for all of this we have asked both frank figliuzzi and jeremy bash to return for a final word. frank, i have to say, a lot of people were surprised today at how seemingly mystified the former director was at the numerous mentions of things like fusion gps. if you have walked by a television over the past two years and fox has been on, if you've been in a best buy, you have heard this storyline. it was aired out voluminously today. is that staff work? is that a kind of victorian existence in 2019? why would he be in wonder at that storyline? >> well, we talked in the first block, brian, about the age factor, and i think that that is a factor. but we also have to understand, this is a massively complex investigation with a large team and likely what mueller did was delegate leadership to various parts of this case to various deputies and had them own it. he picked a very talented team. he had them own it. he got briefed accordingly. and made decisions and executed his vision. the fact that he wasn't down in the weeds or that he was seemingly struggling with certain facts, i think

frank figliuzzi, i have to start with you. we've all had countless conversations about this sdny case, what they might be doing, what they might be building. and when everyone came out and tried to assert there wasn't an underlying crime for robert mueller's investigation, you and jeremy and others pointed back to this investigation out of sdny where donald trump is named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the cohen sentencing documents. talk about the significance of today's development. >> well, in case we wineeded mo dramia attached to this, we have a federal judge saying this is of national importance. let's look at specifically what he's talking about. the probable cause that went into the affidavit and search of cohen's home and offices. what does that mean? when you write that affidavit you're convincing a judge that location or those multiple locations are likely to contain evidence of the crime that you're investigating. so what can we find out when this material is released. we know there will be some redactions. usu

correspondent annie karni is back and former assistant director for counterintelligence at the fbi, frank figliuzzi. frank, we start with you as we do on so many days, take us where you see this buildup, obviously anxiety building on the part of the president but i think it would be -- i think it's fair to say there's anxiety among mueller's close allies and there's some anxiety or at least recognition that the stakes are pretty high for democrats as well. >> stakes are high on both sides. and for those of us who are fans of bob mueller and understand he's a man of unquestioned integrity, i think one of the concerns we have is he's going to get attacked. he's going to get attacked by the gop members who are more interested in trying to kill the messenger then get to the messenger's findings and i will be keeping track at home or on the air as to how many times those gop members actually ask questions that have nothing to do with mueller's findings but rather serve as a distraction to attack him or origins of the case. for the democrats, look, we've always said there's value in having mueller repeat

frank figliuzzi, former fbi director for counterterrorism who worked for robert mueller during his career in law enforcement. we welcome you both. frank, i would like to start with you. has time given you any more, any further perspective on what our friends, the historians, will take on, the degree to which this attorney general gave the man who hired him, the president, the air cover he needed during those first crucial days before we had seen the report? >> brian, as the calendar collection by it becomes more and more apparent that this attorney general is essentially aiding and abetting concealment of what the special counsel actually found. and he is in conspiracy with this white house to disguise the findings of the special counsel. we have a special counsel who played by the rules because that's what we expect special counsels to do. and we have an attorney general who pulled those rules like a rug out from under bob mueller. it felt like a sucker punch to the american people. but now we're a nation wrestling with that question, what to do with substantial evidence of wrongdoing ag

. >> and frank figliuzzi pointed out, and i think frank is back, donald trump may have revealed and rachel maddow pointed this out as well -- i'm sorry, i have been here a long time. robert mueller may have revealed or even let it slip that there is an ongoing and open counterintelligence investigation. frank, set that up for us. >> yes, again, i want to see this clip because we only saw it live but i believe it was representative christian mirthy who asked for a response and mueller said they're looking into the multiple aspects of the investigation continue. and he said currently? and mueller said yes. if i've got that right in any way, shape or form, there's still an ongoing inquiry, in fact the original russian counterintelligence case that started this whole thing off, that andy mccabe added trump's name to and then it became the special counsel inquiry, that aspect of it may still be going on. >> let's watch the tape. we will come right back to you, frank. >> it was outside the purview of your investigation, your report did not address how flynn's false statements could pose a nation

and with us tonight, frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence, and mieke eoyang. welcome to you both. frank, all of us around here watched nicolle wallace, 4:00 eastern time. that's where we first saw you react to this story today. what do words "national importance" mean to you? what kind of thing are we expecting tomorrow? >> federal judges cheese their words very carefully. so for a federal judge to say this material has national importance means this to me. he's focused on the material the government has that got them in the door with a search warrant of cohen's offices, residence. what does that mean? that means this isn't going to be a nothing burger tomorrow. you don't gather material to establish probable cause and have nothing. you convince the judge that there's evidence of a crime inside that place and i need to get in there. so we're going to see that. the question is will that include such things as who decided to make the payments for hush money? did foreign entities get involved in supplying the money? did they know where the money was going

