every bit of shokin's testimony is not admissible. actually, shokin testified to real corruption. everything he said about me is false. my meeting with him was not set up because of the conversation. do you know why, idiot? it was set up before the conversation. the two people he said i called i never called.d. one of them i would've never called because he was put on the list of corrupt people that i should never talk to and i had to have pretended knowledge of it. n doesn't know what he's talking about with regard to me. there are apparent indications that i could point out, seven, eight, where he's lying. he may not be lying. he's relying on other people. that's why hearsay evidence is inadmissible. i have six witnesses who can give direct admissible evidence of ukrainian collusion, not russian collusion, participation in the steele dossier with phony information, a very clear corruption scheme by the vice president of our united states that has to be vindicated and all of it was exposed before he was a candidate for president and it's not because he's a candidate fow president

>> look at shokin's affidavit.e states flatly i'm in the process of interviewing hunter biden and i was told i was fired because joe biden was not happy that i had not dropped the threesome investigation. there is more than just that. we know at the very moment that joe biden was effectuating this firing, working with marie's coming in saying that we need to meet with you. there was a dirty trick carried out. we want to make the case go away. if there was no connection between the two, why were they there making a contact the day up to the firing? the story doesn't track with the facts. >> sean: they say joe biden didn't do anything legal or ethical. why do i have a different view if it was don jr. or donald trump, although he wouldn't like the emotion? >> all employees must not not y avoid a conflict of interest by the appearance of a conflict of interest. we know there are insiders, insiders on the team warning the vice president that his conduct involving ukraine and his son created the appearance of a conflict

protesters in kiev demanded that shokin be fired, and they weren't the only ones unhappy with shokin'sas the whole international community. it was the european union. it was international financial organizations. it was about reform of our prosecutor offices. which were fundamentally and systematically corrupt. >> among the loudest voices calling for shokin to be fired was vice president joe biden. to help push the case, biden threatened to hold up a billion-dollar loan guarantee program. an episode he boasted about months later at the council on foreign relations. >> i said, i'm telling you, you're not getting a billion dollars. i said, you're not getting a billion. i'm going to be leaving here, i think it was six hours. i said, we're leaving in six hours. if the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money. well, son of a bitch, he got fired. >> remember this it's important. shokin was fired for failing to investigate corruption. as you'll see, president trump and his personal lawyer now tell a very different and misleading story. >>> when we come back, how president trump is

hails sacking of ukraine's prosecutor viktor shokin. >> yeah. they hailed the firing of him because why? >> because he was seen as slow walking corruption investigations. i mean, the the whole point, the corner stone of the ukrainian revolution in 2014, they call it the revolution of dignity. it was about the signing of the association agreement with the european union and it was seen as a watershed moment in ukraine of ukrainians saying we want to go closer to europe and as part of that, it was we want to clean up corruption. we want to have, you know, a free and fair society, and so the u.s. has always sought to support ukraine in that message, and shokin was seen as an obstacle to that. there was a number of corruption investigations at the time he wasn't pursuing. and one of them was the burisma investigation, so contrary to the allegation that biden was trying to shut it down, it was almost basically kind of stalled under shokin as prosecutor when joe biden started to call for his removal. it's also important to note that he wasn't kind of

shokin himself?failed to appear in court on thursday in his own lawsuit claiming he was unfairly sacked. for ukraine, a country reliant on the u.s. for support in its war with russia, this political storm that's putting it betwnri an an president and his reelection drive couldn't come at a worse tfoe. r the pbs newshour, i'm simon ostrovsky in kyiv. herwoodruff: there i whistle-blower case that has emerged in recent days. this one involves a career pficial at the i.r.s., and the president and visident's tax returns. william brangham has the story. >> brangham: judy, it's not a well-known fact, but the i.r.s. does annual auditsf the president's and vice president's tax returns. these audits are supposed be protected from politics. but now, a whistleblower has tome forward alleging th ast one political appointee at the treasury department interfered in that process. president trump has long refused to release any tax returns, and vice president pence has not released any of his cent jeff stein is parte

up and sign for the rignation of viktor shokin!reporter: what sobolev did was ask members of parliament to "no confidence" vote in shokin. it was a few signatures short of so you're saying it wasn't joe u biden who asked for the you asked for the prosecutor to be fired first? >> yes, we were campaigning for his resignation more than half a year. >> reporter: one campaigner was daria kaleniuk. action center in kyiv, and has been a leading voice against corruption here since the revolution that overthrew ukraine's pro-russian leader yanukovych. she demanded shokin's ouster for atcking reformers in his office, and: >> another reason was failure ta investigate grand corruption of yanukovych ukrainian prosecutor general's office did not want to help to provide evidence. he>> reporter: so in 2015, u.s. ambassador to ukraine took the precedented step of telling the country it should fire prosecutors who were blocking an investigation of the owner of buris, where hunter biden waseportedly earning $50,000 a month. here's the former vice pre

>> well, shokin -- we cannot determine shokin as a credible source because nobody investigated it. if i had been told that shokin is not a credible source, i would've immediately said to do an investigation. and to determine that. i would've been curious as to how they came to that conclusion if they didn't do an investigation because i would've then suspected that the -- uh, obama holdover is trying to protect people in the state department were lying to them. the only way you can determine shokin is telling the truth or not is to question him and determine if he has cooperation or doesn't he, and he happens to have corroboration. i am curious if it wasn't the state department who conducted that investigation. let me clear up the conversation with pompeo. i turned over that outline you see with secretary pompeo, i had hand-delivered with him, had a conversation with him thereafter, and he told me he was going to turn it over not to investigate biden, which is what i think is maybe the problem, but that's the way the press wants to drive it. but he told me he was going to turn it o

and giuliani claims shokin was told that biden had held up u.s. aid to ukraine over the investigation. here's giuliani tonight on "hannity." watch. >> viktor shokin has told me he is more than willing to come to america and testify before congress and point the finger at joe biden and his son. and basically support what the president said today, they are corrupt as sin. >> today, details of giuliani's interview with shokin were handed over to congress by the state department inspector general. the state department has had the documents since may. our chief white house correspondent john roberts says giuliani told him that he gave the document to the state department expecting they would be investigated, but they never were. so now, giuliani thinks the documents were given to the fbi to be investigated. democrats, meantime, slamming the information, calling it a conspiracy and propaganda. we should note that on both sides of the atlantic, viktor shokin has been widely accused of corruption. and tonight, joe biden said this. look. >> what i did in u

visa for ukraine's former top prosecutor viktor shokin, who was pushed out of his job in 2016 at the behest of western leaders, including then-vice president joe biden. giuliani has told cnn that shokin promised to reveal dirt on democrats, including biden and his son. when the state department denied shokin a visa, giuliani tried to bypass official channels and get president trump to approve it. vintage rudy giuliani. the one-man shadow foreign policy show. shokin never did get that visa by the way, but that didn't stop giuliani from trying to get ukraine's government to dig up dirt on democrats. "the new york times" reporting that back on may 9th, that giuliani was planning to travel to ukraine to push for inquiries beneficial to trump. that was a full 2 1/2 months before trump's july call where he asked ukraine's president to look into the bidens. and then let's go back in the time machine, not too far back, but back far enough for this exchange with chris cuomo where giuliani admits asking ukraine to investigate the bidens. >> you never asked anything about hunter biden? you neve

shokin had dirt for him on the democrats. so we know he wanted to interview him in person. clearly he was not able to do so because that visa was not provided to him. but this provides some more insight into how giuliani had his fingers all over this ukrainian policy and really was able to push forth on some of his efforts to try and get people to the united states to dig up more dirt on the democrats. >> so this is -- i mean this sounds nuts. so giuliani is trying to get this guy, this allegedly or believed to be corrupt former prosecutor, to come to the united states to deliver more dirt on the bidens or his conspiracy theories or whatever it may be. his visa is rejected by the state department, so he calls the white house. do we know -- i mean do we know if the president was involved in this whole thing, or was just a conversation between giuliani and somebody else in the white house? >> reporter: we don't know the exact dynamics of how president trump was involved in this situation specifically. but let's take a step back

while you were there did you form an opinions prosecutor general viktor shokin? >> we did. only there between three and four months but the general sense and consensus of the fbi, of our foreign partners, mainly the brits, mi-5 and mi-6 the ones we worked with at the u.s. state department apparatus that the prosecutor's office in general and mr. showingen in particulin -- shokin in particular was obstructing american and british efforts to work in partnership with those offices. i didn't deal with mr. shokin directly but i did deal with some of his underlings as part of the training process. it was our sense generally speaking he was not helpful at all to the u.s. and our international partners efforts to weed out systemic corruption in ukraine. >> i ask that question, because in the july 25 phone call the president famously said that shokin was treated badly and was a very fair person. it doesn't sound like that comports with your assessment while there? >> yes. you'd have to ask what he's basing his assessment on. my assessment having been there and worked with those enti

shokin. that implied do nothing.f corruption himself. as we learned, the state department general turned over the documents to congress yesterday, giuliani said shokin will come to washington. >> he said he's he's more than willing to come to america and testify before congress and point the finger at joe biden and his son and support what the president said today, they're corrupt as sin. >> reporter: last night, a defiant joe biden had much to say in his own defense. >> it was a fully transparent policy. carried out in front of the whole world. we weren't pressing ukraine to get rid of tough prosecutor. we were pursuing ukraine to replace a weak prosecutor who wouldn't do his job. with someone at the time we hoped would finally crack down on corruption in ukraine. >> reporter: president trump continued to attack his potential 2020 opponent. >> look, biden and his son are stone cold crooked. his son walks out with millions of dollars. the kid knows nothing. you know it and so do we. >> reporter: no indication yet if

it is unclear when giuliani requested shokin's visa.e and two of his associates who were recently indicted for campaign finance violations interviewed the former ukrainian prosecutor by phone this past january. according to documents given to congress by the intelligence community inspector general and obtained by nbc news, two days later giuliani and his associates interviewed shokin's successor in person at giuliani's manhattan office. giuliani's interest in speaking to ukrainian officials revolves around the unproven claim that former vice president joe biden attempted to shield his son hunter's work in the country. >> joining us from washington, d.c., political reporter for the washington examiner, emily larsen. good to have you with us on this monday morning. let's begin with all of this surrounding president trump's personal attorney. what would the necessity be for president trump's personal attorney to conduct interviews with ukrainian officials like the one that yasmin just mentioned since he is not an official member of the ad

fired because shokin was investigating biden's time on the board. fox news has found that's not true. the act to remove shokin began in ukrainian parliament before hunter biden's on the board. there is an international host of leaders who wanted shokin out for his lack of dealing with corruption. the prosecutor's office in kiev is taking another look at burisma for that investigation is supposed to take a few month months. >> bret: david, thanks. turkey's defense ministries says it fired artillery rounds that landed near american forces in northern syria today. no u.s. troops were hurt. the ministry says it was aiming at kurdish fighters and stopped when american officials reported the close call. urging their counterparts to end their offensive against the kurds in syria. correspondent benjamin hall has the latest on fighting tonight. >> 100,000 people are now fleeing northern syria as turkish troops continued their assault, shelling and all at least 27 civilians have been killed and as many as 200 kurdish sdf fighters. urged turkey to stop. >> we

it's no accidental i put the affidavit of shokin out. three hours later they say we demand the press not interview him. who does that other than somebody who thinks they own the press. they are trying to destroy my reputation. i get calls about did you represent somebody 10 years ago or did you do this or did you do that? i say what does it matter. why don't you investigate the case first then you can go after the process. lou: no one would have a more public record in his profession -- >> if the mafia couldn't get me and the farc, these pipsqueaks aren't going to get me. lou: we have 30 seconds to wrap up. the transcript says there is no issue. the justice department has so ruled. why in the world -- where do we go and why can't this be concluded quickly? >> because the democrats are engaged in and i illegal conspiracy to take him out of office at any cost. it doesn't matter if he's legal or illegal or they perpetuate lies. this is a plan that started with peter strzok to prevent him from getting into office and the understand plan was

shokin, that implied do nothing. what did you make of these revelations, john?well, i have to say, sandra, that i know something about shokin and his reputation for investigating corruption in ukraine, whether it had to do with hunter biden's firm or with the broader plague of deep, embedded corruption in ukraine. he didn't have a shining reputation. he wasn't simply opposed by the u.s. administration at that time. that he needed to be relieved of his duties. but by the entire trans atlantic alliance in europe. a lot of the international financial staoetion had real problems with the fact that he wasn't pursuing corruption investigations. now, if he has real evidence. if there are other corroborating witnesses and documents to the effect that intense pressure was brought on him by u.s. officials to go easy on hunter biden and the ukrainian gas firm he ought to do that. until then i have to say knowing this guy's reputation, i'm a little bit skeptical of any charges he is making at this point in time. we need to get the facts obviously. >> sandra: john hannah, gr

they want his access, which brings us to viktor shokin.disgraced former prosecutor in the ukraine. the imf, the obama administration all wanted him out of office because he wasn't aggressive enough on corruption. so rudy, with his access, again, thinks this shokin guy can give him dirt on the origins of the russian investigation wants him to go to the u.s. rudy can go to the white house and the state definite to try to get this guy a vees virginisa. we've had friends having trouble getting a visa to come to the united states. remember what i said about him not being a great lawyer? didn't work out. mr. shokin still didn't get his visa. >> the new report, katie, does it up the ante, the legal ramifications for rudy giuliani? >> absolutely could. the problem here is that mr. giuliani is a private citizen. a lot of presidents, if not all presidents, is personal attorneys but mr. giuliani is not acting in the role of a attorney while engaged in government accesses. acting as a private citizen attempting to insert himself into government acts a

then giuliani carried out some secret interviews with shokin via skype, and those interviews form the basis of a number of records that had dirt on not just the bidens but also marie yovanovitch, the former u.n. ambassador to ukraine. a lot of these unsubstantiated, but nevertheless giuliani took the records to the state department and asked them to investigate. later they were turned over to the inspector general who turned it over to capitol hill to further investigate this matter. now, shokin has accused marie yovanovitch of being too close to joe biden, which is one of the reasons he was seeking her remoorchl from the post. president trump removed her from that post as well after rudy giuliani targeted her, and that's caused much controversy in the previous weeks and months in causing the resignation of at least one high-level adviser who was concerned she was being unfairly targeted for political reasons. but all of this, giuliani's efforts, formed the basis of the whistle-blower complaint, that the president used his office to try to benefit himself politically and tried to urge

months ago john solomon introduced shokin and wrote about it. fired prosecutor general of ukraine who now says he was investigated by his son. the mainstream media ignored it and only when rudy giuliani came out and said here it is, i have got shokin's statement. now they don't ignore it. now they attack the prosecutor general and rudy and john solomon. lou: those attacks it seems multiplying as this impeachment inquiry gets hotter and hotter. and i wanted to take up something that was reported generally and chris wallace taking you have the source of many of the reports when he reported that you and the two of you were working with rudy giuliani and that you were quote off the books and you raised this issue, and i want to give you an opportunity to respond to it. i talked with chris. and let's get your reaction to that. >> i don't know what off the books means. chris did not explain it when he made his statement about us and it was clearly designed as a smear to maker it sounds like we were doing something improper or unethical. this may come

government," he says that he knew at the time, "felt that shokin was not doing his job and should be fired." you are saying in this tweet, your words to everyone, without any evidence that joe biden committed a crime. where is your evidence and is that responsible, sir? is it responsible? >> i'm saying that we have gone down -- we have gone down this path where if the president of the united states says he wants corruption thrown out of our society, he wants to investigate corruption, that's suddenly an outrage, offensive thing to bring forward. >> okay, yeah. >> democrats on the other side are outraged that this president wants to get corruption out of our society. and so, what have they done? they've started these investigations we don't even know what's happening. it's crazy. >> i just don't -- can you just help me finally -- >> if the trump -- if the trump -- >> can you help me square the circle here? because i'm having a hard time. you're upset with the process of how democrats are conducting this inquiry. >> absolutely. >> and you can voice that -- >> aren't you upset with the

shokin said he was told he was fired because he refused to stand down on the burisma investigation. that was the only reason he was fired, he was told that by ukraine's president. that is a complete contradictio contradiction, which of them are telling the truth? >> sean: when the mob says none of this is proven without any evidence, they are lying. >> they are, it pains me to say that because i believe in the good of journalism, i'm going to keep committing journalism and i think we can go through some of the biggest lies and show people the proof moment by moment, step-by-step. >> sean: we are going to give you 8 to 10 biggest lies about the dnc, hillary clinton's campaign colluding with ukraine and successfully impacting the election. even politico, even a blind squirrel gets a not once in a while. great investigative reporting. when we come back, reaction -- congressman devin nunes, mark meadows on what republicans in the house are going to do to thwart this outrageous impeachment inquiry, that's straight-ahead -- stay with us. there's the amped-up, over-tuned, feeding-frenzy-of

and he says while the photo is from 2015 when he joined the board saying that shokin did not start untils investigation into barisma and its owner. >> president trump is demanding to interview the person who has lodged the investigation. trump tweeted in part this, why aren't we entitled to interview and learn everything about the whistle-blower, and also the person who gave all of the false information to him. in fact, a presidential policy added to the whistle-blower protection act back in 2012 states that it is the sitting president's duty to protect a whistle-blower's identity and prohibit retaliation against them which has made this distinct situation so unprecedented. >>> speaking about the whistle-blower, the top republican has broken with party ranks to defend him. chuck grassley of iowa argued, quote, this person appears to have followed whistle-blower laws and ought to be heard out and protected. while the chairman who is also a mesh. judiciary committee did not exclusively mention president trump's repeated claims, he adds no one should be making judgments or pronouncements wi

viktor shokin. he never got the visa to enter the u.s.oining us to discuss is russ garber, cnn political analyst and cnn political analyst margaret tolev. let's start with you first, mark receipt, regarding the cnn exclusive reporting. how significant is it as we are learning how deeply rudy guilliani, the president's personal lawyer, was involved allegedly in digging up dirt on the democrats. >> yes, well, good morning. this really has been the overarching story of the week, is rudy guilliani's central involvement in basically every aspect of this channel of investigation. so the idea that this character, mr. shokin, who connects so closely to the joe biden thread here, and the idea with president trump's knowledge that guilliani was conducting these interviews, these investigations, had created a parallel channel when it came to the ukraine from the standard diplomatic protocols, and now this reporting from what mr. kent is said to have said in his interviews behind closed doors with congress this week suggests that guilliani was involv

shokin is willing to come to washington. >> victor shol kin told me is he willing to couple to america the finger at joe biden and his son and basically said what the president said today. they are corrupt as sin. >> last night in reno a joe biden defended himself. >> it was a fully transparent policy carried out in front of the whole world. we weren't pressing ukraine to get rid of a tough prosecutor. we were pursuing ukraine to replace a weak prosecutor who wouldn't do his job. >> meanwhile president trump continued his attack on his potential 2020 opponent. >> look, biden and his son are stone cold crooked. his son walks out with millions of dollars. the kid knows nothing. you know it and so do we. >> here's the key. no word or independent occasion yet if any of the house committees investigating will call shokin across the atlantic. it will be interesting to see what he has to say. guys. steve: no kidding. kid gloves. brian: one thing is pretty certain donald trump is doing what donald trump always does in the 2020 mode anyway, getting others to comment about what he says. the fact

shokin was -- investigating and the complaint was he wasn't investigating hard .by theyour way, defended by a former attorney general assistant for andobama administration, now it's free and clear and they gave it back to them. i don't understand, can you explain that? guest: sure. at the time that biden began to to be removed, the investigation had already been stalled for a long time. i believe it was being investigated whether the owner had inappropriately gained in the previous administration prior to the revolution in ukraine. a was being investigated whether he had inappropriately received these contracts. spoken to anticorruption campaigners in ukraine who tell me that the investigation was stalled, it was not going anywhere at the time when joe biden began to call the removal of shokin. there were several significant corruption investigations which were being pursued and just were not going anywhere. the administration of the previous president in ukraine who came to power after the revolution, he really did make, ukraine made some huge leaps in the past five years. seen as mixed

he went to the department of state and tried to get this disgraced prosecutor, shokin, a visa to comeited states so he could gin up his biden controversy. when the visa was rejected, he went to the white house and they rejected it as well. so it seems to fit into the investigations that we already have going about jewell. and creates more trouble for him. >> and speaking of jewell, danny, there's a lot, his name was mentioned quite a bit this past week during testimony in impeachment probe. fiona hill on monday testified that jewell ran a shadow foreign policy campaign there in ukraine. you have the eu ambassador, sondland, who said that trump directed jewell to push the ukraine scheme. john bolton saying i'm not part of whatever drug deal sondland and mulvaney were cooking up. what position does all of that pull putt jewell and perhaps mulvaney in legally. >> at the core of the controversy is one major question, who exactly is rudy giuliani? and what hat is he wearing? because ultimately it seems he's wearing too many hats, that may be the thing that will sink him. what i mean by tha

i do want to get this in there -- you mentioned shokin.ahead. >> marie: was widely known as corrupt. every european government wanted to get rid of him. everyone in the u.s. government who worked with him wanted to get rid of him. >> gregg: i'm always skeptical when someone says "widely-known." it generally turns out not to be true. >> marie: i was there in the government of the time. i remember this case, gregg. >> gregg: hunter biden is getting millions of dollars from ukrainian company at the same time his father is fishing for increased natural gas by a cane. >> marie: there's no evidence joe biden did anything wrong. answer this for me -- >> harris: we've got to get melissa in here on that one. >> marie: ivanka trump -- >> melissa: just a second. the thing is that it's also widely known that the person who hunter biden was working for is also under investigation for corruption, has a very shady past. he's on the board of a company where he has no business being, based on who the ceo is, based on the fact that he has no background what

visa for ukrainian victor shokin. you've heard that name a lot now. he was forced to resign in 2016 with the help of the united states for failing to root out corruption. as if the plot were not already painfully clear, president trump's acting chief of staff admitted to a quid pro quo and then potus and company had him deny it. so we know what happened. the question is what does it mean, where do things stand? let's ask a possible future juror and top democrat senate judiciary member richard blumenthal from connecticut. always good to see you, senator. thank you for joining us especially on a friday night. so we know what happened. it is inarguably wrong for a number of reasons. you can argue it is abuse of power. but do you believe you have reached a point with all that you have seen to this point that this is worthy of articles of impeachment and removal? >> it is unquestionably worthy of moving forward with impeachment proceedings as the house is doing. it is unquestionably an abuse of power by the president of the united states, a betrayal of his

new guy put in place, they mutely tell him there was a dirty trick campaign, a false information ce shokin look like he was corrupt so they could get him out of there. that ought to be investigated peer listen, who knows what the truth is until we dig in? with the idea that the media has sunk into one theory of the case for looking at the other fact, they are not doing their job. a lot a fact to run against the current narrative that adam schiff and joe biden and th telling,-blower are and we need to get the specs on the table and examine them fairly before we make any conclusions paired >> sean: all right, last question. i keep hearing the ig report is going to be devastating, but then i'm hearing on the other hand, well, a lot of considerations about whether they can get a conviction. what they will do is embarrassem everybody. and i'm thinking, well, either there is premeditated fraud on a fisa court, which we know happened. we know they lied. we know the statute also demands that whene they find out the truth, that they go back to the court and tell him the truth. that never happened.

shokin helped giuliani invent and shape the story that he, shokin, was let go by the ukrainian governments to thwart any investigation into his son's work in the ukraine. joining me now to face the legal ramifications for all of trump's cronies are joyce and barbara. joyce, i'll start with you. giuliani just keeps getting sucked deeper and deeper into this. he obviously was working closely with the two men, two of the three men who -- two of the four who have been indicted by the federal government for a scheme to get foreign money into the united states to politicians in some cases to get what they wanted but now we're finding out that he also tried to get a visa for this same guy, victor shokin, to get him into the united states. how much legal trouble, in theory, is rudy giuliani skating into? >> so, in theory is the operative term here, joy, because in a normal world, where doj was conducting a criminal investigation, rudy giuliani would have a lot of exposure. obviously, the evidence hasn't all been put together, but it looks at a minimum like he's involved in conspiracies, both to v

around claims that joe biden attempted to shield his son hunter's work in the country by aiding and shokin ousting the top prosecutor. >>> hillary clinton suggesting tulsi gabbard may be the favorite of the russian government. she said that russia has quote got their eye on somebody who's currently in the democratic primary, and are grooming her to be the third party candidate. gabbard th gabbard hit back at the comment with a series of tweets, hillary and her gang of rich powerful elite are going after me to send a message to you, shut up, tow the line or be destroyed but we will the people will not be silenced. gabbard pushed back on claims that she is planning a third party run in 2020. the hawaii congresswoman has defended bashar al assad, an ally of vladimir putin. a recent report from the "new york times" and nbc news analysis from february showed that russian news sites and social media linked to the kremlin have been promoting gabbard's candidacy. still ahead, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of lebanon amid huge anti-government protests. >>> a tornado rips throu

