and donald trump jr. has said the same, including essentially under oath to congress. >> an e-mail exchange in which donald trump jr. infamously responded, "if it's what you say, i love it." the question has always been, did candidate donald trump know about that meeting before it happened? >> it's hard for me to believe that donald trump jr., in that circumstance would not communicate with his father and say, dad, look what i got. >> so the mueller team appears to be looking at this in terms of attempted collusion. why did they agree to accept the meeting, what was the state of mind of the trump team, and they're also looking at it through the lens of obstructed justice. >> if the president had a hand, and it appears he did, in drafting a false statement as to the true meaning of the trump tower meeting, then the special counsel asking, is this obstruction of justice? >> not long after the trump power sit-down, music publicist rob goldstone ended his working relationship with russian pop singer emin agal

. >> donald trump jr. said if it is what you say, i love it. >> his reaction to that was not to say, is this all right? should i call the fbi? >> it is potentially criminal. it is embarrassing. it's a scandal. >> this meeting in some ways goes to sort of the heart of what robert mueller has been looking at. he was appointed to look at any connections that existed between the trump campaign and russia. >> there wasn't anybody higher in the trump campaign except donald trump himself at this meeting. >> so how did a celebrity publicist wind up as a central player in that trump tower conference room? and later as a witness in mueller's grand jury room? his background is far removed from politics. >> he was at one point in time a reporter. he got his first job for his local newspaper at the age of 16. he then became a radio reporter, focusing on the entertainment industry. but some point he realized that he kind of had a knack for promotion. >> rob goldstone grew up in manchester england in public housing. but

so if are you donald trump jr. and anybody else who has come before congress and said anything that may not be true, you august to be sweating bullets right now. >> what do you make over senator burr? he said i rer referred a lot of this. today the chairman of the intelligence committee republican senator richard burr, north carolina, had this warning for those who had appeared before his committee. >> i won't get into the numbers, but we have made referrals from our committee to the special prosecutor for prosecution. in a lot of cases those might be tied to lying to us. you know, my message yesterday was if you lie to us, we're going to catch you and we're going to prosecute you. period, end of sentence. >> that's a warning. today. >> big news, we know that adam schiff the top democrat on the intelligence committee, who will be becoming chairman has been saying for months. i have been saying this for months, he believes perjury, lying to congress has occurred in their hearings, in their private sessions and he wa

no concern about donald trump jr.'s information. he was open, straightforward, forthright and honest. for his part, president trump lashing out from argentina tweeting, lightly looked at doing a building in russia. put up zero money and guarantees and didn't do the project. robert mueller's prosecutors said they might file new charges against the president's former campaign chair paul manafort because they say manafort lied to them. manafort's lawyer says that's not true. his sentencing is delayed until march, lester. >> kristen welker, thank you. >>> president trump will meet with the chinese president at the g20 tomorrow. among those he'll be watching closely, farmers in america's heartland, feeling the pain of the trade war between the two countries. let get more from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: the trade war is having a chilling effect in the ly has been on this farm since 1861. so 157 years. depends on soybeans targeted with chinese tariffs of 25%. >> it's creating challenges for us out here. markets are dow

let's start with donald trump jr. >> so donald trump jr. will have to answer about the blocked call that was made by his phone to a party who i believe was probably the president after that meeting he had with a number of russian operatives. he has been very unwilling to be truthful about that. and i think once we are able to access those phone records we'll find out that he made a call to his father. >> and what is your most pressing question for jared kushner, should he appear again before your committee? >> i think what we will want to hear from jared kushner is the extent to which he was in communication through third parties with wikileaks and how they used the opportunity to coordinate the dump of documents and the various ways that they pushed out their message via e-mails and twitter. >> the incoming chair of the house judiciary committee said something that got a lot of people talking on sunday when he was speaking with jake tapper. he said, yes, i believe impeachable offenses exist by the president. but just because they're impeac

zeidenberg writes, trump, jr. was asked about his role in the negotiations about building trump tower moskow, and while a transcript of kushner's testimony has not been made public, it is hard to imagine that he was not also asked about the trump organization's business ties to russiaa. joining us now is the author of that op-ed piece, peter zeidenberg. thank you very much for joining us tonight. make your case on why you believe that special prosecutor robert mueller is working on a wide ranging conspiracy. you make the point that collusion is not a legal term, a wide ranging conspiracy that involves the trump family. >> well, as to the conspiracy itself i mean there's been several dozen indictments of russians who were charged with 371 conspiracy. it's a conspiracy against the united states for unlawfully interfering with the functions of the 2016 elections. so we know that robert mueller believes that this conduct violates u.s. conspiracy law. now, the question is did they conspire with anyone. so that's what i

