Evidence that members of the president s inner circle has been willing to auction off American Foreign policy to the highest bidder. And that might be more than anything the story of the corruption of this presidency. More even than the mueller instigion which, of course, keeps expanding in Different Directions growing more and more complicated so complicated its no surprise so many people seem to have lost the plot. According to a new report, 59 of americans say the investigation has yet to uncover any crimes which could not be further from the truth. In fact, in little more than a year, the special counsel has secured 19 indictments and five guilty pleas, two of which were entered by the president s former National Security adviser and Deputy Campaign chairman both now cooperating witnesses. The campaign of the president of the United States including some of its most senior members was staffed with criminals. That is a fact. The basic outline of the trump russia story hasnt changed. We know russia sabotaged the election to help put trump in his office. The president and his campaign openly solicited that help. They didnt care who it came from. What we dont know is whether they broke any laws in the process. Heres the crazy thing and the thing thats hard to understand as it happens right in front of our face. The russia story is turning out it appears to be just a small piece of what is now emerging as the major all encompassing scandal of the Trump Administration. Everywhere you look, people close to the president eager to sell out american interests to any Foreign National ready with a check for a promise. Its the precise opposite of what this president promised on the day he took the oath of office. We will seek friendship and good will with the nations of the world but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. From this day forward, its going to be only America First. America first. Except not so much. Because its quite clear now that in many cases america came in second to the interests of the president , his associates. His National Security veezer Michael Flynn was secretly being paid by turkey during the campaign and into the transition, pushing for more favorable policy towards the turkish strong man. An oped he published on election day. Paul manafort former Campaign Chairman rung the campaign at a certain point was entangled with russia and ukrainian interests by leveraging his role running a president ial campaign quote agemail of his, how do we use to get whole . The president s business associe,ne ohis closest advisers Michael Cohen was reportedly pitching the government of qatar at trump tower soliciting a 1 million payment in exchange for access to the new administration. It turns out the president s own son, donald trump jr. Wasnt just interested in what russia could do for the campaign. He met with an israeli, an emissary from the saudi government and the United Arab Emirates in the months before election. Today we learned of what looks like looks like yet another example of the president s inner circle selling off u. S. Foreign policy. Bbc reporting citing sources in key effective close to those involved, the president of ukraine secretly funneled 400,000 to Michael Cohenton arrange a meeting at the white house. Cohen and the ukrainian president both deny the report. It has not been confirmed by nbc news. The last summer the ukrainians got their meeting in the oval office after it was added to the president s schedules the night before. Its a great honor to be, president poroshenko of the ukraine, a place weve all been very much involved in and youve been seeing it and ofs been reading about it. To understand what the president s people are up to, im joined by jennifer ruben, legal analyst nick akerman, former watergate prosecutor. Jennifer, this seems to me what is coming into view, the America First presidency actually guided by perhaps the monetary interests are of the people around the president s inner circle. Thats right. They had their hand out from the beginning. Some people were contacting them. They had Michael Cohen reaching out to other people. This included Corporate America and not just foreign interests but certainly foreign interests, as well. This went on during the campaign, during the transition and we still have it going on. We still have the president s soninlaw meeting with banking interests and then the next day receiving loans for a troubled property. We still see that uae and the saudis are interested in leveraging jareds interests, financial interests. So it has been one big scam from the beginning. And it doesnt really matter i think whether they were quote successful or not successful. If anything was exchanged of value later on, that is out and out bribery. Theres no excuse that these people were somehow political neophytes or didnt know what they were doing. They were bargaining away american policy to the highest bidders. You follow the russia investigation closely. What do you say to someone who says look, you had the u they met with the ukrainian president. How could it be tilted to russia when theyre meeting with ukraine. Simple. Michael cohen six months earlier putting in this plan for peace with the ukraine that involved basically getting rid of all the sanctions. And. On russia. And giving a lease to russia to crimea. So he doesnt care. They just want the money. All theyre interested in is