news. >> we're following breaking news on president trump's legal battle with special counsel robert mueller. "the washington post" reporting tonight that mr. trump's lawyers have provided mueller's office with descriptions of key moments under investigation in the russia probe. their goal, to limit the scope of a presidential interview. this as we're told mr. trump is hiring a veteran lawyer who's been promoting a stunning and unproven theory that some fbi and justice department officials are framing mr. trump. i'll talk with the top democrats on the house and senate intelligence committees, congressman adam schiff and senator mark warner. they're both key players in the russia probe in congress. and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first, let's go to our senior white house correspondent, pamela brown. pamela, things clearly are heating up in the russia investigation. >> that's right, wolf. and we have learned that there has been recent back and forth between robert mueller's team and the president's lawyers about a possible interview. this as a source close to the pres

>> this came between discussions of rick yates and robert mueller. this is months before rick gates pleaded guilty to charges in the special counsel's investigation. according to sources who talked to the court writer, mueller told gates that he had plenty of evidence against paul manafort, the former campaign chairman of the trump campaign, as well as gates' former business partner. he said he had plenty of evidence against manafort. what he needed gates' help with was the core mission of the special counsel which is the ties between the trump campaign -- alleged ties between the trump campaign and the russians. what this means is that the special counsel is looking specifically at making the case of russian collusion, that it has not gone away, despite what you hear from president trump and from his allies. >> from republican members of the house intelligence committee. they wrapped up their own investigation. are there any indications of how this is playing out with gates? >> we're beginning to see a little of that. we don't know exactly what rick

cnn has learned that special counsel robert mueller has subpoenaed the trump organization for business documents as part of its russia investigation. with this look now at the trump family's business empire, has mueller crossed the president's red line? >>> sanctioning russia -- the trump administration announces punishment for moscow's meddling in the 2016 election, singling out more than a dozen russians already indicted by the special counsel robert mueller. why did the administration miss congress deadline by a month and a half? >>> friend or foe -- as president trump moves closer to blaming russia for the poisoning of a former spy, the white house won't say whether the president, vladimir putin, is an ally or the enemy of the united states. why unwilling to call him out? >>> and deadly bridge collapse -- a walkway collapse, crushing cars and trapping the people inside. rescuers are working frantically to reach the victims. what caused the span to come crashing down? >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situa

that they would not support any effort to protect robert mueller. and they don't want to antagonize the president. at least right now, he won't fire him. >> all right. thanks to you as well. joining me, robert balanswalwel. thank you for joining us. so the white house says firing robert mueller wouldn't be the most productive step forward but the president is attacking him by name. hiring a lawyer who speaks officials at the justice department and the fbi, quote, framed the president. is the president gearing up, do you believe, to go on the offensive right now? >> i believe he is. and i believe he has a number of allies in congress who will allow him to do that. we should take people at their word. and we'll be sorry if we don't. i think the best thing we can do is to bypass the legislation in the house and the senate that would cement bob mueller's role and ensure he can follow the evidence so the american people can once and for all blank the president's culpability was. >> after the president called the firing of the fbi deputy director andrew mc

so -- >> what makes i think robert mueller's team would be manufacturing a crime? >> well, i'm glad you asked. what would make we think that? peter strok and lisa page -- >> they are not part of mueller's team. >> but they were. >> as soon as he found out he got rid of them. >> they were -- >> there was no crime -- >> more than that, even more importantly than that, how about james comey writing an exxon race memo of hillary clinton months before the investigation had even concluded before she herself and most of the principle people in the case had been themselves investigated. what it tells us is and what we know, robert mueller -- if he were an honorable man he would have recused himself early on. merely if only because he is a best friend and confidant of james comey, that's alone enough to -- we know -- >> rosenstein who was selected by jeff sessions appointed robert mueller and when he was appointed, there were a whole lot of republicans who were cheering that appointment because he served as fbi director under a republican administration he himself has been k

and if he can't fire robert mueller s president trump's real goal not to oust mueller but to discredit him and his witnesses? in about 40 minutes or so, the president is scheduled to make remarks in new hampshire on combatting the yes, i opioid cr. >>> first, let's get to our team of reporters for the latest. we start with breaking news about the president's legal team. kristen welker is at the white house. natasha bertrand covering the trump-russia investigation for the "atlantic." kristin, this use was broken by "the new york times." you have since confirmed it. donald trump is considering hiring a new lawyer, someone who feels the same way he does about the justice department and the fbi and who's shouted some of the same conspiracy theories on television. who is this guy? >> this signals a tougher approach, katy, to dealing with the probe by special counsel robert mueller. this is joseph digenova, a longtime washington, d.c., attorney. let me read you the statement from jay sekulow who is part of the legal team. sekulow writes former u.s. attorney for the district of columbia josep

reporter: why does he not push for the firing of robert mueller? sarah: because we would like to cooperative and we would like for this to wrap up soon. that seems to be the most productive step forward. we would like to see this come to a conclusion. reporter: i want to follow up on the accusations of fraud in the russian election. accusations have been brought up by the u.k. government in statement. they are listing a fundamental lack of freedom. why does the president not believe it is something he should be discussing with the russian leader? say theydidn't it said --scuss it, said it did not come up on today's call. the focus was to talk about areas of shared interest. we know we need to continue a dialogue. it is a port for a lot of the safety and security of people across the globe. we would like to be able to work with them on things like north korea and both countries share an interest on lowering the tension when it comes to an arms race, recogonizing it is not the best thing for either country. we want to be able to have those conversati

robert mueller's team said if these judges follow sentencing guidelines, mueller could face eight to ten years in prison if convicted on all the charges in virginia and 15 to 20 if convicted on all the charges filed in washington. paul manafort is 68 years old. let's turn to our lead-off panel. carol lee is here with us. nbc news national political reporter. she is the co-author of our exclusive nbc news report from just last night on robert mueller asking witnesses if trump knew with these hacked democratic e-mails before they were released. also back with us, jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon. and we welcome back to the program, cynthia alneya, a federal prosecutor and a justice department veteran. welcome to you all. carol, about tonight's story, what is its central impact the your view? >> well, as you mentioned, this hacking and leaking strategically is the worst part. so this is significant in the sense we knew this was happening. but if mueller decides to move forward with an indictment, to me the key question is whether or not there are any americans

has the authority to issue the order to rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, to fire robert mueller. he could certainly effectuate his firing. he's using these two lawyers pretty strategically as yin and yang on the one hand saying we're going to cooperate fully, we're not going to fire mueller. john dowd on the other hand is throwing out these bombs to discredit robert mueller and james comey and andy mccabe. you see this a lot with defendants on trial, especially when they start getting worried that the evidence is mounting against them, a common strategy is to put the police on trial, put the prosecutors on trial, try to undermine confidence in the very people who are presenting the case against you in an effort to undermine the credibility of the case. it seems like he's using these two lawyers juxtaposing on one hand, i'm fully cooperating, on the other the message you shouldn't trust this process. >> chuck, let me ask you specifically. would rod rosenstein follow the messages he's getting from the boss in the west wing, from the president himself and perhaps from his attorneys

joining us. >> thank you, wolf. >> just ahead, we'll have more on the timing and the terms of robert mueller's potential interview with the president. how might mr. trump's anger at mueller figure into all of this? >>> and we're also getting new details right now on stormy daniels' polygraph test as the porn star is now tweeting about her alleged affair with the president. ♪ vof hundreds of families, he'se hmost proud of the one the heads he's kept over his own. brand vo: get paid twice as fast with quickbooks smart invoicing. quickbooks. backing you. hey, sir lose-a-lot! thou hast the patchy beard of a pre-pubescent squire! thy armor was forged by a feeble-fingered peasant woman... your mom! as long as hecklers love to heckle, you can count on geico saving folks money. boring! fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. and taking cared abof the boys.e zach! talk to me. it's for the house. i got a job. it's okay. dad took care of us. >>> breaking news tonight. the white house is defending president trump's congratulatory phone call to russian president vladimir pu

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number one, robert mueller has a reason to call him before the grand jury. either there was questions he refused to answer in the interview that mueller wants to compel him to answer or maybe there is evidence he provided in the interview that mueller wants to get into the grand jury to get an indictment. so he has a good reason to call him before the grand jury and he won't let him off the hook because he doesn't want to show up. that is the first reason. there is just no way he'll let that. and the second one is you state -- you can't let every other witness in this investigation or any federal investigation to look at this and say i can thumb my nose at a lawfully issued subpoena and refuse to show up. it is absurd. no prosecutor would let a witness get away with that. >> thumb my nose. thank you for that. john you covered the campaign with me and sam was there early on. he was fired early on. but he goes back in time quite a while with donald trump and he's also somebody who is very close with roger stone. >> he has deep ties to both men. roger stone is a

>> reporter: well, anderson, we've learned that lawyers on both sides, on robert mueller's side as wells lawyers for the president, met just last week in a face-to-face interview. this is the first one they've had in recent weeks after informal discussions about a possible interview. but they met face to face, and i'm told by a source familiar along with my colleague, gloria borger, that during this meeting, robert mueller's team was able to provide more specifics, more granularity on the topics they would like to discuss with the president if an interview happens. that includes anything under the umbrella of the firing of james comey and michael flynn and what the president knew regarding michael flynn's conversations with russian ambassador sergey kislyak this past december. also jeff sessions and his role in the firing of james comey. so these are new details about what robert mueller's team is interested in speaking to the president about, going beyond what we've known previously, and also it signals, anderson, that robert mueller's team is still very much interested in learning wha

following multiple breaking stories this hour, including new details of the topics special counsel robert mueller wants to ask president trump about as part of the russia investigation. sources are now telling cnn that there are four areas of interest to mueller's team. senator richard blumenthal of the judiciary committee, he's here. he's standing by to talk about the breaking news, along with our experts and analysts. first, let's get straight to our senior white house correspondent, pamela browne. pamela, tell our viewers what the new information you're now learning? >> reporter: well, wolf, we are learning for the first time the four main topics that robert mueller's team would like to discuss with the president during a potential interview. and they revolve around the president's own actions, including the president's crafting of a statement aboard air force one over the summer to miscast his son's meeting at trump tower with russians in june of 2016. also, the circumstances surrounding that specific meeting in june 2016 and what the president knew about it. did his son tell him about it bef

lawyers, said in november that he would register a formal objection with the special counsel robert muellerand with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who oversees the investigation if mueller started looking into trump's real estate dealings. he said trump's legal team would view them as outside the scope of legitimate inquiry. so if the "new york times" is right today and this subpoena arrived at the trump organization within the last few weeks, perhaps that explains why the trump white house has been operating like a blender filled up to the rim set on puree and having the lid off the past few weeks. the other thing to know about this is if the times is reporting here is right, if this subpoena is about trump organization activity specifically involving russia, well, just over the last couple days, we've been reporting on a serious allegation about the trump organization and dealings in russia and an allegation that popped into public view a couple days ago in response to the republicans in congress abruptly shutting down the russia investigation in the house of representatives. if t

so on the table, the president's claim of witch hunt targeting robert mueller and more. also tonight, the lawmakers who say firing mueller would be dumb politically, suicidal, but doing nothing to stop it. and later a new twist in the stormy daniels saga. we begin with pamela brown at the white house. what have you learned about this meeting? >> reporter: we've learned that lawyers on both sides, on robert mueller's side as well as lawyers for the president met just last week in a face-to-face interview. this is the first one they've had in recent weeks after informal discussions about a possible interview. but they met face to face, and i'm told by a source familiar along with my colleague, gloria borger, that during this meeting, robert mueller's team was able to provide more specifics, more granularity on the topics they would like to discuss with the president if an interview happens. that includes anything under the umbrella of the firing of james comey and michael flynn and what the president knew regarding michael flynn's conversations with russian ambassador serg

