for doing that. whether or not the fed bows to that criticism, which would be a remarkable departure for policy from an independent federal reserve is yet to be and. we'll know that in 24 hours. the fed doesn't raise interest rates, you can probably see another strong day on the markets. anyway, that wraps it up for me. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. eastern with stephanie and then again at 3:00 p.m. eastern. thank you for watching. "deadline white house with nicolle wallace" starts now. hi, everyone, it's 4:00 in new york. a federal judge today blasted donald trump's former national security adviser and accused him of selling out his country. the judge's rebuke was accompanied by a stern warning, that flynn could face jail time for his crime which the judge described as a very serious offense that disgusted him. the judge, emmitt sullivan, providing the latest dramatic and unexpected twist in the curious case of mike flynn, a three-star general turned cooperating witness in the mueller probe, after pleading guilty to lying to the fbi. the judge clearly piqued by

flynn's lawyers who had taken the position in their sentencing memo last week hat flynn had ln tricked into lying to the fbi. the judge forcing flynn to respond to pointed questions about whether he lied to the fbi, and whether he'd known at the time that it was wrong to do so. flynn's lawyer's introduction of what amounted to a conspiracy theory backfired spectacularly, but it likely cheered the president who tweeted this this morning. "good luck today in court to general michael flynn. will be interesting to see what he has to say. despite tremendous pressure being put on him about russian collusion in our great and obviously highly successful political campaign. there was no collusion." we're awaiting a presidential response to today's fireworks and flynn's refusal to go along with the jeanine pirro-approved conspiracy theory about the fbi. for now, flynn will continue to cooperate with all ongoing federal investigations while he awaits sentencing in 90 days. here to take b us through yet another dramatic and wild day of

developments in the mueller investigation, some of our favorite reporters and friends. former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence, frank figliuzzi. former u.s. attorney joyce vance. with us at the table, robert costa, "washington post" national political reporter and moderator of "washington week." karine jean pierre, senior advise tore moveon.org. donny deutsch is in the house. jonathan lemire, "associated press" white house reporter. let me start with you, frank figliuzzi, what did you make of this judge having none of the flynn conspiracy theories and really making abundantly clear that lying to the fbi is something that someone with flynn's background should certainly have known better than to do? >> so this is more about what we don't know, nicolle, than what we do know and by that, i mean there's -- there's information under that redacted fbi fd302 that we've all tried to read that the judge is privy to that

we're not. my instinct is telling me that the judge is thinking there's more room for cooperation here, and when we combines that with the attitude he saw in flynn's last-minute filing late night, he's thinking there's more to this and he wants to send a message here and preserve additional cooperation and what he's done here, he's really created a bad day for flynn, but it's not the greatest day, either, for bob mueller. they thought they had this arran arranged, and now there's a twist. so we need to say, see how this plays out. we need to also think about people that coming down the road like jerome corsi, roger stone, how are they perceiving today's proceedings? does this mean they better cooperate fully and totally? or does it mean it's not worth cooperating? that remains to be seen. >> let me press you a little bit on why i think. you may have just explained it, why a bad day for mueller, is it

because their requests aren't the word of god, they're still a judge that's going to take their recommendations, but make his own decision? or is there something else that in your mind represents a stepback for mueller? >> that's precisely what i'm talking about, if you're sitting across the table from the potential cooperator, you want them to understand that cooperation is absolutely in their best interest. you never make guarantees. ever. that's drilled into you as an agent, as a prosecutor, but you do want to lay out the likely scenarios that you're going to recommend to the judge, and let's be clear here, there was substantial cooperation by flynn, and he was at the lowest end of the sentencing recommendations so his cooperation clearly helped him, but this is a wrench and this -- in the mix, and this doesn't help mueller when he sits across the table from a future cooperator. except to say, look, cohen didn't totally -- excuse me, flynn did not totally, totally cooperate, and the judge still

was upset, you need now to totally cooperate. >> frank, so many convicted felons, it's hard to keep track of all of them. joyce vance, let me come to you and read you a little bit more of what happened in court today because it was dramatic, and i'm really intrigued by what frank's saying because it suggests that mueller, again, is sort of blowing up the idea that there's any witch hunt. he's suggesting, he was more, i guess, generous to michael cohen in his sentencing procedures than the southern district of new york. he asked for less than what the judge threaten today. the judge threatening jail time for lying to the fbi. but i want to read you some more of this judge. this judge has become a fascinating new figure in this drama. the judge sullivan, "mr. flynn's briefing concerned the court because it raised issues that could affect or call into question his guilty plea. i cannot recall any incident in which the court accepted a guilty plea in which he was not guilty and i don't intend to start today. i will inform you of any false answers will get you in more

