Trump's New Tweets Raise Questions About Witness Tampering
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, is President Trump dangling another pardon. Trump praising Roger Stone, saying he's got guts for staying silent. Plus, the stunning turn around. The CIA Director Gina Haspel now preparing to brief a few lawmakers on the murder of Washington Post Columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Why did it take so long? Senator Rand Paul is OUTFRONT. Plus, a final farewell. President George H.W. Bush's former staff and the public paying their respect at this hour as President Trump and the First Lady are getting ready to go to the Capitol Hill to say goodbye also this hour. Let's go OUTFRONT. Good evening, I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT this evening, dangling another pardon. Is President Trump doing it again? Trump lavishing praise on his former Campaign Adviser Roger Stone, the man whose ties to WikiLeaks are a focus of Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. During a morning tirade on Twitter, the President congratulating Stone for his guts and defending him tweeting, "I will never testify against Trump." This statement was recently made by Roger Stone essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about President Trump. Somehow that's in quotes, "nice to know some people still have guts." The President tweet comes after Stone publicly insisted that he had nothing on Trump.</s>ROGER STONE, FORMER ADVISER TO DONALD TRUMP: There's no circumstance under which I would testify against the President because I'd have to bear false witness against him. I'd have to make things up and I'm not going to do that.</s>BURNETT: Stone already named in at least one Mueller indictment charging others in the Russia investigation. Stone himself has not been charged but he is important to Mueller and that is developing and he has known Trump of course a long time. The President clearly thinks that he has a lot to gain from Stone standing by him. And dangling pardons, of course, has become par for the course for this President.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And one of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much, is he went through that trial. You know, they make up stories. People make up stories. I must tell you that Paul Manafort is a good man. I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. He happens to be a very good person and I think it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort.</s>BURNETT: Trump going so far as to explicitly say a pardon for Manafort is on the table. And today George Conway, a conservative attorney, of course Kellyanne Conway's husband, responding to the President's tweets about Stone with a U.S. code number. A U.S. code number, if you look it up, is a reference to the statute for obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Democratic Senator Mark Warner who is the top Democrat in the Senate Intelligence Committee which is investigating Russia and Trump in a bipartisan and highly respected manner also tweeting, "This is serious, the President of the United States should not be using his platform to influence potential witnesses in a federal investigation involving his campaign." So, why is the President so vocal, so public about calling out witnesses in the Mueller investigation if this is true?</s>TRUMP: Now, here's the good news, I did nothing wrong. Look, I did nothing wrong. Is this one here, I did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong.</s>BURNETT: Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT live. She's outside the White House tonight. Kaitlan, why is the President so focused on this today, that Twitter tirade of course as I was sharing the tweet about Mr. Stone?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Erin, he seems to have bottled up his anger while he was in Argentina over the weekend for the G20 summit. And then he unleashed all of it on Twitter this morning saying not only those things that Bob Mueller is trying to people to lie instead of telling the truth which would seems to go against with the Special Counsel has done since they prosecuted so many people for lying to them, but also really directing his anger at Michael Cohen as well. Saying that he believed he should get the maximum sentence for his crimes that President Trump says weren't related to him even though of course two of these was high profile guilty pleas have been for one. He's admitted he violated campaign finance laws, which he said he did at the direction of President Trump. And two, lying to Congress, which he said he did out of loyalty to President Trump. Now, it wasn't that long ago, Erin, that President Trump said he didn't believe Michael Cohen as someone who would cooperate with the prosecutors, but now we know that he has spoken with them for at least 70 hours. And clearly, that is something that is unnerving the President and that is why we were continuing to see him go on this tirade lashed out not only of Robert Mueller but also at his long-time former attorney. Erin?</s>BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan. I want to go now to Harry Sandick former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District here in New York, Laura Coates, former Federal Prosecutor and Patrick Healy, Political Editor with the New York Times. Harry, could Roger Stone see this as a pardon offer for your silence, for your guts, the reward is coming.</s>HARRY SANDICK, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: I think he might implicitly take it that way and I think he might implicitly understand that by continuing to remain silent, he is demonstrating loyalty to the President. I think the President either intentionally or otherwise was careful in the way that he framed the tweet. It's not an express offer of a pardon. He didn't even say it's on the table. I'm not even sure that it actually rises to the level of witness tampering because he framed it as, he's telling the truth and it's not a crime to encourage someone to tell the truth.</s>BURNETT: To tell the truth.</s>SANDICK: So he endangers the rule of law by talking about this at all. But I think also implicitly sends a message that maybe a pardon is at the end of the rainbow.</s>BURNETT: So, Laura, you know, one of the most interesting parts of the Stone tweet is that this one, "He", referring about Roger Stone, "will not be forced out by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about President Trump". Again my obsession with this tweet why is President Trump is put in quotes. But let me ask you, Laura, rogue and out of control. Trump has gone after Mueller before but he is up and ante, right, of characters assassination against the Special Counsel. Does this matter to Mueller? Does this influence Mueller?