Arrived at bostons Logan Airport from his home in england. Hes a former advisor who has just finished a book called the plot to destroy trump, how the deep state fabricated the russian dossier to subvert the president. In 2016 just days after the election he spoke with the bbc about donald trump. Ive been involved in the campaign for over a year now. I think the media gets trump wrong almost constantly. I think the world would have been a safer place, the world would have grown, and i think there will be an interesting relationship between putin and trump as powerful world leaders. Whether its a bromance i think its to be decided. But i think itll be a much healthier situation. Well, he got part of that right. Its an interesting relationship, at least. Fast forward to his encounter this week at logan up in boston with the fbi. According to a statement malic emailed to nbc news, well quote here, two fbi agents told him he was being detained to answer questions related to the special counsels investigation. He said they told him it was a felony to lie to the fbi and he told them he would gladly cooperate. Malloch added quote, whom i communicated with, whom i knew and how well, he said they asked him about roger stone, author jerome coursy and wikileaks. Malloch said he told them he met with stone a total of three times and always with groups of people. He said he was asked if hed ever visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in london, and he replied no. He also said the agent served him a subpoena from muellers team that had been issued that day to appear for questioning on april 13th. Earlier on this Network Former prosecutor harry litman put this into context. Its this breathless kind of development that shows muellers not thinking about the red line, the blue line the yellow line. Hes just thinking about the finishing line and plumbing the depths of everything that is involved here, im sure to trumps great chagrin. Were back in tom clancy territory. And just to recap here on a friday night, what weve learned on the russia front as we closeout another week it was reported that john dowd, President Trumps former lead lawyer in this russia case spoke last summer with lawyers about Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort about the possibility of president ial pardons. We learned from a court filing one time Trump Campaign aide rick gates was in close contact with a associate tied with russian intelligence. And he was asked about contacts with the trump team and russians, of all places the cleveland 2016 Republican National convention. Attorneys joe digenova and his wife backed out after saying they would represent the president. In exiting they cited conflicts as the reason. The two are also representing an important witness in the mueller investigation. Former spokesman for trumps legal team named mark corollo. Its a lot and we turn to our lead off panel on a friday night. A New York Times reporter, and matthew nussbaum. The terrible swift sword of the federal government when feds act, when you wince it, it is striking to watch. I cant imagine what its like to be the guy surrounded at logan, your phone is taken. What its like to be the folks in that concourse that watched this go down. But its never uninteresting in the mueller investigation. Yeah, thats right. And the power of the federal government is very much on display here. Look, i think what all these developments, these leaks show at least for me is that the question of collusion or conspiracy or whatever we want to call it is still very much in play as far as bob muellers concerned. I mean hes asking about essentially contacts between or potential contacts between the Trump Campaign and wikileaks, which obviously we know was the vehicle that was used disseminate those hacked emails related to the dnc and clinton campaign. The fact hes asking about that still, were going one year in, tells me hes absolutely not foreclosed the idea of collusion or conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and russian intelligence operatives. So that is very much a live issue even as republicans on capitol hill are saying its over and done with, hes got no evidence of collusion, lets not forget roger stone, we know he was in contact with the twitter account that say run by guccifer 2. 0 which was a front for russian intelligence to disseminate hacked emails. I dont imagine mueller is going in order. I think hes shooting out of sequence. And when you think about it, papadopoulos, flynn, gates cooperating, this tangent brings us back to the campaign era along with some other developments this week. Yes. So were back in the campaign, and union if they are in fact asking about julian assange, that does go back to that intelligence assessment that came out more than a year ago that said, you know, wikileaks was, you know, a venue to get these hacked emails out to the public via russia. And so as matt said, this is a live issue. This is ongoing, and i think the challenge thing with any one witness that you learn about or any of these little pieces is we dont see the whole picture. And muellers team does, and we dont. And so it can be hazardous to read too much into any one data point along the way. And weve seen actually so little. And anyone whos had any contact with mueller on either side of the ball comes away saying he has everything, they have everything. Yeah. All right. Matthew nussbaum, we keep reading reports that the president is comfortable in the job. The president is in florida, what could go wrong . The white house is functioning without a Comms Director, if press accounts are correct, a diminished chief of staff. Where is strategy going to emerge . I think thats hard to say. I think they were happy to make it to this weekend, this hed weekend. The president and Vice President are both out of town on vacation. And like you said what were