Up a suspected bomb at a facility near the austin airport. This comes after a fifth bomb exploded early this morning at a fedex facility an hour south of the city. One worker suffered minor injuries. This is the latest in that string of bombings that have occurred over the past few weeks. Two people have died as a result. Police believe the explosionings are likely connected, possibly the work of a serial bomber. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez is in boston where he has been following these developments. What right now can you tell us about whats about to happen with that latest device . Hi there, chris, good afternoon. Well, police say they are looking at this potential bomb, at a fedex facility near the austin airport. Let me paint a picture for you whats going on. According to the source briefed on the investigation, there are three active scenes right now. What investigators are looking at. One is that schertz facility near san antonio where there was that explosion overnight. Investigators are looking to see, you know, how that package got there. But what they believe at this point is that package was dropped off at a fedex facility here on brody lane in austin. Investigators are looking at that brody lane location as well. They believe that the suspected bomber may have dropped off two packages at that location. One that made it to that facility near san antonio. The other one that ended up at that fedex facility near the austin airport. And that is that, as we know, so far, rather, is that package did not explode and so investigators will be detonating it within a short time, according to that source briefed open the investigation. Now, chris, this city has been on edge. This explosion overnight was the fifth explosion in this area over the last several weeks. Austin police said that the four previous explosions, including one in this neighborhood late sunday, that those four were linked. Now, with this fifth explosion overnight, authorities in a morning briefing did not explicitly link it to the other four. However, we do know from the source briefed on the investigation that theyre operating under that a sum assumption right now. According to logs we heard this morning, that package that exploded overnight at the fedex facility near san antonio, it contained nails and it was bound for boston. This is a very fluid investigation at this point. More than 500 fbi and atf agents are working this case. And with this fourth explosion that happened in this neighborhood, a trip wire was used. So that suggests that the serial bomber, as the police chief called them, that this was escalating and there was an extreme level of concern now. That reward had been raised already on sunday to 115,000 for any information leading to an arrest, chris, back to you. Gabe gutierrez, i know youll keep us posted. Our guest is former special fbi agent. Jim cavanaugh is a retired atf special agent in charge and an msnbc terrorism analyst, who worked both on the unabomber case and the olympic park bombing case. Let me start with you, jim, because yesterday you predicted heard on our air that another explosion would take place in the next 24 hours. And then you predicted after what we saw overnight that that would not be the only package bomb that was sent. What can you tell us . What are these clues that youre seeing and what conclusion do they lead you to at least at this point in time . Its a big break for the agents if this second bomb was sent by the bomber. If this say bomb sent by the bomber. Are you talking about the one theyre about to detonate . Yes. Theyre not actually going to detonate it. We call it a disruption. What theyre going to do is disrupt it with a disrupter. Theyre going to pop it open. And theyre going to be able to renter it safe. Theres a render safe procedure. They just essentially disarm it . Right. I mean, sometimes they have to be countercharged, but the preferred method is a remote disruption. Okay. And then the components are recovered. It gives more evidence. The agents can look at the evidence clearly. They can send it to the forensic lab and they can really dive in it. Really, really helps. Now, whats important in this case right now is the bomber were looking at it as very successful when we look at it. Everybody in austin is wrapped in fear, but the bomber, remember, is wanting to kill. He was successful when he killed the first man, when he killed the teenager, and after that, he was not successful. So he wounded a woman on a delivered parcel on the trip wire device he didnt kill either. Those are failures for the bomber. Hes just trying other things out . I mean, we tend to think, those of us who are not in this business that there is a signature, right, if you have somebody, they tend to do the same thing over and over and over again. Here, the method of delivery has been different. The kind of operational device that it is is different. So what does that tell you . Well, the signature, its often a lot of big talk. We do find signatures in bombers. Certainly these first four bombs, they can clearly tell it was made by the same guy. These will probably fit in there. Thats the way they fuse it, they fire it, the way they turn the wires, the explosive materials. Theres a whole bunch of things that sometimes are always the same. But people talk about that like it has to be. And it does not have to be. Ive worked bombers that have made five completely different bombs, different explosives, different firing, different detonating techniques, and its the same exact bomber. When thats thrown out, its sometimes an inch deep. Now, here, we do probably have very similar devices, but hes evolving, chris, and hes changing, because hes failing. So hes progressing when he fails. He did not kill the woman. He did not kill the two young men on the bike path. And so he changes tactic. One thing he knows when he looked at the bike path bomb, its too distance from the victim for the size of his bomb to make it an effective kill. The package youre holding, thats an effective kill. A small bok amb and he can get t he desires, the homicide. This time, the twist is theyre sent fedex. This guys spending a lot of time making these. He really wants to keep austin in fear. The motive is right in front of your face. Its power. He wants the power to keep austin in fear. Hes reveling in that. Its an aphrodisiac for him. Hes going to keep doing it. I would think right now is going to be a slowdown. Because this is a failure. The bomb detonated in the stream. Weve had that happen on many other cases, fedex, u. P. S. And the mail stream. His system to do that is not good. If the second bomb is found intact. So hes going to have to regroup now. Make more devices. You know, get a better idea. And hes very diabolical. I would think we have a little bit of lull. Also, i do not believe he wants to communicate at this time. The commanders are right to try. But i dont think this guys ready. His message we got. I have the power over austin. Thats his message. So, clint, if were right about this, and if theres going to be a little bit of a lull, nevertheless, the intensity of this and the desire obviously to get this guy before he does Something Else and kills someone else is intense. 