was just struck, as i think everybody at the table was, by the performtive normalcy according to dmitry peskov, that this was just another businessman writing us for a deal. >> what you're seeing from peskov and trump is an incredibly literal interpretation of the facts. in other words, donald trump says, i never had any investments in russia. that is true. he also did not reveal that he was seeking investments and deals in russia during the campaign. same with peskov. said, i never had returned the e-mail. peskov himself did not return the e-mail, but his assistant had a 20-minute conversation with michael cohen about this and it does appear from michael cohen's court documents that felix seder, the intermediary, was having additional conversations with peskov or the kremlin. so again, it's an overly literal evasion of the issue, when in reality what was going on, there was coordination between the trump organization and the kremlin to try to build trump tower in moscow during the time when he was the presumptive nominee. that was not disclosed to the american public and that's ultimately wha

dmitri peskov wants us to believe this was just another approach from a businessman who happened to be connected to the trump organization, to then-candidate trump in early 2016, and it didn't go very far. >> all right. well, this was significant reporting from yesterday. keir simmons, thank you for bringing that to us. we should note that nbc news has also reached out to trump's attorneys for comments, but on thursday his former attorney did call him a lawyer. john, to you first. your takeaway from keir's reporting there and his meeting with dmitri peskov who says, look, we get applications from people all around the world. but it cannot be lost on the russians with the person who they may be making a deal. this is a man running fort preside -- for the presidency of the united states, but even if you lost that, he's a very powerful businessman with considerable influence now. >> reporter: personally, alex, i would not trust dmitri peskov to tell me what time it was, so i will not take his word seriously at all. someone in a business deal who is on track to become the republican presid

for one thing a lot of it's already been corroborated by dmitri peskov, described as vladimir putin's press secretary but he's much more than another sarah sanders. he's putin's right hand. you see how close the trump organization was to president putin. the other thing is look at what michael cohen may know. he's given over 70 hours of interviews to mueller. he goes back quite a way and if you look at trump in the late -- remember in the late 90s, he was $4 billion in debt. the russians came to his aid, the mysterious country called bay rock moved in to trump tower, there were a lot of allegations of money laundering in the trump sojo and sale of condos. all that may be on the table. >> 70-plus hours of discussions. one has to think it can't be just what we have learned from the mueller investigation. >> no, absolutely not, richard. this charge was essentially a place holder, a way to get michael cohen into court, establish his cooperation. he's facing sentencing. but those 70 hours were about a lot more than lying to congress you can bet. the kristopher steele dossier which lead out

and that puts our country at risk. >> now, he was talking about dmitry peskov, who is the press secretary to russian president, vladimir putin. and our own nbc's keir simmons caught up with peskov yesterday in buenos aires and here's their conversation. >> every week, every week dozens and dozens of foreign businessmen are approaching us. mentioning possible investments, searching for contacts. >> but this is different. this is from the lawyer -- >> for us, it's not different. >> it's future president trump. >> huh? >> this is from the lawyer to the future president trump. >> this is different. listen, for you, he's future president trump. for us, it's one of the applicants. i mean, you have to understand that. you have to understand that. >> danny, one of the applicants. give me your reaction to those two clips that we just saw, but also what rachel had to say on friday night. >> it's amazing, because rachel really drew the lines between all the dots that we needed to realize that maybe there really was a connection with russia, a financial connection and then the clear crimes were commi

he spoke exclusively with putin's press secretary dmitri peskov.eporter: this is pretty stunning, dmitri peskov, president trump's right-hand man, with him all the time, showed me his cellphone and on it the e-mails his office received from michael cohen, president trump's former lawyer. those e-mails stood out for me in one particular way. at the bottom of the e-mail, in capitals, it says, executive vice president and special counsel, and again in capitals, trump. so no one could have miss income the kremlin where these e-mails -- where this e-mail was coming from. and yet dmitri peskov in this interview tries to say it was just another american businessman trying to do business with russia. take a listen. >> you obviously realize that this was coming from the office of the candidate, of a candidate -- >> every week, every week dozens and dozens of foreign businessman are approaching us, mentioning possible investments, searching for contacts. >> this is different, this is from the lawyer. >> for us it's not different. >> this is from the lawyer o

there in the conference hall will be able to get their responses to their questions in real time dmitri peskov the press kremlin press secretary he did so. a that he expects a wide range of questions covering everything from economic to international issues and of course there's so many topics to choose from as well including u.s. russian relations i'm sure to be lots of questions asked about the current strait incident and even the square power crisis russia has really dominated news headlines throughout the year and so we're expecting a lot of interesting and intriguing questions and nothing is off the table for president putin he will try to answer all of these questions in full and efficiently as well which is why he spends those few days swotting up i suppose so he is able to on so all of the questions without pausing for thought or checking his notes and so any minute now president putin hopefully will arrive at the conference hall and begin this q. and a we'll are wasted waiting with bated breath. our correspondent is also in the conference hall and he was telling us earlier how much of

