how tangled is the kislyak-trump web? >> it's very tangled, erin.sador kislyak is so prominent in washington but now he is at the center of the investigation into russia and really in the thick of the storm. ambassador sergey kislyak is at the center of the investigation of ties between russia and the trump campaign. u.s. officials consider him a spy and a spy recruit ever. a charge that the kremlin denies but he raised eyebrows when he appeared with president trump in the oval office. he's been in contact with several of trump's inner circle during the campaign and the transition. attorney general jeff sessions met with kislyak at the republican national convention in july and again in september at his senate office. secret talks that forced him to recuse himself from the russia probe. >> i never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries about the trump campaign. >> kislyak was front and center at then candidate trump's first major policy address at the may flower hotel. >> an improved relations with russia from a position of s

how do you see ambassador kislyak?ght be a little bit of a distinction without a difference when you're talking about whether or not kislyak is an intelligence officer. my personal assessment is, during the course of my career i've rarely seen a case where you have an ambassador who's a formal staff offer of the russian intelligence services. that does not mean that he's not the eyes and ears of vladimir putin on the ground in washington. any diplomat, whether it's russian or western diplomat, part of their job is the collection of information, just like an intelligence officer. of course, an intelligence officer talks to different people and does it under different circumstances. i don't think he was actually a formal spy master as sometimes he has been described. but he certainly was on the ground and his job was to collect information for vladimir putin, or one of his jobs was. >> steve, do you see his recall as just routine? >> i never take what the russian ministry of foreign affairs says on its face. it's difficu

and ambassador kislyak actually sat in the front row. but just prior to the speech, then senator sessions and ambassador kislyak attended a small vip reception with organizers and diplomats. investigators are looking into that, and they haven't yet determined if, in fact, a private meeting between sessions and kislyak took place. investigators also acknowledge it's possible any additional meeting was incidental. but of course, this could be problematic for sessions if it emerges he did meet with kislyak. sessions already had to recuse himself from the russia investigation for failure to disclose two previous meetings with kislyak. one at the rnc in july, and another in a senate office. this came during the confirmation hearing in january when he said he did not have any communications with the russians during the campaign. then when reports emerged in march that he had met with kislyak, sessions admitted the meetings happened but insisted they were part of his senate duties. and then in march, when sessions was asked if he had any other

in fact, i never met with ambassador kislyak once during that period.so many meetings at very high levels that's question again that needs to be answered. >> ambassador michael mcfaul, thanks very much. hallie jackson, big treat to see you twice in one show. hallie jackson, maybe we'll get lucky and maybe the cbo score will come out in nine minutes and i'll get to see you another time. some are calling it a bromance in the make. the first face to place meeting between president and indian prime minister modi. in control. i need to cut my a1c. weekends are my time. i need an insulin that fits my schedule. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be seri

it was reported that donald trump shook sergey kislyak's hand. but sessions' people and kushner's peach denied they had any substantive encounter with kislyak. well, now we're being told that congressional investigators have reason to believe, and they're not exactly saying what that reason, but they're suggesting that it is classified evidence, that there may have been a private encounter. that's not proof that there is one, but they have reason to believe it. and they also tell us that the fbi is very interested in this meeting and is concerned that perhaps the russians were seeking to ingratiate themselves with the trump campaign at this meeting. don't forget that april is around the time the democrats first discovered a hack in their network, lawrence. >> joy reid, the denials about this meeting seem to be playing with language. they're saying things like didn't have a private meeting. what does that mean? does that mean one-on-one? no one else in the room? are they trying to say well, it's not a meeting if anyone else is in the room? i'm won

confirmed sergey kislyak going back.been at the center of controversy over meetings he had with former security adviser mike flynn. jared kushner, senior adviser and son-in-law, meetings did not disclose on security clearance forms. there are other meetings as well. with me peter ernest, spent more than 35 years at cia, over 0 in the agency's spy service. he's now executive director of international spy museum in washington, d.c. peter, good to have you here. thank you for being with us. >> good to be with you. >> i want to play a little sound from an interview chuck todd did. let's listen together and we'll talk on the other side. >> sure. >> does the intelligence community believe he's basically an agent of the k dpchlt b, the old kgb? >> given the fact he oversees an aggressive operation in this country, they have more than any other nation as representative of this country. still even after we got rid of 35 of them. so to suggest he is somehow separate or oblivious to that is a bit much. >> so this is james clapper,

