they'll meet with kislyak. they'll deliver a message, and then they'll be able to read whether kislyak reported that message accurately. sometimes if they think that message is not correctly reported, they will go back to kislyak and basically tell him, without revealing that they were reading his reporting home, they could have a chance to basically say, you know, just want to underline again the way we're thinking about this or that issue. so that's the way diplomacy actually happens. it's not just russia. it happens everywhere, pakistan, you name it. that's the way we have these conversations. >> adam, hold on for a moment. we've just gotten a statement from a justice department spokeswoman. i'm going to read it to you. obviously i cannot comment on the reliability of what anonymous sources describe in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that "the washington post" has not seen and that has not been provided to me. but the attorney general stands by his testimony from just last month before the sen

just because kislyak reported it back to his superiors doesn't prove it happened. u.s. officials are trying to weigh this evidence and determine what exactly happened and whether it's true. >> let me make this clear, sexes adamantly denied, if he was denying there was any kind of conversation or is sexes acknowledging, hey, yes, there was some kind of conversation that tangent usually involved the campaign -- tan gentially involved in the campaign? >> you are asking interesting questions, his people were denying any meaningful encounter took place, wednesday he was asked under oath and testified before congress, he did hedge about this he said i can't recall every conversation, i don't recall meeting sergei kislyak, it might have happened. under oath, he didn't explicitly deny any conversation. but if there was a substantive meaningful conversation about the trump campaign of interest to the russians, that would be a hard thing for anyone seemingly to fail to recall. especially when he had already gotten into trouble for failing rather subsequent contacts with sergei ki

because this come down to attorney general sessions saying, well, sergey kislyak is lying and kislyakanything. it credible that maybe kislyak was just boasting but it doesn't really based on anything? >> let me answer those questions and unpack that statement by putting on my former cia hat. >> please. >> we have -- i was calling for kislyak to be kicked out of the country back last summer. i think and it's clear the russians attempted to try to influence our elections. and the russians are our adversaries, not our allies. but we have unnamed sources talking about confidential, classified information. one, why are we talking about classified information? two, this is claiming that he said something. do we know the details of what was actually said in this conversation? so there is a whole lot of questions about the report in and of itself before we can start drawing conclusions. yes, there is a possibility that this was an exaggeration of information. if ambassador kislyak believes that he is being listened to by the u.s. government, you know, this is a denial and deception opportunit

what we learned is basically what kislyak sent back to moscow. this is his account of these two conversations, one in april, a second in july, of his contact with sessions. >> while sessions didn't seem to remember any specifics about these meetings, kislyak sent back specifics? >> yeah, at the end of his conversations i assume he gets into his car and goes back to his residence and writes a report. that's the way most ambassadors operate. >> what did he tell his russian bosses? >> what he thought they discussed, which was campaign issues. in other words, what their relationship would be like between a future trump presidency and the russian government. the kind of thing that the russian ambassador was under orders by his boss, putin, to try to get information about. he was doing his job, which is basically meeting with people in the trump campaign, trying to get information about how that campaign would deliver on some of its rhetoric during that campaign, if it was elected. so that way putin can make a decision about what he thinks of this rela

and shent his assistant who reported back to kislyak that kislyak wanted him to meet with a russian banker, sergei go gorokhov in a meeting that lasted around 20 minutes where he claims no personal business was discussed. he said it was more of a relationship-type building meeting given his role in the transition. he also says gorokhov gave him two gifts that kushner formally registered with the transition office. he says that's the only time he connected with gorokhov and said these are the only contacts with russians during the campaign and during the transition that he can he call. after an extensive search of his e-mails and phone records, that is it. >> pam, interesting to read all of this statement in what sounds like his own words explaining how all this transpired. what does he say about his security clearance forms and why those have had to be amended? >> this is the first time he's going on the record to walk people through what he says happened with his security clearance form. as we know, he recently amended it to include that june meeting last year at trump tower. he sa

he is seen as a hard liner, less chummy than kislyak. top position in putin's defense ministry and was reportedly a key figure in russia's 2014 invasion of ukraine. he was sanctioned by the e.u. for that but not by the u.s. >> if relations are going to be bad, it turns out he probably is well suited to a kind of period of chilly interactions. >> reporter: now, the state department did not respond when we asked why antonov has not been sanctioned by the u.s. for his alleged involvement of invasion of ukraine. as for sergey kislyak, they are not saying where he is going next. former state department official who we spoke to in this piece says kislyak may be in for a letdown, that he'll be hard-pressed to find a job with as much buzz and influence as the one he's leaving right now. jim? >> brian, he's like a character out of a novel. spy novel, absolutely. sur getting a sense that sergey kislyak was directed by the kremlin to stir things up to provoke the trump team into getting into some trouble? is there any evidence of that? >> reporter:

and that's according to what kislyak told

kislyak was doing his job. meeting with people in the trump campaign and trying to get information about how that campaign would actually deliver on some of its rhetoric during the campaign if it was lekelect. that way putin can make a decision of the relationship. >> important to point out while it is possible that kislyak was boasting or misrepresenting to the kremlin, it would be out of character for the long time ambassador to give moscow a misleading report. in the wake of the post reporting, the u.s. intelligence department said, quote, the attorney general stands by his testimony from just last month before the senate intelligence committee when he specifically addressed this and said that he never had met with or had any conversations with any russians or russian officials concerning interference with any campaign election. now compare that information and statement to what sessions said back in march of this year. >> let me be clear i never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries

but let me just vouch for kislyak. in the past his reporting has appeared to be accurate -- >> this is according to what intelligence people you have talked to? >> according to actually u.s. diplomats and other officials that dealt with him over the years. not only that, but we did an earlier story that was about a meeting at trump tower in december where kushner, the son-in-law of the president, also met with kislyak, and kislyak also reported that conversation and the contents of that proved to be accurate. >> to those that read a conspiracy, that perhaps president trump is behind this leak because based on what he said, his anger about jeff sessions in that article in the "new york times", you have had this information about the intercepts for sometime? >> yeah, no, and, frankly, it has been rather obvious to people who were looking at it when members of congress, democrats particularly, started making public calls saying they believed there was a third meeting and asking for an investigation of the third meeting. c

kislyak told him that he wanted, he, kislyak, had information from russian generals about the situation in syria that he wanted to convey to the incoming administration. and he, kislyak, asked if there was a secure line into the transition that they could use in order to convey that information. kushner and michael flynn who was also in the meeting replied to him that, no, there is no such secure line. at which point kushner says he then asked is there a secure line that you might have so we can have this conversation? he then claims kislyak said no and that was the end of the conversation. just reading you the kushner version. >> this all came out in the past hour. so we're doing our best to get through it. clearly jared kushner is looking to clear his name and move on. today kushner expected to answer questions from staff of the senate intelligence committee as we mentioned investigating russia. the interview will be conducted behind closed doors and kushner will not be under oath. that june 2016 meeting at trump you to we are donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer expected to be at th

he confirmed that on april 7 he did meet with russian kislyak. on june 9 he met with natalia veselnitskaya, december 13 with gorkov who has very close ties with trump. do you think he would have self-inflicting wounds? >> i always said from the beginning, we're going to let the investigation bear out what the matters are. he would be the best case for these facts. when all is said and done, when you try to hold back any information you have, get it out there. get it out there because it's going to come out. whether or not this would have come out fully, it just doesn't seem like it. >> the 11-page statement for a couple mistakes he made, miscommunication with his assistant, that's why there is a security clearance questionnaire to begin with. do you expect that? is it appropriate to blame his assistant? >> it might not be appropriate, but i can tell you when you immediate with officials what happened if ju-- in july to october. and i think in terms of thees. so the fact it was not complete and was just sent without rkt. i sign security clearance

certainly kislyak, he's doing his job, talking to sessions, an adviser to the campaign. seem like it would be sessions' role as a foreign policy adviser to also engage whether it's the british ambassador or russian ambassador. there shouldn'ting an issue with him engaging. the issue is did he accurately characterize, did he even disclose when asked about that contact. and when he was asked about it, did he give an honest answer about the nature of it. and so i think as you showed at the top of the hour, you know, we have an evolving story line here. january, it didn't happen. march, it happened but it wasn't about the campaign. june, it was, yes, maybe it did happen. i can't really recall, but at no point did i discuss interference. >> but it does raise the essential question of, again, if there's nothing nefarious about it, why not just be honest about having the meeting? it's like, yeah, i met with the guy. he was asking about the campaign. i was a surrogate for the campaign. carl, is there anything wrong with that? >> it's the same question to the president of the uni

