President s behavior in office, specifically what steps trump might have taken to derail, impede or otherwise obstruct an ongoing federal investigation. Mueller has requested extensive records and correspondence as the Washington Post reports. White house lawyers are now working to turn over internal documents that span 13 categories that investigators for the special counsel have identified as critical to their probe. The requests indicate among other things that mueller is digging into the president s role, the president s role in crafting a misleading statement that was put out this june to defend his son. After it was discovered donald trump jr. Arranged a meeting with russians during last years campaign, the Washington Post reported that trump personally dictated a statement in which trump junior said that he and the russian lawyer had primarily discussed a program for the adoption of russian children. Now politico is reporting that mueller wants the phone records from aboard air force one where that statement was reportedly drafted by the president. Another incident under scrutiny is the president s meeting with Russian Diplomats in the oval office this may, just one day after he fired former fbi director james comey. It was there that trump told the russians, quote, i just fired the head of the fbi. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of russia. Thats taken off. Wow. All signs indicate that mueller is building a case for obstruction of justice. Joining me right now is ken dilanian, an investigative reporter, glenn thrush and jennifer rogers, a former assistant u. S. Attorney. Jennifer, talk about obstruction of justice. Is that an Impeachable Offense . It is. Of course impeachment is kind of what the house makes of it. Its not like a criminal statute where the definitions are clear. But historically obstruction is one of the crimes that has been central in impeachment proceedings, so if the mueller team makes out a case that trump actually obstructed justice, then certainly i think it could be impeachable. So if the president is caught trying to rewrite history about a meeting his son had with the russians, would that be covering up . Would that be hiding evidence . Would that be obstruction . You know, it could be. It really depends on kind of the totality of the circumstances here. Theres no question that muellers team is going to be looking at all the facts, but they would have to show that the president intentionally obstructed this investigation or tried to do so. So the piece of evidence about the dictating of this statement on the plane is just one piece of this, but it could show that the president was trying to kind of divert attention from what his son was doing with the russians, which could play into this whole larger case when you look at what the president was doing with respect to james comey. How about the other piece, jennifer, how about the president basically telling the russians, who were obviously seen by prosecutors as party to this whole thing, telling them how relieved he is that he got rid of comey and the threat of a russian probe seemed to have been relieved in his thinking. Does the president s open perception and admission that he has removed himself from some justice action by the justice department, by the prosecutor, does that in itself admit to obstruction, because hes saying, look, i did something to remove a problem. I obstructed an investigation. It doesnt by itself get you there. You wouldnt want to put that in as your only piece of evidence. But again, youre trying to prove what the president was intending to do. So this, like a lot of other things, shows that he really was very concerned about this issue and that certainly his statement indicates that removing jim comey took some pressure off of him. Now, he would say, oh, its just because he was doing a terrible job with it, i wanted it to move more quickly, things like that. And ultimately it would be up to either a jury or the house to decide whether thats believable. But these are all just pieces of the puzzle that muellers team is trying to put together. We also know that muellers team is interested in speaking to several current and former white house aides. Mike allen of axios shed some light on why mueller might be interested in sean spicer, reporting that the former press secretary took copious notes that could be a treasure trove for investigators. Quote, former colleagues of sean spicer tell axios that he filled notebook after notebook during meetings at the rnc, later at the Trump Campaign and then later in the white house. However, when allen reached spicer for comment, spicer wrote please refrain from sending me unsolicited texts and emails. Should you not do so, i will contact the appropriate if you keep it up, im going to contact the appropriate legal authorities to address your harassment. Wow. Spicer was also unresponsive to the questions about his involvement in the investigation in an interview that aired this morning. Here he is. Has the mueller team reached out to you at all . Im not going to discuss that issue at all. Have you hired a lawyer . Im not going to discuss that issue at all. So you havent been subpoenaed . Im not going discuss that issue at all. Did you ever hear inside the white house that mueller should be fired . Im not going to discuss that issue at all. Glenn, put this together, what theyre trying to find out about trump, what he said on the airplane for dictating that cover story for that meeting lastdown a june and also the me with the russians, expressing relief that he was no longer under the pressure he was under when comey was fbi director. And now going after spicer for seeing how good of boswell he was, keeping records of everything he witnessed. He could end up being the john dean of this case. Put it altogether. Well, likening sean spicer to john dean might be a little bit of a stretch. All right, boswell. Having been a colleague of mike allens for seven years, he can text me any