Job, plain and simple. Congressman Eric Swalwell on protecting the investigation. Bernie sanders on the tax bill. And the new tax cuts for specific republicans. What we tried to do is cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Tonight we know that the president of the United States was warned in the summer of 2016 that russia would try to infiltrate his campaign. And despite multiple confirmed contacts between Campaign Aides and russian agents, he never informed the fbi. According to exclusive reporting from msnbc news. Then candidate trump received the warning in a briefing from senior counterlngs officiintell officials who urged him to alert the bureau about any suspicious overtures of the campaign. We dont know when that briefing took place, just that it happened after july 19th which is when trump officially became the republican nominee and some time around august 17th when he received his first intelligence briefing. And yet despite being breefnd russias role on the dnc hack, despite being warned that russia was actively trying to infiltrate his campaign, the president kept on denying russia did anything wrong. I dont think anybody knows it was russia that broke into the dnc. She is saying russia, russia, russia. Maybe it was. I mean it could be russia. But it could also be china. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay . Ah, yes, the 400pound bed hacker. A similar briefing on the risk of russia infiltration was given to Hillary Clinton around the same time. But unlike her campaign, trumps investigation was already under investigation for its ties to russia. That probe which began in july 2016 according to former fbi director james comey. By the time the president sat down with those fbi counterintelligence agents, seven of his Campaign Aides had been in contact with russian nationals or russian agents. One of them, carter page, was already being sur veiled under a fisa warrant. Three of them including the candidates own son had already taken a meeting with russians at least a month earlier, hoping to obtain, and i quote here, official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary Clinton, part of russia and its Government Support for mr. Trump. The man who sent that email to donald trump jr. Rod goldstone was spotted on capitol hill today heading into an interview with the House Intelligence Committee. And the president maintains he was unaware of hi aids russia contacts, including the trump tower meeting. But we know he wasnt totalfully the dark. Remember, in march 2016, he attended a meeting with that guy right there, george papadopoulos, who of course now is cooperating with the special counsel. We know that papadopoulos talked about using his connections in that meeting to arrange a meeting between trump and vladimir putin. Its not clear if then candidate trump shared the fbis warning december 2016 with any other campaign officials. But we do know the russia contacts didnt stop there. Jeff session meeting with the Russian Ambassador in september. Later that month don jr. s condolence with wikileaks which u. S. Intelligence officials regard as a russian cutout. After the full extent of the russian sabotage was becoming clear, the contacts between russia and trump world only seem to have accelerated. They included multiple conversations between Michael Flynn and Russian AmbassadorSergey Kislyak about new u. S. Sanctions. Of course, flynn lied about those conversations to investigators. And after pleading guilty to a felony, flynn is now cooperating with the special counsel. We just learned that mueller has obtained tens of thousands of emails from the trump transition, which could help piece together what exactly was going on during that key period. Already, the president and his allies attempting to discredit mueller are claiming those emails with their dot gov addresses were somehow improperly obtained. Its not looking good. Its not looking good. Its quite sad to see that. So my people were very upset about it. I cant imagine there is anything on them, frankly. Because as we said, there is no collusion. There is no collusion whatsoever. But a lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad. We already know there is something in those emails. According to the New York Times that. Include correspondence among top trump transition advisers, planning flynns outreach to the Russian Ambassador. Julia ainsley is a reporter for nbc news who broke the story today on trumps warning from the fbi. First, give us the context for this warning. So its important to remember that when someone becomes a major party candidate, its pretty much pro forma for them to be given counterintelligence briefings by the fbi and other members of the intelligence community. So we know that this briefing was given to the Clinton Campaign as well as the Trump Campaign after the two had become the nominees, in part because when you become the nominee, you are privy to intelligence communication that can make you a target for foreign adversaries. We know that russia was a specific part of this warning. They know that he was brief and warned. And what this does it is sort of changes the prism through which we see the Trump Campaigns relations with russians during this time. Clinton, of course, was someone who had been through briefings like this in the past. And trump has always said he was somewhat of a political novice, that he didnt really know all of these rules. They wouldnt have known not to take some of these meetings. Now that becomes a little harder for him to stand behind when he was given the specific