according to "the new york times," the president said, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy. a real nutjob. >> it was a staggering moment, disparaging the director of the fbi albeit fired to an advers y adversarial power. >> perhaps of greater importance is when the president also said this. i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off. >> the words leaving pressure i think are going to raise questions for investigators. >> thank you very much. >> the president has consistently said that he did not obstruct justice when the he fired james comey. >> the two men come from completely different worlds. >> james comey is a professional law man. he has a respect for the traditions of the justice department. >> it should be about the facts and the law. that's why i became fbi director >> donald trump, on the other hand, is a businessman. he expects absolutely loyalty

from everybody working for him. that's the culture in which he has operated for many, many years. >> their relationship got off to a bad start. before the inauguration, james comey was in charge of telling donald trump about the dossier, the controversial document contained allegations an about the president gathered as part of an opposition research project during the campaign. >> i didn't want him thinking that i was briefing him on this to sort of hang it over him in some way. >> it turns out that's exactly what the president thought, according to an interview he gave the "new york times." >> trump's reaction was anger. he said it was completely false. >> the encounter apparently didn't sit well with comey either. >> we know he went back to the fbi suburban and pulled out a classified computer and wrote his first memo about his interactions with donald trump. >> i was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of

our meeting and so i thought it really important to document. >> comey's next public encounter with the president was awkward. the director of the fbi thought it was crucial to keep his distance. >> he stands in the part of the room that is physically as far from the president as it's possible to be. >> but then -- >> there's -- >> he's become more famous than me. >> it encapsulated the difficult position comey was in because he was at once the fbi director answerable to the president of the united states but also conducting an investigation of the trump campaign, which the president obviously hated. >> you've seen the picture of me walking across the blue room. what the president whispered in my ear was "i really look forward to working with you." >> the president kept reaching out. next came an invitation to dinner at the white house.

>> the very fact that the president, whose campaign is under investigation, is asking to have dinner with the fbi director alone raises all sorts of red flags, as it did for comey. >> the dinner was an effort to build a relationship. in fact, he asked specifically of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. >> the president's words, according to comey, i need loyalty, i expect loyalty. >> he was asking for something. i was refusing to give it. >> the white house denied he was asking for personal loyalty. >> i think the president wants loyalty to this country and to the rule of law. >> it is their last meeting which may prove to be critical in the investigation of potential obstruction of justice. >> just picture the scene in the oval office. the fbi director is there with

his boss, jeff sessions, with other very senior officials. they are told to leave the room by the president and then it's just a one on one. >> why would you kick the attorney general, the chief of staff out to talk to me? my impressing was something big is about to happen. >> this was one day after national security adviser michael flynn had been forced out. the white house said flynn was fired because he lied to the vice president about his conversations with the russian ambassador. questions have been raised about whether the president knew flynn also lied to the fbi, which is a federal crime. so another critical question is whether trump knew it when he said this according to comey -- "i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. he is a good guy." >> it's the president of the

united states with me alone saying, "i hope this," i took it as this is what he wants me to do. i didn't obey that but that's the way i took it. >> it is so wildly inappropriate and so contrary to how the president is supposed to work and it may well be evidence of a crime. >> did you at any time urge former fbi director james comey to close or back down the investigation into michael flynn? >> no. no. next question. >> it may have been comey's appearance on capitol hill just days before he was fired in early may that finally sealed his fate. comey was asked about his decision to publicly announce the reopening of the clinton e-mail investigation before the election. >> look, this was terrible. it makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had some impact on the election but honestly, it wouldn't have changed the decision. >> comey's concern that he influenced the outcome of the election infuriated the president. >> trump heard it as a personal attack. >> look, he's a show boat. he's a grandstander. >> when donald trump hears that, he hears my presidency is

illegitimate. you're trying to question whether or not i should be in the oval office right now. >> the russians did not affect the vote and everybody seems to think that. >> the president spent a rainy weekend at his new jersey golf resort stewing about james comey's testimony. >> he came become and said i'm going to do it, i'm going to fire james comey. >> among those supporting the decision, son-in-law and senior adviser jared kushner. >> it really did show that some of the people around the president who were pushing this are beyond politically naive. >> after his firing, james comey returned to capitol hill and revealed something extraordinary. >> i asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. >> the memo described his last meeting with the president in the oval office. >> i asked him to because i thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. >> he was right. >> this is huge, pamela. >> this is a significant step. we're learning that the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein

has an pointed former fbi director bob mueller to now oversee the russia probe. >> that was a dangerous day for the president potentially. >> just about a month after terminating comey, trump may have pursued yet another firing. he pressed white house counsel don mcgahn to look into potential conflicts involving robert mueller. the "new york times" reported that trump wanted mueller fired until mcgan threatened to quit warning it would be catastrophic for the trump presidency. >> did you psych to fire robert mueller. >> fake news, folks. >> the president now says he wants to talk to mueller under oath even though his lawyers have advised him against it. >> the special counsel has a very wide net that he can cast look into all things russia and who knows what else he's going to find. >> that would not have happened had president trump not fired

james comey. >> you obstruction of justice, sir. >> what's your next move? will you come back, sir. >> still ahead, chasing an oligarch. >> is it true that mr. manafort owed you millions of dollars when he was the head of the trump campaign? >> to chase down the real story. >> did he offer private briefings to you as a way to repay the debt? >> and all the presidents men. >> will you sign my russian flag, please. sign my russian flag. customer satisfaction over cable for 17 years running. but some people still like cable. just like some people like banging their head on a low ceiling. drinking spoiled milk. camping in poison ivy. getting a papercut. and having their arm trapped in a vending machine. but for everyone else, there's directv. for #1 rated customer satisfaction over cable, switch to directv and get a $200 reward card. call 1.800.directv

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this is cnn breaking news. >> paul manafort will surrender. >> indictment, conspiracy against the united states. >> a former campaign chairman indicted on nine counts. >> i have the smartest people. >> trusted adviser jared kushner. >> a secret means of communicating with the kremlin. >> a top adviser who discussed a back channel with the russians. >> i have the most dedicated people. >> michael flynn has resigned tonight. >> backdoor communications with russia. >> and a national security adviser guilty of lying to the

fbi. >> i have the best people. >> paul manafort, jared kushner and michael flynn. this is the story of all the president's men. >> i got the best in the world. >> settle down, guys. you all right? ready? okay. >> november 10th, 2016. >> we talked about some of the organizational issues. >> two days after the election, president obama gives his successor a piece of advice. >> that ensures our president-elect is successful. >> do not hire michael flynn -- >> and now the oath of office. >> -- as your national security adviser. >> so help me god. >> cnn was told something by u.s. officials that was deeply concerning. >> the next president of the

united states right here! >> during the campaign, american intelligence picked up the russians bragging that they had a strong relationship with flynn. >> you have to take some of the conversations we were told with a little bit of a grain of salt, but this set off an alarm for obama administration officials who were quite worried about it. >> you know, people talk about temperament -- >> flynn had worried intelligence officials for months. in 2015, the retired three-star general appeared on the kremlin-funded news channel r.t. >> russia and the united states have to work together on this. >> he even spoke at an event celebrate agr.t.'s tenth anniversary and he sat next to vladimir putin at dinner. >> here you have a former top intelligence official at the united states government celebrates this gala for what seems to be the propaganda arm of the government.

>> flynn made almost $34,000 for his appearance. but investigators looking into his security appearance said flynn told them he did not take any money for the trip from a foreign source. >> i didn't take any money from russia if that's what you're asking me. >> congressional members from both parties have said he may have broken the law in the process. >> it appears as if he did take that money. it was inappropriate and there are repercussions for the violation of law. >> it leads investigators to wonder why aren't you disclosing certain things? what do you have to hide? >> flynn has denied what he has called, quote, false accusations of treason. >> do you feel you brie betrayed your country? >> but the boom shell of robert mueller's investigation came on december 1, when flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi while he was national security adviser, he told fbi agents that he had not discussed sanctions with russia's ambassador during the transbig but he had talked sanctions and the fbi knew it

because the ambassador had been monitored by u.s. intelligence. >> he said he didn't do it and there were transcripts clearly showing that he did. >> what's more, flynn admitted in his plea deal that the sanctions talks had been coordinated with trump's transition team. >> the white house cannot argue that this was michael flynn going off as a loose cannon here. >> a white house lawyer claimed that flynn's guilty plea didn't implicate anyone else. before he pled guilty, flynn was facing a lot of tough legal issues but mueller only charged him with one count so it's possible that flynn has an even bigger story to tell. >> we're seeing manafort come in now with counsel. >> paul manafort, the president's former campaign chairman, is also facing possible jail time. he's charged with money laundering millions of dollars, concealing his work for a foreign government and conspiring against the united states. he has pleaded not guilty.

