tonight. we thank you for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. from nbc news headquarters here in new york. this morning president trump's attorneys appear to be bracing for robert mueller's final report the president's lawyer rudy giuliani said they have not heard from the special counsel in weeks. plus, a federal judge puts a strict gag order on long-time trump ally roger stone after he appeared in court to answer for a co and innt north carolina, the go congressional candidate in that disputed midterm race makes a stunning reversal. republican mark harris is now calling for a special election. good morning, it's friday, february 22nd.

this morning president trump's legal team is bracing for special counsel robert mueller's final report on russian enti interference in the 2016 election. rudy giuliani says trump's attorneys have not heard from robert mueller's team in weeks, and there's been no further discussion about additional testimony from the president in about a month. the rudy giuliani says the extended period of silence h has -- that the special couns counsel's work has been completed, something giuliani says they expect in the next two weeks. trump's legal team has been preparing a report of their own. he said quotes, if mueller clears the president, we walk away and say thank you. if it's damaging, then we will respond. deputy ag rod rosenstein spoke at his alma mater yesterday rkts the wharton school of the university of pennsylvania for what he described as onesc of his quote

last significant events within the justice s department where has worked since he was 25 years old. rosenstein who authorized and oversaw the special counsel's investigation has been repeatedly attacked by president trump inha recent days and over the last two years, but he encouraged students to go into pick service. >> the truth is that everyone's life is a product of random events and consequential decisions. the random events are things that happen to you beyond your control. the consequential decisions are what you choose to do about it. remember, the truth is not determined by opinion polls and history is not written by television pundits. ignore p the mercenary critics d focus on the things that matter because a republic that endures for centuries is not governed by the daily news cycle. i'm

proud of what the department of justice accomplished on my watch and the trump administration. in 1940 attorney general robert jackson explainedrn the governmt lawyers must at times risk ourselves and our records to defend our legal processes from discredit and toro maintain a dispassiona dispassionate, disinterested and impartial d enforcement of law even if it requires us to incur criticism. i took more than my share of criticism, but i kept the faith. i followed the rules and i left my office in good hands. those are the things that matter. >> a federal judgein has banned long-time trump ally roger stone from speaking publicly about his case. this after he was hauled back into court to answer for a controversial instagram post. nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has theon latest. >> reporter: roger stone is heading home not to jail for now and not to a tv studio either after a judge ordered stone to stop talking about his case.

amy berman jackson calling him into court after stone posted a picture on instagram showing her with ae target next to her fac. on the stand stone apologized for his own stupidity and called the post a momentary lapse of judgmentta adding, i honestly didn't believe they were cross hairs and iel took it down becae i recognized it could be misinterpreted. judge jackson didn't buy it telling stone his apology rings quite hollow and slapping him with a gag order. stone now can't say anything at all about the case after saying plenty since pleading not guilty to charges brought by the special counsel last month. >> they beat me up pretty good. they want to silence me. >> jackson warned stone not to test herar limits again. i gave you a second chance, she said. this is not baseball. you don't get a third chance. stone's still allowed to use social media to raisewe money f his legal defense fund after his instagram nearly cost him his freedom. hallie jackson, nbc news. another congressional appearance has been added to michael cohen's schedule next week.

he willn'du now testify about t president behind closed doors to the senate intel committee on tuesday. cohen was already set to testify publicly before the house oversighte committee wednesday and privately to the house intel committee on thursday. he was spotted on the hill yesterday, but didn't say a word about why he was there. >> mr. cohen, why were you on the hill today? sir were you meeting with the senate intel team? >> we're answering no questions. >> what's your message to the president? >> some reporters followed him into the offices of the senate intel committee. cohen's media adviser lanny davis said cohen met only with his own legal team to review legal documents that could not leave the area. it was a mystery in may of last year how michael avenatti obtained michael cohen's bank records. federal prosecutors say they've now figured it all out. irs investigator john fry has been charged with searching for and leaking confidential

