dave and christine. >> evan perez, thank you. one issue on the moscow project was to give a $50 million penthouse unit to putin as a gift. a former trump associate who worked on the deal with cohen says the plan was to place the russian president in the building to enhance the value and prestige to would-be buyers. according to a report by buzzfeed, cohen discussed the idea with a putin representative. it is not clear if then candidate trump was informed of the putin plan. >>> special counsel robert mueller looking into the role of the president's children in the trump tower moscow project. ivanka trump and donald trump jr. worked independently on the project. they were aware of cohen's efforts. cnn reached out to don junior for a comment and the attorney for ivanka trump refused to speak on the record. >>> president trump immediately on offense reacting to news of cohen's plea. his go-to attack of his former trusted attorney is weak and a liar. trying to save his own skin. >> he's a weak person and by being weak, unlike other pe

evan perez joins us again. let's talk about the significance of the timing here because timing always matters. it matters that cohen lied about the timing of discussions about this potential project in moscow and the significance of the timing of cohen's guilty plea coming after, after, the president submitted his written answers to mueller's questions. >> that's right, poppy. there was a great deal of paranoia close to the president in the week before thanksgiving, that's when he was preparing to send in his written answers to the mueller team, those questions that the special counsel had sent in some weeks earlier and there was paranoia simply because there were a couple things that came out including the fact that jerome corsi appeared to be close to a plea agreement that named the president, they were mad about that. julian assange was revealed to be under a sealed indictment. mueller must have something up his sleeve and we don't know what it is and we're about to send in some answers to these questions an

i want to bring in evan perez. evan, are these actually charges coming soon, do we know, and are they related to the russia investigation? >> well, ana, we don't know whether they are related to the russia investigation, but all signs point to the fact that these charges already exist, this clerical error, as you point out, was actually in an unrelated case having to do with someone who is accused of child sex crimes, so this -- it appears what happened is that a prosecutor simply cut and paste from an existing document and then posted it, put it into this document which was filed back in august. i will read you a short part of it in which they say the complaint supporting affidavit and arrest warrant as well as this motion and proposed order would need to remain sealed until assange is arrested in connection with the charges in the criminal complaint and could therefore no longer evade arrest and extradition. that's the big concern for julian assange and his team is that they believe that the minute he is forced o

let's get to evan perez. he joins us now. what have we learned today? >> hey, poppy. we have learned today that the so-called witch hunt that the president is so upset about is going to go well into 2019. march 5th is the sentencing date, and that may still slide a bit, according to the judge today, who was hearing for the first time from the prosecutors of the mueller team. the concerns they have that they say paul manafort lied during his cooperation -- time of cooperation with prosecutors. they have now laid out a timeline next week, we'll hear some of the details of the alleged lies that they say have caused them to breach the cooperation agreement, and now, this goes to a period of debeat, really, between the two sides. the manafort team says paul manafort did not lie. once they get to see what the alleged lies are, they're going to ask for a hearing, for evidence. so they're going to be fighting over this now, poppy, for quite a while. this is important because as you know, the president is upset about this investigation in the first place. and that it is taking

here's cnn's evan perez. >> matt whitaker's rise has been in the works for months. his boss, former attorney general jeff sessions, only came to realize this recently. cnn has learned new details of some of the behind the scenes drama that took place after white house chief of staff john kelly called sessions to ask for his resignation. top justice department officials including deputy attorney general rod rosenstein huddled with sessions to try to find a way to delay the resignation. rosenstein was the highest ranking official overseeing special counsel robert mueller's investigation. that is, until whitaker took over as acting attorney general on wednesday. whitaker was huddling with his own aides on wednesday, strategizing his plans to take over. sources tell us that at least one official raised questions to sessions about whether whitaker appointment is constitutional, since he's not senate confirmed. in the end, president trump rejected sessions' request to remain in office for a few more days and sessions resigned. in an e-mail friday to justice department emp

