The Young Turks - Michael Cohen's CAPTIVATING Congress Testimony

Episode Date: February 28, 2019

Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen appeared before Congress and had an INSANE televised testimony. Get exclusive access to our best content. http://tyt.com/GETACCESS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. All right, welcome to the Young Turks on an amazing day. Amazing day.

It's really not that amazing. No, super amazing. Agree to disagree. We're already having fun. Okay, so. Agreed to disagree on that as well. Okay, this is a debate and having fun apparently. That's the one thing that.

Okay, Michael Cohen, testimony, we're gonna blow it out of the water. We got all of it for you guys. Not all of it, it was a lot. But the most relevant parts, including is what Donald Trump did illegal. But I warn you, there are twists and turns in that story, okay? So we're gonna get to that first. Then Roe kinda lays out the criminal, part of the criminal case against Donald Trump perfectly. And Donald Trump Jr., which leads a part of my prediction about why Trump's gonna leave.

Oh, why that's why I might not be in a good mood, because he's gonna owe me $100. Okay, when Trump leaves office early. Let me just say, if I had any reason to believe that you would not end up owing me that money, I would be in a much better mood. Yeah, if Trump's gonna leave office, I hear you on that. All right, and then there's the issue of racism. I got quoted by black Twitter, and I feel pretty proud about that. Is that why you're in such a good mood, like obnoxiously good mood?

No, no, no, no. The Michael Cohen testimony was amazing. That's the main reason why I'm in a good mood. My mood, almost 100% directed by the stories. Okay, and then we got a lot more for you guys as we go. By the way, in this third hour of the program today where we do the conversation, which, yes, used to be my Jersey short nickname. I have a mainstream media reporter who wrote about liberals being too liberal and vitriolic

on Twitter. That ought to be an interesting conversation. So don't miss a minute of this show. Oh, I know a good way you can not miss a minute of the show. If you remember, you get it anytime you want, t.yt.com slash join. Casper, go. All right. Michael Cohen has been testifying before the House of Representatives, and this testimony

has been happening all day long, but we're gonna give you the most relevant parts of it. Now, it began with Michael Cohen's statement, but more importantly, some of the issues that he's decided to shine a light on, which could lead to legal ramifications for Donald Trump. Now, additional information, more information than we already knew. So first, let's start off with the hush money payments. This is not about Russia, this is about the hush money payments that were given to women like Stormy Daniels, for instance, to basically refrain from sharing information about their

affairs with the public. Now, here is the first part of Cohen's testimony on that. Back in 2017, when, actually I apologize, in 2016, prior to the election, I was contacted by Keith Davidson, who was the attorney, or was the attorney for Ms. Clifford, for Stormy Daniels. And after several rounds of conversations with him about purchasing her life rights for $130,000, what I did each and every time is go straight into Mr. Trump's office and discuss the issue with him. when it was ultimately determined, and this was days before the election, that Mr. Trump was going to pay the $130,000. In the office with me was Alan Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump organization.

He acknowledged to Alan that he was going to pay the $130,000, and that Alan and I should go back to his office and figure out how to do it. So yes, sir, I stand by the statement that I gave, but there was a history to it. So this is all about the reimbursement, because remember, Michael Cohen paid that $130,000 to Stormy Daniels up front, and then this conversation is all about how the, you know, Trump camp is going to reimburse Michael Cohen for that money. So let me bring you down this way. John Iderall and I had this conversation as we were covering it, the hearings live. And by the way, anytime there's a major political event like this, you should always check

out our play by play at t.com slash live. Okay, so there's three main components to how you should think about the different criminal cases that are potential against Donald Trump. One is collusion with the Russians before the election, so that would involve the crime of conspiracy and possible campaign, finance violations, et cetera. Then there is, I actually am the most skeptical about that part. So we'll talk about it at length in a little bit. Then there is collusion with the Russians after the elections, which I think is far more likely.

I'm afraid that Mueller might not have investigated that as thoroughly as he needs to. But then there is a third category. Look, the second category after the election, if Trump is really taking notes from the Russians on what to do with that foreign policy is absolutely explosive. That would be the worst of the worst, and I believe that is what happened. But again, put that aside for now. The third category is other crimes, not having to do with collusion with the Russians at all. And there's a huge laundry list there.

But the most important one is the one we're talking about here, the hush money. Or as Rashida Taleb called it later in her part of the hearings, bribe money. Because that is, it's just to bribe her to not talk about their affair because it was days before the election and they didn't want it to affect the election. Now, the reason why that's the most important is because that is the one we have the clearest evidence on. At this point, with this testimony that you're watching, it's, I mean, I know it sounds bold to say it, but it really isn't bold.

It's an open and shut case. It is an open and shut case. And there is evidence beyond what Cohen is saying to prove that this is an open and shut case. And so we're going to provide that evidence for you in just a minute. Now, Representative Cummings was part of the questioning when it came to this is. issue. And so what you're about to see is the evidence that Michael Cohen had provided to show that

he had been reimbursed for that hush money and how he had been reimbursed. So let's take a look at the video that explains all of that. Can you tell me who signed this check? I believe that the top signature is Donald Trump Jr. And the bottom signature, I believe is Alan Weisselberg's. And can you tell me the date of that check? March 17th of 2017. Now wait, wait a minute, hold up.

