well, in the end they did kill the manafort cases. they did stop helping the special counsel here when they were looking into manafort. after doing so they now all of a sudden we now know did get their white house meeting for their president that they previously couldn't get. and they did finally get the delivery of those javelin missiles that they previously couldn't get. and giuliani was taking meetings in ukraine all through the middle of that. does that sound familiar or what? was that round one? was that the dress rehearsal on how to extort stuff out of ukraine? and when they tried to get away with it this year too many people saw them and squawked. is the reason he thought this was all fine is because he's done it before and got away with it and thought it was legal. this question is being raised by a well-connected columnist working on a journalistic piece of real estate. and i'll tell you one final point about it, it kind of looks like the impeachment investigators on capitol hill may be onto this already. and i'm saying that

manafort." -- took control from an anti-corruption bureau of a criminal investigation related to mr. manafort. the same prosecutor general took further steps to slow walk the ukrainian cases related to the mueller investigation in november of 2017. he gave an official order to freeze those cases in april of 2018." that same prosecutor general would, quote, later coordinate closely with mr. giuliani to promote an investigation into former vice president joseph r. biden." so, this year in 2019, president trump is being impeached for demanding these bogus investigations of joe biden and other things he thinks will hurt the democrats for his re-election campaign in 2020. the impeachment investigation also turned up evidence the president may not have just asked for those things, he may have conditioned official actions of the u.s. government on him getting those things. he may have conditioned the white house meeting on the delivery of those investigations. not to mention hundreds of millions of do

of paul manafort here at home. the one that would result in his prosecution and imprisonment on multiple felony accounts. so ukraine has these open investigations of manafort, and with within a couple days, a couple days of that meeting, the manafort cases are taken away and moved to be under the per view of the president. and people in ukraine were mad about this. this is a headline in the post a week after giuliani was there meeting with ukraine's president, black ledger information comes to a haelt, a secret handwritten list of $2 billion in shady payments appears to have stalled. when reports of the finding surfaced last year it lead to the resignation of paul manafort, his name was found in the ledger, but the anticorruption prosecutor's office of ukraine has passed the ledger documents to the special investigations department of the prosecutor general's office and of course, different prosecutors offices, we don't know, from here how do we know how to judge the various equities or proprieties of officers in s

, it didn't originate with manafort.t came from manafort's call constantine kilimnik, who, again, according to the fbi has tied to russian intelligence. so by the transitive property, this means this is russian intelligence promulgating this false narrative that exonerates russia, right, that it was really ukraine who did the election interference, not russia. that's from the russian intel guy. and while i have you, give me 45 more seconds of brilliance. is the food and beverage workers union out there completely undiminished in its political power, and do they have any comparison in modern day america in their political power? >> you're talking about the culinary union which represents about 50, 60,000 workers. i know it's a clichÉ but the clichÉ fits of nevada politics. the question is will they be on the sidelines as they have before. they were on the sidelines in 2016 until harry reid called them up and said you've got to save hillary clinton from bernie sanders. they get involved, they make a difference. and i think

help people understand the importance of manafort?be seen as a figure here, but you saw him as really central. >> the initial reaction when he was hired to help run the campaign was just shock and disbelief and we just assumed he would quickly go up in flames and would be, you know, buried in scandal from his past. that actually didn't happen. as time went on, we began to think that he was there for a reason and that it was not a coincidence that he had joined the campaign. >> what do you mean? >> well, after the platform, after the republicans changed the platform during their convention to make it softer on ukraine, that seemed like something that manafort probably had a hand in and really the only beneficiary of that was russia. so it's a puzzle, and these pieces are starting to come together and they make it more suspicious that something is going on here. >> just to back up half a step, paul manafort was one of the most ruthless beltway bandits on the republican side for many years working for dictators around the world. ferdinan

clearly i can see that, manafort. >> manafort was a political consultant and campaign strategist with dubious list of clients. they included criminals and despots. ferdinand marcos. ukraine's viktor yanukovych. in the spring of 2016, donald trump called on manafort to be his campaign manager. >> paul manafort has done an amazing job. he's here someplace, where's paul? paul manafort. >> but when the story of the black ledger broke and the large cash payments to manafort were revealed, trump was put on the defensive. >> now manafort has totally denied it, denied it. i think he represented ukraine or people having to do with ukraine or people that -- whoever. but people knew that, everybody knew that. >> soon manafort was forced to resign from the trump campaign. the mueller report would reveal his close die ties and large debts to a russian oligarch, leading to suspicions trump himself may be compromised, allegations the president denies. manafort remained loyal to trump even after he went to prison for bank and tax fraud. even after he won the presidency, donald trump suspected ukraine

