eligibility for pension. he has since lawyered up. chosen attorney and former justice department specialist to represent him. former director comey. >> white house correspondent, jeff bennett and pete williams. how significant are these memos that robert mueller has now? >> the significance is that they will commemorate meetings.

and so, i think the importance to mueller's investigators will be their ability to be a second source authenticating or corroborating what james comby has told investigators. >> michael bromwitch, representing andrew mccabe, said he has never seen this rush to judgment before. is the time of this firing unusual to you? >> yes, there are a lot of things unusual about this. the reason we are told that timing happened the way it did is, the fbi office of eligibility made a recommendation, it was appeared to the justice department. it was thfrds that mccabe and his lawyers were able to meet with a justice career official to talk about it and the recommendation went to the attorney general yesterday. at 10:00, he made the decision.

one other thing about the president's tweet that you just showed, he keems coming back in the tweets on the issue of jill mccabe who ran for senate senate and received a contribution of a confidant of hillary clinton. there is nothing in the statements that we have seen from the attorney general that that had anything to do with the decision to fire mccabe. we are told it was his authorization between a reporter and justice department officials about the fwmpt i investigation of the clinton administration in 2016, and when request questioned didn't give full candor, which is a firing offense of the fbi. nothing to do with what the president is mentioned about mccabe in tweets. >> his pension. what do we know, after 21 years

of federal government service, what do we know if he will get that pension? >> we don't know, i suspect he doesn't know it either. there are, we are told by experts, he has options, they are limited. >> and just today, neal catchall, the acting soliciter general, suggested that people set up a fund to help mccabe and his family. >> the president's personal attorney called for an end to the russian investigation after mccabe's firing, he is going to walk back, telling nbc news he is speaking on a personal capacity, not necessarily as the president's lawyer. what do we make of that? >> well, the comments mark a departure away from the trump legal team's previous commitment to cooperate with council. saying he speaked for himself not the president, we returned

to the status quo, the attorney general over seeing the russian investigation doesn't seem inclined to take his advice. doubling his support for mueller. alarms on the other side, the house democrats intelligence committee, calling on democrats and republicans to reiterate the importance of the special council investigation. >> at the same time, we know the president has been outspoken on andrew mccabe, how he feels about him. does the white house worry about whether or not the president's comments may come back to hurt him? >> i say, based on public statement, white house officials aren't too concerned. just this past week, sara huckabay in the briefing room called mccabe a bad actor.

>> thank you both. for more now on the revolving door in washington, i will bring in my panel. former ee ee eer first, to you want to ask you about this the "wall street journal" had them should the president be worried? >> well, he has to be concerned. as your prior guest said, the memos will help to corroborate whatever it is that mik kab can testify to. there will be reinforcement for the facts he had has to report. if they are damaging, there is reason to be concerned about it for sure. >> and james comby said, the american people will hear my story very soon and judge for

themselves who is honorable and who is not. we see the tweet. what do you expect to hear from comey? >> it will be interesting to see what james comey for his book and book tour that he did not tell in members of congress in testimony about dramatic meetings and conversations he had with president trump, when asked for loyalty. and when he would take those notes and memorandum that he turned over to special counsel mueller, about what made him so uncomfortable with the president. i don't know that there will be bombshells he has yet to reveal. cnn is reporting that mccabe memos are more about in his conversations with the president, how much the president would be critical of his wife, and questions like, how did you vote? and not so much about the russia

investigation. it will be interesting to see if there is something new that comey is going to come up with. he will face a lot of questions himself, if he goes on a bunch of tv interviews, which he is planning to do to sell his book, he will face a lot of questions about what is going on with his rev lagdss, and republicans are bringing up about what lisa and peter struct might have known, when they were talking to each other about the tarmac meeting with president clinton, and loretta lynch. comey has truly hyped this. as if we are to expect something we voluntary heard from him before. we will see if he does. he will face a lot of scrutiny as well. >> see how thoroughly. >> mccabe was apparently fired for a lack of candor.

