week back in 1974. indeed for richard nixon, it was proverbial 11th hour as articles of impeachment were marching toward him. he announced his resignation august 8th. he remains the only president ever to do so. michael remains one of the great sources of history in social media, in print and on this broadcast on a regular basis. that is our broadcast on a wednesday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. rachel has the night off. we have a pretty big show. today was day two of the federal criminal trial of the president's cane chairman. prosecutors called as witnesses today several people who sold paul manafort expensive clothes, cars and houses items he bought through the secret international wire payments. one important thing we learned from what happened in court today, there judge is holding mueller's prosecutors to the

line limiting their questions and some of how they present key evidence on manafort to the jury. now, tonight a former prosecutor who has tried these kind of cases and was actually inside that courtroom today joins me to explain if what the judge is up to could hurt mueller's case. there are also reports tonight about the russian woman charged with trying to carry out the government influence campaign through the nra right here in the u.s. and also about people who appear to have been her american co-conspirators. that is a big story. we have one of the reporters who has gotten a very significant scoop about it. we begin with something actually far more troubling than any of that. and it began last march. let's set the scene because it is critical. donald trump had been in office just six weeks. trump's national security adviser was already out. his attorney general facing immense pressure. it was on march 1st when "the washington post" exposes that jeff sessions participated in two secret encounters with the russian ambassador during the

campaign. that was to put it nicely a ways away from sessions' own testimony at his own confirmation hearing he hadn't had "communications with the russians." we now know that internally at the doj, there was already a process going of career lawyers recommending jeff sessions recuse himself from the probe, that he had an obligation on that. this was a key inflection point. jeff sessions could have taken the doj guidance to recuse. he could have also ignored it. in other words, it was a decision to make. donald trump at that moment could have stayed out of it or at least stayed out of it in the public realm but here's what happened. the next day, march 2nd, trump had this very big grand appearance. he was arriving via helicopter on the "uss jared ford, the neighbor's very new and quite expensive warship. trump spoke to sailors there and then the traveling press corps. during this big fancy appearance was was trump and they put an

important question to the president. so watch this key moment. this is one of those unpredictable you could even say random times where you see this normally routine even frustrating job of these traveling reporters, you see it become pivotal. you see it become potential criminal evidence. watch as these reporters ask trump whether jeff sessions potentially recusal on grounds he was too close to the trump campaign should happen. >> mr. president, should sessions recuse himself from investigations into your activity in russia? >> i don't think so at all. >> when did you first learn that sessions spoke to the russian ambassador. >> i don't think he should do that at all. >> when were you an aware that he spoke to the russian ambassador. >> i wasn't aware at all. >> that was a quick but pivotal moment. trump did two things, inappropriately pressured sessions not to recuse and then if you listen closely, he contributed to the doj's argument for sessions recusal. because the doj's standard is

whether a person is too close to the subject of the probe, whether jeff sessions would beak be more of a trump campaign surrogate who happened to be attorney general rather than acting as an independent law enforcement officer. if sessions didn't recuse after that statement, it would have made him look even more like he was doing trump's bidding. and trump apparently didn't know that making that statement would also as just a general matter of embarrassment, make him look weak and out of the loop about a decision that was already done. because there were reports that show the internal doj process had already resulted in sessions' accepting that nonpartisan recusal recommendation from the career staff earlier that week and that jeff sessions was already working with doj officials op writing the very rationale they would soon release to the public. in fact, it was barely an hour after trump put that public pressure on sessions to stay in charge of the probe to not recuse that jeff sessions stepped out to the world with a

fateful announcement that would actually change the arc of this entire probe. it would enrage trump, it would make rod rosenstein a new household name in every household that follows the news these days. and then what happened next is at issue and it's in the news tonight. donald trump responding with a mix of call it personal rage and a kind of management impotence by which i mean that he freaked out enough that a lot of people heard about it but did not follow through to actually do the firing of jeff sessions that he initially demanded in his initial freakout. so there were credible sources able to tell both "the new york times" and "the washington post" that trump was fuming about firing sessions that he told his aides he wanted it done. of course, we know he did not get it done. and that's not all. donald trump was apparently unaware completely unaware of a pretty key rule in legal recusals. i'm talking, of course, about no backies.

