>> shimon, thanks so much for being with us. again, two giant pieces of news. the indictments. and then the startling admission from the fbi that they dropped the ball on a tip about the killer in parkland, florida. new details coming in. that's all for "inside politics." i turn you over to brianna keilar in for wolf blitzer who picks up our special coverage. hi there, i'm brianna keilar in for wolf blitzer. wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us. two enormous stories that are developing right now. a major warning sign missed and the shocking admission from the fbi. the agency says a person close to the florida school shooter contacted the fbi tip line on january 5th to report concerns about him, including details about his guns and his desire to

kill people. but protocols were not followed. and the information was not provided to the miami field office. but first, this story, special counsel robert mueller dropping new indictments in the russia investigation. i'm going to start now with justice correspondent evan perez on this story. what's happening, evan? >> right now the special counsel, robert mueller, has announced charges against 13 russian individuals and three russian entities related to violations, trying to interfere with the u.s. elections in 2016 elections. we're still going through the indictment that's been returned here. but it appears this has to do with the russian interference into the 2016 elections. and some of these individuals, we assume, are still in russia, and probably will never be arrested by u.s. authorities, but this is the first action we are seeing right now that directly related to the interference that occurred in the 2016 election that president

trump still doesn't really believe actually occurred. robert mueller basically now saying not only did it occur but we know who did it and this includes this outfit in st. petersburg, russia, called the internet research agency, which is the agency, the front for the russian spy agencies that u.s. investigators believe was being used not only to manipulate social media, but also to foment essentially help people supporters of donald trump and try to turn people against hillary clinton in the 2016 presidential race. >> the entire point of the investigation, meddling by russia in the 2016 election. >> right. >> there's been so much political back and forth when it comes to the president. you know, whether there was collusion between some members of his campaign and russian operatives knowingly or unknowingly. was there some obstruction of

justice. but it all stems from this. and i wonder, i wonder what this does for the investigation, for mueller, as he seems to be making his point that this is what this is about, russian meddling. >> exactly. the criticism so far of this investigation which, again, mueller was appointed only in may and it's been pretty quick movement in this investigation. but the charges that were  brought against paul manafort, who was the former chairman of the trump campaign, rick gates who was his deputy, that it had nothing to do with the conduct during the campaign, during the 2016 election. the charges that mike flynn has pleaded guilty to do mention, you know, his conversations, he lied to the fbi about conversations with the russian ambassador, but, again, had nothing to do with the russian interference in the 2016 election. so the criticism by president trump and others is that there's nothing to see here. mueller's been wasting all our time. well, now we see, again, 13

russian individuals. the charges against three russian entities, including the internet research agency in st. petersburg, russia, which tell us that this is what this has always been about. we knew that the fbi pretty quickly had identified some individuals. they wanted to bring charges on this as early as early 2017. mueller has been handling this now. we knew this has been handed over to mueller's team. now we see the charges have been brought. >> i want to bring your colleague, my colleague, shimon into this. you have some developments, what's going on what are you hearing? >> this comes from our colleague manu raju who points out there's a count in the indictment, count six, which he has read the indictment, says, there's a line in there that says the russians. they're talking about russians buying ads, posting derogatory information about a number of candidates. and by mid-2016, the russians

supported trump and disparaged clinton. this the count in this indictment goes on to say they brought out and communicated with unwitting people tied to the trump campaign and others too coordinate political activities. that is a count in the indictment that the special counsel is now alleging. that russians allegedly, a cording to this indictment, bought ads and communicated with unwitting people tied to trump campaign and others to coordinate political activities. that is a significant line there. it will be -- let's see how they explain it and what else they say on that. certainly an important point to make. >> yes, very important point. josh, i wonder what you think. you wanted to say something, even? >> i wanted to add, one of the questions from president trump and his supporters have been where is the collusion, where is the collusion. this is the first language we're seeing from the special counsel that indicates that there was something happening here that

there perhaps may have been unwitting, but there was something going on, communications between people in russia and people committ econn the campaign that has been driving this investigation. >> that's huge, right? explain that again, what shimon is reporting here, and about how this is such an important thread. >> so we were at a new significant phase of this investigation. as we've talked about before, there was a lot of speculation, right, where is this headed. if you look at the way robert mueller has handled this investigation to date, much of this has been done in secret. you con dockduct your investiga in secret so you find out what it is you need to know, what is it that is going to drive the direction of the investigation. and you don't release information you think there's a purpose. we're see something now, again that new phase where we have individuals not only tied to russia. one of the quotes from this indictment reads the strategy, the strategic goal was to sow discord in the u.s. political system. here you have a prosecutor, a

