Reported today. But i want to start with something that came out in midmay. Time magazine published a big story about one prong of the russian attack on the u. S. Election last year. As weve been talking about that, it had three different components. First there was the straight up hacking effort by russia to try to penetrate local and state election systems all over the country. Mostly targeting Voter Registration rolls. We still dont have a clear sense of why they did that, what they did with the access that they gained through that attack. What they were trying to do, whether that might have been laying the groundwork for something in the future. Ill say just personally, i find it mildly distressing that under rt Trump Administration, the department of Homeland Security doesnt seem interested in investigating what the consequences were of that hacking attack and whether u. S. Election systems might be compromised in a way because of that attack that we may not learn about until that effect is sort of actuated sometime in the future. But that pure hacking effort going after state and local elections software, and elections infrastructure, that was the first part of the russian attack. Second prong of the attack was their attack on political institutions. Specifically the Democratic National committee, the clinton campaign. This is where Russian Hackers stole information off of american servers, and unlike a normal spying operation, where the russians would, you know, keep those documents, keep those secrets for themselves, so the russian government could use that information to inform its own actions, instead they took that information, they repackaged it, and then they fed it back to us, they fed it back to the American Public in a way designed to do maximum damage to one president ial candidate Hillary Clinton and maximum benefit to donald trump. That was the second prong. First was the attack on the election infrastructure, the other was stealing stuff and sending that stuff they stole back at the American Public. The third prong of their threepronged attack is what they did on social media, and in media media. The manipulation of news and online discussion of news and the interrupting and spearing of social media traffic to, again, hurt one candidate in the president ial election, Hillary Clinton, and to help their preferred candidate, donald trump. In midmay, Time Magazine did a big deep dive into that last prong of the russian attack. The social media part of it. Fascinating report. Really good article. The report was written by a very good reporter, very well written. You might remember that was the issue of Time Magazine where they put this image on the cover where the white house was slowly morphing into the kremlin. Well, deep into that story, they had this great new detail that didnt get a ton of attention you when that story came out. Looking back now, its clear he should have. He reported in mid may in Time Magazine that there had been an intelligence intercept, a u. S. Intelligence intercept that happened last spring, in may of 2016, where u. S. Intelligence overheard a conversation that took place in russia between two russian officials. And they were talking about a russian plan to, quote, cause chaos in last years president ial election. What they were talking about was a russian plan to try to hurt Hillary Clinton in the president ial election last year, by using russian assets, russian resources directed by the kremlin to manipulate the American Publics view of Hillary Clinton. By spreading damaging information about Hillary Clinton through the resources of the Russian Military intelligence service, through the gru. So that was that intelligence intercept about that conversation overheard between russian officials in may 2016, that was initially reported in may 2017, may 27th, this year, by Time Magazine. That report about that u. S. Intelligence intercept overhearing the two russian officials talking to each other, that was reupped today by gordon reporting at mcclatchy. Quote, as donald trump was locking up the president ial nomination in may 2016, a u. S. Intelligence intercept picked up russians discussing ways to spread news damaging to Hillary Clinton. Mcclatchy citing two people familiar with the matter. So that may 2016 intelligence intercept, now reported by Time Magazine and by mcclatchy, where the russians are talking about how to manipulate American News about Hillary Clinton, the importance of that is now way more recognizable than we first learned about it. Its way more recognizably important because of its timing. Right . If that discussion between those russian officials happened in may 2016, we now know what happened next. Right . In june 2016, in early june 2016, was that previously undisclosed meeting between donald trump jr. , Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, their meeting with an emissary from the russian government, a lawyer who was russian speaking who got that meeting in the trump tower, because she apparently was seen by them as the delivery agent to the Trump Campaign of official russian documents and information that would somehow incriminate Hillary Clinton and that the trump folks could use in the campaign against her. Now, since the email setting up that meeting were disclosed by donald trump jr. Yesterday morning, a lot of people have noted that mr. Trump didnt seem surprised. He didnt seem taken aback at all when he was told bluntly in this email asking for this meeting that this, quote, obviously very high level and Sensitive Information is part of russia, and its Government Support for mr. Trump. We have the whole email chain, at least what donald trump jr. Said is the whole email chain. And he doesnt respond to that by saying, wait, russia and its government are supporting mr. Trump . He doesnt seem shocked. Right . He doesnt say, this is part of how russia and its government are supporting mr. Trump . What are the other parts . What are the other ways in which theyre helping, right . He doesnt react with surprise. He doesnt seem at all taken aback. To hear about this promised delivery of Hillary Clinton dirt from this emissary from the russian government, he doesnt seem surprised to hear that this is part of the russian Government Supporting his father in the election. So didnt surprise donald trump jr. , nor does this apparent involvement of the russian government in our election apparently surprise or bother Paul Manafort or Jared Kushner, it doesnt bother them enough to keep them from taking the meeting, even though they were informed about what it was. Looking back on that, for context now, we know that russian attack was well under way by that time, right . This wasnt the start of it. This was about Hillary Clinton in order to help trumps prospects in the campaign. So that discussion was in may. That meeting was in june. Since we learned about the scale and the impact of the russian attack to try to manipulate social media and the news media in this country, there has been a lot of i think there have been a lot of serious questions raised as to whether or not the russians could have pulled off that attack as well as they did, without any domestic help. Without somebody in america helping them do it most effectively. There have been serious questions raised as to whether somebody in the u. S. Might have had to help them in terms of the groups of American Voters to target, what messages were expected to work, how they might be able to dovetail their media manipulation with what the Trump Campaign was doing at that time to try to hurt Hillary Clinton on their own terms. There have been a lot of questions about that when we realized the scope of what russia did