Find ways out. Good evening from new york. And in some ways, as i look at, this i think to myself, im chris hayes. Everything that is being done today the personal attorney to here is being done in a truly sort of historic fashion. The president of the United States. Its unprecedented. Harry. One of his closest and longest go ahead. Serving associates was raided by thats exactly right. The fbi and the president in response appears to be coming his attack today this is an attack on the unglued to a degree we have not country. Seen even from him. Well, you know, amazing. Agents executed multiple search do you think you reference warrants against Michael Cohen something that i want to come today, confiscating documents back to. From various locations here in there is this real question, right . Manhattan, according to report, we know from Carol Leonnigs including cohens residence, his reporting to the extent that is correct that Campaign Finance law office right here at 30 violations are part of what is rockefeller plaza. Being investigated. I learned that today. I have reported on campaign according to the new york finance violations in the past. Times, which first broke the usually you get a slap on the news of the raids, the fbi wrist and a fine about nine seized emails, tax documents, years later. The idea of this kind of raid and business records. They also took his computer and over that seems a bit of a his phone, according to other mismatch in terms of what reports. Theyre looking at and what the supposed infraction. The seized records reportedly relate to several different what do you think . Well, not really. Topics, including cohens new historically the ftc has not infamous payment to stormy been rigorous in its daniels in the days before the 2016 election. According to vanity fair, fbi enforcement. Agents arrived early this but the thing they are looking morning at the loews regency at here is the thing they did hotel where cohen has reportedly been staying during repairs to unsuccessfully with john his own apartment. Edwards. Its possible to conspire in a around 4 30 p. M. This afternoon way that violates federal law to a doorman told msnbc news, break Campaign Finance laws. Here if in fact cohen was quote, theyre still here. A call to cohens phone was looking to insulate trump from an electoral problem and maybe answer bade woman who claimed to what was working with other people, that states a crime. That said, its a little bit his wife who hung up when asked aggressive because the one time if the fbi was in the room. They tried to do it against john cohen, who is already a central edwards, they did wind up with egg on their face. Figure in the russia probe is facing another inquiry. The Washington Post reporting he is being investigated for possible bank fraud and Campaign Finance violations according to but not because of the theory. A person familiar with the case. The warrants were executed by federal prosecutors in it was more about the facts. Manhattan, crucially, acting in with edwards, it had long since part on a referral from special Counsel Robert Mueller who passed. Appears to have passed the here were two weeks before the matter on to them after election. Apparently finding evidence of a crime that lay outside the scope the u. S. , if they choose to go of the russia appropriate. According to multiple reports, that way, will have an easier time. The records seized by fbi agents the reference there to john edwards being prosecuted by u. S. Today include communications attorneys for Campaign Finance between cohen and his client, violation for a payment to a the president of the United States of america. Tonight the top of a meeting on mistress to cover that up as syria, the president unprompted weighed in on the raid at essentially an improper and length, sounding trapped, unrecorded donation to the aggrieved, and frankly more than campaign. A little panicked. Harry saying the theory of that so i just heard that they case was fine. Broke into the office of one of the facts were what led to his acquittal. My personal attorneys. A lot of people think that case good man. Was a dog on both the facts and the theory. Not to dispute harrys legal acumen. But there are critics of both. And its a disgraceful this is not just about an situation. Election violation. Im telling you right now. Its a total witchhunt. This there is more to it than that. Ive been saying it for a long time. It is early yet, but there is reporting that this involved ive wanted to keep it down. Stormy daniels and weve given i believe over a Communications Related to that million pages worth of documents this is where thats probably to the special counsel. Going. Frank figliuzzi and harry they continue to just go forward littman, thank you for taking time with us tonight. And here we are talking about responding to the fbi and syria. The president s response. Were talking about a lot of Chuck Schumer released a serious things with the greatest statement do not use this raid to fire special counsel mueller fighting force ever. Or anyone in the chain of and i have this witchhunt command with the russia probe. Constantly going on for over 12 the attorney general made a months now. Terrible mistake when he did and actually, much more than that. You could say it was right after i won the nomination it started. This and when he recused and its a disgrace. Himself, or he should have its frankly a real disgrace. Certainly let us know if he was its an attack on our country in a true sense. Going to recuse himself. Its an attack on what we all stand for. So when i saw this and when i heard it, i heard it like you and we would have used a put did. I said that is really now in a a different attorney general in. So he made what i consider to be whole new level of unfairness. A very terrible mistake for the country. This is the most buy yasd group why dont i just fire mueller . Well, i think its a disgrace of people. Whats going on. These people have the biggest well see what happens. But i think its really a sad situation when you look at what conflicts of interest ive ever happened. And many people have said you should fire him. Seen. Joining me now, msnbc legal democrats all, or just about analyst and former assistant special watergate prosecutor all. Nick akerman. Either democrats or a couple of and i thought of nixon a lot as i watched that tonight. Republicans that worked