United states right now with Money Laundering for russians and lending to donald trump. My view is that every vote matters. And the way we can make that happen [ applause ] is that we can have National Voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College. The effect would be devastating. You know, she gets the reality, absolutely upside down. She said, lets do this to make sure that every vote matters. This is another way in which the democrats are undermining the sort of core constitutional structures of the country. We begin with breaking news. Brandnew details revealed in the Robert Mueller investigation into President Trump. Newly released search warrants show the probe of trumps personal attorney and we know him as his former fixer, Michael Cohen, began almost a full year before the feds raided cohens home and his office. The documents provide a detailed timeline into the investigation, even revealing how the feds found out about the Stormy Daniel payments. Joining us now, nbc news investigations reporter, tom winter, and former federal prosecutor, kathy fleming. Tom, for you, what was your biggest takeaway here . I think the biggest takeaway is a little bit of the timeline of the investigation. We knew this case originated from the special counsels office and it was a case they conducted with prosecutors here at the u. S. Attorneys office for the southern district. So we knew that occurred. What was interesting to me was that in the middle of july of 2017, so this is just a few months after Robert Mueller was appointed, that they were already getting access to some of Michael Cohens email accounts, so that that activity from the special counsels office continued through november of 2017. We also got a little bit more information, i think, theres always been a question as to how the investigation into the Campaign Finance activity, the payments to Stormy Daniels, the payments to karen mcdougal, how that actually came about. And we can show that for you on screen. Theres a part of one of the warrants, which clearly states that this came from, and we can see it here, during the course of the investigation, the u. S. Attorneys office and the fbi have obtained evidence that cohen has already committed a criminal violation of the Campaign Finance laws. And i said this before that, they talked about how that came out of the effort by cohen to defraud multiple banks. I think that provides us a little bit of detail as to how that actually came together. So kathy, why are theres 19 pages in there about these hush money payments. But the thing tom showed us on tv is heavily redacted. This is all out there. I dont know if theres more to find out about this, but clearly theres something that were not supposed to know. Its heavily redacted and theres a strong suggestion theres still ongoing activity. Theres several reasons that people keep things secret out of u. S. Attorneys office. One is that you protect the innocent or people who havent been charged so they do redact things appropriately when people are not going to be charged with crimes and the second reason is, when there are big blocks of gray matter qu, which there are these affidavits, suggests that there are ongoing activities, that there are parts of the investigation they still dont want to reveal. Theyre not just blocking out names of people. There are a couple of places where they do just block out what appears to be a name. But there are whole pages that are blocked out here. And that is what i want to see. Tom, take us into tactics. The fbi uses a tactic to trigger excuse me, to track Michael Cohen called a trigger fish. What is that . So this is part of a series of devices that have been developed and have been developed going back to the early 2000s. Theres a couple of different versions of this hardware and software. But it basically allows them to create a fake cell phone site. Its a cell phone site your phone latches on to, the information is passed through. It has, depending on which device youre using, it has the ability to actually maybe listen to a call, to see text messages, to see data thats sent, if youre browsing, if you go to, say, nbcnews. Com, it would see that you were going to that address. Some devices specifically say, okay, which numbers are in this area and can it get any gps information off of the phone . In this particular case, the fbi used this device called trigger fish. Its a small unit about this big and it can be attached to a laptop or a computer and basically it would see, okay, what cell phones are in the area and can we get some gps information off of them. The Fbi Field Office here in new york apparently used that information according to the documents to discern which hotel room Michael Cohen was staying in at the lowes hotel here, because he had been staying there he was renovating his apartment here in manhattan. So they wanted the ability to make sure the actual room they entered and conducted the search warrant on proved to the judge, hey, we know exactly where he is and were going to absolutely go to the right room in this hotel. They used that technology to make sure they were looking in the right place. Kathy, when the raid happened, if youll recall, President Trump tweeted out fairly quickly, Attorney Client privilege is dead. We really just dont know what that means. I was going to say that. Thats what im starting to think. What in this context does it mean . If you are a client and your personal attorney is having the offices raided, that would be a natural reaction, why are they raiding my attorneys . And there are materials that are privileged. So the department of justice, when they are going to raid an attorneys