About possible turbulence to come in washington in this lame duck period before a lot of things are going to change in january. In is a Trump Nominee for a federal judgeship. Hes seen as a sort of poster child for Racial Discrimination in voting rights. Nevertheless, he was previously seen as a shooin because of republican control of the senate, but tonight, it is a developing story that it looks like they may be yanking his nomination for lack of support. So that is an interesting developing story. Were going to have more on that ahead tonight. Were also getting the final races called from the midterm elections in terms of the house, and with these final races now shoring up, its starting to look like the size of the democratic partys win in congress not only exceeded expectations, it may have been an historic record. Well have more on that coming up, as well. In terms of the midterm elections in the u. S. Senate, though, the very last u. S. Senate race is wrapping up tonight as we speak. And we are going to be covering this over the course of this hour. I will tell you, as were starting to watch these results come in the u. S. Senate race in mississippi tonight, if you need further civic inspiration about your importance as a citizen or what a big deal your one lone personal vote could be, i want you to also know that today in the great state of alaska, the state division of elections certified the results of this years midterm elections in that state in alaska. One of the races that was certified today by the state is for a state legislative district, so a state House District. I think its in fairbanks. Its House District 1. And i believe we can put up on the screen the results of that state legislative race in alaska as certified by the state today. The republican, bart lebon, got 2,661 votes. The democrat, kathryn dodge, got 2,661 votes. Not a typo. The official state certified results in that house seat in alaska, its an exact tie. And that tied race is for a seat in the state legislature. And the state legislature is also tied. So not only would the shift of a single vote determine who wins that seat, the shift of a single vote could also determine which Party Controls the entire legislature. I love this story out of alaska so much, right . When they realized the democrat and the republican were tied, in the initial count, they did a machine recount of the ballots. It turns out its tied. After that, they did a recount by hand. After the hand recount, turns out, yeah, its tied. And then today it was certified as a tie. But here is the incredible drama in this one. This is from the Anchorage Daily News today. So, after the initial results shows a tie and the machine recount shows a tie and the hand recount shows a tie, and it becomes clear that this tie means that the whole legislature is tied, after all of that, they found a vote. What . They found one vote. Quote, a single ballot remains uncounted. Quote, that ballot was found in a gray secrecy sleeve on Election Night and was deposited in a ballot box normally used for absentee or questioned ballots. In conjunction with this story, the alaska daily news published this picture of the state review board considering this tied race in trying to figure out how to do a complete count of this race. I think in this picture in the foreground there, do you see the Little Hand Holding that ballot . I think theyre showing us the one lonely ballot here that they cant decide what to do with. You can see what it says there, from fairbanks precinct number 6. This ballot was found loose with the questioned ballot materials. There was no questioned ballot envelope to account i think this might be the actual one ballot in question. Alaska daily news reports that this one loose mysterious ballot is a vote for the democrat in the race, but because of the weird circumstances under which this one ballot was found, they still dont exactly know how or if theyre going to count it, according to the daily news, even though the vote has been counted and recounted and recounted again and now certified. That single ballot, which could decide the whole thing is still legally considered to be on the bubble because of the strange circumstances in which it was found. Its as yet uncounted, quote, pending further legal analysis. So that one house race and partisan control of that state Legislature Look likes it come down to a tie or maybe that one ballot mmm. And theyre not mmm if that doesnt inspire you to vote and that your vote could matter, i dont know what could inspire you, except for maybe the news that this is actually the second time this year that this has happened. At the beginning of this year in january, the exact same thing happened in virginia. Republicans had had a big majority in the house of delegates in virginia, but democrats had a really big year in the offyear elections in virginia in 2017. Democrats swept all the statewide races and made up all this ground in the legislature. Ultimately the question of which party would control the legislature came down to the last race that wasnt called in virginia. It was the 94th House District. They counted and recounted and double checked and it turned out that race was an absolute tie. The exact same number of votes cast for the republican and for the democrat. And the control of the state legislature riding on whether the democrat or the republican won. And the way they decided that one in virginia was by drawing straws. They pulled a piece of paper out of a bowl in a ceremony that would have been way more fun if they had, like, cut cards or flipped a coin or something. But if the news gods of civic participation do this to you, right, do this to your country twice in a year, right, where its not just your local representative but your representation in your state is decided by a margin of zero votes, and ultimately has to come down to maybe the luck of the draw, because its that close, or maybe one ballot that was put in the