General, Holiday Weekends . All the more so. So i do hope you get some time off and enjoy your weekend if general, keep in mind, this is one of those times to sort of keep eyes opened. All politician, all public figures to a certain extent have to manage the art of diverting peoples attention, creating the subject, creating deliberate distractions, some politicians are better at it than others, all good politician versus to be able to do it to a certain degree. Our current president is very, very good at it. He doesnt just have that skill like a normal politician. He has a peculiar nuclear version of it. Let me explain what i mean. A normal political way, a normal politicians way to change the subject, the way a normal politician does it is to stop talking about whatever that person finds inconvenient or unfavorable or uncomfortable. Stop talking about that thing they dont want to talk about. Instead, Start Talking about something else, hope you bring people along for this new topic that you are happier to talk about. A slightly advanced or more aggression version is to try to not just Start Talking about a new thing, but to put a little spice on the new thing, try to create a new controversy thats unrelated to and far apart from this thing you dont want to talk about. One even further advance even more aggressive way to do that is no maybe pick a few fight with some convenienten my that has nothing to do with that thing you dont want to talk about. Normal politicians have an array of choices when it comes to distracting and changing the subject. It depends on the politician the subject matter, bottom line is basically you into ed to do something or Say Something that seems for interesting people, more interesting to the media, than whatever it is you dont want to talk about in the first place. That is normal politician behavior, normal politician skill set. But our new president does is different. What our new president does is really a special twist on that tradition. There is a special ingredient he is willing to cook with that nobody else is. And that is that he zlibtly tries fought just to distract but to offend. He doesnt just nearly distract people. He disgusted people. He breaks the bounds of decency, breaks the bounds of what people generally agree are the moral rules for engagement in Public Discourse. He breaks those rules that doesnt start a new narrative. It stops all normal politics and Media Coverage of events. What marks him out is that he is very willing, happy even, zlibtly trying to go past the merely controversial. He goes past provocative, right to language, right to Public Discourse and behavior that instead of just being controversial or provocative is considered abusive or even repulsive. And im not saying the just to fling a bunch of negative adjectives over his behavior. If you have been watching this show, you know i dont talk about him much at all. The reason im talking about this, i think its important in terms of understanding his variety of political power and, therefore, our political time as a country right now. Because the way he generates distraction the way he changes the subject away from things he doesnt want to talk about, its more than just a quantitative difference than what other politicians do, what he does is quantitatively different than other normal politicians, what he does draws other people in to participate in his distraction, whether they want to or not, simply by being public figures or politicians or people who have observed his repugnant behavior. There is among all sorts of people a natural inclination, a desent inclination to get involved in what he is doing to participate in his distraction process, to fought just witness it but to feel called to respond by virtue of the fact that you have witnessed it. When somebody discuss something offensive, you decide if you are offended or not. When somebody does something worse than that, that is repugnant and abusive, there is something that is good and decent and understandable in all of us that makes us not want to just have a feeling about it, it makes us want to express our opposition, to weigh in as being opposed to this vial thing this vial behavior that we have seen from somebody in that kind of a position, with a normal politicians normal political distraction, almost all of us will just observe it. Right . We are either distracted by it or not this guys strategy, though, really is different. Its to sort of tap on the glass of your moral compass. Is this thing on . To try to make you feel implicated by your silence what you have witnessed what he did. This guys strategy really is to be so upsetting, so reprehensible so disruptive and insulting to the norms of what we agree to as americans in public life that he draws everybody into the response to what hes done. Everybody feels like you cant just see it, you have to Say Something about it, in order to stand up for your own dignitary. And that then provides another round of attention, because then there is an interesting story to cover how all these strange bed fellows, these people youd never associate with the president. They are all weighing in on what hes done, theyre weighing in on the president s behavior and speech, because they feel reasonably compelled to remark upon condemn whatever disgusting thing he has just done. What he has perfected is a nuclear version of a conventional political tactic. It is conventional politics to zravenlth it is fought conventional politics to disgust. And the reason he does it the reason hes mastered this as a tactic, he uses it over and over again in a way we have really honestly never seen from somebody in this level of politics, the reason he can do it. The reason it makes sense for him to do it, is the thing he harms by behaving this way the thing he harms by smearing at the boundaries of decency and breaking those bounds with glee, what he hurts by doing that is something that doesnt belong to him. The thing he damages is something he