good evening. we began the program last night saying that yesterday could prove to be one of the most consequential days in donald trump's presidency. well, today could prove to be one of the weirdest. that's because a day after the diplomat and five decade long public servant william taylor laid out the ukraine quid pro quo to house impeachment committee members, about two dozen conservative republican lawmakers decided to engage in a publicity stunt, storming the secure conference room or scif where a senior pentagon official, laura cooper, was about to testify to both democratic and republican lawmakers. some of them held up their phones to record their storming of a secure room and held up proceedings for about five hours, demanding to witness the closed-door testimony, complaining loudly about due process in the way the hearings are being run. but keeping 'em honest, there are several reasons why their complaints just simply do not add up. for one, it's not like republicans are being locked out. as long as there are members of the appropriate three committees, this is not a

democratic star chamber. there are plenty of republicans in the room listening to all this testimony, nor are closed-door proceedings anything new. back when republicans controlled the house, portions of the benghazi hearings were conducted that way. this very short video, in fact, shows then committee chairman republican trey gowdy escorting republican congressman darrell issa out of one such session after eissa tried to crash it. here's gowdy back then extolling the virtues of secret proceedings. >> let me ask you this. what serious finder of fact can you name that identifies information in five-minute increments and does it on television and then flipped from one side to the other? i mean the grand jury doesn't do it. your local sheriff doesn't do it. your united states attorney doesn't do it. >> so that's then congressman gowdy defending the very thing those republican congress members were supposedly protesting today. now, by the way, it's a security violation to bring phones into a secure room, but you know what? when you're really desperate for attention and you're a member of

congress, apparently security regulations don't apply. today the president tried to rebut the time line of the ukraine quid pro quo, arguing that there's no way it was a quid pro quo because the ukrainians had no idea the aid was being held up. he tweeted out a quote from a republican congressman on "fox & friends," reading it now, quote, neither he, taylor, nor any other witness has provided testimony that the ukrainians were aware that military aid was being withheld. you can't have a quid pro quo with no quo. first of all, logically that's not true. when a small country is reliant on military aid from a big country and they've not received that aid, even if they expect it's going to come, it doesn't mean they can't be made to feel beholden to the longer country. it turns out not long after the president was pushing the idea that ukraine had no idea the aid was being held up, "the new york times" posted a story based on interviews and documents that they obtained showing that actually, yeah, the ukrainians did know by early august. also tonight, there's new cnn reporting which we'll bring you later on in the broadcast, that

ukraine's president was actually feeling pressure as far back as early may to publicly investigate the company tied to joe biden's son. and of course there's the taylor testimony, which even some republicans concede was damaging. senator john thune of south dakota saying that although it was hard, in his words, to draw hard and fast conclusions, the picture from initial reports was, quote, in his words, not a good one. a short time ago laura cooper wrapped up her testimony. joining us is one of the lawmakers who was in the room and not there in protest, california democratic congressman ro khanna. congressman, thanks for being with us. first of all, how much did you learn from laura cooper today because republican congressman mark meadows says there was no aha moment. was that your takeaway? >> well, just based on the public information, i think there is further evidence that here there was a quid pro quo, that the president basically is withholding aid. zelensky is being told that you have to have a public press conference announcing an

investigation into joe biden, and that's completely unacceptable. >> congressman meadows also said that some of cooper's testimony conflicted with what ambassador taylor told congress yesterday. is that accurate? >> well, you know, i'm going to follow the rules, anderson, and unlike others, not be commenting on things that we're not supposed to comment on. but based on the public testimony, here's what we know. there is a lot of reason for other people to come in and clarify their previous testimony because what you have on mr. taylor's testimony, which i think on the public reporting is most explosive, he says that the president basically ordered or directed zelensky to investigate biden, and we were at a stalemate if he wasn't going to do that, the aid wasn't going to get to him. >> cooper only testified, i think, for 3 1/2 hours. a lot of other witnesses have sat for much longer. did the five-hour delay because of this strange publicity stunt