seeing from a lot of these staffing moves is that President Donald Trump is feeling a lot more comfortable to put together the team he wants. I think hes feeling a little bit emboldened. And the main thing to watch, i think, within the white house has been the departure of hope hicks. She was seen as someone that could talk with it president , had a relationship with him that no one else had and could sort of tamp down some of these more reckless impulses and tendencies he had. And theres real concern within the white house with her departure he might be even more off message than in the past. Couple that with john dowd leaving, who had urged cooperation with the mueller team, and you see a president maybe more emboldened to maybe push back publicly on this investigation, which everyone else in the white house knows is not a good move. Because your paper gave us the story of the potential pardons, and we repeat its not illegal to mention pardons on the president s behalf. It being the most awesome exercise of president ial power. Its illegal to dangle them as a potential use for lessening damage or softening a case. What was the most in your view consequential single thing we learned this week, matt . These weeks all run together. John dowd, it was like what month did that happen . I think the story my colleagues broke about the dangling of a pardon is important because the white house has consistently said were not talking about pardons. Its not on the table. And manafort and flynn, these guys dont have anything to give thats harmful to the president. And so the very fact that the president s lawyer is dangling this even if he was just doing this on his own shows theres at least some consideration going on, or there was some consideration going on about about what is our exposure here and what do these former senior advisers have to tell bob mueller, and is there a way to get ahead of that . And whether thats illegal, part of an obstruction case, who knows at this point . But it certainly goes to the consideration thats going on inside the trump team. Tamara, were led to believe theyre still looking for lawyers. Imagine what it would be, say nothing of the client, but this is a mature apparently leading to the final stages case. Theres so much catchup work to do. The previous point, muellers already seen everything so youre running behind by nature. Question to you are sekulow and cobb enough to lead this effort . No. Basically Robert Muellers team are killers. I think thats what steve bannon called them. They are some of the best prosecutors that you can find in this country. Theyve been involved in everything from watergate to emron. And in jay sekulow you have someone who hes argued a bunch of cases before the supreme court. Hes best known for arguing on religious liberty not white collar defense. He does have some people working under him who we dont hear that much about who arent the big names but who have been working on this case. And the thing with ty cobb in the white house, i dont think he sees himself as the president s lawyer. I think he sees himself more as a lawyer of the institution of the president danes and for the white house. And he sees his job more as facilitating a relationship with the office of the special counsel rather than being part of the president s defense team. Matt apuzzo, you were agreeing with that. And i believe ty cobb does not represent the president personally, i actually think cobb and sekulow could probably get through this next stage where the president has to negotiate some sort of interview with mueller. The question is who is going to do the lawyering at the next stage, of whatever comes out of this investigation, whether some sort of referrals, something further where mueller wants to do more in terms of the president personally or other white house aides, whos going to litigate that . And thats where you need both a constitutional lawyer and criminal lawyer. Whatever comes next, theyre going to need another lawyer. So matthew nussbaum, again to set the scene, the president in florida, we dont know what hes going to say, talk to, say on twitter. He gets back to washington sunday night. How is the trump agenda supposed to get pushed forward on monday with the staff anxiety over potentially more departures . What can you speak about the inside mood in this place you cover every day . Well, i think theres a lot of concern like you said about more staff turnover with these controversies at the cabinet level. People arent really sure whos going to go next. Theres really no legislative agenda to speak of. I think its seeing how trump operates that to some degree hes a bit unchanged now with hope gone and feeling more confident, and like hes fit for the job and hes ready in the job. I think seeing how he acts with a little less of a filter is injury much on the mind with everyone in the white house. And the fact hes had any filter so far is probably surprising to a lot of your viewers, but that is what hope hicks was for him. Matt apuzzo, whats the one question youd like to lob to Sarah Huckabee sanders during the next briefing that youd actually like answered . Thats a tough one. You put me on the spot. The problem is that, ill be honest with you, brian, we havent consistently been able to rely on answers from the white house. And thats whats been really frustrating. You get denials like when it was reported that the president was preparing to fire the secretary of state. And theres outright denials, its absolutely not happening and the president turns around and does it. At least for me covering this investigation i havent really relied on the official podium statements. I know thats been a frustration for both my colleagues at the times and probably for every other journalist in the city. I know two estimates, who have done the study that a major figure departs every nine days in this administration. That is just an incredible rate of change. Yeah, we have had about one a week for the last five weeks of really major big name departures, cabinet level, top level, staff. It is the highest change in the echelons of white house staff. 