Palestine protesters in bethlehem in the occupied west bank made leveraging of the man who after whom the declaration is named after balfour was with his foreign secretary in nineteen seventeen. Its inside story now stay with us. You with the the earth. Three of Donald Trumps forma advisors are indicted the probe into russias involvement in the u. S. Election is Digging Deeper so whose name could be honest next and could this investigation sink the u. S. President S Administration this is inside story. With. A welcome to the program im jane dotson critics of donald trump have been calling for his impeachment since he became the u. S. President ten months ago now some say a step has been taken in that direction three of his former advisers were charged with federal crimes on monday including tax evasion conspiracy against the u. S. And lying to the f. B. I. About contacts with alleged middlemen for russia and thats the key word russia trumps opponents say the indictments showtimes campaign worked with russia to influence the two thousand and sixteen president ial election the white house denies this trump describing the investigation as a witch hunt but how far will it go and could trumpS Administration be on shaky ground well get to our guests in just a moment but first our White House Correspondent can be healthy as this report from the u. S. Capitol. Donald trump do solemnly swear donald trump has been in office less than a year but this is perhaps the most significant day of his presidency so far on monday two of his former associates avoided handcuffs and turned themselves into the authorities in washington the first is paul mann afford the former chair of Donald Trumps president ial Election Campaign the other is rick gates a longtime business associate of man affords and worked with the white house until march both men appeared in court pleading not guilty to a dozen charges they include conspiracy against the United States also to launder money acting as an agent for a foreign principal providing false statements to investigators and failure to report Foreign Bank Accounts there is no evidence that mr mann of fort with a trunk campaign colluded with the russian government. The announcement which caught many off guard that a third person tied to the Truck CampaignGeorge Papadopoulos had pled guilty to lying to the f. B. I. That was over the timing of his meetings with alleged go betweens for russia he is now cooperating with the special investigation led by Robert Muller as with paul man of fort hood rick gates the white house is pushing back diminishing the role of papadopoulos as a Foreign Policy adviser this individual was the member of a volunteer Advisory Council them at one time over the course of a year and he was part of a list that risk read out in the Washington Post and hardly call that some sort of regular adviser however its the case of paul man a for which is getting the most attention the indictments paint the picture of a man living a lavish lifestyle when f. B. I. Agents raided his home they even photographed his suits as evidence of Money Laundering more than seventy five million a form payments through offshore Bank Accounts on twitter trump reacted to the arrests he has repeatedly called the investigation into ties between his two thousand and sixteen president ial campaign and russia a witch hunt by political adversaries and the media without offering any evidence the white house says it expects the russia probe to wrap up soon and while the indictment states man a fourth charges involve actions from twenty sixteen on twitter trump contradicted the claim arguing the charges against man a fort emanate from actions taken before chairing trumps president ial bid trump again stated there was no collusion between his campaign and russia metaphor its lawyer calls the charges ridiculous and on capitol hill top u. S. Senators are also issuing statements about the indictments claiming it is proof the justice process is working kimberly helped get al jazeera washington. Lets go now to our guests joining us in washington d. C. Melanie sloan an attorney who served as founding executive director of citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington and taipei Ross Darrell Feingold attorney and republican political consultant and also in washington d. C. Thomas pickering former u. S. Ambassador to russia very warm welcome to all three of you Russ Feingold youve had time to absorb these staggering revelations and these charges hows this playing out do you think in the Republican Party well the key thing republicans especially republicans in congress but across the United States are going to continue to be focused on is advancing the legislative agenda that Republican Voters elected a Republican Congress and president trying to pursue most notably in the coming days thats the legislation to in action if we can tax reform and whatever is going on in the white house should not stop congress from working on these important legislative goals i can see you know the white house waiting and surely this should have caused a a moment of shock and and horror and wondering whos next whats next could this be true but that still wouldnt stop congress from going about its work or frankly it shouldnt stop congress they have things to do they have to hold hearings they have to hold votes and it would be irresponsible of them to let events in the white house stop them from doing that Thomas Pickering youve been in this business for a long time im just wondering what you make of the developments that weve seen in the last twenty four hours what it means as far as the Bigger Picture his concern. When leaving aside the fact that im not a lawyer and i focused on the russian side just let me say one comment on mr fine goes im sure that he follows washington closely theres not been howling success in the legislative agenda up until now despite his hopes and i do see a lot of distraction there on the russia side its fascinating because while there were claims that all of this took place in respect to mr amount of fort and mr gates before in fact assuming chairmanship of the of the campaign its quite clear from the data and information that some of the Money Laundering a lot of it transcended that barrier