sitting just off camera for our entire interview because she said she wanted to hear what they were going to say about her husband. that's our broadcast on this wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. ♪ there's a lot to get to tonight. this was a busy news day. and i often say it's a busy news day. but today was a different kind of day than we ever have in this country. and we knew in advance it was going to be like that. today was a solemn day in the nation's capital, right? federal offices closed. postal service was shut down today. financial markets were shut down today. today was a national day of mourning. we don't have many of those as a country.

former president, former vice president, former cia director and world war ii decorated pilot, george herbert walker bush had his funeral today in washington. the former president was eulogized by his son and namesake. after lying in state in the capitol row ttunda, and this evening, the president's body will be blown back to houston and will lie in repose at st. martin's episcopal church in houston. it will go through the overnight hours and end tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. local time. today's funeral was not private, but tomorrow's funeral will be private. private does not mean small. there's something like 1,200 invited guests for the private

funeral tomorrow, who will pay the respects in houston. that funeral will take place at the same church where the former president lies in repose. st. martin's episcopal. and after tomorrow's private funeral at the church, at 10:00 a.m. local time, 11:00 a.m. eastern, the ceremony will take about one hour. afterwards, the president's body will be transported again, this time by train to college station, texas, because tomorrow afternoon, he will be buried there on the grounds of his presidential library at the campus of texas a&m, so, there's a private bush family plot there, where he will be buried alongside his wife barbara and alongside his daughter, robin, who died as an infant. so, the nation's business formally came to a halt today to honor the late president. but tomorrow, the burial will be another somber day of remembrance, as well. today's national day of mourning

is a rare thing. we don't stop as a country very often. but despite this dramatic pause to remember the late president, the news itself did not come a halt, i expected today -- expected today, to be a slow day, but it was not so. in wisconsin and in north carolina, where there's two big stories that continue to unfold that sort of put shivers down the spine of small "d" democracy. we will have more ahead on efforts by republicans in that state to cut the powers of the governor and other statewide officials, specifically because those positions were just won by democrats in the midterm elections. it was seen as an act of unprecedented radicalism when north carolina republicans

did the same thing a couple years ago. but apparently they were writing a new playbook for what republicans will now do when they lose elections anywhere in the country. we are seeing it in wisconsin, with we are seeing it in in michigan, we are seeing it now in other states. so, we will have more on that story ahead tonight this hour. there's the increasingly insane controversy over what looks like a criminal scheme to really, truly rig the election in north carolina's ninth congressional district on behalf of mark harris, the republican candidate. the scheme is unraveling and the subpoenas are flying. the state and the counties involved are producing the original documentation that lays bear to what seems to have happened here. there now appears to be zero chance that the results of the congressional election will be certified. but you know, it's up to the house of representatives, itself, up to congress itself, to decide whether and when to seat new members of congress

when there's a problem with an election. or when there's another dispute as to whether or not a person belongs in the congress or not. and in theory. republicans are supposedly very fired up about the grave threat of election fraud in the country. right? i mean, that's the boogie man they trot out to have policy preferences to restrict access to voting in ways that particularly target likely democratic voters. on this one, this thing in north carolina, republicans in washington have been remarkably silent. and this one really does look like that rarest of american electoral problems. this really does look like an industrial strength, ballot stealing, ballot stuffing, professional operation that not only helped mark harris appear to win that seat, it looks like the same operation run by the

same people may have helped this guy, mark harris, oust the incumbent member of congress that used to represent the district back in the primary in may. there was a different republican that held the seat. okay, he was ousted when he lost his own primary to this man, mark harris. it looks like the same illegal tactics used that were used in the prior as have worked in the general election that has resulted in a congressional seat that nobody knows what to do with. this professional election rigging operation in this one correctional district in north carolina, it not only screwed up the one congressional election, it costa republican incumbent his seat, a few months ago, the republicans in washington cannot come up with a word to say about it. they have been fundamentally silent about it. isn't this the thing you worry about all the time. now the incoming democrats that

