in establishes the closest known link between the trump campaign and wikileaks. >> assange was almost a mascot of the trump campaign. >> the trump campaign almost was touting this company. now you have distanceng. >> there is no smoking gun. >> over $5 million. if you don't believe in what they're doing. >> if you look at what happened yesterday at the meeting, it was almost a love fest. there is great unity. >> everybody who is not living under a rock realizes that the

republican party is going through a very hard time. >> there has been a fight inside the republican party for a long time. >> it was the primary. trump won. he won on issues and united the party. >> the republican party is imploding. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. >>. welcome to your "new day". up first, growing questions about possible connections between the trump campaign and wikileaks. sources tell cnn that a data analytics company working for the trump campaign is seeking access to e-mails connected to hillary clinton's campaign. >> president trump, however, spending his time slamming hillary clinton and the democrats for denying they knew about an anti-trump dossier. a source tells cnn clinton didn't know about the dossier but says she was disappointed it wasn't made public before the election. all of this as top senate republicans are asking why the trump administration is holding up tough new sanctions on russia. we have it all covered. let's begin with shimon.

what do we know? what matters here. >> well, chris, we have here where the head of cambridge analytica, a data firm hired by the trump campaign, contacted wikileaks founder julian assange, to see if he had e-mails connected to the clinton campaign. assange confirmed on twitter that the chief executive, the head guy of this guy, reached out but said the request was rejectd. he then sent an e-mail to several people including top trump donor rebecca mercer, revealing he mailed assange. no one from the trump campaign. you'll recall wikileaks was responsible for releasing hacked he mails from the dnc that u.s. intelligence said were stoned by russia and handed over through

an intermediary. the trump campaign has responded to the report by distancing themselves from cambridge analytics stating once president trump secured the nomination in 2016, one of the most important decisions we made was to partner with the republican national committee on data analytics. we as a campaign made the choice to rely on vote or data of the republican national committee to help elect president trump. any claims that voter data from any other source played a key role in the victory are false. alisyn. >> cnn has uncovered some facts that refute this? >> that's right. we looked at some of the sec records and filings and found just after trump won the nomination, his campaign started a series of payments to the company totaling some $5.9 million. so it's clear there was more of

a relationship there than that was conveyed in that statement. jared kushner told forbes magazines that after the president won the nomination they kept both data operations going simultaneously and a lot shared between them. by doing that we could scale to a pretty good operation. >> thank you very much for that new reporting. president trump blasting democrats after it was revealed that the dnc and clinton campaign helped fund the research for that dossier against him. the president calls it a disgrace and very sad commentary on the politics of this country. joe johns is live at the white house with more. good morning, joe. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. it is a path we have seen before here. the white house dealing with a new piece of information that appears to reveal how far the

trump campaign would go to get dirt on hillary clinton. the president choosing to focus on how far the hillary clinton campaign would go to get dirt on him. >> don't forget, hillary clinton totally denied this. she didn't know anything. she knew nothing. all of a sudden i found out. >> reporter: president trump attempting to shift the narrative away from the russian investigation and onto hillary clinton. blasting her campaign's involvement in helping to fund the now famous dossier of allegations of trump and russia. >> i think it's very sad what they have done with this fake dossier. it was made up. and i understand they paid a tremendous amount of money. >> reporter: mr. trump insisting it is fake despite the fact that parts of it have been corroborated by the intelligence community. a source familiar with the matter tells cnn that clinton was not personally aware of the dossier until buzzfeed published the document earlier this year, adding she was disappointed the

research was not made public before she lost the election. the dossier was first bank rolled by foes during the primaries. >> wonder who that might be? i think i know. i'll let them find out. >> reporter: the president weighing in on the investigation launched by house republicans this week into the obama-era sale of a uranium mining company to russia while clinton was secretary of state. >> well, i think the uranium sale to russia and the way it was done so underhanded with tremendous amounts of money being passed. i actually think that is watergate modern age. >> reporter: russia nuclear officials reportedly sent millions to the clinton foundation at the same time of the meeting on the hill. saying clinton was bribed, a claim that has not been substantiated and clinton baloney.

