jared kushner is the guy on the left with senator bob menendez. his lawyer's name is abby lowell, top drawer washington lawyer. before that, mr. kushner was represented by jamie gorelick who was also the real deal top drawer. that high-powered very well respected top drawer legal representation is important in its own right for jared kushner particularly with new news discovered tonight. on a more human level, though, it's also just a striking contrast. with what's been going on with the president himself. as of this weekend it appears that the president has no serious legal representation with the russia scandal. the lead lawyer had been this man, john dowd. so for example that's who had been negotiating with robert mueller and his prosecutors about when and whether and how the president might end up being questioned by the special counsel and his team. and i know it feels like there's been a lot of chaotic lawyering and a strange cast of characters around the president when it comes to his legal defense but what has happened there and happened on

jared kushner is the guy on the left with bob menendez and he's the real deal. top drawer washington lawyer. before that, mr. kushner was represented by jamie who is also the real deal top drawer. with this new news discovered tonight. on a more human level, though, it's also just a striking contrast. as of this weekend it looks like the president has no serious legal representation with the russia scandal. the lead lawyer had been this man, john dowd. that's who had been negotiating with robert mueller and prosecutors when and whether and how the president would be questioned by the special counsel and his team and it feels like there has been a lot of chaotic lawyering with the president and his legal defense, but what has happened there, what has happened on that subject in the last week, which has resulted in the president no longer having really a russia legal defense, i got -- it's been nuts but what just happened in the past week is almost impossible to believe. we can now tell from the reporting that's happened over the weekend into today that it appears

now we see a situation with jared kushner unfolding where the parallels are unmistakable. this is a situation where someone who comes from a financially complex and interesting background. kushner companies bought 666 5th avenue, this massive building in manhattan at the worst possible time too make that kind of purchase right before the housing bubble popped. subsequently jared kushner found himself in a position in the white house of simultaneously having an extraordinary amount of influence over political decision making and having some extraordinary complex financial problems on the part of his family company. while he's taken steps back from the family company, it's his family business. he talks to his father every day and he's involved in these conversations. it's easy to get lost in the churn, but speaking broadly, the parallels and the irony here stands out. >> betsy woodruff and julia ainsley, philip pump, chuck rosenberg, thank you for joining us. i appreciate you all rolling with us. there are many other pressing issues that are playing out as we speak. we're goi

. >> my name is jared kushner. >> the mueller probe is investigating whether or not the son-in-law is using foreign policy to benefit his own company. >> jared is a very successful real estate person. >> why jared kushner may be in trouble like never before and what did the president know and when did he know it? plus, the story behind the unglued president and his impulsive decision to start a trade war. incredible new deception from the white house chief of staff on the domestic abuse scandal and the massive popular uprising in deep red trump country. "all in" starts right now. >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. it would be one thing if jared kushner used his position of the white house to benefit his family real estate business. that would be bad. i mean, that's your standard run-of-the-mill style corruption. again, really bad. a big deal scandal if true, but also, the kind of thing you've heard about before. maybe in state or local government. okay, but it would be another thing entirely if jared kushner actually shaped american foreign policy to punish countries for

jared kushner, ivanka.his one particular deal and her contacts with perhaps some of the unves or thes, some of the people who were maybe buying into this property, something triggered the counterintelligence. the fbi has been spending well over a year now looking at some of their contacts, some of the deals that were being made. but something in this particular deal, i've been told, really triggered the fbi and they've really been looking into it, trying to get a sense, again, it's sort of what you said. was there some kind of influence? were they trying to exploit her, her husband? all of that remains a concern for the fbi. >> and shimon, would this have any impact on the mueller investigation? >> it potentially could. anything that has to do with this family, with the president, is all now being run out of the mueller team, out of the mueller case. so, potentially, it could. and, you know, from everything that i know, mueller has seen some of this information, it is before him, it is before his prosecutor

a lawyer for jared kushner says that he has, in fact, kept his distance from the kushner companies. saying in a state that mr. kushner has had no role in the kushner companies says joining the white house and the government and has taken no part of any business loans or projects with or for the companies after that. so trying to say that even though kushner bears the family name, a sign of party, part of the big real estate conglomerate, that in his role today and over the last year, that he has not engaged in business dealings. that is something that they are pushing back hard on. in addition to that, so many of the other companies that have been implicated in this through the reporting because of the loans that were granted to the kushner companies, citigroup, for example, says our ceo was not involved in the transaction and never discussed it with kushner. and apollo global management told "the new york times" that the loan went through the standard approval process. so one of the issues for the white house is not just the specifics of what transpired but the appearance of it. th

so the kind of chronology is jared kushner meets with an official at apollo and discusses a possible job with him, and then when that is all done, apollo gives kushner companies enormous loan. that is one example we wrote about. the other example we wrote about is jared kushner had a meeting last spring with mike core bath, the head of citi group and shortly after that they gave a $325 million loan to kushner companies. both of these things are as far as we know fairly unpress press dentsed. a high ranking official having meetings in the white house with leaders of companies that very shortly thereafter give his company which he is still invested in sizable loans. and jared kushner stepped down for the kushner companies when he went to the white house but didn't divest his stake. he divested some portions including the stake in the 666 fifth avenue but still heavilyin investigated in the compa investigat investigate invested in the company. >> and do we know whether any of this would have been discussed and the reason i'm asking is because if one is trying to figure out whether this w

. >>> plus, the slow motion takedown of jared kushner. the questions about how he does his job without the right security clearance. the reports his own father-in-law may want him out. and new nbc reporting. "the 11th hour" on a friday night begins now. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 407 of the trump administration. president trump is at his florida resort after a week of extraordinary turbulence that seems to signify a deepening crisis than some of the previous rocky weeks in this white house. to begin the russia investigation appears to have taken on a new kind of momentum. today nbc news wants to know, if jared kushner's business dealings ended up influencing the administration's policies. that comes amid other nbc news reports this week that the special counsel also wants to know what donald trump knew about the release of stolen dnc e-mails on, and that mueller is looking at criminal charges for russians who carried out hacking and leaking of information to hurt the democrats in 2016. new

facilitating this entire thing is helping to explode an epidemic in yemen while we're at it. >> jared kushner is at the center of this. two pieces of information. kushner goes to saudi in 2017 in october. days before the head of the saudi government essentially purges a whole bunch of saudi oligarchs. reporting jared and mohammed salman had a kind of a slumber party. swapping stories, planning strategy. this is kushner at the center of the policies in the middle east that is very dangerous and high stakes that happens after one of the parties to this rejects an offer to put money into his business. >> and there are federal laws implicated here. you cannot advise on a policy if the policy, you know, knowingly is going to benefit you. he still owns this, a huge stake in his family company whose entire fortune is kind of tied to whether or not this 666 property collapses because these real estate companies are cross collateralized and steve bannon kind of gloated about this in michael wolf's book if that property goes down, he says everything else goes down with it. the entire family fortune is

learn more at cancercenter.com jared kushner's foreign business ties are influencing white house policy. he's asking about kushner's efforts to get money for family real estate properties including discussions with individuals repping qatar, turkey, russia. the issue is did kushner -- what's the impolitical indication? the idea is that kind of conduct, if it did occur, would form the basis of criminal charges. take qatar. this is where kushner met with the nation's former prime minister at trump tower about investing in the property, the debt ridden 666 fifth avenue. after the deal fell flew the white house stronged a punishing block aid against qatar. maybe that blockade was some kind of kushner retaliation. there are also other possible innocent explanations and bob mueller is not going to take the word of just anyone. he's not going to do that without evidence. but if there is evidence that kushner's debts are financing goals corrupted u.s. government policy, you bet mueller's looking for it. joining me now is attorney mya wiley and natasha, a staff writer at "the atlantic". you cove

. >> my name is jared kushner. >> the mueller's probe is investigating whether or not the president's son-in-law is using foreign policy to benefit his own company. >> jared is a very successful real estate person. >> tonight why jared kushner may be in trouble like never before and what did the president know and when did he know it? plus the story behind the, quote, unglued president and his impulsive decision to start a trade war. incredible new deception from the white house chief of staff on his handling of a domestic abuse scandal. and a massive popular uprising in deep red trump country. "all in" starts right now. >> good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. it would be one thing if jared kushner used his position from the white house to benefit his family real estate business. that would be bad but that's your standard run of the mill style corruption. a big deal scandal if true but also the kind of thing you've heard about before, maybe in state or local government. okay. but it would be another thing entirely it jared kushner actually shaped american foreign policy to pun

should i trust jared kushner? >> he is now criminally exposed and the issue of trust is a very real one. is my own son-in-law about to cooperate and pressured because of debt and mueller's intensity to cooperate and inform against me. so, kushner has become a liability for the president and i'm thinking you're going to see him fade away in the relatively near future. >> we don't have any -- and we also don't know when the special counsel does have those -- we're cooperating with them. we don't always know that. >> we don't always know that. the policy so far on behalf of kushner has been to resist and deny. we've seen him a lot more recently giving statements so that kushner's not exposed in these discussions. at some point or another we have this closing gap between the president and his advisors closing in on the president. so, he's got to be, he's got to be very anxious. we have people who can talk about the money now. we have gates, we have flynn who may be responsible for some of the disclosures that lead us

you just don't have that with jared kushner. >> so there is the optics here. nobody can, i think, argue that the optics aren't good. but according to kushner's lawyer, he hasn't had business dealings or role in the company since joining the government. is it possible that all this could just be a coincidence in terms of the timing of loans to his family's company and meetings that he had with foreign businesses as well as foreign officials? >> well, it's partly untrue and it's more than that a red herring. the part that's untrue is that if you look at his financial disclosure report, you'll see that he admits that he simply forgot to quit some of the positions. so he was actually still an officer or board member on some of these entities that he had promised to quit. >> do you say that his lawyers are lying or being disingenuous in their statement? >> no, i think they're parsing their words carefully. they're saying he hasn't been actively involved. they're portraying the fact you're still an official with a company as a meaningless thing. but you know, the rea

course of the year last year had a number of meetings with the white house, including meetings with jared kushnereetings about a possible job with the administration. now, he didn't get a job with the administration, but in november of last year, kushner companies got a $184 million loan from apollo. and, you know, by the standards of both apollo and kushner companies, that is a very sizeable loan. it's basically triple the size of the average loan that apollo's real estate group gives out, and it's one of the biggest loans that kushner companies received all of last year. and it was for an office building in chicago in which jared kushner remains invested. >> so i mean all that talk of jared kushner divesting himself or separating himself from his family's company, he is still personally invested in that building? >> yeah. so i think this is kind of a common misconception, right? so when jared kushner took the job with the trump administration last year, he stepped down from his position as chief executive officer of the company. but he only divested a very small portion of his ownership stake i

jared stepped down as ceo of his family's business kushner companies sinsz going to washington. tions of conflicts still persist. also at the white house, jared met with city bank michael corbett last year, around the same time city bank made $325 lone to kushner companies and partners. spokes people for both apollo and city bank said executives were not involved in granting those. >> don't have to worry about whether he has an incentive to use his official power to use the power of the white house to help people that he has business relations with. >> kushner company spokesperson said there was nothing inappropriate and stories like these attempt to make insinuating things that exist to disparage the company's involved. just last week cnn reported special counsel robert mueller is inquiring about kushner approaching foreign investors during the transition, including a chinese insurance company, and an investor for the family's biggest bet, 666, 6th avenue. the building hasn't generated in you have to cover debts. >> $1.8 billion. highly leveraged deal. so it was a deal that a lo

his downfall. >> witnesses jared kushner's two weeks collapse has been watching a play. the whole ordeal breaks it down to five acts. first, act one, the knee-capping. it started when kushner lost his security clearance of a critical blow to so many responsibilities. act two, the humiliation, on tuesday, foreign government kisskis discussed way to release kushner. on wednesday, the editorial boards suggested that cushnkush should step down and act four is the plot. then fact five and this is the most consequential, torture trump. the "times" reporting trump is frustrated with kushner who he sees is a liability. >> further according to the w g washington post, the president is not happy of all the attention that his son-in-law is getting. the president quote, "also, new this week everything might be better for them if they simply gave up their jobs and return to new york." new york times go further as trump discussed his departure from the white house. the president tries to navigate family issues. he's attempting to deal with policy issues, of course, at the same time and

first among them: the president's senior adviser and son-in-law jared kushner. 's not yet clear how that affects his many roles, including work on middle east issues. kushner also faces new questions about his family's real estate business. yesterday, "the new york times" reported the kushner familfirm received more than half a billion dollars in loans fromt wall strmpanies, after jared kushner met with them at the white house. kushner has denied any wrongdoing. at today's white house briefing, press secretary sarah sanders came to his defense. >> jared is still a valued member of the administration. he's going to continue to focuor on thethat he's been doing. >> desjardins: in addition, a report in "the washington post" suggested officials from china, isel, mexico and the unite arab emirates saw kushner as e ploitable and at one point hoped to manipulm. to this swirl, addhe impending loss of president's longest- serving aide, hope hicks, who yesterday announced she will soon leave her job as house communications director. >> are you going to be answering all of

certainly, jared kushner has been a combatant in that against some figures. the chief of staff, john kelly, seems to have prevailed over kushner at the moment. there's long been speculation that ivanka and jared kushner would go -- ivanka trump and jared kushner would move back to new york. it's certainly a possibility. in fact, many -- there are multiple people at the white house who might be interested in other jobs. you can imagine that, after how exhausting it must be in this white house. >> it's exhausting just to be near the white house. >> just to cover it. doing it has to be even harder. >> just to watch it. >> the idea that it will be hard to find people with experience, high-quality people with experience in washington and policymaking to take the jobs, i think it is, again, one more thing to worry about when you think about the good of the country and the need to have a well-functioning white house. >> austan, go ahead. >> no, look, as you might imagine, i totally agree with that sentiment. i mean, i think it's not to -- we should not understate the

>> no. >> is jared kushner becoming a distraction giving all the controversies that he has been at the> jared is still a valued member of the administration and he will continue to focus on the work that he has been doing. and we'll continue pushing forward on that front as well. >> are there any concerns about conflict of interest given those meetings that he had with companies that gave his family business millions of dollars in loans? >> i would refer you to the statement that was put out by his attorney. >> but the appearance? >> again, i would have to refer you to the statement pout out b his attorney. >> back to the tariffs. is the president concerned about the impact this may have on america's allies like canada, uk, eu? >> the president's biggest concern is making sure that we're doing everything we can to protect american workers. and 245what was what his announcement on his intentions next week are specifically geared towards. this isn't something that he has shied away from or something that he hasn't spoken about regularly and often, or something that he will stop talking a

so that loan, $184 million after these meetings at the white house between the apollo guy and jared kushner at the white house where they talk among other things about a potential job at the white house, that $184 million loan was one of the largest loans kushner companies received last year. but oh wait, there's more because an even larger loan came from citigroup. it lent them 225 million shortly after mr. kushner met with citigroup. shortly thereafter, mr. kushner met in the white house a chief executive of citigroup. according to the times or at times notes, there's little precedent for a top white house official meeting with executives of companies as they contemplate sizable loans to his business. now obviously, there's important context here in terms of what's going on with jared kushner and concerns about him in the white house. this is not the first concerning report we've had in the last few days about the presidential son-in-law and senior adviser potentially mixing his government responsibilities and private business needs in potentially dubious ways. this is not even the first

coming up due less than a year now, people say that is going to be the thing that brings down jared kushnerbrings down charles kushner, that the stuff that they're doing in this -- the story about qatar today, about the notion that the father was meeting with the qatari finance minister while trump was in office, trying to get the qatar i finance minister to come and save that building, a few weeks later when qatar said no, you have sanctions, not sanctions, of a block wade. >> the blockade. >> blockade against qataris. you are in some trouble and there is now reporting that the qataris want to come over and start talking about how kushner was part of conspiring against them. you are in the realm of some of the dirtiest, darkest aspects of international malfeasance. the man is in significantly legal peril from a bunch of different legal angles. donald trump for all his flaws, he knows what legal peril is and he's looking at his son-in-law and saying, my daughter could find somebody else maybe if it came to it. >> but it was also predictable. we could have had this conversation at the start

jared kushner was reading the pdb. and the dni i understand in the bush years put together a distribution list for the pdb. did you ever hear any concern in the intelligence community about who was looking at the pdb? >> well, it was a very short list. it was one that was carefully watched -- looked at. and everybody who had access to that pdb had top secret sei clearances so they would have access to the most sensitive information so they could do their jobs. having individuals for such a long period of time with these interim clearances with real questions in terms of their background investigations and the vetting, and i think thankfully i think john kelly now is really taking this very, very seriously and taking actions as appropriate. i'm sure donald trump is not happy with some of this, but there cannot be carelessness which borders on recklessness in terms of handling our national security and classified information. our fate and our future really depends on a seriousness of purpose, and a adult-like approach to

and jared kushner maintains a personal interest. like, oh, i hope it does well. he owns a significant portion still of kushner companies. and kushner the two kushners speak on an almost daily basis. it's been reported they speak on a daily basis. so these meetings happened one day after the other. the question what did he know about them? >> talk about what happened afterward in terms of u.s. policy and kushner was involved. after the deal fell apart, kushner basically supporting a change in policy what ended up being a blockade by other countries like saudi arabia. >> right. a blockade that is ongoing to this day because when secretary of state rex tillerson tried to mediate it, if you remember, and you reported on it at the time, about an hour and a half later, president trump went out and offered a statement that completely undercut tillerson. accused qatar of financing terror. the country that hosts the biggest military united states base in the region. tillerson believe it was drafted by the ambassador and handed to kushner and

now that these ties to jared kushner and his business dealings have been revealed that raises a lot of questions not only for the kushner company's future but also jared himself. >> geoff, it begs the question, what was jared kushner doing and what has he been doing here? i want to get a sense of how his role has changed. what was he charged with? how big of a portfolio did he have at the beginning of the administration. >> the bigger question is what was he not charged with? to include mideast peace, infrastructure at one point, other domestic issues. here you have jared can kushner, a central figure in the trump white house who at this very same time is now marginalized in a way that he hadn't been before. security clearance was downgraded. he lost two huge allies in this white house, one being hope hicks, who is still here, but has announced her departure, and the other being his personal white house spokesperson, a guy who came from hollywood to the white house to basically do pr. he announced he was leaving weeks ago. jared kushner, if he does choose to stay and work, what kind of

it was followed by a diplomatic row in which jared kushner led support to qatar's neighbors, a group of middle eastern country with kushner's backing that led to a diplomatic block aid of qatar. kushner undermined efforts of secretary of state rex tillerson. what do you make of that report? >> if it's true, jared kushner has to go. we couldn't understand why the trump administration were taking the saudi's side because of the united states' interests in qatar. at the top of the list are thousands of u.s. troops stationed in a base there. to so firmly take the side of the saudis and resulting of a downward spiral of the qatar. economy put thousands of americans at risk. if the reason for this was to protect the kushner's financial interests, that's all the evidence you need to make some big changes in the white house. >> let me tell you we'll have wilbur ross coming later. you saw the president's announcement of steel tariffs thursday. expecting the formal announcement this week. do you think there's a threat from canada, mexico, south korea and japan? >> i think the president needs to

let's talk about jared kushner. the first son-in-law. this new reporting suggests that two people whom he met with at the white house then provided major loans to the kushner companies. jared has stepped away from the compa company, but we are talking about $184 million for one. apollo global management and one more $325 million from citigroup. this is why white house visitor logs should be public. how does jared kushner survive all of this given his clearance has been downgraded? >> kushner's clearly under fire in this white house. you know, at the end of the day, president trump surrounds himself with people he trusts. he has gone already to great lengths to keep those people even when his advisers recommend he doesn't. you know, there is always a chance he just powers through and continues. keep in mind, ethics officials have said from the beginning, ethics laws are not just about preventing impropriety, but the appearance of impropriety or the appearance someone could be bought or influenced. that is the concern of the individuals in