you and byron. >> i spoke to ambassador kislyak, i quoted him in the story. no one has contacted me about it but it's a small calling card i guess. fickle people talk about having discussions with. did you have a discussion with? if someone says hi, how are you doing? i think you have to go back to the other question here, the desire for sessions to come to congress. there are other people who refused to testify before congress. susan rice is one of them. why is she not testifying? you know the republicans would ask, did you have any conversations with barack obama or any other senior staff about unmasking names, identities. what would she cite? executive privilege? confidentiality or separation of powers? i imagine she would and i imagine the democrats would have no problem with it. >> he confirmed the existence of multiple probes into leaks of information out of the administration and said some people would probably be sorry they leaked. i think it's the first time without ironclad confirmation from doj about the existence of the investigation. >> i think h

one can speculate that it's based on reporting of kislyak back to moscow. that may or a may not be accurate. comey alluded to it, saying there were things that i can't disclose that made it difficult for sessions to run the russia investigation. then in closed session he talks more about the mayflower hotel event. they're not proven. if sessions says he doesn't recall or speaks in not clear terms about it, that will be one take. if he flatly denies it, he's really laying down a marker. >> kasie, a year ago nobody knew who sergey kislyak was. >> most probably did not, yes. >> it turns out that people seem to think he's not just the russian ambassador but he in fact is highly connected with russian intelligence. >> mm-hmm. >> jeff sessions' argument during his confirmation process is, i'm a united states senator, he's the russian ambassador, there's nothing wrong with this. >> right. exactly. he said, look, these meetings were in my office, there were potentially staff present or at least aware of what has gone on. and it is not out of the realm of usual cond

he says two with ambassador kislyak.i find it hard to believe jeff sessions sat down with a russian ambassador and conspired to tip the election. but i do think there's a problem at doj in his signing off on james comey's firing. if he knew that was over his handling of the russian investigation, that's a massive scandal scandal for jeff sessions. is he going to answer that question or say i'm not going to talk about my conversations with the president, i'm not going to talk about my conversations with others at the white house and i think if we don't hear clean answer from him on that, on what he knew when he signed off on that firing, that's a pretty clear signal there's something there that he doesn't want us to find out about. >> all right. >> matt. >> matt thank you so much. let's go to dominic chu. what are you looking at today. >> watching ride sharing giant uber continuing to see a shakeup of the top ranks the internal inquiry handled by former attorney general eric holder looking into allegations of a hostile wo

because of classified surveillance of kislyak's conversation suggested may, it may have happened. that was released in order to hurt jeff sessions and by the way was apparently false. many more examples of this. every day. in december an unnamed source told "the washington post" that russia helped donald trump in the presidencies. a week later someone told them that he was personally involved in helping trump win. in february current and former -- released a phone call between mike flynn and ambassador kislyak of russia, it was monitored because he was being spied on. michael flynn's name was leaked and his career and reputation were subsequently destroyed by that. surveilled by american intelligence and then lead to. his call with the australian prime minister, same thing. again, leaked by the intel community. how could this possibly have advanced american security interest, which is what they were supposed to be doing? none of it did. it was entirely political. in march a half dozen people told them how they sought to spread the information widely as possible to assure that it w

kushner had any meetings with ambassador kislyak? >> i don't. >> certainly, i can assure nothing improper if i had a conversation with him and it's conceivable that occurred. i just don't remember. >> there's nothing in your notes or memories when you had a chance and you did, and appreciate correct the record about the other two sessions in response to senator franken and leahy, this one didn't pop into your mind, that you had to report this session as well. >> well, i guess i could say possibility have a meeting but i still do not recall it and i did not in any way fail to record something on -- in my testimony or in my subsequent letter, intentionally, false. >> i understand, sir. i'm just trying to understand when you corrected the record and clearly you had a chance to correct the record i would have thought that ambassador kislyak was at that session. it received press notoriety. again, echoing what the chairman had said, again for the record, there was no other meeting with any other officials of the russian government during

