"the washington post" quoting giuliani after mr.p spent three days huddling with his defense team, spending hours and hours and hours going over the special counsel's written questions about possible collusion with russia. let's bring back our analysts. and gloria, let's start with you. some of the questions giuliani says were unnecessary, some were irrelevant, some are possible traps. there are some that creates more issues for us legally than others. that sounds like they're worried that the president could be in some legal jeopardy. >> you know, i'm sorry mr. giuliani doesn't like the questions from the special counsel, that they're not to his liking. it's amazing to me because honestly, they've been working on these questions for weeks. they finally negotiated a way where the president didn't have to testify face-to-face on the issues of collusion, that he actually got a take-home open book test which they are writing answers to. and the fact that rudy giuliani is now complaining about the questions leads me to believe, first of

giuliani said mr. manafort's lawyer told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the june 2016 trump tower meeting where russians promised to deliver damaging information on hillary clinton to his eldest son, donald trump jr. the president has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. he wants manafort to incriminate trump, mr. giuliani declared of mr. mueller. here to take us through this reporting, one of the reporters who broke that story and some of our favorite reporters and friends. mick schmidt from "the new york times," from "the washington post," aaron blake, former u.s. attorney joyce vance is here. and at the table, jonathan lemire, white house reporter for the ap. let's first, though, head over to nbc's kristen welker who has breaking news about donald trump's written answers to robert mueller. kristen welker? >> hi there. according to two sources who i just spoke with, president trump as a part of his written answers to special counsel robert mueller

and giuliani said that they wanted manafort to incriminate the president. and that is a significant sort of detail to know that the investigators were so hard pressing on manafort to give them that piece of information. and why were they doing that? and giuliani using that fact as a way of saying, look, these guys are out to get the president. >> this is stunning to me. governor, does it add fuel to the fire that what manafort is looking for here is a pardon? because there's no goodness of his heart. why on earth would paul manafort and his team be coordinating or sharing information after they did a deal with robert mueller, with rudy jewel ja rudy giulian? >> he's cooperating, he's feeding them the kind of information they need to gear up a defense when it comes down. the thing that gets me, the president keeps saying there's no there there, why are you so worried about what might happen? >> good point. >> it's a question i've had for a while. >> i always thought the truth was supposed to set you free. is it possible this was the plan all along, that they

giuliani said that the president's lawyers advised him back in april, so right when giuliani came onoard, not to talk about or consider or issue any pardons until the investigation is over. so what the president said today when he said that there's a pardon for manafort still on the table, giuliani said that's in line with that, that the president doesn't plan to issue a pardon now but he'll consider it. it doesn't necessarily mean he will pardon him, but once this investigation is over he can take a look and make a decision if he wants to pardon any of the people involved in this investigation if they want to, that that's his right and that's his presidential power. that's the line that giuliani's been giving. and as to why he would want to pardon manafort, the case giuliani makes is that the president feels that manafort's been treated very unfairly, that he's been sort of overprosecuted for the crimes that he's done and this idea of what the president has said publicly, that manafort's been treated unfairly, he's a good sxharngs that none of this would have happened to manafort if

rudy giuliani also told he wasn't given any sense of time line.obably not surprising to a lot of people. we know how tight lipped the mueller team has been, josh. but rudy giuliani admitting they don't know when this could be over. he talked about the types of questions, specifically that at least one involved this meeting that donald trump jr. had at trump tower. we're only getting his side of the story, though, josh. so based on the way investigations are done, obviously, is there anything to read into here other than rudy giuliani wanting to his get story first? >> yeah. so we're seeing two sides of this. so any investigation, you have this battle, this match of wits. that has been very opaque. we haven't heard from mueller's team. they have been very tight as far as pulling that information. on the flip side, the president, they're laying their cords out for all intents and purposes, and i think it's part of the strategy to play on this victim narrative. the president is a victim of this witch hunt. here they keep coming back at us. this is un

