don jr. testified the meeting lasted 20 to 30 minutes and at the conclusion goldstone apologized to him for what he believed was wasting our time. dond jr. believed there to be a pretty substantial delta between the meetings original purpose and what actually took place. asked if he informed his father about the meeting and the russians offer to supply dirt on clinton, don jr. said he did not. explaining that he, quote, wouldn't bring him anything that is unsubstantiated especially from a guy like rob before i knew what it was about before myself. and shortly after arranging the meeting, don jr. made an 11-minute phone call to a blocked number, asked if he remembers who the call was with, trump jr. said i don't. democrats note that former trump campaign aide cory lewandowski testified that candidate trump's prime minister residence has a blocked number. a full year later after "the new york times" first broke the existence of the meeting, the white house claimed the meeting was primarily about

said gates, it's like don jr. eric, you don't want either but you'd definitely take one over the other. [ laughter and applause ] i'm hpv. no, i am! rudy giuliani said this weekend that special counsel robert mueller has promised to finish his investigation into possible wrongdoing by president trump by september, possibly even august if rudy giuliani would just stop calling him. [ laughter ] rudy giuliani claimed this weekend that special counsel robert mueller shared his timeline with the white house and promised that the obstruction investigation would be concluded by september. well, we did some digging and we got our hand on mueller's full timeline for the investigation through september. check it out. june 1st, draft questions for president. june 2nd, redraft questions for president using smaller words. june 3rd, redraft questions for president using straight up pictures. june 19th, convert pee pee tape to pee pee blu-ray. [ laughter ] july 10th, pause investigations while both sides team up to find rudy giu

don jr. was also asked do you know if any of the following people made any efforts to obtain clinton e-mails. a number of people were listed in the campaign. did you ever have a conversation with mr. stone about e-mails or other information obtained as part of a cyber attack? was there any discussion that you were involved in within the campaign or anyone else about potential use of the information that had been obtained through the cyber attacks? don jr.'s answer was always -- i don't know, or i don't recall. eli, what do you make of that? >> well, as donald trump himself has said, you don't plead the fifth if you actually are innocent. when you don't go in front of people and say, you can't recall all these things over and over again, if you're actually telling the truth, you do not go and scramble and call other attorneys who were involved of the meeting and people who were involved to try to get your story straight before you go and testify. there are a lot of damaging things that came ou

don jr. told senate investigators he did not tell his father about the meeting and they did not directly discuss the response to reporters. one statement don jr. did describe was the crafting of the purpose of the meeting being about russian option. >> question, to the best of your knowledge did the president provide any et its to the statement or other input? and he responded owe he may have communicated via hope hicks." >> let's first -- obviously this is fascinating to look at these transcripts and we've had people poring over all of these pages, you guys among them, good work. is there anything in here that is going to be of interest to the special counsel? >> i think everything in here is going to be of interest to the special counsel. there is so much ambiguity in the answers to these -- by these witnesses and so many i don't remembers, that mueller, who has the spepower to subpoena and che people with false answers is not going to be -- i think there's a lot of things that need to be e

don jr. has said he was not interested. what is interesting is that after that meeting, george nader meets several times during -- before the election, during the transition and into the white house with senior advisors, mike flynn, steve bannon, jared kushner. so it wasn't the end of it for the trump campaign. >> is it clear that anything came out of this meeting? i know you outline how mr. na r paid mr. zamel, the israeli who was offering the social media campaign a large sum of money -- $2 million, described by one associate. this is after donald trump was elected. is there any indication that that was for a social media campaign to help the president. >> that's what we're still trying to figure out. as we say in the story, zamel had drawn up a proposal. his company had done some work on possible ways to help the trump campaign. there is no evidence at the time that that was carried out. yet there is this large payment from george nader to another affiliated company, joel zamel, aft $2 million. we are still trying to fig

the fbi obtained wiretaps of a putin ally who met with don jr. in 2016. nald trump jr., the fbi, robert mueller did not respond to michael isakoff with yahoo! news in regards to the report. joining me is liam brennan, former federal prosecutor. should don jr. be worried? >> hello, aex-l thank you for having me back. jose grida says donald trump jr. should be worried but we don't know what is on the wirestands or when they were from. don jr. admitted he met with torsion. in that testimony they only discuss the business agreements with torsion. the question, is that true, did portion in these spanish wiretaps mention don jr.? did he say something else about what they had discussed? if there's some way what torsion said on the wiretaps undermines the testimony that don jr. gave, that could be very problematic but it is an open question and the other question is when are the wiretaps from. did they pre-date his meeting with torsion which was in may or june of 2016 at the nra convention in louisville or postdate it and recap what went on there. >> do we know ho

. - i'm not don jr. - exactly. - i'm not don jr. - i know. - i'm not don j-- i'm not... does anybody my name is michael. [clattering] - oh, my bad. are y'all shooting? don jr.! - [stammers] - donald jr.! - roy! it's michael! what-- - oh. - i... - my--my bad, man. it's just...you people all look the same. that's--that's my opinion. - that's great. ♪ [man coughs] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> jordan: get in, get ready! it's already may 2nd, and my opponent tonight is cenk uygur, host of "the young turks." yes. he's later. this is now. first, i want to talk about a distressing attack that the m.s.m. is completely ignoring: >> take a look at these photos from adrian, michigan. yes, that's an angry mother goose attacking a golfer. isaac couling, the high-schooler participating in the golf tournament, got turned upside down, even lost his golf clubs while under assault. >> jordan: what! this goose on the loose assaulted a man and stole his clubs? probably sold those clubs to get hopped up on birdseed. which is a street name for meth. this bird-on-man violence is the very definition of an "epidemic"

. - i'm not don jr. - exactly. - i'm not don jr. - i know. - i'm not don j-- i'm not... does anybodyon" or "jackass jr." my name is michael. [clattering] - oh, my bad. are y'all shooting? don jr.! - [stammers] - donald jr.! - roy! it's michael! what-- - oh. - i... - my--my bad, man. it's just...you people all look the same. that's--that's my opinion. - that's great. ♪ [man coughs] ♪ two... two, three... ♪ ♪

what do you make of the fact that don jr. said i made this call to this phone number.on't remember speaking to my dad about anything and i don't know who's phone this was. >> greg: i have a blocked phone number. he might've been calling me. >> jedediah: sounds great. >> jesse: she didn't destroy her phone -- >> juan: here we go. obama or clinton. >> jesse: i remind you every week. >> dana: something that is not don jr. related. in the senate judiciary documents there was a list from paul manafort from his notes from the meeting that apparently he took on his phone. i don't think we have a picture. i did it on the 2:00 show. says things like cyprus, $133 million. then it has the word elicit but missing the t. why are you writing elicit in the meeting with the russians. underneath that it says something like actively supportive of rnc. i think those notes are a little bit more interesting. >> jesse: can i say i got an alert on my phone. paul manafort is now following me on twitter. >> greg: we should have led with that. i did a survey at the gym today about this. i asked

the idea that don jr. was not a random adviser, he was in another meeting with another foreign power that they would help them win the election is a big story, part of the news cycle a long time. >> thank you so much. good to talk to you. >>> up next, political impact of the mueller probe. is the president in some ways gaining more support because of it. es -yes cool. i want to show you guys three chevy suv's. the first one is called the trax, great for when you move in together. -ahhh! and this is the chevy equinox, perfect for when you two have your first kid. give me some time... okay. this is the traverse... for when you have your five kids, two dogs and one cat. whoa! five? uhhh... it's the chevy memorial day sales event! get an additional $750 on these select models. that's on top of most other offers! find new roads at your local chevy dealer. savings on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides to keep you effortlessly comfortable. and sno

a source told them the president's son, don jr. responded approvingly embracing the emissary from the arab princes as a close ally. trump yur's lawyer says his client was not interested in the pitch and that was the end of it. alone with the infamous russian adoption meeting this is the second known meeting of foreign interests offering donald trump jr. assistance in winning the election at trump tower. guys, we are witnessing a steady drip, drip, drip in both the investigation and the white house's moves to clamp down on the investigation. the more and more drips into these buckets, the closer we are going to get to one of them overflowing. and when that happens, it just may consume everything in its path. joining me now is ben with ittis, editor in chief of law fair and an msnbc legal analyst. ben, it is great to see you. >> good to see you. >> what do you make today of the president meeting with rod rosenstein? i had allen dershowitz on earlier today he usually is a big defender of the president is his actions. even said that th

don jr.'s lawyer said nothing came of the meeting. nothing happened. nothing to see here.st had a meeting three months before the election. others are saying, look, this is another attempt, at least an attempt by foreign government, foreign agents to influence the u.s. election to help donald trump. on its face, from what we know, anything here that violates election law? >> it could. think about fund mentally you do not have the right if you are a foreign nation or foreign national to interfere at all with the american electorate system. that is fundamentally a problem. the idea that he is professes all is well that ends well is not satisfactory to federal investigators. we have a whole host of crimes, even if they are not yet accomplished, could be a crime. for example, if somebody does not carry out a hit machine's actual charge, you still endeavored to do so. all is well that ends well, nothing to see here continues to raise the scrutiny of federal investigators. the theme is the same here. not simply because it was ajeeeo political rival in russia is the problem. it i

is this ignorance on the part of don jr. and the people around him who would have said this is a good idea or arrogance? >> i think it's both. you had a number of people who didn't have any idea what they were doing. there weren't enough experienced people to say you don't do that ever. you don't play footsie and flirt with vladimir putin and think you're the first who thought of this. he is playing a long game on how to do that to the west. the trump folks thought, oh, we can just flirt with it, say he's a great leader, call on him publicly to hack our e-mail system of a political rival not understanding how you be can played and how this administration was played by that. don jr., son of the president and senior adviser, is taking meetings with foreign representatives who want to influence the administration and thinking that's okay. again, the arrogance with which they just ignore more seasoned advice is something that even supporters who like that he breaks the mold should be really worried about. >> thank you. appreciat

remember, don jr. back before all these details were known denied pretty much everything to "the new york times" saying did i meet with people that were russian? i'm sure di. but none that were set up and certainly none that i was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form. >> all right, tom foreman, thank you so much for that. >> the senate judiciary transcripts uncover another matter. donald trump said he walked in on a meeting, quoting trump jr., i don't remember the exact timing of when they took place, i believe it was already after we secured, meaning after the election, but could i be mistaken. the only reason i'm aware it have is it occurred in my office. i came back from the gym and they were in there. gloria borger is joining me now. >> i hate when that happens. y >> you come back from the gym and i'm always in your office having meetings. >> that's right, with the russian ambassador. >> why are we just hearing about this now? >> i'd like to know what michael flynn is saying about th

. >> laura: don trump, jr., the transcript notes of his talk with the senate came out.ee he said he itot have a memory about talking to his father with it specifically. then they are focusing on this blocked call he made that day, he doesn't remember if it was to his father orth not. that's the theory they are spinning out. >> since i believe it took place in the office, it would have been easy for him. >> laura: june of 2016. >> that's about when he joined the campaign. nobody is going to focus on a russian woman who says she has information about hillary, turns out she wants to negotiatens sanctions and they throw her out. to meet again, they don't want to meet with her. i remember that. k i have people saying all sorts ofar things about hillary. >> laura: the headlines, cnn, don, jr., admits he was looking for dirt on hillary. >> and they weren't looking for dirto. on donald trump? there is nothing illegal about that. even if it comes from a russian or german, doesn't matter. and they never used it is the main thing. they rejected it. if there was collusion with the russians, they w

." [ laughter and applause ] but in the document -- in the document, don, jr.he can't remember if he discussed the russia investigation with his dad. meanwhile, his dad admits he can't remember which one is eric and which one is don jr. [ laughter and applause ] eric? this is big. there's talk that kim jong-un might back out of his meeting with president trump. when asked why, kim said, "it's because trump hears 'yanny' and i hear 'laurel'." [ laughter and applause ] >> steve: that's not good at all. >> jimmy: kim jong-un might cancel his meeting with trump, where they were supposed to discuss north korea's nuclear weapons. trump was like, "how could someone just pull out of a a nuclear agreement?" and iran was like, "i know, it's crazy, right?" [ laughter and applause ] and get this. bernie sanders' former campaign manager said he might run for president again in 2020. [ cheers and applause ] in fact, they've already come up with some new campaign slogans for him. check it out. for example, there's "bernie 2020, make america yell again." [ laughter ] then ther

don jr. again, he's the son.ty, but no mention of taking the high ground here making the points that you would think are the obvious points here of what's tolerated. >> talking about women. >> kelly ann made it a political gotch ya to use her own words. the obvious way was to go here is what's wrong, this is what we must re-enforce. >> you don't get called poly anna very often. why would you look for the high road in this particular environment. democrats have tried to be very consistent when members of their own have been called out to draw a contrast, but there is not a lot of indication that this administration unfortunately likes to take the high road particularly when it comes to political. >> this was a layup. >> schneiderman has been a very tough constant critic of this administration. maybe they're glorying -- >> you can take him down by lifting women up. >> i don't think the liftup is a move they have a lot of muscle memory on right now. there's another issue, too. in addition to obviously clearly this i

a new report reveals none other than don jr. held another questionable trump tower meeting in the months leading up to the election. >> it demonstrates yet again just how not only willing but eager the president's son and the trump campaign were to solicit, to receive foreign help. >> heart break in texas. new details emerge about the suspected deadman from friday's deadly school shooting as yet another u.s. community is left searching for answers. >> this has happened too much in 2018 for it to continue to happen and somebody needs to put a stop to this. >> losing leverage. the trump administration suspends its plan to impose tariffs in return from vague promi promises and the markets are loving it. >> you can't be tariffing people at the same xookt tiexact time negotiating with them. >> it was ross who pushed the e to impose tariffs, deja vu. it is an extraordinary request, and just one of the many new stories about the president and russia. i have a great team here to break all of it down. first, i want to explain where it st

." >> don jr. said the meeting lasted 25 minutes. he said he believed there to be a pretty substantial delta between the meeting's original purpose and what actually took place. >> don junior, shortly after ranging the meeting, donald trump made an 11-minute phone call to a blocked member. democrats note, however, that former trump campaign aide said the residence has a blocked number. the white house initially claimed the meeting was primarily about adoptions, an explanation disproved when an e. >> and that it took part. >> the president weighed in as any father would. >> jim sciutto joins me now. what do we know about the follow-up after the meeting? >> we learned from thoo rn. >> she reached out to the trump campaign after the election, again to follow up on what was discussed in that meeting. so good a. then the true focus of this meeting was denied, in that statement with it being a a. >> jim sciutto, appreciate the details. we're back now with our guests. maggie, it is it funny. a drn expectative on it. i degree there were a nu

. >> don jr., a reporter for him saying that don jr. said he was not interested. how does that dovetail with what we've seen foreign policy-wise since this meeting took place. we've seen this administration embrace saudi arabia. >> and the crown prince of saudi arabia was just on a grand tour in the united states and welcomed by the political and business community with open arms. so there's been a strategic shift away from treating both sides the same and now take an aggressive stance toward iran. >> george nader has been asking questions. how does this change, your perspective of the role he played? >> it just adds another difficult and complex layer on to robert mueller's investigation. given the number of people he's interviewed, you always ask some of these kind of questions, to donald trump jr. and to others with whom he's been interacting. specifically were there any other people with whom you've been interacting, speaking to other than russian nationals? the difficulty, though, and danny's 100% right in terms of the breadth of the law, the difficulty is th

it would be hard to believe that don jr.n't mention it to his father because in that meeting and in the e-mail he learned that the russian government was backing his father's campaign according to the e-mail and had dirt on hillary clinton according to that e-mail. >> it would be remarkable if he hadn't told his father. everybody i think just by its counter intuitive to think that he didn't call his father. and an i don't recall response is not a good one. let me tell you about nixon's chief of staff who had memory problems. he was indicted for perjury. i counted some 60 occasions in this testimony where don junior either could not recall or didn't know and was hedging. >> carrie, is it difficult to prove somebody knows if theys saying they can't recall. >> the way it would be proved is the testimonies of other witnesses. as it relates to the crafting of the statement board air force one trying to explain the trump tower meeting. it is not going to be just don junior's word for it. hope hicks was also involved in this. and t

when asked about the president's involvement in crafting that statement, don jr. telling investigators he may have come through it hope hicks. >> the president weighed in as any father would. >> reporter: donald jr. also repeatedly testified that he does not recall telling his father about the meeting. phone records show he called a blocked number before and after arranging the meeting and again on the date it occurred. democrats know that former campaign aide corey lewandowsky he previously testified that trump's primary residence has a blocked number. two days before the meeting, candidate teased about something that never happened. >> we will be discussing all the things that have taken place with the clintons. i think you will find it very informative and very, very interesting. >> and today is the one-year anniversary of when ropbt mueller was appointed as special counsel. it does remain to be seen if the president will comment on this since there has been confusion whether they will hold a previously planned news conference with the nato secretary. it was on

but don jr. has already started helping, because a couple weeks ago, he hosted a "secret fundraiser for vice president mike pence's older brother, greg pence, who is running for congress in indiana." that's an exciting double bill if if you love trump/pence and don't care which ones. i can't wait to find out how his brother eric helps with the mid-terms. "they gave me a very important role-- ( laughter ) ( applause ). ( cheers ) i-- ( laughter ) "they gave me a very important role handing out bumper stickers in front of the grocery store. ( laughter ) i have lost the bumper stickers. there was a breeze." ( laughter ) meanwhile-- ( cheers and applause ) i need lip lubricant. what are you laughing at, him over there? meanwhile, one g.o.p. representative is introducing a bill that would force post offices to display pictures of trump and pence. and not the pictures that you're hoping for. the bill is the brainchild of new york representative and man whose fetish is doing it in the bed, dan donovan.

don jr. suggested that he never really thought about whether getting information from the russians was alarming. asked by investigators did you understand that would be problematic, don jr. basically responded that getting dirt on hillary clinton was fair game. finally, there were a number of specifics that don jr. could not remember, including whether he discussed a trump tower meeting with jared kushner or paul manafort beforehand. he also doesn't remember discussing the firings of former fbi director james comey or former national security adviser michael flynn with his father. >> about a year later the white house put out a statement that the president participated in this meeting. don jr. says he chose not to talk to his father about that statement. >> reporter: that's right, george. he said he chose not to talk to his father. a lot he did not remember though, george. >> he said i do not remember many times. senator dianne feinstein says much more investigation to be done. pierre thomas,

the -- over the few months, the course of the few months, you see that no one apparently had told don jrhat first russian meeting in june was a no-no. that he shouldn't take meetings like that again. this happened two months later, and clearly they seem to be open to meeting with anybody that could help them along the campaign. so while the president may have found this article to be boring and long, this is a creative way to interpret it because nowhere did it say all of the russian allegations are not true. >> and just very briefly, it is important to remember this idea that nothing has been found. even though we aren't at the end of the investigation, that is not true. bianna mentioned this, we are talking about five people in the trump orbit who have pled guilty, including his two -- lying to the fbi and including his former national security adviser mike flynn and rick gates. the idea this is a nothing burger and a white goose chase, this is not a democratic creation, we have people who work for donald trump who have pled guilty -- in senior roles of lying to the fbi and the investi

news reports the fbi obtained wire taps of a putin ally who met with don jr. in may of 2016. says that donald trump jr. should be very worried. what is your reaction, joyce? >> so this is interesting, and earlier this week in an unrelated case, mueller's prosecutors filed a pleading that indicated there are non-public lines of investigation that the special counsel is in investigating potential crimes that the public is not yet aware of. they filed that pleading in an effort to keep some of their information out of the public eye, and now we see this story about torsion, the russian deputy chief at the russian central bank surfacing, and it's interesting, because in 2016, there was contact between torsion and the nra and the trump campaign, ultimately resulting in this meeting with trump jr. during the nra convention during the national convention, and so mueller undoubtedly knows a lot more about this than we do, if a spanish prosecutor believes, based on wire taps, that trump jr. is in trouble, then we can be certain that mueller is looking into this and we'll hear more abou

how concerned do you think don jr. should be right now in. >> he should be very concerned.look at the transcript from the information he provided to the senate committee when he was originally interviewed, he definitively said no, not a qualified no, but a no, when he was asked by them whether or not there were attempts or contact or communications with countries other than russia to be able to be a part of influence, et cetera, the trump campaign. now we know that donald trump jr. met at trump tower, which seems to be the grand central station of all sorts of inappropriate activity legally and they met with an representative, an emissary, george nader, from the uae and saudi arabia, who basely said we'd like to help the trump campaign and the fact that donald trump jr. said no, if you make materially false statements to congress, that's a crime under u.s. code section 1001. and that's brought down other people as well. >> if the senate judiciary committee calls on him, does he have to go back and testify, don jr.? >> remember he voluntarily showed up the first time, but we

do you believe the special prosecutor, robert mueller, knows who don jr. called? >> i believe he does, virtually because he has access to any information he wants to get in terms of due diligence and the investigation. >> i want to ask you about the latest comments from rudy giuliani. he's the president's personal lawyer right now who says the special counsel can't and won't try to indict the president. here's what connecticut senator richard blumenthal said to me about that. listen. >> the president is not above the law, skpand an indictment, that's the course robert mueller chooses to go, i believe would be upheld by the court, it goes to the united states supreme court, and i happen to think he could be indicted even if the trial is postponed. >> could you see this potentially going to the u.s. supreme court, whether or not a sitting president of the united states can be indicted? >> it's an area of the law that's never fully been vetted. so we don't really know and that's why everyone is coming up with this particular idea of robert mueller making his findings

news there with the accusation of lying by blumenthal to don jr. we'll talk about that. thank you. democrats released a statement saying -- >> harris: "outnumbered overtime" welcome to republican congressman jim jordan from ohio, member of the house committee oversight committee. i have no doubt that you caught that. blumenthal accusing donald jr. of lying. that would be a felony. >> look. the democrats want to make a lot about the meeting, which no real information ever came out of. they never want to talk about the fact that simpson was meeting with the russian lawyer who was in the meeting. he met with her before and after the meeting in new york. that has been reported. they never talk about that. >> harris: fusion g.p.s. >> right. the group paid for by the clinton campaign and the democratic national committee to put together the dossier who hired christopher steele. i have not read the transcript. i just came out today. i think there is a lot of other important information we need to get. that is why we have sent a letter to the president today, harris, asking to get some of

and now it seems that don jr.e been one of the doormen, and where he may have concern is that he met with torshin in the 2016 campaign, and from mike is ksakissakofp's is that they may have met as early as 2013, and so that is evidence of a long relationship with don jr. and torshin and he is not just a politician, but a suspected member of the russian mafia, and that is interesting intersection here at this point. >> and another development on this week of the very story of the investigation ongoing, and rudy giuliani saying here that trump's legal team want a briefing on what was discussed on the classified information that was shared at thursday's briefing as i was discussing here with lawmakers, and how might that happen, joyce? how might that kcome to pass? >> there is a real conflict of interest here between the president's role as the head of the executive branch, technically the man who is in charge of the justice department and the very unusual position that he finds himself in as a subject of a criminal

