Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20190308

Office building. Good evening from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. We reached day 777 of the trump administration, and tonight, it brought an explosive turn of events in the case of paul ma that fort. In the case of two prison stenss hell receive in a week, they sentenced Donald Trumps former Campaign Chairman to 47 months in prison. Thats a month shy with four years with a further nine month reduction for time already served. A 47month sentence in this case where muellers prosecutors asked for 19 to 24 years, almost a quarter century in prison for a man days away from turning 70. The Paul Manafort who we usually show at this point in the broadcast in this file video looking robust while walking into and out of court, that Paul Manafort appeared in court today in a wheelchair wearing a green prison jump suit with the words al alexandria inmate and his previous chestnut hair coloring is all gray. Federal judge t. S. Ellis spoke before sentencing and talked about that recommended prison term guideline of 19 to 24 years from the feds. Quote, these guidelines are quite high. I think this sentencing range is excessive. Manafort has been a good friend to others, a generous person, he has lived an otherwise blameless life. Manafort also had a chance to speak saying quote, the last two years had been the most difficult years for my family and i. To say that i feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. I ask for your compassion. I know it is my conduct that has brought me here. And that was as close as manafort got to an apology. Then came the surprising 47month sentence. His lawyer later spoke outside the court. Mr. Manafort finally got to speak for himself. He made clear he accepts responsibility for his conduct, and i think most importantly what you saw today is the same thing that we had said from day one, there is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any Government Official from russia. Muellers focus on Paul Manafort became public back in the summer of 2017 when the fbi executed the search warrant at his home then in october he and his Trump Campaign chair deputy rick gates were indicted, february 2018 things got more interesting when gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators, he started cooperating with the government. Last august, manafort was convicted in virginia one month later he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy charges in d. C. Federal court and entered a Cooperation Agreement with the feds but it was torn up last month when manafort was found to have lied to prosecutors and they frown on that. Next week the judge in that d. C. Case will sentence him for the two conspiracy charges. Each carries a maximum penalty of five years. Manafort spent five months on the Trump Campaign. He was hired to manage the 2016 republican convention, and generally keep the nominee front and center in the news media. Donald trump understands media. Hes a television star. And hes connected with america. This is the ultimate reality show. Its the presidency of the United States. Manafort also defending the president amid mounting questions about his ties to russia. So to be clear, mr. Trump has no Financial Relationships with any russian oligarchs. Thats what he said. Thats obviously what our position is. There you go. In recent months, President Trump tried to distance himself from Paul Manafort while also praising him showing simple though for him, and painting him as a victim. I think a lot of it is very unfair. I look at some of them where they go back 12 years. Manafort has nothing to do with our campaign. I feel badly for both. I must tell you that Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with ronald reagan. He was with a lot of different people over the years, and i feel very sad about that. Comments like that have fueled speculation about whether trump could potentially pardon Paul Manafort. He was asked about that late last year. It seems like youre learning towards pardoning Paul Manafort. Is that true . Its very sad what happened to paul, the way hes being treated. Ive never seen anybody treated so poorly. I have not offered any pardons and i think they asked or whatever would you . I said im not taking anything off the table. Lets bring in our panel on this busy thursday night. Jessica roth with the Southern District of new york, now a profess professor. Jonathan lamarre, White House Reporter for the Associated Press and ken, nbc news intelligence and National Security reporter covering the manafort case for months and broke the news of the sentence while appearing live on our air earlier tonight, and ken, for that reason, id like to begin with you. Manafort shows to take a pass on a full apology. Federal judge then chooses to take a pass on the recommended sentence from the feds. What was having watched you in the moment, what was your level of surprise when this sentence came down . Oh, it was a stunner, brian. I mean, not terribly surprising that judge ellis would go lower than the guidelines. After all, judge ellis expressed skepticism about this case from the moment the mueller team walked into his courtroom. He expressed doubts about the entire special counsel investigation, and at one point significant guested that the only reason they cared about Paul Manaforts crimes is to squeeze him to get to the president , but nobody expected a sentence this light. It was particularly before the sentence the first surprising thing was as you said the idea Paul Manafort, his first opportunity to speak publicly since 2017 