he can't fire michael cohen. so now he's just going to have to respond and how does the president respond to whatever michael cohen says or does he? >> shimon, there are some things, right, that michael cohen may not be able to reveal? >> yeah, when it comes to the russia investigation and we'll see where we are in a few weeks certainly, he will be limited because i do think that he does know information that mueller's still working through and it may not even be mueller in the end. we could have a prolonged department fbi investigation into russians even once mueller is done. so that could still go on. i also think that right now, think of it this way, where the president really has the most problems is the hush payments. we've said this, michael cohen is coming to court, has implicated the president in that, the department of justice in their court filings has implicated the president and that's where i think the members of congress here are going to be focused on. it's how did all of this play out, when did th

does congress achieve something by hearing it directly from michael cohen, and does michael cohen achieve something by talking to congress about this? >> yes, congress has a big goal here and that is to get the information. one of the things we're all worried about is the white house will make an effort to suppress the mueller report by using executive privilege. if the information is all out, there's no point in the privilege. so it would help knnegate the executive plincrivilege, number. for michael cohen, who are we kidding, this guy wants revenge. trump, and you have to factor that in, trump has treated him like dirt and he's mad. and that's part of evaluating his credibility. >> that's the equivalent of throwing somebody under the bus. >> yeah, this whole business i'm doing it for my country and making him out to be an angel, i've got no energy for that. i don't believe that. i don't believe he's that type of person. if you value his credibility, you must recognize this is revenge. >> cynthia, thank you, jill wine-banks, thank you. i want to go back to capitol hill. garrett haake is

again, that tweet from the president related to michael cohen now just a few moments ago michael cohen has been subpoenaed to testify before the senate intel community. this changes things in a few major ways. michael cohen is set to report to prison in march. we don't know when he's set to appear before the senate intel committee. i want to bring in michael steele now, former senior advisor to jeb bush. jason johnson is also with me, politics editor at the root.com. i'll start with you, michael steele. how big of a deal? >> it's a huge deal. i mean, i think it was inevitable that at some point cohen would appear before congress. i think it's important that senate intelligence is going first. i think it's a good reminder, too, there are concerns in both parties. senate intelligence is a bipartisan investigation. they are continuing to look at the question about the president and his campaign, what ties they may have had to russia. other activities that may have been nefarious. this is not a straight party lean issue so i'm glad this bipartisan panel is going to be getting first crack a

remarkable that michael cohen

this is intended to make an example out of michael cohen. to punish him for having testified in the past. >> it's not the first time he brought up the issue of michael cohen's father-in-law. >> it isn't. on the flip side, when somebody did not work -- cooperate with prosecutors, he sent out very kind words. that was to mr. manafort. the president is playing on both sides. he is clearly directing threats at those he doesn't want cooperating. he is praising those who are not. >> listen to the exchange that william barr had during the cop f copconfirmation hearing. >> you talked about the comey decision. you talked about obstruction of z justice. you wrote on page one that a president presueersuading a pero commit perjury would be -- >> any person. >> you said a president or any person convincing a witness to change testimony would be obstruction. is that right? >> yes. >> she issued a statement saying her questioning of barr -- she had no idea what buzzfeed was about to report. >> sometimes you are lucky. she was lucky in that questions. the o

but again, this is the michael cohen -- you i suspect were not surprised when the michael cohen definition of paying you $50,000 turns out to be a bag with about $13,000 in it and a boxing glove. >> jill owed me at some point 50 bucks recently and she gave me a bag. it was actually more of a sock. it had $11 and a boxing glove in it also. >> and a wu-tang clan pin. >> so i consider that recompense. i was not surprised at all. i harken back to jill's watergate days. a name familiar to anyone who's seen all the president's men or is familiar with history is a man named don singreti. and he was the classic dirty trickster who was engaged in the 1972 campaign in all kinds of small, petty, sometimes mildly impactful, sometimes a little more impactful but he was not john ehrlichman, he was not h.r. haldeman, but he was one of the many people who was caught in the web of the giant conspiracy. and when you are a dirty politician, when you're someone who's corrupt and campaigns in a corrupt way your corruption can be vast and consequential as it is when you're cooperating with a foreign adversary a

that's a tweet from michael cohen. and we also understand that based on previous reporting from our colleagues in other media that there is quite a bit of recordings that michael cohen has. i understand that the attempts by the administration, the president himself to sort of shift the public's attention onto other areas michael cohen's father-in-law, to be honest, i don't really understand what that means, but it's also understood that in the raid of michael cohen's offices that the fbi and now the special counsel had obtained quite a bit of evidence. e-mails, text messages. i mean, just in the reporting we did earlier or last year in the spring about trump tower moscow, i mean, we obtained the -- every text message that michael cohen exchanged with felix about this project, and in those text messages he is discussing briefing trump about this. so i think that the -- the denials by the president himself are leave more sto be desired b simply a tweet. >> jason leopold, i appreciate you coming onto talk about the major

