Implications. First President Trump announcing Mick Mulvaney will become his acting chief of staff. Two sources say he was asked to be named acting chief of staff because he wanted a safea in place. The special counsel slammed Michael Flynn after the former National Security adviser suggested he slould been warned about the consequences of lying the fbi. On tuesday flynn will become the first member of the trump admin strags to be sentenced, and this comes after trumps former lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison. Cohen insisted trump asked him to make illegal payments to silence women who had affairs with President Trump. So many investigations, and clearly the investigative walls are closing in on trump. Getting the michael chone plea here is a gamechanger in so many ways. A lot of this is going to turn on whether cohen has tapes or somebody else does. I think its also going to turn on how trump responds. Meanwhile the incoming chair of the republican chair committee representing adam schiff is investigating whether there was any illegal funding in the president s inauguration. Sara sanders is reacting to whether the Inauguration Committee misspent funds. That doesnt have anything to do with the president or first lady. The biggest thing the president did in his inauguration was to come here and raise his hand and take the oath of office. The president was focused on the transition during that time and not on any of the planning. Today is the last day to sign up for the Affordable Health care. The land mark decision remains in place after a federal judge struck it down yesterday as understand constitutional. Its expected to be appealed. Heres nbc News White House correspondent Kelly Odonnell with the details. Good morning, dara. With a tweet the president ended speculation one of the big guessing games around town about who would be the neck chief of staff. One of the most important positions in all of washington. President trump has decided to pull from the office of management and budget the director there, Mick Mulvaney. Officials tell me he will serve in an acting role. When i asked because that suggests it might be temporary, he said theres no time limit. He could fill this role indefinitely, but the president himself chose to put acting in the title. The handover of kelly will happen at the end of the year, kelly staying on for a period of time. But theres been a lot of speculation on who wow step into the role at a time when everyone is critical of the white house. There will be planning lots of investigation, butting the west wing through its hoops, also at a time when the Russian Investigation and the actions of the special counsel are still moving along with the end date not entirely there and then gearing up for the president s own reelection. All of those forces coming together, and one of the key positions is chief of staff. Mick mulvaney who had been a member of congress for South Carolina understands some of the workings of capitol hill and how that would relate to the white house. Officials here say because of his, quote, Political Savvy and that hes fiscally responsible, those are things that attracted the president to mulvaney. Earlier chris christie, phammer governor of new jersey took his name out of the running, saying he was honored to be considered but it was not the right time for hum and his family, leaving a big question about who would fill this role about a week after the president said john kelly would be leaving. Dara . Thank you. Kelly odonnell. Great to have you both here this saturday morning. Great to be here. Lots to talk about. Julia, i want to talk with you. Yes. Thats the question that everyone is asking. You know, going back throughout trumps presidency, hes had a couple of different types of chiefs of staff. He had Reince Priebus coming from a big political machine. Then you had john kelly who came in and wanted to rule with an iron fist, bring order to the white house. Now you have Mick Mulvaney, politically savvy, who who understands how capitol hill works, and its going to be needed considering the democrats are going to take back the housz in january and theres going to be tension between the admin strags and congress there. However, i think the biggest takeaway is the timing of all of this. It wasnt good news with the development of Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen, and this administration has a habit of releasing new stories on friday to sort of drive that narrative, if you will. We see that no one appears to want this job and its obviously a very tough job and a prestigious position. Its starting to weigh on the president because everyone kept turning down the president. He said, i need to get someone in here and were hearing reports there were frustrations in there. Mulvaney is one of the most id lock cal conservatives in the president s cabinet. How could he shape the president s policies . Its going to be massive. Mick mulvaney rode the Tea Party Wave to congress back in 2010 if you will, and then, he, of course, was a hardline conservative in the ultra conservative Freedom Caucus. He clashed many times with the republican establishment including people like paul ryan and speaker john boehner. So to watch him now inherit what has become the new