The date on the check is after President Trump held his big press conference, claiming that he gave up control of his businesses. How could the president have arranged for you to get this check if he was supposedly playing no role in his business? Because the payments were designed to be paid over the course of 12 months, and it was declared to be a retainer for services that would be provided for the year. Okay, that was one of my favorite parts of the whole day when Representative Logite Cummings was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold up now, hold on, okay, save a seat for me.

Okay. That was a good moment. Okay, so why is this important? It's because Michael Cohen's got receipts, literal, in this case check, clear documented evidence that backs up what he's saying. We already have his testimony saying, yes, I paid that bribe to make sure that Stormy Daniels did not talk before the election, it was definitely about the election, I gave the $130,000. So that is a violation on several grounds.

One is someone giving above $5,400 is an in-kind contribution that is clearly illegal. That's Michael Cohen contributing to Donald Trump's campaign way above what is legally allowed. Then Donald Trump confirms that by paying him back. And you have all of these checks while he's president. And so, and on top of that, the guy that was, his name was mentioned throughout the hearings, But that the press overall is not talking enough about. And that's Alan Weisselberg. Okay, so that's Trump's money man in the Trump organization.

He signs all the checks. He knows where, you know, what comes in, what goes out, he has all the information. And he is cooperating with prosecutors. So the Trump team, here's what I have to say to you, Weisleberg, straight ahead, okay? So you're about to run into that Weisleberg, and that is three different things that confirm Michael Cohn's side of the story, clearly illegal and clearly provable. So, but there's more. But there's more.

As you can tell from that last clip that we showed you, Elijah Cummings showed the check that was signed by Trump's son. But what you're about to see has Trump's fingerprints all over it, Donald Trump's fingerprints all over it. Take a look. Now here's another one. This one appears to be signed by Donald Trump himself. Is that his signature?

That is Donald Trump's signature. So let me make sure I understand. Donald Trump wrote you a check out of his personal account while he was serving as president of the United States of America to reimburse you for hush money payments to Ms. Clifford. Is that what you are telling the, American people today? Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Wait, oh, wait, wait, wait, up, hold on. That's pretty big. Okay, so more consequences from this. The first check is signed by Donald Trump Jr. Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs, that means his son's on the hook, okay? So now, remember my theory is to why Donald Trump's going to resign eventually, because not only are they going to have overwhelming evidence on him, but they're going to have overwhelming evidence on some of his kids.

And here we go, juniors now clearly on the hook. Then the second check is signed by Trump himself. So they're both totally on the hook and later Rokana, and we'll show you that in its entirety later in the program, shows why this would also be criminal fraud by the Trump organization to be putting together checks and giving it to Michael Cohen under false pretenses. Because they said it was for legal services and Michael Cohen made very clear that it was not for legal services. It was for the hush money.

So it's illegal on two different counts. The thing that keeps popping into my head as this testimony goes on is the fact that Donald Trump, in reference to Michael Cohen cooperating with the authorities, referred to Cohen as a rat. And that's relevant because why would you refer to someone as a rat unless they're outing you to the feds or they're outing you to the authorities? They're giving the cops, the information about you and your mob, right? So Anna, you read my mind slash tweets.

Actually, I didn't read your piece. I'm kidding. Earlier today, I tweeted the whole day reminded me of a copo testifying against a mafia boss. And similar language was used, similar talk of conspiracies, et cetera. And guys, if you didn't do anything wrong, okay, they accuse you of something random. And somebody gives false testimony against you, first of all, you'd be perplexed, you'd be like, what?

We did not rob that bank? What on God's greener that are you talking about? But you wouldn't call the guy a rat, because that implies you did do it and he ratted you out. God, Trump is so stupid. He is, he's monumentally stupid. And that was another part of my thesis as to why he's not going to make it, because he's too stupid to cover things up.

Okay, so look, before we continue on with some of the other potential consequences of this testimony for Trump. I just want to make clear that overall, it was very obvious that Republicans do not care about the crimes that he's committed, the potential crimes he's committed, Republicans have no interest in holding Donald Trump accountable. And so in order for your prediction to come to fruition, you would need a Republican party that does not consist of brown shirts. And right now, we have a Republican party that consists almost solely of brown shirts.

of brown shirts, who will support Trump, who will back Trump, even at the, you know, expense of our democracy, at the expense of the American people, I mean, they had absolutely no interest in holding Trump accountable. And you're gonna see that as we show you more and more clips. I hear you. One tiny footnote to that is, I watched the whole testimony all together with you guys the whole day, right, as we covered it. And Justin Amash is this, he voted with them, very classic Republican move, okay?

And he's eccentric, he's different. He is more right wing in a lot of cases than the rest of the Republicans. But sometimes shows flashes of principle, and he did not play the same political games as the rest of the Republicans. He actually asked interesting, different questions, and I was really surprised by it. So, but Amash is not- Is he gonna save us? Is that what you're saying? No, no, no, no, that's fair Anna.

And even if he were to do the right thing, it's only one guy. And you could pull in, Walter Jones is another huge right-winger. has principles, maybe you can cobble together a couple of honest Republicans, but they ain't going to do the job, right? And we don't need them in the House, we need them in the Senate. But overall, no, at the end of the day, the Republicans would have to decide the political damage done to their career by supporting Donald Trump would be greater than the political damage done by not supporting Donald Trump.

