Thats going down in North Carolina. A congressional race is clouded in controversy and explosive allegations of voter fraud that had democrats up in arms. The States Democratic Party chair is joining me live later in the show. Plus, on the hill, they delayed debate. They might not be able to delay a potential shutdown over a border wall showdown. Because all the president wants for christmas is that big beautiful wall. And he may make lawmakers stay away from home for the holidays to get it. We have a team of reporters and analysts here to cover all of it. It is turning out to be a busy tuesday. We start with deadline day to day. The series of deadlines that will trigger new documents which may reveal more than what weve seen so far about Robert Muellers investigation and specifically what hes learned from three key figures who were in President Trumps orbit. Michael flynn, former Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort and former fixer and president ial Attorney Michael Cohen. First up flynn, we expect a court filing on him today. Thats the one that may come down at any point this hour. There may be another filing this week about former trump Attorney Michael Cohen with new details now on why he confessed to it all. Legal experts and some democrats now wondering whether the president did a little witness tampering on twitter and as we mentioned, news on Paul Manafort who may have tried to come to a deal with ecuador to hand over wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the u. S. The New York Times says the revelations underscore how the role as an international influence broker intercepted with the questions surrounding the Trump Campaign. New morning, nbc news confirmed that reporting. We have been all over that story and many others. Intelligence and National Security reporter, nbc White House CorrespondentKristen Welker is also standing by on the north lawn. Ken, lets start with what we expect to see related to Michael Flynn today. These new documents that may provide more facts about what Robert Muellers case actually is. Thats the thing. We have no idea what to expect. It really underxorscores the fa that flynn is one of the mysteries. Hes been cooperating for a year and we have no idea what hes been telling Robert Mueller. Its an example of how we dont know how much mueller has. What we do know is that he pleaded good tolt lying abo g the sanctions put on russia. He was telling the ambassador not to react too harshly to the sanctions in hopes that the Trump Administration could roll them back. And he lied about it. What we dont know and what im going to look to this filing to see is whether he implicates the president , whether he says that the president instructed him to have the conversations with kislyak or knew about them. Trumps story is he was unaware that flynn was doing. That then the other matters having to do with flynn that we heard b about. He cut a deal with turkey to extradite a cleric from the United States in exchange for 15 million. Never proven. Allegation. Hasnt been charged with it. There is also this guy named peter smith who was trying to find Hillary Clintons deleted emails and he is deceased now. He told people that he was working with mike flynn. Will we hear anything about that . Will we hear anything about whether mike flynn is aware of Trump Campaign conspiracy with the Russian Election effort . These are the questions that i have today. Hang tight for one second. I want to get to kristen over at the white house. Important to step back and remember for a minute just who Michael Flynn is and the role that he played. National security adviser in the early days of a chaotic Trump Administration, a critical figure. I underscore your point early days. He was National Security adviser for 24 days here h not a very long time. I was here when he came out to the Briefing Room and put north korea on notice. And then he was gone shortly after that. He was fired for lying to the Vice President about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador as ken was mapping out. He said the conversations werent consequential. He did discuss those incoming sanctions. He pleaded guilty. He is cooperating with the special counsel. He was also the Defense IntelligenceAgency Director under former president obama. We reported that obama actually warned President Trump about bringing in into his own administration. Take a listen to how President Trump has talked about Michael Flynn. I feel badly for general flynn. He lauflt host his house and hi and some people say he lied and some people say he didnt lie. Really, it turned out that maybe he didnt lie. I feel badly for general flynn. I feel very badly. He led a very strong life. General flynn is a wonderful man. I think hes been treated very, very unfairly by the media. Of course, flynn was also a key figure during the transition. Important to note the tone there. Obviously President Trump has stood by flynn, consistently saying he feels bad for him. Its a similar tone that we heard him take towards Paul Manafort. A very different tone that he has taken towards the former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. He yesterday i know youll delve into this more deeply, talked about the fact that he deserves the maximum prison sentence. So the tone is important here in terms of what President Trump might be thinking moving forward. Kristen welker, thank you. Ken, kristen talked about Paul Manafort. You, i think, just got off the phone with Paul Manaforts spokesperson confirming the deals of the New York Times reporting that he tried to broker a deal with ecuador. Whats up . Thats right. His Spokesman Says that he does not dispute this New York Times report and in fact he says its accurate that Paul Manafort did discuss with the president of ecuador in may of 2017 a possible the possibility of trying to get julian asa juli julian asa Julian Assange back to the United States. Theyre wanting to get assange out of the embassy in london and the real purpose of the meeting was to discuss chinese investments and the power sector. And the times said and we have no reason to dispute that there was no indication that this had noig anything to do with Russian Election interference. There are allegations or suspicions that Julian Assange coordinated with roger stone and other people who had connections to the Trump Campaign. This is all what Robert Mueller is vekting. Its no the clear this meeting is relevant to that investigation. That was my next question, ken. What relationship if any this news has as it relates to the mueller investigation. Its your sense maybe not too much . No. Only that its kind of interesting that Paul Manafort would be discussing Julian Assange in any capacity in a time we knew Paul Manafort was desperate for money. It may add up to he needed to get paid. Ken delany, thank you. I want to break this down with our legal experts and our panel here. M mimi roka, mat miller, a spokesperson at doj. Alexei mccannon and lexie cook. Let me start with you, matt. Paul manafort, ecuador, Julian Assange, this new