this guy, this russian who michael caputo initially thought i guess was a u.s.covered he was not in fact, he's actually a russian, approached roger stone and michael caputo in may of 2016 which of course was before the dnc hack, it was before the fbi investigation was formally launched. so when you're thinking about what he could have possibly known, it was well before the dnc hack was even made public by the "washington post" a month later in june. so that for one is really curious. another really bizarre thing is just the discrepancy in the versions of the story that's being told by the russian and by roger stone. not only did roger stone and michael caputo just remember that this meeting happened, but roger stone is saying that this russian henry greenberg was the only one at this meeting whereas greenberg is saying, well, no, i actually had a ukrainian friend with me who was offering them dirt allegedly on the clinton foundation, or at least represented himself as someone who had worked for the clinton foundation and had said that he had dirt on hillary clin

michael caputo was asked about the russian, about his contacts with this russian, and it was at that point that michael caputo said he became surprised at all of the information that the special counsel had about this russian. that information eventually wound up -- michael caputo wound up relaying that information to roger stone, and now the lawyers for both roger stone and michael caputo sent these letters to congress saying quite simply that the men had forgotten and that they had recalled this meeting had occurred after the special counsel brought it up. but it's really something that's hard to believe, obviously, wolf, that they would forget a mee meeting where someone was asking for so much money. and keep in mind this is the third instance, at leiast, thata russian had some contact with people associated with the trump campaign offering dirt on hillary clinton. it was obviously the don jr. meeting at trump tower, that was one of the big ones, where a russian lawyer had offered dirt on hillary clinton. then there was the george papadopoulos campaign adviser turned fbi informant

joining me now, former trump campaign advisor michael caputo. michael, thanks nor cfor coming. >> i want to play something you said to me last november. >> you said you had no contact with russians. you said you never heard of anyone with the trump campaign talking with russians. you never even heard the word "russia," and that there was no discussion of russia on the trump campaign. is that still how you cries your time with the campaign given what we know today? >> absolutely. no question in my mind. >> michael, were you lying to me then? >> no, katy, i wasn't. i didn't recall a minute-long telephone conversation where somebody named henry greenberg, an fbi informant, called me to offer information to the trump campaign, wouldn't tell me what it was and wanted instead to meet face to face. i gave them the telephone number of roger stone who met with them briefly. decided the guy was a crockpot and moved on. what we didn't know at the time was he worked for 17 years as an fbi informant. but we know that now. >> we'll get to that in just a moment

michael caputo is going to join us. and the "hardball" roundtable over what is lahappening in mexico. and someone says trump lies "all the time." and the party will pay the price. finally, let me finish with trump watch. there is "hardball," where the action is. with hotels.com to give venture cardholders 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. all you have to do is pay with this... at hotels.com/venture. 10 miles per dollar? that is incredible. brrrrr. i have the chills. because you're so excited? because ice is cold. and because of all those miles. obviously. what's in your wallet? i'm not sure. what's in your wallet? 60% of women wear the wrong size pad and can experience leaks. you don't have to with always my fit try the next size up and get up to 20% better coverage day or night. because better coverage means better protection always that's confident. but it's not kayak confident. kayak searches hundreds of travel and airline sites to find the best flight for me. so i'm more than confident. how

roger stone said he had rgotten thisting until michael caputo reminded him. he said this meeting was so ludicrous he had forgotten about it. now both men are claiming they believe henry greenberg was an fbi informant who was sent to essentially entrap them in order to help someone at the department of justice, apparently, infiltrate the trump campaign. rudy giuliani, the president's attorney, weighed in on this this morning on cnn, saying that he didn't totally agree with the idea that henry greenberg was an fbi informant and he called him a strange person. listen to this. >> the most extraordinary thing is on some document he described himself as an informant. every informant i ever had tried to keep that secret. you don't say, oh, i'm an informant, i can come to the united states. it sounds like a very strange guy. was he an fbi informant or not? well, we know from the probe by the inspector general that the fbi at the highest levels here were doing very, very unorthodox things, if not out and out illegal and unethical. so would they be using a guy like thi

michael caputo, thanks so much, i appreciate your time tonight. >> thanks, erin.ppreciate it. >>> and next, cnn just learning republicans could hold the d deputy attorney general ros rhodrode rosenstein in contempt. >>> plus, the trump administration defending its policy of separating children from parents at the border. tonight, you'll meet a family. you get another day in paradise. get a sunset on a sunday. get more stories to share. get more from your summer getaway with exclusive hilton offers. book yours, only at hilton.com ...to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. i'll take that. [cheers] 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. new ensure max protein. in two great flavors. you introduce the all-new ford ecosport and surprise people with how much they can get in a small suv. that means more standard features and more upgrades for a lot less than expected. the all-new ecosport. it's the big upgrade in a small package. from ford, america's best-selling brand. see what you can get for under 20 grand with the all-new ecosport. i thoug

does it appear that roger stone and michael caputo want this kind of information out there now?ing it first to the "washington post" to say look, the feds sent an informant. we've been trying to tell you, this they've been trying tone trap the campaign. >> well, if they want it out there, they certainly waited until the special counsel had evidence of it that was presented to them. and it's part of the pattern we have seen throughout then tire story, where you know, constantly we have individuals asserting over and over and over again that there were no meetings with russians and then in fact there turn out to be contacts and the contacts turn out to be more substantive than were originally described. the attempt to kind of portray all of this as an effort to entrap and undermine the president's campaign i think is consistent with what we are seeing. these are not arguments that are really designed for a court of law. they're not really even arguments designed for a court of public opinion. they have a very narrow purpose, which is to mobilize the republican base in a way that i

it is critical if michael caputo and roger stone who submitted to interviews with the special counsel team and with congressional investigators, there's a requirement to be truthful, and it is a violation of law if you're not. the fact they didn't disclose this meeting could be critical, and then as he explained if there's a way toassert, they didn't remember it, that might be their cover. also interesting at the same time we find allies of the president and the president himself talking about a witch hunt, referring to a setup of the president to have them outline this idea that an fbi informant, that they describe, was trying to draw them in. we have to see how that all shakes out. it is from pages of a spy novel turned real life. so today when asked about this at first rudy guiliani asserted the president didn't know. when pressed, had they actually discussed it, guiliani said he hadn't specifically discussed it, but here is how he responded. >> was president trump aware of this meeting? >> i doubt it. i certainly didn't know about it. it's news to me. just read it in "the washingt

michael caputo was shown his text messages between he and the meeting. and he reminded roger stone.ou have the letters after that. and stone says no information was exchanged between he and greenburg. he said he turned down the offer and never spoke to him again. he never contacted anyone on the trump campaign, including the candidate, about this meeting. we should point out both men are accusing greenburg of being an fbi informant. someone planted to try to trap them. i have askeds white house officials if the president has been made aware of the admission by caputo and stone and if he agrees with the assessment that greenburg may have been a plant for the fbi. we have yet to hear back from the white house. >> boris, thank you. >>> rudy giuliani says president trump will not issue any pardons during the russia investigation. he is not ruling out the possibility once the investigation is over. here is what t president's lawyer told jake tapper on "state of the union." >> the president has issued no pardons in the investigation. the president is not going to issue pardons in the inve

michael caputo joins us tonight. thank you very much for coming on.those stories that is tantalizing because the facts that we know for certain, or seem to know for certain, it seemed to go to the fbi. he listed the fbi and an fbi agent on an fbi application. he clearly was working in some facet for the fbi. >> he was. right. we do. when i was interviewed by the mueller investigation on may 2nd, i exposed or answered about this greenberg approach in response to a perjury trap. that really angered my interviewer, and his emotional response was a red flag to me. they seem to know more about it than i did. when i got out of my mueller investigation interview, my gofundme for my legal fund went through the roof, and i used some of those funds to hire investigators find out more about henry greenberg. we quickly found out through an immigration and naturalization service filing that he made in 2015 that he signed under oath saying he was an fbi informant for 17 years. also here in iran and north korea, and he provided 14 different fbi informant visas as pr

michael caputo then set up the >> did you see or witness any contact? >> nobody ever asked me about russia. >> nobody ever spoke to me about how russia might help. >> stone said he ultimately did not agree to pay for the dirt on clinton. the president's lawyer rudy giuliani claiming that the president was not aware of the contact. >> no, i haven't talked to roger and he's never talked to the president about it, and where is the collusion? he said it was a waste of time. >> reporter: stone told abc news in a statement, "i never discussed this approach, which i now believe was an fbi set up, with donald trump." stone and caputo both alleging that the meeting was an fbi trap, that greenberg had previously worked as an informant. greenberg told the "post" he hasn't worked with the fbi since 2013. this latest interaction means at least 11 trump associates have admitted to meeting with a russian during the campaign or presidential transition since the mueller investigation began. today the president tweeting, "witch hunt! there was no russian collusion." giul

the meeting was set up by trump campaign aide michael caputo. and according to the "washington post," which first reported on this meeting, stone and caputo later texted each other. caputo writing, "how crazy is the russian?" to which stone replied "he wants big money for the info. waste of time." caputo, "the russian way. anything at all interesting?" stone, "no." befo today stone had claimed he never met with any russians during the campaign season. >> i've never been to russia. i didn't talk to anybody who was identifiably russian during the two-year run-up to this campaign. i'm not sure i did previously either. i very definitely can't think of anybody who might have been a russian without my knowledge. no, i think it's a canard. >> both stone and caputo also failed to tell congressional investigators about this meeting. it was only robert mueller's team, the special counsel, showed caputo his text messages with stone during an interview back in may that his memory was refreshed. here's what caputo tolls cnn just hours after that interview wi

this time it is a long time trump confidant that being roger stone and michael caputo, they are telling the post they accepted a meeting with a russian national offering dirt on hillary clinton. that meeting which took place in may of 2016 was never disclosed in hearings both stone and caputo had with the house intelligence committee. last hour i spoke with one of the reporters on that story. he and his colleagues also interviewed the russian nags ale w national who offered this dirt. >> i think one of the main reasons why they were willing to talk to us about this is because of their contention that the man who approached them might be an inform abiliant for the fbi who sent to set them up and compromise president trump in some way, at that time candidate trump. and two colleagues of mine found a lot of very interesting data about this man. there are documents and a paper trail that show that he has said in official court records that he was an fbi informant for 17 years. he denied that he was sent to this meeting by the fbi or by anyone else. but importantly he confirmed that the meet

roger stone has not met with robert mueller's team, but michael caputo does, and in preparation for thisew, he recalled this interaction with this russian. this russian claimed to be an fbi informant in court filings. that has roger stone very worked up. he is saying he was illegally surveilled. he is saying this was all a setup by the fbi to entrap another member of trump's team. i'm going to bring you a portion of i multi-statement from roger stone. he said, so the real question is not why i failed to remember an innocent meeting, it's the fbi was using an informant to set me up. >> is the fbi saying anything? >> we have not heard from the fbi on these accusations, either. >> nice to see you, sara. thanks very much. i really appreciate it. >>> thanks so much for joining me. "inside politics" with the one, the only john king starts right now. >>> thank you, kate. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. the white house is defiant but facing a growing public revolt at its policy of separating families at the border. >>> china up in arms. the pr

campaign official michael caputo and roger stone claim that was a set up on the campaign.chez has more from the white house. >> reporter: long denied any contact in the 2016 campaign and in separate letters they sent to the intelligence kmcommittee ov the weekend, they acknowledge the meeting with stone and henry greenburg. he was offering dirt on hillary clinton in exchange for $2 million. both men claimed they forgotten by the special counntil reminded michael caputo was shown text messages between he and greenburg. now you have both of them sending off the letters. notably, stone says no information was exchanged between he and greenburg. he turned down the offer and he never spoke to greenburg again. he neverontacted anyone on the trump campaign, including the candidate himself, about this meeting. we should point out that both men are now accusing greenburg of being an fbi informant, someone planted to try to trap them. i asked the white house if they had been made aware of the issue and if he agrees with the assessment that greenburg may have been a plant for the fbi

the meeting was set up by trump campaign aide michael caputo.ut if you ask them today, they say the russian in question was actually an fbi informant. what? shimon prokupecz is joining me now. what is going on? >> reporter: just, more questions about potentially another russian having meetings with someone that is associated with the campaign. this meeting took place as we say during the campaign, in may 2016. this was over two years ago. we're just learning about it recent, really over the weekend. michael caputo is claiming that the russian man was an fbi informant. what is interesting is this meeting took place in may which was two months before the fbi even opened its investigation into the trump campaign. now, both stone and caputo testified before congressional investigators and somehow they forgot to reveal this meeting. but when caputo was confronted by the special counsel about this russian, about this potential meeting, he says he was surprised. caputo was surprised by how much the special counsel team knew about the russian. so now th

michael caputo also with us with his personal story involving all of this. straight ahead. buttons clicking] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online, and you get coverage options to choose from. you're ruining my workout. cycling is my passion. >> sean: breaking news tonight, house judiciary committee is going to subpoena trump-hating fbi agent peter strzok over the weekend. over the weekend, the president wrote on twitter: "why was the fbi's sick loser, peter strzok, working on the totally discredited mueller team of 13 angry and conflicted democrats, when strzok was giving crooked hillary a free pass yet telling his lover, lawyer lisa page, that "we'll stop" trump from becoming president? witch hunt!" joining us with reaction, former trump campaign aide michael caputo, author of the upcoming book "why we fight." fellow i guess you could say singaporean

