cnn's randi kaye has more. >> reporter: it was the first visit to the state department. her first visit to any cabinet department. more than two months into her husband's term, mrs. trump is keeping a low profile. >> thank you. >> reporter: here at the state department, she took part in the international kcouragemen award. the first lady is still living at trump tower with the couple's son barron. until he finishes the school year. her arrival in washington considered a rare event that the washington post likened it to a rare bird sighting. >> i urge you to not be afraid to fail. failure will never have the power to define you. as long as you learn from it. >> reporter: it seems the first lady is taking steps to define her flplatform. highlighting education. she presented awards to women and girls from around the world. honored for courage and strength and leadership. >> i ask you to allow the heroic women to inspire you in your lives and remind yourself that you, too, are capable of greatness. >> reporter: it has been an unusually active week in washington for the first

more on that from our randi kaye. >> reporter: it was first lady melania trump's first visit to the stateartment, her first visit to any cabinet department. mrs. trump is still keeping a low profile. until today, the last time she spoke before a television camera was february 18th at a thank you rally in florida with her husband. >> thank you. >> reporter: here at the state department, she took part in the international women of courage awards. >> these honorees who have fought on the front lines against injustice are true heroes. >> reporter: the first lady is still living in new york city at trump tower with the couple's young son barron at least until he finishes the school year. her arrival in washington this week, considered such a rare event, that the washington post likened it to a rare bird sighting. >> a sailor will never have the power to define you as long as you learn from it. >> reporter: it seems the first lady is taking steps to define her platform, highlighting education and women's empowerment at this event. i impeccably dressed, she presented awards to women and girls. >

we get more now from our randi kaye. >> i have nothing to do with russia.edge no person that i deal with. >> reporter: that was president trump last month, brushing off any connection to russia but since he made that statement it's become clear that five of his advisers did indeed have contact with a russian. this man, the russian ambassador, u.s. intelligence officials consider a top level spy. attorney general sessions met with ambassador sergey kislyak in july and september and is now having to explain why he didn't share that during his confirmation hearings. >> in retrospect, i should have slowed down and said, but i did meet one russian official a couple of times. that would be the ambassador. >> reporter: on the heels of that, more undisclosed meetings. this time at trump tower. that's where donald trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner, met with the russian ambassador in december. also in on the meeting the former head of the nsa, michael flynn, who was fired for mission leading the administration -- misleading the administration about

if true, it would not be the first time as randi kaye reports. >> reporter: when president donald trump's travel ban gave rise to outrage and protests around the country, he moved quickly to change the conversation with this surprise tweet about the supreme court. i have made my decision on who i will nominate for the united states supreme court. was it is an attempt to distract from the conversation at hand? if so, it seems toes have worked. despite the white house's bland explanation as to why the president moved the announcement up. >> because he wanted to. >> reporter: the conversation turned to speculation about supreme court justice nominees. changing the communication sjs strategy he used during the campaign, too. >> i would gladly lend you my copy. >> reporter: after he got flack for going after the parents of captain huma you know chaun following their speech at the convention. >> if you look at his wife, his wife wasn't allowed to have anything to say. >> reporter: then candidate trump changed the narrative again by suddenly announcing he would not endorse paul ryan and john mcc

', "oh, the places you'll go". >> you can steer yourself any direction you choose. >> reporter: randi kaye cnn, new york. >> joining us now is senior contributor, author of "first women." it's interesting how rarely we've seen first lady melania trump since her husband took office. >> it is. i mean, she's really an enigma. she's in some ways like the mona lisa. when you see her, you're not really sure how involved she is, how much she wants to be there. clearly she wasn't really interested in him running in the first place and i think her taking this firm stand not to immediately move to washington was in a way, a really brave move. although i do think she feels the pressure and i've talked to friends of hers who say she is going to definitely come this summer after barron finishes the school year. >> it is a brave stance to -- she's focusing on her son and to kind of -- it's clearly not the traditional role that we've seen for first ladies, at least initially. that may change over time. historically, there have been some other first ladies who have been private as well. >> yeah. i mean, m

