manafort's current location a mystery. manafort has vanished from the washington scene.here he is running a 2014 presidential campaign. if you think about it from a russian perspective, when he disappeared from washington and nobody knew where he was, the russians knew where he was. he was laying the ground work to put up a pro-putin autocrat in power for putin's oligarch friends. who could be better than paul manafort to run an american presidential campaign. wasn't that an american guy who ran -- according to new reporting, intercepted communication among russian intelligence figures included frequent reference to paul manafort. i mean, take the view from moscow. if you know a guy who needs a presidential campaign manager, how about our friend paul. from the russian's point of view, who would be the better choice to run donald trump's campaign? paul manafort made no sense. who's he? from the russian perspective, he'd be the obvious choice. or take carter page. donald trump seemed to pull it out of the hat when he was getting pressure last spring for not having any decl

paul manafort at the time was outraged by that reporting. he denied ever receiving any of those millions of dollars. he says he has no idea why this ledger apparently showed him to be the recipient of $12 million plus in otherwise untraceable cash. but that said, less than a week after "the new york times" published whole handwritten pages of that ledger, paul manafort was gone. he quit on august 19th as donald trump's campaign manager. but now we know that that's not actually where things sort of ended. that's where it started really getting juicy. because paul manafort had worked for this pro-russian political party in ukraine. specifically, he was the political machine behind the dictator, behind this pro-putin, pro-russian corrupt, tacky gold toilet loving dictator. and then get this, viktor yanakovych ran off back to moscow to be sheltered by russia three weeks after that. three weeks after he got run out of ukraine. there was a follow-up arrest of somebody very close to him. and it was an arrest made at the request of the american fbi.

what is manafort going? how come trump knows manafort. why are they all knowing each other is my question, to start with. >> you know, i spent a fair amount of time writing political satire, and when you list things like that, i can't answer that question. roger stone has been at donald trump's side. i remember him escorting trump onto a convention floor several conventions ago when he was going to run for president and we thought it was a joke. the question about paul manafort, who was engaged in helping prose, you mentioned soviet. it's funny i had that same instinct to call them soviets. prorussian ukraines. there's entanglement. one of the things that helped trump is the different skeins of this raise so many questions that it's hard to focus on any one strain and say that's what we have to question. the question i think really comes down to the senate republicans who have looked at trump as their instrument for getting a lot of good things done and have tended to overlook a lot of things. are they beginning to see this as a series of

paul manafort's daughter received message from someone claiming to manafort financial dealing with thepro putin leader. that politician decide message came from him. manafort denied wrongdoing with regarding his work in ukraine. how solid is this? >> the hack is on. >> there was a blackmail threat? >> yes. it could have been an effort to setup politics -- the concerns that democrats have raised about how -- >> why did trump dumb manafort after he worked for them? >> it was about his work in putin -- >> it was something there. >> it is something there. >> second question, how did manafort get together with trump. was it russian connections? >> so manafort had worked for tom bar recogniack, but manafor worked with trump to broker meetings with pro-putin, the ukrainian guy said he did not send the e-mail. >> how far back does trump go in russia? >> ten years or so. >> i which is what is the entanglement the trump campaign had with the russians? >> if you look at the tweets and find reporting, once you -- you have to deal with the first question which is the veracity of the tweets, the ver

what is manafort doing? how come trump knows manafort except through his russian entangleme entanglements. roger stone used to be a business partner with charlie black. why do they all know each other is my question to start with? >> you know, chris, i spent a fair amount of time writing political satire and when you list things like that and add about 90 others, i can't answer that question. certainly roger stone has been at donald trump's side, i remember him escorting trump onto a convention floor several conventions ago when he was going to run for president, we all thought that was a joke. >> yeah. >> the question about paul manafort, who was engaged in helping pros, you mentioned soviet, it's funny that i had that same instinct to call them sovi soviets, not ukrainiaukrainians. indeed, one of the things that has helped trump is the different skeins of this are so entangled and raise so many questions it's very hard to focus on any one strain and say that's what we have to know. the question i think rea

we know manafort have contact. >> how did manafort get -- >> was it through russia. >> yes.e has a place in new york. >> manaforted worked in maybe that's how if he did get involved they were clients over there, right? >> trump and paul manafort go back 20 years. they have been on the same page politically. >> this story has long legs. >>> up next, the "hardball" roundtable. >>> special two-hour look at president trump first days in office. what he gotten right and wrong.