the doj doesn't recommend a legal recusal for say some factual reason and then just take it back. that's what the trump was demanding. he told sessions to take back the recusal from the russia probe in our time line, this was a few days later, march 4th and sessions goes down to mar-a-lago where "the president objected to his decision to recuse himself. mr. trump it the times reported who had told aides he need aid loyalist overseeing the inquiry berated sessions and told him to reverse his decision, an inappropriate request. sessions refused. confrontation being investigated by bob mueller as are the president's private and public attacks on sessions and the efforts to get him to resign. so let's take this all together. there are many people i'm sure you know many people who say this. that donald trump is somehow ignorant or clueless hors d'oeuvre. you hear that from time to time. and donald trump may certainly be ignorant of all kinds of things, certainly the things he

doesn't care about. but the evidence in this mounting case shows that he is very informed and very canny about using a whole range of tactics to get what he wants in there criminal probe. now, here is how that is key to where this probe is heading. donald trump deploys both public and private means to do these things that look like evidence of obstruction of justice and that's key to what is the disturbing news tonight. so let's go back into the timeline. donald trump presses sessions and ha became part of mueller's probe itself because had he an interest which "demonstrates sessions' overlooked role as a key witness into the investigation into whether trump tried to obstruct the inquiry. mueller's investigators pressed current and former white house officials about trump's treatment of sessions and whether they believe the president was trying to impede the investigation by pressuring him. the attorney general beintervied

at length. of the questions mueller wants to ask trump, eight reit to sessions among them what efforts did you make him to try to get him to reverse his recusal that's the context for what trump did today. while we don't usually treat trump's tweets as news stories because they're often ploys and some are just lies there one is important. "this is a terrible situation and attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now before it continues to stain our country any further. mueller's totally conflicted. his 17 angry democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to the usa." what are we looking at there? we're seeing the public part. what else is trump doing to shut down the probe in private tonight? that's a big question. you can also see how this is evidence of obstruction that concerns even trump's own lawyers because their argument

today was hey, no, trump did not say what he said, that his call to stop the probe was not really a call to stop the probe, not an order. mueller's investigators may disagree with that. they are probing how the president talks to and pressures the doj. one democrat a former prosecutor, spoke to how this all fits into criminal intent. >> clearly there statement is serious and substantial evidence of criminal intent. even if it doesn't constitute a crime itself. the president is coming close to actual committing the crime of obstruction of justice if not crossing that line already. and these tweets adding to each other amount to evidence of criminal intent. there is now right now a clearly credible case of obstruction of

justice against the president of the united states. >> so why is this happening now? well, there's a new report that suggests it's not just the manafort trial which shows what happens to the defendants who don't cooperate with mueller but also that trump learned within the last day the special counsel will limit the scope of questioning and would like to ask questions both orally and written for the president to respond to. in other words, there is still serious pressure for an interview. according to news sources familiar with the president's actions wednesday, that was the genesis for his early morning tweet storm. rachel pinpointed a lot of important issues today require to us focus on what people do. not just what they say. the question that could determine the future of the trump presidency tonight involves whether trump is trying to do something with what he's saying to his attorney general and to the other doj and fbi officials that he's -- well he's attacked, berated, undercut and, of course, who he's tried to remove from office. remember, this is the still the only american presidency to ever

successfully seek the removal of the top two officials at the fbi. they're now both potential witnesses to obstruction. it's the only presidency inivity under investigation for the unsuccessful efforts to remove both an attorney general and a special prosecutor himself as the probe remains open. and that, of course, is just what we know based on what's in public and what is leaked. so one more thing as you take it all together. there is another reason why donald trump may be writing things about sessions that look self-incriminating 0 twitter that have his own lawyers saying they weren't what they are. this theory requires to you entertain the belief that the president is more canny than clueless. donald trump's team has good reason to have learned by now that mueller's case uses donald trump's past efforts to squeeze and oust jeff sessions. mueller's case may have already strong evidence of that. provable evidence. and so knowing that it looks

bad, donald trump may want to reup the worst parts of this himself and say, how bad can it be if it's what i just tweeted? i turn now to a reporter who has been leading much of our knowledge about this. carol leonnig, investigative reporter from the "washington post." she has a new story tonight on the new mueller interview offer to trump which is central to all of this. thank you so much for being here on a busy night for you. >> glad to be here. and thanks for the good questions you guys always ask. it's been a roller coaster of a day. >> i think that's fair to say. and it's -- there's some theme parks open well into the evening. we may still be on the roller coaster at this moment. walk us through what you have learned about mueller's counter offer for a potential trump interview and why do you think he's willing to limit some questions? >> i'm told that mueller's team presented a counter proposal in this seven-month long