he's a patriot, god bless america. >> randi kaye joins me live from virginia.ter the rally attorney general sessions recused himself. had you talked to folks about that? >> reporter: we had talked to them about that but of course, that was before he did recuse himself, but many of them told us they weren't readily to weigh in on it anyway, they needed more facts. these are folks who are sailors and shipbuilders at work on that aircraft carrier much of the day and not following the news as closely. there were many, john, quick to say absolutely he should recuse himself. they felt the investigation was already compromised and they were concerned about what he might have learned in his short time involved if that investigation but the one thing, john, we heard over and over from people is they are very concerned this whole mess, right or wrong is going to bog down the trump administration to slow down the president's agenda, he's not going to be able to accomplish anything and worried he's going to continue to lose cabinet members, which they say won't be good for

randi kaye has more. >> the president said that president obama tapped his phones. >> no, no, no. that did nat happen. >> reporter: chairman devin nunes in a rare moment of disagreement with president donald trump. but aside from that, the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee has been a loyal soldier for president trump. consider the history. >> if you have any intelligence questions -- >> reporter: nunes didn't endorse a candidate in the campaign but offered to brief them on national security issues. trump took him up on it and the two have been in contact ever since. their relationship led to nunes becoming an adviser on the trump transition team. after the election, trump continued to turn to nunes who takes credit for helping shape the president's national security team, including his cia director. before coming to washington in 2003 as a member of congress, devin nunes was a dairy farmer. he grew up on his family's farm in california. he once said all he wanted to be was a dairy farmer. now instead of wrangling cattle, he is caught up in some wrangling of a

new questions about the timing of all of this, randi kaye tonight walk s us through the story hour-by-hourmitting certain things and i will be perhaps speaking about this next week. it's right now before the committee and i wathink i want leave it there. i think you will find very interesting items to the forefront over the next two weeks. >> reporter: that was march 15th, 11 days after president trump claimed former president obama wiretapped him. then, six days later, white house spokesman sean spicer suggests the so-called evidence could come even sooner. >> can we expect the president this week to present evidence he was wiretapped by barack obama or will he speak about it, because he didn't mention it last night in his rally. >> let's see how the week goes. >> reporter: just hours after that, a mysterious turn of events start to unfold. by all accounts they begin with the house of intelligence chair, devin nunes. it was tuesday night here in washington, d.c. when chairman nunes was riding in a car with a staff member, when he got some type of message on his phone and abruptly got out

. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn. >>> well, the u.s.onsidering a proposal to separate children and adults who enter the country illegally at the border with mexico. a senior official says the measure is meant to stop people from exploiting children. right now when adults come into the u.s. illegally with children, authorities usually release the families who can stay in the u.s. while their cases are processed. we spoke earlier with theresa cardinal brown, she's the director of immigration policy at the bipartisan policy center. >> one thing you have to understand is that under our laws, unaccompanied children are treated differently than adults at the border. and if a child is with a family member, they still get preferential treatment. and one thing that has happened over the last couple of years as central americans arrive, first it was a lot of unaccompanied kids and then as policy were earn acted that said families could be released if they were in the company of minor children, border patrol did see could be released if they were

more now from randi kaye. >> i have nothing to do with russia.e best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with -- >> reporter: that was president trump last month, brushing off any connection to russia, but since he made that statement it's become clear that five of his advisers did, indeed, have contact with a russian. this man, the russian ambassador u.s. officials consider a top-level spy. jeff sessions met with sergei kislyak in july and september and is now having to explain why he didn't share that during his confirmation hearings. >> retrospect, i should have slowed down and said but i did meet one russian official a couple times, that would be the ambassador. >> reporter: on the heels of that, more undisclosed meetings. this time at trump tower. that's where donald trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner met with the russian ambassador in december. also in that meeting, the former head of the nsa, michael flynn, who was fired for misleading the administration about his conversations with the ambassador. a senior administrat

