none of those guardrails held, and it was the cia raising concerns. what kinds of contexts and questions did the cia have about jared kushner? >> we don't have full visibility into that. that is something we continue to report on. but whatever concerns the cia had, they were deep and not to be dismissed. the office of security at the agency is not an agency -- is not an office to be trifled with. and they weren't going to be overruled and they stood their ground. so whatever they thought -- whatever they thought the problem was to give jared tssci, they weren't going to give ground on it and they made that clear and they made that clear to the white house. so that in itself is extraordinary. >> ron klain, i don't know the people who have not been vetted understand the significance of what adam goldman just detailed. it is not standard for the cia to be the agency that stands in the way of any staffer in the government getting a clearance. but the problems for -- for the problems to have been ignored and disregarded and got to the point where the agenc

but what he never got because the cia ultimately adjudicates the sci level, cia said no, we're not giving to him. so even to this day as he goes around the middle east and the kingdom of saudi arabia, he does not have access to intelligence, and he does not have access to the same information that others in our government have. i think that is a huge disadvantage. >> it is interesting you're saying that the top slot, the president can't order the cia to give him that clearance as well? >> i think that he can, but he according to the reporting did not. and i think that the big mystery here is what was in jared kushner's background investigation that caused the professionals at the fooin and el h. fbi and elsewhere to say no, he should not be entitled to classified information. and once the president was going down that road, why did the cia dig in so hard. and by the way, credit goes to michael pompeo at the time who was director of the cia for holding firm on that decision. that was probably a very sparky conversation. >> speculation is that it is financial. on these security clearance in

what did the cia say? i think those are the fact gathering that need to happen and then we can draw the conclusions that we need to do. there will be plenty of things swirling around and a lot of guesses, and my job is to get to the bottom of it. that's exactly what chairman schiff is going to do. we have other oversight bodies and i think that's the next step here. >> ken, this sticks out to me. you personally reported that this is not the only time that somebody got top-secret clearance despite being flagged as unfavorable. are you ready for this? it didn't happen one, it didn't happen twice, it happened 30 times. 3-0. do we know anything about the other 29? and because i have no expertise in this, how common is that? to me, 30 sounds huge. >> stephanie, our sources told laura strickler and i that it's without precedent. it never happened in the obama administration -- >> oh, ken, when you say unprecedented on this show, you've got to pay me two bucks. >> i said, "without precedent." >> we'll go with $1

top security clearance met defying the recommendations of senior intelligence officials including the cia. donald trump did it any way. which as president he has the perfect right to do and yet, he and his administration and even his daughter, jared kushner's wife, ivanka, repeatedly lied to the public about it. why would they do that? joining me now david k. johnston, founder of dc report.org. malcolm vance and frank figulisi and sarah kenslyier. thank you all for being here. i rarely have these two gentlemen at the desk with me. i'll turn to my illut trius panel. malcolm and david. it is unusual, although the president has the right to offer this security clearance and override his national security officials, doing so for this particular person was unusual for a lot of reasons. can you remind people of why? he wasn't exactly honest in the ways he described his qualifications. >> no. for the first time in my career where i held the top secret clearance for a quarter of a century, i have never heard the phrase unclearable before and that was one of the phrases that was used about jared k

one for example is former cia officer aldridge ames. he started to do his treason in 1988 but it wasn't until he was caught making a chalk signal on the mailbox they saw an actual explicit act and then the fbi arrested him. by this -- >> do you accept there's no chargeable collusion? >> well, you know, i saw all of the collusion and conspiracy in plain sight. the question is robert mueller's standard for that. which is a legal standard which to him was if there is no a wink and a nod that i can see or technically a signed sfb contract then i can't bring them up on the charges. but we have seen the things occur and in any other standard the person would have been arrested, would have been polygraphed and brought to trial. i found that a high standard. maybe it's a legal standard we need to take a look at, but i want to hear him tell me why the russia if you're listening speech, did accept it as a joke? the handing off as data we legal nick as a joke and if it was i couldn't get a slam dunk then the russians have won on a very well planne

