Matter told New York Times that quote trump ordered his chief of staff to grant security clearance. Over ruling concerns flagged by officials and the top lawyer. It was so alarming to chief of, john kelly that he wrote a memo about how he had been oordered to give his clearance. And mcgahn outlined concerns the krr cia had as well as his own recommendation it be rejected. Kushner was granted permanent clearance after the completion of the fbi background check with no involvement from the president. Earlier that year john kelly had limited kushners access to the most snsative secrets because according to the Washington Post he was uncomfortable with kushners interim security status. President trump backed that decision. That will be up to general cell a. He respects jared a lot and general kelly will make that call. I will threat general, whos right here, make that call. U. S. Intelligence officials had flagged a number of concerns to the white house like reports foreign intelligence officials from the unite arab emirates, mexico and israel were privately discussing ways they could manipulate kushner. And two unreported transition meetings with a Russian Ambassador and a head of a russian stateowned bank. The russianrelated contangts were of particular interest to Robert Mueller and his team. By kushners own lawyer and his wife, ivanka trump. There were anonymous leaks about there being issues. B but the president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husbands clearance. The House Oversight committee launched an investigations into the White House Security clearance process. And today the chairman of that committee threatened to supoon a athe white house for documents related to its subpoena protocol. Im joined by democrat from virginia and a member of the House Committee. Former deputy chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney general and nbc news intelligence. And Vice President of the National Security program. Thank you all for being with us. First of all these memos that are being reported from mcgahn and from kelly, have you confirmed has your committee been able to confirm at this moment they still exist somewhere . No, we have not. Which is one of the reasons were seeking documents and cooperation from the white house. Try to get their individual cooperation with the committee and ask them to produce those memos. Conversations, communication between your committee and the white house. Elijah cummings is sending to the white house. He makesrapherence to making efforts to pursue this privately, to not go public with this and so forth. Have they been cooperative lat . Has there been explanation . No, theyve completely stone walled these requests. And by the way our concern about security clearances preedates this incident by over a year. Weve been concerned about the interim security clearances. And you remember there was great puzzlement as to how mr. Porter, guilty of Domestic Violence get any kind of security clearance and otherwise. So this is not the first time or the first time weve tried to get documentation about process and issues. We knew there were issues with Jared Kushner now we know how bad they really were. I believe mr. Cummings indicated in today letter this is your final warning and after that we will resort to other legal means. And you ilewded to this a minute ago. If theres a subpoena issue at the same time, would you be reaching aught to them . I think certainly with general kelly there could be an opportunity for voluntary compliance. Because obviously he was bothered enough about the nature of the security clearance and the fact the president lied and told him to overturn that negative recommendation and grant anyhow, that he felt the need to memorialize again, a member of the House Oversight committee where this all may be coming to a head very soon. My great pleasure. And ken delaney, right now at this moment what can you tell us about the status of Jared Kushner inside the white house . What kind of access does he enjoy right now . My understanding is he hold as top secret clearance but not that gives him access to sensitive information. It allows you access to krrbs ia source reporting and nsa intercepts. The cia never did grant that higher level of clearance, were told. But because of the president s orders, the White House Security office did grant him a top secret clearance even though members had recommended gnsz doing that based on the fbi background check. Theres two processes here. Both the fbi and krrcia flagged significant concerns and it can be mitigated. But there was no such mitigation in this case. Does he still have these issues . Is he still subject to foreign influence . And the other issue is the lives. When you say potential for influence, we go tlau the headlines but specifically what are the kinds of thijs that are setting off alarm bells there . Obviously hes got a sprawling real state empire with foreign countries. Only recently his major investment on fifth avenue got huge infusion of cash associate would a wealth fund. These are potential avenues of foreign influence on him. A concern that anyone would norm vale to mitigate. And lets go back to the beginning. He didnt fill out his initial security clearance form correctly. For a normal applicant, that would essentially youd be done. So he got lot of special treatment here. Take us through, for folks just hearing about the security clearance process in the executive branch for the first time, its one of these things with the Trump Administration, all these different areas of government that dont get a lot of attention day to day. This is one of