ken dilanian, matt miller, jeremy bash. did we learn today about that trump tower meeting with natalia veselnitskaya, the russian operative, and donald trump jr.? >> brian, "the new york times" came out with additional reporting that confirmed what nbc had reported in september when we interviewed natalia veselnitskaya, which is that she was in contact with a russian prosecutor in moscow who has close ties to vladimir putin, about her talking points she brought to the trump tower meeting, about information she thought was derogatory to hillary clinton, it had to do with political contributions to democrats by a hedge fund. it actually wasn't particularly derogatory, we've all looked at it at nbc news. the trump's team took that meeting with a promise of dirt from the russian government and she was in contact with a representative of the russian government, and she brought those talking points to that meeting, brian. >> matthew miller, our cameras discovered and ran after carter page in washington today. he was sporting a bu

. >> there is a lot to get to on all this with nbc national security reporter ken dilanian, kelly o'donnell at the white house and "time" magazine contributor jay newton-small and jeremy peters with "the new york times." we'll start with you, ken, from nbc's investigative unit. as you know, nbc news has yet to independently confirm these reports. let's start with what we don't know. what don't we know here about the details? >> well, alex, as you said, we haven't confirmed there is an indictment so we don't know one will be unsealed on monday ch. what we do know is who the targets are. we know who the grand jury has been taking testimony from, a wide-ranging cast of characters, everyone from the russian american lobbyist who attended the trump tower meeting to paul manafort's virginia realtor. when you look at the landscape of this investigation, it begins with paul manafort and mike flynn. paul manafort who is briefly donald trump's campaign manager before he was fired has been paid as much as $60 million according to some reports by a russian oli' lig gark. his home was searched by muelle

ken dilanian, shawn henry, both friends of our broadcast. thank you so much for coming. on coming up tonight, someone in regular contact with this president that this country hasn't heard from in a long time. tannerite. , i'm the internet! yw what's difficult? adulting... tj! get a job! hi, guys. i'm back. time to slay! heals, heals, heals! yes! youuuu! no, i have a long time girlfriend. mom! i need my macaroni!!! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. pick a domain name. choose a design. you can build a website in under an hour. yeah! whoo! yes! get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour. >>> last thing before we go on a thursday night, a woman we don't hear much from and don't hear much about. ivana trump. donald trump's first of his three wives granted an interview to cbs sunday morning. she was asked about her relationship with her ex-husband, donald trump. >> is he still a big part of your life? >> yeah, he is. he is. >> in what way? >> that will be, we speak to each other. >> how often? >> may

and nbc's intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian. ken, i understand that nbc has some new reporting about one of those unnamed campaign officials in the papadopoulos indictment. >> that's right. we're reporting that one of them was paul manafort himself, the campaign chairman at the time. and in the e-mail, he suggests that the meeting that papadopoulos was proposing with putin should not go forward. and so that's exculpatory in that sense. it also shows that what sarah sanders said, that this is a low-level official and nobody at the campaign knew what he was doing is not true. he was clearly coordinating with senior officials in the campaign. there's another person that he was in closer contact with who is identified as a campaign supervisor. and that person at one point said good job after papadopoulos was explaining his efforts to have meetings with these russians in pursuit of a further meeting in moscow. another point, that person, that campaign supervisor encouraged him to take an off-the-record meeting in russia with these off

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let's go to ken dilanian with the very latest. ken, with a welcome to you, there is some new reporting out from "the new york times" that says that the trump legal team is charting a new course. what can you tell us about that? >> it's an interesting story, alex, that nbc news has not confirmed. it suggests that white house lawyers are deciding they want to cooperate with special counsel robert mueller and be more generous in handing out documents and not resisting in the hopes that robert mueller will eventually clear president trump of collusion. and they also suggest that perhaps the senate intelligence committee will clear the trump campaign of collusion in a public report. i think that is a pretty fantastical notion based on everything that i know in my reporting. we are a long way -- just last week, the leaders of the senate intelligence committee had a press conference and declared that the question of collusion is still open and they have a lot more work to do, a lot more interviews to conduct so i think we're quite a ways

