Analysis and discussion of the days top stories and compelling issues from Lawrence ODonnell. Analysis and discussion of the days top stories and compelling issues from Lawrence ODonnell. Will decide if the president is likely to sit with Robert Mueller for an interview while at bedminster. But it might not be Donald Trumps decision to make, admitting that trump might be, quote, forced to testify on matters that occurred before he took office and that might mean real legal jeopardy for the president. That admission comes as we are learning new details about the trump mayor relationship. Bloomberg reports that the day after he interviewed Robert Mueller to be the Deputy Director of the fbi trump was in an Office Meeting when it was announced that mueller was announced to be the lead investigator of the campaign. Trump and Attorney General jeff session were blind sided according to a person familiar with both meetings. Trump blasted session for not knowing the announcement was coming and how he didnt know
the person he just interviewed and who the president said he had a past dispute with over Golf Club Fees could be now investigating him, he said. We dont know if trump turned down mueller for the fbi job at this point, but Christopher Wray wasnt named to be director until a month after muellers appointment on counsel. Its likely mueller was in the running when he was named to investigate the trump team. Bloomberg notes, from that moment on, Trump Campaigned to aides about a perceived grudge. Of course, that grudge has likely been exacerbated by a criminal trial of the former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Today we heard from the first five witnesses who were granted immunity by prosecutors. An accountant described how
manaforts partner rick gates asked accountants to modify the amount of loans so manafort it would have pay less in taxes. He was trying to reduce income. It was inappropriate. La porta took la porta testified that manafort asked her as late as august 2016, his last month as chair of the campaign to falsify numbers related to his companys profits. Rick gates, Muellers Star Witness is set to testify any day now. He has already pleaded guilty and is cooperating with prosecutors. Kristen davis, the infamous manhattan madam met with a member of muellers team. Its believed she met with mueller because of her close
ties to another trump confidant roger stone. Only time will tell what if anything will happen in this trump trip to bedminster, we should be in for an unexpectedly evidentful supper vacation. Joining us now, julia ansly. He was not courtroom today. Deputy assistant Attorney General under president clinton and glen kurshne rerkr. Jeff sessions in the room with the president when he was told Robert Mueller was going to be Special Counsel. According to bloomberg news, jeff session offered his resignation in that moment. Thats right. It for Jeff Sessions the idea that Robert Mueller had been aopponented was obvious right there, that it was because he
recused himself from this investigation that third down been allowed to happen, that Rod Rosenstein was able to appoint the Special Counsel. Of course the way we see it, the logical way to see it was the appointment of Robert Mueller was because of the firing of jim comey. The fs the president s decision, not Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself that triggers this. He knew he would also be in trouble. We look back at last summer it can number of times we were on sessions watch, thinking he was about to lose his job. The people i spoke to at the Justice Department said he will hang on by his fingernails to have this job. He thinks this is his last roll in politics. Hes wanted it for a long time. We know his last Law Enforcement days are something he holds deerly, more than his time in the senate. He saw this a the chance to push
through decisions, policies on immigration and the like and he was going to hold on to it for as long as he can, but he did say this was going to be the thing to fracture the relationship. It has for some time. We saw the president attack Jeff Sessions just this week. Harry, the president obviously doesnt like Robert Mueller. We have known that for some time. He tweets about him. He does bring up what he perceives as a bias, that he almost offered him the fbi job. He had a dispute over fees at one of his clubs. Could either of those things be considered bias . So no, we already know theyre not considered because the doj gave him a clean bill of health, but its interesting because as julia says, its the Second Mueller is appointed that sessions realizes, uhoh, and thats before the makeway charges of 13 angry democrats et cetera. Who is bob mueller in that second you have the revelation hes aopponented . Hes the best, most dogged, methodical, honest prosecutor of his generation. Thats who he is then and right away the problem with him is not bias, its effectiveness, which has turned out, in fact, on the problem. Lets look at manafort and go back to julia one more time. Julia, Manaforts Trial ended its first week. Folked a lot on what we heard from the accountant, knew she was filing incorrect taxes. But also manaforts spending. There was the 15,000 ostrich coat, the bomber jacket. The prosecution is very clearly trying to paint manafort as a big spender who didnt care about cheating the government and the American People in order to furnish his very lavish lifestyle. How is the defense doing . Not as well. Right now we are seeing a list
of Prosecution Witnesses who have all been picked for a particular reason. They lay out a pattern and a narrative of who Paul Manafort is. Hes someone who spent a lot of money on his lifestyle and was so desperate to hang on to that lifestyle that he was willing to exaggerate his lifestyle to get bang loans and then deflate it to get taxes. He didnt care who he took down in the process or what dirty characters head to work with to get there. What well see Going Forward is the defense is going to try again and again to discredit witnesses, particularly rick gates. We now know he will testify. The prosecution said yesterday they have every reason to bring him forward and intend on doing sophomore they want to paint rick gates as the lynch pin in the prosecutions argument and show hes not someone who can be trusted. For those reasons we want to
believe the prosecution wont wait until the end to bring up rick gates so hes not the last thing in jurors mind. Another thing today that i dont think went over well, judging by how brief their questions for in the prosecution was they wanted to show Paul Manafort left plenty of bread crumbs for anyone that wanted to look into this. His first accountant was able to say, yes, i knew they were working with foreign people, but i didnt know he had foreign Bank Accounts. The defense wants to say there were plenty of bread crumbs and if his accountant didnt know it this is important because i think it will come up later in the irs didnt want to do a civil suit why is the Court Bringing up a serious case . Doesnt seem to be holding up as
well as they like, simply because bread crumbs dont lead you to 34 Bank Accounts across the world. Its a little harder to get there. Vox reports that even a pardon from President Trump to Paul Manafort might not be enough to keep him out of jail. Even a pardon may not entirely be a get off jail free card. There are a host of complications involve, including Potential State Charges for manafort. The president Cannot Pardon State charges. Glen, there is a lot of talk and we talked about this earlier today about why in the world manafort hasnt made a plea deal you posture that one wasnt offered. It wouldnt surprise me if bob mueller never extended a plea offer to Paul Manafort. Why would that be . Two reasons. First of all, rick gates is already a cooperating witness nl we know his information the
dup duply kative of the information Paul Manafort provided to the prosecutors. The other factor that weighs into the calculus of believe it or not we want to do business who is that person and how long as he been engage in the illegality. Paul manafort seems to have lived a long life of at least financial illegality. As we learned, in the runup to these trials he reached out and touched, so to speak, some witnesses and tried to tamper with their testimony. If you play that out, if we as prosecutors try to bring manafort in the prosecutors stable and put him on the stand, he would be cross examined up and down about, wait a minute, you tried to get witnesses to lie for you to get you out of
trouble. You tried to pervert and subvert the criminal Justice System and now you want to jury to believe youre not going to sit up there and and lie to try to save your own skin . The Cooperator Stink tends to rub off on the prosecutors when you bring somebody on board that has engaged in that kind of conduct that strikes at the heart of criminal Justice System. The other reason, katy, i would suggest might impact Paul Manaforts decision to flip and provide information to bob mueller, he would also be providing information about russian oligarchs. We know judge ellis doesnt like that word. What have we seen russia do when somebody crosses them . We have seen poisonings in the uk. I think Paul Manafort could have concern for his safety or the safety of his Family Members if
he decided to flip against russia. Manaforts trial is really just about financial crimes but it is part of the larger Russian Investigation. Theres an of tentacles. In one of the more ridiculous seeming tentacles we found today, the manhattan madam, kristen davis, the woman charged in the Elliot Spitzer scandal years ago was subpoenaed by muellers team. We have now learned today that she has spoken toe muellers team. Roger stone issued a statement about this. Kristin davis is a long friend of mine. Im the godfather to her 2yearold son. She knows nothing about russian collusion or wikileaks or any other thing. Also this News Washington post reports that another stone aide has been ordered to speak with Robert Mueller. This man was trying to not speak with him. One of his aides, was trying to say the Special Counsel as probe was too wide and he shouldnt have to follow a subpoena. The court ruled he should have to talk to Robert Mueller and should do so quickly. Harry, these two people, what do they have anything to do with this and what does it have anything to do with roger stone . Its all about roger stone. Theyre a colorful could be, arent they . Theyre zeroing in on stone and shes one of many people they want to talk to, the others havent been madams. Miller is to stone as gates was to manafort. Hes the right hand man. He offered the constitutional argument, which was a loser