career prosecutor, someone who's leading this investigation, filing a court document indicating this is the purpose, this is what they found. the last thing i'll point out is this. this is not one indictment. it's not two people. it's not ten people. these are 13 individuals. >> a systemic effort, right? >> correct. >> what does that tell you when you're looking at 13 people? >> a couple things. first of all, the special counsel's office understands that this is a large effort. this is something that involved multiple people. if you look at the strategy of releasing information publicly, you may have one or two people that you want to release information on in order to use that -- those people to maybe help you get to other witness. when you're at a point now where you're going to lay out a long document that's going to lay out this investigation, there's a purpose, and it shows the depth of this case. >> we talk about a conspiracy here at this point. >> yes. i want to bring in shimon. shimon, i know you have new information. just to recap for our viewers, this is a huge development here. we have news now that the special counsel, robert

mueller's team, has issued indictments against 13 russian nationals over 2016 election interference. real interference, challenging certainly assumption or some of the claims by president trump about whether or not this is real or just how real it is. i mean, you are looking here at proof of a systemic effort to meddle in the u.s. election by russian operatives. >> it's quite systemic. you're talking about facebook, talking about facebook in here. we've certainly done a lot of reporting about f ing abouing a twitter, and the role they had in the election. it's plainly laid out in this indictment. i want to give you the number the indictment alleges. i have to tell you about the work that went into this. it is stunning. the level of detail that the department of justice, that the fbi agents have put together here. they say, one of the lines here, that the russians spent over $1 million, $1.2 million, on this

project. they call it a project. that included the u.s., that included the u.s. interference operation. so they spent over $1 million. it's 73 million rubles, russian rubles, and over $1.25 million in this operation. when you read this indictment what it tells you is the level of sophistication of this, but how the fbi, other national security folks, were able to, probably, infiltrate this operation, to learn all this stunning detail about the operation, so it's a lot of what we've been reporting on, on some of the information that the fbi has gathered in this, no doubt using fisas to gather this information. other intelligence, human sources. this is 37 pages of details. like right down to the amount of money that the russians spent to do this operation. >> all right, shimon, stand by for me. as we cover this breaking story that we have of the special counsel indicting 13 russian

nationals for meddling in the 2016 election. i want to bring in jim sciutto. jim, this is really a stunning turn. and this is a huge development. >> on a number of levels, brianna. let's run through them if we can here. first of all, the legal standard, much higher than the standard for an intelligence assessment. you already had the intelligence agencies come out as you remember in october, november, before the election and since then with more detail. they believe they have the evidence, russia interfered in the election, with approval from the very top, meaning vladimir putin. to reach a legal standard, you need a lot more evidence to get there. so that's important. two, and because of that, this blows up the president's doubts and really the doubts that you've heard expressed from many of the president's allies that, well, the intel community wasn't quite sure about this, that there was disagreement in the intelligence community. set that aside. you now have a special counsel that believes he's reached the legal standard on 13 russian

individuals, that they were actively involved in interfering in the u.s. election. let's talk about these 13 individuals. these folks work for what's called the internet research agency, the ira as it's known, not the one in sbirireland, different one. based in st. petersburg. this is funded by a close putin ally. it's where the money comes from. it's where the direction comes from. it's another direct connection between the interference in the election and vladimir putin himself which of course was the intel community's assessment that this was ordered on high and backed by the russian president. just a final point i would make is this is a step, indicting individuals from a foreign government, for cyber activity is a step that the u.s. took prior to this on china, you may remember, a few years ago. they indicted, named with photographs and mug shots, individuals tied to the chinese military for hacking into the

u.s., for cyberattacks into the u.s. that is something, you know, this is a nation to nation response. it was something on the kind of depth chart of responses that the obama administration had to chinese hacking. and this, to indictment russian individuals, something, again, that was on the depth charts of options, to call out russia for its interference and take this step. it's significant to see russian names and faces, identified specifically for indictable crimes here in the u.s. it's a very remarkable step for the u.s. to take. again, i might add, while the president himself, and it's cnn's reporting, still is not convinced that russia interfered in the elections. >> well, and this really is supposed to put that to rest, right, jim sciutto? what does this do to this investigation moving forward? what kind of cover does this give robert mueller as he pursued this? clearly there has to be, as you've laid out, evidence for him to move forward with

something as detailed and serious as this. >> well, it will be interesting to see what the president himself bases his doubts on or his allies. i mean, we've heard them. we've heard them on our air and elsewhere say while there was disagreement between the intel agency, that it wasn't really 17 intel agencies that were behind this, et cetera. you've heard all those memes out there to try to undermine the intelligence community's assessment and confidence that russia interfered in the election. now you've met a different standard. now i'm sure there will be attacks on robert mueller, et cetera. you know, to get indictments like this, you've got to show a court, you know, real hard proof that you can trace interference in the election back to this agency here and these individuals involved. so it will be interesting to see what they come back with to continue to express doubts or maybe they don't. it's hard to see how this doesn't blow up those attempts to undermine the intelligence committee's assessment as to who

