pictures of a medal he says he received that day from the fsb, the russian spy agency. this guy is supposedly somebody who works at the russian central bank. why did they give him a medal for his work, a medal of appreciation right after donald trump clinched the republican nomination for president. i don't know why the fsb gave him a medal. here's one last thing that you want to hear. in the case against maria butina, accused of being a secret federal agent working for torshin on this russian influence operation in the u.s., one of the things we learned in the charging documents is how she spent election night for 2016. according to online conversations the fbi says it obtained, just a couple of hours after the election was called for trump, maria and torshin discussed online who trump was going to nominate as secretary of state. a couple days later, according to the fbi, butina sent torshin a message who she predicted might be the secretary of state and she asked torshin

the fsb colleagues he denounced. the russian mobsters he was investigating.s a traitor for working with british intelligence. for years now, litvinenko's widow, marina, has been asking how big was the conspiracy, who was behind it, how high did it go? dangerous questions that she knows better than anyone. >> you think you play chess? they play russian roulette. >> those who were closest to litvinenko believe the kill order may have come from the very top because litvinenko picked a fight with the wrong person from his past. none other than russian president vladimir putin. >> sasha was in the mission. he was trying to prove that putin is as corrupt as anybody in post-communist russia. >> the mission may have started years before when litvinenko made that flowchart of corruption in the fsb. the head of the agency at the time was putin. after litvinenko fled to london and putin became president of russia, litvinenko attacked him relentlessly and by name. >> i and others said that this is a very dangerous thing to do because you're personalizing this. >> you tol

what would happen if the fsb approached her gun rights group or not group.those kind of things were discussed by her. >> but talking about employment, if the fsb is talking about full employment, that's of concern, no? >> again, and if there were any evidence she was employed by the fsb, you know, but there's just -- there's just none. >> have you ever represented erickson? >> no. >> and so bottom line, in terms of what your clients want, is it a plea deal, a return to russia? something else? >> my client's innocent of the charges. so what she wants to be is we're going to establish that the government cannot prove the case here. the government has brought a case into the foreign registration act, which by the way, no one was ever prosecuted under. essentially it's a registration statute saying if you're going to do certain activities in the country, you have to register with the attorney general of the united states. so they're acknowledging that everything they did is legal under u.s. law. >> i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. >>> let's check

he has to realize that a failed attempt at murder by the fsb does not exactly fill anyone with confidencetherefore, i expect he will require significant levels of protection for many years and they have to adopt a new identity. daughter, of his yulia, who came here in march on was supposed to bet. two-week vi she said to be reassessing. >> my fe has been turned upside down since i tried to come to terms with the devastating changes, both physically and emotionally. i want to he care for my father until his full recovery. in the longer term, i hope to return home to my country. clear, wantsit is to return to russia. her father has no such choice. the man at the center of this, skripals , remalent. he didn't choose to make statemts after being discharged from hospital in the same way his daughter did. as he regains strength and makes decisions about his future, that may change. there is every possibility that he may stayilent as the two countries at the center of this row de-escate and reenter the shadows. for those hoping for some sense of closure, or even a trial of the would-be poisoner,

. >> as opposed to the fsb which came from remnants of the kgb, the regular intelligence. no novichok is a military grade and you could assume the gru would be the agency behind it. also they're obviously the ones that were just indicted, their people indicted by the mueller probe. it's interesting because there are people in russia who are saying there's sort of a competition between the services, the fsb as opposed to the gru. whether or not you might have the gru trying to assert itself in that battle and be more forceful, whether or not that's part of it, it's hard to say but it's certainly possible. >> america's european allies, whether the uk, france, germany, they were deeply concerned about this summit that's going to take place in a few hours, even before these late-breaking developments. >> right. and the timing keeps getting worse and worse, the surroundings of this keep getting uglier and darker. what we see in this investigation with the novichok, higher and higher emotional involvement just as we saw with hacking in the u.s. election, remember, the obama admi

to approach the rest of his life, but he has that to realise that a failed attempt at murder by the fsb, i suspect, fill anyone with confidence and therefore, isuspect, he fill anyone with confidence and therefore, i suspect, he will require significant levels of protection for many, many years and maybe indeed, he may have to adopt a new identity. but what of his daughterjulia, who came here in march and planned on a two—week visit. during the last couple of months she is said to have been reassessing her calculations, not least about life with her boyfriend in moscow. translation: my life has been turned upside down as i try to come to terms with the devastating changes, both physically and emotionally. i want to help care for my father until he is —— until his full recovery. in the longer term i hope to return home to my country. julia, is clear she wants to return to russia, but that is a hope for the future. her father has no such choice. the man at the centre of this, sergei skripal, remains silent. he didn't choose to make state m e nts silent. he didn't choose to make statements