for a lot of parallels to the sort president obama. Of cornered nixon. You certainly have a cornered trump. Theyre not looking at the other this evidence that theyre going side. Theyre not looking at the to come up with in these search Hillary Clinton horrible things warrants could be absolutely devastating. That she did and all of the youve got Communications Crimes that were committed. Between cohen and trump. Theyre not looking at all of youve got documents relating to the things that happened that their effort to try and build a everybody is very angry about. Trump tower in moscow during the campaign. Youve got who knows what other the attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did women Michael Cohen was out this and when he recused himself, or he should have certainly let us know if he was there trying to make deals with. Going to recuse himself and we but here is my question about would have used a put a different attorney general in. So he made what i consider to be that. A very terrible mistake for the what is the what are the country. Deputy rosenstein, rod rules here for what of that rosenstein, he wrote the letter gets sorted . Very critical of comey. Right . But he signed as you know, he the idea of that to me the thing the search warrant was executed also signed the fisa warrant. Cannot possibly be about moscow, so rod rosenstein, who is in trump tower because mueller charge of this, signed a fisa could have kept it, right . No, not at all. Warrant, and he also signed a letter that was essentially the search warrant is to be executed in the southern saying to fire james comey. District of new york. And he was right about that. It has to be brought to the court by assistant u. S. He was absolutely right. Attorneys in the southern so well see what happens. District of new york. Thats why they call it the i think its disgraceful, and so sovereign district of new york. Does a lot of other people. They guard their territory very this is a pure and simple jealously. Infamously. Witchhunt. Yes. Thank you very much. So the idea that this somehow Carol Leonnig is an doesnt relate to the russian Investigative Reporter for probe. Washington post broke the thats interesting. I dont know where theyre story that cohen is being getting that from. Investigated for fraud and other so you think thats a mistake crimes. In apprehension that people come what have you learned today and to that it necessarily must be outside of the purview mr. How we got this point . Mueller is looking in . Oh, i think its a big so weve been burning up the mistake. I think theyre looking at phones talking to everyone we things much broader than stormy know with some knowledge about daniels. Cohen would like to make you this search, the raid, this believe that this is just about unusual seizure of pretty much minor stuff like a Little Campaign contribution or Stormy Daniels. Everything that Michael Cohen thing is going for the whole enchilada. Were talking russia. Had in his office and in two were talking all of the involvement in the trump residences, a hotel and a home. Organization into russia. We have learned a lot. You have to understand, the only one, that the search warrant that sought these records thing thats immune here is legal advice. Indicated that prosecutors and anything that cohen did in his investigators are examining capacity as a business adviser or as a political adviser is not Michael Cohen, the president s covered by the attorneyclient privilege. Personal lawyer and confidante i would think most of what cohen does has nothing to do with the for possible bank fraud, wire attorneyclient privilege. Fraud, and Campaign Finance violations. We know that the search warrant asked specifically for and there has been this sort information that had to do with of studied ambiguity about his part on his roles which may come payments to Stormy Daniels, up to bite him. Because he has been saying things like well, i just paid adult film or porn star that was about to during the campaign for Stormy Daniels as a buddy, allege that the president and as a friend, as a loyal admirer she had had an affair in a public interview. Of the president. And none of that is going to we understand that the search be covered by the also sought records that had to attorneyclient privilege. Let me ask you this. Do with Michael Cohens personal is robert costa talking about the mood at the white house. Finances, his bank records, his yaw saw that statement. Ty cobb spotted, a big dinner starts in a few minutes. Tax information. The president has been grousing and there is more. About the cohen raid. Were also learning that no one is ruling out late tweets. Investigators have been working were sort of cracking up. On this for many, many, many, you know, the president sort of many weeks. Vented his spleen at all three. Mueller, rosenstein, and and that while this may look sessions. Very dramatic and like the start of something, it may actually be the culmination of something you know, what does that mean to much deeper looking at Michael Cohen. You in terms of this sort of i want to add one more thing, which is Michael Cohens lawyer, saturday night massacre steven ryan told us today that possibility . Well, its certainly a he found this raid inappropriate because it gathered up materials possibility. I think if trump had his that were attorneyclient druthers, he would fire all communications and privileged, three of them. And that this was not necessary yep. Because Michael Cohen was totally cooperative with i think he feels constrained investigators and would have because he knows what happened shared information with them if requested. Do we know the point you when he fired comey and the just made on the timing seems crucial to me. When you say this is something firestorm that ensued. Investigators have been looking at for many weeks. He also knows that many of these i guess the reason that seems crimes can also be brought by the state attorney general of crucial to me is a lot of whats new york. And there is also there is happened publicly with the also the other lesson that i Stormy Daniels back and forth have learned from watergate from seems like its happened the last few weeks. Sort of looking back into it which is the investigators and it sounds like there was stuff the evidence they accumulated doesnt go away. This the works prior to that. Not at all. I cant give