[Fredricka Whitfield, Cnn Anchor:] Hello again, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in New York this Saturday. New developments and new questions unfolding in the Stormy Daniels saga. President Trump's lawyer admits to taking out a home equity loan to keep the adult film star quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Daniels tells CNN exclusively that the controversy might actually be a boon for her career.
[Stormy Daniels, Adult Film Star:] I think it's pretty clear with the new developments comes new interest.
[Whitfield:] And a possible meeting in the works between President Trump and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Un. The president tweeting just moments ago that both Japan and China are supportive and enthusiastic about the prospects of this face-to-face. Could this mark the beginning of the end to a nearly 70-year standoff between the U.S. and North Korea? And the president responds after a deadly shooting at a California V.A. clinic. What we know about the gunman and his victims. All right, let's begin with the latest on the case causing more trouble for this White House. Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, used his official Trump Organization e-mail address and signature to handle the arrangement. Cohen says he took out a home equity line of credit as well in the amount of $130,000 to make the payment to keep Stormy Daniels quiet about this alleged affair between herself and Mr. Trump. Daniels' attorney made his case to CNN's Anderson Cooper last night.
[Michael Avenatti, Attorney For Stormy Daniels:] This took a long time, the negotiation, the drafting, the communication, the routing of the payment, we're talking about hours and hours and hours. What Mr. Cohen and the administration now expects the American public to believe is that he went off half-cocked on his own without any guidance or communication whatsoever with his client. None. He just decided he was going to do this. He was going to draft the document, negotiate it, and draft the document with places for his client to sign.
[Whitfield:] This comes as President Trump prepares to hit the campaign trail today. He will be stumping for a Pennsylvania Republican who is in danger of losing in the district the president carried by 20 points. All right, let me bring in CNN's Boris Sanchez who is covering these developments for us from the White House Boris?
[Boris Sanchez, Cnn Correspondent:] Hey there, Fred. Yes, Michael Cohen, the president's personal attorney, maintaining that President Trump had nothing to do with his actions that he didn't move forward with this nondisclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels or a payment to her at the president's behest. He's responded to questions about his use of a Trump Organization e-mail address in facilitating this deal saying it had nothing to do with his doing this on his own personally. Here's that statement from Cohen now: "The use of my company e-mail to communicate with the bank and Miss Clifford's former counsel proves absolutely nothing despite the less than convincing comments offered by Mr. Mr. Avenatti. I used this e-mail address for virtually everything as many people do." What's missing from Cohen's statement is a response to the question of one particular e-mail exchange in which he says he can't expedite a payment to Stormy Daniels, Stephanie Clifford, because the Trump Organization offices were closed for a holiday. The White House has tried to put some distance between the administration and this ongoing controversy. Sarah Sanders multiple time this week, asked about the Stormy Daniels' saga, not really giving a full-throated response to a lot of the revelations we've since learned. Essentially, saying the White House has already commented on this and is trying to move forward. I want you to listen to one exchange earlier this week.
[Unidentified Reporter:] You said from the podium you acknowledged that the president knows about the arbitration involving Daniels. Does he remember speaking about his lawyer about that?
[Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White Hiouse Press Secretary:] I've addressed this extensively. I don't have anything else to add. Sorry. I'll take one last question.
[Sanchez:] As you noted, Fred, the president heads to western Pennsylvania tonight to campaign for Rick Saccone, in Pennsylvania district number 18. It is a seat Republicans have held for some time. Though, if you speak to Republican strategists privately, they tell you they're not confident they'll be able to hold on to this district, one the president won by 20 points. Not only is the wind at Democrats' backs because this is the first midterm in a Republican administration but, further, you also have all these swirling controversies, not only about Stormy Daniels but turnover at the White House. This could be an indication to Republicans of what things will look like in November during the midterms. And if they lose, they may be sounding alarms soon Fred?
