blasting what he calls the russian hoax. here with me to share their reporting and their insights, michael sheer with the new york times, ayesha rasco with npr, michael warren. michael, you were in that press briefing yesterday. what do you see as the daylight between the intel community and the president? it appears to be gaping daylight. the thing that was striking sitting in that briefing room yesterday was the number of times and the kind of overwhelming way that all of the nation s law enforcement and intelligence officials that were standing there repeatedly said what the president has refused to say, which is that russia was, is, and will be meddling in the elections. i think what s important about it is if you talk to the people charged with trying to prevent the meddling, and that s both the kind of information warfare, the facebook and the social
documents. if you were watching this trial, michael, i imagine if you re donald trump, that level of detail might make you a little nervous. right. i think there s been a lot made about how we should connect the two investigations. the manafort case doesn t directly have anything to do with russian meddling, doesn t directly have anything to do with the obstruction of justice case. but i do think you re right. when you look at the just methodical way that the special counsel has developed the information, developed the level of detail in these documents, and bringing witnesses to testify at just the really granular level, that if you re donald trump and you re his associates, thinking about fast forwarding in your head how a trial for you might go forward, you know, you got to be worried that mueller is not a guy, and his team, they re not people that just make broad generalities. they get the details.
on the ms. universe pageant and his son is a pop star who recently released a new video which some have taken to be mocking the special counsel s investigation by poking fun at the elements of the investigation of potential russian meddling in the election. what this tells us now that mueller is still trying to set up this interview and they are still having negotiations is that the special counsel s team is very much interested in the con tours of the trump tower meeting and perhaps other relationships between donald trump and russian oligarchs. there are a lot of questions about whether then candidate donald trump knew about that meeting with the russians at trump tower in new york. what are you hearing? last week we reported that sources told us that michael cohen was saying that he had knowledge or information that trump may have known about the
thinking even if i get convicted i still may get a pardon. that s a big risk. he obviously has a lot on the table. sandra: based on everything you just said is it fair to say this is the first big test of the mueller probe? well, i wouldn t call it part of the mueller probe. i think this is a case that probably would have been brought irrespective of the appointment of a special counsel. wrongdoing the alleged wrongdoing was discovered in connection with the mueller probe but it is quite possible that this would have come to light in any event. and so i don t really consider this part of the russia probe. i think this is simply a case where bob mueller has found evidence that an american citizen has engaged in bank fraud and tax evasion and so because it does come out of his investigation of russian meddling, the mandate given to him by rod rosenstein, allows him to go forward with this prosecution and that s what he is doing. bill: i think kellyanne conway agrees with you.
that s been really hard for me. reporter: she has months of rehab ahead, but that hasn t kept her off the campaign trail. hello, everybody. how are you doing? don t mind these guys. reporter: arrington beat sanford in the primary by defending the president. president trump came out and gave a voice to us, the deplorables. i m a deplorable. reporter: she still is even as she s facing a general election. backing the president up on tariffs. president trump wrote a book, i can t remember when the art of the deal was written. he s the master negotiator. i give him a lot of credit. reporter: looking past his personal life. does it bother you that the president is alleged to have an affair with a playboy playmate? honestly, you give me one i don t i m not here to judge anybody. i m not jesus christ. reporter: and dismissing russian meddling. our entire intelligence community essentially said that the russian government intentionally tried to interfere in our election.