(light music)
- President Trump'sformer personal attorney
is speaking out, welcome to Faith Nation,
I'm Jenna Browder.
- And I'm John Jessup.
- Michael Cohen gave hisfirst interview since
receiving his prisonsentence, a judge ordering him
to serve three years inprison for financial crimes
and breaking laws to helpinfluence the 2016 election.
- And now he tells ABCNews he is done being loyal
to the President.
- You lied for him for a long time.
- More than 10 years.
- [Reporter] Why?- Out of loyalty.
Out of loyalty to him,I followed a bad path,
and hence how we startedthis conversation.
- [Jenna] That pathincludes making payments
to two women who allegehaving affairs with Trump.
$150,000 to KarenMcDougal, and $130,000 to
Stormy Daniels.
Trump denies it all.
- He's saying very clearly that he never
directed you to do anything wrong.
Is that true?
- I don't think there'sanybody that believes that.
First of all nothing atthe Trump organization
was ever done unless itwas run through Mr Trump.
He directed me as I said in my allocution
and I said as well inthe plea, he directed me
to make the payments.
He directed me to becomeinvolved in these matters,
including the one withMcDougal which was really
between him and David Pecker,and then David Pecker's
council, I just reviewed the documents
in order to protect him.
I gave loyalty to someonewho truthfully does not
deserve loyalty.- He was trying to hide
what you were doing, correct?
- Correct.- And he knew it was wrong?
- Of course.- And he was doing
that to help his election?
- You have to rememberat what point in time
that this matter cameabout two weeks or so
before the election, postthe Billy Bush comments.
So yes, he was veryconcerned about how this
would effect the election.
- [Jenna] White HouseDeputy Press Secretary
Hogan Gidley reacting thismorning on the North Lawn.
- The fact that I think themedia is giving credence
to a convicted criminal.
- [Reporter] But he says there's truth.
- I understand but the factthat you're giving credence
to someone who's aconvicted, self admitted liar
quite frankly--- [Reporter] Special Council
has the report documents.
- I understand that, he'sa self admitted liar,
you guys all know that, andfor him to say I'm gonna
stop lying now, startingnow, is somewhat silly.
- So why should we believe you now?
- Because the SpecialCouncil stated emphatically
that the information thatI gave to them was credible
and helpful, there's a substantial amount
of information that theypossess that corroborates
the fact that I am telling the truth.
- [Jenna] Then when it comesto the Russia investigation.
- The special council didsay that you were doing
your best to tell thetruth about everything
related to their investigation,everything related
to Russia, do you think President Trump
is telling the truth about that?
- No.- That's a big statement.
- And Cohen couldpotentially get his sentence
reduced if he tells theSpecial Council more.
Also instead of PresidentTrump, he now says his
first loyalty belongs to hiswife, children, and country.
- Well one of the crimesfor which Michael Cohen
was sentenced was campaignfinance violations.
The President says he"never directed his former
"personal attorney to do anything wrong."
Tweeting yesterday the hushmoney payments Cohen made
"to two alleged Trumpmistresses were not a campaign
"finance violation."
- What about Congress wherethey have a slush fund
and millions and millions ofdollars is paid out each year?
They have a slush fund,millions, they don't talk
about campaign finance anything.
Have you ever heard ofcampaign financials?
Have they listed that ontheir campaign finance
sheets, no.
- Well a former member of thefederal election commission
Hans Von Spakovsky agreeswith the President and he
joins us now, Hans thanksso much for being here.
- Sure, thanks for having me.
- Set this up for ourviewers, what is this campaign
finance law, and whydo you say Donald Trump
did not violate it?
- It's called the federalelection campaign act
and it governs the raisingof money and the spending
of money for all federal campaigns.
It's anyone running forCongress or the presidency.
Mr Cohen pleaded guiltyto a supposed violation
of that law because ofpayments that were made,
I guess you could callthem hush money payments
to two women who wereclaiming that they'd had
affairs with the President.
The problem with his guiltyplea is that those payments
aren't covered by the law.
The only way these kind ofexpenses are covered under
the law is if they arecampaign related expenses.
And these are notcampaign related expenses,
this is a potential personalliability of the President
and you actually can't use campaign funds,
money that you've raisedfrom campaign contributors
to pay for something like that.
- Well you had mentionedand quoted federal election
commission chairman Brad Smithwho said that these payments
to women are unseemly, butthey're not necessarily illegal.
- Yeah, and that's thekey thing for people
to keep in mind here,we're talking about what
is an actual violation of federal law.
And this is not somethingthat the federal election
commission and that's theindependent agency that
is supposed to enforcethis law on a civil basis.
