to resign. >> someone with bob mueller's integrity will step aside and should. >> why take aim at robert mueller now? governor chris christie is here to explain. >>> plus, pointing fingers. amid new revelations in the russia investigation, the trump administration blames a familiar foe. >> if any collusion took place, it would be between the dnc and the clintons. >> they made up the whole russia hoax. >> what's the strategy behind these counterattacks? we'll talk with senator angus king of the intelligence committee in minutes. >>> hello. i'm jake tapper in washington, where the state of our union is watching and waiting. in less than 24 hours, the first person could be taken into custody in the russia investigation. on friday, a washington grand jury approved the first charges in the probe into possible collusion with russia by the trump team, led by special counsel, robert mueller. while the charges right now are still sealed, sources say anyone charged could be taken into custody as early as monday. we do not know at this point who might be facing charges or for what. mueller h

first indictments in special counsel bob mueller's investigation were unsealed. president donald trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort and his top lieutenant rick gates were indicted on 12 criminal charges that focused primarily on their work as pro-russian lobbyists and their complicated money laundering schemes to hide the proceeds. those charges include conspiracy against the united states and lying to federal agents about their work on behalf of a foreign government. both manafort and gates have pleaded not guilty. separately today a lower profile aide, george papadopoulos, plead guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with russians, and he's now cooperate with investigators. according to "the new york times," the plea represents the most explicit evidence that the trump campaign was aware that the russian government was trying to help mr. trump and that the campaign was eager to accept that help. the news has trump insiders buzzing today with questions swirling about papadopoulos and how an unnamed high ranking campaign official was also involved. some observe

future. because bob mueller would do that. and the second thing i would look at is to see if the president of the united states is sending some kind of message to the potential defendant or other witnesses, and that's in two categories. one, is he sending a message of intimidation in some way through himself or his cohorts to suggest that people should not be talking, people should keep their mouths shut? and the second thing is whether or not he sends a message of reassurance. >> we're going to break it all down for you this morning with nbc's kelly o'donnell at the white house, former democratic congresswoman, and cnbc editor at large john harwood. quite a team right there. begin with kelly at the white house. kelly, good day to you. the president this morning firing off a series of tweets on the heels of mueller's indictments what all is he saying. >> reporter: it may be the president's reck ration this sunday. he is at the white house. used his twitter feed to respond more to the atmosphere than the specifics of the reports of an impending indictment as a result of the specia

kremlin. we know the trump tower meeting is of special interest to bob mueller as he investigates potential collusion between the trump campaign and russia, as well as whether or not obstruction of justice may have occurred when the white house told a phony cover story about the circumstances surrounding that meeting. today's times report adds to earlier nbc news reporting connecting the russian lawyer and russia's top prosecutor back in moscow. according to "the new york times," quote, the coordination between the trump tower visitor and the russian prosecutor general undercuts ms. veselnitskaya's account that she was a purely independent actor when she sat down with donald trump jr., jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and paul manafort, then camp pain chairman. it also suggests that e-mails from an intermediary to the young pler trump promising that ms. veselnitskaya would arrive with information from russian prosecutors were rooted in partly fact not puffery. she acknowledged to nbc news back in august that she has worked closely with the russian prosecutor's office in t

sealed does not give us any indication into the substance of what bob mueller has convinced a grand jury to find probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed. we don't know if he's charging multiple individuals, multiple defendants, or just a single person. we don't know if it's for something directly kind of at the hot molten core of this investigation, collusion, financial impropriety, or something more tangential, for example mike flynn's failure to register as a lobbyist for the turkish government. we just don't know at this hour. >> jeremy, how about a little informed speculation, are you curious at how early in the mueller effort this is? he's been at it, what, five months, and does the timing tell you anything? >> this is fast. he's moving with all deliberate speed. we know that. he has a large team of investigators, of prosecutors. he's got a lot of resources. but even for a large team, this kind of complex investigation, i would think would have taken a lot longer. so this seems to me like something that was sort of easily provable fast, like lying to a federal

sweeping indictment from bob mueller with 12 counts against paul manafort and rick gates all involve in this kind of extensive conspiracy. i would put the charges into three buckets. one, the two of them worked on behalf of a foreign government, the government of ukraine, to lobby in the united states. and they did not register as required under u.s. law. two, they took the money they received for that work, laundered it through various shell companies, money laundering is of course a crime, and did so to avoid paying u.s. taxes. three, when confronted that by the justice department last year, they then lied about it. which shows they were trying to conceal this and shows motive. that shows that they will try to convict paul now. >> let's go through the buckets now. bucket one, when you look at what you describe, which is the lobbying they did on half of this, let's say pro-russia and ukrainian political party. that's an important point here and something we have been reporting for the last year and a half ever since the campaign when paul manafort joined up, the connections there. s

jump ahead and say, i think we all hope that bob mueller gets to the bottom of things. that the intelligence committee gets to the bottom of things. i am sure will chat about what i see about the confluence. not just the mueller investigation but what is hill.ing on capitol i'm so glad that richard mentioned senator sam ervin because the breakthrough in the watergate tapes came out of the united states senate. >> we're talking about ethics in the law because as we now, even what we know is what is patently unethical is not what is known as illegal. do you believe donald trump at this point has done anything that, in your estimation, would be considered illegal lord you think that is going to have to of what in the wash could still be a many months investigation? >> the laughter. latter. i was nervous that the president was having all these meetings. it is very unwise. very imprudent. former director comey's testimony as to what happened, i orked and listened very fully. i am pretty familiar with obstruction of justice, it did not amount to obstruction from what i heard. from wha

politico says the president's legal team is thinking about offering special counsel bob mueller a meeting with mr. trump. a senior white house official told politico if mueller's team does not request an interview with the president by thanksgiving, his lawyers may move forward with the invitation, but the president's personal lawyer, john dowd, is calling that officials' claim totally false. >>> let's bring in darren samuelson, the reporter who broke this story and barbara mcquaide, former u.s. attorney in michigan and an msnbc contributor. with a welcome to you both, darren, i want to reach out about your source. were you told about why the president's lawyers may want to, as you wrote in your piece, force the issue by volunteering trump's time? >> well, the questioning is really inevitable. if mueller wants to talk to president trump, he's going to be able to make that happen. whether it happens any time soon or next year is really the big question. mueller probably wants to wait until he's talked to everybody else in this investigation and sort of leave the biggest fish for la

, breaking news that bob mueller charged three former trump aides and one already pled guilty on russia-related charge. donald trump has been in office nine months. earliest indictment of former aides in history. one admitted he lied about meetings. two others out on bail on charges of federal crime. rocking washington and white house. and more breaking news, reaction from trump aides, lawmakers saying this is just the beginning and brand new reporting on mueller's road ahead and shocking information about how broad russian propaganda reached on facebook to get to americans. at the same time of this, donald trump's only public appearance is halloween event at white house. somewhat surreal image to cap a wild day that broke this story wide open. >> first indictment into investigation between alleged ties between the trump campaign and russia. >> charges say they lied about lobbying for the government of ukraine. >> seeing a money trail. >> first reaction from donald trump, sorry this is years ago, why aren't crooked hillary and the dems the focus. >> today taez announcement has no

do you think bob mueller's strategy was with this one-two, news punch today with regard to manafort and gates and the papadopoulos news breaking soon after? what message is bob mueller trying to send with that, do you think? >> this is an impressive strategy that's played out today. the secret guilty plea, a cooperative witness and not just manafort and gates that i've got people cooperating and if you want to play hard ball with me, we have people working against you. for example, it's very typical in public corruption cases to have that person wired up and making phone calls and e-mails so you've got to be worried today, if you're in d.c. and new york and you're being looked at by mueller, you have to start thinking when did papadopoulos start cooperating? how many phone calls and, mails did i get after that from him and how many are now in the hands of the fbi. this is a wonderful strategy we've seen today. >> interesting to see that. with regard to papadopoulos and renato, we were following the tweets so carefully and all of the many tweets. let me hone in on the one that's gott

to find out who will be these first targets of bob mueller. thomas? >> a lot of people on the edge of their seats on this one, so we will get through the next 24 hours and we shall see together. mike viqueira at the white house. thank you, sir, appreciate it. >>> so, as we focus on the pending news coming out about the mueller probe, president trump and his allies are focused on his 2016 opponent. you saw what mike viqueira was reporting there via twitter. basically, the president going after hillary clinton of colluding with russians herself, suggesting wrongdoing and uranium deal that was approved by the obama administration. >> if this had happened in the 1950s, there would be people up on trees in charges right now. the rosenbergs, okay? this is equivalent to what the rosenbergs did, and those people got the chair. think about it. >> we are seeing now that if there was any collusion with russia it was between the dnc and the clintons, and certainly not our campaign. >> it's time to shut it down, turn the tables, and lock her up. that's what i said. i actually said it, lock her

second takeaway is news that bob mueller is interviewing people involved in james comey's firing. he has not yet reached out to jeff sessions. >> have you been interviewed, or been requested to be interviewed by a special counsel, either in question, director comey's firing, the russia investigation, or your own contact with the russian officials? >> i would be pleased to answer that. i'm not sure should i without clearing that with a special counsel. what do you think? >> have you been interviewed by them? >> no. >> now, that's news because mueller never says who he is interviewing. we only know when the witnesses or their teams talk about it in public. the third takeaway, bits the future. the president refusing to say if the president would pardon anyone. this in a new statement to "the beat." the spokesperson says the special counsel's office has never confirmed a criminal investigation into comey's firing. that's true. mueller is not announcing his investigation's focus. but journal. is have reported he is investigating obstruction and of course, the comey firing it was final str

the special council's office, of course, led by bob mueller. william burke, reince priebus' lawyer. he confirms a voluntary ver view and happy to answer those questions. you have been in a lot of high powered rooms, what do you think of that news? >> i think reince priebus will answer truthfully. i don't think he will risk being prosecuted with perjury. i think he will paint a picture of potential destruction. there is no question about it. so i don't think that's good news for the president. >> you think reacting to this news here that bob mueller's team is sittingwith reince priebus. you think what he will say will contribute to the obstruction case? >> yeah, i think it will. i don't think it will contradict the obstruction case. i think it las the possibility of contributing and reenforcing it. as reince priebus is not going to lie for donald trump, i don't believe that for a second. >> wow, governor rendell, an expert on many things, thank you for that perspective. eugene scott, stick around. you are a part of fallback friday. >> i am. >> okay. we will have a lot more on this b

indictments or arrests coming in the next few days. this suggests that bob mueller is probing this case and has decided to move before he's finished. sometimes indictments only come at the end of an investigation, but we know from our own reporting, the interview schedule, the fact there's very top people in the white house, including the president himself that reportedly have not sat down with mueller's team, that bob mueller's not done. so these are earlier indictments. it suggests that either feast he's found facts that he thinks warrant moving now, or as we've seen in other cases, there's an effort to use early indictments to get more information, to get potential cooperation, to get proverbally people to flip. >> let's talk about who could be the fartarget of this. >> we know paul manafort was already told by mueller's investigators that he is a target. that is one person who figures in here based on a range of conduct, including scrutiny for deals and activities that don't directly relate to his political activities as campaign manager for donald trump during a period of that general