believe me. >> with me now, ken dilanian who has been working this story. ken, what is this fight about at this point? we have pretty smart viewers on "the beat." they've seen our coverage over the course of the week. we've reported what senator burr said when he said it but it seems this soup is a little thicker than he suggested. >> your reporting. >> well said. i think this is about you understand what conditions steele would provide information to the committee. burr was very adamant that he wants to know, for example, who paid for the dossier. and we know that it started as a republican opposition research project and morphed into a democrat opposition research project. another issue may be sources. steele, my understanding, is guarding, he had many sources and sub sources in russia. burr said he wants to know identity of all those people. steele may not want to give that up. he may have an arrangement with the fbi, who after all he's been working for a long time. that's what i think it is about. i don't understand why senator burr characterized it in

. >> ken dilanian, thank you so much. >>> stay tuned for "nbc nightly news" at 7:00 for the latest infighting in congress and how it's affecting any work that they are trying to get done. >>> happening now, police are looking for newes assault case and they are releasing new video. shomari stone has an update. what are you learning, shomari? >> reporter: prince george's county police are going from house to house talking to people in this community and the neighborhood here in bowie, maryland, they are passing out a paper that says cash reward for $25,000 for information to who is on this bike. this is the person of interest. it shows the bearded man dressed in a gray-hooded sweatshirt, dark pants riding a white bicycle. police want to ask him questions about what happened 4:30 monday evening when a man grabbed a woman jogging on a path of jennings lane. the woman was able to break free and then the man ran away from the ar. talking to people. we were the first to tell you about this story at 11:00 and we actually talked to people in this neighborhood. parents are concerned about their childr

joining me now, intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian, moderator of pbs' washington week, robert costa, managing director of hamilton place strategies and press secretary for john boehner, michael steel and catherine lucy. michael, i apologize for cutting one of our titles. ken, i want to start with you. you've been breaking a lot of new ground here at nbc on the reporting here. what do we know about what is coming monday, what isn't coming monday? is there anything over the last 24 hours that's changed dramatically from friday night? >> i don't think anything has changed dramatically, but we have two sources telling us that there's a sealed indictment in the mueller investigation that will be made public tomorrow. now our sources don't know who the targets are or the charges but it could be more than one defendant in a single indictment. the speculation has centered on the two men front and center since the beginning. paul manafort and michael flynn. >> so one indictment, but potentially multiple targets. you're saying we will know something tomorrow or we'll be wai

is a lot to digest on this story but helping us get through it, nbc national security reporter ken dilanian, kelly o'donnell at the white house and we have attorneys danny savalos and john laurel. ken, who could be the target and is it one of the most likely suspects or are there odds it could be someone we've not heard of? >> well, it would truly be a surprise if it was somebody in the inner circle of the white house like jared kushner or donald trump jr. like the congressman was alluding to. the speculation right now is surrounding the two people who have been front and center of this investigation from the beginning and that's paul manafort, donald trump's former campaign chairman, and michael flynn, the national security advisor. they both have clear legal jeopardy. after all, paul manafort's house was searched under a warrant by the mueller team. both of these men have had to register retroactively as foreign lobbyists. both have had questionable financial transactions. so it wouldn't surprise any analyst who's been following this case closely if it was either of these two men, who wer

so much that we need nbc's ken dilanian and former federal prosecutor to help us. uranium, tell us what this story is and what the questions are and why donald trump cares so much. >> in fairness, it is not a great story for the country or for hillary clinton, but it's a story brought to you by the mainstream media. first exposed on the front page of "the new york times" in 2015. it's about a transaction where a canadian company was selling uranium company to russian interests. it was going to control 20% of the u.s. uranium production. it required u.s. government approval, including the state department, then led by hillary clinton. while it was going on, some of these canadians contributed to the clinton foundation. bill clinton went and gave a speech. that's not a great appearance. but there's no evidence that hillary clinton played any role in this decision, which ultimately went through the u.s. government approved it. this week there was some new reporting that suggests the fbi at the time was investigating whether russia was trying to infiltrate the u.s. nuc

