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FBI Raids President Trump's Personal Attorney's Office; President Trump Holds Press Conference on Possible Military Action in Syria. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2018 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not confident that the president is getting a thorough counsel from the right sources.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The United States is determined to see the monster who dropped the gas on the Syrian people is held to account.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your New Day. It is Tuesday, April 10, 8:00 in the east.

President Trump lashing out on Twitter this morning after the FBI raided the office and hotel room of his personal attorney Michael Cohen. The president tweeting that, quote, "Attorney-client privilege is dead," end quote. CNN has learned that the feds seized bank records and communications between the president and Mr. Cohen and took with them records related to Stormy Daniels.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All of this comes as President Trump is now vowing a forceful response to Syria's apparent chemical weapon attack. How soon could we see military action? It seems sooner than before these recent events with President Trump's attorney. That's why Congress must do its job. Will they once again punt on their war duties? Let's begin with CNN's Abby Phillip live at the White House. Abby?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. It was supposed to be a photo op about the U.S.'s response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, but it ended up being a venting session for President Trump who laid into the special counsel Robert Mueller after news of the FBI had raided his lawyer's office, and that apparently set him off over the edge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And it's a disgrace. It's frankly a real disgrace. It's an attack on our country in a true sense.

PHILLIP: President Trump boiling over, launching a lengthy tirade against Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation after the FBI raided the office of his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.

TRUMP: So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, good man. And it's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt.

PHILLIP: Flanked by a roomful of stern-faced military officials, President Trump falsely claiming the lawful raid was a break-in and attempting to undermine the credibility of Mueller's team who Cohen's lawyer says referred the case to New York prosecutors.

TRUMP: This is the most biases group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen.

PREET BHARARA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: The Justice Department is run by his people. The special counsel was appointed by this people. This U.S. attorney is his person who I'm told he actually met with before appointing him to the position.

PHILLIP: A source tells CNN that approximately a dozen agents carried out Monday's raids on Cohen's office and the New York City hotel where he was staying. Multiple newspapers reporting that Cohen's home was also searched. Sources say that using a broad search warrant, authorities seized bank records and information related to adult film star Stormy Daniels who Cohen paid $130,000 days before the election in an attempt to silence her from talking about an alleged affair with President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?

TRUMP: No. No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did Michael Cohen pay her?

TRUMP: You have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael's my attorney, and you'll have to ask Michael Cohen.

PHILLIP: A source tells CNN that communications between Cohen and President Trump were among the records seized. Cohen's lawyer calling the raids inappropriate and unnecessary, insisting that Cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities. "The Washington Post" reports that Cohen is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign violations. Daniels' lawyer responding to the FBI raid.

MICHAEL AVENATTI, STORMY DANIELS' ATTORNEY: We have substantial reason to believe that when Michael Cohen opened the bank accounts at First Republic Bank for the purposes of wiring this money that he was not truthful and honest with the bank as to the purpose of those accounts and what they were designed to be used for.

PHILLIP: A source close to the White House tells CNN that the Cohen raid could push the president to take action against the special counsel or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who is overseeing Mueller's probe. TRUMP: Why don't I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it's a disgrace

going on. We'll see what happens, but I think it's really a sad situation when you look at what happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP: Two tweets from the president and four exclamation points really highlight how angry he is about this new development in the case against Michael Cohen. And apparently he was watching FOX News this morning, declaring that attorney-client privilege is dead shortly after one of the hosts on that program mentioned exactly the same thing. We know yesterday that the president met with his lawyer here at the White House, Ty Cobb, and his chief-of-staff John Kelly to talk about how to approach this going forward, but everyone that we talked to here says no one knows exactly what President Trump is going to do next, Alisyn and Chris.

[08:05:03] CAMEROTA: OK, Abby, thank you for all of that reporting from the White House.

