that's with bob mueller. for everyone else sitting out there, roger stone, for example, this is bad day. obviously a very bad day for the president. my biggest take away from this in the broad spectrum of what's going on from a prosecutor's perspective is mueller has been climbing this ladder and reaching the highest wrungs of this ladder. this next step is to target the closest to the president. that's donald trump junior and jared kushner who are par tis tan -- participants in that trump tower meeting. if that illegal quid pro quo took place you could have serious federal charges brought against don junior and kushner. if you get those two under indictment, they are very close to the president. if i'm the president, you're sitting very uncomfortable tonight. >> you're zeroing in on whether there was a crime committed or conspired. that's an issue, did that happen and as all fair prosecutors have to do on a probative side, do you have enough to win the case? you wouldn't necessarily want to hang that entire

we don't know. >> the way bob mueller -- i have worked with bob mueller. the way he's looking at it is i'm now looking to getting to the bottom of the original natsinatissue of collusion. what paul manafort was doing in his representations and violations of federal law are all prior to the trump campaign and so forth. there's ancient history to what he has plead to. now he was of course the campaign manager. this is a very helpful thing for the american people. i know that the nation is so divided. we should want the truth. let's get the facts out. let's not have fake news. let's just have the truth. i think mueller is in a situation to help us do that. >> manafort has been in the joint defense agreement with the president's team. how does that complicate things? does that go away? >> the joint defense agreement does go away now. joint defense agreements are founded on common interests. the interests have diverged. what doesn't go away is privileged information that was shared by the president and his lawyers with manafort and his lawyers originating from

he agreed to work with bob mueller's team. he referred the case to the d.c. prosecutor. perhaps the most striking part of the case is this, admits helping a russian and ukrainian making a $50,000 donation to the trump inauguration committee. of course, foreigners aren't allowed to donate money to inaugural committees. there's no sign trump inauguration committee knew about it. with me nbc investigative reporter kennedy lanian, evelyn farkas, deputy defense secretary kim lee, associate counsel during whitewater association and former u.s. attorney guy lewis. great to have you with us this friday. ken, let me start with you. tell us about this guilty plea and what unfolded. >> ayman, this case appears to have come out of the investigation of paul manafort, donald trump's former campaign chairman, running this massive lobbying on behalf of russian backed ukrainian oligarch. sam patten comes in after the oligarch,ian kovic had fled in exile to russia and manafort trying to reconstitute political party, known as party of regions, formed something called opposition block. acco

you're absolutely we don't know what bob mueller knows and what bob mueller may find out but there are country indications of what we do know about president trump plasma personal involvement and that is the two indictments which are very powerful documents of the 11 russian, in one instance, the 11 russian individuals, the two organisations, millions of dollars being funnelled into the american election process to foment chaos or at least anger in the process. one paragraph in the indictment bob mueller, who i have great respect for, returned, shows that on the very same day in new york, russian funds financed and anti—trump rally and a pro—trump rally. so this is really nasty stuff you are dealing with, the nastiness of the kremlin and putin, the folk. and so that is what i think bob mueller will be remembered for eventually. as much as the congress has done so far, he helped shedding light on this but there is nothing right now that points to donald trump. 0k, thank you very much forjoining us, ken starr. it is interesting to hear that. i was struck by what he said about the pre

but the question really is if he is talking to bob mueller, what does he know? what did the president trust him with? what did the president talk to him about? was the president ever worried about legal jeopardy in issues relating to this, and what were his thinking behind it if that's the kpacase? and it certainly seems michael cohen is not a friend of the president these days and it seems he's willing to give up the goods on the president because he feels he's not only been thrown under the bus but he's the one feeling the pain. the president, who directed him to make these payments, didn't help him out, didn't help pay his legal fees, eventually abandoned him. so michael cohen sees no reason to be faithful, loyal anymore, and so he potentially could be vindictive here and go after the president and tell bob mueller everything, whatever it is he knows. >> >> thank you for your time today on this saturday. >>> still ahead, a look at the number one concern residents face across the carolinas tonight after surviving 24 hours of rain and high winds from tropical s

he is now pleading guilty to bob mueller. much, as we you so heard earlier, we do not know if manafort will cooperate, but it could get him more leniency at sentencing if he does. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: what is the scene in fayetteville david. >> right now they have overcast skies, and raining pretty steadily, wind is not too bad, but residents in this county woke to warnings from the natural -- national weather service that a couple rivers could overfill their banks, possibly by sunday. we are keeping watch on the cape fear river and the noose river. those being the most problematic. julie: fayetteville is on the northwest edge of the eye, away from the eye of the hurricane. david, what kinds of preparations have we seen residents making? they are little inland, but there have been a lot of warnings. correct, on the eastern side of fayetteville and the south side is really the worst. that is where there is the biggest portion of the cape river winds through. i spoke to a resident who said he had to eva

that's under bob mueller's investigation. that's not the southern district. >> that could have been the name of his firm. we've seen public reporting on the fact he was essentially selling access to donald trump. >> which is not necessarily illegal. >> no, but you're talking about a quid pro quo in the context of a criminal investigation. that could be of interest. >> absolutely. >> let me bring chuck back to something we talked about weeks ago. we noticed michael cohen's silence in contrast to a very public phase of this investigation for him. do you maintain your observation from a couple weeks ago that that silence was probably a sign that he was continuing to effort to cooperate with the mueller investigation? >> i do. i think what it meant and what it continues to mean is that he was trying to sell what he had. now i think dan makes an important distinction between, and you did, too, between cooperation and communication. and it may be that the prosecutors don't need, don't want, don't like, but probably don't need or do