Yeah, that's what would drive them, right? Their own personal gain or their own personal loss, that's what would drive them, not the best interest of their constituents or their people. the American people or a justice system, they don't care about that at all, they're not leaders, they're not interested in actually representing the people who voted them into office. All they care about is their own political careers, and that's pretty damn pathetic. Yeah, so last point on that issue is that guys, we show you the clear illegal actions of Donald Trump, even his own lawyers today came out and said, well, even if all that is true,

you can't indict a sitting president. Now think about what a terrible defense that is. Like, yeah, my client might be a criminal, but ha ha, you're not allowed to indict him because he's a sitting president. I mean, if they're resorting to that, ad is horrific. But all this stuff is already plain and obvious and in the public record. This goes to Anna's point, and the Republicans still have not backed away from. Don't get me wrong, the criminality is not something that's going to dissuade Republicans

from supporting someone, they've supported plenty of criminals, right? No, it's if the American people become convinced that the evidence is irrefutable and then independents leave him completely and some portion of Republicans go, a bridge too far, cannot take it. Now, Anna, you could be fairly skeptical about whether that would ever happen with the Republican voters. Beyond skeptical. And that would have to happen either with the Republican voters or all the Republican donors for the Republican politicians to go, all right, eject, right? But that is where we're headed here because this illegality is irrefutable.

So I think that's the part of the testimony that was pretty clear when it comes to illegality. Let's get to things that aren't so clear, and that's the issue of Russia. So during Michael Cohen's testimony before the House of Representatives, the issue involving Roger Stone and WikiLeaks came up. In fact, according to the New York Times, Cohen described a moment when he said Roger Stone, one of Trump's top political operatives called the president to tell him about a conversation with WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. And I want to show you a portion of that testimony.

Take a quick look. Mr. Trump knew from Roger Stone in advance about the WikiLeaks drop of emails. In July of 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump's office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speaker phone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange. And that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect, wouldn't that be great? So I want to jump in, before you jump in, I want to jump in, not with my opinion, but what legal experts are saying about that portion of the testimony, is that likely to get Donald Trump in trouble? And it appears based on what legal experts are saying is there's got to be a lot more proven for Trump to get in trouble for this. So prosecutors would have to prove that Trump and the campaign actively engaged in coordinating with Russians to distribute the documents or took other actions to affect the outcome of

the election. So that alone is not enough to incriminate Trump. Yes. So before I get to the serious part, look, I'm a grown ass man, but sometimes I'm still a child. So first of all, he's from New York. So his accent doesn't mean anything, but it does add to the ambiance. It really does. And one of our viewers, while we're covering it live, tweeted out about, like, you just

need some dramatic music in the background as he's testifying. And I added a canoli, right? Okay, so anyways, he's like, Mr. Roger Stone comes in and he says this on the phone, all right? Roger Stone on line one, all right? Okay, and then he's like, and then he says there's gonna be a massive dump coming. Okay, anyway, I'm a child, but all right, so now the serious stuff. Now, I don't know that there is someone in the country that wants Roger Stone and Donald Trump

to go away more than I do. A little bit personal as well when it comes to Roger Stone, okay? Having said that, our job is to cover the news and to be fair and objective, okay? We have a perspective, but we're objective about the facts. I don't think that's enough. Yeah. I don't think that that proves collusion. In fact, an argument could be made that it's the opposite.

So let me explain. So if Roger Stone has information that WikiLeaks is going to. published the information, well, wait a minute, and he tells Donald Trump and Donald Trump's excited, if Trump was already cluding with the Russians, why would he be excited? Wouldn't he already have that information? Why does he need WikiLeaks? It's a little bit of a Star Trek moment, why does God need a spaceship, right? So why would he need WikiLeaks if he's already working with the Russians?

And so why would Roger Stone have to go out of his way to try to find the information from WikiLeaks? I know what some Democrats are saying. They're saying, no, but if WikiLeaks worked with the Russians to get the stolen information and then the Trump campaign through Roger Stone is coordinating with WikiLeaks, well, now we get to the question of what do you mean by coordinating, right? Because it appears they, since they're relatively surprised by the news, they didn't take part in getting the emails in the first place.

That almost seems pretty definitive, right? Then the one thing that the Democrats in this case have to hang their hat on, and it's a good one, is look, WikiLeaks dumps the emails, if you will, a couple of hours after the Access Hollywood tape hits. That, you know, there are no coincidence as that large. That is clearly meant to help Donald Trump. Right. And so the question is, did Donald Trump, you know, conspire or work with WikiLeaks in the timing

of that dump. And you have to prove that. I mean, an argument can be made that Julian Assange, who was very clear in not wanting Hillary Clinton to get elected for obvious reasons. She wanted to go after him for all the other leaks that he had published. But he might have just decided, oh no, this Access Hollywood tape is really going to hurt Trump. Let me go ahead and dump this now so all the attention can be paid to the email dump as opposed

to the Access Hollywood tape. Who knows? He could have done it on his own. That's what I'm trying to argue. And the point is, we don't yet have that information. So if you have information that says Trump, once he found out about the emails, worked with WikiLeaks or more importantly the Russians to coordinate when the emails come out to help his campaign, yes, then that would be an act of criminal conspiracy, which is the colloquially

we refer to as collusion, right? But there's a lot to prove in there. You'd have to prove that Trump told him when to go out with that information. You'd have to prove that he's working with the WikiLeaks and that he knows the WikiLeaks are working with the Russians, and I'd be surprised, okay? So now, the more likely scenario is whether it's Russians in coordination with WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks just by itself, neither one of them want Hillary Clinton to be president. That's absolutely clear, right?