by invitation. there will be every effort, i'm confident of bob mueller's a complete professional with total integrity, to respect the dignity of the office of the president, which you said at the top of the hour. the presidency deserves respect. and so, the way the likely it will likely work out in the fullness of time is for the president's private lawyers led by ty cobb who is very able and bob mueller personally to sit down and discuss the situation. the president of the united states, during the whitewater investigation was under oath on several occasions. in the white house. there was one occasion, of course, the civil litigation brought by paula corbin jones when he was under oath in a private law office here in washington, d.c. so, it will depend on the negotiations, but i think that is a logical step in bob mueller's eventually completing his investigation. >> do you believe that bob mueller has, or will see the president's tax returns? >> that, i don't know. it would be a logical step, but it really depends always on the evidence that you have, and then your assessment o

the research to argue that bob mueller and his investigation should be terminated. so malcolm, when we think about op o research, campaigns are not supposed to accept foreign aid, certainly not accept foreign aid for free. can american organizations be able to reach across borderlines to other countries in seeking opposition research. >> it's a question of where the information and the source of the information is. the information that was acquired by fusion gps, which, by the way, was done by a republican, like you said, the free beacon, it was not a foreign government agency providing that. it was a subcontractor with americans involved who did analysis and gained information that was what we call rumor intelligence. anybody can do that. if you saw the opposition research folder that the dnc had that was hacked and released by russian intelligence, you'll just see this is information gathering. on the other hand, what we saw with the e-mail chain that had donald trump junior, paul manafort and jared kushner involved, a foreign agency with information and personnel from that foreign g

little bit. there was a wall, remember? and then news broke that steele is talking to bob mueller. continuing many months of fbi scrutiny of the explosive claims in the trump russia dossier. and then last night rachel maddow reported that steele is happy to talk to senate investigators. >> an associate of steele test us that in fact very recently, in late september, christopher steele in london related to washington through this associate that mr. steele in fact would be happy to meet with richard burr and senator mark

>> bill: president trump and the white house pushing back against bob mueller saying the charges have nothing to do with the trump team or the president. and that they still show no evidence of collusion with russia. they said a bit more as well. on halloween this is our costume today. this is what we get, right? >> sandra: where is the orange? come on. >> bill: i felt like halloween was on saturday. >> sandra: i'll carry the orange. >> bill: i'm bill hemmer, how are you? >> sandra: i'm sandra smith. former trump campaign chairman paul manafort and his associate rick gates pleading not guilty to 12 charges including conspiracy against the united states. they're due back in court later this week. the president's team putting on a united front as the charges became public. >> president donald trump was correct, there is no evidence that mr. manafort or the trump campaign colluded with the russian government. those activities ended in 2014, over two years before mr. manafort served in the trump campaign. >> today's announcement has nothing to do with the president or his campaign or

admitted to doing so to trigger the creation of the special counsel, who was bob mueller who is his buddy. and what was the mission of the special counsel? to investigate russian undermining of our presidential election in relation to the trump campaign. and what do we find out this morning? paul map for the is charged with not disclosing his foreign bank account. >> sean: 2006 to '14. >> right. 11 years ago. that's how far they have to dig. and not registering adequately as a representative of foreign

me up. there's big news in the russia investigation, tonight about, what bob mueller is probing now. do you remember donald trump's very first press conference as president-elect? it was bizarre. trump tried to counter concerns about foreign powers enriching him by showing the supposed paperwork for creating new rules for trump hotels. the folders were are found later to be purely voluntary. he brought out a private lawyer to press his case. and then he waded into a controversy that jim comey had just told him about at trump tower. the dossier. >> i want to thank a lot of the news organizations here today. because they looked at that nonsense that was released by maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows, maybe the intelligence agencies, which would be a tremendous blot on their record if they did that. a tremendous blot. because a thing like that should have never been written. it is all fake news. it is phony stuff. it didn't happen. it was a group of opponents that got together, sick people, and they put that crap together. >> that was weird. most americans hadn't even heard muc

rosenstein could appoint bob mueller to try to connect trump to russia. and if that isn't the irony of all ironies. head of the fbi at the time, bob mueller, the man now appointed special counsel to connect donald trump to russia. the fbi agent handling the case? andrew mccabe. he's the man who was handling the seem investigation of hillary. and you may remember his wife got $675,000 from clinton pal terry mcauliffe, also connected to the clinton foundation because she ran with hillary in 2016. she lost, but under virginia law she can keep whatever cash was left from that oh so generous contribution. at the time of the approval of the transnever our uranium to -- the transfer of our uranium to russia. republicans worried that russia helped iran build its nuclear resack tore and that the takeover of united states nuclear resources by a russian government-owned agency would be against our national security interests. why does this all matter? at the time that the obama administration green lighted this sale, republicans in congress objected. and they didn't even know about the criminality an

central to the big question that bob mueller's investigating, which is did the, you know, did anyone in the united states cooperate with the russian government to interfere in a u.s. election. they're not central to that investigation but they are related. you have to go back to paul manafort's work in ukraine. he was working for a pro-putin au au autocrat at the time. he made connections to a man, a russian billionaire, that he was secretly communicating with while he was heading the trump campaign, offering him secret briefingings about what the trump campaign was doing. of course, we know he did change the platform. so while these charges are unrelated to his work on the campaign, they do -- they are a link in the chain to, you know, paul manafort's background working for people connected to vladimir putin, connected to the russian government and what might have happened while he was working for donald trump. >> he is basically the king of aluminum, siberian-born russian with very close ties to vladimir putin. talk us through this information. when you think about all that's in th

if you will, but his presidency and the long lens of history is crippled and we know that. bob mueller is six steps ahead of this president. we saw that today with the

counsel, bob mueller, made dramatic moves in the russia investigation. mr mueller handed down indictments to two campaign officials — paul manafort and rick gates. he also released information that a foreign policy advisor to candidate trump has pleaded guilty to lying about ties to moscow. paul manafort was the chair of donald trump's campaign for three months in 2016 — count one of his indictment is a charge of conspiracy againt the united states, he's also accused of tax evasion and money laundering. george papadopoulos the campaign foreign policy advisor — hid his attempts to get dirt on hillary clinton from a russian operative. mr manafort and mr gates havejust pleaded not guilty to all charges. 0ur north america editorjon sopel, begins our coverage. paul manafort, are you handing yourself into federal authorities today? this is not how it was meant to be. mr manafort has no comment. just over one year ago, multimillionaire paul manafort was donald trump's campaign chairman, a figure of huge influence. today he's been ordered to an fbi field office to face the gravest charges.

that bob mueller's team had traveled to interview christopher steele. steele is the former british intelligence officer who compiled the dossier. the dossier which contained some salacious material also contained unsubstantiated examples of possible collusion between donald trump's campaign and russia. we have learned in recent days that multiple investigations are working to corroborate some of the dossier's contents. this afternoon, nbc's ken delanian reported more, that steele is also in talks with the senate intelligence committee to meet with them and to assist them in their investigation into potential collusion between trump's campaign and russia. ken will join us in a couple minutes. with steele availing himself to mueller and to the senate intelligence committee, it becomes more likely that the contents of his original report will be further investigated and potentially some of them confirmed. for a glimpse into how that might make the president feel, here's a look at his first public reaction to the dossier. >> i saw the information. i read the information. outside of tha

that to the president and "wall street journal" editorial board by the way. bob mueller set to make an announcement today, and it's not about him stepping down. any moment the first criminal charges are expected in the sweeping investigation of russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe." it's monday, october 30th. with us we have washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay, former fbi special agent and msnbc contributor clint wattses, msnbc political analyst and professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman harold ford jr. and pulitzer prize winning historian jon meacham. >> on this day that mika, obviously, it's going to be an extraordinarily important day, not only in the history of this presidency, young presidency, but also could be in the recent history of this country, and -- >> yeah. >> because of that, i just think, harold, we have to start with what, perhaps, historians will have to judge this, but what could be called one of the greatest games in the wor