>> we gathered ten former cia officers to do the actual articles. the idea was to put out a fangs of fact and analysis for candidates as the campaign is getting under way, during a time when there is such partisan discussion and debate in washington, we thought this would be a good way to maybe raise the level of debate or at least give people a jumping-off point as they begin to think about where they stand on foreign policy. >> how much -- >> and by the way, we don't have policy positions in here. we describe the issue, how it got to be where it is, where it's going next. but we're not making policy recommendations. >> so it's up to them to come up with their own policies. >> it's up to them. we're trying to find the starting point for them. >> how much of this do you think is necessary because of the way the president has attacked and undermined the intelligence community? >> well, that's in the backs of our minds, but i would emphasize, we haven't done this as an anti-trump operation or for or against anyone, but clearly the way the president ha

. >> one interesting thing, he did not over rule the cia. he was willing to over rule the white house official, but when it came to that high level of nci, the cia never granted that. our reporting till this day that kushner does not have it. you can only speculate why that is. one possibility that donald trump does not want to be in another fight with the cia. it is one thing to over rule white house speciecurity specias working for the white house is another thing of the high review of the cia. >> is there anything we are missing from this? >> i think there is this real question of what was the damage that was done? we have seen reports of foreign government trying to influence kushner and reporting that's sketchy whether or not he'll share that. you have to get to the bottom of what was lost. we have not seen any assessment of the damage that could have been done as a result of granting this clearance. >> annie, finally to you, we know this because of contemporaneous memos. memos from everyone that deals with donald trump. this one came f

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there was discussion. >> what tablet utilized the former cia? >> things that couldn't be discuss the in the closed hearing. these are matters under investigation by the southern district of new york. there are threads being pulled there was criminal activity taking place so i'd want to hear more from michael cohen about some of his personal interactions with donald trump during the campaign and even subsequent to the election and find out what was the nature of those discussions but the special counsel's team counseled michael cohen not to get involved in issues that are a matter of criminal investigation. >> are you one willing to at this stage of the game venture a guess about where robert mueller is in his process and how close he is to filing a report and beyond that, what you would expect from such a report? >> well, i think robert mueller wants to be able to conclude his work and turnover the investigative threads to the southern district of new york, eastern district of virginia and other jurisdictions as appropriate. we're coming up to t

al also, don mcgahn, wrote an outline the cia had of his recommendation that it would be reje rejected. kushner was granted permanent clearance by career officials after the completion of the fbi background check with no involvement by the president. the decision ended months of drama over the matter. john kelly had limited kushner's access to the most sensitive because according to the washington post, he was uncomfortable with kushner's status. president trump backed that decision. take a look. >> that'll be up to general kelly. general kelly respects jared a lot. general kelly will make that call. i won't make that call. i will let the general who's right here make that call. >> u.s. intelligence officials had flagged a number of concerns to the white house like reports, foreign intelligence officials from china and reisrael and mexo were discussing ways they can manipulate kushner and other concerns relating to the trump tower meeting and two other meetings with the russian ambassadors. the russia related context were of particular interest with the special counsel, robert mueller

the cia, though, didn't break. and kushner does not have sci access, which is a much higher level of clearance. it is hard, i think. i get tired of playing this parlor game called what if obama did it, but it's really interesting to think what would have happened if obama had done this? there would have been an uproar for both sides. security clearances are for real. it's not just an arbitrary sort of a burden is. they're granted for a real reason. and this signals a lack of commitment in this administration to keeping the american people safe. >> we will leave it there and come back here in just a moment. >>> otto warmbier's family calling out the president for his warmness to jim congress union. his warmness to jim congress union. this is the story of john smith. not this john smith. or this john smith. or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana medicare advantage members. no, it's this john smith. who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs. at humana, w