suspicious activity reports. reports filed by banks when they note potentially suspicious transactions. officials say fry verbally admitted providing the information to avenatti when he was confronted by federal agents. the complaint says one of the reports related to bank accounts for essential consultants, the shell company cohen createdde t pay off stormy daniels cohen claims at the direction of donald trump. north carolina officials have ordered a new election in the unresolved district 9 house race after being presented with enough evidence to prove attempted voter fraud. >> the absolute mess with the absentee ballots, the illegal activities that have occurred there in the election office itself and with the people involved in the absentee ballots, i believe the number probably is sufficient in and of

itself to call for a new election, but it certainly was a tainted election. >> the unanimous ruling by the five-member board of elections follows a months long investigation into a ballot counting scheme orchestrated by a political operative to sway votes in the republicanop candidate's favor. in a stunning reversal in his previous attempts to have the race results certified, republican candidate mark harris agreed during his testimony yesterday that a new election is necessary. >>st through the testimony i've listened to over the past three days, i believe i a new electio should be called. it's become clear to me that the public's confidence in theth 9t district seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted. >> harris led democrat dan mccready by 905 votes in the midterm election results. mccready tweeted in part yesterday that the board's decision was a quote, great step forward for democracy in north carolina. the board will sety new dates r anet election in the district

going forward. officials are looking at a may primary. no word on whether harris will run for the congressional seat once again.ng joining us is dan litman, the co-author of the "politico" play book. mark harris was in washington did have d.c. how's this ringing out on capitol hill what happened in north carolina? >> i think capitol hill has been watching this and cringing the wholhow'has time because they wondering howse mark harris cou even think to hire this guy to help t with absentee ballots, tt he was warned by his own son was likely a fraudulent operation, and soen a lot of capitol hill republicans think that they should have had a tighter leash on this guy, and they didn't expect that in the 21st century that they would be resorting to, you know, ballot fraud.

from democrats you hear people talking about as much attention on this case, what about all those state laws that republican legislatures have passed toan me ites harder for people to vote, particularly minorities, and so that's something you hear that from democrats as a talking point because they believe that suppresses the number of votes from minorities. >> either way it's astounding to see this has dragged on for some long. >> the midterms continue. >> absolutely right. >> it's going to for several more months, the people of that district won't have a representative. >> yeah. >> let's talk quickly about these reports that the special counsel is going to be wrapping up in the next week or so, who knows when that thing could feasibly drop and when we could see it. >> if at all, right. >> if we see itat at all. we heard from rouudy giuliani tt they have a strategy as to how they're going to respond, if he is exonerated, if he's free and clear, they say thank you, they walk away, but if there is something in the special counsel

report that implicates the president, then they are going to respond accordingly. what sort of way are they going to respond accordingly? what's the plan here for trump's legal team? >> so the plan is if there's anything bad, they are going to continue to call it a witch hunt. they're going to say that nu mueller's team was biased when, in fact, mueller is a republican and when you talk to a lot of members on capitol hill they say he's done a very thorough job, and they respect t his work, bu it's definitely influenced how americans view this investigation. a lot of people were skeptical of it, but look at all the people they've indicted. look at all the stuff that we dide not know about in terms o the trump tower meeting and the various crimes that trump's associates have done. i think there's also an expectation that we should, as the american people, get to read as much of this report as

possible, and that it would really be unfair for bill barr to keep this secret. >> yeah. there is that expectation, the question is will it actually happen. i think a lot of us would like to see what's inside that report. daniel lippman, good seeing you. you're going to talk to you in a little tabit. li a federal judge reveals tt florida prosecutor including the man who serves as president trump's labor secretary broke the law in the case involving billionaire sex offender jeffrey epstein. and chicago police accuse jussie smollett of staging a hate crime to advance his career. those stories and more when we come back.

