[Fredricka Whitfield, Cnn Anchor:] All right. It's 11:00 on the East Coast. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in New York. Welcome this Saturday. New developments in the Stormy Daniels saga President Trump's lawyer now facing questions after taking out a home equity loan to keep the porn star quiet about an alleged affair. Daniels also claiming the controversy may actually be helping her career. Plus, Florida's Republican governor coming under fire from the NRA a lawsuit now in play as the state of Florida passes new gun control legislation. And President Trump responds after a deadly shooting at a California Veterans Affairs clinic. What we now know about the gunman and his victims. Let's begin with the latest on the case causing more trouble for the White House. We now know President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, used his official Trump Organization e-mail address and signature; and Cohen says he took out a equity line of credit in the amount of $130,000 to make the payment to keep Stormy Daniels quiet about an alleged affair between herself and Mr. Trump. Daniels' attorney made his case to CNN's Anderson Cooper last night.
[Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' Attorney:] 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. And 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 that he was going to do this. He was going to draft the document. He was going to negotiate it. And he was going to draft the document with places for his client to sign.
[Whitfield:] All right. This comes as President Trump prepares to hit the campaign trail today. He'll be stumping for Pennsylvania Republican who is in danger of losing in a district the President carried by 20 points. CNN White House correspondent Abby Phillip is at the White House for us now. So Abby it appears this controversy is not going away.
[Abby Phillip, Cnn White House Correspondent:] That's right Fred. This controversy continues to engulf this White House and it does seem that the more revelations we get about what's going on in this case the more questions we have about what exactly the President knew about what his attorney seemed to have been doing on his behalf. With the revelation that Michael Cohen used his Trump Organization e- mail to send correspondents to Stormy Daniels' attorney in the days preceding the election, Sarah Sanders is facing new questions about whether or not the President and his personal lawyer are were talking then and are still talking now about this ongoing litigation. Listen to what Sarah said yesterday about that.
[Phillip:] You said from the podium you acknowledge that the President, to follow up on April's question, knows about the arbitration involving Stormy Daniels. Does he remember speaking with his lawyer about that? Does he remember meeting Daniels?
[Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:] I've addressed this extensively. I don't have anything else to add. Sorry I did tell Troy I'll take one last question.
[Phillip:] The White House is now trying to shut down questions about Stormy Daniels after Sarah Sanders this week really opened a Pandora's Box by acknowledging that the President had been had won an arbitration case against Stormy Daniels in the last several weeks. That case being brought by his lawyer Michael Cohen. She now won't say at all whether or not the President has spoken to Cohen about this case. Now you just mentioned the President is heading out this afternoon to Pennsylvania where he's going to be campaigning for a Republican candidate who seems to desperately need his help at this point. But obviously the President is in a politically-perilous situation. He not only has this controversy with Stormy Daniels brewing but he is also facing some backlash from world leaders and from his own party over his decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel. So there's a lot going on right now for this president. And it's unclear how it's going to affect this very near future of this Pennsylvania race but also races down the road in the mid terms in 2018 Fred.
[Whitfield:] All right. Abby Phillip, thanks so much at the White House. All right. Let's bring in our political panel now. Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst and a professor and historian at Princeton University and Amy Parnes, a CNN political analyst and a senior political correspondent for "The Hill". All right. Good to see both of you.
[Julian Zelizer, Cnn Political Analyst:] Good morning.
[Amy Parnes, Cnn Political Analyst:] Good to see you.
[Whitfield:] All right. So Julian central to this is not just the alleged affair. But in terms of payments, that's really what makes this so paramount and essential, these payments that came just ahead of the 2016 election. Where did they come from? And now to hear that Trump's attorney Michael Cohen not only used his Trump, you know, Org e-mail but that he took out a home equity line of credit for $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. So doesn't this make it that much harder for the President to continue to dismiss this as important or relevant?
[Zelizer:] It does. I think at some level the President doesn't care about the focus of the story, meaning the relationship. He's had so many stories at this point. One more doesn't matter. What does matter is was there a campaign finance violation? And the information we get today or in the last few days leads us closer to that. And second, I'm sure the President and his advisors are worried about this going to court because if you have the President deposed and if you have statements, we remember what happened to Bill Clinton, it can lead to bigger scandals.
[Whitfield:] Is it almost certain that there will be a deposition of the President?