joining me nbc news and intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian. author of "the plot to hack america" malcolm nance. danny cevallos and senior national security correspondent mark hosenbaugh. the scene for monday, we're expecting news, something to be triggered on monday. there's also the possibility that nothing could happen. >> our sources saying an indictment will be made public on monday. it could be one person, more than one person. and the big questions that remain to be answered are the ones that kelly laid out which is will these charges relate to collusion with russia or will they be some other offense and are these targets in the inner circle of donald trump or are they not? both things are possible. if it is somebody like a paul manafort of a mike flynn, that will be a political earthquake of a story. if it's some lesser figure, still very significant, thomas. in terms of logistics, when somebody is indicted, danny can fill in the blanks. when someone is indicted, they either arrange for their arrest or our arrest are brought to a magist

reports from nbc news reporter ken dilanian that investigators for robert mueller recently traveled to the u.k. london, specifically, to speak to christopher steele, the author of that infamous dossier. again, this news coming into the newsroom right now. our viewer to "the beat" may remember moments ago i was reporting on this that because of a reuters report about bob mueller working on the dossier and inheriting the inquiry into it, minutes later, as is so often the case these days, we have this breaking reports. nbc news reporting that mueller's office indeed has made contact with this elusive individual. christopher steele. behind that controversial dossier, and have been, also the man name checked in that unusual briefing from the leaders of the senate intelligence committee yesterday when they said they did a, quote, wall in reaching him. the news breaking. bob mueller hand hit that wall. and for more on this, i turned to a member of the foreign relations committee who joins me on "the beat." i'll read this to you in full. since the time you sbukd our washington studio, this new

thanks to ken dilanian. new reporting on just how furious president trump was after learning that secretary tillerson, his secretary of state, his foreign minister called him a moron. you're watching "hardball." when you're close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. do not use if you are allergic to taltz. before starting you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you are being treated for an infection or have symptoms. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz. including worsening of symptoms. serious a

. >> ken dilanian, you're learning new information. >> my colleague has dug out this nugget that she told investigators that paddock would lie in his bed and sort of moaning in anguish screaming oh, my god in severe mental distress. another source told us that the theme of her interview was she was in some kind of mental anguish. but people aren't seeing anything that would have pushed him over the edge. generally in these mass shooter cases you see a triggering event. something that happens that causes a mental deterioration. so far we're not seeing any evidence of that. and i think you asked a really important question. why we are not hearing from authorities about his google searches, his e-mails. i don't know the answer to that. was he trying to disguise? yes, there's no social media trail but what about his private e-mail correspondence they must have access to. why aren't we hearing what's on that and does that tell us anything? >> i may watch too much "homeland" but why isn't he being considered a potential american terrorist suspect? ken? >> everything we're getting from our

. >> ken dilanian, thank you. >>> when we come back, sean spicer became famous for a whole lot of thingsew him best knew him as a realtime diary keeper filling volumes of notebooks with contemporaneous notes of his time in the trump white house. what could this mean for the mueller investigation now that sean spicer has reportedly spent time with the special counsel investigators? baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? no sir, no sir, some nincompoop stole all my wool sweaters, smart tv and gaming system. luckily, the geico insurance agency recently helped baa baa with renters insurance. everything stolen was replaced. and the hooligan who lives down the lane was caught selling the stolen goods online. visit geico.com and see how easy it is to switch and save on renters insurance. ...you might be missing to stasomething... ♪ ...your eyes. that's why there's ocuvite. it helps replenish nutrients your eyes can lose as you age. nourish your eyes to help keep them healthy. ocuvite. be good to your eyes. >>> politico is reporting that special counsel mueller's team met with sean spicer. duri