its also fascinating with respect to russia as well that mr mohler i think led with a kind of sucker punch he pushed with man a forward in gates waited for the reactions it seems from the president no collusion and then put mr puppet up it was forward who it obviously made it to crimes was clearly i think now recruited by the Justice System to help them out in pursuing this particular question further and he himself had played some kind of a role in trying to set up meetings with a relationship with a mysterious. Russian professor in london named by some as mr me food and clearly related in some way or another to all the good that he pasko among others so the russian connection is there in addition to obviously the early and preceding information on the hacking by the Russian MilitaryIntelligence Service the g. R. U. So we have in fact a kind of situation in which we have an on rolling piece of the russia connection continuing on we have great uncertainty about where this will go mr mole is running a very tight ship as we have seen we have some indication with. Ana forte that hes moving up if you could put it this way the latter toward perhaps higher figures but no certainty with respect to that and i think a lot of attention this morning and yesterday was focused on this particular issue perhaps to the detriment of the legislative process Melanie Sloan i mean that certainly was a sucker punch wasnt i mean quite a day of drama wasnt it delivering first manifest in gates and then eventually a Puppet Office on the what do you make of how it was all delivered and what is being set up legally now the next steps well in many ways its the papadopoulos information that so much more serious for mr trump while President Trump has been saying there is no collusion papadopoulos information indicates that he was indeed colluding with russia he was working with russians to try and get obtain negative information about Hillary Clinton which included by the way a trove of emails and that is the same kind of information that the russians then have set up a meeting with Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner to again talk about this issue of Hillary Clinton related emails and dirt so its clear that weve seen collusion and also very worrisome for the Trump Campaign is the fact that mr papadopoulos has clearly been working with the special counsel for months and months he was first arrested back in july this in criminal information indicates that he pleaded guilty at the beginning of october its released only at the end of october they talked about him as a proactive cooperate or meaning he may have been welling wearing a wire or otherwise speaking to other members of the Trump Campaign to try and obtain more information so i think theres a lot more to come and this is only the beginning so does this on so then the question melanie that there was indeed and it doesnt fit into the Legal Framework collusion between the trunk campaign and the russians. Is that it not collusion is just another word for conspiracy really and conspiracy would be the criminal element that we be talking about and were certainly seeing that certainly what mr moller is setting up hes shown us that mr papadopoulos was working with the russians to obtain information about Hillary Clinton weve seen the same thing with Jared Kirshner and Donald Trump Jr the question is whether it will amount to a criminal conspiracy and i think thats what mr moller is working on and his team theyre working on and well see much more about that but its clear that this is just the beginning thats the only reason mr moller would have done what he did which is have the manner for and gates indictments and then an hour later and give us the papadopoulos information which includes that information showing that hes been working with the with the special prosecutor for months and months russell comments about men in these comments that from a legal perspective and when do you think it made some federal crimes to come theyre all innocent until Proven Guilty thats the way our Justice System works but that regardless the bar for a conspiracy conviction is extraordinarily high in these circumstances the fact is is that political campaigns whether is the Clinton Campaign or the Trump Campaign regularly interact with representatives of foreign governments that by itself is not a crime whether they have violated the federal statutes with regard to receiving monetary or non monetary benefits from a farm Party Remains to be seen and one thing thats interesting about the papadopoulos guilty plea it really is limited to why the f. B. I. Which is obviously a foolish thing to do and in fact its criminal and thats why he was caught and as my colleagues on the panel will know that very often when prosecutors in a washington investigation cant find a crime did you catch some of the people involved in lying and it becomes an obstruction of justice charge. Melania and im going to come back to you in a minute and thomas im just wondering what sort of evidence merely a must have had to get the jury to sign off on these charges and and with goes to from here i mean did he bring in medicine gates in order for them to to speak of injuries is this is this a form of leverage hes using against well i certainly think hes going to attempt to leverage a man or for gates i mean looking at the charges that twelve charges apiece theyre facing potentially decades of prison time for these violations and for white collar defendants thats obviously a pretty scary prospect so im sure that hes trying to leverage them and see what theyll give him man a for it has greater resources greater ties to washington he might be a little harder to break but gates might be a little more willing to use much younger and at the beginning of his career may may be willing to provide information so i certainly think thats the goal here for mr miller told us we know now that man if it was lobbying for ukraine how do you think that would have helped russia if that was the plan. Well he was loved being for the president of ukraine mr young of course who had in fact a very very close russian ties so its almost impossible to see that is a purely independent ukrainian approach and mystery in a cove each was then later in fact left ukraine under difficult and unseemly circumstances arrived in russia and now seems to have been dissed by mr putin so whatever happened there it was a clear russian connection through janak which that everybody i think now is pretty much convinced was operative on this sort of situation mr gates worked extensively in cyprus cyprus is in fact the home of perhaps more russian banks than russia these days and more people engaged in what one would call promoting russian Economic Activity sometimes on the seamy side so this is clearly the kind of indication that puts this much more in the russian lap could one blame russia for wanting to interfere in american elections well its certainly against our law as melanie has pointed out for that to be done although the russian Intelligence Services dont seem to be in any way held up by that let me just ask you are saying i mean are they going to ask Foreign Ministers me jumping earlier had a lot to say that heather has russian made everybody to see thousand and sixteen u. S. Election campaign he also said that the u. S. Should investigate links to you train how does that fit into the scenario lover of his the Russian Foreign minister clearly what he has to say should be taken seriously im polite convinced taylor that sitting a lover off would be in the front and center of denying any russian interest that in any way at all implicated rushed. In an effort to try to one way or another influence the american Election Campaign that doesnt seem to consult coincide with the fragile basis that is now being developed in that part of which is exposed i suspect that there is more to come and that mr moller is careful moving slowly making sure that each step of the way what he has to do is significant and perhaps if we could assume this moving up the ladder rather than in fact going from his best case down the road to the worst case or now the investigation into the Trump Campaigns and lage ties to russia goes back months the accusations started before trump even took office and signs of russian meddling led president barack obama to expel Russian Diplomats in december then former National Security advisor Michael Flynn resigned in february when it became clear hed met with the Russian Ambassador joining the campaign and transition period attorney general Jeff Sessions also met with ambassador sergey and failed to disclose at this revelation forced him to recuse himself from the Russian Investigation leading former f. B. I. Chief james komi to take charge but he was abruptly fired in may komi says he was sacked because trump wasnt happy about his investigation into possible collusion and then theres also the meeting trumps eldest son had with a criminal connected lawyer in june two thousand and sixteen trying son in law joe krishna was also at that meeting they were allegedly there to get damaging information on his rival for the white house Hillary Clinton how nervous do you think those all are ross the gerrards questions and those involved do you do anything as a young dog. Well it depends on the individual and the specific action involved one of the accusations in yesterdays indictment of man a for gates was not registering as a Foreign Agent the reality is that there is a lot of noncompliance with that particular law and people who are caught out of compliance typically make an amended filing they typically dont go to jail the f. B. I. Or the department of justice typically doesnt prosecute people for this violation so there is so that metaphor and gates are going to have a very significant defense to build on that so their advocacy work on behalf of ukraine however distasteful it might be to some people in the United States frankly thats a normal part of advocacy in washington d. C. And if they were noncompliant bill though theyll argue that we shouldnt be prosecuted we should just make an amended file way as for the other personalities involved that you mentioned again the issues going to come down to whether any of their behavior actually violated a criminal statute of the United States it might seem unseemly that they met with foreign parties but that by itself is not a crime men and they want to take to get that step closer to the cushion is if need be the junior the flynns. Oh i think theyre getting closer all the time i have to disagree with russ here the fact is that the Foreign Agent registration act does include criminal penalties and yesterday that chair of the republican the republican chair of the Senate Judiciary committee Charles Grassley said that he was pleased that mahler was actually going to be prosecuting violations of foreign which are all too common jared and Donald Trump Jr also have a lot to worry about knowing that they too were having meetings with russians about damaging information on Hillary Clinton but also i think they might be looking at the man afore in gates indictments and seeing all the problems that they had regarding Money Laundering and tax fraud that stem from mr mann affords business interests and i think jared sister and Donald Trump Jr may also have some very questionable business interests this is what donald trump the president has always feared that mr moller would delve into his finances and into his his Real Estate Holdings and mr mahlers allowed to do that hes got a very broad reign so i think we might be seeing some of that kind of thing looking at Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr and i think they both have a lot to worry about there as well ross where does this leave donald trump and what sort of response do you think he is gearing up for what sort of action is he going to take and is in the cross has well we all know Donald Trumps personality and his style but theres a candidate and in ten months is a president and we saw that with how he responded via twitter in the immediate hours after the indictments were announced we should expect him to continue to aggressively pursue his policies and frankly part of that will be aggressively pursuing action in congress with regard to tax reform in the coming days and other issues that im asking about i mean is he going to go look what he did to me is it is going to go off to mutiny if he does i mean could there be a constitutional crisis. Well the likelihood of going after miller is probably low and i would expect that his Legal Counsel both in the white house and externally are advised him against doing that because it would set off a crisis theres clearly support by republicans in congress to prevent that a current so that would be a very difficult decision for donald trump to make and i think most of the counsel he is receiving is not to do that the best thing he could do frankly again though is to continue to to do the normal day to day activities of president and to cooperate with the special prosecutor which is what youre say they are doing thomas what do you think donald trump should do in this state of play do you think people like kim jong un and north korea will frighten them the ever have been. I think its. What he should do and what he will do are probably two Different Things i think what he should do is to stay quiet watch carefully what goes on make decisions along the lines that i think mr fine goal recommended of getting is is. Part of his a legislative plan through if he can not go to war with kim jong un not to go to war with the iranians and i think toned down what hes been doing particularly of voiding the question of the mall or muller issue motor issue came up once before about three weeks ago it was clear that it was put to rest at least for a while but i can think of nothing that would be more self incriminating than interfere in an investigative process which he himself set up which hiS Administration advised people to cooperate with in the past and now hes being in fact in whatever way he might be able to do that totally interfered with seemingly to his own benefit and i think that would be a very serious mistake it would at least in my reading particularly even beyond the beltway here in washington create some consternation in the American Public about what he was doing hopefully seriously enough that he would never do that and as russ mentioned i think the there are republicans in congress who would find this reprehensible i think the democrats universally would for a combination of reasons melanie i wonder what were going to see the media doing at this stage i mean weve already seen fox units izing about mia and then turning him into the devil incarnate very briefly if you will where do you see the the media in all of this if not. Well i think were going to also be now looking at somebody else who played a role Sam Clovis Sam clovis was another person in the campaign thats who it is appears that George Papadopoulos was talking to as well as paul man of fort sam clovis has a confirmation hearing coming up to be the chief scientist for the u. S. D. A. The Agriculture Department even though he has no science background so i think well see the media digging in a little there again the cover a couple of wood responses from each of you melanie is donald trump any closer to impeachment or not i think theres definitely a step closer to him impeachment if not and if not that indictment so i think the walls are closing in on mr trump and hes going to be panicking and itll be interesting to see what he does as we all know he can be fairly erratic ross. There is no chance of impeachment as of today based on these indictments and with the current makeup of the congress then your thoughts thomas. Indictment is a legal act impeachment is political and legal we have to see whether in fact there are enough legal facts to carry it there the question of politics is extremely important i think until the republicans who have impeachment in their hands at the moment understand that the the base that mr trump seems to be carrying with him is washing away as a result of these facts ok thomas im sorry were going to when they come back we run out of time excuse me for interrupting thank you very much to all three of my guests Thomas Pickering there with a final words Ross Darrell Feingold and Melanie Sloan and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website or dot com for further discussion please go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com ford slash agents a story you can also join the conversation on twitter a handle is at a. J. Inside story mine is at jane dr brian thank you very much for watching. Oh is it allison where online we were in hurricane winds for almost like thirty six hours these are the things that has to address or if you join us on set. One but. It will get this is a dialogue tweet us with hostile a. J. Stream and one of your pitches might make the next show join the global conversation at this time on aljazeera. Training starts lightly but the pace picks up quickly as these grannies work out a long lifetime of frustration. At eighty five years old intombi sword what trains as hard as anyone and. I feel so good i feel fresh i punch this side and the side like this and like that i really love this i dont like things like soccer because i will bring these ladies are tough and i take their training very seriously. Will be full of. Interjected my life. Peter dobby in doha with the top stories from aljazeera the Security Forces in the northeastern african nation of eritrea have opened fire on protesters in the capital asmara. The violence is centered on the mainly muslim neighborhoods thats where a Religious School has been ordered by the government to ban the hit jab and end Islamic Education public protests are rare in eritrea the government has faced regular International Condemnation because of human rights abuses in papua new guineas immigration minister has told aljazeera the countrys police have no plans to clear out a former australian run prison camp six hundred refugees have barricaded themselves inside and then refusing to leave them on this island site was decommissioned on tuesday and australian staff of left the facility despite a last minute quarter application to block its closure and or thomas has more now from sydney refugees inside what is now the full present amount of thought and on getting any new food brought in nor fresh water they use the rainwater and nor is there any power inside the prison thats been shut off as well they are managing to eat a little bit of energy to power up mobile phones and thats how were getting information from them via social media but essentially