joining us now the professor, harry litman, deputy assistant attorney general, and eugene robinson, and jennifer ruben, opinion writer for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor. and feugene, i want to start wih you quickly since you remember every one of these beats that unfolded during the watergate investigation. the idea richard nixon would have ever allowed himself to be caught publicly discussing the pardons of bob halderman and others was just unthinkable to nixon who knew where the impeachment lines were drawn. >> because there were lines. there used to be lines, lawrence. and amid the evidence compiled by leon as evidence of richard nixon's obstruction of justice was allegations that he sort of dangled clemency and pardons in front of potential witnesses. and what is donald trump doing? the difference of course is donald trump is doing it in public, in front of us. we're seeing it before our very eyes. and they seem nonchalant, almost proud of the fact they are obstructing justice. that's what they're doing. it is clearly obstruction of justice. and the only question is wh

jennifer ruben, eugene robinson, harry litman, jed thank you all for starting us off.n we come back >>> in the united states where 14 -- 14 republican senators turned against the president on an important vote today in the senate. democratic senator jeff murkily will join us on that next. guess who is bulking up your morning with some meaty breakfast burritos? this guy. get my meat lovers with bacon, sausage, and ham. or grande sausage with creamy sriracha. because at jack in the box, whoops, we're all about bulking up breakfast. meaty, baby! try my meaty breakfast burritos. ♪ ♪ connecting people... ...uniting the world. ♪♪ with ham, grilled sausage,th my and hickory-smoked bacon.rrito or my grande sausage breakfast burrito with creamy sriracha and crispy hash browns. i'm all about bulking up breakfast! [grunt] try my meaty breakfast burritos. part of the breakfast burrito family. the republican controlled senate turned against donald trump today in a way that it never did prior to the republicans losing the house of representatives. senate republicans can now see that

kristen welker in florida for harry litman and the former u.s. attorney and deputy assistant general, and msnbc analyst and spokesman eric miller who was the chief spokesman for previous attorney general eric holder. and so this is breaking all norms, kristen welker, a a tnd president not unaware or concerned or determined to go after thehe rivals even though there is a fire wall between the president of the united states and the justice department and prosecutions. >> that is right, andrea, and it is going to raise real questions of how he sees his powers, and his relationship with his own justice department. i spoke with a former administration official who said, look, this should not be coming as a surprise to anyone, because this is something that president trump has signaled since he was a candidate. as you just pointed out, it is something that he has effectively signaled after he took office, and still the fact that he had these conversations is striking. now, based on that new york times report, we know that mcgahn's response to him is th

. >> and now to the issue of julian assange, and harry litman, it is in the "guardian" newspaper, and our guidance is that from the team that we can reference this to the "guardian" and by a krcredible and well knn reporter in the "guardian" but we don't have independent information as to of course what happened there iny? >> yes, andrea, i am here. it is head-spinning. the sort of the development that sooms to have the potential of blowing the top off of the whole probe. remember are, manafort was d desperate to get the campaign chair for personal reasons. his life was a shambles, and he comes to the trump campaign, a hatt in hand offering to work for free only a few weeks after this final meeting if the "guardian's" reporting is accurate. it seems highly likely that would have been one of the credentials that he was proffering to get the job. if that is true, and the tie is made between the assange hacking and subsequent release and the campaign chair and likely the president, you have the sort of the smoking gun that if it can be proven with independent evidence that would i think

justice department for "the new york times," former chief spokesman for the doj, matt miller, harry litman and jonathan lemire, white house reporter for the ap. matt miller, you were here in this hour yesterday. we were talking about this in more theoretical thunderstorerm. still figuring out who matt whitaker is. matt whitaker is someone not inclined to approve a subpoena from robert mueller for this president. >> it's fairly remarkable that he has already apparently reached that conclusion before being briefed on the case. he's reached the cornclusion he's not going to recuse himself before he's consulted with ethics officials about whether that would be appropriate. it looks like the president has put matt whitaker in this job precisely for the reason obvious to everyone. he expects him to come in and either slow down or curtail or shut down the investigation. one of the cliches that i think is misused most often in washington is the idea the cover-up is worse than the crime. oftentimes people like the president -- like i believe the president is doing right now execute cover-ups becaus

joining us now, harry litman, former u.s. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general under president clinton. ken dilanian joins us first. he's an nbc news national security reporter for nbc knees. mimi rocca as well, federal prosecutor and an msnbc legal contributor. welcome to you both. ken, let's start with you. what's the news tonight, that the president has been asking for someone to allow him to instruct the department of justice to investigate his rivals and he's been stopped until now. >> yeah, i like how you framed it up, ali because it's important to say that he has been stopped. unlike richard nixon, he didn't actually follow through and give the order. but the only analogy in modern american history is richard nixon because the second article of impeachment against nixon was obstruction of justice, meddling in the justice department, miss using the fbi, ordering the irs to investigate his political enemies, and some government officials resisted nixon and some didn't. but after richard nixon and after the wate

joining us now is harry litman. we've never seen anything like it.is person occupying the attorney general's who's not been confirmed by the state department. if he in any way try tuesday obstruct justice for donald trump. >> i think that's right. he's got one credential and one credential only besides a few failed political campaigns and that he's going to be loyal to donald trump and as he's already been his sort of eyes and ears. and does he have the potential for criminal liability, of course. i'm sure he's thought about it. but this is probably too much to resist. all of a sudden he is running the department of justice. he's a guy until recently who had no role. you know he was recommended for the chief of staff position by leonard leo, same guy who stewarded the kavanaugh and gorsuch nominations. and i'm sure he's thinking at least in the short-term when he gets hailed in front of the congressional committees that trump will assert executive privilege and keep him from the hot seat temporarily. but you're certainly right that down the line if h

>> and harry litman, how unusual is this? here you have a cooperating witness he's cooperating in order to get a reduced sentence and suddenly the prosecutor he's cooperating with goes into court and says he's been lying to us, he's been lying to us after he signed a plea agreement with us, and we give up on any deal with him? how often do we see this? >> about 1 in 1,000, extremely unusual and more over we now understand the ten-day delay was a final opportunity for him to in fact get straight. that has to be the reason for that very brief delay. they said we know you're lying, this is really it. you were just going to go and straight to sentencing and you will clearly -- and he clearly is in far worse shape with no prospect whatsoever of ever getting out of prison if you don't play the hand completely open as you promise to. and he continued not to. as mimi said, they'll certainly have proof of this. and it's an extraordinary turn of events especially in a case like this. and not one mueller would have wanted. i mean, muell

laura coats, harry litman. we're going to dig into it next. ♪ can you feel it there's endless fun with great toys and games for everyone at amazon, with low prices and free shipping on millions of items. for everything you need this holiday, visit amazon. ♪ >>> you knew it wouldn't take long. president trump in buenos aires tweeting about the mueller investigation, quoting alan dershowitz criticizing the investigation and falsely claiming it's what he calls an illegal hoax that should be ended immediately. going on to quote greg jarrett and calling it, wait for it, a witch-hunt. let's discuss now with laura coats and harry litman. good evening. >>> laura, you first. >> good evening. >> the president has been reluctant to condemn russia and it seems we may be learning why. >> well, you're very generous about the word reluctant. it seems like all this time one of the main questions that robert mueller has had and everyone looking at the collusion investigation has been to figure out why would there be a foreign c

harry litman and nbc's pete williams. you. >> you bet. >>> and now coming up "in her own words" monica lewinski openly discusses her affair with bill clinton after 20 years. that is next on "andrea mitchell" only here on msnbc. managing my type 2 diabetes wasn't my top priority. until i held her. i found my tresiba® reason. now i'm doing more to lower my a1c. once daily tresiba® controls blood sugar for 24 hours for powerful a1c reduction. tresiba® is a long-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be serious and may be life-threatening. injection site reactions may occur. tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical condi

attorney and deputy assistant attorney general, harry litman and nbc news chief white how the correspondentn is back. let's start with what we just heard from a democratic member of the house intel committee jackie speier who said among the people that they're going to want to hear from could well be members of the trump family and his close circumstance le, what make of that? >> in particular not just they, but the mueller probe is now coming at trump junior like a freight train. we know from congressman spirer mueller has the resolve to prosecute these crimes. trump junior testified three times before different committees and almost certainlicertainly towed the party line of no involvement, flatly contradicted by cohen, perhaps with documentary testimony. he is in deep, deep peril, and in fact, he is involved not only on the commercial side but also the political side he's the spearhead of the june 2016 meeting, and that seems to be the epicenter of both the russia trump tower meeting issues and also the political aspect of it. >> and hallie, don junior isn't there where you are in argent

