but how much is don mcgann willing to swallow in his job as counsel? he is constantly being noticed. mcgann we've seen in story after story is left in the dust by the president. and you know, i hadn't heard the lester holt interview for quite some time. when you hear it fresh, it is one of the most extraordinary things i've ever heard a president admit. >> particularly, what is so crazy about this set of facts before us, to glen's point, when you hear the lester holt interview fresh, particularly in the days leading up to it, and police italy saying this was done on recommendation. the vice president saying that. the entire way it was gone about was one of arti face is bad faith. >> we haven't seen the letter but it seems to be an invaluable window into what the president was thinking and the lead-up to his firing of comey. my sources have told me that rod rosenstein was absolutely livid with the white house for citing him as the reason the president decided to fire comey. if you read the memo that rosenstein gave to the white house, it didn't actually

the "times" says white house counsel don mcgann opposed sending the letter and ultimately a differenteputy attorney general rod rosenstein was sent. the rosenstein memo faulted the former fbi chief for his handling of the clinton email investigation. the white house wouldn't confirm the existence of president trump's letter, but says his lawyers are working with mueller. >> to the extent the special prosecutor is interested in these matters, we will be fully transparent with his investigation and frankly i don't have anything to add beyond that. >> the letter disclosing president trump's true intentions comes as the president's lawyers are making the case to muler in meetings and memos that the president did not obstruct justice when he fired fbi director comey in may. a source familiar with the memos says the legal team lays out the president's constitutional right to fire for any reason. and argues that comey's questionable credibility prompted the firing. but it was the president himself who admitted to nbc that he fired comey in part because of the russia investigation. >> in fact

even to don mcgann's comments to president trump. >> we have two experienced government attorneys. stay with me. i want to bring in john stanton, an expert he who worked jeff sessions on the armed services committee. john, on the context, this week we're talking a lot about the flynn family who are both the father and son, now subjects in the mueller inquiry around the same time this was happening. around may 16th. the day before this explosion, as reported in the "new york times" tonight. was when comey's memo leaked saying there was a request for him to end the flynn investigation. it suggested behind the scenes this week, donald trump was spending a lot of time worried about trying contain russia. >> yeah. i think if you remember back then, the russia investigation was what everyone was talking about. and he was very clearly kind of obsessed with it. and it is not surprising that memo he would come out that he would then explode at jeff sessions. i think it was very clear from his behavior and how he was talking about things that he was feel very trapped almost and being hunted

kasie just brought up don mcgann and very briefly, you've had issues with don mcgann as have others. i've heard a lot of things about don mcgann acting in ways that most white house legal counsel wouldn't act. >> white house counsel for any president is a tough job. he has been put under a lot of pressure even before all the investigation and independent counsel. these new outside lawyers and inside lawyer, ty cobb, they've got their own agendas. it's complicated and it sets the table for a steak lunch. >> now the table is set, mama mika. go ahead and say grace. >> why did he have to jump? >> maybe -- i don't know. anyway, we apologize to don mcgann for that video. white house counsel don mcgann and ty cobb have reportedly argued. >> many requested e-mails and documents in hopes of ending the investigation. >> that's not going to happen. >> he has expressed worry about setting a precedent that would weaken the white house long after president trump's tenure is over. then this. cobb was overheard by a reporter of "the new york times" discussing the dispute during a lunchtime conversat

you would never waive it as a blanket matter for all things if you're don mcgann or if you're presidentportant to remember this and former attorney general will tell you this, lawyers advise. clients decide. so the lawyers can think course a is the best course and advise their client to take that course, but if he chooses not to take that advice, that is his prerogative and it may come with its own consequences and we may see that up to this point. it is important for non-lawyers to remember that point. >> i should also mention that after this thing happened and ken vogel snapped this photo that they did go to the white house about all of this, and he privately, rupted on in cobb according to people and they sharply reprimanded mr. cob for his indiscretion. there was potential paranoia inside the west wing. fears that co-workers are miked up to surreptitiously record conversations for the special counsel. what do you even make of those fears and even the possibility of that? >> well, i think that the paranoia is almost a natural consequence of a wide-ranging federal investigation of thi