Joining us now we have CNN law enforcement analyst Josh Campbell, he is a former FBI supervisory special agent, and CNN political commentary David Urban, he is a former Trump campaign strategist. Great to have both of you with your different perspectives on here.

Josh, I want to start with you because obviously an FBI raid on your lawyer's office and hotel room gets somebody's attention, and I know that you have been hearing from some of your former colleagues. You tweeted this out, this tonight from a former FBI colleague. I've been an FBI investigator for 20 years and have only seen a handful of searches executed on attorneys. All of those attorneys went to prison. That's chilling.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It is. And a lot of things are getting attention. The first of which being the actual raid yesterday. And you can bet it is certain that something of this magnitude would have gotten the attention at the very highest levels of the Department of Justice.

This is not something that any U.S. attorneys' office or any FBI field office would take lightly. In fact it's a matter of policy when you're dealing with these types of sensitive investigative matters that are involving politicians, the clergy, media people like that. They are in a special investigative category that requires those high levels.

Next we move to the attention that some of the responses are getting. And it's telling, and I was an FBI agent conducting investigation so a lot of us know that when a defendant cannot attack the facts they'll attack the government. We've seen a lot of that recently, where we're not going after what exactly took place and any alleged crimes. We're looking at the process.

I don't think it squares, I don't think it holds water because the process here is sacrosanct. Our system of justice, there's oversight, there is accountability, so to say otherwise is just very puzzling. DAVID URBAN, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST: Yes, but Josh, if I

can jump in, Alisyn. Josh, you have to admit the FBI has gotten it wrong in the past and Director Mueller has gotten it wrong in the past. I'll just point out to you two names that come to mind to me that ring very true, Ted Stevens, Senator Ted Stevens, one of the most powerful politicians and a beloved member here of the U.S. Senate, the FBI got it very wrong in that case, and Steven Hatfill, not just the FBI but Director Mueller got it very wrong in that case --

CAMPBELL: How does that apply to this?

URBAN: You're said to talk about the facts, right. You're saying it' sacrosanct --

CAMEROTA: I understand.

URBAN: That no one should be questioned here, and I'm saying --

CAMPBELL: I didn't say that. What about Stevens and what about Hatfill? Talk about this case.

URBAN: Yes, you did. Josh, I am. I'm trying. You're saying the process is sacrosanct. And I'm saying everybody needs to exhale here. Wait. Let's see what happens. The attorney-client privilege is alive and well. I'll take issue with that. It's alive and well. The only instance, Josh, you'll know, the only instance this material could be used, and Chris knows, this is a lawyer, under the crime fraud exception to the rules here, and we'll have to see on that.

CAMEROTA: If there's a crime -- I hear you, David. If there's a crime committed then attorney-client privilege doesn't count, meaning if the attorney was the witness to a crime, if the attorney had some sort of evidence to the crime.

CUOMO: Or implicated in it. Look, I think that the point of clarity just to get it out of the weeds for people is, Dave, that we don't know what this search produced. We don't know what the Mueller probe has produced when it comes to any connection between Russian interference and the campaign.

The tendency, though, to distract from the process is to attack it. They found nothing in Mueller. We don't know that. We know they have guilty pleas. We know they have indictment. We don't know what he has on it, but people want to rush the process for political advantage. We've seen the same thing coming out of the mouth of the president about this search on Cohen. You said yourself saying that the attorney-client privilege is dead. It's just not true. So do you --

URBAN: I didn't say it was dead, Chris. I said it's alive and well.

CUOMO: But you have to call it out and you have to say the people making those arguments are wrong and doing a disservice to the democracy. Will you say that?

URBAN: Listen, Chris, I will say this. I think the attorney-client privilege is alive and well. I'm not sure who participated. Usually on these types of raids, as Josh will tell you, there's a tape team that goes in --

CUOMO: Whoever did it, their boss was selected by this president, so it can't be some deep state Cemocratic conspiracy.

CAMPBELL: Along those lines --

URBAN: I'm not alleging that, Chris.