them. Take us through typically how this process would work for somebody in Jared Kushners position . Yes, suddenly clearance is hot in washington and around the country. One of the things ib can tell you from have worked at doj and served as an employment lawyer in term oz of dealing with people trying to come work that department and sometimes having hiccups in their background and what happens is vers are on the ground looking into your foreign contacts, into your neighborhood, former employers. Theyre trying to run down any issues that could impact your ability to be trusted. So what happens is the investigators sort of dig up anything there is on you and then they present it to career officials whose job day in and day out is to evaluate across the board the types of issues that every day people have. And they then take those evaluations and recommend whether they see no issue and you have a National Security access and having top secret clearance or they raise red flags. And its incumbent upon the agency to make the call. Here we know there was some dispute. And usually when theres dispute, frankly, were on the side of not granting the clearance. Sally yates, whom trump fired 10 days into the presidency tweeted hard to know which is more dangerous. Jeopardizing our National Security information or cavalierly lieuing about it. Have we lost our ability to be shocked . We have the Public Comments from trump. The verasty of those comments being called into question by this reporting. But in terms of the law, the procedure, has the power toishau a security clearance. The president is the ultimate classification authority. He can decide who sees what information. The real challenge is president s have always looked out for the National Interest and tried to prevent people who could be compromised from having access to that information and theyre very concerned about leaks. About people who take it on to themselves to take that information out there and theyre concerned about peopdecn mocking could be suede on behalf of foreign interests. If trump sdruz the right, the power do do this. If its not a legal thing where lee did it in a court of law, whats tlr end game . This is more of an issue of political norms. The president has the authority to shut down a Justice Department investigation as well. Most president s dont even comment on Justice Department investigations. We can find no precedent of a president ever ruling a establishment. Sources told us they had never seen their own work over ruled by supervisor in the white house office. Generally the career specialists get to make these decisions so theprocess has integrity. And wevy new statement from Jared Kushners lawyer who said that time kushner got his clearance by the book. Hes now saying he, mr. Lowell, was not aware that the president had intervened. Speaking for himself and not his client, which i find interesting. That is an interesting twist. The prosability that the House Oversight committee will put a subpoena saying hand these documents over, the prospects oof the House Committee being able to compel the white house to do this. What are the prospects . Certainly theres always a give and take between the white house and congress in terms of what kinds of documents theyre willing to turn over. I would expect this to be a hard fight because it goes to the core of the trump family. And i expect House Oversight is go having to to go other routes to get what they need and that may be looking at john kelly and getting it dr getting it directly from him. And this changes our understanding of whautsz been going on behind the scenes. Because the reporting when kushner had been okayed for a security clearance, in a lot of peoples minds put to rest about being compromised and those sorts of things. I think that was a Little People are kwhr you look at the financial entanglements that the Kushner Family had. I think the idea be eput to ris without real blind trust i think was over stating the case. But what we saw earlier this week is how exactly the president gives these kinds of instructions to people where, he repeats what he wants. He give as meaningful look, expects orders to be followed. So when he says i didnt do this, he expect everyone to fall line even though we know he did. Thank you all for joining us. Frqtsz and coming up the growing witness list. Congress wants answers from the man who knows the Trump Organizations finances and a blistering statement saying now we must speak out. And after a week of setbacks from President Trump, one person on his mind is former fixer, Michael Cohen. How damaging was that cohen testimony this week . Got lot to get to. Got lot to get to. With venus, youre in charge of how your skin feels. So, when the world expects you to follow the rules, write your own. Because no one gets an opinion on how you live your life, why you shave, or how you show your skin. My skin. My way. Named park in the u. S. Ninetysix hundred roads its americas most popular street name. But no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local allstate agents knows yours. Now that you know the truth, are you in good hands . If ywhen you brush or floss, you dont have to choose between healthy gums and strong teeth. Complete protection from parodontax has 8 designed benefits for healthy gums and strong teeth. Complete protection from parodontax. Carl, i as my broker. Invite here. What am i paying you to manage my money . Its racquetball time. Carl, does your firm offer a satisfaction guarantee . Like schwab does. Guarantee . Carl, can you remind me what youve invested my money in. Its complicated. Are you asking enough