this russian met with stone in florida, during the campaign, and following meeting, stone and michael caputoxchanged text messages a stone completeds what they said. basically, caputo writes, how crazy is the russian? and stone replies, he wants big money for the info. waste of time. and then caputo says, the russian -- the ran way, and anything at all interesting to which stone replies no. now, in a letter to congressional investigators, stone's lawyers basically wrote that they only -- that stone remembered this meeting and only learned of this meeting, quote, it was not until after the interview, mueller interviewed mr. caputo that stone had a recollection of the meeting or the person's name. caputo was interviewed extensively by bob mueller's team, and was during the questioning there that this was revealed, apparently what caputo says is mueller knew a lot more about this russian than he even knew. clearly one person who has not been before the special counsel is roger stone. that is stillongoing. we know others have been asked questions about roger stone, and sort of some of his activi

joining us now is michael caputo, very much the man in the middle of it all. thanks so much for being here. i want to take you back to the summer of 2017. this is after james comey has been fired. this is in the middle of the russia investigation frenzy. everyone's talking about whether or not the trump campaign had any contacts with russia. you go into the house intelligence committee and they ask you if you had any contacts with any russians during the campaign. your answer was no. that wasn't true. how did it slip your mind? >> the answer wasn't no. my answer, i went through a whole litany of contacts. my daughter is russian. many people in my family are russian. people i work with in my business are russian. i'm mostly in the entertainment business, but when it comes down to it, the question that they asked me was, did any russian offer you information about hillary clinton. it was on that line of a question. my answer is, i don't recall. >> that even seems more likely given where we were last summer. given the intense interest and if anyone wanted to know

. >> reporter: stone texted with his colleague michael caputo who worked as an advise on the trump campaign helped arrange the meeting. how crazy is the russian, caputo asks? according to "the washington post," which revealed the text messages and first broke the news of the meeting. stone replies, wants big money for the info. waste of time. the russian way caputo responds. anything at all interesting? no, stone replies. stone insisted he did not collude with the russians during the campaign. >> where my testimony is both complete and entirely truthful. i'm not involved in any collusion, coordination or conspiracy with the russians or anyone else. there's no evidence to the contrary. >> reporter: both stone and caputo failed to acknowledge the interester acti interaction with the russian when they testified. the public is learning about more meetings members of the trump team had with russians after months of denials and omissions from the white house and those around trump, including donald trump junior, jared kushner and paul manafort. caputo's lawyer says his client was reminded about t

this contributed to michael capu caputo. if believe that he took tyke off from his long career to reach on the in his spare time, i have a bridge in brooklyn that i want to sell to you. what do you make of this what does it tell you about what was happens in that trump campaign? they don a make america t-shirt and hat and arrange a meeting to be able to pick off roger stone and michael caputo, well, you're dead wrong. here's the bottom line. paul manafort was the trump campaign manager and head of this trump campaign from march of 2016 to august of 2016. what contact does the trump campaign have with the russians during that time in at least george papadopoulos, and now he know mir raw his will you they remember that they had act with a russian national when they previously lied, to house on intel committee members, when they had they never had private contact with russians, then suddenly both of them have memory recall? oh, yay, by the way, we had this meeting, but roger stone is running around saying, it was, so, quote inn

. >> how about as it regards to michael caputo? >> i wasn't there so i can only answer questions that we direct to the fbi and have them -- you're there now, right? -- >> you're there now, right? have you asked these questions of anyone? >> we have conveyed the questions that chairman nunes has raised. >> you could understand why that if the department of justice represented to a court that this investigation began on july 31 and the fact that you can't tell me definitively that before july 31 there was not intelligence collected on the trump campaign that that's something of great interest to us. >> congressman, i think you should understand there's nobody more commuted to rooting out abuse and misconduct than i. we talk with the fbi, take those seriously and if we find it we'll produce that to chairman nunes. >> thank you, let's do that quickly. let's get to your determination . i asked when you became aware that nellie orr, the wife of your associate deputy attorney genebr

and we'll have michael caputo with his personal story involve nothing all of this, straight ahead. >>ean: breaking news tonight, the house judiciary committee is going to subpeona trump hating f.b.i. agent peter strzok over the weekend. over the weekend the president wrote on twitter. why was the f.b.i. sick loser peter strzok working on the discredited mueller team and strzok was giving crooked hillary a free pass and yet telling his lover lawyer lessa page that we'll stop trump from becoming president. witch hunt. and why we fight. fellow, i guess you could say singaporean visitor with me. dr. sebastian gorka. you revealed that you helped to arrange a meeting between what turned out to be a f.b.i. spy posing as a russian that was going to hand over information to roger stone and you didn't reveal it before. why not, obviously that is important. why didn't you reveal it earlier. >> it amounted to a minute on the phone with a guy whose name he claimed was henry green burg. i assumed he was israeli from the accent. he was offering information about hillary. >> sean: you didn't know he

