. >> but it's not just goldstone's words that have the attention of special counsel robert mueller. it's the response from the president's son. >> donald trump junior said if it's what you say, i love it. >> his reaction to that is not to say, is this all right? should i call the fbi? >> it's potentially criminal. it's embarrassing, it's a scandal. >> this meeting in some ways goes to sort of the heart of what robert mueller has been looking at. he was appointed to look at any connections that existed between the trump campaign and russia. >> there wasn't anybody higher. in the trump campaign except donald trump himself at this meeting. >> so how did a celebrity publicist wind up as a central player in that trump tower conference room? and later, as a witness in mueller's grand jury room? his background is far removed from politics. >> he was at one point in time a reporter. he got his first job for his local newspaper at the age of 16. he then became a radio reporter focusing on the entertainment industry. at some point he railsed that he kind of had a knack for promotion. >> rob g

. >>> up next, robert mueller is keeping quiet, at least right now, but his investigators are pushing ahead, continuing to interview key witnesses. what bombshells could this special counsel drop right after the november midterm elections? >>> and there are grisly new accounts of the alleged murder of the u.s.-based journalist. is the trump administration giving the saudis a free pass? breathe freely fast, with vicks sinex. my congestion's gone. i can breathe again! ahhhh! i can breathe again! ughh! vicks sinex. breathe on.

building a case for and maybe even against robert mueller for a potential court fight against mueller having access to the president, citing executive privilege. >> these next few weeks and months are going to be very important. i think that when you look at this news coming out that they have gotten the questions. it's a reminder that this is ongoing. we kept hearing for a long time from rudy giuliani and others that this is wrapping up. september it's going to be done. it's not done. we could still have a long way to go. this is a cloud that is going to continue to hangover the president until you get some real answers. >> the question is, when those answers come. is this a sign that it's wrapping up or is it the next step to it wrapping up or maybe there is more questions or maybe the president sits down to something happening after the mid-terms and that's a sense of something that might happen. all we have is speculation. he kept a closed shop, mueller has. all we can do is sit back and wait to see when this happens. it is interesting that this strategy that they had before publi

a new report that robert mueller has asked the fbi to investigate a possible scheme against him, false sexual harassment claims. what in the world is going on here? >> it's appropriate that we're discussing this on halloween, stephanie. here's what we know. the special counsel issued a rare statement yesterday saying they referred to the fbi allegations that women were being paid to make false claims about robert mueller. >> by whom? >> separately a republican conspiracy theorist named jack berkeman has announced he has a news conference in which he will parade out a women, an alleged sex assault victim of robert mueller. mueller's office completely denies anything like this happened. here's what we know, people who have examined robert mueller's career say there's not a hint of evidence of any misconduct with women around mueller. we do know there's been a long standing right wing campaign to discredit mueller. this appears to be part of that, stephanie. >> so this nonsense scam conspiracy theorist, where does he get his messages out? how does he spread these lies? >> well, there are

mueller, sharply critical of rod rosenstein, saying rod rosenstein must order robert mueller to limit his investigation, and a month later he's jeff sessions' chief of staff. and now the president must have at some point read some of the lines in that article. he must have found that article at some point. >> he's literally shopping for an attorney general, to maya's point, someone who will be loyal to him. we've seen stories where he apparently, you know, thundered in the oval office, where's my -- who's my roy cohn? the president still, two years in, does not understand that the attorney general is not his lawyer, that the white house counsel is not his lawyer, that these people give an oath to the constitution, they have institutions to run. they are not about running the personality of the president. >> and maya, i think the president's going to discover if his plan is i fire jeff sessions and matthew whitaker immediately takes over, that can't happen because matthew whitaker is not in a senate-confirmed job. his job was not subject to senate confirmation. so he would just have to

that's regarding the president and communications with the special counsel, robert mueller. >> yeah, we've been telling you for months that negotiations are going on for an interview with the president. the latest offers back and forth were some written answers to questions posed in written form by the special counsel's office dealing only with russia and collusion. i'm told that the president's attorneys have been working up some sample answers to questions about russia and collusion so they have a handle on the information they have. i'm told that there's no deal yet for this to happen with the special counsel's office. i'm told that a deal is less likely rather than more likely. still could happen. if it happens before the mid-terms, more likely that it could happen. if it's not until after the mid-terms, it's uncreasingly less likely anything will happen. the president's attorneys says the mueller investigation has gone on long enough. still no moment. >> shepard: thanks. ahead, more on the new developments in the russia investigation. we'll hear from an attorney that says it cou