neither owns nor particularly values in the abstract of things. The thing he hurt is the presidency. And by extension the standing of the United States of america and if are you a person that doesnt care about those things, someone that doesnt think those things are all that valuable, who certainly doesnt feel any responsibility for not only recognizing their value but upholding their value with your own behavior, why not let those things take the hit . Why not let those things absorb the costs . The presidency, the standing of the United States among nations, if those costs are external to you, those things arent your, then those costs when you hert them are external and the rewards of your behavior that hurts them is internal the rewards all accrue to you, right . The ability to create infinite distraction at will, to lead the nation, the media, on a coke chain at will, because you are willing to go beyond provocative and controversial to the point of disgust, all the benefits of that accrue to him. The harm of it is to the country and if you dont care, its a winwin, right . This president is a kind of political animal, because he doesnt mind getting negative press, he doesnt minds bad press. He also doesnt mind any harm he does to the presidency by his behavior. But i think theres been a fundamental sort of misunderstanding that you saw in the frustration of his opponent last year. His opponent in the president ial primary last year and his opponent in the general election last year, they were so frustrated and angry by his ability to command Media Attention. They really felt like in the republican primary and in the general election, they really felt leak they were never able to compete with him in terms of attention, in terms of screen time, face time with the american people. They were right about that. All of the president s were normal politicians and they were playing, therefore, a different game than he was playing. Everybody else was for sure trying to get Media Attention, but everybody else other than him was trying to get good Media Attention. They were trying to get positive Media Attention for themselves and their ideas. He was not that picky. Youve we heard that phrase, there is no such thing as bad press, its mostly, right, thats mostly enacting the people that go along with. There are some people in the world that do. So just think about the incentives. Think about how this works as political science. Whether or not you are interested in the personalities here, the individual people as humans. Think of what this means for us as a country and the political science, how the incentives stack up. When the ability to shock and offend and now that these president to harm the presidency and harm the country in the process, is something that he takes as costfree to him. We should expect him to do more of it. Over the past two days the president has been roundly, roundly condemned by like 358 degrees of the 360 degrees circle of american politics. He has been robustly, thoroughly, blisteringly condemned and the announcement renounced by a country and in particular by a Political Class that is genuinely mortified by how she behaving as president. There is nothing to suggest that that bothers him in the least. I think the way this goes down and in his white house political playbook is a resoundingly effective student. Wow, look how i turned the narrative around to this. This is a tactic that works very well for him. As a distraction, this was a home run. Go everyone the incentives that work here the values of this person and the administration that we are deal ising with now, i dont know what the cure is to this. I dont know what the defense is to this for us as a country. Because you cant let it go. Right . Maybe you can let it go as an individual private figure. The president of the United States is a singular position. You cant let it go. What the president said about two of our colleagues here at msnbc is absolutely worthy of shock and condemnation, which it has rightfully earn pdz and which i share, honestly, which everybody shares, if it goes beyond what it appears to be and it reflects an underlyingest, extortion or coercion, that should be investigated as a potential criminal matter. And on top of that, we also as a country have to decide exactly how much we will play requests from him. Exactly how much we will talk about what he wants us to talk about. How much were going to behave the way he wants us to belative. How much were going to snap to attention, snap our attention to him when he commands it. All politicians learn to distract. This metastasized version of distraction that he plays, though, is deliberately and i think well realize in the end seriously harmful to the country and the presidency specifically. That is the magic ingredient that he is willing to cook with that no other politician will. And again, no, i dont know what the cure is to that. People are willing to do harm of that kind and theres no way to stop them from doing it, i dont know what the cure is to that. But i do know what he has been Storm Tracker 2000ing from in the last couple of days. Today the revised obamacare, today that new approach was scored by the cbo as not throwing 22 million americans or 23 or foremillion americans off Health Insurance, no, the new version scored today would be 32 million americans, 32 million americans, to be clear, who have Health Insurance now who would lose all Health Insurance under the new republican plan that the president endorsed today. 