harry litman will be able to speak more eloquently of what constitutes obstruction of justice, but i know the corrupt intent has something to do it. we have focussed on james comey, et cetera. when you're going to your attorney general who has done absolutely the right thing by recusing himself, when you publicly say i need loyalty. this was a horrible decision. if he told me he was going to do it, i wouldn't have done it, and then you're privately going to him and saying i need you to reverse your decision, that's a problem. >> and also includes the president asking jeff sessions to resign or trying to. >> right. >> doing it through reince priebus and jeff sessions' chief of staff tells reince priebus if there is going to be a request for resignation, it has to come directly from the president. and then reince priebus does nothing, and the president apparently forgets about it. >> well, yeah. this is one of the things that's always been a big irony about this president. in trump particularly, lawrence, for somebody who got famous by telling people you're fired, we consistently hear

i don't think we can keep you interest that. >> harry litman, what is your little reading of "the new york times" tonight that there is so much focus on jeff sessions in the obstruction of justice investigation? >> it makes sense to me, and for the reasons john said. look, it's been 100% clear from day one that of course trump wanted to squelch the russia investigation. his only defense has been that he's lacked the so-called corrupt intent, that he wasn't doing it for personal reasons. now when you think about other conduct like the firing of comey, there are different reasons you could try to proffer. but think about this with sessions. and by the way, sessions recuses because the department tells him he has to. so it's very straight forward and legally mandated. but what other reason could you say on behalf of trump for why he thereafter is we rating him and insisting he reverse the decision? it's obviously wanting personal loyalty, obviously wanting personal protection. it's that kind of protection above for his own sake that leads directly to an inference of corrupt intent and do

joining our discussion now jill wine-banks former assistant prosecutor, harry litman, deputy attorney general under president clinton, and david frum, senior editor for the atlantic and author. jill wine-banks i want to go to you with your prosecutorial experience and your reaction to how rod rosenstein handled this latest public crisis? >> i think rod rosenstein played this exactly right. it's not an ideal world because in an ideal world the president would not be demanding this, and if he did demand it, the answer would be, i know the answer and the answer is that you have no evidence to support this, and we only start investigations when there is probable cause, and there is no probable cause here, there is nothing to be investigating. that would be the ideal answer in an ideal world. but in this case we have to play chess with the president who doesn't know how to play chess and the fact that rod rosenstein is still the deputy attorney general is a good thing. and so, i think he handled it appropriately. i'm outraged that the president is asking for this. i'm also disturbed becaus

attorney and harry litman also former u.s. attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general. >>> julia, take us through your remarkable reporting which is already sending shock waves through the president's legal team. >> i'd love to, nicolle. i'd also push back on some of the things giuliani was saying to the daily beast. so, what we have is that weeks prior to the raid, the fbi in new york started or the prosecutors of new york got a warrant to wiretap michael cohen. they were able to get text, e-mails and wiretaps on his many phone lines. leading up to the raid and continuing. and in order to do that you have to show a judge that there is ongoing criminal activity and that you cannot get that information in other ways. there's no way of subpoenaing documents or getting cooperation, that it has come to this point and you have to then do a wiretap. and we also understand now that there was a conversation between a line at the white house and lines connected to michael cohen that was picked up as a result of this wiretap.

attorney harry litman. harry, do you agree with robert bennett about the evidence that is manifested in the nature of these questions. >> more or less. that is, i don't think it's on the surface of the questions, chris, what mrs. bennett said was you know, it assumed certain facts. i don't think that's right. you can just see from the course of the investigation and basically the important point about these questions in each and every instance is in almost each and every instance is that mueller almost certainly already knows the facts of the matter. they seem benign and open-ended. but you should ask with every question, what does mueller already know. he knows what flynn told kislyak. he knows what's mcgahn told trump. all of these go on and he's got the goods already and that's what explains those questions. not on the surface, but you can just infer that from what's happened in the investigation to date. >> david, what do you mean by truth is coming for the president? >> donald trump has spent his career

