it was kislyak who suggested kushner meet with the russian banker.t russian didn't mention either of these meetings on the white house clearance forms could be a concern. there's also concern the russian bank has been under u.s. sanction since july 2014 and when kushner met with gorkav he was still ceo and may have been looking for personal need. >> i have a feeling it related to financial issues citizens involved a russian bank but to his credit he's willing to testify on that issue chand i he the committee looks at the reasons why he engaged in that conversation. >> seems jared kushner who barely speaks a whisper in the president's ear may soon be called on to do a whole lot of talking. cnn new york. >>> late reporting from the wash post during meeting with kislyak that jared kushner suggested setting up secret communication system with moscow. steve hall, former cia, can you give us understanding, it's not like they're getting bits and pieces, it seems pretty const t constant. how reliable is it? >> i don't want to give away too much to the russia

in addition to the kislyak communication. >> right. as you say, some of that is now of "investigative interest." because of the nature and the approach to it. there are scoops, and then there are scoops. adam entiss with a very serious scoop, national security reporter for "the washington post," thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >>> we turn to michael mcfaul, former ambassador to russia. probably the perfect u.s. source on this. i wonder if we could start with the basics. on a scale of always to never, where does this proposal fit into your experience in u.s. diplomacy with russia? >> never. i've never heard of anybody asking to come to our embassy from russia to communicate with people back here in the united states, or vice versa. again, you know, this reporting sounds very credible to me. and this team from the "post" has done a fantastic job. this is strange so so many different levels, ari. let's start with the first one. i was also part of the obama transition team in 2008, i was the russia person. i then wt to the n

did donald trump know mike flynn was meeting with kislyak, his son-in-law was meeting with kislyak, and this back channel to russia was requested. looking at the way donald trump operates his white house i think both scenarios are plausible. it's plausible he didn't know, it's plausible he was briefed on it and did know. that's what the investigation i think is ultimately designed to get at, thomas. >> all right. we'll figures out who will ask the howard baker question coming up. great to see you, ken, thank you. happy memorial day weekend. >> you too. great to be with you. >> i want to bring in molly, congressional reporter at the hill and scott blands reporter at politico. great to see both of you. i hope you were able to hear what ken was saying there. with "the washington post" and its report, this is a bombshell and game changer if they are able to connect the dots like this, but again it goes back to the integrity of kislyak telling the truth. >> well exactly. if you talk to republican lawmakers up on capitol hill, like i've been doing this past few weeks, these leaks that are com

in addition to the kislyak communication. >> right.s you say, some of that is now of "investigative interest." because of the nature and the approach to it. there are scoops, and then there are scoops. adam entous with a very serious scoop, national security reporter for "the washington post." thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >>> we turn to michael mcfaul, former ambassador to rsia. probably the perfect.s. source on this. i wonder if we could start with the basics. on a scale of always to never, where does this proposal fit into your experience in u.s. diplomacy with russia? >> never. i've never heard of anybody asking to come to our embassy from russia to communicate with people back here in the united states, or vice versa. again, you know, this reporting sounds very credible to me. and this team from the "post" has done a fantastic job. this is really strange on so many different levels, ari. let's start with the first one. i was also part of the obama transition team in 2008. i was the russia person. i then went to th

wouldn't flynn have knowledge about kislyak, the long-time russian ambassador stationed here?i also wanted to comment on the carter page thing and say he has been very, very open about talking to the media and talking about the context that he did or didn't have, said he wasn't a foreign agent. he has openly on national television repeatedly talked about this. it would make sense to also go before this committee and say those exact things. if he's innocent, he's innocent. >> you're right. he will take a sit-down here and there and express himself about what his connections were as well as direct access within the trump team. now we have the issues, yamiche of the former deputy attorney general sally yates. she's going to testify. how much do you think of what sally yates is going to come to talk about is going to be solely based on the working knowledge of kislyak, flynn and other members of the trump transition team that are expected of having some alleged russian ties. >> her whole testimony from my understanding is going to be about this issue, about how much the trump admi

