all of this connected to the investigation into the leak of the identity of a cia officer named valerie plameon our air here a short time ago. this is just part of what miss plame said about this pardon. take a listen. >> i think he is setting this up so that this is a strong signal to those that may be considering cooperating with the special counsel, with mueller's investigation. >> danny is still with me as well as katie. what do you make of that sentiment from miss plame, that this is clearly a message to those who might get wrapped up in the special counsel's investigation this time around? >> this is trump taking the training wheels off of the presidential pardon. trump is basically using this as a litmus test to see how outraged will people be. you just heard from the statement, he didn't even know scooter libby. consider the charges you just announced that he was convicted of. obstruction of justice, we have heard a lot about that lately, vis a vis mueller, and lying to the fbi and perjury. the pardon only pardons federal crimes. trump recently did a pardon when there was no pardon re

valerie plame's husband, former u.s.mbassador to iraq, joe wilson, will join us exclusively next. >>> and waiting for a white house briefing to get under way as well in a few minutes. you'll see it live right here on msnbc. you know what's awesome? gig-speed internet. you know what's not awesome? when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. >>> break news from the white house. the president has pardoned "scooter" libby, the former chief of staff to vice president cheney who was convicted of lying to federal investigators. right now is a good time to remember that donald trump pledged to be the law and order candidate. >> when i take the oath of office next year, i will restore law and order to our country. in this race for the white hou

nobody in the valerie plame case was convicted for leaking her name. the prosecutors knew from day one that it was richard armitage at the state department. and supporters and conservatives of scooter libby have always felt this was a case of prosecutorial overreach. and who were the two people involved in that case? james comey, who appointed the special counsel patrick fitzgerald. so this speaks to donald trump in a way that i don't think any other case would, because this is the way he feels. >> do you think it might be a coincidence that the day after the comey book came out? i'm just saying. i'm just saying. and obviously he's just sticking his thumb in his eye. he may agree that he should be pardoned. absolutely, he could get back his law license, as we were talking about. but it sends a signal to people like paul manafort, somebody like manafort who faces the rest of his life in prison, for example -- >> this is also trump with a view that none of this matters and that the rule of law doesn't matter. president george w. bush didn't pardon him be

judy miller said he had id valerie plame. there is good reason to believe that dick cheney had ordered libby to leak, among other things, valerie plame's id. libby lied about it. that is what he was prosecuted for. inore he went to prison 2007, george bush commuted his sentence, meaning you do not have to serve the sentence but he did not pardon him. that was key because libby, therefore, could not be called in having been excused from any legal jeopardy in the case to testify further about what dick cheney did and what george bush did. since then, in the 11 years since then, libby has gotten his law license back. he has gotten his right to vote back. the remaining punishment for having been found guilty of a felony, those punishments were done. what the pardon did on friday was nothing functional to libby's life. it did not improve libby's live in any material way, but what it did, just as michael cohen is being investigated by the fbi, likede it clear to people michael cohen, like paul manafort, like a bunch of other people

judy miller said he had id valerie plame. there is good reason to believe that dick cheney had ordered libby to leak, among other things, valerie plame's id. libby lied about it. that is what he was prosecuted for. inore he went to prison 2007, george bush commuted his sentence, meaning you do not have to serve the sentence but he did not pardon him. that was key because libby, therefore, could not be called in having been excused from any legal jeopardy in the case to testify further about what dick cheney did and what george bush did. since then, in the 11 years since then, libby has gotten his law license back. he has gotten his right to vote back. the remaining punishment for having been found guilty of a felony, those punishments were done. what the pardon did on friday was nothing functional to libby's life. it did not improve libby's live in any material way, but what it did, just as michael cohen is being investigated by the fbi, likede it clear to people michael cohen, like paul manafort, like a bunch of other people

it was alleged libby a cia operative valerie plame to reporters she claimed the move ended her career and put agents overseas at risk one mission was to look at husband and career diplomat to see wilson a criticize the iraq war she says donald trump doesn't really care about a criminal case from ten years ago this is a very bad idea it sends a message that that those who commit crimes against national security can be pardoned elected begin by condemn the pardon came just hours after the president attacked former f.b.i. director james comey before the pardon was confirmed and adam schiff one of the leading democrats in congress tweeted on the day the president strongly attacks call me for being a leaker and a liar he considers pardoning a convicted leaker and liar scooter libby and this is the president's we have sending a message to those implicated in the russia investigation you have my back and i'll have yours the white house is the nine the libby pardon has anything to do with the militant best again insisting it's simply writes are wrong from the past libby was convicted. special