paul manafort is all over these documents and what's so interesting too is not only is paul manaforthese documents. manafort wants to interact with the campaign, but the campaign itself, in particular, steve bannon, members of the trump's campaign in the president's orbit who feel very weary of paul manafort. they don't want to be aligned with manafort himself. they don't want to be seen as still working with manafort even though he's continuing to advise and offer help to the campaign after he leaves. and there's an understanding early on that russia and ties to russia could be a problem for then candidate and now president trump going forward. >> yeah, just a week before the election, emails were exchanged that they wanted to get away from manafort. >>> california on fire and the president causing a firestorm of controversy with a tweet storm today. with the state dealing with one of the worst rash of fires in recent years, the president today threatened to with hold federal funds to california and his solution for fighting the fires, cleaning the forests. reaction to all that and

manafort was trump's campaign manager.is case, do you think it is in some way that russian disinformation is behind it? how would you describe it? >> i would hesitate to make that attribution until we either saw some communication or something on the back end that supported that theory, but certainly, it supports the russian world view, which we know president trump supports and kilimnik and manafort used to work for yanukovych. he was pro corrupt system and that kind of leads to being pro-russian. and all of this is great for russia. it undermines ukraine's zero atlantic integration. it undermines u.s. support for democracies in countries like ukraine, not just ukraine, but all around the world. and of course, it makes us look like our own democracy and our support for democracy abroad, these values that have guided our foreign policy since the fall of the berlin wall 30 years ago, can be bought and sold out just for political dirt. >> so just to be clear, you know, in terms of understanding this backstory to crowdstrike,

associate, manafort was trump's manager.u think in some way that russian disinformation is behind it? how would you descrie it? >> i would hesitate to thak ma tricks until we either saw some communication or something on the back end that supported that theory. certainly it supports the russian world view. we know president trump supports and konstantin kilimnick and paul manafort was pro-corrupt system and that leads to being pro russian. and all of this is great for russia. it undermines ukraine's integration, undermines u.s. support for democracy in countries like ukraine. not just ukraine but all around the world. and it makes uslooklikeour own democracy and democracy support for abroad, these policies that have guided us since the fall of the berlin wall, can be sold. >> back to crowdstrike, i think what you're saying is manafort and his associate were working for the old corrupt ukraine crayon dictator. part of what happens is manafort is essentially outed and trump is enraged by that. i think that's where the origina

we have paul manafort, the campaign director. rick gates the deputy director, michael flynn, the national security director. they're all in federal prison. robert mueller locked them all up. and what we know now is that the trump campaign was rooted in corruption through and through, and the impeachment inquiry shows us that that corruption didn't stop. it only continued once trump and his cronies reached the white house. >> we go to the other federal prosecutor. cynthia, your reaction? >> well, i spent a lot of time this morning reading this document and so the public understands, most of it is blank. there's a lot -- >> redacted you mean. >> it's all redacted. >> so usually what we see when we have the release is these black lines that go through statements. this one is just big empty white boxes. so there's a lot more to this story that we don't know. for example, and that's what i think about is my compulsive self. like, for instance, the steve bannon interview. there's only one interview. well, steve bannon was interviewed n

not paul manafort. not michael cohen. but he has pardoned others who, at times, were considered controversial. like, sheriff joe arpio. so now that this has come to the end of the road for roger stone, it will be interesting to see. we are on, i would say, pardon watch here. our antenna is up to see if there's any indication the president's looking that way. >> kelly o'donnell, garrett haake, ambassador mcfaul. thank you all. ben is the one that gets punished. he's going to come back later in this show. the three of you are relieved of some duty here. in all seriousness, thank you for your expertise and reporting. >>> later, we're going to talk about the growing number of trump associates, one i just referenced, who have been convicted of crimes since the president was elected. that list now includes roger stone found guilty on all counts today. we got much more ahead on what happened in the impeachment inquiry as the ousted ambassador testified in real time and about her removal from office. her removal from office. of t