32 million people, for reference, that is the combined pop laying of all of these states can you see on this map. 32 million people. So thats why. The president s latest grossed out behavior has coincided with the Republican Health care bill, turning into a political catastrophe. Now, were going to be checking in later on this hour with the dramatic protest actions that hit today on that subject and tell you a little about what we expect to see over the next couple of days over the Holiday Weekend. The first day of the president s grossed out distraction, yesterday, also coincided with the white house announcing that the president will meet with Vladimir Putin next week in person. What has the russian president done recently to deserve a oneonone, inperson meeting with the president of the United States . I mean other than launch an unprecedented attack on our election last year, i dont know . But that announcement they will meet in person. That was welltimed yesterday in the midst of the absolute furor, it was welltimed for most people not to have we heard anything about it. You may have noticed last night when the wall street journal published the first detailed reporting about americans apparently trying to collude with the election last year. This is a bombshell story the wall street journal reported last night. There is the first report, rather than just speculation that it might have happened, questions about whether it did happen, descriptions into the investigation whether it did happen. This is the first report of potential collusion by americans in that russian attack and it has raised very serious questions as to whether or not Michael Flynn, who has been a Senior Adviser to the trump campaign, whether he might have been involved in that effort to work with the russians, to contact the russian government, to obtain materials hacked by the russian government in order to use them here against Hillary Clinton. Now, in that story, from the wall street journal which went live last night, you might have noticed that shane harris of the wall street journal included a line in his story saying what he had asked the white house for comment on that story. They declined to give a comment. Butting a for comment has logistical consequence, means you have to show somebody what you go. To think of the logistics, that story posted last night. That means that sometime before last night when the white house was asked for comment, they became aware of what the wall street journal was about to report. They knew that story was coming out. They knew that was in the pipeline. And so as theyre preparing for that to drop, the first reporting about american collusion, attempted collusion at least, with the russians who are attacking our election and what appears to be a very close eye to the president s company, possibly through Michael Flynn in that collusion, as they find out, thats about to happen, perhaps coincidentally, the president launches this big new distraction, that had everybody talking about him and his behavior for two days instead of talking about anything else. I should tell you, we will be talking with an Investigative Reporter later in the show about the key figure at the center of this bomb shell. He will be joining us with interesting information about the republican operative at the center of that story and his history. Thats important because the key question here is not just how effective that operative was in his effort to i guess collude with the russians. The key question is whether there were links between him and the trump campaign. So the Investigative Reporter par excellence has some interesting information on that, he will be joining us live in just a few minutes. Let me give you one last thing here, were talking about focus. Mike rogers is the head of the National Security agency. Its a very powerful agency that focuses on foreign under surveillance. This is one of the actions at the center of the russia collusion investigation. Early jer cnn had a report that described mike rogers expressing quote frustration to lawmakers about his inability to convince President Trump to accept u. S. Intelligence that russia meddled in the election. Thats according to a congressional source familiar with the meeting. Mike rogers also reportedly shared concerns with lawmakers about the quote lack of white house focus on the continued threat from russian soober efforts, particularly relateing to u. S. Voting systems, according to a congressional source. So the nsa is frustrate thad the president doesnt get that russia attacked us or doesnt care and cannot focus on trying to fight it at all. Take a look at that coupled with what the Washington Post reported this weekend for contrast t. Walk post had this great run down about European Countries and automatic things they do to actively respond to the way russia interferes with them. In sweden, theyve launched a Neighborhood School program to teach kids to identify russian propaganda. In lithuania, a hundred citizens are cyber elves to combat people spreading russian propaganda and fake news, they call the rewards online elves versus trols. This is one of the elves in the video. France and britain got facebook to disable tens of thousands of accounts to sway voters, places like ukraine and germany have Fact Checking consortiums that are robust and well respected. The ukraine, there is all these capitals, actively available for our review all around the world, of all these other countries and how they dealt with trying to stop russian meddling in their election, contrast that, all of those examples in all of those different countries, a bunch of which we got testimony in the u. S. Senate, contrast with what theyre doing on here. It couldnt be starker, a talking points memo today the accident of Homeland Security will not be conducting any sort of audit to look into whether Voting Machines were hacked in this past election. They say there is no evidence that that happened. They havent been looking and they have no plan to look for any evidence of that. If as many as 29 states were targeted by Russian Hackers, those were the election systems of those states is it worth looking into, what the impact was of those intrusions . Whether it left any pal ware around or Voting Machines were affected. There is no evidence provided that that happened. Nobody has looked for that evidence. And while nobody was talking about that whatsoever the House Appropriations committee very quietly voted to defund something called the election assistance commission, buried at the bottom of page 69 of the bill they passed, it zeros out the entire 4 million budget of the election assistance commission, its the action weve got as a country that tries to make sure our states Voting Machines arent hacked. Thats the agency in our government. That agency is the way we would be responding to try to harden the defenses of our election systems if we were interested if doing that as a country. But apparently were not interested in doing it as a country. There is no work being done since the Trump Administration took over. Not only are we fought using them to do that. We, are instead, chucking it, eliminating that agency altogether. Very quietly. Theres a lot going on. Dont let anybody yank your chain. 