and he said really not a word of apology or regret. The judge remarked on it and said i was surprised to hear no expression of regret from you. But nonetheless, the judge didnt appear to make him pay any price for that and it was really disconnected from reality to hear judge ellis say youve lived an otherwise blameless life like judge ellis never read the first thing about Paul Manafort and known he was known as a leader of the tortures lobby for representing dictators around the world long before he ever came to Donald Trumps orbit and this wasnt a one off brief period of crime here that hes been accused and convicted of, this was a tenyear crime spree as mueller and prosecutors have laid out. This was a massive effort to defraud banks and evade taxes for a long time and to lie and commit felonies after making a deal with prosecution. Its a really surprising outcome from a federal judge who from what im told been in front of the court tends to be harder on poor defendants than on white collar offenders. There we said that. A counselor, when you look at it, a guy who has stolen millions, a guy that lied to the feds, tampered with witnesses, then to hear that he has led an otherwise blameless life. What was your level of surprise . I was shocked by the sentence. Its not to say four years is a significant sentence, it is. Four years is significant. In the context of this case and sentencing generally in the United States where we routinely send people to ten years or 20 years for dealing drugs and look at other white collar sentencing, Bernard Madoff 150 years in prison and Sheldon Silver sentenced to seven years in prison when he was in his 70s for public corruption, they led lives where they had not yet been convicted of crimes. In that context and given what the guidelines range was here, it was extraordinarily low and when we think about the magnitude of the crimes. These were eight felony counts of conviction. Somewhere the jury had to find he willfully violated the law, meaning he knew. Thats the highest standard we have in criminal law and to use some of the numbers that the special counsel used repeatedly in the sentencing me ing memora through 12 entities, concealing 55 million and 6 million in taxes that werent paid. This was an extraordinarily extensive crime over a tenyear period. What the judge said, there was a real mismatch between that and the facts that were established during the trial. Lets talk about your former colleagues, the federal prosecutors here. What is that locker room likely like when they come out of a courtroom with a gut punch like this, how does mueller feel in his top lieutenants, lets theoryize. Im guessing they were shocked, too. I think any observer of this proceeding would have been shocked given what the guideline range was and again, what the crimes of conviction were and facts established during the trial. To be clear, they didnt recommend a particular sentence. They agreed that the probation offices calculations of 19 to 24 years was the appropriate range and the correct calculations and they pointed out that they wouldnt ill mag gin they are shocked and disappointed but have next week before judge Amy Berman Jackson in d. C. Will get another opportunity effectively to add more time to the sentence because she does have the authority to impose her sentenc jonathan lamarre, lets talk your lane of work and that is gathering reaction beginning with rudolph giuliani. He was at the white house today. He said that he had left the president s company by the time the manaforts sentencing came down. He has not spoken to the president about that and speaking for himself but used this moment to take a real swipe at the special counsels investigation. Ill read you a little of what he said. He said its not american to keep a man in solitary confinement to crack him. He made a point of saying hes not a terrorist. Hes not an organized criminal. Hes a white collar criminal. The term of difference between solitary confinement and protective custody. He was held alone but not as a punitive matter. Correct. Remember Rudy Giulianis background and here going light on a white collar criminal and said he thought this was out of proportion for what manafort has done and echoed the judge in that way to not take into account manaforts decades of perhaps wrongdoing. And he said that in particular this was characteristic of Andrew Wiseman and the president himself accord thanksgiving our repo according to our reporting calls him scum and derogatory names. For other prosecutors they are over reaching and made it personal and feel like this is perhaps a victory for them and a real blow to the special counsel and could undermine whatever findings are coming next that could come out in days or weeks. Ken, remind us how much of what were talking about and witnessing is manaforts own doing from the start. My goodness, look, first of all, you know, when Paul Manafort crime to the Trump Campaign, i heard him portrayed as a master genius. The only client that he had was a russian back ukrainian oligarch. Thats what he had been doing and exposed in his trial that he was especially out of the political game. He hadnt run a Political Campaign in years. He had devoted his life to flaking for this politician who essentially was opposed to american interests. Ive talked to people in the Intelligence Community that believe manafort was a russian asset, if not a name in pungs becau function because he was doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin and enriching himself and could have taken the many millions of dollars he was paid by these ukrainians and