Judge Wants To Hear From The President's Personal Attorney, Michael Cohen, Before Deciding Whether To Delay Stormy Daniels' Civil Lawsuit
WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. A judge wants to hear from the President's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, before deciding whether to delay Stormy Daniels' civil lawsuit. Daniels wants to void a contract that prevents her from talking about an alleged relationship with Trump before he became President. Cohen's attorneys claim their defense was hindered when the FBI raided his office, seizing computers and documents related to the case. They, like Daniels' attorney, suggest Cohen could likely face an indictment soon.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think Mr. Cohen is going to be indicted soon?</s>MICHAEL AVENATTI, STORMY DANIELS' LAWYER: Absolutely, I do. I don't know the scope of that indictment, and I think that was the point that I was raising in court. What I state in the press is not evidence. The court is interested in competent evidence before the court. And look, this investigation could take a long time. There could be subsequent indictments. We don't exactly know. My own personal belief as someone with 18 years of experience who has some knowledge of what's going on. Yes, I believe the indictment will be issued within the next 90 days.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, let's discuss all of this with my legal panel today. Avery Freedman, a civil rights attorney with us and in for Richard Herman today, Joey Jackson.</s>JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Glad to be pinch hitting.</s>WHITFIELD: Excellent.</s>AVERY FREEMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Yes.</s>WHITFIELD: Good to see you both.</s>FREEMAN: And you, Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: OK. So, Avery, you first. I mean, what are the potential implications for Michael Cohen? I mean, this is -- these cases have gotten rather complicated.</s>FREEMAN: Well, they have gotten complicated, Fredricka. And actually, the showdown 24 hours ago in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles was really dramatic for the wrong reasons. We heard this sort of over caffeinated statement by the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, but at the end of the day, and thank goodness for federal judges, judge James, the federal judge said you know what, you want a continuance for 90 days but how do you know, he asked Michael Cohen lawyer that there's going to be an indictment in 90 days. And the response was, well, Stormy Daniels' lawyer said so. Well, that didn't work with the federal judge. The judge says, give me a statement, give me an affidavit, and then we will consider whether or not we continue it. And you know what, Fredricka? It will be continued.</s>WHITFIELD: OK. So Joey, what is the strategy behind Michael Avenatti doing, saying something like that? Is that just simply to, you know, rattle the other side?</s>JACKSON: Fighting power with power. Now, let me just logistically say, I'm not sure why, right, Trump's people, I'll just put it that way, would want any type of continuance. I know this relates to Michael Cohen, certainly, however it has implications on the President based on potential campaign finance violations and other investigations. But let's talk politics quickly, right. The fact is that we have a midterm election happening in 2018. And as a result of that, when you push something like this for 90 days, it treads upon the political, because now you have fodder out there for your opponents that are going to reference this case. Reference Michael Cohen's close work with the President, reference the President's dirty hands, reference the payoff 11 days before an election, and so, whenever you have a continuance, walk on your own peril, be careful what you ask for. It pushes and it's going to push this case into the political cycle, the political season. Now, quickly, Fredricka, on the merits of it, the fact is that he is entitled, that is Michael Cohen, to a fifth amendment privilege and therefore he could say, you know what? I'm not going to answer that question under the grounds that it may incriminate me. And to the extent that his civil, right, deposition, where he is giving testimony, might implicate him in a little southern district investigation that may not be so little. He has the right, certainly, to remain silent. But boy is it going to be political fodder when you get into political congressional season in terms of his work and his work for the President and his not so clean hands and who knows how clean Trump's hands are going to be.</s>FREEMAN: You know --.</s>WHITFIELD: So, Avery, I mean, or does it mean by having continuance after continuance or delay, et cetera, that there is some hope, perhaps, in the Michael Cohen camp that perhaps there will be some momentum lost by the Stormy Daniels side, by dragging things out?