The Research Includes early august email exchanges between acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney and white house budge et cetera officials for withholding the funds after the president ordered a hold in midjuly on the merely 400 million in security assistance. Brand new emails thrust mike pompeo ever closer to Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani is known to burnto und investigation by the south korean district of new york. From the new york time, quote, the emails kaindicate that mr. Pompeo spoke twice by telephone with mr. Giuliani in march as mr. Giuliani was urging ukraine to investigate mr. Trumps rivals and trying to oust a respected American Ambassador to ukraine who had been promotie i anticorruption efforts. Mr. Pompeo ordered her removal the next month. One call between giuliani and pompeo was arranged with guidance from mr. Trumps person assistant the document suggests. As we come on the air were watsing for news in the case that could move don mcgahn closer to cooperating with congress and testifying about his time inside the trump west wing. Its case that could have ramifications for the impeachment inquiry. The crux of bad publicity for all the president s men is where we start today. Take us through this blockbuster story that when it landed yesterday, my phone exploded with alerts and texts and emails. Take us through what you broke about the email exchanges where it looks like Mick Mulvaney is trying to conjure up some jus justification. Reporter thats right. Its great piece of reporting by some of my colleagues. It looks at the efforts by the acting white house chief of staff, mulvaney to come up with an explanation for why the president withheld the aid temporarily from ukraine. This effort was conducted after the aide w was withheld. A number of emails among and other budget officials in the administration and including some inquiries as to whether withholding that aid was legal. This was all conducted by the way as part of a white House Counsel offices review of that correspondence looking into this matter and it just shows the extent to which mulvaney and others in the administration were part of an effort to create a cover story for the president s decision to withhold that aid. Theres so much in that story. I want to read you one more chunk. I got two more areas i want to explore. I want to get into this idea that the cover up appears to be inching as close as the crime in terms of the potential sort of blast radius for this white house and the people in it. Let me read some more of this great reporting. You guys report that also included in the review from the white house lawyers our email communications between omb and state Department Officials and others discussing why the white house was holding up nearly 400 million in military aid and whether the hold might violate the law. December 2018 months before the ukraine issue surfacediority fo Government Accountability office warned the omb it was not following the law in how it chose to disperse funds. This seems like a much bigger swath of people that were concerned about criminalalty. I just never seen concerns about breaking the law laid bare from so many different pieces in is from omb and state, omb and the pentagon. All these witnesses testify they couldnt figure out why it was being held up. Fiona hill told it was being held up for Donald Trumps domestic political errand. Reporter aid to ukraine which is the United States has been providing is appropriated by congress. That was the concern that Administration Officials had about withholding it with a violation of law. Its a standard part of American Foreign policy that rpredates te trump administration. Its become increasingly aggressive. Youre right about the effort inside the administration. Its not just the acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney but officials throughout the omb which is the budge et cetera office of the administration as well as the state department trying to figure out sort of what their story would be, what the explanation for withholding that aid might by and trying to determine what they were legally able to do given the guidance they had been provided from elsewhere in the government. Its not the only devastating piece of reporting over the weekend. Brand new email shows that mike pompeo. Whats the expression being all mopped up. He was rudied up way back in march. The phone lines were burning and they were equitiy e connected b trumps personal assistant who put rudy on the phone with mike pompeo who happened to sit in on that call where donald trump asked for a favor though. Whats the significance of pompeo get sucked not just into the congressional impeach. Inquiry but sucked closer to man under criminal investigation by new york . Ompeo, we reported tlen eed theres tensi between him and President Trump in their impeachment inquiry and the president frustrated with him for hiring deep staters like bill taylor. We now perhaps have a window into why mike pompeo has one of the reasons why hes managed to stay in the president s good graces so long because he was willing to do things that wasnt protesting the way say, for instance, john bolton was about what Rudy Giuliani was doing. Thats one thing. Another is mike pompeo has political ambitions. Its an open secret, Everybody Knows it. He may run for senate in kansas. He seems himself as a president ial candidate. Manag Something Like this could really damage him politically. One of the things were looking for is how he navigates this. Hes on an island right now. He doesnt have full backing that he has with the president. Theres not that relationship there in the same way it was a few months