we also heard from michael cohen. he said the moscow talk went way beyond 2017 and they said, no, we stopped in january. so michael cohen has proven to be a very valuable witness in the case against trump. >> that's true, but he's not entirely wrong with saying michael michael cohen was not truthful. he was willinot willing to shar every deed that went against the law because he was afraid it might implicate family members. president trump has a point saying he has a problem telling the whole truth, but michael cohen doesn't seem to have any problem telling the truth when it comes to donald trump. >> the legal adviser to michael cohen we just talked about, lanny davis, was on cnn moments ago and was asked will michael cohen testify? >> first of all, will he appear before the senate? he's been subpoenaed, we were told. >> mr. cummings greatly respects his invitation for mr. cohen to appear voluntarily. >> it sounds like if he has a subpoena, he will testify. that's the senate committee and then he went on to talk about

let's turn to michael cohen. you know for 12 years, michael cohen was the top attorney at the trump organization. he was involved in trump's personal dealings. we talked before about how loyal he was to this president. and loyalty is a one-way street. now the president is going after michael cohen's family. what do you make of this? >> it is straight out of the donald trump playbook, but one of the richest ironies here is that back in the day michael cohen was the guy who threatened everybody else on behalf of donald trump. so we now have the guy who used to be the enforcer, the fixer, the person who threatened everyone complaining about how he's being threatened. and it is a travesty. this is the president of the united states threatening and using his lawyer to threaten private citizen, but this is what we're reduced to in this country. people acting like thugs. it's very hard to consider which guy is the real bad guy here. and with rudy giuliani, what he says, there's a thing called organized crime that cohen'

what led them to ask michael cohen about this? >> sure. they have been working the trump moscow tower portion of the investigation. our sources have, before mueller. so they had access to a number of different documents, 302 reports which are interview reports. that stuff was compiled as they began to look at who the players were speaking with, how the negotiations went, who all from the trump organization and outside the organization were involved in getting that tower set up. they begin to compile the evidence before michael cohen decided to cooperate and speak with the special counsel. they presented this to him or began asking questions based off of it. then he acknowledged in the interview, yes, i was directed by the president. we don't know and our sources haven't told us exactly what -- how exactly the directive was handed down. was it in person? we're not clear. it is our understanding that this is rock solid information developed over the course of the long period of time. michael was used to confirm it. >> do your sources have a

michael cohen is a witness with a lot of problems. he pled guilty to lie before continue and this case he could be making things up to protect himself if it traces back to him. we don't have the documents that corroborate these conversations at this point. we have a comment from rudy giuliani and other outlets, if you believe cohen, i can get you a good deal on the branch. this is what we'll see from the president's legal team saying cohen is a liar and you can't believe anything. >> what has his position been? >> he was the person who was out there throughout the entire campaign saying i have no relationship with russia and business deals with russia and no potential business deals with russia and when it came out that they were talking about a trump tower moscow project much longer than president trump and candidate trump originally forthcoming about. essentially it is no big deal and everyone knew about it at the time and it did not go anywhere and tried to down play it although the fact that the special counsel is looking into it.

because it's not based on michael cohen. he's not one of the sources. >> and white house officials slammed cohen, but interestingly enough, they didn't quite deny the story. >> you're saying the president did not tell michael cohen to do that? >> i'm telling you right now this is exactly why the president refuses to give any credence or credibility to news outlets. >> that was not a denial of my question. >> no, the -- but the premise is ridiculous. >> and crucially in all of this, buzzfeed saying that mueller isn't just relying on cohen's word but on interviews with multiple witnesses, internal trump organization e-mails, text messages, and other documents. but moments ago, cohen's legal adviser, lanny davis, wouldn't confirm or deny the story. watch. >> mr. cohen, under guidelines that he has respected, won't comment on anything to do with subjects that he discussed with the special counsel. >> in fairness, you have corrected stories that were false before that were involving michael cohen. but you're choosing not to -- is

and michael cohen. instead, he's going after the president, which the special counsel and all the liberals are applauding him for. that's what's going on. that is a defense -- >> thank you for your time. >> -- to a criminal accusation. if we can't do that, we're not in america. >> thank you for your time. we are still in america. i appreciate your saying that. >> thank you. i got a chance to say it. i appreciate that. >> thank you, sir. 2020 presidential primary is in full swing. and senator kirsten gillibrand of new york is out on the campaign trail in iowa. she says she's the best person to take on president trump. she'll be with us next. stay with us. daddy diaper duty... i can't say it's the highlight of fatherhood. but i'd rather be here with my little man than not be here because of migraine. i have three words for migraine... "i am here." aimovig, a preventive treatment for migraine in adults, reduces the number of monthly migraine days. for some, that number can be cut in half or more. the most