giuliani says we can't answer some of this. it's the president realizing oh, my god, before i get to what we thought was the problem, obstruction, i've got collusion problems. that's why you get these crazy tweets, collusion, no collusion. >> let's take a quick break. we'll pick up the conversation when we come back. and later, how a florida u.s. senate recount will play out in all the uniquely florida factors that played into make thing such a close and chaotic race. whooo! want to take your next vacation to new heights? tripadvisor now lets you book over a hundred thousand tours, attractions, and experiences in destinations around the world! like new york! from bike tours, to bus tours, to breathtaking adventures, tripadvisor makes it easy to find and book amazing things to do. so you can make your next trip... monumental! read reviews check hotel prices book things to do tripadvisor after bill's back needed a vacation from his vacation. so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to re

remember giuliani says we can't answer some of this. it's the president realizing oh, my god, before we even get to the problem of what we thought was obstruction, i've got these collusion problems. >> let's take a quick break. we're going to pick up the conversation when we come back. and also later how a florida u.s. senate recount will play out and all the uniquely florida factors that made this such a uniquely chaotic race. at t-mobile, forty bucks gets you an unlimited plan and a new samsung galaxy s9 included for every line. this is what you get with your $40 plan at verizon. recap! with t-mobile, you get this: four lines four phones for forty bucks. with verizon, you get this... the choice just got a whole lot more obvious. get more because you deserve it. only at t-mobile. [ horn honking ] [ engine revving ] what's that, girl? [ engine revving ] flo needs help?! [ engine revving ] take me to her! ♪ coming, flo! why aren't we taking roads?! flo. [ horn honking ] -oh. you made it. do you have change for a dollar? -this was the eme

rudy giuliani told us i don't know for what.then afterwards they didn't do anything and this is quite significant. he says that in that new york case where the chief financial officer of the trump organization is cooperating, something that really gave pause to people around the president, people that have known him for a long time, allen weiselberg has known everything and sees everything. rudy said he had a pretty did idea what was said in that testimony and he's not worried about that. giving the stakes here, we're calling it trump's moment of truth because he's now locked into a narrative with the special counsel and he's now confirmed legitimacy. now he's answered his questions and he's acknowledged his authority. >> mike, we're getting a sense of this through the prism of rudy giuliani. the special counsel's office declined to comment. bearing that in mind, what has rudy giuliani said about who his team has met with? what do we know about the quality of those interactions? >> yeah. thanks for asking about that. rudy said t

and others, mostly giuliani said we're not answering any questions about obstruction.f the table. we'll engage in some of this stuff, remember, trump has talked about no collusion a lot, so this -- these questions which laura exactly nails seems to suggest that obstruction wasn't part of the questions. do we count that as a win for the president's team, or was it just mueller saying, look, i'm going to get what i can get out of the president of the united states because otherwise we get no cooperation and that obviously -- >> because the white house said they were only going to answer questions on sufficient that happened before donald trump was sworn in while he was president of the united states, not requesting to answer questions what happened afterwards. obstruction allegedly occurred after he was president of the united states. >> one other thing remember that we know, roger stone and jerome corsi, wikileaks, all that have stuff is during the campaign as well, so this -- what we have learned of late suggests that there is a focus, and i've learned from listening t

and because it involves donald trump and rudy giuliani, it gets even stranger. the source, the source for "the new york times" story about this terribly incriminating story about what is essentially an ongoing conspiracy between paul manafort and donald trump, the source for that story is rudolph giuliani. he is the source by name in "the new york times." giuliani told "the new york times" that robert mueller, quote, wants manafort to incriminate trump. that news came after another strange development in the mueller case today when jerome corsi, who is a target of the investigation, released a guilty plea agreement with the special prosecutor which describes perjury committed by jerome corsi. it is a plea agreement that in the end jerome corsi decided not to sign. this, again, is something we have never seen before. a target of the federal investigation about a president deciding at the last minute not to sign his plea agreement and instead releasing his incriminating plea agreement to the press, first to nbc news, and then to other news organizations today. the

