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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every

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Speaker 1: day we bring you inside an analysis into the most

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Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more

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Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple podcast, SoundCloud

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Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcasts. Turning now to

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Speaker 1: Michael Cohen's testimony. Joining me is Andrew Harris, Bloomberg News,

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Speaker 1: a legal reporter. Andrew, Let's start with Michael Cohen saying

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Speaker 1: that there was a case in the Southern District. I

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Speaker 1: am in constant contact with the Southern District of New

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Speaker 1: York regarding ongoing investigations. Is that something that President Trump

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Speaker 1: should be concerned about? Well, I think, June, I think

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Speaker 1: it would be hard for him not to be concerned. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: there's a you know, something under a large sheet up

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Speaker 1: in the Southern District of New York. Only the prosecutors

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Speaker 1: there know what they're looking at. Michael Cohen may have

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Speaker 1: more information on that than any of us, but sure,

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Speaker 1: until you know what that is when the cover gets

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Speaker 1: ripped away, Uh, yeah, I think it's right for the

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Speaker 1: president to be concerned. There was so much President he

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Speaker 1: said may have committed crimes, including campaign violations, insurance fraud,

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Speaker 1: bank fraud. What struck you as possibly the most damaging

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Speaker 1: to Trump? Well, interestingly, the President said uh, and noted

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Speaker 1: that Michael Cohen didn't give any endorsement to collusion. But

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Speaker 1: clearly the hush money payment that the President's organization CFO

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Speaker 1: Alan Weislberg may have been aware of. Clearly the phone

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Speaker 1: call from Roger Stone about information to come from Wiki leaks,

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Speaker 1: And clearly, of course the perhaps opportunistic inflating or deflating

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Speaker 1: the President's network depending on who he was trying to

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Speaker 1: convince of what those, if true, could be serious issues

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Speaker 1: for the president going forward. President Trump isn't the only

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Speaker 1: one that perhaps should be concerned. You mentioned Allan Weiselberg.

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Speaker 1: His name was mentioned several times, and two other executives

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Speaker 1: of the Trump organization were implicated by Cohen. Tell us

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Speaker 1: about that, Well, that's correct. Wislberg again the chief financial

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Speaker 1: officer for the Trump organization. He's already been given limited

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Speaker 1: immunity from prosecutors to cooperate their investigation up in Manhattan.

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Speaker 1: But Michael Cohen said that he was a witness to

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Speaker 1: the payment of the hush money check to Stormy Daniels

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Speaker 1: and Of course, Cohen proffered what he said were some

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Speaker 1: of those checks right during the meeting, and two other

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Speaker 1: Trump executives, Matthew Callamary and Ron Lieberman, who allegedly were

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Speaker 1: aware of this uh as I said, opportunistic inflating or

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Speaker 1: deflating of the president's net worth, inflating when he was

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Speaker 1: trying to get a loan from deeutgea banked by an

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Speaker 1: NFL football team, and perhaps deflating for insurance purposes or

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Speaker 1: filing his tax returns. As we've talked about before, the

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Speaker 1: Justice Department will not currently indict a sitting president, but

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Speaker 1: here you have some indications of possible insurance fraud and

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Speaker 1: bank fraud, very serious crimes. Is anything likely to happen

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Speaker 1: with regard to that, well, certainly with regard to people

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Speaker 1: that may have been co conspirators to that. They're not

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Speaker 1: the president. There's only one president. So if one of

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Speaker 1: those people named by Michael Cohen yesterday did indeed commit

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Speaker 1: a crime, they may be under some pressure to cooperate

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Speaker 1: lest they be charged with regard to not charging the president,

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Speaker 1: though that is a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel

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Speaker 1: policy position, that is not the law that is not

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Speaker 1: anything in the Constitution, and there is some debate among

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Speaker 1: the legal community as to whether or not that's really so.

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Speaker 1: I agree that there's a debate. I don't think that

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Speaker 1: William bar will be the one to break that though,

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Speaker 1: do you? Probably not? In One of the attorneys that

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Speaker 1: I spoke with yet today, Um, a former deputy counsel

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Speaker 1: to Robert Mueller when he was the U S Attorney

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Speaker 1: in San Francisco, said, even if it's not the law,

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Speaker 1: even if it's not a requirement. He described Mr Mueller,

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Speaker 1: the special counsel, as being a fairly conservative type, and

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Speaker 1: it's unlikely that he would be the one that would

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Speaker 1: break that rule. Yeah. There was a lot of questioning

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Speaker 1: from the Republicans about whether Michael Cohen was upset because

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Speaker 1: he hadn't gotten the job in the White House he wanted,

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Speaker 1: and there's been a lot of reporting that that was

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Speaker 1: the case. He denied that. Is that a possible problem

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Speaker 1: for him? Look, he's he's obviously his credibility has damaged.

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Speaker 1: He's challenged. Is this sour grapes? Maybe it is. Only

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Speaker 1: Michael Cohen knows what's in his heart. Only Michael Cohen

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Speaker 1: knows why it was Okay, to work for the president, uh,

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Speaker 1: for as long as he did, under circumstances that he

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Speaker 1: now describes as dubious, shady pick your adjective, June. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was quite something and it's hard to in a

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Speaker 1: few minutes go through to all that testimony. But thanks

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Speaker 1: so much, Andrew, appreciate always a pleasure to thank you.

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Speaker 1: That's Andrew Harris, Bloomberg News Legal reporter. Thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen

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Speaker 1: to the show on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso. This is Bloomberg