his name, as you can see the byline there, is matt tate, a british cybersecurity expert.ontacted him last july in the heat of the campaign asking for his help in authenticating supposed clinton documents he had obtained from russian hackers. matt tate is very explicit that peter smith clearly didn't care if he had to collude with the russian government in order to get these documents that might hurt clinton. although he can't definitively prove it, matt tate says it's his belief that peter smith was operating in coordination with the trump campaign. quote, my perception then was that the inclusion of trump campaign officials on this document was not merely a name dropping exercise. this document was about establishing a company to conduct opposition research on behalf of the campaign but operating at a distance to avoid campaigning. the combination of smith's deep knowledge of the inner workings of the campaign, this document naming him in the trump campaign group and the multiple references to needing to avoid campaign reporting suggested to me that the group was formed

>> we should make clear that matt tate never agreed or thought it was particularly well advised.ltimately he backed out of it after peter smith asked him to sign a nondisclosure agreement. the gaug coordinated with the campaign and also trying to skirt campaign finance. so, peter smith may have misread matt when he reached out to him thinking he was an ool ally in cause. >> someone at the table reporting a lot on the russia story. what do you make of this gigantic piece in this very big puzzle? >> well, first i have to congratulate shane and say i was very jealous when i read the story. just a great piece of work, shane. >> thanks, david. >> i want to make one point that this gets to some possibility of collusion between michael flynn and someone who was trying to make contact with russians who he supposed had these hillary e-mails. it was more a theory than anything else. but there is this one paragraph in shane's piece in which he cites anonymous sources saying intelligence intercepts picked up conversations with russian hackers on how they could get information to michael flyn

these two stories in the "wall street journal" and another piece by matt tate, first the "wall street journal" story "investigators have examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe russian hackers discussing how to obtain emails from mrs. clinton's server, and then transmit them to mr. flynn via an intermediary." this is clip one from my producers, matt tate, who is one of the unnamed sources in that story outs himself and says i am one of the sources in this story and he says this gentleman, mr. smith, who is now dead, had not contacted him and he was studying the email hack itself for what security breaches happened and what the email hack itself of the dnc meant from an objective point of view, no the partisan. he said smith had not contacted me about the dnc hack but rather about his constriction that clinton's private email server had been hacked in his view almost certainly both by the russian government and likely by multiple other hackers, too, and his desire to ensure that the fruits of those hacks were exposed prior to the election. he mentioned that he had bee

but having said that, david, this gentleman writes down under his own name, matt tate, so you do get a sense of who he is. he says towards the end of one of our confidences, smith said his team had been contacted by one on the dark web. this person has the e-mails from hillary clinton's private e-mail server and smith wanted to establish if the e-mails were genuine and ensure they became public prior to the election. what he wanted from me is to determine if the e-mails were genuine or not. i mean, you want evidence of intent, my friend? at least for the people involved, that would be some intent that they just didn't want stolen stuff, but real stolen stuff so it could be released for political purposes. >> and matt tate in this great piece he wrote says hey, i raised questions. this could be wrong to work with the russians to affect an election. and peter smith says not to me, we've got to get this stuff. and the other thing in the original "wall street journal" piece that was very intriguing, it quoted intelligence intercepts of russian hackers saying if we get the clinton e-mails

he never produced evidence of that to matt tate. >> absolutely.te. it just kind of remind me of the whole thing that happened with the gop operative in florida named aaron nevens. someone reached out to him with allegedly hacked e-mails, and aaron nevens took advantage of that. it could have been the same thing with smith. he was seeing what he could do with the material he had. >> so david, with that in mind, and there is no evidence right now that peter smith was working on behalf of flynn or anyone else in the campaign, but flynn's name seeps to be at the center of the stories as it relates to russia. >> flynn was a key point of contact going back to the time that he was the head of the dia. he was traveling to russia talking up theed in of improved u.s./russia cooperation. he clearly was the point man meeting with ambassador kislyak, the russian ambassador. he is now under advice of his lawyers not to talk about anything, so there have been many many weeks of no comment from him. what i found fascinating about this latest story is the reporter

. >> reporter: matt tate said he was told about being contacted by someone from the dark web claimingve clinton's personal e-mails. and said he might need help authenticating them. tate wrote that smith had a reckless lack of interest in whether they came from the russian cutout. peter smith told the journal that general flynn then serving as national security adviser to the trump campaign was aware of smith's operations. >> was there any legitimacy to that? did flynn have any ties to the campaign? >> well, flynn has not commented -- and that if peter smith was doing something with flynn that was in general flynn's private capacity. so it's still not entirely clear to what extent mike flynn was involved in this. there's no doubt that these two men knew each other. >> reporter: an attorney for flynn didn't return our calls for comment. peter smith believed he had gathered the private hillary clinton e-mails but couldn't completely verify the accuracy. now some on capitol hill including one member of the house intelligence committee thinks smith's efforts are one more avenue that should

one of the people smith has been accused of trying recruit, matt tate who laid out his interactions.ate wrote this, although it wasn't initially october dourd me how independent smith's investigation was, it was immediately apparent that smith was well connected to the top echelons of the campaign and knew attorney general flynn and his son well. smith talked about the goings on at the top of the trump team offering deep insights. he went on the discuss research document he says smith sent him that listed senior members of the trump team. >>> president trump spent part of his holiday weekend lashing out at the growing list of states that refused to turn over data to his commission investigating voter fraud. president tweeted out numerous states refused to give out information. what are they trying to hide? the commission asked the state for information including voters names, address, voting history and the last four digits of their social security numbers. more than 20 states including virginia, kentucky, california, new york and massachusetts have declined to provide some or all of

the 19th annual festival. 68 teams are patch tating i have matt from butches, smack your lips barbecueacks from down home barbecue. >> how you doing philadelphia? >> we are doing fantastic, we have friendly competition and they are getting their ribs going and i'll taste them in a little bit check out what is going on this weekend down at the shore. looking good guys -- >> reporter: why not start the fun today in ocean city sand is the star during the sand consulting contest. these will not be your typical san castles, giant sculptures and cool creations are molded during the event. the competition is already underway and is the judges complete but you can check out the sculptures through the day head to 6th street and the beach. >> the fun keeps rolling on friday in sea isle city. grab a blanket and sit underneath the stars for movie night. this is an event for the entire family. head out to excursion park at dusk and watch the show. this week's movie is petes dragon, you bring the munchies and popcorn the movie is free. movie under the stars this friday and every friday through septe