are going to take control in the house, they are talking about holding hearings in congress to decide what is going to happen to the seat and that race and question of whether anyone should be seated in the congress to represent the north carolina district before it's all sorted out in the courts. so, stay tuned for more on that. that story is developing, almost by the hour at this point. but in the wake of last night's sentencing statement from special council robert mueller about trump national security adviser, mike flynn. the sentencing statement that features the special council praising flynn's cooperation, and recommending that flynn serve no jail time. today, in the wake of that remarkable document that came

out just before we were on the air last night. today, we have had another couple of stories that seems to indicate that there's another few shoes that are going to drop soon. one concerns this person. who appears to have been the first ever person to get donald trump the presidential candidate, to talk on the record about u.s. sanctions against russia, and the fact that he wanted them dropped. >> okay. let's go. >> sorry. >> yes, ma'am. >> i'm from russia. >> ah! >> so, my question will be about foreign politics. if you are elected ask president, what are your foreign politics, specially with the relationships with my country? and do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging of the economy? or you have any other ideas? >> i believe i would get along very nicely with putin, okay. and i mean, where we have the strength. i don't think you need the sanctions. i think that we would get along very, very well. i really believe that. >> first time he ever talked about sanctions. and we now know of course that at the time, donald trump, presidential candidate was advocating publicly that the u.s. should drop sanctions on

russia and we know at the time, he was secretly negotiating with russia for a very large real estate deal in moscow that would be financed by a sanctioned state run russian bank. as a presidential candidate, we know that donald trump was compromised by russia. he was secretly negotiating with russia and secretly negotiating with kremlin officials, and he was concealing it from the american people and for good reason, right? that would have put a spin on the fact that he was arguing against russian sanctions. if people had known that he needed to get rid of the sanctions so he could get his trump tower in moscow, with financing from a sanctioned russian bank. the reason it was a secret was more, the reason it was a counterintelligence emergency around trump the candidate is because the russian government knew that trump was lying about this to the american people.

and once they knew that he was trying to cover this thing up, that they knew something about him, they knew the truth about something, they could prove the truth about something that he was trying to keep secret, well, then they can use it as leverage over him. to pressure him in to doing things that he wanted. that is compromise. he was compromised by the russian government during the campaign. we now know. and one of the things, of course, that the russian government wanted then and still wants now, is for the u.s. government to drop sanctions on their country. and looking back at the first comment that trump made about russian sanctions, it's now just remarkably striking that the person who first set him up as a presidential candidate and first asked him about the question, who first prompted him to say that he wanted the sanctions dropped, that person is a person who is now in federal custody in virginia awaiting trial on charges that she was secretly acting in this country as an

agent of the russian government. that's the person who asked trump that question at that las vegas event in the summer of 2015. her name is maria butina and one of the other shoes that we have been waiting to drop any day is in her criminal case. a potential plea deal, maybe? or some other resolution of the criminal case that is pending against her. she is in jail awaiting trial on federal judges of being a secret russian agent operating in this country. now, a couple of weeks ago, prosecutors filed this document with the federal court that is hearing the case against her. explaining that, they were in negotiations with butina's lawyers regarding, quote, a potential resolution of the matter. now, we had otherwise expected butina to be in court tomorrow in washington for an important status update on the case. it has been delayed because of the supposed ongoing negotiations of the prosecution and the defense lawyers of somehow resolving her case.

we don't have any idea what the ultimate resolution might be, if in fact they do resolve it. obviously they have arrested and indicted her and put her in jail and plan to put her on trial. it's possible that the resolution of the case will be a plea deal, where she pleads guilty to something in exchange for lenience in other ways. that would make her a corroborating witness for prosecutors in the investigation. it's a very hard thing to imagine, given she is charged as a secret agent of the russian government. but, you never know. some observers have speculated that maria butina might, possibly, have her case resolved as part of a spy swap of some kind with the russian government. and the kremlin has taken a keen interest in the case. they have done a lot of publicity around it and advocacy around it. they have been very, very active, both publically advocating and advocating with the u.s. government on her

behalf. i don't know what they are offering on her behalf. i don't know if the u.s. government is in the market for any sort of spy swap with the russians at the moment, but it not impossible to imagine that her case may be resolved with something dramatic like that. so, we have been waiting to find out. basically any day now, what is going to happen to this accused russian foreign agent now that federal prosecutors say they are heading toward a resolution of the case. while we have been waiting for that to happen, today, "the daily beast" has reported that another person in her case, an american who is named in her case, has been warned himself by prosecutors that he might get charged in this case, too. he is an american citizen, paul erickson, and possibly the boyfriend of maria butina, although it's complicated.

