Least for now, at flooes for a day, trump Resoutheasted Lashing Out in a dramatic and public way. Instead, wednesday was a moment for calculation and conversation, a pause for a rattled administration. According to white house officials and outside advisors familiar with the discussions. Michael cohens lawyer is making it clear his client is ready, willing, and able to share what he knows with robert mueller. Jonathan lamere is standing by captures the State Of Affairs in his latest title more dirt on President Trump . Lanny davis made a series of Television Appearances today. Here is what he said this morning. Is he hoping for a pardon from President Trump . Not only is not hoping for it, he would not accept a pardon. He considers a pardon from somebody who acted so corruptly as president to be something he would never accept. Earlier this evening, davis
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Those denounced in the moment. This is a white house that is still reeling. Its gone to the president , as well. According to our reporting, hes been far more subdued the last day or so. Hes distracted. Angry behind closed doors about what happened. Particularly on the cohen matter. He was able to sort of maintain at the rally. He didnt speak about either man while on stage in west virginia. But today, of course, we saw him start venting. He started on twitter. Including the tweet about if youre looking for a good lawyer, dont go to Michael Cohen. I think its one of his better efforts of late. And then, you know, he continued on ward. We have the moment of sara sanders the repetition of the president didnt do anything wrong. Hes not charged of a crime. The issue is with our reporting theres not much of a Battle Plan There yet. They put together some talking points. They barely circulated them. Rudy is golfing in scotland. Relatively m. I. A. Today compared to what he usually is when hes trying to hit back against something threatening the president. Theyre still reeling. Peter, your paper was fresh reporting tonight that this was a consequential event yesterday. Two of them, actually, and this is a subdued president adding to the sense the feeling of moment. No question about it. This is a day that sort of put the question of impeachment on the table in a way it hadnt been before. Any white house, of course, would be reeling as jonathan describes given that political reality. Now that the Republican Congress is going to necessarily take up that kind of action against him but it reinforces the consequences and the stakes involved in this fall Midterm Elections that now is on the table. Allegations against the president Go Beyond The Russia Case where there has been, you know, no firm conclusion by prosecutors yet of, you know, allegations the president has done participated in something that is a crime by his personal lawyer. That changes things. And that now, for the next two months, until the election, youre going to hear a lot of discussion about what the proper remedy is. Sara sanders says the president hasnt been charged with any crimes. This is the same white house that said the president cant be charged with any crimes. Under the constitution, their theory, anyway, and the Justice Department prevailing policy is the president is not capable of being indicted while in office. Thats not telling us anything. The real question, again, comes to congress and the political process and the midterms being held in the next couple of months. Carol, youve covered Law Enforcement and justice for a long time. Perhaps without knowing how exciting the beat might become someday. You have your own reporting for the Washington Post tonight on Michael Cohen specifically. Walk us through the condensed version of what he might know and what might have motivated this decision by him. What he might know is something his attorney has described in many different ways over the course even of today. So sometimes thats a moving target, brian. But as for what has happened with his Plea Agreement, it came together rather rapidly starting after basically late july. Its not very common for a Plea Agreement to come together in two, three, four weeks. Thats really what happened here. And he was under a lot of pressure. He was facing potentially decades in prison. Based on charges that he lied on Numerous Bank forms. Line of credit. He lied to get, you know, millions of dollars in loans. And he also faced the potential threat that his family was in danger because some of those loans were ones his wife might have actually been a part of or a party to. And what he decided, and a lot of people would say he made the right call, when he decided was to go for the cap on the amount of time hed spend in prison. Instead of 40 or 50 years, hes limited this to five. Hes agreed to plead to three different categories of charges. And the weakest of the charges is the most explosive. The Campaign Finance violations. Jonathan, theres no other way to ask this except to ask it. And that is what is the level of concern among the folks you talk to that this president ial term does not end at its organic calendar scheduled ending but ends before that . Theres certainly some republicans quietly who are wondering about that. Those closest to the president arent ready to go there yet. They are at their battle stations. This is a big day. This is a big moment. They have a lot of stuff they need to wade through in the weeks and months ahmed. Theres still the president himself, though, frustrated and perhaps a little subdued or