the justice department has given a former fbi informant a green light to testify about the detail. president trump also insisting the party is united citing his meeting with senate republicans earlier this week as proof. >> i called it a love fest. it was almost a love fest. maybe it was a love fest. standing ovations. there is great unity. >> reporter: president trump blaming the media for negative impressions that people may have of him. >> i think the press makes me more uncivil than i am. people don't understand i went to an ivy league college. i was a nice student. i did very well. i'm a very intelligent person. >> reporter: and, again, defending his phone call with the widow of sergeant la david johnson. >> i was really nice to her. i respect her. i respect her family. i certainly respect la david, who by the way i called la david right from the beginning. just so you understand, they put a chart in front that says la david. it says la david johnson.

i called him that right from the beginning. there was no hesitation. >> reporter: in the midst of all of this news, the white house is celebrating a big win in the federal courts this morning, a judge citing in a lawsuit filed by 18 states seeking to force the white house and the federal government to pay subsidies to insurance companies. chris and alisyn? >> joe, appreciate it. joining us now is cnn political analyst and white house correspondent for the "new york times", maggie haberman. two big headlines. the first is the potential ties between the trump campaign and analytics company and wikileaks. what matters here? >> what matters here is the ask was made, right? according to julian assange, he didn't respond. but the top official at cambridge analytica reached out to him at some point and a reporter of "the daily beast" saying we would like essentially some help or we would like to access in some way the missing

33,000 e-mails from hillary clinton's server. and julian assange wrote back that he didn't want their help. they wanted to do it on their own. the person who runs cambridge, nicks, we know president trump, then candidate trump, openly called on russia to release the he mails on the assumption they had been hacked. it is not clear there was evidence. this is the closest link we know of between people who were -- it's not clear exactly when this happened. at some point cambridge analytical was behind cruz. we know that they worked with the campaign. they have often overstated their role in the trump campaign. but there was some outrage. we don't know more than that. we don't know what else this means. but it is going to be yet another thread for investigators to pull. >> to remind people what was happening on the campaign trail at that time, july 2016, the president talked about this on

the campaign trail and in fact, invited wikileaks to become involved. listen to this moment. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. i think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. >> okay. that tomb was russia. other times it was wikileaks. now what they are doing today, the white house is doing today, nothing to see here. but look over at this dossier we know hillary clinton's campaign and the dnc paid for. are these political dirt-digging operations equivalent? >> no. one is asking a foreign government to meddle and the other is looking to see if a foreign government was meddling in an election. the way that the clinton folks and the dnc. and it's not broadly the clinton folks. it is is certain individuals. and same with the dnc.

whatever their reason, whether it was client confidentiality, whatever reason, they were not forth coming about what was going on in terms of the dossier. the problem with that is when it becomes revealed later, it raises questions about motive. >> right. >> the basic question for the dossier, is the information in it true or not true? they have substantiated some of it. certainly not the most salacious stuff. but at the end of the day, the main question is not where it came from. the question is its voracity. it was continued later by the fbi as we know at least to extent. it is not a great look to have it come out now they were involved in coordinating it. not because there is some wrongness there. there is nothing wrong with doing this research. the problem is they have claimed all along, understandably, that their concern was that russia had ties to trump and there was some motivating factor in terms

of the e-mails. if you don't just say that outright. >> and the fact that you paid for some of it. >> yes. we were looking for it because federal officials were not doing their jobs in our minds. >> that is what got hillary clinton in trouble. very often it's not the crime, it is is how you cover it up. >> right. >> but there is a material distinction here that the president is waving away and it's working with certain of his supporters. >> as it often does. >> he is the president of the united states. hillary clinton is a failed presidential candidate, former secretary of state and senator. she is an important person. she ain't nowhere near as important as he is. that's why there is so much more attention on him. there has been a false parody set up here. if you talk about wikileaks, you have to talk about the dossier because trump and clip are equal in this, as you know. >> he is the most powerful

