Up that were going to be talking about something that nobody else is talking about tonight. And self consciously so, it involves the Justice Department, potentially a huge deal, it looks like its about to happen but its not done yet. So were going to be sticking a flag in that story, fully cognizant theres a lot of other news going on, and nobody else is talking about this story, but i think its important enough we have to do it and do it tonight. We also just got news about the robert ert mueller special counsel inquiry on the trump russia investigation, pulling in someone knew to testify before the grand jury. We have that news this evening. We have interesting news about the president s eldest son being called to testify in the trump russia inquiry. Theres big breaking news from politico. Com within the last area about the course of the bob mueller inquiry and a dramatic move that mueller has just made that may be designed to do a end run around the possibility of President Trump pardoning people involved in the scandal. This is a very, very provocative move by bob mueller if this bears out. The politico reporter who broke this big story will be joining us live in a moment. That story just went live at politico. Com a short while ago. So, thats all coming up. We got a big show ahead. This is like a 10 pound show in a 5 pound bag as they say. Lots of breaking news tonight on lots of different stories. But i want to start tonight with a little city in texas called west. Despite the name its not in west texas. The name of the town is west between waco and Dallas Fort Worth and in 2013 they had a serious disaster in this town. This tape is shot by a man named derrick hurt and whats going on is mr. Hurt and his daughter theyre off camera but you can hear them. Theyre sitting in mr. Hurts vehicle and watching a fire burn off a ways in the distance in their town. So its 30 seconds, just watch the 30 seconds of this clip. You wont really be able to tell why im having you watch it at the beginning, but trust me. I will also tell you it gets scary at the end but theres no better way to show you the magnitude of what happened there than watching this. Put on your seatbelt, 30 seconds. Just hold on. I cant hear i cant hear lets get out of here please, get out of here please, get out of here oh, my god what that was, that massive fireball was a massive Ammonium Nitrate explosion at the towns fertilizer plant. Derrick hurt and his daughter were okay. Many of their neighbors were not. That explosion left a 90footwide crater in west. It was as if a daisy cutter bomb had been dropped on that town. 15 people were killed, more than 200 people were injured. A whole portion of that town was just missing in the wake of that explosion. Hundreds of buildings destroyed, or damaged. I mean, given the size of the blast, it is a miracle there were not more than 15 people killed, given that the buildings heavily damaged or totally destroyed by that explosion included an Apartment Building, a nursing home, and three schools. The reason that plant full of explosives was in the middle of all those schools and the nursing home and the Apartment Building is because there were literally no zoning laws there at all. So put any building of any kind anywhere, no questions asked. Also, theres no statewide fire code in texas at all. State law goes so far as to ban local communities from establishing their own fire codes. Its illegal in the state to require fire alarms or fire exits or sprinklers or anything like that. At this fertilizer plant in west texas, among the schools and Apartment Buildings and Nursing Homes of the town, the explosive Ammonium Nitrate in that facility was stored in wooden bins, in a wooden building, with no alarm system of any kind, no firewall system of any kind and there were no sprinklers. And it went off. With a blast so epic, you almost cant believe it. And after that apocalyptic fireball in west texas, in 2013, the state did decide to change one thing in texas about storing chemicals like that Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer that almost wiped one texas town off the map. At that abbott was the attorney general of the state. He decided after the west explosion that the public would no longer be allowed to know where large quantities of explosive chemicals were stored in their towns. For decades, companies storing significant quantities of potentially Hazardous Material like explosive fertilizer, they may not have had to cop tend with things like fire codes, but at least they had to report what they had to the state. The state had a database of that information, they would make that Information Available upon request. Reporters, regular citizens. You just had to ask. And when you asked, youd get something called a tier two report. That explained what was on site at a particular location if you asked for it. After the west fertilizer plant explosion, texas and greg abbott decided they were going to end the tier two reports being provided to the public. That decadesold public right to know. They got rid of that. That was the one policy change prompted by that explosion that killed 15 people and erased part of that town. A couple hundred miles southeast of west, texas, is the town of crosby, texas, just outside houston in Harris County. It is, of course, one of the many texas towns that has been battered for the last six days now by Tropical Storm harvey. Crosby is where the arkima Chemical Plant is. It employs about 57 people. Its a small