lining their own pockets. With respect to the ukraine and the sanctions that was part of the quid pro quo for the russian help in the election. Thats your theory. Its my theory and im almost certain it is correct. Because thats what flynn pleds guilty to, lying about the sanctions with kislyak. The thing i think about having covered machine politics in illinois, right, jennifer, youve got politicians, the National Politicians we think of them as deeply ideological parties that have commitments based on coalitions theyve assembled. Machine politics in illinois and chicago, its totally transaction actional. The blagojevich ive got this thing and its golden. If you view American Foreign policy that way, you dont have any commitments, ukraine, russia, qatar, uae, anything you can sell thats exactly right. Donald trump doesnt have beliefs about anything and he really doesnt have any beliefs about foreign policy. All he knows is whatever barack obama did must be wrong. Hes going to do the opposite. Even if it makes no sense whatsoever. So youre right. Unless you are tied to some word view, some ideology, youre bouncing around and guess where hes bouncing . Hes bouncing where his financially lucrative for him. We havent touched upon the emoluments he is receiving, foreign monies from foreign states either in terms of bookings at hotels or trademarks from china. Thats an improper foreign influence, as well. Thats continued on during his administration. And the ramifications here, chris, are enormous. Hes taking the side of the saudis and the uae against iran so he dumps the iran deal. Hes taking their side against qatar which is one of our strongest allies in the gulf. And has a base for 10,000 american troops. And so hes turning his back on them. Its like one story after another with china, hes bashing china but yet all of a sudden, was a zte he was going to impose sanctions. He takes them off after all of a sudden coincidentally this company that hes got in indonesia gets money. Half a billion dollars from the chinese government. The craziest this you talk about ukraine and russia, theres a similarity which is in both cases, qatar and uae are having a beef. Theyre fighting each other for u. S. Influence. Youve got ukraine and Russia Fighting for influence. What better of a situation if youre an auctioneer than when have you two bidders. Exactly. Seriously, that is what the picture starts to look like. Youve got ukraine, weve got reporting saying the week after president poroshenko rushed home to key effective, ukraines National Anticorruption bureau announced it was no longer investigating Paul Manafort. Everything starts to look a lot like quid and quo when you cant trust the intentions. Thats right. It doesnt really matter if what youre doing is contradictory because youre going to satisfy everyone. Sure, you can give defensive arms to ukraine but you can also try to maybe lift sanctions against russia. It doesnt have to make any sense. In fact, it rarely does. And you know, i does appreciate the difficulty of kind of explaining this in a simple form. But every time you look at this theres something new. What about the secret meetings in the seychelles arranged by none other than the guy who started blackwater . You know, practically in every country around the globe, theres some fox intrigue and some form of deceit. None of this was revealed during the campaign. People didnt disclose it on their security clearance forms. If there was nothing wrong with this, why werent they telling us up front who they had been meeting with. Fichbl thing for you about watergate. The break in was the central story. There were tons of other criminal activity of interlocked with the president s inner circ, bribery, money changing has. Lost to history. Right. This Campaign Contribution issue is huge. I mean, thousands of dollars, millions of dollars in cash being transferred, the president s personal lawyer kind of like Michael Cohen was right out there as the bagman. The same role that Michael Cohen is playing here. The parallels are absolutely striking. Youve got people making money on the side doing all kinds of things back then that are similar to what is happening now. But ill tell you, i think the Trump Administration in terms of lining their own pockets, asking what their country can do for them and how much money they can make for their country rather than what they should be doing for their country, to paraphrase john f. Kennedy is off the charts. Were going to find out ultimately where all the money went and if the payments if its confirmed that Michael Cohen got this 400,000, theres millions still unaccounted for and where they ended uppitily. Jennifer and nick, grade to have you both. For more, im joined by democratic senator richard blumenthal, member of the Senate Judiciary committee. Are you confident that American Foreign policy isnt being essentially auctioned off at this point . All the indications are in fact that this administration has a for sale sign at the door, not only domestically but also in its foreign policy. Stakes couldnt be higher. After all, president poroshenko is seeking access to the white house through the fixer, through a payment to Michael Cohen because he needs trump on his side to defend his country literally under the threat of russian invasion through their proxy. So his democracy and future are at stake. And he comes to trump seeking favor and