so this is kislyak reporting back to moscow. this is not the u.s. monitoring this meeting at trump tower, eavesdropping on u.s. officials in the u.s. this is kislyak calling moscow or communicating with moscow about what happens during this meeting. of course we know pretty well now that kislyak and his communications are under heavy surveillance by the united states. >> we also know -- i mean just a detail that strikes me as important about this meeting, that was a period of time in which lots of people were coming to trump tower and generally coming in the front, and there was a kind of almost like c-span camera in that front lobby where you could basically see the comings and goings. this clearly happened in a way in which kislyak entered the building without being caught on camera, correct? >> yeah. we've spent a lot of reporting energy trying to locate evidence of this visit, and you're right. so it appears in this case, kislyak didn't go through the same front door that so many other people did to meet with this trump team. >> so what is the r

the meeting was relayed back to russia by kislyak. it's important to note that russians will sometimes feed false information into communication because they are well aware that u.s. intel is listening in. according to the post, officials to "the washington post," officials believe the information he provided was a reliable characterization. the white house has declined the comment tonight. >> jared kushner's attorney has declined to comment as well. very, very thunderous silence, i should say. i understand the obama administration had concerns about ambassador kislyak's interactions with people on the trump transition team. what can you tell us about that? >> that's right. i'm told by former obama administration officials that they were alarmed by the interactions kislyak was having with members of the trump campaign in transition. and they took note of these i t interactions. when kislyak came to the white house, it was normally to be reprimanded. in contrant, members of the trump campaign and transition appeared to be meeting with

and overseas when kislyak finishes his conversation with a u.s. official, he'll often send a report to moscow. and the nsa might pick that up. >> all right. cnn is working to confirm "the washington post" story and seeking information from all involved. cnn washington correspondent ryan nobles is following this and joins me live now. ryan, what more do we know? >> this is important, fredricka, because it demonstrates there were officials inside the trump transition that were concerned about kislyak's role in the russian government and the conversations that flynn was having with kislyak. in addition to warning flynn that perhaps any conversation he had with kislyak could be picked up by american intelligence agencies, they also asked the obama administration for a full cia profile on sergey kislyak and actually gave that to michael flynn. what's not clear is whether or not flynn actually read that profile. and despite these warnings from not only trump transition officials but the obama administration, flynn continued in communication with kislyak

and then thirdly, his own meetings with russians, including sergey kislyak.the fbi wants to understand a little bit more about how that came to be. the fact is that jared kushner was in charge of the transition's foreign policy operation, and so they understand to understand a little bit more about that. again, all of these things are running all through -- all these different strands run directly through jared kushner, because he became such a big part of the campaign and a big part of the transition, anderson. >> and just in terms of his cooperation, they are willing to cooperate, correct? >> he says according to his lawyer, he says that he's willing to talk to anybody that wants to talk to him. he's already offered to speak to the congressional committees, who already have said that they want to talk to him. and it's just a matter of time before they can schedule those interviews. i believe the senate is going to be the first to actually talk to him. and then, you know, according to his lawyer, he is willing to talk to any investigator who wants to know mo

how trusted can kislyak be that this was an actual request?> reporter: thomas, current and former intelligence officials are describing this as opening a disturbing new chapter in this whole trump-russia saga. nbc news was the first to report that jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, is under fbi scrutiny in the fbi investigation. this report gives suggestions as to why. you have to consider the context. the u.s. intelligence community in october issued a statement unanimous and with high confidence that russia interfered in the election. the obama administration was regularlyriefing the trump team on intelligence including that tter. the trump team had former intelligence officers advising them. here you have jared kushner seeking to set up a back channel communication in what my sources tell me can only be an effort to evade u.s. monitoring. it raises the question, why would he do that? we have an explanation out of "the new york times" that it might have been briefing on syria. that makes no sense to me. it sounds like something mike

kislyak, the campaign surely would have known is a known figure with ties to the kgb. jared kushner is having multiple meetings, not just kislyak that are secretive and not disclosed and it was not just russian government but bankers with ties to the kgb. kushner not disclosing any of this in his forms. and then you have a story yesterday that is, you know, at best, you can say kushner was naive but the idea that the russians would open up their own apparatus, intelligence apparatus to a 30 something son-in-law of a president-elect, it so defies sort of any good explain swrags, that the best explanation for kushner at this stage is he's incredibly naive. >> i want to point out the report from reuters this morning as well so we tuned numbers. they are reporting 18 undisclosed calls or emails seven months prior to the election, six of those calls with kislyak, the fbi examining whether rurngs suggested to kushner or to others that relaxing economic sanctions would allow russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to the president. so clarify that, does this sugg

is it possible, you know, that the 36-year-old kislyak just doesn't understand how things work?ose it's possible. the darker interpretation, you have to remember, context actually, this time, after the president-elect said -- was making disparaging remarks about the intelligence community comparing them to nazis and things like that so it's possible kushner could have said we want to get this relationship going early, but we don't trust the obama folks still in charge so we need some sort of secret back channel to get things going. that's the darker interpretation. neither are very smart, neither are very -- you know, something you would recommend, but it's just sort of boggles the mind that these types of proposals and communications were going on. the back channel idea is not so weird. that happens. you don't really need a back channel with russia because you've got all sorts of communications. john brennan testified he called up the fsb director. there's all sorts of methodologies a government has, our government has, to communicate with russia. >> yeah. >> this is [ inaudibl

and kislyak was surprisesurpris. he was taken aback by that suggestion. >> when you say opening up a secret channel at the russian embassy in new york, how would that work? would people be going to the embassy to communicate? >> frankly, i don't know how they thought they would make this work. but i guess in theory, yes. somebody would have to go to the embassy and pick up the phone, and that would be a secure communication line. now, as i'm sure your viewers are aware, there are the white house, the state department, the cia. they all have secure communications systems, which the trump people could potentially use. so why they would be interested in doing so directly with the russians to bypass these established systems, that's quite bizarre and -- >> well, is there indication here that the motive or the thinking there is to avoid exactly what we're seeing here, that it's being listened in, it's being monitored by u.s. intel that would then leak it? >> i think the only reason you would have that discussion is if you

in fact, kislyak seemed taken aback by this request, based on how he's relaying this to moscow. he can't really believe, why would they want to do this? why are they asking for this? it seems strange to him. it doesn't fit in with him exaggerating his relationship with kushner or at that time really trying to... what would be the point of putting kushner in a vulnerable position this way? >> sreenivasan: one of the tidbits in your story was the "post" was first alerted of this in mid-december. why did it take so long to be alerted to this. >> my colleague got an anonymous letterment it arrived in her mailbox at "the post." she shared it with us. it described things that were happening in trump tower in the transition at that time. one of the things it mentioned was that there was a meeting, kushner, kislyak, flynn, and that this idea of setting up a secret channel was discussed. now, we had... there was no name attached to this. we had no idea who sent it. there was no way for us to get back in touch with whoever had done so. and so it just basically took a long time for us to g

it was kislyak who had suggested kushner meet with the russian banker.ushner didn't mention either of these meetings on his white house clearance forms may be a topic but he did rectify that. there's concern the russian bank has been under u.s. sanctions since july 2014. when kushner met with gorgov he was still ceo of kushner companies and the question remains was he looking for financing for a pricey manhattan project. the meeting itself didn't violate u.s. sanctions but investigators wants to know what was said. >> i have a feeling it related to financial issues. to his credit he's willing to testify on that issue and i hope that the committee really thoroughly looks at what the reasons were why he engaged in that conversation. >> reporter: seems that jared kushner, who rarely speaks beyond a whisper in the president's ear, may soon be called on to do a whole lot of talking. randi kaye, yn, new york. >> new reports and allegations surfacing daily with three major headlines breaking in the last 16 hours. that's not stopping republicans on capitol hill