>> the special counsel makes a very aggressive argument that this is someone who can't be trusted. >> manafort made a lot of his money working for this man, putin's ally, viktor yanukovych, the former president of ukraine. >> yanukovych was a strong man who presided over a deadly crackdown against protesters in the streets of kiev. he left his country in disgrace. manafort had helped bring him to power. >> paul manafort has for decades been the washington lobbyist and influence peddler around the world for a lot of the most vicious dictators we've seen. >> the question is was manafort also linked to russia's strong man, vladimir putin? >> are there any ties between mr. trump, you or your campaign,

and putin and his regime? >> no, there are not. it's absurd and there's no basis to it. >> but u.s. intelligence saw a different story. agents intercepted communications from suspected russian operatives indicating that manafort appeared to be asking them pore help. >> they describe hip essentially encouraging help, encouraging the russians to provide assistance to trump's campaign. >> manafort's ties to russia go way back. he worked for a close associate of putin. >> oleg deripaska, one of a few wealthy oligarchs putin consults with regularly according to a u.s. state department cable. >> he can pick up a phone to the oligarchs and say, hey, i need to get a message out and it gets done because he's vladimir putin and that's how the system, would. >> less than two weeks before trump got unanimitied manafort volunteered to brief dare pass cas privately how the campaign

was going according to "the washington post". >> it's not often that the russians get somebody to volunteer like that. >> does he owe you millions of dollars? >> in fact, court documents indicate that manafort may have been in debt to deripaska. >> did he offer you those private briefings to try and repay some of that debt to you? is that why he offered them? >> get lost, please. thank you. >> deripaska's spokesman told cnn that the oligarch was never offered briefings by manafort. manafort's spokesman has denied that he was in debt to him during the trump campaign and afterwards but he has admitted that manafort offered the briefings. manafort was also at the trump tower meeting with the russians in june 2016. >> mr. kushner, will you sign my russian flag? >> sign my russian flag, please, sign my russian flag. >> and so was the president's son-in-law, jared kushner. >> do you have any comment, mr. kushner? >> kushner hasn't been charged

with any crimes but troubling questions have been raised about his connections to russia. >> jared kushner is incredibly important for several reasons. he's a witness to virtually all the central issues in this investigation. he is also important because he's an independent actor. he is someone who had contacts with russian representatives. >> kushner has not been forthcoming about those contacts. he was required by law to disclose them to the fbi to get a security clearance. >> was it appropriate for you to meet with the russian officials. >> but he has repeatedly omitted foreign contacts and had to submit his forms four times, sparking tough questions from both parties. his reasons for the revisions range from forgetfulness to a clerical error. >> there have been stories that have been appearing for months about jared kushner's meetings.

>> december 1st, 2016, kushner meets with russian ambassador sergey kislyak in trump tower. >> that russian ambassador came to new york. >> jared kushner met with the russian ambassador. >> they sused setting up a back channel with moscow at russia's own embassy. >> you have to say that raises a red flag and say, well, why wouldn't this reported? >> kushner claimed he wanted to discuss syria and said the arrangement was never set up. some in u.s. intelligence believe that kislyak was one of russia's top spies in washington. >> did you recruit any members of the trump administration? >> december 13th, 2016, kushner meets with sergei gorkov, the head of a sanctioned russian bank that's often funded putin's pet projects, like the sochi olympics. the bank was also used as a cover by a russian spy in new

york city who went to prison for espionage. >> the fbi now says it has busted a russian spy ring. >> he was one of three russian spies. >> and gorkov himself attended the training academy for russian intelligence operatives. >> what did you really speak to jared kushner about in new york when you met him in december? >> no comment. >> there have been questions about whether kushner might have discussed his family's business with banker gorkov. kushner owns a storied fifth avenue building with a reported $1.2 billion mortgage coming due in 2019. kushner says that his business dealings never came up with gore cov. and that all of his meetings with russians were nothing to worry about. >> i did not collude with russia nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. >> your bank says it was a business meeting.

