i want to get to jim sciutto in washington. jim, the russians have just responded to the strikes. what have you heard? >> that is right. this coming from the russia ambassador to the u.s. and he said the following, the worst app rehengs have come true. our warnings have been left unheard. a prezin -- predesigned implement and we are being threatened and we warned that such actions will not be left without consequences and all responsibility rests with washington and london and paris. of course the three countries that participated in the strikes. insulting the president of russia is unacceptable and inadmissible and that is a reference to the president's tweet earlier this week and the u.s., the possessor of the biggest arsenal of chemical weapons has no moral right to blame other countries. so quite a strong push back as you would expect there from russia. i should note that you heard from defense secretary mattis this strike was directed at syrian forces and he made a point of saying it was directed at syria and not russia. we know mattis had concerned he expressed to the presid

also cnn's jim sciutto and carrie cordero. 'm reminded of every time we're talking about details that we or "the washington post," "the new york times," "the wall street journal" have learned about the mueller investigation, it is still just a small fraction, just the tip of the iceberg of what we actually know. they know so much more than we do. >> no question. let's be frank. i know the mueller team has been accused of leaks. i've covered this for more than a year now. that is the tightest black box in washington. you get sort of secondary ripples of what he's looking into based on what lawyers for witnesses tell you, et cetera. and then you get, you know, sort of indications of lines of inquiry that he's going down. but what evidence he's found down these lines of inquiry, that is very much an open question. we know he's asking about trump's financial dealings. has he found financial crimes? we don't know. we know he's asking about -- still asking about the possibility of collusion, foreknowledge of the hacked e-mails, et ce

jim sciutto is "outfront." sarah sanders saying, no final decision has been made. options on the table. let's start with that. what are the options that you know they're looking at right now? >> well, the first category of options is what are the targets here? is it just the chemical weapon sites? and that's where the chemical weapons are stored? the aircraft they're dropped from and the airfields they take off from. that's one category of options. then, do they attack larger and go after elements of the regime sort of as a punishment for ordering these attacks. that takes you into zmdamascus, that would be a more significant attack. and in each of those cases, do you use entirely stepped back weapons. right, cruise missiles fired from far away, either from aircraft or ships or submarines for a away or do you also involve u.s. aircraft, which involves greater risk to those pilots, although they could also fire from further away. but you're putting pilots at risk, as well. and one variable in here, erin, to consider is that russia is very present on the ground in sy

still with me, kaitlyn collins, jim sciutto. to you, when the president was talking about the iran deal and his discussions with emmanuel macron and he said something to the effect of, they're fairly close to an agreement, at least among ourselves, when it comes tight ran deal. what could that mean? >> reporter: i was raegd over his words again and again. agreement among ourselves, presumably he was talking about france and the u.s., and one possibility macron was going to try to convince the president of is adding a second agreement, in effect, that would handle iran's missile tests, right, in post-sanctions for its missile tests, et cetera. also extend the life of the original iran deal. it has some sunset provisions in there. was the president referring to kind of a partner agreement that would address some of the president's concerns with the original iran deal? that's a possibility. how you do that just between the u.s. and france, if that's what he's referring to, without iran's agreement, i don't know. are they talking abo

let's bring in our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto. what would happen if the us walked away from the iran nuclear deal? would it still be enforced? would iran race to develop nukes? >> first, look at the european partners. you have european partners, china, russia. would they continue to do business to bay iranian oil if the u.s. were to pull out of the deal and face possibility penalty from the u.s. government, the u.s. treasury? highly up likely. that would remove that half of the deal. impossible to survive without that. as far as iran's position, the iranian foreign minister has already, raising in public the possibility of iran then withdrawing from the nuclear deal, which would allow it, remove the strrestrictions on t nuclear program. he's even raised the possibility of withdrawing from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. now, asked about that prospect today, the president had some very stern words for iran. >> they're not going to be restarting anything. they restart it, they're going to have big problems. bigger than they've