That's where I used toserve as a commissioner,
it does not consider thatthese kind of payments
are related to a campaign.
Therefore the rules andregulations don't apply
to how that kind of a payment is made.
- Do any of Michael Cohen'sor the President's action
Hans, constitute a civil offense?
- No I don't think they do.
And they certainly don'tconstitute a criminal offense.
Why?
Well because under the law,to prove a criminal violation
of the campaign financelaw you have to prove
that it was a knowingand willful violation.
You can't prove that when youhave former FEC commissioners
saying its not a violation of the law.
You have the FEC saying it'snot a violation of the law.
That raises great doubts aboutit, and so how can anyone
be found to have willfully andknowingly violated the law.
- Michael Cohen, hesays that this was done
to sway the election so thatdoesn't make it campaign
related Hans?
- No it doesn't, and here'swhy, there's another provision
of the law and this issomething that the US
attorney in New York isessentially ignoring.
There's another provisionof the law that says that
an expenditure, or an expenseis not campaign related
if it's an expense thatwould exist whether or not
you're running for office.
And that's why this isnot a campaign expense.
This is the kind of claimthat celebrities of all kinds
get fairly often andit was not dependent on
the President running for office.
Yeah, it might affect hisreputation and it might
effect the election, butthat does not necessarily
make it a campaign relatedexpense under the applicable
statute.- Hans, one last question for
you, if this case andI hope I'm not getting
you to step outside of your lane too much,
but if this case isn'tbased on campaign finance
violations, what's the caseof prosecutors you believe
have here?
- Well, remember this wasonly one of four offenses
that Cohen pleaded guilty to.
The more serious charges were tax evasion,
and financial fraud andapplications of these
submitted to a bank.
You know, he also pleadedguilty to lying to Congress
but the real offense here,the one that was most serious
was tax evasion, andthat's why he was facing
potentially, a lot of timein jail because of that.
- All right Hans Von Spakovsky,from the Heritage Foundation
thank you so much.
- And the President isstill on the hunt for a new
Chief of Staff, JohnKelley is expected to leave
the White House role bythe start of the new year.
And President Trump isnarrowing down his list
of possible replacements.
- We're interviewing peoplenow for Chief of Staff yes.
- [Reporter] How long isthe important of staff?
- Five people, really goodones, terrific people,
mostly well known, but terrific people.
- The White House said todayit expects the President
will make an announcementon his decision quickly.
- And for more on thosefive people the President
is looking at, we're joinednow by Chief Political
Analyst David Brody.
David, we've seen ChrisKristie's name floated out there
and last night, he was at the White House
speaking with the Presidentbut it sounds like
this is a no go.
- Yeah, he's on the nogo list and that list
is growing by the day for sure.
Here's what he toldMaggie Haberman from the
New York Times, she's alwayson it, and she's really
good in terms of breaking news.
This is what he told her this afternoon,
it was an honor to havethe president consider
him but that he toldthe President now is not
the right time for him orhis family to undertake
this serious assignment.
So there you go, ChrisKristie off the list.
I personally thought itwould have been a disaster
if Chris Kristie wasgonna be Chief of Staff.
He is tight bay, he is inyour face, Donald Trump
tight bay and in yourface, the math on that
doesn't seem right.
- Well there's the wholehistory too, with him and
Jared Kushner's father,Chris Kristie put his dad
behind bars.- Yeah, and there's that.
You know, as putting thembehind bars for tax evasion
and so they were nota big fan obviously of
Chris Kristie, you've gottahave the families approval
it's like the Godfather.
- Good analogy here, Davidanother name in the mix
is David Bossie, Politicahas an article titled
David Bossie Emerges asa divisive Chief of Staff
hopeful, maybe a name that'sslightly less familiar
to people outside of that,but give us a little bit
of a rundown of David Bossieand don't mention Jenna's
interview with him and Cory Lindell.
- All right, I won't mentionthat, but I will mention
that Jenna and I ran into David Bossie
on the campaign trail whenwe went with Air force one.
There's some name droppingfor you Air Force One
with President Trump.
But we had a reallyinteresting conversation,
definitely a political operative.
Definitely a guy that,obviously a former deputy
campaign manager, so he comes from though,
I have to invoke Cory Ludaski for a moment
because he does comefrom that Cory Ludaski
campaign, not hard knocks butbrass knuckle if you will.
And so he might rubsome folks the wrong way
that could be potentiallya problem but we'll see,
he's very talented.
- Yeah now also someonewho doesn't seem to have
the support of Ivanka, Jared, and some of
President Trump's family members.
