Of that. Im alex wiig here in new york. High noon here in the weeft, 9 00 a. M. Out west and here is whats happening. New reaction from President Trump on twitter, but is he making any direct reference to what is expected to be a bombshell revolution in the Robert Mueller investigation . Meanwhile, members of congress telling us what they expect to happen. Behind the numbers, a new poll out today. It shows President Trump has reached a historical milestone. Were going to tell you if its good or bad. One of President Trumps lawyers is talking. He reveals the legal teams approach to the russia investigation in a new interview out today. But first, we have this breaking news out of puerto rico. Just a short time ago, governor ricardo r ricar ricardo of course that contract has certainly come under fire for its generous terms and its lack of oversight on the Small Montana company. In just a few minutes, im going to talk with nbcs Gabe Gutierrez. Hell join us live from puerto rico with reaction to that. He also spoke exclusively to the whitefish owner before this latest news. Coming your way in just moments. Meanwhile, widespread reaction at this moment to Robert Muellers looming indictment. Two gop allies say the focus today should be on thow the existence of these charges came public. Depending on who leaked this to cnn, thats a criminal violation potentially. For us to have confidence in this process, weve got to make sure the grand jury process remains confidential. As a former prosecutor, im disappointed that you and i are having the conversation because somebody violated their oath of secrecy. Also new today, preet bharara, one of the u. S. Attorneys fired by President Trump on what he is looking for if and when the president responds directly to the indictment. Whether or not donald trump has some reaction and talks in a way that could be used against him in the future. Because bob mueller would do that. And the second thing i would look at is to see if the president of the United States is sending some kind of message to the potential defendant or other witnesses, and thats in two categories. One, is he sending a message of intimidation in some way through himself or his cohorts to suggest that people should not be talking, people should keep their mouths shut . And the second thing is whether or not he sends a message of reassurance. Were going to break it all down for you this morning with Nbcs Kelly Odonnell at the white house, former democratic congresswoman, and cnbc editor at large john harwood. Quite a team right there. Begin with kelly at the white house. Kelly, good day to you. The president this morning firing off a series of tweets on the heels of muellers indictments what all is he saying. Reporter it may be the president s reck ration this sunday. He is at the white house. Used his twitter feed to respond more to the atmosphere than the specifics of the reports of an impending indictment as a result of the special counsels investigation related to russian interference in the 2016 election. So the president talking about some of the political elements of this more than the specific reporting about an expected indictment. And, again, u. S. Officials tell nbc news its expected monday. We dont know who would be identified as a defendant or what the charges are. So still a lot of questions. But in a string of five tweets over a period of time today, the president weighing in. First, he began by saying, never such republican anger and unity as i have concerning the lack of investigation on clintonmade fake dossier now valued at 12 million. The uranium to russia deal, the 33,000plus emails, a whole litany of grievances against Hillary Clinton. The comey fix as he calls it and so much more. Instead they look at phony trump russia. Thats key in that part of the tweet. Collusion, which doesnt exist. Weve heard president s stay that publicly many times. The dems are using this. Terrible and, quote, bad for our country. Witchhunt notably in capital letters for evil politics. Think hes coining a new phrase there. The rs, republicans, are fighting back like never before. So much guilt by democrats and clinton that the facts are pouring out. Do something with an exclamation. The president urging there be some action against the former Hillary Clinton campaign or the Democratic National committee, and then the final tweet in this series, all of this, quote, russia talk, right when republicans are making their big push for historic tax cuts and reform. Is this coincidental . And then in a very trumpian end note, not, exclamation point. So the president is going at several things here. He is listing the grievances he has towards Hillary Clinton as he sees it. Also feeling that there is not sufficient scrutiny over the dossier which was talked about in recent days that was in at least some part financed by the dnc and the Clinton Campaign. And then maybe the most easy to understand political argument, he is saying that as republicans are trying to make some advances legislatively, which they have struggled with during his time in office, this is somehow a distraction from that. Those are good political arguments for the president to make to his supporters. Of course a special counsel is working in a parallel track, doing the work that is intended to be in secret and the grand jury process is intended to be in secret. So there are some questions about how even the awareness of an indictment came out, but well see how that plays out over the next few days. So the president not addressing sort of the headline, but talking about all of the atmospherics and sort of waging his own political response using twitter today. Nothing official from the white house on the expected indictment. Alex . All right. As always, many thanks to you. Kelly odonnell at the white house for us. Lets get more