nbc intelligence and national reporter ken delaney. hallie, the president denying there was any problem here, saying everyone does it. putting the best possible face on it at the joint news conference. still having this russian controversy, if not scandal overshadowing a big day in paris. >> reporter: and memorable bastille day here in paris as well. the news conference that you reference in which president trump essentially said the meeting was politics as usual, happened 18 hours before this morning's latest development and our exclusive reporting here at nbc news. the president said this is opposition research. what has raised red flags with people on capitol hill is the fact that this meeting with the russian lawyer, and now we have learned that there was another person in that meeting, in addition to that one other person, too. i want to get my thoughts together here. you described this person as a russian born american lobbyists. he actually spoke with the associated press. he confirmed to the ap he was involved in this meeting.

officials, let's bring in ken delaney, national intelligence reporter for ms nbc, ken, i am skimming the story now. i think along with a lot of people out there. what can you tell us about what exactly is being reported here? >> reporter: sure, steve, i'll bottom lean it for you. this is a major development. there is an important qualification here. this story says the russian ambassador sergei kislyak told his superiors that he and jeff sessions had this conversation and that that was picked up by american intelligence agencies. it doesn't prove the conversation actually happened and sessions admirably denies it. this goes back to the april 2016 encounter at the mayflower hotel that other news organizations reported on. we reported a few weeks ago, congress and the fbi were interested in this meeting. don't forget, there was a trump campaign event at this hotel, sergei kislyak the russian ambassador was there. there was a vip session. jeff sessions was there jared kushner was there. sessions said he had no meaningful encounter with kislyak during this event. that's where it stood. t

joining me is ken delaney, and a former senior adviser at the state department. ken, let me start with you. former soviet counter-intelligence official suspected of having ongoing ties to russian intelligence. this guy he mentionled, what exactly can you tell us about him and the issue there being suspected connections to russian intelligence in the presence tense, flesh thattous a little for us, if you will. >> i will, steve, it's important to note we don't know the evidence on. that as you pointed out there senator grassley's office has made those allegations, we have no idea what they're based on. i think the most important thing to know about him he is a classic operation operator, he is russian born, he had came to the u.s., became a u.s. citizen, he's been an operator in the shadows in walk for years, lobbying for various causes, some of which have to do with russian-americans and russianles, on occasion he has been on the other side of the putin government. you know, he's an interesting guy who tends to do kind of political intelligence work, in corporate i

thanks to our own ken delaney.hat having been said joining us tonight to talk about it bloomberg white house correspondent shannon is back with us. latest report tonight and asking her about it the second role at trump jr. meeting and raises questions new to the broadcast politics i had for for the root jason johnson is with us and long-term libertiarian radio talk show motivate. jason you get to go first. we saw just that relatively small sampling of gop members of congress. but we know they represent a larger group. we also know that the russian obsession is not shared by the trump base. so are there republicans you are watching who will be important if they turn a little bit if something comes along that maybe makes them angry at all of this even if it's just we're not getting anything passed? >> yeah, brian, i think most of those things are likely to happen. number one, the republicans in the house and senate right now they're still just really trying to get an agenda through. they'll tolerate this until they t

joining me now, ken delaney and nbc's intelligence and national supporter. n, great to have you here this morning. >> good to be with you, dara. >> rinat akhmetshin also attended that june 9th, 2016 meeting donald trump jr. had with russian attorney natalia veselnitskaya. what do we know about this second russian? >> well, ranat was born in russia. he did a stint in the soviet military as a counterintelligence sergeant. i wouldn't read too much into what. he then moved at some point to the the united states, got oouz citizenship and has been working for many years as a lobbyist/fixer in washington, kind of in the shadowss, often for russian interests, sometimes on behalf of the putin government or at least causes near and dear to the putin dwoft. in recent years, he's been lobbying along with this lawyer on these magnitsky act sanctions. he says that's one of the reasons he was in the room with -- at trump tower with the trump teal. there's an entirely different story coming out of those e-mails from goldstone. but rinat, the fact that his presence at the mee

contributor at usa today, joining us from washington nbc news intelligence and national security reporter ken delaneys through this reporting step by step. with we now have our first reaction from the white house, but from donald trump jr.'s camp there. >> reporter: that's right, willie. i think this adds another layer of intrigue to this mysterious meeting. there the a real disconnect between the promise in the e-mail from goldstone about what he and his father said they had on hillary clinton. it seemed very significant. then what we are learning about this meeting an what was said in the meeting. now, this russian-american lobbyist who accompanied the russian lawyer to the meeting, it's not clear what the impact of that is. it will certainly be of interest to investigators. just because it wasn't disclosed. now, we are learning new information about it. but you know, according to lawyer in her comments to nbc news, they were talking about this set of sanctions under the magnitsky act which goes to this russian adoption issue. they didn't really have significant derogatory information about hillary

kristen welker is still in paris, ken delaney in washington, charlie savage author of "power wars," and steve lavine. i'm sorry if i messed up the title of your book. we're just learning about two more people that could have been in that june 2016 meeting, what else do we know? >> we know that russian attorney, painted as being linked to the kremlin, had two people with her. we don't know the identity of one of the people we know the other was the person you mention thad is characterized as an american born lobbyist that was a soviet intelligence official. some u.s. officials still believe he still has links to intelligence officials in russia. that is something that he denied. here is the bottom line. it raises a number of questions about that big word you were talking about. the fact that donald trump junior, the white house saying he is being incredibly tra transtransparent. the purpose of the meeting was said to talk about russian adoptions. we now know that is just not the case. in an e-mail he was promised damaging information about hillary clinton. he says he did not accept any.