you an exact if you get rid of robert date, chris. Mueller. But im told that this is the evidence is still going something that has been looming to be there. For a while. I mean, the saturday night and also, you know, a raid is massacre, we all assumed that when cox was going to be fired that we would preserve the not typically, if we just go evidence. On experience, a raid of this i walked out with papers kind, three different homes does underneath my clothing. Did you really . Not happen overnight or over the yes. Course of a week. We all did. Today you could just use a thumb investigators are gathering drive. Information. It would be a lot easier to do this. They have to show some evidence to a judge. You were one of the people and in this case, they have to show some evidence to their own that went down to the bosses at the department of headquarters, racing against the justice to suggest what they find inside these residences possibility of the president will be evidence of a crime. They had do do a lot of homework sending his preferred henchman and took documents out . And investigating before they exactly. Got to this point. Because the evidence is the most important thing. If there is one thing that we you know, one crucial aspect wanted to preserve, it was the here, we watched the president evidence. And of course with muellers team, its much easier to do in talk about Robert Mueller. A digital age. You can simply take a couple of thumb drives, put them in a shoe this was not a Robert Mueller and walk out. He could have am i correct operation, correct . That the way this sort of chain of succession works here, he absolutely correct. Could fire jeff sessions, the the information from mr. Ryan, attorney general of the United States. Again, Michael Cohens lawyer in right. This case, is that muellers and replace him with an Office Referred this to the acting who then got back control Southern District of new york. Of the investigation from the you know, the premier u. S. Recused sessions without having to fire rosenstein or mueller, Attorneys Office in the country, and that they are and would plausibly give him a proceeding with this more direct line . Investigation. He could do that. Or he could fire rosenstein. And then he could ask that the muellers office follows some next person in line would be the solicitor general fire mueller. Pretty strict rules in that if i mean, he could do that. Thats exactly they come across information thats precisely. Nick akerman. That is not within their thanks for being with me. Mandate, they go to the deputy thank you. Still to come, just how much does Michael Cohen know . Attorney general and they refer more on the breaking news the fbi has raided the home and it to the relevant u. S. Office of the president s personal attorney. Attorney. An astonishing turn of events. And that is what appears to have well have more here next. Happened here. We use our phones and computers i should note that that u. S. Attorney, if im not mistaken of the Southern District is a gentleman by the name of Jeffrey Berman who i believe is an appointee of President Trump . Yes. I just want to put that in context because we played a lot of the tape of the president talking about mueller, the constitution of the mueller office. That individual youre seeing right there, a former giuliani law partner, someone who donated to the campaign that is an individual who signed off. His office signed off on this raid, right . I would have to think he would be aware of the raid, yes, as the u. S. Attorney. You know, whats interesting to me about this is keep in mind the context of the president s ire and frustration. For more than a year, he has believed that this probe, which mueller inherited an fbi investigation that was looking at russian interference. And the president s view is im not involved in any collusion. I didnt collude with any russians. Why is my presidency forever under this cloud . Well, now his view is the provenance of this Michael Cohen probe began with mueller. He believes that this is sort of the fruit of this poisoned tree, so to speak. Of course, im butchering that metaphor. Youre right. I mean, he will just interject the president s stated feeling about this is that he didnt the same way these days. Collude with russia. And feels like he is innocent. I just have to interject that. So why do we pay to have a phone connected amazing reporting today, carol. Amazing reporting. Really, i just learned a ton when were already paying for internet . From that interview, thank you. Carol leonnig of the Washington Post. Shouldnt it all just be one thing . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. Thank you, chris. Emily jean fox is an msnbc you can get up to 5 lines of contributor, a Senior Reporter of vanity fair. Talk and text included at no extra cost. She broke the story that fbi so all you pay for is data. Agents were raiding cohens see how you could save 400 or more a year. Hotel room. And get 200 back when you sign up for Xfinity Mobile what how did Michael Cohen learn of this . And add a new line of unlimited. Im not exactly sure how Xfinity Mobile. Its a new kind of network Michael Cohen learned of this. But i learned of this morning designed to save you money. Click, call or visit an xfinity store today. From a very Early Morning phone call from a source saying there are fbi agents at the regency hotel, which is a hotel on park avenue here in manhattan where todays fbi raids on the office, home and hotel room of Michael Cohen has been staying President Trumps personal for some time while there are attorney Michael Cohen were renovations done to his related to an investigation, as apartment that is actually very we just noted, referred by close by to the regency. Special Counsel Robert Mueller. I made my way up to the regency but this is not the first time to see if i could myself spot mueller has reportedly found any fbi agents which i did not. Something of interest involving there were some paparazzi one Michael Cohen. Outside there to snap photos of just last month, the washington conor mcgregor, the ufc fighter post reported mueller requested who was in town. Documents and interviewed all was quiet. Witnesses about negotiations i tried to peek around as best i cohen undertook during the could. Campaign to help the trump but Michael Cohen was there. Organization build a tower in there were fbi agent