when you ask questions, it turns out, when things that previously have been done in the dark are forced into the light, that makes stuff happen. there's something about the effect of sunlight. there's something about the public disclosure of previously secret maneuverings that makes stuff happen, that sets things in motion. you know, you turn on the light -- you ever live in an apartment or house that, like, had bugs? i once was renting an apartment in san francisco, and i had signed the contract. i was ready to move in. i brought over a friend of mine because i was so excited about this new apartment. i brought my friend over, and i was like, let's get some burritos. we're going to move in in the next few days. i'll show you the place. we walked in.

it was nighttime. flipped on the light. roaches. and they ran for the corners. and i got out of that contract, and i did not move into that apartment. but my friend never wanted to go anywhere to eat dinner with me again. and i learned about that old anecdote that, you know, you flip on the lights and stuff scatters. that works in the news too. and we keep seeing that dynamic again and again of people flipping on the switch and the bugs scattering. and in today's news, it has -- it has really become one of the most interesting things that has happened yet in this whole scandal. i'll tell you about how the dynamic has been working. two or three weeks ago we had this startling revelation in "the new york times" that related to one of the people who is a cooperating in the special counsel's investigation. he's actually the only person we know of who has been granted immunity in exchange for his cooperation with robert mueller and the special counsel's office his name is george nader.

he has multiple criminal convictions in multiple countries, including for child pornography and child molestation. but he has nevertheless turned up multiple times in the trump white house. he's turned up in this photo with donald trump, and he turns up again and again and again in trump tower and interacting with trump campaign officials in meetings that would later come under scrutiny by the special counsel's office as the special counsel looks at links between the trump campaign and russia's attack on the 2016 election. so a couple of weeks ago we learned in "the new york times" that that guy, george nader, was in attendance at a previously unreported meeting that happened at trump tower in new york three months before the 2016 election. at that meeting, according to the times' reporting, a foreign company pitched the trump campaign on what would be a foreign-funded social media manipulation campaign, which they were offering to mount in

the united states in order to help trump win the election. so that was a fascinating obviously very troubling revelation. any effort like that, of course, would be illegal on a whole bunch of different grounds. it would be a foreign expenditure, using foreign workers to manipulate the american electorate in some ways, to benefit a u.s. presidential candidate with the knowledge of the u.s. presidential candidate since that was his campaign being pitched on this proposal. so it was amazing reporting by the "times," very disturbing revelation. the name of the company that reportedly pitched that seemingly illegal plan to the trump campaign three months before the election was a company called psy group, p-s-y. it's interesting. by the time we read the name of that company in "the new york times," by the time we learned about that scheme just a couple weeks ago, the psy group was long gone. apparently agents working for the special counsel's office in february had stopped the founder of that firm, the guy who had

been at that meeting supposedly pitching that plan to the trump campaign. they stopped him at an airport in washington, d.c. they questioned him and, quote, briefly seized his electronic devices. they later brought him before the grand jury, and that attention, those questions to that businessman about whatever he was doing with that firm, those questions had consequences. he got stopped in february. they checked his electronic devices. they brought him before the grand jury. simultaneously fbi agents working with mueller's team turned up at the psy group, turned up at the firm and started talking to employees. mueller also reportedly subpoenaed bank records for the firm. and you push that stuff out into the light, you start asking those questions, it makes stuff happen. what did the firm do right after those approaches from the special counsel's office? they decided that they would disappear. february 25th, the firm's ceo informs its employees that the company is disappearing. it will be shutting down. so by the time that whole new

part of the mueller investigation that we didn't know before -- by the time it made it into "the new york times" a couple of weeks ago, the "times" was only able to report that that company is, quote, in liquidation. yeah, mueller started asking around. they decided to disappear. you start asking questions, stuff happens, right? things get 40sed into the light, stuff happens. by russia. well in march of this year

reporters tracked down yet another scandal about the firm. the story of the firm using its own stolen data, tens of millions of private profiles that they stole off facebook without consent and used to build basically the spine of their operation as a company. reporters started asking about that in march. well this week, the financial times in britain reports that those questions that reporters were asking about that scandal, questions caused two things to happen at the firm. number one according to the financial times the questions from reporters about the data scandal caused the cambridge analytica ceo to withdraw $8 million in cash from the company. and to take it home. and number two, that started the process of the company starting to disappear. the company does still appear to be in trouble. the ceo appears to still be in trouble. the questions what exactly the company did for the trump campaign and whether it was part

