has been told to retain are any communications he had with the alpha bank. the putin connected bank allegedly linked to the trump organization, and definitely linked to the new guy trump wants to put in charge of all criminal matters at the department of justice. in addition to his daughter ivanka's new lawyer on russia matters, donald trump jr. also this week reportedly retained at least one new lawyer, whose fees he's already started charging to the trump reelection campaign. that's what your make america great again hats are buying you guys. the hats are buying donald trump jr.'s legal defense fees in the russia scandal. so the investigation into the russia issue right now is getting very close to home for the president. is that bothering him? i don't know how to tell. is that affecting his risk and reward when it comes to drastic actions he could take as president of the united states? what do you think? i mean, this is a president who has already seen the resignation or the firing of the white house communications director, the white house spokesman, the

, the alpha bank maintains that those electronic communications were totally innocuous. the trump campaign said at the time, quote, the trump organization has no communication or relationship with this entity or with any russian entity. so that the alpha bank and the trump organization servers thing denied in terms of it being nefarious as both parties involved. the alpha bang thing has remained a loose thread for people trying to get to the bottom of the connections of lack thereof between russia and the trump campaign while russia was attacking our election campaign last year. tomorrow in the senate president trump's nominee to lead the criminal division of the justice department, he's going to get his confirmation hearing. tonight the "the new york times" reports that hey, it turns out he worked for alpha bank. in fact he supervised a review of those mysterious communications between the alpha bank serve every and the trump organization server. he supervised one of the reviews of those suspect communications that ultimately pushed back on the suggestion that there was

are you familiar with mchale fridman of alpha bank? >> i am. >> what do you know about him? >> he's one of the original 22 oligarchs who became rich in russia from banking oil, telecommunications and other businesses. >> you say that in the year 2003 when vladimir putin decided to make a -- or have a show trial with mr. core acoversky it was a thinly veiled message to the oligarchs, either play ball with me or you'll sit in a cage like he did? >> yes. >> and then vladimir putin is reported to have flown to london to either celebrate or note the merger of mchale fridman's oil company with british petroleum. are you familiar with that? >> very much so, yeah. >> and mr. fridman now is involved in so many different business dealings. i tried to do some research on him and it's voluminous, and the different places, many in russia, others outside of russia. what would you say about the suspicion there was some communication between alpha bank and the trump campaign which was reported and has been debated back and forth as to whether it was true. >> i have only -- i only know about

the fact the nominee continued representing alpha bank until the day of nomination raises questions. tinue to represent the bank after he knew about the potential nomination? one thing that is important here, running the criminal division of the department, does that have connections with the special department? >> it shouldn't because it falls under the national security and is separate with the own ag, the only head that runs that department. the only way here, he may have exposure to it is the financial investigations that we have all heard about and maybe going on as part of this. all of that, anything that is connected of anyone within the trump world is being handled outside of the department of justice with the special council. however, you know, if sessions goes, then a new attorney general would come in and who knows what would happen. this could potentially, potentially, you know, have him overseeing some aspects of that investigation. >> questions of recusal with him. thanks so much. >>> tension between the united states and iran. we are learning a yus navy ship had to fire

there was unusual sets of data stream going to alpha bank servers from a server linked to the trump organizationed a he then it was communicating sereptitiously with this moscow bank with putin ties. >> then i was wrong. no server found. >> as best as we can tell at this point, there was a server that had the trump name on it but not controlled by the trump organization and controlled by a spam company, essentially, that was spamming out e-mails about trump properties on behalf of the trump organizati, not controlled by the trump organization or in the trump tower. the fbi looked at it and they decided there was nothing to do it. it remains murky but maybe a bit of a red herring when there's so much other stuff. >> that's good to know. >> here's what we know. they are going to have questions. >> they are going to have questions. >> absolutely. >> good to see you, charlie. >> thank you very much. >> dianne feinstein revealed that he recuse himself and this russia data transmission thing and he's refusing to recuse himself from all things mueller. that's an interesting data point as this unfolds t

communication between a computer server associated with the trump campaign and one associated with alpha bank. alpha sbang large russian closely linked to vladimir putin. alpha bank maintains that the transfers between its server and the server connected to the trump organization, the alpha bank maintains that those electronic communications were totally innocuous. the trump campaign said at the time, quote, the trump organization has no communication or relationship with this entity or with any russian entity. sos the alfa bank and the trump organization servers thing denied in terms of it being nefarious as both parties involved. the alfa bank thing has remained a loose thread for people trying to get to the bottom of the connections of lack thereof between russia and the trump campaign while russia was attacking our election campaign last year. whether or not yew ever cared about that before, tomorrow in the senate president trump's nominee to lead the criminal division of the justice department, he's going to get his confirmation hearing. tonight "the new york times" reports that hey, it

alpha bank, which was represented through a law firm, at least raises a question in my mind. am i overreacting? what is your thought about this? mr. browder: as i said before, any russian oligarchs should be dealt with with extreme caution. it all depends upon the ethics of this individual. i do not know his loyalties to his former client. it would be wrong for me to make any judgment about it. sen. durbin: understood. i am trying to piece together a few things. i am trying to understand the steel dossier as it relates to fusion can you tell me about their role, why the dossier was created and what they hope to achieve? mr. browder: i only know about the steel dossier and this whole thing from what i have read in the press. i am just a bystander in that part of the story. what i am familiar with on a first-hand basis is fusion gps and glenn simpson's role working on behalf of the russian government to overturn the magnitsky act. the steps they took very much compromise their integrity. sen. durbin: you are saying you do not know about a connection between steele fusion and th

head of the justice department's criminal division, he disclosed business ties to a russian bank, alpha bank. can't they find anyone for a top job who doesn't have a tie to russia? >> well, it seems like they're all in with the russians. but at least i believe he was truthful about that. the thing that's troubling about this administration is so many of them are lying about their contacts with the russians. starting with general flynn running all the way on through the most recent communications from donald trump jr. and jared kushner. and that is very troubling when they won't tell the truth about their contacts with the russians. i think the confidence in the house and the senate is eroding. they just had a procedural vote today on health care but then they voted down this crazy bill they had and they got to the actually come up with a law. that's a lot harder. you're not going to get legislation through when people don't trust you. in order to get people to trust you, you have to tell the truth. and they've been doing a lot of lying. >> john? >> it's not working. > pardon me. >> go ahead,

we learned at benchcowski's hearing this week that his time working at alpha bank is not one long-standing relationship that he now has to explain going back years. he started working for alfa bank this year. after all that controversy about alfa bank in the trump organization during the campaign. he started working for alfa bank after he left the trump transition earlier this year. we also learned that he was still working for alfa bank when the trump administration asked him to take this very high-level job at the justice department. and we learned that if he is confirmed to run the criminal division of the justice department, he said he will recuse himself from matters involving his client alfa bank directly, but he will not say if he will recuse himself from any investigations into any ties between russia and the trump campaign. in april he found out he was up for this job, leading the criminal division at the justice department. he found out that in april. he stayed on representing this russian bank until june. until the day he was formally nominated. head of the criminal division at

what would you say about the suspicion there was some communication between alpha bank and the trump campaign, which was reported and has been debated back and forth as to whether it was true? mr. browder: i only know about that from what i have read in the press. from what i have read in the press, it is not enough information for me to make any judgment. based on what you know about the background you have described to me, it would give you some measure of caution, would it not, in dealing with alpha bank and mr. fridman, from the perspective of our own national security, would it not? i would say any russian oligarchs, i would not single out alpha bank, all russian oligarchs should be dealt with with extreme caution. their wealth is totally dependent on their relationship with vladimir putin. sen. durbin: let me tell you why i asked the question. you have a man that wants to head the criminal division of the department of justice. committeed before the recently. he had alpha think as a client, after the election of donald trump and after he served on the transition team, the landi

what would you say about the suspicions that there was some communication between alpha bank and the trump campaign which was reported and has been debated, back and forth, as to whether it was true. >> i only know about that from what i've read in the press and what i read in the past it doesn't -- it's not enough information to for me to make a judgment. >> based on what you know about this background that you just described to me, though, it would give you a measure of caution, would it not in dealing with the bank and mr. freedman from the perspective of our own national security, would it not? >> i would basically say that any russian oligarchs that i would single out out the bank and include major russian oligarchs should be done with extreme caution because their wealth is totally dependent on their relationship with vladim vladimir. >> i asked the question because we have a man who wants to be the head of the criminal division of the department of justice who appeared before the committee recently who had alpha bank as a client after the election of donald trump and after he

you would find respected lawyers from big law firms that represented alpha bank and other big russiano have to answer questions about this and explain what his vomt iinvolvement is a promise to recuse himself from related matters if he's confirmed. >> congressman, a question for you and matt. what did it appear skrajared kushner's explanation was for the inconsistencies on every level? >> it seems to be forgetfulness. that's a convenient excuse from jeff sessions and paul manafort and general flynn. again, if it was one person with one tie to russia and they had forgotten to disclose it, i think there are innocent explanations, but we are seeing a pattern take place. so that's what we hope to dive into today to corroborate what jared kushner said or discredit it through other evidence. we know now we can't just take donald trump or anyone in his family or on his team at their word when it comes to their ties to russia. >> and matthew miller, would you agree it's forgetfulness that's the explanation? >> i think i would add the story he wants us to believe is he was naive and bumbling,