but is the president's current lawyer, rudy giuliani, undermining his argument? >>> and passing on putin. as mr. trump heads to the g20 summit in argentina, he abruptly cancels his meeting with the russian president citing the crisis in ukraine. given the timing right after the cohen guilty plea, is that explanation believable? >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following a major breaking story now. the president's former fixer admitting in federal court that he lied to congress to protect mr. trump and to limit the russia investigation. michael cohen pleading guilty in a cooperation agreement with the special counsel robert mueller. cohen confessing that the president's business dealings with moscow continued later in the 2016 campaign than had been revealed, and that mr. trump was kept informed along the way despite his attempts to downplay his ties to russia. as the legal peril for the president may be escalating tonight, cnn has

rudy giuliani is now talking about this. he told the hill he thinks hillary clinton should be investigated. he told the hill hillary clinton should be investigated for possible obstruction of justice. of course she should be investigated giuliani said for obstructing justice in a gross and massive way. >> it's just more red meat being thrown to the base. it doesn't do the country any favors to misalign people and give them false explanations for the way our government is supposed to work. on the one hand it's just absolutely improper for a president to direct the justice department to prosecute his political enemies. i don't think that that needs a lot of explanation. we all get that's what separates us from banana republics. on the other hand, hillary clinton has already been thoroughly investigated, maybe more thureoroughly than anyone recent history in this country. she's already been given a clean bill of health by law enforcement agencies, that's to say there was not sufficient findings or evidence to go forward. this i

white house that has giuliani somewhat concerned about? >> well, we have not seen the questions, but they relate to russian interference, and they could demonstrate knowledge of things that were previously unknown no the president, and when did this happen and when did that happen and did you know about x to cause them to say, oh, my gosh, they know about x, and those are the kinds of things that could perhaps explain president trump's apparent panic in the tweet storm that we have been seeing, but hard to say. getting the written answers is e never as good as asking the person on the spot for their answers, because you lose some of the candor and you get lawyers' answers instead of the witnesses' answers, and they can massage the information a little bit, but there is no hiding the fact, and i imagine what robert mueller is trying to do here is to lock president trump into the story to make it hard for him to wiggle out of later, and that is causing the alarm to rudy giuliani. >> and let's talk about it in terms of the implications that h

and i don't think that rudy giuliani is a reliable far rat r narrator here. anybody in the trump camp who believes that rudy giuliani is an ambassador for the president is coming to help them should really think twice because donald trump would be willing to throw anyone short of his most closest family members under the bus to save his own skin. >> do you -- sorry. keep doing. >> i don't think that manafort -- i have a hard time believing that paul manafort doesn't understand that atier t manafort lied so many times throughout this career, perhaps he lost track of it. that's actually what the president is as well and they both sort of share that and i think they have this reptilian understanding of one another. i think what frank said earlier about there's more here he thinks going on than just the pardon. i think that manafort is protecting other interests. i think he has his eyes on other things than the president and the presidency, and i think he should look at his client list to get a sense of some of who those people are. >> i think i know what you're

l >> kristen, rudy giuliani has blasted off a couple of text messages. >> reporter: rudy giuliani and the president ramping up their attacks against robert mueller. this sounds like something we said yesterday because we saw similar tactic yesterday. let me read you what rudy giuliani said who say. their treatment of manafort like he's a terrorist, incarcerating him before trial. solitary incarceration and repeated questioning even after manafort denies shows that are willing to exert unusual pressure that would tempt someone to lie. this is president trump. while the disgusting fake news is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, three major players are intimating that the angry mueller gang of dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts and they will get relief. this is our joseph mccarthy era. there you have this common theme. they are accusing mueller and his prosecutors of trying to turn up the heat so much that they are pushing people to not tell the truth. that's their line of defense right now. will we see the president today? we know he has a

but is the president's current lawyer, rudy giuliani, undermining his argument?and passing on putin. as mr. trump heads to the g20 summit in argentina, he abruptly cancels his meeting with the russian president citing the crisis in ukraine. given the timing right after the cohen guilty plea, is that explanation believable? >>> we want to welcome our

that is why rudy giuliani indicated that he thinks there could be more questions. question is do they need this information from the president or does bob mueller and his team have this information from other people? so you do get the sense, john, even though we're nearing the holidays and the end of what was supposed to be wrapped up a year ago may not be wrapped up at all. >> jeff zeleny, thank you very much. >>> former trump white house lawyer james schultz and cnn legal analyst laura coates. let's game out the scenario we were talking about. say robert mueller does want to ask the president questions about why he fired fbi director james comey, say he does want to ask obstruction of justice questions and his attorneys say he shouldn't have to. what argument would the mueller team make that he does? >> besides, yes, you do need to do so, you're not above the law. they would have to argue the notion of explaining why executive privilege does not apply in this context. the president does and has the prerogative to have open and candid conversations with members of

are there other things in there that rudy giuliani hasn't mentioned? >> that's probably the case because these are things -- what's interesting about this case it played out in public. the sfeech peech in russia, if t those emails, it's alarming. did you know about emails when you stood on that stage that day? there's also, you know, everyone seems to get that feeling because they answered in writing the president can get away with things. this is not necessarily the case. we've seen the president be fairly inconsistent on a routine basis about his answers to any given question. imagine you're trump's lawyers and ask him what happened at this moment we have to document on paper. we don't know what all the other witnesses said in the mueller investigation. a question about are you on stage did you know about the trump tower meeting. who knows what the truth is going to come out and shake out as? these other witnesses may have told mueller something and if it doesn't jive with what is in that written statement they could go for a subpoena saying we need

so rudy giuliani has said that there could be more questions coming.he big question really, jim, is whether this will -- another round of questions would focus on obstruction of justice, because that would pertain to the period of time since president trump became president, which rudy giuliani and his legal team argue is protected by executive privilege. what happens then, robert mueller could try to subpoena the president for a sit-down in-person interview, which the president for a long time said he would be willing to do. now he and his legal team say that they don't want to do. remember, robert mueller is not working independently. he falls under the attorney general's office under the department of justice. even if he were to subpoena the president, that would then need to be approved by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and the now acting-attorney general matt whitaker who has shown in the past his disapproval of the mueller probe. jim. >> also today, alex, a fascinating development, mule per's team asked a judge not to delay george papadop

it is interesting that giuliani says that. if we assume he is telling the truth about that then it may be that mueller wants to focus first on the campaign aspects of it and for now they are leaving aside the question of will the president answer questions about obstruction or not. >> it was clear that that is not necessarily off the table. there isn't some sort of agreement between the two sides. on that note, it sounds like team trump feels that the president definitely won't sit down with mueller. they keep saying mueller is not going to want to start a subpoena fight. this wouldn't work well for them. is that the final word in. >> we don't know the final word until mueller submits the report or if they move towards subpoenaing the president. we haven't been giving indication that mueller will not subpoena the president if he doesn't cooperate or if they will. like with most things with mueller we never know what is going on. we are getting a one sided view that is from the president's si side. so we don't know where things

a lot of it from rudy giuliani. danny, giuliani says he is expecting some follow ups from mueller.s it will take mueller a week or two to read through the written answers. then he thinks it will come to an end fairly soon. is that a realistic way to look at there? again, we're getting one side's perspective. >> exactly right. building on what jeff and what you just said. the reality is this is a one sided conversation with rudy giuliani, who himself is reading the tea leaves of what he's told by mueller and any members of his team. ordinarily in a white collar type investigation, the time taken to conduct and complete the investigation can be many, many months. that's just for your run of the mill case. in case like this with such far reaching jurisdiction, the potential for using cooperating witnesses, vetting their information and ultimately getting these indictments, it could take a very long time. rudy giuliani may want it to be over. he may sense that it's over but rudy giuliani may not know anymore than the rest of us because mueller is airtight. >> he certainly has been thro

