Laura Ingraham shines a spotlight on everyday Americans and examines how their lives are affected by politics at the federal, state and local level. Again, he worked for bob dole, he worked for ronald reagan, he worked for many people, and this is the way it ends up. It was not the original mission, believe me. It was something very much different. So it had nothing to do with Russian Collusion. We continue the witch hunt. Significant the president did not say anything about the cohen case, leaving the attorney Rudy Giuliani to put out the statement, there is no allegations of any wrongdoing against the president and the governments charges against mr. Cohen. It is clear that as a prosecutor noted, mr. Cohens actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over significant period of time. But cohens plea deal alleges he broke the law to influence a 2016 election on behalf of an unnamed candidate who clearly is the president. Cohen will get somewhere between 43 and 63 months in prison after pleading guilty to the Campaign Finance charges i mentioned, plus bank fraud, and tax evasion. The Campaign Charges involve payments to two woman who alleged affairs with the president that he vehemently denied. Stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. In cohens plea deal seems to directly contradict something that giuliani told fox back in may. Having something to do with paying some Stormy Daniels woman, 130,000, which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. That money was not Campaign Money. Sorry, im giving you a fact now that you dont know. Its not Campaign Money no Campaign Finance violation. It was funneled through a law firm . Funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. That questions whether there is any legal jeopardy, michael avenatti, always very aggressive, he claims this will get a stay listed a civil case, separate from us, meaning there will be a new fight over whether
the president has to give a deposition. Michael avenatti tweeting to giuliani, buckle up, buttercup, as if this fight is just beginning. Jason thank you very much. Lets bring in the legal panel to break down this development. Harmeet dhillon is a republican and a lawyer, Vinoo Varghese is a criminal defense attorney, and tom dupree, a deputy assisted attorney general in the george w. Bush administration. Thank you for being here. I want to break down todays developments. I want to do it one at a time. Well go Around The Horn on Paul Manafort. Harmeet, the first stab at this. What is your take on the developments today . The developments today, i think theyre very unfortunate for mr. Manafort because he is close to the president at one point in time for a brief period of time. He got caught in the cross hairs of the prosecution of the mueller investigation. As we can see from the indictment as well as the charges and the jury verdict today, we dont see anything
about the president , about Russian Collusion or anything over that irregularities in his taxes and statements to banks. Now those are series issues and unfortunately, mr. Manafort will probably spend a good decade plus, to the rest of his life in prison, depending on what happens next. Its got zero to do with the president and its frankly underscoring that if it werent for being close to the president , he probably wouldnt have been prosecuted. Part of the narrative of the unfair witch hunt. Jason joining me in the studio in new york, she writes, nothing to do with donald trump . The proximity of the president is what is driving this, right . The first thing that she noted, ostriches and pythons across the country will sleep well tonight knowing that Paul Manafort will remain behind bars. Understand this is a big victory for team mueller in the court of public opinion, because they won this case in the court. There have been a number of
guilty pleas here. Jason a case that has nothing to do with the original manafort directive. This is Trumps Campaign chairman. It was his campaign chairman. Jason anyone that has ever worked for you Paul Manafort here has been found guilty. Look jason of what . Something he did a long time ago . The team took a gamble, the case in alexandria, virginia, hoping for a much more conservative jury. Jason you dont believe that he would have been prosecuted except for his proximity to donald trump . They looked at him. That was part of it. I agree, his proximity to donald trump brought the case. It doesnt mean thats the only thing. Jason if someone has skirted the tax laws, i want them to be convicted. But to have the National Spotlight on them just because hes worked for 100 days for donald trump seems a bit over the top. Let me get toms take on this. Tom, what do you think is happening here with Paul Manafort . A few things, i do think he was the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Look, the fact that bob mueller
