Trump Breaks His Silence on Porn Star "Hush" Agreement; FMR. S. Korea President Gets 24-Year Prison Sentence; Deadly Spate Of London Gang Violence
GORANI: There is half an hour of trading left at the New York Stock Exchange. It has been a bad day for the Dow, let's another look, and we are down 666 points, two and three quarters percent lower. And this is, of course, as a result of jittery investors worried about a trade war with China and other as well economic headlines that have of kind of knocks their confidence somewhat just in the last few days. Donald Trump may have complicated his legal battle with a porn star with just one simple word, "No." That was the U.S. president's response when he was asked if he knew about so called "hush money" paid to Stormy Daniels. Daniels is suing for the right to talk about their alleged affair. Listen to Mr. Trump's exchange with reporters on Air Force One.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No. No. What else?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did Michael Cohen make it, if there was no truth to the allegations?</s>TRUMP: Well, you have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. And you'll have to ask Michael Cohen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. No.</s>GORANI: Well, it didn't take long for Daniels' attorney to gleefully respond on Twitter saying Mr. Trump had just exponentially helped his client's case, adding #nodiscipline. Let's bring in CNN legal analyst, Joey Jackson. What difference does it make that the president himself said he wasn't aware of any hush money paid to Stormy Daniels?</s>JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good to see you, Hala. Well, here's the significance. I think it has legal significance and it has practical significance. Let's talk about the legal. If you're talking about a contract, Hala, a contract is really a meeting of the minds between two people. It's an offer that I make to you if you accept it we have that meeting, right? So if the president is saying he had no such knowledge, then who is the contract between if he were not a party to the contract, there would be no such meeting of the minds. It would defeat the whole notion of offer acceptance and therefore, it would go by the wayside. Now, there is an argument to that. It doesn't end the inquiry, because I think at the end of the day, the argument that will be made by the Trump people is that trump was a third party beneficiary. So, what does that mean in English, Hala? What it means is, I purchased a car for my son, right? The contract is between myself and the dealership. My car -- my son knows nothing about it, right? In the event that the car gets delivered or say it doesn't get delivered. Guess what, he has a right to sue, because it benefits him. So they'll argue he's a third party beneficiary. But what Michael Avenatti is arguing to the issue of, no, I knew nothing about it is, if you don't know anything about it, then there could be a contract.</s>GORANI: Then you're not a party.</s>JACKSON: Exactly.</s>GORANI: This is what Michael Avenatti said, by the way, about this following the president's statement that he was not, at all, aware of any nondisclosure agreement or hush money being paid to Stormy Daniels. This is how he responded to that.</s>MICHAEL AVENATTI, ATTORNEY OF STORMY DANIELS: It's like Christmas in Hanukkah all rolled into one. You can't have an agreement, if one party claims they knew nothing about one of the principle terms of the agreement. So the president has just shot himself in the foot, thrown his attorney, basically, on Michael Cohen, under the bus in the process.</s>GORANI: I mean, it makes sense to me. I'm not a lawyer, but it does make sense to me. Is he right?</s>JACKSON: Well, yes and no. I mean, I get his point, I think from a practical perspective which is the second prong of it, no one on earth believes, right? That Trump just had no knowledge of it and it happened 11 days before the election when he was under siege by various claims and what he was doing with women and one of these had been the straw that broke the camel's back, so people like, really? Did he not know about it? But I do think the retort to Mr. Avenatti's statement about you can't be a party to agreement if you don't know about it is the one I just told you. If I purchase that car, right? My son is the third party beneficiary. The contract benefits him, though he's not a party. And people enter into third party beneficiary contracts all the time, particularly if Michael Cohen, the president's lawyer if --</s>GORANI: So this is really just about interpretation, Joey, right? I mean, it's just about how a judge might see it at this stage. Because you could argue both cases here.</s>JACKSON: You really could. And, you know, it's interesting because the law have this so much gray area. To your point, whether it's a judge who has to make a determination or a jury, right? Reasonable minds can agree or disagree as to whether there was a contract or not a contract, could have been a contract. So if it gets before people of the jury in the event that it goes to trial, that's a question they'll have to answer. And briefly, Hala, in order for that to happen is this process called discovery and that's where you find out information about the case. When was the contract made? How was it made? Where did the money come from? Who knew? What they knew.</s>GORANI: Basically, Joey, the Trump side is going to try to avoid any court case here or sue or anything like that, because then they have to share -- they have to share what the other party, information, details, and the other party can also come out with whatever they want, text messages, if they exist, photos, if they exist. They want to avoid this at all cost, right? I mean, the Michael Avenatti, the Stormy Daniels side say they will refile a motion to depose President Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen on Monday. Thus, what the president said on Air Force One changed, it was rejected in the past. But could they now be successful?