>> announcer: sponsored by american express. helping you turn your business ideas into reality with flexible funding solutions. of helping you. business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. this is "up." i'm david gura. new developments in the russia investigation this morning. robert mueller saying michael flynn should have known better than to lie to investigators. meanwhile, michael cohen saying nothing happened without donald trump's say so. >> he directed me to make the payments, directed me to become involved in these matters. plus a judge strikes down the affordable care act and the president heralding what he

calls great news. >> save americans from this imploding obamacare disaster. >> the last man standing is mick mulvaney. the acting chief of staff at the white house. and one wonders if this came up in his job interview. >> yes, i've supported donald trump. doing so as enthusiastic as i can even though i think he's a terrible human being. >> you have a best friend? >> yes, sir. >> is he smarter than you. >> yes, sir. >> would you trust him with your life? >> yes, sir. >> that's your chief of staff. >> well, it's saturday december 15th. as the walls seem to be closing in on the president, the vice president is trying to lay low. >> hmm. president pence. the pence administration. the michael pence presidential library and casino. >> we want to do -- >> nobody even notices.

>> with me this hour, pete dominick, host of stand-up on sirius xm. chuck rosenberg is here. rena shaw republican strategist and glen kushner was a federal prosecutor and both are msnbc contributors now. and a convicted felon, michael cohen. and trying to speak out trying to poke holes in the president's defense. simply put, implicating the president in possible campaign violations telling abc news his former boss knew about payments made to karen mcdougal and stormy daniels and that he directed them. >> -- the trump organization was ever done, nothing, unless it was run through mr. trump. he directed me to make the payments. he directed me to become involved in these matters. >> president trump says he never told michael cohen to break the law. that is a change of tact. previously the president claimed he knew nothing about the payments. >> what he did was all unrelated to me, except for the two

campaign finance charges. they put those two charges on to embarrass me. they're not criminal charges. >> compounding this, nbc news reporting candidate trump was in the room when michael cohen and david picker who oversaw the national enquirer agreed on a plan to silence affairs with donald trump. despite the fact he's going to prison for three years, michael cohen is still willing to talk. >> if they want me, i'm here. and i'm willing to answer whatever additional questions they may have for me, but i will spend the rest of my life in order to fix the mistake that i made. >> glen kushner, start with you. we heard headline saying everything was at the direction of mr. trump as he put it. you live to that interview. look at the transcripts from the court proceedings when the sentencing took place. how important is michael cohen saying that? what does it mean going forward? >> the evidence continues to mount, and it really does show, i would suggest, beyond a

reasonable doubt, that president trump not only committed campaign finance felonies, but he committed another crime over and above that, and that is a conspiracy to violate the campaign finance laws. why? because he didn't do it alone. he did it together with others. it wasn't illegal agreement they entered into to help trump gain unfair advantage in the 2016 presidential election. his co-conspirators are michael cohen, david picker potentially alan wisenberg, chief financial officer for the trump organization. not to mention, inconsistent statements by a defendant are evidentiary gold. when trump says, i nerve her an affair with that woman or if i did, i didn't make any payments, or if we did make payments, it was my lawyer who made the payments, but they were civil. they weren't criminal -- you can walk in and present all of that to a jury. whether the jury ends up 12 people in a jury box or the american people judging an

impeachment hearing, you can present all of that to the jury and i think a first-year law grad would win a conviction without breaking a sweat. >> stick with lawyers for a moment. chuck, turn to you. glen's using the word conspiracy and some say trepedatiously, don't use that word yet. are you comfortable using that in light of what you've seen here? again, in the filings and transcripts in that interwith abc news? >> they give you a lawyer answer, david. if you agree with somebody to do something illegal, that's a conspiracy. that's specifically what michael cohen said happened. he coordinated with and was directed by the president of united states. i actually don't know what else to call it. here the thing. you still need to prove that the president intentionally violated the law. that's the hardest part for prosecutors. some of the stuff glen talked about, the changing stories. right? critical evidence, but, yeah. it sounds, smells, seems like a conspiracy. >> quacks like a duck it is a duck. >> if the jury is the republican

senate, then the question becomes, will they impeach him? because the house, we can debate, talk about, but it's led by democrats now. nancy pelosi. but if it's republican senators, if it comes to impeachment, will there be enough? two-thirds? right? the question was, some would answer this week, if it's just what we know now, we heard a bunch of republicans in congress saying i don't care and the american people don't necessarily at least trump supporters don't care about these types of financial -- fec crimes. argues about my dad. that's a crime? why should that be a crime? he doesn't like trump but a lot of people will be party to that discussion. i think really that's the most important point. what would these republican senators do? we're just, you would tell us, just the beginning. these are the appetizers from the prosecution. >> and play a bit of sound. chairman of the committee chuck grassley responding to what we heard. >> i get back to the fact that cohen's a liar.

so i can't draw any other conclusions and i don't draw very many conclusions when somebody lies to congress. >> chuck, you want in here i know. >> cohen is a liar. a convicted liar and admitted liar, but prosecutors don't build cases on one liar's testimony. there's a thing called corroboration and there seems to be quite a bit. glen mentioned mr. weisselberg and mr. picker. lord knows who else might be in the room when they were discussing. >> tapes. >> might be tapes, probably e-mails. likely documents and probably people that these people talked to, and good prosecutors can always figure a way to get that stuff into evidence. you don't build a case on one person. you build it on many people and many pieces of corroborative evidence. that's how we do it. >> turn to you and ask how things changed politically. pete talking about the appetite among republicans in congress to deal with this, but this was a spectacle in the federal courthouse in manhattan.

michael cohen closing this chapter. heading up to prison if he gets his way. what changed politically as a result of this as you see it? >> down in washington, d.c. not much changed. >> no? >> really. a deal of he said/he said. this guy is a serial liar. goes back to the campaign, all the polls show mr. trump, right, winning, and so he is just somebody i think is seen as somebody not credible and senators and congressmen and women alike are saying, this is fine. put a pin in it. it's over. but this doesn't really move the needle in terms of getting the president. getting the president. >> a question to commit for conversation. we're talking right now about a crime. al. >> explain this to us but the crime is paying a woman, in this case an actress to be quiet. that's it. this is the crime? this is what they've got him on? that's what we're hearing. that right now, i think is

convincing -- that has a lot -- >> to the american people, too inside baseball. they don't view that as a crime. >> a lot more is coming. >> but it's paying a woman to get unfair advantage in a presidential election. that's depriving the american people of the full value of their vote. that's why us pinhead lawyers, sorry, chuck, us prosecutors. >> thank you, prosecutors. >> you know, we look at this and we think this is really consequential. all due respect, not a he said/he said it's a they said it together on a tape. >> want to ask about what you brought up. rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer, this is a small thing. >> he's doing a great job. >> one end of the spectrum and op-eds by george conway and neil and treasure, election lawyers saying, this is hugely consequential, because it could have impacted the turnout, result of the election in 2016. why isn't that more resident with folks? >> we principled conservatives

tried and we got the never trump movement telling us we're dead. not true. great arguments that get to the root of the problem. they are on a tape essentially conspiring. it all goes back to the political will to get this man and republicans don't have it i fear they won't have it for a while, because even evangelicals overwhelmingly gave their vote to an admitted adulterer, on his third marriage and they are fine with him. him paying off an adult film star? >> accused of sexually assaulting numerous women but they're talking about crimes. what we should be talking about. legal experts -- americans talk about feelings. i don't think it should be a crime or how bad is it? orrin hatch, a senator, just retired said basically i don't care. it was a long time ago. obviously they didn't treat clinton that way, but consistent -- >> he walked it back. i want to say senator hatch walked back his comments. >> who cares? walk back his whole career. >> and the argument made here by the president and his lawyers