i don't know why the fsb gave him a medal. here's one last thing that you want to hear. in the case against maria butina, accused of being a secret federal agent working for torshin on this russian influence operation in the u.s., one of the things we learned in the charging documents is how she spent election night for 2016. according to online conversations the fbi says it obtained, just a couple of hours after the election was called for trump, maria and torshin discussed online who trump was going to nominate as secretary of state. a couple days later, according to the fbi, butina sent torshin a message who she predicted might be the secretary of state and she asked torshin to find out how our people felt about that potential nomination. here's why is that should jump out at you and why we should consider why federal prosecutors might have put that you conversation in particular in this public charging document. >> march, jane maier at the new yorker published a profile of christopher steele who's memos it became the infamous steele dossier. one little bombshell was

. >> what makes the gru better than this than the fsb?ll, i wouldn't say that they're necessarily better. they have different types of capabilities as well as areas of emphasis. but the fsb, which is the fbi equivalent in russia, the svr, which is the cia equivalent in russia and the gru, those three have very sophisticated and capable cyber efforts that are under way to go after sometimes domestic dissidents inside of russia as well as external efforts. >> were any of these russian officers familiar to you? >> some of the names i'm aware of. >> in that they are just regular operatives that you would have run-ins with or it would be in things like this or espionage. >> the gru in the last six or nine months or so of my tenure was going through some leadership changes at the senior-most levels. but the gru is very active outside of russia's borders. they have been known to do things abroad, whether in ukraine or other areas of eastern europe. >> why -- and maybe you're not the best person to ask this, but why do you think the americans wer

offer, fsb is the successor agency to the kgb. >> there you go.profile, well done. >> thank you. >> thank you for being on the show. panel, you guys stick around for one more segment. >>> up ahead, president trump says his economic wins are historic. are they really? and how much can they mitigate the tariff damage in the midwest? that's next. you might take something for your heart... or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. >>> it's that time in the hour where we're going to meet the midterms. today it's all about florida, florida, florida, a state near and dear to my heart. my home state after all and a state that will elect a new governor this november one way or the other. president trump will visit tampa next tuesday four weeks before the state's primary to do what presidents normally don't do but this one loves to do and that's to campaign in a primary for congres

year-old republican operative strictly for business purposes and was likely in contact with russia's fsbntelligence agency throughout her stay in the u.s. a russian foreign ministry spokeswoman suggested that butina's arrest is part of an effort to undermine u.s. relations. ron hosko said she was looking to be a member. >> show was looking to prapgs come to our convention and take photos with important people. this served her purposes very much as well. >> butina was arrested on sunday after fbi said it saw signs she could be prepare ing ing to fle country. a judge ordered her to continue to be held without bail. she's pled not guilty to all charges. >> this morning the press association in the united kingdom reports that investigators believe they might identify the suspect behind the nerve agent attack on a russian double agent and his daughter. skripal and his daughter were poisoned in march in england. they were critically ill and then recovered. they suspect russians after analyzing closed circuit tv. russia denies it was involved. >>> at least 22 soldiers were injured when it was b

year-old republican operative strictly for business purposes and was likely in contact with russia's fsb intelligence sgs throughout her stay in the u.s. a russian foreign ministry spokeswoman suggested today that butina's arrest is part of an effort to undermine u.s.-russia relations. ron hosko is a former assistant director of the fbi and says butina was following a russian playbook. >> the nra looks like an ideal organization to come join, be a member, and then come to our convention and perhaps meet and be photographed with important people. this served her purposes very much as well. >> butina was arrested on sunday after the fbi says it saw signs she could be preparing to flee the country. and today a judge ordered her to continue to be held without bail. butina has pleaded not guilty to all charges. jeff? >> correspondent paula reid. paula, thank you. >>> a report just released by the national transportation safety board tells of the harrowing moments before a sightseeing plane crashed in alaska last week. passengers apparently saw the looming danger before the pilot. here's kris