500 people, when we hear Gabe Gutierrez using a number like that, 500 people on the case, what are they doing right now . Yes, the big thing is the pattern. Jim made an excellent point. This could be the first time they had a bomb that hasnt des nate detonated. With these package bombs, you might be able to track who the sender was and where it was going to. You just mentioned they just mentioned in austin there was a tiein with the fourth one with the other, the first three, that there is some sort of pattern there. These are very specifically targeted devices. Maybe you get addresses for these two. Or you can pick up on some signatures for sending it. What i think is very important that gjim pointed out is the pae has picked up. Now you come to the 20th. Weve had three just in the last, you know, two to three days. So the pace has picked up. You got to ask yourself why is he doing this . Is he nervous about Law Enforcement. Is he rushing and moving forward. The other thing which i think is, you know, very smart, that Law Enforcement did over the weekend is they tried to get some communication from the bomber. What are your motives, what are your techniques . Theyre literally trying to pull out evidence to figure out how do we stop this from occurring. One of the things, i thought i heard about all the subspecialities in the fbi. But they sent their top site expert to help. Whats he doing . And what, again, are the very specific kinds of specialties that some of these experts are doing right now . Right. So theyre probably looking for two types of signatures. One, what are the signaturings that might be tied to the bombers and the device. Its not uncommon, and we dont know in this case, but its not uncommon for the bombers to actually want to see what theyve done, you know, they want to see what has occurred. If there is a pattern to this, theyre picking targets in a pattern. Maybe its one or two people working in a team. You dont know. But maybe theres something there with cell signatures. The other part is tracking and looking at, okay if there was a delivery from this facility, someone had to ship it from somewhere. Can you tie those signatures together . Its one of best pieces of technical evidence the fbi has to look at. Now to the other breaking news. Its in maryland. Just days until what we expect will be huge marches to stop gun violence, we have yet another school shooting. This time in the community of great mills, just 70 miles south of the nations capital. A student opened fire and critically wounded two other students this morning at the high school. In a stark contrast to the parkland shooting this time the gunman was shot by a School Security officer and died at the hospital. Nbcs Garrett Haake is live at the hospital with the latest. What more do we know about what happened . Hey, chris, were expecting to get a briefing here from the sheriff and other Law Enforcement who have been working on this case any minute now. If i have to sit down and shut up, thats why. Weve learned a lot from the sheriff this morning who described a shooting that started around 7 45 this morning. The gunman, a student, coming into this high school and shooting a 16yearold girl and then a 14yearold boy before, at some point, at some point fairly quickly thereafter, he was engaged by the School Resource officer who fired back. Here is the sheriff explaining that moment this morning. When the shooting took place, our School Resource officer, who was stationed inside the school, was alerted to the event and the shots being fired. He pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter, during which that engagement, he fired a round at the shooter, simultaneously the shooter fired a round as well. And, chris, since that briefing, weve heard from the hospital that treated two students who were shot by the shooter, the girl has been upgraded to a more stable condition. The boy supposedly, the 14yearold boy shot in the leg, supposedly in good condition. The shooter is deceased. What we dont know at this point are the identities of any of these people involved or the motivation of the shooter coming into the school. I just got a fiveminute warning here in my ear. So we have a little bit of time. Already a lot of praise for the School Resource officer who really stepped in in the moment here and very quickly, by all accounts, dealt with the shooter. Students ive talked to describe a complete pandemonium when the shooting started. Can you imagine . This is a school that does do lockdown drills. But not when students out in the hallways just chatting with each other. We heard about a stampede of students trying to get out of the school as they try to figure out what exactly was going on at this high school, chris. Everything that happened in florida obviously, so fresh in everybodys minds. I understand that some of those student, they did a walkout, i thought i heard this morning that they were actually one of the schools that did a walkout last week, do you know that to be true . Yes, thats right, this is top of mind for these students. Some of these students participated in a walkout last week. I talked to a parent who said this is something they think about all the time, especially since parkland, but you still just dont expect to get that phone call from your child. I want to go to jim cavanaugh, back to jim cavanaugh, and stick with us, if you will, garrett, until that press cop fence starts. Lets talk about the School Resource officer. Because many people may not know that most Law Enforcement officers in the line of duty will never fire a weapon. And when you have to do that once or just a handful of time unless the course of a career, however well trained you are, i cant even imagine the pressure. And, again this is a resource officer who i presume was at that school the day of the walkout. Top of mind for him, too, is what happened at parkland. How extraordinary what he did . Extraordinary courage, hes a hero. He stopped probably more killing. We dont know if the deputys bullet killed the shooter or if the deputy fired and hit him or the deputy fired and missed and the shooter fired at the deputy or the shooter killed himself. So we dont have that sequence of events. But it doesnt matter we should say maybe well get it in this press conference. They have not confirmed exactly what happened. They did have a press conference earlier. Right. It doesnt matter how that went. If the deputy missed him and he killed himself, its still the deputy stopped him. He confronted him. His courage to go to the gunfire, to, you know, squeeze him down, to focus and get him engaged with the deputy is what mattered. Hes a hero unequivocally. It sounds like he was probably confronting a handgun which is a big equal confrontation, trained officer with a handgun. With a student with a handgun, the officer has the edge. When youre confronting an ar15, even though