Of it under water tonight. Thousands have been rescued from their homes. Governor activated the entire Texas National guard to help in the response. And much more rain is still expected. Im joined now by nbcs Maya Rodriguez just outside of houston. Maya, we see all of that rain around you, obviously, with the forecast still calling for more. It is calling for more, and it has been raining like this literally for days now, steve. This is a neighborhood where people have been trapped in their homes, neighbors have been coming out to basically help them bringing their own personal boats to go and rescue people. Joining us right now is susan. She has lived in this neighborhood for 40 years. Have you ever seen anything like this . Not ever. Never. No. Its unbelievable. A nightmare. What is going through your mind as you see people ferrying others out of the neighborhood. Thats what we are trying to decide. Should we get out of here . Just bunker down . We have a twostory. We could go upstairs but at this point we just dont know what to do. And that is a concern out here, steve. A lot of people have been asking themselves, should i evacuate, should i not evacuate, what is the water going to do again, next, because of all this rain. And the weather. Is it going it rain two more days . Three more days . What . And sad part about it is its like this everywhere in houston. And houston is a huge area. So its just heart breaking. Absolutely heart breaking. Are you afraid of being trapped on your second floor . Do you have a plan possibly for no, we dont have a plan. We are just taking minute by minute. You know. And if we have to go upstairs and stay, we will. But you cant go anywhere. If we were to leave our home, we cant we cant go anywhere. So you know, we almost have to stay here. All right. Suz et, we wish you so much luck, and the neighbors in the subdivision where we are in northwest houston and northwest suburbs of this city. This rain has been torrential. It has been doing this all day long, steve. All right, nbcs Maya Rodriguez there in the houston area. Obviously just so much devastation. We will have much more on that during the hour. We will move on to other major stories. Nbc news reporting that investigators led by special Council Robert mueller are looking into whether President Trump attempted to hide the purpose of that june Campaign Meeting with russians at trump tower. Last year, june 2016. Specifically, mueller is looking into the president s role in crafting the initial public response for his son, donald trump, jr. While aboard air force one. Quote a person familiar with muellers strategy said that whether or not trump made a knowing statement is now among prosecutors. And whether the Trump Organization made a deal in moscow at the same time trump was running for president in 2015 and early 2016. This is after trump on multiple occasions denied any business relationships in russia. I own nothing in russia. I have have no loans in russia. I dont have any deals in russia. I have no relationship to russia whatsoever. I have nothing do with russia. I have no investments in russia. None whatsoever. I dont have property in russia. I have no dealings with russia. I have no deals in russia. I have no deals that could happen in russia. Because weve stayed away. Despite the president s assertion that he has stayed way from deals in russia his lawyer Michael Cohen told congressional investigators that trump signed a letter of intent with the Russian Development company in october of 2015. Emails reportedly turned over to congressional investigators today also reveal that cohen discussed the project with russianborn Real Estate Developer felix satter. According to the New York Times satter told cohen the deal would help trump get elected. Quote, our boy can become president of the usa and we can engineer it. I will get all of putins team to buy in on this. I will manage this process. Post further reports that cohen even contacted putins personal spokesman for help on the deal. However it was abandoned before the first president ial primaries in early 2016. Cohen told nbc news today, quote, it was a building proposal that did not succeed and nothing more. To best of my knowledge mr. Trump was never in contact with anyone about this proposal other than me on three occasions, including signing a nonbinding letter of intent in 2015. Much to talk about here. Joining me now to help me with it, Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post. He reported the story we are were just reading from. Julia is a staff writer. Juliette. And ken vogel, thank you to all of you. We finished up there. You guys have it here in the Washington Post. These could be takts between Michael Cohen, lawyer from trump with the Trump Organization, trying to reach apparently putins spokesmen at some point and having this, whatever you want to call them reimmediate areary and ally, sater saying, hey, we can get this deal all brokered. Take us through the time line. This played out late 2015, early 2016. What exactly happened here . What is the status of this project . Well, steve, to jump to the bottom of the time line, the status is that since january 2016, nothing has moved on the project. But what we now know thanks to the series of emails that were turned over to congressional committees today, is that the Trump Organization was actively seeking to build a tower in moscow. It was to be one of the largest towers in the world. Were told by those who these emails reveal