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CNN NEWSROOM

Stormy Daniels Releases Sketch of Man Who Threatened Her; Fox News Surprised by Hannity Connection with Cohen But Supportive; Trump and Abe Discuss North Korea And Trade. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 17, 2018 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:30:00] DIANA TREPKOV, FORENSIC ARTIST: Certain things can bring you back and you can get the image in someone's head. If I asked you about 9/11, where you were, and I could probably bring you back there. It's about the eyes are the mirror of the soul. You have to really trust the person you're working with.

I would look into the witness' eyes and then when I would feel we had that confidence that trust together, and I would start asking the questions, bring out the FBI catalogue and go through and do the drawing. You know how close you are to getting an exact drawing by the expression on the witness's face. So Stormy said it was an excellent -- it looked exactly like him, then I believe it looked exactly like him. If a witness would say something like 60 percent, I wouldn't release the drawing. It's got to be really close to like an exact and then you would release it.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: You said it exactly right, Stormy Daniels had said his face is seared or burned in her memory. We shall see if they're able to ID this man. They're offering up that $100,000 reward. Diana Trepkov, thank you for coming back.

The sketch of course brings up all sorts of legal questions. I have two prominent attorneys standing by to answer those. And also, Fox News finally responding to the news that Sean Hannity is a client of Cohen's. We'll have that from Fox in just a moment.

[15:35:00] [COMMERCIAL BREAK]

BALDWIN: Welcome back, you're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Let's go back to the sketch we were just talking about the man that Stormy Daniels first threatened her in 2011 back in this parking lot to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump. She apparently was about to go public and she says the man threatened her. Here's the sketch. With me, CNN legal analyst, Carrie Cordero and

Mark Geragos. Good to see both of you guys. Do you, sir, first on sketch. This has zero to do with the anything.

MARK GERAGOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: With anything.

BALDWIN: Why are they doing this?

GERAGOS: Because Avenatti is a genius when if comes to PR and this keeps him relevant, in fact it looks like it could be a cousin of Avenatti with a wig on or if you mated Avenatti with Ryan Seacrest. It doesn't really look like -- there' there's not going to be any play. Wherever this is going to be, given the age of this thing, any statute of limitations has already run, so there is not any of there, there, although it is entertaining.

BALDWIN: Do you agree or disagree?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think it's important to separate out this aspect of what Stormy Daniels' lawyer is doing and what she's doing with this release and their case in general, which somehow has gotten kind of mixed up with the special counsel investigation and you have the Michael Cohen connection in the middle. I think it's important to distinguish that this release of the sketch is absolutely nothing without federal investigation.

BALDWIN: It has nothing to do with anything.

GERAGOS: It has nothing to do with anything other than Avenatti and I give him props for it.

BALDWIN: OK. Move off the sketch and just starting with you, Carrie, on we've obviously been covering the hearings the federal court in Manhattan, we have this judge who is now deciding, we know that initially Michael Cohen's team wanted a TRO, a Temporary Restraining Order. We want to get their hands and all of the material seized by the FBI raids a week ago.

That ain't happening. The other option on their wish list was to have the special master or independent lawyers be the one to cull through all the information. Walk me through that process.

CORDERO: The government wants its own independent team, it's called a taint team sometimes of agents or prosecutors to review the materials. That's what the government argued to the judge. Michael Cohen wanted Michael Cohen's lawyers to be able to review all the material first and then the President intervened, and he wanted his lawyers to review all the materials first.

BALDWIN: He didn't get his way.

CORDERO: The judge resolved one piece of it, which she said I'm not granting the temporary restraining order, I'm not just saying that the government can't do anything, but she's kind of moving her way through this process and right now she is going to have Michael Cohen's lawyers be able to review some of the materials and she's deciding whether or not she also will appoint a special master to oversee this review. What they're reviewing for is to separate out the attorney/client privileged information to the extent that it is there.

BALDWIN: What would be protected and what couldn't be used in the greater investigation.

CORDERO: And they would identify what materials are actually attorney/client privilege, if in fact there are some body of materials protected in that way.

