York. Day 774 of the trump administration, and the president s not going to like this. Hes now facing a brand new investigation, the widest since the launch of the mueller inquiry, and one that could extend well into the 2020 campaign. The democratic head of the house Judiciary Committee, congressman jerry nadler of new york today launched an aggressive investigation into three basic areas. Allegations of obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump and his inner circle. The Judiciary Committee is demanding documents from 81 people and agencies and entities linked to trump and his associates from every aspect of Donald Trumps life. Spanning his business, his campaign, his family and his administration. Those insiders include his sons don junior and eric, Allen Weisselberg, cfo of the trump organization, jared kushner, former Comms Director hope hicks and many others. Trumps campaign, trumps foundation as well as the fbi and the nra. Request was also made for information on that 2016 trump tower meeting to get dirt on Hillary Clinton about trumps intervention on the fbi on behalf of michael flynn, possible russian financing and the hush money payments that Michael Cohen testified about just last wednesday. Its been noted before it will be noted again, this committee, house judiciary has the power to draft articles of impeachment, which is what makes this new inquiry especially significant. Earlier on this network tonight Committee Chairman nadler talked to Rachel Maddow. Weve been having very positive responses from a number of the 81 people today. For two years the American Congress did no oversight of the administration. None. They in fact acted as shields for the administration, for whatever they wanted to do. We have to protect the rule of law. And that means we have to investigate and hold hearings for the American People if the administration is involved in abuses of power or obstruction of justice. Now, chairman nadler says both muellers office and the Southern District of new york are aware that his committee has made these requests. The recipients now have two weeks to comply. The 81 names listed today are just the start. A house Judiciary Committee source is telling nbc news. According to this very source, quote, that was the first phase of document requests. We have more letters coming soon. Well, tonight the White House Press secretary put out this statement about the inquiry. It reads in part. Today chairman nadler opened up a disgraceful and abusive investigation into tired false allegations already investigated by the special counsel and committees in both chambers of congress. Chairman nadler and his fellow democrats have embarked on this fishing expedition because they are tirified their two year false narrative of russian collusion is crumbling. Their intimidation and abuse of american citizens is shameful. Earlier today the president was asked how hell respond to this move. Are you going to cooperate with mr. Nadler . I cooperate all the time with everybody, and you know the beautiful thing, no collusion. Its all a hoax. Its a political hoax. Theres no collusion. As sometimes happens over this past weekend the president s twitter account seemed in its tone and tenor and content to anticipate Something Big was coming. He wrote, quote, i am an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad conflicted and corrupt people in a witch hunt that is illegal. And here is what he told the conservative Political Action conference during saturdays twohour long speech. So they dont have anything with russia, theres no collusion. So now they go and morph into lets inspect every deal hes ever done. Were going to go into his finances. Were going to check his deals. Were going to check these people are sick. More on that event later on in our broadcast. Judiciary is not the only committee ramping up trump investigations. Today the democratic chairs of intel, oversight and Foreign Affairs combined all requested documents and interviews relate today President Trumps communications with one vladimir putin. Theyre interested in trumps oneonone conversations with the russian leader and the president s reported efforts to hide some of those communications. As usual its a lot on a monday night. And with us to talk about it our lead off panel, peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times. Frank figluzi, former fbi assistant for counter intelligence. And cynthia a former federal prosecutor and veteran of the u. S. Justice department. Frank, part of the story line of this story has been mueller is not necessarily the president s greater danger. It could be the Southern District of new york. In effect, the New York Branch of the Justice Department. Though, with that in mind where do you place all of this from the house of representatives as an existential threat to this presidency . So this is an interesting topic because muellers been conducting the inquiry with, number one, a very limited remit. Remember that was the parameters of that involved russia and criminal collusion. Southern district of new york has a couple of a number of cases but theyre conducting it through proper grand jury proceedings, much of it in secrecy. Now were going to see a very public display of all things bad for trump. And my thinking here is that multiple. First, to what degree is trump going to be able to restrain himself from his public lashing hes about to see play out as friends, associates, colleagues get called, even family members get called even subpoenaed to testify . But also the public optics of this is going to be very interesting. To what degree is nadler and