Should explain why the feds have gone and shredded the Cooperation Agreement they had at one time with Paul Manafort, who now faces big jail time. We now noah corresponding to our friends at the the New York Times the Manafort Team was telling the trump team what mueller investigators were most interested in and asking about. Just days ago, the mueller Team RevealedMichael Flynn had been providing what they called substantial assistance in the russia inquiry. Tonight our own Kristen Welker citing two sources is reporting that trumps lawyers have resumed discussions with team mueller in recent days. This is the first time that its been acknowledged since President Trump submitted written responses to muellers questions on november 20th. This morning, trump renewed his social media offensive against the investigation. He offered us this, quote, without the phony russia witchhunt and all that we have accomplished in the last almost two years, tax and regulation cuts, judges, military, vets, et cetera, my Approval Rating would be at 75 rather than the 50 just reported by rasmussen. Its called president ial harassment. Later this afternoon during an event at the white house, there was no sign of his frustration over muellers inquiry. In fact, the mood seemed downright campaign rallylike. [ applause ] it is actually 6. Actually never hurt, four more years. Thats an interesting well go for six and then well all be in very good shape. Four more years, of course, is an expression. Meanwhile, a new article in the atlantic paints a picture of a white house unprepared to deal with muellers findings. Once his investigation is over, quote, according to a half dozen current and former white house officials, the administration has no plans in place for responding to the special counsels findings, save for expecting a twitter spree. You may recall that earlier this year trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani had promised that trumps legal team planned to put out its own report to counter mueller. Talk to me a little bit about this idea of a counter report you guys mentioned, youre going to put out your own report. Is that done to undermine muellers credibility . Its done to answer. Its not going to come out until he puts out a report. Of course i think even the president s enemies would imagine that his lawyers would put out a counter to an attack. If youre going to write a fair report, fine, write it. If youre going to write an unfair report, write it, well combat it. Were ready to rip had it apart. Were ready to rip them a forward if they want. According to the atlantic, giuliani said its been difficult in the last few months to consider drafting response plans or a counter report. He claimed they were working this summer as he and trump contronted muellers questions. This piece goes on to quote giuliani saying, answering those questions was a nightmare. It took him about three weeks to do what would normally take two days. Thats his lawyer talking. Tomorrow, former fbi director James Comey Testifies behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee about the investigation into Hillary Clintons emails as well as his role in the russia election meddling inquiry. Earlier this year, comey described his initial conversations with trump about russias actions. Did he seem curious about russian interference in the election about did he talk to you about efforts to try to stop it in the next round of election s . He did not. In fact, one of the things we were struck by in our the meeting gwen myself and the leaders of the other intelligence agencies with the president elect on january 6th, before he took office, was he had no questions and i dont think anybody else had any questions from his team as to what the future threat from russia might be. Also there are new reports tonight that william barr is the leading candidate to be the next United States attorney general. He has held that job before. He ran the Justice Department in the bush 41 white house from 91 to 93. And in that job, barr was formally Robert Muellers boss. Hes been a stalwart in republican legal circles for years. Recently hes said some interesting things about mueller and trump and russia, all of it part of the discussion as we go through the night. The lead off panel, Daniel Goldman for the Southern District of new york, mimi rocca, former assistant university for the Southern District of new york now a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the Pace University school of law. And down in d. C. As you can see our friend phil rucker, Pulitzer Prize winning bureau chief for the Washington Post. Phil, im going to begin with you on all things journalism. Former president bush 41 has been buried. The ceremonial part of this president s week is over. And so on twitter, in just the last two hours, weve had something of a late night fuselad, perhaps linked to television segments weve watched airing on the Cable Networks tonight. What do you think is going on in there . Well, brian, i think the president seems to be signalling to the world some level of anxiety about the russia investigation. He must certainly know about the deadlines tomorrow that you referenced in the opening of tonights show where we are going to learn more details about, you know, how Paul Manafort lied to investigators and how Michael Cohen has been cooperating with investigators. Those are both issues sure to agitate the president. And so it seems like what hes doing is a little bit of prebutting here. He began this morning with the witchhunt tweet, but has continued in just the last hour with a series of tweets about the russia probe and other matters. So, daniel, because lawyers love files, lets you two are two counsel here in new york. Make two files. First file is going to be you. What to expect with this cohen memorandum filing