Telling the truth. He has no Shadow Hanging over him. The uncertainty is gone. He has stepped up to the line and he has admitted what he did wrong, but he is now liberated to tell the truth. Everything about donald trump that he knows. From this point on youre going to see liberated Michael Cohen speaking truth to power. And we will hear a lot more from cohens lawyer who you just saw there, he is going to be joining morning joe later this morning. After four days of deliberations the jury in the fraud trial of Paul Manafort found President Trumps former Campaign Chairman guilty on eight of the counts against him. The jury has unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the other ten counts manafort faced. His trial marked a critical first stage for Robert Muellers investigation. Pete williams has more. Reporter the jury found Paul Manafort guilty of intentionally dodging taxes on millions of dollars that he earned as a
political consultant for the former president of ukraine well before manafort served briefly as President Trumps Campaign Chairman. Prosecutors say he stashed the money in overseas banks and used it to indulge his expensive tastes in clothes, antiques and cars, by wiring money directly from those accounts to pay his bills, bypassing Tax Collectors from the irs. From 2010 through 2014 prosecutors said manafort earned more than 30 million but reported less than half of it as income. When the ukrainian money dried up prosecutors said manafort lied in applying for more than 20 million in loans from three banks to maintain his spending habits. The jury convicted of him in two of those bank fraud counts. In all manafort faced 18 criminal counts, the jury convicted him on eight of them but could not agree on the other ten. Of those the judge declared a mistrial leaving the prosecutors free to charge them with him all over again. The prosecutors will be happy
that the eight counts of conviction were spread out among the different tranches of things that he was accused of so the prosecution will be able to argue at sentencing that the judge should consider everything. Reporter the conviction is a boost for robert mueller. Manafort was the first person he charged presumably to force his cooperation in the meddling investigation. Manaforts lawyer spoke only briefly, thanking the judge and jury for what they said was a fair trial. Mr. Manafort is disappointed of not getting acquit als all the way through or a complete hung jury on all counts. He is evaluating all of his options at this point. Reporter the judge hasnt set a sentencing date for Paul Manafort but he could face up to ten years in prison and next month he goes on trial all over again, this time in Federal Court In Washington where hes charged with failing to register as a lobbyist for ukraine, witness tampering and financial fraud. Frances. Thanks to pete williams. One of the Top Republicans in the senate said its up to
the president if he wants to pardon Paul Manafort. Here is senator Mitch Mcconnells deputy, Majority Whip John Cornyn of texas speaking to reporters yesterday. Would you have a problem if the president were to pardon manafort . If he was what . Were to pardon manafort . Thats above my pay grade. Thats the president s choice, but i think i think id like to see the case run its course and i will let the courts do do their job. And in the House Speaker paul ryan deflected on the guilty plea of the president s lawyer. A spokesperson told nbc news we are aware of mr. Cohens guilty plea to the serious charges. We will need more information than is currently available at this point. A lot to dive into. For that we want to bring in danny sivalis. Great to have you with us because theres so much to get to on both fronts with this onetwo punch. Lets start with Michael Cohen here. What level of surprise was there
given that he made this agreement, this plea, without necessarily a Cooperation Nl agreement that we know of where he didnt need to implicate the president. My level of surprise on a ten scale is a one. It was a foregone ten being the most. This was a foregone conclusion in my mind inevitably Michael Cohen was going to plead. When you look at the potential Sentencing Guidelines in any Economic Crime with losses approaching a million or more, you are looking at a very, very high sentencing level. The only way to drag that Sentencing Range down is, first, acceptance of responsibility, you plead guilty, and, two, a 5k 1 motion, substantial assistance cooperation with prosecutors. I just want to stress the fact that theres no evidence that hes Cooperating Now Doesnt Mean that hes not cooperating behind the scenes and it doesnt mean that he might not cooperate in the future. You know, the federal rules allow for cooperation to happen
