President will sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller. We have to keep an open mind, just to be honest, im leaning toward not. But if they can convince us it will be brief, it will be to the point, they have five or six points they have to clarify, and with that we can get this over. Lets go to White House Correspondent boris sanchez, so what else did Rudy Giuliani say today . Rudy giuliani simply reiterated what we saw in that letter that was published by the New York Times from the Trump Legal Team to the special counsel. Giuliani said that he would have organized it differently, but he said he agreed with about 85 it v of it and there was that portion where the president could potentially end any investigation, being the nations top Law Enforcement officer would give him that authority, at least according to Rudy Giuliani. The president s legal team writing, if he wished, he could terminate the interview or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired. Giuliani went a step further saying in theory, the president could pardon himself although he says trump is not likely to do that. Listen to this exchange. The letter also cites the president s pardon power, do you believe as the president s attorney that the president has the ability to pardon himself. Hes not, but he probably does. He has no intention of pardoning himself, but that doesnt mean he can. Thats an interesting discussion, on can the president pardon himself. It would be an open question, i think it would probably get answered as, gosh, thats what the constitution says, if you want to change it, change it, but yeah. Rudy giuliani also making the case that a possible remedy for this situation would be for trumps legal team to prove that the special counsel is illegitimate, something giuliani says is the president s right to do. Paul manafort, what was he saying about Paul Manafort . Its clear that President Trump is aiming to put some distance between himself and his former campaign advisor, writing, quote, as one of the only two people left who could president , why wouldnt the fbi or the department of justice in quotes have told me that they were secretly investigating Paul Manafort on charges that were ten years old and were previously dropped during my campaign, he should have told me. Paul manafort came into the campaign very late and he was with us for a short period of time. He represented reagan, bob dole and many others over the years, but we should have been told that comey and the boys were doing a number on him and he wouldnt have been hired. Of course trumps statement conflicts with the timeline, theres been widespread reporting that the fisa warrants that were approved to surveil manafort after he left the trump campaign. Further the notion that Paul Manafort played a small role in the trump campaign, is a bit o a mischaracterization, after all, he helped organize the Republican National convention and took part again in that controversial meeting with russians in trump tower in june of 2016, a meeting that was also attended by donald trump jr. And Jared Kushner, pamela. And you typically dont tipoff other people around that person that that person is under investigation for good reason. Right. Boris sanchez, thank you so much for all of that. Julian, and attorney seth barrensweig, a professionor in if they can convince us as in muellers team, if they can convince us that its just going to be a short interview, narrow in scope, then well consider it. Ishe onus on muellers team to convince them of that . If you go through the letter that he and a lot of people are talking about today, that is a very interesting letter, thats light on the law and big on the bluster. It really cuts to the heart of what were really talking about here, which is the scope and breath of executive power and privilege. None of that applies to things that occurred prior to President Trump becoming president of the United States and a lot of what mr. Mueller wants to talk about is exactly that, this letter in the conversation just kind of ignores that and for things that happen after the inauguration, the Supreme Court has largely dealt with that in the case of u. S. Versus nixon talking about the fact in the face of a subpoena in this kind of an instance by a special prosecutor, that executive privilege is very narrow in scope, these are the kinds of issues that are very light on the law, it was not a very impressive letter and i think the president is going to use this to drive a car into this kind of dispute, were going to enter into constitutional crisis. And do you, the way that they laid out these arguments, do you think theyre basically saying that the president is above the law by saying the president cant obstruct a probe because hes the chief Law Enforcement officer. Theyre saying it without saying it, right . Theyre saying basically that since he is in charge of the executive branch, what he says goes and therefore he is the law, so if the president in this instance was going to pardon himself, that would really be a historic preference with regard to a conflict of interest. Thats not something thats supported anywhere in the law, i think you also raise an interesting point on timing, this letter was written about 24 hours so the timing of this is very interesting in terms of the messaging that it conveys. I think it really goes back to ask the question, is this really about a legal principle or really about just making the political point . And to be clear, to be fair to giuliani, he did say that the president wouldnt pardon himself because he wouldnt need to. I wanted to make that clear. I want to bring you in because this memo that trumps legal team wrote back in january to muellers team, said that this statement that was short and accurate that was put out about his sons controversial 2016 trump tower meeting with russians, this contradicts what we have heard from the white house and trumps lawyer on at least five occasions, how problematic is that . Its problematic and its one of many examples that the president or the president s team contradicts themselves. And Rudy Giuliani did talk about themselves not only being on target, but on fact. These controversial statements are at the heart of why mueller keeps investigating and why there are so many concerns about what actually happened. There is not a straight story from the president and a prime example, this meeting really was a centerpiece of the concern of what happened before that election. It certainly is something that Robert Mueller has been looking at and i want to go to the sound that you alluded to, what giuliani said on this frump tower Meeting Development this morning. I mean, this is the reason you dont let the president testify. You know, our recollection keeps chging or were not asked a question, or we make an assumption, in this case i made an assumption and we got it right out as soon as it happened. So i think thats the case here. If the president s legal staff cant even recollect, what does it mean in terms of a potential interview . I think it means t they dont want him to get anywhere near an interview in this case, its really what somebody would call a perjury trap, this is somebody who has a difficult time walking a straight line, and this is not somebody who you want sitting down with a special prosecutor, and in many insta e instanc instances, they can provide a statement that is inconsistent to the prosecutors office. Thats already been charged by muellers team for lying to investigators. And also