after cox first multimillion dollar loan to manafort, manafort put him on the trump campaign economicd to all of a sudden it looked like he might win the election on election night. at that point stephen caulk revived that lone application, shuffled the millions of dollars to manafort and then sent him a list of trump administration jobs he wanted to be considered for, starting with secretary of the united states army. you get that by giving paul manafort money? prosecutors said that he ignored financial red flags and manafort's loan application because he desperately wanted to be secretary of the army, and thought that that's how he could get it. in the end, caulk did give manafort the money but did not get the job. he did get an interview for it. maybe it wasn't a complete waste. it very much helped prosecution that stephen caulk put all of his jobs and writing, in an email to manafort during the transition he listed in rank order his favorite quote, perspective rolls, perspective role with the new administration his number one choice was the army, and then he would take secretary o

he revised, shuffled the millions to manafort and then sent manafort a list of trump administrations he wanted to be considered for starting with secretary of the united states army. you get that by giving paul manafort money? prosecutor said steven calk repeatedly ignored manifests. in the end, he didn't get the job. he did get an interview for it so it wasn't a complete waste. it's helpful he put all his desired jobs in writing. in an email to manafort he listed in rank order his favorite, quote, perspective roles in the new administration. his number one choice was secretary of the army. if not that he'd take secretary of commerce, deputy secretary of the treasury, 18 preferred ambassadorships everything from the u.k. to the vatican to singapore. the jury today deliberated for less than 2 hours before delivering their guilty verdict. i should note that stephen calk's lawyer closed his argument with an unusual defense. quote, what really matters to trump is how you do on tv, and mr. calk did well on tv. it's not like the trump cabinet was full of all these, you know, government, y

$16 million in questionable bank loans in 2016 and 2017.o manafort, manafort put him on the trump campaign'ssory council prosecutors said stephen calk repeatedly ignored financial red flags in manafort's loan applications, because he desperately wanted to be secretary of the army and thought that's how he could get it he listed, in ranked order, his favorite, quote, "prospective roles, prospective rules" in the new administration his number one choice was secretary of the army. if not that, he'd take, you know, secretary of commerce, deputy secretary of the treasury, 18 preferred ambassadorships. everything, from the uk, to the vatican, to singapore. >> seth: i guess, if you're the kind of guy who ignores red flags, you're also the kind of guy who writes down a list of the quos you would like in return for your quids. "yeah, send a copy of this to manafort, trump, and the fbi is that dumb?" also, total aside here, but if you are a corrupt banker, paying for a job in the administration, why would you want secretary of the army over ambassador to the vatican? i mean, the secretary of the army

he helped convince donald trump to hire his old friend a chap by the name of paul manafort as campaign manager, and after trump won the election he became chair of the inaugural committee, because that committee was later investigated and charged with misusing funds to enrich trump's family business. barrack was also a frequent -- going on tv to praise his brilliance. >> the man is brilliant, what he did last night, the foreign come maybe had no idea. i can tell you for sure, last night the cables were flying, this president elect is so much better, so much more thoughtful, so much more culturally adapt than anybody thought. >> [laughs] -- i'm sorry, i don't actually see the cricket script. that was two days before the inauguration. tom barrack's background is not actually in politics it is in private equity, and real estate investment around the world. he has extensive business and personal links to the middle east. today, he was arrested on federal charges, a seven count indictment accusing him of acting as an unregistered agent of the united arab emirates. they say that he inserted

it's very clear that in the case of manafort and gates they were being paid millions upon millions ofvernment and perhaps by political parties as well in ukraine to do that sort of classic lobbying. this case with barrack is a little more murky. as i say, it's clearly in his financial interest to be working on very close relations between the u.s. and uae. but in terms of money directly changing hands or exactly what barrack did, that isn't discussed in the indictment. it isn't something prosecutors would have to prove. but i could see it being one of tom barrack's defenses if this ever goes to trial, that he was simply acting in his own financial interest. >> and very briefly, before i have to let you go, on wednesday the attorney general merrick garland issued a memo that limits contact between the doj and the white house. what do we read into that? >> well, this is something we've been waiting for for several months, joshua. for the last few administrations most administrations have had a policy that basically instructs white house officials to be very careful in their contacts wit

in addition to tom barrack, there's paul manafort. there's steve bannon, former chief strategist who was arrested on the yacht of a chinese billionaire accused of swindling trump supporters and never had to stand trial because he was also pardoned. there is roger stone convicted by a jury of his peers of lying to congress and then pardoned. there's michael cohn, trump's lawyer and fixer who pleaded guilty of tax fraud and campaign violations. there's michael flynn who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and was also pardoned by trump. rick gates, former trump campaign deputy official who pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and making false statements. there is donald trump himself whose business is facing tax evasion charges that are brought by the manhattan district attorney. truthfully a remarkable situation when you add it all up. rebecca davis o'brien, reporter at the wall street journal where she covers white collar law enforcement and she joins me now. rebecca, talk us through what is alleged in this indictment. what la

i assume somebody like paul manafort who was wearing crocodile jeans and stuff, they don't want to be in prison. so as a prosecutor, what tends to be the motivation for people who fail to register and still try to represent foreign governments? >> yeah, another good question. so it's a little bit of a mystery to me because registering is not that hard and it's not that complicated. unless they are doing something really underhanded, unless there's some subterfuge, go ahead and register. you notice when he was questioned about it by the fbi, according to the indictment. he allegedly lied. so you're taking a problem that's not that significant, one that you could easily avoid by being transparent, and you're compounding it and making it much, much worse by lying to the fbi, which is, by the way, joy, a separate felony. >> right. we remember general michael flynn who was a general and was a defense intelligence agency. you think he'd know not to lie to the fbi. i guess my last question here, is what we're looking at here, because we know we talked a lot about russia and their attempts to

that would be paul manafort, the one-time campaign manager who tom barrack brought into the campaignealt with charges. as did elliott broidy, a major trumper previously. matt: i should correct myself in saying i have not heard of it for previous administrations. of course the trump administration has the cases, but you did not hear about this or i did not hear about this with the obama administration or lobbyists for bush or clinton. they are really going after this administration. is the concern that there was a lot of profiteering with this kind of lobbying? caleb: i think the very nature of it of course is to fail to register as a foreign agent basically means you're failing to tell the government you are doing this sort of activity. i think one could argue that the reason why there is a heightened raft of these in these years is a lot of this activity was much more informal. the varieties for instance have had influence in the u.s. for years. you can look at their filings and see a lot of it is aboveboard. but with people like manafort, like roy d, and now prosecutors are allegin

. >> the first indictment in robert mueller investigation, the president's former campaign paul manafort to the fbi. >> manafort. >> rick gates facing serious charges. >> george papadopoulos was charged with lying to the fbi. >> michael flynn pleading guilty. >> michael cohen is now a felon. >> special council indicted on roger stones. >> steve bannon, indicted on conspiracy charges on fraud and money laundering. the disgraced ex-president company has been indicted and also charged allen weisselberg. >> tom barrack, the former chair of the former president 2017 inaugural committee arrested today. >> it is 12 and counting and i am joined by ellie for "the nation," this is not normal. it is an ongoing crime spree. is it important that people thee these facts and say oh, it is just another story or another indictment. >> you can take this one of two ways, ari. >> trump has world historical bad taste in friends. his taste in friends is worse than his taste of architecture. that's one possibility. possibility two, he's a criminal. he's the black hole that's pulling all of these flies to his c

paul manafort, michael flynn, elliott broidy. brody was engaged with the emirates as well.lor: we appreciate you running here to chat with us as we continue to tie further into these headlines. a story that is not going away anytime soon. we will indeed bring you back. coming up, from real estate to the art market. christie's seeing one of its best first halves in years. we discussed the performance with their ceo next kriti: -- next. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ caroline: demand for everything from non-fungible tokens to jewelry seeing record sales. christie's released a key performance take away from the first half of the year. the auction house selling $3.5 billion in art so far this year. 13% higher than pre-pandemic 2019. we've got ceo guillaume cerutti. talk to us about what you are seeing in 2021. people are back and buying all sorts of collectibles. >> there were rebounds, global. last year, strong demand but supply was challenging. this year, strong demand, very resilient from everywhere. especially asia. the two together, we came to this -- what we called -- for christi

the president's formal personal lawyer michael cohen and campaign chairman paul manafort, tl trump's campaign official roger stone, michael flynn, trump's former campaign advisor george papadopoulos. several of those associates were pardoned by trump and we begin "outfront" live in washington. evan, what do we know about the charges against tom barrack? >> reporter: if you read this indictment from the brooklyn prosecutors, you get the sense tom barrack's personal business was intertwined with donald trump and what you see reportedly according to prosecutors is efforts to try to use his connections to trump to try to help his clients in the united arab emirates. in 2016 according to prosecutors, then candidate trump was delivering an energy speech at the behest of the praising of the uae and according to pros coecutors, th provided talking points for one of his television appearances and according to prosecutors, he after he did his tv appearance, he says quote, i nailed it for the home team in this case, according to prosecutors, he was referring to the uae, not the united states. h