manafort was such -- it certainly did begin a period interests in manafort ties to russia and so forth? >> i think again i heard that may have been the effect here in the united states and obviously it was of interests to journalists and others here that mr. manafort was former president yanakovich and he was a political advisor head of the campaign here. we all know that there had been court cases and so forth where mr. manafort was found guilty of certain actions. but at the end of the day, president trump won the elections. >> when mr. lutsenko reporting, there is been a question of all the information he published was authentic, correct? >> i am sorry, could you repeat that. >> the information that mr. lutsenko published, it was all correct or was it all doctored? >> i was not aware of that. >> he wrote an op-ed in the hill taking issue with candidate trump, were you aware of that when it occurred? >> yes. >> did you have any communication ws ts with the ambassad ambassador expressing concern ss? >> no. >> how frequently do you communicate with the ambassador, obviously you are in

manafort's ties to.ink that. that may have been the effect here in the united states and. obviously it was of interest to journalists and others here that mister manafort was. former president yanukovych is a political adviser and he was the. political advisor havoc campaign year and so we all know that there have been court cases and so forth. mister manafort was found guilty of of certain actions. but at the end of the day president trump won the elections. >>with mister the changes reporting. i mean there's been a question of whether all the information. he published was authentic. yes some have questioned whether the information mister leshchenko english to was all correct or english to was all correct or whethe we all have things we love and long for. a place, a feeling, a moment. but only kerrygold can take you there. to ireland's lush, green pastures. where grass-fed cows produce rich, creamy milk for the most delicious taste imaginable. that's no ordinary cheese. no. it's kerrygold. kerrygold. th

manafort is watching any of this coverage tonight as. as we fail to remind people often enough, the president's former campaign chairman is tonight in federal prison. with that, our thanks to our initial conversation group for tonight. to michael schmidt, nancy cook, melanie zanona, frank figliuzzi, greatly appreciate it. thank you, gang. >>> coming up for us, more on the president's efforts to disclose the identities of his most potentially damaging critics. >>> and later, the numbers move again in the running order of the 2020 democrats. we'll have it all as "the 11th hour" is just getting under way on a monday night for a new week.us chevy's the only brand... to earn j.d. power dependability awards... across cars... trucks... and suvs. four years in a row. since more than 32,000 real people... just like me. and me. and me. took the survey that decided these awards. it was only right that you hear the good news from real people... like us. i'm daniel. i'm casey. i'm julio. only chevy has earned j.d. power dependability awards across ca

be testifying against paul manafort.roader picture as to this conspiracy theory that the president has been pushing especially recently and of course is that really the heart of the impeachment inquiry here. >> and we're learning more about then-candidate's trump desire to get his hands on hillary clinton emails. >> it was a constant topic of communication within the campaign. not just by trump but also his family members, top advisers, rick gates again giving this information to mueller investigators and putting it this way, saying gates recalled a time on campaign aircraft when candidate trump said, get the emails. michael flynn, the short-lived national security adviser said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain these emails. so gates talked to investigators about how flynn had the russian contacts, how he was pushing to get these emails as well. they were strategize how to get the emails from wikileaks. so a lot coming out in the documents. i will say a lot of the documents, about 300 pages worth, redacted

written by manafort himself, in violation of manafort's gag order.t lead to any prosecutions per se. that may not really matter. from the impeachment depositions, trump was after some way to extract from the mueller report, by showing that democrats are being investigated for getting help from a foreign government. i want you to hear what he had to say when i asked him about that. >> we don't want to interfere with american elections. i do sympathize with mr. trump but it doesn't mean that we have -- >> you know that all president trump wants is to be able to point to ukraine and say look, they're investigating joe biden and corruption so i don't know. you understand how just having the investigation feeds directly into the u.s. election? >> when it was against manafort it was used by democrats against trump. let's be fair here. >> reporter: the so-called black ledger, he believes, was phony. the secret papers released at the highlight of 2016 that showed manafort getting more than $12 million in off-the-book payments from the pro-russian president a

of collusion between the trump campaign and russia that evidence of collusion between russia and manaforts circumstantial at this point. that was in march 2017. we've got new information on potential articles of impeachment could look right when they get around to drafting them. here's the commission, bribery spelled out in article 2 section 4 of the constitution, abuse of power dealing with intimidation of witnesses, contempt of congress, failure to provide documents and witnesses to cooperate with investigation and obstruction of justice. let's talk about potential charges. the next step, democratic strategists kevin walling and jenna willis. let's look at what we have. this is what eric's wall well said when i asked, he's in front of the house and diligently, here's what he said last night when i asked about the presumption part of this, yesterday he did not say anybody told him there was quid pro quo but he had a presumption. it was his response. >> if it is a reasonable presumption, yes. it was a reasonable presumption because everything ambassador sondland knew about the president o

