Today had to ask for a little extra time, please. Just couldnt keep up. One of the things we were expecting today was for federal prosecutors to file notice with the judge who was overseeing the criminal case of this man, president Trumps DeputyCampaign Chairman rick gates. Federal prosecutors were due to notify the judge in gates case today as to what sentence they think rick gates should get. This has been an eagerly anticipated part of this case and indeed part of the overall trump scandals and their criminal case components because unlike Paul Manafort the president s Campaign Chairman who said he would cooperate with prosecutors and then didnt and lied to prosecutors and now hes in prison for seven plus years because of it, unlike manafort who said he would cooperate and didnt, manaforts deputy rick gates who worked with manafort in his ukraine work and working from pro criminal and Political Parties who also came to work with trump on the campaign in 2016, rick gates has been cooperating. Manafort said he would and he didnt. Gates said he would cooperate and he certainly has, including testifying in multiple trials so far. Gates has been a cooperating witness for prosecutors for almost two years now. So, weve been really anticipating this statement from prosecutors summing up the extent of his cooperation, the value of his cooperation, how they think a judge should weigh his cooperation against his felony convictions and the stuff he has con fessed so. It should be super interesting, right . This is the super cooperator in terms of the criminal cases. Seeing what prosecutors have to say should tell us a bunch of stuff we probably dont know already. Weve been waiting for this a long time. That document was due by close of business today. Surprise, in a last minute filing right before the close of business today, right up against the deadline, the u. S. Attorney in washington, d. C. Filed instead this short notice with the court ak nocknowledging thae judge had told the prosecutors and the defense that they both had to have their sentencing memos about rick gates in today. But the prosecutors say they are not ready. Quote, the government the continuing to gather materials for the governments memorandum in aid of sentencing. With the courts leave, we also plan to file under seal a supplemental motion regarding mr. Gates assistance, a supplemental motion that continues Sensitive Information relating to ongoing criminal matters. Oh, therefore the government, quote, respectfully requests a oneday extension of time to file its memorandum in aid of sentencing and moves this court to file under seal its supplemental motion. Mr. Gates consents to the governments request. So, i mean, who knows why they need just one extra day to the extent that i had deadlines today, id put my deadlines off too. It was one of those days it was impossible to keep up with everything. It may be possible that theres something materially significant about exactly which day it is that theyre asking for as an extension. Maybe they really needed something they couldnt get until tomorrow morning. But theyve asked for a oneday extension. And it is news itself that rick gates is still providing assistance to prosecutors even at this last date, something that relates to ongoing criminal matters and is sensitive and has to be filed under seal. Thats new itself. I mean, we kind of thought that rick gates testifying against Paul Manafort, testifying on the stand in the roger stone trial, we kind of thought that was it. But apparently not. Apparently theres more to get out of rick gates and it is sensitive enough that we, the public, wont be allowed to see whatever it is that prosecutors are going to file. That was a little bit of a curveball tonight. And i should tell you just as we were getting on the air, just as i was heading down to the studio just a few minutes ago, we did get in the defense submission, gates defense lawyers telling the judge in his case why they think he shouldnt get prison tomb. That alone is interesting. But were still waiting for what the prosecutors have to say which should be fascinating. Well have more on that coming up later on. I should also mention that we originally thought that we would be seeing Trump National security adviser mike flynn finally getting sentenced around now as well. It was this time last year that mike flynn was initially in court expecting to get his sentence for the felony counts on which hes pled guilty. This time last year when he showed up for his sentencing, thats when things sort of fell apart for mike flynn in open court when the judge made clear there was a real possibility that flynn was going to get the book thrown at him by his sentencing judge. After confronting flynn with all sorts of things he thought about him, the judge showed mercy and allowed flynn to delay that sentencing so he could go back to prosecutors and cooperate some more to try to alleviate what otherwise looked like it was going to be a really stiff sentence. That was a year ago that the judge sent him away and said you probably dont want to be sentenced by me right now. You probably want to try to help yourself a little more in term of what you can stack up against the sentence im thinking about giving you. A year ago on that basically advice from the judge, but over the course of this past year, thats really not how it went. Mike flynn didnt go to prosecutors