joining our legal discussion now harry litman, and barbara mcquade and michael avenatti is with us.rmer federal prosecutors here. michael, repeat what you know about the evidence of the motivation for the timing of the payment michael cohen and donald trump's motivation for the timing of the payment. >> there were extensive discussions in october of 2016 when this was being negotiated relating to the fact that the payment had to be made prior to -- or well in advance of the presidential election, the 2016 presidential election. so this whole idea that the payment had nothing to do with the timing associated with the election or happened to just be a coincidence is completely go bogus. everybody and their brother knew it had to do with the election, it had everything to do with make sure nothing was disclosed prior to the election. it had to do with the payment and receipt of the election, period. >>80?iÑ harry litman, i think we see that as a product of the fbi raid because the way i've seen michael avenatti conduct himself in the case, i have ever reason to believe what he's saying

and that will change the whole complex of everything. >> mimi rocah, daniel goldman and harry litman,hank you for your time. still to come, harvey weinstein in handcuffs as he makes his first appearance in court. i'll talk to one of the reporter who broke the weinstein story next. woman: i stay active by staying in rhythm. and to keep up this pace, i drink boost optimum. boost optimum with 5 in 1 advanced nutrition helps support muscle, energy, bone, normal immune function, and vision. boost optimum. be up for life. with recurring constipation and belly pain if you feel like you spend too much time in the bathroom talk to your doctor and say yesss! to linzess. ♪ yesss! linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. linzess can help relieve your belly pain, and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. linzess is not a laxative. it works differently to help you get ahead of your recurring constipation and belly pain. do not give linzess to children less than 6, and it should not be given to children 6 to less than 18. it may harm them. do not

and that will change the whole complexion of everything. >> mimi rocah, daniel goldman and harry litmanank you for your time. >>> still to come, harvey weinstein makes his first appearance in court. i'll talk to one of the reporter who broke the weinstein story next. >>> plus, wyatt cenac will join us, still ahead. can make you feel unstoppable. but mania, such as unusual changes in your mood, activity or energy levels, can leave you on shaky ground. help take control by asking about your treatment options. vraylar is approved for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes of bipolar i disorder in adults. clinical studies showed that vraylar reduced overall manic symptoms. vraylar should not be used in elderly patients with dementia due to increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, or confusion, which may mean a life-threatening reaction, or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be permanent. side effects may not appear for several weeks. high cholesterol and weight gain; high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death; decreased white blo

i want to talk to robert zelman and attorney harry litman. good evening to all of you. another meeting with george nader who wanted to help his father. the princes who led saudi arabia and the arab emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. the social media specialist, joel zamel, extolled his company's ability to give an edge to a political campaign. by that time the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect mr. trump. is it legal, in your view? >> it seems pretty straightforward, don. it plays as one more little thing for trump jr. i don't understand the casualness. it's a federal crime to solicit anything of value from a foreign national, even from trump jr.'s act where he rebuffed the offer. it seems he was straightforward soliciting something of value, but if $2 million payments were made after, it seems to me of par with the russian meeting overall and a serious charge for trump jr. >> is it illegal in your view, michael? >> it could be. it depends on the circumstances. if t

obviously harry litman, matt miller and all. still ahead, democrats striking back out rage over today's separate doj briefings. i'll talk to one of the top democrats in the house. stay with us. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. that's it? everybody two seconds! "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. my mom washes the dishes... ...before she puts them in the dishwasher. so what does the dishwasher do? new cascade platinum lets your dishwasher be the dish washer. three cleaning agents dissolve, lift and rinse away food the first time. new cascade platinum. i would doubt myself that i could actually quit. that i could climb that hill and get over it. i really honestly don't believe i could have done it without chantix. along with support, chantix (varen

