Rudy Giuliani Throw Trump's Legal Team Into Disarray
SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I can't get into the details of the ongoing litigation. I've given the best information I had at the time. Again, I gave you the best information that I had. I gave you the best information that I had.</s>DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The White House struggling mightily for words there after Rudy Giuliani admitted the president paid the Stormy Daniels hush money back to Michael Cohen. Now anger in the building on the president's legal team. It's just building and it's not going away.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: South Korea's top national security official is in Washington ahead of nuclear talks with North Korea. Now, President Trump reportedly taking steps to consider a reduction of the U.S. military presence in the South.</s>BRIGGS: And mandatory evacuations in Hawaii as the Kilauea volcano erupts. Emergency resources being deployed as lava heads for residential areas. Welcome back to EARLY START on a looney Friday, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.</s>ROMANS: Looney -- may the fourth be with you. Dave --</s>BRIGGS: I've got my "STAR WARS" sock on.</s>ROMANS: "STAR WARS" socks -- I forgot to bring mine. A lightsaber -- I need that today. I'm Christine Romans. It is --</s>BRIGGS: We should have a duel.</s>ROMANS: I know. Thirty-one minutes past the hour. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani seems to have thrown a wrench into the president's legal strategy. Multiple sources tell CNN Trump's other legal advisers felt blindsided. They were angry and confused when Giuliani revealed the president reimbursed his lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. That remark contradicted previous explanations by the president and Cohen. Giuliani told CNN Thursday he and the president are on the same page aiming to quote "get everything wrapped up and done with so this doesn't take on a life of its own."</s>BRIGGS: But the White House struggling to explain away the contradictions after the president spent months denying he knew about the hush money or the reimbursement.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president did talk about monthly retainers in his tweet and then Rudy Giuliani said that the president only knew about this 10 days to two weeks ago. How can you only be aware of something 10 days to two weeks ago but, at the same time, be in the process of paying monthly retainers that apparently covered this reimbursement to Michael Cohen?</s>SANDERS: Again, I can't get into the details of the ongoing litigation. I'd refer you back to the president's outside counsel.</s>ACOSTA: Could I just follow up on -- you said on March seventh there was no knowledge of any payments from the president and he's denied all of these allegations. Were you lying to us at the time or were you in the dark?</s>SANDERS: The president has denied and continues to deny the underlying claim. And again, I've given the best information I had at the time. He's denied the underlying claim.</s>ACOSTA: Why can't you just answer yes or no whether you were in the dark? I think it's a fairly simple question whether you just didn't have the information at the time --</s>SANDERS: I think it's a fairly simple answer that I've given you actually, several times now.</s>BRIGGS: On Thursday, the president confirmed the hush payment and the reimbursement in a series of tweets while also denying any connection to his presidential campaign. A source says the president's legal team is quote "calling it one play at a time." To help break this all down let's bring in CNN legal analyst Areva Martin on Skype via Los Angeles. All right, Areva.</s>ROMANS: Good morning again, Areva.</s>BRIGGS: All these papers, for example -- "Giuliani's Story May Fuel Prosecutor's Case", "Trump Gambit Stuns Staff", "Giuliani May Aggravate Legal and Political Peril." Lawyers cost an awful lot of money. Is he doing the president any good?</s>AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, ATTORNEY, LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR (via Skype): I don't think so, Dave. The problem is Rudy Giuliani hasn't practiced law in decades and he has a reputation of being a very solid prosecutor when he was a practicing attorney. But we have to remember, that's been years. And I think the biggest part about this is there doesn't appear to have been any coordination. It's not even clear to me that Rudy Giuliani knew the numerous times that both Michael Cohen and the president had denied that the president had any knowledge. This whole case has been really peculiar from the start. You had Michael Cohen suggesting that he went out on his own as an attorney and made a settlement. Negotiated a non-disclosure agreement, paid a settlement without his then-client Donald Trump knowing anything about these negotiations and payment. That is extremely unusual. It's even unethical for a lawyer to do that -- to take on that kind of activity on behalf of a client without the client's knowledge. So that never felt to be an accurate account of what happened. We had the president denying any knowledge. But now, in a very casual way in this on-air interview, Giuliani admitting to Sean Hannity that the president did know about the payment and, in fact, was reimbursing him. But even the reimbursement is strange. We're hearing about this funneling of money through a law firm -- alleged repayment via a retainer agreement which is usually used by lawyers to be compensated for legal work that they're doing. Those retainer agreements aren't used to funnel payments for settlements negotiated by a lawyer when allegedly, the client doesn't even know about the settlement. So I think Rudy has created more questions than answers. He's given prosecutors, at least, I think more avenues, more paths -- more inquiries to follow. I don't think he's done the president any good in his stunning disclosure.</s>ROMANS: The timing here -- everyone focusing in on the timing. The affair, which the president denies -- repeatedly has denied -- was in 2006. This all went down in 2016, 10 years later, in the middle of a very heated presidential election. Let's listen to Rudy Giuliani on the payment timing.</s>RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Imagine if that came out on October 15th --</s>STEVE DOOCY, HOST, "FOX & FRIENDS": Sure.</s>GIULIANI: -- 2016 in the middle of a last debate with Hillary Clinton.