now on the special counsels probe. We bring in former u. S. Congresswoman elizabeth hotelsman. Good to have you back on the broadcast. Your reaction to what we heard promote bharara say a bit earlier. Could bob mueller take issue with the way the president is reacting to the russia probe . Even the indictment tomorrow that is expected. You bet. Whats really concerning and for the president to suggest, which he did in the last tweet, that its not coincidental, that an indictment is coming down at this time. That means hes accusing the grand jury process, the grand jury and bob mueller of acting politically as opposed to acting properly. To accuse misconduct on the part of the prosecutor could then feed back into the whole issue of obstruction of justice. We saw this with Richard Nixon during watergate. I mean, its scary how many reflections there are of that time, but you cant if you start attacking the prosecutor and accusing the prosecutor of being political and the grand jury, that could ultimately be part of an obstruction or from an impeachment point of view, an abuse of power. It is an abuse of power to attack the process. You bring up watergate and you were on that committee that recommended the articles of impeachment. You say it is scary. To what degree . What are some of the things you see in terms of parallels . Well, the first thing is firing comey. Thats what triggered the impeachment process way back during nixons era, which was nixon fired the special prosecutor. He said, uhuh, this guys going after the evidence and im going to stop him. Thats when the country stood up and said, uhuh, mr. Nixon, this is a country of a rule of law and you cant tell the prosecutor what to do. So if trump is trying to do that here, this is a problem and these are things that resonate, echos of watergate. Do you see similarities in terms of this president s reaction to the reaction that was sustained from president nixon as both of them are facing scrutiny on their behavior while in office . Well, you know, president nixon got up and said im not a crook. President trump has said time after time theres been no collusion, theres been no collusion, its fake, its nonsense, its just a hoax. We have a special prosecutor. Hes special counsel. Hes doing a serious and thorough job. No one really aside from the president and his team is attacking the credibility and the integrity of bob mueller. Its true. If you do that, you do that and you face the consequences. We saw that in watergate. Thats what started the process that brought Richard Nixon down. And was it the same in that we find that members of congress on both sides of the aisle are constant constantly validating bob muellers integrity. Thats right. There are very few people who will attack him on that front. Correct. He headed the fbi. He did a very good job. Hes an experienced prosecute. Hes a serious guy here who put together a serious team that is going to do a serious investigation. The minute you accuse them of politics and try to interfere with that process and raise public concern about it and try to slow it down in some way or obstruct it into sum way, youre moving into abuse of power, or obstruction of justice. Timing here of this sealed indictment. We find out about it on a friday night. Allegedly being served some time monday morning afternoon, were not sure when. Why seal an indictment, get it on the record and then wait a couple of days . You know, muellers a very experienced guy. I cant answer that question. You have to sometimes worry about not just the leaks remember, the leaks dont have to come from government, they could come from defense counsel, from potential defendants. We dont know where this information came from. Which means do you believe the person indicted is aware that this is coming . Maybe. It could be. We dont know. I want to play for you a clip of new jersey governor corphris christie. Heres what he said. I think for us to have intelligence in this process, weve got to make sure that the grand jury process remains confidential, remains secret so that the special counsel can work effectively to be able to get to the bottom of all that hes looking into. I think the good news from the president s perspective is hes not under investigation. Is that accurate . No. Of course the special counsel is investigating whether his firing of comb was an obstruction of justice and whether his campaign, possibly including him, colluded with the russians to obstruct our democracy and undermine our democracy. Thats just nonsense. Christie should know better. Im curious going back to conversations weve had about the president s ability to issue pardons. We know he did do with joe arpaio, even before he was sentenced. He was pardoning something that had yet to be specifically defined. What happens if the president in this case issues similarly preemptive pardons . Can that happen . Its not clear to me. I mean, he could try to do it, but i think its just it could be a serious question well, lets put it this way, if he issues pardons to his team or to anyone who is indicted for the purpose of obstructing justice, then thats an impeachable offense. In my judgement, no question about it. Richard nixon, part of the articles of impeachment against him was that he offered president ial pardons to the watergate burglars, telling them keep quiet, youll get a president ial pardon. That was a ground of impeachment. Thats history. Thats precedent. Could he do it . Could he offer it . Maybe. But if he does it, hes got to worry about impeachment and maybe even obstruction of justice. Because, yes, you have the power to do something, but if you do it for the purpose of covering up a crime and protecting yourself, you could be in criminal area. Easily. I want to play for you a bit of what richard painter said, of course, house ethics