Underway tonight. And good evening, once again from our nbc news headquarter here in new york. Day 763 of the Trump Administration and we begin tonight with the fallout on virtually all the members of Donald Trumps circle of friends, family, employees, advisors, roger stone was in federal court today facing a federal judge and the roger stone roger stone on display tonight, sorrowful, had no resemblance to the man who made his bones on the side of politics. He appeared to be a very different man today. Thats because he was forced to answer for this. He posted this graphic with accompanying inflammatory language on social media a few days ago. And any graphic featuring a photo of the federal judge hearing your case with a gun sight style cross hair depiction in the upper lefthand corner is going to draw the attention of the court. The judge today didnt give roger stone what he deserved, she did what was prudent. In a surprise move, he took the stand. There wasnt supposed to be testimony at todays hearing but he got up and apologized for what he did and violating the gag order saying, i believe i abused the order for which i am heartfully sorry. I am kicking myself over my own stupidity. I believe the lapse of judge was the outgrowth of the extreme stress of the situation. Im being treated for emotional stress. Im having trouble putting food on the table and paying the rent. Stone testified he did not select the image on the posting but he did take responsibility. Judge jackson then quizzed him about the photo and the images that he posted and who might have up loaded it to his social media account if not him. She also asked him if he or his employees knew how to do a Google Search and she added, how hard was it to come up with a photograph that didnt have crosshairs in the corner . Stone replied i didnt recognize it as crosshairs. I didnt even notice it until it was brought to my attention by a reporter. The judge eventually told stone she found his explanations, quote, not credible and then tightened the gag order he was already under saying, quote, the defendant may not speak publicly about the investigation or the case or any of the participates in the investigation or the case. No statements about the case during interviews on tv, on the radio, with print reporters, or on internetbased media. No press releases or press conferences, no posts on facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat or any other form of social media. Today i give you a second chance. But this is not baseball. There will not be a third chance. Stone has been free on bail since his arrest last month after the raid on his home. Seven counts. Today he could have lost his freedom. Some veteran stone watchers said today we might be witnessing a turning point for this man. Roger stones worlds are colliding right now. He was living in the political world. He didnt understand that there would come a time when he would be sitting in front of a federal judge who would be grilling him. In the political world people say thats bad you shouldnt do that. But theres not a set of established penalties that exist dealing with a federal judge is not the same thing as dealing with a candidate youre running against. Its always do what you can and what you can get away with until you get caught. He doesnt care. And hes the ultimately dirt bag. Donald trump relied on his Close Friends services in the early days of his campaign but earlier this month, trump tried to distance himself from his friend of 40 years. Roger stone didnt work on the campaign except way, way at the beginning, long before were talking about. Roger and somebody that ive always liked. Some people probably dont like roger. Roger is a character. The problem is that Netflix Documentary called get me roger stone shows just how long roger stone and his onetime partner have been focused on the goal of getting donald trump into the white house. In 1987, i suggested that trump should explore a bid for the presidency. I was like a jockey looking for a horse. You cant win the race if you dont have a horse and hes a prime piece of political horse flesh. Roger saw the value of the outsider image. He saw the value of somebody who brought business experience to the political process. He saw somebody that nobody else saw. Once he had conversations with trump about that, trump started to take sha seriously. That gentleman right there, former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort now a convicted felony learned hell be sentenced march 8 in virginia for his convictions in just that jurisdiction for bank and tax fraud. He also awaits his other sentencing date, march 13, in a separate mueller case in washington where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Hes also been hit with additional charges of lying to federal prosecutors and a grand jury during his cooperation sessions. Mueller is expected to file a sentencing memo in that case in the manafort case tomorrow. So in effect we will know how harsh a sentence prosecutors are looking for. And former trump Attorney Michael Cohen has added more congressional testimony to his schedule. He turned up in washington today. Tuesday hell have a closed door session with the Senate Intelligence committee. Thats in addition to his public appearance wednesday before House Oversight and then a private session with the House Intel Committee on thursday. Let us bring in our leadoff panel for another busy thursday night. A courtroom veteran who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times, and Senior Legal Affairs contributor for politico who was inside the courtroom for todays proceedings. And, josh, thats where id like to begin. What was it like, what was he like . Well, it was a moment of high courtroom drama when we heard that stone was going to take the stand. It wasnt something that people expected. But as you alluded to in the