Consider where were talking salary as far as the campaign is concerned is that, you know, everything is public. And that all the money that we raise and that pays salaries is directly from donors, smalldollar donors for the most part. So i know you were making 179 at the white house. And i think we can work something out where we keep you right along those lines. Um, specifically, let me see, i havent even added up the numbers. But we were talking about like 15k a month. Let me see what that adds up to. Times 12. Yeah, thats 180,000. Does that sound like a fair deal for you . In terms of your position specifically, i really feel like your position would require, you know, you to be able to be flexible in terms of where you are. Sometimes, you know, come to new york for occasional meetings, but i would love if you could, you know, occasionally go do speaking engagements and that sort of thing for us, i think youd be awesome doing that. So it doesnt really matter where you are. If youre comfortable staying in d. C. , then, you know, youre were more than happy to have you all right then. To start this hour off joining me now is nbc News White House correspondent kelly odonnell, Danny Cevallos also joins us. Kelly, weve heard from lara trump on this latest tape since it was released. Shes already responded. Reporter she has and so has her fatherinlaw, putting out a tweet where he references a new rnc video that captures all the highlights of Omarosa Manigault newman when she was in the trump camp and sort of a little subtle from the president. We dont see that very often where he thanks her for what were glowing terms put together in a compilation. With his daughterinlaw, lara trump, who is a big part of the campaign, when im out on the road covering his maga rallies, there are videos that the audience gets to see before, hours before the president arrives where she is sort of the mistress of ceremonies so she is very much a part both visibly and behind the scenes of the campaign. She released a written statement in response to the audio tape that omarosa ebuted here. She said when omarosa was fired by the white house chief of staff in december, my entire family was concerned for her because we had no idea about the basis of her dismissal. We still wanted her on our team because we cared so much about her personally, thats why i reached out to offer her a position with the 2020 Trump Campaign before we knew anything about the gross violations of ethics and integrity during her white house tenure. Another one of omarosas bombshell tapes is a fraud. So this is the daughterinlaw of the president trying to make sort of a couple of points that they had family concern, that they were willing to work with her because of the long relationship and then again trying to go after the character of Omarosa Manigault newman who describes herself as whistleblower by saying the way she conducted herself was lacking integrity. This is a more personal side of this, because weve seen the president do some tweets. His daughterinlaw, married to eric trump, is now adding into this because she was brought in through that tape where she is offering a lucrative job at the campaign with relatively loose requirements. She could live in any city she wished, like new york or d. C. She could also make appearances on behalf of the campaign and attend occasional meetings. It didnt sound rigorous but that was at least the initial pitch made by lara trump to omarosa. She also raises the issue of concerns about keeping anything sort of in her back pocket in reference to perhaps unflattering things about the trump organization, campaign or family. Omarosa Manigault Newman says oh, god, no. How ironic that here eight or nine months later there are lots of unflattering things that she is more than willing to roll out with the documentation shes providing to support her new book. Interesting, danny, that she uses the word whistleblower. Is that of any significance in this matter . This is a crafty use of the word whistleblower because it has legal significance. What it means is that in the law, federal employees and Government Employees are protected if they see waste, fraud and abuse in the workplace and they decide to report it. They cant be retaliated against for whistleblowing as its called. Omarosa is a very well prepared witness as we would say in court. Its me telling you about bad acts. And shes not a whistleblower by virtue of just calling herself one, but its helpful to frame herself as a whistleblower as opposed to somebody who may just be trying to profit from a book. If in the future there is some action against her and she can position her as a whistleblower under the law, as the law envisions it, then that offers her protection, additional layers of protection that she might not otherwise have. So in an effort by the Trump Campaign to silence her, to get an injunction against her, which they have indicated they want to do, does that also come into play . Can she say im not just somebody talking about stuff. What do you have to prove to be a whistleblower, that what youre doing is in the Public Interest . Its more than just rumor, that theres some sort of theft or waste or fraud going on at the government job, that theres actually there is some crime, some sort of illegal activity going on, something where funds are being misappropriated and you can demonstrate that, then you can be entitled to federal protection under federal law. And if you are retaliated against, similar to our employment law, you are protected and those who retaliate against you could potentially be held liable. Lara trump tells her well give you 180,000 a year but you cant say anything bad. Thats pretty clear its a quid pro quo but its campaign money. Is that a problem . The more i think about it, its a close call, but it is the campaign, its not the same as the government and i think the biggest factor for omarosa is in response to this offer, she could have walked away. Nobody was fullout threatening her that we will take legal action against you. They just said well pay you to not talk about us. Let me run those numbers. 