Media antiawards ceremony. It had originally been scheduled for last week, then it was rescheduled today. In a White House Press briefing they said maybe something will happen later. They did post something online, a pdf file, a document, this was the awards ceremony, i guess, whether or not you care about journalism the president likes versus journalism the president believes should be held up for public ridicule, the public suspense over whether he was really going to do this thing is a strange moment. It is a hallmark moment in the unprecedented weirdness of this administration. And of course the president s denouncing fake news and calling some journalism fake news, that comes at time when the real news is queasy making enough. Despite every fiber in my being rebelling against this idea, tonight we will have some reporting on the new evidence about Cash Payments allegedly being made to multiple women right before the president ial election to prevent those women from discussing Extramarital Affairs they allegedly had with the president or Sexual Activity they allegedly engaged in with the president or sexual advances they allege came from the president. You know, a year ago, barack obama was the president. The prospect to there being an opening to a National Newscast like the one i just did would be so unthinkable, youd check yourself into a doctor. But this is our life now. This is our nightly news now about the american presidency. You know, one of the things that used to happen in the news were those great signoffs. Remember . Not all of them but a lot of the greats in american tv news had these little tag lines they would sign off with. Thats the way it is. Goodnight and good luck. Dan rather. Courage. Goodnight, david. I always wanted it to be goodnight, chet, goodnight, david. No, good night, chet, good night, david. I wanted them to compete about it. News anchors dont really do those signoffs anymore. One of the ways i know i will never be one of the greats is because last night at the end of the show i think i got as close as i will ever get to my own sit signature news signoff. I didnt plan on it, didnt script it. It was absolutely an adlib based on breaking news happening at the end of the show. I think this is as close as i will ever get. His lawyer that he has retained for this russia stuff, who was with him today in the house intelligence, his lawyer is also the lawyer on russia matters, the person advising steve bannon not to talk to the committee today. Having somebody on those two different sides of the story both represented by the same attorney, thats weird. That does it for us tonight, well see you again tomorrow. Thats my signoff. Thats weird. With a cartoonish grimace. Thats my signature good night for the trump era for tv news. Thats my signoff. If somebody has already trademarked thats weird, if they havent, well do it. It ended up not just being a weird thing but being really important today in terms of what has just happened in the biggest scandal involving this presidency. I finished the show last night, exclaiming over the weirdness of this fact. Today we figured out something that is not weird about it and what is really important about it. A lot of the people who worked on the Trump Campaign and in the white house have had to retain private counsel to represent them on the russia investigation. We noted i think a couple of months ago the unusual fact that the Current White House counsel, don mcgahn, and Reince Priebus retained the same lawyer to represent them on the russia scandal. Thats notable for a couple reasons. Its plainly notable when the white house lawyer has to get a lawyer. Also, its not inconceivable that Reince Priebus, former white house official and don mcgahn, Current White House official, might have different interests or have a different recollection about an important event. Them sharing a lawyer was already notable before we learned this past week that the same lawyer representing both now also represents a third figure in the investigation. Steve bannon, the former white house chief strategist, the man who ran the donald Trump Campaign after Paul Manafort was fire and after Corey Lewandowski was fired. From the outside looking in, it would seem rationally that there might be a conflict there, for the same lawyer to represent multiple people who represent different interests in this investigation. That said, we can report tonight because nbc news has learned that the special counsels office, Robert Mueller, they have now advised that lawyer, whose name is william burck, that as far as the special counsel investigation is concerned, its fine for him to represent steve bannon and those other trump officials. Now that we now that bannon will soon be meeting with mueller and his prosecutors, its not clear that hell use that same lawyer to represent him through his interactions with the special counsel. But if he wants to keep that same lawyer, muellers office has apparently okayed that in terms of conflicts of interest. Thats new tonight reported by nbc. Thats interesting. Today in congress, the house Intelligence Committee, the first man to run the donald trump for president campaign, Corey Lewandowski and Rick Dearborn both testified on the russia scandal, and like steve bannon yesterday, Corey Lewandowski, reportedly refused to answer some of the committees questions today. Thats