you heard my conversation with jim sciutto. was it a conversation the back and forth between sarah huckabee sanders and jim. jim was saying can you stand up there and say, now, press is not the enemy of the people which is what we've heard over and over from this president. we've just heard that ivanka trump has said no they are not. only now. i would love to hear you weigh in on that. >> she nailed it when she talked about how this is really serving putin's interest because as dan coats said there's a pervasive message campaign designed to divide and weaken americans and guess what? donald trump is the most important player in that pervasive campaign whether consciously or unconsciously that's exactly what he's doing. he's dividing americans and weakening our institutions. he's attacking every pillar of our society that can stand as a check and balance upon his misbehavior starting with the press and that very ugly display that jim acosta was subject to at that trump rally which seemed something like a regime from the 1930s. al

jim sciutto with information for us. >>> let's get more on this. eric swalwell of california is joining us. he's a member of both the intelligence and judiciary committee. i want to begin with the new sanctions the trump administration is now imposing against the russians for their role in the poisoning of this former russian spy in the ux k. and his daughter. do you support the action taken by the administration today? >> good evening, wolf. i do support additional sanctions and thankfully this came at the behest of congress who had a -- a deep interest in making sure russia would answer for what they did in great britain and i think additional sanctions will be needed because they continue to meddle in our elections today. senator bill nelson announced today that he believes florida's election systems have been penetrated by the russians. and so it is -- when congress pushes the president and the administration to act, because i think left to their own devices, they would let russia one wild throughout our democracy and our allies. >> and moving

our coverage continues now with jim sciutto next door in "the situation room."ppening now. breaking news. enemies list. president trump makes a direct move against his critics revoking the security clearance of the former cia director john brennan and threatening several other former national security officials. like richard nixon, does president trump now have an enemies' list? >>> outsmarted by omarosa? did president trump take this unpress departmented action to attempt to change the subject after being put on the defensive by a former aide and former "apprentice" star? as one fox news host put it, was the president

i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer.or joining us today. sad news today. aretha franklin, a titan of music, the undisputed queen of soul, is gone. ♪ ♪

our coverage continues now with jim sciutto in "the situation room." thank you for watching. >>> happening now, breaking news. kremlin joy. a cnn exclusive. intelligence sources revealed that russian officials pleased with the president's summit with vladimir putin, especially when the president publicly sided with putin against the u.s. intelligence community. >>> you're taped. she was fired repeatedly and omarosa manigault newman turned it from a white house job into the equivalent of a reality show moment by secretly recording it with a subsequent phone call from the president. >>> struck out. president trump is publicly reveling in the firing of fbi agent peter strzok who sent anti-trump text messages during the election campaign. the president using the firing to once again attack the russia investigation as a witch hunt and a hoax. >>> deadly intentions. stealing an airliner and taunts controllers flying wildly. how did he pull it off? did he intend from the start to take his own life? wolf blitzer is off today. i'm jim sciutto and you're in "the

jim sciutto is there for us today. so the prosecution was on schedule to rest today before the delay. any word on what that was about? >> it's a mystery and the judge has instructed the discussions be kept between the judge and lawyers involved. we're reading tea leaves based on what the judge said after that delay. he gave instructions that said a couple things. one, don't speak about this trial or your thoughts about this trial and in his words keep an open mind. it gives an indicator that one of the jurors did or said something that is outside the rules, jurors aren't allowed to talk to anybody about the case or watch the news. that's a possibility but we don't know because the judge is keeping the details secret. we know they came back to court and dove back into things in the afternoon so whatever the issue was, it doesn't appear it was severe enough to stop the trial. you've had trials go to mistrials because of misbehavior. >> and once it resumed there was testimony suggesting manafort's role managing the trump

go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free. >>> back now with jim sciutto and harry litman. men. so jim, rick gates was part of the trump campaign for longer than manafort. and prosecutors have said russia won't come up at this trial. but should trump's attorneys worry ability what more gates could tell mueller. >> well, that's been a running question for a number of months here, right? you have two ongoing trials one in alexandria, one in washington. those are purely about their business practice, alleged illegal business dealings prior to their work for the trump campaign. but as manafort is the former trump campaign chairman is facing if he's convicted of these crimes, the reasonable question is is that pressure the special counsel might use to extract information or is it incentive to extract information regarding the president if paul manafort is aware of any wrongdoing by the president? of course rick gates who was deputy to paul manafort arguably equally close, he's already a cooperating witness. you don't need flip him. he's cooperating with federal investigators at l

