Not guilty to all counts. According to the indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller, quote, in order to hide ukraine payments from the United States authorities over the period of ten years, manafort and gates laundered the money through scores of the United States and Foreign Corporations partnerships and bank accounts. The charges dont mention the Trump Campaign or russian meddling in the election, something his lawyer emphasized this afternoon. Well, i think you all saw today that President Donald Trump was correct there is no evidence that mr. Manafort or the Trump Campaign included with the russian government. Mr. Manafort represented proeuropean campaiunion campair the ukrainian. In that he was seeking to further democracy and to help the ukraine come closer to the United States and the eu. Those activities ended in 2014. Over two years before mr. Manafort served in the Trump Campaign. Meanwhile, in what might be a far more Significant Development today, news broke that a former trump adviser plead guilty three weeks ago to lying to federal officials about his contacts with individuals linked to the kremlin. George papadopoulos was arrested back in july. His guilty plea indicates he is cooperating with the mueller probe. The Court Documents unsealed today lay out contacts between papadopoulos and two individuals with connections to russian government officials. In the spring of 2016, one of them described as a professor told papadopoulos that the russians possessed dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. The document also lays out communications between papadopoulos and unnamed Trump Campaign officials who encouraged him on. In august of last year, there was a discussion of potential offtherecord meeting with russian officials including a document a Campaign Supervisor told papadopoulos i would encourage you and another Foreign Policy adviser to the campaign to, quote, make the trip if it is feasible. Well, yahoo news is reporting that that supervisor is sam clovis, the cochair of the campaign. For more on everything we learned today, im joined by msnbc news justice correspondent pete williams. Pete, in order of importance, the two actions we learned about today, is it about manafort or about papadopoulos . Well, papadopoulos by far, for two reasons. Number one, its more directly connected to the campaign. And secondly we know, as you suggested, we know that papadopoulos is cooperating with Robert Muellers prosecutors because the Court Documents explicitly say that after he was arrested in july, he has been repeatedly questioned by them and has been answering their questions. And we also know it because it seems like theyre willing to cut him a deal in return for his guilty plea. He is charged with lying to federal agents and they would recommend a sentence of zero to six months which means basically theyd be willing to let him out on probation. I think its important to point out, the only criminal allegation, the only thing he pleaded guilty to that is illegal is lying to the fbi when he said when he had all these contacts with the russian, he was not working for the campaign. That turns out not to be true. The other things that the guilty plea talks about, these meetings with the russians, trying to set up a meeting, thats of course not illegal. When you look at the pattern, what do you see in terms of the dynamic here . Are they using the charges against Paul Manafort and his associate rick gates to pressure him with huge penalties in terms of prison time . Are they using George Papadopoulos to try to provide information . Because it seems to me the supervisor that is referenced here may well be manafort. And that is all about responding to a russian overture where the russians offer information on Hillary Clinton. And there is some kind of response by the trump team. And were going to have to find out what that response was to see if there is collusion. Well, its clearly his role in the campaign that interests them. You would certainly think that the prosecutors are going to use these charges against manafort and gates that are very serious and could carry sentences of many years in prison to try to get their cooperation. Youd also assume, chris, that the prosecutors already tried to get their cooperation, just like the deal they cut with papadopoulos. Whether thats going to happen or whether theyre going tough it out, we just dont know yet. Within guy is facing huge numbers and one guy is facing zero to six months. Within guy is cooperating. Thank you so much. You see through these things so well. You bet. Nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. Im joined by schmidt, and jennifer rogers. In order, michael first. When you read through the tea leaves, not the tea leaves, the evidence, youre getting a sense that the russians through papadopoulos, a guy who has not been in the picture for many of us at for a while, you get the sense that theyre sending the word they have some stuff on Hillary Clinton. Some emails. They want somebody to come to russia and pick them up. They want an overture from the Trump Campaign as they were doing very well in may of last year. They looked like the nominees pretty clearly. They wanted them to show some sort of back and forth. Were willing to play ball with you. And its not clear how or if they did play ball. Your notion of it now as a reporter. Michael . This is now the third time that weve seen the Trump Campaign going after socalled russian dirt about Hillary Clinton. It shows sort of a determined effort. And in the case of papadopoulos, as you were pointing out, it shows the Campaign Officials above him knew what he was doing. He was not a rogue element here. They were