just to help our viewers understand how robert mueller is looking at this. so the "times" reports that investigators working for robert mueller, the special counsel investigating russia's campaign to disrupt the 2016 election, and whether any trump associates conspired, have obtained copies of the proposals and question the firm's employees according to people familiar with those interviews. "why do you think that is? >> well, because as you alluded to, nicolle, what's clear here is they were seeking out collusion with a foreign entity, doing what russia did. creating bogus social media profiles. tries to dig up dirt on hillary clinton and other people. what the russians end up doing is what was on the table here with this israeli firm. i think what that shows clearly is you and i both worked in politics. there are certain lines that we never would have even considered crossing. never would have considered to the bush campaign, the obama campaign -- >> like what? ? what lines don't get crossed? >> we don't hire foreign intelligence -- >> ding, ding, ding, di

of course, we don't know what robert mueller knows. but i suggest, chris, that you can stick a fork in roger stone because he's done. most importantly -- >> what do you mean by that? >> what i mean by that, chris is that first of all, as jill mentioned, he already was caught in lies about whether he did or did not meet with russian operatives in the run-up to the election. so that is one offense right there. but when we see roger stone go on tv and say, well, you know what, i expect to be indicted, chris, i was a federal prosecutor for 30 years. i have never once had an innocent person say i expect to be indicted. now, roger stone can explain that away all day long by claiming that's because it's a witch hunt. i thought i would be wrongfully indicted. but guess what? once you say i expect to be indicted, that has the fringe benefit of being evidence that is admissible against you in a court of law. it's called an admission by a party opponent. so on the day we see roger stone sitting at defendant's table in a court of law, and i suspec

speaking of conspiracy theories, the president suggested robert mueller the special counsel and former director james comey actually plotted against him as far as this whole russia probe is concerned. the president telling the daily caller in an interview he had 100 pictures off mueller and comey in his words hugging and kissing each other. now, there has been an examination of that. what have you learned? >> this is definitely one of our favorites. the fbi has looked to see whether or not there are any pictures. the reporter had forwarded this. the response of the fbi is titled photographs of former fbi director james comey and robert mueller quote hugging and kissing each other and the simple response from the fbi is simply we were unable to locate records responsive to your requests. therefore, your request is being administratively closed. james comey, the former fbi director saw this respongs on twitter and tweeted later on today, my wife is so relieved. >> they couldn't find one or two pictures, let alone 100 pictures. this reporter went through the freedom of information process

certainly we don't have any information or indication that robert mueller's team has given up on a face-to-face interview with the president on that issue. >> i was just going to just add to jeffrey's point. it strikes me that this is a win -- if this goes through, and i always remind people, rudy giuliani said to dana in august, in ten days we'll decide whether or not donald trump will sit down. it's october 11th, and we're not there, and if this does happen reporting from statements, i think it's donald trump's lawyers over donald trump. now to jeff's point, that's sort of a cruise to donald trump's benefit because it's unlikely he gets himself into any legal peril, but, remember, i mean, we've seen this before. when donald trump is deposed, he's not a good witness. there was real concern there that he would get himself -- this is not a campaign rally. this is not a fox news interview. you can't just say whatever. the if this is how it winds up, that is a major victory for a legal team that's seen a lot of turnover, though relatively stable as of late. >> i want to go back to what jeffrey sai

we turn to a possiblelot against special counsel robert mueller. a woman was offed money to make sexual assaulteg aions against him. >> kristin, how was this diorovered? >> rr: good morning. this was discovered by reporters who effectively went to the speciaunsel's office. as you say, robert mueller's investigation into russian interference into the 2016 presidential election is moving forward. now the special counsel is dealing with this bizarre new development as h confronted a team that falsely accused him. mueller's t im saids asked the fbi to investigate women paid to smear mueller's investigation. they've been contact by a woman who was offered tens of shesands of dollars if would accuse mueller of harassment when she allegedly worked at a law firm in 1974. that woman said she refused to do that.so of the reporters, as said, they couldn't corroborate that. nbc news has notontacted the woman. they have no record of the woman working from them. no comment about the white house nor from the president's legal team. multiple officials say it's hig

there is no actual allegation against robert mueller as of right now. again, the only allegation that's been made is that these women were beingunsel's office on the record? >> extremely rare. so when we got this statement from the special counsel, it was like an earthquake. i mean, this is someone who never comments. every single time we reach out for comments there were automatic responses, we will decline to comment. when we saw the special counsel's office was taking this seriously enough to issue a statement about it and say they had referred this matter to the fbi for further investigation, that just showed how seriously they were taking this because of course, it is a plot to discredit mueller and smear him not two weeks before the midterm elections. it's a very obvious scheme, but it's one in which the special counsel really is not taking any ru risks natasha, thank you. >>> president trump heading to battleground florida tonight with a new poll showing that that state's governor's race neck in neck. i sit down with andrew gillum, rising star of