victor shokin helped giuliani form the basis fort unproven story that he was fired so he would not investigate joe biden's son's work in ukraine. after the visa request was denied, giuliani appealed to the white house, which also rejected it the accusation comes from closed door testimony from a career diplomat on friday, according to new unnamed officials, capping a week of revelations. monday, fiona hill said her former boss john bolton wanted nothing to do with the quote drug deal in ukraine george kent was told to lay low on ukraine and let the three ame cos handle the relationship. wednesday, a tense white house showdown between speaker nancy pelosi and the president, each questioning the over's mental stability. >> what happened on the part of the president was a meltdown. >> followed on thursday, by acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney appearing to admit that military funding for ukraine was directly linked to the political investigation. >> what you described is a quid pro quo. >> we do that all the time, with foreign policy get over it. >> later, mulvaney walking back his o

shokin was fired in 2016 and helped giuliani form the unsubstantiated claim he was ousted in part because president joe biden, that he wanted to thwart any corruption inquiries into his son hunter's work in ukraine. gordon sondland, ambassador to the european union, also testified this week, and he said, president trump directed had time work with rudy giuliani, on all ukraine-related matters. now, amid the scrutiny, rudy giuliani is still and now, he continues to represent his own clients. and that may open himself up to more criticism for potentially using his relationship with the president of the united states to open doors in government. "the new york times" reports, the former new york city mayor recently met with senior justice department officials, to discuss a foreign bribery case, for a client, of his, that he described as quote very, very sensitive. joining us now, one of the reporters on that very "new york times" piece, justice department reporter for "the new york times," katie benner, back with us and msnbc legal analyst and former federal prosecutor glenn k kirschner with

. >> not only that, he said on a tv interview, he was bragging about firing shokin. it's pay-to-play. it's pure and simple. that's why hunter had the opportunity of doing his interview to explain it. he backtracked and said he made a mistake. at the end of the day he got caught. they never expected president trump the get elected there they thought shenanigans would continue with hillary clinton. that didn't happen, and thank god it didn't. david: your fellow republicans have written to adam schiff claiming he's withholding impeachment-related documents from him. this whole process is being done in secret. now republicans are getting an equal access to material being investigated. how do you fix this? >> you appeal to him to vote on it. >> that's going backfire. the people see what's happening. this country in 13 months has the right to impeach this president. it's called an election. instead of 28 democrats trying push this, they are not willing to go on the record for. we are paid to vote, and they are not willing to go on the record to set the parameters these com

meeting ulben gindee lutsenko, and reportedly also facilitated contact between giuliani and viktor shokina prosecutor biden pressured to idve fired because he was allegedly corrupt. >> o'donnell: paula joins us here because there are more developments. a house committee has now subpoenaed the energy secretary rick perry, and tomorrow they could hear from a central witness in the investigation, atrmer u.s. ambassador to kiev. what have we learned? >> reporter: exactly. we've learned that she would 'vke to testify. lw, she is still a state department employee, so the tmite house could try to block ehis, but she has a lot to tell swmakers, potentially. remember, she was recalled from her position in the spring, heter giuliani complained about our to the white house. and norah, today we learned that ays associates were donating money to a u.s. congressman while pushing to get her fired. e' we'll see, but right now we do expect her to testify tomorrow. >> o'donnell: whether she was aware of this effort. paula reid, thank you. and tonight, a catastrophe is looming in northern syria. civilians a

know joe biden openly made a statement that he basically forced the ukrainian government to fire shokinthey were going to withhold the $1.5 billion. there was no quid pro quo here. lou: we are joined next lou: d.c. district court judge canceled a hearing scheduled for next week. this follows general flynn's' southern claiming the fbi manipulated flynn's file. joining us is general flynn's defense attorney, sidney powell, and former federal prosecutor and author. a busy day in d.c. where the order by one judge to release documents that were redacted by the mule were report to the judiciary committee to the house. this judgment by? washington as well to say you have got to produce to the attorneys for the department of justice. you have got to produce some evidence to deal with your claims. '. >> judge sullivan is giving them a chance to file a third reply. they are alleging weep pearnlged new claims in the our reply brief. that will be ease of live refute ablgable by their -- refutable by their own filings. he directed us to file a third reply by monday at noon. we'll get the last say on