abreast of these communications. And thats significant. And today would have been a bad day for donald trump if it had just been manafort and gates. But this really sort of takes the story to the next level and raises these questions about why were there so many contacts and why were they trying so hard to get this dirt from the russians. For days now, Huckabee Sanders has been putting out the word this thing is about to be snuffed. This is reaching its last legislation. How does that look today, that claim . Well, it doesnt appear to be that accurate. If anything, i think were maybe in the third or the fourth inning. Look, there is it looks like mueller is building a case here. He is trying to put pressure on folks. He is trying to move forward with his own investigation. I think she may be thinking that the interviews of white house officials may be wrapping up, and that mueller wants to get them done by thanksgiving. But that were coming to the end of this is wrong and the facts i think bear that out. How it looks like mueller is proceeding. I notice he is going with papadopoulos who is the first example back in may of last year, may of 2016. The first evidence we have of an overture from the russians, that they want to provide some dirt on Hillary Clinton. And the first evidence that perhaps, and mother than perhaps, the trump team is responding. They want to go back and meet. They are suggesting who should go pick up the documents. It does have sort of a crime scene atmosphere to it, a dealing that is taking place here. Renato, give us a sense of what you think the prosecutors are up. To. Sure. What i think, chris, its clear that they flipped papadopoulos. He is a cooperator. And i agree that this is only the beginning. What i would be concerned about if i was in the trump camp is who has papadopoulos been talking to, who has he communicated with. We have seen reporting. I believe you had mentioned earlier, chris, about how sam clovis is also cochair of the campaign is one of those individuals that papadopoulos was communicating with. Hes just been excuse me, nominated to be undersecretary of agriculture. So he is somebody who potentially papadopoulos could be testifying against and providing information against. So those emails raise some very serious questions there is one passage in there that i talked about on twitter about how there is a footnote that says we should not lets not send somebody high level. Lets send a low level person to deal with the russians. And that suggests to me a consciousness that this is a very problematic activity. And the fact that there is suggestion from the white house that this is going to wrap up quickly is either willful, you know, misdirection or its hopeful thinking. Well, jennifer, this isnt the only attempt by the russians to sell dirt on hillary and try to establish a relationship with the trump team. This is in may of last year. In june they had the infamous meeting at trump tower where they did the same thing. The woman lawyer came in with ive got some stuff. Turns out she didnt have anything in hand, but she is offering something. Like a lot of us have watched the americans for years, trying to figure out how russians, kgb people operate. Putin is the ultimate kgb person. It looks like theyre trying to entrap, if you will, engage the trump team with some russian plan to proceed with their interests. Thats right. And of course when the news started coming out about that june meefgt last year, the Immediate Response was oh, yes, we had that meeting, but they didnt give us anything. Nothing happened. In fact, all we talked about was adoption, et cetera. So now we know kind of yet again that that narrative isnt really the right one. That in fact they were actively engaged in and interested in getting dirt from the russians and were pursuing that as an active strategy for the campaign. Well, what would you think if you thought sheer guy, donald trump, president of the United States. First of all, he has consistently said there was no effort by the russians to interfere with our elections last year. And then he said there is absolutely no response by our team with negative do with them. The walls keep crumbling on his notion of the alternative truth. Thats true. Is he a credible witness . Would trump be a credible witness in court on this case based on what he said . When he first started doing it, he said with james comey, i and tons of other people said if its a really credibility contest between the two of them, comey wins that handsdown. Trump has again and again proven to be someone who speaks inaccurately, to say the very least. I think he is not a credible witness. I think his view is just deny, deny, deny. And hope that ultimately the case doesnt get up to as high as he is. Let me get back to mike on this. Ive been following your reporting so well. I have to tell you, you and have i watched movies about prosecutors. And they have a wall somewhere. On the wall they have all the faces, and theyre trying to put them together. And you have papadopoulos, a smaller face in the story. Yet it turns out he may have been the first one to receive the russian overture. And then youve got manafort, who was sort of a russianoriented guy to begin with. Youve got all these russian connections. Carter page, all of them. Michael flynn. Everybodys got a russian deal. Ive never seen anything like it. Ive been following american politics since i was 5 or 6. And i never heard of russian connections in any regard in any campaign in any party by anybody, by any candidate. All of the sudden we have a candidate comes along, donald trump has got russia all over the place. I do think of jackie mason saying he walks through the blood, he walks