maybe don't dance for joy we'll have 25,000 jobs not come here with amazon. >> i think it will be interesting to see what the next chapter of that conversation is for the political representatives. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good evening. >> good evening, chris. i'm filing at my desk. there is lots of paper. i got exhibits. i've got some other filings. i've got -- >> well, i'm confused. so i'm going to say, i decided i'm going to watch the rachel maddow show. something really important happened in the roger stone case of all things today. had nothing to do with that dumb gag order. >> with what we learned about the warrant. >> and the thing that happened in the michael cohen case today

too. this was a real triple whammy. this is worth watching. >> i think it would be funny if i got a private a block of the rachel show. >> if you hide under my desk for any 15 second period of time, i mumble enough to get most of it out. thank you, my friend. thank you at home for joining us. this is one of those fridays. there's a triple whammy going on. there's a lot of different types of news that we're watching tonight. for example, we are still getting in new reporting tonight about the mass shooting that took place today in aurora, illinois. what we know now is at least five people dead, multiple others injured from this mass shooting that took place at a manufacturing plant in aurora, illinois.

keeping in mind that initial reports from major mass shootings are often later revised in terms of our factual understanding of what happened. with that caveat, i should tell you that preliminarily reports make it seem what happened here is a single shooter, a 45-year-old man. he was ultimately killed by police. authorities tell us that of the people who were shot and injured in this mass shooting, at least five were police officers themselves. so, again, that means we think we're talking about five injured police officers, five nonpolice officers, five civilians killed and the shooter himself killed on top of that. so we are watching that story as it continues to develop. we'll let you know more as we know more. today started, of course, with the president declaring a national emergency to try to give himself a sort of legal way to take money, mostly from the military, to build a wall between u.s. and mexico, despite the fact that congress will not appropriate the money that the president wants for that purpose. immediately upon declaring this emergency today, the president in what appeared to be a little

bit of an ad lib, he blurted out, i didn't need to do this. i kid you not. that's an exact quote. "i didn't need to do this." that's not the right thing to say if you are trying to convey the idea that you really did have to do this because this is supposedly some kind of emergency that's forcing your hand. almost immediately after he said "i didn't need to do this," the president then went on to the rest of his presidential day, which culminated in him this afternoon getting on a plane and flying to florida to be think go play golf for the whole weekend. which is fine. nothing against golf. but, again, it's just not on message when you're supposed to be proclaiming a stop, drop and roll, everybody freak out crisis moment for the country. if it's an emergency, is it okay that you're going to go golfing for the rest of the day? shouldn't you be handling the emergency? or is the emergency actually something, like you said, that you didn't need to proclaim. suffice to say there is a near

national consensus that the emergency the president proclaimed today does not exist in reality. protesters outside of one of the trump properties in new york city tonight proclaimed that they believe, however, that there is an emergency. their chant tonight was "trump is the emergency. trump is the emergency." we'll have more on that later on in the show tonight. but in the front row of the national emergency announcement today, for what it was worth, there was a new face, one who we are all going to see a lot of from here on out. today was the first full day on job for the new attorney general william barr, who was confirmed by the senate yesterday. upon him being sworn in last night in the oval office, the husband of a top white house staffer posted this comment online. quote, tomorrow will be the first day that the president will have a fully operational confirmed attorney general. let that sink in. mueller will be gone soon. i don't know what it means to be a fully operational attorney general.

but since that comment is coming from a person who is married to a senior white house staffer, that at least serves as some evidence of what the white house may be expecting from bill barr now that he is taking over at the justice department. and it may be so. maybe now that bill barr has started as attorney general, maybe mueller will be gone soon, but mueller was definitely still at work today. part of the reason i said right at the top here that this is one of those days when a lot is going on all at once is that three big things happened in quick secession this afternoon and into tonight on three big cases that derive from mueller's investigation. the biggest one is the one that came down latest, late tonight concerning the president's campaign chair paul manafort. there was this dramatic ruling earlier this week, you'll remember, in which a federal judge in d.c. declared that manafort in fact did breach his cooperation agreement with prosecutors. the judge ruled that in fact manafort intentionally lied to

prosecutors about important things, about matters that were material to their investigation, including the extent of his contacts with someone who prosecutors say is linked to russian intelligence. so that ruling happened a couple of days ago this week. after that ruling this week, prosecutors in the special counsel's office moved quickly to start the process of manafort finally getting sentenced for his crimes. now, manafort is facing sentencing both in the eastern district of virginia, which is where he had his trial. that's where he was convicted of eight felonies. he's also facing sentencing in washington, d.c. that's the court where he pled guilty to two felonies and started what was supposed to be his deal with prosecutors, which he blew up by lying to them. well, tonight we've just received the recommendation from mueller's office as to how much time they think manafort should spend in prison based just on the eight felony counts for

