while andrew w weissmann is a stellar prosecutor, there are many andrew weissmanns, there are many wonderful prosecutors throughout the department of justice and fbi agents who will take up whatever bob mueller is handing off to them, and this is not the end of the story as to the investigations. but it may be the end of this unit investigating. >> is the right way to put it that the home office may be shutting down, but this work has been sent out to regional district offices? >> i think that's a great analogy, and that's a good thing. we have a strong department of justice that has handled complex, important cases for decades in all different offices, and i think seeing it sort of go out that way and state prosecutors stepping in as well, that's not a bad thing. and i understand why mueller, who is a creature of that department of justice, would want it to go to the regular channels at some point. and it seems like we're nearing that point. >> so, eric, that's the view from a former fed, and i want to you see another former fed who is of counsel to us. this is frank figluzzi earlier on thi

, you know who andrew weissmann is.andrew weissmann will be regarded by many lawyers and prosecutors as a disgrace. >> disgrace, scoundrel. "outfront" now former nixen white house counsel john dean. what does's whyman's departure tell you where mueller is? is he done? >> it doesn't necessarily mean he's totally done. it looks like a phase of it is done. i'm told he's not only a good prosecutor and good in the courtroom but a good administrator and good at running investigations. it looks like with the manafort rap, that sort of heavy financial angle has come to an end. i think the counterintelligence part of this is going to be ongoing for several years. >> wow. so you think mueller will put out a report on where he is or do you think everybody is completely wrong on where this is? >> i think what's going to happen is people overestimated what his report is going to be. the regulars just called for him to explain why did he decline or why did he prosecute somebody. that's really all he has to report. so i don't think th

what do you make of andrew weissmann stepping away? that lead prosecutor for the mueller team.l counsel team. >> i think it's pretty clear we are in the end game now. we've gotten rid of the manafort cases, those are gone. the russian indictments have been transferred to the united states attorney's office for the district of columbia. i wouldn't be surprised at the stone cases eventually transferred there, as well. over the past couple of months you've had several lawyers from the mueller team that have gone back to that. andrew weissmann, one of the main prosecutors, leaving -- i think it's pretty clear that it's rubbing it. i wouldn't be surprised in the next couple of weeks we get a breaking news report that mueller has submitted his confidential report to attorney general barr. >> harris: during his hearing, william barr was asked about this in january. whether he would commit to making a report public. here's his answer for that day. >> i'm going to make as much information is available as i can, consistent with the rules and regulations that are part of the special couns

we can't see them but andrew weissmann's departure today is an example of the overturn and change we will see in the next few months. i think the single most important thing that will happen as soon as bob mueller's report comes in, as soon as the president is no longer in legal jeopardy, it's incumbent upon the president to declassify those documents.s. let us see the fbi's true activity for what it is, not for what it was made to look like for a two year mirage. >> sean: we have all been calling for it. the president has the ability to do it. we have talked about the need for a special counsel but this now, if we're going to have equal justice, gknowing that the hillary investigation was rigged. it's overwhelming evidence now. incontrovertible, gregg, will the new attorney general do his job? >> sure. i hope he reads the same transcripts of lisa page and peter strzok that we have now read and that are available for the public to read. because it's clear from bothre of them that the fix was in. you know, comey always said, oh, it was my decision to clear hillary clinton and peter st

you mentioned andrew weissmann. we've gone over this record a lot.s a result, once he was held responsible for withholding exculpatory evidence, tens of thousands of enron accounting people lost their jobs, overturned 9-0 in the supreme court. that doesn't happen a lot. then put four mayoral executives in jail for a year. that was overturned by the fifth circuit. how does somebody like that getg chosen? i have a big problem, mr. mayor. >> you should have a problem, it's outrageous. it should never happen again. i have had great respect for bob mueller. when he was first appointed,es although, i said, this is a fair guy. then when he picked the staff keep it, i thought he lost his mind. you don't pick it counsel to the clinton foundation to investigate donald trump any more than if i were investigating hillary, i would pick counsel to the trump foundation. if i did, "the new york times," "the washington post," all those characters would go nuts. that was the first giveaway. andrew weissmann is probably the most notorious federal prosecutor you could f

quote, andrew weissmann will be concluding his detail to special counsel's office in the near future. but with mueller close to wrapping up, congress is agitating to get his hands on their work and all signs are pointing to all prosecutions and investigations into trump, trump org, trump inaugural committee and trump 2016 campaign, the southern district of new york, new york state and other local investigators and d.c. u.s. attorney's office expected to leave the prosecution to presidential adviser roger stone. the one thing we know for certain today is this -- the legal peril facing this president and his inner circle is nowhere near over. and that is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. back with us, and we're so happy to have her from "the washington post," white house reporter ashley parker. chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney who worked on the staffs of robert mueller and james comey, is here. frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence, bloomberg opinion executive editor tim o'brien and ring stengel, former undersecre

that's mueller's pit bull andrew weissmann. then he put four merrill executives in jail for a full year. that was overturned by the fifth circuit. why would he ever be hired by mueller? today paul manafort case, liberals aren't going to be happy and less paul manafort days in jail. he was sentenced to more prison time for the second case would he have been involved in. none of them, we now have two cases, nothing to do with collusion whatsoever. here's his attorney earlier today. listen to the nice little protesters and resistance in the background. >> judge jackson conceded that there was absently no evidence of any russian collusion in this case. that makes 2 quarts. two courts have ruled no evidence of any collusion with any russian. part number two. -- [shouting] >> very sad day for such a -- a sentence that's totally unnecessary. >> sean: of the judge in the metaphoric cases pushing back saying that the russian investigation is not yet over. okay. tonight we have two congressional investigations. if you want to know the be

today a prominent member of the special counsel's team who will soon be departing: prosecutor andrew weissmannweissmann is expected to leave the department of justice soon to take a teaching job at new york university, a source tells cnn.weissmann served as lead prosecutor for the virginia trial against manafort where manafort was convicted of eight felonies and ultimately sentenced to nearly four-years in prison. his departure is the latest sign that robert mueller appears to be wrapping up his investigation.while it is still uncertain when exactly the investigation will come to an end...nats: "the yays are 420."the house today in a rare show of bipartisanship--nats: "the nays are zero." unanimously passed a resolution calling for mueller's report to be made public.rep. jerry nadler/d- chairman, judiciary committee: "it is essential that when the mueller report comes out, the entire report and the evidence behind it be released certainly to congress and as much as possible to the public."though it passed 420-0, it was a largely symbolic vote since the senate is not expected to take it up. sat

he mentioned andrew weissmann, the lead. and important names within the constellation of the investigation. they are exiting. yet him the money was requested to fund this all the way through september. and then rod rosenstein the same. by the way, how does he stay? why? >> that's a good question. he needs to be out. a new attorney general needs to have his own deputy. rosenstein had people working for him, they were undermining jeff sessions at every turn. jeff never really realized that even after i told him. but william barr needs his own people there around him. people he can trust 100%. he cannot do that as long as rosenstein is there and has his henchmen working for him. he needs to go. >> harris: i want to share this because our chief correspondence on this whole issue, catherine herridge, is getting a take care. this is from her. "this appears to be the most broad public attack directed at mueller, calling him unelected, contrasting with the president's electoral win." your thoughts on that? >> it's got to go down pre

but i think the departure of andrew weissmann is a sure sign that they're winding things down. he is the top deputy who was running things. it suggests to me they may not have tied up every loose end, but every big piece has been addressed, that they're in the final stages of whatever it is they plan to do, write an additional report, maybe additional charges to be unsealed but those can then be farmed out to federal prosecutors and u.s. attorneys' offices. i think that is the biggest tea leaf i've seen so far that the investigation is winding r down. >> the biggest tea leaf you've seen so far. joyce, let me ask you, we were talking about thee judiciary chairman, jerry nadler, bringing matty whitaker, former acting attorney general back before him. he said that he didke not deny that the president called him to discuss the michael cohen case and personnel decisions in the southern district of new york. department of justice is disputing this. >> matt whitaker is a critical witness on the issue of whether or not the president of the united states tried to obstruct justice, tried