we're not talking about don jr.'s meeting. >> don jr.'s meeting. exactly. but remember the reason this started was trump got very agitated about the fact there was this covert source. he has turned that into a bad thing. that somehow the president did something wrong. it is actually a good thing that every american should want. the russians were trying to get to people like around donald trump's campaign. no one's trying to say at this moment that trump had anything to do with it. let's assume that for the moment. what if he, if he were completely innocent, that people in his campaign were doing nothing wrong, had wanted the fbi or the cia or both to put someone in there and figure it out. >> that's right. >> listen, straight out of the gate, when the president ran, why wouldn't he want to double down on sanctions on russia and distance himself? instead, the only two people he never says anything bad about ever is his daughter ivanka and vladimir putin. i want to share breaking news from capitol hill. lawmakers, they're wrapping a meeting just moments ago t

while the senate judiciary committee released new evidence about don jr.'with the russians at trump tower suggesting an attempted cover-up. and also a qatari businessman says cohen asked him for a million dollars. and also cohen was working on a deal to build a trump tower in moscow and also donald trump is currently leading the police on a high-speed chase on the los angeles freeway in a white ford bronco. >> seth: who knows. we had to make some educated guesses. i hope all that information was correct. [ light laughter ] now as we learned last week, trump's personal attorney michael cohen had a secret shell company set up not only to pay off stormy daniels, but to collect millions of dollars in secret payments from companies. and a firm link to a russian oligarch. we know about these secret payments because cohen's bank records were leaked but, last night we got a truly crazy story about why. the person who leaked those bank records decided to do it. >> the new yorker speaking to a law enforcement official who claims to be the individual who leaked michae

has a group of russians -- >> june. >> june of 2016, don jr.d it's a russian attorney and they have dirt on an opponent and he says "love it." >> that's welcome on any campaign. people want to get that information. is it just because it was coming from russia? >> it want just an isolated event. i think that's what we need to do is pack up a bit and look at the context here. there were repeated attempts to get their foot in the door in the trump campaign. they kept knocking on the door and the reason they did is because the door was opening. they westbouanted a back door relationship with russia. >> why? are you implying there was more than just dirt going on with hillary clinton? >> you have relationships with russia and people around him that go back decades. this isn't a new development here, that these are relationships that go back to the 1980s even. >> you have a quote from fusion gps founder glenn simpson. "as we got deeper and deeper into understanding, you know, donald trump's business career and his history, it seems there was a connec

so don jr.little operation heading into 2018. >> what are some key states that don jr. is going to hone in on with regard to the mid-term blitz he's heading into? >> here's a little secret. he's going to states where he doesn't hurt. that's a short list. but the list includes west virginia, where we're told he'll probably go first. we'll see him in indiana, montana, we'll see him in missouri. all very key senate races where he thinks that he can push up the trump base. because here's the key, you have to turn trump voters into republican voters. and you remember with president obama, that was a problem. obama voters weren't always democratic voters, they have to make that transfer. >> i want to ask you also about what axios is reporting and what it's calling the michael cohen avalanche. i wonder what that could possibly mean? but there's obviously a lot of news coming out involving michael cohen. how damaging are these new revelations, and especially their involvement in connection to the presid

don jr. calls it a waste of time. the message that comes back is, what more do you have? out and more coming out during the campaign. there's a whole conversation going on between the trump campaign and russia throughout the entire election. >> then you have -- saying she was there to talk about adoptions and then it turns out she was actually there on behalf of vladimir putin as she sort of identified to richard angle at one point. talk about this rogue character unreported with regard to the trump tower meeting, seth? >> you know, i got interested, there's a guy in the meeting make named ike and he was sent there from an oligarch who brought the miss universe pageant to moscow in 2013. nobody paid much attention to him. i talked to some people who knew him in moscow before the soviet union fell, he spoke english back then which is an interesting thing because not everybody spoke -- they didn't just teach english to anyone in the soviet union and there was kgb english, they only taught it to select people. then he comes to the united states and sets up a company in delaw

in the midst of a flurry of calls and e-mails setting up the trump tower meeting, don jr. mber. a phone number that was blocked. the judiciary committee asked donald trump jr. who that call was with. who was on that blocked call line? he said he doesn't remember. then he was asked, quote, "does your father use a blocked number on his cell phone or any numbers you call him on?" donner jr responded, quote, "i don't know." quote, so you don't know if this might have been your father? answer, "i don't." here's my question. who doesn't know if their dad has a blocked number, first of all. but if that call is important enough that it has surfaced in the mueller investigation, if that is part of what they're looking at, if they're trying to figure out whether there was obstruction of justice or whether this is relevant to the collusion investigation, who was in on the trump campaign meeting planning, who was briefed on it after it happened, here's my question. is that number blocked for everybody? if the mueller investigation is looking at that blocked number and who donald trump

