familiar with the matter. this is important because it means that trump knew about the complaint at two key moments. when he made his decision in early september to release the $391 million in security assistance to ukraine. and his denial to a key ambassador around the same time that there was a quid pro quo with kyiv. trump used the phrase before it had entered the public lexicon in the ukraine affair. the white house has declined to comment on this but the administration did have one thing to its favor today. the federal judge who ruled that former white house counsel don mcgahn has got to comply with a house subpoena for his testimony put her ruling on a brief hold. that allows the government time to appeal. as the headline in t"the new yok times" puts it, trump keeps losing in court but his legal strategy is winning anyway. joining me now from the white house is nbc's hans nichols. what's the latest on all this? >> well, when you talk to people close to the process and have been watching it both inside and