179, and it ends up being exactly the same. What do you think about that deal . So it may seem unsavory but its not clear what rules have been broken. At this point i dont see it. Thanks to both of you for reporting on this. Trump made headlines of his own by publicly revoking the security clearance of john bren n a, b brennan. But the wall street journal reports the decision may have actually been about the russia investigation. In an impromptu interview, the president drew a direct connection between the special counsels investigation and his decision. Quote, i call it the rigged witch hunt. It is a sham, mr. Trump said in an interview, and these people let it. He added, so i think its something that had to be done. I want to bring in peter nicholas, the White House Reporter who conducted this interview. Peter, where did this come from . This reminds us of the lester holt conversation. Did the president i mean was he trying to explain something away and somehow ended up connecting this to the russia investigation, which cant actually be better for him than just the suggestion that john brennan was an erratic guy. He was talking about why he did it, the rationale for the decision. He was saying that he doesnt like these people, he doesnt think that theyre performing well in some of their public appearances and speeches, doesnt agree with what theyre saying. And these people being the people listed, john brennan and the eight or nine names of people. He mentioned peter strzok, the former fbi agent, he mentioned john brennan and andrew mccabe, the former fbi official. And he was saying that he was just not happy with them and thought that their clearances needed to be revoked or evaluated. As he was continuing down this path in discussing this, he did mention the russia investigation. He said i did not a target of it. He said that its a sham, its a witch hunt. Then he said these people let it. So he drew this line between the russia investigation and security clearance issue, which some members of his staff really werent doing. So its a bit of variance in what his staff is saying, where theyre saying this was trying to clean up a process where too many people who are undeserving have the security clearances. So this business of these people let it, thats a whole brand new Conspiracy Theory because hes taken a whole bunch of people that are not actually that well connected to each other in any context and suggested they let it. He has implied that john brennan holds some responsibility for the russia investigation going under way. Thats a little fantastical. Well, we know that john brennan was part of a team of officials who briefed him when he was president elect about the russia about russian interference and meddling in our elections. So in his own mind he does seem to associate him with the russia investigation, yes. And so the worrisome part here, peter, is that if he associates people who brief him on things with bad things that he doesnt like, where does that stop . The idea that brennan and others knew about russian interference in the election or had information that they needed to share with the president and then are at the receiving end of his punitive measures, thats sort of worrisome in a functioning democracy. I asked him about that during our intervention. I mentioned there are some critics that say are you not just targeting democrats and political opponents, people you dont like. He said, look, if there were republicans who i thought was crazy or incompetent he would consider revoking their clearance too, but we have yet to see that happen. Peter, good to talk to you. Thank you for your reporting on this. Jurors are deliberating right now in the trial of former Trump Campaign chair Paul Manafort. Still ahead, were going to tell you what you need to know about what happens next and what this means for the special counsels investigation. Also, remembering a legend. Aretha franklin passed away this morning at the age of 76. Two huge names in music, both contemporaries, will join us to celebrate her contribution to American Music and american history. You make me feel you make me feel like a natural woman its time for the biggest sale of the year on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. It senses your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. And now, all beds are on sale. Save 50 on the new sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Only for a limited time. Ive been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. Theres a lot of innovation that goes into making americas 1 shave. Precision machinery and highquality materials from around the world. Nobody else even comes close. Now starting at 7. 99. Gillette. The best a man can get. This wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. Happening now, the jury in the trial of the president s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, is deliberating the case. Were now in hour five of deliberations. Lets get to ken dilanian whos outside the court house for us in alexandria, virginia. Ken, whats going on in there . Reporter we dont know, ali. We did see some jurors on a break about an hour ago but we believe they are deliberating steadily. Weve seen no indication of any notes or questions from the jury, but we do know that they asked the judge to move to a larger room, which suggests they think theyll be in there for a while. They have a lot of evidence and documents to go through on these 18 charges of tax and bank fraud. Ali, i think this is going to turn on whether the prosecution proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Paul Manafort had corrupt intent on these charges. Its obvious to everyone, and the defense really didnt contest, that manafort didnt pay all the taxes that he owed. He had money parked in Foreign Bank Accounts that