he promised don jr. that they would be able to provide some sort of dirt on hillary clinton. that we now know is that goldstone remained in the good graces of people on the trump campaign and after the campaign on the transition. one of the e-mails that was released by congress earlier today which we wrote about shows that rob goldstone sent essentially a propaganda document to rhona gragt. gragt is president trump's longtime personal assistan. she was helping manage what got in front of him, what meetings he had during the transition. goldstone sent this propaganda document to gragt in november after election day. she saw it and thought it was important enough that she passed it along to bannon and asked him what they should do with it. bannon didn't reply to her e-mail in the documents that have been released. but what this shows is that the russians were able get their propaganda, very opposed to the mag newtski act sanctions -- the russians were able the get that propaganda into the hands of influential and powerful people in trump's inner circle. >> clint, you have had a

there were three people in that meeting, kushner, don jr. and paul manafort. they are trying to get someone on the inside of that meeting to cooperate and roll them up on don jr., kushner, and potentially the president. be it an indictment in d.c., an additional indictment in virginia. which as i understand it, is about 300-plus years, and now they've flipped his son-in-law. >> let me go to the secret thing. i mean, it's hard to be afraid of a concealed weapon if you can't see it. so why secret if the goal is pressure? >> i don't know that they didn't tell paul manafort this was going on. i suspect they had. why secret? it could be they have pro active cooperation going on. in other words, they flipped him, and it could be the case -- >> talking about a wire? >> talking about a wire. that they wired him up and got him into conversations. paul manafort's on house arrest. so in theery, he could still have phone calls and meetings. whether that happened or not, there's a whole host of things that a prosecutor and fbi agent team would use to use a cooperator proac

you'll recognize that guy, don trump jr. a june 12016 meeting with natalia vessve, it was a short introductory meeting. i believe there's more don jr. on the next side, where he's talking more about it. could we go to that. i didn't think listening to someone -- let's go to the third trump defense. okay, this is candidly my favorite one. which is all these people, many of them who had very senior rolls in the campaign, they didn't matter. michael flynn. the guy who introduced donald trump in afrn rally at the the end of his campaign. and the guy who was the national security adviser, he was only there for 25 days. he called george papadopoulos. rick gates, manafort's deputy. and then, of course, michael cohen. a tiny fraction of cohen's business was donald trump. let's go to explanation 4.0. donald trump attorney, this is -- what is collusion actually mean. there's not a statute that refers to criminal collusion, there is no crime of collusion. legally true, but they're arguing this is a strong man argument. you'll recognize

we know that don jr. called somebody twice on a blocked meeting and once after it happened yet the president's son can't remember who it was. rudy giuliani is trying to down play the point of the meeting, which was for the trump campaign to get a smoking gun. that was a phrase used by a friend of donald trump jr.'s against mill hihillary clinton. that failed to happen. >> the headlines today, don jr. admits he was looking for dirt on hillary. >> oh wow. and they weren't looking for dirt on donald trump? even if it comes from a russian or german or american, it doesn't matter. they never used it. they rejected it. if there was collusion with the russian, they would have used it. >> joining me now, we have former federal prosecutor jennifer rogers, and impeachment attorney ross garber with us as well. jennifer, let's start with this blocked number. who is this blocked number? that is the question and why is that question so keep? >> obviously the timing of the call and the length of the call, an 11-minute c

don jr. i'm talking about the june 2016 meeting as well as now this additional august 2016 meeting. and it shows this willingness on the part of sort of high-level campaign officials within the trump campaign of soliciting and accepting help in their campaign efforts. and it is illegal. i don't need to remind everybody that it is illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to campaigns. and the question -- the wording of that statute is, it is illegal to accept anything sort of "of value." so in the august meeting, the question is whether or not there was sort of value presented there. and the wording is also direct versus indirect. if you're talking about sort of indirectly helping a social media campaign, does that violate the law. we're in really uncharted sort of murky territory here in terms of federal election commission violations. so it is big. >> jamil, the "times" reinforcing what caroline just said here. "it is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to be involved in american elections and it is unclear what, if any, direct assistance saudi arabia around the emira

. >> with ivanka and don jr. >> yes. >> how connect ready you in russia at this point?know some business people there. i know enough business people to try to put together a deal, plus i speak russian, plus i have no problem knocking on somebody's door and saying hi, i'm here and we're going to build something beautiful and let's do business. >> the trump moscow deal you're pursuing, that e-mail -- here is the way people read that e-mail. >> right. >> basically, there is some back story here in which the deal is part of the election interference there some quid pro quo or there is some idea. and here is the one -- we talked than we can get our buddy elected. but here is the one i think is interesting in "the new york times" characterizing e-mails. eager to show video clips of mr. trump speaking glowingly about russia and arrange for mr. putin to praise putin's business act men. if he says it, we own this election. >> yes. i did write that, yes. >> why in these e-mails? there is two of them here. >> right. >> why are you guys making this connection between building this