you mentioned andrew weissmann, i got the race record. was at hillary clinton's victory party. only democratic donors -- no republicans at all, and over public and voters -- also jeannie rhee who work for the code the foundation is a lawyer was appointed. how do you feel about mueller today and were you surprised at all, considering the team that he picked in this particular case? it seemed pretty partisan democrat. i thought it was extraordinarily unfair to pick that biased a-team. >> president trump: yeah, it didn't seem to be biased. >> sean: does a good point. >> president trump: it was tremendously anti-trump. it was never trumpers, it was anti-trump. i think in every single instance, i know that andrew weissmann was at her -- i guess he would call it the way, which was the big evening on november november 8th, he was there to celebrate a victory, he was there, and not a happy camper. these are people that contributed, most of them, contributed to her campaign. i mean, it was a shocking to see it. so i wasn't exactly sure -- i know one thing, i had nothing to do with russi

why was mueller's pit bull, his top prosecutor, prosecutor, andrew weissmann,p the guy intended hillarylinton's election night victory party that never transpired. he was a top investigator for mueller from the very beginning of the investigation. don't forget peter strzok. he was involved from the get-go. you know peter strzok, he had a girlfriend, lisa page, he was calling trump supporter's smelly walmart shoppers, saying that hillary clinton should rode 100 million to zero. he referred to trump as a deplorable human being, loathsome. he saw the russia probe is an insurance policy to stop trump in case he wins. don't forget how they rigged. he was the one who interviewed hillary clinton and her investigation. he was writing hillary's exoneration in may of 2016 they did her investigation in july and he interviewed hillary july 2nd, comey exonerated her july 5th and then they started investigating july trump. what about the biggest slam dunk obstruction of justice case ever? even alan dershowitz couldn't get me off. i asked her might last night, if i subpoenaed 33,000 emails, i delete t

unless there is something surprising in there that andrew weissmann and the anti-trumpers just created some nasty dossier barr will rubber stamp and sending out. the president has been vindicated to the degree there has never been any russia collusion. this report is a year plus late. the three core issues were hacking, whether the obama -- the trump campaign was involved in hacking the democrats. and whether they were involved with interference with the russians in terms of buying ad or facebook ads and creating false accounts. so those indictments specifically ruled out any knowing involvement of any american. it should have been shut down a year-plus ago. but instead we had a year-plus of low rent indictments by an out of control special counsel. i'm glad king mueller is finally stepping down. i don't think harassment will end. but if there is not an apology in the report, there ought to be. lou: that's a good point. i'm a fella who over the course of my life and career, i never sought either thank yous or apologies. you can move on rather neatly from both and you should never rely

andrew weissmann will leave the special counsel and doj all together.e leading attorney in the case against paul manafort. today congress is examined to ask the faa why it waited so long to ground boeing 737 max planes. the agency planning to brace lawmakers. new evidence showing a startling connection between the deadly crashes in ethiopia and indonesia. most airlines will let you rebook or request a refund. power ball jackpot now a wopg $495 million. the eighth largest jackpot in power ball history. no one claiming the prize during last night's drawing. winning numbers: the next drawing is this saturday so get your tickets. ainsley: all right. almost 500 million? jillian: yep. ainsley: i will get a ticket, i guess. steve: all right, jillian, thank you. ainsley: ice wanted this illegal immigrant detained nine times. now he is charged with murder. police union leader from that county is furious and he joins us next. steve: could be the most patriotic kid ever. the bow tie boy singing the national anthem has officially gone viral. listen. ♪ banner yet wa

andrew weissmann, top prosecutor moving on, other top official going to richmond. >> that's right. >>ke? >> so it's not binary. it's not they're leaving it fully open or completely closed. it is possible for mueller to write a report and dpin up the cases they're working on. if they come across other things, it appears gates' continued cooperation is in manhattan and not the counsel's office. that makes sense to me. >> why does it make sense? does it mean that's more trump organization related, financial? >> right. so, the mueller remit, as you know, is relatively narrow. it was russian interference in the 2016 election or at large. it was that one thing. southern district of new york has a much broader and a much deeper mandate, which is to look at any criminal behavior that it comes across. trump organization, trump foundation, inaugural committee. rick gates was integrally involved with the campaign and, as i understand it, with the inaugural committee. and so it makes sense to me that if he still has information that's helpful, more likely in manhattan than to mueller's team. >> b