CUOMO: The president is. Go ahead, Josh.

CAMPBELL: I just want to say to do a service for the viewers here, one thing that was mentioned earlier, some of this what about Ted Stevens, what about Hatfill. If you look at this case, and a lot of people are saying Mueller's gone rogue. This the opposite to that. So to say this has to do something with Mueller or to attack his credibility and to impeach his integrity is I think a disservice. Let me finish. Let me finish. In this case what Mueller is doing is handing off to a separate, independent U.S. attorney's office and saying, you look at this. This doesn't fall within my purview. You run with this. So to go after Mueller and say he's made mistakes in the past I think is a disservice.

[08:10:04] URBAN: Josh, I'm not trying to do that. I'm just simply saying, you're saying that they're beyond reproach, that the FBI is beyond question.

CAMPBELL: I didn't say that. I don't think I ever said that.

URBAN: Yes, you did. You said you attacked the message here, and I'm not trying to do that. I'm simply saying mistakes have been made in the past. Everybody needs to exhale and slow down here. Everybody's guaranteed the presumption of innocence in this country, and that's all I'm saying. Everybody needs to exhale.

CAMPBELL: I would agree with that. Everyone is presumed innocent. In fact in court filings it actually will say that the subject is innocent until proven guilty. But we also have to give the investigators the benefit of the doubt and stop treating them like jackboot thugs. This is our system of justice, our process.

URBAN: I didn't say that. Those are your words, Josh. I'm saying simply we need to slow down here. Let's exhale. I know everybody gets excited about this president and these topics. Slow down. Let's look and see what happens. The reporting is out, what they're going after, what they're looking at. Crime fraud exception is the only thing they're going to be able to take a look at. A lot of these document will not be able -- they'll be examined. The tape team I'm sure on the raid is going through it, going to put forth the things they can, examine and can look at. And I just wonder how this is outside the scope of the special prosecutor's mandate. It's a pretty broad mandate. It's curious to me how that is outside his scope.

CAMEROTA: As you know, we know that I think Rod Rosenstein laid out the parameters of what Robert Mueller can look at. So there are some things within those parameters and there are some things without those parameters. But back to your point, David, that I think that everybody agrees with, which is everybody needs to exhale and slow down. Do you think the president is being premature by saying they found nothing, this should be over, it's done, as you know no collusion, when Robert Mueller hasn't announced his findings yet?

URBAN: And Robert Mueller will not announce his findings, as you're aware, Alisyn. What Robert Mueller will do at the conclusion of this is he will pass this report on to Attorney General Sessions who will then pass it on to Rosenstein and the deputy attorney general will make a decision about what the proper disposition of this case is at that point in time. There's not going to be a big press conference.

CAMEROTA: Fair enough. But I'm just saying that hasn't happened yet and the president is acting as though, you know what, case closed.

URBAN: The case isn't closed. I think at the end of the day that this case will show and the president I think is correct, there is no collusion or conspiracy with the Russians in terms of the election, and that's what this started out about.

CUOMO: David, look, you have every right to say that. You just don't know it to be true. And that's the whole point. Let's let it play out and see, and the president should want that more than anyone because that's the only time these questions will go away.

But there's also something that's been skipped over a little bit that actually, Josh, you can answer for us. So there is a political suggestion that, boy, was this heavy handed, and this should have never happened to the president's lawyer because he has been cooperating. Can you get this kind of warrant in front of a federal judge if the subject of the warrant has been completely cooperative?

CAMPBELL: Look, we in law enforcement don't look at individuals and say we trust this person. We have reason to trust this person. We look at people and say do I have a reason to distrust this person? So you look at everyone individually and that will dictate the actions you take. In the case of Mr. Cohen, if an investigator -- this is my own analysis here, if you look at some of the past actions, if you look at this $130,000 payment and the like, this does not appear at least on the surface to be someone who is completely on the up and up. For an investigator --

URBAN: Josh, how is that -- how is that fair?