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recheck in from afarrently with remote access, ♪ and have professional monitoring backing you up with xfinity home. demo in an xfinity store. call, or go online today. welcome back. a federal judge in miami has ruled that a team of federal prosecutors led by alex acosta who is now labor secretary in president trump's cabinet broke the law by concealing a plea

agreement for more than 30 underaged victims sexually abused by billionaire hedge fund manager jeffrey epstein. acosta who was the u.s. attorney for southern florida declined to prosecute epstein under federal sex trafficking laws allowing him to quietly plead guilty in state court to two prostitution charges and serve 13 months in county jail. thursday's ruling said acosta's team violated the crime victims rights act by concealing their actions from the victims who were mostly between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time stripping them of their right to object and misleading the girls into thinking federal prosecution was still a possibility and by sending letters to the victims requesting their quote, patience with the investigation, even after the government entered into the non-prosecution agreement. unbelievable. the deal received renewed attention after a series of investigative articles by the

miami herald's julie k. brown prompting ben sasse to prod the justice department to open a probe into all of these decisions. epstein's lawyer did not return a call from the herald yesterday and speaking for acosta, a labor department spokesperson said the decisions were approved by the justice department and followed procedures. joining us on set msnbc legal analy analyst. so many laws were broken here with regards to prosecuting epstein. what are the next steps here for prosecutors, and could he see more time in jail? >> the judge has given the parties 15 days to come back before court and come up with a solution. that could be read as the judge giving the prosecution the doj, the opportunity to fix this problem instead of forcing the judge to try and blow up this non-prosecution agreement. but going back to what you said earlier, you're absolutely right. victims are often very shocked to find that the prosecutors

prosecuting their case are not their lawyers, and the victims are not the clients of the government. the government operates independently and can and often does make decisions that are against the wishes of victims, but the cvra is designed to give these victims some rights, including the right to be advised of the process of the litigation or the prosecution and that's the law that the judge found was violated here. >> it makes you feel as if laws are not in place to protect the victims in a case like this. >> it does. what you see is that it's questionable -- >> and how does this even happen? >> how does this happen is the prosecution is very aware of the fact that it represents the government. it represents the people of the state or the government of the united states depending on state or federal, and it does not represent these individual complainants or victims, so while there's a general obligation to keep them informed of what's going on, they are not bound by that, and that

frequently creates friction between both victim and the government. >> but when you're up against a huge guy like jeffrey epstein with as much money and power as he had and the kind of resources that he had, and you are a victim of a crime like this, especially when you're 13, 14, 15 years old, you feel somewhat helpless, especially when you feel like the law should be on your side, and in this case it wasn't. hopefully maybe this could set a precedent going forward that it doesn't happen again, but i'm not sure a lot of people have faith in that. >> the cvra the requirements are clear, you have to keep these victims informed of what's going on. even though the government really opposed this motion for summary judgment, the judge shot down most of their arguments, all of their arguments and found that they had, in fact, violated the legal obligation to inform victims of discussions of resolution, and those -- the law applies even before an actual prosecution or indictment when prosecutors are still considering charges. that much is clear about the law, and that's the situation

here where there nervous never was a federal indictment or complaint. >> i want to get your perspective, the head of the chicago police is accusing actor jussie smollett of staging an attack on himself because he was unhappy with his salary on the show "empire." he was charged with a felony for filing a false police report. in the courtroom smollett appeared visibly frustrated. he sighed and rolled his eyes during the bond hearing according to chicago police he sent himself a threatening letter. when that did not get attention, he paid two brothers $3,500 to orchestrate the attack. the brothers wore gloves and punched smollett a little bit. but authorities believe the scratches and bruises were most likely self-inflicted. detectives also believe smollett wanted the incident to be captured on summerveillance cameras. >> absolute justice would be an

apology to this city that he sme smeared admitting what he did and then be man enough to offer what he should offer up in terms of all the resources that were put into this. >> legal team released a statement saying in part that the court system had trampled the presumption of innocence in a law enforcement spectacle that has no place in the american legal system. danny, you've seen the allegations here. you followed what happened yesterday. why is this a felony account? what can we expect to play out here in the next few weeks? >> the charges fall within illinois's disorderly conduct statu statute. we all have heard of disorderly conduct. it's a catch all type crime. you played your music too loud. you made a lot of noise in your apartment, but in illinois there's a subsection for false reports given to peace officers or public officials. that becomes a felony under the law, and it's any knowing provision of false information

