die. more than 2,000 firefighters are battling that blaze. it's expected to get worse over the hot, dry weekend. right now in indianapolis, a celebration of life event is honoring four of the fine family members tragically killed in the duck boat accident last week near branson, missouri. tia coleman's three children and husband all died when the boat sank, killing 17 people in total. federal officials are investigating why the duck boat operators went onto the lake during severe thunderstorm warnings. thanks for watching this hour of "velshi & ruhle." i'm ali velshi. stephanie will be back on monday. check us out on social media and connect with your show. i'm handing over to our friend andrea mitchell for "andrea mitchell reports." is he flipping? donald trump's former personal lawyer reportedly ready to tell prosecutors that candidate trump knew about that infamous trump tower campaign meeting with the russians before it happened, something he and his eldest son have long denied.

>> it was such a nothing, there is nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. it was literally a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame. family values. up against a mandatory court deadline, the administration reunites migrant families and children after being separated for months. but hundreds more remain in custody, these children's fate unknown. >> it's terrible. the case, the immigration case itself is already confusing and very difficult. add on top of that weeks or in some cases months of having been separated from your child. and coming home. north korea turning over what it claims are the remains of 55 american service members killed during the korean war. the first tangible result of promises kim jong-un made to president trump at that singapore summit. >> they're coming back to the united states. we have many others coming. but i want to thank chairman kim

in front of the media for fulfilling a promise that he made to me. good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, where president trump is extolling the latest news on economic growth and the return of what could be the remains of 55 service members from the korean war. but he is not answering questions about those reports, confirmed by nbc news from a knowledgeable source, that his long time former personal lawyer, michael cohen, is prepared to tell prosecutors candidate trump was well aware of that top level campaign meeting in trump tower with a group of russians before it happened in june of 2016. mr. trump, responding today only on twitter, quote, i did not know of the meeting with my son, don junior. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam, taxicabs maybe?

he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer, gee, i wonder if they helped him make that choice. a lot to unpack there. then, resisting any urge to speak to reporters after the president's only public event so far today. >> thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> reporter: mr. president, is michael cohen telling the truth? is michael cohen telling the truth? mr. president, is michael cohen telling the truth? >> that of course our own kristen welker. the president is scheduled this afternoon to lead his first national security meeting in the white house situation room on how to prevent russian meddling in the upcoming midterms, despite the president's frequent description of the mueller probe as a witch hunt, a phrase also picked up this week by his national security adviser john bolton. joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, msnbc national security contributor michael schmidt, and

msnbc legal analyst mimi rocah, former federal prosecutor in the southern district of new york. kristen, the choreography today clearly reflecting bill shine, the new former fox executive, brought in from fox television previously, to be the deputy chief of staff and communications director. this was not a scrum or a gaggle, nothing like that crazy moment on the north lawn when you were all chasing him a good half hour a couple of weeks ago. >> reporter: in one sense, andrea, this was far more orderly, you're absolutely right. this was meant to allow the president to take that victory lap on the economy, to showcase those strong gdp numbers. and remember, andrea, put it into context, it's the second time this week that we have seen the president in one of these impromptu victory laps. we were given a happen hour's notice before today's announcement that the president

would be coming out on the white house south lawn. earlier we were given the same amount of notice when he came out with the president of the european union to talk about a trade deal. bill shine doesn't want the president answering a lot of questions, clearly, andrea, because we've shouted questions in both instances, the president not taking the bait and answering. one of our sources confirmed overnight that michael cohen is prepared to tell whomever asks him about that meeting with don junior. the fact that president trump knew about it beforehand. that of course flies in the face of everything the president and this white house has said on this beforehand. i spoke to lanny davis, michael cohen's attorney, when i asked if he was actually going to flip, he said, look, i don't endorse the word "flip," however michael cohen is prepared to tell want truth. so president trump not answering our questions yet about that very critical topic.