m manafort and page denied any wro wrongdoing. fbi continues to investigation a 35-pace dossier compiled by a former british intelligence agent alleging russia has compromising personal and financial information about donald trump. cnn was first to report on friday the intelligence agencies have now corroborated aspects of the dossier, specifically calls between russian officials and other russia nationals known by u.s. intelligence for sharing information damaging to hillary clinton and helpful to donald trump. former top obama adviser ben rhodes tweeting today "when campaign chairman and national security adviser both resign over russia ties, there is more. manafort and anyone have nothing in common except russia and trump." president trump for his part continues to make public statements seemingly defending vladimir putin telling fox news he respects the russian leader earlier this month. >> putin's a killer. >> a lot of killers, we got a lot of killers, what, you think our country's so innocent? >> reporter: today the white ho

. >> i spoke to paul manafort last night. >> my exclusive interview with one of the operatives under scrutiny. have you spoken to the president since he's been the president? while he's in the white house? >> plus, the growing calls for an independent investigation. >> if there are contacts between the trump officials and russian intelligence officials that amount to collaboration, that is a big deal. >>> and susan sarandon comes back on the show for the first time since the election. do you feel that you properly appreciated what a donald trump presidency would be? whenfall this starts right now. >>> good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. it's only wednesday. we are now smack in the middle of what has already been by far the worst week yet for the trump administration, one that brought us first the resignation of national security advisor michael flynn and then, just this afternoon, the withdrawal of labor secretary nominee andy puzder which we'll discuss shortly. but we begin tonight with revelations that have some raising the specter of watergate. new details about alleged c

paul manafort is confirming his quotes in "the new york times." this report that came out overnight. he also tells nbc news, i had no contact, knowingly with russian intelligence officials. manafort continues, i don't think it's possible i could have even inadvertently had discussions with russian officials. it's not like they wear badges. the story is not true. manafort, of course, had been the center of controversy for months. it ultimately led to his departure from the trump campaign prior to the election of president trump, kristen. in the meantime, new responses from the president about all of this. >> that's right. and this, of course, relates to that bombshell report in "the new york times" which indicated that a number of cam payne aides had contact with russian intelligence officials. so manafort now knocking that down baseod our reporting. that is a little bit overwritten. at the same time, hallie, it comes against this backdrop of mike flynn just being ousted for having had discussions with the russian ambassador about sanctions before

this one about manafort. the president said took no questions on russia specifically or on manafort at the press conference, but there was something very interesting, body language, where he turned to prime minister benjamin netanyahu and said, i would encourage you not to expand settlements any further. president also saying he is not if favor of the standard white house u.s. government position on a two state solution for israel. he said it could be two, could be one, whatever works for the parties involved but that he's happy to facilitate a peace. is that enough for you today? >> melissa: that's a lot. we have to unpack all of that. especially the back and forth between the president and netanyahu, so fascinating. thank you very much, john, for wrapping all that up for us. president trump calling the leak of general michael flynn's phone call with russia criminal as the fbi investigates contacts between russian agents and some members of president trump's team. katherine harris has more. we understand the

manafort. who is a respected man. but i think he represented the ukraine or ukraine government or somebody. but everybody, people knew that. everybody knew that. so these people -- and he said