kislyak? >> it would be completely proper for some of them to have meetings so long as they weren't, as you said, clandestine. and there appears to have been a concerted organized effort amongst all of them to cover their tracks in meetings with kislyak. now, people say, well, kislyak is an ambassador. what could he possibly do? well, within many countries, and not the united states, but other countries, foreign intelligence officers report to diplomats and diplomats themselves are used for recruiting officers. they are also used as case officers, in some instances where your contacts, your potential recruit is very high value, and you don't want to connect them with a known intelligence officer. kislyak may have filled that role. and what's surprising is the people that have met him and have hidden it, sessions, kushner, flynn -- i mean, you know, manafo, karlter pacarter l the rest of them. this man is a focal point for financial or nefarious espionage activity, i don't know, which is why we

intelligence surveillance of kislyak. now, it's not clear -- and i would be surprised if yates is going to be able to refer to what's in those transcripts. >> right. what's in the box is the question. >> she'll presumably be able to say, i saw something that concerned me, and i took it to the white house, to don mcgahn. but she won't be able to say what it was she saw that raised that level of concerns. so i think it will probably not be -- while there may be some atmospherics and theatrics, and certainly if she speaks as strongly as some people think she will, it will get a lot of headlines. but i'm not sure it will get us further to the bottom of the story of what exactly flynn did say to kislyak. >> all right. thank you for your time. >>> still ahead, was a government agency required to have their office tvs turned to fox news? what we know about that bizarre story ahead. plus tonight's thing 1, thing 2 starts after the break. >>> thing 1 tonight, the best people. >> i have the best people. i have the best people. i ha

and kislyak. >> and kislyak. the man who's investigating them and their government that he's a nut job, that he got rid of to take the pressure off. >> yeah. >> first of all, if donald trump had absolutely nothing to do with any of this, which, again, we still don't know. the core substance of the matter. it's just a wildly inappropriate thing to say. you know, i mean, wildly inappropriate thing to say to those two interlocutors in the context of that meeting a day after -- >> it is a remarkably important point it's not two random russian officials in there, sergey kislyak is the guy whom around all of this stories swirl. >> there's a very good chance he's at the core of the actual counterintelligence investigation that james comey was overseeing. right? so he is telling someone who is potentially subject of the same investigation, i -- >> we're in the clear. c>> ianned the guy -- right. that's what it sounds like. >> to echo one point, this is typically the point in the reporting that we would say, but to be fai

kislyak, but also president trump's former national security adviser general michael flynn. we learned -- and we repted this last week about mr. flynn and his conversations after the election, which were centered on setting up a back channel that between president trump and president putin that would have circumvented u.s. national security agencies because neither side trusted them. we learned that mr. kushner was also part of those discussions. that was reported by "the washington post" first this evening. and as you pointed out, we've learned that mr. kushner is being looked at. those contacts between mr. kushner and mr. kislyak are being looked at by the fbi as part of their counterintelligence investigation. >> and jonathan, one of the issues facing jared kushner is why did you not disclose all of these contacts? and if the defense is -- i didn't disclose them because it was just an oversight, the more contacts he has, the more of these that pile up, the less credible the oversight explanation is. >> well, let's not forget that at first, the white house denied that ther

kislyak again is at the center of this.he was at the center of the michael flynn situation that ultimately led to him being fired by the president because of the conversation he had where him about sanctions and not being unfront about that with vice president pence. now kushner and kwifl backtalking about back channel, what was that? >> i think when people look back they like to say we had a terrible relationship with russia and we never worked with them on anything. that's certainly not true. we had issues from anything but syria and the way they dealt with global affairs. but there are things we worked on. certainly ambassador kislyak was part of that. we had the deal on chemical weapons removal. they were also a part of the iran deal. what's abnormal about this, a lot of things, but one is whether or not trump was reading the president al daily brief, people assume he took that often, they're making an inaccurate assumption, first. but there was an assumption that president obama and the administration would take retali

