Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Government had informed state Election Officials that russians tried to target Election Systems in 21 states in the leadup to the 2016 election. Of course, the other thing we know the u. S. Deterrence campaign isnt working based on the reporting of the daily beast that russians trying to infiltrate the emails of staffers of senator claire mccaskill. They were sunsuccessful. Thats why they say there need tos to be a coheercherent strategy can i ask you, though, about the mood in that building behind you there, geoff. In terms of the headlines that involve former trump Attorney Michael Cohen and the Trump Tower Meeting and russia and his allegations that President Trump knew about that meeting in advance. Whats the mood there . Reporter well, a source close to the president described
that is a crime. And it also opens up all sorts of possibilities because, if the president knew that the russians were
credible. we heard this from giuliani yesterday, perhaps it s an effort to float that sort of a narrative. how does a prosecutor figure out in a he said/he said type case that the president is telling the truth the president tweeting out he didn t know about the meeting his son took with the operatives. how do you prove the truth? so, this happens more often than not. and one of the great mysteries that trump has engaged the public on these issues, he simply says i didn t do it. there was no collusion. as though we re supposed to except it at face value but that s not what prosecutors do. prosecutors take a painstaking process of working with investigators to back up one of those sides of he said/he said. for instance, over here, we hear that donald trump, jr. made a phone call to a blocked phone number right around this time he was scheduling this meeting with russian interests. prosecutors could get phone
this is a group at the white house that s to some degree under siege from parts of the country. how do you as a prosecutor figure out where the truth really lies? let me ask you this way, how does bob mueller figures out where the truth lies? it s not just about mueller, i would say it is the senate intelligence committee, all the voters who need to know the truth before they vote in 2018. but you have to just find somebody who s willing to tell the truth. and in the cast of characters we have here so far, i m not sure we ve seen someone who knows the truth, who understands the facts are facts. and that they have to tell those. but i think that with the staff that bob mueller has, he will get down to the truth, and that eventually much like in watergate, there will be someone who will crack. it may take a while, but eventually people will see that their own best interests require that they come forward and tell the truth. and we may find that there are