Judiciary Committee and the other committees ready to say this is a credible, wellstaffed, wellplanned investigation so that the Public Perception is that this is credible, that this isnt a beating up of a president but rather this is serious oversight. It looks like were for the first time in a very long time about to see what serious oversight looks like. But the complications of coordination with the Southern District, with mueller and the optics to the American People are very essential so that this does not seem like the president willcall it a witch hunt. Peter, you get to cover the guy. And as we tried to say in very clear english at the top of it broadcast, hes just not going to like this. To franks narrative, 81 names of the people, places, agencies, entity, that is strong counter narrative to the witch hunt. Well, look, you know, when we write the history of this time i think well remember today as the day that the house of representatives opened an impeachment inquiry against the president of in all but name. They didnt use the i word. They did everything but that. They threw out so many fishing elements without the kind of public airing theyre about to give it. That its clearly aimed at that one ultimate possible target. It may be democrats dont go forward with impeachment down the road and may decide theres not enough evidence there, and its not politically advantageous, where they cant win enough votes in the senate where they will need at least 20 republican senators to go with them for conviction. This probably opens up probably a yearlong effort to uncover and expose all the various misdeeds that they suspect the president having committed in a very public and very what could be a very painful way for this president and his white house. Now, counselor, do you agree with that point that our wise colleague just made, that this was an opening of an impeachment inquiry, though not in title . And can you tell our viewers how they should process the threat this represents as opposed to mueller and the other stuff we talk about here every night . Well, yes, i would agree thats what it is particularly because weisselberg is on the list and the documents. And recognize that the weisselberg in all of the documented productions is quite limited at this point. Its just what theyve produced before. But if they look and see that theres not enough information, theres just going to be a second round, and theres just going to be more and more and more when it comes to the documents. And that is going to make the president blow a gasket. I dont think theres any question about that. If we think he had a bad week last week with the crazy speech wait until weisselberg is testifying in front of the house. But, yes, i think its a huge threat because not only do they not have the parameters of mueller or the parameters of the Southern District, they dont have the parameters of crimes. What they can view as an abuse of power is whatever they say is an abuse of power is. It can be you spoke to whitaker and wanted to change even though nothing happened. Or you pressured somebody it doesnt have to rise to the level of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. And they can be looking at it as an abuse of power as a list for an impeachment. So its very broad and a huge threat and on every imaginable level. So peter, lets bore down on this a little bit more since you and i were around for the last impeachment. Do the early elements of the clinton saga remind you of what were seeing now . Clinton was accused of violating the law in order to coverup a sexual affair. Thats one of the allegations that has been made against President Trump, that he conspired with Michael Cohen to pay hush payments to two women in order to cover up a sexual indiscretion before the 2016 election. The difference is thats not the only thing on the table here. Theres so many things on the table here as the 81 targets of todays document requests indicate. Theres his business practices. Was there, you know, any obstruction of justice when he fired the fbi director or when he tried to get the Justice Department to investigate his enemies. You know, what was the nature of, you know, his relationship with his own, you know, Law Enforcement structures . There are so many elements that, you know, the house Judiciary Committee wants to look into here. And Allen Weisselberg right there at the heart of all of his business practices. He probably knows so many things that we dont know about that this could be quite interesting. Thats whats different about clinton. In the clinton case there was one sort of basic event they were xaning. People had to decide whether it rose to an impeachable offense. Here its like five different president ial scandals all rolled into one. Were there any names on the list that got your attention . This list is a whos who of nardo els. But three names jumped out at me. The fbi is being asked to produce documents in a number of areas. Look, in some cases they will have the answer key. If they will give it up they will have answers across various investigative lines. Second, youve got to talk to weisselberg. Hes the money man. He knows everything about where the money went and the question is why the money went there. And then lastly this sounds interesting, the nra is on that list. And im interested in that because this takes us beyond trump into perhaps the campaigns of various house and Senate Members and whether foreign money was funneled through the nra to those members. Im going to keep an eye on that one. If we dont take our first commercial break the company gets angry. So if were just