> but gore cov's bank implied that the meeting with kushner was about business referring to kushner as the head of kushner industries. robert mueller's team has expressed interest in kushner including his role in the firing of james comey. >> can you say whether you aware of anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with russia during the course of the election? >> investigators still have many questions for the president's men. >> how many times do i have to answer this question? >> the collusion question. >> i have nothing to do with russia. >> is not closed. >> to the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with does. >> mr. trump -- >> when we return -- >> i have no dealings with russia. i have no deals in russia. >> but donald trump has made money with russians. >> i paid 40 maryland. i sold it for $100 million. and i sold it to a russian.

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"the situation room." we have major breaking news right now. the u.s. justice department has just named a special counsel in the russia investigation. >> this is a significant step. >> a development that could change everything. >> i think we're going to see justice. >> bob mueller is very thorough. good for the investigation, maybe not so much for president trump. >> does anybody have any questions? >> the day after that bombshell announcement, president trump had his first chance to strike back. >> was this the right move or is this part of a witch hunt? >> well, i respect the move but the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> this is a witch hunt and a hoax. >> russia is a ruse. >> a fiction, total fabrication. >> it's all fake news. >> it's all fake. >> no matter what the trump team would call it, the russia

investigation was very real. >> the president thinks it's a witch hunt. is there any way you can respond to that. >> and under robert mueller going in a direction the president did not want it to go. >> i have a great company. i built an unbelievable company but if you look there, you'll see there's nothing in russia into if you listen to the statements of the president and his team about the mueller investigation, they feel like financial issues trump's business dealings should be walled off, should be off limits. >> do look at a real estate deal from ten years ago would be way outside the scope of the mandate and we would object to that. >> it is quite clear that mueller's team is looking directly as his business dealings for the perfectly understandable reason that money can be a motive. >> we follow the money to the very beginning of trump's connection 0 russia. decades earlier. in 1987, when 41-year-old donald

trump took off for his very first business trip to moscow. >> in 1987, donald trump was flush with money. and donald was invited to russia. so he and ivana went to russia, and they tried to make a deal to build a trump tower there. >> i'm with cn nah. >> that deal never happened. >> there was talk of a trump tower in moscow. >> but again and again, trump would keep on trying. >> donald's tried at least five times to build a trump tower in moscow. >> donald trump has an enormous bait to deny reality. reality is that during the campaign, not just in ancient history, during the campaign, he was negotiating for a hotel to be built in moscow. >> erin, we've learned michael cohen, president trump's personal lawyer was in talks with moscow through an sbeer

intermediary about a proposal to build trump tower there. >> that is the definition of business dealings in russia. >> the deal outlined in a nonbinding letter of intent signed by trump in the fall of 2015 fell through. but not before trump's attorney reached out to the kremlin for help. >> cohn said in a statement today that he e-mailed russian president vladimir putin's spokesperson dimitri pes could be for help on this project on behalf of the trump organization. >> we could make deals in russia very easily. i just don't want to. >> according economist james henry, all of the focus on trump's deals in russia might be missing the point. >> it isn't so much that trump has been investing in russia. it's that he's been receiving lots of finance from the former soviet union states from oligarchs. >> i've got more oligarchs living in my buildings. >> and before he became a politician, businessman donald trump boasted about it.

>> have you had any dealings with the russians. >> well i've done a lot of business with the russians. >> the most expensive home ever sold in america. >> back in 2008 at the height of the u.s. housing collapse, trump made a record-breaking deal with a russian oligarch known an the fertilizerer king dimitri rab love lev. >> he bought from the donald trump a mansion. two miles from mar-a-lago in palm beach, florida. >> i paid $40 million. i sold it for $100 million and i sold it to a russian. >> mr. donald j. trump. >> the russian would appear during the 2016 election when according to news, his private plane was spotted in two u.s. cities where trump was campaigning, concord, north carolina and las vegas, nevada. >> it certainly looks suspicious that we have this leading russian oligarch bird dogging our president on the campaign

