The View's Sunny Hostin explains the 'smoking gun' in Cohen's latest confession -- and why it could doom Trump

Just before the hosts of "The View" walked onto the stage Thursday, President Donald Trump told reporters that Michael Cohen is clearly lying to special counsel Robert Mueller. Every member of the panel, including the Republicans, agreed Trump is in trouble.

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg opened the show describing the recent findings like a kind of soap opera in the American government.

"Is Trump freaking out because people and things are closing in? Did [Paul] Manafort play Mueller like a fiddle? Who has the upper hand here?" she asked, with dramatic emphasis.

Former prosecutor Sunny Hostin agreed it was like a soap opera, but turned to give her legal analysis explaining what the most important revelation was in the Cohen confession.

"It's a big deal," she began. "If these negotiations were going on while he was president, it's precisely what the framers of our Constitution wrote in to protect the American people against. We want to make sure that this president, any president, is not putting his self-interest before the interest of the country."

Co-host Joy Behar asked if there was a "smoking gun" in the plea Cohen made.

"I think so," Hostin agreed. "There will be documents, negotiation documents. There could be tapes. That's the funny thing: when people lie to federal prosecutors, don't they know that federal prosecutors usually don't even ask questions they don't know the answer to already? Like they have the Federal Bureau of Investigation working for them, the best investigative tool in the world."

Abby Huntsman agreed, noting it's why she didn't think that having dirt on Paul Manafort was that big of a concern for the Mueller investigation.

"It doesn't surprise me that Cohen has lied to Congress and Manafort -- Trump's lawyers -- these are bad guys," Huntsman continued. "It's not like he surrounded himself with upstanding citizens."

Huntsman also noted that there's a fear that the American public won't get any of the information uncovered in the investigation because acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker will likely conceal the findings.

Even Republican Meghan McCain was furious at the possibility of Manafort being pardoned by the president for what she viewed as crimes against the United States.

"The thing that makes me most angry is the idea that Paul Manafort could possibly be pardoned," she began. "His relationship with Trump aside, his lobbying firm was nicknamed The Torturers Lobby for spinning foreign dictatorships including governments in Nigeria, Zaire, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and the Ukraine. Blood money. He's a traitor to the United States of America one way or the other."

Watch the full conversation below: