United states with prostitutes peeing on each other in moscow. Its possible, but i dont know. The former head of the fbi, republican, talking about his new book that Everyone Wants their hands on and making a stun assertion about an issue thats at the heart of this criminal probe into trumps link to putin. If theres any doubt as to what you just heard your former fbi director say, im just going to play it for you again. Honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth but i dont know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in moscow in 2013. Its possible. But i dont know. Its possible. Those truly unusual comment comes from james comey as trumps lawyer faces what could be a threat to his career and his freedom with new details coming in as i mentioned this new york courtroom today. A legal fight that could go to the Supreme Court. Whats at stake may include secret tapes of donald trump or his associates. The feds now saying cohen is formerly under criminal investigation. Also telling the court they have evidence supporting this emergency raid on cohen but some of the hottest details are redacted. The feds say theyve spent months probing cohens personal business dealings. And thats not all. Because cohen and trump are challenging this seizure of the evidence, the feds came back blasting today at cohen. They seized this evidence because of his misconduct and they go further saying, this is important, they say today that Michael Cohen doesnt really practice law. And he basically only works for one person anyway. That sounds familiar. It is a concept from the godfather that a former u. S. Senator raised right here on the beat this week. Let me explain the trump organization. Theres a wonderful scene in the godfather where tom hagen is asked about his representation of michael cor le one. I have a very unusual law practice. I have a single client who insists on hearing bad news immediately. I have a single client who insists on hearing bad news immediately. Think about that and this incredible report breaking tonight that donald trump was calling Michael Cohen. Today. This is all about whether cohen equals trump. That was one experts view. Tonight i can tell you the feds agree. They say in these filings under oeths he has exceedingly few clients beyond trump and that he does basically, quote, no legal work. He sends zero emails to trump. This looks bad for cohen. It looks like the effort by Michael Cohen and trump to protect this evidence that the feds already have is backfiring. Its never a good sign when your bodyguard needs a bodyguard or when your lawyer needs a lawyer. Donald trumps lawyer needed a lawyer really badly today. And now the feds say Donald Trumps lawyer doesnt really practice law. Which raises a question that is hanging over all of this and that we can report tonight terrifies trump. If Michael Cohen isnt Donald Trumps lawyer, what is he . Well, in the last five minutes the New York Times has a new report that begins trumps advisers have concluded a wideranging corruption investigation in new york into Michael Cohen poses a greater and more imminent threat to the president than even the special counsels investigation. One man who was in the courtroom today and has this vested interest in the case is my guest, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels. Michael avenotti. Thanks for being here. When you look at Michael Cohen under this type of strain and what the feds said today that hes not really a lawyer, does that ring true to you . Havent you been litigating against each other . This is something that weve been seeing for weeks now. Ive been stating that our case and the likely fallout from it was going to be substantial and was going to be more of a threat to Michael Cohen and the president than the mueller investigation. Ive been saying this for weeks. A lot of people doubted us at first. I dont think theres a lot of people doubting us at this point. Is that because of Stormy Daniels or because of things you learned about Michael Cohen and what he does for trump . I think its both. I think we brought a lot of attention to bear on a number of these issues. I think the waves that occurred on monday, the timing of those, the scope of those are a direct result of a lot of the work that weve done over the last five weeks. But with each passing 24 hours, ari, this matter becomes more and more serious for Michael Cohen and the president. This is not some small investigation that was thrown together. This has the attention of some very, very qualified lawyers in the Southern District of new york. Youre talking about the federal prosecutors bearing down on Michael Cohen today. Youre talking about reading these case files today that really seem to backfire. They took a two by four to Michael Cohens head and said not only your not a good lawyer, youre not really someone who practices law and you do a bunch of other shady things haiding behind your jd. Have you seen a prosecutorial filing like this . Not a lot. Maybe on one other occasion in 18 years. Let me tell you why that is so critically important in this context. If they find that the communications between Michael Cohen and the president were not in furtherance of Michael Cohen practicing law, then there is a high likelihood that those are not Attorney Client privilege communications. You just said something that terrifies the white house. That donald trump knows. I want to put up on the screen this Washington Post headline. Trumps allies worry federal investigators may have already seized these recordings made by cohen. Quote it was his Standard Practice to do it. He recorded business and political conversations. That could be Third Party Verification of things he discussed with people around trump. Could include donald trump. Youre saying that part of the reason why the feds went in today and you were in that courtroom and said Michael Cohen is not really a lawyer is because they want to say those arent really privileged lawyer tapes. Well, if there are tapes or whatever the communications are, but ari, i want to set the stage for your viewers. This is important. Imagine you are communicating with an individual that you believe is your lawyer and that you have privilege with. So youre freewheeling in your communications with him because you think theyre protected under the Attorney Client privilege and you do this for a number of years as it relates to a number of hairy issues. One day the fbi kicks in the door, actually doesnt kick in the door. They knock. Youre kucourteous. They raid his office in his home and obtain these communications. And you find out thats what terrifies him . Matt apuzo who broke the story in the last ten minutes is joining me by phone. Matt, michael was just walking through why Donald Trumps most candid conversations ever might not actually be privileged as he long thought they were. Is that part of what you found in your reporting and why this is scaring them tonight . Yeah, but the bigger problem with the reason this is so scary for people around the president and for the president himself is they dont know whats been taken. So the fbi came in and took all of these records, and they dont know what the fbi has because the search warrants were super broad. They took stuff from a safety deposit box. They took stuff from his cell phones. They took information from his computers. And we dont know whats on it. I dont mean we the reporters dont know. Even the lawyers for Michael Cohen and yeah, youre sort of putting it a little reverse. Donald trump does know the worst things that hes