president trump's son, donald trump jr., admitting he met with a russian lawyer with ties to the kremlin in an effort to help the trump campaign. the startling admission is raising a big question -- is this evidence of collusion? >>> president trump now appearing to walk back his agreement with russia to create a cybersecurity unit. what's about this sudden -- this aboutface all about? this interesting development over the weekend. >> sure is. >> welcome to "early start," i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. it is monday -- monday, july 10th, 4:00 a.m. in the east. a lot to get this this morning. >>> president trump's eldest son admitting he met with a russian he was told could help his father's campaign. donald trump jr. responding to a report from "the new york times" that he was promised damaging information about hillary clinton before agreeing to meet a kremlin-connected russian lawyer during the campaign. that meeting held in early june, two weeks after mr. trump clinched the nomination. >> in attendance, senior adviser jared kushner, then-campaign chairman paul manafort, don

and a russian kremlin lawyer. get the inside scoop from the "new york times" washington investigates editor who edited the don jr. story. and "new york times" reporters and msnbc contributor. let me first go to you, mark, and it was a story that you edited, and let me give you an extra little note that you just got in from our folks here, which is a confirmation from rob goldstone that he was the go between, this was on behalf tho roberts of nbc and msnbc. that he was the go-between for his client, who was a family, real estate family, very close to the trumps, as well. that he actually represented the pop star whose father is a russian real estate mogul, and confirming that he set up the meeting. he was the go-between. and apparently, he was there as well. >> right. rob goldstone is a friend, acquaintance of donald trump jr. and his client is eamon agalarof, a russian pop star. and his father was involved with donald trump, president trump, during the 2013 miss universe pageant in moscow. so the -- what's interes

the kremlin is denying knowing her and saying the kremlin was not aware of this meeting.e know about her? >> reporter: that's right. the kremlin has distanced itself from natalia veselnitskaya saying they do not know who she is and they should not be expected to keep track of every russian lawyer who travels abroad or to the u.s. as for veselnitskaya, we reached out and have been in communication with her. she has not agreed to an interview. she did give a statement to the new york times. he does not represent the russian government and she also insisted she did not discuss the presidential campaign during her meeting with donald trump junior in june of 2016. what we do know is there was legislation from 2012 that included sanctions first against russians, when it was expanded, who were implicated in human rights abuses and in large scale corruption. in response to this, the russian government banned the u.s. adoption of russian children, and she was very much involved in this. one other bit that we know about her or these ties are that bob goldstone is who is a president

denies any connection to the kremlin. fall of mosul, the so—called islamic states shifts its attention to syria. we will be reporting from raqqa. these fighters are coming up against is snipers in all these streets around here. other than that, they have drones, suicide bombers, this will be a very hard fight. the so—called big economy has given rise to new ideas and some dynamic new companies. but our work is properly protected, or flexible contracts now an excuse to avoid response ability? and beijing is putting on quite a show. the promise of new trade along the new silk road, bridging the gap between east and west. in less than a decade, china has built twice as much high—speed rail as the rest of the world combined. hello, i'm in new york, kristian is in london. it now looks possible that donald trump's campaign didn't knowingly cooperate with people from russia. the e—mails have been —— did knowingly cooperate. the e—mails had been released and show a direct line from donald trump eyes inner circle to moscow. the e—

this gives the kremlin a lot of money to play with no fingerprints on it. this is one of the places we need to be looking. >> thanks, brian. >>> additional questions? let's get right there. >> hi. i'm an intern for congressman. we were talking about how instrumental this whole system is the system of the kgb, obviously the cohort that's now in power went through the kgb -- went through assessment on the new guard because they were not kgb trained and is there any opportunity for us in the west to interact with these new emerging leaders? >> i'm sorry whose the question for? >> some of them are fsb trained, some of them not. but it's not just about the individuals, it's about the system. kgb from the very beginning it was -- essentially we make a mistake when we judge about the kgb as about some intelligence organization we have in the west, from very beginning it was criminal organization not only because it controlled all the criminal world in the soviet union but because you had all kinds of relationships with organized crime groups in the west and everyw

