now, that republican operative, his name is peter smith.ng history in republican politics and oppo research and dirty tricks, specifically against the clintons. smith was 81 years old. he died shortly after being interviewed by "the wall street journal" earlier this year. peter smith said he had been working independently, that he wasn't a part of the trump campaign, but as "the journal" reported, he told other people at the time he was putting together this effort, he told them repeatedly that he was working with people from the trump campaign. specifically he said multiple times to multiple people that he was working with then-senior adviser to the trump campaign, mike flynn. that was the initial reporting from "the journal" on thursday. on friday, is in the wall street journal" posted a followup, reporting that in his attempt to recruit others to his caught, peter smith circulated a document which named a lot more trump campaign officials who are incidentally serving in the administration, kellyanne conway, sam clovis, followed by the wo

he's a guy named peter smith.e same peter smith who has now landed smack dab in the middle of the russia investigation thanks to a piece last night in "the wall street journal." last night the journal published an explosive report which claimed that around labor day last year, peter smith mounted an independent campaign to obtain e-mails he believed were stolen from hillary clinton's private server, likely by russian hackers. he contacted russian hackers to try to get whatever they'd dug up on hillary clinton. he also said in an interview with "the wall street journal" that he believed those hackers were close to the russian government. while he was putting together this effort to contact the russian hackers, to get some of what they got, mr. smith repeatedly implied and told people that he was working with mike flynn in that effort and that he was in frequent communication with mike flynn. mike flynn at that time was a senior adviser to the trump campaign. now, tonight "the wall street journal" has added to their

it named peter smith who is now deceased who is 81 years old. he died earlier this year.t named peter smith as the man who over labor day weekend last year tried to put together or did put together a group of experts, a group of technology experts, lawyers, and at least one russian speaking investigator to try to obtain clinton e-mails that he believed might have been hacked by russian hackers. that story was broken by "the wall street journal" last night. shane harris was the sole byline on that. the very provocative question in that report from "the wall street journal" was about his connection to the trump campaign. mr. smith in his communication with people he was trying to bring into this project and his communication with people about this effort he was making to contact russian hackers repeatedly referenced mike flynn who was then a senior adviser to the trump campaign as somebody he was working with and in communication with on this effort. now that's not been confirmed. it was said by smith apparently. flynn is not commenting in reaction to these -- in reaction t

that story from "the wall street journal" focused on this man, peter smith. an elderly 81-year-old long time republican activist who admitted that he headed up this effort to contact russian government hackers because he was seeking damaging fgs he thought he could get from them about hillary clinton. peter smith talked openly about this project that he ran to try to accomplish this during the campaign. he talked about it to "wall street journal" reporter shane harris in an interview that took place in may. and one of the striking details in that personal story when it was published two weeks ago is that peter smith had died not long after sitting down and doing that interview with shane harris. quell now tonight the chicago tribune reports that peter smith's death was a suicide. now, again this is something that would normally be considered an entirely private matter, only of concern to his family. because of peter smith's interesting and unique involvement in the presidential campaign though and the subsequent focus after the story came out as to who in the

tell us more about peter smith. >> well, actually, i found out about peter smith from matt tate who youentioned who identified himself as someone who was talking to me about this. and he described the story very much as he wrote it in that ess essay. he had the alliances with the trump campaign and wanted matt's help in this effort to find hillary clinton's hacked e-mails, which peter smith believed were her hacked e-mails. in the course of looking into that peter smith learned i was reporting on this story and he contacted me. we had a fairly lengthy interview in early may in which he laid out the entire operation which corresponded very closely to what matt described. subsequent reporting and he passed away about ten days after that initial interview, we were never able to follow up with him directly but with some of his associates and looking at the material he sent around to recruit people and describe his effort in which he called out trump associates. >> shane, let me play some sound from then candidate donald trump on july 26th and ask you about it on the other side. >> russia, i

