One serving diplomat, currently in the government, who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was quote at an fg loss. He didnt say fg. Quote, its beyond disgraceful, its fundamentally ignorant with regard to how we conduct diplomacy or what that means, by failing to reject the idea out of hand immediately and forcefully, trump signaled that absolutely nothing is offlimits when it comes to putin. This is a currently serving u. S. Official, saying about this threat, basically, that the white house is now making they might hand over mike mcfaul to russia, saying quote the president has first and foremost his interests, his interests at the top of his mind opposed to the governments. That is very clear over the past week and a half between week and a half between bleeping a word that starts with sh, bleeping on our nato allies and kissing putins butt but he didnt say butt. This is a serving u. S. Diplomat. He cares more about himself and the nation and any of us who serve it. He continued either hes compromised by putin or hes a word that starts with the p, in which case he should grab himself. This is a serving u. S. Official, a current u. S. Official who just said that tonight. And theres more from americas former ambassador to afghanistan who is now president of the American Academy of diplomacy. If it the u. S. Would make a former diplomat available for questioning by a Foreign Government without evidence of wrongdoing, that would be quite horrifying. Susan rice, former National Security adviser calls it beyond outrageous. If the white house cannot protect and defend our diplomats like our service members, they are serving a hostile foreign power and not the American People. Former chief of staff at the state department saying the white house refusing to disavow putin on mcfaul, refusing to stand up to putin on mcfaul crosses a line for american diplomats from demoralizing to dangerous. Literally, what the white house said today in response to a question about this russian demand that the u. S. Government hand Michael Mcfaul over to putin, what the house said in response to that is quote the president will meet with his team and let you know when we have an announcement on that. Theyre talking it over. The president is meeting with his team because they need to do some thinking, cogitating, they need to do a little chat chat over whether or not were going to hand over an American Ambassador to putin so putin can do whatever he wants to. Might do it. Theyve got to talk about it. Putin asked. Not like well just say no, right . This is unbelievable. To the extent that this seems like a marginal new development, in a worrying week, this is not that. This is a qualitatively different thing. We have these abstract ideas and ideals about patriotism and not betraying your country. We have a sort of ominous but maybe vague worry about what it might mean for us as individual american citizens if theres somebody in power in our government who is subordinate to a hostile Foreign Government. It sounds very ominous and very bad. Whats the real concrete nuts and bolts threat to any one of us . What could that really mean in our daily lives . It could mean people you know, americans you know are handed over to foreign dictators when those dictators ask, not because that american has done anything wrong, not because theres any real allegations against him or her but because that foreign dictator doesnt like that american, wants him or her eliminated. And they hold sway over somebody in power in this country he can order to do what he wants and so an american gets handed over. Thats what it could mean. Yes, this president could be trying to dissolve nato. He could be trying to tear apart the European Union and all of americas most Important International alliances. Yes, he can continue to do his best to attack and weaken american Law Enforcement and american intelligence. Among other things, russia can keep running what ever operations they want to keep running over here. Weve been watching all these things russia wants this president has been working diligently to get done. Another one of the things he could start doing is handing over to putin american whos putin wants dead. The president , the white house says as of today the president is meeting with his team about that. Talking it over, thinking about it. We will have the man in question, ambassador Michael Mcfaul here to respond in just a moment tonight. Today in washington, there was one expected but rather Ominous Development in one of the criminal cases brought in the russia scandal. In another one of those cases there were a few surprises, starting with the expected but ominous category, that was this order today from the federal judge in d. C. Hearing one of the two felony cases that concerns Paul Manafort, the campaign chair. Today the judge in d. C. Denied Paul Manaforts latest motion in which he was trying to deny prosecutors the right to use evidence that they had seized from him with a search warrant. If that sounds familiar, its because Paul Manafort keeps losing motions like this over and over again in both jurisdictions hes being tried. In fact, i think this gets us pretty close to the end of the road in terms of manaforts attempted defense thus far. With the exception of a few motions very early on after he was initially arraigned where his lawyers did succeed in briefly loosening the conditions of his house arrest for a while before that fell apart and manafort ended up in jail, where he is right now, i think todays motion means