>> certainly not the russian fsb. the others in russia that help the gun rights lobby.eland: they taught her to be brave enough. >> there's nothing secret about what she did her the picture of her in front of the capitol taken by every foreign student who's ever come here. leland: lawyers reporting she was involved in some high-level meeting with u.s. treasury officials and others. if she's just a generic grad student at american university, american university, how'd you end up in these high-level meetings. >> i'm not sure that maintenance is the right word. i think we are talking about events for various groups that were there. she was with her boyfriend, paul erickson, who was there and had different business dealings around. they traveled together. >> you work with the doj and in the past in the program you've given an awful lot of credit for being number one fair, to nonpolitical. now you argue essentially they are bumbling who have somehow railroaded this poor grad student and charged her with being a russian agent. how are those two compatible? >> they haven't ch

the russian fsb, the success organization to the kgb as well as other intelligence services are expertt gathering information and they would have gathered as much information about donald trump as they could have when he was in moscow as well as his associates. >> because he's a rich guy? >> it's a general principle. wherever you have somebody who -- the best way to think about it is vladimir putin and the intelligence services think about a guy like trump either in the 80s or later on as an american oligarch so collect information because you don't know when you'll need an oligarch. >> manu raju is reporting that republican lawmakers are talking on the hill about what they can do. what power congress has to tie the president's hand when it comes to russia. we know that passed sanctions with a veto-proof majority but what can congress do and do you believe republicans will act to bar against interference, another attack on our elections in 2018. >> one bill proposes heavy sanctions on russia if there is renewed hacking. another thing, democrats have backed this, is legislation protecti

the department of justice portrayed, she was in regular contact with the fsb using sex and deceptionimportant political connections. working covertly, she established bank channel lines to organizations which include the national rifle association. they quote, these lines could be used by the russian federation to penetrate the u.s. national decision making apparatus to advance the agenda of the russian federation. the "washington post" reports it was those contacts that landed her on the fbi's radar. for more, i'm joined by ken delanian. what do you think she was up to in the united states? it seems like a great story here. >> reporter: it's incredible. she was an agent of influence. she's not accused of trying to get military secrets. that's why she's not charged with espionage. she is accused of trying on build a back channel, to specifically republican politicians through national rifle association. it is amazing. those of us who cover this case closely have known about her for some time but never in my wildest dreams did i imagine the fbi would uncover a plot this elaborate. tha

>> yeah, i wouldn't trust putin or the fsb or foreign intelligence service as far as i could throw themut a window frankly, and soviets in years past, one time had a famous operation, they gave a gift to our ambassador down in mexico who hung it in his office and it was bugged, it was designed to pick up transmissions. they have been doing this for years is my point. >> are you saying it could have been bugged? >> well no, i'm saying, well, we have learned our lesson. i have tremendous confidence in my whole outfit and other members of the intel committee, we know better. that soccer ball is not sitting anywhere privy to sensitive conversation, i can guarantee you that. >> there you go. take dan coats' word for that. thank you so much. >>> minutes from now, the president is leaving the white house to head to his new jersey golf club for the weekend. we'll be watching to see if he stops and speaks with reporters about all of the above we have been discussing the last hour and a half. >>> also we take you live to branson, missouri, learning awful details about 17 people now killed after t

authorities found a note in the handwriting reading how to respond to fsb offer of employment but it'sar if the russian intelligence offer was for him, butina or something else entirely. recently she grew despondent, lamenting it wasn't safe to return to russia. she graduated from american university in may 2018. but a friend didn't spot her at any commencement celebrations. with school behind her she was planning a move to sioux city with ericsson. a day after buying moving boxes, she was arrested. u.s. authorities did not name paul ericsson in the indictment or charged with a crime in relation to the case and did not respond to the cnn request for comment. sara murray, cnn, washington. >> all right. we'll be watching it. thank you. >>> ahead, the president versus big pharma. facing pressure of the president, three major drug makers lowering some prices of the drugs. dr. sanjay gupta will be here with me to explain what it means for you at home, next. i drink boost optimum. boost optimum with 5 in 1 advanced nutrition helps support muscle, energy, bone, normal immune function, and vis

there's the medal that russian official number one from the latest indictment got from the fsb when trump got the nomination and the medal russian president vladamir putin gave for the surprise pick of secretary of state right after russian official one and accused spy, maria butina talked about checking out whether the choice for secretary of state was okay for our people. that seems like something warrants looking into. did russia just not help elect donald trump? did they pick the cabinet? if republicans in congress professing to be so concerned and puzzled and concerned about trump's behavior in helsinki this weekend, if they're concerned about what's gone on between trump and russia, this is exactly the sort of thing they could hold hearings on, if they wanted to. and a lot of other things besides. ambassador michael mcfaul joins us next. er cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪ i have no idea how we're going to get through this. follow me. unitedhealthcare has the people and tools to help guide you thr

scooped up personal information was almost assuredly scooped up by russia's intelligence service, the fsbbout the secretary of defense michael carpenter. >> a large russian company. it has to abide by russia's laws, has to do with the intelligence services demand of it and in this case they demand that they provide access to all of their data. as i said, all voice data, all e-mails. and including, by the way, encrypted communications. all available to the russian intelligence services. >> reporter: that means if you were on facebook before the end of 2015, and connected to anyone who used mail.ru or the apps the russian government could have had access to your personal information including name, gender, birth date, location, photos and page likes. mail.ru denies gathering the private information saying in a statement to cnn we have not collected data on any facebook users. other than for the purposes of in-game mechanics. no matter the number, james lewis with the center for strategic and international studies says russian intelligence would be very interested. >> big data is the secret

the military component of the fsb, which is the successor to the kgb, which putin once was a top officer in. the concern, of course, about a one-on-one meeting with no official note takers, no advisers, is that vladimir putin is a spy master, a former spy master. he's so experienced in all of this. donald trump has shown in brussels and then in london, of course, how inexperienced, if you will, he is on the world stage given his quick gyrations on everything from the european union policy to of course his insults to theresa may. chris dickey is here with me. today theresa may is facing challenges in parliament, in her party, over brexit, over her separation from the european union and over her negotiations in part exacerbated by the trump visit. >> well, yeah. really, trump is a classic bully. he likes to strike out at people. he knows they're not going to be able to hit back. theresa may really can't hit back. the various nato leaders and g7 leaders, they can express a little irritation, but they are trying to be america's allies. he calls them foes. who does he flatter? who does he say

whereas, vladimir putin did this for a living as an fsb, atb, i should say, tiagent and is real skilledooking at the other pen and drawing him put i've seen him many times. what he does is he plays to that other person. he very quickly and can dadly assesses what that other person wants and then he plays to it. and this is kind of a different dynamic. this is not a businessman, vladimir putin. this is a trained intelligence operative who wants to get a goal. it may simply be let's work together because we have to work together, forget about nato, forget about europe. you and i can solve all of the problems. that could be the dynamic here. >> from the u.s. standpoint, the focus on president trump is going to be whether or not he pushes putin on the hacking that all of is intel agents have told him is, indeed, a reality. what would make this -- what would have to happen to make this meeting a success for president trump? >> reporter: for president trump, let's say the united states to go in there very straight ahead and say we have evidence and we have released a lot of it in these indict

and at that point, you could anticipate that former head of the fsb, trained intelligence operator likeimir putin does not forget anything, and then of course on top of that can start tweaking what was said in the absence of any kind of evidence from the russians -- from the american side. so what we've seen so far is a limited little hint from the ministry of defense here in russia saying that both sides agreed to restart the salt talks, talks about weapons nonproliferation. those would have been scheduled to start anyway. the russians are saying they are starting preparations. nothing terribly controversial about that. and then a little bit more controversy leaked out through various means from ambassador briefings by president putin suggesting that there was some kind of an agreement on hu humanitarian repatriation for refugees in syria. and this is good for the trump administration because the official position of the trump administration, the united states of america, is that a there would be no repatriation of refugees under any area under control of bashar al assad which of cours

authorities found a note in his handwriting that red had how to respond to fsb employment. it's inclear unclear whethe for him or butina. with school behind her, she was planning a move to sioux city with ericsen. day after buying moving boxes she was arrested. now erickson is not explicitly named in the butina indictment but they do match the operatives that assisted her. he's not charged in the butina case but he's under questioning for fraud. >> what a story that is. thanks very much. sara murray reporting. >>> just ahead, there's more information coming to light that president trump was recorded by his former fixer michael cohen discussing a payment to pay an x-play buoy model. >>> and 17 people are dead including nine member of one family after a duck boat sinks at a popular vacation spot. liberty mutual saved us almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get

a former kgb officer himself, former head of the fsb, i think president trump said he wasn't expecting a perry mason moment in which he said, you've got me, and he didn't give him one. he was asked by jonathan lemire did you support the president during the election, and he said, yes, i did, yes, i did, which contradicts what president trump had previously said about that. >> jeffrey smith, i want to end with a description by former cia director john brennan, a national security analyst at nbc. he tweeted about the president, "nothing short of treasonous." do you think the president's performance rises to that level? >> i don't think it was treason, treason is a legal term. but it was a betrayal of everything the american intelligence and law enforcement communities stand by and what they've worked for. i think it demonstrates that the president is manifestly unfit to lead this country. >> jeffrey, garrett, peter, and peter, thanks to all of you, appreciate your time today. >>> this thursday you're going to want to watch a live interview with dan coats. andrea will speak with the direc

we know this is precisely what the fsb, the internal russian service is set up to do. >> they always compromise somebody, they get dirt on them and that's their m.o. >> the resources that they throw at this stuff is incredible compared to what any other nation has. it's a long russian and soviet tradition when you have people that are going -- you travel to russia, for example. they're going to take a look at you and collect whatever it is that they can because you never know down the road, who knows what they might need to do. >> so when slovladimir putin sa we didn't know what he did. he wasn't on our radar. you don't buy that. >> no. what the russians will do is they will deny everything and they will offer counterexamples and they will offer count factual stuff to try to deny this. this is just standard procedure. there is no way -- it's inconceivable to me they don't have information on donald trump. what they have and how they choose to use it is a completely different question. but it's like a bank account that they have on him that can be used or not depending on what it is t

handwritten note that says maria's russian patriots in waiting organization, how to respond to this fsbffer of employment. as for the agent worrying the trump team, campaign advisers wondering about these encounters, this is from -- bannon had a fully developed answer. whenever there were events held by conservatives group, she was always around. why did it not get farther than this earlier if so many folks were seeing something suspicious? >> because they -- this is a year's long effort to infiltrate right wing conservative circles. first her handler came over as sort of this eccentric gun nut and kept coming to the nra conventions and made lots of buddies there, including david keen, the nra president at the time. and so torsion, the squash buckling russian carved this path. and then they started having these exchanges with this brand new upstart gun group in russia with butina as the sort of comely founder of this. she became -- she followed in torsion's path and became friends with all the same people. they got john bolton to cut a video for them. the tentacles of this thing went re

authorities found a note in his handwriting that read how to respond to fsb offer of employment.unclear if the russian intelligence offer was for him, butina or something else entirely. recently, she grew despondent, lamenting it wasn't safe for her to return to russia. she graduated from american university in may 2018. but a friend didn't spot her at any connectionment celebrations. with school behind her, she was planning a move to sioux city with erickson, a man prosecutors say she expressed disdain for living with. a day after buying moving boxes, she was arrested. now, u.s. authorities did not explicitly name paul erickson in the indictment surrounding butina, nor he has been charged with a crime in relation to the butina case. he did not respond to cnn's request for comment. sarah murray, cnn, washington. >>> the white house says another meeting between president trump and vladimir putin is, quoting now, all to the good. but not everyone is ready to roll out the red carpet for the russian president in washington. what a new meeting could mean coming up. >>> but first, chec

actually was at a hearing, or a conference at the hague six, seven utica, before crimea, and the russian fsbwas participating their version of the dea, and they went on to describe how web money was considered by them to be the primary money movement mechanism globally for russian organized crime. crimea is your sanctions. suddenly web money is almost a de facto part of their core financial system. it's in the light. it is brought in. so that points to a fundamental, almost development of a shadow economy, almost a eyeshadow sws system for money movement that has been embraced by the russian government and the banks. >> what can we do about a system that benefits the russian government? >> it's very difficult to do much about it directly. they are not going to cooperate. however, what you can do is what i described in my testimony, which is focus on identity, focus on these exchange points. >> who do need cooperation from to get that? >> so the exchangers primarily. now, you probably own a significant bitcoin investment yourself, i hope. you got out when it was 19,000, good. >> i'm working o

he was the director of the fsb, the internal service. i think he's going to treat trump like a life form he's familiar with, an oligarch. he sees trump as a rich guy. in oligarch can is in russia, you're allowed as a rich person made rich by russia, to do whatever it is you want. i think that putin and russia helped enrich donald trump over the years. i think that's the kompromat, the compromising information that might be held over donald trump during these meetings. that's my concern. that's the worst case scenario that i would have for this. >> so let me ask both of you to sort of weigh in on the bigger picture. i understand what you're saying about the psychology between the experience president putin and how they may treat each other. but on the big issues you say we don't need russia much. clearly russia backed by and with virn created the longevity of assad and backed one of the worst dictators, the most brutal murderer that we're dealing with on an international stage right now. the annexation of crimea and destabilization of the

he went to kgb school, his grad school was their version, like it was fsb school by them, but it was kgb school. and this powerful testimony you just got from the guy who previously employed him, when russia used to have private oil companies before putin took that for himself and his crone is, too. gorkov meeting with kushner is not a red flag. it's a blaring siren. it is not just contradictories from the white house and the russian side of this. there has been no plausible white house explanation for what jared kushner was doing in that meeting. was it related to kushner family business properties? was it related to the trump transition, was it related to the magnitsky act, was it related to sanctions, ongoing discussions flynn was having at the same time? we have no explanation about whatsoever. jared kushner's m.o. in terms of dealing with the russia investigation is to appear to be completely transparent and cooperate i. his security application was a complete disaster in terms of disclosing foreign contacts. his answer whether anybody in the trump campaign had been in contact w

a subcontractor working on behalf of the kremlin, or was she a gru trained intelligence officer or fsb officer. we don't know that. all i know is she's got some pretty good gun handling skills for someone who was just an amateur gun proponent. but when that comes out, that's when you're goinging to see th espionage charges come up. >> she was charged by the d.c. u.s. attorney's office and not by robert mueller. what does that tell you? >> it tells me that mueller and his counterintelligence team in the fbi had indications that she was working on behalf of russia and instead of bringing it into their investigation, sort of like michael cohen, they'd toss it over to the district where the violations were occurring and that allows his counterintelligence operations to keep their focus and allows the d.c. organization to go in and do the leg work on prosecuting her. >> my goodness. you can't even believe it's for real. >> it's a spy story. >> it is. malcolm, thank you so much. >>> coming up, some farmers are starting to feel the impact of president trump's trade war and it is not a good fe

. >> first of all, putin may not be spending his time on it, but i guarantee you the fsb, the successoration to the kgb, is. and the other thing is that putin is a boldfaced liar. he lies about everything. i wouldn't believe a word he says in any speech he ever gets. he said there were no russian troops in ukraine until after they took over crimea. he's a liar. >> martha: jack, what do you think? >> this may be somewhat possible. you don't follow just any old businessman, but they do this, the kgb has done it routinely. anybody you can entrap, you wil will. so i don't know, and we really don't know until we know what's happening in intelligence and very often the truth doesn't come out until ten, 20, 30, 40 years later. >> martha: fascinating. great to have both of you with us today. thank you very much, jack and bill. you certainly know of what you speak. we will see you again soon. thank you so much. coming up next, media reaction to the comp-putin summoned tonight. >> today turned what has been an ongoing problem of donald trump and as a president in terms of his attitude towards rus

>> reporter: butina allegedly kept in touch with members of the russian fsb, the spy agency that succeededrosecutors say she was well connected to well think business men in the russian oligarchy and sources tell cnn she had a relationship with paul ericsson from the american conservative union trying to make inroads with the romney and trump campaigns and never particularly successful. while the court filing did not name ericsson and referred to him as u.s. person one, the details match ericsson's activities. butina allegedly lived with him but treated the relationship as simply a necessary aspect of her activities since ericsson previously said he co-founded a company with butina to fund the graduate studies. cnn affiliate kilo tv asked ericsson if he tried to set up a meeting of trump and putin. i was wondering if you would talk to us about the "the new york times" reporting about you trying to set up a meeting between president trump and putin? >> oh! yeah. it didn't exactly happen that way. >> reporter: federal judge has just ruled maria butina will remain in jail with no bond until t

a and that scooped up personal information was scooped up by the fsb, according to deputy assistant secretarydefense, michael carpenter. >> so mail.rue is a large russian company. it has to abide by russia's laws, has to do with the intelligence service's demand of it. and in this case they demand they provide access to all of their data. all of that has to be available to the russian intelligence services. >> reporter: that means if you were on facebook before the end of 2015 and connected to anyone who used mail.rue or its apps, the russian government could have have had access to your personal information, including your name, gender, birth date, location, photos and page likes. mail.rue denies gathering information, saying in a statement, we have not collected data on any facebook users, other than for the purposes of in-game mechanics. no matter, james lewis with says russian intelligence would be very interested. >> big data is the secret today to intelligence. and if the russians who are very good at this have access to a pot of big data, i wouldn't be surprised if they used it. >> rep

he comes from the fsb. their roots in the kgb. how would he not know this is going on. at the same time diplomats often echo talking points and overtly say things mirrored by the social media influence efforts and things placed into the media. for vladimir putin to say he had no knowledge of it, i think it is remarkable now. we have the evidence. the president can walk in. i don't understand why he would walk into a meeting with president putin without anybody else around, particularly next week, which he's talked about doing. >> good point. >> i would like to see him deliver the indictment to him and say to president putin, you said there is nothing to this. you have no evidence. here's what we have. >> from the reporting out there this meeting the president is having with vladimir putin will only have internship tpreters, takers or anything else. we'll see if there will be more information about who will be in the meeting. in the meantime, thank you very much. everyone else, stick with me if you can. on the phone now is chris hayes, host of "all in." chris, this is th

in fact just today they for the first time alleged that she has had contact with fsb officers. that's the successor agency to the kgb. so they're now saying that she wasn't just working with russian government officials, she was actually working with russian intelligence. >> there have been a lot of people asking about the connection between her, butina, the nra and the republican party. what do we know about that at the moment? >> well, we know that the allegation from the u.s. government is that her influence operation, her mission essentially was to insinuate herself into republican politics and that she was going to use the nra to do that. what we don't know is whether she found any assistance from americans. we should be very clear, no americans have been charged or accused of any wrongdoing with this but there are two americans named in her indictment, including a republican operative from south dakota with whom she was having a personal relationship, a romantic relationship. there are some quite explicit e-mails included in that complaint that do suggest that he kind of

year-old political operative strictly for business purposes and was likely in contact with russia's fsb intelligence agency throughout her time in the u.s. eric o'neal is a former counterintelligence operative with the fbi. >> a spy will do whatever they can to get that information. if they got to sleep with someone to do it, they'll do it. >> reporter: a russian foreign ministry spokeswoman says butina's arrest is all part of an effort to undermine u.s./russia relations. the fbi moved in to arrest her after it says it saw signs she was preparing to leave the country, including packing up her apartment and transferring $3,500 to a russian bank account. >>igpaula, thanks. i'll take it. new york's first shark attack in more than six decades injured two children off long island. the two separate incidents happened yesterday at beaches less than five miles apart along a popular vacation spot known as fire island. both beaches were temporarily closed. don dahler's on fire island near where one of the kids was hurt. don, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. state investigators are still t

nominal buyer of the political time they would have no way of looking behind it to see if it was the fsb were poop or someone associated with foreign elections and manipulation. how big the liability is' are present and ability to know who the actual truth beneficial owners are of shell corporations when those corporations engage in election influence operations. >> i think the perspective i take on that has been responsible for the fair enforcement we are engaged in trying to determine whether they are a legitimate determination for the industry. that's which makes it more transparent makes it easier for us to apply that. that only applies to specific activities would you not agree that it is a u.s. vulnerability that foreign actors are able to take advantage of particularly american shell corporations and effectively obscure their hands in information or campaign finance operations. >> i would agree that transparency and ownership is certainly helpful to me. >> and that is in part why the department supports the grassley white house bill to provide for more shell corporation transparen

you're a russian fsb agent and want to run an influence operation in the united states. of the steps you would consider. >> first thing you do is you see accounts in social media, players, operatives, political parties, ngos, groups like that into the u.s. audience space, align with them based on interest, financial being a big one, information being another one, common issues, like america first. if america puts america first and the world second, russia can get on the world stage. the angle is a behavior change in target audience. we saw it happen last week. saw senators go to russia and repeat lines that russia would want them to say. sanctions aren't working. maybe you shouldn't pursue these, or everybody does influence and meddling, senator shelby, repeated a line you will hear come out of the kremlin. that's the behavior change they want. the thing we don't realize is that it is boiling, it is slow and it is to nudge the target audience, republican party to take on your agenda. we saw it again yesterday. you saw republicans in congress attacking another u.s. instit