The russians james comey is a nut job, told them the pressure is off the russia investigation because comey has been fired. Then from the Washington Post, a senior white house adviser is now a significant person of interest in the russia investigation, a person likely to be on Board Air Force one with the president right now as the 11th hour gets underway. Good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york. This was day 120 of the trump administrati administration. If the russia investigation was ever just a distraction or a subplot, as of tonight, it defines and has consumed this presidency thus far. Which by the way is aloft at this hour. Air force one is about four hours out from landing in the neighborhood of 3 00 a. M. Eastern time in riyadh, saudi arabia. Upon departure, within half an hour of wheels up from andrews two big stories came out that dominate our coverage tonight. The New York Times has been shown a transcript of the notes from a meeting between the president with the russians, lavrov and kislyak. He is quoted as saying i just fired the head of the fbi. He was crazy arc real nut job. I faced great pressure because of russia. Thats taken off. Mr. Trump added, im not under investigation. The white house has not denied this report. The second story was from the Washington Post. Quoting from that report, the Law Enforcement investigation into possible coordination between russia and the Trump Campaign has identified a Current White House official as a significant person of interest showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government according to people familiar with the matter. We also learn tonight we will be seeing this visual again. All 68 of james comey will rise and be sworn in at a public hearing before the Senate Intelligence committee at some point after memorial day during which, presumably, we will be able to hear a pin drop in the realm of nationally televised events of late. Something to think about here. One of New York Times reporters said tonight their sources are both political appointees and career government employees. But they are all people who witnessed something going on that they believed to be wrong. And Something Else to think about. While its impossible to track air force ones location, and for security reasons, that is a good thing, the expert we called on tonight puts their present approximate location near zurich, switzerland. The traveling white house will land on a saturday morning in saudi arabia with the bulk of the press corps already there on the ground. And with an ongoing story from back home that will now follow them every step of the way for this eightdayplus trip. Joining us first off tonight is the coauthor of that Washington Post piece, devlin barrett. Devlin, thank you very much after a long day for being with us. Quoting from your piece you describe this person as someone close to the president a senior white house adviser. Can you confirm that someone is a passenger on air force one right now . Yeah, its a good question but i dont want to get into it too much because we still have some reporting to do on our end. And you know, i just want to nail down the rest of my reporting before i sort of start grouping people in and out. I get it. I had to ask. Have the been any more regardibles thatou have add perhaps to update the piece since you filed . No, but i think one of the points that i think is important in what were reporting is that this is the people working on this case expect it to get more active and more observable. By that i mean more subpoenas and more witness interviews. They have reached the point where its time to start actually talking to people face to face. Thats an important part in the investigation. Its important obviously because of who they are looking at, but its also important because you are probably doing to see more reports of more activity in this investigation. Can you point out what triggered the uptick in activity . Im told it wasnt specifically about the appointment of the special counsel. You know, a lot has happened in the last week. And its sometimes hard to distinguish so many big events from each other and see how they are connected or not connected. I am told that the movement that has started and we are going see more of is not actually related to the appointment of a special counsel. Thats actually essentially a separate issue. And im also told that the interest in the senior white house official has existed for some time. But in the minds of some officials involved in the investigation they think its time to move forward and do more. Is it possible to surmise that the identity of this senior white house official will become plain to all of us then in time, and perhaps on an accelerated basis . You know, im not in the prediction business. I am in the news business. I think thats what we are all working toward im hopeful and expectant we will get there. One of the by lines for our viewers and woft readers to watch as always, certainly heading into this weekend. Devlin barrett thank you for joining us from capitol hill tonight. Thank you. Our lead off panel, nbcs hans nichols who reported from if white house while this was going on all day long on this network. Jeremy bash former chief of staff at the pentagon and cia. Beiana goal riga from yahoo. And eli stokels White House Reporter for the wall street journal. Good evening to you all. Welcome to you all. Hans, i was watching you live as you summed up what you were seeing at the the white house, what we were watching on the feed from andrews and then these two stories dropping