. >> my white house counsel, don mcgann, came back to me. he didn't make it sound like he was, and she actually didn't make it spound way either in the hearings the other day. like it had to be done immediately. this man has served for many years. he's a general. in my opinion, a very good person. >> so to be clear, olivia, the man he's talking about, don mcgann, has now caught grand jury subpoena, or least an fbi subpoena from mueller so we may be hearing that side of the story. and whether trump was fixated on flynn. >> certainly. donald trump has by all accounts, every one i've spoken to, great affection. he didn't want to fire him. it was just this cascade of events that sort of forced his hand and forced him to fire michael flynn. wasn't as though he looked around and he said he will be a problem for us. perhaps he shouldn't be in the white house. in all of these important meetings, getting all of this important information. the pressure became so intense that he was forced to fire him. and i think that tells you a lot about how he feel

house last week between two of the president's lawyers, if that bears out and white house counsel don mcgann is hiding documents in a safe to keep rob burt muller from getting them. he is going to have a bear of a legal fight on his hands if he tries to resist handing over documents or giving testimony to the muller inquiry on the basis of the fact he's white house counsel and shouldn't have to talk. that the an argument you could definitely litigate but he's not likely to win it. and nobody you would know would like to fund a legal fight like that because it will go to the mattresses. and how about old mike pence? mike pence the vice president has retained a very good, very expensive d.c. lawyer. it clear that mike pence needs one. he has made multiple false public statements about many of the key matters that appear to be under investigation including the firing of james comey and resignation of mike flynn. when vice president mike pence took the unusual step of setting up his political action committee very early, it was initially floated he could use the pact to raise money for his own l

they said it was don mcgann that recommended the firing, how does this factor into the okay instruction if the president fired james comey to put a stop to the russia investigation or the russia investigation, he is guilty of obstruction of justice which is a very serious crime. if the president fired james comby for another reason. disorganization of the fbi or something else, then the president is okay. it all turned on why president trump fired james comey. and this letter, might have some very good information on that. we have not seen the letter. so we don't know what is in it. but it appears that this letter is quite different than the ration rationale that was used by the justice department to recommend the firing of james comey. steven miller advised the president on how to draft it. and it is a situation that could lead to an obstruction of justice charge. it is interesting that steven miller is still around here. he was an alt-right person we expected to be fired weeks ago. . i think he knows too much. >> richard, the president's lawyers have been meeting with robert mueller a

lunch conversation, the president's outside counsel ty cobb, don mcgann. sources insisted the discussion was not that big a deal. the family of former national security advisor mike flynn launched a legal defense fund to cover bills. now rising into the seven figures. the launch, apparently the first among former trump advisors, marks the development in russia probe. slane's younger brother said the retired general is not wealthy. allegations he worked against national security interests are difficult. >> my brother michael bleeds red, white, and blue. he is a proud guy. he held high offices in his life. he sacrificed much of his adult life, most of his adult life for this country. a three-star general, highly decorated. he is in a situation that he didn't anticipate, didn't expect. it's difficult. >> one former trump campaign aide says his legal fees are in the six figures and he's not considered a witness -- he is considered a witness or not a target. >> bret: thank you. the american students attacked with acid at a french train station yesterday are for

what is it that don mcgann has in his possession if anything that he is does not want people to see andt want people to see that? there is been some speculation that he could become a focus of the investigation. what role did he have and perhaps obstruction of justice. >> shepard: you are not allowed to keep documents in a safe in the middle of this. that is a long and short of it. >> right, right. look, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. i wonder where the president is at this. sources inside and say anything if it were made, and simple as a traffic report and my lawyers are talking about it in open form, the first thing, very first thing i would do is find the lawyers. you cannot do that. the president cannot be pleased. >> he can't be, especially someone who is spoken so extensively on leaks. this is a leak happening out in the open, right outside the offices of "the new york times" which is a couple blocks from the white house. all right. you cannot be too happy about it. >> shepard: it would be h seem to hear when that comes out, because a well. thank you, sir. dozens

