pete williams in for robert costa. we discuss the chu inside the white house as robert mueller's russia investigation looks at the trump organization's business practices. tonight on "washington week." president trump: but there'll alys be change. pete: just 14 months into office, president truha rs his administration. president trump: i'm at ain p where we're getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that i want. pete: this week he fired the tesecretary of stand chose the c.i.a. director to take over. he's also reportedly preparing to name his thir national security advisor in less than a year. scandals have other issues have put other cabinet members on ice, including questions over spending and hudson over a $31,000 diningtoable prosecu if his office. also, the trump administration slapped new sanctions on russia for its atlantic election meddling and attempt to man niche lit the u.s. power grid. we discuss it all with jonathan swan of 25 axios. abby philip of cnn. peter peter of "the new york ustime

mean, he's telling the president, look, this is actually what could be on the table. >> ann and pete williamserview with chris ray on "nbc nightly news" tonight. stay with us. you tell your insurance company they made a mistake. the check they sent isn't enough to replace your totaled new car. the guy says they didn't make the mistake. you made the mistake. i beg your pardon? he says, you should have chosen full-car replacement. excuse me? let me be frank, he says: you picked the wrong insurance plan. 'no. i picked the wrong insurance company.' with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. >>> thanks for being with us. that's it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." chris jansing is up next here on msnbc. >> i am chris jansing. d

we have late details with our justice correspondent pete williams. >> first this morning at our defense facility at ft. mcnair and by days end, similar packages turned up at other military and intelligence locations, six in all, including the cia a white house maim sorting facility in suburban washington the national geospatial intelligence agency in virginia and another defense university. in every case, law official enforcement say the packages were september in the mail, they were disturbing and rambling and each time quickly rendered safe. >> bombs in the mail are rigged to detonate when they were opened. so they can sit there forever the bomb squad can do a render safe procedure on a live bomb or a hoax. >> reporter: federal officials say tonight they do not believe any of these packages came from marc anthony condit who sent functioning bombs there. just last week a man crashed his car after driving through the checkpoint at travis air force base in california. officials say they don't know whether that was an attack or an elaborate suicide. all the packages are now being examined

pete williams, thank you for your time tonight. we appreciate you coming in. >>> there is so much more to come, as you have gotten a taste here. >>> did a company owned by trump take advantage of facebook profiles? we'll look at that. trump has new fiergz and new hirings power the rumor mill. as we go to break, it was another break neck week of news, the flight of the bumble bee takes us through it. >> and some breaking news in the stormy daniels saga. >> she's offered to give back the hush money, that 130 grand. >> that is breaking news from theresa may. >> the british government has identified the likely source of the poison. >> breaking news today. house republicans ending their russia probe. >> good morning. we've got breaking news. >> rex tillerson is out as the nation's top diplomat. >> stormy and her lawyer set a deadline of noon today to respond to her offer. >> the white house has fired the -- >> john mcindee -- >> it's election night in southwestern pennsylvania. >> right now the race is too close to call. >> just another

nbc news and justice correspondent pete williams has more.tell us about mccabe's response to all of this? >> i can. he's responding to the decision by the attorney general to accept the fbi's recommendation that he be fired for talking to a reporter during the presidential campaign about the investigation of the clinton foundation. what the attorney general said is that mccabe made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and then lacked candor when he was asked about it including under oath on multiple occasions. mccabe said this is just part of the administration's war with the fbi. that he had approval to talk to that reporter. and he says this in his statement. he says, i'm being singled out and treated this way because of the role i played and the actions i took and the events i witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of james comey. and he says that his firing is part of an unprecedented effort by the administration driven by the president himself to remove him from his position and possibly strip him of a pension he worked 21 year

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more. >> general jeff sessions accepted a recommendation from the fbi itself to fire andrew mccabe over his decision to let fbi officials talk with a reporter during the presidential campaign about an investigation of the clinton foundation. sessions called that an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and said mccabe lacked candor when asked about it later including under oath on multiple occasions. the justice department says 19 other people were fired from the fbi over the past year for lack of candor. >> i can't comment. >> but mccabe says he answered truthfully and approved talking to the reporter to clarify the fbi's role in the clinton investigation. he says he's being singled out for supporting former fbi director james comey after he was fired. >> the vast majority of fbi employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to director comey. >> mccabe says his firing is part of an unprecedented effort by the administration, driven by the president himself to destroy his reputation and possibly strip him of his pension. mccabe's de

officials say they don't know whether that was an attack or an elaborate suicide. >> that was pete williams reporting. >>> yesterday we got word that american pioneer has died. trail blazer linda brown. ms. brown was the kansas girl at the center of the 1954 brown versus board of education case that struck down segregation in schools. her father became the lead plaintiff in the case when he tried to enroll her in an all-white school in topeka, fighting all way to victory in the supreme court and changing the course of history. linda brown was 76 years old. >>> an extremeover dose of the synthetic opioid fentanyl cost prince his life according to a report obtained by the associated press. the singer had an exceedingly high level of the drug in his body at the time of his death. the report reveals that the concentration of fentanyl in his system was at a level up to 22 times the amount seen in documented fatalities. the purple rain singer suffered from chronic pain and now toxicology evidence leaves no doubt that fentanyl killed him. >>> a child is recovering after police say he was thrown th

but it does seem like this is for the most part over. >> all right pete william. i appreciate that update. i appreciate you getting on the phone to give us that information. >>> coming up after the break we want to talk about the north korean spotted in the capital. this was a secret visit, a mystery visit maybe from kim jong-un visiting north korea's closest ally. why this discussion, if it happened between these two leaders is very very unusual and it may affect the upcoming talks between kim jong-un and the president in a matter of weeks. if you have medicare parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision

let's get all the details from nbc news justice koescorrespond pete williams.so no second special counsel. but there is a u.s. attorney investigating. explain what's going on. >> right, you could sort of think of it as like special counsel light. in the sense there is someone whose job it is to look at this but that person also has another day job which is being the u.s. attorney in utah. it's john huber, someone who has bipartisan credentials. served under both democratic and republican administrations. he says hub er's been doing thi now for several weeks. the justice department sent a letter to congress in november saying "we hear your concerns, career person -- or a senior person is looking into this." the letter discloses it's huber. what the attorney general says is the rules for appointing special counsel say you only do it in limited circumstances. and that that standard has been met only twice, once by the appointment of mueller and once a couple of decades ago when the former senator was appointed to look into the disastrous fbi botched raid at waco,

wray spoke to our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: nearly eight months into the job as director of the fbi, christopher wray pushed back against criticism from president trump and some in congress who say the fbi favored hillary clinton during the election at the expense of donald trump. >> i have not seen a politicized organization. what i have seen is people fiercely focused on trying to do the right thing in the right way. >> reporter: but what does it do to morale when some of the toughest criticism comes from the president, himself? >> would we prefer not to get criticized? of course. but in many ways, we're our own toughest critics. >> reporter: the fbi admits it failed to follow up on tips about nikolas cruz before last month's florida school shooting. >> we were worried, would people suddenly not want to call in? we haven't seen that at all. in fact, if anything, we've seen exactly the opposite. we've seen a sharp uptick. >> reporter: wray revealed the fbi now has more than 3,000 open terrorism investigations. isis-related cases, other foreign-inspired threat

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more on this. how did this all unfold? >> well this stems from an examination by the justice department's inspector general into how the fbi conducted the entire hillary clinton investigation. the attorney general says mccabe was fired for repeatedly misleading investigators about his actions, but mccabe says this is the result of the administration's consistent attacks on the fbi. >> andrew mccabe stepped down as the fbi's deputy director in late january and his actual retirement date was tomorrow. but late friday, attorney general jeff sessions accepted a recommendation from the fbi itself, that mccabe should be fired after 21 years of service. the fbi recommended firing him over his decision to let fbi insiders talk to a reporter during the presidential campaign about the investigation of the clinton foundation. attorney general jeff sessions said mccabe made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor when asked about it, including under oath on multiple occasions. and justice department officials sa

nbc's pete williams and jeff bennett are tracking these for us. eric, let's start with you. how significant is it that mccabe kept those memos a la james comey. >> if you wind the clock you'd learn about the memos he had kept with his own personal interactions with president trump and those essentially form the basis of the obstruction of justice. it's now being conducted by special counsel robert mueller. so to the extent the memos by andrew mccabe are similar, one can imagine they have quite a degree of high import. >> let's flov that thinking then. they turned over those memos to the special counsel robert mueller. they sort of describe what he told mccabe about his own interactions with the president too. what specifically do you think this might mean for the investigation as we move forward or learn about what's in the muller investigation? >> what we know is special counsel robert mueller is interested in trying to figure out did donald trump take any steps to thwart the ongoing investigation and to the extent they chronicle or describe or elaborate on those efforts by