. >>> plus a bizarre scheme to try to smear the special counsel, an attempt to target robert mueller. how a pro trump conspiracy theorist is linked to all this. we'll talk to a woman contacted in the plot. we have a ton to get to. our team is ready to go across the country, covering all of it. i want to start with donald trump and his last big push starting today, trying to tap into some hot button issues he hopes will keep republicans in power in a lot of instances, making claims that are misleading or just not true. >> we're the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the united states for 85 years with all of those benefits. they want to raise your taxes, open your borders. we have other tax cuts planned. in that caravan you have some very bad people. when you looked at that bridge loaded up with people, that's called an invasion of our country. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell is at the white house. kelly, if i know anything, just as i have my suitcase loaded, as do you, this is president trump's last big push. >> reporter: i

there's also breaking news in special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation into roger stone. i understand you're getting new information from your sources? >> we learned that the special counsel's team, a long ally with president trump shared with members of trump's campaign that he believed was coming from wikileaks. we spoke to sources that said audio has been turned over to the special counsel team that has roger stone talking about having regular discussions with julian assange, and there are communications in which stone says he should get some kind of credit for coordinating with wikileaks. both roger stone and his attorney are denying that he passed anything on to them. he said i never discussed wikileaks stuff with trump and never said i should get credit for coordinating with wikileaks because i didn't. >> what are you learning about the investigation into stone's back channels to wikileaks? >> the other thing about this investigation, is he has not been contacted by mueller's team but a number of his associates have. and we're learning a number of these interviews i

. >>> the fbi investigating claims that women were offered money to smear robert mueller with false claims of sexual harassment. >>> the chilling fin moment, perhaps the last moment of a d ouple before they plunge their deaths at yosemite. tonight, the dangers of getting that spectacular selfie. >>> for yone who has ever suffered through the pain of kidney stones, imagine winning another world championship witone. is there anything simone biles can't do? >> this is "nbc nightly news with lester holt."go >> evening, everyone. a journey shrouded in sadness and controvey for president trump today, as he visited pittsburgh and the synagogue that was the scene of saturday's ss mare. along with first lady melania trump, the aresident warmly receivthe tree of life synagogue, while demonstrators who believe president trump s shirked moral leadership, proclaimed he was not welcome in their city. on a day he tried to console the community, the president igniting more controversy as he he opened up an front in the immigration debate. our peter alexander is in pittsburgh tonight. >> reporter: a pittsb

most are can feel in robert mueller's work. we reported on friday that the special counsel is continuing to lookroger phone and his associates. this is happening at a time when special counsel is shedding staff and signaling key witnesses are about to be sentenced. he's still questioning roger stone, what he knew, and what did he do with the information he had. roger stone sometimes says, you know, i predicted the release of clinton foundation e-mails, so i didn't know they had podesta's e-mails, with you the guccifer 2.0 persona released information on the clinton foundation. >> you know, i'll tell you one question i get sometimes when you host a television show is, why do you interview this or that person? >> good question. >> you throw a big enough party, some of your friends say this person need to be there or not? reasonable people can disagree about that. randy is one of those people that has asked about that. but our reporting, and our discussions with him, and i know you intersected with him, as well, have given insight

cnn is learning new details about special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. even though there's been very little ahead of the mid terms, new indictments are expected shortly after the november election and a report may be coming out as early as december. let's discuss the implications with our experts and our analysts. laura jarrett, you cover the justice department for us. specifically, what are you learning? what should we anticipate coming after the midterm elections? >> well, look, i don't think that the special counsel's team is meeting with paul manafort and michael cohen, the president's former lawyer and fixer for fun. he's meeting with these people for hours, we're learning, sitting down with paul manafort nine times since his guilty plea and his -- he's cooperating, for all intents and purposes. so i think it's fair to assume that the special counsel's office has been working on a report building towards this moment for a long time. he's not going to have to start from scratch. and so if we see it in december, it will be a product of leaving no ston

the truth of the matter is we have no idea what robert mueller is going to conclude. he could drop a bombshell or disappoint the resistance. >> right. we don't have any idea. he's a black box, and he's been work thon for what, two years senator. >> a year and a half. >> he's done an awful lost indictments, and he's done a lot of indictments of russians, so we really -- you know, we honestly don't know, but we know that the last thing in the world his lawyers want is to put the president in front of team mueller and answer questions about obstruction, and they do believe that executive privilege is on their side when it comes to something that happened post-inauguration. >> and they surely see this development as at least a step for them. >> exactly. >> one last thing, jake. i think it is clear based on our reporting that, you know, people are still going before the special counsel, and they are still being asked about things that would relate to collusion, so it is clear that the special counsel is very much still looking into that question. >> all right. great story,

plus, a roger stone aide mounting a constitution challenge against the special counsel robert mueller. will the newest supreme court justice, brett kavanaugh, support his case? bout? well at safelite, we know sooner or later every chip will crack. these friends were on a trip when their windshield got chipped. so they scheduled at safelite.com. they didn't have to change their plans or worry about a thing. i'll see you all in a little bit. and i fixed it right away with a strong repair they can trust. plus, with most insurance a safelite repair is no cost to you. >> customer: really?! >> tech: being there whenever you need us that's another safelite advantage. >> singers: safelite repair, safelite replace. and the wolf huffed and puffed... like you do sometimes, grandpa? well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. so my doctor said... symbicort can help you breathe better. starting within 5 minutes. it doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. doctor: symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. symbicort is for copd, including chronic br

here's how we know that this sealed case involves robert mueller and the special counsel investigation. quote, a politico reporter who visited the appeals court clerk's office on a day when a key filing in the case was due earlier this month observed a man requesting a copy of the special counsel's latest sealed filing so that the man's law firm could craft its response. the individual who asked for the secret filing declined to identify himself or his client, and replied, quote, i'm okay, when offered a reporter's business card to remain in touch. well, i know you don't want to talk now, but can i give you my card in case you'd like to talk at some point in the future? yeah, i'm okay, i don't need your business card. in fact, if i go home with your business card in my pocket, i'll disappear. in fact, i was never even here. what is going on here? and how can we tell whether it's important? joining us now is politico's josh gerstein, one of the reporters who has been doing the sleuthing around this case. mr. gerstein, it's nice to have you here. thanks for being here. >> rachel, great t

thi -- was this coordinated with robert mueller's office? was: this investigation totally separate from robert mueller's office. -- rter: john: i'm not going to respond to questions about any internal justice department discussions. pennsylvania often seems to be involved in the cases charging folks packing for an -- folks in foreign governments hacking. is everybody believes this affected to -- an effective deterrent. >> to answer the first part of your question, the reason that they are in pittsburgh is that we have the best agents and the best prosecutors in the department of justice. i take issue of the premise to issue totion -- i take the premise of your question that name and shame doesn't have value. if we can't put our defendants on them this time, they are limited from traveling because they know if they travel to countries with which we have extradition, they know they will be sent to the united states and be held accountable. but we have seen in our cases which you referenced, the wang don case, prosecution of five members of the

robert mueller bearing down on roger stone. later, a fact check on the midterms at trump's rallies, and the view meets the beat as joy behar joins me live in about 20 minutes. first, our top story is breaking news. the fbi is probing a credible plot to frame bob mueller. we rarely hear directly from special counsel bob mueller's office, especially as an election approaches, but tonight, we're reporting a rare announcement from the russia probe that confirms the fbi is now investigating an apparently credible plot to try to frame mueller. an effort to smear him in order to either discredit him or get him potentially even removed from the probe into collusion in the trump operation. this sounds big and unusual. because it's big and unusual. in a moment, i will be joined on "the beat" by someone who was approached by people apparently working on this scheme. first, here is exactly what we know. multiple news outlets reporting on a plot by a republican linked operative trying to frame mueller on what appeared to be made-up allegati

because robert mueller has been busy the last few weeks. we have remarkable new details about the flury of activity in federal court houses, coming up. when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. and got them back on track. seaonly abreva cany to help sget rid of it in... ...as little as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. abreva starts to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. abreva acts on it. so you can too. tight-lipped, but that doesn't mean things are quiet when it comes to the russia investigation. a flury of activity is happening in the courts. i want to start with just based on the few things we learned here, in just the past month because this guilty plea was september 14th for paul manafort, nine times he and his attorneys have gone to mueller's office for meetings. is that high in terms of the number of meetings that they hav