better life. >>> with the reports that robert mueller has subpoenaed the trump organization, the speciala investigation is getting closer to the president. back in july the president said if mueller poked around his finances that would be a red line. >> if mueller was looking at your finances or family finances unrelated to russia, is that a red be a breach of what his actual charge is? >> i would say yes. >> if he moves outside that lane, would that mean he'd have to go? >> no, i think that's a violation -- >> for more on what the subpoena could mean i'm joined by msnbc contributor former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade. barbara, interesting part. mr. schmidt asked if robert mueller were looking for things unrelated to russia, we don't know what's in the subpoena. 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

do you think the stage is now set to get rid of robert mueller? >> well, it certainly suggests that this broader effort to undermine the special counsel's investigation may be paving the way to do so. i think it's especially notable because the president and his attorneys have said on repeated occasions they're doing everything they can to cooperate with the special counsel's investigation, but then they make statements like these which suggest anything but. and i also think that it creates a major headache for republicans on capitol hill, who have created their own red line in the sand, which is that firing robert mueller, as lindsey graham put it in january, in the eyes of some republicans. would be the end of trump's presidency. i think it also speaks to the broader politicization of the fbi under trump, where you look at robert mueller, you look at james comey, andrew mccabe and rod rosenstein. these are all lifelong republicans. and yet it's being cast as this deep state conspiracy by trump and his allies to delegitimize the president. i thin

robert mueller was the u.s. attorney in charge while these men were rotting in prison while certain agents in the fbi under mueller covered up the truth. let's see. andrew wiseman was ex-scorated by two judges. when did robert mueller know about this? these are questions and issues i'm sure you've not heard from your friends in the liberal media. some people in congress are praising mueller, the pillar of virtue. they have never investigated him. they're lying. it's their talking point. all the information we're telling you about is right there, right in front of the liberal mainstream media in their faces. they purposely ignore it because they're destroy trump agenda goes above all else. the reason why is because they want mueller to carry out this witch hunt even though there's no evidence of collusion. even though we know about robert mueller and his past, his current moves make a lot of sense. mueller didn't point appoint? a merry band of huge democratic donors. appointing andrew wiseman to be his put bull, a

dowd did not want him to sit down with robert mueller. ident wanted to sit down with mueller and the special counsel's office. the two were out ahead on that one. isaac, what do you think of this decision? >> look, donald trump has to be hot under the collar, right? the investigation is closing in. there have been 19 individuals and three companies charged with felonies so far. some of trump's own senior officials that have come to the grand jury pleaded guilty and are now cooperating witnesses. now, his own attorney who is paid to defend him doesn't want to defend him anymore. and obviously, based on what come out about his advice, his own attorney was afraid of what donald trump would get caught with if he had to answer questions under oath. this is bad for donald trump. and clearly, the investigation is closing in and he must be really worried right now. we should expect to see him lashing out on twitter in the next 24 hours. >> julie: david? >> donald trump has contended from day one that there was no collusion going on between him and

, that he believes that robert mueller should be able to do his job. when asked, however, by cnn's ashley kilough if the speaker was expecting legislation to install safe guards so mueller could be fired, the senator refused to respond to that question. >> boris sanchez, thank you so much. let's discuss that and that newest development from the representative for the house speaker, paul ryan. cnn's political analyst margaret telev and julian zeletzer with us. margaret, would paul ryan come out by way of boris' reporting there saying he stands behind rob mueller's investigation, that he clearly shouldn't be intimidated is the message. >> this is an important marker for the house speaker to lay down for republicans in leadership to lay down. president trump turns to twitter to vent his frustrations for a number of reasons and sometimes it seems to be just to let off steam and he feels better and kind of goes back to a reset but sometimes it is to test or to float an idea, and i think for a lot of the republicans who are concerned about this, they see this