they're saying michael cohen is a liar. that's true, michael cohen is not the best witness. bob mueller would never bring a case with michael cohen as his only witness. he would have to have backup documents and witnesses from separa separate issues and the like. but there is no legal reason the president that michael cohen is a liar. >> at this point i think what you've got is everybody in d.c. leaping on this story to try to corroborate it, try to see if it's true. whether you're talking about everyone in news outlets or on capitol hill that is expecting michael cohen to testify behind open doors, because it seems like there is a lot of substance behind michael cohen if the story is true. >> it's very important to say if true, because if this is true the president is going to lose his job. if this is true, that is the thing. >> historically it's a beeline to impeachment, right? nixon and clinton, people have made that comparison between, we don't have clear obstruction in asking witnesses to lie. if we've crossed that line, people on both sides of the political spectrum fr

the state's interest michael cohen? >> my reporting today, i found out that he has been continuing to meet with all of these investigating bodies, as he is preparing to report to congresss asome point if he does testify. he also got shoulder surgery on friday. so there is just a lot that's been going on in cohen's orbit. and on top of it the president has been continuing to attack him publicly and his family members. >> we're going to know eventually everything michael cohen knows with all of these investigators. we don't just yet know when or even at this point what year that will be when we discover all that. emily jane fox, barbara mcquade, thank you for joining us tonight on this important story. >>> and when we come back, how will house democrats deal with president trump attempting to interfere in their investigations? we've just heard emily jane fox tell us that michael cohen needs to see some action taken to protect him. i will ask congressman eric swalwell what congress can do now. ngssre can do now. do more th

he was michael cohen's taxi business partner. he got this whole host of charges against him boiled down to basically nothing in a new york state courtroom in may in exchange for him becoming a cooperating witness for the government. so it made sense that anything that might have been a little bit hisnky, made sense that prosecutors nailed down evidence of that once they got his partner to cooperate, right. so him turning up in court, michael cohen turning up in court in august, it was dramatic but also sort of orderly in terms of us understanding. law enforcement in new york got search warrants to raid him and his office, they flip his business partner. within a matter of months they've got him in court pleading guilty on five felony tax evasion charges. and a bank fraud charge. in that instance, it wasn't him lying to the irs, it was lying to the bank in order to get a loan. so all that, michael cohen's first day in federal court that all made sense. it made sense that he was in court in new york. it made sense it was the u.s. a

whether it's michael cohen. you have them plead to a set of operative facts describing what they did because some day down the road you're going to use them to help you get others who did the same thing. that's what i think happened here. but i don't want to sort of lay all of your cards on the table as a prosecutor. because you're still investigating that thing, that conduct, the others who were involved in it. so what the mueller team did makes sense to me, and the way they described it really in some ways buttresses the core of the "buzzfeed" story. now, obviously the mueller team is pushing back on aspects of the "buzzfeed" story. but i think in the main what you can glean from their december 7th sentencing memorandum is that the core of the "buzzfeed" story is accurate. >> in terms of that -- the way they are pushing back, i mean, we heard from ben smith, who is the editor at "buzzfeed," very early on in the show tonight plainly frustrated with trying to parse the special counsel's statement. >> mmm-hmm. >>

he's been tweeting at michael cohen over the past year anytime he's been worried michael cohen might off out the investigators information that creates problems for the president. so the idea he's calm and collected is absurd. and in fact i think as cohen's testimony starts to role near i imagine you're going to see the president on twitter. >> one of the things we know is that michael cohen has evidence. he's already supplied the infamous tape of them discussing it. we know he's wrapped up in a lot of different things. what is house oversight, what is elijah cummings interested in as far as we know? >> the ground rules are he cannot reveal anything related to mueller's investigation. of course the investigation may be at different stage. but for right now that still leave as lot of other areas they're going to probe. just that issue alone of the payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal is going to be revealing because it will be on the record in front of the american people. many law maker are going to have a piece of that issue. and it's possible he could also be cleared, this