but of course kislyak's name has been mentioned in previous stories involving jeff sessions and other members of the trump campaign team and so forth. and in those circumstances, russia has always pushed back very strongly against the suggestion that kislyak was doing anything other than being a professional diplomat and ambassador for russia. they have always insisted that he's played no role in anything that was any way contrary to that, ana. >> phil black, thank you. >>> i want to bring in the panel now. joining us cnn crime and justice reporter, "time" magazine contributor and a former homeland security assistant secretary, juliet cayenne. the suggestion that sessions had talked about a possible future trump administration and russian policy issues with the russian ambassador this is according to the intercepted conversation he had with the superiors back in moscow. is it possible kislyak was overexaggerating to impress his bosses and he knew that the calls were being recorded and wanted to sow discord? >> i think it's healthy to be skeptical about the intercept. i want to say for

obviously, kislyak was doing his job. that's what they do, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the senator meeting with a foreign ambassador. on top of that, of course, we have the interview with the pled last week in "the new york times" where he himself suggested he's somewhat disappointed with his selection of session, i think all of this taken together puts sessions in a precarious position. >> as you pointed at atime when the president offered very sharp rebuke for his attorney general. the very most recent in "the new york times." let's look at what he had to say and we'll talk about it in a minute. >> so jeff sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. i then have -- which, frankly, i think it's very unfair to the president, how do you take a job and recuse yourself. if he would have reused himself before the job i would have said thanks, jeff, but i can't -- you know, i'm not going to take you. >> this is a president who meet s very clear loyalty is honored highly with president trump. this is a

kislyak reported that he and sessions had discussed campaign matters.kislyak and sessions had attended a trump speech at the mayflower hotel in april. >> let me be clear... >> reporter: sessions acknowledged in march there had been two meetings with with kislyak during the campaign, and last month he was adamant that there wasn't a third. >> i did not have any private meetings, nor do i recall any conversations with any russian officials at the mayflower hotel. >> reporter: sessions initially said that he never met with any russians, but when it became clear that he lad, he recused himself from the justice department's russia investigation. that angered the president, who has been at odds with his attorney general ever since. anthony? >> mason: jeff pegues, thanks. a truck driver is facing federal charges of illegally transporting immigrants in what amounted to a deathtrap and could face the death penalty if convicted. ten of the undocumented immigrants died, many of the others are in the hospital. the broiling tractor-trailer was discovered early yeste

i tend to credit the attorney general over kislyak on this in two respects. one is, one of these meetings that the senator had when he was on the armed services committee, which is one of these meetings, was in his role as armed services committee and so he could well have had some conversation about russia policy in his role as armed services committee senator. and that gets conflated with the second meeting which is that the republican national convention which could just be on the state of the campaign. so you could theoretically have a conversation where at the republican campaign he says how are things going, kislyak to sessions. and sessions says, you know, pretty well, actually. i'm surprised, we're doing much better than i thought. in his office with his staff present. so there should be notes by his staff. they're having a more substantive meeting on matters related to the armed services committee. kislyak reports these two things together and that's what creates the proposition that they had substantive conversations that were otherwise undisclosed.

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 team are telling the truth about their interactions with russia, thomas. >> ken, isn't that the bigger problem because sessions and a myriad of other trump team members have lost credibility because they've either lied or misled americans about contacts with russians and now we're actually using russia as the potential honest broker in all of this which is completely unfounded? >> reporter: it's a huge problem, and there's a lot of angst and disquiet here at this forum which features most leaders, both democrats and republicans, crept and former. last night former cia director and former director of national intelligence clapper blasted the president. clapper said he thought trump might be trying to make russia great again. the good news is all of trump's national security officials have come to the forum and said wholehearted