talked to Michael Cohen about since he joined the trump organization. But he doesnt know what evidence sure. Has been taken. Of course, but the flip is, and i want to ask you about this, when you write that they now around trump see this as a greater and more imminent threat to the president than the special counsels investigation, is that based on a view or fear that there are things in the past that Michael Cohen was in on that could be more damaging than the Mueller Probe . I think the view is from both the uncertainty and also from the fact that this puts Michael Cohen in extreme legal jeopardy and the concern, of course, is, well, they felt they had a real understanding of the mueller investigation. They knew where their vulnerabilities were. Where this was headed. They dont know. This is a big unknown for them. Yeah. Im going to bring michael back into this because matt is describing the uncertainty. In my experience with clients, although uncertainty is something we all deal with in life, the clients who get the most nervous are the ones who think they did something theyre worried about people finding out about. I put that frame to you for your remarks, and i want to ask you as well, you said there may be a clue as to when Michael Cohen next has a heat on him and might have to plead the fifth. Tell us about that as well. Let me tell you in a statement made in court today by Michael Cohens counsel. And in fact, this was in a declaration he filed before. I believe he filed it yesterday. Before todays hearing. He attested to the following, ari. He said that the number of documents that were seized that may involve the Attorney Client privilege is in the thousands, if not millions. Those are not my words. Those are his words. Now thats a lot of Attorney ClientPrivileged Communications and, as you stated at the outset, we know that those communications, if they are privileged, or if they believe they were privileged, he only had one client. So its not as if these thousands, if not millions, quote, these are quotes, those communications would all pertain to his work on behalf of the president. Right, which goes back to even if donald trump doesnt do email, you are saying that he, by invoking Attorney Client privilege for that much material is effectively admitting that these were donald trump. When would he in your view, potentially have to plead the fifth . Hes been ordered to appear at 2 00 on monday by the honorable judge wood because she posed a number of questions to his lawyers in court today about Michael Cohens law practice. They couldnt provide answers to in of the most basic questions. She became very frustrated. And she basically ordered them to bring their client, Michael Cohen, to court, 2 00 p. M. This monday so that he could be available to potentially answer her questions from the bench, which cannot be a good sign for Michael Cohen. And it may force him into a position, ari, where he may have to plead the fifth in open court on monday afternoon. Its extraordinary. Michael, youre not a Court Reporter. You are an attorney. You have a side in this case which were always clear to our viewers about. But you sound like a busy Court Reporter who gleaned a lot of good intel at this hearing today. What youre saying is that as soon as monday, there might be a put up or shut up for Michael Cohen to say that on the grounds that he could incriminate himself, he will not speak in open court which has major ramifications for him, for donald trump, for anything that touches the Mueller Probe. This all started with evidence gathered there and obviously for the Stormy Daniels case. I want to turn to something else. These are new docs. This is, right here, some of the key material that the judge knows that we dont yet in court. When there are certain things to support something they can be publicly redacted. So only the judge has it, as you know. When we look here and you see some of these redactions, to me, they sounded like places where the feds were saying we have reason to believe there was ongoing misconduct or concealment that made the raid urgent. What was your interpretation and the significance of this in your view as a lawyer . I have the same interpretation you did. When i saw these documents. I think that one of the reason yes they executed the warrant so quickly or when they did on monday, is they were concerned the documents were going to be destroyed or spoeliated as they say legally and thats one of the reasons they did that. They mentioned in court today that they believe some of the documents that may have been seized could go back as far as 30 years. So, look, this is a lot of documents. And theres probably a lot of potential misconduct in these documents if what weve heard in the past relating to Michael Cohens conduct and his tactics is to be believed. On behalf of Stormy Daniels, who has pushed a lot of this out, what do you say on her behalf today . How does she view all of this . With each passing day she becomes more vindicated relating to the fight that shes conducted. She sacrificed a lot, ari, over the course of this process. Not a lot of people have reported on that. But shes put herself on the line and her family has gone through a tremendous amount. Some day thats going to be reported. The nature of the criticism of the process from your side obehalf of your client, was effectively that it was unfair throughout. That mr. Cohen was not acting in good faith, as the lawyers would say, or worse, was acting improperly or potentially feloniously. Does the pattern the feds are starting to draw in court today support and match that, in your view . 100 consistent. Its exactly what weve been saying. And i think ultimately, its going to be proven by way of these thousands, if not millions, of documents. And let me say this. You showed the video of Michael Cohen sitting on the bench with some friends of his on a Beautiful Day here in new york. Really ironic because while he was doing tharkt, i was in cour listening to judge wood criticize his attorneys for their inability to get simple answers to the most basic questions, and i think on at least two occasions, she asked them if they had access to their client. Client list. No, to their client, to michael, to answer questions. So if this guy had time to sit on a bench and take in the sunshine while his attorneys were in federal court, perhaps he should have been in federal court assisting the judge and giving answers to the questions she posed. Its an extraordinary series of developments youve been in the middle of. You were in court today and busy. I appreciate you coming on the beat tonight. Michael avenotti. We have a lot more, including the most important story other than this i want to get to. Donald trump today issued his first pardon for obstruction of justice. If you dont know about that, thats next. I have an exclusive interview with a man also who literally wrote the rules for bob mueller for the doj. And reaction to this jawdropper from james comey. Honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but i dont know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each nrotr in moscow in 2013. Its friday and we have a fallback friday with some very special guests. Im ari melber. Youre watching the beat. Smuggled booze and dodged the law. Even when they brought you in, they could never hold you down. When i built my family tree and found you, i found my sense of adventure. I set off on a new life, a million miles away. Im heidi choiniere, and this is my ancestry story. 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