. >> frank figliuzzi? go ahead. >> the country is not going to go to war voting on bob mueller. they will tell a polster he should finish his work. is that going to be pivotal in the election s? i'm skeptical. >> i just came back from a round of focus groups for the ash croft in america project in mississippi and tennessee and hardly place that's do not support donald trump. on this issue it's such a divide in terms of the news consumption and the news silo and what sources people are getting their news from. and it was the week of the attack in london that gas, the chemical gas that is only manufactured in russia, and you could -- some of the strong trump supporters, we heard from multiple people who believe it couldn't have been russia because they manufactured it and were the only people and so it would be too obvious. >> right. >> this is coming from the news outlet and this has been successfully painted by far-right media as a witch hunt. >> let me bring frank figliuzzi in. i want to ask a serious question, i asked you this before. it seems while this is all about donald tr

let's bring in msnbc national security analyst frank figliuzzi. let's drill down on that new news today that digenova and toensing will not be joining the team with the mueller case for the president. when you read the proverbial tea leaves, what do you take away from that? >> despite the president's assertions, it surely appears that chaos is reigning, particularly when it comes to the legal team. it's at a crucial time when they're entering into negotiation with mueller and the team about the parameters and constraints about what an interview might look like with the president. so now if you're sitting on mueller's team, you're actually scratching your head saying who are we negotiating with? who is it we're negotiating with? the other thing that comes out today, richard, is this conflicting report of, well, it was the president meeting with digenova and his wife, toensing, and deciding there was no, quote, personal chemistry. then we're also hearing through the president himself in tweets that it was about a conflict of interest. i'm not buying

. >> so all this talk about acting, our panelists are back, katty kay, frank figliuzzi.these sanctions are real and have teeth and were a positive thing. >> yes, i definitely think they're a positive thing. secretary mnuchin's statement was strong and it was about maligned cyberactivity including election interference. you couldn't be more straight about it than he was. hard to be rhetorically stronger. the actual sanctions themselves you can actually go online and see them on the treasury site. they're mainly focused on the internet research agency which is this place that did all of the propaganda and disinformation. the gru and the fsu, the two russian intelligence agencies, so i mean are they as strong as sectoral circumstances that the obama administration where they sanctioned a whole sector like the financial sector, no, but they get at some people who are close to putin and the sanctions that wound putin the most go for his inner circle. that's what he is most sensitive about. >> frank, the part that was reported in an oh, by the way fashion is the administration

frank figliuzzi, what do you think?ay $50,000 in legal fees because he was subpoenaed. if you don't have anything to worry about, show up at the grand jury. >> it is cheaper. >> provide the communications and go home. >> isn't it -- is it cheaper to comply. >> and not go to jail. >> and i would turn over e-mails and as a white house staff with anything on enron to waxman. >> those are nostalgic. >> the good times. >> my point is nobody sat around and said, oh, it is too expensive. we just stayed late and did the work. this idea that it is too costly to comply with this subpoena. >> again, tell the truth. it is easier to remember. and if you are clean and innocent, show up your e-mails and don't make a scene. i think this might be some kind of idea in his head that if he makes a big show of this, he's going to get a special deal and he's going to -- i don't know -- get some kind of im -- immunity and i think his lawyer left him for good reason or someone to tell him to show up on friday with his paperwork. >> and a quest

msnbc national security analyst, the frank figliuzzi, and jennifer rodgers, former assistant u.s. attorney as well as our friends jennifer paul merry, former communications director for the obama white house and hillary clinton's presidential campaign, and a man who needs no introduction other than three simple irish catholic words, lawrence o'donnell. good to see you, lawrence. i want to start with you, mr. robert costa and ask you this question. with dowd leaving, the president stressing in his one little exchange in the white house today that he wants to do the interview with mueller, is the difference between the president's point of view about that and dowd's point of view about that, is that really the basic fundamental bottom line reason why john dowd is out? >> disagreements over that potential interview with the mueller team has been one of the conflicts in recent weeks. this is really the end of a simmering relationship between dowd and the president. the president has grown increasingly angry privately inside the west wing about how his team legally is approaching the m

for more, i'm joined by frank figliuzzi and former assistant director for counter intelligence at fbiional security analyst. and let's start with the memo yesterday. there had been calls for special counsel to be put in place. he said that is only something he would do under extraordina extraordinary -- circumstances. what do you make of the outline in the chair to the committees. >> we may see the first time that a attorney general could be a neutral advocate for justice as opposed to a advocate for the president. this required the wisdom of solomon keeping everybody happy and you can never keep all ha-- happy but he's allow the inspector general to do his job and oversee fbi conduct and proce procedures and name a well respected prosecutor, a u.s. attorney in utah to look at how the fbi presents evidence to the fisa report. this stems from the carter page wiretap avonda wiretap from the affidavit and the republican and democrat republican memos but we learned the fbi did indeed alert the fisa court to the fact that christopher steel might be politically motivate and the dossier was

also joining us is frank figliuzzi and joyce vance. joyce, what's your take on this breaking news from the "new york times"? >> so this is very interesting news, not completely unexpected, but the most important thing here is that instead of making a polite request that the information be turned over, mueller issued a subpoena. we don't know if there was a previous polite request that was rebuked, but the organization will now have to turn over responsive documents. no privilege can be asserted at this point in time f. they don't turn over documents that are responsive, there will be contempt or other proceedings. >> donald trump said it was a red line to go into his finances, his personal business. this is robert mueller going into his finances and personal business. >> exactly. this is going to take the special counsel inquiry behind the curtain of the trump organization. here's why this is within scope and it is pertinent to what mueller is doing. it's going to shed light on possibly why the russians may have compromised the preside