>> i don't know if it's even that he trusts bob mueller so much as it is that he faces reality. he was found guilty by a jury of his peers and bob mueller's team is -- at the end of the day, that is really kind of how this whole entire investigation is moving. michael cohen flipped relatively quickly. for paul manafort is took some time. at the end fd day, this is an investigation that intensified and one that, to test his point, has largely continued and not been impacted by the attack on its credibility from the likes of 1600 approximapennsylvania a >> tessa, the tweets attacking the mueller investigation under scores part of the problem that republicans are pointing to. the economy is humming, but trump is tweeting that the republicans are worried. congressional leaders say they cannot rely on the booming economy to win over undecided voters. the leaders add this to their -- it's an obscured by the inflammatory moves on immigration. vladimir putin and on other fronts. tessa, what are republicans focusing on to maintain control or avoid embarrassing losses in these districts?

with paul manafort pleading guilty, we are again asking the question what will bob mueller do once he wraps up his sfles many investigation? many predict that he will send his findings to the justice department or house judiciary committee. that is what happened with the watergate investigation. those findings have yet to be made public, but as the "new york times" report, three prominent legal analysts are calling on a court to lift that veil of secrecy. johnny savage and jill, let me start with you. take us back to march 1974. with a did mr. jaworski do with his information? >> we had briefcase full of information. we asked the judge for permission to turn it over under a very little used rule that allows the grand jury to use its inherent authority. and gerald goldman who was another assistant prosecutor on our trial team and i have written an article on nbcnews.com that had urged a long time ago that the public be made aware of the facts that mueller is gathering much like the facts were made known to the house judiciary committee. so we turned it over to them as a roadmap. it did

>> i think bob mueller from everything i've seen is doing what he needs to do. i know he's under a lot of criticism including from the president and i missed the whice president would not do that, i don't get helping his cause. in essence, what we are seeing now is an echo of what happened to my investigation, the investigation i was privileged to leave. even in the mega demonize a prosecutor. attack anyone who crosses your path. president clinton was very clever, a very successful politician. he did it indirectly through surrogates at a time for the white house staff. this president has seen fit to put his chin out there and lay it out on the line. i think it's a tactical blunder and it will come back, i hope not to hunt him because i want my president to do well and succeed. >> bret: abc is reporting that paul manafort, former trump campaign manager has struck a plea deal to avoid the second trial. we have not independently confirmed that. if that is the case where do you think we are on the scale of this investigation? i understand that you don't know what bo

in the past year, the fbi and bob mueller the special counsel have been pulling those threads. we see what's happened with mike flynn, paul manafort and others, bob mueller has been able to uncover a lot there. as he pursues this the coming weeks will be very important. over the next several months i think it will be critical. and if the republicans are going to continue to pursue this partisan path, i wonder what's going to happen if bob mueller's report comes forward with some compelling information about violations of the law. >> you talk about a partisan path and you look at the patterns of this president, is bob mueller's job safe, do you think? >> i don't know. i don't know. i think this president has demonstrated his willingness to do what he can do try to undermine this investigation. and whether it's rod rosenstein or whether it is bob mueller, i think there are some real questions about what the white house is going to do to try to continue to undercut them. >> so, let me give you a question that you will know the answer to. it has to do with carter page, the man who

it could mean bob mueller is saying we're not going to give you an inch on anything and force him to, but it also may mean that he's cooperating. the reason i say that is when somebody cooperates they usually have to admit to all of their criminal conduct. if this were really just cutting a deal between the two, that might be something that bob mueller would give. so obviously we're trying to read tea leaves here, ask we'll know for sure in about a half an hour but that's something that did jump out at me. >> glen, here's what i don't get. if it's a plea deal with cooperation, my guess would be, well, that's a good thing for mueller, but if it's a plea deal without, does that mean or does that hint to this idea that he's got a side deal already cut with rudy giuliani that president trump will pardon him? >> yes, you would think that a plea deal with cooperation that required manafort to tell special counsel mueller everything he knows about the president and about the campaign would definitely be the worst thing for the president, but i actually have another view of this. if mr. muell

because anyone who gets indicted by bob mueller goes down. and the longer you wait to come clean, the worse deal you're going to get, the more time you're going to face. so i think it obviated the need for these trials which gives mueller time to focus on other things, it gives a key witness who has already seen what happens when you mess with bob mueller. he tried to tamper with witnesses, he got caught, he went to jail. he better come clean. >> let's bring in contributor to "time" magazine, and politics reporter for the "new york times." it's great to have both of you here. jane, let's start with you. what is the thinking? does this cooperation agreement equal bad news for the president, for his son, for his son-in-law, jared kushner, of course. they were in the trump tower meeting. or maybe all of the above? >> i think it's very worrisome for president trump and you had the president talk about this last week with his sense of flipping, right? they're flipping people closer and closer to him, and the idea of these kinds of investigations i

bob mueller is hunting right now. trump's lawyers, meanwhile, sending their own mixed signals about whether donald trump will ever face mueller. rudy giuliani announced to much fanfare that trump wouldn't answer any questions about obstruction of justice, even in writing. that made headlines, he added later, well, nothing's totally off the table. that is the public message from trump's lawyer. but remember the private message, according to bob woodward's reporting just this week is that it's all the opposite and that trump himself told one of his own lawyers he didn't want to face mueller ever. i'm joined now by maya wiley, former counsel to the mayor of new york city. who's worked as prosecutor in the southern district of new york. and msnbc cristian farias and bill crist kristol, editor at large of "the weekly standard." maya, when you look at the rudy argument there, if everything is on the table potentially, that means mueller would face trump in a certain situation, by woodward's reporting undercutting that and w

bob mueller is hunting right now. trump's lawyers, meanwhile, sending their own mixed signals about whether donald trump will ever face mueller. rudy giuliani announced to much fanfare that trump wouldn't answer any questions about obstruction of justice, even in writing. that made headlines, he added later, well, nothing's totally off the table. that is the public message from trump's lawyer. but remember the private message, according to bob woodward's reporting just this week is that it's all the opposite and that trump himself told one of his own lawyers he didn't want to face mueller ever. i'm joined now by maya wiley, former counsel to the mayor of new york city. and msnbc christian ferragus and bill kristol. >> maya, when you look at the rudy argument there, if everything is on the table potentially, that means mueller would face trump in a certain situation, by woodward's reporting undercutting that and would make it seem like this is all posturing. put that not context of bob mueller sending a trump aide to j

the president hasn't liked the fact that he appointed bob mueller. a special counsel. they have been getting along better lately. so who knows what could happen. >> better than zero. you know what, this marriage cannot be saved. you know -- >> in the long-term. they're having counseling now. and, yeah -- that's right. >> but the marriage between sessions and the president not so good either. >> not -- well, i don't think there is any doubt that the president is going to clean house of the justice department, like the moment the polls close on election day. sessions is gone. it probably is likely that rosenstein is gone. and this matters, because rosenstein has been the protector of the independents of robert mueller. and if rosenstein is gone and some puppet is put in there who will limit or eliminate the mueller investigation, that has historic consequences. >> exactly. >> well, look. we know the line of succession as it relates to justice protocol. noel francisco becomes the person who oversees it. he was an attorney for a firm that represented some donald trump -- d

take a listen. >> bob mueller is focusing on several things right now. obviously, he's gone after individuals and he's gone after russians that were involved in coming after our election system. they are getting very close to making a case for obstruction of justice. not only by the steps that were taken in terms of the president demeaning and attacking a witch hunt, but also the fact that rudy guiliani himself has said that the whole purpose of their effort is to undermine the credibility of the special counsel. >> so ben, to that point. is the former cia director right? is the special counsel's office close to making an obstruction of justice case? and what evidence could mueller have, from what we've seen built in public so far with all of his indictments and guilty pleas? >> so the short answer is we don't know. and director panetta -- he may be right, but he's being a little bit overconfident there, based on what the available public evidence is. it is totally clear to me that the president has behaved in a fashion that was intended to obstruct the

mueller decides he wants to issue the president a subpoena. if he doesn't agree to an interview which is clear he's not going to do and mueller decides he needs that interview with the president, he issues a subpoena, it will go all the way to the supreme court. brett kavanagh has written on this question. he has written about and spoken about whether a president should be able to not just be subject to a subpoena while in office, but if he can even be investigated criminally while in office. so i think when he comes before the senate, one of the big questions -- you often see supreme court nominees who won't talk of cases because they might come before the court. because he's written about it and because of this, i think he has to answer whether he believes united states versus nixon would set a precedent, who have to turnover documents in response to a subpoena. whether that's settled law or up

so the unknown, what he could tell bob mueller and what bob mueller is after in this deal with paul manafort is what does have the white house nervous right now. >> chris: we should point out it's not like mueller just got on speculation. the fact is to get a deal lawyers have to offer a proper wear in effect they would say if you were to give us a deal, here's what our client would say. >> bob mueller knows what paul manafort can offer him. it's the white house that doesn't know. they are the ones that are in the dark right now but bob mueller would not have made this deal with manafort presumably unless they thought there was some amount of information that would be helpful to their case. >> chris: congressman chaffetz, how worried should president trump and his team be about manafort's decision to make a deal? >> i think there's a reason to be very worried. and as long as there's a special counsel i think the president has some degree of peril. you combine that with cohen and his striking a deal, you just don't know exactly what it is that they have. there's been no evidence of any collus

which is that protecting bob mueller the special counsel and his investigation is what matters most to me. the president may well have grounds for a conversation with rosenstein. my concern is who would come next. given that the president continues to tweet and to speak in ways that threaten or undermine the independence of the attorney general, the department of justice and the reliability with which bob mueller may be able to carry out his investigation i think all of us in the senate, republican and democrat, should be concerned about what would happen if he were to fire rosenstein. >> you co-authored a bipartisan bill to protect mueller. have you spoken to any of the republicans who have signed on to that bill, maybe senator tillis or graham about where they stand now and whether or not they're willing to push mitch mcconnell to bring the bill to a floor vote? >> senator flake gave a floor speech i think just last week in which he called on mitch mcconnell to bring this bill up for a vote. i think it's striking that this bill that senator tillis and graham, senator booker and i int

so the unknown, what he could tell bob mueller, what bob mueller is after in this deal with paul manafort is what does have the white house nervous right now. chris: and we should point out it's not like mueller just bought on speculation. the fact is to get a deal, lawyers have to offer something called a proffer where they, in effect, say if you were to give us a deal, here's what our client would say. >> exactly. bob mueller knows what paul they're the ones that are in the dark right now. but bob mueller would not have made this deal with manafort presumably unless they thought there was some amount of information that would be helpful to their case. chris: congressman chaffetz, how worried should president trump and his team be about manafort's decision to make a deal? be very worried. as long as there's a special counsel, i think the president has some degree of peril. you combine that with cohen and his striking a deal, you just don't know exactly what it is that they have. there's been no evidence of any collusion, there's been no evidence that has anything affecting the outcome of

about that decision. >> you don't know what bob mueller wants to talk about. >> i believe that bob mueller wants to talk to the president about why he fired jim comey. and that he believes -- >> how do you know this, chris? >> he's pushing you for an interview because he believes he can only get that understanding from the president himself. >> just think about what you said just then. like i said, we're friends. you can only determine, in your view, what the -- the status of the intent is by interviewing the president. >> yes. >> what prevents every u.s. attorney from doing the same thing? you fire somebody, you don't like it, i think there's bad intent, so i interview him. >> he says he removed him because he didn't like the probe and you want to know why. >> if hillary clinton would have fired james comey, would that have been okay? >> would he have been in the middle of an investigation that involved her and threatened her presidency? >> would you think she could not fire him? >> context matters, counselor. >> that's what i'm saying. under the context of the election -- listen, i was v

i have great confidence in bob mueller is a person so i am in the school that bob mueller is a good and decent man. semper fi. but i must say, and the book, i tried to make the point, and did you make the point, that when there are these kinds of charges or concerns about partisanship, the special counsel needs to respond to those, so i tell the story of why it is that we built guardrails to make sure there could be no fair and objective attack that the investigation was partisan. of course, the attacks came. but the attacks were very ill-founded, and i think that was part of what bob mueller was obligated to do. so i do have concerns about the people around him. >> tucker: i think those are well-placed. two quicktw things about your book. first, you say you came close to charging hillary with perjury. she said, i don't know, i can't recall, dozens and dozens of times in your interview. clearly she was lying. why didn't you charge or? >> you have to be able to prove the case. as i've made clear in the book, there are clear differences, tucker, between what a prosecutor knows, and what t

the manafort/mueller deal leaves the trump white house rattled. >> everyone gets indicted by bob mueller goes down. all of these cooperating witnesses are kcorrupted. >> meanwhile a former white house insider says the manafort deal is essentially meaningless to president trump. so you will hear the two vastly different views next. >>> the carolinas, an epic weather event and it is expected to get worse. the death toll is on the rise as hurricane florence lingers on the latest of the report. watergate road map. a bit of his ri can help robert mueller when he starts to wrap up the russia probe. we begin with live picture of capitol hill where republicans are moving ahead are plans to vote on president trump's pick, brett kavanaugh. we have new reactions from senator kamala harris raising concerns she pressed brett kavanaugh on during the confirmation hearing. here is what she told my colleague. >> it is not about only his believes but it is the fact that he's been a political operative and twice he used the term racial spoiled system. there was a young woman who went through every step tha

though there is bipartisan legislation that would protect bob mueller. well, that fig leaf has been yanked away and exposed for what it is, a bunch of wishful thinking. well ought to act affirmatively now. we ought to take up this bill in the last week of this session and make sure that mueller is protected so that we don't have to wonder what happens in the kind of constitutional crisis that would follow a fast or slow-moving saturday night massacre. it's one of the reasons i think susan collins' comments are very important and they run quite contrary to what you're hearing from others, though, like grassley and graham who are saying that if the president wants to fire these people, they're happy to find replacements. this really puts our democracy on shaky ground. so the best thing we could do in this break the glass moment is take up a bill to protect mule sorry that we don't invite a crisis. >> congressman adam schiff, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. sir, thank you for being with us tonight. much appreciated. >> thank you. >> al

he said this was a big win for bob mueller. he said this opens new doors for bob mueller and his tone in terms of the implications, it seemed to me to be different than what we have been hearing from somebody who has been defending trump from a legal standpoint in the court of public opinion. do you view this as different in nature? >> well, i think nick has laid out a list of possibilities. i'll add another because paul manafort worked and collaborated for years with john podesta. knows a lot about the interactions of russians with hillary clinton when she was secretary of state. half a million of dollars went to hillary clinton. >> is there any indication that is where -- >> we don't know. it's endless. we have a situation which this investigation could go kind of anywhere robert mueller wants to take it. we don't know. we know every bit of evidence that's been made public to date does not support a claim that the trump campaign collaborated with, colluded with the russians. that's the most salient point. the walls are closin

what should we kee >> peter, everyone that bob mueller has targeted has cooperated. they may have held out at fir and take a case to trial, but they have come in and told him what he wants to know. he seems to be circling key adviser of the president. roger stone. he is someone who proclaimed to have knowledge of the wikileaks leaks before this happened. that is next. then the question of the presidential interview. whether the president will do the interview ahe special counsel subpoenas him. that is key. >> good ttformation. miller, thank you. >>> another big story from washington this morning athe supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh is denying allegations of sexual misconduct recently waged against him when he w in high school. the white house and senate republicans are blasting claim a as democratic dirty trick. we have geoff bennett with more >> reporter: theis morning, supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh is fhting back over allegations of sexual misconduct. saying i categorically deny this allegation. i did not do this back in high school or atytime. the in

about that decision. >> you don't know what bob mueller wants to talk about. >> i believe that bob mueller wants to talk to the president about why he fired jim comey. and that he believes -- >> how do you know this, chris? >> he's pushing you for an interview because he believes he can only get that understanding from the president himself. >> just think about what you said just then. like i said, we're friends. you can only determine, in your view, what the -- the status of the intent is by interviewing the president. >> yes. >> what prevents every u.s. attorney from doing the same thing? you fire somebody, you don't like it, you think there is bad intent, so you interview him. >> he says he removed him because he didn't like the probe and you want to know why. >> if hillary clinton would have fired james comey, would that have been okay? >> would he have been in the mid of an investigation that involved her and threatened her presidency? >> would you think she could not fire him? >> context matters, counselor. that's what i'm saying. >> under the context of the election -- listen, i was

so dowd and jay secolo go over to bob mueller with the goal to communicate to the special counsel that there is no way this president can testify because he is incapable of telling the truth. why would they go to mueller to explain that? >> well, it is peculiar at one level because you certainly wouldn't tell the prosecutor my client is about to lie to you, but i think it is just one of the many reasons why the lawyers for the president have basically been avoiding this whole issue of testifying before mueller's investigation. they have nominally said they're negotiating, but i don't think anybody really believes this interview was ever going to take place. this is the president that the "washington post" has said has told 4,000 lies since he has become president. the fact that he might not be a good witness is not shocking. >> but to hear if from his own lawyers, jeff toobin, to go to bob mueller to explain this. >> there are no greater realists in the world than criminal defense lawyers. they are not starry eyed about their own clients. now, admittedly it's unusual to say it to the p

and when bob mueller reports out his findings or returns indictments, everybody will be able to see in writing what it is the president was asked and what he refused to answer. >> glenn, it is good to talk to you. thank you for the update. glenn kirsner. and coming up, my conversation with jon stewart. >> there is no grand nostalgia for a washington that was that functions beautifully and i it takes constant vigilance and as i've seen the grassroots rise up in different areas, hopefully they'll be able to break through that in permanent -- that impenetrable shield. you know, man, you've been down there. what do congress people do four or five hours a day. >> making calls. >> for what? for money. >> jon stewart alongside two 9/11 responders to talk about the state of politics today and the looming deadline for the victims' compensation fund tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. and we'll be right back. here's a trip tip: when you search hotels on tripadvisor... enter your destination and the dates of your stay. tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to find the best deal on the ri

>> so you said bob mueller or, so have ever had a discussion about bob mueller. i used to work and administration with bob mueller. >> what about his investigation? have you had a conversation with anyone about his investigation? >> sure. i've talk to fellow judges. >> anyone beside some fellow judges? >> about bob mueller? >> about has investigation. i asked the question just a minute ago. i'm surprised you forgot. have you had this conversation with anyone about the investigation that bob mueller is conducting regarding russia interferes with our election or any other matter? >> the fact that it's ongoing, a topic in the news every day, i talked to, talked to all the judges about it. it's in the courthouse in the district of columbia and so i guess the answer to that is yes, so the answer is yes. >> and did you talk with anyone at kasowitz benson torres. >> with you asked me that. i needd to know who works there. >> i think you can answer the question without me giving you a list of all employees at that law firm. >> actually i can't. >> why not? >> because i d

and what is -- just as interesting to me is bob mueller's response. if you keep reading what is in the woodward book, mueller apparently responded to john dowd saying, i understand,which i think says a lot about how prosecutors, including bob mueller, have come to see the president of the united states who may well be a target in this investigation. >> and folks -- and bob woodward included might be looking at the washington post fact checker which has over 4,000 false or misleading claims in the first 550 days. that might be one reason why. katie phang and ned price, thank you both. >>> a contentious week of hearing for brett kavanaugh. the democratic efforts to derail his nomination appearing to go nowhere. what we now know about kavanaugh that we didn't know before the hearing began. i don't keep track of regrets. i never count the wrinkles. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on... is staying happy and healthy. so, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. new boost® high protein nutritional drink now has 33% mor

it means bob mueller is still going after something. the plea deal on friday i think is more significant than we think. we've never heard of this guy, but the reality is if they were looking into money from that point, what else are they looking into from that same period? >> on that front real quick, because rudy giuliani actually talks about this. to your point, this is the first time the justice department publicly charged a person for helping a foreigner secretly funnel money into the trump inauguration. something a lot of people have been looking into. rudy giuliani was asked about that. take a listen to what he had to say. >> turned out to be this irrelevant indictment where i think mueller turned into the private prosecutor. what does this have to do with president trump? not a single thing. has nothing do with collusion. some guy donated to the inauguration. my goodness, 500,000 donated to president trump. >> i think rudy giuliani answered his own point there, which is what does this have to do with president trump? it was the t

and new reports paul manafort reaching a plea deal with special counsel bob mueller. now, that would have huge ramifications for where the mueller probe is headed. our legal experts are all over this along with a u.s. senator. we will bring you that important news coming up this hour. and later in the show we're also going to dig into news with implications that long outlive the balm shells in this bob woodward book or op-ed. today delaying another lifetime appointment to supreme court and why one senate democrat is calling the fbi. >>> we begin with millions bracing for hurricane florence. right now torrential rain and winds gusting up to 120 mile per hour that's battering the carolina coastline. bringing warnings of life threatening storm surges. i want to go right to joe friar in jackson, north carolina, braving the elements to report. joel, what can you tell us? >> reporter: ari, just as the afternoon continues to go along the winds continue to get stronger, the winds picking up. this is the scene going to play out the next two or three days. this is jacksonville,

>> we really can't tell, we just don't know what bob mueller does know. what it boils down to is bob mueller is an officer of the justice department, he's accountable within the hierarchy of the justice department even though regulations have assured him of independence. i think the current regulations tell us that before bob mueller goes out and investigate something having nothing to do with russian collusion, he has to check with the boss. he has to check with the deputy attorney general. >> martha: given what we heard from brett kavanaugh, after he was done with that experience, it made him think twice about the whole process, about how far afield it became. how dangerous it was to the presidency and to the country. >> i think that something bob mueller who i know and respect is painfully aware of. this is a distraction to the president. brett kavanaugh who was a part of the investigation and described his role in the book which was an important role, he performed brilliantly just as he did in his confirmation hearings, i think what wade on brett kava

watch what adam schiff had to say about manafort's cooperation with bob mueller. let's listen. >> manafort is a key person to help us unwind whether this is the most improbable string of unlikely coincidences of whether this was an an act of conspiracy. clearly, the trump team is terrified about what manafort may have to say. >> that's how you view it, this is about fear of manafort? >> absolutely. absolutely. they may think they know what manafort has to say because he was part of the joint defense agreement, but they have to know that he may not have told them the full truth. >> glenn, so what could manafort have to say to mueller? >> well, frances, it seems pretty clear that paul manafort could very well be the bridge between the trump campaign and russia. it's been well reported that manafort was working for many years for the pro-russian interests in ukraine. he was lying about his lobbying efforts on behalf of those forces here in the united states. and, you know, it seems to me, frances, that when somebody in paul manafort's situation, who had already been

bob mueller may choose to farm that out to the state of new york or the southern district or anywhere else. but michael cohen is in a great position to offer a great deal to the special counsel. >> if it stays russia specific, just as a point of speculation, which as you know i'm not a particular fan of, but just to see why people would find this significant. even if manafort and cohen say the president knew everything, he directed his son, he told jared and manafort go take that meeting, i hope you get some dirt, this will be great, and he told everybody anything you can find, good, he knew about all of it, he's lying when he says he didn't know. where's the crime? >> well, attorney general mukasey said we don't even know what the crime would be. we do know what the crime would be because bob mueller's told us in the form of several indictments where he has charged a conspiracy to defraud the united states and -- >> what does that mean, to the audience? >> what it would mean is a conspiracy to violate campaign finance law. it's a conspiracy to accept foreign assistance when that viol

what does that mean for bob mueller? greg: he will continue. it becomes a political question of who the president appoints a matchup. i do not think there will be much appetite in congress to see who will do the president's bidding. whoever takes the job would have to have some credibility as a serious enforcer of the law. david: one of the serious , inenders is mr. francisco line, and in the past, he has opposed it in other situations. greg: yes, but he comes from the law firm of jones day, and it played a large role in the trump campaign, so it could be argued that he might be conflicted out of that because he works at -- he worked at jones date and it was closely tied to the president. david: what is the irony? president trump is saying bob mueller should not be doing anything before the midterms, but at the same time, president trump is getting involved in the investigation before the midterms. greg: the president goes his own way and the turnabout is not always fair play. yes, it is becoming a political issue. david: people on the hill are

your sense of where things stand with bob mueller and his investigation? >> i have a feeling bob mueller continues to move methodically through the investigation. we suspected, we have heard reported recently michael cohen is now talking with mueller's team. it is not surprising that that has taken some time to develop with all of the documents that were seized by the government from the residence and the hotel room and the business of michael cohen. it takes investigators a long time to look through them and to prepare themselves to begin meeting with michael cohen. i suspect those meetings are underway, but i also wouldn't be surprised if it took another month or two before we heard more from the michael cohen potential cooperation camp. where i see this going, david, is probably -- it is going to go a little radio silent perhaps around the mid terms, and then i would fully expect bob mueller to ask the grand jury to return a great big conspiracy indictment of everyone that he has accumulated enough evidence of being part of a criminal conspiracy to defr

but bob mueller is an honorable guy. and i served with him in the administration of president bush 41. and i know him to be an honorable guy. he's going to give it his best judgment. >> does it make sense to you that donald trump jr. is giving television interviews? i mean, there's no -- i mean, i'm not sure i understand the strategy behind him giving television interviews, but is it wise just from a legal standpoint? >> well, there are two perspectives. one is the public relations strablg and preparing the battlefield, so to speak, being aggressive -- >> which is certainly something that the president's team has been doing as well. plag playing to public relations. >> as i describe it in my book, they're taking a page, and they say they're taking a page from what the clinton white house did, which is continually attack the prosecutor, raise questions about the prosecutor's motives and so forth. and it can take a toll. that's the public relations perspective. the legal perspective is, needless to say, we're talking about

and what he learned from that is bob mueller's team is pretty damn good, and he got caught. and he paid a big penalty for that in his guilty plea today. so he knows i think if he is less than truthful and less complete and bob mueller finds out about it, he is going to pay a big price. as dan goldman was saying, he had to admit not only to the universal charges in that courthouse, but also to the ten charges that the jury hung on which means if his cooperation turns out to be less than completely truthful, that not only can be tried on those ten counts, but his admissions can be introduced. basically, its nail in the coffin. there won't be another hung jury on those ten counts. i think he ought to have gotten the message loud and clear. but also, if he has information pertinent to whether the president is obstructing justice, mueller is going to want to hear that, and also i think we have to be concerned with the prospect you mentioned which is the president might choose to obstruct justice and try to take away any incentive that manafort has to cooperate by pardoning him. a

>>> continuing our coverage, rod rosenstein appointed bob mueller to oversee the russia probe. president trump meeting with rosenstein on thursday, the same day as judge kavanaugh's hearing. it's trump thinks firing rosenstein would save brett kavanaugh's nomination. i was just discussing theorys with josh gerstein. but then you add donald trump's own personal lawyer, today, calling for a time-out of the investigation. >> i think it's really important that there be a step back taken here. and a review. and i think it's a review that has to be thorough and complete, and a review that has to include an investigation of what has transpired with all of these statements and all of these allegations, going back to strzok and page and bruce ohr, and a time-out on this inquiry. >> i'm joined now by mya wylie, and dan rather. he's covered his own share of presidential crises over the years, including watergate. in fact, here he is questioning president nixon in 1974 about overseeing that investigation into himself. >> how can the house meet its constitutional responsibilities while you,

so he'll tell bob mueller supposedly everything he knows on that front. the question is, does it lead to a prosecution or public information forbe us to find out at some point if time? >> craig unger, what do you think the special office will find out as a result of this plea? >> i think there are a couple clues in the document filed today if you pull them the this reds start -- threads start to unrafb el. one is if you look at the do you mean, you see that manafort laundered money through a company call the lucicle company well, that was tied to a game ivan person bhorks is partners with most the brains behind the russian mafia. and sydney and mogul a vis, they have been around trump 25 years. trump started lapdering money for the mafia through trump properties in 1984 the fbi cased all over brooklyn and found they lived in trump tower. the russian mafia operations based in trump tower for many of these years. there is also a guy not mentioned by fame but position. if you will excuse my ukrainian, his real i'm in is sergei lobochken, and he was chief of

bob mueller's team did not take the bait back when this was going through the new york court. >> gabe, i want to bring you in. so not checking the box. but what is it that cohen could offer, what is it that he has, or is it just about kro corroborating witness? >> certainly could be both, but the reality is what you have in cohen and not someone like manafort is someone with a very long, very close relationship to trump and a lot of the financial interactions that he has had for years and years here. and cohen clearly thinks that there is some benefit in talking to mueller other than just letting the world know that he is talking to mueller. so whether it is some sort of deal or whether he genuinely thinks that there is some sort of material information that he can offer the mueller probe that isn't out there yet, that remains to be seen. but he has it, no one else really has in terms of a personal opportunity to tell mueller about this is again, years worth of firsthand experience. >> and of course we're hearing from michael avenatti, he tweeted that michael cohen is a criminal and h

and that's where you have bob mueller playing real football. do you think that's a fair way to look at it? >> yeah, i think there's a lot of noise, a lot of chaff that the white house 3s up that at the end of the day doesn't mean that much. that said, i'm not sure there will not an pardon. i think there's a decent chance. the question really is not so much whether the president might pardon manafort out of some kind of strategy where he thinks, if i do this, they won't be able to use this, or something good will happen. i think it's more a question of pure retaliation against the mueller probe. they can take their big trophy at this point and somehow upend the game. knock the chess pieces over. >> you're saying something very sad, which is that because donald trump might treat the pardon power like an angry tweet, it's more likely to have a pardon even if it back fires on him? >> i think so. remember, the prosecutors, they have manafort's story in various ways. in the way that nick just said that he stipulated to his story about himself. but th

bob mueller's not backing down. gets delayed, that works to trump's detriment. >> the back and forth whether or not he'll submit to ar interview or wants to is tedious. you want to talk to bob mueller, knock hadn't his door he'd be happy to clear his schedule and sit down with you. they're playing a cat and mouse game. if you want to do the interview, go do it. >>> still ahead, is the united states already in a constitutional crisis? gene says yes and also theys who can save us. we'll read from his new piece coming up. ♪ hungry eyes ♪ one look at you and i can't disguise ♪ ♪ i've got hungry eyes ♪ i feel the magic between you and i ♪ ♪ i've got hungry eyes ♪ now i've got you in my sights ♪ applebee's new 3-course meal starting at $11.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. you always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed? let's say it in a really low voice. carl? lowest price, guaranteed. just stick with badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com with my bladder leakage, t

right now he's doing us a signatu service standing between the white house and bob mueller. >> there would be a serious reaction of the law enforcement intelligent committee? >> i think there would be a dramatic reaction. i think folks know that bob mueller is a fine and decent and honest and thorough special counsel and the men and women working for him are sticking to the facts and the laws. dpeting rid getting rid of rosenstein would bring us one step closer to either eliminating special counsel or circumcising it and that would make it difficult for bob mueller and his team to do his job. >> chuck rosenberg, thank you for being with us on a friday night. >> thank you, rachel. >>> a little bit of a whiplash introducing news night, more to come. stay with us. stay with us ♪ come to my window. ohhh. ♪ crawl inside, wait by the light of the moon. ♪ applebee's to go. add a fountain drink to your next order for just 99 cents. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. this is the angel oak. some say the oldest living thing east of the mississippi. it's weathered countless storms

i don't think robert mueller is going to be -- bob mueller is going to be concerned. guy: there is a possibility we end up not with a kitchen of the mueller probe, but hamstringing the mueller probe. how will the president take advantage of the situation? >> he would have to do it through the person that would replace rosenstein, which would , who is moreisco of a partisan type then rosenstein. rosenstein of course was a republican. what he should do is say everyone carries on business as usual. this is a doj investigation that needs to be carried through to completion. whether he does that, that would be quite a departure from what we have rbc from the president -- from what we have already seen from the president. see him shut down the ongoing investigation, i think we will see contentions of obstruction of justice. vonnie: i want to point out, going down the rabbit hole of who might be taking over if this were to occur, and we are reporting that it has occurred according to axios, he said that this solicitor general has had nothing to do with criminal prosecutions,

you know, i worked for bob mueller, nicolle, he didn't smile a lot. that said -- >> just to keep it secret, right? to be mysterious. >> just to be mysterious. that said, he got to the truth. he gets to the truth. this reminds me actually of something matt said in our earlier segment when we were talk bing about the fact that donald trump junior was saying everything's fine, he's not worried. that's what you expect. you expect people who said these things to mr. woodward to deny having said them. you expect people under investigation to say everything's fine, aisi'm not worried. i remember mr. manafort's attorney coming out of court every single day saying it went awesome, up until the time he was convicted on eight felonies. this is what we expect. >> i'm surprised -- truth doesn't just emerge, it's sort of tumbling out and feels like what bob woodward and robert mueller and the prosecutors in the southern district of new york, and, perhaps, the prosecutors involved in the manafort -- what they all had in common was they were purveyors in sort of the