Exploring issues that affect leaders in the U. S. And around the globe. Howard fineman, an nbc news analyst who spent his tuesday in judge ellis courtroom marveling at Paul Manaforts wardrobe. Anyway, mimi, let me start with you. Define Obstruction Of Justice and is it something that has to be done in secret for it to be a crime . Sure, chuck. I want to answer the second part first. It does not have to be done in secret. The definition of Obstruction Of Justice, there are different prongs of it, depending on whether youre trying to interfere with witnesses or tamper with evidence. Its basically trying to impede an investigation corruptly, with corrupt intent, which simply could mean youre trying to stop an investigation because you dont like that that investigation is zeroing in on you or your close friends, so it cant be it has to be for a bad purpose and those would be bad purposes. And thats why this tweet right now looks so incriminating because whats happening you believe its very
that s where he scores. howard, why are you so convips convico convinced a pardon is coming for manafort? let s assume the prosecution is good enough to get a couple charges here, you re talking five to ten years on any one of the charges. manafort will appeal, play for time as much as he can. they ll look for technical errors. we ll go to the further circuit. then it goes to the supreme court. my question is, when does donald trump think that he has i have no doubt in my miebd mind, and from people i know who talked to him that he wants to pardon manafort and wants to get rid of mueller. it s not a question of whether, it s a question of when. his other problem is a pardon may not work. it s not going to work on federal it will work on