which he was convicted in virginia. so separate and apart from whatever he might get in d.c., mueller's prosecutors are recommending that the president's campaign chairman spend between 19 1/2 years and 24 1/2 years in prison. again, just for the felonies for which he was convicted in virginia. separate and apart from what he's going to get in d.c. now for a man who is about to turn 70, that means prosecutors are recommending what is in effect a natural life sentence for paul manafort. you will recall that there is no parole in the the federal prison system. so 19 to 24 years. we're going to get to that manafort situation in a little more detail in a second. but this sentencing recommendation from these prosecutors, it not only spells out what they're hoping to get from the judge in virginia in terms of manafort's sentence. what's interesting about it and what's worth taking a closer look at in terms of the prosecutor's memo tonight, is that they also in making this case to the judge, they

summarized what they believed to have been manafort's crimes and their seriousness and whether or not he's done other things on top of those crimes that mean he should have even more of the book thrown at him. so it is worth looking at that in detail and we're going to get there in just a moment. before we do that, though, we shouldn't let the sort of magnitude of what just happened with the president's campaign chair, we shouldn't let that push aside a couple of other really important things that happened today before we get the manafort sentencing memo. so there are a couple of other things that basically got ripe and fell off the tree today when it comes to two other cases that derive from mueller's investigation. the first one is about roger stone, president trump's longtime adviser. he was arrested at his home in florida three weeks ago today. mr. stone has pled not guilty to seven felony charges. he says he's innocent every everything he he was charged with. one of the interesting things about roger stone's indictment

right from the get-go, on the front page of that indictment, prosecutors notified the court that they considered his case to have a sibling. they considered his case to be formally legally related to this other case that has this case number that you can see here 18cr215. that case is the mueller indictment of a dozen russian military intelligence officers. that case is the gru indictment. one of the core indictments of mueller's investigation was that gru indictment from last year. in that indictment mueller charged russian military intelligence officers with, quote, conspiring to hack into the computers of u.s. persons and entities involved in the 2016 u.s. presidential election to steal documents from those computers and to stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. that's how mueller's prosecutors have sort of nutted up that indictment. that's what those gru officers were charged with. now, roger stone and his

attorneys had objected to the roger stone case being formally legally linked to the gru case. they had complained about it formally to the court. why do they care? well, one of the material consequences of having your case legally linked to another case is that all legally formally related cases all get heard by the same judge. so when roger stone and his lawyers started complaining to the court that his case shouldn't have been described as related to the gru indictment, what they were really saying is that they didn't want roger stone's case to be heard by the same judge who is dealing with the gru case. he was effectively arguing that he wanted to be assigned to a different judge. roger stone and his lawyers today failed in that effort. that same judge is keeping his case. that ruling from the judge came very quickly today after robert mueller and the d.c. u.s. attorney's office filed a response with the court, laying out why in fact the roger stone case and the gru case are all about the same thing.

and in the course of making that argument to the court, we learned from the special counsel's office today that some of the gru defendants, some of these russian military intelligence officers who have been charged by mueller for interfering in the election, some of those defendants, according to prosecutors, quote, interacted directly with roger stone concerning stolen materials posted online. prosecutors also explain how they ended up with evidence against roger stone when they seized material for the russian military intelligence case. quote, as alleged in the gru indictment, in 2016 the gru defendants stole documents from the dnc, the democratic party, from the dccc, the democratic congressional campaign committee, and the clinton campaign chair. those defendants then released many of the stolen documents, including through a website maintained by wikileaks. in the course of investigating that activity, the government obtained and executed dozens of search warrants on various

accounts used to facilitate the transfer of stolen documents for release, as well as to discuss the timing and promotion of their release. several of those search warrants were executed on account that contained roger stone's communications. his communications with guccifer 2.0, a fictitious online persona created by the gru. they said they also obtained stone's communications with wikileaks. quote, evidence obtained from those search warrants resulted in the allegations that the gru defendants hacked and stole documents for release through intermediaries, including wikileaks, and that stone lied to a congressional committee investigating among other things the activities of wikileaks regarding those stolen documents. so the same search warrant turned up the evidence that led to the charges against these russian military intelligence officers, that they hacked and stole documents for release during the campaign. they used wikileaks as part of their distribution channel for doing that. that same search warrant turned up the information that led to stone being charged for lying to

congress about their investigation, among other things, wikileaks. so that's mueller's prosecutors today telling a federal judge in washington, d.c. that they've got the communications between roger stone and russian military intelligence. they've also got the communication between roger stone and wikileaks concerning these stolen democratic documents that the russian hacked and then staged for distribution during the campaign in a way that was designed to cause maximum damage to hillary clinton and maximum benefit to donald trump. upon getting that argument and those declarations from robert mueller and the special counsel's office, explaining all of the links between roger stone and russian military intelligence that they turned up through their evidentiary searches, the judge then promptly ruled against roger stone. no, she is not giving up that case. she will be hearing that case because it is related to the gru case. clearly these two cases are related matters.

so that happened today. and then soon thereafter a curveball development in the criminal case that derives from the mueller investigation that concerns president trump's longtime attorney michael cohen. now, cohen, as you know, is about to start a federal prison sentence early next month for multiple felony charges, including two campaign finance felonies. he's going to prison for three years. those campaign finance felonies he's going to jail for concern about $250,000 in hush money that was paid to two different women ahead of the 2016 election to prevent those women from going public with their allegations they had had extramarital affairs with donald trump. and i know that of all the things that president trump is potentially implicated in in all of these scandals, the hush money to the ladies thing, of everything, it just doesn't feel like the thing that should be

following him home every night looking more and more like a metaphorical grim reaper all the time, right? but think about everything that that alleged crime, well, that confessed crime when it comes to michael cohen, think about all of the things that have fallen apart and that are in jeopardy because of that one pair of felonies. his longtime personal attorney michael cohen is going to prison for that and he has effectively flipped against the president and become a cooperating witness for the special counsel's office on the way to that prison sentence. and as part of that prosecution of that case, when it came to michael cohen, prosecutors identified the president as individual one, as the person who not only benefitted from those campaign finance felonies but who directed that those felonies be committed. those crimes, of course, also touch on the president's campaign, since the president's campaign was the beneficiary of those illegal contributions. it also touches on a company called ami, the publisher of the

national enquirer supermarket tabloid. ami was involved in the commission of one of those felonies. that firm and its executives are being looked at for having potentially violated the cooperation agreement they entered into with 3rprosecutorso avoid being prosecuted themselves for their role in one of those felonies. ami agreed as part of that non-prosecution agreement that they would commit no other crimes for at least three years. prosecutors are now reportedly looking at whether, in fact, ami has committed other crimes since entering into that agreement. if so, that nonprosecution agreement with ami is blown up. and that company and its executives may be liable, not just for their confessed role in that campaign finance felony that's sending michael cohen to prison. but for anything else they disclosed to prosecutors over the course of their cooperation as well. eek. that same crime also implicates the president's business, the

trump organization. since the trump organization appears to be the entity through which some of those illegal campaign funds were effectively laundered. we know that the chief financial officer for the trump organization has been cooperating at least to some extent with prosecutors on this matter, and he may have secured for himself an immunity deal in relation to that cooperation. and now on top of all of that, still deriving from those same felonies, now, tonight, congressman elijah cummings, the chairman of the house oversight committee in the house, has just published these 19 pages of notes. some of them are typed. a lot of them are redacted. some of them are hand scrawled and very hard to read. these are notes from the office of government ethics. congressman cummings has released these notes. he has also released to the public a letter to a trump organization lawyer. he's also released to the public a new letter he has sent to the white house counsel. those letters demand information related to those hush money payments and those letters make

the explosive allegation that it's not just michael cohen, that two additional trump lawyers, one who worked in the white house and another lawyer who represents trump in a personal capacity, she was actually the one who orchestrated that stunt during the transition where trump sat there by the big piles of papers and supposedly handed over control of his business to his sons. the lawyer who orchestrated that and another lawyer who worked in the white house, according to elijah cummings tonight, they themselves may be in trouble for making false statement about those hush money payments. quote, new documents obtained by the committee from the office of government ethics describe false information provided by the lawyers representing president trump, including sheri dillon, president trump's personal attorney and steven passatino, former deputy white house counsel for compliance and ethics. eek. who has now left the white house to represent the trump

organization. president trump's former attorney michael cohen is now going to prison in part for his role in these hush money payments. during his guilty plea mr. cohen said he did this in coordination with and at the direction of the president for the principle purpose of influencing the election. congressman cummings continues, quote, it now appears that president trump's other attorneys at the white house and in private practice may have provided false information about these payments to federal officials. this raises significant questions about why some of the president's closest advisers made these false claims and the extent to which they too were acting at the direction of or in coordination with the president. one of the president's lawyers is already going to prison for his role in covering up those hush money payments. now here's a couple more who elijah cummings says are potentially on the hook related to those payments as well. and not just the payments in their case but the cover-up of the payments.

so the cohen prosecution on the hush money payments, cohen being prosecuted for those campaign finance felonies, him being prosecuted for those campaign finance felonies and naming the president as the person who directed him to commit those felonies, that is dramatic enough on its own terms, but that case is turning out to be a legal nightmare for lots of other individuals and entities that surround the president, from his business life, from his political life before he got elected and even know from his life as president. this is all today. so dramatic developments today on the roger stone case, on the michael cohen case and related cases. but as i mentioned, the really big kahuna tonight is what just happened to the president's campaign chair, to paul manafort, with prosecutors telling one of the two federal judges who is due to sentence him soon that they want a 19 to 24-year prison term for him plus potentially tens of millions of dollars in fines and restitution. the implications of this are not

just bad for paul manafort. in some cases they are revelatory and that story is next. stay with us. (vo) we're carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a few years old or dinosaur old, we want to buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions, and our techno-wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you,

pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car and say hello to the new way... at carvana. -jamie, this is your house? -i know, it's not much, but it's home. right, kids? -kids? -papa, papa! -[ laughs ] -you didn't tell me your friends were coming. -oh, yeah. -this one is tiny like a child. -yeah, she is. oh, but seriously, it's good to be surrounded by what matters most -- a home and auto bundle from progressive. -oh, sweetie, please, play for us. -oh, no, i couldn't. -please. -okay. [ singing in spanish ] we all make excuses for the things we don't want to do. but when it comes to colon cancer screening... i'm not doin' that. i eat plenty of kale. ahem, as i was saying... ...with cologuard, you don't need an excuse... all that prep? no thanks. that drink tastes horrible! but...there's no prep with cologuard...

i can't take the time off work. who has two days? and i feel fine - no symptoms! everybody, listen! all you need is a trip to the bathroom. if you're 50 or older and at average risk, cologuard is the noninvasive option that finds 92% of colon cancers. you just get the kit in the mail, go to the bathroom, collect your sample, then ship it to the lab! this is your year! own it! cologuard is not right for everyone. it is not for high risk individuals, including those with a history of colon cancer or precancer, ibd, certain hereditary cancer syndromes, or a family history of colon cancer. ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. covered by medicare and most major insurers.

ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. for each family member? so with xfinity mobile i can customize each line yup. and since it comes with your internet, you can switch wireless carriers and save hundreds of dollars a year. are you pullin' my leg? nope. you sure you're not pullin' my leg? i think it's your dog. oh it's him. good call. get the data options you need and still save hundreds of dollars... do you guys sell other dogs? ...now that's simple, easy, awesome. customize each line by paying for data by the gig or get unlimited. and now get $200 back when you buy and eligible smartphone. click, call, or visit a store today.

as the new attorney general william barr today started his first day on the job as head of the justice department, leading the husband of one senior white house staffer to proclaim online that william barr starting as a.g. means, quote, mueller will soon be gone. as william bar took the reins at the justice department for his first day today, this is what prosecutors in robert mueller's office told a federal judge tonight, who is starting the sentencing process for president trump's campaign chairman, paul j. manafort. quote, the united states of america, by and through special counsel robert s. mueller, files this submission to address the sentencing of the defendant paul j. manafort jr. as an initial matter, the government agrees with the guidelines in the presentence report and its calculation of the defendant's total offense level as 38 with a corresponding range of imprisonment with 235 to 293 months. that's 19 1/2 years to 24 1/2 years in prison.

a fine range of $50,000 to $24.4 million. restitution in the amount of $24.8 million and forfeiture in the amount of $4.4 million. the defendant stands convicted of the serious crimes of tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to file a foreign bank account report. manafort was the lead perpetrator and direct beneficiary of each offense. while some of these offenses are commonly prosecuted, there was nothing ordinary about the millions of dollars involved in the defendant's crimes, the duration of his criminal conduct or the sophistication of his schemes. footnote one. footnote one reads, quote, manafort was being investigated prior to the may 2017 appointment of the special counsel by prosecutors in this district, meaning in the eastern district of virginia, and by prosecutors in the criminal division of the department of justice. oh.

they were already pursuing manafort before mueller was ever appointed. quote, manafort committed these crimes over an extended period of time from at least 2010 to 2016. this criminal decisions were not momentary or limited in time, they were routine, and manafort's repeated misrepresentations to financial institutions were brazen. at least of which were made when he was the subject of significant national attention. aware of any mitigating factors. manafort did not commit these crimes out of necessity are hardship. he was well-educated, financially successful -- out of more than $6 million in taxes at a time when he had substantial resources. manafort committed bank fraud to supplement his liquidity because his lavish spending exhausted his substantial cash resources when his overseas income dwindled. finally manafort pled guilty in september 2018 in the u.s. district court for the district of columbia to other crimes committed over an even longer period. the government references those

crimes below in particular because they demonstrate the defendant's concerted criminality, including the conduct to which he pled guilty from as early as 2005 and continuing up until the defendant's involvement in an obstruction of justice conspiracy between february and april of 2018. a crime manafort committed while under indictment in two jurisdictions and subject to court ordered bail conditions. quote, in the end, manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars. the sentence here should reflect the seriousness of these crimes and serve to deter both manafort and others from engaging in such conduct. oof. no mitigating factors.