special counsel robert mueller posting key findings according to sources. we are by bloomberg's investigative reporter for enforcement. do tell, what will we know when the time comes. >> we might not know. learned is next month most likely, mueller will render judgment. make some able to kind of decision as to whether and possibly -- these are two of the pillars investigating for a year and a half. it is significant. we'll probably get to it next month. >> how much will he actually learn. >> very little on its own unless there are two courses of action, if there isn't -- an indictment. filed against a significant campaign operative, that is the way of putting this into the public domain. if it is a conclusion mueller itself reaches, he does not feel to file any charges at the time because of sensitivities. it is something rod rosenstein would be kept apprised of. eventually, there would be a report and whoever his boss eventually is. congress or the public >> would they be over at that point? >> we do not know but highly doubtful. only if a final determinat

robert mueller is one of the smartest people i'm sure that will ever serve his country. this seems to be the durability of the mission of the probe, no? >> including insurance against president trump. to put in my criminal law professor's hat, one reason people are indicted is to deter other people from doing the same kind of conduct. we see robert mueller steady on the case, but you have to wonder when the president is calling all of this a witch hunt and false news, whether that em boldens the russians to go ahead and do the same thing they did in 2016 in the midterm elections. >> you've got a chapter called fake news in your book. tell us a little bit about the book and about what we still don't understand about the extent of and the ongoing nature of russian meddling in our democracy. >> it links to what we're seeing today. what you'll see is this wasn't one person or a small group, this was a 15-part organization with an accountant paying people for different tasks to influence and attack our democracy. it's not an attack on one pattern party or one person, it's an

robert mueller doesn't use the grand jury for a fishing expedition. there is ape reason. you wouldn't take all this time for the grand jury if you didn't have some evidence of wrongdoing. stone in an e6789 mail to me and other places says he's absolutely innocent. didn't do anything -- >> very carefully worded denial, very carefully worded. he didn't say i had no advance knowledge. >> that's right. >> i couldn't find that in there because he did have advance knowledge. >> clearly someone is not telling the truth, him or his comedic friend. >> somebody throwing somebody under the bus? >> we've seen this narrative play out before, which is an associate of donald trump saying, this investigation is all joke. i'm not going to participate. ride or die with the president, and leave it at that. and then eventually when it becomes a point of self-preservation, that's when they start singing like a bird. >> why did roger put out the word he'll never flip? he's also raising money on the internet trying to raise money for his legal defense. he's trying to raise money from the true b

. >>> have you received a subpoena from robert mueller? >> no. >> he was asked there if he'd been subpoenaed by robert mueller. we got a quick no. it was an intriguing answer to an intriguing theory raised today in politico by a former federal prosecutor who once worked for rudy giuliani in the southern district of new york. he wrote we cannot know from the brief docket entries available to us in the sealed case that the matter involves trump but we know from politico's reporting that it involves the special counsel. and that the action here was filed the day after giuliani noted publicly we're pretty much finished with our memorandum opposing a subpoena. we know that the district court had ruled in favor of the special counsel and against the witness that the losing witness moved with alacrity, which i had to look up. it means cheerful speed. and with authority and that the judges have responded with accelerated rulings and briefing schedules. we know that judge katsas, trump's former counsel and nominee has recused himself and this seale

the special prosecutor, robert mueller. "the washington post" reports that the longtime ally of donald trump is being looked at over possible ties to wikileaks and whether he had prior knowledge of the release of hillary clinton's e-mails. joining us now, cnn legal analyst, joey jackson. so joey, what do you think? what kind of -- what are they really looking at right now? how significant is this? remember, this is not new. certainly, he's been in the crosshairs for quite some time. and you know that by virtue of the associates that they're looking at. they're not only looking at him, but in looking at him, they're looking at everybody with whom he associates, whether it's his social media director, whether it's the person with which he lived with for a longtime, sam nunberg. so at this point, you know, he has given information, he testified in 2017, as you know, in front of the house intelligence committee. and at that point, he said he had no knowledge in terms of the wikileaks, the contact and the connection with him and