and of course it relates to russian meddling, it relates to russia's attempts to interfere in the u.s. election. we will hopefully have another shot later on today when he departs for bedminster, andrea. >> and michael schmidt, you've got a lot of reporting, you and your team as well, that robert mueller has been asking people about the whole issue of the president's tweets and whether that could play into a potential obstruction issue. give us the background there. >> yeah, so the president has said a lot of things about james comey, the former fbi director, jeff sessions, the attorney general, on twitter. he's gone after them, he's tried to undermine them. and what the investigators are looking at is how those tweets line up with the president's conduct in private. as the president was trying to pressure these guys about the investigation, trying to get them to do different things, trying to get sessions to reassert his control over the investigation after he recused

himself, in it cocomey's case, g to get comey to undercut the investigation. why was he trying to say these things publicly? was he trying to obstruct the investigation and could mueller take all of these pieces and tie them together into a larger narrative about the different efforts the president undertook to impede the investigation? >> mimi rocah, i want to talk about the michael cohen factor and what may or may not be happening. don junior's legal team has responded to what was reported overnight, saying that donald trump jr. has been professional and responsible throughout the mueller and congressional investigations. we are very confident, he continues to say, of the accuracy and reliability of the information that has been provided by mr. trump junior and on his behalf. this to the point of whether or not there was any coordination with his father before, during, after that meeting, which was only one floor away in trump tower. and we know from other records that the president, then-candidate donald trump, was

there in the trump tower office that day, and then had even more opportunity to speak to his son because they went off-site to a campaign luncheon. so what would be the significance if these reports are true about what michael cohen is supposedly asserting? >> andrea, it's incredibly significant. this is huge. if the government can prove, and i'm using those words carefully, i'll get back to that in a minute, if the government can prove that donald trump knew about the meeting with the russians ahead of time, knew at least generally the purpose of the meeting, and gave it the go-ahead, he is smack dab in the middle of a conspiracy to defraud the united states by the process of fair elections with the russians. now, let's go back to what i said, which is if the government can prove that. and that's where michael cohen comes in. michael cohen may know this, he may have it in his head, he may

have intentions to say it. but what the government needs is a witness. a witness is evidence. and the way that michael cohen becomes a witness is to become a cooperator with the government. that hasn't happened yet. as far as i know just from reports, there's no indications that it's even on that path yet. he's indicated he wants to but he hasn't gone down that road yet. so that needs to happen. the government would need him as a witness to testify in court. and then they would never rely just on him for that. they would use other corroborating evidence, some of which we know about, but there may be much more that either the southern district or mueller knows about. but no one should underestimate how big this is, if it's true, in terms of putting trump in the middle of a criminal conspiracy. >> and if the government can prove it, we've seen rudy giuliani not only in the last 24 hours but in the last couple of

weeks, try to muddy up michael cohen's reputation and soil him, if you will, as a potential witness. and if they don't have a corroborating witness, they need some other sourcing for that. i want to play candidate trump speaking to peter schmidt and maggie haberman, what's the date on this, michael? >> last july. >> so this is when he was president, july of last year, the famous "wish i hadn't hired jeff sessions." >> "if i knew he was going to recuse himself." >> it was a remarkable evening, i was at the aspen security conference with people from national security, people were saying jeff sessions was so humiliated he would have to quit right now, and of course he did not. let's play the tape. >> it must have been a very important -- must have been a very unimportant meeting because i never heard that.

it sounded like a very unimportant meeting. >> so unimportant meeting, sound like an unimportant meeting. michael, that is synced up with what don junior said when he was testifying to the congressional committees. >> correct. there's a lot of folks under oath who say he did not know, don junior saying the president didn't know about it, other folks, i believe jared kushner testifying to the same thing. the president obviously maintaining that he knew nothing about it, including after it came out. now, one of the questions mueller is looking at is how the president -- or the role the president played in crafting a statement on a flight from europe to the united states last july on air force one. we, "the times," it gone to the white house about this. we were about to write about the meeting. and the president helping to put together a misleading statement about that. was the president trying to obstruct the investigation, sending the investigators off the scent of the trail of evidence, by, you know,

