interview tonight 11:35 eastern on cbs. i got to meet mindy. check it out. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. >> some day we'll have shows with swears, you and i. >> some day. >> some day. >> i was swearing at 7:57 when i had to redo the show again. it didn't go on air but. >> eventually, life and culture will devolve where we're expected of a clean and unclean version of our show. >> i look forward to that. >> me, too. >> thanks to you at home for joining us. it's been a surreal news day that continued into tonight. today at the same time we had one trump campaign manager refusing to answer questions at the house intelligence come mmie while the guy that replaced him at the same moment was arraigned on 18 felony counts in a federal courtroom in virginia. that was surreal enough.

this afternoon, surprise, a meeting slash announcement at the white house, one that had not been previously scheduled, there is loats of reporting the president would isn't announce big tariffs but in the unscheduled meetings the president did announce them and forgot to actually sign them. he does do this a lot. he did it with a coal-related thing at one point where he had the big signing ceremony. then he did it with an obamacare thing. he did it once last march where it looked like he was about to sign and got asked a question about mike flynn and it appeared to fluster him so much he didn't sign the documents. he walked out of the room. the vice president mike pence said hey, do you want to sign this and went back into the room and collected unsigned documents and followed the president out of the room. maybe the president signed them later. in any case, there was another

incident today where the president convened everybody to see him sign the thing and he didn't. then he remembered and signed it. but this does mean that he is going ahead with those tariffs, which means on the same day that 11 1ther countries signed a tr pact, trump did the opposite and eventually signed tariffs and the u.s. is pulling back to be dramatically alone and then tonight, at the white house, another surprise. an announcement by an official from the nation of south korea. an announcement that there will be a new round of talks with north korea about the northea north nuclear program. literally today, also today, the state department spokesperson announced explicitly there was no way anything like this was

happening. >> we are not going to schedule talks about talks or any kind of chat or anything like that at this point. >> state department spokesperson today announcing this is definitely not going to happen. we're not going to be scheduling talks, we're not going to be scheduling talks about talks, no way. well, then, later in the day, tonight somewhat randomly, south korean officials turn up outside the white house to announce not just the start of talks or talks about talks but they announced that the president of the united states is going to meet personally with kim jong-un. there have been a lot of talks about talks. there have been a lot of talks even over the years over the decades with north korea about their weapons programs. what is totally unprecedented, what is brand-new is the announcement tonight for the first time ever a sitting u.s. president will meet himself with the dictator of the north korea.

trump and kim jong-un meeti ing personally and directly according to tonight's announcement and planning to do so reportedly a few weeks from now. now you might imagine another president in this circumstance. kim jong-un makes a request, you want to meet? might think another president in this circumstance, you can imagine a president asking himself or herself why has no other american president ever agreed to do this? why has no sitting american president ever met with a leader from north korea? why has that never happened in all the decades north korea existed. this might be particularly risky. i think that's how most presidents would approach the idea of a personal meeting with the north korean dictator.

i think a lot of people probably suspect tonight those are not the kinds of questions that this president asked himself before agreeing to this meeting. but this is the president we have and he said yes to north korea. "the new york times" tonight headlining this breaking news as quote a breathtaking gamble. joining us now is courtney kube. thanks for joining us tonight for this breaking news. appreciate having you here. >> thank you so much, rachel. >> it felt today watching this unfold like this was a surprise. fell like a surprise to me because the state department spokesperson said we're not scheduling talks about talks, none of that is happening any time soon. also, someone unusual rollout with having south korean officials announce it. were there signs from your perspective this was coming? >> no. and i -- it was not just the south korean national security advisor announcing it but

announcing it at the white house was surprising. that was the optic. this was surprising. then we also had a senior administration official say after we had the announcement from the south koreans was that the u.s. is not even talking about negotiations at this point. so we're getting some conflicting messages here. what was particularly interesting to me out of the announcement from the white house today by the south koreans again was that north korea would not only according to this agreement, would not only refrain from further nuclear or missile tests but they understand that routine joint military exercises between the united states and south korea would have to continue. that would be a huge departure troll what we've heard from north korea in the past. and the round of talks with kim jong-un, with the north koreans but surprising. it's the first time we heard it seems north korea may agree to these two teams. >> this is, correct me if i'm

wrong, courtney, you know more about this than i do. in my living memory as a human being that pays attention to the news, i feel like there have been other announcements from north korea they were freezing the nuclear missile program and stopping tests and in the past pledged to dismantle the program. that's what they pledged to the clinton administration, that fell apart during the george w. bush administration. there are previous announcements about them stopping or taking apart the program, right? >> it's making the agreement and remaking it and george w. bush and obama. there is certainly reason to do, be skeptical about this. another thing that i found really interesting and korean national security and president

trump and kim jong-un would by may. we reported that the two military exercises are annual around this time of year, most would begin as early as march 31st, the end of this month and the real core of it would actually go through the month of april. there will be two at this point u.s. south korean military exercises in the month of april, one of them going into may. so there is the potential, in fact, this meeting occurs that will it be occurring during one or two large-scale u.s. south korean military exercises, which of course, for years has been what the north korean said these military exercise are the provocative and use it for a missile and ballistic missile and nuclear testing. >> all of that going to the

conclusion, this was a surprise on a number of different levels. let me ask you one last prieiec. no other sitting president has ever agreed to meet one on one, to meet in person with the north korean dictator and because this was a surprise, because the secretary of state, you know, isn't there, secretary of state is in africa, there isn't a south korean ambassador. the long-time head of policy just left his job just left last week. is there any concern that the president by agreeing to take this meeting, that he may be doing something risky. there may be people within the national security establishment and military that may object to the president taking this meeting one on one? >> it's definitely risky. one of the things this would do, if we have a picture of kim jong-un and president trump standing next to one another, this actually achieves one of kim jong-un's long-standing and his father's goal which is to

elevate north korea and make them be seen as a major would power. you can make the argument that 2017 was really a banner year for north korea for the ballistic missile and nuclear testing. they achieved three intercontinental missiles that the intelligence said this week had the potential and capability of hitting north america. you could make the argument kim jong-un reached the point he wants to be at. he has missiles capable of hitting the united states and now if he is to meet with president trump, well now he's seen as a world leader, you know, that optic of him potentially being seen as an equal to the leader of the free world, the president of the united states. >> wow. courtney kube, thank you for joining us on such short notice. >> thanks, rachel. this is a remarkable change. it has been through republican and democratic administrations,

the whole strategy not only for the united states but for the united states as leader of the free world to the extend we are has ban to treat north korea as a state to change their behavior, this is obviously a big change if the president is going to shake hands and meet with this guy and sit down with him one on one at the table. after this announce themement we that president trump would meet with him, the shock value gave way to vexing questions. a couple i've just discussed with courtney. first of all, why was a u.s. presidential summit announced by an official from a third country? south korean security advisor came to announce this thing that the u.s. president is going to do. has that ever happened when the president agreed to a summit and a government official from a third country was brought to the united states to make the announcement that it was happening? is there any president for that

at all, why might they have done it that way? also, the president is reportedt was kim jong-un that asked to meet the american president and the american president said sure, love to. this apparently happened today, tonight in fact. tonight the u.s. secretary of state is in ethiopia. the spokesperson for his department today said there wouldn't be talks about talks any time soon, let alone direct negotiations between north korea and the u.s. president. if you hope the president might have received advice on this matter if not from the secretary of state but the best expert the u.s. has to evoffer, there is a special representative in the u.s. government, a serious prowith pr pro with 30 plus years, joseph yun. he handled talks and negotiations and the rescue of u.s. citizens in north korea

and speaks korean. he probably was not advising the president on this, either tonight because mr. yun just quit his job february 27th he announced he was quitting. in past friday was his last day. that said, maybe the president could have received advice from his own administration's hand picked advisor. theoretically he would have wanted to do that. that's why we have ambassadors. subject matter ambassadors. the problem with that prospect there is no trump administration choice to be the ambassador to south korea. administration's choice for that job, victor actually pulled out of consideration for that ambassadorship during the state of the union speech this year in protest of the president's approach to north korea. he reacted to this somewhat strange announcement. he reacted with what appeared to be bewilderment. he said quote, what are we

putting on the table, sanctions? normalization? peace treaty? has any other president ever done anything like this? and when other presidents made breath-taking gambles like this in the past in the words of "the new york times", are there things we should learn from history about how to manage the tremendous risks here and potentially do this well. joining us now and michael thank you for joining us tonight. >> pleasure. >> it's a pleasure to be talking to you. delighted just the same. >> by the u.s. president with regard to the country that's seen internationally the way north korea is. >> well, this is not of the magnitude of nixon going to

china. decades of estrangement between china and the united states but compare what we saw tonight that the south korean official making the announcement of a summit by an american president. what was that about? nixon in july of 1971, he staged it as a surprise. he flew actually to burbank, california by helicopter and went to the nbc studio and made this brief announcement that he would go to china. it was at an appropriate time. to surprise to the public, nixon had time for the previous 20 years. he had henry kissinger. this was very carefully thought out and choreographed. when you have a scene like as you were saying, secretary of

state doesn't seem to have known much about this. the state department is hollowed out. did -- was jared involved in this? it reminded me a little bit of the way that trump's decisions on tariffs was done very much at the last moment, impulsive without consultation. that's not the way a decision this important should be made. >> keep in mind very interesting parallel with nixon and china, obviously, that had immense international consequences, immense and long-lasting geopolitical consequences and it was a deliberate and thought out strategy by the nixon administrationme administration. they had months to prepare in him to do that. but the reason we talk about nixon to china, that's an overus overus

overus overused phrase is what we saw about the codomestic politics, nobody could have pulled that off. it's because he had so much credibility he was able to do it. >> absolutely. >> and if, if that was true for nixon in terms of his decision-making there, how do you extrapolate that to right now with this trump -- with this president and this republican party? obviously, if president obama said he would speak to kim jong-un. >> right, it would have been torn apart. >> we could have heard fox news here. >> what do you anticipate with this president and this party this year? >> his party has gone a very long way to accommodate him. presumably that will happen again. i think you have to ask these questions and for kim, the leader of north korea, this is a dream come true. he's got a summit. he's wanted that for decades. he and his family, you know, his ancestors who had this job, too. he's going to be dealing with a

president who will only have a few weeks to prepare and a president who needs some good publicity. donald trump has got low poll ratings. he's got a congressional election coming up. mueller is closing in and storm me d -- stormy daniels. he may try too hard to have a bargain and that's not a good situation for a president to be in if he's trying to drive a hard bargain. >> nbc news presidential historian on a history-defying night. thank you for being here. >> i think we'll remember this one. >> i think so, too. in fact, we're going to -- when we remember this history-defying night, when historians write this up, the day a u.s. president was meeting with a north korean dictator, what they have to write in that same entry about what happened today is so awkward i can hardly believe it but that is next including some footage from this event that

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if tonight goes down in history we learn the first time ever a sitting u.s. president agreed to meet in person with the dictator of forth conorth k that goes down tonight, they will have to also explain just a few hours before that hair-raising announcement was made in a federal court. now, and working with robert mueller had to file a status report with the judge in virginia. and paul manafort is up against and the investigation of the president's campaign. he's up against particularly stark given the long-time deputy rick gates has flipped. this is now what he's up against alone. mueller's prosecutors say in

washington d.c. where manafort is facing five felony charges related to money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying and false statements. the prosecutors say the bestestmebest es best estimate of jail time, they are expected range of sentence for him if convicted would be 188 to 235 months in prison. which is 15.5 to 20 years in prison. now that's not the statutory maximum he could face. it's more like 40. under sentencing guidelines they would expect him to do more like 15 to 20 years for the charges in d.c. for the charges he's facing as of today in virginia, he got arraigned on today is a little less clear but as far as i read it in virginia, it's 18 felony charges that manafort is hit with. these are charges related to unreported foreign bank accounts

and tax fraud and mueller's prosecutors with a sentence estimate if convicted on the virginia charges pulled out 5 of the 18 charges he's facing in virginia and they just calculate his expected sentence for those five. mueller's team told the court just for those five, for the tax fraud felonies that manafort is facing in virginia, his expected sentence would be 97 to 121 months, which is eight to ten years. and as far as we can tell, if convicted, that eight to ten years in virginia would be separate and apart from the 15 to 20 if looking in d.c. bottom line is the president's campaign chairman is facing a real prospect 23 to 30 years in prison. if he is convicted according to the sentencing guidelines that would seem to apply to him. 23 to 30 years. he's 68 years old right now so that means if he were convicted

and he got the bottom of the sentencing range, he would be in his 90s by the end of 23 years inside. that is a stark reality both for that one man, paul ma that foma and the campaign which put this president in office which is a stark reality for everybody else caught up at whatever level in this investigation thus far. they are talking decades long sentences. this is not small stuff. tonight, we obtained portions of the transcript from manafort's arraignment today. the judge in this case, 77 years old. he's a take no stuff kind of judge. this is the exchange in court that leads up to the judge giving manafort his trial date in virginia. he got a trial date for his other felony charges in mid september but here is the argument today over when his other trial will be for the felonies he's pacie facing in

virginia. in this perfect world where i have rosie glasses on, we were envisioning we would be trying this case in november following the case in d.c. the judge, quote, you need to go back to the eye doctor because that isn't going to happen to which the defense counsel says okay. then the judge says you've got a trial date in september in the district. mr. weissman, this case seems maybe i'm not familiar with the indictment in d.c. but this seems less complex. mr. weissman says that's our view, as well. the tax charges are due largely, the tax charges as we mentioned do largely over lap but unlike the d.c. case, there are no foreign agent registration act charges before this court. those involve an extension zifz -- extensive array of evidence. here are five bank frauds and the discovery has been produced. the judge says all right. mr. downing, manafort's defense

counsel, i'm going to set this matter in july. through the course of your preparation it comes up you have a more persuasive basis to come up with, i'll consider it but for now 12th of -- no, not the 12th, the 10th of july at 10:00 a.m. with a jury and having that earlier deadline is important. it will focus your minds. it will focus everyone's minds on getting this matter done. getting this matter done. eastern district of virginia rirg do does have a reputation for going fast. they call ate roit a rocket doc. he was arraigned first in d.c. but he'll get put on trial first in virginia. on july 10th. and in the meantime between now and then, i kid you not, i kid you not, trump campaign chairman paul manafort will be wearing not one but two ankle bracelets.

trump campaign chairman paul manafort will be wearing two ankle bracelets. this pru sesumably is while god gave him two legs, one to make sure he doesn't flee for his two trials. apparently the electronic monitoring systems in d.c. and virginia aren't the same so he needs two ankle bracelets. i hope he gets them on each ankle. would be weird to have two-on-one. i don't know. i also want to show you this footage. this is what happened what paul manafort left his arraignment today when this guy screams at him, show us your bracelet. he might not have known at the time it should be bracelets, plural. >> show us your bracelet! hey, traitor, here is your flag. russian's flag. traitor.

traitor. you're selling out america to the russians. how much did you get for that? traitor. >> it has been a remarkable day in the news. president's campaign chair pled not guilty to 18 felonies and the president announced he'll be the first president ever to say yes to a meeting with the north korean dictator and wait, there is more. stay with us tonight. you never know what might happen. hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

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reporter adam entis wrote in 2016 for an intriguing letter about something that had just happened in new york city. december 2016, this was right after the presidential election, the previous month trump had won the presidential transition was underway and according to adam entis this anonymous letter showed up and made a couple serious but sort of hard to believe claims. first, the letter claimed that jared kushner and mike flynn had met secretly with the russian ambassador, he asked if there could be a secret means of communication setup maybe involving russian diplomatic facilities, a secret means of communication, so trump folks

could stay in communication with the russian government without the u.s. government knowing about it. jared kushner wants a secret way to communication with the russian government that the u.s. can't listen to that? that seemed nuts to the reporters that saw that in that letter that came in in december 2016 but in fact, that claim however fantastic it must have seemed at first, it was later born out on u.s. intelligence intercepts captured the ambassador phones home to russia telling them about kushner's request for a secret means of communication. the ambassador was reportedly taken aback by this request but he said that is what kushner asked him to do. now the other eye-popping thing that letter claimed, this anonymous letter, the other thing it claimed in addition to asking the russian ambassador for a way trump people could be in touch with the russian

government secretly, the other thing it claimed rush nekushner flynn talked about setting up an in person meeting between a representative for trump and a representative for russian president vladimir putin. they wanted to set up the in person meet income some low profile location in some third country. now why on earth would they need to do that? in a matter of weeks, trump would be president and could meet with putin himself. why would they need a third country meeting with a rep s representative of trump and putin? no idea. it must have seemed like a crazy proposition in this letter. in fact, everyone though "the washington post" got that letter in mid december, they said they count verify those claims for months so we didn't learn about the existence of that letter for a long time. but eventually both of those crazy seeming claims were born out by other sources and streams of reporting.

