Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen savaged the president as a "racist, a con man, and a cheat," but also may have provided important evidence that Trump did not conspire with Russians during the 2016 campaign.

While slamming Trump as a corrupt businessman who broke campaign finance laws, cheated on his wife, lied about a Trump project in Moscow, and treated his presidential bid like an infomercial, Cohen also admitted he had no direct evidence that Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia. 

He does believe Trump knew about Roger Stone's contacts with Wikileaks around the time that emails from Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee were released.

Former Justice Department official Victoria Toensing says this hearing is a turning point as the Democrats pivot away from Russia and look for other reasons to investigate the president.

"The Democrats now know that there's nothing in the Mueller report.  So what are they going to do?  They're going to go after his finances.  That's what this is all about laying the groundwork to impeach the president," said Toensing.

Beyond that, Toensing says Democrats are trying to turn two non-issues into scandals.  She says Trump was perfectly free to negotiate business dealings in Russia up until his inauguration.  She also says the payments to adult film performer Stephanie Clifford, while unseemly, were also legal since Trump paid Cohen from personal funds rather than campaign coffers.

Listen to the full podcast as Toensing explains why she believes neither of those matters were criminal and why Cohen ended up pleading guilty for those payments if there was no crime.