let's bring in our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto, april ryan, and rick wilson. good morning to all of you. jim, paul manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison. the trial is a huge test. this is a test for robert mueller. right? >> it is. let's be clear. the message you'll hear from the president and many of his loyalists is this is not connected at all to trump or to russia, but let's go through the facts here. you did a good job of listing the number of criminal charges he's facing in two courts. this is just the first of two trials here. this was the president's campaign chairman. the president chose him specifically to help him secure the republican nomination. so he was not an insignificant player in the trump campaign. he was at the top of the trump campaign for a number of months before he was forced out. that's one. two, it does have to do with russia, because paul manafort was getting paid millions of dollars to work on behalf of the pro russian president of ukraine. this was a president of ukraine who did the kremlin's bidding in ukraine and wa

jim sciutto. thanks very much for joining us. ues right now. >>> jim, thank you so much. hi, everyone. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you so much for joining me. this is cnn and this is where we begin. we're going to begin by putting the last 48 hours just into perspective. the president's former campaign chairman waiting to learn the verdict in his criminal trial. one of his fired aides still releasing secret tapes. a massive group of american journalists uniting against the president's assault on facts. a mass group of former intelligence officials uniting against the president's assault on free speech and the man who orchestrated the raid that killed osama bin laden daring the president to

jim sciutto.hank you very much. >>> how is robert mueller going to treat president trump's admission that the purpose of the trump tower meeting with the russians was to get dirt on hillary clinton? >>> plus, the first lady forges her own course and publicly contradicts the president yet again. my grandma. - anncr: as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. - learning from him is great... when i can keep up! - anncr: thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. - dad's got all the answers. - anncr: prevagen is now the number-one-selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. - she outsmarts me every single time. - checkmate! you wanna play again? - anncr: prevagen. healthier brain. better life. i can do more to lower my a1c. and i can do it with what's already within me. because my body can still make its own insulin. and once-weekly trulicity activates my body to release it. trulicity is not insulin. it comes in a once-w

our coverage continues now with jim sciutto next door in "the situation room." thank you for watching. >>> happening now. breaking news. enemies list. president trump makes a direct move against his critics revoking the security clearance of the former cia director john brennan and threatening several other former national security officials. like richard nixon, does president trump now have an enemies' list? >>> outsmarted by omarosa? did president trump take this unpress departmented action to attempt to change the subject after being put on the defensive by a former aide and former "apprentice" star? as one fox news host put it, was the president outsmarted by omarosa? >> ton of bricks, a new threat from the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani warning if special counsel robert mueller does not finish his investigation within the next couple of weeks, quote, we will just unload on him like a ton of bricks. >>> and, closing arguments, the jury will now consider the fate of trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort. both sides wrapped up the closing

our coverage continues with jim sciutto next door in "the situation room." thank you for watching. we'll see you tomorrow. >>> happening now, breaking news. no guarantee. white house press secretary sarah sanders says she cannot guarantee that no recording exists of president trump using a racial slur. but other secret recordings have triggered a nasty response by the president. interviewed by mueller, omarosa makes a stunning revelation of speaking to robert mueller. what could the long time trump associate tell the special counsel? >>> reality bites. two former reality stars go at it tooth and nail. president trump unleashing a twitter tirade against contestant omarosa calling her a crazed, crying lowlife and a dog. is he afraid of what her next secret tape could reveal? >>> no defense. former trump campaign chairman paul manafort tells the judge he does not want to take the stand and his defense team rests without calling a single witness or presenting a case. is there a strategy at work here? wolf blitzer is off today. i'm jim sciutto and you're in "the situation room." >>> thi

i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington. wherever you're watching from, thanks for joining us. any minute now, defense attorneys will get their final chance to make ex-trump campaign chairman paul manafort a free man. prosecutors made their closing argument just a short time ago this morning. it took them some 90 minutes. and they methodically laid out their case. the prosecutor tells jurors at one point, quote, mr. manafort lied to keep more money when he had it and he lied to get more money when he didn't. this is a case about lies. cameras are not allowed inside that alexandria, virginia, courtroom, but we've had reporters inside from start to finish detailing and dissecting every word. shimon prokupecz has been following this trial for uincluding being inside there. shan wu, former federal prosecutor turned defense attorney. he previous served as attorney for manafort's former business partner rick gates. shimon, the final word from the prosecution here, emphasizing that word lies. >> yeah. quite a number of times. and r