essentially putting out false information about the nature of the meetings? what happens is, the white house puts out a statement, they have to amend it several times, and eventually they sort of recanted about the meeting, initially not. >> so kristen, finally, you're going to have a national security meeting today. they have been roundly criticized for not having done a government-wide effort to try to stop election hacking. we're going to talk about this a little later because we already have some evidence of one democrat who has faced an attempted hack by the russians, claire mccaskill, in a key senate race. but the fact that the national security adviser talked about it as a witch hunt this week in a statement where he revoked the invitation to vladimir putin, that is so astounding because the national security adviser is supposed to be the person supporting the intelligence community or at least, you know, assessing their report. and they have been consistent repeatedly, as we know, that

there was real russian meddling and it was to try to help donald trump's election. >> reporter: it was stun to go re -- stunning, andrea, to read that, john bolton calling the investigation a witch hunt. the president has a new legal team now. remember when he was represented by john dowd, ty cobb, they said, look, we don't want you engaging with, attacking in any way, shape, or form, robert mueller and his investigation. that will be the fastest way to get it over as quickly as possible, we want to be honest brokers in this. we have seen the president and officials on his team start to attack robert mueller more aggressively, refer to this as a witch hunt. all you have to do is look at the president's own twitter feed to look at the increase in his tweets really aimed at the special counsel. it's mixed messaging, andrea, on this day when he's going to hold that critical meeting on election interference. we'll know what specifically

comes out of it and what steps are going to be taken moving forward, andrea. >> kristen welker, thanks so much. thanks to all of you, michael schmidt, mimi rocah. california congress mman joins . you're a former prosecutor. don junior testified and, strangely, cited attorney/client privilege to shield conversations with his father, a privilege that does not exist. does congress need to hear from him again now if these michael cohen assertions can be backed up? >> well, we certainly do. we ought to bring him back in. i think we should extend an invitation to michael cohen to come back in. but i don't have much confidence that the majority will go along with any of this. after all, we knew that there was a call sandwiched between don junior's efforts to talk to

emin agalarov in the setup to this meeting. we wanted to find out was this don junior talking to his father about the meeting. there would be a simple way to find out, we could subpoena the records, and the majority wasn't even willing to subpoena the phone records. >> beforehand, when it was still being set up, with their former friend and someone they had dealt with during the miss universe pageant in moscow. >> exactly. it was part of a pattern, andrea, where hope hicks wouldn't talk about, for example, what went into the fabrication of that statement that the meeting was about adoptions. corey lewandowski wouldn't talk about it. steve bannon wouldn't talk about it. and unfortunately our majority was happy to not have them talk about it. but we do need to get answers. i hope and expect bob mueller is getting answers. the implications of this, and i agree completely with your analysis, are huge. it goes to the issue of conspiracy and potentially brings that right to the

president's feet. it also goes to the issue of obstruction of justice. if the president in any way encouraged his son to lie under oath to the senate about this or to the house, it would not only go to obstruction but it might go to subornation of perjury. the implications are very serious. >> vladimir putin today at a conference in south africa suggested that he would like to have the president visit him in moscow if they're ready to meet there. sarah sanders responded saying that trump looks forward to having president putin in washington after the first of the year although he's open to visiting moscow upon receiving a formal invitation. this goes back to what john bolton put out yesterday, just before secretary pompeo testified at what turned out to be a withering bipartisan attack by the foreign relations committee on the secretary of

state. he put out a statement saying, the president believes that the next bilateral meeting with president putin should take place after the russia witch hunt, his words, is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year. now, our reporting is that this retreat on the putin fall summit in d.c. was at the behest of the republican congressional leaders who had seen the president earlier in the day and said this could be a midterm election disaster. >> it certainly could be a midterm election disaster for republicans. but more importantly, it could be a terrible sequel disaster for the united states. but we have to remember this about john bolton. when john bolton was auditioning for a position in the trump administration, he went on fox news, and that's how you do audition for positions in the trump administration, and he suggested that the russians may not have hacked the dnc t krchc that it may have been a false flag operation by the obama