wrong box and nobody knows whether or not to count it, if you get that happening in your country twice in one year, those are signs from the news god heavens that your Voter Registration matters and your efforts to vote matter, and it may all come down to you. So tonight, at the bottom of the screen, you can see we are running this live ticker, as we get in the vote and watch the results of the last u. S. Senate race from this years elections. We are watching this unfold in mississippi, its a runoff between incumbent republican senator cindy hydesmith and upstart democrat mike espy, who is a former cabinet official in the Clinton Administration and a former mississippi congressman. This, of course, is bright red deeply republican mississippi. Cindy hydesmith should win this in a walk. She should not even have to contest this race, given the partisan balance of the state. She has made it a contest herself, in part, with her own stumbles, but mike espy has also made it a race by running a pretty good campaign. Joining us for a look at how this is all shaking out is the great steve kornacki. Rachel, thank you. Actually, two elections to tell you about tonight. One, mississippi, so, yeah, cindy hydesmith, the republican, she wins the runoff tonight. You can see nbc news now projecting it almost all the vote in there. 5446, the margin right now for hydesmith over espy. Put this in some perspective, you mentioned mississippi, obviously a deeply red state. Look at how this went, just in 2016. Hillary Clinton Donald trump in this state, an 18point race. Trump winning it by 18. Tonight, the margin eight. May actually be about seven when they count all the votes, given whats still outstanding. Look, 2012, obama got 44, that was sort of the High Water Mark in recent years for democrats in mississippi. 43 for obama in 2008. So, you see for democrats, this is pretty much as good as theyve done in mississippi in recent times here in a race for federal office. Mike espy getting 46 tonight. What happened here . I tell you, early in the night, there was a lot of there was some stirring here, sort of on politics twitter, folks watching this thing closely, because early in the night, what you saw here was something weve been seeing, part of a national story, Desoto County is big, suburban, fastgrowing. This is actually outside thmem s memphis, tennessee, its in mississippi, but its a memphis suburb. Look at the jump for mike espy. Hillary clint Hillary Clinton only got 31 . A tenpoint jump for espy. Earlier, it was looking like it might be a bigger jump here. This is something we saw around the country in november. One of the reasons democrats did so well in congressional races, jumps in the suburbs. Well, mississippi does have some suburbs and they got a jump. A big one here in Desoto County. Also saw a jump in madison. Thats outside jackson a fivepoint jump for espy over what Hillary Clinton did. Heck, go into hinds county, you had a jump there, six points from Hillary Clintons performance. So, the democrat got strong black support, strong black turnout. They got some crossover votes in the suburbs, but then what happened . Basically, they ran out of suburbs. Mississippi is a heavily rural state, does not have a lot of metropolitan areas in it, and in the rural areas, the heavily white rural areas, particularly up here, sort of in the mountain country, the hill country of northeast mississippi, rural white voters turned out in big numbers for cindy hydesmith. Did not have any real slippage there. She did better than mitt romney in this part of the state. So, that is enough to save her. That is enough to give the republicans the victory here in mississippi tonight. This is i think this will be the closest race, the closest democrats have come to winning a senate race in mississippi, probably since 1988. Probably in 30 years. But the bottom line with the republican win here, it gives them a 5347 majority in the senate. All the senate races now, with this one in the books, they are now complete, 5347. On the house side, two elections to tell you about. The other one to tell you about, t we have an outstanding race in the house. The story on the house, of course, democrats have a net gain of 39 seats in the house. Heres the outstanding one. The 21st district of california. This is the Central Valley part of the state. T. J. Cox, the democrat, remember, california, every night you get a batch of new votes. Last night, he took the lead over david valadao, republican incumbent, by 436 votes. We are we dont know exactly how many votes are left. We think it is somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 votes left to be counted. California, theyre very suspenseful. Were not sure exactly how much, were not exactly where, but basically, that few, those few votes left, in cox hangs on and wins this and unseats valadao, that would be a net gain of 40 seats for democrats on the house side. Thats the last remaining seat left in congress. Over to you, rachel. All right, now, to the other major story weve been watching unfold over the course of this aft afternoon and this evening. As you know, President Trump fired Jeff Sessions and installed in his place a man named Matt Whitaker. Given whitakers Previous Report of highly critical statements about Robert Mueller and the russia investigation, and mr. Whitakers otherwise thin and sort of troubled resume that by no stretch of the imagination would make him a contender to be the attorney general of the United States in any other circumstances, because of all that, its been widely suspected since that appointment was first announced, that the whole reason whitaker was installed at justice was to squash the Mueller Investigation behind the scenes, with mueller now reporting with whitaker. The regulations that govern the special counsels office say that mueller has to run by whitaker any major decisions about the investigation. Including the decision to bring new indictments, stick a