it is of course hypocritical for d don jr. to be celebrating the speed in which he resigned. remember, it was because of the free press. to kellyanne conway who's saying gotcha, remember, kellyanne, the person you work for has also been accused by over 12 women and bragged about grabbing women's genitals. >>> coming up, it is the first big primary day of 2018 and a growing number of republicans blasting controversial gop senatorial candidate don blankenship of west virginia, including president trump. how are these guy's chances looking this morning? >>> first, gina haspel is meeting with senators on the hill, trying to win support from key people in her bid for cia director. she's expected to face tough questions from the committee tomorrow about her role in some of the cia's most controversial interrogation policies during the george w. bush administration. we see two travelers so at a comfort innal with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, "wow, maybe i'll glow too if i book direct at choicehotels.com". who glows? just say, badda book. badda boom. book now

>> i think don jr. is exactly right. i've been very public. i've had the unfortunate privilege of sitting before the house and the senate committees to provide testimony. i did it voluntarily. you sit there as long as they need you to to make sure that you've answered every question to prove once again there was no collusion in any way, shape, or form and that's what don jr. did and that's what his testimony shows. he sat for five hours and answered every question they asked and then he finally got up and left and now we see those answers in writing and it shows exactly what he said. there was no collusion between the trump campaign and the outside influencer. >> martha: we will get into this more in a moment but i want to ask you a little bit about some comments that were made byy giuliani who is now representing the president in this matter. here's what he said about the possibility of a presidential indictment. he said they can't indict, at least they acknowledge that to us after some battling, they acknowledged that to us he says. >> this

in fact, the opposite, don jr. says if it's what you say it is i love it.not setting a tone of integrity, doing the right thing but rather a tone of let's get dirt if we can get it and let me know. and then don jr., it strains creduli credulity, said he didn't speak to his father about it, somehow the president crafts a letter about adoption and it's in a vacuum? >> and then there's the question of blocked phone calls. meanwhile, the senate judiciary committee opened up books on interviews of the president's top campaign officials about the june, 2016, trump tower meeting between donald trump jr., paul manafort, jared kushner and the russians who are peddling dirt on hillary clinton. the documents shed light on who knew what and when about the controversial summit that stayed secret for more than a year. testimony from russian participants cast more doubt on donald trump jr.'s original claim that the meeting was to discuss russian adoptions. witnesses said he began the meeting by asking for information on hillary clinton. the judiciary committee's exhibits

[laughs] never mind, i have some in my ivanka trump handbag, right next to my don jr. brand douche. do journalism good. but don't take my word for it. ask...me. i mastered these techniques and got my own exclusive sit-down with the big man himself. thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule, mr. president. how are you doing? - great, tremendous. - good. let's get right into these questions we gave you ahead of time. - outstanding. - mr. president, we know you're awesome. but just how awesome are you? - one of the greatest in the history of our country. and we are setting record after record, day after day. - and you're not getting enough credit for it. - no, i'm not getting enough credit for it. - you are such a good president. i mean, america should just end after you. mic drop! boom! it's over, folks. never getting any better. kill yourselves. - but i don't think i've ever seen anything quite like it. - mm, best president says what? - what. - exactly. boom. mm! whoa! look at those bear claws--man. you know, it makes you wonder, why are people so mean to you? you k

don, jr., said he had no knowledge of the meeting. laura: that is the sleeper question for the president. -- whathow about this 1 do you make of the question, did you have any knowledge of outreach by paul mant to russia asking for potentialnc campaign assis is that new information? jonathan: it is. first of all, it is a cousion question. the president said there were not any collusion questions here, and that is obviously false. it states the demonstrated fact that the outage occurr and that is what many people found unnerving. it may be the way the question was written down, but the way that it reads sounds like mueller believes an outreach was made. paul manafort is the gift that keeps on giving for the prosecutors. he has a long and rather shady series of clients and relationships. laura: by asking about the president's dinner with mr. mey, do you think the specialse cois trying to get a potential obstruction of justice line of inquiry? jonathan: those are obstruction questions, what his intente wa. those e ones i don't think he d

and don jr.s meetings with the -- during the 2016 campaign, apparently russia wasn't the only country looking for influence. a lot to cover this morning, joe. >> yeah, what a disturbing series of tweets by the president and i guess we can blame bill karins for that forecast. i mean, the rain just keeps coming, the president doesn't have his golf game to keep his occupied and so he just sits there with those thumbs just working that phone nonstop over and over again. >> it's incredible. >> and in this case, i mean, we saw a flood of tweets that really once again showed a president who was desperate and really despondent over an investigation that's already indicted. so many people close to him. indicted people that ran his foreign policy, indicted people that ran his campaign. indicted people he said ran his foreign policy. going to be indicting more russians from everything we understand and so it's getting too close for comfort for him and so now he's striking out and he's suggesting that we inv