sanctions against russia with kislyak. a conversation that leads to flynn losing his job just 24 days into the trump administration. >> and how much do we know about kislyak's reaction to this proposal by jared kushner which would be presumably as shocking to the russian side as it is to us to hear? >> yeah, i mean the way it was characterized to us is that it appeared that the russian ambassador was taken aback by this idea. and it's easy to see why. i mean, for russian officials in the united states, they would probably regard it as highly important to have secure communications back to moscow that are beyond the reach of u.s. surveillance, right? why would they want to bring an american into their version of a scif, a secure compartmented facility, where their communications gear are set up to have communications with moscow that can't be intercepted. why would they want an american on that line? >> greg miller, thank you very much for joining us tonight with this stunning report. another one in "the washington post." r

kislyak was describegr as u.s.he unst!d states. looking at this picture and thii meeting, what kind of message does this send toçó you? >> içó know this meetingÑi wasçf pre-planned andñr as somebody w is not a trump supporter at alló optics than thisçóÑi meeting happening xpv you feel a little sorrsi perhap for the white house staff, but the truth is anyone who seems to interact often with ambassador kislyak seems to get in trouble as well. those conversations between general flynn and ambassador kislyak lend to theÑi dismissalf general flynn as national ]q(u)ityñr adviser. some ofç'jut unreported contacts between jeff sessions and kislyak led toxdi his recu and kislyak led toxdi his recu now asÑi attorney generalw3 undÑ thei]ñr invdqtigation. i accept atçda(÷ value somexd o theÑi charges that mr. kislyak while a seasoned diplomat is also a seasoned spy. >> i know you told us earlier, senator, that is correct if -- if comey accepts your invitation to come and appear before your committee next woke it would be beh

when kislyak finishes his conversation with as u.s. official he'll often send a report to moscow and the nsa might pick that up. >> let's talk more about this with cnn political analyst and "washington post" columnist josh roguen and cnn national security analyst and retired cia chief of russia operations steve hall. good to see both of you. so josh, you first, what does this say about trump's -- trump team's insistence on keeping michael flynn on board, especially after learning there was information that raised a few eyebrows and suspicions? >> yeah. i mean my take on this is that michael flynn as the former head of the defense intelligence agency, knew who ambassador sergey kislyak was. memo or no memo he had a very clear understanding and he decided to meet with him anyway. it sort of shows you in this time during the transition, michael flynn wasn't too concerned about what this interaction might mean. he was going to be national security adviser, he didn't think he was doing anything wrong, and the fact that he didn't bother even

(adam entous/staff writer, the washington post): "during that discussion according to kislyak's account you basically have jared kushner proposing the idea of having a secure, private communications channel and jared actually proposing doing so at a russian facility, specifically the russian embassy in washington." according to the new york time, the channel was intended to discuss strategy in syria and other policy issues. the white house is not commenting. tonight a mississippi man is in custody after a shooting spree that left eight people dead... including a sheriff's deputy. it happened yesterday at three different homes in lincoln county. it began with a domestic call. suspect cory godbolt fled from police before being caught. after his arrest, godbolt spoke too a nearby reporter... confessing to at least part of the rampage. a sheriff's deputy is among the dead. authorities have not yet released the names of the other seven victims. 7 police: calls about shots fired came it at 12:307 arrived, found a man who had been shot lying in a pool of blood on the sidewalk, another man arme

jared kushner contacts with russian ambassador sergei kislyak.e washington post" is reporting kushner wanted to establish a secret means of communication with the kremlin. >> cnn clare sebastian is live from moscow this hour. what are you hearing from russian leaders there? >> reporter: well, christi, reemphasize that political chaos in washington. the russian foreign ministry spoke this morning, calling the report by "the washington post" mccarthyism or simply internal political squabbles. we followed up with a question on whether the foreign minister was aware jared kushner had made this request for secret communication channel, secure communication channel as reported by the post. we have seen that the ministry was since the original report came from an intercept of communications between the russian ambassador and superiors in moscow, she would not be drown on that. we're seeing increasing rhetoric in moscow as stream of russian related news comes out of washington. the same foreign ministry spokesperson warning that the u.s. media should sto