around the blood with o. J. Why so much russian . How do you put it together on a chart on a wall, papadopoulos today getting indicted for a couple of months in allenwood maybe to play tennis up there, and the other guy facing 30, 40 years together. How do you put it together in terms of filling out that chart and tracing, if there was, a conspiracy . Well, you dont. And what you try and do is try and take every piece of information like the piece that we have today and contextualize it and see if there is anything larger there. This is a significant thing. Weve had different incremental developments along the way here, some bigger than others. The trump tower meeting being one of them. And that is another one that sort of elevates the story again. It doesnt provide all the answers we want. And we wont have that for some time. But we do today have a better understanding of what the campaign knew and what their efforts were. And thats significant. And thats whats different. Thats whats different about this story. Back to you, renato. How do you see the dynamic of the prosecution now . Mueller starting from the very beginning. He is starting with the first sign of a russian attempt to hook up, if you will, with the trump people. And then you see you have a guy who they may be able to squeeze for more because he was a big shot in the Campaign Last may. He was the kind of guy that papadopoulos would have to deal with at the top in terms of agreeing to a trip back to russia to pick up the stuff, to agree to accept the stuff, more generally, to agree to play ball with putin. This is a Serious Business that somebody at the top has to make that decision, i would think. Well, no question about that, chris. And what i think will happen is mueller is going to be putting pressure. He has already put pressure on papadopoulos. So what theyve already been doing, one thing we learned today, chris, is that papadopoulos was arrested back in july. This deal was consummated on october 5th. So mueller is running a pretty tight ship. And he has been putting the screws on papadopoulos for months now, getting papadopoulos to cooperate against others. I would imagine now the next target is going to be whether its clovis or someone else who is directly dealing with papadopoulos. And in the meantime, just to be clear, you know, if youre manaforts attorney, i know he made sort of a bold statement that you played earlier. But he is facing some serious charges. And there could be more to come. Why is that lawyer out there sounding like he is trumps lawyer instead of manaforts lawyer . Our producers were saying this guy doesnt make sense as an attorney. Ill tell you how. The only way it makes sense, chris, is one word, pardon. Because otherwise that statement was foolish. It was actually it was unprofessional and it was doing a disservice to his client. Blasting the prosecutor when your client is facing ten years or more in prison and very serious charges that are going to be difficult to defend. Its literally its malpractice. And at this point if there is not a pardon that is forthcoming for Paul Manafort, he should be considering cooperation. And so i assume thats what his attorney is trying to get. Counselor, i just heard the word bingo in my mind, bingo, the pardon. Thank you so much, michael schmidt. Thank you Renato Mariotti and jennifer rogers. Much more to get on this breaking, plus what more do we know about George Papadopoulos whose guilty play was announced today. Boy, he got off easy. Zero to six months at a nice place. What other Trump Officials would be implicated by papadopoulos himself . Well get the latest, next. Plus, the white house spin machine. The trump team is ramping up its response, but youve heard it all before. Trump says there was no collusion. And then attacked of course as usual suspect Hillary Rodham clinton. And as special prosecutor Robert Mueller makes his first move, what happens if trump decides to fire him . Tonight democrats are warning trump against doing just that. But will he be able to stop snims. Finally, Bobby Kennedy, a raging spirit. This is hardball, where the action. A programing note now about the nationwide tour for my new book, Bobby Kennedy, a raging spirit whose official publication date is tomorrow. Tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern ill be a guest on the the Rachel Maddow show and then be back up first thing tomorrow to discuss the book on morning joe. Thats the kickoff, the big day for this book. Bobby kennedy, a raging spirit arrives in stores tomorrow, october 31st. And well be right back. Dad molly trash whoo mom hey, molly . Its time to go bell ringing class, lets turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. Who would like to read . molly i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. Its running much faster now. See . Its amazing, molly. Thank you. welcome back to hardball. The news that two Trump Associates have been indicted and another already pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the russian probe is an indication that mueller, bob mueller is getting closer to showing collusion. Most significant is the news that former Trump Campaign adviser George Papadopoulos is cooperating with investigators. So how does this little known adviser connect to trump and others inside the campaign . Well, in an interview with the Washington Post back in march of last year, trump names papadopoulos along with carter page as members of his Foreign PolicyAdvisory Team. Trump even vouched for papadopoulos, calling him an excellent guy. We heard you might be announcing your Foreign PolicyAdvisory Team soon. If you want, coy give you some of the names. Be delighted. I wouldnt mind. Carter page, ph.