>> so he was, so he is. >> that's all for this episode of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. good morning. i'm in new york at msnbc headquarters. prove it, a now report says president trump's attorney is changing up the rules for an interview with special counsel. and new reporting on the migrant parents, the government cannot find as only half of the kids under five are returned to their families. and why divers call the rescue of a soccer team a desperate ordeal amid new concerns about oxygen running out. >> we begin with a new report on the russia investigation as the president's lawyers lay down new rules for a potential interview.

the new york sometimes reports rudy giuliani says special counsel needs to prove he has evidence that he committed a crime. joining me now with more is msnbc legal analyst. giuliani wants to know what mueller has in his arsenal against the president. is this a smart legal straty or just a delay tactic? >> the thing is they're notoriously tight fisted about that information and don't give it out ready. the tactic of saying that we will not sit down for an interview unless there's evidence of criminality is very topsy turvy. the decision is a very difficult one but you will generally only do it if you have complete evidence of criminality or there's no evidence of criminality. the one area where you don't

want to allow your client to sit down is the area where the government says he's a target but he insists he did nothing wrong. this is a situation where sitting down with an interview is a disaster. >> will it fall into a category of discovery of the president's defense? >> no, there's no obligation of the government to turn anything over. so everything at this point is just whether or not the u.s. attorneys feel like helping outs and if they don't, they don't have to reveal any information. this however is an unusual situation because the potential target witness subject is the president of the united states. and different rules apply. the real question is ultimately whether or not the president can be subject to a subpoena. >> unusual is the key word there, danny. bloomberg is reporting that mueller has expanded his team to include now more career prosecutors and fbi agents. what does this reported development point to? >> it's hard to say because

obviously the mueller team keeps their own counsel, but they're simply ramping up their investigation with the u.s. attorneys and investigators that think think are best suited to the investigation. whether that's going in a white collar type direction as long as it's related to the original mandate or a russian collusion direction. >> great to have you on this saturday morning. meanwhile the administration is coming up against new hurdles in its latest attempts to reunite families separated at the southern border. government lawyers said they are unable to locate the parents of 38 children under the age of five and they would only be able to reunite about half of approximately 100 children in this age group by the initial court ordered deadline of july 10 oth. this as critics remain skeptical of these remine fi occasiunific.

>> the secretary told us on a conference call that they do not have an intention to reunify these children with their parents. they're going to call it good if they can find anybody else who could serve as foster parent or might have some familial relationship and these kids don't even know these strangers. >> president trump is spending his second consecutive weekend at his new jersey home finalizing his pick for supreme court nominee and that announcement is set for monday night at 9:00 p.m. let's bring in julie manchester and great to have you both here this morning. >> thank you. >> the president has been teasing this announcement but is the white house getting ready for this rollout and what are the expectations especially from a political standpoint? >> so the expectations are very high. we've seen the conservatives

have campaigned for years on filling the courts with more conservative picks and this is a prime opportunity to do this on the nation's highest court. we've been seeing a lot of speculation surrounding amy barrett, the fact that she's conservative, for her to fill the spot on the court. we ooefz seen that conservatives have rallied around her saying that her status as a woman and the fact that she's conservative could possibly make it easy for her to defend herself on various conservative views on abortion, reproductive rights and she's 46 years old. she's going to be serving -- she'd be serving on the supreme court for years to come so conservatives really rallying around her at this point. senator warren referred to the pick as a her, so that could be a bit of a sneak preview of what's to come.

>> and what do you think the headline will be on tuesday? >> just like with any trump story, surprise. he's very good at doing that, but i this what he wants is a replay of how the gorsuch nominee went. when they were supporting trump through every single scandal, every single question of how would cow aliyou align, clearly supreme court was in their sights. >> and what do you think about a headline for tuesday? >> i'm thinking it could be very surprise, but also trump keeping his campaign promise to conservatives. i think they're going to view this as a victory regardless. >> and once president trump unveils his pick he travels to the nato summit and he'll also be meeting with vladimir putin. new insight find his unorthodox diplomacy rattling guiding