>> adrienne: in terms of robert mueller's job? >> harris: for people on the hill to look to pass must-pass legislation with the spending bill? >> adrienne: well, look. i will say this. i think we all want to get this ominous bill through. i think we're tired of these short term spending solutions. we have to have a real budget in place. if this is holding up ultimately the bill, i think that's a problem. i understand some, i think chris coons means well here. he wants to do what he can to protect the special council robert mueller from being fired and what he's doing is trying to get republicans on board on his bill so we can show this is not a part of an issue there's democrats and republicans coming together to protect robert mueller. >> harris: how frauth is this? the 2.7 percent increase in military pay. do you really tie robert mueller to the spending bill? >> lawrence: >> lisa: if you're president trump. you're frustrating. you're frustrated because you're told three separate times that you're not under investigation and all

robert mueller is a registered republic republican. >> rod rosenstein? >> rod rosenstein is a registered republican or appointed by a republican. chris wrays mueller has to go to get his mandate expanded or e l evaluated. and these nine that are registered as democrats, they're not going to let their party affiliation interfere with their fact-finding mission. so just because you're registered democratic or republican, it goi's going to de your view or elements of the law. it just defies reality. >>> lawmakers want answers now from facebook following allegations linked to the social media juggernaut. they have risen their interviews to 15,000 people. >> the leader of cambridge analytica says he's willing to speak to the special prosecutor and the fbi. the information comes from his own e-mail sent to his fellow colleagues at cambridge university. colin montgomer cogen's company provided all kinds of data. the data gathered through a personality test facebook application that he built. when facebook users took this test, they gave kogen access to all their

robert mueller was the u.s. attorney in charge while these men were rotting in prison, while certain agents in the fbi under a mueller covered up the truth. oh, let's see. andrew weissmann was excoriated by two judges for withholding exculpatory evidence. so what did robert mueller know about all this? when did he know about all of us? these are questions and issues i'm sure you have not heard from your friends in the liberal media. toro some members of congress, e media, they are praising mueller. the pillar of honesty, the pillar of virtue. they've never investigated him. they are actually just flying. it is their talking points. all the information we are telling you about is right there, right in front of the liberal mainstream media, and their faces, but they purposely ignore it because they the desr trump agenda goes above all else. they want muller to carry out the witch hunt, even if there is no evidence of collusion. now that we know more about robert mueller and his past, his current moves not make a lo

>> let's first say that i think he could actually get to the point of having robert mueller fired. now, he wouldn't necessarily do it and the attorney general wouldn't necessarily do it because he's recused himself. the attorney general has recused himself. it would fall to rod rosenstein. let's assume that he wouldn't do it. then falls to rachel brand, she doesn't work there anymore because she decided she couldn't deal with this anymore, and it would just keep sliding down to finally somebody would have to step up. here's the thing. if you ask me this question 30 days ago, i would say i don't think he could get away with it. i think he would get away with it now. >> why? >> it comes down to timing at this point. if he were to do it and he were to grasp on to any little bit, any little bit of misconduct by that office, then i think he could get away with it. if he were to do it just flat out because they were getting close to him, then i don't think he could get away with it. but with this president, he can very much do anything as we know. >> so let me -- we should say for the re

and in his quest for the truth, robert mueller wants to know what happened. would think cooperation from paul manafort would have great value to him. >> beyond kushner and manafort, nbc news is reporting mueller is also asking witnesses whether or not the president was aware that the democrats' e-mails had been stolen. where do you think mueller's case is going so far as the president is concerned? >> it seems like he may be working toward an indictment for the hacking of the dnc e-mails, much as we saw this charge a week and a half ago or so about the russians who conspired to defraud the united states by interfering with the elections through the social media campaign. i could envision a very similar indictment going after the hacking component of that, which also is charging the same legal theory, conspiracy to defraud the united states by interfering with the election. then any americans, including president trump and those in his campaign, who either conspired with them or aided and abetted them or as an accessory after the fact by helping distribute the

today the president lashed out at robert mueller who looks in to ties between the trump campaign and russia. on friday acting fbi director andrew mccabe was fired two days before he was set to retire. president trump calls that proof the investigation is a partisan witch hunt. his attorney is calling for an end to the probe. some republican leaders disagree. >> if you have an innocent client, act like it. you should want special counsel robert mueller to take all the time and have all the independence he needs to do his job. >> cbs news learned robert robert mueller's team interviewed andrew mccabe about his conversations with the president. >>> and russian president vladimir putin was reelected. this cements his grip till 2024. his opponent was bard from competing. there was a number of reports of voting violations anyway. >>> this evening authorities in texas increased the reward for information that leads to an arrest in a spring of deadly bombings. it is $1,000. it has been more than two weeks since the first explosive package was left outside someone's home and since then there