evan perez joins with us the latest. what sells in this court filing? what does it mean for manafort's plea deal? >> it means the plea deal still stands but the cooperation agreement under which the government had promised to encourage the judge to show leniency, well, that part of the deal is off. i'll read you what the court filing says. it says after signing the plea agreement manafort lied to the federal bureau of investigation and the special counsel's office in a variety of subject matters which constitute breaches of the agreement. what the powell is's office is saying is that they want the judge to move towards sentencing. they say they'll provide more information about the nature of the lies that paufrlt made as part of these lies that he has been telling since he made his plea in september. >> did prosecutors indicate what they say manafort lied about? >> they did not indicate exactly what he lied about. but our team has seen him show up and spend hours nine time since his september plea agreement. we've seen his lawyers show up for short meet

laura coates is here, evan perez, ryan lizza as well. we're going to dig into that, all of it, next. so, that goal you've been saving for, you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo! ♪ ♪ -whoops -sorry! ♪ ♪ ♪ (music throughout) >>> just hours after republicans lost control of the house, president trump fired attorney general jeff sessions and installed matthew whitaker as acting a.g. whitaker now controls robert mueller's russia investigation after openly criticizing it in the past. and sources tell cnn views whitaker as a loyalist. so is the president moving to control, to derail or end the mueller investigation? i think we all know the answer to that. laura coates, evan perez, and ryan lizza. good evening. we know the answer. thank you. good night, right? so in firing sessions, is the president trying to interfere with the mueller investigation? >> i think that's the big concern, and

all right. >> we'll watch. >> evan perez, thanks. joining us, former acting attorney general, george till wigger, and ellie honing. so george, if i could start with you, you have been attorney general. tell us your view of what's happened in the last 24 hours. the president fires jeff sessions. after for months and months criticizing jeff sessions' handling of the russia investigation, and he puts someone in there who has criticized the mueller investigation as well in public comments. what does it tell you? >> it tells me that, you know, i think it's fairly obvious that the president wanted jeff sessions to be gone as a.g. despite the good work that he did there pursuing the president's agenda. and putting in somebody at least in an interim role who the president knows and has some personal comfort with. that's not unprecedented. president kennedy hired his brother. ronald reagan hired william smith, a longtime trusted associate. some of the hysteria, frankly, about putting matt whitaker in that position is overblown. at the same ti

evan perez joins us now with the latest. what else is in this court filing and what does it mean for manafort's plea deal? >> the plea deal still stands but the cooperation in which the government has encouraged the judge to show some leanancnienc that part of the deal is off. it says, quote, after signing the plea agreement manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the federal bureau of investigation and the special counsel's office on a variety of subject matters which constitute breaches of the agreement. what the special counsel's office is now saying, anderson, is that they want the judge to move towards sentencing. they say they're going to provide more information at a later date about the exact nature of the lies that paul manafort made as part of these lies that apparently he's been telling since he made his plea in september. >> did prosecutors indicate what they say manafort lied about? >> they did not indicate exactly what he lied about, but, anderson, we know that our team there who sits outside of his speci

evan perez is "outfront" right now and evan, what exactly do these e-mails show and is there any proof of a crime? >> reporter: well, not yet, jake, but i'll tell you, the bottom line here, simply, is that what this shows is that robert mueller is still pursuing the collusion question, which is really what everybody wants the answer to. so we'll show you some of the e-mails that were published by "the new york times" first today. one of them comes from october 4, 2016. this is right after julian assange, the wikileaks founder, does a video link in which he alludes to some coming e-mails. steve bannon sends an e-mail to roger stone and says, what was that this morning? roger stone says, a load every week going forward. that's, again, from roger stone to steve bannon. and bannon responds, he didn't cut a deal with the clintons? now, what these e-mails show, jake, is that roger stone, who is full of bluster and says a lot of things that seems to be all over the place, he was in touch with one of the top people in the campaign, the ceo of the campaign at the time, if you remember. and so,

laura coates is here, evan perez, ryan lizza as well. we're going to dig into that, all of it, next. hi. i'm misha. and my favorite bar is crunch. ♪ delicious 100% real chocolate embracing the lightness of crispy rice. crunch. the chocolate bar all americans love. instead, he's the tallest guy in his office.l basketball player. yeah, eric's had to compromise a lot in life. ah yes, you need travel insurance when you travel. so, should i set some... hello? but not when it comes to cutting the cord. fubo gives him all the sports he needs as well as all the shows his family loves. don't compromise. get over 100 channels plus showtime and cloud dvr included. call 844-try-fubo. ♪ ♪ -whoops -sorry! ♪ ♪ >>> just hours after republicans lost control of the house, president trump fired attorney general jeff sessions and installed mathew whitaker as acting a.g. whitaker now controls robert mueller's russia investigation after openly criticizing it in the past. and sources tell cnn views whitaker as a loyalist. so is the president moving t

evan perez is "outfront" live in washington and evan, you have new reporting tonight about how and when the president's team found out what cohen was going to do today. >> reporter: that's right, erin. it was yesterday, last night, in fact, that the president's legal team was notified by the justice department that this plea agreement, this plea from michael cohen was coming today. we were told that this is part of the procedure of the justice department, that they briefed the white house before significant legal matters happen. you remember back in june -- i'm sorry, in july, before the justice department indicted some russian intelligence agents, they -- the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein went over and briefed president trump before he left for helsinki about that coming indictment, so that is not unusual. but we do know, erin, that obviously the president has been very, very disturbed about what mueller is up to and you can see that in some of the tweets. what we're seeing -- we're seeing glifrp seeing glimpses of what mueller is doing in these indictments -- i'm sorry, in th

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want to bring in our senior justice correspondent evan perez. everyone, you've been following the investigation for us. first of all, what are you hearing? >> well, i think it's more than just the nasty winter weather here that has the president in a foul mood. clearly he spent some time with his lawyers before the mid terms working on some of the answers to these questions, but now that the mid terms are out of the way and he's done with that campaign he is fully focused on answering these questions, and i think, you know, all of that time focusing on the mueller investigation really has reminded him of how much he hates this and the fact that it is overshadowing his administration. we do not know what specifically is on his mind and what's really upsetting him, but i'm sure that this is something that is -- that is weighing on the president, wolf. >> i suspect you're absolutely right. from our reporting, also from reporting from the "new york times," we know mueller was planning on asking very specific questions such as when did you become awa

let's go to evan perez "outfront" live in washington to begin our coverage. and evan, this is not the first time we've heard trump address a manafort pardon, but this is very, very direct, right? why would i take it off the table? on the same week that we're hearing that manafort, according to mueller, is lying. >> reporter: that's right, erin. it's almost like the president is trying to telegraph something to not only to paul manafort but also to some of the other characters who we know have been before the mueller investigators and are still essentially part of this investigation. but look, the president has had multiple meetings with his lawyers, and they've counseled him not to say these things about pardons, simply because you don't want to add any more evidence, any more information to bob mueller's investigation that goes towards a at the of obstruction of justice. it's the very question, the very thing that you just raised in your intro is why his lawyers keep telling him, don't say this stuff. but he keeps coming back to it. and look, the issue is th

let's bring in our senior justice correspondent, evan perez. evan, tell us more about this. >> wolf, we're talking about jerome coursey, one of several of roger stone's associates, who has now gone in and provided testimony to robert mueller's investigators. he's even appeared before the grand jury. and just this afternoon on his live stream, he has a live stream program on youtube, he said the following. he said, and now i fully days i will be indicted by few- mueller for some form or other of giving false information to the special counsel or to one of the other grand jury or however they want to do the indictment. but i am going to be criminally charged. now, we don't know exactly when this is going to happen. but all indications is that from his meetings and his lawyers' meetings with the special counsel, wolf, that jerome coursey believes or has been informed that he's going to be indicted, at least according to him, for perjury, for the information he has provided to the special counsel. >> is it normally the procedure of the special coun

