jared kushner was in the room. jeff sessions was in the room. it was reported that donald trump shook sergey kislyak's hand. but sessions' people and kushner's peach denied they had any substantive encounter with kislyak. well, now we're being told that congressional investigators have reason to believe, and they're not exactly saying what that reason, but they're suggesting that it is classified evidence, that there may have been a private encounter. that's not proof that there is one, but they have reason to believe it. and they also tell us that the fbi is very interested in this meeting and is concerned that perhaps the russians were seeking to ingratiate themselves with the trump campaign at this meeting. don't forget that april is around the time the democrats first discovered a hack in their network, lawrence. >> joy reid, the denials about this meeting seem to be playing with language. they're saying things like didn't have a private meeting. what does that mean? does that mean one-on-one? no one else in the room? are they trying to say w

and now he'll be the defense lawyer for jared kushner too. mr. kushner is keeping his existing lawyer, another washington a-lister. but in addition, he is now adding abby lowell which means like mike pence, presidential senior adviser and presidential son-in-law and de facto crown prince of the trump administration, jared kushner and mike pence now both have better legal representation in this matter than the president does. and i don't mean to be weird about this but to face this scandal, to mount a personal defense, the president himself has hired this guy. like handled some of his divorce stuff. he hired a lawyer who mostly does religious right televangelist stuff and he hired this guy. >> you're going to want to watch this next piece of video that we have. he is out on bail after being convicted of all 14 counts of couldn't spearcy and fraud. his attorney has promised to appeal those convictions. this is the video that i was talking about. cnbc caught up with mr. dowd a short time ago. >> that's what i got for cnbc. >> wow! >> that's what i go

jared kushner's voice sounds like a young michael sayer. >> mr. eporter: kushner's silence was mocked on "snl." >> i'll send in my little kush ball, jared kushner. i know you don't like talking, but why don't you take it away. god, you're so cute. >> live from new york, it's saturday night. >> reporter: kushner is a guy with a twitter account but no tweets. a cover story in time with no interview. he once tiptoed past his wife as she was being interviewed. >> come on, jared. come on. >> oh, jared, you can't just walk in and not say anything. >> reporter: the silent sidekick has finally found his voice. >> it's working and it's very exciting. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> i wonder how much more we'll hear. thanks for joining us. don't forget, watch "outfront" any time, anywhere. we'll see you back here tomorrow night. "ac 360" with anderson cooper begins right now. >>> good evening. thanks for joining us. we begin with the culmination of the nightmare that began more than a year and a half ago when otto warmbier was sentenced in north

we're talking about jared kushner. kelly o.e beginning of the show in her live shot that the white house spokesman did affirm the president's -- but the man whose byline is on the definitive story today about palace intrigue is phillip from the "washington post." i think he's joining us right now. >> hi. >> there you are. hi. i read your story three times because my first thought when i watched the paris speech was bannon's back and he was, you know, i understood not thrilled about being sort of kicked off that foreign trip after the first stop. but he certainly made the most of his time. he lined up support for bringing the president along to his side of the debate on climate change. some have suggested that that's where the president always was. but i wonder if you could give us the current state of play inside this white house's ongoing and very public power struggle. >> yeah, well, the paris is an interesting development. i think trump was always in favor of the withdraw, and it was just a long deliberative process to get t

the one thing sprating jared kushner from ivanka, just a little bit, is that jared kushner at the ende day, he is not an ideological person. he is a very go with the flow business mindset guy. at the end of the day, he'll be able to say that whatever the president does is a win for him. he'll be able to spin and it sell it either way. >> with the caveat that we could be having this discussion, instead of about steve bannon in a couple weeks, given how much turmoil there seals to be and all the competing leaks. how much influence can we even say that jared or ivanka actually have on the president? what have we seen where he's changed his mind or moderated? have we seen thing at all? >> no. that idea that they would be the moderating influence on this president took a big hit yesterday the withdrawal from the ris accord. and you're right. we have yet to see any concrete proof ofthat. >> is that just a narrative they would like to have out there? >> that they've worked very hard to put out there at times. i think regardless of the sort of fixation on who was up, who was down, who the pre

