Planned, ordered up ready to go. Walmart Just Announced its not going to sell guns anymore to people under the age of 21. The president made a bunch of startling comments on camera today about gun safety reform, comments out of keeping with his previous remarks on this subject. Therefore and for some other reasons, nobody really thinks he meant any of the things he said, and hes the president , so theres chaos around those remarks themselves. Then the white house the Communications Director hope hicks, suddenly resigned today without warning. Our newsroom, our cubicle farm set up to work on my show is in a sort of corner of the building here and way down at the other end of the floor is the folks from chris hayes show and around the corner theres a couple of other shows. Were all very rarely looking at the same time at the same thing. But when the hope hicks news broke it was like a stadium wave, it was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, all the way down the floor. It was a legitimate surprise. So theres been lots going on. We had a whole show about it. And then this just happened. This is big news that has just broken from the New York Times. Just in the last hour. You see the headline there, kushners business got loans from companies after white house meetings. This is by jesse truck ir, kate kelly and ben protess. Early last year, a billionaire started paying regular visits to the white house, Joshua Harris, during that period, mr. Harris met on multiple occasions with Jared Kushner, President Trumps soninlaw and Senior Adviser. Among other things, the two meniscus men discussed a possible white house job. That job never materialized, but in november, Apollo Global management lent money for a chicago skyscraper. The loan was made on november 1st, 2017. Quote, even by the standards of apollo, which is one of the Worlds Largest private equity firms, the previously unreported transaction with the kushners was a big deal, triple the size of an average property loan made by apollo. So that loan, 184 million, after these meetings at the white house and they talk among other things about a potential job at the white house for the apollo guy. That 184 million loan, that was one of the largest loans the Kushner Companies received last year. But oh, wait theres more. Because an even larger loan came from citi group which lent the firm 325 million to help finance a fwrugroup of Office Buildings in brooklyn. That loan was made in the spring of 2017 by citi group. Shortly thereafter, mr. Kushner met in the white house a chief executive of citi group. According to the times or at times notes, theres little precedent for a Top White House official meeting with executives of companies as they contemplate sizable loans to his business. Now obviously, theres important context here in terms of whats going on with Jared Kushner and concerns about him in the white house. This is not the first concerning report weve had in the last few days about the president ial soninlaw and Senior Adviser potentially mixing his government responsibilities and private Business Needs in potentially dubious ways. This is not even the first such concerning report in the last 24 hours. In this new breaking news story from the New York Times tonight they note, quote, kushner recently lost his secret, excuse me, his top secret security clearance amid worries from u. S. Officials that foreign governments might try to gain influence with the white house by doing business with mr. Kushner. Now according to the Washington Post last night, those worries have been informed to the white house in part by intelligence intercepts. Intelligence intercepts that have captured foreign officials discussing their dealings with Jared Kushner in the white house. Beyond that, the Associated Press reports that those intelligence intercepts have revealed discrepancies in the information that Jared Kushner disclosed on his security clearance application. Well, now tonight we learn that kushners companies, companies in which hes still partially, he partially owns them or holds a stake in them. They have received hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from entities whose executives have been meeting with Jared Kushner regularly in the white house in his capacity as a senior white house official. I should note that Jared Kushners lawyer, abbe lowell says that he has met with hundreds of business people, has taken no part in loans for Kushner Companies since joining the white house. A Spokesman Says his white house role has not affected the companys relationships with companies. It says stories like this that attempt to make insinuating connections that do not exist to disparage the Financial Institutions and companies involved. According to the times, were talking about that chicago sky scrape irlo scraper loan, according to the times, kushner still owns the part of Kushner Companies that received the apollo lone for the chicago skyscraper and a stake in the entity that owns the brooklyn buildings that got that loan from citigroup. This is hundreds of millions of dollars shoved at him and his personal business interests while taking meetings with executives from those lenders in the white house, in his compass its