constitutional attorney robert martin to beauty assistant attorney general and former us attorney harry litman. good to have both of you with us. let's start here. we want to play a little more about what rudy giuliani had to say about possibly sitting down and what he expects first. >> if they don't show us these documents we have to say no. he wants to explain he did nothing wrong. it is us the lawyers who have to convince them that this is a trap. >> fair to say it is a trap? >> absolutely it is a trap. the investigation has been not about exposing russia collusion but covering of the illegal spying and lying the obama administration gave against opposition political party and donald trump. rudy's court convictions are precisely correct, it would be a major mistake to sit down and engage in an interview with someone who is not in good faith producing information relevant to the investigation. >> how does this work, when you are potentially a person of interest, we have to be careful with the language, somebody who is involved, to ask the potential prosecutor to see the information they buil

joining our discussion now, harry litman, tim o'brien, and jennifer rogers, former federal prosecutor. she is now executive director for the center of advancement of integrity at columbia law school. that signature block on michael cohen's e-mail is fascinating because this is the new phone he had to get after the fbi seized all of his phones, more than a dozen of thechl apparem apparen. so he had to deliberately type onto there after the fbi raid, personal attorney to donald trump. what's your reading of that? >> it's also the title he was very unabashed about using apparently around the world and certainly around the u.s. in order to drum up business. everyone is saying pay to play, same old, same old. but it isn't. because one of the things he was doing, it's ironic, the same time he's out thing himself, he was selling a certain kind of anonymity. that's the reason he wasn't registered as a lobbyist. so the companies were not simply buying access, they were buying quiet access. and it seems that that's how a company like novartis could slip into agreeing to pay him $1 million befor

attorney harry litman. this is a crazy story. on a number of fronts. first, your reaction to the fact that a while ble blower and law enforcement official essentially leaked what is a suspicious activity report from a bank to the public. >> yeah, crazy story capping a crazy head-spinning day. how many weeks ago did we hear about donald trump jr.'s testimony in front of the senate? that was the a.m. this morning. everything's happened since. yeah, and this latest development, chris, bizarre with a capital b. the actual event underlying it, the possibility of a disappearance of an sar from the treasury department database, i don't know of any mechanism for doing it. it is completely unprecedented. and then as you say, the wrinkle of a law enforcement officer beak the one who came forward and by the way, did he produce it to avenatti? did he try first to just you know, go to superiors in the treasury department and say what exactly is going on here? it is really head spinning. that said, you know, there are echoes of watergate here. the conscience stricke

harry litman, megan tuey and attorney mya wiley. of you for being part of our special coverage. given this reporting, what risk does the cohen and trump relationship pose for both men? >> that's an interesting question. i was one of the investigative reporters who after the election really started digging into michael cohen. he has been listed as special counsel to the trump organization for a decade. if you comb through the various business deals that the trump organization did over that time, if you look at the major lawsuits that emerged, cohen wasn't involved. what we learned in the last 15 months when you are asking, what was cohen doing in this close relationship with trump for all that time, there's three things we learned. one is that he was involved -- we learned in recent months he was involved in covering up potentially damaging information that could come out about the president. that he had made this payment to stormy daniels at a time when she was threatening to go public with her story of an affair with him, a sexual

attorney and deputy assistant attorney general harry litman. friedman himself texting a "new york daily news" court reporter i pled guilty to a felony, i am humbled and shamed. this is me taking responsibility has nothing do with mc, michael cohen. >> there are two things to make of it. he's trying to indicate he's not cooperating. the other is a sort of delicate dance he's doing here by saying this meaning this guilty plea today which related to charges originally brought against him last june before michael cohen was in any hot water, this particular guilty plea has nothing to do with anything related to michael cohen and based on the little bit that we know of this case, it does seem like this was sort i've simple, not a simple. this was a tax evasion, grand larceny case pled down to probation and repaying $5 million that he took. so in that instance, it still is consistent with the idea that he is cooperating with the new york state ag's office and potentially the southern district of new york. >> i want to come back to you on that possibil

joining our discussion now, jennifer rogers, a former federal prosecutor, harry litman is with us, a former federal prosecutor, and david corn, washington bureau chief and co-author of the new best-seller, "russian roulette". he's also an msnbc political analyst. and jennifer, i would like to begin with your observations about where this summer zervos lawsuit might take us. >> the important thing i think is not so much whether she ends up proving that he didn't tell the truth and defamed her and so on, it's the discovery. so as you were saying to rachel and she was saying to you, getting trump under oath talking about really anything is really, really dangerous for the president. so if she pushes ahead and is able to depose the president we're back in kind of bill clinton territory with trump is likely to lie and then he's exposed to all sorts of things, potentially critical charges whether that happens now or after he leaves office, it's still a big danger for him. >> summer zervos doesn't have to go through this thing we've been watching that we can't quite tell what we're watching

