David Gura hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Intelligence community is coming forth with. And to pull up, the headline in a piece you wrote about ivanka trumps comments to mike allen. Are journalists the enemy of the people, thats the question she was asked. She said they are not. Jane newton small, i want to ask you about whats characterized as two administrations. You have members of the president s team of advisers on this issue, electoral interference differing widely in total opposition to the president of the United States. Help me understand how thats shaping up and how stark that contrast is between the two opposing institutions . David, i talked to people in the white house. They talk about living on a notion, right . They tried to do most work on the bottom part of the ocean, trying to go underneath the waves, trying to not be railed by surface tension. They view what the president s tweets are as surface tension. They view it as thats donald
trump being donald trump. They view it partly as a necessary evil, partly him wanting to take on his own enemies, and as strategic in some ways. They try to keep their heads down, try to ignore what he says, often times dont address whats going on. For example, is the press the Enemy Of The State or is it potentially not the press. I think if there is two different dichotomies within the administration, thats people trying to get work done and trying to move on, do their jobs, try to make a change in america, and they try to ignore those sort of day to day warfare the president has on twitter. Ellen, i want to ask you about a piece in the Washington Post today, focusing on the 29yearold woman accused of being a russian agent. The post detailing how she had a relationship of some sort with jd gordon, former Trump Adviser on National Security issues. When you look at russian interference more broadly, this
is an extraordinary example of this getting out of the cyber realm into the real world. Help us understand the import of this development as reported in the post today. My colleague broke the story about how this accused russian agent did socialize with one of the Trump CampaignForeign Policy advisers, jd gordon in 2016 and it should be noted that gordon was also the official who was behind a Republican Party platform change in 2016 to try to soften language relating to sanctions on ukraine. This is just yet another sign there was more contact lets say between russians or russian agents and the Trump Campaign than we previously knew. Katie rogers, i want to ask you whats happening this weekend in new jersey. We can talk about ohio in a moment as well. Rudy guiliani saying he is spending the weekend focusing on the latest request from Robert Mueller to get President Trump to sit down for an interview. We have seen an evolution in thinking or commentary surrounding that happening from Rudy Guiliani and his colleagues and others on the president s legal team. Where do things stand now, whats up for grabs. I know it is divided into two forms, you have obstruction and collusion. Well, i think to cut through all of the incremental updates on this from guiliani, i think that whats up for grabs is the ultimate refusal or agreement to go forward here. Well know as he says in a few days. I think focusing on the format of the questions is important, but if they come out and decline to be interviewed at all, the question becomes can the
president be compelled to speak to mueller through a subpoena, do they want that political fight ahead of the midterms. Those are sort of the broader, more important questions to ask, and also it is important to point out the special counsels office is not relenting on the number of questions they want to ask. They prepare, they want to have the president Answer Everything that they are looking for, whether it comes in written and spoken statement. The president is on a break now, and he is going to take a break from the break to go to ohio tonight, to central ohio to stump for this republican candidate in this Special Election. Whoever wins that will face the same opponent in the general election a few months away. What are you listening for. They talked about election interference, russian hoax may be things that will come up. What are you listening for when the president takes the podium outside columbus . David, remember the president is there to campaign for troy
balderson. He is neck and neck in a polls that donald trump won by double digits. This is a Bellwether District for democrats to see how well theyll do in the november elections. It is a district thats largely white, largely republican. The question is why is the democratic candidate doing so well there. Thats because it is the most educated district in ohio, and a lot of educated republicans dont really like donald trump. It will be interesting to see when he goes there, what is he going to talk about. Is he going to throw red meat to ohio, talk about his classic trade wars, his classic build the wall, and is he going to address what weve been talking about, the Russian Investigation and concerns that voters have about the russia investigation and whether or not there was collusion or obstruction of justice. I think that these rallies tend to be for donald trump kind of true telling sessions. He really feels unleashed to go off and talk about and comment
on a lot of the Hot Button Issues of the day. When he doesnt talk about things, thats when you see theyre most important, and perhaps the most heavy weighing on him when he avoids them. Fascinating to see what he talks about tonight. Truth telling sessions or crass confessionals. Thanks to you. Appreciate your time. Were turning to Paul Manaforts trial after the break. That case focuses on his activities before becoming Donald TrumpsCampaign Chairman. Will his work on the Campaign Come into question down the road. Ugh were gonna be late, were gonna be late hold on, dont worry, theres another way [siri beep beepa] directions to the Greek Theater. Can i get a connection . Can i get can i get a connection . I can see it in my, see it in my reflection. Ohhh can i get a connection . Tryna find the old me
welcome back. I am david gura. It was a big week for Robert Mueller and one expensive jacket. Paul manafort on trial this week, marking the first Courtroom Test of special counsel Robert Muellers prosecutorial team. Prosecutors are painting a picture of his once lavish lifestyle. In sworn testimony yesterday, one of Paul Manaforts accountants described how his Business Partner rick gates asked Tax Preparers in 2015 to modify the amount of a loan so Paul Manafort could pay less in taxes. The accountant who was granted i am immunity. Rick gates is scheduled to testify any day. Joining me, former u. S. Attorney and Arlington Correspondent barbara mcquaid. You are both attending the trial in the courthouse. Andy, let me start with you, i am going to read from your dispatch. On the fourth day of Paul Manaforts trial, invoices and photos attesting to the luxurious lifestyle of President Trumps former Campaign Chairman were replaced by talk of k1 forms and gross receipts, schedule bs and schedule es. The ostrich jacket and silk suits were gone. What have we learned . We learned that Paul Manafort and rick gates engaged in what seems like shady if not illegal behavior with their accountant to deal with essentially the collapse of their business. The thing to remember is they
were living this lifestyle when the money was coming in, when they were working in ukraine. Then when that fell apart, their business imploded. Thats what led to the Schedule Bs And Es and this fraud as Td Prosecutors laid out and as we saw for the first time friday. Barbara, you were in the courtroom. I want to ask about the dynamic between the prosecutor and judge. In particular he was quick to bat down a lot of what prosecutors wanted to do when it came to the ostrich coat and estates in virginia and new york. Is he interjecting less . How was he involved in this testimony regarding tax matters . He definitely stepped back. First few days of the trial was
extremely hands on, although that may be the way it goes. I think thats the idiosyncratic nature of the judge. He frequently said it is not a crime to live a lavish lifestyle. Prosecutors had i believe the correct position which is they have the burden of proving that Paul Manafort was living beyond his means, at least living beyond his reported income on tax returns, showing proof of all of the expenditures was important because he wasnt declaring the Bank Accounts in cypress which he used to pay for all these lavish luxury goods, wasnt declared on income tax returns. He allowed the amounts and documents but did not allow publication of many of the photographs. Theyre in evidence and the jury can look at them later. He didnt allow the showing of these in court. With the tax records on the other hand i think it was a bit of a contrast. I think he recognizes that the jury needs to see these in real time in order to be able to follow along. It is dry. It is talking about line 17 of the tax return, and so he did
allow the jury to see the documents as the prosecutors walked the witness through each of those in hopes of helping them understand the facts. I see a big question emerging, if Paul Manafort was under the level of financial distress that he was under, at least relative to where he was, why did he join the Trump Campaign in an unpaid capacity . We heard time and time again from President Trump and other members of the inner circle that Paul Manafort was an unpaid adviser to the president. Yes, he was Campaign Chairman, but he was doing an unpaid capacity. How do you square those two things having heard what you heard . The best way to think about why Paul Manafort would have come on the campaign and why he would have as you say not taken any money is that he was in this precarious position, that his firm had essentially imploded. He was resorting to questionable financial tactics, him and his accountants, but manafort like a lot of people that join the Trump Campaign were making a
long shot bet that if they had an in, if they could get donald trump through the nomination, get him through the convention, maybe pull off a long shot victory, that this would be the hail mary that would save the business. That this would be the golden ticket, if you were the Campaign Chairman for a long shot republican president and he won, you were set for life. All your bills would be paid, your debts would be paid off. You would be through. And of course Paul Manafort did get donald trump through the very long but his problems in ukraine, his financial irregularities caught up with him before he could get donald trump all the way to the finish line. Now he finds himself in the position he is in today. Barbara, you talk about the judge and there are peculiarities to this district, the Rocket Docket district. Things move fast and they have in the course of the last week. We were waiting yesterday to see if rick gates, Paul Manafortslong time partner would sit down, take to the stand yesterday. That didnt happen. What do you kmexpect it to be le when he does . You listen to the defense, the way they cast dispersions or doubt on rick gates and how he will testify. What are you listening for . It is not clear to me he is going to testify. Prosecutors have gone back and forth, suggested in opening they would, backed down and said they werent sure, then they said they fully intend to call him. The case is coming in so well on paper, im not sure they need rick gates. If he does come in, the defense will point that he was the wrong doer here, and Paul Manafort was too busy to Pay Attention to the finances. I think what will happen is theyll put it in the middle of the case so if things go bad, they have a chance to recover with an fbi agent to close out the case. I think he will testify about what his role was. He will have to admit to his own wrongdoing. He will have to admit he is
working under a Plea Agreement with the prosecution, that he signed that, and that he is hoping to get a better sentence as a result of that, but nonetheless, im sure theyll try to corroborate what he says with documents, when he says he engaged in a transaction to show a Bank Statement or tax return or email that confirms what he says because jurors will be instructed to view with some skepticism any witness that received benefit in exchange for testimony. Thank you very much. New reporting on accused agent maria butina, who she communicated with before the 2016 election. This is your wakeup call. If you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis,
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