joining me is nbc news intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian, elizabeth holtsman that recommended three articles of impeachment against richard nixon. also with me, former senior director of the national securi security council and white house correspondent sarah westwood. all right, so four enormous brains right here to break this down for everybody at home. because it is a little bit confusing. ken, let me begin with you. walk us through the scenarios and expectations for monday. >> well, thomas, if, as our sources are telling us, this indictment is made public monday, i think it's going to have a significant and hard to predict impact, because what this is, the american public has been hearing a lot about this investigation for many months. but now they will see an investigation into the president's campaign, whether it colluded with russia, has resulted in criminal charges. and then the question will be, are these figures close to the president? and are these charges related to russia, or are they ancillary, tangential charges like lying to federal investigators or

largely around the explosive nature of some of the more salacious aspects but a smart man named ken dilanian told me to follow the money. i wonder if you can speak to sort of the connection between what the dossier suggests in terms of financial ties between the trump organization, the trump orbit, and russia, and where we know some of the mueller probe to be pushing and the kinds of things that have come out. there's not a lot of leaks from the mueller probe but just based on the kinds of people we know he's interested in talking to, where do you see a potential overlay? >> right. i think that it's important to remember that the dossier describes a years-long project to cultivate donald trump on the part of the kremlin, that long predates his presidential candidacy. it suggests that russia saw in trump a sort of potential asset on the basis of his wealth and fame many years ago, and describes various ways in which business deals, potential business deals and business relationships were a way for russia to cultivate trump. we know that mueller -- well, it appears to be the case based among o

. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much.this, russian hackers able to steal nsa cyber information to facebook, which says it will not release thousands of russian purchased ads that targeted voters in last year's election. keep in mind special counsel robert mueller has those ads, so do both the house and senate intelligence committees which are investigating russian meddling. and then there are the 10 million facebook users who saw the more than 3,000 ads ahead of election day. joining me now is fellow at the wilson centers kennen institute in an expert in russian disinformation campaigns. it's not as if these ads are secret. all the investigative committees have them and people saw them on facebook. what is stopping facebook from releasing them to the american public so we all know, all of us know how russia goes about trying to sow disinformation? >> that's a great question, and one i would love facebook to answer. i think they're kind of trying to cover their tracks to some extent. they've been very slow to come along an

. >> it's great having you on, frank, frank figliuzzi and ken dilanian, you're my man. >>> facebook estimateshis, 126 million americans, roughly 1/3 of all of us receive content from fake russian-backed pages during the 2016 campaign, according to a prepared testimony given in the senate judiciary committee. i'm joined by the reporter of that. that's nbc news's carol lee. explain the significance of the sheer numbers involved here. >> well, it's a very high number, 126 million is i think more than people would have expected. what this is specifically, chris, this is content that was generated by page, fake pages that were backed by russia. so it was things like videos or fake news or, you know, pictures, things like that. and they were posted. and then, you know, the way they got to 126 million is initially 29 million people saw that content directly. but then they reposted it, shared it, liked it. and it got spread. so it grew and grew and grew to this 129 million number which as you mention is a significant number. potentially, about half of eligible voters in the u.s. would have seen this

let me go to ken dilanian. what can you tell us about that? >> chris, the documents themselves contradict what sarah sanders was just telling the american public there. papadopoulos was in communication with somebody that was referred to in the documents as a campaign supervisor, unnamed, about his contacts with russian officials. in august 2016, he got an e-mail from this campaign supervisor saying, i would encourage you to make the trip, if it is feasible, that was supposed to be an off the record meeting with russian officials. and then another point is, he's reporting back to the same campaign supervisor about his contacts with these russians. the supervisor replies, great work. that person is not named in these documents, but referred to as a campaign supervisor. >> we've seen papadopoulos make a deal, the question is, will paul manafort? i want to go to pete williams. we haven't had a chance to look at what the charges are, what paul manafort may be facing, what his lawyers are talking to him about. >> i'm happy to do that, let me run do