that's when wikileaks contacted donald trump jr. via direct message on twitter alerting him to an anti-trump website. now, donald trump jr. did respond saying he'd ask about the source and then he e-mailed top campaign officials, including steve bannon and jared kushner. now, the atlantic report does note that the correspondence here was mostly one-sided. trump junior did frequently ignore these messages. however, donald trump jr. did show particular interest on october 3rd, 2016 when he actually wrote to wikileaks asking about what was behind word of an impending wikileaks release that other people were tweeting about including roger stone. now, this correspondence was just days before wikileaks began publishing hillary clinton campaign chair's hacked e-mails and that same day of the release by wikileaks the american intelligence community released a statement saying the publishing of the hacked e-mails was consistent with russian efforts, tying it to the russian government. so donald trump jr.'s lawyer, though, he's down playing th

and then donald trump jr. responds the next morning about 12 hours later saying offer the record i don't know who thrks but i'll ask around. thanks. julie, wikileaks was actively looking for help and cooperation from the trump campaign, right? >> uh-huh. and the trump campaign was looking for help wherever it could get it. i mean, you had then candidate trump saying publicly, hey, russia, if you're listening, go and find those 33,000 deleted e-mails. i should point out, though, is when donald trump jr. says i'll ask around, he does ask around, and that same day he e-mails several of the most senior people on the trump campaign, steve bannon, brad par skel who is in charge of digital for the trump campaign, jared kushner, who then forwarded it on to hope hicks. kellyanne conway, who is running the campaign. and it's not the first time -- it's not the only time that donald trump jr. followed through on a request that wikileaks made in these messages and this release that donald trump jr. made where he's tweeting

we've learned tonight that donald trump, jr. had a ten-month correspondence with wikileaks' twitter account via private direct message. the story points out most of the messages from wikileaks to trump junior went unanswered. trump jr. release the wikileaks exchanges tonight. but then candidate's son apparently didn't tell them to take a hike either. on september 20th, 2016 wikileaks' twitter account sent a private message to trump jr. starting in exchange about a trump putin website. well, trump junior promised to ask around about it, e-mailing senior officials with the campaign. on october 3rd wikileaks and trump jr. had an exchange about a wikileaks story and about hillary clinton. on october 12th wikileaks reached out again to thank the trumps for praising them and to pass along a link to stolen documents. a source tells cnn congress has had the documents for a while. trump junior was briefly asked about them during a closed door interview that he did with the senate judiciary committee back in september. you know who else is

donald trump jr. and the wikileaks, which by the way, is characterized by the cia director, president trump's own kraib director as a hostile intelligence service abet by the russians. so here was donald trump, jr. actively engaged with a known russian agent. i want him to be subpoenaed to testify in public about all his communications. i want there to be sums of all the relevant documents because there's no assurance, none whatsoever that we're seeing all of those documents without that kind of subpoena. >> do you believe it's possible then candidate donald trump sr. did not know his son was communicating with wikileaks? i mean, october 12th, the same day wikileaks asked trump junior to tweet about its release, trump senior tweeted that wikileaks wasn't getting enough attention. >> one of the striking contents is the casual air and tone of them. and also the fact that donald trump jr. was in fact communicating up the chain of the trump campaign organization, including very likely to his father, the ca

donald trump jr. and the wikileaks, which by the way, is characterized by the cia director, president trump's own ci director as a hostile intelligent service abetted by the russians. so, he was donald trump jr. actively engaged with a known russia agent. i want him to be subpoenaed to testify in public about all his communications. i want there to be subpoenas of all the relevant documents because there's no assurance that we're seeing all of those documents without that kind of subpoena. >> do you believe it's possible, then candidate, donald trump seni sr., did not know his son was communicating with wikileaks? >> one of the striking assets of these communications is the tone of them. and also, the fact that donald trump jr. was in fact communicating up the chain of the trump campaign organization, including likely to his father campaign. there is so much circumstances evidence that this now president was knowledgeable about the conversation. >> the week that don jr. was asked to post the link from