why did sessions not disclose his contacts with kislyak before the senate judiciary committee?why did michael flynn not disclose his work for the turkish government and the series of contact with kislyak. we have a series of contacts with russians that trump officials felt they needed to hide and this would be one more of those if it's confirmed. >> john brabender, it seems like a pattern to the layperson, could they have done a better job, you think? or you think it's not a pattern here? >> well, i think this is exactly where the democrats might take this, quite honestly. i mean, i've run presidential campaigns before. do i believe the russians tried to interfere with our elections? absolutely. do i believe they succeeded in any way? no, there would be nothing they can do. there's not one shred of evidence that shows they were successful in doing anything. name one thing you think they did. they could have had strategists sitting at the trump tower every day but their strategists aren't as good as american strategists so what could they have colluded on? >> are you saying it s

now, both sessions and kushner deny having met privately with kislyak at that event. like so many revelations about the ongoing russia scandal, this one was based on an anonymous sources with agendas of their own. and while each story helps fill in key details about the conduct of the president and his aides, the full picture of what's happened remains woefully incomplete. but if there's any one person who has all the available information, who's seen the raw intelligence, it's james comey. he was overseeing the investigation until the president fired him three weeks ago, and we are about to finally hear from comey himself. i'm joined now by congressman ted lieu, democrat from california. congressman, are you confident that comey is going to testify and not have some legal challenge by the white house to get him to stop? >> i am confident because comey is a private citizen now. he could go right a book about what happened in administration like many foreign aides have. and in addition, if there's any executive privilege, donald trump waived it with his multiple tweets

flynn and in kislyak. the contents of president trump's phone calls with australian and mexican leaders, the content plaintiff trump's meetings with the russian foreign minister and ambassador. the leak of manchester bombing suspects identity and crime scene photos and last week within 20 minutes of this committee meeting in classified setting with jim comey, the leak of what -- the basis plaintiff comey's innuendo was. are these leaks serious threats to our national security and is the department of justice taking them with the appropriate degree of seriousness and investigatesing and ultimately going to prosecute them to the fullest xeent of t fullest extent of the law. >> thank you, senator cotton. we had one successful case in georgia. that person has been denied bail. we have to restore a regular or the principle. we cannot have people in our intelligence agencies, investigative agency norz congress leaking sensitive matters. on staff. so this is -- i'm afraid will result in -- is already resulting in

about that as well as possibly the news of another meeting that he had with russian ambassador sergey kislyak that was not disclosed pixel probably a couple of those things.g and as just relating to comey's testimony last week. >> host: hunter walker, what's te host: hunter walker, what's comey testimony on the white house? >> guest: you saw the the president any news conference on friday have a very testy battle with what he termed the fake news and the killer networks.as where he was basically put onut the defensive, induced asked about about a couple of these about about a couple of these director made, namely, did he require a loyalty oath of him? president trump vehemently denied this, that he would do so under oath. one thing i found interesting was much was made of the fact that during comey's testimony the president always active twitter account when unusually quiet. his son donald junior was something of a circuit last week.at t he was tweeting during the testimony and he also appeared on fox news. in this comity seem to sort ofoa corroborate director comey's version of events and su

trump and kislyak was polite pleasantrie pleasantries. we're not sure of any conversations between kids lee yak and jeff sessions. however in a group like this one, we consider it unlikely to engage in a meaningful private conversation. you have any reason to disagree with that? >> no. i think that's a very fair discrimination of the reception situation. i appreciate them having made that statement. >> great. i yield back. >> senator manchin. >> thank you. good for you to be here. >> thank you. >> i want to follow up a bit on what senator king had asked concerning you and i are about the same. we knew in our lifetime we never knew the russian government or the russian military to ever be our friend. and wanting the same things we wanted out of life. with that being said, the seriousness of this russian hacking is very serious to me and concerning. and you're saying that you had not been briefed on that. i think it was october 9th at that time i think mr. clapper and also mr. jeh johnson, homeland security, made that public what was going