lived a nice life but instead chose to massively evade taxes by routing this money through Foreign Bank Accounts in cypress. This is entirely of his doing and he lived a great life. The 10,000 suits, we saw the ostrich jackets, landscaping, the homes in the hamptons and elsewhere. No one should shed a tear for Paul Manafort in the sense he profited from his crimes and hes paying the price. Counselor, further attempt at tear shedding, Jennifer Jacobs said manafort fortune depleted appeared in court in a wheelcha wheelchair. Severe gout, high blood pressure, arthritis, severe anxiety, panic attacks and a constant feeling claustrophobia. We have products for all of that in the first commercial break. Do you think the judge went for that . So we havent seen the transcript yet so i dont know if he actually talked about manaforts Health Condition in his reasons for imposing the sentence. Ill be interested to see that when we have the transcript. From whats reported, that doesnt appear to be a focus of his reasons for departing downwards so severely. People who have seveno serios Health Conditions go to prison all the time and the u. S. Sentencing guidelines talk about how generally having a Health Condition, a medical problem is not a reason not to send somebody to prison because so many people have those conditions and our prisons are set up to treat the vast majority of conditions. So its possible that on some human level that that was appealing to the judge and it was sympathetic as a matter of legal analysis. Thats not a good basis for asking for a judge to depart so seriously downward. This is where you told me that federal judges have blinders on, and dont watch the actions of other federal courts. Is this going to affect judge jacksons opinion as you mentioned she has the chance to tack on ten years next week, will she be mindful of what we just watched . Certainly aware of it. A human. News coverage. Also, it will be appropriate for the lawyers to address what happened today in the sentence that was imposed in their argue thes about whether or not she should impose a sentence to run as i said consecutively. Or concurrently. The norm is concur renrentco. If she shrinks thinks its not adequate, she has the authority to impose consecutive and my guess she will impose additional time to run consecutive. Jonathan lamarre, let me play something for you that got our attention. This is brennan tonight on hardball. A number of u. S. Persons worked with the russians in one form or another, its been demonstrated now that there was this active engagement. I smell more indictments. Family members . I believe that if there are going to be Family Members indicted by the special counsel, it would be the final raft of indictments because i think bob mueller and his team know if in fact they indict somebody of the trump family, that donald trump would not allow bob mueller to continue. Again, that focuses the mind. How do you think the white house is feeling tonight . Hes voicing the conventional wisdom there in d. C. Circles, if there are more indictments coming, if there were and there were to be members of the family. It would be a fadeaway jump shot. Thats right. As the buzzer goes off, bob mueller heads for the showers. That the president how he would react. There is great speculation. We know hes talked privately to people around him that if he is fearful that particularly his eldest son could be in legal trouble. Don junior himself has mused at times he was, too. Our sense of it is hes breathing a little easier these days. But there is no question that if that is where the end game is, whether its this month or next or whatever the special counsel does wrap things up and a report is issued to d. O. J. And the public sees part of that and maybe indictments come along with it, that changes things. They feel under pressure from the investigation. There is a president reeling from the failed summit of vietnam to very damaging testimony from Michael Cohen to a number of failures including the government shutdown. There is a sense the oval office, those walls will starting to sort of close in around him. And people close to him think that if there was a Family Member to be indicted, its unclear how he would react but it probably wouldnt be calmly and there is a sense that then action would be taken to finish the special counsel probe, to end it if mueller wasnt already on his own terms. So an ominous ending. Were indebted to youall for your commentary and reporting. We really appreciate it. Coming up, on his way to federal prison, Michael Cohen with nothing to lose tries to get something out of his former employer and later, two politzer Prize Winners are here to take account of a slowrolling scandal covered here and elsewhere every day and night in realtime. Thats another way of saying that the 11th hour is just Getting Started on a thursday night. S just Getting Started on a thursday night. You wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. And all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. Flonase sensimist. Did you know, the exact same hotel room can have many different prices . It all depends on where you look. Wait, you paid how much . Oh, dear well, this is awkward. Thats why tripadvisor checks over 200 booking sites Cash Register ringing to find you a great price, and the hotel you want, so you dont end up overpaying for your room. No offense. Find the right hotel room for the right price. Hoo read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do. Tripadvisor. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best to make you everybody else. Means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. Does this sound dismal . It isnt. Its the most wonderful life on earth. It might be the definition but the president s old lawyers say the Trump Organization owes him money and hes suing for it. The lawsuit filed here in new york accusing the company of breaking a contract by refusing to pay 1. 9 million in legal fees and seeking an additional 1. 9 Million Dollar for penalties he was boaordered to pay while working for donald trump and the Trump Organization and cohen says the trump patrol morganiza promised to pay his legal bills and says the suit honored the agreement by in june 2018 the company stopped paying when it became clear mr. Cohen would cooperate in on going investigations with his work in the trump investigations and principle directors and officers. A lawyer for the Trump Organization disputed there was ever a contract between cohen and the company telling the Washington Post in a quick and simple quote, its an act of desperation. Meanwhile, its important to remember just how quickly things went south between this president and his longtime former lawyer. Exactly one year ago today Michael Cohen was working hard to keep adult film star Stormy Daniels quiet over her alleged fair with donald trump. Nbc news reported 2018 cohen was trying to quote silence Stormy Daniels obtaining a secret restraining order and a private arbitration proceeding and warning she will face penalties if she publicly discusses a relationship with the president. Well, here with us tonight to talk about all of it, Emily Jane Fox and were also joined by another returning veteran, nancy cook, White House Reporter for politico. Emily, what a year its been when you put it that way and stated at our meeting this afternoon was hard to believe in terms of Michael Cohens day to day role and his public persona and now the Michael Cohen were watching live out in public. It is truly stunning what can change in just 36 five days. Ive been thinking about this constantly over the last week and what has sort of been peak Michael Cohen for the american publ public. Last year at this time, he was in pretty much daily contact with the president as they hammered out the details. One phone just for his calls. Thats right. The first time i interviewed him, he had two phones. One was just for the white house to reach him. This is around the time he was discussing his initial testimony to congress. So there are other implications ability that second phone and that direct line from the white house at that period of time but he was visiting maralago twice at this time last year and to think of where we are today, where he is filing this lawsuit saying last week what he said publicly and today that not only am i going to implicate you and potential federal crimes, but im going to ask you to pay for the legal bills ive racked up and those are quite hefty. Thats what i wanted to ask you about. Does he ever really expect to see a dollar and why is he doing this now . The timing of it to me was a question today and i think my understanding of it is cohen is going to prison and set to report in less than two months and end andispending the bulk o time preparing for what he heard last week on capitol hill and finished with his testimony in front of congress. He has to focus on Getting Affairs in order and some of them include figuring out how to pay for the lawyers that hes retained over the last year, and the way i understand it from people close to cohen is that these were legal bills that were not only because of his work for the Trump Organization and for President Trump but promised to him and as we saw in the suit he filed today, the Trump Organization did pay him back for these fees. There was some sort of agreement where they were paying for these legal services, now that abru abruptly stopped once the Defense Agreement came to an end in the early summer of 2018 but i have long thought about how this breakup between cohen and trump first began, and a lot of it had to do with public statements that the president was making on fox news and Rudy Giuliani was making definitely trying to distance themselves from cohen and the work he was doing and the trouble he was in with the Southern District of new york but also over this dispute who would pay the legal fees and both of those things weighed heavily on cohen as he came to the realization that this is a man i have been protecting for a decade and hes doing nothing to protect me. Nancy, talk about exactly that, this breakup and why its different, a long time insider keeper of the secrets and a guy who has publicly split with the boss at a critical time. Well, its just very rare for republicans or anyone to rebuke the president so much. I mean, were just now on capitol hill seeing the potential first time that senators are bucking trump over the National Emergency decoloration. So hes really had two years of his presidency where a lot of people in washington have been to his will. Weve seen that with the justice department. Weve seen that with cabinet members of his, with republican lawmakers, and the breakup between him and cohen has been so epic because its just happened over the course of the year, and because cohen really right before he goes to prison is airing all of the dirty laundry of the Trump Organization quite publicly. He was on the hill last week testifying both publicly and privately before both house and Senate Committees and it sort of feels like he has nothing left to lose. The white house is trying to poke holes in the credibility of the testimony but he does have a lot of documents and they back up some of the points hes making. Nancy, i have to ask, i dont mean to call for judgment on your part but do you get the feeling all this talk about pardons, the kind of pardon side bar story last few days has gotten too much attention more oxygen than it deserves . Well, i think that the white house at least is trying to use it as another data point of cohen, the catching him in some lie and trying to do the same thing with the idea he never wanted a job in the white house whereas a lot of people in washington believe he did. So they are trying to use it to their advantage to say that cohen is a liar and not credibility. You know, i think that you could parse the statement from his lawyer a lot of different ways about the pardon but its definitely a statement that the white house is trying to weaponize. Cant thank our guests enough for coming on on a busy thursday night to Emily Jane Fox, to nancy cook, our thanks for coming on to talk about this topic and coming up, as manafort waits for the next federal judge to sentence him in that next case, we look at the russian connections that are perhaps at the heart of all of it when we come back. All of it when we come back. Were finally going on the trip ive been promising. Because with expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. So even when she outgrows her costume, well never outgrow the memory of our adventure together. Unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. Only when you book with expedia. But im more than a number. When im not sharing ideas with my colleagues im defending my kingdom. My essilor lenses offer more than vision correction with three Innovative Technologies for my ultimate in vision clarity and protection together in a single lens the essilor ultimate lens package. 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To begin, he owed 10 million to deripaska and this information was made public last summer in an unsealed court filing. While he was deep in debt, manafort agreed to work for free for the Trump Campaign, no one else, no other campaign we know of was vying for his services. He reportedly was hoping to use his influence as a form of currency to get whole with deripaska. He was also part of the now Infamous Trump tower meeting where russians promised dirt on Hillary Clinton and during the campaign manafort shared 75 pages of detailed internal polling data with his former Business Partner and friend c kilimnik, a ukrainian with ties to russian intelligence and our friend clint watts is here, a former fbi special agent and expert and the author of messing with the enemy surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news. That ties up loose ends. I have a dual question for you. Your reaction to the sentencing perhaps more importantly what do you think the kremlin reaction to this sentencing was . Yeah, i think it speaks to our justice system, right . When you look at it, this has been the case thats dominated american attention. This is at the highest levels of our government, were talking about a Counter Intelligence White Collar Crime fraud, multi angles. Y y ukraine to the United States in four years, this are sentences for drugs, basic Drug Distribution that might go way over that. Filled with it. Filled with it. Whole states, when i lived in california, just looking at the charges out there on a routine basis, you would be over five for what i would consider much lower crimes and speaks to who are you . Are you a wealthy white individual doing White Collar Crime you get a much lower sentence or someone that didnt end up with the best situation in life and now you commit a crime and youre there 15 years for a theft charge . I thought it was much lower than you expect in this kind of case. Starting when you were a young man at west point, you always worked for the home team this is your lifes work. When you hear people from this judge or manaforts lawyer outside court, use that phrase no collusion, what does that mean to you . Do you think . It kind of goes both ways and we tend to look at these as the typical espionage movie. The kremlin sends out agents and agents enlist people to do things. It doesnt work always that way. The other way is that people build levers. This is what you see with the ol gaigarch in russia or here the u. S. People trying to get access to the president. If they can build that, that gives them currency to push back and when you look at some of the statements, Text Messages there from manafort, how do i use this to get whole . How do we essentially reach out to deripaska, ocho lwho was a sanctioned oligarch coming from the u. S. , how do we get back to the kremlin and use this for our own advantage and begs the question, hes essentially saying im going to open up this tap of foreign influence and ill use it one direction or the other depending who needs it. A question ive asked you before, were all about todays story. Every day were all about that days story. It happens to be a guy on the down end of his luck at age 70 in a wheelchair in a prison jump suit today in court but for viewers watching, who may lose sight of the big picture, what is the daily threat we all face and our democracy faces from russia . Yeah, i think the big thing that we need to look at over time and what we should focus on going into 2020 is erosion in the confidence of Democratic Institutions like our elections and in trust in public officials. That will continue no matter which party is in charge. The republicans are certain members of the gop can play to the kremlin today and as soon as they dont do what the kremlin wants, the kremlin will be