barbara mcquaid, edward stanton, chuck rosenburg are here. you're not yet to your second year but we're getting there. stay with us. ( ♪ ) ♪ one is the only number ♪ that you'll ever need ♪ staying ahead isn't about waiting for a chance. ♪ because one is... it's about the one bold choice you make that moves you forward. ♪ ...that you ever need the one and only cadillac escalade. come in for our season's best offers and drive out with the perfect 2017 cadillac escalade for you. get this low mileage lease from around $899 per month. ( ♪ ) from around grandma's.9 per month. aunt stacy's. what are the reasons you care for your heart? qunol coq10 with 3x better absorption has the #1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 to support heart health. qunol, the better coq10. let's get the one with the candy canes. well, you know, the wrapping paper doesn't make the holidays. it's what's inside that counts. it's a phone for mom. okay, well, it's also what's inside the phone that counts, too. circuits? no, the network. so the network is inside the phone?

thank you barbara mcquaid and professor jed sugarman. >>> stick around, everyone.chigan's democratic congressman john conyers retiring today. saying he will not seek re-election. that's coming up next. >> there's much more ahead today. here's what we'll be watching. at 12:30, president trump will have lunch with senate republicans at the white house. 7:30 tonight, steve bannon is going to campaign with roy moore in alabama. more on that race coming up. at 8:00 tonight, colin kaepernick will receive the sports illustrated muhammad ali legacy award. >> kaepernick is also on the short list for "time's" person of the year. we'll find out who gets that honor tomorrow on nbc's "today" show. tweet us. #velshiruhle. who do you think is getting "time" person of the year? spoiler alert, i think it's ali. >> i think it's not. let's take bets on that. we'll be right back. you're watching msnbc. [ mouse clicks, keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you fi

barbara mcquaid, chuck rosenbering are here. you're not yet to your second year but we're getting there. when it comes to heartburn trust the brand doctors trust for themselves. nexium 24hr is the number one choice of doctors and pharmacists for their own frequent heartburn. and all day all night protection. when it comes to frequent heartburn, trust nexium 24hr. anif you've got a lifee. you gotta swiffer each day justin at work... walk. and after work. he does it all with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort. to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move. ♪ when you have doctors working as a team for your health, you get the care you need to help you thrive. ♪ visit kp.org to learn more. kaiser permanente. thrive. ♪ >>> this is the lightning round. chuck rosenberg, who plays mueller in the movie? >> kp back to me and i'll answer at the end. >> barb, you have to bet. does trump pard. flynn? >> no. >> edward? no, i got to come back to you. >> george clooney. >> ye

attorney barbara mcquaid, thank you so much. appreciate you being here. >> thanks, joy. >> joining us is michael. always great to see you. especially now -- >> you, too, joy. >> thank you. we have so many quotes to work with in this interview that michael schmidt has. lest let's go in order. he says i have the absolute right to do what i want with the justice department. could that be more? >> it goes way beyond nixon. nixon would never have said that nor would any mod tern presider. it was ominous and border-line shocking. you have this president making this claim he can do whatever he wants with the justice department. no other modern president would agree. he has the right to open or end an investigation. well, guess what investigation he's eluding to? the other thing he says is that for purposes of -- this is almost his quote. for purposes of hopefully that i'm to be treated well, i've stayed uninvolved referring to the mueller investigation, what he's telling us, let's listen to this very carefully is there is a serious cha

attorney and msnbc contributor barbara mcquaid, author of "the constitution today," keila molar, and barb mcquaid, let me start with that date. to what finer focus this comes after what we learned on friday? >> well, a couple of things. one is, if there's an obstruction of justice here, there are two key elements here. what we said is to teach our law students, every crime has an act and a mens rea. one of the things we learned on friday is not only did trump know that michael flynn was involved in this, but perhaps other members of his administration were also involved in communication with the russians, if so, that adds to his motivation and his intent to commit an obstruction of justice. so it seems like based on the tweet yesterday where he may have inadvertently disclosed that he knew that michael flynn committed a crime by lying to the fbi, today he seems to be treating and attacking the other element of the effect, the actus reas to say i never told comey to let this go. so it seems if he's lost the mens rea defense, now he's focusing on the ac turkstus rea defense. >> let me

i want to bring in barbara mcquaid, an msnbc contributor, shannon pettypiece, reporter at bloomberg news. what's the significance here for congressional investigators and special counsel robert mueller? >> well, i think it probably raises more questions than it answers but it raises some significant questions. i think what robert mueller wants to know or may already know is what response did trump jr., trump ihimself, mechanics f the campaign make to this e-mail. there's a crime that makes it illegal for people to hack into computers and steal things that didn't belong to them. did any member of the campaign aid and abet the commission of that crime by suggesting what to do with the fruits of such a leak, by using that decryption key, avenues of distribution? i think it raises questions but something robert mueller would be interested in. >> the time of this e-mail and tweet by donald trump jr., i want to put the tweet up here for a second, citing wikileaks and its release of hillary clinton state department cables, both of those coming in september. purely a coincidence there? >> it was