paul manafort, indicted for lobbying for the ukraine.ected to mike flynn, one person convicted of lobbying for turkey and barrack working for the uae. it's that they were doing it at the behest of a foreign nation and doing so very close to the president of the united states. >> taking sides against the family, right? >> this is the founders really feared and it's extraordinary to see the pattern we just laid out. >> yeah. speaking of that, i mean, let's talk about something we're seeing with one of the alleged insurrectionists. this is robert morris, an ex-army ranger, who he's now going to be detained pre-trial. he's not going to get out because the judge said it's too dangerous and the judge criticized him for using his army training and not just any army training, this is a special operations unit of the army, slammed him for using that against his own country. let's play some video of morris from january 6th. i do want to warn viewers this contains disturbing images and language. >> take a look around. back up. we're going to take o

i think when you look at paul manafort and his personal financial situation and his ties abroad, theree with my colleague ken delaney and that appears in the mueller report, or is cited in the mueller report, i should say, was all based off public documents. the information contained in there would have been no different than anybody doing appropriate vetting for the trump campaign, so how much did the trump campaign style and kind of a loose, ad hoc nature that they prided themselves on, how much did that lead to the graphic you showed of all of the people charged. i think that's something history will take a hard look at. >> imagine that. more foreign influence in the previous administration. tom winter and joyce vance, thank you for joining us today. >> when we return, house republican leader kevin mccarthy looks to blow up the committee investigating the capitol riot by naming members who voted to overturn joe biden's election victory. that's next. that's next. millions of vulnerable americans struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. that's why i start

i think barbara mcquade mentioned paul manafort there and it was a smart mention.eller investigation, you go after the financial crimes, you go after people that might have been close to whoever your key person might be, again it's donald trump. so interesting to see going forward whether or not they are able to get guilty pleas and full cooperation. not something that paul manafort provided. how important will allen weisselberg be? he is somebody who did previously receive use immunity from the southern district of new york in the investigation of michael cohen and the payments to stormy daniels, he was not cooperative then and not helpful when he received that very limited use immunity to testify to very specific things. so allen weisselberg has been down this road before so we're going to have to see going forward where we end up and where things end up with him in this investigation. >> thanks to barbara mcquade and tom winter. thanks to you both for being on this morning. >>> bill cosby was released from a pennsylvania prison yesterday. a free man. after the s

manafort, who knew exactly what his plan was when he was cooperating with mueller, i didn't think heame as michael cohen. i'm not saying he was right or on wrong or treated well on or whether he should be going to the white house. what i say is people have to understand this is the person who was there at the founding and it's not as if he is to therefore have something waiting for him afterwards after he testifies. what is he going to do at 76 years old. >> you are saying, yeah, you are saying that there's a lot of sourcing that the theory on of the case is, there's enough stuff that might hit trump but they would need an insider as is so often the case with this. and you are saying if that's the theory of the case. 90% chance it's a dead end only 10% it works you think weisselberg is ride or die and will do a bid. >> yes. yes. even at his age. even with his exposure his kids could possibly have. there was a story that went around the office, when donald was about to do his taxes there was, the boardroom on donald's floor, the boardroom on the 26th floor. he would go down. allen's o

can barely fit them all on the screen from manafort and weisselberg in manhattan where he awaits theto our joyce vance. thanks for being here. what happens next in a case like this? >> this is such an interesting case ari, because the indictment was sealed, the defendant was rested and unsealed which gives you the sense of not a cooperation deal here. we'll see this case moves toward as plea agreement or a trial. i don't expect and we'll see at least based on what we heard so far there is cooperation in the offering. >> very good point, a reminder of how scary it could be. i want to play a little something from bloomberg tv here. take a look. >> you have deep and long standing ties to the catarris, are they behind you on this effort? >> yes. the region is so complicated. >> mr. barrack may not be a household name but test a wall street household name. that's the bloomberg interview. what do you make of the fact that the indictment includes his activities. >> in many ways his indictment is so compelling, i can't remember another case like this where you essentially have a victim. the

you can see manafort guilty. and rudy giuliani, we need to fix the photo. tom barrack is indicted today. we'll catch up with it. that's just four, there is a lot of individuals and we'll get to the trump org. where you see convictions and guilty plea and some are presuming innocent but facing a lot of evidence. how do you move forward without a factual accountability for the maga crime spree. >> democratic circle is kind of a scandal when an ex staffer gets a former gig or works as a lobbyist. the trump organization ends up in prison. this is a whole level of corruption or criminality of anything we have seen. one of the great failings for democrats over the trump era has been we have never been able to make trump's corporation of a cutting issue. he was always able to skillfully deflect and say well, everybody does it. he's no difference and this makes him smart. it is imperative that donald trump did not get away with it. this man is a criminal who run a criminal presidency and he appears to have every intention to do this again. unless these information

you have paul manafort, rick gates, rudy giuliani, even mike flynn.atement from a barrack spokesman, it says that mr. barrack has made himself voluntarily available to investigators from the outset, he is not guilty and he will be pleading not guilty. now on tuesday, a judge ordered barrack to remain behind bars at least until monday so that they can have another hearing on this question of bail. prosecutors have suggested that barrack is indeed a flight risk. laura, julia. >> thank you for that. it used to be the justice department never brought charges like this, but clearly they are ramping it up and making it a priority. really interesting to see how this plays out. >>> it was perhaps the best performance of his career. 50 points for giannis to end milwaukee's 50 year championship drought. the "bleacher report" is next. did you know prilosec otc can stop frequent heartburn before it begins? heartburn happens when stomach acid refluxes into the esophagus. prilosec otc uses a unique delayed-release formula that helps it pass through the tough stomac

but this is not somebody like a michael cohen or paul manafort who was very much a public figure somebodysee on camera a lot. we didn't really have any video of him until our colleague caught up with him a month ago. so interesting to see him in person yesterday. interesting to see such a busy well, that is where the prosecutors and defense attorneys sit. you had members from the district attorney's office, you had the office of attorney general there and actual principles themselves of being cy vance and take latisha jams. so it was just a brief hearing yesterday. it was exactly as we would expect from an arraignment in manhattan court. so there was nothing that was kind of outside the thunderstorm except for it was the former president's best. so that is what with observed yesterday. think that it was more telling what we didn't hear in court and what we didn't see in documents. we didn't hear anything about bank fraud, insurance fraud. the millions and literally millions of pages of document documents that the district attorney's office was able to get as a result of their hard-fought

. >> so elie, amanda mentions roger stone, paul manafort, rick gates, look at all those people, and nowe but will donald trump get in trouble for this? as of now, he hasn't been charged with this. and there's a similarity to some of your former job, which was organized crime prosecutions. there are sometimes people that skate above, even when everyone around them goes down. >> it's a feature of our legal system, john. and amanda, what she just said actually reminded me of a case i did against a powerful mobster we caught on a tape saying, "it's good to be the boss." he's right, it's good to be the boss for a couple of reasons. if you're the total boss, the president, you do have that cover of being in office, where doj won't prosecute you. but if you're the boss of any corrupt organization, a private company, a governmental agency, a mob family, you're insulated, right? you have people around you who do your dirty work, who sometimes take the fall for you. it's really hard for prosecutors to get to the boss. in my experience the only way you're really going to get to a boss is if he say

you so many people around him risk and do jail time for this most disloyal of bosses, weisselberg, manaforteople who work for donald trump, people willing to give up their own independence. ellen weisselberg is a psychological subsidiary of donald trump's criminal mind. if you work for donald in any high-level position, you have to commit criminal offenses. they've committed many over the years. so, it would be difficult to get weisselberg to flip in any circumstance. there is no minimum prison sentence in the indictment that he now faces. he could get in theory 15 years. he's a first time offender, in his seventies. probably would get probation or at worst home confinement. that's probably not enough to get him to flip. on the other hand, if they were to charges sun, we would know a lot about their family dynamics. >> absolutely. quick question before we run out of time, i have to ask you and i have had this discussion many times before, my friend. donald trump is organization may go down for some sort of tax payment corruption crimes. there are much bigger crimes he should be prosecuted f

while not get paul manafort, michael flynn. get the whole band back together. not know anyone else beside the people in this crime world. they are not that good. it's not like trump won. he lost the popular vote twice. there's no electoal claej to save you in florida. you have to win the most votes. it's sad but not unexpected. >> not unexpected. what do you make of this? the scary thing about all this that i don't want to make light of is he is under investigation of sex trafficking. some of these accusations are with under age girls. while he's out here making it rain on his fellow florida men, you have to wonder how can the gop kind of align themselves with him? >> i'm in the surprised he's doing this. he's been one of the most vocal defenders of trump throughout the administration. i'm afraid there are some hard numbers to back up exactly what dean is saying. they posted their fund raising numbers and gaetz is one of the top three republicans in the house who raised over a million dollars, almost $2 million. a lot of it largely from small donors. something

you have past history of gaetz and manafort being accused of the same crime.round donald trump lying to the fbi. so maybe there are more. >> and then there's the inaugural committee still under investigation by the d.c. attorney general. how might barrack be charged in that case? >> he could be. he is responsible for it in the same way that donald trump is responsible for the trump organization. the chair of the committee, particularly one who knowingly was lying to the fbi, who was knowingly trying to influence the foreign policy. that's the important thing here, this wasn't just lying. he was lying after trying to influence the foreign policy to benefit himself and his friends in the uae and to get what they wanted. they had a wish list that he was trying to promote. so anything he touched can be looked at. i think that there will be a lot coming out as this goes to trial, unless he decides to plead guilty because it's hopeless. >> jill, i want to ask you about your pin and the matching earrings, but it feels pretty self-ex plan to her. >> it is pretty self-

manafort, who knew exactly what his plan was when he was cooperating -- this is not something. the same as michael cohen. i'm not saying whether michael is right or wrong, whether he was treated well, what i'm saying is people path to understand this is the person who was there at the founding. and it's not as if he's going to therefore have something waiting for him afterwards, after he testifies. why is allen going to do a 76 years old? >> you're saying that there's a lot of sourcing that theory of the case is, there is enough stuff that they might hit trump, but they would need an insider as is so often the case with enterprises like this, to provide the testimony. and that's why they're putting heat on weisselberg? that if they got father it would be based on weisselberg. and your say if that's the theory of the case, 90% chance it's a dead end? onlyworks. because you think weisselberg is right or die? >> yes. yes. even at his age, even with the exposure his kids could possibly have. there's a story that went around the office. when donald was about to do his taxes, the act

friendly, have lunch, whatever, he wasn't a manafort or a michael cohen.imal back then. maybe he's evolved into that situation and maybe he's like got the loyalty thing kind of like a godfather thing going. from my point of view, loyalty is something you offer in terms of not working for someone else or keeping the company secrets. not covering up for a crook. >> yeah, you're seeing loyalty as a form of integrity. i think this is more about just power dynamics. he hasn't given him up yet which means one of two things, one, it wasn't worth his time to do so, or he doesn't have what prosecutors need to implicate the former president. i do know this right now, you understanding the inside and you understanding the dynamic of how these gifts were received and understood, very helpful. thank you very much, both. >> thank you. >>> all right. we'll keep following the facts as the facts are laid out to us. another situation that we already know painful facts about, the voting rights movement in this country is a problem. not every law, not everywhere, but what the

the people surrounding donald trump, barrack was supposed to be the respectable one and you had manafortho had obvious criminal exposure at the time and other people like steve bannon who were ideologues who had their exposure and barrack gave his endorsement as one businessman to another at the 2016 convention, and it turns out he was engaged at least in some of the same types of alleged criminality as so many of the other people in those trump circles. i think the other thing that's incredible about the indictment is how pervasive his actions were, getting stuff inserted into the speech and that you refer to, andrea, is the significant foreign policy successes the uae was able to win in the first couple of years of the trump administration over the objects of the secretary of state rex tillerson who wanted to intervene in this dispute between saudi arabia and the uae on one hand and qatar on the other. the white house seemed to tacitly take the side of the uae and saudi arabia and we didn't know why. they were taking place unregistered both by mr. barrack and others in the white house

michael flynn and paul manafort had their failure to register or lies on their application and documentation. you have this circling around president trump but no connection directly as far as we yet know about this issue. but i want to underscore, you go back to the underlying reason we have this law in the first place. this entire premise, although it has not been admittedly enforced in terms of criminal prosecutions very often over the course of, say, 50 years, it still is a lot to try to insulate institutions from having corrupt or otherwise foreign influence, having transparency here. so this is something that even in recent times we know has been prosecuted. so the willfulness aspect of it. it may not be prosecuted is no excuse for not following and abiding by this particular law. so if there were statements made and a failure to register, remember, it is not a very onerous proceeding. it is a couple hundred dollars for filing on this very issue. so why would you want to conceal it if that's the allegation here? why not have the transparency? that's why you have other additional allega