between top members of the trump campaign and a group of russians and the cnn chief constituent jim sciutto is working the story. jim, we're learning more about this russian lawyer with kremlin connections? >> we are. and this trump tower meeting in june 2016, we know already it has been a focus of the special counsel robert mueller because of the contacts and the subject of the conversation being dirt offered by the russians on hillary clinton. and now we know that one of those russians offering the dirt, that lawyer had very deep connections to the russian government. the russia lawyer who met with trump campaign officials in 2016 touted as having dirt on hillary clinton now admits she had closer ties to the kremlin than she previously disclosed. in fact she calls herself an informant for the russian government citing newly surfaces e-mails, reports that are net -- natalia veselnitskaya said i'm a lawyer and informant she told nbc news. since 2013 i've been communicating with the russian prosecutor gem. just last year she said just the opposite. >> have you ever worked for the russian gov

cnn's chief national security correspondent jim sciutto has details. ue jenna mclaughlin and i are told by multiple sources a former adviser to the trump campaign pushed government agencies to review material from the dark web in the summer of 2016, that he thought were hillary clinton's deleted e-mails. his push, just the latest example of trump advisers who were mixed up in efforts to find dirt on clinton, including potentially stolen e-mails during the presidential campaign. cnn has learned that a trump campaign adviser played a key role in an effort to find hillary clinton's 30,000 deleted e-mails on the dark web. >> wow. >> and reveal any damaging information contained within them. >> it's not easy being a whistleblower. >> reporter: this former department of defense inspector general was a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, seen here seated at a table with then candidate trump in march 2016. meeting with the officials at the fbi, state department and the intelligence communities inspector general, he told them a source he called patriot had d

schmidt declined to comment. >> our thanks to jim sciutto for that report.re joined now by our national security analyst and also our political analyst. ladies, good morning. samantha, of course all this happens with and in some context considering what we know about efforts on behalf of wikileaks and others to try to get information and e-mails and dirt to the trump campaign. could it be simply coincidental that these potentially fake e-mails got from the dark web to this gentleman's clients and then potentially to these officials? >> it seems like a little bit too much of a coincidence that all this he will legal material just coincidentally made its way to various members of the trump campaign at different junctures. we know that schmidt somehow had access to this material from the dark web from what we think was a client. we know that don jr. was contacted about the material. and we also know that papadopoulous was contacted by a russian professor purporting to have the material. so i think we're seeing a real pattern emerge and steve bannon alluded to t

jim sciutto. thank you very much. >> the president hit to twitter this morning.ll send to california to get some clarity from jorge ramos. okay, people, that's a reset. let's take it back from "surpri--" (avo) get $300 off the samsung galaxy s9+. because unlimited is only as good as the network it's on. we can now use a blood sample toh care, target lung cancer more precisely. if we can do that, imagine what we can do for asthma. and if we can stop seizures in epilepsy patients with a small pacemaker for the brain, imagine what we can do for multiple sclerosis, even migraines. if we can use patients' genes to predict heart disease in their families, imagine what we can do for the conditions that affect us all. imagine what we can do for you. >>> president trump is taking aim at california for its sanction laws limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. the president is raising questions by his choice of words in a tweet this morning. "there is a revolution going on in california, so many sanctuary areas want out of this breathing concept. jerry br

i'm jim sciutto. in today for john and poppy. peace, prosperity and unification of the korean peninsula. a joint declaration capping a potentially historic and richly symbolic summit of the north and south korean leaders. what the meeting was not, however, full of details, which kim jong-un and his southern counterpart moon jae-in seemed deliberately to have left for another day. hours after kim took one small step across the military demarcation line into the southern half of the dmz, and moon reciprocated, the two pledged complete denuclearization and to pursue a formal end to the korean war. at least in public, the two did not address an even more historic summit perhaps just a month or so away, that between kim jong-un and president trump. we have it all covered this morning, this hour with live reporters from tokyo to washington. we begin, though, with cnn's paula hancocks. she is right near the dmz, where this moment took place. paula, north and south korean leaders have met before. is the feeling there that this time is di

