that is for us our broadcast for a thursday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. this has turned out to be one of those news cycles this week when it's hard to keep up. not just with the pace of new developments as they are happening, but also it's hard to keep up, i think, with a realistic sense of the weight and importance, and even the historic nature of each of these successive developments, because so many of them have happened in such quick succession. in the past week or so, we have seen at least one news development per day that alone would be the biggest scandal to hit any other president in at least a year, if not an entire term in office. we've been having them daily for more than a week now, and they just keep coming.

i mean, yesterday the president as long-time personal lawyer was sentenced to three years in federal prison. then immediately following his sentencing, prosecutors almost simultaneously unsealed what is basically a cooperation agreement with a company that made illegal payments to benefit the president's campaign in an arrangement that was worked out overtly between that company and the president's campaign. the president's own company appears to have been used to cover up another illegal campaign payment with falsified records and accounts. there are a handful of executives within the president's company who would seem to have had the authority within the company to commit that kind of, what looks like accounting fraud or potentially tax fraud in terms of writing checks, directing disbursements, misleading accounting entries. one of those handful of kbektives who had that authority is granted immunity by

prosecutors in can exchange for cooperation with ongoing inquiries. all of the other executives at the president's company who could have conceivably been involved at that level with that potential crime, all of the others would appear to be members of the president's family, or indeed, the president himself. so that's like the last 24 hours. and that would be kind of enough drama for one president total, right? that would be enough drama and presidential scandal and potential legal liability for the president to outshadow the worst thing that happened in the presidency of most american presidents. but that was just yesterday. i mean, and that's just what happened yesterday while at the same time this president also has his campaign chairman, his deputy campaign chairman and national security advisor all either in jail or out of jail but awaiting sentencing right now. awaiting sentencing on felony charges. right? and on top of everything that's happening right now, the

president has that that he has to think about every day as well. and then today, today happened, including this dramatic turn of events in federal court today in washington, d.c. quote, the judge. all right. mr. kennerson for the prosecution and mr. driscoll for the defense, do either of you have any questions as to the defendant's competence to plead at this time? mr. driscoll for the defense, no, your honor. mr. kenner son for the prosecution, no, your honor. the judge. based on the answers that have been provided here in open court as well as the representations of council and this court's own observation of ms. butina, i find that the defendant, maria butina, is fully come p/e tint and capable of entering an informed plea. ms. butina, please listen carefully to my questions and let me know if there is anything you don't understand. you have been indicted by a grand jury of one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent and one count of being an agent of a foreign government.

the judge goes on. this is a case in which there have been a lot of sealed proceedings and sealed motions and things we the public haven't been allowed to see, but this is open court in washington, d.c. as a 30-year-old russian woman named maria butina elected to change her plea from not guilty to guilty after she was charged by federal prosecutors with acting in this country as a secret agent of the russian government as part of an influence operation, to influence u.s. politics, and specifically the republican party in ways that would benefit the interests of the russian federation. the judge. quote, now, ms. betina, your lawyers and the prosecutor have given me a document of a statement of defense that describes what the government would be prepared to prove at trial about your criminal conduct. this is an important document. that's your signature on december 8th? the defendant maria butina, that is correct. >> the judge, and by signing it, you are agreeing this is correct and true and this is what you

did? i have to make sure of that because if we come back for sentencing, you can't say, well, i just signed it but i didn't do paragraph 4 because you signed it, so i have to make sure that you understand it. have you read the statement of offense and discussed it fully with your lawyers? the defendant, am i ra abu tina, yes. >> is that your signature on the last page acknowledging you read the criminal conduct and fully understand it? the defendant, yes, your honor. the judge, does this truly and accurately describe what you did in this case? the defendant, yes. the judge, ms. butina, beginning no later than in or around 2018 and possibly earlier, continuing until around 2018 in the district of columbia and elsewhere, did you and others knowingly combine, conspire, confed rate and agree together and with each other to commit an offense against the united states? >> the defendant maria butina,

