Offered damaging information on Hillary Clinton, he wrote no details or supporting information was required. Later, emails between don junior and the man who organized the meeting said it was supposed to damaging email on Hillary Clinton. Quote, if its what you say, i love it. To get out ahead of that story, don junior changed his line again. The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton i thought was political Opposition Research. Just after this we heard this from trumps lawyer. The Statement Released was donald trump jr. And his lawyers. The president was not involve in the that. The president was not involved in the drafting of that statement. It came from his son. July 31, trump himself personally dictated the statement. Then hater this year it was revealed trumps own lawyers admitted in a momentumo to Robert Mueller that yes, the president himself did dictate the trump tower statement but added there was no collusion. This weekend, the president s same lawyer jay sekulow was asked about his earlier denialed of the president s statement. I had Bad Information at that
point. I had Bad Information at that point. I made a mistake in my statement. I think the its important to point out that in a situation like this, you have over time facts develop. Today donald trump jr. Was on the radio with laura ingram. The issue of adoption, did that come up . I had Bad Information at that point. I made a mistake in my statement. I think the its important to point out that in a situation like this, you have over time facts develop. Today donald trump jr. Was on the radio with laura ingram. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. She is now living here in manhattan and she too has come under scrutiny for crafting that incredible statement on the plane about the Trump Tower Meeting. A lot to take in. Lets bring in our leadoff panel. Ashley parker, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter. Philip rutger. They both won their pulitzers for the fallout on the white house. Well, good evening and welcome to you all. Ashley, a wise journalist, alongtime enemy of the people once said a gaffe is what happens when a politician tells the truth. So by that standard, is the a gaffe . Was this a selfinflicted wound . Do you have enough distance to tell the damage from what the president said on twitter . Well, i think it was a bit of a gaffe, a bit of a selfinfli selfinflicted wound. We dont know the back story,
he spent a lot of time the last few weeks with his lawyers talking through the Trump Tower Meeting. You have seen mikkel cohen and his Attorney Making Accusations publicly that maybe President Trump knew about that meeting beforehand. Its all feeding this anxiety that the president feels and a real genuine fear that something would happen to his son. Not because he thinks don junior did anything wrong, but because he could have naively walked into some serious trouble. Joyce, things that happen in plain sight dont often have the gravity in realtime. Twitter as a medium is all but entirely lacking in gravity. Its instantly available. Its ubiquitous. Do you think what we saw in plain sight from the president s cell phone on sunday had a weight of a legal matter . It does. It will have ultimate weight here. I think twitter may end up being this president s undoing. Many of the worst hits he has taken and that his presidency have taken have been own goals often from twitter or his own
statements to the media. But this one is really a doozy by any standard. Its difficult to understand what may have motivated him. Perhaps he felt provoked by ashley and philips reporting and went off without think about the this idea that don junior may have wandered into a crime is something we havent focused on. Thats not true. You get criminal liability for committing acts with a certain state of mind, not just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe trumps goal was to run a Public Relations campaign leak he so often does on twitter. Let me ask you about the u. S. Code that you no doubt have committed to memory it small be unlawful for a Foreign National directly or indirectly to make a contribution of money or other thing or value to to make a contribution or donation in connection with a federal, state, or local election. Joyce, has this notion been
litigated . Probably a lot of people wish it had been liquidated. Do we know advice on your opponent from russians could be construed in Federal Court as a thing of value . Its an interesting question. Under this statute why which theres been little litigation, certainly people will have different opinions. But a thing of value is something that people would typically pay money for. People pay money for Opposition Research. Seems likely thats a possibility here. One of the most intriguing aspects is its not just illegal to receive this sort of help from a foreign government. Its also illegal to solicit that help from a foreign
government. Just based on what we know, which is surely only the tip of the iceberg, looks like the participants in this meeting have a lot of trouble on their hand. Phil rutger in the believe it when i see it, is this president really going sit down, but did Rudy Giuliani forgive the casualness of this, just need a distraction last week to point us in the future . . Thats the big question this week. The president s circle indicated this would be coming very soon. They are in the final stages of negotiations with the special counsels team. Thats been going on for months now to figure out the parameters and scope of the interview with the president. Who knows if that decision is going happen. This is a president who likes to always say, im going to do x, y, or zrk in two weeks and three, four, five weaks pass until you hear about it again. He may not have a decision this week, but we may have a decision announce in the ten mince on twitter. We need to stay tuned. What we know is theres disagreement on the team. The lawyers dont want him do the interview. The president wants to because he thinks he can convince mueller he did nothing wrong. Theyre going to have to reconcile that and come to some sort of agreement with the special counsel. Point taken, 11 12 p. M. On a monday night. The night is young in twitter terms. Theres a piece written in vanity fair on just what hope hicks was dong on Air Force One this weekend. Some speculate that amidded a weekend when donald trump was talking about the trump tower
