Trump is allegedly back at the white house. We should mention, this happens under president s of both parties. Usually a motorcade snafu. They were eventually gathered up. And we show you what we keep out back here, the Rockefeller Center tree is up and lit. A 75footer from the new york suburbs. It certainly changes the view from here at this time every year, at least for a while. And that is our broadcast tonight. Thank you so much for being here with us. And good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. And thanks for joining us this hour. In the summer of 1974, the Special Counsel who was investigating the Watergate Scandal wrote a letter to congress, to the Judiciary Committee in congress detailing what his investigation, what his prosecutors and investigators
had turned up about Criminal Behavior by the president at the time, president Richard Nixon. Now, by this point, by the summer of 1974, the president s Campaign Chairman, who would also have been his Attorney Genera
Supposedly cooperating, instead has been effectively functioning as a spy for trump s defense. inside the prosecution. that is obviously blowing up the criminal case that involves paul manafort, but it also means the president and his legal team are now admitting out loud, in public, that they are colluding with a convicted felon to gain intelligence on the prosecution, basically in order to discredit and outmaneuver those prosecutors who are investigating the president. they are openly admitting it. which would be a massive expose if it were unveiled as an expose. but right now it s just one more rock on top of the mountain. because they re talking about it openly. it does mean for once, we might be in truly unprecedented legal territory, right? i mean, nixon got a back channel into the justice department, we know a little bit about what nixon did.
Strategize around it. right now there are concerns whether matt whitaker is playing that role for president trump. it was provocative for james baker, enough to publish that piece, right after matt whitaker was named. this is baker pointing out that, you know, when nixon used the justice department official as a back channel of information and intel that targeted him, that was treated as an impeachable offense for that president. and this is a very live issue. whether matt whitaker right now is back channeling information about the investigation to president trump. how we ll find out about it, if that s happening, who will collect evidence of that, who will prosecute it, if it is proven, which is made all the more complicated, all the more urgent by the prospect that matt whitaker may not just be
Providing intelligence to the white house, he may be throttling the investigation secretly right now from inside the justice department, and how would we know about that? on top of that, within the last 24 hours we have evidence that the president, this is confirmed, uncontested, that he has another ongoing source of information from inside the mueller investigation, namely his normer campaign chairman, paul manafort. this revelation that his former campaign chairman, who is supposedly cooperating, has been effectively functioning as a spy for trump s defense. inside the prosecution. that is obviously blowing up the criminal case that involves paul manafort, but it also means the president and his legal team are now admitting out loud, in public, that they are colluding with a convicted felon to gain intelligence on the prosecution,
Intervene with the fbi, tell the fbi to back off. and according to the washington post, that request was made while another senior official was in the room and witnessed it. a man named mike pompeo, who at the time of this alleged incident, was the head of the cia. he s since gone on to become secretary of state. here s how he answered questions about what he saw and heard the day he was in the room, in the white house, when he was the supposed witness to the president trying to enlist the director of national intelligence to kibosh the investigation into his campaign as a complete historical mirror to what nixon got busted for. so, director, this account strongly suggests that the president asked you and director coats to interfere with then fbi director comey s investigations into the trump campaign s contacts with russia. what did president trump say to you and director coats in that meeting? senator, i m not going to