youre trained, you dont have the edge. That rifle takes the edge from you. This was a sad loss of life all around. But nevertheless, the Law Enforcement might have stopped. Something could have been a lot worse. And clint, police say, and obviously for the reasons we just outlined, this incident was over quickly. Thank goodness. What are investigators doing right now on the scene . Yes, theyre going to be doing the forensics, much like we saw around parkland. Luckily, this wasnt nearly as catastrophic. It was still an awful incident. But its really going to reignite the debate about how we handle this. One of the big fears after pacland is always contagion. Theres always somebody around this world or even in this country thats thinking about going into the shoot and possibly doing a shooting. That can ignite others to do it, especially when they see the Media Attention around it. Then it comes to how do we deal with this. If we go back to the parkland case, how did that person get a weapon . They talked about Mental Health ushg p issues with that person. Those have been identified. He still wasnt stopped from getting a weapon or coming into the school. What theyre going to look at is what was the motive for the person when they were coming into the school, how did he acquire the weapon. Always the first is are there other connections, is this tied to other persons. Again, i think were going to end up with the same place we did after parkland or las vegas or any of these shootings. We havent really seen any policy changes that have moved forward in our american debate on this. Until we do, think were going to keep seeing these incidents pop up. Thankfully, the School Resource officer really saved the day today. But as jim pointed out, with parkland, we saw an ar15 that was being used. If youre a School Resource officer trying to oppose that threat, its a very different story. I think we got lucky here today. We see that the press Conference Starting now. Lets take a listen. Sheriff cameron will be speaking along with Governor Hogan will be speaking, as well as dr. Smith, superintendant for st. Marys county public schools. After everybodys done speaking, there will be a few minutes for brief questions. At this time, i would also ask if there is anyone that has any information on what happened today to please call the hot line, the fbi has set up. That number is 1800callfbi. Ill turn it over now to sheriff tim cameron. Good afternoon. Id like to reiterate that my thoughts and prayers are with the victims of todays shooting. The students and staff of Great Mills High School and our community. I said this before and i will say it again. This is something that we train, practice and a reality we hoped would never come to fruition. The our worst nightmare. Today, at approximately 7 55 a. M. , Great Mills High School student Austin Wyatt Rollins age 17 produced a handgun while in hallway f in Great Mills High School and shot a Great Mills High School student, a female who is 16, and a Great Mills High School student, a male who is 14. School resource officer deputy first class blaine gaskel was alerted and immediately responded and engaged the shooter. Dfc blaine gaskel fired at the shooter in what is described to me almost simultaneously the shooter fired. First aid was immediately initiated by deputies, troopers and School Nursing staff to include a tourniquet placed on the shooting victim and cpr. There is an indication that a prior relationship existed between the shooter and the female victim. We are working as we speak to determine if that was, and if so, the extent of that and if it was part of the motive for this shooting. We continue to interview witnesses, collect forensic evidence from multiple crime scenes and examine the shooters Electronic Devices and all aspects of social media. And social media traffic. The 14yearold male student was transported to med star st. Marys hospital. Is in stable condition there. The 16yearold female student was transported to pg shock trauma and she is in icu with life threatening critical injuries. I would ask that anyone that has any information please call the hot line thats been established. 1800callfbi. Now id like to introduce the governor of maryland, governor larry hogan. Governor, thank you. Well, thank you very much for being here today. First of all, i want to thank sheriff cameron and his Incredible Team at the st. Marys county Sheriffs Department who responded in an incredible way with the support of Law Enforcement agencies from neighboring jurisdictions in culver county and Charles County together with state police. We got atf and fbi here. Its been a terrific joint effort. Also want to thank all of the First Responders who did an incredible job and i think everybody went above and beyond the call of duty in this particular incident. Its tragic. Our hearts are broken. And were extremely saddened. And our thoughts and prayers are always with the victims. All of the students and their families. You know, no parent should ever have to worry about when they send their kids off in the morning to school whether theyre going to come home safely or not. And we need more than prayers. I want to thank these First Responders and Law Enforcement officers for the job they did but we need more. Weve got to take action. Weve got one of the most aggressive School Safety plans in america. That we introduced several weeks ago. As emergency legislation in annapolis and legislators failed to take action into it. 50 million into additional School Resource officers like the great Deputy Sheriff that saved further people from being injured and killed today. But not every school has that opportunity. And more Mental Health counselors. So its a tragedy. Were going to continue to support Law Enforcement. At every level. All of our First Responders. Were going to be here for the community. Were going to be here for the families and the children at Great Mills High School. And were going to try to get something done in annapolis. Weve got less than three weeks left in the legislative session and its outrageous we havent taken action yet on something as important as School Safety but were going to fight to get that done. Thank you. Gun violence has been the top of your Administration Since youve been in office. What can you tell us now, hopefully this will not happen again in a Maryland School . I wish i could tell you its not going to happen again. Unfortunately, you know, i wont be able to give you that guarantee. I know we have legislation to make it tougher on anyone who commits a crime with a gun. We have legislation to make it tougher and longer sentences for people that are repeat violent offenders. And weve got, you know, im supporting legislation for the red flag legislation to take the guns out of the hands of the mentally ill or people who are having issues. Ive always said weve got to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill and people with criminal records. And we need the School Safety resources. But its going to take everybody working together. Because