Staff in russia by 755 people. And on the day that trump signed the legislation, Dmitry Medvedev went on a tweet storm saying the Trump Administration has shown its total weakness handing over executive power to congress in the most humiliating way. That was five days ago. And we have been looking to see how the transportation would react to this latest move from russia and until today the response had been space basically silence not even a twitter clapback. There has been no response from the administration until today when following a weekend meeting with sergey lavrov, secretary of state Rex Tillerson announced the next u. S. Steps. I told the foreign minister that we had not made a decision regarding how we will respond to russias request to remove u. S. Diplomatic personnel. We had i asked several clarifying questions to ensure i understood kind of their thinking behind that diplomatic note we received but told him we would respond by september 1st. That is Rex Tillerson saying that the u. S. Will respond to the laidest russian move expelling diplomats from their country. They are figuring out what that response will be but it will come by september 1st. Some time in the next three to four weeks. Stay tuned. There is also the question of how it will respond to special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation into russias interference in the 2016 election. On friday the New York Times broke the news that mueller asked the white house to turn over documents related to former National Security adviser Michael Flynn its the first known instance of mr. Muellers team asking the white house to hand over records. Now remember it was the fbis investigation into Michael Flynn and the preponderates potential interference in that effort which led indirectly as mueller as special counsel in the first place. His opponentment came the day after Michael Schmidt reported on the existence of a memo from james comey saying during meeting in the oval office the president pressured him into dropping the investigation into Michael Flynn. I hope you can let this go. The decision to appoint Robert Mueller as special counsel was made by Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who road the memo used as the pretext to fire comey. Rosenstein charged mueller with investigating any links and or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of donald trump as well as any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. Rosenstein made it clear he would protect mueller from any undo interference from the administration. If President Trump ordered you to fire the special counsel what would you do . Senator, im not going to follow any orders unless i believe they are lawful and appropriate orders under the regulation, special counselor mueller may be fired only for good cause and im required to put that cause in writing. Thats what i would do if there were good cause i would consider it. If there were not good cause it would not matter what anyone said. Saying that Robert Mueller could only be fired for good cause. Rosenstein defended him again. Rosenstein said mueller could investigate any crimes he uncovered. The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the department of justice. We dont engage in fishing expeditions. If he finds wrong doings he can. If its something outside that scope he needs to come to the acting attorney general at this time, me. For permission to expand his investigation. Thats the attorney general, the Deputy Attorney general appearing to draw a line in the sand saying that if Robert Mueller finds evidence of a crime in the scope of his investigation he should be allowed to investigate it without interference. That was yesterday. This morning, axios reported that the president s outside legal team is adopting a more conciliatory tone toward Robert Mueller to lower the temperature involving the russia investigation. The article warned despite the tone coming from his lawyers what will matter is what trump says and he has shown he is willing to change course with any whim or tweet. And if right on cue, donald trump began to tweet about Richard Blumenthal today calling the russia story a hoax after the senator discussed legislation he is proposing that would prevent the president from firing mueller. A few hours later at a News Conference in his home state, senator blumenthal discussed his fears about the fate of the investigation. The special counsel and the president of the United States are on a collision course. They are heading toward a constitutional confrontation that could lead to a crisis. One sure way to determine whether the white house and special counsel are on a collision course and heading toward a constitutional confrontation will be whether the white house complies with muellers request for white house documents regarding Michael Flynn. This marks the very first time that the special counsel has asked the white house to voluntarily comply with the document request. What will be the response . Joining me is Michael Schmidt who cowrote the story about mueller seek white house documents on Michael Flynn. Thanks for being here. Good to have you. In your reporting were you able to determine why the request was voluntary rather than a subpoena . This is very early on in the investigation. Its kind of like the second inning. And early