Skip to main content

tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  March 31, 2017 8:00pm-9:01pm PDT

8:00 pm
it's a promise. >> shorauthorities can go afters on the battlefield, but they cannot kill an ideology. thank you for joining us, we begin tonight with the cnn exclusive behind the intelligence on the recent bans of lap tops and other electronics on flights into the country. we're learning about some chilling methods the bombmakers are using, including testing them out on real airport security scanners until the scanners can no longer detect them. evan and barbara did the reporting on this. evan, what are you learning? >> reporter: well, anderson, cnn has learned that u.s. intelligence and lawmakers believe that -- fbi testing
8:01 pm
shows can evade some commonly used airport screening machines. now terror bombmakers have come up with a way to hide explosives in the battery compartments but still have the lap top turned on long enough to get past the screeners. in december, fbi experts report that they tested different layers of explosive configurations to see how difficult it would be for airport screeners to detect them. using tsa rated machines, the test found that the machine had a far more difficult time detecting these types of now bombs, anderson. >> and there's new information about how terrorists are perfecting their skills? >> reporter: there's a number of things going on here tonight, anderson. there is information that these terror groups have been able to gain some access to airport screening equipment. what does that do for them? it allows them to basically test a device that they fabricate and see how far they can go to get it past airport screening, now this was part, part of what led
8:02 pm
to the ban of several weeks ago of carrying consumer electronics like laptops and tablets on to airplanes because of this concern of capability. but that wasn't all of it. it wasn't just isis, there's been monitoring or increased chatter of threats against aviation from isis, from al qaeda in syria, and in particular, also al qaeda in yemen, that has a long, long history of being able to do this. it's raising a lot of questions about where the threat goes from here and how the federal government responds, will they need to do more? anderson. >> evan, the tsa limited the band to direct flights to specific countries. why does the government not have a wider ban? >> the u.s. and the europeans have layered security that have greatly improved the chance of
8:03 pm
detecting explosives beyond just the screening equipment. the u.s. government continue to reassess existing intelligence and it creates new intelligence and that allows our government to constantly evaluate aviation security processes and policies to make enhancements when they are deemed necessary to keep passengers safe. there's a lot that we don't know they're doing behind the scenes to keep aircraft safe. >> appreciate the investigation. want to bring in our security experts. juliette, what's your reaction to all of this? because you and i were just talking about the lap top ban a couple of weeks ago on the program and there was still a lot of unanswered questions then. this clearly, it seems like intelligence was a significant
8:04 pm
part of why the ban was put in place? >> that's exactly right. and quite specific intelligence that not only were terrorist groups trying to manipulate or find the loopholes in the system, but they had possibly taken equipment to test it. in some ways this shouldn't be a surprise, for every defensive move the u.s. takes, the terrorists try to work afternoon -- work around it. and the challenge, as we're seeing and you just saw basically in that tsa statement is that domestically, 2 million people are flying a year, there's 100,000 flights a day globally. the size of our aviation network is so huge, that the more security you put on it, the slower it will get and essentially stop a huge commercial activity. so the laptop ban, which may have its flaws, seems in response to this. but it does beg a bigger question, which is if this is a vulnerability, why wouldn't you either prohibit all lap tops or have better screening processes. >> al qaeda on the arabian peninsula and isis all have this
8:05 pm
evolved capability. what does that tell you? is it possible that they're sharing intelligence? does it make sense to you that they would all have it? >> there is evidence that al qaeda in yemen has been sharing intelligence with al qaeda in syria. remember in the summer of 2014, there was that float from the cora son group, there was electronics, smuggling them on to planes and that led to new security requirements at overseas airport including having to power up your develop. now they're looking at devices that you don't need to power up, that you can hide in the dvd drive some explosives and we understand that that's what happened in that case in 2014 in that somali airline bomb attempt. this comes from our colleague, that that device was put on an export device by two airport
8:06 pm
insiders and actually got through the x-ray machine and almost blew that plane out of the sky. the investigators actually went back to that x ray machine, they reviewed the scanned image and on that review of the saved scanned image, they were able to determine the possibility of explosives. so even with a x-ray machine, which is the least effective at detecting these kinds of explosives, that should have been caught in mogadishu. but with these more advanced explosive detections at the airport, those are very good indeed at detecting all manner of explosive threats, including concealed in the electronics of a laptop. that is in place in europe and the united states, and also in some other parts of the world, including dubai and abu dhabi, and when you go through these gates, you should not be able to get any kind of these devices through. the worry is there could be poor training, people may be sort of
8:07 pm
lazy, and it's not being used in absolutely every case when you go through that gate. >> how concerned are you that some terrorists have on it and actual airport security equipment to test how to conceal these kind of explosives? >> anderson, in 2009, we saw an attempt over detroit to have the underwear bomber, someone who had a bomb device designed by a bombmaker to get around security. that same bombmaker is still around. if you're in the counter terrorism business, you can create defensive measures. i'm suspicious of them. you can't train everybody perfectly. you can create defensive measures, but they won't work long term. there's only two things you can do on the offensive side. number one, let me be brutal. there are very few bombmakers who have the sophistication to do this, in yemen, in iraq, in syria, you got to kill them. and second, long term you have to have a solution to eliminate space, to eliminate the geographic space for isis and al
8:08 pm
qaeda in places like yemen, to have the time and energy over two years, three years, five years, to design these kind of devices, you got to kill the people who do this and you've got to eliminate the space for terrorist groups to create the expertise to do this, otherwise defense doesn't work long-term. >> richard, the idea of outright banning all lap tops from planes, i mean that seems impossible. i mean people, you know, people are traveling for work, even, you know, putting in the cargo hold is one thing, but the idea of not letting any lap tops on planes, that seems completely impractical. >> so you have to look at the various ways you can mitigate this risk. >> and what other guests and countries have said is what really shows the enormity, literally of the problem. how do you keep planes flying safely without gumming up the
8:09 pm
entire system that it takes you hours longer to get from a to b, and it really is multi-layered. it's not just the machines, it's not just the staff, it's the whole panoply of security that secures the security and safety. because otherwise, anderson, you're right, we're going to head to a situation, where liquids and gels won't be allowed on board, where lap tops won't be allowed on board. we saw the chaos that happened a few years ago, when people were not allowed on board with hand baggage at all. we do not want to go back to those situations, so it's really identifying those airports where there are security worries and even then you've got to go further, because the list of airports are not the same. dubai, abu dhabi and dohar do appear on pt -- the u.s. list and do not appear on the list
8:10 pm
that's concerned with paris, frankfurt or rome. so you've really got a hodgepodge of rules and understandings and we are heading toward somewhat of a security mess, where eventually something's going to get through. that's the worry. because as i always say in these situations, remember what the ira said during the brighton bomb, you have to be lucky every time, we only have to be lucky once. >> appreciate the concerning news. >> coming up next, breaking news. what and who the chairman of the house intelligence committee saw and met with at the white house. and what's the one thing that made the president shut down exactly the kind of photo-on he loves to give? the answer when "360" continues. silence with my doctor e about what i was experiencing. he said humira is for people like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease.
8:11 pm
in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. if you're still just managing your symptoms, talk with your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. new pantene doesn't just wash i wiyour hair, it fuels it.gain. making every strand stronger. so tangles don't stand a chance. because strong is beautiful. i mwell, what are youe to take care odoing tomorrow -10am? staff meeting. noon?
8:12 pm
eating. 3:45? uh, compliance training. 6:30? sam's baseball practice. 8:30? tai chi. yeah, so sounds relaxing. alright, 9:53? i usually make their lunches then, and i have a little vegan so wow, you are busy. wouldn't it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do? yeah. introducing essential portfolios. the automated investing solution that lets you focus on your life. now comes in a new hue - blue! voluminous original mascara the original soft-bristle brush separates every lash. the creamy formula builds 5 times the volume. voluminous. let your lashes speak volumes. from l'oréal paris.