yes. do you understand the charges against you? the defendant, yes. do you understand that the plea in this case resulted from negotiations between your lawyer and the government? >> yes. did your lawyer keep you apprised at all stages of the negotiation? yes, your honor. was this decision made by you? >> yes. it's long, sing the spaced and contains complicated legal terms. have you read it carefully? maria butina, yes. the judge, do you understand it? butina, yes. have you gone over it with your lawyers? yes. have you had enough time to discuss it with your lawyers? yes. is that what you agreed to? the defendant: yes. do you have any confusion or questions about this agreement that you would like to ask me or that you would like to ask your lawyers about? the defendant: no. the judge: are you entering this plea voluntarily and of your own free will because you are guilty? the defendant: yes. the judge: is there anything you do not understand about this

plea in this case? no. are you now ready to say whether you want to plead guilty or go to trial on the charges in this case? the defendant, yes. the judge, what do you want to do? the defendant, guilty. that's what she said. she just shouted out guilty. the judge. finally, are you pleading guilty because you are guilty? defendant: yes. the judge: you may have a seat, ms. butina. i am satisfied that ms. butina is fully competent of making a z decision today. the plea knowing and voluntary, she is acting of her own free will and there is a factual basis for each of the offense for her plea. and aside from the loud awkward blurt of the word "guilty," that

was a by-the-book, but still absolutely shocking court proceeding today in federal court in washington. i mean, with this today, maria butina becomes the first russian national convicted for seeking to influence u.s. politics around the time of the election in 2016. she had not -- excuse me. she had previously pled not guilty after she was arrested in july. she was charged with operating as an agent of the russian government in this country. she initially pled not guilty. what is perhaps most rashlable about her this u-turn in her case, not that she changed her mind, changed her plea from not guilty to guilty, the thing most remarkable about her guilty plea is it is accompanied by an aggressive cooperation agreement she has entered into with prosecutors in exchange for the u.s. attorney in d.c. dropping one of the felony charges against her, butina has agreed

to cooperate. and this is from that single-spaced plea deal the judge warned her that she needed to read very carefully today in court. quote: your client agrees to cooperate with the office of the united states attorney for the district of columbia on the following terms and conditions. your client shall cooperate fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly with this office and other federal state and local law enforcement authorities identified by this office in any and all matters as to which the government deems the cooperation relevant. your client's cooperation may include but will not necessarily be limited to answering questions, providing sworn written statements, taking government administered polygraph examinations, and participating in covert law enforcement activities. since she was already charged as a secret agent, presumably covert activities will not be a mystifying concept

for this particular defendant. but with this cooperation agreement, she is pledging that, if asked, she will engage in such activities for the u.s. government now, which is quite a turn of events, right? i mean, if as prosecutors have alleged she was basically sent to this country in order to run a covert influence operation directed by russian government officials, her decision, which she herself announced in open court today, her decision she will become a cooperator with the fbi and with u.s. federal prosecutors, i mean, this part of the movie probably has a darker, more ominous sound track in the russian language movie than it does in the english language movie that we're all watching from over here. i mean, for us this is like, oh, look, another flipper. for them it's like, um, you're cooperating with who now? on what now? you were agreeing you will participate in covert law enforcement activities for the united states?

duh, yeah. and then at the end of all of it, she gets deported back to russia. according to section 12 of the plea agreement, which happens on just the next page. just a remarkable turn of events. but there are a few interesting things about this case in terms of how it fits into the larger picture that we don't totally understand yet, but that may end up being important by the time we get to the end of this movie in either language. first of all, as i mentioned, this court proceeding in the butina case today, it happened in federal court in washington, d.c., and that's a court where we've seen a lot of activity related to the special counsel's office. but robert mueller and his special counsel's office were not involved in the butina case at all. this was handled today, as it has been from the beginning, by regular federal prosecutors associated with the u.s. attorney's office in d.c. as "the new york times" described it, it stemmed from what officials described as a

