I am a techie dad. N. I believe the best technology should feel effortless. Like magic. At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Good day, everyone. Heres whats happening just moments ago. Rudy giuliani dismissing new revelation from the mueller investigation. Giuliani tells msnbc news and we may hear from the president any moment as he heads to the Army Navy Game. Meanwhile, new york ferment prosecutors apt to be implicating him. It is center of this allegations, his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, a new Court Filing Says he acted in the direction of mr. Trump. Now, in response the president tweeted last night that hes totally clear. Just a few hours ago he again claimed there was no collusion, and Sarah Sanders also dismissing the revelations. Court filings have uncovered what happened to be the earliest contact with russia. The memo says that cohen was in contact back in 2015 about a russian who offered political synergy. Cohen did not take him up on the offer. And five major lies, just how untruthful Paul Manafort was to the mueller investigation. Plus he lied about his contacts with a longtime associate linked to russian intelligence services, what does this all mean for the Trump Presidency . Steve co hen offers this assessment. I think youll find some republicans that will save their skid. Thats what happened in watergate. They realized there was a cancer on the presidency. Theres a cancer on the presidency now. We have a lot to dissect now. We have our panel of reporters and analysts. Well begin with geoff bennett. Hes in philadelphia, where the president is headed for the Army Navy Game. What can you actual es about these new filings . Reporter ever since these Court Filings dropped, President Trump has taken to twitter multiple times to make the following argument. One, that he did nothing wrong, but two the investigation hasnt produced any results. Both arguments are entirely off the mark. Federal prosecutors are saying for the first time that Michael Cohen it is direction of President Trump made these two illegality payments and they were a violation of Campaign Finance rules to Stormy Daniels and to character karen mcdual. He said this is collusion illusi illusion. At this late date, after after we have gone through, millions spent, there is nothing impeachable here, time for the witchhunt to end. And our colleagues spoke to Rudy Giuliani earlier. He told them, when pressed on this issue, based that the federal prosecutors have implicationed President Trump, Rudy Giuliani told them you have to believe Michael Cohen, who believes Michael Cohen . That certainly is the defense that really in concert with the white house, Sarah Sanders put out a statement saying that the filedings revealed nothing of value that we didnt already know. So the position that the white house is taking is that the president did not wrong and the investigation has not yet produced results, though the Court Filings tell a different story, alex. Thank you, geoff. The president is scheduled to depart in a moment, and were waiting to see if they takes any questions. Geoff, thank up. Pete williams, im sure youve looked over the notes sent out by our colleagues. What is your take of what giuliani had to say . And denying that theres anything in these Court Documents. Well, if you go back to august when Michael Cohen pleaded guilty, thats when he first said that President Trump directed him to make these hush money payments. This is consistent with what he said. So to some extent giuliani is correct, this allegations becomes correct the more you believe Michael Cohen, but the Court Documents say there were three people, cohen, the president and the third person, the publishers of the National Enquirer. We dont know how much cooperation hes giving, but there is a third person there, and i would be shocked if the Southern District or the mueller people havent talked to him. So there could be corroborating evidence. The president oops, part me the significance is another question. The position is clearly not going to be indicted theyre bound by rules that say you cant indict a sitting president , so the question is how important is it politically . Thats the important impeach so conduct before they came into office . Thats an unsettled question, but i think at this point its a revelation that this new information is much more important politically than in terms of a potential indictment. The president has been very specific as well, maintaining theres no collusion. Thats the terminology he uses, is he right in saying that based on yesterdays documents . Well, yesterdays documents dont allege new collusion to influence the campaign by Trump Campaign officials. What they do tell us is that Michael Cohen, as early as november of 2015 was contacted by somebody who claimed to be a big shot in russia, who said, look, i can provide you political help, we can have synergy. Wouldnt it be great if trump met with putin. Cohen said he never followed up on that, because he was pursuing building a trump hotel in moscow. Its clear that the russians were clearly reaching out to the try to influence the campaign. Its agnostic on the question of whether the people in the campaign were interested in trying to pursue that