Up 10 points. That has now evaporated. Interesting to see who turns out, a testament to the excitement level. Thank you all. That is all for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now with ari in for rachel. Good evening. Rachel has the night off. We have a pretty big show. Today was day two of the federal criminal trial of the campaign chairman. The witnesses were several people who sold the defendant clothes and houses that he bought through secretive International Wire payments. One important thing we learned from what happened today, this judge is holding muellers prosecutors to the line, limiting their questions and how they present key evidence to manafort to the jury. A former prosecutor who tried these kinds of cases and inside that courtroom today joins me to explain if what the judge is up to could hurt muellers case. There are reports tonight about the russian woman charged with trying to carry out the government influence campaign through the nra in the u. S. And people who appear to have been her american coconspirators. That is a big story. But we begin with something far more troubling than any of that. It began last march. Lets set the scene. Donald trump had been in office just six weeks and his National Security advisor was already out. It was march 1st, they exposed Jeff Sessions participated in two encounters with the Russian Ambassador during the campaign, a ways away from sessions own testimony at his own Confirmation Committee that He Hadnt Had Quote Communications with the russians. We now know internally at the
doj there was a process going of Career Lawyers recommending Jeff Sessions recuse himself from the probe, he had an obligation on that. This was a key inflection point. Jeff sessions could have taken the doj guidance to recuse and could have also ignored it, a decision to make and donald trump at that moment could have stayed out of it or at least in the public realm. Heres what happened. The next day, march 2nd, trump had this very big grand appearance arriving via helicopter on the uss gerald ford, the navys very new and expensive warship. Trump spoke to sailors there. The Traveling Press Corps for this big fancy appearance were with trump. Watch this key moment. This was one of those unpredictable, you could seen say random times you see this normally routine even frustrating job of the traveling
reporters see it become pivotal, potential criminal evidence. Watch reporters ask trump whether Jeff Sessions recusal because he was too close to the Trump Campaign should happen. Mr. President , should sessions recuse himself from investigations of the campaign in russia . I dont think so at all. When do you think sessions spoke to the Russian Ambassador . When were you aware he spoke to the Russian Ambassador . I wasnt aware. That was a quick but pivotal moment. Trump did two things, he inappropriately pressured sessions not to recuse and if you listen closely he contributed to the dojs argument for sessions recusal. Because the doj standard for this is whether a person is too close to the subject of the probe, whether Jeff Sessions would basically be more of a Trump Campaign surrogate who happened to be Attorney General rather than acting as a Law Enforcement officer. Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. The probe remains open. That is just what we know based on what is in public and is leaked. One more thing as you take it all together. There is another reason donald trump may be writing things about sessions that look selfincriminating on twitter, have his own lawyers saying they arent what they are. This requires you to entertain the believe the president is more canny than clueless. Donald trumps team uses Donald Trumps past efforts to squeeze and oust Jeff Sessions. Muellers case may already have strong evidence of that, provable evidence. So knowing that it looks bad, donald trump may want to reup the worst parts of this himself and say, how bad can it be if its what i just tweeted . I turn now to a reporter leading much of our knowledge about this, Investigative Reporter for the washington post, and she
has A New Story Tonight On The Muumuu Ler interview offer to trump, essential to all of this. Thank you for being here on a busy night for you. Glad to be here. Thanks for the good questions you guys always ask. Its been a Roller Coaster of a day. I think thats fair to say. Theres some theme parks open well into the evening. We may still be on the Roller Coaster at this moment. Walk us through what you learned of muellers Counter Offer for a potential trump interview and why do you think hes willing to limit some questions . Im told muellers Team Presents a counterproposal in this 7 monthlong investigation for them to interview the president that the president obstructed justice or sought to thwart a criminal probe. In this counterproposal, what
lawyers, i need to know whether or not the president had corrupt intent when he took some of the actions that he took, most importantly, firing fbi director, jim comey. He wants the president in the room with him one way or another. The second seems to me likely possibility about this Counter Offer is he wants to show hes willing to negotiate a little and not be stoic and stubborn. So this is a little move closer to trumps request or the Trump Legal Teams request, but i even hear within the sources close to the president and in the white house, that theyre not so sure mueller moved that far, but he certainly made the effort to appear he was reducing some of the questions. Do you have any hints whether he is prepared to go to the
