Fiance and her father. All told, the congressman and his family avoided over 768,000 in losses according to the document. And the big question we are asking today is, what does the arrest of Congressman Collins mean for the midterms . Joining me nbc news political director and moderator of meet the press, chuck todd. Nbc news investigations reporter tom winter, New York Times chief metro Political Correspondent shane gold macher and former s. E. C. Enforcement attorney seth waxman. Tom, you have been following this. You were downtown a little bit earlier today. Here is a statement from collins lawyer saying we will answer the charges filed in court and will mount a defense to clear his good name. It is notable the government does not allege that Congressman Collins traded a single chair of Innate Immunotherapeuticss stock. We are confident he will be
Katy Tur hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. But they seem to certainly come prepared for this. They came out with phone logs. They had dollar amounts. They had text messages. They knew where collins was when he was making these phone calls. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, the amount of detail that is stated in here, they clearly have his emails because they have his reply to the companys ceo once he received the information. How are these results even possible . Three question marks. So they have a ton of evidence here that they have already laid out in the indictment. We as reporters love it because we get a lot of detail and a good sense of this case. But it just shows the depth of which they were able to investigate this ahead of time. There is a number of coconspirators. Its certainly possible that they might be in a position to offer Additional Details to the government. The coconspirators are family . Yeah. In one case his sons fiance is one of the identified coconspirators. And they could be witnesses for the government . They could potentially be witnesses for the governmental. We have seen no filings to that, no public indications of that,
we want to be clear. Those people, their communications that they have, any communications that they have with brokers, the s. E. C. Said at the press conference, that they have recorded Telephone Conversations with the brokers side of things. Those do exist in this case. Obviously, they have a tremendous amount of trade logs. So they will know exactly when people logged on to their online accounts to be able to trade this. The exact orders that they put in. When you come to try to track stock trades, particularly when they are done through Public Markets like this, its really easy for the s. E. C. We are not talking with s. E. C. Capital and steve cohen. They are Routing Shares through all sorts of brokerage houses. They traded stocks like we would. This is much more straightforward . Yes. Its brazen, actually. We will get to the legal aspects in a moment. This doesnt come out of nowhere. There were already questions about collins trading for the past year and a half or so. Chuck todd to talk about the politics of this. Today was not a good tay fday f republicans. The Buffalo Times reported they received an email that said collins is going to continue to running for his seat this november. Chuck, what does this mean for the midterms . Look, first of all, its a very complicated process it appears, and collins would have to cooperate saying he would want to resign his seat, would want to pull out of the nomination. Remember, those in new york state wondering, wait a minute, the primaries havent happened yesterday. Your congressional primary happened. Its your state level, the cynthia nixon, andrew cuomo, the state races, those havent happened. Collinss already has. All right certified. The process is complicated. If you are the Republican Party this morning, it was already a bad night. Before 9 30 a. M. You have an arrested congressman. By the way, in a totally unrelated situation, there is a
local Special Prosecutor appointed in Virginia Beach to look at another incumbent congressman, a republican, who apparently had Campaign Operatives falsifying Petition Signatures to get a third candidate on ballot. The point is you are having a bad legal day on wednesday after a horrendous political day on tuesday. But heres what i would say about this seat. Its a republican seat. Its strongly held. I am having flashbacks to 1994, a big wave year, for republicans that year. There was a democrat named dan rosstonkowski. Very solid democratic district. The democrats thought rather than resign, he can hold the seat and then they can win in a special maybe in the spring. Well, a republican won the seat in the fall. So i would say all bets are off. When you are under a criminal investigation by the federal government and you are on a ballot, i dont care how solid your district is. You are probably politically in trouble. The democratic candidate there is a local elected official. He is not just sod gadfly. I think its an added headache to the Republican Partys hopes of trying to hold control of the house. Chuck, Chris Collins is far from the only lawmaker to come under federal scrutiny or to be under this sort of investigation. Bob menendez was under investigation, the democratic senator from new jersey, and he kept his seat in the senate during that time. He was ultimately not acquitted, but it was a hung jury or a mistrial. Chuck, in terms of the broader question about what the Republican Party is facing in the fall, and the broader question of how this government is being run under donald trump and how swampy it looks under donald trump to have one of his earliest and most vocal supporters be arrested for, as tom winter pointed out, pretty brazen, according to prosecutors, Insider Trading. You know, its funny. Many of the wave years that i have experienced covering politics the last 25 years, its sort of like there is a
political problem and then all of a sudden the political problem leads to the corruption problem, it starts surfacing. Happened to the democrats in 94. They were dealing with a political problem. Suddenly as more people realized there is a corruption stink, and it almost makes the wave stronger. It happened in 2006 with the republicans. They already were having problems because of the iraq war. There was a corruption stink. All of a sudden democrats got stronger and they had a better night. Thats the danger here for the republicans is that there is a larger narrative that its not just the president s unpopularity, but, hey, is there a kleptocracy going on in washington . Look at the last 72 hours, katy. We have been texting back and forth whether its the forbes Story On Wilbur Ross and the idea that he it accused him of going a grifter of sorts, in his history. The commerce secretary. Or the story by pro public la
about three maralago members. To or the story or watching the Manafort And Gates Trial where the two of them are sort of Swamp Creatures and how they did business in washington. Now throwing Chris Collins. All of these people have some sort of close friendship with the president. So it only sort of adds to an ugly stew that is already difficult for the Republican Party to deal with in november. I think you throw in the ingredient of corruption and it can supercharge a political atmosphere for a political party. Not to mention the reporting by our own Anna Schechter and Cynthia Mcfadden about the trump hotel. I left out the saudis and trump. Theres that, never mind i think there is a couple youre right. Its continual. There is story after story about how this administration is taking advantage of their position or things they are