in succession. The white house is pretty empty. Most of the traveling press corps left already and most of the trafficking staff was already there were junior aides. We were trying to confirm it all. Frankly we were looking at some of the details and stunned by them. It strikes me as we look at this whole scandal as it unfolded there are two people that might control trumps presidency. One of them is michael flynn. And the other one is the former fbi director jim comey. Donald trump has taken two approaches to the two of them. To michael flynn, sending signals, stay inside, stay with me. A report that said he told him to stay strong. And then his posture towards jim comey have been totally different. What we heard today was a hostile posture. We know comey is going to be testifying if not next week sometime soon. Jeremy, i heard your former boss, leon panetta tonight talk plainly of this as a scandal. I guess it caught me off guard because that word, while overused for years on a lot of things that didnt frankly match the standard, i guess now fits. From your Legal Training what should we think about person of interest and white house official in this case. Person of interest is more of a term that cops and Law Enforcement officials use. Its not really a term that prosecutors use. They would normally use the term target or subject of interest. But it indicates that the investigation is very serious. It has reached someone inside the white house. And that person presumably has high level security clearance. If in fact that person is a National Security risk because of counterespionage concerns that persons clearance should be stripped immediately. Beiana, we were sitting here before air. You heard repetition of the phrase nut job. We are talking again, love him or hate him, about a guy with bearing of elliot necessary of tv of lore. Yes. Thats right. And i think what is striking about this and where we may have lucked out as a country is that it appears that the information came from a u. S. Official. Could you imagine the kind of kproe mant we would have been in with russia in fact was the one that came out with this news, that russians, that Vladimir Putin, that their insiders were the ones that said here is what the president of the United States had to say to our officials about the former fbi director, that he fired the day before . So we lucked out in dodged a bullet in this case. Yes, it goes back to the bewildering sentiment that this president can talk and say bad things about every Single Person but russians. And what we are hearing more details about inhis meeting with the two sergeis as you identified them is he was buddying up with kislyak saying how come im the only one who hasnt come around to meet you yet . Obama got a lot of heat for not being tough enough with Vladimir Putin once we got word that they were in fact infiltrating [ loss of audio ] struck me today that this one may cut differently in the fog of all these relentless stories just this week. This was the president kind of talking smack about the home team. Love him or hate him, the former director of the fbi, on home turf. The greatest Home Field Advantage in politics and the world is the oval office, with the visiting enemy, houseguests. Yeah, its stunning. You would any if you are under investigation, your Campaign Associates are under investigation for possible collusion with russia during the election that you dont brag to the russians in the oval office that you just fired the fbi director and quote, relieved the pressure of his investigation, his probe into the ties, possible ties between the campaign and russian officials. I mean, it is just stunning. We know that trump associates, white house staff and some of his attorneys representing him have tried to impress upon him over the last month and going back further than that that your words actually matter. You cant just tweet did say anything because there are recordings, you are painting yourself into a corner. And he has seemingly failed to really comprehend that lesson at this point. And you know, when hes sitting there and saying it row leaved the pressure obviously thats another, now in hyped sight stunning misread of the situation. Relieving the pressure he fired jim comey and now he is under more pressure than every largely because of a bunch of leaks that seem to be triggered because of comeys firing. Hans halfway joked if you want a transcript of what was said in the oval office, the russians said you can have our transcript of what happens in the oval office, there was not a denial of this from the white house. We contacted them rehashing what the New York Times had said before we went to air. There is no denial. They gave a statement athat was critical on the process, talking about leaks, and repeating this idea. Trump said in the past that he wants to work with russia on places like syria. But to me one of the more remarkable things about a remarkable afternoon were the two nondenials from the white house. We need to be careful, just because the white house doesnt deny something doesnt mean its true. There is a difference between a nondenial and a confirmation. On this one, especially with the time story. They didnt go quite as far with the post story w. The times story they werent steering us away from it and statement they have an additional statement saying yes we do want to work with russia on a whole host of issues. You had mcmaster in the room, dina powell, rex tillerson. All of them vouched for the president the day after this news came out of the leak and said he said absolutely nothing wrong. Its equally troublesome and worrisome if in fact they thought what they heard was not of concern. That the president could badmouth his former fbi director and not think there is anything wrong with it. We had news media in the oval office that day. Even though it was from the russian state run agency tas. Time for a break. The panel is sticking with me. When we come back, who is left at the white house . The answer just may be enough staff and enough media to get into trouble. David. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. 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If you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, orn allerg reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis. And get medical help right away. For years, centurylink has been promising fast internet to small businesses. But for many businesses, its out of reach. Why promise something you cant deliver . Comcast business is different. We deliver superfast internet with speeds of 250 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than centurylink. We do business where you do business. The president told russian officials in the white house the james comey was crazy a real nut job. Whats your reaction to him telling russian officials that . I find it outrageous. Its remarkable that a president would demean a director of the fbi that way. Its remarkable he would say that to the russians. This may have been the same meeting where he was also disclosing classified information. And certainly you just cant make this stuff up. Senate intelligence cochair mark warner, the democrat, earlier this evening. We are back with hans nichols, jeremy barb, beiana goal riga and eli stokels. Jeremy for the legal angle here set the scene for comeys public testimony. Hes going to have to walk a fine line, brian, because on the one hand he has the venue there in front of the Senate Intelligence committee to lay bare everything he can speak about in terms of the president putting the arm on him to try to shut the investigation down. On the other hand, we now know this is a central line of inquiry for the mueller investigation. For the investigation now being led by former fbi director bob mueller as a special counsel. And we know that in part because one of the reasons Rod Rosenstein essentially recused himself and tossed this over to mueller is because rosenstein is now a witness in that matter because rosen tine steins memo is a material fact in a will play into this issue. Comey is going to have to walk a line here. It is ann clear how far he will go. But when he testified in 2007 about confronting the Bush Administration that was pretty dramatic. I expect some high drama in front of the Senate Intelligence committee as well. Beiana, its unfair that you are often the only russian born member of our panels at 11 00 at night. Lets talk about leverage. Where is the balance as you look at the entire length and scope of the russia matter, where does it stand . It may be a be careful what you wish for from a Vladimir Putin standpoint. There is no doubt his Reelection Campaign was just created over the past few weeks. His popularity is soring in russia if for no other reason that we are sitting here and talking about him. For people to understand the dynamics between relations and how this played out, and is donald trump really in touch with Vladimir Putin every single russian business man and oligarch and every person the president and his associates have been connected to in russia is connected to the russia. If we are trying to find the one piece that connects the two. Its going to be difficult. Any sort of business man of influence in russia will have a connection to Vladimir Putin. The question is what is it that Vladimir Putin asks of them and what does Vladimir Putin knows and what is it he want to do visavis our election system. Eli, no one i have spoken to in contemporary history has seen any place leak as much. Never been as many inside source people as the times reporter said tonight, willing to raise their hands and say this isnt right. Right. I think donald trump has yet to really come to grips with the fact there are checks and balances on his power here and is really facing something of a soft coup. Within the government there are whistle blowers and people coming forward and revealing to reporters what is actually going on. This has been true since the president took the oath of office. We have seen a number of leaks but we are now seeing them in a manner that pertains to National Security and perhaps the long jeft of this administration. I think its really frustrating inside the white house over the last week, the president has been felt, you know, sort of penned in, doesnt know what to do. Is frustrated, and has blamed his Communications Team even though the Communications Team you know, messaging here is not the problem. Its the president , his indiscrimination when it comes to what he says out loud, what he says in other settings. Is constantly surprised when these statements and meetings that he thinks are private find their way into the newspapers. He has yet to really learn about the sort of vast government, the reaches of this government and all the people out there and all the ways in his which his sort of managerial style is not really a great match for what he is trying to do. Eli its your reporting that he has been warned again the tweets. Is that just from a comes, a staff level or legal or both. Both. Going back to the first tweet when he said president Obama Wiretapped me. There was what one person involved called an intervent