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topping this hour, a story you will only see here. investigators believe russia tried to use trump advisors to infiltrate the trump campaign. pamela brown broke the story. she joins us with details. explain what you know. >> we know, we're learning from our sources, u.s. officials familiar with the investigation that the fbi gathered intelligence last summer that suggested russian operatives y tried to use carter page and others to infiltrate the trump

campaign. carter page's critical speech of u.s. policy against russia in july of 2016 at a prominent moscow university is one factor, is part of what raised concerns that he may have been compromised by russian intelligence. this new information adds to the emerging picture of how the russians tried to influence the 2016 u.s. election. not only through the e-mail hacks and propaganda referred to commonly as fake news but trying to infiltrate the trump orbit. the intelligence led to a broader fbi investigation that we heard from james comey into the coordination of trump's campaign associates and the russians. the officials we have been speaking with made it clear that they don't know whether page and perhaps the other advisors they had been tracking were aware that the russians may have been using them because of the way russian spy services operate. someone like page could have unknowingly talked with russian agents. >> what's carter page saying about all of this.

>> he disputes this idea he collected intelligence for the russians or he was used by them saying that at times he actually helped u.s. intelligence. this is what he said today. he said, my assumption throughout the last 26 years i've been going there as in russia has always been that any russian person might share information with the russian government as i have similarly done with the cia, the fbi and other government agencies in the past. but anderson, u.s. officials say that the intelligence gathered suggests russia tries to infiltrate and influence the trump campaign by using back door channels to communicate with people in the trump orbit, like carter page. it's important to note that within the trump campaign, carter page was viewed as someone who had little or no influence. he is one of several advisors whom intelligence detected in contact with russian officials. >> where do things stand with the investigation? >> it's an ongoing investigation. we don't know whether it's

expected to wrap up. these investigations can take a while. we know fbi investigators have been analyzing various strands o intelligence from human sources to electronic and financial records and have suggests of possible collusion between the campaign and russian officials. at this point, at this stage in the investigation, there's not enough evidence to show that crimes were committed. the officials say. part of the problem for investigators we're told is that they have lost their ability to conduct this investigation in secret because of several leaks last year that revealed the fbi was looking at people close to the trump campaign, people that the u.s. was monitoring, then changed their behavior. it has become more difficult for the fbi. >> pamela brown, appreciate it. thanks very much. you heard carter page's blanket reaction to suggestions he did anything improper. we talk about the investigation recently, his role in the campaign and his time in russia. this was before this latest news from pam brown. here is more of the conversation with carter page.

what you said to judy woodruff. she asked did you have meeting officials are russian officials. you said no meetings. he repe you said to chris haze you do not deny talking with russia's u.s. ambassador over the summer at a conference at the republican convention. that sounds like you were misleading to judy. >> you know, anderson, a great analogy is you and i were members of the same health club here in new york. previously. i remember walking by you even though we didn't know each other and i said hi, anderson. you said hello. a nice little exchange for half a second. does that to you constitute a meeting? >> i guess we met. it's not a meeting. >> exactly. thanks a lot.

i will not talk about anything that happened in off the record meetings. there's plenty of people in washington i know -- >> but whether judy said did you have any meetings last year with russian officials in russia outside russia, you could have just said, well, i did attend a conference and was in a meeting with the russian ambassador at the republican national convention. that sounds like more than just saying hello to him. >> it was literally -- the amount of time you and i walked by each other and greeted each other. again, i don't talk about off the record confidential information. everyone that attended that meeting -- >> if all you said was hi, that's not a confidential conversation. >> the fact that we were participating -- i wouldn't even be talking about this if someone hadn't leaked it to usa today. >> but last night -- you did meet with -- you met the russian ambassador at this conference in cleveland. >> i don't feel comfortable --

>> last night you said you do not deny it. >> i do not deny the reports. >> do you believe russia hacked into the dnc computers, tried to influence the u.s. election? >> again, i don't know anything about that. >> you know that the clinton campaign tried to subvert or influence the intelligence community, but you can't say whether russia tried to influence the u.s. election, even though the entire intelligence community says that happened? >> it's interesting -- in my letter -- it's another political stunt in my view. if you read -- >> that's a political stunt? you are a guy who has business dealings in russia. that's how you make a living. so it's understandable you wouldn't want to be publically saying russia was hacking into the u.s. can you sit here and say you don't have any belief or you can't even imagine that moscow might do that?

>> i don't imagine -- i don't think about those things, anderson. >> you are telling me you spend a lot of time in russia and you don't think what russian intelligence is capable of? >> what i -- >> you don't -- you are telling me you don't carry a second phone when you go to moscow because you know they're going to hack into your phone? everybody who goes to moscow does that. do you do that? >> i do have a second phone. >> you carry a second phone. because you know russian intelligence is likely to hack into your phone. but you can't imagine russian intelligence would hack into the dnc? >> i didn't say that. >> do you believe that russia mettles in the internal affairs of other countries? >> i don't know anything about that. >> you don't know anything about that? >> if i read that -- based on th that intel report, it's all politics. >> wait a minute. i only have an undergraduate degree. i'm not as educated as you are. i studied russia. you honestly can say -- you have

a ph.d. you can say you don't know anything about whether russia mettles in the internal political affairs of other countries? >> in the context of my life, which all this defamation approach by the clinton campaign to drag my name -- >> you are not making sense. you can just tell me, i do not believe russia ever mettles in the internal political affairs or i do believe they do. >> listen, i mean, you know, they may -- i think all countries or certainly the u.s. -- if you look at what happened in ukraine on the -- >> the u.s. -- of course. the cia has for decade. >> i think that's a fair statement. >> that quote is from vladimir putin who said that russia does not mettle in the internal affairs of other countries. i was putting that to carter page to see if he would disagree from vladimir putin. david gergen and jill doherty.

what do you make of the new reporting, the idea that we keep coming back to carter page? do you buy that he could have been willingly or not some sort of linchpin in whatever may have happened with russia? >> it's certainly possible, anderson. i don't think we have seen a smoking gun in all of the reports. but we sure as hell are seeing a lot more smoke. the carter page story adds to that, the sense of suspicion when you have so many different pieces of evidence that point basically in the same direction and that is that there was something fishy going on. we don't know if it was collusion or not. the russians were trying to turn people in the trump effort it appears. we will have to wait and see. i think this steady drip, drip, drip of week after week of new evidence, new suspicions, new trails followed by the fbi and others, this is not going away easily. it's not going to go away quickly. it's very damaging for the trump

organization. >> jill, you actually attended the speech that carter page gave in moscow last year, the one that drew the attention of the fbi. what sense did you have then of who he was, why people in russia might have been interested in what he had to say? >> basically, he was there as -- i would call it an academic researcher. but everybody knew and he was mentioned as an adviser to president trump. the expectation in the hall -- there were a lot of students. these are graduate students, primarily in economics. they were all very, very interested in hearing about the trump campaign. then lo and behold, right at the beginning, carter page said, i'm not going to talk about the campaign. there was a lot of sound of disappointment. then he went on with this lecture about oil and energy in central asia. i have to be honest. i was not impressed. it was very confusing kind of convoluted explanation.

what people really wanted to hear, again, was the election that was nothing of that. so what he was trying do there i'm not quite sure. >> carter page said he got permission from the campaign. he wouldn't say who gave him permission to give that speech you heard in moscow. i read a press conference that he gave in moscow. part of the thing he said there was that he has been in meetings with donald trump. now, later on when i talked to him, he said that he was using the russian definition of the word meetings and the meetings were actually rallies that we all saw on the television that more than 10,000 people at at any one time. so that was his definition of meetings. i'm not sure if that is the russian definition of a meeting. but he seemed to be playing up in the russian media his importance to the campaign. >> exactly. anderson, when i heard that thing about meeting, there is a

russian word meeting. it does mean demonstration, protest, big meeting. it does not mean sit down and have a meeting. when i heard that, number one, i was shocked that he even spoke russian, because i never heard a word of russian from him really. and that he would be using that as an excuse. it's ludicrous. what he was doing is he was exaggerating on both sides. his role in the campaign, at least that appears to me, that he was a want to be. he wanted to be more impressive than he was. >> i think there's another piece to this. that is, we're learning through these investigations just how -- there's so many shadowy figures who operate between countries. these are people who are americans who are frankly selling access to high powered people in america who are selling influence in america and they're making -- trying to make lots of money on it. paul manafort, he got paid $10 million we understand from various investigative reports

for working with ukrainian government. this is a very dark world -- it needs more sunlight. people need to be registered more rigorously around campaigns. it's ridiculous to have somebody who can affect -- come this close to power and possibly have influence over the campaign. who is selling something to the russians. >> i will tell you, that speech in moscow shocked me with the anti-american tone. he was very critical, really dismissive of american foreign policy. he called it essentially focus on this kind of fake democracy. it was very anti-russian. i can see why any type of spy, kgb would want to at least talk with this guy. he was obviously to a certain etch te extent on their side. he was not critical of russia and very positively about putin. it makes sense.

what they could actually get from him is another question. whether he actually gave them anything that was of any use. in one of the documents the fbi documents as i understand, he was described by the kgb agent who was trying to get him to recruit him as an idiot. did they get anything from him? i don't know. their job is to get information. even if it's from an idiot. >> or to compromise somebody and get information from them. we will continue this. thanks. just ahead tonight, what are russian warplanes, four in the last four days, doing near alaska? what are the pentagon and state department doing about it? health care and tax legislation. what the president is doing to push it forward. what he is doing to make it sound like it's no big deal if it happens next week or not. and never pay overages again. so now the whole family can binge,... ...surf, shop, navigate, listen, game, stream and more.

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with all the talk about possible russian attempts to infiltrate the trump campaign, moscow is trying to do something more tangible and certain already more troubling if you remember the cold war. russian military aircraft have popped up off the coast of alaska. barbara starr is monitoring developments from the pentagon tonight. four russian military aircraft. does the pentagon know why this is happening? >> this is one of the things they're trying to analyze. why are the russians doing this? they haven't done it since 2015. they are making a statement. they're making sure that they are out there being seen clearly sending that message. they know that u.s. aircraft can

spot them and escort them back toward russian airspace. they know u.s. radar is up in this area of alaska can see them coming from a long distance away. very critical. they're not flying into u.s. airspace. they are staying in international airspace. it's not a provocation. but the u.s. increasingly believes the russians are sending a message at this time of tension in the region, they want to send a message they are out there and operating. >> the u.s. intercepted them but not responded publically. >> that's right. they're watching it carefully. they are occasionally sending u.s. aircraft to escort them back out and encourage them to go back to russia. but i think the sense is that there's not a lot to say about it for one big reason. the u.s. military does the same exact thing to the russians in the mediterranean, in the baltic. you find u.s. aircraft flying. they stay in international airspace but they note russih k

russians see them. the russians try to encourage the u.s. to move away. >> barbara starr, thanks. more now from cnn military analyst general mark hertling and tony blinken. general, russian flying planes close to alaska four times in four days doesn't happen by accident. what's the message that they're trying to send? is it an actual threat? >> it is extremely unusual, anderson. i'm not sure it's a threat because they haven't come within the national space of the united states. they are staying in international airspace. it's attempting to send a message. what's been good is military planes have intercepted each one. they are looking for us do that. the question is, what else is available for us to do to stop this kind of action? these are the same kind of things they have been doing in europe over the baltics and over several european countries as well. >> tony, why do you think it's happening now?

russia hasn't conducted flights like this since 2015. >> a couple of things. in 2015, they stood down because they were having safety problems with the aircraft. it may be they are standing this up. they need to do training. they are sending a message. it's one we can project power around the world and two, we're a pacific power. we're a north pacific power. as tensions are rising with north korea, they want to send a message they are part of this. they have to be -- their interests have to be considered as we deal with the north korean problem. >> you have two u.s. f-22s that were dispatched. what happens in an intercept? >> it's all part of the north american air defense. it's not only the intercept of u.s. planes. they try to be as professional as possible. they make sure they don't get in the way of those bombers. they basically let them know that they are there. nothing happens except an esc t

escort. if it gets into u.s. airspace, it becomes more sporty. they may signal them. they may paint them with their radar. to let them know they are on a missile lock. it can get a little bit dangerous at times if they do get closer to u.s. airspace. >> are the pilots communicating with each other? are the american and canadian and russian pilots? >> they sometimes do. sometimes the opponent, the person in the other airplane just doesn't answer. they will communicate not only attempt to communicate over a commonly used frequency for international air, but they will also communicate with hand gestures and signals. >> they can -- they're close enough to see each other? >> sure. absolutely. >> there hasn't been much of a response from the state department or the white house. it's the kind of thing that a civilian you would think donald trump might have tweeted about but as president we have not seen him tweet. would you expect more public reaction? is this the kind of thing that the u.s. normally wouldn't

really comment on? >> i think they have handled it appropriately. i wouldn't play this up. what they have done, for example, in the baltics and black sea is far worse and far more dangerous. they bussed o edbuzzed our plan ships. four in four days is a lot. it probably is to send a message about their ability to project power and be a pacific power. but they handled it appropriately. i wouldn't make too much of it at this point. >> tony, thanks, general hertling. still to come, president trump signed more than 70 executive actions since taking office. are they mostly photo ops?reali continue. 't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently.

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next week sure could be interesting in washington. president trump says he will make a big announcement on tax reform wednesday. he is saying there's progress on the effort to repeal and replace obamacare. the path forward is unclear. jason carroll joins us from the white house with more. do we know what the big announcement is going to be? >> it's supposed to be about tax reform.

but the -- a few moments after the president came out and said big announcement on wednesday, - the white house coming out after that and sort of walking that back just a bit. basically saying what the president was saying is that he will eventually have an announcement on tax reform. he will be doing that as quickly as possible. so perhaps that will be on wednesday. perhaps it will be shortly thereafter. at the end of the day, what the administration wants to do is get on the map with something in terms of tax reform, since this administration has been unable to make headway whether it cops comes to health care, immigration reform. if they can get something out in terms of tax reform, it might go a long way to help satisfy some of the critics who say the president has not done enough in terms of meeting those commitments that he talked about for the first 100 days in office. >> on health care, do we have any reason to believe that

internal republican divisions that caused the -- it to fail the first time around have been mended? >> that's very much a question mark. you have the president saying that he wants to obviously pass something when it comes to health care. he has to get past the freedom caucus and moderate republicans. he is saying at this point it doesn't matter if that happens next week, the week after. they really want to get something done. they want to do it the right way. what's clear is that this is something the president says when he needs more time. this time, when they put something forth, they want to make sure they have enough votes with the freedom caucus, with moderate republicans to make it stick this time. >> jason carroll at the white house. other than the confirmation of neil gorsuch, the president hasn't had any success. his pen has gotten a workout. we want to take a closer look at what if anything all the executive actions have accomplished.

randi kaye has more. >> we're going to sign. this is a very important signing. >> next is -- >> reporter: on day one, president donald trump got down to business signing an executive order to he's the burden of obamacare. viewers got the message that donald trump was a man of action. but was it and the other executive actions just a photo op? >> donald trump assumed he would say do this and it gets done. in government, a president doesn't have that power. >> reporter: in fact, of the more than 70 executive actions president trump has signed since taking office january 20th, a cnn investigation shows only a handful of them have any teeth. take the affordable care act. the president's executive order in january was aimed at the individual mandate which requires americans to have insurance. but for this year, contracts

were signed with insurance companies. while it looks good on paper, the executive order had little impact on the law itself. >> this was done sloppily. it was done as a result that was a -- an executive action that looked meaningful that connected well with president trump's base but ultimately fell flat. >> reporter: what about the president's travel ban for which he issued two executive orders? >> the danger is clear. the law is clear. the need for my executive order is clear. >> reporter: both travel bans were blocked by federal judges. so in the end, neither executive order accomplished anything. tied up in court, the president's executive action stripping federal funding from sanctuary cities for refusing to turn over undocumented immigrants. various cities have filed lawsuits. another executive action that went nowhere? the presidential memorandum trump signed to freeze the hiring of federal workers. that sounded good.

but the action was nullified after being blamed for worsening backlogs at veterans hospitals and social security offices. still, optics matter. sg . >> the presidential show and tell where he signs his name and then shows it off to the class, that is donald trump the entertainer doing what is very important for a president to do. that's communicate and entertain. >> reporter: some of the executive actions that have teeth? trump's presidential memorandum to withdraw the unit from the transpacific partnership, a 12 nation trade pact. also his executive order promoting energy independence, which curbs carbon dioxide emissions. >> he is seriously challenging the obama administration legacy on the environment. >> with today's executive action, i am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on american energy. >> reporter: still, it's unlikely to restore the coal

industry and more likely to be caught up in court for years. remember this? >> it's going to be a big, beautiful wall. >> reporter: once in office, president trump issued an executive order instructing his department of homeland security to immediately begin construction of the wall along the southern border with mexico. while preliminary planning has begun, there has been no wall construction of any kind. nor has there been any change to regulations on wall street. president trump's executive order regarding that simply directs the treasury secretary to review regulations on the system and report back to the president in about four months. same goes for the order to shake up the executive branch. that, too, will undergo a 180-day review. then a plan will be proposed to eliminate redundant federal agencies. >> what we have seen with many of his executive actions is not really shock and awe policy making but slow, bureaucratic

