listening, rate and review the show. the good evening. friday night before a holiday weekend, it always pays to go to work if you work in the news business. if you don't work in the news business, it always pays to watch the news. pay attention to the news. on friday nights in general, right? it is legendary. but particularly before a holiday that you can see coming a long way off. always good idea. and today is proving that rule of citizenship and the rule of the news once again. it has been a very busy day today on lots of fronts.

particularly in the courts. just tonight, for example, after close of business, the u.s. attorney in washington, d.c. filed this motion in federal court in washington asking for a gag order to be imposed by the court on the legal defense team court on the legal defense team representing maria buttina. to try on influence the 2016 election on behalf of the russian government. maria butina's lawyer has done lots of interviews and made lots of appearances. prosecutors are asking for the judge to put a gag order on her lawyer so he will be restricted to only pleading her case in court rather than on tv. she of course remains in jail tonight awaiting trial. the judge in her case refused to allow her out on bail after prosecutors argued that she was a severe flight risk. they argued that her extensive alleged ties to the russian government would create too strong a possibility that she would take refuge in the russian embassy in washington or otherwise find a way to flee country to avoid this prosecution.

potentially with russia's help. she did not get bail. she does not even yet have a date set for her trial. it looks like she will be in jail until that trial happens. and small world, as it happens. the jail where she is being held this very night is the same jail that tonight is also holding president trump's campaign chairman, paul manafort. who has been tried again, tried already once in the federal court in the eastern district of virginia. he is now about to be tried again. he is awaiting his next trial due to start in a couple weeks in federal court in washington, d.c. i said today was a busy day in the courts. today same federal judge who is hearing the paul manafort case in d.c. in a couple weeks, today her courtroom, same courtroom, same judge, is where we learned

there is a whole different defendant we didn't know about. i think the bottom line with this new defendant who appeared in court today is that the special counsel's office has flipped another cooperating witness in the russia investigation. but there are other potential threads here to pull. i mean, rob mueller and his prosecutors definitely, we now know, they have obtained another guilty plea to another federal charge. this one comes explicitly with a written robust cooperation agreement for this defendant. because of who this defendant is though, i think there are a bunch of intriguing questions as to how he fits into the larger case. it is interesting. a bunch of news outlets including the washington post and cnn have done the hard work and the very useful work of trying to maintain online an ongoing updated list of all the

people who we know have talked to robert mueller and the prosecutors. all the people somehow involved in the special counsel's investigation. before today, this guy who just pled guilty in federal court, he was not on any of these lists. nobody knew he was coming. his name is sam patten, a republican activist and political consultant. he was arraigned and pled guilty before the same judge who is hearing the paul manafort trial next month. the hearing took less than an hour and it was a very formal

he was present to entry a guilty plea. we got to see him go through the serious nut sxsz boltds with the judge. confirming that he understood. that he was pleading guilty. he understood the implications, and it was a serious thing, we got to see him confirm in open court, that all of this happened to him today. because he has agreed to agree with prosecutors. is what the prosecutor just told me a true and accurate description of what did you in this case? the defendant, sam patten. it is, your honor. the judge, so did you in fact act as an agent of a foreign

principal without the attorney general? i did, your honor. the judge, and now there is a written statement of the offense which i take it you and your lawyer have gone over carefully? yes, your honor. the judge, are you the one who signed it on the last page where it says defendant's acceptance indicating it was true? the defendant, yes, your honor. the judge, do you understand if i accept your guilty plea in this case, could you receive a maximum sentence of up to five years incarceration for that offense? the defendant -- i do, your honor. the judge, do you understand in this case as part of your plea agreement, there is a paragraph that requires to you cooperate fully and truthfully in this case? the defendant, sam patten, yes yes or no. the judge. # do you understand the government has agreed to bring the nature and extent of your cooperation to my attention at the time of your sentencing? the defendant, that is my understanding, your honor. and then here's sort of the moment everybody is waiting for in the courtroom. the judge says, quote, are you entering this plea of guilty voluntarily? and of your own free will because you are guilty and for no other reason?

