What democrats are expecting to find especially after the cohen testimony. Two new controversies involving ivanka trump, what she said, when she said it, and what does it mean. Ne next. First up after a bruising week, the president will speak at the cpac conference, annual gathering of conservatives. Nearly the same time 2020 president ial candidate will have his official kickoff rally. The very busy saturday coming on the heels of the big report from the New York Times, saying trump order his chief of staff to give soninlaw Jared Kushner top security clearance, secret security clearance last year. Here is how adviser Kellyanne Conway responded. Why would he tell everyone thats not something that he meddled in that process . He has the absolute authority to do that and he trusts jared as one of his members of the senior team trying to negotiate peace in the middle east. But that still doesnt answer the question as to why he didnt admit doing so. Theyre denying last months New York Times that he played any role and kushner receiving clearance and now congress is demanding that the white house provides all documents for kushners clearance and by monday. As cohens public hearing and mr. Trumps response still reverberate. In his way, he was telling me to lie. Mr. Trump knew from roger stone in advance about the wiki leaks drop of emails. I recall don junior leaning over to his father and saying, the meeting is all set. And i remember mr. Trump saying, okay, good. Let me know. Nbcs mike piquera is at the white house. Lots of groundwork has been laid for hearings, more investigations to come. Good luck with walking us through all that is happening. Lets start, though, with the deadline facing the white house on monday. Youre absolutely right, alex. Follow the transcript seems to be the mantra, the update to follow the money, while the house is controlled by democrats. Myriad of investigations. We saw that long testimony in public on wednesday, followed up by Michael Cohen behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee on thursday. Well get back to that in a minute. With regard to your specific question, elijah cummings, who did chair that wednesday hearing, he has a separate investigation going on. He wrote letters way back on january 23rd to the white house asking for information about the processes for clearance, security clearances for white house officials. Now over the course of the last 24 hours, after that controversial bombshell report from the New York Times, alleging that reporting that President Trump himself interfered in that process and overruled his chief of staff, Top White House lawyer here, among others, including intelligence professionals and granted that top clearance to his soninlaw and top adviser Jared Kushner, that takes on a new urgency. Elijah cummings demanding those documents, setting a deadline by monday. Meanwhile, Michael Cohen will be back march 6th. Adam schiff of california says he wants to drill down on some of the things that were went over that were gone over in that hearing just last week. Democrats are using that as a road map for some of these investigations. House intelligence will also hear from felix satter next week. He, of course, is the russianborn real estate developer, an associate and Business Partner at times of President Trump, who was said to be instrumental, according to Michael Cohen in that trump tower project that is proven to be so controversial aal in moscow that was under devel development or at least under consideration. Over in the ways and means committee, democrats newly in charge there. Richie neil from massachusetts is the chairman. He will be asking for tax returns its recently been reported by nbc news. President trumps tax returns and hes writing to the irs demanding the same. The House Judiciary Committee again, another key player here, run by jerry nadler, the democrat of manhattan. He will be initiating investigations and hearings into what are termed trump abuses, attacks on the court, attacks on the fbi, attacks on the media. That seems it has a very broad scope. Well learn more about how theyre going to narrow that down. Lot of investigations here. The Trump White House has already said theres too much going on here. Theyre pushing back on these document demands and requests. It remains to be seen how far democrats will get with the paper but plenty of hearings, opened and closed, coming up in the next couple of weeks. Alex . Wow, good job outlining that for us there. Is a lot to unpack. Yeah. Thank you, mike. Okay. Ladies, were going to delve into all of this further with the both of you. Julia, on the kushner security clearance, you wrote about another argument thats being made and that the focus should be on why kushner was denied that clearance, not necessarily the president s handling of this. Although i am going to ask you about that, abigail. Is this something that the committee can get an answer to, why he was being deny aid security clearance in the first place, or at least the holdup . Were hearing talk that they would like to get former chief of staff john kelly to testify before and explain why. We do know Jared Kushner has had quite a bit of dealings with foreign entities in the past and during this administration he was the key point of contact for the decision or the move to move the u. S. Embassy in tel aviv to jerusalem. He has a lot of ties to saudi arabia with those arms deals and potentially with how the white house moved around the issue of Jamal Khashoggis murder. Clearly he has had dealings with Foreign Countries in the past. He was involved in that trump tower meeting in 2016. I think theyll look to see why he was denied this security clearance but also like to know his ties to other foreign entities because clearly this has plagued the Trump Administration since day one. Julia, basically you could just follow the money, right . The fact is that hes an investor and the concern about security clearance is that you could be beholden to foreign adversaries or foreign entities monetarily, and thats the concern. If you just want to boil it down to the basics. Absolutely. And i think thats where theyre going to start out with. A lot of democrats in the committee are concerned, where does his investment, outside investment that came before the Trump Administration tie into his work in government . What if there is a conflict of interest there . I think that is where democrats really want to get to the root of this. And i think youre going to hear a lot about his foreign dealings financially, well before he joined the Trump Administration, because that could have been a reason why he was denied that security clearance multiple times and why, you know, the administration really pushed to just get him one. Right. In terms of damage for the president , abigail, john kelly wrote, i believe, a fivepage document that detailed why he was concerned and did not want to have to clear Jared Kushner with the top secret security clearance. Kellyanne conway says its within the president s purview to do this. So why lie . And whats the fallout . I think thats the key. Why lie . I think when were looking at the situation, its yet another selfinflicted wound on the white house. Obviously, as julia laid out, it raises a lot of questions as to why Jared Kushner wasnt issued the security clearance to begin with. I think the president made it worse for himself, but also ivanka trump, denying that he interfered in it. It raises questions as to why did you feel the need to lie about this . Why is Jared Kushner also tasked with handling these very highprofile, highly classified issues, when you look at what hes doing in the middle east, particularly given the fact that he is a Foreign Policy neophite prior to joining the white house. But when youre looking at it, you nailed down the right question. Why lie about it . Its another selfinflict ed wound. They opened themselves up to another line of intense questions from House Democrats and other people just raising red flags about this entire situation. You bring up a point, is Jared Kushner the most qualified person to be doing these ventures on behalf of the white house . Lets go to Michael Cohen. Because hes back on the hill for the fourth time, resuming his intel hearing. What is it that the panel could learn from him that they have not already . I think youre going to hear quite a bit more we heard him give explosive testimony on wednesday and theyll want to elaborate that on even more. We also heard him hint to say there wasnt collusion however i did have my suspicions and i think youll have the panel say what were those suspicions . Why do you feel this way . There will be almost a continuation, a delving more deeply into his testimony. That last testimony really brought up a lot of questions. You also saw freshman congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez bring up trumps tax returns. She laid out the road map for democrats to investigate that. That is something that will definitely include that and see how that plays into that saga. She was roundly applauded for her laserlike focus during that hearing. She did a great job on that. Nbc news, abigail, is reporting that this house committee, ways and means committee, is expected to request the president s tax returns the next few weeks. However, they said were going to hold off, wait until the Mueller Report gets filed before making that request. Whats change heerd . One of the interesting things, activists from the democratic base, you heard calls to immediately demand the tax returns once they won the house. Based on conversations i had with pelosi staff and others on the hill was that going after trumps tax returns was a partisan move and the only reason for it was political. So really they want to lay the case as to why they needed the tax returns, what purpose it served, what they could glean from the tax returns. Back to ocasiocortez in the hearing, she did that and democrats made the case as to why these tax returns are necessary and the the issue it raises by the fact that trump has not yet released them. When talking about what changed, it was the cohen hearing and these lines of questioning from democratic lawmaker. I think youre right. Julia manchester, abigail tracy, good to see you. Thank you. 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Do you think there was a breach of security procedure . Good morning, alex. Certainly there wasnt a breach in terms of the president ordering security clearance. He has that authority. Right. He has the authority to determine whats classified or not, who has clearances and certainly who speaks on his behalf or is an envoi. Puzzling, right . But what is interesting here, and youve already covered some of this earlier in your program, is what were the concerns that the Intelligence Community and the fbi had with respect to giving Jared Kushner these clearances, the particular elements of leverage that Foreign Intelligence Services or foreign counter parties would have over him and, in particular, with respect to the portfolios he is covering for the president and the united states, issues related to middle east peace, the relationship with saudi arabia. Jared kushner has played a constructive, Important Role in nafta in relation to latin america. What are those concerns . All of this turmoil raises the question, what were those concerns . And are those concerns even more valid or troubling today, given the role that mr. Kushner plays . All of that now is a swirl because theres a question as to why he was granted these clearances and what role the president played. Essentially, as we were saying in the last block, juan, its about following the money, right . Theyre concerned that foreign entities could potentially hold him up to a level of blackmail. Maybe not that specifically but say hey, look, we gave you this. Its a money thing. And also the fact that Jared Kushner had to refile his papers, attempting to get a security clearance, all the information, what, three times . Yeah. Had to keep going back. What about this . Oh, i have to put that on. It looks bad. Why would the president lie about it . Youre right, he can offer the security clearance to him. Right. I think, you know, theres been sensitivities around, you know, nepotism. He has jared kush nerks ivanka next to him, serving as advis advisers. Maybe theyre concerned about any appearance of nepotism. Looks like that, feels like that. I think the president has been conditioned to think i cant overreach on some of these investigations. Right . He has been stung quite a bit on that. Maybe hes thinking, i shouldnt be perceived to be intervening on things that have a normal course to them, like security clearances. But who knows . The president had the authority to do this. The problem, of course, as were saying, it raises questions of leverage and trust. Its what leverage do foreign counter parties have over Jared Kushner that raised the initial concerns, have those gotten worse over time . And this question of trust. Not the president s trust of Jared Kushner, but the Intelligence Communitys trust and even Jared Kushners trust of the Intelligence Community. You not only receive information and hopefully get the most Information Available to help the president , to help with the decision making, but you also do things with that information. You share it with counter parties. You come back and you share information with the Intelligence Community about your communications. And so if there is a rupture in that trust, that then raises questions of effectiveness, raises further questions of leverage. Do foreign counter parties know more about Jared Kushner than the Intelligence Community . All of this creates too many questions and now youve got congress involved. And im looking at a report from the Washington Post february of last year in which it states that Jared Kushner, apart from staff on the National Security council, issues more requests for information to the Intelligence Community than any white house employee. Why would he be asking for so much intelligence . Well, you know, that could be inoccuous, right . He has a very wideranging portfolio. Hes negotiating middle east peace. He needs to see whats happening with israel and palestinian authorities, whats happening on the ground, what theyre saying, do i doing, but what other key partners in the middle east are saying, doing, like what the chinese and russians are trying to do. All of that can be innocuous. But whether or not he should have high level of clearance, it does raise questions of what hes asking and for what purposes and should he be seeing some of these things . And, juan, is there any way that Jared Kushner could have already caused some damage . Its hard for me to tell but at a minimum, this question of the rupture of trust, i think, is important because whoever the president puts ou