also jim sciutto and carrie cordero.nded of every time we're talking about details that we or "the washington post," "the new york times," "the wall street journal" have learned about the mueller investigation, it is still just a small fraction, just the tip of the iceberg of what we actually know. they know so much more than we do. >> no question. let's be frank. i know the mueller team has been accused of leaks. i've covered this for more than a year now. that is the tightest black box in washington. you get sort of secondary ripples of what he's looking into based on what lawyers for witnesses tell you, et cetera. and then you get, you know, sort of indications of lines of inquiry that he's going down. but what evidence he's found down these lines of inquiry, that is very much an open question. we know he's asking about trump's financial dealings. has he found financial crimes? we don't know. we know he's asking about -- still asking about the possibility of collusion, foreknowledge of the hacked e-mails, et cetera. h

great to get your take, carrie cordero. >>> it's now time to hand it over to don lemon, the man for cnn tonight. >>> this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. thanks for joining us. we're following multiple big stories. james comey fired off this in cnn's town hall tonight in response to a question on how the trump administration views the fbi. >> they view the institutions of justice with contempt, as just another piece on the board. when that piece is doing something that the leadership doesn't like, it should be knocked over and d

great to get your take, carrie cordero.nk you. >>> it's now time to hand it over to don lemon, the man for cnn tonight. >>> this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. thanks for joining us. we're following multiple big stories tonight. first, there is james comey, who fired off this in cnn's town hall tonight in response to a question on how the trump administration views the fbi. >> they view the institutions of justice with contempt, as just another piece on the board. when that piece is doing something that the leadership doesn't like, it should be knocked over and dirtied up. and that is a terrible place for us to be as a country. the fbi is not politicized. that's nonsense. the fbi, though, is being politically attacked. and the reason that is so dangerous and so stupid, even if you're a republican, we need thosens

joining us is cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin and cnn legal analyst carrie cordero. that mueller is continuing to investigate president trump but does not consider him a criminal target, but rather a subject of his investigation, what is the difference? >> in federal law enforcement there are three categories of witnesses. there are targets, who are almost certainly going to be charged, going to be indicted. there are witnesses who are just people whose information is of value to the prosecutors. and in between the two, there is something called a subject, that is someone who is under investigation but who may or may not be charged. trump is a subject, and i don't think that's particularly good news for him. it's a big deal to be under criminal investigation by the fbi, particularly if you are president of the united states. this has been implicit in what the mueller investigation has been doing, but this confirmation that the president is under criminal investigation, that's a pretty profound thing to think about. >> carrie, according to "the washington post" report

joining us now to talk about all the legal angles on this are jeffrey toobin as well as carrie cordero. jeff, if mueller does not consider the president a criminal target, rather a subject of the investigation, does that mean that the president's completely out of woods here? >> by no means. there are three categories in federal criminal law. there's target, which means you are almost certainly going to be indicted. there is subject, where you may or may not be indicted. and then there's witness, where you are just someone who has information of interest to the prosecutor. but being a subject is a very serious thing. that means the prosecutors are determining whether to file charges against you. the president of the united states is a subject of a criminal investigation with fbi agents and federal prosecutors. i mean that is something that an extraordinarily serious thing, and i don't know if that's even been true since richard nixon. i don't think bill clinton was ever a subject although he probably was, i guess, in retrospect. but i mean this is a very significant designation and, yo

let's discuss that now with john avlon and carrie cordero. carrie, what's the play here? what are they looking at? is this in the sweet spot of mueller's mandate? >> good morning. i think it certainly adds another layer to what we already knew about special counsel's investigation as revealed through the indictment, the big indictment of the internet research agency and other russian entities and oligarchs that the special counsel's office already had filed. so in that indictment, those individuals were charged in this case. and so what this new report shows is that the activity of certain russian oligarchs is not have the investigator answer perspective just related to the activity that was laid out in that indictment but also there may be another layer of activity in this case perhaps providing money directly or indirectly to the campaign. so there's more to come. i think we already have indicators that they were looking at this set of individuals. but there's more to come. >> look, it just stands to reason, follow the money. >> follow the rubles. >> if they have ton of

joining us is john avlon and cnn legal analyst carrie cordero. president as to whether or not this happens? >> it is. is so his legal team will give him advice as to whether or not they think it is is in his best interest legally whether or not to go through with an interview. the second piece is whether it is politically feasible not to be interviewed. those are two different questions. if he was standard subject of a federal fbi investigation he would have to make a decision whether or not to be interviewed. >> what if they subpoena him? >> if they subpoena him, then they will need to appear. so that's really a big question for his team, is it better for him to voluntarily interview where then at least it appears that he is trying to be cooperative in some way as opposed to if he is served with a subpoena and then he is required, unless they have grounds to challenge it. but it is unclear they would have is that justification. >> as we know, president trump believes an investigation is a hoax if the subject of the investigation is never intervi

what is the distinction, joining us for that is jeffrey could bein a-- toobin and carrie cordero. >>re are targets who are almost certainly going to be charged and indicted. there are witnesses. and in between the two there is somebody called the subject. someone who is under investigation but who may or not be charged. trump is a subject. and i don't think that is particularly good news for him. it is a big deal to be under criminal investigation by the fbi particularly if the you are the president of the united states. this has been implicit in what the mueller investigation has been doing. but this confirm aiation, that president is under criminal investigation, that is a profound thing to think about. >> carrie, according to the "washington post" reporting some have told him that is part of the danger of sitting down for an interview, that you can go from being a subject to a target quickly. >> one could depending on the outcome of the interview. being a subject, they shouldn't cracking open any champagne in the white house. there is certainly risk of him sitting down for an inte

. >> joining me know is laura coates, carrie cordero and steve hall. >> what does that tell you aboutow? >> a few things. first of all, exploration of more investigative techniques is consistent of what we are seeing and other aspects of the government's approach in general. there has been treasury designations. some of whom were also named in the special counsel indictment of the internet research agency and other russian individuals and entities. so we are seeing that the intelligence and investigative information that the u.s. government has obtained is showing itself in different aspects of this overall investigation. second, the use of interviews at airports is actually a typical investigative technique. executing search warrants and interviewing individuals, it is not unusual for airports that are transiting from overseas into the u.s. for that to be a point where investigators can intercept people and stop them and interview them. that piece seems as a not so unusual investigative technique in a significant investigation. >> laura, i mean these men are not u.s. citizens, do the

joining me now is laura coates, carrie cordero, and steve hall. ueller with an fbi stopping these russian oligarchs, where does that tell you about where this investigation is now in. >> anderson, a few things. first of all, i think the exploration of more investigative techniques directed against the russian oligarchs is in some ways very consistent if in what we're seeing with the government's approach. in other words, there have been treasury designations against russian oligarchs and entities, some of whom were also named in the special counsel's indictment of the internet research agency and other russian individuals and entities. so in some ways we're seeing that the intelligence and investigative information that the u.s. government has obtained, whether that's fbi or in the intelligence community, is showing itself in different aspects of this overall investigation. second, the use of interviews at airports actually is a pretty typical investigative technique. so executing search warrants, interviewing individuals, in my prior experience in

great to get your take, carrie cordero. >>> it's now time to hand it over to don lemon, the man for cnn tonight. >>> this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. thanks for joining us. we're following multiple big stories. james comey fired off this in cnn's town hall tonight in response to a question on how the trump administration views the fbi. >> they view the institutions of justice with contempt, as just another piece on the board. when that piece is doing something that the leadership doesn't like, it should be knocked over and dirtied up. and that is a terrible place for us to be as a country. the fbi is not politicized. that's nonsense. the fbi, though, is being politically attacked. and the reason that is so danger and you say so stupid, even if you're a republican, we need those institutions. >> we are also learning tonight that president trump's long time fixer, michael cohen, will plead the fifth in a case about hush money paid to porn star stormy daniels, that as lawyers for president trump say he will be able to personally review documents seize incod in the fbd against cohen. >

joining me now, cnn senior diplomatic correspondent michelle kosinski and carrie cordero who served asounsel to the assistant attorney general for national security. first, michelle, why now? why this latest round of sanctions now, after so many months, over a year of the president's toughest critics saying do this, is he finally do it? >> plenty of people were asking why not do this immediately when the deadline came around. >> right. >> the administration always saw that not as a deadline to sanction but a starting point. >> deadline when the congress passed the legislation that he signed. >> right. >> it was october, right? >> august when that legislation was passed and very reluctantly signed by the president, you remember. he put a statement attached to it. he felt like that was encroaching on the white house's authority basically and congress was saying we want you to punish russia. now the administration finally is. they're doing it incrementally. this is understandable to some extent, because it does take time. this was incredibly complicated sanctioning. some of it had to do w

. >> all right, joining me now to discuss, cnn legal analyst carrie cordero. i think legally perhaps the more important issue here is this new filing to depose the president and michael cohen, a judge delayed that type of filing before, because he said it wasn't a pressing issue. now the president has spoken publicly. saying that he did not know about the payment. does that make stormy daniels legal case better now? >> it raises an issue on the substance. they're dealing with the process, how things will go forward in terms of the process of doing discovery, taking depositions long before this might get towards the trial or a resolution. so i think one of the big questions in this issue is whether or not michael cohen had authority to execute the agreement on behalf of donald trump. and so that question, one of the questions we have not heard answered yet is whether this particular agreement was one of a kind thing where michael cohen did this, and that would support the president's statement that he didn't have any knowledge of it. or on the other hand, if th

also joining the team gene and marty raskin harry sandik, carrie cordero, and our political analyst mark talk about, harry. let's just start with rudy giuliani. he said he is going to push for an end to the mueller probe. trump says giuliani wants to end this quickly. that's been the president's drumbeat for a long time here. is that just big talk? >> i think it's going to be very hard to deliver. rudolph giuliani has had a long and distinguished career, but he is not a magician. and he can't disappear an investigation that has been going on for 11 months there are multiple people who have plead guilty as cooperating witnesses whom. are they cooperating against? we don't know. but there is no indication that the investigation will just fold up because giuliani asked bob mueller to do it. it seems hard to imagine. >> it's fair to point out you have guilty pleas. you have indictments. you have charges. it's not as if any of those have not happened. they have happened, putting michael cohen aside in the southern district. carrie, we know the president was turned down by multiple a-list lawy