was behind the russian interfere aengs and just the very fact that russia interfered in the election. >> as we follow this breaking news, these developments really driving home the point that the intelligence community was right, and the president was wrong on this. evidence exists of meddling. there is no so-called hoax. and joining me now to talk about this is a democrat on the house intelligence and judiciary committees eric swalwell with us. what's your reaction to the indictments of 13 russian nationals involved, per the special counsel, with meddling in the 2016 presidential election? >> good afternoon, brianna. we now know that crimes are alleged to have been committed. the intelligence community alleged that russia was responsible but it was never clear whether crimes have been committed and now we know that crimes were committed. russians are responsible for those crimes. and now i think we want to know, did they work in partnership

with any u.s. persons. also, the fact this occurred, these indictments are coming over a year after the election interference campaign shows how long it takes and the patience we must have to wait, to seek the evidence and wait for special counsel mueller to come back. also, i just ask the president, do you believe it now? because your department of justice has indicted russian individuals. and are we going to take this threat seriously? because i don't think they ever left our democracy. >> and this, when you see this, these indictments come out and you consider what we heard from the intelligence community before the senate intelligence committee earlier this week, i mean, fierce warnings coming from the head of our intel agencies about not only the meddling that russia had involved itself in in 2016, but looking towards this year, looking towards the midterm elections, looking towards the next presidential election, how

does that make you think about those warnings and what is required from the president in the way of leadership on this issue? >> well, leadership comes from the top, brianna. you can't help but listen to our intelligence chiefs describe that russia is still seeking to meddle and feel we have a responsibility to do something about it. i don't know if it was the u.s. persons who have already been indicted. if it was internet companies saying their platforms were weaponized or if it's now these criminal indictments that show interference but we better get our act together because there's still a lot of reforms we can put in place to secure the ballot box as we go to the polls this november. including requiring people to report if they're contacted by foreign agents.

>> all right, congressman, stay with me. i have more questions for you but i do want to have our law enforcement analyst josh campbell, who's a former fbi special agent, weigh in on this. this really puts the onus on the president to in a full throated way admit that this is a problem. one wonder if he's going to do that. it's so imperative that he does. and these indictments drive that home. because the president has a very important role in shepherding a coordinated effort on meddling. >> you're exactly right. let me give you just a law enforcement perspective that may be different as folks are looking at this, trying to make sense of it. we've seen in this case in law enforcement is used to criticism, they're used to side shows, especially for, you know, when there's important issues being debated. there's an important case. if you'll recall, there was a whole debate, for example, the prosecutors on the team and their political donations. the fbi, with the two people who were texting each other, you

know, making bad judgment. all that was a side show. if you look at what we're seeing now and as our colleague mentioned a second ago, all of this has to hold up in court. all of this has to be laid out. these are allegations. these are charges that will stand up. rest assured that the political nonsense has to be a thing of the past because this is real. this is information that has been filed in the court of law. >> what we do know is we're expecting any moment now rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney, to announce these multiple indictments. this is a cordi iaccording to ae department. is that -- rosenstein who has come under so much fire, from the white house, from president trump, his name is going to be attached, obviously, so these indictments as he's announcing them. do you expect that that's going to give an opportunity for this to be politicized? >> i hope not because as the former agent just described, we

need to end the attacks on the process and stop attacking the government and start going after the root of the problem which is russia and its meddlers. in congress, brianna, we can protect mr. rosenstein and mr. mueller. there's legislation that would protect bob mueller and require a judge to have oversight if there was any attempt to fire him. but, again, we are so mired in attacks on the process and putting the fbi on trial, rather than going after the people who attacked us and who are still here in our democracy. i hope that, again, this has to be a wake-up call. they're still in our systems and our democracy's threatened if we just continue to be -- to see the disunity you have in congress. >> stay with us, congressman. my colleague evan perez wants to weigh in here. >> i think all of this, the context of all of this, also if you think about the fact that the president and his legal team are considering whether or not he should grant an interview to robert mueller and his team who are doing this investigation. i think all of this now has to

be weighed with that in mind. because the indictment that's been returned by the district -- by the grand jury here in washington names individuals that are directly connected to vladimir putin. evgeny pregoshan who runs this catering company that's a front essentially for russian intelligence that was doing this. people who were showing up to work, taking the identities of americans, posing as americans j online and then trying to foment dissent. according to this indictment, they were essentially trying to depress minority turnout as a way to basically hurt hillary clinton's candidacy. and to help donald trump. that is as plain as day from reading this indictment. there is no doubt, according to the special counsel that this entire operation, $1.25 million a month that this agency in russia was doing, was done

specifically to help get donald trump elected and suppress any support for hillary clinton. >> you're right, evan. it just shows what we're dealing with, with a foreign adversary that's attempting to change our democratic systems. looking through the indictment, this is going back to 2014. this wasn't something that just came about in the run-up to the election. it was something they straig strategized and executed. >> our legal analyst, corey, when you look at the news here, indictments of 13 russian nationals when it comes to meddling in the 2016 election, in a way, in a normal world, you would have expected an acknowledgement that this is the real thing but he's been so tepid in that acknowledgement. when you look at these indictments coming through, explain to the lay person who maybe isn't familiar with this

process about what it would require to get to this. >> sure, it's a huge deal. particularly because we've had on one hand a president who has been saying that the whole thing is a hoax, there's nothing to this. but to get to the point to actually indict foreign nationals in a huge national security case like this, what this revealed is that there was a long-standing investigation. this wasn't -- we have to remember this was not an investigation that just started with the special counsel last summer. this is a long-standing investigation that the fbi and the intelligence community probably supporting the fbi has been engaged in for a significant period of time, involved every investigative technique under the sun, from records to review of documents to interviews to surveillance techniques on the national security and possibly on the criminal side as well. so this is a huge comprehensive investigation. it is a big deal for the justice department to indictment foreign nationals in a national security case like this. we've seen them do it in cybersecurity cases. but it really not only is it

intended to bring justice to the specific crime that was committed, but it is also intended to send a diplomatic and foreign affairs message to the foreign government involved. >> usually when you're doing a case like this that has foreign nationals, people that you get all three input. it would be diplomatic relations with the russians. in this case it appears rob rosenstein would follow this. >> the special counsel indicting 13 russian nationals for u.s. election meddling. really crossing a very high

threshold in order to prove this has happened. this really goes to the heart of what the special counsel's investigation is about. meddling in the u.s. election by really a front for russia intel and it really speaks against what we've heard from the president himself, as he's thrown doubts on whether or not this say real thing. it is a real thing. this is a big deal. this is proof that this is not a hoax. i want to bring in our shimon prokupecz who is working his sources. what have you learned, shimon? >> i'm just reading through this indictment. we have producers and other folks going through this. it's quite stunning. there's so much detail in this indictment. it really is stunning. some of the allegations here says that some of the people that are named in this indictment travel to the united states and when they travel, according to the indictment, they planned their itineraries, purchased equipment such as camera, sim cards and drop

phones and discussed security, including evacuation scenarios about should they have been identified in some way how they would get out of the country if the government, if the fbi or other law enforcement-type officials identify them. so here we have not only russians perhaps overseas that were conducting this operation but some of them, according to this indictment, traveled to the united states, as part of this operation to meddle in the election. really stunning details. this indictment is so extensive. it's remarkable. in terms of the work that went into this. the intelligence that was gathered by the fbi, by the department of justice, perhaps others, to put this together, is truly, it gives you a really good idea of just how well planned, how well thought out the money behind this operation. everything that the russians were dealing with here and how sophisticated they were in infiltrating the election.

>> so speak to that shimon, and maybe as we're going through, we literally have a team of people going through this indictment right now, as we learn more information, we're bringing it to you. but this idea that russian nationals would have traveled to the united states, do we have any idea where they would have traveled? do we have an idea of what the objective would have been? is this about doing recon on the election so that these meddling efforts could be extraordinarily targeted? has that been -- has those been some of the questions we know the investigation is aiming to answer? >> some of that is laid out. some contacts in florida. some contacts that the russians had with people at rallies. so things of that nature is what's the indictment explains. i don't have specific information on where folks traveled. i think some of that is in the indictment. it's taking us time to go through it. but there seems to be a pretty good operation here, pretty good

contacts within the u.s., people they were talking to here in this country who were helping them who they were using money to try and put this together, to try and infiltrate the election. when you read all this and when you see all this, and when you see what's going on now, this was a very sophisticated and very successful operation. >> keep in mind, brianna, one of the things from this indictment we're seeing is that, you know -- >> this is the indictment here, right? >> when we heard, what we were doing initially is certainly the fbi had a view that -- it wasn't necessarily about supporting trump. they were basically trying to sow discord. >> the lack of trust in institutions, some sort of doubt in the outcome of the election. >> as time went on -- >> -- succeeded, clearly, in doing. >> as time went on, it became clear that trump was the nominee, they essentially coellised around supporting donald trump. they were doing things to

support bernie sanders. they were trying to hurt the candidacy of ted cruz and marco rubio. so those senators who obviously are still in office are going to have something to say about this because the republicans -- the republicans have been sort of, you know, sort of going along with this investigation. but donald trump has been saying that this never happened. >> i want -- i want to just let our viewers know what you're looking at on the right there is at the department of justice because we are awaiting the official announcement of these indictments by the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. while we wait for him, jim sciutto, i want to bring you into this. as you've been poring over this indictment, these indictments, i think there's a part that i think anyone who's been following this a little bit knows we certainly expected, which was the departments had posed as people, that they were not, and they had tried to create a sense of being

american, supporting a certain candidate or supporting a certain message. i think that online promoting of misinformation was something we expected. but when we just heard shimon's reporting there, that certain defendants travelled to the u.s. under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intel to inform operations, they actually, according to him, some of them went to florida. there were contacts at rallies. i mean, this is detailing an operation that we didn't -- we didn't know about. this is extraordinarily complicated. >> it's a level of detail we have not seen before. intelligence assessments can't go that far in revealing some of the detail they have. here we have it laid out like a recipe, right, a recipe for interfering in the u.s. election. keep in mind,ful a few weeks ago, we've heard the president use the phrase "hoax." he's never wavered from that,