the kremlin's black cash is the new red menace. it has to be looked at that way. corruption is spreading from moscow and spreading for the tool of influence but if you think about this, communism despite the fault, they did attempt to appeal to universal human ideals and aspirations although in practice it often worked against these. corruption on the other hand appeals to the most universal and basic human instincts. sadly, it's often in sync with human nature which makes the new red menace potentially more dangerous and insidious than the old one. finally, corruption today is not just a matter of good governance anymore. it's not something we want to fight because we want to be honest and good, although we do, but corruption is a national security issue of the highest order needs to be treated as such. >> thank you very much brian for that fascinating overview, as well as these sorts of elaborations on how the regime is structured, that's not simply ruled by thieves but it has these ideological components to it. i read your article, corruption is the new communi

we have doctors reports from their own kremlin doctors.ports from prison visitors who were in there and did an investigation. -- shortly after he died he said that a terrible crime had been committed. it's just -- you know, this is like, you know, them saying they didn't invade ukraine. black is white, white is black. that's the kremlin line they put out. that is the line they put in this movie. thankfully nobody believed it. coming to this meeting it doesn't stop them from trying. they had some how found their way into donald trump jr.'s office. they gave it a try there like they did everywhere else. what you to understand about the russians is they will go over 100 different things and 99 of them can fail if one of them succeeds. i don't know how high their hopes were going into that meeting with donald trump jr. but it was part of a major kremlin -- >> let me ask you, blast your involvement now with both of these two russians we know who were in that matting? are you in litigation against them? >> i continue to be on the other side of t

from the top, from kremlin officials, the chief prosecutor in moscow according to the e-mail. back, i love it, as you describe it. what do you make of this? >> big trouble ahead. i think for the administration. this is not small beer. and, you know, i'm remembered, one of shakespeare's plays, i forget which one, at the end of the act, the stage direction is exit pursued by a bear. and i feel like, you know, the russian bear is just almost chasing the trump administration around the stage at the moment. and where i come at this andrea, how does this look internationally. the sense of pervading confusion is now exacerbated by an extremely elevated degree, based on this latest round of revelations. buckle up. i think we'll have many challenges both internally as you've been discussing, but externally as our credibility continues to be shredded. >> already at the g-20, the president had this controversial meeting with vladimir putin, mixed signals, no note taker, no news conference afterward, a briefing by three cabinet secretaries that were then countermandered about backing off

magnitsky was involved with the kremlin so she has connections with the russians.the idea is she came to ask about hillary clinton. the substance of the meeting is less important than putting out what they wanted to talk about. they were testing the trump campaign, are you willing to talk about things you shouldn't talk about. when given the choice to make the right or wrong decision, are you willing to do that? as an intelligence officer, what i'm willing to do with anybody i'm targeting and looking at is can i put them into small, compromising positions? can i make them make choices that might be the wrong decision so the next time i might try a business opportunity for you or something to put you in a position so i can get more information from you. >> yang: so the very fact donald trump accepted this meeting, the russians achieved a goal there? >> absolutely. this is exactly what they wanted to do is to see if they were willing to do this. i wouldn't be surprised if mr. trump or jared kushner were sort of ignorant of how the russians worked and stepped into thi

information is just one of the things that the kremlin has weaponized. in my opinion, the most important thing they've weaponized is corruption. i'll start by saying, i think it's a bit misleading to characterize putin's russia as simply kleptocracy. this implies that the regime's primary aim is the enrichment of the elite and i don't think that's the case. corruption has been instrumentalized at home and weaponized abroad in russia. the domestic role of corruption is to control the elite and to maintain its loyalty. members of the russian political elite effectively have a license to monetize their positions so long as they remain politically loyal and politically useful. to the putin regime. only those who prove disloyal or unuseful are ever prosecuted. for corruption when there's a corruption case in russia, the first question i always ask myself is not, did he or she do what he or she is accused of doing, because of course they did. i say, who did they cross politically? what happened? why are they on the outs politically? what happened here? that's