48 have already departed according to perkens numbers. And that is double the rate of departures that happened in president obamas full first two years. And were at 14 months. On this friday night our thanks go out to matt apuzzo, tamara keith, matthew nussbaum. Really appreciate you guys helping out in our lead up conversation tonight. And a look of the volume of departures and the deeper meaning for the president and actually for our country. On this night when there are new headaches for donald trump when it comes to his cabinet back home. And then later the Korean Peninsula learning curve for President Trump as he prepares to sit down with the dictator of the north. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a friday night. I know that thats people. I know the best managers. I know the best deal makers. I know people that will make us so i know guys that are so good. I know the best people. Weve got the best people. I have the best people. So were going to get the best people. Despite those mentions as you may have urd of the best people, thus far in just the month of march we have witnessed the departure of Six Administration officials including the secretary of state, National Security advisor, Comms Director and the white house turnover continues. New reporting tonight from the Washington Post sheds new light on the huge number of open positions in this administration that just havent been filled. According to the post, 387 of trumps appointees have been confirmed. Compare that to 548 of the obama folks, 615 by the george w. Bush folks by this time in their administrations. The responsibility of filling their positions falls largely on something called the president ial personnel office. But according to the the post the obscure White House Office has suffered from inexperience and a shortage of staff, hobbling the Trump Administrations efforts to place qualified people in key posts across governments documents and interviews show. The article describes the office as something of a social hub where young staffers from throughout the administration stop by to hang out on couches and smoke electronic cigarettes. It describes a night in january where they played a drinking game in the office called icing to celebrate the deputy directors holiday. Icing involves hiding a bottle of smirnoff ice, and demanding the person who discovers it, in this case the deputy director, guzzles it. Earlier on this Network Steve schmidt characterized the chaos in this white house in his own unique way during an appearance with nicolle wallace. From a personnel perspective weve never quite seen the assemblage of crooks, wife beaters, drunk drivers, complete and total incompetence thats been assembled. If you took the ten greatest hr managers in the history of the world, put them together and said we want to form a 1927 yankees of incompetence, its not possible they would have done a better job. The gentleman does have a way with words, doesnt he . Share of journalist ethics at the Pointer Institute and jonathan allen, Nbc News National Political reporter, a veteran journalist himself. So jonathan, these are not the headlines you want. And just a reminder to all, Steve Schmidt is a republican. When you hear Steve Schmidt, but hes a republican. You go back in history and think about firing halderman in april 1973, thats a huge moment. You think about the saturday night massacre at the Justice Department a few months after that. Every week in the Trump Administration is like the saturday night massacre. Theyre all gone now. So what are they being replaced by . And the answer according to the Washington Post is nothing. Theres a lot of open space there. Its not helpful for policy and certainly not helpful for the stability of it government and certainly not helpful for the way the United States appears overseas. Vera, i first got to walk through the west wing in the late 70s and covering the place and visiting the place. The absence of noise is so striking. Theres an intentional quiet and softness in the west wing. And the solemnity and solitude. First of all, i want to make the point, brian, you have assembled the best people tonight to talk about this subject. There you go. So thank you for that. But i will say in the Eisenhower Office building where these drinking games that you described and the vaping were taking place with these 20yearolds, some of whom two senior officials who seem to have gotten by according to this the Washington Post investigation clear out nepotism. One is college drop out with dui conviction and passing a bad check. Another one is a former marine whos had all sorts of convictions for assaults. So you have to wonder about who are the people that theyre putting in charge of looking for important government employees. Lets not forget that what is the root of all this . The root is that President Trump when he was still a candidate put chris christie, the then governor of new jersey in charge of his transition. And just a couple days after donald trump was elected he booted chris christie. That would have been a real signal to us what was to come if his head of transition was booted a couple of days after the election. So you just cant put together a Transition Team like this overnight. And what youre talking about is not only the most departures in the first year of an administration that we have seen in 40 years, but it is also the failure to even name people to new posts. So not only do we have rex tillerson, secretary of state, gary cohn, top economic advisor, h. R. Mcmaster, the National Security advisor. The list goes on and on of all these people leaving. But we dont ha