Analysis and discussion of the days top stories and compelling issues from Lawrence ODonnell. General under president clinton and former federal prosecutor. Julia, i will have you play a few roles for me tonight because you do also cover the Justice Department. Jeff sessions in the room with the president when he is told that Robert Mueller is going to be Special Counsel, according to bloomberg news. Jeff sessions offered his Rec Resignation in that moment. I think the idea that Robert Mueller had been appointed was pretty obvious right there. He saw the writing on the wall, that it was because he had recused himself from this investigation that this had been allowed to happen, that Rod Rosenstein was allowed to appoint this Special Counsel. The way we all see it and the logical way to see it is the appointment of Robert Mueller was because of the firing of jim comey. It was actually the president s decision to fire jim comey, not Jeff Sessions decision. But knowing donald trump and i think Jeff Sessions had a good
read on the man, he knew he would also be in trouble. We look back the last summer and the number of times we were on sessions watch and the people i talked to at the Justice Department said he will hang on by his fingernails for this job. He thought this was his last role in politics. It is one he wanted to get to for a long time. His former Law Enforcement days are some of the days he holds most dearly. And he saw this as his last big role and really his place to be able to push through a lot of the decisions, a lot of these policies on immigration and the like. He was going to hold on to it for as long as he could. He did see this would be the thing that would fracture the relationship. It has for some time. We saw the president attack Jeff Sessions just this week. Harry, the president obviously doesnt like Robert Mueller. We have known that for some time. But he does keep bringing up what he perceives as a bias that he almost offered him the fbi
director job, that he had some sort of dispute over fees at one of his clubs. Could either of those things be considered bias . So no. We already know theyre not considered because the doj gave him a clean bill of health. But it is interesting because it is the Second Mueller is appointed that sessions realizes, uhoh. Thats before all these make way charges of 13 angry democrats, et cetera. Who is bob mueller in that second that you just have the revelation that hes been appointed . He is the best, most dogged, most methodical, most honest prosecutor of his generation. Thats who he is then. Right away the problem with him is not bias. It is effectiveness. Which has turned out, in fact, to be the problem. Lets talk about manafort for a second and go back to julia one more time. Julia, manaforts trial has just now ended its first week. It focussed a lot around what we heard from the accountant today talking about how she knew she was filing incorrect taxes. But also there was that 15,000 ostrich coat, that bomber jacket. The prosecution is very clearly trying to paint manafort as a big spender that didnt care about cheating the government and the American People in order to furnish his very lavish lifestyle. How is the defense doing . Not as well, katie. Right now were seeing a list of prosecution witnesses. They lay out a pattern of who Paul Manafort is. He spent a will the of money on his lifestyle and is so desperate to hang on to that lifestyle that he was willing to exaggerate his income in order to get bank loans and then deflate his income in order to get a deal on taxes. He didnt care who he took down in the process and he didnt
care what kind of dirty characters he had to work with in order to get there. We will see now Going Forward is the defense is going to try again and again to discredit witnesses, particularly gates. We now know he will testify. The prosecution said yesterday they have ever reason to bring him forward. They want to paint him as the lynch pin in the prosecutions argument and they want to show he is not someone that can be trusted. For those reasons we actually believe that the prosecution wont wait until the end to bring up rick gates. May bring him up early next week so he isnt the last thing in jurors minds when they go to deliberate. Another thing that i dont think went over very well judging by how brief their questions were is they wanted to show that Paul Manafort had left plenty of bread crumbs for anyone that might want to look into this. That with his first accountant who has not gotten immunity because he didnt do anything
wrong. He refused to lie for Paul Manafort. He was basically able to say, yes, i knew they were working with foreign people, but i didnt know he had Foreign Bank Accounts. The defense wants to say there were plenty of bread crumbs if his accountant didnt know it, and this is important, and if the irs didnt want to do an audit and bring a civil case against Paul Manafort, why all these years later is a Justice Department bringing a serious Criminal Case . But it doesnt seem to be holding up as well as they would like, particularly because bread crumbs dont leave you directly to 30 Foreign Bank Accounts around the world. Its harder to get there. Even a pardon from President Trump to Paul Manafort might not be enough to keep him out of jail. Even a pardon may not entirely be a get owl of jail free card. There are a host of
system. And then the other reason, katie, that i would suggest might impact Paul Manaforts thinking about whether he wants to flip and provide information to bob mueller, he would also be providing information about russian oligarchs. We know the judge doesnt like that word. But what have we seen russia do when somebody crosses them . We have seen poisoning in the u. K. And i think Paul Manafort could legit have concerns for his safety. So manaforts trial is about financial crimes, but it is part of a larger russia investigation. One of the more ridiculous seeming tentacles we have news on today, the manhattan madam, kristin davis, the woman charged in the Elliot Spitzer can sdsca
many years ago has spoken to muellers team. This is a longtime friend and associate of mine. I am the god father to her twoyearold son. She knows nothing about alleged russian collusion or any other impropriety related to the 2016 election, which i thought was the subject of this probe. I understand she appeared voluntarily. I am highly confident she will testify truthfully if called upon to do so. Another stone aid has been ordered to speak with Robert Mueller. This man was trying to not speak with him. One of his aids was trying to say that the Special Counsels probe was too wide and he shouldnt have to follow a subpoena. Well, a court has testified or has ruled that he should have to talk to Robert Mueller and he should do so quickly. Harry, what are these two people how do they have
anything to do with this . And what does this mean for roger stone . Yeah. It is all about stone. Look, the madam is a theyre a colorful couple. But it is because of their longstanding friendship they are zeroing in on stone. B miller is kind of twostone as gates was to manafort. Hes the real righthand man. He offered this constitutional argument, which is a real loser, basically saying mueller has no authority to do anything, the same thing manafort tried in edva. He will have some real information to provide. But the main thing it shows is that the sights are really locked in on stone, which should come as no surprise because this recent indictment of the gru folks in russia actually didnt name him because doj policy but identified him in paragraph 44 as someone who had consorted
with him. So mueller is obviously in trying to stitch up russia and the u. S. Looking very hard at stone. And whether or not stone was a potential back channel. Julia, i know from reporting have i done with others here that the witnesses that Robert Mueller is so far spoken to, they have been asked by muellers team pretty pointed questions about roger stone. And what did roger stone know . What was he doing . Did he really leave the campaign in 2015 . Stone says he quit. The trump team said he was fired. But did he really leave or was there some sort of unofficial role that he was playing Behind The Scenes . Was he potential in contact with russia or wikileaks and feeding that material to donald trump . Why did donald trump say, russia, if you are listening, find Hillary Clintons emails. It seems like and sam nunberg
will tell you this, it seems like they are targeting stone and he could potentially be a lynch pin. Is that making too broad an assumption . This is why i love your reporting on this. But it doesnt seem that hard to connect that we know from indictments that have already been brought forward by the Special Counsel that Robert Mueller is interested in and honing in on this network of russians that wanted to influence our campaign through social media. They wanted to hack into the dnc, Hillary Clinton emails and use that information to also influence our election. And a huge piece of this is social media and the work they did through cambridge, as well as the leaks of those hacks they just talked about through wikileaks. Roger stone has a lot of tentacles in those different worlds. He was very closely tied to the Trump Campaign. We have to look across the way
theyre painting these characters, the same way they are talking about Paul Manafort and trial. These are people who have been in republican poll tiitics for time. But they havent been carrying the moral backbone of the party. They believe that the ends justify the means. I think just by the pointed questions that you have reported on, the interviews you have done, it is so obvious that mueller isnt just beating around the bush and seeing what might come out here, he is really targeting those essential questions. Roger stone was not in mainstream politics. Neither was Paul Manafort for that matter. Yet, they somehow all managed to find Donald Trumps team. Thanks for starting us off tonight, guys. Thanks, katie. Coming up, the Washington Post is reporting tonight that the alleged russian agent cozied up to a Trump Adviser the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. The reporter who broke that story will join us right after this. And later, a federal judge says he will order the Trump Administration to take a drastic step to reunite those children with their parents. Thats coming up. Gas, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea
trumps orbit than previously known. She was in jail awaiting trial after she was charged with illegally trying to influence u. S. Politics for the kremlin. Tonight the Washington Post reports that she sought out interactions with j. D. Gordon who served for six months as the Trump Campaigns director of National Security before leaving in august 2016 and being offered a role in the trump transition effort. The two exchanged several emails in september and october 2016 culminating in an invitation from gordon to attend a concert by the rock band styx in washington. I cant make that up. Gordon also invited butima to attend his Birthday Party. Joining us is the reporter that broke this story. Im sorry i am laughing but inviting her to a styx concert
and his Birthday Party is a funny story. Here is what j. D. Gordon told you tonight. From everything i have seen or read, everything i have read since her arrest last month, it seems that this is basically a sensationized bait click story trying to Scheme Republicans and nra members she reportedly encounters over the past few years. I wonder which prominent republican political figures she has not come across. I got to tell you from the photos i have seen, she has been standing next to some prominent political figures, including former president ial candidates long before donald trump got the nomination and prominent nra members. What makes the interaction with j. D. Gordon so significant . Well, i think part of it is his connection to the trump
