next to his, and she's involved in a lot that went on. >> after michael cohen pointed lawmakers to rhona graffnal testimony, the democrat-led house judiciary committee followed up with an expansive document request aimed at 81 individuals and enttdys including graff. she's worked for the billionaire businessman for three decades. she was trump's gate keeper. those who wanted to reach trump often had to go through her first. >> rhona, let me have the call please. >> trump reportedly doesn't use e-mail or text message so she often coordinated his calls, even providing at times a coded system for callers who needed to get through. the woman behind the scenes also took her occasional turn in the spotlight. >> rhona, come here. i'm going to make you a star. >> even appearing on nbc's "the apprentice." >> he asked me to call you and tell you to meet him tomorrow morning at the new york stock exchange. >> despite her loyalty to trump, she passed on a job at the white house to remain in new york with her family, but soon, washington came to her. investigators from the house intelligence committee then

rhona graff is president trump's long time personal assistance largely seen as the gatekeeper of trump tower. as we dug up old cnn footage, clearly the president's right hand woman. >> rhona, let me have the calls, please. >> sarah murray has been digging in a little bit more. that video, 1989, she worked for donald trump for a long, long time, sarah. what more do we know? >> she's worked for him for decades. she is an executive assistant but her title and responsibilities in the trump organization have grown and she obviously earned donald trump's trust over the years and there's a reason that they call her the gatekeeper and it's because more often than not, if you wanted to get to donald trump, you had to go through rhona graff first. donald trump is someone who does not use text message or use email and he's obviously someone that a lot of people throughout the course of his business life and political life people have been trying to get him on the phone. the phone calls would first go to rona and for a while she had the coded system that she would sometimes use if it was someone t

and ivanka trump. >> it would either be eric trump, rhona graff is his adviser, alan weisselberg, alann with the trump organization as well. >> who else at the trump organization knows he did this? >> alan weisselberg. >> would mr. weisselberg have more information on that? >> mr. weisselberg for sure. >> ari, how does the house deal with that? >> ari, i spent some time in donald trump's office talking to donald and other people. it reminded me of nothing as much as a form of upscale bad-da-bing. it was the president sitting behind a desk. nobody was wandering around because there's paintings and other things sitting on the seats. no one was sitting down. but only one person who mattered, that was donald trump. the main thing is the american people and the investigators are going to have to decide whether donald trump, his family and his inner circle, all of whom were described there by michael cohen, together constitute an ongoing criminal conspiracy that might have made itself either vulnerable or willing to conspire with the russians, but even if it didn't do that, is this ongoing,

it would either be eric trump -- rho rhona graff is mr. trump's executive assistant.r, howard, barry lavine of ami as well. allen weissleberg. alan garten of the trump organization as well. >> who else knows that trump did this? >> allen weissleberg, matthew lieberman and calamari. >> howard, how does the house deal with that? >> well, ari, in the campaign i spent some time on the 26th floor of trump tower in donald trump's office talking to donald and other people. and to reminded me as nothing so much as a somewhat more upscale backroom at the badda bing. it was donald trump sitting behind the desk and various people milling around. nobody sitting down because donald trump had too many trophies and paintings and other things on all the chairs and seats. there was nowhere to sit down. but everybody milling around the office and only one person who mattered and was making everybody else argue with each other. that was donald trump. the larger point is here, and the big picture point is that the american people and the investigators are going to have to decide whether

and don mcgahn, and people close to the company including his long-time cfo allen weisselberg and rhona graff who is a long-time gatekeeper of the trump organization. the fbi, the trump-ordered foundation, the charity asking for this information, brianna, within the next two weeks. i am told they are ready to move forward with hearings, potentially public hearings, in a matter of weeks with some of these individuals. they're waiting to see what kind of cooperation they receive first to determine whether they should subpoena for records and documents and whether to compel any of these witnesses to come forward. but suffice it to say a very long and breathtaking investigation in scope, and expect this to take place for a matter of weeks, months and dominate the rest of this congress from this particular committee. and this is just one committee. several investigating various aspects of the president, brianna. >> a stunning reporter from new york says trump hired a top aide to stop the pressure, to stop the merger of at&t and time warner. this new report is pretty interesting, and there is a lot