[Whitfield:] All right, Boris Sanchez, thank you so much, at the White House. All right, let's discuss all of this with our panel. Tim Naftali is a CNN presidential historian and former director of the Nixon Presidential Library. Salena Zito is a CNN contributor and a national political reporter for the "Washington Examiner." Good to see you both. Tim, first to you. New details on this payment and the use of the Trump.org e-mail raising possible campaign election laws. How closely is the Mueller team examining this?
[Tim Naftali, Cnn Presidential Historian:] I don't know what the Mueller team is doing. For those of us trying to make sense of it, step back and compare and contrast the treatment of different women in October of 2016. Do you remember the women who came forward to say the president, the then-candidate, Donald Trump, had engaged in unwanted advances?
[Whitfield:] To the tune of maybe 17 or so.
[Naftali:] Seventeen. To date, we don't know of any of them being paid off. But for some reason, the president's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, decides, of the women who have something to say about Candidate Trump, this particular woman should be paid off and that he should pay her off without talking to anyone in the Trump campaign. And not only should he pay her off, but he should acquire a debt of $130,000 to do it. There is something about this that makes absolutely no sense. Seventeen women, not one gets paid off. This particular woman, the lawyer pays her off. So there is an issue here that has to do with the campaign, campaign finance, the movement of money just before a presidential election. That's why this raises questions that are very different from those that might be raised by a general extramarital affair by a political figure. And that's why Mueller might look into it.
[Whitfield:] Right, so this is really not just about the relationship or alleged relationships. But this really is about back to the whole following the money. CNN's chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, actually weighed in on Michael Cohen's claim that he took out this home equity loan to pay the settlement on his own. And this is what Jeffrey had to say.
[Jeffrey Toobin, Cnn Chief Legal Analyst:] This whole idea that Michael Cohen has to go into his home equity line. It's not like he has $130,000 sitting around. He has to take a whole in effect, a home equity loan in order to pay Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet for an affair or relationship that she had with Donald Trump. Lawyers don't do that. They don't do that with their own money. It's not ethical. It's not proper to do that without talking to the client. And it also just doesn't make any sense.
[Whitfield:] So, Salena, how does the White House try to explain all of this? That nearly dwarfs just the idea of an alleged relationship, but it certainly goes to the core of what really is going on here. This is really, you know, the whole alleged relationship thing is just a speck, you know, but something else much bigger seems to be revealed here with this home equity line of credit.
[Salena Zita, Cnn Political Contributor:] It certainly is peculiar, right? It's not anything any of us would do or if you have a lawyer, you have that kind of relationship. I don't know. I believe that the president has had a longtime friendshipbusiness relationship with his lawyer. I'm not totally positive about that. Maybe it goes to that. He certainly has a different kind of relationship with the people that are within his inner circle. Maybe the guy panicked. Maybe the guy was like, look, I'm just going to do this, get it aside, and, you know, deal with it later.
[Whitfield:] Right. But, again, this was all for the relationship that never happened. And the relationship that never happened and then there were these legal documents and attorneys involved and now an exchange of money.
[Zito:] Right. I mean, we don't know. I mean, there's so many gaps that we don't understand. Was there conversation between the president and his lawyer? Was there not a conversation between the president and his lawyer? Did Cohen just do this on his own? Just go rogue? These are the things we don't know. I have a hard time speculating who was committing the more improper, you know, set of circumstances with this thing.
[Whitfield:] Yes, and that this Trump.org, you know, e-mail was used by Michael
[Zito:] Right. Right.
[Whitfield:] Michael Cohen. So, Tim, this Stormy Daniels, you know, not talking specifics about this alleged affair, but her attorney is talking, while appearing multiple times on lots of different networks including last night. He was talking with Anderson Cooper. And then last night, Stormy Daniels herself was talking with one of our reporters outside an appearance in Florida. Take a listen. Well, she essentially said to our Nick Valencia last night she's made a lot of money off of this but, you know, she's not capitalizing off it. It's just all the opportunities are arising as a result of all this being publicized. Meantime, her attorney is saying that much needs to be established because Michael Cohen isn't licensed to work in California to be a part of a deal, et cetera. This is bad because it's difficult for the White House to dismiss it all together.