Supreme Court if trump wont sit down and how do you do that and when do you trigger that . One thing we know very clearly he has given the Trump Legal Team, he would like to avoid a subpoena fight. There are all sorts of good reasons. He knows that will take months. Very little chance the court of appeals certainly involved on the road to the Supreme Court would move with any and the question never been answered, can you force the president to the table to talk about acts as president. If there is one thing we know as well, mueller has gathered a lot of evidence. Hes interviewed a ton of people and pressed in his questions he hinted at to the Trump Legal Team what hes interested in. Obstruction is a central piece what he wants to get to the president. You say obstruction. That brings us to the most damning and obvious question many of us watching would like your view on. Why do you think donald trump wrote something on the internet that was so plate tently selfincriminating about obstruction into this case that is an investigation into obstruction. So blatantly. Two things, i agree with the prosecutors i spent a lot of time in federal courts. I agree any statement you make that suggests youre threatening or intimidating or encouraging a course of action is not a crime but certainly goes to a State Of Mind and could be part of the mosaic laying out, arguing, the president was really signaling to tens of millions of people, this is what he wanted. Its not a crime but builds the color around the State Of Mind of the actor, the president. The second thing is why did he tweet . The president has shown a talent for sending a message early in the morning, either about his anger or about the topic he wants all of us to be talking about. In this instance, i believe hes been watching a lot of coverage of Paul Manaforts trial. Obviously, were not live inside that trial but hes watching the cable news minute by minute updates and he wants to send a signal about how he feels this is wrong. It could be just a signal to his base and nothing more. You said it was a mosaic of sorts. I wonder whether its a selfportrait titled evidence of obstruction, given how blatant it was. Carol, we appreciate you being here and your nuance. And asserting collusion is not a crime, he read aloud from the u. S. Code the actual statutes that would be broken if there was collusion with russia and election interference certainly adds to the public record, senator. I want to start with your view of what donald trump wrote on the internet today is evidence of potential obstruction. Its certainly evidence, ari, of his State Of Mind, how he views the ongoing Mueller Investigation and what he thinks should happen. Hes saying this morning Jeff Sessions should shut down the Mueller Investigation he calls a rigged witch hunt a number of commentators said this evening that could be entered into evidence what his State Of Mind has been. Ill remind you, this goes back to his lester holt interview following the firing of james
comey, when he said he had the russia investigation in mind when he fired jim comey, the former fbi director. I think theres abundant evidence obstruction and intent to interfere with the Ongoing Investigation whether or not russia committed some conspiracy with the Trump Campaign in order to violate our federal election laws. Thats been out there in plain view now for months. My answer why President Trump did that this morning is a combination appealing to his base and delegitimizing the Mueller Investigation and he cant help himself. Cant help himself. His lawyer said it was come from the top and didnt do what it did. Sometimes it feels like were all going through a type of law School Together in this era. You would be one of our voluntary professor, i suppose. Collusion, conspiracy, criminal hacking and theft, fraud against the United States, Foreign Campaign contributions, those are all felonies that relate to what has been alleged in 2016. Walk us through your point about what crimes constitute collusion. First, the term collusion is being used casually. Its a conspiracy to break federal election laws. The federal election law, tite 52 of the u. S. Code, says it is a crime to solicit or accept a thing of value from a Foreign National in order to influence a federal election. Im summarizing what is a much longer paragraph. Essentially, thats what it says, a Foreign National cant contribute either money or thing of value and an american cant solicit or receive a thing of value from a Foreign National in connection with a federal election. Thats the crux of whats being investigated here whether the russian well documented wide scale russian effort by dozens of Russian Military officers to influence the American Election and offer hacked emails was in some way either solicited on accepted by the Trump Campaign team. Thats why i think the developments in recent days, Michael Cohen may be willing to testify President Trump knew about the June 9th Trump Tower meeting with russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton could be a key Turning Point here. Theres lots of public evidence of enthusiasm by the highest levels of the Trump Campaign to accept derogatory information of Hillary Clinton and her campaign and information Robert Mueller made of indictments and russian efforts to influence the outcome of the campaign. What is missing is what connects