valerie plame is "outfront" next. and breaking news.resident increasingly frustrated on the speed of the u.s. response to syria. new reporting on the warning he's getting from his military advisers tonight. there's little rest for a single dad. and back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid... ...plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. >>> tonight, president trumplib. an extremely controversial pardon. even george bush refused to pardon him. he was vice president dick cheney's staff and accused of lying to investigators, all this in a special counsel investigation into who leaked the identity of valerie plame. she was an undercover cia officer. her identity was exposed in 2003 and she is "outfront" now. it's wonderful to see you again. why do you think trump is pardoning libby right now? >> timing is everything, isn't it? thanks for having me on. look, donald trump is doing what president trump did not. this has nothin

we also heard from the former cia officer valerie plame earlier today. she spoke out before the pardon was granted. and she indicated that she was against it. and she felt it was rewarding criminal behavior, shep. >> shepard: is there any indication from your reporting that this is a signal to any of those who are in the line of fire right now from steve bannon or anyone else? >> well, john roberts, i believe, raised that question at the news conference there was something larger going on here and sarah sanders pointed back to the facts of this case. those critics of the special counsel clearly say that was an example of a special counsel run amuck and their position is that this special counsel has also run amuck in the case, shep. >> shepard: president trump's personal lawyer, michael cohen is now officially under criminal investigation for conduct largely revoluming around his personal business. that's according to a newly released court document. cohen and the government now fighting over whether investigators can use whatever material they found in

he was convicted of lying to the fbi over the identity of valerie plame. president trump released a pardon against joe arapaio. >>> and now to syria. president trump and prime minister theresa may have vowed in a phone call to deter further use of chemical weapons in the region. cnn's nick paton walsh has more. >> reporter: strange times here in military action. it appears the western powers of the u.s. and british and french allies are in a bit of a jam. u.n. chemical weapons inspectors arrived and start work on saturday. it is tough to show president f -- to show respect for the issues if you are bombing the country at the same time. if you go ahead beforehand, you argue you needed to show an u e urgent response to the chemical weapons, possibly chlorine or something worse by the assad regime. and keep in mind we are dealing with a multinational response. the u.s. at a high state of readiness with the assets in the region. $700 billion budget. uk and france less with the readiness. it takes a while to get things in place. all of this adds to the tension

three right now, there would be manafort, flynn, an questionnaire and perhaps others >> i think valerie plame must be a key player if she knows what's going on inside donald trump's head. i certainly don't. i don't know why he decided to pardon scooter libby, i really don't know because i had no conversations with the white house about this. i hope that wasn't the message because i think there is a big difference between the investigation of the link of valerie plame's name and the mueller investigation. i think the mueller probe is about something real and whether or not it succeeded, to meddle in our democracy, that's a pillar of our democracy, the presidential election. we have to get to the bottom of that. you need to have an independent prosecutor working on that given everything that happened with james comey no matter what you think about him. the investigation of the leaker named was really pointless because fitzgerald, the special prosecutor knew from the very beginning that no harm had been done to national security. that was the cia's own findings when it did an internal investigat

>> well, i had a twitter debate with nik kristoff on this, and i absolutely agree with valerie plame,is a message loud and clear that the president will pardon any witnesses that refuse to cooperate with the special prosecutor, a it is the message he sent when he pardoned joe arpaio, the sheriff in arizona and a clear message for his having pardoned scooter libby. and it is a mistake and threat to dem kra i s and i want to add something about the tape, because the tapes were the critical evidence in the watergate case. the discovery of them was the end of the white house. and people talk without realizing that they are being taped which includes even cohen would forget that he is taping and they say things, and we are talking about comey's contemporaneous memo, and nothing as dramatic as the recording of the conversation, and remember that comey said of his meeting with the president, lor dirks i hope that there are tape tapes, and it turns out that there are some tapes, but not with the president, and although he may be a participant in some of the tapes, but it is a very important p

he had interactions with various journalists in which he discussed valerie plame, who was a cia operative, and then he lied about it and obstructed justice and, you know, those are the kinds of conversations he even suggested made andrew mccabe, you know, his talking to jour journalists, for example, an unfit employee. he's leveling allegations against people and now turning around and actually pardoning someone for that same behavior. but i think that this is supposed to be a slap at comey, i guess, because comey did hire -- or point the special prosecutor who investigated libby. >> and there is that angle also, the possible angle he's sending a message about how he feels about people being investigated. thank you very much. much more to come with you in a little bit. we continue to follow breaking news this morning, a whole lot of it. more on the new book from james comey, including his thoughts on the clinton campaign and his fear of making her an illegitimate president. what does robby mook think about that? and we're minutes away from a hearing related to the fbi raids on donald trum

james comey is the one who put in place the special counsel to investigate the valerie plame matter andput patrick fitzgerald in front of that. and it ultimately ends up with scooter libby being the only one that really actually got indicted. it was for something that, again, i do think that there is meritorious reasons for why he should have been pardoned. but i think those reasons are going to be overlooked because of the politics. >> and it is useful for -- look, if you are the president you have got your own personal lawyer at his office, hotel room, and home raided. >> um-huh. >> we are told by reliable reporting from other places that he had a habit of recording phone conversations and keeping tapes of things. how much cohen knows about what and how many other people that have been in the president's orbit that have already talked to the fbi or will be talking to the fbi in the coming days. there is a huge amount of exposure out there. it will be comforting for them to believe that much of the president did with his first pardon of joe arpaio, you like it, you don't like it, i don

operative, valerie plame, to newspaper reporters.me's husband, former ambassador joseph wilson, had criticized the bush administration's rationale for invading iraq. in 2007, a federal court found him guilty of four fel including lying to investigators and a grand jury, and obstructing justice. libby was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. before he went to prison, president george w. bush commuted his sentence, but rejected pleas from vice president cheney to pardon him. for her part, plame today questioned mr. trump's motivations for libby's pardon. >> this is definitely not about me.bs it'sutely not about scooter libby. it's is about donald trump and his future. the message being sent is, "you can commit perjury, and i willrd you if it protects me, and i deem that you are loyal to me." >> yang: to discuss the pardon, and its possible implications for the russia investigation, wchre joined by d ben-veniste, a partner in the washington office of mayer brown. heonerved on the 9/11 commis and was chief of the

joseph wilson happened to be married to a woman named valerie plame. in an attempt to discredit the op-ed, administration officials revealed that plame was a cia operative and that would be a federal crime under certain circumstances. in 2007, libby was convicted on a number of charges, including lying to the fbi and obstructing justice. he was sentenced to 30 months in prison. president bush ultimately commuted libby's sentence but didn't issue a full pardon. that's what trump did today. for more on all this i'm joined by matthew cooper, he's a contributor with the washingtonian and just wrote this article on the trial of scooter libby and his testimony against libby when he was time magazine's reporter. matt, good to have you here. >> thanks, ali. >> this is an interesting story. some people say the president is doing something he didn't need to do, there was no great call to pardon scooter libby to set the table and send a message to people that are in trouble that the president has now pardoned a few people and he's good to do that. others say this

it was alleged libby a cia operative valerie plame to reporters she claimed the move ended her career and put agents overseas at risk one mission was to look at husband and career diplomat to see wilson a criticize the iraq war she says donald trump doesn't really care about a criminal case from ten years ago this is a very bad idea it sends a message that that those who commit crimes against national security can be pardoned elected begin by condemn the pardon came just hours after the president attacked former f.b.i. director james comey before the pardon was confirmed and adam schiff one of the leading democrats in congress tweeted on the day the president strongly attacks coming for being a leaker and a liar he considers pardoning a convicted leaker and liar scooter libby and this is the president's way of sending a message to those implicated in the russia investigation you have my back and i'll have yours the white house is the nine the libby pardon has anything to do with the militant best again insisting it's simply writes are wrong from the past libby was convicted. special c

guilty of obstructing justice and lying to the fbi who leaked the name of undercover cia operative valerie plame. >> what message do you believe donald trump is trying to send by pardoning scooter libby? >> this is definitely not about me. this is very clear this is a message that he is send sg. that you can commit crimes against national security and you will be pardoned. >> reporter: the white house tonight dismissing critics who question if the president is signaling something to those wrapped up in the russia investigation now. >> one thing has nothing to do with the other, and every case should be reviewed on their own merits. >> reporter: the president's critics worry he's so upset with the special counsel investigation he may try to put a check on it by firing rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. that has not happened yet but tonight, nbc news learned from three people that have spoken with rosenstein that he is at peace with that possibility. lester? >> hallie jackson at the white house tonight, thank you. >>> as all that plays out, we're also learning a lot more this evening abo

