Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20180503

Wednesday night. Its one of those wednesdays. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 468 of the trump administration. We have breaking news that were going to break down on several fronts for you tonight. Well catch you up on all of them. Were going to begin with a stunning admission from Rudy Giuliani about that 130,000 hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. This money was paid to ms. Daniels, you recall, by Donald Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. He used a household line of credit, his own money to pay him. You may recall that on air force one, april 5, just a few weeks back, the president told reporters on air force one he had no knowledge of the payment. Well, appearing with sean hannity tonight, here is what Rudy Giuliani said on fox news just a short time ago. That money was not campaign money. Sorry, im give you a fact now you dont know. Its not campaign money. No Campaign Finance violation. They funneled it through a law firm . Funneled through the law firm and the president repaid it. The president repaid it. Sean hannity at that point paused and said, i wasnt aware of that. That will no doubt create a host of new legal problems for the president. Well have much more on that just ahead. Also tonight, the seismic shake up in President Trumps legal team on the russia investigation. Donald trump has hired emmet flood, a veteran criminal defense attorney. He was one of bill clintons impeachment lawyers. He also worked in the White House Counsels Office during george w. Bushs second term. Flood, who is a partner at the d. C. Law firm of williams and connolly will be part of the White House Counsels Office. And the point person for the administrations response to special counsel Robert Mueller. Flood replaces ty cobb. Hes been in that position since july of last year. Hell retire, they say, at the end of this month. There are major legal and political implications that stem from this move. Say nothing of what Rudy Giuliani said tonight. The switch was first reported by the New York Times matt apuzzo who will join us in just a moment, along with michael schmidt. They write, quote, mr. Flood is expected to take a more adversarial approach than mr. Cobb, who voluntarily turned over white house documents to mr. Mueller. The addition of mr. Flood was spearheaded by white House Counsel don mcgahn. Mr. Flood is seen as a possible eventual replacement for mr. Mcgahn who has clashed privately with mr. Trump and whose departure has long been rumored. Our friends over at the Washington Post have also been working this story. Their White House Bureau chief phil rucker standing by to talk with us. His colleagues have written tonight, the legal team shake up is, quote, putting the white house on war footing with federal prosecutors examining russian interference in the 2016 campaign. This signals a new phase, said one senior trump advisor, who was granted anonymity to describe private conversations. We are looking at all the options now. Nothings off the table. But the gloves, ratter, may be coming off. Keep in mind this shift comes after reports on what the special counsel could potentially ask the president as well as the efforts now led by Rudy Giuliani to set up that interview. Here is what giuliani said about the chances for an interview tonight. If their objective we can work something out. If theyre not, then we have to shake hands and basically go into a litigation over do they have the power to subpoena. And i think they lost that power. Right now the odds are he wouldnt be interviewed. But i dont close my mind to it. So, this is a kind of negotiation that took place on Live Television tonight 2010 Rudolph Giuliani and the special counsels office. More on that later. Meanwhile, the president continued to send out messages on twitter assailing the entire russia investigation. Quote, there was no collusion, capital c. It was a hoax, capital h. And there is no obstruction of justice, couple more capitals there. That is a set up and trap. Witness hunt. 9 mueller team, however, interviewed another witness today former Trump Campaign aide michael caputo. This is interesting. He spent three hours with investigators in the special counsels office. During an interview on cnn tonight where he has appeared as a political analyst, caputos description of muellers process was chilling. He knew more in 2016 than i knew myself. I think they know more about the Trump Campaign than anyone ever worked there. I dont think theyre convinced there is no russia collusion. I think the mueller team is spear fishing. I think they believe they know where theyre going. Theyre not asking a wide range of questions. That just sets the table for you on a wednesday night. And with that, lets bring in the members of our leadoff panel. Nicolle wallace is here with us, veteran of the Bush White House and host of deadline white house at 4 00 p. M. Eastern time here on this very network and in this very studio. Plus two Pulitzer Prize winning reporters, the aforementioned matt apuzzo of the New York Times. The aforementioned Philip Rucker bureau chief for the Washington Post. Welcome to you all. Well get through it. Nicolle, there is one of paul newmans better performances is in a movie called the verdict and he snaps at the great irish judge played by milo oshea and says, your honor, if youre going to try my case for me, try not to lose it. A Perfect Place to start. It struck me that on day one of the new white House Counsel, he perhaps was watching fox tonight when Donald Trumps other lawyer Rudy Giuliani may have given away the store on this one aspect. You know, i was in touch with Michael Avenatti after the is his head still attached to his body . You know, he plays a very calm, cool and collected attorney on television, but i think watching this trump team boggles his mind in realtime as well. And i think the fact that donald trump and Rudy Giuliani, who were sort of brothers in arms as, you know, campaign guys on the plane, the fact those two cant keep their stories straight, its not been two weeks. In those two weeks what rudy was supposed to do was wrap up the Mueller Probe. Hes now really torpedoed the president s central legal argument in the Stormy Daniels case, which all of the great reporting that matt and phil have done suggests that donald trump and the people around him in the white house and in his outside band of sort of misfit advisors are far more concerned their legal concerns center far more around the materials that were seized from cohens home and offices. So, rudy potentially damaged the legal predicament that gives donald trump much more grief than the Mueller Probe which i know were going to talk about as well. The control room is going to tell me when they have it ready. Were working on a longer clip of the Rudy Giuliani the money has been repaid. Whats germane to say about Michael Cohen and the relationship between Michael Cohen and donald trump. The retainer he gets from donald trump. Well come back to that. Philip rucker, why dont you give us the overarching answer about the damage done tonight. Well, the damage, brian, is in two realms. Theres the legal damage which im not exactly qualified to talk about, but it seems to be significant. But there is also the political damage. Revelation by Rudy Giuliani exposes the president and White House Press secretary to have been telling falsehoods to the American People. They have not been truthful in saying that the president didnt know about this payment. In fact, he did, according to Rudy Giuliani, his lawyer. That 135,000 payment 130,000 payment, rather, raises a lot of questions. Was this some sort of arrangement that he had with other women . How was this arrangement arrived at . Rudy giuliani in that fox interview references a retainer Michael Cohen had for this sort of work. Described this as part of their standard agreement, sort of the way they did business. So, it just is a huge hole here i think for the reporting. But also for the federal investigators to be digging into at this hour and in the days to come. Matt, im going to throw you a nice high softball by setting you up with this clip. Weve found it, isolated it. Here is the wording from Rudy Giuliani and the following part we meant to run earlier about the relationship between trump and cohen. Well talk to you on the other side. Having something to do with paying this Stormy Daniels danlds woman 130,000 which is going to turnout to be perfectly legal. That money was not campaign money. Sorry, im giving you a fact now you dont know. Its not campaign money. No Campaign Finance violation. They funneled it through a law firm. Funneled through law firm and the president repaid it. Oh, i didnt know he did. Yeah. Theres no Campaign Finance law . Zero. But do you know the president didnt know about this . I believe thats what michael said. He didnt know about the specifics of it as far as i know, but he did know about the general arrangement. Im going to get the part on the air where he talks about Michael Cohens relationship with donald trump if it takes me the better part of the next hour. But were going to do it. Still, that was ill illustrative. Maybe i spent too long in the swamp here, but i actually i actually can see somewhat the logic here tonight. Oh, boy, i want to hear this. Right, no, stay with me. So, look. If you operated under the theory that eventually were going to figure this out, somebody was going to figure this out and blow the whole thing open, i mean, phil is absolutely right that this does sort of put the lie to the white house. When has that really ever stopped anybody from saying something at the white house . So, if its going to come out, framing it as theres no Campaign Finance violation and, you know, if we start hearing tomorrow this was an effort to protect his family or protect his privacy or whatever we started to hear, framing it as this isnt a legal thing, this is a personal thing, stay out of my business, stay out of my personal life, then were in sort of the bill clinton territory of what do we want a special counsel to be. So, while im sure this was not this is not the roll out they would teach you in Public Relations school, it does sort of it does sort of frame it as we didnt break any laws here. And, you know, call us on the lie tomorrow. So, so, i attended Public Relations school. This is not a class we teach there. There was no strategery here. Rudy giulianis central argument against doing an interview with bob mull early is its too wide ranging. He was not sent on hannity tonight to try to exonerate donald trump from Campaign Finance violations in his alleged sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels. That was not the mission. And ive been in touch with several people close to rudy in the last few days and this is not his core mission, to go on tv and exonerate the president from the Campaign Finance angle from the cases, multiple cases avenatti has brought against the president. And the president is staring down the barrel of a potential discovery process in the two cases that avenatti has brought. And what rudy did today hurt that cause. It did not help that cause. So, i dont think that it was any part of anyones plan for rudy to go out there and clear up the Campaign Finance thing, which was an off chute of something that was raised in the 60 minutes interview with Stormy Daniels. Rudys Single Mission is to try to get the president somehow out of the jamb hes in in the Mueller Probe. And the fairy tale of Rudy Giulianis legal capabilities was revealed in the stark est manner possible by airing the damage that he did in that clip to the other two sort of legal challenges that i know vex this white house and his lawyers. I think we have isolated what i was talking about. Lets try it again. That was money that was paid by by his lawyer, the way i would do out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, doesnt matter. The president reimbursed that over a period of several months. I distinctly remember that he did it on his own. He did. Without asking. Look, i dont know. I havent investigated that. No reason to dispute that. No reason to dispute his recollection. I like michael a lot. You like michael a lot. Known him a long time. I feel very bad hes been victimized like this. The president feels even worse. The fact is, just trust me, theyre going to come up with no violations there. Meaning yeah, payments were perfectly legal. So, that was the second go round. Giuliani went there and now we know it was over a period of time. Yeah, and just marry that clip that you just played with Donald Trumps pajama phoner last week with fox and friends when he says, yeah, cohen did a little bitty teen si work for me. He dealt with the crazy stormy situation. You now have the president saying that cohen was my guy on the stormy situation. He called it crazy. Now youve got rudy saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, the money was funneled which isnt exactly a word that, without any sort of legal connotation, the money was funneled through a law firm. It was repaid by donald trump to Michael Cohen. These are new facts in, in legal battles that worry this white house very much. Phil, there is a briefing scheduled for tomorrow. Serious question. What will the calms strategy from that podium Sarah Huckabee sanders be about this . We have russia writ large and for change counsel, for all we know another change of counsel tomorrow. There could be another change tomorrow, brian. I dont know what the strategy will be. I imagine Sarah Sanders is going to want to say as little as she possibly can about both of these matters. Her tendency in these briefings has been to punt many of the questions surrounding all of the legal challenges the president faces to his lawyers outside of the white house. Of course, emmet flood is going to be working in the white house, which is where ty cobb has been, so that does pertain to her. I imagine sheila dress that change. But, look, shell address that change. In response to the Mueller Probe in particular, clearly as you saw with Rudy Giulianis approach on the hannity show tonight, with this Stormy Daniels situation as well, theyre being out front. Theyre talking to the press. Theyre trying to intimidate, trying to play their strategy publicly with mueller and its the new tact. So, matt, having broken the story about emmet flood, we made clear hes a very successful partner at the d. C. Law firm Williams Connolly founded by the legendary Edward Bennett williams. Hes a Yale Law School graduate. Hes been around. He enjoys support in both parties, has a ton of friends on capitol hill, which is an interesting biographical note. Couple questions for you, matt. According to your reporting, whats in it for him . He evidently turned down several other requests. How does he ever get up to speed in a case where 1. 3 million documents have changed hands . I actually think thats going to be the easy part. Experienced lawyers para chute into cases. They have to get up to speed really quickly. An indictment comes down by surprise and they have to learn the whole case with great speed. That action is going to be the easy part. The question i have, and i think that everybody that has been watching this case unfold has, ty cobb was really the voice of accommodation in the white house. He came in at a time when tensions were great and he, he thought that the white house was on the verge of getting subpoenaed by bob mueller and he said, look, hey, were going to cooperate. Whatever you want, everybody will interview. He really actually ruffled some feathers with the White House Counsels Office because he was so willing to turnover these documents and he was convinced, he convinced the president this thing would all be over soon if they just koocooperated and giv everything up and turn everything over. This will be over by thanksgiving. Obviously that hasnt happened. And the question i have is, is emmet flood going to strike a very different posture with mueller . And i think the other thing thats going on here is the trump team is looking down the road and they see the value of having somebody like emmet flood who can fight on two fronts. He can fight against bob mueller and he can also deal with congress if the house or the senate change hands in november. Because if the house changes hands and committees start having subpoena power, then you have to fight in the house and you have to fight subpoenas. Maybe you have to fight impeachment hearings and emmet flood has done that. He fought in the second bush term against congressional inquiries, and he fought both congress and the independent counsel during the clinton years. So, this is really the white house and team trump girding for a longterm fight. I spoke with somebody familiar with flood today. Said you dont hire this guy unless, nicolle, youre going to go into a legal fight. You dont hire him to escort the client into Robert Muellers office. You came on the air at 4 00 p. M. Today with all kinds of nuggetery about this story and deep reporting on what went into this. Well, triggered by the excellent reporting in the New York Times, not just today by matt and mike, but in early march, i think it was Maggie Haberman and mike schmidt who wrote the first piece when he went into the oval office, interviewing for the job, there was a lot of speculation what that was, which triggered a whole lot of reaction from the folks in the busch iv 3 orbit who viewed emmet flood as almost a savior. He was involved in two of the most precarious congressional and Legal Investigations that george w. Bush, my old boss, dealt with