normal of republican circles and President Trumps Republican Party has been quite remarkable. Hes very closely aligned with Vice President mike pence. Hes also closely aligned with peter navarro. When it comes to that last pound that i just made, thats going to weigh in terms of how the president is negotiating not just with congress as julia correctly pointed out but also unter nationally on International Trade deals with china, canada, kmoeks, europe. Now awith all of that, its muc more aligned, and thats going to be a fascinating dynamic to watch. The last think id note, he also clashes with others. Most noticeably was elizabeth warren. He showed up with doughnuts. He really gutted it for lack of a better word. That drew him a lot of praise from republican circles and a lot of criticism from people like senator elizabeth warren. Lets listen to what then congressman Mick Mulvaney said ahead of the 2016 election. Yes, im supporting donald trump. Im doing so enthusiastically even despite the fact that hes a terrible human being. Politics aside, how do we know how Mick Mulvaney gets along with the president. Were seeing Mick Mulvaney has a pretty good working relationship with the president so far. The president values loyalty. So far, that clip played aside, mulvaney has been loyal to the president and pushing for the conservative agenda the fromth has really promoted. In terms of the inner circle, he does come from the more conservative wing of the Republican Party. The Freedom Caucus, we saw mark meadows was up for consideration earlier this week. This is a pear the president really wants to attach himself to. This comes be ever the whole narrative in the house is going to flip. So weve seen a lot of were going see those investigations into, you know, bias of the justice department, to the clintons. Those are going to end in the house because the Freedom Caucus and conservatives who are pushing for those are now not going to be in the majority. So it will be interesting to see how Mick Mulvaney continues to push for chief of staff. President trump is denying he directed Michael Cohen to make illegal payments and cohen is insisting he acting on the direction of then candidate trump. Lets listen. Nothing at the Trump Organization was ever done unless it was run through mr. Trump. He directed me, as i said in my al cushi allocution. He was trying to hide what you were doing. Correct. And he knew it was wrong. Of course. And he was doing that to help his election . Yes. He was very concerned about how this would affect the election. To help his campaign. To help him and the campaign. Kevin, take a deep breath here. What is your assessment of what it could mean for the president especially among Senate Republicans . In terms of Senate Republicans look no further than senator orrin hatch, senator from utah, who said earlier this week to cnn that he believes dell carats would do anything to harm politically this president. Then he released a statement yesterday clarifying his comments, and in this statement he says no one is above the law and while he believes the president has been a great president , you know, that this bob mueller investigation, district of new york, all of that is on a separate track. The bottom line is when i talked to sources close to the white house, supporters of the white house, they said, why would anyone believe Michael Cohen, particularly someone who lied to congress. On the flip side of that when i interviewed lanny davis earlier this week he made it quite clear ma Michael Cohen will be relicirelic relicirelic relicirelic relicing relying on information. At the end of the day, however, the political implications of this have not yet impacted the president s poll numbers. But the talk of impeachment with democrats to take over the house in a couple of weeks, thats definitely starting to bubble over. And it feels more like days and weeks here. Any implications that may erode the support that he has from that base . I dont think so at this point because as to how kevin said hes very popular with the Republican Party, his Approval Ratings in his own base are probably in the high 80s, low 90s. I think all the president has do is go on twitter and say why should you believe Michael Cohen. Hes pushed the scenario this is a personal mat e. I didnt direct him. Many of you say why would i hire him in the first place. Al he has to do is push up this matter. I didnt know musical cohen was going to do that. So his base will most likely believe him. His base does not care about this russia investigation. Theyre very skeptical of it. Quickly i would note at the end of the day if there was evidence to suggest he was somehow in the room for some of these meetings as nbc news reports, bob mueller doesnt care about political implications. We will see. Julia manchester, kevin cirilli, stay with us. Well talk about the inaugural funds next. Meanwhile, Michael Flynn is suggesting he was duped into lying to the fbi. I just got my cashback match, is this for real . Yep. We match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. Whoo i got my money hard to contain yourself, isnt it . Uh huh let it go whoo get a dollarfordollar match at the end of your first year. Only from discover. honking when your craving strikes, you need your