campaign and its clear from emails that were described to us that that was a key part of why she sort of sought out this interaction. She apparently met j. D. Gordon at an event at the swiss embassy. She was with the republican operative she was apparently dating. And paul then sent an email both to j. D. And to ms. Butina after the event, reconnecting them and describing them to one another. And the way he described j. D. Was to say this is a person who is very important in the trump transition. Hes the kind of person that all the right people listen to his advice on international policy. So it did seem that the trump connection was part of why she was making contact with him. Let me ask you more about the Trump CampaignForeign Policy advisers. They were not visible on the campaign, not really. People like george pop d, these names seem to come out of not come out of nowhere. The Trump Campaign was pressured to release a list of who was advising him. And at the time, considering that nobody was answering the phone and nobody made appearances, it felt like these people were just ran don people they put on a list and sent to reporters. Now it looks like there is something more there. Given that carter was somebody that the Intelligence Community had their eye on because of the interactions he was having with russians. The one who its reported started this whole investigation because he was bragging to an australian diplomat in a london bar that russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton and now j. D. Gordon linking these two seemingly separate investigations on a russian
influence campaign. Yeah. I have done quite a bit of reporting on carter page and george p. In particular. One of the things that struck me about the two of them is they aggressively sought out the connection with the Trump Campaign at a time when, as you mentioned, the campaign was having a devil of a time finding figures they could taut as Foreign Policy advisers. We did a story once quoting Trump Adviser at the time saying, basically, anybody with a pulse was what they were looking for. Yeah. And people like carter were people with a pulse that stepped forward and said choose us. The day i saw georges picture, i was taken aback. I did not expect to see somebody so young. Harry, what stands out to you about this. Speaking of so young, shes 29. Hes 50. So we have again the sort of vanity of older man. For historians of political scanda scandals, this is the exact ages of Monkey Business time and the whole kind of younger woman, you know, using older guys to get political influence. But what stands out to me is you said it, you know, what is the defense of j. D. Gordon . I dont know if there is a prominent republican political official She Hasnt Met with. Shes penetrating anywhere and everybody she can with the help of this republican operative and, as you say, a lover of keith erickson. This is not just one week little story and episode. But she really got around. Harry, just really quickly, could this new information, they know about most things, but say they didnt know about it, is
this the sort of thing that could prompt them to call her in for questioning . Well, shes arrested, so yeah. Obviously. She will have enormous pressure on her. Theyll talk to her. But there is some figures in the campaign in her wide circle, and they will zero in like gordon. We already knew of a couple others. Thats what will interest them, the couple people from the campaign, the mass ck maskerade afterwards. A federal judge gave a reminder about the separation of the children from their parents and who is to blame for it. The fact is, there are over ninetysix hundred roads named park in the u. S. Its americas most popular street name. But Allstate Agents know thats where the similarity stops. If youre on park street in reno, nevada, the high winds of the Washoe Zephyr could damage your siding. And thats very different than living on park ave in sheboygan, wisconsin, where ice dams could cause water damage. But no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local Allstate Agents knows yours. Now that you know the truth, are you in good hands . Makes it possible to track glucose levels. Without drawing a drop of blood, again and again. The most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. Life. To the fullest. Many of these parents were removed from the country without their child. All of this is the result of the government separation and then inability and failure to track and reunite. And the reality is that for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanently or fanned child. That is 100 the responsibility of the administration. That same judge is now ordering the white house to designate a person or team within the administration to take control of the reunification process. Joining us now is maria kumar and president of the center for american progress. She was also Hillary ClintonsPolicy Director during the 2008 president ial campaign. There still Isnt Somebody in charge of this. The court is ordering them to get somebody in charge of the reuniting. Yes. I mean, we have been going through this saga for months. More importantly, these children have been going through this pain and misery at the hands of the Trump Administration for months. And every night that these children do not know where their parents are is an unaccepted atrocity. And the reality is ivanka trump said yesterday the Family Separation Policy was a true low point for her. She is a Senior Adviser to the president of the United States. She works in the white house. I suggest if this is a low point for her and she actually cares about this she figures out, along with the white house Chief Of Staff and everybody in the white house, how to address this problem. I mean, the reality that the government did not track the parents along with their children and have no simple way of identifying the parents even though they may have already been deported is an outrage and needs to be addressed not next