michael caputo to -- caputo arranged the meeting. >>> a hearing today in the trial of five sex assault suspects after a protest in berkeley turned violent. the five defendants are facing misdemeanor assault charges. they were counter protesters who showed up to protest her right ring rally in celtic center -- civic center in march of last year. >>> homes could be at risk of soon being underwater, literally, according to a report released today. katie nielsen is live in san mateo with what this all means. >> reporter: we are here at a waterfront office complex in san mateo. this entire area could be underwater in our lifetime. take a look at these maps. you can see it shows predictions for what areas are at risk of flooding in 2045 if sea levels continue to rise. fast forward another 50 years, this is what it could look like at the end of the century. 20,000 homes could be at risk with a total real estate value of $15 billion. the report is based on current federal figures which show the sea level could raise in the next 30 years. a number of counties could be impacted including marin,

gordon, michael flynn, robert prince, rick gates, michael cohen and michael caputo. 14, count them, there they have up on the screen. so, john, this is the second russian who roger stone had contacts with which says -- says he forgot. the other was russian hacker guccifer who leaked the dnc hacked e-mails. how problematic is this for him or potentially the president? >> well, i would think roger would remember the fact that during watergate, several witnesses got prosecuted for perjury, for testimony in front of congress when they couldn't remember facts. the "i don't recall" is not always a very good defense to wanting to not tell the facts to a committee of congress. so, if there's any kind of external or corroborating evidence that he, indeed, did know about this, had recalled before, long before he testified before congress, it could be trouble for him. it could be more than problematic. it could be a criminal offense. >> i want you to watch this. this is back -- this is the president, president in february of 2017, here it is. >> i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my kn

>> michael caputo said he only had it when his lawyer was reviewing text messages, but he was asked aboutn early may by mueller. he had to talk about it at that point, which he did. and they have amended their testimonies before congress, but what they're clearly trying to do, anderson, is get out in front of this story and say, look, the story that we forgot this stuff, we didn't perjure ourselves, we forgot it. but what they're seeing is this greenberg man was actually a plant from the fbi and that this was really a sting operation on them. so they're saying, wait a minute, you have to look at what the fbi is doing, don't look at us. and, you know, this person actually did have a history of working for the fbi for a bunch of years, but apparently it ended in 2013. they're saying, no, it didn't, he was used by the fbi to try and frame us, and that didn't work, obviously. >> and the fbi, have they said anything about this? >> no. they never tell you who their informants are, as you know. but it's clear that mueller may know a little bit more about this than we do. >> gloria borger, thanks

. >> one of your guests tonight is michael caputo. a former trump campaign aide.know as lot b about what it's like to talk to robert mueller. >> you know, we have gotten lucky on the news this week, wolf. can't always depend on it, but you have to embrace it when it happens. michael, not only knows a lot about russia, and worked there on the political side, but he knows manafort well and has spoken to him recently and he can give us insight into this beguiling question of why the president of the united states is once again trying to go soft on russia, saying they need a seat at the table at a g-7. it just doesn't make sense. hopefully he can help us understand. thanks very much and join chris tonight. qcuomo prime time, 9:00 p.m. eastern. thanks for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. >>> "outfront" next, donald trump takes a stand for russia. this as he publicly fights with america's closest allies with friends like these, who needs enemies? >>> plus breaking news, robert mueller hits paul manafort and the russians with new criminal charges. the

that's according totone and former trump campaign communications of michael caputo, both telling cnn that today. a letter to the house intelligence committee obtained by says caputo was the one who arranged the meeting between stone and a man who called himself henry greenberg. neither caputo nor stone disclosed the meeting to congressional investigators. and caputo and stone say they believe the meeting was part of a larger effort to try to set up the trump campaign. i want to bring in manuel farenzio. he te the story for the "washington post." manuel, you're on the phone with us. how did this information come about? did both caputo and stone reach out to you, the "washington post," to disclose to you that this meeting had taken place two years ago? >> well, we don't typically talk about how our stories come about at that point in the recording process, but i can tell you that both caputo and stone spoke to us on the record. they answered our questions, and we were able to do reporting of our own that told us a pretty wild story about this russian national named henry greenberg who