office, there are extra safeguards in addition to just the affidavit for a search warrant. They have to get permission from the department of justice to raid an attorneys office. And that means that somebody else with an extra pair of eyes down in washington is reviewing it have affidavit. They also have to put special safeguards in place. And if you read the papers, youll see they talked about how they had separate and segregated computers and servers from the law firm, he had segregated offices, and they will have to put things in place. But if youre my lawyer, because this is what confuses me. Theres sort of this idea, and the president definitely puts it out there, if youre my lawyer and im paying you regularly, every conversation we ever have is privileged. It seems like thats what the uneducated view is. And i think thats incorrect. Well, that is incorrect. So walk us through what is privileged . What is privileged are communications between an attorney and a client which are given for the purpose of giving or receiving legal advice. If i am if my client is in the office and emails me and says, what would you like for lunch, that is not a privileged communication. If he says, gee, when i was at lunch, i paid somebody hush money and im worried that the feds are coming, that is privileged. So lets say youre the lawyer, im the client and youre hanging out in my office, and youre witness to my son or daughter walking in and talking about some other activity that doesnt have to do with what youre specifically advising me on, but you know all about it. Is that privileged . You know, lawyer answer, it depends. Probably not under the facts you just gave me. Im probably a pure witness. But if im there and if i see that happening, im probably not going to be quiet. Im probably going to be giving some advice in the context of it. So it really is going to depend. Doesnt it seem like the president puts out this idea that theres an umbrella, you were my guy, everything we ever discussed, off the table. That is the idea that comes out, but its not something that is absolute. Its certainly not that much of an umbrella, to your point. There is one other exception to the crime, fraud exception. If you were my attorney, i cant say to you, hey, i really need you to im under investigation, but, boy, stephanie, it would be great if you could pay this person off or it would be great if you could commit this other part of the crime for the thing im already being investigated for. Thats not allowed either. Your Attorney Client privilege is waived in that circumstance if im using you as my attorney to do it. I want to add to what kathy said, because it was really smart before when she talked about how the redacted sections of this refer to an Ongoing Investigation. In fact, the judge said on february 7th that redacted portions of these search warrants would go to an active and Ongoing Investigation involving Campaign Finance payments. So we know that this is definitely still something thats being looked at. Can i just add something on what you said, too, in terms of Attorney Client privilege. The Justice Department did take safeguards here. They have taint teams, meaning people who arent going to prosecute, that come and look at the documents and they also appointed a former federal judge to come in and review the materials before they were turned over, so see what was, in fact, privileged. Very little of it was deemed privileged by the federal judge. Thank you to both of you. I have learned a lot. Tom winter and kathy fleming. All of our communications privileged, you know that. Except for the microphones. All right, next, major conflict of interest right inside the white house. We are talking about Jared Kushner and ivanka trump. Neither have truly divested themselves from their family businesses. How they benefitted and why its so dangerous, at least according to one author with a new tellall. But first, another potential conflict of interest is being examined in an Appeals Court today. It has to do with President Trumps washington, d. C. , hotel and whether hes illegally profiting from foreign visitors. Is the president violating the constitutions emoluments clause . Trumps attorneys says the president should not face this type of allegation or legal distraction and the case should be thrown out. Youre watching velshi ruhle, live on msnbc. Elvshi ruhle, live on msnbc. You got in taxation . danny of course you dont because you didnt your job isnt understanding tax code. Its understanding why that. Will get him a body like that. Move . That. Your job isnt doing hard work. Here. Its making her do hard work. And getting paid for it. vo snap and sort your expenses to save over 4,600 at tax time. danny jody. Its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. This and even this. Hark, i deep clean messes like this. But i dont have to clean this, because the selfcleaning brush roll removes hair, while i clean. [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans, now cleans itself. You know reliable support when you have it, and that dependability is what we want to give our customers. At comcast, its my job to constantly monitor our network. Prevent problems, and to help provide the most Reliable Service possible. My name is tanya, i work in the Network Operations center for comcast. We are working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. A new book looks into the potential conflicts of interest of white house senior advisers and of course family members of President Trump, Jared Kushner and ivanka trump. And the author tells nbc jared and ivanka are, quote, perhaps more dangerous than the president. According to her, journalist