trail. >> a white house source told mcclatchy news the pair never met and arrive love lev called it a pure coincidence unrelated when he was traveling on business. >> we still don't understand that to this day. >> what remains clear, however is that this oligarch is hardly the only russian to have bolstered trump's bottom line. >> there's a surprising number of russians involved in his deals everywhere. >> after his catastrophic financial collapse in 1991, that threatened to end his empire for good -- trump spent most of the decade digging out from under enormous debt. >> he was basically unfinanceable by major banks. >> but luckily for trump, a new source of money was just around the corner. >> you have this unbelievable avalanche of money pouring in from the former soviet union just when trump is in serious

trouble financially. >> after the collapse of the soviet union in 1991, russia's state owned businesses moved into private hands creating a class of wealthy oligarchs some of whom began investing in american real estate. >> word spread that if you want to park money in the u.s. and have the lowest possible risk of being noticed you want to buy real estate. >> in the years that followed, properties like trump world tower in new york according to bloomberg news and his developments in sunny isles florida according to reuters started filling up with russian buyers. >> my name's donald trump and i'm the largest real estate developner new york. >> meanwhile, donald trump was finding his way into american living rooms across the country. >> he has this incredible stroke of luck. he turns into an actor playing a successful businessman. >> and who will be the apprentice? >> and "the apprentice" open the door for trump to a new way of

making money. >> trump then shifted his business model. he became a brand name at that point. so he began licensing his name and he was putting his name on everything. >> doing it in this hab hazard chaotic way. >> when it comes to great steaks, i just raised the stakes. >> trump wine and trump water and trump this and trump that. >> he plugs into the solutions, this beautiful, beautiful solution that if i don't ask a lot of questions and a lou my name to go on projects, then i'll get paid. >> there are buildings in which he didn't put up a penny but he got a multimillion dollar fee up front that were to have the trump name on them. >> the trump soho is a very, very special building. >> in the case of trump tower soho, the trump organization got 18% ownership of the tower. without investing a ingle dime according to bloomberg news.

>> thank you very much, to bay rock. >> the financing for the project was left up to his partner, bay rock group. >> it's a problematic project from top to bottom. >> a lawsuit filed by a former bay rock insider in 2010 accuses bay rock of money laundering and having questionable ties to russia and russian organized the crime. the suit is ongoing and bay rock denies the allegations. >> there's a huh, why would trump ever do business with those guys. >> guys like russian born felix sater, bay rock's key executive. sater's lawyer robert wolf says that the suit accusing bay rock of shady dealings is "a shakedown." >> my life has been beyond interesting. >> sater was a twice convicted felon after his second conviction, he cooperated and cases with the justice department. >> felix had been convicted of stabbing someone in the neck with a margarita glass in 1991.

he did a year in prison for that. 1998, he's convicted of a $40 million financial fraud involving penny stocks, commodity trading. >> despite his checkered past, sater's business ties to the trump organization extended well beyond the soho deal. together with bay rock, they explored additional trump deals in the u.s. and abroad. yet, in sporn testimony in a 2013 deposition, trump insisted he barely even knew say thor. >> about how many times have you converseded with mr. sater? >> over the years? >> over the years? >> not many. >> not many. >> if he were sitting in the room right now, i really wouldn't know what he looked like. >> it is absolutely untrue that donald trump doesn't know felix sater. >> at one point, sater worked out of an office in trump tower and held a business card for the trump organization.

he was also the go between for trump's most recent and perhaps most controversial attempt atable trump tower moscow. >> according to "new york times," sater urged trump to cop 0 moscow to tour this proposal and even suggested to him that he could help him within the presidency. >> the e-mails have now come out in which you see sater actually saying that we could use this is business opportunity to get donald trump elected. >> president trump would be so much better for u.s., russian relations. >> there is no question during the campaign that trump was trying to get closer to russia and repair releases with russia. >> there's nothing i can think of that i'd rather do than have russia friendly. >> in one question for the mueller investigation is whether the reason trump was reaching out to russia was because he was making money or expecting to

