Concluded not only that the congressional districts in the state of North Carolina were drawn unfairly, to help republicans, basically, to guarantee that republican theres win more seats in congress from North Carolina than democrats will. But these federal judges appear to be indicating that not only should North Carolina redraw its districts and fix this problem. They should do so right now. Right away. Before people vote in the midterms in ten weeks. This is from tonights Washington Post report of this breaking news story. The judges acknowledge that primary elections have already produced candidates for the 2018 elections. The judges said they were reluctant to let elections take place in congressional districts that the court has twice found violate constitutional standards. Quote, North Carolina legislators are likely to ask the Supreme Court to step in. Adding to the drama is the fact the Supreme Court has an even number of members. There are not nine members of the Supreme Court right now. There are eight because Anthony Kennedy has retired. But if this North Carolina case about congress is going to the Supreme Court, and again, this might have National Implications for who gets congress overall. This is something the Supreme Court will have to decide very, very quickly. If theyre getting new congressional districts in time for november, any ruling on this has to happen like, now. So that is a very, very Dramatic Development with big National Implications. Tonight we do not know how this will shake out but you should expect fast moving litigation and a little bit of a Party Politics freakout on both sides about that North Carolina ruling tonight. Everybody knew this was within the realm of possibility in terms of the ruling. The idea that the congressional districts have to be redrawn now, two and a half months before voting. Im not sure anybody knew that was on the table. It has also been a remarkable day in the news today watching the white house and the president specifically absolutely bungle their response to the death of senator john mccain this weekend. The range of potential responses to the death of a singular american political figure like john mccain, you think the range wouldnt be that wide. Right . But this white house has taken something that ought to have been simple and straightforward and they instead have found a way to repeatedly screw it up. First, lowering the flag at the white house to honor senator mccain. Then raising it back up to full staff. Then lowering it again after the president initially had refused to make any sort of statement about honoring mccains legacy. The white house then instead started trotting out lots of other officials including the president s daughter to say nice things but pointedly, the president himself was not making any supportive statements. That eventually crumbled as well. And then the degrees put out a begrudging positive statement. And then the flag went back down to halfstaff. The country is essentially mourning the death of this singular figure in american politics. Respecting the sacrifices that he made for this country. He was held as a prisoner of war and tortured for five and a half years. Even people who disagree with him vehemently on specific policy matters, or on aspects of his record in politics. Even people who dislike a lot of what john mccain did as a public figure, as a politician, have found a very easy path to recognizing his extraordinary, extraordinary service. Except for the white house which has turned itself into a side show of, forgive me but just selfinterested incompetence, pet lent grandstanding, caving reversals and ultimately shame. Im sorry to use such strong language. I try not to do that in general about anything in the news. But i think it is unavoidable given the debacle they made out of what should be the simplest governing task when confronted with a sad moment like this. All you have to do with a genuine fully minted american hero. All you have to do, if you can do nothing else, is just be decent and dont make it about yourself. Thats all you have to do. If you can do nothing else, if you can accomplish nothing constructive, be decent and dont make it about yourself. But in this white house, just spectacular failure on both of those counts. So i imagine the failure will continue on this front. Because its not like they have a real history of getting their ducks in a row when they fail like this, in such spectacular fashion. Special when i the condemnation theyre having from across the spectrum. We will continue on watch them screw this up. Well have more on both these stories tonight. Were in our usual groove of expecting more breaking and developing news over the evening. Thats in part because of a big story that was broken late tonight by the wall street journal. This story the wall street journal has broken tonight is something the legal experts have been telling us, we should have expected it. Maybe thats true. Maybe we should have guessed that this was happening behind the scenes. It doesnt feel like it. For those of us watching this presidency of late, and watching the scandal that envelopes this presidency, more and more on a daily basis. This news broken by the wall street journal, it does feel like a surprise. You see the headline there. Right to the heart of the manner. Manafort sought deal in next trial. That means Trump Campaign chair Paul Manafort sought a deal with robert mueller. With the prosecutors at the special counsels office who are about