the second one about paul manafort. nbc reached out to paul manafort's spokesman for comment on this reporting. he released this statement. quote, mr. manafort has not been contacted by any authorities other than the u.s. congress and officials responsible for fara guidance which is the foreign agent registration act. and he is cooperate with those inquiries. now since they bring it up, since paul manafort's spokesman is bringing up the foreign agent registration act, when he says that they've heard from officials responsible for fara guidance, that means presumably they've heard from justice department officials about the foreign agent registration act and paul manafort potentially having to register under that act. i should tell you that we have reported on this show that even though it has been widely reported and it is widely believed that paul manafort retroactively registered as a foreign agent after he left the campaign, in fact he has not done so. we've also rorted this odd news out of the justice department whi

but what about matters involving paul manafort? is jeff sessions keeping himself out of anything at doj involving paul manafort or not? is he recused from matters involving trump's campaign chairman? because there are interesting questions about what's happening with the department of justice and paul manafort. right? is jeff sessions involved in any work at the department of justice concerning paul manafort or is he recused? we can report tonight that the justice department will not say. we started asking yesterday. we asked throughout the day today. we have asked it five times in five different ways, including me making the request myself personally, multiple times in as many different ways as i could think of it. they will not say whether or not he's recused. he is recused on flynn, they say. he is recused on things related to the trump campaign broadly. they won't say about manafort. so i started this by saying, buckle up, this is going to be chaotic. there is a real question about as to whether or not the attorney general has

the second one about paul manafort. nbc reached out to paul manafort's spokesman for comment on this reporting. he released this statement. quote, mr. manafort has not been contacted by any authorities other than the u.s. congress and officials responsible for fara guidance which is the foreign agent registration act. and he is cooperate with those inquiries. now since they bring it up, since paul manafort's spokesman is bringing up the foreign agent registration act, when he says that they've heard from officials responsible for fara guidance, that means presumably they've heard from justice department officials about the foreign agent registration act and paul manafort potentially having to register under that act. i should tell you that we have reported on this show that even though it has been widely reported and it is widely believed that paul manafort retroactively registered as a foreign agent after he left the campaign, in fact he has not done so. we've also reported this odd news out of the justice department w

but what about matters involving paul manafort? is jeff sessions keeping himself out of anything at doj involving paul manafort or not? is he recused from matters involving trump's campaign chairman? because there are interesting questions about what's happening with the department of justice and paul manafort. is jeff sessions involved in any work at the department of justice concerning paul manafort or is he recused? we can report tonight that the justice department will not say. we started asking yesterday. we asked throughout the day today. we asked it five times in five different ways. they will not say whether or not he's recused. he is recused on flynn, they say. he said recused on things related to the trump campaign. they won't say about manafort. so i started this by saying, buckle up, this is going to be chaotic. there is a real question about that and that is bizarre. it is additionally bizarre on the trump campaign manager in particular, they will not say if he is recused or not. something strange is up about whether a

really under playing paul manafort's role. if paul manafort was speaking to reince priebus a week before inauguration, then clearly sean spicer was incorrectly characterizing his relationship currently with the administration. >> yeah, and, in fact, one of the things we understand that the administration is nervous about is the comey memo that you mention that the senate and house demanded but the fbi is sort of dragging their feet on providing to the senate and house intel committees, that they might characterize in a way that priebus would not want his conversations with the fbi with both comey and comey's deputy director about a request that the fbi come out and sort of rebut some of the characterizations that were out there about communications between trump's team and russia including possibly manafort. >> i want both of you to stay put. we have breaking news to report. nbc news reporting jared kushner, son-in-law and senior advisor to president trump is under fbi scrutiny in the russia probe. we have a lot to cover on th

why would they not be exerting that same pressure on paul manafort? it just raises interesting questions about the disparate treatment of these two people, and whether or not manafort is getting the same kind of pressure. the other difference we've got between flynn and manafort is that jeff sessions has said overtly that he at the department of justice is recused from any matter involving mike flynn. we thought when we started calling the justice department about this that they would tell us that attorney general jeff sessions is also recused from matters involving paul manafort since manafort was the campaign chairman. the justice department will not say that they told us a million other things. they gave us paragraph-long stories about what recusal is, where it comes from, and this whole idea of recusal and it's a big question. and what do you really mean by that. we went back at them again and again and again. i'm considering just publishing our back and forth between me and the justice department. >> some of it involves rachel maddow. staff was m

with humira, remission is possible. >>> former trump campaign manager paul manafort continues to be in contact with the trump team months after the fbi launched its russia investigation. according to a new politico report. manafort resigned from the trump campaign last august, but according to politico, he called donald trump's chief of staff reince priebus about a week before inauguration day to discuss the russia scandal according to four people familiar with the call. manafort wanted to brief trump's team on alleged inaccuracies in a recently released dossier of memos written by a former british spy for trump's opponents that alleged compromising ties among russia, trump and trump's associates including manafort. and joining us now, ken vogel, chief investigative reporter for politico who broke the story and david corn washington bureau chief political analyst. ken, this is a pretty block buster story. among the many interesting details is this one. that manafort, according to your story, discussed with other trump allies the possibility of launching a counter veiling investigation

the officials say that jared kushner's in a different category from former aides paul manafort and michael flynn who were formally considered subjects of the investigation. and it's not known whether kushner has received any records requests from federal investigators. but according to "the washington post," which has some additional reporting on the matter, investigators are if you are,ing on a series of meetings that kushner held in december with the russian ambassador and with a banker from moscow. the post reports that kushner is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interaction was the russians. tonight jared kushner's lawyer, jamie gorelick provided was the statement -- mr. kushner previously volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings. he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. joining us is david corn, david frum, senior editor for lick. michael isikoff, chief investigative reporter. and malcolm nance, nbc counterterrorism intelligence and analyst. thank you all for being here. so let's start off with

the conversations focused on paul manafort and michael flynn. the times reports russian officials became confident they could use manafort and flynn for a specific goal, that both men could be used to help shape mr. trump's opinions on russia, though ultimately is unknown whether russian officials actually tried to directly influence manafort and flynn. russia's election meddling is well-known, the hacking, the leaking, disinformation and cybercampaigns that the fbi by the way is still exploring at this hour. like reports that russian internet operations distributed millions of twitter and facebook post carrying links to stories on sites like breitbart news and kremlin wars and kremlin backed rt news and sputnik news. this new report tonight is about effort aimed at two americans, but two americans atop the trump campaign, manafort and flynn. and it's a big question about whether those efforts worked and whether they have any link to how those men advise trump who became president. now, we don't know the answer, but we do know flynn is the only

the conversations focused on paul manafort and michael flynn. the times reports russian officials became confident they could use manafort and flynn for a specific goal, that both men could be used to help shape mr. trump's opinions on russia, though ultimately is unknown whether russian officials actually tried to directly influence manafort and flynn. russia's election meddling is well-kno well-known, the hacking, the leaking, disinformation and cybercampaigns that the fbi by the way is still exploring at this hour. like reports that russian internet operations distributed millions of twitter and facebook post carrying links to stories on sites like breitbart news and kremlin wars and kremlin backed rt news and sputnik news. this new report tonight is about effort aimed at two americans, but two americans atop the trump campaign, manafort and flynn. and it's a big question about whether those efforts worked and whether they have any link to how those men advise trump who became president. now, we don't know the answer, but we do know flynn is

you know, we've seen the white house say paul manafort barely worked for the campaign. we've seen the white house say carter page, the president wouldn't even know him if he bumped right into him in an elevator. and michael flynn, clearly though the president seems to be sticking by him, they have distanced themselves from michael flynn. jared kushner is in the white house still and is as close to this president as one can get. >> that's right. so it will be hard for them to distance themselves presumably from jared kushner. but i think it's important on that note to make a distinction here. the investigation into michael flynn and to paul manafort and carter page, the three individuals you mentioned, is a little different. i think evan can speak to this too, than what's going on and where they are in the investigation with jared kushner. at this point what they know and what they're seeing is he's touching multiple parts because of his role in the campaign with the data analytics operation, with his meetings, you know, of course, with michael flynn and ambassador kisly

then there's paul manafort, who is talking. now, manafort may be talking about his own financial business, which may not be nice to look at, but it's totally legal. then you have the son-in-law. what does jared kushner know about the father-in-law? i would assume everything. i would assume that jared kushner knows exactly, precisely, either through his wife or directly from his father-in-law exactly what his methods were, what his relationships were, what words were passed with the russians. and my guess is we would like to hear on the record, under oath, all three of these gentlemen. will we ever get to hear from all three of them on this matter? >> right. and chris, when you look at what's happening with the fbi investigation, well, it depends on whether the fbi can charge them abowith crimes, i would sa. because that's the classic playbook. this thing has become public, so it's very difficult for them to sur rep tissue usually -- their only hope it seems to me, if there is a conspiracy, is to flip a conspirator. >> kwesqueez

how hard was it for the russians to get to paul manafort? >> cultivated by years in the making, we spent all this time talking about flynn and his russian ties. look at manafort's money, you follow the money, it's much, much deeper than anything reported thus far with michael flynn. he's supported with one of russia's richest billionaires, $12 million from the pro-russian ukrainian former president yanukovych. talk about jared kushner having ole ga oligarch. you're talking about billions of dollars among russia's top richest elite. >> rick, how dependent are democrats on these intelligence committees on their republican chairmen to really drive the investigation? >> well, the republican chairman, i mean, in the senate, at least that seems like a bipartisan effort, i think to go with what harold was saying, this is going to follow its course, but i want to mention something about the -- what the russian reporting about manafort and others. the russians try all the time to suborn people. they knock on every door. if you answer the door, they'r

the conversation focused on paul manafort, the trump campaign chairman at the time, and michael flynn, a retired general who was advising mr. trump. tonight we look at how investigators continue to bore down on donald trump even as he poses with the pope and goes to impressive meetings in europe. look, we know this is a serious business. this russian deal of trump's, the fbi is on the case, the former cia director just said he doesn't like the looks of it. and we now have a special counsel gearing up and trump himself is starting to lawyer up. well, tonight i want to find out what we already know and how we can know what the country now needs to know about how trump and his campaign could have been in cahoots with the russians during last year's election. well, yesterday as i said, former cia director john brennan testified. he became aware of numerous trump associates who had made contact with russian actors that we now know includes michael flynn, paul manafort, carter page, roger stone, jeff sessions, and trump's own son-in-law, jared kushner. further, as trump -- appears to engage

paul manafort acting as a foreign agent. we know that, hadn't filed, hadn't declared it. the other question is whether russian meddling despite the fact they were aggressively meddling, all the workman, a fort and flynn were doing for them, it also constitutes a contribution to the trump campaign. so there are campaign finance laws involved as well. >> so a lot to be said. iant to let viewers know, this

earlier this week, nbc news was first to report that mike flynn and paul manafort, the former national security adviser, former campaign chairman, were officially subjects of criminal investigations in which federal grand jury subpoenas have been issued. and "the washington post" tonight reaffirmed they were keenly interested in mike flynn and paul manafort. flynn and manafort are both subjects of criminal investigations, both in the cross hairs, but we now know it's not either of them because neither mike flynn more paul manafort is a current white house official. so the president flies off on his first foreign trip tonight in the face of confirmed reporting now that his former campaign chairman and national security adviser and somebody working for him now as a senior adviser in the white house are the subject of active law enforcement investigations specifically into whether his campaign colluded in the russian attack on the election last year. these are not normal times. "the washington post" also reports tonight that the fbi is investigating whether any financial crimes were commi

did paul manafort? did others around him? i think we need to begin asking ourselves who is driving this game right now? and increasingly, i think the question with robert mueller and others is donald trump may very well be the russia obsessed person who actually had people he was running on the russia side because he wanted to play kissinger or nixon in this case. but the difference is this isn't going to mao. this is going to putin, who wanted this kind of thing to happen. so it's bizarre, and it's unusual because we don't see the other elements as ned would know of a strategic design behind this that make his russia obsession make any sense. >> ned, there is enough information out there about michael flynn that you could even imagine roughly some of the lines and some of the things that michael flynn might be talking about on the phone to the russian ambassador. but when you are talking about 18 different contact points with the campaign, that's way too many people to be able to sit here and say we have any sense of the sco

we were writing about this last summer, even before when paul manafort came on. his association, longtime association with the pro-russian political party -- >> the manafort finances here are crucial, right? it was something you reported on, and you have experience, ken, in sort of looking at the ways in which money is moved around, particularly russian money, which flows in incredibly byzantine and dark channels. >> well, that's true and much of it flowed through paul manafort and his association with others close to putin. but just to follow up on what michael was saying, the trump campaign and trump himself knew exactly who they were hiring when they hired paul manafort. it wasn't a mistake. he was not a big player in u.s. national politics at the time. he was a big player in the ukraine, where he was a chief adviser. so trump and the trump campaign knew well that manafort would be a direct conduit to the inner circle of putin, and that was part of the resume that most attracted trump and his staff. >> does that sound right to you, michael? >> yeah, absolutely

there are interesting loose threads to watch with paul manafort. the former campaign chairman for the trump campaign. i want to give you one heads-up about him now, there is a new very large very interesting question mark about paul manafort and his potential involvement with the justice department. this is sothing that we've got a bead on, we are actively reporting tonight literally while i'm on the air, trying to continue to report this out, i swear we will have news on that, we'll have an answer on that for you by tomorrow at this time at the latest. the way things have been going today we might have it before the end of this hour. stick a pin in that. busy night. lots more to come. ♪ nobody does underwater stunts, sylvia. except me, of course. this is my stop. adios! ♪ if you're a stuntman, you cheat death. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. número uno! can lead to sleepless nights making you feel helpless. take control of your sleep with unisom® sleeptabs

there are interesting loose threads to watch with paul manafort. the former campaign chairman for the trump campaign. i want to give you one heads-up about him now, there is a new very large very interesting question mark about paul manafort and his potential involvement with the justice department. this is something that we've got a bead on, we are actively reporting tonight literally while i'm on the air, trying to continue to report this out, i swear we will have news on that, we'll have an answer on that for you by tomorrow at this time at the latest. the way things have been going today we might have it before the end of this hour. stick a pin in that. busy night. lots more to come. k you! imagine if the things you bought every day earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, 2 united club passes... priority boarding... and 50,000 bonus miles. everything you need for an unforgettable vacation. the united mileageplus explorer card. imagine where it will ta

we were writing about this last summer, even before when paul manafort came on. his association, longtime association with the pro-russian political party -- >> the manafort finances here are crucial, right? it was something you reported on, and you have experience, ken, in sort of looking at the ways in which money is moved around, particularly russian money, which flows in incredibly byzantine and dark channels. >> well, that's true and much of it flowed through paul manafort and his association with others close to putin. but just to follow up on what michael was saying, the trump campaign and trump himself knew exactly who they were hiring when they hired paul manafort. it wasn't a mistake. he was not a big player in u.s. national politics at the time. he was a big player in the ukraine, where he was a chief adviser adviser. so trump and the trump campaign knew well that manafort would be a direct conduit to the inner circle of putin, and that was part of the resume that most attracted trump and his staff. >> does that sound right to you, michael? >> yeah, ab

paul manafort, roger stone, they say they are willing to turn over documents, already have turned over documents to the senate intelligence committee. michael flynn's lawyers say he will refuse. just listen to what they say in a letter to the committee, and let me put it up on the screen. the context in which the committee has called for general testimonial production of documents makes clear that he has more than a reasonable apprehension that any testimony he provides could be used against him. multiple members of congress have demand that had he be investigated and even prosecuted. he is the target on nearly a daily basis of outrageous allegations, often attributed to anonymous shoreses in congress or elsewhere in the united states government which, however, fanciful on their face and you be substantiated by evidence, feed the escalating public frenzy against him. the letter adds, additionally, in the intervening time since the committee issued its subpoena the department of justice has appointed a special counsel to investigate these and other matters this. environment creates a re

he and paul manafort deny there was anything pro-putin about the work they did. oleg deripaska says that work ended in 2009 and he's upset by any indication that his payments to manafort had something to do with the trump campaign. the ap says it stands by its reporting. this russian aluminum oligarch paid millions to manafort who would later go on to chair donald trump's campaign. bank accounts that raised repeated red flags for money laundering investigations and were quickly closed when those investigators stopped making inquiries. started making inquiries. so oleg deripaska is one of the names we know. another name in the trump/russia investigation. and here is why he's really important to this story. in that ad, he took out in march, objecting to the ap reporting of his past dealings with manafort, deripaska said he was ready to take part in any hearings conducted in the u.s. congress on this subject in order to defend my reputation and name, which is pretty exciting. if russian oligarchs are going to start giving sworn public testimony to congress, pass the

we've learned that mike flynn and paul manafort, mike flynn the and paul manafort are subjects of the investigation. that is a term of art which means an investigator suspects them of crimes. to be clear, paul manafort and mike flynn, and to be clear, their lawyers have denied any wrongdoing on their part. and no evidence has surfaced publicly linking them to this russian effort to interfere in the election, but there have been some -- there are financial transactions have been examined. in mike flynn's case he registered as a foreign lobbyist for turkey not having done so during the campaign. and paul manafort, there had been some questionable real estate transactions that have been the subject of grand jury subpoenas. in both cases we have grand jury subpoenas relating to records for these men. we have also been reporting on the fact this is an fbi investigation that spans multiple field offices, and we're talking to people involved in it who say that despite, you know, the recent news about donald trump's request to former fbi director comey regarding mike flynn, they have experien

whether or not you have strong feelings about the eventual fate of paul manafort and mike flynn. the investigation into the heart of the matter of the president's campaign to the extent a real investigation into that will require testimony from cooperating witnesses in a position to see and know what was going on, well, the former national security advisor and the former campaign chairman being the subjects of law enforcement pressure like this that affects the odds whether or not either of those men will ever surface as witnesses in any of these broader investigations. in terms of mike flynns, they get better when mike flynn's attorney says he volunteered in exchange for immunity claiming he has a real story to tell. here's some questions tonight. now that we know a special counsel has been named by the acting attorney general has named someone for special investigations. and the guest that can answer these question we have coming in tonight. i think they're all answerable questions and important as far as i'm concerned. as i see this. first of all, how will the appointment of f

there's new details about paul manafort and roger stone. with me, howard fine man, editorial director of the huffington post. and ken -- >>> who are the two under the spotlight tonight in the campaign? >> well, if you're talking about the paul manafort and roger stone report, those gentlemen, former trump advisers, paul manafort, the former trump campaign manager, are cooperating with the senate intelligence investigation, we were told today and have turned over documents pursuant to this request. if you'll recall, they were asked to list their contacts with russia and russians and to disclose any communications with the campaign about russia and russians. we don't know exactly what they've turned over but we're told they have turned over documents pursuant to that request, greta. >> howard, it's a terrible thing to think that someone who takes the 5th is guilty and if someone turns over documents and is helpful tend to think the person is innocent. what do you make of all of this? >> what i make of all this, you have to look at it as a who

manafort -- mike flynn, the former national security adviser, paul manafort, the former campaign chairman, are key figures in it, not because any evidence has emerged at least publicly suggesting that they colluded with russia in this hacking and leaking campaign, but because of other elements of their business activity. you know, in mike flynn's case, he failed to register as a foreign lobbyist for turkey. he didn't tell the truth about his contacts with the russian ambassador. he didn't disclose that he was paid for a trip to russia in 2015. in paul manafort's case, there have been a series of real estate transactions that have come under federal scrutiny. by the way, both of these men deny any wrongdoing. they have not been charged with crimes. but they are clearly in the crosshairs of a sprawling fbi investigation that spans multiple fbi field offices across the country, and it's both a counterintelligence and a criminal investigation, chris. >> you described it as both a counterintelligence and a criminal investigation, and this might be too fine a point to zero in on now because we

"the new york times" reports that the conversation among the russians focussed on paul manafort, the campaign chairman and the retired general, michael flynn, who was at the time advising trump. both men had indirect ties to russian officials. the russians appeared confident they could use paul manafort and general flynn to shape trump's views on russia. manafort denied helping russia in the election. one democratic senator said in the report is true, that could be problematic for president trump. >> obviously these press reports indicate there a lot of shoes may be dropping. as i understand it, the president may have hired counsel. if these press reports are right, those lawyers may have a full closet to deal with. >> one republican senator said the focus should be less on what the russians tried to do and more on how the americans responded. >> the elections tried to influence our election. nobody is shocked. yet what they have done is to show that any american was trying to reach out to the russians to say yes, we want to help. that's very different than the russians trying to rea

paul manafort is another associate of trump, former campaign manager whose name has come up in the reporting about who was talking to russian officials and when. so far i think the real question will be where does the special prosecutor in that investigation actually go? some of these hearings will be more potentially window dressing. you'll have a lot of senators asking questions. the real question will be, what can james comey actually respond to? is this similar to sally yates where she didn't give a lot of information because she obvious would cite privilege or the fact that it was classified. >> shepard: again, nbc reporting paul manafort and roger stone have turned over documents. if true what is the significance? >> right now there's just a lot of investigation going into who might know what when. i don't know that anybody can say this person is now the target of the investigation. roger stone is where it ends. that's probably not the case. seems like this is an investigation that's been going on methodically. so i wouldn't say this is the end. this is probably part of the process tha

you pull that together and see what questions you have and go to the michael flynn and paul manaforts and jared kushner. >> ron brownstein, jeff said we could not overstate the role in the white house because he is in charge of just about everything. in all honesty. he is in charges of the operations of the white house and many policy and in charge of nearly every aspect and he is the president's son-in-law. now we also know this investigation not just looking at finance and russian connections, but the data operation jared ran during the campaign. fascinating. >> to the first point, the core of his power is he is seen by the president as someone who is only client which is the president. reince priebus has an allegiance to the republican establishment. steve bannon has allegiance to the populous nationalist movement. jared kushner, his allegiance and political identity is to the president. he is also family. the data operation is fascinating. one of the questions is how did the russians target what they did. we saw in the congressional testimony earlier this year that they were very

the conversations focused on paul manafort and michael t. flynn. the white house, fbi and cia all declined to comment when asked about this by "the times." both manafort and flynn have previously denied allegations of collusion. speaking of flynn, after the meeting yesterday announced would be subpoenaing documents from his intelligence life. the ranking member adam schiff did not comply with the committee's initial request for documents. also today, a new "washington post" report says that james comey might have based his actions involving the clinton e-mail probe last summer on a bogus russian document, but that document, according to the report, was, quote, viewed within the fbi as unreliable and possibly a fake. more on all of that in a moment. these stories all hit while the president is still overseas. and on the same day as a round op of bad polling numbers for this white house. a new quinnipiac poll finds trump's approval rating at just 37%. 55% disapproval of the job he's doing. same poll, 54% of voters say the president is accusing his of

you put paul manafort with russia. >> i think that's a real problem. charles: guys -- >> the different messaging points are a different subject. you were saying russian connections, and then you said -- charles: one second, guys. we've got to wrap it up, but i do want the ask, rick, you're excited about the notion of shattering the status quo. the bottom line is those guardrails maybe need to be taken down or readjusted. that's your opinion. >> yeah. no, i i worked on capitol hill. i know washington, d.c. well, but i don't live there. and i can tell you unequivocally that any politician, any elected official who touches the third rail of taking down the status quo, of changing the bureaucracy in the magnitude that donald trump is doing, the swamp is going to swing back. charles: all right, guys -- >> i think we've got to be very clear about that. charles: we've got to leave it there. thank you all very much. in the meantime, the major averages rallying bigtime into the weekend. i'm going to tell you when you start to continue to add because charles: gr

russians trying to use paul manafort to influence donald trump. and we have pictures of the powerful bomb that killed 22 people in the concert in britain. let's got "out front." good evening, i'm erin burnett. "out front" tonight, the breaking news, a crucial security clearance emission. jeff sessions did not disclose meetings he had with russian officials when he applied for top secret security clearance. this is the form sessions filled out. on page 76, which i hold here in my handled, it required sessions to list "any contact with a foreign government or its representatives over the past seven years." it includes specific mention of embassy and consulates. sessions met at least twice with the russian ambassador last year alone. on this form he didn't list either meeting. this as the new york times reports the russians tried to use paul manafort to influence president trump. we are covering these breaking stories from all details and we begin with phil mattingly on capitol hill. want to begin with manu raj u on the breaking news about attorney g

then when it proves to be true, distance themselves from whether it's carter page or paul manafort or mike flynn or whomever, and then deflect. but in this case they certainly can't do that. this is the president's son-in-law and arguably the president's closest adviser, someone who is essentially in charge of everything that matters to president trump, so they're going to have to find a different strategy in this case, chris. >> naveed, what's so crazy to me here is if you look at "the washington post" reporting, the subject -- the thing they're looking at are these meetings that happened after the election. i really -- this is a real head scratcher to me. i mean the scrutiny was already there. we knew what the russians had done. there was a lot of people looking at it very closely. and during that period of the transition, jared kushner has a meeting with the ambassador, which, again, fine, but takes him to the back of trump tower so no one receives. he leaves it off his form, and meets with the ceo of a sanctioned russian bank, both of which seem like -- particularly the latter, st

paul manafort is still kicking in the business world and he's under investigation. it is amazing what you can survive in washington. i think you have to wonder for both of them, they both have very successful careers in business to come join this washington, d.c. it was sort of an alien place for them. i wonder at what point they decide it is not worth it. i suspect it would be a high bar for them. they're deeply intertwined with this administration. in a sense, its success is their success and its failure is their failure. >> as we wait for the start of this white house press briefing, we're hearing now that president trump is having conversations about dramatically changing the way that information is shared coming out of this white house. what do we know about that? we know that the coms director is out. any word on mr. spicer'sle >> well, first of all, this is striking that the communications director has offered a letter of resignation after just three months on the job, and it really underscores the internal turmoil that this administration is dealing with, cr

earlier this week, nbc news was first to report that mike flynn and paul manafort, the former national security adviser, former campaign chairman, were official subjects of criminal investigations in which federal grand jury subpoenas have been issued. and the "washington post" tonight reaffirmed they were keenly interested in them. both of them subjects of criminal investigations, both in the cross hairs but weapon now -- we now know it's not only them because neither of them can be this new person of interest because neither is a current white house official. so the president flies off on his first foreign trip tonight in the face of confirmed reporting now that his former campaign chairman and national security adviser and somebody working for him now as a senior adviser on the white house are the subject of active law enforcement investigations specifically into whether his campaign colluded with russia on the election last year. these are not normal times. "the washington post" also reports tonight that the fbi is investigating whether any financial crimes were committed by people

you put paul manafort with russia. >> i think that's a real problem. charles: guys -- >> the different messaging points are a different subject. you were saying russian connections, and then you said -- charles: one second, guys. we've got to wrap it up, but i do want the ask, rick, you're excited about the notion of shattering the status quo. the bottom line is those guardrails maybe need to be taken down or readjusted. that's your opinion. >> yeah. trump is doing, the swamp is going to swing back. charles: all right, guys -- >> i think we've got to be very clear about that. charles: we've got to leave it there. thank you all very much. in the meantime, the major averages rallying bigtime into the weekend. i'm going to tell you when you start to continue to add because this rally is not going to stop. be right back. [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding thi

>> i would say the proof is when paul manafort was on board during the convention in cleveland, the only plank that was changed in the republican national committee platform was the policy on ukraine, not to arm them against aggressive russia. that was the only thing changed. paul manafort, the trump folks. >> that is proof that the russians had affected the outcome of the election? that's ludicrous. >> i'm not saying that's ludicrous or they didn't have sway with the trump folks and their team, but you can't just turn a blind eye that there is some type of activity. >> i think this should be absolutely looked into. and it is. as of now, there's no proof, simply allegations. even maxine waters, the left of the left, said there's no proof. dianne feinstein said the same thing. let's wait for the investigation to come out before we demonize people and tell them they're wrong or treasonous. >> i think the facts will lead us where they may and we have trusted folks in there. i would prefer we just be able to trust the white house and trust donald trump, trust his team and not have to worry a

neither campaign manager corey lewandowski nor paul manafort made it to election day before being fired. we asked chief of staff reince priebus weeks ago is he worried about his job. >> there are wondering if there are mov don't thik about . it's ridiculousfor us. if how ell the besident is doing,he work getting done, th jobs created. lo athuñ5 the market and the tax bill. you look at he bill that have today the president saying a search for a replacement is underway. >> moving rapidly. >> and spicer deflecting 4estions about who may be making the shortlist. how quickly it will beput together and how the vetting he was rushed to the hospital to reverse the overdose. he is expected to make a full recovery. jonathan: do you wonder hat suitcase olook like? we saw it check it out. winner. so bore you your share of 1.5 million dollars in prizes and free slot play.lm take tse last few seconds there is no word what started it. agents with the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives joined in the investigation to figure it out. michelle: president trump revised travel ban went be

manafort. "bloomberg news" news reports a separate investigation is also underway by the manhattan district attorney. manafort oversaw the trump campaign for five months last summer. we are learning more about a missile test in north korea over the weekend. the country now claims the missile it tested... is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. the missile flew about 500 miles before crashing in the sea of japan near the russian coast. while the missile may be capable of carrying a warhead... it's unclear if north korea can make a weapon small enough to fit on the missile. the trump administration-- denounced the test. this marks the seventh missile test since trump took the u-s is calling on the international community for tougher sanctions on north korea. new developments in a virginia protest. city leaders in charlottesville are condemning saturday night's torch-lit protest next to a controversial statue of robert e-lee. the group chanted phrases like "no more brother war" and "russia is ou

paul manafort, chairman of the campaign, being paid reportedly by russia intelligence services, also being paid -- and we've seen the ledger now -- by pro russian ukrainians and then serving -- >> that was up to a decade before he served as chairman. >> right, but here's the convergence, is that he is serving as the chairman of the trump campaign when the campaign is asking the republican national committee to take out any pro ukrainian language at its republican convention, so again -- >> so, he said that he didn't do that. again, manafort said on "meet the press" that he did not, he was not the one who spoke up to change the platform. i mean -- >> do you think manafort is a credible witness? >> i'm absolutely not the one to judge, but john's point -- i mean, you need to answer his question. you made these claims of collusion. where's the evidence? >> so, roger stone. roger stone intimates to the world that john podesta is about to spend his time in the barrel. that is weeks before john podesta's e-mails are put out by guccifer 2.0, and then we see conversations that roger stone was

this is coming to get information from at least four of trump's former associates includes paul manafort. >> i have been researching. >> rejecting the request to provide records of communications with russians saying in an unusual letter that if the committee wants details they will need to ask former president obama because of surveillance that occurred during his administration. >> when carter page wants to be cooperating and all of a sudden we get another message, that's not the way to kulconduct a tho reinvestigation. >> yates expected to tell that she gave a warning. >> the attorney general informed the white house council they wanted to give a heads up to us. >> moments ago donald trump between twooetieeting about mic flynn saying he was given the highest security clearance but the fake news talking about that. of course those foreign payments michael flynn failed to disclose back in 2016 now at the center of a congressional probe and also from the defense department inspector general but also a lot of questions about the vetting process to name michael flynn as national security a

you have paul manafort, who's in a lot of trouble. i think that michael cohen is going to face a lot of scrutiny, as well. you know, we found out -- >> that's trump's lawyer? >> yes, that's trump's attorney. he also goes by the name michael hacking, but that was related to his taxi cab company. so he has two names. you know, i think the main point is that his family needs to be implicated in this, because they were behind a lot of these deals. so you have eric and don jr., but most importantly, you have ivanka and jared. i think those are the two key people that need to be implicated now in regards to the whole trump/russia probe. >> and sarah, one of the sort of things about donald trump that people learn when he ran for president is that he does have this long-standing kind of affinity for all things russia. he's done a lot of business there. his son bragged about a lot of their business coming from russia, a lot of their con does were brought by russian llcs or russian humans. his $90 million sale of a house in florida. but there i

earlier this week, nbc news was first to report that mike flynn and paul manafort, the froshl national security adviser, former campaign chairman, were official subjects of criminal investigations in which federal grand jury subpoenas have been issued. and the "washington post" tonight reaffirmed they were keenly interested in them. both of them subjects of criminal investigations, both in the cross hairs but weapon now know it's not only them because neither of them can be this new person of interest because neither is a current white house official. so the president flies off on his first foreign trip tonight in the face of confirmed reporting now that his former campaign chairman and national security adviser and somebody working for him now as a senior adviser on the white house are the subject of active law enforcement investigations specifically into whether his campaign colluded with russia on the election last year. these are not normal times. "the washington post" also reports tonight that the fbi is investigating whether any financial crimes were committed by people close to