person in the world. >> not just him. he has a huge chunk of the media helping him out, the pun it did community. >> yeah. but he creates that when it is useful for him. he does do that. it is obviously not the case to your point, she is a failed candidate. this is the up fortunate thing, it does not mean what he and his folks are saying is correct. a lot of republicans say isn't this a game changer? >> what part do they think? >> that this is all fake and mueller should be shut down. the mueller investigation is not taking place because of the dossier. it is taking place because president trump fired james comey. >> oh, okay. >> right. >> did the investigation of james comey predate the dossier? >> the dossier was certainly part of it, but the fbi was already investigating and federal officials were investigating the hacked e-mails

that were leaked by wikileaks that belonged to john podesta. there is a lot of stuff going on here. it is reductionist to say, oh, it is about the dossier. >> you have to remember how comey and the intelligence community used the dossier. they told the president it is out there. they didn't act on it. they thought a lot of it wouldn't be actionable. some of it turned out to be. others they are still looking into. >> it is a window into the president's mind. remember, that happened during a transition meeting at trump tower. the president later today, to my colleagues and me, that he interpreted that essentially as comey wanting to have leverage on over him. i'm paraphrasing. it was about comey wanting to hang onto his job. that's how the president hears everything. it is zero sum and about him. not that this is bigger by a

foreign power on the presidency of the united states. he just hears it as all about him. it has stuck in his mind. you know he gets something in his head and it's hard to get it on out. >> thank you very much. congress in a rare display of bipartisanship voted unanimously for new sanctions against russia. they are not being enforced. why? republican senators put it at the feet of the president. we will talk to inspect senator angus king about it. how do we say that this fall,

our guests can earn a free night when they book at choicehotels.com and stay with us just two times? fall time. badda book. badda boom. pumpkin spice cookie? i'm good. book now at choicehotels.com t-mobile's unlimited now includes netflix on us. that's right. netflix on us. get 4 unlimited lines for just $40 bucks each. taxes and fees included. and now netflix included.

sources tell cnn that data analytics company working for the trump campaign did contact wikileaks seeking access to he mails from the clinton campaign. for more on this and the latest on the russia investigation, joining us is independent senator from maine, angus king. sir, always a pleasure. >> good to see you, chris. >> let's just go step by step through these different headlines. you tell me what matters to you and why. the clinton campaign, helped fund the research that wound up

going into mr. steele's dossier. does that mean to you that the russia investigation is founded on a hoax because the dossier is the basis for everything you're asking about? >> no. the dossier has very little to do with what we are asking, there are some questions about what parts are true and what parts aren't. that is part of the investigation. it is certainly not a central point. my understanding all along is it was originally funded by republican sources during the primaries after the primaries and mr. trump became the nominee. then it was funded by some part of the democratic establishment. i don't think that's a great surprise. it is certainly not a central part of the investigation that we are engaged in. >> there is insist answer that clinton's role in funding it and not coming forward is proof that that's what this is all about. what do you say to people who believe that? >> i don't know how to respond to that. i think that's a separate

question. should she have come forward sooner? perhaps. i just don't know. she claims she didn't even know about it. wished they had. i don't know the answer to that. that gets beyond the real point here which is russia committed an egregious attack on our democracy and civil society, and they're still at it. they haven't paid any price for that. so is that's where the focus really needs to be. all the focus on the political part is obscuring what i think is the real story. that is what the russians did, what they're continuing to do, and how do we prevent it from continuing to happen. >> all right. headline number two. trump money almost $6 million, went to a data analytics firm that reached out to wikileaks and is asked them for access to some of the he mails that were stolen from hillary clinton. does that matter? >> well, it matters only insofar

as those we are now reasonably certain that those leaked -- whatever wikileaks had in the way of leaked e-mails came courtesy of the russians and courtesy of their hacking here in washington. but, again, that was an attempt to do kind of opposition research, which unfortunately happens in virtually every political contain cheese days. >> is it different from what clinton's campaign did with fusion? >> no. i think it was app attempt to get dirt on the other side. that is pretty much part of every political campaign. you will see a line for opposition research. >> and there is a couple degrees of separation. there is pushback here that, no, this is the closest tie we've seen of the trump campaign to efforts to expose themselves to those who are trying to interfere in the election, that