trouble. do you understand?" flynn says "your your honor." sullivan says "do you wish to challenge the circumstantial c under which you were interviewed by the fbi?" "no, your honor." joyce, explain to us. >> i'm going to be a nerdy lawyer for a minute. >> please. >> and talk about sentencing and what lawyers do at sentencing. it was clear to everyone walking in, although the judge was smart to put flynn under oath and get him to say it under oath, that flynn was not claiming that the fbi had entrapped him. if that had been the case, flynn would have never pled guilty, his lawyers would not have permitted him to plead guilty and the judge wouldn't have accepted the plea. instead, the lawyers tried a sentencing strategy and it misfired really badly, but what they wanted to do was capitalize on federal rules of sentencing, which require judges to consider a series of articulated factors in the law, and one of those is to sentence similarly situated defendants similarly to compare this defendant to others in the case. two other defendants who've been

convicted of the same conduct, lying to the fbi, have received short prison terms. so flynn's lawyers wanted to make sure he didn't go to prison. they tried a strategy to differentiate him from vander swan and papadopoulos and it backfired as we saw today in court. this was lawyering i think as opposed to conspiracy posturing which so many people have read into this. >> joyce, let's keep me in law school. i got one more for you. so the judge also said, "i have to caution you that the sentence imposed today may not be the same sentence you would get after cooperation ends. the court likes to be in a position to say there's nothing else this defendant can do to help the united states of america." do you agree with frank's assessment that that redacted document suggests there's more flynn can do to help team america for which he serves? >> absolutely. it must be that that's the redacted portion ongoing investigation, which flynn can cooperate in, and it's unusual,

nicolle, typically prosecutors don't ask that defendants be sentenced until their cooperation is complete because you want to have a little bit of a hammer over them if they take the witness stand at a trial. you want to ensure that they continue to cooperate. so along the way, it's been confusing to me why mueller wanted flynn to proceed to sentencing before everything was over, apparently the judge didn't like it much, either. >> frank figliuzzi, let me just bring the flynn story into focus for a minute because this week, the doj indicted two of flynn's business associates, it's also reported that fara violations, basically doing the work of a foreign government without properly disclosing it and registering and paying all the appropriate fees is something that mueller is aggressively pursuing and prosecuting. can you just sort of put the flynn story in its appropriate place at this moment? >> so wa we'hat we're seeing he nicolle, is what we've seen with

other associates trump surrounds himself with, this self-interest, this profit-driving, motivating factors. they're in it for money, in it for themselves. where flynn has went south in his career, what happened, why the bitterness, why the turn against national interests, that will be studied for a long time. but now these two associates are involved in doing similar activities. selling out for other countries' interests. doing far more than lobbying work, by the way. actually talking and discussing the possibility of having doj change a position in order to get a turkish cleric back out of the united states, almost in the form of some kind of rendition or movement to a third-party country. lots of investigative journalists working on what is going on here with this potential move and work with turkey, but this is beyond russia. let's have everyone understand this, everyone's focused on, well, flynn was talking to ambassador kislyak. no, flynn was open for business. his associates were open for

business. and we don't know where multiple compromises might have entered this picture, we don't know how much trump knew about this and whether those countries they're involved with matched countries that trump is involved with. and that cash flow and whyagent. this is a bad group of people who don't have our nation's interests at heart. >> this is someone donald trump thought more of than he did michael cohen, somehow seeing in his mind a distinction between michael cohen who he called a rat and mike flynn, even though he, i think, pleaded guilty thanksgiving a year ago. he's been cooperating with continue mueller longer than anyone. but donald trump constantly singling out mike flynn for praise. let's watch. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador? >> no, i it nt. >> prior to your inauguration?

>> no, i didn't. >> would you have fired him if information hadn't leaked out? >> no, i fired him because of what he said to mike pence. very simple. he was calling countries and his counterparts. so it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasn't doing it. hillary clinton lied many times to the fbi. nothing happened to her. flynn lied and they destroyed his life. i feel badly for general flynn. he lost his house. he's lost his life. and some people say he lied and some people say he didn't lie. i mean, really, it turned out maybe he didn't lie. >> you think the khashoggi defense, maybe he did, maybe he -- he lied. he stood up in court today and said he lied. you have covered the trump/flynn relationship since the beginning, since mike flynn was on the short list for v.p. i remember him being on the set of the "morning joe" set and interviewing him about some of his positions because he suddenly emerged as so close to donald trump that he was on that very short list to be vice president. who's mike flynn to donald trump? >> well, if you watch those c p