CAMPBELL: Can I finish my answer? In this case the FBI agent is not going to say we're going to trust you to provide this information. You go to a judge, an independent magistrate, and you indicate that I think that there's evidence of a crime in this location and you get the legal authority to do so. Our system of justice does not -- is not based on trust.

URBAN: What evidence -- what evidence do you have that Michael Cohen is being untruthful here? Your feelings? Your feelings aren't facts, Josh.

CAMPBELL: Right. But an investigator will look at this and say what I dealing with.

URBAN: I'm asking what evidence you have --

CAMPBELL: Am I dealing with something in the past maybe has not been on the up and up. We look at everyone individually.

CUOMO: He has one piece of proof for you, David, that we all know here which is a federal judge agreed with the assessment that they need to go into these locations to find things. There's going to be --

CAMPBELL: Not only that, but the judge determined that they did not have to knock, they did not have to announce because they were dealing with someone --

URBAN: It's not fair because what you're saying -- Chris, you're saying I agree -- Josh made a statement that he said I believe that Mr. Cohen has been untruthful is what josh said.

CAMPBELL: I did not say that.

URBAN: Yes, you did, Josh. And I'm asking based upon what fact.

CUOMO: You guys disagree about what he said, and I don't care about either, because I'm saying that a judge found that there was a basis of probable cause to do this search. We'll see what it yields. The question for you as a political consult is the president seems to be on the verge of acting out against this investigation as a way we haven't seen before. You can shake your head.

URBAN: I disagree, Chris.

CUOMO: He's never talked like this before. He wouldn't say that Mueller is safe. I want you to disagree. I want you to make a case. He wouldn't say that Mueller is safe. He said it's unfair. He said it's an attack on the country, this process of our democracy and our administration of justice.

What do you think of those kinds of comments? Do you think the president should make a move on Mueller?

DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, absolutely not. It would be a giant mistake. I don't think the president's planning on doing that.

The president was prompted -- the president didn't make that statement. The president was asked by reporters at the spray there was he going to fire Mueller.

CUOMO: He didn't have to answer the question, he chose to.

URBAN: The president was prompted.

CUOMO: He chose to, he could have picked a dozen questions they were asking. He wants to talk about this. You know that, Dave. He's mad at these people. He believes that they are not doing him right. URBAN: Chris, I believe the president was frustrated, absolutely, as

you would be, as Josh would be if his lawyer's office was raided, something that's fairly sacrosanct in the U.S. legal system, that he was frustrated.

Do I think he's going to fire Director Mueller? I do not.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And I wanted to just ask you one more question about that, David. Why do you think that would be a huge mistake?

URBAN: It's just -- I would say, I think that --

CAMEROTA: Why?

URBAN: I think the best course here is let Director Mueller conclude his investigation. He hands it over to the attorney general, and we'll see where the cards fall. I think at the end of the day, there's not going to be a whole lot there there. You see the prosecutions, they'll be prosecutions of an ongoing prosecution taking place currently and wrapped up in July of Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates and some of these other folks that pled out, that would be wrapped.

And Director Mueller, who I believe is a constitutionalist and believes in the sitting president, I don't know his beliefs, I'm just supposing here, but the president can only be removed as sitting president by impeachment. He'll proceed and hand over his document to the attorney general and it'll be up to the attorney general, deputy attorney general to do with it what he may.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Can we just agree on one thing, though? All of what you just said is right. This process needs to play out. Can we agree that it's time to end the open season on the FBI and it's time to end open season on Robert Mueller? Let them do their job without the political attacks and discredit whatever they come up with, can we do that?

URBAN: Josh, I agree. Director Mueller is a patriot.

CAMPBELL: You agree, right.

URBAN: He served his country very well. I'm just saying that can we agree that everyone in America is guaranteed the presumptuous of innocence, including Mr. President?