i'm joined by valerie plame. also an author. i didn't think we would be back together professionally. it's nice to see you. this is to me. >> back again. >> it's extraordinary. scooter libby was guilty as hell. he lied under oath. i remember the whole conversation coming out with tim russert and me and all that stuff. he was covering for cheney. that's how you pronounce his name. now this president pardons him as some sort of exhibit to show he has the power of the pardon as far as i can figure. that's what this is about. what is your sense of why you would pardon this guy after all these years? >> yeah, chris, here we are again talking about scooter libby. fact is though this is not about me, it's definitely not about scooter libby. it's this was a matter settled in the past but it is very important to donald trump's future. i think the that the he's got a very small audience that he's doing this for and that would include paul manafort, michael flynn, jared kushner and, of course, his lawyer that you were just talking about co

he was convicted of perjury in 2007 in connection with the connection of the leak regarding valerie plame. president george w. bush committed his jury sentence but did not grant him a full target. libby claims he was unfairly targeted with patrick fitzgerald who was friends with james comey. >>> the white house says president trump has not made a final decision on how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in syria. the president met with his national security team yesterday. the u.n. security council has scheduled another emergency meeting this morning. teri okita is in london. teri, good morning. >> good morning. they're still contemplating how best to respond to the attack that killed at least 42 people in the syrian town of douma. french fighter jets set off on a training drill as the u.s. and european allies considered whether to strike back the syrian regime for a suspected chlorine gas attack that killed dozens of civilians including children. they have proof that they used chemical weapons. after an emergency cabinet meeting british leaders say it's highly unlikely the british re

. >> he supposedly discussed valerie plame's name with me. arguably a secret or not so undercover agent. it may have been a violation of the law for us to discuss her name. i thought that he had mentioned her name. it turned out once i understood what i had written in my notes that wasn't the case. but here is the real bottom line of this investigation. this was the beginning of the criminalization of our politics and political differences over the war in iraq, bill. what happened was basically the government was looking for a scapegoat for why the war was going badly, the decision on the war. the left was saying we had been lied into the war. i didn't believe that was true because i was doing a lot of the reporting. scooter libby took the fall for that. he was the scapegoat. he was the person upon whom we could blame the war. he worked for dick cheney who had promoted the war. so he was a convenient target of opportunity. i think that going back and looking at the record now and saying this trial never should have been brought because the ge

in 2007 he was convicted of lying to the fbi and obstruction of justice in the case of valerie plame, a former undercover cia officer whose identity was leaked to the public. then president bush commuted his 30-month sentence sparing him prison time but did not pardon him. >>> now to the tensions with syria. the u.n. security council will meet this morning in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a u.s. led missile strike. investigators are working to confirm if chemicals were used in that attack that killed dozens of civilians. this was in a suburb held by rebels fighting the syrian president bashar al assad. but one american ally now says they have the proof. abc's molly hunter is live for us in london again this morning. molly, good morning to you. >> reporter: kendis, good morning. that's right, french president emmanuel macron says he has proof that it was the syrian government who carried out that chemical attack. now, macron is not revealing his evidence but reports say blood samples from some of the victims tested positive for a nerve agent and for chlorine. now, defense secretary jam

he was convicted in 2007 of like to the fbi and obstruction of justice in covert cia operative valerie plamethe time george w. bush commuted libby's sentence. the president signing off on the pardon. here's nicolle wallace who served as bush's communication director during bush's conviction. >> he thought the crimes of obstruction of justice and lying to the fbi was serious enough he wasn't going to pardon him. there are kinds of crimes, rick gates, people around donald trump have been charged with, pleadsed guilty to or are vulnerable of being charged with. what happens next could be nothing because i think that fox news is conditioning the country to accept a pardon for someone like scooter libby to prepare them for the pardoning of everybody in donald trump's seemingly corrupt criminal enterprise. >> now to the former substitute teacher who is under arrest after allegedly running a fight club at a connecticut school, 23-year-old ryan fish was caught on cell phone video encouraging students to fight during class. he denies facilitating the fight saying he didn't know how to handle the situ

agent valerie plame's identity. president said today he pardoned libby because he felt y bby had been treated unfairly by a special counsel. but today, some democrats said that the president's true motivation here was to signal those implicated in the russia investigation. as one lawmaker put it, "you have my back, and i'll have yours." jeff. >> glor: all right, jeff pegues, thanks very much. an outbreak of wildfires has most of oklahoma under a state of emergency tonight. high wind and severe drought are creating blowtorch conditions. at least one person has died. more than 200,000 acres have burned. 1,400 people have been forced pom their homes. david begnaud is there. >> guys, we have another house in the path of the fire. >> reporter: in vici, oklahoma, tonight, wildfires are threatening the rural community of nearly 700 people, burning homes and killing cattle. >> they're shooting back into the wind. they can't reach the fire. >> reporter: in some places, the fire is spreading a mile every eight to 12 minutes.

