Prime way of communication. Those liberals make mistakes when they tweet, too. We begin with breaking news out of washington this hour. Sources are telling nbc news that former fbi director james comey could testify as early as next week. Those sources also saying he has been cleared to testify by special counsel robert mueller. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell is at the white house, msnbc justice correspondent Pete Williams is also in washington. Im also joined by New York Times reporter james savage and jonathan swann, correspondent anne thompson. Pete, lets start with you and that news about james comey. What do you know . Reporter i just know what others have reported, that its been worked out that he will testify, that hes talked to bob mueller, the new special counsel, and theyve worked it out. Im actually here, katy, to talk about the arrest of somebody at the trump hotel earlier today. This happened around midnight last night. Two things happened at the same time. The police got a tip from someone in pennsylvania that a man named brian moles from edinborough, pennsylvania was on his way there and was going to stay at the trump hotel. At the same time were told when moles checked into the hotel, he told the valet parker, by the way, ive got some guns in the car. The police searched, they found weapons. They knocked on his door and said, do you have guns . He said yes. Katy . Kelly, back to that breaking news about fbi director james comey. What is the white house saying at this hour . Are they saying anything . Reporter no comment yet from the white house, but this is one of the most high stakes, high visibility potential witnesses that washington has seen in a long time. Now, james comey, the former fbi director, fired by President Trump, has appeared and testified a number of times. Hes done things that have attracted enormous public attention. I was in the room with him july 1 a year ago when he was talking about the Hillary Clinton email investigation and laid out all the information from that time period and then gave us the result that he would not be recommending any kind of charges. Now were into the russia investigation, and we know based on our reporting of the contemporaneous notes that former director comey took alongside his meetings with President Trump, those still reside in the department of justice. What we understand is that robert mueller, former fbi director himself, served a long time, about a dozen years, i believe. He, of course, is now rung the russ running the russiarelated investigations appointed by special counsel. What is new is mueller and comey have connected, have disclosed the parameters of what can be discussed in public. Comey has, through his associates, made clear he wants a public airing of whatever it is he has to say, now sort of liberated from the bonds of public life but still held by what is classified. Trying to navigate where can he illuminate the situation and how can he do it publicly . So we have known that the Intelligence Committee on the senate side has been eager to find a forum for comey to testify. This is a key piece with mueller who is running the investigation. His concern, of course, would be that nothing be made public in advance of the process thats happening behind the scenes. Nothing to interfere with the investigative work that is ongoing. So the headline, comey and mueller spoke, comey is clear to speak out in public, and boy, will we be watching. Katy . Kelly, is there a protest going on there . Okay, it is coming through our microphones. Yes. The Prime Minister of vietnam is expected to meet with President Trump in a short time, and there are several hundred protesters at the north lawn gate here. They have been chanting, banging drums, using megaphones for the last half hour or so. Thats a typical thing that happens at the white house. They are particularly impactful, shall we say, today. It sounds like a hockey game in my ear out there. Kelly, thank you very much. Jonathan, lets talk a little more about comey. What are we expecting to hear from him . Do we think well get any major revelations, any details about the memos he wrote after meeting with President Trump . The most interesting interviews of the last couple months was benjamin wittes, who is a longtime friend of james comey, and he spoke to jacob weisberg, and he predicted all this. He said based on the comey he kno knows, he expects that james comey will testify in public, probably in a congressional setting, and the thing about james comey, his history is a very good guide to what hes going to do. What he tends to do is explain himself very fully, sometimes in pain stakie in painstaking detail, sometimes in painful detail, some things that are not politically wise because he doesnt think like a politician. For comey almost being tone deaf, he tends to reveal more than the general actor tends to reveal. I think hell reveal a lot short of private information. They said the disclosure of the investigation smmg from russias meddling in last yes electionnd cutting away his staff have driven away possible people in jobs that usually would be coveted. I know a lot of people in the white house have said they hope they dont have to go, hoping these offers dont come through. If were talking about potentially getting rid of Reince Priebus, maybe, if the reporting holds. Charlie, what