pin in that, also, any decision to make any sort of public report or any other major steps. Since whitaker was appointed, we have, in fact, seen no new indictments from mueller and his team. Now, if youre worried about the importance and the integrity of the Mueller Investigation, if youre worried about the possibility that it might be shut down behind the scenes, given the importance of what that investigation is into, its a little unsettling to recognize that if Matt Whitaker is throttling the Mueller Investigation within the Justice Department, if hes blocking new indictments, say, we wouldnt necessarily have any way to know that. I mean, if muellers team goes to the grand jury and gets the grand jury to issue an indictment and then mueller brings it to the Justice Department to whitaker, to whom he reports, for whitaker to sign off on it and whitaker says, nope, ill take that and stuffs it in a desk drawer, how would we know . Its not like anything has to make an announcement about that. How would we know if thats whats been happening since Matt Whitaker arrived three weeks ago tomorrow . Thats why it is all the more interesting that tonight, we are getting a first look at what might be Robert Muellers notebook. His sort of working file. Because tonight, nbc news has obtained a draft criminal information, which is the kind its basically an indictment when you agree to plead instead of having a trial. Also, a draft plea agreement, also a draft statement of the offense. All these documents appear to have been created by the special counsels office, though we have no way of verifying that directly. The documents were reportedly created by Robert Muellers office and sent by mueller to a man named jerome corsi, a longtime conservative writer who has been getting a lot of press recently for telling anyone and everyone that he believes he is about to be indicted by mueller. I will declare my bias. I am not inclined to believe anything that jerome corsi says at face value. After all, he is one of the worlds leading proponents of the fabulous Conspiracy Theory that president barack obama was secretly foreign and not born in this country. He was therefore secretly never really president , says jerome corsi. Because of that past and Everything Else he is known for, jerome corsi says thing is no evidence to me that thing exists or is worth writing down, just as a general mathematical principle. But what nbc news has now obtained are apparently Court Documents that were prepared about mr. Corsi by the special counsels office to show him the way in which he was going to be criminally charged and the plea deal he could choose to sign on to if he wished in order to avoid more serious charges or potentially even any jail time. So these are the documents. They were obtained by nbc News ReporterAnna Schechter tonight who is a superstar. Because weve got these documents, i can tell you, this is a draft of the charge, the criminal charge that the special counsels office was offering jerome corsi as the one count he could plead guilty to in order to avoid further criminal exposure. The draft shows they were considering wri ining bringing s in Federal District court in washington, d. C. You see there on the left, United States of america versus jerome corsi, defendant. The charge here would be one count of false statement. Quote, on september 10th, 2018, defendant jerome corsi did willfully and knowingly make materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the government of the United States. To wit, the defendant falsely stated and represented to the special counsels office, including special agents of the fbi, that he denied an associates request to get in touch with an organization that he understood to be in possession of stolen emails and other documents pertaining to the 2016 u. S. President ial election. The associate excuse me. Corsi also denied that the associate never asked him to have another person try to get in touch with the organization and that he did not provide the associate with any information about what materials the organization possessed or what it might do with those materials. So, again, those are the false statements as outlined in this potential criminal charge. This is from the draft criminal information that apparently was provided to jerome corsi from the special counsels office. Again, a draft, not filed with the court, but given to corsi. Here whats we want to charge you with. Here whats your plea agreement would look like. If you want to boil down all the nonspecific nouns there that make it sort of hard to read out loud, what this charge says is that jerome corsi lied to the special counsels office and he lied to the fbi when they questioned him about his contact with wikileaks. Wikileaks had started to brag that they had information that had been hacked from Hillary Clinton and democratic sources. Roger stone, who was associated with the Trump Campaign, although he never formally had a staff position on the campaign as far as we know, special counsels office says that roger stone told his friend jerome corsi that he needed to get in touch with wikileaks about those stolen clinton documents. When the special counsels office asked jerome corsi about that, what theyre saying now in this draft charge is that corsi lied to them when he told them that he turned roger stone down. He said, no, no, i wont get in touch with wikileaks, that would get us all in trouble. Special counsels office is saying in fact that is not at all the way it went down. Corsi lied to them. We get more detail in this document, which is the draft statement of the offense, which has also been sent to jerome corsi, which was also obtained by nbc News ReporterAnna Scheckter here tonight. So i can tell you what it says here. And i will tell you, thanks to nbc news reporting about the context of this case, im able to swap in some of the specific identifying information that will make this make more sense as i read it. So, just