and that is our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. this is one of those days. sometimes, some nights everything just happens all at once and when that happens, it's easy to get overwhelmed. it's impossible to absorb everything all at once, and in circumstances like these, the only way to understand the importance of what has just happened in today's news is to not get overwhelmed by it, to not try to get it all at once. instead, you just do it piece by piece. you do it one step at a time. so that's what we're going to do tonight because a whole bunch of interrelated stories have just had really important developments this afternoon and tonight. we're going to go through it piece by piece. we're going to start in federal court in the southern district of new york, right before

christmas, in mid-december, this past december. that's the day that the president's longtime personal lawyer michael cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison. it was a dramatic day. he wept in court. his family wept. cohen and his defense team and his family all clearly thought he was going to get a much lighter sentence in recognition of his cooperation with prosecutors from the special counsel's office. for their part, robert mueller and the prosecutors in the special counsel's office did recommend to the judge sentencing michael cohen that he should be sentenced leniently because he had been so helpful in his cooperation with them. but the prosecutors from the special counsel's office were not the only prosecutors involved in the cohen case and they were not the only prosecutors making their case to the judge that day. there were also prosecutors from the southern district of new york. those were the prosecutors who obtained guilty pleadings from michael cohen on a whole bunch

of felonies, and those prosecutors from the southern district of new york told judge sentencing michael cohen that cohen really should do serious time. and so he's going to do three years. he's about to start that three-year prison sentence a month from today. but on the day he was sentenced back in mid-december, that exact same day, within about an hour or so of when we learned that michael cohen was going to do that serious time, that same day we also got, surprise, a whole new thing that we weren't expecting from those prosecutors in the southern district of new york. that day that michael cohen got sentenced, we also got this from the federal prosecutor's office in the southern district of new york. it is a non-prosecution agreement that those prosecutors entered into with an entity called a.m., american media incorporated. they're publishers of the supermarket tabloid "national enquirer." it was unsealed.

it was made available to the public, basically upon michael cohen being sentenced for his crimes. but it's interesting, you can see from the date on it that it had actually been entered into several months before. we learned about it that day in mid-december when cohen was getting sentenced, but the date on it was september 20th. it had been enforced since the fall, since september. and you remember, of course, what michael cohen pled guilty to and what he was sentenced to prison for, tax evasion, bank fraud, all these things related to his personal business interests, his own real estate transactions. something weird about him selling an expensive purse, which i never totally understood. his business work on the sort of shady side of the taxi medallion industry. most of the felonies numerically pertained to that kind of stuff, michael cohen's business life. but then where the two felonies that were really the headline. the two campaign finance felonies that he pled to.

and those felony campaign finance charges were the ones that derived not from his personal life, they derive from him paying about $250,000 in hush money to these two women who were otherwise going to go public ahead of the presidential election in 2016 with their allegations that they had had extramarital affairs with then candidate donald trump. prosecutors' descriptions of those crimes and cohen's own al cushi -- made clear he wasn't the only one involved in the commission of those crimes. prosecutors and cohen himself made clear that the president himself was implicated in those felonies. cohen himself said that trump had directed him to commit those felonies and the president was described as individual one in the charging documents spelling out the commission of those crimes. what was also clear in those charging documents about those felonies is that there was yet another party to those campaign finance felonies besides cohen and president trump. another party that played a know

role in that transaction. but like individual one, like the president, that entity was also not prosecuted. right? so in the description of that crime, we get the description of a number of people being involved in the commission of that felony. cohen ends up getting prosecuted for it. he's going to prison for it in a month. individual one, the president, does not get prosecuted for that felony, despite his alleged role in it, and that may be in part because he's the president and there's legal ambiguity as to whether or not the president can be indicted for anything while he is still serving as president. but the other party that didn't get prosecuted for its role in that felony transaction was a.m.i., the publisher of "the national enquirer." and we learned that day in december, the day that cohen got sentenced, we learned that day that a.m.i. wasn't prosecuted for their role in that crime because they entered into an overt non-prosecution agreement with the federal prosecutors in new york who nailed cohen for that crime and who designated

