Of law to a new level. And true blue. Could a progressive wave in the primaries sweep away democrats chances of taking the house come november. This is mtp daily, and it starts right now. Good evening, welcome to mtp daily. Where we are following the drip drip drip of the trump russia saga 18 months after election day. Right now we are seeing a steady stream of developments on two fronts. We are learning more about meetings between Trump Campaign members and foreign actors. And we are witnessing the Current Trump administration and legal team go further and further to discredit and stymy that investigation. Yesterday President Trump tweeted that he will demand that the Just Department quote look into whether or not the fbi d. O. J. Infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for political purposes. This is a reaction to a New York Times report that an informant talked to Trump Campaign officials George Papadopoulos and carter page in 2016 after the fbi received evidence that they had suspicious links to russia. Sending an informant to talk to suspects in a counterintelligence investigation would be accepted practice for the fbi. So this is quite the statement from the president. Hes issuing a specific demand for a probe into whether a logical step in an investigation was done for political purposes, which itself is inherently an investigation done for political purposes. President trump met with Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein and fbi director chris stover wray this afternoon amid this unorthodox order. And the white house came out with a statement stating the department of justice has asked the Inspector General to. To rely highly classified and other information they have requested. Is that the president getting his way . We are going to see. While the president attacks the procedure of the investigation, his top defense lawyer may be trying to box it in. Rudy giuliani told nbc news yesterday that special Counsel Robert Mueller told him that the obstruction investigation into President Trump could be done by september 1st. However, a source familiar with the Mueller Investigation told reuters that deadline is, quote, entirely made up in an evident to pressure the special counsel to wrap up his work. Amid the ramping up of the Trump Defense strategy we are also learning about new meetings involving members of the Trump Campaign and foreign actors. The New York Times reported this weekend that three months before the election donald trump you jr. Met with an Israeli Social media manipulation specialist, an emissary for two wealthy princes from saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. And the republican donor eric opinions, former head of black water. Thetimes reports the meeting with as to offer help to the trump team in their final push to election day. A source told them the president s son, don jr. Responded approvingly embracing the emissary from the arab princes as a close ally. Trump yurs lawyer says his client was not interested in the pitch and that was the end of it. Alone with the infamous russian adoption meeting this is the second known meeting of foreign interests offering donald trump jr. Assistance in winning the election at trump tower. Guys, we are witnessing a steady drip, drip, drip in both the investigation and the white houses moves to clamp down on the investigation. The more and more drips into these buckets, the closer we are going to get to one of them overflowing. And when that happens, it just may consume everything in its path. Joining me now is ben with ittis, editor in chief of law fair and an msnbc legal analyst. Ben, it is great to see you. Good to see you. What do you make today of the president meeting with Rod Rosenstein . I had Allen Dershowitz on earlier today he usually is a big defender of the president is his actions. Even said that this is a meeting that the president probably shouldnt have without his lawyer present if the president is going to go off script and talk about anything other than what it was initially said the meeting was going to talk about, what was not this investigation. So im i mean i found disturbing the president s the white houses statement after the meeting in which, you know, on the one hand, the president does seem to have backed down from his threats yesterday by tweet to demand an investigation. And Rod Rosenstein and chris wray appear to have persuaded him what they did yesterday which was to refer to matter to the department of justice Inspector General. On the other hand, however, the president does seem to have gotten in that second half of that statement the Deputy Attorney general and the head of the fbi to agree to, under certain controlled circumstances share those highly sensitive materials that they have been balking at sharing with congressional leaders. And i you know, i have got to say i think thats pretty disturbing. I want to point out that that second part of the statement thats what stood out for me, too. It was also agreed that white house chief of staff kelly will meetly ed set up a meeting with the fbi d. O. J. To review high heely classify information and what was requested. Right now there is a fight over what the d. O. J. And fbi will hand over to congressional leaders. Part of that was who the informant was this the Trump Campaign. The Trump Campaign calls him a spy, the fbi calls him more of an informant or a source. The identity of that person is something the fbi does not want revealed