then very, very importantly, drops the official investigation of Paul Manafort and shuts down cooperation by his government with the special counsel. So the links go deeper and deeper here. And this whole administration has a culture and a modus operandi of pay to play and influence peddling, the fish rots from the head because trump himself through his own organization is receiving benefits from foreign governments. The reason that we have sued for violation of the imam o mol umt claus and why were also seeking a stronger office of government ethics through legislation that we just offered. The president has very much escalated his attacks on the Civil Servants in the country, the people that make up much of the government calling them the criminal deep state sort of ominously threatening the people might find themselves criminally prosecuted. What do you make of the president s rhetoric over the last several days . Over the last several days, he has doubled down on seeking to undercut the credibility of law enforcement. Thats really his modus operandi. He is seeking to diminish the credibility of the fbi and the department of justice through these allegations of spies and so forth that are the result of his fantasies and imagination. More than fact. And the purpose is to essentially create doubt and distraction but also to undercut the credibility of the investigators before they conclude the investigation of him. And the meeting tomorrow is very, very troubling involving these classified documents. I want to get your response to that. Democrats have asked to be included in na meeting. They will not. The white house saying the gang of eight, sort of top intelligence oversight members of congress will be briefed later. Its going to be two republicans in that room with director of National Intelligence and the head of the fbi and an official of the Justice Department. Is it legitimate for democrats to be excluded from that meeting . Highly illegitimate unprecedented for intelligence to be shared on a partisan basis. Particularly in the midst of a highly charged partisan controversy as is ongoing right now. I want to stop you. You have expressed faith in bipartisan cooperation to protect mueller and Rod Rosenstein and the integrity of the investigation and the basic institutions of independent dispensation of justice in this country. I wonder if that faith is starting to wane as you watch what republican members of congress are doing . My faith certainly has been challenged. But i still have basic hope having talked to many colleagues over the last few days that they will come around to the point of view that Rod Rosenstein needs to be protected as much as the special counsel. Let me interrupt. Do you understand why people watching the House Republican caucus do what its doing feel like maybe that faith is not earned . I understand totally. And in fact, there are moments of every day, more than a few moments when my own faith wanes. And i fear and it is an existential fear that our democracy is in danger as never before, that our institutions are in peril because the president has shattered all norms. He has operated without the normal rules that guide our democracy in terms of respect for the basic rule of law and justice, and i fully understand why americans are losing faith in a system that is failing to react as it should. I can only hope that this Wishful Thinking on the part of my republican colleagues will wane also. Senator richard blumenthal, thank you for your time. Thank you. Next the logic behind President Trumps attack on the rule of law and a new claim from his lawyer who said the truths is relative in two minutes. Ahh. Summer is coming. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. 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There was a method to his madness when trump goes on the attack, listen to lesley stahl of 60 minutes tell a story of a rare moment of honesty she witnessed from the president. At one point he started to attack the press and its just me and my boss and him. And he has a huge office. Hes attacking the press. And there were no cameras. There was nothing going on. I said you know, that is getting tired. Why are you doing this . Youre doing it over and over and its boring and its time to end that. You know, youve won the nomination. And why do you keep hammering this . And he said you know why i do it . I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you. He said that. So put that in your head for a minute. Yeah. That is very much the trump playbook. It is precisely precisely the strategy hes using right now to discredit the legitimacy of the fbi, and the special counsels investigation in the eyes of the public as have discussed, you can make an argument its working. For more on the president s strategy, im joined by natasha bertrand, matt miller, from the Justice Department and msnbc justice analyst. Do you think its working, matt . Its working certainly with members of the Republican Party. And you see it not just with people out in the country but with the leadership. There are a number of things hes trying to do. One is discredit the investigation so if bob mueller does produce results, people in the Republican Party reject the results. One is to try to actively interfere with the investigation and make it harder for investigators to do their work. What he does is by sowing this doubt with voters it has ra