the question of the fact that andrew weissmann and this other individual both were in contact with brucether by christopher steele way before this investigation began, what you think about that? >> these are important leads, there are so much that we just don't know and i think the american people deserve answers and they deserve answers sooner rather than later. there are checks and balances, i think senator lindsey graham the chairman of the judiciary committee is exploring the scum of the inspector general is exploring this, we have to maintain our patients but there is a lot we do not know and we deserve to find out. >> martha: bruce ohr has said he wasn't involved in that investigation, we know his wife worked for fusion gps. the fact that he is showing this information to these individuals before the investigation got underway is something we need to keep a close eye on. i want to ask another question about rod rosenstein, i thought this was interesting. we learned he will not be leaving, originally he was going to be leaving the department of justice mid-march but now he's going t

august of 2016 the dossier was tainted, that hillary paid for it, comey, mccabe, he even breathed andrew weissmannwho is the bipitbull. literally this is hugely important. a detail never provided to the fisas court. that is called the chris conspiracy to commit fraud on a court, denying that person's constitutional right, and this being done at the height of the 2016 election. so in other words, they had purposely withheld to the fisa court conspiracy to commit fraud, plain and simple, information that was irrelevant, and it became of the bulk of the mueller application. it doesn't end there. christopher steele testified under oath, and great britain under the threat of perjury, i don't know if any of this dossier is true. maybe 50/50. just draw intelligence. in other words, the author of the dossier doesn't stand by the dossier. raw intelligence, 50/50 does not become the bulk of evidence to deny an american citizen, carter page, his constitutional rights and get a fisa warrant. tuthankfully, senator lindsey graham has now reopened the senate investigation into fisa abuse, and we are also waiting

. >> dana: andrew weissmann if you look at his qualifications there, he was counsel at the fbi.e prosecuted lots of mafia cases. also led the prosecution of the former enron executives. obviously, that was somebody that mueller brought in, a heavy hitter? >> oh, yes. he's considered one of the top, if not the very top justice department prosecutor for crimes involving financial fraud. he's been involved with many of the big organized crime investigations, lot of the prosecutions against big businesses. i think when, if you're stone or manafort and you saw weissmann was being brought on board, you and your lawyers probe would have been quaking in their boots. >> dana: should we read anything about weissmann being in the courtroom when stone was getting his update? >> i think what you're seeing is mueller an his top deputies sort of tying up all the loose details. i think they wanted to get more out of stone. they hoped to get more out of mueller. instead what they found is these were dry holes, if the point of the investigation was to find collusion between the trump administrati

hannity watch" on the mueller witch hunt, leaving the special investigation coming after the , andrew weissmann announced his resignation a few days ago. this is yet another sign that the investigation hopefully, finally is almost over. and according to reports, many republicans and the administration are looking forward to mueller's findings. meanwhile democrats now seem very anxious. that's because the trump-russia collusion was, is, and forever will be a hoax. and if mueller is a decent, honest man with reverence for the laws and constitution, the absorbed collusion narrative will be put to rest once and for all. but we know that that is not going to happen, because the biggest liar in congress and leaguer himself, the cowardly chef who will not come on this program, i have offered him four hours, three hours of radio, one hour of tv, and he will not take us up on the offer, he has been spreading conspiracy theories about russia and trump for an eternity now. and now they use the platform as the house intel chair in order to malign the president with endless mccarthy-esque investigations. an