BALDWIN: We know ten boxes of his materials were seized and electronics. The assistant U.S. attorney says it's a fast-moving investigation. We see in Cohen's behavior at the cigar smoking on the street on Friday which may have worked the judge on Monday ergo the Sean Hannity moment we don't totally know. I want you to watch what Michael Avenatti said about all of this today.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP}

MICHAEL AVENATTI, ATTORNEY FOR STORMY DANIELS: There's no question in my mind that Michael Cohen, A, is going to be indicted within the next three months likely and, B, he's going to roll on the president to the extent --

[15:40:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You think so?

AVENATTI: No question in my mind. Based on my 18 years of experience, based on my experience in white collar cases and how they usually play out and based on the fact that Michael Cohen has a family, he has kids. I understand he's a fairly devoted father and he's not going to look at his wife and say, no, I'm going to take a bullet for this president and serve decades, ten years or five years --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At least ten.

AVENATTI: At least ten in a federal penitentiary. Why would he do that?

[END VIDEO CLIP]

BALDWIN: Do you think Cohen flips on Trump?

GERAGOS: This is what's going to happen. If the feds are executing a search warrant on the lawyer's office and he's been cooperating, and apparently, he was cooperating, what that means to me is that's the 11th hour before an indictment. That generally means they want to get all their ducks in a row, and that's what they're doing and that's why he's probably on the precipice of an indictment. And will he roll? He checks every box of somebody who would flip.

BALDWIN: He said he'd take a bullet for the President.

GERAGOS: I've heard people tell me that so many times. I don't know Michael, I've met him, but he checks every box, I'll say it again, for somebody who will flip.

BALDWIN: OK. Mark and Carrie, thank you both very much for that. Back to our breaking news here. On Fox News, they have now released a statement, 24 hours after we learned right here that Michael Cohen's unnamed third client was in fact Fox Host Sean Hannity. The network says they were unaware of this attorney/client relationship. More on that next.

[15:45:00] [COMMERCIAL BREAK]

BALDWIN: Within just this past hour, Fox News has broken its silence in the major courtroom revelation that Fox News Host Sean Hannity is the third mystery client of President Trump's embattled personal attorney Michael Cohen. Hannity is not only a massive supporter of President Trump, but he has been a vocal critic of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation if you tune in each and every night on the show.

On the day that FBI agents raided Cohen's office, Hannity uses show as a platform to blast that action never mentioning that oh, by the way: was also his lawyer. Let me get you now the statement from Fox quote: While Fox News was not aware of Sean Hannity's informal relationship with Michael Cohen and was surprised by the announcement in court yesterday. We have reviewed the matter and spoken to Sean and he continues to have our full support.

Brian Stelter is up, he's a host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES". I don't know what part of the statement, how about the word "unaware" and "have our full support." Are we surprised?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: Maybe Sean Hannity is too big to punish. Too big to sanction within the world of Fox News. He is the highest rated host. He's President Trump's chief defender. He plays by different set of rules. Even others at Fox not to mention others at other major networks --

BALDWIN: Other set of rules or no rules?

STELTER: I would say no real rules. There are very few rules. He has an extreme amount of autonomy, which might be great for him, but I don't think it great for viewers. He goes on and gives rants every night attacking Mueller and the FBI, anybody who thinks is Trump's enemy, doesn't seem to have much oversight or much in the way of standards. That was true certainly before last week, before this raid but now that we know about the Cohen raid. Now that we know about this legal relationship, it's even more curious, it's even more controversial.

I know Fox is trying to put a stop to this by expressing support for him, but I think it going to continue to raise questions in the news industry about why Hannity is not held accountable at all.

BALDWIN: Can we talk about in other newsrooms one would be suspended, yanked off the air for a period of time?

STELTER: There would be some sort of action. I don't want to guess what it would be, but I do think there would be some sort of action at other outlets. What people want is consistency. What's glaring here is inconsistency. Imagine Hillary Clinton is President and Rachel Maddow was discovered to be getting secret advice from the Clinton lawyer. Never mind the idea that Clinton lawyer would've been raided and under investigation. If Maddow was under the microscope like that, Hannity would be going wild with, talking about it nonstop. It so frustrating to most Americans in this partisan wars is the lack of consistency, that Hannity would erupt if the shoe was on the other foot. Because it's not he doesn't.