So when the damaging information for Trump hits, they hit the press button. He's ecstatic, but he didn't necessarily direct them to do that. So one other thing that I wanted to mention was what Cohen had to say about the negotiations pertaining to Trump Tower in Moscow. Take a look. I lied to Congress when Mr. Trump stopped negotiating the Moscow Tower project in Russia. Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That's not how he operates.

conversations we had during the campaign. At the same time, I was actively negotiating in Russia for him. He would look me in the eye and tell me there's no Russian business and then go on to lie to the American people by saying the same thing. In his way, he was telling me to lie. You need to know that Mr. Trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to Congress about the timing of the Moscow tower negotiations before I gave it. So to be clear, Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump-Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign

and lied about it. So now, this is a different crime, lying to federal investigators. So there are three different people that are implicated here. First is Roger Stone. He seems to have clearly lied to prosecutors about. His conversations with WikiLeaks, and so he is in massive trouble for that, and he has been already arrested for that. We'll get to Trump in a second.

I just, I want to make a quick comment about Roger Stone and, you know, the incriminating evidence against him in this case. My only comment is, that's it. Go ahead. See, the thing is, it appears that Roger Stone is covering up something political as opposed is something illegal. And we don't know for sure, there's more evidence to come out. But it looks like he just didn't want people to know that they were coordinating with WikiLeaks.

And so he appeared to have lied to the prosecutors. Now that's a crime end of itself. Now, sad day for you, Roger Stone, you shouldn't have committed that crime. And so that you could go to jail for and I hope you do. And so that was your choice to lie, but that's his MO. That's all he's ever done in his entire political career is lie, lie, lie. So the fact that he got busted on it is wonderful, even if the underlying issue of coordinating with the Russians is not the case.

It doesn't matter, lying is still a crime under that circumstance. Now, we already know Michael Cohen lied and he's going to prison for it. He lied to Congress. Now that leads to Donald Trump, the third person. So here the Republicans can say, well, technically Donald Trump didn't say to Michael Cohen, I want you to go lie in front of Congress about my dealings in this case with the Russians for Trump Tower in Moscow. Now the Trump Tower Moscow deal is, in my opinion, a bigger deal than the emails, because

that is where, according to Michael Cohen's testimony and logic and business dealings overall, Trump stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars by working partly with the Russian government. They need a permission from the Russian government to build that. Now that is a mother load, okay, that would be here, a foreign government. government is going to pay a guy who's going to be president, a lot of money, and then that candidate is doing them favors. That's a significant issue. But even if you don't get to that issue, if you lie about that, well, then you're going

to be in trouble. And there's two different lies that Trump can get in trouble for. Remember, he answered written questions by Mueller. So he has handed in written testimony. Now, of course, his lawyers didn't want him to go talk to Mueller because he'd lie about three times a minute, and he'd immediately be in massive trouble for lying and obstruction of justice, right? More importantly, I think that they were worried that he would unwittingly admit to crimes

that he's committed. Oh, of course, like he has in the past on national television, right? So, but it, so they had, they took a long time, they were very careful with it, and they wrote out the answers to Mueller's questions. But if he wrote that, that they had stopped talking to the Russians about the Trump Tower in Moscow back in January, which was the original lie that Cohen gave to Congress. Well, Cohen now says that is not true. We definitely talk to them all the way through June at a minimum, okay?

And now there's remember Weisselberg, the finance guy for the Trump organization, he could back that up. So if he backs that up, well, ladies and gentlemen, you got him. So that's lying to federal prosecutors and obstruction of justice, because you're in intent in lying is so that they don't uncover the hundreds of millions of dollars that a foreign government might give you, which is the heart of the investigation for Mueller in the first place. Right.

But there's one last legal issue here. If Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, that would be another criminal act. Now the Republicans, as I was saying, could technically say, well, he didn't say the words to Michael Cohen, hey, Michael, I want you to go in front of Congress and make sure you lie of them. But prosecutors don't need that level of specificity. So this happens all the time in the case of the mob. So the mob boss does not tell us capo, hey Michael, go out and murder that guy, put three bullets

in his head, and I'm the one ordering it, okay? So- I think mob bosses do that. Sometimes they do, but if they're pretty stupid, right? But more often what happens is they would say something like this. Well, it would be nice if he wasn't around anymore, okay? Well, now that's not that complicated, right? And so prosecutors use that as evidence that they directed that action, even though they didn't say to kill him, right?

