The 11th hour on a monday night begins now. Good evening. As we start a new week here, day 438 of the trump administration, a day of president started out by unleashing attacks on his own our own Justice Department, fbi, cnn, nbc, mexico, democrats and socalled caravans of people traveling through mexico. More on all of those later. And it all came down as we learned from the kremlin that donald trump has invited Vladimir Putin to visit the white house. According to one of putins aides, the overture came during that now famous march 20th phone call, the one in which the president ignored the warning not to congratulate putin on his victory in a rigged election. That call. The president hinted on the visit during a News Conference at the white house. We have a very good call and i suspect well probably be meeting in the no too distant future. The problem is much of the president s Foreign Policy apparatus, inside and outside the white house, was apparently blindsided by the news from the kremlin. The White House Press secretary issued a statement that said in part the two had discussed a bilateral meeting in the not too distant future at a number of potential venues, including the white house. Meanwhile, in washington tomorrow, we may learn more about the mueller investigations are a kind of status tomorrow, because tomorrow will bring the first real sentencing in the vex. Alexander vander zwann who worked with Paul Manafort and rick gates in ukraine has pled guilty to lie with investigators. Last week he revealed about communications with gates and a person with ties to the russian government and it was relevant to the russia investigation. And the wall street journal reports that russobert mueller looking into roger stones 2016 claim he had met with Julian Assange. In an email dated august 4, 2016, mr. Stone wrote, i dined with Julian Assange last night. The next day mr. Stone publicly praised mr. Assange via twitter. Mr. Muellers team has asked about mr. Stones email during testimony before a grand jury, according to the person familiar with the matter. Stone tone the journal that the email to sam nunberg was, quote, a joke, but he has frequently claimed some kind of contact with wikileaks and then issued a denial. Joe digenova who had agreed to act as counsel and then declined because of a conflict of interest are apparently still very in contact with trump and his attorneys. Here is what digenova said this morning. I can tell you victoria and i are playing the role of lawyers on television and in real life. Weve spoken with the president several times since our response, respective statements last week and we continue to chat with his lawyers and with him. He has a complete understanding of the legal battlefield that he is facing. I believe that he has been victim sized by an incompetent Justice Department led temporarily by rod rosenstein, who i think is a disgrace. So there was that. While digenova declined to reveal exactly what he and the president discussed, one major issue yet to be resolved is whether trump will sit down with mueller for an interview. Former new jersey governor Chris Christie, who for a brief time ran the trump transition team, a former u. S. Attorney, gave his advice to the president for the weekend. As afo former u. S. Attorney,e should never walk into that room with Robert Mueller. In the end one of the thing that makes the president who is he s that hes a salesmen and salesmen tend to be hyperbolic. Thats okay when youre Campaign Hustle and working on congress, its not okay talking to federal agents. False statements to federal agents is a crime that can send to you jail. Go for more former u. S. Attorney joyce vance, who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor, Michael Crowley is back with us as well, National Security editor and Senior Correspondent for politico and a man usually in new york but is here with us tonight, sam stein. Michael, are we living in a new age when were not surprised to learn of the planned meeting with putin from the other side, from the russians . No, it shouldnt be surprising. Weve learned a lot of things about President Donald Trump from russian spokemm russian sp. When he met in the oval office with russian representatives in the oval office, it was photographs published by the russians. Today the russians are telling us that trump extended an invitation for putin to come to the white house. So it would be the first tripe by Vladimir Putin to the white house since 2005, brian. So a pretty consequential event. And but what is really so striking about this is that the white house response in part was saying, okay, he said come to the white house and maybe well talk about some other places, but the white house did not rule out the idea there would be a meeting sometimes in the near future, despite the fact the u. S. Has taken pretty strong action to punish the russians for this nerve agent attack against a russian living in the united kingdom. The white house was not saying today this meeting is not off the table because we have concluded that russia was behind this outrageous use of weapons of mass destruction on the soil of a nato ally. Basically treated the idea as though it was in play. Finally, brian, donald trump is all over the map on a lots of policy issues, domestic and Foreign Policy. There is one through line