but first let's bring in cnn's chief national security correspondent jim sciutto and our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. i know you've got some breaking news, some new reporting on the president's personal attorneys now being asked to provide sensitive information to the u.s. congress. what can you tell us? >> that's right, wolf. another person connected to president trump being drawn into the russia investigation. this time it is president trump's personal attorney michael cohen who is a fixture of course throughout the campaign cycle frequently appearing on cnn and other networks as a surrogate to donald trump. he has been requested by the house and senate intelligence committees to provide information and testimony. i just got off the phone with

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >>> hillary clinton offering her pointed comments on what she characterizes immediating by the russians and fbi director james comey. the former candidate said if the election was held on october 27th i would be your president. listen. >> i was on the way to winning until a combination of jim comey's letter on october 28th and russian wikileaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off. >> interviewed by christiane amanpour at a women for women in new york clinton took absolute personal responsibility for her loss. >> did she? she said she's back took an activist citizen and part of the resistance. she took a swipe that's sure to i rx president trump. >> i did win more than 3 million votes than my opponent. so, i see a tweet coming. fine. better that than interfering in foreign affairs if he wants to tweet about me. i'm happy to be the, you know, the diversion. >> so, what's behind clinton's re-emergence in the spotlight? a confidant said she's not running for anything, she's just not hiding. she's writing a book

bring in jim sciutto as well. you got some exclusive reporting you and the team have been doing on russian officials discussing t derogatory information. what are you learning? >> sources tell myself and dana bash that intercepted communications show that russians were speaking to each other in these conversations claiming to have derogatory information not just on president trump but on his aides and describing how because of having this derogatory information they believe that they might have leverage over the trump administration going forward. now, to be clear, as a caveat here, u.s. intelligence officials as well as congressional source tell us it is possible that they were exaggerating the information they have or even possibly making up that information. but the fact is u.s. intelligence intercepted these communications and they claimed to have this information of a financial nature both on the president and on some of his top aides. >> do we know the specifics of what the alleged der rogatory information w

you heard what jim sciutto said. what's your reaction?well, having been in government, having had classified status for a number of years, i can tell you it's hard enough for government employees who are experienced to know what line they can go up to and not cross. the answer repeatedly is, anderson, just to say nothing when you get in these areas. a president sometimes has to speak. generally has thought carefully what he is going to talk about when he goes into these areas. mr. trump has no government experience. here again, it's showing. >> the white house tried to shoot down the story in as coordinated a way as they can saying the president didn't discuss sources ormethods with the russians. we heard that from the secretary of state, from mcmaster. that is not what "the washington post" actually reported. do you see any parallels -- when you hear a statement by that -- like that, someone might call a non-denial denial, what stands out to you? >> well, i think this is just damage control by the white house with our partner, whoever we

. >> jim sciutto along with others joins us now, what's the headline? >> here is the headline. two former intelligence officials and a source say russian government officials discuss having, quote, derogatory information about then presidential candidate donald trump and make of his campaign aides. this in conversations by u.s. intelligence during 2016 election. one source krid the information as financial in nature and said the discussions centered around whether the russians had leverage with trump's inner circle. the source said the intercept, communications suggested to u.s. intelligence that russians believed, quote, they have the ability to influence the information through the derogatory information. but the sources privy to the descriptions of the communications written by u.s. intelligence caution the russian claims to each other, quote, could have been exaggerated, made up. details of communication do rely on information u.s. intelligence received about russian claims of influence. the contents of the conversations made clear to u.s. officials that russia was consider

jim sciutto has that. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, don.count, former acting

i want to get right now to cnn's david chalian, jim sciutto, david gergen, and sara murray. and cnn political and national security analyst, david senger. good evening to all of you. jim sciutto, what are you hearing from intelligence forces about the president and the russians inside the oval office? >> two officials knowledgeable of it tell cnn, "the post" story is accurate, the president shared information with the russian foreign minister. the information didn't directly reveal the source of the intelligence but intelligence officials are concerned, they tell cnn, that russia will be able to figure out the highly sensitive source based on the nature of the intelligence. there is some disagreement, we should note, according to one of the sources, as to how far the president went. this intelligence relates to what is known as special access programs or s.a.p. which covers some of the most classified information and it's protected with unique access and security protocols. the "post" still needs to be given credit for this, i should mention, because they were the first to r