the defendant, i am, your honor. the judge, is there anything you don't understand about this proceeding or about your plea in this case? the defendant, no, your honor. is there anything you want to ask me or your lawyer before i ask you for your final decision in this case? the defendant, no, your honor. the judge, are you ready now to make a decision about whether you want to enter a plea of guilty or whether you want to have a trial? yes, your honor. the judge. what is your decision? >> i plead guilty to the charge. and the judge says, i am satisfied that this defendant is fully competent and capable of making a decision today persian understands the nature and consequences of what he is doing. the transcript won't reflect it, the judge says, but he has actually nodded his head with every yes, we ever question i have asked him today. i find that he is acting voluntarily and of his own free will and there is an actual factual basis for the plea and

therefore, i will accept the plea. and so sam patten today becomes the latest cooperating witness, and the latest guilty plea in special counsel's investigation. now, mr. patten has not yet been sentenced. he will not be sentenced until probably quite a few months from now down the road when the judge accepted his plea today will consider the information that she gets from prosecutors about how well sam patten has performed as a cooperator with them. she will take it into account, when she decides how long he will go to prison and for how long. in the meantime before he is sentenced, sam patten was instructed on hand over his passport. he will have to seek permission to travel outside the area. other than that, he is allowed out on his own recognizance. the next time d.c. back in court

is halloween, 60 days from now. he will be be seen by that same judge. i mentioned that he is the latest cooperating person the latest guilty plea in the special counsel's investigation. i should note that this appears to be another one of those cases that start with the special counsel's office, but they appear to have handed it off. the prosecutors who appeared in court today for this hearing for sam patten from prosecutors from the u.s. attorney's office in d.c. and main justice, from the national security division at main justice. reporters say at least one lawyer and multiple fbi agents were in court today to see sam patten plead guilty. but those fbi lawyers didn't speak in court and they definitely didn't answer any reporters' questions. show the originated in the special counsel's office and then it was handed off to those other entities who actually prosecuted him. how does this latest guilty

and this latest cooperate cooperation agreement from this guy fit into the larger picture? i am so glad you asked. i have a lot of things to say about that. i will start small. i don't mean to be caty. first of all i will note that the president's outside counsel on the russia investigation really is supposedly rudolph giuliani, the former mayor of new york city. it is amazing. we called the white house for comment is that confirmation on all sorts of stories all the time. when it is about the russia investigation, they refer to us outside counsel. what they mean is that we should call rudolph giuliani. as if we can get real information from rudolph giuliani. thank you. i'll call back later. but he is supposedly the outside counsel on the russia investigation and it should be noted that mr. giuliani is on the record saying, the entire special counsel investigation will be wrapped up, done and dusted, definitely by tomorrow. well, your honor, since the

special counsel's office just today arraigned and accepted a guilty plea and a cooperation agreement from a brand new defendant, i think it is fair to say that mr. giuliani may have this thing ending by dawn. so again, i don't mean to seem caty about that but that's amazing that that is who the outside counsel on. given the special counsel's investigation ending tomorrow, it sort of tells you what kind of position the president is in in terms of representation. there's that. more substantively, it is clear this latest cooperating witness has very strong links to the president's campaign chairman and to the ongoing legal travails of paul manafort. the actual charge to which sam patten pled guilty was that he was operating as unregistered

foreign agent. lobbying for, representing the interests of the same pro russia, political party that paul manafort has been charged with today, and paul manafort, and his trial in a couple of weeks, charged with being called the opposition block. sam patten today and paul manafort in a couple weeks, they're both charged with being unregistered foreign agents for something called the opposition bloc which is what forms had ukraine after manafort's pro russian victory was chased back. they remade the party. so that's one link to the manafort case. both sam patten and paul manafort are charged with the same crime and they're charged with committing the same crime on behalf of the same foreign entity. also, paul manafort has a co-defendant in his next trial.

the trial due to start in washington, d.c. in a couple weeks. his co-defendant is not likely to turn up. he is russian borne. -- born. konstantin kilimnik is the co-defendant. in addition to his work paul manafort, this guy also formed a company with a consulting firm with sam patten, the guy charged today. so that's another link. the leader he worked for and helped get elected in ukraine, there is no mention of anakovich related to sam pattedep.

he was related to sam patten but sam patten, according to prosecutors, was placing op eds in u.s. media outlets and organizing political meetings on capitol hill. the guy for whom sam patten was illegally lobbying, it wasn't victor yankovic's chief of staff. paul manafort is being charged with being an unregistered foreign agent, sam patent, an unregister unregistered agent. all indications are that part of opposition block. the unnamed foreign official described throughout the documents, all indication is that he was this guy, sergei.