theres for moscow, as well as a hours, according to the source russiafriendly peace proposal of mine. I had tried to call michael for ukraine that was delivered cohens cell phone number. To cohen by ukrainian lawmaker ive interviewed Michael Cohen a one week after trump took number of times. And it went straight to serious office. Mail. For anyone who knows michael with me now Andrea Bernstein, cohen who has ever been with him copost of the podcast trump inc. In person his phone rings off and david cay johnston, pulitzer the hook all the time and most prize winning journalist, author times he answers it. Of its even worse than you think what the trump it was sign to me there was administration is doing to america. Something real happening here. Talk a little bit, andrea, about Michael Cohen and his role in trump world. There is three locatios his home near the loews. Permanent apartment. He describes himself as the and he is in the hotel and this then this office at 30 president s personal attorney. But he was not a litigator. Rock. He did deals for, well, then businessman donald trump. And they raid them all three at so for example, he did a number the same time . Of licensing deals. Im not sure exactly the and the former soviet union, as we famously know, he was timeline. Prospecting a trump tower in moscow before that deal fell but it was all today i believe. Through. But i dont know exactly what and as weve come to learn, he order, if it was done at the was keeping people quiet. Most people first heard of same time. Michael cohen when we learn to i know it began very early have had dossier which he denies morning at the regency. Up and down. But what the dossier said sounds is your was he expecting this . Do you think this come as a like what were learning about surprise to Michael Cohen . Michael cohen, which is that he from my reporting, i do not believe that he saw this coming this morning. Went to keep something quiet i have interviewed him a number of times and i think his focus that happened during the trump has been on the Stormy Daniels campaign. Now i want to emphasize again he lawsuit and whats to come in has sued several people. That. He said that didnt happen. He was never in prague. There is a pretty timely but fla from whats in the deadline. Public record, we know what he and i think thats where his was doing was making sure that main focus has been. People didnt tell tales about his boss, donald trump. Every time ive talked to him Michael Cohen is alleged in recently, that is where our conversations have gone. The dossier to have gone to prague to do what . Nay have not gone in this to clean up the mess that direction. Paul manafort had left and to make sure that no one talked thats an important point, about it. And that was alleged to have right . Happened some time in august of he is dealing with a civil suit, 2016. Again, he denies it. You know, a fight over whether something is going to be in denies he has posted his passport. I was never in prague. Arbitration or not. Buzzfeed publishing the the stakes of that and what that passport. Means for ones personal life david, this is a classic sort of fixer. Trajectory and freedom are quite this is the role that he has different than fbi showing up in had. Your office and your home and when you think about someones your hotel room. Fixer and the thought of the fbi there is the difference getting ahold of the fixers files, that would seem to me be between a massive legal headache utterly terrifying for the person for whom he was fixing. And a possible jail sentence oh, absolutely for both of down the line. So this is something, you know, them. A lawsuit over an nda is something that is within the realm of someone Michael Cohen and as your other guests have might have dealt with. Pointed out that. What happened today is earth shattering for him and his family and for anyone who knows didnt get the search him. This is a man whose very loyalty to donald trump striked warrants without a compelling case that there was a crime and me as sort of his defining feature as a professional adult that they needed to preserve in the world. Sure. Evidence, and very careful, he has worked for president for more than a decade. Any time i have ever interviewed him on the record, one of the things that comes through all diligent work. The time, and he is very careful from donalds perspective, he it comes through is just how has beaten four grand jury loyal he is to the president and investigations into himself when to the president s family. He told me in august that he he was young. Would take a bullet for the president. So he is someone who is not only compromised the new jersey casino regulators repeatedly as a casino owner in atlantic city. Incredibly loyal, but who likes he got them to look the other to make that point publicly. Way. I dont know if you know the when he got caught in sales tax answer to this, but is he a practicing attorney in any sense fraud, he went to the authorities and ratted out over other than his relationship to people to protect himself. The president and trump work . He had two income tax fraud he has other clients. Trials which he lost which he does . Hardly anybody knows about. He does have other clients. And his history has always been i cant tell you who they are, that he could use his political but he does have other clients. Connections and pressure to shut there is some other legal things down. Practice besides the fact he has with Robert Muellers team and a legal degree. He has not worked for the now his own appointee in manhattan, he is discovering Trump Administration since he that he isnt able to do that. Left around the inauguration and he has had other clients in the yeah, youve got to be imagining, andrea, that a lot of mix. He has had until today had an the trump work, business and the office in this building, a very nice Corner Office with a president s business are now in the hands of the fbi. Well, it certainly looks like captain america shield on his that. Desk and two bobbleheads of don jr. And eric. And, you know, the last time i he has worked out of there since was here, we were talking about the subpoenas into the trump the inauguration. I wondered if the fbi carted organization. Those away in boxes today. This is something that has emily jane foxes, great to have you. Clearly caught the attention of harry litman is a former federal prosecutor. The