according to "the daily beast," paul erickson has received a target letter in which they notify him that they are considering bringing charges against him under section 951 of the u.s. code, which is the law barring people from secretly acting as agents of foreign governments. and the government may bring a conspiracy charge against erickson. this target letter was sent to paul erickson a couple of months ago. the lawyer has now shown it to the reporters. while a target letter is not the same as an indictment, it indicates that the prosecutors are considering bringing charges against him or moving in a way toward charges against him. in his case, for serving as a secret foreign agent on behalf of russia against the united states, like his girlfriend. you know, this is not totally a surprise. in the justice department's court filings for its charges

against maria butina, paul erickson turns up multiple times when the government is describing had her alleged crimes and how she went about the scheme to influence the u.s., to influence the u.s. government and republican party and conservative movement in the country on behalf of russia. he is described as person number one in the court filings as best we can tell. quote, during the course of her work as a covert russian agent, she regularly met and communicated with an unnamed russian official, and u.s. person one, this guy, paul erickson, to plan and develop the contours of the influence of operation. there's this, on october 4th, 2016, so a month before the election, u.s. person one sent an e-mail, and said is -- i have

been involved in securing a, all caps, very private line of communication between the kremlin and key republican party leaders, through, of all conduits the nra. so, again, u.s. republican activist paul erickson is now reported to have received a target letter from the federal prosecutors, letting him know that they are considering charges against him for operating as a secret agent of a foreign government that appears to be the russian government. it's not the same as an indictment. but if the government has already charged him, and we don't know about it publically, or if they are planning to bring the charges against him, that will be a interesting new development in the maria butina case, which i'm, you know, i'm interested in for a lot of reasons but in particular the way it links back to the president and his first public comments about russian sanctions. charged.

but if erickson is or has been charged, this throws light on the nra question. it has lingered since the campaign, as to whether or not the nra, the national rifle association, may have been used as a conduit for russian government influence, russian secret communications, or even potentially russian money. in the operation by the russian government to try to swing the u.s. presidential election for trump, and against clinton. so, that dropped today with that important report in "the daily beast" about paul erickson getting a targeting letter from federal prosecutors. in addition to that, the associated press reported today that federal prosecutors in the southern district of new york appear to have sprung back in to action on another element of the russia scandal that involves president trump's campaign

chairman, paul manafort. he now lives in the same jail as maria butina, although, he is on the boy's side and he is convicted of multiple felonies and she is awaiting trial. according to the associated press today, prosecutors are ramping up their investigation in to foreign lobbying by two major washington firms that did work for former trump campaign chair paul manafort. in a flurry of new activity, justice department prosecutors have begun interviewing witnesses and lawyers to schedule additional questioning, related to the podesta group and mercury public affairs. those were two firms that were accused in manafort court filings of essentially illegal lobbying. of knowingly, getting paid to represent the pro-russia ukrainian government, for paul manafort. prosecutors have cited evidence in the manafort case that indicates that the firms lied

about pretending they didn't know who they were working for. the implication that prosecutors already sketched out about the firms that they knew they were lobbying for ukraine, and they did not want to register as lobbying for ukraine. they created pretenses that made it seem they were not, and they knew full well that's what they were doing. according to the associated press, again, federal prosecutors have ramped back up this part of the investigation and they appear to be trying to chase down the part of the case, which was initially raised in conjunction with paul manafort's prosecution. as i said, we have a fairly dramatic sentencing filing about mike flynn, the president's first national security adviser and how he fits in to the over all russia scandal and in the wake of that today, we got a bunch of new indications of events of that, that may be unfolding now. but there's one other piece of it that relates president

specifically himself had. it was raised by the flynn filing. it has not gotten much attention, but -- but i think you should know about it. you should know about it. do stay with us.a good source o. that's why they're my go-to snack while i get back in shape. that one's broken.

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i swear this is not a stunt. i swear i did not know it was doing to happen. i did not plan it. i swear. but, just in the past few minutes, just moments ago, literally while i was talking on the tv machine about the maria butina case and how we are expecting any day now to find out what will happen in her case, because prosecutors and lawyers were telling the court that they were working toward a resolution of the case of some kind. leading to speculation, is there going to be a plea deal? will she be a cooperating witness? is there going to be a spy swap? she is awaiting trial right now, on charges that she has been operating as a secret agent of the russian government in this country. literally while i was saying that, just moments ago, we just

got a new court filing in the case, in which we have, the judge in the case just this second has scheduled a telephone conference for the prosecution and the defense to join the judge tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. again, this comes as prosecutors and the defense lawyers say they have been actively negotiating to resolve the case. maybe they are going to do it on the phone tomorrow. but, that happened while i was talking about it. maybe the judge was watching. she saw me start to talk about it, and said, oh, yeah, we need to have -- i doubt it. all right. one of the things that struck me last night about the mike flynn sentencing document that we got from mueller's office last night is that it's so are almost unequivocally positive about mike flynn and the cooperation he has offered the

special council's office. and yes, they describe his criminal behavior and said it's serious. but when it comes to the interactions with the special council's office since pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate. in this document, they could not be more informally delighted with his performance. how quickly he cooperated, how completely the truthfulness of the information he provided, how helpful it was for other investigations and that he provided information for investigations that are still ongoing, investigations that cannot be disclosed in the public, that are redacted in these filings. they are still so happy with the information they got from mike flynn that they don't want to delay his sentencing longer even as the cases are pending. they want the judge to put the matter to rest for good old mike flynn, he has been an ideal cooperator. this is not how the special council's office usually talks about targets and witnesses in the case. right? in terms of other people associated with the trump campaign, for example, paul

manafort, campaign chair? in his case, the special council's office told the court he was a terrible cooperator, he had breached the agreement, he had lied. they were not going keep up their end of the bargain either and layout his lies and anything he did bad in his life in a filing at the end of the week. and in the case of papadopoulos, a trump campaign adviser, they said he did not provide substantial assistance to them or useful information. and by the way, he dragged his feet and was slow about everything he did offer so he was not much help. the contrast with their praise for what they got out of flynn could not be more stark. so, here is my question about flynn and one of the reasons that i wanted to talk to adam schiff, the congressman from the intelligence committee tonight. why is trump so consistently psyched about mike flynn? i mean, michael cohen has become a good cooperator with the special council's office. the president can barely move

his thumbs without tweeting something disparaging about michael cohen. insulting him. giving him nicknames, asking for the court to throw the book at him. he is cooperating and that's terrible. not a peep about mike flynn. not at all since he plead guilty and became a cooperator more than a year ago. and not even since the nature of hiss cooperation was made public. which is now more than 24 hours ago. and it extends a remarkable streak by donald trump, when it comes to mike flynn. now it seems incredible, not in fantastic, but as not credible. there must be something else going on here. there's more than meets the eye. why why has trump been so invested in defending michael flynn?

why has he been so consistent and gone out of his way to only have positive things to say and do and only have things to offer mike flynn? when president-elect trump, two days after the election went to the white house to meet with then president obama, he said that he warned trump about two things. he warned him north korea would be a serious national security matter that he would not be able to avoid dealing with, and that in addition to north korea, multiple sources reported that the other warning that obama gave trump, was about mike flynn. and obama told trump, specifically, don't hire mike flynn for anything sensitive or for anything particularly high ranking. take my advice, not that guy, that's my one warning, besides north korea. never the less, trump decided that he would name mike flynn as national security adviser anyway. and then, during the transition, before trump was sworn in. mike flynn's lawyers sent up another red flag.

they notified the trump transition that flynn in fact was under federal investigation for having secretly acted as an agent of a foreign power during the campaign. as an agent of the turkish government. he is being considered for national security adviser and they are saying, he is the subject of an active federal criminal investigation. nevertheless, despite the notification, trump named him the national security adviser and then, also, in the transition, a minor crisis arose, involving mike flynn and his devotion to his son mike, jr. mike flynn, jr., during the transition continued what had been a string of embarrassing and offensive public behavior, which led to questions about why mike flynn, jr., was serving in the trump transition and why in fact the trump transition applied for a security clearance for this kid. the head of the trump transition was of vice president-elect mike pence. he publically denied that mike

flynn's son was any part of the transition. turns out mike flynn's son was. so, that was an embarrassing thing to vice president-elect pence to have been called out about. reporters immediately called him on the fact that if flynn, jr. was not on the transition, why was he e-mailing them all from a trump transition e-mail address? that was profoundly embarrassing in the transition and specifically for mike pence, who was supposedly running the transition. he was never able to come up with an explanation for why mike flynn's son has been put up for security clearance by the transition. pence appeared to not know he was there, let alone that he was put forward for something like that. but nevertheless, even after that embarrassment, the administration went forward with plans to name mike flynn national security adviser. as soon as the administration started, four days later, the red flags turned in to giant waving red banners. that occluded the view from the house, because they draped from

the roof to the ground. four days after trump was sworn in, there was a warning from the justice department, that flynn was not just all the other things they had learned about and had been told to worry about and had problems when it came to him already, flynn was compromised by the russian government. and the clear warning that the national security adviser was compromised by a hostile foreign power, the clear implication was that they needed to get him out of there, out of the white house immediately. huge national security risk. had they certainly needed to cut off had his access to classified information since the government of russia had compromised him. and they could get anything out of him that they wanted. don't let him have access to classified information, my god. nevertheless, the trump white house did not react at all. they didn't react privately or publicly. they kept him on another 18 days and let him retain his access to highly classified information. no urgency to get him out, no alarm, no worries.

and then, when the public reporting about this crisis continued, and they finally had to give in, and allow him to resign, the president praised him publically and then the very next day the president immediately went to the fbi director and told the fbi director he needed to quash the fbi investigation in to mike flynn, told the fbi director that the fbi needed to drop it with mike flynn. thereafter, president trump went to the director of national intelligence, dan coats, he needed to quash the investigation on mike flynn. then, one of the president's lawyers went to mike flynn and offered him a presidential pardon. why? what explains this elaborate routine of like, you know, back bends and back flips, and layout reverse handsprings. i mean, they are just not sticking up for mike flynn. they are insisting on mike

flynn. they're insisting on the necessity for mike flynn. it's not three strikes you are out, it's like 330 strikes you are still in. the president risked criminal exposer himself by intervening on with the fbi to get leniency for mike flynn. why? because of loyalty? because flynn was involved in the campaign? tell that to jeff sessions. if you think that's a guarantee of trump's loyalty. let's talk about steve bannon, who is now called sloppy steve, who has lost his mind. he is loyal to everyone in his campaign. what is it about mike flynn specifically that made trump go to the ends on of the earth for him? that has kept trump from ever talking smack about him, even now? honestly, don't you think it's weird that he has not talked smack about mike flynn, not even now, even after we found out that he did 19 different

interviews with the special council's office and left them so pleased with the information he had to offer that he will do no jail time himself and he they did a sentencing memo that calls him a saint and says he is awesome and they could not have done it without him. not a peep from trump about that? i'm the only other dude who trump is consistently positive about, and who refuses to ever, ever, ever criticize, whatever the cost. the only other person he treats like this is freaking putin. what does it say went down with flynn and the special council's office and what will his sentencing lead to next? the person who is best situated to answer that question in the country other than mueller himself is congressman adam schiff and he joins us next. ♪ ♪ applebee's bigger bolder grill combos are back.

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joining us now is adam schiff, he is the top democrat on the intelligence committee in the house. starting in january, he is expected to be the committee's chairman, thank you very much for being with us tonight. thanks for making time. >> you bet. >> we have had a bunch of news in the past 25 hours or so, about the russia scandal and the legal maneuvering around the scandal. "the daily beast" is reporting that paul erickson has received a target letter from federal prosecutors saying he may be charged as a agent of a foreign power and they are moving with

speed now against firms that may have been illegal areally lobbying for a foreign government as part of manafort's operations in ukraine. and we got the filing last night in the michael flynn case, in which the special council's office praised his cooperation and recommended no jail time for him. as somebody who has a great grasp on the overall status of the investigation and the scandal at large, are all the things happening at once? or are do you think we are moving in to a rapidly unfolding phase here? >> i don't think it's a coincidence. i fear, but i don't know it's the case, that the appointment of whitaker may have excelled what the special council wanted to take in due time. i hope that's not the case. it would not surprise me that it was part of the motivation. you know, in terms of flynn, i think one thing we need to remember is, it's not just that mueller is recommending no jail

time. that is pretty extraordinary in and of itself, it's a former national security adviser lying about a national security matter and doing so in ca-hoots with the russians and it's when the plea was entered in to, mueller essentially made the decision not to proceed on a whole range of other allegations involving flynn. so, flynn is getting effectively a recommendation of no jail time on any of the conduct he was involved in, that would require very substantial cooperation and it appears that mueller got it. when you look at the cooperation agreement that flynn signed, it required him to do essentially anything special council asked, incluing wearing a wire, it certainly looks like the cooperation was full. whether or not it's leading to the other developments, it's hard to say. >> you mentioned matthew whitaker, we can tell that

whitaker's role, would be able to influence major steps in the investigation, could -- influence major steps in the investigation, and we assume that a count of a major step would be new indictments and any sort of public report if something like that happens. are you suggesting that whitaker's influence may extend to what happened with mike flynn, to the nature of the recommendation to the judge that flynn not go to jail? >> i don't know that it would have affected the terms that were being offered to mike flynn, it may have affected the timing. it -- it may have affected the timing. and part of it may be due to the fact that during the period before the election, the special council had to go dark in terms of any new deals or prosecutions. but it could be affected by the

new person at the top. the other thing that i would mention in terms of flynn is one area that we know that he can, and must have offered cooperation to special council is, we know that he told those in the transition team, including a very senior transition official about his conversation about sanctions with the russian ambassador, which means when the vice president went out and misrepresented it to the country, there were other high ranking people that knew that the vice president was misrepresenting it, unknowing we assume, but misrepresenting it. they did nothing or said nothing public about it. mike flynn can offer a lot of insights on who those people are, what conversations went on, and the final point that i would make, rachel, there's a common denominator about a lot of the issues and a lot of the characters you are mentioning. as you played earlier, maria butina's conversation with donald trump in the interview was about sanctions. mike flynn was lying about his

conversations with the russian ambassador about sanctions. the meeting in trump tower that they later denied happened and then admitted happened and said it was about adoptions, that was about sanctions . there's been allegations about mike flynn and a nuclear power deal that would involve removal of sanctions. time and time again, there's a marriage of business interests, making money, and talk about sanctions. eric prince and the saycheles, meeting with a russian banker, jared kushner meeting with a russian banker, and maria butina and paul erickson. a lot of players wanting to do away with russian sanctions. including donald trump. >> congressman adam schiff, the top democrat on the intelligence committee.

sir, i have found it edifying to talk to you about the matter knowing you are about to be the chair of the intelligence committee and hearing you talk about the connections and inquiry, i feel different for it. i feel i'm getting prepped to learn answers to the questions. much more to come, stay with us. >> tech: at safelite autoglass,

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this is unexpected, politico.com. quote, the house gop campaign arm suffered a major hack during the 2018 election, exposing thousands of sensitive e-mails to an outside intruder. according to three senior party officials, the e-mail accounts of four senior aides were surveilled for several months. the intrusion was detected in april by an nrcc vepder who alerted the committy and its cyber security contractor. an investigation was initiated and the fbi was alerted to the attack. however, senior house republicans weren't informed of the hack until politico contacted the nrcc on monday. rank and file republicans weren't told, either.

the campaign arm of the party that was designed to elect and re-elect members of congress and didn't tell republican members of congress that it was happening. and despite this being a total secret even with lawmakers themselves, they report that the nrcc, paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to a prominent d.c. law firm and to a major p.r. firm to manage the response to the hack. why did you hire a p.r. firm, when nobody knows that the hack happened? then there's this. quote, party officials will not say when the hack began or who was behind it. i have a number of questions about this. first and foremost. what was the nature of the attack, that leads the house campaign arm to believe this attack on them was of a foreign orig origin? what is the nature of the attack?