we learned friday that don mcgann is one of six russia wants to question and now sure as a bruce follise follows a ba we have news don had to get his own lawyer. he's hired a high-powered washington lawyer to represent him on the russia issue. and so have two other people on robert mueller's reported interview list. reince priebus and communications director hope hicks. don, hope hicks have hired their own expensive washington lawyers now on russia. and you know, when the special counsel wants to enter you you, you probably want to get a lawyer no matter what if you expect a friendly chat about the rosoto recipe, you probably still want legal advice if you talk to the special counsel no matter what. what is the special counsel going to be talking about? we're not sure but based on reporting from "the washington post." the special counsel appears to be interested in the crafting of the false statement about the trump tower meeting that involved donald trump junior, paul manmanafort. that was falsely explained by the white house as being just about adoptions. the special counsel also appea

the fact that don mcgann recognized that the skreed basically condemned the president tells us that his skreed was an issue, the special prosecuter should be obviously examining as obstruction of justice. >> professor sugarman, what are the prosecuters looking for in that skreed that they now process and may have possessed for quite a while. >> for all of trump's lies, he's already confessed, as you showed with lester holt, to the basic -- he told the truth to lester holt, that he fired jim comey because of the russia investigation. that could be the nixon articles of impeachment there. he also said in his letter, explaining the firing of jim comey, he said while i appreciate you telling me on three separate times that i wasn't under investigation, i nevertheless am firing you. that's an amazing confession. the first part of that sentence explained what he was thinking about which is thanks for telling me i wasn't under investigation. now we find out what the letter, and this is what you're asking, lawrence, what mueller is looking at is the rest of the skreed there which is president t

hope hicks, former chief of staff ryans debris bus, and the president's lawyer white house counsel don mcgann. some of them may be preparing for a run-in with the special counsel who, according to "washington post," has given the white house a list of six aides he and his team expect to question in the russia probe. as mueller's investigation continues to advance, the incentives for individual members of the trump circle to turn on each other original grow. according to multiple reports, some of the president's lawyers argued that his own son-in-law jared kushner should resign from the white house to avoid further legal applications for the man at the top. carol leoning joins us now, "washington post." tell me what we know about the president's lawyers' views on kushner. >> within the white house, remember this is in june right after the special counsel has been nominated or named, forgive me, in may, a group of white house lawyers are talking about all of the e-mails and all of the records that they're going through to respond to congressional inquiries and ultimately to prepare for bob muel

for example, don mcgann, the attorney, was the important man to sally yates, the former acting a.g.arned the white house that michael flynn was compromised and lying to the vice president. he will want to know, did you relay that information to the president? what is the president's knowledge of that and why wasn't nine fired? >> ely, this must send a chill wind through the west wing. >> yeah, i think that wind has been felt for months inside the west wing. some of these folks have gotten outside counsel. my friends are reporting that hope hicks has gotten her own outside attorney. so they've been bracing for this. they know it's not just going to be sitdown interviews with mueller and his team, about what their roles are. he's going to want to see a lot of electronic paper trails of texts and e-mails. we know there were a lot of conversations taking place, and not just the conversations on air force one that heidi is talking about, but conversations leading up to the firing of former fbi director jim comey. we know that the president wanted to do that, and aides were trying to disc

former press secretary sean spicer, the current communications director, hope hicks as well as don mcgann of the so we expect one or two of these interviews to happen quite soon. one of the big focuses is on the dismissals of both the national security adviser michael flynn, as well as the former fbi director james comey. the james comey aspect with the probe and they want to know more about the dismissal of michael flynn. why did it happen earlier after they warned about the conversations with the former russian ambassador, sergei kislyak? and one said mueller seems interested in the president's meeting with the oval office with russians where he mentioned that the fact that jim comey was fired would ease pressure. will so this is a development the interviews will begin soon according to our sources of the. >> let's get some analysis. >> hearing a couple of the key moments, the kislyak, lavrov meeting, the crafting of the statement and the news of the trump tower meeting with don jr., all of these pieces are coming out. the fact they want to talk to the former and current white house sta