nobody should ever have no community should ever have to go through this again. Governor, do you think do you think do you think the way the School Resource officer responded in this case should be an example for School Districts across the country . Were just getting all the facts but i talked with sheriff cameron and it sure sounds like this is exactly the way it should have been handled. Had a very capable School Resource officer that also happened to be a s. W. A. T. Team member. This is a tough guy. Who apparently closed in very quickly and took the right kind of action. And i think while its still tragic, he may have saved other peoples lives so the relationship, more about the relationship excuse me, dr. Smith, please, thank you. Id like to introduce dr. Scott smith, superintendant for st. Marys public schools. It is fairly overwhelming, the response weve had as a result of the incident this morning. Its wonderful to be joined by so many people and to really engage in this conversation. What we had this morning is truly our worst fear. Our worst fear. Our parents worst fear. Theres no way around it. Principal hibel whos over there, hes also a parent. We evacuated the kids from that school to leonard town high school. Where i am a parent. We got contacts from choptakon high school where tim cameron, sheriff cameron, is a parent. This is our greatest fear. So today its in the sheriffs hands while we investigate, while we try to understand why what happened, what happened and to walk through the process. We evacuated almost 1,400 students from that school, to leonard town. Were only halfway through the reunification process with their parents. I went and spoke to both groups. And i said please be patient. This takes time. We have to check every one of your children to make sure that they are okay. To make sure that we have resources in place that when they get home, they know they can reach out to somebody. This is just the beginning of a very long and tragic process that we will go through in st. Marys county. We have done all that were supposed to do. We have a fantastic working relationship. We communication often. It looks as though the sro did exactly what the sro is trained to do. And yet we still have tragic loss of life. We still have somebody in critical condition. And we have students at the school and staff at the school impacted. Dr. Smith, do you know when Great Mills High School will be opened up again . I can tell you this, we you know, all the students have been safely removed from Great Mills High School and theyre being reunited with the parents and we hope thats concluded in the next hour or two. We will then meet with staff at the school. Were definitely going to have Great Mills High School close for tomorrow. We know were also anticipating increment weather and that may impact as well. Wheat get together to see whether or not we can reopen this week. We may be close to the end of the week. We have to talk to the adults. We had several firsthand witnesses of the event. These were all children. It is an exceptionally tragic day. Its an incredibly important conversation. I ask that we all stay informed. If you dont think this cant happen at your school, you are sadly mistaken. We are shaken. But we are very strong in st. Marys. This is an incredible community. I know our parents will come together. I know our kids will come together. Hopefully on the other side of this, be stronger and make good decisions to keep our kids safe every single day. Were going to continue to listen in to this great mills, maryland, news conference. The shooter is dead. It looks as though he may have had a relationship with a 16yearold female who is now in the icu fighting for her life. A 14yearold male who was also shot is in stable condition. Clint, the other part of this is there was an almost simultaneous firing. You were talking before Governor Hogan said that this was a swat team member. About how rare it would be for someone to have a level of training that would allow them to do what perhaps this School Resource officer did. This is not the usual circumstances. To have a School Resource officer whos a s. W. A. T. Team member as well. When youre talking about a s. W. A. T. Team member, its somebody who fires thousands and thousands of rounds every year just for mandatory qualificat n qualification. He did an amazing job. All of his training paid off today. In a split second. He probably saved a lot of people at that school. What its almost certainly going to do is reignite this conversation about whether or not there should be more people inside schools who are armed. This will this will immediately divide across the country. People will say look, there was a School Resource officer, because they were there, armed, with a weapon, they were able to take down a perpetrator in a moments notice. This did not happen in parkland. A lot of the circumstances and the differences between the two will be lost on the public. I think, again it will just reunite the debate, which is how do we stop School Shootings, you know, there are two parts to this. One is the frequency. The other parts the impact. Today, the impact was less. And we had a great School Resource officer who did his job in an amazing way. The frequency is still there. We have School Shootings almost on a weekly basis in this country where students are dying. And we havent addressed that. And why that continues to happen. Why students have access to weapons. And can bring them into schools and can target people. And this sounds like it could have been a very acute scenario. Somebody the shooter knew that was immediately targeted at the school. Weve seen others that are wide spread. Irregardless of that, we have a major problem in this country. You can hear the arguments from people who believe, for example, teachers should be armed, there should be more people inside schools with guns who are armed and use this as an example without, as clint so rightfully points out, this is a very different circumstance. This is a kid, the shooter, who is identified as oscar wyatt rollins. He had a hand gun. He didnt have, as you said, a semiautomatic weapon. He didnt have a weapon that was designed essentially for war. And you had a resource officer, which is, again, a rare thing, whos a s. W. A. T. Team member. Right. Clint gave a clear analysis there. Yes, i agree, you know, a s. W. A. T. Officer is trained higher than the average officer. The average officer is going to have a lot more training than a student. Or a teacher. Or a teacher. Yes. And a lot of these shootings could be reduced immediately if parents would lock up their guns. You know, probably in a third of these shootings, the guns come from home. Just the point of, you know, arming everybody is going to guarantee everythings okay. Look, weve had ambushes at police stations. In fairfax county, virginia, weve had the police ambushed. Pennsylvania state trooper barracks ambushed. Weve had las vegas uniformed officers murdered eating lunch. Weve had officers on west coast, four of them, murdered in a