then-senator sessions and russian ambassador sergei kislyak attended a small vip reception. among other things the fbi wants to know if there was an additional private meeting between these two. >> sources say if there was such a meeting it may have been just incidental. sessions has previously failed to disclose meetings with russian officials. he testified to congress he had not had communications with the russians but in fact he had met with kislyak twice during the campaign. that was the gaffe that forced sessions to recuse himself from the russia investigation. >> responding to the latest questions, the department of justice says sessions did not have any private or side conversations with any russian official at the may flower. doj adding, the department of justice appointed special counsel to assume responsibility for this matter, we will allow him to do his job. joining us from washington, cnn politics report er thai koppen. what's your big takeaway from the russia developments? >> i feel like every week we're here talking about drip, drip, drip. that's the problem w

at the end of the day meetings with kislyak are not in my view that critical.'re certainly politically impactful and the optics may not be good. but the focus should be on collusion and on that, sessions was direct. he said absolutely i was not involved in collusion and i didn't see any collusion. he said that under oath, said it very directly. either there was no collusion that he saw, and by the way. that doesn't mean there wasn't collusion, that's why we have an investigation, or he wasn't telling the truth. we just have to get to the bottom of the collusion piece. >> let me ask you the bigger picture really is how russia influenced the election, and if there is collection. there very well could not be collusion. but don't you think it's important that if he failed to disclose some of these meetings and he was only one or the only one who -- members who were like him who met with the russian ambassador and didn't disclose it or disclosed it at some point? you don't think that's important? >> there is political importance to that and there may even be legal i

. >> seth: the information about the third meeting comes from communications between kislyak and theans, according to the "new york times." the intelligence appears to be based on intercepts of kislyak discussing a private meeting he had with sessions at a trump campaign event. and i'm assuming that intercepted discussion was kislyak saying -- [ russian accent ] "can you believe it? they keep taking meeting with me, even though i'm obviously shady character. [ laughter ] will you sit down with me? they say, yes. i can't believe this." now today sessions also angrily denied that there were any secret reasons why he had to recuse himself, despite comey's sworn testimony which later led to a heated exchange with senator ron wyden of oregon. >> i recuse myself from any investigation into the campaign for president, but i did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations. >> mr. comey said that there were matters, with respect to the recusal, that were problematic and he couldn't talk about them. what are they? >> i -- that -- why don't you tell me? th

kislyak, and he gave, as you can imagine, not one inch.ing they did, the russians had done, according to him was correct, and i remember pushing back on it and it was a bit testy on that subject. >> knowing you on the committee, i can't imagine that. did you raise concerns about russia's support for president bashar al assad and his campaign of indiscriminate violence against his own citizens including his use of chemical weapons? >> i don't recall whether that was discussed or not. >> did you raise discussions about russia's interference in our electoral process or interferences of the electoral processes of our al sniz. >> i don't recall that being discussed. >> at those meetings, if you spoke with ambassador kislyak in your capacity as a member of the armed services committee you presumably talked to him about russia-related security issues that you have demonstrated as important to you as a member of the committee? >> did i discuss security issues -- >> i don't recall you being particularly vocal on such issues. >> repeat that, senator

i was at that speech at the hotel and i remember seeing sergey kislyak in the front row.veryone thought that was kind of interesting. but now perhaps they had some sort of communication around that as well. laura: meanwhile, the president himself has been slapped with a lawsuit under the anticorruption clause of the constitution. what is that about? anthony: it is about donald trump's business empire, and the provision of the constitution says people in political office cannot take gifts, a cannot take titles -- the queen cannot make donald trump a lord. but then there's the question of business enterprises that exchange services with foreign governments also falls into that. it is really uncharted legal terrain and it will be interesting to see -- of course, let it proceed, and then decided on the merits. it is something we have not seen before. laura: speaking of lawsuits, the president suffered another setback with his controversial travel ban. anthony: the ninth circuit court of appeals struck down the original travel ban and said that the second one has the same sort

