phil rucker, barbara mcquade and emily jane fox. barbara, let me just talk to you about the degree to which what my colleague, stephanie ruhle -- who my colleague, stephanie ruhle, calls donald trump's tv lawyer, rudy giuliani, employing strategy or a misinformation technique or a pr campaign? because for all of the stuff that you so clearly described to us as being legal violations, rudy giuliani seems to be pursuing a different strategy if it's a strategy at all. >> yeah, he seems to be beating the drum for whatever message of the day president trump wants to get out. he's far more pr man than he is lawyer. and i think that this, you know, we've seen these shifting stories, there was no collusion, then collusion is not a crime, and now i never said that members of the campaign didn't engage in collusion, just that president trump didn't engage in collusion. and that suggests to me that that's a concession that he would only make if he is concerned that there may be some harmful news coming out about some member of the campaign bein

barbara mcquade. and emily jane fox, senior reporter for "vanity fair" who also is the author of "born trump: inside america's first family." we have exactly the right people to talk about this. first, i want to start you, phil. phil, you have reached out to the president's attorney, rudy giuliani, for a response. what have you got? >> that's right. his response is sort of a nondenial denial. he's basically saying, look, if you believe michael cohen, i have the brooklyn bridge to sell you which, of course, he doesn't. but that overlooks the fact that the buzzfeed reporting is not based on the word of michael cohen. it's based on, you know, documents and other pieces of evidence as you were just -- you and the guests were just explaining a few minutes ago. but clearly, the white house, or the president's legal team, rather, is trying to downplay the significance of this but it's a very important development, and it directly, you know, if it's true, it directly implicates the president in a crime. it co

attorney and msnbc contributor, barbara mcquad and our matt miller, our analyst. ou imagine mueller's team is doing with all of this evidence. what did you say it was collected differently than other witnesses. >> you had the element of surprise which was why it was done this way. roger stone was asked for it and never produced. search warrant at hoiis home an hard drives. we know from that indictment they had been looking at e-mails and text messages which they can get by going to the service providers of those things. i imagine they are looking for any documents or letters he may have written that contradict his testimony or shed lights on collusion with russia. >> matt miller, lindsey graham, wrote this letter which he said, he questioned the tactics of roger stone arrest saying this was an elderly man. one of the things he mentioned in the ledder. there -- letter. there was a reason they did it this way. why would it be that you take this by surprise. >> there is a legitimate critici criticism. if you hold the position at the fbi and drem stremonstrating le for

attorney barbara mcquade. and paul charlton, also a former u.s. attorney, joining us, and pete williams as well. pete, let's go to you first for your analysis outside the courthouse, then we'll talk to your colleagues about what just helped. >> reporter: sure, i'll tell you what the news is. the news is roger stone came and went without saying anything. >> exactly. >> reporter: perhaps he chose not to speak because there were protesters around and he realized he would have to shout them down which he almost had trouble doing last friday when he was arrested in florida. but the rest of it was as expected, andrea. it's an arraignment. these things are very, very brief. this one lasted less than 15 minutes. he arrived about eight minutes before it started, wearing a suit and tie. and in fact about half the hearing was spent with no one saying anything while he signed a bunch of papers about his release. but his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. and the judge imposed the same conditions on his release as were imposed last week in florida

we've got barbara mcquade joining us tonight. we have a "wall street journal" reporter joining us on something truly alarming that just happened in the intelligence committee. we've actually got some good news coming up tonight right at the end of the show. there is lots to come tonight. stay with us. i can do more to lower my a1c. because my body can still make its own insulin. and i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like it's supposed to. trulicity is not insulin. it starts acting in my body from the first dose and continues to work when i need it, 24/7. trulicity is an injection to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. don't use it as the first medicine to treat diabetes, or if you have type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity if you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, you're allergic to trulicity, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of

joining us our discussion now, barbara mcquade, former federal prosecutor and emily jane fox, seniorr for "vanity fair" and the author of "born trump." they are both msnbc contributors. emily, what do we know about why michael cohen requested this delay and what's going to happen next? what is michael cohen's thinking on what happens next? >> i think we should start thinking about this as a test case. this is about michael cohen and this is about the president's language and threats that he has used about michael cohen, not just last weekend in his fox news interviews, but over the last couple of months he has been tweeting about him repeatedly. every time he's asked about him, he basically calls him a liar. his attorney rudy giuliani has called him a serial liar serially across various interviews on every single network and in every single newspaper. but what cohen is basically doing now is he is saying to congress, i am not going to come and if you subpoena me, i will come but i won't necessarily answer all your questions unless you take action to make sure that these kinds of thre

joined by elliott williams, former deputy assistant attorney general and msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquade. barbara, you are now a law professor. do you teach this particular type of lawyering in your school? >> no. i don't think so. you know it's hard to know whether rudy giuliani is just being really careless or he floats these statements in an effort to diffuse them and sometimes realizes he went too far. but either way it doesn't seem to be serving the best interest rates of his clients. he seems to be working more as sort of a pr agent than as a lawyer for donald trump. i'm not sure he's helping his cause much by making statements that he then has to retract. >> elliott, the time line here is important for a number of reasons. if the moscow project is an active sort of front burner concern throughout the entire campaign, that is, clearly leverage that vladimir putin holds over the the president, it's also quite relative if after they know the russians have hacked after they've been briefed by u.s. intelligence, there's still a channel set up to talk about a moscow deal. i want to read

barbara mcquade, ben mentioned william barr, and we have gotten some prepared remarks from him that getvery question because we know those hearings coming up tomorrow and wednesday are likely to focus on this memo and questions around whether or not he would protect the mueller investigation and he writes, quote, i believe it's vitally important that the special counsel be allowed to complete his investigation among other things in this testimony. do you think that that's going to be enough to reassure democrats and do you think from a legal perspective that he is on solid ground to not recuse himself from oversight of the mueller probe? >> well, i think the statements are a good start, but i think the senators will have a number of significant questions for him. it suggests that robert mueller should continue investigating the fact, but what does that say about his view of the law? i think there are enough red flags there to cause some concern. as ben has said he wrote a 19-page memo unsolicited and sent it to leadership at the department of justice arguing that the president could not

joining us now is barbara mcquade, former u.s. ra, thank you so much for being here. >> oh, thanks for having me, rachel. >> i see a tonal relationship between the witness tampering messages that mr. stone was charged for today and the sorts of things that the president has said in public about michael cohen. does it matter whether these things are said publicly or in private? >> no, it really doesn't the law doesn't say so i mean, other than the fact that they both clearly watch too many gangster movies, there's a lot in common between the statements that roger stone is making and that president trump is making the witness tampering statute says that it's a crime to knowingly intimidate, threaten or corruptly persuade another person with intent to influence or prevent or delay their testimony in official proceedings. so seeing what they did is usually the easy part. the harder part is usually determining someone's intent but here, the mere fact that this is done out loud versus quietly and privately i don't think should throw pros

barbara mcquade i believe has a question barbara, go ahead. >> you know, one of the things i'm curioussam, is do you know -- remember in july of 2016 when president trump made this promise that on monday you're going to hear some big dirt on hillary clinton, and then it didn't happen. do you know, number one, what he was talking about? and number two, why he didn't follow through >> i don't know, number one -- number one, i don't know it seems to me that in light of the timing with the trump tower moscow meeting, i am sure robert mueller does know. in terms of number two, i have heard from others that worked at the campaign at that time that their explanation is we were just disorganized and eventually we spoke about hillary clinton later in the week, but that's not something that -- i wasn't with the campaign then in fact, i think i was being sued at that point. >> right. >> so. >> yeah. >> let me get malcolm nance in here, because the wikileaks part of it, what you've heard from defenders of donald trump is that there's nothing wrong with it because they were just mining research jus

i am joined by barbara mcquade, former u.s.gan, msnbc contributor glenn kirschner, a former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. everybody for msnbc, and happy new year to everybody. glenn, talk to us about the mueller investigation in general, what they're going to be focusing on come 2019 and the year ahead? >> first of all happy new year yasmin, and i read ken dilanian's really remarkable thorough reporting, and dan goldman's opinion did catch my eye. i think what we're going to see moving forward and we're probably going to see it through a combination of reports authored by mueller's team and indictments that are likely coming soon, we'll probably see an answer to three questions. we'll see, one, did the trump campaign conspire with russia to undermine our free and fair election? two, did they cover up their conduct of conspiring with russia, if, in fact, they did conspire, and then three, and i think daniel goldman points this out well, what are the consequences that flowed from any conspiracy that t

barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. and jeremy bash is here, former chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon and former counsel to house intel. peter baker, it's your paper's great reporting and your great piece on this sort of gulf between trump's statements and sentiments that he's revealed in tweets and in public comments and private meetings and things the national security apparatus has tried to do or has pulled him toward. talk about the state of play tonight. >> well, that's exactly right. what we looked at was the president's own defense in this russia matter. he says look, i've been far tougher on russia than any of my predecessors. and you know, he has a point to the extent you talk about what his administration has done. his administration has taken action that's have been tougher on russia in some ways than his predecessors, than the obama or bush administrations. among them, you know, sending javelin weapons to ukraine. increasing sanctions that hadn't been put on before. threatening to cancel the inf tre

now, nbc's kelly o'donnell, nbc national security reporter ken dilanian, and msnbc contributor barbara mcquade, a former u.s. attorney and our "of counsel" for today. thank you all for being here. ken dilanian, that's the laub bu let's talk about buzzfeed's reporting and what your own reporting has concluded, while we have not officially confirmed this. >> that's right, andrea, we don't have source to go confirm this story but we're not being steered off of it. lanny davis, a spokesman for michael cohen, issued a statement last night in which he did not deny the story, he simply declined to comment on it. michael cohen has denied the allegation that he went to practicing prague and met with russians in the past, so it's interesting that he hasn't denied this. the rudy giuliani statement, you say said, was a non-denial denial. white house spokesman hogan gidley was on fox news, raising questions about the source, accusing people of lack of credibility, but not flatly denying that it happened. andrea, this is huge and it's separate from the russia investigation. the buzzfeed story says it happen

barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, thank you so much for your time tonight. >> thank you, joy. >>> much more to come on this breaking story tonight. in just a moment, we will talk live with one of the top members of the house intelligence committee. stay right there. we'll be right back. committee. stay right there we'll be right back. ♪ carla is living with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. she's also taking prescription ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver

barbara mcquade. >> watching this play out is like watching a television series that you may remembersident wanted jim comey to say you were not a target of the investigation and comey resisted, saying i would rather not say that because i may want to go public with it and now we know they knew the president would likely be part of the investigation and won't no -- know the facts until he files a report. >> anybody think jim comey will end up in front of the house? >> we agree it raises a red flag that has a hammer and sickle on it. i'm serious. under any other circumstances, this reporting and these facts would be devastating to the united states, the president of the united states. we've sort of become desensitized to all of this stuff. in sight of all the talk of porn stars and payoffs, so on, this is about russia, russian actors, we can't lose sight of that and the severity and seriousness of the conduct. >> i think we refuse to become desensitized to it on this show. every american, whatever your political strides, should be equally alarmed of an on for adversary. ben. >> even if

barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, thank you for your time. >>> much more to come on this breaking story tonight. in just a moment, we will talk live with one of the top members of the house intelligence committee. stay right there. we'll be right back. we'll be ri. that's why i switched to liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. and as a man... uh... or a woman... with very specific needs that i can't tell you about- say cheese. mr. landry? oh no. hi mr. landry! liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ 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. ...that's why i've got the power of 1-2-3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy. the power of 1-2-3 ♪ trelegy

. >> barbara mcquade and peter baker. gu and eli stokols, thank you all. >>> up next, president trump says he's getting crushed in the shutdown battle. the polls agree. [cell phone rings] where are you? well the squirrels are back in the attic. mom? your dad won't call an exterminator... can i call you back, mom? he says it's personal this time.. if you're a mom, you call at the worst possible time. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. where are you? it's very loud there. are you taking a zumba class? unpredictable crohn's symptoms following you? for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or flu-like sy

and joining me is barbara mcquade, and that is obviously steve can kornacki on "hardball" last night,nd what about that phone call? who is that phone call to, because it is a blocked number in trump tower. >> one of the great frustrations of adam schiff when they shutdown the investigation, they could not get that answer, and with a subpoena to the phone company they could get the answer to who belongs to that number. it would not tell us the content, but it would tell us if it is donald trump for example, and also to know if he had advanced knowledge of that meeting, and so that would be subpoena power to reopen the investigation, th investigation, that is an answer to which they can seek an answer to. >> and now, the fact that the democrats are leading the critical committees backstop orobert mueller so that he can work with them, and share information if you will and, you know, if something happens to his leadership given what is happening over at the justice department preserve some of his investigation. >> in a perfect world, it should not matter if it is republicans or democrats