cummings and the truth will now empower michael cohen, the michael cohen truth website is going to be looked at by the american people to help michael cohen through this ordeal. and i also do want to remind you that on this program i mentioned the disproportionate prison time that michael cohen is now forced to endure compared to many others who have much more grave offenses compared to his, disproportionate injustices and issue that i hope i will bring to the attention of the american people as i did first on your program. >> you mentioned two things. one is as you say how the federal prosecutors in new york handled this and the sentencing. that is something we've been reporting on. and discussed with you. let's take both of the two points you just raised. first, you're referencing the fact that in addition to tonight's news that mr. cohen will address the democrats, house request and the oversight committee. there are other discussions with other committees. so when you say tonight that no subpoena is necessary, you are suggesting that you are close to having a voluntary agreement t

but again, this is the michael cohen -- you i suspect were not surprised when the michael cohen definition of paying you $50,000 turns out to be a bag with about $13,000 in it and a boxing glove. >> jill owed me at some point 50 bucks recently and she gave me a bag. it was actually more of a sock. it had $11 and a boxing glove in it also. >> and a wu-tang clan pin. >> so i consider that recompense. i was not surprised at all. i harken back to jill's watergate days. a name familiar to anyone who's seen all the president's men or is familiar with history is a man named don singreti. and he was the classic dirty trickster who was engaged in the 1972 campaign in all kinds of small, petty, sometimes mildly impactful, sometimes a little more impactful but he was not john ehrlichman, he was not h.r. haldeman, but he was one of the many people who was caught in the web of the giant conspiracy. and when you are a dirty politician, when you're someone who's corrupt and campaigns in a corrupt way your corruption can be sxraft constant quvast and c is when you're cooperating with a foreign adversary a

when michael cohen was sentenced mueller said michael cohen provided information regarding the preparing and circulating of cohen's response to the congressional inquirienquiries. the fact that mueller was willing to put it in print is a hint to me, an indicator that he has something more than michael cohen's information, he has something to back it up. i don't believe robert mueller or my colleagues would put it in writing unless they had more than michael cohen's say-so to back it up. >> that's a great catch there from mueller's previous releases here. josh campbell, if this is substantiated let's go back to the william barr hearings a few days ago. republicans and democrats, but republicans as well set it up with the ag nominee as an impeachable offense. have a listen. >> so if there was some reason to believe the president tried to coach somebody not to testify or to testify falsely, that could be obstruction of justice? >> yes, under an obstruction statute, yes. >> so if there is evidence that the president tried to conceal evidence, that would be obstruction of justice potentially,

cohen, but it was michael cohen driving the project. as of course anybody who's being fair minded would understand. he was running, i emphasize, for president of the united states, tied up 18 hours a day with that. >> right. >> if he could devote a minute a day to this, it would be a lot. so it would be a minute here, a minute there, a minute here. your recollection of that is not going to be that strong. the guy running the deal is going to remember it. >> all right. joining me now from washington is "washington post" columnist josh rogan and michael zeldin, former special assistant to robert mueller at the department of justice. good to see you both. michael, you first. what do you make of rudy giuliani's argument and admission that the president may have spoken with michael cohen about his testimony and that would be normal? >> well, first, rudy giuliani should not be on television. this story would not be something we'd be talking about today had he not showed up with jake tapper this morning. so what he's doing strategically is a m

michael cohen who was being a good boy for donald trump. >> and michael cohen -- it does seem that the mueller investigation, which seems to have proved to him more favorable when we saw him in court in the southern district. they obviously wanted to throw the book at him and didn't feel like he was cooperating. but do you think that even though there is this questionable, obviously, about michael cohen, it's questionable because we've seen him lie. but this is the story and we're seeing the mueller investigation where they're not relying on michael cohen's word. it appears they're relying on that he may say something but it's corroborated by evidence. if that is the case, what does this mean? >> if they can show that, in fact, the president had knowledge and put perjury on a member of congress, that is an obstruction of justice charge. there is no way around it. i believe that would be grounds for impeachment. if, in fact, that happened. but that's a big leap. rememb remember, from this report to proving the president had knowledge and asked for perjury, that is a big leap. that's why

and michael cohen. instead, he's going after the president and all the liberals are aplauding him for that. that is a defense -- >> thank you for your time. >> -- to a criminal accusation. if we can't do that, we're not in america. >> thank you for your time. we are still in america. i appreciate your saying that. >> thank you. i got a chance to say it. i appreciate that. >> thank you, sir. 2020 presidential primary is in full swing. and senator kirsten gillibrand is on the campaign trail. she says she's the best person to take on president trump. she'll be with us next. stay with us. for the good. and not so good. for the mundane. the awe-inspiring. the heart racing. the heart breaking. that's what life is all about... showing up. unless migraine steals your chance to say "i am here." that's why, we created aimovig.. a preventive treatment for migraine in adults. one dose, once a month. aimovig is proven to reduce the number of monthly migraine days. for some, that number can be cut in half or more. th

