Good evening, i am steve cornacki in for chris matthews. Chris will be back for his vacation on monday night. Tonight though we continue to follow the explosive news that President Trump lied about how Jared Kushner received his security clearance. Four people briefed on the manner told New York Times that President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his soninlaw top secret security clearance. The decision was so alarming that john kelly, he wrote a con testimo contemporaneous memo. Al also, don mcgahn, wrote an outline the cia had of his recommendation that it would be reje rejected. Kushner was granted permanent clearance by career officials after the completion of the fbi background check with no involvement by the president. The decision ended months of drama over the matter. John kelly had limited kushners access to the most sensitive because according to the washington post, he was uncomfortable with kushners status. President trump backed that decision. Take a look. Thatll be up to general kelly. General kelly respects jared a lot. General kelly will make that call. I wont make that call. I will let the 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 china and reisrael and mexo were discussing ways they can manipulate kushner and other concerns relating to the trump tower meeting and two other meetings with the russian ambassadors. The russia related context were of particular interest with the special counsel, Robert Mueller and his team. Not just by trump himself but by kushners own lawyer and by his wife, ivanka trump. Take a look. There were anonymous leaks about there being issues but the president had no involvement pretending to my clearance or my husbands clearance. Just two months ago, the House Oversight committee launched an investigation into the white houses security clearance process in today. Elijah cummings threaten to subpoena the white house. I am joined by forme deputy chief of staff, ken dilanian and omica oyang. Thank you for being with us. These memos are being reported from mcgahn and kelly. Have our commit confirmed that at this moment, they still exist some where. No, we have not. It is one of the reasons we are seeking cooperation from the white house. Failing that, we have to reach out to mcgahn and kelly to try to get their individual cooperation with the committee and ask them to produce those memos. The conversations and the communications between your committee and the white house, i say in this letter tonight that your chairman, elijah cummings, he makes effort to make this and not go public with this and so forth. Have they been cooperative or any explanation or hes not confirming it . No, steve, they stone walled these requests. Our concern about security clearances predates this incident by over a year. We have been concerned about the interim security incident. How did mr. Porter get any kind of security clearance. This is not the president would say or try to get documentation about process and issues that. We knew there were issues of Jared Kushner and now we know how bad they were. How much time does the white house have before your committee move on a subpoena . I think mr. Cummings indicated in todays letter, this is your final warning and we give you around march 5th, after that, well resort to other legal means. The other question that you alluded to a minute ago. This involves memos from mcgahn orac or kelly. If there is subpoena issues at the same time, would you be reaching out to them . Certainly with general kelly, there could be an opportunity for voluntary compliance. He was bothered enough about the nature of the denial of the security clearance and the fact that the president lied and told him to over turn that negative recommendation and grant it anyh anyhow. I would hope upon reflection, general kelly may voluntarily cooperate with the committee and produce that. Congressman, gerry connoly, thank you for joining us. My pleasure. Ken dilanian, what can you tell us of the status of Jared Kushner, what kind of clearance or access does he enjoy right now. Our understanding is he holds a top secret clearance but not a top secret clearance that gives him access to information. Thats what some people calling a higher level of information allowing you to access to cia and nsa. Because of the president s orders, the White House Security office did grant him a top security clearance even though members of the white house staff have recommended doing that based on the fbi background. There are two processes here, both the fbi and the cia flagged concerns of Jared Kushners background including issues of foreign influence. It can be mitigated but there is no mitigation in this case. Does he still have these issues or subject to foreign influence. Of course, the other issue is the lies. Just when you say potential influence, things that are flagged. We go through the headlines but take us through specifically what are the kinds of things that are setting off alarm bells there . Well, obviously he got a real estate empire that has Financial Relationships with foreign countries. His major investment on 666 avenue got a huge infusion of cash associated with qatar fund. These are potential avenues of foreign influence on him. It does not mean hes influenced. It is a concern that officials would have that anyone would have to mitigate and then look, lets go back to the beginning, he did not fill out his initial security clearance form correctly. He neglected to list any of his foreign contacts. That would rule you out as a clearance holder. You would be done at that point. He got a lot of special treatments here. Take us through a little