would be perhaps the largest structure in europe. So a very ambitious tower. And felix sater, long time associate of donald trump, who as you mentioned is russianborn, is in moscow encouraging the deal with a russian partner. And his contact in the Trump Organization is Michael Cohen. Long time lawyer, council to Trump Organization. And a person who informally sometimes supported donald trump during the campaign, sometimes speaking for him on Television Network interviews. And what we know is that they desired starting in late in 2015 and through january 2016 to build this structure in moscow with sater often encouraging his boy hood friend and his ally back in trump tower, Michael Cohen, to encourage a meeting with Vladimir Putin. At one point suggesting they could get this deal done and they could get, they could help elect donald trump as president of the United States. So sater, you have sater here making all these claims, were going to get this done and got to get you in touch with the Russian Administration here. Is there any indication, is there any evidence of reciprocal interest from the russian government . So there is, we know, as you mentioned a moment ago, that one of the things that Michael Cohen did in the emails turned over to the congressional committees rae ve reveal this is that he reached out to the spokesman for Vladimir Putin, but really much more than that p. He has been with putin since the year 2000 and is considered a vital gobetween. He is written at a kremlin email address so it is not clear they knew each other. But there is outreach on the part of Michael Cohen he, this figure in trump tower and council to the Trump Organization to a top level person at the kremlin. Okay. We will come back to this. We are juggling a bunch of things here. But julia, other major breaking story on russia. You reported it here for nbc news. Let me get this to you. You have robert mueller, special oun counsel, did the president play some role in crafting, and lets be clear, youre talking about crafting a misleading potentially Public Statement. This isnt a statement under oath or to congressional investigators. This is a Public Statement he may have according to investigators he maybe played a role in crafting . Yes, thats right. This is different, of course, than if he had made false statements to investigators or under oath to congress. But what is interesting here is that this statement investigators believe could be a tell into what trump knew when. If at the time he came up with that First Response to the New York Times story, where he said that his son did not meet with russians about a campaign issue, if that if it turns out that at that time trump knew the real nature of this meeting which of course was to come up with dirt on Hillary Clinton his opponent, if he knew about that then, he may be involved at a level where he is seeking to conceal the real goings on of his own team that time. Of course his campaign team. And so they want to look at this perhaps not for a crime but at least to show what he may have known. And it could be as one person said, that this is a later used against trump just to show conduct. If there are other charges that could arise, this could show how he conducted himself as president and nature that could be potentially concealing. And to be clear on the time line, we are talking about two events a year apart, correct . This meeting takes place in june of 167 and more than a year later the president starts to find out about it. And more tha later the president starts to find out about it. Questions are being asked and trump comes up with a statement that is contradicted by further reporting . Right. If we can remember back it last month after the New York Times reported on this meeting, there was a statement that we know that trump weighed in on the white house confirmed that. Ther know that trump weighed in on the white house confirmed that. Was a statement that we know that trump weighed in on the white house confirmed that. Drafted on air force 1 when this was happening. Trump said this is a small meeting, no Campaign Issues discussed. A day later the New York Times followed up and said no, thats correct. They met to discuss what they thought would be damaging information on Hillary Clinton. So the time line of this is key. It is than investigators are looking into the statement to figure out if trump knew about the meeting ahead of time but looking into whether or not he knew the nature of his sons meeting and then intentionally tried to conceal it after the fact of course. Let me bring ken vogel in who has been reporting on a lot of things reported to trump russia business dealings. Ken, this question from the Washington Post reporting about sater, about this friend of Michael Cohen who is basically saying, hey, look, this can win us the election. Got to get you an election with a got to get you a meeting with the folks around putin. What do you make of this . Im looking at it too and it looks like you had the trump folks reaching out to putins inner circle but not hearing anything back. The deal fizzling out. What do you make of this . Certainly sater is a guy known for a lot of bluster and that was Michael Cohens sort of framing of this and his response to the congressional investigators was that a guy who talked a big game. Didnt necessarily deliver. He didnt necessarily feel the need, cohen did it, to flag these things up the food chain. We know he did talk to donald trump at least three times. Cohen