i mean there was paul manafort. the then campaign manager who was forced out over, you know, his ties to russia. and then michael flynn, his national security adviser. so the idea of the trump campaign and then the trump administration talking to russia has been something we've been talking about for months now. and the latest revelations show that people in the campaign, paul manafort specifically were talking to people in russia. it's just kind of an incredible thing to learn. that u.s. intelligence and, you know, the fbi were talking about this stuff. >> and you make a good point. i mean, the white house has really gone to great lengths to try to convince the american people that the white house doesn't have any kind of relationship with russia. even, you know, whether it's kellyanne conway or sean spicer even talking about this hours before the latest information came out. listen to what he said at a white house briefing. >> back in january, the president said that nobody in his campaign had been in touch with t

>> flynn and manafort both resigned over their deals with russia, was did that mean?eed to keep digging into here. what was happening inside the white house with the controversy of michael flynn unravel? much more of our coverage, new questions ahead. migraines steal moments from my life. so i use excedrin. it starts to relieve migraine pain in just 30 minutes. and it works on my symptoms, too. now moments lost to migraines are moments gained with excedrin. [heartbeat] bp gives its offshore teams 24/7 support from onshore experts, so we have extra sets of eyes on our wells every day. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. their competitors' rates alongside their direct rate to save you money. but what's really going on? when played backwards at 1/8th speed you can clearly hear... what could that mean? woman: tom? tom! they're just commercials. or are they? you're waking the neighbors. well, mom, maybe the neighbors need to be woke. i think it's actually "awoken." no, that doesn't even seem right. no, it's "awoken." revealing the trut

manafort has denied having any relationship with the russian government. john mclaughlin is former acting c.i.a. director. >> if it turns out that any deals not only unprecedented but would be shocking and would be something that you would have to take active steps to ensure never happens again, and it would leave a permanent stain on this administration. >> reporter: investigators also continued to vet a 35-page dossier compiled by a former british spy who concluded that the russians had compromising information on president trump. sources familiar with the investigation say while some of the details may never be confirmed, there is increasing confidence that some aspects of the dossier are true. flynn could face charges if he lied to the f.b.i. scott, the overall investigation is one of the most sensitive and closely held in the history of the f.b.i. >> pelley: jeff pegues for us tonight. jeff, thank you. well, congress is getting in on all of this. in addition to the f.b.i. investigation, the leader of the senate said today it's very likely that the sen

among those regularly communicating with russian nationals was then campaign manager manafort and prashlsay representatives communication between foreign governments is not unusual. however, due to the frequency and level of the trump advisers involved. investigators have not reached a judgment on the intent of those communications adding to those were intercepted communications between russian officials before and after the election discussing their belief that they had special access to trump. now, two law enforcement officials tell cnn the russians could have been exaggerating their access. john and alison. >> i think it's moving fast, the few revelations coming after at the white house faced a barrage of questions about the forced resignation of michael flynn as national security adviser. now, flynn was fired during the transition at tuesday's briefing, press secretary sean spicer was asked to confirm that no one on the trump team spoke with russia before election day. listen to this. >> back in january, the president said that nobody in hi campaign had been in touch with the russians

trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort and now ousted national security adviser michael flynn. what is the connection between russia and the trump administration? it's day 27 of the trump presidency. let's begin with cnn's jim sciutto live in washington. what have you learned, jim? >> reporter: alisyn, two things sparked alarm. one, the repeated contact between trump campaign advisers and russian officials, described as constant contacts. but also the level of officials, senior most advisers very close to the president who were in this communication. these communications considered significant enough that then president-elect trump and president obama were briefed on it by the nation's senior most spy leaders. multiple sources tell cnn senior advisers to donald trump were in constant communication with russian officials during the 2016 campaign. u.s. intelligence intercepting repeated calls since last summer raising red flags due to the frequency of communications and the high level campaign advisers involved. those advisers include former campaign chairman paul manafort and r

paul manafort is confirming his quotes in "the new york times."vernight. he also t n

