admiral kirby, jim sciutto, thank you very, very much. the breaking news is the secretary of state rex tillerson has been fired by the president. we believe he got final word by learning about it from twitter this morning. the secretary of state. we have new developments. stay with us. hey, what are you guys doing here? we've been helping you prepare and invest for retirement since day one. why would we leave now? because i'm retired now. so? we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement... with solutions to help provide income throughout. so you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, with your finances that is. we had nothing to do with that, uh, tie. or the suit. or the shirt. voya. helping you to and through retirement. ♪ come to my window ♪ ohh ♪ crawl inside ♪ wait by the light of the moon ♪ applebee's to go. order online and get $10 off $30. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. and get $10 off $30. booking a flight doesn't have to be expensive. just go to priceline. it's the best place to book a flight

jim sciutto is outfront.ook, this is pretty stunning, not the track record of this administration, but talking three national security advisers in over a year. what are you learning about mcmaster's likely exit? >> erin, my colleague barbara star and i are told mcmaster could leave his position in the end of the month or near future. multiple sources telling cnn in addition it is becoming more likely that the mcmaster will not return to the military and possible four star there, but retire as three star general. among the names is sa fa cash, ceo of oracle, former member of the trump transition team, bolt, former ambassador to the u.n. steven beghana vice president at the ford company, and bush administration considered, although ford is telling us that he has not spoken to the white house about his position. nsc spokesman michael anton has dismissed these reports saying the favorite phrase of the white house, fake news. we reached out to pentagon mattis office and they are referring all questions back to the

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moments ago, reaffirmed it to cnn's jim sciutto. here is a passage from the office of director of national intelligence. i want to read this word for word because it tend to get lost in all of the claims. aimed at the u.s. presidential election. russia's goals were to undermine fate. we further assess putin and the russian government developed a clear preference for president trump. we have high confidence in these judgments. this was the intelligence committee's assessment a year ago and continues to be tonight. our spokesman telling jim sciutto the intelligence community stands by january 2017 assessment assessing russian activities and intentions in recent u.s. elections. still agreeing with the 2016 assessment. republicans don't by the conclusion of who the russian operation. including the eagerness of donald trump jr. and paula manafort to get dirt on president clinton. there is the committee chairman's recommendation of carrying water for the administration. i want to go back to march 22 of last year. >> what i have read, seem

jim sciutto got extraordinary access with the navy to see how it deals with the potential threats from under the ice. >> reporter: more than 100 miles north of the northernmost tip of alaska, we set down on a runway carved into the arctic ice. our objective? u.s. navy submarine exercises called ice x. cnn was granted exclusive access. about three feet thick here is the ice, and it may not look like it but it's moving all the time. this is a giant kaleidoscope of giant pieces of ice. this is the harshest sea environment in the world, and a new front in the expanding global competition between the u.s. and russia. these 5.5 million square miles are under an intense battle for dominance as the ice shrinks and opens new oil exploration, new shipping lanes and crucially new paths to wage war. do you have a sense of greater competition up here for capability in this space? >> we are well aware that we are in a great power competition environment, and the arctic is one piece of that. >> reporter: we went under the ice on the "uss hartford," one of many u.s. submarines taking part in a competi

joining us now with late details, cnn's chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto. what do you know about this expanding investigation on mueller's part? >> well, anderson, this is the hardest signal so par that mueller is taking a serious look at trump's business dealings. we had reported earlier, we'd heard es interviewed by mueller they'd been asked questions about trump's business dealings includie ining projecth as afternoonn attempted project trump tower in moscow. reported in january the trump organization had voluntarily provided documents to the special counsel's office. this is, of course, different. it's a subpoena. it's a legal document. it's requiring him, requiring them to present these documents. they really have no choice there and shows this they very well be a serious line of investigation for him. >> what does the trump organization's response been? >> so their simple response to our reporting today is that trump organization has cooperated with the investigation, provided all they can when asked to, but remember, i'm sure you do, anderson, back i

cnn's chief national security correspondent jim sciutto joins us now. first, jim, let's talk about what's going to be in this report because there's only been a one-page sort of summary of what's going to be i think more than a hundred pages. >> these are the two headlines. to be clear, these are republicans on the house intelligence committee, not the entire committee. republicans saying, one, they have found no evidence of collusion twren between the trump campaign and risussia to influence the election. the trump tower meeting, they say it was inadvisable, a bad idea in effect, but not to their conclusion evidence that members of the trump campaign tried to collude with russia. the other one arguably more interesting, and that is the gop, members of the house intelligence committee contesting, in effect, the intelligence community's assessment in january of 2017 that russia's meddling in the campaign was intended to help donald trump and hurt hillary clinton, saying in effect that they don't read the intelligence the same way that the intelligence chi