and after "the atlantic" broke the story of donald trump jr.'s messages donald trump jr. then released what he says are all of the twitter private messages between him and wikileaks. donald trump jr. knows that those twitter private messages have all been handed over to congressional investigating committees by the lawyers and he knows that they are out of his custody an they're going to be become public in full eventually. and so, once "the atlantic" broke the story today donald trump jr. decided in consultation with lawyers and guidance to put what he says are all of the messages out there right now. here is what candidate trump said about wikileaks when wikileaks started publishing material stolen from the democrats. >> now, this just came out. this just came out. wikileaks! i love wikileaks. and i said, write a couple of them down. we have to go back to wikileaks. oh, wikileaks. >> that's donald trump using the stolen information in his rallies. in one case, donald trump jr. appeared to take direction from wikileaks. two days after candidate trump praised wikileaks, th

. >>> well, donald trump jr.'s secret communication with wikileaks about material stolen from the democratic party became public today. a new stress test for the trump administration and the trump campaign in facing the special prosecutor's investigation. and that happened on the same day that roy moore faced another stress test when he heard from the fifth accuser, the fifth woman, number five, to come forward to say roy moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old. and she came forward today because, she said, of the courage shown by the first four women who accused roy moore. >> i think he should step aside. >> this afternoon, another woman came forward with allegations that roy moore sexually assaulted her when she was a nigh mor. >> this is absolutely false. i never did what she said i did. >> nobody can say that we believe his denial more than we believe the women. >> i believe the women, yes. >> it's why i believe that it was appropriate for me to withdraw my indoersment. >> i just think there's n

also tonight donald trump jr. had with wikileaks twitter account via direct message. trump jr. tweeted the exchange shortly after the

donald trump jr. released a string of is these during the presidential campaign. this follows a report about these exchanges. though most of the communications were one sided, don junior did interact on a couple of occasions. the first message came in late september 2016 where wikileaks told him, quote, a the r.a.c. is a recycled pro-iraq war pac. we have guessed the password, it is putintrump. see about for who was behind it. any comments? don responded, off the record, i don't know who that is, but i'll ask around. thanks. and according to the "atlantic," he did ask around to members of the campaign, including trump's son-in-law jared kushner, telling them wikileaks had reached out. we don't know in what context he was saying that, but kushner forwarded that e-mail onto hope hicks. in a separate exchange, done junior reached out october 23rd asking wikileaks about an impending release writing what's behind the wednesday leak i keep reading about? this was in the wake of a roger stone tweet that hinte

you have donald trump jr. getting this information, and donald trump himself sends that out. could that be a coincidence? >> no. i think we're seeing a pattern that includes conversations with the president. there's word coming in through donald jr., goes up the chain to the president. i think the president has known a lot about these conversations for a long time, that contradict the whom notion that he's put unite there. that there were no contacts, what we don't know is whether in fact john dean says this is a skeleton, and whether in fact what these exchanges are illegal. there's a different between being imprudent and being illegal. on the face of it. i'm not sure i see the lines being crossed but we don't have the whole pattern. we needs the rest of the skeleton. and we're still hanging here. things are adding up to a chain that is very unhealthy, and very suspicious. >> and certainly, this particular chain we're talking about here, does lead to donald trump himself, right? there's his son getting the message and 15 minutes later, stuff he was saying on the campaign trai

we now know from this great reporting that wikileaks then corresponded with donald trump jr., trying te the wikileaks disclosures. and in one case donald trump sr.himself, 15 minutes after wikileaks communicates with the son, donald trump himself from his account tweets out a notice to, hey, everyone, pay attention to the latest disclosures in wikileaks. so we have, you know -- this is -- we use the "c" word all the time, collusion. this is some pretty serious evidence of a back and forth between the russian cutout that was pumping this information into the american bloodstream and the trump campaign. >> yeah, in the article, we are reminded of a rally on october 10th before the election. donald trump proclaimed, quote, i love wikileaks. >> right. and let's remember, during the democratic national convention, i remember i was sitting in a coffee shop waiting for the democratic national convention to start. donald trump held that very famous press conference where he urged russia, he said he was joking later, but he urged russia, please find hillary clinton's e-mails. the "c" word we k

newly revealed communications between donald trump, jr. wikileaks during last year's presidential campaign. let's discuss now with michael weiss and shawn turner, john dean, and michael antonio, author of "the truth about trump." good evening, gentlemen, good to have you on. mike, i'm going to start with you. can you connect the dots here on donald trump, jr., wikileaks story? how do these communications add up to you? >> it's an influence first and foremost. >> it's michael weiss. >> wikileaks has been described by cia director mike pompeo as a hostile service which often does the bidding of the services of the kremlin. i would go a step further and say it has been at least in the last five or six years an unwitting, intelligence services. and we see this not just the election, but all across the board, from catalan independence, julian assange and wikileaks is out there, pounding this line. for them to reach out to the son of the gop -- by the way, i have to stress, the wikileaks twitter account has been widely assumed to be monitored by

but donald trump jr.'s exposure on this is not a helpful thing if you are the president. >> i'm sure the president prefers -- thinks all of this is not helpful. every step, every piece of news on this i think he thinks is unhelpful. in the end what we have learned about this president is the public is going to make their judgment after a long period of time, after they get all this information. bob mueller is trusted. once his report comes out that's when they will decide. they are not going to weigh it on the leaks from the house committees. >> it's clear that partisans have already made their adjustments. they already now how they feel about this. it doesn't matter what bob mueller says. democrats aren't going to say you know, bob mutualer is making a good point. >> there is a large s.w.a.t. in the middle. there is large -- i think we sometimes are too dismissive. >> of the people in the middle? >> yeah. >> 60% of people think this is a serious issue. >> that's what i mean. >> it's not 50/50, it's # 0/40

the issue is did donald trump jr. or anybody else solicit wikileaks, which is not an american company, to give in kind contributions to the trump campaign. they essentially gave opposition research to the trump campaign. is that a campaign contribution? it's a legal question that i don't think has a clear answer at this point, but it is certainly something that the mueller team is going to be wanting -- will be investigating, whether there was a violation of the campaign finance laws in the relationship between the trump campaign and wikileaks. >> let's point out to jeffrey's argument here, one of the most concerning exchanges and what happened afterwards. so here is -- this is october 12th. this is wikileaks' direct message to don jr. great to see you talking about our publications. strongly suggests he mentions this link if he mentions us. by the way, we just released podesta e-mails. 15 minutes later, 15 minutes later, you see the time circled there, and the president, then candidate tweets, very little pickup by th

newly revealed communications between donald trump, jr. leaks during last year's presidential campaign. lest discuss now with michael weiss and shawn turner, john dean, and michael antonio, author of "the truth about trump." good to have you on. mike, i'm going to start with you. can you connect the dots here on donald trump, jr., wikileaks story? how do these add up to you? >> wikileaks has been described by cia director mike pompeo as a hostile service which often does the bidding of the services of the kremlin. i would go a step further and say it has been at least in the last five or six years an unwitting -- across the board from catalan independence, julian assange and wikileaks is out there. for them to reach out to the son -- by the way i have to stress the wikileaks twitter account has been widely assumed, and there's been some reports to confirm it, to be manned by julian assange himself. >> so you believe this is julian assange? >> correct. and if more proof were needed the suggestion that a man was held up in the u.s. embassy fo

donald trump jr. rect twitter messages with wikileaks during the campaign. we should note that donald trump jr. turned over these communications to congressionalors who are investigating russian interference in the 2016 election. overall the messages were largely one-sided coming from wikileaks to donald trump jr. using twitter messaging. but donald trump jr. responded at least three times. late on december 16 wikileaks contacts donald trump jr. about a site putin government dot organize. the next morning trump jr. respond off the record i don't know who that is but i'll get in touch. later on, wikileaks says something about clinton targeting julian asanction. donald trump jr. says already did earlier today it is amazing what she can get away with. he then follows up with what is behind this wednesday leak i keep reading about. wikileaks never responds but friday after that thursday releases the first batch of campaign chairman john podesta's stolen e-mails. here they are. another nine days goes by and