so you know, the code here is organization one, thats wikileaks. Person one, thats roger stone. Et cetera. Quote, on or about september 67th, 2018, the defendant, jerome corsi, was interviewed voluntarily by special counsels office, including Justice Department prosecutors and agents of the fbi. At the time of the interview, the special counsels office was investigating the russian governments efforts to interfere in the 2016 president ial election, including, a, the theft of campaignrelated emails and other documents by the russian governments main intelligence directorate, gru, to wikileaks for public release in order to expand the grus interference in the 2016 u. S. President ial election campaign. Also, c, the nature of any connections between individuals associated with the president ial campaign of donald trump and the russian government, or wikileaks. Quote, corsi was represented by counsel during the interview. At the outset of the interview, corsi was warned that intentionally making false statements to the investigators was a violation of federal law. Corsi said that he understood. Quote, during the interview, corsi said in the summer of 2016, an associate, roger stone, who corsi understood to be in regular contact with senior members of the Trump Campaign, including thencandidate donald j. Trump, asked corsi to get in touch with wikileaks about materials it possessed relevant to the president ial campaign that had not already been released. Corsi thereafter and knowingly made excuse me. Corsi thereafter knowingly and intentionally made the following materially false statements during the interview. Corsi said he declined the request from stone and made clear to stone that trying to contact wikileaks could be subject to investigation. Corsi also stated that stone never asked corsi to have another person try to get in contact with wikileaks, and that corsi told stone that they should just wait until wikileaks released any materials. Special counsels office is saying in this statement to the offense that all of those were false statements from jerome corsi. Quote, corsi further stated that after the initial request from stone, corsi did not know what stone did with respect to wikileaks and he never provided stone with any information regarding wikileaks, including what materials wikileaks possessed or what wikileaks might do with those materials. And not heres the money. Quote, in truth and in fact and as corsi well knew, after stone asked corsi to get in touch with wikileaks, corsi did not decline the request, as he stated in the interview. Instead, he contacted an individual who resided in london, england, a guy who we know is ted malek, to pass on stones request to learn about materials in wick kkileaks possession that could be relevant to the president ials campaign. Corsi thereafter told stone that wikileaks possessed information that would be damaging to then candidate Hillary Clinton and that wikileaks planned to release damaging information in october 2016. So we just got all of that tonight. Draft Court Documents, apparently prepared by the special counsels office and sent to jerome corsi basically to let him know what he will be, might be, could be charged with in terms of lying to investigators. Prosecutors also included this draft plea offer which corsi in which corsi would agree to plead guilty to that one count of false statements, and in exchange, they would agree not to prosecute him for other false statements he made to the special counsels office and to the grand jury. They would also agree to not prosecute him for obstruction of justice or perjury either before the special counsels investigation or the grand jury or Congressional Committees. They would also promise in this plea agreement that corsi, if he went along, prosecutors would support any recommendation to the court that he receive only a sentence of probation. Theyd support a recommendation that he never had to spend a day in jail. Nevertheless, corsi now tells nbc news that he is rejecting this plea offer. But the fact that weve got these draft documents gives us all sorts of new information about what the special counsel apparently knows, including now weve got the documented fact from them that after Russian Military intelligence hacked the democrats during the election to try to help trump win, roger stone, who is associated with the Trump Campaign, directed this guy, jerome corsi, to go to wikileaks and find out what they had stolen. This guy jerome corsi dispatched a guy he knew in london to go do that. Julian assange lives in a embassy in london. About a week after corsi forwarded this request from stone that someone should go meet with Julian Assange, corsi in fact reported back to stone that wikileaks, in fact, had lots of information that was going to be damaging to Hillary Clinton and oh, by the way, it will all start to come out in october, which it did. And the special counsels got all that dead to rights. So, again, this is not a document that has been filed in court, as far as we know. This has just been sent to jerome corsi, which is interesting. Well see what happens here. This appears to indicate that the special counsels office has found at least one bright link between the Trump Campaign and what russia did to mess with the election to benefit trump. Congressman adam schiff is going to join us in just a moment to talk what this means and the prospect that this indictment of jerome corsi has been prepared, but it hasnt been filed in court. Could that conceivably mean that its being blocked by trumps new loyalist appointee at the Justice Department . So, we are watching this story develop. Tonight, just within the last hour, the Washington Post reports that the white house is very upset that President Trumps name appears in this draft court filing, and theyve lodged some sort of protest with the Justice Department about that. Again, this story continues to develop. We will have congressman adam schiff, incoming chair of intelligence, in just a bit to talk about that. And actually, since we got on the air, a little bit more breaking news from this same story on what Paul Manafort has been telling the trump white house. The New York Times just within the last within less than an hour, has just broken the news of what may have led prosecutors to yank Paul Manaforts plea agreement. His communications with the white house apparently going way out of bounds in an effort to help trump fight this investigation. Well have that story for you coming up. Stay with us. The greatest wish of all. Is one that brings us together. The lincoln wish list event is here. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with 0 down, 0 due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Only at your lincoln dealer. And a complimentary first months payment. 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With our tendercrisp technology, you can quickly cook food, juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Go from fresh to deliciously done in half the time. Which means it may become the only thing you use in your kitchen. tapping for cooking, at least. upbeat music the ninja foodi, with tendercrisp, the cooking while parenting technology. After you have a few days off, youre a little logy, a little slow, dont necessarily have everything firing all at once. So naturally, as were racing toward show time tonight, all of these gigantic stories break all at once, including a series of bombshells about the president s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Already we had as of last night the special counsels office saying that manafort broke his cooperation deal with prosecutors by lying to them after he pled guilty and agreed to cooperate. Now tonight, the New York Times reports more of what happened after manafort made that cooperation deal with muellers prosecutors, the one that appears to have gone so badly wrong. Ill read you the lead here. This is just posted by the New York Times. Quote, a lawyer for Paul Manafort repeatedly briefed President Trumps lawyers on his clients discussions with federal investigators after mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel. Thats according to one of mr. Trumps lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations. The arrangement was highly unusual and it inflamed tensions with mr. Muellers office when prosecutors discovered it, after manafort began cooperating two months ago. Quote, some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by mr. Manafort for a president ial pardon, even as he worked with the special counsel in hopes of a lighter sentence. So we started yesterday with the news that prosecutors say manafort broke their plea agreement. He lied to them so theyre rescinding the deal. Now we get the news that Paul Manafort, while he was supposedly cooperating with prosecutors, at the same time, he was feeding information to the president about the investigation, including about his discussions with prosecutors and what prosecutors were asking him about when he was supposedly cooperating with them. First off, wow. Secondly, is that legal . Can you do that . Joining us now is barbara mcquade, former u. S. Attorney from the Eastern District of michigan. Barb, thank you so much for being here. Theres been a lot of news on this subject in the last few days, thank you so much for helping us through it. Oh, you bet. This is described in the New York Times as something unusual. Mr. Manafort had plead guilty. He had a Cooperation Agreement with prosecutors. We know from yesterdays court filing that Prosecutor Says he blew it. He lied to them. He committed crimes after this deal by lying to them. Hes thereby released from the deal and his sentencing should go ahead. Now the times is reporting that while he was supposedly cooperating, he was secretly feeding information to other people who were actively part of this investigation, including the president. Is that also a violation of the plea agreement . You know, its not technically contemplated by the plea agreement, because i cant tell you how unusual this is. I dont know that i have ever seen this happen. I think this is even potentially an act of obstruction of justice. So if it goes that far, then it would be, because hes prohibited from engaging in other crimes. But i dont know that it would be even contemplated that he would be then feeding information to the other side. A couple of things that ordinarily prevent this. When someone switches sides, you refer to it as flipping, because you now assume they are all in. The agreement says you will cooperate truthfully, fully, completely in all and be forthcoming with all information. Some prosecutors refer to it as joining team usa. So the idea that you would be double dealing and sharing information with other subjects of an investigation is really highly unusual. And the other thing is, to the extent a lawyer was involved in the joint Defense Agreement where theyre sharing information, usually that lawyer says, we have to withdraw once my client decides to cooperate, because we recognize that our interests may diverge. And so ethically, typically the lawyer understands that he needs to be out of that picture as well. So incredibly unusual, and i think that its quite possible if information is being fed in either direction that there could be an investigation for obstruction of justice here. Would the lawyer are you suggesting the lawyer himself or herself who is involved in conveying this information to the president and the president s legal team, that lawyer could him or herself be in trouble for this . I think so. If the lawyer is sharing information thats sensitive to the investigation, that hes learning from his client based on the questions that hes being asked, and then reporting back to people who are themselves within the scope of the investigation, i think one could argue that thats an effort to interfere with the