Doesnt stop there. Cohens attorney tells msnbc he has information that bob mueller would want to know and is more than happy to Start Talking to the Special Counsel. Meanwhile, Paul Manafort who two years ago literally ran Donald Trumps campaign is now a felon. He is facing serious prison time and like Michael Cohen sits atop this list of Trump Associates who are indicted or convicted criminals. That is a lot of witches. Good morning, and welcome to morning joe on this wednesday, august 22nd. Joe is off. Hes tweeting. Hell be filing for the Washington Post. Weve put together an allstar lineup for this mornings incredible amount of news. A Small Law Firm of legal experts, msnbc legal analyst danny savalas, John Thnathan Tu and Barbara Mcquade and two experts or the cohen stories
i do not think theres a parallel. Well see what you come up with. A legal landslide like none other in the history of the presidency. What the Conservative Drudge Report described as trump hell hour. His 2016 Campaign ChiefPaul Manafort convicted by a jury on eight counts at almost the exact same time that trumps former lawyer Michael Cohen entered a guilty plea to eight counts and speaking in open court directly implicated the president in a federal crime. This is the worst day of Donald Trumps presidency. Both personally and professionally. Trumps legal team responded, there is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the governments charges against mr. Cohen. It is clear that as the prosecutor noted, mr. Cohens actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonest ly over a significant period of time. They are forgetting that trump is on tape talking to cohen about these payments, and we
Former GOP representative Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski interview newsmakers, politicians and pundits about the issues of the day. Presidency. It started out. Talked in the show about it, he was fiercely loyal. The kind of person he is, and obviously that changed over time, and i believe histories will look kindly on Michael Cohen. He obviously pled guilty to those counts and wants to focus on counts seven and eight. Lanny davis mentioned yesterday, he really is looking forward to talking with mueller. Mueller reaches out to him in corroborating stories that michael i believe will be able to tie trump to those meetings and to collusion. So on one sense, very emotional for michael. As you can imagine. Also a sense of relief. I think hes looking forward to moving forward go ahead. Donny, he broke the law. What is his mindset in terms of, who does this for somebody . Over and observer again . To the point where, i mean, look, hes in deep water to keep it clean. Hes really in deep. Why . He is the as far as the
on count seven and eight, the counts related to payments made to women, first of all, he was under oath. Second of all, no one forced him to implicate the president. He, when he started going through each count, stood up and said, first of all, can i stand. And second of all, will you allow me, judge to read from a set of prepared notes because i want to make sure that im focused. Imp mr. Kating the president in counts seven and eight was a deliberate choice. A choice he wrote out ahead of time and spoke to a courtroom filled with reporters. So that i think tells you more about his mindset and how he feels about the president than any interview hes done. Anything that Anyone Around him has said to the press that he got up in that courtroom yesterday and threw his boss, who he told me almost exactly a year ago hed take a bullet for under the bus. Just a striking turn in a year. Ive watched this whole thing go down. Ive watched the change firsthand and its yesterday
was more striking than ive ever seen. Wow. We want to get to the political ramifications of all of this in just a moment, but first, the legalities. Danny savalas, Barbara Mcquade and go through each of you. Jonathan turley, scale of one to ten, how bad is this for the president and what are the possibilities . Well, it couldnt be worse, and i have to say, im not as convinced about this new Morality Play featuring Michael Cohen. This idea that hes suddenly liberated in the sense hes going to tell the truth. It doesnt fit with the indictment. Look at the first six counts. Hes a felon, and he has a reputation in new york of being something of a thug. So hes not that credible of a witness. I mean, if everything that was said yesterday is true, then most of the things he said for the entire year before were lies. And so that means that right. His use as a witness will require corroboration. Having said that, he just did implicate the president in a crime. The president is effectively an unindicted coconspirator, if you believe everything that was in this filing. That makes this Campaign Finance case a difficult thing usually to prosecute, stronger than the john edwards case. They didnt have a Michael Cohen who would say, first i knew i was committing a crime. Second, i good did it at the be of donald trump and third im willing to give evidence and details how we carried that out. You know, i tend to agree what he admits to is appalling and this is something, Barbara Mcquade, he admits to these crimes over the course of years and years, yet Michael Cohen is in deep. Hes in big trouble. Can he save himself . Through this process . Is there something that he can