donald trump jr. because his contacts with wikileaks, messaging with wikileaks by donald trump jr. also could be involved in this indictment. so the roger stone connection here, like spokes on a wheel, could be very, very far reaching. >> malcolm, talking about this in the back alleys. it sounds like dick cheney talking here, back alley stuff, but it is the world in which roger lives. he was nixon's guy. he's a smart as hell guy. he does the tricks of politics which are sometimes not so nice. >> well, you're absolutely right, but i think he may have bit off more than he can chew here. you know, bob mueller's a pretty smart guy himself and i think what he's going to do here is he is going to build a cage for roger stone to jump into and then try to lie his way out of it. and he's going to start it off with an indictment. and, you know, i think this tier of people who are going to be indicted next are going to be some very surprising characters. i believe julian assange himself and perhaps the wikileaks

tower deal and that donald trump jr. had some involvement in that, that's going to get us a lot closer to actually getting to president trump. >> and in that same memorandum cohen's lawyers state that michael voluntarily took steps to cooperate, even 23under the full bore attack of the president. >> part of what he's asked for is for mueller not to object to a probation deal. so the judge could give him a probation deal. i think it's interesting to look at how cohen is doing this strategically versus how manafort is doing this strategically. what we've got likely is cohen has been able to get a deal where he is able to avoid jail time. manafort was not able to get that deal from special counsel so he is playing his cards now and he's trying to seek a presidential pardon in my opinion. i think what we're seeing is cohen was able to get what he wanted from special counsel. so that meant he's more likely to continue to cooperate and be truthful and reveal all of these things. when we compare that to manafort who is doing a

trump jr.'s testimony according to his lawyer was for it to do different proposals, and that was a different deal than at a michael cohen deal. does that stand? >> that actually might be true. i mean, the one thing we know for sure is that donald trump really, really wanted to see his name on the moscow skyline. he was pursuing various different plans to build a skyscraper there as early as 1987. so it is possible that the aguilera deal was totally separate from the cohen deal. there are little bits of indication of that in the fact that cohep and sater were running main point on the 2015-2016 deal whereas don jr. and ivanka were running the show on the other situation. >> when you step back and you're looking at this from the russian side, you've got a guy who he and his family are desperate to break into your market and you're the one who holds the keys or the green light to let him do it. >> yeah. i mean, i don't like to get over my skis. i like to work with the facts i have and the informati

barbara, is there any way donald trump jr. would have not told his father about this meeting in your view? >> i can't imagine it because i certainly know people that were more experienced, that have more standing, that were more respected by trump that still wouldn't pull a stunt like that. he would be too afraid. what if something went wrong? his father would bury him. >> the kids weren't empowered to do whatever you want, absolutely not. very few people are empowered to do anything they wanted to begin with. but, you know, his inner circle was comprised of people that were loyal to him, not that they were good at what they were doing. trump thinks he knows everything, so he's going to dictate to someone like tillerson. >> good to see you as always. >> thank you. nice to be here. >>> next, reporters forced to blur the line between a good story and, well, can you tell what that is? opportunity is everywhere. like here. where you can explore the world knowing you can always find your way home. ♪ let's do the thing that you do

joyce vance, where does donald trump jr. fit into this. that's something the president seems to be concerned about that's driving a lot of his concerns, anxieties around this. and that if michael cohen lied to congress in this way, that opens the door to don junior having done so. >> that seems to be one of the first lines of interest people have right now and, of course, trump jr.'s lawyers have pushed back. if we're talking only about his testimony on capitol hill, they are saying that he was truthful. that he indicated that although he knew about the first efforts and was involved in the 2013 effort to build a trump facility in moscow, he wasn't a part of -- was only peripherally aware of this later development that michael cohen played a larger role in. this is really interesting because we find ourselves heading straight back into the collusion question. and if, in fact, there was some sort of financial quid pro quo or a bribe involved in back and forth over election assistance and building in russia, then trump could find himself rig

we know that paul manafort was in that summer of 2016 trump tower meeting set up by donald trump, jr. with the russian lawyer toal allegedly get dirt. he was a prime witness and the special counsel said he lie and hasn't cooperate and we should be learning more about those lies in the filing depending on how much is actually made public. brianna ? >> mj, mueller's office is expected to file a memo for michael cohen, the president's former lawyer. tell us more about that. >> we should be hearing both from special counsel robert mueller's office and investigators on how much jail time if any they think michael cohen should get. that sentencing is set to happen next week. keep in mind, this has become his new strategy. they are hoping to make the case that because he had cooperated extensively with various investigators, they are pushing for no jail time for michael cohen. when this recommendation happens today, we should hopefully get insight on the extensiveness of how much michael cohen cooperated and on what topics and what helpful information if any he has been able to provide to in

now is donald trump jr. in the cross hairs? people are asking. >> so certainly there will be scrutiny of his testimony. it's not enough to say that there were lies or omissions. they have to be material to the subject of the investigation. so once that transcript in its entirety is available for mueller's review, a determination will be made. it's not just his testimony up on capitol hill to have trump jr. to have exposure, there's the possibility now, as we move on to scrutiny of the trump moscow deal, that there may be improprieties there, possibly violation of the foreign corrupt practices act or other sorts of issues that might come to light. so i think it's premature to say that he's not in the cross hairs, particularly because it doesn't appear that mueller has had them in front of the grand jury, and usually it's the targets of investigations who don't go in front of grand juries or come up for questioning. >> questioning seth atenna, and then the answers and what are those answers and the answers so far it seems to be a

ivanka, donny trump jr., trump, they lie about how many units they've sold. they're lying about material things. >> like trump soho, in other words. >> yes. >> exact same thing. >> the trump soho model goes international. and the trump soho, which propublica and wnyc showed last year, they were being criminally investigated for fraud. because they were making material misrepresentations and it was ivanka, donny trump jr. they had e-mails, and we wrote about this, they have e-mails where they say, well, we can't say that it's 60% sold this week, because we said that last week. we've got to up the number. when it was actually 15% sold. >> how common is this practice, though, among people that do business like the trump family? meaning, you know, selling the brand, selling the name so that, you know -- >> that kind of licensing. >> because before he got into office sore some think it's still okay, but the brand was a pretty strong brand. when you saw trump property, you knew it was first class, you knew it was going to be nice, you know, the inside of the hotel,

i think you'll see donald trump jr., i think you may see ivanka trump as well be caught up in this. i think this also underscores the importance of house democrats to make sure that the mueller investigation is protected. that should be one of their first orders of business when they take over the new congress, and nancy pelosi has made it very clear that she plans to make this one of the first pieces of legislation that hits the floor. >> yeah. sophia and donna, i want to ask you both, sophia, you'll go first, about the defense of michael cohen. they sound a lot like donald trump's own defense. >> i'm not surprised he was doing international business. cohen is in trouble for lying to congress, not anything related to the campaign or russian influence. >> is that a fair argument, so fear fee a? have you surprised given the president said he had nothing to do with russia? >> what i am surprised is a senator echoing those sentiments which is inappropriate and something that in his oversight of the senate shouldn't be echoing these types of things. we should be looking at the bottom li

donald trump, jr. we have russian emissary who turn to hillary, will you meet with her? that e-mail also goes to paul manafort, then unindicted come not in jail, and running the trump campaign. and jared kushner, the presidents son-in-law, the top trump advisors at the time. i'll get the email and all agreed to meet. they all say that not much came out of that meeting in terms of hillary clinton, but the e-mail said that this emissary was coming as part of a project, a plan, a secret scheme the kremlin had to help trump and so what did they say in response to learning the kremlin had a a secret plan to help trump? in donald trump juniors own words, i love it. so forget about what came out of the meeting. i think the most significant thing that happened was the trump campaign sent a signal to the russians, we are all in whatever you want to do to help us, we won't say boo to that. we will not go to the fbi and ratchet up. we will not tell the public the russians plan to intervene in the election. so it

so donald trump jr. is now exposed to possible felony charge for lying to congress, and you have a very charged up judiciary that is sick of the trump team constantly undermining the rule of law and slagging the credibility of law enforcement officials who now are going to put evidence in front of the public. >> what does it mean that federal problems, the mueller probe and judge here in new york cited the crime of lying to congress. a whole bunch of people, much wider universe than just jared. steve bannon was before congress. rinse priebus. a bunch of these folks went up to congress and it is a known/unknown whether they were truthful. >> the message sent today was a couple of things. there's an understanding now that when you lie to congress, you are lying to the american people. you are lying to the folks we elected to represent us, number one. it's serious. number two, you are right. the list of people who went before congress in various committees and hearings and may have been directed to say what

whether it's donald trump jr. and the trump tower meeting. whether it's the financial issues involved with manafort and others and the president himself. so either you believe that these 16 people are the biggest idiots in the world and had no idea that they were getting played or you believe this was -- the russians could not believe how great this was. because they found 16-plus people who were willing to play with them and they had something of course on donald trump, which is his financial desires regarding trump moscow. you know, it was a win-win for those two parties and a total loss for the american public. >> i know you want to get in but i just want to get greg in. this list includes two of trump's children, his son-in-law, his long-time personal lawyer, campaign chairman. is there any way that these meetings and conversations were happening without trump's blessing? >> well, i mean, it's hard to fathom that his inner circle and as you say his closest parts of his inner circle would do things that they thought might go against their

roger stone, donald trump jr. in particular, perhaps even a jared kushner. >> well, jared kushner did have a seven-hour interview. hi almost forgotten that when i was reviewing the bidding here. but it doesn't tell us anything definitive, but most legal experts would say if you look like you could be an important witness in a case but you haven't been interviewed, you might be a target. and, you know, just because robert mueller, as we've reported, is expected to file a report to the justice department by mid-february doesn't mean he's not also going to file a series of indictments. we just don't know. in fact, i was surprised frankly when we learned or were told, and it's not just lawyers in the case. justice department officials have been told to be ready for mueller to file his report in february. don't forget, he does it confidentially to the attorney general, who then decides what to do with it. and it doesn't mean necessarily that's the end of all the investigations. in fact, the southern district of new yor

whether it's donald trump jr. and the trump tower meeting. whether it's the financial issueses involved with manafort and others and the president himself. so either you believe that these 16 people are the biggest idiots in the world and had no idea that they were getting played or you believe this was -- the russians could not believe how great this was. because they found 16-plus people who were willing to play with them and they had something of course on donald trump, which is his financial desires regarding trump moscow. you know, it was a win-win for those two parties and a total loss for the american public. >> i know you want to get in but i just want to get greg in. this list includes two of trump's children, his son-in-law, his long-time personal lawyer, campaign chairman. is there any way thatted these meetings and conversations were happening without trump's blessing? >> well, i mean, it's hard to fathom that his inner circle and as you say his closest parts of his inner circle would do things that they thought might go against t

doesn't mean that trump jr. may be in the clear? we will ask former independent counsel sol wisenberg, he works on the investigation and the princess. next. ♪ matt: voilà! jen: matt started turning into his dad. matt: mm. that's some good mulch. ♪ i'm awake. but it was pretty nifty when jen showed me how easy it was to protect our home and auto with progressive. [ wrapper crinkling ] get this butterscotch out of here. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. there's quite a bit of work, 'cause this was all -- this was all stapled. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. but we can protect your home and auto and then, more jobs robegan to appear.. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. ♪ >> shannon: the me too movement is far from fashions at the new york times is claiming he employed an on-call employee to perform acts. traces with the case to tell us more. cbs hired to outside law firm shannon to conduct investigation and

the idea that donald trump, jr., or somebody didn't tell the candidate that, given donald trump's involvement in all these other smaller details or more specific details, i mean, it's hard to imagine that he wasn't informed. >> it would be out of character for the way that donald trump, the candidate, operated in the way that the children and the campaign team worked as well. and also today donald trump said something that i thought was very interesting. he said michael cohen handled only low-level matters. so if that's the case and we know that michael cohen handled the payoff, i don't know if the president is suggesting that there are high-level matters and bigger payoffs and michael cohen, who handled the trump tower multi-million dollar moscow deal, were there other matters with russia that involved higher-level attorneys? i don't think he wants to have it that way. i think michael cohen actually was intimately involved in donald trump's personal, political and financial worlds. >> congressman swalwell, appreciate you being here. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> the rela

and remember donald trump, jr. is now the one responsible for the trump organization. so all the real estate deals that they are doing around the world where other foreign governments are trying to put money in, don junior is the one who was aware of all of that and supposed to be keeping the business afloat. so his representations he's only peripherally involved seems at odds with the role of head of the trump organizations business operations. >>> and when we come back, some republican senators are finally joining democrats to challenge president trump, and it is about saudi arabia and the assassination of journalist jamal khashoggi. if you're 65 or older, even if you're healthy, you may be at increased risk for pneumococcal pneumonia - a potentially serious bacterial lung disease that can disrupt your life for weeks. in severe cases, pneumococcal pneumonia can put you in the hospital. it may take weeks to recover making you miss out on the things you enjoy most. just one dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from pneumococcal pneumonia. it's not a ye

and remember donald trump, jr. is now the one responsible for the trump organization. so all the real estate deals that they are doing around the world where other foreign governments are trying to put money in, don junior is the one who was aware of all of that and supposed to be keeping the business afloat. so his representations he's only peripherally involved seems at odds with the role of head of the trump organizations business operations. >>> and when we come back, some republican senators are finally joining democrats to challenge president trump, and it is about saudi arabia and the assassination of journalist jamal khashoggi. ♪ ♪ the new capital one savor card. earn 4% cash back on dining and 4% on entertainment. now when you go out, you cash in. what's in your wallet? now when you go out, you cash in. for each job exxonmobil creates, many more are created in the community. because energy touches so many industries, it supports 10 million u.s. jobs. >>> tonight in the republican controlled senate some republicans are finally breaking with president trump.

and jared kushner and the president's son, david trump jr. are both alleged to be implicated in that whole trump tower meeting, what they knew about and the like. so i suspect over the next week or two, we will hear a lot of news, not just about donald trump but about his son and his son-in-law. >> also, look, not to play favorites here, mike, but jared kushner has a lot more tentac s tentacles. he was calling for manafort to be brought in earlier. i don't know how he newman fort. he is a young man. manafort is an old political hand. the guy is like me. i have known who paul manafort is for 30 years of my life. but he wanted him brought in. why? he was at the trump tower meeting, true, but he was participating with michael flynn and talking with kislyak. he had a second meeting with the russian ambassador and other business people. why? what did manafort and he have in common that would make this operable for him? so there are questions there about him. crime? who knows. >> there is a tendency for us to get a little worked up over every itera

that came in response to a photo trump jr. posted on instagram mocking her, who is a self-described democratic socialist. what do you make of that back-and-forth question xp six this confirms what i have long believed, which is that social media is making us all stupid. we should unplug, spend less time on twitter come and have face-to-face conversations with people. i don't do surround yourself with people that agree with you. but seek out people that disagree. >> melissa: you are on twitter, right? >> mike: my staff is on twitter. i direct them, and there are parameters. i approve everything he gets put out on twitter. i don't personally have it on my phone. so i'm not checking it every single day. sometimes they use it to filter nerdy foreign policy things. >> melissa: i understand this is trump jr., but knew see people start to get into the mudslinging with the trump team it seems like it needs to a sitn where you release your dna results and you less native american that m. >> jessica: i don't think that will happen to al

jimmy fallon brought this up last night. >> donald trump jr. says his dad is a regifter. when robert mueller gives the president a subpoena, he will just regift it. >> i thought it was a funny story. have you regifted? >> i have. the thing with don junior, he has the name initials as his dad. >> it works. justified? >> yeah. >>> "early start" continues right now. >>> what he did was all unrelated to me except for the two campaign finance charges that are not criminal and shouldn't have been on there. they put that on there to embarrass me. >> first the sentence, then the silence. now the sabotage. president trump putting all his troubles on his attorney michael cohen. >>> and now looking into the inauguration committee and the pro-trump super pac. record cash was raised. was it raised for influence? >>> a 7-year-old girl dies. dying in u.s. custody. she just crossed into the united states illegally. what dhs is saying. >>> what are you doing? it's too early for this. >> a racist meltdown on the brooklyn train. wait until you hear what one woman said during the rush in new

. >>> court filings could dial up pressure on donald trump, jr. michael cohen was once close to the family and met with all of the trump family members and he has been talking to mueller. the meetings go back to august and even lied about the outreach about that famous trump tower idea. he also dished about briefing the family members of donald trump within the company. there are not too many people who fit on that list and a major player in the company and here is what donny deutsch explained to me. >> this is just the tip of the iceberg. the trump business empire is going to be picked apart for the next 20 years. that's built as a criminal enterprise. >> that's a man who knows what cohen knows. the meeting with russians that trump jr. organized and paul manafort organized. we don't know what will be publicly released. we can see a lot of redactions. we know that mueller asked trump about the project that is a presidential level question and that was related to the meeting at trump tower. that is all out there. here is a former judge and his view

and jared kushner and the president's son, david trump jr. are both alleged to be implicated in that whole trump tower meeting, what they knew about and the like. so i suspect over the next week or two, we will hear a lot of news, not just about donald trump but about his son and his son-in-law. >> also, look, not to play favorites here, mike, but jared kushner has a lot more tentacles. he was calling for manafort to be brought in earlier. i don't know how he newman fort. he is a young man. he never had exposure to politics before. manafort is an old political hand. the guy is like me. i have known who paul manafort is for 30 years of my life. but he wanted him brought in. why? he was at the trump tower meeting, true, but he was participating with michael flynn and talking with kislyak. he had a second meeting with the russian ambassador and other business people. why? what did manafort and he have in common that would make this operable for him? so there are questions there about him. crime? who knows. probably not. but questions. >> there i

donald trump jr.'s attorney is saying there are no contradictions between what michael cohen is saying and trump jr.'s senate testimony. is there legal jeopardy in your mind? could there be for don jr. and potentially ivanka? >> there could be, alex. i don't think the charge that he pled guilty to recently in and of itself is all that consequential, but i agree with katie that what mueller is doing is he is building the bridge between the campaign and russia and he has now used michael cohen as part of his construction of a bridge. when it comes to the kid, ivanka and don jr., i think there are a couple of real danger areas but we heard that michael cohen lied to congress about, among other things, keeping the kids, keeping donald trump's kids informed about what was going on on this potential deal with russia. and, you know, that is really dangerous because what did we come to learn some months ago? michael cohen is not above surreptitiously tape recording conversations. when i heard his plea included

but also, that donald trump jr. didn't give the statement to the "new york times" from him. that was donald trump who dictated it. this is -- you asked susan the big take-away. mine was, there's just a lot of people talking to the russians and lying about -- to dana, lying about the nature of their context. not just lying to us, lying when there are real consequences. and you have to ask, why? >> sabrina, how much did these filings on friday change things for the president of the united states? >> well, the president is clearly rattled. and that was evidenced in the tweetstorm where he tried to downplay the contents of these filings, stating there was no smoking gun when there were, in fact, substantial revelations that he should be concerned about. in particular, that the mueller filings stated michael cohen provided the special counsel with information on russian-related matters that is at the core of its investigation. also the revelation that the contacts between the russians and trump's inner circle dated back to the fall of 2015 and not the spring of 2016 as was initia

. >> do you think donald trump jr. lied to your committee? >> i believe he did. >> about? >> i don't really want to go into it at this point, but i believe there's at least two occasions when he lied to the committee. >>> there's been this chorus over the last couple weeks. roger stone was quoted in a few articles about the filings handed up yesterday. your reaction that they're not the focus of what we have seen. we have yet to see an indictment from either of them. >> that's right. that could mean they're amassing evidence against those individuals, or it might mean they may never get indicted. we really don't know, bud if you are asking what's next, the all-important question the what's next? they're going to continue to look at that russian connection, but for today, whate what we know is the government believes there is some russian connection between the trump business dealings in russia, and the fact they must have needed russian government approval to engage in this business. that appears to be their theory going forward. but as always, it's very opaque. we don't k

and kushner and donald trump jr. and so on. when we get into what flynn and cohen are providing what manafort provided that he sort of lied about or wasn't concerned about is how close this gets to donald trump. i would urge everyone watching to take a look at that "washington post" graphic. because it's very detailed. and the connections the white house were having with russia. >> a foreign adversary, russia. we're not talking about england. we're not talking about france. 14 people. let's go back to politics. saying these are impeachable offenses but whether they're important enough to justify impeachment. >> i know lawyers are on all day talking about legal implications of this. those voices and opinions are great but really the most likely scenario is this is going to be a political calculation and political decision. the house, not only will they be investigating but if there are actual high crimes and misdemeanors, you have democrats who could easily move to impeach the president. then you've got to go to the senate. you

foundation, which seeks to ban donald trump and his children, donald trump, jr., ivanka trump and eric trump from serving on the boards of any new york charities. the washington post, david farenthold, reports that under the deal announced today, the trump foundation must sell its only three remaining physical assets, which are an autographed tim tebow foot ball helmet, a 4 foot tall portrait of donald trump, and a 6 foot tall portrait of donald trump. donald trump spent a combined $42,000 of charity money on those items. but now the foundation values them at just $975. joining our discussion now, washington post reporter david farenthold who won a pulitzer prize. and the executive editor of bloomberg opinion, both are msnbc contributors. and, david, let me just start with how the $42,000 becomes $975. how did the foot ball helmet and the two trump portraits lose $41,000 in value? >> well, i don't exactly know. the trump foundation put that current value on them. so these are all things that trump bought at charity auctions. these were times when he was in front of the big crowd sort o

>> i think donald trump jr. should be worried and jared kushner should be worried. it was interesting to me that the judge in the case today referenced a whole smorgasbord of crimes that michael cohen had been involved with. we know bank fraud, tax fraud, campaign finance violations. but the one thing that he specifically sort of dedelynn -- delineated around was that michael cohen had lied to congress. i thought, well, there that is. other people in trumpland who have testified before congress have to be looking back at what they said and be a little worried about whether or not they lied as well. we already know that members of the house intelligence committee and the senate judiciary committee specifically said they don't believe donald trump jr. was honest with them when he testified about trump's dealings around the moscow -- the trump tower in moscow. jared kushner has testified before congress that when he met with the russian ambassador and a russian banker, the russian ambassador to the united states and the senior russian banker during the transition, that

a source says that trump jr. knew about in project after his sister ivanka was limited to recommending designers and architects, we're told, but given their potential involvement in this, given the lack of transparency about how this all went down, the fact that we didn't even know about this business venture during the campaign at all, it wasn't revealed until after the president became president, could these other trump family members in some kind of legal trouble regarding this issue? >> yes, and i think that's why they referenced the new york attorney general, both the one organization for the trump organization foundation and the other and as yet not disclosed investigation and building on what randy said. this is highly unusual, and that's why i -- i -- i don't look at this the or anticipate or relish the fact that it's going to become a firestorm because i think it's going to be more like a meltdown. i think that what you're going to see is you're going to see the prosecutors detail the extent of the coope

trump's opponent at the time, secretary clinton, is in and of itself collusion. and mr. trump jr. repeatedly indicated that that wasn't the case. and yet we've had continuing indications that there may, in fact, have been continuing conversations and other evidence that would bear on this very question. >> i always appreciate your time and your input. thank you so much. i appreciate it, congressman heck. >> thank you, don. >>> you know, with bad news from the mueller investigation and a former cabinet official making harsh comments about his time in the administration, it's been a bad day for president trump. and if his twitter is any indication, he's feeling the heat. >>> so with the mueller investigation flexing its muscles today revealing just how much they know about the trump campaign and how much former trump aides have told them, it was another bad day for the president. let's discuss now. michael deantonio, the author of "the truth about trump," susan glasser of "the new yorker." good evening. susan, i'm going to start with you. when you step back and you read these docume

>> i think donald trump jr. should be worried and jared kushner should be worried. it was interesting to me that the judge in the case today referenced a whole smorgasbord of crimes that michael cohen had been involved with. we know bank fraud, tax fraud, campaign finance violations. but the one thing that he specifically sort of delineated around was that michael cohen had lied to congress. the judge went on to say the by line to congress, you sort of tear at the fabric of the nation. i thought, well, there that is. other people in trumpland who have testified before congress have to be looking back at what they said and be a little worried about whether or not they lied as well. we already know that members of the house intelligence committee and the senate judiciary committee specifically said they don't believe donald trump jr. was honest with them when he testified about trump's dealings around the moscow -- the trump tower in moscow. jared kushner has testified before congress that when he met with the russian ambassador and a russian banker, the russian ambas

and donald trump, jr. were also working to make donald trump moskow a reality. joining me now a former district attorney for the southern district of new york, and joyce vance, a u.former northern district attorney. what do you see legally for the family? >> i think you could put it into three different. you've got the big unknown, which is what their role was in what we've been calling collusion. and your right to point out that michael cohen's indictment and his criminal information references his connection to trump tower. but bob mueller is not investigating trump tower moskow. he's not investigating the trump organization. he is investigating russian collusion. and there has to be a materiality component to these false statements. so they have to have influenced mueller's investigation. so the big question is how does the trump tower moskow connect with russian collusion? that sort of remains open. and then there's this issue which connects them to a little bit, and particularly don junior in that jun

white powder sent to the home of donald trump jr.. i don't want that to happen to anyone especially someone who has put their life out there. if you suspect -- to think that my family and my children would be attacked in a restaurant i just think that's wrong. i hope that people on both sides of the aisle will stand up against her. he will come back around when democrats are in power some day. i don't think this is the kind of behavior to any of those want to be involved with. i wish the more left-leaning politicians would -- . >> host: mike in clifton park, new york. hi mike you are on with dr. kathleen hall jamieson. >> caller:r: i find it offensive that you allow yourself to be presented as a psychologist or even related to t a psychologis. you're supposed to graduates graduates degrees are not even real. >> guest: that's not true. cole you are not a licensed psychologist are you? >> host: is that the point you wanted to make? >> caller: the point i'm making is she's not a real psychologist and people are going to take her ignoranc

foundation, which seeks to ban donald trump and his children, donald trump, jr., ivanka trump and eric trump from serving on the boards of any new york charities. the washington post, david farenthold, reports that under the deal announced today, the trump foundation must sell its only three remaining physical assets, which are an autographed tim tebow foot ball helmet, a 4 foot tall portrait of donald trump, and a 6 foot tall portrait of donald trump. donald trump spent a combined $42,000 of charity money on those items. but now the foundation values them at just $975. joining our discussion now, washington post reporter david farenthold who won a pulitzer prize. and the executive editor of bloomberg opinion, both are msnbc contributors. and, david, let me just start with how the $42,000 becomes $975. how did the foot ball helmet and the two trump portraits lose $41,000 in value? >> well, i don't exactly know. the trump foundation put that current value on them. so these are all things that trump bought at charity auctions. these were times when he was in and the executive editor of b

i also think donald trump jr. needs to be worried. when michael cohen pled guilty a couple weeks ago to making the hush money payments, the papers referenced executive one and executive two within the trump organization. either of those are donald trump jr. he could be in trouble. he has potential exposure for lying to congress about the moscow congress, which is another thing that michael cohen pled guilty to. so we could see indictments there. >> we would learn the fate of paul manafort and michael flynn. >> he hit for the cycle of screw-ups. he got thrown into jail for violating bail. he got convicted at jail. he got convicted of more stuff, he tried to cooperate but he got caught lying. he will be sentenced this year. i think it's likely his sentence will keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. we'll see a whole -- >> that will be a whole separate set of fireworks. >> yeah, exactly. michael flynn assumed he was going to work into court and walk out with the probationary sentence, but things went really bad in that sentencin

manafort attended the june 2016 meeting at trump tower with donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer who offered dirt on hilary clinton but never delivered. his time on the campaign coincided with russian hackers' efforts to steal democratic party and clinton campaign e-mail, eventually distributing them publicly. manafort was the campaign manager when they back off the stance to provide information. now with the deal called off, prosecutors are taking off the gloves and manafort could even face more criminal charges. manafort's lawyers plan to hold more talks with the special counsel in the next few weeks to negotiate what happens next. both sides will be back in court on january 25th for a hearing, at which point it is possible that mueller's team could call witnesses and even present evidence about how paul manafort allegedly lied. but, of course, until then we will be left wondering about the exact details of manafort's alleged lies. wolf. >> good point. jessica, thanks very much. jessica schneider reporting. >>> let's bring in our senior justice corresponden

and donald trump, jr. were also working to make donald trump moskow a reality. another source saying that questions have been asked on trump tower moscow. joining me now a former district attorney for the southern district of new york, and joyce vance, a former northern district attorney. what do you see as legally important for the family? >> i think you can put it into three different tran were -- tranches, ari. you've got the big unknown, which is what their role was in what we've been calling collusion. and your right to point out that michael cohen's indictment and his criminal information references his connection to trump tower. but bob mueller is not investigating trump tower moskow. he's not investigating the trump organization. he is investigating russian collusion. and there has to be a materiality component to these false statements. so they have to have influenced mueller's investigation. so the big question is how does the trump tower moskow connect with russian collusion? that sort of remain

. >> whether it be donald trump, jr. or jared kushner or whoever and, you know, that is a further sign that mueller's investigation, i believe, is nearing its end, that there is not plans for other big criminal prosecutions on the, you know, collusion coordination front. because now we've had the sentencing of flynn and we've had the sentencing of michael cohen. >> right. >> and sullivan made clear, judge vulcan made clear, this is unusual. he said it's rare, you usually don't go to sentencing until the cooperating witnesses had completed their cooperation, including in cases that might be brought in the future. >> right. >> neil. >> but there is still one big mystery, you know, which is why did flynn lie about the russia stuff? i mean, you know, nothing today has answered that question. you know, it's preposterous to think he was lying, forgetting about sanctions on israel. >> you know they prompted him. >> it was asked again. >> he had no know they knew. >> again and again and again. here's the important point. it conn

trump's opponent at the time, secretary clinton, is in and of itself collusion. and mr. trump jr. repeatedly indicated that that wasn't the case. and yet we've had continuing indications that there may, in fact, have been continuing conversations and other evidence that would bear on this very question. >> i always appreciate your time and your input. thank you so much. i appreciate it, congressman heck. >> thank you, don. >>> you know, with bad news from the mueller investigation and a former cabinet official making harsh comments about his time in the administration, it's been a bad day for president trump. and if his twitter is any indication, he's feeling the heat. you ok there, kurt? we're about to move. karate helps... relieve some of the house-buying... stress. at least you don't have to worry about homeowners insurance. call geico. geico... helps with... homeowners insurance? been doing it for years. i'm calling geico right now. good idea! get to know geico. and see how easy homeowners and renters insurance can be. we've shown just how far love can go.e the love event, (gr

trump, jr., but don't you have better things to do like focus on the mueller investigation? yes, some people don't believe in santa, but everyone believes you told your dad about that trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer. >>d to

. >> whether it be donald trump, jr. or jared kushner or whoever and, you know, that is a further sign that mueller's investigation, i believe, is nearing its end, that there is not plans for other big criminal prosecutions on the, you know, collusion coordination front. because now we've had the sentencing of flynn and we've had the sentencing of michael cohen. >> right. >> and sullivan made clear, judge sullivan made clear, this is unusual. he said it's rare, you usually don't go to sentencing until the cooperating witnesses had completed their cooperation, including in cases that might be brought in the future. >> right. >> neil. >> but there is still one big mystery, you know, which is why did flynn lie about the russia stuff? i mean, you know, nothing today has answered that question. you know, it's preposterous to think he was lying, forgetting about sanctions on israel. >> you know they prompted him. >> it was asked again. >> he had no know they knew. >> again and again and again. here's the important point. it co