part of opposition bloc chief of staff yankovic if he is in fact unnamed official described in the documents. it should be noted that in the evidence that was introduced in the last paul manafort trial, that same guy, sergei lovochkin is the same pay master for paul manafort for all the work did he in ukraine. more than $40 million of the overseas payments that prosecutors funneled to paul manafort came from this guy, sergei lovochkin. so lots of linked to manafort. you may have heard when they charged this guy sam patten today and they got his guilty plea, you may have mattered prosecutors claimed in his case that patten illegally funneled foreign money into the trump inauguration. that's a $50,000 illegal don't -- donation that prosecutors sgribed participation prosecutors described today. this $50,000 in illegal foreign money that was funneled into the trump inauguration, according to the charging documents today, that money according to prosecutors, also came from this same ukrainian guy who plays such a big role in the manafort case. so there's lots and lots of ties between had guy's new case today and manafort's case which is still ongoing. still ongoing. he has another second trial

coming up in a another couple weeks. but on that specific claim by prosecutors about the trump inauguration, that is fascinating for a bunch of reasons. for one, bluntly, this is the first time prosecutors have directly alleged that foreign money was funneled into any trump campaign entity. also the mechanism by which it was done is interesting. according to the statement of offense in the sam patten case, sam patten convinced some american, to write a check that was a $50,000 check that was supposed to look like an american $50,000 donation to the trump inauguration. that $50,000 donation obtained four tickets on trump inaugural events. that american person, whoever it was, that person who wrote the

check in their own name, that person got reimbursed the $50,000 from sam patten and his company. then sam patten and his company got reimbursed by the ukrainian oligarch guy. so that's the mechanism is interesting, right? money coming from abroad that sam patten is passing through his money to washington through some other american citizen who donates the money to trump it is foreign money but it has to go through that route to get to the trump inaugural campaign. now, i'm interested in every part of that including who it was unnamed american who wrote the check? did that person do this wittingly? how did prosecutors find out about all of this?

do prosecutors believe it might have happened in other circumstances when it comes to the trump inauguration? part of the reason this was such an interesting part of the charge from prosecutors, from the beginning, the trump inaugural committee has looked like a giant slush fund. i've been reporting on this for more than a year. something is rotten in denmark when it comes to the in the plea agreement that prosecutors entered with the court, they said sam came

forward with a proffer, with his formal offer on may 22nd of this year. what caused sam patten to come forward to prosecutors? on may 22? we don't know exactly but it may be helpful to note just before that, about a week and a half before that, abc news published this great and super important investigative piece about the trump inauguration before the the possibility of foreign money coming into the trump inauguration. you see the headline. exclusive special counsel probing donations with foreign connections to trump inauguration. abc news broke really important story may 11th of this year. we now know according to the charging document that less than two weeks later, less than two weeks after that piece was published, they had gotten cooperation from this guy who we now sng a cooperating witness and the newest guilty plea. now we know he first started

cooperating on may 22nd. that also tells us that hey, the mueller investigation had an active cooperating witness working with them for more than the past three months and none of us had any idea about it. mueller side of this doesn't notify the justice sheriff's department that he should be

subjected to a criminal referral that is new englands, we didn't know that before today. >> does it lead to the prosecutors today against batten? >> look at the language from the state. he fs interviewed by committee staff. due to while the trublg acharge and review. >> something about that testimony causes the senate intelligence xhengz.

>> he has now if they proskused him for what he referred? how they connect all day. they've been no commenting us all day. we've been trying to figure it out. that remains unclear in an interesting way. but the bigger picture here. if there are going to be department justice prosecutions for people lying the congress, for lying to congressional committees investigating the russia scandal, well, that's a very interesting turn altogether. members of congress have made strong and in some cases, charges they've been lied to by a bunch of witnesses associated

with the president and the administration and the campaign in russia-related testimony. everybody from eric prince to roger stone on jared kushner to donald trump jr. if there are going to be witnesses for lying to congress on this sub, where do we start? we'll have more on that coming up on that as well. if you know anybody who has testified to congress on this subject, if they seem more nervous than before today, this sam patent a statement where they nail him to lying sub, if they seem a little more nervous than they can before today, this sam patten guilty plea today and this statement where they nail him for like to congress, that's probably why your pal is nervous today. on this guy, sam patten pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate, i mentioned, it is true in general. there are a few important objections. this spring, a couple of eagle eyed journalists did interesting

interviews with, and particularly focused on his relationship with konstantin and the former soviet political universe that started to come into focus in this investigation when manafort first got in trouble. natasha was one of those journalist who's interviewed sam patten this spring. her profile was not just about patten's relationship with the work in the soviet union. she also wrote about his work with cambridge analytica. they're the data firm that was paid millions of dollars by the trump for president campaign. they have since fallen on hard times. they shut down in may after serious controversy after which it was reveal they had stolen personal information off facebook of tens of millions of people.