before or after the election. he's called the talk of russian interference in the prescription election a hoax. his allies have done the same. in the wake of this horrible shooting in florida, you've heard that argument again, making the argument that the fbi's been wasting its time on a hoax investigation into russian interference when they should have been doing things to prevent shootings here in the u.s. again, using every opportunity to attack those involved in the russia investigation as somehow wasting their time, and to attack the investigation itself as a hoax. the president uses that phrasing repeatedly. now here in a legal document, which, again, has to meet a much higher standard in terms of what you see there in intelligence assessment. >> pardon me, jim, let's listen to the deputy ag. >> the indictment charges 13 russian nationals and 3 russian companies for committing federal crimes while seeking to

interfere in the united states political system, including the 2016 presidential election. the defendants allegedly conducted what they called information warfare against the united states. with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general. according to the allegations in the indictment, 12 of the individual defendants worked as various times for a company called internet research agency llc. a russian company based in st. petersburg. the other individual department, evgeny victorovich posogon funded the conspiracy through companies known as concord catering and many affiliated and subsidiaries. the conspiracy was part of a larger operation called project

lacta. included multiple components. and others targeting foreign audiences in multiple countries. internet research agency allegedly operate d through russian shell companies. it employed hundreds of people. ranging from creators of fictitious personas to technical and administrative support personnel. internet research agency was a structured organization headed by a management group and arranged into departments including graphics, search engine optization, information technology and finance departments. in 2014, the company established a translator project focused on the united states. in july of 2016, more than 80 employees were assigned to the translator project. two of the defendants allegedly travelled to the united states

in 2014 to collect intelligence for their american influence operations. in order to hide the russian origins of their activities, the departments allegedly purchased space on computer servers located here in the united states in order to set up a virtual private network. the defendants allegedly used that infrastructure to establish hundreds of accounts on social media networks such as facebook, instagram and twitter, making it appear that those accounts were controlled by persons located in the united states. they used stolen or fictitious american identities, fraudulent bank accounts and false identification documents. the defendants posed as politically and socially active americans. advocating for and against particular candidates. they established social media pages and groups to communicate with unwitting americans. they also purchased political advertisements on social media networks.

the russians also recruited and paid real americans to engage in political activities for political campaigns and stage political rallies. the defendants and their con conspirators pretended to be grassroots activists. a cording to the indictment, the americans did not know they were communicating with russians. after the election, the defendants allegedly staged rallies to support the president-elect, while simultaneously staging rallies to protest his election. for example, the defendants organized one rally to support the president elect and another rally to oppose him. both in new york on the same day. on september 13th of 2017, soon after the news media reported that the special counsel's office was investigating evidence that russian operatives had used social media to interfere with the 2016 election, one defendant allegedly wrote, quote, we had a slight crisis here at work.

the fbi busted our activity. so i got preoccupied with covering tracks together with my colleagues, end quote. the indictment includes eight criminal counts. count one alleges a criminal conspiracy to defraud the united states. by all of the defendants. the defendants allegedly conspired to defraud america by impairing the lawful functions of the federal election commission, the united states department of justice, and the department of state. those organizations of the u.s. government are responsible for administrating federal requirements for disclosure of foreign involvement in certain domestic activities. count two charges conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud by internet research agency and two of the individual defendants. counts three through eight charge aggravated identity theft by internet research agency and

four individuals. now, there is no allegation in this indictment that any american was a foeing participant in this illegal activity. there is no allegation in the indictment that the charge conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election. i want to caution you that everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. at trial, prosecutors must introduce credible evidence that is sufficient to prove each defendant guilty beyond any reasonable doubt to a unanimous jury. special counsel's investigation is ongoing. there will be no comments from the special counsel at this time. this indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the internet. the indictment alleges that the russian conspirators want to promote discord in the united states and undermine public

confidence and democracy. we must not allow them to succeed. the department of justice will continue to work coop ra ditera with other intelligence agencies and with the congress to defend our nation against similar current and future efforts. i want to thank the federal agents and prosecutors who are working on this case for their exceptional service and i'll be happy to take a few questions. >> is there concern that this -- >> -- there's no allegation in the indictment of any effect on the outcome of the election. jessica. >> on page four of the indictment, paragraph six, it specifically talks about the trump campaign, saying that defendants communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the trump campaign. my question is later in the indictment, campaign officials are referenced not by their name, by campaign official one

or two or three. were campaign officials cooperative or were they duped? what was their relationship with this? >> there's no allegation in this indictment that any american had any knowledge and the nature of the scheme was the kept defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appear they were ordinary american political activists, even going so far as to base their activities on a virtual private network here in the united states so if anybody traced it back to the first jump, they appeared to be americaned. >> have you had any assurances from the russians they will provide these individuals for prosecution? >> there's been no communication with the russians about this. we'll follow the ordinary process of seeking cooperation and extradition. thank you very much. >> that was a stunning appearance there by the deputy attorney general. and it really just gets to the question of what is the robert

mueller special counsel russia investigation. detailed instances of russia meddling in the 2016 election. there's been this political cloud about whether this is real, whether there was involvement of the trump campaign. this is clear this was very real. this is not a hoax. this is not created. this is evan perez according to the deputy attorney general. there's no charge that it changed the outcome of the election. but that's where it's going to lead a lot of people to wonder. because that was the whole point, was that it was supposed to sow some sort of disenfran diesment. when you look at some of the details here that people traveled to the u.s., to colorado, to michigan, which was such a key state in the election, to texas, to new york that there were contacts with the trump campaign, perhaps unwitting is what it appears from here. but' r a reminder from rod

rosenstein that some people are not who they appear to be, even in they reroute all their internet traffic through the u.s. >> this was an extraordinary russian operation. it wasn't very expensive. it was about $1 million a month, that was their budget for this internet research agency. rosenstein said this was simply information warfare. they called it project lacta which is named apparently for a neighborhood, an area in st. petersburg, russia. so they had a project name. they had a design. they went back, all the way back to 2014 as you mentioned. they got visas for the united states. they traveled here. they collected intelligence. they went back -- >> what intelligence would they be collecting? some have wondered, did they taylor their message when they went back and pretended to be u.s. activists? were they tailoring their message to areas where it would be more vulnerable? >> the suspicion has always been

that they came -- that they spent some serious time studying the american system, studying which states were the ones that were in play. the question of whether or not there was some targeting of this activity has always been one at the top of everyone's mind. i don't think this indictment answers all of those questions but i think that's the type of intelligence that would have been collected by the russians before carrying this out. let me just real quick mention that one of the twitter accounts that they created is for the tennessee gop. which is -- >> it's what it appears to be, right? ten gop. >> ten gop. it was intended to give people the idea you're following the tennessee republican party. >> how many followers? >> pretty popular it says 100,000 online followers. we know that we've seen that kellyanne conway, donald trump, were among the people who retweeted tweets from ten gop so this was a successful operation.

it has sown discord beyond i think their dreams, the russian dreams. for a paltry amount of money, really. >> i want to head to the white house where we have our pam brown with some reporting. i wonder, is the white house reacting to this yet? >> the white house we're told is working on a statement that is will be putting out shortly and i'm told by an official familiar with working on this statement that it will touch on the fact there were these 13 russian indictments and the fact that according to this official no one in the trump campaign to include the president ever wittingly worked with or colluded with the russians. as you all have been talking about in this indictment. there is -- there's a point to be made about people in the trump campaign unwittingly working with some of these russians. you just pointed out the tennessee gop twitter account. we know don jr., kellyanne conway, among others, retweeted that. so basically this indictment is -- the statement from the

white house as far as earlier today was meant to make the point that no one wittingly ever worked with any of these russians. we're told that the president was briefed on these 13 indictments this morning by the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. as well as the fbi director christopher wray. and all of this begs the question, brianna, will this change the president's tune as far as the russians meddling in the election? so far, he has not embraced that. he has cast doubt on whether the elections meddled in the election. because a cordi iaccording to s believes it cast down on the legitimacy of him winning the presidency. now that this is going to be put before a judge in a court of law, a higher bar in the intelligence assessment, will the president finally come out and embrace the fact that the russians did meddle in the election? we'll have to wait and see what his response is, brianna. >> all right, pam brown at the white house, thank you so much, pamela. i want to bring in shimon

prokupecz again. it was so interesting to hear rod rosenstein there when he made the announcement of these indictments and detailed the findings. these are fascinating, from the idea you had this agency that was operating very much like a start-up with graphics. they had search engine optization. they had a finance department. we're learning all these details but it was also so clear from what he was saying that this is very much in progress. we're only partway along the road to the destination of this special counsel and its ultimate findings in this investigation. >> that's exactly right. there were questions asked about really what's next. he made a point that in this indictment, i think he said it twice in this indictment, there is no indications, at least in this indictment that any americans had knowledge. we don't know what's ahead. we know the special counsel -- i think this is what a lot of people are going to be wondering about, so it's important to talk about, is what's next. what's left? you have all the russians now who were believed to be behind this operation indicted.

you have a call of other people indicted. that are associates of the president during the campaign. so now the question is what's next. and rod rosenstein says the investigation is ongoing. the special counsel's investigation is ongoing. so that is still ongoing. this does not in anyway mean this is over. i think that's an important point to make. additionally i think in reading this indictment just tells you the level of sophistication, but the way the fbi here infiltrated this operation, you know, presumably resources overseas, some of the technical help. but there's this line that rozenstein mentioned about how the russians here discovered the fbi was on to them, that the fbi busted our activity it said so in the indictment as well, and basically they started to cover their tracks. so the fbi has been monitoring this group clearly for quite some time. i think that's an important detail. it tells you, though as

sophisticated as they may have been, the fbi was able to infiltrate them. >> i want to bring in jim sciutto to talk a little bit about how savvy these russian operators were, jim. they brought political advertisements, according to this indictment, on social media in the names of u.s. persons and entities. and then all of this was funded through russian fronts, right, including a catering company run by a russian money man evgeny progezen. >> we did a story on him a few years ago. this is a guy known as putin's chef. he provides food to the russian army. he's a rich guy, very close to putin. one of those indicted today. what strikes me is the political savviness of the russian interference here. you see in the indictment, you heard some of this referred to by the deputy attorney general. they focused on purple states. they went around the country. they did their research.

they asked people this they decided to focus on colorado, virginia, florida, michigan. smart enough to focus their efforts on states where it would have the most influence. they had goals of doing things like depressing minority voting. knowing that would hurt the democrats. they alleged voter fraud by the democratic party knowing that would hurt democrats. they did, by mid-2016, the indictment states, and this is right in line with what the u.s. intelligence assessment said, by middle of that year, the goal became to help diplomat diplomat and hurt hillary clinton. that's not how this interference began. the intelligence community said early on it was just to sow doubts, kind of screw with american's minds. but as it got closer to the election, the clear intention became to help trump and hurt hillary clinton and to do so in a way, again with that savvine s savviness, focus efforts on swing states. rile up issues that they knew motivated republican voters and

de-motivated democratic voters. you know, things like alleging voter fraud by the democratic party. the final note i would make is -- this interference continues up to this day. in the hours after the shooting in park land, it was russian bots that were pushing out points and talking points about gun rights, et cetera, is how often those russian bots, their talking points are in line with what you'll hear from many in the right wing of the republican party here. it's just -- shows a remarkable savviness and remarkable effort here to maximize this influence on the u.s. election. it's happening now, brianna. you heard the cia director say last week, russia is interfering now, today, with the intention, they expect, of interfering in 2018 and 2020. >> it was very scary, in fact, the warnings that they gave, especially as it is so clear that the administration is not organizing a coordinated effort to respond to those threats,

jim. >> absolutely, and i -- on that point, brianna, i speak to intelligence officials and republicans and democrats. republicans and democrats briefed on the intelligence about russian interference. i asked them what needs to be done to protect u.s. elections going forward and they all make the point this is not a partisan point, they said you cannot have a credible defense without a whole of government response. you can't just have one agency here one agency there. they say that whole government response is impossible without the president's backing. and the president still considers remarkably this whole story a hoax. >> as we've learned from you, josh, there are constraints. there are some legal constraints, right, when it comes to coordinating some of these responses to this? i mean this really does take the proper jurisdiction of the white house, the national security counsel, to execute this. >> absolutely right. i think that's why mueller's team is so diverse. one thing, evan, you've lived this, right, for the last year

and more. i think we've seen, we've tried to read the tea leaves every time some new person was appointed to mueller's team. what do they bring to the table? as you look through this indictment, you kind of start seeing that fuller picture. they brought in the white collar prime people. this is why. the cyber experts. it's start to make a little more sense. it starts to make a little more sense. this is something that preceded mueller, was going on in the fbi. this information coming primarily from what mueller found after the investigation started or something they were on to early on? it goes back to 2014, the indictment. it's also interesting, would we be here if comey wasn't fired and mueller wasn't appointed the special counsel? it's very curious. as an investigator, what's next? what's the next shoe to drop? what comes after this? i think if you look at these charges, serious topics wooech talked about here even just within the last hour, any one of these would prove the utility of

muleer's team taken together is stunning. >> i want to bring in democratic congressman eric swaller. very savvy operations by russians when it came to an information warfare campaign, employing hundreds of individuals, some of them in administrative roles. a lot of them pretending to be u.s. activists and trying to mislead people on social media. some of them paying, obviously, for all of this operation to go on. where does this leave the house and senate intelligence committee investigation? does this help to give any sort of direction? >> hopefully it's an inflection point to help us put reforms in place so we have that whole of

government response. one thing that struck me from rod rosenstein's presentation, this timeline is coming into focus. he noted that they really ratcheted up their campaign in 2016. what was happening at this time? george papadopoulos was told in april 2016 that the russians had dirt on hillary clinton. in the summer of 2016, candidate trump invited the russians to hack hillary clinton's e-mails. also in june 2016, the candidate's son received a meeting from the russians offering dirt on hillary clinton. then you have his data team reach iing tout julian assange. you have roger stone intimating that an attack is coming. the candidate created an environment where the russians felt comfortable, believing he was willing and eager to receive it. it's up to bob mueller's team to find out if colusion existed but

he certainly gave them a green light. >> did it strike you where he said repeatedly that there's no charge that this altered the outcome of the election? >> that's not their job to determine if it altered the election or not. that's congress' job. i've written legislation with elijah cummings to have an independent investigation like we did after september 11th, with independently appointed bipartisan panel election experts. their job is to see if any crimes can committed and if they can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. it looks like they can do that now. >> do you think it may have changed the outcome of the election? >> i just want a chance to find out that question, brianna. all i see are tacks on the process, that the fbi committed abuses or our chairmen working with the white house rather than bringing in witness to get to the bottom of that. we want a fair hearing mostly

because the russians are still here. if we're going to understand what they're going to do in the next election we need a full picture of what they did last election. >> congressman, if you wouldn't mind standing by for me while i bring carl bernstein on the phone to talk with us about this. carl, these are stunning details that we are reading in page after page. dozens of pages in this entitlement, detailing just the extraordinary detail to which this operation, which employed hundreds of employees, trying to conduct information warfare and meddle in the u.s. election. what's your reaction to this as you hear all these details and what this means moving forward in this investigation? >> well, first of all, as you say, the details are extraordinary. they're granular. they're also huge, significant. they're convincing. they give a great picture of what the russians did in a way that makes it impossible for the president of the united states

to credibly question what has occurred here. and that's the other aspect of this. mueller's timing and rod rosenstein's timing on this announcement could not be more brilliant in terms of undercutting the president of the united states in his attacks on the mueller investigation, the fact that rod rosenstein himself chose to do this briefing on television, on national television, when he has been largely not visible to the american public, and the fact that donald trump has been intent, for months, on firing and replacing rod rosenstein and trying to shut down mueller's investigation, that is the other element of this that is a master stroke by mueller and by rosenstein that makes it extraordinarily difficult for trump to end this investigation, for him to curtail it. it undermines his continuing to

demean and obstruct the investigation. i have little doubt that it will force some republicans to try to protect mueller, rosenstein and the integrity of this investigation and it changes for the immediate moment the whole dynamic in which the president of the united states and his republican acolites and enablers in the congress of the united states would appear to be not only up and running with very strong legs, it gives a picture of the interface between what happened in the election and what the russians did in a way that makes it impossible to deny. >> it's a really important point that you bring up there, carl. carrie cordero, to that point, carl is saying that this gives

robert mueller the cover to continue. i mean, it's so clear this is undeniable what happens gone on here. this is not a political witch hunt. this is a detailed explanation of russian meddling in the election. what's it mean for robert mueller going forward as he's operating in this hyper political atmosphere? >> i don't think anyone should take way from the indictment that it was strategically timed to protect the investigation or anything. they brought this indictment when they were ready. as soon as the special counsel's investigative team thought they had the facts and were ready to present the indictment, that they believe they have a reasonable belief of success on the merits of prosecuting this case, they brought the indictment and that's what brings the timing. one takeaway from this indictment as we're going through now, it was that it was a conspiracy. this was a conspiracy of an

organization led by the russian government. the president's statement when he said he believed vladimir putin that they weren't involved, that was wrong. this was a conspiracy that was funded with millions of dollars that involved hundreds of individuals, that involved front companies, that involved counter -- i see traditional russian counterintelligence technique, including using fraudulent identities and those types of techniques, conspiracy in the russian government leading back years before the 2016 election. >> they set up these russian operatives came to the u.s. and actually -- they would have bought server space, right, in the united states? so that you heard rosenstein say there the first jump, if you're tracing back to where is this coming from, oh, it's an ip address in the united states. it's american. >> that shows a sophistication in terms of their understanding of how our law enforcement works, how our surveillance laws works. there's a lot of information

public now about how our surveillance law works. they understood it and exploited it. >> they trace it back so they could look ultimately -- you read this indictment. they have the address of the office, evan, where this operation was operate iing. >> we know there's a lot more that the fbi has in its possession. some officials were ready in november of 2016, they thought they had enough information to try to bring some charges. clearly, there was additional information being done. now we're seeing the fruits of this. i think this was a conspiracy that was extraordinarily successful. >> yeah. and if you look at -- you read had through this indictment, this is asymmetric psychological warfare on the united states. it's a conspiracy, deliberate attempt to influence our society. one thing, too, that stands out -- >> they're using our own system

against us. >> using our own system and it shows us the gravity of the situation and what our fbi investigators are up against. i'll tell you one thing that i don't think that the folks get enough credit on is the sophistication that these counterintelligence agencies face. >> we are going to continue to cover this. 13 russian nationals indicted. we just heard the announcement from the department of justice. we are pouring through, right now, this indictment, dozens of pages with extraordinary details that show just how sophisticated this effort was. we'll continue our special coverage right now. hi there, i'm brooke baldwin once again live in parkland florida. you're watching breaking coverage of two massive stories breaking right now. one involves this scene right here where 17 lives were cut short by a man who admitted now that he opened fire. the fbi now admits, they got a tip about the shooter,