Talk about Jared Kushner,his name is being floated
out there as well.
- Well he'd be loyal, and he'd
be around for a coupleof years I would think.
Yeah, I mean he would obviouslybe the kind of no brainer
pick in the sense that you'renot gonna have the drama
with him but you will have the PR,
he'll get dinged on itfrom a PR standpoint.
But then again PresidentTrump's getting dinged
every day from a PR standpointso what does that really
matter, though I don'tthink it'll work because
Jared Kushner's a guythat can be very valuable
on a lot of other areas.
We've seen criminal justicereform, and he's very much,
he's more like a utilityplayer for a lot of
different areas of the White House.
- David, lets fast forwardto 2019, who is your pick?
Who do you think will actuallybe the next White House
Chief of Staff?- I'm horrible
at predictions, you guys know that.
All right fine, well ifyou ask, I think it's gonna
be Mick Mulvaney, I really do.
Because the Presidentwants someone that is
politically gifted, Mulvaney is that guy.
And also he's lookingahead to 2020 and Mulvaney
can also play in those circles as well.
And Bold by the way, he's really kind of,
and he'll take this asa compliment, very nerdy
budget guy because he knowswhat's going on in Washington,
and can maneuver how to getTrump that wall funding.
I think that'll be important too.
- All right, David Brody,thank you very much.
- You bet.
- Well the Senate isexpected to vote early next
year on the President Trump'spick for Attorney General.
Bill Barr held the postin the 1990's under
President George HW Bush,Amber Strong has this look
at Barr's resume and explainswhy some conservatives
are hopeful about his appointment.
- With a resume dating back tothe 1970's as a CIA analyst,
William Barr is a staplearound Washington.
In the early 80's, he beganwork for President Reagan,
eventually serving asAttorney General for Bush 41.
- Respected by Republican'sand respected by Democrat's.
- [Amber] During hiscareer, the 68 year old
served as a boss to RobertMueller and on the general
counsel for Verizon.
His views on issues such as Roe V Wade,
and immigration excite many Republican's.
And conservatives arehopeful he'll bring stability
to an embattled DOJ.
- The establishments gonnabe asking the question
will Bill Barr be braveenough to stand up to
President Trump?
Frankly, the questionshould be will Bill Barr
be brave enough to standup for President Trump?
- [Amber] And that's thevery thing that has some
on the left and the right concerned.
Particularly when it comesto past statements from Barr
seeming to criticize aspectsof the Mueller investigation.
- I'm glad the Presidenthas nominated someone,
someone with relevantexperience in the department.
What I'll be looking foris will he be working
to guarantee the Independenceof the Department of Justice?
- [Amber] Barr's receivedpraise for his thoughts on
counter terrorism post 9/11,but that too could be an issue.
- I'm concerned that he's abig support of the Patriot
Act which lowered the standardfor spying on American's
and he even went so faras to say the Patriot Act
was pretty good, but weshould go much further.
- [Amber] Even still, mostRepublicans are confident
it will be an easy confirmation.
- It shouldn't be all thatdifficult, this is someone
who has a long record in public life.
My guess is that whenits all said and done,
when it comes to a votein the full Senate,
that he'll have a strong support.
- No date yet on thatconfirmation but it's likely
to take place in early 2019.
Amber Strong, CBN News, Washington.
- [Jenna] Up next, why the IRS is
relaxing a tax rule for churches.
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- [Narrator] Christmastraditions fill our homes
and hearts with special moments of joy.
Now from CBN Documentaries,filmed in eight countries,
Christmas the Story behind thetraditions takes you around
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Plus we'll rush you anexclusive holiday treasure,
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- I am Regent's firstROTC graduate student.
- Welcome back, in economicnews, Wall Street ended
the week at its lowest point since April.
The DOW Jones IndustrialAverage is now down
3% for the year.
- The 2017 Republican tax cut and jobs act
aimed to put money in American's pockets.
But it also had a provisionthat cost ministries
a lot of money, the taxplan imposed a 21% tax
on nonprofits like churcheswhere providing employees
with parking, transportation,and other benefits
but that is going to change.
Treasury secretary SteveMnunchen says new IRS
guidelines on the tax offerflexibility and minimizes
the burden to nonprofits.
That comes after severalsenators urged to repeal
of the tax.- Well more than 250000
kids are placed in foster care every year.
And according to the latestnumbers from the National
Foster Youth Institute,85% of those children
bounce between multiplehomes within their first 12
months in the system.
So why is one statecracking down on a Catholic
group working to findhomes on foster kids?
Paul Strand has this look.