manafort. who knew exactly what his plan was when he was cooperating with mueller?was. this is not the same as michael cohen. i'm not saying whether he was right or wrong, i'll saying people have to understand. this was the person at the founding. it not as if he's waiting afterwards, after he testifies. what is allen going to do at 76 years old? 75? >> you're saying there is a lot of sourcing, the theory of the case is there is enough stuff that might hit trump that they would need an insider, so often the case with insiders like this. and that's why they're putting on the heat. if they got farther, it would be based on weisselberg. you're saying if that's the theory of the case, 90% chance it is a dead end often 10% chance it works because you think weisselberg is ride or die and will do a bit. >> yes, yes. even with the exposure his kids could have. there's a story around the office. when donald was about to do his taxes, this was the actual board room on the 26th floor. allen's office was right there. he would be sitting there with the couple trol troller. jeff

we saw it both in the paul manafort prosecution and in the roger stone prosecution and the way we saw.s. attorneys in the field, in this case in the district of columbia. so political role, okay. it's happened. it's okay. an attorney general is a part of the president's cabinet, allowing politics to seep into enforcement mechanisms of the department of justice, deeply, deeply dangerous. >> chuck rosenberg, kittie benner, great to have your perspective. thank you for being with us. >>> the south african government requesting another 15,000 troops be deployed after weeks long demonstrations turned deadly. we're taking you live on the ground to south africa for the latest. >>> plus, track and field mega star allyson felix announced grants for athletes to help pay for child care during competitions. joining us in a little bit one of the olympians who got a grant and how it has changed her life, ahead of tokyo. don't miss that conversation coming up. from treated air. so you can breathe easier, knowing that you and your family have added protection. ♪ ♪ so then i said to him, you oughta cu

universe is it possible that an american president has his campaign chairman arrested -- that's paul manafort -- and his deputy campaign manager arrested, rick se ts, steve bannon, his a national security advisor arrest, mike flynn, his personal lawyer mike cohen, his long-time political adviser roger stone, and his campaign foreign policy adviser arrested, george ai papadopolous, and his inaugural campaign chairman arrested, that's today, elliott brady, his private company indicted, the trump organization, the chief financial organization of his private company arrested, allen weisselberg. his foundation/charity shut down after a fraud. that's the trump foundation. his, quote, unquote, school shut down after a fraud suit settlement, trump university. and not to mention during his one single term as president, not one, not two, not three, noe four, but five of his cabinet secretaries were referred for federal criminal prosecution, in one term. we just today got the inspector general report on trump congress secretary wilbur ross and all of the details of how that investigation concluded that

american officials, basically the statement was to produce dirt on then candidate trump and paul manafortfeeling i know who this international investigator was "that would be me. i'm the one who told rudy ukraine interfered in the election to hurt trump i heard it from sidney powell and hugo chavez in a secret meeting that was recorded by italian satellites but also you got to remember, i'm real tired all the time because my pillow sucks. plus i sleep in the woods and i got really nervous, because of all da bears!" [ laughter ] so that's -- let's see, that's lindell, vaughn, wilson, romano. did the smithsonian ask for anything else or - we just send this up [ laughter ] i'd sell an nft of this "closer look," but i already got too much money [ laughter ] but then rudy got down to business and made it clear that what he and trump wanted was for ukraine's president to make a public statement declaring that they were opening an investigation into joe biden >> and all we need -- all we need from the president is to say, "i'm going to put an honest prosecutor in charge he's going to investigate

barrack becomes the eighth member of the trump team to be indicted on criminal charges and joins paul manaforttrump associates charged with not disclosing his role in working for a foreign government. this is apparently the third one, which makes it a trend. barrack will be held in the l.a. county jail until his bail hearing on monday. nbc's pete williams joins me now to break down the charges and i guess my question is, what exactly was barrack doing and why would the uae want to use him in the first place? it's not as if they cannot afford to hire traditional lobbyists to work on this administration. >> the sense you get from reading the charges is he already had a good relationship with several countries in the middle east and suddenly, here's a guy he's close to who's now running for president and looks like he might get elected and he does. there's no suggestion that tom barrack was paid for this, but there is a federal law that makes ate crime to lobby the u.s. government on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the justice department, and that's what the government said he di

you know, manafort, rick gates, bannon, flynn, cohen, stone, papadopolous, nader, allen weisselberg,'s, of course, the kind of like dog bites man versus man bites dog. like trump associated arrested and indicted is almost not news because it is the anticipated state of things. >> it is the norm. >> it is the norm, it is the default. it is like, oh, yeah, another guy. oh, sure, that makes sense. one of the presidents's associates -- and i didn't even have -- i had him on my radar at one point, but then it is like, oh, that guy. oh, he got nicked, too. huh. that was my reaction. the other part that really is wild, and you write about this event, is the amount of people that were acting as foreign agents around the president. i mean this was the ultimate irony of the american first presidency with these corrupt, tiny gulf state monarchs essentially running trump associates as assets to get what they want rather than what the u.s. people elected is astounding. >> right. and i think that we've lost to some extent the role of these gulf state monarchs because we've been, i think, rightly f

we saw it with rick gaetz who was a co-defendant with paul manafort and deputy chairman for the trump flip, and then when he was indicted, he changed his mind. so those things can happen, and then provide the benefits for prosecutors in terms of additional information. >> and ari, how serious are these charges from not providing fringe benefits to somebody on a job, and are we paying attention to something that is not as significant given who the defendant and the target are? >> well, it ranges on the amount, the conduct, the intent, and these are all things that now mr. weisselberg is indicted and marched through there in cuffs will be litigated in a courtroom, but asking most americans, and you say, can you get away with dodging 100,000 or 200,000 in taxes, and people don't make that much money, and so financially, this could be viewed as very serious by a jury, and years in prison or as pointed out, you might end up with a civil resolution, and things that happen in tax case, and lit hurt him that he is a financial expert, and a chief financial officer in a company, and if somebody

manafort, mike flynn, rudy giuliani also investigated for possibly wokking on behalf of foreign countriesld it appears it really did not. the prosecutors say it was actually the former president is the one who's truly betrayed here by barrack. >> and what is his lawyer saying? >> his spokesman released a statement saying he's been making himself voluntarily available to investigators from the beginning. they say he'll plead not guilty. he has been ordered to remain behind bars until monday where they'll have another bail hearing. again, another person in the trump world in the federal criminal justice system. >> so they think he's a flight risk? >> there are concerns he is a flight risk. this is a guy who has extensive contacts, enormous network particularly in the middle east, all this work he's done. and he has almost unlimited financial resources. so there's absolutely a concern that he's a flight risk. i mean, the nature of these charges don't necessarily make you a threat to society or someone who should remain bars, but there is a concern he's a flight risk. and there's already at l

as you said earlier, we have seen paul manafort, the campaign chairman, charged and convicted of being agent. we have seen the national-security adviser, michael flynn, same thing. both of those guys, lying. and flynn, in particular, conceding that he had lied to fbi agents and now, the same with tom barrack. so, the question is, was foreign policy for sale throughout the -- the trump administration? and a bigger question. how much of -- of this did trump understand was happening? were people being paid by foreign powers to do this? was barrack being paid by a foreign power do this? and how much did the president know that, with a wink and a nod, my buddies are getting paid and i'm willing to -- to do this for the highest bidder. we don't know. we'll find out. >> barb, i have -- barb, i have to ask you before we go, barrack is going to be back in court monday. what can we expect from that? >> monday, he will appear in brooklyn where the case is actually pending. he had been arrested in this bond set in los angeles, where he is living. and so, at that time, there will be a review of the

allen is different from, say, paul manafort or roger stone in that he does have a certain kind of humanitynk he would ever allow his children to go to jail because of him. and i don't think he'd want to go to jail just for donald trump. he knows trump will throw him under the bus very quickly. i think there is a very good chance of allen flipping. i know sam who is the one who said 10% chance. i don't think he's been right on too many things so far. i do think allen is going to go, and maybe the kids. >> barbara, i'm curious about this. you know, you worked with the organization, and worked closely with donald trump and that organization for some 18 years. have you been called in front of the grand jury? >> no. it's interesting to see everything develop. it's a long time ago. and i'm sure they have much more recent people that can help them. >> barbara and jeff, thank you guys. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> right now the west coast is baking in the latest heat wave. more than 30 million people are at risk as temperatures soar into the triple digits and smash records for the second time in

he pardoned mike flynn, steve bannon, paul manafort, right down to papadopolous in the russian investigation. the list goes on and on, but he only pardoned people charged and convicted while he was president. tom barrack's case was delayed so he is out of luck. no presidential pardon coming for him. his indictment came after trump was out of office, which itself is probably a scandal if the indictment couldn't be brought while trump was in office because trump appointees wouldn't let it happen. but the fact that it was delayed means he doesn't get out of jail free with a pardon card from trump. one of the open questions of the trump presidency and its corruption is how many legal cases didn't go forward to charges, just were not brought because they were squashed or delayed by trump appointees of the justice department. i don't know if we will ever get an answer to that. kathleen rice and ted lieu are trying to make sure that the justice department at least investigates it. but the one silver lining in terms of accountability for any and all cases that were delayed and yet still could be bro

