when everything s connected, it s simple. easy. awesome. so we had booked national political reporter at the washington post tonight as soon as we learned that speaker of the house paul ryan was resigning. bob kosta is one of the best sourced reporters in washington, particularly on capitol hill and republicans and he s often been able to read tea leaves better than anybody else when there are leadership changes happening and schisms afoot in washington. we booked him because of the paul ryan story. and then right before we got on the air a new scoop from mr. costa.
bine informed by robert mueller the president is a subject of mueller s investigation into mueller s interference and the president is relieved to learn he s only the subject of the investigation and not yet a target of the investigation. the difference being whether or not mueller s investigators at the time of the advice to trump s legal team believed they had enough information to bring criminal charges. that of course is complicated by the legal fight whether or not anybody can bring criminal charges against a serving president to that end. carol and robert further report tonight that special counsel robert mueller is preparing a report about the president s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice. noting just they just note late in the piece quote some of trump s advisors warned white house aides they fear mueller could issue a blistering report about the president s actions meaning don t be psyched about this, guys. that s important news. that s just broken.
made, an assertion will be made of some kind, something materially will happen during that testimony that converts the subject of the investigation into a target. absolutely. in fact, you know, i ve talked to a lot of ausas and former u.s. attorneys when i was doing reporting for this and asked them to keep this confidential until i posted it and said what do you think? what s important here? he can go from subject to target in a red hot minute and that is true of most witnesses. the only question here is does bob mueller, the special counsel authorized by the department of justice, believe he can charge a president with a crime if he finds evidence of it and that s a big open question. and that brings us to the other big piece of news that you and your colleague robert costa have broken tonight, which is about the special counsel s plans whether or not they end up charging the president, you report tonight quote the special counsel also told trump s lawyers he is preparing a repor
month that at that point although the president was not a target of the special counsel s russia investigation, he is a subject of the that investigation and the mueller team wants to interview him for that reason. according to the washington post tonight, mueller s team is preparing a report on its findings thus far specifically pertaining to the president and the issue of obstruction of justice. we have never heard before that they are doing that so that seems like big news. at this point the washington post is out ahead and alone on that story from reporters carol leonnig and bob costa. nbc news has not confirmed reporting but everybody is chasing that story. it s not like today isn t otherwise a busy day. today was the first sentencing in the mueller case. and remarkably the first person who is definitely going to prison in this investigation is the son-in-law of a russian oligarch that is fantastically
substantial evidence linking him or her to a crime. so subject versus target as the president reportedly quite relieved he s not a target even as mueller confirms through his lawyers that he is a subject. this reporting ends with a quote, quote, there are plenty of instances where a guy walks into a grand jury as a subject. he gets out of that testimony and is told guess what? you re a target now. joining us now is carol, a washington post national reporter and bob kosta. thank you. appreciate you making time. thank you, rachel. good to be here. as of last month, i want to make sure i get the basics. he was told that the president was not at least as of then a target of the investigation but he is a subject of the