warning. Now, one of the items in your story is that they specifically said, you know, let us know essentially if any of this is happening. You know, you would imagine that that would also apply retroactively. So if the president were particularly affirmative, if he did know that this was happening, that maybe he would put two and two together. But we have no evidence as of now that at any point the president , the now president reached back out to the fbi to talk about any of this. Thats true, chris there have been no public records of and the white house has never said it did approach the fbi to report on anything, either before that briefing or afterwards. Really, what this does it is kind of gives them a consciousness of guilt. If for example trump or someone else in that briefing had known than june meeting that you just cited with trump jr. And the russian lawyer to get that dirt on Hillary Clinton, they then would have been in a position where they needed to report that to the fbi. And the same goes forward. That would be trump jr. Donald trump jr. s interaction was wikileaks in september. That was just a month after the briefing. Also that september was attorney general Jeff Sessions and a senator meeting with Sergey Kislyak in his office. Those things were not reported. And now that we know that they were given the specific briefing, it definitely places them in a different prism in the way we look at whether or not this was just a campaign that didnt know any better, when it maybe looks like they did know better and should have reported it. Do we know who other than then candidate trump was in that briefing . All we know is it would have been a very small circle. Okay. This is not something where they want to spread it widely. They dont want to go to a middle man. They go to the candidate, himself or herself and just a small number of very senior advisers. All right. Nbcs Julia Ainsley with great reporting. Great to have you. Thank you. Thanks. For more on this latest twist on the russia investigation, lets bring in Byron Mcquaid and nick akerman, special assistant watergate prosecutor. Its always struck me as odd that at no point during the course of this year in which this was a front page top of line story that russias possible responsibility for dnc hacks, that anyone from the Trump Campaign if i cans up the phone and says wait a second, whats going on here. How does this information add to your picture of what they were up to . Yeah, i think its a very significant piece of reporting because, you know, its not illegal per se to fail to tell the fbi about these overtures. But its certainly a threat to our National Security. And its a failure to be vigilant in protecting our National Security. But as julia said, it also is this concept known by prosecutors as consciousness of guilt. Why would you not share this information with the fbi when they specifically asked you to . Well, one reason might be that they had something to hide. And so that is a kind of category of evidence that is very significant to prosecutors. Yeah, this is something done i want to play what don jr. Said to hannity after that tower meeting. A similar question keeps pop up. I keep imagining in my mind the sort of movie version of this where after the trump tower meeting they start reporting publicly that russia is behind the dnc hacks. I wonder if they had no idea they werent colluding with russia, what light bulb is going off in don jr. s head at that point. He is watching this. Here is what he had to say to hannity. Take a listen. At any point in your mind, did don jr. Have a siren say okay, theyre talking again, guy back to the first email about russia. Russian government, meeting with this person. Youre going talk on the phone. Did you ever think maybe this might not be listen, like i said, in retrospect, i probably would have done things a little differently. Again, this is before the russia mania. This is before they were building it up in the press. For me this was opposition research. Maybe they had something that were probably underreported for years, not just during the campaign. So i think i wanted to hear it out. Thinking wasnt just opposition research. I mean, this was an email that said the government of russia is backing your father for president , number one. Which let me just say, stop right there. Lets say he didnt realize then at some point down the road, it always has bugged me. Doesnt someone say wow, that was kind of weird that we took that meeting when they offered us the russian governments help. Not only offered the russian government help, but they were going to give them all these documents and dirt on Hillary Clinton, that they were going to give to it trumps secretary. But then they decided better to bring it in person. And these are the same probably the stolen emails from the Democratic National committee that the campaign knew about in april through papadopoulos. The theory of the case. It is true. But i tell you, this is all making sense because its all coming together this way. If there is one surety here is that there was a criminal act breaking into the Democratic National committee. Yes. And to podestas email. Thats right. And the only real question was the campaign and conspiracy with the russians with respect to the ultimate goal to help the Trump Campaign . Barbara, i want to ask about this email issue which was a very strange thing. The trumps lawyers write an email complaining about how Robert Mueller acquired the transition emails, which are government emails, how he did it. But they dont write to it mueller