jim sciutto, thank you very much. let's dig deeper into all of this. jeffrey toobin is joining us. how unusual is it for a federal judge to admonish a prosecutor like this? and how unusual is it for that same judge to then apologize in front of the jury? >> judge ellis is a bully and a disgrace. his behavior in the courtroom is appalling. there are many ways that judges can keep a disciplined courtroom that can move cases along quickly without berating and embarrassing the lawyers, especially when the judge was wrong. the issue that came up was, he yelled at the prosecutors because they allowed an expert witness to remain in the courtroom and listen to other testimony, but he had previously allowed expert witnesses, explicitly said it was okay for them to be in the courtroom. and grudging hi the iningly thi said, well, probably i was wrong. not probably, definitely he was wrong. it is unusual because most judges are better and less arrogant than this judge is. you know, i don't think it will affect the outcome of the trial, but i think it's a poor model in a high profile case. >> l

i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington.r you're watching from, thanks for joining us. any minute now, defense attorneys will get their final chance to make ex-trump campaign chairman paul manafort a free man. prosecutors made their closing argument just a short time ago this morning. it took them some 90 minutes. and they methodically laid out their case. the prosecutor tells jurors at one point, quote, mr. manafort lied to keep more money when he had it and he lied to get more money when he didn't. this is a case about lies.

. >>> first let's go to jim sciutto who's outside the courthouse in alexandria, virginia. the trial just ended at least for this day. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. really, the focus today by paul manafort's attorneys is to attack the credibility of rick gates as the primary witness against paul manafort, repeatedly asking the question, why the jury should trust rick gates since he has lied before, specifically, in fact, pleading guilty of lying to the special counsel's office. rick gates replying to that saying, i'm taking responsibility now. i'm trying to make a change but the defendant attorney pressing and pressing repeatedly during that exchange. rick gates has said he has spoken with the special counsel's office sum 20 times. the focus today really from gates is a accounting for providing details on the criminal scheme that he says he and paul manafort developed together. tonight star witness rick gates back on the stand admitting during a harsh cross-examination to having an extra marital affair a decade ago but denying accusations by paul manafort's lawyer that h

i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington.ver you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. show of force, a dozen of america's former senior intelligence officials uniting and rising up against the president's security clearance moves. this as we learn there are even more to come. plus, the president cancelling his own plan for a military parade. hear who and what he blames for the sudden reversal. and disturbing word from the pentagon that china is likely training pilots to target the u.s. with

i am jim sciutto. and you're in "the situation room". ♪ >>> and the breaking news. former cia director john brennan says americans should be, quote, gravely worried about president trump's unprecedented move to punish him for speaking out against the administration calling it abuse of power. brennan and others in the intel aren't buying that he did it to protect classified information. sources say the president didn't bother to consult the director of national intelligence. i am told the cia caught off guard as well, suggesting national security was not foremost on the kmancommander i chief's mind. we have correspondents and analysts standing by. first, the cnn white house correspondent indicakaitlin col. >> reporter: it is hard to ignore as the white house is trying and struggling to maintain the fallout from omarosa's tell all book, adding to the mystery is a date on the statement announcing he is revoking john brennan's security clearance, and the date is july 26th, three weeks ago. the white house

i am jim sciutto. thanks for watching. >>> erin burnett outfront starts right now. >>> outfront next, breaking news, abuse of power. former cia director john brennan ripping into president trump after he revokes brennan's security clearance. why is trump making this unprecedented move tonight? >>> plus, the white house is already under fire for whether the president said the "n" word, now requested about lack of diversity. >>> and andrew cuomo's critics pouncing after he said america was never that great. what does this mean for the potential candidate. let's go outfront. good evening. outfront, breaking news. president trump going after his enemies in an unprecedented way tonight. the president today truly is unprecedented what he did to former cia director john brennan. according to brennan after he revoked the clearance, he didn't inform him. he let him find out through television. >> i was called by a friend and associa associate when sarah huckabee sanders was giving that statement so i had no kno

i'm jim sciutto. thanks for watching tonight.burnett "outfront" starts right now. >> "outfront" next, no gaurn teesz. sarah sanders unable to say the president has never used the n word despite trump's adamant denial. why not? >>> trump lashing in and out another vicious attack calling omarosa a dog. the white house says it's not about race. >>> jim mattis undand what this accused

