Fight for your lives before its someone elses job. And jermaine lee reports on the reality of gun violence in america. I raise my hand in honor of my twin brother. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Not since Richard Nixon has a president faced as much legal peril as donald j. Trump. He is in the crosshairs of a criminal investigation by special Counsel Robert Mueller and fending off three separate civil lawsuits at least. All while his personal legal team is falling apart, and few if any top tier attorneys are clamoring to jump on board. Today a lawyer for Stormy Daniels filed new claims against the president and his long time lawyer Michael Cohen after daniels described her story in what she described as a consensual affair with trump in 2006. The white house declined to confirm whether the president himself was one of the 22 Million People who tuned into that broadcast, according to nielsen, the shows biggest audience in a decade. Some details of daniels account have long been public, this was the very first time she recounted them herself on camera. It was also the first time she claimed to have been threatened along with her infant daughter not to speak out about the president. The white house and the president s lawyers have denied any association with alleged threats, and daniels claim that incident occurred in 2011 after a tabloid decided to pull a tellall interview with daniels. Said cohen, trumps lawyer had threatened to sue if they ran the story. Asked today about the 60 minutes piece, the white house cast doubt on daniels story. Im not going to get into, you know, what the president may or may not have said. He has consistently denied these allegations. Thank you. Was the president aware of a physical threat made against ms. Daniels when she was with her daughter back in 2011 . Well, the president doesnt believe that any of the claims that ms. Daniels made last night in the interview are accurate. He doesnt believe she was threatened . No, he does. No. What his basis for that . Im sorry . Whats his basis for that . He doesnt believe there is nothing to corroborate her claim. Okay. Here is the thing. The white house and the president s lawyer say the president has consistently denied daniels story. You heard that right there. But as far as we can tell, the president himself has never publicly answered questions about daniels, not a one, or about his alleged affair with playboy playmate karen mcdougal. Thank you all very much. Were you lying about the affairs . Now the president did tweet this morning so much fake news. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through all of it our country is doing great. As for Michael Cohen, his lawyer responded to the interview by serving daniels and her attorney with a cease and desist letter alleging she defamed cohen. Daniels, however, and this should be important, made no such claim. Now her lawyer, Michael Avenatti has expanded their preexisting lawsuit against the president accusing cohen of defamation, and alleging the 130,000 paid to daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement broke Campaign Finance law. Which are contending that this agreement was designed to basically further a Campaign Finance violation the way it was carried out, the conspiracy that existed, the way that it was handled, et cetera. And therefore should it be void under Public Policy. It should not be enforced because it was designed to influence the election and purposefully avoid reporting it pursuant to federal election law. Now, if avenatti is right about that, it could make things more difficult for michael cone on another dangerous legal front. You see the special counsel is reportedly interested in cohen, as anyone would be, because he was involved in efforts during the campaign to build a trump tower in moscow. If mueller has evidence it could potentially pressure him to help cohen talk. According to a witness sam nunnburg, muellers investigators have asked about possible payoffs on the president s behalf. In your fbi interview with muellers team, they were asking about payments to women . They were asking if i knew anything about it. They were asking uf you knew anything about payments to women. But i think its pretty obvious theyre looking into. This in my voluntary interview, they wanted to know if i had ever not about specific payments. If i ever heard of anything like that going on to which i never have. Gloria allred who is suing the president for defamation on behalf of former the apprentice contestant Summer Zervos also accused the president of sexual assault. First, your reaction to the amended complaint today from Michael Avenatti making a somewhat similar claim to what your client made. Well, speaking for myself and not for my client. Yeah. I can say that this is an interesting approach. Whether or not he is successful with a claim of defamation is another issue completely. Because its very difficult to prove defamation. And really, it is factspecific. He is also facing this is filed in california californias antislap law, which without getting too technical and into it, it makes it very difficult for a defamation claim to be proven. Having said that, it appears that the battle is joined. And it may very well be that Michael Cohen will crosscomplain against Stormy Daniels and against her attorney who is not the same attorney as who represented stormy in the original settlement agreement, the nda agreement, and may also claim defamation on their part. So well have to see where this goes. Do you understand the president s or Michael Cohens i guess its unified