in his second term. The attorney general scandal that involved the white house. Questions went all the way up to the level of the president , and the pat tilghman investigation. I know it will take everyone back in time. But just to understand emmet flood, when we talk about him taking a more adversarial posture, it has nothing to do with temperament. He is known to be one of the most sort of softspoken and temperamentally sort of elegant and distinguished people in sort of republican legal circles in washington. And that was certainly his reputation in the Bush White House. But he takes a hard line on executive privilege. That was his reputation, that was what he did, that was his body of work around those two scandals in the 43 work that he did. I heard from three sources that mcgahn was recruiting him for many, many months before it was known, that he had been all the way into the oval office to interview for an undisclosed job at the time. And that don mcgahn views him as his succession plan. If don mcgahn had his way, emmet flood will stay and don mcgahn will be gone in a matter of six to eight weeks. Which firm again is a very rigorous way of doing it actually, to care enough about a handoff to make it peaceful and orderly. And to find someone one of the big sort of legal philosophical collisions that probably didnt get enough attention, other than from folks like matt and people that covered the legal side of this, isnt that don mcgahn was never for what phil and matt have described. He was never for this sort of accommodation of bob muellers requests on document production, on witness participation. Don mcgahn always wanted and needed and lacked an ally on a more aggressive posture on executive privilege. My questions today that have gone unanswered are how do you put the tooth paste back in the tube . Because don mcgahn has spent at least two full days with muellers investigators and so if you were going to exert executive privilege, i dont know with whom you do it. All of the president s advisors have already spent hours, if not days testifying. And as you heard from the clip you played from cnn, bob mueller already knows more about the Trump Campaign, and i would imagine based on the questions that the New York Times published this week, knows more about the way the white house functions than anybody else who works there. Yeah, matt, you are agreeing . 19000 . If there was a moment in time the white house could say, hey, take a long walk, bob mueller, were not going to give up these documents. This is executive privilege material. That was a year ago. You know, youve turned over a million documents plus to the special counsel and youve made it a rule that everybody at the white house, every staff member has to cooperate with bob mueller and sit for an interview. Once youve done that, it becomes awfully difficult to say, well, actually i have a new lawyer and a new strategy. Im not actually interested in providing any information. Well, great, super, thanks for letting us know. We have a million documents already and interviewed everybody. Nicolle is right, you cant put the tooth paste back in the tune. The narrow question that came up today, after seeing i was also told by an attorney very deeply involved in the Mueller Investigation that the publication of the questions that mueller has on obstruction was, quote, an inside job and it was done to get through to the president to get the bosss attention. Around the questions. And if you look at the questions, i mean, the way they were transcribed by the president s lawyer, we understand to be jay sekulow, they get right at what did you know . What did you think around the firing of jim comey . What did you think when you learned that mike flynn might be compromised . I think theyre grasping is at whatever they can get their hands on. And even if someone like emmet flood with his reputation of being someone who sort of believes in a hard line around executive privilege can get them out of having to answer some of those questions that go to the heart of the obstruction of justice investigation, that will be, you know, money well spent or capital well spent in recruiting him into the white house. Phil, it will be said that the departure of ty cobb leaves only one prominent member of the mustache community in the trump white house, and thats mr. Bolton who now stands alone because ty cobb is taking both handle bars and going into retirement apparently. To you, i have a serious question and thats about mr. Caputo, and that chilling description, series of description he gave anderson tonight, having come out of three hours of questioning. Down to the furnishings, how spare and sparse it is, thats going to get a lot of peoples attention, especially the part where he says if your name is caught up in this, youre in peril. Yeah, i was really struck by that, too, brian. He made it clear that mueller is after collusion, that hes not answered those questions yet, that he doesnt believe as the president tweets almost every day that there was no collusion, but in fact is still investigating it, still has questions, still has episodes to look into. And so that should strike fear, you know, in the hearts of some of those who worked on the Trump Campaign who were caught up in this. Some of whom, by the way, have become been indicted or pled guilty. Its worth pointing out when were talking about emmet flood and how elegant and prepared and professional and disciplined he is and a steady hand as is the headline in that Washington Post story. His client now is donald j. Trump, the president , who is anything but all of those adjectives. So, i think its going to be very difficult for him to operate that way as a litigator and as a lawyer inside this particular white house. Yeah, a Senior Lawyer made it clear to me tonight that starting tomorrow, part of his job becomes message control and impulse control of his client. Yeah. Something so many others, some great people among them have failed at. With all this breaking news falling all around us, our thanks to nicolle wallace, to our two pulitzer winners apuzzo and rucker. Thank you very much. Coming up as we take our first break coming up 26 minu s minutes, trump as blown up his team. Did Rudy Giuliani blow up something on Live Television tonight . And then later on this night, when a witness in the russia investigation has emerged to talk about how mueller is working this case, well ask a former mueller lieutenant if that sounds about right. Were just Getting Started on a wednesday night. Im alex trebek, here to tell you about the Colonial Penn program. If youre age 50 to 85, and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. What are the three ps . 