Carried political and potentially legal peril. The strategy, the advisers agreed, should be for donald trump jr. To release a statement to get ahead of the story. They wanted to be truthful, so their account Couldnt Be Repudiated later if the full details emerged. But within hours, at the president s direction, the plan changed. Flying home from germany on july 8th aboard air force one, trump personally dictated a statement in which trump jr. Said he and the russian lawyer had primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children. When they met in june 2016, according to multiple people, with knowledge of the deliberations, the statement, issued to the New York Times, as it prepared a story, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was, quote, not a Campaign Issue at the time. The claims were later shown to be misleading. Further down in the washingtwa post story, quote, as special Counsel Robert Mueller investigates potential obstruction as part of his broader probe of russian
interference in the 2016 election, these advisers worry that the president s direct involvement leaves him needlessly vulnerable to allegations of a coverup. Quote, this was unnecessary, said one of the president s advisers, who like many other people interviewed for the story spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. Now, someone can claim hes the one who attempted to mislead. Someone could argue the president is saying he doesnt want you to say the whole truth. Now, just in the past few minutes, nbc news has got an statement from one of the president s outside lawyers. Responding to this reporting from the Washington Post. Attorney john dowd calls the report, fake news, incorrect, and misinformed and of no consequence. Joining us now is carol lining, and shes one of the reporters who broke this story for the Washington Post tonight. Carol, thanks very much for joining us. So the president s lawyer is saying that your story is fake news. First of all, can you tell us how many people are corroborating that this account occurred, saying that donald trump was the one dictating the Talking Points . You cant tell us who, but tell us how many, maybe . I can tell you, its multiple people from lots of different walks of life, joy, and these people have put themselves in the line, in a way, to tell the full story. I think its a fairly simple story. Its that the president who believes that hes the best politician, hes the best advocate for himself. And now its becoming clear he thinks that he has the best sort of legal strategy, took this dilemma, as he viewed it, by the horns, and decided he would decide how it was going to be handled. And how the public would learn about this meeting. And how it would be characterized. And did the people that you talked with explain how donald trump settled on the idea of adoptions as the excuse for the meeting . Well, you may remember, joy, that this meeting was a place where the russian lawyer,
president did not want to describe the actual story of what happened. And he had not just a hand in it, but the most important hand in it. And we know that donald trump did, hilmself, use the adoption Talking Point in his New York Times interview, when hes asked a question about melania sitting next to Vladimir Putin, he sort of spontaneously brings it up. So obviously he believed in that Talking Point. According to your reporting, did anyone in trumps inner circle maybe push back on this idea of using adoptions, a, because at some point the actual contents of the donald trump you know, discussions, the trump junior discussions about setting up this meeting could leak out and they could be proven to be wrong, or saying the word adoptions would trigger questions about the Magnitsky Act . I dont think there was a lot of concern about what words would trigger what. It was, you know, remember that the attorneys for Jared Kushner are the people who first find this information. Theyre trying to respond to
than they did, but the president decides he can handle it. And he issues this statement that doesnt provide a fulsome argument. Doesnt explain what the meeting was really about. Doesnt explain, in a clear way, why donald trump jr. Showed up that day and why he asked Jared Kushner and pfraul manafort, th Campaign Manager at the time, also to attend. Well, they dont have the benefit of their lawyers, but the benefit of each other. And two know exactly why they have a meating. It is shocking that he would all agree, but just invent a different reason. Carol leonning, thank you very much. In terms of how this Washington Post reporting relates to the Obstruction Investigation thats underway at the fbi, i want to bring in barbara mcquaid, former u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of michigan. All right, well, miss mcquaid, first of all, thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure, joy. Least, and his advisers knew the actual contents knew what that meeting was about and decided to use a different story, unless he simply didnt talk to donald trump jr. , didnt talk to Jared Kushner, and invented a reason and imposed it on trump junior. Does that make any sense . I would think that Robert Mueller would want to try to get to the bottom of it by talking to as many people as he could. But the fact that donald trump is out there, misleading the public, is what prosecutors refer to as consciousness of guilt effort. If youre out there telling a story that later turns out to be not true, you know, people begin to ask, what were the motives for that . And one motive might be, you were trying to conceal the truth, because you know you are guilty of a crime. And does this now set up a potential for Robert Mueller to want to interview donald trump, to find out whether he knew the contents of those emails when he invented this Talking Point . Well, im sure he would love to ask him that question, but my guess is he will refrain from doing so. Typically what you want to do in