investigation, or similarly, if people on the trump camp are feeding information back, and instructing manafort not to answer certain quips or to lque lie about certain things, that could be obstruction, as well. Certainly facts would need to be learned about this before you could make such an allegation, but it is incredibly unusual and i can understand why muellers team would have been very angry to find out about this, and to the extent they found out manafort was lying to them, to sever all ties. Barb, i have an overactive imagination and i read too many spy novels. So, when i read this story tonight, i immediately went to, like, the melodramatic explanation for this, which is, Paul Manafort faced two trials, one in virginia and one in washington, d. C. , and the point at which he pled guilty was in between those two trials, so, he got creamed in the first trial. He got convicted of multiple felonies. He was to be start trial in the second jurisdiction. And in the spy movie, you know, political thriller version of this that runs in my head instantly, somebody from the white house or the white house directly comes to Paul Manafort and says paul, put up a good fight. We know you thought youd do great here, but youre getting creamed and youre going to get killed in court, so, heres what you do. We know that you wanted to be a good soldier and not flip and you criticized rick gates when he flipped and all that, we know youre loyal. We know thats a very important thing for you, but flip. Go ahead and flip. Plead guilty. Agree to cooperate. If you just become our mole, if you just tell us everything that you can learn from that position, dont worry about it. Well hook you up with a pardon. Youre already screwed. Youre already convicted. Do this now and thats your way out. This is the way that you can prove your worth to us. Thats again, im imagining that thats the way this could have gone in a very dramatic version of this. If anything like that happened, is would that itself be a criminal conspiracy of any kind . Again, i think it could be. It depends on the facts. The part that sounds borderline illegal is the part where you said, go in and be our mole. If the purpose was to gather information about whats going on in the investigation and share it back with others who are potential subjects of the investigation so that they can take steps to ensure that the investigation does not come to fruition, i think that could amount to obstruction of justice. If anything happened what you described, i dont know that it would be as overt as that. I dont know that they need to say things quite so explicitly. It might have been a musical mutual understanding. Remember, there was that report that john dowd had had conversations with the white house or with manaforts lawyers about a potential pardon down the road. Right. And so, maybe there were discussions that would give them each enough of an idea about what was happening implicitly, without having to have that explicit conversation. Barbara mcquade from michigan, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you very much. My pleasure. All right, much more to get to. A very busy night. Were waiting results from mississippis senate runoff. The congressman who will soon lead the House Intelligence Committee joins us live shortly. Lots to get to. Stay with us. If your adventure. Keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips. You may have overactive bladder, or oab. Ohhhh. Enough already we need to see a doctor. Ask your doctor about myrbetriq® mirabegron . It treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. Its the first and only oab treatment in its class. Myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. Tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. Myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions. Like swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or trouble breathing. If experienced, stop taking and tell your doctor right away. Myrbetriq may interact with other medicines. Tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. 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He would not talk to me for the whole rest of the night until breakfast time this morning. Then this morning, we woke up to this report from the Guardian Newspaper which the dog didnt care about at all. This record that Paul Manafort met with wikileaks founder Julian Assange on at least three occasions at the Ecuadoran Embassy in london where assange lives now, including a meeting in march 2016, right as manafort was taking over the Trump Campaign. I should note right now that the guardian is the only outlet that has this story. Nbc news has not confirmed it. Paul manafort tonight is strenuously denying it. Julian assange and wikileaks are also denying that any meetings occurred, for whatever thats worth. If its true, of course, the implications are explosive, right . Assange is the one who released the documents stolen by russian intelligence to help trump win the election. If Trumps Campaign chair was meeting with him right before he did that, thats really bad in terms of the Trump Campaign being shown to have colluded with russia. That said, as i mentioned, manafort is strenuously contesting this reporting from the guardian, saying, quote, this story is totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connect with him. Were now watching for a couple of different things. First of all, muellers office says theyre going to produce a detailed sentencing submission that will set forth manaforts crimes and lies. Who among us is not interested in seeing Something Like that, even if it does scare the dog . We actually called the judges chambers in d. C. Today to ask when we should expect to see that document from the special counsels office. We asked if we should expect to see it before or after the judge sets a firm sentencing date for manafort, which both sides are now asking her to do. We didnt receive a clear answer from the judges