ken dilanian, i want to get your thoughts on mike schmidt's reporting and the mike flynn sentencing. >> i think it's fascinating we're hearing this story now, nicolle. it suggests the stenlt to which rod rosenstein has had it. he's at the end of his rope. our colleague julie ainsley said he was having late night phone calls with friends and was resigned to the fact he might be fired. here i stand. this is recorded further evidence. the fact folks are willing to disclose this. it's not surprising. i remember talking to pete williams how rosenstein's appointment of mueller was in a sense his way of trying it get some of his reputation back after being so badly used in the comey firing. and now we're seeing sort of the details of that. but it's absolutely clear a that he is at the end of his rope and yesterday's hearing was just the latest kpamt luis palomino of that. >> and, ken dilanian, let me get you to switch topics for us. i know you have some thoughts on the sen 10%ing of the delay of mike flynn who pleaded guilty and is a cooperating witness. he's on team america now. >> right.

washington post and msnbc analyst philip rucker and ken dilanian. teresa kumar, i want to start with you with the story we started off with jacob. there has been a lot of dissembling from trump administration officials. as lyndsay said, the trump administration could stop this with a phone call. >> this is a decision formulated when john kelly was head of d.h.s. he threw it out there and then it tuck and sessions literally put it into play in may. this is something he cannot only do overnight, but let's look at mitch mcconnell and at paul ryan. they also have a legislative calendar they can control. there are two pieces of legislation right now they can say they could end it today. there is something we need to underscore. 90% of these individuals right now that are being charged, they're being charged wi a misdemeanor. in april, the supreme court ruled thatigrants can be held indefinitely without bail, so it not only is it messy, but it's almost a lining to ensure these individuals are incarcerated for adds long as possible and they're doing it for

my thanks to ken dilanian, harry litman and natasha bertrand. when we come back, president trump takes zero-tolerance to a new low. zero humanity, zero process, zero judges. also the last guardrail fails. secretary mattis's waning influence with the president. and donald trump and vladimir putin together again. aides prepare for a summit as politico sums up russia's advantage this way. wing it meets meticulous. stay with us. we came here for t. and we got to know the friends of our friends. and we found others just like us. and just like that we felt a little less alone. but then something happened. we had to deal with spam, fake news, and data misuse. that's going to change. from now on, facebook will do more to keep you safe and protect your privacy. because when this place does what it was built for, then we all get a little closer. if yor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc

with the fact that he's accountable for them and this is a form of accountability. >> we have ken dilanian, as well. ken, you have a little bit more on why james comey made the decision to go to congress. >> yeah, katy. what i have is the ig roundly criticizing that decision. if you'll recall on the book tour and to congress and many other public forums, james comey has articulated the decision he faced in that moment as one of speak or conceal. he thought concealing was really going to open the fbi to charges it was biased and favored hillary clinton. the ig completely repudiates comey on this point. reading from the report, "comey's description of his choices being between two doors, one labeled speak and one labeled conceal was a false dichotomy. the two doors were actually labeled follow department policy and practice. he made a serious air yore in judgment. bottom line is they're saying these e-mails on the anthony weiner computer were not significant enough -- and the fbi did not know enough about them to force comey to make this dramatic decision to announce he was re-opening the in

joining us now is ken dilanian, intelligence and national security reporter for nbc news, betsy woodruff with us. ken, do you ever vacation in the seychelles, first of all? >> i would love to some day but haven't yet. >> maybe you can do some reporting and add on a couple days on the end. i don't think you need to be as great an expert reporter as you are in this to kind of question the explanation, but lay it all out for us. >> yeah. as you said, gerson's spokesperson is saying that he was there on vacation. he was not even aware of this secret meeting that george nader, the lebanese american businessman that was there was telling mueller was actually a back channel. but he was also -- mr. gerson was at a separate meeting at the four seasons in new york, which was attended by steve bannon, michael flynn, as well as nader and some of the other characters. the bottom line for those trying to follow this at home is mueller appears to be investigating whether the united arab emirates essentially piggybacked on the russian election interference effort and whether after trump got elected they

ken dilanian is outside the direct court in washington and what everybody wants to know right now is whether paul manafort is going to jail today. ken, tell us what's going on right now in court. >> reporter: well, that's the big question, chris, and that's swhaernl robert mueller's office is urging judge amy bermman jackson do is immediately jail paul man an for the. what's happening in the courthouse behind me is two things. one, the prosecution and defense are arguing about whether the judge should revoke paul manafort's bail because of these allegations of witness tampering which are alleged to have happened not 12 years ago as donald trump said, but just a few months ago. but secondly, mueller's office has also indicted paul manafort on those charges, charged him with obstruction of justice. so he's being arraigned on that indictment. now, legal observers tell me it's possible that manafort will be sent to jail today but not likely. it's not something they're expecting. he's facing his first trial on the overall case against him july 25th in virginia, chris. >> all right. pete, y

joining me now, ken dilanian, national security reporter for nbc news, michael schmidt is a reporter with "the new york times" and an msnbc national security contributor. amy rocha is a former assistant u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst. caroline pull l caroline pull leecy. ken, let me start with you in terms of the bottom line now. paul manafort is in jail, probably until september at least now. explain what exactly it was that caused the judge to make that decision today. >> sure, steve. it was paul manafort's incredibly reckless decision in february to reach out to some potential witnesses in the case against him that involved allegedly illegal lobbying. and he reached out by phone and through encrypted apps and one of those witnesses was so rattled by this that he immediately called the fbi and turned over these encrypted messages to prosecutors and actually said, look, i think paul manafort was trying to tell me to lie. that was essentially the basis for these allegations. not only did the prosecution file a motion to revoke paul manafort's bail, they filed a separate indict

overnight stone confirmed the news to nbc telling our national security reporter ken dilanian that nothingcame of the meeting. saying, quote, i flatly rejected his proposal in what was a 20-minute meeting. and whi stone did not previously disclose the meeting to congressional orinvestig the "post" is reporting the sit-down is of interest to special counsel robert mueller. but stone tells nbc he, quote, never mentioned the meeting to trump or to the treasuump campa because the idea was so ludicrous, adding, it was so ridiculous that i forgotbo the approach. >>> for the first tip in over 30 years, anack-to-back u.s. o champion at shinnecock hills golf course, bruce koepka. after a four-way tie, he was down early to daniel berger and tony finau. he finished in fifth place, finau dropped him out of the top three. rld number one dustin johnson started the day out strong, looking to take this year title. but several missed short putts down the stretch put him in third place at 3 over. that made way for koepka to cruise to the finish line. he taps in a bogey to finish ap 1 and win this year's tit

joining me is ken dilanian. now it has an aspect of you know, connections to kevin bacon, how many degrees of separation. it always -- how many people go to the say shells? does mueller believe it's a coincidence this buddy of kushners happened to be right near that meeting where apparently the back channel with the russians was being set up? >> you and i both know prosecutors don't tend to believe in coincidences and they're scrutinizing this closely. this is a close friend of jared kushner. while there are nice beaches there, it's not an obvious place for an american to go on vacation and to be in text communication with george nader, a very important figure in setting up this apparently back channel. >> i'll be skeptical now. why we have meetings that have occurred beginning in '16 well before the nomination of donald trump when he was just a candidate, there were meetings, of course, at the mayflower hotel here in washington, the famous one in june at the trump tower. there were meetings the rnc convention, r

. >> ken dilanian, you were a mile down the road at the courthouse as paul manafort was sentenced to jail 90 miles south of d.c. we've seen the transcript of exchanges between the prosecutors and the judge and defense tones and the judge. and the judge said this is not middle school, can i not take away your cell phone. i cannot turn a blind eye to this. how tight are the screws now to mr. manafort now that he's moved to that jail? >> they're about as tight as you can imagine. the only solace he can take is he's not in the d.c. jail where he has access to a tablet. it's hard to imagine what his strategy is if he isn't looking for a pardon. he's facing a case that most prosecutors say is a slam dunk. he doesn't have much defense on these money laundering, bank fraud charges. now he's in jail because prosecutors were able to show probable cause he was tampering with witnesses. it was 144 days he worked for president trump. paul manafort saved the trump campaign and he may be key to the mueller investigation into whether donald trump had any role in coordinating with the russian electio

joining me to break this down is ken dilanian, investigative reporter for nbc. ect of connections to kevin bacon. how many degrees of separation? but how many people go to the seychelles? does mueller believe it's a coincidence that this buddy of kushner's, the president's son-in-law, happened to be right near that meeting where apparently the back channel with the russians was being set up? >> well, you and i both know, chris, that prosecutors don't tend to believe in coincidences. that's why they are scrutinizing this very close, because this is a close friend of jared kushner. and while there are some nice beaches in the seychelles, it's not an obvious place for an american to go on vacation and be in text communication with this guy, george nader, who is a very important figure in setting up this apparent back channel. >> let's talk -- i'll be a little bit skeptical now. we have meetings that have occurred beginning in '16, well before the nomination of donald trump when he was just a candidate. there were meetings, of course, at the mayflower hotel in washin

nbc's ken dilanian is one of the reporters who broke that story. ken, what techniques do officials expect the chinese to use in singapore? i mean, this is some scary movie stuff. >> good morning, stephanie. look, china has become our most aggressive espionage adversary. they're really using technology to up their spying game. of course, this singapore summit is sort of ground zero in the next spy versus spy war. so u.s. officials tell us that what the chinese have already done are recruiting agents in hotels and bars around the city. to listen in on conversations. to extract any inside information they can. also eavesdropping technology. the way the u.s. can try to counter that is essentially to train their people to use good op-sec, operational security. so u.s. officials have been told if you are not generally a proech approached by attractive members of the opposite section and x a suddenly happens, be suspicious. >> oh, my gosh. >> one example where a u.s. official in china was having trouble with his hotel key card. he gave it to his agency and