intro, it seems that stone doesnt do abject contrition and kind of graveling apology very well. His talents are in the realm of provocation and this was not a place to pursue that kind of a strategy. And so to see him sitting there on the witness stand questioned by his own lawyer, questioned by prosecutors, crossexamined by a prosecutor and questioned by the judge, he seemed a bit shaken by the experience. He seemed rattled at one point. He was breathing rather heavily into the microphone and he insisted as we discussed that all these apologies were genuine but the judge wasnt having much of it. She made clear pretty early on that she wasnt buying it. She said his explanations were evolving even during that hearing today. And a lot of it frankly just didnt sound particularly creditable when he said that he almost immediately realized that this was a mistake. The problem was he went onto give two days of interviews where he defended the basic thrust of his remarks and said the media was making a mountain out of a mole hill. And the judge didnt see how those things could be consistent. If you saw any cable news today, you know there was a ton of second guessing what the judge could have done, what she did because theres being a federal judge and everybody else is in the cheap seats, you saw a potential trap in todays proceedings. What was that . I think the judge handled this just right. If she had revoked his bond and put him in jail, he would have likely then argued that she had found that he had threatened her, that she could no longer fairly sit on this case and give him an impartial trial. He would have tried to appeal that issue and knock her out from the trial. I dont think he would have ultimately been successful. But he could have tied the case up in the appellant courts for a long time. He could have done a lot of damage to the courts credibility. So the way she handled it today, she sort of gave him the last warning. And if he violates the pretrial release conditions again, shell then be well within her rights to put him into custody pending trial and he wont be in that same posture. So i think todays outcome was just the right one even though i understand that there were people who thought she should have taken him into custody. Peter, as you well know, roger stone and his friend of four decades, donald trump, kind of live off the oxygen of Public Discourse often one sided. On top of roger stone, what must be a deathly fear of going away for many years, theres now a fear that he wont be allowed to be roger stone. Thats exactly right. Obviously a gag order is a whole lot better than a jail term right now. But for a man who said the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, he makes his living off of that, but his identity is tied up in the idea of being a his whole identity is tied up in the ability of speaking out, saying outrageous things. Now hes under a penalty that goes to the heart of who he is. So obviously hes walking out of court today. Thats a better outcome for him than being sent away to a jail cell. But this is something that is, you know, a penalty of its own for a man like roger stone. I want to put up the graphic on the screen again showing the federal judge and in the upper lefthand corner this depiction of crosshairs for folks watching monday night. I reported that our standards folks had barred it from our air waves but they thought better of that decision and thought it a little less threatening now. I want to see it because im going to read you part of what you witnessed in court today about whether or not thats crosshairs. Judge jackson talking to roger stone, why are you now saying its a celtic symbolic . Apparently he was going for it all still. Because i researched it and thats how it comes up. Judge jackson, havent you also said publicly that it was actually an acult symbolic . What does it mean . Stone i dont know your honor. Im not into the acult. It just proves to you, though, he was in it to win it, josh. Yeah. He was trying to offer up defenses even as he said his apology was unqualified and he wasnt making excuses. So he was in a very difficult spot. There was a point in which when the judge was reading her sort of verdict on him today he looked back over his shoulder at the couple of the burly federal marshals who were standing behind him who were ready to take him into custody. The judge used the phrase if you dont get the message here, i have things i can do to i think it was adjust your environment, was the term she used. So i think if he wasnt scared by what happened today, the judge was clear if anything like this happens again, hell be either looking at a jail cell or some kind of a very severe form of house arrest. Federal courtrooms have a way of focusing the mind as joyce knows well. I want to pivot a little bit into mr. Cohen previewing the hearings at least the one were going to get to see on Live Television next week. Switch sides for me and if you were hired as chief counsel for the democrats doing the questioning, how do you take a guy like that and embrace and own the fact that he lied for donald trump . You dont have to embrace him very tightly because of course if youre the chief counsel for the democrats, you never chose Michael Cohen as your witness. Donald trump chose Michael Cohen as your witness and thats how you treat him throughout the proceedings. You do have to establish his credibility and i think with cohen its fairly simple. Cohen if he lies at this point will go to jail for much longer. He will face additional charges and he will look at more time. Right now he has a manageable sentence. Theres some possibility that if he continues to cooperate, the government could come back and ask for a further reduction in that sentence. But hes still in for a rocky ride. The republicans are going to go after his credibility throughout the entire hearing. And, joyce, is