clips, you see the deeply personal way president trump speaks about general flynn and it's reflect ive of where the white house is. talking to people close to the president, rudy giuliani and he think about flynn in personal terms rather than a legal strategy. how highly unusual it is for a president to weigh in with good luck wishes on a day of a legal event like this. they think this is siege warfare run by jay sekulow and rudy giuliani and president trump. there's not a big law firm attacked. republicans on capitol hill feel isolated. they don't want to get involved at all. yet the president sit tlg ting in the oval office we're told talking about flynn, how he feels flynn is betrayed by the justice depart, how robert muler is being unfair. that's not a legal strategy which worries a lo the of neet n the president's party. >> trump hasn't answered why he told the lies to the fbi. donald trump isn't right about much. he's correct in that the national security adviser was

permitteded ed tted to have co with ruckssians. you're not allowed to lie to them about the fbi or anything else. why did he lie about kislyak? >> the biggest question mark. why it's so important the house democrats won power. house democrats say robert mueller may have redactions, we can't see everything on the pages. they're going to call up name of name to capitol hill next year to testify about what actually happened in this transition, who did general flynn speak to, what was the limit of president trump's involvement, if any? those questions are not just going to be pursued by mueller but by congress. >> the flynn/trump relationship seems to be the beating heart of the mueller probe and the obstruction case. the decision to fire comey over his refusal to let flynn go really put in motion or accelerated the obstruction of justice case and investigation against the president. why is donald trump who's loyal to no one, he's not loyal to rudy giuliani, he gladly went along with his kids who sabotaged his secretary of state campaign in the transition.

he has thrown chris christie overboard more times than i can count. he's loyal to no one, but flynn, flynn's different. >> flynn has become a central figure for the president. has for a while. remember, he's the one at the convention who infamously started the first lock her up chant about hillary clinton. he responded to the crowd. he, himself, did it. he was a traveling partner of the president's. then-candidate trumps in the final weeks and months. he was on the plane. we saw him every single day traveling with the president. the close ties were formed. they think of it in a personal sense, not just a legal one. and his defense of -- it is an understatement to say it's highly unusual to wish him good luck today for a sentence. today in a very rare white house press briefing, the first time we've heard from sarah sanders in i believe over a month, she proceeded to not walk back any of this praise. >> tell us about that, we have a policy of not airing those. what did she say? like the old-fashioned days, an oral telling. >> very brief, only about 15 minutes. >> what did we miss? >> in terms of the flynn case, she was pressed about the

proceedings today. she felt like what transpired today was a courtroom proceeding, she didn't feel like she would weigh in. >> then she did. >> she did, anyway. she was asked about what we heard over the weekend from fox news, judge jeanine pirro who suggested the conspiracy that flynn was railroaded by the fbi agents, pressed into this. they feel like that that would come out in court today and perhaps be an argument they can use against to undermine the mueller probe. of course, none of that did transpire today, despite sarah in a morning interview suggesting she, again, thought flynn had gotten a raw deal. not only -- she still did not walk back any of the president's praise of flynn suggesting it was appropriate for him to still consider him a good man because of the crimes that he's alleged to have committed, to not have anything to do with him. now, again, let's step back for a second here. this was the national security adviser who today in court the question was raised about whether he committed treason. there was not an accusation, but it was a suggestion, like should this be on the table? and even that, sarah huckabee sanders and the white house did not distance themselves from it at all. >> picking up on that, it's

interesting, i'm going to push a little back on frank as far as not a good day for mueller. i understand his point as far as, okay, maybe the next witness is less likely to cooperate. in reality, trump's whole strategy, you saw jeanine pirro who after giuliani and is probably his biggest -- >> i can't believe -- i have that. words you've never heard on "deadline white house"s, should we watch jeanine pirro? >> let's watch the great jeanine pirro. >> on tuesdays, the parties will appear again before judge emmett sullivan. a jurist unafraid of the swamp. a judge who has a track record of calling out prosecutorial misconduct. a man who does not tolerate injustice or abuse of power. judge sullivan can throw out this guilty plea if he concludes the fbi intentionally interfered with their target, flynn's constitutional right to counsel. >> i will donate $500 to charity if that clip of jeanine pirro airs on fox news in primetime. >> ladies and gentlemen, the

comedy of janieanine pirro, plag the tiki room at route 22. >> that's incredible. >> to that point, if today he had not gotten any jail, what the anticipation was, if i'm trump, okay, we've been at this for 19 months, papadopoulos got 2 weeks, there's no jail here. like, this is what we're doing for? and to jonathan's point, what people will be left from this is the word, treason. the fact that that was even put out there, that the judge had any right to do it, he walked it back at the end. he branded him that. to me the brand of the mueller investigation took a big step forward. flynn was that guy out there, where does he really fit in? he's going to walk away and going to say -- like, for that judge to come down that way, and say, buddy, is this treason? and counter that with jeanine pirro's tee-up, it was a very, very, very day for team trump. >> so we put this up briefly. let me put this back up. the redacted portion begins with an explanation. the interviewing agents asked flynn if he had any other, i