policy making. >> reporter: in a move to capitalize on his executive actions to continue building the keystone and dakota pipelines, and another action to buy american, trump recently announced this. >> i have also directed that new pipelines must be constructed with american steel. >> reporter: that may not be so easy. in fact, the trump administration had already given keystone xl a pass on buying american steel since the developer has already bought much of its pipe from canada. >> if there's not enough steel being made into pipe, then contractors can ask for waivers to buy foreign steel. i think if the details of that get out it could be something that is politically devastating to the president. >> reporter: that could mean not a single u.s. pipeline ends up being built with u.s. steel. the commerce department has been given six months to come up with, yes, another plan to put

the buy american requirement into affect. >> how do the number of executive orders signed by the president, how does that compare to other administrations? >> we tallied up the numbers. donald trump has 71. 25 of those are actually executive orders. how does that compare? president johnson had 26 in the first 100 days. that's one more than donald trump. that's the most of any president. in fact, harry truman had 25, like donald trump, john f. kennedy, 23, eisenhower had 20. obama had 19 executive orders in first 100 days. it's for the voters not so much about the numbers. it's about do they mean anything. even if you look at smaller executive orders, he has an executive order to reduce crime. it's to look at strategies and report back. he has another one to tackle drug addiction. really all that does is set up a commission headed by new jersey governor chris christie to file a report to look at the problem.

a lot of show, a lot of holding up the executive orders and smiles. but the question is, are they worth anything? >> thanks very much. the first amendment, would prosecuting the founder of wikileaks threaten freedom of the press? all eyes are on olay ultimate eye cream. allure best of beauty and marie claire's most wanted. eyes show emotion, not your age. olay eyes. ageless.

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attorney general jeff sessions won't say whether the justice department's decision to lead to prosecution of journalists. assange has been seeking to avoid rape allegations in sweden. the site gained attention during the obama administration for publishing classified information stolen by the former army intelligence known as chelsea manning. prosecutors struggled with whether it was protected under the first amendment. they have a path to prosecution after investigators found what they believe was proof wikileaks

helped edward snowden disclose classified documents. a lot to discuss. glen, if assange did more than publish this information, if he aided and abetted, does that change things? your opinion? >> it's a huge if. the obama justice department said they had searched for evidence that indicated he did that and found none. even if he did, there are all kinds of ways that journalists constantly work with their sources in order to get information that they think that will help them report on stories. if we start criminalizing and turning into felonies the collaboration that journalists do with their sources in terms of reporting information, you would not only chill reporting in this country more than it has been chilled by the prosecution of sources but you would enable the government, the trump

justice department to prosecute media outlets on this theory they work with their sources. that's what makes it so dangerous. >> you hear glen's opinion. do you think wikileaks is a news organization? should he be tried in a u.s. court? >> two points. first of all, i'm an open government person. the fact of the matter is this isn't a whistle-blower we're talking about. we're talking about the potential for leaking classified information, not leaking this is what they're going to do in the epa budget. this is classified information. everyone involved knows that's a serious felony and there's good reason for it. if -- if assange was involved in helping them do it or offering them ways to hide their tracks and so forth, essentially he became a conspirator as opposed to merely a news outlet that might publish materials that others decided to leak without his involvement. that's a big, big difference. >> mr. attorney general, i want to remind people what candidate

trump said about wikileaks. >> wick i ckileakwikileaks, ano in. it's like a treasurer trove. wikileaks just came out with lots of really unbelievable things. just minutes ago. in fact, i almost delayed this speech by about two hours it's so interesting. >> how do you square those comments with the president's justice department now wanting to go after assange? >> i don't really. but i don't think you have to. what we're talking about should be a dispassionate prosecutorial review done in a professional way. you have considerations, elements of offenses that if the evidence exists that a prosecutor reasonably believes can be proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt showing he was conspireing to take and public

classified materials -- that's very different than any other form of government information that glen is referred to. then it really doesn't matter what a candidate for president said. if you are going to follow the rule of law and if you are going to be tough in enforcing this law, then this is something that can reasonably be seen to be prosecuted. >> the most important stories in the last few decades have involved the release of huge amounts of classified information from the pentagon papers to the manning and wikileaks documents through the snowden reporting, through reporting cnn has done this year on the highest levels of classified briefings. in all of the cases, you have reporters talking to sources about how the information, the classified information is going to be obtained, transmitted and leaked. we see from this discussion how easy it is, especially with the president who said the u.s. media is the enemy of the people, if you accept this theory, that a media outlet can be prosecuted because they collaborated with sources, how

easy that can spill over into traditional media outlets and investigative journalism of the type we recognize as important and noble and that is done by journalists and sources every single day. that's the real danger here. >> i would just say that, we have talked about all this in the context of the media as if -- there are legal distinctions for the press as it relates to the first amendment from others. they are pretty narrow. they are thin. i also don't think we should be giving them ridiculous levels of protection compared to just ordinary individuals as it relates to garathering, stealin and disseminating classified information. that's a huge difference here than an ordinary whistle-blower leaking case. >> glen, attorney general, appreciate your perspectives. thanks very much. >> good to be with you. >> thank you. bill o'reilly out at fox news. i will speak with a reporter whose piece uncovered the payout to alleged victims of his sexual harassment.