on, the government will go to one side that is trying to learn the information from and ask for the documents voluntarily. A lot of times lawyers are able to work that out and hand over the documents and when theyre not, then you see Something Like subpoenas and then in the most extreme cases search warrants. So this is the initial thing saying were interested in looking at these issues and in this stuff. Can you produce that to us voluntarily . And were you able to determine the scope of the kinds of the documents that were talking about . Michael flynns participation in the Trump Campaign or broader business dealings . There are a few things we can learn from this. This would not be a specific request about the campaign that would go to the campaign. This is stuff about flynns time at the white house and not stuff not personal to flynn. That would go to flynns lawyer. It is about flynns time in the white house and about him specifically. What we know is the issues that mike flynn came up with at the white house. One was an fbi interview days after trump was sworn in about flynns call with the Russian Ambassador in the weeks before trump was inaugurated and we know the questions about whether flynn was still, you know, taking money from the turkish government and doing work for them when he was the National Security adviser at the white house. He was gone within the first month of the administration. In that time you had sally yates coming over to warn the White House Counsels Office about flynn. In your reporting do you have information that Robert Muellers investigators may want to talk to all the people that sally yates may have talked to and indeed talk to sally yates . I think that mueller is going to want to talk to everyone at the white house. The big question here which starts this is this february 14th meeting in which comey and trump says comey says they are alone in the white house and trump asked about the investigation into flynn. Before that meeting the Vice President , the chief of staff and several members of the cabinet were in the oval office before the president cleared it out. Mueller will want to talk to those folks about whether they were cleared out of the oval office and whether this oneonone meeting happened between mueller and comey. Comey testified, laid all this out to congress about the oneonone meeting but trump said to us, we interviewed him last month and he said that meeting had not happened. Even basic questions like that will require interviewing a lot of folks in the white house and are part of the administration. I wonder if your reporting backs up the axios reporting that the Trump Legal Team is trying to adopt a conciliatory tone to lower the temperature on their interaction with the counsel . I think the thing about trump world there are different factions. The lawyers want to take a conciliatory tone and want to not attack mueller and want to see if they can work with him and move things alone in that direction. But other folks in trump world that want him to attack mueller and want him to go after sessions and want him to do that. What we see is a tug of war between the two of them. Trump has gone after mueller and sessions and other times in recent days he has ratcheted that back. And it remains to be seen whether the president will be able to keep that posture toward mueller or erupt in tweets or go as far as firing him, something that democrats essentially say is a red line for them. Absolutely. Well keep an eye on it. Thank you for your time. Thanks for having me. For more now on this potential collision course between the white house and the special counsel lets bring in barbara mcquaid, an attorney fired along with other attorneys this year. The white house trying to change the tone but donald trump taking it out on Richard Blumenthal. What does that do to the legal strategy when the client is going off while theyre trying to be more conciliatory in the legal house . I think any defense attorney would tell you they would like for their client to just keep his mouth shut. That is the strategy most would suggest to their clients. But donald trump is appealing not just to the legal issues here but is also trying to win in the court of Public Opinion with his base. And so by undermining efforts to investigate him or anyone who might be his critic, he is trying to shore up his base so that if at some point down the line he could say i told you all along that these people are not to be believed. You know, so far theres the conciliatory tone from the attorneys, but what if this request is then denied and the white house fails do it where would we then go from there . It is not uncommon as we heard to start a request with you know, an informal request to seat if you can get the documents without fighting it out. If they are not turned over the next step is to use a grand jury subpoena which has powers, it has contempt powers if the white house should fail to comply with that compulsion then people could be put in jail. So i think theyre taking it through this route of professional courtesy. If not, i think all the lawyers involved know they have a heavy hammer to back it up. Putting on your u. S. Attorney hat what do make of Donald Trumps sensitivity to anything about Michael Flynn. There is the allegation by comey that he specifically asked him to lay