to put how many trial for another round of felony charges in federal court. But quote, talks broke down. To understand why, at least to the nonlawyers among us, this is such a jarring headline. Just stand back and look at the legal trouble and the Legal Investigations that are circling the president and his business and his children. The biggest news of the last week was the president s long time lawyer pleading guilty on eight felony federal charges. And his plea in the information filed by prosecutors in question, his guilty plea, Michael Cohen not only admitted himself to committing eight felonies, he implicated the president himself staying president directed him to commit the crimes. It also implicated, including two specified employees, executive one and executive two at the president s business. He also implicated another business called American Media which is the publisher of the nationnational enquirer, his also implicated people from the president s campaign. The Court Appearance last week and documents prosecutors filed in connection with that plea therefore appeared to be a sort of road map indicating other potential indictments in the future, or at least pointing to other coconspirators in these felonies to which Michael Cohen pled guilty which related to him making illicit payments to influence the electionful will there be further prosecutions of the people implicated in the plea deal . We dont know. Will the allegations of other conspirators, will that lead to further investigation which may lead to other criminal cases . We dont know. But late last week we did get word the District Attorney many new york is considering pursuing criminal charges against the trump organization. Which is the president s business. And two Senior Company officials in question, the criminal acts to which cohen pled in federal court last week. The news also simultaneously broke the new York State Attorney general has already sought a criminal referral under state law for new york state tax charges, in addition to the federal tax charges that Michael Cohen has already pled to. That state new York State Attorney general has already brought charges against the president s foundation, the president himself and the president s three eldest children, don jr. , eivankaa and eric. They have already referred that case against the Trump Foundation to the Public Integrity division at the Justice Department, to the federal Election Commission and to the irs for federal prosecution. The federal prosecutors brought a huge civil tax case against ivanka trumps business partner, from what used to be her luxury jewelry brand. Trump organization executive Allen Weisselberg in the case relating to Michael Cohen is that the new york state case that relates to the Trump Foundation. Reports of his possible immunity deal, at this point the reports are intriguing and a little hard to sort out. It is fair to say that we dont yet know how much trump organizationalen weisselberg, how much hes cooperating, whether his immunity deal frees him up to talk with prosecutors. Just specifyingly to Michael Cohen or whether his deal gives him immunity from prosecution on other things related to the president s business interests. Thats all happening simultaneously. All of those things all at once. Thats not even getting into the emolument cases which could result with the president s tax returns, if his family, his business, if they have anything to worry that, particularly when it comes to financial crimes. Tax fraud, illicit interactions with russia that relate ultimately to russias interference in the election. If they have anything to worry about in all those fronts, you might imagine that all of these related ongoing investigations might start to feel a little constraining to the president. They might start to seem a little worried. Theres no shortage of legal jeopardy right now for the president , his family, for the people and entities that are important to him. And honestly, i mean, i dont say it lightly. It is hard to know where the limits of legal jeopardy might be. Not just for the president and his family but for the entities closest to him. I would single out one line here. I dont think this has had a lot of attention but it stuck with me over the weekend. The more i talk to people about it. Specially more i talk on people in the legal system about it, the more it sticks out. There is literally a line in the Michael Cohen plea agreement from last week where federal prosecutors spell pout Michael Cohen pleading guilty in federal court means federal prosecutors agree to not further prosecute him. But they explicitly spell out that they are reserving the right to cite those same felonies as crimes in case they ever want to bring a rico. 18 usc 1961. Thats racketeering. Thats rico as in organized crime. Federal prosecutors are reserving the right to charge something as an organized criminal entity under the rico statutes and that relates to Michael Cohen. What . That how soon is probably enough to light a little fire under someone who believes they might end up in the cross hairs of one or more of these investigations. But among all of these for the president s business and even his charity, even amid all of that, the Paul Manafort case really does stand out. It really does stand alone. Michael flynn, the president S National Security adviser pled guilty. Rick gates, the Deputy Campaign chair, organizer of the nauks, pled guilt yiflt george dpaps, pled guilt yiflt Paul Manafort has not pled