what does the fbi consider that to be, how it is applied to mccabe in this instance? >> the term is found by the inspector general, the department of justice, michael horo witsz. anyone who knows andrew mccabe and his 21-year career has to doubt that he did anything as blatant as telling an out right lie. the suggestion from horowits, we haven't seen the report yet is that when he was asked in the investigation about exactly what he did in permitting the agents to speak to the wall street journal, he was somewhat squirreliyiy or not forthcoming that is for an fbi agent, it is almost inconveefable that he

would out right lie. he himself said he was misunderstood. he only got the evidence of this one day before he was sacked. and don't know exactly his side of the story. lack of candor just means what it sounds like. he wasn't completely forthcoming to the ig, when asked about the episode involving the wall street journal. >> i want to walk through this. mccabe was fired a couple of days before he was scheduled to retire. meaning he could lose his pension. that it was in retaliation, after the president fired james comey, from your experience, does this move to de23450i him that pension seem like retaliation to you? >> the first thing s we don't know the facts yet. we won't know them until the report comes out later this spring. there are some things about the

process and context in which this decision was rendered. some of which can inspire confidence in the decision, and others of which cast doubt on it. the main thing in my view that inspires kchds, apparently, serious, credible people were involved in the investigation, the inspector general, department of justice, candace will, who apparently made the recommendation to fire him, and scott schools, and the deputy general. they are know political opportunists. that is a reason to have confidence in it. and the statements coming from the white house, criticizing mccabe, calling for him to be

fired. very significant issue that would have occupied a lot of time inside the beltway. we have this unusual process that mike bromwitch, himself, a former inspector general, time lines imposed for him to respond to the evidence, that in my view is unusual, and needs to be explained. right now, it leaves doubts lingering. we have an unusual process here. it may be okay. it may not be. only time is going to tell. the big takeaway from this when you politicize law enforcement and investigations, you make it difficult for the american people to have faith in the integrity and accuracy of outcomes. >> these reports and statements coming out. i want to show the viewers

another statement from the president's attorney, from john dawd, when he spoke to the daily beast. >> to point out, that daily beast said that dowd clarified high was not speaking on the president's behalf. should we anticipate more actions like we saw with mccabe's firing yesterday, that strike at people connected to special counsel mueller's russia investigation, on the side. >> what is not okay is that president is trying to shut an investigation down. he might not go as far as he would like to. he may show restraint now and

then. it is clear he wanted mccabe fired, and it is clear that jeff sessions, the attorney general felt pressured after being humiliate and lambasted and threatened over twitter in the public sheer, that he felt pressure to that that recommendation. the president is using his power of his political office to slow or impede or discredit or stop an investigation. they may not show corrupt intent. it looks like he has already obstructed justice. having john dawd speak as the president's lawyer, using the words praying, to shut down an investigation, pretending it is based on the dossier, when mueller proved it is not. is outrageous. he walked it back. in the coming days, we have to hope they will be retreating

from this, and not flirting with a constitutional crisis. that is using the power of your office to obstruct justice and shut an investigation down. >> thank you all. major developments in the stormy daniels sag a president trump involved personally, in a lawsuit claiming that daniels violated a hush agreement. you know what's awesome? gig-speed internet.

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will go no where with me and my client. >> stormy daniels' lawyer fighting back. the legal team turns on the heat on the actress. they are suing daniels for breaking an alleged hush agreement. >> stormy daniels' lawyer making serious acquisitions on friday on "morning joe." llt me play that for you. >> was she threatened in any way? >> yes. >> was she threatened physical harm? >> yes. >> did it come from the president directly? >> i am not going to answer that. >> will you deny that president of the united states threatened your client?

>> i will not confirm or deny. >> what do you make of the allegations from the attorney there? >> we have seen how trump's legal team will go to great lengths to keep her quiet. $130,000 to make sure she keeps quiet. whether it is from his legal team or trump himself that is the question that everybody needs answered it is interesting to see, from huffington post, only 30% of people think the accuse eggs are credible. if. >> the understanding is that part of the reason for this lawsuit would be to try to move this case from a state court in california to federal court. why is something that trump team wants to do. >> there is a list of reason, when you move something to federal court it involves a federal question or people from

two different jurisdictions, some think that the federal courts are favorable in different areas, it may be the best. the attorney for miss daniels said it is the trump team trying to get an arbitration declaration in their favor. they have the right to do it, and go to federal court. state court, obviously, you have to go to state court if you both live in the state. if you live in two different states, you can go to federal court as long as it is over 75,000. >> trump is claiming there is an arbitration order. stormy daniel's attorney is saying it was invalid. she didn't get notice of it, and she wasn't present. that is a very good argument. right now, the case right now is to allow her to talk about what happened. the basis of that, one of the basis is that he never executed the contract on the

nondisclosure agreement. >> there are a lot of legal moves here. is he a third party beneficiary. is the discloser valid. and the arguments for both sides. why would attorneys sign an agreement on behalf of his client this is a real reality show. >> stormy daniels said she may not be the only woman paid to stay quiet. what impact would that have on the case? >> it is a very interesting development. the number of women came out during the campaign, that president trump allegedly assaulteded them or harassed them. it was controversy leading up to the campaign. the president pushed back against the allegations denied

them. and didn't seem to weigh too much on election day. with him receiving a lot of support from women voters. this will be something that is interesting that plays out in the next couple of weeks. this issue with the alleged affair with stormy daniels floated under the radar for a while. it has been under the radar with the recent news cycles, now it is coming to the forefront with the president weighing n it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the weeks and months ahead. >> it is always the cover up. if he would have let her talk, he could have denied it the signed agreements, and watching "shark week." nothing happened. what jury or judge is going to believe that? it is the cover up. why do an agreement? just let her talk. >> the president is represented

by charles harder. should the stormy daniels team be worried? feeling less confident? >> i would be worried. she did sign a nondisclosure agreement, unless that is not her signature, on the left hand of each page, she initialled it so, it was, she did cash the check. i would be worried. in that agreement, there is an agreement, if you do in fact breech this nondisclosure agreement, you could have damages, they are alleges she owes $20 million, and a million for each breech, they are saying she breached it 20 times now. speaking about things she knew she wasn't supposed to speak about. that is a serious thing. when your client is being sued for $20 million, that is very serious. >> we see the president weighing in on the controversial for the first time. how significant is that, that president is now put himself in

the middle of all this? >> this is something that is almost unheard of. a president is weighing in on an alleged affair, with a porn actress, any other presidency, this would have been top news. this would have dominated news cycles. this is almost, like i said, in the recent weeks, the blimp on the radar. the people leaving the white house. now, this comes, it is under the radar. to see how it plays out. >> alexi, what do you expect from the daniels 60 minutes interview next week? >> i think we can imagine she will not hold back. giving a platform uninterrupted, the time to it will her story. her lawyer said, wait for the interview, there will be no more questions left after this.

the interesting thing, as received from inserting himself into this mess, we see republicans on capitol hill afraid to comment on it they will chuckle. they won't answer. members of trump's party know it is a distraction, as they head into the mid term election. they need pro trump voters to show up at the polls f that gives them a reason to stay home, they don't want to talk about it at all. >> a wild week at the white house. fire fighting is a very dangerous profession.

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we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned. the things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harm's way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable, and i couldn't ask for a better partner. >> i spoke to a number of staff this morning, reassuring them that there were personnel changes, no immediate personnel changes at this time. people should not be concerned. we should do exactly what we do every day, that is come to work and do the very best job that we can. that is exactly what we are doing, what we are focused o. >> but, is the chief of staff himself in jeopardy of being replaced. amid reports that john kelly could be replaced, the wall street journal says he has

reached a truce with president trump. former secretary of state tillerson who was fired, mike pompo to replace him. and mcmaster still has his job. bring in president and ceo maria, charles stiks. >> is john kelly's job safe? >> i think when the president says he likes a guy on twitter, everybody should get nervous. in all seriousness, john kelly and the president have had a hard time. they probably had a bro-mance for the first three months, and always at odds, the president is

constantly going off script. john kelly was to provide discipline into the white house, the president lookses to have announcementos twitter, and basically, the one running the show. from the reports from the wall street journal and other says, it feels he is more comfortable in the position now as president than he did before. the fact that he is making personal changes, a lot of fox from fox and friends also makes one recognize he is trying to make sure he is yes, people he can put in front of the camera and spin the american people to what is happening within the administration. h.r. mcmaster's job is in jeopardy.

>> charlie, if mcmaster were to depart, what timing would his exit have on the administration, and the work that need says to be done in north korea? >> it is a hard time if the president doesn't trust the national security advisor, he is not listening to his advice. nobody's job is safe. this is the kind of chaos that donald trump promised. this is the kind of chaos he loves, he is reveilling in this. back in march of 2016, asked on "morning joe" who do you listen to on foreign policy? whose brain? he said, i listen to a lot of people. i listen to myself, i have such a great brain. that should be a it will on how he would run his administration,

and push back, on when he uponed to do something reckless or ill advised. we look thea the way he was fired, tillerson, and how it came out. how does it damage the stability inside the administration? >> i think the morale in the white house must be low. when you look at not just the way tillerson was fired. he didn't have a head's up. most recently, jeff sessions basebally fired mccabe after 21 of service. they are making sure you are embarrassed publicly, and that, for the information of

government. it is a clear signal to individuals within public service saying they are dispendable. if is a form of -- >> the president saying that do you get the impression that the president is trying to fill his administration with people more like himself, people who are less likely to offer a differing of opinion? >> no question about it. he would like to have more of a safe space. having said that. he is not a complete

nationalist. obviously, he is somebody who will be much more valuable than gary cohen on some of these issues. >> thank you both for your time today. >> i am joined by david corn and michael isikoff. and why the president wanted mccabe fired.

new reporting from the associated press that former deputy director mccabe kept notes with his interactions with president trump. those notes are now in the hands of the special council, robert mueller. the firing of mckibe kab, perhaps not a surprise since firing his boss, comey last year. he attacked mccabe on twitter saying mccabe and comey were in charge of investigators hillary clinton's e-mails. an incorrect figure by the way. the book foretold that mccabe would be fired.

and mistiruous ties with putin that go back years before the election. and now, the author, michael what set the stage for mccabe's firing yesterday? >> we open the book with a dramatdic one. it is time in january of t2017, to briefing donald trump, president-elect at that moment, eyed the assessment that russia meddled in the election, a wide influencing campaign, used to denigrate hillary clinton and boost trump. that is not something he wanted

to hear. and it was well orchestrated. all the leaders, cia director, james clapper, the dni, and mike rogers, national security agency director presented the report, and decide they would leave and james comey would stay behind and present trump with a two-page summary of the dossier written by christopher steel, the ex-spy hired by the clinton campaign, and comey gives him the dossier. to give trump a head's up on something circling in the media. trump sees this as a black mail attempt. calls it a shake down when comey leaves the room. he believe that is comey has done this for the purpose of letting them know they have something on him and may use it against him. to the extent that mccabe was

comey's loim deputy, the number two in the fbi, all the hostility trump felt for comey he felt for mccabe. >> they tried to link the investigation to the dossier that your book devils into. i pray that if acting attorney general rosenstein will follow the brilliant and corerageous example of the fbi, and the professional responsibility, and jeff sessions bring an end to russian collusion investigation, featured by mccabe boss james comey and the corrupt dossier. >> the dossier has not been

verified. we report in the book, some of the large points that christopher steel developed in an early set of memos, there was a russian did prove to be true to such an extent that when the fbi started investigating the russian hack of the election, and contacts with trump associates, they took steel's information seriously and talked about bringing him into the investigation to help. what you just read, we describe it to an extent in the book, that dossier, a series of memos, had very little to do with the development of the fbi investigation. already underway before steel was fully cooperating with the fbi, it came about, there was