it takes you down the collusion road. do you accept that premise? >> i think it is one of the pieces of evidence that has to be considered. you go back to the famous meeting with jared kushner, donald trump junior and they were told we have dirt on on hillary clinton. and i think the comment in the e-mail from donald trump jr. was love it. they went ahead and took the meeting. clearly there was some outreach. whether there has been collusion or cooperation is uncertain. that is what our committee is working on daily. >> right. >> and reasonably you would have awe hyper focus what the trump campaign does because he's now president of the united states. as president, you guys passed these sanctions. the white house needs to put them into effect. it hasn't happened. things going past deadline is not usual. this has drawn scrutiny even from republican senators. why? >> because these sanctions were passed virtually unanimously

last summer. we had this attack on our country by the russians. and there's been no price paid. there has been no response essentially. we know still at it. at it around the world. i learned recently they were involved in the business in spain about the separation of cat loan ya. they is set up shop in scotland talking about the separation of scotland from england. an expert told us that they take a crack into our society and turn it into a chasm. we passed these sanctions pause of what they did. there is no doubt they did it. and the administration, so far anyway, has taken no action to implement those sanctions. as you mentioned, deadlines do sometimes come and go around here. it has been about a month since this was supposed to be in play.

mr. president meets with mr. putin later this fall. i don't know the answer to that. if the president and the white house are consciously and deliberately delaying an action mandated by congress on something this important, that's pretty disturbing. and i know bob corker and john mccain are going to get to the bottom of it. >> all right. last topic, arguably most important. we have u.s. men and women engaged in various different types of operations much of which the american people don't know. some for good reason, some for bad reason. congress has authorized none of those uses of military force. >> right. >> they are off put under advise and assist which i submit is a dangerous deceptive term as we just saw in niger. if you are down on the ground where war is going on, there is no benign activity and you will be exposed to lethality.

we just lost u.s. blood because of it. suspect it time that you all down there fulfill your constitutional duty and hold hearings, get a case from the president, military advisers, and vote on authorization of use of military force? >> unequivocally, absolutely, certainly yes. >> then why doesn't it happen, my handsome friend from maine? >> thank you for the compliment. i'll pass it on to my wife. why doesn't it happen? to be honest, chris, i think the around here don't want to take that kind of responsibility. they don't want to have their fingerprints on on something that could go wrong. >> why wouldn't those words get stuck in your throat? god forbid, i don't want this to be true. we know there is a chance this will keep happening in other places because we have all of these men and women at risk. why isn't everybody just jumping

up and down and saying we've got to do this? they're going to die. we have to do this? >> tim kaine has been jumping up and down for four years. i've been jumping up and down next to him. he is on on the foreign policy committee. and here's the good news. bob corker has agreed to hearings starting this coming monday late in the day. so there is some motion on this. i think there's a realization that we owe owe it to the american people to have this kind of discussion and debate. and the congress owes it to the constitution to hold up its end of the constitutional bargain. this is not a case, chris, in my view where the president, whether it's trump, obama, clinton, whoever, has userped power. congress has abdicated its power. i was talking to tim kaine about this yesterday. here's what really troubles me. historically there have been three constraints unilaterally

going to war and committing american troops. one was the constitution. congress is supposed to declare war, no the president. two, until 0, 40 years, we had the tkrft. that was a political constraint for the draft. we now do wars on the credit card. the draft is gone. and the constitutional provision is -- has not been observed in 60, 70 years. so all of those things created a very disturbing situation where the president essentially has the sole war power. that is wrong as a matter of policy, wrong as a matter of the constitution. is and if we don't do something about it, we're going to severely regret it. >> i have never heard you say anything more true than that, senator. do what you can to make it happen. what you decide to authorize, it's up to you. it is subject of debate. >> right. >> that's a process that should

be held if you show the sacrifice of these troops. thank you for being with us as always, senator angus king. alisyn. the president insists there is great unity in the gop after being blasted by these two senators. can the party rally around a tack plan? republican senator ron johnson here next. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. look how much coffee's in here? fresh coffee. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me? do you wear this every day? everyday. i'd never take it off. are you ready to say goodbye to it? go! go! ta da! a terrarium. that's it. we brewed the love, right guys? (all) yes.