this man's name was peter smith.e are learning new details about his strange suicide note and his reported attempt, as jim mentioned, to get hold of those clinton e-mails hacked by the russians during last year's campaign. there are serious new questions tonight about the timing of peter smith's death. >>> peter smith reportedly moved around under mysterious circumstances, and tonight there are questions over whether he died under them. smith, a republican operative, was found dead in his room in this hotel near the mayo clinic in rochester, minute in mid mne may. they are saying it was suicide. placed bag overhead and attached helium source. >> this isn't shooting yourself or i am paling yourself, something people would see as more violent. it is a more peaceable method, if you will. >> reporter: police say in his hotel room, the 81-year-old left a road map, documents indicating he'd been in ill health recently and that his insurance policy was about to expire. the police report says, quote, the documents included a

peter smith told the journal that general flynn then serving as national security adviser to the trumpign was aware of smith's operations. >> was there any legitimacy to that? did flynn have any ties to the campaign? >> well, flynn has not commented -- and that if peter smith was doing something with flynn that was in general flynn's private capacity. so it's still not entirely clear to what extent mike flynn was involved in this. there's no doubt that these two men knew each other. >> reporter: an attorney for flynn didn't return our calls for comment. peter smith believed he had gathered the private hillary clinton e-mails but couldn't completely verify the accuracy. now some on capitol hill including one member of the house intelligence committee thinks smith's efforts are one more avenue that should be investigated in the russia probe. >> it's something that should be probed further and i hope it now gets folded into what we're doing. >> reporter: now aside from flynn's attorney never getting back to us, the white house didn't return our calls or e-mails but a senior official from

the first is that peter smith, this now deceased long time republican operative who admitted to "the wall street journal" that he was running this project, that he was trying to work with the russians, he claimed during those efforts that he was working with trump national security adviser mike flynn who at the time of those efforts was a senior adviser to the trump campaign. now, mike flynn is not confirming whether or not that's true. he's not commenting on that reporting at all. but the other big specific revelation in that shane hair ra harris piece in "the wall street journal" which sort of corroborated that piece about flynn is that in that same "wall street journal" piece shane hair race also reported u.s. investigators also, quote, have examined reports from intelligence agencies that described russian hackers discussing how to obtain e-mails from hillary clinton's server and then transmit them to mike flynn via an intermediary. that still doesn't mean for sure that mike flynn, then a senior adviser to the trump campaign was still in on this project to work with the russians

. >> peter smith reportedly moved around under mysterious circumstances. tions over whether he died under them. smith, a republican operative, was found dead in his room in this hotel near the mayo clinic in rochester, minnesota, in mid-may. police tell cnn it was suicide, asphyxiation. the medical examiner's report says the victim placed bag overhead and attached helium source. >> in isn't shooting yourself or impaling yourself or something that people would see as more violent. it's a more peaceable method if you will. police say in his hotel room, the 81-year-old left a road map, documents indicating he had been in ill health recently and his insurance policy was about to expire. the police report show documents with a note that there was no foul play. that odd suicide note combined with what he told "wall street journal" reporter, ken harris, ten days before he died is putting his death into the spotlight. >> he told me he put together a group of lawyers and technology cal experts in europe to get in contact with hackers who they suspected may have obta

before peter smith died earlier this year at the age of 81 he freely admitted to "the wall street journal" that he had surmised that these russian hackers he was trying to get in touch with were probably linked to the russian government. that didn't bother him. he thought the russian government hackers attacking our election system might have been able to hack hillary clinton's e-mails. and so he formed this team late last summer to try to find the appropriate group of hackers, to try to make contact with them, to try to get hillary clinton's stolen e-mails off of them so those e-mails could be deployed against her in the campaign on behalf of trump supporters. so it's really interesting bombshell reporting from shane harris, again, about a week and a half ago. it was a big advance in terms of what we understand about this story and what we as americans understand about what happened to our country last year. i mean, it is now well-established or it is at least furthermorely attested to by multiple u.s. intelligence agencies that the russians did this attack last year and it had a few dif