is, this isn't his fault. he entrusted his legal strategy to michael cohen. michael cohen made the mistakes. why should he be responsible? in other words, don't blame me. blame the lawyer. how much salience does that have when you look at the legal side of things? >> we hear that quite often. if that's his defense i say give it a shot. advice of counsel detense. problems with it, one, glen pointed out the story keeping changing. first time out of the box said, whoa. hold on. this is what my lawyer told me to do, that might ring true, but what he actually said was, i have no idea what you're talking about. this never happened. nothing to see here. second thing, an important distinction, david, between it's only a civil infraction or as glen and i would say it's a crime. >> yeah. >> think about taxes. if you make a mistake on your taxes, that's not a crime. okay? that's a mistake. you might owe money. you might be audited, have to pay a fine, but that's handled civilly. if for seven years running,

okay, you hide foreign bank accounts, omit income, you do a whole bunch of things we would say are intentional indicia of tax fraud, that's a crime. it's the same thing here. mistakes are not crimes. this doesn't seem like a mistake. after several attempts to repeal a law, obamacare is imperilled. news breaking overnight. how a late-night ruling could affect health care for millions of americans. the in-laws have moved in with us. and, our adult children are here.

so, we save by using tide. which means we use less. three generations of clothes cleaned in one wash. those are moms. anybody seen my pants? nothing cleans better. put those on dad! it's got to be tide. so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. duo clean technology, corded and cord-free. i'm ray and i quit smoking with chantix. and fearlessly devours piles. smoking. it dictates your day. i didn't like something having control over me. i wanted to stop. the thing is i didn't know how. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke to the point that i could quit. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix.

serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or allergic and skin reactions which can be life-threatening. stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. tell your healthcare provider if you've had depression or other mental health problems. decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. use caution when driving or operating machinery. the most common side effect is nausea. for me chantix worked.boom. end of story.

overnight a federal judge in texas declared the affordable care act unconstitutional. president trump responded quickly demanding on twitter mitch and nancy pass a new law in a longer statement white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders notes obamacare will stay in play for the time being. the judge based it on the individual mandate. back in 2012 the u.s. supreme court upheld the affordable care act because of the tax penalty linked to the law, but congress removed that part of the law last year. up early with us this morning from minneapolis, andy slashit for medicare and medicaid under president obama and joining us vice chair christine quinn. a lot of people waking up to what this means. help us understand the ramification of this judge's decision yesterday.

>> one judge in texas, david, doesn't have the ability to overturn this law. so i think we should make sure that everybody understands if you are enrolling in the coverage it will absolutely be good. even the trump administration has said this. it is a very factually specious decision with a long way to go through a lot of process. if this law were allowed to stand it would have a horrendous impact on the american public, if this rule wg allowed to stand. the uninsured rate for double. seniors would see a $2,000 increase in their drug cost. this touches every element of the aca including the doughnut hole. medicaid expansion overturned. kids under 26 kicked off their parents' plan. it has a long way to go. politically motivated and people should take a deep breath. not worry. and let this thing play through the courts where it's very, very likely to get overturned. >> andy, look at this law hole

linkly. i mentioned congress stripped the individual mandate from it. when you look now how reduced is the law because of that? how much did it change the way the law works? >> well, look, the good news is that this law, fundamental premise of the law which is to essentially tell people that if you have a pre-existing condition or if you were going to reach the lifetime limit that insurance companies can't discriminate against you. all that still holds. so the law fundamentally has, many of the most important pieces you'll see i think 15 million people that have insured through medicaid expansion will still have that. the prescription drug discount for seniors, the so-called doughnut hole is still there. changed is modest and it's important everybody knows that the law is still there to serve people, but we're going to have a political fight. i think we saw in the midterms that the american public said strongly that those protections were important to them. and i think as you saw from --

you mentioned, david, from trump's tweet this morning, from yesterday, he is taking that on. he is going to make this a 2019 and 2020 issue with the american public. >> christine quinn, turn to you. to that point. the political fight we're looking towards here. nancy pelosi presumptive house speaker weighs in with a statement saying tonight's district court ruling exposes the monstrous game all-out assault on americans access to affordable health care. how do you see this playing out? the last conversation was about things happening on twin tracks, legal side, political things. here is another issue dealing with health care. the same thing will happen. >> i think speaker pelosi is right. this really shows that the republicans never wanted to tweak or tinker or repeal and replace. they want to kill obamacare. now, that said, i totally agree that this court ruling shouldn't give people, you know, panic. it's got to make its way through the process. the supreme court has reaffirmed

