nick akerman, the wall street journal is reporting tonight that white house counsel don mcgahn this summered about the lack of protocol surrounding meetings between president donald trump and jared kushner, his son-in-law, whose activities are under scrutiny in the russia probe, that west wing officials expressed concerns the top lawyer would quit, according to people familiar with the conversations. mr. mcgahn expressed concern that meetings between mr. kushner and mr. trump could be construed by investigators as an attempt to coordinate their story, said three people familiar with the matter. >> none of this is very surprising. >> i was going to say, you sort of suggest these things all the time. >> well, the problem here is that the lawyers in this white house are really just bit players. it doesn't make any difference what they do. it makes no difference what advice they give. the bottom line is, this is all being orchestrated by donald trump. they could try and keep jared kushner out of the oval office any time of the day. but the reality is, he's the son-in-law. he's going to speak t

and then white house counsel don mcgahn relayed the message to the justice department and the gag order was lifted. now the justice department insists that the decision was made independently, but now we know that the president of the united states wanted it done. >> why is the president so interested in the uranium deal? >> well, he's interested in it, as he called it one of the biggest stories since watergate the other day. he's interested in it because it's -- his staff says because he wants to be transparent. but we all know that there's a political backdrop to all of this. that there has been a story that's been going around for a long time that -- that the russians paid what amounted to bribes in the eyes of some to the clinton foundation to garner some goodwill from hillary clinton to get this uranium deal. clinton, of course, said she had nothing to do with the decision, she knows nothing about this. but this is a story, as you know, that the president keeps talking about. now his staff, as i was saying before, they're doing this in the matter of transparency, that the president

he shares the same attorney as don mcgahn. don mcgahn is still the white house counsel. he's the white house attorney. it's very hard to believe that he could represent both -- that barryburg could represent both mcgahn and priebus if priebus had turned and was a witness against the president. >> you're the house counsel for the purposes of this conversation. what do you make of that last point? >> i think that's right. i think priebus is cooperating but at the point where they're starting to ask them questions, setting them against each other, then they need to have separate counsel otherwise their lawyer is conflicted. >> peter, we move on to mr. manafort. first of all, what do you make of the story in chief as it came out tonight? second, i have to point this out. manafort's spokesman released a revised version of his statement. so twice today they have put out a statement, but the second one bleed this line. mr. manafort is not indebted to former clients today, nor was he at the time he began working for the trump campaign. so that sentence that you're seeing on the s

don mcgahn, just shows this investigation will go into the most senior levels of the trump administration. >> john dean, politico is reporting that spicer was questioned about the firing of former fbi director comey at president trump's meeting with the russian officials. where does this tell you about where mueller is in his investigation right now? >> he's being thorough, clearly. spicer is a wonderful witness, because we know he apparently made these notes contemporaneously, and those can be invaluable. they're a solid corroboration of information for a witness, so he has an important potential witness with spicer. >> we heard about these copious months a month or two ago, and these notes could either, you know, vinld kadicate the presidr get him in more trouble. >> they corroborate his memory and will stimulate his memory, and they hold evidentiary value because they were made contemporaneously. so that's their importance. >> dana bash, in addition to spicer, the former white house chief of staff reince priebus was also interviewed by mueller's team. what do you think these men would

and sources are telling us that the white house counsel don mcgahn then relayed that message to the justice department. of course the president has been interested in this story for some time, and the other day he called it one the biggest stories since watergate. his staff says he wanted to lift the gag order because he wants to be transparent. but there's a political backdrop here. this story has been going around for a long time. the story is that the russians paid what amounted to bribes in h the eyes of some to the clinton foundation to garner good will from secretary clinton to get this uranium deal done. clinton, of course, has said she had absolutely nothing to do with the decision. that she knows nothing about this. but this is a story the president keeps talking about. and this new testimony from this informant will certainly keep the story going. >>> okay. thanks very much. a source tells cnn the president has expressed consistent frustration with the fbi and justice department for dragging their heels on the russian uranium case and other matters. the white house lreferring all