part of how we know that something really important and something really different is going on when it comes to steve bannon and the Mueller Investigation and the russia scandal overall. Yesterday, the big news we were trying to sort out last night is the fact that steve bannon went into that house Intelligence Committee, refused to answer questions and was hit with a subpoena to try to compel him to answer their questions. Thats an unusual occurrence, and part of the reason we know how unusual that is is because Corey Lewandowski walked into that same committee. He also apparently refused to answer their questions, but they didnt subpoena him. The way they subpoenaed steve bannon. There wasnt word that the committee demanded to have him back in to ask him the questions in a harsher tone. Like previous officials who have refused to answer questions for a variety of reasons, yes, there were complaints from the democrats on the committee about that but the republicans didnt seem so particularly bothered. Why was steve bannon treated so differently. A lot of people refused to answer questions. Hes the only one that got subpoenaed by the committee. Something with steve bannon is very different than the way everybody else is being treated in this scandal. Everybody in trumps orbit, from Trump Campaign workers to Trump Administration officials both current and former. We know a great long list of them who have been brought in to speak to Robert Mueller and his investigators in a voluntary context. We now know that steve bannon was never asked to come in and meet with Robert Mueller in a voluntary context, before he was hit with a subpoena from the mueller office. The subpoena that was first reported yesterday, a subpoena to bannon that he must come in and testify before a grand jury. Bannon was treated very differently by Robert Mueller than everybody else in the Trump Campaign. Bannon was also treated very differently by congress. Just in that house Intelligence Committee. Attorney general Jeff Sessions was interviewed behind closed doors and said he wanted to not answer their questions on the basis that the president may someday want to assert executive privilege to stop him from giving that testimony in the future hypothetically. That was a strange argument from the attorney general. Corey lewandowski hasnt given any reason for why he refused to answer questions today from the house Intelligence Committee. When the president s son, donald jr. Refused to answer questions about conversations he had with his father he said on the basis of Attorney Client privilege. Neither donald jr. Nor donald senior is an attorney, and which one of you is the client . But in all of those instances, the republicanled committees in congress, the Republicanled Intelligence Committee said no problem with those bull pucky, i mean dubious, even laughable attempts to avoid answering questions, to assert some pseudo legal rationale for not answering the committees questions. Everybody else has weaseled out of answering questions and they have not cared at all. Democrats have complained, republicans have not cared. Then steve bannon shows up, he tries the same thing, boom, heres your subpoena. Why is he being treated so differently . I think weve figured it out. Last july, july 25th. Paul manafort, surprise, appeared on capitol hill, and his spokesman announced that Paul Manafort, surprise, had just testified to the Intelligence Committee on the russia matter. Nobody had known that was going to happen before manafort turned up and his spokesman sprung it on everybody. It had been kept secret. That was july 25th. Well, that night after midnight, on the 26th, Paul Manafort got his house raided in the predawn hours by the fbi. Remember the noknock warrant . Taking pictures of the labels of his suits and all that stuff. He had been in communication, handing over documents, he and his lawyers thought they were in a constructive or voluntary dialog with Robert Muellers office. That dialogue apparently did not extend to the special counsels office knowing that Paul Manafort was about to go to congress to give them testimony and to give them documents. When manafort turned up on july 25th on capitol hill, surprise, it appears that the special counsels office obtained their noknock search warrant for Paul Manaforts office that day and executed it that night. His congressional testimony, his surprise congressional testimony and that raid on his house that night were apparently not unconnected events. After Paul Manafort appeared before the senate Intelligence Committee that day, surprising the Robert Mueller team, Washington Post reported that was just the start of it. Manafort and his lawyers expected to continue to cooperate with the Intelligence Committees investigation. Quote, manaforts lawyers have agreed to make him available to speak with Senate Committee staffers and members in the future to discuss other issues. Manafort turns over notes from trump tower meeting with russian lawyer. So he surprised everybody by testifying once, he handed over documents, he was continuing to give them stuff, continuing to meet with them. He was scheduled to testify to a whole Different Committee the following day, the judiciary committee, but you know what . None of that happened. Those further rounds of testimony, those further documents did not happen, because in a dramatic