martha stewart, which was interestingly also a pardon conversation just yesterday. To put this all in perspective, what do you make of this 20page letter, its significance six months later and the significance of it coming out now . I think it was done intentionally. I think this was part of a political argument. The president very much sees this as a political not a legal problem, and their audience is the electorate and their audience is the republicans in congress. Part of this campaign is to raise questions of the legitimacy of the entire investigation, from the fbi to Robert Mueller, and the second part is to make really expansive claims about president ial power, sending out signals and sending out words that suggest the president can really do whatever he wants and is above the law in certain respects. I think its a twin part of the campaign and it explains some of the pardons that we have been hearing about this week. And giuliani himself a little over a week ago admitted that, look, this is part of a pr strategy to sway Public Opinion to undermine the probe in case it ever comes down to impeachment. Julian, seth, we do appreciate it. You bet. And another world leader is lining up to meet north koreas dictator. A report says that syrian president Bashar Al Assad will immediate with kim in pyongyang. What does this mean for President Trumps summit in just nine days. Police say the homicides may all be connected. 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Approximate u. S. Is vowing to keep up the pressure on north korea ahead of the upcoming summit between President Trump and president king in singapore. For now we must remain vigilant and we will continue to implement all Security Council resolutions on north korea. North korea will receive relief only when it demonstrates verifiable steps to denuclearization. Nick, im going to start with you here, because this appears to be tough talk from mattis and on the other hand you have President Trump seemingly changing his tone on the meeting, saying its a get to know you session, indicating we no longer want to use the phrase maximum pressure campaign. Do you feel theyre edging toward a watered down deal . Certainly thats a concern that secretary mattis was trying to address with some of the United States allies when he was speaking there in singapore and he did have a oneonone meeting with japans defense minister who had believe previously said on saturday, what are we supposed to understand . Is it maximum pressure or are there still sanctions and the Japanese Defense minister also pointed out that kim jongun is coming to the table without putting anything on it, as President Trump says is getting to know you, the japanese position on this and theyre an important u. S. Ally here, there should be verifiable so there is real concern but the way that secretary mattis shapes this, he said, ok, the strength of our security is in trust between each other, we have to work in that trust, we cant take it for granted, clearly speaking to these concerns, but he said its up to us, defense and security chiefs, to do our job and let the ditplomats do theirs. What theyre saying is that President Trump wants to sit down with kim because he thinks he can achieve something from across the table. So it really does focus it down on can President Trump really do what he seems to think he can do, which is convince kim to do something which neither he nor his father nor his grandfather have done in the past, the historic precedence is there to say that may not be likely, the south koreans want this to happen, saying lets not be imprei imprisoned by the history here. On the face of it right now, President Trump does not have himself in as strong a position as he could have zone at this stage. And sam, i just saw you tweeted earlier, you know, 101 planning for a summit is to get your talking points coordinated. You have planned many summits before under the last administration, what do you make of whats going on right now . To nicks point, secretary mattis is doing his job which is to maintain a credible deterrent while the diplomats and while the negotiators osz citizensably work out what we want from the summit. But coordinate on your talking points, the lack of consistency in what were saying can be exploiteded by the other side. If there are public gaps in what were saying that we want, they could try to drive wedges between the negotiators and the president and exploit any weakness possible to get what they want. What this is also exploring is that i believe on friday that were kicking off a process with the North Koreans to figure out what complete verifiable and i reversible denuclearization is going to look like, were kicking off a process in terms of what we want and what were willing to give in exchange for north korea making progress in certain areas, so its that bifurcated process that will hopefully lead to a successful meeting in singapore. And kim will meet with bashar am assad, the leader of syria, and a possible summit with vladimir putin, is this kim jongun trying to change his staff your ahead of the world summ summit . What do you make of this . I think the fact that they are announcing this right now is certainly some part of signaling by the north korean regime, precisely to what end, a reminder for President Trump that he is not going to do a complete about face and change the man that he is, change the leadership that he has, it should be slightly troubling that he wants to send this message now, but he wants to come to the table in a position of strength, and again, it underlines the difficulties faced by kim taking on previous administrations would have had in the past. I think what youre seeing here is an opportunity for the rest of the key players here, and assad is not one of them by any stretch of the imagination, but china, russia, south korea too, japan to a certain degree, but particularly from the russia and china perspective to see what direction President Trump is going with kim jongun, how President Trump plans to play this, and their own National Security interests lie because of this. And perhaps that means in the future china may not be so ready to ramp up and implement the sanctions that secretary mattis is using to get kim to the table in the first place. The Global Partners that President Trump has used to get to this position may not be ready to do this again because they see the way that hes going to play this, it may not be in that National Security interests, it becomes more complicated, President Trump has essentially shown his hand here and it does seem to be, you know, that gamut of im going to pull it off, whatever i need to convince kim of in that first facetoface, i have to have a facetoface, otherwise this goes nowhere. No doubt they are watching closely everything the president says and does in japan, is also raising concerns about the summit telling the u. S. Not to reward north korea just for showing up at a meeting, sam, is President Trump embracing the theater of this and not paying enough attention to the substance of it . I certainly think so, but i also think that this meeting or potential meeting between kim jongun and assad is not an accident. And i think its a signal from kim jongun to President Trump but i think for another reason. You have to ask yourself why is state run media in russia making this known days before kim arrives in singapore, he knows that President Trump is deeply focused on the summit to happen. Hes inviting a war criminal to pyongyang and knows that <