CNN Obtains Emails Michael Cohen Gave Congress to Bolster His Claim A Pardon Was Dangled by Trump; Trump Bans MAX Jets.
CABRERA: More breaking news on this Wednesday. CNN has exclusively obtained e-mails sent by a lawyer with longtime ties to Rudy Giuliani, to Michael Cohen. These e-mails appear to show a back channel being established between Donald Trump's legal team and his former lawyer and fixer. CNN's Gloria Borger has the exclusive reporting here. Also, back with us are Caroline Polisi and Jennifer Rodgers. Gloria, tell us more about these e-mails.</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: We have obtained two e- mails that have been given to Congressional committees and they contain communications that were done in April of 2018. And remember, that is after Michael Cohen's office was raided by the feds. And they're between Michael Cohen and an attorney named Bob Costello, who has a long-standing close relationship with Rudy Giuliani. They focus mainly on Cohen's relationship with the White House at that particular time, which Costello described in these e-mails, in glowing terms. He said, it was very, very positive. You are loved. And it ends, this e-mail ends, sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places. So, the interpretation, however, of what's being said in this e-mail and the other e-mail depends on who you ask.</s>CABRERA: And how is Costello explaining? What is he saying these were all about?</s>BORGER: Well, well, Costello says that what this was is an effort to kind of keep the relationship between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump on track. He claims that Michael Cohen may have been worried about whether the President liked him or not and vice versa. And Cohen sympathizers say that is not true, that what this is evidence of is dangling a pardon. And that that's what this was about and then when I spoke with Costello, Costello said, you know, that is utter nonsense. I was not dangling a pardon. I was just trying to help this relationship. And so, there isn't this other e-mail, and you have it up on the screen, which says, I just spoke to Rudy Giuliani and told him I was on your team. He asked me to tell you that he knows how tough this is on you and your family and he will make sure to tell the President. He said, thank you for opening this back channel of communication and asked me to keep in touch. So, the question that's still out there, and we do have these dueling narratives is, was this about a pardon without the word "pardon" mentioned? And remember, this time, at this time Michael Cohen had not been charged with anything. He may have been, you know, worried about the potential campaign finance violation or he may have been worried about what the feds got in his office. And Donald Trump may have been worried about, you know, about that, too. But we -- so we have these dueling narratives, you know. Was it just about fixing or helping a relationship or a pardon?</s>CABRERA: And that's the big question. Let me ask our legal analysts how they interpret it. Jennifer, friends in high places? Does this sound like a pardon dangle to you or just somebody trying to keep the relationship strong or even repairing a relationship that may not be as strong?</s>RODGERS: Well, you know, it's hard to tell, obviously, it's very vague. But here is a time when the feds have gone in and seized, pursuant to court order, a bunch of materials. A lot of that communications between Trump and Cohen's work for Trump. So, they're kind of all in this universe of what's out there, what do they have? What are we facing now? Let's kind of stick together. You know, remember, there was a joint defense agreement around this time period when the federal officials were going through all of the seized materials and trying to determine what was privileged, what could they look at, what could they use in a potential prosecution? So, the notion of communication between the two of them, and listen, you know, we're in this together, let's stick together, is not so inherently problematic to me at this time. You know, on the other hand, the notion that anyone would even be thinking about interfering in a case, right? You have the President, how can he possibly help Michael Cohen if Michael Cohen is in the sights of federal prosecutors? There's no legitimate appropriate way for him to help Michael Cohen. What he needs to do in that circumstance is just to say, you deal with your case, good luck to you and your family. And that's it.</s>CABRERA: Unless they are involved together in some nefarious activity. How do you interpret these e-mails? What stands out, Caroline?</s>POLISI: Right, well, I agree with Jennifer for that -- look, a unique feature of all of these prosecutions in the backdrop here is the possibility of a Presidential pardon and you know, certainly in my experience, I've never encountered that representing a client in that capacity, to have that sort of on the back burner. So, I think in a lot of ways, some of the attorneys don't necessarily know how to approach it, because they've likely never had that as a scenario before. So, I agree, I don't think it's completely inappropriate to be talking about the issue. It's no secret, again, President Trump, remember, he gave that weird posthumous pardon to jack Johnson and then pardoned Scooter Libby. He definitely made public overtures that seemed to send the signal that, hey, he liked giving pardons and he was amenable to granting pardons, even not in the ordinary course. So, I don't think it's that odd.</s>CABRERA: Gloria, when Cohen was reassured by his attorney that everything was, quote, very, very positive, you are loved, saying, sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places, what do you make of the fact that Cohen ultimately decided to cooperate with prosecutors anyway?</s>BORGER: Well, the joint defense agreement was dissolved in June of 2018 and I recall very distinctly that by July 2nd, Michael Cohen had declared his independence and he told ABC News, if you'll recall, that he's not going to be villain in this case. And, you know, moved away. I think the real question here is whether this was just about dangling a pardon, which Cohen's sympathizers say, keeping up a good relationship as Costello told me between the White House and Donald Trump, or something more -- not nefarious, but something more questionable which would be whether, in fact, Costello was somebody who would represent Cohen and then report back to the Trump team about what -- about what Cohen was thinking. Obviously, Costello denies this. And Giuliani himself spoke with dana bash last night and he said, you know, this was about reassuring Michael that the President wasn't angry at him and it wasn't long after the raid and Giuliani told Dana that the President felt bad for him.</s>CABRERA: All right. Gloria Borger, Caroline Polisi, Jenner Rodgers, the hits keep coming today. Thank you all for helping to walk us through it. Canada now joins other nations around the globe to ground Boeing's MAX 8. So why is the U.S. now the lone holdout when it comes to grounding this fleet? Plus, actress Lori Loughlin turning herself in today in connection to one of the biggest college cheating scandals in history. But is this case a symptom of a much bigger problem or issue? We'll discuss.