Trying to lay down another marker allowing foreign journalists including south koreans to enter the north to witness the dismantling of a nuclear test site. It comes as President Trump appears to be backing off his demand of immediate denuclearization in an effort to keep the summit alive. Theres a chance it will work out. And theres a chance it wont work out. He will be safe. He will be happy. His country will be rich. Amazon coming under fire. Privacy advocates want the online giant to stop selling powerful new facial recognition tools. Amazon now marketing an advanced facial Recognition Technology to Law Enforcement agencies across the country saying it can identify faces gender, even emotions with remarkable accuracy. Up to 100 in a crowd just this weekend sky news used it to spot and identify famous guests in the crowd at the Royal Wedding . When Technology Presents itself that is obviously a great way to enhance the safety of our community, were going to use it. What were talking about here is supercharged surveillance to track protesters, to target immigrants and really spy on entire communities. Thats a lot to cover. This morning another guilty plea. This time an alleged Business Partner of President Trumps personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. Hes a lawyer, new york businessman, and a russian immigrant reaching a deal late tuesday with the new York Attorney generals office. He pleaded guilty to steeling almost 5 million in state taxes. The cohen associate agreed to cooperate with prosecuters on state or federal investigations according to a source with direct knowledge of the proceedings. Cohen pushed back in a statement saying this we are not partners and have never been partners in this taxi business or any other. Heres the thing. This development could add to the potential for cohens legal troubles to intersect with the special counsels investigation into russian interference and influence in the 2016 election inching closer to decision on whether to flip on his boss. If he can or face prosecuters. Joining me now, nbc news investigations reporter tom winter and trish coughmkaufman. Mr. Winter, you first. If Michael Cohen says were not Business Partners and Rudy Giuliani says President Trump has nothing to do with Michael Cohens businesses, then who and what would friedman be flipping on . If hes just a russian guy that doesnt pay his taxes, the government will just fine him and stick him in jail. Its a super question. We know that Michael Cohen part of this investigation is tied into Michael Cohen is tied to his taxi medallion business. So we know theres a lot of interest in the business he has in that. We know prosecuters are looking into that. We know that from what weve reported. So now we have some information that the taxi king in new york s city has pled guilty. When we look at that, we say is this somebody who and remember that friedman has already said that Michael Cohen is a client of his and a friend. So when we look at that, we say okay, does he have information that might be relevant to the ongoing criminal investigation into Michael Cohen. Does he have information that might be relevant that we dont know about . Hes been disbarred. These are all the things were looking at. I think it does have when you have somebody in the same business as Michael Cohen, and we know that Michael Cohen is being investigated for his taxicab medallion business, we have to say is this a potential domino to fall for pressure on Michael Cohen . Theres only a finite number of medallions. They used to trade at a premium. With the advent of uber, lyft, and other ride sharing services, the value of the medallions went to nothing. The fact that hes going to cooperate or could cooperate with state or federal investigators, is that relevant . Sure. If this business associate in deed a partner deep cannily involved in mr. Cohens affairs and mr. Cohen is involved in his affairs, the fact hes charged with crimes under state law by state authorities is relevant to the trump investigation because clearly the presidency doesnt have the power to extend a pardon to someone charged with state crimes. So its no surprise if this individual is part of mr. Cohens Business Enterprise that hes been charged at this point, because its a standard effort by Law Enforcement to try and gain cooperating witnesses to develop information on people who are suspected to be part of a criminal enterprise and elicit their cooperation. It depends on how closely involve third down individual is with mr. Cohens affairs and mr. Cohen is involved with this individuals affairs. Can we talk about the president talking spy gate . His claim theres a spy inside the investigation. While there could be people focussed on this, and it would make sense since you have p w the president is claiming and does anything seem fishy . Its not clear to me what he means by a spy. Traditionally for those who report on this circle on spies if you will, when i hear the word spy, i think of okay, somebody who is actually infiltrated a specific group or a specific organization and is regularly providing information back to whatever entity theyre working for. Weve seen no evidence to date that suggested thats a t case at all. What we have seen and what my colleagues have reported and weve reported is that there were individuals that approached certain members of the Trump Campaign to perhaps that were working for Law Enforcement or people that have worked with Law Enforcement saying hey, you know, try to make an introduction. Try to see where they would go with things. Try to see what they would say. Obviously somebody is going to speak if i come in as tom the fbi agent and you may be doing something illegal, youre going to speak to me differently than if you meet a professor or somebody who is maybe an associate or business associate. A social media expert, perhaps . A social media expert, perhaps. Theres a big difference between Law Enforcement doing an investigation and saying hey, maybe we have gradual we have confidence in, somebody weve known and somebody we work with to approach somebody to try to get information. First is having somebody in a campaign who is regularly providing information back. We have seen no evidence of that so far. Its something we continue to report on. But its something that frankly the facts dont support it at this point. Its a brilliant strategy on the president s part if his goal is to create new narratives, to create more chaos and confuse the public. And also to give the gift to fox news that theyve got a whole line of stories that they can cover rather than talking about Paul Manaforts soninlaw flipping on him or Michael Cohens Business Partner taking a plea. Spy gate is red meat. From the reports youve seen, is there anything illegal about this informant . If what Law Enforcement had done was consultant with somebody who knew individuals and Law Enforcement expected of criminal activity and knew about the criminal activities, theres nothing at all wrong with that. As long as its intended to pursue justice or legitimate Law Enforcement end. If its intended for partisan purposes, then it may well be illegal. But for legitimate Law Enforcement or protecting National Security, thats lawful. Similarly, to have somebody deliberately contact someone suspected of a crime working on behalf of Law Enforcement as a considerable informant is not a crime and thats a normal, regular Law Enforcement activity. Indeed, as members of the public, wed expect our Law Enforcement agents to be doing that, pursuing aggressively suspected National Security problems such as a foreign country trying to overturn our elections or intervene in our elections or to investigate serious crimes. From what ive seen of the reporting, it seems to be the claim theres a spy embedded with the Trump Campaign or that was embedded with the Trump Campaign is not based on facts. And if all thats happening is Law Enforcement is using a considerable informant, perhaps someone whos worked in prior republican administrations and they have a high degree of confidence with to interact with people they have predicate suspicion are involved in illegal activities, particularly National Security violations, of course, thats appropriate. Okay. Of course that is appropriate. So if our goal is to get a little smarter, what weve learned is the president is making these spy gate spy claims. We dont see any facts yet. We dont see any wrong doing. Hes successful at creating this chaos. And its trump being trump. Tom, tris, thank you. What we can do is take what we do know, slow it down and break it down. Lets take a look at where the state and federal investigations stand with this new development. The investigation into Michael Cohen took a huge step forward with fareriedmans guilty plea,d it could bring anything he knows to the special attorney investigation. The president likes to say witch hunt. Vander swan is currently serving time in a pennsylvania prison. The special counsel also secured four other guilty pleas. Lets talk you through them. George papadopoulos, the former Trump CampaignEnergy Adviser who pleaded guilty in october. A republican authored memo from the House Intelligence Committee confirmed he triggered the counterintelligence investigation into the campaign. Michael flynn, the former National Security adviser. This man pleaded guilty in december and remains the highest profile cooperating witness in the Mueller Probe. Then theres rick gates, a former campaign aid and frequent white house visitor. Gates was a constant partner and protege to paul manafort. And richard pinedo. He pleaded guilty to selling Bank Account Numbers and stolen american identities to russians in the 2016 campaign. And there are more cooperating witnesses. George nader, an adviser to the united erm rats leadership. Hes key to a newly revealed trump tower meeting. And sam noneberg. He initially said he would not work with the special counsel but testified anyway. And charged but not pleading guilty, former Trump Campaign chairman paul manafort. He opted for court. He sued to get the charges thrown out in both washington and virginia, and there are also 13 russian individuals and entities, the most symbolish portion of the Mueller Probe was the charging of these russian businesses and oligarchs. They will likely never face trial but the charges stand as a statement by the special counsel. Please, the president can stay witch hunt, and it causes a lot of noise, but what we just wa walked you through are all the facts we know to me, it seems impossible to call this an absolute witch hunt. Next, President Trump hes pressuring north korea to break down the nuclear site. What that means for potential talks and what happens to all that radio active material. Were going to break it down. , your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. Learning from him is great. When i can keep up anncr thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. One picky customer shouldnt take all your time. Need something printed . The Business Advisors at office depot can assist with exactly what your Business Needs to grow. Get your coupon for 20 off services, technology and more at office depot and officedepot. Com. Technology and more sure. Mom,whats up son . Alk . I cant be your it guy anymore. What . You guys have xfinity. You can do this. Whats a good wifi password, mom . You still have to visit us. I will. No. Make that the password you stillohave toovisit us. Thats a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. One more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. North korea appears to be making good on the promise to close the underground Nuclear Testing site despite doubts over the summit between kim jongun and President Trump. Earlier today south korean reporters boarded a plan to witness it. The north allowed the visit last minute. It originally excluded south korean reporters when it invited foreign journalists to watch what it called a closing ceremony. Mike pompeo said talks next month between President Trump and kim jongun are still on even though yesterday trump said there was a substantial chance the summit wouldnt work out. Theres places where we still have lots of work to do to find common ground. Im hopeful he and President Trump will get a chance to meet in the next couple of weeks. Whats going to happen to those commemorative coins if it doesnt . Lets look at what it would take to dismantle the north Korean Nuclear test site. Its a complex of tunnels inside mountains. Dismantling has apparently started according to the satellite images and analysis from the online korean journal 38 north. The country appears to be clearing out small buildings and sheds at the site. The director of the Nuclear Information project at the federation of american scientists tells msnbc the north needs to destroy all facilities and structures used in the test program. He says blowing up the tunnels is one of the most important parts of the effort. The tunnels are likely contaminated and fissures created during Nuclear Testing can leak radiations for years. The north says it plans on collapsing each tunnel and blocking every entrance. This is serious business. The north needs to dismantle anything used to use longer range missiles including nuclear reactors, rocket and fuel factors brookings says the next step is the removal of materials that could be used. Thats one things are turned over to international control. What happens to that Nuclear Material . What does it go . Certainly not the town dump. One option is to let it decay. That would take more than 20,000 years. Another is to burn it for power. Plutonium can be mixed making it unusable for Nuclear Weapons but then used a fuel in nuclear reactors. Joining me senior associate at mitt. Kim jongun has security concerns about the summit. I want to share what President Trump said about it yesterday. He will be safe. He will be happy. His country will be rich. His country will be hard working and very prosperous. Is there valid concerns for anyones safety, and is this idea that north korea is going to get rich off a deal . Well, i thought that was quite striking. The clip that you pointed to. He was really in salesmanship mode. He was saying this is going to be a great deal for you, and the part about personal security is sort of important. If you think about what happened to Saddam Hussein or the leader of libya. Personal security looms marge for council. Hes going to want an assurance that hes going to be good regardless of what happens. I thought, actually, that was a pretty good job by the president , and it also tells me that he is going to the summit. If this there were good signs today allowing the south korean reporters in. This thing is back on track. I think he wants to do it. And i thought you could see that in his expression and his demeanor yesterday. What does that mean to your point that the south korean reporters at the last minute were invited back in . Reporters can look at the dismantling but none of them are experts. Theyll never know if theyve actually shut down all the sites or if there are sites within military bases. Yeah. I think what will happen is there will be a negotiation, and if the momentum continues, there will be a set of formal arrangements that we would call verification, that would provide that. But we havent even sat down for an hour yet. Theres been so formal negotiation and already the north koreans are doing things and saying things. I think thats a positive sign. It tells me they want to have a good meeting. I dont know if they want to denucle denuclearize, but they want a good meeting. And the south korean thing today relates directly to