give them to perhaps mitigate what hes facing now at this point . And what are you seeing as the possibilities . Potentially, yes. Emily reported yesterday they just started talking with Michael Cohen and prosecutors last week. So the first task is lets get this plea done, and so the conversations im sure resulted in the culmination of that Plea Agreement yesterday, but it appears they have not yet had time to probe all of his knowledge of the 17year relationship hes had with President Trump. I imagine part of that reason is it wasnt until this monday that the judge, retired judge serving as the special master, completed her Privilege Review of all the items taken in the search of Michael Cohens office. Its really not until the prosecutors have their arms around all of those documents theyre able to confront him and probe his knowledge of all of those things. My guess is, now is the time theyll sit down with him over a series of debriefings and talk
about all of those thing lanny davis mentioned including the president s knowledge of the hacking and encouragement of it. If he can deliver that kind of information and it can be corroborated, really devastating for the president. I imagine thats coming in the coming months. He really has until december when sentencesing is scheduled to provide that information and get a reduction in that scientistants range of 3 1 2 to 5 years, could be down to probation. He has an additional statute to provide that continuing information. The start of a cooperation with Michael Cohen. I have to jump in, mika. Its absolutely possible and i warn people not to assume just because Michael Cohen entered into a Plea Agreement without a Cooperation Agreement apparent from its face. He still may be presently cooperating, planning to cooperate and the critical information, he only recently started talking to prosecutors. Prosecutors need weeks maybe
even months to debrief a defendant like Michael Cohen or a cooperating witness before they decide to cooperate him and vet him making sure his story is accurate and truthful. Only then will they even consider granting that precious 5k1. From this Point Forward prosecutors are very, very cautious purchasers of the testimony of Michael Cohen, and might back out of the deal at any time if they decide hes not truthful and not give him the benefit of his bargain. Its very important to realize that he may be cooperating, and he may cooperate in the future. Its absolutely true that defendants can cooperate even after sentencing under the rules, and itsals important to know that Cooperation Agreements are often not public. Its often the case that even at sentencing we will address a defendants cooperation at side
bar away from open court and away from the ears of anyone who might hear because its too d k dangerous to make these kind of things public as a matter of routine. Wow. Well get to how history will look at this in a moment. First, the politics reporters shared inside thinking of those around President Trump. The New York TimesMichael Schmidt tweeted when cohen raid went down it opened up a big second front in trumps legal wars. Trump lawyers always feared it more than mueller, because they had no handle on his legal exposure and they never thought they got straight answers from trump on the extent of what he did with cohen. John roberts tweeted, source close to Donald Trump Tells fox news, remember, the president cannot be indicted, while Maggie Haberman added trumps folks are worried about impeachment more than before. The thinking, tangible, not theoretical and it didnt come from mueller. Does not mean it will happen, but this has moved to a different stage in their minds, and what about the minds of lawmakers on capitol hill . Kasie hunt, is there reaction, are people going to finally step up, who weve been surprised to hear them go so silent given all the different stages of this presidency when republicans could have really come forward and said, you know what . No. This is wrong. Mika, i almost hesitate to say this but i did get a text yesterday evening from one member of congress who simply calmed it a dumpster fire. A republican who said that this is kind of in some ways partially what they expected but also beyond what anybody thought could nap a single day or even i think it was the span of an hour. Maybe an hour that this news came out. There have always been in these kind of behindthescenes, you know, never trump circles that still do exist in washington. This sense that, well, you know, maybe the legal system would
solve the Republican Partys Trump Problem for them. Now we are so far past that. The Republican Party is inextricably linked to donald trump. They essentially made their bed. The base of the party is with the president. They are not necessarily with these lawmakers and that puts incredible pressure on republican members of congress. I know jon meacham talked about this before as the historian in the room. Remember, what shifted the ground in watergate was Republican Voters who turned against president nixon. That in turn put pressure on the republican members of congress, who ultimately were the ones that swung the process against the president. So republicans in Congress Still have an incredible amount of power, but it is not clear to me yet they will exercise it in opposition of this president and possible it may take more than