week, not tomorrow. It needs to be addressed now. Consider this. There is no analysis of Immigration Data that finds parents were targeted. Parents were targeted under this Zero Tolerance policy. This is from the transactional records access clearinghouse at syracuse university. They found that u. S. Border authorities chose to prosecute adults with kids coming across the border by themselves. That same analysis found that only 32 of all immigrants caught crossing the border were charged with entering the u. S. Illegally that month, an indication that it was not a blanket policy, but a targeted effort directed at parents with kids. Let me repeat that, that theyre finding from this analysis that the adults coming over alone were treated differently and better, it seems, than the adults coming over with kids. Okay. This demonstrates that the Trump Administration was trying to
exact maximum pain to the people most vulnerable. The families traversed three to four countries to get here to give their children a better shot. And the Trump Administration, when they said they were going to do Zero Tolerance, it wasnt blanketed, it was phony. It was targeted at children. There was targeted at families. What they did is they turned around and put these children and babies in cages. There is not going to be a remedy in the near future to make sure these children are not only unified with their families but also receiving the medical attention because the trauma were starting to hear is happening to these children. Some of the children dont want to speak outloud. Some of them follows their parents from room to room. Some are so afraid they are not going to see their parents. And there are others that are plain angry. But the fact that the attorney general Jeff Sessions staired into the camera to the American People and said he was going to
establish a Zero ToleranceDeterrence Policy now only to find that it wasnt Zero Tolerance, that it was only aimed at the most vulnerable, at parents and children, should be a reminder to the American People of the cruelty of this administration. When ivanka trump looks at the American People and says this is something that he is painfully aware and believes that we should not be doing Family Separation, i agree 100 with her. She should be looking into the president s sites and see if they are going to do something. Hold on, though. And this nonses that theyre telling you, shame on them because the federal governments responsibility. Hold on. I want to zero in on one point. The Jeff Sessions announced this policy in the spring. Thats right. And then when the policy was backfiring and they were getting all of the negative headlines
and the pictures looked bad but the lives were actually much worse. Right. They said over and over again this administration, others in the administration said this was not a policy. This was not a policy. This was not a policy. Now to see this analysis not only was it a policy, but it was a policy that was aimed at parents, not just at anybody crossing the border but parents specifically. Cruel intentioned. Thats right. Whats really curious is that one of the Largest Security Companies that basically provided Security Guards in afghanistan for the different Government Detentions they had in that country under u. S. Control, they received a Government Contract two weeks before this policy of Family Separation were announced. They were the ones that were basically housing children not in accommodating facilities. Basically, they have discovered they were in the middle of phoenix. They were housing them in just regular Office Buildings that didnt have kitchens, that only
had one bathroom that held these toddlers for three and a half weeks without having them go outside. These individuals ended up getting over 200 Million Contract two weeks prior to this Family Separation Policy. It is outrageous. Remarkable. You are going to stay with us. Hold on. Thank you very much. Thank you. Coming up, if you dont fully understand what happened in the meeting between donald trump and Vladimir Putin, youre not alone. Neither does the director of national intelligence. Stay with us. When my hot water heater failed, she was pregnant, inlaws were coming,
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Now delivering to home or office. Panera. Food as it should be. The president of the United States is at odds with his top intel geps ligence officials. Dni director dan coats, secretary of homeland security, National Security adviser and nsa director addressed russian interference in the u. S. Political system. Their message was clear. Russian attempts to interfere in the 2018 elections are real and ongoing. But just six hours later, six hours, donald trump contradicted his own intel dependence officials at a rally in pennsylvania. I had a great meeting with putin. We discussed everything. I had a great meeting. The russians are looking for every opportunity to continue their persuasive efforts to undermine our values. Russia is very unhappy that trump won. That i can tell you. But i got along great with putin. As i have said consistently, russia attempted to interfere with the last election and continues to engage and malign influence operations to this day. Now, were being hindered by the russian hoax. It is a hoax. We acknowledge the threat is real. It is continuing and were doing everything we can to have a legitimate election that the American People can have trust in. It is almost has if there are two administrations. One led by grown ups. The other led by a man who wants to be best buds with our attacker or as jennifer rue bin writes. No matter how hard they sidestep or try to put words in Donald Trumps mouth, trump never fails to embarrass them. He never accepted he got russian help and he is not about to make a personal allout push to stop it in 2018. There are only 95 dayselections. Can they Work Together to ensure Fair Elections without the help of the commander in chief, without the help of the president . Well discuss that next. Like the american red cross, and our nations veterans. We knew helping our communities was important then. And we know its even more important today. 