valerie plame went on to say that she believes his real audience was the associates who may turn on hime said, if you get in trouble, do not spill the beans, i will take care of you, this is how the market works. sharon is calling in from florida on the democratic line. what do you think of the strikes in syria by the u.s. and its allies? caller: i cannot add a whole lot to what the people who are against this have already said. they came up with excellent sources to bolster their unhappiness with the strike. i do not believe we took time enough to find out if it actually happened. ofis easy to show video aildren and people dying from gas attack because there have been many that happened. all of the evidence we had heard didar indicated that this not happen, because the people investigating it were not using protective gear. if it was sarin, they would have. i feel like trump has been led by the nose by neocons. i am a democrat who voted for a republican president for the first time in my life. i am a lefty. i voted for him because i thought he was going to help rebuild our country and

characteristics a operative valerie plame, her name being made public. speculation to be sure.uy: totally speculative. libby already had his sentence commute. he was caught up in a process crime. i think trump did the right thing. howie: you don't think it's connected to anything like mueller. guy: it might be but it might be irresponsible for me to jump to any conclusions. howie: ahead on "mediabuzz," a parade of pundits handicapping the house now that paul ryan isn't running. corey lewandowski standing by in new hampshire. more and more people are finding themselves in a chevrolet for the first time. trying something new can be exciting. empowering. downright exhilarating. see for yourself why chevrolet is the most awarded and fastest growing brand, the last four years overall. switch into a new chevy now. current competitive owners can get five thousand dollars below msrp on this 2018 equinox when you finance with gm financial. find new roads at your local chevy dealer. howie: after an intense week that began with an fbi raid against the president's lawyer, joining us from n

it was about the identity of valerie plame.here may be a new twist to the ryan,to replace paul congressman jim jordan may run, he is an ohio republican who is cofounder of the freedom caucus. opec will soon say mission accomplished trying to dry up the global oil surplus. ea says less than 10% of the surplus of oil inventory remains with oil futures hit a three-year high this week. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalist and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am courtney donohoe. this is bloomberg. mark: coming up on the european close, we are live in italy to see why there is still november. this is bloomberg. -- still no government. this is bloomberg. ♪ mark: live from london, i am mark barton with the european close. it is a matter of minutes away. vonnie: i am vonnie quinn in new york and time for the latest bloomberg business flash. shares of tesla are rising with the elon musk saying the electric carmaker will be profitable in cash flow positive for the second half of this year . he made the r

characteristics a operative valerie plame, her name being made public. speculation to be sure. guy: totally speculative. libby already had his sentence commute. he was caught up in a process crime. i think trump did the right thing. howie: you don't think it's connected to anything like mueller. guy: it might be but it might be irresponsible for me to jump to any conclusions. howie: ahead on "mediabuzz," a parade of pundits handicapping the house now that paul ryan isn't running. corey lewandowski standing by in new hampshire. hands go here... feet go here... you know what goes here... and your approval rating... goes here. test drive the ztrak z540r at your john deere dealer today. hello. give me an hour in tanning room 3. cheers! that's confident. but it's not kayak confident. kayak searches hundreds of travel sites to help me plan the best trip. so i'm more than confident. forgot me goggles. kayak. search one and done. you ok there, kurt? we're about to move. karate helps... relieve some of the house-buying... stress. at least you don't have to worry about homeowners insuran

lying to federal investigators about the leaking about the leaking of former cia representative valerie plame. and that is a level of hypocrisy that americans are going to have a problem. >> it is not like this book is the only challenge the white house is trying to deal with right now. far more serious things, the mueller investigation, the cohen investigation. the possibility of syria. >> reporter: they feel like the raid on michael cohen's office, hotel and so on, they feel that is another attempt by the justice department to try to embarrass the president it certainly has gotten under the president's skin. you can see that in the tweets. the mueller investigation, starting to feel like that is going in the same category. i will tell you anderson, there is push back that this is all the president is obsessed with. and i just got finished with a source who insists the president has been deeply focused on these military options of striking syria in response of the chemical weapons attack. and we heard the sarah sanders brushing off this that the british were somehow to blame. >> joining me t