nearly all of trump's interactions with world leaders in his belief that his ability to win over charm control and foreign leaders is more important than policy detail or the advancement of strategic goals. not to jinx this trip, but what are we going to see? is it going to be a repeat of the g7 meeting especially when this trade war is kicking into high gear. >> this is exactly what it's going to look like. for trump this is a show. this is not something where you're going to read detailed policies. he wants to exert this idea of america wins. he views nato as where if you don't pay your membership dues you don't get services. he wants those member nations to spend more money on defense spending. barack obama had a very similar stance, but trump asks putin, what do you think i should do in north korea? what do you think i should do

over here? and it signals he's in a deal making position than representing american allies. >> i want to turn immigration here because in addition to the family reunification hurdles i want to talk about the other immigration story that's picking up a lot of steam. it's the u.s. army discharging recruits that would give them a path to citizenship. so far 40 has been discharged. is president trump targeting this group or is there more to this story that has nothing to do with his view on immigration? >> i think allies of the president, conservatives would say there's more to the story that has to do -- relates to immigration but isn't necessarily discriminatory. i would say a lot of these immigrants still have to complete background checks, but one excuse -- or not excuse, but reason they've been using to back this up is they have relatives abroad and that puts

them at risk but a lot of critics are firing back and there is an expert who said that you know, immigrants have been serving in the u.s. army since the american revolution. they're a very integral part to the army and you know, a path to citizenship et cetera, so we're seeing the administration really take a different i guess approach to all of this in terms of imgranltmigrants serving in army. and i guess we've seen them deploy different moves on the military. it reminds me of the transgender b ban, so he's crafting the military the way the administration sees fit and that's definitely a conservative slant. >> before i let the two f oyou go, is there a clear sense of the timing of scott pruitt's resignation? >> apparently there is a limit

to how many scandals you can have but on his way out trump had some very nice words for him. despite everything else pruitt did to the environment and just to go back to the military, trump who did not serve in the military is very much shaping it in his own image and very much a political image, not listening to generals and not listening to experts in the field saying what they need. he's shaping it very much with his voters. >> thank you for bringing that up. i do want to go back to this pruitt thing because how much will pruitt scandals matter in the november elections? there's a lot riding on these november elections. >> i think it depends on who you talk to. we have to remember in this new york/washington corridor we live in pruitt scandals resonate with all of us. we've really looked into that, but we saw that pruitt did, i guess, complete a lot of trump's campaign promises with rolling back a lot of those obama era regulations, but i would point out that the president's promise

to drain the swamp doesn't necessarily seem to resonate with scott pruitt and the way he conducted himself in office. so i could see democrats using that to their advantage, but at the same time, you know, pruitt, i think the trump's reasoning for keeping pruitt in there for as long as he did was because he did keep good on those campaign promises but going to drain the swamp, that's going to be a big issue. >> julia manchester, stay with us because we have more headlines to discuss coming up. the fear of falling oxygen levels as rescuer make decisions. family members get some reassuring letters from their sons. okay you gotta be kidding me. hold on, don't worry, there's another way. directions to the greek theater. (beep) ♪can i get a connection? ♪can i get can i get a connection?♪

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clock to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped inside a cave. the situation becoming more urgent surrounding falling rains and oxygen levels. bill, can you tell us what is the latest there? >> reporter: yeah, good morning. well, overnight we've learned that the children have written letters to their parents. they're handwritten letters. they are full of real love and they give us a real insight i think into what the boys are thinking. they're letters that are confident saying things like don't worry, we're all strong and over and over again, i love you. they also talk about the food they want to eat like fried chicken and crispy pork. so they are all reassuring but they also hint at deeper worries. >> after two weeks underground the 12 boys got letters from their parents and wrote letters

back. they are filled with love, one promising to help his parents more, another pleads with a teacher, don't give us lots of homework. and from the youngest 11-year-old, reassurance. mom and dad, don't worry about me. i'm fine. get ready to bring me fried chicken. i love you. >> but there's concern too. the air is a bit too cold says one. another, i want to go back quickly. the only adult, their soccer coach says to the parents, i sincerely apologize. this is what faces the boys. as commanders weigh up an emergency rescue, a six hour trek through what's already proved a death trap. a thai navy diver collapsing from lack of air and diving. in one of his final messages to friends he said i'm tired but we're fighting to save the children. but some of the boys are weakening from falling oxygen levels. the rescue commander says he's