and he said that in particular this was characteristic of andrew weissmann who, of course, is one of mueller's top lieutenants in the special counsel probe and a frequent target not just of giuliani but the president himself who according to our reporting calls him scum and derogatory names. they feel like for some of these prosecutors, weissman in particularly they're roverreaching and made it personal and feel like this is perhaps a victory for them and a real blow to the special counsel and could undermine whatever findings are coming next that could come out in days or weeks. >> ken, remind us how much of what we're talking about and witnessing is manafort's own doing from the start. >> my goodness, look, first of all, you know, when paul manafort came to the trump campaign, i heard him portrayed as a master genius that they needed to corral delegates. the only client that he had was a russian back ukrainian oligarch. that's what he had been doing and that's what was exposed in his trial that he was especially out of the political game. he hadn't run a political campaign in years

so now, andrew weissmann and bob mueller are all part of a pro-trump conspiracy with white, light conservative journalist? the third entry in the political hall of shame goes to ben and jerry nadler, i mean jerry nadler, how did that get in there, as statesmen like jerry, surely has a different view? here he was a few months ago. >> it has become very clear at the trump campaign colluded with the russians and tried to subvert the election. >> the president's right to be nervous right now because it appears that time is running out when he can hold himself above the law. >> laura: we know now that neither the president or anyone in his orbit indicted for the russian collusion. i bet nadler sees things differently now, right? >> we know there was conclusion. >> but none of what you said is the level of criminal indictment by special counsel. >> no, it hasn't as far as we know. but we know there was collusion. why there has been no indictment, we don't know. >> you believe the president has obstructed justice, you still believe that? there has been obstruction of justice with her clearly criminal

fox news can now confirm that the lead prosecutor on bob mueller's team andrew weissmann will be leavings this a sign the russian probe itself will be over in the near future? i didn't know that i know catherine herridge knows. she follows this relentlessly. what does this mean, catherine? >> for one thing weissmann was in charge of the manafort prosecution. this week it brand up with the second sentencing. those close to weissmann said he would not leave if there was still major legal work on the table for special counsel. also today roger stone got a trial date of november 5th and a mid september status hearing as he left court stone shunned reporter questions. gag order was not modified which had been expected. he is still free to fund raise for his defense and his innocence but cannot discuss the special counsel case charges he lied to congress about his communications about the hacked democratic emails. for now, judge amy burman jackson sit aside the issues surround go ahead stone's book the myth of russia collusion and whether it violated the gag order. outside the court special tr

of course, if he was mischaracterizing these conclusions, mueller or andrew weissmann or jenny reed, who worked for the clinton foundation, would be doing everything they can to discredit that. here you have democrats who didn't like the result, and so now they are criticizing the referee. it's not only losing, it's being a sore loser. >> martha: there's an interesting poll that came out, npr/pbs poll, 36% believe that the mueller report clears president trump of any wrongdoing. some might look at that number -- 56% say questions still exist, 9% are onshore. some might look at the 36% and say, that is about the size of president trump's hard-core base, and they are the only ones who are so far convinced cared what do you think? >> i don't think there remains any large percentage of americans who believe, as democrats have said, that president trump is a russian agent or that he somehow compromised. that would only reflect the hard democrat base. if anything, that data suggest we are right to want to see greater transparency, and bill barr is committed to that. there is no effort to c

nbc news has confirmed that robert mueller's top prosecutor, andrew weissmann, leaving the special counsel'sffice within the next week or so. and one of mueller's top investigators has also left to head the fbi field office in richmond, virginia. all signs, once again, that the mueller investigation is winding down. this comes a day after paul manafort had an additional 43 months tacked onto his prison sentence, thatto new jail time coming along with a strong tongue a lashing by the aforementioned judge amy berman jackson, the same judge that roger stone just appeared before a few moments ago. let's bring in a former u.s. attorney, now a partner at brownstein hyatt, former federal prosecutor henderson with me as well.on greg, i'llll start with you. roger stone, your take on the judge's action today.r >> it sounds, craig, like it was relatively uneventful. i think most observers had been watching stone and his legal team and thinking that they were reallyhi pushing their luck wit this judge, really trying her patience. but apparently she hasn't been pushed to the point where she's willing to