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You can save 400 bucks or more a year, which you can spend on a funktastic music video. Dance party boom. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Come see how you can save 400 or more a year with Xfinity Mobile. Plus, ask how to keep your current phone. Visit your local xfinity store today. We are back and weve lawyered up and thats important for this next segment. Rudy giuliani just told fox news that President Trump repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen for that 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 campaign. I was talking about the 130,000 payment. Right. The settlement payment, which is a very regular thing for lawyers to do. The question there was, the only possible violation there would be, was it a Campaign Finance violation. Which usually would result in a fine, by the way, not this big storm troopers coming in and breaking down his apartment and breaking down his office. That was money that was paid by, by his lawyer the way i would do out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, doesnt matter. The president reimbursed that over a period of several months. He remember, i distinctly remember, he did it on his own. He did. Without asking. I dont know. I havent investigated that. No reason to dispute that. No reason to dispute his recollection. I like michael a lot. You like michael a lot. Known him a long time. I feel very bad hes been victimized like this. The president feels even worse. Remember for purposes of this conversation sean hannity has also been publicly identified as a client of Michael Cohen. Moments ago, Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti, who is not a stranger to frequent viewers of cable news, responded to this news tonight on the air with our own lawrence odonnell. This is an outrage, what has gone on here. The American People have been lied to about this agreement, about the 130,000, about the reimbursements, and this is consistent with what we have been saying now for months, that ultimately was going to be proven and ultimately was going to come out. We just didnt know Rudy Giuliani was going to go on the Sean Hannity Show and admit it on national television. And the wall street journal is on the board. They just published this point moments ago. Mr. Giuliani who joined the legal team representing President Donald Trump in the russia investigation last month told the wall street Journal Wednesday evening that the president had repaid mr. Cohen, but suggested that mr. Cohen had settled the payment without mr. Trumps knowledge at the time. So much to discuss. With us here in new york, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, now a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the Pace University school of law. And Peter Seidenberg is back with us, a former pedestrian ral prosecutor, deputy special counsel importantly in the Scooter Libby case during busch iv 3. Counselors, welcome to you both. Mimi, youre sitting here in our studio. You get to go first. What just happened tonight . So many things. And its hard to know which one to start with. But lets start with what Michael Avenatti is doing a dance about right now, which is about acknowledging that trump paid cohen back in a way that, first of all, just shows that trump has been lying, but it also really will damage their civil case, the defendants civil case. So, it will be i mean, avenatti has a much a much better case now than he did an hour ago. But its bigger than that i think. Its not just about this civil case with Stormy Daniels. Theres a couple things. First of all, i think the purpose of what giuliani was saying, i think he was trying to do away with this idea of a Campaign Finance violation. Not sure why he was focused on that so much because that seems to be the least of trumps problems in some ways. But he didnt even accomplish that. By saying a Campaign Finance violation is defined as to whether the payment is to influence the election, to put it in its simplest terms. Nothing giuliani said changes that. So, hes still in Campaign Finance violation territory and hes done further damage because he has now proven or stated, rather, that trump knew about the payment because to pay it back you had to know about it. We dont know what else is going to come out in cohens criminal case, Michael Cohens criminal case. And depending on what comes out about that payment and, you know, the source of the funds and he has now put trump in i think potentially more hot water with respect to that criminal investigation of the payment. And thats very dangerous. Peter, before i come to you, i want to read something robert costa just said on twitter. Giuliani tells me he just spoke with potus tonight by phone. President , quote, very pleased, giuliani says. He says they discussed his revelation of the reimbursements long in advance. Does not expect to be fired. Insists his remarks on Fox News Channel were approved by trump. Story to come. Thats journalist talk for to come, tk. So, peter, at the start of this night before we had this