he didnt declare on his taxes. That he submitted false information to banks in the process of getting loans. But the question is did he do that with corrupt intent . Did he know he was breaking the law . Thats what the prosecution has to prove. There was no real smoking gun evidence to suggest that, other than the testimony of rick gates, his alleged coconspirator, who was pretty thoroughly discredited on kracr examination. I thought the prosecution walked away from him a little bit. The defense actually seemed to be happy with where things stood at the end of their closing arguments yesterday. I think we have some sound from Paul Manaforts lead attorney, kevin downing. Take a lesson. Address the jury, point out the shortcomings in the governments case and explain the government has not met their burden of proof. Reporter so expressing some confidence there, ali. All right, ken dilanian, thanks very much. Dont go too far from where we are. If we hear from the jury, we want to hear your reporting on it. No matter if the jury convicts or aquits Paul Manafort, its going to have big implications for the special counsels investigation. For more on that, im joined by liz holtzman, who voted to impeach president nixon. Liz, this is important because a lot of people are wondering, in fact somebody said, it was rudy giuliani, who said throughout the campaign there were no allegations from the prosecution about anything to do with trump. So how is this connected to the manafort to the Mueller Investigation . Well, because manafort has a lot of information theoretically about donald trump. For example, were now told that Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer, is going to say under oath, i dont know if this is true, that trump knew beforehand about the trump tower meeting and approved it. Presumably at that meeting or reportedly at that meeting was manafort. Manafort could substantiate Michael Cohens position. Lets assume all that happens. If that happens, then donald trump is in really serious trouble. Or as weve seen donald trump getting concerned about, donald trump jr. Is in serious trouble. But donald trump sr. Is in really serious criminal and probably impeachable trouble if its proven that he knew and approved the meeting with the russians beforehand. In other words, was willing to take and soliciting help from Foreign Government to interfere in our election. And that is a crime and its an impeachable offense. If manafort knew that piece of information and had it to offer, why wouldnt he have offered it up yet . Do you think hes rolling the dice . Well, yeah. First of all, is he going to be convicted . His lawyers dont think so. If hes not, hes still got another trial to deal with. But the other possibility is if hes convicted, then what happens . Hes facing the rest of his life in prison. But hes saying, well, you know, maybe ill get a pardon. I dont know if hes actually saying that, but he could be saying im going to get a pardon from donald trump and then i dont have to deal with this. If he gets a pardon from trump, then hes got a life, he can get more ostrich jackets, rebuild his business, all that stuff can go forward. Of course anybody who wants the rest of his life on a promise from donald trump, i dont know that id want to rely on that. So what happens next . What does mueller do next . Lets say theres a conviction. If theres a conviction, then mueller gets ready for the next trial and hopes that this conviction, if there is one, is like a 2x4 on a donkeys forehead and manafort gets the idea they have won one against me, lets make a deal. Lets make a deal. Can you give him much of a deal if he gets convicted . First of all, you have the other trial. Get rid of that one and probably get a substantial reduction in sentence. Now, it depends on what manafort has to say and it depends whether his testimony can be corroborated. Thats still a big if here. But we also know a little bit about what he knows because rick gates has been cooperating. Whats interesting, though, is that if you are donald trump or youre Paul Manafort, what you have seen is the organization with which this prosecution and this investigation moves forward. Oh, yes. This was a detailed trial. While they called witnesses, didnt really rely heavily upon these witnesses. It was a methodical trial and mueller is going through this whole investigation in a very careful methodical way. And they havent really fully addressed the Michael Cohen issue. Michael cohen may have a lot of stuff, additional stuff. So we dont know what manafort has to say but it could be very worrisome. Obviously the way the president is acting like, his actions against brennan, he really seems to have lost control. Hes obviously very worried, and he should be. Liz, thank you for this. We will continue to watch how this jury reacts. They have been in deliberations for five hours now. Coming up, some staggering new statistics paint a very grim picture of the Opioid Crisis in america. Whats fueling it and how can communities fight it . Well talk to a doctor whos helping figure out the answers. First, we remember the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin. She passed away this morning at the age of 76. Coming up next, a superstar panel, including herbie hancock, marvin staples are joining me to talk about the enormous impact aretha had on american history. For five long years i thought you were my man but i thought i im just a link in your chain your digestive system has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. Realign yourself, with align probiotic. And try new align gummies, with prebiotics and probiotics to help support digestive health. The river was deep i didnt falter when the mountain was high i still believed when the valley was low it didnt stop me i knew you were waiting i knew you were waiting for me musicians, politicians, music lovers everywhere have been sharing their remembrances of Aretha Franklin on twitter after we learne