So, obviously, my immediate question was, can we go? can we get there? setting it up with the ukrainians was not the hard bit. Actually, it was convincing my editors and, you know, layers of management back at the times that this was a safe thing to do, or that we could mitigate the risks involved in it. Because they weren t just about the danger there. They were also these legal risks about. . . . . The legal consequences of illegally crossing into russia, which is how the russian government have perceived the trip. But you obviously persuaded them, cos you went. Just to explain, then, who you did speak to and what the terms were. I suppose the question is, whether you were changing names to protect russians, because getting people, presumably, in russia to speak candidly to western journalists must be very hard? well, yeah, these are people who lived in a very quiet corner of russia, and probably had never had anything to do with a journalist, even a russian journalist, never mind a
To protect russians, to protect russians, because getting people, presumably, in russia to speak candidly to Western Journalists must be very hard . Well, yeah, these are people who lived in a very quiet corner of russia, and probably had never had anything to do with a journalist, even a russian journalist, never mind a foreign one. I gave them their choices. I used first names only. And, you know, gave them the choice. I also made. I made very sure to speak to them out of the earshot of ukrainian journalists as much. Ukraine and had taken aggressive action there. And you attended something that sounded very fascinating, which was that ukraines civilian Military Liaison Officers were showing films to local people about the invasion. And i wonder what the reaction was to the films as you were there . Yeah, i mean, that was extraordinary, and one of the most extraordinary things to watch. There was a small audience of older people who were watching it. I spoke to one of them afterwards,
Catherine philp is world affairs editor at the times. She s reported from war zones for decades, and recently accompanied ukrainian forces across the border into kursk. So, i was coming into ukraine for. . . I ve been coming on and off since before the invasion, and this was a long scheduled visit. Itjust so happened that it came at a time when ukrainian forces had crossed the border into russia. So, obviously, my immediate question was, can we go? can we get there? setting it up with the ukrainians was not the hard bit. Actually, it was convincing my editors and, you know, layers of management back at the times that this was a safe thing to do, or that we could mitigate the risks involved in it. Because they weren t just about the danger there. They were also these legal risks about. . . . . The legal consequences of illegally crossing into russia, which is how the russian government have perceived the trip. But you obviously persuaded them, cos you went. Just to explain, then, who yo
Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. After his ukraine work dried up. And that is important because thats when he went to one of trumps closest friends and said i really need to get to trump. And then offered to work for trump for free. How and yes became the Campaign Chair is still a weird so far unexplained thing. Today in Court Prosecutors began laying out the evidence for the Dire Straits Manafort was in when he joined one Trumps Campaign for free. Thats something to keep an eye on as the trial goes forward. Joining me, senior white house political reporter, a close observer of the manafort case cynic it began. He was in the courtroom today. And i get to announce that as of today, he is an msnbc contributor. Ive seen some of the early reporting that there were audible gasps. Take us through some of the more audible moments. Well, this reference as having embezzled from manafort was something that grabbed my
was there a sense in the courtroom today that
Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. Their way to keep trump out of the trial. Abc news reports that prosecutors have been coaching their witnesses not to mention trumps name or even that manafort lives in trump tower. The judge in the case has warned that bringing up manaforts ties to trump could unduly influence jurors. There is at least one thing about this trial that is important to the relationship between Paul Manafort and donald trump. The first witness today was tad devine, chief strategist for Bernie Sanders an president ial campaign who worked with manafort on political campaigns in ukraine. The prosecution called him as their first witness to have him describe how much work manafort was doing in ukraine and how lucrative it was. Before we came on the air, we got a rush version of the transcript from todays hearing. Im not going to be able to act out a whole conversation but heres one little bit of the prosecutors Opening Statement worth hear. Th