the president s campaign trail, Paul Manafort has shot the moon, i believe batting 1,000. He has a perfect record now of losing on every single substantive motion that has been brought before the judge in both of his cases. I think hes lost every single thing his defense has tried thus far, every one. That is not a good sign for the president s campaign chairman, especially not now, when the first of his two felony trials is due to start one week from today. So that was not unspeblged but it was ominous for Paul Manafort today. In the other case were watching very closely today, in the Mariia Butina case today, they were definitely some prizes. We knew she would be appearing in this washington courtroom whether or not she would continue to be held in jail before shes put on trial. She was put on charges of operating as a secret Foreign Agent of the russian government in this country, she pled not guilty. Then, there was this little surprise. This is from the transcript of todays hearing. Courtroom deputy, quote, this case is on the calendar for detention hearing and arraignment. The judge says, good afternoon. Mr. Kenerson speaks, eric kenerson, the federal prosecutor who appeared at mondays hearing as well. Kenner son, says good afternoon. Look at this, somebody else pops up and says hello. You see that in the transcript . Ms. Curtis . She says good afternoon. The judge says, at the table is a lawyer the court recognized but whose name was not called. Maybe we would ask you to please add for purposes of the record your name please. Miss curtis says thank you, your honor, good afternoon your honor, Deborah Curtis on behalf of the United States. This is new. We knew that Mariia Butina was not being charged and prosecuted by special counsels office by Robert Muellers office. We knew she was being tried by the federal prosecutor in d. C. We knew at the initial appearance while the case was still under seal, the prosecutor from that u. S. Attorneys office who was leading the governments case was this is eric kenner son. But today they added another prosecutor in the courtroom. The person they added is the deputy chief of the National Security division at the d. C. U. S. Attorneys office, an experienced counter espionage prosecutor. Before her current National Security division girks she was at main justice in the National Security division in the Justice Department where she was the deputy chief in the espionage office for the department of justice. They brought someone into the Mariia Butina case. There was a moment where we have the transcript, her lawyer is arguing his client should not be in jail. His client you can see from the sketches, shes sitting there in an orange jail jumpsuit. Her lawyer is arguing to the judge about the injustice of that and how unnecessary that is that she is being held in jail. The lawyer said, i submit to you, your honor, she is entitled to leave on her own there could be other conditions that could be set that could give the court assurance of her return but certainly keeping her in jail for what is this is not an espionage case, this is not a spying case. Her lawyer says. Actually, dude, dont look behind you but veteran counter espionage prosecutor from the National Security division of the Justice Department has actually been brought in to try this case. You may not want this to be an espionage case but theres a counter espionage prosecutor and your client is being charged as a russian secret agent. Which is something that rhymes with pie but starts with an s. In this hearing today and in the filings in her case today, prosecutors argued at lengthing that maria butina should not be released from jail, should not be released from her own recognizance or recognizances. They argue that she has to be held in custody because otherwise they believe she will try to flee the country. They describe at length her contacts and relationships with multiple russian officials and her meeting with a suspected russian intelligence agent operating out of the Russian Embassy in d. C. Prosecutors say this, quote, due to International Law and treaty restrictions, Law Enforcement would be prevented from stopping miss butina from entering the Russian Embassy. Under such circumstances a passport would not be necessary for maria butina to depart the United States even with the most restrictive measures, for example, house arrest, electronic monitoring, any agreement to forfeit property or a retained passport or a third party custodian. Even with a full combination confident most restrictive measures, the defendant need only seek refuge in a diplomatic facility well before Pretrial Services would ever be alerted let alone be able to respond. She could leave the facility, and Law Enforcement could not stop her or have recourse of remedy in the event miss butina decided to seek safe harbor in a diplomatic facility. Saying you let her out of here, judge, she will go to the embassy and we will never see her in a coup again. This is interesting. At the hearing today, the prosecutors actually brought in a wit from the Diplomatic Security service to explain that it wasnt only that she might seek refuge at the physical Russian Embassy. He explained the way diplomatic immunity works, she could get picked up by an aaccredited russian diplomat in this country in that diplomats car. And if she were in the car, the car would offer her safe harbor, too. That would essentially be a mini Russian Embassy an that would allow her to escape from having to turn up in court, too. The Prosecutor Says to the