attorney barbara mcquaid, who is very plain spoken on these and other matters.arb, thank you for being here. >> you bet. glad for being here. >> so queen for a day isn't a joke on non-lawyers to make us look up to look like dunces, it's a real thing? >> it is a real thing. it refers to proffer sessions. it comes from an old tv show, a game show in the 50s where women would compete to be queen for a day and win prizes by telling their sob stories. it means the witness or defendant comes in and in an exchange for an agreement that none of those statements will be used against him, answers all questions truthfully, including questions that may implicate criminal behavior by himself. >> so you have to tell the truth and you can't later take the stand and contradicts what you say in this interview or they'll use it against you. but aside from those two prospects, you're supposed to feel free to confess to anything and everything, even stuff you were involved in, safe in the knowledge it won't be used to put you in jail. >> yes, in fact you have an incentive to be ver

and barbara mcquaid, a former u.s. attorney. barbara, we'll go to you first. can a president -- what power does a president have to dig date the parameters of his testimony to the special counsel? >> well, ultimately, because robert mueller has subpoena power before the grand jury. but, rather than delay this, have a protracted litigation, maybe have to go to the supreme court, i think mueller would rather get his information sooner than later. that's where the president has some leverage in saying i'll agree to come talk to you and you don't have to go through all this process but i want to do it on my terms. he can ask for things like i want it to be an interview, i want my lawyer to be president, i want to limit the duration. or as we're hearing, even requesting written questions. i'd be surprised robert mueller would give in too much because in the end he does hold those cards with the power of the grand jury subpoena. >> you and i were having this conversation, the break before the broadcast. started right here. one of the fundamental challenges if the pr

ken dilanian, barbara mcquaid, robert costa, our thanks. joining us for more reaction to everything we've talked about tonight, u.s. senator mazie hirono, joining us from honolulu tonight. senator, the first question is more about your 99 colleagues. >> aloha. >> aloha, senator. you're one of 100 but talk about the institution. think of our broadcast thus far. the folks who voted you in, the american taxpayers, are now going to look to you to do the right thing on guns, whatever that is. and the right thing on the russia investigation, whatever that is. do you have confidence in the institution to get that right? but you are in the party minority. or do you have your doubts? >> i think we have our challenges. but one of the occurrences or the events that really heartens me is young people like sam who are coming forward and saying that they are demanding sensible gun legislation so that they don't go to school and be killed. that is not asking too much at all. and so that is a -- to me, i am really heartened. with the march in washington, d

. >>> joining us now, a woman who certainly understand this is whole kerfuffle, barbara mcquaid, former.s. attorney. barbara, why is the release of the democrats' memo so important? it seemed the other day intel committees said yes, let's let this thing go forward. the president is still sitting on it. >> on the one hand, since we have seen the release of the republican memo i think there's great public interest in seeing the response. were there material issues in the nunes memo that can be explained? was the source's potential bias revealed to the fisa court? on the other hand, can't overstate the harm i think the release of both of these memos have done to the intelligence community. other foreign intelligence agencies share information with our government on the promise that it will be kept secret and to see it used this way for political purposes i think could have real long-term damaging effects on our ability to collect and share for intelligence information with our allies. >> if the president decides not to declassify the memo, what then? >> we're left with a one-sided view of

and barbara mcquaid, msnbc contributor and former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. so pete, let's reset here. we've been with the president for about 40 minutes now. what do we know about this memo? when are we likely to see it? >> nobody knows is the simple answer to the question. how can that be? because this has never happened before. let me just tell you what some of the issues are. there is a house rule that says if one of the permanent -- if the permanent select committee on intelligence, that's the nunes committee, gets its hands on a document from the executive branch, it can, by vote, release it to the public if the white house doesn't object. so that's where we are. it lays before the white house to see if the white house is going to object. now, we know, we're pretty confident the white house isn't going to object. here are the questions we face right now. will the white house make any changes in it based on a review by the intelligence committee agencies? is it the same thing that the committee originally se

here to explain more, former federal prosecutors joyce vance and barbara mcquaid. ara is also an msnbc contributor. good morning to you both. barbara, do these changes signal to you, these charges, do they signal where the investigation is going? >> we saw new charges come in against paul manafort. not in terms of new counts, but new narrative about some of his lobbying activity with further extensive relationships with european politicians, which is sort of some interesting intrigue. other thing that's new is in the virginia indictment, talked about how paul mrt seemed to be sort of desperately trying to generate cash by getting false mortgages and loans on some of his properties. when you will couple that with some of the reporting we've seen already about offering a free briefing to a russian oligarch about the trump campaign and perhaps owing a large debt to a russian oligarch, it does suggest that all of these financial crimes might be related to links to russia as well. >> okay. so joyce, manafort released a statement. here's what it said, not with standing th

barbara mcquaid a former u.s. attorney. both msnbc legal analysts. a, bill clinton was a lawyer. he was one of the sharpest talkers around and he got himself into a pickle in that testimony. donald trump has a history of giving false statements in testimony. he's done it before, has a history of giving false stamms when there's no testimony involved. >> they're going to do the best they can to negotiate the terms. their ideal scenario would probably be no questions at all. short of that, written questions where they can assist him in preparing the answers. he's got lots of time to think what he's saying and not on the spot. i do want to point out what the robert mueller would be doing if he's in a grand jury set org interview setting is not trying to trip him up and catch him making slips of the tongue. to commit perjury one has to make a materially false statement. if he should lie about something significant, that could be a basis for perjury or obstruction of justice. it's not little tricks he's going to play. >> nick, how do you see this playing o

barbara mcquaid. and chuck rosenburg. great to have all of you with us on this super bowl sunday. we promise not to take too much of your time so you guys can catch a little bit of the game. betsy, let me begin with you. we mentioned there was a vote to release the devin nunes memo. the white house agreed with that. but they are expected to vote on the democratic memo tomorrow. what impact do you think it'll have on the discussion? >> the fact that speaker of the house, paul ryan, has said he support the release of the democrat's memo suggests that, you know, at least too me that there is a descent chance it'll be released. that said, democrats have telegraphed that this memo could potentially go right after one of the core accusations to rise out of the republican's memo. it implies, if it doesn't state complicitly, that when attorneys from the justice department and fbi went to intelligence surveillance group to get a warrant, to surveil carter page, former trump aide, that they deliberately didn't tell the judge that part of the material that they used to make the case for that

. >> barbara mcquaid, former u.s.orney in michigan, thank you very much for being with us tonight. nice to see you. >> thanks, rachel, you too. >> lots ahead tonight. stay with us. don't we need that cable box to watch tv? nope. don't we need to run? nope. it just explodes in a high pitched 'yeahhh.' yeahhh! try directv now for $10 a month for 3 months. no satellite needed. can start in the colon constiand may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. only phillips' colon health has this unique combination of probiotics. it provides four-in-one symptom defense. it's your daily probiotic. imagine if the things you bought every day... earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag. two united club passes. priority boarding. and earn fifty thousand bonus miles after you spend three thousand dollars on purchases in the first three months from account opening plus, zero-dollar intro annual fee for the first year, then ninety-five dollar

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tonight's "last word" is thank you to our guests tonight, breaking news from "the new york times," barbara mcquaidoya, sam stein, eric columbus, thanes to all of you, really appreciate it. that is tonight's "last word." please stay with our breaking news coverage of tonight's developments. i had to throw out everything that was scripted for this show as the news was breaking on us. i know that's exactly what brian williams has had to do too. and that's why we have another hour of coverage of all of this and more. "the 11th hour with brian williams" starts now. >>> a breaking story from "the new york times" tonight. robert mueller now digging into the cover story about that trump tower meeting and the role white house aide hope hicks might have played. also washington counting down to the release of that controversial memo even after the fbi warns of grave concerns about its content. plus donald trump believes the memo will show the fbi and doj are conspiring against him. the reporter on the story here tonight with details. and reports the president asked rod rosenstein, the man overseeing the muel

i want to bring in barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney in michigan and an msnbc contributor and nick ackerman and former assistant special watergate prosecutor. i want to point out a tweet sent by james comey after the memo released. he said that is it. dishonest misleading memo wrecked the house and intel committee and destroyed trust and intelligence community and damaged relationship of fisa court for an in excusable exposed classified investigation for what. barbara, what do you think of the investigation. >> i agree the memo is really und underwellming and we experted more. but if you pars what it says, it talks about a fisa application in october of 2016 when the investigation had already begun in july of 2016. it relates only to that aspect of carter page. when we know that the investigation has many other as pecks. and so to suggest if there was something improper about failing to disclose a buy as of a witness, that it taints the entire investigation seems disingenuous. >> nick, i hasten to say, this might be -- this mig

. >> is barbara mcquaid still with us. think about the pardon of sheri sheriff arpaio not as deer -- dear to the president as hope hicks and is everyone on pardon alert. i understand it could be done but it is not typical. do you imagine a situation where the start starts pardoning people before they are charged with crimes. >> it could be done before you are charged. president nixan was pardoned before he was charged. any crime if you committed even if it is yet uncharged. can -- it could be politically and legally perilous because if it is done for an improper purchase to protect himself from testimony in an obstruction of justice case it could be further evidence of obstruction of justice. so i think the president has to be very careful about issuing pardons with people that have information that could incriminate him. >> but check rosenberg, to play the devil's advocate, if the president wants to roll his dice on the republican congress of having his back and say, oh, they'll never vote to impeach me. they stomached my