kislyak is not an unforgettable guy if you met him. he's a big personality, well known around washington in diplomatic circles, in political circles. certainly now, if you are jeff sessions or flynn else who worked on the trump campaign or is in the trump white house and you had a meeting with him or another russian official, the best thing to do right now would be to put that out proactively because these meetings will come out. the u.s. tracks russian officials who are near the u.s. >> julie, why don't they put it out? this keeps happening over and over again. at some point why doesn't a lawyer in the white house, why doesn't a political person in the white house call ifr body together and say, listen, this is how it ends, they always find out about our meetings and when they find out about our meetings, it makes us look even guiltier, so why don't we put it all out there. you talk about the drip, drip, drip effect of this. it's actually all these lies that turned our attention to the russia scandal and makes it look like it really i

trump and ambassador kislyak was limited to polite exchange of pleasantries. we're not aware of any conversation between ambassador kislyak and senator jeff sessions at the reception. however, in a small group setting like this one, we consider it unlikely that anyone could have engaged in a meaningful, private conversation without drawing attention from others present. do you have any reason to disagree with that? >> no, i think that's a very fair description of the reception situation. i appreciate them having made that statement. >> great. i yield back. >> mr. chairman, thank you. thank you, mr. sessions for being here. >> thank you. >> i want to follow up a little on what senator king had asked concerning -- you and i are about the same vintage. we remember back in our lifetime we've never known the russian government or the russian military to ever be our friend and wanting the same things we wanted out of life. with that being said, the seriousness of this russian hacking is very serious to me and concerning, and you're saying that you had not been brief

he omitted a secret meeting with sergey kislyak. do you understand why that's the case?hy did that happen? >> mr. sessions has corrected the record. >> that was a mistake. >> mr. flynn has been fired, right? >> but you don't understand why he did that? why did he tell that deception? >> we have an investigation going on, chris. but all i know so far what's come out has proven that the president has been right along in that he wasn't under investigation. what he said has been proven true all along based on mr. comey's testimony last week. >> i'm not saying the president is under investigation. for those of us watching this -- >> mr. comey allowed the perception to exist that he was under investigation. >> congressman -- >> when he wasn't. >> for those of us watching this -- >> told the country it was a matter when -- >> for those of us trying to figure this out, it doesn't strike you as weird as three people close to the president of the united states under penalty of perjury gave misleading or false answers about meeting with russian officials? does that sound strange to

kislyak, what, did you mean you possibly met him? didn't have any formal meeting with him, i'm confident of that, but i may have had an encounter during the reception. that is the only thing, i can not say with certainty i did not. that is all i can say. >> that is what i thought you were saying. when i heard a meeting that would mean more to me than i met somebody. >> right. >> you might have met him at the reception. could you have met other ambassadors at that reception as well? >> i could. i remember one in particular that we had a a conversation with hose country had an investment in alabama. we talked at length of that. otherwise i have no recollection of a discussion with the russian ambassador. >> all right. you were there. you have read since he was there. you may have seen him but you had no room where you were having meetings with individuals to ask discussions at the mayflower hotel that day? >> no, that is correct. >> on, whenever you talked to mr. comey half he had his meeting with the president, you think that was, you

i have seen it elsewhere as well, that flynn was in the meeting with kislyak.harlie: what do you make of this lionel? lionel: i would point to conversations i have had with the russians and other people watching this from afar late last year. it is very important to look at the context. number one, and this, by the way, is independent of any possible collusion with the russians regarding the campaign. what i am talking about here is the international context. and particularly economic sanctions imposed on russia as a result of the invasion of crime a, the annexation of crimea, and the military invasion through surrogates of ukraine. the sanctions have been renewed under the obama administration had become -- but have become increasingly difficult. a lot of people in europe, italy, germany, were against this. the trump administration looking clearly for a reset of relations with putin, with russia. so i believe, based on the conversations i have had, that these conversations, i have not verified this by talking to general flynn or the ambassador, but what the ru