point a to point b to make it a conspiracy and that may well be what Robert Mueller is trying to present. Lying to investigators is also a federal offense. Sometimes things said on twitter, whether by donald trump jr. Or Paul Manafort or others, what really ends up being the thing that hangs them up, testifying to a committee or fbi investigator one way and proving the facts are the opposite. I think those are the three core issues here. Violating a federal election law and working to break the laws, which is conspiracy and lying to investigators. Most of the indictments that have so far come out from the Mueller Investigation move along one of those three tracks. I expect we will be seeing more indictments in the future. To paraphrase, they were right to say collusion is not a crime, collusion is like four crimes. Thats right. What we are commonly referring to as collusion is a complex series of violations of federal election law, truthfulness to investigators and commonly known of conspiracy 183 c 71, working with more than one person to break federal law, simple conspiracy. Senator chris coons, a member of the Senate Judiciary committee, an expert on this. I appreciate you. And we have the former federal prosecutor in the courtroom today in just a moment. Let your perfect drive come together at the Lincoln Summer Invitation sales event. Get 0 apr on select 2018 lincoln models
plus 1,000 bonus cash. In this courtroom believed the law did not apply to him, not tax laws, not banking laws, this man collected over 60 million for his work in a european country called ukraine. This man didnt want to use all his income and used Foreign Countries to funnel. The judge interrupted, the evidence you say will show this . Yes, your honor. The prosecutor tried to continue to say, to funnel millions of dollars. The judge said, did you hear what i said . Then we get a more typical response, yes, your honor. The court said, all right. Do it that way, please. Ellis did press both sides and told manaforts lawyer they must speak of evidence and not claims that. In terms of quote, you will hear
evidence that dot dot dot dot. Right out of the gate that has been the issue. Judge ellis didnt mellow out at all. At one point he scolded them to rein in their facial expressions. Its been reported that lawyers leaving the bench roll their eyes, communicating essentially why do we have to put up with this idiot judge. Dont do that. Obviously, if i see that i might be upset. You can see that running a courtroom at times is no different than dealing with your average teenager, at least from this judges point. The judge is trying to trim the sales of these aggressive lawyers including muellers aggressive prosecutors. The court saying oligarchky is just despotic power exercised by
someone and principals of high schools are that. Saying he was being paid by people who are themselves criminals. The name, oligarch has a majoritive meaning. He told them, look, find another term to use. Almost immediately, not being able to say the word, oligarch, kind of like a banana peel for the prosecution, ill read to you again what were learning from this big trial, the payments were made on behalf of mr. Ian nokovic, i would say oligarch but by the wealthy businessman. The judge wanted to know who paid that money . And he said, those are the oligarches. Those are the individuals that financed it, dont use that term and what good lawyers say, understood. And now a matter whether the prosecutors can use photographs
of manaforts very expensive suits as evidence. Grand names basically greek to this judge. Ica cant recognize these names. If it doesnt say mens warehouse, i dont know it. That got something of a laugh in his courtroom and then this did not. These pictures of manaforts very fancy suits may never get to the jury. The Big Curveball came when the judge started questioning other evidence pertaining to rick gates, muellers former deputy they got to cooperate. It has the potential to be the most riveting part of this trial and maybe the whole prosecution at this point because were talking about the Deputy Campaign manager for donald trump who flipped. Look at this. Judge ellis says, quote, you will offer up mr. Gate, arent you . Muellers prosecutor say, your honor, were not sure if we are. He may testify in this case, your honor, he may not. That is one of those things that sounds very measured, we may do this, we may not but has big repercussions what we will hear out of this case. Why would the prosecution be considering not putting what is described as their star witness on the stand . A good question. I will be joined by someone at the trial today and also covering as politicos correspondent, covering the trial since the beginning. I put that question to you. Whether gates will testify. Interesting moment in the trial. A sudden hush in the courtroom and sudden scurrying in the courtroom when a number of people ran out the back. Judge ellis himself said, thats a surprise to me and apparently about 25 other people out of the courtroom who just ran out like rats from a sinking ship,
presumably reporters who would report back this statement. If you think about it they very well may not decide to call in rick gates. The case is coming in very well. Its primarily a paper case, which if youre a prosecutor is a dream. Paper doesnt lie or forget or admit to biases. If you can prove your case, you may not need a live witness who can go sideways in a lot of ways. Sounds like theyre playing it in a lot of ways and may end up not calling rick gates if they dont need to and presents potential risks. A good trial lit gator has no ego or attachment, just wants to win. Have they found manaforts Defense Lawyer has been effective enough they want to keep this option open . They were noncommittal to