. >> jim sciutto along with pamela brown and dana bash broke this story and jim joins us now with the breaking news. >> here's what we know. two former intelligence officials and a congressional source tell myself that russian government officials discussed having potentially derogatory information about then presidential candidate trump as well as his top aids. one source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centered around whether the russians have leverage with trump's inner circle. the intercepted communications suggested the u.s. intelligence that russians believed, quote, they had the ability to influence the administration through this derogatory information. now, the sources privy to the descriptions caution the russian claims to each other could have been exaggerated or even made up. the details in communication do shed new light on information u.s. received. the content of the conversations made clear to u.s. officials that russia was considering ways to innuance the election even if those claims turned out to be false. as you may remember

let's go to jim sciutto, who is working on this and broke this story with his team overnight. jim, what have you learned? >> good morning. two former intelligence officials and a congressional source tell myself that russian government officials discussed having derogatory information about then presidential candidate donald trump as well as his top aids. one source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussions centered around whether they had leverage against trump. it suggested that russians believed, quote, they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information. now, the sources privy to the descriptions of these communications written by u.s. intelligence cautioned that the russian claims to each other could have been exaggerated, even made up. the details of the communications shed new light on information u.s. intelligence received about russian claims of influence. the contents of the conversations make clear that russian was considering ways to influence the election, even if their claims turn out to be false.

jim sciutto is working this story for us. jim, this is quite a brash response from trump associate, carter page. >> a fairly stunning review. this is senate intelligence committee, which i might note is chaired by republicans. senator richard burr made this request to page and others demanding records of c conversations and meetings with russians during the campaign. this is being investigated by the u.s. intelligence community as well but carter page, identified by president trump himself, then presidential candidate trump during the campaign as senior foreign policy adviser, refusing in extremely colorful terms from the quote his letter from senate intelligence committee that quote i suspect the physical reaction from the clinton/obama regime perpetrators will be more along the lines of severe vomiting when all the fact of eventually exposed regarding the steps taken bit u.s. government to influence the 2016 election. there you see turning the subject on its head because of russian interference in the election which is now b

i want to bring in jim sciutto, he is joining us on the phone. im, this is a bomb shell and now the "new york times" is reporting something very, very similar, president trump posted according to the "new york times" about highly classified intelligence. and in a meeting with a russian foreign ambassador last week. details could expose the source of the administration and manner in which it was collected. a current official said monday. what are your sources telling you, jim? >> let me tell you this, woks, the news of these reports is rippling through the intelligence community. like any other story related to intelligence. that the high mark, as you know, wolf, because we've been in -- [ inaudible ] with this administration and intelligence. i want to tell you one former senior u.s. intelligence official told me about this if the stories are true. quote, never before have i witnessed a senior government official so carelessly threaten intelligence sharing relationship. there are three elements to this that are raising alarms. one, just the simple

we have jim sciutto who joins us with me. you have been talking to the white house. what have you gathered? >> so let me start with the story itself and jake tapper, our colleague and i, got the same information last night. and that is that the president did not reveal the source of this information. he did not say we got it from here. but the degree he went in describing this intelligence, details he gave was enough of a trail that some in the intelligence community are concerned they could figure out where it came from. naming details like the city where this plot originated, this kind of thing. that's what gave concern to the folks in the intelligence community. and that's serious because we are dealing with some of the most sensitive intelligence, most highly classified, one, and with a partner that is loathe to have its cooperation and its sharing of this intelligence get out to the public or get out to the russians. the administration point of view is this the president shared important information about this aviation threat. but he didn't say where it came fro

. >> jim sciutto, appreciate it. that is a big headline. thank you for bringing it to us. president trump is clearly not a fan of any of this. we're talking about investigation into russian meddling. he has struggled to find ways to tamp it down. now investigators are reportedly focusing on a meeting in december between trump's son-in-law jared kushner and this russian banker. cnn joe beyonjohns is live at t white house with that. joe. >> reporter: the white house continues to struggle with how to explain many contacts, including contacts by the president's senior adviser jared kushner with, as we have said before, the russian ambassador to the united states sergey kislyak and reporter by "new york times," conversations between jared kushner and sergei go gorkov, a russian banker under sanctions by the united states. not clear what those conversations were about. persistent reports there was an intent to set up a back channel with russia. the administration on and off the record has downplayed, not talked much about it. as well has not confirmed or denied. simply said even

and jim sciutto, the calls are growing louder.t is the justification for not having an independent prosecutor? >> there had already been calls for this because there was an apparent conflict of interest. the scope of it includes the president's associate, and now those calls even sharper because now the president fired the guy in charge of the investigation. that's the argument. the case against it you heard today is not necessary. you also heard richered bur saying, listen, we have an investigation. we are confident in it. this is enough, neft. of course this does not satisfy many democrats. you have heard from some republican lawmakers talking about an independent commission on the model of the 9/11 commission where you bring the parties together and you have something bigger than just the committees where it can be driven by the majority party, to some degree. less esoin the senate because there's only one senate apart. but you do have the republicans talking about an independent commission. where this ends up, it's difficult t

jim sciutto joins us on the fact check. you spoke today to members of congress leading bone the house and senate investigations. what did they say? >> the white house claim is untrue. i reached out to both the republican chairman of the senate intelligence committee, richard burr, and the ranking democrat on that committee who gave on the record comments saying that the possibility of collusion between trump associates and russians during the campaign is still a subject of the ongoing investigation. i heard the same thing from multiple republican and democratic members of the senate and the house intelligence committees as well. that are investigating russian interference in the investigation, but under the umbrella, the possibility of collusion. they say that's an open question. they are looking at the evidence. they have not closed the case on that question as the white house and the president have repeatedly claimed. >> we were just talking to congressman himes. the investigations are not going away soon. there are conce

this information coming from jim sciutto, great reporting. rmer obama officials that during -- as we're looking at pictures right here from this november 10th meeting, right after the election. president obama, according to jim's sources, warned president trump about michael flynn, against hiring michael flynn, in that private oval office meeting. let's get over to the white house. joe johns is following all of this. joe, as we're looking at these pictures and this video, remind us of this meeting, the dynamics going in and what they said coming out. >> reporter: they came out with glowing words for each other. it was november 10th of last year, two days after the election. it was a surprisingly long meeting. >> right. >> reporter: it lasted about 90 minutes or so. president obama indicating that he wanted to do everything he could to make sure the trump administration succeeded. this was the first time the president and the president-elect had met. and now we learn that among the things they discussed in that lengthy meeting, 90 minutes time,

jim sciutto reporting. joining us now a key member of both the intelligence and foreign relations committee senator james risch of idaho. thanks for joining us. >> spoil alert. i take a little different view than the interviews you've done so far. >> well, let's get to those different perspectives. let me ask you a few questions, and you'll share the latest information that you have. legality aside, senator, what is it appropriate for the president to share highly classified information with the russian foreign minister, the russian ambassador to the united states, information apparently so sensitive that it wasn't even broadly shared within the u.s. government or with key u.s. allies? >> wolf, you can't put legality aside. first of all, it was absolutely legal. the president of the united states has a legal authority to declassify and discuss classified information at any time for any reason to anyone. >> it was definitely legal. >> let me finish, let me finish the answer. >> it was definitely legal, but w

jim sciutto has details. >> reporter: former acting attorney general sally yates is prepared to testify before a senate panel next week that she gave a forceful warning to the white house regarding then national security adviser michael flynn. this nearly three weeks before he was fired. contradicting the administration's version of events. sources familiar with her account tell cnn. on february 14th, the day after flynn's firing, white house spokesman sean spicer described the yates meeting in far less serious terms. >> wanted to give a heads up to us on comments that may have seemed in conflict with what he had sent the vice-president. >> reporter: yates will explain in a private meeting january 26, she told white house counsel that flynn was lying when he denied in public and private that he had discussed u.s. sanctions on russia in conversations with russia's ambassador to the u.s. his misleading comments yates explained made him potentially vulnerable to being compromised by russia. flynn was fired 18 days later, only after news reporting that flynn had lied to vice-president mike

