don mcgahn is a key -- one of the key elements. having comey over to a one on one dinner, the first week of his presidency. did he tell mcgahn about it? did mcgahn dictate a memo that day? mcgahn would know everything. mcgahn is a central figure and mueller is probably carefully preparing for when he calls mcgahn to testify. >> before i lose you, let me ask you about three more people. >> sure. >> manafort and flynn are said to have issues by ty cobb. and michael cohen, i think, testifies tomorrow. >> big day for him. >> why do they matter. >> they were critical to the president's campaign during the time the president may want to say manafort played a small role. that is not true. he was the de facto campaign manager even if his title was chairman. he was involved from even before he was named in the spring all the way through the convention. you have michael flynn who was obviously the president's right-hand guy here, national security, who was in the administration. and michael cohen who has known this president for a very long

lawyer that he suspects a colleague named don mcgahn as a couple of documents locked in his safe. he also speculates another white house lawyer could be a mcgahn spy. for more on this, senior fellow at the foreign policy research institute joins me. there's a million places to go with this. first of all, one has to be careful these days. there are people around all the time and the public discourse is very public. but that said, there do seem to be two approaches to how the trump administration or trump's lawyers and associates want to handle the investigation. ty cobb saying put everything out there for scrutiny and don mcgahn thinking otherwise. >> what we're seeing here is the problem when you have too many lawyers in one room. and you have them from different time periods, with different roles. mcgahn has a host of different things to deal with inside the white house. on any given day. and when trump is your borss, yu have most than any other white house counsel. at the same time, people coming

i mean, don mcgahn isn't implicated in this in his personal capacity. he's implicated in the russia thing because he's the white house counsel. so you'll represent him but not as white house counsel? i'm sure that means something to people that know this stuff. fortunately someone that knows this stuff joins us next. (honking) (beeping) we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork, your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you too. at optum, we're partnering across the health system to tackle its biggest challenges. at optum, we're partnering across the health system you myour joints...thing for your heart... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. >>> joining us now is

may see in upcoming weeks between don mcgahn, who represents white house as institution, witness to the comey firing and trump's effort to out of the attorney general own russia. what matters is -- "new york times" suggesting they are more than criminal defense team, mcgahn has papers in safe and another person talking about being a spy. we don't know why they're worried about wearing a wire. if not committing crimes not that scary. may want to test executive power and foreign policy claims against having to hand over whatever is in the safe referenced in the article. amidst new reports that mueller is zeroing in on facebook over russia-backed ads there. suggesting not only thing he's investigating. good bet it's not over and as sean carter once said, all beef returned filet mignon. renato, you've had ideas about what might be in mcgahn's safe and wider significance of what mueller is up to. >> on twitter, one thing i discuss, possible thing that could be in the safe in the original letter penned by stephen miller at direction of president trump regarding the firing of james comey. repo

law 360 was the first news outlet to report don mcgahn's new attorney representing don mcgahn as an individual and not official capacity. that's according to a person familiar with the hiring. representing his personal capacity not in his official capacity. what does that mean? he's got this new lawyer to represent him for unpaid parking tickets or something? he isn't implicated in this in personal capacity. he's implicated because he's the white house counsel. you'll represent him but not as white house counsel? i'm sure that means something to people that know this stuff. fortunately someone that knows this stuff joins us next. listen up, heart disease. you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies, and data without insights. and fragmented care, stop getting in the way of patient recovery and pay attention. every single one of you is on our list. at optum, we're partnering across the health system to tackle its biggest challenges. for tech advice. dell small business advisor at optum, we're partnering acro

he said, nothing we said reflected adversely upon don mcgahn. joining us now, curt anniversary author of "fantasyland." and ron klain is back with us. curt, at the end of the article, you have don mcgahn saying, that stuff you heard us say, we did not say. >> it's the old joke. don't believe your lying eyes. here was "the new york times" reporter taking the picture and recording notes on the iphone as they spoke and asserting the opposite, oh no, nothing bad was said about don mcgahn -- >> we didn't say he has spies. >> it's extraordinary. as you say, these loud, publicly speaking lawyers were the lawyers brought in to replace the bad lawyers. >> right. >> professionalize the trump legal team. it's extraordinary. by the way, the thing that i only realized after i read the initial story is the steakhouse is in the trump international hotel, as well. the blt steak is in the trump international hotel which as everything becomes essentially a bad tv show in this administration that's a thing that a studio executive would say, no, no, no. that's too

we know that john kelly and don mcgahn were upset. they basically read them the riot act saying you can't talk about this information in the public context. the concern being not just tipping their hand through the press what their strategy is and tipping their hand to mueller but also a potential violation of attorney-client privilege. >> heidi tell us what we don't know, one lawyer wants them to give a lot of paper to mueller, give them a little bit of hang out, like they said in the water gate days. the other suggests so me, that one lawyer thinks there's nothing to hide of any danger to the president. the other says there is something here we don't want the public to know, we don't want the prosecutor to know. >> they have different rolls here. >> is it possible that ty cobb doesn't know the trouble trump may be in. >> that's possible. he may be referring to information he didn't have. documents he didn't have that he suggested he wanted to produce to mueller. he referred to two documents that were in a safe. we don't know what th

but you really have to go back to the initial conversations between sally yates and don mcgahn, where she warned him that flynn lied to the american public and had had an interview with the fbi. she would not answer his question about whether he told the truth in the interview. that meeting, those series of meetings led to the president's first interaction with jim comey, where he asked him for a loyalty pledge. later his secondary intersacact, asking him to back off the flynn investigation. don is in the middle of those and potentially other times the president tried to intervene in the investigation. he is a witness at the least, possibly has his own legal exposure. when you look at the difference of opinion between ty cobb and don mcgahn, it is possible he's telling the truth, it being a difference over legal strategy, and possible mcgahn's self-protectionism is clouding his vision. >> besides the overwhelming, holy cow, i cannot believe i'm sitting next to these two and hearing this, what was your biggest take away? >> yeah, i mean, i think it is that there is a difference -- it's

a source told me earlier today about outside counsel don mcgahn has retained. my understanding is that he didn't retain that lawyer specifically because of mueller's queries into this probe, but he does have an attorney who doesn't work for the government, who works specifically for him. my understanding is that many of the other folks who currently could be facing imminent questioning from the mueller probe don't yet have outside counsel and will need to retain new people. that's because, look, they're being questioned not in their capacity as government employees, but in their capacity as potential witnesses. >> right. >> and even for folks who mueller is interested in talking with who are not suspected of any wrongdoing, the legal questions he's going to ask them, the requests he's going to make to them for documents are going to be complicated. and if they don't respond to those questions fully, it's something that could generate more headaches for them. of course an important piece of this is that these attorneys are very pricey to retain. >> sure. >> i re

fired from the trump white house and don mcgahn, the white house counsel and deputy no one's heard of and communications director hope hicks and jared kushner's spokesperson of all people. one of the things to figure out is how regular, non-trump people will pay for what undoubtedly are expensive legal fees. even not up to the necks in this story, being questioned just as a witness can be a very legally fraught thing. it is a crime to lie to federal investigators even by accident. today, we can report exclusively on an interesting, new poll of public policy polling coming out tomorrow morning in full and reveals public opinion on everything right now from, you know, the health care bill to jimmy kimmel to lots of other stuff, but before that poll coming out in full tomorrow morning, check out a jib let we got. registered voters who say it's inappropriate for the president to use campaign funds to pay the

the substantive debates and the mistrust, that's what worried don mcgahn and white house staff. they're trying to keep things buttoned down. this guy is leaking without even knowing it. >> you convinced machine began is -- mcgahn is worried about future impacts or protecting himself? he's among those white house aide that has hired counsel, secured his own lawyer? >> peter, first of all, i'm fabulously jealous of ken because he didn't only get this terrific scoop but he this-h their wonderful salad and i'm assuming popovers. that's serious journalism. it reveals the classic split, the classic argument of what do you turn over. you know, i think that ty cobb is right. you want to get everything out there. particularly, now that robert mueller knows about these documents being held in mcgahn's safe, it's a natural sort of instinct to want to circle the wagon to it doesn't become a ken starr type investigation where it constantly bleeds into other things away from the original focus of the inquiry. >> dana, can i ask you quickly about one of the president's tweets over the course o

this was ty cobb complaining about don mcgahn and how much don mcgahn, in his argument, does not want to give up. there was one mention even that mcgahn might be, quote, hiding documents in a safe. >> yeah. he said documents in a safe where we weren't sure specifically what he was referring to there but it was in this broader context about document production. don mcgahn from all the folks who we discussed this with is of the mind-set that he has a duty to protect not just trump but the office of the presidency. so he feels that if he is green lighting document production that would potentially jeopardize trump's ability or the trump white house's ability to assert privilege, it's not just going to affect this case and the mueller investigation. it could potentially limit their ability to assert privilege in future cases, either if they come under investigation or there are other legal issues. not only that, poppy, but it could potentially influence or limit the ability of future presidents to assert privilege by setting a precedent that if a special counsel comes in and demands a bun

mcgahn who's specialty is election law. i don't quite get if there's some vortex of incompetence when you get within an orbit of it in the white house you start acting like that. >> there might be something to that theory. the senior trump aids in the white house who i've been talking with and messaging with earlier today and yesterday regarding the new york times story regarding what mr. dowd and mr. cobb were doing. one of them likened it to me by having the president be respected by a side of the highway mall lawyer. having said that, this white house staff, or anybody working in the white house right now, accusing this legal team of being rather jv might want to the look in the mirror as you were pointing out earlier. like people and senior officials around president trump being incompetent isn't exactly breaking news. >> there's also the added layer of the fact that now everybody -- everyone is lawyered up, including white house counsel, don mcgahn who has his own lawyer for this inquest, you have layers of legal repre

nick akerman, the wall street journal is reporting tonight that white house counsel don mcgahn this summer was so frustrated about the lack of protocol surrounding meetings between president donald trump and jared kushner, his son-in-law, whose activities are under scrutiny in the russia probe, that west wing officials expressed concerns the top lawyer would quit, according to people familiar with the conversations. mr. mcgahn expressed concern that meetings between mr. kushner and mr. trump could be construed by investigators as an attempt to coordinate their story, said three people familiar with the matter. >> none of this is very surprising. >> i was going to say, you sort of suggest these things all the time. >> well, the problem here is that the lawyers in this white house are really just bit players. it doesn't make any difference what they do. it makes no difference what advice they give. the bottom line is, this is all being orchestrated by donald trump. they could try and keep jared kushner out of the oval office any time of the day. but the reality is, he's the son-in-law. he's

. >>> he's -- so the fact that don mcgahn was able to stop this time when he was successfully throwing himself in front of the train. >> also, it indicates that the "wall street journal" reported last week that trump's team has tried to preempt the obstruction of justice that mueller is building. that indicates they're extremely concerned about it. you know, the fact that don mcgahn made highlights, removed apparently trump's reference to the russian investigation and the fact that comey would not announce publicly he was not under fbi investigation, that says that don mcgahn thinking that argument is legally problematic and they needed the doj in order to bolster that rationale. >>> you know this, you know the president tweets about it. he's clearly obsessed with this. only the president knows what he did or didn't do and maybe people around him, about you they are definitely watching, including mr. cobb, if you're watching, thank you very much. natasha bertrand, thank you for being with me. >>> daca is the latest example of him proving to be opposite, gen you have ruben and josh earn

but how much can be protected in conversations within the government between don mcgahn and the president, between ty cobb and the president, among those lawyers who work for the government, that's a complicated and unresolved question. and i think john dean is right that when the two lawyers speak, it's not exactly clear what the privilege is. what is clear is if you're talking loudly in a restaurant, anybody can listen. >> carl, would breaking watergate have been easier if john dean and other were blurting stuff out during lunch near the "washington post." >> well, it would have been nice if they were there for breakfast and we were right next to them. but i think there's something very important that's happened here and what we are seeing in this argument among lawyers and their concern about the vulnerability of the president of the united states. and what these lawyers know and incidentally dowd is the one who really counts because he is trump's lawyer. the others are not. trump also has a real estate lawyer who is absolutely central to this because the prosecutors are looking at tru

and thirdly, you report that don mcgahn thought it was appropriate. can you discuss whether or not you or the president believe trafting such a letter was appropriate. >> i'm not getting into any of that. i think we covered those things extensively during that time as ty cob said earlier today to the extent the special prosecutor is interested in these matters we will be fully transparent with his investigation. and frankly i don't have anything to add beyond that. >> and with that we bring in our leadoff panel. former u.s. attorney joyce vancep former chief of staff to vice president biden and gore. ron clan, national reporter for axios jonathan swan and boston globe columnist. indira. welcome to all of you. jonathan, take us back to the weekend in may. a rainy weekend at bed minister at the golf club. what ended up happening? >> the president was supposed to play golf with the australian golfer great norman. he went down by helicopter thursday. it was a wrar rare weekend where he did not have his chief of staff reince priebus. it was donald trump, j

and thirdly, you report that don mcgahn thought it was appropriate. can you discuss whether or not you or the president believe the drafting of such a letter was appropriate at that time? >> i'm not getting into any of that. i think we covered those things extensively during that time as ty cob said earlier today to the extent the special prosecutor is interested in these matters we will be fully transparent with his investigation. and frankly i don't have anything to add beyond that. >> and with that we bring in our leadoff panel. former u.s. attorney joyce vance, who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. former chief of staff to vice president biden and gore, ron clan, national reporter for axios jonathan swan and boston globe columnist indira. welcome to all of you. jonathan, take us back to the weekend in may. a rainy weekend at bedminster at the golf club. what ended up happening? >> the president was supposed to play golf with the australian golfer greg norman. he went down by helicopter thursday. it was a rare weekend where he did not have hi

mcgahn who's specialty is election law. i don't quite get if there's some vortex of incompetence when you get within an orbit of it in the white house you start acting like that. >> there might be something to that theory. the senior trump aids in the white house who i've been talking with and messaging with earlier today and e yesterday regarding the new york times story regarding what mr. dowd and mr. cobb were doing. one of them likened it to me by having the president be respected by a side of the highway mall lawyer. having said that, this white house staff, or anybody working in the white house right now, accusing this legal team of being rather jv might want to the look in the mirror as you were pointing out earlier. like people and senior officials around president trump being incompetent isn't exactly breaking news. >> there's also the added layer of the fact that now everybody -- everyone is lawyered up, including white house counsel, don mcgahn who has his own lawyer for this inquest, you have layers of legal rep

thirdly, do you report don mcgahn thought it was inappropriate? can you discuss whether you or the president believe the drafting was appropriate at that time? >> i'm not going to get into any of that. i think we covered a lot of those things very extensively during that time. as ty cobb said earlier today, to the extent the special prosecutor is interested in these matters, we will be fully transparent with his investigation. frankly, i don't have anything to add beyond that. >> with that, we bring in our lead-off panel. former u.s. attorney joyce vance, 25 years as a federal prosecutor. former chief of staff to vice presidents biden and gore, and former counsel to gore in the 2000 recount. ron klain, reporter for axis. and journalism ethics chair. welcome to all of you. let me start with you, jonathan. take us back to the weekend in may. it was a rainy weekend at bedminster, at the gulf club. there were other plans for that weekend. what ended up happening? >> the president was supposed to play golf with the australian golfer, greg norman. he we

this isn't don mcgahn's area of specialty. but it is really an implausible situation. nick says is that these lawyers are bit players, but don mcgahn is going to be central to whatever ends up happening in this investigation. >> it's really an extraordinary story, ali. you know, everyone knows about jeff sessions, the attorney general, but the white house counsel is the second most important job a lawyer could have. and so for him to say that he would quit if there wasn't some structure between these meetings between trump and kushner, suggests that he doesn't want to be blamed if something bad happens, something like trump and kushner actually try to get their stories together which would be more evidence of obstruction of justice or even if that doesn't happen that special counsel mueller thinks that's what's going on and again there's an indictment of kushner and a bad report about trump which could lead to impeachment. >> let's talk about this ken starr comment that he thinks donald trump is going to testify. i mean, that is incredible. you were there for water dpa

don mcgahn announces that news in the oval office. almost immediately, mr. trump lobbed a volley of insults at mr. sessions. this is from "the new york times" account telling the attorney general it was his fault they were in the current situation, mr. trump told mr. sessions that choosing him to be attorney general was one of the worst decisions he had made. called him an idiot and said that he should resign. mr. sessions told the president he would quit and sent a resignation later to the white house. according to four people, mr. sessions would later tell associates that the demeaning way the president addressed him was the most humiliating experience in decades of public life. and that's coming from a guy humiliated by the united states senate when the senate refused to confirm him as a federal judge in 1986. it was after that that jeff sessions got his revenge on the senate by running for a senate seat and winning. mr. trump ended up rejecting mr. sessions' may resignation letter after senior members of the administration team said it would only create

>> they can but don mcgahn can't and you have to wonder if he really holding back to protect the privileges of the presidency or is he worried about what happened in the early month where is the president was -- we know interfering with the fbi investigation a number of times and don mcgahn at the minimum a witness to many incidents. >> talk to me about the wild card in all of this, jared cu kushner, also mentioned as a flash point and mcgahn pushing for him to step down to potentially cause more problems, but now he has a lawyer, everybody seems to have a lawyer to try to protect themselves. how does the white house do any business in this environment? >> it is tough to say because everybody lawyered up and the fact that their lawyer wondering how the presidential son-in-law factors into this, whether he should be allowed to continue to work in the white house, so many people are kind of there worrying about their own futures, there's a story of amarosa pushed out and a story of trying to have a meeting to talk about white house strategy and she was like, did you get a lawyer? i'm already

when cobb says, he's got documents locked in his safe, what could be in don mcgahn's safe? >> what could be in don mcgahn's mind if that's true because there is no attorney/client privilege between the white house counsel's office and the president. the white house counsel is not john dowd. john dowd and the president have executive privilege. mcgahn and the white house do not. and mcgahn and the president do not. so if he's hiding information, that in and of itself could be a crime. if he's hiding information at the behest of the president that would be evidence of obstruction. a lot to be sorted out through that lunch statements and i think that probably won't be lunching there again. >> to say the least. they've lost two customers. and the difference between attorney client privilege and if the president exerts executive privilege that's becoming a huge question in this moment as well. >> right. you can't assert executive privilege in the face of a criminal investigation. we've learned that in nixon and mcgahn doesn't have the attorney client privilege. i think the privi

ty cobb saying put everything out there for scrutiny and don mcgahn thinking otherwise. >> what we're seeing here is the problem when you have too many lawyers in one room. and you have them from different time periods, with different roles. mcgahn has a host of different things to deal with inside the white house. on any given day. and when trump is your borss, yu have most than any other white house counsel. at the same time, people coming in from the outside at different times in this investigation. now lawyers with lawyers and people brought into the white house with lawyers, and you're looking at a lawyer for everyone person in the white house. >> whose interests are not necessarily aligned. ty cobb's logic seems good. >> yeah. so cobb is interesting because he's basically saying, i have no fear about what is going to come to this investigation. and just open up the books and let's get this done and push through it. that's a significant point for all of us to look at. he's saying let's be open with the mueller team. i think where it gets complicated is everybody's interests along

a piece of this conversation you hear ty cobb talking about don mcgahn white house counsel and has important documents locked away in a safe. obviously, you and i have no idea what those documents contain, but why would they be in a safe? what would that signal to you or legal minds? >> i don't know, necessarily that it's not unusual that a lawyer who would be handling top-secret, classified information would have documents in a safe. that said, the fact that ty cobb was singling out that there were these documents in a safe in the context of a broader conversation about document production and different approaches to document production where cobb wanted there to be more disclosure of documents and mcgahn wanted there to be less disclosure or a more careful review of those documents before they were disclosed certainly suggests that ty cobb believed that these documents in the safe were somehow critical and should be turned over to muler and that mcgahn did not. we don't know what these documents are. all we know is there is a potential debate about that. >> as you explain in the piece, ty

. >> don mcgahn has lawyered up in the story. everybody has lawyered up in this. clearly don mcgahn knows more about what's going on, internally, with donald trump than do ty cobb and john dowd. >> if the white house lawyers don't have the same privilege with their clients. >> i want to know how michael cohn got scheduled to testify to a senate intelligence committee the same day that president trump is addressing the u.n. and that he didn't know whether it's public or private. >> suggesting? >> lawyers don't make good witnesses. >> what's the point? >> that will be a story today. and donald trump, from a communications perspective, would want all his focus on his u.n. speech. >> that wasn't the setup. >> i have to say something there. the thing that i'm taken away with this entire segment is that aimes, iowa, is home to iowa state university. >> great place. >> leading center of technology, agriculture, veterinary medicine. >> nanotechnology. >> in 2020 none of us will be going to iowa with mike. >> not with mike. i will tell you, check out -- if you're at home,

and one of the things don mcgahn the white house counsel is concerned about is do we surrender executive privilege or attorney-client privilege for future privilege by making these documents available to mr. mueller. that is not -- ty cobb makes it very clear he wants to know everything he possibly can within reason because he wants this investigation to go away. his theory is these documents will show the president didn't do anything wrong and therefore they should turn them over. >> and it's not too lofty that don mcgahn defends the institution of the presidency. >> right. >> we often ask you and about donald trump and distractions. you were talking about his twitter habit in your last answer. has u.n. week been distraction enough that we know he tweeted about the ratings of the emmy's, been distraction enough for donald trump and as i ask that it's occurring to me distractions cut both ways. are they actually going to try to get health care through under the banner of the republican party with this growing and enormous distraction of the mueller inquiry? >> well, i think the u.n. to s

and don mcgahn, the lawyer steps in and said, no, there is no way that is getting out there. but then trump himself comes out a few days later after the firing and said yes, it was the russia thing. so this supports that argument and under cut his defenses and it is a huge development and goes to show we are -- some of the sources kind of put this t this waxt a lot of times we're like the blind men touching an elephant. that is how -- we're getting bits and pieces but the more -- the further we go along, the more information we get, this -- they connect. they connect backwards. and this supports the russia thing. his statement. >> well kelly, you remember on the night there in the dark in the bushes there, former press secretary sean spicer said there was no white house involvement, but this reporting shows that not only was there white house involvement, it was led by the white house and from the very top. now what does it -- let me ask the big question here. and we get into the minnisha, but what does this mean for the degree of confidence in the system, in rosenstein and t

according to "the new york times" sources, white house counsel don mcgahn managed to prevent the president from sending the screed to fbi director james comey. mcgahn believed that the trump and miller co-authored letter was problematic. mr. mcgahn and others on the white house staff were alarmed that the president made the decision on the unprecedented action of firing the fbi director after consulting only his daughter, his son-in-law, and the 31-year-old steven miller, who has no legal training and, like the president's daughter and son-in-law, has absolutely no experience that would earn him a senior position in any white house other than the most out of control, most incompetent white house in history. mr. mcgahn identified several passages in the trump/miller letter that he wanted deleted. mr. mcgahn then arranged for the president to meet with attorney general jeff sessions and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to discuss firing james comey. during that meeting with the president, mr. rosenstein was given a copy of the trump/miller screed. mr. rosenstein agreed to write his own

cobb reportedly suggested that white house counsel don mcgahn was withholding documents that were locked in a safe. also saying colleagues may be wearing wires to record conversations for mueller. i'll get that and more from republican congressman will heard, a member of the intelligence and homeland security committees. our correspondents and specialists are standing by. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny outside trump tower in new york city. jeff, the president will be staying there tonight as he prepares for his major speech before the u.n. tomorrow. >> reporter: wolf, president trump has been here at home at trump tower working on that speech, i am told, throughout the afternoon. aides describe it as one of the most important speeches he will give. of course it is going to fill in some of the blanks on the trump doctrine on iran and most urgently, on north korea. >> the main message is make the united nations great -- not again. make the united nations great. >> reporter: president trump spri striking a family tone at the united nations today in his first vi

he said that the white house counsel, don mcgahn, has a couple documents locked in a safe. what kind of information would mcgahn have in a safe that he wouldn't be sharing with the rest of the legal team? >> well, i will tell you my first thought was something from an earlier "new york times" piece where they talked about how don mcgahn saw an early draft of a letter that stephen miller wrote at the direction of the president about why he wanted to fire james comey. and what "the new york times" had said in that earlier story is that mcgahn had deleted parts of that letter, had edited that letter, and had comments he put in that letter with his advice. that would be extraordinarily important evidence for mueller because it would tell mueller what advice the president was getting from the white house counsel before he fired comey. so that would be very important to the obstruction case. i would imagine that, you know, mr. mcgahn might want to keep that from others to try to minimize the extent to which, you know, knowledge of that came out if he was going to try to, you know

you have the white house council don mcgahn working with the president on campaign, with these outside lawyers from washington who have come in. there's real disagreement how to handle the special counsel, how to move forward, what to reveal, what not to reveal. what's the line in terms of handing over documents. i think that lunch really tells you about that tension. >> the tension which you describe in which ken vogel reports is -- how much to cooperate with robert mueller what, to turn over. you see these washington lawyers coming, you know, right head-on against the long-time don mcgahn loyalty whose father was acgahny whose father was a lawyer for the trump casinos in atlantic city. this is family. >> i think there's a divide between some of these lawyers who have dealt with special counsel and other justice department investigations in the past and those who come to this from a different perspective, from a business perspective. i'm sure there are con flinecti flikts how much to bring forward. this is an issue the white house will be dealing with months and months, maybe even lon

i think don mcgahn is do ing a terrific job, not just handling this investigation auxiliary but he's got a big, full plate of things he's working on which appears to be going on. judicial appointments is going very well. i think that these two guys messed up, but i wouldn't -- >> they're not guys. they're significant people. >> i think some people are acting very well and i think mcgahn is one of them. >> he's the counsel to the president of the united states. and the private lawyer to the president of the united states. these are not two entry level staffers that made a rookie mistake. >> i agree with you. >> they're not two guys -- >> they are two guys that made a mistake. at a very bad level. >> they're two very high-level guys, who i'm sure the president picked who should be at the pinnacle of the legal profession and understand all the requirements that comes to them as officers of the court. >> even separate from that, honestly, would any of us sit there and have a private conversation in this restaurant or any restaurant in this day and age? i wouldn't. >> absolutely not. i ha

rinse priebus and white house counsel don mcgahn have hired a lawyer amid the investigation into russian meddling. this comes on the heels of a friday bombshell, a story lost amid hurricane coverage. mueller gave the white house the name of six aides he'd like to interview. let me ask you, just about the atmospherics of this russia investigation bearing down on the west wing of this white house as i know some aides, especially the national security circles, feel like they're just starting to get their sea legs under the kelly rule. but mueller is really sort of speeding up and accelerating his irn interaction with this west wing. >> it should come as no surprise we're seeing reports like hope hicks and rinse priebus now on the outside, don mcgahn getting their own lawyers. it would be remarkable if they weren't. one thing we're starting to see is we're going to start seeing legal fees putting an enormous burden on a lot of these people. $1,000 is fine if you're jared kushner. it's not necessarily fine if you are a midlevel staffer. and i suspect, based on what i'm hearing, we're going to

it is significant that don mcgahn opposed it. do we have any indication of the contents. >> "the new york times" does not have the contents but what's significant about this as it pertains to the mueller investigation, brooke, is that this could reveal the president's real reason for firing fbi director comey and that, of course, could be significant in mueller's obstruction of justice investigation. so, here's what "the new york times" is reporting. they say the letter was drafted by the president and his top aide, steven miller, at trump's bedminster golf club in may when they were trying to devise a rationale behind comey's eventual dismissal. this letter was never actually sent in part because white house counsel don mcgahn opposed it and ultimately, a letter written by rod rosenstein was released and that facultiulted comey for handling of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. the question is, does it disclose that the russia investigation, perhaps, was the real rationale behind letting comey go. of course it was just af

>> so i had written an article, you know, basically analyzing the reports that don mcgahn, the white house special counsel, had blocked a letter that trump had written in may outlining his reasons for firing james comey. he had actually blocked it from being sent to james comey because he thought that it would be legally problematic. so the article that i wrote was kind of explaining that if don mcgahn was ever called to testify before a federal grand jury, then his testimony would be very instrumental in the obstruction of justice case that mueller is currently building, reportedly building against the president. ty cobb did not like this article and he wrote in a very lengthy statement, which was unusual for him, he usually gives very clipped statements to the media. he wrote a very lengthy statement about how this letter was wholly exonerating, how there was very little, if any, pushback in the white house when the president wrote it. so i simply asked him, well, if that is the case, if it was exonerating and if no one in the white house saw any problems with it, then why was it u

that don mcgahn felt you cannot send this letter. >> it was repetitive, according to sources. it really was essentially, you know, the raw, undistilled thoughts of the president on james comey, a man with whom he had growing dissatisfaction and had been thinking of firing since the transition. there was an oblique reference into possible russian collusion where the president referenced and i'm paraphrasing this, but it was essentially, you have privately told me i'm not under investigation. the president was very frustrated that comey would not make that public. and so frustrated that even though his lawyer suggested this should not be in there, rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general produced his own memo. he had a copy of the president's draft. he then wrote his own memo, which became the rational for while comey was being fired. the justice department was, in fact, looking at firing comey even before this happened. they were looking into his handling of the clinton e-mail investigation. there was a strange collision of events, essentially. but the president cared so muc

three, what happened when sally yates came to the white house to meet with don mcgahn to warn him mike flynn was not being honest about communications with russia and might be compromised by the government of russia. number four, mueller asked for anything related to flynn subsequently getting fired by white house. although technically he was allowed to resign. five from the "new york times," also reports that bob mueller has requested that all communications about the trump foreign policy team, controversial and nonconventional foreign policy team that trump announced during the campaign, asked about them. carter page, jd gordon, keith kellogg, george pap populous and -- not all famous but george papadopoulos has been involved in setting -- with putin. ca carter page considered possibly a knowing russian agent. two of the names. can see why looking for information related to them. six, documents related to meetings between president trump and james comey at fbi. and 7, records of discussions in the white house about james comey getting fired. number eight, this is interesting, reporte

. >> don mcgahn was probably delighted to see that. >> probably wishes he could have shredded it. the justice department filed this -- both the fbi and nsd confirm they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the march tweets, those are the infamous tweets that obama wiretapped trump tower. the justice department has to say, no, sorry, wrong, it didn't happen. >> hopefully that's the final nail in the coffin on that story. this is just going towards -- if they're saying, no, this wasn't credible what he's saying on twitter about this investigation, it does leave open questions about other times when he was trying to object fu obfuscate t things that the obama and clintonen people. >> and we know the president has been made to the justice department for other reasons. >>> sharing notebooks, including some white house venting, next. . ...i was always searching for ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i had it covered. then i realized managing was all i was doing. when i finally told my doctor, he said humira was for people like me who have tried other medications,... bu

three, what happened when sally yates came to the white house to meet with don mcgahn to warn him mike flynn was not being honest about communications with russia and might be compromised by the government of russia. number four, mueller asked for anything related to flynn subsequently getting fired by white house. although technically he was allowed to resign. five from the "new york times," also reports that bob mueller has requested that all communications about the trump foreign policy team, controversial and nonconventional foreign policy team that trump announced during the campaign, asked about them. carter page, j.d. gordon, keith kellogg, george papadopoulos jose joseph and -- not all famous but george papadopoulos has been involved in setting up meetings weapon russian government officials, including putin. carter page considered possibly a knowing russian agent. those are just two of the names. on the list. can see why looking for information related to them. six, documents related to meetings between president trump and james comey at fbi. and 7, records of discussions in t

those people include sean spicer, and reince priebus, fired from the trump white house and don mcgahn, the white house counsel and deputy no one's heard of and communications director hope hicks and jared kushner's spokesperson of all people. one of the things to figure out is how regular, non-trump people will pay for what undoubtedly are expensive legal fees. in connection with the russia investigation. even not up to the necks in this story, being questioned just as a witness can be a very legally fraught thing. it is a crime to lie to federal investigators even by accident. today, we can report exclusively on an interesting, new poll of public policy polling coming out tomorrow morning in full and reveals public opinion on everything right now from, you know, the health care bill to jimmy kimmel to lots of other stuff, but before that poll coming out in full tomorrow morning, check out a jib let we got. registered voters who say it's inappropriate for the president to use campaign funds to pay the legal bills? 64%. 64% of americans believe president trump should be paying his own

those people include sean spicer, and reince priebus, fired from the trump white house and don mcgahn, the white house counsel and deputy no one's heard of and communications director hope hicks and jared kushner's spokesperson of all people. one of the things to figure out is how regular, non-trump people will pay for what undoubtedly are expensive legal fees. even not up to the necks in this story, being questioned just as a witness can be a very legally fraught thing. it is a crime to lie to federal investigators even by accident. today, we can report exclusively on an interesting, new poll of public policy polling coming out tomorrow morning in full and reveals public opinion on everything right now from, you know, the health care bill to jimmy kimmel to lots of other stuff, but before that poll coming out in full tomorrow morning, check out a jib let we got. registered voters who say it's inappropriate for the president to use campaign funds to pay the legal bills? 64%. 64% of americans believe president trump should be paying his own legal bills in the russia case. he is not. of

mcgahn relaid the news to the president and his aids. almost immediately mr. trump lobbied a volley of insults at mr. sessions. telling him the attorney general it was his fault they were in the current situation. he did resign. he wrote a resignation letter to the president but the president would not accept it quote. trump ended up rejecting sessions' resignation letter after senior members of his administration dismissing the ag would create more problems for a president who already fired an fbi director and national security advisor. senior advisors told him that accepting mr. sessions' resignation would sow more kew s inside administration. really? the idea this administration didn't want to let anybody go would chalk too much attention. they were afraid of shedding anyone as of may? they took drastic steps even against the president's wishes to stop losing key and high profile staff as of may because that would be too much chaos? really? they stopped -- how does that square with their actual behavior? it doesn't make sense that sen

mcgahn on the right. we know this because ty cobb was talking about the russia investigation and talking about mcgahn, apparently, out loud at lunch with another of the president's lawyers in a washington steakhouse where he apparently didn't realize he was sitting next to a reporter from "the new york times." the times writes about the tension between the two men, quote, at the heart of the clash is an issue that has challenged multiple presidents during high-stakes washington investigations, how to handle the demands of investigators without surrendering the institutional prerogatives of the office of the presidency. now, it goes on to say the uncertainty has grown to the point that white house officials privately express fear that colleagues may be wearing a wire to surreptitiously record conversations for mr. mueller. all of this unfolds as a current and a former trump ally gear up for the role they will play in this investigation. long-time lawyer for both trump and his business, michael cone, will t

thus joining vice president mike pence, white house communications director hope hicks, don mcgahn, jared kushner and many others in the president's orbit who have all retained legal counsel. robert mueller is expected to start interviewing those associates this week. today, the house intelligence committee interviewed a key witness of its own in its investigation of the russia 2016 investigation. the nearly four-hour interview with trump confidant roger stone, he said he denied any collusion with russia and denied having any direct contact with wikileaks assange. stone tweeted last week, "trust me, it will be soon the podesta's time in the barrel." weeks later, wikileaks began releasing hacked e-mails from the account of john podesta, hillary clinton's campaign chairman. stone did reaffirm that he communicated with an online persona known as guccifer 2.0, a suspected russian agent who has taken credit for hacking the dnc. he denigrated the whole russia investigation and to attack the special counsel. >> do you think the president should fire bob mueller? >> yes. >> why is that? >> becaus