of a foreign influence operation, those remain open questions in terms of the mueller investigation. but reporters pressing that firm on the questions appear to have caused that firm to disappear. cambridge analytica shut itself down. they technically no longer exist. we see this dynamic again and again with all the mysterious entities operating in the dark. flipping on the light switch and things change. ask question stuff happens. today we obtained the transcript of a court hearing yesterday in federal court in new york city. a case involving elliott brody. deputy finance chair of the rnc when he resigned a sketchy hush money scandal that involved him paying off a mistress that got pregnant. oddly for the transaction mr. brody chose to use donald trump's hush money to the mistress lawyer as well as donald trump's other hush money to the mistress lawyer and he

used donald trump's pseudonym to the hush money cases. why was elliott brody using donald trump's stuff for his own mistress case? then as soon as anybody inquired about the unusual donald trump-like mistress hush money dale mr. brodd issued the other the top mea culpa and instantly resigned. some day we will figure out what happened there. and it's going to be an amazing story. i will tell you it's not -- that particular one is not an amazing story i'm looking forward to seeing the movie of. i would prefer to read it in print. but some day we will get that full story. and elliott brody's troubles extend that mistress controversy which supposedly is what ended his time as the deputy finance kmarm of the national republican party. mr. brody was also the business

partner of george nader the cooperating witness in the mueller investigation, the one cooperating in exchange for immunity. mr. brody is caught up in influence peddling on behalf of foreign interests, including clients in malaysia and in united arab emirates and other countries. as part of that drama, in federal court yesterday, a judge ordered effectively the disclosure to the court of who the nation of qatar had working for enemy this country. that ruling yesterday in federal court in new york led to this dramatic headline today at politico. key figures sever tie was qatar. it's led one american caught up in the scandal about unregistered foreign agents involving elliott brody. it's caused one american to announce whatever work he has done with qatar before he is not doing anymore. and he is friday going to

retroactively register as a foreign agent. what's the overall story with the flows of foreign money involving the gulf states and the mueller investigation looking into that? what's the relationship between the elliott brody scandal and the cooperation with the mueller investigation. we don't note and don't have the answers to the questions. but asking questions forcing stuff into the light is making stuff happen. we got this amazing statement from joey el ham forced out into the hope in terms of his relationship with qatar thanks to the elliott brody lawsuit. he told us ton. so i don't know if i ever was a so so-called legal agent of qatar. but i know as of friday i'm not anything with them. as of friday he will retroactively have had nothing to do with them. he will also register as their foreign agent.

now, mr. aliham tells us tonight that his sudden abandonment of qatar has nothing to do with the court hearing yesterday. but the judge yesterday did order him to respond to a subpoena in this case. and when you ask questions stuff happens. when stuff is forced into the light stuff happens. when courts force the disclosure of previously secret dynamics, stuff happens. and we have seen this over and over and over again in trump administration scandals. talk about hush money. it randomly was the stormy daniels hush money lawsuit that brought about the exposure of all the mysterious payments that had been made to michael cohen, the mysterious payments to michael cohen from unexpected sources. it was the stormy daniels lawsuit that showed us how we -- how the pharmaceutical firm novartis and how the giant telecom firm at&t had apparently put michael cohen on corporate

payrolls to the tunes of tens of thousands of dollars a month. and they were quite happy to have him on the payroll up until the moment the payments got exposed because of the stormy daniels lawsuit. that exposure to the light made novartis and at&t decide that the payments had been a mistake. the public exposure of those payments led at&t to fire their chief lobbyist. led novartis to final general counsel. none of that would have happened had it not been pushed into the late. they had miebl cohen on the payroll. it wasn't a secret to them. it's only when it stopped being a secret to us that all of a sudden they decided it was a bad idea and people had to go. we see this dynamic at work over and over again and almost every element of the scandal that is swirl around the energies and the president. but tonight it is maybe my favorite one yet. i mean, we have seen all along, reporters ask questions, fbi

agents start asking questions when things are getting exposed all of a sudden people change. you know, people realize they need to register as a foreign agent. people separate themselves from countries they work for whole companies disappear in thin air. corporation that can't become critical of their behavior, behavior they didn't previously see as a problem era problem. they fire executives to try it make the problem go in which make themselves look like they recognize their mistake. well, this -- the latest iteration of this dynamic in the era of trump administration scandals, the latest just happened today may be the apex example of the dynamic at work. this is courtesy of reporter christina wilkie at cnbc. as robert mueller looks ever more closely as president donald trump's foreign business ties one former associate has remained outside the spotlight, despite playing a key role in trump's quest for real estate

deal in the former soviet union. architect john fodiadis designed some of trump's luxury developments there. his work offers a window into trump's deals in the eurasian real estate. today several projects are under screwed skrut by about the special counsel. and any means by which moscow might have exerted influence over trump or his campaign including through business deals. after mcclatchy reported in april that mueller's probe was looking more closely as people involved in trump's business dealings in georgia, contactsants and russia and after cnbc sfeefd a tip that fodiadi is worked on several projects cnbc reached out to him about for comment about his work. this is the amazing part. are you ready reach out on april 11th. quote.

fodiadis did not respond to calls or emails. but eight hours later he announced on twitter he was closing his architecture firm after ten yeerps in business. two days later he closed down the twitter account he used to announce he was klousing down the architecture firm. all the internationale portfolio had been removed from the web. also gone was any reference to the two overseas brafrms of his architectural firm he opened in georgia and ukraine. mr. fodiadis has not answered repeated calls for email orr text messages about his work in eurasia or way he shuttered his company. he is also declined comment on whether he has been contacted by the anyone from robert mueller's office. investigators asking questions, judges demanding disclosure, reporters poking around looking at stuff. looking stuff up, being nosey

following leads, making calls. that makes the world go around. that's making my world go around at least. i mean, those -- those things can cause amazing stuff to happen in the world. but to make an entire architectural firm disappear with one phone call, that is an amtzing trick. cnbc just disappeared donald trump's long-term architecture and his entire architectural firm with a single phone cull. that's a trick. that reporter joins us here next. kyle, we talked about this. there's no monsters. but you said they'd be watching us all the time. no, no. no, honey, we meant that progressive would be protecting us 24/7. we just bundled home and auto and saved money. that's nothing to be afraid of. -but -- -good night, kyle. [ switch clicks, door closes ] ♪ i told you i was just checking the wiring in here, kyle. he's never like this. i think something's going on at school. -[ sighs ] -he's not engaging.

i think something's going on at school. looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor.

ito take care of anyct messy situations.. and put irritation in its place. and if i can get comfortable keeping this tookus safe and protected... you can get comfortable doing the same with yours. preparation h. get comfortable with it.

but to me is by all accounts a lovely place. the second largest place of georgia. the country not the state. the bitumi has a fairly famous garden. historic churches and mosques. miles of beaches. stalin lived there. stalin lived there and went to prison there at the turn of the 20th century. how about that. once upon a time recently there was a big luxury development there. more than a half million square feet of developed space

including a marina, park, yacht club, hotel more than a dozen other building at the center a pick pokey 44 story residential tower. a trump tower. trump tower bitumi which never happened. president-elect up trump pulled out of the deal days before the inauguration. former partners in the deal told forbes magazine last year to keep it' live they might ut put up a fake tower at the the site. er saturdays four. a tromp tower or a fromp tower. that's a funny thing to imagine. it would be funnier if they pulled it off. but the special counsel office has been reportedly interested in trump organization deals in that part of the world. eastern europe, the former soviet union, first reported in the spring by mcclatchy. now tonight a new wrinkle. because the president's favorite

architect, who among other things design the quarter of a billion dollar would be metropolitans on the coast. the architect has gone off the grid. a cnbc reporter tried to inquire with the architecture about his work on trump deals in eastern europe. upon being contacted by a reporter for cnbc, the architect disappeared in a poof of moek. mr. fotiadis. his name if fotiadis quote did not respond to call or email but eight hours later i announced on twitter he announced closing his firm. jfa after ten years if business. a few days later. he closed the twitter account he used to announce the closing of his firm. by the end of the week all the contents of his professional website including the portfolio had been removed also gone was reference to the two overseas branchs of his firm he opened in georgia and ukraine. mr. fotiadis has not answered

repeated calls emails or text messages from cnbc with questions about his work in eurasia or about why he shuttered the company and he is declining to comment about whether he has been approached by anybody from robert mueller's office. what was that about? you get a call from cnbc and shut down the architecture firm, disappear twitter, remove all vestages of the professional career from the web and stop answering the phone? why the rush? what's going on? joining us now is christina wilky. reporter for cnbc.com. she spook the architect. >> thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> do you have this effect on people brewedly. >> i don't. people love to call me back. >> so let me just ask, if -- if this is unusual -- obviously we you call -- you call somebody and ask pointed questions sometimes they make themselves scarce. this seems great extremes. >> yes. and architects said i spoke to

they had never seen a firm shut down so quickly. people change jobs. but the idea that over the -- that immediately a firm it announces closing after ten years. also an architect lives by the portfolio. the idea that he would have removed more than 30 projects from his public portfolio is -- they just said they had never seen anything like it. >> now, there is no suggestion that he is in trouble. we don't have any indication -- your reporting as yous there is no reason he has come under suspicion for wrongdoing. >> no. >> has there been other reporting as to involvement with the investigation or potentially involvement in- in overseas investigation sns we know that in ukraine for example prosecutors looked into possible money laundering and other misdealings around corruption and real estate deals. has he been caught up in that. >> not we know of. he basically as we looked all over the world for pieces of the story he is a figure in the shadows, partly of his own

choosing. but certainly now he is a guy who doesn't want to be found. but what i have reported out is that he was present in a ton of very interesting moments in trump's career, especially in eastern europe spl now mr. fotiadis is an architect, an american he did open offices in ukraine and georgia. >> yes he did. >> okay. so did his work over time shift to become a former soviet state based firm. >> his firm remained in new york. but he open the two branchs. the majority of his work during this period from about 2007 to 2013, 2014, was mostly in eastern europe. he had clients in ukraine and azerbaijan, turkey, georgia. big clients, the richest man in ukraine was a patron. the same man who brought paul manafort to ukraine. >> that's an unusual overlap.

there are questions how donald trump and manafort got together. one of the which they overlap is the guy doing the buildings for trump ended up doing buildings for the guy funding paul manafort work in ukraine. >> this is a way they overlap. we have no indication that fotiadis and manafort overlap. often the oligarchs keep the worlds compartmentalized. the idea that your architect sbakts with the political consultants. experts say that's unlikely. then the architect shows up doing projects in bit muchlt i. a project in florida that was never built. a designed trump kazakhstan tower opinion and there was the three legged stool. when trump went into the eastern european listening deals. trump the salesman, michael cohen, the lawyer and fotiadis, the architect. in order to get the licensing deals and to seal it, trump

needed to bring an architect with him to -- so that there was something to sell, and a lawyer so that you know they could sign the deal right here. pu so this was really part of trump's power plan. >> fascinating. so the extent that trump ace business deals particularly in the former soviet union are of interest in terms of russia investigation, he is the third part of it. miebl cohen under criminal investigation. president trump obviously the subject of this inquiry by the special counsel. the other guy in the room for all the discussions, disappeared when you called him >> he did. >> wow! >> yes. >> okay. >> good luck finding him. >> thank you. >> if he calls you back please call me after sfla i will. >> christina. reporter for cnbc.com. congratulations. lots to come tonight. we'll be right back. ming palace. laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but she's not much on "articles of organization." articles of what? so, she turned to legalzoom. they helped me out.

she means we helped with her llc, trademark, and a lot of other legal stuff that's a part of running a business. so laura can get back to the dogs. would you sit still? this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace and this is where life meets legal. paywell, esurance makes itnce you dsimple and affordable. in fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of $412. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call. paying too much for insurance that isn't the right fit? well, esurance makes finding the right coverage easy. in fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of $412. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call.

booking a flight doesn't have to be expensive. just go to priceline. it's the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40%. just tap and go... for the best savings on flights, go to priceline.

especially when inside another amazing machine. your an amazing machine. the lexus es. with standard technology like lexus safety system plus. the lexus es, and es hybrid. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

we just got a breaking news story just posted at the "new york times" that i want to share with you and get some expert advice on. because i'm not sure that i get the full -- that i get the full picture of this. you this is just breg. and the one thing i do get about this is that this is a big deal. late last night you might have seen the news that the senate had passed a unanimous resolution that was very mysterious. raised lots of eyebrows really nobody knew what it was about. it was a resolution allowing the intelligence committee in the senate to hand over information from the senate to the justice department. we had no idea what that was about.

why they passed this unanimous resolves. but it said that it was -- what they needed to hand over was documents in connection with some sort of pending investigation arising out of the unthorsoned disclosure of information. so untloerzed of disclosure of information. the senate has information the justice department wants the information. the senate is pruchgt hand going over so the justice department can act on it. what's that about? then later on tonight we got reporting from multiple sources that the unauthorized disclosure of information was from somebody who had been a long time staffer on the committee. the house and senate intelligence committees handle incredible license active material under incredibly rig rouse secrecy protocols. and being a long time staffer according to the walgds it was a 31-year staffer who serve in a non-partisan capacity under multiple administrations and

under different majorities, this senate -- senate intelligence committee staffer was reportedly being investigated by the justice department for unauthorized disclosure of information. that's what we had as of last night in this sort of reporting that was bubbling up through the day. now we've got a very unexpected turn in this from "the new york times." i think we got the headline here. if -- here it is. justice department seizes "new york times" reporter's email and phone records in leak investigation. quoting from the times. federal law enforcement officials secretly seized years worth of a "new york times" reporters phone abemail records this year in an investigation of classified information leaks. now, this reporter having records seized -- this is the same story apparently on that- that news that we got last night and into today about something being leaked by a staffer on the

senate intelligence committee. this reporter who had her phone and email records seized, unbee noents to her a reporter alley watt kins who works for the times. she previously worked for buzz feed, previously for politico. now for the times. and she did not know i guess until recently that the justice department had seized her records, her phone and email records. that's a big deal for anybody. it's a really big deal and has first amendment implications if they do it to a reporter. continues from the times. shortly before working at the times. if i can agents approached proved the reporter alley wahl are watkins seeking information about a previous three-year romantic relationship she had with james a. wolf the former director of security dpor the senate intelligence committee. the fbi said they were investigating unauthorized leaks. miss wit cans did not answer the investigations mr. wolf stopped performing work in seept he

retired in may last month. he was not a source of information for miss wit watkins during the relationship. she continued to cover national security including the committee worker. ms. watkins told editors at the times about the replace when she was hired to cover federal law enforcement. so the full scope of this is as yet unclear. this is breaking in "the new york times." we have two big deals here. we have the senate with the unanimous resolution saying yeah the intelligence committee can give information to law enforcement as law enforcement investigates potential leaks by a staffer on the intelligence committee, a long time senior staffer on intelligence. we have the name of that staffer and the news that he is now retired. but apparently at least according to the reporting the times there is suggestion that his previous three-year relationship with a reporter, a national security reporter, led to the justice department surveilling a reporters's email and phone records unbee noents

to her for years while she reported on serious national security matters for a number of different u.s. publications. reporters do not expect that to happen to them in this country. joining us now is matt miller. former justice department spokesman under eric holder. thank you for joining us on short notice. we called you when you saw this. you've only had as much time to digest it as i have thanks for being with us. >> of course. >> the times notes in the second appraise of the story that under president obama there had been aggressive tactics to crack down on leaks, including tactics that made some reporters uncomfortable and some news organizations unhappy with the way that reporters were -- were pursued essentially ford to track down leaks. is this a continuation of that or is this a depart yur? >> it's a continuation of what happened early in the obama administration. basically exactly what the justice department has done here it did to one of the reporters who wrote this story adam goldman and pudz or with "the

new york times." but something important happened after the justice department did under eric holder who the is attorney general. president department recognized that they had gone too far and put in place a series of regulations that are supposed to prevent this from happening without the justice department going to the media organization and trying to negotiate some sort of a accommodation in advance. and it is obvious that didn't happen in this case. what's supposed to happen under the new regulations is that the justice department before it subpoenas a reporter as information -- because this is important. this is different from subpoenaing a reporter's testimony. the reporter doesn't know if you've gotten the emails or gone and gotten phone records. they have no ability to go to court to block it. >> roo it. >> the justice department under holder put in new regulation that is would allow for some kind of negotiation between the media the outlet and the justice department and give the media outlet the opportunity to go to court to try to -- try to block the justice department from seizing the records. it appears that ins this case

