The days biggest political and news stories, with interviews and reporting from around the nation. Ricochetting across the political universe tonight which are the ones that involve appear to involve the president of the United States. That he was directed to make payments in coordination with the candidate and with the campaign of President Donald Trump to two women. One was in one involved a payment to a woman 150,000, believed to be Karen Mcdougal. The second to a payment believed to be Stormy Daniels in october of 2016, rather, for 130,000. And for that payment Michael Cohen told the court that he received restitution for that payment or he received the money back for that payment from the candidate who is believed to be donald trump. Throughout this investigation, this particular investigation which stemmed from the Special Counsels office, from robert mueller, has been done in coordination with that office and prosecuted by career and seasoned Public CorruptionPublic Corruption investigators here in new york both on the fbi side and the United States attorneys office. Today they brought home a significant Criminal Informationprosecutor noted, mr. Cohens actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time. I dont know if you expected a differen different statement from Rudy Giuliani. This is the same statement hes been putting out for months. The fact of the matter is if you read this indictment, hes doing it at the direction of donald trump. If hes doing it at the direction of donald trump, theres a conspiracy. Its an agreement, an agreement to commit Campaign Financing crimes. Its a fiveyear felony. This is a serious matter. Cohen didnt do this on his own. He didnt suddenly come up with the idea, oh, ive got to go pay Stormy Daniels 150,000. He had no connection to Stormy Daniels. He didnt know who Stormy Daniels was. The only way he would have had the ability to know any of that was because donald trump told him about it. Donald trump told him that there was a danger that she was going to release all this information before the election. And its very, very well detailed in here. The question, of course, most thinking people realize that what nick said, theres no reason why Michael Cohen would have been paying random people. Whats clear is that, i would actually sort of clarify that in the case of Stormy Daniels, her allegations that she had engaged in consensual sexual relationship with trump had been percolating prior to the time of her payoff. It was something that had been sort of rearing its head, going back down. So it was something that cohen and trump were both well aware of for sometime prior to the payment to her. Prior to the election. And so the question, though, there were these repeated denials. This is a mystery thats been kind of unraveling over the course of a year. At first trump and his representatives said he had absolutely no he was not aware of these payments. Clearly today that blows their statements out of the water. And so its remarkable that,
that these its not just its not just trump. I mean, its important if you are looking at Potential Other the other people involved in this, potential Campaign Violation conspiracy, youre also looking at American Media right. The ceos involved in this, david pecker. The details about American Media and the fact they had conversations with the campaign about helping donald trump out by Buying Stories or figuring outweighs to avo outweighs out ways that we knew he made the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Thats been acknowledged. Right. It wasnt clear there wasnt a sort of smoking gun that had tied him to the 150,000 that was paid to Karen Mcdougal by American Media to purchase, to basically catch and kill her story of the affair. Today not only cohen directly involved in that, him admitting that, this huge bombshell that
all of these things were done at the direct direction of trump. Lets narrow into what the issue actually is here. Michael cohen is to many people an unsavory character and not particularly relevant if he did things with his taxi medallions. The question is what the liability is for the president of the United States. Lanny davis, Michael Cohens newest attorney, has just tweeted. Today he stood up and testified under oath donald trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, why wouldnt they be a crime for donald trump . Clint . There has been a tell in this from the very beginning. The squads that showed up to do the this is not a fraud case they were investigating. Weve got actions of the president to be. Weve heard tapes. Weve heard tapes that even say, lets do it in cash. Essentially saying, i knew what
i was doing, i knew what the intent was, and i knew i should do it in this way. The question weve been biscuitsing discussing is does the president know this is a violation, this is a charge you cant do this . These guys seem to be operating almost like business as normal. They were very sloppy in terms of how this went down. In terms of the investigation, theres direct connections. Usually in a criminal conspiracy they would try and cloak or shelf the money shell money in pieces to try and cover what the payments are for. This seems to be a very rapid case and as we saw with the special master, this moved very quickly after that evidence was proved. This means this case is very solid, in my opinion. They have the evidence lined up and thats why cohen is going this route today. So, tom winter, a lot of people are going to say hes lying. They said it already. A pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant piereriod of
time. It has how Michael Cohen set up consultant companies. Encrypted serves used to communicate. I imagine Michael Cohen wouldnt be in that conversation if he didnt come with information the Southern District of new york would find compelling and have proof of. Yeah, i mean, i think a number of people have asked me, they said, so what about a Cooperation Agreement and what does it say in his Plea Agreement . When you directly implicate and when you provide the context that Michael Cohen was clearly able to do in court today under oath, he was sworn in when he did that, and then you directly implicate the president and youre able to provide information which is contained in the Criminal Information as far as the specifics about it, and he also testified that he did these things with intent, and thats something that the u. S. Attorneys office in court, the prosecutor said throughout. They want to point out that he had intent, not just on the charges that relate to the president , but on the tax fraud
charges, on the count 6, as far as the charge tied to banking, all of that. He was in a position where he was, ali, he was doing this with intent. He said so. When you come across and say those things, you have the allocution that he did today and he so clearly laid out the things that he did, those are things that are going to be corroborated and i think the Criminal Information and what the investigation was able to find clearly spells that out. We are also talking about banking issues here and were talking about crimes that involve a paper trail. I mean, when you have money thats transferred from person x to person y, these are not things that you need somebodys testimony for. The bottom line is thats what happened. Money was transferred from one person to another and that theres communications that can be found back and forth. So i think when you look at this, i think you look and you say theres a lot of underlying evidence to anything that Michael Cohen allocuted to in