plant. The plant produces organic peroxides for use in plastics. The plant lost power in the storm like everybody did. They planned ahead for that. They had backup generators on site even after Central Power was lost. Unfortunately this weekend, their backup generators also got swamped. They had no power source of any kind since this weekend at that Chemical Plant. After the backup generators got swamped, they went to plan c. The company moved the chemicals they had on site into refrigerated containers. Where the refrigeration was powered by diesel engines. But those dieselpowered refrigerated containers, those containers got compromised by the rising water as well. And so now the crisis for little crosby, texas, is not just that its under chestdeep water, the crisis in crosby, texas, includes the fact that at that plant, where theyve lost the ability to keep the chemicals refrigerated, theyre expecting an explosion now. Because the chemicals they use there to produce liquid organic peroxides, there is a risk of reaction by the fact that theyre no longer being kept cold. The Chemical Reaction here means fire, or explosion, and so a 1 1 2mile radius around the plant has now been put under mandatory evacuation. Thats to prepare for the explosion they are now expecting. Today the north american ceo of arkema, a french company, a north american division, the ceo of that division held a Conference Call with reporters to answer questions about the situation at the plant. We tried to reach the company today hoping the ceo could join us tonight to help us explain and understand whats going on there. We left several messages with him. But we never heard back. Im not complaining, its understandable. But he did make this public call. Today the ceo said arkema has removed all its staff from that plant and the area around it. He said there is now, quote, no way to prevent a possible explosion there. Because they cant get back into that plant. They cant do anything to start cooling off those chemicals again until conditions relent. One reporter on this call today, matt dempsey, of the hughes chronicle, he standard what seems like a pretty straightforward question in a crisis like this. I mean, given that people have been evacuated from a mile and a half around this plant, given that they said theres no way we can prevent an explosion, that they cant keep these chemicals cold, and it will probably result in a Chemical Reaction. Given that, this reporter asked the arkema ceo, can you tell us whats inside that Chemical Plant . What are we dealing with here . Can you give us that tier two report . Which until a few years ago used to be something we could get as a matter of public record. I have the 2015 tier two inventory. Are you going to provide the latest inventory to the media . I dont know that we see the need to do that. Theyre all involved with the peroxides that were discussing. No, i understand that. Theres a lot more detail in the tier two chemical inventories for reporters that could be useful. Just to be clear, though, it sounds like youre not willing to release your tier two chemicals to the media . Again, we do not see the need at this time to do that. Not releasing that information. We do not see the need at this time. The state of texas is not going to hand it over either, because they now treat that as confidential information, even though the town is getting evacuated because of it. The ceo was told that a professor of Chemical Engineering at the university of houston just said this about the situation. He said, quote, frankly, this could be worse than the explosion in west, texas. Confronted with that, from the university of houston Chemical Engineering professor, the ceo of arkema responded, quote, that he had no indication that the explosion would be bigger than what happened in west, texas. But, of course, we dont know. Because we dont know whats in the plant. They wont say. So best guess, the reporter who asked about the chemicals in that plant, matt dempsey of the houston chronicle, an expert journalist on these issues in general, specifically in this part of texas, hes been covering this story aggressively, hes going to be joining us here in just a moment. The arkema Chemical Plant in crosby is one of the innumerable consequences of harvey, as the effects continue to unfold across texas. Towns left along the texaslouisiana border under water. 26 inches of rain fell on beaumont, texas, in 24 hours. One thing to get an inch an hour, its another thing to get an inch an hour for more than 24 straight hours, right . That city was the scene of rescues by helicopter today. South of beaumont, port arthur declared, our whole city is under water. The mayor said the devastation is like nothing shes ever seen before. People took shelter in the local Civic Center Last night. That shelter also filled up with water. One person said the water started seeping into the shelter around 8 00 p. M. Local time and it was inundated within 20 minutes. In houston today, that city began to see very, very earliest beginnings of the water receding. The rainfalls let up in houston. Even though the forecast calls for more over the next couple of days. Houston has gotten nearly 52 inches of rain, well over four feet of rain since the storm started on friday. That means they have destroyed the record in the continental United States for rainfall from a single storm. Still, the very worst of the storm in terms of new water falling, that part is certainly closer to an end in