[Zelizer:] No, it's not certain at this point. This can be resolved before this ever reaches court and that's often what happens. So I'm not sure we're going to get there. But those are the two parts of the story that I think are buried within the front page scandal.
[Whitfield:] And so Amy, you know, the plot is thickening here. And now you've got the a.k.a., the alias of the President that is now, you know, of public interest now, this David Dennison, and the attorney putting his own home on the line and that he wouldn't be reimbursed. I mean who believes that?
[Parnes:] No. And that's the thing. I mean when you talk to people who know about these things, a lawyer wouldn't do that kind of thing for a client. So it's very suspect, I think. And I think that's why it's raising a lot of eyebrows; the timing, of course. I mean this is one of those circumstances I think where the cover-up is almost worse than the crime. It's not really about the affair anymore. It's more about, you know, what the lead-up it to in the days before the election and that's what's happening right now. And it does the plot is thickening every day.
[Whitfield:] Yes. The White House is going to continue to be peppered with these questions, which is exactly what happened on Friday. And this is how Sarah Sanders handled it all.
[Sanders:] The President has denied the allegations against him. And again this case has already been won in arbitration. Anything beyond that I would refer you to outside counsel.
[Unidentified Male:] You said that there is arbitration, that's already been won, by whom and when?
[Sanders:] By the President's personal attorneys and for details on that, I would refer you to them.
[Unidentified Male:] But you're aware of them. So what more can you share with us?
[Sanders:] I can share that arbitration was won in the President's favor and I would refer you to the President's outside counsel on any details beyond that.
[Whitfield:] And Julian, this kind of confusion only worsens things about what kind of, you know, legal road this case is taking the White House.
[Zelizer:] Yes. I mean part of this points to the ongoing chaos within the White House and a level of dysfunction which is now the normal for the administration. But you'll hear different things from different members of the administration. Politically you can survive that. But legally, the question is does that kind of confusion open them up to problems like more information from his attorney? I would say though he probably is happier talking about this than the tariff controversy or the gun control. And so there is part of me always thinking which of the various controversies would the President rather be centered on?
[Whitfield:] And then Amy, you know, Stormy Daniels' attorney is really trying to put the Trump camp in a corner saying you all can actually get to the bottom of the President, the Treasury Secretary can get to the bottom of this money and this transaction of Michael Cohen. This is, in fact, what the attorney told Anderson Cooper last night.
[Avenatti:] We know that the President and his appointee, the Treasury Secretary, control Finson. They could very easily release this SAR. And, in fact, if Mr. Cohen does not have an objection to it, if he doesn't believe anything was untoward about this, if his story is to be believed, then release the SAR. It's a fairly brief document but it's going to be very illuminating as to the details relating to this transaction. And if there is nothing to hide, release the SAR and let the American people see what happened here. And if there's nothing there then there's nothing there.
[Whitfield:] All right. Amy, I know a lot of people are saying what in the world is a SAR, you know? This is the Suspicious Activity Report
[Parnes:] Right.
[Whitfield:] and this is the bank. A financial institution notifying a division within the Treasury Department that there is this money and we don't know what is behind it and perhaps we can look into it.
[Parnes:] Right.
[Whitfield:] So the attorney is challenging that the President can actually reveal that the Treasury Secretary can find out what this is all about and put it all to rest perhaps
[Parnes:] Right.
[Whitfield:] or open a new Pandora's Box. Which it is?
[Parnes:] No. And so they're not going to do that obviously.
[Whitfield:] Not going to do it.
[Parnes:] Because why would they.
[Whitfield:] Would this be interesting to the Mueller team?
[Parnes:] I would think so. And you'd have to think that someone over there is looking into this right now because it does sort of break these election laws. And so I think, you know, it's very interesting and I think something has to be brewing over there at the same time. And that has to be scaring White House officials right now. They don't want this in the headlines. It derails their message every single day. You know, this week Trump had to sort of get out in front of it and talk about Korea and that sort of pushed it off for a while. But this keeps looming kind of like the Russia story line and that's problematic for the White House.
[Zelizer:] It also points to a looseness in the campaign and to how they view the laws and to how they see the rules and regulations. In this case, campaign finance. But that does lead in to some of the other questions that have emerged in the Russia investigation about the demeanor and the approach of this then-candidate.
[Whitfield:] It's a potential pattern that the Mueller team would find interesting of just this hiding information, hiding transactions, trying to convince the public or, you know, the general consensus that it's something other than something else.