. >> joining me right now from aspen, colorado, is nbc's ken delaney. and ken, are we to believe that kislyak -- what kislyak said, i guess, to the kremlin was actually what was discussed between him and jeff sessions? >> reporter: that's the big question, jacob, and if it's true, it's a big problem for jeff sessions. the problem is, how do you prove or find out whether it's true or not? current and former intelligence officials have told me that it's not unprecedented for the russian ambassador or other ambassadors to report falsely back home either for disinformation reasons or just because he was exaggerating the nature of the meeting. you know, at the same time, this poses a huge challenge to jeff sessions who's adamantly denied that he had these kind of substantive conversations with the russian ambassador. don't forget, he already had though correct his testimony under oath about his contacts with the ambassador. he first said he had no contacts with russians during the campaign, then had to admit that he had at least two and now the question is, w

. >> that was our friend and colleague ken delaney of nbc news. talking about the broad powers of the commander in chief for security clearances among other things. house democrats today introduced two amendments in an attempt to strip jared kushner of the security clearance. but of course they're in the minority and blocked by republicans. this after "the new york times" reported and nbc news has since confirmed the updates to kushner's federal disclosure form. quote, mr. kushner supplemented the list of foreign contacts three times, adding more than 100 names people close to him said. joining our conversation tonight former federal prosecutor and assistant watergate prosecutor nick ackerman back with us. julie pace and eli stokeles have been kind enough to hang out a bit longer. nick, tell us about this form. tell us how rare it is to come back, amended it once, amend it twice more and add 100 foreign contacts. >> i mean that in itself as far as i'm concerned proves that he lied. the way this form is presented to you, you do it online now. it's

national security reporter ken delaney broke that story. he is in washington. take us through who akhmetshin is. i read he is saying she a dad in d.c. who rides his bike around and takes his kid to school. why is he drawing this scrutiny? >> he is all of those things, he is also a washington-born fixer in the military, he served in a counterintelligence committee hunting for spies in the younger days, he moved to the united states, became a u.s. citizen and has worked in washington in the shadows, in corporate intelligence work, has represented russian olegar accounts and interests. he has been working on the magnitsky act. which is on the same side of the kremlin. although he claims he is not employed by the kremlin. up with of his presence is because it was concealed. we broke this story a day off don trump jr. western on and says i told you everything about the meeting. then this emerges about this other figure here. with an interesting and colorful resume. so you can just bet that bob mueller and other investigators will look very closely at his presence at

ken delaney. the president calling the story a hoax. but getting more developments as the hours go what do we have in terms of the latest. >> well richard if it's a hoax it's a hoax in in case perpetrated by friends of the trumps you have mr. goldstone the music promoter wrote the email telling don trump jr. that the russian government was offering derogatory information about hillary clinton. been don trump jr. took the meeting. now the story -- the news yesterday was the presence of the russian-born lobbyist who is interesting in his own right. what's perhaps most interesting about the presence was that it wasn't disclosed even after don trump jr. said i've told you everything there is to tell about the meeting. we're learning new things about it. and we're rinat akmetshin is the name of the lobbyist he did a stint in the intelligence. he is noun known as gun for hire. works with orlg arcing been accused of computer hacking although the accusations were withdrawn. and his presence at the meeting is adding a more intrigue sure to draw

we were talking to ken delaney, but again, we know jared kushner was involved in the campaign and nown government and had to fill out declarations of his involvement with meetings with russians. he did not disclose yet another meeting. >> that's right. there's a series of meetings that weren't disclosed but still, i don't think you can bypass what donald trump jr. did, what you have are the conspiracy statutes and you have an attempt to obtain something of value from a foreign country, a foreign add sers vary. that i'm sure is a concern of mueller and his group are looking into this. >> what happens from here? >> what happens, mueller will continue as a -- individuals attends the meetings would be called up to testify most likely have to take the fifth amendment and not testify -- >> why? >> the investigation goes on. but now for the white house to come outs and say this is russia fake news would be very difficult. >> and -- hold on, why? they are going to continue to want to say that. we just heard from ted cruz, when i go home to texas, people aren't asking about this, this is a was

holdn to your thought, because ken delaney at nbc intelligence and national security joins us now. ken dilanian. the russian lawyer comes over here for a meeting with donald trump jr., joined by paul manafort and jared kushner. is it possible, in your view, based upon your experience as well as your reporting, that she is just there to troll whatever interest there might be in the trump campaign about colluding with the russians to get information? >> well, mike, i mean, first we need to take a step back and remember what we're dealing with here. for months the trump campaign -- the trump administration has been saying there is no evidence of collusion, show us evidence of collusion. now we have for the first time in black and white evidence that they were put on notice back as far as june of 2016 that the russian government was interested in getting donald trump elected. that is really important. i think it's a game-changer in this russia saga. now, to your question, former intelligence experts i have talked to today, former cia officers who have served against the russia target sa

delaney. he has a new report that robert mueller is finding the strike zone. ken, what does that mean? >> it means there's been some reporting out today that the investigation is widening to include trump financial transactions and our reporting at nbc news is that it's always been in part about that. and that, you know, from day one in this inquiry, robert mueller and his team have been looking at financial transaction by donald trump and his associates, and paul manafort. for example, we know the senate is pouring through thousands of records from the treasurer department, from its money laundering agency regarding transactions of donald trump and his associates. and the investigation is building steam and mueller is gathering records. but we're not sure there's anything specifically new today that wasn't true yesterday. >> we learned yesterday from "the wall street journal" this is the story they did about paul manafort and what's being looked at, it says the snal committee has received reports from the treasury department's financial crimes enforcement new york to learn of any of d