even after a defendant is sentenced. Not the plea, after hes received his sentence. So there are many opportunities to cooperate and it may just be the case that the prosecutors are timing things for strategic reasons and high level threedimensional chess that we cant even guess at right now. So then the question becomes what does this mean for President Trump and his legal team . Everybody is focused on Michael Cohen, what he may or may not be able to offer to implicate the kate but how does this change trumps legal strategy . The u. S. Attorneys yesterday would not have given you an answer to that question but you can divine an answer from the rules that u. S. Attorneys follow and it is a general rule in the u. S. Attorneys manual that you dont name an uncharged third party. In fact, you dont even identify him or her with specificity. Who are we kidding, him. You dont identify him with specificity so that he can be identified. So, in other words, you cant say senator soandso, but you
might say a member of congress. You dont do that as a u. S. Attorney unless you have a really good reason or naming that person is essential to describing the crime. For example, bribing a member of congress is the example the manual gives. But for them to name to go into that level of specificity and to allow cohen to name him in that level of specificity really is telling. It means that there is something the government believes that there is something more there against that third party and we all know who the third party is. And whether or not bob mueller takes that with his investigation well see, especially according to cohens attorney. Paul manafort, the time that we have, we will delve into that. Surprised that we have not full agreement from here when it comes to all the charges . Not surprising at all because these charges are not your Garden Variety federal charges, they are complex, they involve a lot of paper, they involve a difficult interpretation of
federal law, however, i am not surprised that he was convicted on the tax charges. Tax perjury is a very easy charge to make out. You essentially ask when he signed when he tested to the part about perjury that we all do with our tax forms, was that false. So thats an easier charge to make. The f bar charges maybe the jurors struggled with that, maybe one juror struggled with that, we dont know right now, but in any case like this these charges are in the substantial minority of federal charges brought every year. Its not something that regular jurors see, its not even something regular attorneys see. Now we have his next trial and then a pardon if thats even going to happen or possible. A lot to talk about at that point. We will check in with you a little later. And House Speaker paul ryan has stripped california congressman Duncan Hunter of his committee assignments, this Following News that hunter and his wife have been indicted. The couple is accused of converting more than a quarter of a Million Dollars in Campaign Funds to pay for personal expenses. According to the indictment the
hunters used Campaign Funds for ski trips, hotel stays and european vacations. They golfed, they bought makeup, they paid for Airline Tickets for friends and relatives and invested in Tequila Shots and gourmet steaks. The indictment alleges incident after incident in which they spent Campaign Money on personal outings and meals and told their Campaign Treasurer the expenses were legitimate including 1,900 spent sending a Family Member to a Pittsburgh Steelers game. Both collins and hunter are now under indictment. The spokesperson for hunter said yesterday that the congressman believes this action is purely politically motivated. Hunter, a republican, is up for reelection in november. California Secretary Of State says there is no process to remove his name from the ballot and the state does not allow write in candidates, guys. What an interesting development. Very busy political and legal
there on many fronts. Still ahead, a tragic ending to the search for a missing University Of Iowa student, an undocumented im grant has now been charged with the murder of Mollie Tibbetts. President trump says fake news is prerchable to censorship as facebook it removes hundreds of fake accounts tied to russia. As king midas, here at midas, you will too. And your oil change comes with a Tire Rotation as well. Ooo thats good i could put that on an airplane banner. Hmm. Maybe. Nice work. Was that. . Yeah, king midas. Yeah. At midas, were always a touch better. Which is why our 19. 99 oil change also includes a Tire Rotation. Book your appointment now at midas. Com President Trump says fake your Brain Changes as you get older. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. So you have, your headphones, chair, new laptop, 24 7 tech support. Yep, thanks guys. I know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. Update in the case of the missing University Of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts who disappeared a month ago during an evening jog. Now Officials Say they believe they have found her body in a Farm Field East of her hometown, the suspect has been charged with first degree murder and Authorities Say he was in the country illegally. Nbc news correspondent ron mott has the details. Reporter tonight the mystery of 20yearold Mollie Tibbetts missing from her small iowa hometown took a sad turn as authorities announced they have