And people get convicted on that all the time. So now if Trump did what Cohen says he did, which is, now Michael, you know, as they are doing, negotiating a deal at that same exact time as Cohen says he did, which is, now Michael, you know, as they're Cohen just testified, you just saw. He says, hey, Michael, we're not negotiating a deal with the Russians, right? As Michael Cohen is about to go testify in front of Congress, that would be, in essence, directing him to lie to Congress. He doesn't have to say any magic words in any magic order as long as it is clear, his intent

is clear to the jury. Right, but intent is the important part of that argument. So they would have to prove intent if he didn't directly ask Cohen's up. I know, but remember guys, so in this case, if you've got a guy who says, Michael, let's go get that deal done with the Russians, oh, you're about to testify to Congress? Remember, Michael, we don't have a deal with the Russians and we're not working on one now. It's not that hard to prove intent to any reasonable person. Yeah, all right, we'll see how that goes.

Now there were a number of wonderful progressive representatives who asked questions, and And we're gonna get to that when we come back from our break. Yes, I think Rokana on the criminality on one particular issue just hits it out of the park. You gotta see that. And every time I see those just Democrats and you saw it in that shot for a second, I get so excited. Yeah, me too. They're in the house.

Donald, I got bad news for you. They're in the house. All right, we'll be right back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing the Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations, are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be.

Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or,

you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time. All right, back on a young church. Just time for a couple of quick ones and they're all fun. Well, or important, these are all from the member section, t-y-t.com slash join to become a member. I am the Batman writes in, tick, tick, boom, say it, Jenks, say it, okay? I know guys, but like, look, I want to get excited, but again, you need Republicans who want to do the right thing.

Okay. And- Let's see what out. We don't have Republicans. Let's see what happens. Jet 53 says, being that Jake is such a good mood, old school tonight should be super fun, read t yt.com slash join to watch old school live and get the whole show, benefits of membership. And speaking of which, so somebody wrote in about the post game yesterday. A lot of people wrote in about the post game yesterday.

I want to just read one quick one. That's, of course, that's the last half hour of the young Turks, and that's for just the members, okay? Mickey C. said, Anna, you upset yesterday had me in tears. Please do not ever give up. It's people like you, AOC, and all the other young, outspoken women who give me hope. You're all fighting as we did over a half a century ago. And although we made some strides, some things seem much worse now. I see a younger, much younger me and all of you.

So please keep up the good fight. So many are depending on all of you. Well, Mickey, I want to thank you for saying that. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for sending us that message. Thank you to everyone who's a member who reached out yesterday. Yeah, you know, post game is where I think you guys get who we are, you know, sincerely who we are, are authentic ourselves.

But I feel like sometimes in the members only post game, I can kind of let loose even more. And that certainly happened yesterday. And I'm almost a little embarrassed by it, because I feel like I got to be professional all the time and, you know, be strong, but some days are really tough. I really want to give you guys all the love in the world for not judging me for that. Yeah, I don't agree, like I don't think that it's unprofessional at all. We're real people. Yeah.

Okay, so anyway, look, today is a good day to sign up to get all of our, because John and I had a wonderful conversation about the hearings, et cetera. So you can do it for free for a week just to try, t.t.com slash trial. Okay, I'll do Rokana, right? Okay, so Rokana is one of the best progressives in Congress, and now normally he talks about policy and he's been a great fighter in increasing wages at Walmart, Amazon, etc., in stopping the atrocity in Yemen and our participation in it. In this case, he's also on the Oversight Committee, and so he got the question, Michael

Cohen. Now, Michael Cohen talked about the hush money payments or the bribe payments to Stormy Daniels. to get her to not talk before the election, clearly directly related to the campaign. So that is a huge legal issue for Donald Trump. In fact, it's such a big legal issue that Michael Cohen is going to prison for that exact issue and his co-conspirator is Donald Trump. But Rokana did not focus as much on the campaign finance violation, which is Michael Cohen giving that money to the campaign, an in-kind contribution of $130,000, which is

way above the maximum of 5,400 and clearly illegal, and people have definitely gotten to prison for exactly that violation, and Cohen is going to prison for it. But there was one other part about how Cohen got paid back with checks from the Trump organization that kind of focused on. I think, now it's a longer clip, it's almost his entire four minutes here, right, that he questioned Cohen. But we're playing it for you guys in its entirety because I think it's this positive on the illegal actions taken by the Trump organization.

So, and it was as good as you're going to get in questioning a witness. Let's watch. You provided this committee with a check from President Donald J. Trump's revocable trust account, which is marked as Exhibit Phi B. It is a check for $35,000, and it is dated March 17, 2017 after the president took office. It's right now on the screen. Do you see it, sir? Yes, sir.

To be clear, the Trump revocable trust is the trust the president set up to hold his assets after he became president. Is that correct? I believe so. Do you know why you were paid from the trust as opposed to the president's personal account? I don't know the answer to that. Did you think it was odd that he paid you once from his personal account and then he's paying you through the scheme of a trust? I'll be honest. I was just happy to get the check. Today you testify that the check was signed by Donald Trump Jr.

the Trump organization CFO Alan Weisselberg. Is that correct? That is correct. According to the criminal charges against you, you sent monthly invoices containing false information to an individual identified as Executive 1. Weisselberg is Executive 1, correct? Yes.

The criminal charge against you then states that Executive 1 forwarded your invoice to someone referred to as Executive 2. Presumably, Donald Trump Jr., who's signing this check, is Executive 2. correct? I believe so. As federal prosecutors laid out in their criminal charges, payments like this check resulted in numerous false statements in the books and records of the Trump organization. And it's important for the American public to understand this. Nothing to do with conclusion. This is financial fraud, garden variety financial fraud. It was disguised as a payment for legal services to you. But this was not a payment for legal services. Was it, Mr. Cohen?

