Greeted three american detainees who were freed from north korea back to the united states. Violence in the middle east is unraveling. 248 hours after trump officially pulled the plug on the iran nuclear deal, israel said it attacked dozens of iranian tarts inside neighboring syria. Trumps troubles at home are also spiraling. New questions today as new details surface over payments that his personal Attorney Michael Cohen took from companies for potential access to the president. Cohen seemed unphased. Todays Washington Post headline quotes cohen as saying, im crushing i. How Michael Cohen, touting his access to President Trump convinced companies to pay millions. Joining us with the latest from the white house is jeff bennett. Jeff, the president has he left or is he leaving. He hasnt left just yet. On his way. He has a night set up for a rally when all of these things are going on in washington . Thats right. And the white house still isnt answering questions about Michael Cohen. On the surface you would expect the white house to want to smack down any notion that someone close to the president was engaged in a pay for play scheme as michael avenatti, Stormy Danielss attorney is indicating. But shrz referred all of those questions to the president s outside counsel. Rudy giuliani says the president did not know about payments cohen can received. To be fair, Michael Cohen isnt the first person to capitalize on connections to people in power. Sure. Whats not normal though is that cohen was operating in secret, right, he didnt make his activity public by hanging a shingle as a will beyist. We still dont know exactly what cohen promised the companies, whether he was able to deliver or if he just duped various companies into thinking he was the key to navigating the Trump White House when in fact he probably wasnt. U. N. One thing we know for sure is on a day when the white house would rather us focus on the return of three detainees from north korea we are talking about Michael Cohen. You can see how Michael Cohen is a drag on the overall trump agen agenda. We dont know where that money has gone. We dont no whether the president new that Michael Cohen was selling some sort of access to him. And we dont know the Korean Company said it was for Accounting Services. We dont know why Michael Cohen would be involved in any of that. Jeff bennett for us from the white house. Lets look at all the companies that we know of that have paid Michael Cohens firm essential consultants. A quick reminder by the way that the president s personal attorney opened a bank account at First Republic bank just three weeks before the election. The bank account is linked to a company set up by cohen called essential consultants which was also set up just before the election. What we know is that money from that account was used to play stephanie clifford, aka Stormy Daniels 130,000. For those of you who thought that was the biggest part of the story, jokes on you. Nbc news reviewed some of the documents about cohens finances which were provided by standards attorney, michael avenatti, this is a Treasury Department investigation into how cohens Financial Information was leaked. Back to the money. That account received at least 4. 4 million from some big name companies. A large amount came from a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant novartis. They issued several statements, the most recent of which the company made a mistake by agreeing to a one year deal in which they paid him 100,000 a month for 12 months. They wanted him to advise them how trump with a approach health care. They also say cohen approached them. But novartis realized he might be able to advise on health care. They also said they realized this but couldnt terminate the contract and paid him the entire 1. 2 million. Novartis also admitted it was contacted by Robert Muellers office in november and has cooperated fully. Whatever i think i know, mueller contacted this. In november and probably has much more information than i know. At t, we know that it paid cohen 600,000. Like novartis, at t also put out several statements trying to explain why they had hired the president s personal attorney through a company that had been established a few weeks before the election. They said he was a consultant for them and wanted to get, quote, insights into understanding the new administration. They say they hired cohen in early 2017. All right. Heres the issue. At t has been trying to merge with time warner. Even before the election. They are currently involved in an antitrust u. S. Suit with the Justice Department because they are working to complete the 85 billion deal. Interestingly, trump very much opposed the deal before at t paid Michael Cohen, but after they hired him he said he didnt want to get involved. Listen. At t is buying time warner, and thus cnn, a deal we will not approve in my administration because its too much concentration of power in the hands of too few. Im not going to get involved in litigation. But personally, i have always felt that that was a deal thats not good for the country. I think your pricing is going to go up. I dont think it is a good deal for the country. But im not going to get involved. Its litigation. Keep in mind, during the campaign he actually promised to make sure the deal didnt go through. After the money was paid he is saying he is not getting involved in litigation. Unclear what thats all about. Now lets talk about Columbus Nova that paid cohen half a million dollars. It made eight payments through august of 2017. Its allegedly controlled in part by a wealthy russian named vickor vekselberg. In a statement the company said its owned and controlled by americans. We know so many of that is true because the firms ceo is an american, also happens to be the cousin of vex vek. Cohen actually plet tmet the tw them at trumps inauguration. Now vekselberg denies he has a contractual relationship with cohen or his firm. Vekselberg is one of the richest men in russia. He is an oligarch sanctioned by the u. S. Last month. Earlier this queer he was stopped and questions for agents working for Robert Mueller according to the New York Times. We should note he hasnt been accused of any wrongdoing. We should also note you cant be an oligarch in russia without ties to putin. Back to cohens essential consultants, it got 150,000 from a Company CalledKorea Aerospace industries in november of 2017. The New York Times reports the company partnered with Lockheed Martin trying to nab a several billion dollar contract with the u. S. Air force that contract has yet to be awarded n. A statement, Korea Aerospace says cohens company was hired for Legal Consulting considering accounting. When did he become an expert on accounting. All of this is confusing. On top of all of that, the wall street journal reports he was paid pie a lobbying firm to deliver clients to them. One of them happened to have ties to Jared Kushner and his family business. Joining me wall street Journal National reporter julie bike wits. What is this about . This is all separate from everything you just discussed. Mr. Cohen had a standing relationship with a giant lobbying firm, Squire Patton boggs to deliver them clients. We know from Court Documents he did deliver five clients to them. We have been trying to research exactly who those clients are. One of the ones we found is a firm called u. S. Immigration fund. As you mentioned thats a really Interesting Company because its tied up in an investigation thats been going on for months about the Kushner Companies. That of course is Jared Kushner, adviser to the president and soninlaw of the president , his family company. And they have used the u. S. Immigration fund to find investor pieces over seas. Federal prosecutors have been looking at the propriority of that for a while. These are the ev 5 visas. We have talked about them in the past. It allows certain Foreign Investors and their families to apply for permanent residency through green cards. They have got to investment in a universal enterprise and in theory they are creating or preserving american jobs. There was some controversy around the Kushner Family peddeling these types of visas at some point. You know, some sort of connection to Jared Kushner. Exactly. So early last year, nicole meyer, who is Jared Kushners sister and tied in with the Kushner Companies was on a u. S. Immigration fundsponsored investor trip over to china. And there were some interesting reports out of that sort of session over there that federal investigators have been looking at for months. And that is whether she was mentioning President Trump, her familys ties to the administration. There is some reporting that the president s image was shown at the forum. We know that investigators have been looking at that for months. And actually, as we reported yesterday, they have obtained some video footage of what exactly she said at that investor forum. Julie, thanks for your reporting on this. On one hand its very helpful and thorough reporting. On the other hand my little brain cant take all of these connections that Michael Cohen is involved in that guy is something else. The charts are really important here. They really charts help us these days. Thanks very much. I want to get back to all the money that was paid the noik and his skulling firm. There you go. Thats actually not all of it but its most of it. Because this is one of those things in which it is really, really important to follow the money. Want to bring in Elizabeth Holtzman a former congresswoman who voted to impeach president nixon as a member of the house judiciary committee. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. In fact, you dont have to be a lawyer or a prosecutor or a legislator to look at this Michael Cohen thing and say dont know whats illegal about it. If anything, it certainly feels unethical. If there is a swamp that needs to be drained like turning over a rock and seeing all the dugs crawling out from underneath it. This is not going to be ended soon. As i was listening to you talking about the at t interest in merging i go right back to watergate. All of a sudden, the itt merger. Yeah. That i mean, the attorney general lied about that, lied that nixon had called him. The attorney general was prosecuted and convicted of a crime. And all of that was part of the watergate mess. So that even these little strands you dont know how big they can blow up. You and i have been talking more than a year about these little strands all over the place. A lot of dpouters and critics have said these things have no connection to each other. A whole lot of coincidence about seychelles and Michael Cohen and this meeting and that meeting. Suddenly its all starting to come together. At t and novartis said they were contacted by muellers people and they talked to them in november and december. Which means mueller knows a lot more than what i just laid out for the viewers. The point is, too, maybe they dont all come together at the bottom. But they come together at the top, with the one person who is involved in giving illegal directions or illegal statements or engage in illegal acts. Thats what we saw in watergate. It all went up to nixon. We dont know anything about that yet here but these are very questionable problems. People wonder why the Southern District of new york went after Michael Cohens office and home. Now it comings out this guy has connections to all sorts of people that here to forewe didnt know were connected. Its complete speculation but vekselberg this Russian Oligarch pays Michael Cohen money. Well, is this money really a way had is this a way of funneling money to donald trump himself . Is this a payoff to donald trump . Or is this really money to cohen . And cohen, who is hiring him for Accounting Services . Exactly. Who is hairing him for expertise on health care . Thats ridiculous. And had he when they see he is incompetent, they keep paying him. Really . At ts explanation is more believable. But Accounting Services. I have heard talk that you might be someone who might be interested in running for attorney general of new york . Im speaking about it. I certainly have been fighting, standing up to president s. I have been a prosecutor for eight years, taken on some big dragons and tigers. I certainly am qualified. Whether i ultimately decide to do this is another question. We believe you are qualified. Come tell us when you decide to do that. Liz holtzman is a former house judiciary member who voted to impeach richard nixon. Has a whole lot of depth and knowledge of these issues. Up next, fears of a war between iran and israel escalate after the two countries issue missile and air strikes on the heels of President Trump can cancelling the iran nuclear deal. This is the most violent encounter between the two countries to date. You are watching msnbc. Ne. Ne. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy. Everything. And that 2 cash back adds up to thousands of dollars each year. So i can keep growing my business in big leaps whats in your wallet . But their nutritional needs remain instinctual. Thats why theres purina one true instinct. Real meat 1. 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It comes a day after President Trump cancelled the iran nuclear deal. Israel says Iranian Forces in syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli Military positions in the occupied Golan Heights, which is right here between the two countries on the border with syria. Israel says some of the rockets bra shot down. No injuries were reported. Retaliated with air strikes against 50 iranian targets in syria. The white house is defending israels right to defend itself and condemning irans provocative rocket attacks against israelis. Lets tour some of the parties involved. First of all, syria and iran. They have been allies hold on syria and iran have been allies 40 years. The syrian president has relied on irans military and Financial Support to survive these seven years of civil war. But when Vladimir Putin sent Russian Air Force troops in to back up the syrian iranian war effort the assad regime turned the tables on the syrian opposition. Assad is now all but certain to win the civil war thats been going on in syria for many years. In the process the iranians strengthened their actual military presence on the ground to prop up the syrian government. But that is annate ma to israel and Benjamin Netanyahu which is why they have been escalating its action in the syrian war. The flash point for this conflict could be the Golan Heights here. A syrian territory that Israel Occupied in the six day war in 1967. This is strategic. It is called the heights. It overlooks northern israel. It also overlooks the damascus plain in syria. Which is why syria wants it back. If you control the Golan Heights you control this air of syria. Assad is in no position to take that area back but iran and syria jointly are putting to the a new front to take this from israel this. Over here is lebanon. Thats going to be important in this discussion in just a minute. Cal perry joins us from london to try to make sense of this. Cal, the israelis and the iranians have sort of been going at this generally speaking through proxies for th