and it was another manafort associate who had suggested that.'s unlikely that it's russia. it's likely that it's ukraine. and as part of these interviews, rick gates is discussing how manafort felt pressure to get additional leaks from -- from -- whether it's wiki leaks or elsewhere regarding hillary's e-mails, hilary clinton's e-mails, that trump was really growing frustrated that more leaks were not coming. so, you know, to circle back to your original question. >> right. >> this is at the center right now obviously of the impeachment inquiry. but you can see from these interviews that the seed was planted very early on in the campaign or at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign. >> and in all standards, according to jason's reporting as well as what we've heard from the reporting on the testimonies given from the hill, that -- that this issue of ukraine being at the heart of the question of the dnc server had happened not only from this very call but before and after. how might this all fit together, nile? >> well, look. i mean, clearl

manafort's resignation from the trump campaign as a result.o when manafort got caught with his pro-russian dirty book of business in ukraine, that was now manifesting itself in the trump/ukrainian relationship it. >> just stinks to high heaven. >> he was working for the russian-backed politicians and oligarchs inside of ukraine before there was a movement to remove them. the other thing that's so important, nicole, in reading that, rudy giuliani is not a u.s. official. he has no role in american foreign policy. he has no business interacting with american foreign policy. he is just the president's private attorney. yet he is more empowered than our ambassador in the country. and this is a country that we have enormous leverage over. they depend on the assistance. the assistance that was used as leverage in the quid pro quo in exchange for dirt on biden or an investigation on biden. they are so vulnerable to that kind of leverage because they need that assistance. and so it's even more insidious the fact that you have someone not in the u.s. go

gates recalled manafort saying the hack was likely carried out by the ukrainians not the russians.ted this theory was supported by a long-time associate of paul manafort's, also a key character in mueller's report, and was indicted for allegedly trying to tamper with potential witnesses against paul manafort. prosecutors have also said he has ties to russian intelligence though he has denied this and then once paul manafort was ousted from the campaign we saw in these documents that steve bannon tried to make it clear that there should be a separation including in this e-mail to jared kushner when he said we need to avoid this guy like the plague. they are going to try and say the russians worked with wikileaks to give this victory to us. paul is a nice guy but can't let word get out he is advising us. we've also learned from the newly released documents that trump campaign officials, trump himself, and his family members repeatedly discussed how they could get access to the stolen democratic e-mails that wikileaks had. gates even telling mueller's investigators how trump said, quo

manafort's activities were criminal.nts out -- >> but manafort has nothing to do with our campaign. >> why does he care? these are four separate theories. but the president's supporters are counting on you not to be able to tell them apart or not being able to keep track of who worked for which ukrainian president and when. what's the goal? distraction, confusion, to create doubt. that's the problem. that's why we have to check it. when it comes to something as serious as removing a president, clarity is key. those are the facts. >> thanks for the facts, chris cuomo. conspiracy theories, finger pointing, who knew what when and what did they really mean? it's fodder for the thanksgiving gatherings today. let's look down the table, past the turkey, the stuffing, and the cranberry sauce to the kids' table. think for a moment about what they are hearing. as we do that let's read a letter sent by a 3rd grader in the 1990s, the last time we as a nation went through the impeachment process. the letter was sent to the chairman o

>>and paul manafort his short period of time was actually 5 incredibly important months of 2016. manafort help trump clinched the gop nomination and fight back a mutiny at the republican national convention. that's a big deal. >>hardly know the gentleman. >>now we've moved into the impeachment inquiry, the president called gordon sondland a great american following gave a million dollars to the trump inauguration. the president nominated him as ambassador to the european union. he caed the president from a restaurant in ukraine and the president took the call they spoke several times according to sondland's testimony. but the president now says he hardly knew sondland just like these guys. >>i don't know thos gentlemen. >>no equivocation on this one he doesn't know them lev parnas and igor fruman us citizens who did business in ukraine associates of rudy giuliani and apparently frequent photo powers of the president. the president says he takes a lot of pictures with lot of people. but this many could fill an album. >>house impeachment investigators released the final closed door