special prosecutor. Okay. Were there crimes committed . Carol alluded to this, but i was there something in the want to just walk through how relationship with russia . Extraordinary a step it is, and something about the way the the bars that had to be cleared money worked that was illegal . For the fbi to raid the attorney and these were the deals that of the president of the United States. Michael cohen was working on. So at the risk of stating the obvious, Michael Cohen is in so it does seem an extraordinary really big trouble tonight. And why is that . It is something that carol alluded to. Move. You dont do these raids overnight. Weve seen mueller be very you develop probable cause for an Attorney Office to be aggressive. Searched, you go to department of justice at the highest level he executed a search warrant on and get approval for that because of attorneyclient Paul Manafort and then indicted privilege. Him a few months later. Then you refer this to the Southern District of new york. Hes still doing he is still now, lets talk a little bit about what probable cause means. Youve got to convince a magistrate not just that cohen is staying in this hotel, your looking for records with paul honor, but rather that there is evidence of a crime there, and manafort and others. That what im asking to seize, the laptop, papers, telephones, contains evidence of those crimes. So we know that he is and the magistrate is going to exceedingly aggressive. Look at you and go how do you know that . How do you know its not his and just from Court Documents kids computer . And youre going to have to that have been filed, we know he is watching very, very closely. That at one point he released explain that to him. There has been an investigation the track changes that paul for week here is at least. Manafort had made to an oped in you have to imagine a judge a ukrainian newspaper. Evaluating a search warrant to so he has a very high level of raid the home, hotel and offices of an associate of the president detail with the people that he is going to scrutinize that is watching. Pretty hard. And that apparently now includes it will be fly specked to death. The president s personal this takes time to develop. Attorney, Michael Cohen. And it smacks of physical surveillance. You know, david, i thought of we saw him carrying the very computer were talking about ten this story, and i want to get times this month. Its in this room number. Andreas response to it as well. It contains evidence of this remember this mcclatchy story very specific probable cause. Harry, you worked for the that was talking about some of department of justice. Michael cohens real estate i can imagine this is something dealings. That is this is going there a budge of people in the i remember reading this and department of justice i think thinking to myself at the time, would have to sign off on that looks a little odd. Something like this. In 2014 a mysterious buyer using yeah. Limited Liability Company that this is seismic. Obscured the purchaser paid 10 million in cash cohen had purchased few years before for it doesnt have to be a bunch. Two million. Kit be the attorney general or the new york market is quite intense but thats quite a turn the Deputy Attorney general or around. The head of the criminal there are a bump of real estate division. Transactions that Michael Cohen that is way, way up there. Has made that there are not necessarily anything wrong with them, but they have details that and they dont do it often would make one scratch ones because of the very principles head a little. And policies that frank well, we know that donald has a long history of doing business mentioned. With russians in deals that are to be minimalist about it, a couple things to add here. Squirrely. You may not do this as an end and seem to be moneylaundering. And there are a whole variety of around to try to get information crimes that could be at issue about clients. So they have what they had to here. We talked about the federal show the magistrate is there is Election Commission there is a probable cause to believe almost potential income tax fraud issue certainly cohen himself was or the gift tax fraud issue in is the person who is guilty of a the Stormy Daniels matter there crime. Is wire fraud. They also had to have concluded we know that the bank, which is and shown the magistrate that cooperating that did the Wire Transfer for the Stormy Daniels they couldnt have gotten the payoff flagged it. Information through a subpoena. And presumably, they flagged other transactions. Right. Which is what cohens lawyer and notice one thing, however. None of the search warrants and your up top was saying why didnt they just do that. Applied to the trump and that what that means is they basically had concluded and they organization where cohen worked needed some concrete reason to in the office. And had a trump business card. Do so, that as with manafort, as you may remember, cohen wasnt they apply to cohen and his likely to be cooperative. Places that he would have had they needed to come in with the papers and books. Huge show of federal force. Not to the trump organization. You know, andrea, you guys a doubleteam by the way. Did amazing reporting on every single one of those three manaforts real estate raids had two teams, a tape team that was there to make sure that transactions. Nobody in the normal i remember reading your work and thinking that looks like a prima investigation would by chance facie case. See privileged material. And what shows up in the mueller investment . Robert gates has pleaded guilty to that. I think one of the things that this is a huge coordinated is incredibly interesting about the cohen real estate operation. Transactions is that he has per just to explain that. His own account, he came to the attention of donald trump by buying apartments in his buildings and his family bought my understanding is they call it apartments in his buildings. A clean and dirty team in these and one of the things were trying to figure out now on our cases. Trump podcast in our opening investigation is how he did because it does happen sometimes that youre getting privileged that, how he came into position information from a lawyers office. To buy all that real estate. And you got to essentially keep a firewall between the two, is that how it works . And we are trying to figure that thats exactly