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fothere's a seriousy boomers virus out there that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. one in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most don't even know it. because it can hide in your body for years without symptoms, and it's not tested for in routine blood work. the cdc recommends all baby boomers get tested. if you have hep c, it can be cured. for us it's time to get tested. ask your healthcare provider for the simple blood test. it's the only way to know for sure. well, sexual harassment claims against bill o'reilly have been out there for more than a decade but he didn't get pushed out of fox news until this week after a "new york times" investigation found he and the network paid five women

$13 million to keep quiet. advertisers fled and bill o'reilly was out. emily steel wrote the piece in "the new york times." when you wrote the piece, did you have any idea that it would result in him being fired? >> you know, we wrote the story because we really wanted to follow the facts and expose what had happened and we wanted to say -- kind of tell the stories of these women and tell the story of bill o'reilly's history and show how the company had covered up all of these issues with him but we didn't know what would happen. >> it's extraordinary the culture that seems like, from your reporting, that existed at fox news, i mean, from the top down. >> right. that's what we've learned over the past nine months. there have been multiple allegations of sexual harassment against roger ailes who was the

chairman of fox news and there also were multiple allegations against bill o'reilly who was the top host there. >> the company for a long time said there was a hotline, internal ways to do it. bill o'reilly said that as well, people can contact hr. but when the company itself is rotting from the top, i'm not sure why anyone would have confidence in this. >> that's what a lot of the women we have talked to have said. they didn't think that they could report these complaints. they thought that if they did, they would face retaliation and the story that they held up was this woman andrea mackris and what happened after her lawyers went to fox news with her allegations, bill o'reilly and fox news sued her. >> for extortion. >> for extortion, putting this whole story into the public. so she sued him.

they had a private investigator follow her and a smear campaign in the press to try to portray her as a pro miss cue wous woman trying to shake her down. >> it's fascinating. her lawyer -- i think they held a press conference and they had very detailed conversations that they allege bill o'reilly had with andrea mackris over the phone. they didn't say it, but it seemed to indicate that they had recordings. >> the lawsuit doesn't say that there are any recordings but our reporting has shown that there were recordings. >> the speech patterns, the ums, that was all in there. but again, it's amazing that that case was 2004? >> that was 2004. >> and there was a $9 million payout, according to your reporting. >> uh-huh. >> so the fact that that didn't -- you know, it just rolled off his back and bill o'reilly continued on. >> right. that's what was really

extraordinary about the reporting, is that there were allegations of inappropriate behavior about bill o'reilly going back as far back as 2002. there was the andrea mackris case in 2004. another settlement in 2011 with a woman who also had tapes and then this summer, after roger ailes was ousted, the company said we're going to clean up this behavior, the murdochs promised that this would be an environment based on trust and respect. and in the months after, that the company struck two more deals with women who had allegations about bill o'reilly. >> women you've talked to, do they now feel that things will get better now that bill o'reilly is gone? >> that's interesting. i've talked to several women inside the network this week and they said it was a good step that bill o'reilly was gone but there remains a lot of work to do. women say they still fear making complaints and the other thing that a lot of people are not happy about was the $25 million payout that bill o'reilly received. >> is it true, he threatened you

in the course of yuour reportin? >> it was not anything to do with this story. in 2015 i was writing a different story about bill o'reilly. there was a controversy about his reporting, his war reporting. >> right, how he had -- things he had said about his resume? >> exactly. so we were calling him for comment. we wanted to write a fair and accurate story. i picked up the phone and it was boo bill o'reilly on the line and he said that our reporting had been fair but if he found anything untoward he would come after me with everything he had and he would take that as a threat. what's really important, it didn't have anything to do with this story. it was two years before the allegations about sectixual harassment had come out. >> i appreciate your reporting. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back.

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that's it for us. thanks for watching. time to hand things over to don lemon and "cnn tonight." breaking news. new exclusive information on how russia tried to influence the 2016 election. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. the fbi gathered intelligence last summer suggesting russian operatives were trying to