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> so republicans in congress, name low house republicans, demanded thewanted them, and they were leaked to the public, to the media. has this paid off for them? >> it almost paid off for more jim cocoa. -- jim comey. it happened the week that he released his book. i don't think that republicans look good from this. i think because once you read the memos, you realize that comey is a credible witness. he was there, he's not writing lies in the memos. and for trump to go after him for leaking those -- some of the memos to his friend who was a columbia law professor who shared it with the media, it's ironic because trump is the biggest liar of them all. he will call up -- bigger leaker of them all. he will call up and leak. >> the president being one saying that james comey lied in the memos. especially on the request for loyalty and asking for him to let the flynn matter go. as it relates to the classified nature of these, the president in his tweet suggested that that is a fact. there is an ongoing investigation to determine whether or not these memos, es

chief national security correspondent jim sciutto has more. >> reporter: cnn has learned that a trumpadviser played a key role in an effort to find hillary clinton's 30,000 deleted emails on the dark web. >> wow. >> reporter: and reveal any damaging information contained within them. >> it's not easy be a whistleblower. >> reporter: joseph schmitz, former inspector general, was a foreign policy adviser. seen with then-candidate trump in 2016 meeting with the members of the fbi, state department, and inspector general, he told them a source he called patriot discovered what he believed were the deleted emails on the dark web. schmitz then pushed for the government to review and declassify the material so he and others could review it without jeopardizing schmitz's security clearance. this according to multiple sources with direct knowledge. officials at the state department and inspector general briefly interviewed schmitz but declined to review or accept the information. the fbi also interviewed him as part of its ongoing criminal investigation into clinton's emails. >> did investigat

our chief correspondent jim chut -- jim sciutto is here and what are you hearing. >> we witnessed justarring exchange of deeply personal angry attacks between a sitting president and the man who was until less than a year ago the nation's top law enforcement official, james comey. and today for the first time we heard those criticisms of this president directly from comey's mouth. the president that he calls a liar, and compares to a mob boss. >> he's become more famous than me -- >> it is a blistering critique of the long time law enforcement james comey. >> i was floating above myself look down and saying you're sitting here briefing the incoming president of the united states about prostitutes in moscow. >> reporter: comey details interactions with the president laid out in his book including when comey first informed trump about the existence of the so-called steel dossier. which included unproven allegations that while trump was in moscow for the 2013 miss universe path enlt, russian authorities video taped him watching prostitutes urinate in a hotel suite. >> and i told him the a

jim sciutto and laura coates are back with me. joining me now is alex sufan. welcome to the program. thank you so much. so jim, the fbi director, james comey, former fbi director james comey spoke about his private conversations with president trump, raising questions about obstruction of justice. watch this. >> why did he kick out the attorney general and the vice president of the united states and the leaders of the intelligence community? why am i alone if he doesn't know the nature of the request? but it's possible in the moment i should have -- another person would have said, sir, you can't ask me that. that's a criminal investigation. that could be obstruction of justice. >> was president trump obstructing justice? >> possibly. it's certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice. >> jim comey's account may weigh heavily on the special counsel's investigation on russia. >> listen, i think this is the way we should think about comey principally here. set aside for a moment his comments about trump's appearance or his opinion of trump's fitness for office

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> jim, thank you. let's discuss these developments with my panel. republican strategist kevin scott, democratic political strategist howard franklin, and cnn reporter politics jeremy herd. let's start with jeremy first. exactly what were the russians looking for when they reached out after the election? do we know the answer to that? >> so the russians were interested in overturning the magnitsky act, which is a 2012 u.s. law passed that sanctioned russian officials for human rights abuses. that was what ended up being the subject of that trump tower meeting. donald trump jr. was expecting dirt on hillary clinton. instead, the russian lawyer, she talked about sanctions and adoptions and getting this overturned. so what we learned yesterday was there was follow-up after the campaign, after donald trump was elected from both her and a russian oligarch involved with organizing that meeting as an attempt to see if the trump campaign that was turning into the trump transition would look at overturning those sanctions. >> howard, do you view that as a sig

jim sciutto has details. >> reporter: cnn learned that a trump campaign adviser played a key role in,000 deleted e-mails on the dark web. >> wow. >> reporter: and reveal any damaging information contained within them. >> it's not easy being a whistleblower. >> reporter: joseph submit, a former inspector general was a foreign policy adviser to the campaign. seen here seats at a table with then-candidate trump in march 2016. meeting with officials at the fbi, state department and the intelligence communities inspector general, he told them a source he called patriot had discovered what he believed were the deleted e-mails on the dark web. schmidt pushed for the government to de-classify the material so he and others could review it without jeopardizing his security clearance. all this according to multiple sources with direct knowledge. officials at the state department and inspector general briefly interviewed him, but they declined to accept the information. the fbi investigated him into the investigation to clinton's e-mails. he took the information to the house intelligence committ

jim sciutto has details for us. >> reporter: the russian lawyer who met with trump campaign officialsted as having dirt on hillary clinton now admits that she has closer ties to the kremlin than she previously disclosed. in fact, she calls herself an informant for the russian government crititing new e-mail "new york times" reports that natalia veselitskaya someone's worked with the top prosecutor, i am a lawyer and i am an informant, she told nbc news. since 2013, i've been actively communicating with the officer h. office of the russian prosecutor junior. last year veselnitskaya said just the opposite. >> have you ever worked for the russian government, do you have connections to the russian government? >> translator: no. >> reporter: the trump tower meeting is of interest to special counsel robert mueller for two potential reasons. first, to see if there is evidence that the trump campaign colluded with the russian government during the campaign. and second, to see if the president attempted to obstruct justice buys helping to draft a misleading explanation for what was discussed i

jim sciutto will be here with that. >> and praising scott pruitt even though he is under fire for renting a cut rate condo from energy lobbyists but the president said pruitt, is quote, a good man. which might be the kiss of death in this administration. ask rex tillerson, hr. mcmaster, steve bannon, michael flynn, anybody on the outs. and he hits vladimir putin where he lives with undeniably tough sanctions against a group of oligarchs with ties to the russian president. so how will putin respond? we'll figure that out. plus the dow tumbling 572 points on fear of a bruising trade war with china. and the president said this -- >> i'm not saying there won't be a little pain. but we're going to have a much stronger country when we're finished. >> a lot to discuss. i want to start with cnn senior white house correspondent dan brown and legal analyst laura coates and analyst michael zeldin who is robert mueller's special assistant at the justice department. a lot to get to. good evening to all panel. i'll start with you. you have exclusive new reporting that president trump's lawyers have beg

jim sciutto. thanks for joining us.nformation came out from the pentagon briefing tonight. what stood out most to you? >> well, it appears we've been aware all week long there's been a debate inside the administration. you had some in the administration apparently the president included who were pushing more for a sustained military response, to distinguish this response from last year's which even the administration grants did not change the assad regime's behavior. they continued to use chemical weapons. so a debate between a camp saying we need a more sustained response, cannot be a one-off, and mattis and others cautioning saying a sustained mill stare campaign risks escalation and particularly risks escalation with russia which has a lot of forces on the ground there. from this press conference and the phrase that came came from secretary mattis' mouth, this is one time shot, it becomes clear that side one out in this debate. purely a strike focused on chemical weapons facilities, aimed specifically at syria as mat

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto has details on this story. so what are your sources telling you about government agencies reviewing materials that they thought were hillary clinton's deleted e-mails? >> reporter: let's start with who this person was. joseph schmitz. he was not a coffee boy in the campaign. he was a foreign policy adviser in that famous photo with the president when he introduced his foreign policy team, sitting next to george papadopoulos as you can see there. he obtained what he believed were hillary clinton's missing 30,000 e-mails or deleted 30,000 e-mails obtained from the dark web and took them so seriously that he then took them to multiple federal agencies. he's a former department of defense official himself. he went to the state department. he went to the fbi. he went to the inspector general of the intelligence community and said, these e-mails need to be reviewed. they need to be declassified, apparently with the intention of then disseminating those e-mails. when he didn't get what he wanted from them, he then wen

correspondents and analysts are all standing by, including cnn chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto. but first let's go to our crime and justice reporter. shimon, what can you tell us about all these late-breaking developments? >> we've learned that investigators have recently targeted at least three oligarchs. sources tell cnn they topped one of them, stopped by the fbi when he landed in his private jet at a new york area airport. they also questioned him and even searched his electronic devices. we're told that investigators stopped a second russian oligarch on a recent trip to the u.s. and also questioned him. and then we've learned, wolf, that there was a third russian who has come to mueller who has agreed to voluntarily turn over documents and provide information. >> we know it's illegal for foreign nationals to make political contributions to political campaigns here in the united states, so how potentially could these russian oligarchs get around that? >> one of the big things that we're told investigators have been looking at is whether the russians were using straw donors,