think that says contact, i don't have my glasses on, or personal -- this is about the closed closed-door meetings with kislyak. we don't know what's in the redacted section but we have public-facing evidence, there's trump in the oval office with kislyak and lavrov holding hands and smiling. it was reported by your paper and others, afterward, that trump revealed classified information, intel passed along from another country. we've learned this week of the ongoing coordination between the russians and donald trump's own messaging around mueller and other things. i mean, what is the -- what is still unknown? i mean, flynn -- >> yep. >> -- i have to suspect some of the questions still before flynn are who called in the code -- who told you to lie about kislyak? is. >> that's one of the assumptions is that somebody at the white house must have said to flynn, do this, do that. >> who's above flynn? he reported to the president. >> right. that's funny -- right, the national security adviser, you can argue he's one of the --

after the chief of staff, the second most important senior staffer in the white house which is why i think the judge was so incensed, right? so you started off this conversation with frank saying that redacted part of the memo is probably something that we -- we certainly don't know, but the judge knows, and it made him so angry, so incensed and the other question is, what did flynn tell mueller to get basically zero to six, at least, to the judge, to be given to the judge who didn't go with that, clearly, and said let's come back in 90 days? those are the things we just don't know and we have to remember, jovanka brought flynn into the trump world. >> that's right. >> and jovanka brought flynnwit year. was the whisperer for donald trump. there are those 24 days that trump was national security adviser. what did he do? there are so many questions we don't have answers to. >> all right. we're just hitting pause. after the break, more on the

surprising courtroom showdown this morning and what happens now to mike flynn. and the trump foundation shuts down amid allegations that it coordinated illegally with the trump presidential campaign and operating as a checkbook to serve donald trump's business and political interests. don't go anywhere. stay with us. nywhere. stay with us i'm ken jacobus and i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. what's in your wallet?

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lock her up! >> you guys are good. damn right. yeah, exactly right. there's nothing wrong with that. >> ouch. it's the kind of iron inthy ty s

lieu yo you like a unof bricks. 2 1/2 years ago, michael flynn said that, damn right, hillary clinton should be pit in prut i. we're talking about flynn's day in court, a judge appeared ready to send him to prison. the irony wasn't lost on the crowd waiting for him outside the courthouse. >> lock him up! lock him up! >> usa! usa! >> wow. i mean, live by the sword, die by the sword. >> you think about the relationship between general flynn and president trump, looking back at covering them both during the campaign, general flynn always was someone who was willing to sound like the gop base in private with president trump. there was no wink, wink, republican establishment nod with general flynn. he had the same rage about president obama and secretary clinton as president trump. and when i would see them interact, you saw those minds meld. >> you know what's sod to watch

that, it's a partisan world. he was national security adviser. he gave his life to the country. the flip side, we have the same crowd outside, out of irony or genuine, "lock him up." that's the natural ping-pong effect and it's sad. that didn't engage me in any way, this is a man who served our country and we're at the point chanting "lock him up." there's a tragedy to it. >> someone who had a decorated career, went so off the rails, obama told trump not to bring him into the white house. >> he worked with stan mcchrystal and did have a brilliant chapters of his military career but a lot of people that were his peers thought something went -- >> kind of wacky. >> something went awry. he came back. he was politically radicalized. extremely devoted to the destruction of iran. and saw this new sort of axis of rogues or whatever you want to call them and was very warm to russia. so the idea that the trump

campaign is now under investigation for collusion with russia is completely in line with mike flynn's ideological journey. >> right. he embraced a number of conspiracy theories, you know, his son as well, you know, is also -- would post things on twitter that were very anti-muslim, and let's remember that flynn, himself, of course, paid tens of thousands of dollars by r.t., the russian network, to appear at a banquet where he sat next to vladimir putin in mioscow. the ties to russia have been there with flynn for quite some time. as you said certainly, there was no act here. he was as dogged on these issues and hatred of obama and clinton as donald trump was as a candidate. >> frank figliuzzi, i want to put you on the spot here. if you're profiling mike flynn and you want to know what his capacity was for sort of a criminal conspiracy with the russians, is it close, is it obvious? what are you looking at? >> so the first thing that comes to mind, nicolle, this gets back to the question of why we're seeing such support from trump

and wishing him good luck today. he puts, you know, he's got data and information of trump in the white house, so if you're comparing and contrasting cohen versus flynn and what flynn can offer, he was eyes on in the room, briefly, of course, while our president was carrying out executive duties. and i think that's significant and why we're seeing trump so supportive. the other thing is that flynn supports the narrative that trump likes of the big, bad fbi tricking you, so, again, we're seeing that because it feeds in trump's narrative. now, what can flynn give up? what can flynn have done, himself? look, he's way too much on the side of russia. i am not buying this business of dominican republic vacation phone calls by a former head of dia to a russian ambassador. i'm not buying that it was a counterterrorism incentive that caused him to cozy up to russia.

