joining us now is jay sekulow, on the president's legal team.r. sekulow, i want to start with this meeting with the president's son. the president said he didn't know about it. are you confident that the president knows everything about all the meetings his son may or may not have had with any russian? >> well, i know this -- the president was not aware about this meeting, did not participate in this meeting. as far as other meetings go, look, the president has said he wasn't aware of it, wasn't involved in it, and there's been no indication otherwise. so when you say "other meetings that took place," i'm sure they had conversations during the course of a campaign about meetings that were relevant to some kind of determination, but this one was not. most meetings were discussed with the president. that's normally how these go. the president was campaigning. his staff was having meetings, and the president was not made aware of this, nor participated in this meeting. >> dickerson: is it possible, fair to say, that the president knows of no other

joining us now, jay sekulow. generally reaction. >> my friend, mike huckabee, said something very similar. the meteor is going after donald trump jr. for doing what? releasing the full email chain, unlike secretary clinton who deleted her emails. let's put that in perspective. look at it from a legal perspective. there's no illegality in the meeting. the fact is, nothing transpired. what we have here? i think donald trump jr. said it correctly. through the media frenzy on russia. this has been going on for several months. when you look and see what actually took place, a meeting took place. nothing happened from this 15-20 minute meeting. and at the end of the day, there's no illegality. they want to create a media hysteria. i'm trying to look at the lawyer and say what statute of law has been violated? >> sean: between the media and sanity, the democrats this proves collusion -- i will ask you as an attorney. tell me what laws -- the second thing is, how is what i said in my opening monologue about ukraine, abou

they paid $21 million to non-profit legal firms owned by jay sekulow.our witness, charlie pearce. >> oh, well, as i said, you know, i think what american television christianity needs is a reformation. it needs some stick-swinging prophets to go in there and explain to these people that you have moved far beyond your original mission. if you want to sell aluminum siding to people, go sell aluminum siding to people, but don't sell the gospel like it's swampland in florida. >> yeah. and i mean, frank, you've also seen jay sekulow and others delve into the seth rich conspiracy theory, doubting russia hacked our election. so he's getting into the politics of it too. is there a way to break the evangelical community from this sort of right wing kind of world where whatever somebody like a jay sekulow says they will buy it and keep voting for the donald trumps. >> back in the day, joy, when my dad was really along with c. everett koop who game ronald reagan's surgeon general and me who produced a series of films called "whatever happened to the human race," w

joining us now, jay sekulow.ly reaction. >> myon friend, mike huckabee, said something very similar. the media is going after donald trump jr. for doing what? releasing the full email chain, unlike secretary clinton who deleted her emails. let's put that in perspective. look at it from a legal perspective. t there's no illegality in the meeting. the fact is, nothing transpired. what we have here? i think donald trump jr. said it correctly. through the media frenzy on russia. this has been going on for several months. when you look and see what actually took place, a meeting took place. nothing happened from this 15-20 minute meeting. and at the end of the day, there's no illegality. they want to create a media hysteria. i'm trying to look at the lawyer and say what statute of law has been violated? it doesn't exist. >> sean: between the media and sanity, the democrats this proves collusion -- i will ask you as an attorney. tell me what laws -- the second thing is, how is what i said in my opening monologue about

jay sekulow, thank you for being with us.n this busy breaking monday news edition of hannity. >> he is nothing but a con artist and a liar. and he is not a businessman. >> sean: all right. this past weekend, liberal anti-trump protesters gathered at multiple cities across the country. most don't even know why they were protesting. and we have the proof and turnout is pretty small. i have got a mini monologue for them and the establishment media. monica crowley joins us and also tonight: >> let's make the g.o.p. work again. yes, let's absolutely start with the border wall. for every hour our republican representatives sit around and talk about this, thousands more illegal immigrants and who knows what else pour into our country. >> sean: conservative political commentator tommy lehner gettomi lahren gets the l word this week. that and more straight ahead. when i look in the mirror everyday. when i look in the mirror everyday. everyday, i think how fortunate i am. i think is today going to be the day, that we find a cure? i thi