clear as day he wants to talk to Vladimir Putin, he want to befriend Vladimir Putin. There are a lot of people telling him to slow down and back off, and he doesnt. Viewers may think that pretty string about that. And were going to get you a new microphone for your lapel. Lets take a turn into the mueller matter. Whats the chance in some sort of sentencing statement were going to learn more about kind of a status check where they are on the timeline . I think that thats pretty unlikely. What well see tomorrow is the first real sentencing in this investigation. Its van der zwann. We know he doesnt have a Cooperation Agreement with mueller. Everything has to be on writing in the guilty play plae. Gaty pleas maintain this routine language that say im not relying on anything other than what is in this document. We do know he has turned over some key pieces of evidence to mueller. Hes turned over tapes of conversation, hes turned over emails. Weve heard that muellers team did not have that before. His value is that even without cooperation, he could be compelled to testify at trial if needed since hell have no fifth amendment privilege, no reason he would incriminate himself if he testified after he is sentenced tomorrow. Hes available as a witness. Whether we learn anything new at sentencing i think is unlikely with this caveat, if there is any sort of quibbling about what his conduct was and what kind of sentence he should get, then we may hear some details from Andrew Weisman on muellers team who is handling the sentencing. We may get a little more insight into what van der zwaan did. A lot of people have been so curious hes not been at the nexus of this entire case because of his unusual life, his unusual career, he, as journalists always call him, a colorful figure. Talk about the rogerer sto esto have covered over the years. Let me tell you one quick story that gets at the roger stone people know. One tomb i wime i was interview outside of starbucks and he looks over to a building across the street pints oints to a root said thats the room where we met to reelect the president and thats where i took the bag of money for richard nixon. Roger stone went away for a little while, he was on the periphery, latching on to candidates. Then he had this history with donald trump. When trump ran for president , he was not on the periphery anymore, he was a very active player in the campaign. Now that hes reemerged, its not totally surprising that when people are digging into what exactly happened in the dark corners of the 2016 election and maybe if there was collusion with the russians, this is an art hes been practicing for many, many decades. It was said to us today you people have to stop talking about the iceberg theory. He said think about an underground colony, like an ant colo colony, its much more vast it, goes on forever. So when we read a report theres interest in a Robert Mueller email, do you think were running three months behind Robert Mueller or six months behind reality . More like a couple years with roger stone. The most interesting thing about roger stone in in investigation is he has not talked to mueller. Federal prosecutors look at three categories of people, witnesses, subjects, someone whose conduct is within the scope of the investigation and then a target, someone that prosecutors plan on indicting. Typically you dont interview targets. So draw your own conclusions on stone. Mr. Crowley, if joe digenova and toensing are i guess the preds gets to have these two as counsel just in another way. You would think that the president of the United States, at the center of the most sophisticated and most important investigation since watergate, plus a guy who is a billionaire or many times over hundred millionaire would have the Navy Seal Team of lawyers representing him, the absolute best. Right now he cant get topflight lawyer, hes basically got jay sekulow and ty cobb. And then a guy with essentially unlimited money, president of the United States, National Security case, possible impeachment, criminal charges all over the place, it just boggles the mind that this is his leaguele team. It makes you think if and when he does sit down with Robert Mueller, who prepared is this guy going to be . There is this inherent whatever euphemism Chris Christie used instead of saying lying. Mr. Crowley mentions a betterthanaverage lawyer who is currently unemployed in new jersey who we saw the clip of and thats former new jersey governor Chris Christie. Do you think at this level of play Chris Christie took advantage of an appearance on this week this past sunday to telegraph one more time to the president i know you think can you ace the interview with mueller, this couldnt be a worse idea . I dont think it was even that subtle, to be perfectly honest and i dont think Chris Christie is the only one advising the president not to do this. For a while we heard perjury trap over and over and over again. People who are close to the president and care about the president are warning him not to let his ego get the best of him and not to sit down with Robert Mueller. Now, does it end pup he doesnup do the interview . I dont know. But michael is right, the lack of an actual robust legal team here is sort of a profound gamble being made by the white house. With joe digenova saying hes advising him via television