witness, are you familiar with ways in which a foreign country could get a Foreign National out of the country if they so desired . Witness, yes. What are some of the ways . Answer, if they chose to put somebody inside of a vehicle and drive it, we cannot stop and search or arrest anybody inside the vehicle for the inviability meaning for the inviability attendant to diplomatic immunity. If they got inside the compound we cannot implement any kind of arrest or search warrant. Anything like that. This is the prosecutor arguing bringing forward witness testimony to show she is a dramatic flight risk and must be kept in jail because shes not just some random russian in the United States, charged with operating as a secret agent for the russian government and very easy for the russian government to spirit her out of this country and out of the reach of the court if anybody lets her set foot outside of the courtroom before her trial. She would go to the em bates or she would get picked up in a russian diplomatic registered vehicle and game over, never see her again. That was one big argument today from the prosecutors. The other big argument from prosecutors today was interestingly about the unnamed american person who is basically described as her coconspirator. In the indictment. You might have seen headlines about this today because it was about sex and deceit and there was therefore too juicy for anybody to avoid writing about it. You should know why the sex part of this is legally important. Sounds so weird to say. Ill show you what i mean. This is the prosecution laying out their case why maria butina needs to be in jail, why she might flee, why she has to be kept in custody, cant be released on her own recognizance. In this part of the court filing from the prosecutors today, you see their headline there. Number five. Butinas tie to the United States is a dupe police to us relationship. During the course of this investigation the fbi has determined that butina gained access through the u. S. Person 1 to an Extensive Network of u. S. Persons who could influenceply activities in the United States. Butina, age 29 and the person 1 aimed 56 are believed to have cohabitated and been involved in a personal relationship during the course of her activities in the United States, but this relationship does not represent a strong tie to the United States because butina appears to treat it assism plie necessary aspect of her activities. For example, on at least one occasion, she offered an individual other than u. S. Person 1 sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization. Further in papers seized by the fbi, she complained about living with u. S. Person 1 and expressed disdain for continuing to cohabitate with u. S. Person 1. Ouch ouch ouch. If youre u. S. Person one, that probably hurt your feelings, right . But legal reference here is listen, shes only got ties to russia. She doesnt have real ties. Not real ties to the United States. We let her out awaiting trial, she will be in russia faster than you can say borsct. Her supposed american boyfriend is an intel operation, not love. This veteran counter espionage prosecutor saying, dude, it wasnt love. It was spying. We have the documentation to prove it. That probably hurts the feelings of u. S. Person one. That said, if you are u. S. Person one, you may have bigger worries. It is noted beak in passing late in todays hearing that u. S. Person 1, who is again the american implicated as a coconspirator in this spying case, u. S. Person 1 is apparently the subject of another federal investigation involving the fbi and the u. S. Attorney, the federal prosecutor in south dakota. From the transcript, mr. Kenerson as the Prosecutor Says, its my understanding miss butinas defense lawyers offer in that matter was one in which she is not a subject. Uss person 1 is the subject. The judge says, what is the basis of your contention ha thats so . The Prosecutor Says, it is in both conversations with counsel and with the fbi agent who is in south dakota. This appears to be the first direct russia collusion indictment we have seen in this whole scandal. U. S. Persons accused of knowingly conspiring with agents of the russian government in a secret influence operation designed to affect politics in the 2016 campaign. The accused russian agent in this alleged scheme is now being held without bond. The unnamed american alleged coconspirator apparently thought he had a real girlfriend here. Prosecutors say he did not. There is also apparently another federal case, another fbi investigation already unfolding related to him, where he lives in south dakota. Lots more shoes to drop there. The other important person in this indictment, the other important unnamed person, is russian government official. Hes easier to figure out. Hes believed to be aleksandr torshin, currently a senior official in Russias Central Bank believed to have significant ties to russian organized crime. He is now sanctioned by the u. S. Government. Mr. Torshin can no longer visit people like scott walker in the United States. But prosecutors accused miss butina acting at his direction secretly in this country and provided a lot of evidence of their interactions. Some of the evidence we know of their interactions is on public facing social media, like this photo of them together from Marias Facebook page. Mr. Torshin also maintains a robust presence on twitter which gives did us lots to go through including this rather remarkable post from july 6th, 2016 in which he shows these pictures of a meda