and i would want to look at it from the standpoint of what are the motives of kislyak here. i met him quite often when he was head of the a americas department in the russian foreign ministry. he was capable of embellishing to americans but i don't think he does that with his superiors. he's actually a rather professional guy speaking just from an espionage point of view. and also i would say a really outside possibility here, just to put every conceivable idea on the table, is that the russians could send something like this through in a form that they expect it to be intercepted just as part of their covert action operation to throw more chaos into our system, which they've succeeded in doing. >> i appreciate your point. i think that's very much on the table of possibilities given the recent conduct and how much work they've done to sow chaos. we know parts of the misinformation campaign were just to create some independent coo of confusion, which is different than other parts that were designed to explicitly reach strategic objectives like blunt any momentum of hillary cl

that's sergey kislyak. he's the former russian ambassador to the united states, and i'm going to on be telling you about had i am in a minute because he's the guy that kushner was meeting with. but after jared kushner's meeting he went to the white house with a message, and here is that. >> my name is jared kushner. i am senior advisor to.donald j. trump. when my father-in-law decided to run for president, i served his campaign the best i could becauseible in him and his ability to improve the looils of all americans. and now serving the president and the people of the united states has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime. i am so grateful for the opportunity to work on important matters such as middle east peace and reinvig rating america's innovative spirit. every day i come to work with enthusiasm and excitement for what can be. i have not sought the spotlight. first in business and now in public service, i have always focused on setting and achieving goals and have left it to others to work on me

kislyak. so here's the question, is this potentially all leading up to a situation where trump fires sessions and replaces him with somebody who is not recused on russia and who would then perhaps rein in or even fire bob mueller, the special counsel? >> well, remember, if the president fires the attorney general and tries to replace him that's a position that gets confirmed by the u.s. senate. so, donald trump just can't pick anyone he wants to fill in that role. he would have to pick somebody that could make it through the senate. so that is one consideration. he won't just be able to hand pick whoever but also, you know, with the latest story coming out this is coming as a result of leaks from the intelligence community and that is something that is known to really get president trump very upset, any time there are leaks against his administration, so it's possible by being sort of the victim of these leaks that in some ways weirdly puts jeff sessions back in trump's good graces. >> do you

they've intercepted some contacts within kislyak and his people. kislyak may have been exaggerating the meeting, you know, because he wanted to look important. >> that sounds, sarah, almost exactly like "the washington post" report including the fact "the washington post" supposedly had this story in june and only came out with it last night. what do you make of that, that franken was saying back in june, they've intercepted some contacts with kislyak, he may have been exaggerating the meeting. >> yes, i certainly think that's possible, and you know, one thing that i'd like to stress here is that none of this information about jeff sessions is new, not the meetings with kislyak, not his work and meetings with russian officials which he did over the entire campaign last year when he was first hired in march 2016, despite having no experience in that arena. there's been reason to dismiss jeff sessions for a long time. we know that he lied on his sf-86 security clearance forms. we know that now that he likely committed perjury and we know about this m

he met with kislyak in his office. >> the point of an ambassador, one of the things kislyak does is meetwashington to press the russian point of view. again, on a substantive level legally, none of those things present a problem. the problem is whether or not someone testified untruthfully, and to me, there's no contradiction between what attorney general sessions testified to before the senate and the post story seems to stretch to to imply the contradiction. but i think it's layers upon layers upon layers. and finally, you've got the ultimate problem of we've got this issue in washington now where people just seem to take the law into their own hands. to leak an intercept is one of the highest levels of classification you would have, the contents of an intercept. and to just decide a given issue is important enough that i'm going to break the law, commit a felony and leak this to the washington post, i think people really need to rethink that because those tools respect going to be available forever if the public loses faith that the contents aren't going to be kept secret particularly