but there's a wide range of issues that at the end of the day the intelligence community, the cia specifically, did not believe he should have the highest level of clearance. they were not comfortable with that. >> is this likely to open a new one or was there already an active bucket or sub bucket looking into security clearances? >> this is probably a pail in a bucket. in this case it is the issues that these contacts with russia that has been looked at by mueller, mueller has examined those, has questioned them about it, has questioned kushner about what he knew about flynn's contacts and such, i don't think that the actual security clearance granting is a criminal issue. it is simply something the president can give. it's something derived from the executive branch not governed or overseen by anyone else outside of it. so criminally, there's no indication that this is a problem. >> mike schmitt of the "new york times." with that, let's bring in our leadoff panel for another busy thursday night. former chief counsel to house intel, josh gerstein, jessica roth is back with us as well, former

and, look, this kind of information is put together by cia officers and sources that are putting their lives on the line in order to bring this information to the attention of the president and those around him. to allow somebody who is a risk, a security risk, to access to that kind of information is to not only compromise that information, it is really putting our national security at risk itself. that no president ought to be allowed to do. >> what's your suspicion here, is that that jared is too close to netanyahu's government, too close to khashoggi? that sound ironic that both of them would be too close to him. is it fair he would give away the stuff, give away the information people were negotiating with, is that a fear? >> there is a security clearance process and it involves the personnel security officer in the white house, which investigates and does a background check on anyone who's supposed to get a security clearance. obviously they registered concerns. what those concerns are, i don't know. i assume it's related to his contacts not only with the russians but with other

. >> earlier on this very network former cia director john brennan said hat speaker did not, that the mueller investigation will need to make a case against the president that republicans cannot ignore. >> i think it has to be something that is going to be enough to convince the republicans who have just stuck with trump to date to say no this does meet the standards of high crimes and misdemeanors and he needs to be ousted from office. >> as we mentioned, as we talked about here as the weekend got underway, over these next few days we may learn a lot more about the status, the direction and the duration of the mueller investigation. politico reports this week could reveal the special counsel's end game. former obama justice department spokesman matt miller tells politico, "it's one of those moments when a number of the threads are finally starting to merge together, which is to be expected because we do appear to be near the end." in the first of many legal documents this week today roger stone's attorney send a letter saying why he failed to reveal a plan for a rerelease of his book

after the president revoked the security clearance of former cia director john brennan a frequent trump critic. >> the defense department imposed new restrictions on transgender serving in the milling. the policy falls short of president trump's desire to all out ban which he announced in july of 2017. however starting april 12th the new rules will ban transgernd troops and recruits who require treatment for gender dysphoria from serving. and it will require individuals to serve in their birth gender. recruits who don't want medical treatment to serve but they have to serve in their original sex. >>> still ahead, british lawmakers once again for the uk's plans for brexit is out the window. >> we go to london in theresa may's bid to pull out of the eu. >> bill karins is back with another check of your forecast. we'll be right back. i'm 53. but in my mind i'm still 35. that's why i take osteo bi-flex, to keep me moving the way i was made to. it nourishes and strengthens my joints for the long term. osteo bi-flex. because i'm made to move. ( ♪ ) only tylenol® rapid release gels have las

we had the cia director saying it. we had the director of national intelligence saying the same thing. we had everyone saying the same thing. so you all can, you know, do whatever you do. but i can tell you "the new york times," the "washington post", the "wall street journal," newspapers also, yes, david brooks, even people on tv are going to keep doing their job and going to keep following the story. and now to defend the media for the next hour et cetera let's bring in elizabeth. you know mistakes are sometimes made by "the new york times" by the "washington post" by this show. i make mistakes every five or ten minutes. it's easier that way. but again, i don't -- i don't, elizabeth, you tell me when you have a president, vice president, national security adviser, attorney general, president's closest aides, longtime political -- all lying about the same thing, about contacts they had with russia during 2016, the president is concontexting a story on air force one. that's a lie about adoptions what are you supposed t

