The billionaire victor vexilberg is one of russias richest men and has close ties to russias president Vladimir Putin. Nbc news has reviewed financial documents that appear to support avenattis charge. He alleges that money from the oligarch related company was deposited from the same account cohen used to wire a hush money payment of 130,000 to daniels. Avenatti today accused cohen of selling access. Lets watch. Youve got millions of dollars that are being deposited in this account. Michael cohen seems to be selling access to the president of the United States. Today Michael Cohen called the accusations inaccurate. Any response . How do you feel you may have changed an election . The line used by every flack when theyre caught, inaccurate. The lawyer responded to avenatti in a court filing, saying, quote, this document is concerning for a number of reasons including the blatantly incorrect statements. But tonight avenatti standing by his report tweeting, mr. Ryan emphasis submission on behalf of mr. Cohen is baseclass, improper and sanctionable. According to documents released by avenatti, a u. S. Based Company CalledColumbus Nova headed by vesselbergs cousin routed eight payments totaling approximately 800,000 to the company. Issuing this statement, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a Business Consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures. Well, last friday the New York Times citing people familiar with the matter says agents for special counsel mueller confronted vexilberg as he stepped off a plane. He was sanctioned by the u. S. Treasury in april this year, but has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the investigation to cohen. Late today giuliani denied the president was involved in business dealings in question. He said the president is not involved in anyway either before or after he was president , and we dont believe mueller would have given the case away if he was involved. Joining me now the author of russian roulette, a bestseller about this stuff, michael schmidt, david jolly, and jill winebanks, former assistant watergate prosecutor and nbc news contributor. In order i want you all to talk about this first. David, this mixing of funds,gyning of funds, 500,000 coming in from this cousin of this oligarch into the coffers of mr. Michael cohen, 130,000 being paid by the coffers of mr. Cohen, how does it all relate . It seems to me to relate to russia with the hanky pank and coveri covering up for it. January 6, 2017, the Intelligence Committee releases its report saying russia attacked our election in part to help get trump get elected. Thats the environment this time. Trump is denying that this ever happened, and heres his fixer taking 500,000 or starting to from one of the chief oligarchs over there. Theyre not denying this, by the way. Of course, theyre not denying it and thats very interesting. Because we reported jones back in 2016 he had steel and ross with cyprus involved in shady russian money. And at the same time this cousin of his whos an american citizen hes giving 250,000 to trumps inaugural committee. Now, is that money coming from victor vexilberg as well . Theres so much more here and others to investigate. And shows the house Intelligence Committee republicans, they shut their door long before this movie was done. Michael, whats going on here . Well, this highlights a problem that trumps lawyers and cohens lawyers have thought existed all along, which is that that they dont know whats in all those documents that were taken from cohens office. Theyve been worried about this from the beginning. Trump wasnt being candid about it. Cohen wasnt being candid about it now. At least they have access to these documents now to understand it. But they dont understand what the feds are looking at exactly in new york. Its a mystery to them. And thats why if they will speak canned dudley to you, they will tell you they are more concerned whats going on in new york than they are with washington. They say, look, we understand the contours of the Mueller Investigation, we get whats going on there, we understand what the witnesses have said, what the questions are. New york, no idea. This is the latest example, a surprise, something unusual that brings in all different strands of this story. Why do you think giuliani said that if this had to do with russia, if cohens situation and the whole question with Stormy Daniels had something to do with russia, then mueller would have never released it to the new york office to handle. I was surprised to hear that. It seems like giuliani is speaking as if he knows whats going on inside the investigation, which im pretty sure he doesnt. It also assumes that Michael Cohen is sort of like a black and white issue. Where its either in new york or either in washington with mueller. And my guess and our sense from our reporting is this is something on both sides. Theres different parts of Michael Cohen that are being looked at. So the idea that mueller passed on this, i was a little skeptical of that when i heard it. Jill winebanks, tell me your sense of that, the distinction between going after Stormy Daniels of the 130,000, the 500,000 coming in from vexilberg, the Russian Oligarch and whats the overlap . First of all, lets not forget the money that came in from u. S. Corporations that is paid to play it looks like. And one of them said they hired him to do their internal accounting system, and then they found out he couldnt provide the services but they paid him anyway on a monthly basis. This is very big news in terms of the investigation, both in terms of the russia investigation and in terms of general corruption within the administration. So this is really very interesting. And i think that it is correct to say that both mueller and the Southern District of new york are looking into different aspects of activities by the president s lawyer Michael Cohen. Lets talk about that role that people play. Sometimes when people help someone get elected president of the United States, they say i dont want a job, i want to be outside. I want to be a bag man. Obviously, they dont say it that way. You got to pay the toll, and you got to pay me if you want to talk to the new president , because i helped get him in there and hell see whoever i tell him to see. This isnt new. If you want to talk to trump, you want to get something out of him, you pay cohen. How is it different . So, chris, is that for me . Im asking jill. First the legal and then well go to politics in a minute. I think both legally and politically this is very bad stuff and that there is a number of potential crimes just from a legal perspective. The standard for bribery is very tough to meet. There has to be a quid pro quo. There has to be some actual action. So that paying for access to the president isnt a crime in and of itself. But if the president then does anything to help the person that they saw, that is bribery, and that could be a crime. And having a pass through through his lawyer doesnt make it any less criminal and also politically unacceptable. This is the president who said hes going to drain the swamp, and he is filling that swamp. This is the opposite of draining the swamp. This is pay to play. You mean continuing a prorussian Foreign Policy across the board. Exactly. That could be enough in mine mind to establish there could be some quid pro quo. And we know that sanctions havent been put in place that should have been put in place until they were really forced to be put in place. And theres still more that need to be put in place. I dont trust that they will happen. I think there is a relationship with russia we need to be looking at. And shame on congress for stopping the investigation. I would like to see a public investigation. I think the public needs to know all the facts about the man that is the president. And they arent going to know it because mueller is properly keeping this secret. He has to keep it secret, but congress should be doing something, and they should be stopping any future interference in our elections and theyre not doing that. Shame on them. You know, david, i want to talk about the politics of this. Because people like menendez in new jersey and mcdonald and these guys, established relations, personal intimate relations with foreign people. Sometimes american but they come from other countries. Theyre not familiar with our political system. Theyre fearful they have to buy a politician. The word is out if you want to get something from trump you go to Michael Cohen. The fact these big drunk Drug Companies are going through that door, that door is wide open for business. This guy setup a till, and i think the russians know about it because the russians are notoriously fixed on finding one american they want to deal with. Were a little obtuse for them. Tell us about this from a political angle. When you watch this guy victter vexilberg, there he is, hes got a cousin in the United States, he knows a little bit about american politics and hes dealing with cohen. Whos not a great lawyer. No one says hes an actual look at the law books lawyer. Hes a fixer. This is influence pedaling. The question is it legal or is it illegal. And thats important because go back to the snapshot in time. Frankly, you had a lot of republican donors who had criticized and abandoned donald trump all of a sudden writing Million Dollar checks to the ininaugural committee to try to make up. Yeah, sure, you had other Michael Cohens in Donald Trumps world opening lobbying shops in d. C. We have seen it from bushs friends to clintons friends. When youre dealing with a foreign nation state or foreign interest, you have the department of justice, foreign registrations. And trump opened several doors for them to come in and sort of interact with his key people. Well, reuters is now reporting that at t says it has contacted once contacted by special Counsel Office late last year about payments to Michael Cohen. The company says it cooperated with the Mueller Investigation november and december of last year and since then has received no additional questions. I just wonder how do you react to this whole thing . Why are you surprised the russians would continue this . Were getting more evidence from it. What im saying is that nothing has been put in place postelection to try and stop any of this. Theres no look at it. Theres been no serious oversight from the hill. I guess they would say there has been today the senate Intelligence Committee reported out and i read it in your paper inside pages on the a section, but the fact is they talked about 18 to 21 states that were hacked and whatever, theyre trying to screw up the registration of our voters. The administration has taken no measures to try to prevent this from happening again. So if youre the russians, why would you stop if the administration is not putting anything in place . Michael, youre so smart. I see it in your face sometimes you know more