i'm jim sciutto. the trump administration enforcing strict new penalties against russia. perhaps the toughest steps yet. the president will expel 60 russian diplomats. 40 from the embassy and 12 from the united nations in response to the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter in england with a toxic deadly nerve agent. the uk believes the kremlin is behind the attack. it was a headline that would normally dominate a press briefing but this is 2018 and last night a porn star broke her nondisclosure agreement to detail a sexual encounter with a man who became president. stormy daniels said she was physically threatened as she stood in a parking lot with her young daughter to, quote, leave trump alone and forget the story. daniels's lawyer believes trump's personal attorney michael cohen ordered the threat. today cohen's legal team is calling the allegations false and defamatory. let's go to chief white house correspondent jim acosta in the briefing room awaiting raj shah who is sitting in for sarah sanders today. you look at the steps with russia. the president

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is back from assignment. taking on adversaries like russia. >> it's a message that u.s. navy can demonstrate military power even in the harshest environment, arguably in the arctic, particularly attention growing there, opportunities to demonstrate military power. >> weapon up now. >> stand by. >> 2-1. >> ice pick submarine 200 yards. >> u.s. hartford nuclear attack submarine readies to fire. >> fire 2-1. >> shoot 2-1. >> in an instant, a two-ton 20 foot long torpedo shoots to an enemy. target acquired and destroyed. >> progress. >> hartford is training for primary mission. hunting and killing enemy ships and submarines. >> 1-8-0 feet. >> cnn was given exclusive access to taking place in the harshest environment in the world. under the arctic ice. >> vertical surface. >> ships vertical surface. >> arena where even surfacing requires enormous power and skill. >> five degree up angle. >> we were onboard as submarine goes to the surface with full force of 10,000 tons. >> impact. >> 1-1,000. >> we have just broke

our jim sciutto has new reporting big names who may be on the chopping block. quickly how this is developing. more onn that in a minute. >>> learning that the president is seeking to oust veteran a fears david shulkin. telling us president trump has grown irritated with him and seriously considering causing another vacancy to possibly replace him by taking the rick perry and putting him over to take over his spot. this comes after hours of course after the president fired secretary of state rex tillerson. tillerson finding out over twitterer. naming mike pompeo to replace him and deputy gee knina haskel lead the cia. >>> i want to start with the west wing, jim sciutto outfront breaking these details. what are you learning? >> reporter: my colleagues are told this evening that president trump is considering a wider shake-up among senior staff as he seeks more like minded advisers. national security adviser h.r. mcmaster appears poised to depart soon after months of speculation. outside advisers to the president have also felt out potential candidates to replace

jim sciutto has more on what is at stake. >> reporter: vital u.s. infrastructure including the power grid under cyber threat by russian government hackers. potentially giving the kremlin the ability to turn offer t the lights. department of homeland security and the fbi detailing a two year multistage effort by moscow targeting the u.s. energy grid. the hackers first gained access to small energy related companies, planting malware that allowed them to move into larger networks. once inside the energy suppliers, russians collected information on the facilities' control systems attempting to acquire the ability to turn those systems off. >> they are identifying targets, they are positioning malware so they could pull the trigger when they wanted to. but they are also sending the united states a message, we are in position to cause harm if we have wanted to do it. and so you the u.s. should be a little more careful. >> reporter: the russians targeted other crucial sectors as well, including nuclear power, water and aviation. they see this as a precurs

jim sciutto and i are also hearing that plans may be in the works for h.r. mcmaster to join the think tank, the hoover institution, which is based here in washington and out at stanford, and that that may be the landing spot for h.r. mcmaster after he leaves the white house. no plans have been finalized or anything like that, but that is something that is being discussed at the moment. and so in addition to having jared kushner's security clearance downgraded from top secret to secret, the communications director hope hicks, long-time aide and confidant of donald trump departing the white house, now you have the national security advisor and his name being floated out there as possibly leaving the white house in the coming weeks. don, that is a level of turmoil and chaos that any white house would really sort of buckle under and it's kind of amazing that it's only thursday at this point. you would expect most of this news to sort of dump over top of us friday evening. but it's been happening on a daily basis all week long. >> jim, as you were speaking, i wan

