Its thursday, may 31. Aim ayman mohyeldin. We begin with the russian investigation. The counsel has obtained more information about the potential obstruction of justice. Andrew mccabe provided Robert Muellers team with a secret memo he wrote, fearing a cover story had been hatched for the firing of comey. Mccabe attended a meeting in may of 2017 shortly after Deputy Attorney general Rob Rosenstein wrote his memo that claimed comey was fired for his handling of the Hillary Clinton investigation. Well, the times sources say in the meeting, rosenstein said that the president had originally asked him to reference russia in the memo. Rosenstein did not elaborate on what he wanted him to say. That seemed like the possible evidence that the firing was actually related to the fbis investigation into the Trump Campaign ties to russia and that rosenstein helped to provide a cover story by writing about the clinton investigation instead. The fbi fired mccabe in march after an internal report determined he had not been fully truthful in his answers about the handling of the clinton probe. At the time, mccabe said, quote, im being singled out and treated this way because of the role i played, the actions i took and the events i witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of jim comey. And President Trump went to bed with the u. S. Attorney general on his mind, it seems tweeting a quotation at 11 21. The recusal of Jeff Sessions was an unforced me trail of the president of the United States. Sessions was spotted leaving the white house yesterday after the president singled him out earl yesser in the morning tweet earlier in the morning tweeting these comments from trey gowdy. If i picked someone to be the chief Law Enforcement officer and they told her oh, by the way, im not able to participate in the most important case in the office that would be frustrated too. Senator sessions, why didnt you tell me before i picked you . There are lots of good lawyers in the country, he could have picked someone else. So after that, trump posted gowdys remarks, yesterday, Rudy Giuliani said he has some grievances but he wont fire him before this is over. Giuliani had this to say. Well, i dont think anybody in the cabinet in any administration is totally secure. Yeah, i dont think the president is going to touch him. Mueller or rosenstein. Has he ever said to you, id like to get rid of Jeff Sessions . I decline to answer that. So he commented on the state of the preparations for a potential interview between President Trump and bob mueller. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell tweeted this. Giuliani said he has done in person and by phone sessions with the president and he said hes doing the q a to educate me and giuliani says i want to know what i can say thats not privileged, what i cant say which is privileged. The president s lawyer appeared to push bob mueller on a september 1st completion deadline. 11 days ago he said that mueller had said he hoped to wrap up the investigation of the president by that september 1st deadline but yesterday giuliani seemed to suggest it was the trump legal teams deadline for mueller to retain his credibility. Listen to this. What they have heck, by september 1st the public should have an explanation of what mueller has. I really want that because i dont think he has it. The president said he well, if he doesnt, file his report by september 1st, in september, hes clearly doing a comey. Okay. So last night giuliani was on fox news where he talked more about the trump legal teams unconventional strategy in the russia probe. Some people have criticized my strategy which is the president s of to some extent playing to the american people. If this were a regular case i wouldnt be doing it, but the people who will decide this are the people of the United States and the 2018 election. And they boy, theyre switching fast and the democrats are running for cover. You dont hear them say the words impeachment anymore. All right, joining us now to discuss is politics reporter roll call brigitte bowman. Thank you for joining us so early, appreciate it. Lets start with giulianis comments there, really saying that the people are going to decide this are the people that are voting for the president nonetheless. What do you make of that . I think it is notable that hes acknowledging that theres a political strategy to all of this. Republicans do tend to believe that the threat of impeaching President Trump should democrats win the majority in the house is something that could really energize the president s supporters. Remember, this election cycle we are seeing a lot of energy on the democratic side. Republicans are concerned that their voters, particularly trump voters, people who may have voted for the first time in a while in the 2016 election might not turn out in november. But if they see a vote in november as defending the president from impeachment that could energize those on the ballot. Well get pack to the midterms because thats emerging as referendum on both the Republican Party and on trump at large. But i want to ask you about the attorney general Jeff Sessions and the set of tweets that have come out from President Trump in the past 24 hours with relations between the two. By most peoples accounts strained once again. Can we expect to see any