8:13 pm
8:14 pm
breaking news tonight from the white house, the top democrat on the house committee, adam schiff, is speaking out after his meeting with donald trump and what the embattled committee chairman devin nunes says he saw. what are you reporting on? >> reporter: anderson schiff spent about three hours on the white house complex, after viewing these documents that the white house offered off. and afterwards he did confirm that the documents he saw today,
8:15 pm
the information he viewed today was the same information that devin nunes reviewed himself over a week ago. he would not speak about the contents of that information, he really blasted the white house saying, quote, nothing i could see today warranted a departure from the normal review procedures and these materials should now be shared with membership of both committees. the white house has yet to explain why the senior white house staff has shared them with only one member of the committee. so schiff there making it perfectly clear is that he's unhappy with the way the white house has handled this, unhappy with the fact that nunes saw these documents a week ago and saying the white house should have shared the information with the full committees in the first place. >> and how the house intelligence committee chairman nunes responding today? is he responding to this?
8:16 pm
>> reporter: the white house continues to push back on these reports and confirmed today by cnn that two white house staffers were indeed involved in some way in these intelligence disclosures. his staff today issuing a very kurt statement saying, quote, chairman nunes will not confirm or deny speculation about his source's identity and he will not respond to speculation from anonymous sources. and later today, this evening, he was asked in an affiliate interview when he was out in california, his home state about these reports and he called them in his words "mostly wrong" but notably, anderson, he did not offer any specifics or any details as to why it's wrong. anderson?
8:17 pm
>> all right, thanks so much. what more did spicer have today to say about flynn? >> reporter: he basically said that the former national security advisor michael flynn should go ahead and testify. as you heard from trump earlier today, that michael flynn should have immunity, he described the russia investigation as a witch hunt, but it was interesting to listen to the back and forth during the white house briefing today, because as reporters were being briefed by sean spicer, he was asked -- throughout this briefing is that what is more important than his questions about trump campaign contact with the russians during the election is the president's claim in those tweets that he was wiretapped by former president obama, a claim that they have now broadened to mean overall surveillance and here's what sean spicer had to say about that. >> reporter: are you more concerned about that or russian interference in the presidential election? >> i think if i'm as an american citizen, i'm very concerned about the fact that people potentially were sharing information about other americans for political purposes and using classified information
8:18 pm
to do so and leaking it. that should be concerning to everybody. >> reporter: when the president says mike flynn should get immunity, is he suggesting to congress that he should grant immunity? >> i think mike flynn and his legal counsel should do what's right for michael flynn. >> reporter: the fbi and the senate intelligence committee appear to be saying at this point, according to our sources, thanks but no thanks, they're not interesting in granting immunity at this point. >> you pressed spicer on the president's allegations of the timing of this completely unsan -- unsubstantiated wiretapping. what's the president's response? >> his tweets, well, i was wiretapped by president obama, oh, my god, this is just like watergate. but one detail we haven't focused on very much is that president trump suggested that this happened before the
8:19 pm
election, but sean spicer is talking about surveillance that took place after the election, so they seem to be expanding what the president meant when he issued those tweets several weeks ago. here's more of that exchange between me and sean spicer on that. >> the president's tweets time and again talked about tapping my phones in october just prior to the election. just found out obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory. does the white house have any information, is it providing any information to these intelligen intelligence committees that would draw these members to the conclusion there was any kind of surveillance going on before the election as the president originally alleged?