substance of the scooter libby case, in retrospect, we all know who the leaker was in that case of valerie plameit was richard armitage who worked for colin powell and was prosecuted and so we spent a lot of time on an investigation where we actually knew who the leaker was and scooter libby took one for the team. but certainly the president is sending a message to those involved in this mueller investigation, the right decision, but the wrong reason. >> this upcoming interview with james comey on cnn tonight. just friday, you introduced a bill to protect special counsel robert mueller, and the president again seems to be fired up. do you have any concerns about him acting impulsively perhaps after this interview airs? >> well, dr. rk, there's always yes, i did introduce this legislation to protect this special prosecutor. it's the same legislation that graham, booker and others have introduced. we're sending a message to the president that it would be a terrible mistake to fire director mueller. if the president were to do that it would set off a political crisis that i believe we haven't seen

the cia said that valerie plame was -- who outed her?nd the cia said she wasn't a cover person and it did no material damage to the cia. they knew who had done it. colin powell's deputy at the state department. he then locked up a "new york times" reporter for 85 days to get her to testify. scooter finally out of concern for her gave her permission to testify. she then testified after she got out of jail and after the case was over and she wrote a book and said i realized that prosecutor gave me false information so that i gave false testimony. >> he should have been disbarred. >> he should have been and so should comey. comey -- they were trying to get dick cheney. and comey went in the first time he saw cheney, they are sitting next to each other. cheney said i know who you are and says nothing until bush comes in. comey is such a petty person he sought to destroy cheney. so they decided to destroy scooter. what he said today was the biggest falsehood. if they can do this to scooter libby, if they can do this to donald trump they can d

he was convicted of perjury by releasing the name of valerie plame. >> what he's doing is saying youan pardon somebody for national security. i believe he has three, perhaps more. and that would be paul manafort, michael flynn and jared kushner. >> why would a frequent critic of the george w. bush administration, meaning president, go back in time to pardon scooter libby? is he trying to put forth a list of potential witnesses today? >> it's possible. someone who leaked classified information should be prosecuted. well, now he's vying for the relief of an operative. at least someone in the administration is getting pardoned without any sort of justice department review, which is typically customary. >> normally at the end of this, there is a file about yea thick of all the consideration. the president did this on his own. >> you're saying this person who wasn't on anyone's radar, right, this person who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, if memory serves, we're going to pardon him, we're going to cut out the doj. we're going to pardon him and it's going to be okay fo

he was convicted of lying to the fbi over the identity of valerie plame. president trump released a pardon against joe arapaio. the arizona sheriff convicted of criminal contempt. >>> the u.s. is looking for allies as trade tensions with china simmer. the u.s. had until trump quit the trade deal in the first week of office which was meant to pull allies together to blunt the china influence. trump directed the advisors to look at the tpp. a trade pact with 11 other nations. candidate donald trump railed against it. the other countries include mexico, canada and japan moved forward without the u.s. they signed tpp 11 and now senator ben sasse says president trump is reconsidering whether to join the agreement. >> multiple times reaffirmed the point that tpp may be easier for us to join now once the tpp 11 is aligned. we may be the is 12th party. >> trump made the comments with meetings from lawmakers from states that rely on agriculture. farmers are hopping mad over the escalating trade battle with china. china threatening tariffs on agriculture exports. tp

fitzgerald was the special counsel in the valerie plame leak investigation.apoined to that by james comey and it was that investigation that led to the conviction of former white house official scooter libby and last week, president trump pardoned him. so expect that to come up u tonight. some 600 people will be in the crowd and he's going to be answering questions from every day americans including many of the students here at william and mary. this is of course james comey's alma mater and we expect many of those questions to be taught. everything takes place here in just about an hour. >> thanks very much. and be sure to tune in to the cnn town hall tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. thanks for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. >>> "outfront" next, breaking news. president trump's embattled va pick, damming new allegations face iing him, including wreckia government car while drunk. is the president still stick in by him? the white house spokesman is "outfront." also breaking, more michael cohen, pleading the fifth in the ongoing case with sto

he was convicted of lying to investigators and obstruction after the leaking of the identity of valerie plame. in a statement today president trump said that although he does not know libby personally, he has heard that he has been treated unfairly and he hopes the pardon will, quote, help rectify a very sad portion of his life. >>> the city of oakland says it is reviewing a request for information about the city's sanctuary policy from the u.s. justice department. the letter says the justice department is concerned that the policy may violate a federal law barring local governments from preventing their employees from communicating with federal immigration agents. the justice department has given oakland a month to respond. the city has already come under fire from homeland security for a warning by mayor libby schaaf ahead of an i.c.e. operation in february. >>> a taxi driver accused of a hit-and-run. tonight at 5:30, sheriff's deputies say that driver then dried to get rid of the evidence -- tried to get rid of the evidence at a car wash. >> the idea is to split california into three state