giuliani says that they hammered on manafort about this. manafort, who was in solitary confinement, was being brought out for these interviews every few days with weissman. weissman, giuliani alleges, was pushing manafort to essentially lie and say things that manafort said were not true. now, this is an allegation from giuliani, but this has given and sort of opened up a new front for the trump legal team, which has launched new attacks now on mueller. giuliani saying to us tonight that mueller was not overseeing weissman properly, that weissman needs adult supervision. >> now, michael, in the li nrlif federal prosecutors, when they give in, they say they've decided to join the home team or team usa. here's why i say that. was there any language that barred manafort from sharing this with team trump, or was it just considered such an o outlandish thing that one would do while working for the feds they didn't have to put it in writing? >> there's nothing we know of in the agreement or legally that would have stopped this. but it's a pretty

giuliani said, they share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case. that is what lawyers refer to as a joint defense agreement. but as former federal prosecutor joyce vance pointed out on this program at this hour last night, there can be no joint defense agreement with someone who has no defense. someone who no longer is mounting a defense cannot have a defense agreement. paul manafort was found guilty by a federal jury in virginia, and then paul manafort pleaded guilty in a separate federal case in washington, d.c. and so paul manafort has no defense. paul manafort has no defense, when his lawyer claims to have been participating in a joint defense agreement with the president. that was not a legitimate joint defense agreement. paul manafort's lawyer, kevin downy, may in serious jeopardy for information obtained through his attorney-client privilege with a third party who there could be no joint defense agreement with. one of the president's lawyers, rudy giuliani, has confirmed as if perfectly normal, that the president of the united states has bee

in the giuliani.it conceivable that paul manafort and jerome corsi, who is saying mueller's people are pressuring him to lie, are telling the truth and the special counsel in their zeal to get the president may be going too far. and just moments ago, giuliani told "the wall street journal" it's my job as his private lawyer to tell him you should not even consider it now because it will be misunderstood. in march "the new york times" reported trump's team broached the idea of pardoning both manafort and michael flynn. dan, there's no chance of pardons right now? that's my nonlawyer view because i believe trump always shoots the moon. he always does what he's not supposed -- supposed to do. >> i would never say donald trump is not going to pardon anyone. i'm just saying that i'm not sure paul manafort lied as part of his cooperation to get a pardon. but i think that what rudy giuliani -- he's playing with fire because if he wants to say the special counsel is pressuring corsi into lying and maybe they'r

trump for more questions on obstruction of justice, but giuliani signalled the legal team will fight any questions they believe violate executive privilege. on tuesday, the president submitted written responses to the special counsel's office. giuliani says the president's lawyers are willing to answer follow-up questions from mueller's team. >>> scary moment for nearly 300 holiday travelers on an amtrak train headed for mondtreal from new york. one passenger said he saw the cars break-away from his seat in another car. he said one yanked the emergency brake. >> we were at the front where the cars separated. we saw the sparks in the front by the entry where you walk between the cars. all this noise and then we slowed down and the rocks started flying in. we finally slowed down to the point where we stopped. we were not sure what was going on. it was a little scary. overall, everyone was calm. >> apparently no one was hurt. passengers were put on another train and arrived in new york overnight. amtrak is investigating. >>> more than 40 people in dallas are without a home for thanksgiv

it seems everyone's finally coming back to that including rudy giuliani.s now claiming that the president close to meeting with the special counsel. what is the investigation's future look like if, in fact, a sitdown with the president and bob mueller happens or does not happen? >> we've been hearing from rudy giuliani and other trump lawyers that they were going to sit down with mueller for months. so it kind of feels like deja vu. they've been trying to string mueller along for a long time. i think mueller has to decide whether he wants to get played like this or whether he has to move to subpoena and basically give the president one last opportunity or he's going to court to try to force his testimony. and with matt whittaker as the acting a.g., it seems like he should probably move faster rather than later, because in june the money kind of runs out and then you have to have it reappropriated. >> we talked about florida early on in the show and we're going to get some more on the election results later on. the fact that the house has flipped to the dem

