welcome back to hardball. ten days and 27 witnesses later the prosecution has rested his case in the bank and tax fraud trial of president trump s former campaign chair paul manafort. while the charges against manafort predate his time on the trump campaign, the new york times writes his trial also underscores questions about someone in such deep financial trouble rose to the top of the trump campaign. how did it happen? for more i m joined by joy ainsley, lucky to have her, nbc security and national justice reporter who was at the courthouse today. 9:30 in the morning we find out if there is going to be a defense. tell us what you think. that s right, chris, we were kind of surprised today that the judge didn t ask for a witness list or how many witnesses the defense may have. in fact, they left not knowing if they would call anyone or present any evidence. they really don t have to. it s up to the government of course to prove that paul manafort did in fact do something illeg
here s what i also understand. the united states has suspended military exercises with south korea. that north korea hasn t started returning american war dead despite the announcement that the returns had already taken place. china and russia continue to export oil to north korea in violation of the u.n. resolutions sanctions that didn t exist before this regime took office. and north korea still has chemical and biological weapons and brutalizes its own people. there s no verifiable evidence that there s no denuclearization. i m afraid at this point the united states, the trump administration, is being taken for a ride. fear not, senator. fear not. there s no evidence to the contrary. fear not, senator. there s no evidence. i guess you didn t ask okay. fear not, this administration has taken enormously constructive actions that have put us in a place that is far
republican or democratic president which is that you don t offer hints, you don t offer hypotheticals or answer hypotheticals, you allow for judges to be independent-minded and you don t undercut that independence by applying litmus tests. to be clear, just to verify that has during the campaign president trump did say that he would nominate pro-life judges. he said that, correct? this is a pro-life administration. but let me be clear, john, the president was clear last night about what he did and didn t ask judge kavanaugh about in their meeting. but he was clear and honest when he said he would nominate pro-life judges during the campaign. again, the president has been very clear when it comes to the supreme court. he has a list of 25 potential justices that he has told the american people he would choose from and he said he wouldn t apply specific litmus tests and he wouldn t let me ask one more question
first, it was a colossal waste of time. this is agency that has jurisdiction over 2,000 children still disconnected from their parents. nothing change. he sent inappropriate text message, he regretted that. but it didn t effect an investigation, and he certainly wasn t the one who told michael cohen to setup a meeting in trump tower and didn t ask or write the speech for donald trump where he invited the russians to keep hacking. there were so many concerning contacts from the trump team with the russians. this is just an effort i think to undermine the progress. i want to read the exchanges between struck and former fbiagy lisa page. page, trump s not ever going to become president, right?
halls, town squares and making sure their republican senators do the right thing. i want to shift gears now and talk about fbi agent peter struck. about the antitrump text messages. what can you tell us about his interview? first, it was a colossal waste of time. this is agency that has jurisdiction over 2,000 children still disconnected from their parents. we went back in teem to revisit clintons e-mails. nothing change. he sent inappropriate text message, he regretted that. but it didn t effect an investigation, and he certainly wasn t the one who told michael cohen to setup a meeting in trump tower and didn t ask or write the speech for donald trump where he invited the russians to keep hacking. there were so many concerning contacts from the trump team with the russians.