i don't know what jared kushner may have done or said that got the cia's interest. it could be foreign policy or it could be money. >> yeah. >> that might have left him open to blackmail. that's the big question here -- >> right. >> and that's what connects all the different investigations in new york and washington. is this basically a giant rico case? that's what we're dealing with. >> lightning round of all the names named. as a reporter and former trump org expect. >> well, obviously, allen weissleberg. i go back to the watergate movies. when i came into the movie, it's follow the money. >> barbara? >> it's still follow the money because that's the ultimate motivation of this group of people. >> barbara? >> weissleberg. i love the description of donald's office. it was 100% spot-on. >> thank you. >> there you have an eyewitness and a former trump org exec. it's fascinating to see this play out on a national basis, but disturbing for many of the reasons you stated. thanks to both of you. >> thank you. >>> up ahead, there are some other bizarre moments from the co

has any information to chat about on whatsapp or anywhere else is because donald trump overruled the cia. >> that's right. there's a scandal here, by the way, that there was a whistle-blower who tried to put it straight, she got rolled by a political actor and then it went all the way and it was remarkable that knowing who kushner is the white house counsel and kelly, chief of staff, when that information comes out what it was that trump overruled, i think it will be eyebrow raising. >> to say the least. harry litman, thank you for spending time with us. >>> after the break, has donald trump finally done it? has he at long last found an issue where even suck-ups and sycophants can't back him up? php it's tough to quit smoking cold turkey. so chantix can help you quit "slow turkey." along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix. you may have nicotine withdrawal s

but one important thing, the cia never did grant kushner that higher level of clearance for sensitive compartmented information. apparently donald trump was willing to overrule the white house bureaucracy but not the cia. >> so let me go back to something that congressman connelly said to me in the last hour which is i want to see those memos. is there anything that would keep them from getting those memos, ken? >> yes, potentially issues of executive privilege. and depending on where these memos are. is this a memo that john kelly has at his house or is it in the white house? the white house may exert executive privilege. it's harder for congress to get testimony from advisors to the president than to get documents that were written sort of pursuant to advice or decisions that the president is going to make. our system wants to allow the president to get free and unfettered advice. that said, look, the house oversight committee has a massive investigation set up right now to look into this whole issue. it wasn't just jared kushner. we reported that 30 other people had -- were granted

the cia never did grant that higher level of clearance, we're told. but because of the president's orders, the white house security office did grant him a top secret clearance even though members had recommended gnsz doing that based on the fbi background check. there's two processes here. both the fbi and krrcia flagged significant concerns and it can be mitigated. but there was no such mitigation in this case. does he still have these issues? is he still subject to foreign influence? and the other issue is the lives. >> when you say potential for influence, we go tlau the headlines but specifically what are the kinds of thijs that are setting off alarm bells there? >> obviously he's got a sprawling real state empire with foreign countries. only recently his major investment on fifth avenue got huge infusion of cash associate would a wealth fund. these are potential avenues of foreign influence on him. a concern that anyone would norm vale to mitigate. and let's go back to the beginning. he didn't fill out his initial security clearance form correctl

former cia and former chief council, joyce vance, 25 years as a federal prosecutor. this is a big day for law. what was the biggest moment or revelation, do any of you have a lingering question. councillor, joyce, you go first. >> the most significant thing we learned came in attorney general barr's letter in the first pargraph, the thifrt first thing, there was no request to indict or to subpoena a president that was denied. that was important for the attorney general to say. with that said, there is an enormous this is unlike any other special council case, all over the country and on the hill. more questions left to ask than have been answered. >> jeremy barb, same question. >> there is a report. there is detail in bob mueller's findings, presented that to the attorney general. it is up to the attorney general to i think it will be a constitutional crisis if the attorney general, a presidential appointe tries to shield the findings from congress and the american people. >> frank, same question. >> the mystery is not yet solved. no more indictments, the mystery tha