[Naftali:] The White House is not helping itself. I mean, Sarah Sanders made clear there was an arbitration. Therefore, the president was involved. Therefore, the president knew about it. The issue is this. You have these women with credible stories. And the president in 2016 then-Candidate Trump says none of it true, denies it all. This one woman, Stormy Daniels, puts pressure somehow, we don't know how, and the president's lawyer decides I'll pay her, we'll pay her. What did she know? What evidence did she have? And it strikes me as implausible that Mr. Cohen would do this without talking to the candidate. After all, the candidate denied everything else. The candidate could have well have said to Mr. Cohen it didn't happen. So there must have been a conversation. And we'll learn more I'm sure.
[Whitfield:] We'll leave it right there for now. Tim Naftali, Salena Zito, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Stormy Daniels, meantime, is staying fairly prominent, because Nick Valencia did talk to her exclusively last night in Florida where she was making that appearance. Nick, you bring us more, all the things she said willingly and those she wouldn't.
[Nick Valencia, Cnn Correspondent:] Fredricka, we were told last night explicitly she would not be talking to the media, but all that seemed to change after her performance. There was a meet and greet she had with some of her fans who showed up here. She performed in front of about 200 people. Her first live performance since bringing a lawsuit against President Trump over that nondisclosure agreement that had to do with her alleged a fair. Her team agreed to an audio-only interview with us if only we didn't talk about the ongoing litigation or ask about President Trump. We asked anyway. She did talk about how this has all impacted her career.
[Valencia:] So what has this done for your career?
[Daniels:] It's sort of been a double-edged sword. Where a lot of people are very interested in booking me for dancing and stuff like that. I'm getting more dance bookings. I usually only dance once a month and now we're dancing three or four times a month so that's been really great. Because of that, it's sort of overshadowing a lot of adult films I'm supposed to be promoting and a lot of the mainstream projects I was actively working on have indefinitely been put on hold.
[Valencia:] You got a lot of attention. Some of it some negative attention. How are you handling everything?
[Daniels:] I've been in the adult business for 17 years, so to make it that long in that business, you have to have a really tough skin. And so it's most of it rolls off my shoulder because it's an opinion like, oh, you think I'm a whore or ugly or old or I'm too fat or my boobs are too big or too small or whatever. I've heard there's nothing along those lines that someone can say to me I haven't heard. When someone says hey, you're a whore, I'm, that is successful whore to you.
[Valencia:] This is a little different. Has some of it been hurtful at all? What's your reaction to it?
[Daniels:] The stuff that bothers me is the flat-out lie, like people randomly making up stuff.
[Valencia:] Like what?
[Daniels:] Like that I'm broke. I'm actually one of the most successful adult movie directors in the business. I have a contract that's been in place for several years. And I actually just renegotiated and got a new contract that was already the terms were already set before this stuff happened, and I have a huge I got a raise, so I'm doing just fine.
[Valencia:] What do you think about the circus that's happening? This was out in 2011 but now it's like a renewed attention on you and, you know, somebody else that we'll not name here?
[Daniels:] I think it's pretty clear with the new developments comes new interest.
[Valencia:] There you have it. Some pretty candid remarks from Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. I did ask her, Fredricka, about President Trump. She said she had no comment for the president. But she hasn't been quiet. Not backing down from criticism either. She's been active today on social media, pushing back against her critics criticizing her for the very interview. She also has two more live performances scheduled here in south Florida Fredricka?
[Whitfield:] All right, Nick Valencia, thank you so much, from Ft. Lauderdale. Coming up, the White House insists President Trump will meet with Kim Jong-Un but provides little details about where and when that might happen given the rocky history between the two leaders. What can we expect from that historic meeting?