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mr. schmidt, i would like to ask your opinion on something. guy, when the chinese president was having dinner with mr. trump down at mar-a-lago, trump told him -- i just launched cruise missiles into syria. but he did not tell the president of china that he had called russia that he was launching missiles. knowing that russia supplied the chemicals that the people there were bombed with, why would he call russia? >> i think -- two thinks. we also want to exhibit just how powerful we were so we put fighter jetsth over syria and we wanted to show the russians that they could not actually deal with that plane, that they could not see. an example of american power and strength. also, i think the white house is very determined to punish the government that engaged in the chemical warfare which was the syrian government of assad. i am not surprised they told the russians beforehand because again, this was a very strategic strike against a go -- against the government for its behavior. host: i would like to talk about the morale within the state depa

mr. schmidt asked if robert mueller were looking for things unrelated to russia, we don't know what's in we don't know whats a p unrelated to russia. we also know robert mueller is looking for things that could be involved in the obstruction of justice. so, i think the president is saying he doesn't want robert mueller on a fishing expedition but we don't know whether this is a fishing expedition. >> no, and i would suggest that it's not. i think robert mueller is taking a broad view of his mandate which is to look for links between russia and the trump campaign and also any matter that arose or might arise in connection with that investigation. and to do a thorough investigation in a complex case like this, it's absolutely necessary to look into financial transactions because you want to see where money is coming or money is going. you want to look for links between individuals. you want to look for motivations and you want to look for potential sources of leverage. so, i think looking at those finances is an essential part of looking into the trump/russia connection. >> so, the origina

mr. mueller's order. michael schmidt will be a guest coming up on "morning joe" later this morning. >>> so the white house has imposed sanctions on russia for interferesing in the 2016 president equal election and other cyber attacks. it's the first time the trump administration has retaliated against russia for enter the feerns and the most significant action the add men administration has taken to date against moscow. 16 of the 24 were recently indicted by robert mueller. steve mnuchin says in part, quote, the administration is confronting and countering a line in russian cyber activity including their continued interference in russian elections and critical infrastructure. these targeted sanctions are part of aed broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from russia. russia is condemning the move saying it's tied to close internal american infighting and russia's upcoming presidential election adding that the authors should better talk about their own madness. >>> and among the cyber attacks sp

mr. mueller. we're joined by "new york times" reporter mike it will schmidt who broke the story. this is odd in the sense that i do you as a nonlawyer that this looks like the wrong thing to do. you shouldn't be talking to people who have just talked to the prosecutor because it suggests you're riding helicopter on these people. >> number one rule is investigations don't talk to witnesses, don't talk to prosecutes. and leave that alone. the president has largely disregarded that advice from his lawyers. it's particularly interesting because the president got into so much trouble for trying to talk to comey and that was disclosed -- this is head scratching for a lot of people watching it. >> what does this tell us about the intensity factors in the white house in terms of the president trying to check on what's coming at him? >> i think the president can't help himself. he's curious and he wants to know as much as he can and he wants to try and find out as much as he can about the mueller investigation. and you know, obviously anyone in his situation would be curious in that way,

michael schmidt is joining us by phone. according to your reporting mr. mueller is subpoenaing the trump organization itself. what more do we know? >> we learned that in recent weeks mueller had sent a subpoena to the organization for documents, some related to russia. they moved the investigation close to the president and it raises questions about why does he subpoena, why not ask for the documents and where is this headed? th is he focused object russia or is he looking at other matters? >> michael, the documents, is it safe to say they are related to the president's businesses? >> well, it is the president's business. so that is what it is. this is not the campaign. the trump organization was not supposed to play a role in the campaign and it was not part of obstruction that we know of. those are the two issues mueller is looking at. he sent this subpoena to the trump organization. so the question is what is it about? we know in 2017, last year, it came about trump tower -- moscow. a deal that was being put together for that that the president had sig