broader counter intelligence investigation by the justice department and the fbi that pre-dated the 2016 election and is separate from the work being done by the special counsel. so does that make you feel better or worse about your country? does that make you feel better or worse about this scandal, right? i mean, this means that if "the new york times" is right, and if the inference we can draw from the fact that the special counsel doesn't appear to be involved in the butina prosecution, if the inference is right, that means in addition to everything being investigated by the special counsel, that means there's a whole separate criminal counter intelligence case about a secret in the republican party in the 2016 campaign. this is like a spare. but now that maria butina has changed her plea to guilty and we can see not only her cooperation agreement and her plea deal, but also the statement of offense where

prosecutors layout their case for what she pled to, one of the surprises in these court dock ults abo -- documents in her case tonight, the most serious worrying evidence the prosecutors are presenting in the case against her is stuff that is not just about her. the most serious and arguably the most worrying stuff in the government's case against maria butina, which we have now seen laid out in documents -- the most serious stuff also seems to have involved her american boyfriend who is a republican activist named paul eriksson. as we have been talking about on the show for a few days now, "the daily beast" was first to report last week that paul eriksson himself received a target letter from federal prosecutors a few months ago informing him that they were considering bringing federal charges against him that match the charges against maria butina. prosecutors told this american guy, this republican activist paul eriksson that they were considering charging him as an agent of the russian government operating in this country.

that's one thing if you are a russian who is operating as an agent of the russian government. but if you're an american operating as an agent of the russian government? now, getting a target letter isn't the same thing as being indicted. he hasn't been charged. he may never be charged. but the filings in the butina case really don't make it seem like paul eriksson is believed to have been a bystander, or even a mere accessory to the scheme that she has now pled guilty to. in the narrative that prosecutors are laying out in the butina case, paul eriksson is absolutely a main character directly involved in the foreign influence operation that maria butina just pled to. in the statement of offense that accompanies her plea agreement today, the person described as u.s. person one is this american republican activist, paul eriksson. and they give him top billing right alongside her, right from the start when it comes to describing the commission of this criminal scheme.

quote, maria butina is a citizen of the russian federation, u.s. person one is a united states citizen. beginning no later than march of 2015, butina and u.s. person one, paul eriksson, agreed and conspired with a russian government official and at least one other person for butina to act in the united states under the direction of the russian official. that russian official is referred to throughout this statement of offense, he is widely understood to be aleksandr torshin who is a former senior official in the russian government, a ranking member of vladimir putin's political party, and until quite recently, the deputy central banker in russia. sometime in the last couple of weeks, though, aleksandr torshin suddenly retired and disappeared out of the blue retired, no sign it was coming. boop, he's gone, one sentence statement from the central bank. the only signs of life from him since -- he was suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared from his position at the russian

central bank. the original signs of life we've had from him since then are some of his more recent musings on twitter in which he appears to be randomly gushing online about how delicious the food is in kyrgyzstan. i'm relying on google translate. who am i to hold it against him if he believes kyrgyzstan is a completely tasty country? i think that's what he's saying. water is excellent. but that's aleksandr torshin. he's russian official one. u.s. person one is paul eriksson. and so knowing that, we can sort of get a pretty distinct and pretty hairy plot line here out of the butina court documents. quote, with paul eriksson's position with aleksandr torshin, butina sought to establish unofficial lines of communication with americans having power and influence over u.s. politics.

butina sought to use those unofficial lines of communication for the benefit of the russian federation. from the original filings when maria butina was first charged, we have the text of an e-mail paul eriksson sent to an acquaintance one month before the 2016 election. he said, quote, i am been involved in securing a very private line of communication between the kremlin and key republican party leaders through, of all conduits, the n.r.a. again, this is a month before the 2016 election. why would republican party leaders need an, all caps, very private line of communication to the kremlin? why would republican party leaders need that? through the n.r.a. or through anybody else. that's kind of the $64,000 question right now, right? here is the republican activist who is bragging he had set that up for the republican party leaders who would need this secret line of communication to the kremlin. shortly after the trump

