The grand jury. Also this afternoon, the wall street journal report thad mueller is quote examining what role, if any, former National Security advisor mike flynn may have played in a private effort to obtain Hillary Clintons emails from russian hackers. That effort to work with hackers was led by a longtime republican activist who described flynn as an allie, according to journal. Then there was this Washington Post report today about concern within the cia. According to post, cia director mike pompeo has taken a special interest in an agency unit that is closely tied to the investigation into possible collusion between russia and the Trump Campaign, requiring the Counterintelligence Center or Mission Center to report directly to him. Officials at the center have, in turn, kept a watchful eye on pompeo, himself, who has repeatedly played down the interference into the election and demonstrated skirmishes on behalf of trump. There is concern about what he will do if the cia uncovers new potentially damaging information about the president. One u. S. Official told the post people have to watch him. Its almost as if he cant resist the impulse to be political. For more i am joined by National Security reporterden ken delanian and a californian member of the House Intelligent Committee and analyst malcolm nance, eli stokeles, the washington journal. In that order what do we make of the fact counsel mueller and his people are issuing subpoenas, theyre going after manafort who always looked like the low hanging fruit, it doesnt surprise me theyre moving faster on him because of his commercial entanglements with all elements of the russian hierarchy. It doesnt surprise me either, chris, what this is at bottom is an efforty Paul Manafort was paid 17 million by a russianbacked ukrainian political party. This was a lobbying campaign from 2012 through 2014. Pr firms were paid to lobby on behalf of this ukrainian regime they didnt register at the time. They subsequently have done so. Now mueller wants to know, who got paid, what did they do . Hes not just asking. He is compelling their testimony before a grand jury and as you know when you go before a grand jury, you cant lie. If you lie, you go to jail. Congressman, what do have you on this on the committee . What is it that theyre looking at him for . We know he was a central figure at one of the most intense periods of russias interference, chris, he presided as chairman when the convention took place. He was a part of the team that aloud carter page to travel to moscow. He was in that meeting and had ties financially and politically to russia. This shows that progress is being made. It shows these investigation take a very long time, especially when you are dealing with such complex Financial Transactions and communications. Eli what do you got on him in low hanging fruit because from the beginning of this sort of inquest, which began months ago, we have wondered, first of all, why did trump pick manafor the, all his relationships seem to be russian. What was that bent about . What did he expect to get from a guy that had these entanglements, except he wanted them . Our time is the campaign was in a fraud place a. Friend of his, a friend of President Trump told him, hey, i got a guys, i know somebody, he will be good at this, he will stabilize the campaign, its unsure whether the president was aware of Paul Manafort entang himments. It is clear he is a top target of this probe. You enthe president over several months, distance himself from a lot of people, including Paul Manafort. They never had a close personal relationship. O he said he was a guy that worked for me, he wasnt there that long. Malcolm. Give me a full sense, i have an instinct, too, its not as professional as yours about manafort. He seems like the kind of guy that will be involved in a lot of intrigue, fought everything you want to put out on the table a. Bit like that. Thats my hunch. Well, he has a history at this. You know, he worked for the, you know, the dictators lobby. But i think, what mueller and his team were doing is very, very smart. They are throwing a circle around manaforts financial past. They will determine either he was working with the kremlin as a kremlin asset or he was just really a poor choice businessman with a poor choice of clients. But by issuing these subpoenas, they are going to squeeze everyone thats ever worked for him and theyre going to determine whether there is documents, statements or processes that are missing there to make him talk. Well, you know how everybody in russia always has an american . Ive we heard about this for years. They got an american, they work through. Can you imagine putin when he hears trump, one of the candidates for president and not Hillary Clinton has brought manafort aboard as his chairman. He must go, wow i hit the irish sweepstakes here. One of the guys i deal with is the top guy, looked like the top guy for a few months there in the whole campaign for trump. Is it just serendipity here . What do you think . We also have general flynn. Okay. And general flynn go ahead. You youre raising the fundamental question here, we know Paul Manafort is if serious dep jepp naerd marriopardy. The question is what is the relevance to the question of whether the Trump Campaign colluded with russia. Is there a connection here . Do his russian entanglements in his business past bear on the question of Trump Campaign collusion with russia . That we dont know yet. But thats where this is all going. Well, if you are trump, you must wonder, did i start this or did the russians start