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What does it take for that sort of scene to happen on thursday, for all of those National Security heads to come out to the press Briefing Room and address not just the reporters there but the General Public . What does it take to get them to do that . Well, i think, first of all you have these National Security leaders who generally understand this kind of things needs to be communicated to the American People. The American People need to understand what kind of threat were facing so that they can support our leaders as they hopefully Do The Right Thing or elect leaders in congress specifically who will Do The Right Thing, who will support sanctions that are Strong Enough to deter russia. But i think whats also
happening, my read of it anyway, as we get closer to the midterms and as it becomes clear to the American People that the russians did attack our election and did use the Republican Party especially through its candidate, donald trump, to make the attack and now the Republican Party is sort of lying down on the job or its elected leaders, i think theres got to be increasing pressure to show the American People that the administration on some level is trying to Do The Right Thing. Thats why i think those National Security leaders end up on the podium in the pressroom, even though six hours later the president gets up and says its a hoax. Hes keeping them in the dark and brainwashed whereas the republicans who are concerned by Donald Trumps open betrayal of the country in helsinki are seeing, okay, part of the administration is doing the right thing. Maybe i can still vote republican. Do you think theyre in the dark and brainwashed . I think its time for us to start thinking about some of the
base being brainwashed. Theres this qanon, this conspiracy theory. The Conspiracy Theories on the far right are growing and spreading and becoming less part of the fringe discourse and working their way into the main stream. Its becoming more of the case. And in my mind thats a piece of brainwashing. I mean were talking about people existing in altuernative Information Environments that have no bearing on fact or reason. And thats where some of his base is. It is almost like there are two administration. One led by grown ups like those National Security advisers you just saw, and the other one led by donald trump, a man who wants to bear hug the guy who attacked our democracy. Yeah, i mean, just think about the fact that we had all those leaders of our Intelligence Community, a leader of the fbi, the dni, all walk
out and make the statements they did. And of course, its not just their work. They are basing this on the work of hundreds if not thousands of intelligence people, you know, working under the cia, the fbi, et cetera, gathering intelligence about the threat our country faces right now. And then hours later donald trump continues with the language of a russian hoax. Just weeks after Vladimir Putin said that he wanted trump to win and donald trump said that he basically believed Vladimir Putin over the people arrayed at the white house podium yesterday. And i think the reality of this is if you are concerned about the threat that exists from russia, not just what theyve done in the past but what they are doing today and what they
will do in the future, you cannot count on the president of the United States. We have an extraordinary moment when theres really two administrations. Theres the President Trump himself and then the Intelligence Community, and they have really leaned up just as opposed to him on this fundamental issue. So the question needs to be asked. Is the administration concerned about sending mixed messages to russia . Heres what one of the Strategic Communications director told kristen walker. President trump last night at his rally said the Russian Investigation is a hoax. Doesnt that undercut thought at all. I think we made it very clear the president last may in 2017 directed the administration to be tough and strengthen Cyber Security measures. Are you concerned, though, it sends a mixed message to russia . No, not at all. The only one sending mixed messages are the media. Its only the media. I mean, this is the talking point every single day which is were all supposed to just
basically ignore what donald trump says. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says this on occasion, the white house Strategy Communications strategy is to just actually the broad public except for their base is supposed to ignore what the president says, but his base is supposed to take everything he says literally. I mean, its ridiculous and outrageous that we have this kind of thingae about, you know, not a partisan battle or just two sides of a debate on taxes or something. This is about americas National Security. This is about our elections and democracy. And the fact that the white house, the president of the United States just cannot make the statement about the threat that exists from russia is ridiculous and shows that hes got it makes people think they have something on him. Let me ask this question of you, evan. Can our Intelligence Community, can our agencies effectively push back against russian
interference, the Cyber Warfare if the president s not onboard . They can do a lot, but they cant do enough. What really needs to happen here is deterrence. Because were never going to be able to block every cyber intrusion and disinformation campaign. You just cant do it, so youve to deter. And deterrence the best vehicle for that is through sanctions. That has to be done by congress, which is why the midterms are so critical. Evan mcmullen, good to see you. Tonights last word is next