Show up in more dignified threads, the request was denied by the judge. So we knew what he would be wearing. But who knew Paul Manafort would show up in a wheelchair . Witnesses in the courtroom also observed that a visibly grayer manafort was also missing his right shoe. In arguing today for a swift sentence on those eight guilty counts, manaforts lawyer, kevin downing, told the court that there are, quote, significant issues with mr. Manaforts health right now. And a lot of it has to do with the terms of his confinement. Manaforts lawyer requested that the judge pick a sentencing date as soon as possible so that he could be moved to a facility better equipped to deal with his health issues, whatever they may be. Now in any case, the judge set a sentencing date of february 8th. The judge also announced that he would drop the ten charges on which the jury hung at manaforts trial. Paul manafort also avoided a second trial in washington, d. C. By pleading guilty to the charges there and signing a Cooperation Agreement with Robert Muellers prosecutors. So that was that. Now, we also recently learned that as part of his Cooperation Agreement, manafort has met with muellers team nine times in the past month. In court today, we were looking to see if the government gave us any hints as to the extent or the topics of that cooperation. We did not get any details from muellers team other than its ongoing. Far from the courtroom, we did get a sense of what else special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into. The wall street journal reported today that mueller is probing wikileaks contacts with conservative activists. The journal reports that muellers team has recently requested witnesses about the activities of longtime trump confidante roger stone, including potential contacts with wikileaks. The journal further reports that investigators have obtained evidence that one of those conservative activists, the late peter w. Smith, may have had advanced knowledge of details about the release of emails from a Top Hillary Clinton Campaign official by wikileaks. Now because this is your normal crazy friday, today we also got a rare joint statement from the director of national intelligence, the Justice Department, the fbi, and the department of homeland security. The subject . Combatting foreign influence in u. S. Elections. Quote, we are concerned about ongoing campaigns by russia, china, and other foreign actors, including iran to undermine confidence in Democratic Institutions and influence public sentiment in government policies. These activities also may seek to influence Voter Perception and Decision Making in the 2018 and 2020 u. S. Elections. And we dont know whether the next piece of news is connected to that, but the u. S. Intelligence statement pointing the finger at russia, china, and other foreign actors was followed about 45 minutes later by the first criminal charges related to russian interference in the 2018 Midterm Elections. Now, one interesting thing here, this indictment does not come from the special counsels office. This is a 39page complaint filed in the Eastern District of virginia, the same venue where Paul Manafort appeared today. In which federal prosecutors charged a 44yearold Russian National who works for an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. Theyve charged her with conspireing to interfere in the Upcoming Elections through the use of rhetoric and disinformation on social media. Sound familiar . Well, you may remember that back in february of this year, special Counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 individuals and three companies, most notably the russian troll farm called the Internet Research agency with using social media to deliver propaganda into the news feeds of ordinary americans, encouraging them to vote for donald trump and against Hillary Clinton. While todays criminal complaint was not brought by Robert Mueller, it is related to that earlier indictment. Specifically, prosecutors charged Elena Khusyaynova of st. Petersburg, russia, of being the chief accountant and overseeing all the finances related to that scheme as well as acting in concert with other conspirators. We learned a few important things today from this court filing. The first being that the russian attack on our democracy did not end in 2016. Rather, it continues to be very active to this very day. As prosecutors wrote, quote, the conspiracy has a strategic goal, which continues to this day to sow division and discord in the u. S. Political system, including by creating social and political polarization, undermining faith in Democratic Institutions and influencing u. S. Elections, including the upcoming 2018 Midterm Election. Todays complaint also gave us details regarding the financing of that scheme. We learned that while russia spent approximately 12 million on this effort in calendar years 2016 and 2017, or about a Million Dollars a month, that figure began to rise in 2018. By june of this year, the monthly operating budget was 1. 