And honestly, the i mean, if in any other circumstance in the world you had unsealed by the government, by the special counsels office, this kind of a detailed indictment, detailed narrative of a covert action targeting the United States, including russian operatives being here in the United States to carry it out, this vast criminal conspiracy that is described here, and the special counsel saying that he and his prosecutors would have enough evidence on these matters to prove this in a court of law, to have that greeted with the president essentially saying, am i in trouble . Its just its almost unbelievable. Am i in trouble yet, actually, is his response. Because this is a limited scope indictment. And, of course, its returned by a grand jury. So these are american citizens who made this judgment that this is what they see in this evidence. Thats exactly right. Thank you, my friend. Thank you, rachel. Thanks. President trump found something that he liked. That he really liked about the witch hunt today. He found something that he believes, something the witch hunters told him today that he really, really likes and believes. Here is the president s favorite line to come out of the witch hunt so far and it appears on page 3 of that 37page indictment filed by special prosecutor Robert Mueller against 13 russian individuals and three russian organizations accusing them of craig melvinly, quote, interfering with the u. S. Political and electoral processes, including the election of 2016. The president has called this investigation a witch hunt witch hunt so we know theres no such thing as a witch, a witch hunt is a fraudulent exercise. On page 3 it says beginning as early as 2014, Defendant Organization began operations to interfere with the u. S. Political system, including the 2016 u. S. President ial election. Donald trump believes that. He believes that line as written in the indictment of the witch hunt today. Donald trump loves that line. And the reason we know he loves it so much is because he tweeted it after the indictment was made public. Russia started their antiu. S. Campaign in 2014, long before i announced that i would run for president. So now he believes the witch hunt. Russia started the antiu. S. Campaign in 2014. Now that he believes the witch hunt, maybe hell start calling it the russia investigation instead of the witch hunt. Now that 13 russians, who are not witches, have actually been indicted. We know thats not going to happen. We know that donald trump has an increasingly limited vocabulary and hell never get the witch hunt thing you on of his head and hell never stop lying about what Robert Muellers investigation is actually about and what it is accomplishing. In a 37page indictment filed in district court, Robert Mueller said that 13 russians have conspired since 2014 to violate laws that prohibit foreigners from spending money to influence elections in the United States, including the president ial election in 2016, in which their Constant Mission was to hurt Hillary Clintons candidacy and help Donald Trumps candidacy, as well as anyone else who was running against Hillary Clinton, including senator Bernie Sanders in the democratic primary and Green Party Candidate jill stein in the general election. Senator sanders issued this statement today. It has been clear to everyone except donald trump that russia was deeply involved in the 2016 elections and intends to be involved in the 2018 elections. It is the American People who should be deciding the political future of our country, not mr. Putin and the russian oligarchs. Its imperative that the Mueller Investigation be allowed to go forward without obstruction from the Trump Administration or congress. That was a president ial reaction to what was revealed today. That reaction by Bernie Sanders. Jill stein has not issued a statement about the indictment. Todays indictment is the first set of charges brought by the special prosecutor specifically for interfering in the 2016 president ial election, which was the first specified jurisdiction of the special prosecutors investigation. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Robert Muellers investigation, announced the indictment. The defendants allegedly conducted what they called Information Warfare against the United States. They used stolen or if i can tick shous american identities, Fraudulent Bank accounts. The defendants posed as politically and socially active americans. Advocating for and against particular cants. They established social media pages and groups to communicate with unwitting americans. They also recruited and paid real americans to engage in political activities, promote political campaigns and stage political rallies. According to the indictment, the americans did not know they were communicating with russians. Some defendants, posing as u. S. Persons and without revealing their russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities. Asked whether Trump Campaign officials had had knowledge of the russian scheme or were du d duped, Rod Rosenstein chose his words carefully saying that particular allegation is not included in this indictment. There is no allegation in this indictment that any american was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charge conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election. The special Prosecutors Office also announced it has reached a plea deal with a california man who committed Identity Fraud as part of the russian criminal conspiracy. The charges