ken dilanian, i'm coming to you. because don jr. was asked to attend by an acquaintance linked to the miss universe pageant and that was gold stone. he was asked by a russian client to arrange that talk. that client is emin agalarov. he performed at the pageant and his father has ties to vladimir putin. ken dilanian, do you see any red flags in the sequencing is there? >> well, sure. it's of great interest to mueller and the senate investigator investigators. ing a ayla rov operates with the permission of vladimir putin and he's boasted -- they have a deal with donald trump to build trump tower in moscow and that didn't come to fruition. he brought the pageant there. and that's interesting. it certainly -- you know, it raises questions about trump's claim he had no business connections to russia during the campaign. >> you heard jeremy said that the trump administration now has said again and again early on they had no contacts with anybody tied to russia with russian operatives if you will. here's what mike pence had to say back in

nbc's ken dilanian joins us from aspen, colorado. the president tweeting leaks must stop. what's the rebear on this new story about "the washington post" and u.s. spy agencies having monitored kislyak, who told moscow he had access to sessions and talked campaign details? >> reporter: thomas, this is a story that's been around for a while. if you recall, nbc news and other organizations reported on questions about a meeting sessions may or may not have had at the mayflower hotel with kislyak. "the washington post" is reporting there are intercepts suggesting kislyak reported back to his bosses in moscow that he spoke to sessions at that meeting at the mayflower and at another point during the republican convention, about trump campaign platforms and about the trump relationship with russia. that is contrary to what sessions has said. he adamantly denies that. the issue is this is what kislyak is saying to russia. this is not proof these conversations actually happened and sessions add maptly denies them. this is causing yet more concern about whether members of the trump t

let's bring in ken dilanian, national security reporter and susan glasser international affairs columnistmer moscow cobureau chief for "the washington post." ken, let me start with you. a lot of people in the intelligence world have looked at this meeting set up with the russian lawyer as perhaps a dangling of bait to see how the trump campaign might respond. how would that work exactly from the russian side? >> yeah, no, you're right. almost every current and former intelligence official i have talked to about this sees its the same way. they say this is right out of the russian playbook. using a family member who has a relationship with the russian business man or the pop single emin agalarov and his father who is an oligarch. so they're play on that familial connection and they offer a promise of some information and then you know the russian lawyer may or may not have been involved in that. her story is she came to talk about the sanctions and this russian adoption issue. see may have been a -- she may have been a dupe, but they send her in there to see whether -- i'm just repeating t

ken dilanian there for us in aspen, colorado. hank you so much, ken. >> thank you, sir. >>> let's bring in the washington bureau chief of "the chicago sun-times." lynn sweet. lynn, you heard the reporting coming out of ken here, statements being made there at the aspen security forum that have not been said before. as was said, this is not typical of those in the space, of intelligence, to really go off the script, not being, if you will, nonpartisan. not that he's being partisan politically here but certainly being critical of the way this administration has handled issues so far. >> i'm not surprised, richard, because they have been increasingly candid in their assessment of the trump administration, trump white house, and how they handle and deal with matters of intelligence and national security. one of the things our viewers might want to know is that at this aspen forum, it encourages, just by having all the reporters who cover national security and principal players there, it does create this environment where you get a far

ken dilanian, this is your reporting. what do we know about this meeting and do we have any idea why this former counterintelligence officer would have been in it? >> well, there's the official story and then there's the suspicions that people have. the official story is we're not -- rinat akhmetshin, this former intelligence officer has worked with the russian lawyer who went to the meeting on a lobbying campaign against magnitsky act sanctions for a long time and they're arguing against the sanctions to argue against the underlining story behind the sanctions. according to their accounts at the beginning of the news organization, according to her account to nbc news, they sought to bring to the trump campaign's attention some contributions to the democratic national committee that the trump campaign apparently wasn't very impressed with. donald jr. said, thanks, this isn't very much. now that's the story but that doesn't square though with the e-mails that came through rob goldstone from the agalarov family where they o

is nbc news intel and national security reporter who's been away too long from the 4:00 p.m., ken dilanianu're a sight for sore eyes in asp aspen. what do we know and do you think you'll show up? >> so in terms of don jr., and paul manafort nobody thinks they're going to show up at that senate judiciary committee hearing. they have been invited. they haven't agreed to come. and you know legal experts say it would be crazy for them to do that. to testify in public when they are under criminal investigation and anything they say, you know, as they say can and will be used against them. >> even i know that. so jared kushner is a different story though. he's expected to be interviewed by senate intel committee staff. what does that mean? >> that's right. well, legally there's no difference between an interview behind closed doors and a public open hearing. it's a crime -- whether you're under oath or not to lie to congress. and the difference really is that it's not going to be on television. the public's not going to get a chance to see the questions asked and the answers. we rarely hear from

i want to bring in ken dilanian because the stories not surprisingly came in, ken, when these investigationsotentially coming back into focus next week with jared kushner heading to a closed door meeting monday and at least the democrats on the judiciary committee saying they will exercise their subpoena power as manafort and donald trump jr. don't show up on wednesday. what do you know, ken? >> well, i'm here at the aspen security forum where almost every current and former head of an intelligence agency, law enforcement agency, is in attendance. i have to tell you, people are aghast, both democrats and republicans, about this talk of pardons and they're of a mind that this investigation has grown -- it's an extremely serious matter. it's a threat to the trump presidency. and you heard for example mike mccaul the republican chairman of the homeland security committee today told our own andrea mitchell that there would be a profound republican backlash if trump goes ahead and tries to fire mueller. we're hearing that privately from others here at this forum. so i think it's no surprise that

. >> well, nbc intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian is joining us from aspen, coloradoay to you there long distance, so this room in reaction to mr. clapper's comment, there was a little chuckling, but what was the undercurrent there? >> that sounded like a funny throwaway line but it's a serious concern that pervades this conference of national security professionals. i've been coming to this conference for eight years. generally terrorism and al qaeda and isis have dominated the concerns of people here. but this year it's trump and russia and what that has meant for american foreign policy and america's role in the world. that was a pretty extraordinary panel with the former head of the cia, former director of national intelligence, james clapper, really taking on trump in very direct almost personal terms for his disparagement of the intelligence community and his embrace of putin. so a lot of concern here among both republicans and democrats. >> i'm very curious, ken, if you take politics out of the picture, and i know that's difficult to do, but what are intelligen

joining me now, ken dilanian. big welcome back to the broadcast, ken. let's talk first about this lobbyist. who is he and what do we know about him? >> his name is rinet akmetshin and he was born in russia. he did a stint in a kgb unit that was hunting for spies but he was an enlisted person. it's not accurate to call him an intelligence officer. he moved to the united states, caught u.s. citizenship and became a rather well-heeled lobbyist in washington. but he doesn't represent little sisters of the poor or amazon, he's representing often russian oligarchs. not always in the interest of vladimir putin, sometimes on the other side but he has been accused in federal court papers of orchestrating a hacking campaign in a corporate espionage case on behalf of a russian billionaire. he denies that and the accusations were withdrawn. so he's a colorful character, operates in the shadows. his presence at this meeting, which was only revealed yesterday by nbc news, is really -- is significant and probably will be viewed with some scrutiny by investigators. >>

along with nbc intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian in d.c. and "washington post" white house bureau chief who has been writing feverishly over the last week, philip rucker. hallie, what do you make of president trump's i would say rather tame comments? >> well, let's at least say consistent, right? because this is what the president has said publicly at least for the last 24 hours or so. not just in interview with reuter but at air force one overnight. the president held an off the record 60 minute conversation with the small team of reporters, the pool they call it who travel with him. those -- some of those comments have been put on the record and it's very similar to what we heard from the president publicly and on camera today. consistently i would say. again, he seems to be saying the meeting happened. nobody disputes the meeting happened, because he has to, because donald trump jr. tweeted out the evidence that it occurred but also because nothing came of it. because there was no dirt on hillary clinton, it was just politics as usual. l

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 say this is exa

ken dilanian is an investigative reporter for nbc news. good morning to both of you. ken, you broke the story yesterday. rinet akmetshin, that lobbyist with reported ties to russian intelligence in that june meeting last year with donald trump jr. and the russian attorney. what more do we know about akmetshin and what more do we know about his role in that meeting. >> well, he's a political operator, he's a fixer, he's been called the gun for hire. he lobbies in the shadows which is probably not surprising that his role was the last to be unearthed in this meeting. we're not exactly sure whether he had a role in setting it up. we do know that he lobbied with this russian lawyer against sanctions called the magnitsky act and he's been doing that for years. that happens to be a cause that's near and dear to the heart of vladimir putin. now, he is suspected by some american officials of having ties to russian intelligence. he hotly denies that and we're really not sure what the state of the evidence is on that. but the fact that his role wasn't disclosed until yesterday i