robert mueller has said almost nothing going forward. but really on capitol hill, there's some mention, a congressman from north carolina is outraged at the fact that rod rosenstein had a sit-down interview with the "wall street journal" just a few days ago and has not testified in any way shape or form at least at this point before congress. he and some of his colleagues on the republican side they don't want him behind doors closed congressional interview is what is likely going to happen this week. they want a full-blown congressional testimony and say that's part of congress's oversight responsibility. that isn't going to happen. but that's also not going to tamp down some of the acrimony that we see on capitol hill among some camps who want to have a little more theater to it. eric: in fact, some in the house are criticizing that only top two members of the committee on both sides, the chairman and ranking member, the democrat and the republican, questioning behind closed doors in a classified setting. we may not find out anything a

furthermore, to what katie's point said, robert mueller has not leaked a lot of information. it has been a very tight-lipped investigation. i still think you have a majority of the american people who want to understand what actually happened. we will see what he comes up with. we haven't heard from them lately because the fbi, when somebody is under investigation, they tend to sort of cease in making any big news within 60 days of an election. that didn't happen with hillary clinton when james comey reopened the investigation. typically, the fbi does not release any new information. they take a couple steps back. that's why i think we are starting to see the trump campaign -- rather, the trump administration -- giuliani -- such talk about what they plan to to do after the midterms. >> harris: i want to drill down a little bit more than i have already on the questions that were asked in this polling. i wonder, too, if some of the disapproval is a function of not believing that the government can chew gum and walk at the same time. it might be otherwise focused more on one eve

robert mueller bearing down on roger stone. later, a fact check on the midterms at trump's rallies, and the view meets the beat as joy behar joins me live in about 20 minutes. first, our top story is breaking news. the fbi is probing a credible plot to frame bob mueller. we rarely hear directly from special counsel bob mueller's office, especially as an election approaches, but tonight, we're reporting a rare

i trust robert mueller to get to the bottom. a republican appointee. robert mueller has a job to do and that job is to find out what happened so we can prevent this from happening again. interference with our election itwe know it happened and will happen again unless we take every method possible to prevent it. felt like ther robert mueller investigation into the role of russian interference was ever rigged. i also have faith in robert mueller. but less faith in the team he has assembled. is notthat said, this brain surgery he is involved in. he cannot go on and on with untethered efforts. they tried to interfere in our election and they have been doing it for decades. and not just our elections. and china is also trying to engage in our election this year. that is what they do. and by the way, the u.s. is not either.i doing it we have paper ballots to serve as a boxed -- ask. for any kind anyackstop for investigation. >> there is no more important role for citizens then voting and no more important role for government then our national and interior d

the special counsel, robert mueller's team will get to question president trump on possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. written questions. only written questions were submitted to the legal team who are right now preparing written answers. the q&a will all be in the form of written questions and answers. joining us now is legal analysts, thanks very much for joining us. just to be precise, it only involves the questions. this is what the trump legal team agreed to. what happened during the campaign about alleged collusion or conspiracy to deal with russians interfering in the election and all of that. it doesn't deal with what happened after the president took office and nothing to do with obstruction of justice and the firing of comey, for example. >> the president's legal team has been successful in delaying this process and let this process really take a long course. here we are at almost two years into his administration and they are just about to maybe answer questions about this in writing which of course was always their desire. they don't want him to have

these are prosecutors who work for robert mueller. so the prosecutors from the special counsel's office kind of don't have normal ochgs aal opt that and they have to pussyfoot around this issue because of cases that haven't been charged yet. can we put that up again. they basically say, because richard pinedo gave them information that could be used to prosecute people, people that have crimes on their -- crimes on their conscience, that have nothing to do with what robert mueller and the special counsel are investigating, the special counsel can't prosecute those things. and so, yeah, they might have handed off those potential prosecutions to other u.s. attorneys, even though they can't totally spell that out. but these are prosecutions they can't undertake themselves because they're just supposed to be investigating russian interference in the election. "the special counsel's office did not pursue those, because they did not relate to our core mission." this is interesting, in terms of the fate of richard pinedo today and the questi

one is president obama with robert mueller. it's a reminder that robert mueller, long before he was the special counsel investigating, he was, as fbi director, meet being with the legal office often with president obama. >> yes, i wanted people to see who robert mueller was, see him in action as the fbi director. one of the greatest public servants of our generation is robert mueller. >> then you somewhat wittely have a picture with a very famous singer elton john in the oval office and your caption is "there's only one rocket man." >> this was after president trump had made reference to little rocket man, kim jong-un, so that was my response. >> and recently, we understand that at the summit, he actually said something about rocket man to kim jong-un and there was a whole exchange about that. we had to get a full readout on that i think. president obama with james comey famously of course james comey fired by this president. >> well, this was in reaction to him saying comey said in his book that trump had asked him for a loyal