the president as individual one. in that non-prosecution agreement, prosecutors committed that they wouldn't prosecute a.m.i. for its role in those crimes or for crimes related to those felonies and they would agree not to prosecute a.m.i., essentially as a reward for a.m.i. cooperating, for a.m.i. helping prosecutors in their inquiries into that matter. now, that surprise revelation about that non-prosecution agreement that prosecutors entered into with a.m.i., it also bolstered some reporting we had gotten last summer from "the new york times." last summer "the new york times" reported that the ceo of american media, the president's longtime friend david pecker, had himself personally done some sort of immunity deal with prosecutors in exchange for cooperation in their investigations. that seemed to be borne out when that was unveiled by the court in december. now, as i said, sometimes, like

nights like this, sometimes everything happens all at once. so we've got that background, right? we know about -- we've all absorbed all that stuff about cohen, that crime, the implication that the president was involved in it, the implication that a.m.i. was involved in it, the fact that a.m.i. had a deal so they wouldn't get prosecuted for it. that all happened before tonight. but tonight a lot of the things initially raised by that set of circumstances now seemed to be coming to a head. first of all, there's the question of the ultimate dispensation of michael cohen. he is going to prison in a month. there is also wrangling over whether -- over the course of the next month before he goes to prison he will testify to congress. we can surmise that there is something important going on with his case and his role in the larger russia investigation because of that wrangling, because the house intelligence committee announced yesterday that michael cohen's planned testimony tomorrow is being delayed, quote, in the interests of the investigation. and they won't say what exactly they mean by that, but they did

go ahead and reschedule him to testify february 28th. by deduction, we can tell that means they think something's going to happen between now and february 28th, something that needs to be done and out of the way before they take michael cohen's testimony at the intelligence committee. we don't know what that is -- what that thing is. what's going to happen between now and february 28th that will make it possible for him to testify, but presumably we just have to wait and see. tick-tock. there is also further evidence today that something else is going on with michael cohen and his case and his case's connection to the larger russia investigation. because today we got this court ruling from a federal judge in new york. this is a judge who was considering legal action by a bunch of media outlets who have been trying to make public a whole bunch of material related to the cohen case. these media organizations want search warrants and law enforcement affidavits and other materials related to the michael cohen case, they want that stuff unsealed and made available to the public, just in the public

interest. so this judge today was considering that request from media organizations, and the judge ruled that, in fact, some of the material that had -- has previously been sealed in cohen's case, it can be unsealed. it will be unsealed. it will be released to the mr.ic and shortly. namely, what we should expect to be unsealed is the stuff about cohen's tax fraud and bank fraud and the taxing medallion business and the other stuff that didn't get the lion's share of attention when michael cohen first pled guilty. but when it comes to the really high-profile stuff he pled guilty to, when it comes to those felonies that cohen pled to that purportedly involve the president, that purportedly involve a.m.i., those hush money payments to benefit the president's campaign, those campaign finance felonies, the judge today said, actually, those materials can't be un-redacted and can't be shown to the public any time soon because those are still live legal issues that pertain to ongoing investigations.

so here's a little bit from the judge's ruling where he just -- he just lays it out bluntly. quote, this court concludes that disclosure of materials with redactions, strikes and -- excuse me. this court concludes that disclosure of materials with redactions strikes an appropriate balance between the strong presumption of public access to search warrant materials and the countervailing interests identified by the government, in particular the government represents that aspects of its investigation remain ongoing, including those pertaining to or arising from cohen's campaign finance crimes. indeed, the search warrant applications and affidavits catalog an assortment of uncharged individuals and detail their involvement in communications and transactions connected to the campaign finance charges to which cohen pled guilty. according to the government's ex parte submissions, these individuals include those cooperating with the government, those who have provided information to the government

and other subjects of the investigation. at this stage wholesale disclosure of the materials would reveal the scope and direction of the government's ongoing investigation. it would also unveil subjects of the investigation and the potential conduct under scrutiny. the disclosure of such information may enable uncharged individuals to coordinate eight tailor their testimony in interactions with the government. and the judge says if the past is any prolog, unmasking those who are cooperating with the government's investigation or who have otherwise provided information to the government could deter further cooperation with the investigation by subjecting those individuals to witness tampering, harassment or retaliation. accordingly, judge said, the portions of the materials related to cohen's campaign finance crimes shall be redacted. ruling today from a federal judge. so michael cohen's bank fraud, tax fraud, the expensive purse thing, fine. that can all come out.