</s>LAURA COATES, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, I don't think Mueller has thin skin. And it's part of a larger pattern what the President is saying, this is a witch hunt, and he is not justified or justified in being able to pursue this matter. I mean, that's not true, Erin. He's got a mandate to look into at matters like this, and this mandate includes the type of action that Roger Stone has been on being investigated as a part of in terms of what Trump has said, in terms of what Michael Cohen has done in the past and plead guilty to Manafort. Michael Flynn list goes on and on about the ways in which Mueller is filling his mandate and taking it too. But the President I think is trying to throw almost spaghetti at the wall at this point. To stick with the party line that he has, this is a rogue investigator who is completely going above rank that he has no business doing what he's doing. That's not actually true. And the more the President seems to sweat about this matter, the more we wonder why he seems so concerned now after he turned in written answers.</s>BURNETT: Right. And, of course you know, it's a point we keep making on this program. You've got 23 Russians indicted, charged by Mueller. So, to say that, the whole thing is that, you know, a hoax and rogue is frankly on the face of it, patently observe. And Patrick, you also have the President, you know, encouraging people not to lie, to your point. OK. That would be OK. But it's ironic, because Papadopoulos has lied, Manafort has lied --</s>PATRICK HEALY, POLITICS EDITOR, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Right.</s>BURNETT: -- Cohen is now very publicly admitting to believe in lies all to protect this President.</s>HEALY: Yes. No, the culture of lying has very much become clear around Trump, but it's something that Trump himself has encouraged. But, I mean, that the tweet also begins with in the phrase, I, you know, I will not test -- I will never testify against President Trump. A pardon may not be on the table, but President Trump is literally telling the world, but especially these people around them, this is exactly what I want you to say. Loyalty matters so much to this President. You know, he said it when he talked about Eric Holder as protecting President Obama and how that was something that was a great thing, a good thing, this is what an attorney general should do, should protect the President. Even at, though, that is a completely irresponsible position for an attorney general to hold. Just still the sense of what loyalty means, even if you have this cascade of people who, you know, who have been caught lying basically in order to protect him.</s>BURNETT: And Harry, when it comes to Michael Cohen, right, Michael Cohen has admitted to lying about things, relevant to the President of the United States, right, whether Russia-related, Stormy Daniels- related, OK? However, Michael Cohen the tweet that from the President today, doesn't mention those particular lies, it mentions this, "Michael Cohen asked judge for no prison time. You mean he can do all the terrible unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, taxis, and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a great and already reduced deal for himself. And get his wife and father-in-law, (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence." Again leaving off the lies relevant to him, mentioning those other lies, Scott Free, though, is that even possible for Cohen?</s>SANDICK: No. I mean, first of all he has a criminal conviction, second of all the judge is going to pick a sentence that he believes is fair given to circumstances. Just like every other defendant in every case, from the lowliest person who steals a piece of mail to someone who steals billions of dollars in a security's broad case (ph). He'll get the sentence that's correct and proportional for him or at least he's supposed to.</s>BURNETT: Depending -- but, obviously, even given you're saying that it will most certainly, or I suppose extremely likely be reduced for the cooperation as Mueller is suggesting that he wants to do, right, against the President?</s>SANDICK: It could be reduced, but the government actually isn't going to tell the court to reduce it based on cooperation, based on substantial assistance. They're simply going to put all the facts before the court and say, this is the crime he's committed. This is what he's done, but they're not going to file what they call a 5k letter stating to the court that there's substantial assistance provided by Cohen. They're just going to let him know what he's done and the judge will, in his wisdom, pick the right sentence. So, it's not a matter someone serving a complete sentence or fair -- a complete sentence, he'll serve the complete sentence when it's imposed.</s>BURNETT: What do you make, Patrick, I guess to that the President's obsession about this today?</s>HEALY: It's -- I mean --</s>BURNETT: I mean, that's everyday but today as Kaitlan, you know, said it boiled over.</s>HEALY: Yes. I mean, I think a part of it there was Roger Stone and I comment on Sunday. Very few people know President Trump's mind and the way that it works, and how they sort of get inside his mind like Roger Stone. Roger Stone basically going on television saying, you know, I'm not going to testify, because it would mean lying about the President that I like so much. I mean, it plays so deeply into how President Trump feels like the people around him should act that this is -- that Roger Stone who has been caught, you know, in so many, you know, mischief making, let's say situations.</s>BURNETT: Yes.</s>HEALY: And lies, you know, still sort of the example for how one should behave if they want to stay in President Trump's good graces.</s>BURNETT: Laura?</s>COATES: Well, you know, what's odd about this, so the President is presuming that he should get a good lenient sentence should he cooperate. Remember, Michael Cohen was not cooperating at the time he made his first guilty plea just a couple months ago. That was one of the most shocking things about it, there was no cooperation agreement. And he had at least what, five to six penalties at that point in time. For him to have accountability plea did not have a cooperation at all would be odd. Second of all, the idea that the President is touting as Roger Stone as I recall (ph) to talk about him being an exemplary person, remember, perhaps the reason he has not testified against Trump is because he hasn't been invited to. Mueller is the Special Counsel in a prosecution team often does not and in fact never would try to interview the person who they see as an ultimate target or defendant. So while the President may be trying to tout this as an example, perhaps he should be more wary and realize that perhaps the reason no one talking to him is because he may himself become a defendant.</s>BURNETT: Which is interesting, we're saying about Stone. I remember back to a lunch I had with Michael Cohen. He said, yes, they haven't called me. Do you think it's strange they haven't called me? And I remember my