this as manafort continues to cooperate with robert mueller's russian investigation team. cnn sara murray has details. >> reporter: the justice department charging a russian woman friday with conspiracy for trying to manipulate voters in the 2018 midterms. as it cracks down on election meddling, beyond special counsel robert mueller's investigation. elena alekseevna khusyaynova from st. petersburg, russia, managed financing for a social media troll agency which sent out these ads and memes that fan division between minority groups, radicals and voters. this as manafort was back in court first time since his conviction in a wheelchair, a shock that quieted the courtroom as a judge set his sentencing date for february 8th. manafort, clad in his green inmate uniform, sat with his foot raised off the ground in a sobbing. lawyers say he is facing significant health issues related to terms of his confinement. manafort's attorneys push for him to be sentenced quickly. a person familiar with his condition says he is experiencing inflammation related to his diet. manafort is awaiti

ac>>> on the campaign trail and a bizarre plot maybe against robert mueller. we'll take chilly mo acrs the bay area. we'll start out with a live look in san jose and check o teresa. only some upper 40s as you step out the door. then we'll see it becoming a lot nicer as we go throughout the day. wide range in temperatures, i'll have a look at that and the weekend, too, come up in a few minutes. >>> sky ranger just arrived over the scene of the deadly crash. two people killed here. north 880 the freeway is closed. we'll talk you around the slowing and tell you the latest for the b.a.r.t. station closure. >>> this is a question a lot of people ask, how do you eliminate traffic deaths? it's a question that leaders in san francisco and other cities are asking themselves. turns out the vision zero program seems to be ped in 2015 eliminate traffic deaths by the year by redesigning streets, enforcement and education. >> historically, we've had about 30 people a year killed on the streets of san francisco, just trying to get around the city. last year, that number was

these hours spending with robert mueller, super important. >> we're showing the agenda for the court hearing today. why is this significant or not? can you explain that? >> the judge has thrown another monkey wrench as he's been doing into robert mueller's well laid plans. moouler wa mueller wanted to postpone the sentencing until he was fully satisfied with cooperation. judge ellis said that's not how we do things. we need to sentence him quickly. it's possible that manafort could receive a stiff sentence in a few weeks or months and later mueller will file a motion to knock some time off that sentence. the judge rules that paul manafort cannot wear one of his $10,000 suits. he has to wear a jailhouse jump suit like any other convict. >> don't you hate it when that happens. joining me federal prosecutor. explain your reaction of what you heard from ken and that manafort has been meeting with the special counsel. >> this hearing today is completely ridiculous. >> why? >> this is all about judgeitis t this is judge ellis saying i'm important. there's no reason for this hearing. all it

show more of you. >>> special counsel robert mueller's office is reportedly examining a late republican operative secret fund-raising campaign to obtain what he believed were hillary clinton's e-mails. the "wall street journal" reports that peter w. smith, whose death at 81 last year was rai ruled a suicide had raised money for donors in 2016 in his search for hacked chin on the eed clin. in addition to giving hard drives to the house and senate intelligence committees, mr. smith's estate has given documents to mr. mueller's team. buzzfeed news has reported that smith's bank transfers are under scrutiny. according to documents reviewed by the "wall street journal" smith went to an extraordinary length to ensure the privacy and secrecy of his projects. one e-mail showed the anti-clinton funds as donations that were to be sent to a scholarship fund for russian students. >>> robert mueller is looking to seize several properties owned by paul manafort. according to a court document, attorneys for mueller asked a judge to grant the government full and exclusive custody and control of five pr

does robert mueller have receipts that prove otherwise? an accessory to the smartphone. ride hailing, car sharing, carpooling... ...mobility services are proliferating. and there's a new generation who don't seem to want to own cars in the first place. it all means massive disruption to the car industry, cities, businesses and investors. ♪ ♪ if your moderate to severeor 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. tell your doctor if you have an infection experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms, or sor