inauguration, maria butina used her contacts in the russian government to bring over a delegation of russians to attend the national prayer breakfast in washington, d.c. she and paul eriksson, according to prosecutors, then overtly discussed the fact that all of these russians were coming over to washington right after trump's inauguration for this prayer breakfast event. quote, to establish a back channel of communication. it's like they're saying the quiet part out loud. well, in the new court filings in butina's case today, prosecute also reveal this republican paul eriksson bragged to somebody else that he is going to monitor the american reaction to all of these russians who were coming over here for the prayer breakfast. he would convey that information about how these russians were received over here. he would convey that information directly to the office of vladimir putin. from today's filing. quote, butina e-mailed the list of delegation invite es to paul

eriksson. she explained they had been hand picked by torsion and me and they were coming to establish a back channel of communication. later eriksson e-mailed another person copying butina to say this. quote, reaction to the delegation's presence in america will be relayed directly to the russian president and foreign minister. it is astonishing that an accused russian agent has agreed to flip and become a cooperating witness as prosecutors investigate russia's interference in our election in 2016, right? that happened today. that is astonishing. now they're flipping russians, too, right? but in some ways it is even more amazing that prosecutors say that as part of her scheme, it was an american guy over here who was guaranteeing direct access to vladimir putin when it came time to report back on how this russian influence operation was panning out over here right as trump was taking office. so, again, as far as we know, this american republican activist who really is the star

of the maria butina statement of the offense today in court, and not in a good way. as far as we know he has not been charged. but prosecutors are spelling out a lot about him here that makes it hard not to wonder, you know, what he's up to tonight and what he's expecting for his next few days in the news. and if that's not enough, then tonight we got this new scoop from "the wall street journal." this is brand-new from "the wall street journal". and to the trump administration and the president, this late breaking headline from "the wall street journal" tonight has to feel like they were already playing tennis against roger federer. they're playing tennis against a guy who is pretty good. then that guy got a second tennis racket in the other arm, he's ambidextrous, turns out he's an octopus and each one of those arms has a racket and he's good with all of them. oh, god, don't say racket. that's the one thing they're not getting charged with yet. i mean, this is the lead from "the wall street journal" tonight. trump inauguration spending

under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors. probe looking into whether committee misspent funds and top doaners gained access to the administration. they are investigating whether trump's 2007 inaugural committee misspent money raised by the donations. the attorney's office is examining whether the top donors gave money in exchange for access to the incoming administration for policy concessions or to influence official administration positions. giving money in exchange for political favors could run afoul of federal corruption laws. diverting funds from the organization could also violate federal law. the investigation partly arises out of materials seized in the federal probe of former trump lawyer michael cohen's business dealings. so, what a day, right? what a moment that we're all living through. just draw the bottom line here, the president's campaign chairman and deputy campaign

chairman and nationality security advisor have all pled guilty to felonies and are all awaiting jail or sentencing for felony convictions. the president's lawyer is going to prison. the president's business is in the crosshairs on at least one of the felonies for which his lawyer is going to prison. his adult children are potentially on the hook for that specifically and directly. his inaugural committee is now under federal criminal investigation. and this is all separate and apart from the special counsel's investigation, which continues to aggressively investigate whether he and his campaign conspired with russia to rig the presidential election. and oh, by the way, in that one, they are now starting to flip actual russians. to get to the bottom of that. how was your day? i mean, i don't know who you know or how old they are, but nobody else has ever lived through a moment in the american presidency like this. we're the first. we'll be right back with one of "the wall street journal" reporters who broke the scoop. that's next.

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it was going to be squeaky squeaky, squeaky clean. that's what the head of the donald trump inaugural committee told the associated press a year

ago. clean, an external audit has been conducted and completed of the inaugural committee's finances. really? is that so? then the associated press asked to see that squeaky clean audit. quote, the trump inaugural committee would not share a copy of the audit with a.p. or even say who performed it. just trust us. there's obviously nothing going on that's funky with our finances. we can prove it. we did a whole audit. it was a super clean audit. we came out perfect. but it's also secret and you have to trust us that it happened and we're not going to tell you who did it. see? we good, we square? that was june of 2017. since then the associated press has tried to get their hands on that mystery audit of trump's inaugural finances. we on this show have tried repeatedly and a whole different ways to track it down, too, but no dice. and you know, part of the reason we were so interested is because it was clear from the very, very, very beginning that there was something funky about the trump inauguration and the money that was raised for it and spent

on it. and this picture, i know, causes a lot of people a lot of agita. this picture makes the president crazy. it became part of the first ridiculous scandal of this new administration on its first half day when the president told government officials they needed to lie about the size of the crowd at his inauguration compared to the size of the crowd at the obama inauguration for 2009. but that picture and that truth about the inauguration for mr. trump, that is also part of the very clear evidence that something was wrong with the money part of the trump inaugural because obama's inauguration in 2009 really was way bigger, and i don't mean that in an ad hominem way. it was just an historic thing. and because it was so big, that inauguration for obama in 2009, it was a previous -- it hit a previously unimaginable fund-raising and spending record. when obama was inaugurated for

the first time, that was the largest inauguration in history for obvious reasons. the event was just huge. the cost was huge. $43 million they raise and had spent for that inauguration. that was a record by a mile. now, in contrast, the trump inauguration -- i do not say this to be mean -- but the trump inauguration was a comparatively small affair. and there comparatively wasn't that much to it. it was a baton twirler and tractors and dee jay who played the drums t. was not like 2009. somehow the trump inauguration ended up more than doubling the amount of money that was raised and spent as compared to the gigantic obama inauguration eight years earlier. which is nuts. and honestly, the bottom line for us from the very beginning felt like, well, it may be a good idea to figure out what happened to that money. they didn't spend it on the tractor bleachers. the trump inaugural committee did start saying that they did

great in their audit, but nobody has ever seen the supposed audit. when we went looking for the audit, along the way we did manage to find the treasurer of the trump inaugural committee. his name is doug immerman. we figured there was some higher profile people associated with the inauguration, the head of the inaugural committee was dom barr ick, zillion air. deputy was rick gates who is now a felon currently awaiting sentencing. the treasurer, lower profile guy, but we figured he would know what happened to the money they raise and had spent. we tried to get hold of the treasurer to ask him questions. we never, ever, ever, ever heard back. we figured out he himself was a weird choice to be the treasurer of a presidential inaugural committee since the only other thing he has ever been famous for in his life was once being named as an unindicted conspirator in a major criminal tax evasion case involving his former employer. that was his qualification. we never found the trump inauguration audit, though.

to this day, that full and clean accounting remains a total mystery. now, however, according to a scoop tonight in "the wall street journal," there is a new and different kind of accounting going on. this is the headline tonight in the journal. quote, trump inaugural spending under criminal investigation by prosecutors. rebecca o'brien, one of the reporters behind the scoop tonight. miss o'brien, it's great to have you here. you guys have been doing great work, you've had a lot of scoops lately. >> thanks so much. thanks so much. >> we've been interested in this inaugural funding story for a long time on this show for some of the reasons that i explained there. and there has been previous reporting, six months or so ago, about federal investigators looking into the possibility about foreign money might have gotten into trump's inaugural funds. that came up, for example, in the indictment of sam paton, one of the lower profile indictments in which he was accused of setting up an american straw

purchaser so a foreigner could actually spend a bunch of money and go to the trump inauguration. what you guys are talking about here is a federal investigation not into the money coming into the inauguration necessarily, but the spending. >> right. i think what we're looking at is beyond the role of potential foreign influence or foreign money coming into the inaugural. this investigation, to be clear, is in its very early stages as we understand it, is looking at money in and also money out. money in isn't just foreign. it's looking at who -- whether individuals or entities gave money in expectation of receiving some sort of special benefit from the administration. and the money out is looking at, you know, as you said, there's been great reporting out there about the murkiness of what happened to this more than $100 million that was spent on the -- ostensibly on the -- >> ostensibly. >> right, we don't know. that's the big trick. the tax returns say they spent it on this, they don't say that much. but it's trying to get to the bottom of that. there's a lot of qualifiers