8:20 pm
>> i don't want to specifically get in -- but if we're splitting hairs about what day of the calendar it was, that's a pretty interesting development. >> in that exchange, anderson, went on for about another 30 to 45 seconds, sean spicer and i -- that the wiretapping occurred before the election, not only now do we have a situation where the white house has said the president didn't mean wiretapping, they're talking about surveillance overall. now they're saying we're not talking about wiretapping that occurred before the election, we're talking about basically any time. as the days and weeks go on, the white house keeps expanding what the president was talking about in those tweets. >> and not only that, by saying president obama is the one who did this, now they're saying, well, it doesn't mean that it was president obama, that the president didn't mean to say president obama, he was talking about general surveillance. they do keep kind of expanding and moving the goal post and switching them all around. >> reporter: and not providing any proof. how much time have they spent, i mean after the president sent out these tweets, it just seems like they have spent the weeks
8:21 pm
since then scurrying around trying to come up with ways to explain what the president meant. it seems like a lot of resources have been devoted to explaining three early morning tweets. i'm not explaining the fourth one about arnold schwarzenegger. >> the white house press office is involved, the national security office is involved. because obviously when devin nunes the chairman of the house intelligence committee made that mysterious trip here last week, he was aided by, from what we understand by talking to a couple of national security officials, so you have a very large part of the staff over here at the white house trying to unscrew essentially what the screwed up in those original tweets, which was alleged wiretapping before the election and all of those things, we
8:22 pm
don't have any proof of now. even though this has been going on for some time now. we're building the future of energy, for you. kevin, meet yourkeviner. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you.
8:23 pm
our customer is a our 21-year-old female. heavily into basketball. wait. data just changed... now she's into disc sports. ah, no she's not. since when? since now. she's into tai chi. she found disc sports too stressful. hold on. let me ask you this... what's she gonna like six months from now? who do we have on aerial karate? steve. steve. steve. and alexis. uh, no. just steve. just steve. just steve. live business, powered by sap. when you run live, you run simple.
8:24 pm
8:25 pm
the dinosaurs' extinction... got you outnumbered. don't listen to them. not appropriate. now i'm mashing these potatoes with my stick of butter... why don't you sit over here. something for everyone is awesome. find your awesome with the xfinity stream app. more to stream to every screen. the breaking news tonight,
8:26 pm
the ranking democrat of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff, speaking out about his visit to the white house where he met with president trump and saw the same documents shown to congressman devin nunes, he said nothing that warranted a departure from normal review procedures. >> ryan, how significant is it that schiff has now seen what nunes saw but also met with president trump face to face? >> i would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that meeting. i don't think we have a whole lot of information, schiff in a statement, he obviously as you point out, anderson, he said he saw the same material or they were represented to him as being the same materials, he argued about the process that the intelligence committee and the white house used this kind of, you know, wild process of getting this stuff out.
8:27 pm
but i think the most important thing is he did not make any comment whatever about the content of these materials. and you had some extremely serious accusations from the podium at the white house today, from sean spicer about what these documents allegedly show. frankly, sean spicer went further than even nunes has gone. and you now have nunes, the white house, making some pretty serious allegations about obama officials unmasking american citizens for political purposes, and frankly we don't -- still don't have any proof of that and even though schiff has looked at these, he hasn't commented one way or the other about those allegations. >> congressman, you saw the statement from schiff saying that nothing he saw today warranted departure from the normal review procedures, is there anything you can come up with as to why chairman nunes was shown these materials last week, other than that the white
8:28 pm
house and nunes seemed to be colluding on a political predicate to benefit the president. >> congressman schiff told me he's not going beyond the statement that he put out that's quite straight forward. but if you read these statement carefully, there are two important items in it. number one, he makes it clear that he was represented to him that the materials he was reading were the same materials that were shared with chairman nunes, and number two, he asks the question, the very important question, since this material didn't appear to be out of the ordinary, why in fact was it shared, why did it require that devin nunes get in an uber, divert to the white house, meet with two senior white house staffers, take a look at the information, then brief the president of the united states on what the president's staff briefed nunes on.