to the police will be a class 4 felony and up to three years in prison. >> why did he write a check? [ laughter ] >> a very fair question. >> i mean, come on. >> once again, follow the money, right? if you don't pay in cash, there's always going to be a trail whether it's venmo, apple pay, writing a check. you can always follow this money, and police -- this is a -- >> if you watch law and order, you don't write a check. >> and you don't go and you don't plan to have your crime filmed on video. that's another no-no. you want to avoid the video cameras. >> what did he write on the memo line? >> i've been waiting to deliver that one. >> that is a good question. >> danny cevallos, thank you for joining us this morning. still ahead, yes, it is winter, but parts of the west coast are seeing a rare sight, snow, freezing rain, and sleet. we'll get a full check of the forecast coming up next. coming.

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there goes our first big order. ♪ 44, 45, 46... how many of these did they order? ooh, that's hot. ♪ you know, we could sell these. nah. ♪ we don't bake. ♪ opportunity. what we deliver by delivering. welcome back. let's get a check of your weather now with nbc meteorologist janessa webb. >> good morning, i know you guys heard about that california snow here, kind of a rare sight for southern california. this month already they've already seen about five inches and it was even bigger snow out towards arizona here. flag staff getting over three feet of snow, i mean, piled up, and we continue to see that on our current radar here. you can see the northern half of

arizona that's going to continue to deal with that wintery mix here, over a half an inch of rain in the last 24 hours for phoenix, and that banding still happening. also a big weather story here is out towards the south here. we have flood concerns, and that's really going to continue for the weekend. nothing on the severe side right now, but this is starting to stretch into the carolinas. lets take a look at the flood information as we have flood watches and flood warnings out in mississippi right now, and that is really going to last until sunday afternoon, so river rising is going to be a concern. our next storm system will impact the south and southeast as we go into the weekend. 8 million under risk for severe weather. dicey weekend coming up. >> wow. >> absolutely. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. still ahead, robert mueller's team expected to deliver a sentencing memo for paul manafort just a little bit later today. we'll talk about what to expect from that document. plus, a coast guard officer accused of plotting a mass terror attack is staying behind

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welcome back, everyone, item yasmin ya suing yan, let's start with the morning's top stories. the federal judge overseeing rog roger stone's trial has tightened the gag orders suggesting potential jail time for any future violations. stone appeared in a washington, d.c. courtroom yesterday to face judge amy berman jackson. the hearing was ordered after an image was posted to stone's

instagram account monday showing the judge's face next to what appears to be cross hairs. in court stone apologized for what he called his own stupidity. a former adviser to president trump called the post quote, a momentary lapse of judgment before saying that the photo was selected by someone who works for him, which he estimated was about five or six people. stone also argued that he didn't think that the image contained cross hairs. before issuing her ruling judge jackson said stone couldn't keep his story straight on the stand and his apology rang hollow. she added the publicity of the trial can't subside if the defendant is out there fanning the flames stressing that today i gave you a second chance. this is not baseball, you don't get a third chance. under the gag order stone may not speak publicly about the investigation, his trial or anyone taking part in either. she's still allowing him to raise funds for his legal defense and maintain his innocence publicly. special counsel is required

to deliver a sentencing memo for paul manafort today as the former trump campaign chairman is expected to learn the extent of his prison term next month. yesterday a federal judge in northern virginia scheduled manafort's sentencing for march the 8th after being convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud last august, the sentencing was delayed by the dispute over paul manafort's cooperation agreement with the special counsel. last week the federal judge in manafort's washington, d.c. case ruled that he purposefully lied about subjects important to the investigation paving the way for a longer sentence. march 13th is manafort's scheduled sentencing date in d.c. for his guilty plea on conspiracy charges and lying to federal prosecutors and a grand jury. 69-year-old manafort could be in prison for the rest of his life. the coast guard lieutenant accused of plotting to carry out a mass terror attack here in the u.s. has been ordered to remain behind bars. a judge yesterday ordered that 49-year-old christopher paul hasson be held without bail for