consideration whatsoever on the president's part of the white house to fire bob mueller. i think it is all speculation on the part of the newest folks. >> would that be part of the plea agreements? >> i don't have to look at the merits of that and the facts. it's a lot of speculation on the basis for the pardon. >> the trump campaign was clearly open to working with russians to dig up dirt on hillary clinton. we know that from the unsealed documents and the reporting on the don jr. meeting, etc. in your mind, is this a judgment question? do you feel you can still work with the white house right now? >> i will work well with the white house. the thing i admire about this president is that he's focused on his job. and the only time he's really dealing with these issues is when it comes up in the media. the president is focused on tax reform right now. he's still focused on health care reform. he's focused on good trade agreements. he's focused on securing our country. he's focused on north korea. he's focused on iran. >> respectfully, congressman, based on what the president is tweeting this

bob mueller will be putting the pressure on very strongly to bring that information out. manafort has pleaded not guilty in court. rick gates has done the same thing. here?do things go from perhaps we will hear from attorneys. where in terms of process do we go now? >> the special prosecutor continues his work. they made it quite clear this has no affect on the congressional investigation. one of the key things is george papadopoulos bullis cooperation with the indictment. these are not necessarily finite. could find out new information and have further of them or others. it will be interesting to see whether or not there are more charges brought forward to these individuals are new ones. that's the process. sanders sayingy he expects miller's probe to continue very soon. is wishful thinking given how much it seems to be expanding. >> definitely. she did not provide any information about why she going tothe probe is be wrapping up soon. the white house has sort of herod this line for summer months saying this is just a witchhunt that is going to be completed very quickly because there

disagree. that person who's saying that doesn't know bob mueller. hasn't worked for bob mueller. essentially accusing bob mueller of deliberately committing a criminal violation by leaking the existence of a grand jury indictment is really misguided. so i'm telling you as someone who's worked for bob mueller, he's not a happy camper right now. he's not pleased that this has been released. >> so how did it get leaked then? didn't it have to be somebody on the team? perhaps not with his approval. >> right. so with 25 years of fbi experience, i can tell you we've seen leaks occur out of grand juries from the actual grand jury members, from court clerks, from fbi agents, from reporters who work fbi agents as sources, administrative help, marshals who protect the grand jury room, there's any host of ways this could have happened. but let's focus on what we do know. there's going to be ultimately an arrest here. and i can tell you based on history that whoever is being charged is under surveillance right now by an fbi surveillance team, even if there's been negotiations with his defense counsel ab

around with what bob mueller is doing can. if, in fact, the president were to interfere with mr. mueller's investigation, would you consider putting that legislation on the floor? >> yeah. i don't have any announcement to make about floor time. you might ask those members, you know, what their intentions are. but we've got plenty of things we have to do between now and the end of the year that will take up floor time in the senate. >> mr. leader, on appropriations, how does -- [inaudible] and will you be done with -- >> well, we are in a four-cornered, bipartisan negotiation over how to fund the government including the trump administration, and that job will have to be done by december the 8th. and i think we're on a path to do that. [inaudible conversations] >> thanks a lot.

, they arrested anyone? when and they've held et for this long. it shows bob mueller runs an extraordinarily tight ship. >> he does an manafort and gates have gotten target letters. since the news got out on friday, everybody in washington was wondering who it might be. manafort was on almost everybody's guest list. when the news hit 90 minutes later that george papadopoulos was charged and therefore pled guilty and committing of a crime to the feds. >> that shows that bob mueller had not only one scalp but he actually now had a major cooperating witness. >> we'll get to the manafort witness. perhaps the most surprising development yesterday was the third man charged. one who has admitted to crimes and is cooperating with the government's investigation. gorge papadopoulos admitted to lying in its investigation in the russian interference in the 2016 election. yesterday's revelation shows he was arrested more than three months ago on july 27th and pled guilty october 5th a. court filing says he told the fbi that he had communicated with an overseas professor whom he understood