we assume that they were given that this was between kislyak. the kremlin did not answer that question when we put it to them either. t russia is being used as a tool by trump's opponents to hurt the administration and i think that's why you see here and they're keeping it fair lilo profile on these issues and not wanting to say too much. just enough to defend russia and create a sense that's political chaos in washington. frankly, they are already are and watching that has to be said. part of the statements coming out of trump during part of his visit of his policy is going to develop and as jim acosta was headquart reporting, very little on that trim. >> brian nobles and clare sebastian. thank you. >> ahead, two new arrests in connection with the uk bombing probe. stay with us. advanced intelligence... or breathtaking style... there's a c-class just for you. decisions, decisions, decisions. lease the c300 sedan for $399 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to

last april you had trump meeting with kislyak, last july you had sessions meeting with kislyak. last september you had sessions meeting with kislyak in trump tower, in december we had kislyak meeting with jeff sessions and we had trump meeting with kislyak. it does seem like a limited number of people. do you agree with that? >> sure, and i would say, too, just because we're saying the investigation goes into the white house does not mean they have abandoned looking into these other people you mentioned. flynn, manafort, carter page is still very much at play. what we're reporting today is the investigation is intensified and is looking at someone in the white house right now. >> is carter page a serious person? he doesn't seem like one. >> do you mean a serious person in the campaign? >> in this intrigue. the whole connection of this russian connection. is he a serious player? >> the fbi is looking at him seriously. i don't have any sense of how serious he was in the trump world. the trump campaign has tried to minimize that. >> he seems like a sort of peripheral personality. a

kislyak and other russian officials. when they made the decision to fire director comey, was the white house aware he had reportedly chastised the justice department for more resources t for adequate investigation and perhaps the most important question of all, when willo republicans in congress agreed to support a special prosecutor and an independent commission to get to the bottom of collusion in our last presidential d election. september 8, 2016 as the date to live in fiber and for me. is that election that the russian set out to change the results. the first time we've seen an offer to do this and many on the other side of the aisle take a whole lot of attitude just another example of kids being kids.s i don't excel. one of our major adversaries in the world decides to impact thea choice of leader of the free b world coming night they should stand up and fight back. this is all happening less than one week after a hacking attack another democratic election in france and all signs point akin to rush as perpetrators.

is monitoring the communications of kislyak back to moscow. but the leaker was so disturbed by this behavior, that they were willing to take the risk. >> that's what we're seeing over and over again is people in the government, not necessarily trump employees, permanent people, being distressed by things they are seeing and leaking them in a way i've never seen before. we've had leaky times before, but we've never had anything like the disclosures we are saying day after day after day on this story. >> you know, adam, i don't know how these trump people have survived on earth this long without knowing certain things. they know a lot about business and real estate. but, you know, our intelligence service have been tracking the russians at least since the cold war began in '47, probably during the war too. they picked up the famous tapes about elizabeth bentley. they caught owl tall the commun working for the russians. of course they sat on that for years. is that part of the problem, the trump people are so naive they k they can be sneaky and g

>> well, because kislyak i'm sure has never -- he's been around a long time. has never heard a senior official make a request like this, specifically to request to go into the russian embassy to use russian communications equipment. i mean these countries are espionage adversaries. they deeply mistrust one another. logistically kislyak would know that the fbi watches the russian embassy very closely, so to get kushner in there to do this would require like extreme cloak and dagger stuff, putting him in the trunk of a car or something. he must have been just stunned by this request, richard. >> as was tweeted by others on transition teams yesterday, they were saying we've never done this either. we've never reached out in this manner that's being reported in "the washington post." thank you so much, ken. i know we'll be talking to you throughout the day. appreciate it. >> good to be with you, now. >>> let's bring in elise jordan, msnbc political analyst, "time" columnist, and peter emerson, a contributor who's worked for three democratic administrations. elise,