let's start with this bizarre, apparent plot to smear robert mueller that is coming into light. what do you make of that? >> if it's true, it's how terrified they are. >> more terrified about what the special counsel may have found. it's a very underhanded effort to besmirch his efforts. they're going to extreme lengths to essentially pay women to make false claims about him. >> i wonder if you think the president's attacks on robert mueller specifically encourage private citizens to sort of take matters into their own hands in ways that we have seen obviously last week with one of the president's most ardent supporters and the pipe bombs. you know, sadly, i think that no one sets the tone as much as the president of the united states and normally that is not a problem but with this president it's very much a problem. he has a no holds barred attitude of dividing the country, of egging on his supporters, of encouraging by praising violence against journalists, all of this hyping of the caravan, this group of people who are fleeing violence 1,000 miles away from us. hyping that t

i'm not sure i'd take that bet. >> ken dilanian, what do we make of the fact this is not a robert mueller prosecution? >> i think this is part of a larger justice department strategy to go after this election, to expose it to the world. prosecution is a tool here, but not a substitute to take on this stuff, and we're not seeing that at all. donald trump is benefitting from this russian information warfare operation. very clear. it's been going on since 2014. we didn't know about it back then. we know about it now. he's benefiting and he's not denouncing it. and other parts of his government are doing as far as we can tell very little about it. the justice department has decided they're going to bring criminal charges, and they've released a lot of detailed intelligence information in this indictment. they're showing the russians they're in their networks, this is nsa hacking exposed here in this indictment. but this woman is never going to face criminal charges, and right now we have very little defense against this manipulation of american public opinion. >> and david corn, one of the th

he's the person who can fire robert mueller, the person who can decide what to do with robert mueller's report when it comes out. that's why his status matters. i would not take what the president said today as the final word on rosenstein's status. i think the president has probably been persuaded to put all these issues off until the end of the mid -- until the midterms have taken place. the president has all but said explicitly, he's going to fire jeff sessions after the midterms. he may clean house at the department of justice. that will potentially create a new superior for robert mueller, someone who could fire him. that's why this is all important. i don't think most people could identify who the deputy attorney general of the united states was through most of american history. it's usually a pretty obscure role, but the reason we care about it today is because of rosenstein's relationship to the mueller investigation. >> and jackie, it is fascinating because this was a conversation that was supposed to happen, and they decided to put it off because of the kavanaugh hearings. the

somebody very helpful to robert mueller. the meeting of the executive finance committee is now in session. and... adjourned. business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. billions of problems. dry mouth? parched mouth? cotton mouth? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath oral rinse and lozenges. help relieve dry mouth using natural enzymes to soothe and moisturize. so you can... breathe easy, there's therabreath at walmart. each of us is different. and each cancer is different. how it reacts, how it evades and adapts. and how we attack it. that's why at cancer treatment centers of america, we use diagnostic tools that help us better understand what drives each person's cancer. this is what we mean by outsmarting cancer. and for some, it may uncover more effective treatment options. like christine bray. after battling ovarian cancer for several years, her test results revealed a potential tr

we already saw robert mueller indict a russian for trying to intervene in the 1982 elections. that timing makes it curious in its own rite. there is no sign that there is any particular movement like syria, ukraine, the major issues that have divided this country. >> what is going on here? just optically, yeah, and remember, this day would be veterans day, and it was going to be the big d.c. parade that got canceled. so it's odd that you want to go and do a follow-up meeting. it's already interesting. he gets what he wants when he's in meetings with president trump. and what's interesting is we had the last summit which was a closs sal pr disaster. you're coming into this now. what do. you could come into a circumstance here where the mueller investigation is literally rolling out additional. they're all related to russia collusion. he'll be in the same situation where he's meeting with putin and he'll have to say, what about the. i don't know what there is to gain in this meeting. >> especially anywhere in the studio, if we get any during that one week before the elections. >

special counsel robert mueller reportedly focused on long-time trump adviser roger stone and conference calls in which he talks about wikileaks and its founder, julian assange. what did stone know about hacked democratic e-mails. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room". ♪ >>> this is "cnn breaking news." >>> we're following breaking news. a controversial visit by president trump to pittsburgh as the first funerals are held for rick tips of the synagogue massacre. the president is there despite pleas from local officials to postpone the trip as the city reels from the deadliest anti-semitic attack in u.s. history. tonight, mr. trump's presence has sparked a large protest with the president accused of insightment through his heated and divisive rhetoric. i will talk about the breaking news with the pennsylvania attorney general, josh shapiro, and our correspondents, analysts and specialists are also standing by. >>> first, let's go to pittsburgh. our white house correspondent kaitlan collins is there