</s>DOOCY: Right. So to make it go away they made this --</s>GIULIANI: Cohen didn't even ask.</s>DOOCY: Wow.</s>GIULIANI: Cohen made it go away. He did his job.</s>ROMANS: So, our Jeffrey Toobin says that's a confession. This is campaign-related. What do you make of it?</s>MARTIN: Yes, absolutely. It absolutely -- again, just a stunning statement by Giuliani admitting that the purpose of the payment was to influence the election, and that's what this whole violation of federal campaign laws is about. What is the purpose of a payment -- in this case, what appears to be a loan? Was it done to influence the outcome of the election? And you have Rudy Giuliani pretty much admitting that. And then you have a statement by Stormy Daniels' attorney just yesterday saying that he has evidence -- separate evidence that there were conversations between Michael Cohen and Stormy's prior lawyer, Keith Davidson, to the same effect. That the payment had to be made, the story had to be killed before the election. And again, I think as federal prosecutors look at this -- and not just the Stormy Daniels payment. We know that the raid on Michael Cohen's office is bigger -- involves perhaps other crimes that may have been committed by Michael Cohen. But all of this is just one perfect, no pun intended, storm brewing for this White House.</s>ROMANS: All right, Areva Martin. Thank you so much for your time this morning from Los Angeles. Thank you.</s>BRIGGS: All right, there's your legal. Now to the politics of all this. Joining us from Washington, Greg Valliere, political economist and chief strategist at Horizon Investments. Only in 2018 does the normally Trump-friendly "New York Post" have this -- "Yes, I Paid the Porn Star."</s>ROMANS: Oh.</s>BRIGGS: Greg, in that, the president was spot-on when he once said as a candidate, I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any supporters. Indeed, that is true. His 42-43 percent don't care one bit about all of this. What are the political ramifications here?</s>GREG VALLIERE, POLITICAL ECONOMIST, CHIEF GLOBAL STRATEGIST, HORIZON INVESTMENTS: I think they're significant. And you've got to say, guys, just when you think the president couldn't have a worse week, he has a worse week. One of the worst weeks of his presidency for his credibility. More and more questions being raised by Giuliani. Yes, Trump's base will stay solid. That's a major reason why probably, the Senate will not have 67 votes to impeach. That's a long way down the road. But I think that these revelations this week have really complicated the narrative.</s>ROMANS: It's also been a really tough week for Sarah Sanders. I mean --</s>VALLIERE: Yes.</s>ROMANS: -- last week it was the White House Correspondents' Dinner. That was the storyline --</s>VALLIERE: Yes.</s>ROMANS: -- on Sunday and Monday. And now, she's standing up there and has to struggle to explain away these shifting -- these shifting accounts. You know, "The Wall Street Journal" said this. "Mr. Trump is compiling a record that increases the likelihood that few will believe him during a genuine crisis -- say, a dispute over speaking with special counsel Robert Mueller or a nuclear showdown with Kim Jong Un. Mr. Trump should worry that Americans will stop believing anything he says."</s>VALLIERE: Yes. And I've got to tell you, Christine, I think there are two people at the White House who must be thinking this morning enough is enough -- the lies, the chaos. I'm referring, obviously, to Sarah Sanders and Gen. Kelly.</s>BRIGGS: But is it overshadowing all the positive the president is doing on the Korean Peninsula?</s>VALLIERE: Yes.</s>BRIGGS: We could be brokering a peace deal --</s>VALLIERE: Yes.</s>BRIGGS: -- removing nuclear weapons, and the economy's healthy. The jobs numbers come out today.</s>VALLIERE: Yes.</s>BRIGGS: Is it overshadowing all the positives his administration is accomplishing?</s>VALLIERE: It is, to a large extent. We're talking about this -- we're talking about Giuliani when there's maybe a breakthrough with Korea. When there's maybe some signs of progress on NAFTA, the trade deal. And maybe, most importantly, why we have economic fundamentals, including a good jobs report probably this morning. Fundamentals that are still really great.</s>ROMANS: Yes. Even in the "The Wall Street Journal," the top story today -- the tax overhaul is driving earnings growth here.</s>VALLIERE: Yes.</s>ROMANS: About -- over half of the combined profit growth is from the drop in their tax rates. So that's what Wall Street wanted, right, and that's what the president promised -- there would be this gift. Do you think that that story could get flipped for the midterms, though? That this becomes corporate welfare? Like companies already doing very well in this economy got a huge gift and six or seven billion --</s>VALLIERE: Right.</s>ROMANS: -- for workers?</s>VALLIERE: Well, Marco Rubio touched on that. He pulled it back a little --</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>VALLIERE: -- a couple of days ago. But there is that narrative that the corporations have done great. Their stock values have gone up. But the workers have done fair -- not terrible, but fair. So that could become a narrative. I still think by Labor Day we could have an unemployment rate of 3.6 and you could have the economy growing at 3.5 percent.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>VALLIERE: If we do, that still gives the Republicans a chance to have a decent election.</s>ROMANS: I think you're right on those economic numbers. We're going to hear from the jobs report today. Do you think it's going to be strong, yes?</s>VALLIERE: Yes. I think we go from 4.1 to 4.0. Non-foreign payroll should look good. They key is always -- is wages.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>VALLIERE: They're starting to go up. If we see a further gain in wages that's a very good story.</s>ROMANS: A good story. It could be a bad story for the stock market. They'll think that the Fed's going to raise interest rates faster. But --</s>VALLIERE: Well, yes.</s>ROMANS: -- yes, a good story for real people.</s>BRIGGS: People vote on the economy and --</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>BRIGGS: -- national security. Both, the president is nearing some big wins on.</s>ROMANS: All right. Greg, nice to see you.</s>VALLIERE: Yes, all right.</s>ROMANS: Nice to see you. Thank you so much. All of you who use Twitter should change your password right now. The glitch that's forcing 336 million to make a change, next.