on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

president trump slamming clinton and the democrats for denying they knew anything about that infamous anti-trump dossier. a source tells cnn that clinton did not know about the dossier but was disappointed it was not made public before the campaign. let's discuss this with ron johnson. good morning, senator. >> good morning, alisyn. how are you? >> i'm doing well. are you comfortable that the trump campaign used data analytics firm, paid millions of dollars, and the head of the firm reached out to julian

assange of wikileaks to get more clinton e-mails? >> alisyn, there are so many questions about what they exerted on the campaign. i have questions in terms of what role the fbi played in this. i have questions in terms of exactly what role the dnc and the clinton campaign played in this in terms of possible connection to the trump campaign. there are so many questions swirling around here that we need to get to the bottom of so we can move on and address the serious issues facing this country. >> what questions do you have about the fbi and their role? >> well, in particular, we have jurisdiction over the office of special counsel. we have been asking the office of special counsel to release the unredacted depositions of two fbi agents that gave depositions when the office of special counsel was investigating violations by director comey. what director comey did during

the campaign, that was revealed about hillary clinton's e-mails, the lack of cures onity, the botched investigation in terms of her e-mail scam. now we find out he was writing how he was going to exonerate her months before they interviewed witnesses. they destroyed evidence. a lot of questions surrounding the fbi's contact during the whole clinton e-mail investigation. >> okay. let's move on because we have a lot to get through with you. let's talk about the state of the republican party and whether or not it is is unified or not. what did you think of your colleagues? bob corker i know you is sit with the foreign relations committee and jeff flake speaking out so vocally against the president. >> that is their choice to do that. i have respect both for bob and for jeff. from my standpoint, i tenaciously try to find areas of agreement. i think the good thing about the republican party right now is we are very unified in trying to

come up with a tax proposal that will actually grow our economy so every american will prosper. there are shared goals and is what will unify the party. >> when we spoke to senator jeff flake on air, it didn't sound as though they were unified. they had conversations with fellow republicans who were sort of cheering him on and who themselves plan to speak out against some of the things he thinks have been really divisive coming on out of the president. >> well, alisyn, we have a broad spectrum of opinion within the republican party. that's always been the case and what will be the case. what union guys us is we want every american to have a prosperous life for them and their families. as a business person, i find the areas of agreement. we share the same goals. care if it's democrat or

republican. we want a safe and secure america. >> so the devil is in the details, as you know. and in terms of tax reform, yes, you're right. everybody says of course we want tax reform for sure. then when you dive into the details, it gets a lot more cloudy. so is let's talk about some of those. 401(k)s. that's what so many americans have. they have invested in. they want to know if you can guarantee those will not be touched under any sort of new plan? >> well, i won't touch them. here's what we're unified under. the fact that right now america's taxation system on business is probably the most uncompetitive in the world. it is a table stakes issue. we have to make america's corporate tax system competitive with the world, which is what the framework is all about. lowering the corporate rate to 20%, making sure entities are in the same basic level about 5% differential, make sure we maintain that differential. in doing that, obviously that costs a fair amount in terms of

revenue. now you start looking for how do you make up that revenue. i have my own idea and the tax committee has theirs. >> do they include 401(k)? >> i would not support that. from my standpoint, the way you equalize between passer entities and c corp.s, it solves a lot of problems. >> you are talking about limited liability, pass through entities. so you want to do what with them? you want to raise the rate of what they're taxed above 25%? you want to lower them? >> leave the treatment of pass throughs exactly the same but take c corp.s and make them pass through entities. i want to make sure the owners pay the tax on corporate income. right now we are having a debate. who really pays the corporate tax, employees, consumers, the owners? let's take that argument off the table. let's make the owners pay. true warren buffett tax.