andrew weissmann, the top lead prosecutor for bob mueller now, is supposedly gone on to his next lifeed with kenneth starr friday night and he said, "it doesn't mean they are still searching for things and there is a very they are out there." my big question is when they -- where is the put this in the schedule customer we won't know that outside of his written answers. we don't that until supper. >> kennedy: i think there is so much we don't know. so much that still could be hidden beneath the surface of this report. would be able now? >> capri: that's why it's important to get this out there. because if we don't know, we're just going to continue to speculate. i think the one thing to watch for -- spew on your team will. democrats will continue to speculate. >> capri: winches look at what's going happen coming out of the southern district of new york and the attorney general's office. even when mueller wraps up, the "witch hunt" is going to continue in the state of new york on donald trump. >> kennedy: what if they don't find anything there? dagen? >> dagen: the wall street editoria

but one of mueller's key lawyers andrew weissmann, it was announced this week that he is leaving the investigation to take another job. that was assign -- assign to a lot of people this is winding down and michael flynn, they are done working with him and people are reading the tea leaves and saying it seems like things are wrapping up. we're just not sure if that means the report could be delivered to congress this week, next week, and in a few weeks but it does seem like there are key threats that are being wrapped up. >> waj, which way do you see it. >> we've been waiting for the mueller report to wrap up since last year so i think the only person who knows when the mueller report will be robert mueller. >> and maybe he doesn't. >> and maybe he doesn't know. and let's remind the viewers that donald trump took his takeaway from paul manafort's conviction and the indict was no collusion and that is not correct. and the judge came out and said, this collusion -- no collusion is a nonsequitur. so he simultaneously is trying his hardest to throw law enforcement under the bus and the mu

fox news confirming that one of the most prominent members of the mueller team, andrew weissmann, will be moving on from his position in the very near future. he is expected to take a job at the new york university law school. the latest possible sign that the mueller probe may be wrapping up. that is breaking news, just a one sentence alert this morning. it's interesting, because we have been reading the tea leaves. which i prefer to leave and my cup for tea, but we are waiting to see this drop. what is your take on it? >> newt: one, i actually agree that, with the exception of national security concerns, or total innocent people who would be smeared, that the attorney general should release the entire report. the american people have a right, after two years, all this money and effort, to lend their judgment and look and i decide for themselves. is there anything here that justifies any kind of action involving the president? i think it is kind of pathetic that you have all this talk, all this effort. it's pretty clear now that there is no rush and collusion. and virtually everything

but also new this morning as well, sara, one of the top prosecutors on mueller's team, andrew weissmannpected to be leaving the special counsel's team and leaving the justice department. he was in the courtroom today. >> he was in the courtroom today. i guess he was here and wanted to see the proceedings. he wasn't sitting at the actual table of the prosecutor's attorneys who are overseeing the case, but he was in the courtroom to watch the hearing. buthe mentioned they're going to be leaving the justice department soon, although, there's no clear date on that, and he's headed back to new york's law school. we have said there are signs the investigation is wrapping up. this is a clear sign. he dealt with the manafort issue, and now it looks like he's setting the runway for what he's going to be doing next. >> all of these signs do add up. it's been coming for quite some time, sara. could that mean the roger stone case is the last case that the mueller investigation takes on? >> reporter: it's certainly possible. we'lla we'll add the usual caveat, it's always possible, but this could be

. >> jill, there have been high profile departures from mueller's team, andrew weissmann among them. does that lend credence to this idea that what we're going to see that's tying up those loose ends will be from the formal kind of setup, the southern district of new york, for example, and other places? >> no, i think that we're getting conflicting signals. rosenstein staying is saying maybe it's going on. i think that the gates delay in sentencing is another sign that the investigation is going on. and remember, it was delayed because he's still cooperating in ongoing investigations. the departure of the top prosecutor for the manafort case means that manafort is pretty much done and that he could leave. there are a lot of other excellent prosecutors and trial lawyers on the team right now, and they can take it over. so i think it can go on for quite a while. if you look at whitewater, that case lasted years and years. i think it was almost seven years before they wrapped up. our office, i mean, our trial, went from may of '73, we had a verdict in the obstruction case , and january

i will just make one little nugget to add, and you heard andrew weissmann tell the judge the core of their inquiry, at the core of their inquiry is this meeting manafort had to pass polling information on to kilimnik. if that's at the core of their inquiry, than these questions of exactly what was going on in the campaign, including trump and russia, has to be at the center of what they're going to report about. >> carol, what are you looking for as this massive mother ship of the mueller probe prepares to not tie a bow on its investigation, but try to condense it, hand it off to the attorney general, having seeded all of these other investigations, criminal or otherwise in other offices? >> i think the thing that you're talking about here, which is the counterintelligence piece, to throw out there what andy mccabe did and first was reported in "the new york times" that there's a question about whether the president of the united states is compromised in some way by a foreign adversary. you have to answer that question. if not for any other reason then the american public deserves to

notice the two names on that form you have there, on that filing you have there, one of them is andrew weissmannaving. he's leaving the special counsel's office. they can't reveal who rick gates is working with, because they don't want to tell us what other office is handling this investigation because that's going to give us some clues toes what's going on. so rick gates is still very much involved. i think it's not just the special counsel's office. it's the department of justice. there are several, as that says, ongoing investigations. >> and we know about the inaugural investigation, so we know there are some other trump organizations rick gates may or may not have information about, but also, the manafort investigation predated mueller and rick gates has a manafort business partner, could be some of that, quote/unquote foreign lobbying and the like. >> exactly. there are a lot of foreign lobbying allegations, a lot out there that that's what this may be about. >> the manhattan district attorney's office this week charged manafort, so if that goes to trial, rick gates will be a key person in

i'm not sure if i find that compelling but certainly the fact mueller's team and andrew weissmann in court a few weeks ago said those matters did go to the heart of special counsel's probe, i think it leads to the conclusion that collusion is not something that is off the table, even if it's not a proven case yet. even if they're not necessarily going to move forward with anything. paul manafort's legal jeopardy is certainly continuing in new york city. i'm not sure it's even occluding as far as that aspect goes. >> collusion is never a crime, but prosecutors are employed by the dozens because we need you so much. but the lie was told with the cooperation of putin. the lie was told by paul manafort about his campaign chairman, about the contracts and polling data he handed over to putin-aligned russian assets. >> it's a mystery we don't know the answer to, why did paul manafort choose to hand over that confidential campaign data? why did he choose to go to madrid to do it? what was so unseemly about his relationship with konstantin kilimnik? >> why wasn't he busy? he was the campaign

we sent a letter pointing up at andrew weissmann, who is also leaving the special counsel, they bothr to the 2016 election. and he can fade down mike tomei conveyed to them that christopher steele, the author of the dossier, talk to him and he conveyed the information to both of the individuals who went on bob mueller's team. that mr. steele was desperate to stop trent. we pointed it out. may that had to do with them leaving him as well. we'll have to wait and see. >> harris: my team has acquired a copy of that letter. what specifically do think the american people need to know right now about this investigation? >> remember, we told mr. barr, these two people on the team knew that christopher steele had a bias against the president. desperate to stop trump or the terms that mr. bruce ohr told us in the deposition. he conveyed that to the people of the justice department before the election and also before they went to the fisa court the first time to get the warrant to go spy on the trump campaign. back in october of 2016, they knew that information and they didn't give that informa

he was brought in to see andrew weissmann and that they didn't believe meeting with russian woman.manafort said i don't know about it, i'm sorry, i don't know about it. they kept bringing him back. at some point a man can break and say i don't want to be in solitary confinement, ethical prosecutor knows when to stop and i have to tell you, i did this for a living for a long time and i'm very proud of what i did and they did what weissmann did, he would have been fired in seconds. >> legal problems maybe not ending, emanated from this investigation. >> well, hopefully common sense will now emerge. the southern district of new york is investigating sexual harassment case or breach of campaign case, it's not a contribution, if it was 30 members of congress at least for whom the united states government paid to settle sexual harassment cases. i want to know if they filed that, if campaign finance charge, of course, they didn't. and as you look campaign finance commission, you will see that the commission has said that payments that are even in part personal cannot be campaign contribut