chambers. They just told us to keep an eye on the docket, which we always do. But mueller clearly says that he intends to release this detailed evidence of manaforts lies and crimes in a detailed sentencing filing of some kind. So, provided that document is going to be public and not filed under seal, one major question is, why is mueller planning to do that . Should this be seen as routine for this type of case to the extend that there is this type of case . Or is mueller choosing this Upcoming Court filing essentially as a vehicle to release to the Public Information about the russia scandal and manafort that might not otherwise see the light of day . If, for example, its otherwise going to be blocked by trumps new acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker. Could that be a factor here . Is mueller planning on using these Court Filings to give the Public Information about what evidence they have collected and what happened in that president ial election . Also, why was nbc news able to obtain these draft Court Documents from muellers office tonight, show what appear to be draft charges and a draft plea agreement for a Trump Campaign hangeron named jerome corsi . I have never seen a draft indictment made public before. Why was this one made public . And with the New York Times just moments ago breaking the news that mueller excuse me, that manafort may have lost his plea agreement because prosecutors found out that once he was supposed to be cooperating with them, he was actually secretly feeding information to the white house about the special counsels office and their investigation and their lines of inquiry. With all of these stories now breaking all at once, how much reason is there to worry here about this very Important National security invest game potentially being messed with . And if it is being messed with, can the democrats in congress do anything about it now, no that theyre talking over the house . The soon to be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee joins us next. If you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture now might not be the best time to ask yourself are my bones strong . Life is full of makeorbreak moments. Thats why its so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. Only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones from fracture with 1 shot every 6 months. Do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. Serious allergic reactions, like low blood pressure; trouble breathing; throat tightness; face, lip, or tongue swelling; rash; itching; or hives have happened. 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Who is the top democrat on the Intelligence Committee in the house of representatives. Congressman, thank you so much for making time for us tonight. Really appreciate you being here. You bet. The New York Times has just reported tonight that Paul Manafort funneled information to the white house, to the president s legal team, during the time he was supposed to be cooperating with the special counsels office after he entered into this plea agreement with them. Whats your reaction to that news . Do you see this as a serious matter . Its a very serious matter, and i think barbara is exactly right. It represents an effort to essentially double deal by Paul Manafort, to pretend that he is cooperating with prosecutors, but at the same time, betray the government, betray the prosecution, by sharing information with the president s Legal Defense team. I wonder whether one of the lies that Paul Manafort told the mueller team was that he wasnt talking, wasnt sharing information with the president s legal team. But certainly, i would have to think that the mueller prosecutors would feel that as a complete betrayal of a Cooperation Agreement, and it also appears to be how giuliani and others have been obtaining information about what the special counsel is doing, when the special counsel has made such an effort to keep a tight ship. I will say this, though, not only it is going to infuriate the special counsels office, but it will also infuriate the judge. I mean, judges dont like having defendants that are lying to the government, because theyre also through the government through that lying to the government, theyre lying to the court. Theyre trying to take advantage of the court. So i think that mr. Manafort miscalculated once before when he attempted to suborn witnesses or tamper with witness, and i think he just committed a another very serious blunder. If this turns out to have been not manaforts own idea entirely, if this turns out to have been an effort organized by the white house or the president s legal team to try to compromise the investigation, to try to get inside information from the investigation to advantage their own Legal Defense for the president , would you expect that to become a matter of investigation for your Intelligence Committee or other committees in the house . Absolutely. I mean, the first role, i think, for the congress in all of this, is to try to protect the independence of the Justice Department and the integrity of bob muellers investigation, and that means learning, finding out, exposing if theres any interference, any political interference by the president or his team in any way, shape or form. And if so, exposing it. And then, theres a whole series of potential consequences. It would add to a growing boz of evidence that the president is involved in trying to obstruct justice. That might mean the special counsel, in his report, makes those findings, or recommends prosecution, either, you know, during the presidency or when the president leaves office. It obviously would be something the house would have to consider in terms of whether it rose to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor, but and it, you know, it also may mean that this is merely information that is going to be provided to voters so that in 2020 they can decide whether they want a president