bit of folks hearing of the security clearance process and the executive branch for the first time. All of this different area of government that dont get a lot of attention from daytoday and a lot of procedural stuff gotten new attention of the trump era, take us through how this process would work in Jared Kushners position . Well, thanks, steve. Suddenly clearance is hot in washington and around country. One of the things that i can tell you from having worked at doj for 18 years and served as an employment lawyer in terms of dealing with people who are trying to come work at the department and sometimes having hiccups in their background is that what happens is and this is similar with respect to the white house but investigators are on the ground looking into foreign contacts and neighborhood and your former employees. Theyre trying to run downey issues that could impact your ability to be trusted so what happens is the investigators sort of dig up anything there is on you. They presented to career officials whose job day in and day out is to evaluate across the board, the types of issues that everyday people have and they then take those evaluations and recommend whether they see no issues in you having a National Security access or having top secret clearance or they raise red flags. When those red flags are raised, it is incumbent upon the employer, the agency to make the call. Here we know there were some disputes and usually when there is disputes, frankly, we are on the side of not granting the clearance. Former acting attorney general sally yates who trump fired. She weighs in, quote, hard to know which is dangerous, jeopardizing our most sensitive National Security information. Have we lost our ability to be shocked . We have comments from trump called by this reporting. Just in terms of the law here and the procedure, he does have the power, is that correct . Thats right, we never had a president before whos been so cavalier about National Security secrets. The president is the ultimate classification authority, he can decide what is or what is classified or who sees what information. The real challenge is president s have always looked out for the National Interests and try to prevent people who can be compromised by foreign governments or others from having access to that information. Theyre very concerned of leaks, they are very concerned of people taking onto themselves to put that information out there and theyre also concerned of people who decision makes could be swayed by behalf of potential interest. If trump does have the right power to do. If it turns out that he lied about it in the public but it is not illegal in the court of law, whats the end game here . This is an issue of political norms. But, no president s since watergate have dared to do that. Most president s dont comment on justice investigation. We can find no president s over ruling the security establishment. Our sources told us when we reported on this, they never seen their own work over ruled by a supervisor in the white house, generally the bureaucrats get to meet these. Abby lowell says at the time that kushner got his clearance by the book. Hes now saying, mr. Lowell was not aware that the president had intervened. Very specifically speaking for himself and not his client. Thats an interesting twist. The possibility of this, we just talked about this with gergerry gerry connoly. Theyre saying hand these documents over. The prospect of the House Committee ultimately being able to compel the white house to do this. What are those prospects . Right, certainly there are always a give orr ta take betwe the white house or congress in terms of what types of documents theyre willing to turn over. I would expect for it to be a hard fight because it goes to the core of the trumps family. I expect House Oversight is going to have to go other routes to what they need and that may be looking at john kelly and getting it directly from him. Micah, this reporting changes our understanding of what has been going on behind the scenes there. The reporting back last year when kushner had been okayed for security clearance in a lot of peoples mind, put to rest of these questions. I think that was a little premature when you look at the financial and entanglement. And his deceptiveness about his contact. The idea that it could be put to rest without some blind trust was of stating the case. What we saw in the cohen testimonial this week is how the president gives instructions to people. He gives a mean look, he expects his orders to be followed. All right, thank you all for joining us. Coming up, the growing witness list, Congress Wants answers from the man who knows the Trump Organization finances inside and out. Plus, President Trump said he did not hold kim jongun responsible for the death of Otto Warmbier, a blistering statement from warmbiers parents who say now we must speak out. After a week of setback for President Trump. One person does seem to be on his mind, Michael Cohen, his former fixer, just how much damaging is cohens testimony this week. We got a lot to get to, stay with us. To, stay with us. Great news, Liberty Mutual customizes uh uh i deliver the news around here. Sources say Liberty Mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. Over to you, logo. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Our grandparents checked zero times a day. Times change. Eyes havent. Thats why theres ocuvite. Screen light. Sunlight. Longer hours. Eyes today are stressed. But ocuvite has vital nutrients. To help protect them. Ocuvite. Eye nutrition for today. Are there other people that we should be meeting with . So Alan Weisselberg is the chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization. Alan weisselberg made the decision. The signature, the bottom, i believe it is Alan Weisselberg. Alan weisselberg. Weisselberg, weisselberg. Always Alan Weisselberg on the check. That was Michael Cohen repeatedly implicating Alan Weisselberg, the chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization. We are at that public testimony this week, cohen identified weisselberg by name more than 20 times. Hes now come under increase scrutiny by congress. Hes a potential witness cannot be under stated. Corey lewandowski says in his book, weisselberg knows of every dime that leaves the billing. Weisselberg received partial immunity from prosecutors last summer for his testimony about hush money payments to silence two women before the election. According to cohen, it was weisselberg devise the plan and reimburse to cohen. Are you telling us, mr. Cohen, that the president directed transactions in conspiracy with Alan Weisselberg and his son, donald trump jr. , as part of a civil criminal conspiracy of financial fraud, is that your testimony today . Yes. Nbc news learned the House Intelligence Committee intends to call weisselberg to the. Nbc news is also reporting tonight, democrats of the house ways and means are crafting a request for trump tax returns. Joining me now, natasha bertran. Thank you for being with us. Natas natasha, we mention there, weisselberg, 45 years around the trump empire. When you look at the circle of people around trump, usually in some way you hear from them in public. This is somebody who managed to stay close to trump and entirely behind the scene for more than four decades. Talk about the role he plays in trumps world and what he would potentially be in position to shine a light on. It is interesting that we heard nothing from him. Hes obsessively private. The Trump Organization is a Small Organization in terms of the amount of people that work there. It is kind of like a mom and pop shop in a way. Hes able to have the ability to everything that the Trump Organization did in terms of its finances. When donald trump jr. Said that russian assets and money makes up a disproportionate amount of the trumps asset. Weisselberg is in the position to Tell Congress whether or not it is true. When we talk about millions and millions of dollars in cash by the Trump Organization, where does that come from . Weisselberg is in position to Tell Congress where that money came from. How did he insert 200 million into his scottish golf course that is were failing. Where did he get that money . All things that weisselberg could potentially be able to answer. Thats what makes him so valuable here. This money came from a foreign entity. This money was used in an elicit manner. He could be part of these crimes is another question. Caroline, there is always sorts of possibility here, things he may know or things he may be able to connect the dots on. The question is, would he be willing to answer any questions on those fronts . Well, you know i think congress is certainly going to put the questions to him. It is hard to know how hes going to get out of, coming up before those committees and talking about what he he knows. I think the commit ttee has learned clearly that the Trump Organization is a criminal enterprise and to get to the bottom of it, theyre going to need to follow the money and the one who knows where the money is is Alan Weisselberg. I guess my question is cohen was there voluntarily and going to prison in a few weeks. Maybe in terms of his reputation, something was motivating him there to volunteer everything to say this week. If you are weisselberg, what would prevent him showing up and pleading the fifth . Hes cooperating with the Southern District of new york. He knows that hes got a lot of liability out there and it is very possible that he could see that it is in his longer term interests to speak with candor about what hes been involved in and the role that he plays these variety fraudulent enterprises and tax fraud and so forth. Hes got a lot at stake. The prosecutors have a fair amount over him cooperating with the committee as well and maybe really in his interest. Thats a question too is sort of a division of labor of questions. If congress is interested in these things and weisselberg is not interested in talking about them, is there a concern there if you are congress and is there an idea of granting some kobe brya kind of immunity. Potentially, i would tell you as a former federal prosecutor, any time you can turn the cfo of an organization whether it is a small mom or pop which this organization had been described at or large publicly traded company, the cfo is a gold mind. It is the cfo that you want to get. Here hes a potentially a valuable witness for both congress and prosecutors. There has to be a certaindecon. Another witness is set to testify. Felix sater, according to multiple report, sater pleaded guilty in the late 90s to stock fraud in connection of the russian mafia and trump worked with him on various projects. A 2013 deposition trump down played his association with sater, saying he barely knew him. If he were sitting in the room right now, i would not know what he looked like. Despite trumps sworn deposition, cohen testified that the president did know sater well enough to give him an office in trump tower. Is it true that President Trump knew mobster felix sater in 2013 when he made that statement . Yes. Is it true that because mr. Saters relationship to the Trump Organization that he had an office in the trump tower . And on the 26th floor. The 26th floor is important wh