and help them lots more so prosecutors would say hes being even more helpful. We want you to be more lenient than he might have otherwise been. Didnt go that way. Prosecutors to the contrary are now expressing dissatisfaction with the degree to which flynn has continued to be helpful to them. Flynn has switched to a different legal team which is a fox news pundit legal team. That new legal team has made overthe top allegations about the evil Justice Department and evil fbi and innocent mike flynn being targeted by some deep state cabal and the fbi being the real criminals. Just a couple weeks ago mike flynns sentencing was delayed again because the new lawyers said there was this Inspector General report coming out at the Justice Department which would shed important new light on the bogus case against mike flynn. The judge in flynns case, the same one who sent hum away a year ago who said you might want to try to help yourself before you hear the sentence, that same judge agreed to, once again, delay flynns sentencing this time until after the Inspector General report came out so everybody could see what the Inspector General concluded about the propriety of the case against mike flynn and the investigation into flynn. Well, now as of today, that Inspector General report is out. If you were the judge in mike flynns case, its easy to imagine you might be annoyed at this point if you delayed the sentencing because of what you believed were good faith assertions by mike flynns lawyers that this new report was going to change everything. It was going to make the case against mike flynn fall apart. It was going to expose the dastardly fbi for only having pursued flynn because of some flit cal vendetta against flynn or against donald trump. Whatever else they thought this would give them, you might imagine that the judge today now having had the opportunity to see this report might be annoyed because the Inspector General report that is out today does discuss the fbi opening up their investigation into mike flynn. And they conclude that it was no problem. I. G. Took a hard look at it. Seems pretty kosher is pretty much the conclusion. Definitely nothing wrong with the mike Flynn Investigation. This is whats in the Inspector General report. Quote, the initial cross fire hurricane, the russia investigation, was to determine which individuals associated with the Trump Campaign may have been in a position to received the alleged offer of assistance from russia. After conducting open source and database inquiries, intelligence analysts on the cross fire Hurricane Team identified three individuals, carter paige, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn associated with the Trump Campaign with either ties to russia or a history of travel to russia. On august 10th, 2016, the team opened separate counterintelligence requests under code names assigned by the fbi. Six days later on august 16th, a counterintelligence case was opened on flynn under another code name assigned by the fbi. Each case was designated as a sensitive investigative matter because the individual subjects were believed to be prominent in a domestic political campaign. Inspector general then explains the predicate information that was cited as the reason for opening fbi investigations into each of those people including flynn. Quote, the opening electronic communication, the Opening Statement for the Flynn Investigation stated that there was an articulate factual basis that flynn may have wittingly or unwittingly been involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the National Security. The document cross referenced to the cross fire hurricane and flynn was an adviser to the Trump Campaign who had entities to russia and travelled to russia in december 2015. So, thats what the fbi did when it opened its investigation into flynn. Was there anything wrong with them opening that investigation into flynn . The Inspector General says no, not at all. From page 352, quote, we concluded that the fbi had sufficient predication to open full counterintelligence investigations of papadopoulos, paige, flynn, and manafort in august 2016. As with the opening of cross fire hurricane itself, we concluded that the quantum of information articulated by the fbi to open these individual investigations was sufficient. Particularly in the context of the fbis separate and ongoing efforts to address russian interference in the 2016 u. S. Elections. So, the fbi was looking at russia interfering in the 2016 elections. They were looking specifically at whether anyone on the Trump Campaign might have been in a position to accept that offer of assistance from russia or otherwise coordinate with russia wittingly or unwittingly while they were carrying out this operation to interfere in our election. The fbi looked at people in the Trump Campaign who might have been in a position to do that sort of thing and flynn is one of the people they investigated. Thats the investigation that ultimately resulted in him pleading guilty to a felony. Thats what hes waiting to be sentenced on. To the extend that mike flynns sentencing was delayed again because the lawyers were sure and told the Inspector General report was something the judge wanted to see before effort to sentence mike flynn, since the fbi set him up, lets wait to see that report that shows that he was the Inspector General report concludes mike flynn was not