this was is, as we said already, a bad week to be jared kushner. adviser to the president who is not allowed the security clearance that would normally come with his job. tonight the "times" is reporting that kushner's family real estate business received massive loans after he met with executives from the lenders. according to the "times," "joshua harris, a founder of apollo global management, was advising trump administration officials on infrastructure policy. during that period, he met on multiple occasions with jared kushner. among other things, the two men discussed a possible white house job for mr. harris. the job never materialized, but in november, apollo lent $184 million to mr. kushner's family real estate firm kushner companies." the report continues, "an even larger loan came from citigroup which lent the firm and one of its partners $325 million to help finance a group of office buildings in brooklyn. that loan was made in the spring of 2017, shortly after mr. kushner met in the white house with citigroup's chief executive, michael c

have had dealings with him as a white house official. >> yeah, so to step back for a second, when jared kushner joined the white house a little over a year ago he quit his job as chief executive officer of kushner companies, but for the most part he held onto his ownership stake in kushner companies. he devested some small portions of his stake in the company, basically selling them to a trust controlled by his mother. but for the most part he held onto most of the stake in the company. and the way kushner companies is set up, it's hundreds of llcs and partnerships that own these various properties. he continues to hold onto a bunch of apartment buildings in brooklyn, and to a high rise office building in chicago, the at&t midwest headquarters on randolph street. so last year, after he joins the white house, he has a number of meetings with josh harris, who is one of the founders of apollo, giant private equity firm. and the two of them are discussing a number of things, including a possible job for mr. harris. and the job doesn't materialize. it turns out. but something else does, which is a f

family firm received more than half a billion dollars in loans from ll street companies, after jared kushner met with them at the white house. kushner has denied any wrongdoing. at today's white house briefing, press secretary sarah sanders came to his defense. >> jared is still a val od membthe administration. he's going to continue to focus on the work that he's been doing. >> desjardins: in addition, a report in "the washington post" suggested officials from china, israel, mexico and the united arab emirates saw kushr as exploitable and at one point hoped to manipulate him. to this swirl, add the impending loss of president's longest- serving aide, hope hickswho yesterday announced she will soon leave her job as white house communications director. >> are you going to be answering all of the committee's questions today? >> desjardins: hicks' announcement came one day afte she told the house intelligence committee that she's occasionally told "white lies" for the prident, but not about anything related to the russia probe the committee is inatvestg. one more open fracture-- president trump

jared kushner possibly the next to go. what impact will have that on the president and the president's targeting of jeff sessions? one prominent republican suggesting it is time for the president to top tweeting and get rid of the attorney general if that's what he wants. to discuss all of this, i'm joined by panel also on soupsasong. welcome to you all. thanks for joining me on this friday evening -- or sunday evening. whoa, sunday evening. i appreciate it. how do you say your last name so i get it right next time? >> soupsang. >> thanks so much. >> of course. >> you cover the white house everyday. is it as bad as it has gotten or is it overblown? >> oh, it certainly is as bad as reporters, including at "the washington post," "daily beast," and other outlets have been picking up on from senior aides and people who talk to the president on a daily or regular basis. having said that, this is a west wing that has become accustom to and in certain cases numb to careening from crisis to crisis, self-inflicted scandal to self-i

role jared kushner has assigneded to. whatever that role is. he is going to have more involvement. there's more potential pitfalls. it's very difficult for him to get interim. the word shouldn't be permanent security clearance but for our purposes we call it permanent security clearance. that is why. he is not the traditional person in that role. on the other hand, this may be evidence of exactly what we may think it is, which is some kind of dealings that are inappropriate for somebody at that high level. >> other exclusive from nbc news this week centered on robert mueller building a criminal case against russians who hacked the dnc servers from folks who worked at the dnc. you can look at that and look back at the indictment centering on those 13 russian nationals involved in the campaign. why do this? it's unlikely these individuals will ever see a u.s. courtroom. >> it sends a message. it sends a message that this is not okay. it send ace message to anybody, such as russians. it sends a message to the united states a

jared kushner made the same promise. clearly jared kushner is violating that promise. >> right.t's the family real estate company, kushner companies and he still owns a portion of the entity that's involved in this apollo loan. he is -- has not divested himself of that as you know and nor has the president divested himself of certain interests. he obviously is trying to distance himself from this situation, but there's no question that the kushner companies is benefitting from these loans and they've been in need of them. >> if the special prosecutor was not already investigating this part of jared kushner's life, they are tonight. they will stay at the office late tonight reading your article, and they will begin investigating this tomorrow if they haven't already. did you pick up any indications that the special prosecutor is already investigating jared kushner getting loans for his companies while working in the white house? >> i have not heard that. obviously at the times we've done some reporting on the eastern district of new york and inquiries they made into deutsche bank