i'm going to get back to you but i want to go to jim sciutto right now. actually, let's go to jeff zeleny first. senior white house correspondent. more reaction from inside the white house. then we will check in with jim sciutto. >> i've had time to reach documents here. via letters from the attorney general and deputy attorney general sort of laying out the recommendation to indeed fire the fbi director. wolf, so interesting here. this is not about anything that happened in the last couple of weeks. they are going back to something that happened last summer. particularly let me ride to you this, the director, meaning james comey, was wrong to usurp the authority back on july 25, 2016. that is the day that james comey had the press conference about hillary clinton. and of course at the time, donald trump is a candidate for office was very happy about that decision, talking about the e-mail answers other things. this is one of the rationals for the firing here. this is coming from the deputy attorney general saying that james comey was wrong to do that. it

she also happens to be the sister of jim sciutto., tell me where you are and where you were when this happened and what you saw. >> sure. happy to. so i'm standing on 45th and 8th avenue. i was in my building. i work at 3 times square where the incident took place. i was on my way out to meet someone for lunch. an announcement came over the intercom saying the building is in lockdown because there has been an incident outside. i was able to exit through the side door after some discussion with our security officers and i was told that there had been some fatalities and others injured due to an unknown speeding car that drove away. so i did not see anything other than all of the commotion in times square. several policemen. several pedestrians. and all of the ambulance removing the individuals that were impacted by the incident. >> as we watch the pictures coming in now, we see a large number of police vehicles and first responders to the scene. you see some fire personnel there. emergency medical personnel. can you tell us just from

with that in mind, jim sciutto joins us. what have you learned, jim? >> anderson, let's be clear. two former intelligence officials and a congressional source tell cnn that russian government officials discussed having potentially "derogatory information" about then presidential candidate donald trump as well as some of his top aides. this in conversations intercepted by u.s. intelligence during the 2016 election. one source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussions centered around whether the russians had leverage within trump's inner circle. the source says the intercepted communications suggested to u.s. intelligence that russians believed, quote, "they had the ability to influence the administration through this derogatory information." now, the sources do caution that the russian claims to each other could have been exaggerated. they could even have been made up. but they are listening to them and this is part of the bigger picture they're investigating now. >> do we know which trump aides the rulgss russians discussed? >> beyond president trum

. >>> the chief national security correspondent jim sciutto has exclusive information. jim, tell what is you're learning. >> reporter: that's right. sources familiar with her account say former acting attorney general sally yates is prepared to testify before the senate judiciary subcommittee saying she gave a forceful warning regarding then national security adviser michael flynn, this weeks before he was fired, contradict being the administration's version of events. yates told the white house counsel that flynn was lying when he denied in public and private that he had discussed u.s. sanctions on russia in conversationses with russia's ambassador to the u.s., sergey kislyak. his misleading comments, yates explained, made him potentially vulnerable to being compromised by russia. the meeting took place on january 26th. more than two weeks later president trump said he was unaware of reports on flynn. three days after that on february 13thth "the washington post" published a story that flynn had lied to vice president mike pence about his conversations with the russian

let's get right to mark preston, gloria borger and jim sciutto. there is a lot. a lot of names there. a lot of different nuances and different story lines going on there, but it all relates to russia, jim. president trump is back in washington now. the russia probe is getting bigger and bigger. cnn is learning the house intelligence committee now wants information from former white house official boris epshteyn. this comes as the former national security adviser michael flynn is going to turn over those documents to the senate intelligence committee. what else can you tell us? >> originally, retired general flynn had refused to hand over information to testify. now he's providing some of those documents. they relate to his businesses, and this relates to russia. we know as well that michael cohen, longtime lawyer for president trump, has been asked for information as well. he is refusing. we don't know yet what boris epshteyn's answer is to requests from the hill for documents, testimony, et cetera as well. >> gloria, president trump's personal attorney michael co

. >> now to jim sciutto. jim, what a moment right now coming off only a couple days before the president is scheduled to leave the united states for his first overseas trip beginning in saudi arabia, then israel, then the vatican, then italy. this is a moment in american history. >> no question. what's been missing to this point going back to the comey firing, release of intelligence to russian officials is a loud audible protest from republican lawmakers. we have heard it from the democrats. the question with this now, is this one different? so far i've been reaching out to republicans and democrats on relevant committees. we have heard and you've seen on your air, of course, a lot of democrats senators durbin feinstein, warner, schiff, cummigs, king, no protest from republican lawmakers but i did speak with the republican law maker who on background says the following, and this is the kind of comment you haven't heard from republicans so far, this is potentially huge. don't know if an ask is obstruction of j

first to our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto with more on jared kushner and the russia investigation. jim, kushner is under even more intense scrutiny tonight. >> that's right, wolf. once again for previously unknown contacts with russia, this one during the transition when kushner was still a private citizen and barack obama was still president. >> tonight, the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, is the subject of intense scrutiny after a source telling cnn he requested back channel communication with the kremlin. this happened last december when kushner met with the russian ambassador to the u.s. during the transition. now some democrats are challenging kushner's role in the white house. >> i do think that there ought to be a review of his security clearance to find out whether he was truthful, candid. if not, there's no way he can maintain that kind of a clearance. >> according to "the washington post," russian ambassador told his superiors kushner wanted to use russian diplomatic faciliti facilities for an off the record communications system to convey u.s. intel

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> jim, thank you. let's bring in errol louis and amber phillips.mber, back to the february 14th briefing there at the white house. sean spicer, the day after flynn resigned. let's listen. >> the evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for general flynn's resignation. immediately after the department of justice notified the white house counsel of the situation, the white house counsel briefed the president in a small group of senior advisers. the issue here was that the president got to the point where general flynn's relationship misleading the vice president and others or the possibility that he had forgotten critical details of this important conversation had great a critical mass and unsustainable situation. >> amber, it seems that the time line seems to contradict the narrative here, because the president knew every criterion based -- that he used to ask for the resignation of flynn on the on 26th, two weeks before he actually asked for that

. >> let's start with jim sciutto, our cnn chief national security correspondent there. jim, we had a whole conversation a couple minutes ago about even spicer's characterization of her warning as a flippant heads-up. what did you make of his words today? >> reporter: he's doubling down on that heads-up description which is the same description he had on february 14th, the day after flynn was fired when he was asked about what yates said. he described it as a heads-up and since then, in public hearing yesterday and we reported this last week, yates has made clear it was far more than a heads-up. it was a warning, a very serious warning. she said she walked in her words, she walked the white house counsel through the details of flynn's underlying behavior, again, her words, and she specified that that made her concerned that he was subject, vulnerable to being compromised by russia. that description of the conversation is far more than a heads-up. it becomes i suppose a question of who do you believe then, sean spicer's description of that meeting or sally yates' descripti

we begin our coverage with chief national security correspondent jim sciutto in washington. >> reporter: christine and dave, it was a hearing full of headlines, really. the former acting attorney general, sally yates, sharply contradicting the white house version of events regarding fired national security adviser michael flynn. in fact, yates said before the hearing that she made clear the president's closest national security adviser was in danger of being blackmailed by russia. >> the underlying conduct that general flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself. the russians also knew about what general flynn had done, and the russians also knew that general flynn had misled the vice president and others. that created a compromise situation, a situation where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. >> reporter: now, the hearing was intended to focus on russian interference in the u.s. election. on the key question of whether trump advisers colluded with russia in that interference, james clapper said he had not seen evidence. yates, how

jim sciutto is outfront. jim, what are you learning? >> cnn has spoken to a person close to retired general michael flynn, the fired national security advisor, and we are told as "the wall street journal" and others first reported that general flynn will provide some of the documents that have been requested by the senate intelligence committee. not all of them, but some of them. these documents relate to his businesses. this part of the investigation into russia ties, funding, money that he received from russia. we're also learning of new trump advisers that are being asked for information. one is michael cohen, the president's long-time lawyer. he has refused senate requests for that kind of information. a third person, boris ep stein, who advised donald trump during the campaign, he has now been asked for information. it's not clear what his answer will be. >> these are significant developments, all of them, jim. you also have exclusive reporting about conversations russian officials had about president trump. >> that's right. two fo

jim sciutto has this report. >> reporter: the nation's former top spy said he never ruled out evidencef collusion between tru russia associates and the trump campaign. says there's no collusion, when does it end. in an interview with msnbc, former director of national intelligence says he believes. >> there was no evidence that came, that rose to that level at that time that found its way into the intelligence community assessment which we have pretty high confidence in. not to say there wasn't evidence but not that met that threshold. >> reporter: during the press briefing, sean spicer insisted it is james clapper changing the story. >> it is interesting how the story changed. now saying i wasn't sure about it. the burden seems to be on him, not us. >> reporter: clapper expressed doubts about mr. trump's version of a dinner with fired fbi director james comey in january. >> he wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. had a nice dinner at the white house. the dinner was arranged. i think he asked for the dinner. >> reporter: clapper says it was trump that invited comey. >> h

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is working this part of the story. jim, white house says former director of intelligence says there is no collusion between trump advisers and russia, but is there? >> the white house story is at best misleading and at worse ini inaccurate. former intelligence said he hasn't seen any collusion but he would not see all of the evidence. he dwaf lee way it law enforcement, to the fbi, counter intelligence investigations because they are criminal investigations involving u.s. persons that u.s. intelligence agencies shouldn't be involved in. that should be made clear. the person with the most broadest comprehensive view with the intelligence and in the vin gaest ga investigation and the fbi and the occupant of that seat no longer has his job. >> tonight the nation's former top spy says that he has never ruled out evidence of collusion between trump associates and russia during the campaign. directly contradicting president trump who tweeted just hours earlier, when james clapper himself and virtually everyone else with knowl

david gergen jeffrey toobin alan dershowitz, jim sciutto, phillip mudd and laura coates. is this obstruction of justice if it's true? >> well, if it's true. let's just set the scene. february 14th. everybody knows there is a pending fbi investigation of michael flynn, of the trump campaign regarding false statements he may have made. >> white house has been informed by sally yates that the fbi has already interviewed michael flynn. >> correct. there is a pending investigation. donald trump tells his attorney general and his vice president to leave the room, suggesting that he wants to say something that he doesn't want overheard. at that point he says to director comey, please let it go. end the investigation. that if it is true, if it's borne out by records, tapes, whatever, that to me is the definition of obstruction of justice. richard nixon on june 23rd, 1972, six days after the watergate break-in, he said to h.r. haldeman, tell the fbi stop investigating watergate. >> he wanted to get somebody from the cia to tell the fbi. >> that's right. that was the smoking gun ta

we begin with jim sciutto in washington. >> reporter: sources familiar with her account tell cnn that former acting attorney general sally yates is prepared to testify before the senate judiciary committee next week. she gave a forceful warning to the white house regarding then national security adviser michael flynn nearly three weeks before he was fired. this contradicting the administration's version of events. in a private meeting january 26th, yates told white house counsel that flynn was lying when he denied in public and private that he had discussed u.s. sanctions on russia. in conversations with russia's ambassador to the u.s. sergey kislyak. his misleading comments yates explained made him vulnerable to being compromised by russia. yates meeting took place january 26th. on february 10th, president trump said he was unaware of reports on flynn. three days after that on february 13th, "the washington post" published a story that flynn had lied to vice president mike pence about his conversations with the russian ambassador. flynn resigned that night. yates testimony on may 8th

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> let's talk more about this with my panel.page pate and also our cnn political commentator. >>> so we heard clapper say he has never ruled out possible evidence of collusion between the trump administration and ties with russia. but how difficult is to prove collusion? >> it can be very difficult. i mean, collusion itself is not a crime. what they are looking sat whether there was a conspiracy, an unlawful agreement between people in the trump team and people with the vush thrussian government. it could be done by hacking hillary clinton's e-mails. and we heard publicly he urged the russians to hack her e maltmalt mails, that could be an agreement to accomplish an unlawful purpose. >> is it equally difficult to prove obstruction if as people dissect the tweet if about there are tapes or no tapes that the president would use language that some are interpreting as threatening language to james comey that before you go talk to the press or anything, remember there are tapes? >> i don't think we've heard enough yet to get to the p

jim sciutto is here as well. carl bernstein and white house correspondent athena jones.ood evening to all of you. gloria, we'll start by listening to part of this interview with lester holt. he continued to insist that the democrats are using a made-up story about the russians to explain their loss. here it is. >> in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. the and reason they should have won it, the electorate college is almost impossible for a republican to win. it's very hard. because you start off at such a disadvantage. so everybody was thinking, they should have won the election. lost an election.e for having - >> are you angry with mr. comey because of his russia investigation? >> i just want somebody that's competent. i'm a big fan of the fbi. i love the fbi. i love the people of the fbi. >> but are you -- >> i think about the hillary clinton investigation? >> no, about the russia investi

i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm pamela brown.gins his first overseas trip, cnn is learning his legal team is starting to prepare for the possibility of impeachment. >> here's what we know. breaking just a short while ago, exclusive new cnn reporting on security adviser mike flynn and his russia connections. >> our sources say that officials bragged in the campaign that they cultivated such a strong relationship with flynn, they could use him to influence mr. trump and his team.

i'm jim sciutto. >> and i'm pamela brown. we're fallowing the breaking news in the russian probe.ion, was there collusion or obstruction of justice? john brennan revealing that he was concerned about contacts between russian officials and the trump campaign last year, and he told lawmakers t

you just heard jim sciutto's report. do you think the susan rice invitation to testify was a diversionary tactic on part of the republicans? >> i don't want to assign any particular motive to anybody in all of this. we had a very good opening bipartisan hearing laying out what the russian election interference was. we had a bipartisan agreement to go forward with the former deputy attorney general and the former director of national intelligence to look at which of those russian tools from the toolbox were actually used in the last election. i think that it would have diverted from the thrust of the hearing for her to come there. that was the reason that i was not part of the invitation, but i don't want to assign motives to anybody else. >> sir, you didn't want her to testify at this point, right? >> we have the former deputy attorney general who has never testified before. >> you're talking about the acting attorney general sally yates. >> the former deputy attorney general sally yates and the former dni who has alread

jim sciutto, thank you so much.t with bill clinton on that plane in arizona on the tarmac while hillary clinton's e-mail servers were still under are investigation, there was backlash and there was outcry, including from then candidate donald trump. but now apparently it's okay for president trump to ask the fbi direct are tore specifically if he's under investigation? we'll discuss that next. choose your trio with any 3 of 9 selections for $15.99. like new creamy lobster pasta toasted parmesan shrimp and southern-style crab cakes. come create your trio before it ends. nice tells you what you kind want to hear.ifferent... but kind is honest. this bar is made with cranberries and almonds. so, guess what? we call it cranberry almond. give kind a try. i did active duty 11 years.my in july of '98. and two in the reserves. our 18 year old was in an accident. when i call usaa it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?" that's where i felt relief. it actually helped to know that somebody else cared and wanted make

i've got david chalian and jim sciutto back with me here.all the testimony in front of the senate intelligence committee, david chalian, what was your biggest takeaway? >> certainly the contradiction we were talking about earlier between what acting director mccabe was saying about morale inside the fbi versus what the white house is saying. certainly stuck out to me. i do think, look to manu and seeing, of course, that huge gaggle of reporters waiting after rosenstein met with the senate chair, the intel chair and vice chair, we really do need to hear from rod rosenstein at some point, from jeff sessions, from jim comey. as jim sciutto was alluded to earlier, the people who are charged with law enforcement here, that are supposed to, while i understand, political appointees, be above the sort of partisan to and from of the moment, we really do need to hear from them and not just rely on the white house account. >> jim, you agree? at some point, they've got to start talking. >> the question, is there a conflict of interest, is not a question

that case, erin, is not closed. >> thank you very much, jim sciut sciutto. jeff, let me start with you, the breaking news. the senate intelligence committee issuing that subpoena to general flynn. they want documents that he has refused to hand over, even though others like paul manet forth did hand over requested documents without subpoena. how significant is this first move? >> it's a start. michael flynn has said he would not provide testimony or documents without receiving immunity. this is going to be a slow moving process. >> they don't want to give him immunity and they're not going to do it. >> right. these investigations take a lot of time. especially when the senate, mitch mblg continental has given the ♪ intelligence committee extremely limited resources to conducts this investigation. >> what about those resources, jason? that's a big question, right? we're learning tonight that trump was frustrated that comey was quotes unquote his own man. comey had -- comey is fired now. the omtdics of that does not look good. >> let men unpack a little bit of

cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is here. jim, what are you learning? >> reporter: brianna, a stharp rebuke, might even say a colorful rebuke. the senate intelligence community which is led by republican senator richard burr wrote a letter to a number of potential witnesses asking for records of their conversations, meetings with russians during the campaign. carter page identified by president trump as a national security foreign policy adviser refused and a look at how he refused. he said i suspect a reaction of the clinton/obama perpetrators will be along the lines of severe vomiting when all at steps are uncovered about the steps taken by the u.s. government to influence the 2016 election. carter page has not supplied and did not in interviews supply any evidence on what he bases the charge of u.s. government influence in the 2016 election. of course, he's flipping it around there. the russians are of russian influence in the election. as you've noted president trump was also accused obama of surveilling him during the campaign. >> we know a few nam

. >>> breaking news from jim sciutto. n talking to his sources to get a sense of what the people in the administration thought about this controversial meeting. jim says the white house consulted the intelligence community. after the meeting advisors were checking on the specific classification level of the information discussed there. administration officials insist no one involved in the meeting expressed alarm over the president's discussions. in other words, they knew what he said. they were not particularly worried about what he said. they think the firestorm caused since the washington post report last night confirmed by cnn is overblown. now, one person who is not at all pleased at least with the nature of what was going on and also i think if you read between the lines with how the white house is handling it, the senator majority leader mitch mcconnell who comments on this firestorm moments ago. let's listen. >> i read the washington post story and i read general mcmasters response, which tends to refute the story,

let's bring out cnn correspondent jim sciutto. can the fbi still continue with the russia probe and protect the integrity of the investigation to say nothing of the bureau? >> well, jake, everybody in the fbi who was involved in this investigation below the level of james comey still has their jobs. and we are told that they are committed to this investigation, and will stick with it. but the fact is the director of the fbi has enormous power, so to some degree the answer to that question is up to the president and republicans and others as to who president trump chooses to replace fired james comey. >> the intensifying probe and the possible collusion between russia and the associates of donald trump now has a greing list of star witnesses. michael flynn, trump's fired national security advisor now subpoenaed by the senate intelligence committee, which is demanding both documents and his testimony. also on the witness list, james comey the newly fired fbi director. he led the investigation is now has been invited to testify befor

i want to go to jim sciutto. jim, the tiemgt on this up incredibly troubling. >> no question. listen, the first presidential trip -- these trips with ones used to base runnerish the image of a new president, to show him or her being presidential. the context will be h sadly very different as you have certainly democrats and now some republicans calling for a further deeper investigation into the president's behavior here, including the phrase "obstruction of justice" being raised. saudi arabia, key ally in the war on terror. israel, key ally on the war against isis and we know now that it was israel that supplied the sensitive information that the president shared with russia. and of course russia is the number one topic of conversation for nato. that's going to be the main really topic of conversation as he goes to brussels to meet with nato members there. so not only is the talk here different than what the president wants for his first presidential trip, but these issues going on here challenging his very presidency are ones that are very germane, in fact, central to the na

let's begin with cnn's national security correspondent jim sciutto. jim, the headline, he said it wouldn't change the decision. talk to me through how he chose to go public on that but not on the probe into mr. trump and his associates and russian ties. >> listen, he twisted himself into knots a little bit making the distinction -- at least trying to make clear the distinction that he made between the clinton probe and the trump campaign/russia probe. the trump probe was too much in its early stages, in his words. he made the point that it was only opened in july. the clinton probe had been started months before. he said he didn't comment on it until it was three months in, in effect. plus, it was already public so he felt compelled or that he had more freedom to comment on it. the trump probe was still early on and he didn't know what the final word would be. and then he said because of that distinction, he still feels he held true to that well-known fbi principle that has been talked about, they don't come at dawn active investigations. the time was