coffee shop, all in uniform. Weve had attacks on the Dallas Police headquarters. Weve had attacks on police off certains in pairs in radio cars. Its no guarantee, because you have a side arm, thatambushed a. We got to understand just giving teachers guns and rudimentary training is not the answer. Jim cavanaugh, clint watts, thank you. We appreciate your expertise. Well continue to listen in on that press conference and bring you any breaking news as we may get it. And as we wait for the White House Daily briefing, we turn to President Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, both of them searching for the best defense, as walls seem to be getting a little closer for both. White House Press SecretarySarah Sanders expected behind this podium a little later on in the hour. A lot of questions for the white house. Including a reported big legal name that trump wants to add to his team, whos already pushing back on the story, just within the last 20 minutes or so. Also today, lawmakers in the u. S. And britain demanding that facebook founder zuckerberg testify. The ftc reportedly investigating facebook. About the controversial ways its handled users personal data. Latest involving the company that helped the Trump Campaign, Cambridge Analytica, doing no favors, by the way, for the trump team today. An explosive undercover documentary thats already alleged a web of lies and sexual blackmail will continue tonight. Nbcs jeff bennett is at the white house. Kacie hunt is on capitol hill. Jeff, lets start with this attempt that was reported for the president to add a very big name to his legal team. It appears the president is trying to add some more firepower to his legal team as the talks continue with the special counsel about the terms of an interview between the president and robert mueller. The Washington Post reported that the legal team reached out to ted olson who you know is the former solicitor general in the george w. Bush administration to join the president s group of lawyers. Now, olson is a washington fixture. And has deeper ties to the justice department. And more experience in major cases than any of the president s current lawyers. But in just the last hour or so, chris, ted butros who is austins partner at the law firm gibson dunn, wrote on twitter, i can confirm that gibson and olson will not be representing trump. While olson isnt joining the team, we do know that just yesterday the president added joe digenova to his team. The former federal prosecutor and fox news regular whos pushed the idea that the president is the target of an elaborate fbi conspiracy. So clearly the president s patience, judging by his twitter feed, his patience with the russia investigation is running out. His team of lawyers advised him some time ago that the special counsel investigation would be wrapped up by the end of 2017. Clearly that hasnt happened. So the president is making some adjustments here to his legal team accordingly, chris. All right, were going to talk a lot more about all of this. I want to go to kacie. What are lawmakers saying about facebook and zuckerberg coming potentially to testify . Does there seem to be a movement in that direction to compel him to testify . Chris, the tide is turning for facebook. This is something theyve been watching carefully, somewhat nervously. This is a company that has enjoyed the support of the public. They have been incredibly popular and incredibly powerful. And that tide is turning very quickly amid concerns both about what they did and didnt do during the 2016 elections as russia used their platform to try and meddle in the u. S. Election. And now also whether or not theyre doing enough to protect personal data of american users and of course that probe around Cambridge Analytica and what kind of information they may have had. Weve asked a number of senators about this. And it definitely seems as though pressures increasing. Take a look. Its time for Mark Zuckerberg to come to congress and testify. The industry wont solve these kinds of problems themselves. Well have to solve them with legislation. Its very serious with what facebook has done and it violates privacy. We ought to be looking into it. I cant promise a hearing at this point. Now, theres always been a lot of nervousness in the congress about trying to regulate facebook because of concerns about free speech, et cetera. And this is an issue that can cut both ways. Both parties have different sets of concerns. It helps s explain why theyve been hands off so far. The more public sentiment turns on this. The more you are going to feel that pressure from here in congress. There are questions around whether or not they violated an agreement with the federal trade commission, the ftc. Theyre looking into what facebook did with this data. So this i think is going to be something that the congress is going to deal with in a substantial way, going forward. And at some point, i think its more likely than not that zuckerberg will face increasing calls to testify. Obviously theyve been very reluctant to put anybody out to speak on their own defense. The lawyers for facebook who have been, shall we say, very careful in their wording. Jeff, also last hour, the mem r members held that news conference. Reiterated at va se ed ad that e russia are still determined to attack our election system. Then we have the pool spray with the president. He talked to putin today. The two did have a phone call. Were waiting for the white house to provide the official details of what the two talked about. You mentioned the photo op there in the oval office. The president was asked about his conversation with russian president putin. Take a listen to what he had to say about that. I had a call with president putin and congratulated him on the victory. His electoral victory. We will probably get together in the not too distance future so that we can discuss arms. We can discuss the arms race. And also to discuss ukraine and syria and north korea and various other things. And we should point out that some World Leaders have hesitated congratulating Vladimir Putin since his reelection took place in an environment of state control. The president there makes no mention of the fact that russia interfered in the 2016 election. And is intent on interfering again in the 2018 midterms. Thats one of the questions well have for Sarah Sanders when she briefs the press in the next hour. Jeff bennett, kacie hunt on capitol hill, thanks to both of you. Members of the Senate Intelligence committee were asked about the president s call with Vladimir Putin. Basically what did they make of the president calling and congratulating putin on his election on the day that senators were talking about russian interference in our election . The response, awkward silence. Election ining at the grteit commented on the fact that trump called putin to congratulate him on his winning the election. And yes, yeah. I would call that awkward silence. That doesnt even talk about the ballot stuffing. Clint watts still here, the former fbi special agent. Msnbc analyst. And host of msnbcs the beat with ari melber, at 6 p. M. Eastern on weekdays. This is a crazy busy day, so lets go back to ted olson. I mean, its tough to overstate how important this guy has been in modern history. I covered the recount in 2000. He was on the bush side of bush v. Gore. Hes represented everybody from tom brady to Jonathan Pollard to wen ho lee, citizens united, he was involved in that case. What does it tell you, a, that the president apparently wants him, and b, that hes saying no . Well, look, in conservative legal circles, this would be lebrontype player to add to the roster. As you say, he has been involved in everything and at a very high level of performance. I think we are clearly seeing a circling of intense concern around the trump probe from the white house. The firing of Andrew Mccabe under suspicious circumstances late friday night. The public news hitting of sp n subpoenaing of the trump organization, thats trumps businesses. The statements from fired fbi director james comey that hes going to tell more of his story coming out. Plus the Stormy Daniels case weve been covering and all these other issues were circling. Theres something shaking. We dont know exactly where it lands. Were seeing the president reach out, on the one hand, to the Person Associated with the deep state joe digenova, trafficking very recently in unproven conspiracy theories. Critics have said he was essentially auditioning by his appearance on fox news, because he wanted to be part of this. Right. So what you see from him to olson is the combination of looking for hail marys and slam dunks, to mix our sports. If you can get him on board, it shows, i would say, obviously, this deep into the game with this many witnesses having testified, moving towards the president ial interview, obviously it suggests some consternation with the current legal team to reach out to mr. Olson. Digenova is totally out of the left field and not someone you bring in necessarily for his courtroom experience but because hes going to say or do things the president likes. The key question really i think right now is if, when, under what circumstances the president would testify, right . And his lawyers have been pretty clear trying to keep him away from the mueller investigators. Theyve been sending them, you know, summaries of things that they think are going to somehow substitute for kept money perhaps. But it follows a pattern with this president. He always believes hes his best spokesperson. We have heard reports that he has told people hes champing at the bit to defend himself, to say i didnt, to clear his name. Hes clearly frustrated with the people who told him this would be over last year and its not. So clint, what happens next . Is joe digenova going to be the guy who goes in there and says sure, go defend yourself. The president likes having people who say i agree, i will add another conspiracy. The president believes hes his own best advocate but hes not had a group of lawyers yet who have told him that so maybe thats what hes essentially trying to hire. I think for the president its a disaster when he goes in. Espec lip when his legal team is submitting documents to that investigative team. You got to wonder, does the president know whats in those documents . Because that now is evidence thats going to the mueller team which theyre then going to turn around in an interview and go, okay, in a statement you cemented to us, you said the following. Let me ask you a followon question to that. It can actually entrap him in a weird way when it goes into questioning because we see when the president gets into details, he oftentimes gets into trouble. We dont know what britain channel 4 is going to report later today on Cambridge Analytica, but let me play part of their reporting that, as you can imagine, raised quite a furor late yesterday and overnight, take a look. No, no, well have a wealthy developer come in, somebody posing as a wealthy developer. Im a master of disguise. Yes, they will offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land, for instance. Well have the whole thing recorded on cameras. Send some girls around to the candidates house. Just saying we could bring some ukrainians in, on holiday with us, you know what im saying . Yes. They are very beautiful ukrainian girls. They are very beautiful. I find that works very well. And yet this is what the company says in response, quote, we entirely refute any allegation that Cambridge Analytica or any of its affiliates use entrapments or socalled honey traps for any purpose whatsoever, nor does it use untrue material for any purpose. So im not an investigator. Im not a lawyer. Did i mishear something on that tape . Isnt it remarkable hes bragging about catching people and recording them on tape and hes being recorded on tape . Its just one of the biggest ironies of this whole thing. If you put that tape in a courtroom and then you put this response that they refute any allegation, i dont know, i might like the chances of the prosecutor, ari. I would too. This is the digital and data firm that Donald Trumps election relied on. Its part of the key of the strength they had on the ground in the electoral college. Shocked, i would say. Shocked. The proof point of that is that brad parscal, along with jared kucher in, oversaw cambridge. Hes the real election chair of the entire campaign. Right, even in charge of 2020. This is a digital problem. It relates to Facebook News you were just reporting on. Its a Trump Campaign problem to the extent they dont show exactly where they draw online between what was shown on tape and what theyre willing to do here at home. Ari, thank you. Clint, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Meantime, Stormy Daniels lawyer is upping the ante, accusations against President Trump. He is tweeting a picture, take a look at it. He confirmed to nbc news it is from a video of Stormy Daniels during a polygraph exam conducted in may 2011 at which she was asked about her relationship with donald trump. And thats not all. He claimed last week on morning joe his client had been threatened. Now hes told our colleague, ari m melber, that he believes the president could be behind those threats. Mr. Trump, aware of these tactics at all times. Mr. Trump has been fully aware, you alleged. Does that mean you have evidence or reason to believe he was aware of the threat against miss daniels . Yes. What does that say to you . Well, i think its serious. I mean, theres no question that its serious. Ari, did he give you anything to back up his claims . Or are we waiting for that interview to air on sunday if it airs . As you say, theres a note of skepticism, a lot of this is a ramp up to an interview we still have not seen yet. Hes doing a pretty good job of it. Hes also parcelling out details. The polygraph here which innocence news has obtained and the Investigative Unit is working on that is dated to 2011. Polygraphs are believed to be about 70percentplus accurate. Theyre not generally admissible in court. I think viewers, chris, would be understandably out of the loop on the fact that late friday night while the deputy fbi corre director was getting canned this filing came in from a new lawyer for defendant donald trump against Stormy Daniels. This is, lets take a step back, an entire alleged relationship and alleged nda that previously the white house said they had nothing to do with or maybe the lawyer Michael Cohen went rogue and facilitatedd payments on hi own. Now the president of the United States suing her and trying to get her quiet. Again, the same man who as a candidate famously said he would bring all of the women accusers he faced into public court. So thats not just inconsistent, it shows that there is something here, and i cant say i know what. And i reported open my show as well. What mr. Aveneti is talking about are allegations at this point. Theres something here theyre intent on keeping out of court and out of the public view to the point we have donald trump himself entering the litigation friday night. And what do you make of him releasing this photo now . The polygraph . Yes. Well, ill tell you this, what i make of it is as a lawyer, he is showing that anyone who wants to say that miss daniels is only here because hes president or only here for money or only here because of the political context of the last two years, that he is putting forward the evidence he has to show. Hes arguing thats not the case. Hes arguing it started back in 2011. Hes arguing his client is now in the realm of the public. I would say the public rules we have, she is facing millions of dollars of threats. The type of thing that would bankrupt anyone. That could scare anyone. Ess hes saying dont impugn my client. She has a story to tell. I think thats effective lawyering. We dont know what the underlying allegationings would show if this goes into public court. In the meantime this dispute, and im going to bring in caylee fang. And the nda, the nondisclosure agreement. She said shed give back the money and all that. Its gone from a federal court to a california state court. The judge will preside. And heres how the daily beast describes it. The suit has now landed in front of a judge known for his efficiency, consistency and the occasional pop culture reference in his rulings and with a long history of presiding over cases emplay matic of the unique blend of grit and glamour found in the nations largest Federal District by population. Certainly some colorful and evocative writing, but what do we know about this judge . Is it clear if he might favor one side or another . So the case was originally filed by Stormy Daniels in state court. Its been removed to federal court. This Federal District court judge was a federal bush appointee in 2003. He is a republican. By all accounts he is, as you heard, efficient. He deals with the cases with the type of efficiency you expect in federal court and thats exactly what somebody like donald trump wants if hes a defendant. He wants to come to a swift resolution in terms of whether or not there is a bipding Confidential Arbitration provision thats going to obligate all parties including daniels to have these issues behind closed doors and outside the public eye and without People Like Us in the public knowing what exactly Stormy Daniels has on trump that keeps him from basically, you know, letting her say what she wants to say either on sunday during the 60 minutes interview or otherwise testifying in open court. Thank you. I did mystique. Went from state court to federal court. Ari, right now, you mentioned the now, you mentioned the nda, the trump team is looking for 20 million bucks, because they say that Stormy Daniels has violated this agreement. Where does that go . Where that goes is ultimately theres two fights here. Theres a fight about what field theyre going to play on. And thats why its so convoluted. Started in state court, goes to federal, where does it ultimately end, out of private court and back to arbitration . Arbitration is a fancy word for corporation, and basically means youre not in a public court anymore, youre in a private process. Once thats resolved, therell be a second question of, was this thing breached in a way that the nda is forced against her, in other words, she cant talk and she has to pay out of pocket. Thats a terrible thing and most people dont have millions of dollars laying around to pay for an an onerous breach provision. Or do they find in some way that this either was not a valid contract, because of these threats or other allegations, or because of the matter of the Public Interest and public standard that basically people should be allowed to speak about the president of the United States, that its otherwise not enforceable. Thats a courts way of saying, she would ultimately get to talk. All right. I am literally just being handed this piece of paper, so bear with me, folks. This is from Jim Rutenberg in the New York Times. A former playboy model who claims she had an affair with donald trump sued on tuesday to be released from a 2016 legal agreement requiring her silence, becoming the second woman, obviously, after Stormy Daniels to challenge trumps allies efforts during the president ial campaign. This is Karen Mcdougal, suing the company that owns the national enquirer, which paid her 150,000 and whose chief executive is a friend of mr. Trumps. And of course, the other person is Stormy Daniels. Let me get your reaction to this this is significant breaking news. This is another womans account who was originally reported in the new yorker. But this goes to what mr. Avenatti is saying, this breaking news is the suggestion here that the reason that the Trump White House and the trump organization, which is involved in all of this, has gone to such Great Lengths to silence miss daniels is that maybe there are other people. Well, now were seeing one with another alleged nda. And obviously this news is just coming into our newsroom, courtesy of the new york city times, as you said, chris. But this explains why as i was mentioning moments ago, we saw such an unusual friday night filing from the white house, basically in the visage of donald trump, personally entering the litigation, which is not something you do lightly, but does suggest they want to stop this. And so the question that emerges is, how many other people, how many other women may be out there with ndas trying to decide, is it in their interest to stay quiet, or if these things are going to break and they have something they want to say, can they do that without being exposed to millions of dollars in fees or bankruptcy . So, again, what the New York Times is reporting, katie, is that miss mcdougal who filed this in Los Angeles Superior Court claims that the preside president s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was secretly involved in her talks with the companies that owns the national enquirer, the American Media inc. , ami, and that the company and her lawyer at the time misled her about the te deal. So her new lawyer, a guy named peter strisz sent an email accusing ami of a multifaceted