kislyak.att gen sessions: no. >> was there ever a private room setting the date you you were involved in? >> att gen sessions: no. other than the eight reception area that was set off from the main crowd a couple dozen or two dozen. >> i'm sure the president shook some hands. >> att gen sessions: he did in the group. >> you mentioned that there were some staff that were with you at that event. >> att gen sessions: my legislative director at the time -- >> your senate staff? >> att gen sessions: he is a retired u.s. colonel who served in the armed services staff with john warner before he joined my staff. they were with me in the reception area and throughout the rest of the events. >> were would you say you were there as a senator or a surrogate of the campaign for this event? >> att gen sessions: i came as a person, very anxious to see how president trump would do in his first major foreign policy address. i believe he had only given one major speech before. that was be at the jewish aipac ev

people close to sessions have said he never encountered kislyak at all. but now we're made to understand congress and the fbi are interested in what happened here, and some officials have told us there is some evidence, we're a bit hazy what this evidence is, that there may have been an encounter. this is a big problem mainly for sessions. if this proved to be true, it would mean that sessions -- here was yet another meeting that sessions didn't disclose when he was asked under oath in his confirmation hearing about his contacts or whether he had contacts with russians. he said he hadn't, recall he had to go back and amend that. he's owned up to two contacts with the russian ambassador but he hasn't acknowledged this one. we know it took place. we know there are certain people in congress keenly interested in it. as you mentioned, senator al franken and leahy asked about contacts and they mentioned the mayflower hotel meeting. >> as best we know if i have it right, there is at this point no suggestion or any information anything sinister went on at this m

"in early march, the washington post met that jeff sessions met twice with russian ambassador kislyak during the campaign ended not disclose us of the senate judiciary committee during his confirmation hearing in january. the next day, sessions recused himself from the russia investigation and said it would be overseen by the deputy attorney general, who appointed a special counsel to handle the .robe he said, 'in light of reports recentng mr. comey's testimony before the senate select committee on intelligence, is important that i have the opportunity to address these matters in the appropriate forum. the senate intelligence committee is the most suchpriate forum for matters as it is in conducting an investigation and has access to recent, classified information.;" good, independent line, one. -- good morning. caller: i want to talk about russian interference in elections. and i felt a booth hand on my shoulder, and i turned around and looked, and it was a russian technocrat, and he told me he wanted me to vote for trump, and i told him i had no interest in your opinion. he grabbed m

those meetings that sessions had curing the campaign with kislyak, he's today insisted that they were in keeping with his role at the time of the senate armed services committee. it's important to remember this: the washington post called every single member of that committee and found not one other member of the committee spoke or met with kislyak during the campaign. so let's be year. 26 members, only sessions met with the ambassador during the campaign. at the time of the meetings, what he had was he wasn't just a u.s. senator, he was a surrogate for the president. >> a lot of questions still going unanswered. >> reporter: that's right, erin. that left democratic senators going so far as saying the attorney general was stonewalling. he refused to go into detail about the one-on-one meeting between comey and p the president. all of those wrestles made for several contentious exchanges. >> thank you very much. >> attorney general jeff sessions grew angry and frustrated with the continued questions about a possible meeting in april 2016 with russian ambassador sergey kislyak. >> i rec

one on the kislyak meeting.d with dploera, i thought i was quite adamant and he couldn't recall any private conversations. i think he dispatched with this whole mayflower meeting p. if he made it clear that believes that he didn't recuse himself from running the department of justice and under that the $8 will billion fbi operation. he believes he still very much was this charge of that and had the full right to do what he was doing especially because of rosen stein's invest tags wasn't was not invited to the area of investigation. >> the third area, wolf, what were you thinking in that oval office meeting on february 14 when the president wanted to clear the room and comey is left behind one on one, what were you thinking? he said i doesn't think that was a haj or problem. i was surprised that democrats did not pull more thread there to get at sessions concern or lack thereof. comey clearly believed he was lingering and showing some concern. >> lowery, also resed on the timing on the russia investigation. how i

