Fraud and bank fraud according to three sources and the deal would include jail time and a substantial monetary fine. This plea is no doubt a big blow to the president with cohen having been part of President Trumps inner circle for more than a decade. We anticipate prosecutors with the office of the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york to address the public about the deal. Any minute now that will be live when it happens. For now, lets go to cnns brynn begi gingras. Has he pled guilty yet . Reporter these proceedings happen on time. Very timely here at Federal Court, especially with the sdny. One can only assume he is in the courtroom right now and i can tell you We Dont Have Transmission from the courtroom. It is a Federal Courthouse and not able to verify that 100 . Certainly any minute now safe to say. These are, of course, as you
mentioned, jake, charges of bank and tax fraud related to cohens business of taxis and Campaign Finance and cohen is going to appear before a judge like he has been doing for the past four and a half months since the investigation started when they raided his home, hotel room and office back in april. And this time hes going to admit to guilty admit guilty pleas to all of the charges. They will be read one by one and unclear if the judge will make him give in detail what he is guilty to or answer yes and all things we are waiting to find out. Also waiting the find out is, you know, earlier reporting saying hes not cooperating as part of this plea deal. Certainly, that will be revealed in court. If thats true, if its not true. And so, theres just a lot of details that are going to unfold and a lot of drama. I can tell you building up outside of the Courthouse Waiting for any word of whats
going on inside as this unfolds, jake. All right. Brynn, thank you so much. Lets talk about wit the panel. I mean, it is just stunning on its face. Michael cohen one of the president s closest advisers, not any longer, about to enter into a Plea Agreement and admit his guilt about bank fraud, Campaign Finance violations. If im President Trump, im not particularly happy right now. Im not particularly happy and concerned about what this may mean for me and the Mueller Investigation that, again, is this grew out of that. It was a referral. This is a Southern District of new york. I also think theres no small coincidence on the same day of Senator Warren Introduced A had a speech talking about corruption and introduced legislation to curb the corruption in congress and on the Executive Branch and this culture is something the democrats have been increasingly talking about on the Campaign Trails for 77 days away from the 130,000 payment. Right. The settlement payment. A regular thing for lawyers to do. The question there was, only possible violation there would be was it a Campaign Finance violation . But usually result in a fine by the way. Not this big Storm Troopers Coming in and breaking down his apartment and breaking down his office. That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way i would do out of his Law Firm Funds or whatever funds. Doesnt matter. President reimbursed that over a period of several months. First of all, it was fbi agents, not storm troopers. The point about what . Theres imprecision there. I think more importantly, this is sort of an only nexus to the Trump Campaign we have seen to date. That we know of. Manafort trial happening. Could have a verdict today. A guilty plea by cohen to myriad of charges that, you know, stem from his own personal finances and his own personal business operations. The Campaign Finance piece is different and what im
the payment that Rudy Giuliani says President Trump reimbursed cohen for, does that make President Trump vulnerable in any way . Absolutely. His exposure is increased. Because remember, theres a Discredi Discrepancy of what he knew and what he paid. Theres what President Trump said on the back of Air Force One and not just Stormy Daniels case. Karen mcdougall, as well. Theres a pattern of corporations created to pay off and silence around the time of the actual election and Going Forward you think about this. Bank and Tax Fraud Charges are very, very big charges. Big felony cases to make. Just ask Paul Manafort about that. To add on the Campaign Finance violations whether theres no Cooperation Agreement available for Michael Cohen suggests that perhaps he is aware that he is
alone and he is retaliating against the president of the United States to include that. They would still need to have a basis upon which toen collude that as a charge they could prove but we shouldnt take it lightly that he made a decision to plead guilty to two things that the president of the United States has already commented on, on camera. Amanda, your take on all of this . We have to absorb the magnitude of the situation for anyone in the white house. Paul manafort who represented the head of the campaign is awaiting a verdict. Michael cohen who is the biggest player in the Trump Organization representing all trumps Business Interests is pleading guilty. The youre in the white house you have to wonder how this blows back on you. Lets not forget about mike flynn, National Security adviser that pled guilty and awaiting sentencing. And im interested of the Campaign Finance angle. Theres jurisdiction of funds there and pleading guilty to
The days top stories from around the world, from politics and money, to sports and pop culture. Reporters. What is the relevance of that . It is a crime if Michael Cohen is in the courthouse today telling the judge that hes pleading to Campaign Finance violations and if those Campaign Finance violations charges relate to the statements that the president of the United States just made, well, now you are talking about a court of law weighing in. Not simply the media or the American People duped by the president of the United States. And so, if the judge and what the judge will do is ask questions like, were you directed by anyone in particular to make the Campaign Finance violations or what campaign were you acting on behalf of . Well, if hes able to link those two things, then you have evidence. The clip you just played becomes not just a sound bite but an exhibit possibly in a case against someone in the future. And it should be noted as they were talking about the magnitude is very, very real and surreal for a number of reasons but
namely you have Michael Cohen here who not only is political arm but his as the fixer of the president , no longer the privilege. They removed that by saying he is not my lawyer. It was a small fraction of things he worked on. Whatever he says today, therefore, it is not privileged. The court will want to know. I say it a lot of times but its not a crime to lie to the American People or the reporters because President Trump sure does it a lot but you hear from laura coates it might be an exhibit potentially. I think its important to remind folks it wasnt just President Trump that lied about this. The entire orbit of the white house was involved in this intricate lie. Sarah sanders from the podium said the president knew nothing about this. Then when it was revealed by the president himself that he did, in fact, have knowledge she had