how it works. And its very hard in practice. Out because it is a job there have been prosecutions, the oliver north one that was application thing that you put thrown out for that reason. On your application. Judges take it very, very seriously. Manafort did it. And therefore so does the cohen did it. Department. Trump likes it when people buy if a lawyer happens to see apartments in his buildings and something privileged, he may move in to his properties. Have to be disqualified from the entire investigation. Michael cohen comes to the so, yes, as of now, there is attention of donald trump if im this huge process that is being not mistaken for being kind of a put into place. Bulk buyer, a collector buyer. He and his family bought five and only when things have been cleansed and given the approval, apartments in trump building. The seal of approval. And he is not making a ton of right. Of a whole different bunch money. No. Will the team even be able to look at it. Prior to that he had been a not so there is this team that is going to go through these very bigtime lawyer. He had worked in the tax documents and say privileged communication, privileged industry, the personal injury communication, him writing to his clint, him writing to his industry. Client. Thats in column a. And then he bought a lot of column b is relevant to the warrant that gets turned over somebody internal to the fbi and doj to look at . Apartments on 845 u. N. Plaza thats absolutely correct. Andor trump properties. And there will be supervisory you might learn more than. Review of those decisions before Andrea Bernstein and david cay anything is finalized that this johnston, thank you for joining is person meant the, this is us. Sure. Coming up in the wake of the big news of the fbi raid on his privileged, this is not. Personal office, the president am i wrong as a layperson to was on camera openly mulling the look at this and think my god, what must they have that they fate of the special counsel and would take the series of steps jeff merkley on all that ahead. That they have taken today . Theyve got probable cause to here we are talking about convince a magistrate and highranking doj officials that crimes have occurred, and that cohen is behind it. I want to read this from nbc about this sort of high Legal Standard at issue here. Said it was a Court Authorized Search which means there is sufficient probable cause for a federal judge to agree that a search involving the president s personal attorney could occur without any advance notice to cohen there is two bars here. Youre not just subpoenaing and youre not just going at a lawyer you. Are raiding a lawyer. Right. Because you have reason to believe that he might destroy evidence if he gets tipped off. A there and is lots of leakage. Youve got to do this in the morning. Youve got to do it so he doesnt know about. Harry, i want to talk about the chain of custody which i find fascinating of this out of the Mueller Investigation into sdny. Mueller is turning over a bunch of rocks. Im reconstructing. This but this is what it appears. Mueller is turning over a bunch of rocks or. He says that doesnt look very good. Not about russia. Not in the purview. And passes it along. I mean, is that how it works . Yeah, thats how it works. You might remember, this is how ken starr got ahold of the whole clinton impeachment. He went to janet reno and said we have this new thing involving monica lewinsky. And she assigned it to him. Mueller would have taken this i dont think its new. I think the main thing that he brought, by the way, is the possible election law violation, which committee can get to. He brings to it rosenstein. Rosenstein makes a decision. Rosenstein decides to refer to it the Southern District. And by the way, this wouldnt have been the reason. But notice, all this worry about muellers being fired, if mueller gets canned, it doesnt affect this Southern District of new york investigation. Cohens in for the long ride. This is what is so remarkable to me. Because if you Pay Attention to trump tv, which me we know the president , white house officials, President Trump has been watching tv reports of the fbi raiding the office of Michael Cohen, his longtime lawyer and confidante. The president sitting there watching cable news as we are led to believe he does quite often, stewing. On trump tv and in this sort of pro trump media, this is all a witchhunt. This is all cooked up by mueller. This guy is a former giuliani law partner whose office just did this remarkable thing which makes you think whatever case you want to make against mueller, its a little hard to taint them with this. I agree. But i want to make one point. Go ahead. May i . Two years ago, we would never have thought about this. It happened all the time. U. S. Attorneys investigate at here we are talking about syria. Were talking about a lot of serious things with the greatest fighting force ever. And i have this witchhunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. And were making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near damascus. And it will be met, and it will be met forcefully. And when i will not say because i dont like talking about timing. So were going to make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter. And youll be hearing the decision. President trump is poised to respond to the suspected chemical attack in syria on a day when he is rattled, to say the least by the fbi raid on his personal attorney. And he is making this crucial decision with a brandnew National Security adviser, that man you see there, john bolton. Jeff merkley of oregon is member of the Senate Foreign relations committee. He joins me now. Are you confident the president is talking to the right people, has the right judgment, and is in the right frame of mind to make these decisions right now . Chris, that would be none of the above. Im not confident that the president is getting thorough counsel from the right sources. Certainly he is he is conveying that he is preparing an assault on syria, but of what extent and at what risk for the possible impact upon Russian Troops who are actually detonating chemical depots. But also recognize a year ago when the president responded and bombed the runway on april 7th, so almost exactly a year ago, it had little military effect. The situation here is that russia is the force that has the leverage in syria. All