want to go to one element of the writer from "the new york times," some remarkable reporting here, don mcgannwhite house counsel explained to the president that even by firing james comey, that would not end the russia investigation. and according to the "times," the president's response there was that he knew that. but he still felt that he had to fire him. could that still be one element of the defense for the president that there was no obstruction of justice, that he acknowledged that by firing comey, he wasn't going to stop the russia investigation? >> i think that's one of the arguments of the president's lawyers, would use in the event that this became a big issue. but there's also a great deal of confusion that was bred from the chaos in the early days of this administration, remember, the administration first came out and said that the reason that comey was being fired was because of the way he handled the hillary clinton investigation. which was in that memo from rod rosenstein. so this really gets this letter that's been unearthed by "the new york times" gets to the credibility of

the beginning of that period, i guess we understand sally yates went to the white house counsel don mcgann. warned them flynn could be a target for blackmail from the russians. 18 days where he stayed on the job. and jeremy bash and other national security experts, veterans of the cia have said that's a period that an investigator would be interested in. but correct me if i'm wrong in seeing your report as the first evidence that that is, indeed, a time period the mueller probe is now interested in learning more about. >> i was surprised, too, when we found out that the flynn firing was something they were sort of digging into. it makes sense in a sense given the fact that it involved the justice department, it involved the acting attorney general who went to the white house, provided them with this warning. it also makes sense because there's still a lot we don't know about what happened with flynn. why did it take so long for the white house to fire him? was it really because he had lied to the vice president or because he had come out publicly but this is the first time that i've seen a

or don mcgann is doing what he is supposed to do, and that's not destroy documents.. >> it is the first time we've heard steven miller's name mentioned as part of any kind of russia investigation. >> it is. and i think that this really does give another window into more of the politics and the personnel and the disagreements that we reported, some of real time when comey was fired. and this suggests that steven miller, who was with the president in bedminster at his resort there the weekend he decided to fire comey, was on the side of firing him along with jared kushner and ivanka trump. whereas others were very much against it. and there was a big clash. we know who won out, that was steven miller and jared kushner. but the fact that he was involved is not great news for steven miller, because it means that if he hasn't already gotten a lawyer, he will have to get one now, and he will be asked to come to the committees on capitol hill, in addition to appear before the special counsel's office. >> yeah, professor turley, he could be subpoenaed, correct? >> he can. th

>> i had written an article on saturday afternoon explaining why don mcgann, if he's called to testifyresident. because if he were to tell this grand jury that the reason why he blocked trump from sending this letter was because he felt it could be legally problematic, that could be used by mueller as evidence of corrupt intent, obstruction of justice. ty cob was upset with the article. he wrote a letter writing it was exonerating, that's the word he used. in response to my followup questions, i asked then why wasn't the letter sent to comey directly? why was it sent to the doj. that's when he asked me are you on drugs? >> no, i'm not y. i'm asking you to clarify why it was never sent, and i never received a response. so -- >> thank you all. and coming up, new reaction from vladimir putin. condemning north korea's nuclear test, but also warning against, quote, military hysteria. keir simmons joins us live from russia's border with north korea. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. it's time for a getaway. the lincoln summer invitation is on. now get our best offers of the season. on

about how don mcgone's role in this, essentially recommending trump not send this letter directly to fbi director james comey would potentially hurt donald trump if it came to the point where mcgann to come before a federal grand jury and testify. the reason he decided to block trump from sending that letter. then the lawyer wrote ty cobb wrote me an e-mail saying he made interesting points, he said there was little or no push back to this letter and that trump actually wrote the letter right after lit ening to james comey's testimony on may 3rd. that raised interesting questions as well. that would then indicate he was -- he wrote the letter and made the decision to terminate james comey's tenure at the fbi before rod rosenstein and jeff sessions wrote their own memo on why comey was unfit to lead. i asked if that letter was not problematic, why didn't the white house decide to send to james comey directly, why did they instead send to the doj. his response was are you on drugs. have you read anything else about this. he would not then explain what he thought was inaccurate about my reporting and would not answer my questions any further. >> first he had a rather, you know, matt