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[ click noise for tv ] ahhh that works too. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. See despicable me 3. In theaters in june. In the weeks between the election and moving into the white house. The president received aspiring candidates for jobs in his administration. He publicly received them. He paraded aspiring staffers before the cameras. You might remember mitt romney late in november. We had Chris Christie on display. That same day, chris kiss tee day, another chris showed up, chris kobach, the kansas secretary of state, the top official in kansas. He is famous for being the author of the most draconian antiimmigration laws, he is known as a nation wide crusader for laws to make it harder for people to vote. His appointment with the president during the transition ended up being embarrassing, though, although they like to parade these people in public, it ended up being discreet with the way they did wit chris kobach. You see him greeting the president. You see he is holding papers. It looks like he came prepared to talk about. Through the magic of zoom. You can get up close there and see chris kobachs proposals for extreme vetting and reducing the intake of Syrian Refugees to zero, hes bringing these ideas in writing to the president. At the bottom of the page, something he was proposing there about his other big interest, voter roles, in other words who is allowed to vote. Whatever happened in that meeting, he did not get a real job, a paid job in the administration. Finally last month, he did get something. He got put in charm of the president s new Election Integrity commission. Trump, of course, spent the campaign and after the campaign complaining and frankly making some stuff up about millions of people voting illegally, when there was no evidence that happened. He ordered a commission to look into it. The president ial commission on Election Integrity with chris kobach as vice chair. He has now gone to work. He signed and sent a letter to the top Elections Officials in all 50 states this week. Here it is, he would like all the secretary of state across the country to send him, check this out, quote the full first and last names of all renls strants, meaning registered voters, middle names available, addresses, Political Party if recorded in your state t. Last four digits of Social Security. Active or enactive status, cancelled status, information regarding felony convictions, information regarding voters information and military status and overseas citizen information. Also everything everybody had for lunch yesterday in your state plus your inner most thoughts plus we need everybodys bra side, put that lest up there again, send the Trump Administration, hello, secretary of state in x state send the trumped a palestinianstration all of this information on every Single Person registered to vote. All the millions of them, first, last, middle names, address, party, voting history, four digits of the Social Security number, conviction, military status. Everything on everyone with full names and dates attached so its all identifiable information. Hand it over to the Trump Administration, hand it over to chris kobach. Now, the answer to that letter from chris kabach so far is no its been kind of an outcry from election officials, its been a sort of subtle secretary of state little thing to behold today t. No response started with connecticut, the secretary of state there said she would only hand over data that was only public and nothing more. That started a cascade of other states saying, no, mississippi got its share hoff headlines when their secretary of state said chris kobach and his voigting commission can and quote go jump in the gulf of many excolorado mississippi not only said no, they said they can go jump in the gulf of mexico. That exact phrase was in the state official response. Even chris kobach himself as secretary of state if kansas, he doesnt intend to comply with his own request. He initially told reporters in kansas, of course, hed send this zsa that. Today he said, actually hes not going to hand over all the Social Security numbers. At least not yet. What do they want to do with all of this particular and personally identifying data on every single remgssterred voter in the entire country . Look at this. This is from kobachs letter, any documents submitted to the commission will be made have aible to the public. Oh, good, theyre going to publish everything on everyone, 200 million people, no problem. Heres everything. How he later told kansas reporters, he didnt mean that part of the letter, he said the personal data would be on a secure server run by the federal government. It wouldnt actually be disclosed to the public despite what he told secretaries of state. Okay, the universal file of every single americans voting record he is making for the Trump Administration, hes now telling reporters otherwise if writing, hes going to be super secure, dont worry. Hes going to keep everything really secure, at least as secure as he kept that memo that he got to the president. At least as secure as that, maybe even more secure. What are they up to here . What is this about . I will tell that you back in february, somebody saw this coming or at least Something Like it. Let me read from you this quote. We should prepare for the president to issue a sweeping executive order requiring a nation wide investigation of alleged voter fraud. The justification will be as unmoored from facts as wha was the basis for the seven muslimminority ban. To ban the expense of a phenomenon demonstrated not to exist can accomplish only one thing, a nationwide system of voter intimidation offered at the highest levels of government. That was from february. The person who laid down that warping months ago now says what she was predicting when she wrote about that back in february, what she was worried about there appears to be upon us. And that pressient expert joins us next. To dig a hole to china. At t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. Remote moisture sensors use a Reliable Network to tell them when and where to water. So that farmers like ray can compete in big ways. China. Oh. He got there. Thats the power of and. At johnsons we care about safety as much as you do. Thats why we meet or exceed 15 global regulations for baby products. And where standards differ, we always go with the toughest. Johnsons. Im about to pop a cap of mmm fresh in that washer with unstopables inwash scent boosters by downy. And if you want, pour a little more, because this scent lasts for 12 weeks, which is longer than any relationship ive ever been in. Right, freshness for weeks unstopables by downy. For a fresh too feisty to quit. I just want to find a used car start at the new carfax. Com show me used trucks with one owner. Pretty cool. [laughs] ah. Ahem. Show me the carfax. Start your used car search at the allnew carfax. Com. So the president has repeatedly falsely claimed that millions of people voted illegally in the last election. Now his now Voter Fraud Commission has sent a letter to the state demappeding the states hand over to the federal government reams of personal information on every single voter in each of those states and now listen to this, this is from february. Quote, we take the president at his word when he threatens to lauch a Major Investigation into voter fraud. We will challenge illegality in the program. But we had all best recognize the implications of the president of the United States launching a nation wide voter intimidation program. The author of that prediction and that alarm bell for the country joins us now, president and director council of the naacp illegal defense fund. I really appreciate you being here, especially on a friday night. Thank you so much. Thank you, rachel. So you were very clear about the connection between the president demanding information, demanding an investigation into the threat of voter fraud and the possibility of the president then launching a voter intimidation effort. Whats the connection between looking into it and intimidating voters . Well, as you talked about already, rachel, the president had insisted that he had won the popular vote and as you recall, he talked about 3 million illegal votes having been cast and gone out and made this absurd statement, he then began to repeat i. Some surro gather began to repeat it wont cysted there was proof of this i was one of the people who took the president at his word because i believed the president would attempt to combine his need to believe he had won the popular vote with something that has been really a very important issue on the right, which is to prove that widespread voter fraud occurs as a justification for Voter Suppression. Thats what we see in all the states where we are valging voter id i laws is that you have governors and secretaries of st. And other state officials who insist there is no evidence this is true there is widespread voter fraud happening and thats the reason that they enacted some of these very, very restrictive voter i. D. Laws. As you know, however, just in the last year, two federal courts of appeals, neither known for being particularly liberal, found North Carolina and texas deliberately created their voter i. D. Laws for the purpose of discriminating against minority voters, not because there was a voter fraud problem in the state. So i think the president has really married his personal issue around the popular vote in is this election to one of the pillars of the right, which is proving there is widespread voter fraud and using that premise to engage in Voter Suppression and to intimidate voters. I think thats what we are about to see begin. What do you think they want to do with this nation wide list . Theyre talking about checking tens of millions, 200 million voter data files here and consolidating them all and what they say, they tell reporters will be a secure data base. What do you think they want to do with that master list and all of that data on every voter in the country . Well, i think there are lots of people that are affiliated with people like chris kabach. Organizations like true the vote and oughts, they want to use this to intimidate people on election day. They want to be able to use this data to Convention State legislatures there is a problem and they feed even more restrictive voter i. D. Laws. They want to use this information to intimidate individual voters and suggest to voters if they try and vote they may be prosecuted. We should remember the context in which this happens at this. Tomorrow of the United States is Jeff Sessions, he prosecuted our clients in 1985 for voter fraud, unsuccessfully, so hes been on top of this for a very long time as well, even though Jeff Sessions engaged in 1985 was unsuccessful, our clients were acquitted. Many voters in that county in perry county, alabama, elderly voters were afraid to vote after that, after the attempted prosecution. So they stayed away from the polls. So thats what you do, is that you bring these challenges and the challenges are enough to intimidate some people from participating