. >> mimi rocah, daniel goldman and harry litman, thank you for your time. >>> still to come, harvey weinstein makes his first appearance in court. i'll talk to one of the reporter who broke the weinstein story next. >>> plus, wyatt cenac will join us, still ahead. but i'm not standing still... and with godaddy, i've made my ideas real. ♪ i made my own way, now it's time to make yours. ♪ everything is working, just like it should ♪ >>> former media mogul harvey weinstein was arrested and arraigned today for two separate forcible sexual assaults against two different women including first degree rape. after surrendering to the police, the first precinct station houses in tribeca for his arrest, weinstein in handcuffs taken down to criminal court and charged with first and third degree rape for an incident at the double tree hotel in 2013 and charged with a first degree criminal sex act in relation to another accuser for an incident in 2004. >> that investigation revealed that this defendant used his position, money, and power to lure young women into situations where he was able to vi

with me now, harry litman, former u.s.attorney, former deputy assistant attorney general during the clin aton administration and just wrote a post in the op-ed and betsy, daily beast politics reporter also just written. wrote about this meeting. ben betsy, democrats insist that the white house chief of staff general john kelly was there. that the president's attorney emmet flood were present at the top of those meetings. you wrote in part, flood's presence fueled the perception that the white house was trying to monitor the investigation in to the trump campaign. how did they justify? how do republicans justify having the chief of staff and the president's personal attorney? >> the official line from the white house that john kelly and emmet flood, the president's lawyer, were only there for the beginning of these two meetings. essentially popped in, said hi. told everyone they were glad the meetings were going on and stepped out. they weren't actually involved in the nuts and bolts of the meeting is what the white house i

robert barnes and former deputy assistant attorney general harry litman. great to have both of you with us tonight, gentleman. >> thank you. >> good to be here. >> shannon: let's start here. we want to play a little bit more about what rudy giuliani had to say yesterday about possibly sitting down and what he expects first. >> and if they don't show us these documents, we're just going to have to say no. let me emphasize, he wants to explain that he did nothing wrong. it's us the lawyers who have to convince him that this is a tra trap. >> shannon: fair to say it's a trap? >> absolutely it's a trap. the entire investigation has been not about exposing any rush of collusion, but about covering up the illegal spying and lying the obama administration engaged in against an opposition political party in president trump. basically his core convictions are precisely correct. it would be a major mistake to sit down and engage in an interview with someone who is not in good faith producing information that is relative to the investigation and relative to the defen

. >> guy lewis, congressman ted liu, and former federal prosecutor harry litman an interesting piece of news an and law school. we thank you. >>> coming up, donald trump is threatening to get involved and use the powers of the presidency against the justice department it self. we also want to dig deeper given all the news today about what the clinton precedent would mean for the mueller talks. i'm going to speak to the lawyer who questioned bill clinton and the lawyer who defended bill clinton. we will give you both sides of the law later on tonight. >>> also, a new action in court from one of trump's accusers. they are tonight using court subpoenaed attempts to get the long lost tapes from the apprentice. and tony schwartz. coauthor of the art of the deal on what happens when trump gets corner. you are watching the beat on msnbc. ♪ ♪ so is his horse. ♪ ♪ when it comes to snacking. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ that's why he uses the chase mobile app, to pay practically anyone, at any bank. life, lived victor's way. chase. make more of what's yours. advil liqui-gels minis. breakthrough in pain relief. a m