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. >> houston, texas. >> power. fas dwrist and proud. >> the heart of texas facebook page invites its 250,000 followers to the stop islamization of texas rally, an add buy promotes it. >> at precisely the same time

and place people gather for the united muslims of america facebook event. >> down with the nazis. >> shockingly, americans had nothing to do with starting those facebook groups. before about $200, russian trolls got 15,000 people to see their fake ads. >> we won't stop. we won't stop. >> across the country, you may very well have driven by a protest for any hot button issue these protests in some cases were organized, out of russia. >> russian imposters pushing messages sometimes violent, false and often controversial. $100,000 in facebook ads. thousands of twitter accounts. and google ad dollars. russians were behind it all.

creating content designed to pit americans against one another. >> do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. >> now capitol hill wants answers. >> the political ad was paid for by rubles. isn't that a red flag? >> how could that happen? >> almost all of the propaganda found so far traces back to the internet research agency. investigators say it was financed by a company owned by this man, russian oligarch evgeny prekochian is a wealthy businessman and part of putin's inner circle. >> they hired people that had a quota working in 12-hour shifts leading up to the election. >> there was an entire english language department specifically assigned to insert messages social media posts in the united states. they were required to watch "house of cards" to better understand american politics. >> in two weeks time, you will

be heading to the ballot box to decide what kind of country you want to live in. >> the idea was to masquerade themselves as americans. >> they understood that black lives matter ads should be targeted to cities like baltimore and ferguson which saw violent protests over police killings of african-american men. they understood that gay rights was a big issue. they understood that gun rights was a big issue. >> some people may have seen these videos. >> hillary clinton is not our candidate. >> posted to pains now identified as part of moscow's influence campaign. >> this is really a thoughtful detailed process of how do i make this look legitimate. >> thank you, thank you. >> legitimacy boosted when influential people amplify the message, bearing the tennessee state seal, this russian run account was retweeted by donald trump jr. kellyanne conway and michael

flynn. >> in sharing this content, trump's campaign in effect whether knowingly or unknowingly helped spread russian disinformation. >> i doubt i would be here if weren't for social media to be honest with you. >> from tweets to posts to pictures, the trump team used every digital tool to their advantage. looking back, that approach was born out of sheer necessity. >> bye, everybody. >> from day one -- candidate trump faced an uphill battle. he left the food soldiers and local offices that his opponents will spent months, even years cultivating. >> we were all wondering why is the he buying ads and running a traditional campaign. it's because he's got no money. >> trump's campaign threw out the old playbook and turned to a newer more powerful way to turn out the vote. big data. jared kushner oversaw that part

of the operation. >> he treated trump like an e-commerce company, like a consumer tech company. >> trump's digital team bet big on one simple idea. >> you can now target your message to a smaller group of people and have that be more impactful. >> i understood early that facebook was how trump was going to win. twitter is how he talked to the people. face bok was going to be how he won. >> trump campaign digital director brad parscale led the effort. >> now i can find 15 people in the florida panhandle that i would never buy a tv commercial for. we took opportunities that i think the other side didn't. >> liking what. >> we had will their staff embedded inside our offices. >> what. >> facebook employees would show up every day in our offices. >> facebook offered a service to both political campaigns. the trump campaign took facebook up on it. clinton campaign surprisingly

did not. >> while parscale and kushner have testified on capitol hill, both deny any collusion with the russians. >> by all accounts, the russians feel like they were successful in what they were trying to accomplish. >> i would imagine every day that vladimir putin and the people around him are watching american news saying, in our wildest dreams, we never thought we could be this disruptive. russians probably rightly think that they won. the morning walk was so peaceful.

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your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ♪ otezla. show more of you. dossier, that controversial document which contains many troubling allegations about donald trump, his associates and his campaign. some have said it's evidence of collusion. others have said it's been completely disproven, even fake. neither of these statements are correct. for our story, we will stick to the facts. ten days before the inauguration of donald trump -- >> we are live in chicago tonight. >> -- on the same night

president barack obama was giving his farewell address to the nation. >> we have breaking news in the nation's capital tonight, though, that we need to tell you about. i want to go straight to jake tapper. >> a team of cnn reporters broke a stunning story -- >> jim sciutto, even perez and carl bernstein and i have all been working on this story. >> about america's new president. >> claims of russian efforts to compromise the president-elect, donald trump. >> the president-elect and the outgoing president have both been briefed on the most sensations charges in the dossier. >> allegations -- compromising and personal information about mr. trump. >> us officials with direct knowledge told cnn that trump had been warned russia could have kompromat on him. that's the damaging information often gathered through surveillance that vladimir putin is believed to collect on powerful people. >> was your concern that the russians could have leverage over the president of the united