overnight, donald trump jr. tweeted his exchanges with wikileaks after first being reported by "the atlantic." he responded to three messages. trump jr. turned them over to congressional investigators. the u.s. intelligence community believes wikileaks was used by the russian government to disseminate election information in the 2016 campaign. this says in part, quote, we can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions raised about them have been easily answer in the appropriate forum. nbc's ken delaney has been following this story since it broke. talk about the big headlines here, is this a story being overblown or does it have significance relate on the russian probe? >> reporter: kristen, it is significant. donald trump's own cia director mike pompeo labeled wikileaks a hostile non-intelligence service. in a vessel for russian intelligence. and here you have don jr. in communication with wikileaks during the campaign, essentially a russian agent. and there's a lot of a

trump jr. their site was posting new e-mails stolen from clinton campaign chairman john podesta. just a short time later, donald trump himself tweeted about wikileaks. trump jr. released the messages monday night. >>. >> i'm jessica snooider in washington. tonight, the attorney general is pushing back, insisting the justice department is independent as democratic lawmakers question whether the white house is using the doj to go after hillary clinton. >> in a functioning democracy, is it common for the leader of the country to order the criminal justice system to retaliate against his political opponents? >> i would say that it's -- the department of justice can never be used to retaliate politically against opponents and that would be wrong. >> reporter: but critics are pointing to the president's own words and tweets which often take aim at sessions, plus this letter from assistant attorney general stephen boyd as cause for concern. monday night, boyd informed the house judiciary committee that federal prosecutors would evaluate whether or not a special counsel was appropriate. after the house intelligence com

jr. does not respond directly to them, however about 15 minutes later -- >> no -- yes, yes, you are right. >> 15 minutes later, donald trump sr. tweets that link about wikileaks, and on october 14th, two days later, don jr. tweets that link that wikileaks asked him to. do we have that right? >> donald trump, sr., then the republican nominee tweeted about a different part. there was a long message from wikileaks, and it ended by saying, hey, by the way, part four of the podesta e-mails is up and 15 minutes later donald trump jr. says they are not getting enough play in the mainstream media and the system is rigged. two days later donald trump jr. tweets out the search function link sent to him by wikileaks in the same long message. >> either way it's a crazy coincidence that they tweet right after requests from wikileaks to tweet or what can you conclude from this? >> he's acting on the question of an organization, on october 7th, a week before that, the office of the director of national intelligence put out an unprecedented statement saying the hacks of the dnc, and the democratic national committee were orchestrated by t

that it turns out he did get a meeting with donald trump jr. according to him, he had dinner with donald trump jr. on the side lines of this nra conference. members of congress want to know how that meeting got set up. what was said and what was the nature of the meetings? >> speaking of meetings, rob goldstone agreed and he broke with the russians. why is it so important to this investigation? >> well, rob goldstone the music promoter was the meeting mediator of the family of oligarchs and donald trump jr. rob goldstone sent the e-mails saying, don jr. there is a russian effort to help your father. this lawyer has dirt on hillary clinton. we've seen the e-mails. mueller wants to know what else rob goldstone can tell him. the nature of the meeting, what was set up. what was being offered? so these are really important witnesses. >> thank you, ken, for that. >>> meantime, in alabama, caleb moore is fiercely defending her embattled husband, who is refusing to back out of the alabama senate race. several women have accused roy moore of sexual assau

now we know this russian lawyer that spurred all of those conspiracy stories about donald trump, jr. ing in cahoots with the russians, she not only met twt fusion gps people before meeting with donald trump, jr. but met with them after as well, raising the question about the conspiracy theories that maybe these people tried to set donald trump, jr. up to get some semblance of dirt on the trump campaign to try to make this false scandalous scurrilous accusation of colluding between the trump campaign and the kremlin. lou: to bring in the private sector more in this discussion of collusion. we also know despite all the protests and nonsense that emanated from the silicon valley, the only collusion that has been established is that between facebook and twit errant russians who have been snorting and superiority suggesting we couldn't have a president who had so conspired with the russians when it turns out it was -- they were the ones together conspiring and the colluding and all of the other nonsense. it's between quite a remarkable awakening for most of americans. charlie: only the inn

but kushner did receive and forward an e-mail from donald trump jr. about contact trump junior had with wikileaks according to a new report this week and a letter from the senate judiciary committee. we do not know the content of what was in that e-mail. kushner's lawyer just released a letter saying in part this. as to the wikileaks document to which you refer, this has been miss arctic iced in the press. mr. kushner had no contacts with that organization and was along with others forwarded an e-mail from donald trump jr. that has been widely reported and disseminated. this is no new document concerning mr. kushner. there is no new document concerning mr. kushner. we'll have more on this in a moment for you here on this program. but first i want to turn to president trump. seemingly doing everything he can to avoid talking about roy moore and the sexual allegations against him. he wants us to believe al franken, harvey weinstein and bill clinton accusers, but not his own. more than a dozen women, as a matter of fact. and today he sent sarah huckabee s

"the atlantic" obtained and donald trump jr. later confirmed tonight by publishing himself his direct messages with wikileaks. accord together messages produced by donald trump jr. tonight wikileaks contacted him a number of times starting in september of 2016 and they continued reaching out to him for weeks. "the atlantic" reports that the messages from wikileaks actually went on for months longer, well into 2017. but don jr. has himself published his messages with wikileaks from september and october including wikileaks telling him on october 12th, 2016 that there's a specific link that should be used while promoting wikileaks's stolen democratic documents. it's a sort of obscure url, wlsearch.tk. two days after receiving that advice from wikileaks about using that link to more efficiently promote the stolen documents, donald trump jr. in fact tweeted that exact link. quote, "for those who have time to read about the corruption and hypocrisy, all the wikileaks e-mails are right here noechlt and then he gave that obscure url tha

no response from donald trump jr. to that. the trump administration has consistently denied any coordination with wikileaks. >> i think all of us have, you know, have had concerns about wikileaks over the years. and it's just a -- it's just a reality of america. >> right. >> life today, and of life in the wider world. >> reporter: donald trump jr.'s lawyer released a statement to "the atlantic" which says in part, "we can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents." trump junior is already under scrutiny for meeting with a kremlin-linked attorney during the campaign. this latest revelation raises more questions about the level of communication between the trump campaign and agents of russia. lester? >> kristen welker at the white house, thanks. >>> now, the new twist in the killing of an american green beret in mali. for the first time, we're learning what two navy s.e.a.l.s under investigation in this case initially told investigators. this, as another new report claims the victim was killed after he di

you had wikileaks communicating directly to donald trump jr. it's unclear if donald trump jr. receiving that message is what informed the then-presidential candidate donald trump sr. to issue that tweet, but if there were a connection there, it would certainly look like coordination. but i think politically it's more damaging because it's yet another example of some connection between the trump campaign, in this case the candidate's namesake son, and russian agents which is what wikileaks is. they are funded by the russian government and help distribute these e-mails. these democratic hacked stolen e-mails. >> peter baker, we are duty bound to point out the references and mentions of wikileaks we might have all heard during the presidential effort. we'll listen to some of those and talk about it on the other side. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the >> so peter, how to put this, he's a president who often wears his motivation on his sleeve. >> he does, yes, of course. what's interesting about these e-mails, i think, we don't get a lot of donald trump

it was that publicist rob goldstone who actually first pitched the meeting to donald trump jr., promising that it would deliver dirt on hillary clinton. which trump jr. says never actually happened. investigators want goldstone, who is overseas, to come to the u.s. to talk to the special counsel. now this is an invitation to talk and not a subpoena and no date has been established yet. neither goldstone's attorneys nor the special counsel are commenting on this right now and the revelation does come at the same time congressional investigators are implying that jared kushner has not been forthcoming in handing over key documents. >> reporter: tonight, the senate judiciary committee is calling jared kushner's disclosures into question, labelling what he submitted so far incomplete and demanding more documents. the letter sent by chairman chuck grassley and top democrat dianne feinstein points to revelation monday that donald trump jr. engine changed direct messages with wikileaks over twitter during the campaign. trump jr. e-mailed jared kushner and other top campaign officials, telling th