vickie ward recounts kushner hosting Chinese Government officials at his 666 fifth avenue tower as the administration was trying to woo chinese leadership. Around the same time, news broke that kushner had dined with an executive from chinas en banc, who was looking to invest in the tower, and remember, that tower was bleeding money. On the middle east, ward described then secretary of state Rex Tillerson blaming kushner for President Trump piece sudden endorsement of a blockade against qatar by more than half a dozen countries led by saudi arabia. Kushner was also instrumental, according to ward, in selecting saudi arabia as the president s first foreign trip. It was not until later that we learned kushners Family Company had courted qatari investment in 666 fifth avenue, an investment the country finally did make. And as the president toured the middle east, more about the kushners cozy relationship with crowned prince mohammad bin salman was revealed. Then there was the white house visitor log. This to me is the most important. In april 2017, the white house announced it would no longer publish logs of who was coming into the white house and why the visitors were there. At the time, the white house cited National Security risks. But according to wards interviews, then white house chief of staff, rines priebus said the concerns came from jared. This is interesting. And remember, lloyd if you dont know, Lloyd Blankfein, involved in cadre, mike fos telly, former Goldman Sachs partner involved in cadre. This is a Major Business for both Jared Kushner and his brother, josh kushner. And when jared did any sort of divestiture, it was just to his direct family members. Joining me now, New York Times annie karni. She has written about the book. We have to lead with this, Jared Kushners spokesperson, his lawyer has said, this is a book of fiction. Heres the issue. They do not offer any specific rebuttals. I believe they said they didnt have time to go through it all, which is somewhat stunning. If someone wrote a tellall book eviscerating you and your character, youre staffed up and your lawyer is getting paid by the hour certainly has time for you. Youve spoken to vicky ward and you read the book. What stands out most . Its an interesting tactic this white house takes, just dismissing it completely out of hand. Theres a lot in that book thats already been reported by other outlets, instead of shooting down something that they think is particularly out of hand. Thats a separate subject. In terms of these conflict of interest issues youre raising, we need to zoom out for a second and take a look at where this is all coming from, which is that jared and ivanka never divested in their private businesses when they went to work for donald trump in the white house. So in 2017, through various trusts and funds, they made, according to their Financial Disclosure form, between 82 million and 122 million. Ivanka trump made 5 million from her ivanka trump brand. So they are continuing to make money off of their private companies while serving in the government. Ivanka trump disbanded her brand, but she still continues to get trademarks from china, because she says its to protect her name. So this has created an entire gray area where they go around the world and its not clear, do they represent their business or do they represent the government . Thats how we got here, to where we are. And in fact, jared and ivankas Financial Disclosures, and you know, these are tough to look at, because theyre broad categories, but they indicate rising value in their assets from at least 140 million in 2017 to at least 180 million in 2018. Again, its hard to know where that increase in assets is coming from, but there are people who take the view that theyre enriching themselves personally over their ties to the white house. Well, that that is clear. Their businesses are doing well while they are taking a break from actually being active investors, but their funds are making money while they have these positions and theyre having access to these meetings, especially with chinese officials and saudi officials who are potential investors in kushner companies, have an intense desire to see them when they are the president s viewed internationally as the president s closest advisers. So there is definitely a benefit to them. And iyou know, senators Elizabeh Warren last year raised questions about the conflict of interest, but it all comes back to this point that they didnt divest. Why didnt they have to . Rex tillerson had to sell out of his shares of exxon. Gary cohn had to sell out of his Goldman Sachs shares and had to agree to have no communication with two years with executives at the firm at the Lloyd Blankfein level. Where Jared Kushner didnt divest and then inside the white house meets with Lloyd Blankfein, who is involved in the cadre investment . This is a question i mean, theyre not they were not appointed to a government position, these are not senateconfirmed positions. They have the office of ethics said that this arrangement they came up with was satisfactory. But there are still a lot of questions. And house democrats, if you go through the 81 document requests they made to people in the white house and in trump world, 52 out of those 81 document requests asks for information and documents that ivanka trumps ties, foreign governments and her business interests. So why does gary cohn the democrats are looking at emolument questions. But why did gary cohn and dina powell have to say out of their shares of Goldman Sachs, their former employer, and fully invest, but jared and ivanka dont. Theyre all on the same level . You know, thats a good question. T