does that mean if the white house cant fill these roles with people who are adequately qualified to hold the positions . Well, your question answers itself to some extent, but i would also flag that weve seen rumors and chatter about maybe this person is going to go, maybe that person is going to go, and nothing comes of it. A month or two ago, people thought steve bannon, which was divided between the Reince Priebus faction and the bannon faction. Bannon is dead, hes out. He survived, hes still there. So i wouldnt get ahead of this story just because this white house seems to make personnel decisions and float trial balloons capriciously that dont pan out. Some of the chatter surrounding this is whether there will also be more and new lawyers brought in to assist the white House Counsel on these burgeoning investigations in dealing with the comey and mueller investigation. I would add earlier to mr. Comey going to talk and the special counsel mueller clearing him to do so. There is another factor here. The white house, if it wanted and you can be sure behind the scenes theyre talking about it could try to exert executive privilege to prevent comey from talking. Normally an executive branchs official conversations with the president are covered by executive privilege, the communications privilege, and congress does not have a right to, under the constitution, drag that information into the light except under certain circumstances and so forth. So if you see comey come before the committee and talk without anything arising like that remember when sally yates, after she was fired as attorney general, there was all this stuff about whether she was allowed to talk to congress about certain topics . The Justice Department was suggesting maybe she should hold back. If he talks without any of that arising, it means they made a decision that either they werent afraid of anything he had to say or that the politics of trying to stop him would be counterproductive from their standpoint. A lot of very valid points. A little more on that staff shakeup, though, and charlie, youre absolutely right to say that nothing happens until it actually happens and no decisions are made until theyre actually made. And yes, bannon looked like he was on the way out just a few weeks ago. But jonathan, where does the axios reporting stand on who could take over a major role . We need to be so careful about this. The way i look at all of this stuff is donald trump has a lot of conversations on the outside. And so we know, for example, that they are considering david urban, who was Donald Trumps pennsylvania stake director. Trump loves him, they have a very good relationship, he is a lobbyist in town. Hes definitely under consideration and he would probably only come in at the chief of staff level or maybe deputy chief of staff. That doesnt mean hell go in. Lots could happen. We saw also with david bossi was going to come inside, and now were hearing maybe he wont come inside. We know the people who are in the mix, but your point earlier is very well taken, which is that in order to go in, you really need to look at people who are willing to run towards a fire. These people are being counseled not to go in, that they would be putting themselves potentially in legal jeopardy. There are a lot of people around town, republicans, that wouldnt touch this white house with a 50foot pole. So it takes a special kind of person to run into this situation, and thats why i think you see these people they call street fighters, people like Coren Lewandowski, people who are blind to trump and have nothing to lose. Thats where Coren Lewandowski got his start and thats where his talents lie. Kelly, lets talk about whether or not President Trump plans to pull out of the paris climate accord. Where does it stand now . Reporter we suspect that pulling out is imminent. President trump expects to make a decision within days. White house sources are telling our team that it is more likely that he will withdraw. What is notable when we were on the trip with the president in sicily where he was meeting with g7 leaders that they broke yet her of the traditions of sort ofbal diplomacy where the six other nations signed on to say that they still fully support the paris accord on climate change, and they allowed for the United States to take additional time. Advisers told us quite directly at that point that the president s views were evolving. That would almost suggest that after campaigning against the Paris Agreement that perhaps he was hearing some input from other World Leaders about a way for the u. S. To remain in that pact. Were days after that trip. Other people of influence have been allowed to weigh in with the president , including some notable cfos and so forth. Elon musk has tweeted that he advised the president to remain in the accord, and if they go away from that, he will pull out from the council. The news we are getting is it is more than likely he would withdraw. Like it is said with public staffing, we dont know for sure until it happens. Thats right, you dont know what to think no matter what his aides say. Talk about the jobs impact this could have if americans decide to pull out of this deal. The cfos that kelly was referencing in her report, theyre going to put out a fullpage ad in the Washington Post and the wall street journal tomorrow urging the president to stay in