the affordable care act. this judge that this case went before is known to have conservative cases sent to him purposely in texas, because he is a quote/unquote activist judge who will rule in a very aggressive way. >> with native american issues, transgender issues. a long list. >> a long list. a clear record. that's why this case went there, but i think whatever ruling there is, in any court, and if it gets to the supreme court and is upheld again, as long as donald trump is president and as long as the republicans control the senate, this will continue to be a political battle and it's going to be like aca whack a mole and keep coming up. >> we shouldn't talk about the politics. it's craven. this is people's health care. these are people's children. but if they win, you don't give the american people a benefit, access to health insurance,

social security, and the then take it away. won't be seen as a liberal or conservative thing. seen as, my health care is gone when the president is up for re-election if he makes it that far. it will definitely help democrats if republicans take -- >> it did. >> -- and it has. if they allow preying on people with pre-conditions. it's a fact. >> that's true. >> and to mitch and nancy, sent another tweet to chuck and nancy turned out for the president of the united states, but here is the president again tossing the ball over to the capitol saying figure this out. in other words, i'll wreak this havoc p havoc. you need to figure it out. >> not only is this republican president terrible at governing i don't think he understands the strategy. this is terrible for him. states like my home state of west virginia i love to talk about where people love obamacare and understand how good it is for them to to have some degree, some level of

insurance. >> they like insurance. >> they like being healthy. >> i have a college aged sister. what happens to her? people under 26? there are people who come off from c.h.i.p. it's a mess. republicans who campaign, moderate ones, pre-existing conditions, save those. i was on the hill exactly a decade ago when the affordable care act passed and worried about it. at some point i said the political football will make its way and we will have the tension of the preexisting conditions and that's where we are right now. >> i was on first street when the decision was handed down by the supreme court and it felt we were closing that chapter and moving on. when you look at the legal course of action after this, no injunction yet from this judge, what do you see happening when you look at the legal path forward? >> bubble up the supreme court and they will handful in due course. slightly more optimistic with the supreme court notwithstanding the present composition. i think roberts will become more of the kennedyesque centrist figure and i don't think

kavanaugh for all of his significant flaws i don't think will be the judicial monster people suspect but we have to wait and see. i am not a health care policy expert but i will see when i hear things like health care policy, monsstress end game. first thing of thought of, not mixing apples and oranges. the 7-year-old girl comes across the border with i believe her father. within eight hours, he's in the united states custody and she's dead. health care for her would have been a bottle of water and some children's tylenol. we down even couldn't even do t >> and texas, where this suit is, the suit brought, where this judge is. texas has the highest rate of uninsured americans in the country. one of many that haven't taken the medicaid expansion. the federal government will pay for their health insurance. so many viewers watch this show and my show desperate to get access to the medicaid expansion and everything it offers and they're the ones that brought

the suit. >> a layup for the incoming house. looking really good. i just don't know that the white house and the senate will figure it out. i'm leaving it to democrats to come up with a compromise, some solution. because where we're at is particularly ugly and no good. the republicans should have that will as well to try to fix this. it's going to make their re-elects terrible. >> and the ball a passed again. >> i don't want to forget, kind of building on what you said is, at the end of the day we all talked where we think it will end up and it's bad politics. you have the president tweeting basically that the affordable care act is dead and in just moments you're going to have no coverage at all. >> creating panic, and it's mean-spirited. it's twisting the emotions and the -- stability of americans -- for maybe even not political gains just fun on twitter. we can't forget that. >> and it's like the grinch that stole your health insurance. he's in the white house every day. >> the truth, the signup

deadline is today. it's yesterday's legal decision. the truth is overshadowed once again by our president. i find that so disappointed. >> thank you so much for the time. appreciate you good etting up ear -- getting up in minneapolis. how donald trump was polling his holiday party guests on his latest pick for the chief of staff position. that is straight ahead. (music throughout)

our because of smoking.ital. but we still had to have a cigarette. had to. but then, we were like. what are we doing? the nicodermcq patch helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. nicodermcq. you know why, we know how. let's do the thing that you do. let's clear a path. let's put down roots. let's build something. let's do the thing that you do. let's do the thing that changes the shape of everything... that pushes us forward and keeps us going. let's do the work.

welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. president trump's search for a new chief is staff is over for now. picking mick mulvaney to be acting chief of staff. his third chief of staff in two years following john kelly and reince priebus. he personally requested to be acting just in case he wants to bail from the job. he will continue to be director of the office of management and budget. according to our reporting chemistry is one reason president trump picked mick mulvaney for this job. let bygones be bygones after this memorable comment from before the election. >> yes, i supported donald trump. i did so as enthusiastically as i can even though i think he's a terrible human being but the choice on the other side is just

as bad. >> pete, christine, rena and glen are back with me. a lot of people didn't want the job. one line from the "new york times." trump grew deeply frustrated at rejections and media reporting no one of high stature wanted to be his chief of staff and decide suddenly to tap mulvaney for this job. played out in a familiar fashion. little by little you see people drop out. my family doesn't want knme to this and in the end we end um with mick mulvaney. >> imagine you give your resume to a guy. says you took a job as chief of staff in the white house in december of 2018. wasn't that when the house was on fire? like, why did you take that job then? people -- this is -- my understanding. i'm not a d.c. person. one of the most coveted jobs you could ever have. especially if you have aspirations in politics and look

back at the list of people that have it. obviously it is. in normal times everyone would want this jobs. right now even fox news pundits wouldn't take this job. who is taking this job? not chris christie. mick mulvaney. the president probably didn't know about that video. i'm guessing. bet he didn't know. mick is not the best guy in the world. could go off on him for the next ten minutes. i'd need another doughnut. >> mick mulvaney told the president he was right for this job because he was the only person in the administration leading the department that is not mired in scandal. mick mulvaney, head of the mob, doing double duty almost a year. heading up consumer financial protection bureau as well is just -- he would say he's a fickle e e fickly -- fiscally minded congressman who found his way into the room. what do you think about his

ability to do the job? >> back to him doing double duty again. sarah sanders said he'll have a handover despite his deputy running the day-to-day. i don't like it. he's a loyal conservative. put it that way. people on the hill are super excited. a friend in the white house but don't understand what's coming. it's a messy job. janitorial duty. clean up on aisle 6, mick is there. that guy always thrust into cleanup duties but again somebody non-controversial, a loyal conservative, somebody who came up from the house. >> on the left controversial. >> on the left, of course. >> he is not actually fiscally conservative. what he did at omb, debt went off, he looked the other way. >> give you that much. look at politics here. republicans are worried worried on the hill, worried by the day this president is digging himself in a hole. many have known it a long time, but mick is somebody, again a potential savior. one of us going in to rein nhim

in. bring him back to policy discussions. a military guy couldn't do it. >> who turned down the job? jerome corsi? a hall of villains. >> and this idea mulvaney will rein them in -- >> yeah. no. >> a four-star general couldn't rein the guy in! >> nobody knows he's not reining him in. >> it's ridiculous. >> a best friend. >> the guy that's going to be the yes man. >> mulvaney is your fall guy. the guy going on television. >> he doesn't realize that. >> he doesn't realize it. >> doesn't know it, obviously. >> he knows. why he demanded they say acting's he knows the house is on fire. >> if theoretically he does it just for argument's sake he's going to know in a hot second. based on his record, he's going to do it! he's a loyal conservative. he's going to do it. >> where i want to go flex to you, glen. loyalty is another issue. "washington post" writing in a private dinner mick mulvane e!