set up and the fbi did nothing wrong when they opened the investigation. Theres no indication in the Inspector Generals report that the fbi did anything wrong over the course of the case which resulted in him pleading guilty to a felony. So, President Trumps National Security adviser mike flynn is presumably running out of rabbits in terms of what his lawyers have available to continue to try to pull out of a hat, to try to keep the judge in his case from pronouncing his sentence. We know he wants a president ial pardon. It would appear hes at the end of his rope in term of what he can continue to use to delay his federal court sentencing. Were waiting to hear any time from the judge in the case. The Inspector General report is out. It offers flynn no help for this somewhat crazy defense he and his fox news lawyer have been mounting in court. When it comes to rick gates, we expect to hear from prosecutors about the rick gates sentencing tomorrow. Some of that will be filed under seal. Its not known if the ongoing criminal matter that rick gates is still helping with pertains maybe to mike flynn. After all, the mike flynn case is still open. Flynn still hasnt been sentenced. It could pertain to anybody else from trump land, right . But the criminal cases adjacent to this president and his campaign and the various trump president ial scandals, all these criminal cases, so many of them are still live and underway. And dont forget all of these federal case are under the auspices of the department of justice run by barr and thats a weird and concerning dynamic because the prosecutors who have brought all of these cases against manafort and against gates and against flynn and papadopoulos and stone and all the Russian MilitaryIntelligence Officers and Constantine Kilimnik and the guy who ran the russian troll farm for the kremlin, all of these federal cases that have been brought by prosecutors that are along side or abutting trump and his president ial scandals, all the prosecutors who brought all of those cases are working under the auspices of bill barr. And bill barr appears now day by day to increasingly be at war with the Justice Department that he is leading, including specifically on this Inspector Generals report which doesnt just clear the fbi and the Justice Department in term os of their handling of the mike Flynn Investigation. It concludes this whole fantasy that the whole russia investigation was a deep state plot designed to sabotage Donald Trumps political chances, the Inspector General chased down the fuzzy threads of their hair ball Conspiracy Theory and found it to all be nonsense. Look at the conclusions of the report. Theres a long executive summary. Look at that. Look at the conclusions. Conclusion page 410, quote, the decision to open the investigation was by bill prista. We concluded, meaning the Inspector Generals office, concluded that prees taps exercise of discretion in opening the investigation was in compliance with department and fbi policies. We did not find evidence that political bias influenced his motivation wechlt found that cross fire hurricane was opened for an authorized investigative purpose and with sufficient factual predication. As to the use of informants and Confidential Sources and these, you know, allegations from the president and from attorney general william barr that the Trump Campaign was somehow spied on and that was the real scandal here, well, the Inspector General ran all that down. Quote, we did not find any documentary or testimonial evidence about political bias or improper motivation influenced the fbis motivation to conduct these operations. We found no evidence of placing human sources within the Trump Campaign or recruit members of the Trump Campaign as human sources or task human sources to the report on the Trump Campaign. So, the Inspector General concluded that the individual investigations they opened up into People Associated with the Trump Campaign, those were simple. The russia investigation and the specific investigation into Trump Campaign was into what russia was doing, that was fundamentally sound. The report did criticize the way the fbi filled out the Court Application for the one fisa warrant they obtained over the course of the investigation. It was a fisa warrant into Trump Campaign adviser carter paige who we knew before that his involvement with the Trump Campaign was someone whose name surfaced in other investigations in the united states. But the Inspector Generals report broadly debunks the conspiracy theories on the right that everybody in these investigations had fisa warrants against them. It turns out it was just one guy. Carter page. They do take issue with the way the carter page warrant was applied for and the way the updates to those applications went, but thats it. The Inspector General debunks that there was any sort of antitrump political bias that was motivating or driving any of these decisions. They debunked the idea that the Christopher Steel dossier against trump was the basis for opening the fbi investigation. It absolutely was not. And oh, by the way, no, there was no spying on the Trump Campaign. So youre not suggesting though that spying occurred. I dont well, i think spying did occur. Yes, i think spying did occur. Spying did not occur according to the Justice Department. Justice departments Inspector General report came out today concluding definitively that