9 million. In the first half of the year alone, the russians had spent 10 million, which puts them on pace to nearly double the total from 2016 and 2017. As for the content of those social media posts, u. S. Prosecutors allege that russia aimed to sow division in the United States by posting on various topics, including immigration, gun control, the second amendment, the confederate flag, race relations, lgbt issues, the womens march, and the Nfl National Anthem debate. We also got a look at some of the images and the memes that russians wanted injected into the u. S. Political discourse, and what prosecutors show that russia sought to inflame both ends of the political divide, most of what prosecutors cite in the complaint is clearly intended to benefit donald trump. The criminal complaint notes that in august of last year, members of the conspiracy analyzed a large quantity of u. S. News articles, summarized the substance of the article, and outlined ways for the conspiracy to promote them. It then lists some of the articles that the russian sought to promote. Now as you can see, these would be conservative outlets like breitbart and the daily caller and fox news, as well as even further right wing outlets like info wars. According to the complaint, the russian working for Internet Research agency were given detailed instructions on how to post and share these articles for the best results. For example, the eight dirtiest scandals of Robert Mueller no one is talking about. Reading from the complaint, quote, a member of the conspiracy directed that the article be messaged in the following way. Special prosecutor mueller is a puppet of the establishment, lists scandals that took place when mueller headed the fbi. State the following, it is a fact that the special prosecutor who leads the investigation against trump represents the establishment, a politician with proven connections to the u. S. Democratic party. Never mind that Robert Mueller is a republican. It goes on to emphasize that the work on this commission is damaging to the country and is aimed to declare impeachment of trump. Another article to be shared was one of the from daily caller where the headline mccain thinking a wall will stop illegal immigration is crazy. Instructions for sharing that article, quote, state that dishonorable scoundrels such as mccain immediately aim to destroy all of the conservative voters opens as soon as trump tries to fulfill his election promises. Or take this infowars article. Civil war if trump taken down. Russians were instructed that when sharing that article, they should, quote, name those who oppose the president and those who impede his efforts to implement his proelection promises. So here we are now 18 days from the Midterm Elections today, and we got a new indepth look at how russia is working to shape that debate right here in the u. S. It is not subtle, and neither was the reaction of the president today when asked to comment. Mr. President , today the Justice Department unleashed unsealed an indictment against a Russian National who was accused of trying to influence the election it had nothing to do with my campaign. All of the hackers and everybody that you see, nothing to do with my campaign. If the hackers, a lot of them probably like Hillary Clinton better than me. A lot of them probably like Hillary Clinton better than me. Well, todays indictment told awes lot of things. It certainly did not tell us that. Joining us now is barbara mcquade, former u. S. Attorney from michigan. Barbara, i appreciate your time tonight. Thanks, joy. Glad to be with you. So lets go back and talk about the money. This is the financing of the efforts to do disinformation in the u. S. Does it surprise you that that particular indictment, which is sort of related to when we saw the 13 russians indicted didnt come from the mueller world, it came from a different place . Yeah. At first, yes. I think if you look at it carefully, you can see a couple of things that might suggest why that might be. One is that Robert Muellers mission is solely related to the 2016 president ial campaign, and this one goes beyond that, including the 2018 campaign. So i think trying to keep his focus narrow, especially as he gets closer to the end i think, and the other is that Robert Mueller himself is named in this initiative. And so the extent he a victim of this crime, maybe it is cleaner to have other prosecutors be prosecuting it. Those may be a couple of reasons this is a stand alone case. I was surprised to see it come down. It shows that the influence campaign is not over. It continues, it persists and remains a threat in the Upcoming Elections. And that is the point. Im wondering if as a prosecutorial matter, it is possible then to build a bridge backwards from the financier, from the amount of money being spent, if a lot of the actors overlap with what happened in 2016, can you build a prosecutorial bridge between the 2018 and 2016 efforts . Absolutely its a possibility. And following the money is so often a strategy that prosecutors use to try to link together individuals, initiatives, groups. And so im sure theyll be looking at that, the money trail if they havent already to see what links exist between this individual, the group that was indicted in february, and then, again, if they should find any links to the Trump Campaign, they could certainly always bring it together with what Robert Mueller is looking at. Because it is all one Justice Department. And so they share information with each other, even though this case came out of the Eastern District of virginia. Right. There is also the wikileaks piece of it. Im wondering if its possible to prosecute people who are related to or just sympathetic to the Trump Campaign, just for knowing that wikileaks is going to drop stolen emails. Is that a crime . Mere knowledge is probably not enough. There is a crime called misprision of a felony. Its very rarely charged. I would think there would have to be some criminal act besides knowledge to make it a crime. But its a fairly