we're joined by our national security correspondent jim sciutto. jim, the secretary of state was a different type of voice inside this administration. >> this is a big deal, john. i don't think you can underestimate that. he was a moderating voice on a number of major national security issues, much more forward leaning on russia, willing to point the finger at russia for this poisoning in the uk to a degree that the president would not. also on other issues with russia, meddling in the election, et cetera, a moderating voice on north korea, on other issues as well. an ally of defense secretary mattis, this kind of balancing force that you have in the administration. every administration has factions or groups, et cetera. one is one seen as one that moderated the president's strongest impulses and directions away from mainstream u.s. foreign policy. in that sense it's a big deal. in the other sense, in terms of the, for lack of a better word, insult to the secretary of state, he was let go while he was traveling. no face-to-face, come into the oval o

i'm jim sciutto. the trump administration enforcing strict new penalties against russia.he toughest steps yet. the president will expel 60 russian diplomats. 40 from the embassy and 12 from the united nations in response to the poisoning of a former russian spy and

. >>> advisers, who needs advisers, jim sciutto sitting in for anderson. to his own legal defense, the president increasingly seems to be doing it his way and going it alone. one recent item puts it this way, for the better part of last month donald trump has seem to be winging it. right now, the pentagon and state department are scrambling to respond to the latest example. the president's surprise announcement yesterday in ohio during a speech build about infrastructure. talking about everything from north korea to roseanne ratings to this. >> let the other people take care of it now. very soon. very soon, we are going to have 100% of the caliphate, taking it all back quickly. we are going to be coming out of there real soon. >> with those words the head scratching began. nobody knew what he meant. because nobody saw it coming. even a day later, nobody knows what to make it. industrial trying to figure out what he meant about syria yesterday. national security counsel quoting the president's comment speaks for itself. keeping them honest though, it seems

let's start with the mcmaster story and jim sciutto. jim, so, what do we know? >> anderson, my colleague barbara starr and i are told mcmaster could leave his position by the end of this month, that according to a administration official, or in the near future. multiple sources describing it that way, and in addition, it is becoming more likely that mcmaster will not return to the military and a possible four-star general job there but would ultimately retire as a three-star general and go on into a civilian job. this follows many public and private disagreements between mcmaster and president trump, and the feeling from a number of people that i've spoken with is just that his position as national security adviser became untenable because of many of those disagreements. >> is there any word on who could actually be replacing him? >> so, we're hearing a number of names, among those names being considered, make that clear, being considered, the ceo of oracle, john bolton. another name mentioned, the vice president at ford motor company, as well as a former senior

jim sciutto has more details. >> reporter: and these changes could be coming very soon.wider shakeup as he seeks more like minded adviser, h.r. mcmaster soon. have also felt out candidates to replace -- though he also suggested that kelly might prefer life in the military. officials say there is no solid sense of how long kelly will last in the west wing where he has brushed up against members of trump's own family. senior officials said a shake up could happen as soon as this week. other officials suggest a longer time line saying he could execute changes over the course of a few months. the president saying he is nearing a cabinet more to his liking. >> and also been sounding out the idea of replacing his va secretary with energy secretary former governor rick perry. general clapper, thanks for being here, one of the reasons president trump said he fired rex tillerson was because he is more on the same wavelength as mike pompeo who he is tapped to be the next secretary of state. do you think pompeo is on the same wave length as trump specifically on the meeting with ki

jim sciutto sitting in for jake tapper. "the lead" starts right now. >>> thank you. is the counter punching president turning the other cheek for a change? "the lead" starts right now. so far president trump is sticking to the sound of violence. giving no response to detailed allegations by adult film actress stormy daniels. the white house says he's too busy running the country to respond. has that stopped him before? and what opponents say is a dirty political trick. part of next census. the huge impact on upcoming elections. plus, new charges tied to the largest sex abuse scandal in sports history. nassar's boss now charges with sexually assaulting female students himself. welcome to lead lead. the politics lead. the white house forcefully defending the president's uncharacteristic silence on stormy daniels as the adult film actress and her attorney continue to go public with her account of an alleged affair with donald trump. today the white house press secretary sarah sanders insisted the president doesn't always counter punch against his critics because he has

jim sciutto sitting in for jake tapper. "the lead" starts right now. >>> thank you.ek for a change? "the lead" starts right now. so far president trump is sticking to the sound of violence. giving no response to detailed allegations by adult film actress stormy daniels. the white house says he's too busy running the country to respond. has that stopped him before? and what opponents say is a dirty political trick. part of next census. the huge impact on upcoming elections. plus, new charges tied to the largest sex abuse scandal in sports history.

