let's just step back, michael zeldin, and look at what we've learned so far this week with this russia there have been two common threads with trump and russia, a pattern of friendliness and openness toward the russians, even after they tried to influence our election in a pattern of hiding or even lying about campaign contacts with russia. why could that be? explain that. >> it's not easy to explain. it seems to me that if you go back in time, trump's interest in russia is financial. he wants to build the trump tower in moscow. in order to do that, he's got to curry favor with the putin regime and the oligarchs. and i think that that's driving his behavior early on. he's running for president, and i don't know that he thinks he's going to win the presidency, and i think he still wants to entertain the opportunity of making money in russia, and i think that informs his behavior, and i think that's what we see as the thread here. i don't think it was a foreign policy driven effort. i think it was a financially motivated effort. why he's still doing that now is unclear. he still has busi

they wouldn't be doing that if they didn't think he was investigating obstruction. >> michael zeldin,u agree? >> i do agree. and i also think that the manafort indictment, perhaps, is a bit of a template for where mueller is looking at crimes unrelated to collusion. because manafort engaged in activities that were collateral to the collusion inquiry, but mueller found to be legally actionable. and i think the same inquiry may be made of trump's financial dealings and kushner's financial dealings and flynn's financial dealings, and cohen's financial dealings. so the president may wish it so, but i think it is not. >> let's talk about wilbur ross. "the new york times" reports yesterday, let me read it to you, after becoming commerce secretary, wilbur l. ross jr. retained investments in a shipping firm he once controlled that has significant business ties the to a russian oligarch subject to american sanctions and president vladimir putin's son-in-law. so this is new information, renato. this is something that perhaps should have been disclosed or maybe investigators have just stumble on

. >>> before the break former special counsel michael zeldin cited a defiant tweet from michael anyonewe might ask as michael zeldin did why anyone in his situation would keep on tweeting. this is hardly his first combative tweet. the son once spent a lot of time hyping the famous pizza gate story. in any case it is not a boeingous conspiracy theory he is confronting now. it's a real investigation. sources tell cnn that his dad is concerned about his son's legal fate. mark warner is vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee. i asked him about tonight's breaking news just before air time. >> this new cnn reporting that the russia investigation has progressed to the point that general flynn is how concerned about the legal fate of his son. i know you can't divulge specifics, but generally speaking, do you believe the flynn family is right to be concerned? >> well, remember, general flynn was fired as national security adviser for not, you know, being forthcoming on his contacts with russians. subsequent to that there have been plenty of press reports about his failure to also re

right now, michael zeldin, legal analyst and special assistant to robert mueller at the department of justice. good to see you. kushner's attorney, likely, instructed him to only answer the question as it was asked. so if kushner was not asked specifically about wikileaks, is that kushner's protection against perjury? >> absolutely. it is incumbent upon the questioner to put forth a question and the answer to that question is then what the answer is. if the questioner doesn't ask a specific question, there is no perjury for not answering that question. in this case i think what we really have here is in the mind of congress they believed they asked for a broader answer than kushner gave in the mind of counsel for kushner. he believes they asked a specific question, which he has answered. the letter that lowell sent to congress today says essentially here's why we answered it the way we answered it. if you want us to give you additional copies of that, which you already have, we're happy to make another copy and send it over to you. if you have other things you want us to clarify, we'r

michael zeldin and john dean. john, i want to start with you. again, the breaking news tonight is that jared kushner said he did not recall any campaign contact with wikileaks despite the fact he received an e-mail from don junior had a conversation he had with wikileaks and jared kushner forwarded that e-mail on. so how bigful a jam do you think jared kushner is in tonight? >> well, the i don't recall defense is not a very good one if you actually do know what you're talking about and just don't want to remember or don't want to refresh your recollection. it was tried during watergate. bob hald man the former white house chief of staff went to jail on that specifically. he was convicted of perjury for claiming he couldn't recall. and juries also react to this representative i don't recall because these things get flushed up if somebody gets really pressed in a grand jury. so i think he'd better start refreshing his recollection because he does any more testimony because he's hurting himself badly. >> you know, michael zeldin, counselor, when do

. >> michael zeldin, thank you as always. >> my pleasure. >> coming up, the president says they're hitting isis ten times harder. the pentagon says that's not the case. we'll discuss it next live in the cnn newsroom. we're on to. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork, your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you too. at optum, we're partnering across the health system to tackle its biggest challenges. hold over $6 trillion homeownin home equity?d above, at optum, we're partnering across the health system yet, not enough seniors are taking advantage of this fully insured product to tap into their wealth. it's called a reverse mortgage. if you have at least 50% home equity, and you're 62 or older, you should be on the phone by the end of this commercial to find out how much you could get for your home. a government insured reverse mortgage swaps your mortgage payments for a steady, tax-free source of funds you can use for whatever you want. it's a smart way to

want to bring in the panel, molly ball, ana navarro, ed martin, asher negapa, brian lanza, and michael zeldin. michael, let's start with you. there's a lot of moving parts on this. given your experience with mueller, what stands out to you today based on all that's happened? >> well, what stands out most is the president of the united states cannot go under oath. that his disconnected stories over the course of these months that we've been following this create for him the possibility of a perjury trap if he goes under oath. and i think that ty cobb and john dowd know this. i think that's his personal greatest liability -- >> can he avoid going under oath at some point? >> no, probably not. but they'll try to stretch it out as long as they possibly can so they know as much as they possibly can so they can create a narrative that hopefully he can stick to as a witness. >> are you saying he can't go under oath because he's not being truthful or he can't go under oath because he may not recall or he doesn't have the ability to recall all of these moving parts? >> i think he can't tell the truth.

. >>> margaret talbot and john donnelly and michael zeldin join us. >> let me start with you, margaret. i want you to listen to democratic congressman, ted luke. >> this is not the first time gerald kushner has done this. he conveniently omitted information to russia. either he had massive selective amnesia on russia or he did something bad last year. >> margaret, how does this keep happening, amending form after amending form and forgotten or omitted communications from jared kushner? >> it has become one of the hallmarks of the way this investigation has proceeded. what jared kushner's lawyer is conveying is the idea that he doesn't have to broadly answer a question that goes to, well, what did the congressional lawmakers mean. you know what we meant. we didn't want anything to do with this. the lawyer's statement indicates that they are going to answer the question to the letter of the question. if the question is, did you have communications with and what really happened is an e-mail got forwarded about somebody who wanted to do something, they are not going to treat that at commun

now i want to bring in david rhode and michael zeldin who was the former special assistant and john dean, former nixon white house counsel. thank you all for coming on. david, i'm going to start with you. what information could kushner have regarding flynn, and why would mueller's team -- what would they want to find out from them? >> flynn is so interesting because he had the most interactions with russia. he was the one attending the dinner with putin before the campaign. and it is, pam's essentially right, this is more and more pressure on flynn, you know, repeated contacts with the russians during the campaign. you know, the pressure that flynn's son might face charges and it's very methodical and clearly flynn is the focus here. >> more about flynn than kushner. >> yes. and to be fair to the white house, they're cooperating. kushner did go and meet today, he turned over these documents. there's questions about some of his disclosure forms, but the ty cobb strategy, the president has said let's cooperate and play this out with mueller, he'll be fair to us, for now that view is holdin

american majority, keith boykin, political comment cater former aide in the clinton white house and michael zeldin legal analyst former federal prosecutor worked under bob mueller. we got you to come to new york to play. >> yes, you did. >> not starting with you, though. chris to you -- >> thanks. >> that's called a [ inaudible ]. now the president says he doesn't remember much about this meeting where foreign policy adviser papadopolous said he could set something up, meeting with folks. >> yeah. >> let's all go back down memory lane for just a second. here is what the president said to questions about connections with russia back in february. >> can you say whether you are aware of anyone who advised your campaigns had contact with russia during the course of the election? >> i told you, general flynn obviously was dealing, that was one person, as he should have ben. >> during the election? >> no. nobody that i know of. >> you're not aware of any contacts during the course of the election. >> how many times do i have to answer the question. >> russia is a ruse. get up and ask a question. i have

. >> joining us is cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin, former independent council michael zeldinformed as robert mueller's special assistant. and richard painter is with us who served as ethics attorney in the bush administration. right now he teaches law. and also justice correspondent dana bash. >> i think he probably left most people thinking about what they think of him going in. he's not a particularly popular figure. most polls about the trump administration wind up being about 60-40 against. ask i think that's probably what they would be for jeff sessions. and, you know, he had a tough story to sell. because he was asked by al franken, you know, did anyone have any connection with the campaign, have any contact with russia? he said categorically no a few weeks ago. now we know that that was not the case, that george papadopoulos did have contact with russia and did discuss it with sessions. and what made sessions' comments particularly a little hard to swallow was that now he remembers this conversation and he remembers giving very good advice. now, you have to wonder why

joining me in the meantime michael zeldin, cnn legal analyst, counselor, thank you so much for being with us. jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, the president's senior adviser there from the beginning of the campaign, a key figure in the transition, and all throughout the administration, he is talking to the special counsel. now you say that this could be good news for jared kushner and bad news for michael flynn. explain? >> so, usually when you're a witness, you get to come in in this informal setting and offer testimony. when you're a target of the investigation, you usually don't come in under those circumstances. your lawyer doesn't let you do that for fear you may incriminate yourself in some meaningful way that will end up you up in jeopardy. seems to me at this point -- things change, this is not static, these are organic investigations, as this stands today, it seems to me that kushner has got to be seen more as a witness than he is a target or subject of mueller's investigation. the target or subject is more likely flynn. >> and on the subject of michael flynn, you

zeldin, thanks for coming on. we'll see if more information comes out. >>> next, an explosive plot about abducting a momentum cleric. at the center, michael flynn. the powerful russian billionaire side by side today at the summit in vietnam. he is not just any oligarch. he's connected to paul manafort and we asked him about that. to a fidelity ira, yo) we make sure you're in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. -♪ a little bit o' soul, yeah because when you know where you stand, the amazing new iphone 8 is at at&t... and we know you'll love it. because we know you want more. more great camera features and more power. and more than just unlimited data, we give you unlimited plans with hbo included for life. because you deserve more entertainment. and more spokespeople. talking like this, saying the word more. at&t. it's time for more. am i too close? i feel like i'm too close. get the iphone 8 and with all at&t unlimited plans, get hbo for life. only from at&t. >>> breaking f ining news. michael fly