Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 201808

CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer August 7, 2018 21:00:00

A look at Breaking News, politics and reports from around the world. Didnt admit to having done it and heard from gates, emails showed where manafort was recommending to him that they put steven koch, a banker who helped manafort get an improper loan according to the government and saw an email of manafort recommending that steven named to the economic Advisers Committee and he was and nominated to secretary of the army which he was not and also Manafort Rtrying to get him tickets to the inauguration and saw the nexus of the campaign and the inauguration. It seems he was broke signing on to the campaign. What did rick gates tell the jury about manaforts finances . Reporter gates said that essentially all of their y Ukrainian Consulting work he said it dried up by 2014. They were trying to win new contracts but they didnt have it. Manafort, gates testified fallen behind on the credit card bills. Didnt pay them in full. Part of the allegation that manafort was trying to get loans from banks and leading right up to when manafort joined the campaign in march 2016, weve seen evidence that gates helping him falsify Bank Documents submitted to banks for loans and manafort was in dire straits joining the campaign and did as you will recall without compensation and manafort not in a good position joining and agreed to do it without any money. We thought he was rich at the ti time. You were in the courtroom. Describe us the mood for us. Gates took the stand for the first time yesterday and saw the longtime Friends Manafort and gates be in the same vicinity together since gates pleaded guilty. There was tension. Manafort staring him down. Gates averting the eye contact and very measured, careful and matter of fact describing the scream he pleaded guilty to being a part of. Today on crossexamination manaforts attorneys were Peppering Gates with questions and seemed uneasy responding to them, argumentative in which he lied or made a mistake. He was taking issue with some of the words they were using and were in the middle of the cross now and manaforts team is upping the pressure and the ante on gates to show he was dishonest with the Special Counsels office, dishonest with the own affairs and went through a bill that he that showed he was Falsifying Loan documents to pay himself and attacking him and wanting to show he was stealing from manafort. A whole back and forth where manaforts attorney pressed gates repeatedly until he finally used the word embezzlement. We have the expected tension in crossexamination right now. Pretty ugly, undeed. Thank you very much. Outside the courthouse. As the Mueller Investigationmoves ahead, President Trump on vacation, largely staying out of sight and weighing a possible interview with mueller and weighing in on key elections at the same time. Lets go to chief White House Correspondent jim acosta in new jersey. Reporter wolf, President Trump is still holed up this week while much of washington waits to see if hell sit down with the Special Counsel mueller and the russia investigation. The president also as you said Tweeting Support to candidates on the ballot across the country, on ballots across the country and elections on this day and early test of whether to hurt or help republicans in the upcoming Midterm Elections. As President Trump is taking shelter inside his new jersey golf course away from the press unmistakable message of Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who told a group of Law Enforcement officials to uphold the law regardless of politics. We enforce the law and to follow the facts wherever they may lead and we need to ensure that our decisions are never influenced by political considerations. Reporter the legal team said its nearing a decision to sit down with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But the president is receiving plenty of unsolicited advice. Senator graham who just played golf with the president advised him to try to ride out the probe. Did trump ask that question . He must have mentioned that about 20 times. I want to win in november. If we stop the Mueller Probe tomorrow you wouldnt be able to talk about anything else. I would basically say, mr. President , we are not going to let you anywhere near bob mueller. He knows more about this case, interviewed the witnesses. Reporter napolitano who appears on fox news hardly reeding from white house talking points suggesting the meeting with the russians at trump tower in 2016 could be a criminal conspiracy. A meeting the president admits was aimed at obtaining dirt on hillary clinton. Its something of value from a Foreign National or government or entity. So was the purpose of this meeting to receive something of value . Thats something bob mueller will have to look at. Reporter as laura ingram tried to ask about the meeting, the call appeared to be cut off. You want any comments on that, donnie . Because theyre hitting you on that for contradictions and calling it worse than contradictions . Hello . What is your reaction to all of that . Well see if we can reconnect to donald trump jr. On this because we cant seem to hear him. Reporter and then back on the line to say his russian encounter didnt amount to much. 20minute meeting. Ended up being about essentially nothing relevant and thats all it is. Thats all they have got. Reporter this f thats the case other allies argue there is no need to worry. What has them riled up is feeling cornered and its not clear to me that theyre necessarily cornered as much as theres a fact finding expedition. Reporter the president turned the attention to Special Elections across the country from kansas where a fellow hard liner on immigration is running for governor to ohio where the gop candidate appears vulnerable in a district mr. Trump won himself by 11 points. We must elect more republicans and we must elect troy balderson. We have to elect troy. So get your friends. Get your neighbors. Get your family. And get out and vote for troy on tuesday. Reporter democrats smell an upset so former Vice President biden has entered the fray with a lastnunt robo call. Electing danny to Congress Puts up one step closer to taking back the house and making sure we have leaders in washington to fight for our values. Ohio values. Reporter now, some disappointing results for the president on this Election Night to change the Calculus Back in washington for some republicans that mr. Trumpsing ins are beginning to weigh down the chances to maintain control in congress. That dynamic magnified if the Mueller Probe moves closer to the oval office and graham after playing golf with the president saying to that crowd as we saw earlier today in that video in roll call, yes, the president is bringing it up, sounding out people, interacting with out on the golf course during this trip to new jersey and basically graham is telling him what a lot of republicans are telling him back in washington, cooperate, dont try to shut it down or make matters worse. After playing golf with the president , they had dinner together, as well. With