he has about paul manafort is significant. what i think bob mueller has are e-mails, text messages, bank records, those are cold, hard documents. you need someone on the inside, a cooperator, to walk you through, breathe life into those documents, and tell you where the bodies are buried. i can tell you that paul manafort now is not sitting comfortably and don't think people in the white house should be either. >> right. paul manafort was facing something in the similar range, 10 to 15 years. so you got your deputy now going states evidence to some degree. if you're his lawyer, advising paul manafort, what are you telling him now? >> there is an x factor that is different than any other criminal defendant in the country. is president trump going to pardon him? has that been conveyed to paul manafort in words or substance? that's an x factor i can't answer. in the normal scheme of things, given what i know is probably behind bob mueller's investigation, bank records, text messages, e-mails, they have ten years of a relationship

they said paul saw something special. >> paul manafort stage managed the gop convention and then helped secure the republicans presidential nomination for donald trump but left the campaign shortly after that. as mueller's team expanded its investigation and began focusing on manafort, trump's remarks changed. and he is describing manafort as, quote, with the campaign for a very short period of time. last week reform secured a guilty plea from rick gates and they both face charges with their work with pro-kremlin political figures in ukraine. gates is expected to provide valuable information in the case against paul manafort, who we know was in that 2016 trump tower meeting and who my be able to offer details about possible collusion between campaign associates and moscow. former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence frank fegluzi said this about paul manafort. >> when you look at the profile of manafort and how far back mueller is going in these charges, we seen reference to 2006. this is somebody in manafort who has been joined at the hip with russian and ukrainand a pro-russ

indictment comes down for paul manafort. we've got the latest reporting on the mueller front. >>> plus, breaking from the "washington post." rod rosenstein's call to the white house two weeks ago about issues with jared kushner's security clearance. the report coming just hours after the president says he'll let john kelly decide whether kushner gets final approval. >>> all that plus highlights from a classic trump performance today before conservatives. "the 11th hour" begins right now. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. i'm kasie hunt in for brian williams who has the day off. it is day 400 of the trump administration that brings new legal trump for two former trump campaign aides. "the washington post" reports tonight the deputy attorney general warned the white house weeks ago about problems with jared kushner's security clearance. we're going to have more on that just ahead. but we begin with the mueller investigation. special counsel robert mueller has obtained another guilty plea.

clearly this has implications for paul manafort, the

a spokesman for paul manafort released this statement tonight. paul manafort is innocent of the allegations set out in the newly filed indictments and he is confident that he will be acquitted of all charges. the new allegations against mr. manafort once again have nothing to do with russia and the 2016 election, interference, collusion. mr. manafort is confident that he will be acquitted and violations of his constitutional rights will be remedied. ominously for paul manafort and others facing possible charges, rick gates released no statement about the new charges filed against him. nothing about rick gates being innocent, nothing about rick gates being confident that he will be found not guilty of all of these charges. joining us now ron klain, former chief counsel of senate judiciary committee. and paul fishman, a former u.s. attorney. and david k. johnston is with us. he's the author of "it's even worse than you think what the trump administration is doing to america" a best-seller now. paul i want to go to you, what do you make of these add

in that campaign, the only thing above paul manafort's rank would be donald trump. >> that's right. it would be to offer up connections between donald trump and the russians, these questions of what did he know of the hacking of john podesta's e-mails, which would be a crime of the e-mail act. and also if he had past dealings with russians and past oligarchs in some of these real estate deals. bauds everybody else that might be of interest seems to have gotten plea deals. the only other person is the attorney general jeff sessions who had dealings with the russians that he did not report during his confirmation hearings. >> there's reporting in politico about some of the more fringe elements of the republican right wing saying that the president should be issuing pardons immediately. they're the kind of people who you might normally ignore but the fringe in tufrp worrump wor becomes the center of his thinking. might people like paul manafort be hanging on in the hope of pardons or is it even possible to consider the possibility that rick gates moving into the zone of a guilty plea m

paul manafort. it seems obvious, alfonso, that it was paul manafort that got this bizarre change. >> absolutely. but look, at least from the court filings so far, this doesn't touch the president at all. this is quickly becoming from my perspective not a collusion investigation, or a paul manafort investigation. but it is piling up. but with this evidence of collusion, so far it hasn't happened. >> and with his relationship with the oligarchs was tied to this or not. we don't know. >> i think what mueller is also doing here is trying to show that paul manafort was such a hot, steaming mess of trolls, bots, rigged elections, bot politicians -- bought politicians and monies going back years up to the moment he joined the campaign. given donald trump's own associations and knowledge with oleic arcs a-- oligarchs, how could the candidate not have some inkling at the very least of what paul manafort represented and what he was up to. that is where mueller's headed now. not only to show that manafort was

paul manafort has come under increasing pressure, it started with the guilty plea, he worked for paul manafort and rick gates, the deputy during the trump campaign finally -- paul manafort said it after rick gates' guilty plp, smy, saying would maintain his innocence and once again before a judge pleading not guilty. we saw him initially plead not guilty at the end of october when the first indictment was filed by the special counsel. now this new superseding indictment, paul manafort had to go back before a judge and plead guilty. we will see paul nan manafort and that will be in alexandria virginia. he faces additional charges in virginia, these ones more severe, he faces 18 counts of bank fraud and tax crime. so paul manafort fighting this in two fronts in two different jurisdictions. >> a major development in the special counsel investigation, another major development cnn learning overnight that the special counsel robert mueller and his team asking questions about business ties, financial interests that donald trump had from before the time he announced his candidacy for preside

why is this special counsel getting new information about paul manafort. what is their new source of information about his alleged bank fraud? nbc news has not confirmed but the l.a. times reported that manafort's deputy and business and deputy on the trump campaign rick gates will change his not guilty plea to guilty and "the times" is reporting rick gates agreed to testify against paul manafort. possibility was first reported by cnn. l.a. times report put this weekend that's been matched by cbs news. if that's about to happen, does it make sense rick gates fr flipping and becoming a co-op rating witness explains why we're seeing allegations of new criminal conduct against paul manafort. if that's happening, what should we expect to see and if there is a new list of alleged criminal conduct against paul man that fo -- manafort, ewhy are they describing it in a filing like this? if so, how serious are the charges? how do we tell? joining us is former u.s. attorney in michigan. thank you for being so patient with me and explaining these things that are very

he's essentially admitted to all this conduct with paul manafort. and now these latest charges. and this looks really bad, right? i mean, wiring millions of dollars to politicians goes beyond lobbying, clearly. goes beyond bank and tax fraud looking like bribery. we're not sure how they worded these criminal charges, but paul manafort's world is crashing in on him and he's 68 years old and facing essentially a life prison term. >> let me ask you something that i put to chuck rosenberg earlier in the show. if you read the manafort statement, man for the today pretty brazingly criticized gates for pleading said i had hoped that he would stand and fight for our innocence pit had hoped that he would go to trial to try to prove our nps put look at just the overwhelming. we know from the no knock search that the fbi conducted in manafort's house, they have everything. they have what? more than a dozen computers, they have files and files of records obviously. they have a paper case, i think you and others have described it. why would manafort not plead guilty if he hadn't been promise

that was his direction from paul manafort when in fact the meeting had discussed that issue. the bottom line for gates, according to the judge's statements is that he's looking at somewhere between 57 and 71 months in prison. anywhere between 20 and $200,000 in fines. that will be settled at a later date. throughout the hearing, gates to me, i was about three rows from him, was very calm, sort of very relaxed up until the final three minutes. he waived a series of rights with a guilty plea and he had to make the final statement, like the nail of the coffin. at that point, his voice cracked when he spoke to the judge in the case, shep. >> shepard: catherine, normally when you plead, it means you're giving up something. you're cooperating. do we know about whether rick gates is cooperating with the mueller investigation? >> well, there was no indication from what i heard that he's already cooperating. but the special counsel in this case reserves the right to petition the court, if you will, send a recommendation to the court in the future for a reduction in his sentence based

he will testify against paul manafort. paul manafort was a co-defendant in this case. they both pleaded not dpl when facing the charges for financial crimes that were unrelated to the campaign. and according to the "l.a. times," rick gates could spend 18 months in prison. let me give you context here, for the charges he was facing, gates could have faced upwards of ten years in prison. this is someone who has four young children, a young family who is facing financial pressure. it would have been very expen expensive to go to trial, but he's facing personal pressure from his loved ones to wrap this up quickly. in terms of the investigation, this could potentially be a big deal in the russian probe. the fact that gates is willing to testify against paul manafort, that obviously is a coup for bob mueller. but it could also mean putting additional pressure on manafort to cooperate with this investigation. so rick gates cooperating could be a building block for bob mueller for something bigger, potentially for charges against president donald trump or against one of donald