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

spy agencies intercepted communications between the russian ambassador to the u.s., sergey kislyak and his superiors back in moscow in which kislyak talked about conversations he campaign with then senator jeff sessions, a major trump supporter. >> according to "the post," kislyak told his boss that sessions and he discussed campaign and policies issues, this directly corrects what sessions told congress during his confirmation hearings for the job of attorney general back in january. >> it is important for us to point out here we don't know whether kislyak was exaggerating to simply impress his bosses or perhaps planting false information to confuse american intelligence agencies. this info is only coming from him. >> either way it is a major new development and comes as we head into a week when people close to trump including don junior and son-in-law jared kushner and former campaign manager paul manafort will be meeting behind closed doors with investigators on capitol hill. we begin our coverage this morning with abc's david wright who is at the white house. good morning to you. >

when he goes to meet the banker, kislyak wassing noing at my door.nt with it, i took the meeting. and kislyak is out of washington, he's gone effectively from the world of having any accountability here. so it's very -- kind of -- convenient and interesting that the main person that kushner credits -- anything to see, this is all on kislyak not on me. >> kasie hunt, are you hearing any reaction to what jeremy described as unanswered questions from kushner's testimony and the substance of his written response? >> look, i think there are republicans that i talked to who are willing to give him credit for giving a detailed explanation and are willing to -- >> really? they think -- it's been -- really? it's been six months -- 11 page memo? these have been questions that out there for six months. >> i think that those who are willing to defend him are willing to say, look, this was a campaign where essentially collusion was not possible because everything was so crazy. they're willing to buy into the defense. mine, what heilman was walking through is exac

sanctions, at kislyak's insistence.said gorkov told him "he was friendly with president putin" and expressed "hopes for a better relationship in the future." kushner said he has not been in contact with gorkov since. as for the matter of kushner's original security clearance application, not including any of his foreign contacts, the president's son-in-law said it was an accident: it was submitted "prematurely" due to a miscommunication with an assistant. it's been updated at least three times. limit merchandise's abilities to lift the penalties. >> we will continue to work with the house and senate to put tough sanctions in >> we support where the legislation is now and will continue to work with the house and senate to put those tough sanctions in place. questions raised by the russia investigation which has now entered a new phase. kushner will be back on capitol hill tomorrow for a private session with members of the kushner will be back on capitol hill tomorrow for a private session with members of the house intell

he then went on to detail what he said was the second meeting with ambassador kislyak saying kislyak wanted to meet with him to discuss u.s. policy in syria. he said during that meeting kislyak asked for a secure line to have conversations with generals in moscow. kushner said there wasn't a secure line at the transition headquarters, so he asked if it was possible to use existing communication channels at the russian embassy. kislyak said that wouldn't be possible. nothing happened after that. kushner is clearly pushing back on any notion that he wanted a secure back channel to moscow. after that, at kislyak's request, he mate with sergei gorokhov. kushner says that meeting lasted about 20 minutes. he said it was only about relationship building as part of his role in the transition and no personal business was discussed. that contradicts a statement from veb that said this meeting was about kushner's business. clearly in this 11-page statement, jared kushner is painting the picture that the contacts with russians during the campaign and the transition were meaningless and insignifi

how much credence does the white house, do intel agencies here, put into what kislyak says?it's an interesting question, christi, because there is the possibility that kislyak was lying to his own boss, right? sort of saying, i got some really great information here, and just was maybe goofing off a little on the job. the other possibility, though, to keep in mind, is maybe he pried information out of sessions that sessions was not aware he was delivering. in the nature of the spy business, maybe a small piece of information helped the russians figure out something that they wanted to know. and i guess the third possibility is that, you know, none of this really amounted to very much, but that they were, in fact, talking about the campaign, maybe sessions didn't recall it, didn't assign it very much importance, but the reality is, we now have yet another version of information that really should have been disclosed up-front. >> and let's listen here, together, to what jeff sessions said back in march, just to be specific. >> let me be clear. i never had meetings with russian

do you think kislyak accomplished his mission?as it to sow russian chaos and. >> city the was to push russian interests which includes getting to know as many senior political figures, commentators and business people as he possibly can. do i think he directed the russian influence operation? no. that was from some other element of russian intelligence. he may have been aware of that. he's a diplomat not a spy master. eric: you know him very well. you worked alongside of him. >> he's not a warm and fuzzy kinds of guy. i wouldn't confide my deepest secrets in him. he's an old soviet-style diplomat. but he's obviously well thought of, that's why he got the job in washington. it's entirely possible some are suggesting he may go on to be russian ambassador to the u.n. all i can say is nikki haley get ready for this. eric: tomorrow and tuesday the house senate intelligence communities will be hearing from jared kushner. the meeting with natalia and the russian lawyers and others. what do you have think jared will say? any interactions