in the political process. So i think they want this data. They do want to make it public so some of these affiliated organizations that believe in the myth of voter fraud can use this information themselves and i think its designed to unleash really unchecked voter intimidation around the country and to encourage Voter Suppression laws to proliferate even more than they have since the 2013 sell by decision in the Supreme Court. You literally sent a chill down my spine with. That i have been thinking along those lines since first hearing they are asking that, hearing you lay it out like that, obviously you have a lot of information on this as a leader and litigator. Its scary stuff. Thank you for helping us understand that. I really appreciate that. Thank you. I will tell you, right now we know 25 states, the secretary of state has told chris kobach told the Trump Administration, no, were not handing over data on our voters, up with of your projects over the Holiday Weekend is to figure out whether in your state your secretary of state is going along with this or saying no you could involve the kids, cmon stay with us. Well be right back. Is to always keep track of your employees. R micromanage them. Make sure theyre producing. Woo employee of the month you really shouldnt leave their side. Vita coco coconut water, hydration comes naturally. Take 5, guys. Tired of your bladder always cutting into your day . You may have overactive bladder, or oab. Thats it we really need to get with the program and see the doctor. Take charge and ask your doctor about Myrbetriq Mirabegron for oab symptoms of urgency, frequency and leakage. Its the first and only oab treatment in its class. Myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions. 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Huh . Last night the wall street journal broke a story it was a very important. It was the first detailed reporting we ever had that describes what appears to have been an effort at american collusion with a russian attack on our election last year. It named peter smith who is now deceased, who is 81yearsold, he died earlier this year and peter smith as a man who over Labor Day Weekend last year tried to put together or did put together a group of experts, technology experts, lawyers and at least one russianspeaking investigator to try to obtain Clinton Emails he believed might have been hacked by Russian Hackers. That story was broken by the wall street journal last night. Shane harris has the sole buy line on that, the provocative question in that report from the wall street journal was about his connection to the trump campaign, mr. Smith many people he was trying to bring into this project and his communication with people about this effort, he was making to contact hackers repeat repeatedly reference mike flynn on this effort. Thats not been confirm. It was said by smith apparently. Flynn is not commenting in reaction to these, in reaction to these new reports. Just right now, the wall street journal has posted this, and they say that in addition to saying that he was in contact with mike flynn in this effort to get information on Hillary Clinton, mr. Smith also circulated a document that listed not just flynn but also steve ban upon the, Kelly Anne Conway and sam colvis, a low profile go the trump indiana i company now a Senior Adviser at thing a culture accident. They were all mentioned by peter smith as people he was in communication with, in contact with are related to this effort to contact the Russian Hackers. This is a second beat on the first story of what collusion might have looked like if it happened. Investigative reporter is joining us to talk about last nights allegations and this now reporting tonight. Peter smith, he has some very interesting information on his background that might tell us whether he was tied to the trump campaign. He joins us next. Its a good thing we brought the tablets huh . Yeah, and i can watch the game with directv now. Oh, sorry, most broadcast and sports channels arent included. And you can only stream on two devices at once. This is fun, were having fun. Yeah, we are. No, youre not jimmy. Dont let directv now limit your entertainment. Xfinity gives you more to stream to more screens. You might not know this, but i use a teleprompter on this show and every once in a while the teleprompter just, like, thats where it was right now. Goes to cartoons. All right. Whitewater, travelgate, chinagate, filegate, all of those stupid gates things, right . Do you remember troopergate . It was a weird scandal near the beginning of bill clintons presidency. I didnt really remember it, either. Now we all have to remember it at least for a second because now troopergate is important again for the scandal were involved in in this presidency. So brief refresher. Two troopers have stepped forward to renew allegations mr. Clinton had engaged in Extramarital Affairs for years while governor and that the affairs continued after he was elected president. In a story in the conservative magazine, American Spectator, two troopers, formerly members of governor clintons security detail, claim that the troopers themselves would help arrange, then stand guard over sexual liaisons involving mr. Clinton. Many at the Governors Mansion itself. The president was never charged with any wrongdoing in relation to troopergate. Years later in fact the guy who wrote the article about it apologized to clinton, called it part of an anticlinton crusade. He repented and switched to the other side of the political aisle. But that article in the American Spectator continued to do lasting damage for a very long time because the same article also introduced the American Public to a person named paula jones. A few months after the article was published, paula jones filed a lawsuit against president clinton accusing him of Sexual Harassment while he was governor. That lawsuit indirectly ended up leading to bill clinton lying about his affair with monica