to -- mulvane y he wanted to be chief of staff and told ivanka trump and jared kushner of this. >> i guess when you pledge loyalty on tv or otherwise, you catch the president's attention. that's how we ended up with this horrific pick as an acting attorney general, whitaker. hopefully he will soon be on his way, and we'll have an attorney general, attorney general barr. barr has to be better than whitaker. face it, he was confirmed unanimously back in the day and the reporting was his confirmation hearings were "ushl nuerly placid." more hope for barr than whitaker. >> talk about loyalty. you don't pledge loyalty toy a persa -- to a person -- pileggi loyalty? we do that in america to a person? >> trump does it and

consciousness of guilt is what it is. in my opinion. he wants everybody around here not to be loyal in a political sense, but to cover up his misconduct. why he needs loyalty. >> isn't your loyalty to the constitution of the united states? >> i took the oath once as an army soldier and once as a federal prosecutor. faithfully executing the laws and why i'm so disheartened the politicians in congress will not take that oath seriously and stand up to this president. >> we'll leave it there and come right back. turning to the crisis on the border. growing outrage surrounding what pete mentioned a moment ago. the death of a 7-year-old qu guatemalan girl. the girl and her father willfully turned themselves in after illegally crossing the border. the child was vomiting, severely dehydrated and waited 90 minutes for emergency medical care only rushed to the hospital after she stopped breathing. she later died of cardiac

arrest. dhs secretary kristen nielsen is under fire for saying this is one of the many risks associated with crossing the border. >> this is just a very sad example of the dangers of this journey. this family chose to cross illegally. what happened here was, they were about 90 miles ay away wh we could process them. >> many are interpreting this as blaming the girl's family for her death. when we come back, why ivanka trump may be at the center of an argument. early reporting days for this one. you don't want to miss that.

♪ the new capital one savor card. earn 4% cash back on dining and 4% on entertainment. now when you go out, you cash in. what's in your wallet?

whenshe was pregnant,ter failed, in-laws were coming, a little bit of water, it really- it rocked our world. i had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. we called usaa. and they greeted me as they always do. 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. so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look,

and fearlessly devours piles. duo clean technology, corded and cord-free.

from this day forward, it's going to be only america first. america first. welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. president trump at his inauguration vowing to put america first. now congressman adam schiff, incoming chair of the house intelligence committee says his panel plans to investigate possible illicit foreign funding or involvement in the inauguration of president trump. comes on the heels of a report in the "wall street journal" saying federal prosecutors are already investigating whether the inaugural committee misspent funds and foreigners illegally funneled donations to president trump's inaugural committee in hopes of buying influence over american policy.

specifically people from middle eastern nations including qatar, saudi arabia and the emirates. raised a record amount of money. look how that all compares to what his predecessors brought in the for their inaugurations. george w. bush raced $40 million then $42. barack obama a record $53 million and $43 million and donald trump shaltered that record, raising $107 million. almost double. a huge question investigators are trying to answer is where did that money go? which made me think of an interview i did back when i was at bloomberg with businessman tom barrack who headed up trump's inaugural committee. >> my advisory role now is napkins and plates and galas. i'm the senior party planner. he took all the brilliant people and put them in great positions and i'm the concierge and event planner. >> somebody mentioned in the reporting by the "wall street

journal" and the "new york times." nap kikins and plates, republia paid them for rooms, meals, event space at the company's washington hotel. according to interviews and internal e-mails and receipts reviewed by propublica in washington, d.c. start with you, christine. incredible sum of money. $107 million. larger than any of the previous presidents. >> all of those people who came. >> all of those people, filled up the -- >> they needed support. >> so much still unaccounted for. what did you make of reading these stories? >> when you read them, it's just another trump story. right? it's the same thing again of trump using the white house and his family using the white house for their own financial gain. tragically, none of it surprises me at all. and then, you know, in these stories ivanka is right in the middle of it.