</s>FREEMAN: Well, it may be. But you know what, Fredricka, I respectfully disagree with Joey. Whatever political implications may be out there falls because the constitution prevails. A federal district judge has to make sure those individual personal constitutional rights are protected. So is anybody thinking about politics in a federal courtroom? Absolutely not. The judge Otero is doing the right thing. And you know what? Let the cards fall where they may. Whatever happens politically happens but the constitution has to prevail here.</s>JACKSON: Point of clarification, sir. Point of clarification. I'm not suggesting that the judge should at all be involved in politics. What I'm doing is assessing the strategy on Michael Cohen's lawyers. The fact of the matter is, is that, you pushing this off. If you are worried about politics, puts you into political season. So clearly there's a political imperative here.</s>FREEMAN: I get it but it doesn't.</s>JACKSON: Timeout.</s>FREEMAN: It doesn't matter, Joey.</s>JACKSON: Of course it matters. It has to do with politics as well as it has with the law.</s>FREEMAN: It has to do with the constitution, not with politics. That's what the case is about. And so we disagree. But I think the federal judge is doing it right and we are going to see another continuance after 90 days. Take it to the bank.</s>WHITFIELD: And then now you have got Stormy Daniels' former lawyer now, Keith Davidson, who is also weighing in, cooperating, apparently, with the federal probe on Cohen and he has actually, you know, complied with a request to provide authorities certain limited electronic information and perhaps it's all related to that $130,000 hush payment.</s>FREEMAN: You bet.</s>WHITFIELD: How troublesome is this, Avery, potentially.</s>FREEMAN: Well, I mean, I think there really isn't much of a choice here. I mean, the fact is, that when this evidence is going to be -- the FBI has it, the argument of privilege doesn't seem to be working particularly well with judge Kimbal Wood, the federal judge in New York. And at the end of the day, there's going to be an enormous amount of evidence that I think -- I think although I think the argument by Stormy Daniels' lawyers, again, a little over caffeinated and I think he's right. I think that at the bottom of this thing there is going to be an indictment. And the moment that happens, you can forget about what's going on with this contract and stormy Daniels out in California. Nothing's going to happen until the criminal case is out of the way.</s>WHITFIELD: Joey?</s>JACKSON: So, here's the reality. The reality is, let's disagree again. Forget about over caffeinated. When you are fighting the President and the President's people, you have to fight fire with fire. And the fact is, is Avenatti is taking it to him. You talk about Trump being a power puncher and a counter-puncher, he is being a counter-puncher as well. I believe the development of the cooperation of Keith Davidson on the other side is significant for three reasons.</s>FREEMAN: Right.</s>JACKSON: Number one, you want to address what was the nature of the relationship between Cohen and Trump? I think the other side could speak to that. Was he acting as an attorney? Was he acting as a family member? Was he saying, hey, I'm doing something for a friend?</s>WHITFIELD: And quickly, two and three.</s>FREEMAN: He said he would do it for a friend. He is a friend. That's what he's saying.</s>JACKSON: OK. Number two, the issue of intent. Remember here, if you are getting to the issue of in kind campaign contributions the other side is going to say, what is the nature of the discussions?</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Approximate almost out of time. Number three.</s>JACKSON: And number three is when you get to ultimately all the issues surrounding this case, I think that you have to look to where the money came from and that's a big point, Fredricka. Where was the money? Was it a home equity loan or otherwise? And so that's why it's important.</s>FREEMAN: Joey, it's not coming out in California. It's coming out in New York. Everything is shut down.</s>JACKSON: It's coming out everywhere.</s>FREEMAN: It is all about - no it is not.</s>WHITFIELD: It is complicated.</s>FREEMAN: No, it's not. It's not coming out in California, my friend.</s>WHITFIELD: I love it. Thank you. All right. That's a lot of good information. We will leave it there for now because you know we will be talking about it again very soon, Joey and Avery, thank you so much. Appreciate it. We got so much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM. But first, meet this week's CNN hero.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I found out that I wasn't alone, that there were tons of girls that were also being sexually abused, and I had to do something. I had to use the rest of my life to prevent other girls from going through what I went through. I think the biggest thing is giving the voice back to girls and allowing them to speak up.</s>WHITFIELD: Wow. To learn more, go to CNNheroes.com. And we will be right back.