joining me now is jim sciutto. what more can you tell us about it? potential a huge development. a lot of questions remain concern. plenty of reason to be cautious and skeptical. >> reporter: these words to the korean people and dramatic words to hear from kim jong-un who has been be-lilligerent words. issuing this statement, under the proven condition of complete nuclear weapons we know longer need any nuclear tests, mid range and intercontinental ballistic rocket tests and that the nuclear test site in northern area ha also completed its mission. what a remarkable distance we have come. that speech to the un general assembly where he referred to kim as rocket man on a suicide mission, really a remarkable change. >> what is the president saying about the announcement? >> different words from rocket man, but a tweet that shortly followed this north korean statement, he said the following welcoming it. north korea has agreed to suspend all nuclear test and close-up a major test site. this is very good news for north korea and the world. strong words there. and we have a summit com

. >>> hello, i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. it's 8:00 p.m. in moscow, 3:00 p.m. in the demilitarized world. thank you for joining us, wherever you are. >>> one of the meetings at the center of robert mueller's investigation. according to a new report, the russian lawyer who went to trump tower said she is, quote, an informant and closer to the kremlin than previously disclosed. >>> plus republicans on the house intelligence committee are releasing their disputed report on the russia investigation. why they think trump exercised poor judgment. >>> and north korea vows to meet with peace and demdemilita ri e ze -- >>> while the welcome has been very different, the issues have very much the same. iran, syria and trade. >> we're working on a lot of different subjects including trade, including nato, including military of all types, and we have a really great relationship, and we actually have had a great relationship right from the beginning, but some people didn't understand that. but we understand it, and that's what's important. i think we'll be talking about iran

jim sciutto was sitting in an anchor chair. e jim was a dana perino or ari fleischer, press secretaries, or even -- he was a chief of staff to the ambassador to china. that is a pretty big deal. now for him to be anchoring, i think -- i don't mind hiring him but i don't think he can be there giving obviously opinions on things while in an anchor chair as a former obama administration person because people at home don't know probably that he was in the obama administration. he is not introduced that way. therefore people will think it's a good-looking anchor who is telling me that the president is not using p a dog whistle but a bullhorn when it comes to racial overtones around immigration. that is why people get confused and don't know fake news from real news and opinion from news on everybody's left scratching their head saying where do i find the truth. >> tucker: that's exactly it. i'm not afraid of other people's opinions. i don't like this option. that is what they are doing. joe, thank you. >> pleasure as always. >> tucke

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is with us and alise labbin with us. and so happened because nikki haley was saying the opposite of what they were telling russian diplomats here in washington. >> the trump administration delivered a clear message to russian diplomats than to their own secretary -- u.n. secretary. and ambassador rather. that seems to be the clear message here. and that is not just a communication failure, because this is the latest of the number of indications of what appears to be a real division, not just within the republican party but within the administration itself on a approach to russia policy. you have folks -- many, it seems outnumbering the president who want a harder stance and sanctions -- >> nikki haley included. >> nikki haley included, who want tougher sanctions and stiffer military response and the president almost alone -- there is new national security adviser bolton is a russia hawk and the president alone on the other side and encouraging and not just this weekend but for many months a softer take on russia and that

jim sciutto was getting information in. here's what he says. sustained response. include further military action as well as diplomatic and economic steps. while tonight's atake is over, military options remain on the table. including in response to another use of chemical weapons. do you have any indication of what else may come from the pentagon? >> secretary mattis tonight after following president trumps announcement briefs reporters saying this was a one shot. this particular set of strikes. but warning that they would be watching the syrian regime moving forward. if it used as it had in the past raising the prospect of further action should the regime continue to use chemical weapons against civilians. you said the nature of the these targets were specifically designed to target the regime chemical weapons capability. it was the foecus of the strike. the targets were selected by dunford. the targets were selected to avoid civilian casualties and avoid killing foreign forces specifically russian. there was concern matty telling congress on thursday that he was

i want to bring in cnn's chief national security correspondent jim sciutto and clinton without counseleith wittington, the author of "speak freely." so good to have all of you on. cnn learned the special counsel robert mueller is questioning two russian oligarchs and submilitaried a questisu submitted a request to iment view a third one. >> there is any idea that an important line of inquiry into this investigation has been closed off. you heard from trump and supporters that the question of collusion is closed, the question of where the money came from is closed. clearly by the witnesses he is calling, that doesn't seem true. this is a u.s. special counsel stopping and demanding information from foreign nationals and this case russian oligarchs, stopping them as you mentioned, don, one coming in on the private plane, boreding his plane, going into his private phone and cell phone to get information from it. another russian oligarch zeroed in on information about whether they helped or were involved in any way in sending money from russia to the trump campaign through interimmediate ai

there would be additional sanctions -- jim sciutto, i'm sorry. >> no worries. >> probably announced on sunday or monday by steve mnuchin. the white house seemed to reverse that. do you know what happened? >> the trump administration gave a clearer signal to russia than it did to the president's own ambassador of the united nations with this message now confirmed by the white house saying they told them there would be no sanctions. early on this weekend, the explanation from the white house was that nikki haley had gone ahead of the policy process in announcing the sanctions. but in fact that doesn't look to be the case. the president changed his mind. remember, that is the function of these sanctions. when he changed his mind that message was not delivered clearly at all. to make that pledge. it is an embarrassing to say the least miscommunication. and also frankly misleading explanations to the white house. when it was in fact the president changed his mind. >> you believe this fits a pattern from president trump with this policy on russia. >> it does. there was some decision making p

jim sciutto, our legal analyst michael zeldin, robert mueller's seshl special assistant. juliette kayyem and cnn contributor garrett, the author of the threat matrix inside robert mueller's fbi and the war on global terror. we have certainly assembled the right group to discuss this. jim, i'm starting with you. good evening to all of you. exclusive reporting from cnn, the president has begun taking preliminary steps to prepare for a possible interview with the special counsel. can you fill us in on what more you are learning. >> my colleagues are learning that president trump who has in his public statements been back and forth as to whether he was going to testify, often saying he would, we're told that behind the scenes he is more back and forth, not quite sure if he is making that commitment. but at least he is taking a step and beginning to be prepared for such an interview if he decides to do so. and that would be of course something that some of his advisers warned him against. we had roger stone on the air a short time ago on anderson's show saying he is concerned

i'm jim sciutto. breaking news this morning, concerning the russia investigation. the "new york times" is reporting that the lawyer who was in that famous trump tower meeting with the trump campaign in 2016 had closer ties to the kremlin than she let on. she reportedly has admitted that she's been, quote, an informant for the russian attorney general since 2013, three years before that trump tower meeting. plus this other breaking news, the house intelligence committee has released a redablgdacted ve of the republican report on the russian investigation that finds no evidence of collusion, although the democrats released a dissent to that. but first let's get more on that "new york times" reporting. evan perez is here right now. remarkable story here because she is in effect admitting very close ties to the college lynn both communications with them and describing herself in a rol as an informant. >> right, something that she had denied before. and to be honest, i think no one really believed those denials. so this is really just her admitting to something that pre

joining me now is jim sciutto. what more can you tell us about it? potential a huge development.tions remain concern. plenty of reason to be cautious and skeptical. >> reporter: these words to the korean people and dramatic words to hear from kim jong-un

jim sciutto has been going over the excerpts joins with us more.es he say about how the president runs the white house. >> he says he runs it like a mob

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> now you heard what james comey had to say.w it's your turn to ask questions. turn wednesday for the only live town hall with the former fbi director. anderson cooper moderates live at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. tail than other tests... ...and it's now on sale for just $59. it can lead you on an unexpec ted journey... ...to discover your heritage. get ancestrydna for just $59. the lowest price of the year. i'm all-business when i, travel... even when i travel... for leisure. so i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle - without starting any conversations- -or paying any upcharges. what can i say? control suits me. go national. go like a pro. ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun♪ ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun transitions™ light under control™ jushis local miracle ear t at helped andrew hear more transitions™ of the joy in her voice. just one hearing test is all it took for him to hear more of her laugh...

let's by in jim sciutto. white house press secretary sarah sanders, what did she have to say? >> she would not comment. she returned to the talking the point that you often hear from the president and the white house that there was no collusion. but as even a republican such as trey gowdy noted, being a subject of investigation does not mean you cannot become a target and that becomes what the investigation finds. >> reporter: president trump is not a criminal target in special counsel robert mueller's investigation right now. this according to sources familiar with the matter. however, his legal team believes he remains a subject of the probe due to the involvement in the matters. that does not mean that trump is safe. >> the president sits there in the middle of his car wreck as person of interest to the grand jury. that's what he started out as. there's no guarantee if you start out as a subject, you don't end up as a target. >> reporter: trump's attorneys learned of the status last month. trump has not sold whether he wants to speak to the special counsel, but according to

jim sciutto asked him about this yesterday. >> the democrats have left them down. let them down. they had the great opportunity. the democrats have really let them down. it's a shame. now people are taking advantage of daca. that's a shame. should have never happened. >> didn't you kill daca, sir? >> whose is this? >> that's the other jim. acosta there. let's talk about the president's sole focus. why is returning to the focus in the courts? the deal fell apart because neither side came to agreement. you have had to have lived here since 2007. why is the president focused? >> when the going gets tough, you get tough on immigrants. it was the story of the presidency and campaign. this was the red meat he knows he can throw out there and illicit a lot of excitement. it is not shocking this is what he is talking about right now. to be clear, he was the one who ended daca. he created the crisis and the deal fell apart. he owns this. i think the democrats in some ways are secondary to what happens to the program at this point. >> so we want to switch gears to the president and focus o

. >>> hello, i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. it's 8:00 p.m. in moscow, 3:00 p.m.k you for joining us, wherever you are. >>> one of the meetings at the center of robert mueller's investigation. according to a new report, the russian lawyer who went to trump tower said she is, quote, an informant and closer to the kremlin than previously disclosed. >>> plus republicans on the house intelligence committee are releasing their disputed repor

if they're going to use those weapons, then we could see more strikes coming in that report from jim sciutto itself out. >> general, marks, the u.s. is going after the facilities where they process and store chemical weapons. what type of personnel would be on-site? would you expect many casualties? would there be people in the facilities? >> probably not this time of day backup that's why the strikes come at night. not only is it the element of surprise it's a down cycle which is obvious. but you'll have very, very few people in the facilities. of course there will be folks that will be in the facilities. but that's why you choose them -- choose to strike at that time. the types of capability or or at least the individuals with certain capabilities there these are going to be very highly trained, very scientific, very a sharp guys. the folks that are running the research and development facilities have an ongoing mission. they're highly trained, highly educated. niece are the scientific types that are putting together everything that needs to be in place to ensure that the capability does n

jim sciutto. gordon, how significant is this. >> it is significant of course. i'm sure that kim jong un thinks he is playing us. his father in 2008 they destroyed the cooling tower for his reactor then a year from that they walked away from the six party talks. they are probably thinking they are doing the same thing as dad did. but there are so many dramatic events occurring one after the other. no matter the plans kim has i think he will be swept by momentum which means he can decide to play this out. but that's no the the way things occur. things are happening too fast and tao significant. >> with the united states and south korea. >> and certainly china is involved. japan is involved. president trump has shone that he is not allowing anyone to upstage him. you have a new national security advisers talked about attacking north korea when he was at fox news. you have events unnerving kim jong un. by the way he needs sanctions relief. because it's pretty clear the u.n. sanctions, u.s. sanctions are starting to constrict the flow of money to kim mean he needs c

jim sciutto, the deal that president macron put forward is to keep the iran nuclear deal in place, and prevent iran, at least until 2025, but then expand it to read -- and end their involvement in syria and lebanon. that's the proposal that president macron put forward. why would the iranians accept a new deal? >> that's a fair question because this may be more about managing the president's expectations and addressing the president's concerns, and robert made this point as well, creating a new agreement. his key criticisms and other criticisms of this deal have been it's got a sunset clause. it ends after a certain amount of time. it does not address their missile ballistics program and it does not stabilize the region. now, the question is, china, russia e russia, iran, if they're not actually at the table, and this is an agreement between the u.s. and its partners there, what is the credibility about the deal, and is it more about giving the president, whew, a deal i have always opposed to. this morning the president sat next to the french president, calling it steele that in life y

i'm jim sciutto. in today for john and poppy.eace, prosperity and unification of the korean peninsula. a joint declaration capping a potentially historic and richly symbolic summit of the north and south korean leaders. what the meeting was not, however, full of details, which kim jong-un and his southern counterpart moon jae-in seemed deliberately to have left for another day. hours after kim took one small step across the military demarcation line into the southern half of the dmz, and moon reciprocated, the two pledgedpl

. >> welcome to "the lead," i'm jim sciutto in for jake tapper. the incident in toronto is believed to have been deliberate. a driver now in custody after plowing a van into pedestrians along a busy city street moments ago cnn obtained this video of police pinning a man down on a police squad car and police have not confirmed if this is indeed the driver or did occur moments after that van drove through the pedestrians. we don't know exactly how many people injured now. there are reports of at least seven people taken into hospital. just one hospital there. and witnesses who have spoken to cnn partner ctv described seeing people on the ground and victims in body bags. they also described horror at the height of the day. >> in the middle of the intersection and the van went right into them and plowed right into them. he drove down further and went on to the sidewalk by the next building and he hit more people there. and just kept going. >> we're told that he may have driven along the sidewalk for half a mile, perhaps a mile. this is believed to be

congratulations to one jim sciutto. he was honored by the white house correspondents association.r, adam perez and contributor carl bernstein also share in the award for their reporting about the intelligence community, briefing president obama and president trump. thanks to this investigation, the dossier is now part of the lexicon. >> thanks very much. i worked with a great team on this, jake and evan and carl bernstein. we worked really hard to get the facts right. this was a story -- i always tell people, i've never involved with a story where there's been greater teamwork. i'm proud to be part of the team. >> people talk to me all the time about the need for good journalism right now. you guys exemplify that. it's in challenging times when journalists are not always the most popular. >> you might have heard of some people throwing rocks in our direction. even some this morning. you keep at it. >> great to work with you, jim. >> thanks for having me. >> and you as well, john avlon. >> sort of. >> you made it super easy. great to have you here. thanks so much. >>> time for cnn

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is here with us.ffered a blistering appraisal of the president. >> he did and raised this issue which has been a central question of the russia investigation the first revelation of this steele dossier that cnn was first to report briefed to the president-elect and president obama in january 2016, central question, does russia have compromising information on donald trump? well, james comey, the former director of the fbi, briefed on some of the intelligence behind that at least opineed in this interview it is possible russia has such information. it is a sobering assessment from james comey briefed on the early intelligence that russia could hold compromising information on president donald trump. >> i think it's possible. i don't know. these are more words i never thought i'd utter about a president of the united states but that's possible. >> that's stunning. you can't say for certain that the president of the united states is not compromised about by the russians. >> yeah, it is stunning and i wis

jim sciutto, let me get your thoughts. he did confirm that he did appear before robert mueller's special counsel team and answer questions presumably on that meeting he had with the president? >> that's right. and then asked, though, in that meeting he had with the president in the oval office very early in the president's term, when it's been reported the president asked if james comey can lay off, in effect, michael cohen, the investigation. his answer on that was -- he said, i don't recall, he said, and he said this a number of times, whether any request was made. but he also said the president never asked me to do anything remotely improper, i believe. now, those two sentences by definition are inconsistent. he doesn't recall, but he can assure us he was not asked to do anything improper. he was pressed by that on senator chris murphy just a short time ago, and he said, well, listen, if he had asked me to do something inappropriate, i would have remembered it. now, we know that senator dan coats, also a trump appointee

jim sciutto is "outfront." what is the debate going on. trump pushing for a sustained assault.pushback within his own inner circle. >> whether to strike and how much to strike. president trump joined by national bolton and nikki haley. warning the president of the risks of that. the risks of escalation of russia. and that of course poses enormous risk with the number of russian forces on the ground. we are told that the president has been frustrated with the push back with the options presented to him. some frustration of national security staff feeling boxed in. that does not mean they won't come to an agreement. you have debates like this regarding military action and that has been the debate. >> now, there is also a question of course the white house and state department saying they have high confidence that syria. and let's be clear here. but bashar al as sad. >> there is little doubt that he is responsible. he has the resources. he has done this many times before and two, this is not just a chlorine attack but also involved some nerve agent. one handicap the united states