as a white house official. This is worth throwing out the show for as far as im concerned. Joining us now is jesse trucker, one of the reporters on the story tonight. Thank you for running over here. I understand it was hard to get here in time. Worked out. Ive just summarized, again, on short notice. Were all absorbing this stuff ourselves. But ive summarized what i see as the bottom line here that mr. Kushners business interests not only arent over but business interests in which he is actively invested, getting a personal benefit have received notable, and in some cases remarkably large cash infusions from people who have had dealings with him as a white house official. Yeah, so to step back for a second, when Jared Kushner joined the white house a little over a year ago he quit his job as chief executive officer of Kushner Companies, but for the most part he held onto his ownership stake in Kushner Companies. He devested some small portions of his stake in the company, basically selling them to a trust controlled by his mother. But for the most part he held onto most of the stake in the company. And the way Kushner Companies is set up, its hundreds of llcs and partnerships that own these various properties. He continues to hold onto a bunch of apartment buildings in brooklyn, and to a High Rise Office building in chicago, the at t midwest headquarters on randolph street. So last year, after he joins the white house, he has a number of meetings with josh harris, who is one of the founders of apollo, giant private equity firm. And the two of them are discussing a number of things, including a possible job for mr. Harris. And the job doesnt materialize. It turns out. But Something Else does, which is a few months after, probably, well, a few months after a series of meetings with mr. Kushner, mr. Harriss firm, apollo, makes this sizable loan to Kushner Companies to refinance this building. 184 million. 184 million, which is both a very large loan by the standards of ner compani of Kushner Companies and a large loan for apollo. For the most part, their loans are nowhere near that size. When you look at the average loan, its approximately 60 million. This is essentially triple the size of their average loan. Is there anything about that loan on its face, just as a substantive matter that looks if you didnt know about the meetings, if you didnt know about the communications between Jared Kushner and the executive from this firm, is there anything about that loan that looks financially awkward . It looks like the kind of deal apollo wouldnt typically snake. So i dont no, not necessarily. Other than the size, right . The size makes it an outlier. We dont know much about these loans. We know the amount. We know when the loan is due. But we dont know anything about the Interest Rate on the loan. We dont know anything about the cash flow in the building. We dont know anything about other potential nonmortgages but loans to the building that could affect the leverage, the terms of the loan, so, as an outsider, based on the public records that we rely on, were kind of limited in being able to make an assessment like that. Theres been some interesting reporting from a lot of different sources over the last couple months about mr. Kushners difficulties getting a permanent security clearance. The new yorker magazine reported on what were reportedly u. S. Intelligence intercepts that captured chinese officials describing interactions between the Chinese Ambassador and Jared Kushner in which the ambassador basically reported home to beijing that he had brought up his own private business interests while he was discussing policy matters with the Chinese Government in the person of the Chinese Ambassador. Do we have any information apart from the denials that we got tonight from mr. Kushner about whether or not any of these private Business Matters were discussed at the white house, were discussed alongside the other things that might have brought the citi Group Chairman and Joshua Harris into the white house . No. No. But you know, look, one of the big problems that experts will cite in the whole situation is we just have to take their word for it. There are no publicly available logs documenting the existence of the meetings, much less what was discussed at the meetings. We know from our sources that the meetings happened. And we know separately that the financial of matters happened. We have to kind of take their word for it that things were discussed or werent discussed. And we have no way of knowing about meetings, because they dont make that information public anymore, unless we discover if on our own. So, i mean, look, the short answer is no. We have no indication that they discussed the loans, but the issue experts would raze is yisu have a potential issue even if he doesnt raise the loan. Jared kushner is one of the most powerful people in the world right now. We know that he discussed a job, a white house job, with Joshua Harris. And that, on its own, raises concerns about the subsequent financial transaction between Kushner Companies and apollo. To be clear, theres a number of very, in some cases, specific, in some cases potentially nebulous triggers to determine if this actually is a violation of the ethics regulations or the law. Or potentially a bribe. Yeah, im not going to speculate about that. But you know here, when you have a situation where, you know, Jared Kushner potentially, threw his company, through his Company Seeking a loan from apollo. That creates a certain relationship between him and mr. Harris, which in turn prohibits him from engaging in other sorts of decisions and conversations as a government official. We have no indication that he did that. But it certainly puts him into a kind of a zone of potential problems, right . I mean hes kind of running into, okay, now hes got this relationship potentially with harris. Mmhm. Through his company. And that prevents him from being able to have sucertain types of conversation about things apollo might be seeking from the government. And we just dont know. We dont know what happened beyond those meetings, and apollo to put it in context, josh harris was, was a frequent visitor to the white house as kind of an Advisory Counsel on infrastructure. And apollo and other private equity firms are looking to create serious businesses on, figuring out ways to make money from the infrastructure plan. Right . So apollo is seeking something from the Trump Administration implicitly. And as they are providing input, they had a lot of input into the tax plan and private equities ended up making quite well. Donald trump had made promises that they be taxed at a higher rate and that disappeared. So apollo has very significant interests at stake when it comes to the Trump Administration. While theyre making 184 million loan to mr. Kushners private Real Estate Firm that he is still partially linked to. Its important reporting and youve made it even clearer. Thanks. Thank for having me. Up next here, the thing i was going to talk about before this happened, which is another jawdropping story we learned about actually just in the last few hours. Its been a big day, and its going to be a big night. Stay with us. Try super poligrip® it holds for 12 hours to reduce denture movement, helps provide better bite, seals out 74 more food particles, and enhances your denture fit. Try super poligrip®. The smoother the skin, the more comfortable you are in it. And now theres a new way to smooth. Introducing new venus platinum. A premium metal handle boosts control. To reveal up to 100 smooth skin. Venus but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. Todays the last day of february, which usually is the shortest month of the year, however, this february of 2018, it lasted more than 20 years. At least it feels that way in terms of news years. Its all been one month. A month ago today on the last day of january, the New York Times broke a very unusual story about a guy who had a somewhat unique role in the Trump Campaign. For a while, he was the spokesman for the legal team representing the president in the russia scandal. Not only are we at the point where lawyers need their own lawyers, but lawyers need spokespersons for this scandal. And thats what he was doing for a while before he quit that job under unusual circumstances last summer in july. The first substantive thing we learned about the circumstances of why he quit actually came months later, came from Michael WolffsControversial Book fire and fury, page 260, to be precise. Heres how Michael Wolff explained him quitting his job. It comes at the end of a long skur discussion, a long chapter about the news breaking on the trimum tower meeting. So he goes into great detail about trying to maneuver a way out of that story without getting hurt, to try to spin that story to construct a false narrative about that trump tower meeting that wouldnt make it look so bad for them. At the end of that whole discussion we get on page 260 mark caral low witting. He was instructed not to speak to the press. Indeed, not to even answer his phone. Seeing no good outcome and privately believing that the meeting on air force onemea was likely obstruction of justice, he quit. A month ago, on the last day of january, the New York Times finally got that full story, and they spelled it ut o. That trump tower meeting involving trump the jr. And Jared Kushner, it happened in june of 2016 during the Trump Campaign. Of course nobody from the campaign admitted that meeting happened for a year, right . The Trump Campaign and the trump transition and administration were insisting there had been no meetings with russians by anybody on the campaign, nobody who had been in that meeting with the russians during the campaign ever admitted to it all that time. Unless last summer, july of 2017, when the New York Times broke that story, that the trump tower meeting had happened. And they sort of broke that story in pieces. Their first headline about the trump tower meeting was just about the fact that it had happened and who they knew had attended that meeting. They didnt know at first how the meeting had opinion set ube. How all those people ended up in the same room together at trump tower. But in reporting out those stories, reporters from the times contacted the Trump White House and contacted lawyers for who they knew had been in that meeting and discussed what was in that meeting and one of the people who