and they dont write to it a judge. They write it to congress. Do they have any case here . No, i dont think so at all. And i think the fact that they wrote it to Congress Indicates that they even know they dont have any case. Right. As you said, its on a government computer. When you fire up a government computer, it says right at the first part you get a ban theyre says warning, this computer is owned by the United States government. Users have no expectation of privacy. Pretty clear. And muellers spokesman said we obtained the emails through the consent of the user or through Legal Process there is a number of ways you can get them through Legal Process. You can get them with a search warrant, with a court order, a subpoena, or because this is a counterintelligence investigation, with a National Security letter. So i take peter carr, the spokesman at his word when he said they used Legal Process to get these. And i think this argument is nonsense. This line jumped out at me. Mueller issued a statement, which is extremely rare. We basically never hear anything from him. From his office. Right. As far as the reporters and his office, theyre not even leaking. It caught my eye. When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owners consent or appropriate criminal process. Really got that adjective criminal in there twice. Thats what this is all about. This is a criminal investigation. If you look at this sevenpage letter which is a bunch of hooie. This is unbelievable. They threw around all these legal terms. This is privilege, that is privilege. What they dont acknowledge is there is no executive privilege because trump is not the president and there is no attorneyclient privilege because they dont even explain how attorneys had anything to do with these emails. Why are lawyers that i know across the political and ideological spectrum seem to not be particularly enthusiastic about the job that the president s lawyers are doing. Do you share that assessment . I tell you, i wouldnt hire them to get an ant out of my house. I really would not rely on them for anything. Is that your assessment as well, barbara . I dont know than. I think the things that theyve been saying publicly is we encourage cooperation and suggesting an era of confidence that the president and others will be exonerated. I think that strategy is probably sound. It is in the shortterm at least. Well see whether where it ends up in the longterm. Barbara mcquade and nick akerman, thank you for being here. Thank you. Are they planning on ending the investigations into russian and ill talk to Eric Swalwell who says doing so would be an abdication of duty. He joins me in just two minutes. Its great. We come into this world needing others. Then we are told its braver to go it alone. That independence is the way to accomplish. But there is another way to live. A way that sees the only path to fulfillment is through others. That our time here can be deep beyond measure. No one who chose interdependence ever found despair. Because what the world taught as weakness, is in fact our greatest virtue. As the talk of protecting the Robert Mueller investigation continues, democrats are warning that the investigation by the House Intelligence Committee appears to be in danger of being shut down by the republican majority. Congressman trey gowdy, a republican on that Committee Told nbc news that it is in the publics interest to finish this as quickly as possible so they can issue a final report. He accused democrats of wanting to prolong their work for political reasons. Quote, there is not a single soul with an open mind who is waiting on the house of representatives russia investigation to unlock the mist travel office world for them. There are people who have already made up their minds waiting to see whether or not the previously held conviction will be validated. But i think most people are waiting on mueller. The chairman of the House Select Committee on benghazi, chairman gowdy preside over one of the longest running special c committees in the history of the United States congress. It was longer than investigations into pearl harbor, the kennedy assassination, watergate, and the 9 11 attacks. And his Committee Also followed several other congressional committees on benghazi. Congressman Eric Swalwell of Southern California a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence. One thing did jump out to me about what gowdy said, which is people are really keyed in on muellers findings ultimately. If thats the case, why does it matter when your investigation wraps up . Good evening, chris. Im more optimistic than my colleague, mr. Gowdy about the role congress can play and the impact we can have, because first, mr. Mueller, hes not charged with making political reforms so that this never happens again. For example, i think one reform thats going have to be put in place is a law that if you are approached by a Foreign National offering information about your political opponent, there should be a duty to report. Right now there is no duty to report. And we saw there was no report the big trump family or the Trump Campaign. And then also what role does social media play Going Forward if they see attacks happening on their platforms, or if coordination is occurring with campai campaigns. There is a lot we could learn if we were to run a thorough investigation. Im more optimistic what we could do if we actually were curious and wanted to make a difference. Your colleague adam schiff, who is the Ranking Member on that committee, has shared his concerns that essentially