. >> and i want to bring my panel in, barbara mcquade, matt miller served as chief spokesperson for the justice department, bret stephens, columnist from the "new york times" and bill cohen special correspondent for "vanity fair." barbara, it seems like bill barr is going to get the job. are you convinced he can be independent and stand up to the president if need be? >> i thought he presented a very strong front. he has a lot of gravitas. many things about him give me confidence. the one thing that bothered me was when he said he would ethics officials opinion whether he should recuse but he said he would decide to abide by their opinion. when senator harris pushed him on that under what circumstances would he make a decision contrary to the advice of the officials, he said if i disagreed with them. he held out a little wiggle room to do what he thinks is right. that concerned me. >> matt, i want to talk about that memo, the 19-page memo that bill barr wrote months ago where he talks extensively about executive power and how this special counsel's vision of obstruction of justice does

. >> let's talk about barbara mcquade's latest headline in the "daily beast."this question, why is mueller hide who ultimately directed roger stone to contact wikileaks. she points out in this piece the wording of mueller's indictment, it's very careful to not actually include the name of the person that we have all been trying to figure out who it is, who directed stone to contact wikileaks. what are these charges against roger stone, what do they tell you the direction regarding the mueller probe? >> well, the indictment is -- looks to me and to many other prosecutors like it's a building block indictment. it has not only a discussion of what roger stone did and how it affected the victims in the case and the people he was directly lying to and with, but it also it reaches up to people who really don't affect the indictment, right? so if some big shot like the biggest big shot in the trump organization told a slightly smaller big shot to call roger stone, that wasn't information that was important for the roger stone indictment. but it is a building block for

." >>> i want to turn to barbara mcquade. she's now professor.g. >> good evening, ari. >> one of the things david and i focused on was the new york district. i want your view of how their work overlaps with or backs up what mueller is doing, professor. >> yeah, it's interesting to have independent offices working on all of these things. it's easy to focus criticism on robert mueller. when you see other offices like the southern district of new york and the district of the district of columbia where marina buttina is being prosecuted, it becomes harder to call this a partisan witch hunt. these are trump's own appointees handling these cases and they've stepped up and done it beautifully. it took a lot of courage to charge in the indictment of cohen and include as an unindicted individual, individual 1 who we all know as president trump. that was a gutsy move they wouldn't do unless it was backed up with evidence and also likely something they gave a heads up to rod rosenstein about as the deputy attorney general. and so it is one united department

. >> barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney imin chigan barb, thanks for being with us tonight.uper helpful. >> thank you, rachel. >> thanks. we'll be right back. stay with us [friend] i've never seen that before. ♪ ♪ i have... ♪ i have... hi susan!hs) honey? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this new robitussin honey. the real honey you love... plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? new robitussin honey. because it's never just a cough. >>> tonight, as we sign off, i want to say good-bye to a wonderful producer on this show, julia nutter, who is leaving "the rachel maddow show" for greener pastures after today every show has turnover. people cannot stay forever but julia started here as an intern and my assistant. she worked her way up to be one of the most valuable people on staff. i also have to tell you the ten years she has work on this show literally make up a third of her natural life on this earth so, julia, we are all going to miss the h-e double hockey sticks out of you. good luck. we'll miss you now it's time f

joining me is national investigative reporter for "the washington post," carol and barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney in the eastern district of michigan. both msnbc contributors. carol, i want to get to your reporting but start with your reaction to what you heard from the president on a couple of fronts, including his response on whether the mueller report should be made public. we'll have to see. the old time will tell sort of statement from the president there. >> hallie, you always zero in right on the right exact part of his comments. i found it interesting, but also completely in line with what i've heard from sources inside the white house who are basically saying they don't know whether or not the mueller report is going to be extremely damning and share private confidences that the president had with, for example, his own white house counsel at the time, don mcgahn or other senior advisers. they don't know how gad it's going to be. and so they are waiting, literally, to see where are they going to fall in terms of fighting this on legal grounds and how much of it should end up

assistant attorney with the eastern and southern district of new york, and barbara mcquade, former federal prosecutor, and matt miller, former chief spokesman for the justice department in the obama administration. greetings to all of you. matt miller, do you think there are secrets that can be found as rudy does these interviews and what does it tell you that trump aides are starting to pipe up about it? >> i think it's very difficult because you never know when he's telling the truth or not. i think it's pretty clear at this point, rudy giuliani, his best days as a lawyer are behind him. but he's actually worse as a public spokesman. when you watch his interviews, it's one thing to go on television and make admissions that are damaging to your client and happen to be factually true. it is another thing to go on television and make admissions about your client that may not even be true. this example of saying the discussions continued as far as november, october, november of 2016, an extremely damaging admission for donald trump, but it may not be true, it wouldn't match the public record