According to federal incorporat prosecutors, that trump personally directed an illegal scheme to manipulate the election through hush money payments, and that his adviser had more contact with russia than hes ever acknowledged. Sarah westwood is at the white house tonight. In a little over three weeks the new congress convenes. The big question is how are they going to handle these new revelations . The incoming chairman of multiple committees had already signaled their intention to investigate all kinds of areas they felt their gop colleagues had ignored from the president s tax returns to his overseas business dealings. So these latest filings could expose the president to even more legal jeopardy because prosecutors tie the president directly to this alleged Campaign Finance violations, linking to payments he initially denied knowledge of. Jerry nadler, the top democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said if its proven the president was linked to those payments, it would been an impeachable offense. But others have acknowledged the particular significance of this latest disclosure. For example, democratic senator chris murphy said the country should be worried about the direction this is heading. Take a listen. We certainly have moved into a new phase. The president has now stepped into the same territory that ultimately led to president nixon resigning. He was an unindicted coconspiracy tore, but this investigation now starting to put the president in serious legal crosshairs and he should be wared and the whole country should be worried. Listen, nobody is rooting for the president to go down in this manner. This isnt good for democracy. But this investigation may ultimately lead to Congress Taking action. Reporter now, the president had initially touted these filings as a win for him because they dont contain any evidence linking him and his campaign to russian collusion as the white house seeks to distance the president from revelations about the conduct of his associates. Give us the latest on the new staff position. Reporter the president announced yesterday chief of staff john kelly will be leaving before the end of the year, ending months of speculation whether kelly was eyeing the exits. Nick ayers, the chief of staff to Vice President mike pence was the frontrunner for that position. But ayers and trump could not agree on a time frame for ayers accepting that position. Ayers wanted to leave sometime in the spring, and President Trump wanted a twoyear commitment from ayers. Our colleague jamie reports there was more internal resist fr resistances. Now he will be leaving the administration entirely. Were looking at vacancies. Do we know who the new contenders are . The president is considering four names to replace chief of staff john kelly, one of them may be congressman mark meadows. They speak frequently and senior white house aides were taking the temperature of trumps allies this morning about whether meadows may be a good fit for that job. Ana, im told the president is looking to make a decision by the end of the year. Sarah westwood at the white house tonight. Thank you. I want to bring in our panel, cnn political analyst and New York Times editor patrick healey, an attorney and former mueller colleague, Kristin Peters ham lynn. I want to get back to the russia probe. Thank you both for being with us. You have worked with mueller. Do you see him laying out some kind of road map here for us . In terms of where his investigation is heading with the filings we saw friday and earlier in the week with flynn . Quite frankly, i actually thought this was the way it was going for a long time. I think hes been laying this out for those of us who are former prosecutors it looked like there was going to be violations that were going to be brought against the president. There were going to be obstruction charges potentially brought. Certainly the conspiracy to fraud issues are front and center. You could even tell at the outset from the prosecutors that he chose to be part of this team that there were people that had significant, deep expertise in money laundering. The president likes to point out that some of them have given money to democrats. Well, you know, bob mueller is a republican and hes leading the charge. Rod rosenstein has been supervising and hes republican as well. The 2350i8filings we saw on directly implicate the president , and at least one of those filings, the one involving Michael Cohen and the Campaign Finance violations, and yet the president here this weekend seems to be taking a victory lap. Yeah. Hes sending a message, again, to the base that fundamentally the story line he sees on collusion with russia and obstruction of justice hasnt changed. As we know with this president , especially on twitter, he likes to make claims that are false or either dont have any backup. But its very important to him to come out of a day on friday where you have major filings with both Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort for the president to be able to say theres no smoking gun here on anything, so im cleared. That really is not the case. But what is important here is that, as you pointed out, ana, the president has now been brought in and implicated directly in alleged crimes in a way that really has not happened before. And what he is being told, at least in terms of inside the white house, is that, again, yes, youre being pulled into the cohen money situation with the porn star, with the playboy model, yet it seems unlikely you listen to what was said on cnned to, that congress would take on an impeachment fight over money payments that were made when you were a candidate to mask your private life. I think youre seeing a real intense spotlight now on the president more. And then i think internally what hes hearing from his people is that its not that youre off the hook, but that the information thats coming out now isnt as grave as democrats might say. Lets dig into how congress is reacting. On one hand, you have congressman adam schiff a democrat, whos going to be chairing one of these key committees saying hes seeing potential jail time for trump. And then on the other hand you have senator rand paul, republican, saying he completely disagrees. Listen. Theres a real prospect that on the day donald trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him. Im absolutely against it. We should not have special prosecutors going after one person. If we get this way and if were going to prosecute people and put them on jail for Campaign Finance violations, were going to back a Banana Republic where everyone is prosecuted and get thrown in jail once they leave office. Do you see them going after trump after hes out of office on a Campaign Finance violation . I do. A lot of people say the Campaign Finance laws are slaps on the wrist, but they misunderstand how it works. The fec doesnt have the authority to indict, but when the doj brings an fec violation, if you look at the senator edwards situation, thats potentially 30 years jail time. When the department of justice brings an fec violation, you can get very, very long periods of incarceration. Interesting. As jeff flake pointed out this weekend, and you were talking about this, patrick, for the time being, its what does congress do because the president wouldnt indicted. So far republicans have stayed very loyal to trump. Jeff flake writing this. Its like the party is a frog slowly boiling in water, being conditioned to not be worried, to not think too hard about whats happening around them. Patrick, with these new filings are we going to see republicans start jumping out of the pond, so to speak . I dont think so. I dont think yet. Youre going to need more serious, highcrimes and manipulation, and