The latest Political Developments of the day and interviews with top newsmakers are featured. Its not like somebody former president got to report, somebody gave a little more than the minimum, some pac didnt follow a small regulation. This is a fundamental thing. The nominee at the closing days of the campaign, when he thought his campaign was on the line and a story or two stories potentially threatened his nomination went be and said, i have to make this story go away, according to Michael Cohen and said, go make this go away and pay for it. I think that goes not in a resistance way at all. A much more dramatic and more accurate way of stating what happened there. And, yes, it implicates the president in the commission of a felony, but it also implicates the president in what is now a growing sense that a lot of people have and not just resistance people, that this is one more way in which the 2016 election was facacta. Harry litman, were in dangerous territory here. Two nonlawyers
investigating. in the new york times reports, those comments indicate mueller s still open probe is pursuing the central question of whether there was some kind of deal between russia and the trump campaign. now this is important because it reveals a mueller prosecutor under oath recently, not way back in the day, but recently saying this is the focus of the probe. we re also hearing more about a mueller-related arrest, maria butina, the russian, who pleaded guilty to asking as an undeclared russian agent. now speaking out from prison about what happened when the fbi raided her home. was there pounding on the door? did they yell fbi? yes. i was completely shocked. i m wearing an apron, baking banana bread. that was the picture. that was the picture of seemingly normal person baking banana bread. butina is clearly using her
painting than us, or at least than shelby and i, tweet in. please, help. what is the right painter to describe this probe. my thanks to both of you. as promised, i m turning to bring in gene robinson to discuss the other big story, trump ally david pecker, the national enquirer publisher, we ve now learned, this is brand-new, he actually asked the federal government whether his group had to basically register as saudi lobbyists. nbc has confirmed this. enquirer s parent company asked the doj last year whether they had to register as a foreign agent for the saudi presumably because they had this feature celebrating saudi crown prince through their glossy magazine. and the tabloid now is trying to use this as some sort of sweetener to get money from the saudis. the question that keeps coming up is after jeff bezos has tried to allege that also said in that
enron. you ve been at this from the start. thanks for being here. thanks for having me. in your view, where the long eye of history, what did mueller and weissmann learn through the hardball tactics of the enron probe? well, i think that in some cases, they re necessary and helpful. of course necessary and helpful as you pointed out depend on which side of the aisle you re sitting on. but it really turned out to be pivotal in the case of enron, the ability to convict jeff skilling rested on andy fastow s testimony. and if fastow hadn t cooperated eventually with the investigation, history would have been different. and that s a lot of history. you re saying, though, fastow s cooperation was a product of weissmann going after family? well, fastow had been indicted and was refusing to plea until weissmann indicted his wife in a superseding indictment that brought additional charges against fastow and others but also
register as saudi lobbyists. are we saudi lobbyists? also, new links between that story and former trump aides roger stone and carter page. plus, donald trump heading down to beto country in el paso as republicans keep bailing on his wall. and my special report on mueller s attack dog prosecutor andrew weissmann. inside the tactics he uses to make people flip, and what it means for the mueller probe. we have all of that for you on a packed show this monday night. but we begin with new clues about where mueller s investigators are headed. this is not a disclosure that mueller s team wanted to make, the clues we have. but in order to defend their new charges against paul manafort in court, andrew weissmann laid out a key theory that the, quote, heart of mueller s probe is still looking at a potentially illegal deal between russia and trump aides. here is the line that is getting attention. weissmann saying manafort s alleged lies go, quote, very much to the heart of what the special coun