actually -- >> paul manafort had long been fired. >> but the president repeats that conspiracy. do you believe that -- >> as you go on tv every single day, not talking about -- >> i'm talking about the president of the united states, does he believe that it was russia who hacked the dnc and not ukraine. >> you know what he said. he said it many times. he said it could be russia or ukraine or a guy in new jersey. >> so he doesn't -- that means he doesn't accept intelligence -- >> andez talking about interference all over. we don't anyone to interfere, russia, ukraine or the media to put the thumbs on scale or adam schiff. let the people decide who their president is. >> so trying yes or no one more time before we wrap up, does the president believe as the us intelligence community has concluded that it was russia? >> the president has great faith in the u.s. intelligence community and let me say this about the emails. they didn't matter. he won because he took his message -- >> any he. i know the president wants to hear that. but that is not what this is about. >> -- for a very s

it suggests that it was promoted by paul manafort, his campaign chairman.ul manafort's long-time associates, constantin kilimnik, who the fbi believed has ties to russian intelligence services are it seems this conspiracy was cooked up in the summer of 2016, right as the campaign is heating up, as the first documents begin to come out. you see manafort, kilimnik, and general mike flynn, begin to tell the president, we don't believe this is russia, we believe this is probably ukraine. >> do they care if it's true? >> hard to tell. our documents are reporting doesn't bear that out at the moment. it does seem they are acting in bad faith. there is quite a lot of evidence, at least some of -- like michael flynn, the intelligence services of the united states believe this is a russian hack. it's clear to us that he is attempting to shape that narrative to fit something that the trump campaign can use. >> why would it help them that much during 2016? if it's one country versus another? >> i think that the entire narrative was, russia is helping trump, they wanted

manafort is in jail.nians don't believe it was real, where's the evidence it was forged? we haven't seen it. strike three, russia did far worse to help trump and he's never had any problem with anything they've done, not even when standing on the world stage. >> i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. >> that was tough to watch. the fourth and final conspiracy, a woman named alexandra chalupa, accused of working with ukrainians to hurt manafort and trump. she started looking into manafort on her own before trump announced his run. while she may have later tried to get info on him from ukraine, nobody at the dnc seemed to care. as for the validity, ultimately she was right. manafort's activities were criminal and as trump himself points out -- >> manafort has nothing to do with our campaign. >> so then why does he care? these are four separate theories. but the president's supporters are counting on you not to be able to tell them apart

told the fbi during the investigation that paul manafort was the first person in the trump campaignaine, not russia, was responsible for the attack on the democratic national committee emails, stealing those emails in 2016. in the notes from the fbi interview with rick gates, officials say gates recalled manafort saying the hack was likely carried out by the ukrainians. that conspiracy theory is one of the things that donald trump asked the ukrainian prime minister to investigate in their phone call. but according to rick gates, no one was more defensive of russia than michael flynn, donald trump's first national security adviser, who is now a convicted felon for lying to the fbi. after this break, former ambassador to russia michael mcfaul, and chuck rosenberg will join us to consider how this new information from the mueller investigation can be helpful in the impeachment inquiry. that's next. that's next. i get it all the time. "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choo

it goes from russian intelligence to manafort, manafort is the one who spreads it.ani admits he's been talking to manafort on strategy on this whole campaign he's been running for the president in ukraine. but that whole chain of command makes sense, right? russia wants to muddy the waters. russia doesn't want to be held to account what they did. that's what we knew as of last night. then knock me over with a feather, this happened today. >> now, are you familiar with these allegations of ukrainian interference in the 2016 election? >> i mean, there have been rumors out there about things like that. but, you know, there was nothing hard at least nothing that i was aware of. >> there's nothing based in fact to support these allegations? >> yes. >> and, in fact, who was responsible for interfering and meddling in the 2016 election? >> well, the u.s. intelligence community has concluded that it was russia. >> ambassador yovanovitch, are you aware that in february of 2017 vladimir putin himself promoted this theory of ukrainian interference in the 2016 election? >> you

and remember, paul manafort was very close. his main clients in ukraine was viktor iian kovic. remember that name from the report is going back and forth with these russian contacts. it made me want to know is there more to the russia connection going all the way back then. and again, they would be spinning this kooky idea that the ukrainians, the enemies of mr. yanukovych, the enemies of paul manafort were responsible for the dnc hacking. >> and chuck, how does the committee take notice of this? is this something that they can simply now that it's become public for the freedom of information act, can they just adopt it into the record of their investigation if they want to? >> they sure can. and again, they can use it for questioning other witnesses or for seeking other documents. the one cautionary note, lawrence, which i think is important, these are essentially raw intelligence reports. when an fbi agent sits down with someone and interviewing them, she writes down whatever they say. if that person lies to her, she writes it down. if that person tells her the truth, she wri