calling in what rates should be. people -- >> too high. reduce the room rate. >> yeah. it's clear that this -- which is what the white house is right now. this was just another pool of money, and an opportunity for them to manipulate things to get more money into their personal finances. of course it's the president's line in the sand. that's where a lot of the facts about how corrupt this administration really is are hidden and they're in there. i think this investigation is going to really yield something that shows the true underbelly of the president and his family. >> i want to turn to you because we're seeing this investigation opening up. refer to it casually as the russia probe and investigation, but now the focus seems to shift in part to the middle east, with tom barrack, knows a lot of business people in the middle east. saudi arabia certainly something front and center over the last few week woulds and months as well. your reaction to that? the way this signifies where this investigation is going. >> david, my reaction is when we're in the grand jury i was a

federal prosecutor 30 years. in the grand jury investigating one thing it is entirely usual for other criminal threads to come toll our attention and we are obliged to begin pulling on them. now, it's a little bit tricky, because the mueller investigation has a limited jurisdictional mandate what they can investigate, of course they can ask for permission from deputy attorney rod rosenstein to expand the investigation and i bet dollars to these doughnuts they have expanded the investigation and also farmed things out to other federal u.s. attorneys' offices, but bob mueller i'm quite sure cast a very wide net to determine what kind of russian dealing between trump and his organization and the russians took place in the years before he was elected president. why? because that will all inform the motive trump may have had or what the russians had on trump

when he's investigating that he couldn't help but notice if it was there, perhaps equally interesting financial dealings with whether it's saudi arabia or who knows. and he would be obliged to pull on that thread and see what kind of evidence he caught. >> interesting legal term of art there, pete. yeah. i don't know what glen just said, but, i mean a tremendous amount of sense and that's the legal analysis of this, but the truth is, we know this. you know this as a new yorker. we already no the underbelly. >> totally. >> this family has always been this corrupt. president trump would sell the statue of liberty to the saudis if it would pay for his grandkhieled future bar mitzvah. sell the wood from the oval office to heat the caves in al qaeda. he doesn't care about americans. naug grace inaugurations are always this way'sit's not controversial. the people they paid and what they expected in return and the idea they thought they would get

away with this. they've gotten away with a lot in their family and in this administration, but time is up for them, and we're going to find out who invested and what they're getting in return and we shouldn't be surprised. >> what's all that do? endanger his feelings? i don't think it matters to the american people. >> it should be a crime. >> basically a crime. >> they see it as business as usual. >> no. >> the large majority of the republican base is fine with this president taking -- >> a different points. >> because lawsuits with the monument clause, big phrases, haven't worked. yet another probe. taxpayer dollars -- >> 30% is not moving. >> yeah. >> okay. >> but there's the whole rest of america, and things that are crimes even if it doesn't matter to america are crimes and we have a system of laws, period. >> a nice theme emerging here, which are the dual tracks. legal and political. thank you christine quinn. the rest of the panel, please,

there a doughnut for the road. chuck rosenberg is back. explaining why the steele koss ykoss -- dossier is wrong and what that could mean for president trump. i switched to geico and saved hundreds. that's a win. but it's not the only reason i switched. the geico app makes it easy to manage my policy. i can pay my bill, add a new driver, or even file a claim. woo, hey now! that's a win-win. thank you! switch to geico®. it's a win-win.

if your adventure... ...keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips... ...you may have overactive bladder, or oab. ohhhh...enough already! we need to see a doctor. ask your doctor about myrbetriq® (mirabegron). it treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. it's the first and only oab treatment in its class. myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions... ...like swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or trouble breathing. if experienced, stop taking and tell your doctor right away. myrbetriq may interact with other medicines.

tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. common side effects include increased blood pressure, common cold or flu symptoms,... ...sinus irritation, dry mouth, urinary tract infection, bladder inflammation,... ...back or joint pain, constipation, dizziness, and headache. need some help managing your oab symptoms along the way? ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you, and visit myrbetriq.com to learn more.