CAMPBELL: Absolutely. Correct. As well as the FBI investigators that are conducting the investigation. They should be allowed to do their job unimpeded.

CUOMO: All right --

URBAN: Unfortunately, right, cable news, not necessarily this network, lots of folks across the America aren't prepared to give the president that presumption, and that's the problem.

CAMPBELL: And that has nothing with what I just said about the FBI. CUOMO: The president of the United States, he's baiting the proposition that it's a corrupt process, David, right? It works both ways. So --

URBAN: I agree with Josh. Listen, I think both sides should dial back the rhetoric. I think Director Mueller should be able to conclude. I think people should sit back and give the president the presumption he deserves and let's wait and see what the report says.

CAMPBELL: Let's remember this, the FBI is not on any one's side. When we talk about this side, that side, the FBI didn't care. They're not on sides. They're about following the facts.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: The FBI is like the honey badger. We get it.

Thank you very much.

URBAN: Thanks, Josh. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

CUOMO: We have breaking news for you as well. New court documents show that special counsel Bob Mueller's team is looking at potential criminal activity related to Paul Manafort -- now, here's the key part -- during his time as the chairman of President Trump's campaign.

CNN's Kara Scannell is live in Washington with the breaking details.

And this is important, Kara, because the understanding had been that what was charged so far had to do with his time before his involvement.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

When Manafort was charged in October, all the crimes were related to dealings he had done with pro-Russian Ukrainian officials. What we've learned from the recent filed court documents last night is that when Mueller's teams had executed a search warrant on Manafort's home last summer, they were looking for information that had to do with the campaign, specifically they were looking for any documents or data that had to do with the Trump Tower meeting in July of 2016.

And this also follows the revelation last week that when Mueller's team had gotten that memo from Rosenstein outlining what they could investigate, it included looking at Manafort beyond -- in both the Ukrainian money financings that he did with that party but also his work with the campaign.

And, specifically, the search warrant is looking at information about that Trump Tower meeting. Any documents or information that Manafort had in his apartment relating to this Azerbaijani real estate developer, the Agaralovs. They, of course, were partners or prospective partners with Trump. They financed the Miss Universe pageant that Trump puts on in Moscow in 2013 and they also discussed with Trump the possibility of building a Trump Tower in Moscow soon after the Miss Universe pageant.

We know that Mueller's been asking questions about that. This also tells us that he's looking for that in Manafort's apartment when they raided it.

[08:20:05] It also tells us this court filings from last night that they're looking into whether there were any violations of foreign contribution bans. Now, we've been reporting a lot about Mueller's team looking and asking questions of Russian oligarchs for potential violations of this, whether they donated directly or indirectly into the Trump campaign and inauguration.

So, this is revelation and these filings gives us more information that Mueller is looking to follow the money and that it tells us that the White House claims that Trump -- that the investigation has nothing to do with the Trump campaign on Manafort. We are now seeing point and point again that that's just not the case, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Kara, very interesting development. Thank you so much for all of that breaking news.

President Trump falsely claiming that the FBI broke into the offices of his personal attorney and leaving the door open to trying to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. He didn't say he wouldn't, in other words. So what will he do?

Republican Senator John Kennedy is here to weigh in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: President Trump tweeting that attorney-client privilege is dead after the FBI searched the office of his personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Joining us now to discuss the state of this investigation, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Always good to see you, Senator.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Same here, Chris.

CUOMO: So, what do you make of the president saying that this search applied through a warrant to a federal judge is an attack on the country and a demonstration of complete unfairness and a witch hunt?

[08:25:10] KENNEDY: The president's entitled to his opinion. The truth is none of us know. We have a rule of law, part of which is legal procedure. As best I can tell that procedure has been followed.

Everything else, frankly, is just speculation. I know there have been some leaks from the law enforcement authorities. Frankly, I wish that wouldn't happen, but we just got to let this play out.

I've said from the beginning that we have a system of laws, a special counsel was appointed. The special counsel has to be allowed to do his job. Once he's done, he needs to report the facts to the American people.