there to punch them on the other side of their face. The big thing looking forward, dont let them use our narratives and use people in our government, our elected officials against each other, dont let them use Political Parties against each other and dont let them tap into the main stream media and a lever to advance their stories. Those are things that hurt us in 2016. Were better in someways. But the sad part of going into 2020 is russia doesnt need to make fake news because in america, our politics are Political Campaigns are doing as much disinformation or more. There is plenty for them to tap into without having to make any on their own. That gives you chills. Always a pleasure to have clint watts. Thank you, sir, for stopping by. Coming up, two politzer Prize Winners with us on this thursday night. One of them contends we are indeed witnessing a National Crisis that has absolutely nothing to do with our southern border, when we continue. Nothin border, when we continue omar, look. [ thunder rumbles ] omar, check this out. Uh, yeah, i was calling to see if you do laser hair removal. For men. Notice that my hips are off the ground. [ engine revving ] and then, im gonna pike my hips back into downward dog. [ rhythmic tapping ] hey, the rain stopped. A bad day on the road still beats a good one off it. Tell me about that dental procedure again i can still taste it in my mouth progressive helps keep you out there. I can still taste it in my mouth need a change of scenery . Kayak searches hundreds of travel sites even our competitors so you can be confident youre getting the right flight at the best price. Kayak. Search one and done. If your moderate to severeor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough it may be time for a change. 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Manafort worked for me for a short period of time and i feel badly for flynn. He lost his house and life and some people say he lied and some people say he didnt lie. I mean, really, it turned out maybe he didnt lie. Why did you hire Michael Cohen . He was years ago first of all that was his title. Fixer. Why did you need him. More Public Relations than law but youd see him on television, he was okay on television. Low level work for a very short period of time. President trump spends a lot of time to distance himself from the scandals engulfing his presidency. There are a number of them. His lawyers and Campaign Chairman are headed to federal prison. Axios said even without seeing Robert Muellers report or knowing what prosecutors with the Southern District of new york unearthed or congressional investigators are find, we have witnessed the biggest political scandal in american history. Historian john meechem says were in the midst of making history than reflecting on it. Here with us tonight, john meacham, the battle for our better angels and eugene robinson, politzer prize winning columnist for the Washington Post. Thank you for showing up on a thursday night. Ill put on the air a list of events and leads all of it leads to potential legal jeopardy for this president. It looks like the credits at the end of a major Motion Picture and while it rolls, im going to ask you in also seriousness what are we witnessing here . Well, were witnessing history being made. I honestly believe that. Mike allen and jim, our friends ask me about where i thought this ranked in terms of scandals and i really dont believe scandal is a word thats what were talking about. I think its a slowmoving unfolding crisis of our institutions. It is a its a constitutional crisis in the sense that we may have a president who is indebted to a foreign power and in the 70s and 80s was top of the mind for the framers of the government because they were insleptii inventing a government. Reclaiming what they had for Great Britain or ex nld pandingr influence for france or spain. It was clearly a central issue for people who set us on this journey toward a more perfect union. Except for that conversation, except for the fact that jefferson thought hamilton might be an agent and partisanship of the era, except for that, i dont really see anything thats particularly parallel and i think its bigger than a scandal and i think that thats why whatever director mueller comes back with is going to be really essential to defining how we put ourselves back together after this era. It does make teapot dome look like a pimple. We like our historians to ponder but unlike them as a news guy, you have the terror of the approaching column deadline approaching constantly. I ask you as a news guy what you made of the sentencing today and whether you see the bottom line as a bigger headline and thats by the way, the president s Campaign Chairman is going to the big house. Yeah, thats the important thing that happened today. You step back and that is a huge major thing. I mean, you imagine just that alone happening. Take away Everything Else crazy thats happened and illegal thats happened under the trump administration, just that one thing happening would be an enormous deal yet its surrounded by all this other stuff. So, you know, the sentencing today, we give federal judges discreti discretion, i believe we ought to give them more than we have recently with mandatory minimum sentencing and that means we wont always like the way they use that discretion and judge ellis never liked this case. He never liked it. He seemed angry at theing his courtroom in a way he didnt like, squeeze manafort to get to trump. Thats how he saw it. He made no secret of it. It was no great lenient sentenc i never thought we would be for harding but this