. >> joined now by former federal prosecutor, barbara mcquaide and former ambassador michael mcfaul. bara, have you ever seen anyone violate a bail deal like this? >> no, i never have. and usually when someone is newly charged and is negotiating for the conditions of bond conditions, they're incredibly humble andy on their best behavior. if these allegations are true, they're really astonishing that paul manafort was ghost writing an op-ed in violation of the gag order a judge has issued in this case. no, i've never seen anything like it. >> how do you think mueller's investigators would come to know something like that which they themselves allege in court is secret. >> i don't know and they have filed it under seal. i can only speculate one way may have been that they were monitoring the communications of the colleague that paul manafort was dealing, with the russian, and that he was picked up incidental to that. it is possible that they could have been monitoring paul manafort, but only if they believed he was engaging in new criminal activity and they were authorized to do that by

want to bring in jeff bennett, barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney for michigan. jack rice, and former cia officer. jeff, new information on this saturday afternoon. what more would you add to this? >> new information that backs up what nbc news reported, that's that flynn was consulting with senior trump officials, trump transition officials when he was having these contacts with the then russian ambassador, sergei kislyak. one resolution about israeli settlements, he was ordered by jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser to reach out to the russians and other foreign officials to try to influence the outcome there. then we also know as relates to another conversation that flynn had in december of 2016 that he called a bunch of senior trump campaign officials in mar-a-lago and spoke with a former trump adviser, kt mcfar land. so that undercuts the trump administration line that only michael flynn knew what michael flynn was doing with the russians, richard. >> barbara sha, the question wee been asking. is there increased legal jeopardy for th

and barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney and an msnbc contributor. thank you both.hat is the rights -- what are they supposed to do -- in other words, in trump's administration does he have a right as president to go around looking for anybody in these agencies that may not like him? legally. ken? >> within reason, chris. we have a tradition in this country of independence of the fbi and justice department. but it's just that. it's a tradition. it's not enshrined in law. in theory he can go in and order that investigations be started and order that they be finished. but there are political costs to that. and those -- that could be deemed an impeachable offense, particularly if it was thought that he was obstructing an investigation into his own conduct. >> barbara, same question. is this proper for the president to go fishing around checking people's registrations, what they've written, what op-eds they've written, how they talk to their neighbors, finding out their politics and more importantly than their politics, what they think of him? >> this is another example

barbara mcquaid was an appointee for the eastern district of michigan and now a professor at the university of michigan law school, in addition to being a fake professor here tonight. edward stanton, served under president obama and is now in private practice. and paul fishman, the point guard, obama's attorney and now a real life law professor at seton hall. thank you for being here tonight. >> happy to be here. >> as you can tell from the rapidity of my speech, happy you're here. feel free to tell me if i'm asking a dumb question. or to jump in on each other. i expect that you all will not agree on all of these matters, so feel free to fight it out if we come up with something that we don't all feel the same way about. let me start by asking about the way the president made news about mike flynn. mike flynn pled guilty to one count of lying to the fbi. the president said he did not want to talk about pardoning mike flynn yet. i'm really interested in that "yet" as a matter of strategy. if the president were to pardon mike flynn now, what would happen to the testimony that mike flynn has p

across the way we have barbara l. mcquaide, a professor from practice at the university of michigan law school. she served as the u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, the first woman to serve in that post. as a u.s. attorney she oversaw cases involving public corruption as well as other areas of law public corruption as well as other areas of law. she serveds an assistant u.s. attorney in detroit, my hometown, for 12 years. judge sugarman teaches at fordham law school is is the author of the people's court, pursuing judicial independence in america. and he is currently working on an anti-corruption emoluments on the trump administration. he writes about law and politics on the blog, sugarblog.com. as kristen said wreesh also expect to be joined by the senator of rhode island a little later on. we know you will have questions during this discussion. fear not, we will have time at the end of the program to take your questions. so just hold onto them and know we will get to that. so i want to kick off this discussi