this is jay sekulow we're talking about.ay he has not spoken to the president about issuie i pardons in the russian investigation. does mr. trump have the power to pardon his relatives, his associates, even himself? is it likely he could use that? >> the president does have under the constitution the enormous amounts of authority to issue pardons. to his relatives. to whomever. there is a justice department memorandum from i believe the 1970s that asserts that the president doesn't have the power to pardon himself. but i think that memorandum is actually a bit tentative or doesn't represent a thorough analysis. but the bottom line is that under our constitution, the president has the ability to pardon. and may well be able to pardon himself. >> all right. kathleen clark with the john lehman research, professor with the john washington school of law. thank you very much. by the way, the trump 2020 re-election campaign is using donations to pay some legal fees related to the russian probe and that would include donald trump jr

gregg jarrett, tom fitton and jay sekulow. jay, let me start with you, i wanted to leave this out.anium one, the dossier and the ukraine issue. no one paid attention to the documents by the fbi. how damning are they? >> you look at the nature of the transaction, the laws that could be implicated here. what took place, you would think you know, this would be subject to scrutiny. the question is, is it? that's the question that you have to ask right now. as the fbi actually investigating it? we may not know. we may not know when the fbi is conducting an investigation. if you look at the evidence that's out there -- this is what we talked about, with the email deletions and the server, all of these issues and james comey give that a punch and a pass. you talk about equal justice under the law. >> sean: gregg jarrett, remember the entire issue? hillary clinton was telling us that everything was predicated. i only used one device. and then the video came out. what do you use? oh, and iphone, blackberry, an ipad? they took a hammer and destroyed them. and those that don't have sim cards.

joining us now, sara carter, john solomon, jay sekulow, let's start with you, jay.n the issue of 18 u.s. code 614. government property leaked to "the new york times," u.s. code 793, classified information. are they both felonies? >> 793 is always a fallibility. at 641 can be a felony. let's be really clear what happened here. we know james comey didn't just leak one memo -- the law professor acknowledged he got it. jesse authorized disclosure would be a violation of the law. in my view, a felony. let's take it a step further. james comey testified two things. he said it was his personal notes. the government has taken a very different view saying its government property. number two, he leaked that information for one purpose only and that was to obtain a special counsel, which he did. let's put this in the context, james comey illegally leaked government information to a third party for one purpose and that was to get a special counsel. it was put in place based on documents that were illegally leaked. everything's wrong with that picture. that's not the way it supp

here's the chief counsel jay sekulow. what's fascinating and you did the five sunday shows.ympathies, appreciation and apologies. no one should have argue. >> it was fine. it was like arguing a supreme court case every 15 minutes. >> sean: in four of the five you brought up the ukrainian issue which there's more evidence of and now adam schiff is force to cover it because it's worse than anything alleged about trump. >> what did it establish? this is what i've been arguing on the sunday shows and talking about for a week. so you have this transaction going on with the ukrainians and operatives from the dnc and now there's tepid denials. six months ago when it came out not so much. the president this morning sends out a statement on twitter that politico campaigns could have taken opposition research. well, they do take opposition research. there's a perfect example of it. not only was it opposition research, but there were setups regarding media questions to be asked to go after the then-republican nominee for president, donald trump to go after his political campaign operat

sebastian gorka, jay sekulow, john solomon. they will all be here tonight. the mainstream media is oncedr again foaming at the mouth, hysterically obsessing over russia, russia, russia. while completely ignoring the millions of forgotten men and women in this country. that's the issue they should be focusing on. that is tonight's opening monologue. once again, the destroy-trump-media has worked itself into a frenzy over a meeting that donald trump, jr., had back in june of 2016 with ae russian lawyer. the press is running wild, all types of black helicopter tinfoil hat conspiracy theories about russian collusion once again. of course, they are completely missing many of the key facts about this story. if you actually do some research and read more than the headlines of these phony "new york times" reports, with the media should be doing in the first place, you will notice the massive holes in this story. the lawyer who donald trump, jr., paul manafort and jared kushner met with,to didn't work for them at the time of the meeting. the woman stated she had info