pete williams joining us to break down this story.tell us the highlights of what we need to know and how it relates to that 2016 new york journal piece. >> some stories have been written about mccabe's wipe, who was running for elections, and got contributions from democrats in virginia. question that's the become story. and then, it's apparent from his reporting that he got some information from senior officials in the justice department about the back and forth involving mccabe's role in deciding whether to throttle up or down, the fbi investigation into the clinton foundation. a lot of this was known back then that there were tensions in the fbi and between the fbi and the justice department, which by the way happens all the time, about whether the clinton foundation investigation should be hot or cold, especially in the run up to the campaign. generally speaking it's a justice department rule that you don't bring charges or have heavy handed investigations that could affect the political campaign. that's the gloss on all of this.

pete williams here to break this down.us through the specifics and the implications. >> the escalates the war between the trump administration and local government over sanctuary cities, the lawsuit is aimed at three specific divisions. one of them restricting cooperation between police and federal agents, says they can't disclose when an immigrant is going to be released, and can't assist if the transfer of someone after they served their sentence to federal agents. it limbs private employer's corporation and requires employers to -- and it requires state inspection to facilities. the government basically makes couple of argues, the constitution says you can't have your immigration laws and secondly they say it conflicts with provisions of federal law. how much what the local police have often argued is if they are seen as federal agents of the government it limits from the community. people are reluctant to come forwar and report rimes when they have been involved for fear they will deported. it makes no sense for them t

pete williams in "s" in our washington newsroom. pete, what can you tell us? >> as expected he plead until the, so there wi -- not guilty. the judge set a trial date having this trial in virginia start before the case was scheduled to start in washington, d.c. the hearing is just wrapping up now. this is video of paul manafort arriving at the virginia courthouse where he was indicted and now arraigned on new charges. he faces tax fraud and charges of failing to report foreign bank transaction charges. but the judge set a trial date of july 10th. now, you will recall just a few weather conditions ago the judge in washington in that case that began last october asset trial date of september 17th. and so we were curious to see what would happen with this case in virginia, to see whether the judge would engage in, frankly, a little bit of educational one ups manship. in fairness to the judge's decision here, the government said before this hearing that because they are so far along on the case in washington, the process of what's known as discovery where the gover

joining us now, justice correspondent pete williams. pete, does the president risk further investigation with all these tweets? i know he sends these out, they work for his narrative and his base. sean hannity was on fox and friends this morning. does he not risk that these tweets will hurt this obstruction of justice situation? i mean, robert mueller is paying attention. >> yeah, i think so. they are certainly well aware of these tweets except substantively there is really nothing new here. the allegation that this is a witch hunt, that people that are doing the investigating are clinton supporters. these are things that have long been rehearsed by the president and some of his supporters. so i don't think this is substantively going to change the direction of the investigation on or add any new weight to what they previously looked at. it didn't heoesn't help any, but think florida that is it substa hurts. >> what about mccabe's fire something there has been endless talk about the nature of it and about the people who have talked about

pete williams is outside of the high court. why did the court taik on the maryland case? >> it accepted the challenge from the republican challengers from maryland to be a companion case with wisconsin. but here's the problem. the redistricting is always done by the majority party. it inevitably takes steps to entrench its position. the question is how much partisanship is too much. can it ever cross a constitutional line? i u would say based on today's argument it's no easier to an answer than it was in october when it heard the wisconsin c e case. now today was from marylands sixth district when democrats got. power. it unseeded a republican who held that seat for 20 years. he had before the gerrymandering won the seat by 28% of the vote. he lost it by 21% and the republicans say that violates the first amendment. they say people in that district are being punished because of their political views. because they supported the republican candidate and that's why they say the court should declare the redistricting unconstitutional. now i would say after today's argument, i

pete williams, thank you very much for clarifying that for us. we appreciate it.phanie ruhle, let's talk about larry kudlow. coming from cnbc, doesn't always agree with donald trump on everything, although they're friends. trump has said he's come around to his trade deals. >> okay. larry cow if in that position maybe he can get president trump to stay and squeak him back into tpp, it's unlikely. there's another camp that president trump likes, the old school reaganomics, new york, let's bring back the gold standard. that's what larry kudlow is. he was part of reagan's economic policy team. he's the kind of guy that president trump likes. he's a tv celebrity. so he's well-known in the circuits of cnbc. something that will be difficult for larry, though, he's an advocate for president trump, it's going to hard for larry to carry president trump's water, which trump loves. why? because you have ten years of larry kudlow being on record on tv and on the radio making all sorts of statements -- >> donald trump has been on the record for years making statements that don