- Catholic Social Servicesin Philadelphia has been
representing foster kidsfor more than 100 years,
but all of a sudden the city'ssaying you can't do that
anymore, Beckett is representing them.
This firm that has Nick Reaves, right?
- Yes.- And tell me Nick,
what is the problem there, whatis going on in Philadelphia?
- Sure, there's a bigproblem in Philadelphia,
so over 6000 childrenare in the city's care
and foster homes and group homes.
And the city in March,put out a call for 300 new
foster families, but at thesame time, the city is closing
down one of the mosteffective foster care agencies
simply because they disagreewith their religious beliefs.
- And what about their religious beliefs?
What in particular has todo with children and putting
them in foster homes?
- Sure, so Catholic SocialServices has been serving
the city of Philadelphiafor over 100 years.
And they've been doing thatconsistent with their religious
mission since then, but thecity has said that if they
want to continue working,they have to endorse same
sex relationships, which isthe one thing they're not
able to do consistent with their ministry.
So instead, they're ableto refer those families
to other agencies and they'reactually 30 foster care
agencies in the city, fourthem within two blocks
of Catholic, so there isn'treally any problem there.
- And this isn't thatnecessarily discriminate
against homosexuals,it's more that they think
the kids should be placedin a home with a mother
and a father, right?
- So Catholic SocialServices will place children
in single parent homes andin other homes and they
work with children of any race, ethnicity,
sexual orientation or genderidentity, the one thing
they can't do is endorserelationships that are not
consistent with their religious beliefs.
So the city has not evenshown any problem here,
they're closing thiseffective agency without any
complaints, without anysame sex couple coming
to Catholic seeking to adopt.
And instead, it's hurtingfamilies like plaintiff
Miss Charonell Folton, who'sfostered over 40 children
in the past 25 years.
And has said she'd bedevastated if Catholic closed.
- Wow, now because fosterfamilies, I take it,
they don't just operateon their own, they also
need help from something likean agency, is that correct?
- Right exactly, soCatholic Social Services,
trains, supports, andprovides ongoing advice
and help to families likeMiss Folton, they have social
workers who are on call 24/7.
And Miss Folton has saidthat her Catholic faith
led her to become a foster parent.
And Catholic support hasbeen invaluable to her
in providing the support andservice to children in need.
- Are you worried that athing like this is spreading
from Philadelphia, that isspreading to other places
as well in the country?
Are you worried that this isgonna become kind of a trend?
- So we are seeing cases popup in other jurisdictions
as well, Beckett representsfamilies and an agency
in Michigan, and therewas a recently filed case
in Albany, New York.
One of the concerns we'reseeing is that some agencies
are facing pressure from the jurisdictions
and just closing down.
So for example, inIllinois, in another city in
New York and in Boston and Washington DC,
Catholic foster careagencies have just closed
down instead of tryingto defend their rights.
- And so right now whatis it that you are asking
Philadelphia to do?
- So I think what wewould tell Philadelphia
is that there's room formultiple different agencies
in the city, and what weneed is more foster families,
not fewer, so we'reworking to help Catholic
social services continueproviding its invaluable
service to children in need.
There's a clear foster carecrisis, and 35 beds are sitting
empty today because the citywon't work with an effective
foster care agency.
- Well I'm sorry to hear about all this,
but thank you so muchfor telling us about it.
This has been Nick Reaveswith Beckett, thanks,
back to you.
- [Jenna] Still ahead,how Israel became a global
leader in missile defense.
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- [Narrator] Takun oham.
- [Woman] This is our nature as a country.
- [Narrator] To make theworld a better place.
- Literally we felt the earth shaking.
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- This film needs to be seen by everyone.
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- We know that every minutecounts to save lives.
- We'll bless Israel and it'll also bless
all the friends of Israel.
- [Narrator] Discoverthe untold story of how
Israeli volunteers are makingthe world a better place
call 1-800-700-7000 or logon to cbn.com to get your
copy today.
(Christmas music)
- Israel is responding toterror attacks in the West Bank.
The Israel defense forces arrested
dozens of suspectedterrorists in overnight raids.
This after a pair ofdeadly shootings killed
three Israeli's earlier this week.
One of those victims, ababy delivered prematurely
after the mother was shot.
- Well it's creation in 1948,Israel has been surrounded
by enemies to survive, itneeded a strong military
and sophisticated weapons.
- Today Israel is a globalsuperpower with a major
missile defense system.
Middle East Bureau ChiefChris Mitchell reports
on how the Jewish state hasused innovation to protect
itself.
- [Chris] When it comes tostate of the art weapons.