8:29 pm
this was a complete departure from the process of the committee. it raises even more questions tonight than there were yesterday. and it clearly suggests that we need an independent commission. >> i was just going to say, look, we have had two weeks of a charade and mr offensive regarding incidental collection and that something is earth shattering. nunes has now seen them, schiff has now seen them, the white house has now seen them. so we're sort of getting to the bottom of if there's any there there. but after basically after two weeks of p.r. stunts. so maybe at the end of next week, we'll have clearer information on this. >> flynn in fact said people usually don't ask for immunity unless they've committed a crime. that's absolutely not the case. he was wrong about that then, the president's now saying it's fine for general flynn to say
8:30 pm
-- ask for it. how do you reconcile those things? >> when you point out that general flynn, immunity is not given just if you have committed a crime. it's customary to ask for this. but when the president referred to immunity, in almost every instance when he referred to it on the campaign trail, he made notice of the fact that multiple people within the hillary clinton orbit were given immunity, i think there was one time in the clips you refer to where he was referring to immunity itself. he was making the point why is everyone around her given this? so in this case, we see general flynn asking for immunity, but what you do not see is jared kushner asking for it. you don't see this huge number of people in the trump orbit asking for it. if michael flynn is asking for it, it's something that applies just to him. and i think that the fact that it's just him asking, suggests that.
8:31 pm
>> peter, from a legal perspective, what incentives or disincentives would the fbi have for accepting a request for immunity from general flynn and how do you expect this to play out? >> i don't think the fbi has a big incentive right now to give him immunity, the incentive would be on the part of the intel committee. they're the ones who want to find out what happened. you know, the prosecution side, the doj, the fbi side, they have slightly different goals than the intelligence side, the committee side. their goal is to the prosecutors, want to prosecute a case, they want to get a conviction, they want to find out where this leads, and make a case. the committee, on the other hand, is trying to make a case,
8:32 pm
find out what happened and make them available. so they're overlapping, but they're not identical. >> so they all don't have to be on the same page? >> no, and they're often not. and in the past, the committee's decision, congress's decision to grant immunity, has made prosecution ultimately impossible. so there are different interests here and, you know, my guess is that perhaps sooner rather than later they'll make a decision about this and frankly, i'm hoping that they explore this immunity opportunity, you know, it's -- from my perspective, seeing general flynn prosecuted for whatever he's done is not the highest priority. the highest priority from my perspective is to find out what's going on and to find out what the degree and extent is if any of the russian involvement in the election. >> peter, just from our experience, i mean, when somebody is asking for immunity, is it usually the case that it's
8:33 pm
given because that person can point them to an even bigger fish or to somebody else who has actually done something wrong? i mean, if general flynn, if the story in the words of his attorney has a story to tell, the story he told is nothing illegal happened, everything i do is above board, would there be any reason to grant him immunity? or is it usually because that person, general flynn in this case, can direct them to somebody else who may have done something wrong or does have a story of some sort of wrongdoing to tell? >> yeah, that's correct. so the way it would usually happen, the way it almost always happens is there will be what's called an attorney proffer. and the counsel for the person who's seeking immunity, in this
8:34 pm
case general flynn, will go to the government or the committee and say if you grant my client immunity, this is what he'll tell you. he'll lay it out in great detail. and it will be a back and back and forth and then a decision will be made and by whomever is going to be granting the immunity and saying, look, this is information that's extremely valuable, this is where it could lead. and this is something that's worth doing. and then of course they also want to vet that information to see how it fits in with the other information that's been accumulated. so that's why you couldn't be giving immunity to a witness/target like general flynn this early in the process, you would want to find out what all the other witnesses say, look at the documents and see if this proffer that he's telling you sounds like it come ports with the other information you've already gotten. >> i want to ask you something that ryan was pointing out that general flynn's attorney was a staunch member of the never trump movement, went after the
8:35 pm
president on, of all things, alleged ties to russia. do you think that's just a coincidence? >> i think when you're in a campaign mode, it's a completely different situation than when you're actually in governing mode and people are going to say and do things much differently when in a campaign mode than of the election. someone who's fired from the administration, they want to come forward with some information. with regard to the trump administration, there should be some concern. with regard to his request for immunity, i think the key here, i think to haley's point, i don't think he has much to say about the administration, i think that's to protect himself. i think there's some concerns
8:36 pm
got whether he filed the proper financial disclosures with his current clearance, but unless he's got some information that's going to shine the light on someone much higher than him i don't see him getting immunity and i don't see him being able to tell his story. so now the whole family can binge,... ...surf, shop, navigate, listen, game, stream and more. all without the hassle of worrying about overages... ...or running out of data. it's less than $40 per line per month with 4 lines. and remember, it's at&t's best, unlimited data deal ever. so get at&t, get unlimited and get everyone more for less. >>psst. hey... where you going? we've got that thing! you know...diarrhea? abdominal pain? but we said we'd be there... woap, who makes the decisions around here? it's me. don't think i'll make it. stomach again...send! if you're living with frequent, unpredictable diarrhea and abdominal pain, you may have irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea or ibs-d - a condition that can be really frustrating.
8:37 pm
talk to your doctor about viberzi. a different way to treat ibs-d. viberzi is a prescription medication you take every day that helps proactively manage both diarrhea and abdominal pain at the same time. so you stay ahead of your symptoms. viberzi can cause new or worsening abdominal pain. do not take viberzi if you have or may have had pancreas or severe liver problems, problems with alcohol abuse, long-lasting or severe constipation, or a blockage of your bowel or gallbladder. if you are taking viberzi, you should not take medicines that cause constipation. the most common side effects of viberzi include constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain. stay ahead of ibs-d... with viberzi. various: (shouting) heigh! ho! ( ♪ ) it's off to work we go!
8:38 pm
woman: on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. and each job created by the energy industry supports two others in the community. altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. these are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen, all while reducing america's emissions. energy lives here.
8:39 pm
8:40 pm
the story of russia's meddling in the election has more and more subplots every day. former national security advisor michael flynn wants immunity in exchange for his testimony. today that committee's top democrat was at the white house to review documents and representative schiff said nothing that i could see today warranted a departure from the formal procedures and these materials should now be reviewed by the membership of both committees. joining me is another member of the house intelligence committee, congressman jim himes. you have michael flynn, who talked to your committee, the senate intelligence committee and the fbi, if he's granted immunity, the senate has already said they won't do that right now, do you think that the house
8:41 pm
committee should give him immunity? >> i'm skeptical, i think you need to know two things, whether you're law enforcement or congress, which of course does have the power to grant immunity against any prosecution, but those two things are we need to know if what that information is, and is it valuable and in the public interest to know it. without knowing that, it's hard to say. and the other thing is we need to know if congress granting immunity wouldn't scotch a potential law enforcement investigation. i mean, i don't want to overspeculate here, but one approach would be if michael flynn felt he was in any form of legal jeopardy for any of the activities he's undertaken in the last couple of months, he'll say i'll tell my whole story to the congress but i want them to give me immunity, because that way i know fbi or law enforcement is going to have to drop whatever case they have. >> which is what happened to oliver north. i know that flynn in the past
8:42 pm
has said that anyone who had been given immunity probably has committed a crime. but anyone speaking to federal authorities, request immunity all the time, out of fear that something they say may be used against them. that's not uncommon. >> the inference that if you plead the fifth, that you're necessarily guilty. that's not necessarily true, that one thing in a long line of things that michael flynn and the trump campaign said that was not true. but just looking for immunity is not a clear admission of guilt of any kind. >> now that adam schiff from your committee has seen the same documents as devin nunes, does that whole bizarre experience, does it make anymore sense to you now, now that there's been some time on it, is there any other conclusion that the white house and representative nunes, chairman nunes were colluding to
8:43 pm
try to give the president cover? >> well, you know, what happened today with congressman schiff being able to review the materials is i think the first step to getting to the bottom of this crazy escapade that has so consumed the committee and quite frankly the company for the last week and a half, i haven't had a chance to talk to congressman schiff, i wasn't present in the meetings, i do expect that if there had been something extraordinary, something in those intelligence intercepts that would warrant the kind of unusual behavior that the chairman showed, i suspect that the congressman's statement would have been different. i believed all along -- i don't want to speculate on things like coverups, there's an awful lot of suspicion going around here, but these have references that picked up the president's
8:44 pm
people. that in and of itself is not weird. as you know, our intelligence committees monitor drug dealers, potential terrorists all over the world and it's hardly shocking -- and foreign government officials, we monitor them, too. and it's hard to see that one of those people would be talking about the president's people. and ordinarily that of course would be masked and there's elaborate ways to keep that information from becoming public. but that's the course of business and i didn't see anything in adam schiff's statement that there was something in this information that was crazy enough to warrant the midnight meeting at the white house. >> are things still stalled, i know schiff and nunes met yesterday to try to figure out a schedule and witness list. is -- i mean is your committee going to continue the investigation? >> we are. i certainly hope we are. you know, the democrats all got together and one of the weird things about last week was that the committee didn't have any of its regular meetings, they were