at least two more weeks to allow prosecutors to build their case against him. hasson was arrested last week on drug and gun charges. on tuesday prosecutors filed papers alleging he had been gathering a stockpile of weapons and ammo with plans to launch a widespread attack on prominent democratic lawmakers and several high profile journalists. prosecutors say that the charges against him so far are just the quote, tip of the iceberg. in addition to the evidence found in his home, they cite his alleged google searches on phrases including what if trump illegally impeached, civil war if trump impeached and best place in d.c. to see congress people. hasson's lawyer is pushing for his client's release arguing the case against him is thin saying perceived danger has to be based on facts, not innuendo. tennessee governor bill lee has apologized after photographs of him wearing a confederate uniform were found in a 1980

auburn university yearbook. the photo shows lee and another man wearing confederate style uniform and posing with two women in period costumes. the fraternity held annual old south parties in which the men dressed up and paraded in confederate uniforms. the organization credits robert e. lee as a spiritual founder began banning confederate paraphernalia in 2001. he said he regretted the uniform quote, although i have never acted to intentionally hurt anyone, i have the benefit of 40 years of hindsight to see that participating was insensitive and i have come to regret it. republican congressman steve king says he'll seek re-election despite the fallout from troe controversy surrounding his comments supporting white supremacists and white nationalists. king has been criticized by members of his own party and stripped of his committee

assignments. he faces three primary challengers ahead of the 2020 house race. yesterday congressman king refused to apologize for his comments to the "new york times" on white supremacy and white nationalists accusing the newspaper of misquoting him. >> are you sorry for anything that you've said? >> i have nothing to apologize for, dave. we know what the news media has done continually, and the president has labeled the "new york times" a dishonest entity. i think that's pretty well been held up not only the "new york times" but a number of other places. if i look back through this, each thing starts out with some formerly credible organization that law firms this, and then we have this phenomena that america is not ready for, and that's this cyber bullying that unleashes, it's there and creating a firestorm. that's what happens. if you would just hold these publications to what is true, there is no story whatsoever. >> when in doubt, attack the press. senator bernie sanders's

presidential campaign announced a diverse group of four new campaign cochairs which includes two high profile female politicians. the campaign announced that former ohio state senator nina turner, san juan mayor, california congressman row conna and ben and jerry's cofounder will serve as national cochairs. sanders compared it to his 2016 presidential run. watch this. >> people said this our campaign was too white, too male oriented. they are right. you take a look at the staff that we are putting together right now, take a look at who our national cochairs are, you will see a fundamental difference in the way our campaign is operating. >> bernie sanders on all in with chris hayes last night. joining us from washington is dan liel lippman. how steep is the hill that he has to climb here for

re-election? is his iowa base going to be behind him after this series of racist comments? >> they've reelected him a number of times even with those controversies hanging around his shoulders, and so clearly they support some of the rhetoric that he has said when he was a state legislator. his most important thing or the thing that he got most attention for was, you know, mandating english as the official language of iowa, and it seems like his rhetoric has paved the way for trump. trump has long talked about how he admires king, but it really hurts the republican brand at a time when the country is becoming more diverse. you don't hear much rhetoric these days about how the republicans should reach out to hispanics. that was a theme of the, you know, post-2012 election, and republicans have really gone all in on this nativist rhetoric in

ways. >> let's talk about roger stone here as well and this gag order imposed on him. what kind of precedent does this set for his trial going forward is this. >> i think it makes it harder for him to defend himself in public, but we should make no mistake that what roger stone is going through with all of this media attention and, you know, firestorms over his instagram comments, that's what he wants. he wants to be the center of attention, so as much as it sucks to be facing charges, he is enjoying this and he basically is one of the rare criminal defendants that is almost happy that he got indicted because now he can be the center of the political universe, and that's what he's hoped for for a long time, and he's long skated as a -- he's branded himself a dirty trickster, and it's really caught up with him and i think it shows there's a reason why he and the president had such a

long-standing relationship. >> a long relationship. >> and have certain things in common. >> and he's facing and he's told the court that, you know, his work has kind of dried up. he says it's hard for him to put food on the table and pay rent, so that's kind of surprising for someone who's lived large and dress instead those fancy suits. >> claiming yesterday he was making $47,000 a month. >> daniel lippman from "politico," always good to talk to you. >> we are days away from learning who will take home top honors at this year's oscars. our own louis berg dor of sitting down, the story of a refugee child forced to grow up quick. another check on your weekend forecast looking at that severe weather across the country. that's coming up. that's coming up