real evidence of either collusion or obstruction of justice. We were talking for many months about obstruction of justice, possibility for some time. And the Mueller Report may still shed light on a great deal. Right now the filings are so much about the people around President Trump either lying or being implicated in different charges, certainly. But youre not seeing at least right now something that i think to kristins point, where youre seeing the Justice Department being willing, a republican Justice Department in this case, being willing to upend conventions and say were going to somehow consider an indictment of the president. Even congress, even some democrats like jerry nadler in congress are telling cnn today, raising the idea that these offenses might be impeachable. But whether the democrats in Congress Want to go into the 2020 election with an impeachment case against trump, i think youre still hearing a lot of democrats say we want to decide this at the ballot box in 2020 unless you see real evidence of high crimes. And they have the high shadow of what happened with Hillary Clinton in the reverse situation. What the president continues to say this weekend, there is no collusion, clearly. Have you seen anything revealed so far, at least publicly in what mueller and his team has presented that suggests otherwise . Well, first, the president also said he knew nothing about the payments to stormy daniels, and that proved not to be true. And i think theres a lot of evidence that the president has a disconnect with the truth a lot. So i wouldnt his nocollusion assertions are persuasive for me. One of the things i thought was persuasive is what i saw with my own eyes in helsinki. To throw under the bus the intelligence agencies of the United States when youre standing next to a former kgb officer and saying you believe him. And when the kgb officer is asked a question by reuters, did you want him to win, and did you instruct members of your government to help him, and he said yes, i do, yes, i did. And the next day we were all gaslighted as a nation because the president ensured that that transcript was redacted of that admission. Thats mens rea for me. I dont think that bob has at this point in time shown his full hand on the issue of the conspiracy to fraud. I think that theres a lot more to come and hes been getting out in dribs and drabs, but a lot of it has been redacted. And 300 plus pages since hes taken over this investigation. Patrick, before i let you go, i want to ask you abiliout the ch of staff position. Nick ayers apparently not wanting to take that job, even though he was the frontrunner for it. Now the name mark meadows, the House Freedom caucus chair is being thrown out there. Whats your reaction to that idea . Its interesting. What trump is going to need are two things. One is a chief of staff whos really going to tell him what he needs to do to be able to compete again in pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin, and essentially the states that he put together, Electoral College in 2020. And then he needs a republican that can be the ambassador to the minority republican leader in the house and to Mitch Mcconnell in the senate. Mark meadows is a member of the Freedom Caucus in the house, the most conservative part of the party. He isnt necessarily known as someone who was flipping lets say independents in places like pennsylvania. In reality, the hard right has sort of driven crazy people like Mitch Mcconnell. President trump definitely feels comfortable with meadows. Thats very important in a chief of staff, but whether the political chemistry is there with some of the key figures, its a little hard to tell right now. Patrick, kristin, thank you both for being here. Good to see you. Coming up, the invisible primary comes into focus as more and more dems drop clues about 2020. Its going to be a crowded field. Could some have already missed their moment . Plus, a cnn exclusive. The last words of murdered journalist jamal khashoggi. What the audio transcript reveals about his final moments inside the saudi consulate. To gt things you love for free . Who wouldnt . Exactly right. Dad, apple music. He gets it. 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But some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. Fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. Some only call when they have something to sell. Fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. And while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. Fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other money managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. Theres some really good people out there, many of them personal friends of mine. Which candidate has the best chance to beat trump. I think Elizabeth Warren is a wonderful, dear friend of mine. And there are a number of others. Cory booker comes to mind. That was Bernie Sanders laying out the state play. Just look at some of the headlines in the past week. Senators Elizabeth Warren, cory booker, Kamala Harris mulling 2020 bids to face off against trump. In addition, we learned this week that two dems fresh off squeaker losses in the midterms, beto orourke and Andrew Gillum made the pilgrimage. With us is scott jennings. Robbie, looks like a crowded field but in terms of this current climate, which is better, to run the campaigns like theyre the best to beat all the other democrats, or the best to beat trump . Well, honestly i think those things go hand in hand. You know, i actually wrote a piece on this on cnn that the most important thing the democratic candidate needs to be able to do is build a real base of fans out there. That happens in cyber space, that happens on the ground through organizing. And i think the same kind of inspirational leadership that can mobilize people and money to build the campaign in the primary is the the same thing thats going to help them push through in the general election. Our greatest challenge as a party is trying to drive our own members of the jury amidst trump. He absolutely sucks up all the oxygen. Were going to need someone to break through all this noise to explain to the american people, first of all, why trump has given them a really bad deal, why hes made their lives worse and how they can offer something better. Lets look at the specific contenders beginning with former Vice President joe biden. He said he believes hes the most qualified person in the country to be president as well as this quote, i am a gaffe machine, but my god, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who cant tell the truth. Are gaffes in the era of trump as detrimental as they once were . You know, i dont think it will be gaffes that beat joe biden. I think about his statement about being the most qualified. Hillary clinton was probably more qualified. She got beat. In 2008 john mccain was certainly more qualified. He got beat. So its not about qualifications right now. Its who can build a fan base and a fervent fan base, a rocksolid base that wont go anywhere. One trouble point for the democrats in their primary is in order to get those fans, you might have to say and do things that arent going to play well in general elections. Not having to go so far to the left that theyre unacceptable to people in the upper midwest or the sun settle where this campaign will be fought. This news about orourke meeting with obama amid 2020 speculation, heres what the New York Times said about him. Orourke has emerged as the wild card of the president ial campaign and waiting for a Democratic Party that lacks a clear 2020 frontrunner. But the fact that mr. Orourke is even considering a run speaks to uncertainty in the Democratic Party. Are they right . Im totally uncertain as to who our