i also agree that white house counsel don mcgahn is doing an awful lot of educating but that is what a lawyer is supposed to do and provide the guard rails. >> were they provided in this case? >> i don't know the taens to that. but let's assume for the moment they were. just for purposes of discussion. then it's up to the president to decide how to proceed. a lot of people forget even when you are the attorney general of the country or of the state, as i was, lawyers advise, clients decide. and heel make a decision how to proceed even if it's atypical as long as he stays inside the law. and he's not outside the law. he's in safe territory. and this decision is, and we ought to know it is a political discussion. and that's not irrelevant. it's important especially to the american people and prospective on our democracy as you heard earlier i think that's very important. but we have also just been through a lot of years where we solderable politicization of the justice department. go ask former governor of virginia, ante party membed tea there is a bad history here. and until both side

you mention don mcgahn, not shown a lot of strength within the white house and therefore is now beingid he do to perhaps assist donald trump in some of these questions about obstruction of justice. >> we're learning much more about russia and social media and digital campaign that was waged. days before the election, bloomberg reporters were given exclusive access to the trump campaign and digital strategy. i want to read a portion of the report. this is somewhat enlightening given where we're at in the investigation and it reads, instead of expanding the electora electorate, they are trying to shrink it. we have three major voter suppression operations under way. needs to women overwhelm iingly idealistic white liberals and young women and african-americans. we know because we've modeled this as the official. it will dramatically effect her ability to turn these people out. now we know robert mueller is looking into russia linked facebook ad that targeted key demographic groups in states critical to who was going to win this election. those rust belt states who ultimately went to pre

are a lot of other white house staffers and former white house staffers, the white house counsel don mcgahn the communications leaders and hope hicks, sean spicer, they're all going to be going in and interviewed by bob mueller. ultimately down the line, donald trump, who said he's 100% ready to talk to bob mueller, is going to get that call. i think the white house wants to maybe push this issue along, try to get this investigation wrapped up. so much of their agenda has been gobbled up and the oxygen sucked out of the room by this mueller investigation. if they can try to move this alawn, at least in the public sphere, that would probably be to their benefit. >> how about from a legal standpoint, though, barbara, would it be unusual for the president's lawyers to offer an interview before one was requested? and if you were representing the president, would you advise he do that interview? >> strategically sometimes you would like your client to be interviewed quickly to get the matter behind them or to deny robert mueller and his team the benefit of educating themselves based on other int

then the sources said that the white house counsel don mcgahn then contacted the justice department. now, for its part the justice department is not commenting, but there is one source familiar with the matter who told us that the justice department made an independent decision, but you know, don, that this story is one that's been hanging around for quite some time. the president only this week called it larger than watergate because it's about the russians, and the question of whether they made donations to the clinton foundation as a way to encourage or to get the sale of uranium to their company. and so this is perhaps a way for the president to get this person to testify and perhaps deflect some of the russia heat onto his favorite enemy, hillary clinton. >> interesting. pamela. and we also have been digging into this relationship between cambridge analytica which reached out to julian assange of wikileaks seeking hillary clinton's e-mails. what are we learning about the timeline of the events between cambridge analytica and the trump campaign? >> well, the timeline sheds light

after that white house counsel don mcgahn related the president's message to the justice department and wednesday night that the gag order was lifted. so here's where some people democrats in particular, they're crying foul. the justice department does have strict rules limiting any white house involvement in criminal law enforcement matters, especially when it involves the president's political opponents in this case hillary clinton. white house counselor kellyanne conway defended the president's intervention this morning. take a listen. >> he believes, as many others do frankly, that the fbi informant should be free to say what he knows. but this was made, let me repeat, the judiciary chairman in the united states senate, chuck grassley made this request last week. >> and that is true, senator grassley did send the letter to the justice department last week asking them to lift this gag order, but now we know that the president played a role in the lifting of this. we have reached out to the justice department, poppy, about the president's role in this but right now they are not commen

include sean spicer, the former press secretary, hope hicks, the current communications, as well as don mcgahnthe white house counsel. tonight confirming that today counsel mueller's team interviewed reince priebus, the president's former chief of staff as they continue their investigation into russian meddling in the u.s. election. >> very, very significant news. thanks very much, jim sciutto, for that. senator cardin, i want to get your reaction. what does it say to you that the special counsel robert mueller is calling in these former trump white house officials, including reince priebus today for a length interview? what does that say to you? >> well, we know mr. mueller is going to be very thorough. we know there are many questions about contacts between russian officials and those in the trump campaign and that there's going to be a lot of information as to whether there was any cooperation here. we know russia interfered in our elections. we now know that they had a comprehensive plan that involved social media. the question is how much were the trump people involved in this, and i thin

that includes his current communications director, hope hicks, his current general counsel, don mcgahn, his former press secretary, sean spicer. we also know that the special counsel has already interviewed the chief of staff of the national security counsel, that is keith kellogg. and the topics he wants to talk to them about, things like the firing of james comey, the firing of michael flynn, his national security advisor. but also that famous meeting on airforce one when the president and his advisors were crafting the initial misleading explanation of that trump tower meeting in june 2016 between his son, donald trump jr., and lawyers who said that they were offering -- russian lawyers offering damaging information on hillary clinton. so a number of topics, a number of paths that the special counsel is going down with these interviews. >> jim sciutto. jim, thanks. i want to bring in the panel. bakari sellers is here, alice stewart, jeffrey toobin, tara setmeyer and michael scheer. michael, how big a concern is this -- must this be for people in the white house if one by one former

. >> if you've got don mcgahn in the mix, i mean, geoff sessions, he's coming. vinita, what stands out to you? >> everyone knows russia is going to be a center piece here. it's interesting they went for criminal justice reform questions. and dove right into that. because jeff sessions has, you know, been quickly reminding any criminal justice reform that the prior administration had been engaging in, an issue that has had tremendous bipartisan support in congress. and by basically trying to take us back to 1980s criminal justice policies. i thought it was very telling that senator lee was really focused on a series of questions about what the intentions were there. and why jeff sessions is doing that. and criminal justice reform and the rollbacks there are just one of several examples of an anti-civil rights agenda that jeff sessions has been putting forth. and i imagine just based on even senator feinstein's openings that the attorney general is going to be asked a lot of questions about what he's doing to undermine the enforcement of civil rights out of his ju

that the special counsel also wants to speak with the current communications director hope hicks, don mcgahn and as well as sean spicer. he is looking into the firing of james comey and michael flynn as well as a meeting on air force one that took place as the "new york times" was first reporting a meeting in june 2016 between donald trump jr. and russian lawyers who were promising damaging information on hillary clinton. all of this showing how seriously the special counsel is taking those various lines of investigation. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >>> taliban linked group is being accused of rape and authorizing the murder of a baby for the family it held hostage for five years. joshua boyle and his american wife were captured in 2012 while backpacking in afghanistan. >> boyle and coleman arrived in canada friday with three children after pakistani forces treed them just the day before. boyle appeared angry and shaken as he accused his kidnappers of these horrendous crimes. >> stupidity and evil of the haqqani networks, kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in hel

so after the president's order, white house counsel don mcgahn relayed the president's message to the justice department and wednesday night when that gag order was lifted. but here is why democrats are crying foul. the justice department has strict rules limiting any white house involvement in criminal law enforcement matters, especially when it involves the president's political opponents. and, of course, it was just earlier this week that the president talked about the uranium deal calling it the watergate of the modern age and dug in on it again today, tweeting this, ana, he said, it is now commonly agreed after many months of costly looking that there was no collusion between russia and trump. was collusion with hc, standing for hillary clinton there. there has not been a conclusion in the russian investigations still on several fronts but this week yet another probe was announced by congressional republicans. they're going to be looking into the reported millions of dollars that russia channeled to the clinton foundation at the same time that uranium deal was being approved and

fees for the president's son while not paying the legal fees for reince priebus or sean spicer or don mcgahnr any of these other figures who have also faced questioning and potentially facing testimony in this campaign, who would seem to have more of a connection to the rnc. >> try to think of their thinking here. although donald trump jr. did not have an official role in the campaign, those kids were intimately involved in a lot of the decision-making. and in fact, you know, the younger trump has said that he met with that russian lawyer because he thought that she had information that was useful about his president's rival. so he was -- i think that their thinking is he got caught up in this because he was part of the campaign whether he had an official title or not. and he wouldn't have taken that meeting and wouldn't have testified before the senate judiciary committee had his father not been running for president. >> do we know if the president was involved at all or the president's family has been involved at all in terms of discussions at the rnc to try to pressure the rnc to make the

you would typically in the course of a campaign have had an attorney notify don mcgahn who was the counsel to the campaign. a couple lawyers bouncing around. or even a campaign manager with experience who would have been basically putting up the red flags on this. paul manafort, the most experienced person, as you rightly point out. i don't think it's exculpatory that he said we're not going to have trump meet putin. it would have been insane to have trump meet putin in the middle of a campaign. that's like, you know, that's right. why don't you ride a dirt bike. it's like he never would have done that. instead, hey, let's dispatch an expendible to see if we can't get more of this information. so i don't think it's expullicatory. it points on the fact that manafort was intrigued by this information and wanted to figure out what else he could get. >> jeremy bash, this seems to be pointing a bleaker picture for paul manafort and the campaign aides. another group of aideses, anyone in possession of papadopoulos' e-mail with this offer, another group of aides potentially exposed to knowing rus

>> sure, we're expecting don mcgahn, the chief white house lawyer in the next few weeks, hope hicks, top communications aide to the president who's been with him for the entire campaign is expected to go in and lower level staffers. those are important because prosecutors like to build up the chain. they like to talk to assistants and deputies and folks who were in meetings, around meetings. >> and all these folks have their own lawyers? >> good question. i don't know the answer to that. but many of the lower level people in the white house make 40, 50, $60,000 a year and lawyers are an expensive proposition so i think they probably need some help paying for them. >> quick before we go, we know the rnc is covering president trump's legal bills and i believe some of don jr.'s. how about everybody else? you know, the people who could use the money? >> right. they spent more than $1 million on legal fees in the last quarter, which was a sharp uptick. they haven't exactly delineated who they're paying and who they're not. but it was a big increase from previous quarters in their legal fi

they're going to talk to don mcgahn. those interviews are probably going to be next month. will potentially be more interesting than spicer, because for the same reason that spicer is no longer in his job now is why he might not be the most important witness. and that he was not an insider player the whole time. >> this whole thing revolves, i think, about obstruction of justice in the white house. and the question is, i think the cardinal question is, did trump, and this goes way back to his original sin of firing comey, did he fire comey to protect himself from legitimate prosecution? and now, again today, he's attacking comey, saying he was looking out for hillary clinton, he was a partisan. charlie, why is he doing that? why is she showing again motive, why he would want to get rid of comey? >> i mean, it's interesting in many ways that trump keeps returning to clinton as if he's still in the campaign of 2016 -- >> or returning to the scene of the crime. >> well, i think he's reminding his base, or normal republicans, who might be frustrated with all his antics is that

steve: what the president did was he, according to his lawyer, don mcgahn. said he would like to facilitate the department of justice's full cooperation with congress to lift the gag order. in other words, hey, y'all work here in the administration, let's cooperate with congress. it's so unusual for mr. schiff, perhaps, because in the last administration, some times the white house tried to stonewall congress. now the president is saying hey, go ahead and help them out if you can. brian: and lastly, i just want to add this. a the house is going to get to look at the dossier. yesterday the speaker came out and other republicans came out and said hey, department of justice, you're on -- you have been appointed by a republican. havyou have a republican president. can you please cooperate with the republican house and the republican speaker and the dolls yea is finally coming out. and maybe now the president intervenes personally to make sure this informant is allowed to come forward. so maybe the white house -- and the justice department is beginning to realize