Both secretaries are accused of abusing to those level at john price, who was forced to resign over that scandal. Were expecting to hear from the president later this hour, by the way. Separately during a medal of valor award ceremony. Hes already been quite vocal today, where else but on twitter. I think he sent 30 tweets in the last three days. Hes tweeted ten times today, on everything from russia to the 2018 midterm elections. So lets get straight to the white house. With me now, Nbcs Kristen Welker live from the briefing room, where it has not started yet, kristen. Any idea what the delays about . Reporter we dont know what the delay is about, ali. Good question. It was supposed to start at 2 00, with then it was pushed to 3 00 and then back to 2 50. Were running a few minutes late. But we do have a number of different topics that will be at the forefront today once this briefing does get underway. Russia will undoubtedly be front and center in the wake of those indictments handed
This years elections as well. Is the white house turning a blind eye . The president said he hires the best people, so why have one out of three of them left in the first year . A lot to get to in the hour ahead. We begin at the white house with cnns jim acosta. Jim, explain what Sarah Sanders said today about what the white house knew and when about rob porter. Reporter well, there have been shifting explanations as you know, anderson, for the past week. And today was a new one. We had not heard the words White House Personnel Security Office before today, but we heard it in the white house briefing. The White House Press secretary Sarah Sanders was asked about some of these conflicting stories, why the fbi director was up on capitol hill testifying that his agents had completed their investigation last july, when we were told by raj shah, the Deputy White House spokesman, and Sarah Sanders that that process was ongoing. And her explanation was, well, the office of personnel security
Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. A special counsel russia investigation decried by the president as a hoax has now charged 19 people with federal crimes. As of tonight, four of those people have already pleaded guilty according to reporters, another may be on the verge of a guilty plea himself. That is Robert Muellers record thus far. And yet again, mueller demonstrated the public only knows a fraction of what he and his team have discovered. Yet again, he rolled out charges against an entirely new character in the russia saga whose name had never surfaced once in press reports. In this case, its al dex van der zwaan a dutch lawyer who used to work for one of the most elite Corporate Law firms in the world known as scadden. He pleaded guilty to lying about investigators about his kaks with former Trump Campaign aide rick gates and an individual identified only as person a in filings. Gates and onetime Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort were indict last fall on fraud charges rel
And not only did they look for ways to keep porter, they were seriously discussing giving him a promotion. Right up until the moment the scandal blew up and he resigned. Why is that . Well, because john kelly liked the job he was doing, despite being aware that porters exwives could have damaging information on him. A white house official telling cnn tonight, the chief of staff was reluctant to dig into what White House Counsel Don Mcgahn knew about porter. So this white house is doing what it always does. Its stonewalling, changing their story, flatout lying. Even though fbi director Christopher Wray blew all of that right out of the water today by simply stating the facts. The fbi submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in march. And then a completed Background Investigation in late july that soon thereafter we received requests for follow up inquiry. And we did the follow up and provided that information in november. And then we administratively closed the file i
Message to Domestic Violence victims. Thank you very much. Thank you. Plus the intel chiefs tell the senate the russians are back for 201. We have seen russian activity and intensions to have an impact on the next election cycle here. And the president hasnt asked anyone to stop them. Not as specifically directed by the president. Why Donald Trumps new budget is a fox news fever dream. People use food stamps to buy marijuana. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Today the president s hand picked fbi director confirmed under the oath the bed rom damning truth about the scandal engulfing the white house, that the white house knew for months one of its top aides, was credibly accused of Domestic Abuse by two exwives and for months, the white house did nothing about it. They did nothing knowing full well that rob porter posed an acute security risk. Despite an honestly sourced reports that it long knew about the porter allegations the white house has be