that's baloney. so there's more to this and it's somehow is tied to trump and we don't know what that is yet, but mueller does, and today, we found out that it looks like the judge knows, too, and he is upset. >> joyce, i want to read you something that congressman adam schiff tweeted today. the incoming chair of the house intel committee tweeted, "after the judge acknowledged the seriousness of flynn's conduct, he's allowed trump's former national security adviser to defer sentencing until after he has fully cooperated with the government. it will be important that flynn also cooperate with our committee and testify." if you're on the other side defending flynn, what peril awaits flynn? >> all sorts of peril awaits flynn because we still don't know the answer to what i think is the most intriguing question here, why did he lie when the fbi came to visit him? it was a pretty innocuous question, as you've pointed out, he was the incoming national security adviser.

he was the national security adviser at the latter part of this. he was certainly, you know, well within bounds to have these sort of calls, so why did he need to lie? what was it covering up? and as frank says, why did h egoeghe go to the dominican republic to have one of these calls? i thing thatk that's really intriguing. we've all talked about the fact that trump should have known that virtue to his prior job, calls kislyak, the russian ambassador made, that the calls were being taped and mad calls he later lied about. something is wrong. we don't know exactly what it is. i isn't the folks in congress have a good idea. mueller certainly knows. one thing we can be certain of is that they haven't given flynn this really magnificent deal just so he could talk about tiddlywinks. whatever it is that trump is talking about, it's someone above him on the food chain and that's a very limited number of players. >> joyce makes a great point, i

watch "homeland" and know we listen to the russians so, of course, he knew that they were listening. what are the scenarios -- i won't make our lawyers or former fbi officials answer this question, but, i mean, what are the possibilities, why would he lie? >> it's a good question. i really wish that i knew. >> yeah. >> there is something that is -- connects -- >> frank, we'll come to you next. >> -- all the president's mens which is they all lie. >> they all lie about russia. >> they all lie about russia. >> people who lied about russia. >> that's the connection. >> papadopoulos. >> right. >> flynn. sessions. who am i forgetting? >> donald trump junior. >> cohen. >> soon to come. >> we don't know. at least four men -- none of them lied about canada, none of them lied about -- >> they all lied about russia. that's the thing that connects them. i wish i knew, it has to be a connection to donald trump, clearly, because they're all connected. >> it frank, i heard you try to jump in. go ahead. >> yeah, i mean, i'm thinking about this equation that he had to go through in his head. he knows fbi agents know these

things. they know it. he's a di aa director. he knows what they're listening to. yet he decides it's worth getting lying to the fbi as long as i cover up my relationship with russia. that's a very big deal for a general who was head of dia. to do that quick thinking in his head. he lied to the vice president of the united states about this. he's lied about it repeatedly. he lied about it as mueller said weeks before he lied to the fbi about it. so what is going on? and, look, my quick answer to most of these questions is it's always about money. there's a flow of money that we haven't found out about yet. and that has compromised him and likely compromised our president. >> sad. bob woodward always says, the truth emerges. after the break, we turn to the other huge legal blow for donald trump and his family today. the shuttering of the trump family foundation. and charges that it illegally coordinateded with the trump campaign. could michael cohen still be talking?

the hits keep coming for donald trump today. the trump organization has agreed to dissolve its charity, the trump foundation, which is currently under investigation by the new york attorney general, barbara underwood. she writes in a statement, "our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the trump foundation, including unlawful coordination with the trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing and much more. this amounted to the trump foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve mr. trump's business and political interests." david farnenhold of the "washington post" gives us a picture of how the foundation was run, writing this, "the attorney general's investigation turned up evidence that donald trump junior, eric trump and ivanka trump all listed as officers of the charity had never held a board meeting.

the board hasn't met since 1999. trump organization executive allen weisselberg told investigators he wasn't aware that he was even on the board." joyce, frank and the panel are still here. i want to get from you guys -- you first. >> first let's explain to people what a foundation is. very easy to say, oh, they set this up. this is not their money. they take money from other people. buffett gives him money to gates to invest for him. this is other people's money thinking it's going to charities. beyond the illegality, think aboutresentablepresentablety taking money to -- i have from my sources that they have -- >> the president. >> they have the president, that they is -- i said this last week on the show, it's going to be this and trump og. another person thing. to see what he was doing with this charity money. our kids went to the same school. baron went to the same school as my daughter. i'm on the board of the school.

