To set up that controversial firing. Mueller has the letter, but we do not here is the legal significance tonight. If that first draft of the letter talks russia, it suggests that the letter that trump, sessions and rosenstein were false, a cover story. That would provide new evidence that trump enshared d. O. J. Leadership in a cover up about firing the fbi director over russia that could add to the obstruction case against the white house and put more pressure on Rod Rosenstein to recuse himself from overseeing muellers russia case. Theres option number two. If the letter, the original newly exposed letter, if it didnt mention russia and has another reason for firing comey, that would shed light on how the white house looked for all these different reasons. Some of them true and some of them false over how to fire comey and whether the decision came from the Justice Department as they claim or from trump himself. Something in it was bad enough that trumps loyal aide and long time lawyer, the man you see on your screen put a stop to it. What was happening during that fight when trumps top lawyer told him mr. President , you can fire jim comey but not like this. Right now were going to show you. On wednesday may 3rd, comey gave his last congressional testimony and he made this comment that enraged trump. This is terrible. It made me nauseous that we had impact on the election but it wouldnt change the decision. Behind the scenes the white house was smoldering but outside it was this happy face they put on. Very next day trump was celebrating the house passage of trump care in the rose garden. That night he spoke at an vent in new york city and went dark. Following that health care vote, President Trump made his way here to new york city. Its his first trip to his hometown since the inauguration but he didnt stay in manhattan very long opting to spend the night in new jersey. In new jersey where the president tweeted a little bit about why it was a good thing he was there. Then the only thing on his public schedule for this critical weekend on may 6th was a phone call with the president of peru. He was also spotted golfing that saturday. Not by the press but a visitor who posted it on instagram. Thats all anyone thu about at the time. Behind closed doors now we see from this times reporting it was during that first weekend in may that the president and his top aide Stephen Miller were drafting this letter about how to fire comey. At the same time Jeff Sessions and his deputy were working on a quote, parallel effort to fire jim comey. Now we know that weekend was one of the most tense and consequ t consequential of the Trump Presidency with a decision that would haunt donald trump and catalyze. This news was about health care and the fren ch elections. Land slide victory. The overwhelming win in france as a centurist political outsid becomes president. Today he has team was on television pushing for more action on health care. Three days hunkered down out of public view and now we know why. Trump leaving those tense weekend meetings returning to the white house late sunday night and barrelled right forward the next day with his comey plan. Gathering sessions and rosenstein to the oval office. A meeting was not publicly disclosed until after jim comey was fired the next day. Breaking news, vim com is out at the fbi. This is not politics as usual. This is very bizarre. The fbi director lost his confidence. The attorney general concurred with that and forward that recommendation on to the president who agreed with their conclusions. Why did you fire director comey . Because he wasnt doing a good job. He was not doing a good job. Donald trumps decision to fire the man in charge of the inn ve investigation into the Trump Campaign will go down in history as one of the most strategically and counter productive thing any president has ever done. We know bob mueller is gathering this secret evidence from the uppermost reaches of the white house to find out. Welcome to each of you. It all looks different now that we know what was going on behind the scenes in those three days. What do you think don would have seen in that letter that took him to the lengths of telling donald trump you cant do it this way . Well, we recently learned, i saw it on my phone as i was prepared to come here on the show that the Washington Post has reported that that letter included a variety of complaints by trump, including that comey would not tell him that he, trump, was not personally under investigation. That would suggest and i could understand why mr. Mcgan had the reaction. It would suggest he was firing mr. Comey because he wanted to make sure he could have an fbi director that would ensure hes not under investigation personally. That would be door number one, that trump started by saying the reason is russia and that don would say no. Then they went to another reason, Hillary Clinton and they got the d. O. J. To write letters claiming that was the reason knowing at the time don and your theory of the case being in on it, that wasnt true . Thats right. Obviously, its a problem for all of these people. If you know if you conclude the president has done something unlawful and trying to conceal it that would create criminal liability for you and that means for all these people including the folks at the top of the d. O. J. As well as the white house counsel. What i think is the most interesting and what i would love to find out is whether he told the president. If the president learned that there was potential criminal