court. You kept us a step ahead with your reporting. Thank you. I have to ask you, the statement that Rudy Giuliani put up, again, nobody surprised by the talking about mr. Cohens action reflect aid pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time, thats not entirely untrue. For a lot of people this is tricky. Okay, Michael Cohen is all of a sudden my hero . He was a bit of a bad egg. He was known as trumps fixer, a total bull dog, somebody who would go on the attack against anybody who is coming at trump with allegations, stories, even if they were true. He was known to fiercely attack reporters who were preparing stories that were going to reflect negatively on trump. And so to change his story over time, but its also interesting giuliani himself has changed, has been part of a changing narrative on this story. First they said they didnt know anything about these payments. Then giuliani acknowledged that
trump had been reimbursed that trump had reimbursed cohen for the payments made to Stormy Daniels. Trump tried to sort of walk back some of the things that giuliani had said. Theyve had a hard time getting their story straight. So i think once again, the reimbursements, what happened with the money after the fact, its interesting what weve learned today is that cohen actually submitted invoices to the Trump Organization. He claimed before that the Trump Organization was not part of this, that, you know, that there was no reimbursement through the Trump Organization. There are details in hereof not only invoices submitted, but extra money Michael Cohen was paid i guess in good will, for services rendered. Right. This thing is backed up by documents and receipts. Interesting documents will be looking forgo beyond the reimbursements that happen after the fact. It would be what was the communication that happened on the front end. What does directing when cohen says he did this at the
direction of trump, a federal candidate, what did that look like in practice . Were these conversations that they had . Was this something that was put in writing . And i think those are the records that basically the proof that trump was involved on this on the front end, not the reimbursements on the back end, but the communication and the direction on the front end. Thats where all eyes will go moving forward. There are details in count 7 about this. Clint, i want to you sort of help us understand the degree to which this isnt some rando charged with some crimes. The fact is there is now no way that the president , despite what Rudy Giuliani has put out, can creatively excuse himself from this discussion. This isnt about just people in the campaign. No. He is talking about having been directed to do this by a federal candidate, but the candidate. He does not trumps name does not appear in here, but youd have to have lost all your marbles not to be able to put two and two together unless it
was hillary clinton. He was charged to keep outcomes in the election from occurring. Thats what he was kacharged fr doing. Whats different from the obstruction case, we talk about this alma tl the time. He said, he said, she said, she said. That is not the case here. There is documented in the deal, in the agreement today cohen said this, trump said this. No, cohen said this, trump said that, there is a tape and oh, by the way, here are the bank transfers, here are the financial transfers. Here are the communications. That is a much stronger case than youre going to see this is easy to read. This is not complicated reading. Any sort of conversational thing, money and communications is where it falls. That was filled with that. I thought it was interesting if you listen to the prosecutor when he came out of the courthouse and was addressing the crowd. He said after spelling out the charges, he went back to the Campaign Finance issue. And if i heard him correctly said he would be prepared to pursue additional campaign
finance charges. So that really raises questions the Trump Organization as well and maybe the president. And maybe American Media. What we still dont have clarity on, because we dont know because we havent done this since Richard Nixon, is how the president faces his liability. Back in april donald trump was asked about the payment to Stormy Daniels that had been coordinated by Michael Cohen. Do you know about the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels . No. Then why did Michael Cohen make that statement youll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney and youll have so ask michael. Do you know where he got the money to make that payment . No, i dont know. Hard to hear, but the bought on the line is the president was asked if he knew about the payment and how it was made, he said no. John harwood, cnbcs editor at large, Jessica Levinson is a professor at Loyola Law School and expert on Campaign Finance. For those who think this is a
campaign thing, that conversation in april that we just played the recording of makes it a presidency thing because the president was the president in april and he said He Didnt Know about all the stuff thats documented in here. But in the end, in answer to my question, Campaign Finance laws are often not prosecuted. The Enforcement Division of the federal Election Commission is weekly staffed and not well resourced by design. But in the end, is this a serious charge if we connect all the dots and realize the president is the other conspirator . I think this absolutely is a serious charge. So, if we look at what happened today both with respect to Michael Cohen and with respect to Paul Manafort, the only charges here that could directly implicate the president and cause him legal problems are the Campaign Finance charges because, again, what Michael Cohen has said is at the direction of a candidate, and we all know as youve said if we lost our marbles, that is President Trump, essentially has conspired with me to commitCampaign Finance violations, and that is a serious charge. Now, yes, you are absolutely right. When it comes to the daily ongoings of super pac spending, when it comes to spending by congressional candidates, is there a hideous lack of oversight by the federal Election Commission . Absolutely. The commission, as you said, is designed essentially for deadlock and for inaction. But this is different. This is the president s personal fixer saying that President Trump directed him, meaning they were in a conspiracy to violate Campaign Finance laws. That poses a huge legal threat to the president. So, john harwood, i want to read back lanny daviss tweet from a few moments ago in which he talks about here it is. He talked about his client. Today he stood up and testified under oath that donald trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of flungsing an election. If those pamtsz were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldnt they be a crime for donald trump . That is the question that good thinking people should be asking tonight. Rudy giuliani has basically done what you would have expected him to do. They have thrown Michael Cohen back under the bus because the guy doesnt have a stellar reputation. First of all, on Rudy Giuliani, pretty much 100 of what comes out of his mouth any more is ridiculous. So lets set that aside. We have in lanny davis statement a comforting reassurance to jessicas point earlier that we havent all lost our marbles because lanny said specifically that he was talking about President Trump. So, we have the president , in effect, identified as an unindicted coconspirator in a federal felony. So, that may not be relevant criminally so long as this Justice Department adheres to the guidance that said you dont indict sitting president s, but it may be relevant to how long hes a sitting president because that is a relevant factor for
the political reaction in congress. And i dont dis