that will all come out. but the stuff about the hush money payments to benefit the president, the stuff that involved the president's campaign and the president's business and a.m.i., all this stuff, no, no, no, no, no, that stays redacted because that's a live issue and there are witnesses and subjects of the investigation and cooperators that cannot safely have that stuff disclosed to the public, at least when it comes to the safety and integrity of that ongoing investigation. that live legal issue. so that stuff won't be unsealed any time soon. and, remember, that's the live legal issue? i mean, those are the charges as described by prosecutors and as described by michael cohen in court, those are the charges that implicate the president directly as the person who benefitted from that illegal scheme and who allegedly directed it. the trump organization also appears to be implicated as the entity that effectively laundered those illegal contributions and this company, a.m.i., is also implicated as participating in the hush money scheme.

right? it's their gigantic illegal corporate contribution to the trump campaign. their help with this hush money plan. and they skated and they didn't get in trouble for it because they entered into a non-prosecution agreement. i mean, remember, a.m.i.'s involvement here as described by prosecutors is that they effectively during the campaign entered into a deal with donald trump that they would contribute to his campaign as a corporation. they would help him politically and materially by making adverse stories go away. they would expend resources as a corporation that would never be declared as campaign contributions but they would nevertheless be expended in order to benefit trump's campaign and the hopes of his eventual election by paying off otherwise disappearing material that might hurt trump's political chances. in the non-prosecution agreement that a.m.i. entered into with prosecutors, we learned, a.m.i. is told explicitly by

prosecutors in the southern district of new york that they won't be prosecuted for their role in the campaign finance felony scheme that cohen's going to prison for. they won't be prosecuted for their role in it, as long as a.m.i., quote, truthfully and completely discloses all information with respect to the activities of itself and its officers. those activities as they weretain to the company itself, its officers, agents and employees. a.m.i. pledges to cooperate fully with the southern district of new york and any other law enforcement agency designated by that office. a.m.i. agrees to provide all records. they agree to turn up at all meetings. and it's kind of a throwaway line at the end, but a.m.i. also in that agreement commits for a period of three years to, quote, commit no crimes whatsoever. oh. quote, it is understood that should a.m.i. commit any crimes subsequent to the date of signing this agreement or should the government determine that

a.m.i. or its representatives have knowingly given false, incomplete or misleading testimony or information or should a.m.i. otherwise violate any provision of this agreement, a.m.i. should therefore, ahem, be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this office has knowledge. oh. the agreement goes on to say that if a.m.i. commits crimes, any crimes after signing this agreement, any statement made by a.m.i. or any of its representatives or at any grand jury proceedings, any such statement, quote, shall be admissible in evidence in any criminal proceeding brought against a.m.i. think about the situation that a.m.i. is in right now. they had to come completely clean with federal prosecutors about their role in those campaign finance felonies during the 2016 election. in order to get this non-prosecution agreement. i mean, at least one other dude is going to go do serious

federal prison time because of his role in that crime. their role in the crime, they're okay because they got this agreement. they had to come totally clean about their involvement in that crime in order to get the agreement, but for a period of three years if they violate this agreement by, say, jaywalking or removing the tag from a mattress or, i don't know, continuing to engage in a criminal extortion scheme designed to silence people who might hurt the president politically, i mean, any crime, any crime at all, then everything a.m.i. and all of its officers and employees have said is fair game and admissible for their prosecution on anything, including the crimes they have already fulsomely confessed to. and so now here we are tonight when everything is coming together. when everything is happening all at once. this is a man you will recognize. his name is jeff bezos. he is the founder of amazon. he is one of the richest men on earth. actually, today we checked,

today technically he is the richest man on the face of the earth. he's also the owner of one of the greatest newspapers on the face of the earth, "the washington post." the president has made no secret of the fact that he does not like "the washington post." he does not like the way "the washington post" and its reporters cover him and his administration. his complaints about the journalism of "the washington post" to jeff bezos personally and his concurrent ownership role of both "the washington post" and amazon. in may of last year, for example, you might remember we learned that the president had personally, personally, individually directed the postmaster general of the united states that the post office should financially stick it to amazon, that they should hurt the company, and by extension jeff bezos' personal bottom line by doubling the postal rates that the u.s. post office charges amazon to ship its packages. the president personally giving