be. As long as theyre on your list you may call them but you dont have to call all of them. When you do call a witness, youre required to turn over all their prior statements on the Subject Matter and turn over anything that could be used to attack their credibility, like the plea deal, anything bad he has admitted to, any statements he made about the russia matter. It may be prosecutors would rather hold that foreclose to the vest for now and save him as a witness in the washington, d. C. Trial in september. If they can get through this one on paper and save him, i think they can view that as a good thing. They can make that call next week and see how the case has come in and decide whether to call him at all. Josh, walk us through a little more color of the Reading Rainbow Segment that was just a few quotes. Did you ever see eye rolling and how pivotal is this judge . I think some of the Eye Rolling May have come through the jury Selection Process when
we had very long sidebars. The judge does seem to really be riding the prosecution. There wouldnt be any reason to be riding the defense because the defense at the moment is just putting in a few congratulati crossexamination questions. Its the prosecutions ball on this side of the field at this point. The judge is limiting the amount of evidence i think the defense might view as prejudicial. As you mentioned, the issues of photo, Ostrich Jacket and Home Renovations very expensive. The photos of all the suits, of all the other luxury goods manafort used money to buy that he said came from his work in ukraine. The judge is trying to keep this to facts and figures, to the invoices, the paper. Let me draw you out on that. The criticism of the mueller view is theyre trying to make manafort like he had fancy coats and fancy brands. Legally, thats not the problem and unfair and all they have to prove is tax evasion. Do you think the judge is hitting that right and fairly . I think he is, although he does bring it up a lot. Id say roughly hour or two he makes a comment about manafort is not on trial for being rich or having a lavish lifestyle or extravagant tastes and prosecutors often agree with the judge but insist they need to show the value of these luxury goods that manafort was getting them to convince jurors his tax returns could not cover the lifestyle he was living in addition to proving this point of the very very strange payment arrangements. Nearly every vendor that came up said they were paid by Overseas Wire transfers from shell
companies whose names they never heard of or only got from manafort and today we had forged invoices, a couple saying they were being shown invoices with their name at the top of the letter head but not authentic and somebody forged those as part of the process of getting these shell questions paid overseas. Honestly, it sounds exhausting to be that shady all the time. We dont always relate to what theyre accused of. We have one more note, manafort has those expensive tastes. That includes, we will show you, a 15,000 ostrich coat, josh just mentioned it. We want you to see it. Youre not a juror so you have every right to see it. We submit it to you without comment. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens brown paper packages tied up with strings these are a few of My Favorite Things but its tough to gete enough of their nutrients. New one a day with natures medley is the only complete multivitamin with antioxidants from one total serving of fruits and veggies try new one a day with natures medley. Moved, it happened last minute over where the public is not permitted there so protesters couldnt get as close. When they got the word the meeting was moved, protesters marched at the hart center where hemed with senator boozman. They got louder, blocking the halls shouting, hell, no, kavanaugh. Dozens were arrested. 74 people arrested and charged, the counts around crowding or obstructing because you cant interfere with the gathering places there. When Disability RightsActivist Bar Kin was wheeled in, he was cheered by the protesters. The battle is in early stages. Democratic senators mostly saying they will not meet with kavanaugh. They want documents of his time serving as bushs time in the
white house. They will not say when the Confirmation Hearings will start but does say theyre not likely to september which is getting close to the midterms themselves. If today is any indication whats to come, there could be a lot more bumps on that road. There
bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. Ahoy laughing bounty, the quicker picker upper. Big news when the Trump Campaign announced the deal. At the time trump was campaigning he was insisting he had no deals with russia. Another scoop where negotiations with trump tower and moscow were far more extensive and lasted longer than previously reported and went into june 2016, after trump became the nominee, and
negotiations conducted by Michael Cohen with plans for trump to make a midcampaign trip to moscow, a great idea and another bombshell that relates to collusion, even before mueller was appointed special counsel, fbi agents learned trump was in frequent contact with foreign individuals about trump moscow and that some of these individuals had knowledge of or played a role in 2016 election meddling. That would be a big headline all on its own if we didnt have so many other things happening. Just one exhibit in collusion issues around trump. Now, this team is back with a new scoop. This one is about the accused spy, maria butina of acting as an agent accusing her of a covert influence with the nra and other conservatives and that she was aided by two persons from the u. S. , Paul Erickson who
