the duchess of sussex. don't try that too many times. members of the royal family are said to be thrilled at the news and the world got to see the ring today, set with two companion diamonds that once belonged to princess diana. a spring wedding is planned. now we'll go back to covering the trump presidency starting tomorrow evening. that's our broadcast for this post-thanksgiving monday night as we start a new week. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. a little time off at thanksgiving. susan and i accidentally got a turkey that wouldn't fit inside our oven. which we did not realize until we had the turkey next to the oven and we're trying to cram it in. we ended up sticking the turkey in the barbecue out in the yard instead, and necessity is the mother of invention. it worked out great. we're always going to barbecue the turkey from here on out.

even if it's a little tiny one. so i had a great thanksgiving, i'm happy as a clam. it's great to be back. you know what? it's nice to feel needed when you come back to work. and today the news gods have obliged by making today insane as a news day. let's start tonight just with the stuff that is breaking this evening, just breaking tonight. rex tillerson, secretary of state, has become one of the most controversial cabinet officials in the trump administration, which in this administration is really saying something. aside from the bare bones questions about how exactly he got this job in the first place and what a lifelong exxon employee might want to do to the u.s. state department and question about the implications of his unusually close personal relationship with vladimir putin, alongside all those baseline concerns about him taking over at state, alongside all that has risen something

approaching panic now among longtime foreign service professionals and senior diplomats as rex tillerson has just taken a meat ax to the state department, particularly to its upper echelons. now, we have reported on this extensively on this show, but "the new york times" just walloped the issue this weekend with this report, diplomats sound the alarm as they are pushed out in droves. following that report from over the holiday break in "the new york times," tonight bloomberg news is first to report that?x there's about to be yet another high profile resignation at the state department, but this time it's the person who rex tillerson put in charge of redesigning the department. the redesign is what they've called it as they have forced out an entire generation of senior diplomats and foreign policy experts at state. the person who rex tillerson put in charge of remaking the state department is out of a job as of

tonight. so raiseukç%ju hand if you thin that means that rex tillerson is going to bring back all the people they pushed out. now they're good to restore the state department to their previous strength. raise your hand if you think that's what's next. but they have the person remaking the department under tillerson's leadership is gone. a smackdown on one of the trump administration's signature controversial issues. in july president trump announced on twitter that he wanted to kick transgender service members out of the military, in late august he finally got around to signing something on the subject beyond just sending a tweet about it. last month a

trump administration has a deadline. they have until january 1st, they have until 35 days from now to get their house in order on this subject to abandon the dtqi (sqp) that trans recruits welcome in the united states armed forces. that ruling coming tonight. also tonight "the washington post" has broken kind of an inside out story that feels very close to our hearts here at this show at msnbc. you might remember from this summer back in july we reported about how somebody had forged a fake nsa document and then shot that document to us as if it were a very damning scoop about the trump campaign colluding with the russian government about the election and the nsa knowing all about it. we did not fall for that forged document, but it was unsettling to know that people were shopping fake documents to try and screw up and discredit a

news organization. well, a version of that same dynamic has just happened to "the washington post," specifically to the reporting team who broke the blockbuster story a couple of weeks ago about multiple women in alabama saying that republican senate candidate roy moore had pursued them sexually when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. according to "the washington post" over the last few weeks a woman approached that reporting team with a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship she said she had with roy moore, a relationship she said led to her having an abortion when she was 15 years old. this woman came to "the washington post" with that story over the last couple of week, that story does not appear to be true and the "post" reporters sussed that out when they were doing their due diligence on that story. they were further able to report that the woman who came to them with the story appears to be an

activist associated with one of these conservative activist groups that in this case was trying to discredit the accusations against roy moore by discrediting the news organization that first reported them. so "the washington post" was the subject of that fraudulent effort, conservative group impersonating a sexual assault victim basically in order to try to discredit reporting on sexual assault. dark story but also a big validation for "the washington post" and the way they did due diligence on that story. and, while we're on the subject of consequential journalism, it has been a little more than a week since richard engel's dramatic reporting on the trump international hotel in panama. nbc news, richard engel and reuters worked together on that reporting. you may recall that that story turned up fairly brazen evidence

that the trump international hotel in panama was being run in part as a money laundering scheme, one that appears to have ties to russian organized crime. that reporting on the trump hotel in panama city came out on friday, now today the press reports owners of the trump international hotel in panama are working to strip president donald trump'sb.5z name off the 70-story building and fire the hotel management company run by trump's family. so again, the subject of that richard engel scoop from a week and a half ago, that hotel now reportedly trying to strip trump's name off the building and get trump's business out of the business of running the management of that facility. this, of course, follows news from last week that trump's name is also going to be stripped from the trump's soho building which has also had financial difficulties and links to money

laundering and organized crime. on top of all that news today, abc news reported today that a lawyer for trump national j mike flynn met with investigators from special counsel robert mueller's office today. abc news is reporting that, nbc news has not confirmed it. but the reason it felt like another shoe was dropping when you heard that report today about flynn's lawyers meeting with mueller, the reason that felt like another shoe dropping is because of the news that was first reported by "the new york times" on thanksgiving day. news that flynn's lawyers used to be workingp4z together with white house lawyers collaborating on their defense strategies in the russia investigations but apparently last week, the day before thanksgiving, flynn's legal team backed out of that arrangement with the white house and started to pursue things independently. now, that landed like a bombshell on thanksgiving day. what does it mean exactly? hard to say.

flynn's lawyers pulling out of some sort of joint defense agreement with the white house, that may very well mean that flynn has become a cooperating witness for the mueller investigation. it's possible. it may mean that flynn has entered into negotiations with mueller's team about some sort of plea deal. it may mean neither of those things. frankly, it might mean that mike flynn just got annoyed with the white house and the white house russia lawyers after we reported here on wednesday night that the president is not going to besun making any financial contributions to help mike flynn's legal defense fund. maybe he just got annoyed about that. we don't know. we don't know what it means that flynn's lawyers and the white house lawyers are no longer working together on the russia investigation. and again, abc news is alone thus far in this new report that flynn's legal teams met with mueller and his investigators today. but it's all very intriguing stuff. and we've got congressman adam schiff here live to talk about the significance of what may be going on in that part of the

case. adam schiff, of course, the top democrat on the intelligence committee in the house. now, we're also on senate watch tonight as republicans try to rang wrangle the vote past a gigantic tax bill, trying to wrangle those votes right after the congressional budget office has issued a report saying the bill will hurt poor people even more than was previously estimated. the biggest hit in this republican bill are really reserved for the poorest people in the country. in the bill's first year everybody making less than $30,000 a year will get financially hurt, but the biggest whack will be taken at people who make less than $10,000 a year. think about that. the people who make less than $10,000 in income in a year will be asked to pay the most. by the time this thing will be fully implemented everybody making less than $50,000 a year will be paying thousands more every year while people in the

richest tax brackets, of course, will all pay less. republicans don't know if they've got enough votes to pass this tax bill, but right now, right this second is when they're trying to line up those votes. the arm twisting is happening and the fight is on. and in the middle of all that going on, we are also waiting on the justice department tonight. president obama created the consumer financial protection bureau as part of dodd/frank, part of the post-wall street crash reforms. before she was a united states senator elizabeth warren first came to warren to advocate for and stand up for that protection agency. president obama ened up appointing richard cordray to run that agency, elizabeth warren ended up becoming one of the highest profile senators in the country. but at the consumer protection agency, under richard cordray's leadership, that agency turned up nearly $12 billion to american consumers who got ripped off by credit card companies and banks and other

financial institutions. he's the only director that agency has ever had. well, richard cordray announced last week that he would be leaving the agency. on friday the white house declared that the deputy director of the agency wouldn't be allowed to take over and run the agency in his absence and instead the white house announced that they were just putting in their own person to be the acting director. and that turned out to be the white house budget director, nick mulvaney who has said that this agency that he now maybe runs, he said that this agency is an abomination basically and it shouldn't exist. so it's been a weird day today. both in the terms of a lot of news breaking, but that story in washington with the consumer financial protection bureau and maybe the white house is running it now or maybe the acting director who was installed when cordray left is running it, that's a very, very weird story.