[Zelizer:] Exactly. And the problem of compromising information has been something that has surfaced and been part of the investigation as well. And here you seem to have a case where that's tangible. So these are connected. And I think they can effect how Mueller thinks about his own case.
[Whitfield:] All right. All fascinating and curious. Thank you so much.
[Parnes:] Yes, thank you.
[Whitfield:] talking to both of you.
[Zelizer:] Thank you.
[Whitfield:] We appreciate it Julian and Amy. All right. Stormy Daniels meantime, well, she is staying rather busy. CNN's Nick Valencia talked to her exclusively last night in Florida where she was making an appearance. And Nick is joining us right now from Fort Lauderdale. So what did she say?
[Nick Valencia, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Fredricka this was her first live performance since filing the lawsuit earlier this week in California superior court and Los Angeles superior courtroom over that nondisclosure agreement which she says is null and void because Donald Trump, the President of the United States, the man she's accused of allegedly having an affair with did not sign that agreement. Now, we were told that we shouldn't expect to get an interview with Stormy Daniels. But all that changed after her performance when her team agreed to an audio interview only so long as we didn't talk about the litigation pending or the President of the United States. She did, however, talk to me about how this whole ordeal has impacted her career.
[Valencia:] So what has this done for your career?
[Stormy Daniels, Adult Film Star:] 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. So I'm getting more dance bookings. I usually only dance once a month and now I'm dancing three or four times a month. So that's been really great. But because of that, it's sort of overshadowing a lot of the adult films that I'm supposed to be promoting and a lot of the mainstream projects that I was actively working on have been indefinitely put on hold.
[Valencia:] You've gotten a lot of attention, some negative attention. How you are 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 shoulders because it's an opinion like oh, you think I'm a whore or you think I'm ugly or I'm old or I'm fat or my boobs are too big or too small or whatever. I've heard there is nothing along those lines that someone can say to me that I haven't heard. And so when someone says hey you're a whore I'm like that is successful whore to you.
[Valencia:] But this is a little different though. I mean has some of it been hurtful at all? What's your reaction then to it?
[Daniels:] The stuff that bothers me is the flat out lies. Like people randomly making up stuff.
[Valencia:] Like what?
[Daniels:] Like that I'm broke. I've actually 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 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 like the circus that is happening? I mean, you know, this was kind of out in 2011. But now it's like a renewed attention on you and, you know, somebody else that we'll not name.
[Daniels:] I think it's pretty clear that with the new developments comes new interest.
[Valencia:] Any go ahead.
[Hadas Gold, Cnn Digital Reporter:] What do you want people to know about you and about what is going on that you feel has been overshadowed?
[Daniels:] Like I just said that I'm doing what I've always done. I'm writing, directing, performing, dancing like none of that changed. People are under the huge misconception that I just started stripping. And I've actually been doing this for 18 years.
[Gold:] Like you take advantage of the situation.
[Daniels:] Right. And that's not true. I was already booked. Now yes, I'm more in demand. And like I said in "The Rolling Stone" interview, if somebody came up to you and said hey, you know that job you've been doing forever. How about next week I pay you quadruple. Show me one person who's going to say no.
[Valencia:] So it's helped you?
[Daniels:] It helped me in the short and immediate time because obviously more people are coming, the more people in the club, so that's more tips. But I have you know, yet to see how it's going to play out long term.
[Valencia:] When you look back at this stage of your life, this period of your life, what do you think you're going to think about? I mean what you are going to think about what you're going through right now?
[Daniels:] Holy
[Valencia:] Anything I haven't asked that you that is important to know? Anything you'd like to talk about while we have the chance?
[Gold:] Any more news this week or are you just going to let
[Valencia:] Yes, what else should we expect?
[Daniels:] I'm not sure what's coming this week, honestly.
[Valencia:] Ok.
[Daniels:] I mean you guys work at CNN, you know.
[Gold:] We try to know. That's our job.
[Valencia:] Any comments to the President? And we should mention the other voice you hear there on that tape is the voice of CNN digital reporter Hadas Gold, who was part of that CNN team. We were here inside last night watching Stormy Daniels perform in front of about 200 people. She has two more performances scheduled later tonight Fredricka.
[Whitfield:] All right. Nick Valencia thank you so much for that. We'll talk more about it. All right. 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 what this historic meeting could unfold?