he donated to a very wealthy upper west side private school, $50,000 from the trump foundation. think about that. that's money that's meant to -- on behalf -- >> to help veterans. to help sick kids -- >> that's not his money. you assume when you get that, that's from his family office. out of all the acts, remember madoff, how terrible it was? then when you found out he was stealing from charities. >> right. right. >> the disgustingness of this beyond the illegality. you have to pause for a second because we get so normalized and so desensitized to what this guy does. this will give you a clue of what the entire organization is all about. >> it's a good point because people donate to charity from all incomes and to take, for someone like dronald trump with plenty of means to take -- >> by the way, he's known in new york as the only rich guy that never donates his own money. >> let me press you one more time. >> that's been his reputation long before he was president. >> are you surprised he turned the foundation, a charity into a criminal enterprise? >> you know what, absolutely not. he operates -- you have to understand how this guy opera operates, as if so detached from

reality that such hubris -- >> this is legality he's detached from now. >> just like -- oh, yeah, why not? the pause -- the mental pause we go through, either is something illegal, is something wrong? that doesn't happen. >> he'll have time to think about that someday i'm sure. joining us from the "washington post," david farenthold. he's done fantastic reporting on the trump administration. you had the first story up and had great reporting on this. take us through what you're reporting today. >> so the new york attorney general when she sued trump and his family over what she called persistently illegal conduct of the foundation, she asked for three things. she asked for trump to pay millions of dollars in restitution and penalties. she asked for him to be banned from serving on the board of any new york charity for ten years. and sort of the least consequential ask was to shut down the trump foundation. i say least consequential because trump already wanted to do it. this is the easiest part of settling that case for trump. he's now agreed to shut down the foundation under court supervision.

so he'll give away the remaining money, about $1.7 million, to charities that the court and the new york attorney general approve. this is beginning the process of ending that foundation, but the lawsuit against him and the possible millions of dollars in penalties, that still goes on. >> and does anyone face any legal exposure for fraud, for defrauding its donors? >> well, the case we know about now, is this new york a.g. lawsuit, that's a civil lawsuit. the new york attorney general is limited by law into sort of what kind of cases she can bring. she felt like she didn't have the legal ability to bring a criminal case even if she wanted to in this case. the legal authority to bring a criminal case would come from the irs or the fec or possibly the new york state department of taxation and finance. we don't know what any one of these three agentcies are doing. they don't comment ongoing investigations. they've been referred by the a.g. of new york that they should look into it. >> david, a name in your story jumped out at me, having covered last week's cohen sentencing -- was that this week? these are dog years.

i can't remember. allen weisselberg controls a lot of the pursestrings in trump's orbit. he didn't -- incredible piece of reporting on your part, he didn't know he was on the board. he's listed as being on the board. he also has some limited immunity for his role in cooperating with the southern district of new york in sort of explaining or fleshing out some of their their narrow questions of the hush money operation run by mikechael cohen and donald trump. how does allen weisselberg figure into this case? is. >> in this case he talked to the new york attorney general's investigators. he was deposed. provided evidence. separate and apart to whatever immunity he might have gotten in the federal investigation of cohen. weisselberg was a helpful witness for the new york attorney general. he told them he was not aware he was on the charity's board. he told them ivanka, donald junior and eric who were supposed to be on the board of directors for this charity looking out for its interests, making sure its money wasn't misused, the board hadn't met since 1999.

they were certainly not doing that job. he knew about how the money was being spent. he told the new york a.g., look, you asked me what the policies are, what our policies are to make sure we aren't misspending charity money, there are no policies. >> my question for you, david, is the president tweets every d day, goes absolutely bananas that michael cohen was cooperating with mueller and the sdny. goes berserk over the flynn sentencing. do you think he had any idea of what you just explained, allen weisselberg, knows where the bodies are buried, was extremely helpful to this investigation, where the president has no immunity, has no ability to pardon himself or his children who seem very central to this case? >> he probably was aware of it in june when the new york attorney general made public its findings which quoted allen weisselberg. allen weisselberg is still at the trump organization. i saw company filings from a few weeks ago he was signing as a cfo and edp. so he's still there. doesn't seem to be on the outs the way mike b l cchael cohen s.