it would shrink income in equality. more americans could hold stock. what i'm proposing, i hope they take up my proposal. >> that's interesting. i don't want to let you go before i get the real answer on 401(k)s. >> i would not vote for it. i think the president is pretty solid. he's not going to probably sign a bill with that in it. hopefully they will take it off the table they should. >> congressman kevin brady of texas, the top tax writer said they may need to change the tax status of 401(k) to help pay for this. >> alisyn, we need to encourage americans to pay more or for retirement. social security will have an $18 trillion deficit versus what it pays out and what it gets in the payroll tax. this would be the worst time to disincentivize people from saving for retirement. >> good talking to you about all

of this. thank you. >> have a great day. tensions rising between the u.s. and north korea. cnn goes on board a u.s. warship. brooke baldwin is there and will give us access on the uss ronald reagan, next. when a fire is going on, you're

not thinking clearly, so they called the fire department for us i could hear crackling in the walls. my mind went totally blank. all i remember saying was, "my boyfriend's beating me," and she took it from there. our first truck was on the scene within five minutes. i am grateful we all made it out safely. people you don't know care about you. it's kind of one of those things where you can't even thank somebody. to protect what you love, call 1-800-adt-cares i enjoy the fresher things in life.o. fresh towels. fresh soaps. and of course, tripadvisor's freshest, lowest... ...prices. so if you're anything like me... ...you'll want to check tripadvisor. we now instantly compare prices... ...from over 200 booking sites... ...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want. go on, try something fresh. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices.

north korea is ramping up its threat to test a hydrogen bomb. the world should take the warning, quote, literally. the u.s. now flexing its military might, sending three warships to the region. cnn's brooke baldwin was granted rare access aboard the "uss ronald reagan." good morning. glad to have you back. >> good to be back. i have been working for a number of months to hop on one of the aircraft carriers because essentially the role of these male and female sailors is the front lines with any escalation of north korea. they told me the region was too hot to have media on board. and the head of the trip to kia i got an e-mail saying we want to give you this rare embark within carrier task force 70. and the six or seven ships off the peninsula. would you like to come aboard and see what the men and women

are up to in terms of not only what i wanted to see was the mission at hand, as we have been covering all things north korea and what seems like ratcheted up rhetoric, right, between washington and pyongyang. and also talk morale. here's a preview. for a few hours in an undisclosed location, the u.s. navy invited on a rare embark somewhere off the korean peninsula. this aircraft carrier serves as the front lines to any escalation with north korea and is home to 5,000 american sailors. sacrifice is a word that carries profound meeting in these waters. lieutenant allen brian and culinary specialist sasha hasbrook are also parents. it brings an up waivering

commitment to the mission. >> i'm concerned about my mission daily, all the action i'm going through on a flight deck daily, keeping them focused with the current mission so if something does happen, we will be able to take care of on it. >> is the region tense? >> i don't sense it too much out here. i'm just concentrating on the myself of making sure we have the three square meals a day, that we are feeding the crew and making sure the crew is ready to go. >> despite the unpredictability, the it is strong. how will president trump's trip resonate among the men and women on the front lines. >> look at you you. my gosh, what an assignment. did you have a chance to talk to them about the tragedies, the recent collisions on the "uss john mccain", the fitzgerald. >> of course i did. how can i

not be in this part of the world and it all pertains to the fleet. i talked to everyone from the top, the admiral, to the captain on the ship to some of the sailors. because they lost 17 sailors this past summer in what the navy calls preventable collisions. there are issues of leadership. that captain is now no longer on the ship. there are issues of morale. bottom line they said, listen, it is tough under any conditions at sea, right? but given how tense it has become is tough. but they said they're out there to do their jobs. they are prepared for the mission. they try not to delve too much into politics and what president trump's presence on the peninsula will mean. but there is so much more from the sailors. it was truly an honor of a lifetime. i thank the u.s. navy for having us out there for just a couple of hours. please stay tuned too my show

today 2:00 to 4:00 eastern to see what life is like in the middle of the ocean for 5,000 plus sailors. >> thank you for sharing with us. >> thank you so much. so this new revelation that hillary clinton's campaign and the dnc was part of the funding for the research that went into the now infamous trump dossier. does that mean anything to the russia investigation? former director of intelligence james clapper joining us next.