by some republicans -- did that impact the length of her testimony? i mean were you able to get through everything you wanted to find out from her? >> we got through everything, but i want to focus on this publicity stunt. it was more than a publicity stunt. i mean in this country we have the rule of law, not a rule by mob. and no one can go in a city council meeting and just obstruct the proceedings. no one can go to a school board meeting if they don't like it and obstruct the proceedings or obstruct the proceedings in court. i don't understand why being a member of congress gives you a right to obstruct the rule of law. as you pointed out, you know, in benghazi, there were these depositions in the scif. the democrats participated. we thought it was total bogus, the investigation against hillary clinton, but not a single democrat was thinking of disrupting the proceedings. so this is just contrary to everything this country stands for to interrupt proceedings when the republicans have every due process right there. >> can you just explain what it

was like in the room? i mean did they just barge into the room? were some of them yelling? i read some report that louie gohmert was yelling, which wouldn't be any surprise. >> they barged in. mel brooks was outside yelling into the cameras. they barged into the room. later on, there were pizza boxes strewn all over the scif. >> wait. they brought pizza with them? >> there were pizza boxes. i mean i was in and out but i went later on for the deposition, and there were just pizza boxes there, lying there, that had had eaten pizza. but i mean think about this. if someone gets a traffic ticket and you think it's a totally unjustifi unjustified traffic ticket, imagine what would happen to if you want to traffic court and you went and created a parade, you started yelling and said, this proceeding is ridiculous. i don't have enough rights. i mean you'd be locked up. so i guess the question is what makes someone who is a member of congress think that the rules

don't apply to them, that they can just act whatever way they want? >> i mean, you know, i guess maybe if the president tells you, yeah, that's a good idea, go ahead and do it -- i mean it's a little bit like in a jury if, you know, friends and acolytes of the defendant would feel free to just storm the jury room and, you know, start trying to defend the defendant. i mean the chairman of the homeland security committee has sent a letter to the sergeant of arms asking him to, quote, take actions against republicans who breached the scif. he doesn't specify what that should look like. some of these folks sort of sent out the videos of themselves violating federal law. do you think action will be taken? >> there should be consequences. i mean these are the places where our most sensitive, classified information is shared. no one -- everyone knows this. you're not allowed to take any electronic device. you're not allowed to comment about anything that's said there, and yet you have people that are taking phones, tweeting

out about this. it's making a mockery of the process, and it's not just a mockery of the rule of law. i mean think about in a sports game or something if you didn't like the call of the ref, imagine if someone just stormed the court or stormed the field. i mean we would -- we teach our kids that this is not how america works. then you've got elected officials thinking the rules don't apply. and i think, anderson, this is the problem with this president. he doesn't understand that we live in a constitutional democracy where the rule of law matters more than any individual. and that's what we're losing in this country. >> i feel like, you know, i remember over the years newscasts have played videos of politicians in, i don't know, south korea fighting or in some eastern european country battling each other, and it seemed like a joke, and can you believe that that would happen there. i mean this is like one step toward that. i mean who knows, you know, where we'll be a few months from now. >> you know, it was said -- and i don't want to reveal who.

but i was in the elevator going back to my office, and you had members of congress yelling at each other today, which i've never seen before. usually people are civil. but there is a tension now that is really undermining the halls of congress, and it's sad to see. >> yeah. maybe that person didn't get enough pizza. congressman khanna, i appreciate it. thank you very much. to underscore how eager some republicans are to blow off taylor's testimony, listen to what congressman mel brooks said to cnn's manu raju. >> i'm asking about the suck stan sub stabs of what he said. >> we don't know because the sham process that is being used. we have a judicial system. we have a bill of rights that guarantees a process. if you rely just on bits and pieces, if you do not allow cross-examination of witnesses, if you do not allow rebuttal witnesses, then you're apt to be fooled. >> it doesn't make any difference he said when asked about the substance of bill taylor's testimony.