in his name was mentioned because he used to do business with paul manafort.hey were business partners in a real estate project in new york a couple of years ago, so that is the first time that westerners heard about this particular oligarch as someone who is close to putin and doing business with paul manafort, who is close to trump. then came that dossier that was widely discredited, and there were questions about the money there as well, and now finally it turns out that he is being prosecuted by the united states on entirely different matter. a want to extradite him from austria, and things look bad for him, except now donald trump this president. the question is what will the trump white house do with this case? where they continue to prosecute him and antagonize vladimir putin? or will they back off? vladimir putins in turbid the preceding of his criminal case in the u.s.? the donald trump administration says we will go through this, will he take that as a slight? >> the idea that it is not about the bribery. it is an unproven assumption. that win after

others include trump's former campaign chair paul manafort and former trump advisor carter page. according to the "new york times," call records show manafort was in touch with russian officials before the election. hours before the "times" published its expose, white house press secretary sean questioned if anyone was in touch with russia before the election. >> back in january, the president said no one in his campaign had been in touch with the russians. now, today, can you still say definitively that nobody on the trump campaign, not even general flynn, had any contact with the russians before the election? >> my understanding is what general flynn has expressed is that during the transition time -- we were clear during the transition period from he did speak with the ambassador -- >> i'm talking about in the campaign. >> there's nothing to conclude there's anything different. >> 17 days ago, flynn had misled otherice resident, officials, and he was a potential threat to blackmail by the russians. why would he be kept on for almost three weeks? >> that assumes a lot of things

we have reached out to paul manafort, to michael flynn, to the white house. we have not heard back from the white house, have not heard back from michael flynn. paul manafort denies the allegations. >> a lot of reporting out there right now from you. pamela, thank you so much, great to see you. this is kind of the big story at the moment. we do expect another big story, to hear from president trump very shortly. his focus today, not on russia, but you heard him speaking to retail industry leaders, but also a big focus today on israel. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will be arriving at the white house shortly and the two leaders will hold a joint news conference, interestingly they're holding the joint news conference before sitting down for meetings. let's go to white house correspondent athena, what are you learning, what does each leader want to get out of this visit today? >> reporter: kate, you're right, it is interesting to have these two leaders meeting the press before they meet each other. the prime minister is expected to arrive at the bot

both manafort and page deny any inappropriate contact with russian officials. >> if there was collusion going on, then this is a titanic story, and it could lead to the ruination of the trump presidency. >> reporter: that's a big statement. >> it is a big statement, but this is a big story. it's a story that we've never seen before. it's unprecedented. >> reporter: then there's secretary of state rex tillerson's relationship with putin when he ran exxon, as well as page's ties with russian energy companies when he was banker, and manafort's job advising putin ally victor yanukovych in ukraine. the democrats have been raising questions about all of this since before the election, but as more and more emerges, the question becomes: how many republicans like peter wehner will add their voice to the chorus? >> pelley: so much we don't know. jim axelrod for us tonight, thank you. when the president spoke today of illegal leaks of classified information, he was right, of course. chip reid has been looking into that. >> these people have committed a potential federal felony in talking to the r

. >> former trump campaign chair paul manafort denies talks with russian intelligence. >>> good morning, everybody. welcome to "street signs." just want to apologize for the slightly irregular programming seen over the last 15 minutes. essentially the london office had to be evacuated because of a fire alarm. onward. very glad that you're with us this morning. our european equity markets were slightly higher. we're hanging on to slight gains for most of europe up to a half a percent. the ftse up and two lagerts trading lower by 1.5%. a lot of focus on whether or not we're going to have to go through some type of other crisis given the hesitation of the imf to be involved in further bailouts. when it comes to our european equity markets, you're looking at health care. food and beverages and banks trading up the most. banks up 1.7%. you would have noted a super strong session. record high seen and we were very much helped along by the banking sector in particular, goldman sachs, for example, going through a previous ten year record to close at record highs once again and contributing to m