evan perez joins us. i would say it was rosenstein who appointed mueller. but that aside, evan, it is not just mcgahn the president has blamed for the mueller probe. he slammed the attorney general jeff sessions for recusing himself. let's remind everyone what started this thing. it is always this way with who is to blame for this investigation and for how long it's gone. but you're right. there has been a couple of weeks since don mcgahn left office. before he left he had a face-to-face meeting with the president where the president was saying that robert mueller was hired essentially on his watch and seemed to cast blame against don mcgahn. look, what we're told by at least one source who said simply that the president seems to always try to find someone else to blame for this investigation and, you know, part of the problem is, you know, some of his efforts to try to squelch that investigation or at least that's the view of people who are now investigating it. if you remember, he ordered don mcgahn to fire robert mueller. he tried to get don mcgahn to in

perez is at the courthouse and joins our conversation. we were talking the last conversation. it's easy to get confused or distracted. manafort is key to the bigger picture. was there collusion or business dealings and was he involved in any shenanigans. what was the biggest take away this morning? >> the biggest take away is that the special counsel has said this is big chunks of what mueller found in his investigation. a lot of us have been waiting 18 months for this investigation. you can begin to see the strategy is to the president explains about something being a witch hunt and overshadowing his presidency. >> does he have anything to connect manafort with his past in ukraine and others. he came into the campaign. we know he was at the trump tower meeting organized by donald, jr. as we now know what mueller is looking at, business interests and trump tower moscow and possible wikileaks. you look at things people said, on the question of russia business dealings. >> to be clear, mr. trump has no relationships with russian oligarchs.

evan perez is joining us. what's behind jerome corsi walking away from the plea deal and how could charges be problematic for the trump campaign? >> jerome corsi said he was offered a deal to pleads guilty to one count for lying. we don't know exactly what happened behind the scenes. he says, his version is he was being asked to lie. he says he could not sign a to plead guilty in order to accept something that he says he did not do. let me read a bit of what he said to sarah murray. he said quote they can put me in prison for the rest of my life . i'm not going to sign a lie. behind the scenes what's happening here is that jerome corsi says that he spoke to people around the trump campaign including roger stone to describe what e-mails he said were about to come fromm wikileaks in is the hacked e-mails that were devastating to the clinton campaign. he said he found this out on his own. take a listen to what he had to say in describing what his experience was in talking to robert mueller's team. >> what the spe

joining us now is evan perez. the essential question for the special counsel was was roger stone making up or exaggerating what we knew about wikileaks plans and these releases, or did he have some advance notice, which could speak to the possibility of collusion? >> right, exactly, jim. that's the big question. frankly, we just can't answer it at this point. but, look, this is why -- and you know this. this is why we keep saying that the collusion part of this investigation is still ongoing. this is why mueller is still working on this. we'll show you the e-mail exchange between roger stone and the chief executive of the trump campaign at the time, steve bannon. this is october 4th of 2016, after the wikileaks founder had some kind of live stream event and gives big hints of what's to come. steve bannon says what was that this morning? and roger stone responds, a load every week going forward. this was a reference to wikileaks and e-mails that might be coming forward. the truth is that wikileaks was saying some o

evan perez here to break it all down for us. evan, wow, this is a lot. good evening to you. how unusual is it that a witness cooperating with the special counsel investigation be allowed to go back, talk to the lawyers of a key player, in this case the president? is that basically like having an inside track on the investigation? something's wrong here. >> well, it kind of is. but i think in this case, the mueller team certainly, i think, don, was aware that some of this was happening because rudy giuliani can't help himself and has certainly been talking to journalists and had made it clear that he was getting information from the manafort team. >> so they knew this, then? if they were watching the news, they knew it? >> i do believe they would have known this. by the way, in some of the other plea agreements that they've had, they have explicitly put gag orders into these documents. in this case they did not do that. so it seems to me at least that the mueller team was aware of this. i think what might have upset them, however, was that giuliani has been going on televisio