♪ the greatest wish of all... is one that brings us together. the lincoln wish list event is here. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with $0 down, $0 due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment. only at your lincoln dealer. welcome back to "up."

it caused a stir when with buzzfeed published it almost a year ago now, the so-called steel dossier collected by a former british intelligence officer named christopher steel. the fbi just released a summary of those reports which james comey used to brief president-elect donald trump. we have gone back to the dossier to see if the dossier has affected the reporting. the dossier holds up well over time, nub of it to our knowledge, though, has been disproven. chuck, i want the start with the newest part here. that is the business ties between the trump organization and russia vis-a-vis michael cohen. this is something that was written about in the dossier itself. >> steele wrote about this two years ago. this is essentially what cohen acknowledged and admitted to. we tried to take a had look at the whole dossier, the whole

thing. i did it with sara, a naval academy of the graduate and a marine corps officer. she's a very impressive young woman. we wanted to see was this born out over time? but only by official reporting. so you say that, help us understand what you haven't been able to. so we've read a lot of reporting about trump tower. >> that doesn't mean it didn't happen, steele allegations ties between the trump campaign and russian intelligence. we see pieces of it, right? when mueller indicted the russian military intelligence officers, we saw public allegations that they, the

russians, hacked into the dnc computers and the dcc c sxurts. we see pieces from america, stone and corsi in contact with wikileaks, right? doesn't mean it's not coming. >> i know these guys have questions for you, as well. george papadopoulos is somebody who is not mentioned in that dos cray. what should we take from that? in other words, the things that happened that were not contained in the dossier. so the dossier doesn't purport to be a full story of what happened. and it's important for people to understand what steele was doing. steele was working sort of as a journalist, although he is an intelligence officer. when people tell him things, he wrote it down. if i told you that babe ruth played for the cleveland indians, you would write it down. i'd be wrong. i'd be wrong. center but i'd have it written down. >> but you'd have it written

down accurately. that's what steele was doing. that's what people need to understand. >> first of all, what do you make of his integrity? it's been so damaged in the public domain, christopher steele. >> i don't know the man, but by all account, he's writing down what people tell him. >> did michael cohen go to prague? let's get the tape. are we not going to discuss this? that was from the dossier, right? >> it was from the dossier, pete. let me be difficult for a moment. >> go ahead. i'm used to it. >> here is the problem. people focused on the things that were the most salacious, the most sort of -- give me another word. >> scandalous? horrible? unbecoming of a president? tell me when to.stop. >> no, no, you got it. >> but that's not what the dossier was about. in the main, the dossier was about russian intelligence operations directed against the united states. and in the main, that is being born out by publicly filed documents. that's what matters. >> cohen to prague?

don't know. >> don't know. >> outside of the zen, check, so we hear the critics sometimes dialed up to volume 11 talking about how the steele dossier formed the basis for any fisa warrants, any surveillance warrants issued by the judge. what's your take on that based on everything you've reviewed? >> well, and you know this better than me, glenn. in order to get a warrant from a fisa court, you only need problem ble cause and that's reasonably easy for a good prosecutor to get. the steele dossier formed part of the basis for that warrant, not all of it. i guess my legal answer is so what? as long as it was credible, as long a federal judge reviewed it and signed off on it, what more do you need? so information above what was contained in the dossier that the judge relied on to grand the warrant. >> absolutely. >> i want to point out what chuck has written here again with sara grant as a living

document, you write at the end here, surely there's more to come from mueller's team. we will return to it as the public record developments. my thanks to chuck, to pete dominic. coming up, how did michael cohenen go from lying on behalf of the president to selling him out and why willing investigators believe him now? plus, the west tearing apart, a botched brexit plan and mechanic first.

having moderate to severe plaque psoriasis is not always easy. it's a long-distance journey, and you have the determination to keep going. humira has a proven track record of being prescribed for over 10 years. humira works inside the body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to symptoms. most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance in just 4 months. and the kind of clearance that can last. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal, infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores.

don't start humira if you have an infection. join over 250,000 patients who have chosen humira. ask about the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists. humira... and go. opportunity is everywhere. like here. where you can explore the world knowing you can always find your way home. ♪

michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison this week, but that did not the president's former fixer from speaking out and mow h -- now his cooperation could be a game changer. president trump says he never directed michael gocohen to do anything wrong. in october 2016, donald trump's campaign was hit with an october surprise. >> i've got to use some tic tacs just in case i start kissing her. you know, i'm automatically attracted to beautiful. i just start kissing they will. it's like a magnet. i don't even wait. >> two days after