did to trump at least three times about this trump tower moscow project. The most interesting thing to me, i think, steve, is that it really shows a degree to which in working in the former soviet union, working in russia, business and politics are con flighted. Thats the way sater thought about it. He talked about working this trump tower moscow deal and the same track as he talked about winning donald trump the election, suggesting that the two might somehow be linked, if there could be support from putin for this project, there could be support from putin or in some way a support that would help donald trump win the election linking those two things together. And then, you know, frankly, you see it with Michael Cohen as well. He is not going in through the front door to some low level bureaucrat in moscows planning and Zoning Office or whatever it is to get permits. He is going straight to Vladimir Putins confidant, spokesman, in trying to grease the skids here. Thats not the way we like no think about business functioning as being separate from politics. But it is sort of relavatory. This focuses on the business side of things and not necessarily the campaign side of things. This would seem to be firm ground. Another key element here, the time line here, bringing this out there as well, during the time that trump org thinkization was pursuing this real estate deal in moscow, this is late 2015, early 2016. Donald trump then candidate for president. Praising Vladimir Putin in public. Take a look. I think i would get along very well with Vladimir Putin. I just think so. I think in terms of leadership, he is getting an a and president is not doing so well. They did not look good together. I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 minutes. We were stable mates. He is run hning his country andt least when is a leader unlike this country. Putin shredd putin is calling me leader and he may be playing me. We have to figure that out. Im getting along with putin. Putin said donald trump is brilliant and donald trump is a real leader. You know how business is done in russia in Vladimir Putins russia. If there is a foreign businessman who wants to do a big business deal in moscow in that foreign missmbusinessman a donald trump publicly saying positive things about putin would have have a bearing on getting it done . I think the Trump Campaign people thought it would have bearing. I think ken is right, you need for something of this size to go forward in russia. You need political approval. You need a green light from the very, very top for the thing to go forward for the local authorities to get out of the way. And to grant the permits, zoning, et cetera. And to not, you know, choke the process bureaucratically. The fact that they were not able to build anything in russia, even though trump has been trying since the late 80s, when everybody else, that you know, hyatt, ritz carlton, four seasons, hilton, everybody built something. More than one thing in russia and trump was not able to. And the fact that Michael Cohen emailed through the generic email he found probably on the kremlin website speaks to a lack of political connections in moscow. That this was these were onesided overtures, kind of sucking up as it were to the kremlin. Again, he is close to putin but if you wanted political approval, for your business deal, thats not who you would go to. This would be like email be josh earnest when you should be emailing Valarie Jared or Sarah Huckabee sanders when you should be getting in touch with jared ku kushner or ivanka. The idea of cohen and reaching out to putins righthand man, i saw someone write on twitter it is equivalent to the info at whi whitehouse. Gov. Is that the same as this supposed contact . The address Michael Cohen used was indeed a general address that would be used by reporters and general public to reach mr. Peshcov. We dont know for sure, in cohens statement he says he does not recall receiving a response from peshcov to this outreach. But i think the important thing here is, the important context, is what you led off the segment with. Which is donald trump and Campaign Aides repeatedly denying any connection, economic ties to russia. Also denials of any knowledge of attempt by russia to influence the president ial campaign. And yet what weve learned now in this latest email batch thats been turned over by Michael Cohen is that there were a series of communicationes with russians. The one we were just referring to a moment ago involving donald trump jr. And russian lawyer who came to a meeting telling donald trump jr. That she had information, dirt, on Hillary Clinton. We learned earlier that general flynn, president S National Security adviser, while at one point denying conversations with the Russian Ambassador of the United States, in fact had them. Now we learn that while donald trump said i have no deals in russia, he was actively pursuing through january 2016 a very ambitious project and one that caused his lawyer to reach out to a top guy in the kremlin. All right. Tom hamburger. Julia, ken, julliette. Thank you. We will have much more on the devastation in houston and the race against time to save residents. Many of whom are still stranded in their home. The devastated storm is expected to make land fall yet again. Plus President Trump denies he was trying to bury the news of the joe arpaio pardon, saying he assumed tv ratings would be higher because of the storm. And it is all coming at a price, trumps cabinet m