negotiation over the special counsel being able to interview the president about evidence suggesting that the president obstructed justice or sought to thwart a criminal probe. and in thcounter proposal, what mueller did was essentially say look, i'll reduce the number questions that are about the view theny that i have of the president over claims that he obstructed justice. remember that are rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer, had offered mueller the dangle of an interview with the president if they didn't ask any questions about his time as president and any questions that they had about potential obstruction. >> and so when we are interpreting this, what does it really mean? it means a slightly shorter interview but mueller has an obligation not to give up anything that he thinks is central to getting the facts. >> i think it could -- we don't know what mueller is thinking but i think there are two very

likely possibilities. one, mueller wants trump to sit down with him. he wants the president in the room and as we've reported at "the washington post" since i think since march, mueller has indicated to the president's lawyers i need to know whether or not the president had corrupt intent when he took some of the actions that he took, most importantly firing fbi director jim comey. and so he wants the president in the room with him one way or another. and the second seems to me likely possibility about this counter offer is, he wants to show that he's willing to negotiate a little. and not be sort of stoic and stubborn so this is a little move closer to trump's request or the trump legal team's request. but i even hear within the sources close to the president and in the white house that they're not so sure mueller

moved that far but he certainly made the effort to appear he was reducing some of the questions. >> do you have any hints over whether he is prepared to go to the supreme court if trump won't sit down and how do you trigger that? when do you do that? >> so if one signal we know very clearly that mueller has given the trump legal team is he would like to avoid a subpoena fight. and there are all sorts of good reasons for that, ari, like he knows that that will take months. there's very little chance that the court of appeals which would certainly be involved on the road to the supreme court would move with any alacrity. this could takes months to fight over an interview and a constitutional question that's never been answered, can you force the president to the table to talk about acts as president. and if there's one thing we

know, as well, mueller has gathered a lot of evidence. he's interviewed a ton of people. he's pressaged in his questions that he's hinted at to the trump legal team what he's interested in. and obstruction is a central piece of what he wants to get from the president. >> you say obstruction and that brings us to the most damning and perhaps the most obvious question that i'm sure many of us watching would like your view on. why do you think donald trump wrote something today on the internet that was so blatantly self-incriminating about potential obstruction of this case which is an investigation into his obstruction? >> so two things. i agree with all the prosecutors that i've spent a lot of time with as a reporter in federal courts all over. i agree with them that any statement you make that suggests that you're threatening or intimidating or encouraging a

certain course of action is not a crime but certainly goes to your state of mind. and could be part of a mosaicing that any prosecutor could lay out orging look, the president was really sig that willing to tens of millionses of people this is what he wanted. and that is not a crime but it builds the color around the state of mind of the actor, the president. the second thing is your question about why did he tweet. the president has shown a talent for sending a message early in the morning either about his anger or about the topic he wants all of us to be talking about. and in this instance, i believe he's been watching a lot of coverage of paul manafort's trial. obviously, we're mot live inside that trial but he's watching the cable news, minute by minute updates. and he wants to send a signal about how he feels this is wrong. and it could be just a signal to his base. and nothing more.

>> well, you said it was a mosaic of sorts. i wonder whether it's a self-portrait titled "evidence of obstruction," given how drastically blatant it was. carol, we always appreciating your reporting and nuance. thank you so much. >> i turn to senator chris coons on the senate judiciary committee and rebutting giuliani's assertion that have collusion is not a crime. he re he -- i want to start with your view of whether what donald trump wrote on the internet today is evidence of potential obstruction. >> well, it's certainly evidence of his state of mind how he views the ongoing mueller investigation and of what he thinks should happen. his saying this morning that jeff sessions should shut down the mueller investigation which he calls a rigged witch hunt as