analytical and their parent company. part of that was the ties to the russian government and other unexplained russian interests and ties between cambridge analytica and its parent company. a whistle blower was the main engine behind that scandal that ultimately shut down cambridge analytica this year. one of the things he raised alarms about, for some reason, testing u.s. audiences on russia and vladimir putin. >> some of the message testing which they did, even in 2014, well before the 2016 presidential election, involved testing opinions on vladimir putin. testing opinions on russian expansionism in eastern europe. vladimir putin is the only one that was tested. >> as far as you know. >> when i was there, that was true. during the sentence i was there, he was the only foreign leader we have tested at the time that i was there. and for me, that's concerning. >> why was cambridge analytica in 2014 testing american audiences on their views on russia and vladimir putin?

sam patten worked at cambridge analytica in 2014, 2015. he pled guilty today. today after appeared in court for his arraignment and to plead guilty, christopher wylie, that whistle blower. breaking. sam patten just charged by fbi after mueller referral. this guy was responsible for cambridge analytica in the u.s involved testing putin attitudes. i know there's more to come. so bottom line. thank you for watching the news on friday night before a holiday weekend. it is so worth it, right? special counsel has a new witness and a new guilty plea. also, special counsel's investigation is apparently not ending tomorrow. sorry. also, this case appears to be

linked to the manafort case for sure. also, this is another unregistered foreign agent case for the special counsel's office. also, for the first time, there case raises the possibility of prosecutions for people lying to congress. about the russia investigation. # and for the first time congress is zeroing in on the trump inauguration describing illicit foreign funds being funneled into trump entities for the first time. tell me more. but to my mind, most intriguingly, i think, for the first time, there new case that we just learned of today, there shows the special counsel's office getting close to the donald trump campaign data operation. cambridge analytic dlaflt in the -- and in the case of sam pat10, specifically, the unexplained links between that date operation and russia. and that of course is the bottom line of all bottom lines. so hold on. we have more coming up.

here we go. discover. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee.

discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. heartburn and gas? ♪ now fight both fast new tums chewy bites with gas relief all in one relief of heartburn and gas ♪ ♪ tum tum tum tums new tums chewy bites with gas relief

this is the the atlanta magazine. it was published on april 6th this year. quote, a long time republican operative with ties to the controversial data firm hired by president trump has a nearly two decade long friendship and business relationship. the washington based operative sam patten would not say whether he has been interviewed by mueller's team as part of the investigation into russia's election interference and potential collusion between trump campaign and moscow. but mr. patten says that his relationship with kilimnik, the former officer in gru who worked closely with deputy rick gates and manafort for over a decade, for over a decade, he said his relationship has been thoroughly explored by relevant government entities.

this is how you know you're following a good reporter. dude, you have never heard of before, turns up in one of her profiles as a potentially interesting connection between two big parts of a big sprawling scandal that otherwise as yet don't seem to be connected. never heard of the guy before. you've never seen any other evidence that these two different parts of the scandal are connected. she's like, he might be the connection. much to everyone else's surprise, but apparently, not a surprise to that smart reporter, dude turns up in court as the connection between those two parts of the scandal. and as the latest cooperating witness in the special counsel's investigation. pleading guilty for failing to register as a foreign agent. laced through the court papers in the papers today are the fleds reporter started pulling months ago. the connection to cambridge analytica and his connection to konstantin kilimnik and ties on russian intelligence. this indictment, this guilty plea, this cooperation plea today was a surprise to a lot of people today. but some people, some people,

were on to this way before almost anyone else. and that reporter is here next.

there are roadside attractions. and then there's our world-famous on-road attraction. the 2019 glc, starting at $40,700. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition... for strength and energy! whoo-hoo! great-tasting ensure. with nine grams of protein and twenty-six vitamins and minerals. ensure. now up to 30 grams of protein for strength and energy! freak alert. jaylen. jaylen's a freak about hand-slicing all-natural meats for every jimmy john's sandwich he makes.