ago and hes lost the building over at the state department where he doesnt have the support of the people who work there. How he moves forward as more and more continues to come out is going to be very interesting thing to watch. Thats an interesting point. The question is never whether the men and women who go to work for donald trump will be embroiled in criminality and certain scandal, its now they navr ga navigate it. If don mcgahn is the model, he spent 30 hours with robert mueller, cooperated with that i investigation and is reluctant enough to cooperate with congress. That hes able to keep some of his membership guarcards to gop. Mike pompeo seems to be failing all the standards that mcgahn met. Hes failing the leadership test. I think the oped calling him a westpoint graduate leaving soldiers on the battlefield was devastating. If you want to run for dogcatcher, you cant be that guy. You cant be so weak you leave your soldiers on the battlefield. Its the cancers of donald trump. How everything he touches. I wish we could fast forward five years and in addition to the president s men, the maul va kn mulvaney, the Michael Cohens the devin nunes, everybody he touches will frown upon. The bigamist ri wi mystery with these men, women, mostly men, what do they not get . I dont understand the human behavior, the soulless behavior, the wimp behavior of just being so submissive. I dont know what the spell trump has over them. Obvious lip we talk lot about a cult leader but whether it is these baa foo baffoons we saw aw Rudy Giuliani morphed from a politician to a joke. What is it about this man . Its got to be one of the great psychological studies that forces men to find their lowest, lowest core. I dont know how respected giuliani was. Thats a good point. Whats interesting to me and ill stay with this giuliani piece for a second. If youve worked in executive government, theres always individual who is will sort of extra governmental. There are always folks who exist outside of governmental responsibility. That do things on behalf of that executive. Ive never seen, to your point earlier, someone who is effective so pervasive throughout government they are engaging so many different facets to the point where you have a president saying hes going to withhold congressionally approved funding to serve his own political needs. If that were a democrat, if that were barack obama impeachment wouldnt have to go through hearing. We would have been pushed out a long time ago. The fact we are here is so disturbing. I have people on the street, voters who dont believe that donald trump will be convicted in the senate but are now asking for giulianis arrest and imprisonment. Can i can you a question. Youve been around power closer to anybody. If you were going to break it down and give a why. Why people follow this guy so blindly when its so obvious to us in the Movie Theater watching. You worked for a president , youve been around power your whole life. Whats the difference . My observation, pompeo fascinates me. Hes not without ambition or a brain and hes willing to burn them all down. Hes willing to burn down the three pillars of his future. Conservativ conservative. Hes willing to burn down strength because he looks like a wuss not defending marie yovanovitch. He submitted to Rudy Giuliani. Don mcgahn looked in the mirror and this line he wouldnt cross was firing mueller. I maybe have read it too many times but if you read that second volume of obstruction its about the lines that don mcgahn wouldnt cross. The fact these guys didnt either read it or learn any of the lessons. The line that Michael Cohen would do, i wont go to jail for donald trump. Theres three guys going to jail. Roger stone, Michael Cohen and paul manafort. Hes been there long enough that if you do his bidding, you will end up in jail and i cant believe mike pompeo cant land himself on that right side of that line. Its power and corruption. Ultimately the question is how much are you willing to corrupt yourself to have access to power. Right now donald trump is powerful not just because of who he is but the base he commands inside the Republican Party. Hes been playing the music for last three years that every one in the Republican Party dances too. I think the gamble all these individuals are making is the music isnt going to stop. Its not going to stop until they manage to get their next office. The problem is all of them have with this scandal and every other. I think about the watergate father or moth formulation, its different for these guys. With pompeo and pence, whats what did they know . When did they know and what did they do about it . They knew everything. They knew everything about this ukraine scandal. They knew it from the beginning and they did nothing. If they did anything at all it was to help the president. The question with all of them is is music ever going stop and will they ever pay a price . I want to make the term to you with phil rutgers because i saw your tweet on this last niepg night. The back story, this is an investigation into mulvaneys conduct by the guy who probably sits to his right or left at the white house senior staff meeting. The white House Counsel. This is against the backdrop of this white house investigating itself and throwing another guy, i guess hes already under the bus but maybe backing up over him. Im a little curious at the white House Counsel at his decision to open this investigation in the first place. Usually its because you want to turn yourself in and turn in the best set of facts to the authorities. This white house is never going to do that. Its not like they will produce the results. Here is what we did and we made these mistakes. I dont