the accord. Microsoft, apple, brand names along with shell and adp. They said it would reduce business risk, make companies more competitive and create jobs, said the administration. Donald trump has been very protective of coal miner jobs. They have decreased dramatically in the last several years largely because Utility Companies are just using less coal. Theyre using less coal because we have more natural gas and natural gas burns cleaner than coal. And the cost of renewables have come down so coal miners havent been affected much, theyre really affected by forces. Pulling out of the Paris Agreement isnt going to change that. Last thing, charlie, lets talk about Donald Trumps tweet overnight. Im not even going to try to pronounce the word that appeared on his twitter because i dont think i could. People mocked him on twitter for leaving this tweet up for so many hours. Thats not the point i want to make. Talk to me about the security concerns, the implications of what it means that donald trump has a way to communicate with america and the world that is not monitored, that is not checked . What message could get on there that maybe a hacker could get on there or what message could get on there that they might need to take away . Does anybody have access to this account other than donald trump . We do know that sort of anodine statements come out of that account and we think those are written by his staffers that dont have the same tone as sort of the trump tweet that really gets attention. Youre right, though, a lot of people had fun with that bizarre tweet he put up last night and left up for many hours, but it does sort of raise there is a serious side to it, and part of it is just sort of whats going on inside the president s brain. But another part of it is also, we are still in this unprecedented territory where normally this extraordinarily powerful person is surrounded by these layers of aides and advisers and filters to the world, and donald trump is a very different kind of president and has insisted on keeping this unfettered check to the internet what if he gets hacked . We a what if somebody said, we are aiming nukes at north korea . Can anybody go in there and say, no, take that down . Is anybody monitoring this through the night . How does the president get embarrassed like that for six hours . We need to do a better job of monitoring President Trumps twitter account, even in the middle of the night. I was thinking of another scenario which was less alarming but just as realistic. What prevents a hack in pulling down a stock . You can think of many things that could be used for. Reporter in my work with the two previous administrations, there were times when they would make me put my personal company cell phone in a lead box because they were concerned about the ability of professional hackers from u. S. Adversaries getting into the phone, turning on the microphone, things like that. So lead boxes exist around the white house to try to prevent that. I dont know if there is one in the residence, but there is certainly an awareness in this part of washington of how high value the targets are. What a rich environment it is for any kind of porous surveillance, where you could get and have any kind of access to an official of any type or even journalists here on the grounds at the white house. That reference i made was from the previous administration, both obama and bush. But perhaps there are those concerns here in the trump world as well. All the more relevant because this is what much of the 2016 campaign was based on, this careless use of classified information on private servers, on things that were not secure, and on phones that could have been hacked. Thats all the more relevant. A reminder were also waiting for the White House Press briefing. Its audio only today, but were going to be monitoring it. And charlie, i have to note that behind you, for the past few minutes, ive seen glen thrush, ive seen peter baker, se iven Matt Rosenberg either youre in a very interesting part of the world today or should we watch for something breaking . I think its also important that you stay abreast of what were about to publish. Great answer. Thank you to all my panel. After the break, we head to the hill where the Russian Investigation is moving ahead. Ahh. Where are mom and dad . saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico goin up the country. Love mom and dad im takin a nap. 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I think we actually have Common Ground here. What im saying is lets see if he has or not. It comes as a former Trump Campaign surrogate, Boris Epstein, says he has been contacted by congress in connection with the white house investigation. And as mike flynn tells nbc news, he will hand over some documents to the senate intel committee. Nbcs capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt joins me now. Kasie, Boris Epstein is a new name were hearing. Havent heard that name so far. Tell me why the white house may want answers from him. Reporter i would think of this as casting a wide net. There is a group of people on this pretty long list, were told two dozen plus, potentially, that these committees are interestein speaki to, and this is somebody who may have some knowledge or information. If you look through our nbc reporting, its not clear there would ever be a subpoena or an