in may of 2016, michael caputo, who appeared earlier with sean hannity, contacted me because a man usinghe name henry greenberg turns out to be a paid fbi informant, said he had information that would be useful to the trump campaign. he did not in fact promised in the run-up to this meeting dirt on hillary clinton, as reported by shelby holliday of "the wall street journal." classic case of fake news. in any event, i reluctantly took this meeting which lasted about 20 minutes. it turns out that henry greenberg is not his real name, that he is an fbi informant for over 17 years. was deported from the country in 2000. has a 10-year prison record for violent crime. is associated with russian organized crime. more importantly, is in the country on a visa sponsored by the miami office of the fbi because he is providing "a public benefit." he's an informant. at this very brief meeting, mr. greenberg, not his real name, the fbi informant, first shows up wearing a maga hat and trump t-shirt. shows me photographs on his phone of he and a woman at various trump rallies and lays it on me that he ha

we've seen the story over the weekend involving roger stone, michael caputo and a meeting they were involved in with a russian who offered assistance to the campaign, peddling information on hillary clinton in exchange for $2 million. caputo and stone allegedly rejected that deal, but mueller could be looking at the russians and their involvement and we could see indictments in any number of regards before he decides it's too close to the election. >> bob, caputo and stone now say that they forgot when they were testifying on the hill, they forgot that meeting had taken place, even though they say nothing happened as a result of it. but do you think that there is any chance that mueller would be wrapping everything up by late this summer, early fall? >> oh, certainly not everything. the michael cohen situation hangs ohang s out there as a legal question, paul manafort's trial about to start this summer. you willee lawmakers, democrats especially, call for caputo and mr. stone to perhaps come back to capitol hill. there's a lot of frustration among some of these congressman that they didn't g

>> michael caputo said he only had it when his lawyer was reviewing text messages, but he was asked about

. >> that's michael caputo and trump aide who was there. now, evan perez if washington and evan, i want to start with your breaking news here. the legal team when it comes to this you know, saying no way to mueller, feeli ining imbold ed tonight. >> they do because they feel the inspector general's report yesterday from the justice department prothem a lot of ammunition to argue that the president had ever right and he should have fired james comey. they say that according to the inspector jep eor general repor gives the agent in being biased against president, they say these agents and comey himself get a lot of benefit of the doubt so why shouldn't the president. they believe that as a result of this inspector general's report, they can argue to the special counsel there is no obstruction inquiry. no reason for him to sit down with the special counsel because there's nothing to look at here. >> of course. obviously his own reasons were different and this goes beyond obstruction, but that's the argument they're making as you report. what a

with russians during the campaign, and is apparently only coming forward with this story after michael caputof on the campaign, was confronted with tweets about the meeting, while he was being questioned by mueller's investigators. important to clarify that what we're hearing this story that the approach was from an fbi informant is simply stone self-serving version of the facts. f greenberg did provide information to the fbi, that concluded in 2012 so this is an effort by stone to tag on to the other allegations that the fbi manufactured this investigation. mueller's investigation signifies that this is a very serious matter, and something that we don't talk about often enough is that mueller is looking at russian efforts to influence this campaign. this would clearly be part of mueller's efforts to determine what russians were doing, who was involved, part of this multiple layered effort to approach the trump campaign during may and june of 2016. >> the self-serving part for roger stone he is putting this out there because he believes it will help to discredit the fbi because this guy was a

the meeting was apparently set up by trump campaign aid michael caputo.nd caputo later texted each other. caputo writing, how crazy is the russian to which stone replied, he wants big money for the info. waste of time. the russian way, anything at all interesting? stone, no. before today stone claimed he never met with any russians during the campaign. >> russia, i didn't talk to anybody who was identifiably rigs during the two-year run-up to this campaign. i'm not sure i did previously either. i very definitely can't think of anybody who might have been a russian without my knowledge. i think it's a kinard. >> both stone and caputo failed to tell congressional investigators about this meeting. it was only after robert mueller's team showed caputo his text messages with stone during an interview back in may that his memory was refreshed. here's what caputo told cnn hours after the interview with mueller's investigators in which we know he was shown these texts. >> the mueller team knew about more what i did in 2016 than i knew myself. and i think they kno

roger stone and michael caputo say they forgot to tell investigators about their contact with a russiannal who goes by the name henry greenberg even though they say this greenberg fellow offered to sell incriminating information to the trump campaign for $2 million. well, first of all, how often in life are you just offered $2 million for campaign dirt, so i can see them forgetting. how is mueller likely to approach that story? why didn't you tell us the first time? >> he's likely to approach it as a lie. that's basically what it is. i mean this guy came to them. he was a russian. and caputo knew he was a russian. he set up the meeting with roger stone. roger stone met him. he had a heavy russian accent. he was -- roger stone remembered his accent. he remembered his hat. he remembered his t-shirt. he remembered he offered him $2 million in return for dirt. and then they had text messages exchanged. and then he forgot it all. now what are the chances of that? and suddenly when bob mueller's office could produce the text to caputo when he was being interviewed, they remembered. it was jus

. >> he said his recollection was refreshed by michael caputo whose recollection was refreshed by mueller. >> manafort all of a sudden being in jail jogged more details. that could very well be possible. >> the thing in this story my colleagues in the post wrote about with roger stone, he wasn't just offered dirt about hillary clinton. the russian national was trying to sell dirt about hillary clinton and what roger stone told him in that meeting was that donald trump doesn't pay for anything. that trump would not put forward the money to get that damaging information, not that he didn't want the damaging information or that it was somehow inappropriate -- >> potentially they would have accepted it. they weren't going to pay $2 million for it. >> that's the implication. >> here's what's interesting about this story. caputo and stone are spinning this about impropriety on the part of the government. he has a history of being an fbi informant. they were wondering if he was working a as an fbi informant at the time. this was two months before james comey said the trump/russia investigation b

meeting was apparently set up by trump campaign aide michael caputo.tone failed to tell congressional investigators about it, and it wasn't until caputo was shown text messages by robert mueller's team earlier this year that he claims his memory was refreshed. "the washington post" obtained these texts, and the first message computer writes this. how crazy is the russi to which stone replies he wants big money for the info. waste of time. caputo. the russian way. anything at all interesting? stone? >> no. today caputo and stone claimed the russian national was an fbi informant but the russian denice he was working on behalf of the fbi at the time of the meeting and "the washington post" which also broke the storys there's no evidence to also back up this allegation. joining us to discuss cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor marriotti and former white house phone jim schultz. this is now the third meeting that we know of in which a russian offered dirt on hillary clinton. is this a witch hut or are these meetings something that should be inve

questioned by special counsel robert mueller's team in the past couple of weeks if not months, michael caputo being one of them, and i think that part of the reason, timing as to why we're seeing this now. there may be an effort by stone and caputo and others in the stone camp to indeed try to get out of this ahead of time, get their version on the record, have people talk about it, because if it does come to an an ctment in theimt it would be difficult to talk about it then. >> if you had a face-to-face with roger stone, what are the questions you would be asking him? what are the answers you want to hear from a man like roger stone with regards to what you've heard in his contacts with russians? >> i think there's two styles. the first what the russians were trying to do so if we assume that this contact was not innocent and was in fact a directed contact by the russians, then we want to know what the conversation was. we want to know exactly what happened, what they were trying to to and how they made contact and what mode they made context. >> that's very important because it is tells you

so, earlier this month we saw a report in the washington post that said that michael caputo and roger stone two early trump campaign advisors had just remembered miraculously that they had encountered yet another russian who offered them dirt on hillary clinton in early may or late may of 2016. and now they say that in order to kind of explain this interaction and why they didn't r'ri ve reveal it sooner is because they thought that person was sent to them by the fbi to entrap them. the reason it is easy to make this argument and make it stick is because this guy was an fbi informant. he helped the fbi between 2008 and 2012. he does have that history with the fbi. but the second more likely reason because this russian stopped actually working with the fbi more than three years before he even approached caputo and stone is because the president has laid the groundwork for this, because he has said that the fbi was targeting him with spies and placed them in his campaign. >> again, if there was nothing to see, the spies and the informants wouldn't be there. my thanks to ken dilanian, ha

. >> how about as it regards to michael caputo? >> i wasn't there so i can only answer questions that we direct to the fbi and have them -- you're there now, right? -- >> you're there now, right? have you asked these questions of anyone? >> we have conveyed the questions that chairman nunes has raised. >> you could understand why that if the department of justice represented to a court that this investigation began on july 31 and the fact that you can't tell me definitively that before july 31 there was not intelligence collected on the trump campaign that that's something of great interest to us. >> congressman, i think you should understand there's nobody more commuted to rooting out abuse and misconduct than i. we talk with the fbi, take those seriously and if we find it we'll produce that to chairman nunes. >> thank you, let's do that quickly. let's get to your determination . i asked when you became aware that nellie orr, the wife of your associate deputy attorney general bruce orr was working for fusion gps and was actively a