shery: we have to consider that the indictments themselves on paul manafort or rick gates did not say anything about the key point of the investigation of robert mueller, collusion between the donald trump campaign and russia. what criminal information could we expect from rick gates? point, there has been nothing found that suggest collusion and nothing found -- if you are in silicon valley, the indictment from last week, you talked to tech lobbyists inside the beltway, they are worried about how to better protect themselves into 2018 midterms and the rumblings on capitol hill about potential new regulatory reforms and disclosure for the tech companies. as of now, that has been the focus on the tech industry and with the business apparatus surrounding paul manafort. fyi, the hearing is at 2:00 p.m. in washington, the hearing at 2:00 p.m. liedt mueller saying gates to the united states on february 1 about the 2013 meeting and lied about ukraine discussions and the 2013 meeting with lobbyists -- a congress member and paul manafort. information that i do not think we knew. interesting t

pertaining to paul manafort. jessica schneider is on it. >>> right now, we are with the bus that will take dozens of students to meet with florida lawmakers. if yor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. this condition has not been reported with entyvio. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio. if your uc or crohn's treatment isn't working for you, ask your g

don't forget, paul manafort was the chairman of the campaign. he was offering private briefings during his time with the campaign to a russian oligarch. he was sitting in that trump tower meeting. now robert mueller on friday has laid out a criminal conspiracy by russians to defraud the united states of america and violate u.s. election laws. if any americans participated knowingly in that conspiracy, if paul manafort knows about any americans doing that, that is relevant and that's how the manafort/gates stuff links up to the white house, nicolle. >> in normal times just the mere fact he was donald trump's campaign chairman and gates' deputy would be enough of a tie, but i know we're not living in normal times. ken dilanian, natasha, thank you so much for joining us this hour. remember the security clearance controversy? it was last week's white house scandal. it may force the white house to make a difficult decision about jared kushner's access to classified information. that's next. >>> after all the drama surrounding the white house's securi

the other story tonight, former trump campaign chairman paul manafort and

you know, some of this stuff about paul manafort was actually known. and so you know, it was a highly risky thing for a presidential candidate to do to give him the chairmanship of the campaign in the first place. that said, you're certainly correct. this is incredibly brazen activity. >> right. >> involving astonishingly large sums of money. over a remarkably long period of time, too. and you know, the fact that he you know, got away with it and you know, it's not that he didn't take steps to hide it. he certainly did. that's why some of the allegations involve fraud but you know, there is a lot of this stuff that there was not a whole lot of secret about who paul manafort was. >> and this relates to whattize saying it's not only that the president hired him, he wanted to get on that campaign. the reporting indicates i wanted to get on this campaign. he was cash strapped who goes to work for free at the campaign and dying to get on the campaign. it seems like we don't know the full story there yet. >> the other thing happening here is before the alleg

it can put pressure on paul manafort. if you are bob mueller, if you're the special counsel, gates' cooperation could be a building block for you as you try to build a potential case either against president donald trump or against any number of his associates. when we talked to the white house about this, they certainly downplayed any notion of a plea agreement. they say if there's a plea agreement where rick gates will flip on paul manafort, that doesn't make a difference to us. the white house believes the only thing mueller is interested in has to do with their financial activities, business activities before they were working with donald trump's presidential campaign or before they had anything to do with the transition or after that fact. they certainly are projecting an air of confidence. although a source in the white house says the president feels sympathy for rick gates and paul manafort, that they've been stuck in these legal proceedings. he thinks the only reason they're stuck in this mess is because of the ru