michael cohen is going to say. it's not going to be limited, as we know, by just what his involvement in the hush payment, michael cohen's involvement. we just learned that robert mueller, the special counsel, has cleared him to testify. that means, that opens the door to all sorts of questions about russia, the moscow project, whether or not anyone in the white house directed michael cohen to lie to members of congress. there's been some indication that people at the white house knew what michael cohen was going to tell members of congress. did anyone at the white house approve of this? did they say, go ahead, it's okay. that's going to be a big part of this hearing now as well. it seems like nothing is off the table and that the department of justice and robert mueller have cleared michael cohen to go ahead and say whatever it is that he is going to say. the other thing to keep in mind is that michael cohen can use this testimony to try and get more leniency for his jail sentence. he could go to a j

this isn't just michael cohen's word. we are learning from this buzzfeed article that robert mueller has other witnesses and documents and texts and emails to reportedly back this up that the president directed cohen to lie. brooke? >> he has the receipts as folks have been saying. thank you so much. let's analyze all of it. paul callahan is with us, mj lee is here. david gergen, former presidential adviser to fnixon, ford. if true how damning is this? >> if true and that's still a big if, no other news organization other than buzzfeed has this story at this point, but if it is true, it is a game changer. it would be the first time we have a serious allegation the president of the united states did try to suborn perjury, did ask someone else to lie. that is a felony and no president is spared from that. bob barr who is just becoming the attorney general has said in his testimony, if a person including the president asks someone to lie or direct someone to lie before congress or law enforcement agency, that is a felony and

mueller was given a copy of cohen's testimony with the consent of michael cohen's attorney. so it seems like -- it seems like this is what may have happened here. it seems like in the course of the time michael cohen was cooperating with prosecutors, he apparently let them know something about that false testimony he'd given to the intelligence committee about trump tower moscow. mueller then confirmed the content of his congressional testimony by getting a copy of the interview transcript from the senate intelligence committee. mueller then went through the trouble of bringing cohen back to court in federal court again and charging him for that false testimony while simultaneously telling the judge, hey, don't give him any extra time in jail for this. he really is helping us. he's being great. this is not worth one extra day in jail, okay, judge? when "buzzfeed" published this story late last night about cohen's false testimony to congress, this bombshell story that lit up the news cycle all day today, the narrative of "buzzfeed's" story finally made it seem like cohen bein

that's what should happen with michael cohen, in public. the american public deserves to hear michael cohen's testimony. >> you heard the president say that cohen, in the president's words, doesn't want to tell the truth. do you believe this was a way -- what unfolded for cohen -- to get out of testifying in open session? >> i think michael cohen has a very understandable and legitimate fear for his family. if the president of the united states threatens in the way that he has, anybody would have that kind of fear. michael cohen has nothing left to lose by telling the truth. in fact, he has everything to lose if he fails to tell the truth. i think he legitimately fears for the safety of his family. >> two top republicans on the oversight committee said they were told that cohen would not answer questions on any current investigations, investigations still underway. they say this is all a democratic effort to showboat. how significant would his testimony at this point really be if there are restrictions as to what he can say and what he can'

michael cohen is going to jail. there's about a month left to play with to convince for democrats to convince cohen that his family is okay and will be a target whether it's what kind of target, we don't know. whether it's a target with regard to prosecution, a target otherwise. and so if they can't convince him before he goes to jail, giuliani and donald trump can say, mission accomplished because there's no question that's what they were it doing here. they were trying to intimidate him and it worked. >> here's what i want to know. does this constitute witness m tampering? >> it could be, but there's a separate crime of threats. and you can create threats. rudy giuliani said when i was a prosecutor, what you said to people was i'm going to break your bones or whatever. that's actually not true. you can say things like i hope you will see it my way or you should be concerned about the well being of your family. you should take account of these things. all these things can be evaluated by prosecutors as threats and

i heard michael cohen, who would believe him? rudy giuliani among others and it's a rare moment i would be with giuliani has trashed him left and right. you read down the story, i thought the critical piece was there's a lot of other information including, for example, e-mails, other interviews that corroborate the story. remember when we had paul manafort on trial, rick gates his former deputy is going to testify, he's going to trash manafort. the jurors came out rick gates we didn't pay attention to him. it was the documentation that got manafort. that's part of the story here. it's not cohen. cohen is not credible, it's the stuff behind the story that says maybe he's right. >> and just to reiterate it, suborning perjury is a crime and it is also impeachable, david, and i'm saying that not just out of thin air, it's impeachable because it has been used for impeachment before. it was one of the articles of impeachment for nixon. it was one of the articles of impeachment for bill clinton. this is serious for the president and rud