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> jim set the stage. i want to dig deeper.th me, alan dershowitz, author of the case against impeaching trump. also john dean. professor dershowitz, the president continues to call the entire russia situation a hoax, a witch hunt. he sometimes just focuses on the notion of collusion as being the hoax and the witch hunt but oftentimes he just paints a very broad picture of it like that. it does seem to ignore the fact that mueller has already brought dozens of criminal charges against more than 20 defendants, including four trump associates. >> well, i think more important, his own intelligence agencies have warned us about continuing russian attempts to intervene in the election. i give much more weight to that than i do to indictments. indictments are, after all, just charges. they haven't been proved. but the intelligence agencies who are appointed by president trump are saying categorically that there is a continuing and ongoing effort to intrude into the election. and so i think that has to be taken pretty much as a given

. >> jim sciutto, you wanted to jump in? >> just on that point. to be clear, the president can revoke anybody's security clearance. he's within the bounds of his power here, much like the president can fire his fbi director, right? why he does it is another question. we know that that's a subject of investigation by the special counsel, as to what the president's motivations were on that. but on this issue, it is up to the president to do it. he does not have to consult his senior-most intelligence officials. that said, it is relevant that he did -- he chose not to consult his senior-most intelligence adviser here, in this case the director of national intelligence, because you might guess or assume or expect that if these clearances are being revoked or studying being revoked for a national security or intelligence reason, you might seek the advice of your senior-most intelligence official to say, is this person a security risk? that is something we know the president did not do with the dni, with the director of national intelligence. i've asked

jim sciutto, thanks very much. want to bring in our legal team, former federal prosecutor jennifer rodgers and another former federal prosecutor, cnn analyst renato mariotti. renato, you said rick gates was the most important gates in the manafort trial by far. there was an accountant in the last couple of days who testified. how damaging was his testimony today saying he lied at the direction of mr. manafort, and because the defense was going to bring it up, prosecutors wanted to get it out as quickly as possible from rick gates that he lied to manafort and stole from manafort and broke the law. >> well, very important testimony, anderson. there's no question that it was important. one of the key things that gates did is he said on the witness stand that he committed crimes along with paul manafort. i will tell you from my experience trying white collar cases, it is always very damaging to the defendant when a flipper, a cooperator like mr. gates takes the stand and says i committed crimes. so did that man, and he

jim sciutto is at the courthouse now.about more about what gates said on the stand. >> sitting in that courtroom today, i was a few inches from paul manafort, a few feet from rick gates. as he walked through just the details of the what he said was a criminal scheme, set up by himself and paul manafort to defraud the u.s. government. fake invoice, fake consultant agreements, fake documents to banks, all to get loans illegally, but also to avoid u.s. taxes. funnel these millions of dollars they were getting from the pro-russian government in ukraine away from u.s. talkses to offshore accounts. that was the focus today of gates' testimony. the defense attorney trying to poke holes in that testimony by questioning gates' credibility, saying if you've lied before, and remember gates has admitted to lying to federal prosecutors, if you lied before, why should the jury believe you now? and gates saying effectively, listen, i'm taking responsibility for this now. and that's why the jury should believe me. >> do we know how paul

from our partners at c-n-n reporter jim sciutto has more.lara trump / president trump's daughter-in-law: "listen, obviously, with, like, 'the new york times' article and stuff, you know, it's, it's - " omarosa manigault-newman: "what's the new york times article?"lara trump / president trump's daughter-in-law: "the one that -- the one that -- it was in the new york times today. i guess you didn't - with maggie haberman, or they wrote about you. it sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things you've got in the back pocket to pull out. clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can't have -- we got to - "omarosa manigault-newman: "oh, god, no."lara trump / president trump's daughter-in-law: "everybody positive, right? so, the only thing that we have to consider, where we're talking salary, as far as the campaihign ing is public. um, and that all the money that we raise and that pays salaries is directly from donors. small donor dollars for the most part."lara trump / president trump's daughter-in-law: "so i know you we