basically, we know that peter smith, this role he was trying to play there covertly to dig up these clinton e-mails. that was revealed in the wall street journal. they toukd to him. a couple days later he died. we now find out it's a suicide, what can you tell us? >> ten days later after speaking with the wall street journal. they waited for due diligence, waited until the end of june to publish stories. when those came out, here is a man from an exclusive north shore. he's dead. he's reportedly looking for the hackers to find hillary's so-called missing e-mails. there were two gaping holes in my mind, where did he die and how did he die? i wok here in walk, this is my pack yard, the chicago tribune readership is there. i made eight point, for those two questions fundamentally. where did he die and how did he

he did not have a formal position with the trump campaign, but they report that peter smith attemptedo independently acquire hacked e-mails that he believed might have been stolen from hillary clinton's private server. now, in doing so, according to article, mr. smith said he and his colleagues found five groups of hackers who claimed to possess mrs. clinton's delete e-mails, including two groups he determined were russians. he did not work for trump's campaign. he confirms e-mails win by mr. smith and one of his associates show that his small group considered mr. flynn and his consulting company, flynn intel group, to be allies. we are joined by a reporter who wrote that story. okay. walk us through this, because you got a couple things here i want to try to pin down here t. name michael flynn comes up. the idea of a republican political consultant not formally a part of trump campaign and the idea of stolen e-mails and contacts with the russians. what exactly do you know here? >> we know smith launched this over labor day weekend officially, before that the campaign was entering the

>> well, it certainly shows that peter smith had an extensive network and was dropping names, trying to get people to come on board and do this dirty tricks research campaign that he appeared to be coordinating. i find it noteworthy that he wrote this on september 7th. that's almost six weeks after donald trump made his russia, are you listening statement, on 27 july. and i think that it generally takes about a month to establish an llc as he did in this, in order to have a vehicle, and was out there trying to do this as an independent operator. but i do think he was just dropping names to get high-level republicans to come on board or to help him effect this campaign. >> so you view it, just to be clear, as him on the make, but no inferred culpability of the people he may have been citing? >> right. and to be honest, i think there are multiple dirty tricks teams out there. >> right. >> this one actually dates pretty far behind some of the ones that we suspect with roger stone. the fbi counterintelligence investigation had already started. the cia was already deeply involved in other

we will talk to peter smith.omberg. ♪ emily: cryptocurrencies are keeping investors on their toes. a major shift in bitcoin over the last few weeks. last month, the digital currency exchange saw the value plunge from $317 to nearly zero. i caught up with peter smith at the fortune brainstorm tech conference in aspen, colorado. i started by asking about the crash, and when cryptocurrencies will stabilize. >> this is because corn-based to improperly -- had improperly implemented out the rhythms. --h what you do >> it has had outages and performance issues. it is not limited to that one situation. >> our platform has not gone down. willnk in general, what happen is, we see more and more scaling and more established players come to the system. it will transfer market pressure on the people to perform at a high level. liquid is the cryptocurrencies market? >> it is incredibly liquid. and i think on the exchange side, it's a pretty big balance, too. do you think the market cap will surpass bitcoin in short order? >> it

with peter smith, russians dangled out hope of 33,000 missing e-mail possess. with don junior, dangling out possibly information on hillary clinton. and now when do you that chris, what you are attempting to do, gaining intelligence from human sources but also the target aeng recruiting of individuals with the eventual goal of directing them. >> this is a clear attempt by the russians to essentially try and recute u.s. persons. perhaps collusion is down the road. it seems very clearly that they were trying to gain access with the attempt and this is why there woman sat down with donald jr and at the end of the day had nothing to offer in terms of hillary. it was a clear card move there with a dangle meant to get a meeting. >> are you confident -- we have three stories, i didn't meet with anyone, we met and talked about adoption. i went into it thinking i could get some dirt on hillary clinton. there is possibly illegal there, it is illegal to accept anything, not just money. do we know the whole story about what happened with that meeting? >> absolutely not. no

peter smith, who died in may. but he might have had quite a story to tell about mike flynn, russian hackers, and the search for hillary clinton's epic lost e-mail file. we'll talk to the panel about it, next. i'm good. come on, moe. i have to go. (vo) we always trusted our subaru impreza would be there for him someday. ok. that's it. (vo) we just didn't think someday would come so fast. see ya later, moe. (vo) introducing the subaru impreza. the longest-lasting vehicle in its class. more than a car, it's a subaru. your strips are slippy... whiter than mine? ...mine are grippy. crest whitestrips stay in place. crest whitestrips professional effects... ...lock in the whitening for a whiter smile. these aren't going anywhere. these are. crest... ...healthy, beautiful smiles for life. 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. >>> blockbuster report in "the wall street journal" this week, placing mike fl

that's where the connections between this guy, peter smith, who's died now, peter smith and flynn, what he described as his own connection with flynn become very important. and it's where it becomes very important as to how much really the way the justice department is going to approach flynn, because -- >> that's exactly right. the choice flynn's going to have to make, if he is -- if what's implied in this article is true about limb, is how much he wants to talk about what he did. and how much he wants to take it on himself, and how much he wants to take it on the campaigning. >> it does one other thing for me that's been clarifying. whatever happened on the first order, and the obstruction of justice, everything that happened in attempting -- in firing the fbi director, in obfuscating and disembling why they did so. at the center of that, is the one request that we know the president made at least according to james comey under oath, which is to lay off flynn. flynn has always been the person, sally yates gets concerned and goes over there twice, they don't fire him. they fire him, an

, and someone out on the web according to peter smith say they had hillary clinton's missing e-mails. and this british operative, he was very puzzled that this person peter smith was a long time opponent of the clintons, but he was looking for the british operative's help in getting those e-mails. whoever is offering these e-mails is possibly russian government, it doesn't matter to peterson. you have this pattern of people, you know, you know, how close the president is a question, but various people helping trump indirectly or directly reaching out to russians trying to get this information, then you have the russian's helping trump during the election. there's no smoking gun here, but this is a pattern. >> and bob baier, also confirmed that he knew multiple examples prior to the election and even before this incident in which we are learning this meeting happened in june of last year in which there were russians trying to kind of put the feelers out about information in order to damage hillary clinton and others in the democratic party. david drucker, you are a reporter, you meet

first of all, it was in peter smith's best interest to highlight his relationship, if he even had onelynn. he was an ageing political operative who wanted a chip in the game. that's clear. unfortunately investigators aren't going to have access to mr. smith because he's now deceased. it's also a little bit disturbing to me that "the wall street journal" had this information fully two months ago and it seems to me that their timing in releasing the information coincided with sort of a down period in the russian investigation news cycle. >> do you think it's just that, rick, that they are timing it that way? >> i'm not sure. i mean, i'm not making the editorial decisions for the "wall street journal" or for msnbc. i'm just pointing out that they had this information for a full 60 days before it was released. and the value of the information is suspect, particularly for robert mueller and his investigative team who are going to be focussing on criminality, on the actual collusion with a foreign government who's hostile to the united states. because your primary witness is no longer avail

peter w. smithls were in the hand of russian hackers and told multipresident friend he was working with flynn to obtain then. one of the people he was accused of trying to recruit, matt tate who laid out his interactions with smith that was published friday night. tate wrote although it wasn't initially clear to me how independent smith's operation was from flynn or the trump campaign, it was immediately apparent that smith was both well connected within the top echelons of the campaign and seemed to know flynn and his son well. he taoffered deep incites. he went onto discuss a research document he says smith sent him that listed senior members of the trump team including kellyanne conway, michael flynn, steve bannon, and more. joining us is a senior reporter at business insider. welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> what do you make of this report. who is tate, exactly, and put these pieces together a little bit? >> tate is an information security specialist. he used to work for the government co

peter smith tried to obtain e-mails who were stolen from clinton's server.non and kellyanne conway and michael flynn. smith implies that he was working with flynn and flynn's son. smith died shortly after speaking. 81-year-old of his death there. first time there is a connection of somebody that's willing to work with the russians to do whatever they could. >> that's why this is a little tension to the story because if at all pans out, it would suggest that, it will be the first suggestion that there may have been some form of collusion, the source of this story of intelligence officers came out. what we don't know is where peter smith is talking about the relationship of the trump people. we have not heard from flynn and clovis about this. there is still questions around how tight the relationships are. >> you brought up the british m m matae. he wrote this long post. the time i got recruited to collude with the russians. my conversation with smith shocked me given the amount of media attention of the involvement of the government and dnc hack, it seemed mi

he reported that peter smith had initiated an effort to obtain clinton's deleted e-mails from russian hackers, and while doing so, he implied he had a direct line to michael flynn and to the trump campaign. it is in those efforts one of the people smith reached out the for was matt tait help from an expert. he recalls feeling deeply uneasy about and it ultimately parted ways. we reached out the him to have him on the show. he wrote, since publishing the article, i have been contacted by a number of investigators and congressional committees requesting that i provide them with additional information relating to the article and it would not be appropriate to provide further comment until i've had the opportunity on meet with them and provide them with a complete account of the events of last year. joining me, special watergate prosecutor, there are a bunch of deals that really jumped out at me. so the cyber security expert gets this entreaty from peter smith who is getting all these e-mails and trying figure out if they're e-mails from russian hackers. it was immediately aparent that he

mysterious donor and operative peter smith tried to obtain hillary clinton's e-mails from russian hackers. smith, quote, implied he was working with retired general michael flynn. according to "wall street journal" that operative died days after being interviewed about his efforts. the chicago tribune is reporting he actually committed suicide, leaving behind a cryptic note that says no foul play whatsoever was involved in his death. i am joined by a reporter that broke that story, a washington correspondent for the washington tribune, katherine, you have been reporting on it. let's layout the facts here as you know them. basically, we know that peter smith, this role he was trying to play there covertly to dig up these clinton e-mails. that was revealed in the wall street journal. they toukd to him. a couple days later he died. we now find out it's a suicide, what can you tell us? >> ten days later after speaking with the wall street journal. they waited for due diligence, waited until the end of june to publish stories. when those came out, here is a man from an exclusive north shore. h

we know that peter smith, this role he was trying to play covertly to dig up the clinton e-mails, thatled in the "wall street journal." they talked to him a couple days later he died. we now found out it's a suicide. what can you tell us? >> he died ten days later after speaking to the "wall street journal." the "wall street journal" apparently did their due diligence that waited until the end of june to start publishing the stories. when they came out, here's man from lake forest, illinois, from the north shore, and he's dead. he's reportedly looking for the overseas hackers to find hillary clinton's missing e-mails and there were two gaping holes, where did he die and how did he die? i work here in washington but this is my backyard. the "chicago tribune's" rearedship is there. i made it a point to try to answer those two questions. where did he die and how did he die? within about say, three or four days of reporting, i ascertain that had he took his life outside the mayo clinic complex in a private hotel and committed suicide by suffocation. >> in terms of authorities and what they

. >> i want to move on to another report that you are very aware of and that is michael flynn, peter smith. peter smith, who was claiming and is in his interview with the wall street that he was looking for hackers that had access or were able to find the clinton e-mails and that he had a close relationship at least from his testimony -- his interview with the wall street with michael flynn and at that point flynn was senior adviser. michael, this is the first specific piece of evidence that is being reported on allegedly that links, again, michael flynn to this activity set that might lead to collusion. >> yeah, this is a fragment, i think it is important -- it is an important fragment. it begins to sort of bring up a question many of us have had, which is what might collusion have looked like had it occurred. this article in the "wall street journal" begins to lay some of that out. but listen, we've got a long way to go to try and figure out whether this is truthful or just a consultant operating in and of itself and on his own accord and dropping names. to me what this really begs the q

peter smith died in may. flynn had no comment on the journal's story. joining me now, tara miller, former cia military analyst and senior policy adviser at the counterextremism project. tara, what do you make of the journal's report on the possible smith connection to flynn. >> i think the journal report was extremely interesting. all roads always seem to lead back to general flynn and i think this is going to be a constant problem for the trump administration as this investigation continues. we've seen flynn be the center of this investigation initially. we've seen him be the center of comey's testimony in terms of trump pressuring to let flynn go, and making other people leave the room. and now we see another story where there's a republican operative who claims to have ties to flynn. again, we haven't heard flynn's side of the story on this but the claim that the operative was in touch with flynn on this does seem to suggest some sort of coordination or cooperation with what may have been a russian hacking group, even if they didn't actually end up o

we see with this meeting, with the peter smith where the potential that the russians pushed out this idea that they had hillary clinton's 33,000 e-mails, i mean, look, at the end of the day, and peter smith took that back. and we see then donald trump go on national tv and saying in two separate occasions, once after this meeting with donald junior saying that there's going to be dirt coming out in the future press release and then secondly going and asking russia to release these 33,000 e-mails and saying that they'll be might ill rewarded. it's so clear that the russians completely manipulated the trump team and just over acted on them. and i have to say, the last thing here, i mean, there's just a level of sleaze that the people that the russians used, the people that were able to get in this trump circle is fascinating and both shocking. at this point i wouldn't be surprised to hear that scott bayo is driving the uber and they stopped at a subway with -- it's crazy. >> i'm going to give have you the last word on this because the question is is it that the trump people were easily

peter smith was 81 when he died in may.ealed his efforts in an interview with the "wall street journal" and now police say smith committed suicide. cnn's crime and justice reporter is back with us with some new reporting on this. >> reporter: just, you know, weeks after they revealed this interview, the wall street journal revealed that they interviewed him where they said, basically, he claims, peter smith claims -- claimed that he was trying to get ahold of what he believed were e-mails that were hacked by the russians. these were on hillary clinton's server. well, just today, we learned how he died. you know, at first, we didn't give it much thought. he's 81 years old and he was ill, and when we did the story, you know, we just sort of assumed it was his illness. but today, we learned that he committed suicide. he had a placed a bag over his head and basically suffocated himself. interestingly, also, we learned from police that he left behind a suicide note where he explained why he was doing this, partially it's because

what we don't know is whether peter smith was talking up his relationship with the trump people.onway and bannon have both come out ask denied any of the links. we haven't heard from clovis on this. there is still questions on how tight they were. >> ron tate wrote this long sort of explanatory post on the website lawfare, and he writes this. at the time i got hired to collude with the russians. it is no overstatement to say that my conversations with smith shocked me. given the amount of media attention given at the time, to me it seemed really wrong. they had a reckless lack of interest in whether the e-mails came from a russian cutout. they made it quite clear to me it made no difference to them who hacked the e-mails, only that the e-mails be found and made public before the election. hugh hewitt? >> before now, there has been no evidence of collusion. it changes it because it gives a path to collusion. i do think it adds -- it's smoke. >> it's smoke and there's a gun, we just don't know if the smoke and the gun -- >> and they put out do not destroy memos to everyone and flyn

we see with this meeting, with the peter smith or the potential that the russians pushed out this idead hillary clinton's 33,000 e-mails, at the end of the day -- and peter smith took that back and we see donald trump go on national tv and say in two occasions, once after the meeting with donald junior, saying that there's going to be dirt coming out in the future press release and then secondly going and asking russia to release these 33,000 e-mails and saying they will be, you know, mightily rewarded, it's so clear that the russians completely manipulated this, you know, the trump team and just over acted on them. i have to say, the last thing here, i mean, there's just a level of sleaze that the people that the russians use, the people that were able get into this trump circle is fascinating and both shocking. at this point i wouldn't be surprised to hear that scott baio is driving the uber and they stopped at a subway with tequila. it's crazy. >> david, last -- i'm going to give you the last word. is it that the trump people were easily manipulated or actively attempting to use rus

what about peter smith, "the wall street journal" reporter who was saying, i got information?eric: those are separate investigations. i am guessing that they're going to end up being -- again, what law has been broken? none. what ethical violation has been exceeded? none. >> i happen to agree. i don't think there is evidence. i have been saying a long time, we talked about this before, we should take a step back and wait for robert mueller to do the investigation on the legal end of things. i don't think there is any evidence tonight that donald trump, jr., did anything illegal, to eboni's point. there is a huge political problem and to something of amnesia and the white house with these russian connections. if that is where i applaud the president's son for saying that he will be transparent. we need more of that so the american public can get back to the business of what we need to do, health care, immigration, tax reform, and be done with this investigation. >> eboni: also, eric, i agree that we don't have any smoking gun. i think that is still outstanding but the cumulativ

borjan there michael >>> two weeks ago we led our show with a "wall street journal" report about peter smith and the operative who reportedly sought e-mails. the story was a big deal. while smith told the journal on the record he was working independently, he had intimated to others that he had been working with michael flynn, president trump's disgraced security adviser. and investigators have examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe russian hackers discussing how to obtain e-mails from miss clinton's server and then transmit them to mr. flynn via an intermediary. until this week, and the disclosure of jump junior's e-mails. that was the very first evidence of a trump ally seeking to collude with russian hackers. now the story has taken a strange twist. the "wall street journal" had reported that smith died shortly after he was interviewed. but yesterday the "chicago tribune" said the death was not for natural causes. smith reportedly kill himself in a minnesota courtroom, leaving a suicide note during which he said, no foul play was involved with his death. there's a lot i

peter smith. now perhaps once he saw this, he brings it back to this whether it's kellyanne conway or michael flynn, any other name droppers that were in the subsequent report. that gets to them and maybe that gets to the president, and the president then comes out on national tv and says russia if you're listening, release these emails. the thing about that, joy, that's so unbelievably damaging and so frightening is it shows you both, a, how good the russians are at manipulating people, and b, it shows you how susceptible the man in the white house is to that manipulation. >> i hear the sort of key to all of this is the conspiratorial mind-set of both donald trump and michael flynn. these are people who already had a mind-set that hillary clinton was just an uncaught criminal, and that whatever the russians got from the dnc somewhere in there was the criminal intent of hillary clinton hiding in it, and that if you could just get her 33,000 specifically emails, then you would catch her. that would

what about peter smith, "the wall street journal" reporter who was saying, i got information?ic: those are separate investigations. i am guessing that they're going to end up being -- again, what law has been broken? none. what ethical violation has been exceeded? none. >> i happen to agree. i don't think there is evidence. i have been saying a long time, we talked about this before, we should take a step back and wait for robert mueller to do the investigation on the legal end of things. i don't think there is any evidence tonight that donald trump, jr., did anything illegal, to eboni's point. there is a huge political problem and to something of amnesia and the white house with these russian connections. if that is where i applaud the president's son for saying that he will be transparent. we need more of that so the american public can get back to the business of what we need to do, health care, immigration, tax reform, and be done with this investigation. >> eboni: also, eric, i agree that we don't have any smoking gun. i think that is still outstanding but the cumulative

. >> there was another report named peter smith who is now deceased and he implied that he had both aconnection -- he was wanting to look for hillary clinton's e-mails and look in the dark web and he implied that he had a connection to mike flynn and mike flynn, jr. what role did he play on the campaign? was it voluntary? was he with his dad. >> i spent a lot of time traveling on the campaign. know general flynn as well. may have potentially met his son on one occasion. i had never seen him in the campaign office. to the best of my knowledge, when i was on the kpap, he never traveled on the campaign plane. so any role that he would have played that i'm aware of would have been as support staff to his father, but no official capacity on the campaign. >> and how much would aid surrogate like general flynn or others come to you and say hey, i might have some access to some good oppo? was general flynn one of those folks? >> no, it didn't really work like that. and remember, as -- let me be very clear about this. during slt primary campaign we did not do opposition research on our opponen