case, you are going to be convicted here, you have been convicted, and im going to put the squeeze on you, you better cough something up on donald trump or im going to actually is that what is going on . Muellers team has been putting the squeeze on manafort for many, many months now, and he hasnt caved. I suppose the pressure will continue although at this point, manafort has lost a lot of the leverage that he had at the outset, given that he stands criminally convicted for a that says, its possible that at some point theyll reach a deal. Manafort has another trial coming up in a few months, there might be an opportunity to do wheeling and dealing. I tend to think of manafort has a bigger value to get to mueller and he was willing to turned over to mueller, you think mueller would have it by now. Jason lets talk about Michael Cohen. Thats a different scenario. Vinoo, how do you read that situation . The first thing, i think this is a big political victory for the republicans today, with announcing that Michael Cohen is trumps personal attorney paid hush money to a porn star and playboy model. Theres no debate that President Trump has a better taste in women than bill clinton. Hes an attorney, this is a guy who has committed a crime, multiple, tax evasion, violation of Campaign Finance laws. He is going to be automatically disbarred. The question is, how much time will he face behind bars . The deal says 43 to 63 months but that judge can give much more than that. That is the reality of the case. So for him, it leaves open the possibility of cooperating. There are still an opportunity to cooperate. I wouldnt be surprised at all of the december date is pushed back. Jason harmeet, how do you read this situation . And i think its pretty interesting who Michael Cohen picked as his attorney, because lanny davis is obviously no friend of donald trump but very close in proximity to hillary clinton. A couple things to keep in mind about Michael Cohen. He is a guy who tapes his clients that hes a guy, who, a few months ago, looking at
potentially 60 years in prison for these potential charges, at that point he was saying that the president had nothing to do with any of this stuff and there is no Campaign Finance issues. Fastforward to today, when he were facing 60 years in prison and the alternative is five years in prison and you can get that five year deal if you say that a couple of things that arent crimes are crimes, and pin them on the president. So i think that the overwhelming power of prosecutors here in those situations in every situation where the federal prosecution has led to this result. Lanny davis has really sold his client out because i think it is a real stretch im a lawyer does election law, Campaign Finance, thats a real stretch to say that someone says that paying off hush money to a blackmailer is necessarily trying to affect the outcome of an election. I suspect that throughout his career, donald trump has been approached by women like this who have shaken him down and this is a standard way that
people are paid off and i dont see that Campaign Finance violation here at all, and so it is really unfortunate that he was forced into the situation and has done this. But, you know, again, a, nothing to do with collusion or russia. And, b, no crime here for the president. Jason Jonathan Turley, noted attorney come on fox news earlier criminals listen to him and tom, i would like to get your reaction to that. Unless its unidentified candidate is bernie sanders. Its going to be bad news. You are not paying attention. If the prosecutors accept what is in this indictment, then the president just became an unindicted coconspirator. That is a simple matter of it. Jason tom, youve got deep experience in the department of justice. Is Jonathan Turley right . Not quite. The way i look at it, for one thing, the fact that cohen pleaded to a particular charge doesnt mean that other people are automatically deemed guilty. That is why we have trials, thats why we have evidence and thats why we have juries make
these determinations. I will also say that one of the most complex and byzantine areas in the entire sphere of federal law is the election code. And lawyers will argue to the nth day about whether something constitutes an Election Violation or it doesnt. To me what this will come down to is whether cohen has something other than his own word this is what happened, that these payments were made for the purpose of influencing a campaign, that they were done with the direction of presumably donald trump. If cohen has trump on tape, if cohen has evidence to support his allegations, then it can pose greater jeopardy for the president but right now, all we know is its just cohens word against presumably the president s word. Jason but there are tapes. Is the trump team able to hear and listen to all of these tapes or are in the possession of the Special Prosecutor . Or is that something that they may have only heard snippets of . My guess is the president has not heard everything that is in the possession of the prosecutors. Lord knows what sorts of things cohen was taping. There have been some tapes that address some of the Subject Matter of todays indictment, we
dont know if those are all of them and the tapes that we have heard have been somewhat ambiguous to say the least. Jason but vinoo, i have a hard time believing that this is first of all, i have not heard the word russia yet and collusion. You havent seen anything there regarding Russian Collusion, have you . Thats not what this is about. Jason i know but this is with a Special Prosecutor is spending all of his time, about a guy who is dealing with Medallions On Taxis thats the Tax Evasion Part of it. You have here, Donald Trumps personal lawyer, the man who said he would take a bullet for donald trump, who has now said in open court that at the direction of the candidate, he funneled this money to influence the election. Right . The question of russia collusion, thats a separate question. The fact is jason whats the Prime Question of what the prosecutor is supposed to be going for . He can investigate different things. All of us came from us and the fact that you have Trumps National security advisor, his former campaign jason there is a lot of evidence out there that he was manipulated along the way. All guilty. Jason harmeet, last