Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Our colleague Kristen Welker there is still a steep hurdle to an interview with robert mueller. It would, quote, raise significant article ii questions going to the heart of president ial authority. Its not just about this president but about the presidency. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani spokes with axios. They report, quote, there are two topics the president s lawyers want to rule out in order to agree to a trump sitdown with mueller. One, why trump fired fbi director james comey. Two, what trump said to comey about the investigation of former National Security adviser michael flynn. Tonight, bloomberg has also spoken to giuliani and also reports that those two topics are off limits. According to bloomberg, giuliani said, quote, if asked the president would tell the Special Counsel that he didnt urge comey to stop Investigating Flynn and Didnt Fire Comey to cut off his investigation into russian int
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Election, that means the more careful you have to be in how overtly you investigate or charge someone who is going to be on the ballot in that election. First of all, donald trump, as far as i know, is not on the ballot in 2018. So this whole issue about them affecting the election is actually pretty tangential. Its not clear how much it applies. But mueller is so clearly cautious and observant of precedent and law. Yes. So he will take it into account. But its sort of a sliding scale. Trumps not on the ballot. So you dont have to be quite as careful as, for example, charging someone like collins who is up for reelection. So there they had to be very, very careful. And also, you know, you have to not you dont have to stop the whole election the whole
investigation. Can you pause some aspects of it . You just dont want to do something overt. He can keep doing lots of stuff, its not like theyre goi
By the thousands still left. Theres approximately 8,000 of those still left. And so we will not have a winner, we will not have a concession by a loser, in this race until all of those votes are counted by august 18th. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Tonight, President Trump calls the russia investigation an illegally brought rigged witch hunt but says stay tuned. While Rudy Giuliani puts the chance of a sit Down With Mueller at 50 . In the manafort courtroom, the judge tells the jury disregard my criticism of the prosecution. And nearly one year later are we getting closer to learning the truth. What really happened in the dark aftermath of Hurricane Maria in puerto rico. The 11th hour on a thursday night begins now. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 567 of the trump
presidency. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani spoke with axios. They report, quote, there are two topics the president s lawyers want to rule out
irs witness should have been allowed to testify after having been allowed to be in court, judge t.s. elliott told the jury, quote, it appears i may well have been wrong. he went on to say, this robe doesn t make me anything other than human. i sometimes make mistakes. paul manafort, a reminder, facing bank tax fraud charges, charges he denies. this is his first trial as a result of the investigation by mueller s office. with us tonight to talk about it, we re so pleased to have chuck rosenberg back, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of attorney, who has spent his fair share of time in that very courtroom where the trial is being held. he also happens to be a former senior official with the fbi. and eric tuck certificate back with us, justice department reporter for the associated press. he was in court for today s proceedings. chuck, i ve thought of you so ma many times because, in plain english, you were u.s. attorney
i m so glad we finally have something on you. it s really unfair that the judge goes by t.s., but it s ellis, not elliott. that one is on me, i apologize. what do you make of the room, of the dynamic, and the reporters who have been saying today that he s unmistakably tough on the prosecution, do they have it about right? no question, brian, it was an extraordinary moment for everyone coming into the courtroom this morning for the judge to basically tell the jury to put out of their minds something that he in fact had said yesterday and to offer a semi apology. the one thing that i think we should definitely not lose sight of, though, is what precipitated this, which is actually a government request last night and early this morning where they said to the judge, respectfully, your honor, if you review the transcript, you actually permitted this witness to be in the courtroom, you are correcti incorrect and as a matter of fact we would actually like for you to alert the jury that