off Michael Flynn. What does that tell your investigative mind the. It sets off red flags for me. Donald trump is not loyal to the people who work for him. The idea he is trying to protect him out of a sense of friendship or loyalty doesnt ring true. It makes me wonder if there isnt some red flag they are on to something that could lead to an investigative path toward the Trump Campaign or trump himself. And a similar question i asked Michael Schmidt if you are talk about that 27day period when Michael Flynn was the National Security adviser, the warnings came from sally yates. They could have gone to the attorney general of the United States. How wide are we talking about of people who could be subpoenaed and have their records subpoenaed to talk about Michael Flynn and his activities. One of the first things a prosecutor wants to do is get his arms around all the documents and identify all the people who might have information about this. We have been talking about a lot of the famous names, sally yates and Michael Flynn and james comey and the like. But there are a series of people whose names we dont know, the aides, the staffers, the naval stewards who served lunch and were witnesses. It would be just as important to interview those people. All the people who now must find money for lawyers. Barbara mcquaid, thank you for your time. A lot more to come here tonight including what could be a way for Vladimir Putin to get around u. S. Sanctions. And up next, while a little help wanted ad reveals a lot about the american president and fizz family. Well be right back. At everybody ignores me when i drive. Its fine. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. Because i dont use my cellphone when im driving. Even though my family does, and leaves me all alone. Heres something else. I dont share it with mom. I dont. Right, mom . I have a brand new putter you dont even know about its awesome. Safe driving bonus checks, only from allstate. Sometimes i leave the seat up on purpose. Switching to allstate is worth it. How to win at business. Step one. Point decisively with your glasses. Abracadabra the stage is yours. Step two. Choose laquinta. Where youll feel like the king of the road. Check out our summer rates now at lq. Com. Or a little internet machine . [ phone ringing ] hi mom. It makes you wonder. Shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. [ laughing ] so all you pay for is data. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Call or go to xfinitymobile. Com introducing Xfinity Mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Youve heard the saying, necessity is the mother of invention. Well, watch this. Those are protesters outside the Trump National golf club in bed minister, new jersey where the president is on his 17day vacation he insists is not a vacation because he is totally working at the golf club. Police banned protesters from congregating outside the club. So the local chapterer of we the people decided to get creative. They can still drive. So they formed a motorcade. Tonight the Washington Post has a scoop about the president s winter retreat, maralago. Apparently its not too soon to staff up for the winter. The social season down in palm beach, florida is hot and maralago is hiring. Heres the ad on page c 8 of the palm beach post. They need 35 workers to, quote, serve food and beverages, take orders, complete side work, clear and carry dishes, keep stations clean, supply linens, you can mail in your resume or apply by fax. Thats so throwback, fax. The ad ran two times and then it disappeared. If you are thinking thats a strange way to get the best an cants for your business, you would be wrong. A tiny ad written in fine print so small appears to have be a less than sincere effort to hire american. At worst it appears to have been a ruse. The Washington Post has been reporting tonight that suggests it might be the latter. One week before that tiny ad ran, maralago asked the Labor Department for permission to hire Foreign Workers, not American Workers, 70 of them they would come to the u. S. On what are called h2b visas. To get one you have to prove you couldnt find qualified americans to fill those jobs. By law, maralago needed to search for American Workers for 14 days before it could move to the next step in the process. That second step is to send documentation to a Labor Department office attesting to the companys inability to hire americans. Attesting to its inability to hire americans. Lets get this straight. The Labor Department says before you can hire the Foreign Workers you is to prove you attempted to hire americans but couldnt find American Workers and you cant find American Workers if they never apply and they cant apply if they dont see the ad. You you see where im going. If your real goal is to hire Foreign Workers but you have to prove there arent americans for the job. What would you do . Maybe, maybe, you place a tiny, sad little ad hidden in the back of a newspaper and gone in a blink of an eye. Maralago put that request in for Foreign Workers smack in the middle of made in america week. And the ad ran just days before Steven Miller took to the podium to unveil the new immigration plan which would crackdown on legal immigration. And this scoop comes to us from the Washington Post. And lori rosa. Ferr ferrinhold took home a <