houston. But with so much of that gigantic city and its surrounding suburbs under water, we dont know how many thousands of homes, or tens of thousands, or tens of thousands of homes there are going to be uninhabitable in the short run. That human crisis, which were just at the beginning of, that has been evident in shelters in the region all week. The Brown Convention center in houston can hold 5,000 people. As we reported last night, as of last night, there were 10,000 people inside, twice its capacity. Also as we reported last night, the plan was to open a pair of new mega shelters in houston, and start moving people there. That did start today in houston. New shelters to try to relieve the crowding at the Convention Center to give those families somewhere to go. And, of course, because of what part of the country this is, and what incredible industry theyve got there, we are continuing to keep an eye on the Houston Ship Channel and the refineries and chemical plans, including that arkema plant in crosby which were told is at risk of explosion at any moment. Joining us is matt dempsey. He just last reported an eightpart series on Chemical Plants in texas, and their dangers. Mr. Dempsey, i really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us tonight. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. What is the latest on that plant in crosby, and the possibility of a fire or an explosion there . How big of a risk do you see this in terms of your knowledge in this field . So, from what we know right now, i just actually spoke to the Harris County fire marshals office. They said that they dont expect like a shock wave kind of explosion. Thats in contradiction to the expert said who said were sitting on a powder keg type of situation here. Experts on one side are saying its a huge thing, and i have the government officials and the company saying it might not be that big. Its hard to tell for sure. We do know that theyve tried to evacuate everybody from the mile and a half area. Apparently you cant force people to leave their homes in texas, so i do know there are some people in that mile and a half radius that have chosen not to leave. We dont know whats going to happen to the homes, and the areas around it, but we know the mile and a half radius was set to be conservative and protect as much people as possible. Matt, youre describing that disagreement there between the fire marshal and other experts that youve talked to. It sounds like theyre disagreeing on how big and what the character will be of the explosion when it happens. Theres no disagreement as to the fact theres going to be an explosion . Oh, yeah, there will be a fire or explosion. It will be very surprising if there isnt. They dont think they have the ability to get back into that facility for at least six days, because they have over six feet of water in that facility. So in the meantime, they are stuck waiting. They cant monitor the temperature for all of the refrigerated containers that are holding the organic peroxides. They have no idea when the temperature will get too hot and then cause an explosion or a fire. Thats why they evacuated everybody last night. And theyre, honestly, a lot of people are just sitting and waiting. You asked that question today with the arkema ceo about whether or not he would release the inventory essentially of what chemicals were kept on site now, since its no longer what people have Public Access to. I found it remarkable he saw no need to do that. Did you ask that, because you believe there might be information in that inventory which would help make decision that is would preserve human health and life here, that would help make decisions about the appropriate radius for the evacuation, that it might help prepare for the type of explosion or Chemical Reaction we would be expecting here . Honestly, what i was doing when i was asking that question was trying to figure out if we could get an updated form. I have a tier two for 2015 for them when we did the chemical breakdown project. But when we sent out letters to that facility, because that facility was listed as one of the potential for harm areas in houston at the time, they said they reduced the organic peroxides that they had, they reduced the storage of those chemicals dramatically. When i asked how much they reduced it, they said, we cant tell you. I said i cast verify that you reduced it dramatically if you dont tell me. They were basically saying, you have to trust me. We wanted to have a better job of seeing whether government officials were making the correct decision, whether the company was making the correct decision, whether they were being a hundred percent honest about what they have on site. I thought it was ill be honest, i was surprised as you were that they didnt provide it. What do they have to lose at this point. They dont look good already because of the situation that they have. And its scary to be thinking about waiting on this thing to explode. Putting aside the damage that may or may not occur because of a fire or explosion, whats your sense about how damaging it may be just to have this plant be so damaged by whats about to happen . How toxic is this stuff . What type of other facilities are around it . Are we looking at something thats going to be an environmental, or sort of pollution crisis even after whatever happens with the initial fire or explosion . Right. Actually, just a bit more than two miles down the road from the arkema facility, theres another