Cohen Testifying Today; Cohen Testifies on WikiLeaks.
BERMAN: We're just about an hour away from when Michael Cohen, the president's former lawyer, testifies in public before the House Oversight Committee. We have this explosive look at his prepared testimony, which raises all kind of new questions. I want to bring back Jeffrey Toobin, Gloria Borger, Dana Bash and Joe Lockhart to discuss. And, Joe, the question that I raised before the break was this, you've been inside a White House facing scandal before. Michael Cohen, what he says out loud today to the American people and the world, the White House has no control over that.</s>JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.</s>BERMAN: So how do they deal with this?</s>LOCKHART: Well, you know, we went through this a couple times in the Clinton administration. The video deposition was released while the president was addressing the United Nations. The day the president was impeached was also the day we finish prosecuting that airstrike against Iraq. What they should do is just keep their head down, stay after this, and say, we're doing the people's business. What we're doing here is more important than what happens in the swamp of Washington. And just go on.</s>CAMEROTA: Isn't that what they're doing? I mean from what you've seen this morning, isn't that what they're doing with these meetings with Kim Jong-un?</s>LOCKHART: Well, not really. Not really. Because the president's already tweeted. He's -- you know, if you look at his tweets over the last 48 hours, he can't resist injecting himself into this. And it undercuts the strategy of, I'm being the president. They're being politician. So their big Achilles heel through this whole thing has been the president's lack of impulse control, his, you know, his desire to get in, and his -- and his bullying kind of way and make his case. So it's very hard for them to prosecute a strategy that was similar to what I think some people have done in some other, you know, presidential scandals.</s>CAMEROTA: Gloria Borger, you've already seen inconsistencies between what Michael Cohen is going to publically under oath testify to --</s>BORGER: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: According to his big, written statement, and what has been reported about what President Trump has said to investigators.</s>BORGER: Well, CNN did a story, in fact, it was -- Dana was a part of that story, saying that the president denied to Mueller in writing that Roger Stone told him anything about WikiLeaks. And AP did another story in which they interviewed the president. Let me -- let me read you exactly what the president said then. He said, when WikiLeaks came out, never heard of WikiLeaks. Never heard of it. All I was saying is, well, look, if all this information is out there, this is pretty good stuff. And what Michael Cohen is saying is, uh-huh, I was sitting there while he was having this conversation with Roger. And Roger Stone said to him, I spoke with Julian, this stuff is coming out. And the president said, wouldn't that be great? So --</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, Gloria, just to stop you for a moment.</s>BORGER: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: We're watching Michael Cohen arrive on Capitol Hill just moments ago. He is carrying documents with him. He seems to be in a relaxed stance.</s>BERMAN: He's smiling. There were smiles there. He's hobnobbing with the Capitol Hill Police who are walking him in.</s>BORGER: You know, I can say that I think this is a moment for Michael Cohen that actually he has wanted for quite some time. He has said, I'm not going to be the villain in this. I changed my mind. He always uses the date, July 2, 2018, was my independence day. And I think in a way this is so cathartic for him that even despite, you know, Matt Gaetz's tweet and the threats he says he's gotten from the president and the strain on his family, I think this is something he actually wants to do and sees this as a moment in history for himself and for the country and is full of remorse as you can read from the opening statement.</s>BERMAN: He'll have a couple years of quite to think about what he does today.</s>BORGER: Yes, he will.</s>BERMAN: Jeffrey Toobin, to the point that Gloria raised that Michael Cohen is going to testify he heard this conversation. President Trump has said in, you know, written statements that the conversation didn't happen. Both of these things can't be true.</s>BASH: Exactly.</s>BERMAN: So, legally, Jeffrey, where does this go?</s>TOOBIN: Well, and it's also worth pointing out that Roger Stone denies that it happened.</s>BASH: Exactly.</s>TOOBIN: Roger Stone says, first of all, he's never spoken to Julian Assange in his life. And, second, he never told Donald Trump anything about WikiLeaks. Period. I mean, I, you know, he sometimes says, well, I don't remember telling anything to the president or candidate Trump about WikiLeaks. But by and large he denies that this conversation took place. So you have three people --</s>BASH: Right.</s>TOOBIN: Who are a party to this alleged conversation, Stone, Trump, and Cohen, and two of them deny that it took place. Now, you could argue that they are the ones who have motives to lie about it and Cohen now has the motive to tell the truth. But in the absence of further corroboration, I don't know where you go -- where prosecutors go with this, frankly.</s>BASH: Right. And, again, that is already what I am hearing from people who are associated with the Trump legal team this morning, that exact point. You have three people, two of whom are saying this didn't happen. One -- or at least two of them claim that they have said this -- people around them have said that they said this under oath. So unless there's corroboration, you can't prove it.</s>BERMAN: None of those three --</s>BORGER: Well, and the special counsel didn't -- did not use this. But, don't forget, one of them wants a pardon. Roger Stone. One of them is in the position to give it. And Michael Cohen is going to jail. So the question is -- the question --</s>TOOBIN: What a crew. Wow. Yes.</s>BORGER: So the question -- yes, but the question is, who has more motive to be truthful? I -- Cohen has nothing to lose at this point, quite honestly. He could get a reduction in sentence, I suppose, Jeffrey. But I think, you know, I think Roger Stone is still looking at that pardon from the president.</s>CAMEROTA: Very quickly, Joe.</s>LOCKHART: And on the corroboration, let's not forget that a counterintelligence investigation was opened in the FBI during the campaign. We don't know what corroboration came out of that. We don't know what phone records, what e-mail records, what, you know, intercepts. We don't -- we just don't know. We won't know until Mueller comes out. So we may get an answer to this. We may -- it may be unanswered.</s>BERMAN: We do know that none of those three people that were named there are in the honesty hall of fame. I will say, there are no busts of any of them.</s>CAMEROTA: There will be no medals today given.</s>BASH: No.</s>CAMEROTA: Thank you all very much. We will have much more on CNN's breaking news coverage next. Stick around.