theyre embroiled in. Terrific answer. Bottom line is it was an interesting visual on the tarmac in Morristown Airport on saturday. Our thanks to Ashley Parker, philip rutger, joyce vance. As always, appreciate our top three coming out for us. Coming up, more on why that meeting with russians in trump tower two years ago is considered to critical to the ongoing investigation. Later with 92 days to go to the midterms an idea of what well talking about this time tomorrow night and the what the primaries from ohio may show us. Just Getting Started on a monday night. Or crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both Symptom Relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal Brain Infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. Its called Opposition Research or research into your opponent. In the case of don, he listened. I guess they talked about as i see it they talked about adoption and some things but Nothing Happened from the meeting. Zero happened from the meeting. While both the president and his son maintained that Trump Tower Meeting yielded no information about Hillary Clinton the fact that it took place, the fact that there was a cover story put out about it, those have become big problems. We are lucky to have with us two people who have both won Pulitzer Prizes this year with that meeting. With us matt apuzzo and Ashley Parker agreed to stick around. Matt, welcome back to the broadcast. What was it like the first time you learned of the existence of this meeting. What are the dangling questions out there still unaddressed shh. Ashley got into this in the first segment. When we went to the white house with what we knew, the existence of this meeting last year, and we said, what was this about . We knew don junior, jared kushner, paul manafort, three most important people at the height of the campaign are meeting with a kremlin connected lawyer. We knew that. They said, what was this about . They push third down off and said, we need some time. People are traveling. Well get back to you. We said we just want to moe the answer. Well give you the time. They said, it was nothing. It was just about adoption. It was such a head scratch a. It was so obviously bizarre it raised more questions than it answered. Then over the course of three days the story kept changing. And here we are now a year later and we are still trying to figure out where exactly the president is on this. And where we have ended up is the president saying, we tried to collude with the russians but it Didnt Work Out and we didnt actually pull off the collusion. And that is Head Scratchingly where we ended up a year after reporting. Ashley, heres this president taking the time to dictate a meeting and the purpose of the meeting in trump tower. Can you believe we still have so many questions . That this still generates so much News Coverage a year later . I can and i cant. The way we understood the story was we understood the first statement was drafted or
dictated by the president as he flew back from a trip to europe. Our understanding was it was this scrambled frenzy on Air Force One to try to come up with a statement with the president really taking the lead and dictating it. That sot of statement, that problematic first statement that arose from so much chaos, im not surprised that that Frenetic Energy is going on to this day. Remind me there was an effort to expose this. Remind me mark karallo. Yeah, its interesting. He was a spokesperson for the legal team. He said that he resigned because he had concerned about this. The trump team says he was fired. He was never a valued member of the team, like so much that goes on in this administration it sort of depends on who you talk to, where the truth lies. I think the Point Ashley Made is a good one. The story she and her colleagues wrote about the misleading statement, that story has legs because that issue of President Trumps involvement in the missing statement is among the topics we now know that bob mueller wants to talk to the president about ands that at the heart of this question of, is bob mueller going to subpoena the president . Is he going to take no for an answer or is he going to take, well talk about this, but not that for an answer. One more question on that, matt of the foundation of the mueller case, the founding questions and documents do you think Trump Tower Meeting is easily top five . Yeah, i think its you
look at the Questions Mueller said he wants answered from the president. The question of what did you know about this meet something what did you do in records to it is front and center. I think of course it is. It goes to the issue of people from the kremlin show up in the middle of an influence operation to tip the outcome of the president ial election and they say, we are here to help you on behalf of the russian governments efforts to help Donald Trumps campaign. We would like to hurt Hillary Clinton and they say, sure, absolutely lets meet. Of course its front and center. Its one of the most important issues facing the mueller investigation. Put it that way it sound almost like a serious meeting. Ashley parker whats the fear level the Anxiety Level who are regulars who work for this
president in the west wing . Its high. Whats striking is its not just high among them, but its high with the president himself. So hes someone who, at this moment he does believe he has done nothing wrong. As phil said earlier he believes he can get in the room with mueller and convince him of that, but even the president is worried about who is getting wrapped up in this and especially about his son, don junior, ands that all tied to this one meeting. Its tied to what happened at this meeting. Its tied to who knew b what about this meeting before it happened. Its tied to whoever don junior may or may not have told. The president understands thats a risk because in that tweet sunday he also knew enough to distant himself. He said, i didnt know about the meeting in advance. Just because the president said something, that doesnt mean its true. It does show you he realizes any knowledge of the meeting beforehand would be problematic for him. We are 24 minutes into our
broadcast week. We have already had three Pulitzer Prizewinners. Our thanks to two of them. Coming up, the star witness in the trial of perimeter. Takes the stand and immediately confesses to criminal behavior. The revelations under oath from rick gates and what he admitted to that caught everyone in the courtroom by surprise. We just got married. There he is, rick gates, manaforts business parter in, told the jury he committed a bunch of crimes. He said he had 15 offshore Bank Accounts they did not disclose to the federal government. He then testified that manafort told him not to report the accounts. At one point, the prosecutor asked him if he committed crimes with manafort. He respond simply yes. Gates also admitted he stole from his boss. He copped to Embezzling Hundreds Of Thousands of dollars from manafort by claiming false expense reports. With us today, at the end of a long day for him. And Danny Savales is back with us. Josh you get to go first because you were there. Im curious about things like eye contact, body language, and what was the reaction in there when gates said, sure, i robbed from the boss. That does indicate enough money was around that it wasnt missed immediately. Right. I dont think there was a lot of shock. The defense team said out at the very beginning, manaforts defense team that there would be indication that gates embezzled money from manaforts firm. There was a loot of attention given to the body language. Gates came in, took the stand, took the oath and in that process somehow managed never to took paul manafort, his former boss in the eye directly. Didnt seem to want to look at the defense table. Looked at the prosecutors, the jurors and the judge, but didnt want to crane his neck around
the look scarily at manafort. I think as the afternoon went on there were cases he looked in his direct and said nice things but overall, the testimony and admissions to various crimes not just the ones being tried in this Virginia Case but ones soon to be tried in a washington, d. C. Case against manafort, that was certainly the substance of the testimony today. Danny, if youre the prosecutor you try to make this all above board. Be very direct. Did you break the law . Why, yes, i did. The implication is, just like the guy im hear to testify against. But if youre the defense and you get your chance at mr. Gates, how do you further go after him . First, the prosecution is
going try to get all of this damaging information out on direct examination. The idea being that when the defense stands up to c