attorney under george w. Bush. Hes talking about the congressional response overall here. If the president were to fire bob mueller. Here is that. I dont see how the president could fire Robert Mueller without impeachment proceedings starting immediately in the house of representatives. I cant see how congress would tolerate that. What do you think . Do you think if the president were to do that, that would start impeachment proceedings . It should. It would be an outrage, but will the Republican Congress finally stand up for the country and not their own special interests . I dont know. I hope they do. I saw the congress of the United States, everybody was poohpoohing the congress during the nixon time. Mmmhmm. But the Congress People rose up and did the right thing. Even republican members of the of the house of representatives and House Judiciary Committee stood up and voted for the impeachment of Richard Nixon because they put country above party. In the end, thats what patriotism is about, to preserve our democratic system. If people arent willing to do that because they put the party ahead of everything else, you know, thats too bad and a very sad sign of where we are. I cant predict that will. They should. And the country should demand and expect that from them if they stand up for preserving the rule of law. Thank you very much. Always good to speak with you. We have some breaking news. This from provoke. Just a short time ago, the governor dmanlding that the islands Power Company cancel that 300 Million Contract with Whitefish Energy. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez has the very latest breaking details from san juan, puerto rico. Gabe with a good day to you. What have you learned on this . Reporter hi there, alex. Well, this comes as a surprise to some here in puerto rico, at least that it happened this quickly. Of course, this contract has been gaining some controversy over the last couple of days. Whitefish energy up to 300 million to help restore the power grid here and restore power to a part of the island. Well, just within the past few hours, the governor saying that he now wants the puerto rico electric power authority, the board for prepa to cancel that contract. Were still awaiting comment from prepa officials. We understand there is supposed to be a News Conference later this afternoon. Still no immediate comment from Whitefish Energy on the governors statements, but we did speak with the ceo yesterday and he seemed to have no clue that this was coming. He said that he would be in puerto rico as long as it takes. And what has been getting some attention is all of the questions, alex, about how they managed to get this contract. The ceo told me yesterday that he actually managed to do it by reaching out to prepa officials through the social networking site linkedin and did so after hurricane irma, stayed in touch with prepa officials and flew down to san juan on september 26th, six days after Hurricane Maria made landfall. Still, many questions about how this contract unfolded. One portion of the contract, alex, that raised a lot of questions was a section that seed that fema had actually reviewed and approved the contract. Fema came back and said that just was not accurate. The agency said it has significant concerns about this contract and it forced both whitefish and the ceo of prepa to backtrack and say it was simply a mistake. Ricardo ramos, he told the wall street journal he had no other explanation for it other than an oops. This was shaping up to be quite an embarrassing episode for the governor. He had taken pains to not take a stance on this as there were audits and now congressional investigations underway into this. But, again, today, the breaking news, alex, is that the governor now says that he wants the prepa board to cancel this contract. Were expecting some comment within the next few hours from the head of that prepa board. Were also going to speak with new York Governor Andrew Cuomo who has been in Place De La Republique puerto rico a couple of times. Gabe, thank you so much for that. On pins and needles, both sides awaiting word on the first charges in the Robert Mueller investigation. Will it be as explosive as some expect . Informed opinions next. R i certainly would have, you know, liked to know who paid for it earlier, but nonetheless, thats just one factor to be considered. It doesnt answer the ultimate question, which is how much of the work is accurate . How much of it is true . And my colleagues dont seem particularly interested in that question, but that is really the most important question for the american people. That is, how much does this allegation that Christopher Steele makes in the reports that he hears are true about the russian government wanting to help the Trump Campaign . Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee congressman adam schiff talking about the trump dossier and the sources who funded it. Joining me now reporter for mother jones and john harwood, cnbc editor at large. Good to see you both. John, first for you here. Congressman schiff he was saying he would like to know who funded the research that funded the dossier but thats not the central question. Does one thing lead to the other . No. Look, the central issue is that the u. S. Intelligence community has concluded that russia intervened in the 2016 election to help donald trump. The steele dossier had some allegations in it which suggested the same thing. Which said that that was what russia was trying to do. We have since learned that the Trump Campaign received a meeting, the president s son, his soninlaw, Campaign Chairman with a representative of the russian government who said he wanted to help the Trump Campaign. Weve since learned that the Data Analytics firm for the Trump Campaign and a big donor contacted wikileak