pete williams sat down with director ray.ete, walk us through some of the headlines with your conversation with him. >> on the questioning of the firing of andrew mccabe, listen very carefully. he talks about the process. he suggests he believes the process that was used in firing mccabe was a proper one. here's his answer. >> i'm committed to doing thing objectively and independently and by the book. i think that has to extend not just to our investigations, our intelligence analysis, but also have to expand to personal decisions. >> some people commented on the fact it happened 26 hours before he was to retire. >> yeah, i want to be careful what i can say about the process. my commitment to making sure that our process is followed, that it relies on objective input and it is not based on political and partisan influence is something i'm unyielding on. >> he also suggested in our interview that he was accurate the reports that came out earlier this year that he had threatened to re-sign when he was pressured to fire some com

our own pete williams asked him about that, and he did not decline those reports which is notable andight frighten the white house. >> it's been said that said you would resign if the president started firing people. >> it was from the minute i walked in the door to countless opportunities since then that i am unwaveringly committed to doing this job by the book independently following our rules and our processes free from partisan political influence. >> so you're saying these reports are not wrong? >> i'm not going to talk about specific conversations. >> evan, how do you view that? and could we end up in any kind of proceeding where the current and former fbi director and deputy director and rod rosenstein who was involved in the firing of comey are all witnesses? >> well, look, so on mccabe, it appears the circumstances are suspicious and it looked vindictive to a lot of us that he was terminated within, you know, days of his qualifying for a pension. that said, i think we need to wait for the investigation report by the inspector general, michael horowitz to come out. >> but they

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins me now from the bureau. e, who is this and what do we know? >> well, this has been a remarkably fast-moving investigation, andrea, because the first of these packages arrived yesterday morning here in washington, d.c. at a location, ft. mcnair, the first one you see in the upper left where the national war college is. and by last night, they had a suspect in custody. the fbi identifies him as a 43-year-old man from everett, washington, which is right near seattle, named tranh cong phan. he'll be in court later this afternoon to face charges. we're told he is someone who was familiar to law enforcement, perhaps from making threatening statements earlier so he was not unknown to law enforcement. but in all they say a dozen suspicious packages were received at these mostly military or intelligence sites. also the sites that the secret service uses to screen mail for the white house and the secret service and the cia's mail sorting facility. the question is were any of these suspicious packages -- did any of them

pete williams, thank you. >>> new controversy surrounding social media giant facebook.ny now reveals it's been keeping texting and call logs for millions of people using android phones with access to facebook messenger. minutes ago the senate judiciary committee invited mark zuckerberg to testify at a hearing on data privacy next month. despite zuckerberg's mea culpa, the harvesting of 50 million users in 2015, and new full-page ads across the u.s. and uk, a new poll finds fewer than half of americans trust face bobbing to obey privacy laws. a political reporter with "the new york times" joins us now. ken, good to have you with us. how big of a deal is this latest revelation that facebook is actually keeping texan call logs of users? >> well, it could be a big deal and the reason why is the context, as the revelations are mounting and increasing political pressure on facebook. it's coming as they're getting scrutiny from across the political spectrum about this idea whether they are too big, what's known as a platform monopoly and need regulation and possibly even to be

nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins me from outside the supreme court, pete, what will the justices be looking at? >> reporter: it's a simple question, chris, how much partisanship is too much, gerrymandering the drawing of congressional boundaries for legislative districts has always been a political exercise done by the majority party. but the question is can it be so partisan that it violates the constitution? today's case involves maryland's 6th congressional district, a gangly, long district that for 20 years was held by a republican named roscoe bartlett. but after the district was gerrymandered, redrawn in 2011, the district, which he had won by 28% of the vote, he lost by 21% of the vote. now, the stated has been pretty candid, they drew it to try to get an extra democratic seat and they succeeded. but the challengers, seven republican voters from maryland, say that violated their first amendment rights. they say the state punished them for their political views because they're republicans. now the state says that's an amorphous test that's standardless. that's been

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins me now from the supreme court. , i know you've been tracking this. this is, frankly, an issue that democrats and republicans have had. but this case is being brought by republicans, so what are the implications and how likely are they to prevail, do you think? >> let me tell you what happened in the argument here today. gerrymandering is always done by the majority party and they always do it to help themselves. and the supreme court has never said that's unconstitutional. so the question is when would it cross a constitutional line. now the republican challengers from maryland say it crosses the line in this case in redrawing the sixth district which has been held for 20 years by a republican named roscoe bartlett. in 2011 the state intentionally drew it to give the democrats that seat. the challengers say that violates the first amendment because it punishes them for their political views supporting a republican candidate in the past. so one question is how can you tell when there's too much partisanship. and on t

nbc justice correspondent pete williams and nbc white house correspondent geoff bennett join us. pete, we see more reaction about the timing of the dismissal of andrew mccabe. many are calling this politically motivated now. what led the attorney general to take this step? >> it started with an investigation by the inspector general, looking into how the fbi handled the entire hillary clinton matter. what the ig said in a report to the fbi is mccabe authorized fbi insiders to talk to a reporter from "the wall street journal" in 2016 about the clinton foundation investigation. the ig said that was improper and that when questioned about it, mccabe wasn't forthright, wasn't candid. that went to the fbi to review. the fbi's office of professional responsibility made the recommendation that he be fired. mccabe appealed that to the justice department as is his right. and late last night, about 10:00, the attorney general decided to accept the fbi's recommendation. so mccabe was fired 26 hours before he was to retire. >> extraordinary timing, to say the least. mccabe, on his part, says

and we are now joined by phone by pete williams, nbc news justice correspondent. pete, what can you tell us about this? >> well, what the attorney general says in a statement that just came out a few seconds ago is he has accepted the recommendation for both department inspectors general and the office of personnel responsibility, the apr of professional responsibility. both have recommended that andrew mccabe be fired for two reasons, according to jeff sessions' statement. first they say he authorized the unauthorized disclosure of information about the clinton investigation while the investigation was going on. and what the inspector general had said is that violates fbi policy not to discuss investigations while they're going on. but secondly and perhaps more importantly what the statement from the attorney general says is that when mccabe was asked about this on more than one occasion including while he was under oath his answers they believe were not truthful. and for that reason the attorney general says he concludedtist right to accept the recommendations. s

nbc news's justice correspondent pete williams is here with more on this. od to see you this afternoon. what do we know about the suspect and the investigation? >> not a lot, frankly, at this point, other than that this is a person who had been on the radar of at least one law enforcement organization for previous threatening behavior. his name is tronh cong poh. he was arrested very late last night in washington outside seattle and he will be in court coming up in about four hours, to face, formally face the charges. this was very fast work by the investigators. we still don't know why they got on to him so quickly, whether there were phrases in the letters that we're told that accompanied some of these packages that they found familiar or whether it was something as simple as a return address. but in any event, they acted very quickly and they say now they're confident they have found the person that sent all of these packages, about a dozen or so, perhaps as many as 14, and it appears that some of them are now being delivered today. we know that one of th

more now from nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: attorney general jeff sessionson from the fbi itself to fire andrew mccabe over his decision to let fbi officials talk with a reporter during the presidential campaign about an investigation of the clinton foundation. sessions called that an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and said mccabe lacked candor when asked about it later including under oath on multiple occasions. the justice department says 19 other people were fired from the fbi over the past year for lack of candor, but mccabe says he answered truthfully and approved talking to the reporter to clarify the fbi's role in the clinton investigation. he says he's being singled out for supporting former fbi director james comey after he was fired. >> the vast majority of fbi employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to director comey. >> reporter: mccabe says his firing is part of an unprecedented effort by the administration, driven by the president himself to destroy his reputation and possibly strip him of his pension. today mccabe's defende

our justice correspondent pete williams is standing by for us with more on that. pete, what do we know? >> andrew mccabe is not any longer the fbi's deputy director. he stepped down from the position. but he's still on the government payroll. and will be until his retirement takes effect at the end of this week. but what we're told now, and this has been brewing for a while, is that the fbi's office of professional responsibility has recommended disciplinary action against him including his possible firing, a recommendation that is now pending before the attorney general. this involves answers that mccabe gave to the justice department's inspector general who was looking into a suggestion that mccabe had improperly talked to a reporter about the fbi's investigation of the clinton foundation. and according to people familiar with the conclusion of the inspector general's report, the ig says that mccabe was not fully forthcoming when answering questions about whether he talked to a reporter. that recommendation has been made to the attorney general and it's before hi

