White houses dismay, neither the complaints in Rudy Giulianis interviews nor the endless witch hunt tweets are stopping this forwardgrinding progress of what mueller wants and what hes getting. So heres the news. A judge handing down a twoweek jail sentence to the former Trump Campaign adviser who set the russia probe in motion, George Papadopoulos. Now, the very light sentence for the crime of lying to the feds. But its also in its lightness and its leniency a validation of the larger mueller strategy. Defy him, and face an endless legal sledgehammer. Paul manafort, of course, looking at years in jail with up to two trials remaining. Or the alternative, cooperate with mueller, flip and tell, and get a sentence so light you might reasonably forget about it some day. Note, the papadopoulos sentence is less time than any other person who have been sentenced. Now, in this hearing, late today, and thats why we have so much different breaking news right now. George papadopoulos told the judge he made a terrible mistake and wants to redeem himself. He publicly argued he lied to investigators partly because he wanted to distance himself from what he thought was probably an illegal action or dangerous information within the trump world itself. Papadopoulos not only flipped, which of course is formalized tonight, he also took another parting shot at his old boss donald trump on his way into jail. His lawyers arguing trump himself hindered this investigation more than papadopoulos ever could. George was listening to his preferred candidate, and his president of the United States opining that this was a witch hunt. But when george went in on january 27th, he was of the mindset this was not as significant as we have now all learned it to be. That is legalize for a kind of a version of the coffee boy defense. Trump also arguing papadopoulos not significant. I see papadopoulos today. I dont know papadopoulos. I dont know him. I saw him sitting in one picture at a table with me. Thats the only thing i know about him. I dont know him. But they got him on, i guess, a couple of lies is what theyre saying. Now, flynn, where the fbi said he didnt lie, but muellers people said he did lie. So i dont want to be set up with a perjury trap. Now, here is that picture of that table. Well put it up for you in that meeting in march 2016, papadopoulos lawyers also punched back about what happened in that room youre looking. They say while some rebuffed it, trump nodded, deferring to sessions who appeared to like the idea. Now, mueller is now effectively done with that defendant. But today he was putting another witness into that intimidating grand jury room. It was a busy day for mueller, Randy Credico who has links to Julian Assange and roger stone was back in there, in the grand jury room, testifying. Of course, it makes you wonder, was mueller interested in wikileaks today or roger stone or both . We learned the answer. Take a look. How much of the questioning have you of assange . Very little. No, dont the major the majority of the questioning had to do with roger stone. Specific questions were not going to get into. You saw the lawyer trying to get credico not to answer. That is big news tonight. Roger stone was the focus of the questions today in that grand jury room. Lets take it together. Bob mueller is hunting right now. Trumps lawyers, meanwhile, sending their own mixed signals about whether donald trump will ever face mueller. Rudy giuliani announced to much fanfare that trump wouldnt answer any questions about obstruction of justice, even in writing. That made headlines, he added later, well, nothings totally off the table. That is the public message from trumps lawyer. But remember the private message, according to Bob Woodwards reporting just this week is that its all the opposite and that trump himself told one of his own lawyers he didnt want to face mueller ever. Im joined now by maya wiley, former counsel to the mayor of new york city. Whos worked as prosecutor in the Southern District of new york. And msnbc Cristian Farias and bill crist kristol, editor at large of the weekly standard. Maya, when you look at the rudy argument there, if everything is on the table potentially, that means mueller would face trump in a certain situation, by woodwards reporting undercutting that and would make it seem like this is all posturing. Put that not context of bob mueller sending a trump aide to jail today. Well, if first of all, lets just say, a broken clock is right twice a day. And the broken clock of donald trump has said hes afraid of a perjury trap. Thats actually Rudy Giuliani talking point, which is interesting that the president used that today. I think what we have heard from the president is that he is concerned, despite the fact that he has repeatedly expressed his willingness. If im donald trump, im going to listen to my lawyers and im not going to talk to bob mueller. The reality is, its going to call into question whether or not muellers going to then take the step of a grand jury subpoena. I dont think youre going to see that anytime soon because of the midterm elections, obviously. But if youre donald trump, you are thinking about the fact that you have made inconsistent statements publicly and repeatedly. And therefore going in and having a conversation with bob mueller, very tough to thread that needle in a way that doesnt create a potential perjury charge. Bill kristol, what message do you read in the legal strategy of bob mueller giving papadopoulos effectively two weeks in jail . I guess they maybe asked for a little more, the judge decided on two weeks. Light sentence. Well, you