see cia human information. there's vulnerabilities, compromised and concerns that have been identified. the system is broken whereby the white house can overrule the recommendations. we have no process to deal with this. my hope is that congress takes a deep look at the background investigation and we may learn what the concerns were. >> jared hasn't been dragged in front of congress yet. you get a sense he will be now? >> yes. >> yes. >> thank you. >>> frank, chris and cynthia, thank you all so much. >>> still ahead, keep in touch. what michael cohen's constant contact with the sdny could mean for the white house, the trump organization and the president's kids. it's officially march, by the way, which means among two things, it's meteorological spring which based on the weather outside it proves the groundhog is a liar. but it's also women's history month. tony harris became the first female position football player to sign a letter of intent. the 22-year-old safety from detroit accepted a scholarship to cent

jeremy bash is back, former chief of staff at both the cia and pentagon. devlin, your reporting catching the attention of everybody here and i'm sure at the jus sttice department and white house. tell us about it. >> we're told, fairly recently, the mueller report will likely not be made public for a number of weeks. that gives us a little bit of a window into how this work is going. obviously, there's a lot to review and there's a couple different steps they have to go through. first of all, being grand jury information, and so, but now we know that's likely to take weeks and, you know, that will be an interesting time period because people are going to keep trying to figure out what really happened until that document is out there. >> and from your reporting, we read this section where you take us inside the room, essentially, where robert mueller told the senior doj officials, the political appointees, the new attorney general barr, with a known point of view on obstruction, and rod rosenstein, a known witness in the special counsel investigation, that

the cia never granted jared kushner and the post said this as well. it never designated the designation. you need that to see cia source reporting and intercepts which is the richest and best intelligence that top officials review. so he doesn't have that as far as we know unless the president is handing it to him despite his lack of a clearance. >>> coming up on "morning joe," new reporting says that ever since president trump restricted the flow at the border, more migrants are trying to sneak through undetected. can't imagine who that might benefit politically. that conversation is straight ahead on "morning joe." traight ahead on "morning joe. welcome to fowler, indiana. one of the windiest places in america. and home to three bp wind farms. in the off-chance the wind ever stops blowing here... the lights can keep on shining. thanks to our natural gas. a smart partner to renewable energy. it's always ready when needed. or... not. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. to help the world keep advancing. ♪ ♪ i can do more to lower my a1c. becaus

a professor of psychiatry, he wrote the cia profile in this book. he writes, trump has a mirror hungry leader personality which feeds on the adoration of his followers. >> there is so much love in this room, it's easy to talk. there is love in this room. talk your heart out. it's easy. [ cheers ] >> according to the psychiatrist that is studying donald trump and all the public evidence we've seen, the place donald trump goes for love is the cpac stage and the trump rally stages where he stands out there alone surrounded by thousands of strangers who he believes loves him and do indeed appear to love him and donald trump has never suggested that he looks for love anywhere else, listen to his description of his new year's eve. >> so i stayed in the white house. and i'll tell you what, i told my wife go to florida. enjoy your christmas. i stayed for thanksgiving. i said -- i mean, i was in the white house for a long time, months. months. i had cabin fever in the white house. but if you got to have cabin fever, that's the place to do it. but i was there

joining our discussion now is john cipher, a former cia officer who ran operations in russia. this week he wrote a piece for "the new york times" titled "putin's one weapon, the intelligence state." he is also a writer for the cipher brief. and malcolm nance is with us, an msnbc counterterrorism and intelligence analyst. malcolm, i want to get your reaction to that last thing that i read, which is lawrence tribe in effect writing an article of impeachment. if it is proven that donald trump did override the process and order the security clearance for his son-in-law, is professor tribe's draft of an article of impeachment appropriate or is that an overreaction? >> well, that depends. it really depends on whether that information that jared kushner got may have been abused. we've seen some evidence that there was some abuse that is outside the parameters of normal foreign policy. mohammed bin salman, the crown prince of saudi arabia, actually bragged publicly that he was given a list of his enemies, whom he arrested, imprisoned and in one case may even have caused the death of a