i've never, ever, ever covered anything like this where a federal agency with something like 1600 employees doesn't know who is running it because there are competing claims for that title. never seen that before. we've got richard cordray here live tonight. he'll be joining us in just a second. but i've also got to tell you we're waiting on the justice department right now because a court is trying to decide who actually is running that agency now. the justice department is supposed to file their brief in the case tonight and so far, i mean, check your watch, but we don't think they've done it. after 9:00. so the court will presumably rule once they've got this filing from the justice department and everybody's been able to brief on both sides, but as of tomorrow morning who knows who runs that agency, who knows who was really running that agency today? it was not at all clear that it was legal for the president to have sent his guy over there today to announce that he's in charge. sure, you can say so, but if it's not legal, you're not in

charge. i rs really psyched when i found out we were able to get richard cordray on the show tonight to talk about what in the holy heck is going on there. then i was interested to see what does elizabeth warren think about this as well. and then, and then, and then this happened. >> i just want to thank you because you're very, very special people. you were here long before any of us were here. although we have a representative in congress who they say was here a long time ago. they call her pocahontas. >> see how the president sort of turns there at the end. he's trying to get the it's okay from the native american veterans who are standing next to him. he does not appear to get that from them. this was an event that was supposed to honor navajo code talkers today. world war ii veteran heroes. the president used the event and used those veterans as a prop to

instead fling a native american historical name at senator elizabeth warren as an insult. on a day when he must have had elizabeth warren on the brain. joining us now is massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. thank you for being here. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> first, let me get your reaction to the president invoking you today at that event at the white house, insulting you by sarcastically calling you pocahontas. >> you really do have to start with the whole setting. here it is a ceremony to honor these heroes, these men who did incredible work on behalf of our country back during world war ii, probably saved countless lives, of americans, of our allies, just an amazing story. and all the president had to do was just make it through the ceremony and honor these wonderful people. and instead, what did he do? had to throw out a racial slur.

you know, he seems to think that if he keeps doing that somehow he's going to shut me up. it hasn't worked in the past. it's not going to work in the future. whether he likes it or noit, i'm going to be out there and keep talking about what he's trying talking tbout what he's trying protection bureau, what he's trying to do on taxes. he wants to distract from every bit of that, but the truth is he is putting american families at risk. and i'm going to speak up about it and so are a whole lot of other people. >> how does it affect -- i know you say he's trying to shut you up, that he's trying to cow you in some way. how does it affect your life and the way you go about your work as a senator when the president repeatedly often in settings that has nothing to do with you or any sort of purported debate with you or any sort of fight with you, he seems to go out of his way to go after you again and again and again and again,

and i just wonder what it's like for you and your staff when you're pursuing the things you're pursuing as a senator, how that interrupts your life, how that affects your work. >> the truth is, rachel, it doesn't because i got into this fight for reasons that are deeply personal to me and longtime held. for me, running for the united states senate and before that setting up the consumer financial protection bureau and before thatqi=qf being involved during the financial crisis to try to bring some accountability to wall street was always about the same kind of thing, about trying to make sure that this government, instead of just working for a thin slice at the top, instead of just working for a bunch of wall street banks, was working for families, for hard working folks all across this country. i feel deeply grateful. i grew up in a family that was a paycheck to paycheck family and we had rough times.

but systems that gave kids like me to graduate from a state college, that gave kids like me a chance to open a door and run through it and then another and then another. i believe in that america. and that's why i'm in this fight. so donald trump can throw whatever he wants at me. it's wrong. it's ugly. it's nasty. but it says a whole lot more about donald trump or it says about me tore fight i'm in. >> we'll be speaking with richard cordray here in a moment. he's the only director that the consumer financial protection bureau ever had. you first proposed that agency in 2007 or something like that. >> something like that. >> i've never -- i've covered a lot of weird stuff in washington. i feel like i specialize in covering weird things in washington. i've never, ever got anywhere near covering something like a federal agency, a good-sized

federal agency like 1500, 1600 employees functioning with two head of the agency. the white house thinks that they installed nick mulvaney as the acting director today. it would appear from daud/frank, at least one plain reading of the dodd/frank, that richard cordray should have essentially designating the acting director when he left when the deputy director of the agency was named. what happened here? and how will this be resolved? >> this is donald trump working his chaos to the consumer protection agency. when dodd/frank was written, congress was clear about this. there is a director and if the director is unavailable, richard cordray has resigned, then the deputy]1 becomes the acting director. richard cordray doesn't name

anyone. there's no special ceremony. there's no thing that has to happen. it's what congress designated as the succession plan for the consumer agency. now, donald trump says but there's a vacancies act that was passed decades before, and i think that the vacancy act lets me put in a different director. well, the problem with that is the vacancy act, when it was passed, it applied to all the existing agencies, but going forward it would apply, in effect, if that's what congress wanted it to do, kind of the default position,0)=5vt congres could designate its own succession plan if that's what congress wanted to do, well,2g1 interestingly enough go back and look at the legislative history when they were building the cfpb. at one point congress had set it up to say we're going to use the vacancies act, then in the final

version, the one everybody voted on, the one that got signed into law, congress didn't use the vacancy act. they said we're going to designation the succession plan. so leandra english, the woman who became the deputy director, became the acting director. that's simply what dodd/frank says. let me make the point. there's a darn good reason for that. when congress made the change and said we're going to do this ourselves, what they were really saying is we want to take this agency which has this really tough job of taking on giant wall street banks, we want to take this agency and push it as far away from politics as we can. the banking regulators, all of 3occ, the fdic and the,=6

richard cordray who just left the consumer financial protection bureau where there was one of the weirdest things i've seen happen in an agency throughout the day and into the night tonight, there's a real question as to who will physically show up and try to run that agency in the morning. and there's a question as to what happens when two people physically try to claim the same office, how this gets resolved. (♪) it all starts with a wish. the lincoln wish list event is here. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down

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when you start a new job

there's lots of ways to endear yourself to your new colleagues, particularly if you're a new boss. it's not usually the best of times when part of your job is reassuring your new colleagues that you won't, quote, set the place on fire or blow it up or lock the doors. >> rumors that i'm going to set the place on fire or blow it up or lock the doors completely false. >> this is the person who says he is the new boss at the consumer financial protection bureau, although that is not at all clear or it is not at all clear that that is legally true. white house budget director nick mulvaney says that he's the boss because president trump declared on friday that he could install an acting director of his own choosing. but as we just heard from senator elizabeth warren who came up with the whole idea for this agency in first place, the law that created this agency doesn't say the president just getting to install who he wants.

the law says there's a line of succession at the agency and if the director leaves, then the deputy director becomes the acting director of that agency. and there's somebody in that job, leandra english. she's been deputy director and at the agency from the beginning. who is in charge? who gets to decide? we've got competing claims to the leadership of this agency. i've never seen this ever before in the time that i've been covering american governance and all the history i've read about american governance. never seen this. yesterday, the deputy director, the person you would think would be the acting director, she filed a lawsuit in federal court trying to block the president's pick from taking the job. tonight we don't even know the status of hcthat. tonight we're wait fing for the justice department to file its response to that.

it's well after 9:00 p.m. on the east coast and we don't think that filing has been delivered. it's nuts. me meanwhile we're joined by richard cordray. thank you very much for being here. >> my pleasure. >> let me ask, first of all, i guess right to the point of what this news is right now. do you think that leandra english should go to the cfpb tomorrow and sit in your office and as as the acting director of the agency as nick mulvaney did today or should she stay away? >> so what i would say is i think that the law -- and i heard senator warren discussing it -- was just right. the law is clear here. it says that the director, who was me on friday, shall appoint a deputy director. i did that. but then says very clearly and simply, that if the deputy

director is -- there's an absence or unavailability of the director the deputy director becomes the acting directier. that's what ms. english has now done. and this is the kind of disagreement that involves two different laws. they conflict with one another. the right place to hash that out is in the courts, which is where it is right now. it shouldn't be decided by name calling and tweet s and insults. it should be decided by people presenting their arguments and a judge looking into this. it will ultimately be resolved. the trial court's decision is something one party disagrees with, it will go to the court of appeals and the court of appeals will decide it. but that's an orderly process that's appropriate. >> that's an orderly process that you just described. it's not what's happening simply because the white house pick of budget director mr. mulvaney has showed up and made a big show of bringing everybody doughnuts and

held a press availability and announced a hiring freeze and essentially an activity freeze to for the agency and talking about ms. english, she didn't show up today. and in regular business life that would mean you didn't have a job when you come back the next day. the white house is not pursuing this in an orderly -- in the kind of orderly fashion that you just described. does that change the calculus as far as you're concerned about how to decide this position? >> i can't read the minds of the people in the white house, but essentially as i said, i think the law is pretty clear on this. it says that the deputy director shall act as the director until a nominee is presented to the senate and confirmed. and you'll remember, rachel, i went through that process. in my case i was held up for almost two years but was ultimately confirmed by 66 points. but that's an orderly process,

people get to vet that nominee and hear the views and weigh in and consider it. this is a very fast process. the statute provided for the fast process to be handled by having the deputy director step right in and be there until the president nominates and gets somebody confirmed. that will happen here eventually but it doesn't help us right now. >> do you have any regrets? do you have any regret leaving, your decision to leave the agency give this is what happened in the wake of your departure and we're having this not just unusual fight but a lot of chaos and an incredibly aggressive move byo!n the white house to put somebody in there who has made no bones about the fact that he doesn't want the agency to exist. does this make you regret your decision at all? >> no, i don't because that's simply a matter of timing. it was very clear my term runs

out in the part of next year. it was a few more months i could have stayed at the agency but the same issue would have arisen then. the trump administration ultimately will be able to present a nominee and the senate will either confirm them or not confirm them, in which case that process will go on. so it's just a matter of timing. i stayed this year and fought being fired, you'll remember, rachel, for months. i went into the office in the morning and a lot of people talked about me being fired. i didn't know if that might happen by the evening. i stayed there because there was important work to do on consumer protection. we worked on that arbitration rule and even went to a 50-50 vote inb?1

it's good work and important work for families all over this country who need somebody standing on their side making sure they're treated fairly and giving them a voice when they were mistreated. i think that's very important work. i would be very surprised to see the trump administration making a conscious decision to undo consumer protections for people that they want, that they need and that they deserved. >> richard cordray, the immediate former director of the consumer financial protection bureau, the only director that agency has ever had. the agency now just in a very strange situation with a standoff between dueling maybe directors, mr. cordray, thank you very much for your service in government. i know you've been through some really acrimonious times and please stay in touch as you make your future decisions, sir. appreciate it. >> thank you, thank you, rachel. we've got big news from another part of what's weird in

washington. right now congressman adam schiff is the top democrat on the intelligence committee in the house. he's here with us in studio tonight. shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. ♪ tired of sore throat lozenges that only last a short time? try new alka-seltzer plus sore throat relief. the melts dissolve quickly. plus, the powerful pain reliever provides long-lasting relief for up to six hours. try new alka-seltzer plus. i love you, droolius caesar, but sometimes you stink. febreze car vent clip cleans away odors for up to 30 days. because the things you love can stink.

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who brought us delicious gyros. actually, the gyro hero owns vero's gyros, so he should have been with those first heroes. ha ha! that's better. so, to recap -- small business owners are heroes, and our heroes help heroes be heroes when they're not eating gyros delivered by -- ah, you know what i mean.

♪ when you have doctors working as a team for your health, you get the care you need to help you thrive. ♪ visit kp.org to learn more. kaiser permanente. thrive. ♪ july 15, 2016. heat of the summer, heat of the presidential race. a coup erupted in the nation of turkey. they were trying to take over the government from the elected auto accurate in charge president erdogan in turkey.

as that coup was playing out in turkey a key member of the donald trump for president campaign just so happened to be giving a speech in ohio. this is general mike flynn, the president's future national security adviser, as the coup was unfolding in turkey. >> there's an ongoing coup going on in turkey right now, right now. the turkish military anybody that has been paying attention they've been for many years by really what became a secular country, meaning a regular sort of nation state and then began to move towards islamism. this is turkey. "z see what ey. happens. one of the things that the military said is we recognize our responsibilities at the united nations. we want to make sure that the world knows we want to be seen

as a secular nation. this is the ái)crmilitary. so yeah -- [ applause ] >> that is worth clapping for. so mike flynn speaking july last year. that coup against turkey's government, yes, that's worth clapping for. of course, the coup was crushed. and then by the time our own election day rolled around four months later mike flynn had done a complete 180 on that issue. by our election day, he wasn't criticizing erdogan, the turkish president for sliding towards islamism and cheering for the coup. by the day of our election in november there was mike flynn writing an op-ed in support of erdogan, in support of his turkish government and leveling some over the top criticism at a cleric who lives in the united states who the turkish

government blamed for starting the coup. in four months mike flynn went for, yeah, let's clap for the coup, to we really ought to think about extraditing that terrible monster who turkey says startedám? that coup. total 180+43r÷ in four months. what changed? well, for starters we know in the middle of those two events mike flynn got paid. he got paid over half a million dollars to lobby for the turkish government. he disclosed only after he was fired as trump's national security adviser and failing to register as an agent for the turk irk government is one of the reasons why mike flynn finds himself in what looks like serious legal jeopardy. in march 2017 a former cia director jamesed james woolsey told "the wall street journal" that he had gone to a meeting in new york city with a bunch of turkish government officials and mike flynn. at that meeting he says he

overheard them talking about forcibly removing that cleric from the united states. >> i showed up, and there were several turks and several americans there. there was discussion, serious discussion of finding some way to move mr. gullen out of the united states to turkey. you might call it brainstorming, but it was brainstorming about a very serious matter that would clearly be a violation of law. it was a serious and troubling discussion but it did not -- repeat -- did not arise to the level of being a specific plan to undertake a felonious act. >> not a specific plan, more of a brain storming session about a then earlier this month "the wall street journal" reported

that robert mueller was investigating a follow-up meeting between mike flynn and those turkish officials, this time in december after the election, during the transition where the plan seemed a lot more fully formed. at that meeting, quote, the discussions alleged transporting gulen to an island. and mike flynn and his son were to be paid as much as $15 million. now mike flynn's lawyer says those allegations are false. but we know that robert mueller is looking into those two meetings. we also know that robert mueller is looking into the possible obstruction of justice by the president. for him allegedly trying to get the fbi to back off the investigation and then firing ja+ it comey when that didn't happen. on that point, there is something i need help with. james woolsey, the witness to

the alleged kidnapping plan, he's spoken to robert mueller. according to politico over the thanksgiving break he reportedly engaged in a, quote, lengthy conversation with president trump at his table at mar-a-lago on saturday night. what were james woolsey and president trump talking about at lebt at mar-a-lago? we don't know. a spokesman for mr. woolsey said his client has served four presidents. he's never communicated with contents of those conversations with a third party and he doesn't intend to start now. james woolsey doesn't serve donald trump now more than any of us do. he's a private citizen. not like he's giving official advice. jameses woolsey also declined any further comment to any of our follow-up questions that we posed today. i suspect that=cclñ that meetin end up being of real interest to investigators. if the president finds himself in the cross hairs for potentially obstructing justice

for the investigation of mike flynn and if james woolsey turns out to be a witness for some of what flynn is being investigated for, why show that potential witness be talking at length to the guy who may be on the hook for obstructing justice in flynn's case? i need help with this. hold on. (avo) if you've been struggling with belly pain and constipation, and you're overwhelmed by everything you've tried-- all those laxatives, daily probiotics, endless fiber-- it could be wearing on you. tell your doctor what you've tried, and how long you've been at it. linzess works differently from laxatives. linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation.

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committee. thank you for being here. >> good to be with you. >> we've had a lot of other journalistic news break about manafort, glenn, gates and others. i realize you never talk about anything in terms of ongoing investigation, you certainly can't talk about classified matter, but i want to get your help on understanding the significance of some of this stuff. first, let me ask you about the reports that we had over thanksgiving break that retired general mike flynn's legal team has told the white house that they will no longer coordinate with them, no longer work with them in terms of the white house and flynn's legal defense. they've now decided to take different path. what does that mean? >> i think what it likely means is the flynn investigation is at a point where he'll either be

indicted or he'll agree to a plea agreement in lesser charges towards him or his son. and whether this is a written agreement or an oral one, basically there's now a potential conflict of interest between his interests and his son's and the rest of the team. you would expect that he and others around the white house would be that joint defense, and effectively shielded by attorney/client privilege but as soon as one of those people starts entering into serious discussions that may put them at a conflict, in other words whether he has something to say about any of the other, he may opt out of that agreement and that's what appears to be happening. >> not necessarily his relationship with russia, although there's a lot there as well but his relationship with turkey. he did paid work on the behalf of the government of turkey and

retroactively registered as an agent after his resignation from the white house. are you limited to looking just at russia specifically or do these other issues about turkey fall into your work? >> i think it was. because they're not aggressively pursuing this. the chairman is not looking at things. he has a new deafen egs of this jurisdiction of this committee and i guess the government reform committee is noyálonger n the business of oversight. >> this is trey gowdy. >> it is what it bzaazis. their committee is not aggre aggressively investigating this but neither is ours. we have dozens of witnesses that we have to bring in that are essential to the russia investigation that we haven't gotten approval to bring before a committee let alone whether witness was go to flynn was involved in an extra-judicial

rendering of this cleric. >> aka kidnapping. >> as well as receipt of foreign funds and acting as an unregistered agent of ay1)ú for power. someone needs to look at this in congress. it can't be or shouldn't be just bob mueller for purposes of prosecution but we should be looking at for the purpose of oversight and telling the country what he did, but right now that is not happening. >> you were about to have two very controversial, interesting witnesses come before the committee. we'll take a break and come back and talk about that with congressman adam schiff. i can't believe you got us tickets. i did. i didn't pay for anything. you never do. send me what i owe. i got it. i mean, you did find money to buy those boots. are you serious? is that why you don't like them? those boots could make a unicorn cry. yeah, tears of joy. the bank of america mobile banking app.

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joining us once again is congressman adam schiff. i believe that your committee is hearing behind closed doors from eric prince, the founder of the blackwater security firm, who had an interesting cameo role in some back channel contacts with the russian government during the campaign. andd3m= attorney general jeff sessions. am i right that you're hearing from both of those witnesses on the same day? >> well,ic only confirm one of those interviews, the one with the attorney general because the justice department has made it public that he'll appear before us which will give us a chance to probe deeper in terms of his contact with papadopoulos and

the russians he met with but also what's happened since. what disturbs me is the white house violating justice department policy and their own policy to kickstart this investigation by freeing this witness of this gag rule. this is what they do in emerging democracies, they pervert the justice system to persecute their vanquished rival. how much of an injunction to do this was it, but also to pursue further this entertaining of the idea of appointing special counsel which again would be a terrible abuse of the independence of the justice department. >> you suspect that the white house improperly intervened with the workings of the just department on both those matters? >> if they intervened at all, it was improper. the white house has already acknowledged that they did. this is the problem.

one by one we see these policies and norms and rules set up post-quapost - post-watergate, many to protect our institutions being broken down but the crush of things that the administration is doinz we lose sight of just how many checks and balances are being eroded. >> congressman adam schiff is the senior member on the intelligence committee. we'll be right back. stay with us. e no for an answer. we fight for what we want. even for the things that were once a given. going to college... buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community. who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner.

looking ahead to tomorrow in washington, we are expecting round two of what is a very, very, very unusual story. the consumer financial protection bureau believes it has an acting director, the deputy director of the agency who was left there when mr. cordray had his last day at work on friday. that one person who looks like she's running the agency. the white house has installed someone else.

the director of the office of budget nick mulvaney who says he's running the agency. we've been watching this the frank in dodd/frank is barney frank a guest on "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" which starts right now. good evening. >> good evening, rachel. chris hayes told me earlier tonight he believes he is in the 9:00 p.m. hour at msnbc but i believe it is written in law that you are in charge of the 9:00 p.m. hour. >> yeah. >> of msnbc. >> and, you know, when chris hayes shows up here tomorrow at 9:00 i will tell you this i'm not going to leave him the office to have. >> i think chris can actually read that law that says that you