the kremlin today rejecting any u.s.turn of two seized russian compounds in new york state and maryland, that it lost as part of its punishment for attacking the u.s. election system. today here in the u.s., new reports are revealing the extent of russia's efforts to influence the election. in south carolina, there were nearly 150,000 attempts to break into its voter registration system on election day. in illinois, hackers were hitting the state elections board five times per second, 24 hours a day. but those states are not alone rvt just last month homeland security officials said 21 states could have been targeted by hackers. all this, and we're still learning more details about that meeting in trump tower between members of the trump staff and a kremlin connected lawyer. with me is vladimir, a russian opposition activist, and vice chairman of the pro-democracy movement, open russia. vladimir's been poisoned twice. he believes it was the putin regime that did it. he's testified before congress about the need for the u

lobbying without the kremlin's blessing. >> they don't give out business cards from the kremlin saying're a kremlin lawyer, go to washington and do this. >> reporter: after the meeting last june, veselnitskaya went to washington, organized a onreening of a anti-magnitsky film at the museum, and was in the first row of a congressional hearing on u.s. policy toward russia. last year she also took on former u.s. attorney preet ccarara, who had accused denis katsyv of that kremlin-connected family, of money laundering. ede case was settled after s arara was fired by president trump. in court documents, veselnitskaya has argued and won more than 300 cases and her clients include large state- cased and private corporations. >> she's a non-partisan advocate for a bunch of crooks back in the russian government. >> reporter: the justice department settled that money laundering case against veselnitskaya's client four months after mr. trump came into office. seday house democrats sent a ertter asking the attorney general if that kremlin- connected client got any special treatment. anthony? >> ma

making statements defending his meeting with the ties to the kremlin. after "the new york times" unearthed the meeting on saturday, the president's eldest son released this saying it was a short introductory meeting, i asked jared and paul to stop by. we talked about a program about the adoption of russian children that was popular years ago. it was not a cam paper issue at the time and no follow up. i was asked to attend. that was the statement on saturday. fast forward to a day later, sunday, when "the new york times" reported additional detail that donald trump jr. was promised damaging information on hillary clinton before he agreed to meet with that russian lawyer. after that story was released, donald trump jr. put out this, i was asked to have a meeting with an acquaintance from the miss universe pageant who might have information helpful to the campaign. the woman stated she had information that individuals connected to russia were funding the democratic national committee and supporting ms. clinton. this happened two weeks after donald trump cl

the kremlin has indicated that having phone calls isn't enough. it's time to have a face-to-face meeting. and that would be good for basically geopolitical stability. the kremlin pointed out, though, that going into this meeting, regrettably, it does not know what washington wants to come out of this. we do have to recall that you're not going to have an entirely fair meeting. vladimir putin, this will be his fourth u.s. president that he's met. he's been in this position, head of state in russia, for years and years and years. the flashpoints are many. there could be success on the syrian front. the u.s. secretary of state, rex tillerson, wrote at the beginning of the week that there has been some progress in that awful civil war between the u.s. and russian militaries on establishing deconfliction zones. he hopes that perhaps he can talk about establishing no-fly zones there. last night the russian top diplomat, sergei lavrov, said that's a step in the right direction. maybe syria and the awful war that's killed so many and made so many people h

she has ties to the kremlin. she is essentially assisting the kremlin. and when donald trump jr. says this was a conversation about adoptions, vladimir putin cut off adoptions in retaliation for the act. so if you're having a conversation about adoptions you're having a conversation about the magnitsky act. so this was a high priority for vladimir putin and the kremlin. this was not obscure stuff. and the question is, was there some -- was this part of some potential quid pro quo, where the trump campaign was debating what u.s. policy would be toward the act after the election. i think that's a hugely important question right now. >> and chris, if i could interject quickly, the magnitski act in this story raised red flags among many reporters in questioning whether the act came up at all during the president's meeting with vladimir putin. they talked about and listed issues they did talk about. they didn't list issues they didn't talk about. and as michael says, this is a very pressing one for vladimir putin. among the people affected are people who are very closely tied to the p

and then why is the kremlin working to encourage the dissolution of the e.u. well i don't think that's happening at all and let me try and this argument that i would put in favor pen i don't want to out of the euro zone and she wanted to take french out of the e.u. which would essentially mean they're just not as judging mental and moralistic as the united states meeting with somebody doesn't not necessarily mean that you are going to endorse them first so you're saying the kremlin did not hope that. when they supported i don't think the political climate in the west is still poisonous that most doesn't have many partners to try to maintain relationships in those countries and those parties quote willing to talk to moscow russia seizes this up potential may be successful and maybe not but this is a normal political process those parties and not some far right parties i mean if you actually look into van the pounds ideology it's many studies suggest that it has more sort of leftist leaning their right wing wing and you know from their russian point of view russ

that's the kremlin. is that a legitimate basis for defense on these matters? what does this mean to our democracy? we will hear from former cia and nsa director michael hayden next. ♪ when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tums chewy bites. >>> the kremlin is speaking up on behalf of don junior this morning and against the idea of russian interference of course. they say no single fact proves they interfered. there's no need to investigate anything in this e-mail thread from donald junior, the meeting, the agent, everything about it is untrue. so let's bring in somebody who can help us make sense about what does matter and what the remaining questions are. the former director of the cia and nsa, general michael hayden. thank you for joining us. >> good morning. >> so, let's get to it. when you see these e-mails, what questions do you have? >> well, i think phil mudd actually captured it exactly. it's interesting, maybe even important what happened before, what

with suspect ties to the kremlin. abc news reporter emily rowe has the latest. emily? >> kristen, this entire situation feeds into speculation about a possible connection between the trump campaign and russia. something donald jr. has repeatedly called a witch hunt but now finds himself in the center of. team trump playing defense monday after a "new york times" report revealed the president's eldest son agreed to a meeting with a russian lawyer in exchange for damaging information about hillary clinton. sarah huckabee sanders saying nothing about don jr.'s meeting was inappropriate. >> there was simply no collusion. they try to create that there was. >> reporter: kellyann conway coming to his defense. >> he had no idea who this person was until she entered the room. >> reporter: now that detail raising eyebrows. why donald jr. would agree to a meeting at trump tower with an unknown russian lawyer who has ties to the kremlin and invite two of the most powerful people

and also kremlin has special compromising material or other leverage over their life. even if the previously considered oligarchs, they live in the west and appear to be western business men and have looks and lifestyle and lawyers like western business men, they're actually putin's handlers. because they're based in russia really. but they want to spend money and sort of enjoy the best of two worlds. this brings me to my second major point. kleptocracy in russia is not something residual. i believe there are strong indicators that we're passing through times when, as in 1930's, the very existence of liberal western capitalism, with ideals of good government -- \[inaudible] -- i call this phenomenon g-13 versus g-7 in g-20. in fact, g-7 itself could be, you know, not seen as that much about western liberalism. if you look at countries like italy or etc. so we see that most developing countries seem to be learning worst kleptocratic government and business practices and capitalism based on the rule of law and proper separation of powers is no longer an ideal for societi

of course, the trump administration totally denies that as does the kremlin.thing to do with any of this. >> the biggest pop star to ever come out of azerbaijan, good stuff. matthew chance live for us this morning. thank you. >>> yeah, it's -- what a tangled web we weave indeed. joining us this morning, "weekly standard" report chris deiten live in our washington bureau. good morning. donald trump jr. tweeted about the story eight times yesterday. should be interesting how silent he is on it today now that even the uber trump-friendly "the new york post" is reporting on "the new york times" on their cover. how significant is this "new york times" report? how does it change the argument? >> it's a big story because we have an instance here of a tangible piece of evidence that points in the direction of what this entire narrative has been about all along, right? trying to demonstrate some sort of link, some piece of evidence between the trump campaign and russian actors, be they state actors themselves or people doing their bidding in an effort to influence the

kremlin, the trump campaign and the meeting with the russians. donald trump junior's explanation has evolved a few times since the first -- the story first broke over the weekend. here is the where the story stabds right now. the president's son admits the meeting happened. he's changed his story to now include the fact that the lawyer with whom he met promised damaging information on hillary clinton. he confirms that jared kushner and paul manafort were at the meeting. here is what did the junior says what happened in part to nbc news. quote, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to russia were funding the democratic national committee and supporting his clinton. her statements was vague, ambiguous and made no sense. that was the end of it and there was no further contact or follow-up of any kind. my father knew nothing of the meetings or these events. let's get right to the latest on this story. hallly, give me a sense of where we are in this story? fill it in for us. what are we starting to learn about it. >> rep

have not known who this lawyer is with kremlin ties? here's why it's plausible to me that he may not have known, when you read the stories -- the go between was somebody he knew from the miss universe pageant. this could have been that he was doing this person a favor, and so he didn't want to know, need to know, care to know, unschooled in how important it is to vet people, especially with foreign ties when he's at the top of the campaign, he was doing a favor to somebody who had a russian client or who had russian connections with the miss universe pageant and donald trump jr. didn't even know who the client, didn't even -- we don't know from the stories who the client was. he did not disclose that in his statement that he gave on sunday. >> but why he wouldn't just say that as part of the statement then? why wouldn't he say -- >> you tell me -- >> i was doing a favor for a friend meeting with this person. i didn't know who it was and their connection to russia at all. >> in a statement. >> ana, one point on this, the one thing in don

she doesn't appear to have any official links to the kremlin. but is a managing partner at the russia based law firm. years ago, one of her client's companies had been investigated by the u.s. justice department, after he have client's company was linked to a massive corruption scandal. magnitsky died a mysterious death in 2009. >> translator: of course i'm proud of him because he was proud enough to talk about it. but it's painful because it cost his life. >> reporter: the official cause of death was untreated health problems, though he was badly beaten and denied medical treatment. following his death, the u.s. in 2012 passed the magnitsky act, which allows the united states to withhold visas of russians believed to have violated human rights. in retaliation for that law, russian president vladamir putin banned all u.s. adoptions of russian children. that's where natalia veselnitskaya enters the picture. she was working to have the magnitsky act overturned, meeting with anyone in the u.s. who might listen, perhaps thinking that could be donald

the kremlin also knew it.re alluding to before, jared was just as compromised as michael flynn was. >> what more does the kremlin know and was talked about earlier in this hour, the culpability of russians in this entire meeting. >> it's been a pretty interesting week because what that meeting was was a really great sort of microcosm of what those of us with experience watching russian intelligence operations play out in other places have seen but on a macro sale around the trump organization and campaign. >> is this a typical soft sell? >> it's something hard for people to understand. this is the kremlin's preferred means of action against the united states which it has defined as its primary opponent are these shadow warfare tools. every one of these russians kind of floating around the scenes that just happened to have a russian intelligence background or happened to have a direct line to the russian prosecutor or happened to have financing from russian-state companies, these are not disconnected from the k

not ethnically russian, but kremlin-connected person, wouldn't that be a red flag to you?> absolutely that's a red flag. if any opposition research you have to make sure of one thing, and that is that the information is accurate. and so if you're getting information from someone who may be leading you astray or a motive to lead you astray, that has to be taken into account when you garner what information they have that would purportedly render a candidate unsuitable. you have to consider all these different things as you're trying to evaluate how best to put forward your campaign. >> congressman, we'll let you go. do you have an update on congressman steve scalise, how is he doing? >> his office contacted my office. they prefer that kind of information be consistent and come from either the steve scalise family or from the steve scalise office. i'm going to respect that. all i have right now are what you've already seen on the media. steve is still in the hospital. i think our prayers need to be with him and his family. again, let's pray for a speedy recovery. >> and they

the kremlin has distanced themselves from her saying they've never heard of her.e denies giving damaging information to trump jr. and she denies even saying that she had damaging information to gain access to the trump campaign team. but you know, she -- she is somebody clearly who's at the center of this. take a listen to what she said when i approached her yesterday. >> translator: when it was suggested that i meet with donald trump jr. i met him in a private situation. it was not related at all to the fact that he was the son of the candidate. >> well, she was there primarily to lobby for the repeal of the u.s. act of law which aims to punish suspected human rights abusers in russia. that's what she says she was there to talk about and clearly she said that donald trump jr. wasn't interested in discussing that. so it doesn't seem any problematic or damaging information was passed on during this, but again, as we've said time and again, the fact that the trump campaign or donald trump jr. was apparently willing to take this meeting on the basis it could offer po

nemtsov bled to death right here in the shadow of the kremlin. one camera that was recording that night but it didn't capture the assassination. a city truck happened to block the view. five muslim separatists were convicted of the murder last week but human rights groups suggest that they are just patsys. either way, another powerful russian voice against putin and for the magnitsky act was silenced. >> this is the most pro-russian law ever passed in any foreign parliament. and if you were to ske many what is the most likely reason for somebody trying to kill me twice in two years, i think it's that. >> because you supported u.s. sanctions against russia, the -- >> please don't say that. these are not sanctions against russia. they're sanctions against crooks. i am russian, my colleagues are russian. boris nemtsov was a russian. >> even if standing up is the definition of russian patriotism, then there still are patriots left in russia. this law representing magnitsky's family. he happened to find in a moscow court a cashe of documents which app

>> i verity said that was the kremlin and is not great. i don't thinks it's in america's self interest to question the and the alliance with us europeans help with the self-interest. >> before my time runs out you talk a little of how we should try to speak the truth directly to the russian people because of the filter they receive so much of their information through. how can we cut out vladimir putin and speak directly to the russian people. >> i think it is clear and evident that that's the same environment which is the digital one and if one takes note of the recent progress in russia against the corruption it was very strikingly how young the crowd was. it's also very clear that these people don't anymore get their worldview from the tv. it's also about social -- >> that's the way you can get the truth back to them.y i'm sure kremlin will tried to put up new elements to block us but that's an environment where we can get back to them. >> i want to thank you for your testimony today thank you chairman. let's try a yes no question in th

this latest reporting about a kremlin linked lawyer meeting during the campaign with jared kushner and donald trump, jr., and paul manafort, this is on the one hand just the latest in what is now an incredibly long string of meetings and contacts between people in the trump campaign and russian officials. r during the campaign and during the transition. meetings that were all denied. none of which were initially disclosed until the press figured them out one by one and then oh, yeah, one by one they've admitted to each of them. oh, yeah, i forgot that one too. oh, yeah, i forgot that one too. in addition to that, this new reporting really does include an explicit admission from the president's son who was acting as a campaign official that when the trump campaign learned that russians had launched a hacking attack against the united states to try to influence the outcome of our election, the trump campaign response to that at the highest levels was how can we get in on that? to see what the trump campaign might be able to get out of that sweet, sweet foreign attack on the united states

tonight, the fate of some of the kremlin's opponents.y's russia. special correspondent nick schifrin and producer zach fannin report from moscow. >> reporter: in today's russia, there are consequences to criticizing the state. police tell protesters their rally isn't sanctioned. they are asking president vladimir putin not to run for re-election. the demonstration is sponsored by the opposition group open russia. in saint petersburg, and across the country, police arrested more than 100 protesters. >> it is democratic opposition activists who are being arrested and given lengthy prison sentences, for no other reason than expressing their political views. it is members of the democratic opposition who are being forced into exile, or harassed, or attacked, or murdered. >> reporter: 35-year-old vladimir kara-murza is open russia's vice chairman. he is an outspoken activist, demonstrating against putin and organizing protests. we first sat down with him late last year. >> we believe in the rule of law, we believe in human rights. we believe

. >> how close is kaspersqy to the kremlin. >> i don't know the answer.ut if i were in the fbi i'd be talking to him too. >> robert anderson assistant director of the fbi oversaw the bureau's cyber informations worldwide. >> how frequently and in what context did kaspersky cross your desk. >> you have to look at it potentially as a collection of russia. the one thing i think you should look to is look back at eugene kaspersky. >> tell me about yourself. i understand you were interested in math at an early age. >> typical soviet family, my ther was engineer and mother working in archives. poor here in the soviet union. >> and at age 16 you went to a kgb run school for technical whiz kids. >> what was that school like. >> math math math math math. from time to time, once a year, machine gun. >> he told us that yes, he went to this kgb school but it was lots of math and a little machine gun. >> that would be like me telling you i went to the fbi academy, don't worry about it, i went to the cia academy. don't worry about it. you don't get into a kgb school by

a kremlin spokesman said today to call the meeting secret is absurd. tw.rump tweeted that it was "fake news" and "sick." here's margaret brennan. nl reporter: cameras only briefly got a glimpse of world eiaders and their spouses dining .t the g-20 summit in germany earlier this month. but it was long enough to see president trump enter and gesture toward vladimir putin. the russian president was seated next to first lady melania trump. >> we look forward to a lot of very positive things happening. ju reporter: the two leaders had just finished a more than two- hour long meeting, which secretary of state rex tillerson said showed tive chemistry between them. russia's top diplomat also attended along with official translators from both countries. but the white house revealed late tuesday, nearly two weeks later, that the conversation continued during dinner, without any cameras, advisers, or u.s. translator present. mr. trump relied instead on a kremlin interpreter for what has esen described as a less than reur long meeting. other foreign leaders wondered w

who contacted him to set up this meeting in june 2016 with this kremlin-backed lawyer.ald trump jr. accepted the invitation and asked paul manafort and jared kushner to be there as well. now, according to "the new york times," before that meeting happened, donald trump jr. was told in an e-mail from this guy, rob goldstone, who he knew, told that there would be compromising information about hillary clinton offered in this meeting and he was informed explicitly in this e-mail, according to the "times," quote, that the material was part of a russian government effort to aid his father's candidacy. this e-mail message was described to "the new york times" by three people and according to the times, they have not published the e-mail, but they say the e-mail indicates that the source of this potentially damaging information on hillary clinton was the russian government. and then after that e-mail donald trump, jr., accepted the invitation for the meeting. it convened in trump tower. he was there along with the trump campaign chairman and jared kushner. as we were saying at

i want to start out with what we have obtained by the spokesman out of the kremlin here, the statement they just put out here, saying the planned meeting between president donald trump and russian president vladimir putin will be a full-fledged bilateral meeting rather than an on the go contact. this according to state run tas, we have not gotten a white house confirmation on the expansion of this. but, fred, i want to tell you what we think has the significance here, when you have something and having covered a lot of g-8 and g-20 meetings, when you have a meeting that's just on the sidelines of these very important summits, you look at the body language here and how they greet each other, when you have something like a formal bilateral meeting, which offers an opportunity, first of all, the symbolism to say it's much more significant, these two leaders will sit down side by side, they will be some private time between these two leaders to talk about the substantive issues. secondly, what happens during these kind of bilateral meetings is typically they'll have some private time, the

he bled to death right here in the shadow of the kremlin.as one camera that didn't cap chuthe assassination. a city truck happened to block the view. five muslim spreparatests were convicted. either way another powerful russian voice against putin and for the act was silenced. >> this is the most pro russian law ever passed in any foreign parliament. if you were to ask me the most likely reason for someone trying to kill me twice now in two years i think is that. >> because you supported u.s. sanctions against russia the russian regime wanted you -- >> these are sanctions against crooks. i am russian. my colleagues are russian. >> and if standing up and exposing krungz even as others are being buried for doing just that is the definition of russian patriotism then there still are patriots left in russia. a lawyer who represents magnitski's family. appear to show that stolen money ended up not just in dubai and switzerland but also in new york city where it was used to buy high end property. i photographed the documents. that was enough for a

service had kremlin, who offered dirt on hillary clinton. tonight, new details on that meeting. >>> absolute victory. u.s.-backed forces strike a major blow against isis. >>> wildfire emergency. infernos raging in 11 states. thousands under mandatory evacuations as flames consume dozens of homes. >>> hit-and-run, caught on camera, a car slam no, sir a cyclist and takes off. the driver facing charges. >>> while having another cup of this could have major health benefits. the >>> one veteran's dream comes true, a face for summer fun for fellow wounded warriors and their families. nightly news begins right now. >>> from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. >>> good evening to our viewers in the west. it's great to be back with you on this monday night. we learned late today that the senate intelligence committee is looking to speak with presidential son don jr., as he becomes the closest person to president trump so far to acknowledge meeting with a russian contact during last year's campaign. that

with a russian lawyer connected to the kremlin. also in that same meeting which was first reported by the "new york times" were the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, now white house adviser, and paul manafort. then the campaign chairman. that meeting arranged for june 9, 2016 directly contradicts what trump jr told the times in march. did i meet with people that are russian? i'm sure i did. but none of that were set up. none that i can think of at the moment and certainly none that i was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form. after the "new york times" confronted trump jr about the meeting he then explained its purpose was benign. that they were merely discussing a program for american families to adopt russian children, which was suspended a few years prior. within hours that explanation was revealed to be at absolute very least woefully incomplete. trump jr's real reason for meeting with the lawyer according to five different advisers to the white house who spoke with the times was to collect dirt on his father

this was a woman with close ties to the kremlin.mer husband was a government official, and most importantly, she was campaigning against an act that arguably is the most upsetting to vladimir putin, something that he would like to see lifted right up there with sanctions imposed after the annexation of crimea. the magnitzki act. i spoke with the american businessman who was really the sponsor of that act. that was his attorney, tax attorney who was murdered. he said, according to all the evidence that he's gathered, that this woman had all of the resources, all of the backing from the kremlin directly when she was protesting the act in a film, for example, in europe about five or six russian state-run news stations came to follow her as well. the same thing in washington, d.c. so, i don't know why the congressman would brag about probably doing the same thing if he had been in don, jr.'s position. i wonder what his constituents would think about that as well. we have to always remind ourselves russia is not an ally. russia is, in fa

so it links to trump business interests, and it provides a link to the kremlin as well. the kremlin today is denying anything about the meeting, requesting it, or having any information with the lawyer that attended. >> let's put up a time line about what was happening in the trump campaign at this time. they met with him. then june the 9th, trump tweeting about the missing e-mails. trump campaign changed gop platform to ensure that ukraine wasn't armed. july 22, wikileaks releases e-mails. in final news conference for 2016 campaign, he asks russia to find clinton's e-mails. russia is interfering in the 2016 election. and wiki leaks starts releases john podesta's e-mails. that happened right after the dni release. when you look at a time line like that, what do you think? >> it certainly raises a lot of questions. the one date you omitted from that is the week after the meeting, the second week in june is when the dnc releases the report by crowd strike, the private security firm saying the russians pen straited their computers. it was just days after the russian influen

you were on the phone in the call the kremlin holds with reporters asking about this. what else can you tell us? >> reporter: they were quick to distance as much as they could between the latest scandal that has broken in the united states over the meeting with this russian person and members of the trump team. they are saying not only do they not know who this person is, but she certainly didn't act on their behalf. the spokesperson for vladimir putin, he says, look, russian lawyers hold in russia and abroad. the point is, yes, this lawyer did well, could well have met, you know, donald trump jr. and the other figures from the trump administration and had nothing to do with the kremlin. that underlines what they had been saying time and again, there wasn't collusion on any official capacity on the part of the kremlin to influence the u.s. presidential election or influence donald trump, should he become the u.s. president, because he did. this holds to what the kremlin had been saying all along. >> matthew chance for us in moscow. micha michael zeldin is here. jackie

color="#ffff00">the kremlin says it's absurd. national security experts say the whole edepiso is dangerous. as australia mourns justine damond, minneapolis police put out a transcript of the 911 call that led to her fatal shooting by a cop. an rewriting pre-st the t-rex was not nearly as quick as we thought. this is the "cbs evening news." >> mason: good evening. i'm anthony mason. president trump invited republican senators to the white house today for lunch and served up healthy portions of pressure. he urged them to pass a healthcare bill before they leave washington for their summer recess. the president reminded senators that they and he had promised to replace obamacare and said, "i intend