>> we don't know the details as to why the cia and other intelligence agencies raised questions, but there's been problems with jared's security clearance from the outset of this administration. if you remember in the first forms he filled out, he failed to list meetings with russian officials on it. you're supposed to disclose all meetings with foreign government officials, and he didn't. and he blamed it on a clerical error at the time. but so we don't know exactly what they objected to, but we know there have been questions about his -- the kushner company, his family's real estate business and their dealings and business dealings with foreign governments. and the bigger question here, though, is, again, why the president, ivanka and jared kushner's lawyer, who all said there was nothing out of the ordinary here when there was, and the president -- kellyanne conway is right in that statement. that the president has the authority to do this, in which case the bigger question here is why didn't he just say i said jared kushner, my son-in-law, he's my guy, i want him -- and i'm givin

decisions included, quote, scrutinizing then congressman mike pompeo before pompeo was named trump's cia director. so that means this guy was serving as a senior official in the trump transigsz, working on intelligence matters among other things in that role he was helping select the next cia director while prosecutors say he was also allegedly at the same time illegally serving as a paid secret agent of a foreign country. oh, what could possibly go wrong? well now as that guy's case is heading to trial in july, now the reason that mike flynn still hasn't been sentenced, the reason his sentencing has been delayed for another couple of months at least is because flynn might be done cooperating with the special counsel's office, but he is still working with prosecutors in this case against kian. he's due to be in the prosecution this summer. and that is turning out to be a very newsy interesting sticking pint in terms of the way all these cases are wrapping up and the way all of these guys' ultimate fates are being decided. and the defense team by rights get access to any evidence the gove

. >> let's listen to what a former cia director toldfo chris matths tonight right after the sentence was handed down. >> it's an extraordinarily lenient sentence in light of the extent and scope of mr. manafort's criminality. it just shows there's a lot of power vesteder in the hands of judges. i think this sentence says a lot more about judge ellis than it does about paul manafort. >> what's it say? >> it says that he has an attitude toward a person of paul manafort's ilk, who has really -- really has defrauded the government, as was demonstrated. >> and , mieke, this is a forme director of the cia who was aware before leaving office of at least the beginnings of the investigation of trump campaign connections to russia. >> yes. and john brennan's got a very long history of service to the nation. and this is a deeprv concern foa lot of people. i do think it's very clear that judge ellis sees some of himself in paul manafort. this concern that, well, if you can get away with cheating on your taxes you can get away with it. i think there's another challenge here, though, when we talk

but former cia director john brennan is throwing another possibility into the equation. >> firstly, i don't have any doubt that mr. trump is going to pardon paul manafort at some point. the question is when. but then if he is also convicted of state charges, donald trump is not going to be able to pardon him for that. >> joining me now is former federal prosecutor doug burns and you also represented three white house employees during clinton scandals. doug, what do you think? do you think there is a chance that a pardon is on the table? >> well, i mean, that was an aggressive prediction. i have no doubt whatsoever he is going to pardon him. i don't know where he is coming up with that. number one, that will never happen unless and until the president is re-elected. number two, he might commute the sentence faster than he would pardon him. that would enable him to say they treated him too harshly, but the conviction for the wrongdoing stands. i completely part company with that prediction. i do not believe it's clear he will pardon him. >> if people, jeff, are talking about the possibi

among other things in that role, he was helping select the next cia director while prosecutors say he was also allegedly at the same time illegally serving as a paid secret agent of a foreign country. oh, what could possibly go wrong? well, now as that guy's case is heading to trial in july, now the reason that mike flynn still hasn't been sentenced, the reason his sentencing has been delayed for another couple of months at least because flynn might be done cooperating with the special counsel's office but he is still working with prosecutors in this case against bijan kian. mike flynn is due to be a witness against bijan kian later this summer in virginia. that is turning out to be an interesting sticking point in terms of how all these cases are wrapping up and all these guys' ultimate fates are being decided because the bijan kian defense team under rights and federal trial procedure they get access to any information the federal government plans to use their client. in this case it seems like quite a lot of the evidence the government plans to use against their client is going to