guilty. He stands alone here. Things are happening to him fast. Of course the same thing that he pled guilty in court, almost exactly simultaneously, Paul Manafort was convicted. The day after tomorrow, wednesday of this week, the prosecutors who convicted manafort on those eight felonies, theyll have to tell the Court Whether they are going to bring manafort back to court to retry him on the ten felony charges for which the jury was not able to reach a verdict. Remember, it was eight felonies, conviction, eight felonies, hung jury. Couldnt come to consensus. The foreperson of the jury went out of his or her way to make it publicly known on the verdict sheet organization those ten charges where they couldnt come the a verdict, 11 of the 12 jurors wanted to convict manafort on all of them. Only one holdout for the ten charges on which they didnt get guilty verdicts. Prosecutors know that and they have right to put manafort on trial again for the ten charges where they got a mistrial. They were just one juror away. Well find out the day after tomorrow whether theyll try manafort again on those second basem baseman, on those charges. Prosecutors are steaming toward the next trial for manafort. It is interesting. A few days ago, the federal court in d. C. Thats about to start the second trial for manafort, they unsealed some of the earlier proceedings that we the public hadnt previously access to that let us see for the first time even the judge who is overseeing the next Paul Manafort trial in d. C. , that judge appears to be mystified by the fact manafort didnt consent to all the charges against him just being consolidated in one jurisdiction so he could go on trial once. The reason, the Trump Campaign chair, the reason he had a trial that ended last week and hes now about to have a new trial that is starting within the next few weeks is simply because he decided he wanted two trials. Government gave them choice to consolidate them and go on trial oncest chose to go on trial twice. Why did he make choice . We dont know. Neither does the judge in his case. This is from the newly unsealed Court Transcript in manaforts case from february 14th in washington, d. C. This is judge in manaforts d. C. Case talking to manaforts defense lawyers. And before this was just unsealed, this was a sealed proceeding at the base. Now we know what happened. The judge says, quote, i understand youre hamstrung. Is there any ghang the Eastern District versus the District Of Columbia . I think the only thing i can imagine thats more unusual than the government offering that you choice is the choice youre making. But is there any further discussion about that . Manaforts defense lawyer says no. And then judge says, okay. All right. The judge is saying, are you sure you want your client to go on trial twice . You want two federal felony trials . The judge is saying to the defense lawyers, listen, prosecutors never give anybody the option to drop one of their trials. Theyre giving you the option to just go on trial once. Are you sure youre not willing to take them up on it . The defense lawyer is yep, your honor, were sticking with the plan. Two trials. The judge is like, okay, your funeral. Here we go. So this second trial is about to start. And its weird. And it will happen before the judge who finds it remarkable. In the judges words, unusual that manafort has decided to have a second trial. Incidentally, this will who will be presiding in the trial is the same judge who ordered Paul Manafort held in jail instead of house arrest because of the allegations that he was tampering with witnesses while he was out on bail. So this next case for manafort is not promising for a lot of reasons. But it will also be significantly different from the case in virginia where he just got convicted on eight felonies. We know about in part from the 1,500 pieces of evidence that they have for manafort. One of the things thats different is that at least some of the evidence in this case that theyll be citing is apparently in russian. Look. At least the subject lines of all of these emails that appear in the prosecutions list, this is the trial where manafort has a codefendant on some of the charges. His codefendant is konstantin kilimnik. He is believed to be associated with russian intelligence. He is believed to be hiding in russia rather than face these charges. In addition to being listed as manaforts codefendant, he appears here in the evidence list. Item number 1194. Kk we believe is the nickname for him and thats the way manafort referred to him. There are also these couple references who we believe may to be a Russian Oligarch who is known to be very close to Vladimir Putin and is known to have extensive business dealings. His name is oleg dare passka. Well have more on his role. This was always going to be a difficult prospect for him. You dont have the wind at your back had youre coming off eight convictions. Eight felony federal convictions right before you start a new trial on seven more counts. In terms of the president s legal jeopardy though, this second manafort trial has got a lot of russian stuff in it. It is a lot closer to the original concerns related to russia that started the special counsels investigation in the first place. After initial reports last week stoked in part by the president himself that he might be considering a pardon for Paul Manafort, following his conviction in virginia, tonight Gabriel Sherman reports at vanity fair. Com that the president is so committed to the idea o