administration. i mean, that i think for conspiracy theorists, even they looked at that theory and said, wait a minute, i don't even get that. but that was what john bolton was putting out when he was seeking this position. so the fact that he would now call it a witch hunt is distressing but not at all surprising. i think the back and forth on a future summit between putin and the president shows now just how much putin feels he's in the driver's seat with this president. he can essentially throw cold water on his coming to the white house, something that any other world leader would rush for the opportunity, and suggest, no, donald trump, you come to me, you come to moscow. it's a power play by putin and it shows just how much our president weakened his position in helsinki. >> let me ask you about claire mccaskill, because she has confirmed that -- and she is one of three reported hackings that we heard from tech people at the

aspen security conference, that her senate staff had phishing from the same -- i think it was fancy bear, the same operatives who were trying to hack and successfully did hack the dnc and john podesta. how ominous is this, going into the midterm? >> well, it's really ominous, to consider that the same russian actors may have been involved in trying to hack a vulnerable democratic senator's campaign right around the same time that president trump called for her ouster from the senate. what is also distressing to me as the ranking member on the intelligence committee is to learn about these efforts by the russian hackers from comments by a microsoft employee at the aspen summit rather than be hearing about this from our intelligence community. it shows just how unprepared we are. here we are, ironically, having this first national security council meeting dedicated to this really important topic on

the second anniversary of trump calling on the russians to interfere and at a time when his own national security adviser is calling it a witch hunt. so yes, i would say everything is vindicating dan coats, saying the red lights are flashing. the red lights are flashing about russian intervention in the election and we are not at all prepared the way we should be and we should all be condemning what the russians apparently tried to do with claire mccaskill. democrats and republicans ought to condemn it, even if our president won't. >> adam schiff, thank you very much. thanks for coming in on a friday. have a great weekend. >> you too, thank you. still ahead, the breakup. team trump now slamming michael cohen, calling him a pathological liar. what did they call him only a few months ago? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. were ms than psoriatic arthritis. as you and your rheumatologist consider treatments, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you.

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the man is a liar, a proven liar. there is no way you're going to bring down the president of the united states on the testimony, uncorroborated, of a proven liar. i guarantee you this guy is a proven liar. >> that's rudy giuliani lashing out at michael cohen in an escalating public feud between president trump and of course his former personal attorney and sometime fixer, who once said he would take a bullet for his boss. but only two months ago, rudy

giuliani was singing a very different tune about mr. cohen. >> are you concerned at all that michael cohen's going to cooperate with prosecutors? >> no. i expect that he is going to cooperate with them. i don't think they'll be happy with him because he doesn't have any incriminating evidence about the president or himself. the man is an honest, honorable lawyer. >> i mean, you can't make it up. joining me now, eugene robinson, "washington post" columnist, and matt miller, former chief spokesman for the justice department and msnbc security analyst. >> i'm sorry for cackling. >> cackle away. >> the juxtaposition of those clips shows you everything you need to know about rudy giuliani right now, about the times, and which way you should believe, is michael cohen a great guy or is he scum of the earth. and that's -- you know, he said

both. >> matt miller, from a prosecutor's standpoint, and you've worked at the justice department, if michael cohen is so damaged by all of these personal attacks and by the possibility that all of this was leaked by the -- by team trump in some fashion, whoever did it to make it less valuable as a proffer of cooperation from michael cohen, we don't know the sourcing, but if michael cohen is so unreliable as a witness, then to use him, robert mueller needs corroborating evidence. >> yes. >> of the president having foreknowledge of it, whether it's from hope hicks or some other person in the inner circle. >> he certainly would. one way to think about michael cohen and the trump organization broadly is like any large criminal enterprise. if you look at a mafia organization, when someone down the chain flips, it's someone who probably doesn't have a lot of credibility because they've spent a lifetime committing crimes. so when they come and decide to cooperate with prosecutors,