an investigation is gather as much information as you can from documents and lower level participants in a conspiracy to learn as much as you can, so if and when you have the opportunity to confront someone who might be considered the very big fish in a case like this, you would have it. So my guess is he would refrain from doing that at this point. But at some point, he may very well want to ask those questions. The four people who are involved here. You have paul manafort, the Campaign Chairman at the time. Jared kushner, whos in charge of the digital and other aspects of the campaign, and you have donald trump jr. All three received this email. It was in their inbox. It bounced back and they all got it and it had that headline, russ russia, clinton, highly confidential. Would Robert Mueller want to interview each of them and look for discrepancies in their stories or in what donald trump says later. And if there are sbrediscrepanc what would be the consequences . I know Jared Kushner gave the statement, he receives many
emails a day and didnt read all the way down through the chain. But the subject line itself said russia, campaign, personal and confidential, so it had some red flags there that i think is very difficult for people to ignore. And i think someone who is seeking to learn the truth would want to ask all three of them about that. And, you know, it is a crime to provide a false statement to investigators or to commit perjury. And so if the stories dont match up, that would certainly be cause for further investigation, to try to figure out which ones true. And which one might be making a false statement. Wow, the heat just got hotter. Barbara mcquade, thanks so much for your time tonight. Thank you very much, joy. To recap where we are right now on this meganews tonight, a bombshell report from the Washington Post this evening, reporting that donald trump thi himself dictated the misleading statement initially released by his son, donald jr. , about his meeting with a russian lawyer last summer. During the campaign. But thats not the only big Breaking News tonight out of the white house. We also learned today of a staffing shake up that set a new record. We are quite literally in unprecedented territory right now. The very latest on the shortestserving White House Communications director ever is coming up next. Stay with me, mr. Parker. When a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. Stay with me, mr. Parker. The at t network is helping First Responders connect with medical teams in near real time. Stay with me, mr. Parker. Saving time when it matters most. Stay with me, mrs. Parker. Thats the power of and. The allnew volkswagen atlas. Seats seven, sleeps six. Lifes as big as you make it. So it only made sense to create a network that keeps up. Introducing xfinity mobile. It combines americas largest, most reliable 4g lte with the most wifi hotspots nationwide. Saving you money wherever you check your phone. Yeah, even there. See how much you can save when you choose by the gig or unlimited. Call, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Xfinity mobile. Its a new kind of network designed to save you money. So tonight we got the Breaking News from the Washington Post that President Donald Trump himself is the one who dictated his son, don juniors, misleading statement about his meeting with a russian lawyer during the campaign. That Breaking News is the second Major Development today, hinting at the chaotic world that is the trump white house. And we learned earlier today that the brandnew White House Communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, is out, after less
than a week on the job. A tenure so short it sets a new record. Seizing the title from the reagan era, and another time of chaos and crisis, at the highest levels of government. Ronald reagan was the first elected republican president since watergate. For his supporters, he would come to symbolizes the renaissance and recovery of the party from its darkest hour. Almost to a one, republicans today claim reagan as a hero and a role model. But while he was in office, Ronald Reagan endured some genuine scandals. And with those, his presidency suffered seriously difficult moments. One of those was the iran Con Tr Tra Scandal which famously involved the secret sale of weapons to iran, so the foundation could fund their preferred side in nicaraguas civil war. The idea was to get money from iran and possibly the release of u. S. Hostages, while also achieving the white house goals in central america. It was a huge scandal at the time, with Congressional Testimony ByLieutenant Colonel oliver north. You may know him now as a pundit on cable tv, but at the time, he