questions about how your wealth is being managed . If not, talk to schwab. A modern approach to wealth management. There are other people that we should be meeting with. So allen weiszingbering. In the office with me was Allen Weisselberg. Allen weisselberg made the decision. The bottom signature i believe is Allen Weisselbergs. Thats signed by weisselberg. Weisselberg for sure. Allen weisselberg. Weisselberg. But always allen wusalbering on the check. Repeatedly implicating Allen Weisselberg in the scheme to cover up elicit hush money pay offs in the campaign. Cohen identified weisselberg by saying his name more than 20 times and hes come under increased scrutiny. His value cant be understated. His former Trump Campaign manager said in his recent book quote weisselberg knows of every dime that leaves the building. He already received partial immunity last summer on testimony to silence women. According to cohen it was weisselberg who devised the plan to make the payment to stormy daniels. He said that scheme represented a criminal conspiracy. Are you telling us, mr. Cohen, that the president directed in conspiracy with Allen Weisselberg and his son, donald trump jr. As part of a criminal conspiracy of financial fraud . Is that your testimony here today . Yes. The House Intelligence Committee now intends to call weisselberg to testify. The democrats on the house ways and Means Committee are drafting a a letter to the irs. Former senior fbi official. And president of the American Constitution Society and natasha is a staff writer at the atlantic. Allen weisselberg, 45 years around the trump Family Business empire. The interesting thing to me is when you look at the circle of people around trump, in some way you see them. Hes managed to stay close to trump and entirely behind the scenes for more than four decades. Talk about the rel he plays in trumps world and what he would potentially be in a position to shine a light on. Hes apparently obsessively private and how hes managed to escape all the scrutiny. Its also a very Small Organization in terms of the amount of people that work there. So he was ableb to have this ability into virt everything that the trump oorganization did. When donald trump jr. Said that russian assets and money makes up a disproportionate amount of their assets, Allen Weisselberg is in a position to Tell Congress whether thats actually true. When we talk about the sudden spending of millions in cash to buy certain properties, where did that money come from . How did he insert 200 million into his scottish golf courses that were failing . All things that Allen Weisselberg could potentially answer. He could say this money potentially came from a foreign entity. This money was used in an elicit manner. Whether hes going to testify unless he gets immunity because he could be part of these crimes, is another question. Ifs thereler sorts of things and he might be able to connect the dots on if theres anything there and would he be willing to answer any questions on those fronts . I think congress is certainly going to put the questions to him. Hard to know how hes going to get out of coming up before those committees and talking about what he knows. I think the committees learn very clearly that it seems like the Trump Organization is a criminal enterprise and to get to the bottom of this theyre going to need follow the money the one who knows where the money is Allen Weisselberg. Seems like he was thinking about voluntarily appear and say everything he said. What would prevent him from showing up and pleading the fifth . Hes already cooperating with the Southern District of new york. I think he knows hes got a lot of liability out there and its very possible and hes been involved in the role he played in these fraujial assets. Hes got a lot at stake and i think the prosecutors have a fair amount over him. Corroborating with the committees as well may be in his interest. If congress is interested, is there a concern if youre congress and theres the idea of granting some kind of immunity to get him to talk, does that potentially limit . That limit the ability of prosecutors to take any actions . I will tell you anytime you can turn the cfo of an organization, whether its a small mom and pop or a large publicly traded company, the cfo is a gold mine. So here hes a potentially very valuable witness for congress and prosecutors. There has to be a certain amount of deconfliction to maximize his value for both investigations. Another witness set to testify now felix sater, a russianborn trump business associate. And according to multiple reports, sater pleaded guilty in the late 90s to stock fraud in connection with a russian mafia. And a 2013 deposition trump notably down played his association to sater, saying he barely knew him. If he were sitting in the room right now i really wouldnt know what he looked like. Cohen testified that president did know sater well enough to give him an office in trump tower. Isnt it true President Trump knew convicted russian mobster felix sater when he made that statement . Yes. Isitant true because of mr. Saters relationship to the Trump Organization that he had an office in the trump tower . And on the 26th floor. And thats important why . Because its mr. Trumps floor. Isnt it true that President Trump misled, at best, or worst, lied under oath . Yes. And so look this question of sater the trump tower deal. Co cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congress. What could sater what light could he shed . Where to begin . Its a completely open secret. And theyve told me he has the office on the 26th floor. He had a standing m