No, sir. It could give rise to... serious state and federal criminal liability if a corporation is cooking its books. Based on your testimony today, Donald Trump Jr. and Alan Weisselberg directed this payment to you and approved this payment. Is that right? Mr. Trump initially acknowledged the obligation, the debt. Myself and Alan Weisselberg went back to his office and I was instructed. by Alan at the time that they were going to do this over 12 installments.

And what he decided to do then was to have me send an invoice, in which case they can have a check cut. And then, yes, the answer would be yes to your follow. And Donald Trump Jr. obviously signed off on this. Yes, well, it would

either be Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and or Alan Weisselberg, but always Alan Weisselberg on the check. And you think executive, too, is Donald Trump juniors. Yes. They knew that this payment was false and illegal, correct? I can't make that conclusion. You told Representative Kelly that the president was aware of this scheme. Is that correct? That's correct. I just want the American public to understand the explosive nature of your testimony in this document. Are you telling us, Mr. Cohen, that the president directed

transpections in conspiracy with Alan Weisselberg and his son, Donald Trump, Jr., as part of a civil criminal, as part of a criminal conspiracy of financial fraud. Is that your testimony today? Yes. And do you know if this criminal financial scheme that the president, Alan Weisselberg, and Donald Trump Jr. are involved in is being investigated by the Southern District of New York? I'd rather not discuss that question because it could be part of an investigation that's currently ongoing. But I just want the American public to understand that solely apart from Bob Mueller's investigation, there is garden variety financial fraud.

And your allegation and the explosive smoking gun documents suggest that the president, his son, and his CFO may be involved in a criminal conspiracy. And isn't it true, Mr. Cohen, that this criminal conspiracy that involved, four people that there's only one person so far who suffered the repercussions and that's why you're in jail. We'll be going to jail, yes. There are three other people though who were equally involved in this conspiracy. Is that true? It is true. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we got them. Okay, now. Wait a minute. Something just hit me right now. So, You would need Republicans to act on Donald Trump, right, for him to be brought to justice.

Yes. But that's not necessarily the case when it comes to his son. Exactly. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You know how would you say in the show? Bye bye. Donald Trump Jr., bye, bye. Okay.

So, and that is why I say that at some point Trump's gonna step down because they got him, they got his kids, okay? Because they're all knuckleheads. One of my favorite parts of this testimony was when Michael Cohen said that Donald Trump Sr. thought that Donald Trump Jr. had literally the worst judgment in the country. Yes. I was watching you and John cover that live and you guys bursting into laughter was the best part. Okay, if Donald Trump thinks you're stupid, wow, okay. So look, other super important parts of that.

First of all, it's not just the campaign finance violations, it is financial fraud when you know that you are saying in your books that this check is for a specific reason, and it is not, and it is for another activity, let alone the fact that it is for a criminal intent that you are sending that check, but it's financial fraud either way, okay? Number two, super important, not just federal, but it violates state laws as well. So you cannot pardon someone as president for violations of state law. Oops, bye bye, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, okay. Oh, seeing junior an orange jumpsuit is going to be awesome.

Okay, now I finally have a reason to be- No, but by the way, if he, that's, it's not going to happen because he's going to resign and they're going to make a deal, is my guess. Okay, but let's keep going on the facts. So when he says, do you know if the Southern District of New York is looking into this? And he says, I can't comment. I was like, yes, they are looking into it. Weisselberg straight ahead. Okay, now they're gonna run in that Weisselberg because he's already cooperating with prosecutors

and he knows where the bodies are buried. And you have two witnesses then and receipts. You've got the checks, you've got Michael Cohen, and you got Weisselberg. So when Donald Trump Jr. goes, well, let me do, do, yeah, bidi-de-dib-dib-dib-a-b-b-b-oh. Okay, that's not gonna help him much because they got him dead to rights, let alone Trump who orchestrated in the first place. Could you imagine if junior flipped on his dad? I can't imagine.

Of course I can imagine that. Of course I can imagine. All right. So because again, you can't pardon on state charges so he'd be going to prison, okay? So let's see what happens, but those are devastating. And Rokana was right, you saw a part of it there, but he said a couple of times in the beginning and the end in some parts that you didn't see, look, this is explosive, and he was right to focus people's attention on clearly provable crimes, okay, and the prosecutors are already

looking into. And he said, the checks are the smoking gun. They are. You can say, you know, the whole day the Republicans sat there going, well, Michael Cohen, I mean, you already admitted to lying, and that's where you're going to jail, so we don't trust you, ha ha, ha, ha, ha, right? All right, yeah, but who did he lie on behalf of? Who did he lie with?

So they're like, well, you know, you can't believe that, you know, you were dishonest in an obvious criminal for ten years. then why did Donald Trump hire him? If it's such a, it was so obvious that he's a liar and a criminal. By the way, that's why Donald Trump hired him, because sometimes you don't need a criminal lawyer, you need a criminal lawyer, okay? So when you put all that together, the Trump family is in a world of hurt. Now remember, there's a lot of different crimes we talked about today.