you had dmitri peskov, the spokesman for the kremlin, saying publicly when this came to light, "we neveren: are you saying the russians lied to us! >> the russians lied. i know, i know. >> stephen: we have to get those russians out of the white house? ( laughter ). >> we expect the russians to lie. >> stephen: de e united states to be telling the truth. and therein lies the problem. ( applause ) for two years, for two years, we've had this deeply unethical man running the country. and for two years, the republican congress has done nothing to oversee any of the allegations of malfeasance, and that stops now. >> stephen: let's get into that for a second. ( cheers and applause ) because for the-- the previous chairman, you're going to take over as chairman in january. the previous chairman, congressman devin nunes of california seemed to-- there was some doors-- ( booing ). >> stephen: they're going, "nuuunes." there were some things he didn't want you guys to look into. he would lock the door and swallow the key. what are you most looking forward to unlocking and peering into? what are th

now we know that the senior russian official is being talked about is dmitry peskov, spokesman for vancouverfor vladimir putin. peskov told us as he was on the plane traveling to the g20 summit that he had received an e-mail from cohen's office and an assistant had gotten back to cohen. the russians saying they turned the offer down and said, look, the russian presidentality administration is not in the -- presidential administration is not in the real estate business. however, it seems that more is coming together with michael cohen working together with the authorities. victor? >> all right. fred pleitgen. we appreciate it very much. thank you. >> thank you. >>> cnn legal analyst and robert mueller's former specialist at the department, michael zelden joins us. welcome to atlanta. >> yeah. good to have you here in person. >> i didn't bring the rain. i want you to know that. >> okay, somebody did. >> somebody did. wasn't me. >> let's start here about the reporting that michael cohen expected president trump to pardon him. i mean, at first it's remarkable to say that cohen would commit the c

. >> keir simmons spoke with the russian president's spokesman dmitri peskov and spokesman is a bit ofmisnomer. this is putin's absolutely right-hand people. take a look at what he had to say about the correspondence between the office and michael cohen over potentially building a trump tower in moscow. >> e-mails, e-mails, the phone call asking what they wanted and whether they were in contact. also they were invited to the economic forum because we were told the presidential administration is not dealing with construction works so we can arrange a context with potential russian counterparts, but there's a perfect opportunity at the economic forum. and then they day peered. >> we should note that he did not show the e-mails he was referencing there, but pretty remarkable the russians essentially corroborating robert mueller. >> unbelievable. the person who was clearly going to be the republican nominee for president of the united states was in direct consultation with the leader of russia to help on a private business deal that he was trying to do in moscow. it's not illegal, the pres

trump and with emin, aras, and it was president putin's spokesman, a man by the name of dmitry peskov translated and said unfortunately although mr. putin would love to meet with donald trump today, the meeting can no longer go ahead because the king of holland has been delayed in traffic. >> what was donald trump's reaction when it turned out he wasn't going to be meeting president putin? >> it was okay actually because i think his reaction would have been really upset if there had been no response. but the fact that this man, who is a very senior official, was conveying a message, i would love to meet you on the next possible occasion, and why don't you come to the olympics? >> the miss universe pageant, which was co-owned by nbc back then, did go on. >> congratulations to you! good night, everybody, from moscow! >> then it ends with he and the agalarovs announcing that they're going to join together to try to build a trump tower in moscow. >> despite his delighted tweet about the project, trump tower moscow never happened. but goldstone says the friendships from moscow continued. h

we reported first he went to the assistant, dmitry peskov, this wasn't a harebrained scheme with himsociate. this was with the kremlin. it's instructive to look into the future or at least begin to understand where the reporting is going to go. we know right now that president trump knew about this deal, we know that at least ivanka trump, we've reported in the past, knew about the moscow deal. it would be highly unlikely for those three figures, donald, ivanka and don junior not to have understood it was on the table is hard for me believe. >> you're saying your reporting doesn't confirm that, but it points that way? >> my reporting is michael cohen was taking instructions on trump moscow from the president and his two children. whether or not they directly told him to take this step, i can't report yet. but it would be surprising to me -- >> do you view the core of your story that you broke here on trump tower as something that is em embarrassing and unseemly or -- >> i know the office of special council is taking it seriously. we're not done hearing from the office of special coun

dmitry peskov was involved in the coverup of that.er that was the motivation or whether it's other motivation or simply donald trump reacting to the question that's been raised about his legitimacy because of the taint over the election, i don't know. but we need to find out. >> is saudi arabia fitting into that, in your mind, and is that something you plan on investigating? >> saudi arabia could play into it if the saudis were funneling money into the inauguration committee or the investment into trump hotel rooms, the business that made him love the saudis so much, if that's warping u.s. policy, if it's affecting the president's unwillingness to criticize the crown prince over the murder of khashoggi, then we need to know about it. some of this may be in the purview of our committee, some with other committees. we will be working amongst ourselves to make sure we don't step on each other's of toes and work in a coordinated way. >> what do you believe deutsche bank financial records will show you? that's one of the things the trump o