development, you made the point that the payment to lets see here the donald trump repayment to his lawyer, the timing of that is critical because of what we have learned about Michael Cohen as a potential witness, correct . Well, its surely going to be of interest. The timing of this is really important. Now, it may not be an issue in terms i think, i think the Campaign Finance issue is a live one regardless of the timing. But, you know, the reporting that Michael Cohen was upset because donald trump had not repaid him the 130,000 and then Michael Cohens apartment is raided and hes obviously presumed to be the target of a criminal investigation. Id certainly want to know if any of that payment came subsequent to that raid because if it was, there could be a world of problems for president if that money was paid. That would look very troubling in terms of the timing of a payment like that. Mimi, whats interesting about the hiring of a prominent white shoe lawyer in washington is that hes joining in realtime this legal team that is a moving target. They have made various arguments just today. I want to play for our audience, Rudy Giuliani from tonight on fox news talking about why the president really fired james comey, and that will be followed by what the president told lester holt about why he fired james comey. He fired comey because comey would not, among other things, say that he wasnt a target of the investigation. Hes entitled to that. Hillary clinton got that, and he couldnt get that. So he fired him and he said, im free of this guy. And he went on lester holt, lester holts interview was as good as anybody could do, better than anything any of the people around mueller could have done. Lester holt asked him, why did you do it . He said, i did it because i felt that i had to explain to the American People their president was not the target of the investigation. Regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. Knowing there was no good time to do it. And, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. So, mimi, there you have it. The giuliani argument was interesting. We were unable to look up and see when Hillary Clinton had been president , but our researchers are still working on that. What do you make of that . Well, again, its first of all, everyone here loses credibility, both trump and giuliani because they cant even keep their story internally consistent. And, you know, weve said this before about trump. He cant keep his story straight. Its hard to keep your story straight when youre not telling the truth. Thats one problem. Their stories are inherently contradictory. Doesnt look very credible. But second, you know, what giuliani said is essentially some of the evidence that mueller would be looking for, which is he that trump fired comey because comey wouldnt clear his name. That goes right to that question of intent with respect to obstruction. So, you know, i think trumps own statement to lester holt also was damaging because he said, you know, because of that russia thing, it showed it was on his mind. But giulianis was even more focused on that. Its because he wouldnt clear me. That to me rings even more of obstruction. Peter, this brings us back to mr. Flood and his decision to join this legal team. First of all, do you know him personally . And second, without making a personal judgment, can you imagine why a partner of Williams Connolly with a perfectly good career behind him and in front of him would take this job and enter a mature case that is where it is right now tonight . You know, i dont know mr. Flood. He has a terrific reputation by everything ive read and heard about him, and he comes from a terrific law firm. I cant imagine for the life of me why he would want this job. I mean, you know, the challenge is great, but the fact is youre representing someone who, who knows what hes going to say tomorrow morning on fox and friends or on twitter . And, you know, the best laid plans, the best laid strategy are destroyed in a single tweet. And youre embarrassed and, you know, no ones credibility after working with this administration and this president comes out unscathed. I havent i dont think there is a person in the administration thats better off after having gone through this and a lot of people come out tarnished if their reputations arent ruined. So, you know, i cant imagine why someone would do it. And thats why its been so difficult for him all these months to find someone of his caliber. Ill be interested to see, you can set the clock start running right now and see how long he lafts lasts. Our thanks to two lawyers who enhance this session when they stop by. Thanks for rolling with us tonight. And coming up, a former mueller lieutenant talks about how the boss works amid new reporting tonight about what its like to be on the inside under questioning by them. Thats when we continue. Racing isnt the only and with godaddy, im making my ideas real. With godaddy you can get a website to sell online. And it will look good. I made my own way. Now its time to make yours. Everything is working just like it should to keep our community safe. Before you do any project big or small, pg e will come out and mark your gas and electric lines so you dont hit them when you dig. Call 811 before you dig, and make sure that you and your neighbors are safe. As we mentioned tonight weve heard from a witness in this russia case who was interviewed by muellers team just today, he said he believes anyone whose name is connected with this case is in peril. He says not only is the mueller team famously all business, but so is their office space. Nondescript and decorated with second and thirdhand furniture. Its a very nondescript, very ugly Government Office with a bunch of locks on the door. The furniture is all second or thirdhand. Theyre all business over there. Theyre not looking for any luxury. And ill tell you, from my