joining us is pete williams who has been following this for much of the day. pete, walk us through what we know about the suspect in this case. >> reporter: well, he's someone, peter, that was known to law enforcement before, has sent rambling or threatening messages to the government before. tranah cong phan from everett, washington. he was arrested very late last night in his home without any kind of trouble they say. he was identified by umpt s. postal sections. they were mailed there. there were about ten of them, 10 to 12 yesterday and there have been a few more today in the system, another one locate the to the secret service facilities at antacostia at the military base there that sorts the mail for the white house and two other gogt government agencies. we're told that while some of these, many of these contained explosive materials like black powder, which is in a sense gun powder, none of them were functioning bombs. all of them were missing a critical component. whether that was by design or the guy didn't know what he was doing, we don't know. no on

. >>> in an exclusive new interview with nbc's pete williams, fbi director christopher wray addressedorts he threatened to resign after being pressured by the white house to fire some senior individuals. earlier this year, numerous allies report that wray was pressured by the trump administration to get rid of former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. here's fbi director wray speaking to nbc's pete williams. >> do you feel any political pressure from the white house? >> no. >> president's never asked you to say anything about it or clear him? >> about the russia investigation? >> yes. >> he's never asked me to do anything with the russia investigation. >> it's been reported that you threatened to resign over being urged to fire people. is that correct? >> you know, i have been very clear from the minute i was nominated, to the minute i walked in the door, to countless opportunities since then, that i am unwaveringly committed to doing this job by the book, independently, following our rules, our processes, free from political or partisan influence. >> so it sounds like you're saying t

he made the remarks in an exclusive interview with nbc's pete williams. >> do you feel any political pressure from the white house? >> no. >> president's never asked to you say anything about it or clear him? >> about the russia investigation? >> yes. >> he's never asked me to do anything with the russia investigation. >> it's been reported that you threatened to resign over being urged to fire people, is that correct? >> you know, i have been very clear from the minute i was nominated to the minute i walked in the door to countless opportunities since then that i am unwaveringly committed to doing this job by the book, independently, following our rules, our processes, free from political or partisan influence. >> so you're saying those reports are not wrong? >> i'm not going to talk about specific conversations. >> you can see more of our exclusive interview with the fbi director tomorrow morning on "today." >>> tonight marks six months since hurricane maria tore through puerto rico. and while most of the island now has electricity and running water, some areas feel completely forg

i'm pete williams in for costa.t we discuss the churn inside the white house as robert mueller's russia investigation looks atth trump organization's business ptoctices. night on "washington week." president trump: but there'll always be change. pete: just 14 months into office, president trump reshapes s administration. president trump: i'm at a pint where we're getting very close to having the cabinet and othert things tha i want. pete: this week he fired the secretary of state and chose the c.i.a. director to take over. he's also reportedly preparing to name his third national security advisor in less than a year.sc dals have other issues

for more on breaking news and the stories we have, nbc justice correspondent pete williams and nbc white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. welcome to you both. pete, we're seeing a lot more reaction about the timing of the dismissal of andrew mccabe. i mean, 26 hours hours before the beginning of his retirement. tell us how this came about. >> it all started with an inspector general report looking into the whole way that the fbi conducted the clinton investigation, e-mails, the foundation, and what the inspector general said is that last -- or rather, in october of 2016, during the election, andrew mccabe authorized fbi insiders to talk to a reporter from "the wall street journal" to basically knock down the reporter's contention of what he had heard, that the fbi was slow rolling the investigation of the clinton foundation. to the contrary, this article said, people at the fbi were saying, no, they were pushing for it, and it was the justice department that wanted to derail it. so that's part "a" of what sessions was talking about in that statement. they called that an unauthorized

we have nbc justice nbc's justice correspondent pete williams has the very latest on all of this overnight. >> hey, pete, good morning. >> reporter: hoda, good morning. three sent to military bases and three to other government and intelligence facilities. in each case, responders disposed of them safely. and nobody was hurt. and this morning, law enforcement officials say they now have a suspect in custody. all were sent through the mail, law enforcement officials say to addresses on the eastern seaboard. the first was discovered monday at the national defense university on ft. mcnair in southwest washington, d.c. a bomb squad detected explosive residue on the package and x-rays revealed bomb components inside. similar packages were sent to ft. belvoir in virginia, the naval station. and the screening center and the secret service mail center in washington. a law enforcement official said some of the packages included letters described as rambling and disturbed. investigators were quick to say they do not believe it was the work of marc anthony condit who placed and sent functioning bombs