why did trump overrule intel agencies including the cia? he overruled the cia! then we learned the house ways and means committee is on the verge of getting his tax returns. trump's response is to squeal like guilty people do. >> you're a lawyer. there's a thing you do which is the r. kelly. when you get up and freak out. >> they don't attack people who are investigating them, innocent people. >> it's a good nominee for who won the week. it's a sound and solid argument, but in the world there is jimmy jam and terry lewis. there is jimmy buffet and then there is jimmy williams here on the "am joy" show. and what they don't have is who won the week and jimmy williams does? >> sadly, paul manafort won the week. >> what? >> broke virtually dozens of laws, is about to be tried for breaking even more american laws and he got less than four years in jail because the judge felt like he has lived a virtuous life, which i can't believe i just said that about someone named paul manafort. this is simple. it's a tragedy. it's an american tragedy what happened with paul manaf

attorney, jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and pentagon, and barrett burger a former federal prosecutor with the eastern and southern district of new york, welcome to you all. chuck i note your time working for and with robert mueller, and i've sorry that you've been something of a mueller whisperer around here. i also know that marine corp. captain mueller is all about chain of command. and sending this to the attorney general was in keeping with the chain of command. the question to you that may require conjecture, why do you think mueller punted, in effect? >> that's a hard question. he is a chain of command guy. as well, brian, the federal regulations that govern the office of special counsel say very clearly that ultimately it's the attorney general who decides what happens to the special counsel's cases. it's crafted so the special counsel has day-to-day independence but it's the attorney general who decides why did he punt on the question, and barrett and i were talking about that before we came on your set. that's a hard thing to know. it might be because you just can

. >> former cia director john brennan weighed in with this. your bizarre tweets and recent temper tantrums reveal your panic over the likelihood the spells counsel will put your political and financial future in jeopardy fortunately lady justice does not do nondisclosure agreements. and what mueller has accompish all -- accomplished in nearly two years, convibzs with another 27 vinyls under indictment. and increased scrutiny of ivanka trump and jared kushner. more on that ahead including don trump jr. and spun off the mueller investigation the inquiries from at least five standing committees in the house of representatives. let let's bring in our lead-off panel for wednesday night. former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york until he was freed up by donald trump to spend more time with his family and write a book. it happens to be called "doing justice, a prosecutor's thoughts -- and bureau chief for the "washington post." by coming on tonight phil has agreed to spend part of the last hour of his birthday with his friends here a

i don't think the cia or legal finding would be there. the indictments are bad and americans should care, let's not get ahead of where the findings are and make too many assumptions. >> and the chair of the in-house committee wants more findings. he say that's a committee will investigation whether or not donald trump or anyone around him is under the influence of foreign governments. >> this is really interesting, for the first time, i heard allen shif question whether or not he investigated enough. it is potentially the final transactions with russia, that chevy suspects, and he thinks his committee will do that. it is looking increasingly like that like there be not be a grand experience time. now they're saying that is not even the most important question here. is he excited in any way. after all, they lawned an investigation secondly committee is going to to go down that road. at the same time, again no public evidence connects the two things but that's what he wants to investigate. >> that's right, you got to talk about it, he was b

jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon, and importantly, former chief counsel to the house intelligence committee. shannon pettypiece back with us as well. and josh, concerning political affairs for politico. josh, considering your experience, what does it tell you that they have hired dan goldman on that committee? what is his job likely to be? >> they want someone with prosecutorial experience, someone who followed a trail of facts, someone who knows how to put witnesses under oath and question them, someone who knows how to hone in on details for an investigation, ultimately someone who knows how to unpack subpoena documents and try to figure out if there was nefarious or illegal activity. that is really something that prosecutors do. congressional staff sometimes does it, but when you're in investigative mode and you're posturing your stance to go after potentially wrongdoing on the committee, it really helps to have a prosecutor like dan on your team. i think people who received these 81 letters from the judiciary committee and others have to worry, first