there one area of questioning out there that looms out there that youre surprised no one has gone down, no one has written about, is there anything you would want to go after him on . You know, the problem with cohen is that hes such a target rich environment and the most that he has to offer is his personal interaction with the president and his ability to put the president right at center court. So far theres been a lot of evidence thats become public that people are still asking questions like what did the president know and when did he know it . Was the president involved personally in these negotiations with russia . Michael cohen is probably the man who can answer a lot of those questions and it will be very interesting to see if he does that when he testifies on the hill. And peter back to your beat on pennsylvania avenue. Its very possible, we have split screen coverage next week of one donald trump in vietnam with the dictator of north korea and his longtime personal Family Company lawyer in washington, d. C. , that has to be at very minimum a distraction for the traveling white house . Yeah, absolutely. Its a big deal when a president goes overseas to meet with a foreign leader, particularly one like north korea. No president had met with any north korean dictator until donald trump came along. To have this split screen story going on, is rather extraordinary. Not novel in this particular administration. I was on the plane with him when he left for saudi arabia amid reports that he had just met with the russian minister after firing jim comey. He said that releases the pressure on me and another report that Jared Kushner might or might not be under scrutiny. Another time when he was meeting with the queen, it was the moment when Rod Rosenstein came out and announced the indictment of russian agents who interfered in the election. So hes seen this before and its a distraction because of course it focuses attention away from the very important and serious issues that hes going to be confronting when he gets to hanoi. A great thanks to our initial three guests tonight. Thank you all very much. And coming up for us, with this heightened anticipation surrounding a Mueller Report, sooner rather than later, if these stories are to be believed, Congress Wants their say as well. And later the president about to leave the country as we said during what promises to be an unusually eventful week even by these standards. As we are fond of asking, what could go wrong . The 11th hour just Getting Started on this particular thursday evening. At booking. Com, we cant guarantee youll find gold on your wild west vacation. But we can guarantee the best price on that thar rental cabin or any hotel, home, boat, yurt, whatever. Just dont get carried away with the wild west thing. Hey guys. Get the best price on homes, hotels and so much more. Booking. Com, booking. Yeah when you retire will you or will you just be you, without the constraints of a full time job . You can grow your Retirement Savings with pacific life and create the future thats most meaningful to you. Which means you can retire, without retiring from life. Having the flexibility to retire on your terms. Thats the power of pacific. Ask your financial professional about pacific life today. Welcome back and as weve reported, several sources, government official, among them, have told nbc news that Robert Muellers work is nearly done and hell likely submit a report to the attorney general, bill barr, in the next week or so. From there, barr would presumably review the report, decide what information might become public. Earlier today trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told usa today its been weeks since the mueller team has contacted the attorney. We expect something in the next two weeks. He said the legal team has been preparing a report of their own. If mueller clears the president , we walk away and say thank you. If its damaging, then we will respond. Also today former acting u. S. Solicitor general who was our chief lawyer before the Supreme Court and who at the department of justice helped draft the original special counsel rules of the road wrote an oped in the New York Times about what we might expect from muellers report. He writes this, quote, the report is unlikely to be a dictionary thick tome which will disappoint some observers but such brevity is not necessarily good news for the president. In fact quite the opposite. A concise Mueller Report might act as a road map to investigation for the Democratic House of representatives and it might also lead to further criminal investigation by other prosecutors. A short Mueller Report would mark the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end. For more with us tonight, White House Reporter for the associated press, former federal prosecutor and alumny of the clinton administration. Welcome to you both. Jill, is the white house near ready for this report to come out and as you guys say, if im allowed a followup, how could they be . The white house is certainly ready for the Mueller Investigation to be over. This has been a cloud that has been hanging over the president s head since the day he took office. He has been very eager for this to all be over. The question of course is whether even if after mueller submits his report whether it actually will be over as neil argued in that New York Times oped. Even if this is a very brief, very short piece of summary that winds up being released to the American Public after mueller submits his report to the attorney general and if the attorney general decides to release some of it publicly, theres still so many tentacle of this investigation that could continue, various investigations into different courts by different governments that could continue on long after the Mueller Report is over. That said, the white house has been very carefu