and whether they helped the russians do that. It really doesnt answer the question. It doesnt take us any further there. Again, the president is saying theres no collusion. Is that true in a snapshot at this moment . Is there anything in these documents that suggest or indicates there never would be any collusion because the investigation has been completed with regard to collusion. As you said before, when you overturn another stone, you have to go down that path. The simple question to that is, no, its not over yet. Pete, thank you, as always. Mike isikoff and abigail tracy, with a welcome to you both. I want the biggest takeaway, michael, you first. Clearly the assertion by the Southern District that Michael Cohen committed two felonies at the direction of the president has got to be the headline there, but i agree with pete. There are real questions about where to take this from that point. David pecker is the third witness to this. He was the publishers of the National Enquirer. I think he can corroborate that Michael Cohen made those payments and with the knowledge and at the direction of the president , but it doesnt get you to the question of, what was in the president s head at the time . Was he making these payments, because he wanted to conceal an affair he had ten years ago with Stormy Daniels from his wife . Or was he making these payments because he wanted to influence the election . Clearly the timing would suggests latter, but to make a criminal kay, you would have to have a direction witness. There, you know, you get into the problem of Michael Cohen being the chief witness, and with the baggage hes got, the prosecutors say they still dont believe Michael Cohen has been forth coming. That makes him a rather tainted witness. Again theres been the further problem of standard doj policy is you cant indict a sitting president. So while this is provocative and serious, to have that assertion in a Justice Department memo, theres still a lot of questions about how far it can go. Abigail, biggest headline from your perspective is . I echo michael on that point. Obviously what we saw yesterday was prosecutors said that Michael Cohen committed a felony at the direct of the i want. We dont know if the president shared the same motivation as Michael Cohen, which was to influence the election, which is cry wall. A case with john edwards, he was driven possibly by a desire to hide an affair by his wife. So were operating in that same gray area and this question of intent. I think we go back to the idea of doj policy, and what he has working to his greatest advantage is his president ial status. But that doesnt necessarily mean if congress were to pursue impeachment charges we wouldnt see some of this brought up. Michael, you broke the month kay lewinsky story, and back then the background was sex. How does that compare with what the president is facing right now . Well, look, jerry nadler, who was then a member of the House Judiciary Committee and will soon be its chairman was quite eloquent during the lewinsky matter, that concealing a sexual affair does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. So i think it will be difficult for jerry nadler to commence an impeachment hearing before judiciary on this matter alone. By the way, just think of what a circus that would be. Who would be your star witnesses . Stormy daniels . The porn star . Karen mcdougal . David peck . Its not the kind of impeachment hearing but is this about Campaign Finance reforms . Yes, this is about violations of the law, but, you know, the core conduct at issue is a 10yearold consensual sexual liaison. You know, that doesnt mean it cant become part of a broader impeachment proceeding that does get into some of the more serious matters involving russia im just saying this alone will not become the basis for an impeachment proceeding. Do you envision any scenario where republicans wholesale abandon the president . I think what youre looking at now is there isnt an appetite, but to michaels point, i dont think this issue alone would be something to prompt impeachment proceedings, ownership even month democrats. One of the things we have to keep at the front of our minds is this felony charge as presented yesterday, isnt happening in a vacuum. Obviously the president filled out that questionnaire under oath. There have been a few questions around whether hes been hinting at pardoning for some of the individuals ensnared in this, and i think we have to take a step back and realize none of this is happening in a vacuum, and in some cases the what we have to look at is where we are in a couple months or weeks, and what this broader picture looks like and whether that does get republicans over the line on some of this. For instance, you look at nixons impeachment proceedings, and dangling pardons was something mentioned in there. So we have to take a step back and wait for the whole picture to come into focus. What kind of message does mulers send with fridays actions there, those filings . Look, i mean, we are at a point where i think mueller has to make some very tough decisions as to whether things go from here. We go know and as i mentioned in the piece, theres one important outstanding matter, and thats the roger stone and