easily satisfied element in crimes of aiding and abetting or conspiracy. If you show that someone assisted in any way and could even be providing advice about the timing of dissemination of stolen emails, or to even encourage the commission of a crime could be enough for conspiracy. So it doesnt take much, but probably a little more than mere knowledge. Right. Now back to where we started with manafort, we dont know what his cooperation entails. What we do know is he probably knows a lot. This is a guy who probably knows a Little Something about election interference. He probably had a Little Something to do with it in ukraine. If youre look outside in, what kind of a big picture is manafort best able to provide . Is it on the financing of the overall operation . Give us your prognostication on what it is he could be giving up. The fact as you reported, he has met with muellers team nine times, and ive also read reporting that each of those meetings has lasted at least six hours. Doing the math, 54 hours that he has sat down with them. My guess is they are showing him all kinds of documents and asking him to explain them. I think he can certainly explain the money trail in all of these things. But i think the most valuable thing he might be able to provide is the role of some of these russians oligarchs. To what extent were they doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin to influence elections . And i think that piece is the part thats probably been missing from what Robert Mueller had access to, and Paul Manafort is likely a person who can provide that in light of what we already know about his connections with some of these russians oligarchs. So i imagine that is some of the ground that theyre covering in those sessions. Absolutely. And a lot of americans are waiting with baited breath. Barbara mcquade, former u. S. Attorney from michigan, thank you very much for your time tonight. Thank you, joy. Thank you. And joining us now is michael mcfaul, former u. S. Ambassador to russia. Ambassador mcfaul, always good to talk to you. Thanks for having me, joy. So i want to go back and start with the manafort piece of this. You know, before he was associated with the Trump Campaign, Paul Manafort did have that experience in ukraine. This is not an unknown area to him, this idea of interference. What do you make of the fact that he he has given such fulsome cooperation. Who do you think he puts the most risk with the things he might know . As you were just discussing, the sheer number of hours that they are spending with him suggests that he knows some things. Otherwise, why would they be spending all that time . Its right. Paul manafort has been in that world. He has been dealing with russian oligarchs, ukrainian oligarchs. People closely tied to putin. Ive known about him for years, well before 2016 in the work i used to do both in the government and as an analyst. So he can pull on those threads of who might know whom, and who might have ordered these certain things to happen. You know, this indictment today is of the Internet Research agency, an oligarch mr. Prison. These for putin thinks should be done, and maybe manafort can help tie and tie the knots between prigozhin and the kremlin. To talk about prigozhin for a while, a guy called putins chef, a guy who is involved with the other 13 russians indicted. He is. It gets very involved. Is he somebody who could have done an independent investigation without putin having any knowledge . Not in my wildest dreams. Thats not the way that system works, first of all, and its reminding me of the discussion were having about the saudi regime too. Its not like there is a lot of independent Civil Society out there, independent business people. Everybody especially at his level of wealth is tied to the kremlin, number one. Number two, mr. Prigozhin is a friend of putins. He is not some rogue element, and i just think it would be i mean, im willing to accept the possibility as a hypothesis, but my working assumption, of course, this would be coordinated with the kremlin because, remember, were talking about things that have big implications for foreign policy, right . Russia now has intervened in our elections, and weve done nothing to stop them. Lets be clear about that. Whats really striking about the indictment is its increasing, not decreasing, because our president doesnt seem to think this is an issue. That is not done unless the kremlin is involved, in my opinion. I dont know that for a fact. But my opinion is pretty well informed. And in terms of the risk aversion of the kremlin, had the United States actually had a robust response to their interference in 2016, would they be doubling their spin on our upcoming election . No. And i think that was the giant strategic mistake that President Trump has made all along, that he just doubled down, tripled down, quadrupled down today. Had he said in 2016 i had nothing to do with this, but of course we need to protect american sovereignty, thats his language, by the way. He talks about that all time. He chose not to do that because he is worried about the legitimacy of his 2016 election, and just the opposite. He gives Vladimir Putin the green light. He gives him a bear hug. He talks about what a great guy he is. Well, that creates the permissive conditions for this to continue. And so this is on President Trump. He is in part responsible for allowing them to continue. There are lots of options he could have taken, sanctions he could have put in place to say knock it off. He has chose