cnn justice correspondent, evan perez. it's significant because mueller wants to subpoena the president, he has to get approval from the individual who is overseeing the investigation. that's no longer rod rosenstein. it's the new acting attorney general. >> rob whitaker is the man who makes any decisions and all important investigative steps have to be approved by the person overseeing the investigation. it's rod rosenstein until now, but now it's matt whitaker. he intends to run the department in a fair manner. he's a gregarious, nice guy, but there is a lot of concern because of comments that he made clear that he views with skepticism the steps that robert mueller has taken in the investigation. >> last year before he became the chief of staff that he was a contributor. he made several statements that are raising concern that maybe perhaps he should recuse himself from this russia probe. >> right, exactly. people close in the white house who reviewed this appointment, one of the things they tell us is there is no reaso

i want to go to evan perez, justice department correspondent for us. evan, the first question i have is the obvious one, which is jeff sessions had recused himself from the russia investigation. the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, who president trump has also been repeatedly attacking for the last year, if sessions is gone, does that mean that the acting attorney general, matthew whitaker, is now in charge of supervises the russia investigation? >> that's not entirely clear right now, jake. at this point the department has not said exactly what happens now to the russia investigation. rod rosenstein is still there so for now it appears he's still in charge of it. but, you know, the big question here will be does someone who is only an acting attorney general, does he have the capacity -- he's not been confirmed by the senate so does he have the capacity and the responsibilities that a regular attorney general would have in this capacity. that's the question i think we're asking. certainly we're asking people at the justice department to clarif

cnn's senior justice correspondent evan perez is following all this. you were in the courtroom. what did we learn today? >> well, we learned today that march 2019, that's at least a date this so-called witch hunt the president refers to, the mueller investigation, that's how long we have been living with this investigation. paul manafort is scheduled to be sentenced on march 5th. between now and then, we'll see a new fight in court. prosecutors, the special counsel, have accused paul manafort of lying during the time he was supposed to be cooperating with investigators. they say they're going to lay out between now and next week, what exactly those lies are, and paul manafort's team, they say he hasn't lied. they say they'll try to get prosecutors to provide evidence of what the lies are. between now and march, we'll see a lot more fighting here in court. we're expecting to see a lot more detail of what exactly robert mueller and his prosecutors have gotten in the 18 months or so this investigation has been ongoing, and as you pointed out, the president has been distracted a lit

ets go to let's go to evan perez. give me the details when cohen said initially the moscow deal failed to go through. >> reporter: right, brooke. according to michael cohen, one of the reasons why he made these false statements previously was because he was trying to align his statements, what he testified to to congress, to align it with what candidate trump and then later president trump had said about his ties to russia, that there were no such ties, that this entire investigation was a hoax, that there was no reason for it, there was no good reason for it to be investigated. according to michael cohen now, after january he not only continued to brief the president, the then candidate and now president multiple times, we don't know exactly how many times, but he also briefed members of the family, people in the trump organization and, according to the documents at least someone, one person, a senior person inside the campaign. that's a big deal simply because, as you said, the president -- and as the president just

let's go to our senior justice correspondent, evan perez, joining us right now. evan, what is the very latest? >> reporter: well, wolf, the very latest is that the judge has now set a sentencing date for paul manafort, march 5th of 2019. and one of the things we learned today from prosecutors from the mueller prosecutors in court, is that they're still thinking about whether or not they need to charge -- they can charge paul manafort with additional crimes for allegedly lying during the time he was supposed to be cooperating with prosecutors. as you remember, prosecutors have now blown up that cooperation agreement. they say that paul manafort repeatedly lied during the time that he was supposed to be providing information. and so now the prosecutors are trying to decide whether they want to charge him with additional crimes. they also are trying to decide whether or not they are going to charge him with those charges that -- as you remember, the jury in northern virginia hung on several counts. and so they're trying to decide whether they want to put him on tria