what we saw yesterday. That will be fascinating to watch. You know, its so interesting, elise jordan, because the news last night seemed to swallow up trumps rally. Youd want to country to the rally to see what the president was saying in reaction to everything, but everything was so big that they kept cutting away, at least most of the networks i was watching, kept cutting away from him because there was too much important news. Yet, though, elise, what you see there are lots of Trump Supporters shouting, hollering, cheering for him, and the question is, this is his base. Will the base be moved . Well, mika, the short answer is, no. Its very baked in as of now, and is not going to change that donald trump is indeed a scumbag. Voters know that. They do not expect him to be the kind of man who treats his wife with any decency and dignity, and that is known, and isnt going to necessarily move the most hardcore voters. However, i would say that you
have a lot of women voters who arent exactly happy to have ever had to vote for donald trump in the first place. They just were not necessarily fans of Hillary Clinton and while they might have voted for donald trump, this isnt the kind of behavior that makes them excited to keep supporting his party. And you look at the Republican Party, big picture, just how they have lost completely any credibility as a moral force for virtue as they continue to lie and deny that what donald trump has done is wrong. So as of now, it might just be political corruption. It might be campaign corruption, but you look at what there is to come and still looming, especially with mike flynn and we still have no idea what mike flynn, what he has to say. What he told muellers team in order to get such a great deal. Theres so many unknowns that this is really just the tip of the iceberg. Jon meacham, at this stage in the presidency, whats the historical parallel and if there isnt one, thats fine, but put this in context as to exactly how bad this day was for donald trump and this white house. I think the closest parallel is, does go back to watergate. Goes back to the summer of 1973 when things, be the Chain Of Events, they began unfolding that ultimately showed in the summer of 74 that nixon had done something not unlike what President Trump is accused of by his own lawyer in the plea deal, which is, nixon was on tape orchestrating a coverup using federal agencies to block one another to try to keep the heat away from his own white houses political espionage arm. And ultimately what broke the nixon presidency, and this is
important, i think, is a combination, really, of three things. One was, his own lawyer turned on him. Sound familiar . John w. Dean, white House Counsel. Secondly, the revelation of more evidence than you can possibly one could possibly have imagined, which was Alexander Butterfield revealing that nixon had in one of the most ka lousily stupid maneuvers in history had taped himself. Besides that, mrs. Lincoln, how was the play . Richard nixon would tape himself. We just Dont Know In Trump world what possible evidence there could be that, whether its tapes or memos or testimony. We just dont know. And third was the fact that he actually was, in fact, guilty. And there was a bit there was a common sense recognition of this after the Supreme Courtruled in late july of 1974 that he had to hand over the tapes and he was gone within about two weeks. Heres one of the questions that sort of brings the political and the legal together, and we dont know the answer to this. There is the Legal Process, and an open question about whether a president , a sitting president can be indicted and tried. Theres opinion on it, but its very mixes. The Supreme Court has never ruled on this. The politics of impeachment is very much about that. From Andrew Johnson to bill clinton, to nixon, the nature of impeachment is that a high crime and misdemeanor is really whatever majority of the house decides it is at any given moment. Its a phrase of gerald fords. So impeachment is a different thing than the indictment question. My own bent and jonathan and the other wos know better, is that the question whether you could indict a sitting president seems to me to be a matter that the Supreme Court may have to rule
on before this drama enters its fifth act. All right. We need to get Jonathan Turley on that and we will right after the break, and we havent even gotten to Paul Manafort. Everyone stay with us. Still ahead on morning joe, is one trump associate admitted his guilt, another was judged for his. Paul manafort was convicted by a jury of his peers for bank and tax fraud. Well run through that case and get to all of the political implications on capitol hill. You are watching morning joe. Well be right back. So you have, your headphones, chair, new laptop, 24 7 tech support. Yep, thanks guys. I think he might need some support. Yes. Start them off right, with the School Supplies they need at low prices all summer long. Like these for only 2 or less at office depot officemax. Mom okay we need to get all your School Supplies today. School. Grade. Done. Done. Hit the Snooze Button and get low prices on School Supplies all summer long. Like these for only 2 or less at office depot officemax. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Like these for only 2 or less try zyrtec®. Its starts working hard at hour one.