Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Washington post also reports tonight the white house is preparing an Executive Order that authorizes the president to punish foreign interference in u. S. Elections. The post writes, quote, the eightpage draft order appears to be an effort to stave off aggressive legislation, including a bill introduced in congress this month and to quell criticism that trump seems to give more credence to russian president Vladimir Putins denials of interference than to u. S. Intelligence agencies conclusion to the kremlin sought to undermine the 2016 election. That comes to us as Florida Democratic senator bill nelson, whose running in a tough reelection fight, tells the tampa bay times, quote, russian operatives have penetrated some of floridas Election Systems ahead of the 2018 mid terms. He said any further information is classified. Today the white house actually did impose new sanctions on
russia, but not for election meddling. The administration is penalizing the kremlin for using chemical weapons against an exspy and his daughter in the uk, a decision that congress had to push the white house to make. Meanwhile, republican senator rand paul is in moscow this week, of all place, apparently on his own summer Outreach Mission to the kremlin. The senator had been one of the few open defenders on capitol hill of President Trumps overtures to vladimir putin, the only defender at times. Today he wrote this about his visit. Quote, i was honored to deliver a letter from President Trump to president Vladimir Putins administration. The letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas, including countering terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue, and resuming cultural exchanges. Putin was not in moscow to meet with the senator personally, were told. The white house was quick to respond that the letter was written at senator pauls request. On that, lets bring in our leadoff panel on a wednesday night. Jonathan lemire for the Associated Press. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the washington post, and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. And barbara mcquade, former u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of michigan. Good evening and welcome to you all. Robert costa, id like to begin with you with the proviso, the reminder to everybody watching we are seeing exactly one side of these negotiations over a sitdown meeting between the president and mueller. The mueller team doesnt talk. And as far as we know, they dont leak. So robert, is this all kind of a tv game show were watching . Is any of this truly serious or binding . And will you believe any of it until it happens . Your healthy skepticism is right on, brian, because ive been talking to mayor giuliani in recent days and keep urging him, wed like to see this letter, the response youve given to bob mueller and his investigators. But the president s lawyers will not release the lawyers who are relying on their accounts. Department of justice in the code there that mueller is certainly a buy the book prosecutor, and we believe that they believe that they would not for that. Perhaps its perjury. Everyone, as i reported before, people around the president just feel that he is walking into a Land Mine Situation if he goes in there, that he is so undisciplined when he speaks, and that he sometimes will try to say things to win over the room and to curry favor with these investigators. Hes going to walk in there and some some mistruths or say things that arent right or be selective in what he says and therefore as giuliani says, walk himself into perjury. The president , though, to this point is publicly saying he still wants to do this. I think the long their goes on, the more that giuliani and the legal team moves the goalpost sort of making it almost impossible for mueller to finally to agree to this. As much as the Special Counsel does want this interview. As bob just said that. Need to be able to identify. They need to figure out the intent what was behind the president , the actions when he moved whether it was comey or flynn and so on. But at some point theyre going to have to make a decision, if he is not going to sit down, then we have to think about the subpoena. I think at this point, giuliani and others, theyre trying to run out the clock here. They know that mueller is trying not to wade into the mid terms. That if he doesnt do it then, he tables it as of labor day and revisits in november or december, even though, of course, we did see jim comey open up a federal investigation that absolutely mattered to an election just about ten days before voters went to the ballot box. More on that in a moment. Barb, i watched giuliani on fox tonight. At a certain point, giuliani stopped talking about this. He kind of referred to deferred to jay sekulow. A, it is possible one of the feds said your side should really stop talking about these negotiations . And, b, what are the feds likely to make of all this public sharing of letters and demands and no questions on obstruction and the like . Well, ordinarily, the Department Of Justice doesnt want to silence people who want to talk. They have First Amendment rights to do that. So im sure they dont like it. They probably arent happy with it. It may not even be accurate. But theyre probably not going to do anything about it if giuliani and sekulow want to continue to talk