueller believe a sitting president can be indicted . And now do the attorneys in the Southern District of new york believe an individual can be indicted who is president . One of the reasons i needed your help tonight is in looking at what would ordinarily be the indictment, the Charging Document they call it the information when you cut a plea deal in the Southern District they dont use trumps name anywhere. They also dont use the Parent Company of the national enquirer. They dont use the national enquirer. We dont see david peckers name in here. Why . And why did Michael Cohen say a candidate for federal office . Why ignore the obvious . Because normally if you have an unindicted coconspirator at a stage like this and thats what donald trump is. Hes an unindicted coconspirator, make no mistake about it based on this Plea Agreement, you wont necessarily insert their name into the document. But we all know that the candidate is donald trump just like we all know that the individual relating to the 150,000 payment is ms. Mcdougal
and the individual relating to the 130,000 payment is my client, ms. Daniels. The idea of hearing someones attorney stand In Open Court, yes, during an elocution of their plea deal and say, i committed crimes, and i was directed by the president of the United States, how big a deal . Well, its a huge deal. I mean its unprecedented in american history. I mean think about everything weve been through in this nation. Hundreds of years of president s, including Richard Nixon and that debacle, the outrageous illegal conduct that occurred during that presidency. Who would have thought and remember, were only what, 20 minutes in at this point . Well will say its been too long. What is your experience with federal investigations . No. Look, i agree with them that it may be too long for their liking. I understand that. But the wheels of justice unfortunately spin or turn very, very slowly. It really hasnt been that long when you look at how long this investigation has gone on. Its not unusual for these investigations sometimes to take
three, four, five, six years in fact in some cases, or even longer. And so i think what is shocking to me is that were only 18, 20 months in, and here we have the Campaign Chairman, manafort, being convicted. And we have the president s righthand attorney for 10 to 12 years Pleading Guilty to some very serious charges. The president s argument is none of it has to do with russia or collusion or me. Its all stuff they did. Well, i mean, look, thats just absurd. I mean if you look at what Michael Cohen has pled to, theres no question that donald trump is at the center of this. His fingerprints, chris, are all over the crime scene. The only question is whether hes going to be charged and whether theres going to be Accountability Associated with it. Another Finesse Point you gave me once and i want to know if you believe it now, is that its somewhat of a mystery, the do they have a Cooperation Agreement . And youve explained that. They dont have to have one outright. Okay. Why Hasnt Mueller why hasnt the new york ag, you know, why
havent people approached and interviewed cohen, which to our understanding, our best information, is it hasnt happened. You once told me, hey, youre assuming that those people wouldnt want him as a witness, you told me once, and that sometimes if they see someone as a potential witness, they dont bring them in early because then they would have a duty to give any exculpatory information that came up in their interview. Explain that to the audience. Well, sometimes you have to weigh your desire to well, first of all, you have to determine whether youre going to actually be able to acquire information from a prospective witness or not. And i imagine that as soon as the warrants were executed on Michael Cohens hotel room, office, and residence, the likelihood of him coming in voluntarily and sitting down for an interview or a statement under oath for bob mueller basically went out the window until his counsel and he were able to make a determination as to whether it made sense for him to cut a deal or not. So that window, if you will, closed as it related to being able to get Michael Cohens
statement under oath. Furthermore, sometimes if you bring a witness in and you interview them, you are also, while they are giving you information, you are giving them information relating to the areas of inquiry that youre interested in, what topics you may be interested in. And keep in mind that up until recently, it was fairly clear that Michael Cohen was Firing Flare Gun after flare gun as it related to donald trump. I mean he was begging for help. He was begging for air cover. Whatever metaphor you want to use. And that begging went unanswered. Right. So up until that time, prosecutors would have wondered if they brought him in or attempted to interview him, even if they were successful, whether the content of that interview would have gotten back to donald trump because they would not have known where Michael Cohen was lining up in connection with the investigation. So theres a lot of factors that go into considering whether youre going to bring somebody in to actually interview them or not. But now everything has changed, and you are here to say