in addition, prosecutors also tell the judge that manafort deserves an enhancement of his sentence because he was effectively the leader of other people in committing this criminal scheme. quote, manafort controlled the money at issue. he recruited others to facilitate these crimes and he claimed a larger share of the proceeds. further, manafort was plainly the leader. he involved numerous individuals who were both knowing and unknowing participants in the criminal scheme. these included rick gates and konstantin kilimnik. manafort's tax preparers, his bookkeepers and others in cyprus who were involved in originating and maintaining the defendant's overseas accounts. the leadership enhancement and warranted, which means there is something that gets colloquially referred to as the leadership enhancement that makes your sentence worse. they say he should get that. the prosecutors also say he deserves another sentence enhancement for using

sophisticate means to commit his crimes. on page 19 of their submission, prosecutors say manafort should be given zero credit in his sentencing for accepting responsibility for his crimes. they say he should get no credit for that in part because he didn't plead guilty to anything in virginia case. in part because because he breached his cooperation agreement in the d.c. case and lied to prosecutors after he did plead guilty there. they say he also shouldn't get that, in part, because now he still isn't handing over the financial materials he's supposed to hand over as part of his sentencing process. here is the big windup from prosecutors against the president's campaign chairman. quote, manafort's history and characteristics are aggravating factors. manafort has had every opportunity to succeed. he's well-educated and a member of the legal profession. attending georgetown university for college and law school. he was a successful political consultant, both in the united states and abroad. there they footnote rick gates talking about how brilliant manafort was at his job. quote, manafort's age does not eliminate the risk of recidivism he poses, particularly given that his pattern of criminal activity has occurred over more than a decade and that the most recent crimes he pled guilty to occurred from february to april of last year. when he conspired to tampered

with witnesses at a time when he was under indictment in two separate districts. further, as judge jackson in d.c. found, manafort's misconduct continued as recently as october 2018, when he repeatedly and intentionally lied to the government during proffer sessions and the grand jury. for a decade, paul manafort repeatedly violated the law, considering only the crimes charged in this district, they make plain that manafort chose to engage in a sophisticated scheme to hide millions of dollars from u.s. authorities. and when his foreign income stream dissipated in 2015, he chose to engage in a series of bank frauds in the u.s. to maintain his extravagant lifestyle at the expense of various financial institutions. manafort chose to do this for no other reason than greed, evidencing his belief that the law doesn't apply to him. manafort solicited numerous professionals others to reap his ill-gotten gains. the sentence must serve to

specifically deter manafort and deter those who would commit a similar series of crimes. that's signed on behalf of the special counsel's office. they are recommending 19 1/2 years to 24 1/2 years in prison and fines and restitution of up to tens of millions of dollars. now, this is just the filing from the prosecutors. we will now expect quickly to see a filing from manafort's defense team that says, seriously, you guys, don't be crazy. he's a boy scout who missed a few merit badges. community service would be more than appropriate, your honor. i'm paraphrasing what i expect, but given these guideline ranges, given the felonies that manafort has been convicted of in this case, and given the fact that this is the first of manafort's two federal sentencing processes, this is only the first judge who is going to sentence him. i think what's important for all of us, not just for paul manafort, not just the

president's campaign chair in terms of what this says about the president's campaign. what may be important for the country here is that this is very much looking like the end of the line for paul manafort. i mean, what was he thinking in blowing up his plea deal by lying intentionally to prosecutors from the special counsel's office? i mean, he had to know they were going to catch him, given everything else they caught him on. well, the judge says one of the things manafort intentionally lied to prosecutors about was the extend of his communications with the guy who prosecutors say is linked to russian intelligence. just think about that for a second. that's what he deliberately lied to prosecutors about, even after he had entered into a cooperation deal with him, when he knew that lying would be essentially a fatal offense. that means at great personal expense, at the cost of potentially dying in prison, paul manafort, the president's

campaign chairman lied to cover up the channel of communication or at least a channel of communication between the trump campaign when he was chairman and russian intelligence during the time that russia was interfering in the u.s. presidential election to help his candidate, to help president trump. he was deliberately lying to prosecutors about that. that is the lie that is going to cost paul manafort his last free breath. to cover up that channel of communication between the trump campaign and russian intelligence during the campaign, paul manafort is willing to die in prison. is his effort to cover that up something that president trump will see as worthy of a presidential pardon? again, today was the first full day on the job for william barr as attorney general of the united states. this is his second time serving as attorney general of the united states.

the one thing he's famous for doing the first time he was a.g. in the administration of george h.w. bush is that he was the driving force behind the infamous christmas eve 1992 pardons for six senior administration officials who were caught up in the iran-contra scandal, including the secretary of defense. six iran-contra figures pardoned on christmas eve by president bush after bush had already been voted out of office but before next president could be sworn in. william barr is the one who recommended those pardons in iran-contra. the day he started as attorney general, this president's campaign chairman received a sentence recommendation from prosecutors of 19 to 24 years in prison, plus tens of millions of dollars to pay. like i said, it's all happening at once now. news around here. ♪ sources say liberty mutual customizes

your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. over to you, logo. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ when your flight gets in late, it's never too early for coffee. oh no no no. your new boss seems cool, but she might not be sweatpants cool. who is that ready this early? it's only 7 am. somebody help me. close call. not quite ready to face the day? that's why we're here with free hot breakfast and a warm welcome. book at hampton.com for our price match guarantee. hampton by hilton. book at hampton.com for half of small businesses fail within 5 years.ne.

and more people than ever struggle with debt. intuit is here to change this story... with giant solutions like turbotax, quickbooks and mint that give everyone the power to prosper. intuit. proud makers of turbotax, quickbooks and mint. [kno♪king] ♪ memories. what we deliver by delivering. to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best to make you everybody else...

♪ ♪ means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. does this sound dismal? it isn't. ♪ ♪ it's the most wonderful life on earth. ♪ ♪

in addition to the sentencing recommendation from prosecutors tonight, special counsel's office telling a judge tonight they think president's campaign chair paul manafort should serve 19 to 24 years in prison. in addition to that recommendation from prosecutors tonight, we also within moments of that got a transcript tonight from a previously sealed hearing where a separate federal judge ruled earlier this week that manafort in fact intentionally lied to prosecutors and the grand jury. including specific deliberate lies that were intended to cover up manafort's contacts with a

man named konstantin kilimnik, a political operative who prosecutors say is tied to russian intelligence. from the transcript, here's the judge. quote, we have now spent considerable time talking about multiple clusters of false or misleading or incomplete or needed to be prodded by counsel statements, all of which center around the defendant's relationship or communications with mr. kilimnik. the judge continues, quote, this is a topic at the undisputed core of the office of special counsel's investigation. as paragraph b of the appointment order put it. she's quoting the appointment order that established the special counsel's office with robert mueller at its helm. she quotes that appointment order where mueller is assigned to look into, quote, any links and/or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the trump campaign.

joining us now is barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney from the great state of michigan. barb, thank you so much for being here. i have a lot of things i want to talk to you about. >> yeah, thanks, rachel. busy day. >> yeah, man, it all happens at once. in the manafort transcript we got today out of the d.c., the recurring theme, it's like a 70-page transcript, is that manafort lied a lot to the government, the judge finds he did breach his cooperation deal, he did it on purpose and she really hones in on him lying about his communications with this guy kilimnik who the government says is tied to russian intelligence. you were talking the other night about the importance of why manafort might have lied and what specifically he was lying about. now that we see the judge pell it out, what do you make of this? >> as you pointed out, he took on great risk by lying, knowing he was risking this substantial prison sentence for lying. much of it is redacted so we don't know exactly what it was he was obscuring, but she does say that the fbi has assessed that konstantin kilimnik was connected to russian intelligence and that was what he went out of his way to lie

about. she also points out these were not lapses of memory or failures to recollect, he created false narratives about matters he was asked about konstantin kilimnik. he certainly was very deliberate in lying about konstantin kilimnik. there is still some mystery for us, but those redacted bars may reveal the rest of the story. >> and barb, when you see the prosecutors ask for 19 1/2 to 24 1/2 years for manafort, just in virginia. that judge that ruled he deliberately lied about the communications with kilimnik, that judge is yet to start the sentencing process with him.

that sentencing won't happen until next month, but this recommendation from prosecutors that in the virginia case alone he should be looking at 19 to 24 years, does that mean we should expect he will get 19 to 24 years? >> you know, that's the sentencing guidelines. it's sort of a starting point where judges are supposed to look to calculate a sentence. it's a very numerical score. all these kinds of things. you come up with kind of a math score and you go to a table and that's where you get that range of 19 to 24. then the judge is allowed to consider mitigating factors and aggravating factors to decide whether the sentence should be a little bit below that or a little bit above that. based on this filing, they can't think of any mitigating factors, there are aggravating factors for someone who is very wealthy, highly educated and yet based solely on greed decides to commit these crimes. the defense will file something certainly that tries to point out some mitigating factors, but i can't imagine they're going to say things that convince this judge to go substantially below that range. >> wow. barb, if you can stick with us, there is one other matter i wanted to ask you about, actually raised by congress

today. two more lawyers associated wit the president now being accused by congress of lying to federal officials about that hush money crime for which michael cohen is going to prison next month. if you could stick with us, i'd like to get your take on that before i let you go. >> you bet. >> great. barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney from michigan when we come back. stay with us. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. now no fruit is forbidden. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn?