BALDWIN: I gave that exact scenario to our friend Bill Carter and he agreed with you and said Rachel Maddow would have been punished and suspended.

STELTER: And isn't this really ultimately about the pro-Trump media world. The President has shelters from the storm and right now there is quite a storm around him. Hannity is one of those shelters. This is a graphic we made actually.

Some of the other examples of this, web sites, radio hosts, companies, broadcasters, commentators that support the President, that have his back. The issue with this is Hannity is one of the leaders of this pro-Trump media world. He shares talking points that then get expressed throughout this world.

On days where there's bad news for President, these shows give him backup, give him support so that, let's say, more indictments or certainly like that in the future.

[15:50:00] Trump will turn to the Hannity's of the world, don't believe the real news, believe my supporters instead. That's a new development in America. It wasn't like this 50 years ago and Hannity is at the forefront of that.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here on CNN details of the one man who actually may know more about President Trump than Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime bodyguard Keith Shiller. Stormy Daniels attorney calls him a super fixer and

says Schiller knows her old bodies are buried.

[14:55:00] [COMMERCIAL BREAK]

BALDWIN: Even though President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen is the one under criminal investigation and scrutiny the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels it is someone else very close to the president who really knows all of Trump's secrets.

His name is Keith Schiller and he's been the President's personal bodyguard back to 1999 and a former NYPD detective. Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti tells "The Daily Beast" there is no doubt that Keith Schiller knows where all of the bodies are buried next to Michael Cohen. If Mr. Schiller ever turns state's evidence, the impact on the President would be catastrophic. He is knee deep in all of this.

Kate Briquelet is "The Daily Beast" reporter who wrote all about Keith Schiller today. Nice to have you on. And I know so much of the nation's focus because of the investigation is Michael Cohen, but Keith Schiller, he went from basically Trump's part-time watch man to head of security in six years. What roles -- I say roles, because it was multiple, but what roles does he play?

KATE BRIQUELET, REPORTER, "THE DAILY BEAST": Keith Shiller played the role of constant companion, close confidant and bodyguard and his procurer of women. He sent Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels to meet with Trump. He facilitated the communications and conversations. He was there every step of the way.

BALDWIN: Be more specific. Because the President would-- the girls would meet the President and he was the guy standing outside of door and bring the women to Donald Trump, tell me more about that. BRIQUELET: Sure. When Stormy Daniels met President Trump and he

invited her to his hotel room --

BALDWIN: Kate, forgive me. Speaking of the President, we have to listen to him. He's speaking at Mar-a-Largo with the prime minister of Japan.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're talking North Korea, we're talking military, we're talking trade and a lot of progress has been made and we've been discussing things for weeks and even months prior to this meeting which we'll call a summit. And we've made a lot of progress.

SHINZO ABE, PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN: [speaking foreign language]

TRUMP: Shinzo and I have developed a very close relationship. We speak all of the time. And our nations I think have never been closer than they are right now.

ABE: [speaking foreign language]

TRUMP: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much for being here.

ABE: [speaking foreign language]

TRUMP: Prior to the small group discussion at the sitting we already had very in-depth discussion focusing on issues of North Korea and also the economic issues. And on those two points, we actually forged a mutual understand so I'm very happy to see the outcome of our discussion.

ABE: [speaking foreign language]

TRUMP: North Korea for the first time in the history of the world there will be a summit meeting between the United States and North Korea.

ABE: [speaking foreign language]

TRUMP: And also prior to the U.S.-North Korea summit meeting, the summit meeting between South and North Korea are going to take place and since the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea, we have observed major change in terms of the North Korea's behavior and that change is unwavering conviction as to the true nature that you demonstrated in addressing the issue of North Korea so your stance made it possible to achieve this major change.

ABE: [speaking foreign language]

BALDWIN: We just wanted to dip in. This meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and in Mar-a-Largo meeting with the President for two days and the President discussing trade and North Korea and South Korea, and we'll continue to cover this. I'm Brooke Baldwin. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper --