phil mudd, i want to start with you. you have the u.s.ligence community deliver the president an assessment, it appears a strong assessment, that the crown prince, mohammed bin salman, was involved in this. and you have the president receive that one, saying he doesn't want to hear the tape that's behind some of that assessment, but more broadly, leaving open the possibility that that assessment is just not true. using that phrasing, we don't really know, we'll never really know. what's your reaction to that? >> well, there's a couple pieces. it reminds me of what we had to deal with in the russia situation where we went from the president repeatedly questioning the intelligence to finally people in the administration saying we got to talk to vladimir putin about this, even though the president didn't want to because the intelligence is too overwhelming. the two quick pieces of the story i tell you are the president has the right to say i received the intelligence. the intelligence is compelling, but i want to maintain a relationship with

. >>> we are back with john avlon and -- is that phil mudd? >> yeah. >> he is so secret, he doesn't let me know in teleprompter. good to see you. on the day the russian military seizes three ukrainian ships, and president trump tweets europe has to pay their share, and things must change fast. is that the right message? >> well, if you are vladimir putin you take some comfort in that. this provocation on the part of putin and his views generally, going back to 2014 about ukraine are linked to how he feels about the nato and the expansion of nato and how it compromises russia territorily, so he likes to see president trump start to question nato members, whether they are paying their fair share. it doesn't project a share of unity. it's the last thing that anybody wants, but it also weakens the president's hand to talk about putin about backing off on ukraine. we have seen successive administrations going back to push that were unable to stop putin with regard to crimea and ukraine. it's a central belief on his part. >> to be clear, he has done

jim acosta is traveling with the president as well as jeffrey toobin, dana bash, phil mudd. jim, start with you. tell us the significance. >> yeah. alisyn and john, this was a significant silence from the president when it comes to the russia investigation, comes to the bombshell revelation from michael cohen yesterday he pled guilty to lying to congress about the trump tower moscow project during the 2016 campaign. the president meeting here with enrique trudeau and pena nieto. and you saw during the event that wrapped up a few moments ago, the canadian prime minister challenged the president on the steel and aluminum seraphs imposed and canada but signed it anyway. also absent any mention how mexico would paper for the wall on the border with the u.s. and mexico. that also did not come up, but noticeably absent, as you said, any talk about the russia investigation. the president leaving it to his twitter feed this morning to deal with all that. as he said in tweets this morning, that his business dealings during the campaign were "very legal and very cool"'s he said he tal

two great minds for all this, phil mudd and mike rodgers. with you in terms of what real exposure can be here. this notion that vladimir putin may have been gifted an apartment in this development deal maybe give him a cut of the action, it matters to you, why? >> the foreign corrupt practices act is serious. you don't have to fully transact the deal, you just have to offer it, if you're offering something of value, to get something of value, you are in violation of the foreign corrupt practices act it would be hard for anyone to argue you didn't give something of value to the president of russia to get approved a building to have some value there. that's against the law. >> what's the difference between a corrupt practice and a business deal? >> when you're dealing overseas, you cannot offer something of value. the reason the united states does this is to promote u.s. values over seas. where corruption is rampant. it puts the onus on american businesses to do the right thing, meaning, if you're asked for a bribe, have you to say no, and you

. >> how do you think, phil mudd, officials at the justice department will react to all of this?eve it or not, wolf, it is 48 hours before thanksgiving day and i'm giving thanks. it is a rare moment, run the videotape, where i'm thankful. look, the president squeezed the former attorney general jeff sessions to step away from the sessions' recusal on russia. sessions stood up with a backbone and said, mr. president, no. the president pressed the former fbi director james comey before comey was fired, please step away from the flynn investigation, the investigation into the former national security adviser, general flynn. the former fbi director said no. the president is now apparently pressing this -- or has pressed this fbi director to begin some investigations, and this fbi director would appropriately say no. wolf, my message is regardless of whether you are republican or democrat, when the president tries to overstep his bound, give thanks. the system repeatedly said no, we're not going to do it. >> josh campbell, you are a former fbi supervisory special agent. you worked wit

i want to bring in phil mudd, who once worked at the fbi. these are official reports, phil. and clearly, only sporadic information is coming in. we're probably going to be learning a lot more fairly soon. but what's your initial assessment of this? it sounds obviously very, very bad. >> yeah, there's a couple questions you would have from the outset and i would judge that the police department might have answers already. first of all, for example, is the individual -- if the individual, the shooter, has been injured, is he speaking? does he have identification on that would allow you not only to determine who he or she is, but to reach out to things like family and associates to say who is this person, and what might be the motivation for this event? the other thing obviously you have is targets. can you determine why this person was shooting at these targets? is there a broader conspiracy afoot? was this an individual who was simply deranged? we should know those pretty quickly with the access, obviously, the officers have to the individual. right now the first question is

we want to bring in phil mudd and john avlon. phil, did the trail just get more clear for you? >> it did. there's a couple pieces we have known for months, and we knew what the russians were up to including intelligence, and we had the outlines of interests in the trump circle, roger stone, for example, and we're in the holidays, and we all like puzzles -- >> i do in the summer. >> we are clarifying the information about how the interaction with wikileaks was happening. for the final pieces we need a couple questions answers. number one, obviously roger stone is denying this, is it true? the bigger question, if people affiliated with the campaign were talking to julian assange, did they get anything more than we are getting dirt? i want to know did you get anything and when did you know about it? >> yeah. pete 109, this is part of the filing that so bothered the legal team, and corsi said an associate roger stone was understood to be in regular contact with senior members of the trump campaign, including donald trump. you have mueller's team making a direct connection between p

joining us now, we have michael smerconish and former cia count counterterrorism official, phil mudd. you say you have never seen anything like this. >> are you going to read the exclamation reports? >> it had eight of them. >> maybe he did, maybe he didn't, exclamation point. we may never know the facts. in any case our relationship is with the kingdom of saudi arabia. what was it that stunned you, david? >> what stunned me were two things, alisyn. first, this statement, 633 words is the map of donald trump's mind about the way the world operates. it's a world in which not only is it america first, but it's whatever it is that we can sell. the second is human rights are pretty much something that you just talk about on the side but when it comes to the end, you don't do very much. the third is it's a completely black and white choice, that it's either support the crown prince, or a ban in saudi arabia. that was pretty remarkable. the final thing to note about the statement, and clearly it was written by the president himself because most statements from the white house don't come out

. >> joining us now, phil mudd, cnn counterterrorism analyst and former senior fbi adviser.ident trump, as commander in chief, have listened to the tape? >> no, i don't think he should have. i think he made the right decision. by listening to the tape, ana, you're suggesting that that is the primary and maybe even the sole significant piece of intelligence that you should use to make a judgment about what happened in turkey. that's a slice of the pie, but there are a lot of other slices. do you have other intercepted communications about what people were talking about, including after the operation? did the turks intercept communications? what about video from around that facility, the diplomatic facility before and after the murder? i'd like to know whether there are informants, that is secret sources who are talking about what people in riyadh, the capital of saudi arabia, were saying after the event. let me take you farther afield for a second. i'd like to know who paid for the airplanes, the transport of those officers from saudi arabia to turkey. were those paid from of

phil mudd, in the meantime, let me ask you this. if i were a dissident, not just in the middle east, but anywhere in the world, frankly, because remember, jamal khashoggi went to istanbul, a nato ally, to get marriage papers, to marry his fiance. imagining he was safe and he was killed and dismembered and his body disappeared. if i'm a dissident, whether from saudi arabia or russia or china, and i hear the president's words today, am i worried today about my life and my safety, that other strong men will take this as a -- an okay to knock out their opponents, even abroad? >> why would you worry more today than you did yesterday? the president has affiliated himself with the leadership of the philippines, which has murdered people routinely, extra additionally. the president has affiliated himself with the turks and egyptians, long-term american allies, anti democratic during the president's administration. the president has been more courteous towards vladimir putin than he has been toward nato allies. vladimir putin, a man whose op

. >> phil mudd, we know the president is frustrated by his inability to control the mueller investigational counsel decides that the written answers are insufficient, he wants more including a sitdown interview with the president, how do you see that unfolding? >> well, i don't think it would slow down the investigation that much, believe it or not. let me give you a simple reason why. we've had many dozens of indictments in this investigation, we've had guilty pleas, we've had completed trials. even within the past year, the mueller team would have interviewed maybe people for thousands of hours. they've talked about looking at millions of documents. if there are people on the campaign, affiliated with the campaign, affiliated with the white house who were involved in one of the three charges we've seen involved in connections with the russians, involved in dirty money or involved in lying to federal agents during interviews, i don't see why an interview with the president would slow down further charges we might see this month or after christmas. >> you know, ron, in the midst of all of

. >>> i want to bring in now john dean and phil mudd. good evening, gentlemen.o let's get your reaction, john, first. your reaction to paul manafort updating the president's legal team on his contact with mueller. an attorney for paul manafort obviously. >> yes. "the new york times" reported this earlier, and it's kevin downing. that's the lawyer who was involved in this, and he's playing a very dangerous game. during watergate, the most experienced criminal defense lawyer represented e. howard hunt. he ended up, because of doing just what this -- a very similar action, an unindicted co-conspirator and got himself in a whole heap of trouble. came within a hair's esso there's a line here, don. generally when you have a joint defense agreement, once your client is cooperating, you no longer are part of that agreement. >> does this mean, phil, that manafort was essentially informing the president about what mueller knows where he was claiming to be cooperating but actually lying? >> i think so. we're still missing just a quarter piece of the puzzle, don. i look at

and phil mudd, i want to go to you first as a remembformer cia official there, to hear the presidently on the same day he was supposed to receive what we are told is quite a confident assessment from the cia that the saudi crown prince ordered the murder and dismemberment of the journalist, jamal khashoggi. for the president then to come out and say, well, it's not definitive, he ma i have done it, may not have done it. how does the u.s. intelligence community receive that reaction? >> it doesn't have to be definitive and you're never going to get definitive. does a court of law in the united states say if you don't have a definitive verdict you say guilty or not guilty? the president is making a false distinction between whether or not he's got a phone call, for example, the crown prince, the assassination team and whether you can draw a conclusion that a reasonable person would say the crown prince was involved in authorizing the assassination. look, you can have your cake and eat it too and the president has chosen not to. you can say i think the saudis are guilty. i think we shou

phil mudd is here, jack quinn, susan glasser, and max boot, including a report that the cia now concludes that saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman personally ordered the killing of journalist jamal khashoggi, right after this. looking good! at booking.com, we can't guarantee you'll good at that water jet thingy... but we can guarantee the best price on this hotel. or any accommodation, from homes to yurts. booking.com booking.yeah whoa! presenting the iwhat's he doing? come on, let's check it out! nice. he's pretty good at this. hm! it's like a game! (gasps) woo-hoo! got it! which car should we get? all of 'em! ooh, yeah! that one! this one looks nice. yes, and yes. i like this game. i think we're winning! delivery? where? (doorbell rings) (man) it's here! what? (announcer) buy your next car from carvana before ralph breaks the internet. then go see the movie, in theatres november 21st. every insurance company tells you they can save you money. save up to 10% when you bundle with esurance. including me, esurance spokesperson dennis quaid. he's a pretty good spokesperson. ehhh. so when

phil mudd is here, jack quinn, susan glasser, and max boot, including a report that the cia now concludes that saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman personally ordered the killing of journalist jamal khashoggi, right after this. ♪ the whole world's coming together now ♪ ♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it shhh... [whispering] ♪ can you feel it >>> so we're back here on a friday night. another crazy week. developments on multiple stories, both at home and abroad. so joining me now to break it all down, philip mudd, jack quinn, susan glasser. max boot. max is the author of "the corrosion of conservatism: why i left the right." good evening. we're at the end here of a slow week. that's not true, but we have some serious breaking news. there was big breaking news tonight, max. there's this "washington post" report tonight. the cia concluded the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman gave the order to assassinate khashoggi in istanbul last month. what's your reaction to that? >> that so

we have phil mudd still with us, formerly both of the cia and fbi. etting the first reports. what happens in these early moments after an active shooter is reported, particularly as it appears they are still searching for one or more offenders? >> reporter: sure. you've got a couple things on the scene. first, as you're seeing the reporting from athena, you've got to secure the area to ensure if there is a second shooter that people don't get hurt. second is what i just mentioned. you've got to look around, and even though you might be 98% certain that the person was there. for example, maybe because of a personal vendetta, there is not another shooter afoot. one of the questions i have, what if the individual has identification so you can look at things like social media pages to ascertain identity and see communication about broader conspiracies. my guess is it's a sole operator, but you can't assume that from minute one. >> as will always note in these circumstances, these are the earliest reports. the police saying reports of an active shooter. th

let's bring in cia special agent josh campbell in thousand oaks tonight and former cia official phil mudd. josh, you're there. you're out there in thousand oaks. agents are searching the shooter's home, his car. what are they looking for? >> reporter: well, wolf, the shooter is dead so officers cannot interview him to try to get to the motive, to get to his rationale, what was going through his mind when he planned and then executed this deadly incident behind me. that leaves the physical evidence, the digital evidence and other evidence that they're going to be looking for at the car, the house and the like in order to paint the picture of who this person was. we heard from officers a short time ago at the press conference. the fbi office has their team here, also looking at the car, looking at the residence. trying to find out is there any evidence that might indicate why the shooter did what he did. again, a very lengthy large scale investigation that's under way right now. but that is what is going to be required in order to try to figure out why the shooting happened here. >> phil, i