time he wants, by the way. Look, i think the issue here, particularly with the cover story that trump was discussing on air force one, and i should say my colleague, Maggie Haberman did a lot of good reporting on that at the time, that cover story about the adoption conversation, remember, had a lot to do with the sanctions themselves. So that might be a little bit of an out for trump, that in fact discussing the adoption issue was in fact talking about sanctions, because remember, putins government put a ban on american adoptions of russian kids as a way to get the sanctions lifted. So the two things are a little bit related. The stuff with kislyak was just a lot of that stuff was reported in realtime, by the way, not by the american press. We were not allowed in the room. There was not an american photographer in the room, but by the russian press. Right. So i think all all of those things add up. But chris, in terms of the obstruction of justice question, you know, its funny. Were talking about subpoenas and were talking about mueller. For me thus far the most compelling data point was his on the record conversation with lester holt in which he essentially blew up his own cover story about comey and Hillary Clinton and said essentially that he intended to fire him all along. So i think, you know, i wonder if mueller will talk to lester holt. You know, another thing on this while i have you on, glenn, youre a reporter and youre the aggressive person trying to find out whats going on inside the white house, thats your job description, find out whats going on. From the other end i was told that white house staffers were told by just evidence over the years now ever since whatever watergate, stop keeping records, stop keeping any kind of diary, because it all could be subpoenaed. Look, sean is a guy who has always done it his own way. I mean like sean spicer is a very idiosyncratic fellow. I had a conversation with him the other day, right after his appearance on the emmys, and he denied essentially having the conversation. Sean, i think i know that when i had conversations with sean over the course of the years, he did also keep notes. I heard similar things from sources in the white house about him keeping notes. I dont know if they were sort of the day diary kind of things. I do know ive had conversations with any number of people in the white house who have emphasized to me, actually some of whom have had conversations with clinton folks who were around during the impeachment in 97 and 98 who said they were counselled not to do that. The question, though, chris, becomes this. The reason why sean got very angry at mike allen isnt because of a personal thing, its because he understands the implications of this are dire in terms of his own pocketbook. We have not seen a lot of lawyering up yet. As this moves closer to the president , a lot of these lower level staffers that get paid 70,000, 80,000 bucks a year will have to start paying 20,000 and 30,000 to lawyers. Let me go to ken dilanian. Ken, put it together. Youve been listening to this conversation attentively. We have what looks to be an attempt by the prosecutor, led by bob mueller, to try to find out what they got on trump. This is really getting close to him, what he did possibly to obstruct justice with regard to that cover of what his son was doing in trump tower. What he was doing expressing relief about what looked to be the success of his firing comey. These are elements to me, im not a lawyer, i say it all the time, but as jennifer said, they seem to be pieces of a puzzle. What do we need in terms of something to give to the house of representatives in terms of impeachment for the end game . As jennifer said, obstruction of justice is a crime of intent. Its about the president s mental state. And so it wasnt enough that he told lester holt that russia was on his mind when he fired james comey. Theyre looking for evidence that he told somebody in the white house, preferably in writing, that he did this to make the russia investigation go away. In that sense the documents will be much more valuable than the witnesses. Because these are witnesses who are predisposed to be sympathetic to donald trump. They may shade their testimony. You cant count on them necessarily to tell the full story. But the documents will tell the story. If sean spicer took detailed notes, those notes will tell the story. The phone records. Thats what mueller is digging into right now and theyre hoping for a piece of evidence that sheds light on Donald Trumps mental state and him suggesting that he fired comey and he did these other things because he wanted to make the russia investigation stop, chris. This is fascinating stuff, guys. Thank you all for joining us. Ken, glenn and jennifer. Coming up, President Trump announces new sanctions on north korea and is leaning towards this is nbcs reporting pulling out of the nuclear deal, not certifying it. That could be really wild. What happened to his Campaign Promise of not getting america into stupid wars, however. Whats he want to go to war with iran for. Plus the last gasp for republicans to kill obamacare. Their plan is coming up for a vote next week. Its got a shot to actually pass. Even his supporters cant get their talking points straight. And stronger, the new movie about one mans battle to overcome the loss of his legs after the Boston Marathon bombing. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal will be with us tonight along with the bombing survivor he plays in the movie. Im up in boston, by the way. Let me finish tonight with trump watch. This is hardball, where the action is. This is willie. Hes on his way to work in alaska. This is john. Hes on his way to work in new mexico. Willie and john both work for us, a business that employs over 90,000 people in the u. S. Alone. We are the cocacola company, and we make much more than our name suggests. Were an organic tea company. A premium juice company. Weve got drinks for long days. For birthdays. For turning over new leaves. And all of our products rely on the same thing we all do. Clean water. Which is why we have john leading our efforts to replenish every drop of water we use. We believe our business thrives when our communities thrive. Which is just one of the reasons we help make college a reality for thousands of students. Today, Companies Need to do more. So john and willie are trying to do just that. Thank you for listening. Were listening too. Amid growing pressure, facebook has announced that it will turn over to congress more than 3,000 political ads that were bought by kremlinlinked accounts during the 2016 president ial election. Facebooks Ceo Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement earlier today. Lets watch. We are actively working with the u. S. Government on its ongoing investigations into russian interference. Weve been investigating this for many months now, and for a while we had found no evidence of fake accounts linked to russian linked to running ads. When we recently uncovered this activity, we provided that information to the special counsel. We also briefed congress. And this morning, i directed our team to provide the ads we found to congress as well. We will continue our own investigation into what happened on facebook in this election. We may find more. And if we do, we will continue to work with the government on it. God, he sounds like jesse eisenberg, who played him in the movie. Well be right back. Hold on dad. Liberty did what . Yeah, Liberty Mutual 24hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. My dad says our insurance doesnt have that. Dont worry i know what a lug wrench is, dad. Is this a lug wrench . Maybe . You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. Rocket man is on a Suicide Mission for himself and for his regime. Welcome back to hardball. Donald trump, as you just heard, threatened to wipe north korea off the map. He also nicknamed its leader again rocket man. Well, today President Trump announced he was slapping new sanctions on north korea and companies that financed trade with that country. Lets listen. North Koreas Nuclear weapons and Missile Development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world, and it is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal rogue regime. The regime can no longer count on others to facilitate its trade and banking activities. Many countries are working with us to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on north korea. Well, this week President Trump also had tough talk for iran and the nuclear deal the u. S. Signed with them. The iran deal was one of the worst and most onesided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States. Well, yesterday the president said a decision on whether to stay or leave that deal with iran would come soon. Nbc news reports he is leaning toward decertifying the nuclear deal and putting the decision of whether the United States withdraws from the accord in the hands of congress. Well, on two major issues, north korea and iran, the president is showing how unpredictable he can be, but what does the world think of all this. Sam stein is politics editor at the daily beast and naomi. Lets start with north korea. That was one of the access of evils that george bush talked about. Additional sanctions, i just dont know how anybody thinks a little more of this incremental war is going to work, economic war is going to work. Well, what are the other options is the question. Every president prior to trump has been hamstrung here too. You can do a military option, you can do a diplomatic option, you can try to find something in between. And sanctions is basically the primary tool that you have in the something in between zone. The problem that trump has is that sanctions have to be a means to an end. The means to an end is some sort of agreement that would take away north Koreas Nuclear capability or pause it or something of the sort. The template for that is the iran deal. Yes. We know that donald trump obviously thinks the iran deal was an embarrassment to the United States. So he has to find a way to be as much carrots as sticks or at least some carrots in addition to sticks. Right now its primarily sticks. And i dont know how that works, but hes trying to thread that needle. Let me go to nayeer on that one. What is the stick with this guy who seems to be concerned with his own survival of the dictator of north korea. Lets not pretend that its the tactic of the day. Hes doing it because its something he can put his name on. As our colleague mentioned, if he wanted to continue a sanction regime with the threat of military force following and move to a peace deal, that would be the iran template. Instead, hes interested in undoing the iran template, which would lead to nuclear iran much sooner in the next year rather than the next ten or 15 years. He would rather have that outcome and have his name on a deal or his name on an executive order than actually follow something that would work with the International Community and bring these rogue actors to heel. Well, youve said something i havent thought of and that is the fact that when it came to iran, our threat was wed have bunker buster bombs that wed put into play and blow those whatever Nuclear Weapons he had ready over there, would blow them up and hope for what was coming next. In the case of korea, north korea, is it credible that we would have a weapons system capable of surgically hitting those weapons . The challenge were going to have with north korea is the proximity to other allies and other people we care about. Its a very densely populated peninsula and so south korea needs to be and the south korean population need to be taken into account when we deal with any threat of military strike. Sam, your thoughts on this. Is there any way to use the threat of force to get them to the table together with sanctions . Does the combo work this time . Well, i suppose in a theoretical uni