they ll investigate whether any of the president s businesses has ties to russia and whether it could have influenced u.s. foreign policy. i don t think congress has looked into this at all and i don t know that bob mueller has, is whether the russians have been laundering money through the president s businesses and this is the financial hold that the russians may have. and then there is the president s involvement with saudi arabia. what s behind his response to jamal khashoggi s murder? he has openly bragged about how many millions he makes from saudi arabia. is his personal financial interest driving u.s. policy in the gulf? is it driving u.s. policy vis-a-vis the russians? we don t know, but it would be irresponsible not to find out. joining me now, katie fang, nbc legal analyst and attorney, benjamin woodis and also an nbc legal analyst, plus kevin surley. let s start with you on this, kevin. a lot of reporting today, if you
lying to the fbi and now for reasons unbeknownst to us because he wants publicity or he wants to configure himself as a major player in trump world and get a deal with fox news or book deal, he s gone off on twitter saying that he thinks that the fbi s corrupt and that the biggest scandal in american political history is going to be uncovered by him. this was all used by mueller to demonstrate to the judge that this isn t someone who has a genuine remorse, this isn t someone who should be taken seriously when he says that he will provide new evidence to the court that there was some kind of wrongdoing by the fbi. the judge found that completely implausible. and so george papadopoulos will now have to report to jail tomorrow for two weeks. this is not a six-month prison sentence. right. he s going to be there for two weeks. it s a fairly curby prison that he s going to be at. he now is trying to make himself into a martyr and we ll see what happens after those two weeks are up. we
it is certainly true that one of the issues the republicans would not allow us to investigate when they were running the committee, and i don t think congress has looked into this at all and i don t know that bob mueller has, is whether the russians had been laundering money through the president s businesses and this is the financial hold the russians may have. we need to get an answer and tell the american people, yes, it s true, no, it s not. the american people deserve to know that the president has their interests in mind, not his pecuniary interests. the incoming chairman of the house intelligence committee is telegraphing what he wants to look into once democrats take over in january. it s another investigation that s sure to set off donald trump since it potentially deals with his businesses. of course, it comes about a week after trump resorted to make fun of schiff s name on twitter. a judge has denied george
the special counsel s officer, the legal team at the white house learned more and more about what bob mueller has. i think that s one the day to convince the president to not respond to questions regarding obstruction. to stick to his guns about only written responses. he does this at his own peril. i find it mildly amusing the president announced we are finished. it doesn t matter if the president thinks we re finished. it matters if bob mueller thinks they re finished. mob mueller s not finished. if you refuse to answer questions about obstruction, you re refusing to simply state i didn t intend to obstruct. if you can t say i didn t intend to, you re losing a softball question. he does this at his own peril. announcing he s finished is at his own peril.
doing that? i think the american people are making it very clear that the president is not above the law. they re very concerned about the role of mr. trump whitaker. you ve got the chairman of the judiciary committee saying that this is necessary. look, the president is acting now like a guilty man. he seems terrified about what bob mueller has, and it just looks to me like he thinks a very big shoe is about to drop. i mean, right, he s using the word, mess. horribly screaming, shouting, disgrace, angry people, ruining lives. i mean, there was nothing left off the table there. and that s very important, because bob mueller has worked in government for decades, for democrats and republicans. he always does it by the book. there is no shouting. there s no grandstanding. there s no press conferences. and by the way, i disagreed with him on plenty of issues, like encryption. now, republican senator