states? >> well, that -- yes. >> former intelligence chief james clapper. >> gaining leverage, that's their objective. and if they can compromise somebody, you know, they have a term for it, an acronym for it, kompromat. >> it was our sense, our strong sense that the nation's senior most intelligence officials would not waste the time of the president or the president-elect if it was cockamamie easy to dismiss -- >> cnn did not reveal the contents of the dossier. beyond what we had learned from sources because it had not been verified. shortly after cnn broke the story, "buzzfeed" published the entire dossier on the internet. >> it's all fake news. >> donald trump was furious. >> it's phony stuff. it didn't happen. and i think it's a disgreat. >> though journalists had not verified it, portions of the dossier had been in fbi hands for months. >> around august or september of

2016, chris steele, the former mi6 office who compiled the dossier put it is in the hands of someone he knows in rome who is an fbi agent. that then put it is into the blood stream of the fbi. >> christopher steele was a veteran british spy, worked for the mi6 intelligence service. was a russia expect. >> steele had compiled the dossier as opposition research for the democratic national committee and the clinton campaign. >> he was from america's closest intelligence partner, british intelligence, who was based in the country involved in this dossier, russia, and in fact, since his time in intelligence had done work for the u.s. law enforcement. >> in an fbi investigation and extensive reporting, we know that parts of the dossier are true because u.s. government intercepts picked up conversations between russians that corresponded to conversations detailed in the dossier. >> meetings and conversations

that were contained in the dossier did, in fact, take place at the times in the places between the people involved as described in the dossier. >> the reports that make up the document allege extensive russian interference in the election, information that u.s. officials later confirmed to be true. >> good afternoon. the russians were responsible for hacking the dnc. the intelligence that i've seen gives me great confidence in their assessment that this happened at the highest levels of the russian government. >> it was designed to help donald trump and hurt hillary clinton. those claims in the dossier have all pretty much been verified by the u.s. intelligence community. >> but even as aspects of the dossier have been established as fact, the document and its creator christopher steele have come under withering criticism from supporters of president trump. >> this, so you understand, is so much bigger than watergate.

>> they used the dossier of lies. >> i want to know whether the nation's premier law enforcement agency relied on a document that looks like "the national enquirer" prepared it. >> at the center of the dossier firestorm is. >> rob: congressm-- republican congressman devin nunes, he claimed that the agencies used the dossier to spy on an american citizen to obtain surveillance warrants against former trump campaign foreign policy adviser carter page. the fbi and justice did cite the dossier, but they say had other ample evidence of page's russia connections dating back to 2013. still, the dossier remains controversial, especially for its most sensational allegation, that the kremlin has compromising material on donald trump. there has not yet been any proof of that charge. but a former cia station chief in moscow says russia almost

certainly has a file on the president. >> so you believe that the russians have kompromat on donald trump? >> it would surprise me gravely if they do not. it's what they do. the internal intelligence service, the fsb. they've done it for decades. >> most investigators say this, the dossier is just one piece of information in their wide-ranging inquiry. >> i've spoken to a number of people who have been classibrie the classified intelligence and they make one point clear to me, there is it a lot more out there. this dossier is one piece of a very large picture. >> as we've tried to bring that picture into focus, we've made several attempts to speak to one of the president's lawyers on camera. we were unable to obtain an interview. donald trump maintains in statements and on twitter that there was no collusion, but multiple investigations by the special counsel and in congress

continue. as a result, we will also continue to report the story, focussing on the facts. i'm pamela brown, thanks for joining us. good evening. more now on the news that broke just minutes ago and the controversy almost sure to be erupting even as we speak over the russia investigation and two competing memos about key parts of it from the house intelligence committee. the republican version is out there already, as you know, president trump releasing it over objections from the fbi and others. now after several days considering the democratic rebuttal, the president has decided not, not to make it public. the latest now from cnn's jim acosta standing by at the white house. so, jim, explain this. >> well, i think a lot of people want some explaining when when it comes to this decision, anderson. all week long, there was the expectation that the president in the issue of