that directive to the postmaster general in order to hurt amazon, in order to hurt jeff bezos, in order to hurt "the washington post." i mean, that itself would be the single biggest scandal in most modern presidencies, right, if it were any other president. for this president this was an average friday morning, maybe it will make the front page kind of thing, but, like, honestly -- but, again, there has been no subtlety about the president's antipathy for "the washington post." his personal antipathy for jeff bezos because he's the owner of "the post." it's all out in the open. well, last month, the "the national enquirer," the flagship publication of a.m.i., they published private text messages between jeff bezos and a woman with whom he was intimately involved. mr. bezos and his wife of 25 years upon the publication of that story announced the dissolution of their marriage and their impending divorce, and

the president reacted to all of that with glee. the president said publicly, quote, so sorry to hear the news about jeff bozo being taken down by a competitor whose reporting i understand is far more accurate than the reporting in his newspaper the amazon "washington post." hopefully the paper will soon be placed in better and more responsible hands. so it's the president delighting in mr. bezos' divorce from his wife of 25 years, delighting in the role of "the national enquirer" in bringing that about and saying out loud that he should lose the paper. "the washington post" shouldn't be in his hands. look what "the national enquirer" turned up about him. before long there were signs that perhaps this story existed on more than one level at once. a report that bezos himself had launched a private investigation into what was behind this "national enquirer" story, what was behind their publication of his private text messages.

yesterday "the washington post" had this headline, "was tabloid expose of bezos affair just juicy gossip or a political hit job?" if it was a political hit job, one potential implication of that kind would be that it was perhaps carried out by a.m. ito help president trump politically once again. by hurting or trying to take out of the equation somebody who trump perceives to be doing him political harm. i will tell you, there is also a saudi arabia component to this with "the national enquirer," which is a related but separate angle. we will get to that in a different part of tonight's show. but now tonight this is how this all came together. mr. bezos tonight published this ten-page post online, and it is titled, as you can see, not no thank you, mr. pecker." mr. pecker in this case is not an insult to somebody. it's the name of the ceo of

american immediamedia david pec longtime friend of president trump. in this post tonight, bezos publishes what he says is the full un-redacted recent correspondence he's had with "the national enquirer," pecker's company which he describes as a, quote, extortion and blackmail effort. here we go. quote, rather than capitulate to exterior and blackmail, i have decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they have threatened. bezos says, quote, a few weeks ago when intimate text messages for me were published, i urged investigators to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by "the enquirer." there are now several independent investigations looking into this matter. quote, several days ago an a.m.i. leader advised us, meaning him and his lawyers and hiss guy he's hired to lead an investigation for him. several days ago an a.m.i.

leader advised us that mr. pecker, david pecker, the ceo of american media is, quote, apoplectic about our investigation. quote, a few days later we were verbally approached at first with an offer. they said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we did not stop our investigation. i guess we, me, my lawyers, the investigator we hired did not react to the generalized threat with enough fear so then they sent this. and then bezos publishes what he says is the full letter that he received this week from a.m.i. describing in graphic detail ten different personal and embarrassing photos that's "the enquirer" has obtained and is threatening to publish in order to hurt jeff bezos. quote, with "the washington post" poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of "the national enquirer's" initial report, i wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our news gathering. a.m.i., according to bezos, then

goes about to demand that bezos affirmatively say publicly that he, quote, has no knowledge or basis for suggesting that a.m.i.'s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces. and unless bezos says that they will publish these embarrassing photos of him that they have obtained. so like i said, everything happens at once, right? but the bottom line here is that, like, jeff bezos, the richest man on the face of the earth, the guy who owns "the washington post," has just blown this up by publishing what he says is this extortionate, threatening, blackmailing panic button stuff from "the national enquirer" and a.m.i. don't you say that what we're doing is politically motivated. don't you say that this has any political intention. don't you say that we did this for any reason other than just embarrassing you. don't you say that this comes from a political place or we will drop this nuclear bomb on you. whoa. why?