. >> you never remember having a conversation or meatin meeting with ambassador kislyak. >> i did not. >> in that even was there ever a private room setting. >> other than represen reception area shut off from i guess main crowd, a couple dozen people. this one. >> i guess, i could say that possibly had a meeting but i still do not recall it. and i did not in anyway, fail to report something in my testimony or in my subsequent letter, intentio intentionaly false. >> described mid february meeting. >> at that point was in legal jeopardy, i don't think for h he to say that it was an effort to obstruct, i took it at disturbing and concerning. reporter: sessions said that comey never shared thato conversation. >> you first asked director comey what took place. >> i do recall is that i did depor depart and director comey was sitting in front of the president's desk and they were talking. >> did it appear mr. comey felt that the conversation was improper. >> he was concerned about it his recollection of what he said to me about his concern, i don't, is consistent with my re recollection. re

third possible undisclosed meeting that sessions may have had with the russian ambassador sergie kislyakthe justice department is saying that meeting never happened but session has yet to answer a direct question on that topic. at this point, we don't have confirmation from the senate intelligence committee that this hearing that sessions wants to take place will even happen. sessions was supposed to appear before a senate appropriations subcommittee to discuss the department's budget on tuesday, but democrats were threatening to bring up the investigation into russia and the role sessions has played. so sessions has decided to pull a switch. he is sending his deputy a.g., rod rosenstein, to the appropriations hearing and session has offered his testimony up to the intel committee. here is part of what ed in a letter to committee leaders. quote. some members have publicly stated their intention to focus their questions on issues related to the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election from which i have recused. and for which the deputy attorney general appointed a spec

foreign policy address, prior to the speech, then senator suggestions and russian ambassador sergei kislyak attended a session with organizers, diplomats and others as well. in addition, the fbi is seeking to determine the extent of interactions with the trump campaign team may have had with russia's investigator. this is part of its broader counter intelligence investigation neither hill or investigators have proven a meeting took place. >> has attorney general sessions said anything about this? >> we reached out to the attorney general and a short time ago we got a statement, the department of justice appointed special council to assume responsibility for this matter, we will allow him to do his job. it's unfortunate that they are continuously trying to hinder that process by head elling stories to the mainstream media. the then senator did not have any private or side conversations with any officials at the mayflower hotel. >> if it's true, and we don't know, this would not be the first time they didn't disclose. he said he did it as a senator, that's why he didn't disclose it, right? >>

but he was doing it as a senator and previously did not do that. >> what kislyak was doing was to find out about the trump campaign. >> and later the man who would make the call if asked to fire special counsel hamueller. rod rosenstein was asked about it. see what he says. >>ium are sure. (work sfx) it's not just a car, it's your daily retreat. the es and es hybrid. lease the 2017 es 350 for $329 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. thithis is the new new york.e? think again. we are building new airports all across the state. new roads and bridges. new mass transit. new business friendly environment. new lower taxes. and new university partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. learn more at esd.ny.gov the opioid my doctor prescribed for my chronic back pain backed me up-big time. before movantik, i tried to treat it myself. spent time, money. no go. but i didn't back down. i talked to my doctor. she said: one, movantik was specifically designed for opioid-induced constipation-oic- and can help you go more often. number two? with my savings card,

reports tonight indicate that he might have had a third meeting with ambassador sergey kislyak.now, senator al franken, whose new book is entitled "al franken: giant of the senate." senator franken, we want to discuss your book a little later. but i want to get to this breaking news tonight. so this -- you have this moment in the hearing where he said "no contact with the russians." very clear. he corrected that. >> he didn't correct it for over 70 days. and he only corrected it after "the washington post" broke the story that he had met twice with kislyak. >> so more than enough time for him to comb his memory, to comb his records and find every conceivable meeting that could be applicable to that testimony. >> yes. and we asked for a letter for him to explain this. and it was very unsatisfactory. and, in fact, senator leahy who is also on the judiciary committee and i sent a private letter to cia -- then cia director comey asking -- >> fbi director comey. >> sorry, fbi director comey, asking him and the fbi to investigate whether in fact sessions had met other times with russi