saying mueller has no ability to did anything. The same thing manafort tried. He lost. Hes going to have some real information to provide. The main thing it shows is that the sights are really locked in on stone, which should come as know surprise because this recent indictment of the gru folks in russia actually didnt name him because of doj policy but identified him in paragraph 44 as someone who had consorted with him. So mueller is obviously trying to stitch up russia and the u. S. Looking very hard at stone. And whether or not stone was a potential back channel. Julia, i know from reporting i did with carol lee and others here that the witnesses that Robert Mueller so far has spoken to they have been asked by muellers team pretty pointed questions about roger stone. What did roger stone any . What was he doing . Did he really leave the campaign in 2015 . Stone says he quit. The trump team said he was fired. Did he really leave or was there some unofficial role he was playing Behind The Scenes . Was he potentially in contact with russia or wikileaks and feeding that material to donald trump . Why did donald trump say on july 27, 2016, russia, if youre listening find Hillary Clintons emails . It seems like sam nunberg will tell you this. He sat in front of the Special Counsel. Seem like theyre targeting roger stone and he could potentially be a lynch pin. Is that saying too much . Is that making too broad an assumption . Katy, this why i love reporting with you. Doesnt seem that hard to connect that by indictments that have been brought forward by the Special Counsel that Robert Mueller is honing in on this network of russians that wanted to influence our campaign through social media, that they
wanted to hack into the dnc, Hillary Clinton emails and also use that information to influence our election. A huge piece of this is social media and the work they did through Cambridge Analytica and the leaks of those facts through wikileaks. We know roger stone has a lot of tentacles in those worlds. Hes done a hot of work in england. Hes tied to the Trump Campaign. We have to look carefully at the way theyre painting these characters. These are people who have been in republican politics for a long time. These Arent The People who were carrying the moral backbone of the party. They were really in it. He believe the ends justify the means. I think by the pointed questions you have reported on, the interviews you have done with sam nunberg Its So Obvious Mueller is really targeting those essential questions. Roger stone was not in
mainstream politics, neither was sam nunberg, neither was Paul Manafort yet they managed to find Donald Trumps team. Was it because there was no one else available . Thanks for starting us off tonight, guys. Coming up, the Washington Post is alleging Mariia Butina cozies up to a Trump Adviser weeks after the campaign. Later, a federal judge says he will order the Trump Administration to take a drastic step to reunite those children with their parents. Thats coming up. Friends, colleagues, gathered here are the worlds finest insurance experts. Rodney mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. The list goes on. How about a discount for long lists . Gold. Mara, you save our customers hundreds for switching almost effortlessly. Its a gift. And jamie. Present. Together we are unstoppable. So, what are we gonna do . Insurance. Thats kind of what we do here. Then you might have a dcondition called dry mouth. . Biotene is clinically proven to soothe and moisturize a dry mouth. Plus, it freshens breath. Biotene. Immediate and long lasting dry mouth Symptom Relief. Keep it comin love. If you keep on eating, well keep it comin. All you can eat riblets and tenders at applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. 2016, culminating in gordon attending a rock concert by the band styx. Gordon also invited butina to attend his Birthday Party. Roz lynn, im sorry im laughing but inviting her to an styx party his Birthday Party is funny. Heres what j. D. Gordon told you. From everything ive read since her arrest last month, it seems that Mariia Butinas saga is a sensationalized click bait story meant to smear a steady stream of republicans and nra members she reportedly encountered over
the past few years. Since She Networked so often i wonder which prominent republican figures she has not come across. I got to tell you from the photos of butina, she has Beenened Staing next to prominent figures, including president ial candidates long before donald trump got the nomination and prominent nra members. What makes the interaction with j. D. Gordon so important . Part of it is his connection to the Trump Campaign, and its clear from emails that are described to us that was a key part of why she sort of sought out this interaction. She apparently med j. D. Gor