a number of commentators have said so far this evening could be entered into evidence as something that suggests what his state of mind has been. i'll remind you this goes all the way back to his lester holt interview following his firing of fbi director james comey. whether he said that he had the russia investigation in mind when he fired jim comey, the former fbi director. so i think there's abundant evidence that obstruction and intent to interfere the ongoing investigation into whether or not rush yar committed some conspiracy with trump campaign in order to violate our federal election laws. that's something that's been out there in plain view now for months. frankly, my answer as to why president trump did in this morning is a combination of appealing to his base, delegitimizing the mueller investigation and he frankly partly just can't help himself. >> right, because as we've reported his lawyer's reaction shows that this was coming from the top and that they wanted to

say it didn't do what it did. getting to your other piece, you know, sometimes it feels like we're all going through a type of law school together in this era. you would be one of our voluntary professors i suppose. collusion, conspiracy, criminal hacking and theft, fraud fraud against the units, foreign campaign contributions are all felonies that relate to what has been alleged in 2016. walk us through your point about what trims constitute collusion. >> well, first the term collusion here is being used casually. what it's really referring to i'll remind you is a conspiracy to break federal election laws. the federal election law and i think it is title 52 of the u.s. code, section 30121 says that it is a crime to solicit or accept a thing of value from a foreign national in order to influence a federal election. i'm summarizing what is a much

longer paragraph. but essentially, that's what it says is that a foreign national can't contribute either money or a thing of value and an american can't solicit or receive a thing of value from a foreign national in connection with a federal election. that's really the crux of what's being investigated here is whether or not the russian well documented wide scale russian effort by dozens of military intelligence officers tore influence the american election and to be offer hacked e-mails was in some way either solicited or accepted by the trump campaign team. that's why i think the developments in recent days that michael cohen may well be willing to testify that president trump knew about the june 9th trump tower meeting with russians offering dirt on hillary clinton could be a key turning point here. there's lots of public evidence of an enthusiasm by the highest levels of the trump campaign to

accept information derogatory to hillary clinton and his campaign. there's lots of evidence that robert mueller's investigation has made public through indictments of russian efforts to influence the outcome of the campaign. what's been missing so far is something that connects point a to point b and makes it into a conspiracy. that may well it be the evidence that robert mueller is preparing to present. i'm remind you lying to federal investigators is also a federal offense and sometimes things that are said on twitter whether it's by donald trump jr. or paul manafort or others, what really ends up being the thing that hangs them up is having testified in front of a committee or to an fbi investigator one way and it being proven that the facts are the opposite. i think those are the three core issues here. finally federal election law working in partnership to break the american laws which is conspiracy and lying to investigators most of the indictments that have so far come out from the mueller

investigation move along one of those three tracks. i expect we'll be seeing more indictments in in the near future. >> to paraphrase it, sounds like they were right to say collusion is not a crime because it is like four crimes. >> that's right. what we are commonly referring to as collusion is a complex series of violation afsz federal election law, of truthfulness to investigators and the commonly known crime of conspiracy which is i think 18usc371. that's just working with more than one other foreign break federal law. that's simple conspiracy. senator chris coons, a member of the senate judiciary committee, i really do appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you, ari. >> still ahead there could be a big development in paul manafort's trial. we have that former federal prosecutor who was in the courtroom today in just a moment.

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it gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. now, to the trial. mueller's prosecutors moving fast in day two of paul manafort's trial which is what's generally required in this rocket docket. in fact, the prosecutors say they're way ahead of schedule on this trial and could rest their case as early as next week. many witnesses may be afraid of mueller's team but the judge there t.s. ellis is not. of course, he's not supposed to be. seconds after prosecutor an season yea starred delivering his opening statement, the judge

cut him off. the prosecutor saying a man in the court did not believe the law did not apply to him and collected over $60 million for his work in a country called ukraine but this man didn't want to report his income so he used foreign bank accounts to funnel and boom, the judge interrupted the evidence you contend will show this? the prosecutor says yes. and judge ellis does a little smackdown. that's the way i would put it. and the prosecutor tried to continue saying to funnel millions of dollars and judge ellis collapsed back and says, did you hear what i said? then we get a more typical response. the prosecutor says yes, your honor. the judge says all right, do it that way please. ellis pressed both sides. he is a known stickler and told manafort's lawyers they also must speaking in evidence telling them "it's preferable if you couch in this case your argument or your defense in terms of "you will hear evidence

that" dot, dot, dot. now right out of the gate that has been the issue. today the judge didn't mellow out at one point scolding the prosecutors and defense team to rein in their facial expressions. "it's been reported that lawyers upon leaving the bench roll their eyes communicating to those watching them essentially why do we have to put up with this idiot judge." don't do that. obviously, if i were to see it, i might be a little upset. you can see that running a courtroom sometimes is no different than dealing with well, your average teenager at least in the view of this judge on the record. put aside the facial expressions and what's going on is the judge is trying to trim the sails of aggressive lawyers and that includes mule he's aggressive prosecutors. he took issue with the word oligarch, arguing it is just despot tick power exercised by a privileged few and by that definition, principles of high schools are oligarchs, too.

