Staff in russia by 755 people. And on the day that trump signed the legislation, Dmitry Medvedev went on a tweet storm saying the Trump Administration has shown its total weakness handing over executive power to congress in the most humiliating way. That was five days ago. And we have been looking to see how the transportation would react to this latest move from russia and until today the response had been space basically silence not even a twitter clapback. There has been no response from the administration until today when following a weekend meeting with sergey lavrov, secretary of state Rex Tillerson announced the next u. S. Steps. I told the foreign minister that we had not made a decision regarding how we will respond to russias request to remove u. S. Diplomatic personnel. We had i asked several clarifying questions to ensure i understood kind of their thinking behind that diplomatic note we received but told him we would respond by september 1st. That is Rex Tillerson saying that the u. S. Will respond to the laidest russian move expelling diplomats from their country. They are figuring out what that response will be but it will come by september 1st. Some time in the next three to four weeks. Stay tuned. There is also the question of how it will respond to special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation into russias interference in the 2016 election. On friday the New York Times broke the news that mueller asked the white house to turn over documents related to former National Security adviser Michael Flynn its the first known instance of mr. Muellers team asking the white house to hand over records. Now remember it was the fbis investigation into Michael Flynn and the preponderates potential interference in that effort which led indirectly as mueller as special counsel in the first place. His opponentment came the day after Michael Schmidt reported on the existence of a memo from james comey saying during meeting in the oval office the president pressured him into dropping the investigation into Michael Flynn. I hope you can let this go. The decision to appoint Robert Mueller as special counsel was made by Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who road the memo used as the pretext to fire comey. Rosenstein charged mueller with investigating any links and or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of donald trump as well as any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. Rosenstein made it clear he would protect mueller from any undo interference from the administration. If President Trump ordered you to fire the special counsel what would you do . Senator, im not going to follow any orders unless i believe they are lawful and appropriate orders under the regulation, special counselor mueller may be fired only for good cause and im required to put that cause in writing. Thats what i would do if there were good cause i would consider it. If there were not good cause it would not matter what anyone said. Saying that Robert Mueller could only be fired for good cause. Rosenstein defended him again. Rosenstein said mueller could investigate any crimes he uncovered. The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the department of justice. We dont engage in fishing expeditions. If he finds wrong doings he can. If its something outside that scope he needs to come to the acting attorney general at this time, me. For permission to expand his investigation. Thats the attorney general, the Deputy Attorney general appearing to draw a line in the sand saying that if Robert Mueller finds evidence of a crime in the scope of his investigation he should be allowed to investigate it without interference. That was yesterday. This morning, axios reported that the president s outside legal team is adopting a more conciliatory tone toward Robert Mueller to lower the temperature involving the russia investigation. The article warned despite the tone coming from his lawyers what will matter is what trump says and he has shown he is willing to change course with any whim or tweet. And if right on cue, donald trump began to tweet about Richard Blumenthal today calling the russia story a hoax after the senator discussed legislation he is proposing that would prevent the president from firing mueller. A few hours later at a News Conference in his home state, senator blumenthal discussed his fears about the fate of the investigation. The special counsel and the president of the United States are on a collision course. They are heading toward a constitutional confrontation that could lead to a crisis. One sure way to determine whether the white house and special counsel are on a collision course and heading toward a constitutional confrontation will be whether the white house complies with muellers request for white house documents regarding Michael Flynn. This marks the very first time that the special counsel has asked the white house to voluntarily comply with the document request. What will be the response . Joining me is Michael Schmidt who cowrote the story about mueller seek white house documents on Michael Flynn. Thanks for being here. Good to have you. In your reporting were you able to determine why the request was voluntary rather than a subpoena . This is very early on in the investigation. Its kind of like the second inning. And early on, the government will go to one side that is trying to learn the information from and ask for the documents voluntarily. A lot of times lawyers are able to work that out and hand over the documents and when theyre not, then you see Something Like subpoenas and then in the most extreme cases search warrants. So this is the initial thing saying were interested in looking at these issues and in this stuff. Can you produce that to us voluntarily . And were you able to determine the scope of the kinds of the documents that were talking about . Michael flynns