>> michael caputo said he only had it when his lawyer was reviewing text messages, but he was asked about it in early may by mueller. he had to talk about it at that point, which he did. and they have amended their testimonies before congress, but what they're clearly trying to do, anderson, is get out in front of this story and say, look, the story that we forgot this stuff, we didn't perjure ourselves, we forgot it. but what they're seeing is this greenberg man was actually a plant from the fbi and that this was really a sting operation on them. so they're saying, wait a minute, you have to look at what the fbi is doing, don't look at us. and, you know, this person actually did have a history of working for the fbi for a bunch of years, but apparently it ended in 2013. they're saying, no, it didn't, he was used by the fbi to try and frame us, and that didn't work, obviously. >> and the fbi, have they said anything about this? >> no. they never tell you who their informants are, as you know. but it's clear that mueller may know a little bit more about this than we do. >> gloria borger, t

michael caputo is here. help me understand. lead with strength that's trump on everyone but putin. once again he is trying to be nice to a man who imagined aiming missiles at trump's house. why does he want to give russia a seat at the table? >> well i think the president -- and in the run up to the election talked a lot about wanting a better relationship with russia, just like president george w. bush did. just like bill clinton did, just like barack obama did. and he had optimistic hopes for a better relationship. i think that's squandered now considering the things that have gone down between our nations especially in syria and elsewhere. >> so much has change, right. i get what he was saying before. who doesn't want better relation was any super, or close to superpower. then you go on the facts and circumstances. you you have the russian interference, everything else going on. do you agree with the move to give them a seat at the table? >> no, i don't. i don't separate myself from the president on very many issues. this is one where i separate myself. you know, i lived in russ

. >> that was former trump campaign adviser michael caputo on this show last night saying that a keyussian contact escaped his mind when he testified under oath before the house intelligence committee. according to mr. caputo he and his associate roger stone had the same inability to remember that a russian haimed henry greenberg offered to sell them dirt on hoda kotb in 2016. here's how stone described his memory lapse the other day. >> i had no memory of this is was an innocuous exchange. this guy shows up wearing a megahat and trump t-shirt, makes this offer i decline nothing inappropriate happened here and i have now refreshed my committee and informed the committee. >> refresh my memory as an active verb. >> rudy giuliani also downplayed the significance of the disclosure because he says nothing ultimately claim of the meeting. >> it seems to me however, whatever the recollection differingrections about this it sort of gets resolved with the fact stone did nothing about it, came to the conclusion according to post it was a waste of time. he and greenberg came to the conclusion i

the meeting was arranged by another member of the trump campaign, michael caputo, who followed up withtone in these text messages obtained by the "washington post." caputo asked stone, how crazy is the russian? stone answers, wants big money for the info. waste of time. the russian way, caputo replies. anything at all interesting? no, says stone. the revelation follows denials by stone that he had ever met with any russians during the campaign. >> i've never been to russia. i didn't talk to anybody who was identifiably russian during the two-year run up to this campaign. i'm not sure i did previously, either. i very definitely can't think of anybody who might have been a russian without my knowledge. no, i think it's a canard. >> stone and caputo now claim they had forgotten about the meeting but their memories were refreshed after being shown the text messages. caputo's lawyer sent a letter to congress to update the testimony he gave last summer in which he did not reveal the meeting. but stone and caputo are this morning leveling accusations of their own. they say the man they met wi

just last night another former trump aide, michael caputo went on cnn after being interviewed by mueller'sand stressed repeatedly how tenacious investigators were. >> i think the mueller team knew more about what i did in 2016 than i knew myself. and i think they know more about the trump campaign than anyone that ever worked there. thgu email,that'sver gone down, and they are clearly focused on trying to identify some russian collusion. >> can i just ask how long were you there? >> i was there three hours. i would compare it to a proctology appointment. [ laughter ] >> seth: that makes sense. because trump is definitely pulling his answers out of his ass. [ chrs so trump's own lawyer is now telling us that he lied about a hush payment to a porn star. which raises the question, what else is he lying about? at this point we should just assume the answer is everything. and if trump thought hiring giuliani would save him, he was wrong because so far giuliani has proved that he is crazy. from -- >> the top to the bottom from the middle to the side. >> seth: this has been a "closer look." ♪ [ c

just take former trump aide michael caputo who said mueller was still very interested in allegationsn. >> these guys have got every single e-mail and anything that's ever gone down and they're clearly focused on trying to identify some russian collusion. >> you do not believe that they have ruled out the idea that the trump campaign colluded with russia? >> no, i don't think so at all. i think they're still focused on it. they know exactly what they're looking for and they have e-mails backing it up and i don't think that they ask any questions they don't already know the answer to. thank goodness i watch a lot of cop tv. >> seth: oh, you -- [ light laughter ] you watch a lot of cop tv? well, then, let me ask you this question, what you going to do? what you going to do when they come for you? [ laughter and applause ] let's be honest, "cops" is gonna be great preparation because it's only a matter of time before we see on cnn a shaky footage of a naked blurry trump being chased down the street. "there was no collusion! you colluded. i didn't collude!" this has been "a closer look."