the Trump Campaign was not spied on. Which you would i mean, given the seriousness of the allegation that the Trump Campaign was spied on, given the fact that the attorney general made that allegation while giving sworn testimony in congress that he threw that out there, now that his own Justice Department has concluded no, they werent spied on. Under normal circumstances, that would be the occasion for the attorney general to resign, right . From having thrown out an allegation that serious, that grave with no reason for doing so and then being disproven. Under normal circumstances, a senior Government Official being call out that badly on something that serious, you might expect a resignation. Rather, what we actually got to was attorney general william barr releasing a statement taking issue with the findings of the Inspector Generals report saying he doesnt believe it, trying to spin the findings of the Inspector Generals report to make them seem much more in line with the criticism he and the Trump White House have been promoting for months. Its like when the Mueller Report was completed but we couldnt see it yet and william barr put out the report saying ive read it and its awesome for donald trump. That was oddly effective in terms of the public understanding, public misunderstanding of the Mueller Report when barr did that the first time. It appears that he is trying to do that again with this Inspector General report. This Inspector General report debunks all the conspiracy theories about the russia investigation. Barr has put out a statement saying well, as far as he can tell, none of thats right. I mean, the problem this time is that number one, weve all got the report and we can read it ourselves wechlt don ourselves. We dont have to rely on bill barr summarizing before were allowed to see it. Number two, weve seen him pull this trick before, right . So, we can now more easily recognize that, yeah, this is what bill barr does as trumps attorney general. Him putting out a Statement Today disenting from the findings of the Inspector General of his own department, we know thats about bill barr and how devoted he will remain to whatever fake exculpatory theory he and the president are promoting about the behavior of the president and those in his campaign. It tells you something about william barr as attorney general. We now know better than to expect his statements about things like this tell you anything about whats in the report. So, we can all read the Inspector General report ourselves. In terms of the criticism of the way the fisa application for the carter page fisa warrant went, the fbi has already said they not only accept, they embrace those findings of the report and they embrace the recommendations of the inspeck sor genertor gen how to improve those policies and procedures. Apparently there will be a follow on report about reforming the way the fbi and the Justice Department seek wiretapping applications from the fisa court. Okay. But the whole witch hunt idea, the deep state cabal, the russia investigation being a coupe against President Trump, all those talking points today took a hard blow from the deep examination of all those crazy claims. And that report arrives in the middle of what may be the climactic impeachment hearing today before the Judiciary Committee. The committee spent the first several hours of this impeachment hearing today having one long Opening Statement after the other from the Committee Chair from the Ranking Member from the Committee Counsel then from the other Committee Counsel then from the witness who was also a Committee Counsel and then from the other witness who was also a Committee Counsel. I mean, for many hours today at the start of this hearing it was just individual guy lawyers talking out loud. When they finally started mixing it up and cross examining the witnesses and having actual back and forth between the questioners and interrogating the record and the impeachment scandal, that moment in the hearing is when they released the Inspector General report. So, everybody had to go Pay Attention to Something Else for a while right when the hearing was finally getting super interesting. But weve got to Pay Attention to everything at once now. This is just what its like at this point in our nations history and in this news cycle. In the end this impeachment hearing today will go down in the record of the scandal as the sort of definitive summation of what the president is accused of having done, what hes being impeached for. And some of the questioning these members of the Judiciary Committee did a very good job drilling down not just the nature of the president s alleged crime here but the direct culpability for it and the ongoing danger of what the president did which is ultimately why the house of representatives says theyre moving fast now to get this resolved before the next election is monkey wrenched too. Just two days ago President Trump stated publicly that he hopes his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani will report to the department of justice and to congress the results of mr. Giulianis efforts in ukraine last week to pursue these false allegations meant to tarnish Vice President biden. President trumps persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and Fair Elections and to our National Security. Mr. Goldman, who sent Rudy Giuliani to ukraine to smear joe biden . President trump. Who fired the anticorruption ambassador in ukraine Marie Yovanovitch . President trump. Who told ambassador sondland and ambassador volker to work with Rudy Giuliani on ukraine . President trump. Who told Vice President pence to not go to president zelenskis inauguration . President trump. Who ordered his own chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to withhold critical assistance from ukraine. President trump. Who refused to meet with president zelenski in the oval office . President trump. Who ignored on july 25 his own National Security counsels anticorruption talking points . President trump. Who asked president zelenski for a favor . President trump. Who asked president zelenski to investigate his political rival, joe biden. President trump. Who stood on the white house lawn and confirmed he wanted ukraine to investigate joe biden . President trump. Who stood on the same lawn and said china should also investigate biden . President trump. As to anything we do not know in this investigation, who has blocked us from knowing it . President trump and the white house. So, theres a lot of moving parts here right now, a lot of stuff happening at once. I should tell you this is important breaking news. The head of the Foreign Affairs committee and the house congressman eliot engel tonight said we should expect a press conference early tomorrow morning in which the chairs of the various committees investigating the impeachment scandal are going to announce their next steps on articles of impeachment. We had been expecting that that announcement might include their plans for what theyre going to put in the articles of impeachment against President Trump. Thats what i was comfortable saying we are expecting that when we got on the air. Since i have been on the air just in the past few minutes, a senior democratic aide has confirmed to nbc news that the house will introduce articles of impeachment tomorrow morning. The Washington Post has just in the past few minutes reported that their expectations, the democrats are going to excuse me the house of representatives is going to draft two articles of impeachment against trump, one on abuse of power and the other on obstruction of congress. So, again, thats breaking news. Thats from eliot engel is the chairman of Foreign Affairs, one of the committees thats been investigating this thing saying that at the press conference they have called that the chairs have called for tomorrow morning, we may be getting the articles of impeachment against the president as early as then. So, its just a remarkable bookend on this time in our history, right . The night before were apparently going to get the impeachment articles against donald trump for him inviting a foreign country to interfere on his behalf in the 2020 election, the eve of those impeachment articles being unveiled we also get the validation that the russia investigation was sound and when the fbi looked at russia interfering in our election and started investigating whether anybody on the Trump Campaign was wittingly or unwittingly coordinating with russia in that foreign interference in our last election, that decision by the fbi to launch that investigation was sound. It was not a witch hunt. It was not the product of political bias. These bookends, right . I mean, for this to be happening the day before were going to get the impeachment articles for him trying to get interference in 2020, the spin coming out of washington on both of these developments, the Inspector Generals report and the expectation of these impeachment articles, the spin coming out of washington on these things is like a blender on puree with the lid off. Its absolute chaotic whirlwind of messy, messy spin, and it will stay like that fair while. But there are fairly simple facts at the heart of this that we are going through right now as a country. Were going to be talking with a member of the just didiciary committee tonight and someone who has a role in the russia investigation. Big night for us tonight. Stay with us. Vestigation. Big night for us tonight stay with us if you live with diabetes, why fingerstick when you can scan . 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What are you doing back there, junior . Since were obviously lost, im rescheduling my Xfinity Customer Service appointment. Ah, relax. I got this. Which gps are you using anyway . A Little Something called instinct. Been using it for years. Yeah, thats what im afraid of. He knows exactly where were going. My whole body is a compass. Oh boy. The my account app makes todays Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Not my thing. This is from section 2 subsection a, department of justice National Security division. The department was first notified about the opening of cross fire hurricane on august 2, 2016 when fbi official bill pre stap and the intel section chief briefed several, according to law ofman and his contemporaneous notes of the briefing, fbi officials described the Foreign Government that caused the bureau to open its initial investigation and the four individuals the fbi with had identified through its initial investigative work who were members of the campaign and had ties to russia. Laufman told us his impression was that the information raised alarm bells. He also said that the information the fbi provided presented the question of whether someone in the