against richard panyatto indicate he sold Bank Account Numbers using the stolen identities of u. S. Cities to people outside the United States. As part of the plea deal he agreed to cooperate with Robert Mueller. His plea deal does not include all of the facts known to me regarding this offense. That indicates that he has told the special prosecutor much more information than is revealed in his plea deal today. The indictment of the 13 russians today says defendants also used the stolen identities of real u. S. Persons. Heres what the president had to say today when he was asked about all of this. Do you feel vindicated in the Mueller Investigation . Mr. President will you punish russia . Will you punish russia . Will you put sanctions on russia . Nothing on russia, mr. President . Join us for tea . Joining our discussion jill win winebanks, ari melber, and ben w wittes. Ari, i know you have been studying this indictment and talking about it a great deal on the network today, including talking about it while studying it. As it stands tonight, now that youve had a little bit of time to breathe and digest it, give us your frame the significance of this indictment for us. Youre right, lawrence. Im happier to do it here with you live on the last word because i dont have to talk while reading it, which is happening in the news room with breaking news. This is a turning point, february 16, 2018 is a day in american his wrtory, a day wher donald trump ate his own words and had to cough up an admission that no fact checker could get him to do but bob mueller made him do, which was what was known and wildly reported but now a legal fact that russia did interfere in our elections. The take away i have from reading this indictment is that mueller is telling a story and the story is the russians meddled deeply inside the u. S. , that was illegal under federal law, that they had cooperation inside the u. S. How much we dont know. And number four, this is most important Going Forward, bob mueller is saying very clearly in the legal sub text of the indictment any such cooperation can be a u. S. Crime. There has been a debate, saying there is no crime here. The theory of this case, through this indictment, beyond the russians is that there are federal election law violations and other types of fraud and wire fraud and stolen identity violations, to say nothing of the hacking that americans can be on the hook for if they voluntarily cooperated. That would lead me to a final observation here as weve all digested this. Prosecutions are not only about crime. Prosecutions are always about evidence. What do you have . What can you prove . And what we see detailed throughout here is how much evidence bob mueller has, including foreign what appears to be foreign intelligence evidence, domestic evidence, the cooperating evidence he has. So it reminds me, if i may, of the Rapper Rick Ross who sai has a line where he says shoe box no shoes in it. And the implication is theres drugs in the shoe box. The implication here, i point specifically to page 33, is a list of accounts that are empty, suspiciously so, and the same point stands, bob mueller saying to a court, there is evidence of crimes here, and when there is material missing in this case, what he calls wire fraud and Identity Fraud, that is in this theory what the russians were up to and hes saying hes on the case. Jill winebanks you have written indictments, you have read indictments. What went through your mind today as you were reading this one . This one is extremely detailed. I think its written for the American Public to understand how deeply in danger america is from the russian meddling in our elections. Its also i think a way of protecting rosenstein and mueller because of what theyve done, and its also showing that theres a reason why theres been an obstruction of justice. We now have proof that the russians meddled, and that there was, at least unwitting cooperation with americans, including Trump Campaign aides, unwitting as its alleged now. But thats not the end of it. Just because this indictment doesnt set it forth, does not mean that theres not another one coming and it will then be set out as to who cooperated with this. Benjamin do you agree with jill that this indictment protects rosenstein and mueller . It certainly should. If the goal is, you know, to establish the importance of the investigation, it certainly does that, right . And you know, i agree that this is a speaking indictment that tells us a story. Its not simply a spare laying out of charges. Its a document of remarkable forensic detail that describes a major intelligence operation or covert operation against the country. Whether it will protect rosenstein and mueller requires you to spend predictive time in the mind of donald trump, which is something i sort of try to avoid doing. This is, as you know, a highly capricious individual who you know, comes and goes. So whether it has that effect only time will tell. It certainly does establish to any reasonable person, which by the way, so did the flynn and manafort and papadopoulos plea, it establishes again to a reasonable person this is an extremely Serious Investigation looking at very serious conduct that is should be of grave concern to any american. Ari, how did you read the press conference today, and why didnt we hear from Robert Mueller at that press conference . In the past when charges came out we discovered them basically through judicial proceedings in court with the actions that occurred