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the future only happens only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol® welcome back, in syria the last remaining pocket of isis is on the verge of defeat, but the suffering in that region is far from over. the war has created millions of

refugees. the reality brought to the big screen in the oscar nominated film capernum. >> one of the few female directors represented at this year's academy awards. >> capernum is a harrowing tale of suffering and perseverance, the story of a young child on the streets of beirut facing issues well beyond his years. >> the story traces the life of zane who's suing his parents for bringing him into this chaotic world and leaving him to fend for himself, and like the character he portrays, the lead actor is a syrian ref psychiatry. >> i think becau-- refugee. >> he has the eyes of someone so much older. >> at the moment we were shooting he was 12. he looked like he was 7 or 8 because of malnutrition.

he's an adult. he's not like a child anymore because he's been deprived from his childhood. when you have to survive such hard situation and you can see it in his eyes, his eyes have been a witness to so much hardship. >> this is what this film is about, a child being born into a world that is harsh and having absolutely no choice in that, and children are going through that right now. >> we need to acknowledge that. we need to start talking about the problem. we need to find solutions. we need to find alternative systems. we need to find alternative societies that are able to embrace these problems and know how to deal with them in a different way, and we're not talking about only thousands of children, we're talking about millions of children across the world who are living in those very deprived situations. >> tell me about the decision to use non-actors, people whose lives really paralleled what was happening in the film. >> it was very important to be working with people who are living that situation, who are

the situation. i didn't ask them to act in the film. i just asked them to be or to react to certain situations that they know. >> tell me how it feels to be one of the only female filmmakers represented at this year's oscars. >> i was really surprised to see that, but at the same time i'm hoping, you know, that i will be representing, you know some of those women the best way i can. >> are you hopeful there can be change? >> i hope. i hope it's not going to stop at just the frontiers of just being another film. i truly believe in the power of cinema. i truly believe that cinema can actually engage a conversation and truly change things, and i'm hoping, you know, i'm hoping we will be able to achieve that. >> whenever i see work like that, it sort of gives me the chills, obviously congratulations to her for being nominated. you think of a situation like syria, which is so poe littliti do we stay in, what is the situation with regard to syria. but then when you tell the story

of what's happening in this country through the eyes of a child, a 12-year-old, a 7-year-old child who also is a refugee himself, the politics falls by the wayside. >> absolutely, and the power and magic of using non-professional actors and astonishing what we saw there, how powerful that seems to be. we got news last night that the u.s. is going to keep troops in syria. to pull that back and see what's happening in syria is incredible. >> louis did a really incredible job there. he flew out yesterday morning to shoot that and really brought it home. thank you to louis for that. let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist vanessa webb. >> heading into the weekend here we have a really potent storm that's going to impact the upper midwest to portions of the south. let's first look at the southern side of this system. we have flood concerns with flood watches and warnings currently in place, and that's going to last into the weekend. now, there is that big time severe weather risk. it's almost like a spring like pattern that's really starting

to set up here for your saturday afternoon with temperatures in the upper 70s to lower 80s. it's going to spark up that severe weather chance for 8 million across the tennessee to mississippi valley, potential for some spinups, those big-time super cells, also tornados. now, let's talk about the cooler side of this system. upp upper midwest to portions of colorado, the plains. we are talking about six to potentially eight inches of snowfall here, blizzardli like conditions and also the winds so a very tight pressure gradient is really going to allow for the winds to pick up to potentially 60 to 70 miles per hour, so it's very vital to know where you're at this weekend. we're seeing that drying effect for the southwest out towards phoenix, but this is a system that's going to move pretty quickly. still ahead, president trump signaling a softer stance on the chinese tech company at the