effort to silence karen mcdebc l mcdougal. Your reaction . Its Michael Cohen. Why is Michael Cohen why is his paw prints on everything . And so what ends up happening is, if you want to have a binding contract, chris, you have to look at the intent of the parties. And if you look at the intent of the parties, you can look at things like emails, correspondence, letters in order to prove the intent of the parties to enter into a binding contract. That contract would be that nondisclosure agreement that Karen Mcdougal is challenging right now and the fact that shes bringing a lawsuit means she want the opportunity to be able to have that discovery process occur so things like interrogatories and depositions, things that could help provide the information that she can use to prove exactly what shes alleging in her complaint can be provided, but ill bet you that theres i bet you theres an arbitration provision there. I bet youll well hear that argument. Torhe other piece, in many ways, the legal odds for this brandnew lawsuit breaking right now for ms. Mcdougal are probably better than ms. Daniels. Ms. Daniels originally contracted for silence. You can contract to talk or not to talk. The allegation was something that had been previously reported. She didnt contract for silence, she contracted to sell her story through a publication, the enquir enquirer, which is famously controlled by a close friend of donald trump. So here the allegation could be very different. Its essentially that she thought she was making a contract to release this story about mr. Trump, quote, im reading here, on her own terms, her suit says, and then they flipped it on her and silenced her by saying, were not going to print it, but you keep the money and you dont get to tell your story here or anywhere else. That i can tell you legally is a stronger claim if you can argue why is that not legal . They paid her for her story, they decided not to use it. Is that any different than somebody options your book, they pay you for it, they think theyre going to make a movie about it and they never do. Its a great question. And now were going to get into, were going to move from playboy models and adult film actresses to a little copyright law if Everyone Wants to come along for the law. The main difference would be, are you holding the copyright or the underlying material. The idea for the movie, you take the kill fee, they own that copyright. Or have you now, perhaps without your knowledge, thats what this seems to allege, been told you cant speak about something that happened in your life ever again . In other words, the enquirer might have a good legal grounds to say, we own those particular words, but not all words you might ever state about this thing. So you can imagine someone could sell an idea for a movie because they lived through a plane crash and the plot of that movie they no longer own, but they can talk. So this is a very interesting suit. So i guess Sarah Sanders is going to the podium. We have to go to her, but i just want to tell you, nbcnews. Com has looked at, as ari had suggested to us at the polygraph, we saw that picture of Stormy Daniels. I am told, i have not seen this, that our reporting shows that there is a 99 probability that she was telling the truth. So theres the picture that was released today. So much breaking news, but were going to go to Sarah Sanders now behind the podium at the white house. To an arms race, something that is clearly important to both leaders. And now that putin has won yet another term, is President Trump concerned that he will continue his aggressive posture toward the rest of the world and maybe even increase that posture . Look, were going to continue to maintain the position that weve had and be tough when necessary. At the same time, we want to continue to have dialogue, so that we can work on some of the issues that concern both countries and were going to continue to do that, while also continuing to be tough on a number of things, including sanctions on russia, rebuilding our own military, and exporting energy, things that we know are not great for russia. Major . Ill get your reaction to a statement that senator john mccain, the chairman of the Armed ServicesCommittee Just put out. And im quoting him directly here. An american president does not leave the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and Fair Election to determine their countrys future, including countless russian patriots who have risked so much to protest putins regime. How do you respond . Look, the president once again has maintained that its important for us to have a dialogue with russia so we can focus on some areas of shared interests, the ones that ive already named. At the same time, were going to continue to be tough on them. The president joined other countries in these calls, both germany and france have reached out, as well as president obama in 2012. These are conversations that sometimes take place and certainly the president finds there to be an importance in having that dialogue with russia so that we can talk about some of the big problems that face the world. Does the white house degree with senator mccains characterization of this as a sham election . We disagree with the fact that we shouldnt have conversations with russia. There are important topics that we should be able to discuss. And that is why the president s going to continue to have that dialogue. At the same time, weve been very clear in the actions that weve taken that were going to be tough on russia, particularly when it comes to areas that we feel where theyve stepped out of place, weve placed tough sanctions on russia, and a number of other things where we have shown exactly what our position is. You brought up in context of johns questioning about timing. Since you mentioned north korea and iran, is it the president s intention to meet with Vladimir Putin before he sees kim jongun or makes a decision on the Iran Nuclear Deal . Again, we dont have any specific plans laid out at this time. Sarah, neither the white house readout of that phone call with putin nor the kremlins readout says anything about election meddling. Did the president not raise the issue of Russian Election meddling in that phone call . I dont believe it came up on this specific call, but it is something that weve spoken extensively about and continue to look at ways and steps forward to make sure it never happens again. And on the president s new attorney, joe digenova, he says that there is this brazen plot by the fbi and the doj to frame the president. Does the white house share that view . Is there a plot to frame President Trump . Look, we certainly have said that there have been some concerns with some of the actions that were taken, but in terms of any comments that hes made, i couldnt speak to those. Matthew . Thanks, sarah. Two more questions on the putin phone call. First, does the white house believe the election in russia was free and fair . Im sorry . Does the white house believe that the election in russia was free and fair . Look, in terms of