there's also the question from jared kushner if there was something more than carelessness. marcy wheeler is a national security journalist and wrote this piece, mueller appears to be assessing whether kushner was actually serving the interests of his family and foreign governments. do you think he has criminal exposure at this moment? >> i think he has a lot of criminal exposure. and that is certainly one theory of it. given his meetings with a russian banker and his requests for a back channel from the russian embassy and his meetings that led to, were, discussions about offering a job in the white house to companies that ended up loaning him, as you noted, one-half billion dollars. those are things that could easily be considered criminal acted. i think he may be held accountable. he's hidden all of his relationships with russia. he has revised his statement about who he had contacts with numerous times. and i doubt that they're correct even now. so we need to keep looking at him, mueller is exactly pursuing the right path. >> david, you looked like you wanted to say somet

then late this evening, "the new york times" is on the board with reporting that jared kushner's family real estate business received hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from citigroup and apollo global management after those two companies' leaders met with kushner at the white house. we'll have more again on each of these stories as we span across the next hour. we will begin, however, with a big change involving the president's inner circle. hope hicks, easily the closest aide to this president on a daily basis, has announced she is leaving. word of her departure in a story broken by maggie haberman of "the new york times" comes one day after hope hicks spent over nine hours of questioning by the house intelligence committee. among the things she told the panel, she sometimes "told white lies" for the president, except where russia or the investigation were concerned. that's according to committee member congressman peter king, republican of new york. hope hicks is 29 years old. she is the fifth person to hold the title of communications director in just over a year for this whit

investigation, nbc news reports that investigators are looking at the president's son-in-law, jared kushner. and discussions he had with high-profile figures from several countries during the presidential transition. sources say the special counsel wants to know if those kushner discussions influenced u.s. policy. kushner has denied any improper contacts. from the serious to the silly. the president reengaged his battle with actor alec baldwin. whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me. baldwin gave it back. saying i'd like to hang in there for the impeachment hearings, the resignation speech, the farewell helicopter ride to mar-a-lago. and right now the president is at his trump international golf club in west palm beach. this is a different kind of weekend from all the times we have these conversations, alex. the whez president is here for short time. doing a campaign fundraiser and traveling back to washington later this afternoon. alex? >> thank you for the update. i know we'll see you again, kelly. thank you. >>> the president's inner circle was rattle b

it would appear special counsel robert mueller's team may be zeroing in on jared kushner. ources tell nbc news federal investigators are looking into whether kushner's business discussions during the presidential transition later shaped white house policies. here to explain the legal ramifications is former u.s. attorney barbara mcquaid, also an msnbc contributor. barba barbara, always good to get into this stuff with you. source say mueller's team is asking witnesses about kushner's family's real estate business. if there is wrongdoing here, what are the charges he could be facing? >> the facts are going to matter. but if, as the reporting suggests, he was, you know, receiving financial benefit in exchange for policy recommendations, that could amount to a claim of bribery. the nuances of that charge have changed a little bit in recent years, making it a little harder for the government to prove after the case against governor macdonnell of virginia. still, if you can show someone took an official act and that could be shaping policy in exchange for financial interests, th

jared kushner and -- >> he likes turnover. >> jared kushner and ivanka both should leave the white house. they don't have business being in their official positions. jared does not have the experience to get middle east peace or whatever portfolio they've given him, especially not with a lowered security clearance. so i think that there are a number of different issues, legal and otherwise, for the kushners and for ivanka. >> even if it were true he was clear minded, you know what, jared, does he get rid of him anyway because of the way it looks, because he's under the microscope? do you do that? or are you going to give the media their fodder? >> he's sucking up the headlines and trump doesn't like it. >> you started this by mentioning chris christie at the beginning of the segment. chris christie put jared kushner's father in jail. this week we learned credible reporting, they have a past, but we've done reporting that president trump is asking his chief of staff, which somehow is still in this job, to look for replacement for jared, his daughter and son, and also asked his daughter an