real intelligence about real contacts with trump campaign associates, with russian cut-outs and supply-like fashion. we were surprised in doing the book, sometimes it felt like we were writing a spy level, given all the connections that trump campaign officials were having with russians. donald trump has never come to terms with the consequences of these contacts. >> particularly, intriguing detail in the book about a mysterious sealed letter that putin carried by hand by russia to new york to deliver to president trump. what do you know about that letter? >> i think it was putin who carried the letter but yes, this comes after the trump trip to moscow in november 2013 for miss universe contest. it had an alternior purpose, for

trump to nail down a business deal to build a trump tower in moscow. very close to putin and trump was desperate to meet valdimir putin during the trimpt as we described, he kemt asking if putin coming to the miss universe pageant? have we heard from him yet? he thought he would be getting a phone call from putin, he was extremely anxious for that call to come through. finally, the phone rings, and paris alla -- the putin spokesman, he apol guises, putin can't make t but he invites him to the olympics, and he has a gift for him. that gift, in a black lacquer box, and hand delivered to trump

tower along with that gift was a private letter from putin to donald trump. we don't know, the world does not know what was in that black box, what was in that note from putin to trump. >> and the statement observe the election in 2016, trump is obsessed with revenge. can you explain that more for us how it reflects on the staff changes at the white house? >> yes, i am happy to. before he ran for president, one of the things that trump did was to give lectures at the learning annex, and conferences around the world on how to be a success. that was the point. sometimes thousands of people turned up for the lectures there, are videos of them all over you tube, before the election, i reviewed them. there was a celebrity, he had a

line, i will tell you my number one rule of business, you don't learn it at havard business school, this is the income number one rule in business. if someone screws you, you need to screw them 10 times over. you see, that it is part of the trait that we detail in the book, that he just can't take criticism, he can't have anyone see that election was tainted by russian interference. he is so set on making sure that he is always the winner, and everybody around him has to be the looser. he has not come to terms with the russian intervention in the election, he is not protecting the country from possible, future interventions, going back to the story mike tells us.

>> david corn, michael isnikoff. the election of donald trump. thank you. >> next up, russian cyber war. cyber attacks that is next.

so that if ever they decide to use it as a policy tool, they

are able to lieutenant general paul nakasone, during his confirmation hearing for nsa director earlier this. >> what will happen to him? >> so basically i would say they do not -- they do not think that much will happen to them. >> they don't fear us. >> they don't fear us, the general said our adversaries don't see a response to change their behavior. do you agree with that? >> yes. they are absolutely right. we have got to do -- it is called a declare story policy but it said if you take the following series of actions, you will get a serious pushback from the united states.

president obama should have done it a long time ago and president trump should do it similarly very quickly. let them know we'll either retaliate in kind or levy economic sanctions or do more of the sort of individual sanctions that the president announced last week. but this is absolutely critical, in addition to spending a lot of money, and time and effort hardening our own system so we can't be held at risk. >> and just a few seconds left but the administration has acted. we can say that. the president though is still perceived as slow to act against russia. what message do you think that sends? >> well there is two things here. on a policy basis, i think he's been tough on russia. did he okay the sale of anti--tank to the ukraine administration but the posture and the phone, i think he needs

to be more aggressive with regard to what they are doing. so i think you've got a point there. everyone else is called him out and he needs to call them out very, very strongly. and it shouldn't be that hard. these are serious adversies and this should be an easy score. >> michael allen, thank you. and that wrapped it up this hour here at msnbc. i'm aaron gilcrest. stay for us with update and breaking news as it happens. "all in" with chris hayes is next. make it a great saturday. we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go! you got the green light. that means go! oh, yeah. start saying yes to your company's best ideas.

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>> tonight on "all in." >> i have no deals in russia. >> as the mueller investigation officially enters trump tower, a long-time figure in president trump's circle joins me live. >> i was working on a bunch of real estate transactions with donald trump of all people. >> tonight, my interview with felix sater on his time working with donald trump. the russia investigation. and his double life as an american spy. then explosive new allegations from the lawyer for stormy daniels. >> was she threatened in any way? >> yes. >> was she threatened physical harm? >> yes. >> as the president played reality show with his cabinet -- >> i read where maybe people don't want to work for trump. >> the incredible new scandal