this, allegedly, while at the white house, while knowingly under investigation is really quite a bold step. As chuck said, it adds to the question of swampiness, right . This is an indictment during a Corruption Trial after other allegations among other people in the administration, it all adds up to more and more bad news for the Republican Party right now. And, seth, the indictment itself, 30 pages, pretty detailed. What sort of case is this . Well, this looks like a straightforward Insider Trading case where you have two parties that are typically culpable. You have the tipper, representative collins, had material, nonpublic information, shared it with his son and the son shared it with others. The people receiving that information dumped their stock to avoid losses. The other thing that stood out to me in the indictment, you have unindicted coconspirators and a call that took place between Congressman Collins and
his son and they describe in the indictment what was said during that call. That tells me one of those unindicted coconspirators may be talking and explaining to federal Law Enforcement what either the son or representative collins said during that call. Lets put up a full screen of the timeline in the indictment of the moments after collins learned of this Trial Failure and what he did in those following moments. At 6 55 p. M. On june 22nd, 2017, Innate Immunotherapeuticss Chief Executive informed collins by email that the test for the drug had failed. 15 minutes later collins called his son and told his son about the failed drug test. June 23rd, 2017, at 7 42 a. M. When the stock market was open for trading again, Cameron Collins sold more than 16,500 shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics stock. Later that day Cameron Collins placed 17 more orders to sell the stock. Three days later Cameron Collins placed an additional 36 cell orders. June 27th, 2017, news of its failed drug test became public and the stock plummeted by more than 90 . Whats going to happen to Cameron Collins and the others that are named in this indictment, seth . Well, they look like they are in for a long and difficult battle. I mean, you dont even need an insider, a cooperator to tell you what that looks like. I mean, circumstancely, those calls and that trading is classic insider trader. So they have got an uphill battle. You throw on top of that one, two, maybe as many as six, as we are seeing in the indictment, unindicted coconspirators. It may mean they are under a sealed indictment where its been sealed. Maybe they have been given immunity. We heard about that in the gates trial going on right now. Looks like this most recent indictment, they have a difficult battle. One last thing. The House Ethics Committee started Investigating CollinsStock Trading A year and a half ago, when he was overheard on the Phone Bragging about the folks he made rich. One of these people tom price. At that time when the House Ethics Committee was investigating the stock trades, collins spokesperson called it a, quote, partisan witch hunt. Sound familiar . That sounds very familiar. And collins has been rocking up legal bills from that House Ethics Investigation as well as maybe this federal investigation. He has already spent 250,000 from his Campaign Funds to his lawyers. He has 1. 3 million left. He is up for reelection. Its tough to get off the ballot. How much of that money does he want to spend on a campaign versus dipping into his own money to defend himself in a legal battle that could be sending him to jail. Shane, seth, tom, chuck, who
had to run because he has his own show to do, thank you very much. Breaking news from the New York Times. Team trump has responded to Robert Muellers request for an interview with the president. Michael schmidt, the New York Times reporter who broke that story, joins me next. And i dont add up the years. But what i do count on. Is staying happy and healthy. So, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. New boost® high protein nutritional drink now has 33 more highquality protein, along with 26 essential and minerals your body needs. All with guaranteed great taste. The upside im just getting started. Boost® high protein be up for life
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and lets you control your network with the xfi app. Its the ultimate wifi experience. Xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. Breaking news. The New York Times is reporting that the president s legal team has rejected the Special Counsels terms for an interview. Quote, President Trumps lawyers countered on wednesday with an offer that suggested a narrow
path for answering questions people familiar with the matter said. Joining me on the phone, one of the reporters on that byline. Michael schmidt of the New York Times. Also Kristen Welker. And senior fellow and Govens Studings at the brookings institution, ben whitis, an msnbc legal analyst and editor and chief of lawfare. Michael schmidt, lets start with you. I want to read a portion from your article. By making another counterproposal after months of promises they were weeks away from deciding about an interview, mr. Trumps lawyers run the risk that mr. Mueller could conclude they are negotiating in bad faith to prolong the investigation. In a meeting with mr. Trumps lawyers this year, mr. Mueller threatened to subpoena the president if he did not sit for a voluntary interview. Could you argue, michael, that Rudy Giuliani and the president s lawyers are playing a game of chicken with mr. Muellers team . Well, there is a calculation among some folks in trumps world that mueller will not want to subpoena the president , that he will be afraid of losing in court, and if he loses there then he hurts of credibility of the investigation. So they think that they can sort of try to narrow the questions for a voluntary interview and mueller will eventually sort of give in and say, okay, i need an interview with the president to complete this investigation. I will go forward about that. The problem is that Law Enforcement officials who worked with mueller and legal experts say they find it hard to believe that mueller will not do everything he can to try and get the president to answer questions, including taking the risk and going to court, if necessary, to get the president to talk. When they talk about a narrower scope, what exactly do they want, michael . Well, the president s lawyers have gone back and forth about this, but they want as many of these questions to be in writing as possible. They want the president to
not have to answer that many oerlly. If there is a concern about what the president would say, that he would veer off the path. So thats one of the big issues. The other one is that they dont want the president to have to answer a lot of the obstruction questions. The problem is, is that so many of the questions mueller wants to ask the president are about obstruction, about his relationship with james comey, about the actions he took, was he trying to impede the russia investigation. That is much more the focus of the questions than cloouollusio regards to ties to russia. There is not as much in that bucket as there is about questions about the president s conduct. And questions about the Trump Tower Meeting and Donald Trumps role in drafting that statement for his son don jr. . Correct. They want to ask him why was it that the white