with its social media targeting, right . Mcclatchy reports today that investigators in both the House Intelligence Committee and the senate Intelligence Committee as well as investigators at the department of justice, theyre now looking at that. Theyre now looking specifically at whether or not the digital operation of the Trump Campaign itself might have been the entity that helped the russians in that part of their attack. The digital aspect of the Trump Campaign, whether its part of what helped the russians target their news media manipulation. And the stuff they did via social media. Greg gordon is one of the two mcclatchy reporters on that story today. Well talk to him live in a few minutes tonight. I should also tell you that for that story, mcclatchy spoke with a former pentagon official, an official that just left the Defense Department in january after serving there as the Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for russia. And ukraine and eurasia. That Senior Pentagon official responsible for russia now says about that part of the russia attack last year, quote, there appears to have been significant cooperation between russias online Propaganda Machine and individuals in the United States who were knowledgeable about where to target the disinformation. Again, that coming from the person who was in charge of russia at the pentagon, at the time the russian attack was happening. Were going to be speaking with that former official. That former pentagon official tomorrow night on this program for the interview. So you should cancel your thursday night plans for right now. All that is stacked up. That headline from mcclatchy today is presumably harrowing to the trump white house, trumprussia investigators investigators probe Jared Kushnerrun digital operation. Even after that, late this evening, that particular story became even worse news for the trump white house. Because later this evening, Charlie Savage from the New York Times reported on a new lawsuit that has just been filed, down to the wire, just inside the statute of limitations. Its a lawsuit filed by donors to the Democratic Party and one dnc staffer. What theyre doing is theyre suing the Trump Campaign. This is a lawsuit that is has been filed by an organization that was formed very recently by former Obama Administration lawyers, called protect democracy. Sort of watching them to see what they would do. Now they have filed this lawsuit against the Trump Campaign alleging that while it might have been russian government hackers that broke into the dnc and stole dnc information in the first place, this lawsuit alleges that it was actually the Trump Campaign that conspired to release the information back to the American Public. This is actually an invasion of privacy lawsuit. Because the personal information of those donors and dnc staffers was released to the public along with all that other stuff, and that targeted data dump of dnc stuff. Again, this lawsuit says was not just a russian operation, it was a russian operation in which the Trump Campaign conspired. So we have posted a link to the complaint that has been filed in this lawsuit in Federal District court in d. C. If only because if youve been trying to keep track of the known universe and facts and data and documents that have been produced in the trumprussia investigation so far, this lawsuit may be a whole new source of emails, texts, phone records, other primary source documents. Through this discovery process, and this lawsuit, they want to depose witnesses, they want campaign documents. Again, this is specifically looking at whether there was Trump Campaign involvement, and what has otherwise been seen as a russian operation. So and i should mention that the lawyers involved in this, the people who are suing the Trump Campaign here are freaking highfalutin highpowered people. So theres that. Think about this from the perspective of the trump white house. Think about the perspective from their lawyers, their legal team, the people who are trying to defend the president , and defend Trump Campaign people on the trumprussia affair just on that issue. Theyre now dealing with the special Counsel Robert Mueller investigation. Theyre dealing with the Senate Judiciary committee looking at possible obstruction of justice. Theyre looking at the senate Intelligence Committee and House Intelligence Committee, broadly looking at the russian attack and potential Trump Campaign collusion in that attack. In addition to that, theyre looking at what may be a very high powered offensive of the court system through the federal courts. All tied to that second prong of the russian attack, that hack of the dnc where they stole that information. And turned it back on the american people. Imagine trying to manage the defense on all of those fronts. The guy who is supposedly the captain of that team, managing the defense, is Mark Kasowitz who is the new york lawyer who had previously represented donald trump and his business interests and his divorces and stuff. Thats who trump brought on, brought to washington to run his russia defense. Mark kasowitz is not the only lawyer involved in that defense but hes supposed to be in charge of that team. Today, the New York Times reports that Mark Kasowitz is considering resigning. Propublica has published an enormous haircurling story about Mark Kasowitz today, which is part personal profile, but also part cliffhanger in terms of whether Mark Kasowitz is going to be able to continue in his role leading the trump defense. Even if he does stay on and he doesnt resign, theyre raising the question whether he can continue to effectively run this defense. We have posted this propublica story on our website tonight. Its long. Its fascinating if youre interested in this side of the story. I should tell you, though, its got a lot of disparaging personal information about mr. Kasowitz, including stuff like about his lifestyle, and even medical issues for him, its got a lot of details about, i kid you not, his behavior at Office Christmas parties. Its an unusual thing. There are some unnamed sources in the piece, but there are a lot of named sources as well, including named sources who are people close to the president. So i dont have that much appetite for like learning about the palace intrigue in terms of who likes who and whos on the outs. And whats happening among the people who work for the president on personal terms. But between this New York Times reporting that the president s top russia lawyer might resign, and this incredibly well reported litany of negative personal information that was just published in this big story of him at propublica with this very damning sourcing, thats just whether or not you care about the personalities involved here. That is starting to become a factor that we ought to Pay Attention to in terms of whether or not the president really is getting an adequate defense as this scandal gets more intense. He picked a weird defense team anyway when it comes to defending a washington scandal. But the guy in charge of it, if hes about to quit and now facing this barrage, thats a factor. And its not just the president s legal team thats starting to look a little wobbly, there are also signs of stress among very high ranking white house officials including Vice President mike pence whose spokesman today had a very hard time refusing to answer questions about mike pences own contacts with russian officials during the campaign. We will be talking about that a little later on today. As for Jared Kushner, the only currently serving white house official who was at that june meeting last year with the russian lawyer at trump tower, Jared Kushner is facing pointed questio