tonight, the increasing evidence that the ukraine corruption conspiracy theory dates back to paul manafort, who is now in prison. >>> and a big loss for trump today as an important federal court weighs in on his taxes, and tonight the experts weigh in on where they think this is headed as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a monday night. well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 1,019 of the trump administration, and as the president takes his fight against impeachment, as he did tonight, to lexington kentucky, democrats feel they are gaining and building their case against him. just tonight, lev parnas, one of those two rudy giuliani associates in the effort to have ukraine help trump investigate his rivals has agreed to give documents and testimony to congress. parnas, who was picked up while apparently trying to flee the country, has already been indicted on campaign finance charges and refused to comply with investigators initially last month. he and the other guy, igor fruman were also involved in the effort to oust one-time u.s. ambassador to

in it, manafort emailed jared kushner, quote, i am really

tonight new evidence that donald trump's former campaign manager paul manafort was pushing the theory as early as 2016 that ukraine and not russia was behind the hack of the democratic national committee email. hans nichols have the story. >> from documents obtained by buzz feed news, thousands of pages of interviews from special counsel robert mueller's investigation into the 2016 election. the documents show the president's former campaign manager paul manafort was instrumental in trying to link ukraine to the 2016 hacking and distribution of damaging internal dnc emails. the hack was likely carried out by the ukrainians, manafort is alleged to have said according to the documents. and in trump's july phone call with the president of ukraine, trump asked him to investigate ukraine's role. mueller's office ultimately concluded that russia was behind the dnc hack, dieting 12 russian officers. last night the president again aching mueller. >> then the mueller witch hunt never ended. with 18 angry democrats and an unlimited budget. >> and the "washington post" reporting even some senate

that he has been visiting manafort in jail at the same ukrainewas conducting manipulations. he has visited with him. the lawyers that represented manafort are connected to these two thugs working for giuliani. it's all connected back. the information that gave these guys the ability to go in and corrupt ukraine are being used right now for manafort -- through manafort's connections in this whole process of trying to get ukraine to do the dirty work for president trump. longs going to be, in the run, when they connect the dots, history will show this all stems from manafort. host: robert in texas. more testimony coming up next week for the house intelligence committee. on tuesday, they will hold an open hearing against -- with jennifer williams, an aide to president pentz -- vice president pence. following them in the afternoon, volker, and a national security council eight will be testifying. on wednesday -- our coverage of tuesday is live at 9:00 a.m. eastern time on c-span3. , or then3, c-span.org free c-span radio app. on wednesday, our coverage starts at nine a clock a.m

. >> and jess, in these 270 plus pages, paul manafort is mentioned a lot. >> yes. and they detail how paul manafort really pushed that conspiracy theory way back in 2016 that it was the ukrainians who hacked the dnc commuters during the campaign rather, of course, than the conclusion from u.s. intelligence that it was, in fact the russians. so what we're seeing in these documents, these interview notes putting it this way, saying gates, who was rick gates, recalled manafort saying the hack was likely carried out by the crew yan yans, not the russians. this of course is a conspiracy theory that the president has been pushing publicly. it was a big part of the july 25th phone call with yun craukr president. the documents really also unveiled how involved paul manafort was in the campaign even past when he left in august, 2016, and then how steve ban nonwarned that they should avoid manafort's influence. in one email in particular he wrote to jared kushner, we need to avoid this guy like the plaik. they're going to try and say, probably the opposition that the

remember before manafort joined with trump he raked in millions. the classic car collection.nd a zoo. after that strong man manafort turned to trump and fed him the lie that hillary clinton's 30,000 deleted e-mails ended in somehow in ukraine. trump bought into the clearly debunked conspiracy theory and much of his current mess stems from this. once they realized his kremlin's connections were a liability team trump tried to distance themselves from him. >> there's been discussion of paul manafort who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time. >> barely knew the guy. in these documents we find out that manafort was advising the trump campaign until days before the election. the campaign knew to try to hide that fact. one e-mail said, quote, we're going to try to say the russians worked with wikileaks to give this victory to us. >> russia f you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> well, as we all know now, russian hackers were listening and ramped up their efforts to hack the clinton campaign almost as soon as trum

donald trump jr., paul manafort and kushner all attended the mysterious meeting.ssian oligarch behind it the offering campaign dirt on clinton. >> information that would incriminate her dealings with russia and be useful to your father. >> wikileaks. courtesy of russia. thousands of e-mails stolen from the democrats. flooded the air waves. >> it was designed to help donald trump and hurt clinton. >> donald trumps response. >> russia if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails. >> donald trump wins the presidency. >> in november 2016, trump's victory was a political earthquake in the u.s. in moscow, it sparked joyous celebration. in washington president trump was meeting out going president obama. and obama gave his a piece of advice. do not hire michael flynn. trump did it anyway. the new national security adviser lasted 24 days. flynn had lied about russia. specifically about a conversation with then ambassador kiz yak. they discussed what putin hated most. u.s. sanctions on russia. >> they want the sanctions lifted. they made no secret of

one name that also comes up in these documents former campaign chairman in jail, paul manafort.ally detail how paul manafort, then the campaign chairman, pushed that conspiracy theory all the way back in 2016 that it was, in fact, the ukrainians who hacked the dnc computers rather than the conclusion from u.s. intelligence agencies it was actually the russians. the interview notes released this weekend put it this way, saying gates recalled manafort saying the hack was likely carried out by the ukrainians, not the russians. of course this is a conspiracy theory that president has pushed publicly while in office and was a big part of that july 25th phone call with the ukrainian president. now, of course, at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. the documents, we saw this weekend, also unveiled just how involved paul manafort was in the campaign, even beyond when he left it, in august 2016. this is steve bannon warning to avoid manafort's influence in the e-mail to jared kushner saying, we need to avoid this guy like the plague. they're going to try to say the russians worked with

manafort leaving the trump campaign. was there anything about that issue when it was occurring that concerned you? >> i certainly noticed it, because i was a week or so away from arriving in ukraine. i think from a ukrainian perspective i realize that we are looking at this from an american perspective. from the ukrainian perspective, i think that what mr. lushenko and others looking into the black ledger was concerned about was not actually mr. manna for it, but former president and his poetical party and the amount of money that they allegedly stole. and where it went, and so forth. i think there's a difference in perspective depending on which country you are in. >> but you can understand the president, at least from his perspective, looking at these facts certainly it's reasonable can to to conclude that they areadvocas point in time. correct? >> speaking about mr. lushenko, he's i in and investigated journalist, as you said. he got access to the black ledger and he publish it, as i think journals would do. i'm not -

that's manafort. like the plague. they are going to try and say the russians worked with wikileaks to give this victory to us. the new information comes from a freedom of information request. from it, cnn obtained more than 270 pages of interview notes, e-mails, and other documents from the team who did the investigation under robert mueller. he stepped down after finishing the report back in may. hard to believe it's been that many months. let me bring in our cnn crime and justice reporter. you've been reading through all of those documents. what else are you finding? >> it is really fascinating to see how much donald trump but also his family, meetings with family members, and his campaign staff, how obsessed they were with trying to learn what was in these wikileaks e-mails and how in some cases they, themselves, may be able to get their hands on it for political gain. then what we learn is that very early on, even, a lot of talk about ukraine right now and what we find is that paul manafort according to rick gates

and he asks manafort call him. you'll also hear roger stone emailed steve bannon. he told bannon that trump could still win, but time was running out. and he said he knew how to win this, but, quote, it ain't pretty. roger stone knew how to win this, and he was telling that to the trump campaign ceo, but his way in his own words, quote, ain't pretty. now at the same time in august you'll hear roger stone was bragging. he was bragging publicly and bragging loudly and bragging repeatedly he was in contact with wikileaks. that he had a go-between that was telling him information about what was coming that he had an intermediary. stone regularly updated people in the trump campaign at the senior levels about whatever information he thought he had about wikileaks. make no mistake roger stone could have easily told the truth to the intelligence committee. stone could have testified he had many e-mails and texts about wikileaks and julian assange. including the ones you see here today. he could have said he had the messages with steve bannon, with paul manafort, with jero