i should tell you that a.m.i. declined to comment tonight, since mr. bezos has made public what he says is their correspondence. there are questions here, right? why is a.m.i. freaking out about this? why are they going nuclear against jeff bezos? they've already exposed his affair, set his divorce in motion, caused him pain and embarrassment. the president has already danced on his divorce, right? specifically they appear to be quite panicked about him turning up any evidence and making any credible allegation that they may have acted once again with political intentions. and we know because we follow the news that when a.m.i. banks like that about that, we know they're doing so in the context of their still active non-prosecution agreement with the southern district of new york. it is still in force. a.m.i.'s obligations under that continue until a period of three years from the signing of that

agreement, which would be the fall of 2021, or the date on which all prosecutions arising out of the conduct described in the agreement are final, whichever is later. so at least the fall of 2021. and, frankly, when it comes to whether all the prosecutions are final, we know from a judge today ruling on the michael cohen case it sounds like all the prosecutions might not be over when it comes to those campaign finance felonies that a.m.i. is implicated in. that they have been fulsomely open with prosecutors about already. under the protective umbrella of a non-prosecution agreement. they are currently benefitting from this non-prosecution agreement, as long as they're still holding to it. so the wheels do appear to be coming off here a little bit. wasn't of the parties to the two felonies in which federal prosecutors have implicated the president may have just violated the terms of their non-prosecution agreement while a judge today let slip that the fact the prosecution of those felonys is an ongoing law enforcement matter.

and, by the way, the acting attorney general who the president appointed to oversee the mueller investigation, who ignored ethics advice that told him he had to recuse from overseeing that investigation, he's going to appear in congress tomorrow to answer questions in open session. and the saudi arabia part of this just blew up, too. and -- and some nights everything happens all at once but you get through it, one step at a time. stay with us. more to get to. ime. stay with us more to get to i hear it in the background and she's watching too, saying

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tomorrow the acting attorney general matthew whitaker is going to testify in congress in open session before the judiciary committee. this was not at all certain for the most of the day today, including a lot of wrangling over whether whitaker would be subpoenaed to appear or would appear voluntarily. gerald nadler confirms whitaker will be there 9:30 eastern time. that explains why your bodega has already run out of jiffy pop tonight. this should be fairly incredible. there has been a lot of wrangling over this appearance, a lot of consternation in the justice department about how

whitaker might do in this hearing. the questions back and forth about whether or not he would be able to appear, and i mean able in a number of different ways. whitaker's already been advised about a lot of the things he's going to be asked about. questions about the firing of former attorney general jeff sessions and whether white house officials or the president himself contacted whitaker about replacing sessions. whether those discussions included the possibility of whether whitaker would recuse from overseeing the mueller investigation. questions about whether whitaker consulted with the white house on his decision he wouldn't recuse despite the fact that ethics advisers told him he needed to. also questions about these advisers who whitaker consulted who told him it was okay if he didn't recuse. questions about whether whitaker was briefed on the mueller investigation and if he has shared information from those briefings with anybody at the white house or the president himself or the president's legal team. questions about reports that trump lashed out at whitaker after his longtime personal lawyer michael cohen pled guilty and after federal prosecutors

identified president trump as individual one associated with two of the felonies to which cohen pled. or after the president was identified as individual one. they intend to ask whitaker if the president expressed concern or anger or frustration with the southern district of new york. the prosecutor's office that handled the cohen case. questions about whether the president discussed the possibility of firing or reassigning anyone from that prosecutor's office in reaction to what happened there with michael cohen and the individual one designation for the president in conjunction with those felonies. now whether or not acting attorney general matt whitaker is actually going to answer those questions or how he's going to try to not answer them once he's in that seat, that remains to be seen tomorrow morning. all we know is that as of right now he is expected to show up. joining us now is congressman eric swalwell of california. he's a member of the both the intelligence committee and the judiciary committee. congressman swalwell, nice to see you. thanks for being here.

>> you, too. thanks for having me back, rachel. >> i have to tell you, i have lots of questions to ask you about this whitaker thing. i to actually want to ask you about some news that has just crossed since i have been talking, which is that former michigan congressman, longtime, longtime michigan congressman and beloved figure in the democratic party john dingell has just died at the age of 92. we had heard from his wife yesterday that he had entered hospice care. his wife, of course, is democratic congresswoman debbie dingell. john dingell served in congress for 59 years, longest-serving member of the house. he has just passed at the age of 92. i don't know if you personally knew congressman dingell or if you had any reaction to the news of his passing tonight, sir? >> it's crushing news, rachel. thank you for bringing it up to tribute his service. i did know him. i was a freshman member during his final two years. he was a giant of the congress and set an example for us new incoming members as to how