had a relationship with butina and the second one is George Oneill jr. , a rockefeller heir and worked on the pat buchanan campaign in 92 with erickson. Details are piling up about butinas alleged influence campaign financed by support from the russian billionaire and with deep ties to the russian president ial administration and the word you cant use in the trial, the oligarchs son. And the senate today unanimously approved turning over that transcript, what she told them and details about the billionaire to prosecutors as well as the Defense Lawyer. Buzzfeed is hot on the trail and theyre reporting investigators are looking at 300,000 in these transactions by butina and erickson, which includes 90,000
sent to or from a russian bank. The transactions were first flagged by antifraud investigations at wells fargo in some cases found no Economic Business or lawful purpose to explain them. Those records also handed over to the fbi. Joining me now is one of those authors of those scoops, buzzfeed Investigative Reporter, anthony cormier. I guess i should start with, wow, there is a lot here. A lot going on. The 300,000, what does it mean . We know now this massive investigation is doing what they do, following the money. Who is supporting miss butina in the u. S. And what she was doing with the funds while here and if anyone else was involved in what is alleged to be a Grand Conspiracy to influence figure is in the u. S. On russias behalf. You say anyone else involved,
she and the others linked to putin on this sleeper cell or other dogs . Both russian and american, i think, to we can say that thats what the fbi is sniffing around on. You are familiar with the term what happens in las vegas stays in las vegas . What happens online has not stayed online in this case. The Midterm Campaign hacking were hearing about involving offline events. How much of this looks to you like bigger Offline Physical activity inside the United States and how does mueller view that . I will speont speak for mr. Mueller. But our sources tell us that
money has to go somewhere. This is cash. It moves. They want to know where it went. It is going to be difficult, right . When you deposit cash on the front end, it is hard to know where it came from. When you pull it out, it is difficult to know where it went. The fbi has a massive sweeping Counter Intelligence investigation and they are firmly going to get to the bottom of it. And being so hands on means what . It means you can make a beeline right to the kremlin if this all stands up, right . If the charges stick, if they do find where the money came from, where it went, it is going to be very difficult for the kremlin to say, we had no idea. Final question, there is a lot of discussion about regulating finance and banks in america. Is this story, which you report, begins with banks regulations and laws a sign thats a important part of Regulating Banks . Absolutely. Whether its citi or wells
fargo, they are critical points where the fbi is able to go and full records. Paper dont lie and the fbi is making paper to sort of make these cases. It is fascinating. And you have been doing a lot of reporting that we have been indebted to. Customers bundle and save big, but now its time to find my dream abode. Right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. Keep going. Stop. A little bit down. Stop. Back up again. Is this adequate sunlight for a Komodo Dragon . Yeah. Sure, i want that discount on Car Insurance just for owning a home, but im not compromising. Youre taking a shower . Water pressures crucial, scott its like they say location, location, koi pond. They dont say that. Its the first and only Oab Treatment in its class. Myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. Tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. Myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions. Like swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or trouble breathing. If experienced, stop taking and tell your doctor right away. Myrbetriq may interact with other medicines. Tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. Common side effects include increased blood pressure, common cold or flu symptoms,. Sinus irritation, dry mouth, urinary tract infection, bladder inflammation,. Back or joint pain, constipation, dizziness, and headache. Need some help managing your oab symptoms along the way . Ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you, and visit myrbetriq. Com to learn more. These are the specialists were proud to call our own. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com
the political state of ohio has a 12 district right here. It has been reliably red. Hasnt gone to a democrat for Congress Since run dmc was the top of the charts in the 80s. Right now they dont have someone representing them because you have that Big Ohio Shaped Hole in the u. S. House. Thats why we have a special election to fill that seat this coming tuesday. You can say the mid terms have already started. Although, it is a special election. That has gone up like a flair for democrats. Take a look at the latest poll. Trailing by just one point. Well within striking distance would be a huge shift, blue in the state. And democrats say this is not the only good piece of data they are getting right now. Today over in texas, which is reliably red, the idea of a senator like ted cruz losing his seat to a democrat would seem
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