8:45 pm
all cancelled. but on friday, we all got together -- i should say thursday we all got together and we all agreed unanimously that we want this investigation to continue, we would like to get back to the oversight that our -- that is so for our committee to do. and we want democrats and republicans alike getting an explanation for what's happened. and then hearing from our chairman why he chose to do what he did, those things will, i think, put us on track to be a functioning committee again and hopefully get the investigation restarted. >> congressman himes, thank you. >> the "new york times" reporting that a new white house ethics filing that ivanka trump and her husband jared kushner are still benefitting from their
8:46 pm
business empire while holding positions at the white house. is this an ethics problem? details ahead. then i realized managing was all i was doing. when i finally told my doctor, he said humira was for people like me who have tried other medications,... but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief... ...and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections... ...including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers,... including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions,... ...and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb,... ...hepatitis b, are prone to infections, ...or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. if you're still just managing your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible.
8:47 pm
8:48 pm
at where instead of payinging a befor middlemen,em. we work directly with family farms to deliver higher quality ingredients for less than you pay at the store. get $30 off at blueapron.com/cook i'm not a customer, but i'm calling about that credit scorecard. give it. sure! it's free for everyone. oh! well that's nice! and checking your score won't hurt your credit. oh! i'm so proud of you. well thank you. free at at discover.com/creditscorecard, even if you're not a customer.
8:49 pm
so how old do you want uhh, i was thinking around 70. alright, and before that? you mean after that? no, i'm talking before that. do you have things you want to do before you retire? oh yeah sure... ok, like what? but i thought we were supposed to be talking about investing for retirement? we're absolutely doing that. but there's no law you can't make the most of today. what do you want to do? i'd really like to run with the bulls. wow. yea. hope you're fast. i am. get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change. investment management services from td ameritrade. more breaking news tonight, $741 million worth, that is the value of the business empire ivanka trump and jared kushner
8:50 pm
have amassed, the story broke in the massive friday night document dump if the white house. the story broke in the "new york times" just a short time ago. one key detail, although kushner is not in a manager capacity from his family's business, he is still benefitting from it. another revelation, ivanka trump will maintain a stake in the trump hotel just down the street from the white house. joining us tim o'brien and jessie drugg e joining us, jesse drucker from "the new york times" as well as richard painter who served as attorney general in the george best of your recollection administration. what have you been able to find out from the benefits? >> well, i think the thing that is of most interest is for the most part nothing has really changed as far as the economics of the kushner business for jared kushner, in other words he has given up his role as ceo, but economically he has still benefitted from the profits from
8:51 pm
the company as he did a couple of months ago before he joined the white house. >> so he has not divorced himself from making money from his companies just as president trump has not divorced himself from making money from the trump organization? >> correct. he divested some stakes in some companies, for example, some stakes in the venture capital with his brother and some real estate stakes including any involvement in the 666 fifth avenue, which has been controversial because of conversations they had with a big chinese company that looked headache a significant multi-billion bailout. but for the most part, jared's real estate company is basically the same as it was before he joined the white house. >> richard, you have been sounding the alarm on the trump family, the massive connections between business, do we know more about the holdings between the president's daughter and
8:52 pm
son-in-law? >> well, i think we we've known all along, which is they have substantial stake in real estate, particularly jared kushner does, and that means that both of them have a conflict of interest on any government matter that would affect the real estate business, including the regulation of real estate lenders, because a lot of what goes on in real estate and on the regulation of banks and whether banks are willing to provide the money to real estate developers, we all know that that can become hand in hand with boons in the financial sector, and that often those end up both together. we need to keep them away from dodd-frank appeal, anything that would have financial services closely tied to the real estate business and of course, anything