word. How do you read the situation Going Forward . What happens next . Obviously, the left in this divided country is going to go crazy like vinoo just did, Guilt By Association here. But this is a tragic tale of a lawyer gone awry in many ways and its important for him personally. But the president is very focused on his agenda, popular, wouldnt be surprised if this doesnt affect his popularity one bit because people are beginning to see the results in this country and yet after all of this money, all of this effort, drama, all these indictments, all hes got is zero to do with russia collusion, the only person who committed Campaign Finance violations with respect to russia, foreign countries, is hillary clinton, and she never got indicted. I think this really underscores the president s position that this is a witch hunt and it has no legitimacy and needs to end. Jason thank you. Has there been any other similar crimes similar to this anywhere he has been . In the Sanctuary Cities . Where has he been, what has he done . Jason he was charged with firstdegree murder. Does that lead you to believe that he was stalking her as opposed to a chance happening, she was running, driving back, decided, this would be a good target . I think he was probably stalking her. The police did a marvelous job. They didnt let out any information until they had the details pretty well collected and lined up for the information that they give out this afternoon. They did a marvelous job with this. Another thing, we get so many people complaining about cameras, the Civil Liberties are violated when they appear on camera, the police did such a great job in contacting people as they went through this, they found somebody who had a camera who saw the chevy malibu, who actually saw the runner. What a great job they did, and hats off to the Police Department. Jason smaller Law Enforcement organization, not like the Los Angeles Police department with untold number of
assets at their disposal, for a Smaller Department like that to do this kind of police work. Michael, it does beg the question, joining me in studio, this person should have never been in the country in the first place, right . Its an allegation, but he should have never been here, right . Thank you for having me, jason. A horrible, senseless act of violence, my heart goes after the family. There should be full consequences to this man for committing this murder for the rest of his life. The truth is, the political arena of immigration is not going to be satiated through legislation. You cant legislate your way out of a murder. Its many ways jason you can put up a wall. You can enforce you can start expelling people that are here illegally. I understand but when you look at the facts, we have u. S. Marines that marry foreign nationals and the vetting here is critical. Even if you vet, you have more
u. S. Citizens grieving, more heinous crimes, undocumented or legally permitted jason he would have never been able to even have a chance to commit a crime if he wasnt here in the first place. You are saying we need to shut our doors and not have them here. I dont know how you can stop a murderer, despite all of the jason if hes here illegally, that says to me, at least on the first blush, that he should have never been here. What about the Million People we bring on legally and lawfully . I have a higher moral obligation, i think this country does, to those people then it does i agree. I agree with the other two speakers, former director of the fbi and the officer, because in all truth, when it comes down to it, the Beautiful Police work that is being done, the system here, should standard we should have redundancies between state, local, and federal crimes, so that the vetting doesnt stop. What about the people who radicalize, who are citizens, when they travel internationally and come back to the u. S. . If a local cop gets them, and reports It Redundantly to the intelligence services, yes,
jason, we should be able to stop this, but we cannot blame immigrants as a scapegoat. Jason im blaming this one. As i am, too, as a father. Jason i worry, not having a total Immigration Debate but there is a difference between being here illegally and being here legally. You do a disservice to the legal immigrants by just saying, well, this guy was an immigrant. No he wasnt, he was an illegal immigrant. Its an allegation at this point. I want to get back to the case here. Mark, hes being charged with firstdegree murder. What is it going to take to prove that . What would police have proceed in order for a prosecutor to feel comfortable that, yeah, it was actually firstdegree . Its firstdegree because he wasnt involved with the victim. It wasnt a hot blood murder where he was involved in an argument with a spouse or a livein girlfriend. This was a directed Intent Murder where he actually formed the intent, which can be formed in just a matter of seconds, to actually kill her, and they are
going to do this forensically. Theyve got him to get to the point of capturing her, and then he blacks out until hes shes in the trunk. So they are going to fill that gap in forensically, they are going to have the cause and method of death, they are trying to get as much dna. The problem here is, 30 days in the elements, insects, animals, and the heat, which is the average temperature is about 87 degrees in iowa at this time of year, that creates a lot of decomposition. But i think they are going to achieve their goal and they will get a firstdegree conviction. Jason bill, is the fbi, the federal bureau of investigation, helping these Smaller Departments and age