russian government was work being the campaign of a major Party Candidate to influence the u. S. Elections. Laufman told us that, quote, we certainly nad the significance of the matter and the need for further investigation. And he said that it would have been a deirelection of duty not to find out what was going on. Counterintelligence and export control section, served first under president obama and for a year under President Trump. His work at the Justice Department led to the high profile convictions youve seen lately for unregistered foreign lobbying, overseeing the Hillary Clinton email investigation, and the trump russia probe. He was there from the beginning and joins us now. David laufman. Sir, its great to have you here. That is one of the sections of the Inspector General report that discusses you and your involvement at the outset of the russia investigation. Let me just ask you whether you take any issue with the way that you appear in this report and how you feel about it overall. Im fine with their mention of me. I think this is a prodigious piece of work that reflects really credibly on the Inspector General and his team. There are a number of serious flaws and irregularities in the fisa process which you talked about before. Those shouldnt be poo pooed or swept under the rug. The fbi is going to embrace those and commit themselves to reforms that the department of justice will support. But on the grievances of Congressional Republicans that asked for this investigation, that this was a witch hunt, this was an effort to foment a cue, there could not be a more utter and complete repudiation of those conspiracy theories. And the meticulousness with which the investigation was conducted is laid out in hundreds of pages for the American People to see. This is a dense report. Its 470something pages and also single space, small type, and at times its got so much detail it doesnt read like a beautiful narrative. But we do actually get quite a compelling narrative about the initial the initial days of the investigation. And fbi being confronted with information that they believe was adequate predicate to start looking at something they knew was very sensitive. When you told the Inspector Generals office that the initial information you heard about why the fbi opened the investigation, this information from the Australian Government that somebody in the Trump Campaign appeared to have advanced knowledge of what russia had done, according to the report, you said that resonated with you. What did you mean with that . What gets lost at times, we have been living for weeks and months for the fbi cybercampaign for the election. We already knew there was an intense state sponsored effort by the russian government to subvert our election. Now comes the report from the australian Government Official that someone has said they may come into possession of information derogatory to the rival candidate. And it was like a bookend, to use your phrase to, what we were already living with. And it came from a credible source. We would have been irresponsible not to take appropriate action to commit resources to undertake that investigation. And i think everything you see in that report bears that out. Are you troubled by the fact that there isnt, as far as we know, there isnt a parallel Justice Department or fbi investigation into the president s actions to openly solicit ukraine and even china to provide derogatory information about his political rivals for 2020 . I do think its curious. The department of justice normally interjects these investigations, theyre not known as a bunch of wall flowers when it comes to investigative creative theory. And here along the side we have this attorney general foments reinvestigations of investigations that were already begun and perhaps closed at the behest of Political Supporters of the president. But in this Current Situation involving campaign finance, were just not even going to start an investigation. Thats really kind of hard to add up. I want to ask you to stay with us for just a second because i want to ask you about that. Weve got statements from the attorney general and also an unusual statement from a u. S. Attorney whos been tasked by the attorney general to look into this. Can you stick with us. Our guest the david laufman. Stay with us. Stay with us children playing dog barking Music Building experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Everybody needs somebody to love. Find everything you need to get together this holiday, with low prices and Free Shipping on millions of items at amazon. Stop dancing around the pain with low prices and Free Shipping that keeps you up again, and again. Advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. Advil pm skip to the good part with alkaseltzer plus. Now with 25 more concentrated power. Nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. Oh, what a relief it is so fast and my lack of impulse control, is about to become your problem. Ahh no, come on. I saw you eating poop earlier. Hey my focus is on the road, and thats saving me cash with drivewise. Whos the dummy now . Whoof whoof so get allstate where good drivers save 40 for avoiding mayhem, like me. Sorry hes a baby as we are informed this evening that the congress will be moving forward as early as tomorrow morning with unveiling articles of impeachment against President Trump, remarkably because