. >> shimon prokupecz, sara murray, evan perez, excellent reporting. let's get more on all of these developments with mike turner of ohio, a key member of both intelligence and armed services committee. congressman, thanks so much for joining us. let me get your reaction to michael cohen's surprise plea agreement that was announced today. how significant is this development, do you believe, for the overall russia probe? >> well, first, wolf, as you and i have discussed before, wolf, i support the special counsel's investigation. it's very important for us to get to the bottom of russian meddling in the election. i think today's events certainly underscore to everyone the -- the importance of being truthful to congress on a bipartisan basis. i think everyone is very pleased to find people being prosecuted for lying to congress. i think there are many instances that need to be reviewed through all of these testimonies that we've had in this investigation for that, but one thing that i think is interesting when you look at interesting. the investigation i

evan perez. the president said mueller's questions weren't that difficult. if not, why has it taken so long? >> these questions, he is capturing what he and his lawyers believe, that these are not very complicated questions. the problem is, that when you answer them, you have to, you know, you have to do so with the knowledge of what robert mueller has in his investigation and they don't know everything rory mcilroy has. i think as pam brown reported earlier today, there's some hiccups about whether or not they want to answer question regarding the transition. that's a curious development. early on, they demarcated the place they were going to draw the line, which was the inauguration. every else they thought was fair game for mueller to ask about. anything after was not. if they're drawing a new line, that's going to be an interesting new wrinkle in the negotiation with robert mueller's team. >> the president says he wrote the answers. personally wrote all the answers to the questions submitted by mueller. not his lawyers. could that be a problem? he can't

cnn's justice correspondent evan perez has this new reporting. what else have you learned? >> well, one of the things that has been going on behind the scenes is the president has been meeting with his lawyers going over the answers to the mueller questions. the take-home test that we have talked about. >> right. >> we expect that once the president comes back from his trip to france in the next couple days, he's going there for a world war i commemoration, he's going to sit down with his lawyers and they should finish up the answers to robert mueller. then they believe this means this is one of the final pieces for this investigation before robert mueller begins to present his report to, i guess to matt whitaker, who is now in charge of it. >> you're also hearing, and that's a whole other thing we'll get to, but you're also hearing that trump's team was, i don't know, somewhat surprised to hear about these recent requests by mueller on records pertaining to roger stone. >> right, i think the surprise is that the request came so late. look, this is an investigation going on

bring in our cnn political correspondent sara murray and justice correspondent evan perez. first of all, take us through these e-mails. >> these are e-mails in the campaign, as you mentioned, october 2016, and the backdrop is that julian assange was going to have a big press conference. he was going to release a bunch of new documents. math two boyle for the right wing breitbart news e-mails roger stone and says what has he got? what has he got? >> it is but steve bannon doesn't call me back, and matthew boyle sailed you should call roger, you didn't get it from me. >> he said i've got pretty important stuff to worry about. >> and clearly he said he knows what assange has. these two have a rapport because these two used to be the head of bryant news. october 4th, assange did a two-hour media event and didn't release anything new and then the candidate supporters were very angry and thought a bombshell was going to drop, and steve bannon said what was that this morning? >> what, fear, serious security concern, talking about assange. he thinks they are going to kill him and t

