tonight on assignment, we investigate the scale of russian infiltration on u.s. soil. a major trump campaign donor comes under suspicion because of his russia ties. >> do you think that these donations were part of a russian campaign to influence the election and help president trump? >> absolutely. >> did paul manafort's russian codefendant use a republican institute as cover? we have exclusive details from an insider. and in russia, it's dangerous to be gay. >> after the bullet hit me. i tried to hide and they yelled, where are you running, fagot?

>> our live coverage from houston starts now. welcome to houston, texas, as you know, i mainly report from overseas, this time i'm here for a story that's both foreign and domestic. and yes it involves president trump and russia. in particular, why is it that some of president trump's most devoted supporters seem to like putin's russia. i've been twrafling in the states, i went to a gun show, i spoke to folks from the christian right. and what surprised me, even when they see all of the reporting about russia's attempts to influence our election, and they know that every one of our intelligence agencies reported putin sent his trolls to influence our election. their answer is, so what? when and why did some on the american right fall in love with putin's russia.

it did not happen by accident. it happened after russia launched a concerted campaign more than a decade ago to gain a foothold in american society. tonight we have exclusive reporting, we've been investigating someone who lives right here, someone you've probably never heard of, he's an oil executive born in russia and who out of the blue started making large donations to trump and the republicans in 2016. as an american citizen, his donations were perfectly legal. sources familiar with the investigation tell us special council robert mueller has been looking into him and his donations. and that makes a lot of sense, considering what we found. here's our exclusive investigation, which we conducted in conjunction with the guardian newspaper. in politics, money buys access, and sieman kukis got his money's worth. the russian born american businessman donated hundreds of

thousands of dollars to donald trump's 2016 run. that got him and his russian girlfriend right up close to the future president. in political circles, no one had ever heard of simon kukis before. >> he's been an american citizen for decades and he's never given a political con contribute use. >> robert mcguire worked at the center for responsive politics. >> suddenly he starts giving to trump allied joint fund-raising committees. and to the trump campaign itself. >> mcguire and his team tracked donations to both parties. 99.9% of americans give $2700 or less, that's the maximum you're allowed to donate directly to a candidate. but he's donated $2700 to the trump campaign, plus another $273,000 to the trump victory committee which distributed the

money between the campaign, the rnc and state republican parties. >> by giving the kind of money he gave, he is putting himself on the radar for the republican party for the trump campaign. >> you give that much money, people notice? >> exactly. when you make calls, your calls are answered, you're not getting an aide, you're not getting a staffer, you're getting someone in a position of power to help you. >> the timing also raises red flags, because kuk has started making his big donations exactly two weeks after the now infamous meeting between trump campaign officials and the russian lawyer. >> right after the trump tower meeting, the one with don junior, that's when the tap is opened? >> absolutely. and that's why it's so suspicious. the big question is, was this orchestrated to essentially act as a loophole to get money legally into the campaign? >> if it was orchestrated or

done at the behest of a foreign power, would it then be illegal? >> yes. >> simon was born in russia, to jewish parents in 1946. he worked hard in school and earned a ph.d. in chemistry from this prestigious university in moscow. once he graduated in the '70s, he didn't want to stay put in the soviet union. he wanted something bigger and better. so he did something few highly trained russian scientists were allowed to do in the 1970s. he moved here to houston, texas. and joined the booming local oil industry. he became a naturalized citizen in 1982 and rose through the corporate ranks all the way to the executive suite. then in 1996 kuk is traded in the american dream and went back to russia. he was hired as the president of a struggling russian oil company

called tnk, and promised he would turn it around. >> the company full of western roads and standards. >> on a personal level, he was very civilized, westernized, polite. >> this man worked for the same oil company. >> he was unlike some russian oligarchs. >> russia in the early 1990s was no place for clean cut westernized managers. >> there's the wild wild west and then there was the wild wild east. >> bruce marks saw that firsthand. he represented a canadian oil company which sued tnk and kukis after tnk tried to engineer a hostile takeover of its russian subsidiary. >> when i say hostile takeover, i mean with machine guns.

>> so much for western rules and standards. >> simon was there with the guys with the machine guns. and the canadian workers, a number of whom i have spoken to sid they were given the opportunity to stay there at a report to kukis under his control or they could leave. >> marks' lut dragged out for 13 years. in the process he got his hands on an incredible piece of evidence. >> we got a document that was stamped secret from the cia literally it just came in an envelope in the mail. 2 was astounding, because he admitted to a u.s. government official that he had paid bribes. >> why was he under surveillance in the first place. >> he's a u.s. citizen of foreign dissent whose wielding a tremendous amount of influence, who has a lot of money. and that would have been enough to put him on the cia's radar.

she would know, she used to work for the agency. >> does the cia keep files on all prominent dual citizen americans? >> the cia doesn't have the resources or the manpower or the time to monitor everyone. he would have had to do something to rise to their level of interest or to be connected to someone. >> definitely have connections to russian government without a doubt. >> he now lives in washington, d.c., a member of a group of activists who are vocal critics of putin's russia, he says the owners of tnk, kukis' employers were oligarchs, powerful ones. >> they're extremely closely connected. i would call them the inner circle of putin. >> putin was consolidating his power, making his inner circle evenen tighter. >> loyal oligarch's got rich, enemies had their assets seized. in 20034, the ceo of russia's

biggest oil company was arrested on charges of fraud and kukis was picked to take over. >> that tells me he was in favor in the kremlin. they're not going to get rid of someone and replace him with one of his cronies. they're going to replace him with someone that's acceptable to the kremlin. >> he was planning to retire anyway. so he could pursue other ambiti ambitions. >> 10 years of hard labor probably waentz one of his pursuits, but that's what he got. >> just as the american campaign season was heating up, kukis suddenly returned to houston and started sending those fat checks to the trump victory committee.

>> he was very stingy, and he was never giving donations of his own free will to political parties, all of a sudden, he starts to give big donations, which is very surprising to my friends who know him. >> what was it about the trump campaign that caused kukis to change the habits of a lifetime? well, we found a possible answer in an e-mail exchange in which kukis appears to be reporting back to a high ranking russian official. >> if you could take a look at them and tell us what you think -- >> we showed moran some printouts. >> what's your impression? >> those are very interesting and very suspicious. >> why suspicious? >> the way of communicating, there's a vailed subtext behind the words, it's clear that neither party wants to come straight out in e-mail and say what they're talking about. >> the e-mails were obtained

through the dossier center, an investigative project financed d by mikhail horigovsy. after being released he became putin's enemy number one. the address they were sent from does belong to kukis. in one message dated july 16, 2016, he addresses the russian official povlosky writing. >> i have been actively involved in trump's campaign. let me know how you are doing, and whether you want to meet. >> i read that as an invitation for pavlovski to meet with kukis to discuss the desires of the kremlin. >> he's offering to help? >> i read it that way.

i think he is interested. we have to look at the background of pavlovski a bit. >> we did. he now has a plum job with the state owned railway in russia. before that, he was the ambassador general. >> how connected would be he be to the kremlin? >> he's as connected as you can get. if you're a russian ambassador overseas and then you come home and take over a major faction of russian injury, you're well connected. >> he seemed eager to show he was building connections of his own. >> i was at a dinner with donald trump. i think his chances are very good. in his corner is america's most respected male rudy giuliani. >> that made my blood run cold, there's so little said and so much conveyed. >> what's conveyed? >> to my, what's conveyed is, i was with donald trump, we have a

plan in action, and it's going to work. this guy is going to win. our guy is going to win. >> why send the boat toe? >> the photo is basically what we might call proof that i really can produce what i'm saying i can produce. here i am with giuliani. >> we talked to giuliani, he doesn't remember meeting simon kukis. we looked at the photo's metadata, it was taken on august 13th, 2016. when giuliani attended a fund-raiser hosted by woody johnson at his mansion in the hamptons. guests paid up to $25,000 to meet and greet candidate trump. two days earlier, kukis donated exactly in a amount. a few weeks later, he and his girlfriend attended another fund-raiser. she posed for this photo. which kukis e-mailed to his dear slav. maybe he's just bragging about a

contact. look, here i am with all these powerful political figures. >> i don't buy that. it's all related to trump. to me, this reads like an e-mail exchange between a source and a handler, or a source and headquarters. >> only hours after donald trump became the 45th president of the united states, kukis received an e-mail from moscow. >> congratulations. how is your mood, when are we going to see each other? i mean that speaks volumes. trump won the election. the efforts worked. the plan worked. again, this does not strike me as two old friends who want to get together for a few vodka shots. >> it seems more conspiratorial to you? >> much more. the whole tone of the e-mails is conspiratorial. >> do you think these donations were part of a russian campaign to influence the election and