in court. This is the First Press Conference and the lead prosecutor wasnt there. Exactly. That was certainly significant. In contrast to every other indictment in this special counsel probe, Rod Rosenstein comes out and speaks. I think the most traditional interpretation would be because this involves National Security and foreign actions and Foreign Espionage that there was a need to do it at the higher level and we are told brief the president as well. I think the secondary interpretation is given whats going on Rod Rosenstein decided he wanted to be on board with this clearly in his personal presence and he wanted to be on camera literally speaking to the nation, either because he thinks thats the right thing given the import or in combination of the fact he wants to show hes behind this. And if the day should come, and lord knows its come for other doj and fbi officials if the day should come that he has to make a call, or step aside or hes removed, he has showed through this speech that hes supporting mueller and its important. And to the final button to that point it was within the last ten days that the president vocally said that he was not willing to give his vote of confidence to Rod Rosenstein. So that tension is raw and its right now. And bloomberg is reporting tonight that special counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors have not concluded their investigation into whether President Donald Trump or any of his associates helped russia interfere in the 2016 election according to a person with knowledge of the probe. Jill, that goes to something that the president has been trying to suggest today, thats it, this is the full case and im not a defendant, and im not charged with anything. Therefore, theres nothing to see here. I think this is clearly not the case. And that its the same thing as arguing that a not guilty verdict means youre innocent. It does not. Not guilty means there wasnt enough evidence presented to convict someone. It does not mean that they are actually innocent. And the fact that this indictment addresses one segment of russian meddling, which is limited to the social media aspects is not the same as saying there was no collusion, although that is what the president announced in capital letters, boldly stated, it does not mean that. It means there may be another indictment and well have to wait and see. Benjamin, you know these players and the protocols. Were you surprised to not see Robert Mueller standing there at that announcement today . So i think that mueller has clearly made a strategic decision to say nothing. And, you know, the voice of his office is what they say in court. And im i suspect he is aware that, you know, ken starr got in a fair bit of public trouble because of communications with the media. And there are a lot of people who are really eager for there to be muellerleaked stories. So i think this may be partly a reflection of the judgment that we will simply say nothing, except what we say in court. And if theres one place in washington that can keep a secret, it sure does seem to be bob muellers office. Ill just add on the question of whether the president has been vindicated by the absence of a collusion allegation, i really think the white house would do well to cool its heels on the triumphs on that point. You know, this indictment is a limited subject matter. Right. It is not simply only about the russian side of the equation. It is only about the social media side and within that it is only about the nongovernmental side, the private sector actions of the Internet Research agency and associated people. The allegations in the indictment make no reference to the activities of russian government or intelligence agencies. So i think the fact that there is no specific collusion allegation is simply a reflection of the subject matter of the indictment. Now that doesnt mean there will eventually be a collusion allegation, but it sure isnt evidence that there wont be in my view. Lawrence, just briefly to echo that. Its further than that. The prosecutors not really supposed to issue wider opinions about other people that arent indicted. So if you read the manafort indictme indictment, which is before flynn, you wouldnt read that and say this doesnt indict flynn hes in the clear. Today these indictments were the russians and one california man. And the fact that it states its the russian three organizations and russian citizens, that doesnt eliminate that the russian government was involved. There were millions of dollars spent and putin runs russia in a way that would suggest to me that there is no doubt that there is russian Government Operations involved in this and it is a covert operation of the russian government. Only a commercial break could force me to interpret my legal team tonight. Thank you all for joining us on this important night of coverage. Really appreciate it. Thanks. The russians were trying to stop Hillary Clinton. First by trying to help Bernie Sanders in the primaries then helping donald trump in the election. Bernie standers and donald trump both issued statements about the indictments of the 13 russians who were trying to help them, and only one of those statements was president ial, and it wasnt the one from the president. Thats next. And i quit smoking with chantix. I was a heavy smoker for 26 years. I smoked a pack and a half a day and i was able to quit with chantix. I never thought that i could quit, but i did. 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