the washington post reporting that the attorney general was having conversations with kislyak or kislyak reported that to his bosses makes it look like the attorney general is in more trouble. kellyanne: we should be concerned about these leaks. we wouldn't know this unless someone is leaking information. it's 60 leaks as opposed to a handful when president obama was president. also eventually you may imperil this nation. judge jeanine: does the attorney general have the confidence of the president? kellyanne: the president said he was disappointed the attorney general recused himself. he thinks the whole russian investigation is nonsense and a witch hunt as he calls it. the polling shows that people are focused on healthcare with, taxes, immigration and the economy. judge jeanine: let me get questions out. one of the ideas -- one of the things that happened this week, made in america week, they say the president's tweets overshadows it. nuclear image and medical isotopes. my understanding is the u.s. has no domestic manufacturing capable of creating these facilities for the medical indu

and that's according to what kislyak told

and if that's true, that's not inconsistent with what sergey kislyak is saying happened. he's saying we discussed relations between the trump administration and russia and what that would mean for the future. and so that's not interference with the campaign, which is not inconsistent. but the problem is that sessions has had a few other pieces of testimony here, most specifically back in march, during his -- or back even in january during his senate confirmation hearing where he was much broader in his rebuke and told senator franken that he hadn't had any communications with the russians at all. now, the way senator franken framed that question could allow some wiggle room there, but that's the real room. >> then according to "the washington post" reporting that according to u.s. officials they've spoken with, sergey kislyak has real credibility, that he has a reputation for accurately relaying details about his interactions with officials in washington. so, rebeccrebecca, with that be said earlier this week, the president of the united states expressing his disappointme

this isn't the same as the flynn conversations with kislyak which were directly overheard. this is u.s. intelligence intercepting an e-mail or phone call from kislyak back to moscow and it's not unheard of for the russian ambassador or anyone else to misare represent what took place. at the same time, though, donald trump essentially confirmed the authenticity of these intercepts by calling it an illegal intelligence leak so we're pretty certain that the intercepts are what the "washington post" purports them to be and that is a major development and that's something that jeff sessions is under pressure now to refute the idea that he had these conversations. >> ken, let's talk more about this major development whether or not kislyak was pump take faking u.s. intelligence officials, trump told "the new york times" this week that he wouldn't have hired sessions if he knew he was going to recuse himself from the russia probe. sessions said this week he's going to stay on as a.g. is sessions' job on the line at this point? >> in any normal administration, it would be, right? i

job well done, sergey kislyak.ial russian ambassador to the united states since 2008. he has worked at that job incredibly hard, all the years since. you know, he's had a lot to do, keeping up with the crazy alleged requests from the incoming administration for secret back-channel communications to moscow, run on russian government equipment. trudging up to capitol hill for undisclosed meetings with u.s. senator who is happen to be top advisers to be the republican presidential candidate. whatever the chore wheel held for him today, sergey kislyak has been there. he has held up and done stuff others have never been called to do. if that man taking an unprecedented meeting with the american president in the oval office, listening to the american president blurt out highly sensitive code word information during that visit, or also his personal explanation for why he fired the fbi director, sergey has been there. he has done it. the russian foreign ministry will take a great photo while it's happening. and you know, t

russian embassy announced kislyak's tenure was over. president trump's first national security advisor michael flynn resigned after lying about contacts with kislyak. the russian embassy departure had been planned for some time part of a rotation. >>> we met the new guy over the weekend and he's ready to make changes we're talking about new communications director anthony scaramucci. his nickname is mooch. he tweeted the tv cameras are back on. there wasn't a white house briefing because sarah hackabee-sanders was traveling with the president but scaramucci's tweet has everyone expecting cameras to be rolling. there's also a report out that may explain why the briefings went off camera in the first place. sean spicer didn't want president trump to criticize him about he was doing his job, that tlush made the -- in fact, most of it it was spicer not wanting to be on camera so that president trump would not yell at him. he resigned after scaramucci was brought on board. tlush thrush. >>> it's a new start for everybody in that team and eve