we reached out to jared kushner's attorney. no response this morning. close to kushner tells nbc news he was at the meeting acting in capacity as a transition official. yasmin, maybe that tells you something. >> keir, i was nervous as i watched that video. i was nervous. you were so dog ed and committed to get an answer from him. you only stopped because there was a security barrier there. i have to ask, was there ever a point when you are trying to get after gorkov to get an answer that you were nervous for your safety? you are not in the united states or uk. you are in russia. he was surrounded by many security officials. >> reporter: he was. you know, this is a tough place for journalists to operate. particularly those prepared to be critical of the government. you have that in mind. equally, people do have open discussions here. these kind of practices are not unfamiliar to the russians. yes, of course, we're glad the team we're still here and not in any trouble for what we did there. i think the risk was moderate. i don't want to exaggerate. >> it

certainly, they are going to be looking and apparently are looking at the financial dealings of jared kushner. you know, there's the kushner family has a building, 66 fifth avenue. it was known he had met with not just the russian ambassador in trump tower during the transition, but also at the request of the russian ambassador met with a russian banker with, a very, you know, a russian banker who has a background in intelligence training and whose bank is on the list of banks under sanctions. so there's a lot of questions about why he met with him. there were conflicting accounts according to "the new york times" that were given early on about why that meeting even took place. i think there's a lot of questions, it's not perhaps too surprising to know the special counsel was looking at it. but it certainly brings this even closer into the white house and the family circle of donald trump and the inner circle of donald trump. >> anderson cooper, we'll let you go. i want to bring now live from the ballpark, congressman mo brooks of alabama, a republican from alabama. did you do any booing toni

certainly they are going to be looking at the financial dealings of jared kushner. there is the kushner family has a building 666 fifth avenue. it is known he had met with not just the russian ambassador in trump tower during the transition but met with a russian bank er who has a background in intelligence training and whose bank is on the list of sanctions. so there is a lot of questions about why he met with them and conflicting accounts that were given early on about why that meeting took place. i think there are a lot of questions that is not perhaps too surprising to know that the special counsel was looking at it. it brings this closer into the white house and into the inner circle of donald trump and the family circle of donald trump. >> thank you. great reporting. we will let you go now. we have more business to attend to at the ballpark. i want to bring in live congressman brooks of alabama, republican from alabama. did you do any booing tonight? i understand your team lost. there really are no losers tonight. i will congratulate you especially after this n

we see jared kushner in a number of meetings. nearly every meeting with a foreign leader that passes through this white house. right now jared kushner is in a trip to israel where he is trying to advance the mideast peace process where his father has entrusted him to help navigate. if they were taken out of this equation, that would be a big deal. now, my bet is the white house isn't going to all of a sudden decide that they want to get behind pulling his security clearance. i'm sure they will sort of collectively roll their eyes at this request from democrats right now all we're getting from them is silence. >> out front now a member of the house intelligence committee and good to have you back on the program. i appreciate your time. should jared kushner's security clearance be suspended immediately? >> based on everything i have seen, both from public reporting and otherwise in my work on the intelligence committee, i do think that there is great cause for concern in terms of jared kushner continuing to have a security clearanc

kushner has not been named as a target. >> does the president have confidence in jared kushner? >> absolutely. >> it was about diplomacy and kushner worked to build relationships that would help advance the president's foreign policy goals. but gorkov's bank told reuters the meeting was part of a banking road show meeting kushner in part of the role of the real estate business. >> mr. gorkov is the head of a bank. it's a russian government bank, but it's a bank. it's not the person you would set up a back channel to talk about syria or iran or china. >> tonight, many questions, few answers. >> have you been contacted by the fbi or would you be prepared to talk to them? mr. gorkov? >> we reached out to jared kushner's attorney tonight. there was no response. he tells nbc news he was acting in his capacity as a transition official, jose? >> keir simmons in st. petersburg, thank you. >>> now to the growing backlash around the world over president trump's decision to withdraw the u.s. from that landmark paris agreement on combatting climate change. this is trump administration offici