know joe biden openly made a statement that he basically forced the ukrainian government to fire shokinere going to withhold the $1.5 billion. there was no quid pro quo here. lou: we are joined next sir, you're a broker. what do you charge for online equity trades? um ah, i'll look into it. lisa jones! hey carl, what are you charging me for online equity trades? laughs/umm.. and do i get my fees back if i'm not happy? like a satisfaction guarantee? ugh. schwab! oh right, i'm calling schwab. thanks carl! wait, lisa! lisa... are you getting commission free trades and a satisfaction guarantee? if not, talk to schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. i can'twhat? ve it. that our new house is haunted by casper the friendly ghost? hey jill! hey kurt! movies? i'll get snacks! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on our car insurance with geico. i got snacks! ohhh, i got popcorn, i got caramel corn, i got kettle corn. am i chewing too loud? believe it! geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. lou: d.c. district court judge canceled a heari

know joe biden openly made a statement that he basically forced the ukrainian government to fire shokinr they were going to withhold the $1.5 billion. there was no quid pro quo here. lou: we are joined next by sidney powell. cats. so, we got griswalda. dinner's almost ready. but one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with our renters insurance. yeah, switching and saving was really easy! drink it all up. good! could have used a little salt. visit geico.com and see how easy saving on renters insurance can be. dimitri's on it. eating right and getting those steps in? on it! dimitri thinks he's doing all he can to manage his type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but is his treatment doing enough to lower his heart risk? [sfx: glasses clanking.] sorry. maybe not. jardiance can reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who also have known heart disease. so it could help save your life from a heart attack or stroke. and it lowers a1c! jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital yeast or urinary tract infections, and sudden kidney problems.

prosecutor yuriy lutsenko and also reportedly also facilitated contact between giuliani and viktor shokin, a prosecutor fired because he was allegedly corrupt. >>> a mass exodus is under way in northern syria after president trump cleared the way for turkey to launch an invasion against our former military ally, the kurds. charlie d'agata is there. >> reporter: thunderous explosions echoed across northern syria today as turkish artillery and air power paved the way for an all-out ground assault. the turkish military say they struck more than 180 terrorist targets along a 150-mile path and say ground troops have already crossed into the stretch of land between tal abyad and ras al-ayn, the two border towns where u.s. special forces vacated bases earlier this week. we found some of the tens of thousands of people who have fled the intense shelling bottlenecked on the main road leading out of the border city of qamishli. throughout the day and now into the night, there have been these huge traffic jams, people trying to get out of the range of turkish weapons, air strikes, and artillery. the

shokin that implied do nothing.himself but as we learned at the state department inspector general turned over the documents to congress yesterday, giuliani says shokin is willing to come to washington. >> he told me he's more than willing to come to america and testify before congress an point the finger at joe biden and his son and support what the president said today, they're corrupt as sin. >> reporter: last night in reno joe biden defended himself with a message for the president. >> let me make something clear to mr. trump and the special interest funding he's attacked against me. i'm not going any anywhere. [ cheering and applause ] >> you're not going to destroy me. >> reporter: meanwhile, the president continued his attack on the potential 2020 opponent. >> look, biden and his son are stone cold crooked. his son walks out with millions of dollars. the kid knows nothing. you know it and so do we. >> reporter: no word on whether any of the three committees investigating will call sho k in across atlantic. ma

. >> not only that, he said on a tv interview, he was bragging about firing shokin. it's pay-to-play. it's pure and simple. that's why hunter had the opportunity of doing his interview to explain it. he backtracked and said he made a mistake. at the end of the day he got caught. they never expected president trump the get elected there they thought shenanigans would continue with hillary clinton. that didn't happen, and thank god it didn't. david: your fellow republicans have written to adam schiff claiming he's withholding impeachment-related documents from him. this whole process is being done in secret. now republicans are getting an equal access to material being investigated. how do you fix this? >> you appeal to him to vote on it. >> that's going backfire. the people see what's happening. this country in 13 months has the right to impeach this president. it's called an election. instead of 28 democrats trying push this, they are not willing to go on the record for. we are paid to vote, and they are not willing to go on the record to set the parameters these com