Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Potential payment to Kathleen Mcdougal before it took place. So that is obviously at odds with the president saying that he learned about it later. Still lots of questions here, lots of unresolved issues, and the white house, a stressful day at the lectern for sarah sanders, i think, given the number of questions which she really did not have anything that she could go to beyond the prepared statement of he has done nothing wrong, there are no charges against him. Kelly, thanks very much for that. Kelly odonnell at the white house. Michael cohens guilty plea sheds light on the timeline of Hush Money Payments made to women who President Trump is accused of having affairs with before the campaign. This Isnt The Salacious Gossip it once was, this is part of a pattern of trump. According to the new yorker, Playboy ModelKaren Mcdougal signed a Nondisclosure Agreement with American Media incorporated, the parent company
of the national enquirer. She received 150,000 owned by trump friend david pecker to keep quiet about her alleged affair with trump. Two months later, october 7th, americans heard the access Hollywood Tape in which mr. Trump brags about assaulting women. Later that month on the 27th, Michael Cohen paid adult film star Stormy Daniels 130,000 to keep her affair with the president ial candidate quiet. The next day daniels siengned a Nda Covering The Affair and the payment. 11 days after that donald trump was elected president of the United States. He created fake invoices, the same day the president asked james comey to let the flynn matter go. On april 5th of this year the president told reporters he didnt know about the Payments Cohen arranged. A month later on may 3rd, he finally acknowledged he did know
about the payments, which cohen said were meant to affect the outcome of the election. To get into this, joining me now is attorney liz holtzman, the former new york congresswoman who voted to impeach president nixon. Her new book The Case For Impeaching Trump is wildly relevant and out this october. Also with us is Barbara Mcquade. Before i get into the crux of where we stand right now, barbara, i have to address one matter we just heard President Trump talk about in his interview. This allegation that he makes that President Obama did this, they are completely separate matters. The 375,000 fine that was paid by the Obama Administration were about Campaign Filing irregularities. This is about a conspiracy, a Felony Conspiracy to keep something of Public Interest out of the way of the American People to influence the election. The idea that the president is conflating those is ridiculous. Yeah, this is just another
reason. In this instance this was an effort to cover up information that could be damaging to the campaign. This is criminal in nature. It involves criminal intent, which is not present in those civil infractions you just mentioned. Liz, its debatable whether or not the president , a sitting president can be indicted, but lets just go to 50,000 feet here. You and i have been talking about this from the beginning. I feel that something changed last night in terms of the legitimacy of this presidency. Thats a thing that gets under Donald Trumps skin, but its true. His presidency lost a great deal of legitimacy on the legal front last night. Right. And i think the key is his involvement and the people around him. Now we see the walls coming tumbling down. You have Paul Manafort, his campaign manager, convicted in a trial by a jury of his peers. Jury of his peers. The judge was a reagan appointee. No question that the judge was very tough on the prosecutors
and here we have donald trump attacking that conviction and also saying that manafort, strong, brave, hasnt given in. Didnt break. Thats the wrong signal. What hes doing is saying dont cooperate to manafort. This is a kind of obstruction of justice and its horrifying. The other thing thats happened is that his campaign, his personal lawyer has been involved in pleading guilty to a Campaign Violation felony, a crime. The difference between this and obama is not only what Barbara Mcquade just said, but the president was personally involved. You know that obama wasnt involved in filling out the forms that were filed for Campaign Finance stuff. But thats what the issue is here. The president was personally involved. And Michael Cohen has a lot more to say about the president. Not only that he was personally involved in this apparent criminal activity, but there could be other things. He knows about the russia influence, he knows about
whether trump knew beforehand, there are intimations that trump new beforehand about the trump tower meeting. Thats vital because that could be another kind of criminal conspiracy and were getting very close to the issue of treason there. If youre cooperating with a Foreign Government to undermine our elections, this is very serious stuff. Which is why, barbara, a lot of people think the russia stuff is still going to be more interesting than payoffs to the two women. The issue here, though, is that he is sending, the president is sending a message to manafort. Manafort rolled the dice on the first trial. The second trial a lot of experts say doesnt stand the likelihood for going as well for Paul Manafort but the president does seem to be sending a message, hold the line and dont give up anything. Which leads people to believe theres something to give up. I think were at a critical moment in the manafort case. I can understand he might have thought Lets Roll The Dice in the first trial and see what happens because i get a second bite at the apple. If i were his lawyer today, i would be advising Paul Manafort to consider going to the Special Counsel and offering to cooperate in exchange for a global resolution of his cases. A dismissal of the washington, d. C. , case and motion for reduction in his sentence in the virginia case in cooperation. I think Robert Mueller would go for that. Even if Paul Manafort doesnt have anything Thattin Crimin Ic the president directly, Robert Muellers mission is to get to the truth. What happened with russian interference in to your election. Paul manafort was involved at a very crucial time. He was present at that june 2016 meeting in trump tower. He was there during the time emails were hacked and distributed. Did he know anything about that, was there any coordination . I think there would be great value talking to Paul Manafort about that. This is the moment where he has the goods to deliver. I can understand why President Trump is very nervous and trying to send those messages at this time. A lot of americans are looking to congress to help out here. You were a member of congress during watergate and you remember the moments in which