saying the president should not interfere with bob mueller's work in any way saying he should let the special counsel do his job. >> thanks very much. he served has chief of staff in a white house that faced its own set of scandals so what advise might he have for president trump and his team? we'll talk to leon panetta next. a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide. it could help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. these types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. rates are competitive, and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. remember - these plans let you apply all year round. so call tod

lawyers, led by ty cobb, who is very able, and bob mueller, personally to sit down and discuss the situation. the president of the united states during the whitewater investigation was under oath on several occasions. in the white house. there was one occasion of course the civil litigation brought by paula jones, when he was under oath in a private law office here in washington, d.c. so it will depend on the negotiations. but i think that is a logical step in bob mueller's eventually completing his investigation. >> do you believe that bob mueller has or will see the president's tax returns? >> that, i don't know. it would be a logical step, but it really depends always on the evidence that you have and then your assessment of the evidence with your able team not only of lawyers, but if analysts. and my experience, in whitewater, we depended on superb financial analysts from both the fbi and the irs, these are professional people, they are not motivated by partisan politics, they're simply trying -- whatever their politics are, they leave that, the way it's to work and i have ever

right. >> rose: there has been much talk about bob mueller's team about bob mueller's integrity. you work with hims achieve of staff. you know the team he has assembled. how would you characterize them? >> i would just say starting at the top, that that the first word that comes to mind with former director bob mueller is integrity. this is someone from when he volunteered to sign up as a marine to go to vietnam, through his long service as a prosecutor, through multiple administrations, three different u.s. attorneys offices, high ranking role ntion multiple administrations including head of the criminal division and lastly as the director of the fbi, has earned the respect of everyone that has worked with him on both sides of the aisle. and has always been the ultimate nonpartisan, hard-charging investigator. >> rose: and what would you say the people he has chosen to be his principal attorneys in this. >> he has picked a team in the same mold. andym make no mistake, nothings going to happen at the end of the day on this team without bob meulter asking hard questions and deciding

0er targets of the first charges filed in special counsel bob mueller's investigation and what it will mean for the white house. the republican strategy right now for dealing with questions of collusion with russia, what else? blame hillary. are they just muddying the waters or is there something there? we're going to break it all down. >>> and losing the base numbers just out from a new nbc poll. has the president's numbers down, but it's where he's losing support that might be most troubling to the commander in chief. and to republicans heading into 2018. more on that ahead this hour. >>> but we begin with what's shaping up as a monday to remember, an indictment in the mueller investigation set to be unsealed in washington tomorrow morning. it is the talk of the town this weekend. >> believe me, if you're the person, you know. i mean, you've already been told you're a target. >> it could be maufrnafort, it could be flynn. people point out you go after the small fish first. those are not small fish. >> i have not yet seen any definitive evidence of collusion. i've seen lots of evidenc

interviewed by bob mueller. >> the great thing about improper is it's an adjective and therefore matter of opinion whether improper or not. so this allows him avoiding contradiction in the future, if there are more oops, we had a meeting or talked at this thing and forgot about it, he'll say, well, it wasn't improper. therefore people are left to debate what is proper and improper. we don't know full content of those conversations and insulates him more. >> one thing we do know because sessions told us the set of previous hearing is he spoke with kislyak, the russian ambassador, about ukraine. and there are sanctions, russian sanctions because of their actions in ukraine. and so i'm speaking about sanctions at a time when president trump was the republican nominee and heading toward the election. >> curious. >> could be improper, according to some people. curious, yes, at the least. >> senator pat leahy, is this video? this is video from earlier. rick tyler, did we learn anything new from the judiciary committee hearing? >> no. i don't think so. it does seem that jeff sessions ha