found her body and a suspect is in custody charged with first degree murder. The identity has not been confirmed, however, we believe it to be the body of Mollie Tibbetts. Reporter authorities arrested 24yearold Cristhian Bahena rivera an undocumented immigrant whom they say has been in the country as long as seven years. The crucial break, Surveillance VideoShowing Mollie the day she disappeared in a car belonging to mr. Rivera. We first approached mr. Rivera yesterday. Reporter Authorities Say rivera told them as he drove he saw mollie running, approached the car. He ran alongside or behind her and at one point he tells us that mollie grabbed ahold of her phone and said you need to leave me alone, im going to call the police, then she took off running. Reporter rivera told officials he ran after her and doesnt remember what happened next, though later he said he noticed mollies headphones in his lap and realized he had put her in a trunk. He led authorities to a body in
a cornfield. For weeks her family and friends held out hope she was still ali alive. Shes loveable, fun to have around as a friend. To know mollie is to love mollie. Every single day, just as hopeful as from day one as i am until now. If you are not that, then youre not going to make it through any of this. Reporter officials have fielded more than 4,000 tips and that the investigation was emotionally difficult. We just spoke with the family and i told them that they raised a great daughter. She was a phenomenal individual and so we are saddened for the family. Our thanks to ron mott for that report. Youre right, it was absolutely heart breaking to see the details of this person and when you hear the sound bites from the people that talked about her you can clearly tell how much love she had in her and how much love she gave to the people. And heart breaking for the family. They thought that she would be found alive. There was a sense of optimism. Facebook has taken down more than 600 fake pages, groups and accounts organized by russia and
iran that targeted hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide as part of separate disinformation campaigns. The iranian effort dates back to 2011 and had ties to state Media Operations in that country facebook said. The new revelations frustrated some members of congress who have urged both the Trump Administration and the Tech Industry to take more decisive steps to thwart nations from spreading disinformation online. President trump spoke on cyber deck writ during a Campaign Rally yesterday, saying he preferred fake news to censorship. I would rather have fake news, its true, than have anybody, including liberals, socialists, anything, than have anybody stopped and secensored. It can turn around and be them next. And on the heels of facebooks revelations twitter also said they had removed 284
accounts for engaging in coordinated manipulation. Twitter said the accounts also appeared to originate from iran. Facebook, twitter and google are expected to testify at a hearing at the senate in september. The fifth. It is expected to focus on foreign interference in u. S. Politics and social media. Still ahead, President Trump once again slams the nfl at a rally last night in West Virginia and you might not want to tell Mike Barnicle this, but the tribe keeps up their winning ways over the red sox. We will have all the details next in sports. The first survivor of Alzheimers Disease is out there. And the Alzheimers Association is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Join the fight with the Alzheimers Association. Youll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day. Ou . Complicated relationship with milk . Pour on the lactaid, 100 real milk, just without that annoying lactose. Mmm, thats good. Hawaii is in the middle of the pacific ocean. Were the most isolated population on the planet. Hawaii is the first state in the u. S. To have 100 Renewable Energy goal. Were a very small electric utility. But, if we dont make this move were going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaiis economy. Verizon provided us a solution using Smart Sensors on their network that lets us collect near Real Time Data on our power grid. colton this technology is helping us integrate rooftop solar, which is a very important element of getting us to our Renewable Energy goals. shelee if we can create our own energy, we can take care of this beautiful place that i grew up in. Were proud of our country, youre proud of our history an unlike the nfl, you always honor and cherish our great Americ American it was Just Announced by espn that rather than defending our anthem, our beautiful, Beautiful National anthem, and defending our flag, theyve decided that they just wont broadcast when they play the national anthem. We dont like that. Welcome back. Time now for sports. That was President Trump addressing the crowd at his rally in West Virginia last night. Once again taking aim at the nfl and failing to addres