giuliani sought to explain why mr. trump could attack mr. cohen, sfrn they had the same understanding of the facts. he had so many different versions of the same story so by definition he's a liar. and we can't trust him, giuliani said of cohen. he's lied. how can we believe him? he added cohen has just told us he's a liar. given the fact he's a liar i can't tell you what heess lying about. is their position the president is a lying liar just like cohen? what is their position? >> i think what they are trying to say is that even though the stories match up, michael cohen is someone who should not be trusted. they are very afraid about michael cohen. you've talked about the extensive nature of his cooperation with mueller. they are fearful of what cohen has done. cohen has taken the government rat on this. he's gone in a different place than manafort. manafort's only hope is apart from the president at this point. bob mueller isn't going to go in to court. the president would understandably be concerned about that. this is someone who was dir

rudy giuliani said mr trump had provided unprecedented cooperation to the former fbi director, and itto bring the inquiry to a close. mr trump has called this investigation a "witch—hunt" and forcefully denied any collusion with russia. we speak now to our north america correspondent peter bowes. first of all and the mueller investigation, where the cisco from now? well, this means that mr mueller now has the answers is looking for from the president. mueller now has the answers is looking forfrom the president. we don't know specifically what the a nswe i’s don't know specifically what the answers are, but we have at least got to that stage in what it suggests is that this enquiry is moving towards its final stages. it probably also tells us that mr trump will probably not be sitting down in person with mr mueller, which has been muffled debate for many months now. at one stage, the president saying he would be willing to do that and it is clear i think that the lawyers have advised against it. it really will depend on the mueller investigators's response and interpretation of what t

it's not clear whether rudy giuliani and manafort's lawyer believe they were operating under a joint defense agreement that was protected by attorney-client privilege but lawyers tell me it's not. those conversations are subject to discovery. robert mueller could drag these lawyers into the grand jury and demand to hear under oath what was said. whether a pardon was dangled. the other question is when did robert mueller find out. there's some people that believe he knew early on and was stringing manafort along. there's no line that says you can't share information with a think third party. there is a line in rick gates agreement. people are calling attention to that. >> why would there be that in rick gate and not manafort? >> could just be a coincidence. prosecutors grab from one template but some people believe it was intentional and that perhaps mueller wanted this to happen. i'm not prepared to go that far. that's pretty hollywood but it's a thing that's out there right now today. >> i guess everyone is out there discussing every single possibility that could exist. you give me

today called cohen a liar. >> rudy giuliani is on team trump. as evan was saying all throughout the the campaign, focused on trying to win iowa, saying to everybody i've never done any business deals with moscow, except maybe selling a piece of property in palm beach to a wealthy russian, and i did the miss universe pageant and that was it. in the meantime this was continuing. and michael cohen and the president at that time were on the same page. fast forward to today, they are no longer on the same page and michael cohen is saying, look, i'm telling you the truth here, it didn't end in january, it ended in june. i mean, i actually wrote a story on this letter of intent back in september of 2017 where i was told that it ended in january and not in june and i was told that it ended because it never went anywhere, just as the president was saying today. and of course that turns out not to be truthful. and this is damaging to the president because of what you exactly pointed out before, brooke, which is the russians knew this. did they have any ki

giuliani says his legal team would fight that. he said that would be a violation of executive privilege, that they would indeed fight that. brianna, it underscores the reality that even as the president finally submitted those questions, this is not likely the end of the road there. as we head into the beginning of holiday season, important to point out this probe, this investigation still very much hanging over the president's head as he was last year. while some of those questions are in, it's delphly a sense from rudy giuliani, one of the president's lawyers that more might be to come here. the president again blasted this as a witch hunt yesterday as he left the white house. so far today he's been quiet about this investigation brianna. we'll see how long that lasts, a sunny vacation here, six days. the president spending time on the golf course as well as likely on twitter. brianna? >> that you can bet on. jeff zeleny in west calm beach. >>> without apology or remorse the president saying u.s. financial and diplomatic interes