all of these things have to happen all at once and because there are poets among the news gods, remarkably tonight we have also got an Inspector General report from the department of justice reflecting on the origins of the russia investigation finding there was not political bias or improper considerations that led the Justice Department and fbi to open up investigations and the question of whether the Trump Campaign was in on it. Joining us is david laufman. He was there at the outset of the russia investigation. David, i wanted to ask you about the response to this report today. We just discussed the fact that attorney general william barr put out a statement essentially contesting the findings of his own department of the Inspector General. But there was also a second statement from john durham the u. S. Attorney from connecticut who has been additionally tasked by attorney general william barr with looking into other elements, criminal investigation into the russia investigation. If you think barrs statement was unusual, durhams statement was even more bizarre. You have a sitting prosecutor making a Public Statement seeming to denigrate the scope and adequacy of the findings of the ig investigation while pointing out that he appears to be in possession of some secret information from some other Government Agency that the ig had no access to as if to preserve the possibility that neez findings that youve been talking about today will be undermined later by new revelations. It is i mean its worth stressing this is an active u. S. Attorney who is involved in an active criminal investigation that is pending and from which weve seen publicfacing indictments. Even if all he said were positive things that had nothing to do with the sort of controversial ground that hes tread upon, its weird to talk about the investigation while its ongoing. Its very uncommon to speak about charging documents, Opening Statements, closing arguments, examination of witnesses thachlt dont just issue press conferences in the mid ofl their investigation to comment upon someone elses investigation and to talk about how much better their investigation is than the other investigation. Ive never heard of such a thing happening. Is mr. Durham break a rule at the at the department of justice doing this . Im not sure theres a specific rule that governs that. That may be because no one has ever done this before. They didnt think they needed a rule. Suffice it to say its highly unusual. I think it reflects poorly on mr. Durham to lend his name and credibility into this political arena because this has the patina of Political Support for barrs own statement, for the statements of other people on behalf of the president have been making. And that reflects incredibly upon mr. Durham. David laufman, head of the doj under president obama and President Trump. Good to have you here. Stay with us. President trump. Good to have you here. Stay with us lets be honest, quitting smoking is freaking hard. Like quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So, try making it smaller. And youll be surprised at how easily starting small. Can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette do you recall, not long ago we would walk on the sidewalk all around the wind blows we would only hold on to let go blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun we needed somebody to lean on all we need is someone to lean on billions of problems. Sore gums . Bleeding gums . Painful flossing . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath healthy gums oral rinse fights gingivitis and plaque and prevents gum disease for 24 hours. So you can. Breathe easy, theres therabreath at walmart. Wheyou want relief. Fast. 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And who is President Trump meeting with at the white house tomorrow . Do you know . Im not its Russian Foreign minister lavrov. What makes me angry is that this president , President Trump, thinks he can get away with it. But he got caught. And he tried to cover it up. But we wont let him do that. Scenes from todays apparently potentially climactic public impeachment hearing at the Judiciary Committee. Joining us is congresswoman valval deming. Good to be with you rachel. Multial pl news outlets are reporting that the house is going to introduce articles of impeachment first thing tomorrow, basically unveiling articles of impeachment against the president at a press conference with key democratic chairman. Im guessing that you cannot get out in front of that news. But im hoping you can share about what you might know about what seems like a fastmoving series of events co. The speaker made an announcement last week that we were proceeding with writing the articles of impeachment. Of course we take this process very, very seriously. We were at work all day saturday and all day sunday after t, aof hearing today, and well be back first thing in the morning. In terms of what the articles will look like, that is not my announcement to make. But i do expect an announcement will be made tomorrow in conjunction with the Committee Chairs who have jurisdiction over those committees. In terms of putting together the case against President Trump here, obviously all those closed door depositions with the 17 witnesses that remarkable series of public hearings in front of the Intelligence Committee and now these two long public hearings in