now. They sort of joined together in that filing. Do you understand their legal strategy here . Well, the legal strategy appears to me to get this out of arbitration because in the settlement agreement, it provides the dispute should be resolved in a confidential arbitration. And the arbitrator can be chosen by the defendants. That would be President Trump are that would be by Michael Cohen representing a shell corporation. So they would prefer obviously to be in a court of law where everything is public and where testimony, if as and when there would be a trial would be public. And so theyd rather have that forum, that venue rather than a confidential arbitration. Right. Thats avenatti and Stormy Daniels legal approach, and that makes a lot of sense. Obviously publicity is their best friend. It acts as a kind of shield. I guess i dont quite understand what the president is doing or what Michael Cohen is doing. Because they seem to be taking steps that only expand the newsworthiness of this question at issue. Well, thats a political decision. Its also a media strategy decision. Its also a dangerous decision, because whatever they say, if in fact they cross that line into defamation, that can be very dangerous. Also, attorneys are regulated in terms of what they can say if they are litigating a lawsuit. What they can say in reference to evidence and for example. So they have to be very careful and not make any ethical violations either. Yeah. You obviously, youre representing Summer Zervos. I know for that reason youre not going to speak about her case in this context for precisely the reason you identify. Do you think, though, its a legitimate concern on the part of the president . We know there are multiple accusers of him on unwanted sexual contact. There is presumably possibly more women out there he might have had consensual affairs with, that he is essentially trying to stop the dominos from falling . I agree with you, chris. This very tough approach, trying to enforce a confidentiality agreement, a settlement agreement, the nondisclosure clause may be aimed not just at Stormy Daniels, but if as and when he has entered into any other confidential agreements. Right. With other women, he is in fact sending a message well come down on you hard too, if you violate those agreements. I do represent other trump accusers. However, none of those women that i do represent have entered into confidential agreements with President Trump or his representatives. All right. Gloria allred, thanks for your time tonight. Thank you. For more on the president s growing legal mess, im joined now by former federal prosecutor harry litman and author of both above the law blog which is a must read for me every day. I dont quite get it. I can tell you what mike cohen is trying to do. He is trying to become the worst lawyer of the decade at this point. Think about it this way. Michael cohen was sent to the store with one job. Buy Stormy Daniels a tall glass of shut up. That was his job. He has come back from the store with a potentially federal complaint about campaign violations. He has made himself a target for the Mueller Investigation who might be interested in how trump or David Dennison launders money. And oh, by the way, i happen to know the president likes to be spanked, which is information i cant unsee. Thats what he has done. And that gets to the point. Part of this is, harry, Michael Cohen is a friend of the president. He is having a hard time getting very good reputation. And this is in some ways pennyante stakes compared to whats happening on the mueller front. He is down to one lawyer over there, basically jay sekulow on that. Today weve got news that dan webb and tom buchanan, who are two big very credentials white shoe fancy pants lawyers also turned the president down. Why cannot why can the president of the United States not get anyone to represent him . I know, its remarkable, right . You would think it would be a prestigious engagement. A few reasons. First, he is an unmanageable client and Everybody Knows it. Second, he is an extremely controversial client. What webb and buchanan said today was socalled business conflicts. Thats code for saying a lot of their corporate clients would rebel. Right. Knowing that they were representing the president. Third, there is a real possibility for some debacle happening in case including their own firing. And fourth, of course, good luck getting paid with the record of trump. So all in all, its it really is a losing proposition for any of these big law firms. And im not surprised he has been turned down right and left. I think thats right. Thing is another angle here, right . One of the things that we have to remember is that lawyers have an ethical responsibility. And good lawyers take their ethical responsibilities seriously. John dowd likely left because trump desperately wants to testify. And john dowd cannot in good conscience allow trump to go testify and potentially perjure himself, right . I think that a lot of lawyers who are thinking about representing trump, their issue is you cant represent trump arguably at this point if youre not going to let him testify. And you cant let him testify unless youre willing to suborn perjury. And all of these bigwigs were talking about none is going to sign up to suborn perjury. A good ethical attorney has to say no. Not cant, has to say no. Now im not saying trump cant find a lawyer. But its important to understand that its going to be a lawyer who doesnt take that kind of sacred oath all that seriously. What do you think of, that harry . Yeah, i see it pretty