possible fallout . And the big question is could this be enough to push sessions out . It does not seem likely that the president is going to fire him because of all the obvious questions thats going to raise. Thats a really good question. Im interested to see if theres any congressional pushback from either republicans or even democrats in congress to some of these increased tensions and suggestions by the president that he doesnt want sessions still in charge. Members of congress tend to, you know, be opposed to the president meddling with the justice department. Whether this is enough to force sessions out remains to be seen. Remember when he was a senator he was really passionate about the criminal criminal system, about policies that as he direct he has direct authority over. Would he be willing to give that up, im not so convinced of that but we have to wait and see. You cant help but think a tweet like that really undermines sessions on the when he sees Something Like that. Yeah, how will the rest of the doj feel . Dont forget, he was one of the first people to support President Trump. I know a lot of talks are surrounding the primary out in california. How are the republicans ground game looking in california right now . So republicans in california right now are really focused on turnout. It is interesting republicans have seen a decline in the state in recent years. Just yesterday those voters who dont identify with either party actually surpassed registered republicans in terms of voter registration. So republicans are effectively almost a third party in california right now. Democrats are really targeting a number of republican held house seats in california. They see a lot of opportunities for flipping the number of seats here. So republicans are trying to make sure that their voters turn out. The state and the National Party have both been active here. The National RepublicanCongressional Committee which is the political arm of House Republicans actually has an office, a field out of in southern california. I was just there last week. They have a number of staffers on the ground making phone calls, making sure voters remember theres an election coming up and that they turn out and vote. Well touch base with you in a little bit. Lawyers for Michael Cohen were wrangling over what should be protected by Attorney Client privilege. The judge has given the legal team just over two more weeks to review more than 2 million items. His attorneys said it will take until mid july to finish by the judge set a june 15th deadline saying quote, it is important for the court to balance the slow, deliberate needs of those who are asserting Attorney Client privilege with the need for an investigation to go forward. Now, prosecutors say they are still trying to piece together the contents of a shredder and get access to two blackberries. Meanwhile, Michael Avenatti has dropped his bid to join the cohen case after the judge said that he would first have to drop his quote, publicity tour. However, he claimed that trumps voice is on audiotapes that cohen recorded. Just like the nixon tapes years ago, we now have what i will refer to as the trump tapes. Mr. Ryan admitted that there are audio recordings that Michael Cohen was taking for years. Not only do they exist, but they are under lock and key and some of them relate to my client and her Attorney Client privilege communications. Youre calling these the trump tapes. That is very interesting. Thats very exciting. But you dont in fact know whether donald trump is or is not on any of the tapes yet. Well, i know for a fact that donald trump is on at least one of these recordings already. Im not going to how do you know that . I wont get into details of how i know that. But would you say that in court . Absolutely. So youre saying as a matter of fact you know that at least in one occasion he is on the tape. Yes. You know that because you have heard that tape . I wont get into if you havent heard that tape do you know that or think that because someone told you that . Let me answer your question, okay. On at least one of the recordings donald trump is on one of the recordings, at least one of them. I know that for fact. I stand behind it. If you look at my track record over the last three months it is impeccable. Would you describe that as something you have personal knowledge of it . Yes. So the topic of the audiotapes was raised in court yesterday, but cohens attorney did not identify anyone who may be on those recordings. They claim that President Trumps voice is on them. Is avenattis assertion alone. Lets turn to mike pompeo meeting with north korean vice charge Kim Yong Chol last night in the government owned apartment in new york city. These pictures provided by the state department no press was actually allowed into the meeting. The dinner meeting which lasted just under an hour and a half is part of the background leading to the trump kim summit which may or may not still be on. And if so, may or may not still be taking place on june 12th in singapore. Pompeo was mum after the meeting saying it was great and they dined on quote, american beef. Pompeo and chol are set to have more meetings today and pompeo will speak to the staff later on this afternoon. The major goal of the meetings is to continue to discuss a time line for north