</s>JACKSON: Well, I think -- just to be clear, the judge initially denied the motion. But it was a procedure ruling. The judge said, we're not ready for that yet because Avenatti's original motion said, your honor, I anticipate that the other side will file a motion. You don't decide issues in court based on what is anticipated. You file them based on what's before you. But now that this is out there, I think that he's right to have this discovery. And if there is discovery, there are those text messages you were talking about that will be demanded and there also be that disposition which means you sit down, you have to answer question and that's bad news for the president, because if he does not tell the truth. There was another president of this United States 20 years ago who was impeached for doing that, serve that his term was acquitted by the senate, but he was impeached for lying and a deposition, his name was Bill Clinton and we've learned lessons from our history that it's not good to lie under oath. You break the law, it's called perjury and you could be prosecuted accordingly.</s>GORANI: Avoided that position, avoided disposition, I guess that I should say. Joey Jackson, thanks so much. As always, a pleasure having you on the program.</s>JACKSON: Thank you so much.</s>GORANI: I want to turn now to disturbing of violence here in London. We've been covering it over the last several days. On Thursday, there were six stabbings in the space of an hour and a half in this city. No one has died in these attacks, but they come as the number of killings in the British capitol have surged past 50 since the start of the year. What is behind this? Erin McLaughlin have the details.</s>ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what gang warfare looks like in London. Kids hide their face with balaclavas and show off their weapons, set the music composed to provoke rival gangers. Nana Agyeman runs Access UK. He specializes in gang intervention.</s>MCLAUGHLIN: You're shaking your head.</s>NANA AGYEMAN, DIRECTOR, ACCESS UK: Yes.</s>MCLAUGHLIN: Why?</s>AGYEMAN: Because this is what</s>MCLAUGHLIN: Is this a recruitment tool as well?</s>AGYEMAN: Possibly, because apparently there's people that actually are competing on who's got the most dangerous ends or area, who's got the most goons as it were in the particular area. So that fuels the whole -- it's almost like a sport.</s>MCLAUGHLIN: It's a deadly game. This year alone, over 55 murder investigation launched in London. Many of them gang-related. Mostly knife attacks, but there's gun violence as well. Compared to 10 years ago, Agyeman says the terrain has changed. The gangs are getting younger. Recruits is young as 14 years old. Agyeman says that's because they're less likely to be scrutinized by police. And not all of their victims are gangsters. 17-year-old Tanisha Melbourne was killed Monday. A local say that Tanisha was hanging out with her friends on this street, 9:30 p.m. when she was shot and killed. Local say she was an innocent bystander and what is escalating gang warfare in this neighborhood.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wasn't the type of person that to being problems that she wasn't that</s>MCLAUGHLIN: Not far away in Walton two hours after a knife attack, an argument breaks out. A sign of simmering tension.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let me just pass.</s>MCLAUGHLIN: People here say they're frustrated and afraid.</s>AGYEMAN: This is a hardcore contingent that are used to acclimate these crimes, not just they're all going well.</s>MCLAUGHLIN: How worried are you about this?</s>AGYEMAN: I am worried. I am worried, because I know that this is a long term. It's not a short fix and people</s>MCLAUGHLIN: Erin McLaughlin, CNN, London.</s>GORANI: Former South Korean president, Park Geun-hye is expected to file an appeal after she was convicted of corruption and sentenced to 24 years in prison. Paula Hancocks is in Seoul with more.</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Tears</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no justice in Korea. Since her impeachment, there is no justice in Korea. Nothing is fair in Korea.</s>HANCOCKS: The confidant, Choi Soon-sil is serving 20 years in prison guilty of abuse of power, coercion, and bribery. The massive influence peddling case shook the nation, bringing down a number of businessmen connected to Park.</s>HANCOCKS: This has been a very polarizing case for South Korea, but it's not the end. Park Geun-hye does have the chance to appeal in the high court and in the Supreme Court, but for her supporters here, they say that they will never accept this verdict. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.</s>GORANI: Well, Park isn't the only former president caught up in the court. South Africa's Jacob Zuma made his first appearance. Zuma was forced to resign, the South African president, earlier this year. He is accused of corruption, money laundering and racketeering in connection with a 1990's arms deal. He said he hasn't done anything wrong. And it's not over. There's the third one. IN Brazil, the deadline for former president Lula da Silva to report to police is less than 20 minutes away. He's been ordered to begin serving a 12-year prison sentence, but there's no word on whether he's turned himself in yet. His lawyers filed a last minute appeal in an effort to keep him out of jail. Check out our Facebook page for more at facebook.com/halagoranicnn. And check us out on Twitter, @HalaGorani. Still to come tonight, a UFC superstar charged with assault. We'll discuss the latest and possibly biggest controversy are on this man, Conor McGregor. We'll be right back.