because it could set off a slew of other problems with other sources going forward. When you have them meeting with congressional leaders, is that i mean, are we interesting a scenario where that name is going to be coming out shortly . Leaked shortly . Look, the name has, you know, ostensibly already come out. I think the Justice Department does not want to release information about the individual. And i think the principle that you dont give up information about you know, highly Sensitive Information about people who have cooperated with federal investigations and federal intelligence activities is a very important one for the depu department to protect. And it is not the sort of material that the hill normally demands. Except of course when congress is trying to discredit an existing federal investigation, as it is here. And the fact that the president is assisting congress in doing that for his own political benefit, because of course the investigation is an investigation of him, is extremely disturbing. What about the other news that has come out over the weekend that donald trump jr. Also had a meeting with more representatives of foreign governments, not just that russia meeting that he had in june but a meeting in august with representatives or people purporting to be representatives from saudi arabia and the united arab emirates, including erik prince . Do you think this could be a distraction to try to take the focus away from this story . Well, i think the first of all, the question of maybe we should make a list of the foreign governments that did not approach donald trump jr. And offer help in the election because the list is getting shorter and shorter. I dont know what to make of that story. It appears to be it appears that the Mueller Investigation is at least asking questions about you know that meeting and those activities. Its not clear what came of any of that stuff. And so i think we are just going to have to see on that. As the investigation progresses. Ben with ettis thank you for joining us. Do you have an indication there was this meeting between don jr. And erik prince and george mader and other officials purports to be from foreign governments offering help to the Trump Campaign . No, katy, but it certainly was asked of these individuals. If you go back and read erik princes transcript you saw that a number of times he was asked whether he met with donald trump jr. Or others with the Trump Campaign. And so if this New York Times story is true, and if the nader story is true, it looks like he wasnt truthful with congress. And we were not helpless in our investigation. We have subpoena power where we could have confronted these witnesses with evidence that we subpoenaed. And my republicans colleagues were unwilling at every single request to use that. Now our insurance policy for accountability rests with bob mueller and we hope that his investigation can proceed uninhibited. Here is what erik prince said. We have the transcript from it. Congressman tom rooney asked aside from writing these Foreign Policy papers. Prince said a yard sign in my yard. You say prince was misrepresenting himself there . I also asked him whether he had spoken with donald trump jr. And he said just at a Campaign Event and during the transition. If this is true, then he had lied to congress. We showed no willingness to follow up on these people. Our investigation took these people at their word. Thats not how you conduct yourselves when people are so willing to lie through their teeth. Its not just the emissary for two wealthy princes who offered to help with Donald Trumps campaign. Its also an israeli expert in social media who offed a social Media Campaign where they could manipulate peoples voting preferences. It sounds a little bit like the or a lot like the Cambridge Analytic effort that is under such scrutiny right now. What do you make of i mean, is this the thing that happens when you are running a president ial campaign . Do foreign governments, do foreign nationals come up and offer to help you . No. No. Any campaign before this, republicans and democrats have always said these elections belong to us. And this is what is so unusual are the number of foreign nationals who were reaching out to the Trump Campaign. Katy, when i take a step back and ask, how did this happen . I think part of what was going on here is that the candidate him was inviting russia to attack. And other countries started to see, well this guy, hes open to doing business with anyone. Hes transactional, he is gullible. Maybe we can get our interests before him. So he is almost inviting them to come and make these different approaches. I have legislation katy that we are introducing this week that would put a duty to report on any federal candidate, their family, and their Campaign Aides if they are approached with unslis i itted information from an agent of a foreign power so that we never see this happen again. George nader was one of the people at that meeting. Have you had a chance to question him in the Intel Committee . Its so frustrating. We have asked the republicans to reopen this investigation and bring forward people like george nader who we learned about once they decided to close the investigation. And of course no, they have shown no interested in doing that. Thats why it was so irresponsible and so premature for us to enthis investigation because in addition to george nader what we have learned more and more about Cambridge Analytic and