let's bring in shane harris, senior writer for the "wall street journal." shane, the president is saying that he outnegotiated democrats over this budget deal. is it possible to assess who won the argument here? >> they each want to say they won. to hear mick mulvaney say he's shocked that they would spike the football. what this reveals, the nature of the republican party. not all elements are going to be happy. the white house seems to have calculated that it was better to get this short term deal for the doesn't actually shut down in september rather than please anybody and negotiate with democrats. it's surprising to hear the president threatening a shut down in september, when it's clear that that's what they were trying to avoid here. >> jon: is that political posturing to keep his adversaries off balance? >> yes. but something not very strategic here, if you're holding out the possibility that you'll use a shut down as a negotiating tool. you heard mick mulvaney saying no, it's not really a negotiating tool. that caught him off guard. the president mi

joining us is the "wall street journal" reporter who broke that story, shane harris. mr.is, it's really nice to have you here. >> thanks, rachel. good to be here. >> so the money aspect of this story, the part about business ties involving the president and the president's team, it feels just as an observer of the story, like there is an increasing focus or at least that investigations are driving in that direction over recent days and weeks. is that your impression? >> yeah, that is my kbrechlgts it felt like the investigators are coming button more potentially useful leads. there's smoke that's feeling very hot, let's put it that way. what this financial information interest in its shows is that these investigators have particular questions that they're trying to answer in terms of russian money and whether it is or is not flowing into donald trump's company or ones associated with him. that's what we understand drove this interest in wanting to get aholed of this information from fin sat at the treasury department of they wrote in the request we want to see the same ki

now tonight, a new scoop, again, out of the wall street journal, again, reporters shane harris and carole lee and it is about something called the financial crimes enforcement network, which is an awkward acronym but it is a part of the u.s. department of the treasury. this unit was created in 1990 basically as an anti-money laundering law enforcement agency. after 9/11 its power was boosted, controversially, in part by the patriot act. after 9/11 this was the unit of treasury that went hard and fast after the financing of al qaeda. all over the world. they tracked and disrupted formal and inform am funding streams that were supporting al qaeda, not just in afghanistan and pakistan but everywhere al qaeda operated. so this is a power. capably, tex nickally mined investigatory agency that tracks money laundering. they have a fearsome reputation. they got a world wide agreement. and a story that just broke in the "wall street journal" is this unit, this enforcement unit at the treasury, these money laundering cops, basically, have decided to hand over what they know to the trump-russia inve

but now tonight, a new scoop, again, out of the "wall street journal," reporters shane harris and carol lee, and it is about the financial crimes enforcement network, part of the u.s. department of the treasury. this unit was created in 1990 basically as an anti-money laundering law enforcement agency. after 9/11 i say power was boosted in part by the patriot act. this was the unit of the treasury that went hard and fast after the financing of al qaeda. they tracked and disrupted formal and unformal funding streams funding al qaeda not only in afghanistan and pakistan, but everywhere al qaeda was operating. this is a investigatory agency that tracks money. they have a pretty fearsome reputation. and the story that just broke in "the wall street journal" tonight is that this unit at the treasury, these money laundering cops basically have decided to hand over what they know to the trump russia investigation. quote, a treasury department unit that specializes the combatting money laundering will share financial records with an expanding senate probe into possible ties between russia and p

also shane harris with the "wall street journal." ken, i want to start with you.our reporting, walk us through this. what's the update? >> well, paul manafort, we understood, called reince priebus after these dossiers came out that indicated that -- amgd, unsubstantiated allegations that russia had compromising information on donald trump and there was also come pro prizing information between trump's aides including paul manafort and pro russian figures, manafort called reince priebus to tell him the allegaons at least as they pertained to him were totally false and he had other thoughts about inaccuracies in other parts of the dossier, and suggested that the white house use those inaccuracies or alleged inaccuracies to undermine the credibility of not only this entire dossier, but also the fbi investigation because, of course, the fbi had obtained those dossiers and, in fact, briefed then president obama and then president-elect trump on the contents of these dossiers. manafort thought this might be a way to undermine the entire investigation. >> all right. in t

shane harris a national security writer for the wa"the wall stre journa journal". shane, we thought tonight we were going to be talking about this meeting with the russian ambassador and russian foreign minister and trying to get a little bit more information about the russian ambassador. but the russian ambassador seems to end up the center of so many of these stories. is he a diplomat, or is he a spy? >> well, that's a great question, and the answer to that depends on who you ask and the fact that there's been this question, i think, swirling around him is very interesting. some lawmakers, i think senator warner on the intelligence committee has insinuated he's an agent. it would be not unthinkable, i suppose, but the russians have found plenty of other ways to try to recruit agents in washington. he's trying to exert some influence on behalf of the russian government, and we saw that most note appably with thep campaign. obviously he is now a friend of this administration. so he really has been for many years, but especially now the -- >> the russians came out an