should cooperate with mueller, with the special counsel investigation, with the justice department, you shouldnt lie to the fbi. But if you do, you will be treated better. If its a small lie in the context of cooperation than a big lie. Its interesting that trump cited flynn. Interesting thats very much on his mind. Speaking of people who are cooperating. Michael flynn, who knows a lot more than papadopoulos, im going to guesss continuing to cooperate i believe with the special counsel and having his sentencing put off two or three times just to continue the cooperation. So the investigation goes on. It looks pretty safe for the next two months. I hate to say that, dont want to jinx it. From trumps efforts to fire mueller, to fire sessions, to fire rosenstein, to do god knows what, but you never know with trump. I do think on november 6th, november 7th, especially if the democrats win the house, which is likely, the degree to which things will start happening very quickly cant be its just going to be kind of remarkable. I assume mueller knows that as a political matter. I wonder how much hes aiming for that November December window to really start to bring things to a close, to wrap it up and have a report. Christian . Im telling you the clock is ticking. I dont think to be a contrarian a little bit i dont think mueller is concerned about the election. Trump is not on the ballot box. Neither are his campaign aides, hes going to keep going with his work. All the hearings that are lined up in the coming days and weeks. The coming trial of manafort, manafort now in talks to possibly work out a plea deal. Hes going to keep working. He is not concerned about Political Considerations because none of the people so far involved in this are up for election. So his work is going to continue unimpeded. And the president is going to continue raging against his work only to his detriment and the detriment of his allies. I want to reach a little more into the papadopoulos part, maya, which is so new. And if you think back to this, we dont often know this much in real time. But we learned from the New York Times reporting it was papadopoulos who uncorked the entire investigation that began of course before there was any notion trump would be president and then of course turned into a special counsel probe. Here was his lawyer in court saying, look, he was unsophisticated, naive, a fool, and George Papadopoulos misled investigators to save his prochl professional aspirations and preserve a misguide loyalty to his master. How does that fit in, again, to the choices that other former trump aides are making here . Well, i think it fits in to if you try to protect donald trump rather than telling the truth you will only end up not protecting yourself. You cant protect someone if they have actually committed a criminal act, or taken steps that makes it appear that theyve committed a criminal act, and youre actually going to do much more by coming forward and being honest. And i think with George Papadopoulos and his situation has made clear is tell the truth. And we know from mcgahn, right, that mcgahns approach has been to cooperate, to cooperate fully. He obviously is doing that in his own view for a variety of reasons, but thats another indication to the trump camp, if you are one of those people working for donald trump, thats a signal on how you should behave. I want the panel to stay with me. I mentioned the breaking news. Control room tells me we actually have the reporter who broke this story. This is from bloomberg, greg farrell joining me now on a breaking story that according to a source that Bloomberg News has spoken with for the first time confirming the trump executives face a federal Campaign Finance probe from the new york federal prosecutors handling the cohen case. Greg, this is your story. What did you find . Hi, ari. Basically, after cohen pleaded guilty last month there was a question as to whether the prosecutors at the Southern District were going to stand down and move on to other things or keep going. And theyre keep going, theyre going to look and see whether the conduct that cohen pleaded guilty to, the Campaign Finance violations, which involved payments approved by several executives at the Trump Organization, if this pattern of conduct was more widespread. In other words, they seem to believe that this didnt just happen on this occasion with Stormy Daniels, but there might have been other Campaign Finance violations. So thats what theyre investigating. Its not clear that theyve found anything yet, but just that they havent closed the door on this probe. What youre saying is significant, its not prejudging where the probe goes, but it says that Michael Cohen in the eyes of the new york feds is the beginning, not the end of those now a Campaign Violations that he himself pled guilty to, as you know from your reporting and as many of our viewers have come to understand the Trump Organization could sound like a big large thing to many people who watch the apprentice, but actually has a small number of executives including trumps family members. Does your reporting shed any light as to who might be under scrutiny . Well, as you pointed out, right, its not like a huge roster. Its not like General Electric or ibm. There arent many people, and a lot of them are family members who are there. So, you know, if any of them if it turns out were involved in any kind of approvals or transactions that were labeled business expenses, but turned out to be Campaign Finance violations, you know, that could be a problem. So clearly the guy in the middle of this is the cfo, allen weisselberg, and its clear that weisselberg cooperated on the very narrow way in the cohen plea, just around the Stormy Daniels payments and those issues. Now, the question here is whether or not hes going to cooperate, you know, widespread because he saw or must have approved pretty much every type of expenditure that went out, or not. So thats going to be question one is to what degree hes going to be helpful because he literally knows like all the finances and all the, you know, payments that got made and approved, et cetera. Can you rule in or rule out trump family members . No, to rule out because if they were involved, and clearly several of them were involved with the campaign right. Therefore its quite possible some of them gave a green light like to paint it this way or that way. We dont know that. We dont know that. But youre not able to rule them out, and your reasonable inference, based on reporting youve done, is that the people who overlap between the Trump Organization and the Trump Campaign the most were the family members and Michael Cohen, Michael Cohen being the person who pled guilty himself to the campaign crime. I want to read from your story and press you a little bit not on the identity of your source, obviously as a fellow journalist, im not asking you that, but i will note your lead says after this conviction of Michael Cohen you have a person familiar with the matter telling you federal prosecutors in manhattan are investigating this. Does that mean this entire story, in your reporting, rests on a Single Source . Im not going to go beyond that. So, you know, that gets a little too close to, you know, thats what were saying. But, you know, we dont just go out with stuff unless we have an extremely high degree of confidence. Ill leave that at that. Are you saying that there is something beyond a Single Person that gives you that confidence . Not saying anything. Ill just leave it at that. When you say not saying anything, thats several words right there. Technically, you are saying words, greg. Its my job to press you. I understand what i think youre trying to convey, which is that you stand behind the story. Its a big story. Before i let you go, anything else that you would want to get to that we didnt . No, except theres a lot of news coming out tonight. We have a great story on manafort as well over and above George Papadopoulos, which we were just talking about, theres a few other scoops weve got here, one on, you know, talks in manaforts case of maybe a deal. So anyway im sorry, greg, youre reporting new information about a potential plea by Paul Manafort . Thats out on bloomberg now. Check that out as well. Not me, my colleagues. What can you tell us about that . I havent even gotten it to her yet. I just finished my story. Its one of those nights. I think well stay on all of them. Greg farrell, thanks for jumping on the phone. Before i go, maya, your reaction . My reaction is that this is both meaningful, not surprising. It would be more surprising to me if the Southern District of new york did not follow up on indications that there were ways in which the Trump Organization worked as we know from Michael Cohen that suggest that there may be a lot of improprieties here in how the financing worked. I also think that it suggests that this source is not someone from within the Southern District of new york, but is someone who might be within the Trump Organization. We should remember that weisselberg did not cooperate. Thats the wrong word legally. What he did was he no longer had the ability to assert the fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself because they said we wont come after you for what you say to us on this point so that he had to come and testify. Which is an important distinction. A big distinction. We are over on time given all the breaking news. Bill kristol, a final thought from you on how this all plays out if donald trump, given the week hes had, is learning as he does reportedly things through television, that theres this investigation into his organization which includes, of course, his family as officers, as well as a Single Source report from bloomberg, again reigniting speculation that mr. Manafort himself could plea. It looks like the investigation is pulling on many threads. And a lot of them are proving fruitful, or at least are leading to further things, which is how successful investigations work, how watergate worked to go back to the one that everyone thinks of, but its how generally good investigations work. The cohen thread, the thin papadopoulos thread. If i were donald trump, i would be very worried, does he have the nerve to fire people or pardon people . Bill and christian, thank you. Maya, stay with me. I have more with you. The other big story tonight, barack obama breaks his silence on donald trump, calling him out by name as well as the Republican Party. How hard can that be, saying that nazis are bad . The politics of division and resentment and paranoia, and they appeal to racial nationalism. What happened to the Republican Party . Theyre cozying up to the former head of the kgb. And on the beat tonight a former cosby actor thrust back into the spotlight prompting a debate on work. Geoffrey owens on the show tonight. Fallback friday, ali alia shakwa, in the new movie blaze. You coulda fixed it with a pen. Maybe you should take that pen and use it to sign up with a different insurance company. For drivers with accident forgiveness Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty as moms, we send our kids out into the world, full of hope. 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