i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us today. sad news today. aretha franklin, a titan of music, the undisputed queen of soul, is gone. ♪ ♪ what a voice, what a legacy, what an inspiration, an influence on our country. aretha franklin dead at the age of 76, this after a hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer. she leaves behind a sprawling catalog of classic, inspiring songs, including, of course, "respect," "think," "i say a little prayer," and "natural woman." her performances just powerful. ♪ oh beautiful for spacious skies ♪ ♪ for amber waves of grain ♪ for purple mountain majesties ♪ ♪ above the fruited plain ♪ america america god shed his grace on thee ♪ >> you saw some tears there. she inspired tears from so many who listened to her during her 50-year career. she earned every accolade imaginable. an astounding 18 grammy awards, 112 charted singles. also the honor of being the first woman inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. o

jim sciutto is back in for jake tapper today. the lead starts now. >>> thank you, brook.is coming for the president. one trump ally reportedly says -- president trump tweeting furiously with little regard for the truth, the day after news his white house counsel is on the way out with lot of answers. >>> decades of dirt. a new report says president trump tried to buy and kill stories about old presidents women going back to the '80s. >>> p

." >> i'm jim sciutto in

jim sciutto. thanks very much for joining us. the news on cnn continues right now. >>> jim, thank you so much. hi, everyone. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you so much for joining me. this is cnn and this is where we begin. we're going to begin by putting the last 48 hours just into perspective. the president's former campaign chairman waiting to learn the verdict in his criminal trial. one of his fired aides still releasing secret tapes. a massive group of american journalists uniting against the president's assault on facts. a mass group of former intelligence officials uniting against the president's assault on free speech and the man who orchestrated the raid that killed osama bin laden daring the president to revoke his security clearance. that's where we begin. just a short time ago the president spoke on camera for the first time that he withdrew the clearance from former cia director john brennan. here he was. >> there's no silence. if anything i'm giving him a bigger voice. many people doesn't even know who he is and now he ha

jim sciutto is here. we begin with breaking news. a day after the president trump revoke john brennan's security clearance and ordering the review of many others. here is their lead tonight. president trump told advisers he's eager to strip more security clearances and against foes who criticized him or played the role of the alleged interference of the 2016 election. josh is sharing the line and he joins by phone. >> josh dawsey. >> you saw sarah sanders yesterday recited a list of who he would put away and it seem that is the president is determined to make that happen. >> so the list that sarah sanders read from the podium or yesterday rather including james clapper and james comey and the fbi director that trump fired and andrew mechanic caccabe. to your knowledge, the people who are on that list who are next in line or could expand beyond that? >> that's our knowledge. folks inside the white house are trying to analyze each of these cases. if we were stripping the clearance, what rational and what reasons would we have. yesterda

." >> i'm jim sciutto in for erin burnett. long-time lobbyist samuel patton in court for failing to register as a foreign agent and he helped funnel foreign money to the trump i inauguration. today they called the indictment irrelevant. >> what does this have to do with president trump? not a single thing. it doesn't have to do with collusion. >> he joins a growing list of people from trump's orbit that have reached a deal with prosecutors. these are real investigations resulting in real charges. yet trump's legal team is working overtime to try to discredit robert mueller's investigation. cnn learning tonight that rudy giuliani is now crafting a report which will attempt to rebut mueller's potential findings. an investigation that the president already calls illegal as well as this. >> look, i say it, i say it again, that whole situation is a rigged witch hunt. it's a totally rigged deal. >> a democrat-inspired witch hunt. >> the repeated attacks and threats by this president do not seem to be working with most americans, acc

i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us. we begin with breaking news. the defense in paul manafort's tax and bank fraud trial has rested without calling any witnesses. manafort telling the judge himself he did not want to take the stand. that now sets the stage for closing arguments tomorrow morning. with me now is shimon prokupecz, who's been following the trial. also, michael zeldin, a former federal prosecutor and former special assistant to robert mueller at the justice department. shimon, if i could begin with you first. just to highlight this, this is the president's former chairman of his campaign, charged with multiple crimes here. his defense in effect cannot mount a defense or refusing the opportunity to mount a defense here. >> certainly refusing the opportunity. the jurors will be told and have been told that there's no obligation for a defense for the attorneys to put on any kind of defense. i think it's certainly shocking that th