wing nut. no one can totally satisfy a craving, quite like your wing nut. New developments this moaning as federal prosecutors dispute notions that Michael Flynn was talked into lying the fbi about his russian contacts. Jo joining me now is msnbcs legal an all cyst dannier y cevallos. Its unusual. Once he filed a memorandum saying this defendant is a very good defendant, cooperative, and should get the lowest sentence, right off the bat, thats very unusual. Whats more unusual is the daytona responding not for nothing, federal prosecutors, but you tricked me. Thanks for the recommendation, but you essentially tricked me into committing this crime. So its no surprise federal prosecutors responded to that with not a little bit of annoyance because after all in their mind that wasnt very appreciative of the kind memorandum for sentencing that they submitted. So can the prosecutors change their sentencing recommendation. Theyre likely not to just based on that. Its rare for the actual words in the sentencing memorandum. Look. When it comes to sentencing memoranda, we lawyers have to try as hard as we can to get the lowest sentence. Prosecutors understand theres a bit of hyperbole in a snesing memorandum, so i dont think its likely theyre going to retaliate against flynn for his argument in the memorandum. And, danny, Rudy Giuliani said hush money payments were not a big deal because nobody got killed. Would these arguments hold up in court and is that the common belief with crimes of the law . Of course not. You have assault, crimes against other humans, but crimes against society. Tax evasion doesnt kill anybody, cause physical harm, but its a crime against society because itchallenges the way our society works. Rudy giuliani knows that because hes put a lot of people in prison for crimes that were not over assault or where someone was murdered or got physically hurt. Footage in 2012 shows the president discussing charges against john edwards. Doesnt this prove that the president had knowledge especially because the sources tell nbc that the president was present for these payment discussions . The argument of my lawyer did it not me will not go far for many reasons. Number one, in the trump business, everything was routed through the org inauguration of donald trump. Part two is if youre directing your attorney or you know your attorney is doing something criminal, you are not relying in good faith on that attorneys advice. Donald trumps strategy will probably be a pivot from this and it will eventually be pure ignorance. I did not know this was a crime. Of course, the counter to that is just as you said, evidence, circumstantial evidence that, indied, he was aware of john edwards being charged with a similar crime. He was aware because he tried to conceal this transaction, and that shows awareness, consciousness of guilt. Danny cevallos, im sure well be coming this conversation again. Thanks for joining us on this saturday. What makes this headline . The inauguration paid trump with ivanka in the middle. First laugh lines with trump and cohen giving the cohen. I hired him to break the law but in a way that was legal. Three years is a lot, but, remember, trumps closest associate got life. Just a tip, michael, on the first day in prison, walk up to the biggest guy on the yard and say, remember me . I was your lawyer. I just got my ancestrydna results 74 italian. And i found out that im from the big toe of that sexy italian boot so this Holiday Season its ancestrydna per tutti order your kit now at ancestry. 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Think your copd medicine is doing enough . Maybe you should think again. Ask your doctor about oncedaily trelegy and the power of 123. Trelegy 123 save at trelegy. Com. A new report says the Trump Organization may have overcharged Trumps Inaugural Committee for all kinds of spaces including trumps building. The expense could be a violation of the law. The person in the middle of the negotiations, ivanka trump. Were back with our panel Julia Manchester and dkevin cirelli. It looks at questions pertaining to the relationship between the administration as well as the trump business dealings and i think this has been an administration that has not consistently revealed some of those dynamics and now there are questions about it. The bottom line is this is another type of investigation, another type of questions that are surrounding this in addition to all of the other investigations and its at a time that, you know, i think add this to the list of oversight that the democrats are going to do in the come the new house of representatives. And according to new emails, one example shows trump wanted to charge 125,000 for a day when it should have been 85,000. This could be a red flag when audited. How problematic is this, julia . I would say its very problematic. It adds to a list of investigations really plaguing the Trump Administration when they need to be focused on working with a democratic controlled house, Republican Controlled Senate in order to at least try to push their agenda through. Democrats are going to add this to the list they want to produce oversight on and investigate. It comes after the developments with Michael Cohen and Michael Flynn this week, so a huge headache for the Tru