i'm joined now by phillip bump, "washington post" political reporter, and frank figliuzzi, former directornterintelligence at the fbi. frank, let me just start with you. legally looking at everything we just kind of laid out there, everything we're learning today from the new developments, is the reason this case is apparently closed with no more charges to come that everything we just described there is ultimately circumstantial? is that legally why it looks like it's going no further? >> steve, there are some unanswered questions about the decision to not prosecute that. and by that i mean we don't know whether this was done as a matter of policy. the infamous doj policy that says you shouldn't be indicting a sitting president, or whether they believe there is a lack of precedence. and all of the he said/she said circumstances don't add up to something worth pursuing. we don't know this. from the outside looking in, what we're seeing is a very accurate description of potentially chargeable criminal conspiracy amongst multiple people, including five conversations with the president, his a

the second was former assistant director of the fbi frank figliuzzi, and jason is the third.ren't the directors of the fbi up on capitol hill testifying about what is being done? i mean after anti-semitic attacks anywhere in the world, i live in a city where centers of worship at jewish community centers are fortified by police presence and otherwise. two-part question, is there a concern, do you feel as concerned as frank figliuzzi and congresswoman bass and jason? and if you do, do you encourage your fellow democrats and republicans to dig in on this and understand what law enforcement is doing to protect fellow americans? >> well, i'm deeply concerned. you know, unlike presidents of the united states and cabinet members, members of congress travel throughout their district. they are not protected on an ongoing basis. they are very vulnerable as we've seen in the past. i worry that the president by inciting this -- and let's be clear, the president said he was distancing himself from the chants that were going on in greenville, north carolina, last night. but he wasn't. he

. >> frank figliuzzi, and mimi, let me bring both of you into this. frank, let me start with you. i want to know from your perspective, just contrast what julie laid out that today the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york basically had a wanted poster up of jeffrey epstein looking for more victims to build his criminal case where in 2008, the defense attorney, a former colleague of then u.s. attorney alex acosta met off campus, off site, outside of the u.s. attorney offices in south florida, and worked out what sounds like a non-prosecution agreement, so outside the norm that it would appear to me that u.s. attorney jeff berman rebuked it in his public statement today! yeah, nicole, i supervised one of the squads in the history of the fbi in the san francisco division. i served as the number two official in fbi miami division prior to this case coming out and i have to tell you something, as try as i might to think of any analogous plea deal where you would allow a defendant's case to go to the state, yes, maybe, that you would allow the state sentence to let you ou

with us at the table former assistant director for counterintelligence at the fbi, frank figliuzzi. karine jean-pierre is back, senior adviser to moveon.org and executive editor for bloomberg opinion. tim o'brien is here. i want to start with you, joyce vance, and just leap into a parallel universe where on the day that it is unsustainable for the labor secretary to continue to serve in the trump administration, no one utterst word victim. no one says a word about a mischarge of justice. all they say is read the james patterson fictionalized version of the sex scandal. i never liked him and i and did the make acosta go. what is happening, joyce? >> trump just doesn't seem to understand that justice isn't just another deal. and this is so lard i think to watch as a prosecutor knowing that when you enter into a plea agreement in a case, you have equity that's you have to be aware of. you have a community. you have victims. you have the courts and you're trying to do the right thing. you're not just delivering a deal. the president apparently views this as purely transactional. it's an

. >> joining us now, frank figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the feb ande table nbc news correspondent carol lee. carol, i want to ask you this question, who is this man, mr. ratcliffe, who will now be the most powerful person in our intelligence bureaucracy? >> as you pointed out, he's a strong supporter of president trump. he was elected to the house in 2014. he comes from a very, very republican district. one of the most republican in the house. he's served on the intelligence committee but he doesn't have the kind of background we have typically seen with the previous five dnis. so that's one of the criticisms he's getting. but he has criticized the fbi for being biased. he's, you know, as we saw from the clip brought into a lot of the republican -- he bought into the republican line that the president is being wrongfully investigated and he's really curried favor with the president. and obviously his questioning is in the light of what we know, they had met and discussed this job and he was going to be put forward for it really kind of casts a differe

frank figliuzzi thinks so. frank, your thoughts. >> yeah, look. i want to be sure we're accurate on this. but here's what i heard. and, nicole, you touched on this but we need to pull this thread which is i think we had a big reveal in this second session today. we had bob mueller who was reticent to answer over 100 questions kept saying something was classified or investigated methods or internal deliberations. but yet in response to a question he said the fbi is still investigating the counterintelligence aspects of trump and russia. and it got my attention. i said to myself did he just use present tense. and then the questioning member of congress do you mean currently. and mueller quickly said yes. that is a big reveal. so for counterintelligence guy like myself, this means we have not still yet answered the question as to whether or not this president is compromised vulnerable. we certainly learned today that everyone around him put themselves in a compromised position mostly for greed. but yet we've learned today the fbi case is still going