trump ramps up his attack on the special counsel robert mueller.ing that multiple lawyers are turning their backs on the president, rejecting offers to join his team. >>> ready to talk. president trump tells cnn he would still like to testify in mueller's investigation, despite his frequent claims that it's a witch hunt. are president trump and the special counsel any closer to striking an interview agreement? >>> playmate speaks. karen mcdougal gives her first tv interview on her claim of a past affair with the president and her legal fight to make it public. it's a cnn exclusive and anderson cooper is standing by with details. >>> and stormy's demand. porn star stormy daniels' legal war with the president is now reaching into the trump organization. we're going to tell you what her lawyers want and how it could help her case. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

does he still want to sit down and do an interview with robert mueller? >> look, we've been fully transparent throughout this process, with we've been fully cooperative and we're going to continue to be cooperative with the office of special counsel. beyond that, i can't go any further. >> can you provide more clarity on the president's tweets towards robert mueller over the weekend, calling him out by name. what was behind that? >> i -- like i just said, clearly, we have not been shy about the fact that there is frustration of this process. we would like it to end quickly and soon. and the president has contended, since day one, and will continue to do so, that there was absolutely no collusion between his campaign and any outside force or country -- so i don't understand why it's hard for anyone to process, if you had been attacked, mercilessly and continuously, day-in, day-out, every single second while you're trying to work hard to do good things for this country and literally every day you wake up to an onslaught of people saying that you're there be

special counsel robert mueller has subpoenaed the trump organization to turn over documents related tohe russia investigation and their financial dealings. this marks the first time we know of that mueller has requested these documents directly related to the president's businesses. here is what the white house press secretary had to say about this moments ago. >> special counsel has subpoenaed the trump organization for its dealings with russia. is this a red line? is the president upset about this? >> as we've maintained all along, and as the president has said numerous times, there was no collusion between the campaign and russia. for specific questions regarding the trump organization, i would refer you to them. >> is that statement that the president made in that interview back in july still stand that it would be a redline for the special counsel to be investigating the trump -- >> we'll continue to fully cooperate out of respect for the special counsel we'll not comment. fo r any specific questions about the trump organization i would refer you there. >> let's bring in cnn senio

how worried are you about the pollicization of this investigation, not to say robert mueller's investigationlitical, but that politics are beginning to surround bob mueller's investigation? >> one of the saddest parts of the president's attacks on the fbi and department of justice is his view that just because you happen to be a democrat or republican means you can't apply the facts to the law, you can't do your job. that's very corrosive to democracy. i trust ray, i trust rosen stein, i trust mueller even though they're republicans because i know they'll do what the constitution tells them to do. i call on the president to stop attacking the fbi, the department of justice and the department of state. it's outrageous and it's uncalled for. >> what are the odds, as you see them, that we'll get hearings on this matter, that we'll see lawmakers get answers on how he was fired in the way he has. just by virtue of what's in the majority, do you think we might get a hearing? >> i think it's possible we might get a hearing. if we change the makeup of congress in november, we'll absolutely get heari

he's challenging robert mueller to arrest him.going to be my guest onset in just a moment to talk about this. we have the subpoena that

>> will congress protect robert mueller from being fired?ining us now rick santorum, former republican senator from pennsylvania. senator, what do you think would happen if the president tried to push robert mueller out? >> i think it would be a great upheaval in the congress. look, everyone right now in congress is in election mode. how is this all going to play out at election time? the firing of robert mueller would take an energized democratic base and skyrocket it up. yeah, the republican base, the part that's very, very loyal to trump would be equally charged up, but not nearly as much as the other side. and that's what republicans are worried about. they're worried about donald trump doing something that's going to alter the dynamics of the upcoming election which already doesn't look for good for that. >> if you say this would hurt republicans if he went ahead to get robert mueller removed? >> there's a difference between the president doing something which most republicans feel is unlikely for him to do because he doesn't think that