these alleged intercepts have kislyak talking about campaign-related issues. it adds another layer of suspicion between all the contacts between trump officials, particularly campaign officials and russian officials as well. so i think, what this underscores for me, fred, is we need to let the investigations continue. all this report something interesting. but it does to me underscore the need to investigations to go on unimpeded and for the trump administration to wrap their arms around the investigations, embrace them and if there's nothing there, let them run their course. >> this latest reporting provokes the issues of whether the a.g., sessions, would resign. or if he's asked to resign. and if that is the case, won't be difficult for the president of the united states to try to nominate somebody else if it appears as though he only wants the a.g. to be loyal to him, the president, as opposed to the constitution of the united states? >> that is the problem. that is the issue what we have here is it could be kislyak or however you say his name, bragging. an

. >>> kislyak is reporting on conversations that he is said to have had with now u.s. attorney general, jeff sessions. >> if these reports are corroborated, and they can be corroborated by the intelligence community, they are very damaging to jeff sessions. >> the threat of the subpoena, the threat of the public hearing, was enough to kind of bring paul manafort, donald trump jr., and their lawyers to the table. >> i want to thank, personally, sean spicer, not only on behalf of myself, the president, the administration. >> i just think it was in the best interest of our communications department, of our press organization, to not have too many cooks in the kitchen. >> i like the team. let me rephrase that, i love the team. i think he's got some of the best political instincts in the world and perhaps in history. >> announcer: this is "through day weekend" with victor blackwell and christi paul. >> we are always so grateful to have you with us on saturday mornings here. so as you just heard there, spicer is out, scaramucci is in. and sessions is under new scrutiny. the

. >> seth: the information about the third meeting comes from communications between kislyak and thes, 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? t

intelligence did intercept electronic communications between then ambassador kislyak and the russian government. we're also told that kislyak likely knew he was being moderate and could have been trying to provide the u.s. with misinformation. reena? >> ninan: thank you, paula. tomorrow on "face the nation," john dickerson's guest will include the new white house communications director anthony scaramucci. plus republican senators susan collins and john barasso and representative adam schiff. the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee. senator john mccain's megan tweeted a photo today during a hike with her dad. she wrote "amazing hike with dad this morning. thank you for your best wishes." last week mccain was diagnosed with brain cancer and vowed to be work soon. in minneapolis, the police chief has been forced to resign. jamie yuccas was there. >> we do not want you as the mayor of minneapolis. >> reporter: protesters turned the spotlight on manipulates per betsy hodge last night. >> i am happy to sit down with folks and talk about the future of policing minneapolis.

he says besides a quick meet and greet with russian ambassador sergey kislyak the only other one was the infamous meeting at trump tower with his brother-in-law, don junior, claiming he did not read down that e-mail chain where don junior was told he would be receiving incriminating information about hillary clinton. he claimed he would get hundreds of e-mails a day and couldn't read through each one of them and how he viewed the meeting as meaningless saying in a statement, quote, reviewing e-mails confirmed my memory that the meeting was a waste of our time and looking for a polite way to leave and get back to my work i e-mailed my assistant from the meeting after ten minutes or so and wrote can you please call me on my cell? need excuse to get out of meeting. he could only recall discussion about adoption during that meeting and there was no follow-up and no documents being offered. during the transition, he said he again met with ambassador kislyak who requested a secure line to discuss the conversation with people in moscow. kushner asked in response if it was possible to use co

kislyak reports back to russia, he told me things about the campaign. for all we know there was a conversation with sessions saying we look forward to working with you guys and building a new relationship once we get into the white house. that would be considered a campaign-related discussion, wouldn't it be? it seems very innocuous, very benign. we don't even know what the substance of the discussions were. yet, we're already suggesting that somebody on cnn accused attorney general sessions of treason. that's a very serious crime to accuse somebody of treason and very unfair. >> i want to show you a tweet from the president. very active on twitter. a new on this subject, a new intelligence leak from the amazon/"washington post," this time against a.g. jeff sessions, these illegal leaks like comey's must stop. you've just underscored these points. why the amazon reference? is that a play to the base. in other words, we're walmart people and it's the amazon folks, the liberal beltway that are trying to take us down? >> fortunately i'm not a white house s