than you tell us. But i watch Vladimir Putin, and i watch that little smirk hes got in his face every time. And every time trump is around, does he know all this crap . Does he know about Michael Cohen, vixalberg, about this oligarch activity in our country . Im not a russia expert, but i think that we sometimes give them too much credit for what they have done. To think that they have smarter than they were. I think they threw an enormous amount of stuff at the wall. It was very cheap. Some of it stuck and its had i just wonder how active the guy is. Vladimir looks like he does everything in the oligarch. They already said putin ordered the attack on the russians. No doubt he has some idea what these oligarchs have done in interacting with the Trump Campaign and the trump world afterwards. I want to thank you david. Its good book and a late motif to all what were talking about. Former congressman david jolly, you know the smell of this thing. You may have seen it in the world. Jill winebanks, thank you. We always rely on you. Coming up, the latest stunt to sabotage the Mueller Investigation. New reporting now shows the house intel chair devin nunes was willing to risk the life and safety of an intelligence source in a quest to cover trump. A heads up on what trump and mueller is up to. And plus Melania Trump unveiled her new initiative this week but its her husband and allies that now want to defend programs that help children and separate children from their parents at the border. He deserves credit for the progress being made with north korea. Of course, but why did he abandon the Iran Nuclear Deal . Does he deserve a nobel or is he a neocon . This is hardball where the action is. How much is it . Well, if you have a discover card, its free. No way yes way we just think its important for you to be in the know. All right hey. Ewww everything ok . Being in the know is very good. Yeah, it is. Ooo dont shake dont shake ahhh know if your Social Security number is found on risky sites. Free from discover. Well, those three americans who were held in north korea are now back on america soil. Youre looking at a live picture now from anchorage, alaska. Its landed in alaska to refuel. In a statement just released those detainees thanked President Trump, secretary pompeo and the people of the United States for bringing us home. And well be right back. S dog. And this is franks record shop. Frank knowns northern soul, but how to set up a limited liability company. Whats that mean . Not so much. So he turned to his friends at legalzoom. Yup they hooked me up. We helped with his llc, contracts, and some other stuff thats part of running a business. So frank can focus on the beat. You hear that . This is franks record shop. And this is where life meets legal. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. But behr premium stain y can weather any weather. Overall 1 rated, weathers it all. Find our most advanced formula exclusively at the home depot. Mr. Elliot, whats your wiwifi . Ssword . Wifis ordinary. Basic. Do i look basic . Nope which is why i have xfinity xfi. Its super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey lets basement. And thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. So sophie, i have an xfi password, and its daditude. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity. The future of awesome. Welcoming back to hardball. The president s defenders have already made several attempts with limited success to discredit undermine or otherwise kill the russian probe of robert mueller. Now it appears that trumps top ally in the house is willing to go further. According to the Washington Post, last wednesday senior fbi and National Intelligence officials relayed an urgent message to the white house. Information being sought by house Intelligence Committee chairman devin nunes could endanger a top secret intelligence source. They report that President Trump and Top White House officials were persuaded that turning over Justice Department documents could risk lives by potentially exposing that source. A u. S. Citizen who has provided intelligence to the cia and the fbi. The story notes that several Administration Officials feared trump may reverse course, however, and support nunes argument. Now cnn has reported that hes been offered a classified briefing at the Justice Department tomorrow to discuss this classified briefing. And all this as Rod Rosenstein last week called these document requests extortion. Additionally, a Law Enforcement official told the New York Times last week that mr. Rosenstein and top fbi officials have come to suspect that some lawmakers were using their oversight authorities to gain intelligence about that investigation so that it could be shared with the white house. Joining me now is democrat congressman congress castro. This is horrible claim, but it sounds like the chairman of your committee, mr. Nunes is seeking information from the Mueller Investigation so he can feed it to the people being investigated, ie, trump. You know thats absolutely possible at this point. Theres no question that really almost since this investigation started that devin nunes has been in the service of President Trump, that as ive mentioned before he has made his career a sacrifice fly for trump. And it wouldnt be surprising if hes doing it again. But the reason for the Intelligence Committees creation was to keep an eye on the intelligence services, to keep them straight, and whats he doing . Well, y