Chemical Plant called kmco, theyre also on our high potential for harmless. Thats all based off of analysis we did with texas a m university. Its based off of the chemicals that they had, how much of it they had, and the number of people that were located within a twomile radius of the facility. So thats why we determined that plant that arkema and this other plant, kmco, why theyre considered a high potential for harm facility. I am kind of worried. Their worst Case Scenario that they listed with the epa involved two other chemicals. If i remember correctly, sorry, im blanking right now essentially, two other chemicals that werent organic peroxides. I assume if a fire explosion happens, the tanks might rupture. They listed with the epa, literally, it lists out the worst Case Scenario was considering perfect meteorological conditions. Were far past the perfect meteorological conditions at this point. There is a lot of concern. A quick point, too, i heard from a number of experts who wondered why temperature was their only way to keep this organic peroxide safe. At least two experts that i talked to said they should have had it would have been Standard Operating Procedure for a facility like this to have some sort of compound to quellch the organic peroxide, essentially make it the explosion risk, the fire risk was not there. It would eliminate that stock so they wouldnt have it for product going forward. I dont know why they didnt do that, i havent gotten a good answer from arkema about that at this point. Maybe they werent following procedure according to the experts. But i find it troubling that they said they planned for a worst Case Scenario. And the storm just ripped right through that. Matt dempsey, data reporter at the houston chronicle. I followed your work for a long time. You always do very good work. Right now youre doing work that is very, very scary to hear about, even from this distance. Thank you for helping us understand it. I appreciate it. Thank you for having us on. The last point that mr. Dempsey was making there, other people who store this stuff have a failsafe. This is a chemical that will explode, or at least burst into flames if its allowed to rise in temperature. But theres a way that you can treat that, stop that from happening. It does ruin the compound, so you cant sell it anymore. If thats true, if they didnt have that option, or they chose not to exert that option, and this thing does go off like a bomb, its going to be really hard to have conversations about making Something Like this not happen again, without actual government regulation that forces people to do the right thing. All right. Much more news tonight, including a whole bunch of developing news on the trumprussia investigation. Stay with us. Managing blood sugar is a series of smart choices. And when you replace one meal. Or snack a day with glucerna. Made with carbsteady. To help minimize blood sugar spikes. You can really feel it. Now with 30 less carbs and sugars. Glucerna. If youve got a life, you gotta swiffer gloria always went big. So we helped her plan a Memorial Service that no one would soon forget. This ones for you, gloria. Only a dignity memorial professional can celebrate a life like no other. Find out how at sanfranciscodignity. Com. Throughout history, the one meal when we come together, break bread, share our day and connect as a family. [ bloop, clicking ] and connect, as a family. Just, uh one second voice guy. [ bloop ] huh . Hey . I paused it. Bam, family time. So how is everyone . Find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. Interesting breaking news tonight from politico. Com concerning Paul Manafort, who emerged as a central figure in the robert muellertrumprussia investigation. This just came out from politico this evening. We reported just last night that when it comes to Paul Manafort, he appears to be getting sort of, not special treatment, but specific treatment. The special counsel appears to be treating him differently from the way that we can see theyre treating everyone else. Paul manafort is the only one we know of to have had his home raided by the fbi. Last night we learned that the special counsel has issued a subpoena to one of his lawyers. Not giving a subpoena for Paul Manafort, to one of his lawyers to hand off to Paul Manafort. But subpoenaing the lawyer, asking for documents and testimony. Thats an unusual, to say the least, for the government to subpoena someones lawyer to come testify about their client. Special counsel also issued a subpoena to Paul Manaforts spokesman, which itself is a strange thing. We knew all that as of last nights show, talked a little bit about that on last nights show. Then tonight we get more late breaking news concerning him and the way hes being treated by the Mueller Investigation. Politico. Com is reporting tonight that special counsel bob mueller is working with the attorney general in the state of new york, Eric Schneiderman, to look into Paul ManafortsFinancial Transactions. This is according to several people familiar with the matter, unnamed sources. The mueller team and the attorney general schneidermans office, they have begun collecting and sharing evidence related to potential crimes, including possible money laundering. They also have reportedly been in regular contact over recent weeks about putting together a potential case, a potential prosecution. Why is it particularly provocative and very interesting about this inquiry to learn that the special counsel in