paul manafort helped donald trump stage a very successful convention. the highlight of the troubled children, the speech to rally the faithful by rudy giuliani, general plans speech, a lot of high point in this convention. we have a large audience for our convention than the democrats, unheard of. and they pull it out, they pull it together very quickly without much structure. somatoform i think gets and desserts and gets a lot of credit in the book. >> host: that surround the time he departed the campaign. can you talk about that and what led to your leaving? >> guest: i left in august because my book was coming out and i didn't want to be accused of being secret of that because he was. because i had a fundamental on campaign strategy at the time, but i mean, really i think i will address a big he needed to run a more traditional campaign and i did think that some of the twitter fights that he got in distracted from his overall message of immigration and tax reform and trade and so on. again, he was right and i was wrong about a lot of it. but i also a

apparently, phone records show manafort on calls to russia, but manafort denies it saying, "this is absurdhave no idea what this is referring to. i have never knowingly spoken to russian intelligence officers. it's not like these people wear badges that say, 'i'm a russian intelligence officer.'" well, how do you know? you were on the phone! you can't hear a badge. ( laughter ) ( applause ) paul. ( cheers and applause ) the guy on the other end could have a hammer and sickle face tattoo for all you know. but maybe manafort really didn't know that he was talking to russian intelligence officers. i mean, it's not like every russian person you talk to is a spy. i mean, some of my crew members are russian. you've never worked for the russian intelligence, right? >> nyet, nyet, stephen. i've worked many jobs. never russian intelligence. >> stephen: oh, where did you work before here? >> the trump campaign. ( laughter ) >> stephen: good for you. good for you. congratulations on the win. that must have been a surprise. you happen to have a badge that says, "i'm a russian intelligence officer, do

american officials quoted said one of the advisers picked up on intercepted calls was paul mann manafort. this comes nearly 24 hours after trump's national security adviser, michael flynn, resigned. but this morning donald trump didn't seem too concerned about the chaos and confusion surrounding michael flynn's resignation tweeted this complaintinstead. "the real story here is why are there so many leaks coming out of washington in will these leaks be happening as i deal on north korea?" >> before damaging news is leaked, damaging events have to actually occur, and even a cursory examination about the leaks which trump is complaining reveals the real problem is the leaking, it donald trump. it should have been obvious long before trump won the presidency that general flynn was not the choice for national security adviser. perhaps more troubling given recent developments, general flynn has repeatedly taken a sympathetic line toward russia. in december of 2015, he spoke at a gala in moscow for russia's state-sponsored propaganda arm "russia today." he was photographed sitting at putin's ta

>> we know a lot of the -- has to do with paul manafort. if that's all it is, we knew about that during the campaign. that's not really new news but if it turns out there were other high officials now in the government or extensive negotiations or talks between flynn and the russians and russian spies that would be an issue but we don't know. you can imagine what might be but as yet there is no proof. "the new york times" said there's no evidence that there was any cooperation between the trump administration on the interference in the election with the russians. as of yet, there is nothing. >> bret: okay, charles. as always, thank you. the trump administration is making some small changes to obamacare is republicans are to present plans to repeal it and replace it. the health and human services department is proposing tighter scrutiny for people who sign up for coverage outside open enrollment by claiming a change in life circumstances. the irs is abandoning a plan to start rejecting tax returns of taxpayers failed to indicate they have th

leaks come out saying manafort given cash money by the russian intelligence service.n that flynn makes five phone calls to the russian ambassador to talk about the sanctions the obama administration put on them. now learning the story you just learned -- >> which they denied at first, the first part about flynn. denied at first. media trying to take them down. now flynn forced to resign. >> called russian ambassador five times. chance he would be freelancing, doing this without some communication with the president-elect seems highly unlikely in that circumstance. all the pieces seem to point in one direction that donald trump for some reason took a very soft line on russia and maintained it consistently during the campaign and seems to have been some contact between his campaign add the russians. >> so ask you the question that people ask me. what does russia have on donald trump and the administration? people think must be is something for him to have the reaction he has with russia. isn't that the question? >> i always thought the real puzzle to start with is why i