republican Members Of Congress started to fall against Richard Nixon. Were just not seeing that. Well, were going to see that, i think, as time goes by here. I mean its shocking if you stop to think that somebody has now made an allegation, sworn in court to the fact that he committed a crime and that the president was personally involved in that. That a president of the United States is now being accused of committing a criminal act is very, very serious. We dont want to be there. Nobody, whether youre a democrat or republican or green party or purple party, whatever it is, nobody wants to see that. Republicans came over when the facts were just overwhelming. I think the facts are going to be overwhelming here too. The difference, though, back then is Richard Nixon was starting to affect their chances, because he was becoming wildly unpopular with the American People. Weve got a problem here in that many of these republican Members Of Congress are less popular than the president. Yes, but also the American People are the ones who vote. Remember, Richard Nixon won in 1972 with one of the biggest landslides in american history. A year and a half later, those people who had voted for him and said, you know, i made a mistake. Here are the facts. Whats more important is the rule of law and our country, and not a single president and not a single party. The American People will see that. Will everybody . No. But by the end, sure, nixon had a quarter of the American People, but threequarters of the American People said no president is above the law. I think the American People will say that here too. Liz holtzman, thank you very much. Barbara mcquade. Liz voted to impeach Richard Nixon. Barbara is a former attorney for the Eastern District of michigan. In the wake of Michael Cohens guilty plea, Many Senate Democrats are calling on republicans to suspend the nomination of the Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Ill ask alabamas senator doug jones if he joins the ranks of his colleagues in that. Youre watching msnbc. Before you and your rheumatologist
move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. Xeljanz xr is a oncedaily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts, and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. Your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. Tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. Dont let another morning go by without talking to your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. Fully vet a Lifetime Appointment to the Supreme Court. The possibility of criminal withdrawn doing by the president , combined with existing doubts that Brett Kavanaugh believes a president can be investigated, demand further review of this situation. Brett kavanaughs hearing should be delayed. But heres what republicans who support moving ahead with the Nomination Process have to say. Is it fair for kavanaugh to be confirmed under this cloud considering that the president s been named a conspirator in the cohen case . I dont see the connection. I dont think it has anything to do with judge kavanaugh. Should the senate delay kavanaughs hearings . No. Because of the cloud that hes under now . No. Why not . What cloud are you talking about . That has gotten zero you want to remove the president from office based on the guilty plea. It doesnt work that way. Im joined by the democratic senator from alabama, doug
jones. Thank you for being with us. My pleasure. So youve Got Feinstein calling for a delay of the hearings. Youve Got Feinstein, schumer, shaheen and hirono cancelling their meetings with kavanaugh. You dont have a meeting scheduled yet but you had said you were going to meet with Brett Kavanaugh. Are you still going to go ahead with that meeting . If the schedule holds, then yes, im Going Forward with it. Im not going to cancel that. Ive had a process that i want to try to meet with him as soon after the hearing as possible. We hope to try to continue to do that. Im like everybody else around here on the democratic side of the aisle. I think he need to push a pause button and let this play out just a little bit. Couple that with the fact we havent got the full set of documents. I think it only makes sense. This is a very serious nomination. Every Supreme Court nomination is. We need as much information as we can for a Lifetime Appointment. So id hit that pause button for a little bit and let this play out some. Let me just parse that a little bit. When you say hit the pause button, that would mean at the moment weve got scheduled hearings starting on September 4th which Chuck Grassley has said will go on. When youre talking about pause, youre talking about pause on that, dont start those Hearings On September 4th . Thats exactly what im saying. Senator grassley asked for documents from the white house and the National Archives said it would take until october to get the records that he requested, that the republicans requested. Lets at least pause and get all of those documents in there. Those are the ones that the republicans have asked for. Lets get those. Its still not complete record, but i think thats only fair. It will give some of this other stuff time to play out a little bit. Let the dust settle and see where things go before we move ahead. I thought it was interesting what Lindsey Graham said, he said what cloud are you talking about. The cloud obviously comes down to whether or not this president is in greater legal jeopardy than he was 24 hours ago. I think while theres a lot of debate as to whether you can indict a sitting president , there isnt a lot of debate that the president seems to be in
greater legal jeopardy after Michael Cohen named him as a coconspirator in the election matter. So what Brett Kavanaugh has to say about how you deal with president s who are under a cloud of suspicion i think is more important than senator graham gave it credit for being. Well, i think thats true. Certainly he is the president is under a cloud. Everything that happened today were real bombshells. And it is certainly undermining the presidency at this point. We need to see how this goes. You cant ever determine where this will end up. But i do think it raises the stakes a good bit on that portion of the kavanaugh record. People need to examine all aspects of it. People have been focused on it to begin with, but now i think the stakes are raised. Senator doug jones, thank you for joining us, sir. My pleasure, thank you. Lets have a quick look at the East Room Of The White House where in just a few minutes john a. Chapman will receive the
posthumous medal of valor. I know some of you tweet me youre frustrated when we go to the white house for events. I will beg your indulgence when it comes to Medal Of Honor recipients. These are american heroes who do deserve your time. Lester holt joins me next to talk about his interview with chapmans wife. Youre watchings in nbc. Hi im joan lunden. This just in, investigators in New York State have subpoenaed Michael Cohen as they look into possible crimes committed by the trump foundation. This is according to the Associated Press which cites a spokesperson for the governors tax department. Nbc news is working to confirm this subpoena. As the a. P. Reports, cohen could be a significant source of information for State Investigators who are looking into President Trump or his charity broke state law or lied about their tax liability. An Important Note here, anyone charged with a state crime cannot be pardoned by the president. Any minute now, President Trump is expected to presenting the Medal Of Honor, our nations highest military award, to a man who was left be