michael cohen is not the perfect witness. i think we've gotten a preview of the attack line we're going to see. this morning, this is the president's daughter-in-law, laura trump, who was the advisor to the 2020 campaign as well. take a listen. >> i think michael cohen is a very desperate man. he holds no water whatsoever. he perjured himself in the past. it's ridiculous. it's all made up. i always say the truth will come out with these things. i think you will see the truth come out and i think sadly, michael cohen is a fraud. he's trying to get his last couple minutes of fame. >> michael cohen, undoubtedly has a credibility problem. >> as do all cooperating witnesses. they're not testifying against the other bad guys out of the goodness of their heart. they're testifying because they got caught. they're testifying for a deal. this is something all u.s. attorneys have to consider when cooperating a witness. does his lack of credibility, is it outweighed by the value of information he's giving? oftentimes jury can be convince

these allegations that michael cohen hired an i.t. firm to rig some online polls and he paid the guy with two walmart bags full of $12,000 or $13,000 and a boxing glove. one of the weirder stories you and i have ever covered. it speaks to the steaminess, seediness, and the ugliness and the dirtiness of what was going on leading up to this election. >> it's an incredible piece of reporting by "the wall street journal" and it's sort of comical that it happened in the office of the man that would come president of the united states at $12,000, $13,000 cash payment in a blue plastic walmart bag. you don't hear about that every day. i talked to rudy giuliani about it earlier today, he said, look, the president had nothing to do with that payment, did not direct that payment and if has authorized that payment, he would have wanted it to be made by check, not by cash. that's the word from the president's legal team. who knows who's telling the truth here. there is one interesting detail which is that cohen only paid that digital consultant,

himself, michael cohen was his point guy. >> and there's so much we don't know and michael cohen will be testifying publicly before a democratic-controlled oversight committee in just a short amount of time. everybody thinks every single day there is a new revelation every other week. it just underscores that a lot more could come out and the white house is not thrilled. i can't believe mj left out the idea that there is apparently a unc boxing glove that was given as payment as well? i would say, one, it's the testimony i'm struck by, and two, anyone who covers the campaign for any piece of time, it just underscores how off the cuff jerryrigged, not put together, kind of random group of people. >> all 40 democrats running for nomination. >> the very things the president has made his mission in life to attack, right, the idea of fake news, is the sort of -- i mean, it's not like this should be a huge surprise, right, but the thing his own campaign tracked in and the thing he denies on behalf of his campaign is again the thing his campaign was engaged in. and so the -- you know, it's k

the state's interest michael cohen? >> my reporting today, i found out that he has been continuing to meet with all of these investigating bodies, as he is preparing to report to congresss asome point if he does testify. he also got shoulder surgery on friday. so there is just a lot that's been going on in cohen's orbit. and on top of it the president has been continuing to attack him publicly and his family members. >> we're going to know eventually everything michael cohen knows with all of these investigators. we don't just yet know when or even at this point what year that will be when we discover all that. emily jane fox, barbara mcquade, thank you for joining us tonight on this important story. >>> and when we come back, how will house democrats deal with president trump attempting to interfere in their investigations? we've just heard emily jane fox tell us that michael cohen needs to see some action taken to protect him. i will ask congressman eric swalwell what congress can do now. [cell phone rings] where are

michael cohen say liar, okay. t the next part of the play is this, okay, but here is the evidence that the president suborned perjury and asked michael coown th michael cohen to lie. what's your reaction to that? >> maybe the george washington bridge. listen, i said this yesterday, giuliani's role in all of this is to confuse everyone. it's to really just say this is all -- >> it's working. >> really complicated. it work being aing and he's vert it. this is a complicated case. this piece is simple. very simple. and to the point about i disagree with chris murphy for a different reason. democrats should not want to get ahead of mueller because it will become hyper partisan in that context. they want mueller to make the first move and come in behind him and politically that's critical. >> i can suggest what the next line might be? here's the evidence, then rudy giuliani might say, okay, well it doesn't matter, this was a lie or suborning perjury about something not central to the russia -- it's not collusion. >> bef

michael cohen said yes. before leaving for federal prison, on the 7th of february, michael cohen will be sworn in on live television at a public hearing where he will be asked about what he knows, what he saw from his decade long service il inside the insular business world of donald trump. in describing michael cohen and his former role as trump's lawyer, journalists have often reached into the vocabulary of organized crime for comparisons. he's been called a fixer, a tom hagen-like lawyer for a single client. michael cohen, who once dreamed of becoming donald trump's white house counsel, can say a lot. to borrow a phrase, he knows a thing or two because he's seen a thing or two. perhaps including but not limited to potential trump moscow construction schemes, payoffs to women, the planning and killing of news stories and the like. remember that on the day the fbi raided cohen's hotel room and offices, the president of the united states called it an attack on our country. in a true sense, it is an attack on