this was part of the investigation over leaked identities, valerie plame.cient history and hard to remember. the interesting part to this, number one, james comey was the one who appointed the special counsel there and oversaw this investigation when he was deputy attorney general. maybe is there a motive there? and the second part of this, is it possible the president is sending a message to folks who might be connected in this russia investigation now by pardoning someone who was convicted in a past special counsel investigation? >> it's certainly possible. i don't think we know. i don't know based on my reporting. this sort of came out of nowhere. it was an unexpected thing to do. and so it is certainly possible that this is sort of a flourish by the president saying look at me, i'm the president, i can pardon people. there may be other things behind it. this isn't something that the president seemed engaged with before. he's said so many negative things about the bush administration in particular that to be doing something nice for a bush administration

remember, was convicted of perjury, false statements, obstruction of justice, in the leak of valerie plame'sntity. so a leak investigation about a war that he campaigned he was against, and the defenders of scooter libby say that scooter libby really was loyal to vice president cheney and took the fall for him. so you've got all of these things coming together, loyalty, lying, obstructing behavior. again, it's not legally probative of anything other than what does the president think about loyalty and obstruction and lying and what will that portend in the future with respect to pardons or other things. >> this is going to be underreported because of the comey book and what's going on with syria. people can look at that different ways. i'm bringing it up because it's quite the coinky dink. but there's no health concern for scooter libby, nothing has happened to him on the inside, nothing has changed in the status of his case. so to do this now seems curious. >> you know, look, you could say that it's a message to those around him that he is willing to pardon people, that he does think that l

valerie plame joins "morning joe" in a little while. >>> let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologistossman. a little bit of something out there for everyone. >> hi there, lewis. all over the map. blizzard conditions and nice weather in some parts of the country. the snow, we have some winter storm watches, warnings, blizzard warnings up to 20 inches of snow in some spots. blowing winds. tough travel in the northern plains over the next several days. that will shift to the upper midwest as well. here's your setup area of low pressure. cold front, warm ahead of the front. some temperatures 20 degrees above. the central plains are going to pay the price. we're looking at the potential for some flooding, flash flooding and even the potential for some huge tornadoes. here's the back side over two feet of snow in some spots. the severe prediction center has put out a warning for today and that's alerting you for the potential for some strong storms, even the potential for tornadoes. little rock, shreveport, you're kind of in the target today. that will shift off to the east. it's a slow mo

we all remember that name from the 2007 trial involving the former covert cia agent valerie plame, and scooter libby was convicted of obstruction of justice and of making false statements and perjury. now, he was not pardoned by president george w. bush at the time although his prison sentence was commuted so he did not have to serve any time in jail. but he was not ever pardoned by bush. trump has decided, has told people inside the white house that he will pardon libby, and libby is important because he was a top aide, a top national security adviser to then vice president dick cheney. >> so, joyce, i won't ask you to comment on amazon, which is probably big enough to be able to say, you know what, we're good. we'll form our own postal service, buy the trucks and the planes and hire the people. but on scooter libby, phillip just touched on it. why answer this question no one was asking? why scooter libby? why now? >> well, i think that we'll have to draw the obvious conclusion. libby was convicted in 2007. ironically by a special counsel who was appointed by jim comey of all people.

scooter libby, the former bush administration official convicted of lying to investigators in the valerie plame affair. this afternoon the press secretary did not rule out a pardon for michael cohen. >> it was noticed by some that you didn't close the door one way or the other the president pardoning michael cohen. what is your -- what's your read on that right now? >> it's hard to close the door on something that hasn't taken place. i don't like to discuss or comment on hypothetical situations that may or may not ever happen. >> congresswoman maxine waters, a democrat of california joins me here tonight in new york city. it's nice to have you here in studio. >> good to be here. >> what is your read of the message the president is or is not sending to michael cohen? >> well, it's quite obvious that he is sending a message that he will pardon him. i understand that he treated him very badly. he had no respect for him. and despite the fact that cohen has said he would take a bullet, i don't think so. i don't think he'll take prison. and so when people talk about him flipping, i think it just driv

the valerie plame case. that's it for us. more on that ahead. thanks for watching "360." time to hand things over to don lemon. "krvn tonight" starts now. >> this is "cnn tonight." there's a lot f o news. bombshell breaking news, news that has the trump white house under siege tonight as james comey goes to war with the president. with president trump. we have explosive details from the fired fbi director's new memoir including this quote from comey, describing what happened during a private dinner. when the president brought up the most salacious detail from that infamous russia dossier. and this is a quote. "he brought up what he called te golden shower things adding it bothered him that there was even a 1% chance his wife, melania, thought it was true. comey goes on to say the president told him he was thinking of asking the fbi to investigate the allegation to prove it was a lie. and there's more. the "washington post" reporting that comey writes, "it is also wrong to stand idly by or worse to stay silent when you know better. while a president brazeningly seeks to un