manafort showed us his fat feet of clay, a poster boy proving that crime does not pay.evealed as a monster, fiscal duplicity, his sport jacket spawned catastrophic publicity. with a work as a ostrich fashion bellwether, who would buy sports weather that featured are leather. where nursing a wound that no surgeon can stanch. our moment of glory was gone in a flash betrayed by the laundry of the old gun cash. [laughter] the felons in prison and where in disgrace, cursing the wiles of the vile human race. from afar you can picture our unhappy bms, each one of us sticking its head in the sand. [laughter] [applause] >> msa, someone who is been teaching literature for decades and heard many poets, that's one of the most extraordinary readings -- [laughter] >> you should shakespeare read his own material. >> let me go back to trump specifically, you kind of a publicist dream, you did an article in the new york times which was all about trump as an entertainer that helped promote the book, the timing was great and i like you to extend on this a bit because it comes across in yo

think what manafort was facing. near that, but the message was intact. >> can i speak about trump for a minute? his written answers to mueller, mueller asked him about his conversations, his multiple conversations with roger stone and the answers multiple times were, i don't recall the substance of those conversations. so you have to now go look back at those questions and the way he answered those questions and what roger stone is convicted of, and we'll see if this surfaces again post-presidency. >> i just want to stress that this is the same behavior. this is dirty tricks, these are dirty tricks, it's a climate of corruption, it's trying to acquire dirt on your opponents, it's part of american politics, but we shouldn't be proud of it. but it has a different meaning and significance when it's done by a president when the president is in office. it's still bad when they're a candidate, but i don't think that president trump, if he did do what we're seeing emerge, as president understood that the games he played in

manafort leaving the trump campaign. was there anything about that issue when it was occurring that concerns you? >> well, i certainly noticed it because i was a week or so away from arriving in ukraine. i think that from a ukrainian perspective i realized we look at this from an american perspective. from the ukrainian perspective i think that what others would look into black ledgers were most concerned about was actually not mr. manafort but former president john a covert and his political party and the amount of money that they allegedly stole and where it went and so forth. this is a different perspective event which country you are in. >> but you can understand the president at least from his perspective looking at these facts, certainly it is reason to conclude that are elements of the training establishment that are advocated against them at this point in time, correct? >> well, just speaking about mrn investigative journalist as you said and he got access to the black ledger and he published, he published it as

that's where paul manafort got it from. who's constantine kilimnik, he's the guy manafort worked for years in ukraine, who came out of russian military intelligence. who the fbi assesses is still linked to russian military intelligence. so this whole thing that the president and the white house and republicans in congress now are actively promoting, this conspiracy theory that russia didn't intervene in the 2016 election, it was ukraine who did that, that theory appears to have originated with the gru, with the russian military intelligence. with a russian military intelligence guy who delivered it to the president's campaign chair who was in prison for laundering with not paying taxes for the millions of dollars he took from political kremlin allies and political parties in ukraine. i mean the president is now promoting the conspiracy theory that russia didn't intervene in the election at all, it was ukraine. that theory is from russian military intelligence. i mean, i know this impeachment inquiry is about one specific th

>> the core question about paul manafort is whether he was working for donald trump and the americanr vladimir putin. >> paul manafort had worked in american politics years ago, but for more than a decade he had advised a putin ally, then ukrainian president viktor yanukovy yanukovych. >> are there any ties between mr. trump, you and your campaign or putin and his regime? >> no, there are not. that's absurd. >> soon the manafort led campaign made a mystifying change to the republican party platform. >> the deadline for amendments. >> language that had promised weapons for ukraine in its war against russia was blocked. >> reveal that donald trump jr. went into a meeting with a russian lawyer. >> there was another strange russian connection at trump tower, donald trump jr., paul manafort, and jared kushner all attended the mysterious meeting >> amazing hospitality and support. >> reporter: the russian oligarch was behind it offering campaign dirt on hillary clinton. >> information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father. >> re

manafort leaving the campaign. was there anything about that issue when it was occurring that concerned you? >> i certainly noticed it because i was, you know a week or so away from arriving in ukraine. i think that from a ukrainian perspective, i realized we were looking at this from an american perspective. from the ukrainian perspective, i think that what mr. loshenko and others looking into blackledger were most concerned about was not mr. manafort but former president yanukovych and his party and the amount of money they allegedly stole and where it wept and so forth. there's a difference in perspective depending on which country you're in. >> but you can understand the president at least from his perspective looking at these facts, certainly it is reasonable toen co-collude there are elements of the ukrainian establishment tissue establish almost -- establishment operating against him correct? >> peeking of mr. loshenko, he's a journalist, he got access to the blackledger and published it, as i think journali