joining us now, barbara mcquade, a former u.s. an msnbc legal contributor, and david corn is back with us. barbara, your reading of the legal implications of this "wall street journal" reporting? >> well, it's a very painstaking walk through the very same criminal information that michael cohen pleaded guilty to. but they filled in a lot of gaps here and filled in a lot of blanks. you know, it is protocol at the justice department when you're not going to charge someone, to refer to them by a pseudonym, candidate one, executive one, et cetera. and based on the reporting, we now know that president trump himself, if this report is true, was intimately involved in every step of the way, which makes him essentially an unindicted co-conspirator. but for the justice department policy of not charging a sitting president, they would certainly have all the pieces of the evidence to charge the president with being a co-conspirator with michael cohen based on that report. >> let's listen to the president of the united states lying to the am

barbara mcquade, is not the case that matt whitaker is someone who if you were bob mueller you'd want to talk matt whitaker to have a talk with whitaker in the same way these congressional committee chairs to be want to have a talk with him. wouldn't mueller want to have that same discussion with him if he was exploring obstruction of justice? >> yeah, i think he would. and this isn't because it's just a fishing expedition, but i think there are enough warning signals here, enough smoke that would make it a genuine and legitimate question to find out whether they had any conversations about whitaker's marching orders with regard to this investigation. loyalty pledges. and all of those other things because if so, that could be additional evidence of obstruction of justice. imagine a scenario where president trump called matt whitaker in and said i want you to promise me you'll not recuse yourself. and number two, i want you to do everything in your fopower to st that investigation down. >> adam, i want to get to you because you tweeted something out today. a quote from robert litt, whi

natasha bertrand, barbara mcquade, thank you both very much. >>> up next, why thousands of families feel rug by ben carson. we've got one more thing after the break. plp blp all business saturday. all business saturday. so, this year let's all get up, get out and shop small on november 24th. i got croissant. small business saturday. a small way to make a big difference. i wono matter how long moment to addresago you served,erans. you earned the powerful va benefit that lets you buy a home with no down payment. and with a newday va loan, you don't have to save up to move up. and because newday usa has been granted automatic authority by the va, they can say yes when banks say no. helping veterans buy homes. that's newday usa. go to newdayusa.com, or call 1-844-637-2859. and back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid, plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. >>> one more thing before we go. hud secretary ben carson has repeatedly said he joined the trump administration to

joining me now, barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, and daniel goldman, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. thank you both for being with us. barbara, let me just start with you. these cooperation agreements require much more than answering a few questions about the matter at hand. they require, in this case required, paul manafort to answer any question about any legal wrongdoing he's ever been involved in or known of. >> yeah, it's an all or nothing proposition. when the government is talking with someone about cooperation, they want to know everything about this case. they want to know everything about their own misconduct, because they are recruiting him now to be on their team. they're going to put him on the stand, essentially vouching for his truthfulness, sponsoring his testimony and asking a jury to believe him. and they can only do that if they are convinced that he is telling them the truth. they understand that people commit crimes, but this is

barbara mcquade, eastern district of michigan. counselor, i'd like to begin with you. as a d.o.j. veteran, how troubling is it to you to have this man appointed who has, by the evidence, just looking at it, just listening to it, kind of prejudged large portions of this russia investigation? >> yeah, brian, it isn't even just what he has said, which is very troubling on its face. but when you look at the unusual nature of his appointment, that suggests to me some concern as well. president trump has repeatedly said that he was very unhappy with jeff sessions for recusing himself. that seems to be his original sin that caused him to lose his job yesterday. and so instead of going the normal route of having the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein step in and replace him, instead he hand picked matt whitaker, someone sort of unknown, to come in and do this under the vacancy's reform act. somewhat obscure provision to replace him. some argue an unconstitutional provision. i don't know whether it is or it isn't, but it suggests to me that president trump very much wants that person h

joining me now, barbara mcquade, an msnbc contributor. hey, barbara, we've talked about this before. written answers as a substitute for an in-person interview. obviously, you can't ask follow-up questions, you can't observe body language, you can't observe tone. so what does robert mueller get out of this and what doesn't he? >> well, you're right that it is of somewhat limited value for the reasons you identified. the other reason is that these answers are likely being drafted by lawyers. i mean, with president trump's input as to the substance of them, but they can be, you know, tweaked and edited and revised my lawyers. and so that limits the value to some extent. but nonetheless, as ken said, it does lock president trump into a story. there are certain facts that are going to be true or not true. and it will be very difficult for president trump to wiggle out of those things later. you know, when he talks to the media, it can be very free wheeling and one day he can say one thing and one day the other. this is a very sober process whe

thank you, david corn, michael steel, barbara mcquade, peter baker, ken dilanian and u.s.gressman eric swalwell. we're going to have more on the late breaking news from special counsel robert mueller later in the program. coming up, the trump administration closed off the busiest port of entry along the u.s./mexico border yesterday for hours. and fired teargas at central american men, women and children who tried to cross the border. today trump threatened to close the border permanently. what's that mean? >>> plus just when you thought the midterms were over, one final senate battle is now still being raged down in mississippi. cindy hyde-smith is hoping one last visit from the president will get her over the line. and after all of trump's promises that manufacturing jobs were coming back to the good old usa, gm announced today it will be cutting nearly 15,000 jobs, including 1600 in ohio. senator sharon brown will join us and talk about what's good for gm is good for america. >>> finally let me finish with the most effective social democratic leader of her time. this is