liability and he was obstructing justice, if he undertook the actions that he outlined in the draft letter, that would go a long way towards establishing the corruption sbents. Maya. I agree. I doesnt look good. Remember this investigation really turned to obstruction of justice because of that meeting with Jeff Sessions at the white house. Donald trump, himself, started suggesting he was unhappy with Jeff Sessions for not being aggressive enough in protecting him from this investigation. Its hard to imagine there wasnt some very active conversation happening at the time. Paul, again, i describe this as a theory because what we dont know is the text of the letter. We dont have it. The times didnt have it. There are leaks to the post about it. If it were blocked for russia and then you had a cover story and then russia comes out because donald trump coughed it up in an interview with lester holt that will go down as one of the most revealing interviews fr about an investigation in world history. He wants to know all about the circumstances of who wrote this letter, what were the different drafts and what was said. Just the fact the the word russia was mentioned in connection with comeys firing i dont think is immediately a problem. If the president was ticked off that doesnt amount to obstruction of justice. On the other hand, if the letter says that comeys being fired because trump thinks that the investigation itself is wrong then that sounds like an attempt to impedes an investigation. This brings us to another important point. James comey is no hero in this matter. When he went on television and before the House Committee and made all of those allegations against Hillary Clinton without prosecuting her, without giving her a public forum to clear her name, he broke every rule in the department of justice book. That letter that rosenstein wrote suggesting that comey should be fired, that was true. At the same time that it wasnt the real reason in trumps mind. I would push you on that. I dont know that it was true. I would push you lawyer to lawyer to say it referenced legitimate policy concerns about jim comey, but whether tfrs tit true is matter that mueller is investigating. Was it the whole story from the d. O. J. About a personnel decision or was it citing potential legitimate criticisms in concert with a monday Oval Office Meeting with a president who said im firing him for other reasons, now give me a cover story. And he could have fired him much sooner. If that was true, that would have happened before trump got to the white house . He needed a story. He needed a story so we could have two trains running at the same time. At the same time, he asks rosenstein for his objective opinion about whether comey was doing a good job. He could have given him an object of good faith opinion. Maya, go ahead. The other people is Rod Rosenstein is still no, maam that willy overseeing this investigation. Mueller has the letters and information that cast doubt on his role. He could be fact witness to the firing while hes trying to oversee it. Thats right. I think its important to the American People there be all the members who are engaged in this investigation are clearly doing so independent of the president and with no suggestion that there going to be any tampering or interfering with an effective thorough and fair investigation that hopefully will see the light of day in terms of the resolution of the findings of mueller. Where does Stephen Miller figure in . At the very least miller is going to be an important witness. I dont think he will be able to get, will be shielded by executive privilege. Let me pause right there. You think Stephen Miller would be hauled before the grand jury. Weve never heard that before. Theres no question given that he wrote this letter and we know that muellers looking at obstruction because trumps attorneys wrote a letter to mueller making various obstruction arguments. We learned that yesterday. An attorney will not waste their time making those obstruction arguments unless they have good reason to believe that mueller was looking at that. Theres no question hes a witness and he may have his own exposure depending on what he knew in those conversations we had with ivanka and Jared Kushner and the president that weekend in the golf course. Fascinating. Paul, thank you very much for joining us. We have another angle on this. Ahead, mueller tapping a new Secretive Team of investigators specifically for trumps taxes and does he have them . Will agents ever do anything to force them in the open . Why Paul Manaforts smartphone could end up a key piece of evidence. Later, theres news tonight on what russia is doing going into the 2018 election. Barack obamas former Cyber Security director is here. We are not his subordinates. We dont answer to him. John mccain setting the tone for the return to washington next week. Youre watching the beat. Rethink whats possible. Rethink your allergy pills. Flonase sensimist allergy relief helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. Most allergy pills only block one. And 6 is greater than one. Flonase sensimist. W. I was always searching for ways to manage my symptoms. I thought i had it covered. Then i realized managing was all i was doing. When i finally told my doctor, he said humira was for people like me who have tried other medications,. But still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe Crohns Disease. 