differently. Yes, he is likely he is in a fix. First of all, a defendant who really insists on testifying, will testify. I personally doubt whether trump really believes that or whether thats just bravado. Right. Thats the other question there. Are a lot of clients who are in that position and they find reputation. So i dont while i do think that his testifying would put him between a rock and a hard place, as your guest says, i dont think thats the reason. All these solid Defense Attorneys have represented plenty of people who they knew were in the same kind of fix. Yes. Defense attorneys tend to not only get they have to confront. This i wanted to ask you i thought the legal strategy of the filing today really fascinating, to good back to Stormy Daniels and avenatti. He is making this argument where he says this was part of an effort to essentially do an end around Campaign Finance law. And as such is an invalid contract. He has this treaties on contract law from 1932 where it uses an example, an iconic example of a contract invalid of a politician who has secret letters of him taking another position, signing a private contract to essentially acquire those letters so they dont see the publics eyes. Obviously on the face that would be invalid. The battle between avenatti and cohen is the battle between an eagle and a worm, all right. This is almost an unfair fight in terms of whats going on in terms of legal philosophy behind these issues. Right. What i think is really interesting about their positioning right now from cohens perspective is that this cease and desist letter that just came out, you figure Stormy Daniels in 60 minutes kind of insinuated that cohen has intimidated her. Not that he was the guy that came up with the car and the kid, but generally he has been trying to bully her into signing this nda. And he responds the next day by sending a bullying, intimidating cease and desist letter. Its almost proves her point. Right. That this is how the trump team operates. And i cant see i think when a judge looks at that, its almost like cohen is making her case for her that she potentially sign this nda under extreme duress. I also, harry, do you understand why they seem so i mean, the whole point of this, to elies point, the whole point was to get her not to talk. Thats the whole point of all of it. The fake llc and the David Dennison and all of it. Well, she has talked now. So what ra they doing . Look, its the big question. I think basically, and its kind of pleasing to watch, they have been induced, cohen has been induced to overplay his hand, this sort of raw bullying tactics that normally put an end to things in their new york world wont work here. Yeah. And the real risk theyre in now this is different from mueller. And we can talk about the crosscutting with mueller. But theyre now in individual proceedings where an individual judge, they can be maneuvered to either lie or not. Remember what happened to bill clinton down in arkansas when he lied in front of Susan Webber Wright . She took his license away, made him pay 750,000. If cohen winds up getting crosswise with an individual judge. Thats a great point. He is in dire shape, including for his license. Again, look, perjury is the thing here. Right. There are so many now different ways to get trump in the box. And once you get trump in the box, it is game over because the man is incapable of clintons deposition lasted for hours. Right. Trump cant tell the truth for hours on end under intense questioning. Its a good reminder of where the end game of all these threads seem to be leading. And i still have mentally in my mind that sort of wan deer in the headlights look of bill clinton, the most powerful man in the world in the deposition. Yeah. Thats a scary place to find yourself no matter how powerful you are. Harry litman and elie mistal, great to have you both. The march for our lives, new signs the movement may be working. But first, Michael Cohens history of threats and intimidation on behalf of donald trump. 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Was in a parking lot going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. I was taking the seats facing backwards in the back seat, diaper bag, getting all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, leave trump alone. Forget the story. And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter, and said a beautiful little girl. It would be shame if something happened to her mom. And then he was gone. Perhaps the most astonishing new details coming out of last nights 60 minutes interview with Stormy Daniels that in 2011 someone threatened her not to go public with her claim that she had an fair with donald trump. The white house said this afternoon it does not believe Stormy Daniels was threatened. Was the president aware of a physical threat made against ms. Daniels when she was with her daughter back in 2011 . Well, the president doesnt believe that any of the claims that ms. Daniels made last night in the interview are accurate. He doesnt believe she was threatened . No, he does not. Whats his basis for that, raj . Sorry . Whats his basis for that . He doesnt believe there is nothing to corroborate her claim. Joining me now are two people who have claimed to be familiar with bullying and intimidation in trump world. The president of media matters for america and jason leopold, Senior Investigative reporter for buzzfeed news. Angelo, you had a runin yourself. Tell me about it. I did. This is back in 2012. I had washington campaigned to get macys to fire donald trump. It had about 700,000 petition signe