8:53 pm
to do with that hotel. they should not get involved in any government matters, and anything involved with the hotel if ivanka trump will maintain an interest in that. but otherwise there is a conflict that is probably manageable, but they better be very, very careful. >> tim, the white house has made talk of the steps to ensure they would not have potential business conflicts, essentially saying they have gone above and beyond. do you think they really have? >> no, anderson, it's not even about them going above and beyond, they have not even gone to acceptable. we are now at yet another revelation at how little distance there is between the trump family and the kushner family's private dealings as business people and their policy-making as public servants of the and the largest question
8:54 pm
it begs is what is motivating them? are they here to use the offices they inhabit to make money, or are they here to inhabit the offices they have to serve the public? and there are all of these uncomfortable collisions, 656, the skyscraper that jared kushner owns, it needs money, it's troubled, and certainly in he was talking to russian and chinese financfinanceiers. fresh lending to rescue that building. in the case of the hotel in washington even before these disclosures tonight we knew from the general services administration over a week ago they disclosed that ivanka trump was still an owner in that hotel. and they thought it was proper for the trumps to own it, even though the hotel itself has become a nexus for lobbyists, politicians, members of the white house staff and local competitors in washington field the hotel, it raises an issue
8:55 pm
because of the closeness to the president. >> and how much is really known about who is loaning money to the kushner corporation? who they're in business with and what foreign entities? is that all clear? >> well, no, that is an excellent question, it's not clear at all. that is the biggest issue, which kushner companies is highly reliant on outside investors, many of whom are from overseas, and the lenders, and there is no disclosure of that even in these filings. we know about mortgages from public filings, none of which are referred to here. but we don't know anything about who the other equity investors are, or potentially who the non-bank and non-mortgage lenders are to these businesses. that is not addressed on the filings. for instance, we know that separately, the cooper company has four separate liens from a
8:56 pm
bank in israel. the bank is the suspect of a u.s. department of justice investigation into whether it helped americans evade taxes with undeclared offshore bank accounts. jared kushner is tasked with doing peace in the middle east. so it seems a clear conflict of interest to have a white house official doing negotiations in the middle east and in israel when the business that is benefitting him has very clear and significant financial relationships with the biggest financial institution or the biggest bank in that country, which at the same time is the subject of a very serious investigation from the department of justice, and none of this, you would not know from the forms disclosed tonight. richard painter, timothy o'brien, much more ahead, including information on terrorist bombs and intelligence sources they may be able to evade common security screening methods hidden in computer laptops. we'll be right back. ♪
8:57 pm
energy is amazing. how we use it is only limited by our imagination. and at southern company we're building the future of energy, for you.
8:58 pm
fixodent plus adhesives. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening. just one application gives you superior hold even at the end of the day fixodent. strong more like natural teeth. but first things first --e call trugreen,. america's #1 professional lawn care company. millions of homeowners like you trust us to give them a lawn they can live on. and tailored care plans ensure their lawns get exactly what they need to thrive. guaranteed. that means you can do more of this, this, this, and this. okay, maybe not this. start your trugreen lawn plan today for only $29.95. and live life outside.
8:59 pm
i'm ricardo, a sales and service consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. every situation is a little different. it could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer.
9:00 pm
one of the great things about comcast, there's always room to move up. of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. ♪ in the second hour of "ac360," what we're hearing about new bombs made to be built into laptops tested on the very airport security they're designed to defeat. cnn learned the intelligence on the recent ban on the laptops in cabins in the u.s. evan, what is the latest? >> well, anderson, cnn has learned that u.s. intelligence and law enforcement agencies believe that isis and other terrorist organizations have developed innovative ways to plant explosives and electronic devices that the fbi has not been able to detec