first, let's go to our senior justice correspondent, evan perez, and our justice reporter, laura jarrett. evan, what is the very latest? >> well, wolf, jerome is one of the nine or so associates of roger stone who has come in for testimony to robert mueller's investigators. he spent hours and hours with mueller's investigators over the last couple of months. and today on a live stream on youtube, jerome coursey says he expects in the next few days that he will be indicted by mueller. now, we don't know what exactly these charges entail, but according to him on his live tube, he said that he expects that it will be for giving false information to the special counsel or to the grand jury. now, take a listen to some of his comments today on his youtube live stream. >> i got served a subpoena on august 28th at my home. two fbi agents show up unannounced. and i did not talk to the fbi. of course my wife was pretty startled. we began a series of discussions with them that have gone on for two months. and at the end of that two months, even though i did everything i could to cooperate, the enti

i want to bring in our senior justi justice competent, evan perez. the responses could be submitted in the coming days much the let's say he does submit the written answers to the written questions. what comes next? a face-to-face meeting with mueller and his team? >> i think some of the president's lawyers, i think, would lie across train tracks to try to stop that, wolf. i don't think they certainly would like to see that. the president, of course, keeps saying that he would like to do that. i feel like a broken record sort of covering this part of the take-home fest that the president has had in his hands now and his legal team have had now for weeks. and you wonder what's taking so long in answering these simple questions. from the mueller team. and i think, look, they're very confident in knowing what other witnesses have told mueller. they feel confident about what the documents show, that they have turned over to mueller. what they're not confident about, wolf, is any information that mueller might have gotten from intelligence agencies, overs

evan perez is here, cnn's senior justice correspondent. and laura jarrett, cnn justice correspondent, and ann milgram, a former federal prosecutor. evan, short of ending the mueller probe altogether, what can whitaker do to the investigation? >> he has complete control. look, as the attorney general, he has a say on whether or not mueller issues subpoenas, if there are steps -- major investigative steps that mueller wants to take. he has to consult with the attorney general. in this case, he was consulting with rod rosenstein to get signoff on pretty much everything he did. going forward, even more important than the investigation is what happens to mueller's report. >> the final report. >> the final report. when that is finished. and by all indications, the investigation appears to be winding down. so, when mueller produces the report, that will go to matt whitaker and he will control what happens then, if there are any charges -- additional charges that he recommends, that will go to matt whitaker. whether the report ends up in the hands

"outfront" now, cnn's senior justice correspondent, evan perez, former nixon white house counsel john dean, and james trusty, a former justice department official and long-time friend of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. gentlemen, great to see you. evan, it looks like mueller's investigation is in its final stages but what more are you learning about this? >> that's right, kate. i think it is clear, there's all kinds of signs that the mueller investigation is wrapping up, and as we get to that point, you know, the president has been meeting with his lawyers, basically going over these written questions that the mueller team has presented to them. what we -- we refer to as the take-home test and the president is going over the answers so when he comes back from his trip to europe over the weekend, we expect he's going to meet with the lawyers and they're going to finalize the answers. they're going to send it back to robert mueller, and in their view, this means that this is everything that robert mueller has asked for, and so you know, in their view, this should wrap up the inv

. >> evan perez is getting new information for us. what are you learning? >> reporter: i think one of the big questions, the panelists have been making this point a little bit over and over, but i do think we need to pause and think about this, the fact that matt whitaker has been chosen by the president to oversee this investigation and given his comments, we have to really take it seriously that matt whitaker was chosen for a reason. we don't know what he's going to do but certainly his public comments about the investigation, about starving it of resources and trying to find a way to end it i think need to be front and center as we discuss this in the next few days and in the coming weeks. matt whitaker is somebody who is the chief of staff for the attorney general, but just a couple weeks ago when there was a whole drama about rod rosenstein and whether he might be fired or pushed out, whitaker it was at the center of all of that drama. he spoke to the president, as a matter of fact, before that happened. so we don't know all of those conversations, the