If somebody did something wrong, they should be held accountable. Let the chips fall where they may but we got to finish the process. It's painful. I don't blame the president for feeling like it's unfair. I think that's a normal, human reaction, but we've got to let the process complete.

CUOMO: Right. I mean, of course, the president has his right to say whatever he wants. I'm saying is it right to attack institutions of democracy. What would you do if the president took steps to remove Mueller?

KENNEDY: Chris, I don't think that's going to happen.

CUOMO: What if it did?

KENNEDY: I know what the president has said, but the president's management style is to manage out loud. That's not the way I would do it, but that's his management style.

CUOMO: What if he did take the step?

KENNEDY: I'm not going to speculate on something that I don't think will happen. I think the president is too smart to do that, number one. Number two, I think it would provoke some sort of reaction by Congress. I think he knows that.

And number three, you know, the president can't just fire Mr. Mueller. He's got to direct Mr. Rosenstein to fire.

CUOMO: Sure, that's why I said take steps.

KENNEDY: And I don't think Mr. Rosenstein would do it.

CUOMO: You don't? Well, so then, he'd get fire. Look, we lived through this in the past, right? Eventually he would find somebody in all likelihood to do what he wanted.

KENNEDY: Well, it would not -- it would not end this and I think the president knows that and while I think he is entitled to vent, I just really don't expect that to happen.

CUOMO: Right, maybe, maybe not, right? It depends who he put in there. I mean, the president does have almost complete authority to end investigations even if he's involved himself.

You mentioned congressional action. You really believe that your party would move on its own president in a political process and vote to impeach him?

KENNEDY: Well, I was listening to your comments earlier this morning, Chris and I thought you made a salient point. If the president makes a decision like that, and again, I think he's too smart to do that, in a way, it would mean that Congress would own it, as well as the president because it would put Congress in a position of having to act, and not acting would be an act. So -- but I just don't think it's going to happen.

CUOMO: OK.

KENNEDY: I don't think the president will do it and I don't think it should be done. This is a painful process, but in the end, I hope we can look back and say, well, it was worth it, we got the facts and let the chips fall where they may.

CUOMO: All right. You mentioned that Congress sometimes can act by not acting. Let's move on to our next topic, especially in light of the increasingly heated talk about what to do in Syria. Do you believe that Congress should authorize whatever plan is devised by the generals and the commander-in-chief?

KENNEDY: You know, Syria -- just the pictures of those kids -- I mean, it just breaks your heart.

CUOMO: It should.

KENNEDY: I mean, Assad is a butcher and Putin and the Iranian ayatollah or butchers for letting him do it. We can't let it go unanswered. If we do, our friends won't trust us and our enemies won't respect us.

But I'm sending a letter to Senator McConnell today. I would like a classified briefing from our secretary of defense and our joint chiefs about status in Syria. I think the president has asked some very questions, you know, what is our objective there, why are we there, what's the status on the ground? Is ISIS gone?

Look, I do not know why bad things happen to good people in this world. If I make it to heaven I'm going to ask, but I don't know that America can stop all bad things happening in the world, especially in the Middle East. We've spent $6 trillion since 2001 in the Middle East.

CUOMO: A lot of lives too.

KENNEDY: It's a third of our debt. I'm not saying it wasn't money well spent, but now's a pretty good time to stop and say, OK, what is our objective here and are we achieving it?

CUOMO: Right.

KENNEDY: Some of my colleagues, say, it's the domino theory, it's a domino theory. If we leave, another domino will fall. Well, we heard that in Vietnam, too.

CUOMO: Look, Senator, it's interesting. The War Powers Act was devised coming out of Vietnam, right?

KENNEDY: Yes.

CUOMO: 1973 to find a different way to have a president have to report. And now, many of your colleagues in both parties are relying on that in the AUMF and saying, so the president can do what he wants.