their information, you don't take at face value. you have to corroborate it. one of the things i thought was interesting in the report last night was that michael cohen, not only what he said about the president knowing in advance, but he said the meeting that he was at, there were other people there. so it's not just going to be michael cohen's word. if he does end up coordinating with prosecutors, he's going to tell them who else was in that meeting, presumably bob mueller will invite them in for an interview or send them a grand jury subpoena. that's a time when those people will have to test whether they'll lie for donald trump or tell the truth. >> those grand jury as much asu that is a tough deal to get around. you can take the fifth, but if you don't testify you're in criminal contempt. already we see the cfo has been subpoenaed. >> that's absolutely right. you can come in and take the fifth, but if you come in and take the fifth, prosecutors can give you use immunity, they can compel you to testify. >> immunity for that moment, for that case.

>> for that moment. if you don't, you can be held in criminal contempt. it's a tough situation to get around. we now see prosecutors looking -- i think the news yesterday that the cfo of the trump organization had been subpoenaed is actually one of the more dangerous pieces of information for the president that we've seen yet, because what it tells you is the investigation into michael cohen, which is separate and apart from the mueller investigation, you know, can extend not just to his individual criminal liability, his taxi business, as the president called it in a tweet today, but also to donald trump's personal finances. >> and the cfo was in fact fred trump, the father's accountant. an accountant doesn't have lawyer/client privilege. the daily beast said, they're dead to each other now, cohen and trump. trump allies are already gaming out how to bury cohen, literally. >> i take that seriously. at the same time we have seen people be completely on the

outs, dead to donald trump, and then they show up at mar-a-lago. so you never quite know. you get the sense that there's some sort of game going on around the question of eventual pardon. and maybe cohen is trying to make amends, maybe guiliani is trying to suggest something. i don't know. >> adam schiff made the point that democrats on the committee could not follow the money, they couldn't get tax records. >> right. >> robert mueller can get those tax records, i bet you he can even get phone records of what that blocked phone call was. >> before and after the russia meeting in trump tower. >> very easily. >> thank you, eugene robinson and matt miller. coming up, immigration advocates say the scramble to reunite families has been a

mess. we'll have details next. stay with us on msnbc.

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in reuniting migrant children with their parents, the government's work is far from done. hundreds of children still remain in custody. their parents have either already been deported or they've been deemed unfit to be returned with their kids, or in some cases parents declined to be reunited to allow their children to remain in the u.s. with other relatives, in some cases without understanding what they were signing. moira healey, massachusetts attorney general, one of the 17 state attorneys general who are suing the trump administration over its zero tolerance policy and its aftereffects. and an immigration lawyer working with the separated mothers and fathers at detention centers, at a detention center, actually, in austin, texas. attorney general healey, can you tell us where were you evyou th stands now? we've seen the numbers and claims from the administration. people from the border, lawyers, are telling us that so many cases are not really resolved. >> no, and andrea, this is

exactly why we are in court and why courts are so important, and the role of lawyers like kate and state ags like ourselves. you cannot take this administration at its word. when it makes a representation that it then misrepresents later and now here as changed the rules. in about a half hour, we'll be back in court. last week we got relief from a judge who ordered an expedited action on this case, also ordered the trump administration to turn over documents and information about these children. here's what we know. there are hundreds of children who are without their parents right now, who have yet to be reunified. in fact we know in some instances the government has lost track of these children, has lost track of their parents. and frankly we also know too, sadly, that some parents have been deported and their children left alone here in the united states. it's a terrible situation.