that on two levels. You think everything has changed in terms of the assets that mueller has to play with in his probe and to look for, but also in your own case. So lets take a break. When we come back, Michael Avenatti is going to tell you why what happened today is not just bad for trump when it comes to the Mueller Probe, but what it means for his own case. Also the counselor for Michael Cohen is here to share what comes next for his client, and you are not going to want to miss either of those interviews. Stay with us. Define your brows. Express yourself. Brow stylist shape and fill pencil by loreal. The easytouse Triangular Tip Shapes and fills. The spoolie brush blends. Brow power Brow Stylist Shape and fill from loreal paris. That helps your heart. So you can keep on doing what you love. In the largest Heart Failure study ever, entresto was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. It helps improve your hearts ability to pump blood to the body. Dont take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an Ace Inhibitor or aliskiren, or if youve had angioedema with an ace or arb. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. Ask your doctor about entresto for Heart Failure. Yeah entrust your heart to entresto. The beat goes on. All right. You got lucky tonight. Were back with attorney Michael Avenatti. He is a main player in what we learned today from Michael Cohen and what it means Going Forward. He stood In Open Court today and said, yes, i committed crimes. Two of them, felonies. Campaign finance. I did them at the direction of a candidate for federal office, also known as donald trump. What did you think when you heard that . Well, i thought that we made a giant leap forward relating to our civil case in multiple ways. First of all, theres little doubt now that were going to get a deposition of Michael Cohen in connection with our case. You know, on september 10th, we have a hearing where the judge is going to make a determination as to whether to lift the stay or the pause in the case that Michael Cohen had demanded while this criminal investigation played out. Well, now its basically been resolved. So we would expect the judge on the 10th Of September to lift that pause, allow the case to proceed. And we have a pending motion to depose Michael Cohen and donald trump. I think theres zero chance we dont get a deposition of Michael Cohen, and i think theres a significant likelihood that were going to get a deposition of donald trump. And so what thats going to mean is that im going to have an opportunity to ask Michael Cohen and donald trump questions under oath, under oath. You know, its one thing to lie to you or other members of the press. Its an entirely different thing to lie under oath. Im going to get a chance to did some very difficult questions of Michael Cohen and donald trump about what they knew, when they knew it, what they did about it, and what they did to cover it up. Cohen, much more of a straightline analysis. He asked for the stay. Weve all read those who are following this, we get what that was about. That may be over. I dont see anything in the plea deal that stops him from being in action. In fact they say the opposite, that it doesnt forestall any
other legal activities that are out of the bounds of this agreement. Not easy to get the president for a deposition. What precedent do you point to . Do you believe that clinton is any analogy for new. Absolutely. The Supreme Court decision, jones v. Clinton, we believe is on all fours with this case, meaning it serves as solid precedent for the idea that you can seek and get an order allowing you to depose a sitting president for conduct occurring before he or she was sworn into office. And thats exactly what were talking about here. What is the chance that if you have President Trump in the chair, he is able to avoid acknowledging that he knew about what was going on with Stormy Daniels, that either it was what Stormy Daniels says it was during the pendency of the actual relationship and that the arrangements that came thereafter is something he was aware of at the time . Well, i mean i think as weve witnessed over the last 2 1 2 years, i mean this is a man that will say or do anything,
literally anything, even if it has no basis in the truth. But i will tell you that i think one of the last things that donald trump wants to have is me sitting across the table from him asking him questions under oath. I would also put bob mueller in the same category. This president , who is a habitual liar, wouldnt know the truth if it fell off a building and hit him in the head, would have a very difficult time in a sworn deposition where hes asked very pointed questions and is forced to answer questions and provide the truth. If Michael Cohen is telling the truth today in court and i know people say, well, hes an admitted liar. Yeah, he also has tons of motivation to not lie about this right now because theyll pull this deal from him. Its very tenuous and attenuated to his complying in every way, including telling the truth today in court during his al oh constitution. Its actually mentioned in the plea deal as one of the bases for the agreement. That would mean that this president lied to us again and again and again about criminal
conduct. Relevant to you . 100 . I mean all you have to do is go back and look at the president s statement aboard the peoples plane, otherwise known as Air Force One not long ago. He was pointedly asked questions by the Associated Press reporter relating to what he knew about the payment, and he basically said he didnt know anything about it. And he pointed everybody to Michael Cohen and said, talk to my attorney. Basically said if you want to know the facts, go talk to my attorney. Well, guess what . Today In Open Court, in the Southern District of new york, we heard from his attorney. We heard the facts from his attorney, and those facts are directly counter to what donald trump told america aboard Air Force One. They are completely contrary. You cannot reconcile what donald trump has stated publicly and what Michael Cohen said In Open Court today. And that is a fundamental problem for donald trump because i would submit that even though neither one of these individuals, in my view, have substantial credibility, i mean
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