there. >> on the issue of spending money, donating money to the inauguration with the expectation that you'll be treated favorably by the government in some policy context in terms of some type of favor, that's the open secret about inaugural donations anyway. most people don't give to an inauguration out of the goodness of their heart. most people do that, rich people, corporations, because they want to curry some abstract favor. your investigation is looking at acute allegations of real quid pro quo that they believe that there were favors traded by the government in exchange for donations. >> i'm not sure about that. to be sure, there is certainly -- money in politics, democrats do it, republicans do it -- this office and other federal prosecutors and state prosecutors look into this stuff all the time. sometimes they don't turn up anything. it's hard to make cases for money in politics for reasons we discussed. it's all over the place. >> you said this is a new

investigation by the southern district of new york. >> not new early stages -- it's my understanding receiving different evidence from different places and maybe it's all starting to coalesce into something that will look like a investigation. >> some of the evidence you describe in your piece tonight is very intriguing. i'm just going to read to you from your own reporting. in april raids of michael cohen's home office and hotel room, they obtained a recorded conversation between mr. cohen and stephanie winston wolkoff, a former advisor to the first lady who worked on inaugural events. ms. wolkoff expressed concern about how the inaugural committee was spending money. this is according to a person familiar with the cohen investigation. the "wall street journal" could not determine when the conversation between mr. cohen and ms. wolkoff took place or why it was recorded. so that, at least that piece of the evidence seems like it's sort of adjacent to the cohen prosecution. that might explain some of the timing as cohen has moved on to his sentencing. >> we know they seized the raids

in april, and it took time for the review to trak place so that prosecutors didn't get it for a while. this is an important, potentially piece of evidence that was taken. >> i have to also ask you as a matter of personal obsession. have you been able to get a peek at that full and clean external audit they say exists and shows they were perfectly squeaky clean in >> i think the story would be longer if i had. >> well, they'd be completely exonerated obviously. >> time will tell. >> time will tell. thank you. rebecca o'brien, reporter for "the wall street journal." you and your colleagues at the journal have reason to take a victory lap this week. the a.m.i. reporting that you guys did at the journal was borne out in court documents today, almost as if it was "the wall street journal" story, just written by the southern district of new york. well ahead of that story and so many other angles in this scandal. congratulations. >> thanks so much. i appreciate it. >> all right. lots more to get to. stay with us. ♪ ♪

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after weeks and weeks, maybe months -- okay, let's admit, it's been years of breathless iterative reductive reporting of how much trouble nancy pelosi is in, she can't be speaker again, nancy pelosi -- there is -- nancy pelosi is on her way -- a group of rebel democrats are going to take out nancy -- after barrels of ink spilled on that story, perhaps we can please wipe that up now and acknowledge

what that was all actually about. because now, after going through that once again, we now have the unofficial, basically definitive word that, hey, nancy pelosi has the votes she needs to become speaker when the democrats take control of the house in early next year. surprise. now that she has the votes to become speaker, which honestly was never in doubt, that vote will not happen until january 3rd. in terms of who the democrats will put in charge of the house committees, which right now feels like one of the most important imaginable things in american politics, the house democratic steering committee has already made its recommendations for most of the chairs for most of the committees. but we still don't know the final date for the full caucus vote. nancy pelosi's office tells us tonight that the chairs will likely be chosen before they actually vote formally on her. in terms of the really big high profile committees and the committees that might have a really big role to play when it comes to the various scandals swirling around this president, we are, of course, expecting that the house intelligence committee will be led by

congressman adam schiff of california and financial services committee, it will be congresswoman maxine waters who drives the president absolutely crazy. and on judiciary, which is important for a whole slew of reasons, the incoming chair of judiciary is our next guest. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪

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sergeant baker, how are you? they were on it. it was unbelievable. having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa- now that's a privilege. we're the baker's and we're usaa members for life. usaa. get your insurance quote today. we're joined in studio now by congressman jerry nadler of new york. he is the top democrat and will be the incoming chairman on the judiciary committee in the house. sir, thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> there are a whole bunch of things i want to talk to you about, but i want to talk to you about breaking news we just received. you've seen the headlines since it broke. can we put this up on the screen? this was just posted. 7-year-old girl of guatemala died of dehydration and shock after taken into border patrol custody last week for crossing

from mexico into the united states along a remote span of the new mexico desert. according to customs ask border patrol records, the girl and her father were taken into custody about 10:00 p.m., december 6, south of lords burg, new mexico. eight hours later the child began having seizures. 6:25 a.m., they measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees. according to customs and border patrol, she had not eaten or consumed water for several days. this is an announcement tonight from customs and border patrol. i just have to get your reaction to this tonight, sir. >> my reaction is obviously outrage. number one, you know, in particular, why are we learning about this now from the washington post? number two, how can you run a detention facility and not take a look at the kids who you know have been walking across a desert and how they're doing, give them water when they come in? this is part of the absolute insensitivity to migrants, to

people seeking asylum on the part of this administration. we're going to have secretary nielsen before the judiciary committee next thursday. we are certainly going to ask her about this. what measures are taken to make sure when people arrive in custody they're not about to die, especially the children? when you take 7-year-olds who you know have been walking across the border -- across a desert, you don't check them, you don't take their temperature, give them water to drink? for eight hours? >> there is obviously an issue across multiple policies, multiple policy areas in this administration, just increased hostility toward immigrants of all kinds and in all sorts of circumstances. in this case, that would seem to hit a nexus with the sheer issue of competence. once you have taken somebody into u.s. federal government custody for any reason in any circumstances, those people become the responsibility of the u.s. federal government. >> it's more than competence. it's total disregard. you don't give a dam, that's what this shows. >> you said secretary nielsen will be called to answer for

this. when the democrats take control of the house soon and you, as expected, become chair of the judiciary committee, obviously you have all sorts of leverage that you never had before. but with the senate still under republican control, with the administration still under control of the republican white house, how do you strategize how to be most effective especially on an acute accountability issue like this when you may not have any sympathy across the aisle? >> well, there are a number of things you can do. you can subpoena the secretary. you can demand answers to questions, condition appropriations on proper conduct on proper policies on just getting information. there are all kinds of things you can do. it takes two houses to pass an appropriation. >> uh-huh. >> there are also things you can do. and we're going to have to -- in our committee, the judiciary committee, in the house generally, do two things. we have to hold this

administration accountable. we have to -- which the republicans in congress have absolutely refused to do. and at the same time, we have to pass legislation to do the things we promised we would do, to lower health care costs, to put people -- to raise people's paychex by an infrastructure bill. all sorts of things we promised, voting rights, you name it. and we can do more than one thing at a time. >> when you say -- you mentioned the issue of appropriations needed to get through both houses. do you think on the issue of the treatment of immigrants, especially, again, with this breaking news tonight about a 7-year-old girl dying of dehydration and exhaustion in u.s. federal custody, border patrol custody, do you think that there is an appropriations fix that there is a way to deny funding to the administration for some of the policies they have pursued that have been the most dangerous or egregious in your eyes? >> i'm not an expert on that, but i think there are. there are ways of using appropriations and denying funds to various things, or

conditioning funds and putting mandates into appropriations bills, yes. >> i want to ask you about some of the things that have happened within the past week. it's been almost every day there's been an almost unimaginable new reveal in terms of the scandals that are attending this president and the legal trouble that he and his administration and maybe even some of his business associates may be in. today maria butina pled guilty to being -- to conspiracy to act as an agent of the russian government in this country. and one of the things that struck me in terms of the prosecutors' assertions in her case is about the n.r.a. there have been questions raised as to whether or not the n.r.a. illegally coordinated with the trump campaign in its spending during the campaign. there have been questions raised as to whether the n.r.a. might have been used as a funnel for foreign money into the campaign in 2016. butina also describes a meeting where she brought n.r.a. officials to moscow in december