it's a cruel, it's inhumane, it's also illegal and unconstitutional. that's why we're in court. we're hoping to get an order from a court later today or tsunami thereafter that will order this administration to immediately implement reunification and to provide important information to all of us so that we can do everything that we can to take care of these parents and these children who are currently in our states. >> and kate lincoln goldfinch, as the attorney general said, kids and parents are spread out across the country. we know there are potentially 120 or more parents who have declined to be reunited and left the country. they didn't know what we were signing and now have no resources to be reunited with their kids. >> that's right, many of the parents report being told if you check this box, you'll get your

kid back within 24 hours, and of course they were signing voluntary deportations. none of the parents that any of my colleagues have spoken with knew what they were selecting when they signed that form. >> so what recourse do they now have? general healey, i talked to an organization of volunteer social workers that has been working in as many as 140 countries that are now clearly focused on this. they send social workers to these homes in guatemala to see if the child's best interest is at stake, if it is a safe environment. our government isn't doing that. >> it's terrible. our government is responsible for separating children from their parents in the first instance. to me, the trump administration deserves no credit here. they're the ones who created this problem. think about what you just articulated, andrea. how is it you're going to send social workers into another country now to try to identify if these children are going to

be better off being sent back to their home countries? this is a mess. but this is exactly why we need court action immediately, to order the trump administration to do what they should be doing under the law at this point. and we need documents and information. i want to know where these children and parents are in terms of their location, what their wellbeing is, and what is going to be done and by when to get them reunited. the judges and the courts have already recognized and appreciated the fact that these children have had terrible trauma visited upon them as a result of the actions of our very own united states governme government. it's the shameful, it's outrageous, it's unconstitutional. that's why lawyers are in courts today and will continue to be, to press for the end of this policy and the immediate reunification of these families. >> and kate lincoln-goldfinch,

do you think there's a deliberate policy to try to violate the inherent law to asylum, by not giving people fair hearings and giving them so many delays and these voluntary self-deportations? are we violating what was an essential part of the law and a human rights issue here? >> absolutely, 100% yes. this is an attack on the due process rights of migrants. this is government-created chaos. and these that means have been treated so carelessly. you know, if fedex were to deliver 2,500 packages, we would expect each and every one of those packages to arrive open time. and these are children's lives that we're talking about, and the government can't even reunite them. and then they're claiming that one-third of this group don't qualify for reunification and about 500 of them have been deported without their children. it's absolutely unacceptable. and the only reason that they're making any efforts to reunite at all is because they've been ordered by the courts. and so i agree with general healey, they deserve no credit.

>> thanks to you, kate lincoln-goldfinch and attorney general maura healey from massachusetts. we appreciate your advocacy. still ahead, north korea finally returning what it claims are the remains of 55 american service members from the korean war. what about the other promises that kim jong-un made in singapore? stay with us on "andrea mitchell reports." my mom's pain from

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for the first time, as far as we know, an american military cargo plane flew from south korea, from a u.s. base, to a north korean military base, picked up what the pyongyang regime claims are the remains of 55 american servicemen. among 5300 still unaccounted for since the korean war, 65 years since the end of combat in the korean war, although a peace treaty still has not been negotiated to officially end that conflict. that's one of the issues. joining me now, bill richardson, former u.s. ambassador to the united nations and energy secretary in the clinton years. thank you very much, ambassador. the ambassador knows very well, he has successfully won the release not only of american hostages from north korea but also brought home the remains of american service members in 2007. ambassador, the president is doing a victory lap and saying the vice president will go to hawaii for a ceremony of return.

that said, it takes years to identify what we are getting. they have fooled us before by putting animal bones and cad avers, and it takes years to identify the dna of the service men members for these poor families. >> that's right, andrea. you know very well, you accompanied me for that visit in 2007. you have to have verification of the remains. the north koreans are tricky. they're slow rolling these remains. they've said there's going to be 200 that they will give us. they're giving us 55, which means they're going to do this in phases. i think as you pointed out, it's only 1% of the 5,300 remains north of the 38th parallel. still, this is good, because it honors our military families. they want a lot of these remains back for closure. it's a good step. but it's typical north korean strategy, slow rolling it, and then in the end, they're going

to want payment. that military recovery program that we had with them before demanded payment. we've had $22 million paid to the north koreans for 627 remains since 1990. so they use this for foreign exchange. they also like the contact with the american military, the north korean military. so it has some good aspects, what's happened. >> well, ambassador, the other issues, of course, are denuclearization. secretary pompeo had to agree, under intense questioning from republicans as well as democrats, that the north koreans are still enriching uranium and plutonium for weapons grade fuel. >> that's right. he admitted, the secretary of state, who has been negotiating with north koreans i think quite well, that they are producing more nuclear fuel. on the other hand, they have blown up a missile site. but it's been unverified, they

don't allow inspectors there. so they're bobbing and weaving. the north koreans try to have it both ways. but they have not fulfilled their commitment or told us about the inventory of nuclear weapons, missiles, their schedule, the timetable. so it's a constant negotiating tactic of the north koreans to stall. but i think pompeo is doing the best he can. hopefully we will have some movement on the nuclear issue. but i think getting these remains back for the families, this is a good thing, and hopefully we will be able to get the rest of them. but it's going to take years. >> thanks so much for your context, it's very valuable, your experience. thank you, ambassador. coming up, the money man. will president trump's long time chief financial officer tell a grand jury what he knows? this is "andrea mitchell reports "on msnbc. going for my best even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem.

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until you see allen. >> that was donald trump hosting the second season of "the apprentice" in 2004. the chief financial officer allen weisselberg, the washington street journal has report reported. let's get to our white house's chief and susan page, so you have been tracking all this. tell us who is allen weisselberg and tell us how he matters. >> he's the bookkeeper and he worked for donald trump's father and now for donald trump. he knows all the financial history of the company and of the president's. he's important because he can help prosecutor in new york to potentially figure out whether

there were reimbursements made and he can help build al n narrative of the final picture of the trump's organization. >> susan package, this is getti really close. getting into his finances, that's what he told michael schmidt of what he's concerned about. >> weisselberg knows a lot more. and also this is an investigation by the southern district of new york. it is not the special counsel investigation. it is not the investigation where the white house likes to call a witch haunt investigation. >> everything is fundable in this case. and now at the same time the

president will have his first feeting meeting of the counsel. there were three that were really endangered but she's also vulnerable there in missouri. we have found there is been russian hacking already. >> yes, you know it is really startling and it is exactly what intelligence officials have warned for months now that russia would try to interfere again in american elections in 2018 midterms. it is a big deal and the meeting today i think this afternoon at the white house is significant. it is a national security meeting specifically on election security, i am told the russia intelligence will come up in that meeting. the president is expected to be confronted by it and we'll be in that meeting with his intelligence chief, mike pompeo and with jim mattis and potentially there could be some

sort of policies that emerge from this or the commitment from this administration to aggressively go after russia and protect the american elections system. >> if john bolton is anonymous brocker. adam schiff mentioned this earlier. here is the tape. july 27, 2016, in the middle of the campaign. >> i will tell you this, russia if you are listening to, i hope you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> i think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. >> an open invitation to russia, susan page and what happens after that? >> and russia did not do that. we know from disclosures that come out since that russians on that evening started -- >> the indictment. from the mueller indictment. this is quite a -- it was

remarkable at the moment but the context of what we have known, this becomes even more central occasion where the president to his comments and in some cases through his tweets has critical parts of this russia investigation in full view. >> it is great to end the week with you susan page and phil rucker, thank you both for your expertise. more ahead, we'll be right back. "on your business," we got your back with expert advice of getting funding. each week we'll focus on ideas for growing your business bringing all the moving parts together. join me on msnbc at 7:30 or connect with us any time on all your devices. sponsored by american express, don't do business without it. an entire support system. whether visiting the airport lounge

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that does it this week for

"andrea mitchell report." craig melvin is next. >> of course, you will. you work everyday. enjoy your week my friend. >> good evening, craig melvin here. about that meeting, president trump's long time lawyer is ready to tell prosecutor that president knew before ait happened. the president is firing back. vladimir putin has some new ideidea for the second meeting with trump. he wants it to happen in russia. >> the sequel, for the first time a candidate running in the senate said russians tried to hack into our computers. new nbc report looks at the strategy nearly two years after they attacked us in 2016. we start with that denial from