washington might be working with a state level attorney general . Well, thats because of how this might intersect with the prospect of President Trump pardoning people in the trumprussia investigation. According to politico. Com tonight, quote, the new cooperation could potentially provide mueller with additional leverage to get manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trumps Campaign has trump does not have pardon power over state crimes. So if the flip strategy with Paul Manafort is to put so much pressure on him in terms of his potential criminal liability, that he says, uncle, okay, ill tell you what i know about the Trump Campaign, that pressure was presumably alleviated by his hope or expectation that President Trump would pardon him and render him not touchable by the Mueller Investigation in terms of federal crimes. That alleviation of pressure doesnt apply to the states. A federal pardon doesnt get you out of state prosecution. If there is a potential state level prosecution, then the flip strategy got all its leverage back, no matter what the president does. Joining us is the reporter who broke the story tonight for politico, josh dowsey. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, rachel. Let me ask if i understand the gist of what youve written. If they are working together, obviously it raises the question of whether or not manafort may not be able to rely on a president ial pardon to get out of prosecution here. But it also means that theres potentially legal liability for manafort in terms of state crimes, right . Sure. We know attorney general Eric Schneiderman has issued subpoenas for bank records, and other Financial Transactions in new york. We know hes been pretty aggressive in recent months. And in the past recent weeks, the last couple of months or so, the two teams have started working together, to share their evidence, to talk about what they know and discuss potential, if charges come, should they be filed on the federal level, on the state level, who has the best evidence and which statutes apply the most, and lets all get on the same page. Is there a precedent for this sort of thing . Is this an unusual decision by these two Law Enforcement officials to be pursuing it this way . I dont know enough about how federal and state lawsuit Work Together to know if this is unheard of or if this is something they regularly do . They often Work Together on cases, particularly in new york. Schneiderman has worked with the former fdny prosecutor on a number of cases. Were not aware of previous precedent for special counsel bob mueller consulting with local and state authorities. Now, thats not to say there isnt one, but we just dont know about it. This is the purported place that weve seen, and others have seen, where the special counsel is doing that. Josh, do you know, were you able to uncover how long this teamwork has been happening . How long these two teams have been working on this together . And do we know which side initiated this . We dont know which side initiated it. In our reporting today, it happened over the summer. We know there were subpoenas issued by attorney general schneiderman in this case, this summer. And we also know the special counsel was impaneled this summer. My sources told me today the cooperation has been ongoing for at least a month. So my sense is that probably mid, late summer, could have been early summer. But about two or three months or so. Josh, one last question for you. The way this fits into my understanding of whats going on with the mueller inquiry is Paul Manafort isnt just sort of at the center of the bullseye, it feels like hes his own gigantic target at this point. They really seem to be treating him differently from other people who are associated with this case. The fbi raid, subpoenaing one of his lawyers, now this news about potentially bringing in state level Law Enforcement as well. Do you have any insight into that, any sense about whether or not that perception is accurate . Well, we certainly have not seen those sorts of ratcheting up like Michael Flynn or others in the case. The trump tower meeting, with supposedly on hillary clinton, had met with the grand jury we know the grand jury is working. We do not know of any other suspects in the case. Who has had their house raided. Who have had lawyers and people subpoenaed we dont know whos cooperating. There could be others who could be cooperating with the case, who could have a secret plea deal. We dont know that. Theres no reason to think that, but its possible. These are often sealed several months, a year what weve seen is the most aggressive public posture from muellers team toward mr. Manafort. Though its kind of hard in these investigations, theyre a bit of a puzzle, and mr. Muellers team has not leaked like some Law Enforcement bodies to really know what theyre up to, with the public subpoenas and how we can triangulate from different sources familiar with the case. Thats exactly right, were not getting leaks from them. Were able to read stuff out of their publicly available actions. Glags on this scoop. Really interesting reporting really interesting reporting. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, rachel. Heres to the heroes americas Small Business owners. And heres to the heroes behind the heroes, who use their expertise to keep those businesses covered. And heres to the heroes behind the heroes behind the heroes, who brought us delicious gyros. Actually, the gyro hero owns veros gyros, so he should have been with those first heroes. Ha ha thats better. So, to recap Small Business owners are heroes, and our heroes help heroes be heroes when theyre not eating gyros delivered by ah, you know what i mean. Your bbut as you get older,ing. It naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. Thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Weve got more ahead tonight on harvey and the swath it continues to carve through texas and now louisiana. Weve got another live report on that story coming up tonight. I also want to get up to speed on what haes just shaken loose from the trump towermoscow story this week. The president s eldest son, don jr. , will be testifying to congress soon. Weve got first word about that yesterday. We got really Interesting Development in that story this afternoon. A little more on that coming up later on in the show. The don jr. Testimony plan is apparently already getting messed with by the white house and by the president personally. Again, more on that later. And as josh dawsy just referenced, about the news he broke in politico tonight, that Eric Schneiderman and bob mueller is working together. On the Paul Manafort part of the russia investigation theres also news from the Financial Times that the mysterious russian fixer who turned up at that trump tower meeting last june, that has such an intriguing background in hacking attacks where documents are stolen from peoples computer servers and then used for good political reasons, he apparently has been called before Robert Muellers grand jury to give several hours worth of testimony. That happened on august 11th. Were just learning about it today from ft. So lots going on. But theres Something Else that i want to stick a flag in regarding the money part of this, the banks. The bank that was purportedly going to finance trump tower moscow is vtb, 60. 9 owned by and fully controlled by vladimir putin. By the russian government. That alone is a stark detail of the trump towermoscow story we broke this week. While trump was running this strange republican president ial campaign praising putin all the time, we now know he was simultaneously pursuing a giant business deal, not just with generic russian interests, but with putin specifically, with the russian government. If vtb was really the linedup financing for the trump tower moscow deal, that was the russian government that was going to finance that deal, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. That makes the reported involvement of vtb bank in this deal really on the nose important. Its also a very importanting part of the story, because it means that vtb bank is now the first second, third, fourth, fourth russian bank to go streaking naked across this trumprussia scandal. One is interesting. Two a fluke. Three interesting. But four of them. Its vprtb bank now the project that the president was apparently pursuing well into his president ial campaign, before now it wasnt the vtb bank, it was the veb bank, another gigantic bank, met with whose handpicked chief executive met Jared Kushner during the president ial transition, which kushner never reported until it made its way into the press. Veb is also the bank that had a rank of russian spies out of the new york city office. Or spy ring that just happened to target and recruit Trump CampaignForeign Policy adviser carter page. So theres vtb bank, theres veb bank, both sanctioned by the u. S. Government for their close links to the putin regime, both of those banks inexplicably tied up with Trump Campaign figures. Another u. S. Sanctioned bank close to putin, which is the bank that decided to hire Donald Trumps top russia lawyer to work for them on a legal case in new york this spring. Really, of all the guys . And before all that, there was alfa bank, another big russian bank linked with putin. But alpha bank is not sanctioned by the u. S. Government. In fact, theyre trying to become a big business in the west and in the u. S. To give a little brand distance from their russian origins, the western interests of alpha arent being called alfa, theyre being called letter one. Letter one alpha, letter two, beta, right . Even with the new wink and a nod name change, alfa still has a problem. Alfa is the bank that turned in the very strange story before the election. Breaking the news about largescale, unexplained computer server interactions between an Alfa Bank Server in russia and a Trump Organization server in trump tower. These unexplained intenive computer server interactions between what appears to be the Trump Organization and alfa bank, those happened last summer and fall in the heat of the president ial campaign. We still dont know what they were about. That story broke in late fall, right before the election. Nobody really knew what to make of it at the time. But by this spring, with the trumprussia investigations blossoming in washington like cherry blossoms, that server story, the alfa bank thing took on renewed importance. At least there are more people looking back at it and getting interested again. So alfa bank hired itself some lawyers, basically to help clean this thing up. And their efforts included sending threatening lawyer letters to the computer experts who were asked for comment on the story by various reporters who were working on the story. It also included alfa bank launching their own independent investigations of these crazy allegations against them. Those independent investigations that alfa Bank Arranged