cohen implicated trump in criminal matters and this is just a civil matter. >> here's where it gets criminal. if any of the money did go directly to the campaign, you have more campaign finance violations. >> that's in the case, there was illegal coordination -- >> that's where it gets criminal. >> lemire? >> this is, it's yet another front. >> right. >> that's -- it's -- there's six or seven entities connected to the president right now, whethwhether his inaugural committee, campaign, the organization, the business. they're all being scrutinized by investigators where there's mounting legal pressure and it's against a president who has a thinly staffed legal team. has a white house that is ill prepared for this. you know, the new counsel has just come in there. you know, there's no real war-room. that's not even mentioning the democrats taking control of the house. so it seems like every day the pressure is ratcheting up in the west wing as each investigation, multiple different parts, there are seems to be a new development that is adding to strain on the president and a sense of sort of despair among people around him not knowing what's next. >> why is weisselberg still there? because this is the 26th floor again and again.

that's where president trump worked for decades in trump tower. him at the center. the children in one office doing a certain projects, allen weisselberg in another. he knows weisselberg has always been functioning -- who has to act extemporaneous, often react to what the trump family is doing. he always manages everything he does. it's how people talk about what's going on inside of the white house and inside of the president's legal team. >> what -- how long do all of the republicans on the hill keep saying nothing to see here? nothing to see in the sdny, nothing to see with the foundation, nothing to see -- how long is that sustainable? >> at this point, republicans feel like they're going to wait for robert mueller's report and they're going to hedge everything until then. i mean, you have them, some of them who are trump allies praying there's not some kind of smoking gun of russian collusion because at this point, they think he's the only way some of them win re-election in 2020. so they're actually not running away from trump at this point. where is the primary challenger for president trump right now? >> where are their souls? >> yeah.

>> i'm not a priest, nicolle. >> i get the politics. i believe the politics. >> very different, i really think that to -- the soul is going to be unearthed. i think today is very different than six months from now, a lot of these candidates -- you know, there was that marathon man and laurence olivier, is it safe yet, is it safe yet? they're waiting under the rocks. the next three, four months it's going -- go back, none of them wanted trump initially. they're stuck with that disease now. the second there seems to be a cure for that disease, i think they will run -- >> there is no cure. there is no cure. >> so did nixon -- >> there is no cure. no one is even -- guys under investigation, as jonathan said, seven separate, you're right. >> you're talking about a republican party that doesn't exist anymore. >> right. >> it's the republican party of donald john trump. >> if he's indicted, what do they do? never mind -- >> a smart young republican would make a bet right now and come forward. there's not an election tomorrow. if i was advising somebody because it's not tomorrow, i understand, nobody's getting primaried in the next six

months. first one out is going to be a star in that party because to your point, there's nowhere else to go right now. >> who has the stature? the only person who seems to have the stature is -- >> mitt romney. >> does the republican base even want him right now? >> or by the way, somebody we haven't talked about comes forward, young congressman. that's the opportunity. i wish i was out there. >> how do you win a primary, donny? >> it's a year away. maybe they're not being primaried next year, maybe they're being primaried in two years. think about where trump is today versus six months ago. a year ago today, 70% of this country said the economy was either going -- was definitely going the right direction. now 70% say it's going to stay the same gor go the wrong direction. >> my mission in the infection year is going to be to take the "maga" hats and see how they turn them into beto t-shirts. that will be my next target, next group. it's not just the trump foundation, what else is under the microscope? we'll answer that question after the break. the break.

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if the sheer number of investigations involving trump feels unending, it's because it is. the president is currently dealing with more than a dozen investigations. garrett gra ff of "wired" write "after three weeks of back to back to back to back bombshells by federal prosecutors and mueller it's increasingly clear as 2018 winds down, donald trump faces a legal assault unlike anything previously seen by any president. a total of at least 17 distinct court cases stemming from seven prosecutors and investigators." everyone is still here, frank figliuzzi, you've been making and jim comey has been making illusions to how they resemble a mob family. how dud this approach of 17 separate -- i mean, who else other than a criminal family has 17 investigations into them at one time? >> no, this is the exact metaphor we're talking about a crime family, and let's not forget, we're not counting the

investigations on all of his associates and associates of associates. if you did that, you'd have a flowchart the size of your back wall. and, look, speaking of a spinof investigations, we just talked about the foundation. do you know who the largest single donors were to the foundation? vince and linda mcmahon. do you know who linda mcmahon is? linda mcmahon was named by trump as head of the small business administration. are we going to have a sba director who become a witness against the president? what was she told about where her money was going? what is the cost to be the sba director? the people in his circle are getting investigated. this is unprecedented in history. >> that's a great point. last week i was on the air when the story broke about the inaugural committee, and the inaugural committee was run by a lot of trump's friends. what do you make of this number