so there are several key developments from the 2016 election today. how far did both campaigns go to get dirt on their opponents and how extensive was russia's role? that keep coming up. james clapper joins us. what do you think about the data

analytics reached out to julian assange, at wikileaks, as we know, is connected to russia to try and get more e-mails from hillary clinton's campaign. >> i think it's clear both campaigns were doing opposition research, or more bluntly getting dirt on each other's candidates. >> yeah. >> so some of this reminds me of the classic line from "casa blanca," what, there's gambling here, i'm shocked. >> of course there's opposition research and candidates get dirt on each other but is it different when you reach out to wikileaks and julian assange or no? >> it could be. the law firm, cambridge

analytic, whatever, and the question is who compiled it? wikileaks, a non-nation state hostile intelligence service, and with the evidence that i have seen, and i read about it in the media and i don't know if there's a smoking gun here. and the issue is the involvement of an adversary nation state, meaning russia. the community assessment we put out last january 6th stood on its own. it did not include evidence from anything from the dossier. some of what was in the dossier, not all by any stretch, and some of that was corroborated in our ica, which we had very high confidence in. >> was it the dossier that then

caused the intel community to go and do digging or did you have concerns in the intel community before the dossier, and the dossier was saw purse hrus. were they connected? >> not really. the assessment was based on a body of evidence from many sources. cyber, human intelligence, in which we had very high confidence of the magnitude and aggressive nature of the russian interference. our only concern about the time at the dossier was to insure the president-elect knew of its existence rather than we did not have time available to us to corroborate or not everything that was in it. >> that's very interesting. that's the famous meeting between director comey, then of the fbi, where he told donald trump about the dossier, and

that, as you know, set into motion this cascading affect whereby comey was fired. something interesting is happening today. i hear republicans trying to link the dossier and the fbi and their by saying we need to investigate the fbi because they are doing something sneaky. let me play for you what the chairman of the house intel committee, devin nunez, said last night on fox about his big question now about the fbi. listen to this. >> i think the next focus is going to be on whether or not did the fbi use this dossier to get any warrants? did they use it to open up a counter intelligence investigation? if they did, if they are using unverified information to open up enquiries into american citizens, i think we have a big problem. >> what is the answer to that? >> i think the counter intelligence investigation was launched before the revelation

of the dossier. >> that's important. so the chronology is the counter intelligence investigation predated the dossier, so the way he is setting it up can't be true? >> well, it's a little distorted in my mind, because i think the dossier would be part of the counter intelligence investigation that was already under way, which, of course, was buttressed by our assessment in the first place. that was a challenge for us, i suppose, in the end, and we just ran out of time as to whether or not the allegations could be rebutted or confirmed. >> you read the dossier. do you think there was useful information in there? >> well, some of it was corroborated in our report. notably -- most prominently, i think, the fact of the russian intent to interfere and the strong personal animus that

putin had for both clintons, particul particularly secretary clinton. >> thank you very much for helping us sort through all of this. it's complicated and it's great to have a primary source with us. >> thank you. we are following a lot of news. let's get right to it. a data firm working for the trump campaign reached out to julian assange asking about t hillary clinton's e-mails. >> colluding with russia is a story that does not ever go away. >> hillary clinton totally denied this. >> this idea that it's a fake dossier, that's just not true. >> the uranium sale to russia, that's watergate modern age.

>> of all the things we talked about, this has more teeth. >> this gives president trump the ability to muddy the waters on russia. >> announcer: this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning and welcome to your "new day." it's thursday, october 26th, 8:00 in the east. there are growing questions about possible trump campaign ties to wikileaks. why? sources are telling cnn that a data analytics campaign did contact wikileaks seeking e-mails linked to hillary clinton's campaign. >> and then meanwhile trump is bashing the democrats denying they knew about a anti-trump dossier after it was revealed they helped fund the research for it. a source tells cnn clinton did not know about the dossier. >> alisyn, the head of cambridge

analytic, a data firm hired by the trump campaign contacted wikileaks' founder to see if they had e-mails linked to the clinton campaign. and the request was rejected and then sent an e-mail to several people reeling he had e-mailed assange. a source tells cnn that nobody from the trump campaign was copied on the e-mail but the attempt is the closest known link between the trump campaign and wikileaks. you will recall that wikileaks was responsible for releasing hacked e-mails from the dnc the u.s. intelligence has said were stolen by russia and handed over to wikileaks through an intermediate airy. the trump campaign