thank you, jaylen. your meat freakiness means better sandwiches for all. freaky fresh. freaky fast. jimmy john's. freak yeah. breathe freely fast fwmy congestion's gone. t. i can breathe again! i can breathe again! vicks sinex... breathe on.

joining us now is one of the very first reporters to spot the emerging story of lobbyist sam patten who pled guilty today on agreed to cooperate. on the russia investigation.

an early report order sam patten, way before any of us knew this was the guy who was going to turn up today having a starring role in the case at this point. natasha, thank you for being here. congratulations on being the early spotter here. why did you write about sam patten back in april for the atlantic? he is certainly not only a household name but not a name that has been on a lot of people's radar at all. in conjunchlgz with the case. # >> i was researching constantin kilimnik, he is a major player in the russia investigation, being as close as he is with paul manafort, and i got a tip that kilimnik was not just operating overseas. he had opened up this company with this operative sam patten. so i started researching patten and i learned he is very much like manafort, a gun for hire. working for shady people. and and he kilimnik met in moscow in 2001 when they were working for an organization. like a democracy promoter which is ironic when you look back on it now.

they kept in touch over the last couple decades and they're really fond of each other. they found places to work together over the last two decades. that's what sam patten told me, anyway. when i was digging into this further, it made me real ties extent to which kilimnik, i was looking into him, how much he had ingratiated himself into american politics. he was a principle in the lobbying firm and the whole purpose of this company was lobbying for this very same client that paul manafort was lobbying for. so a whole bunch of these threads came together. and then you have the cambridge analytica element which is very interesting on its own. >> that crossover, i did not know about that before reading about it in your piece in the atlantic in april. and i didn't really know what to make of it. that's when we were starting to learn about troubles at cambridge analytica. there had been a lot of questions about whether or not the trump campaign the date operation might be a key part of whether or not there

was, you know, an american element to the russian interference in our election. what do you know about patten's role at cambridge analytica, with the parent firm of cambridge analytica. that's something we know from your reporting but we didn't see anything about it explicitly in the charging documents today. >> right. there are two things are really interesting about the parent company of cambridge analytica. in 2014 he started working in oregon for the parent company scl and he was focusing on micro targeting which we know is a big part of trump campaign's data operation in 2016. so he was working on that. and then he ended up working for cambridge analytica again in a campaign in a project they did for the incumbent in nigeria. and what they can there was also very interesting.

part of that project involved hacking in, hiring israeli hackers to find dirt on their clients' opponents. >> where have i heard the before? >> exactly. so these are areas that he might be able to discuss with mueller, for example. if mueller was to ask about the operations, or how they did things, if it was above water. we don't know whether or not he had any role with cambridge analytica in 2016. there's no evidence that did he but it raises questions about yes would have stopped the work in 2015 going into the biggest election probably in his lifetime. >> one last question about your contact with him definitely he give you any indication that he was speaking with robert mueller? that he had been approached by the special counsel's office? that he had given testimony? we know because of the events, by the time you spoke with him, he had already testified to senate intelligence. prosecutors said he lied, attempting to destroy documents after talking to him. we know that not long after talking to you in april, he went to mueller's office with a

formal proffer of information which eventually became cooperation. did he let you in on any of that when you talked to him? >> so that was the thing i was most interested in. when i reach out. i had wanted to know if he had been contacted by mueller. he had all these ties. and he told me that he had spoken to relevant government entities. i assumed that meant congress, maybe the fbi had reached out to him once or twice. he did not give me a firm answer on whether or not he had been interviewed by mueller. now we know he was. but he was very coy and he would not go into much detail about the work this company that he set up with constantin kilimnik. did. you said it was working on behalf of foreign clients. did you have a messaging role in the u.s.? all he said was no, it was only clients outside the u.s. he seemed very eager to hide the fact that he was lobbying on behalf of foreign clients in the united states which explain in turn why he did not register as a foreign agent at the justice

department. >> right. he was lobbying the government on their behalf. that is what he pled guilty of today. # >> i want you to go back throughout and keep doing what you're doing. we've learned so much from your work. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. kwlr you're headed down the highway when the guy in front slams on his brakes out of nowhere. you do, too, but not in time. hey, no big deal. you've got a good record and liberty mutual won't hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. you hear that, karen? liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges...