we assume that they were aware of this from an intercept of kislyak. she would not comment on that, we have no comment as we say from the kremlin. in recent weeks there are various stories coming out of this from the trump administration. >> they paint them as a sign of political chaos in washington and this was no different. the spokesperson warning to not spread lies. >> thank you to both of you. take a listen to high michael hayden reacting to jared kushner of this secret line to mouscow. >> general hayden. >> well, right now i am goi going -- that's not particularly comforting for me. what manner of ignorance and chaos and contempt would you have to have to think that doing this with the russian ambassador was as good or appropriate idea. again, it does not make me feel good about many things. >> lets talk more about all of this with our california democrat who says kushner should be prosecuted for not disclosing all of his contact. thank you so much for joining us, what is your reaction to this latest recording on jared kushner. >> thank you, ana

kislyak about sanctions according to some of the reporting so far, correct? >> that's right. you have to look at the broad geopolitical context and what was happening during this whole month period. we certainly know that michael flynn had long-standing relations with russian officials from his time at the defense intelligence agency. he went to moscow in december 2015. we know that the trump administration was possibly amenable to easing sanctions. we also know that, at the end of december, flynn talked to kislyak and, while he initially said and told some in the white house, they didn't really talk about anything, we now know that they discussed sanctions and also specifically the new sanctions that president obama imposed in late december about the russian campaign to disrupt the election. so this was in the conversation, it was in the mix. lionel was right. it would be certainly surprising that if in those conversations with kushner and kislyak and gorkov that the sanctions didn't come up. certainly, if i were mr. gorkov, i probably would have brought it up. so this is hi

one official told me when kislyak came to the white house, it was to be rep manned. squin contrast members of the trump campaign and transition appeared to be meeting with him on a regular basis more so than other officials. it was puzzling, i'm told, because it was not clear to those in the obama administration what the trump transition folks were trying to avoid -- trying to do by avoiding regular channels. officials were also aware, wolf, of phone conversations to kislyak where you would report back to russia about cultivating relationships to members on the trump campaign and transition and seeing if they could use those members to influence trump. so all of this put together created concern in the obama administration particularly during the transition, wolf. >> pamela brown, thanks very much. i want to bring in our panel. laura coates, professor allen dershowitz, and steve hall. dana, first what do you make of this bombshell report in the "the washington post"? >> look, first it's hard for us to wrap our heads around it. how many times have we said that in the

shortly after this meeting between kushner and kislyak, mr. kushner apparently met with the head of this bank. we have no idea what was discussed or what the agenda was, but there's been a theme and a number of suspicions that the russians were hoping that the trump administration would lift sanctions. now, the trump administration has not lifted sanctions, but they're being closely watched to see where that policy goes. you know, we know that congressional investigators are very interested in this meeting and we can presume that the fbi is as well. >> all right, nbc's ken dilanian, always grateful to turn to you for reporting like this. thanks very much. i want to bring in republican congressman francis rooney, a member of the foreign affairs committee. good day to you, congressman. i want to get right to your reaction to these reports, specifically "the washington post" report of jared kushner's alleged attempts to create this back channel with russia. >> well, back channel diplomacy and informal communications with foreign governments and i

much do we know about kislyak's reaction to the proposal by jared kushner, which would be as shocking to the russian side as it is to us to hear? >> caller: yeah, the way it was characterized to us is it appeared the russian ambassador was taken aback by the idea z. it's easy to see why. for russian officials in the united states that they would regard it as highly important to have secure communications back to moscow that are beyond the reach of u.s. surveillance. why would they want to bring an american into their version of a secu secure compartmented facility to have communications with moscow that can't be intercepted. why would they want an american on that line? >> greg miller, thank you for joining us with this stunning report, another one in the "washington post." really appreciate it. we are joined now by max boot, senior fellow for national security studies and a former defense adviser for romney, 2012 and ken vogue l, chief reporter for politico and mika, a lawyer and former house intelligence committee staff adviser. mika, i want to get your reaction to this since you ar

why would they want a profile of kislyak and do you think flynn had his eyes on those? >> well, you know, the leadership profiles of senior personnel and other governments are very standard documents. and for that type of dossier to be handed about throughout the transition team is not significant at all. what's significant is that all of these people that had numerous contacts with sergey kislyak and for mike flynn to actually be asking for a classified specific dossier of someone that he had been in constant communication with at a time where he was handling classified information, transitioning himself as the national security adviser just led people to be suspicious. in the intelligence community, when you're suspicious, that is never a good thing. >> would the russian ambassador be working alongside russian intelligence in your experience? is that something that could be happening? >> this is a hard thing. it's hard to get through the mines of many americans. just because the soviet union tran session transitioned into the russian federation and comp nymmunism w aw