tomorrow, and please tell me its not going to be the dreaded black stripes of redaction. I wish i could tell you that, but what we have seen with the flynn memo is Robert Mueller playing by the book, following d. O. J. Policy, which is not to reveal any information about an ongoing confidential investigation. And the reason for that is not just because hes trying to keep things close to the vest, but its to protect potential people who would be mentioned who are ultimately not charged, and have no way of vindicating themselves. So there is sound reason for doing that, and i expect that in the Michael Cohen sentencing memorandum, were going to see the same things because if there is anything related to the russia investigation through muellers office we know hes not going to reveal any of that. And then from the Southern District, and perhaps the new York Attorney generals office, there are no charges based on Michael Cohens cooperation. The one thing i would point out is Michael Flynn got a motion for a reduction in sentence because he is a signed up cooperating witness. Team usa. Michael cohen does not have the same agreement. I think in practical matters, it doesnt really matter that much. In practical terms it doesnt matter that much. The government will be forced and required to give an honest assessment of his cooperation of his truthfulness and what assistance he has provided. But, again, Michael Flynn had a very low sentencing guideline range, 0 to 6, so he didnt need much to get to 0. Michael cohen has asked for 0, but his bottom end of the guideline range which the judge uses as the baseline is about four years. So hes got a lot of wood to chop to get down to 0. Could an atta boy change that and ultimately influence the judge . Yes, absolutely. And i expect he will get less than four years, but it depends a little bit on what is going to be what we expect to be the redact the sentencing memorandum tomorrow. To determine how much hes given them. But i think i would not expect him to walk out without with no jail time. To your former coworker in the Southern District of new york, mimi rocca, mimi, you get to talk about this manafort document thats coming out tomorrow. What we might learn from it, and with toner already running terribly low in all of our newsrooms, are you going to tell me were going to see more of the black stripes of redaction . I dont want to be 0 for 2 here, but i think we are going to see more redactions in that filing as well. Again, its hard to know how much. Look, the posture of this is that the government needs to be able to justify to the judge why they are not upholding this agreement that they had entered into with manafort. So they need to show good faith. Its actually not an incredibly hard standard to show. You know, in other words, its not just the government saying we dont feel like it. Its the government saying, he lied and heres how we know it. Now, if those lies are central to the heart of muellers investigation, the russia investigation, which i believe they are, because, one, thats what makes them important. And, two, we believe thats why manafort was signed up. Then, you know, again, going back to the flynn example, hes not going to reveal that right now because thats an ongoing investigation. Although it could be that there is enough thats already out there that, you know, can use so, the purpose here is to show that manafort lied, not to show evidence against other people. And so it depends a lot what the lies are about. Phil rucker, to this reporting about the trump legal team, does it match up with what you know and have been able to learn . Because every so often we keep hearing, you know, theyve hired a new candidate and theyre really going to buckle down. But it seems to me, every day in that legal shop must feel like the eve of hurricane katrina, especially now that we read theyre not prepared. Yeah, brian, you know, theres a quote in the atlantic story from i think a former white house official who said the strategy is basically, jesus, take the wheel. And thats been the strategy all along through this presidency for almost every issue among the staff. So a lot of Decision Making and the communication strategy having to do with the Mueller Probe is limited to people in the counsels office and the president s personal attorneys. But the reporting is absolutely right and it matches up with what ive been hearing. I spoke to a number of trump allies today who said theyre very concerned that the president does not seem to be taking seriously the threat from mueller in the months to come, coupled with the threat from democrats as they take over the house of representatives and start launching investigations, including potentially into the president s businesses, into his family, potentially trying to get his tax returns. There are a number of issues ahead on the horizon and the president doesnt seem to have all the lawyers, all the sort of war room strategists and operatives in place that his allies would like to see. Daniel goldman, the new talking point thats in vogue and cities serviced by amtrak on the east coast is this. The 20 or so memos, sentencing documents, charges, thats going to be the mueller report. It will be told in chapters, and not a la ken starr, a bound book that is distributed to the media at a d. C. Press conference. What say you to that . Well, i think there is going to be more indictments and that would be part of it, too. Right. And so Robert Mueller has demonstrated that he his indictments are lengthy and detailed, and perhaps include information and evidence thats not necessary to support the charges, but he takes the opportunity to present a narrative. And so if roger stone is indicted or jerome corsi is even indicted, particularly roger stone if theyre really looking at him for collusion, which it seems they are, they are