or two questions from the jury pertaining to what they should do if they cant come to a consensus on a single count. That was around 11 00 this morning and then thats when the judge gave them what is essentially an allen charge, termed here in virginia as a sawyers charge. And the judge said to them you should go back into the courtroom, continue deliberations whether to this one count you cant come to consensus. Were unsure how many counts the jury may have had some question on. So that happened just past 11 00 a. M. They went back into the Jury Deliberation Room at 11 58. Here we stand at about 4 15, 4 20. About four and a half hours the jury has been there in deliberating so well wait to see, jake, what the note says. Unclear if its more Clarification Questions or if it could be a verdict here. So were going to wait and see and get back to you as soon as
we know more. Jake . Were going to go right now to the Senate Intelligence committee to listen in to senator burr and the Vice Chairman of the committee warn ir having a joint statement of Michael Cohen. Lets listen in. We lost audio on this. Well go there when we get audio back. Lets go to laura for a second. Let me ask you. Obviously, we dont know anything about the jury verdict until the jury comes out and makes their announcement. Several days that this has taken so long. Not that long but taken longer than just an afternoon has been int interpreted that perhaps the jury considering leniency and now the jury saying suggesting of the 18 counts deadlocked on 1 of them. Cant come to a conclusion on one of them which would imply that they have reached a conclusion on the other 17. A lot of Defense Attorneys that have been on cnn and other
places have said that would make them feel bad as a Defense Attorney seeming like 17 counts they have all agreed and the 18th they havent. That would seem to suggest that maybe theyre finding guilty. But as a former federal prosecutor how do you interpret it if at all . You have to be careful of reading the tea leaves too much but its clear the jury had some conundrum of figuring out how to reconcile it. Its not just 18 charges but for each 18 charges, theres 4 elements for the government to prove. 18 times 4, you have 12 strangers trying to decide of 72 things. Try in your family agreeing on one or two things in a day. The other part of it is they can render a partial verdict. If they do have consensus on all the other issues by any combination, acquittals and convictions or any combination thereof, all convictions or one
acquittal, they can render a partial verdict. The prosecution has the choice of whether or not to retry the case on that charge. Remember, that happened in one case of john edwards where they had acquittals and one hung on a particular issue with his extramarital affair case and the president ial bid. So you can have that different dynamic at play but i think ultimately if you are the prosecution in this case, you are cautiously optimistic. Not having more questions about what is reasonable doubt. You have not had a second note which often comes to say, listen, we are hopelessly deadlocked. No amount of deliberation will allow us to come to a decision. A mistrial of that count or multiple counts could be rendered. The youre the prosecution, you have deliberation all this time, consensus and you have had jurors who got along well they
agreed on friday to allow everyone to leave so that one had an event that evening. This is not jury that hates being around each other but you do have them trying to put the nose to the pavement and get the job done and i bet the next note is about being deadlocked on a particular charge. Thank you. In new york, the case of Michael Cohen, joining me on the phone is preet barara. He was the District Attorney there. What is your reaction to the case going on with Michael Cohen right now as obviously happening at the same time that theres a jury seems to be coming to some sort of conclusion in the case against Paul Manafort . And, bob mueller is also asking for another delay in sentencing against Michael Flynn suggesting that maybe theres something there that hes still getting cooperation on or sources and methods he doesnt want to reveal. Yeah. Theres a length of your question indicates how much is going on at the moment. Both in the Eastern District of virginia and new york. The reaction to the cohen case im suspending a little bit because im waiting desperately like so many other people for the documents. Thes speculation over the last few hours of what the nature of the plea deal is and theres a regular straightup plea and then a deal with a promise of cooperation on the part of the defendant. On the other side, a promise on the recommendation of leniency by the government. All accounts i have seen including by cnn is that this is a straightup plea. Not people indicated but that Doesnt Rule Out forever the possibility of Michael Cohen cooperating and providing substantial assistance in testimony against other people, remember, perhaps the president given that the Campaign Finance violations appear to be part of
this. We dont know. I will tell you, though, its very unusual for someone, you know, to resolve a case of criminal nature with a fullon plea where youre accepting potentially a and you havent worked in a cooperation deal. Not saying its not possible but for people trying to read into this, that it means the eminent demise of the president some way because there happens to be charges of Campaign Finance fraud i think we are not there yet and important to see what the documents say. Preet, assuming that krrn and everyone else, our information is correct ux what does that suggest about Robert Mueller and Michael Cohen . Does it suggest that cohen has no information that mueller can use when it comes to the Russia Investigation . Does it suggest that Mueller Doesnt Think Cohen is a credible enough witness to use in any way . Could be all those things. As an initial matter, the special counsel Robert Mueller, you know, spun off this case to the Southern District and so, you know, if youre talking about the moment before he gave the case to the Southern District of new york in the first place if he had a lot of information of what people call collusion or the Russia Investigation, i dont see why he would have given it to the Southern District. That was the first hint maybe Michael Cohen not central to what the mueller, you know, team was looking at and focused on most intently. But id always assume if theres a Cooperation Agreement with the Southern District, whether in regard to his crimes relating to bank fraud or tax fraud or the taxi medallions we have been hearing about as part of the that Cooperation Agreement be required to give information that he knew about Russia Investigation but it seems theres no agreement at all. People need to be careful to understand it may be in that Michael Cohen wanted to give information and giving the signals that he wanted to flip,
that his wife and family came first. He was no longer willing to take a bullet for the president who used to be his boss and that the Southern District either as you pointed out, not credible enough or, i mean, again, this is a guess, even if he had some information to cause you to draw a line to the president , because of im obviously off the top of my head. I havent seen the documents yet. I dont know the details. If its not possible to prosecute a sitting president according to office of legal counsel, really not going to lead to a prosecution of someone else and sometimes people have information about other folks and other criminal activities higher up in the food chain and if theres a legal impediment to bringing that other case against someone else higher up in the food chain, statute of limitations or a change in