back with me now, max boot, alice stewart, and also phil mudd. sorry, excuse me.ck and forth between the french government and president trump because i thought it was interesting because the president sent out this tweet where he was criticizing france about things. the spokesman for macron, i thought his response -- did you see his response? he said, i'm going to answer you in two words about these tweets. yesterday was the 13th of november. we commemorated the assassination of 130 of our compatriots in paris and st. denis. he said, so i will answer him in english. common decency would have been good. i will not have any other comment to make. ouch. >> ouch. we got a couple things going on here. the president saying rain meant that i couldn't go out to a commemorative ceremony. you mean the secret service sat next to the president and said you can't get in the car because of the rain? >> he is saying -- he said that it would be -- it was too far from the airport and that it would be gridlock. >> oh, gridlock. so answer me this. the french leadership, the german

phil mudd, what stands out to you from going through these documents? >> one piece of this. look, we've been at this for a couple of years now. a couple of pieces that have already come in place. we know what the russians did. the mueller indictments show us. it wasn't only russians involved in hacking, it was russians involved in military intelligence. we know who they hacked and how they released the information. that was the intermediary, wikileaks, putting out the information. we're waiting for the final piece. we knew roger stone was involved in looking at wikileaks. we didn't have a great deal of detail. that final piece, was there an element in the trump circuit who was connected with wikileaks slowly coming into focus. the piece we're missing, though, is whether they ever got what they were seeking. we're half a step away from that, closing in. >> what do you make of corsi's claim, and it's a claim by him, that he just happened to correctly guess -- it was a guess on his part -- which e-mails wikileaks would release? >> it was a guess?! okay, the serious answer to th

phil mudd, you have worked with robert mueller. another possible message this sends is the special counsel's team has a lot of information, so many information that it can catch a lot of team if they try to veer away from the truth. >> you don't want to go in front of a judge and accuse somebody who has a plea deal of lying unless you really have the goods. remember, we've had people who have pled get guilty to lying, michael flynn, george papadopoulos. let me echo what airy said, arrogance is like alcohol, it makes you stupid. we have somebody who went in against the special counsel for that trial in alexandria, virginia, and lost, somebody who, as carrie said, went into probation and decided he had to tamper with witnesses. how stupid can you be? i think people are going to read a lot into this, that manafort has a lot to hide. i think this story is simpler. he simply is looking in the mirror and saying i'm starter than the fed guys and repeated the answer is he's not. >> the other option is that he's sly like a fox and that he k

phil mudd, does all this weaken the president's standing among other world leaders as he tries to advanceenda here at the g20? >> i think it does. but the picture is not just what's happening with cohen now. i'm sure all those world leaders are being advised day by day on what they're seeing in the media. but the picture goes back to the beginning of the trump administration. let's cut to the chase. if you're sitting in the table over the next day or so in those meetings and have a conversation about ukraine and what has been happening in terms of russia's confrontation with ukrainians, if you're british or german and look across the table and see president trump, how do you trust him? based on not only this week, but what you have seen over the past year-and-a-half-plus? are you going to say this is the traditions of nato, we're in this together and we have to contain the russians formally the soviets? or you do you say the counterpart who has been with us since world war ii and before has more interest in cultivating vladimir putin than cultivating us? i will tell you, if i were in brit

i'll start with you, phil mudd, the shooter was known to police for some minor incidents, but one in particular where mental health specialists were called. take a listen to the sheriff. >> in april of this year, deputies were called to his house for a subject disturbing. they went to the house. they talked to him. he was somewhat irate and acting a little irrationally. they called out our crisis intervention team, our mental health specialist who met with him, talked to him and cleared him. >> so law enforcement knew about him. mental health specialists went there. they ultimately cleared him. there are going to be people who say and ask did law enforcement drop the ball here. what do you think? >> are you kid considering me. wolf, pardon me. >> jake. >> i live in an urban area. i'm going to pass people with mental health disabilities when i go out to my home tonight. instead of asking about this individual case, the question you have to ask is among the thousands of people encountered by law enforcement and psychological experts, 5,000, 10,000, 20000, how many pop out as exceptiona