i mean, a lot of -- >> jay sekulow, the rest of his story was that the president wasn't there.t service -- >> they have nothing -- >> these are things made up on the fly. they have nothing to with anything. it's like running out the clock and throwing the ball over there. >> but the secret service is sort of -- i guess i was going to see like the pope. but they attacked them too. but the secret service lashes back. i mean, they protect you. >> they're not even vetting these -- they're not like saying if i say this, what's going to happen five minutes later? remember the old episodes of "get smart." would you believe this, that's what this damage control from the trump administration is. >> there's at layer to it that the blurred lines between the trump administration and the trump family and their political and financial interests are part of the big picture. because don jr. was not under secret service protection, but was he acting on behalf of the campaign? i would say so. >> but they're paying all his legal bills. >> but the fact there's a mushy set of influences where it's

jay sekulow said two very interesting things over the weekend.remember, we spent months hearing that this -- there was no contact between the trump campaign and the russians. it was all fake news. the whole thing was ridiculous. that is now out the window. that's a considerable change of the goal posts now. >> it is. >> maybe there was a crime. maybe there wasn't. it's worth noting that change. the secret service point -- i've known jay sekulow for a long time. he is an extremely fine lawyer. very good lawyer. experienced extreme court advocate. what that tells me is that he does not have a lot of access to his client, that the client is not being forthcoming about the whole story. if you listen to jay's story, his advocacy, it's based in the law, not in the facts. he obviously had not talked to donald junior about whether he was a secret service protectee at that time. so he made this wrong claim that the secret service somehow would have been involved. i think it illustrates how the defenders of trump and the trump campaign don't know all the f

back with reaction, sara carter, gregg jarrett, jay sekulow.dministration illicitly unmasking hundreds of americans names, something you and him have now been discussing for a while. i am also told that it is going to get so big and names are going to be named and they are top names that were with obama. how accurate is that? how close are we to may be hearing that? >> i think we are very close to hearing about that. remember, sean, this wasn't just high-level officials that were unmasking. what john was reporting the set obama aides in the white house were unmasking the majority of which they believe are people associated with president trump or related to president trump or connected to the president trump and unmasking these foreign intercepts. they wanted to know were some of these stories coincided with the leaks that happened in the media? we'll be looking at this. that's what this is so important. because it's such a violation of fourth movement rights. if it proves to be true. it was used for political espionage. if that allegation is t

long way from over. >> joining me now is president trump's -- one of president trump's attorneys, jay sekulow. mr. sekulow, welcome back to "meet the press." let's start with this and try to clear this up as best as you can. do you know for sure everyone who was at that meeting with donald trump jr.? >> no, i don't represent donald trump jr. and i do not know everyone for sure that was at that meeting. the president was not at the meeting. the president wasn't aware of the meeting and did not attend it, that i can tell you. >> when did the president become aware of this meeting? >> well, the president said he became aware of it very recently, right before this came out, and that's when he was notified. his lawyers talked to him about it right before, and, again, the president has been very clear on that. >> when did you find out about it? >> about the same time. almost exactly the same time. this was really, as the president said, right before the whole issue started developing. i think the president used the term recently or relatively recently. it was days before leading up to this matter.

one on one with jay sekulow, trump legal team leader.ew white house press secretary sarah sanders. after the big white house shakeup. plus, the senate minority leader chuck schumer. discussing the democratic party's new economic agenda. that's coming up later this morning on "this week." right here on abc. thank you, george. >>> we want to move to the severe storms, high winds, torrential rains tearing across the country. causing problems from the east coast to the west. >> kait parker filling in. >> it's been such an active weather pattern. that we've seen a tremendous amount of damage, like in d.c., powerlines down, causing power outages to thousands. wisconsin, roads washed out. a state of emergency was declared. this morning, severe summer storms. striking across the country after more than 330 severe weather reports this weekend. >> holy cow. >> reporter: days of rain giving way to flooding in the midwest. rivers continuing to rise. roads washing away. this bridge in iowa, gone. and in illinois, more hail. torrential rain and powerf

>> no, jay sekulow is 1000% right. was there something wrong with taking the meeting?, it is now embarrassing and nothing productive came from it. was it illegal to take the meeting? absolutely not. i'm going to take it one step further and say this. if you had some evidence of a crime and you investigate further, that is justice. when you have no evidence of a crime and you investigate anywa anyway, that is a witch hunt and that's what we have going. >> heather: we were speaking earlier about this in the first hour and saying it may be bad p.r., it may be that optics but that is not illegal. >> bad p.r. is not illegal. taking a meeting with a foreign government in order to have them in some way impact an election is illegal. whether or not we can make that conclusion, i don't think we can actually make that conclusion right now. what i do think is that there is smoke here. it is not witch hunt, there is evidence out there that needs to be found at this point. >> heather: from what we understand, ultimately no information was given. or being a part of getting that info

from some lawmakers including democratic congressman ted lew who tweeted this, dear dumb as a rock jay sekulow, secret service job is not to deter violation of the federal election campaign act, that is the job of prosecute doors. sekulow rye sekulow reiterated that the president was not a wafware of meeting and it got a septembkep response from mark warner. >> i think if i had a meeting that involved russian government efforts to try to help trump and hurt clinton that i would remember that and frankly, it's a little bit unbelievable that neither the son or the son-in-law ever shared that information with their dad the candidate. >> all this came after we learned yet another person attended the meeting, lobbyist rinat akhmetshin. it sparked a sunday defeat storm who said the media is distorting democracy and he headed hillary clinton can illegally get the questions to the debate and delete 33,000 e-mail, but my son is being scorned by the fake news media. >> we'll have to fact check that 33,000 e-mails and questions of the debate, it's like not worth it. >>> the white house looking to get bac

here's trump attorney jay sekulow in an interview last night. >> they're in meetings all day and for weeks during the campaign. so to isolate this -- but i've raised the question, how did natalia, who got here under -- the interesting aspect of this, how she got into the united states in the first place. >> but today, president trump is pressing senate republicans to pass the health care bill. here's part of his weekly address. >> i am pleased to report that we are very, very close to ending this health care nightmare. we are so close. it's a common sense approach that restores the sacred doctor-patient relationship. and you're going to finally have great health care at a lower price. >> all right. let's go to new jersey not par from the president's bedminster estate. kelly o'donnell is there for us. another good day to you, my friend. there are some new details about that 2016 meeting between donald trump jr. and the russian lawyer. also a new tweet from donald trump this past hour. so what's the latest on all of it? >> reporter: well, the president has not done a lot of commenting

jay sekulow told people at a conference in denver that trump's private legal team is not researching it because it is not an issue. i don't know where this came from. there's nothing to pardon. what's going on in washington is an attack on the president. sekulow was referring to a "the washington post" report that president trump's legal team was looking into his ability to pardon himself and those in his circle amid allegations of his campaign ties to russia. president trump frsh off a shake up in the communications team hopes to shift focus to policy like defense, health care and taxes. nbc's kelly oh do'donnell has t latest. >> reporter: with cinematic flair and military precision, marine one landed on the deck of the new uss gerald r. ford. commissioned an aircraft carrier bearing his name. >> may good bless and guide this war ship and all who shall sail in her. >> reporter: there were tributes to those in uniform, a nod to former vice president dick cheney and defense secretary donald rumsfeld. >> they look great. they look great. >> reporter: getting down to business, president

five sunday talk shows this morning, jay sekulow has been a very busy guy. think the strategy is behind that? >> i think the strategy is very clear, he's trying to separate the president from the president's own son, the president's campaign manager and the president's son-in-law did during the campaign. they're telling us that nothing happened at this meeting, they're not saying what happened. and so we have to wait and see but certainly they're trying to very hard to just separate the part from that and on top of that, they're stressing this issue of illegality. they don't want to talk about norms, they don't want to talk about rights and wrongs. >> jay sekulow has been saying that the president had no knowledge of this trump meeting with his son until the news report surfaced. is there plausible deniability here or is there something to the fact that this june 9 hth meeting of last year, and donald trump was on the campaign trail and promised a big news drop potentially on the clinton campaign. >> i think those are things that the investigators are going

attorney jay sekulow and brand-new press secretary sarah sanders. and mr. s rks k -- sekulow, i want to start with you. let start with this tweet that president trump sent out yesterday morning. while all agree that the u.s. president has the complete power to pardon, why think of it when the only crime so far is leaks against us. fake news. i wonder if you can explain what the president means by that, complete power to pardon. does he believe he has the right to pardon himself? >> the president in that tweet, stated something rather unremarkable. and that is that under the constitution, article 2, section 2, the president has the authority to pardon. i want to be clear on this, george. we have not, and continue to not have conversations with the president of the united states regarding pardons. pardons have not been discussed. and pardons are not on the table. with regard to the issue of a president pardoning himself, there's a big academic discussion going on. an academic debate. you have professor tribe arguing one point. professor turley arguing another

want to start with you and play some sound from the president's private attorney this weekend, jay sekulow, saying, look, if the meeting don junior had was so bad, why didn't the secret service step in? listen. >> i wonder why the secret service, if this was nefarious, why did the secret service allow these people in? the president had secret service people at this point. >> that's what he wonders. i wonder why he's bringing up the secret service when they say it wasn't their job to protect don junior at the time they put out a statement, which is unusual. don junior was not a protectee of the secret service therefore we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time. did the president's lawyer do a disservice as making the statement that he did? >> there's been some question about where was the secret service. >> by whom? >> i actually -- i've heard some of the chattering out there. but let me say this. i represented the federal law enforcement where the secret service trained and their job really is not to keep the president from -- our elected officials -- well, the pre

well first of all jay sekulow was actually incorrect on two counts. the first one that don junior was not a the protectee at that point. he didn't have a secret service detail, as jay sekulow claims and the secret service came out in a stunning rebuke and corrected him. and then the second area where he was incorrect is that the secret service's job is to protect these people from threats on their lives and bodily harm. the job is not to protect them from themselves or from possible bad judgment. so it was a brief theory he floated. i think it raised questions about how much this white house and now this legal time will sort of throw anyone who comes in their path under the bus in a potential attempt to protect their client. >> what a terrific lead off panel tonight of all nights with breaking news just moments before we came on the air. our great thanks at always to jonathan le mere, ashley parker michael crowley. coming up after the first break the question of asset or liability surrounding the man closest to the president. toned jared kushner son-i

the other point that jay sekulow was driving, dead james comey says she was the target. james comey, he is the one that wanted special counsel. all that appears to be the case. he also said this, however, opposition research is a big part of the campaign. as you know, it always is. you've worked on campaigns yourself. is this the kind of opposition research that campaigns go for? >> i don't know what you mean, when you say, is this the kind of opposition research, because there was no this defined at the meeting. i have no idea whether this would apply to in the context of that meeting. they said, they had some material that was anti--clinton material. you would like to get a hint. i think the big mistake is that, send me an email and tell me what it is. >> bill: governor, thank you for your time. have a great monday. good to have you back. 21 past the hour. >> sandra: south korea making a bold move by having a rare talks with the north. could it be the key to end the rogue regime weapons program? >> bill: horrible crash with an a home. how are they doing inside and outs

he chose his personal lawyer, jay sekulow.needed sekulow's legal services so much that sekulow pulled off a rare paul ginsberg, nerdy political term for appearing on all five sunday talk shows. did four of the five on june 19th. everybody knows you guys. fernand, i will have you respond. this is jay sekulow talking about when he himself knew about the don junior meeting. >> did you only find out then? is that a concern to you that you're not getting all the information you need? >> we don't represent donald trump jr., we don't represent the campaign, we represent the president. in that sense we didn't have access to the information or control of data like that, president doesn't have control of data like that. that was information that either donald trump jr. had or the campaign had, wherever the information was stored. that would not have been information the president of the united states would have had. >> fernand, are they throwing don junior under the bus? >> you listen to that comment by jay sekulow. the american people

jay sekulow, thank you for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you, jake. >>> donald trump jr. said he's happy to share what he knows with the house intelligence committee. will he be willing to testify publicly? um...i'm babysitting. that'll be $50 bucks. you said $30. yeah, well it was $30 before my fees, like the pizza-ordering fee and the dog-sitting fee... and the rummage through your closet fee. who is she, verizon? are those my heels? yeah! yeah, we're the same size...in shoes. with t-mobile taxes and fees are already included, so you get four lines of unlimited for just $40 bucks each. the price we say is the price you pay. ♪ ♪ more kinds of crab than ever, new dishes, and all your favorites. only while crabfest lasts. red lobster. now this is seafood. the unpredictability of a flaree may weigh on your mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go, and how to work around your uc. that's how i thought it had to be. but then i talked to my doctor about humira, and learned humira can help get and keep uc under control... when certain medications haven't worked well enoug

trump tower and what the president knew and when he knew it to a member of the trump legal team, jay sekulow. jay, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> you heard don jr. say on tuesday that we have now -- there's nothing more. that this is everything. can you now say that we know everything about that meeting? i mean, clearly, when he said that, there was still a lot more to come out. do we now know everything about that meeting? who was there? and what followup there was? >> well, let me say this. i don't represent donald trump jr. i represent the president. the pet was not aware of that meeting. did not attend that meeting. and don trump jr. was explicitly clear on his interview on the sean hannity broadcast. look. here's the reality. the meeting, in and of itself, as i have said before is not a violation of the law. it's pont to understand that as counsel to the president, he was not aware of it and did not participate. >> you say no law was broken. do you accept what we heard from the president's trip to run the fbi is that what should have happened there, a situation wh

the top democrat on the house intelligence committee, adam schiff, and a president's legal team, jay sekulow. >>> plus, new bill, same questions, another delay. the senate leadership is pushing off the health care vote. >> i'm sitting, waiting for that bill to come to my desk. >> what happens next? we ask two key players. a republican set against the bill and the white houses' point on health care. >>> anltd as he nears the six-month mark, how does america see president trump's performance? >>> everything you need to know. what's fact. what's fiction. and what matters to you. >>> good morning. almost six months into the trump presidency. the headline this is week were once again dominated by russia. the newly disclosed meeting at trump tower puts president trump's son, his son-in-law, and his the same room with a russian-american lobbyist and a kremlin-connected lawyer believed to have dirt on hillary clinton. is this a turning point in the russia investigation? what does it mean for the president's ability to push his agenda forward? >>> all this comes as there were science of momentum this

trt=1:31 oc=soc fox news sunday anthony scaramucci 11-15 white house communications director jay sekulow 34-37 trump legal team member sen chuck schumer 1:12-1:16 (d) new york capolill-- new communications new role in the white house. and anthony scaramucci says a big part of that job is shutting down the stream of leaks coming out of his office. scaramucci also weighed in on controversy surrounding reports that president trump was inquiring about his pardoning authority. he told cnn-- the president is not going to have to pardon anyone becuase the russia issue is "nonsensical". a fiery crash at a fairfax county gas station. and it was caught on camera. take a look. this was the scene in alexandira, after officials say a car drove into a gas pump. firefighters arrived and quickly extinguished the flames. the driver, was not hurt and the crash is now under investigation. happening now.. a big construction project is getting underway by the medical center metro in bethesda. and that means traffic backups on rockville pike. this is a busy area. the national institutes of medical center metr

kendall, you heard what jay sekulow said. lawyer to lawyer here, you to him, was this meeting illegal? >> well, not from what we've seen so far, but there's some elements here that certainly the special counsel robert mueller is going to have to look at very closely, and he has not indicated and is not going to indicate all the information that he has about this meeting until he's maybe at the very end of his investigation. what we know is that some of the attendees of the meeting are saying nothing came of it. mueller is not going to accept that. he's going to want to get into the details of everything said at the meeting and very, very importantly whether any further collaboration was produced by the meeting. so far no crime, but there's a good ways to go on this. >> part of the meeting, jared kushner, son-in-law of the president, when you look at jared kushner's legal jeopardy, legal exposure after failing to disclose the meeting, along with other connections, not once, but twice, but three times, adding all said some 100

also from jay sekulow on state of the union, heard from a republican and democrat, asking for those in the meeting with donald trump jr. and donald trump jr. himself to testify under oath. listen -- >> i would like to hear from all of these individuals whether we'll be able to get the russian nationals to come over and testify is an open question. those people that our committee has jurisdiction over, the americans, i sure as heck want to talk to all of them. >> we need to get to the bottom of all this and the only way to do it is to talk not just to donald trump jr. who offered to cooperate, to which i give him credit and to everyone at that meeting and involved in setting up that meeting. that may be difficult in the case of the russian nationals, but we certainly ought to try. we should also ask for all documents. not just the e-mails that have been released but all the documents that are related to any contacts that president trump's campaign had with the russian government, or its emissaries. >> you heard from susan collins and mark warner. mark warner saying he'd love to get it u

>> jay sekulow, thank you for your time. >>> let's move on to the newly appointed press secretary sarah sanders. joins us from the white house lawn this morning. congratulations on the new job. >> thank you. >> when you came to work on friday, is it fair to say you had no idea you would be press secretary at the end of the day? >> i certainly don't think that was part of the original plan waking up and getting to work on friday. but i'm honored to be here and excited to continue being part of the president's team and helping continue to get his message out there and honored to do it. >> i wonder how you see your role. sean spicer, your predecessor, seemed to get hammered from both sides. the president complained he wasn't tough enough. the press complained he wasn't transparent or truthful enough. how will you strike a balance? >> i think any time, usually if the press is attacking you in the situation, you're probably doing something right. i think sean did a great job. very loyal. served the president admirably. i'm looking forward to being part of the president's team to continue pus

jay sekulow will also sit down for at least one interview. expect him to consider his defense of president trump's tweet yesterday in which he appeared to assert his power to pardon himself, among others. jay sekulow told reporters at a conference for conservatives in denver yesterday that trump's private legal team is not researching it because it's not an issue. i don't know where this came from. there's nothing to pardon. what's going on in washington is an attack on the president. he is also referring to a "washington post" report that president trump's legal team was looking into his ability to pardon himself and those in his circle. this amid allegations of his campaign ties to russia. >>> meanwhile gop senators are getting renewed pressure to pass their health care bill, this time it's coming from vice president mike pence. here's what he said at a fund-raiser hosted by the ohio republican party last night. >> the opposition has been universal. some people around the country harbor the belief the democrats will help us clean up the mes

joining me now is jay sekulow, a member of the president's legal team. since the story first broke about possible links between the trump campaign and russian, the president and his team have repeatedly dismissed this as a hoax and fake news. here are a few examples. >> it's disgusting, it's so funny, at that exactly goes to show you with the dnc and the clinton camp will do, they will lie and do anything to win. >> i had nothing to do with russia, and what do i have to do with russia? >> chris: was there any contact in any way between trump or his associates and the kremlin or cutouts they had? >> of course not, why would there be any contacts between the campaign. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt and there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign. but i can only speak for myself and the russians, zero. >> chris: do you now acknowledge that all of those denials are at the very least suspect? >> jay: you have to put them in context of what the president said and exactly what took place here, chris. it's important to put the frame

speaking -- we were just talking about jay sekulow, his attorney earlier.ay sekulow reported to the "bloomberg" report about mueller scrutinizing the president's business dealings. "they're talking about real estate transactions in palm beach several years ago. in our view, this is far outside the scope of legitimate investigation." he was referring to this back in 2004, donald trump bought a beach-front mansion in palm beach, florida, for $41 million. in july of 2008, after it sat on the market for two years, he sells the mansion for $95 million to a russian oligarch. sekulow is saying, don't go there, but is there anything about a transaction like that that raises red flags? >> absolutely. it was a deal that was done reputedly without the oligarch even seeing the property. and without donald trump even meeting the purchaser of the property. and so under our standard sort of know your customer rules that are designed to prevent money laundering, this transaction looks very suspect because it was done -- there was a huge profit, apparently cost was not at i

>> jay sekulow has been the face of the defense of the president and to some extent the president's son. the president will be a spectator at a golf tournament. all the different pieces of the trump pie are trying to deal with these allegations of russian connections that have suddenly gotten very close to the trump family. what began as a discussion about russian adoption according to donald trump jr. evolved into seeking dirt on hillary clinton. back in new jersey where president trump's bedminister resort is hosting the women's u.s. open golf tournament this weekend. it's a big event for the trump family business while the trump white house is in the cough over the russia investigation. political pressure turned up. >> this has had nor disturbing turn of events. >> it's been one week since the revelation that donald trump jr. met with a russian lawyer during the campaign. he tried to contain it himself. >> this is everything, this is everything. >> reporter: but that wasn't everything. it brought donald trump jr., jared kushner and paul manafort face to face with rina rinat akhmetshi

i know jay sekulow. and i respect him. but he did commit a couple of cardinal seasons for a lawyer. they are forgivable. don't address something you don't know the exacts on. you will cause the secret service to reject what you said. and don't always assume everything your client says is correct or consistent with the law just because your client says it. no client, particularly one who has a sense of self-worth donald trump has is right all the time. did donald jr. commit a crime by having a conversation with two russians, one of whom is a former kgb and mution military intelligence agent? probably not by that conversation alone. but the type of crime we are looking at, is the type of event that often involves nuance and mental attitude and other people. i like to think what donald trump and the other did is like going to a fence who has stolen property to take a look at it and deciding whether you want to look at it again. was there an agreement to look at it and use the property? is it a crime to receive something of value when you are running a political campaign from a foreign

back now with one of the president's attorneys, jay sekulow. ou know, jay, for a fact if there was or wasn't a phone conversation between donald trump jr. and this russian pop star prior to the meeting? because from the e-mails it sure seems like there was, and it sure seems like that was important to donald trump jr. i know you're not his attorney. >> i have no knowledge. no knowledge of that at all. >> okay. to you, that an important fact? because the attorney for the pop star and his dad told me that there was no phone call. but it certainly seems like from the e-mail that there was a phone call. >> well, i don't think it would be legally significant. if you asked me the legal significance of a phone call or not a phone call, it wouldn't be legally significant. but, again, i don't represent donald trump jr. i'm one of the lawyers for the president. so i would be really commenting on something i shouldn't be commenting on. >> sure. both president trump and you have said that the russian attorney that donald trump jr. met with is not a russian

jay sekulow and another washington attorney, john dowd, will take over. >> by working outside the white house, their relationship will be protected by attorney-client privilege. jay cobb will replace mark peralo. >> donald trump jr. and paul manafort may be appearing. >> we have asked for voluntary appearances. we're having hearings next wednesday. we want to hear right away. >> trump jr. and manafort are scheduled to appear before the senate judiciary committee. senator dianne feinstein also reiterating the subpoena threat. >>> we're learning jared kushner's closed door session next week will be with staff. it's not yet clear when he will meet with senators. this is now being called, miguel, an interview, not testimony. >> meantime, cnn has exclusively learned jared kushner's status as a top aide for president trump is still being used to lure chinese investors to the new jersey development. kushner's name being used online for two companies. being touted quote the celebrity of the family and mr. e perfect, jared kushner. that happens after his family apologized for using his name in a