we would know if it was. we would see it but never saw it. one of the things we can tell is nothing that say stolen during the election was ever released to it public. we would know if it was. republican officials also tell politico in addition to this information not being released publicly or being used against the party in any obvious way, there were also no threats or blackmail attempts associated with this stuff. so what was done with this stolen information from the nrcc? what about the nature of this attack? what about the nature of that indicates this was a foreign attack? but then they believe it was a foreign attack. okay, who was it? i mean, if this was russia doing the hacking, that would be absolutely fascinating because that would be the second time we know that russia has stolen stuff from the republican party and then sat on it and done nothing with it. u.s. intelligence agencies, remember this, they determined that during the 2016 presidential campaign, yes, there was the big consequential dnc attack they made such hay of

for months. but in addition russians also collected materials from unspecified republican affiliated targets. the difference is none of that material was ever disseminated to hurt those republican targets in the same way the democrat stuff was. so what was it about, right? is the nrcc implying they were hurt in some way by this intrusion? if so, how? they believe this was a foreign attacker. if so, who? if the material wasn't publicly released, it wasn't used for ransom or blackmail, wasn't used against house republican candidates, what happened to it? i mean, is there any possibility it was given to the nrcc's political opponents or to the democrats or press and we haven't heard about it yet? and why would the republicans need to hire a really big expensive p.r. firm to manage the response to this given that their p.r. effort around this was to keep it entirely secret? one of the reporters behind this strange and puzzling scoop joins us next. stay with us. today...

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alex isenstadt joins us now. he broke the story at politico that during the campaign this year, the mid-term election campaign, the republican party's campaign arm for house races was hit with a hacking attack but they kept it a secret. congratulations on this scoop. thanks for joining us. >> thanks have having me. >> do you have any sense why the nrcc thinks this was a foreign attack? >> when we started asking questions about this we were

told basically they concluded the attack was of a sophisticated nature. and we haven't really been able to fully come to grips who exactly was behind this. but we heard to names of a couple of countries including china and russia potentially. >> do we know how the nrcc was compromised? were there e-mails just stolen and that was the end of it, was the nrcc damaged in anyway? >> basically you had a situation where there were four of the top officials basically had their e-mail accounts hacked. they discovered in april of this year. and basically whoever it is who hacked them had months and months of access to literally thousands of their e-mails. >> part of the thing that puzzled me about your reporting the news they spent a ton of money retaining a p.r. firm and kept it secret.

was the p.r. firm hired because they want today be ready to respond if this stuff ended up in the public eye? >> it's a great question. they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a big-name p.r. firm and a big-name law firm. and behind the scenes really while the committee was actually short on cash to spend money on races, remember they were trying to save the house this year, they were spending big bucks to help protect themselves on this hacking matter. and it's the best i can understand, they felt they needed to protect themselves should these e-mails be publicly disseminated. they felt they needed to have some kind of p.r. strategy in place once word of this hack got out or the e-mails got out. and they felt they also had to deal with it in a legal context. >> this is remarkable scoop. i can't wait to hear sort of the rest of the story when we figure it out. thank you for helping usz understand. we'll be right back. stay with us. we were talking about the model t. now here we are talking about winning the most jd power iqs and appeal awards.

talking about driver-assist technology talking about cars that talk and listen. talking about the highest customer loyalty in the country. but that's enough talking. seriously. that was a lot of talking. back to building

well, not because it was easy. i mean, the game is all i know. you think back to your draft. it felt like a fantasy. but the second you know you can't compete anymore, you owe it to yourself, to your team, to find a fresh start. so, yeah, that's why i did it. that's why i walked away... from my fantasy league. (announcer) redeem your season on fanduel. play free until you win. fanduel. more ways to win. recapping our top story for tonight, remember that after today's state funeral in

washington, d.c. tomorrow will be the private funeral for former president george h.w. bush. private does not mean small. there are something like 1,200 invited guests who will be part of the private service for george h.w. bush tomorrow in texas. his body will be brought to college station, texas, by train. college station is the site of the george h.w. bush presidential library. and that is where he will be buried tomorrow in what will be a private burial ceremony just with the bush family. so today's day of mourning and state funeral to be followed by another solemn day honoring the late president tomorrow. that does it for us tonight. now it's time for the "last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening, rachel. and watching president trump sit so close to president obama this morning in the cathedral, could only wonder what would have happened if president trump had followed president obama's advice about not hiring michael flynn.