which has surfaced in other areas. so this kind of goes to the heart of this collusion inquiry. was there some kind of quid pro quo where russia was giving help, targeted help in terms of, you know, social media or disinformation campaigns in exchange for some kind of policy change from the campaign? i mean that s what i see just on the surface. i suspect that rick gates is in a position to provide even more information, and this would really go to the counterintelligence side, which is why it s possible that he could be wrapping up the criminal part of the investigation and preparing that report, but still trying to, you know, figure out what russia is up to because that is ongoing, and it does not end. asha, harry, thank you. harry, congratulations on the podcast and on your new fancy glasses. thank you. thanks very much. appreciate it. have a good one. we ll be right back.
areas. this goes to the heart of the collusion inquiry. was there some kind of quid pro quo where russia was giving help, targeted help in terms of social media, disinformation campaigns in exchange for some kind of policy change from the campaign? that s what i see on the surface. i suppose rick gates could give more information. this goes to the counter intelligence side. which is possible that he could be wrapping up the criminal part of the investigation and wrapping up the report but still trying to figure out what russia is up to and it does not end. asha, harry, thank you. harry, congratulations on the podcast and your new fancy glasses. thank you. thank you very much. we appreciate it. we ll be right back.
o rourke are holding grueling rallies over the border wall. the special counsel s office has a working theory in its collusion inquiry. it would support trump s political ambitions if he support russia s ambitions in ukraine. as the new york times report today, the clue came last week at hearing in case of paul manafort who stands accused of lying about his contact with an associate tied to russian intelligence. when the judge asked why manafort s alleged ties or lies were important, mueller s prosecutor responded with this remarkable explaination. quote, this goes to the larger view of what we think is going on and what we think the motive is. this goes to the heart of what the special counsel s office is investigating. in other words, manafort s conversations with that russian operative appear central to a possible quid pro quo between
forces you to reimagine how the fbi understood what it was doing, which as mike just said and as the quote that you read from jim baker reflects, was we had this investigation for national security reasons of russian activity. then somebody on the u.s. side, i.e., the president of the united states, took some action that kind of looks like they re trying to shut down the investigation. that raises national security concerns about whether we will be able to find out what the russians were doing, whether we will be able to stop what the russians were doing. so the bureau understood, appears to have understood what happened in terms of whether the president was working with the russians. that s a very different thing, and it collapses the obstruction inquiry into that larger collusion inquiry. michael, it made me think of another scoop of yours a month ago, six weeks ago, where you
that s what i said. that s obviously what the proposition is. relevant to mueller s i know, that s quite an answer. it s just the most convincing answer you had ever heard from a well, no. i mean, i think this is an absolutely crucial issue. i mean, this is at the heart of the collusion inquiry. what was the relationship between donald trump or other people involved in the campaign with russian interests? whether it s the people who were putting together the wikileaks the leaks to wikileaks, whether it was the people who were involved with the attempt to build trump tower, the social media, the effort that came out of st. petersburg. the core question here is, was anyone involved with the trump campaign, also involved with those russian efforts? manafort is someone, since he was so close to russian interests through his contacts in the ukraine, he would be