front of the Judiciary Committee talking about not just the factual record but the constitutional basis for impeachment, do you yourself in term of thinking about making up your own mind about how you are going to vote and also what you want to be in those articles, do you feel like you know what you need to know or do you feel like there are holes in the record that may materially affect your base level decision here . Well, you know, its been amazing how much evidence that we have been able to accumulate in about 75 days. But the bottom line is this the best witness, the most effective witness, the most compelling witness in this impeachment inquiry has been the president of the united states. We dont have to guess or try to figure out or surmise on what the president said on the call record from july 25th, the president was clear when he spoke to president zelenski that he wanted him to get involved in a political investigation. In other words, the president put his own personal political interests above that of the nations and also really jeopardized our National Security. So, while it appears to have been a short period of time, the evidence that we have in this case is pretty overwhelming. The testimony has been very compelling, and i do believe that we have everything we need right now to proceed. Congresswoman val demings, really appreciate you being here today. I know yall are working very hard. Tomorrow is going to be a big day as well. Thank you for making time for us. Thank you. Again, were following this breaking news tonight. I can tell you a little bit of advance in the story. Nbc news has now confirmed what the Washington Post was reporting earlier this hour which is that the house is expected to draft two articles of impeachment against President Trump. Those may be unveiled as soon as tomorrow morning. Stay with us. Rrow morning stay with us ho you. You got me. Uh, what do you want . Ive got uh, ai robots, ive got vr goggles. I want your sled, please. No. [ chuckles ] timmy. Itd be a shame if this went viral. For those who never compromise. The mercedesbenz winter event. Whoa. He was pretty good this year. My hands are everything to me. But i was diagnosed with dupuytrens contracture. And it got to the point where things i took for granted got tougher to do. Thought surgery was my only option. Turns out i was wrong. So when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. Like you, my hands have a lot more to do. Learn more at factsonhand. Com today. Like you, my hands have a lot more to do. 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Breathe easy, theres therabreath at walmart. Some things are too important to do yourself. Get customized security with 24 7 monitoring from xfinity home. Awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click or visit a store today. I mentioned at the top of the show that we just got ahold of a new court filing for the Defense Attorneys for this man, rick gates. Hes awaiting sentencing in federal court after pleading guilty on federal charges. We just had time to review the submission. Rick gates lawyers are asking for no prison time for mr. Gates. Quote, we respectfully ask your honor to impose minimum supervision. The lawyers say the clients extensive cooperation is the reason he should get no jail time. Specifically, he spent over 500 hours working with the special counsels office and other federal prosecutors and note that he testified in the trials of craig, stone, and manafort and he is committed to testify in still other trials if requested. Prosecutors told the court they want to file a sealed statement tomorrow about rick gates cooperation in ongoing criminal proceedings. That is described as too sensitive to be shown to the public. Despite all his cooperation, looks like there may be more to get out of rick gates. We will know more within 24 hours. Stay with us. More within 24 hours. Stay with us man and woman [burst of talking to animals] vo it feels good to give back. attendant thank you so much. woman oh, you are so welcome. vo you can choose the aspca to get two hundred and fifty dollars from subaru when you get a new subaru, like the all new outback. vo 2 get 0. 9 on a new outback during the subaru share the love event. The calendar is starting to look weird, all the stuff we have to put on the calendar at the same time. Its like you should do a weird mix of colored pencils and pens and crayons and stuff. Stuff just doesnt fit together. For example, the Iowa Caucuses are eight weeks from tonight. Also nbc news is reporting that impeachment articles are expected to be unveiled against President Trump tomorrow morning. Also tomorrow night, mayor Pete Buttigieg is going to be joining me here live at 9 00 p. M. Here in studio. How do i make all of these things coexist in my kalin da r in a way that keeps me sane . I dont know. That does it for us tonight. Well see you tomorrow. Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, rachel. Were going to get to the news. Well ask about articles of impeachment that will be announced tomorrow morning. Well get to the Inspector Generals report. For you rachel, for you in particular we need to report news of isabelle bueso. You helped make this news happen. Isabelles family has issued a statement saying that we are elated to share that on december 6th, our family received official documentation that our deferred action status has been