lewinsky, and that indirectly led to his subsequent impeachment. It was only later we would learn the identity of the man who planted the original troopergate story, who introduced the writer of that American Spectator article to those state troopers, who he was paying. It was a wealthy chicago investment banker. He had facilitated his original connection with troopers. He was also a chief fundraiser for Newt Gingrich who of course later went on to become speaker of the house. This banker donated over 100,000 to Newt Gingrichs Political Action committee between 1989 and 1995. Beginning in 1992 he also started spends tens of thousands of dollars funding various attempts to dig up dirt and publicize negative stories about president clinton. Beyond troopergate, he also hired private detectives and financed efforts to unearth evidence that bill clinton had fathered an illegitimate African American child. That is an allegation that was dug up again in the Hillary Clinton president ial campaign this past year. This guy in chicago also tried to dig up dirt on clintons trip to the soviet union that he had taken as a College Student decades earlier. This chicago banker, close associate of Newt Gingrich, had also at one point been the chair of the College Young republicans. Hes a guy named peter smith. Its the same peter smith who has now landed smack dab in the middle of the russia investigation thanks to a piece last night in the wall street journal. Last night the journal published an explosive report which claimed that around labor day last year, peter smith mounted an independent campaign to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clintons private server, likely by Russian Hackers. He contacted Russian Hackers to try to get whatever theyd dug up on Hillary Clinton. He also said in an interview with the wall street journal that he believed those hackers were close to the russian government. While he was putting together this effort to contact the Russian Hackers, to get some of what they got, mr. Smith repeatedly implied and told people that he was working with mike flynn in that effort and that he was in frequent communication with mike flynn. Mike flynn at that time was a Senior Adviser to the trump campaign. Now, tonight the wall street journal has added to their story. Just moments ago they have published this news, saying that peter smith didnt just tell people he was working with and in communication with mike flynn in his effort to contact the Russian Hackers and get their emails from Hillary Clinton. He also said in a document that he prepared to recruit people to help into his effort, he also, according to the wall street journal, said that he was working, quote, in coordination to the extent permitted as an independent expenditure with not just mike flynn but also steve bannon, kellyanne conway, and sam clovis, who is a policy adviser to now President Trump. Joining us now is Investigative Reporter michael isikoff. Hes chief investigative correspondent at yahoo news. He wrote a book in 1999 called uncovering clinton that looks at some of peter smiths earlier activism. Appreciate your time tonight. Good to be with you. So peter smith turns up in this wall street journal story last night, also again tonight. What can you tell us about his background in the antibill clinton efforts in the early 90s. First of all its just fascinating to find that somebody you wrote about 20 years ago pops back in the news in a totally different context. But, yeah, i mean you pretty much covered it in your intro there, rachel. He was one of these sort of shadowy, behind the scenes figures who was helping to finance some of the political Oppo Research to bill clinton. He gave a 5,000 stipend, i believe, to david brock when he was beginning his to help finance his research that led to the troopergate stories. There was another 25,000 that he gave to a troopergate Whistleblower Fund to help protect and defend the troopers from a lot of attacks that they were getting from the clinton camp. And then probably most interestingly and most significantly, he did play a role in sort of recruiting this set of lawyers who i call the elves in the book, who were very sharp, conservative lawyers who were writing the briefs and helping to set the legal strategy in the paula jones case. Paula jones had some public lawyers, and you remember this was a big fight that went all the way up to the Supreme Court about whether the suit could even proceed. And in the briefs, you know, clinton had this big, you know, bob bennett, really powerful law firm behind it, and they were always amazed when they would see these very polished, very scholarly briefs coming in from the paula jones side, saying these guys cant be writing it, the public lawyers, because they were not constitutional scholars. In fact, it was the elves, this coterie of lawyers, and they had been and peter smith had helps recruit them. Mike, thank you for being with us tonight. Im sorry that our time is short. May i ask you briefly one last question . Do you know what hes been up to since the 90s . I had totally lost track of him until shane harris resurrected him in this fascinates series of stories. Your 1999 book, uncovering clinton, is now selling out right this second on amazon because he has resurfaced. Michael isikoff, really appreciate you being here. Thanks very much. Okay. That does it for us tonight. We will see you again next week. We will see you on monday. Thats right, july 3rd, uhhuh. Msnbc live is next. Good morning. Im dara brown at msnbc world headquarters. Its 7 00 in the east and 4 00 out west. It is day 163 of the Trump Administration. Repeal immediately and then replace it. The president s backup plan should the senate not pass its health care bill. Pushback on request for voter data from the 2016 election, state officials telling the Trump Administration just say no. This is an alarming request. I dont know where its coming from. 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