advisers saying that he should not aggressiveel go after bob mueller. he should if he wants to sort of make some attacks at the investigation, he can, but not directly at bob mueller. but there's another side. steve bannon that wing, of course, is leading that as well. he believes that the president's legal team has been too soft here and misguided here. so he does believe that the president should if after bob mueller in appear attempt to, you know, simply throw this all up in the air here. so there is an internal discussion. so far the president has not for abhiel gone after the special counsel here. we'll see if he does in the coming days. anderson, all of this, of course, a major distraction as this week was supposed to be the time to talk about the tax reform plan. and of course he's leaving friday for a foreign trip as well here. but this, of course, so front and center tonight. >> it's fascinating that the president was actually watching tv for hours and didn't go to work until did about 12 or 1230. so the papadopoulos that came as a surprise. >> it did. we were told by several

. >> marie: bob mueller is looking at how russia interfered in our election, how they were able to do that, and whether there were americans of any political strife who helped the them. >> dagen: is a bob mueller should be fired. he is best buddies with jim comey. did jim comey use that dossier to trigger wiretaps on on the p campaign? >> harris: as they did their snooping, so on and so forth. last word to you. >> kevin: last word to me, i know nothing, i see nothing. everyone from both sides of the political i'll do that. >> harris: looks like president trump is going big on his culture war with the nfl players. who are taking any during a playing of the national anthem at games. a new fox poll shows ruble ratings have dropped. what is the say about president trump's influence over the debate? and in the apology from the irs over the tea party targeting scandal. the justice department has announced it has reached a settlement on behalf of the conservative groups that claim that they were treated unfairly because of their political beliefs. will anyone face any consequences? stay with

motion an epic legal showdown. special counsel bob mueller announced the first charges into his investigation into russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the trump campaign. trump's campaign's top deputy, indicted. and pleading guilty about lying to investigation turns out was secretly cooperating with investigators. the campaign chairman, paul manafort, and top associate rick gates, charged in a 12-count indictment involving crim na conspiracy, secretly acting with agents of a pro russian political party, laundering money in payments and making false statements about their activities. that scheme began as early at 2008 and perhaps lasted all the way through 2017. this afternoon in a federal courthouse in washington both manafort and gates entered pleas of not guilty. both are under home confinement now. manafort did not speak to reporters after being arraigned. his lawyer, though, did. he calmed soled some of the cha ridiculous. and in addition, foreign policy advisors george papadopoulos pled guilty on charges he lied to investigators about his

. will we see the first arrest in bob mueller's investigation today? that is the question. it is possible in light of news that cnn was first here for it. they did return the first indictment on friday. now, at this point we don't know the nature or the target of the indictments. president trump, though, seems once again to slam the investigation into a witch-hunt, insisting that hillary clinton and democrats paying for oppositional research about trump's ties in russia is the real russian collusion. the president's attorney says mr. trump's tweets are unrelated to mueller news. >> so all of this could overshadow a big week for president trump. house republicans are set to unveil their tax bill but suffering a major setback ahead of the announcement. and his pick for federal reserve chief before embarking on a five-nation trip to asia. a senate panel begins today for a the need for a new war authorization sparked by the deadly ambush in niger. secretary of state tillerson will be in the hot seat this afternoon. we have it all covered for you. jessica, take us through it. >> well,

side of thinking the president legal advisors saying he should not go after bob and mueller. if he wants to make some attacks at the investigation he can but not directly at bob mueller. there was another side, steve bannon, he believes that the president's legal team has been too soft and misguided here. he does believe the president should go after bob mueller in an attempt to, you know, simply throw all this up in the air here. there is an internal discussion. so far, the president has not for a while gone after the special counsel here, we'll see if he does in the coming days. anderson, all this a major distraction, as this week was supposed to be this time to talk about a tax reform plan. of course he's leaving friday for a foreign trip as well. this of course so front and center tonight. >> yeah, the president was actually watching t.v. for hours, you said didn't go to work until about 12:00 or 12:30. so the george side of this, this came as a surprise? >> it did. i was told by several people he was not expecting this. most people around washington wasn't expecting this eithe