. >> should we know why the cia did not want to give them the highest access available? >> i do, and if the president will disregard their device and demand the security clearance be given to them. i look at what is right and what is wrong, and the clintons tried to give chelsea a security clearance, and they said no, i would be up in arms about that as well, it is just plain wrong. >> you have not endorsed kamala harris, a lot of your colleagues have. are you still shopping? >> i sam taking a position to wait until august to do endorse mentes for congressional and local races. she is a dynamite candidate and there are some others as well. lest see how dhthey do in the nt few months and thenly >>> up head, president trump the projector in chief. plus, honestly, what is joe biden waiting for? honestly, wha biden waiting for? "slow turkey." along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try t

powering the computer systems of everything from netflix to ge to the cia. >> amazon web service is more than half the total profits of the entire company. >> he set his sights on hollywood with amazon studios and in 2013 bezos made another move no one saw coming. >> now the washington post has a new owner. the new owner, jeff bezos. >> when he paid bargain price of $250 million for the financially troubled post, many wondered why. >> it is the newspaper in the capitol city of the most important country in the world. the washington post has an incredibly important role to play in this democracy. >> no small factor was his long standing friendship with the manseling the post, don graham, whose family had owned it since 1933. >> i am the son of someone named catherine graham that ran the paper with famous distinction for many years by standing back from politics. i think jeff was worth between 25 and 30 million and i didn't know what his politics were. >> bezos recognized some of his amazon strategies could be applied to the post. >> one of the things he started to work on was making it fa

intelligence committee to rush out a clearance of ginl the very basic level, whether you're in the fbi or cia, you can't get security clearance if you have a certain debt ratio. mr. cohen would not be tiable t do this, and when the president said, why don't you step in the back, indicates how much our government has been influenced. >>> coming up, we have a lot to go through. new questions about the trump/cohen lawsuit. it's a rush. rush. ito take care of anyct messy situations.. and put irritation in its place. and if i can get comfortable keeping this tookus safe and protected... you can get comfortable doing the same with yours. preparation h. get comfortable with it. uh uh - i deliverberty the news around here. ♪ sources say liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. over to you, logo. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ life isn't a straight line. things happen. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but at fidelity, we help you prepare for the unexpected with retirement planning and advice for what you need today a

and jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon, and importantly, former chief counsel to house intel. gentlemen, welcome to you both. david, a very basic question. tell us about this new york investigation, and folks may want to know how is it that there were investigations heretofore unknown and unopened that waited for the cohen testimony to be triggered? >> well, the interesting thing about cohen was that he's given investigators sort of a concrete specific thing to look for. there had been questions sort of generalized questions about trump's relationship with his insurers and trump's relationship with deutsche bank before. what cohen has done is given them something concrete. these financial statements written down documents that according to cohen inflated trump's assets and gave him the benefits of getting a loan that maybe he didn't deserve, or getting insurance premiums that were lower than he deserved. so that's a specific thing to look into. i think that has allowed the investigators to narrow their focus, but it also gives them a reason to ask for something

mueller's standard for evidence to proof beyond a reasonable doubt is so high is different from the cia and what they present. we have to look beyond that lens. it is significant he could not prove there was coordination between the campaign and russian government and keep in mind it was from a prosecutor's standpoint. >> i see your face being skeptical. what's your view? your former boss, mitch mcconnell put out a view different from other republicans. >> more measured. >> he is typically, true, in the complete vindication, he looks forward to reviewing the additional information. how do you see this playing out on the hill? >> there's a couple things. we as americans should be happy that the special counsel said there was no collusion. that is a good thing for our democracy and our public. if it was the other thing, we would be sitting here talking about how a foreign power tried to influence and colluded with an actual nominee for a major political party to win an election. those are really scary things we are talking about. we as americans should be very glad about that. number two,

and former chief of staff at the cia and department of defense nbc news national security analyst jeremy bash. we got so much to get to this morning including new developments in two areas that have shattered the trump presidency from the start. the mueller probe and