jerome corsi, and whether they have lied about their contacts with wikileaks and perhaps others during the 2016 election. I would have thought it would have been wrap up by now, but it is still one key witness was before the was being questioned by muellers prosecutors as recently as this week. So thats one matter thats still ongoing. Look, we learned significant new information last week thats reaffirmed this week about the discussions Michael Cohen had with the kremlin himself. About this trump tower moscow project during the campaign, went on much longer than we had known before, and something that the president was clearly not fort coming and misled the people about. I scoured those filings yesterday as close as anybody, and im still not clear whether mueller has another case to bring on the core question of coordinat coordinaureoordination or collu. We have a readout of what the president did say. It wasnt on camera there, but he did say, big news, chief of staff john kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. He says hes a great guy and he will announce over the next day or two the details there, but that he is leaving at the end of the year. He appreciates his service. Well get the tape of the president speaking there while were in a commercial break. Were obviously watching air force one, it will be taking off for philadelphia shortly. Well be right back, everyone. 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So get allstate, you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. Mayhem is everywhere. So get an allstate agent. Are you in good hands . This big news from the president as he made a statement leaving the white house heading to philadelphia for the Army Navy Game. He made the statement that john kelly will be leaving by the end of the year, says hes a great guy, he will announce the details over the next day or two, but then john is leaving at the end of the year and he appreciates his service. Well have the tape playback momentarily as soon as we get it here. Ive asked Michael Isikoff and abigail to stick around. Were joined by samuel buehl, and barry burk, the cochairman of the he Litigation Department at cramer levin. Abigail, i know you have reported on this the very tenuous situation between the president and john kelly. No surprise here. Youve heard about they heightened tensions, even reaching a point where theres so little of a working relationship left. So i think this is a long time coming, especially when we look at the reports that have come out over last were, this timing isnt all that surprising. I think everybody expected this decisi decision. I think one of the interesting aspects is he an interesting bit to sort of take into this broader context of what were seeing today with john kelly, that he did speak with the mueller investigation. Lets bring in Kelly Odonnell to speak to what we heard from the president. Again, this is not shocking news in and of itself. This has been expected for some time. You have to wonder what it means. Reporter well, we were gathered on the south lawn to see if the president would take questions, and he voluntary said john kelly would be leaving at the end of the year. He would select an interim chief of staff. He qualified that by saying the person who would replace him would likely be on an interim basis, but he also talked about john kelly being with hem for two years, first as senior of homeland security, and now as chief of staff since july 31st of last year. The president had only praise for him. In part today, of course, the Army Navy Game where he said he would be flipping the coin and saluting both teams. Kelly, were going to interrupt you. Lets roll the tape. Usually give quite a bit of notice for a lot of reasons. Mark is a great gentleman, a great patriot, a great soldier. I look forward to that. On the mueller situation, were very happy with what we are reading, because there was no collusion whatsoever. There never has been. The last thing i want is help from russia on a campaign. Usual ask Hillary Clinton about russia, because she financed the fake dossier, which i understand they tried to get some information and helping from russia. A very onesided situation, but i think hmm, okay. That tape clearly freezing up there. We didnt hear anything about john kelly at that point, but were playing what we have there. Michael, i want your interpretation of this news about john kellry. Again, we can confirm the president said that, unfortunately the tape froze. What will be the stature and authority that that person will have. Clearly being a chief of staff in a Trump White House is a challenging position to say the least he tried to keep him from these tweet storms. Now i think we have a proper version. I know both teams will do great. General mark millie, as you know, was just appointed the head of the joint chiefs of staff, to be determined date, a bit later in the year. They usually give a lot of notice for a lot of reasons. Mark millie is a great gentleman, a great soldier, a great gentleman. On the mueller situation were very happy with what we are reading, because there was no collusion whatsoever the last thing i want is help from russia on a campaign. You should ask Hillary Clinton about russia, because she fina