joining me is cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez, chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin with me, and chris cillizza. jeffrey, it really is -- >> be careful with cut and paste. that's the message here. >> there's one lesson today. it's funny, and so serious, and not funny at all. how is it possible this would happen? >> oh, having been an assistant u.s. attorney and knowing how harried they can get, you are sometimes dealing with similar legal arguments in different cases and you would cut and paste an argument from one brief that you made into another one. i mean, i'm not excusing it. it's a terrible blunder, but could i see how it happened? sure. >> geez louise. evan, does this mean charges are definitely coming or have already come against assange? do we know where we are right now? >> well, we don't know, but i think all signs point to the fact that there are existing charges, and that's how this mistake was made. i think just certainly as in the hours last night as we were trying to figure this out, it amerged that is the most likely thing that has happened here. but it's a

let's go to evan perez. what can you tell us about the now acting attorney general, matthew whitacre? >> well, jake, you know, he's been a skeptic of the investigation. he has written an op-ed for cnn.com in which he talked about his thoughts that mueller had gone too far in the investigation, and needed to be hemmed in. and here he was discussing on don lemon's show just last year a way that a few future acting attorney general could come in and limit what mueller was doing. take a listen to what he had to say. >> you can see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment, and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller. but he just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. >> and jake, obviously now this is a big thing for matt whitaker to deal with. certainly the justice department's ethics officials will have a say as to whether or not they believe this constitutes an appearance of conflict and whether it means matt whitaker needs to recuse himself

evan perez joins with us the latest. what sells in this court filing? what does it mean for manafort's plea deal? >> it means the plea deal still stands but the cooperation agreement under which the government had promised to encourage the judge to show leniency, well, that part of the deal is off.

let's bring in our senior justice correspondent, evan perez, and chief political correspondent, dana bash. the president's suggestion that a pardon is now -- not necessarily off the table, that raises all sorts of questions. >> right, wolf. and look, this is something that the president's legal team has repeatedly told him and counseled him to avoid talking about. simply because you don't want to provide additional ammunition to robert mueller and his investigators who already are looking into whether or not the president committed any obstruction of justice. and so this is the kind of thing that, you know, if you're in the mueller team, you're simply printing out these tweets, these media interviews, and adding it to your obstruction file. now, the president has unequal pardon power. his power is without, you know -- anybody can check it, right? and so what we don't know, wolf, is whether or not these comments, these statements really add up to obstruction or whether this is something that the mueller team can say shows his state of mind as he's, you know -- as he's reacting to this

and evan perez, you covered this for us. what is the firing of jeff sessions mean as far as the russia probe is concerned? >> i think there are some real questions, wolf, as to what happens to the investigation. obviously, matt whitaker has made clear his points of view, that mueller has gone beyond his charge, gone outside the lines of what he was supposed to be doing. we know he's written these comments, he's made these comments in an op-ed here at cnn and also in comments here on the air at cnn. and so it does raise the question of whether or not matt whitaker should be the person who is in charge of this investigation. this is something, obviously, the justice department's ethics officials are going to have to review and see whether or not the appearance of conflict is enough to see whether matt whitaker needs to recuse himself. it is clear, the president deliberately chose somebody who he already knows has some strong opinions about the mueller investigation. >> exactly. he's made his feelings pretty clear. and it's har

and presidential candidate evan mcmullen. i want to start with you, evan, because your pac is running ads against steve king. i'm grimly amused by republicans six days from election day discovering what steve king believes in. i want to play one of your ads and have you explain why this is -- why this is important to you. take a listen. >> for nearly 16 years congressman steve king has been our representative in washington. he's gained a lot of admirers, he's a hero, declares the neo-nazi website storm front. he is our guy. guy bless our king says david duke. i'm very proud of him, announced richard spencer, steve king, klan and neo-nazi approved. >> why are you running that ad? >> we're running that ad, chris, because we're trying to make a case, and for and to build a cross partisan coalition in iowa and across the country that we'll stand up to leaders like steve king, leaders who don't advance our values, don't protect our values and who actually fight against them. so we're calling on republicans, independents and democr