experience, you know, the people who were in the room with me, it was kind of, kind of moving from, you know, a kind and focused interview to, you know, kind of a challenging, what are you talking about thing. And it went back and forth. While the president has led the attack on the justice department, the attorney general, the fbi, the intel agencies, tonight the president s lawyer Rudy Giuliani called on the attorney general to end the investigation. He said, quote, the crimes have all been committed by the government. And all the while, the Mueller Investigation has continued in a hyper orderly fashion and in total secrecy devoid of any leaks. With us tonight is robert anderson, former fbi executive assistant director, serve as assistant Counter Intelligence under then fbi director Robert Mueller. Not long ago he was the author of a piece in time magazine, how Robert Mueller works a case. We thought there was one person in the world to talk to about this. Bob, do we have this depiction of how mueller works a case about right . Oh, no, youve got it dead right, brian. I will tell you that when hes sitting down or his team is sitting down, which ive said many times on this program, hes got some of the best men and women in the world working on that team. Theyre experts in criminal law, Counter Intelligence, financial crimes. And when they sit down to talk to whether to subject, to target, or somebody to be interviewed, when they ask you a question, about 99 sure they already know the answer to it and they dont know by conjecture. Theyre going to know by facts either through other interviews or Source Information or by subpoenas. So, when you get into those rooms, as weve talked about before, a lot of times when people start misleading investigators, thats when things really start going off the rails because they already know the answers to the questions. And more and more these days, you hear people say at one time the unthinkable, were living in an era where if the president goes in there for questioning, you cant be sure if hes going to tell the truth. Yeah, unfortunately i think thats sad, but i think it may be true. And i think also what were seeing here tonight with the different interviews going on, not only with the clips of the president , but his newly hired counsel, mr. Giuliani, theres a lot of, a lot of situations that i think hes putting his client at risk. And honestly, the way that theyre going back and forth and kochlting on the different incidents, especially around the firing of the former director jim comey, i think theyre putting themselves really at risk because that is very, very close to bordering especially with the intent when you look at that, of obstruction. So, if youre Robert Mueller or his top lieutenants, how do you look at that interview on fox news tonight with Rudy Giuliani . And do you view it as giuliani apparently intended it to be a kind of public act of negotiation over this meeting . Yeah, i think youre right. I think there was some aspects of that. I dont think it was willynilly. Im sure it was calculated although it came off almost casual. That was too big of a statement to make. And in most of these cases skp and i think people need to understand this. When youre dealing with highprofile individuals regardless whether theyre in the Public Sector or international stage, its not uncommon for individuals to go through some forms of negotiation with the counsels office before they go in and sit down for the actual interview. I dont think that part of it is uncommon at all. Boban der son, please come back on all big news worthy nights, especially where your former boss is concerned because its a real asset to be able to toss questions to you. Thank you very much for joining us from washington. Thanks, brian. During this appearance on fox news tonight, Rudy Giuliani also commented on Robert Mueller possibly bringing in for interviews ivanka trump and jared kushner. If they do do ivanka, which i doubt they will, the whole country will turn on her. Theyre going after his daughter . What about his soninlaw . They talked about him. I guess jared is a fine man, you know that. But men are, you know, disposable. But a fine woman like ivanka, come on. Men are disposable. Lets remember that quote for posterity. Lets talk about this. We welcome to the broadcast mar a gay, a member of the New York Times Editorial Board and jeremy peters, political reporter for the New York Times and an msnbc contributor. Another one of those all the New York Times segments that happened increasing frequency around here. Mara, i learned about you on the break you formerly covered city hall. Mr. Giuliani is not an unknown quantity to you. In your view, what just happened tonight . What did we just witness . This is rudy being rudy. Anybody who has covered him or written about him or known him for any period of time. In some ways this is no different than he was 20 years ago. Other ways, a lot of people who are close to him say that hes being a little bit different of late. Maybe not as sharp as he used to be. I want to be very careful. Hes a very smart man. But ive got to say that this is someone who brings a lot of experience. He was a prosecutor. He ran new york city. Everybody loved him, hated him. He was a pretty strong figure. He was known as americas mayor. And to see that performance was really disheartening in so many ways. Its not clear, you know, that he was intentional in what he said. It came off as kind of it came off as not necessary kind of free ranging i think somebody said. We dont really know. Im so disappointed just watching him. And i just what he said about what he said about ivanka trump, just to narrow in for a second, this is still a democracy. So, you know, theres no protection about the president s children. I think the American People deserve a fair, open, honest accounting of what happened. And after tonight its clear