who is willing to obstruct justice, but there are a lot of potential consequences that can flow from it and our ultimate obligation is to expose any interference in this investigation. Youre also a former prosecutor yourself, sir. Nbc news tonight obtained draft charges and a draft plea agreement that were apparently sent by the special counsels office to jerome corsi. Mr. Corsi has chosen to share those documents with reporters, he has also said that he has rejected this proposed plea agreement and i dont necessarily believe everything that mr. Corsi says, but it is unusual to see these documents. We cant directly verify them, but they appear to be work of the special counsels office. Just wanted to get your reaction to that. Feel like its very unusual to see what is, in effect, a draft indictment. Well, it is, but you know, what i imagine would have taken place here is the special counsel would have presented this packet to corsi and his lawyers so that he could be sure, okay, this is what im prepared to plead guilty to, this is what the Cooperation Agreement will say, this is what im admitting, so, it wouldnt be unusual to provide that in detail, it would be very unusual for them to make it public like this, and it does beg the question, why is all of this happening all of a sudden. Why is it all happening now that manafort is attempting to double deal, that corsi looks like hes attempting to double deal. Is any of this related to the appointment of whitaker, has thatculus of these witnesses that were willing to cooperate, do they feel like theyre going to get a pardon, and if they do, why do they feel theyre going to get a pardon . Were going to have to explore all of that. I will say one other thing that leapt out to me about the statement of offense, and that is the discussion that corsi and roger stone had after our committee interviewed mr. Stone. Theres a lot of material that i think needs to be shared with the special counsel, because as more and more of these facts come to the surface, it looks increasingly likely that witnesses committed perjury before our committee and thats something the special counsel needs to consider, as well. And in the plea agreement, one of the things they offer to not prosecute him for is anything related to perjury to a Congressional Committee with mr. Corsi saying hes rejecting that agreement, hes rejecting protection from prosecution. Adam schiff, i really appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you. Busy news night. Thank you. All right, thanks. More ahead. Stay with us. The greatest wish of all. Is one that brings us together. The lincoln wish list event is here. 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If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. Entyvio®. Relief and remission within reach. Little bit of breaking news. This is the senates todo list today. They did not get to one important and controversial thing. This was unexpected. They didnt get to the nomination of thomas farr for federal judgeship in North Carolina. Maybe theyll get to it tomorrow. Maybe it was just a scheduling thing, but there might be trouble brewing with this nomination, but its not at all obvious that farr is going to have the votes to get confirmed. Jeff flake has said he will not confi vote to confirm any legislation that he is seeking that would project Robert Mueller. Late in the day, the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, made clear that, no, hes not going to do that, hes going to continue to block any legislation that protects mueller, even if it costs jeff flakes vote. That means for thomas farr and all over ju disht nominees, thats a no vote, and thomas farr cant afford to lose one more republican senator. Thomas farr is exactly the kind of nomination that might reasonably pose a problem for republican senator tim scott. Republican senators mostly stick together like a bag of iron filings near a strong magnet, but over the summer, tim scott sunk a trump judicial nominee named ryan bounds when it turned out bounds had written racist articles when he was in college. Mitch mcconnell had to withdraw the bounds nomination, after finding out about that. That was maybe just too much. Well, senator scott is not saying what hes going to do this time with thomas farr, but thomas farr has a history on this same issue that is a bigger deal than articles in a college newspaper. When thomas farr was a Campaign Counsel for jesse helms in 1990, the Helms Campaign blasted out 125,000 postcards to black households in North Carolina. The postcards warned sternly about how strict the residency requirements for if you wanted to vote and how voter fraud is punishable by imprisonment. Was a clear attempt to intim state black voters. Thomas farr got busted for that. The Justice Department filed a complaint. In order to settle that lawsuit, they had to sign a consent degree. The official that signed that degree was thomas farr. Thomas farr then went on to a long, prolific career in North Carolina developing and implementing some of the most racially specific voter suppressive techniques ever seen in this country. And that guy is now sweating it as he waits to see if he can get the votes he needs to be confirmed. Maybe the senate not getting around to thomas farr today was no big deal. Maybe theyll get to it tomorrow, but there is a lot of pressure on this farr nomination and it is, tonight, looking a lot wobblier than it did this time yesterday. Watch this space. That does it for us tonight. Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening. Good evening, rachel. The Mueller Investigation has taken so many twists and turns today. Yeah. But the Paul Manafort duel investigation and this document was leaked deliberately by one of the criminal suspects in the investigation. He leaked that to nbc news today. That was our lead story about tonights the New York Times story is manaforts lawyer said to brief trump attorneys on what he told mueller. E