makes him like look thomas jefferson. Can you name a single individual that came into this orbit and had their reputation bar nicnis by it . No, nikki haley got out. Shes one official it seems to me who sort of came from normalville and got her papers in order and went to trumpville and has tried to go back. But otherwise, no. Its not. Its my god, i mean, this is like a donte might be impressed by the number of characters and how to cast them and its going to be something that deadline guys like gene and the chin strokers in my part of the caucus are both going to be spending a lot of time trying to make sense of this. Brian eugene you know, its not just the officials, by the way. You next the other big thing that happened is one of our two major Political Parties has devolved into basically a culted personality. The Republican Party has seized to function as a Political Party really it is enthralled to donald trump in a way that i certainly have not seen one of our parties behave in my career. That is another one thats a great point. Thats an important point because even the Republican Party in watergate had its own separate identity. George h. W. Bush was the chairman of it and actually was one of the people who wanted the president to resign at the very end. Thats not something were seeing here. See, john, sometimes we deadline journalist score one for ourselves. Two politzer winners as we said, ladies and gentlemen. John meacham, gene. Thank you both. Did Rod Rosenstein of all people just go there where his boss donald trump is concerned when we continue. Is boss donald trump is concerned when we continue that theres a lobster in our hot tub . Lobster oh, you guys. Theres a jet oh. I needed this. No, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on our Car Insurance with geico. We could have been doing this a long time ago. So, you guys staying at the hotel . Yeah, we just got married. Oh hoho congratulations thank you. Yeah, im afraid of commitment. 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I know Lawrence Odonnell had the good taste to isolate that little bit here, but we wanted to come on and show you just that little bit because of its potential news value. It sure sounds like Rod Rosenstein just went there. That may be as catty, as crafty and as thinly veiled a comment as we will ever get to hear from the outgoing Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. At least until his book comes out. Lets take another break. And when we come back, there is already a documentary out about the trump kim summit. This one was put out by the other team, and apparently the summit was a great success. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com. But im more than a number. When im not teaching, im taking steep grades and tight corners. My essilor lenses offer more than vision correction with three Innovative Technologies for my ultimate in vision clarity and protection together in a single lens the essilor ultimate lens package. So, i can do more of what i love buy two pairs of essilors best lenses and get a 100 back instantly. See more. Do more. Essilor at a comfort inn with a glow taround them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com. Last thing before we go tonight. Youve got to hand it to the kim jongun traveling documentary unit. While unlike our staff, its possible they were working under the threat of the veiled possibility of being sent to a gulag, they have nonetheless performed an admirable short turnaround and have already produced a documentary on the kim trump summit that ended abruptly and without an agreement. One thing that stands out as you listen to this narration, i dont know that we have any american broadcasters who are quite as enthusiastic as your narrator. [ speaking Foreign Language ] not understanding a lick of what she just said there, it sure sounds like the summit was a success. Indeed, the Associated Press reports that at one point she is saying the summit was, quote, yet another meaningful incident on the issue of world peace. The documentary makes no mention of how the summit ended. [ speaking Foreign Language ] we thought the soundtrack was kind of perfect. The documentary is indeed useful for the scenes it shows us that were not available to u. S. Camera crews. Its illuminating to see these two men interact, even if its just in a hotel hallway. The president seems to do a lot of pointing at people as if to say this guy, and shakes the appropriate hands along the way. We also get to see what is apparently the final goodbye after the talks collapsed. As youll hear, theres at least one american name that is clearly understandable. At other times they just pause the narration and the music swells as if to answer the question, who can turn the world on with his smile . [ speaking Foreign Language ] the documentary catalogs kims 11day journey in a svelt 78 minutes. As weve since learned from Satellite Photos taken after the summit, north korea is apparently back at work making improvements to one of its Missile Launch sites. President trump said he would indeed be, quote, very, very disappointed in chairman kim if that was the case. That is our broadcast on this thursday night. Thank you so very much for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Almost. Ish. There was that one other time. Today a limousine brought former attorney general John Mitchell to court. They caused to call him the big enchilada at the white house. He came to be sentenced as a convicted felony. When the time came for a final statement, mitchell and his lawyer had nothing to say. All eyes were on the man who is