." >>> jim sciutto in for erin burnett. illegal investigation. president trump telling bloomberg tonight he views robert mueller's investigation as illegal, refusing to say if he will comply with a subpoena to answer questions. this as mr. trump is now claiming inexplicably what he said on camera about why he fired former fbi director james comey is not real. the president claiming in a tweet that reads in part lester holt got caught fudging my tape on russia, they were hurt badly. fudging his tape on russia. what trump is referring to is his may 2017 interview with lester holt, an interview in which he contradicted his own white house. his administration had claimed the president fired comey due to a recommendation from deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, criticizing comey's handling of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. but that is not what trump told lester holt two days after removing comey. here's a clip from the extended interview which nbc released. >> he made a recommendation but regardless of recommendation i was going to fire

good evening, jim sciutto here sitting in for anderson tonight. we begin with breaking news, a day after president trump revoked cia director john brennan's security clearance and ordered a review of nine others, the "washington post" reporting tonight he may soon be taking more action. here is their lead tonight. president trump told advisors he is eager to strip more security clearances as escalating attack against foes that criticized him or played a role in the alleged interference in the 2016 election according to two white house officials. the post, josh, shares the byline, joins me now by telephone. tell me what you're learning tonight. >> what we're learning is the president is not done. still actively looking to strip clearances from officials he thinks have wronged him or been at the heart of the russia investigation. we cited a list of officials who he would like. it seems that the president is determined to make that happen. >> so, the list that sarah sanders read from the podium two days ago, yesterday rather, included james clapper,

jim sciutto is back in for jake tapper today. the lead starts now. >>> thank you, brook. winter is coming for the president. one trump ally reportedly says -- president trump tweeting furiously with little regard for the truth, the day after news his white house counsel is on the way out with lot of answers. >>> decades of dirt. a new report says president trump tried to buy and kill stories about old presidents women going back to the '80s. >>> plus his way -- ♪ my way >> tears, final good byes, a few laughs and tributes as john mccain is remembered in his beloved arizona exactly how he wanted it to be. >>> welcome to "the lead." president trump on a twitter tear ripping the russia investigation and insisting the white house council don mcgahn's exit has nothing to do with the russia probe yet it comes after he spoke to special counsel investigators voluntarily for more than 30 hours, the extent of which rattled the president, sources tell cnn. meanwhile, as the white house counsel is on his way out multiple sources tell cnn there is growing unease inside the west wing a

jim sciutto, cnn, at the courthouse in virginia. >>> president trump is prepared to meet with kim jong-uny point. that is according to u.s. national security advisor john bolton. and he told fox news that the president is not alone. >> the secretary of state mike pompeo is prepared to go back to north korea to meet with kim jong-un. we've proposed that in our most recent letter from the president to kim jong-un. the president is prepared to meet at any point. but what we really need is not more rhetoric. what we need is purchase from north korea on denuclearization. >> let's bring in cnn's will ripply who joins us now live from hong kong. good to see you, will. why are we seeing this push for a second summit with kim jong-un given very little progress was achieved as a result of the first summit. what are the benefits and what are the drawbacks for doing this? >> well, the north koreans blame the united states for lack of progress since the first summit. they feel since his most recent trip to pyeongyang mike pompeo went in there what they view with a list of demands. and yet the north ko

let's turn to chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. how extraordinary was it for the 15 former officials signing on to the letter? almost seems like every day there's something unprecedented that happens in terms of the pushback of the intelligence community to the president. >> reporter: it belies the president's claim of partisan politics here, former officials who have an agenda. when you look at that list of officials on the list, they served republican and democratic presidents, they have decades -- we did a count. nearly 300 years of experience in national security. and on the front lines literally of many, many of the operations, counter terrorism operations, overseeing those through the years so you cannot look at this group and say that this is a partisan group that has a bias against the president. so that is remarkable. you can now add to the list someone who was a supporter of the president's in the campaign. jim woolsey. former director of the cia. he didn't sign on to the letter because he wasn't reached in time and relea

. >>> first let's go to jim sciutto who's outside the courthouse in alexandria, virginia.ded at least for this

. >>> good evening, i'm jim sciutto in tonight for erin burnett. outfront

i'm jim sciutto in for wolf. thanks for joining us. the fbi fires the agent who sent anti-trump text messages and was once part of the mueller investigation. now the president is responding with a big suggestion. >>> the west wing drama, the president now firing back at omarosa after she reveals another tape, this one of a call that she had with president trump himself one day after she was fired. was any of this illegal? >>> and giuliani contradicts giuliani. the president's lawyer completely backtracking on whether the president spoke with james comey about backing off the investigation into michael flynn. we begin today with the breaking news. the fbi agent peter strzok has been fired for sending anti-trump texts to his then-colleague lisa page ahead of the 2016 presidential election. once those messages were brought to light, strzok was taken off robert mueller's special counsel team and moved to a different position. the decision to fire him was finalized just on friday. cnn crime and justice correspondent shimon prokupecz joins m

i'm jim sciutto, and you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> and breaking tonight, president trump is gloating about the firing of the fbi agent who disparaged him in text messages, using it to unleash another rant against the russia investigation. but peter struck's lawyer is warning that his client's ouster flies in the face of bureau protocol and should be deeply troubling to all americans. as mr. trump slams a veteran law enforcement official he's also trying to vilify would russians show how the russians turned on him. omarosa m omarosa m omarosa manigault has now released a secret recording. first to cnn white house correspondent katelyn collins who has more on president trump versus omarosa. katelyn, this is really ugler than an episode of the apprentice. >> reporter: well, jim, it's a fight only two former reality tv stars could have. the president alleging one of his former highest paid staffers here in the white house is a whacko, that would be omarosa manigault-newman who is making allegations of her own about the president and revealing

jim sciutto has some additional reporting to layer into this news we were all just hit with. what do you have? >> reporter: brooke, i'm told by an official with knowledge that the director of national intelligence, dan coats, the nation's most senior intelligence official, and i should remind people, an official appointed by president trump, dan coats was not consulted by the white house or the president on this decision to revoke the former cia director, john brennan's clearance. remarkable. considering this is presumably an intelligence decision. and let's just be clear. that the decision to revoke clearances is normally reserved for situations in which someone abuses that clearance by, for instance, revealing classified material. this one. because when you go through that list of officials, brooke, you mentioned, john brennan, who has had it revoked already, but james clapper, james comey, sally yates. the one thing they have in common, of course, is public criticism of this president. this appears to be a political decision, not an intelligence decision. and perhaps backi

joining us now to discuss all of this, cnn's chief national security correspondent jim sciutto, our legal analyst and defense lawyer, ross garber, and cnn's chief political analyst gloria borger. it sounds like this is a pretty incriminating series of events. >> sure, it is, because the president effectively came out and said this was not a meeting about russian adoptions. this was a meeting about getting dirt on hillary clinton. we know that the statements that were made about the president dictating that statement on air force one were intentionally misleading. we know that. they've tried to correct the record. there's a question about whether the president would have to testify on this. will he talk to mueller about this? is this something in these negotiations that his lawyers would allow him to answer questions on? i kind of doubt it. maybe in writing. and then there's also the other question. we have reporting from jake and kaitlan about him being worried about don junior. by the way, the cfo of the trump organization is also talking to the special counsel. so there's a lot of stuff

our coverage continues with jim sciutto next door in "the situation room." thank you for watching.news. no guarantee. white house press secretary sarah sanders says she cannot guarantee that no recording exists of president trump using a racial slur. but other secret recordings have triggered a nasty response by the president. interviewed by mueller, omarosa makes a stunning revelation of speaking to robert mueller. what could the long time trump associate tell the special counsel? >>> reality bites. two former reality stars go at it tooth and nail. president trump unleashing a twitter tirade against ta

. >> good evening, i'm jim sciutto in for erin burnett. out front a significant white house shakeup. in a surprise announcement on twitter, president trump revealing that white house counsel don mcgahn will be leaving his position in the fall. now mcgahn may know better than anyone else whether the president obstructed justice. in fact it was just 11 days ago we learned mcgahn had been cooperating extensively with the special counsel. three voluntary interviews lasting all told some 30 hours. yet today trump telling reporters that he's not concerned. >> very good man. don, excellent guy. yeah, don mcgahn is a really good guy. been with me for a long time, privately before this he represented me. he's been here now it will be almost two years. >> any concern about what you said to the mueller team? >> no, not at all. not at all. i knew he was going also. i had to approve it. so we didn't claim executive -- no, i don't have to be aware. we have -- we do everything straight. we do everything by the book. don is an excellent guy. >> only when

good evening, jim sciutto here sitting in for anderson tonight.esident trump revoked cia director john brennan's security clearance and ordered a review of nine others, the "washington post" reporting tonight he may soon be taking more action. here is their lead