. >> harry litman, if bob mueller subpoenaed rudy giuliani over this, would that surprise you? >> i think so. that is, he'd be totally justified and in a normal investigation i think he would in a heartbeat but the calculation will be is it worth the distraction, the screaming, the witch hunt cries for his -- for what it gains him in the investigation? it's a close call. my best guess is he won't do it. >> which only then by that -- by that theory it means the president's tactics are having an impact. >> totally. and the truth may not come out as a result. >> that's the scariest thing of all. harry litman. >> jennifer, please stick around. >>> up ahead, jerome corsi and roger stone, what do these two have to do with wikileaks and what could it mean for the mueller investigation? your brain changes as you get older. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and mill

harry litman, former u.s. attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general. paul butler, former federal prosecutor, now georgetown law professor. and sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast. paul, we were talking before the show about how some of these contacts are confusing. corsi and credico and robert stone. but they are central to what "the washington post" once described as the beating heart of the mueller probe. the question of a conspiracy between russians and people in the president's orbit. explain. >> so the conspiracy that mueller seems to be focused on is the release of the hacked e-mails and whether high-level trump campaign officials knew about them. if they knew about them, that's collusion. if they were involved in coordinating their release in ways that supported the campaign, that's conspiracy. that's a federal crime. and so what mueller is interested in is especially roger stone who predicted incredibly these in ways that were very helpful to the campaign. how did he know? that's what corsi is involved in. corsi and roger stone worke

attorney harry litman. harry, you're up first. does it seem like mueller is tightening the screws and the investigation is closing in? >> well, yes and no. he's about the last part, the big chunk that to date had not been actually delineated, the whole sort of american side of the russian interference, but there's been some slip and in these screws, right? both manafort angkorcy came to the table near cooperating in a way that would have zeroed in on stone and probably others. and now they've taken a step back. it's clear he's got all the information for this last building block but i think he's going to have to possibly approach it differently now that manafort's imploded and ha corsi also. by the way, i think corsi probably, mueller probably bounced him rather than vice versa. in any event, he's no longer a potential cooperator. >> interesting you should say that. listen, another question for you, manafort's lawyers were apparently telling the trump team everything that was going on with the investigation. you wrote a great piec

former attorney general harry litman. >> i want to go first.ave sworn this administration is about less regulation. it sounds like it's more red tape. >> well, the consent decrees are more red tape. i think the order is about having less. the zifrl rights civil rights d find abusive practices and say sign here. the consent decrees have a lot of good ideas in them if you have infinite resources but the beef of the local officials is they are locked into these and the federal district court judge becomes the defacto mayor and chief of police and they are really expensive. when i became u.s. attorney in pittsburgh, in my first meeting with the mayor, having progressive guy, would be for this but after some pleasantries he went into a tirade about this stuff because his idea was look, this is keeping us from being able to make the choice about more reform in the police department or fixing potholes. what's the mid ground ? a lot of police departments were not fixing the problems until the feds got involved. >> that's right. 100 100% abusive and you

less discuss now with laura coates and harry litman. good evening.ra, to you first. >> hey, don. >> the president has been reluctant to condemn russia and it seems we may be learning why. >> well, you're very generous about the word reluctant. it seems like all this time one of the main questions that robert mueller has had and everyone looking at the collusion investigation has been to figure out why would there be a foreign country, particularly russia, that would think that they would have a receptive year to a united states campaign for the presidency? why would there be some inclination on their parts that they had a safe haven? and when you follow the money trail and follow whether or not someone would be a mayor net or have some self-interests or financial ties that might give you the motivation why, one, russia would feel they have that receptive ear and why perhaps the president has acted, at least to the outward eye, that he is beholden to russia and not criticizing them. what you saw from this cohen guilty plea, if we are to believe it, an

and harry litman, former united states attorney, you are a very qualified bunch tonight. great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> shannon: let's talk about this. a reaction from woman who looks like has a very good shot to be in the next speaker. nancy pelosi. attorney general whitaker, matt whitaker, he must be recused of any involvement from the russia investigation as deputy attorney general. he shall not be continue to oversee the investigation unhindered. tom, we'll start with you. your reaction? >> i think today's advance come i have to say this is probably the least surprising personal decision in the history of the republic. we honor this was coming. it was not a question of whether it was a question of when. midterms are in the rearview mirror, he wanted to reset his justice department team and get a cabinet official and attorney general and whom he has a hundred percent confidence doesn't surprise me in the least. what does surprise me, or comments about the incoming acting attorney general. the coals for them to recused from russia, it is meritless. all he h

joining us now our eugene robinson and he's an msnbc political analyst, and harry litman, former u.s. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general under presidents clinton. thank you both for being here. i'm going to go to you, harry. you're at a disadvantage in the box, but i am going to ask you about what rudy giuliani said about these questions that donald trump said he answered all by himself. he said some create more issues for us legally than others, and this is the interesting part, he said some are possible traps. is it possible for a lawyer to look at a question and determine it's a trap, and if the client intends to answer truthfully, how could it be a perjury trap? >> right. so first i think it is. i think you can sort of see if you have any sophistication about the matter where mueller might be going. but you're right on the second point. perjury trap here is the sort of slogan they've advanced repeatedly. the other way that you could call it would be a request for honest information. so i think they perceive if he answers it truthfully that he could be in a legal sticky

attorney harry litman and reporter ken delanian.es that prosecutor accidentally put julian assange's name on a document? how did it get revealed? >> it is puzzling. i have talked to people saying they have never seen anything like this and you have to feel for the prosecutor, assistant u.s. attorney in virginia he was preparing a motion to seal criminal charges in an unrelated case. and of course, the case law is the same for, you know, whether it's julian assange or anyone else and cut and pasted from a secret julian assange motion to seal criminal charges and put it in this other file, forgot to change the name and then filed it publicly in the courthouse and then alert researcher saw it, posted it on twitter last night and the rest is history. the reason we're caveating, we are not confirming that charges are pending against assange because it's possible it's a draft document that the prosecutor cut and pasted from. what it shows is that the eastern district of virginia investigating wikileaks and assange for years is down the tr

thought that it was in trump's best interest to sit down with mueller, sit across from the table as harry litman and answer the questions. the keel act act is going to be when trump's team hands over the written questions and mueller decides there still needs to be more questions. he's going to have to decide whether to seek a subpoena from a court, grand jury, sorry, to get the president to show up in person. that's why whitaker is so important because the attorney general or the acting attorney general, if he is indeed constitutionally in the office which i don't think he is but if the work, the attorney general could stop a subpoena from issuing and then i think it ends and then mueller has to go with the report. but if they say issue the subpoena, then you have the interview. the president, i think he should sit down. under the constitution, he's the chief law enforcement officer. it sets a bad example for the president of the united states to sit down and answer questions -- refused to sit down and answer questions. >> shannon: folks think some of the players, it's with they've done, it's f

. >> harry litman, thank you. rebecca, a solid piece of reporting. thanks to you as well. >> president trump relatively quiet but still controversial on that trip to france. >>> and also ahead, michelle obama talking publicly about some very personal parts in her life. including her marriage. you're headed down the highway when the guy in front slams on his brakes out of nowhere. you do, too, but not in time. hey, no big deal. you've got a good record and liberty mutual won't hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. you hear that, karen? liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges. how mature of them! for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. liberty mutual insurance. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ you may be learning about, medicare and supplemental insurance. medicare is great, but it doesn't cover everything ...only about 80% of your part b medicare costs. a medicare supplement insurance plan may help cover some of the rest. learn how an aarp medicare supplement insur

harry litman, abby and jess fantastic conversation. appreciate you being here. >>> we have other thanksgiving news to get to -- other news to get to this thanksgiving morning, back with who's being called to testify and over what. stay with us. this is msnbc. o testify and ove. stay with us this is msnbc. ybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr. a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests.