ken dilanian, you have some new reporting about other men who were pressured to knock down the russia story. tell us about it. >> yeah. the director of national intelligence dan coats was before the house intelligence committee today. and he repeated the story that's been reported but he hasn't been willing to say in public which is that donald trump went to him in march, repeatedly and asked him to say that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russia. coats said he felt that the president was obsessed with the russia investigation and he found the request to be inappropriate. he turned it down. and now we know that it's something that the special counsel mueller is investigating as part of the obstruction of justice probe. >> kellyo, it comes back to this white house and how they create crises and then they have to manage. i want to play you a little bit of sound from the briefing and ask you about this on the other. >> why it took so long 41 days for this to be laid to rest. >> he said he'd have an answer at the end of this week and he did. and i can't

ken dilanian, nbc news investigative reporter and "new york times" reporter michael schmidt also joining me. michael schmidt, i thought it was notable that jim comey writes this was not his practice to write detailed memos after meetings with president obama. was he from go worried that it would come to this moment that he would end up in some sort of legal standoff, or there would be some sort of testimony required of him for him to take such copious simultaneous notes about his interactions with president trump? >> he doesn't specifically say in the memos why he did this, but it's clear after this first meeting at trump tower on january 6th, comey describes in his car pounding out on the laptop this memo after he meets trump. maybe it was something in the way that trump spoke to him. maybe it was comey knowing where the russia investigation was headed. what we don't know is actually all the little details of every meeting, because we don't have the memos. all we have is comey's, you know, basically summaries of them that's in this statement that was just released. >> kasie hunt, i'm he

. >> ken dilanian, i think ken is with us. >> i'm here. >> nbc's national security reporter.to you, call you in the middle of the day. >> appears. >> you appear. magic of tv. >> happy to do it. >> ken, if they muzzle him and forbid him from testifying, could he do an interview and talk about what the president said to him about mike flynn? >> you know, that's a really interesting question. i spoke yesterday with ben wittes, a friend of jim comey, writing and speaking about jim comey's state of mind and he suggested that comey, you know, may not -- may go against any assertion of executive privilege and just speak, anyway. and i think jeremy made a really important point, you know, typically executive privilege is asserted, applies to people who currently work for the president and the president merely orders them not to testify. there's really no precedent for invoking it against people who no longer work for the president. in the hollywood version, trump would send the federal marshals into the hearing to order mr. comey not to speak. no legal expert i spoke to said anything

joining us now, ken dilanian for nbc, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times" and an msnbc political analyst. previously he was the moscow bureau chief for "the washington post" for four years. and also with us joy reid, msnbc national correspondent and the host of "a.m. joy" on weekends on msnbc. ken dilanian, i want you to take us over what nbc news is reporting tonight, adding to all of this. >> absolutely, lawrence. and first i want to be very clear about one thing. jeff sessions adamantly denies that he had a meeting with sergey kislyak at that mayflower hotel event. his spokesman denies it on the record. and this is one of the reasons, you know, i've known about this and i've been reporting on this meeting for a while as i think have some other reporters in this town. and there has been a lot of haziness about what exactly congressional investigators were learning. and that's why i was really glad to see senator al franken on your show last night go on the record and say look, we have reason to believe, that's the phrase he used, that this was not

something you heard ken dilanian say. bob mueller all but confirmed the extent someone's not conducting the investigation can confirm -- i'm sorry, jim comey all but confirmed bob mueller is going to investigate obstruction of justice. and if he does investigate obstruction of justice, he's going to want to talk to the president under oath. >> yeah. jen palmieri, you put out a tweet that caught my attention in the white house response. you said that was a reckless and stupid thing to do, significantly accelerated trump's ultimate reckoning with law and congress. you also, we were talking before the show, about how he's now ensnared all these other ways honorable public servants in this sort of web of differing stories at best, lies at worst. >> yeah, and who -- and these servants like coates and rogers, to date put the president's interests over their own. i don't know how much longer that can hold out. what i meant by that, this is point of the scandal where people like me, communications people, have to step out of the

dan rather, ken dilanian, and michael schmidt. next, we're going to get deeper into the legal questions comey's testimony is raising. does any of this constitute obstruction of justice on the part of the president? this is "hardball," where the action is. brian, i just need to know if the customer app will be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. when a fire destroyedwith us everything in our living room. we replaced it all without touching our savings. yeah, our insurance won't do that. no. you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. ngineered a fleet of 32 brand new ships with advanced technology, so we can make sure oil and gas get where they need to go safely. bec

nbc news national security reporter ken dilanian. nbc chief legal correspondent, ari melber. ken, i want to start with you with, i know we overuse this word, but this did feel like a bombshell in a legal sense, this development that in the days after the firing of jim comey, even before bob mueller had been appointed, the president did, himself, potentially become someone that we'd want to learn more about in terms of obstruction of justice. can you explain to us how that happened? >> well, nicolle, if it wasn't the actual firing of comey by the president, you can bet the fbi investigators perked up when they heard donald trump two days later tell lester holt that he fired trump with -- sorry, he fired comey with russia on his mind. after an explanation had been put out that it had nothing to do with russia, that it was really about comey's performance at the fbi. so that may have started the fbi looking. now, at not point, mueller hadn't been appointed. of course, the firing of comey and the subsequent revelations of the memos he wrote led to the appointment of mueller and no

i'm glad to welcome a chief international affairs columnist from politico and ken dilanian, journalistnetwork and all of us. i want to ask you about this russia hangover, that the president can't get out from under, because he can't give a straight answer about why he doesn't see russia as the threat that everybody else with eyes and ears sees them as. >> well, look, this is the issue that won't go away and now it overshadows his legislative agenda, by out accounts the inside reports in white house he's obsessed with the unfolding investigation. every single day we have heard new jaw dropping claims from the president on this twitter feed. sean spicer once again said it was russia or other countries that were involved. so i'm glad you started with ambassador burns. this nobody's definition of a flame throwing pundit and the thing that i have been struck by as a former moscow bureau chief for "the washington post" in moscow when putin became president is that it's the people who know russia best and who followed it the most closely who have been really sounding the alarm bells if you wi

ashley parker, a white house parker for "the washington post," ken dilanian and kasie hunt who covers capitol hill for us. ken, i want to start with you. i wonder in light of comey's testimony last week and his answers about jeff sessions, it seems to suggest to me that he knew exactly why jeff sessions had recused himself from the russia investigation. if you think that the senate intel committee will be in possession of the same information by the end of the day tomorrow? >> well, we know they already are because after that public testimony, james comey went behind closed doors and briefed the senate intelligence committee. our sources are telling us that he discussed this april 2016 event at the mayflower hotel and talked about some reporting that the fbi and the intelligence community is aware of that suggested there may have been a private encounter. now, jeff sessions denies through a spokesperson has denied that there was any private encounter at that meeting between him and the russian ambassador, sergey kislyak. what i'm watching for tomorrow is whether he's going to repeat t

ken dilanian, julie davis, white house reporter and the vice president for third ways national security program. and a former staffer for the house intel committee. ken, i have to bring you back to the beginning of president trump's interview with "fox & friends" where he talks about heck yeah, i said that. i said that to make sure he stayed honest. but he was lying when he said that. so tell me how this revelation and his own description of what he did which was to lie, right, furthers or playing into the investigation. >> you know, it was hard to make sense of that trumpian word salad because i think his view is i wasn't lying because i might have been talking a about other sub surveillance -- >> can i stop you. is he re-upping this claim that there were -- that he was being wiretapped by the previous administration? did you hear that? i heard echoes. >> he's never backed off the idea. i think he's backed off the direct wiretapping. but still raising the specter of a fisa warrant or a surveillance and throwing it out there. i mean, look, legal experts today though are saying that it's

ken dilanian, thank you.i'm joined by democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota who was in the same class of james comey at law school. what did you make of his credibility today? >> well, i think he showed his integrity at its best. he's someone who in law school, a lot of people liked. he actually was pretty humble in law school, just did his work and was a smart guy. >> was he 6'5" back then? >> yes, and he always played basketball. but i think what you saw today was he had a common-sense way of talking about things that when he was the head of the fbi, i think he had to be very, very careful. and this time you just saw him at what he was like when i first met him. i think that's really important, his integrity. i just kept thinking for jim comey, it's all about the law and the rules. you know, i used to be a prosecutor. we'd swear in our prosecutors. when they took an oath, they took an oath to the law. they did not take a oath of loyalty to me, and certainly comey understands he wasn't supposed to ta