. >> michael schmidt in the times" raising the possibility of obstruction, i want to read this. mr. mueller's team could investigate the prospect mr. dowd played offers to thwart the inquiry. the legal experts are divided whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice." do you have an opinion on that? >> the conventional wisdom is that the pardon power is very broad. virtually limitless discretion. but it's not so broad it can be used to commit a crime to stymie or thwart ar investigation, that is for a corrupt purpose. and so what we have here is potential use of that power to commit a crime to save himself to stop or stymie an investigation. the second point is that those cases about the broad and limitless discretion of the president are very old. they date from 1867 and 1871 and i think a court viewing what the president's done here would be absolutely furious at his contempt for the rule of law, not to say he hasn't demonstrated contempt for the rule of law continuously as president but in this instance, his misconduct goes to the core of the integrity of the crimi

mr. mueller. joining me right now is the co-out thor of "the new york times" article, robert schmidt. former u.s. attorney. thank you both. it looks to me like one of the courtroom scenes where the guy doesn't trust his lawyer anymore because he's losing. >> i looking for a magic bullet to get himself out of this. he has seen that cooperation, at least in his eyes, has not gotten him out of this. here we are more than a year intoe intensifying. lawyers tell him one thing. he gets frustrated easily. he's looking around for other folks to come in. who can help him get out of this? the problem the president has, he thinks he's his best spokesman and his best lawyer and strategist and he believes he can drive this by himself. the problem is is that the lawyers are very afraid about what he could do if he were to go and sit down with mueller, what he would say, what more problems he could get himself into. >> if he gets into a deposition situation, he could put himself out of the white house. >> the president is someone who believes he can explain everything, but he often doesn't stop talk

mr. tege. >> good afternoon. the subject property before you at 2783k diamond street in an hr2 district. the subject building permit was schmidt in april of 2016 and the neighborhood notification was conduct and the discretionary review was filed october 14, 2016 by the owner at 2785 diamond street. the proposal did not require variances or other exceptions and the planning department recommended the planning commission not take d.r. and approve the project as proposed. however, there was a substantial opposition at the d.r. hearing from neighborhood owners and occupants and the planning commission found there to be exceptional and extraordinary circumstances relate to the project due to the lot size and the shape and its relationship to the street and neighboring properties. the p.c. -- the planning commission didn't think it should remain vacant but the proposal was out of scale and not context you'll contextual to the surroundings. there were seven conditions on the d.r. first, a redesign to the front facade. notably to eliminate the top floor. to provide a light well around the property line windows. to set back the third

mr. dowd, act like it. >> going on to say if your client is innocent, then act like it. betsy, i was talking to michael schmidt about how the messaging from the legal team changed. what's your sense of what happened over the last 36 hours? >> it's been certainly an extremely% interesting 36 hours for the president's attorneys. the reality is that the president and his folks appear to feel emboldened by may be ice firing. one point that didn't get enough attention or was overshadow by all the points dowd made in the first e-mail he sent to me yesterday is he called jeff sessions brilliant and courageous. that's unequivocal, unstinting praise for the man who appears to be president trump's least favorite cabinet member. and the reason dowd praised sessions is because sessions approved the firing of doefd fbi director andrew mccabe. it highlights the extent to which mccabe's firing has really emboldened and given confidence to the president and his allies. they feel like they're getting everything they want, finally the folks that they had hoped to purge who they hoped were causing problems for them from the just

schmidt, let me start with you and your brand-new story. let me read you a piece that caught our attention here. the subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation which mr. trump's lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now will drag on for at least several more months. tell us more. >> well, as we all remember at the end of last year, ty cobb, the attorney dealing with the white house, thanksgiving, christmas, this is coming to an end. the trump organization has to deal with the subpoena. it's not something you can deal with very quickly. they have to go through all of their e-mails and documents to make sure that they are responding correctly to this. that is a process that takes some time. and then it all has to be given to mueller. mueller has to take a look at it and see what's there. and if there is a there there. that is not an easy process. this is something they tried to make it seem like was going to be over and now it looks like it will be at least around several more months and my guess longer. >> let's bring the trump businesses into focus. we've spent so much more time talking about trump's associates. but your reporting,