leave robert mueller alone. >> yeah, mr. trump attacked the special counsel and his team in a series of tweets this weekend, the latest calling into question their impartiality. that prompted the white house attorney to assure lawmakers the president is not considering firing mueller. boris sanchez has the details now from washington. >> on sunday we saw president trump make a distinct shift in the way that he's talked about the special counsel, specifically rob mueller and his team, though previously the president had said that the russia investigation was a hoax and a witch-hunt, he never really singled out robert mueller by name for criticism until this weekend. in a tweet sent out sunday morning, the president was arguing that the special investigation was biased because there were no republicans on robert mueller's team. no one really there to defend the president. that of course is inaccurate. robert mueller himself is a republican, one who served under both republican and democratic administrations. further, many of t

robert mueller is here to stay.jeff sessions is here to stay too even though the president now seems toe desperately want him to quit, sessions says he's not going anywhere for now. neither is robert mueller as he inches closer to president trump. >> what the hell is going on with hope hicks? they put out a lot of slop today. i shouldn't knock any reporter. they're the best in the business. especially maggie. to put out, she was always planning to leave . no news here. yes, it's news. our network tonight said a shocker. >> she was up at the house intelligence yesterday admitting she told white lies for her boss. they've renders her basically ineffective. >> why did she say that? kennedy said he has a cold and has to go back to the white house. he didn't have a cold. >> she was saying when he's in the office i'll say he's not in the office or he can see a visitor when he probably could, he doesn't want to. sorry, when the word is out of your mouth, white lies you're no longer effective. i know she's a very loved at t

special counsel robert mueller has focussed in on rick gates. revealed in court filings this week are giving us the first indications of how prosecutors are getting that from gates and using it to tie paul manafort, the former chairman of the president's campaign directly to russian operatives. so to sarah murray with this bit of news. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: we knew rick gates was cooperating with the special counsel and people looked at that as this guy is going to flip on his long-time business partner and try to get him cooperate or help the government build their case against paul manafort. but one of the things they're telling my colleague is when rick gates was working

we're learning more on what robert mueller's team is focusing on. the special council wants to question president trump about four main topics so far. the president's legal team is creating a list of dozens of questions mueller could last. with trump all upset about the investigation. he was fuming last night when news leaked that national security advisers warned him not to congratulate vladimir putin. he quizzed his allies and outside advisers asking them to tell him who they thought was the leak er the latest leak contributes to an atmosphere of parano paranoia. he doesn't hesitate to throw his own people under the bus. ask rex tillerson, not to mention james comey, michael flynn and a host of other people. what's behind these leaks? >> this is from the former director of the cia telling msnbc he thinks president trump is afraid of vladimir putin going on to say, the russians could have something on him personally, that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult. there's no public evidence of that, but it's a pretty stunging stat

what really caught people's eye is his decision to directly criticize special counsel robert mueller by name. first the president tweeted, quote, the mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. it was based on fraudulent activities and a fake dossier paid for by crooked hillary and the dnc and improperly used in fisa court for surveillance of my campaign, witch hunt. here's the thing, that's not true. the president is lying. the mueller investigation started after trump fired jim comey. trump's deputy attorney general rosenstein appointed mueller to oversee it. as for trump's suggestion that no crimes had been uncovered, remember, kids, 19 people have been indicted so far, including former trump aides. on sunday morning, trump wrote, quote, why does the mueller team have 13 hardened democrats? some big crooked hillary supporters? and zero republicans? another dem recently added, does anyone think this is fair? and yet there is no collusion. all right, keep in mind, that robert mueller is actually a republican. appointed by george