just into trump and his businesses, 17 separate investigations not to say anything about his associates, as frank just reminded us? >> we know the president thinks it's a witch-hunt because he keeps telling us that but with this number of convictions and guilty pleas and investigations, it's something really serious. even though we've all grown numb to whatever the allegation du jour is to trump and misconduct, it's something very serious we need to keep our eyes on. frank is so right, this reminds me of every case i ever tried as a prosecutor where i had to put a big flow chart up in front of a jury with circles and lines connected and showed how the operations and freelance corporations and gaged in. and if i can say one thing going back to the foundational case, sure trump put down a statement today saying he wanted to

shutter the foundation but he wanted to shutter it without any accountability. now he has to shutter it with the remaining $1.7 million under court supervision to charities of the new york attorney general picks. and this is a president who said he will never settle this case and now he's essentially being forced to settle the first of the claims against him. i think this is the first time we will see a slow roll all the way up to the chain of his illegal activities. >> i hear everything from he's not just fine but having a breakdown. what has your reporting suggested the toll has been on the president? >> the chief of staff is indicative of where this white house is. they had to ask dmulvaney, who s just interim in case it unfolds in a certain way. he's talking to rg rudy giuliana

couple of friends on the outside. but this is a guy talking about cutting prescription drugs for next year but a president undersiege at political war. >> he's obviously watching the same amount of television. is he focused on anything other than the investigations into him? >> at this point it's getting ready for divided government. we see the president trying to get the government shutdown off of his plate, which i think is another revealing moment this week. the president wants to show his bays that he's fighting $5 billion for the border wall. he doesn't want to go stoto the mats and have a drawn-out battle. >> when do voters start to think we love the guy but he can't do anything for us now? his fangs are out but he's basically neutered. out of the 38%, where does 4%, 5% say he can't do anything. at the end of the day, people

still vote for themselves. it's that simple. >> and what will happen when the economy moves forward. >> you did a great story. >> thank you. we have written a story about the people around the president, and the president himself, it's the economy that keeps him up at night. he's asking for updates and watching the cable tickers and asking the feds about interest rates because he's so alarmed markets are slowing. i think we're on pace for the worse december since 1991. and they feel like that's the tipping point, ieven the die-had trump loyalists, because trump built up mythology as a fighter but also the businessman. we can take issue with that but that's how he sold himself to the american public, he will make the economy great again. we saw he's not talking about stock numbers like he used to do, like he did all the time. there's no talk about 30,000 anymore. and that's where he's vulnerable and some of the support slips away. >> what do you make of this destabilizing the white house?

jordan and ivanka clearing around the west wing, dick mulvaney, thps his third job. the white house chief of staff repelled perspective candidates. >> it's not all surprising. it seems everything trump touches goes south, he has the reverse effect of the midas touch. we talked about the trump foundation, trump organization. let's not forget what happened right before trump went into office. he had to pay $25 million for defrauding people for trump u. what he did basically he took this criminal enterprise, the way he was running his business, nobody paid attention to it before until now, he's president, now everyone is paying attention to him because he's being vetted now, not before. and we're seeing how that is all playing out. >> he's being vetted now. >> we're doing vetting and so have the reporters at the table. let me ask you, there's a new, equally aggressive, some might say more aggressive, attorney general in the united states.

what's on the horizon for the trump organization, trump foundation, all of the trump entities from her perspective? >> it's really interesting. letisha james is the newly elected new york attorney general. she told nbc the other day she has a really ambitious plan to investigate trump's businesses, which are all located in new york state. that includes the trump foundation but also the great "the new york times" story about the tax practices in the background and history of the trump organization, she will look into that, the emollients issue, is trump using the trump businesses in new york to take payments from foreign governments. variety of things. she's made it clear that's one of her priorities as new york attorney general. i think the scrutiny from state regulators there and other places will only increase. >> we will be watching and you'll be watching with us. tchid you'll be watching with us wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week

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depending on who you ask, we're leaving in a blaze of glory of shame. >> paul ryan, house speaker

leaving this week, farewell tour. came out with a six-part video series. >> it's on netflix! >> it's not on netflix. >> that's ridiculous. >> he did. it reflects where this republican party is. a lot of people saying it's great. other people saying it's missing the whole point. >> who paid for the netflix series? >> it's taxpayer funded. >> oh, god, i hear another scandal. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mpt daily" starts now. hi, chuck. >> hi, nicolle. you should tell costa there that sounds like something that should be on earth 2. i'm not sure this earth but we will figure it out. >> i'm not going to be streaming it any time soon. >> thank you very much. if it's tuesday, give us any chance, we'll take it and give us any rule, we'll break it. and oh, are