going to paint a broad brush in explaining the evidence. Youll have that. In terms of the report, we can expect it to address obstruction of justice for sure because thats really focused on the president almost singularly. And then the question just remains is, what else is there out there not worthy of charge but goes in the report . Under the special counsel regulations thats kind of up in the air as to how much they should put in there and why because they are supposed to say why they are declining prosecution against individuals. So, it could be more than just simply the president. It could include other people they decided not to charge. The big thing about these memos, just real quick, is they are court documents. They are under seal to us right now, but they will not remain under seal forever. And so the mueller can use these memorandum as a way of making sure that the public will eventually learn about some of the evidence that he has. Mimi rocca, the trump team and mueller team were reporting tonight are talking again. Do you think thats a serious endeavor . Well, first of all, i assume talking again, the source of that is on trumps side because we know muellers side doesnt talk. So im always skeptical when something what on earth right. Why would i be skeptical. But, you know, we do know that he turned in answers. As much as we can know anything that giuliani says, and it would make sense that mueller would come back. You dont just this is why the written for matt is so awkward. You dont just hear an answer and say, okay, thanks, bye. You have followup questions, and im sure they have those. So i think it is possible that they are going back to him with further written questions. Trump knows a lot more now, as we all do, than he did when he answered them the first time. So, i think there is a bit of going through the motions here. Place, the xfinity xfi gateway. And its strengthened by xfi pods, which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. Well almost anything. Leave no room behind with xfi pods. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Click or visit a retail store today. Modern era of this country, and as a family man. Peter baker of the New York Times report not on trumps mindset said the president has been, quote, snappish with aides most of the week according to administration officials, miffed in part by so many ceremonial events not related to him. He was impatient for the memorials to end, but expressed pride in himself for remaining publicly civil. People close to the president called it a course correction after his peevish reaction to mr. Mccains death. Trump ended his night last night tweeting out his 50 Approval Rating in the most recent poll. And, of course, tomorrow brings more mueller memos as we have been talking about and more uncertainty. Well, with us tonight tim obrien, the executive editor of bloomberg opinion, more importantly he wrote the book on this subject. Hes the author of trump nation, the art of being the donald. I have wanted to have you on for so long. Thank you, brian. So, lets put him on the couch and lets begin with the following tableau. He walks into the National Cathedral. The other president s are seated. He is wearing his overcoat. He takes it off and hands said crumpled overcoat to the young marine officer who was acting as his escort. Then, of course, he sits down and so much ink has been spilled over the last 24 hours on those he did and did not greet. What is going on there . You know, i think and this is putting him on the couch, so were both sort of speculating here. I think clothing for donald trump is armor. Why didnt he just leave the coat, the over coat in the back of the seat. Hes worn the same outfit since the 80s. Its almost like hes been cryogenetically. Thats his approximation of it. Its almost a cartoon, cartoonish version of that, but it alternately gives him security and it allows him to keep people at a distance. And thats really the interesting thing about him because for all of the bluster and all of the bravado and the bragging, hes a deeply insecure person. And so these costumes he wears insulates him from that. And i thought it was extraordinary at this event in the National Cathedral with all of the pomp and circumstances involved in it, he couldnt just strip that off and leave it be. Then he ends up sort of crumpling it and giving it in the hands of the surprise military attache. At when the reading started it is said he did not participate in the service at all. Then there was just his the way he carried himself while seated. Yeah. His hands together, he was rocking at one point. It was impossible to listen to the eulogies and not take some of it as a kind of comparison to the sitting president. It was not intended that way. Im certain. But what people thought he looked petulant. People thought he looked angry at the content of the eulogies. Look at what was said about George Walker bush. What aisle he resided on politically, whether you thought his policies were successful or failures, at his core this was a decent man who lived his life well, who was considerate of the people he did politics with. He was loving to his family members. And had a long and successful marriage with his wife. Almost every one of those points are not a description of who donald trump is. And he had to be sitting there being very aware of that because it wasnt just john meachams eulogy. Right. Right. Alan simpson gave a beautiful recounting mulrooney about the states man yes, talking about trade policies trump has overturned. So hes sitting there and he has to know at some point in the future whenever that occurs, hes going to get a state funeral and its likely these same sort of things arent going to be said about him. And so i wondered, watching him, where does that go, you know . In his mind as an adult man