all of the contacts, the shadowy operations that Michael Cohen was running we never should have closed that investigation. The New York Times says done jr. Was open to the information or seemed to respond positively to the offer of help from the two arab countries and this israeli offering that social Media Campaign. But donald trump jr. s lawyer has said that nothing came out of this and he did not accept anything. Its kind of similar to what we heard from the russia meeting with the lawyer natalia veselnitskaya, that nothing came of that meeting, she had nothing. Is that the legal line here, that nothing came of it . They didnt use anything, so its okay . The Trump Campaign showed a willingness and eagerness to receive it. Where we should have explored further his communications we could have subpoenaed those logs, his travel logs we know he went to paris weeks before election day. We dont know who he met with. Same thing with Michael Cohen. I dont understand why the president s son and his lawyer are over in europe just weeks before election day and we could have subpoenaed their travel records, their hotel logs, their flight manifests to figure out who they were meeting with, why they were abroad right before the election. Bob mueller, i hope he and his team will find this if we allow them to do it. Talking about the president and the tweet that he is going to hereby demand d. O. J. Investigate this informant, this spy, he says, in the Trump Campaign. And thats apparently going to happen because the white house and d. O. J. And the fbi have come to a deal to look further into it with the ig. You said this is obstruction in broad daylight. If that is the case, if it is obstruction in broad daylight, what are the consequences . It is, katy. He is governing the wrong country. Hes obstructing an investigation into his campaign where he is potentially a suspect. The consequences of course are removal from office. We are not helpless here. What we should do is make sure that our House Intelligence Committee fully investigates what happened with the russians and now any other country that sought to help him. And also the house judiciary committee, the other committee i sit on should be able to look into not just his conduct here but other concerning and alarming conduct like cashing in on the oval office and the transactions he is doing with the chinese. Where he is taking loans on his properties and then giving away jobs for american workers. So we are not helpless. Its going to take courage, though, from republicans and democrats to hold him accountable. I dont think that price is going to be paid until november. On this informant, when did you first learn about the person . What is it before the Washington Post story on may 8th . I cant say because that goes to classified information i was briefed on. Sorry. Congressman Eric Swalwell thank you very much. My pleasure. Another primary day tomorrow. Democrats might take a hard left turn towards more liberal candidates. What could that mean for the potential blue wave in november . This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you sure. Mom,whats up son . Alk . I cant be your it guy anymore. What . You guys have xfinity. You can do this. Whats a good wifi password, mom . You still have to visit us. I will. No. Make that the password you stillohave toovisit us. Thats a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. One more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. But mania, such as unusualrder can changes in your mood,able. Activity or energy levels, can leave you on shaky ground. Help take control by asking about your treatment options. Vraylar is approved for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes of bipolar i disorder in adults. Clinical studies showed that vraylar reduced overall manic symptoms. Vraylar should not be used in elderly patients with dementia due to increased risk of death or stroke. Call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, or confusion, which may mean a lifethreatening reaction, or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be permanent. Side effects may not appear for several weeks. High cholesterol and weight gain; high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death; decreased white blood cells, which can be fatal; dizziness upon standing; falls; seizures; impaired judgment; heat sensitivity; and trouble swallowing may occur. Youre more than just your bipolar i. Ask your doctor about vraylar. Welcome back. Lets go to tonights panel. Zerlina maxwell. Susan del percio, republican strat diss. And death fouhy. There is some sort of dinging and it is driving me crazy. If you hear a dinging at home, we apologize. Lets talk about politics. The president , his son is now meeting with another representative of a wealthy arab country. This is not russia. When you saw this story come down, beth, what was your Immediate Reaction . My Immediate Reaction is don jr. Is willing to meet with just about ib in. It is all a means to an end for the trump people. Certainly is for his father. Why to the for don jr. Who is essentially running the campaign at this point. He met with the russian lawyer who said they had dirt on hillary clinton. And now he is meeting with with characters who run a social media manipulation company. Why is he willing to entertain time and space in this campaign for people how are foreign actors who have no business sitting with the campaign the son of the president ial candidate