manafort joined the campaign and was then out. flynn stayed on and resigned as trump's national security adviser last night. officials emphasize that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. but these stood out due to the frequency and level of those involved. adding to u.s. investigators' concerns were intercepted communications between russian officials before and after the election discussing their belief they had special access to trump. now it's unclear whether they were exaggerating that claim or not, but this all came at a time when the u.s. intelligence community was growing in confidence that russians were trying to tilt the election in donald trump's favor. this investigation, still very much under way, and the fin the the intelligence community. pamela brown, cnn, washington. >> let's get more on this. joining me now, former cnn moscow chief jill doherty. as we heard there from that pamela brown report, trump advisers were in frequent communication with russian op

some of the people who are under investigation in the probe include paul manafort.was a former trump campaign chair and has links to russia as well as ukraine's exiled former president viktor yanukovych. roger stone is a longtime republican operative. the calls from congress and senate have been coming in fast and furious, and from bipartisan aspects. republicans as well as democrats. republicans now making calls. graham is saying that the russians have been trying to break the backbone of democracies all of the world. check wesley saying russian meddling is unacceptable. bob corker says congress needs to get it all out there to the public domain. looking ahead, the senate intelligence committee could call witnesses by the end of this month. that could include paul manafort, mike flynn and also sally yates, who was the acting attorney general up until a few few weeks ago until she was fired by president trump. she did tell the white house that mike flynn could be blackmailed by the russians. a lot there, and a lot more to come. >> thank you so much. on this continui

he didn't exon rate manafort, he called him a good guy and reminded everybody that manafort left the campaign, he was fired well before the november election, but he certainly left out the possibility that senior people, maybe even his former campaign manager, had contacts with the russians. >> john karl. pierre thomas, our senior justice correspondent. the president said in that press conference he asked the justice department to look into these leaks. >> well, that will have a chilling effect obviously because they have access to who of-administration officials, who the agencies have been talking to. so that will be something that will be pursued and pursued vigorously. i can tell you that law enforcement officials and the intelligence community have been watching what the president has been saying closely, particularly what he said in those tweets yesterday, basically blaming or suggesting that officials at the nsa and the fbi have been leaking, george. >> matthew dodd, it is clear that the president likes having the press as a foil. we see that right there. it worked for him in t

sources told cnn that senior trump officials including paul manafort and michael flynn were in constant contact with russian officials during the election. >> the key roles of those advisers, the number of their conversations with russian officials, and the timing, which was key because this all was happening as russia was targeting the clinton campaign. and donald trump publicly urged russia to find hillary clinton's missing e-mails. all of this was happening at the same time. this morning no direct response from the white house to cnn's reporting. the kremlin and president trump are dismissing these reports as "fake news." our barbara starr begins our coverage at the pentagon. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, john and poppy. no surprise, another tweet from president trump, a short time ago. he says, "this russian connection nonsense is merely an attempt to cover up the many mistakes made in hillary clinton's losing campaign." what that may have to do with what's at hand here is unclear to many. this press conference may give an indication of how much congressional democrats an

his former campaign ceo was paul manafort who has ties to russia. his secretary of state was given the medal of friendship by russia. so, you say there'satives goingk but i see a lot of folks in donald trump's administration who have a friendlier view of russia than maybe past administrations did. >> i think it was obama that leaned over to putin and said, i'll have a little more flexibility to give you what you want after the re-election. >> i'm sorry, i don't know what you're referring to, congressman. >> remember when he leaned over at a panel discussion or in a meeting and he said, i'll have more flexibility after the election. no one pushed the president on what he meant by that, but i can only assume for a thug like putin it would embolden him. >> congressman, thank you for joining me.