participation in the Trump Campaign or broader business dealings . There are a few things we can learn from this. This would not be a specific request about the campaign that would go to the campaign. This is stuff about flynns time at the white house and not stuff not personal to flynn. That would go to flynns lawyer. It is about flynns time in the white house and about him specifically. What we know is the issues that mike flynn came up with at the white house. One was an fbi interview days after trump was sworn in about flynns call with the Russian Ambassador in the weeks before trump was inaugurated and we know the questions about whether flynn was still, you know, taking money from the turkish government and doing work for them when he was the National Security adviser at the white house. He was gone within the first month of the administration. In that time you had sally yates coming over to warn the White House Counsels Office about flynn. In your reporting do you have information that Robert Muellers investigators may want to talk to all the people that sally yates may have talked to and indeed talk to sally yates . I think that mueller is going to want to talk to everyone at the white house. The big question here which starts this is this february 14th meeting in which comey and trump says comey says they are alone in the white house and trump asked about the investigation into flynn. Before that meeting the Vice President , the chief of staff and several members of the cabinet were in the oval office before the president cleared it out. Mueller will want to talk to those folks about whether they were cleared out of the oval office and whether this oneonone meeting happened between mueller and comey. Comey testified, laid all this out to congress about the oneonone meeting but trump said to us, we interviewed him last month and he said that meeting had not happened. Even basic questions like that will require interviewing a lot of folks in the white house and are part of the administration. I wonder if your reporting backs up the axios reporting that the Trump Legal Team is trying to adopt a conciliatory tone to lower the temperature on their interaction with the counsel . I think the thing about trump world there are different factions. The lawyers want to take a conciliatory tone and want to not attack mueller and want to see if they can work with him and move things alone in that direction. But other folks in trump world that want him to attack mueller and want him to go after sessions and want him to do that. What we see is a tug of war between the two of them. Trump has gone after mueller and sessions and other times in recent days he has ratcheted that back. And it remains to be seen whether the president will be able to keep that posture toward mueller or erupt in tweets or go as far as firing him, something that democrats essentially say is a red line for them. Absolutely. Well keep an eye on it. Thank you for your time. Thanks for having me. For more now on this potential collision course between the white house and the special counsel lets bring in barbara mcquaid, an attorney fired along with other attorneys this year. The white house trying to change the tone but donald trump taking it out on Richard Blumenthal. What does that do to the legal strategy when the client is going off while theyre trying to be more conciliatory in the legal house . I think any defense attorney would tell you they would like for their client to just keep his mouth shut. That is the strategy most would suggest to their clients. But donald trump is appealing not just to the legal issues here but is also trying to win in the court of Public Opinion with his base. And so by undermining efforts to investigate him or anyone who might be his critic, he is trying to shore up his base so that if at some point down the line he could say i told you all along that these people are not to be believed. You know, so far theres the conciliatory tone from the attorneys, but what if this request is then denied and the white house fails do it where would we then go from there . It is not uncommon as we heard to start a request with you know, an informal request to seat if you can get the documents without fighting it out. If they are not turned over the next step is to use a grand jury subpoena which has powers, it has contempt powers if the white house should fail to comply with that compulsion then people could be put in jail. So i think theyre taking it through this route of professional courtesy. If not, i think all the lawyers involved know they have a heavy hammer to back it up. Putting on your u. S. Attorney hat what do make of Donald Trumps sensitivity to anything about Michael Flynn. There is the allegation by comey that he specifically asked him to lay off Michael Flynn. What does that tell your investigative mind the. It sets off red flags for me. Donald trump is not loyal to the people who work for him. The idea he is trying to protect him out of a sense of friendship or loyalty doesnt ring true. It makes me wonder if there isnt some red flag they are on to something that could lead to an investigative path toward the Trump Campaign or trump himself. And a similar question i asked Michael Schmidt if you are talk about that 27day period when Michael Flynn was the National Security adviser, the warnings came from sally yates. They could have gone to the attorney general of the United States. How wide are we talking about of people who could be subpoenaed and have their records subpoenaed to talk about Michael Flynn and his activities. One of the first things a prosecutor wants to do is get his arms around all the documents and identify all the people who might have information about this. We have been talking about a lot of the famous names, sally yates and Michael Flynn and james comey and the like. But there are a series of people whose names we dont know, the aides, the staffers, the naval stewards who served lunch and were witnesses. It would be just as important to interview those people. All the people who now must find money for lawyers. Barbara mcquaid, thank you for your time. A lot more to come here tonight including what could be a way for Vladimir Putin to get around u. S. Sanctions. And up next, while a little help wanted ad reveals a lot about the american president and fizz family. Well be right back. At everybody ignores me when i drive. Its fine. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. Because i dont use my cellphone when im driving. Even though my family does, and leaves me all alone. Heres something else. I dont share it with mom. I dont. Right, mom . I have a brand new putter you dont even know about its awesome. Safe driving bonus checks, only from allstate. Sometimes i leave the seat up on purpose. Switching to allstate is worth it. How to win at business. Step one. Point decisively with your glasses. Abracadabra the stage is yours. Step two. Choose laquinta. Where youll feel like the king of the road. Check out our summer rates now at lq. Com. Or a little internet machine . [ phone ringing ] hi mom. It makes you wonder. Shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. [ laughing ] so all you pay for is data. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Call or go to xfinitymobile. Com introducing Xfinity Mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Youve heard the saying, necessity is the mother of invention. Well, watch this. Those are protesters outside the Trump National golf club in bed minister, new jersey where the president is on his 17day vacation he insists is not a vacation because he is totally working at the golf club. Police banned protesters from congregating outside the club. So the local chapterer of we the people decided to get creative. They can still drive. So they formed a motorcade. Tonight the Washington Post has a scoop about the president s winter retreat, maralago. Apparently its not too soon to staff up for the winter. The social season down in palm beach, florida is hot and maralago is hiring. Heres the ad on page c 8 of the palm beach post. They need 35 workers to, quote, serve food and beverages, take orders, complete side work, clear and carry dishes, keep stations clean, supply linens, you can mail in your resume or apply by fax. Thats so throwback, fax. The ad ran two times and then it disappeared. If you are thinking thats a strange way to get the best an cants for your business, you would be wrong. A tiny ad written in fine print so small appears to have be a less than sincere effort to hire american. At worst it appears to have been a ruse. The Washington Post has been reporting tonight that suggests it might be the latter. One week before that tiny ad ran, maralago asked the Labor Department for permission to hire Foreign Workers, not American Workers, 70 of them they would come to the u. S. On what are called h2b visas. To get one you have to prove you couldnt find qualified americans to fill those jobs. By law, maralago needed to search for American Workers for 14 days before it could move to the next step in the process. That second step is to send documentation to a Labor Department office attesting to the companys inability to hire americans. Attesting to its inability to hire americans. Lets get this straight. The Labor Department says before you can hire the Foreign Workers you is to prove you attempted to hire americans but couldnt find American Workers and you cant find American Workers if they never apply and they cant apply if they dont see the ad. You you see where im going. If your real goal is to hire Foreign Workers but you have to prove there arent americans for the job. What would you do . Maybe, maybe, you place a tiny, sad little ad hidden in the back of a newspaper and gone in a blink of an eye. Maralago put that request in for Foreign Workers smack in the middle of made in america week. And the ad ran just days before Steven Miller took to the podium to unveil the new immigration plan which would crackdown on legal immigration. And this scoop comes to us from the Washington Post. And lori rosa. Ferr ferrinhold took home a Pulitzer Prize following the money when it came to candidate trumps charitable donations or lack thereof and one of his colleagues delivered a scoop of his own. He spent every day in the month of may in and around the trump hotel in d. C. And were going to tell you what he discovered next. You do not want to miss it. Showing off my arms . Thats cool. Being comfortable without a shirt . Thats cool. Getting the body you want without surgery, needles, or downtime . Thats coolsculpting. Coolsculpting is the only fdacleared noninvasive treatment that targets and freezes away stubborn fat cells. Visit coolsculpting. Com today and register for a chance to win a free treatment. Just like the people every business is different. But every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. Whether it be with customer contracts, agreements to lease a space or protecting your work. Legalzooms network of attorneys can help you, every step of the way. So you can focus on what you do and well handle the legal stuff that comes up along the way. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. For millions who suffer from schizophrenia a side effect of their medication. Is something called akathisia. Its time we took notice. The day after he ousted reince priebus, donald trump dined out with his new chief of staff, general john kelly at his favorite place to eat in d. C. , the Trump International hotel less than a mile from the white house. It was the 57th day he spent in a trump property as president. That was a week and a half ago and that number has climbed to 62. According to the New York Times running count about all the things about the donald Trump Presidency that are abnormal. Perhaps is most abnormal of all is how he is making money off being president. Quote, for the first time in president ial history a profitmaking venture touts the name of a u. S. President in its signage and every fundraiser and food ordered feeds the revenue of the trumps Family Private business. The trump d. C. Hotel sits in the old d. C. Post office building, a property leased by the Trump Organization from the government which is now of course led by donald trump. Once he became president he turned over the management of the hotel to his sons and promised not to take profits while he is in office but he has an ownership interest in the hotel meaning he will profit from it eventually. Washington post reporters spent every day in may in the hotel to see who is spending time and money there. Its a place where Republican Party big wigs, and tourists go to wheel and deal and wine and dine with the president of the United States in the place he likes to eat at in d. C. Something that is unprecedented in american history. And joining us now is jonathan oconnell, the Washington Post reporter responsible for this story. Tell us what you found. Who is hanging out at the trump d. C. Hotel . Its really a mix of all sorts of different groups but the thing i want to get across is the hotel has really become the center of republican politics in washington. Any given night you go down there you could see a member of trumps inner circle, a member of his family, a republican member of congress holding a fundraiser. You could see a protest because those folks who are resisting the president and dont like the administration are using the hotel as a target on a routine basis and the other thing you see is, you see fans is its like trump tower in new york where there are fans of the president who show up on a routine basis. You see people in make America Great again hats and fannie packs. Is this because washington is a democratic town. During the obama years it is a town that became jazz and blues and obamalike. Is it because republicans feel more comfortable there or is it because they feel like they can influence donald trump by spending money there . You know, theres a mix of folks there. Mr. Trump won about 4 of the vote in the district of columbia, but for republicans who feel like they are minority in this town the hotel is a place to go to find folks who share a viewpoint with you and you get to rub shoulders with members of either the cabinet or trumps inner circle or other republican big wigs. There are so many different folks there who have a role in the government now or who had a role in Trumps Campaign or other republicans campaigns who are going there on a routine basis. Weve seen Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich and its an every night kind of a thing. Its the center of social republican politics now. What about the foreign wheeling and dealing going on there . Theres some discomfort among some in washington that foreign dignitaries can hand over some money to the president of the United States by swiping care card in the bar for or a room. Thats the legal concern here is if Foreign Governments are spending money in the hotel are they doing so to create favor with the administration . There is a clause in the constitution, an emoluments clause that bars the president from receiving payments from Foreign Governments. The management of the hotel is avoiding booking Foreign Governments there because the company has agreed at the end of the year to donate profits from those events. But they have a way around that. They can book foreign entities that are not governments and keep that money. Jonathan oconnell, reporter for the Washington Post. Thank you very much. Joining us now is richard painter. He is the former chief white house ethics laurt and part of a lawsuit reporting that trump is illegally making money. There is a part in the story where he talks about a group that is suing saudi arabia, 9 11 families who wound up having their bill paid by the saudi government. Is that the kind of thing that has led the group you are part of to sue . Well, yes. Thats part of it. The president and other United States Government Officials are prohibited from accepting presents or emoluments. And emoluments and that means profits or benefits from transactions from Foreign Governments and this would include any Foreign Government picking up the tab at a trump hotel. It also includes financing that the Trump Organization is getting from Foreign Governments, Foreign Government owned banks and sovereign wealth funds and the president refuses to disclose the financing of his Business Empire and gets nervous when Robert Mueller wants to get near his Financial Arrangements which makes us more suspicious that we are on to something here. And thats something that the founders did not want. They said that nobody holding a position of trust with the United States government can accept presents and emoluments. That is profits or benefits, from dealings with a Foreign Government and thats whats going on here. And we asked a federal judge in new york to look at this and find out what the president is getting and interpret the clause and enter an injunction and tell him what he cannot keep. What i cannot understand and you were an ethics lawyer and worked in the white house. How did donald trump get approved to be the landlord and the tenant. He is leasing the hotel from his own government. How is that legal . I dont think it is. The lease that the Trump Organization signed is that a Government Official cannot share in the properties of the lease. And the gsa said we are paying the profit to a trust instead of to trump directly. Get who is the beneficiary of the trust. What theyre doing is putting form over substance. Thats the kind of thinking that gave rise to enron. We have these shell entities. You have to focus on the