Speaking on MSNBC on Tuesday, former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman explained how Michael Cohen‘s guilty plea today could spell bad news for President Donald Trump and stressed what happened today is “a big deal.”

“There’s no question about it. This makes the president of the United States an unindicted co-conspirator. This is the first time this has happened since Richard Nixon was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Watergate trial,” Akerman said. “This is a big deal.”

Host Ali Velshi then said that while he doesn’t disagree with him much, “you are actually wrong because Rudy Giuliani has just released a statement that counters exactly what you’re saying.”

Melber continued on: “He’s saying there is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Michael Cohen. It is clear that as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen’s actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time. I don’t know if you expected a different statement from Rudy Giuliani.”

Akerman then called the statement “nonsense.”

“This is the exact same kind of nonsense that Rudy Giuliani’s been putting out for months. The fact of the matter is if you read this indictment, he’s doing it at the direction of Donald Trump,” Akerman replied. “If he’s doing it at the direction of Donald Trump, there’s a conspiracy. It’s an agreement, an agreement to commit campaign financing crimes. It’s a five-year felony. This is a serious matter.”

The former Watergate prosecutor further stressed: “Cohen didn’t do this on his own. He didn’t suddenly come up with the idea, oh, I’ve got to go pay Stormy Daniels $150,000. He had no connection to Stormy Daniels. He didn’t know who Stormy Daniels was. The only way he would have had the ability to know any of that was because Donald Trump told him about it. Donald Trump told him that there was a danger that she was going to release all this information before the election.”

Watch above, via MSNBC

[image via screengrab]

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