how mature of them. for drivers with accident forgiveness liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪ copd makes it hard to breathe. so to breathe better, i go with anoro. ♪ go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way, with anoro." ♪ go your own way once-daily anoro

contains two medicines called bronchodilators that work together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. anoro is not for asthma. it contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. the risk is unknown in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. these may worsen with anoro. call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. ask your doctor about anoro. ♪ go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro.com. get your first prescription free here's a trip tip: when you search hotels on tripadvisor... enter your destination and the dates of your stay. tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to find the best deal on the right hotel for you. tripadvisor. your hair is so soft!

did you use head and shoulders two in one? i did mom. wanna try it? yes. it intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. manolo? look at my soft hair. i should be in the shot now too. try head and shoulders two in one. squa sometimes you follow the money.

sometimes you wonder, where did it all go? but now this one that i have been wondering about for a very long time is finally sort of turn ripe and falling off the tree. we may find out what happened to the money. the committee for donald trump's inauguration raised double the amount of money that had been the record for the gigantic first obama inauguration. the obama inauguration was the biggest ever. # the trump folks raised double the amount of money that the obama one did. it raised over $100 million for an inauguration that was many times smaller than the obama inauguration. where did all the trump money go? over $100 million. we know they paid $26 million to melania trump's friend, the event planner, from whom melania trump soon cut ties after there was reporting on how much her friend got paid. they paid this woman $26 million even though they also paid a big event planning firm that did all the previous inaugurations to basically do all the inaugural work. so what exactly did mrs. trump's friend do for $26 million?

why has the inaugural committee refused to explain their finances? they said many june last year, a full audit of their finances had just been completed. last june. they've still never shared the results of that supposed audit. the people this charge of running the inauguration were rick gates who has now pled guilty to multiple felonies and testified openly in court about all the way he helps paul manafort commit bank fraud. he was deputy chairman of the inaugural committee. he is described as the guy who actually ran it. the vice chairman of the finance committee was republican fund-raiser elliott brady who is now reportedly under justice department investigation. also on money laundering charges. so on the stand in the manafort trial, i have to tell you, rick gates testified under oath that he himself might have stolen money from the inaugural fund.

he said he would have to check. he said under oath, it's possible. yeah, you know, i have to go back through my files. i might have stolen money from there, too. i don't remember. new guy, sam patten who today prosecutors said that he illegally facilitated the payment of a $50,000 donation from a ukrainian to the trump inauguration. of course, they are not illegally allowed to receive foreign money but patten has testified, has signed his name on court documents which say that's exactly what he did. it's all so freaking shady. the whole trump inauguration. and all the finances around it have been so blatant shady from the very beginning. if this revelation in the sam patten plea today is a sign of more shoes to drop to do with the trump inauguration, now that prosecutors have named foreign

money being illegally funneled into the committee, that would be great for us just to understand what has happened with this presidency. because from the very beginning, literally from inauguration day, there was a giant slush fund hiding in plain sight. it would be great to know what happened to that giant slush fund. >> by the way, why are these illegal shenanigans being described in the plea agreement but not actually charged against this guy? why did prosecutors spell it all out as a crime but then not charge him for doing it? that's a question we can get answered tonight. stay with us. come on, guys! jump in! the water's fine! tom pritchard. how we doin'? hi, there. tom pritchard. can we get a round of jalapeño poppers for me and the boys, please? i've been saving a lot of money

with progressive lately, so... progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. adults are just kids with much, much better toys. [ giggling ] the c-class sedan, coupe and cabriolet. the thrills keep getting better. the 2018 c-class sedan starting at $40,250. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. the new chase ink business unlimited card is so simple, i don't even have to think about it. so i think about nitrogen ice cream in supermarkets all over the world.

introducing chase ink business unlimited with unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase.

our friend joyce vance, former u.s. attorney for the northern district of the great state of alabama. thank you very much for your time tonight. i have questions for you. >> okay, shoot. >> why would prosecutors describe in charging documents today that sam patton illegal funneled foreign money to the trump inauguration and that he broke the law. by lying to it, obstructing the senate intelligence committee. why would they spell those things out in such detail in the charging documents but then not actually charge him with those things as crimes? >> sure. so this is a standard practice for prosecutors. when you work out a plea deal before the defendant is actually charged, which is what happened here. and so there would have been