there is a report that andrew weissmann is leaving is special counsel's team. is the probe near its end? desaulnier is on the oversight and transportation committees. what do you read between the tea leaves? about time to bring it to an end do you think? >> i'm always reserved in jumping to conclusions. the wheels of justice move slowly. it seems to be an indicator that we're coming to closure, which i think would be a good thing. >> bill: i think the question becomes what do house democrats do? do you personally favor going after the president for impeachment yes or no? >> i think we have to follow the facts and get to the truth. that's what will happen. that's what happened during watergate. this is an important part of that. we'll go to a second phase depending on what the content of the report tells us and tells the american people. so i think it's incumbent on us as democrats to follow the facts of the truth and have a thorough investigation. >> bill: what did you think about nancy pelosi's comment the other day? she didn't think it was a wise course of ac

a key fbi official on his team announced his planned departure and andrew weissmann is leaving soon to become a professor. in another clue that the special counsel's office is focusing all efforts on their final report, we're learning mueller's team has requested more time to respond to a court request to unseal records in paul manafort's case. in that filing, prosecutors on mueller's team said they were requesting a delay because of, quote, the press of other work. it seems safe to assume other work is mueller's final report, george. >> mueller may be wrapping up but those documents revealed yesterday that he's leaving plenty of work for other prosecutors. >> reporter: that's right. prosecutors in the southern district of new york still appear to be very active. we received a trove of documents released yesterday in connection with michael cohen's case with nearly 19 pages of redaction. all dealing with what prosecutors entitled the illegal campaign contribution scheme. george, i was struck by the use of the word scheme which usually indicates multiple people being involved, a scheme,

attorney offices who all have their own version of andrew weissma weissmann.re investigators who are out there that's capable of handling this. >> prosecutor brandon van grack who's leading the registration act. there are some departures. do you think we have seen the last of the indictment, was roger stone, was the last person the mueller investigation will indict or will it be a big one before we find out. i know you are guessing here, will we see something else before it is handed over to william barr? >> look, i always thought that we would see at least one more indictment for one pretty basic reason. i think back about jerome corsly. usually prosecutors don't say we want you to plea to this unless they can charge the person. while i don't think jerome is the most figure in all of this, the fact that he has not been charged leads the me to believe that he'll be and the reason they're waiting is that he'll be charged with other people. that's an educated guess and could be wrong. i suppose mueller could hand it off to the u.s. attorney to charge. i think th

very worrisome especially if you're a family member of the trumps or married to a trump because andrew weissmannho is the prosecutor that bob mueller hired first put members of enron -- family members of the enron executives in prison for tax evasion and other financial crimes. so anybody who is linked to a trump is in trouble potentially. >> wow. let's listen to what former new jersey governor chris christie, a former federal prosecutor what he said on cnn and get your reaction and the other side. >> bob mueller is what they're doing is building a case for two things. to go after those around the president who may have committed crimes and two, to build a case if they have one. i don't think they have one at the moment. if they were trying to build one, against the president for when he leaves office. >> rick you heard zeer lynn na make her case. what do you think in terms of the threat level from the southern district of new york? >> it's a real threat. impeachment is a political process. but the southern district of new york is not. it's a legal process. and he won't find any refuge in politi

in addition right now, we have just heard from andrew weissmann, the lead prosecutor for the special he argument that paul manafort is a chronic offender. he has never learned from his past mistakes, weissmann told the court. manafort failed to pay taxes in excess of $6 million. every american is required to pay taxes. and that he is making the argument that he really should face a very serious and harsh penalty in this case. the other headline that we've had, and i want to take a minute just to explain it to folks at home, is about a central figure who appeared in this case, constantine kol imnick. he is a russian-born political consultant. what paul manafort's lawyer has told the court is that in sealed records there is evidence that the state department in ukraine worked directly with manafort and constantine during this lobbying period. the reason that matters is that anonymous sources have alleged that constantine has ties to russian intelligence. so the statement from kevin downing undercuts this idea that constantine was the prifsh ot point that might ultimately show coordinati