pete williams has more on the bomb scare and the suspect. >> reporter: the packages were still showing up today at the national reconnaissance office an intelligence facility in virginia, and on this washington, d.c., military base where white house mail is screened. another addressed to the security agency in maryland. in all, more than a dozen packages sent to government facilities in the washington air -- area. roughly half of them were addressed to the cia. and stopped at its off-site mail handling office. fbi agents moved quickly to arrest a suspect at this mobile home in everett, washington. 43-year-old thanh cong phan, known from previous mailings described as badgering, court records show he was involuntary committed in 2011 for brief mental health treatment. investigators say letters sent with these latest packages complained about the government controlling minds. the first was discovered monday at the national war college on ft. mcnair. investigators said it contained a jar of black powder. as more of them turned up, they were found to have similar contents, including explos

see what's possible. >>> joining us now, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. own with an exclusive wide-ranging interview with fbi director christopher wray. what does he have to say? >> it's his first interview after he became the fbi director eight months ago and he insists, contrary to what you may have heard, that the fbi is not mired in the russia investigation. >> fbi, don't move. >> reporter: at the fbi training academy in virginia where prospective agents are put through the paces, fbi director christopher wray says there's been no drop in the number of applicants despite accusations that the fbi favored hillary clinton at the expense of donald trump. >> i have not seen a politicized organization. what i have seen is people fiercely focused on trying to do the right ng the right way. >> reporter: but what does it do to morale when some of the toughest criticism comes from the president himself? >> would we prefer not to get criticized? of course. but we're our own toughest critics. >> reporter: he says the fbi can be highly selective with new agent admi

. >> white house correspondent, jeff bennett and pete williams. how significant are these memos that robert mueller has now? >> the significance is that they will commemorate meetings. and so, i think the importance to mueller's investigators will be their ability to be a second source authenticating or corroborating what james comby has told investigators. >> michael bromwitch, representing andrew mccabe, said he has never seen this rush to judgment before. is the time of this firing unusual to you? >> yes, there are a lot of things unusual about this. the reason we are told that timing happened the way it did is, the fbi office of eligibility made a recommendation, it was appeared to the justice department. it was thfrds that mccabe and his lawyers were able to meet with a justice career official to talk about it and the recommendation went to the attorney general yesterday. at 10:00, he made the decision. one other thing about the president's tweet that you just showed, he keems coming back in the tweets on the issue of jill mccabe who ran for

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for from pete williams. >> reporter: attorney general je jeff sessions accepted a recommendation from the fbi to fire andrew mccabe, on reports that he let investigators talk with a journalist during the collison investigation. the justice department says 19 other people were fired from the fbi over the past year for lack of candor. >> sir, i can't comment. >> reporter: but mccabe says he spoke truthfully. he says he's being singled out for supporting former fbi director james comey afc the te was feared. mccabe says his fires is part of an unprecedented effort by the administration driven by the president himself to destroy his reputation and possibly strip him of his pension. today, mccabe's supporters called for a fund to support him and his family. >> the idea that a president could come in with an undisciplined decision a couple days before his career is over is a frightens proposition. >> reporter: so far, the report that led to the fbi's firing recommendation has not been released. >> the public needs to see the reasons for the firing. otherwise it looks like trying to suppress

. >>> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams just sta taped an extensive interview with the fbiris wray. chris wray tells pete that president trump has never personally pressured him about the russia investigation. seems very important to have him on the record about that. director wray also goes on at length about what he sees as the important nonpartisan nature of the fbi and the crucial independence of the fbi. that also seems important right now to have him on the record about that, especially after the firing of the fbi's deputy director following months of pressure and taunting of him by the president. we're going to post those comments online tonight at madd maddow.com, if you want to see that. it's very interesting to hear him put that stuff in his own words. but in addition to talking about those big foundation an issues with the fbi, that the remarkable time for the bureau, with the white house and him attacking them regularly, they've had some specific remarks, something they jointly warned about a few months ago. >> ywhat do you think the russians were up to there? w

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams has been following this story all night for us. pete, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. the attorney general says that andrew mccabe mass fired for repeatedly misleading investigations about his actions, but mccabe says this is the result of the administration's war with the fbi. andrew mccabe stepped down as the fbi's deputy director in late january and his actual retirement date was tomorrow, but late friday attorney general jeff sessions accepted a recommendation from the fbi itself that mccabe should be fired after 21 years of service. the fbi recommended firing him over his decision to let fbi insiders talk to a reporter during the presidential campaign about the investigation of the clinton foundation. attorney general jeff sessions said mccabe made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor when asked about it, including under oath on multiple occasions. and justice department officials said 19 other people have been fired from the fbi in the past year for lack of candor. mccabe was a frequen