these three, at least three types of potential charges on the table and prosecutors would have offered mr. patton in exchange for his cooperation this deal. and part of the deal was we'll only charge you with one of these crimes that you committed. we'll give you a pass on the other two. but the rules that prosecutors operate under require prosecutors to disclose all of that conduct to the court so that's why we heard this more fulsome conversation in front of the court when the judge took the plea. >> so they're required to say out loud, essentially, in print that they know he committed these crimes simply because of the rules of the court, not because it's some strategic thing in terms of them trying to tell the public they're aware these crimes were committed. >> right. it's not public facing. it's actually an internal doj practice to fully disclose everything of that nature that you have included in their plea decision. if you were doing it after indictment, you might have a three-count indictment and you would go to the court and say, we'll permit mr. patton to plead

just to count one and ask the court to dismiss counts two and three. but not necessarily here. since you're doing it pre-indictment. >> no indictment, just a criminal information, he pled guilty, he waived his right to a trial, got it. okay. >> exactly. >> here's my next one. among those items that prosecutors describe but they didn't charge him is when prosecutors say he lied to the senate committee. obstructed the senate intelligence committee in the investigation of the russia matter. the heads of that committee came out today after mr. patton appeared in court and said in fact they could confirm that patton did talk to the senate about their -- senate committee about their investigation. and they said they did send a criminal referral on this guy to the justice department after he testified. my question is this. it doesn't seem like people get prosecuted very often for lying to congress. if prosecutors want to bring that kind of a charge, do they need to get a criminal referral from the senate, from whatever committee, from the congress in order to do it? or is that something that prosecutors could pursue on

their own whether or not congress wanted them to? >> the typical practice is for the body that wants to make that referral to let doj know about it because in really doj doesn't have an independent mechanism for assessing what's going on in all of these hearings up on the hill. perjury charges are very hard to make for prosecutors. so they're scrutinized very carefully. they're important cases to bring when the evidence is good, but they are difficult to make. >> and so other people who have been accused by members of congress of essentially having perjured themselves in testimony before congressional committees looking at the russia investigation, i'm thinking about people like eric prince, donald trump jr., jared kushner, should they be more on alert if there were any problems in their potential testimony because of the way this came up in mr. patton's case today? >> they should be very nervous. of course mr. patton has concluded a cooperation deal with prosecutors.

we don't know what he could have been charged with in this regard had that deal not been concluded. if i was one of these other folks, i wouldn't sleep too well tonight. >> joyce vance, thank you so much. great to see you, joyce. >> thanks. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. ♪

heartburn and gas? ♪ now fight both fast new tums chewy bites with gas relief all in one relief of heartburn and gas ♪ ♪ tum tum tum tums new tums chewy bites with gas relief i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making america's #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. now i know you're thinking, "i don't want to hear about insurance." cause let's be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance, right? which is why esurance hired me, dennis quaid, as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. i like dennis quaid. awww. and they want me to let you know that, cue overdramatic music, they're on a mission to make insurance painless. excuse me,

you dropped this. they know it's confusing. i literally have no idea what i'm getting, dennis quaid. that's why they're making it simple, man in cafe. and they know it's expensive. yeah. so they're making it affordable. thank you. you're welcome. that's a prop apple. now, you might not believe any of this since this is a television commercial, but that's why they're being so transparent. anyways. this is the end of the commercial where i walk off into a very dramatic sunset to reveal the new esurance tagline so that you'll remember it. esurance. it's surprisingly painless. quick programming note, it's going to be a big news weekend. today you undoubtedly saw some of the show-stopping memorial service for the great aretha franklin. today that memorial service today for queen of soul was itself a cultural moment. following that incredible event today, tomorrow is going to be another incredible memorial of a very different kind.

john mccain's national memorial service is tomorrow in washington. that's the service at which former presidents barack obama and george w. bush are both expected to deliver eulogies. msnbc coverage will start at 8:30 eastern tomorrow morning for the mccain memorial service. looking ahead. as you know the confirmation hearings for brett kavanaugh trump's supreme court nominee will start on tuesday, day after labor day. we of course will be covering those wall to wall when those are under way. but i also want to let you know that monday night, even though it is labor day, we will be here with a special labor day show. a special report on brett kavanaugh on the eve of his confirmation hearings. there will be a rachel maddow show monday night, labor day. 9:00 p.m. eastern. see you there. that does it for us tonight. see you soon. now it is time for the last word. ali velshi sitting in for lawrence o'donnell, good evening. >> good evening, rachel. the day that aretha franklin passed away was right before my 11:00 a.m. show started. we managed to get through the whole hour celebrating her life