broad reign so i think we might be seeing some of that kind of thing looking at jared kushner and donald trump jr and i think they both have a lot to worry about there as well ross where does this leave donald trump and what sort of response do you think he is gearing up for what sort of action is he going to take and is in the crosshairs well we all know donald trump's personality and his style but there's a candidate and in ten months is a president and we saw that with how he responded via twitter in the immediate hours after the indictments were announced we should expect him to continue to aggressively pursue his policies and frankly part of that will be aggressively pursuing action in congress with regard to tax reform in the coming days and other issues that i'm asked about i want is he going to go look what he did to me is it is going to go off to mutiny if he does i mean could there be a constitutional crisis. well the likelihood of going after miller is probably low and i would expect that his legal counsel both in the white house and externally are advised him against doing that becaus

the interactions between donald trump jr. and wikileaks happened in private in direct message via twitter, starting as first revealed in "the atlantic" last year. wikileaks reached out to trump's son. he responded the next day. i don't know who that is but i'll ask around. thanks. the atlantic reports trump jr. then e-mailed a number of senior officials, letting them know that wikileaks had made contact. on october 2nd, president trump's friend announced that it was coming. trump didn't get an answer back but four days later the intelligence community announced it believes russia was behind the dnc hacks. shortly after, wikileaks began releasing hacked e-mails from hillary clinton's campaign manager jon podesta. these infamous remarks from then candidate trump. >> wikileaks. i love wikileaks. >> reporter: wikileaks was back in trump junior's dms, strongly suggest your dad tweet this is link. if he mentions us, there are many great stories the press is missing. trump senior tweeted how wikileaks wasn't getting enough press cove

and in response to all of this, donald trump jr. then wrote something to the effect of, if it is what you say it is, then i love it. and that's when this meeting took place. now, we know in retrospect that donald trump jr. and others involved in that meeting said nothing came of that meeting. and certainly they're going to be very interested to speak to mr. gold stoestone currently in bangkok. trying to get him to testify. apparently, though, there is no date set yet. but certainly special counsel will want to know what exactly was said prior to that meeting and what was the dirt that this man was actually talking about, victor. >> frederik pleitgen there in moscow, thank you. >>> jared kushner played a key role, though, in his father's campaign as you might remember which was to come to play on the investigations on capitol hill. during the height of the campaign, kushner and donald trump jr. met with a russian lawyer an don junior was told that this lawyer had dirt on hillary clinton. in september, don junior messaged with wikileak

a bombshell report, donald trump jr. was exchanging secret messages with wikileaks during the 2016 campaign. what they reportedly said. >>> new charges in the hazing death rocking penn state. frat brothers accused of leaving a pledge to die. what police have just recovered on video that they say the frat brothers deleted. >>> and buddy cops on the beat. a veteran and his rookie partner, keeping the neighborhood safe. >>> this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >> good evening, thank you for being here. the sordid sexual accusations against alabama republican senate candidate roy moore, which have already thrown that race into chaos, were bolstered late today by a new accuser. a woman who went before the cameras to blame moore forced himself on her when she was a teenager. now the fifth accuser to step forward in the face of moore's forceful denials. >> i tried to open my car door to leave, but he reached over, and he locked it so i could not get out. i tried fighting him off, while yelling at him to stop. but instea

. >> donald trump jr. communicated with wikileaks. donald trump jr.iled jared kushner, told him that he was communicating with wikileaks. jared kusher forwarded that e-mail on. then jared kushner testified he did not recall whether or not anyone in the campaign had communicated with wikileaks. so what is the kushner camp saying about this tonight? >> reporter: well, abbe lowell, kushner's attorney, calls this a, quote, classic gotcha question. he says, in part of his statement, in over six hours of voluntary testimony mr. kushner answered all questions put to him and demonstrated that there had been no collusion between the campaign and russia. and lowell, by the way, also disputes the judiciary committee's letter accusing kushner of not turning over documents and he also says that the judicial committee should ask other congressional of committees for the transcripts of kushners interviews with those committees and they should ask the white house for documents that exist after donald trump was inaugurated because they say kushner has no authorization

and once again donald trump jr. is at the center of it all. the atlantic's julia ioffe reports for the first time tonight that trump jr. and the wikileaks twitter account secretly traded direct messages during the election. the messages including wikileaks sending trump jr. the password for a new anti-trump website, trying to get donald trump's tax returns. not because the returns would be newsworthy, but because, listen to this, this is wikileaks talking. if we publish them, it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality, wikileaks explained that means the vast amount of stuff that we're publishing on clinton will have much higher impact because it won't be perceived as coming from a pro-trump, pro-russia source. hi, don, if your father lose, we think it is much more interesting if he does not concede and spends time challenging the media and other types of rigging that occurred, as he has implied he might do. the reporter who broke that story, julia ioffe, joins me now. well, this is a heck of a scoop. wow. wow, wow, wow. wha

donald trump -- these records show that donald trump jr. was essentially corresponding with an agent of russia. he may not have seen it that way at the time. he was getting hundreds of incoming. it's true that we only see a record of three time also he wrote to them. but the one time i'm focused on is where they say, could you tweet out this link to john podesta's e-mails and he doesn't respond but 15 minutes later, candidate donald trump tweets, hey, the media's not covering this great dump by wikileaks of podesta's e-mails and that's just remarkable. >> donald trump jr. might not have responded, okay, i've got it, chief, but he certainly took the direction and handed it to then candidate donald trump. the contact between wikileaks and donald trump jr., this directly contradicts what vice president pence claimed in october of 2016. i call this segment "ignorance is bliss." take a look at this. >> some have suggested on left all this bad stuff about hillary, nothing bad about trump, but your campaign is in cahoots with wikileaks. >> nothing

what we learn a lot from these emails about wikileaks as we do about donald trump, jr., donald trump rhaps take a suggestion they made about having his father tweet out a link about wikileaks, which he did 15 minutes after the tweet came in. but they tell us that wikileaks itself realized -- >> let me put up what you just referenced, on october 12 at 8:31 wikileaks -- hey donald, great to see you and your dad talking about our publications, strongly suggest your dad include this link if when he mentions. so dishonest, rigged system. then october 14, in the morning, pence denies the campaignwikile show you that, how this man stays in the dark is the eighth wonder of the world. october 14 at 9:34 a.m., don jr. tweets, for those who have the timeline all those wikileaks are right here. so the timeline bears out what you're speaking to, peter baker. >> and what we're talking got i to donald trump jr. that he has his father leak them his tax returns that he's never released, if they're going to come out anyway, have it come out through us and it will change our reputation as being even han

donald trump jr. and wikileaks. >> a fifth woman comes forward accusing a candidate of sexual misconduct. moore says it never happened. >> i can tell you without hesitation this is absolutely false. >> but a growing number of gop lawmakers are calling for moore to drop out of the race. >> and amazon heads to middle earth. the company is taking a chance that lord of the rings fans are ready for more hobbits. good morning from the studio 57 news room at cbs news headquarters here in new york. good to be with you. i'm anne-marie greene. donald trump jr., the president's oldest son released a series of twitter messages he exchanged with wikileaks during and after the 2016 election. the exchanges took place at the same time wiki leaks was releasing messages. the messages had already been released to three committees investigating russian intervention in the 2016 election. >> good morning. the messages mainly consisted of wiki leaks offering advice to trump jr. also praising donald trump's comments about the

jr.'s messages, what they reveal about wikileaks and their advice for the trump campaign. and tonight, just in, donald trump jr.'s response. we begin here with abc's mary bruce. >> reporter: tonight, the shocking private messages between donald trump jr. and wikileaks. abc news learning that starting at the height of the campaign, donald trump's son and wikileaks were secretly corresponding. late tonight, don jr. released the messages on twitter. as first reported in "the atlantic," the exchanges with wikileaks went on for at least ten months, starting in september of 2016, just two months before the election. the president's son communicating with wikileaks, a group the intelligence community believes was used by russia to spread information about hillary clinton and influence the election. even president trump's own cia director has said this -- >> it's time to call out wikileaks for what it really is. a non-state, hostile int intelligence service often abetted by state actors like russia. >> reporter: wikileaks had already leaked stolen documents from the dnc when don jr. started receiving direct m

we now know from disclosures that donald trump jr. sent an e-mail to kushner and others to pass on information that he learned from wikileaks. kushner then forwarded that to hope hicks, one of the closest aides to then candidate trump and now the communications director at white house. what this latest revelation does is turns up pressure for kushner to go back to capitol hill for more interviews and to explain himself. we heard from the leaders of the senate judiciary committee saying kushner had failed to turn over documents they know exist. that includes information about wikileaks. his attorney says the wikileaks question is a gotcha question. he adds that over six hours of voluntary testimony, mr. kushner answered all questions put to him and demonstrated that there had been no collusion between the campaign and russia. lowell also disputes them accusing kushner of not turning over documents and said they should ask other congressional committees for their transcripts and the white house for all the documents. evan paris, cnn, was

. >> donald trump jr. communicated with wikileaks, e-mails jared kushner, he forwarded that e-mail on and then jared kushner testified he didn't recall whether anyone in the campaign communicated with wikileaks. so what is the kushner camp saying about this tonight? >> his attorney calls this a classic gotcha question. he said in over six hours of testimony -- he disputes the judiciary committee's letter of not turning over documents and says the committee should turn over transcripts of interviews with those committees and they should ask the white house for documents that exist after donald trump was inaugurated because they say kushner has no authorizations to release those documents. >>> so now that the other shoe has dropped, some perspective is like a giant hiking boot for a ballet slip in what might come next. next the panel. jeffrey, i want you to go first. how big of a problem? >> can we just say that donald trump jr. and jared kushner have become the poster children for the evils of nepotism? the

donald trump president. by the time this got to donald trump jr., and let me tell you something, i think donald trump jr.'s going to turn out to be the nexus of all dirty tricks. >> yeah. >> he has now shown up in three separate data points that show he was his father's executive order -- office and flynn was most likely the intelligence and operations officer to get the multiple dirty contacts done. >> to end on this note, the idea that no one ever sr. about that trump tower meeting is just wildly -- >> ludicrous. >> thanks for your time. the rest of you are going to stay here. >>> ahead, what will robert mueller find as he follows donald trump's money and why the manafort indictment related to money laundering. >>> next, did the president try to impede the russia investigation? we'll look at the firing of james comey in the case of obstruction after this. >> it's my judgement that i was fired because of the russia investigation. i was fired in some way to change -- or the endeavor was to change the russia investigation was being conducted. that is a very big deal. jump... or swim in for our tempur-pedic

we begin here with abc's mary bruce. >> reporter: tonight, the shocking messages between donald trump jr. and wikileaks. starting at the height of the campaign, donald trump's son and wikileaks were secretly corresponding. the exchanges with wikileaks went on for ten months, starting in september of 2017, just two months before the election. the president's son communicating with wikileaks, a group the intelligence community believes was used by russia to spread information about hillary clinton and influence the election. even president trump's on cia director has said this. >> it's time to call out wikileaks for what it really is. a nonstate, hostile intelligence service afternoon abetted by state actors like russia. >> reporter: wikileaks had already leaked documents from the dnc. all the while, his father proclaiming this. >> wikileaks, i love wikileaks. >> reporter: two days after that rally, according to the atlantic, wikileaks wrote, hey, donald, great to see you and your dad talks about our publications. adding, strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us. don jr