Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. A source says Michael Cohen is prepared to tell Robert Mueller that donald trump knew about that meeting before it happened. He did not participate in any meeting about the russia transaction. The president . The president did not. Im happy to tell him, he wasnt there. He wasnt at the meeting. The meeting with the russians. How can you be sure that the president didnt know beforehand . Youre saying its just a he said, he said. Nobody can be sure of anything. Earlier this evening, a long time former Trump Organization employee said this about the possibility of such a meeting occurring without trumps knowledge. Based on my experience working with trump and everybody that worked for trump, something major, something newsworthy, something press worthy, would always go before trump. Always. I think that he would have told donald about the meeting and then if it didnt amount to anything, it would have
Good evening from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 557 of the Trump Administration, 99 days now until the mid term elections. And this might go down as the day we witnessed a change resulting in the new defense strategy. It is about something Rudy Giuliani has started to say. In the days after the president ial election Donald Trumps advisers had a message about contacts between russians and members of the campaign team. In the ensuing months as numerous such communications were revealed the message changed. There was no collusion with russias effort to disrupt the election. On monday President Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani presented a third line of defense, even if mr. Trump did collude with the russians he committed no crime. My client didnt do it. Even if he did it it is not a
crime. Hacking is the crime. The president didnt hack. He didnt pay for the hacking he said on cnn. The article goes on. It is just a word choice, said a Criminal Law Professor at georgetown. Im s
Chris Hayes discusses the days top news. Confused, one goal of mr. Giuliani was pretty evident. Ive been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. Its not. Collusion is not a crime. I dont even know if thats a crime, colluding about russians. Okay. You start analyzing the crime, the hacking is the crime. That certainly is the origin of the the president didnt hack. Of course not. Thats the he didnt pay them for hacking. As you know, it has led the meeting with the russians. If you got the hacked information from the russians here at cnn and you played it would you be in jeopardy of going to jail . Of course not. Okay. The president didnt hack and he didnt pay for the hacking. So thats an interesting thing to say. That, though, you that see there, is an idea that trumps allies have trotted out before. It doesnt hold up to legal scrutiny at all, particularly when you consider that mueller has already charged more than a dozen russians with conspiring a
And while that is the result of u. S. Actions pressure now youve been listening to this and for big groups with their leaders in the u. S. Most of their lives and they tend to tune out and most of them just want to go home and to get something done find a way to restore confidence in the economy the current season crashing so theres a serious Joblessness Problem they want that focus on what the government is going to do so much from you know this Tweet Commenters from the white house thank you so much for that was spent eric randall there hes a correspondent for the French News Agency a. F. P. Speaking to us from tehran. Well staying in the u. S. President trump has tweeted that collusion is not a crime but this just hours before the purse trial in the Special Counsels russia probe that opens today in virginia president trumps former Campaign Manager paul
metaphor places eighteen charges a conviction could give momentum to investigators trying to determine if the trunk campaign worked
Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Seated, the judge will give fairly long explanation. On. Reporter after the jury is seated, the judge will give fairly long explanation. Were not going to hear Opening Statements today. Its possible we could hear them tomorrow or thursday. Got it. Pete williams. Thank you very much. Let me bring in National Political reporter for the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst. Two msnbc contributors. Charlie savage. Let me go over briefly this reminder about Paul Manafort and why the Special Counsel is interested in him. Starts with donald trump. He hired Paul Manafort to run his president ial campaign in march 2016. Prior to his work on the Trump Campaign, manafort did political work overseas. Some for the prorussian
highlights which as you indicated, rick gates, all eyes will be on him. He was the right hand man to manafort. What hell have to do in order to fulfill his cooperation agreement, for the government