stamp of approval to donald trump, and as it turns out he was also person who helped to recruit paul manafortin the trump campaign, but on this issue, the ways in which barrack used his friendship to influence and shape u.s. policy, i want to read to you some reporting from your own paper, the "new york times," and it says this. once mr. trump was elected, they said mr. barrack invited senior emirati officials to give him a wish list of foreign policy moves they wanted washington to make within the first 100 days. first six month and first year and by the end of mr. trump's terms, prosecutors said. among other key emirati objectives mr. barrack pushed for the trump administration not to hold a summit with qatar, a rival persian gulf power that was under blockade, that the emirates and saudi arabia, an emirati alabamay had organized. >> he definitely had influence in the trump administration in pushing the interest of the united arab emirates, but to what effect is still unclear. you know, some of that didn't happen and it was envisioned and the uae opposed and there were talks about ended tha

we have michael cohen, paul manafort, roger stone, michael flynn, steve bannon, on down the line, and you add allen weisselberg to that list. it is really remarkable to see how many people around donald trump have taken falls, yet he has not yet. >> i mean, abby, that's why people think donald trump has been teflon, he has been able to insulate himself. how closely do you think that people on capitol hill are watching what is going on right now in this courtroom in new york? >> you know, first of all i think on the democratic side there's been a longstanding interest in trump's tax returns, in understanding where his money is coming from, who he owes debts to. democrats are particularly interested in that. on the republican side though, i do have to wonder, alisyn, how many of them really care about any of this. i think they have really turned a blind eye to all of the controversy surrounding trump including anything that has to do with his businesses. i have a lot of questions about whether most, you know, die-hard republicans, which in the house is probably more than two-thirds of t

trump university, i think half a dozen people with his 2016 campaign were charged and pleaded, from manafortcan go on and on. the inaugural committee was charged for misusing funds. that investigation is ongoing. his foundation was shut down. his business was indicted today. i remember someone saying to me when michael cohen was first out there talking about stormy daniels that this was the thing that would take him down, that it was such a sloppy sort of hush money operation that it wouldn't have been collusion with russia, it would have been something about the almost mob-like way he conducted himself. what do you make of the company that bears his name, that is really just a branding entity, slaps his name on stuff, being charged criminally today? >> well, nicolle, this is the thing. for a long time because of his celebrity in tv and tabloids and everything else like that, trump could sort of do that thing from the "naked gun here" nothing to see here. explosions in the background, he could distract people. what we're seeing now is this was going to happen anyway. he sped up the process b

department that rewarded the president's te friends, reducing the sentencesm or issuing pardons for paul manafortger stone, michael flynn and then punished and weaponized the department to go after the president's enemies. i guess i will start with ms. oberlander, if you would engage me on this, would you agree that presidents set the tone for a country? that how a president e engages whether they're a bully or they're compassionate or they are a leader has a real effect on just how every day americans- can carry themselves?ou >> i would and i do think tt that -- that the attacks on the media of the last administration has had a profound and negative effect on how the media is t perceived by all of americans. i think the cries of, you know, fake news and the specific attacks on particular journalists has really undermined and worked to really injure the standing of the press. e >> ms. oberlander, you're correct and we've seen that thel trump rallies the attacks on the media, we've seen across the country attacks and violence ts against journalists and you did not know my questions ahead of time a

department that has rewarded the president's friends and reducing those sentences or pardons for paul manafort michael flynn and punished in weaponized the department to go after the enemies. i guess i would start with ms. oberlander would you agree that the president setnt the toe and how it president engagesho whether they are compassionate or their leader has a real effect on how everyday americans can -- themselves? >> i would and i do think if the attacks on the media in the last administration has had a profound negative effect on how the media's perceived by old americans and i think the specific attacks on particularts journalists has really undermined and worked to injure the press. >> ms. oberlander you are correct. at the trump rallies the attacks on the media we have seen across the country attacks and violence against journalists. you did not do my questions ahead of time and this is not an advertisement for my -- against journalism but ms. oberlander my concern aside from what donald trump and the department did because i'm happy that merit garland is going to get o to the bottom