was right at the center of this epic white house scandal. As part of the unfolding of that monumental tale of possible criminality in the white house, in late february 1987, just days before a devastating Kone Inini Congressional report on iran contra, the white house was beset with infighting between the president s top staffer and the first lady. It was also dealing with a surprise revelation about The Dark Past of its newly lly appod White House Communications director. Were saving the best stuff for the last act. Reporter but the president s closest friends are worried that there may never be any best stuff. Theyre blaming his problems on Chief Of Staff, donald regan. The first lady isnt denying that regan that has hung up the phone on her twice. Friends say she is furious with the Chief Of Staff and that her husband knows it. Regan was in his usual place today, riding alongside his boss. He told aides he will not resign and blamed others for the latest problem. Questions raised about the new White House Communicationsdirector, john koehler. Press secretary Marlin Fitswater said colin did not tell the white house that a 15yearold he belonged to a hit group. Today the revelation that the Chief Of Staff directly blames the first lady as pushing through the nochlgs of john koehler. As a 10yearold, koehler was briefly a member of a nazi youth group. Although koehler has been defended by many prominent jewish organizations as a victim of the circumstances of his youth, it was another embarrassing piece of news the white house didnt need. Well, it came as a great surprise to me that the white house didnt know it. I firmly felt that they had that security file. And it seems to me that if the fbi tells the white house the guy is clean, hes clean. Reagans Chief Of Staff was fighting with nancy reagan and then his Communications Director tupp turned out to have been in the
hitler youth as a gradeschooler. Within days, both men would have been out of the administration. John koehler lasted just 12 days on the job, making him the shortest serving White House Communications director up to that time. Meantime, Chief Of Staff, don regan got the boot in a process that was anything but organized. But the sequence of events that led to regans resignation shows even that effort was bungled. Thursday night at 6 30, President Reagan called howard baker to offer him the job. Baker, according to an aide, had already decided he would accept if asked and did not hesitate. At 10 30 friday morning, President Reagan told republican congressional leaders they would be pleased with his new Chief Of Staff. He did not reveal the name of his choice. Dennis thomas, a top aide to regan, was at that meeting. Regan quickly learned that his replacement was set, which was news to him. Regan was furious. According to that white house aide, it was regans understanding that his resignation would come on monday, at his own instigation. Regan stormed out of the white house. When he got home, he notified the white house he no longer needed the Secret Service or a car. This morning, the white house sent a car to pick him up anyway. Regan rejected it and drove his own car in. No, thank you, i can drive myself. White house infighting and shake ups are as old as the presidency itself. But what weve seen in the past few weeks from the Current White House is raising the bar for infighting and shake ups. Today we learned the White House Communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, is out after less than a week on the job. His firing came at the hands of the new white house Chief Of Staff, john kelly, apparently in his First Official act on the job. Axios reports, shortly after he was sworn in this morning, he brought scaramucci into his office and said he had to go. This comes a week after he told ryan lizza in an
obscenityfilled rant that he wanted everybody everyone out. Beating even john koehler, the guy who served in the hitler youth. Thats even less than Michael Flynns brief 24 days of National Security adviser, the shortest tenure of anyone in that post. Its certainly less than Reince Priebus whose 189 days on the job made him the shortest serving Chief Of Staff. And much less than the six months of White House Press secretary, sean spicer, himself one of the shortest serving people in that job. This recent staff shake up resembles less of a merry go around than a circular firing squad. After sean spicer hits the ejector seat, Scaramuccis First Task was to get rid of Reince Priebus, and get him fired. And now priebus replacement, john kelly, has fired scaramucci. It all makes perfect sense. Joining us now is john swan. What a hot mess. Explain to us first of all, this sort of question that was left hanging in the briefing today. Does Anthony Scaramucci still
have a job at the Export Import Bank . Im not clear on that. Yeah, nor am i. They left it open, friends of his believe that hes going to be looked after in some way, shape, or form, but i dont know what that means. I know that he wants a job in the mirpgs. Again win just have no confirmation that he has one. Yeah, so walk us