jim sciutto is sitting in for jake tapper.e lead" starts now. >>> we thought the porn star would be today's headline. "the lead" starts now. the "new york times" reporting president trump's attorney discussed presidential pardons for two former trump advisers who were later charged by special counsel mueller. what was the white house worried the advisers might say? and stormy daniels' attorney wants donald trump to testify under oath. can trump be compelled to testify? and what would he say? plus, the president says there is a good chance that he will solve the north korea problem and a proposed summit with kim jong-un. but there are new signs that china could be working against china could be working against the u.s. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> we begin with breaking news in the russia investigation. news begs the question, might this be the very definition of obstruction of justice? "the new york times" reporting faye then trump attorney john

first, let's go to our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. he has details on latest twists in this russia probe. jim, mueller's investigation clearly appears to be picking up steam. >> wolf this is the clearest indication we've seen so far that mueller is expanding its investigation into trump's business dealings. we had heard before from witnesses who had been asked questions about business properties, deals, et cetera. we reported in january the trump organization had voluntarily supplied documents related to the businesses, but this is different, a subpoena, a legal demand that the trump business must comply with. tonight, signs the mueller investigation is expanding into president trump's business dealings. cnn has learned that special counsel robert mueller subpoenaed the trump organization for business documents, according to "the new york times," the subpoena included documents related to russia. in an interview with the "times" last july, trump said, looking into his family finances would cross a red line for him. >> mueller's looking

john dean joins me along with mark preston and jim sciutto is back with us.teresting what we just saw there. he said i agree. his own chairman saying they didn't. >> our report says they didn't. >> they didn't. now he's trying to figure out what's going on here. he's supposedly on the gop side here. >> what we had up is house republicans put together a report. democrats not consulted. you have to wonder who on that committee from the republicans was consulted. it didn't that congressman rooney, who is on that meeting, didn't seem to be consulted and didn't know the detail offenils report. >> he certainly didn't. what do you make of that? >> our report says the following. it says this report shows an agreement with the intelligence community judgment with respect to putin's supposed preference for candidate trump. it says it right there. the chairman repeated this contention a number of times. the report states that and that's what is in direct -- which directly contradicts found in the i.c. assessment. the intelligence community, the office of the director of

appears to be an effort to punish moscow for its behavior during the 20- 16 u-s elections.c-n-n's jim sciuttot the trump administration acknowledging that russia meddled in the 2016 election-- interference that the president has repeatedly questioned.nat sound:and taking its toughest action yet.... enacting sanctions on moscow to finally meet a congressional mandate to impose the penalties.among the russian targets on the list-- all 13 people and three entities indicted by special counsel robert mueller last month for interfering in the election, including-- this man-- yevgeniy prigozhin, who has deep ties to russian president vladimir putin.also sanctioned-- the company that prigozhin financially backs--- the internet research agency, a russian troll farm that produced divisive political posts on american social media platforms....nat sound:to incite discord during the campaign.trump initially resisted the sanctions, signing them into law only in the face of veto proof majorities in both houses.at the time he lashed out at lawmakers on twitter... quote ...graphic:"our relationship with russi

here is jim sciutto. >> reporter: vital u.s.structure, including the power grid under cyber threat by russian government hackers, potentially giving the kremlin the ability to turn off the lights. the department of homeland security and the fbi detailing a two-year multistage effort by mow c moscow targeting the u.s. energy grid. they planted malware that allowed them to move into larger networks. once inside the energy suppliers, they collected information on the facilities control systems, attempting to gain the ability to turn those systems off. >> they're positioning malware so they could pull the trigger when they wanted to. but they're also sending the united states a message. we are in position to cause harm if we wanted to do it. so you, the u.s., should be a little more careful. >> the russians targeted other crucial segments as well, including water, manufacturing and aviation. they see this as a precursor to an unprecedented russian cyber attack that could devastate the u.s. >> this is our livelihood that's at stake,

cnn's jim sciutto got extraordinary access with the navy under the ice to deal with potential threats believe you fit in that tling? >> i was there on my birthday, if you can believe it. i had a ball. listen, why the arctic? why do we care? the ice is shrinking. what does that do? opens up oils, shipping lanes, but also new ways to project military power. who is our neighbor in the arctic? russia, 50 miles away from russia in the arctic. it's why the u.s. is making a clear signal to russia that they can operate anywhere in the world here and with their most advanced submarines and weapons. >> reporter: more than 100 miles north of the northest-most tip of alaska, we set down on a runway carved into the arctic ice. our objective? u.s. navy submarine exercises. cnn was granted exclusive access. >> it doesn't look like it, but it's moving all the time. this is a giant kaleidoscope of joint pieces of ice. >> reporter: this is the harshest sea environment in the world and a new front in the expanding global competition between the u.s. and russia. these 5.5 million square miles are under i

chief national correspondent jim sciutto is outfront.toughest action yet that president trump has taken against putin. >> no question. it's significant for a couple of reasons. one because it is coordinated. it is western allies. the u.s., nearly two dozen countries expelling at once the entire eu. a number of russian diplomats who are spies. that will impact russirussia's ability to gather intelligence. for the president to do this, someone who has been reluctant to penalize russia and speak critically in public about russia. that's a step although notable the president, as you have said, didn't say it in his call with putin, did not make public comments about it. the statement came from the podium at the white house press briefing in an announcement this morning. the question is will it accomplish the task. the u.s. is expelled diplomats before. the obama administration did that. they sanctioned russia for its interfere interference in ukraine. will this change this kind of behavior. the murder of people outside of its boarderders. >>

jim sciutto and i did a story late last week about the fact that there is real conversations about militarye the feeling among many in the administration is that it is better to have a conventional war than to risk a nuclear north korea where they can proliferate all over the globe. and that's extremely real, and they have some support from people like tom cotton on capitol hill. >> if you can maintain that to be a conventional war that doesn't escalate. the big difference that kim jong-un has, and you heard a little bit of this from john kirby earlier, was when bill clinton was negotiating with them, they hadn't tested a nuclear weapon. they barely had nuclear weapons when george bush was in office. there wasn't much that went on in the obama administration. president trump is facing a north korea that has tested weapons six times, has got a missile that clearly just about has the ability to reach the united states, so he is just this close. and so he may have the ability at this point to stand down for a while because he's only a few tests away. >> that's a fascinating question. we'll kee

. >>> advisers, who needs advisers, jim sciutto sitting in for anderson.ngly seems to be doing it his way and going it alone. one recent item puts it this way, for the better part of last month donald trump has seem to be winging it. right now, the pentagon and state department are scrambling to respond to the latest example. the

i want to talk more about this with jim sciutto. and we have cnn global affairs analyst and former state department official under president obama tony lincoln. the key -- one of the key questions is going to be when we do get a chance to hear president trump speak about this, is he going to be in line with what we're hearing coming out of treasury, out of this joint statement. but that aside, jim, as we just look at its -- on its face, at these sanctions, and at this joint statement what is the significance of this? >> i think a couple of things. first, the administration is acknowledging that russia meddled in the election. treasury department run by president trump's appointee is issuing these sanctions. i would also note that 13 -- all 13 people indicted by robert mueller, just a couple of weeks ago, for interfering in the elections, are cited here. 13 -- i should say individuals and agencies or entities rather including that troll farm, internet research agency. a probe -- >> and the catering company. >> we say catering, this s

just moments ago, reaffirmed it to cnn's jim sciutto. here's a passage from a report issued by the director of the office of national intelligence back in january 2017. i want to read this word for word because it tends to get lost in all the claims and allegations and partisan politics. quote, we assess russian president vladimir putin ordered an influenced campaign in 2016 aimed at the u.s. presidential election. russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the u.s. democratic process, den i grate secretary clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. we further assess putin and the russian government developed a clear preference for president-elect trump. we have high confidence in these judgments. again, this was the intelligence community's assessment a year ago, and as we said, continues to be tonight. in fact, dni spokesman brian heal telling our shim sciutto, quote, the intelligence community stands by its january 2017 assessment, assessing russian activities and intentions in recent u.s. elections. we will re

our jim sciutto has new reporting big names who may be on the chopping block. quickly how this is