sergei kislyak is center to the russian investigation.surveillance picked up communications between flynn and kislyak. discussing president obama's just-announc russia. investigators believe flynn may have been acting on orders from someone else. james clapper was the director of national intelligence at the time. >> were you concerned that the obama administration policy and this nation's national security was being undermined by somebody internally? >> i will simply say that we've had a long-standing principle in our country of one president at a time. >> reporter: was that adhered to in this case? >> well, you can draw your own conclusions about that. >> reporter: it is now up to robert mueller to come to those conclusions. he will have the power to prosecute any crimes he discovers. >>> president trump is back in washington after delivering an address to a graduating class. he returns to a white house in chaos over an avalanche of controves by the day. >> no politician in history, and i say this with great surety, has been treated wor

why even have kislyak there if you need a back channel, that is his job.united states. he is the one who relays everything to vladimir putin. he is the one who relays any information that he hears back home. so why would you need to establish a back channel? he spent decades in the u.s. and according to the reports even he was stunned by this proposal. i think it raises a lot of other questions and new york times reported also that apparently administration officials in the first week in office were considering lifting sanctions against russia. so a lot more questions to be answered. >> go ahead, jeffrey. you wanted to weigh? ? >> it goes back it what wto wha jared kushner thinking? why was he talking to this person? why was he talking to that person? why not talk to jared kushner. >> do you think it is coincidence we haven't heard from him? >> i'm curious, john kirby, you worked at the state department, pentagon, diplomatic back channels have been going on forever. when the obama administration wanted to have a nuclear deal with iran there was a very secr

question -- did flynn go to kislyak and talk about what might be done to limit those sanctions, justs own accord, or were there others in the trump team who are now in the trump administration who knew about those conversations in advance? >> it's a big question. obviously, a very important investigation that's taking place. i want to pivot just a bit, talking about some of the same characters. the u.s. president, he'll clearly, and his team, will be watching what happens in france closely, this very important election that's playing out. and the former president of the united states, barack obama, also will be watching, given that he actually recorded a short clip urging french voters to back macron. both seem to have a stake in what happens in france. how important is this? >> well, it's important not just to the u.s., it's important to the rest of the world. in part, it's important because of the mood music. and by mood music, i mean worries about the economy, questions about immigration, changing populations in countries, and that's something that in france specifically marine le

sanctions with ambassador sergey kislyak. flynn's misleading white house, yat -- comments made him -- >> the acting attorney general informed the white house counsel that they wanted to give, quote, a heads up to us on some comments that may have seemed in conflict with what he had sent the vice-president. >> reporter: just days after delivering the warning, yates was fired for refusing to enforce president trump's travel ban. yates' testimony comes as the multiple congressional committees investigating russian interference in the u.s. election put on bipartisan appearances. >> we're working together very well, the whole committee is, and grateful for that opportunity. >> reporter: the questions from lawmakers in open session tell a very different story. republicans focused on alleged leaks of classified information. >> director comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the trump investigation or the clinton investigation? >> there are clearly members of the ic that have, at diffe

as the post reports it, quote, ambassador sergey kislyak reportedly was taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an american to use russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate, a proposal that would have carried security risks for moscow as well as the trump team. the white house, traveling overseas, did not comment on this story as of yet. there was a second report in the "washington post" that went up just a few minutes after the first one. it says the senate intelligence committee is now coming after everything. they have asked the trump political organization to turn over, quote, all documents, e-mails, and phone records going back to his campaign's launch in june 2015, according to two people briefed on the request. all this as we wrap up day 127 of the trump administration. the president prepares to head home from his first trip overseas. kushner is already back in washington, having left the overseas trip early. and the headlines come hours after white house aides told nbc news the administration was setting up a war room to address all russia related issues report