number two, jared kushner knew what his role was. jared kushner knew his father-in-law was about to be the president of the united states. and he feels like it's appropriate to be doing going ts connected to the kremlin and say, hey, i want some money. that's business operation idea. number two, have you a meeting between jared kushner and bank in terms of dealing with national security issues supposedly, or getting into issues of diplomacy. what is jared kushner doing getting involved in that to begin with? secondly, why are they doing this at a time when donald trump is not the president of the united states. nothing should have been doing on without it being done in coordination with the state department. that is how these things are handled. you don't start with coming administration now starts running secret meetings undermining national security and foreign policy of the united states. it just doesn't work that way. nayyera, you worked for the state department, i'm sure you would concur that's the normal way things take place.

blackmail by russia, with the white house counsel. >> now, does your concern go as far as to cover jared kushner? i'm asking you, because these same democrats say they're also concerned about kushner maintaining his security clearance while the investigations continue, even though i don't think anyone has leveled the level of accusations against kushner, as they have against flynn. there is no proof that kushner, at this point, did anything, you know, untoward or is even being investigated as doing something illegal. >> well, i think there's a significant evidence that mike flynn, the former national security adviser, had very complicated relationships with foreign powers that he had failed to disclose, that he had been untruthful with the vice president, which is what led to his ultimately dismissal, but had been untruthful at the very beginning of his service with this administration. and i think that's the foundation of questions by the house oversight committee democrats. i'm less certain why they're pressing the issue with jared kushner, but my hunch is they have good reason for raising con

he's not divested from everything. >> the kushners continue to make big deals, just without jared. sister was widely criticized for mentioning her brother's role in the white house while pitching chinese business owners to invest in the company's billion-dollar investment in new jersey. that role in the white house also raised concerns when the kushners were trying to track a chinese bank to redevelop a chinese flop. that building at 666 penn avenue is a billion dollars in debt. that deal fell through, the family still needs to refinance, but jared is no longer involved. he sold his stake when he went to the white house. so what does this all have to do with russia? after all, none of jared kushner's 54 pages of financial disclosures disclose anything about russia. cnn has been told by sources that the special counsel is focusing in on an odd meeting jared kushner had here in december at trump tower with the head of russia's state bank. it wasn't just any russian state banker. it was a putin friend who attended russian spy school, a mega rich banker named sergey gorkov. gorkov heads

jared kushner -- one can only stands for jared kushner, although the company would not confirm that.ed kushner had a pivotal role in buying these complexes. anwas in the process of hearing this company from his fath and this was one of his big moves to make these purchases. lucrativem as a wise, and prudent financial investment to buy all of these complexes. one of the people that i came across, especially just very upsetting story, a young woman, a single mother of three who moved out of one of the complexes because the elderly woman next door was becoming incredibly hard to deal with, banging on the door at night, waking up her baby, just acting very strange. she got permission, this young woman, to move out. she got written permission to move out and gave the proper notice and all of that. she moves out. a couple of years later, she starts getting court notices in the mail saying this company was suing her in court for several thousand dollars for having left her lease early. she did not have a copy anymore of that written permission she had received. the court ruled against her.

none of the trump/kushner legislative agenda including jared kushner and his wife's dream of ripping health insurance away from 20 million people who will no longer be able to afford it if the trump/kushner health care bill ever becomes law. joining us now, white house correspondent for "the daily beast," the deputy special counsel in the waco investigation, and also with us, david jolly, former republican congressman from florida. and ed dowd, i want to just get your sense of the legal teams lining up here at the line of scrimmage in this. i think there's no question about the quality that the special prosecutor is assembling and the experience that he has on his side. but i've never seen a legal team like this representing the president. >> i think there's some good lawyers there. i think john dowd is an excellent lawyer. and as you said, we haven't heard from him yet. he has a great reputation. abby lowell, obviously, was a good choice for jared kushner. marc kasowitz actually has a good reputation in some areas, in some areas of law. it's an interesting, interesting group. and of

reach. >>> a new perspective tonight on a question that's been out there since we learned about jared kushner'sg with the russian ambassador since december. how typical was the meeting or not was the meeting kushner wanted to setup? was this simply business as usual? last night, jeffrey lord said there was nothing novel about it, equating kushner as robert kennedy. >> i would say that jared kushner is the robert kennedy of the trump administration. and i would disagree with maggie about back channels and secret channels, because they can be the same things. in the kennedy era, quite specifically, the knowledge of this was limited to the two brothers. one was the president and one was the attorney general. they kept it out of the state department. they kept everything away from everybody. >> former presidential briefer, david priess, suggested otherwise. he's the author of "the president's book of secrets," and he tweeted that it was, quote, true that jared and rfk are the only two regular family recipients of daily potus intel docs in his 55-year history. false in all other ways. he and jeff jo

have i an exclusive with a woman who was editor-in-chief of jared kushner's newspaper. she says he has never had a, quote, realistic view of his own capabilities. and also we have a report on russia with the director of the fbi special agents association. now it is time for "the last word." joy reid is in for lawrence tonight. as we say around the building, rachel says hi. >> it was good to hear from her. i know a lot of people in my twitter timeline and text messages that were very relieved to hear from rachel. we'll be there for your peter principle of the point on sunday night. >> as we say we hear you in the tl. well hear you on the twitter. >> yes you do. >> have a good weekend. >> see you on sunday, ari. thank you very much. >>> surprise, surprise, everyone. vladimir putin and donald trump agree. neither one of them want to blame russia for interfering in the u.s. election. and there is breaking news about the russia investigation that is more bad news for the white house. the probe is expanding. and new tonight, democrats are warning the president do not try to o

he was with jared kushner in that meeting.ie: he is known to have had a relationship with the russians. pre-trump relationship. >> while i can maybe believe jared kushner was naÏve in asking to use russian security medications as the conduit, michael flynn should have known better, right? is on jared kushner because he is still in the administration, he is still in the white house and michael flynn is not. but michael flynn was there, i think he should be part of the story. the second thing that struck me desire to setthe up a channel. reported tois was be a channel for michael flynn to talk to the russians, supposedly to the russian military, supposedly about syria and other issues. that was the channel. that does not bother me. charlie: what if it was to talk about sanctions? >> that does not even bother me. charlie: what would bother you? >> what bothers me is two things. i want to know why the request for secrecy. what were they trying to hide? in order to make sure you were not seen? >> by the current administration. it c

is it financial gained by jared kushner, by trump, by others? or no financial gain? is it some kind of secret arrangement to bring about the policy desires of russia, whether witting or unwitting. they have a cover-up they are trying to unravel and they're getting no help from the white house -- >> how can you say it's a cover-up, unless it's known -- >> because a cover-up does not mean an obstruction of justice. it means an attempt to hide the facts from investigators and from the people of the united states. there's no question that's going on, and the fbi investigators will tell you that, people in congress will tell you that, people in the white house will tell you that. it doesn't mean it's illegal. that remains to be seen. but if there was not a cover-up, why wouldn't the president of the united states say to his counsel, in the white house, i want a white paper issued on all of my dealings as a businessman with russian and my son-in-law's dealings with them, with my campaign's dealings with them and let's get this behind us and get on the business of the count

the incoming white house said no, no, no, this was jared kushner acting as a diplomat. which seems to ring more true? do these banks meet with people in their diplomatic capacity? >> first of all, mr. gorkov is not a banker. he was educated at the security service academy of the ussr, the successor of the kgb. he then worked for ucos, a company that mr. putin crushed. and he was the only one in that network of executives that moved to london and then came back and got elevated into key government positions. and people in that bank that fled the country or the oligarch that putin crushed believe according to a story in russian "forbes" that he cooperated all the way through with the security services. he may have been a plant. so mr. gorkov is very likely not a banker. and anyone who is in a responsible position in the transition of an elected -- of the elted president-elect of the united states should be open to getting proper intelligence about who he is meeting with and to know that he is probably meeting with a russian agent of the russian state and in fact a russian