- Israeli military has succeededit in such a short time
in under 70 years in establishingwhat's the most formidable
powerful militaries inthe world and possibly
the most innovative military.
- [Chris] Jerusalem posteditor in chief Yaakov Katz
co-wrote the WeaponWizards, how Israel Became
a High-Tech Military Superpower.
- Israel is at the forefrontof missile defense technology
whether its the air or theiron dome, which everyone
is familiar.
Israel is a world leaderin drone technology,
Israel builds its own tanks.
Israel is leading in cyber warfare.
Where did all of this come from?
How did such a tiny littlecountry in such a short
amount of time manage toachieve such great success?
- [Chris] Katz says onereason Israel achieved
this level of success is simply survival.
70 years ago, five Arab nations attacked
Israel the day it was born.
A country with only one natural resource.
- What was the one naturalresource that Israel had?
The Jewish brain, and thosebrains were what was used
to be able to survive.
So when you have thisamazing recipe of threat
of this threat matrix, ofyour back up against the wall,
you have no choice but touse the one thing you have
which is your brain andyou have to innovate.
- And Israel did just that.
Case in point, Israel'santi missile defense system.
The iron dome has shotdown hundreds of rockets
fired out of Gaza behind me into Israel.
- That's how Israel saidone second, we're facing
missiles that are coming at us from Iraq,
from Syria, from Gaza.
We have to come up with asystem that doesn't exist
in today's world, andthat's how they came up with
the arrow, which canintercept ballistic missiles
and with David's sling,which can intercept
medium range missiles and with iron dome
which can intercept andis proven to intercept
over 85% of the missiles that are
fired from the Gaza strip.
And that's how Israel hasdeveloped this amazing
technology that's still highly classified
to detect the tunnelsthat Hamaz is digging
under the border betweenIsrael and the Gaza strip.
A technology that existsnowhere else in the world.
Because Israel's at theforefront of warfare
and because of thesethreats, it has no choice
but to innovate and to create.
- [Chris] Not all of Israel'spower comes from high
tech products, it alsoincludes its people.
Especially how the army producesa culture of independence.
- Nothing about the United States army,
everyone's dressed intheir uniforms, ready,
the people take things very seriously.
Everyone's saluting, sir,ma'am, all these terms.
Israel's completely different.
The ranks that you carry on your shoulder
are meaningless to thein between soldiers.
That enables free thinking, it allows
the chief of staff to speakwith a low grunt soldier
and be able to talk about things.
And when you can talk aboutthings, when you can have that
free flow of informationand ideas, you can create,
you can innovate.
People aren't afraid to speak their minds,
that's a huge advantageof national proportion
that I think you'll find nowhere
else in the world but here.
- [Chris] While the USprovides major weapons systems
to Israel, America'smilitary also benefits
from the real lifetesting of its equipment.
- One of the things thatUS benefits from is Israel
is the first country thathas operational F35's today.
So now imagine Israel's flying it's F35,
is engaging in combat withit, whether it's in Syria
or somewhere else in the region.
That information's thenshared with the United States
Air Force.- [Chris] Katz says
while Israel has shared afriendship with America,
a long the way it's also hada helping hand from above.
- I'm a believer myself,and I think that it can't
just be that it's all on its own.
The hand of God I thinkwe see here almost daily
in this country and in this region.
The ingenuity, theentrepreneurship, the innovation
is incredible, butthere's that hand behind
us that is pushing us along the way.
- [Chris] Katz agrees weaponstechnology and innovation
are the centerpieces ofhis book, but there's more
to the overall story.
- Yes it's about weapons,but it's also a story
about, its the tale of Israel.
It's a story of anancient people that return
to their historic homelandand against all odds,
not just survive but persevere.
And that is the storyof the state of Israel.
That's the essence of the state of Israel.
- [Chris] Chris Mitchell,CBN News, Jerusalem.
- And for more news andinformation from Israel,
make sure to check out the CBN News Show
Jerusalem Dateline whichairs every Friday night
at 9:30 Eastern on the CBN News Channel.
On tonight's program,we'll take an in depth look
at a new wave of terrorattacks in Israel's biblical
heartland.
For more info on how to tunein, head to cbnnewschannel.com.
It is really a remarkablesuccess story that Israel
has since its' founding in 1948.
- Yeah, just miracle after miracle.
And there's of course the verse in Genesis
that those who blessIsrael will be blessed,
and those who curse Israel will be cursed.
We've certainly seemedto see that play out.
- Yeah definitely.
Well that's gonna do itfor tonight's Faith Nation.
- Have a great evening.
(light music)