very worried that time is running out especially since the boys can't swim out yet. >> they cannot dive at this time. >> we're at war, he says, with water and rain. monsoon rains are forecast. this could soon get so much worse. they're pumping millions of gallons of flood water out and pumping air in, but the urgency of a rescue is now growing by the hour. well, the commander here says nothing like this rescue mission has ever been attempted before. he says we're at war. we've only won the first battle which was discovering the boys. there's a will the more to come. everyone thinks we're succeeding, he said. we are not. so time as well as falling oxygen levels and rain really are closing in on the rescuers and you know, it's exactly two weeks today since the boys went

into the cave complex through that entrance. decision time on getting them out is fast approaching. >> thank you so much, bill. and we'll bring you breaking details if they start getting them out. well, president trump will reveal his pick to replace retiring supreme court justice anthony kennedy monday night. nbc news says his short list, danny, what do you know about these nominees? >> well, they've been on the radar for some time and generally the rule of thumb now, the modern trend in choosing a supreme court justice, it has changed. now the goal is to find the youngest possible judge with the least amount of controversy in his or her writings so they can sail through confirmation and strategically these are all excellent choices. to me, the dark horse front

runner whatever you want to call it is amy barrett. now, full disclosure, she's a professor at notre dame. that's my alma mater but she fits all the check marks. she's the youngest nominee. she is a female which i think would appeal to trump to nominate a female, another female to the supreme court and she just was confirmed because she just was appointed to the 7th circuit appeals court out of chicago. so it would be hard to argue many the senate that we shouldn't confirm this person when we just confirmed this person. >> and danny, you wrote this week while roe v wade is most likely not in grave danger. >> because of the principle of starry decisions. it can depart from that precedent but doing so is a major decision. it's not just whether or not

with a show of hands the present court would have decided the original case differently. that's not starry decisions. in the case of roe, there have been decades of reliance on a right that was created by the court. now, concededly, most people agree that roe is decided on shaky justification which left it ripe for attack if not being overturned. but that is not the end of the analysis. the court must look at the precedent and the cases, has it been affirmed, have people relied on this right and keep in mind, this was ultimately the creation of a new privacy right and the court would be very hesitant to take away a constitutional right that was bestowed decades ago. >> and danny, real quick, with the supreme court, do they have the power to overturn that precedent knowing what they know about these nominees could they affect other past supreme court decisions. >> you follow the cases before

unless and until they became so unworkable and so arcane and just inapplicable to the president that they become ripe for being overturned and those are the requirements and all of these justices or nominees will have to express a fidelity to the law to get nominated so i would expect they would follow. >> a great legal lesson here this morning. thank you, danny. and a shift of michael cohen from potential target to potential witness. what to expect from the hiring of a new attorney. that's up next. >> and story of cool, this weeks episode taps into the desire to be cool. that's here tomorrow at 9:00 here on msnbc.

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for the second time this week president trump's former lawyer michael cohen appears to be flipping on the president.

and on his linkedin page he refers himself simply as attorney and apparently stopped working for the president and the trump organization as of last month. julia, are we reading too deeply into this? >> you know, i don't think so necessarily. michael cohen has been sending a lot of signals this week really starting with the george papadopoulus interview and cnn also reported that michael cohen told a friend that he's not so sure that the president will pardon him and he's leaning toward thinking the president won't pardon him if that comes down to it. so there was a lot of debate after the abc interview basically saying well, is he signaling to the president that he's looking for help or is he signaling that he's willing to cooperate and we're seeing that

with these signs on social media, his talking to friends and what he's been saying. it seems like he's leaning away from the president, really focusing on himself and trying to distance himself. >> meanwhile, michael cohen picked a long time bill clinton confidant as an advisor. is this another sign he could flip? >> he obviously spoke to george, michael cohen hires as a lawyer someone who worked for clinton. all he sees is you're either with me or against me, michael cohen is clearly putting himself in this other camp and that's sending a signal to donald trump that he should be worried that he's aligning himself with people that used to be against trump. >> interesting. julia, your take real quick. >> clearly trolling trump. davis has said a lot of critical

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good morning. coming up, steve jobs had one. so did president trump and even albert einstein, how creating a work uniform may give you more time at work. a kentucky based interior designer discovers the key to acquiring customers is interviewing them and will this fireman convince hsn executives to let him sell his coffee on their net work? let's grow fast and work smart. that's all coming up next.