for all-day, i but i can tell you ion. liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ and i recently had hi, ia heart attack. it changed my life. but i'm a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it's for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works.

brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. in a clinical study, brilinta worked better than plavix. brilinta reduced the chance of having another heart attack... ...or dying from one. don't stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor, since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. don't take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. slow heart rhythm has been reported. tell your doctor about bleeding new or unexpected shortness of breath any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. if you recently had a heart attack, ask your doctor if brilinta is right for you. my heart is worth brilinta. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪ ♪ your grace. your majesty. your king.

a legacy of leaders, speeders and serpent feeders. the alfa romeo giulia, stelvio and c37. back with us again is barb mcquade, she's a former u.s. attorney from michigan. barb, thank you for sticking with me on this. elijah cummings, chairman of the oversight committee, has released a whole bunch of documents tonight and they're from the office of government ethics. it's some handwritten notes, some type written notes. a big part of it appears to be redacted. this is what that release from elijah cummings looks like, but he says that what these documents show is that a couple of lawyers working for the president, one who worked for the white house and one who worked for the president in a personal capacity, gave false information to the office of government ethics about that hush money payment, the hush money payment that was the basis for the felony charges against

michael cohen, the campaigns finance felonies he's going to prison for next month. those are the campaign finance felonies he's implicated the president as having directed him to commit those felonies. now cummings says other lawyers for the president gave false statements about those payments to the government office of ethics when they were working on the president's financial disclosure about some of these matters. is this something that is sort of slap on the wrist territory? is this potentially illegal if they made false statements about those payments? >> yes, making a false statement to anyone in government is a crime. it's the same statute 18 usc section 1001, false statements. it's the same crime that we've seen robert mueller charge many times for lying to the fbi or lying to congress. it is similarly a crime to lie to a government agency about some matter that they are looking at within their jurisdiction. so if the office of government ethics is looking into this and someone makes a false statement to them, that is a prosecutable

offense. >> and am i right that this is one of those cases where there's a popular perception that it only matters if you lied if you were under oath but lawyers will tell you it doesn't matter if you're under oath if you were lying to federal officials in that kind of a context, it's a crime regardless of whether or not you ever put your hand on a bible? >> absolutely right. it's a different crime. if you lie under oath, it's a crime of perjury. if you're not under oath, it's a different crime, crime of false statements. they're both punishable for up to five years in prison. >> barbara mcquade, it's great to have you here being clarion, as always. barb, thank you so much. >> thank you, rachel. it was a great pleasure. >> much more to get to. busy, busy, busy friday night. stay with us. this is not a bed.

it's a revolution in sleep. the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now, from $899, during the ultimate sleep number event.

it senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it even helps with this. so you wake up ready to hit the ground running. only at a sleep number store. during our presidents day weekend special, save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 36-month financing. ends monday. sleep number... proven quality sleep because they let me to customize my insurance, and as a fitness junkie, i customize everything. like my bike and my calves. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i never count trthe wrinkles.s. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on, is staying happy and healthy. so, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals your body needs.

all with guaranteed great taste. the upside- i'm just getting started. boost® high protein be up for life. this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today.

this will go down in the history of the trump presidency as the day he declared a national emergency, a national emergency, a national emergency that requires him to build a wall between us and mexico. because of immigrants crossing the southern border. what will also hopefully go down in history is the fact that right after he declared that national emergency he immediately got on a plane and flew away to go to one of his private clubs to play golf for the weekend. one of his clubs where he and his business are under increasing scrutiny, including possible legal scrutiny for hiring lots and lots of illegal immigrants to come work for him. it is not new for presidents to play golf. it doesn't help the sense of emergency that he needed to go golf urgently as soon as he declared this emergency. it didn't also help that while

he was in the middle of declaring this supposed emergency he couldn't help himself from literally saying, "i didn't need to do this." >> i didn't need to do this. >> the whole idea of that emergency is that you did need to do this. you did need to. hence the emergency. and then he hopped a plane to florida to go hit a few balls. even if the president is not doing his best work to make anybody take this idea of an emergency seriously, democrats in congress signalled that they are taking the declaration today quite seriously. house judiciary chair jerry nadler has already announced an investigation into the president's actions today. by next friday he wants the white house to make white house and justice department officials available for a first hearing on the subject. they're also already demanding legal documents about what processes went into making this emergency declaration today. that should be fascinating. remember, it was the emergency declaration right before the golf trip.