roads lead back to russia. And so what does that mean . Well, what that means is that we now have russia, which worked with the Obama Administration to eliminate a thousand metric tons of vx gas and sarin gas. But clearly didnt complete the job. We have russia that has provided the critical support to keep Bashar Al Assad in power, but hasnt used that leverage to stop these Chemical Attacks. This is not the first chemical attack since a year ago. There has been a number of Chemical Attacks reported and confirmed. Its russia that used chemical agents in uk just recently to assassinate or they didnt succeed in killing, but to attempt to kill a Russian National and his daughter. Its russia thats been vetoing the u. N. Action related to assads use of chemical weapons. It means International Action, forceful International Action to completely isolate russia in regard to this issue. And do you see those steps being taken . Absolutely not. The president has not been a watchdog on russia. He has found every excuse to be as soft as possible in every possible circumstance. It took enormous congressional pressure just to get him to enact some of the sanctions that Congress Approved by a ratio of 5005, if you combine the two houses of congress. When do you get anything done on 1001 ratio with democrats and republicans working together . But the president absolutely refused for a period of time to implement any of it, and still hasnt done so forcefully. Are you there is this wag the dog expression, right, that the idea of president s using Foreign Military intervention as essentially distraction from domestic political troubles. Do you have concerns than given the news on the president s personal attorney and confidante being raided by the fbi . Yes. I have a lot of concern. The president is assembling a war cabinet with john bolton and his effort to get mike pompeo to be secretary of state. They share views that are very aggressive. They see military force as a response to almost anything going on in the world. They propose military force in so many situations that certainly it was not the right answer. And so then you add in his personal concern about the information that continues to be compiled by the special prosecutor about the by the special prosecutor about the extent of his teams involvement and contact with russia during the election and also potentially his personal Business Enterprises that intermingled with russian funds. So the president s i think feeling tremendous personal pressure, tremendous political pressure, and he would like to distract from that. So this is a terrible moment to have this particular man making key decisions not just about a, if you will, bombing a runway but possibly a much more Aggressive Campaign in syria. Should there be congressional authorization . So the constitution gives warmaking powers to the article 1 branch of government. Thats congress. And we have not enforced that strictly. In fact, we had a debate just three weeks ago about this in regards to the u. S. Support for saudi arabia, which is engaged in a war on the houthi in yemen. And i joined many others, not a majority but well into the 40s, if you will, out of the 100 senators, who said we should have that debate on the floor of the senate and were very concerned that the president has exceeded our constitutional powers there. Here again it raises similar issues. If something is a single strike, its generally seen in a different category than if its a campaign. A campaign then means youre at war. That certainly invokes the requirement to have to come to congress. Now, the president could have come to congress and asked for authorization to respond to syrias use of chemical weapons throughout then tire last year. But has failed to do so. I think anything beyond just a very limited strike i think youll see strong and powerful calls for congress to say that this is breaking the constitutional boundary. All right. Senator jeff merkley, thank you. Youre welcome. Thanks. Here to help make sense of tonights extraordinary president ial meltdown, natasha bertrand, who follows the russia investigation closely for the atlantic. Democratic strategist, former apprentice contestant tara dowdell, and msnbc contributor sam cedar, host of the majority report with sam cedar. And ill start here today. The president we played about two minutes of what was i think seven, eightminute rant. Rant by the president. And i just thought, wow, i havent quite seen this level of pinned, caged, cornered panic. Youre nodding your head, sam. Yeah. He was almost like regurgitating a days worth of fox news talking points, and there was no real cohesion to it. He started off by saying that the fbi broke into the hotel rooms, the house, the office. Thats the phrase he uses. The fbi broke into. Broke into. Thats not what the fbi did. They had a warrant. And they went in with a court order. He seems a little bit panicked. And frankly, i share the senators concern about him being in a position to decide right now that he may launch military strikes against syria. I mean, frankly i would always be concerned with that. Right. The president. Yes. But he has another agenda today. Your reaction to today. I think this is a very dangerous moment. I am deeply concerned. Because we look for in moments like this cooler heads to prevail. But the cooler head around him is a hothead, and thats john bolton. Right . So President Trump, donald trump, he is notorious for lashing out and he is notorious for only caring about himself. At a moment when we need him to care about the republic. And i dont think people have a full grasp of the moment that were in and the implications of this moment, given who the man is. I think theres Something Else thats dangerous on the table, and i have long sort of subscribed to this theory, natasha, and i want to hear your thoughts on it, which is that the president s posture toward russia could very quickly tip from this sort of solicitousness, bending over backwards, to something very quickly escalatory, and that essentially hes got this domestic pressure, he looks very guilty in the way that he acts, and hes also incredibly unpredictable in the moves he makes in an extremely fraught situation in syria, and essentially to the degree there was ever a deal between trump and putin, that if falling apart could lead to something very ugly very quickly. Right. This is something that