that multiple people are lying. We already knew that in some sense. Its hard to trust any of this. And i think the circus is in full force and, you know, lets hope that bob mueller is as talented as it appears. Jeremy, id love to be with you tomorrow when you make your calls. And im wondering about how republicans, prominent or not, are going to process just the post5 00 p. M. News cycle tonight. Post10 00 p. M. News cycle tonight, brian, really. Yeah. I was dozing off when this news hit, my prethe 11th hour nap. In an effort not to be disposable to you. No, but i do think, in all seriousness, what you have, once again, is a white house that cant get its story straight. One of the White House Deputy press secretaries went on fox news shortly after rudys comments and said, we didnt know he was going to say that. Then you have rudy apparently telling bob costa of the Washington Post, no, the president authorized this. It was all perfectly fine. So, while they try to get their story straight, republicans on capitol hill and in the white house and all across the country who have made it their party line to defend this president at almost any cost, lets not forget, the Republican Party these days has become less about any particular ideology or set of principles than it has about defending donald trump. Theyre left wondering, okay, is this about to get much, much more serious . And are charges coming down maybe sooner than we really realized . Because this is much messier and this white house is actually much less competent at keeping its story straight than we thought it was. So, how is this to our veteran viewers, despite a time schedule that makes our guests actually have power naps before joining us because of the extraordinary amount of news tonight, here we are with two pillars of the New York Times and we are forced to go to a commercial break and thank them. Jeremy peters of the aforementioned power nap. Mara, we have been trying to have you on for a long time. Were so happy youve joined us. Thank you. Please make it the first of many. Thank you for having me. Thanks to the the New York Times for the loan. Its one of the president s favorite phrases. No matter the subject, need a little levitt at the end of the broadcast, we have it for you. That will generate over 600 million results. And if youve been diagnosed with cancer, searching for answers like where to treat, can feel even more overwhelming. So start your search with a specialist at Cancer Treatment centers of america. Start with teams of Cancer Treatment experts under one roof. 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On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. South l. A. Is very medically underserved. When the old hospital closed people in the community lived with untreated Health Problems for years. So, with the countys help we built a new hospital from the ground up and having citi as an early investor worked as a signal to others to invest. With citis help we built a wonderful Maternity Ward and we were able to purchase an mri machine. Weve made it possible for the people who live here to lead healthier lives and thats invaluable. Mike has also earned my deep respect admiration and trust and youll see why over the coming years. Probably over the coming months. Last thing before we go tonight. By now we all know the president has a minagery of his favorite goto phrases. One you may not have noticed quite so often, youll see, has as its close cousin, well see. The president uses both to respond to questions on a range of issues. The economy, foreign policy, staffing changes, some firings in his administration. Any time he wishes to be vague. This was noticed most recently today by a guest on our broadcast here last week, katie rogers of the New York Times. Here now some of the examples we collected the well see what happens. Imling telling you what im doing, a lot of people think they know. But well see. Well see also if i do what some people expect. Were going to see what happens on the 12th. Well see how it goes. And again, whatever happens, happens. Lets see what happens. Well see what happens. Well see how it all turns out. Maybe it will be good, and maybe it wont. Were going to see what happens with north korea. And were going to see what happens with north korea. Lets see what happens. Youll see, youll see. And hell see. Well see what happens. So, well see what happens. Hell make a decision. Well see what happens. We started a process and well see how it i understand up. We made a lot of progress well see how it works out. Well have to see. Well see what happens. Well see what happens. Well see what happens. Well see what happens. Would you be open to well see what happens. Certainly wee seal what happens. Why dont i just fire mueller . Well, i think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens, but i think its really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, you should fire him. So, well see what happens. I think its disgraceful and so does a lot of other people. This is a pure and simple witch hunt. Tomorrow, which begins in seconds, is day 469 of the trump presidency. Say it with me. Well see what happens. That for us is our broadcast for tonight. Thank you so very much for being here. Good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. Wartime consigliere as he once again threaten his own justice department. Whats going on is a disgrace. The president s big step towards a crisis. Then a New York Times bombshell. Its a great honor to be with president poroshenko of the ukraine. Did ukraine stop cooperating with the Mueller Probe in exchange for american missiles . Plus, the Vice President s controversial visit tough arizona. Sheriff joe arpaio, im honored to have you here. And just what is happening in the West Virginia senate race. In fact, your probation officer is in nevada. Youre running for u. S. Senate in West Virginia