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Find out how at sanfranciscodignity. Com. Track your pack. Set a curfew, or two. Make dinnertime device free. [ music stops ] [ music plays again ] a smarter way to wifi is awesome. Introducing xfinity xfi. Amazing speed, coverage and control. Change the way you wifi. Xfinity. The future of awesome. Several different russia stories breaking right now on this friday evening. Mueller obtaining trumps secret letter. A move trump took to try to stifle the russia investigation which only served to intensify it. You can apply the atlantis morissette test isnt it ironic to fire someone to stop the russia inquiry only to trigger a larger inquiry. Were learning that trumps own counsel tried to veto his own rationale. Isnt it ironic the good advice you just didnt take. Mueller is tapping a secret squad for trumps taxes. The daily beast reporting that scoop. It strongly indicates mueller uncovered evidence of a tax crime. Also learning more about the notes Paul Manafort took in the secret trump tower meeting with russians. Those notes typed on smart phone. Thats important. The phone part is key and heres why. The whole contact took how long . How long was the meeting . 20 minutes or so. Jared left after five or ten . Yes. Paul manafort was on his phone . Yes. It was pretty apparent this is not what we were in there talking about. On his phone the whole time. That may have been true and also terribly misleading. Trump junior suggesting that being on your phone would be a sign of disinterest, maybe playing around. We dont know if it was solitaire or texting or candy crush. He was using his phone to take notes, not a sign of disinterest. Was he playing on his phone or taking notes . Well, if the story that we heard from nbc news is correct, he was taking notes. Thats really interesting because the conversation was supposedly about adopting orphans from russia according to trump junior. What that goes back to is how foolish trump junior was to go and make public statements on his own, in his own voice on the hannity show and elsewhere. Now hes got statements that will be used against him if hes ever on the witness stand. Malcolm, Paul Manafort was up to all this in these meetings, aware of these contacts and then was out defending against them as a campaign leader, chair, spokesperson and now you look at that and some of the language becomes more telling. For example, instead of saying what the truth was, he would refer to our position about russia. Take a listen. Mr. Trump said his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them. Its not to do with russia. Nothing to do with any country other than the United States. His normal tax auditing process. That issue will be dealt with when the audits are done. To be clear mr. Trump has no Financial Relationships with any russian oligarchs . Thats what he said. Thats our position is. Thats what he said. Thats what our position is. He doesnt say thats true. No. You know whats fascinating about this is, in the Intelligence Community we have this thing called resistance teak ne techniques. These are little dodges you can get away from answering a question by stating a fact but without telling the truth. If do you look at statements related to this and im sure you as a lawyer understand that. You can state a fact out there that this is what mr. Trump said. Thats what our position is. Thats your position but that isnt actually fact of law thats come up before them. Did you have any relations with this foreign power . Interesting, i want to point out a little thing about the donations thing. If manafort was on his phone, he was probably keeping a form of minutes on there. To a certain extent, that reference to donations can only come out to one of two things. Either natalia was talking about the intercepted information they claim they got from Hillary Clinton which involved donations or they were talking about giving you a donation. Neither one of them is good for manafort or the trump team. Right. It appears the actual word according to nbc reporting was contributio contributions. Where were they headed . About manafort, you wrote you concluded he has significant criminal liability. How does that affect where the case goes . Well, i think the case is manafort appears to be the furthest along to anyone. When ever the fbi comes and executes a swarnearch warrant a your home, you know youre in criminal jeopardy. You have to be taking it very seriously. It literally means that a judge decided there was probable cause to believe a crime occurred and evidence of that crime was at your house. Manafort is in a very tough spot, and i think this only makes things more difficult for Paul Manafort because it just gives another front for him to be defending on. Theres these potential disclosures that he made that could have been false. Theres obviously, also now this trump tower meeting and who knows. The Tax Liability that you talked about earlier could be related to him as well. We dont know. Thanks for being here. Malcolm, stay with me. Weve got that other story. Russia still at it. New reporting on kremlin linked attacks on the u. S. Election system and public debate. Im going to show you the context for this disturbing video. This is a nurse who was arrested screaming, dragged from a hospital when she declined to provide an illegal request for blood of a patient. The former chair of a Police Oversight agency joins me. Rethink whats possible. Rethink your allergy pills. Flonase sensimist allergy relief helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. 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