ashley parker, a white house parker for "the washington post," ken dilanian and kasie hunt who covers hill for us. ken, i want to start with you. i wonder in light of comey's testimony last week and his answers about jeff sessions, it seems to suggest to me that he knew exactly why jeff sessions had recused himself from the russia investigation. if you think that the senate intel committee will be in

nbc news national security reporter ken dilanian. nbc chief legal correspondent, ari melber. ant to start with you with, i know we overuse this word, but this did feel like a bombshell in a legal sense, this development that in the days after the firing of jim comey, even before bob mueller had been appointed, the president did, himself, potentially become someone that we'd want to learn more about in terms of obstruction of justice. can you explain to us how that happened? >> well, nicolle, if it wasn't the actual firing of comey by the president, you can bet the fbi investigators perked up when they heard donald trump two days later tell lester holt that he fired trump with -- sorry, he fired comey with russia on his mind. after an explanation had

same to you, ken dilanian. joining me is jim cavanaugh, retired fbi special agent in charge. also, nbc news national security analyst clint watts. clint is here with me in new york. let me start with you, clint. the fact that the fbi has taken over this investigation so quickly, they are running the show, what can that tell you? >> this is an airport and depending on jurisdictions, the fbi oftentimes has jurisdictions. the other part could signify, and we have to be careful with this, that this was a lone wolf. somebody who they had been looking into or researching. we have to see why the fbi wanted to get involved so quickly in the stabbing. if it's an international terrorism link, that would bring them to the scene much quicker. >> what do they look at to figure out the motivations of the attacker, to know if the assailant is operating as an individual or if he was somehow inspired by international terror group. >> sure. one of the first things to see is if there have been any claims of responsibility. there's been no claims of responsibility. there's very, very little chat

ken dilanian, thank you very much. >>> days away from james comey's testimony. what to expect from the fbi director, fired by president trump, speaks publicly about the investigation. that's after this quick break. >>> after threatening to try and block james comey from testifying three days from now, the trump administration decided not to go through with it. the president was considering invoking executive privilege to try and stop comey from appearing thursday. but as of today, that plan is off the table. >> the president's power to exert executive privilege is very well established. however, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts, sought by the senate intelligence committee, president trump will not assert executive privilege regarding james comey's scheduled testimony. >> unless the president changes his mind, this means that in just three days, the whole country will get to hear comey speak for the first time since the president fired him as fbi director last month. comey is widely expected to discuss the circumstances of his

ken dilanian, thank you very much. >>> days away from james comey's testimony.to expect from the fbi director, fired by president trump, speaks publicly about the investigation. that's after this quick break. had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise explore your treatment options with specialists who treat only cancer. every stage... every day.... at cancer treatment centers of america. learn more at cancercenter.com/experts the uncertainties of hep c. wondering, what if? i let go of all those feelings. because i am cured with harvoni. harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. it's been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. and is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if you've

joining me right now is ken dilanian, michael steele, bianna golodryga, and eli stokols, white house correspondent with "the wall street journal." who can i start with? what do we make of this three strikes you're out problem with jeff sessions? he said he didn't have two meetings. then he said he didn't have a third meeting. >> the important thing is they flatly deny on the record, the spokesperson for the justice department flatly denies that jeff sessions had a private meeting with kislyak at this event. but at the same time, we've got current and former officials telling us there is some classified evidence to the contrary. and now we know that the congress is investigating. the fbi is also interested in this meeting. this was a widely understood meeting. it was reported on at the time. nbc news was there. it was a foreign policy speech that trump gave. before the speech there was a vip reception. kislyak and other ambassadors were there. >> why is trump giving a speech at a russian leaning think tank way back last march? i mean this russian, russian, russian thing, what is it ab

for more, i'm joined by nbc national security reporter ken dilanian. you watched the whole hearing. what grabbed you? >> well, it grabbed me jeff sessions locked in his story under oath. there was no collusion with russia. at this point if anybody says there was on jeff sessions' part, they got to prove it. secondly, though, he could not deny that he met with the russian ambassador in the mayflower hotel as we were talking about last night. he said he didn't recall, and he may have had an encounter. he disputed there was a private meeting. i thought one of the biggest revelations of the hearing was when he said he had not been briefed at all about any of the russia hacking. we understand he's recused from the russia investigation, but the attorney general is a member of the national security council. the russian hacking intreally raises the question what is the trump administration doing about it? james comey testified that donald trump never asked him about in their nine encounters. now we have the attorney general of the united states say he's never gotten a single classified brie