economic reality. The reality is the money is going to the president of the United States. The gsa wanted to prevent that in the lease. Its a violation of the lease terms. We cannot have a federal government owned property and people are paying a lot of money to the Trump Organization for access to Trump Administration officials. We just dont do business that way. We dont have the president put his hat out in front of the white house and people put money in it to go into the white house and talk to people. We dont do this at the trump hotel. Its not acceptable to pay money to the Trump Organization to get in there and get access to United States Government Officials. And this is corruption and it makes our country look like a corrupt country. Its really destroy our reputation around the world. And i dont understand why President Trump doesnt understand the need to simply get rid of the property. He could have sold the hotel. Thats a project he went into before he became president or thought he would become president. Just sell the hotel and focus on being president. He has one place on pennsylvania avenue to take care of and its called the white house. Hes there to be president and not the inn keeper. Well said. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. And still ahead tonight, the way the white house is now trying to avoid us, the press. Hint, it goes well beyond president ial tweets. Stay with us. Stay with me, mr. Parker. When a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. Stay with me, mr. Parker. The at t network is helping First Responders connect with medical teams in near real time. Stay with me, mr. Parker. Saving time when it matters most. Stay with me, mrs. Parker. Thats the power of and. Is everything ok . Adt, i could hear crackling in the walls, and my mind went totally blank. All i remember saying was, my boyfriends beating me and she took it from there. When a fire is going on, youre running around, youre not thinking clearly, so they called the Fire Department for us. And all of this occurred in four minutes or less. Within five minutes. I am absolutely grateful we all made it out safely. Its kind of one of those things you cant even. You cant even thank somebody. People you dont know actually care about you. To protect what you love, call 1800adtcares theres nothing more than my vacation. Me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. And with their price match, i know im getting the best price every time. Now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. Your vacation is very important. Thats why booking. Com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. Visit booking. Com now to find out why were booking. Yeah [ gasps, laughs ] you ever feel like. Cliche foil characters scheming against a top insurer for no reason . Nah. So, why dont we like flo . She has the name your price tool, and we want it. But why . Why dont we actually do any work . Why do you only own one suit . Its just the way it is, underdeveloped office character. Youre right. Thanks, bill. No, youre bill. Im tom. You know what . No one cares. It was not clear to most observers in the days leading up to the president ial election that donald trump would become our next president. What was clear that the campaign was gearing up for a future beyond the without and looking for a way to harness the energy that trump cultivated on the campaign trail and turn it into a media venture. Vanity fair said exclusive is the end game the launch of trump news . It didnt take the Trump Campaign long to say why cant we do that right now . Ten seconds. All right. Nine, eight, seven happy new year. Were live. All right. Welcome in to trump tower live. Im cliff simms joined by Boris Epstein and Kellyanne Conway on our left. Were going to each night about 6 30 come to you live from the Trump Campaign war room. And they were off. They found a home on Donald Trumps Facebook Page. It never broadened beyond that page and it kind of fizzled out. Now its back in more ways than one. The facebook videos are back and paid for by trumps Reelection Campaign and filmed at trump tower and produced to look like short news updates anchored by the wife of eric trump who insists she is giving you the, quote, real news. Hey, everybody, lara trump here i bet you havent heard about the accomplishments the president had this week because theres so much fake news out there. We wanted to give you a glimpse into his week. This week, trump tv snagged kaylee mcanyony. She turned up on the Facebook Page delivering the news straight to camera the following day. She has another new gig. She is on the rnc payroll as their new spokesperson. Donald trumps Reelection Campaign reignited trump tv. But the media operation is expanding beyond facebook. The anchor that we saw you on that video, that was Boris Epstein who you will remember as one of the main trump surrogates from the campaign. Until april he was working for the white house. Now he works for Sinclair Broadcast Group as its chief political analyst and host of a series of on air reports called bottom line with boris. They own stations in 81 markets across the country. And sinclair told its stations they were required to air the bottom line with boris segments nine times a week. They are basically on topics the white house want use to hear about framed to puts the administration in a positive light and sinclair is about to expand its reach through a new deal they are pursuing which will allow the stations to reach 72 of all u. S. Households. That is beyond the reach that the fcc allows. But they have a friend in the fcc, the man hand picked by donald trump to be the fcc chairman. He is the person who was trying to kill Net Neutrality and bending the rules that will ensure sinclair can reach three coverts of the country with the bottom line with boris messaging. Trumps narrative may be creeping into your regular news diet and its happening really quickly. Joining us now is a professor of information studies and the author of the book how can one Company Reach 72 of the country with essentially propaganda. This is an assault on our democracy and media institutions. We are talking about the takeover of local television stations by a conglomerate. Previously they were allowed to access 39 of american households. And you can see that now, this media group has taken over local tv stations. So this is not national tv stations that some people have skepticism around. This isnt brigeitbart or fox news. This is your local channel. The people in this country have some sort of sense of division and they have a sense of distrust of institutions right now. But one thing people tend to trust are the local tv stations. But what happens when those are taken over by a conglomerate that is forcing stories on to local tv networks . So this is a media strategy and fundamentally antidemocratic. And this isnt the first time. Exactly. And you see these various sorts of shadow media figures behind the trump rise, steve bannon. I have spoken about came britain analytica and the data wars. And this is the ceo of sinclair. And we see how sinclair has used epstein to show up on channels to dispute and change narratives around more factually forms of reporting that are critiquing what trump is doing. Has there been push back from the stations . Its really hard to do. The stations tend to not have a lot of Financial Sustainability and being bought out by conglomerates. In a divided america, what does trump need to survive . Trump has not been successful for much of anything. He has not been a great businessman or a great golfer. But what he is successful is the ratings he got as a media showman. If he is the showman on a media empire that is taking over not just facebook but your local tv stations there is a powerful possibility to maintain that base. We see that base eroding and this is an Intelligent Media strategy that people need to Pay Attention to. Its scary stuff. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate you. Ucla professor, he will definitely be back. And now russian president Vladimir Putin has made a significant about face to help him avoid international sanctions, believe it or not. That story is next. Because he chooses to walk whenever he can. And he does it with support from dr. Scholls. Only dr. Scholls has massaging gel insoles that provide allday comfort to keep him feeling more energized. So he even has the energy to take the long way home. Keep it up, steve dr. Scholls. Born to move. Hey, is this our turn . Honey. Our turn . Yeah, we go left right here. woman vo Great Adventures are still out there. Well find them in our Subaru Outback. avo love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Get 0 apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 Subaru Outback models. Now through august 31. Isaac hou has mastered gravity defying moves to amaze his audience. Great show. Here you go. Now hes added a new routine. Making depositing a check seem so effortless. Easy to use chase technology, for whatever youre trying to master. Isaac, are you ready . Yeah. Chase. So you can. So for this segment to get us on the same page we decided to employ the visual aid. This is a crisp 20 bill. Ha ha. This is is a crisp 20 bill. It still has Andrew Jackson on it, so well overlook that. As you know its worth 20 because the United States government says it is, right . Both the secretary of the treasury and the treasurer of the United States have put their official signatures on it. You can fold this paper up. You can put it in your pocket. Byebye, 20. Its mine now. Or you can hand it to someone in exchange for goods and services and put it in the bank. You get these dollars, like the one im probably going to give back, from the bank in the first place, which gets them from the United States government. But of course you knew that. This, however, is bitcoin. Theres no physical coin to put in your pocket, just a long string of numbers and letters that represents your wallet, and another one that represents the wallet of the person youre trading with. You send your bitcoin to them using your laptop or your phone, and you get back whatever it is you agreed to trade your bitcoin for, which sometimes is just regular money. This is what a bitcoin transaction looks like. We picked one out at random that happened sometime today and blurred a few digits just to be on the safe side. We have no idea who this transaction is between or what its about. Bitcoin is a crypto currency, which is a fancy way of saying it uses encryption to keep transactions safe. I cant pretend to be you, and you cant pretend to be me when we trade with bitcoin because of the encryption, and it makes the transaction impossible to forge. Each transaction is verified and recorded by other bitcoin users in a kind of digital ledger called a block chain. How they do it is not really important for the purposes of this story, but the fact that Digital Currency allows for anonymity is super important. Why, you ask . Well, guess who suddenly really interested in crypto currency . Guess who suddenly appears to be interested in creating a russian version of crypto currency similar to bitcoin . Ill give you one guess. His name rhymes with had a beer gluten. Joining us now is mark c. Johnson, a former cia officer and a contributor to the daily beast. He wrote an eye catching story this weekend called why is the kremlin suddenly obsessed with crypto currencies. Mark, thanks for being here. Why is the kremlin so interested in crypto currencies . I think theres a lot of reasons why the russians would be interested in crypto currencies. There are plenty of very legitimate uses for them, and the Banking Industry in the United States and elsewhere is exhibiting a lot of interest in it. But the point i make in the piece is that the sanctions that have been put on the russians are getting more stiff by the day, and that causes them to, you know, look for other ways of getting money out of the country. And the sanctions that the Congress Just put in place, i think, are going to make it even harder for the russians to move money. So theyre looking for other alternatives. Now, there was a time when the russian government, when the kremlin was very opposed to these kind of crypto currencies, right . When did the change take place . Yeah, about a year ago, as recently as a year ago, they were talking about imprisoning people for up to seven years for using bitcoin. And so, you know, it was really interesting to me, and this is sort of the genesis of this story when i noticed that all of a sudden they were saying, you know, not only are we not going to make it illegal, but we are interested in doing our own kind of crypto currency. And Vladimir Putin actually met with one of the founders of one of these coins on the fringes of the st. Petersburg National Economic forum in june. So that was a signal at least to me that they had completely changed their script and were now really interested in pursuing crypto currencies. Do you have specific reporting that Vladimir Putin and his sort of oligarchic friends are specifically interested in it as a way to evade sanctions . Yeah, and that was actually the real aha moment in the story is i discovered that theres this guy theres a parliamentarian who said hes interested in not bitcoin specifically but other types of crypto currencies, and he thought that they were actually away they could get around sanctions. He actually told this to a conference. But the key point was who this guy is. Hes one of the two guys that they believe is responsible for the death of a russian spy with poisoning in london. So that really got my attention. Your story has certainly gotten our attention. Mark c. Johnson, thank you so much for walking us through all of that. Thanks for having me, joy. Two things to keep an eye on this week. One, rachel will be back here tomorrow night. Those of you who just tweeted me, that is the answer to your question. Two, well, for that, youre going to have to stick around. Well be right back. Happy anniversary dinnedarlin can this much love be cleaned by a little bit of dawn ultra . Oh yeah one bottle has the grease cleaning power of three bottles of this other liquid. A drop of dawn and grease is gone. Youre searching for something. Whoooo. Like the perfect deal. On the perfect hotel. So wouldnt it be perfect if. There was a single site. Where you could find the. Right hotel for you at the best price . There is. Because tripadvisor now compares. Prices from over 200 booking. Sites. To save you up to 30 . On the hotel you want. Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. Her long day as anne. Hair stylist starts with shoulder pain when. Hey joanne, want to trade the all day relief of 2 aleve with 6 tylenol . Give up my 2 aleve for 6 tylenol . No thanks. For me. Its aleve. Members of the house and senate officially kicked off their august vacation because lucky for them, congress does not have to show up for work in august. At least 50 members of congress have town Hall Meetings scheduled over the august recess, and the people at home are ready. Why on earth did you vote for the Republican Health care bill when the vast majority of your constituents opposed it . [ applause ] 500,000 people, coloradans who were promised they could keep their plans if they like their plans, had their plans canceled. Weve seen higher Cost Increases in insurance. If you live in colorado, the insurance commissioner says that you will see doubledigit insurance increases this year. The challenge is the challenge is he asked you a direct question. Why i voted for it . Because i will continue to work to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act that will increase the quality of care. That was colorado this past friday. Republican Senator Cory Gardner getting an earful from his constituents for voting yes to repeal obamacare. Today republican congressman mark meadows held a town hall in flat rock, North Carolina. He tried to explain the latest in the republican plan to replace obamacare. The most talked about thing in the last two weeks has actually been a proposal that Lindsey Graham has been working on, and that is more with granting medicaid and obamacare subsidies. Well get into that later. [ audience booing ] well, well get into whatever you want to talk about. We look at actually increasing some of the funds that are there and block granting those to the state. So that way North Carolina [ audience booing ] this is a republican who is saying that were wanting to do this with a democratic governor, guys. I mean yall talk about so 1. 3 Million People lose coverage in North Carolina. Wow, the congressman might want to start wishing they had booked their summer vacations in europe instead of heading back to their home districts. Theres still 24 days left in august. Its going to be a long recess. Watch this space. All right. That does it for us tonight. Rachel will be back in this very chair tomorrow. Good evening, joy. Im going to use some of that mark meadows video later in the show. As i was writing a Little Something about it, i was trying to think of how to describe him. I found myself saying, extreme conservative republican, but im not sure what conservative means anymore. Yeah. Hes extreme something. Hes freedom caucus. Hes like the guys on the right, but im not sure that conservative i mean there are plenty of principled conservatives who say no, no, no, this stuff is not conservative. Theyre just boo bait. Theyre getting booed every time they walk on stage. Those videos are irresistible, and well be showing some of them in the next hour
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