this . At some point you go, you know how russians do, you meet a pretty girl on the subway platform, lfrls you are having a relationship, all of a sudden she is a spy, are you a fool. You are shaking your head, i think thats russian trade craft. I think what we have here is the fundamental question that everyone must answer, before they do anything, is, is this a russian operation . Was this a large scale longterm operation in which they tap their asset, palm manafort to come out and try to manipulate this . I think thats where this is going. As i mentioned earlier, according to wall street journal again, muellers team is looking into Michael Flynns role with an effort to work with hackers to obtain Hillary Clintons deleted emails. In fact, last july, President Trump openly called on russia to fine those emails. He was open with us. Lets watch him. Russia, if you are listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded meetly by our press. Congressman, this is like in plain sight here. Heres a guy, a candidate for president , saying, go out and get what you can on my opponent. But are you not supposed to get help from overseas. You can say democrats abroad, republicans abroad i suppose, but you cant have foreign powers helping you in a campaign, its illegal. There he was asking for an illegal act by the russians. Thats right. When you combine this with the june 9 email the Trump Campaign certainly was willing and eager to receive information from the russians. As peter smith, unfortunately hes deceased. We wont learn any more if he worked with him. He committed suicide. If the russians were placing bets, they werent on palm manafort. There were a number in Donald Trumps inner circle who had prior relationships with the russians, general flynn received money from russian today and sat next to vladimir putin. A huge insult to the united states. So there are a number of efforts the russians at least were making, the question remains, did the Trump Campaign take them up on it and work on it. My college shane harris has been out on this story. He talked to this republican operative pet ter smith. He is 81yearsold and committed suicide. Days after talking to shane and told him and acknowledged he was out there soliciting from hackers these 33,000 emails they thought were out there that assumed were in russian hands. Thats unclear, he would tell people im working with mike flynn. I can get these to the Trump Campaign. Thats what happened. He committed suicide after confirming that story and now there is obvious questions, you can understand the attention being paid to flynn, because mueller wants to know if flynn was working with him. Condition you first, then malcolm. What do we know about that, about flynn, this guy smith, who committed suicide, who may have been able to get something from the russians, certainly went looking to the russians, as to the candidate, he wanted somebody to do it. Get me what they got on hillary. There is one of the most incredible and bizarre stories in this whole russia saga, right . My hat is off to shane harris for bringing this story. Peter mysmith was serious. If mike flynn was found to have participated, it will be a serious problem for mike flynn and the campaign. What, legally . I think so, there is a legal theory if you receive something of value from a Foreign Government, thats an inlegal Campaign Contribution. Some information, there is a question about whether thats something of value. Clearly, these emails would have been something of value. Where i work, they pay for that, its called a commodity. Malcolm, your thoughts about the evidence we have that this was something going on . Because when the president comes out publicly and sort of was bragadocous, all right, russians, come out, give me something on hillary. Why dont you hack on her emails . He was thinking of breaking the law. He didnting a like he thought he was breaking the law. You have to remember, mike flynn had access to systems and plans and processes that brought large quantities of information right to his desk every day. You know when i was working at nsa, we had a sign in our division, it said, gentleman dont read other gentlemans emails. Except for us. I think mike flynn may have brought to ticketu dictum to th company. When he saw these things dangled in front of him, instead of viewing it from a counterintelligence purpose of fought touching russian assets, he may have gone for it. We den know yet. Speaking of getting the information and trying to get more the cia director mike pompeo, a close allie of the president. Even though hes ahead of the agency now, he played down the russian hacking saying its something moscow has done before, no big deem. Here he is. Did russia intervene in our election . Of course. And the one before that, and the one before that. They have been at this a hell of a long time. I dont think they have any intention of backing off. Reporter well, according to Washington Post, pompeo spends more time at the white house than his recent cia predecessors and is seen more to wage if battles on their behalf. When asked about interference, he becomes testy and cites talking points. Earlier officials were enlisted to make calls to news organizations speaking on anonymity to dispute a New York Times article about contacts between russian and individuals tied to the Trump Campaign. Recently pompeo defended the response to charlottesville. Lets watch that. I think the president was frankly pretty unambiguous about what his Justice Department is going to do the way he views how utterly inappropriate it is for this hatred and bigotry. I think the president s remarks were very clear. Eli, you have as to wonder since this president , President Trump put the article on others, certainly on james comey before he fired him, help me quash this baby. You have to wonder what his conversations are with pompeo, who heads the counterintelligence efforts in the cia that would be usually responsible for getting more information to show this relationship between the trump people and the russians, yet you have to wonder how vigorous he is in overseeing that. There is ample evidence that this president expects loyalty, that he asks for it and we know from the comey situation that it was comeys refusal to say ill loyal to you. Ill let the investigation go. Thats what cost jim comey his job. So pompeo is still there. We dont know about their personal conversation, private conversations, but you know you can read between the lines because you do see the way pompeo is out there answering these questions. Congressman, you worked with mr. Pompeo on the same committee. You do have full confidence he will be a Public Service and bring all evidence he can, in terms of further development on the intel regarding the Trump Campaign in this relationship, such as it was with the russians . Will he be aggressive in doing that job or will he be the president s guy . Which one . Chris, i like mike pompeo, hes a bright guy. He served our country. I have found so far that the committee has had great cooperation with the agency. So it does trouble me to read this. I think its something we should learn more about. Frankly, chris, in this situation, with the Russian Investigation, i mostly am worried about the principle and not the deputies. I am worried the way the president has been acting and he has been bullying and obstructing people. We learned this week he had called senators who had written legislation to make sure mueller would stay in place to back off. That he seems to be the leads here. Some people are following his lead because the principal is acting inappropriately. Do you believe in the democrat trying to protect the special counsel bob mueller from getting fired by the president , the fact that he wouldnt put his article on him not to support that legislation, no to the cosponsor it . Do you think thats an aspec of obstruction . He certainly made innocent people cooperate with investigators. They want to get the investigation over with as soon as possible. She actually working against himself, because his obstruction delayed the committees investigations, it continues i think to delay the fbi and the department of justices investigation. Thats not how an innocent person would conduct himself. Thank you for joining us. Our colleague here, u. S. Congressmen, thank you, sir, for that. Especially the last part. My colleague right here the wall street journal has done a bangup job here. Coming up. Much more on tonights Russian Investigation. Nbc news is reporting that more subpoenas have been issued by mueller. Plus the wall street journal has investigated what role, if any, Michael Flynn in seeking emails for the russian hackers. He didnt even know they had him. Hes trying to get it from him. Plus, President Trump braces for an important test of his presidency as a category 4 bears down on the gulf coast, likely to become a powerful storm in a decade. We will have a live report out of texas. A top member of the president s team breaks his silence, saying the white house can and must do better in condemning hate groups. How will trump respond to that . This is hardball where the action is. The average familys hectic home its witnessed 2 diy duos, 31 crashes, 4 food fights, and the flood of 09. Its your paradise perfected with behr premium plus paint. The best you can buy starting under 25. Only at the home depot. Obviously, the other major story we are following tonight, Hurricane Harvey is now a massive category4 storm. I am joined by ms nbc news catty beck in Corpus Christi where the storm is expected to make land faum. Katie, where are we on this to number four . What does that tell us . Well, things are going to get progressively worse. They have been getting worse all day. We can see conditions, rain, wind, downed trees. There is over 30,000 people at Corpus Christi without power, including our hotel room. The hotel is without power. Theyre expecting a storm surge that can be between six and 12 feet. Theyre expecting winds to be 130 miles an hour. So the devastation will be considerable for the state of texas. They are bracing for what is coming. Its supposed to be making landfall around 1 00 a. M. That is going to be when we will see the conditions at the high. Right now i think a lot of people are taking cover and trying to brace themselves for whats going to come. Katie, comparing to katrina, if you can and violence and power . Reporter i will tell you at this point were not seeing katrinas strength. What i will tell you is there are some eerie similarities, the houses have spraypainted numbers on the doors, to indicate how many people are inside if theyre men, women, or children. The answer stillness of it all. There is no one driving. No one in the down town. People have heeded this warning. They know whats coming. Thank you. Well be right back. Managing blood sugar is a series of smart choices. And when you replace one meal. Or snack a day with glucerna. Made with carbsteady. To help minimize blood sugar spikes. You can really feel it. Now with 30 less carbs and sugars. Glucerna. Super cool notebooks. Done. 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