koreas denuclearization. It comes as u. S. Teams continue to meet with north korean officials in both panmunjom and singapore. All right. Now a bizarre story overseas where a journalist turned up at a News Conference one day after being declared murdered. Richard engel has the details. Reporter gasps of disbelief. And applause as russian journalist Arkady Babchenko who Ukrainian Police was murdered, shot three times in the apartment, dying in an answer ambulance, even putting out a sketch of the suspect. Yesterday, back from the dead walking in with the Police Announcing it was all staged. I apologize to my wife for all the hell she had to do through, babchenko said. News of his murder sparked an outcry. Supporters laying flowers at memorials and blaming russia for ordering the hit. Babchenko is a critic of vladimir putin. While russia denied involvement, many of putins critics have been shot or poisoned over the years including opposition leaders right next to the kremlin. He was shot in the pack five times right in front of his girlfriend, but this time Ukraine Security forces say it was a sting operation which led to the arrest of a man allegedly paid 40,000 by moscow to organize the murder. There was no other way, babchenko said, but many are asking will the hoax create doubts about other reporters actually murdered for doing their jobs . All right. Our thanks to Richard Engel for that report. A lot of interesting questions in that methodology there by the Ukrainian Secret Service and authorities. The kid who brought that White House Press secretary to tears, plus the latest on the kim summit. And the president s meeting with Kim Kardashian. What came of that. Were back in a moment. Stay with us. Powerful potential. Signature toughness. And one more thing. The world comes with it. The new, reimagined 2019 jeep cherokee. I needthats whenvice foi remembered that my exex exboyfriend actually went to law school, so i called him. He didnt call me back if your exex exboyfriend isnt a lawyer, call legalzoom and well connect you with an attorney. Legalzoom. Where life meets legal. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. 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I think that as a kid and certainly as a parent there is nothing that could be more terrifying for a kid to go to school and not feel safe, so im sorry that you feel that way. This Administration Takes it seriously and the School Safety commission that the president convened is meeting this week again in an official meeting to discuss the best ways forward and how we can do every single thing within our power to protect kids in our schools and to make them feel safe and their parents dropping them off. She is the mother of i believe four kids, you can understand why shes visibly rattled by that question. That was 13yearold Benje Choucroun who was there to cover the white house, sports and fitness day, time for kids, instead he used his question to ask sanders about the School Shootings and gun reform. Widely shared and praised across social media. While he was initially nervous because sanders is quote a big deal, hes glad he could draw attention to the issue. He looked like he had it. I didnt think he was showing any nerves there. Yes. Yesterday, Kim Kardashianwest talked about Prison Reform and a possible pardon of a grandmother who has served two decades of a life sentence for a first time conviction based in her role in the Drug Trafficking case. Jared kushner arranged the meeting and in fact, he is overseeing the push to overhaul the nations prison system. Trump tweeted out this photo of him and kim in the oval office yesterday. Now, after the meeting kardashianwest tweeted her thanks to the president. Going on to tweet, quote, we are optimistic about ms. Johnsons future and hopeful that she and so many like her will get a Second Chance at life. Quite a day at the white house. Yeah, joking aside, i think obviously this president deals a lot with celebrities. We talked a little bit about this yesterday. He had an affinity for celebrities so if theres somebody out in the public eye who can raise an important issue and get the president s ear so be it. Its a good day. Lets get a check of your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Good morning. Anyone headed to the charlottesville area, a lot of problems overnight. If you watch my finger, you can see that these showers and thunderstorms lasted for about six hours. One spot picked up a foot of rain. There was a flash flood emergency in place overnight and theres a report of two people in a prius that got washed away. They have yet to be found. There are numerous roads washed out in the area. Be careful throughout this region if youre going to be traveling and near there. We still have one Flash Flood Warning, actually two near waynesboro also. And we have a Flash Flood Watch for the washington, d. C. baltimore area. This is until 2 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning and localized two to four inches. This is expected with the next round of thunderstorms later this afternoon. And into tonight. We had a pretty impressive complex of storms roll in through oklahoma. Look at all the lightning strikes this one. This woke people up overnight. Tulsa, looks like round two is coming on through. And then we do this all over again.