the other main reason the obama administration, quote, ruled out any other action against moscow is because they feared what putin might do in response about the election. they feared that putin, quote, was prepared to go beyond fake news and e-mail dumps. quote, the fbi had detected suspected russian attempts to penetrate election systems in 21 states, and a the least one senior white house official assumed that moscow would try all 50, officials said. according to the post, as brazen as the russian attacks on the election seemed, obama and his top advisers feared that things could get far worse. moscow's meddling to that point was seen as deeply concerning but unlikely to materially affect the outcome of the election. far more worrisome to the obama team was the prospect of a cyber assault on voting systems before and on election day. clearly they didn't have a lot on the russians, which appears to be a considerable amount of stuff they could have thrown. part of the reason they didn't do anything to russia about this before the election was because of how it would politically play here i

at least one senior white house official assumed that moscow would try all 50. michael daniel, who was cyber security coordinator at the white house, tells "the washington post," that, quote, we turned to other scenarios that the russians might attempt. quoting from "the post," as brazen as the russian attacks on the election seemed, obama and his top advisers feared that things could get far worse. moscow's meddling to that point was seen as deeply concerning but unlikely to materially affect the outcome of the election. far more worrisome to the obama team was the prospect of a cyber assault on voting systems before and on election day. worrisome to the obama team was that prospect. so part of the reason they didn't throw everything they had at the russians, which appears to be a considerable amount of stuff they could have thrown, part of the reason they didn't do anything to russia about this before the election was because of how it would play politically here in the united states. this question, an important question on whether americans would have confide

it would have been a, quote win-win for moscow he told news. we have another source. dan freed who coordinated u.s. sanctions policy until stepping down in february describing what he saw happening at the state department when the trump administration took over saying, quote, there was serious consideration by the white house to unilaterally rescind the sanctions. he said in the first few weeks of the administration he received several panicky calls from government officials who told him they had been directed to develop a sanctions lifting package and imploring him, please, my god, can't you stop this. this is really something. some of it is familiar in the broad strokes because it's no mystery that russia was of interest to the trump administration. what we have detailed here, though, is now what the trump administration wanted to give russia. when it comes to what the u.s. would get in return, a basic feature of any deal, let alone a major foreign policy reversal after this russian interference, well, on that there's very little detail. so among many other problems

quote, any concessions to moscow could prove controversial while the administration and former campaign officials are under congressional and special council investigation for alleged ties to russia. this explosive story breaking late this evening, what we will do here, a little later in the show, we will talk to one of the reporters who literally just broke this story. that should be interesting to say the least. we begin tonight with a different corn over this trump-russia inquiry. we now know the fbi inquiry into the interference in the election was launched all the way back in last july, only formally confirmed this march when fbi director, jim comey determined the public interest justified disclosing this investigation. that's a process that required him to clear it with the doj. and he said trump's testimony was part of that and in that dramatic testimony he intoned now we will close our mouths and do our work. he only opened his mouth before congress one more time after 123456789 it was that hearing that contradicted president trump's baseless claims about obama wiretapping him.

of economic sanctions, the return of diplomatic compounds and other steps to relieve tensions with moscow. i want to note of course that wording reflects what sounds like the trump administration's view because prior administration here, the obama folks, didn't think there were tensions with moscow over sanctions. they thought those were formal punishments over the meddling, a matter of foreign policy accountability, not personal tensions. let me show you one of these named sources. tom who resigned as -- human rights for obama. to lobby congress after learning from colleagues the administration was developing a plan to lift sanctions and possibly arrange a summit between trump and russian president vladimir putin as part of an effort to achieve a, quote, grand bargain can moscow. it would have been a, quote, win/win with mouse cow. we have another source. dan freed who coordinated u.s. sanctions policy until stepping down in february describing what he saw happening at the state department when the trump administration took over saying, quote, there was serious consideration by the white

one russian website is reporting that 750 people were arrested today in moscow. and even more than that, 900 people were arrested in st. petersburg. these protests were some of the biggest since the huge nationwide protest in 2012 that unnerved vladimir putin. we here in the states focus on the russian attacks on our election and the question of whether or not there were any american con fed rats in those attacks, this is the way putin's wielding his power at home. as we continue to watch these protests struggle and their leaders get attacked and people get arrested, varjs ongoing question as to whether or not these people trying to opposite putin have any hope in making a dent at home. joining us is michael mcfall, former u.s. ambassador to russia. appreciate your time tonight. thanks for being here. >> sure. thanks for having me. >> this is not the first time i've had you join us when people are facing arrest, the prominent leaders being arrested and sentence today jail time. what do you think about the last question i asked about whether or not there's hope th

pro-putin dictator who manafort worked for for a deck caddy before he was deposed and had to flee to moscow. he too had to resign under the trump campaign until a huge scandal relating to russia. he too, like mike palestinian, is reportedly the subject of congressional investigations, he and his businesses have been the subject of federal grand jury subpoenas over the past several months. you would think that would create for him all the same pressure that mike flynn felt, to get his legal ducks in a row, to take care of things that the justice department oversees, things like filing his foreign agent registration act paperwork. you would think that manafort would feel that same a pressure. desmid the press records, he didn't, which has a weird over these few months. it has led us on this show to discover that attorney general jeff sessions, who said he was recused from all matters for the campaign receipted to the president, he said he was recused from any matters involving a justice department investigation, we discovered sort of incidentally when we were trying to pull this thread, that

reason he is point of intrigue here is before he ever worked with manafort in ukraine he worked in moscow at an american nonprofit called the international republican institute. and when he worked at the international republican institute for like a decade he was very open about the fact that he was russian military intelligence. and he would tell people, openly, it was widely known and widely discussed about him, that the reason he learned such good english, the place he had gotten all his great training that made him so valuable to that american nonprofit in moscow is because he was gru. he came out of russian military intelligence. from that politico profile back in august. they called him kostia, a nickname for konstantin. when he was asked how to speak such fluent english, he responded russian military intelligence. not a secret. he eventually while he still held that job at that american nonprofit he started moonlighting with somebody connected to paul manafort, the international republican institute got rid of him because of that. and therefore paul manafort picked him up full-time

we can continue our dialogue that began in moscow with the dialogue he hosted from a very broad range of topics. thank you. >> does the comey firing cast a shadow of your talks? >> that same day the russian foreign minister turned up in the oval office, as well. u.s. reporters and photographers were not allowed any access to that meeting. we got these photos of that meeting because the russian foreign minister brought with him a photographer from a russian state run news service. that is how we found out they did let a photographer in there, just not an american one. that is how we found out that the russian ambassador was in on that meeting, too. this is the same russian ambassador who michael flynn concealed his meetings with and who jared kushner concealed his meetings with. i'm not sure we would know the president was meeting with him but the russian state run news agency photographer let loose in the oval office, that guy ended up confurchliirming the news. the white house explained the presence of that russian photographer in the oval office by saying this. quote, they tricked u

in central moscow and across the country, as well. . hundreds of sites across the country. lots of people turned out. thousands of people turned out in cities all across russia. riot police also turned out in force. hundreds of people were arrested at multiple sites including a lot of young people who reporters said police appeared to just pluck out of the crowd at random no matter what those individuals were doing at the moment. it's unclear exactly how riot police targeted the people who they had did arrest and unclear how many people they took in. one russian website that independently tracks arrested is reporting about 750 people were arrested today in moscow. and even more than that, 900 people were arrested in st. petersburg. these protests today all over russia were some of the biggest since the huge nationwide protests in 2012 that so unnerved vladimir putin. while we here in the states focus on the russian attacks on our election and the question of whether or not there were any american confederates in those attacks, this is the way putin is wielding his power at

strings that he wants to clearly at the focal point of this investigation is potential collusion between moscow and the trump campaign. that also includes a look at any potential associates of president trump which would include his campaign chairman paul manfort and it could certainly include allegations of perjury, obstruction of justice or anything of that sort. >> in this a.p. interview, did you get into jim comey's coming testimony? >> no. >>nd let me ask you about the manfort pie of it. what do you see as significant about that? for our viewers, a lot of folks have tracked different people connected to trump at different times under review. what does it say to you based on your reporting and wider knowledge that this is now under mueller's purview? >> it's something. as you noted, the manfort investigation predates the campaign. it predates did collusion accusation. clearly, as they're building up their team and developing steam as part of this investigation, 24er looking at all these different sort of outstanding threads and trying to figure out what are the potential ties or connections

fool the kremlin and putin thought it would be fun to fool this american guy who came all the way to moscow to interview him by showing him some fake footage. but this is a weird time in relations between our country and russia. even knowing how weird things are, though, it is still bizarre to see vladimir putin personally showing somebody the wrong tape. bragging about something the u.s. military did in a totally different country, trying to pass it off as if it's his military against isis. so showtime just posted that trailer for the oliver stone-vladimir putin interviews. posted that just in the last week. the kremlin is now very, very upset about the people who are pointing out what that video really is. pointing this out as putin's mistake. they're very upset about that. they're denying it up and down, but it's clearly a mistake. and that comes at a time that is tense, not just in political terms between our two countries, but specifically in military terms, too. a couple of days ago, u.s. military aircraft, big spy plane, we have an animation of this thing, i forgot, u.s. military spy