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 president trump, one can imagine may would be very significant to special counsel mueller. one of the big key moments that's taken place is the one from last february in which president trump said -- i'm sorry -- in which robber earth mueller said to end the investigation into michael flynn, the white house national

and yet here, robert mueller comes in as f.b.i. director and he is putting in place a policy that is getting rid of the best of the best that we have in the federal bureau of investigation. and some say, well, you may not realize that he was a bush appointee. i know he was. and he took office as director of the f.b.i. shortly before 9/11. to blame robert mueller for failing to see what was coming on 9/11, because he had just simply not been in office that long. but director mueller implemented this policy and as i struggle, why would he do this? he is running thousands of years of experience. mean just in that three life 4s and 140 supervisory agents hat mueller ran off, not for unethical conduct, and not for inefficiency, no. n he ran them off because they perhaps had too much experience and anybody that has concern self-image and perhaps -- i was wrestling, why would someone run off thousands of experience within the f.b.i. d what i kept coming bang to perhaps there is some kind of insecurity that would cause a director to be con

so on the table, the president's claim of witch hunt targeting robert mueller and more. ller would be dumb politically, suicidal, but doing nothing to stop it. and later a new twist in the stormy daniels saga. we begin with pamela brown at the white house. what have you learned about this meeting? >> reporter: we've learned that lawyers on both sides, on robert mueller's side as well as lawyers for the president met just last week in a face-to-face interview. this is the first one they've had in recent weeks after informal discussions about a possible interview. but they met face to face, and i'm told by a source familiar along with my colleague, gloria borger, that during this meeting, robert mueller's team was able to

last year he called it a red line if robert mueller investigates his finances. he didn't tell the "new york times" with what he would do if robert mueller crossed that red line, but knowing donald trump as we do, the very first thing we would expect donald trump to do is scream witch hunt on twitter. and some day we'll know the date that robert mueller subpoenaed the trump organization will be become a publically known historical fact some day. and so we will know if donald trump's february 27th primal scream of witch hunt was the day that he got a call from new york, from the trump organization, telling him that donald trump's business just received its first subpoena from robert mueller. we now know that in response to that subpoena the trump organization will be handling over to the special prosecutor any and all documents, e-mails, texts and any other material they have concerning donald trump's attempt to close a deal on a building project in moscow that would give him something he has dreamed about for decades, a trump tower in moscow. and no one knows mor

>> president trump attacks robert mueller. >> are you done with robert mueller, mr. president? >> tonight donald trump formally joins the plot to stop the mueller investigation as he also hires a new attorney. and as republican lead sayers mostly silent. >> if you van innocent client, mr. dowd, act like it. >>> plus -- >> to your knowledge, did the trump campaign in 2016 use that improperly accessed data? >> bombshell new reporting on the trump campaign's data analytics operation. >> this is a company that really took fake news to the next level. >> explosive new details about the kind of operation cambridge analytica was handling. and why facebook's handling of a massive data intrusion. >> i understand that facebook was how donald trump was going to win. >> when "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. new reporting tonight that president trump's lawyers are now turning documents over to special counsel robert mueller in hopes of limiting the scope of mueller's interview with the president. that news comes in the wake of the president unleashing

president trump fires back pat robert mueller and the special counsel's politicized witch hunt. 10 months of versus gawtion mueller and his left oner still have to evidence of trump-russia collusion. but the witch hunt goes on. 25 bold and daring mountain bikers unite to put on a high-flying show across the mountains of utah. we'll have the lightly video here next. we are coming right back with it. stay liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. lou: hillary clinton reliably doubling down on her remarks insulting white women. she took to facebook to write some sort of apology. she said and i quote, do i believe some women look at a powerful woman and question whether she can lead, maybe voting for the man their husband is voting for instead? it may not be universally true or easy to hear, but why it's a dynamic still at play in our society. swow! what a vision she has of ameri

i think in a lot of ways will he no intention of ever speaking to robert mueller. i mean he saw -- he has a long history in new york city, in litigation where he believes that you can stonewall, you can play things out for as long as you go and ultimately he believes he can win on his own terms. >> let me ask you, did he see it as a witch hunt or is that how he wants to? >> i think the framing -- i think he sees it as that, certainly. he sees it as this. but it is also his frame. think about his taxes, don. he spent so long sort of saying, you know, i'm going to release my taxes. once the irs audit, he believes in the strategy of stringing things out for as long as possible and you can believe that he sees himself and has for decades as someone who is not going to sit down, you know, under oath and have to answer questions that he doesn't believe he should have to. and that is -- goes to his mindset. >> and he believes he's above the law then if he thinks he doesn't have to answer. >> he believes that he has -- for decades has seen himself as someone who has been u