was jared kushner trying to cash in on his about to be senior adviser role? that's one question democrats are going to push. or was he trying to have some conversation about sanctions is another question, because gorkov's bank at the time was under obama administration sanctions. what's the answer? when do we find out? >> look, i don't know that we're going to find out the answer at this hearing. though everybody is going to be on the edge of their seats obviously. but there's a lot of investigation to go and i think comey is going to be very careful about what he shares. i think that the real thing that underscores why it's all so important is that this is the direct connection to the crept white house. this is not paul manafort who was connected in the campaign and is no longer here. not even flynn who was in the white house and is gone. this is not only the current white house and the senior adviser to the president, but the son-in-law. that makes all of these questions all the more important. and i think, you know, not to mention all of the other question

. >>> behind the secret meeting with jared kushner. why he took off from her camera. >>> global backlash with president trump's decision to pull out of the paris climate teal and here at home we're in coal country, are those jobs really coming back? >>> resort attack mystery, dozens dead after a man with an assault rifle lights a casino on fire. isis claims responsibility but authorities insist it was not terrorism. why did he go on a rampage? >>> words of wisdom from the class of 2017. our favorite traditions, our annual solute to the grads. "nightly news" begins right now. >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. >> and good evening. i'm jose diaz in for lester. we begin with an nbc news exclusive, a first look at the interview conducted just hours ago with president vladimir putin of russia. this is the first american television interview with putin since the u.s. presidential election, and comes as a special counsel is overseeing the investigation into alleged russian el

this is something that elijah comesin cummings on the house oversight committee is pointing to, jared kushner the son-in-law and top white house advisor, and michael flynn were unfit to handle classified information. kushner still at the white house, flynn no longer at the white house, but did stay on the white house staff for 18 days after the concerns about him being central to russian blackmail were essentially raised. the question about jared kushner, this has to do with his failure to disclose foreign contacts initially on his security clearance forms, including four contacts with russian officials. including sergey kislyak and the head of a russian bank that was under u.s. sanctions at that time. now, in this letter that cummings sent to reince priebus white house chief of staff he cites this. it appears mr. kushner allowed his colleagues at the white house and the american people to be misled about his multiple communications with the russian officials. mr. kushner reportedly failed to disclose contacts with dozens of foreign officials on a security clearance application. in any case,

but this is the first confirmation that jared kushner is under investigation. sari horwitz, one of the reporters who broke that "washington post" story will join news a moment. the news that vice president pence has hired a criminal defense lawyer, and that jared kushner is under investigation comes 24 hours after "the washington post" reported last night that the president himself is now the subject of an obstruction of justice investigation by the special prosecutor. "the washington post" reporting last night was based entirely on anonymous sources. it was followed by a "new york times" report also based on anonymous source that was a bit more tentative about whether the president was the subject of an investigation. then this morning at 6:55:00 a.m., came forward to confirm that the president is under investigation. president trump tweeted, they made up a phony collusion with the russian story, found zero proof. so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. nice. with that nice tweet, the president himself confirmed that he is indeed under in

>> jared kushner did step back from the company back in december or january. tepped down from his role as the ceo of kushner companies. his father, charles kushner, is back in that title. but jared has retained virtually his entire stake in these real estate holdings, whether these downscale permit complexes are the higher end stuff, he is obtained the vast majority of those stakes, the stake in the company's estimated as being as much a $600 million. as far as the company's response to my questions, it was very blunt. they said we are going after these tenants because these are contracts they sign, these leases, and we're simply upholding the contracts. they did not have specific responses to some of the specific cases are brought to the monthly case of the young woman i just described. the also said what they were doing was in line with industry behavior. however, i spoke to a lot of people in the industry who described to me -- well, characterized this behavior as being on the outer edge of what is considered normal in the world of downscale apartment comple

house is reaffirming that the president still has confidence in son-in-law and senior adviser jared kushner. new questions keep arising about kushner's russia contacts and conflicting explanations about why he met with the banker linked to the kremlin. president putin is weighing in on the russian investigation tonight dismissing it as hysteria. and new public remarks, putin denies any secret back room taels with t deals with the trump team, and lifting sanctions on russia or anything else. also breaking, the white house won't say if mr. trump believes climate change is a hoax a day after his decision to withdraw from the paris climate agreement. multiple officials were asked multiple times but still no answer. i will talk about that more with senator ed marky. and our correspondents and specialists are also standing by. first, to our justice correspondent jessica schneider. the white house leaving the door open to envoc wlag is called executive privilege but we hear more about what an uphill fight that could be. >> that's right, wolf. senate source says that president trump wants to block

jared kushner. who was on the plane sitting with bannon? kushner.tion that he's suddenly going to be this centrist voice, he was with bann nochlt during the campaign. >> and who was having meetings with the russians? i'm not sure that kushner will be an anti-russian force. >> we obviously could talk about paris. we have spoken about paris. we will end today with two more stories that i'm sure you're going to have to look at. and your senate colleagues are going to have to look at. one was michael isikof's story about getting sanctions lifted without letting anybody else know about that. and the second story was that jared kushner met this russian spy who happened to run a bank connected to vladimir putin. >> conflicting explanations. >> and russians say it was about him getting money for his business and the americans are saying it was about diplomacy. what's your take on those two explosive stories? >> what is most striking about all of these discussions with the russians, whether by michael flynn or jeff sessions, now the attorney general or jared

>> well, in jared kushner's case, that is smart. he's really trying to figure out what is in donald trump's state of mind when he asked comey to back off the flynn investigation when he fired comey and i suspect he'll put them in the grand jury and ask questions about that and everyone in that position should be getting their own attorney. jared kushner has his own legal exposure as well. it's been reported that he's under scrutiny for his own ties for the meeting he held with ambassador kislyak that he did not disclose on his security form. if you knowingly hide that kind of information, that is a federal crime. so i think he's making the wise choice. >> matt, david, nick, thank you to all of you. appreciate it. >>> in the meantime, cities all around europe are on high alert because a man deliberately drove his vehicle into a police car in champs-elysees. they found weapons and explosives in his car and that happened just hours after a driver plowed his van into a crowd outside of a london mosque just after midnight. nbc's keir sim

special counsel investigating jared kushner's business dealings.en previously reported by the post and other news outlets that potential financial crimes by trump associates are an area of focus for the special counsel's investigations. the post was first to report jared kushner was a person of interest for the fbi investigation. now tonight the post has this. it's jared kushner's business dealings that are under fbi scrutiny. what does that mean exactly? joining us now is matt zabatosky from the washington post and one of the reporters behind tonight's scoop that special counsel is investigating jared kushner. thanks for speaking with us. i appreciate you joining us on short notice. >> thank you for having me. >> let me ask you how much further this reporting advances the story. the post previously reported that jared kushner was a person of interest. it had previously been sort of vaguely described that possible financial crimes by trump associates are an area of fbi focus. how does this advance those stories? >> so i think it advances it increme

the business one is probably more problematic for jared kushner. the kushner company has been seeking financing, new financing for this massive sky scraper in new york city, 666 fifth avenue. a $1.8 billion project and they have been meeting with various investors and seeking financing. the problem is they had any discussion at all of that project or generally, his company's business, is that there might be a suggestion they were dangling the possibility of funding or other business advantagesn exchange for something, maybe exchange for warmer policy towards russia. that would be very problematic for jared kushner if that's what happened. of course he says it's not. >> all right. two questions. did he ever get financing for that building, number one? and number two, historically has he ever done any banking business in russia, if you know? >> so, they're still looking for that financing deal and that is a project that kushner has divested himself of as part of his restructuring his business to enter the white house. and we don't really know. the kus

that trip was largely a product, it is said, of jared kushner. it is said that he carries a -- he did a lot of conversations with the saudi's, coming into this. why do you think that was successful, and is it wise for the united states, to identify a run as the enemy, and identify with the saudi's and everybody's --and emirates and the other nations, who believe that the problem in the gulf is about the sunni-shia issue. while obama thought that it was important for the united states to be talking about both sides, here is a complete shift. and you think that it is the right thing? >> part of it. yes, i think it is appropriate to see iran as a significant and strategic challenge. to u.s. interests in the middle east. there is a long list of things that concern us. they themselves conduct terrorism as a tool of statecraft. we provides support to international terrorist groups. >> where are they doing that, for the benefit of the audience am a are they conducting terrorism? by funding people like hezbollah? >> the state of iran, through the irg for

that suit my needs, and i get back to business. ♪ >>> first daughter ivanka trump and her husband jared kushnerso senior white house adviser to the president, they are keeping a low profile right now. the kushners are not the power brokers that many assumed. the fbi is investigating kushner's role with the contacts with the russian he and has put an unwanted spotlight on the president and an adviser believes that it's time for kushner to take a break. >> jared kushner has to be extremely careful what he says to people. he cannot be in a position where it's later claimed that he's witness tampering. people around him are going to eventually testify. if he goes up and gives instructions about how to think about this or that, that can be considered tampering. it's one of the reasons why i think that jared kushner should be considering a possibility of taking a leave of absence. >> maeve reston is joining us now. is their influence waning in the white house? >> i think the investigation has created such a cloud around jared kushner at this point that there's no way in which he couldn't be taking a

tough questions for jared kushner as well as attorney general jeff sessions.imately, i anticipate a number of top officials are going to have to answer questions about all of this. in the meantime, at the back drop is a president who wants to be focused on his agenda today. he is going to be talking about infrastructure. i anticipate that that's going to continue in the coming weeks and months. remember, the other big thing they want to get done, health care reform. republicans say they want to get a vote on that by july. all of these russia-related headlines really complicating the equation. >> they've told us -- >> infrastructure week. >> we're waiting for more details around it. to stay on the russia thing for a moment and jared kushner, just yesterday, we saw angus king ask about veb bank. during the transition, jared kushner met with the head of a russian sanctioned bank. when the head of the bank happened to be in new york for his road show. i want to share james comey's response when asked about this bank. >> what do you know about the russian bank veb?

we reached out to jared kushner's attorney but no response so far today.e to jared kushner did suggest that he was there, indeed, as a representative of the trump transition team. back to you, richard. >> keir, thank you so much. keir simmons with that report. let's bring in michael allen, former majority staff director of the house permanent selection committee on intelligence. you were watching that along with me here, michael, your thought on what keir was able to, if you will, get from pursuing mr. gorkov. again, mr. gorkov not wanting to answer any of keir's questions along the way. your reaction? >> well, as extraordinary reporting from keir, i think that is just the kind of thing the trump white house probably doesn't want to see on tv, which is enterprising reporters chases down russian bankers asking about the president's family. but it -- i don't know that he got any news or clarification on whether it was an economic-type meeting or political meeting or both. but we certainly saw an interesting line of inquiry that we'll hear about in the coming

jared kushner has only ever worked for his family business, a private company.he chairman and ceo of jpmorgan, doesn't eventually have to do the right thing. he's held accountable every day right out if front whether it's his board, his employees or shareholders. is this just jared has never had to behave like a grown-up in the real world? >> i think jason is absolutely correct and that it is a shame that we are relying on someone whogs so young and so inexperienced who doesn't have any real corporate experience or political experience and who is relying on the fact he is related to the president and being trusted by the president. this is not a good thing for america, and i think the russian bank meeting is really a telling thing. why is he meeting with them? it's a bank under sanctions so it's illegal for him to do business with them. why is he meeting with them if it was during the transition for anything else? it just doesn't make sense. it's something we need to look at. rachel maddow had a wonderful full explanation of the bev bank, which isn't really a ba

>>> and jared kushner with a major hire. hiring one of the united states' leading criminal defense attorneys to his team. >>> plus, trump destroying obama's policies and he's just getting started. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, 22 million americans, that's how many more americans will be uninsured over the next ten years under trumpcare. it drew swift and much angry reaction on capitol hill. senate democrats, of course, are gearing up and right now for a protest on the senate floor that is expected to go late into the tonight this evening. some are pushing for a vote in the next couple of days. some republicans say when it comes to this bill, they are not sure about it. >> it makes me more concerned. i've been uncommitted and remain uncommitted but it certainly makes me more concerned and makes me want to explore this more. >> reporter: the republican senator susan collins and rand paul, they have both said they will vote no to move forward on this bill. so that's two. and then you a

i think it makes sense for jared kushner who can afford to hire the council and hire someone like abbyperienced in these areas. >> where do you think the investigation is going if kushner is lawyering up so heavily? >> i agree with john. he is really taking this seriously, and that is probably a good thing for him. you know, the determination and dedication of bob mueller as prosecutor, as possibilities that this could lead to a grand jury testimony, to possible, i mean, reaching out there now, possible indictments. you know, there is also the possibility that he, his testimony plays a role in any future possible impeachment proceedings. so there is a whole realm of things that can be done. first is to get him in the chair and start having interviews. >> one of those interviews is apparently with the senate intel committee where he wl sit down with senators later thi month. given that, what sort of advice will his legal team be giving him, and is there any need to invoke the fifth? >> the most important thing his team should be telling him is to always tell the truth. in so many of the

fresh scrutiny on the meeting between jared kushner and the top russian banker. we saw the clip from keir, trying to get answers about what prix si precisely happened at the meeting. was it about the kushner family business? was it about loosening sanctions? why could both be problematic for the white house? >> both could be problematic because this is another example of serious inconsistencies in the stories that jared kushner has told about his inter actions with the russians. you know, when you look at what the russian banker said, you look at what jared said, it is clearly the case they did not have an opportunity to coordinate their stories and to make -- to come to a conclusion about what they wanted to say ahead of time. i also -- i think with regard to what kushner was doing at the time, establishing a back channel to communicate with the russians, you know, there's been a lot of discourse about that issue. i think it is important to point out that with regard to these meetings, with regard to the back channel, you know, back channels are something that ar

what happened between jared kushner and the russian ambassador and the other meeting with jared kushner russian bank are pretty important. >> the russian bank is of great interest. this isn't like a russian bank like bank of america or choice. it's run by a tie to the government is really not a bank like we know it, aaron? >> that's right. this is a bank that as i understand it has loaned money to russian oligarks and got into financial trouble. it's known as putin's bank. a couple things here. there's such a tangle of interest about these individuals that investigators are sure to want to talk about it. you have russia, which is under u.s. sanctions for its annexation of crimea. this bank is subject to sanctions since 2014. they want to get rid of them. we have a president coming into office who said he wants to improve relations with russia. so it makes sense that they might talk as long as they keep in mind that president trump at that point is still president-elect. obama is the president. we have one president at the time. well and good but it's not common for a new administration

now we know they are looking at jared kushner's business dealings.part of the trump family now, of course, being the president's son-in-law. he comes from wealth all his own. we know investigators are interested in that. why? exactly why, we don't know. they haven't alleged any specific wrongdoing on his part. as you mentioned just before i came on the feds are following the money. there could be money laundering issues here. there are prosecutors who specialize in financial crimes. andrew weissman had the fraud section of the justice department before he came to work for bob mueller. long story short this is incremental but important. >> matt, just to be clear in terms of the way the special counsel is approaching this and the fbi broadly if they are looking at potential financial crimes by trump associates and as you report tonight potential financial wrongdoing by jared kushner does that mean the financial crimes or that financial wrongdoing has to do with colluing with russia? has to do with the initial focus of the investigation or could it be t