. >> you would think, but -- barbara mcquade, we always appreciate your analysis.cquade is a former federal prosecutor and an msnbc contributor. former u.s. attorney. >>> supreme court justice ruth bader jiginsburg is in the hospital with three fractured ribs after falling in her office last night. the court records say she went home after the fall and after experiencing discomfort, went to george washington university hospital this morning, where doctors admitted her for observation and treatment. the 85-year-old justice has survived cancer twice, colon cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer in 2009. in 2014, she underwent a heart procedure. despite all of this, justice ginsburg has never missed a day on the supreme court bench. we wish her a quick and easy recovery. >>> up next, it's been almost 48 hours since the polls closed in florida. and the senate race there is still too close to call. are we headed for a recount? we're going live to florida after the break. you're watching msnbc. orida after the break. you're watching msnbc. capital one is anything but typic

joining us now is barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney from the eastern district of michigan.nk you so much for being here. there's been a lot of news on this subject in the last few days, thank you so much for helping us through it. >> oh, you bet. >> this is described in "the new york times" as something unusual. mr. manafort had plead guilty. he had a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. we know from yesterday's court filing that prosecutor says he blew it. he lied to them. he committed crimes after this deal by lying to them. he's thereby released from the deal and his sentencing should go ahead. now "the times" is reporting that while he was supposedly cooperating, he was secretly feeding information to other people who were actively part of this investigation, including the president. is that also a violation of the plea agreement? >> you know, it's not technically contemplated by the plea agreement, because i can't tell you how unusual this is. i don't know that i have ever seen this happen. i think this is even potentially an act of obstruction of justice. so if it

barbara mcquade, thank you very much for joining us. ahead, democrats are trying to protect robert mueller with a possible government shutdown looming. stay with us. with my hepatitis c, i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1, or other medical conditions, and all medicines you take including herbal supplements. don't take mavyret with atazanavir or rifampin, or if you've had certain liver problems. common side effects include headache and tiredness. with hep c beh

joining us now is barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney from the eastern district of michigan. barb, thank you so much for being here there has been a lot of news on this subject in the last few days, thank you so much for helping us through it. >> oh, you bet. >> this is described in "the new york times" as something unusual. mr. manafort had plead guilty. he had a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. we know from yesterday's court filing that prosecutor says he blew it. he lied to them. he committed crimes after this deal by lying to them. he's thereby released from the deal and his sentencing should go ahead. now "the times" is reporting that while he was supposedly cooperating, he was secretly feeding information to other people who were actively part of this investigation, including the president. is that also a violation of the plea agreement? >> you know, it's not technically contemplated by the plea agreement because i can't tell you how unusual this is. i don't know that i have ever seen this happen. i think this is even potentially an act of obstruction of justice.

joining us now barbara mcquade, a former u.s. attorney and professor of law at the university of michigan. she's an msnbc legal contributor. also joining us ron klain, former chiefs of staff to vice president's joe biden and al gore and a former senior aide to president obama. and kori is author of the new book, "the oath and the office, a guide to the constitution for future presidents," which makes me think this president is not in reading his book. barbara, let me start with you. the president said such remarkable things in the interview with chris wallace of fox news. he said that matthew whitaker's views as he has articulated them in columns, in op-eds and on tv have no effect. they can be viewed differently by different people, and it's going to be up to him. there's nobody in the world who thinks this is up to matthew whitaker. in fact, everybody, all sentient beings understand matthew whitaker has been put in office to do his bidding. because he said to lester holt the reason he got rid of james comey and ultimately of th

i'm joined now by barbara mcquade, a former federal prosecutor, and ken dilanian, an nbc news nationalurity reporter. ken, what's the importance that they're going to have these answers within the week? >> what we don't know is what's precipitating this. is robert mueller threatening to subpoena donald trump and haul him before a grand jury? i think this is part of the negotiation that's playing out between the trump team and the mueller team about what answers trump is going to give. i don't see how it's okay for trump to say he's not going to answer questions about obstruction of justice, a main part of robert mueller's investigation, but that's their position right now. because they believe that that probe stemmed from the firing of james comey and trump had an absolute right to do that. >> let me suggest a strategy. they'll say, you can have half of what you want, you can have written answers, which is nonsense, because lawyers write the answers and they'll be cleverly written. but i've got this new guy, matthew whitaker, who's any attorney general, and he's not going to push for a