that set in motion his downfall. >> witnessing jared kushner's two-week collapse has been like watching a play. the whole ordeal breaks it down into five acts. first, act one. the kneecapping. it all started when kushner lost his top-secret security clearance, a critical blow to someone with so many responsibilities. act two, the humiliation. on tuesday, the "washington post" discussed ways to manipulate kushner. act three, the godfather turns. and on wednesday, their editorial board suggested the knives were out and that kushner should step down. act four is called the plot. that same day the "new york times" reported kushner's family businesses received loans after white house meetings. then act five, and this might be the most consequential when it comes to kushner's job security. tortured trump. "the times" reporting trump is frustrated with kushner who he now sees as a liability. >> well, further, according to the "washington post," the president isn't happy about all the attention his son-in-law is getting and has raised questions about jared and ivanka's future. the president, qu

quick note about jared kushner.ou know, i think the mueller investigation, when they finally start focusing on him, someone will be tasked out to go through the type of intelligence he had access to, on what particular day, was he getting extra reports from the treasury intelligence division? was he bringing information from the cia about the altani family in qatar on the day or days before doing these things? you can match raw intelligence or analyzed intelligence to a person's behavior. that's how we catch spies. if he had been doing any of that, if anyone in the white house has been doing any of that, they will be caught. >> yeah. >> and really quickly, last word to you, if he did a little would he be able to stop doing it if he played ball with these foreign entities that wanted information from him? >> the damage is done. the minute you trade one thing -- doesn't matter what that context or what it is classified as or what it impacts, you committed a crime. once you're in, it's like being a little pregnant. the

can you believe the mess jared kushner is in. you believe president trump wants him out of the west wing? can you believe what the chief of staff john kelly is saying right now. can you believe how many white house controversies are flying under the radar. conflicts of interest and cabinet controversy and steppy business arrangement, and suspicious stock trades and so on. and whether you are shocked at all of this or saddened, exhilarated or exhausted or confused or over joyed or apathetic, can you believe this white house? seriously, can you believe it? i'm joined by the panel. bill crystal, susan glasser and analyst and democratic pollster cornell belcher. it was the only way we could figure out how to wrap up this week. susan, it is -- in a year of impossible leaks, improbable weeks has vince skully once said, donald trump has pulled off the impossible. it is the most chaotic week. >> bee careful. i'm exhausted of listening to that litany. i'm hoping friday is not quite over yet. so if this table was wood i would be knocking o

we don't know what happened in the room between jared kushner and mohammed bin salman. but we do know that after bin salman came out, he started boasting to people kushner was in his pocket and kushner had given him the names of people disloyal to him. >> wait a second. you're reporting based on sources that heard this from bin salman that he has been boasting the president's son-in-law gave him u.s. fwegs who his own internal enemies are? >> mohammed bin salman might be making it up. >> but your report he is he is telling people. >> and that kushner would have had access to the exact type of intelligence that bin salman is saying. a week later was that infamous ritz crackdown where he rounded up all the royals and the elites and put them into the ritz carlton. some of them were tortured. one of them was tort towered death. it was a big shakedown. hit the benefit of consolidating power for the crown prince and the people nailed in the intelligence report were part of that round up. i thought it was interesting that they directed you to the personal lawyer for comment? >>

interesting week for the white house. >> sean, i want to turn to your colleagues reporting on jared kushner's apparent downfall. here's the headline. jared had faded inside the 28 days that left kushner diminished privately. the president has reiterated his long-standing concerns. concerned that he was in his view being dishonestly maligned. but everything might be better for them if they simply gave up their government jobs and returned to new york. that is according to a white house official. what is it? does he want them to stay or does he want them to go? >> there's this increasing sense not only from the president and from the people around him and the broader community in washington that jared kushner is somebody who came in and had virtually no government political experience and had almost this princely status in trump's washington and that over the past year, you know, he has shown and demonstrated that perhaps this is not something that he was fully prepared for in the eyes of a lot of people. you know, when you look at the business ties that he has had that have come under close sc