Some are very provable, like the campaign finance violations without much money. Some are much harder to prove, like collusion before the election with the Russians specifically, very hard to prove, okay? But don't lose focus. The financial fraud is the easiest to prove and a very serious crime. Nice. Bye, bye. Tic, tick, tick.

Tick, tick, tick. Tick, tick, tick. Okay, now I get why you're in such a good mood. And come on, guys, look at this, man. Look, this is an aside, but who busted them up the worst today? Rokana, Rashida Talib. Oh, we're gonna get to that in a minute. Yes.

And so, Ocasio-Cortez did a great job, Ianna Presley did a good job, and others did too. I'm not trying to take away credit from anyone. There's a lot of folks who did very good questioning, but the progressives, they're giants, they're giants, they're worth a hundred congressmen, a piece. Absolutely. Because they're doing their jobs. Yes. It's kind of nice to see members of the House doing their jobs.

Can you guys remember, I mean, some of you obviously do, some of you won't. Rokhanna came on here, what about two years ago, and he was the first one to declare that he's a Justice Democrat. And I asked him, will you be our champion? And he said yes, okay? And there's our champion right there. I'll sit him up all day long. Let's take a quick break.

When we come back, we will have that Rashida Talib portion of the question and answer. And we're also going to go into what Mark Meadows did in using a black woman as a prop in the middle of this testimony. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN.

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All right, back on a Young Turks, Jank and Anna with you guys. Member section comments. Ojam writes in, look at Jank asking you row to be our champion like he's Tyrion Lannister over here, L.O.L. You mean L.O.L. Steven writes in, I want my congressman to call out and fight racism like Rashida Tili. Unfortunately, I just have a congressman who is a racist, Doug Lamborn. Okay, so that's Steven's opinion.

And we're gonna get to the Rashida Tilly clip in one second here. Melly Bitch writes in on Twitter, even if Junior tried to flip on his dad, he'd find a way to mess that up too, probably, and that'd be fun. And Jeff's politics says, Anna, progressives versus everyone is our new unfortunate truth. Yeah, that's true. Yes, I hear you. Progressives versus everybody, by the way, is a t-shirt we have. We thought ahead, right, on shopty.com.

So check that out. Okay, and look, tomorrow third segment is going to be just for the members. We do this because members make this show possible. Literally could not do it without you, okay? So, and we need to give extra, et cetera, for the members. But you can try it out for free, t.wit.com slash trial for a week of membership and then see if you like it. And so we'll do a little bit more of that tomorrow.

We got a great post game with me and John today, don't miss that. We got old school tonight with me and Ben, that should be on fire as well. get everything first and you get all the shows that including post game that nobody else gets and all of old school that nobody else gets. Okay, Anna, go ahead. All right. During Michael Cohen's testimony in front of the House, Representative Mark Meadows, who's a Republican from South Carolina, made it abundantly clear that he is a Trump loyalist.

In fact, one of the accusations or the claims made by Michael Cohen is that Donald Trump is a con man and that he is a racist. So in response to that, Representative Meadows decided it would be a great idea to use someone as a prop. Take a look. Do you know Lynn Patton? Yes, I do. I asked Lynn to come today in her personal capacity to actually shed some light.

How long have you known Ms. Patton? I'm responsible for Lynn Patton joining the Trump organization and the job that she currently holds. Well, I'm glad you acknowledge that because you made some good. very demeaning comments about the president that Ms. Patton doesn't agree with. In fact, it has to do with your claim of racism. She says that as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was racist.

How do you reconcile the two of those, Mr. As neither should I, as the son of a Holocaust survivor. Okay, so there's a lot of things there. First off, as we were coming out in, we immediately jumped in and said, oh my God, he's using an African American woman as a prop. She's not allowed to talk, she just stands there. And so, one, how disempowering that is and how embarrassing that is to be used as a literal, like, I can't say literal, but, and I feel terrible for Lynn Patton.

I know she works for the Trump organization, we'll tell you how she got there in the first place. You won't feel bad for him. I know, I hear you. But it's deeply embarrassing and shameful, but mainly for Mark Meadows. And the fact that he doesn't get that he's doing a little, this is the second part, a literal, some of my best friends are black. Look, look at this one I brought up here, but she's not allowed to talk, right? Now he's doing it vicariously in a sense for Donald Trump.

But no, that does not prove your point at all. It does improve your point, because look, Michael Cohen, who would know, probably just as well as the American people know, based on Trump's overt racism, that Trump is a racist, right? And so Trump has been employing undocumented, you know, Latin American women, men, like his entire career, right? And then he turns around and he says the worst things about them. So what kind of relationship does Trump have with Lynn Patton? So let me give the details on her.

Before you do, just I want to clarify on a couple of things here. You're right, he employs Latin Americans and says terrible things and racist things about them. And I want to give the context of what Michael Cohen said in the beginning of his testimony that led Mark Meadows to do this stunt. He said, look, when we were driving through black neighborhood in Chicago, Donald Trump said only black people can live like this, okay? When he was talking about the asshole countries, he said, now you ever notice, this is all in private to Michael Cohen, you ever notice how every country run by a black person is an asshole country?

Yeah, he's like, name a country led by a black person that's not an asshole country. That's what he said. And this was during the time that Barack Obama was the president. That's according to what Michael Cohen alleges. Yes, and now that's before his other asshole comments became public in another context. one and the worst one in my opinion is he said black people are too stupid to vote for me okay so then Mark Meadows challenges that with what do you mean I got one black person here who says that he's okay because she's getting paid by him okay and

finally it before we get to who Lynn Patton is did you notice what Cohen said there at the end he said look I'm the son of a Holocaust survivor and I worked for Donald Trump, meaning I shouldn't have worked for Donald Trump either. After all the stuff he said in Charlottesville about how the neo-Nazis had some very fine people. But I worked for him too, and that's self-effacing, that's admitting a mistake that he should have never worked for a monster like this, but his greed got the better of him. All right, now let's go to Lynn Patton.

So Lynn Patton has been working for the Trump family for a little while now. According to reports, she is currently the senior official in the Department of Housing in urban development in Trump's administration. She has defended Trump in the past, including in August of 2018, when she released a statement via Twitter rebuking some of Amarosa's claims, including that there was a recording of Trump saying the N-word. Now, Patton is so close to the Trump's that she even helped plan Eric Trump's wedding. She started out in 2009 as an event planner, and then worked for the Eric Trump Foundation,

something that should also probably be investigated, where she was eventually vice president. Okay, and she also gave a speech during the Republican National Convention. I want to show that to you now. As someone who has been with this family each and every day for the past seven years, I know Mr. Trump. I know his heart and I know his passion for this country to be true. Tonight, as we stand in the shadow of one of the darkest months in modern American history, I know now more than ever that Donald Trump is a law and order needer.

We need to heal a wounded and divided nation. I know that Donald Trump is a law and order leader who we need to unite this divided country. That's what she just said, that's what she said at the RNC. That's what she said at the R&C. Just because you're a wedding plan, it doesn't mean you can't do other things. But getting very important political positions because you did a good job of planning Eric Trump's wedding, not exactly the right qualifications.

It's one thing she ran for her office and people are like, I don't care, she's a great representative, that'd be different, she would have won. But this is an appointment, and was it earned? I mean, maybe this is her way of earning it, but to me, she's the least problematic here. Mark Meadows is the most problematic in this context. Obviously, Trump is the worst, but I want to connect all this back together with one other thing. Lynn Patton talked about, oh, lone order, and that's why Donald Trump is so great.

Remember his original sin in terms of racism, it probably goes way further back than this, but publicly Donald Trump took out of the newspaper in New York to try to get the death penalty for the Central Park 5. So there were five young minority kids who were accused of rape. Now, it turns out they were innocent. Now, okay, that was already terrible enough that insisting on executing teenagers. Innocent teenagers. Now, in that, he would claim, well, at that time, I didn't know they were innocent.

Oh, that's right, yes. Okay, but later, they were proven innocent, and Trump said, I don't care, they probably did something else. That's racism 101. Why? Why? Why? Because, of course, it's like, look at them.

They're young African Americans. He must have been guilty of something. He is the worst, that's what he means by law and order, which is I will systematically discriminate against African Americans. I take it back. I do blame Lynn Patton. No, I, exactly. Look, of course, Trump's a bad guy.

Of course, Mark Meadows using a black woman as a prop, you know, to show his loyalism for Donald Trump, he's a bad guy. But Lynn Patton is not, I mean, she made a decision to be there, right? It's not like she was held against her will. She made a decision to be there. She appears to be fond of Donald Trump. And I wanna give you this from the Washington Post because this is very relevant in regard to the position and the role that she was given, a position that's incredibly important,

considering the fact that people are really struggling with unaffordable housing right now, okay? And she is not qualified for it and does not take it seriously. She works for HUD, but according to the Washington Post, she interrupted her, she interrupted her highly publicized month long stay in New York public housing complexes to be in Washington this week. Her stay chronicled by New York media, as well as Patent herself, is supposed to highlight the troubled condition, mold, rodents, lead, lack of heat and water of low income apartments

run by the nation's largest housing authority. Already Patent has been rescued from a stuck elevator and fielded a call from Trump angry about what she characterized as the inhumane conditions of fellow New Yorkers. Okay, so if this is such an important issue, why are you leaving this problem that you're supposed to be solving to come to Washington, D.C., and serve as a prop for Representative Mark Meadows. Okay, so we gotta take a break, right? Sure, let's see. Okay, so now guys, here's what's still left on the plant, and it's gigantic.

So we're not done with Meadows yet because Rashida Talib goes after him and then there's high drama. You're not allowed to call someone a racist, a colleague racist in the house or in all of Congress. So that happened or did it really happen? Okay, so there's a little bit of controversy surrounding that. Wait till you see old tapes of Mark Meadows, we found those. Okay, actually one of you guys found it. I'll give you credit for that when we return.

And Matt Gates, the Republican congressman that tried to intimidate Michael Cohen. Congresswoman implies you should be arrested, and now the Florida Bar is investigating him, we'll have that story for you. And then later, I mean, this is another reason why I'm in a good mood today. You wanna have hope as a progressive, wait till you see the story of how people went to the state of Washington and flipped a vote and to get money out of politics. It's an amazing and inspiring story. You guys did that, I wanna share it with you guys when we come back, so come right back.

Thank you. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.