i know rudy giuliani. i'm sure there is not a word in there they can't defend.s are probably in very general terms. unless there is some nuggets in there that are deceptive. here is what i mean. the government knew when it was negotiating with and questioning paul manafort in the presence of his lawyer, his lawyer was telling giuliani everything they were talking about. unless they planted things in there, some little seeds that they wanted to get in the president's head to see if they could trick him to getting an answer. can the government do that? it's regrettable and despicable but the answer is question. prosecutors can trick and deceive their witnesses. >> harris: i know you are a judge so you have seen it before. but you make it sound so insidious. >> it is insidious. >> harris: isn't the goal just to get the facts? >> no. the prosecution's goal is not to be fair. the prosecutor's goal is to charge and convict. they let fairness be dealt with by judges and juries. that is their attitude. >> harris: wow! that is flatly honest. >> it's from a lifetime of be

as this is rudolph giuliani's comments, which are subject to change. and tonight the associated press has a look inside trump's refusal to testify. according to the report, a date was set for a trump sit-down with mueller january 27th of this year at camp david. but his lawyers called it off after learning about the topics to be covered. trump still has not spoken directly to mueller's team of course, and with us tonight to talk about all of it, daniel goldman back with us, a former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. nancy cook returns to our broadcast, white house reporter for political -- politico. i always do that. daniel, you're here in new york. so i'll give you hometown advantage on the first question. do you believe any of what you just heard from rudolph giuliani? >> no, i don't. well, i should say this. he may be right that there will not be a subpoena. but i do not think it is for the reasons that he says, which are that legally he would have no basis for it. i think many legal experts believe that bob mueller woul

giuliani warning trump will fight questions on potential obstruction of justice. he tells axios, quote, i don't think he, mueller, has any way to compel testimony on obstruction because the argument of executive privilege would be very, very strong. outfront now, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, harry sandick, and former nixon white house counsel john dean. so the crucial questions here tonight, let's start, john, with rudy giuliani saying, okay, if you come back and the questions are about obstruction of justice, forget about it. executive privilege is going to protect us. is he right? >> i don't think he necessarily is correct. executive privilege is a very vague, really has little legal standing. the supreme court did recognize it in u.s. v. nixon when he was forced to turn over his tapes. if anything, that case would call for the president to respond and answer any subpoena. >> so, harry, there's the issue of executive privilege, and now there's -- look, according to what they told us, trump submitted his written answers ye

that's the statement of rudy giuliani. >> let's pause for a second on that. i want more context on this court filing accusing paul manafort of breaking a signed agreement and the special counsel said they are lying to federal agents. the former number two to ken star takes us inside. if you were on this special counsel team and you have a witness and the counsel said he has proof that paul manafort is repeatedly lying. what does that tell you? >> it tells me if they can prove it, paul manafort has significant additional exposure unless of course he gets pardoned and he will have no exposure then. keep in mind this is a plea agreement, allegation of the preach of the plea agreement. mueller does not get to make that determination. he will have to present evidence on and the judge will have to make a decision. also mueller said i will file a memo in detail and manafort's crimes and lies. mueller has been limited because of his position in what he can say possibly and his team has not done a lot of leaking. one area where he is not limit side what he can say in

we talked about it on this show yesterday that rudy giuliani told me very explicitly that he was and has been in pretty constant contact with paul manafort's attorney as things were going on. now, they didn't have and don't have a formal joint defense agreement, which can you talk to your esteemed lawyer there on the set about what that means, but they have had an informal ones. they're not the only ones in and and the mueller investigation. what apparently has many eyebrows raised inside the mueller team is the question of whether or not the manafort team was giving information that they gleaned from the questions they were getting during a plea agreement negotiation to the president. what i do know from rudy giuliani is one of the things that the manafort legal team was complaining about to the trump team was the fact that according to giuliani, they felt he was getting squeezed, railroaded was the word giuliani used with me, to try to force him to say, for example, that the president knew about the trump tower meeting in 2016 when, according to at least manafort's lawyer, he didn'