and especially with what we just reported out in the last few days in the context of the special counsel's investigation, we got in phenomenal very tight timeline of a very busy few weeks all these secret meetings that happened in a real hurry right after trump was elected but before he was sworn in so trump gets elected november 8th. three weeks later on december 1 s that's when flynn and jared meet with the russian am basketball to -- ambassador at trump tower and talk about the secret on going means of communication and also they should set up a meeting where they could have an envoy of trump. that was december 1st. then everything starts to happen in a rush. monday, december 12th,less than two weeks later after the last meeting there, the russian ambassador comes back to trump tower and meets with jared's assistant monday december 12th and tuesday december 13th, jared

himself takes a meeting at trump tower with the head of a sanctioned russian bank. one who has a military intelligence background installed in his job by russian president vladimir putin. so monday the 12th kislyak is back meeting jared's assistant. tuesday the 13th, sergey is back and the 13th, it's flynn, kushner and steve bannon taking another secret meeting. this time with the crowned prince of the united arab emirat emirates, ebz. they didn't disclose this meeting to the obama administration even though the u.s. government figured out he was here in the end. the leader is accompanied at that meeting on the 15th by an advisor named george nador. the prince says he's aught roois

ris -- authorized to act as a s surrogate for trump and proposed the seychelles islands and sure enough, real quick, january 1 1th, mbz and that same advisor fly out to the seyshelle islands and understood to be there as a representative of putin. that's the meeting where the special counsel's office obtained evidence it was designed to create that aformentiaf mentioned back channel and, you know, we still don't know who wrote the anonymous letter to the washington post in mid december 2016 tipping them off that the series of secret meetings and back channel communications was starting up. but we do now know that special

counsel robert mueller has people who are cooperating with witnesses who were in on a lot of those meetings that december 1st meeting at trump tower talking about setting up the secret back channel mike flynn was there. mike flynn is cooperating with the special counsel. the december 15th meeting at trump tower with the same guys who later turn up meeting in the s nador was there and the seychelles meeting convened so eric prince could represent the trump side while the russian manager and he is now cooperating with robert mueller. so one might guess that this is about to get unsolved given you have insiders talking to the prosecutors. the prime question remains, obviously, why are they doing

this? why were jared kushner and these other people from the trump side trying so hard to set up an unmonitored communication channel during the presidential transiti transition. why do that? why do they need to talk to the russian government about so urgently it couldn't wait until trump was sworn in a couple weeks later and why did they try to keep the meetings about this secret? why were they doing this? obviously the prime question but what does a prosecutor do with information like this? it seems important that mueller and prosecutors now have cooperating witness whose are on the inside of the shenanigans explaining everything that happened there to mueller's team. acting secretively isn't a crime. meetings with foreigners isn't a crime. how and why does a prosecutor follow this trail. what are they looking to prove

as they follow this trail? we have some answers on that next. stay with us. don't we need that cable box to watch tv? nope. don't we need to run? nope. it just explodes in a high pitched 'yeahhh.' yeahhh! try directv now for $10 a month for 3 months.

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we have a bit of late breaking news tonight from "the atlantic magazine" concerning james nador. he has ties to former and current aids to president trump. mr. nador has been spotted at the white house early on in the trump administration. he was apparently a frequent guest to the white house. natasha is breaking news about him that i don't quite know what to do with. tonight natasha reports that george nador, the cooperating witness reports he was indicted in 1985, quote, on charges of importing to the united states obscene material including

photos of nude boys engaged in a variety of sexual acts. according to this report tonight, mr. nader plead not guilty and items seized was thrown out on procedural grounds. he denies the allegations now as he did then. like i said, i'm not quite sure what to do with this information. again, we've just learned this week the name of george nader and that he's cooperating in mueller's investigation. there is still fairly i guess compared to the other people we know about thus far, there is not that much pub welcolicly kn. he has high-profile connections and we know about the obscenity charge from 1985 and know mr. nader was present at at least two secret meetings held during a very busy period of secret

meetings during the trump transition. one meeting that mr. nader attended was one where he accompanied the crown prince of the united arab emirates to trump tower where they met with michael flynn and steve bannon and that was reportedly held in part to discuss opening up some sort of open channel in the future that would be a way to have representatives of president trump speaking with representatives of president putin. mr. nader was reportedly present at a followup meeting in the seychelles islands and acoal n accompanied the crown prince between eric prince acting as a representative p representative between the transition team and the representative of putin. this news arrives the day paul manafort was arraigned on federal tax and bank fraud charges and plead not guilty to

18 felony counts today as a protester stood outside the courthouse calling him a traitor and throwing a russian flag his direction. he will wear not one but two ankle monitor bracelets and facing 23 to 30 years in federal prison. joining us now is barbara mcquaid, someone i rely on to help me understand these things. >> glad to be here. >> mr. nader is something we are starting to learn about as a character in this drama most of us had never heard of not that long ago. it's been described that he was detained at the airport in january by fbi officials. he had been planning to transit through the airport to go to mar-a-lago to celebrate the president's one-year anniversary parties down there. mr. nader was said to be hit with search warrants and said to have seized his electronic devices there when they declined him. what kind of interaction would

he have had with the fbi? >> it's very significant they met him at the airport as he got off a plane. this is not the way we've seen robert mueller doing business where he reaches out, schedules an interview, has them come in at a time of convenience. they are waiting for him as he gets off the plane. it's quite possible that they actually had criminal charges they charged him with and arrested him at that time. we don't know that. it could have been a confrontation we could arrest you or would you prefer to talk with us and instead be a witness. if they had a search warrant to seize electronic devices, those may have provided to be very -- proved to be freightfuitful. it seems like he was keen to talk to him as quickly as possible and not let him get away and lose another moment. >> you're saying it's a non-zero possibility that they actually charged him at that time that there may, many they bring the

charges against him, he may have plead guilty. those aren't the things we would see if those procedures were pursu pursued? >> that's possible and that's what happened with george what george papadopoulos, he was charged and pleaded guilty and put under seal so he could continue to cooperate without the world knowing about it, including a request for proactive cooperation, meetings he wears a wire or telephone calls he talks with people to get incriminating statements from them. that could have happened in this scenario because that's what we saw with george papadopoulos. >> we've seen a lot of reporting in the last couple days, week, certainly, about this very busy period during the transition where there seemed to be a lot of secret meetings and discussions of setting up communication between donald trump and the russian

government. how significant is it that mueller has not one but two cooperating witnesses in flynn and nader who were in on some of those meetings? one of the meetings we know flynn and nader were there themselves? some of the meetings had either flynn or nader. sit more than just an additive result that you get two people cooperating rather than one in secret meetings like this? >> reporter: it's incredibly important to have more than one because then they can cob rate each other. you get one story from flynn, you separately ask nader. if they tell you the same story, they make it more believable. we also had bannon at one of those meetings so you may have all of them telling you. you can probe their stories to see if they're consistent on the details, if they are it becomes more believable what they're describing. don't forget flynn with the leverage they have over him, he has the incentive not to just

answer questions yes or no but to offer everything he can to get a better deal at the end of the day. >> barbara mcquad from the great state of michigan. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. rage, rage against the dying of the light. do not go gentle into that good night. ♪ ♪ ♪

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you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. nominee for most notorious headline of the entire trump/russia scandal is probably this one. russian dirt on clinton? i love it, donald trump jr. said. this is the story of the trump campaign meeting with a clown car's worth of russians after

being promised russian government material that was said to be damaging to hillary clinton. when that meeting was first reported last year, the american public was introduced for the first time to some of these characters at that weird russian meeting these are all people we've never heard of before. but in new reporting today by the super star investigating team, we learned not just about donald trump hanging out years before with some of the russians who helped set up that trump tower meeting. turns out two of those guys actually met with the future president in trump tower well before the presidential campaign in early 2015. quote in january 2015, trump had them as guests to his office in trump tower. a meeting that was never publically revealed during the investigations that followed the 2016 election. never publically revealed until now. in a new book i have been very excited to get my hands on, two

very good investigative journalists their new book is called "russian roulette" we got the excerpt they put out today, the book comes out on tuesday. i have two things to tell you, we got the first excerpt today, the second excerpt tomorrow morning. i'm getting up earlier than usual so i can read it. also i'm happy to report before the book comes out on tuesday, here on monday night they're going to join us here live on set for their very first tv interview to discuss what is in their new book. circle it on their calendar. monday at 9:00 before that book comes out tuesday morning. stay with us. and strangers alik e. - this is what america's about. - sometimes it's nice to see all the good that's out there. bringing folks out, we have seen it in community after community.

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prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. that does it for us tonight on what has been a historic night in the news. president trump becoming the first sitting u.s. president to accept an invitation to meet from a north korean dictator. we will see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening lawrence. >> good evening. we woke up this morning worried about the possibly of nuclear war with north korea and a trade war, now it's just a trade war. it's nice for at least a few months have one of those wars kind of taken off the list of possibilities. >> yeah. >> well, they plan to talk in may, and it sounds like things will probably be calm between now and