he knew that valerie plame had used the state department as her cover and -- david: for those, just very, to put it in a nutshell what happened here is scooter libby was charged with leaking information to somebody who was highly critical of his role with the state department and the vice president. his wife happened to be a cia agent and accused of leaking that information to you. >> i believe at the time he did, and my memory was fuzzy and i couldn't make out my notes. i subsequently discovered that he knew, he had information that would have helped me decipher my notes and make me understand that scooter libby could not have been the source. david: now we don't have much time, judy, but the special counsel, patrick fitzgerald, what makes this fascinating was timing of all this he was appointed by none other than than jim comey whose book comes out today. >> right. david: it focuses on problem of overreach by special counsels. do you think that is why president trump gave the pardon today to scooter libby? >> david, i can't get inside of the president's head or about to explain or defe

in the outing of valerie plame as a c.i.a. undercover officer case. the timing, are you concerned that he is sending a message to people under fire from bob mueller. if you protect me i'll protect you with a pardon if it comes to that? >> i would hope most of the folks involved in this already know the president has the power of pardon. he has proved that with the sheriff in arizona. so i'm not a big fan of pardons. i'm a prosecutor. most of the commentary i've read on scooter libby's pardon they thought it was an overzealous prosecutor. okay, there is a way to deal with that. don't hire over zealous prosecutors. he was convicted of a false statement and -- i think everyone knows the president has pardon power. i don't know if he needs to send a signal except to slow-witted people. >> chris: i want to turn to one of your big issues now, that is the way the f.b.i. has handled the clinton investigation and the trump investigation. former f.b.i. director james comey has a new book out, you may have heard of it. and one of the questions he will have an in

justice after he lied to fbi agents in a federal grand jury over who blew the cover of cia agent valerie plame after her husband criticized the iraq war. president george w. bush immediately commuted libby's 30 month prison sentence, but did not grant him a full pardon. it raises the prospect of similar pardons for former trump campaign officials, including michael flynn and rick gates, who have secured plea deals after lying to fbi agents carrying out special's investigation. reports theed press owner of the national enquirer former0,000 in 2015 to a doorman at trump tower to quash ae story that trump fathered child in the late 1980's. the ap reports the inquirer bought elusive rights to the story and refused to publish it in a process known as catch and kill. the national enquirer similarly quash the story on the eve of the 2016 election about trump's alleged extramarital affair with former model karen mcdougal. the national enquirer's parent company chief executive david packer is a close personal friend of president trump. the senate has approved a former coal industry lobbyist to become s

the caa said to valerie plame, the whole thing was about who outed her. council so there was no material damage to the cia. the person who did it was: how was deputy at the state department. patrick fitzgerald told him to keep his mouth shut. he then locked up by "new york times" reporter for 85 days to get her to testify. scooter finally out of concern for her gave her permission to testify because she said i have -- she then testified after she got out of jail and after the case was over. she wrote a book and said, i realized later that a prosecutor me false information so that i gave false testimony -- >> laura: should have been disbarred. >> he should have been disbarred and frankly, comey should have been disbarred. comey presided over what was very clear. they were trying to get dick cheney. comey finally told you the reason. comey went in the first time, they are in the cabinet room, sitting next to each other, comey tries to be friendly, dick cheney says i know who you are, looks straight ahead and says nothing. comey is such a petty person that h

scooter libby, obviously fundamental to the cover-up of the leak of a cia undercover agent's name, valerie plamegot convicted, hooked by a jury on four out of five counts that went to obstruction, his efforts to keep people from understanding what happened with the leak of her name. fair analysis of what he did and why pardon him now? >> that's right. and earlier he also pardoned joe arpaio, both arpaio and scooter libby, were pardoned outside the usual department of justice pardon process. which is very slow and meticulous. this is just the power of the president and he wanted to do it. he has sent the message, i could pardon anyone i want, any time. >> but scooter libby, theoretically, a guy who took the fall for covering up a secret that that administration didn't want to get out. >> and a republican hero, a dick cheney protege. even more than this jack johnson discussion, that was a message, i think, that if you hang tough, you can get a pardon from me. i will stick by my friends. >> so let's start with the basics. flynn, he has an active case against him. he has -- >> he's looking at senten