how close is michael cohen or was michael cohen during your stay to donald trump? and how much of a danger will he be if, in fact, he does testify in front of the congress and fully cooperates with the mueller investigation? >> i knew cohen throughout my tenure working with the trump organization. cohen started, i believe, in 2006. i got to see his relationship with donald trump. it would not be out of the norm for donald trump to ask michael cohen to lie, to break the law or do something unlawful. cohen was very loyal to donald trump. so when i read this story, although people are trying to refute parts of it, it's not out of line to think donald trump would ask michael cohen to do something as egregious as lying to congress. >> so it is very possible just from your observes, you're not saying that you know anything that this report says, but from your observes, it would not be out of the norm for them to discuss things like this that included possibly legal conclusions? >> no, it would not be out of the norm. you have to remember how small the trump organization

more over, michael cohen, very important, ed, michael cohen, audio recorded every conversation he had. let's see if there is an audio. this doesn't exist, because it never happened. >> jake, he went through a long list of stories where the walls are closing in, it is over for trump. maybe not. >> the walls have closed in further. that's why you have rudy giuliani saying that members of the president's came pan may have colluded with russian officials, which is a little concerning. members of the president's team are getting ready to throw anybody overboard to save the president. i want to point out, when you say that the american people trust the president on this, that's just not true. last month, a poll came out that had 35% of americans saying they believed somewhat or totally the president's denial on russia. a big majority. >> does the mueller report have evidence, yes or no? last point, corey. >> i said this was fake news. if you look at the empirical data, 90% of the news coverage of this president has been negative towards the president. that's unfortunate. our economy is cont

you like to learn about from michael cohen? >> great questions. first of all, i think there are two main areas that we can divide up. one is more details about things we generally already know about. like the payments to stormy daniels. the whole campaign finance fraud scheme which michael cohen has already said in one or two sentence that's trump directed and orchestrated. what does that mean? what did he say? you want to get details about that. there is no substitute for hearing something in generalities and then hearing a witness testify about it under oath, in detail. and having the opportunity to judge his credibility. my sense is that michael cohen will come across as quite credible. that doesn't mean anyone should take just his word for it. they'll have to have other evidence, other corroboration, which we know, because of this southern district case, because they would not have relied on him in their paper that's the there weren't other corroboration, but i think it will be very compelling. the second category, and i'm

these allegations that michael cohen hired an i.t. firm to rig some online polls and he paid the guy with two walmart bags fill of $12,000, $13,000, and a boxing glove. one of the weirder stories you and i have ever covered. it speaks to the steaminess, seediness, and the ugliness and the dirtinesses of what was going on leading up to this election. what if you had fewer headaches and migraines a month? botox® prevents headaches and migraines before they even start. botox® is for adults with chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® injections take about 15 mins. in your doctor's office and are covered by most insurance. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there

you know michael cohen better than i do. it seems like this reporting is consistent with the life he now acknowledges he led, blind loyalty to donald trump, asked to do unsavory and in instances illegal things for donald trump, but now maybe the only true thing they've said in attacking him is that he's trying to shorten his sentence. he shortens his sentence not by lying but by telling the truth. >> no, i think that is the moist telling thing to me, and that is if you are michael cohen, and michael cohen may be a lot of things, stupid is not one of them, you don't lie about lying to congress to shorten your time where if you are now found to be lying about that, you may limp in your time. clearly he knows if he makes a statement, they're going to look into it since he's been convicted of lying. the worst ally of the world is accusing a man convicted of lying a shorter time for lying. it doesn't even make donald trump sense. >> right. and the folks over at fox news aren't even buying it. chris wallace was just on fox news wi

these allegations that michael cohen hired an i.t. firm to rig some online polls and he paid the guy with two walmart bags fill of $12,000, $13,000, and a boxing glove. one of the weirder stories you and i have ever covered. it speaks to the steaminess, seediness, and the ugliness and the dirtinesses of what was going on leading up to this election. >>ton ait's an incredible piece of reporting by "the wall street journal" and comical it happened in the office of the man that would come president of the united states at $12,000, $13,000 cash payment in a blue plastic walmart bag. you don't hear about that every day. i talked to rudy giuliani about it earlier today, he said, look, the president had nothing to do with that payment, did not direct that payment and if has authorized that payment, he would want it made by check, not by cash. that's the word from the president's legal team. who knows who's telling the truth here. there is one interesting detail which is that cohen only paid that digital consultant, that i.t. consultant, the

michael cohen's claims about the president. this is a federal criminal offense and more importantly it's a constitutional offense against the rule of law and against constitutional democracy. we simply can't have public officials ordering their underlings to lie to congress. so i think this would very quickly become the primary focus of what the committees want to look at in terms of mr. cohen's testimony. we don't know if it is true, of course. already, people, of course, are saying that this is a matter of the gravest legal urgency. >> michael cohen as far as we know is still planning to testify, but sources telling cnn he is concerned for the safety of his family. do you have any indication that he may not appear? >> i have no reason to think he won't appear. we would clearly do whatever we can within our power to make sure that he is secure and safe when he comes to capitol hill. i don't know what other provisions can be made to guarantee his safety. i have never seen a situation like that before at least since i have been

michael cohen didn't talk to buzz feed for this. it says the special counsel is not taking cohen's words for anything. reportedly cohen only confirmed what the mueller team already knew from other witnesses and documents. that's key. >> tell us what you have learned as you look at this. >> i think the point that poppy makes is an important one. the fact that sthis is based not only on what could conceively blee michael cohen's words that the special counsel has gathered other information, text messages, documents, other information. they say other witnesses have come in from the trump organization and backed up these claims. that is stunning. it is for the first time. if this is all true that we are hearing that there is other information, here is how buzz feed described the information in their story. they said that the special counsel's office learned about trump's directive for cohen to lie to congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the trump organization and internal company e-mails, text messages and a cache of

it is a shocking disclosure by michael cohen. i feel like i'm in the middle of a god father movie the way the president is acting now. he is witness tampering. if all of this is true we have got yet another article that could be posed in an impeachment trial. >> you think mueller should open a new investigation into witness tampering? i asked the question because in the letter that he received for what he is allowed to do among other things in addition to any collusion between the russians and the trump campaign he is also allowed to investigate perjury, obstruction of justice and intimidation of witnesses. >> it certainly falls into that last category. it is remarkable to me that the president of the united states would lash out in a manner that he has. oftentimes they are lashing out because they have something to hide. he clearly does not want to have michael cohen testify. he is trying to silence him. >> if you go back to his december tweet it was very threatening there is nothing special about what donald trump is doing. he

then they presented it to michael cohen. and michael cohen apparently said yes, e lied at the direction of donald trump. that is a whole different kind of -- the way the investigation develops. it make the prosecution thatch kind of charge very easy. >> can i ask you about the president's children? you've got don jr. and eye vaiv. detailed updates, intimately invol involved. ivanka trump's attorney saying she played a minimal role. which is it? are ivanka and don jr. entrenched in this business of possible wrongdoing? five days ago we're reading she could be the next world bank head. honestly, she might be the next held of the world bank. well, maybe she's heading to moscow where she was going to build a tower? i don't even get it. >> we've seen repeatedly people have been minimizing their connections with the russians and this deal in particular, the moscow project. there really is an elephant in the room now which is whether or not the president of the united states, while he was president, directed someone to lie to a con

chairman cummings made the following statement on the hearing on michael cohen, quote, michael cohen agrees to testify voluntarily. i want to make sure, that we have no intent, no interest in inappropriately interfering with any ongoing criminal investigations. to that end we're in the process of consulting with the special counsel mueller's office. the committee will announce additional details in the coming weeks. cohen says he'll testify on february 7. with history as our guide, this sort of thing could be quite a television event. >> well, listen, it will be the first time we have heard from an extended period from michael cohen, and also having questions from both sides of the aisle. sort of reading between the lines from what you just attributed to congressman cummings, it does sound like they're just confirming the special counsel is effectively done with cohen, he pushed that kwas into another jurisdiction. that was an indicator for many analysts that cohen was not relevant to the russia piece or the collusion peels of the investigation. but from the congressman's statements

you go to michael cohen and you say, michael, what happened? michael is going to remember a lot better what happened than donald trump where this was like this big in his recollection, and it's this big is michael's. >> right. but let me ask you a question -- this part you were the lawyer f for, for trump. in trump's written answers to special counsel robert mueller's questions, what did president trump have to say about the trump tower project? >> he acknowledged they had conversations about it throughout 2015, 2016 -- >> through november 2016, right? >> he answered those questions fully, and i think to the satisfaction of the special counsel. so i'm not at all concerned about that. he gave a full and complete answer to it. i can't share the whole thing to you, but i can share the conclusion which is he had conversations with michael cohen. but it was michael cohen driving the project as anybody who is being fair-minded would understand. he was running, i emphasize, as president of the united states. tied up 18 hours a day with that. if he cou