going to pause all three of our guests are going to stay with us. And coming up the house investigations infuriating some of the president s closest supporters especially those at his, shall we say, goto network of choice. And will a now deleted social media post be enough to land roger stone in prison while he awaits trial . The 11th hour just Getting Started on a monday night. Etting started on a monday night. [ sighing ] oh my momma she gave me these feathered breaths oh my momma check in from afar with remote access. And have professional monitoring backing you up with xfinity home. Demo in an xfinity store, call, or go online today. The hate trump agenda is now hitting literally psychotic levels of derangement. They have now made it their full time stated mission and purpose to try and batter, bloody, bludgeon this president at all costs. To either impeach or try to make President Trump unelectable in 2020. We the people will now be subject to what will be the biggest most gruesome display of modern day mccarthyism, which is just the widest fishing net expedition all in an effort to destroy the president. One of the president s key media allies earlier this evening reacting to this new house Judiciary Committee investigation. Still with us tonight, peter baker, frank figluzzi, cynthia. From fox news tonight, former u. S. Attorney from the District Of Columbia joe digenova with a message for all those whose names were listed by house judiciary. Everyone should refuse, and when theyre subpoenaed they should all take the fifth because this a perjury trap. This is not a legitimate investigation. It is a fishing expedition. Theyre trying to get people up there to make them look bad so to try to make the president look bad. No one would talk to this committee. Everyone should take the fifth. And if everyone takes the fifth the American People will understand that this is not a legitimate investigation. It is political theater. Counselor, your reaction. Joe digenova is so predictable. He takes the exact opposite when it was the clinton impeachment. I was there in the greenroom. Thats not going to happen. There are some people who should take the fifth like don junior should probably take the fifth. Why . Because adam schiff has already said he thinks he lied. So theres a guy that goes in and has a legitimate problem. You cant just take five for no reason. It has to be reasonable. For instance, theres an interesting question about weisselberg. Should weisselberg take the fifth . He has limited immunity, what is that negotiation going to be . Its not all cut and dry. Its all an individual situation. I will say i find joe digenova, now, you know, hes just spouting bile usually on television. Peter baker, we grabbed on paper at least the president s tweet where tonight he talked about by our reading mccathyism. Either hes from boston or theres a senator mccathy similar to senator joe mccarthy who was from wisconsin. The president was quoting Shawn Hannity tonight and has since corrected the spelling. When someone like me asks you what is it like, what are they saying inside the west wing, are we taking our evidence from this kind of thing . Its good that spelling is not one of the ish os at stake on the house Judiciary Committee for the president. They feel under siege. This one in particular theyve been under siege from the beginning. You know, if you worked there you have felt from the very start this administration that you were at war, you were under attack from the enemies from the outside. Remember the talk of impeachment began within days of his election. He hadnt even sworn in and some of his critics were already raising that prospect. So this is something theyve lived with from the beginning but has now raised to a different level. When the president didnt say he didnt actually lose his midterm elections, now when the house went to democrat sud suddenly the world changed for donald trump. Its not to say he cant get this or that legislation through. Its now he will spend the next two years of his life answering or deflecting or fighting with requests for information like this. Now, the danger for democrats is that it will look like it is a fishing expedition, that it will look like they only care about taking down the president. And i think the democrats understand that challenge, but its one that feeds into the narrative that you heard and you played already from Shawn Hannity, which is that this isnt legitimate. Its just politic, just partisanship. And a lot of people who liked donald trump who think hes doing a good job are going to dismiss it because they think its the deep state out to get him. Frank, a question im forced to ask you way too often. Do you fear another round of attacks on federal institutions . Oh, i think as the president loses control as he did this weekend in the two hour rambling speech he gave, i think were already seeing a strong glimpse of his defense. His defense is going to be attacks on people. His attacks are going to be on mueller, really the most unimpoochable people in washington. Weve heard comey rolled out again. And now were going to see personal attacks on each and every member of each and every Committee Investigating him. And if thats all hes got, if thats his defense, thats someone whos very worried about the facts. Our thanks to starting us off as we begin a new week this monday night. And coming up, as a judge considers sending roger stone to prison, new reporting that a another one time close associate of trump was looking for a pardon. That when we come back. Directly to petmeds. Com. 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