what he was getting at what i want to avoid somehow to use the term oligarch to mean manafort was being paid by people who are criminals. the only thing we know about them is if they had a lot of money. it has come to have a pejorative meaning. he told them look, find another term to use. almost immediately, not being able to say the word oligarch, that's kind of like a banana peel for the prosecution and i'll read from what we're learning from this trial. the payments were made on behalf of mr. ian cuevich i would say oligarchs the prosecutor said but by wealthy businessman. the judge said who paid. the prosecutor said those are the oligarchs. >> the judge said those are the individuals who financed it. don't use that term. now we go back to what good lawyers do. they said understood. there was also a matter of

whether the prosecutors can use photographs of expensive suits as evidence. there were brand names that were greek to this judge. the judge said if it doesn't say men's wearhouse, i don't know it. that got something of a laugh. then what happened did not. we're showing you this because it matters legally. judge ellis hinting these pictures of manafort's very fancy suits may never get to the jury. the big curveball came when he starred questioning other evidence that pertained to rick gates. that's manafort's former deputy who mueller got to cooperate. gates' testimony has the potential to be the most riveting pivotal portion of this trial. maybe of the whole mueller prosecution up to point. we're talking about the deputy campaign manager for donald trump who flipped. but look at this. judge ellis says "you're going to offer up mr. gates, aren't you? ." and mueller's prosecutor says your honor, we're not sure if we are. he may testify in this case, your honor.

he may not. that is one of those things that sounds very measured. we may do this, we may not but actually has really big repercussions what we'll hearn from there case. whied the prosecution be considering not putting what is described astaire witness on the stand. i'm joined by barbara mcquade at the trial today and josh gerstein reporting as politico's correspondent and covering the manafort case since the we beginning. barbara, i will you the that question to you. >> yeah about, whether gates will testify? interesting moment in the trial. and there was sort of a sudden hush in the courtroom. and then a sudden scurrying when a number of people ran out the back. in fact, judge ellis himself said that's a surprise to me. and apparently to about 25 other people in the courtroom who just ran out of here like ras fleeing a singing ship. presumably reporters who were

going to report back there statement. and if you think about it, it may very well be that they decide not to call rick gates. in my view, the case is.coming in very well. they've gotten in lots of documents. this is primarily a paper case which if you're a prosecutor is a dream because paper doesn't lie. paper doesn't forget. paper doesn't admit to biases and so if you can problem your case with paper, you may not need a live wit fles who can go sideways in a lot of ways. it sounds like they're playing it by ear but may well end up not causing rick gates because they don't need to and he prens potential ricks. >> good trial litigators have no attachment to anything that's come before. they just want to make the case to win. is there something going on some of the undercutting by the defense counsel was effective enough they want to keep this option open. >> yeah, i think so. there were noncommittal today and don't need to be.

when you put a name on your list it, is who you may call. but you don't have to call all of them. when you do call a witness, you're required to turn over all of their prior statements on the subject matter and required to turn over anything that could be used to attack their credibility like the plea deal, like anything bad that he has admitted to, any staps he's made about the russia matter. it may be that prosecutors would rather hold that information close to the vest for now and save him as a witness in the washington, d.c. trial that's going to occur in september. they can get through this one on paper and save him, think they'll view that as a good thing. they can make that call next week when they see how the case has come in and decide if they need to call him at all. >> josh, walk us through the color from taking just a few quotes. did you ever see eye rolling and how pivotal is this judge? >> i think some of the eye rolling may have come during the jury selection process when we had very long sidebars.

the judge does seem to really be riding the prosecution. now, there wouldn't be any reason for him to be riding the defense because the defense at the moment is putting in a few cross-examination questions at the end of each witness called by the prosecution. so it's really the prosecution's ball on their side of the field at this point. been the judge is beak limiting the amount of evidence that i think the defense might view as prejudicial. as you mentioned, the issues of the photos or the photos of the ostrich jacket, photos of home renovations that were very expensive, photos of all the suits of all the other luxury goods that manafort used pone to buy money that the prosecution says came from his work in ukraine, but the judge is trying to keep this really to facts and figures to the invoices to the paper. >> let me draw you out on that. do you think this is fair in the criticism of the mueller team is

they're trying to make paul manafort out like he's sean diddy coves and had fancy coats and fancy brands and that legally, there's not the problem. it's kind of unfair and what they really have to problem is that there was tax evasion. do you think the judge is hitting that right and fairly? >> i think he is. he does bring it up a lot. i'd say roughly every hour or two, he makes a comment about manafort is not on trial for being rich or for having a lavish lifestyle or extravagant tastes and the prosecutors will often agree with the judge but they insys they need to show the value of these luxury goods and that manafort was getting them to really convince jurors that manafort's tax returns could not possibly have covered the lifestyle that he was living in addition to trying to prove his point of the very, very strange payment arrangements, nearly every vendor who came up said they were paid by overseas wire transfers from shell companies whose names they had never heard

of or only got from the manafort. today we had a strange development of forged invoices a couple of vendors saying that they were being shown invoices with their company's name at the top of the letterhead but that they were not authentic. it appears somebody fortunatelied those as part of the process of getting these bills paid by shell companies can overseas. >> it sounds exhausting to be that shady all the time. but we don't always relate toe what defendants are accused of, innocent till proven guilty, of course. former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade and politico's josh gerstein. we have one more note. manafort has those expensive tastes and that includes we're going to show you a $15,000 ostrich coat. josh just mentioned it. we want you to see it because you're not a juror. you have every right to the information out there. here is we submit to you the ostrich coat in question and we submit it to you without comment. we'll be right back. always have been.

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they brought him over to mitch mcconnell's office suite in the capitol. the public not permitted so protest serious couldn't get as close. when they got word the meeting was moved, they marched on the hart office building where he was scheduled to meet with the john boozman. protesters singing songs, they were blocking the halls and some chanted oh, "hell no," kavanaugh. dozens of them were then arrested for that conduct. according to capitol police, 74 people arrested and charged. the counts around crowding or obstructing because you can't interfere with the gathering places there. when disability rights activist aidy barkin was wheeled into a police holding area he was cheered by.protesters. the battle is still in the early stages, democratic senators saying they not meet with kavanaugh. they want more facts from his time serving as bush's staff secretary in the white house. meanwhile, republican chuck grassley who leads the judiciary

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trump to make a mid-campaign trip to moscow also known as a great idea. the buzzfeed report includes another bombshell on the subject that relates to collusion. even before mueller was appointed special counsel, fbi agencies learned that cohen was in frequent contact with foreign individuals about trump moscow and that some of those individuals had knowledge of or played a role in 2016 election meddling. that would be like a big headline all on its own if we didn't have so many other things happening. it's one exhibit in the collusion issues around trump. now, buzzfeed's cormier and leopold this team is back with a new scoop. this one is about the accused spy maria butina currently in jail accused of acting as a russian agent. prosecutors accuse her of waging a covert operation of influence targeting the nra and other conservatives and allege she was aided by u.s. persons one and two. first one matches political operative paul erickson who also

had a relationship with her, the second one i.d. and giorgio neil junior, a rockefeller heir, a conservative writer and he worked on the pat buchanan campaign in '92 with erickson. the details are piling up about her alleged influence campaign in the u.s. financed by a russian billionaire with deep ties to the russian presidential administration. to use a word you can't use in the manafort trial, that oligarch had a son who worked as a volunteer on trump's campaign. now sources are saying butina first told the senate about this funding source in her interview there. today the senate unanimously approved turning over that transcript what she told them and the details about the billionaire to prosecutors, as well butina's defense lawyer. buzzfeed reports federal investigators hot on the trail and reporting that the investigators are looking at $300,000 in these transactions by butina and erickson which includes $90,000 sent to or from

a russian bank. the transactions were actually first flagged by anti-fraud investigations at wells fargo who in some cases found "no an apparent economic business or lawful purpose to explain them." those records also now handed over to the fbi. joining me now is one of those authorize of those scoops, buzzfeed reporter anthony cormier. i guess i should start with wow. >> thanks. >> there's a lot here. >> a whole bunch going on. >> $300,000, what does it mean? >> we know now this massive counter intelligence investigation is doing what all investigators do, following the money. they want to know who was supporting her in the u.s. and what she was doing with the funds while she was here and whether or not anyone else was involved with this sort of what they are alleging is a grand conspiracy to influence political figures in the u.s. on russia's behalf. >> right. when you say anyone else involved, it's oh, are she and torsion linked to putin some

sort of tiny lone would he have sleeper cell or are there other dogs on this russian dog sledding team. >> both russian and american i think. telling us they want to know to whom torsion was funneling money, whether those are russian individuals and were torshin was sending pone to anyone in the u.s. that's not been proven. we can say that's what the fbi is sniffing around at. >> you're familiar with the term what happens in las vegas stays in las vegas. what happens online has not stayed online in this case. the midterm campaign hacking we're hearing about involves offline events, the digital operations mueller charged involve a lot of offline problems. how much of this looks to you like bigger offline physical activity inside the united states and how does mueller view that even if this predates his mandate. >> i won't speak for mr. mueller. but i will say that our sources in the fbi tell us that that money has to go somewhere.

right? these are -- this is cash. it moves. they want to know where it went. it's going to be difficult when you deposit cash on the front end, it's hard to know where it came from, when you pull it out, it's difficult to know where it went. they're the fbi and this is a massive sweeping counter intelligence investigation. our sources are telling us they are firmly going to get to the bottom of it. >> torshin being so hands on as a putin billionaire means what? >> you can make a bee line to the kremlin if stands up, if the butina charges stick. if they find out where the money came from and where it went, it will be very difficult for kremlin to say we had no idea. >> final question. a lot of the discussion about regulating finance and banks in america. is this story which you report begins with bank regulations and laws forcing oversight a sign that's an important part of overseeing banks? >> absolutely. we jason and my partner and i have been reporting on this sort of money and steen again and again whether it's citi in the

past, wells fargo. they are critical vectors, points where fbi is able to go and pull records. as we saw earlier in the show today, paper doesn't lie. the fbi is using paper to make these cases. >> it's fascinating and as we've shown in our introduction, you've been doing a lot of reporting. thank you so much anthony cormier. democrats say they got good news. 97 days out of the midterms. that's next. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ 97 days out of the midterms. that's next. and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ gives skin the moisture it needs and keeps it there longer with lock-in moisture technology

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so the pivot it will state

of ohio has a 12i district smack in the middle that have state and it's been reliably red. the 12th hasn't gone to a democrat for congress since run-d.m.c. was is the top of the charts in the '80s. right now this district doesn't have a member of congress representing them because you have a big ohio 12-shaped hole in the u.s. house and that's why we have a special election to fill that seat this coming tuesday. you could say the midterms have already starred although it's a special election. now that, has gone up like a flare for democrats trying to win back the house. the latest poll out of that district, the democrat trailing the opponent by just one point. well within striking distance which we've just shown you would be a huge shift blue in the state. democrats say this is not the only good piece of data they're getting right now today. over in texas, which, of course is relily red the idea of an incumbent republican senator like ted cruz losing to a progressive upstart democrat

would seem like a total fantasy but there is this poll out of texas, the democrat running against ted cruz beta o'rourke trailing by six points. that is tight for texas. larry sabato the said the race has an upset potential. if you follow the news or live in texas, you know everyone loves ted cruz. he is super popular and well liked. that's an issue anytime you run against him. having said that, there is a bat signal thing going on for at least the democratic party's biggest cheerleader, former president barack obama using today as thisser good data is coming in to release his list of endorsements for the midterms and trying to push some over the finish line and chipping away at the republican majority in congress. it is now 97 days from the midterms and this former president is choosing this as his moment to get back in the spotlight saying he's eager to get back into politics. we're about to enter the sprint to november. make sure to stretch. ♪

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but it's tough to gete enough of their nutrients. new one a day with nature's medley is the only complete multivitamin with antioxidants from one total serving of fruits and veggies try new one a day with nature's medley. that does it for us. now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. i'm sorry i'm late. i'm still getting the hang of this. >> take your time. big legal night tonight. the president tweeting his way into a federal criminal investigation and a federal criminal prosecution, the mueller -- the manafort trial. and it seems as though so many people have forgotten that the