>> well, i have a personal favorite, rhona graff and that's just based on having question rosemary woodshey know everything and i know that rosemary woods was an adviser to president nixon. she was not just an assistant and rhona graff has been with him for years, but i would say allen weisselberg would be a close first as well. i think that that is very significant. >> before we go, what's your pin? >> my pin is a rooster crowing the truth and saying that the republicans ought to start listening to the truth and also crowing about arizona about to become the 38th state and the last necessary state to pass the equal rights amendment. there's a big walk, a 38-mile walk starting in phoenix on march 11th and i hope everyone who can will get to phoenix and join that march so that we can pass the equal rights amendment. >> we need to have you to come back just to talk about that. okay. jill, bringing the fire and the fashion. thank you very much, jill. have a great day. >> thank you. >> and david and elly will be back with us. >>> why michael cohen's testimony could put ivanka and don junior

rhona graff, his long time assistant. alan weisselberg was singled out by michael cohen up here on capitol hill last weir. notably someone who is not on the list is ivanka trump. that's been raised on capitol hill. certainly many democrats aren't ruling out they could do a second traunch of document requests from additional people. that's certainly in the mix as well. these people and entities have about two weeks to respond back to the committee. we have certainly heard the white house response to this. sarah sanders clear. she called it a fishing expedition saying democrats aren't after the truth. they are after the president. certainly we have heard from president trump tweeting this morning specifically about the 81 letters sent. he says to innocent people. they won't get anything done for our country. back to you. >> sunlen, talk about the topics under scrutiny. the list is broad. >> it is. this is hitting president trump in nearly every aspect of his life. his businesses, campaign, inaugural committee. here are just

>>> one of the names being targeted by democrats, rhona graff, the woman known as the gatekeeper as trump bring investigators? ♪ ♪ t-mobile will do the math for you. right now, when you join t-mobile, you get two lines of unlimited with two of the latest phones included for just one hundred bucks a month. means they won't hike your rates over one mistake. see, liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ >>> thanks for joining me. i'm erica hill in today for brooke baldwin. we begin with new signs of defiant and pushback this hour from the trump administration, those in response to growing congressional investigations into the president. first, democrats getting their first outright rejection from the white house. they're asking for more information about security clearances, like that of jared kushner. also cnn has new reporting that t

there's an assistant, rhona graff. a couple of weeks later the president-elect called me. though i would have expected him to be very busy. he shot the breeze with me for five minutes. i reported that contact to my deputy, members of the staff and the trump transition team responsible for doj. he called me again two days before the inauguration. you would expect him to be very busy, working on his speech. he didn't say anything untoward, didn't ask me to do anything inappropriate. i returned the phone call and advised people about it. >> at that time, he was not calling, to our knowledge, any other prosecutor in the country? >> not to my knowledge. i didn't know him before i met him personally on november 30th. it seemed odd to me. it was suggested to me that donald trump doesn't know protocols. i know about his habits of contacting people and going around proper protocols than we knew back then. i often joke mied father is a retired immigrant, indian-american pediatrician from new jersey and has not read the doj guidelines and is not familiar with protocols and he said to

, reince priebus to corey lewandowski, to brad parscale, to don mcgahn, white house counsel, to rhona graff, the president's secretary. i mean, all of these different people got judiciary committee requests specifically about wikileaks. all of these other people on that list. actually i should tell you, there may be more. there were 81 different document requests to go through. we might have missed some. that's what we got on the first pass. all the other characters in the drama are being asked about wikileaks communications. because of that and because of the criminal case against roger stone, you should also know that today in federal court in virginia, a little bit of drama. today in federal court in virginia, the u.s. attorney himself, the top of that prosecutor's office, the edva u.s. attorney himself personally turned up in court for a sealed hearing today that appears to be about some sort of legal case potentially involving wikileaks and/or julian assange. you might remember back in november right after the election there was a little flurry of news stories about what seemed to be a