sophia nelson, and a former federal proskurpt, harry litman. congressman, your colleague chuck schumer going pretty far in saying this is autocratic and a banana republic. is that how you would put it? >> i agree. this is very disturbing. you don't do criminal investigations because the president ordered you to. the president has no business telling the justice department who to investigate. and i'm glad they didn't open a criminal investigation. pawning it off on the inspector general is a political move, but at least they didn't open a criminal investigation. had they done that, that would be far worse. a criminal investigation, which the president demanded, should only be predicated on evidence of a crime. and there is no evidence of a crime whatsoever here. >> when they keep handing donald trump's angry tweets to this doj, this doj watchdog, technically called the inspector general, and his name is michael horowitz, not a household name, is he turning into something like the bag man for president trump, because the last time he got one of t

harry litman, mike schmidt, congrats on the story. >>> donald trump continues to spread lies about thesome push back on the conspiracy theorist in chief from typically trump friendly corners. at some point, we are going to be able to beat als. because life is amazing. so i am hoping for a cure. i want this, to uh, to be a reality. um, yeah. but one blows them all out of the water. hydro boost from neutrogena®. with hyaluronic acid to plump skin cells so it bounces back. neutrogena® >>> so, how do you like the fact they had people infiltrating our campaign? can you imagine? can you imagine? [ booing ] can you imagine? people infiltrating our campaign. is there anybody in this big beautiful arena right now that's infiltrating our campaign? would you please raise your hand? that would take courage. >> he repeated his lies and tried to get a laugh out of it last night. but when it come to trump's now debunked conspiracy theory about a spy implanted in his campaign, the list of people willing to bat for him is getting a little bit shorter. not even fox news is a safe space any more. >> pres

jonathan lemire, and harry litman. i want to start with you, john. what stands is out to you when you see these stories and watch them unfold and watch these companies change their statement over and over again to more fulsomely admit what was going on and what you know of cohen, what you know of the president, what is the thing that is a big shining red light to you? >> more than anything, it is just that it is just question after question. each incremental development leads to three more questions. certainly remember, after the president was elected, there was great confusion in corporate america and people were looking for some insight into his state of mind, into what his agenda would be. i think -- it is certainly not unusual for people with access, people with insight into a chief executive's well being or politician's well being to offer their services. now mr. cohen did not register as a lobbyist, therefore that's one potential legal problem depending on how much work he did for these companies. he also has not suggested he had any ties to fo

harry litman. >> the bare minimum will be to get answers from president trump under oath. no prosecutor would settle for less. and any answers under oath by trump puts him in serious criminal jeopardy. >> reporter: republicans are also taking aim at deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who oversees mueller's investigation. >> i can tell you everyone who has been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time. >> reporter: yesterday rosenstein pushed back. against reports that republican lawmakers were drafting articles of impeachment against him. republican members of the house freedom caucus say impeachment would be used against rosenstein as a last resort, if he doesn't comply with information leading to the russia investigation. >> i think they should understand by now they're not going to be extorted. >> reporter: a subpoena has been an option for special counsel but to use it to compel the a president to testify, that's something that could lead to a legal battle in the supreme court. the special counsel's office is not commenting, nor is the p

discuss the day's developments, from the "washington post," white house bureau chief phil rutger, harry litma litman. thanks for being here, everybody. phil, take us through this day for the president where he is forced to acknowledge reality on north korea and also less than 24 hours after that meeting with rod rosenstein and chris wray he's back to his script of fbi/doj bashing. >> yeah. well it's been an interesting day for trump, because he's battling two very different issues at the moment. he's trying to save this summit in singapore with the north koreans. in fact, he was so optimistic about that summit, those challenge coins were already created. as we learned today, the summit may very well not happen at all. there's a great deal of concern inside the white house, even more concern than the president showed in that meeting there with the south korean president. we'll see if those talks over the next couple of days are going to be able to get this going and revive what trump had hoped to be a real triumph of a meeting on june 12th. simultaneously, he's really consumed with agita over this se