distracted. Hes not one who is going to throw in the towel. Weve seen him hes most unpredictable when his back is against the wall. Remember the access Hollywood Tape it was two days later before the second president ial debate with Hillary Clinton when he surprised the press corps. Including me with a bill clinton attackers and a really dramatic turn around to change the conversation. So a dark moment. Certainly. It would not predict that again but certainly he has stuff that hell find a way to change the conversation to move forward. That said, this is something the impeachment word is sort of resurfacing here in the last couple of days as peter started to say a short time ago. Whether the democrats want to embrace that idea, if they are to capture the house, assuming they dont control the senate as well, which seems unlikely. Steve bannon said to me and others repeatedly lets make it about impeachment. It would make the stakes high
enough for republicans. They think it can be a miscalculation for democrats. The worries would be the idea if the democrats control the house and have subpoena power, itll be investigation, investigation, investigation. Anyone mentioned Donald Trumps name will be hauled to the committee. Hey, peter, i want to play a piece of video. It transpired during the 9 00 p. M. Hour tonight on fox news. Ainsley was doing what he called a debrief. She was appearing with sean hannity talking about her big interview with the president today for air tomorrow morning on his favorite morning program, Fox And Friends and this moment happened. He mentioned Pardoning Manafort and you have Michael Cohens attorney. He mentioned that . He did. So that happened. Peter, what are we to make of that . Well, you know, it would be explosive thing for him to do. You know, every president who has waded into, you know, the investigations of people around him with a pardon ends up paying a political price. They usually do it after their last election when theyre on the way out of office. Thats when george h. W. Bush pardoned casper and bill clinton pardoned rich and others. For President Trump to do it in the middle of the first term and the middle of the Midterm Election season. To pardon the person who was his Campaign Chairman just convicted on a number of serious tax and bank fraud violations, that would be a political fire storm. May not accomplish what he might want it to accomplish. If he doesnt want hes praising Paul Manafort today for not breaking, for not, you know, giving the prosecutors information, in effect. Giving a pardon wouldnt necessarily prevent that happening. Then Paul Manafort would no longer have the right to avoid testifying because of selfincrimination. Prosecutors would be able to put him on the stand the next day and say you have to tell us everything there is to know about President Trump. Carol, is it fair to assume that donald trump has not done Due Diligence as a client and told his legal Team Everything mr. Cohen might know because in plain english, mr. Cohen handled just about everything. Whatever the president s effort to diminish him tonight that we showed earlier. And a lot of it is unpleasant business. You know im so glad you asked me that, brian. It is something that perplexed me for months. And im just stunned talking to the sources that i talk to or close to the president who say, you know, weve never really asked him. Its kind of uncomfortable. I mean, every lawyer its like lawyering defense 101. You go to your client and you
say tell me everything. Tell it to me now. Lets figure it out. Then we can deal with it. It seems like the people who would most likely be able to really give the president a good defense dont really know every detail. And its odd. Ill also mention one more thing that is odd to me, brian you raised it at the beginning of the program. Did the president know . Didnt the president know . The tape you played where Michael Cohen is talking to the president about purchasing the rights to Playboy Center fold Karen Mac Dougalls story. Theres two women here. Theres a lot of information to suggest and evidence and sources certainly to confirm this. The president knew about the Karen Mac Dougall story. Knew it was out there. Knew that david pecker probably bought it. Knew they wanted to try to maybe consider buying it themselves. But what is interesting is that the Stormy Daniels story explodes right in the days before the election. And theres some evidence to suggest that the president may not entirely have known what Michael Cohen was, quote, unquote, fixing at that point. He may not have known all the details. Its a really res intriguing thing. Back to your great question, im just shocked at how few of the defenders, the people who should know what the president knows dont. I cant thank you enough for starting our broadcast off tonight. Our thanks. Coming up for us, how manaforts conviction and cohens plea put the president in a new kind of legal jeopardy. Later, the latest on the Duncan Hunter scandal. One of the president s first supporters now indicted for misusing Campaign Funds. Like the president , he supports the congressman says the Justice Department is on a witch hunt. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a wednesday evening. Ahh. Summer is coming. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. Implicated trump in breaking Campaign Finance laws, the Associated Press was first to report this Afternoon Investigators in New York State issued a subpoena to cohen as investigation into the trump foundation. Cohen reached out to the states tax department. Any State Charges against cohen wouldnt be subject to a pardon by the president. Even though we heard cohens lawyer say cohen is not seeking and would not accept a pardon. Paul manaforts conviction hanging over the white house tonight. Our own writes his nightmare is just starting. 69yearold already facing a lengthy Prison Sentence as he prepares for another and perhaps tougher trial in washington, d. C. He, of course, could change his mind and choose to cooperate at any time. With us to talk about all matters legal related a former federal prosecutor. And arianna berg a former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. A brachblg of the Justice Department that has been in the news once or twice this week cynthia, one of the great words in the law is allocution. Its a fancy thing for what happened yesterday. Michael cohen gets up in open court, his attorneys are seated behind him, in front of him is a federal judge. He says allow what is agreeing. What hes admitting to. What hes copping to. Then he said that about being at the direction of his boss. Person one who went on to become the president of the United States. Were you surprised by that . Is it true that nothing happens by accident in allocution . That must mean the feds knew he was going there well, im sure they knew, but usually in an
allocution you sort of keep things as simple as possible. He obviously felt the need to burn the bridge behind him and just go a little farther. He seems to need to needle trump and have a relationship that he has to fight back even as hes pleading guilty. And, arianna, this Legal Development yesterday kind of collided with the pr narrative that the president and his team has been spooling out. Yes, it did. We cannot overstate the magnitude of what happened yesterday. Particularly with respect to Michael Cohens guilty plea in Federal Court under oath implicating President Trump in the commission of a federal crime. Now, the pr and legal strategy in the past 24 hours of the White House Administration and President Trump has been threefold. To say i didnt do it. If i did it, it wasnt a crime. Even if it was a crime, everyone is doing it. And i guess that the implication of everyone is doing it is therefore we shouldnt care that hes potentially committed a crime. But none of that really distracts from the magnitude of what happened yesterday. Michael cohen said that he committed Campaign Finance violations at the direction of President Trump and for the express purpose of violating of affecting the election results. Cynthia, i want to play for you something that happened On The Air Tonight on cnn. A new york attorney, long time friend of donald trump appeared with chris cuomo tonight. The following took place. Alleging concern the public that the president cant be counted on to tell the truth. I would agree with you. I mean, im a good friend of the
president and i dont condone lying to the public. So thats where we are, cynthia. Jay goldberg who known donald trump for a long time, decades, has to go on Television Tonight and say he doesnt condone lying to the public. The Washington Post estimates he lies about 7. 6 times a day. Theyre going to have to up it after this week. I dont think tlths any question about that. Itll be interesting to see how mueller looks at those lies and what they do to corroborate cohens lies. Because cohen has lied, too. Over the last year or so. There are interesting little nuggets in the indictment about other people in the campaign who knew about the payments to Stormy Daniels and to miss mac dougall and i would predict that now were going to see concentrated effort by this Southern District of new york to interview about everybody to find out exactly who did know
and, of course, do some debriefing of cohen to find out, you know, how exactly theyre going to handle his cooperation. And knowing something about mueller in the way he operates, what is your gut on whether hell regard labor day as this kind of beginning of forced rest period where pencils down, we have to act like nothing is going on until the midterms. Labor day is a day of work in the department of justice. Thats right. Yes. Labor day is a day of work. Theres a difference between not making news and affecting the el