help president trump? >> absolutely. after reading this e-mail exchange, i have nary a doubt. >> we wanted to ask simon kukis about his background and this mysterious e-mail exchange. why was he offering political briefings to a russian official. and why did he send those photos? was he just bragging? look at how close i got to a presidential candidate or was there more to it? unfortunately, he wouldn't talk to us, he did send us an e-mail. he thought donations would help him make contacts in houston. given all this press, i am very sorry i made the contributions. an rnc official confirmed kukis did attend trump fund-raisers. a spokesman for the trump campaign told us that simon kukis never had a role there many and the russian official he was reportedly exchanging these e-mails with, he didn't respond

at all. how significant is what we uncovered? waiting to help us figure that out is david korn from mother jones.

welcome back, watching the story with us from washington is david korn, the d.c. bureau chief for mother jones. the co author along with michael isikoff of a book called russian roulette. the inside story of putin's war on america. the book connected a lot of dots and predicted a lot of what we've seen in the mueller d.c.s. thank you for being with us. >> good to be with you.

congratulations on a great spot you just did. >> i'm happy to hear you say that, i'm curious to hear your thoughts. what do you think about what we uncovered about simon kukis. >> you know, that's just another piece in a mosaic that continues to grow. and it fits in with a pattern of big money rolling into trump's coffers during the campaign and after the campaign into the inaugural fund. you talked about the amount of money that kukis gave in january of 2017, a few months later, now we're talking about the inauguration, trump's inaugural fund, trump is getting $250,000 from a guy named andrew entrader who is the cousin of victor veksanberg, a tremendously significant russian oligarch. the same time the inaugust ural fund is getting money from american russians who have

business ties, a guy like len vlotnik, his company, another individual who gave a million dollars, we're seeing a lot of russian related money pouring in, often from people who never before were involved in giving big dollar donations to any political candidate. it certainly raises a lot of questions. >> you're saying -- >> so you're saying this is part of a pattern, if these e-mails we uncovered are authentic, how significant is it that kukis is reporting back to a high ranking russian official during the campaign as these donations are being rolled out? >> well, it could be highly significant. i liked how the ci expert said it seemed like there was something else going on in these communications, and they were -- there was something veiled going on. this is exactly the type of stuff that you have a special council to investigate. you know, you call people in,

you try to find other e-mails, if these e-mails exist, there might be other e-mails out there in the same chain or that go later or earlier, and these are things you can bear down on, depending how far robert mueller wants to go in chasing the russian money trail into the trump campaign, and there's a whole other russian money trail over the years into trump's businesses. we just don't yet have a strong indication whether mueller is including both those money trails in his ongoing investigation. >> we thought we knew everything about what mueller was looking at, and now there's this story, these names that you mention, simon kukis about more money going in. do you think there's going to be even more names that are still going to come out? >> listen, robert mueller continues to surprise us. it's one of my least favorite cliches, but the whole tip of the iceberg, you only see one tenth of the iceberg, i think his investigation could be going

in a lot of different areas, there are a lot of issues about donald trump and his organizations finances. his personal finances, his business finances, and they do overlap to some degree with questions about russia. >> when i talked to trump supporters, they say this isn't true, there's nothing there, it's a witch hunt and others who acknowledge that some of this might be true don't seem to care. why do you think that is? >> well, i think we live in a highly tribalized moment of politics, where people who want to support trump listen to what he says, and if he says it's a witch hunt they believe it's a witch hunt. and that's not everybody, that's -- you know, some percentage of the public. i think there are americans out there who when mueller brings out indictments they support his investigation and they're curious to see what details he has. >> david, we have a lot to get to tonight, thank you so much for taking time to speak to us.

you took a big risk writing a book on the russia connections early on, but so far, everything that seems to be coming out was already said in your book, congratulations on that, we appreciate your insights. thanks a lot. >> thanks so much. >> next up, russia attempts to undermine u.s. democracy have been going on for a lot longer than the past few years, under communism when the ussr courted americans from the far left. under putin russia seems to have complaininged track, targeting people and institutions from the american right. we have reporting from inside one of those institutions, and you'll recognize some of those players, here's a hint, think mueller investigation. stigation.

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and preparing a go kit, in case you need to get out quickly. for more information on how to be prepared and keep your family safe, visit pge.com/safety. some call russia's meddling in the 2016 election the greatest covert operation by any intelligence agency ever. when did it start and how expansive was it? moscow had a lot of hooks in the water for a very long time. some of the key players named by the mueller investigation, have relationships that go back more than a decade. and tonight we have brand new reporting that shows that some of those relationships were forged in the moscow office of an organization that was launched by nonother than president ronald reagan. >> at the height of the cold

war, president reagan launched a crusade to confront the soviet union, not with more nuclear weapons but with ideals. >> if the rest of the century is to witness the gradual growth of freedom and democratic ideals, we must take actions to assist the campaign for democracy. >> one action was finding the international republican institute the following year. the mission, to spread the light of democracy around the globe. by 1993 the u.s. victory in the war of ideals was sealed and the iri opened an office in moscow. but it's hard to imagine that the gipper would be proud of some of its employees. take sam patton. patton ran the iri's moscow office from 2001 to 2004. he just plead guilty to charges of illegally lobbying in the u.s. for prorussian politicians in ukraine. his business partner, one

constantine colinik who also worked for the iri. he took over the moscow office when patton left in 2004. rarely caught on camera, colleagues nicknamed him the invisible man. court filings by mueller's office have linked him to russian intelligence. now he's better known as paul manafort's alleged partner in crime. the two of them are accused of promoting russian interests in ukraine. what happened inside that office? how did employees who were hired to promote democratic values end up working for the wrong side? well, we spoke to a source who we can't identify, but who worked very closely with kolinik there. he sent them to this building in moscow to pick up envelopes stuffed with cash and airline tickets. the building is the office of oleg daraposka, an he oligarch

with close ties to putin and also manafort's client. as soon as they found out what he was up to, in 2005 they fired him. they also emphasized the work the iri continues to do to advance democracy worldwide. it seems unthinkable that this brainchild of ronald reagan and chaired just before his death by john mccain was used unwittingly as a vehicle for russian intelligence. according to our source, that's exactly what happened. that didn't just involve pushing the kremlin's interest in ukraine. russian journalists set up a new website called the project, under daraposka's direction, manafort and kolinik were helping a russian official in kyrgyzstan. it was home to a major u.s. air

base, an air base vital for supplying u.s. troops in afghanistan. manafort and kolinik were helping to have that air base shut down. a spokesman for his company declined to answer our questions about his contacts with constantine or paul manafort. as groundly information. we'll be right back. 'll be righ. a once-in-five hundred year storm should happen every five hundred years, right? fact is, there have been twenty-six in the last decade. allstate is adapting.

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welcome back to on

assignment. we tend to hear the same names over and over these days. names like paul manafort and oleg daraposka. g. klein preston the 4th, if you're a regular viewer of our shows, and you have a great memory, it might ring a bell. because last summer we spotted a curious alliance between putin's russia and conservatives like klein preston. we asked my colleague kelly cobiella to go to nashville to meet him. >> in trump's america. >> have you met him? >> have not. >> would you like to. >> g. klein preston iii, family man and christian conservative. >> russia everywhere here.

built in very close ties with power players with the deputy head of russia's central bank. >> you consider alexander tortian a friend? >> absolutely. senator tortian is a gun enthusiast and a big proponent of the right to bear arms. >> do you ever suspect that there's more to tortia there than just a great friend and a public servant? >> do i suspect that? well, you know, i don't live with him he's a brilliant man. i never heard a bad word about him. >> so klein preston didn't have any suspicions about tortian, not a hint. in fact he liked him so much, he introduced him to the leaders of the nra and the rest is history.

since our report, tortian has been placed under u.s. sanctions and his assistant was charged with conspiracy. she's accused of acting as an agent for russia. preston didn't want to do another interview on camera with us, but he did tell us he hasn't changed his opinion about tortian or putina. they just wanted to develop relationships in the united states. well, that's one thing that's not really in dispute. marina putina was all about developing relationships. he was not exactly a clandestine spy operating in the shadows, but boy did she like to play one. it was a double bluff. according to the government's case against her, she was an agent of the russian federation. >> maria did not fly in out of the sky.

>> democrat ron widen sits on the senate intelligence committee which questioned putina for eight hours, he thinks she wasn't acting alone. >> she and alexander tortian. very close to vladimir putin spent years works to worm their way into our political system. they were quite the pair. a passionate young woman from siberia and a veteran russian operator. >> she's a politician, a banker and according to spanish officials. a money laundering crime boss. >> in these police surveillance recordings, which were recently shared with the fbi. russian criminals in spain referred to tortian as the godfather. but it was his official work for putin's government that got him sanctioned by the u.s. treasury department. for years, tortian sought to

cultivate relationships with the american right. they found they're in on the gun show circuit. >> you have a vortex -- >> that's the biggest handgun i've ever seen. >> the gun lobby is extremely well funded. it's support can make or break a political campaign. it also has deep ties to all levels of the republican party. for russia, it all made it a very tempting target. surprisingly, an easy one to hit. turns out attitudes have changed since the cold war ended. >> do you see russia as a threat? >> why would russia -- how would russia be a threat to me. >> do you think the russians are a threat? >> not as big a threat as the chinese. >> what about the russian inquiry. >> poppy dock. >> in 2011, she founded an organization called the right to bare arms. lobbying for gun rights in

russia. it wasn't russians she was courting, it was americans. in 2013 she held a concealed carry fashion show in moscow, the stars of america's second amendment movement flew in to spend time with their new best friends. >> there are no people who are more alike than americans and russians. >> at the same event butina met paul ericson, with longstanding ties to the republican party. they started a working relationship that turned into a relationship. >> everything she was doing was essentially political operative 101. go out and build friendships, get people who are willing to do favors for you. >> reporter: soon she was rubbing shoulders with some of the republican establishment heavy hitters, john bolton even

recorded a patriotic video endorsement -- >> we never forget the joyful optimism that marked the beginning of our democratic history. we wish our russian friends that same hope. >> in 2015, butina went to vegas to attend freedomfest, the woodstock for the libertarian movement, where candidate donald trump was making an early campaign appearance. from the floor, she threw him a question about russia. >> what will be your politics especially in relationships with my country. >> i know putin and i'll tell you what, we get along with putin. >> next, butina moved to the u.s. and enrolled as a graduate student at american university in washington, d.c.. >> maria butina. >> she was just pursuing an education. >> her behavior is that of a normal 20 something-year-old

student and activist. there's nothing nefarious about it. >> innocent college students in my view don't get setting up shell companies thousands of miles away from where they go to college. >> oh, wow! >> but butina did, the day after trump won his first primary. she set up a company in south dakota. it was used to fund her studies and bank records will show there was nothing illegal. >> she's a student in a -- an honest honorable person. >> senator widen expects the company could have been part of a financial network that helped the nra raise the $30 million it spent to help put donald trump in the white house. >> that is central to the whole debate. did the nra use shell companies like the one maria set up in order to achieve this unprecedented level of political

spend something. >> do you think that actually happened? the russians through these shell companies were funneling money to the nra? >> the fact that clearly over a period of years in their words, tricked russia and political meetings here, and discussions with the highest ranking officials of the nra, i find it hard to just accept the explanation that this was all just innocent activity back and forth between two countries. >> the nra says it only accepted $2500 in russian money between 2015 and 2018. and denies any of it went toward a political campaign. butina is now in a detention center in virginia. her lawyer who spoke to us just before a judge ordered him to stop talking to reporters said the line of defense is simple. >> she's innocent. she's a student and a russian national that was involved in politics. there's simply nothing illegal

that happened. >> the u.s. government disagrees. a top intelligence source tells us butina was very much the real deal. but folks at the virginia gun show we visited were unimpressed. >> it doesn't bother you that this woman was allegedly working for the russians? >> no, because we're probably doing the same thing. we're making it sound like the united states doesn't do any of this stuff, the united states does it everywhere. >> that may be the real victory for the russians, persuading americans that meddling in u.s. politics is no big deal. one lesson we learned the hard way is that the russians are really good at finding and exploiting the open wounds in our society. zeroing in on the issues that divide us. and then driving a wedge right through them. issues like race, immigration, guns and gay rights. which are under constant attack in russia. that's next.

do you think what is happening in russia could transfer back here? >> i'm very scared that that will happen here, and in some sense it's kind of happening. absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover.

in wars i've covered, american generals often spoke about winning in enemies hearts and minds. enemy's hearts and minds. so is it possible someone else with a military and great power and traditions could have had the same idea. did we ever stop to think the same strategies could work on americans? maybe they did? maybe they work very well to win the hearts and minds of president trump's most ard ent supporters, the people that back him in poll after poll, gun critics and evangelical christians. many american conservatives seem to want to follow its example. but do they know what kind of example it is? here's a scary thought. maybe they do. [ music playing ] it's almost ':00 a.m. inside the

central station club in st. peters burrell, one of the few places in russia where it's safe to be gay and out. >> it's kind of dangerous to be open gay, but like you don't have a choice. >> reporter: the manager trained as a doctor, but he was forced to leave his hospital job when colleagues found out that he was gay. how was it dangerous? >> you can easily be beaten up on the streets. >> reporter: as soon as you walk out the streets? unprovoked, wham? >> not all of these teeth is mine. so i lost a couple of my teeth during the fighting on the street. >> reporter: being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in russia is not technically legal, but police officers have long used any excuse to crack down. in 2013, they got a new weapon. under the guise of protecting

children, russia passed the so-called gay propaganda law, which made it illegal to promote non-traditional relationships. the wording was vague. the effect was not. the law unleashed a wave of abuse, according to center for independent social research. hate crimes against lgbt people nearly doubled immediately after it was passed. >> i think the law was like a dog whistle to all these groups that gays are not protected in russia. can you do to them whatever you want. >> reporter: dimitri, an lgbt activist from st. petersburg was himself a victim of a vicious attack. does the government think it's contagious like the measles or a flu in. >> yes. basically, that's what they say. >> reporter: the law was a step back into the dark ages, but what's more disturbing to some is that an american went to moscow to support it. you testified in front of the

russian apartment, the duma. >> it was a subcommittee. i was asked to speak. i would do so again. >> reporter: brian brown is the president of the world congress of families. why would a group of american christian conservatives be in russia helping russian lawmakers craft legislation for their country? >> there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and russia is not in anyway unique here. i have been to over 40 countries and i have no qualms about going to these places. >> reporter: but brown's organization does have a unique connection to russia. it was conceived in moscow in 1995 by an american allen karlsson and a russian anatoli antanov. >> we came from different countries, different systems. i was from russia he was from

ain't secular russia. >> reporter: they believeed that homosexuals are a threat to society. >> translator: homosexuality is a deviation. it will never become the behavioral norm. >> oiof course, we don't suppor same-sex marriage. that's a part of what we are. >> reporter: in russia, it's not considered the norm. at an lbgt gathering demetri was attacked. he has the scars to prove it. >> they came into the meeting. they started training and after a bullet hit me, i tried to hide. they started yelling, where are you running, fagott. >> reporter: they chase demetri and beat him with a baseball bat. he was rescued by friends and taken to the hospital. >> they took ne in and made an xray and told me there is a

bullet in my head, i will not be able to see anymore. >> reporter: fearing for his life, demetri applied for political asylum in the occupation. >> right after the attack, i was thinking that i will stay, i will fight and we will be able to find those guys. but when i saw how they were dragging their feet on this case and there is no justice in this country, i realized that it's probably time to leave. >> reporter: the former managing director of your organization, larry jacob, said the russians might be the christian saviors to the world. do you agree with that? >> i don't know if i would put it that strongly, but i am very happy about how strong russians have been in coming back to the orthodoxed church, supporting the traditional family, and i'm very hopeful that a new dawn is coming to russia. >> reporter: but is there more to this relationship?

of course, you are aware that russia has in the past tried to infiltrate influential american non-governmental organizations, like yours? >> yeah, russia has in the past done that. >> are you worried that they're doing that with your group in. >> no, i have never been asked once to do anything by any russian that would go against my conscience or betray my country. >> reporter: what do you think there are americans walking in lock step with this russian movement in. >> i this i they are putting their abuse before their country, before the ideals that built this country. and its freely said that they can do that. >> reporter: do you think what is happening in russia could transfer back here? >> i'm very scared that that will happen here and in some sense it kind of is happening. >> reporter: sadly, that appears to be true. according to a report from the anti-violence project, which documents hate crimes, last year was the most dangerous year on

record for the lgbt community here in the states. we'll be right back. y here in the states we'll be right back.

. >> so there you have it. if you want to know how russia got into our collective bloodstream, will you find the answer here in the states and it comes down to a droo eto'o three things, guns, god and money. that's all for us at "on assignment" don't forget to follow us and on facebook check

out on assignment with richard engle. we will be back after the elections which could determine not only the future of our politics but also the outcome of the mueller investigation. it should interest exciting and important. thanks for watching. good night for us from houston. leaks, secret tapes, special prosecutors and paranoia. but when i hear those words today, they have a familiar echo to me. 40 years ago, i made the movie" all the president's men" about washington reporters chased the watergate story from breaking to coverup to the first president to resign his office. the story of the scandal stayedwith me. and a few years ago, i produced a documentary about woodward and bernsteins story as truth and struck me as pathetic and worth repeating food. we thought watergate changed america and our political