to some of his closest trough organization confidants, allen weisselberg, rhona graff, former white house officials, sean spicer, steve bannon. it tracks in the categories from the trump organization to the trump campaign to the white house, the current white house, and into these involved with the russia investigation that have been unearthed up to this point. and i think one of the big questions now is there are document requests. what comes next? particularly if some of these individuals don't cooperate? well, jerry nadler was asked this question by erin burnett last night. will he consider subpoenas? this is what he said. >> for two years, the trump administration has been attacking the core functions of our democracy and the congress has refused to do any oversight. they've refused to -- they've shielded him. they've acted more as shields than as what the congress is supposed to do, which is to be a check and a balance. we are going to be the check and the balance. we are going to find out, we are going to lay out the facts for the american people. >> reporter: so it's worth noting t

be so gas in a i get to hear from allen weisselberg who was the cfo of the trump organization, rhona graff, one of the gatekeepers, that's the old rules and now new rules, congress wants to hear how it worked. >> yeah, exactly, and the question is whether the courts will ultimately settle who comes before them, if they fight these subpoenas. we can find out in the next couple of weeks. and i think judge jackson who made the point that, you know, you get two strikes but not three is likely to show him who is boss in this case. i've seen a lot of tough federal judges who i don't think should be putting up with this kind of stupidity. >> judge berman jackson, no relation. mary katharine, last word. >> everybody wants to be an instagram influencer these days whether you are roger stone or a bachelor et contestant. it's a different path. >> leave it there. >> i'm an instagram influencer now, i guess, because i'm on roger stone's website. >> i guess so. >> looking sharp. >> you have arrived. >> jeffrey, david, mary kathari katharine, thank you. >>> president trump blamed michael cohen's testimon

of them include allen wooi weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the trump organization, rhona graff, longtime assistant to then donald trump, the businessperson. his sons, jared kushner, along with david pecker and the nra and the list goes weon and on. the list goes well beyond the russia committee. chairman nadler is looking for answers, answers about potential obstruction of justice and collusion, emoluments. so what's the president's reaction? >> mr. president, are you going to cooperate with mr. nadler? >> i cooperate all the time with everybody. and you know the beautiful thing? no collusion, it's all a hoax. >> okay, here's where we are tonight. mueller is expected to wrap up his investigation any day. we could be hours away from that. but mueller may only be the beginning of threats to trump's presidency. that's because nadler's investigation is one of at least six committees investigating the president. his response. >> unfortunately, you put the wrong people in a couple of positions and they leave people for a long time that shouldn't be there. and all of a sudden, they're

. >> don jr., eric trump, rhona graff his long time gatekeeper at the trump organization. what happens if some of them don't want to come in? >> you have have a fight. you will have a legal fight over subpoenas and whether they can resist. the investigation the president is facing are not just focus odd on the russia probe and things being covered by bob mueller. 17 different investigations that go into his businesses, questions of lying. this is a full probe into everything from obstruction of justice to questions of money laundering. >> that's their whole people. what republicans now say or at least president trump supporters is they can't get him on collusion, this is them trying to cover the fact that mueller is going to be greatly disappointing, mueller's report, so this is them now on this fishing expedition. >> the leading authority will be the mueller report when it comes out, but the issue is is there there are a lot of other questions that have come up that house republicans effectively carried the water for the president democrats say. they're proceeding aggress

of the trump organization, matthew calamari, the chief operating officer of the organization and rhona graff the secretary. is he the lynchpin to the rest of what we can learn about donald trump? >> to defend lawrence because it gets to weisselberg. he said donny told him first about michael cohen. i first told him about weisselberg. on the show the night that the michael cohen tapes came out. he taped the president. he mentions on the tape let's clear this with alan. everyone wondered who the heck is alan. i said i was pretty sure it was alan weisselberg because he's been an accountant and cfo of the trump organization since the 1970s. he joined the firm working for fred trump at the same time donald did. he does president trump's tax returns, signs most of the checks on significant deals. more important than the paperwork is he looks at all the significant transactions that the trump organization engages in and gives them his blessing. he's sitting next to trump's side for four decades, signing off on everything they did. this is an organization that routinely pushed the limits of the law