weve seen throughout history, which is that president s who are feeling domestic pressure often want to shift the attention to an international conflict. I mean, thats not something that i would exactly put past the president at this point. Also, if there was ever a moment where it would be more catastrophic for the president to try to fire the special counsel and then perhaps create a new conflict or escalate the conflict in syria because he wanted to distract, it would be the worst possible moment to do that right now because of course his personal attorney is in the crosshairs in a way that we have not seen before. So if he tried to make a move on mueller, if he tried to do something major in syria at this moment, which i am not exactly arguing against. I mean, the atrocities weve seen there have been horrible and they deserve some kind of response. But it would be much more under the microscope and much more obvious than they would have been in the past. Everything i feel like this is true of so many things the president does, its tainted by his intent. You know, all sorts of things he does. Like you can fire the fbi director, sure. In the general abstract sense you can do that. But if you say youre doing it for this corrupt purpose you cant do it, right . Daca, yes, you can rescind daca. But if you say youre doing the ban to ban muslims this is the crux of it. Its all here on the table. The president meeting with his war cabinet, deciding this extremely fraught issue of International Relations against the backdrop of this. Right. And i think taras point is well taken. The last time that there was an attack on syria launched by this country there were people sitting around this table. We were here that night. Who were arguing, well, the generals, i trust the generals to do i remember that. Come up with the plan afterwards. And as ridiculous as i may find that to have been, theres no more generals. Mcmaster is now gone. Were talking about mattis is there and kelly is there. Mattis is there and kelly is there and every day we read another story about how theyre being basically completely stifled by trump. Hes no longer listening to them. For all we know sean hannity carries more weight in that white house than they do. So that the theoretical constraints on him that were there a year ago, and like i say theoretical, are not there and he is facing much more pressure. Whether or not we dont know why hes feeling this pressure. It could just be hes got a lot of Money Laundering issues. Or it could be some other issue that has nothing to do with the supposed russia investigation. But hes feeling pressure can you imagine thinking about Michael Cohens records in the hands of the fbi right now . Right. And this is when trump is at his most dangerous. This is when hes at his most unpredictable and erratic, is when hes feeling extreme pressure. And look, i agree with natasha. I dont argue that we shouldnt do something in syria. The issue is more that he is reactionary. There is not any thinking behind a strategy. It is how do i protect me, donald trump, how do i change the subject, how do i help myself, right . That is the bigger issue. Its not that we shouldnt help theres a humanitarian crisis going on. Its the judgment of the man whos choosing who makes the decisions. Or its a reaction to the previous days programming on fox, which is also totally plausible account for any given day. I mean, i also think, natasha, to return to sort of this purview question about the Mueller Investigation because its sort of an interesting back and forth about do we think this was referred to the Southern District because it fell outside of what he thought was his purview, so its unrelated to russia and this is kind of a demonstrable declaration of that or what Nick Ackerman said, for political and territorial reasons you that would move this over into the Southern District . It might have been it could be either, right . So what nick was saying is this does not necessarily mean that this has nothing to do with the russia investigation. It might have just been a way that the Southern District could have kind of taken the heat off of the Mueller Investigation in order to kind of calm trump down and not which weve seen did not work because of his reaction today. He said that he might actually fire mueller, which we dont know yet. We just dont know. Michael cohen has been involved in so many aspects of this investigation and different facets of this investigation, whether it be potential Money Laundering, whether it be deals with regard to trump tower and russia, whether it be with Stormy Daniels. Hes just at the center of so much of this that its really difficult to say what mueller and the Southern District are look into and what theyre actually homing in on. Of course, we will see once mueller comes out with his report. But as of right now Michael Cohen is the lynchpin of all this. Hes essentially the vault. Thats why its so dangerous for the president right now. You know, marcy wheeler, who blogs at empty wheel, whos very good on stuff like this, made a point pointing out that in the mueller filing regarding the manafort case mueller argues that his jurisdiction includes charging a subject who could ultimately flip and become a witness against someone in the main investigation. So according to at least what mueller has argued in a filing with manafort, his investigation would have had jurisdiction here. So i am in that camp that says this is more political than jurisdictional. Were going to learn a lot more in the next few days. And its going to be remarkable to watch. Natasha bertrand, tara dowdle, and sam seder. Thank you all. That is for this evening. Breaking tonight, trump unleashed after the fbi raids the office and hotel room of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, calling what happened today a disgrace. The president gives a cryptic answer to the question will he fire Robert Mueller. Also tonight, what the feds are investigating and what they seized in those raids, including communications with his client, the president. One of our guests describes today as a bomb on trumps front porch. Also trump vowing major decisions on syria within hours after a suspected chemical attack in that countrys brutal swivel war. The 11th hour on a busy monday night starts right now. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Im Nicolle Wallace in for