fashion in a predawn raid on his home, Robert Mueller and the special counsel jumped in there, that fbi raid with its speed, its swarm of officers, noknock provisions, all that drama, that may have been because of a fear that mr. Manafort would destroy some important evidence the special counsel wanted but also because mr. Manafort was starting to give that evidence away to congress. Paul manafort, eventually, was charged with a dozen felonies in october. So we got a look at the special counsels evidence they put together. Given the seriousness of the charges, that the charges came alongside another Trump Campaign official, equal number of felony charges and two other Trump Campaign officials pleading guilty to felonies, it now seems clear in hindsight that the special counsels office may not have found it helpful in their inquiries had all the evidence they collected from Paul Manafort been spread all over capitol hill, possibly even provided to the white house by the president s republican allies in congress. Maybe even leaked to the public. Until the special counsel wraps up its investigation, we wont know if other evidence collected from manafort ended up being in another case against another person who may be charged in this russia investigation, but Robert Muellers investigation is very obviously going full steam. Theyve got multiple charges against two senior Campaign Officials, guilty pleas and cooperation agreements from two other Campaign Officials. They obtained a grand jury subpoena for Steve Bannons testimony last week that they are still actively working with a grand jury. Alongside their ongoing negotiations to get the president himself interviewed by muellers prosecutors. I just have to say, in an alternate universe on earth one where things retain their rational size and shape, it is a huge deal that the National Security adviser is quietly cooperating with the special counsel and has been for months, the special counsel that has been working with the grand jury, which has already handed down dozens of accounts against the president s top officials. Thats happening right now, that mike flynn cooperation. While him and at least one more cooperating witness are looming over this presidency, think about the president s defense team and what they need to strategize. President s defense obviously needs all the intel they can get on what they are up against. What mueller has, what they need to mitigate or investigate themselves. To the extent that the evidence and the testimony is going to come from other white house officials, other Trump Campaign officials, you know, a lot of those folks are people who the white house has direct access to. Theres no question for example that the white house is going to have ongoing access to and communications with people like hope hicks or Jared Kushner or donald trump jr. , people like that are not going to tell investigators anything thats going to surprise the white house, because those folks are in the white house every day. But then theres steve bannon. Who ran the president s campaign. Hes in a position to know a lot of really highlevel Insider Information about a number of things we believe the Mueller Investigation is looking at. The white house doesnt know that what Steve Bannons going to say. They dont necessarily know what he knows, what hes inclined to talk about, what he would like to talk about. Former white house chief strategist steve bannon testified yesterday. Didnt answer a lot of questions. Refused to answer some before the House Intel Committee. Did the white house tell him to invoke executive privilege . No. No. Steve has had very little contact with the white house since he left. I know steve a little bit. Not very well. He left the white house and has certainly never returned to the white house, with the exception of a few phone calls here and there, very, very little contact with the white house. And i certainly have never spoke to him since he left. Thats white house chief of staff john kelly speaking with brett baier on fox news tonight. Whos telling investigators what about the russia matter. For all the other senior and even semisenior people who are in a position to know a lot of what happened during the campaign and the transition. The white house has access to all those people. Not necessarily steve bannon, though, not anymore. Especially not now after the president denounced him publicly and fragrantly and repeated repeatedly, right . Steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired he not only lost his job he lost his mind. He had very little to do with our historic victory. He doesnt represent our base. He represents himself. He wants to make himself seem far more important than he really is. Steve was rarely in a one on one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence. The president threatened a civil lawsuit against steve bannon after Michael Wolffs book came out. In which bannon was quoted as saying disparaging things about the president and his family and administration. Then the president , after threatening to sue him, gave mr. Bannon a derogatory nickname. Sloppy steve has been dumped like a dog. I dont think the president understands dogs. The president kept pouring it on. Said publicly that steve bannon cried. He cried when he got fired from the white house and begged for his job. And the White House Press sent from the Wh