but not actually the spirit of the law, is there any Attorney Client privilege there . Are you risking more by not being a formal lawyer to the president . Counselor, your name has been invoked, you can rebut. They already have a conflict of interesting because his wife, victoria, represents mark corrala, who resigned because he was afraid he would be led into some sort of obstruction. And theres a question of when theres an issue of Attorney Client privilege here. Hes not officially his lawyer, he just plays one on television. We need one of those Bulletin Board they have on homeland with carrie being at the center of activity. Michael crowley leaves with a complement microphone and sam stein who is in washington and attorney general advance, thank you for being with us. Later, scott pruitt, just tonight, just over the past few hours leaving a lot of people to wonder how long the epa administrator can continue to straight. The 11th hour start offing a new we starting off a new week, just getting under way on a monday night. For leisure. So i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle without starting any conversations or paying any upcharges. What can i say . 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Fresh off a weekend at his maralago resort in florida, President Trump started the week in washington by attacking in no particular order amazon, mexico, cnn, nbc, the fbi and his own, our own Justice Department. The president wrote on twitter, quote, so sad the department of justice knnote the quotation marks the fbi are slow and not giving the unredacted documents requested by congress. An embarrassment to our country. And President Trump also congratulated egyptian president al sisi today on his reelection victory that critics call a sham election. It reported al sisi won in a squeak squeaker. Here to go over all of it with us, jill colvin, White House Reporter for the Associated Press and jeremy peters, political reporter for the New York Times and an msnbc contributor. So, jill, just today white house invitation for putin putting the Justice Department in quotes, ala enemy of the people and a congratulate people to assisi of egypt after his close election victory, dh is part of the new normal, is it not . It really is. Weve been talking about where the president feels empowered, hes not going to listen to people around him, hes been switching up his staff, getting rid of the people who have talked him away from those positions and these are his feelings. The president also just came back from three days in maralago. He was there with a very limited number of staffers and also spent a lot of time there talking to a number of people who really kind of rile him um and bring this stuff out, people like sean hannity, whom he had dinner with, folks who hes been spend more time with and talking to more on the phone. Jeremy, chris ruddy, who runs news max and is a friend of Donald Trumps and a palm peach person for a lot of years and he coined a pretty nifty phrase on cnn tonight, he called donald trump a feedback junkie. Do you think that phrase has legs . Absolutely. We know, brian, from the way that he spends his timing e at t watching the television and looking at images to himself and reaction to those images by various panelists on shows. I remember being on plane and pictures of his rally flashed on the screen and he said look at that, look at that, look how many people are there. He loves the affirmation that television provides. I think one of the reasons youre seeing the more impulsive, reckless behavior lately is he is surrounded more and more by people willing to provide that affirmation. Hes spending more time lately with people like corey lewandowski, dave bossy, people who coined of phrase let trump be trump and thats what youre seeing now, trump being his truest self. I always ask how did trump advance today and is there any strategy that you see employed in the situation in a jeremy talked about . Its really interesting as you talk about that feedback loop idea, the president went really hard over the last would you mean of days talking about the immigration issue, specifically referring to the caravans of Illegal Immigrants that he painted these pictures of the caravans coming across the United States trying to ominously cross the border. When did that start . When fox friends did a report on it in the morning. After all the of president tweets, the white house and Homeland Security put together a Conference Call with reporters and revealed that theyre trying to start this new legislative push for new Immigration Reform legislation and it very much seemed that that effort was following the president s tweets and meant to kind of put that policy muscle behind something that the president was talking about basically because hed seen it on tv. And jeremy, tomorrow baltic leaders visit the white house. Theres going to be one of those planned press conferences, two questions for both sides of the press corps. In our like a Good Neighbor state farm is there segment, i should mention these visiting leaders will be finely attuned to Vladimir Putin and the moves hes been making and the words hes been choosing. Absolutely. And its part of the reason why the president s behavior lately has been so mystifying. I mean, hes talking about now rewarding a man who the Int