mark levin and somebody else from fox. Well remember his name. Reporter sean hannity. Thats right. Somebody else from fox. Thanks very much for that, jim. Thank you. Joining us now, democratic congressman jerry connelly. So, what do you think . Should the should Robert Mueller agree to an interview with a president of the United States without being allowed to ask questions about obstruction of justice . I dont think that there should be limits on the special prosecutor. Donald trump should be treated like any other witness. And should not be dictating the terms. You know . There can be compensations of skoeb b scope but to take an entire conversation off the table, in this case obstruction, is a disservice to justice. If they dont agree, if the president and the lawyers dont agree to be interviewed by Robert Mueller, that could go there could be a subpoena, obviously, if he reject it is subpoena to go to the Supreme Court. Thats right. And you know what . Its about time we test that. There are all kinds of theories of a president in a criminal matter to be subpoenaed. I believe that the president is like any other american and can be. Lets test that. Your democratic colleague adam smith of Washington State told me here yesterday worrying if it goes to the Supreme Court theres a ruling in the president s favor given the makeup of the Supreme Court. Well, you know, there are theories of that. You and i are both old enough to remember the Watergate Tapes and a ruling against nixon that appointed several of the justices so lets see that play out. I have more faith in the system of usejustice. Can mueller complete the investigation without hearing from the president of the United States . I think he can. Because its very clear that they have been very thorough and that theyre in possession of a great deal of information and evidence. And, you know, if the president decides not to cooperate, he decides not to cooperate. Mueller can address that in terms of whether the president is a target or not. And whether the president , frankly, could be indicted as nixon was cited. We are also learning today, the Wall Street Journal first reporting, the former fixer Michael Cohen is being investigated for potential tax fraud and other sordid problems. Hes not been charged with anything yet. But if hes charged, presumably to put pressure, additional pressure on him to cooperate with muellers investigation. I think thats right. And obviously, Robert Mueller has followed the old axiom of follow the money and we see it in the matter of fact case, the gates case and now in the cohen case. And obviously, cohen with Taxi Cab Medallions was a but the value of the medallions plummeted in light of uber and lyft and other competing services and put him in a squeeze and may have had motive to lie about his taxes. As far as we know, the Special Counsel Robert Mueller not yet interviewed Michael Cohen as part of his investigation. Do you think cohen though spent a decade, maybe 12 years working as the president s private attorney, fixer, has valuable information that could be provided to the Mueller Investigation . I think the answer to that is decidedly yes. One of the things that is a thread that unites a lot of this is what about russian money . Russian money in the trump organization. Possible russian money in the campaign and certainly the money financing stormy daniels. What is your prediction, that special Congressional Election in ohio, democrat or republican . Who will win . Democrats have no reason to be competitive. Its shocking that we are. And frankly, all of trajectory would suggest that the momentum with the democratic candidate oconnor and i think that democrats pull an upset tonight. You do . Okay. Well find out. Polls close in ohio 7 30 p. M. Eastern. Well have live coverage obviously throughout the night. Thank you. Gerry connolly of virginia. Sources tell cnn the prosecutors are looking into Michael Cohens bank loans and theres a new report hes under investigation for tax fraud. Could that push President Trumps former fixer into cooperating . And Defense Lawyers try to shake the testimony of rick gates saying he spent years hiding money for his boss Paul Manafort. Money managers are pretty much the same. All but while some push High Commission investment products, Fisher Investments avoids them. Some advisers have hidden and layered fees. Fisher investments never does. And while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, Fisher Investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other money managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. I can do more to lower my a1c. And i can do it with whats already within me. Because my body can still make its own insulin. 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Gates facing charges, 18 chargings as was and is manafort at this time so minimally charged is pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government and lying and facing ten years. Could have faced much more. Manafort facing 305 years. The objective is by his lawyers to say, look, lets cut a deal at some point and, you know, the fact that this point that hes facing so much pressure could very well, wolf, lead to such a deal although we have not seen that yet. Mueller referred the case to the u. S. Attorney, Southern District of new york, Michael Cohen investigation. Hes not interviewed as far as we know by muellerment could it be that cohen doesnt know much right now that mueller doesnt already know . I dont buy that. I think he knows a lot and he holds the key to what goes on here. In terms of the referral to the Southern District, the right and appropriate call and may be the reason why hes not spoken to by mueller and muellers team allowing the Southern District to do the prosecution and then perhaps see that. Also something you have heard a lot, wolf, of proffer and when you tell the government what you know and also a tool called Reverse Proffer and thats when we go as lawyers with our client, right, in this case and you will have the government tell you what they know about you about your guilt and what theyll do to you should you not do things which comply with what they want you to do and may see moving forward a Reverse Proffer and the government sits down with him saying we have a, b, c, the whole alphabet. What do you want to do . And then a deal could be cut and speak to mueller and the dots could very well be connected. Amidst this, gloria, getting indications of a controversial new Immigration Procedure that the white house is considering. Steven miller, an Immigration Hard Liner pushing for a policy to penalize legal, legal imgrants here in the United States whose families have access to public benefits, making it more difficult for them to get citizenship down the road. Why do you think theyre targeting this right now amidst all of the other look, it is hard to say but this is Stephen Millers role in the administration. Hes a hardliner on immigration. I think that the president and steve miller believes it plays very well with the base. Clearly the president s not getting the wall any time in the near f

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