reporting. Hard to make of this. Go. Right. I think this looks a lot more like Paul Manafort influence pedaling and trying to play up the connections to the Trump Administration to get a contract or to put together a deal between the chinese and ecuadorian government. I find this it much more interesting if Paul Manafort was acting in a way unofficially on behalf of the administration. There is no clue that is happening. No indication thats the case. Coming up possibly on friday we talked about this series of dead libz that deadlines that are going to hit. Friday is another one for manafort and more details about that collapsed plea agreement, right . Thats right. On friday we expect for the government to sort of explain to the judge in written form why it is that they believe manafort lied. And today we expect to see in written form details about the cooperation that flynn has provided. Keep in mind this is all because these are case thats are pendi case thats a cases that are pending in front of judges. Judges expect facts. That is what is tantalizing about what is to come. If you read things from mueller, theyre not going to put things in written submissions to judges or say orally things to judge thats they cant back up with evidence. So these are extremely reliable pieces of information that we potentially will get from these filings. So i think thats very important to keep in mind. This isnt just them out there, you know, spinning things like trump and his lawyers. These are going to be backed up by facts whatever we learn. And to be clear, i think that is a critical piece of this, mimi. As glen put on the show yesterday, its not so much about the legal developments, its the factual developments that we may find out more about today. Exactly. I mean we have known in Broad Strokes and ken and you and others laid out that flynn lied about his discussions with kislyak about sanctions. Okay. That sounds important. But what else could flynn potentially have been charged with . Were there other crimes . Were there other things that he lied about . Were there why did he lie about it . What was he covering up . Were there contacts with trump, with others in the white house . You know, was it part of a broader scheme than just one discussion between him and kislyak about sanctions . I think those are some of the answers were looking for and some of the things we might get from the filing today. Matt, very quickly. I think the question about who he talked to who he talked to in the administration about sanctions before that call is important. There another big one. When did the president know that mike flynn either intended to lie to the fbi or had lied to the fbi . Yes, the time line of this. The day after mike flynn plead saying he fired him because he lied to the fbi. Ings that no the what th that they said at the time. I hope we find out. Sean spicer said this never happened as well. So we talked about flynn. We talked about manafort. Lets talk about Michael Cohen. Again this week as we look at the filing deadlines, we may see some new memos related to cohen and that guilty plea that he entered with the president. Now being accused of potentially witness tampering. We caught up with senator mark warner who talked a little bit about his red flags on this. Watch. The president of the United States using his public twitter account to try to influence witnesses or people who plead guilty within the mueller probe, to me, smells pretty fishy. Okay. So mark warner says it smells fishy. The l. A. Times talked with Rudy Giuliani said it is not obstruction of justice. He is only encouraging someone not to lie. What do you make of of this . The president is obviously i think its obvious trying to let roger stone know that if he holds firm, if he is strong, that there will be a pardon for him at the end. Hell somehow be rewarded. If this were any other person i think you would see the department of justice crawling all over this trying to make an obstruction case, trying to make a witness tampering case. I think the president is acting with this level of impunity, acting in a way that no other defendant would do because they would be worried about the department of justice coming out and he thinks that doj can indict him. That is the legal opinion. He is flaunting what the dojs usual guidance, flaunting the law, flaunting what any defense attorney would tell you to do. Tell us why youre in office. The Justice Department will not forget the way the president has handle ld thd this investig. He may have immunity now. That doesnt lost beyond his term. Michael cohen, there is a piece reporting on why he actually went into this guilty plea this plea agreement without the traditional cooperation deal looking for leniency. He wanted to speed up the sentencing process. At age 52, to begin his life virtually anew including developing new means to support his family convinced michael to seek an early sentence date, fully understanding that this court will determine the timing under which his efforts to rebuild will commence. This is a portrait of a man who has done a complete 180 in his professional life. Yes. He has been trumps fixer as we have talked about and everyone acknowledges now hes the problem that trump cant make go away as hes trying to become this new man with a new life that is totally separate from trump and could potentially turn into a star witness for House Democrats who want to turn him inner loop that on the hill. You get any sense it will happen . You cover the hill. Will well, i dont you know, i dont know about that. I think challenge for Michael Cohen is hes made so much money off of these things that are now under investigation. The trump organization, the taxi medallions. My question is how do you rebuild your life after that, after youve become such a public figure and after so many of your businesses and ties are under investigation. Thank you. Im going to ask you stay close to a camera. We think the documents could be coming out any minute. Thank you. So you thought the mid terms were over, right . Wrong. A recalled race in North Carolina centers around allegations of voter fraud with no clear path forward. The chair of North Carolinas Democratic Party joins me next. A live look over at capitol hill where the casket of george h. W. Bush liesinstate. Kpem pay respects tonight and tomorrow before the Funeral Services in washington. And then texas where the late president will be laid to rest. President trump and first lady milania trump honoring president bush late last night. 45 absoluting 41. We also learned from the president s twitter account that he will be joining ut bush family at the blair house right across from the white house today saying the elegance and precision of the last two days have been remarkable. Well be right back. Take your razor, yup. Up and down, never side to side, shaquem, you got it . Come on stay focused. Hard work baby, it gonna pay off. Im at this wing joint telling people that geico has been offering savings for over 75 years. 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