i mean, the lawsuits on this thing are already falling like rain. however long the duration is of the trump presidency, should we expect this matter to be tied up in court for that entire duration of his presidency? or should we expect that this, for all its faults and its weaknesses, might be actually something that is going something. i'm glad you recovered from the hard time you had watching the president make this announcement today. >> when i die and go to heaven, i'm going to demand that 50 minutes back first. >> why was is so upsetting to you? >> i mean, first of all, there's no evidence, right? he says there's an emergency, he says he has his own data that doesn't necessarily correspond to his own government's data. he just knows and the angel moms want this. i mean, the degree to which he just insists that everyone, including his own crime statistics, including, you know, his own experts are lying. and nancy's lying and chuck is

lying. it's almost like this strange parallel universe where you're dragged into his brain and sort of thrash around in this reality of, you know, the rapists and the women with the tape. it's been debunked and debunked and debunked. you just have to hear it again. it's crazy. >> but legally, isn't he free to free associate like that and to call everybody a liar and to negate all factual information to the contrary, because if a president, not just him, any president calls something an emergency, legally it's an emergency? >> the national emergencies act in this sense is the worst thing that could have happened to the republic because it was trying to constrain at the time, 1976, post-watergate, the declarations of emergencies, but what it in fact did was not define what an emergency is. not enumerate what the qualities might be. it essentially gave the president carte blanche to just say this one is an emergency. you're right. it plays into that.

>> so when nadler and the judiciary committee, i find it interesting that they are already demanding documents about the legal reasoning and the decision-making process that went into this declaration. that will not necessarily be helpful in any legal sense in terms of the national emergencies act. that will be helpful in terms of political accountability if they can show the decision-making process here was nutball. >> two answers here. one, it will matter at some point to some courts whether under the national emergencies act this is any kind of emergency. >> really? >> that will matter, i think, to some. >> okay. >> certainly when he says i didn't need to do this, there are judges i think who are going to say, boy, whatever this emergency was, and it's important to say -- and he said it several times. there are 50-some current national emergencies that have been declared. it's not a, you know, it is a fairly trivial thing to declare an emergency. often they have to do with, you know, banking and foreign countries. they don't usually have to do with building a wall. but he's going to say, look, people to this all the time. he will be right. but the fact that this is it in no way, shape or form an

emergency, that his own national security team testified a month ago and forgot to mention the crisis of immigrant -- of illegal immigrants on the foreign border -- >> they were testifying about every threat to the nation. >> every emergency. except this. it didn't rank. so that will be material. i think the other thing that is important about this is that the lawsuits that are going to come are not going to be necessarily hinge on this question of whether it was an emergency. i think they're going to come from land owners. one's already been filed. >> we're already seeing that. right. a public citizen filed a suit on behalf of three folks in texas whose land is going to be taken by eminent domain. those are going to be i think easier questions for the courts. i think the courts generally defer to the president when they make claims about national security, right? that's what the hawaii-trump case was. they tend to defer. but i think that on cases that have sort of these hard-hitting questions of, you know, not did the president lie, but can they take land away from people for a pretextual emergency? that's when it's going to become

material. >> what did you make of the president today singing a little ditty that ended with him getting to the supreme court, which will definitely ratify this decision, even though he expects other bad decisions in other districts and circuits? >> again, it's a maddening attack on the ninth circuit. he explicitly attacked the ninth circuit and delegitimized -- >> he does that all the time. >> i know. but remember when we used to care? remember when the rule of law -- some respect. >> judges in general. >> so there was that. but then also this sort of, you know, touchdown dance where my court is at the end of the day going to vindicate me -- >> because i've got five conservatives. so i'll get there. i'll get whatever i need out of them. >> i wrote today about neil gorsuch wrote before he came on to the court about how damaging it is to try to do public policy in the courts because all it does is undermine and delegitimize the judges and the justices. this is kind of made to order what he was cautioning us about. >> dahlia lithwick is senior editor and legal correspondent

at "slate." i feel like this has been junior law school rachelle maddow show. happy to keep things straight here. >> a-plus. >> thank you. i paid for that. thought does it for us tonight. we'll see you again on monday. it's time for "the last word" ali svelte velshi is in for lawrence o'donnell tonight. >> president trump's national emergency declaration has its first legal challenge tonight. just hours after the president declared it. the watchdog group public citizen filed a lawsuit in federal court in washington challenging the president's announcement today that he will redirect billions of dollars of federal funding to build a border wall because of his so-called national emergency. democrats in congress are also making plans to fight the president's declarat