about it. I dont think it advances their position in negotiating by talking about it in the public sphere. But i dont think that the Justice Department is going to order them to stop in any way. But youre right that the affect of it all is we get this very onesided narrative. We dent even know whether its true. They made representations about their letter. We havent seen the letter and certainly were not hearing from Robert Mueller. So we dont know what it says. But i do get the sense that theyre slowwalking this. Theyre trying get themselves as close to september as possible. Say were negotiating, were still keeping the door open because they know that as that election approaches, its less likely that Robert Mueller would serve that subpoena and launch whats likely to be some very explosive litigation. Also, barb, what is rudy talking about when he says this investigation will violate doj rules if it goes past september 1 . Well, he is conflating some things here. I dont know whether its intentional or not, but there are sometimes something referred to as a 60day rule before an election, there is usually a cooling off period. The language of the rule really is very broad. It just says prosecutors shouldnt do anything to influence the outcome of an election. And what you do or dont do really depends on the facts of the case. But many people have interpreted that to be sort of a 60day rule that says when you get 60 days out of an election, you probably should cool off and not file anything publicly. So with the elections in november, that would be about labor day. So i think there have been many suggesting that Robert Mueller would be unlikely to serve a subpoena then. But to suggest the investigation needs to be over by then is a very different thing. Even if he does go into a cooling off period, which he may or may not do with trump on the ballot, nothing says he has to be done by that point. No one expects mueller to do anything incautious, a. And b, one of the hardened cynics in our business proffered this theory tonight, and that is that by saying september 1, by getting that out into the bloodstream, rudy, who is a member of this team that says nothing really by accident. Usually its back referenced, may be getting into the public consciousness what he sees as a win if and about when mueller suspends for election season, they can say its been properly this investigation been paused, and thats a victory for us. Thats right, brian. Talking to mayor giuliani, you see him preparing right now pour the subpoena, fight that subpoena threat, goes all the way become to march when mueller
made it in a private exchange with then trump attorney john dowd. The Republican Party is on edge, especially after tuesdays primaries in ohio and elsewhere about the midterm elections. They dont want to have the Mueller Report hanging over their heads. In my conversations with republican lawmakers on capitol hill, theyre telling the white house, theyre telling trump allies, theyre telling giuliani and the president , anything you can to get russia off of our plate, wed appreciate it. And they know they have to take a tough line and sanctions. The party is more hawkish than the president of russia, but they want this Mueller Report to be not hanging out there as a variable. And so thats why in part this is a political strategy for giuliani as much as a legal strategy. Jonathan lemire, i want to read you the quote, two very
young promising writers a the Associated Press have worked together on this piece. Oh, look, its you and your coauthor. Trump has seethed to confidantes that he views the manafort charges as a warning shot from mueller. He has told those close to him that as he watches the courtroom proceedings, he fears that donald trump jr. Could at some point be the one on trial, left out all the careful sourcing that you were careful to put in this. Youre just back from bedminster, new jersey. How is the president enjoying his vacation . We havent seen too much of him on the vacation. Exactly the way they planned it. Thats right. He did have a dinner with Business Leader last night. We saw the first few minutes of it. But largely he has been laying
low. The white house hasnt been speaking out who he has been reading with and golfing with. We know over the last ten days or so, we have seen reflected in his tweets, as well as these private conversations how upset he has been watching the manafort trial day after day. Its the cable coverage, its in his face. Its mostly you, inescapable every day that he sees it there. And that he as hes told people around him, he feels that sort of muellers opening act. Even though this trial is not about russia, but he feels muellers hand is involved, Obviously Manafort was a prominent part of his campaign and its a sense of what could still be to come. Even though he doesnt believe his son did anything wrong, but he suggests that a, he inadvertently broke the law, perhaps, or b, he is simply the victim of a witchhunt. Stop me if youve heard that before from the president. And in this case, he feels that that could be next. And that is something that even though publicly he is suggesting im not worried about don jr. , privately he is. Don jr. Himself also very much taking this brash approach, moving for ward. He has become a very popular surrogate among republicans for the midterm elections crisscrossing the country. So he is not letting this slow him down. Big thanks to our big three on a wednesday night in august. Jonathan lemire, robert costa, barbara quaid. Thank you. Coming up, he went big for trump early, arrested and charged by a Trump Appointee at the Justice Department for something he might have been photographed doing at the white house on the lawn. And later, the president says hes five for five. Others in his own party, however, are scoring the situation a bit differently with the midterms 90 days away. The 11th hour just Getting Started on wednesday night. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. The white house lawn june 2017. Indeed, he is visible in picture theres from that day. Pictures that appear to show him on his phone at times. Its alleged that during the event, he received an email from the ceo of the company informing him of bad news that a key drug trial had failed. Collins was on the board of the company. But armed with that insider information, the feds say he immediately called his son. The indictment says collins son cameron sold a large block of stock and tipped off others, including his fiancees father, who is also facing charges of Insider Trading. The feds allege they avoided in all more than 700,000 in losses by dumping the stock when they did. U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, a Trump Appointee, by the way, said someone who helps write the laws
of this land act as if they didnt apply to him. Congressman collins cheated our markets and our justice system. These charges are a reminder that this is a nation of laws. And that everybody stands equal before the bar of justice. All three men, including the congressman pleaded not guilty in manhattan federal court. Earlier tonight in buffalo, collins said he is looking forward to clear his name. The charges that have been levied against me are meritless, and i will mount a vigorous defense in court to clear my name. I look forward to being fully vindicated and exonerated, ending any and all questions relating to my affiliation with an aide. Congressman says he is not only staying in his seat, his name will be on the ballot as he is running for reelection in november. Meanwhile, House Speaker paul ryan has stripped collins of his post on energy and commerce pending an investigation into the accusations. With us tonight to talk about it, daniel goldman, former assistant u. S. Attorney for, wait for it, the Southern District of new york, who prosecuted an Insider Trading case just last year. And Shane Goalmacher is back with us. Welcome to you both. Shane, i dont want this to become an episode of billion, but we have upstate political players and power bosses and we
have the aforementioned Southern District of new york. Talk about this seat. How safe was it for collins . What was his position in the new york delegation . And what would it take for those political bosses to say, you know what . This seat is too valuable. We need you to step aside. Well, his position in the new york delegation shifted dramatically the day he endorsed donald trump. He was the first member of congress to do that, because after that he became a Senior Member when trump became president because suddenly he had entree to the white house. The president was calling him on the phone. He became an important member of the delegation. He wasnt before. He was a back bench member. And he represents the Trumpiest Seat in new york. Donald trump won almost 60 there, more than any other seat in the state. This is seen as a safe republican seat, except candidates running under
indictment are almost never actually safe. Counselor, correct me if im wrong, other when there is an Earnings Call and a stock takes a tumble, or skyrockets up, when there is an event that cause as stock to tumble or soar, doesnt the s. E. C. , Dont The Feds kind of rewind the tapes two, three days and look for any large blocks of stock, any Significant Movement of stock . And youve got guys like this member of congress. Dont they understand people are watching and listening . Well, it is interesting. Finra, which is the sort of Nonprofit Arm funded by congress has algorithms that goes back and looks at all of these things. And thats where a lot of these investigations begin. But, you know, it was a small, small stock generally speaking. It was 50 cents when this occurred, or when this information was relayed to him. It was very difficult to trade in the united states. It was only over the counter. It was not on a Larger Exchange because its an australian stock. So i think it was it seems, if you can put yourself in his
mindset, it was almost instinctive, like i got this information, i got to tell my son. I cant sell my shares, which is laid out in the indictment as to why he cant, including the fact that his shares were in australia and there was a moratorium on trading them. So im just going to tell my son. And then his son took it and told everybody else. But this guy was on the board of this company. He has a fiduciary duty to maintain the confidentiality of what is clearly inside information. And for someone in elected office to completely abdicate that responsibility and pass along information that he unquestionably knew he should not be doing is a blatant violation of the law. By the way, 50 cents a share. Were talking about a lot of stock, if they were stemming losses potentially close to 3 4 of a Million Dollars . Yeah. The stock went down 92 after this was made pu