think they found any evidence. Because it would have leaked. Thats exactly. You would have seen it. Its been reported that the white House Counsel wants to be the white house chief of staff. Here he start this is investigation that magically finds faults by the white house chief of staff. Looks like the white house continues to be a den of vipers where you have the white House Counsel leaking about the white house chief of staff and you see this quote from omb saying it was approved by the lawyers at ef step every step of the way. It seems like nasty place to work. Just to get in the weeds, but the white House Counsel is investigating one of his deputies. Mr. Eisenberg who is the white House Counsel lawyer assigned to this pig pen of a mess is being revud. It was his decision to store the notes on a top secret server that one of the witnesses said was a mistake. That is also under scrutiny. What do you know about the white House Counsels investigation into his deputy and the acting chief of staff . Reporter well, sundays around here it feels like everybody is investigatining everybody else. And leaking about it. Reporter the investigation into there deputy white House Counsel is significant because that stems to the decision that was made to put the notes, the transcript of the call between President Trump and president zelensky into that secret server thats only supposed to be used for more highly classified and sensitive conversations. That was a decision that based on the reporting, at least, was made in the counsels office and by that particular lawyer and so that seems to be the investigation there. The broader investigation between or into Mick Mulvaneys communications that we have been talking about this afternoon is clearly an effort by the white house to get its hands around what exactly went on here and to really understand all of the facts they are having to deal with. I think matt made an important point that shouldnt be over looked and theres been tension at the white house for months between the acting white house chief of staff mulvaney and the white House Counsel. They have a rather fraught relationship. Thats not new. Its been exacerbated by the impeachment inquiry thats ratcheted up the pressure and created a great deal of conflict between them. Were talking about pompeo not defending any of his folks. Its interesting that we heard is the white House Counsel will investigate his deputy. Any visibility into how that office is holding up . Reporter its a lot of strain at the moment. I dont know the exact status of that relationship. I dont think that investigation is over with, by the way or if it is we dont know what the outcome is. Its never boring and were always greatful when you spend time with us. After the break, new reporting that suggests the president s top defender in congress was caught red handed trying to meddle in the 2020 election. Imagine that. The source, rudys former side kick. It gets weirder. Were bring you that stunning new account. The president takes a wrecking ball to one of the institutions that seemed to be holding up better than most. The United States military. Well go behind the abrupt resignation of the secretary of the navy. Mike bloomberg goes big diving into the 2020 president ial campaign with a big ad buy in one of our favorite friends and reporters joining that effort. All those stories, coming up. All those stories, coming up donald trump is perfected the art of political projection but it seems his mini me devin nunes isnt far behind. An attorney representing lev parnas, hes been indietsed for Campaign Finance crimes, he claims that nunes met with officials about the bidens. Nunes seemed to deny by attacking the media are only one of the picture of what exactly fiona hill warned americans about. Another one of if thes top defenders senator kennedy said he did not know. He had no idea who attacked the 2016 elections even though the entire Intelligence Community says it was russia. Who dou you believe was responsible for hacking the dnc and Clinton Campaign commuters, emails . Was it russia or ukraine . I dont know nor do you nor do any of us. Miss hill let me just interrupt to say the entire Intelligence Community says it was russia. Right. It could also be ukraine. Im not saying that i know one way or the other. Im saying that miss hill is entitled to her opinion but no rebuttal evidence was allowed to be offered. Cause its not an opinion. Its a cold hard fact but that right there was exactly is as vladimir Vladmir Putin wanted it. Its just an unbelievable spectacle. I know what putin has sent them in their gift baskets for the holidays but he is getting such a return on the investment he made in 2016 from the gop. Its unbelievable. Yeah. That was a really stark, striking comment by the senator particularly because you know this better than anybody, the Republican Party traditionally is very tough on russia. This is an issue that a number of people in the senate and elsewhere have really pushed hard on over the years and to just see that sort of crumble is really startling and just generally the way that you have a sitting u. S. Senator out there and weve already seen the president do this early on just disagreeing with every Intelligence Agency in the u. S. Government. That in and of itself is something that prior to President Trump we really didnt see from republicans and the long term consequences of that i think are something that we dont yet know what they are going to be. Certainly, when you undercut that u. S. Intelligence community and embolden Vladimir Putin who is no friend of the United States, thats something you talk to any Foreign Policy exexpee expert and they will tell you its a danger