came to to the conclusion, youll be shocked to er to hear, that alfa bank was totally fine. Nothing to see here. Everythings you guys are blowing this all out of proportion. One of those two investigations, i should tell you, didnt even look at what happened during the campaign. They didnt look at anything that happened in calendar year 2016. And heres how the New York Times described the other one. Quote, the investigation of alfa bank was at best cursory. According to people familiar with the review, its experts were shown metadata for the communications that took place. The content of the messages were not available to the reviewers. Quote, without a much deeper forensic examination, the review could not determine the purpose of the communications between the two servers. The resulting report was carefully hedged, noting that without more study, it could not give the bank a clean bill of health. Nevertheless, the bank used that report to make the case that it had been exonerated. Nice trick, right . Somebody turns up something fishy in your behavior, you say, oh, im shocked to hear those terrible allegations, ill look into it. And then you dont at all look into it, but you produce a report and you wave it around, and you tell everybody it exonerates you, nothing to see her, i checked it out, its fine. The Alfa Bank Server story is absolutely still live. First, were aware russian banks are coming up over and over and over again when it comes to contacts and the Trump Organization and Trump Campaign, contact with the trump side has been keeping secret for months and months now. Now that were aware of the role of russian banks in the trump and potentially the kushner business dealings that overlap with the campaign, the focus on the banks is getting hotter and hotter. But the alfa banktrump tower server story is also still live, because whatever those communications were during the campaign between this russian bank and the Trump Organization, its still unexplained all these months later. The cleanup, nothing to see here effort by these lawyers who alfa bank hired, it hasnt worked. It has not been a credible cleanup effort. These guys do have a way of landing on their feet way. Now one of the lawyers who alfa bank hired to do the cleanup work, to oversee one of these socalled investigations of the whole trump tower server thing, the one that didnt even look at anything in 2016, one of those lawyers is a man named bret benchcowski. And he is who the Trump Administration has now nominated to lead the Criminal Division of the u. S. Department of justice. Criminal division of the u. S. Department of justice is a big deal. Robert mueller, the special counsel on the trumprussia investigation, is the former head of the fbi. Before he was the head of the fbi, he was head of the Criminal Division at justice. The current fbi director christopher wrai was head of the Criminal Division of justice. It means you oversee everything from fraud, to money laundering, computer crime, narcotics, child exploitation, public corruption. Organized crime trump has nominated for that job the lawyer who has been working up the alfa bankTrump Organization server story. And brents alfa Bank Connection has been reported before. It was the subject of discussion at his confirmation hearing. Thats how we learned its not like alfa bank has been a longstanding client of his or something. He specifically went right to work on this alfa bank clean up the trump tower server story, he went to work on that immediately after leaving the trump transition. But now we know that russian banks may be at the bullseye of this scandal. Right . The Criminal Division of the Justice Department is a huge deal. So are russian banks when it comes to understanding the trumprussia scandal. The senate is about to vote on whether or not those two big deals should be combined by installing the alfa banktrump tower cleanup server at the Justice Department in that very critical job. That vote in the senate on his confirmation is due very soon. So i guess stick a flag in that. Well be right back. My sweethearts gone sayonara. This scarf all thats left to rememb. What. She washed this like a month ago hows a guy supposed to move on . the long lasting scent of gain. Now available in matching scents across your entire laundry routine. Find fast relief behind the counter with claritind. Strut past that aisle for the steroid free allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes. And contains the best oral decongestant. Live claritin clear with claritind. This is one of those nights. We have more breaking news right now out of texas. One of the complicating factors for this storm has been a new texas law that would target socalled sanctuary cities. Bottom line is it would make it more likely for immigrants to face deportation, particularly when they had some reason to come into contact with any Public Officials or Law Enforcement. Well, in the middle of this gigantic disaster in texas and in houston in particular, the houston mayor has had to spend quite a bit of time reassuring immigrants who live in and around houston that its safe to ask for help in this storm. Its safe to get to shelter. He says, nobody will ask for your papers. He said if anybody seeking help ends up facing deportation because they asked for help, the mayor said he would defend them himself. Now, a big part of the reason the mayor had to quell those kinds of fears over the course of this storm is because this new antiimmigrant law in