. >>> joining me now, nbc's ken dilanian. chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and joyce vance. ken, first what went down in court today? >> katy, the judge ruled in favor of the prosecution motion to revoke paul manafort's bail in connection with this alleged witness tampering that they say he committed back in february. they also indicted him for obstruction of justice on those charges and he pled not guilty today. but the judge ruled that because of that indictment, because a grand jury found probable cause to believe that paul manafort had committed that crime, she had to accept that. that was the standard. then she had to decide, does that mean is he a danger to the community? she ruled, yes, in fact he is a danger to the community. not in the sense of committing violence, but he is a threat to the justice system. he was corruptly trying to influence witnesses, she found, or probable cause to believe that. then she went to the question is there anything i can do short of putting him in jail that would deter this conduct? she decided no. at one point she says this isn't middl

. >> i want to read you reporting of our own ken dilanian about this meeting with roger stone and mr.o. roger stone and michael caputo say they forgot to tell investigators about their contact with a russian national who goes by the name henry greenberg even though they say this greenberg fellow offered to sell incriminating information to the trump campaign for $2 million. well, first of all, how often in life are you just offered $2 million for campaign dirt, so i can see them forgetting. how is mueller likely to approach that story? why didn't you tell us the first time? >> he's likely to approach it as a lie. that's basically what it is. i mean this guy came to them. he was a russian. and caputo knew he was a russian. he set up the meeting with roger stone. roger stone met him. he had a heavy russian accent. he was -- roger stone remembered his accent. he remembered his hat. he remembered his t-shirt. he remembered he offered him $2 million in return for dirt. and then they had text messages exchanged. and then he forgot it all. now what are the chances of that? and suddenly when

so let's get more from nbc news intelligence national security reporter ken dilanian. what does this even mean? could dropping his attorneys signal what? it's buying more time for michael cohen? why exactly would he be doing this? >> it doesn't necessarily signal, stephanie, he's cooperating. the reason it's getting so much attention, it is true that many defendants when they decide to cooperate do change lawyers because they often are looking for lawyers with a history of cutting deals. potentially lawyers with a relationship with the prosecutors. they would want lawyers who maybe worked in that office who have a good relationship to cut a deal with those folks. but look, i spoke to a friend of michael cohen's yesterday who said it's very premature to suggest he's decided to cooperate. that friend did, though, say he was considering it, and he said, look, nobody is going to do 20 years for somebody else. if he decides he's facing serious legal jeopardy, he is going to flip. this could be essentially a way for cohen to put pressure on donald trump. because the trump ca

my own colleague ken dilanian is outside the courthouse. so ken, here's the thing. the beauty of that 24-hour news cycle is there's always more time to cover what's going on in washington. distractions don't mean that we forget about it. what's going on? >> that's right, stephanie, in this courthouse behind me in about 20 minutes, paul manafort is facing a legal reckoning like he has never faced before. because the special counsel's office is seeking to revoke his $10 million bail and send him to jail immediately after this hearing. there is a chance, just a chance, that the judge in this case will order exactly that. whether he brought his toothbrush or not. the issue here is mueller's office has accused manafort of witness tampering. of reaching out while he was on bail on his bank and tax and lobbying fraud case. this is back in february. and essentially trying to communicate to him. essentially they were accused of improperly lobbying inside the united states without registering. lobbying on behalf of the government of ukraine. look, we didn't lobby in the unite

john were saying, the other thing that's going to trouble paul manafort's sleep, our colleague ken dilanian this afternoon did some reporting about what the jail that we think paul manafort is going to -- that place is crawling with cockroaches. and you've got a guy who has been used to an incredibly comfortable lifestyle, according to robert mueller was financed with ill-gotten gains and he's sleeping with cockroaches tonight. >> paul manafort likes a high thread count, lawrence. the thread count in the penitentiary is not so high. >> the cockroaches are all part of the pressure on paul manafort. there's a way out of jail tonight. he doesn't have to spend the entire night if he gets the word to robert mueller that he's willing to cooperate. >> right. >> i'll say harry litman raised this when the manafort witness tampering thing first came up. people speculated a lot about whether trump has offered him a pardon secretly. the makes no sen -- now trump is dangling pardons for a lot of people, but if you're paul manafort and believe confidently that you're going to get a pardon from donald tru

let's start with nbc news ken dilani dilanian, he's with us. former fbi special agent manny gomez is here. mika oyang, vice president for the national security program third ray. and the former staffer for the house intelligence committee. also former hillary clinton campaign official, adrian elrod is with me as well. ken, let me start with you, i know you've gotten your hands on this thing. hasn't been made public just yet. so far what are the top lines? what are the headlines here? >> we have not yet obtain add c copy of the report. the bottom line seems to be there's going to be a lot of fodder here for president trump to feel vindicated in his criticism of james comey and of the fbi. this is a deeply unflattering report to the fbi. however, it does not support president trump's months-long charge that there was a deep state conspiracy in the fbi of bias against him. to the contrary, it says despite some of the things you just said, despite the inflammatory text, this report finds no evidence of bias and finds the hillary clinton investigati