there is also new legal trouble for former trump campaign manager paul manafort. nbc news is exclusively reporting that manafort is under investigation for attempting to essentially sell a seat in the trump administration. "federal investigators are probing whether former trump campaign chair paul manafort promised a chicago banker a job in the trump white house in return for $16 million in home loans." manafort got the loan but the banker never got a job. there are also reportedly new charged in the case against manafort and his associate, rick gates, as first reported by politico, they're sealed so we don't know what they are yet. according to this report the new channeling document filed in federal court in washington could be a superseding indictment. there's a term with a trade. adding new charges or even new defendants to the charges filed last october accusing manafort and gates of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents for their work related to ukraine, among other crimes. that's a mouthful. here with us, ken dilanian, nbc news intellig

van der zwaan had done work for paul manafort and he had multiple contacts with rick gates. so the question now is what exactly did he reveeal to the powell is and will it pit further pressure on manafort and gates? robert mueller has another guilty plea in his russia probe. alex van der zwaan, a london-based attorney with ties to paul manafort and top campaign official rick gates pleaded guilty to giving false statements to the special counsel's investigators about his communications with gates two months before the election. though it's unclear with what the distwo discussed, his plea may prove helpful to mueller's claim. >> in this case, manafort had a relationship with the ukrainian government and this lawyer was doing work for the ukrainian government. so let's the link and he'll try to turn this witness against gates, against manafort and possibly against others. >> van der zwaan was part of a team of attorneys at the prominent international law firm that drafted a report commissioned by manafort in 2012. the report was used by allies of the then pro-russian ukrainian

to talk about paul manafort. that's not going to impact the president, that's not going to impact the west wing, though sources that have spoken to the president about this say he does feel some sympathy for the fact that both gates and paul manafort have been dragged into this legal mess as a result of the russia investigation, which, of course, we have seen the president call time and time again a witch-hunt. >> one doesn't need to be an attorney to know that mueller would not be cutting a plea deal with gates unless there was somebody higher up the food chain who gates could give him information on, obviously paul manafort is the next person higher up on the food chain. the question is does that investigation stop with manafort, or do they believe that manafort then has some information and they want leverage on him to make him cooperate. >> reporter: right, that's a key question we don't know the answer to. what sources told us, there are additional charges that investigators have been preparing against rick

that the special counsel wants from paul manafort. we may not know what it is, but he is squeezing him probably for a good reason. we know he is interested in the trump tower meeting but we also know that paul manafort has relationship with the pro putin ukrainian president that goes back some time and earned him an awful lot of money. he may be interested that or may be interested in the platform at the republican convention dealing with ukraine. we really don't know now. but if you look at people in this campaign who were openly involved with russia before they came into the campaign, i think you would have to point to paul manafort. so there has got to be something there and i'm on with two attorneys here who can tell us this. there has got to be something there that mueller is looking for that he believes he needs to get from manafort. and maybe that is a question of intent. i don't know the answer. >> gates seems to have been there every step of the way not just before but during as well. maybe he knows. and maybe that is what th

manafort or something else -- to the authorities, either about paul manafort or something else. vonnie: the more time there is, the more time there is for mueller to collect more. forward, you play this what you notice is that the level of indictments that have started to come out like rapidfire. week, thether indictments against 13 russian individuals as well as three russian companies, saying that there was a well orchestrated russian cyber meddling attack utilizing u.s. institutions in silicon valley and social media platforms to metal in the election. and you have -- to meddle any election. than you have -- in the election. gatesou have rick pleading guilty. many people anticipate that this is going to drag on through court hearings and proceedings beyond them in terms. vonnie: how is the conversation proceeding on gun control versus the second amendment as we head into another full week past the shooting in florida? from dixmpany news that it was changing its guns and ammunition policy -- from dick's that it was changing its guns and ammunition policy. kevin: you have the o

after two hours you had new charges filed against paul manafort. what else can you tell us about the new charges today? >> right. in court they sort of described a little bit of this. it essentially adds up to a campaign in which they hired former european politicians to act as lobbyists on behalf of ukraine here in the united states. now, again, we were expecting some of this due to the great reporting from the team, so we expect something else was happening. what this clearly shows though, jim, they are trying to pile on the charges to put more pressure on machine a fort and see if he will flip against i don't know who else in the campaign. >> more charges means more potential years in prison. a lot of pressure. thanks. >>> outfront now, former to presidents. independent counsel for the white water, kim, and bush, richard painter. if i could begin with you, kim, how significant is to see rick gates, someone who worked both closely with paul manafort, but people might forget he worked closely with the president, both to plead guilty now but also t

he stayed on the campaign even after paul manafort left. he was flying on trump's plane until election day and he stayed on during the transition period, serving as a liaison between the transition and republican national committee. there's a lot he could tell mueller both about manafort's activities and the campaign. >> let read a little bit from manafort's statement. i continue to maintain my innocence. i hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. for reasons yet to surface, he chose to do otherwise. this does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue, piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me. adam schiff, ranking member on the house intelligence committee, talked about that statement, in part, on the "rachel maddow show." >> the manafort issued today was quite telling, like so many officials in the campaign facing liability or even the administration, they have an audience of one in their message. and the audience of one for that ma

when paul manafort -- what we do know is when paul manafort joined the campaign in early 2016, he was deeply in debt and now we find out from this indictment he was highly leveraged and, in fact, inflating his income to obtain new loans. deeply in debt. highly leveraged. in great financial straights. he sought out the trump campaign to work for free. now, why did he do that? maybe he just believed in donald trump and his message of making america great again. maybe it was that he was trying to reburnish his credentials so he could go and sell himself to other dictators and oligarchs overseas. it might be something completely darker. it might have been that, you know, in debt to a russian oligarch for millions of dollars, this was something he did in return. we don't know the answer to that yet. but that, i assume, is what bob mueller's investigating. every time the white house claims this is disconnected from the russia investigation, they don't know that's true and we don't either. >> we need to give a little more characterization there. paul manafort said in his letter to the presid

what the flipping of rick gates means for paul manafort. just what were these two up to with their massive alleged money laundering ring? and how it may all tie back to the president. >> that's what he said. that's what i said. that's obviously what the, our position is. >> plus, the mass corporate exodus away from the nra as the president fully aligns himself with gun dealers

tacking on additional charge against paul manafort. white house lawyer ty cobb released this statement last night. the white house as it has said from the outset, will not be commenting on matters involving mr. manafort and mr. gates, as the matters between are dated and have nothing to do with the campaign. notably missing from yesterday and haley jackson on the messages he deserved to deliver, instead. >> a public presidential push in the gun debate. >> we have to have offensive capability to take these people out rapidly before they can do this kind of damage. >> reporter: president trump repeating his call to allow some properly trained teachers to carry a concealed weapon and denouncing the armed deputy who police say did nothing during the parkland school shooting. >> somebody who was outside, they're trained. they didn't react properly under pressure or they were coward. >> reporter: at a conservative conference the president arguing an armed educator might have made a difference. >> the teacher would have shot the hell of him b

i imagine paul manafort will do that pretty soon. that would be my best guess. >> rod rosenstein in his statement, which was fascinating on a friday, i'm sure you were watching it closely as we all were, there is no allegation in the indictment that the russian meddling affect eed course of t election or the outcome of the election. as you sit here and you've been partjudiciary committee, do you think the russian meddling affected the outcome? >> it is hard to quantify what that affect is. what we know is russia engaged in a very sophisticated, massive attack on our democracy in 2016. how did that affect voters in the swing states? hard to quantify. but we know it did have influence, we just don't know how it influenced voters. and we want to make sure that this doesn't happen again. and i have to tell you, that today, more than six months after the bipartisan congressional sanctions law on russia, president trump has still refused to implement them. >> the indictment says clearly that ultimately that those russians, the 13 indicted

times" about former campaign aide rick gates agreeing to testify against paul manafort. now clearly, the special counsel is tightening the crews on manafort. what do you make of this move and the significance of manafort himself with regards to this investigation? >> well, there are lots of reasons to look into paul manafort and the way he used his firm to help autocrats all around the world. but what interests us is paul manafort's connection to the trump campaign which he ran for a time. and it's clear that mueller is tightening the screws. the way these investigations work, as i understand them, you go around the edges. you get people to talk. you see what -- where they're vulnerable, and then you trade off testimony for a reduction in that vulnerability. now, it may be that manafort is really vulnerable on moneylaundering charges, on other kinds of charges, but one can use that to find out what he really knows about the trump campaign and its alleged connections to russians, let alone the kremlin. what is troubling, of course, is simply that while, you know, all over

. >> really bob mueller is increasing heat on paul manafort. the goal is to flip paul manafort but his response to yesterday's developments and to today's guilty plea to two charges by rick gates has been really hard and he's pushed back. we can speculate that he believes he can draw hard line on his defense really pushing bob mueller to show collusion and conspiracy. very difficult charges. as a result of that he may hope for a presidential pardon so he can push hard and move closer and closer to a trial. this ramps up the political fallout to get closer to the white house and the in inner circle and bob mull here to trying to make that and paul manafort is the key person to grab and link the white house, if you will back and forth. >> i know everyone is looking for the one lynch pin in the entire thing. they've seen the different pieces play out separately but may be the manafort case as you recommended could be that one lynch pin that mueller is working towards on the back end of the investigation we'll definitely see how it all plays out. d

paul manafort responded to these new charges. says paul manafort is innocent of the allegations set out in the newly filed indictments and he is confident he will be acquitted of all charges. the new allegations against mr. manafort once again have nothing to do with russia and the 2016 election interference/collusion. is he signaling here that, you know, hey, i've got your back here, looking for a pardon from the president? >> well, i -- you know, i can't get into donald trump's mind, but -- >> that was from mueller. that's a mueller spokesperson. >> right. as to whether he -- >> manafort, excuse me. >> i think manafort would like a pardon and i think he's holding out. maybe that's why gates never did crack a deal if he thinks he's going to get a pardon too. they're playing a dangerous game. >> go ahead, ken. >> one of the things that should be kept in mind is that these are tax indictments as well as bank fraud and i think we can expect either from new york prosecutors or virginia prosecutors state charges as well, which will t

rick gates is the deputy to paul manafort. paul manafort's right-hand man for quite some time, dating back to their business dealings in ukraine and during manafort's chairmanship of the president's campaign. paul manafort is charged with conspiring against the united states. bob mueller's team is relying on rick gates to bring about more charges. it also suggests that rick gates is cooperating fully with authorities. there's nowhere in this latest round of changes that would implicate anyone in president trump's current inner cycle. it does suggest a strong focus on paul manafort's business dealings in russia and his support of a pro-russia faction in ukraine. vonnie: robert mueller has seized on michael flynn, george papadopoulos, the california man -- and now rick gates. can we expect to see something else very soon related paul manafort? kevin: on friday, that bombshell, more than 30 pages worth of an indictment charging 13 russians and russian businesses, suggesting it will orchestrated cyberattack -- a well orchestrated

also new charges against paul manafort and his former top aide. why president trump said he's thinking about pulling every immigration customs enforcement agent out of california. we begin with the parkland story that left broward county sheriff at a loss for words. the fact a school resource officer stayed outside the building when the shooting began. >> reporter: this school resource officer is a sheriff's deputy. he's in uniform and carries a gun. this particular deputy, scott peterson had been on this campus since 2009. he was on the campus at the time of the shooting. the question had been where was he during the time of the murders that were taking place. today, broward county sheriff scott israel said a review had determined something very disturbing. the fact that the officer was right outside the building where the shooting was taking place. he was aware of something awful going on on the and he did not go in. in fact, a review finds he was outside the building for up to four minutes. remember the entire attack took just six minutes. the

he was also very close to paul manafort so he knows what paul manafort knows. so those things are worried for the white house. they tried to down play the roles that people who pled guilty or what not have had with the campaign or white house but you can't down play the roles of paul manafort and rick gates even though they have tried. >> rick gates has pleaded guilty. puts pressure on paul manafort down the road to do the same thing. there's local law enforcement under investigation after the florida school shooting. the officer who had been accused of choking is defending his actions as critics call for the county's high profile sheriff to be fired. ok. badda boom. this year, we're taking it up a notch. so in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, "wow, maybe i'll glow too if i book direct at choicehotels.com". who glows? just say, badda book. badda boom. nobody glows. he gets it. always the lowest price, guaranteed. book now at choicehotels.com if yor crohn's symptoms are holding you ba

it's funny if you're not paul manafort. then in addition to that, this is almost like an al capone style prosecution. this is throwing the books at these guys to the point where they have no choice but to cooperate. do you think they're going too far, the prosecutors, just a thought? >> i wouldn't second -- >> i'll go to mr. grissom. what do you make of this? is this normal procedure to hit this many charges and pack this much on to people you think might cooperate? >> what you want to do is have the cooperation. i think these superseding indictments that came down today demonstrate that mr. mueller is upping the ante in this case. this isn't your average case that gets prosecuted in any u.s. attorney's office. we're talking about issues had surround the highest places in government. so i think given the pressure that we all want to find out what the facts are, to get to the bottom line here, i think this is an appropriate use of the prosecutorial tools they have. i think this additional pressure, as you said, this addition

>>> new reporting on the mueller investigation what might be new trouble for paul manafort. "the 11th hour" on a wednesday night begins now. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters in new york. day 398 of the trump administration. grief, rage, raw emotion came to the white house today. exactly one week after 17 people were killed in that shooting in parkland, florida. the president who has indicated his openness to some narrow measures of gun control met students who survived that attack at marjory stoneman douglas high school. he heard from their parents along with families from newtown and columbine among others. the white house had called this a listening session and a discussion on school safety, but it became much more than that. >> we're here because my daughter has no voice. she was murdered last week. and she was taken from us. shot nine times on the third floor. all these school shootings, it doesn't make sense. fix it. should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it. and i'm pissed. because my daughter, i'm not going to see again. sh

paul manafort's spokesperson provided a statement to nbc news tonight that reads in part, paul manafort is innocent of the allegations set out in the newly filed indictments and he is confident he will be aquited of all charges. the new allegations once again have nothing to cowith russia and the 2016 election interference/collusion. mr. manafort is confident he will be acquitted. it's a further move from mueller, stepping up the pressure on manafort and gates. michael schmidt reporting it this way, mr. mueller's indictment is an effort to pressure him into providing information about mr. trump and his campaign -- a lot of mr.s here. but mr. manafort is adamant he does not have information that could hurt president trump. the allegations do not indicate mr. trump, but the man who ran his campaign. let's bring in jeremy bash, stephanie douglas, now a senior managing director at guide post solutions and peter baker back with us, chief white house correspondent for the "new york times." jeremy bash, a question for the lawyer in you. i know tax cases can be plotting and take longer than oth

paul manafort denied any wrong doing regarding his mortgages. let's turn to our chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge. we were expecting movement here but we don't know what the charges are. >> this is a situation, shep, where if you go online to the courthouse to look at the filings, you can't see this record. you have to go down in person and in the last hour our producer has been at the federal courthouse here in washington and he's gone to the clerk's office and looked at the filing book. what you find there is a single piece of paper. it has a case number for the manafort and gates case and haas across it in big letters that it's under seal. we can't know what is in the letter but we can confirm that new records have been filed in the case of paul manafort. it could be something called information. we talked about that earlier this week and information is when there's evidence of some kind of plea arrangement. and that's what we had with the lyndon lawyer just this week. >> it's interesting. we remember the reporting of the lo

if they're trying to squeeze paul manafort in this way, why? what does paul manafort have that could be of interest to investigators, to get him to cooperate? because that's clearly, it seems from my vantage point, what they're trying to do. >> so i think that puts a slightly different spin on it than i would. in every criminal case, what a prosecutor, what prosecutors and the fbi agents, whoever they're working, are trying to do is find out everything they can, try to get every piece of information they can. sometimes that information comes as it did in the manafort and gates case from e-mails, they got search warrants from manafort and gates' e-mails, sometimes it comes from other witnesses, and sometimes it comes from the insiders themselves. i wouldn't necessarily say they're trying to flip manafort. they've decided based on the evidence they've seen that manafort is guilty and they can prove it without a reasonable doubt. >> but they keep adding indictments, and i'm sorry to interrupt, but yesterday we had chuck rosenberg on, who's a man w

is paul manafort the highest he wants to go, or does he want to go somewhere else? if gates can flip and tell us about paul manafort, does manafort have something to tell the prosecutors about president trump or his campaign or the family that prosecutors want to know. >> let me pick up on that point and follow up, which is what happens from here on out. based on your reporting, have you gotten any sense of whether the trump legal counsel, the white house, wants president trump to cooperate with any interview with robert mueller, especially given the developments of the past friday? >> what the president's lawyers would tell you, they've cooperated a great deal, turned over thousands and thousands of pages of documents, more than 20 white house officials, plus campaign officials have given interviews, therefore, they feel for being transparent with the prosecutor and cooperating with the prosecutors. but the line that's being drawn right now is around the president of the united states himself. do they want president trump to actually be interviewed by prosecutors?

this all connects to paul manafort, because we know that paul manafort was involved in commissioning the drafting of this report, and, of course, as you'll remember paul manafort has pleaded not guilty to charges that he faced in late october relating to his work, his lobbying work for the pro russian ukrainian government, also the president of ukraine at the time, viktor yanukovych, paul manafort also charged with money laund ering as well. now we have this other attorney who happened to have some communications with rick gates, and paul manafort, he's now been charged with lying to the special counsel, specifically about his communications with rick gates at the time of the campaign when rick gates was acting as a deputy campaign manager. so the question is now, how does this all factor into this larger mueller investigation. well, this could in fact put some pressure on paul manafort, who, again, has held fast to that not guilty plea. so, brianna, the question here is how exactly will this attorney alex van der zwaan, a name we haven't really heard before, how will this play into

robert mueller just filed new charges against paul manafort and his top deputy rick gates which means rick grates hasn't flipped and according to the -- this big indictment, manafort laundered more than $30 million with the assistance of gates. there have been reports gates was close to the deal with mueller perhaps to flip against man manna -- manafort which means this deal has not been reached yet. they were first indicted in october including conspiracy and none of those charges involve into the trump campaign itself. we're going to dive in more this hour but we begin with the larger story in american politics these days. with poison pills, trump tweets the nra and base politics. folks, yesterday's emotional white house meeting on gun reform may have been a sign that something might happen but the last 24 hours have been a sobering reminder of how difficult it is to do anything on this issue. and a lot of it starts with the president's base. they rally behind a pair of nra speakers at today's annual cpac gathering of what you might say is the hard core trump conservative base outsi

. >>> and a new indictment hits paul manafort and rick gates with tax and bank fraud charges. it's just the latest in robert mueller's russia investigation. ♪ snoelths ♪ >>> good morning, everyone. it's friday, february 23rd. i'm ayman mohyeldin. >>> we are learning new details about last week's shooting in florida. the broward county sheriff is revealed school resource deputy scott peterson has resigned. he was under investigation for pailing to enter the school when the gunman opened tire. peterson was outside the building for upwards of four minutes while the shooting took place inside. >> when we in law enforcement arrive at an active shooter, we go in and address the target. and that's what should have been done. >> the sheriff also announced that two deputies are on restricted duty because of prior incidents before the shooting. it a appears the prior incidents may stem from information the two deputies previously received about confessed gunman nikolas cruz. according to the "sun sentinel," police thought they were seeing cruz live on security cameras several minute

it's junior, it's jared and it's paul manafort. i think you can probably believe that jared and junior aren't going to flip. but manafort doesn't have in money. he is charged with some really -- >> you're not suggesting that paul manafort has hid money overseas? >> he's been indicted for that. >> your theory is that he laundered a lot of money. >> that was mueller's theory. it's more credible than mine. >> it's like a kid saying i'm playing with you. >> that's the problem. if you turn one of those three, you turn manafort. manafort has enough against him to die in jail on multiple lives. so if i'm mueller, i would get manafort to turn on trump. all of these other guys are small players and they lied to the fbi, which you can get a nice, long prison stay, manafort can go to jail for life easily. >> they used to say they were going to warm up relations with russia and see how that went. today they say, they have been tougher on russia than anyone ever. putting aside the obvious falsehood of that statement, i'm more interested in why

you have the corey lewandowski and paul manafort people, many of them did not stick around. rick gates was a paul manafort guy through and through, who was so important and knew so much about what was going on in the campaign from the period some dodgy things went on. he was so important bannon said i want to keep rick gates around. and it surprised people that rick gates stuck around the campaign after paul manafort was gone but he did stick around and played an important role inside the campaign. so if there's somebody who has information related to collusion, possibly collusion, conspiracy and possibly conspiracy, bannon doesn't know what happened firsthand before he got there, manafort doesn't know what happened after he left. rick gates knows both sides of that wall. and that makes him, on the question of collusion, not as much of the obstruction question, but on the russia question, that makes him a very, very valuable witness to bob mueller and a dangerous man to donald trump. >> jill, your reaction to the possibility that the special prosecutor might have yet another