doj did not follow the regulations. >> matt, the other entity that is implicated this this story and involved in what is still obviously a developing story is the intelligence committee. this long time staffer from the intelligence committee who is reportedly under investigation for unauthorized disclosure of information, he is the security director at the intelligence committee. and as far as i understand it, that means that he would have been responsible on the intelligence committee for making sure that classified information and secret information was closely and appropriately held. under that circumstance, if -- if he was involved in any unauthorized disclosure of information particularly from the very important perch is that the sort of thing that congress policies itself or would you expect the justice department would get involved in that as a potentially criminal matter? >> you know, the -- this raises really important kind of constitutional questions between the two branchs you've seen before where the justice department tried to investigate leaks from congress and congress

has been resistant about turning over information to the justice department. i think one of the things we don't know here is what leak the justice department is investigating. and this really is important. because there are leaks i would argue that are important leaks that do compromise national security that should be investigated. and at times people should be prosecuted for those leaks. but then there are other leaks that just embarrass the administration. they're not leaks that compromise the national security but they embarrass the president. we know that president trump has been outraged by some leaks. outraged by leaks of confidentials he had with foreign leaders. and he wanted the justice department to go after the people who are responsible for the leaks and hold them accountable. i think we -- we still need to know what this leak was before we we are able to answer, you know is this an appropriate investigation? i'm leaving aside whether some of the tactics are appropriate or not. but whether the investigation itself is appropriate or whether it looks like retaliation. >> one last question for you, matt. if -- as you say under attorney general eric holder there were

new regulations put in place so that reporters would be protected from sbrusive severance basically as a way of proelting the freedom of the press. base country you described some sort of accommodation, negotiation with the media outlet or a reporter before a reporter was surveilled in this way as part of -- as part of -- as part of a leak investigation. i've got -- my control room needs to stop talking in my ear a second. thank you. sorry matt i had two people talking to me at the same time. i was troo trying to talk to you. at the same time as holder -- if holder put in the rules obviously we have a different attorney general now. if this was done in violation of doj policies. if "the new york times" reporter was surveilled inappropriately, how is that policed within the justice department? >> it would have to be policed by the inspector general. there is a -- a kind of loop hole that the attorney general can use if they determine that -- i think the regulations say that if negotiations with

the media outlet would pose a substantial threat to the investigation, if it would harm national security, the attorney general can essentially suspend that negotiation or you know not negotiate with the media outlet. it's hard to see how in this case, just looking from the outside that would be applicable here. it's something that would be policed by the inspector general. but ultimately these are regulations that are put in place by the attorney general. they can be rescinded by the attorney general. attorney general sessions and attorney general rosenstein announced early on they were looking on the regulations and decide whether they shall be withdrawn. they haven't withdrawn testimony they're in place. pu they've been skeptical of them and they've you could talked about cracking down more on leaks that have happened in the past. we don't know exactly how they decided to make this decision to subpoena you know, reporters or whether they suspended -- or whether they you know essentially, you know, invoked this kind of loop hole in the regulation to justify this subpoena. i think that's a very important

question. >> matt miller form justice department spokesperson joining us on short notice. much appreciated matt thank you. >> thank you. >> again, we're absorbing the new information just reported from "the new york times." we had seen some intrigue coming in the senate around a potential investigation that involved the senate handing over information to the justice department about some unauthorized disclosure of information by a staffer on the senate intelligence committee. that was intriguing enough heading into this night's broadcast. but then as soon as we got on the air "the new york times" posted this report that the justice department has been secretly seizing and surveilling records, phone records and email records from one of the national security reporters. it is reportedly related to this investigation. but this is a big deal in terms of freedom of the press. we'll have much more to come tonight. stay with us. hey blue. i brought you something.

okay. we're getting out of here. you're welcome. run! holy! this is gonna be awesome. rated pg-13. but as it grew bigger and bigger,ness. it took a whole lot more. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. everything. and that 2% cash back adds up to thousands of dollars each year... so i can keep growing my business in big leaps! what's in your wallet? looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits.

tripadvisor.

come hok., babe. nasty nighttime heartburn? try new alka-seltzer pm gummies. the only fast, powerful heartburn relief plus melatonin so you can fall asleep quickly. ♪ oh, what a relief it is! so last night we got the news that the full u.s. senate had passed a mysterious resolution unanimously.

a resolution announcing the senate intelligence committee to provide the justice department with documents quote in connection with a pending investigation aroy rising out of the unauthorized disclosure of information. we did not know what that was about. senate republicanings and democrats agreeing unanimously that their intelligence committee should give documents, documents in the possession much the intelligence committee to the justice department as part of a pending investigation. so all through late last night and most of the day details were in short spli and speculation was in rich supply. with you now tonight we start to get another part of the story. just within the last few minutes "the new york times" has reported that a reporter a "new york times" national security reporter, has had her phone and email records seized, unbee noents to her. previously -- she knows now but didn't know when they were seized. seized as part of the investigation into a leak from the senate intelligence committee. senator ron wide isn't the top

exact on the democrat finance member and member of the senate intelligence committee. i'm assuming he will not talk to us about this matter but i'm asking him anyway. senator widen thank you for being with us tonight. i appreciate your time. >> rachel you are quite good as making correct assumptions. and under the senate rules it's just not possible for me to get into it. >> let me just -- i just want to push around the edges of that with great respect for your fidelity to the responsibilities as a member of the intelligence committee, sir. the times is reporting tonight that there is a connection between the justice department surveilling their reporters, reading reporter as emails and looking at phone records while working as a reporter for going back years. the times is reporting a connection between that treatment of their reporter which obviously raises a lot of first amendment concerns, and this investigation into whether or not there were unauthorized leaks from a staffer on your committee. it is is the times right to draw the two things together? are these connect zplood rachel,

i heard about the content of the times story as you were reading it on the air. and, again, without being particularly ob strep rouse, i can't get into this because of the committee rules. >> okay. and i'll ask you one last question. obviously the resolution that allowed the senate intelligence committee, the kmar and vice chair to hand over documents that was a unanimous resolves that passed the senate without objection last night. should we see -- is that just a formallity? is that the way these come up? should we see this as there isn't a partisan difference, that this isn't the sign of a big fight among members of the committee or the senate in terms of whether or not the senate is properly cooperating with doj on this. >> at this point, rachel, again you are a persistent soul and that's your your viewers appreciate it i can't go there. >> instead, sir. let me ask you about what i had

initially asked you to be on the show to talk about here tonight. which is a decision that you have made that you are actually going to stop the appointment of at least one senior staffer to the u.s. treasury department because you say that you haven't received information that you have requested from treasury that's related to the rather than investigation. what can you tell us about that. >> we are looking at two separate matters. i'm looking at russia. and i'm also looking at this novartis deal, because i've been concerned that as the reports came out it looked more like a corporate shakedown than a traditional business deal involving miebl cohen. with respect to the russia investigation, i have put a hold on an intelligence nominee, miss petalunis. and the president told something of a fairy tale in the last couple days about this person shouldn't be held even though we were trying to get documents

because she had moved. and that was his assertion. and then we found oh out she had been in washington, d.c. all along. i think what's going on here, both with respect to russia and with respect to the novartis matter, the president and his allies are awfully afraid of what is in these documents. and for example, on the novartis deal, in particular, what i can tell you is our finance investigators are very good. they understand financial crimes, tax crimes. and treasury secretary, mr. mnuchin, knows about in personally because our investigators determined that he failed to disclose $100 million in assets before his confirmation hearing. >> in terms of the likelihood of success here, obviously you have leverage as of an individual senator putting a hold on

nominees until you get this information that you want. typically, the which this works is that that starts a negotiation, that starts a discussion. that at least makes the -- the department think about whether or not they might want to loosen up in terms of this information. do you have support from other committee members? have you had any indication from treasury in terms of whether or not they're willing to give what you you want. >> i have talked to mr. mnuchin about access to documents. but what we're going to do, particularly on the novartis matter, is isolate this administration and the treasury secretary as the outliar. we have been able to get information indicating the company is willing to cooperate. mr. cohen's counsel says he is willing to cooperate. and there are a lot of questions to be determined here. what exactly was novartis trying to get for that $1.2 million? mr. cohen didn't have any

pederson in health care. novartis was trying to get government approval of a $$475,000 drug. they gel billions in reimbursement from the government. we want to know what it is novartis was trying to buy with the payments to mr. cohen that were much bigger than the ones they were giving the lobbyist. >> to be clear, you feel like you've had responses from both novartis and cohen that they'd be willing to talk about this and treasury is the odd man out. they won't cooperate. >> treasury is clearly the one that is stonewalling, and in particular as we go on this issue, we're going to show how this relates to questions of health care. we learn from the medicare trustees this week, rachel, thats trump policies with respect to the tax breaks for the wealthy and not containing health costs yanked medicare three years closer to insolvency. what the american people and the

seniors want to see is effort to contain costs. and yet what we see are all the deals where insiders look like they are getting money and people who know nothing about health care seem to be much more interested in protecting the administration than protecting seniors and taxpayers. >> senator ron wyden, a member of the intelligence committee on the big night for the intelligence committee thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> and i appreciate you be willing to talk to me about stuff you can't talk to me about. >> thank you. >> one of these days well get a normal night in the news. i won't know what to do with myself. stay with us. we'll be right back. take this left. if you listen real hard you can hear the whales. oop. you hear that? (vo) our subaru outback lets us see the world.

sometimes in ways we never imagined. un-stop right there! i'm about to pop a cap of "mmm fresh" in that washer. with unstopables in-wash scent boosters by downy. ah, it's so fresh. and it's going to last from wash to... ...wear for up to 12 weeks. unstopables by downy.

♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun♪ ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma transitions™ light under control™ visit your local visionworks to ask about transitions™ brand lenses

news story just broken within the elicit hour from "the new york times." as you know, there's been a lot of wrangling between the justice department and congress over access to information. and most of that has happened from house republicans and it's been related to the russia investigation. house republicans particularly the strongest partisans in support of president trump have been pushing the justice department to hand over more and more and more sensitive documents related to the russia investigation. in part because they want to know what's going on in the russia investigation. there's been some pretty well articulated theory about the idea they may also be pushing the justice department to hand over increasing license active documents about an ongoing investigation because they want the justice department to ultimately have to say no. once the justice department says no that creates a pretense for

the president to come in and start firing people at the justice department as a way of trying to make that investigation go away. that's been most of the wrangling between congress and the justice department that we have seen that's been unusual for the typical division of labor between the two branches of -- those two branches of government. there is a new thing, a whole new thing going on now between the senate on the justice department. it broke last night when we got late confusing word that the senate had passed a resolution to authorize its intelligence committee giving information over to the justice department. for ongoing investigation into some sort of undisclosed -- some sort of disclosure of classified information. some sort of unauthorized disclosure of information. that was the investigation happening at the justice department. they needed materials from the senate. the senate voted unanimously to hand the material over. now tonight "the new york times" has reported that apparently as part of that discussion and as parts of a -- discuss me as part of that investigation, the

justice department secretly seized years worth of a "new york times" reporters phone and email records this year. unbee noents to horse. the reporter is ali watkins she previously for work buzz feed and politico. her editors were aware of a previous personal relationship with a staffer for the senate intelligence committee. ms. watkins says that the staffer was never a source of information for during their relationship. and again her editors knew about it but unbee known to another federal law enforcement officials secretly seized records as part of this investigation. phone and email records. senator ron wyden he told me live in terms of the surveillance of a national security reporter he told me that he was learning that the first time as i was reading it here on the air from "the new york times." this story was likely to blow up in lots of different directions anyway. it's now going to blow up in lots of different directions largely and all at once. but that does it to us.

i'm going to hand over to the last word with lawrence o'donnell good evening lawrence. >> i was struck by the vote on the senate floor which they did more, ask the justice department. don't ask the intelligence committee. and to hear you tell us that ron wyden, a member of the committee didn't know about what the "new york times" is reporting tonight, which seems related to that resolution, that's really quite stunning. >> it seems like whatever was going on with this investigation of this long-time staffer on that committee, i don't know how much senators knew about that, and senators on the intelligence committee won't tell us, they are actually great about not leaking from that committee. but in terms of this investigation from the point of view of the justice department, involving long term surveillance of a reporter, that is a whole different scandal.