others including john thune seemed to believe otherwise and plenty of republicans are eager to create distractions to it. let's get some perspective from carl bernstein, also gloria borger and jeffrey toobin. jeffrey, i mean the republicans sort of -- the oddest storming of a secure location i've seen. >> my favorite part of the protest was that several of the protesters were actually members of the committee who were inside. so they had every right to be inside even though they were protesting. so in that solidarity, i am protesting my failure to be allowed on "ac 360" while being on "ac 360." i think that's the level of protest that we saw today. so consider that -- >> carl, i mean is this -- is it just a publicity stunt? is it, you know, a sign of where we're headed? what do you make of it? >> i think it's an indication of the total lack of interest in

the republicans in the house and senate at getting at the truth and confronting the abuse of power by the president of the united states. we have a situation now that there are three things happening at the same time with the president. he has undermined the national security of the united states by engaging a foreign power to subvert our american electoral process. he has gone into turkey and endangered our national security there and allowed the russians once again almost inexplicably to be the winners. he is behaving and conducting himself in a way that republicans themselves especially, talking with reporters privately, are questioning his sanity and his stability. all this is happening at once, and at some point the republicans are going to have to confront the fact that he has abused the power of the presidency, that there is a really strong case for high

crimes here, and they're going to have to confront that reality and look down the road about those republicans who don't confront it. >> gloria, the fact that this whole stunt comes the day after the most damaging testimony to date hardly seems like a coincidence. it sort of seems like, you know, a presidential play to kind of steal back the narrative and have this be the story that overshadows what, you know, devastating testimony from yesterday. >> yeah. it's about deflecting and changing the subject. and don't forget dana bash reported today that the president was in on this, that this whole stunt had his blessing, that this was performance art performed for an audience of one, and that's donald trump. and that these are people, don't forget, who know the rules of the house, who have a certain amount of clearance, and maybe now they'll lose their security clearance. i have no idea since they brought their telephones into

the scif and damaged the integrity of the scif, many believe. >> right. but if they were like a low-level, you know, member of the military, you know, without a high rank or even any rank and they did that -- >> gone. >> their career would be destroyed. >> destroyed. and instead there were people in there recording. >> yeah, and tweeting it out. >> exactly. so this is a serious issue, and of course when they concocted this with the blessing of the president, many of them might have had no idea or, even worse, maybe some of them did. >> remember -- i'm sorry. just the president's twitter feed today, he was threatening republicans, you know, calling them human scum who don't follow his lead. so he wants to keep them in line, and that's what we saw today. >> human scum. he has the best words. >> it's a high brow appeal. >> we've got to take a quick break. when we come back, new cnn reporting on the time line. more evidence the ukrainians knew and knew early on what president trump really wanted from them. later we'll talk to someone outside congress who has become

a member of the democrats' impeachment brain trust, constitutional lawyer and scholar laurence tribe joins us ahead. with advil, you have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength of advil. what pain? the amazing new iphone has arrived. and so has t-mobile's newest signal. no signal goes farther or is more reliable. so you can get more out of the new iphone. better battery life, new ultra-wide camera. and at t-mobile get unlimited for only $30/line for 4 lines on a network that goes farther than ever before. and right now, switch at a t-mobile store and get the new iphone 11 on us! only at t-mobile.

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and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. the president as you know began his day by trying to cast doubt on the notion of a quid pro quo with ukraine based on the time line. well, tonight as we mentioned at the top of the broadcast, there's breaking news on precisely that on how early in the process ukraine actually began feeling the heat. cnn's rene marsh has the detailed. what have you learned? >> reporter: anderson, we've learned that two weeks before zelensky was sworn in as president of ukraine, the new leader as well as his team discussed the pressure that they were already feeling from the trump administration and president trump's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, to essentially launch investigations into corruption cases including burisma, which is that energy company that joe

biden's son, hunter, was on the board for. the source said that the meeting was originally supposed to be discussing issues surrounding energy, but eventually evolved into discussing this pressure that zelensky was already feeling before he was officially even in office. and this meeting went on for some three hours with zelensky trying to figure out how does he navigate this and what should he do about it. >> so this was before he even became president? >> right. this was before he became officially sworn in as president. >> so months before he had the phone call at the end of july with president trump and now the phone call which we've seen the rough transcript of? >> reporter: absolutely. and just two weeks before he initially had a first call with the president. so just two weeks prior to this meeting, trump and zelensky did have a phone call. it was the president calling to congratulate him on his win. this happened on april 21st after zelensky won the

presidential election in ukraine. and we did get a white house readout of the call that said that the two leaders discussed working together to root out corruption. however, what is unclear is whether the president in that april 21st phone call specifically asked for investigations into ukraine's role in the 2016 election or investigating burisma. that is unclear because we haven't seen the transcript from that april 21st call. >> you said there was a readout that's different than the rough -- kind of the rough transcript that is done during the call? is that -- >> reporter: absolutely. so we don't know verbatim exactly what was touched on in this call. we just know that on april 21st, when zelensky won as president of ukraine, the president, according to the white house, made a congratulatory call and we know that this issue of

corruption was discussed. but we don't know much more according to your reporting, zelensky already had met and knew that when the president -- or i guess when the president talked about corruption, what giuliani and the president wanted was an investigation of biden, whether he instantly links that with corruption or not, we know he was already aware of what the president really wanted. >> reporter: yeah. i mean by the time that zelensky called this may 7th meeting where he was trying to figure out how do i deal with the pressure from the trump administration, he clearly knew one very clear item here, which is the meeting that he wanted to have with president trump, that face-to-face meeting was at stake if he did not support an investigation into -- >> got it. >> -- companies like burisma. back now with carl

bernstein, gloria borger, jeff toobin. the fact that the president today is talking about no quid pro quo, time line doesn't make sense, the fact that before he's even in office, he's feeling pressure from giuliani and trump world. >> you know, what's so extraordinary about this story is every single piece so far fits together. now, usually not the case. usually there are sort of weird, stray facts. everything that has come out suggests that the only interest rudolph giuliani, donald trump, or anyone allied with them had in ukraine was getting dirt on their political opponents and figuring out what happened in 2016 with the mysterious server. that's the only interest they had in ukraine. and every fact that has come out, whether it's from trump personally or through witnesses like taylor, who had secondhand information, suggests the same thing. and this -- rene's story gives us some sense of the origin of how early in the process this

obsession with burisma and 2016 -- >> gloria, you know, you imagine you've got this president, a guy who is, you know, not yet the president. he has no political experience. he was a comedian. and he knows he needs u.s. aid. he's fighting russia, and he suddenly, you know, has giuliani kind of putting out feelers and whispering in people's ears in ukraine. it's got to be surreal. >> well, i'm sure it was surreal, and i'm sure that's why they took hours talking about it instead of energy policy. it's clear that the president knew exactly what donald trump wanted. a couple of things here. number one, in that easter sunday phone call that rene was talking about, what did the president exactly say to him? we don't have any idea. did the president talk about corruption and that zelensky knew what that meant because of other channels and other people he had spoken with? and secondly, the interesting

part about rene's reporting tonight is that republicans are saying you cannot have a quid pro quo -- not that you need it. but you cannot have a quid pro quo unless the ukrainians knew about the pressure. this story shows, well, yes. the ukrainians did know, and they spent hours even before he was inaugurated trying to figure out what to do about it. >> carl, even if they did not know, you know, that immediately on that late july phone call that the aid was already being held up, the fact that the aid was not there and the president had control of it and they desperately needed it, i mean that is essentially, you know, a sword hanging over them. >> and you have just described the high crime. you know, the impeachment clause of the constitution refers to treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. this is about bribery. this is about the president of the united states attempting to

bribe another president of a foreign country by withholding aid, military aid. >> without his money. he's attempting to bribe with american taxpayers' money. >> bribery is the operative word. we need to focus on it. i think this has something to do with why mitch mcconnell is moving away to some extent and denying that he spoke with the president about that phone call, and why john thune is so worried. they understand the import of bribery as a high crime, and that looks like what has occurred here. >> carl bernstein, gloria borger, jeff toobin, thank you. house democrats are staffing up. we'll talk to a harvard law professor who has reportedly become a source of advice to those leading the inquiry. we'll be right back.

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as republicans staged theatrics on capitol hill to show the president just how loyal they are, house democrats are girding for the long impeachment process ahead. according to "the washington post," they're getting some legal advice on their impeachment maneuverings from harvard's laurence tribe. professor tribe helped author the book "to end a presidency, the power of impeachment." his co-author was recently added to the house judiciary committee's legal team. interestingly, two of professor tribe's former students now help lead the probe, adam schiff and jamie raskin. also jeff toobin is a former student. professor, obviously i know you can't report about your

communication with house democrats. but generally speaking, is the current course of action working in the way that it should? >> i think it is, anderson, and i maybe could begin where carl bernstein left off. this is bribery, but it's not just bribery. you know, it would be soliciting a bribe if the president said to president zelensky, you know, if you do me a favor, maybe give me a few bucks, stay at the doral hotel, for example, i'll give you a signed copy of "the art of the deal" and let you take a photo opp with me. that's not what's going on. what's going on is our president is saying to president zelensky, you're under attack by russia with russian tanks. your people are dying, and i'll let that go on and hold off the aid that our congress has voted

unless and until you go on tv and announce that you are investigating my opponent, joe biden, and his son, hunter with burisma. i mean that is an extraordinary thing. he's stealing taxpayers' money, using it as though it were his, basically dangling it and saying, i won't let you have it, even though you need it to survi survive, unless you help me win. so he is violating the separation of powers by usurping the power of the purse. he's not just bribing. he's committing extortion, and he's abusing power in the most dramatic way. if there ever were a model case for an impeachable offense, a high crime and misdemeanor that includes bribery, this is it. and i think that nancy pelosi was wise to hold off until she had what amounts to not just a smoking gun but a smoking

howitzer. and now she has it with the testimony we heard -- and i haven't heard all of it, but just the prepared statement was dynamite from the former ambassador to ukraine. and that testimony established that this guy, who is not a partisan, he's a half-century, you know civil servant. he was in the 121st airborne. >> yeah, vietnam vet, west point graduate. >> absolutely. you couldn't have a stronger witness. so this is really it. >> what do you make of, you know, the white house arguing that, well, the president of ukraine didn't know that the aid had been held up in that late july phone call, so therefore there was no pressure, no quid pro quo? just the logic of that argument does not make sense to me given the unequal balance of, you know, ukraine, people are dying, they're desperate, the aid's not

there whether he knows it's being held up or not. he knows the white house has, you know, a sword over his head. >> you're certainly right about that, anderson, but on top of that, it's a lie. we now know that from before he became president, zelensky was aware that for some weird reason, this money that congress had appropriated in a bipartisan way to help him fight off putin's army, that that money was being withheld. he couldn't figure out why. and then he began to get the picture. it's being held up because you haven't yet satisfied exactly what we want from you, which is not really investigating corruption. >> right. >> actually it was just making a show of investigating corruption. so this is just the most transparently clear abuse of power and an impeachable offense that i can remember in the history of the united states. >> wow. >> and i've studied it pretty thoroughly. this makes the nixon situation look silly by comparison.

this is bway more serious. >> how quickly do you think house democrats should be operating when it comes to having public hearings, taking this to a full house vote? >> well, it seems to me after another week or two at most of taking depositions, in a perfectly normal way, they're doing it this way because william barr refused to conduct a criminal inquiry. so they've got to do the work that would otherwise be done by a grand jury or a special counsel, and it's ludicrous to claim that there's something odd or wrong about doing this part in closed session. they do that for another ten days or so. they get all of their ducks in a row, and then they go into public session. we all get to hear what carol -- i guess it's laura cooper has to say, and we all get to hear what fiona hill has to say, and we hear in detail what the ambassador has to say, and then they're ready to vote articles of impeachment, which they haven't drafted yet because as

nancy pelosi said, it's not exactly a time line. it's a truth line. but when the truth is all lined up, they vote articles, probably around thanksgiving or maybe into december. and then it's a senate trial. it's a trial in which it's going to be very hard for republicans, even ones who have been loyal to the end, to look at themselves in the mirror and actually expect to be reelected if they don't do their constitutional duty. >> do you really believe that? it seems like they're very able to look themselves in the mirror no matter what or even, you know, look themselves in their cell phones as they're broadcasting from inside a supposedly secure room in violation of federal law. >> well, they clearly have been willing to put on a crazy show. but when push comes to shove and they realize not only that their grandchildren will never forgive them and that history will never forgive them, but that their voters will not forgive them, i think they will begin to get

into line. it really doesn't take more than a few more to get at least a majority if not two-thirds to convict the president. at that point i think, you know, we'll be off to the races. >> professor tribe, appreciate you being on. thank you so much. >> thank you, anderson. coming up next, there's breaking news. we've just learned that the president's tv lawyer is talking about lawyering up. also those two associates of rudy giulia rudy giuliani indicted last month appeared in court to enter their pleas. we'll tell you what happened and why one of their lawyers just tied his client to the president. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth...

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as breaking news on rudy giuliani goes, this particular item is both big but perhaps not really surprising given that two of his close associates were in court today pleading to federal charges. giuliani is talking about getting his own legal representation. our evan perez broke the story. so who is he trying to get? >> well, he's reaching out to some of his legal friends. he's got a lot of lawyer friends in new york, anderson. so we know over the last few days he's been reaching out to some of them. some of them have not been able to take on his representation, but apparently a lot of them are

actually trying to help him figure this out. obviously the need for a lawyer has been certainly impressed upon him by many of his friends even though rudy, himself, obviously has been resisting hiring a lawyer for the last few -- at least the last couple of weeks. >> we're talking about a defense attorney. >> right, exactly. we knew -- right. ever since his two associates were indicted, people have been telling rudy that he should hire a lawyer just to protect himself, and he's been resisting that. >> do we know what, if anything, has changed as far as federal investigators are concerned because as you said, just last week giuliani was saying he wasn't looking for a lawyer, he hadn't heard from the fbi. >> right. i think the message that's come across to rudy, anderson, that he is certainly somebody who is at the center of this investigation. he is now more than just a peripheral figure, which is what a lot of people thought early on. it's clear that he's under very close scrutiny by the prosecutors in the southern district of new york, and so that's the reason why a lot of

his friends have been telling rudy that you need to hire someone at least to protect yourself. you also notice, anderson, that he's stopped commenting to the media. that's another sign that he realizes the seriousness of the troubles that are potentially coming down his way. >> evan perez, thank you. more now on giuliani's two associates. igor fruman and lev parnas, they pleaded not guilty today to federal campaign finance charges. surprisingly an attorney for parnas suggested that he might claim executive privilege because the lawyer said giuliani was parnas' attorney and giuliani was also working for president trump during the time in question. that claim of course could link president trump to the government charges. it's clear both fruman and parnas have been in giuliani's orbit for some time now. but the question is who exactly are they? cnn's senior investigative correspondent drew griffin looked into it. >> reporter: all you need to know about rudy giuliani's now indicted clients is that a long list of people who did business with lev parnas or igor fruman

from a home rental, a property lease, money loans, even basketball tickets have sued them. >> there's a saying in russia. don't go in the forest if you're afraid of wolves. and these guys, they just weren't wolves. i mean they were radioactive wolves. there were warning signals unfortunately that i don't think that mayor giuliani picked up. >> reporter: according to prosecutors, parnas and fruman were illegally dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign contributions to republican campaigns. they were also dropping something else -- rudy giuliani's name. the two men used their political connections, photos of themselves with giuliani, even attending george bush's funeral with the former mayor. there they are hugging florida governor ron desantis and of course reams of photos with donald trump and his family, all to use as currency in their scheme. >> in parts of the world like russia and ukraine, if you have photos like that and you show those to people, these are

countries where connections mean a lot. >> reporter: giuliani needed parnas and fruman's connection to carry out his mission. parnas and fruman used giuliani's name to hustle business. florida attorney bob stock says it's how the two men swindled his client out of $100,000. >> if someone tells you they're dealing with the president of the united states' attorney and he's also your attorney and you have very, very good relationship with him, most people would believe that you must be a credible person. >> reporter: stock says his client, a wealthy south florida businessman, loaned parnas and fruman the money last year. according to this lawsuit, the two men boasted about their close relationships to giuliani and other republican power players, who they said would help parnas and fruman in their new business -- global energy

producers, a gas export company that the two claimed would be the largest exporter of liquid natural gas in the u.s. stock says the two men suddenly paid back the loan just days after news broke about giuliani pressuring ukraine to investigate joe biden. >> we went through these guys' personal histories, and they seemed to have a series of business failures and personal failures, and they seemed, in our opinion, not to be credible. >> that didn't take long to find out, did it? >> no. it took maybe half an hour. just searching the public records. we didn't have to hire investigators. we didn't have to do any deep vetting. it was evident from the public records. >> reporter: giuliani has failed to answer cnn's questions about his involvement with parnas and fruman. cnn's own records search found a decade of red flags, lawsuits, and judgments and a list of questionable businesses, global

energy producers, the liquefied natural gas powerhouse the men bragged about, had no income or significant assets. even parnas' company, fraud guarantee, that paid rudy giuliani's $500,000 fee, doesn't appear to be a company at all. its registration is expired. according to philadelphia attorney bruce marx, parnas and fruman approached his client, a ukrainian billionaire, earlier this year. they wanted a six-figure payment. in exchange, they told the billionaire they could set up a meeting between the new ukrainian president and a delegation of american officials. marx says his client threw them out. >> let's be real. he really, in my opinion, should have been a little more diligent. they're fraudsters, and he has a security consulting company. so if there's anybody who might do a bit of due diligence, it would be mayor giuliani. >> you would think. drew griff injoins me now. there's evidence right up to the

day of their arrest, these guys were working with giuliani and all on behalf of donald trump, is that right? >> very closely, anderson. on the day of their arrest, sources are telling cnn they were on their way to vienna where they were going to meet rudy giuliani, and all of them were going to be involved in facilitating an interview between sean hannity at fox news and a former ukrainian prosecutor who was going to go on tv and support this conspiracy theory that the president has about the bidens and corruption and ukraine. obviously that didn't happen, and again we have no comment from either of these men's attorneys on that. >> and, again, the fact that one of their attorneys is now claiming or talking about claiming executive privilege, what exactly would he base a claim of executive privilege on? >> well, honestly that attorney didn't really know. i think he was fishing about this. but here's the theory. the theory is these guys share an attorney with the president, and they were working for the president's attorney in a role

that the president wanted that attorney to fulfill. so if you put that all together, you could say these guys were working for or on behalf of the president, and therefore would get some kind of executive privilege. >> hmm. >> we'll find out. >> yeah. drew griffin, appreciate it. more ahead tonight including a reality check on president trump's claim today that he's done, quote, a great service to the kurds and others in syria. the amazing new iphone has arrived. and so has t-mobile's newest signal. no signal goes farther or is more reliable. so you can get more out of the new iphone. better battery life, new ultra-wide camera. and at t-mobile get unlimited for only $30/line for 4 lines on a network that goes farther than ever before. and right now, switch at a t-mobile store and get the new iphone 11 on us! only at t-mobile. bleeding disorderste medlike hemophilia.s so victor can keep doing what's in his blood.

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coming up, we'll have a reality check on syria. first let's see what chris is working on for "cuomo prime time." >> we're going to look at the new tactics to frustrate the process of the president, which was to bums rush the process itself. we're going to look at what is fair, what is not fair, what the

real state of play is in the case and the weird thing to me isn't the republicans running around like that, it's what they're doing in court. they are literally arguing the i could shoot someone on fifth avenue and get away with it argument, for real. i got players on both sides, baker and mccabe. we'll do it the right way. >> that's about five minutes from now. and more and the president and turkey and the capture of isis fighters. i get it all the time. "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro.

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quick update on the chaos in northern syria. president trump's own special envoy to syria says forces backed by turkey may be guilty of war crimes. jim jeffrey told the house foreign affairs committee that turkey's incursion was a, quote, tragedy and have seen several war times. none of that kept president

trump from applauding turkey today and hinting its leader would soon visit washington. people are saying, quote, wow, what a great outcome, we've done a good job, we've saved a lot of lives. jim jeffrey also gave an update on the number of isis fighters who have escaped prison. he said the number that has escaped is now over a hundred. we do not know where they are, unquote. the president still says the opposite that all the fighters have been, quote, largely recaptured. a reminder, our digital news show can be seen at cnn.com/full circle or watch it any time on demand. we'll head over to chris cuomo for "cuomo prime time." >> i am chris cuomo. ukraine was concerned about being dragged into the election

even before that infamous scull phone call. but this may be worse. what were these republicans doing storming the castle? what do you say? let's get after it. we have new information. cnn confirms months before that notorious july phone call with trump and zelensky, ukraine's president, and after that first call, zelensky met with his team and discussed the concerns that they were being dragged into a u.s. election. where is the transcript of that call? obviously they were aware. the white house readout only says they spoke about working together to root out corruption. now we know corruption was basically code for the bidens and the dnc.