texas, sb4, is due to go into effect for the first time this week. Its due to go into effect on friday. Well, as of a few minutes ago, that is now off. A federal judge in texas has just blocked the state of texas from enforcing that new antiimmigrant law. The judge saying in this ruling tonight, quote, theres overwhelming evidence by local officials including local Law Enforcement that this law will erode public trust and make many communities and neighborhoods less safe. Theres also ample evidence that localities will suffer adverse economic consequences which in turn harm the state of texas. The court cannot and does not secondguess the legislature. However, the state may not exercise its authority in a manner that violates the United States constitution. And so for now, that new antiimmigrant law in texas due to go into effect this week, it is on hold. The Texas Governor has just released a statement saying he will appeal. Well be right back. Rethink whats possible. Rethink your allergy pills. Flonase sensimist allergy relief helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. Most allergy pills only block one. And 6 is greater than one. Flonase sensimist. Music Edible Arrangements for summer. Order in store or online. boy and these are the lungs. class ewwww boy sorry. dad dont worry about it. mom honey, honey, honey, honey vo at our house, we need things that are built to last. Thats why we got a subaru. avo love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Get 0 apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 legacys. As i mentioned earlier in the show, the Financial Times has reported late tonight that rinat akhmetshin, the russian fixer and former soviet military Intelligence Officer who attended the trump tower meeting last june that involved Trump Campaign officials and a whole bunch of other russians, according to the Financial Times tonight, he has just given testimony to special counsel Robert Muellers grand jury for several hours. On august 11th he apparently did this testimony. This is only the second time weve learned about specific people who have been called to testify before the mueller grand jury. He is a naturalized u. S. Citizen. Hes russian born. He retains a russian passport. He has numerous ties to russian intelligence including military intelligence. Hes also been associated with at least two previous campaigns where hes worked for proputin business figures whose opponents in financial or business or legal combat have found themselves targeted with computer hacking and stolen documents that are then turned against them in the public sphere. Just in case that sounds familiar. Were told hes separately being investigated by the Senate Judiciary committee himself, but he has testified to the mueller grand jury. Now, the Senate Judiciary committee, theyre one of the three main committees in Congress Investigating ties between the Trump Campaign and russia. Today, very interesting, chairman of that committee got a very special phone call. Quote, just had a phone call from President Trump. He assured me hes proethanol, and im free to, i think, tell is the world he forgot here. Free to tell the people of iowa hes standing by his campaign promise. Unclear why the president thought today was a good time to reach out to the senator from iowa to talk about ethanol, but that call did come less than one day after iowa senator Chuck Grassleys committee announced theyd set a date for donald trump jr. To come testify to that committee about arranging that trump tower meeting. Now, today the white house denied the trump conversation with grassley had anything to do with the committees russia investigation whatsoever. The president just had a feeling about ethanol all of a sudden. Meanwhile, senator grassleys office says it was a twominute call in which only ethanol, hurricane harvey, and former Iowa GovernorTerry Branstad came up. So there was definitely no pressure on the russia thing, no pressure to be nice to don junior. Definitely not. It was barely even implied. Reliable conservative publications like the Washington Times werent buying it. Theyre head lien look at this. This made be laugh out loud. Look at their headline. Can we put it up . Do we have it . Come on. Their headline today, there it is. Trump calls grassley about ethanol ahead of sons meeting with the judiciary committee. Even the Washington Times gets the importance of that call today. All right. Watch this space. Watch this space right here literally . Watch me . By which i mean that does it for us tonight. Well see you again tomorrow. Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, lawrence. Sorry to be coming to you a little bit early. Something happened that i didnt know about. Good evening, rachel. Its 9 59 and 29 seconds, and so im shocked to be talking to you so soon. House logs for all president s in front of me at the moment, but i have reason to suspect that a sitting president of the United States has never once picked up the phone to call an iowa senator to say, ethanol is great. Its something that president s tend to mention once every four years when theyre running for president , and it never comes up again. Or conceivably if the senator from iowa has something going on that the president really, really has strong feelings about. The president s son getting called before grassleys committee less than one day before this call to grassley about, you know, heartfelt feelings about ethanol. Its a little unsubtle even for this white house