. >>> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams just taped an extensive interview with the fbi director, chris wray, which is fascinating on a bunch of different levels. he tells pete that president trump has never personally pressured him about the russia investigation. it seems very important to have him on the record about that. director wray also goes on at length about what he sees as the important non-partisan nature of the fbi and the crucial independence of the fbi. that also seems important right now, to have him on the record about that, especially after the firing of the fbi's deputy director following months of pressure and taunting of him by the president. we're going to post those comments from chris wray online tonight if you want to see that. we don't hear from the fbi director all that often except when he's doing congressional testimony. but in addition to him talking about those big foundational issues for the fbi, this remarkable time for the bureau, with the president, the white house attacking the fbi regularly, chris wray has also had some very specific remarks ab

pete williams in this that room right there. when we know the news you will know the news. our team is hear and ready to go. i'll start with nbc's jeff bennet at the white house. jeff, this white house whiplash situation with the president issuing the veto threat after his own administration repeatedly said he was good with this on any bus bill is to say, the least surprising. we'll play what mark short said on this show yesterday about the exact situation. listen. >> he's totally fine and down? >> halle there's several thing we'd ask for in our budget we should go back to and say are you happy and those are this thing we wanted to see. >> so jeff, what happened? >> well, halle, president trump says he intends to veto the bill because it doesn't fully solve the docket issue nor fund his border wall. the president writes i'm considering a veto of the omnibus bill based on the fact that the the daca recipients have been abandoned by the democrats, not even mentioned in bill and the border wall which is desperately needed for our national defense is not fully funded. governmen

. >> all right, pete williams. >>> da secretary david shulkin give you his side of the story after presidentrump fired him. what he's saying how it all went down and about the man nominated to replace him. get it for jean who's always cold. for the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. give us the data we need. in one place, anywhere we need it. help us do our jobs better. with domo we can run this place together. well that's that's your job i guess. ♪ (vo)just one touch.ith with fancy feast creamy delights, she can have just the right touch of real milk. easily digestible, it makes her favorite entrées even more delightful. fancy feast creamy delights. love is in the details. >>> when's the last time you spoke to him? >> i spoke to the president yesterday. >> what was that convention like? >> we spoke about the policies what i needed to do from policy per protection. >> you spoke to him, he made no mention about of the fact he was about to terminate you? >> that's correct. >> therein you found by by a tweet? >> right before that the chief of staff gave me a heads up. >> and that was fired

let's get the inside scoop from nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, jessica ainsley and jonathanire and msnbc political analyst. pete, i have to start with you and this new information about paul manafort. what's the very latest? >> as you know, 45 minutes from now, he was to walk into the courthouse in alexandria, virginia, just across the river here to be arraigned on the new indictment that was filed there. this is the one that takes out richard gates who has pleaded guilty but it adds some new charges involving bank fraud. but because of all the high wind in washington and the fact that it's hard to get around because of all the trees blown down on the roads, that courthouse is closed today. so we don't know when that hearing will be. it will be rescheduled probably next week. in a filing precedesing the hearing, the government said if paul manafort is convicted on all the charges he'd face a guideline sentencing range, a likely sentence of 15 1/2 to 20 1/2 years. that's assuming the judge follows the sentencing guidelines and if convicted on all the charges in alexand riahe

we have halle jackson and gary haig and pete williams our justice correspondent. lots to break down this hour. halle, let's begin with you. is this going to be a few strategy by the president? is this trump blowing off steam? what more can you tell us about why we saw this exclamation from the president? >> reporter: yeah, it's a new strategy. not one we seen previously. the president in the last 45 minutes or so he was walking out to marine one to head to new hampshire did not respond to any questions about robert mueller, kept on walking along with first lady melania trump. if he had wanted to blow off steam, one would have walked u reporters. we have seen repeatedly from him over the last 24, 48 hours, including one in which he again described what was happening in the russia investigation as a witch hunt and he continues to rail against not just the investigation, but also robert mueller, himself, he calls this a witch hunt with massive conflicts of interest. this is a raised question about what the president is doing here. you have outside observers who seems