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worth pointing out. >> others saw a potential olive branch, excuse me, a chinese giant telecon giant huawei, what's the julianna joins us live from london. >> some are interpreting this as an olive branch of sorts. in the tweet the president said he wants the u.s. to win the 5g race by competition, not by blocking out technology. some are interpreting this to mean he may be soft i don't ken stance on huawei. just to remind you, trump is said to meet china's vice premier in washington today to resume trade talks. it's unclear how huawei will

factor into the negotiation but something to watch. in separate news, at&t and hasboro are pulling ads from youtube following reports that pedophiles have latched on to videos of young children and are lurking in the common section of these videos. youtube has reportedly sent a memo to advertisers to outline changes it's making this week to protect brands. disturbing news there, guys. >> the iphone has been important to apple for so long but we've seen a diminishment in sales. they're teaming up with goldman sac sachs for a new credit card. what can you tell bus that? >> goldman sachs and apple are teaming up at a time when iphone sales are growing and goldman is

looking to grow its retail service business. the two of these see a perfect opportunity to help each other out. >> coming up, everybody, axios's mike allen has a look at this morning's "1 big thing." and coming up on "morning joe", bracing for the russia report. >> and recent dealings with robert mueller and his team and what it may say about the conclusion of the investigation. "morning joe" just moments away. oh!

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welcome back. joining us from washington, the co-founder of axios, mike allen. mike, good morning to you. >> good morning. first things first, happy friday. >> to you as well. >> what is axios' "1 big thing today"? >> mueller. we've been talking to people in

the white house who say any day now the mueller report could be coming. they say it's imminent. they don't know exactly what that means. but the white house is looking at the same clues we are. they say they have not talked to the mueller team in a substantive way in weeks. so they're looking at a grand jury that has gone foul, that is now inactive. they're looking at mueller team members going back to their previous high powered legal jobs and they're drawing the conclusion, hmm, it looks like this is winding down. >> the axios graphics team is great. it's a great image. we're looking at the president making a visit to vietnam. you had major news on the domestic and international news

when the president was in helsinki as well. >> wednesday and thursday is the president's summit. people in the white house are saying will mueller wait until after the trip abroad? they really don't want that is it step on the president's news in his second north korean summit. and there was big news when he was in helsinki. what else is happening wednesday? wednesday is michael cohen's open testimony to the house oversight committee. his lawyer lanny davis has shown a little leg, said that he's going to take us inside the trump organization, he's going to talk a lot about what he saw, what he witnessed, what he participated in. that's going to be substantive, real news. i can tell you what worries people in the white house and there's no particular sense of crisis or panic or urgency about the end of the mueller report, but what people in there are worried about are new facts, new information, revelations that

could cause people to look at the president in a different way. michael cohen could do that and whatever mueller ultimately comes up with could do that. >> is there any reason to believe that mueller would drop this report at a certain time because everything that we have learned about bob mueller is he is very much by the book. if he is allowing this report to be finalized on wednesday, it's not because of the fact that the president is abroad but because of the fact that he's done. so what indicates that -- what sort of indications do we have about that timing is what i'm asking. >> you're exactly right. we talked about will he hold back during senator mccain's period of mourning? no. mueller does what he's going to do. the other thing we've learned is he's not going to tell us. so it's very much a guessing game. people are reading these tea leaves. what's interesting is we don't really know what wrapping it up means.

garrett graf, an author who did a book about mueller put out several scenarios about what wrapping up could look like. it could be a little bit of a bibliography, could it be a checklist of what could constitute high crimes and misdemeanors? it could be a letter to the attorney general saying "we're done," probably not that way, that's all, folks. and then the question is what exactly will be made public of that? really mixed signals about what the law is, what the regulation is, what the precedent is. huge pressure on the new attorney general, bill barr.

this will be the biggest decision of his career. what do you do with whatever mueller gives him. >> so glad you brought up that garrett graf piece. i recommend it toallen. we'll see you more on "morning joe"? just a minute. >> that does it for us on this friday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf. now it "morning joe." >> as emily jane fox points out, the president will be at his vietnam summit. michael cohen will be testifying to three congressional committees, jared kushneril