senate. >> rudy giuliani got a little sideways in his messaging perhaps today.have spoken with him. what did you learn dfrom him? >> what i learned from giuliani, talking to the normer new york mayor, is this is a legal team that's really gearing up for political war. he started to tell me that he may not even engage with mueller at some point if there are further questions. and i pressed him on that. i said, are you really not going to engage with the special counsel? he said, well, if they do have a question, i may consider it. he spent most of our conversation going back to michael cohen, taking shots at michael cohen, calling him a liar, trying to set this up as a credibility war against michael cohen, against mueller. the republican party is watching it with an eye a little bit askew, but they're not taking action because they still want to get their agenda done. that's the political bargain they continue to have with this president. >> it is hard to imagine this ramped up. it is hard to imagine what happens when this president and the white house, west win

in talking to giuliani and my sources, this is likely not the end.re likely to be followup questions, and the door is still open for robert mueller to seek an interview with president trump. that is certainly not off the table. i will tell you sources close to the president believe that it wouldn't go that far because now they have matthew whitaker as the acting attorney general. they don't believe he would approve a subpoena to interview the president. so there is this sort of position that, among the president and his legal team that we've cooperated. we've responded to robert mueller's questions and we're on firm legal ground. >> which raises a lot of questions of what does mueller do next? does he decide not to subpoena the president and i'll write a report. does he subpoena the president? or does he decide, fine, i'll run out the clock, we'll see who replaces matthew whitaker. ? it's fascinating moment. submitting answers to round one opens the door to a long list of other questions. >> it's pretty remarkable they did submit these written answer

giuliani warning trump will fight questions on obstruction of justice.lls axios, i don't think he has any way to compel testimony on obstruction because the argument of executive privilege would be very, very strong. "outfront" now, harry sandick and john dean. let's start with rudy giuliani saying if you come back and the questions are about obstruction of justice, forget about it. executive privilege is going to protect us. is he right? >> i don't think he necessarily is correct. executive privilege is a very vague, really it has little legal standing. the supreme court did recognize it in u.s. versus nixon when he was forced to turn over his tapes. if anything, that case would call for the president to respond and answer any subpoena. >> so, harry, there's the issue of executive privilege, and now there's, look, according to what they told us, trump submitted his written answers yesterday. that's what we have been told. so, what do you make of giuliani already saying mueller may have follow-ups? i mean, they're barely there. >> i think he's anticipati

we are expecting rudy giuliani to appear here any minute. a very enthusiastic crowd and typical to elections in florida, the senate race and the gubernatorial race are certainly and sure to be a nail biter. alex? >> it's been that way for a while. you are right, catie beck, thank you so much. we'll keep an eye on rudy giuliani arriving there as well. >>> one state that seems on the verge to reverse course is wisconsin. president trump shocked the country when he won. new polling show senator tammy baldwin leads her republican challenger leah vukmir by nine points. joining me is tammy baldwin. you have a nine point lead, less than 48 hours to go until election day. do you think a dynamic has changed in wisconsin since the president won there two years a ago? >> as a battleground state, i think we'll have a lot of hard-fought races. still at this moment with many left to vote on election day. people have been engaged around issues like i've never seen before and brought on by the worry that as president. that aspect of the affordable care act

giuliani said of mr. mueller. comes just one day after we learned the special counsel wants to scrap manafort's plea deal, claiming the former trump campaign chairman had repeatedly lied to investigators, that is a claim that manafort denies. okay, dan, so let's just lay this out in plain terms. what you have is in paul manafort someone who after he struck a plea deal with the special counsel still has his attorneys feeding information back to president trump about what bob mueller is after in his investigation. as a former prosecutor is this something you've seen before? >> no, it's almost unheard of. i guess sometimes you might have a cooperating witness notify another good friend that you're targeting that the feds are coming for them, but to have lawyers communicating like this as a sort of inside informant into the investigation going back to the lawyer for a subject of the investigation is obviously improper, it's reason enough right there and then for the special counsel to end paul manafort's cooperation a