of 2015, had them meet with russian government officials, and then this is quoting from court documents today. after their visit, butina sent a russian government official in russian translated as saying, we should let them express their gratitude now. we will put pressure on them quietly later. given the role of the n.r.a. in u.s. politics, if senior n.r.a. officials participated in this kind of russian influence operation, is that itself a matter of national security concern, separate and apart from any kind of influence they might have had in the election? >> i don't know about national security. it certainly -- it could be national security, but it also could be obstruction of justice. >> uh-huh. >> it's part of a larger pattern, a total culture of corruption. we now know that the trump campaign was involved in all sorts of illegal actions. we know about michael cohen's actions. the a.m.i., all these different things. and this all has to be

investigated by the special counsel, by the congress as part of our oversight responsibility. and the central question comes back to what they asked in watergate, what did the president know, when did he know it. >> uh-huh. >> there is a pattern here of the president being surrounded by crooks, by crooks, by people who are now convicted or pleading guilty, an extraordinary number of people around him have admitted to crimes. that raises all sorts of questions which we have to get to the bottom of on behalf of the american people. at the same time that we're delivering results for the american people on the substantive issues that they want, whether it's health care or the economy, et cetera. >> if the president himself is implicated as prosecutors have suggested in the felonies to which michael cohen has pled and for which he'll now go to prison, is that something that you believe the congress would take up on its face, that you would take the information that has been presented by prosecutors and pursue it in terms of congressional

investigation? >> well, at some point. we have to wait, to a large extent, to see what the mueller investigation reveals. what's very clear is that the mueller investigation knows more than we do. but we will use our subpoena power to find out a lot of things, too. we don't want to step out on them, but we will find out a lot of things. at some point we have to make decisions, but that's down the road. >> congressman jerry nadler of new york, top democrat and incoming chairman on the judiciary committee in the house. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. you better be 'cause it's red lobster's new create your own ultimate feast event! pick 4 of 10 favorites to create the ultimate feast you've been dreaming of. will you choose creamy lobster mac & cheese, tender, wild-caught snow crab... crispy jumbo coconut shrimp, hey, we never said choosing was easy... just delicious. so hurry in to create your own ultimate feast before it's gone. and be the party hero. get ten percent off when you order red lobster to go.

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tomorrow will be the opening of yet another little compartment. what is turning out to be the worst advent calendar ever in u.s. politics. tomorrow is going to be another one. lawyers for former national security advisor mike flynn told a judge this week that flynn should get zero jail time despite the fact that he pled guilty to lying to the fbi. they're saying he should get zero jail time in part because of his extensive cooperation with the special counsel's office. but they also say that general flynn, you know, he wasn't warned by fbi agents ahead of them interviewing him. he wasn't warned that if he lied to them there would be severe penalties associated with that. they're implying he was basically ambushed by fbi agents who he thought were nice guys. it was sort of a gambit from flynn's defense team. well, tomorrow, if robert mueller's team wants to respond to any of that or contest any of

that, the deadline for them to do so is 3:00 p.m. eastern. we expect that that filing would be public. the judge in this case has also set a deadline of 3:00 tomorrow for both sides to turnover records related to the fbi interview of flynn. we don't expect that those ones will be public facing, but as with an advent calendar, behind every little calendar entry, there's sometimes a surprise. you never know. stay with us. ♪ voice-command navigation with waze wifi

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thank you for being with us tonight. as i mentioned just before the

break, we do expect that tomorrow is going to be another doozie. i'll see you tomorrow night. it's time for the last word with lawrence tonight the president's private business. his presidential campaign, his transition team, his white house and now his inaugural committee all to varying degrees under criminal investigation. wall street journal reporting an investigation into trump's inaugural committee in its raids of michael cohen's home, office and hotel room. quote, federal bureau and investigative agents obtained conversations between mr. cohen and stephanie winston, a former advisor to melania trump who worked on the events. in the recording she expressed