cnn's randi kaye talked to some trump supporters in the crowd to get their take on jeff sessions. >> reporter: on board the "uss gerald r. ford," sailors and shipbuilders packed the belly to see their commander in chief. many in the crowd hadn't herd new lly minted attorney general jeff sessions had failed to admit he met with a russian ambassador twice during the campaign. many members of congress, including republicans, are saying he misled the committee during his confirmation hearings. does that concern you? >> it does concern me. i hope that's not true. >> reporter: should he resign? >> no, i don't think so. i think we need to find out more about it first. >> reporter: do you think it's a big deal? >>, yeah probably. he's talking with the russians. we don't know exactly what's going on. i'm not sure exactly. >> he said he was doing it because of his job at the time. not because of mr. trump or anything else. >> reporter: you believe he met with him as a senator and a member of the armed services committee, not as a trump sure gate? >> why would he not. you have to take a man at

randi kaye, cnn new york. >> one person saw his professional life rocked by what he said, former clintonampaign manager, robbie mook. >> what do you make of the spot that comey is in, could refute the accusation against president obama, sure you will point out, fine commenting abut secretary clinton during the campaign. >> well, yeah, look, it is disappointing that we are seeing restraint now, we dent see restraint last year. i think what matters right now is where we go in the future. and -- the fact that director comey is in a bind, the fact this is made into a partisan issue on the hill and in the white house when it shouldn't be one at all, to me reinforces we need an independent, bipartisan commission to take this matter and, get it investigated and come back to us, and tell us what happened. >> it is interesting, regarding comey. until the campaign last year, the director of the fbi was not known as partisan lightning rod, served republican and democrat administrations. do you give him any benefit that his intentions were in the right place? >> i think he was trying to do the right

i'm randi kaye, and this is a cnn "special report." "melania trump: the making of a first lady." >>> the future first lady always turned heads. ♪ >> even when she was young growing up in her hone country of slovenia. >> your maiden name, not trump? knauss. >> oh. >> from slovenia. >> she was born melania knauss. long before she split from communist yugoslavia and grew up under communist rule. >> he father was apparently a member of the communist party a very unusual thing. he sold cars. he built the family a nice home outside of the central city. her mother was a pattern designer in a textile factory. she worked hard, as was common for women in eastern bloc countries. >> my sister enis, an incredible woman and a friend and i were raised by my wonderful parents. my hard-working mother amalija introduced me to fashion and beauty my father installing me a passion for business and travel. their integrity, compassion and intelligence reflects to this day on me, and for my life of family and america. >> reporter: friends in her hometown reme

randi kaye reports. >> a former defense department employee from the obama administration, now taking heat for saying this earlier this month on msnbc. >> that the trump folks, if they found out how we knew what we knew about their -- the staff, the trump staff's dealing with russians, that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we would no longer have access to that intelligence. >> reporter: her name is evelyn farkas. and she served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, and eurasia until 2015. something else she said now has conservative media blaming her for leaking classified intelligence. here's what she said about wanting to inform lawmakers on capitol hill. >> so i became very worried, because not enough was coming out into the open. and i knew that there was more. we have very good intelligence on russia. so, then i had talked to some of my former colleagues and i knew that they were trying to also help get information to the hill. >> reporter: even though she says her comments were based on media reports, those on the right

more now from randi kaye. >> i have nothing to do with russia.f my knowledge, n person that i de with does. >> reporter: that was president donald trump last month, brushing off any connection to russia, but since he made that statement, it's become clear that five of his advisers did, indeed, have contact with a russian. this man, the russian ambassador u.s. intelligence officials consider a top level spy. attorney general jeff sessions met wets ambassador sergey kislyak in july and september and is now having to explain why he didn't share that during his confirmation hearings. >> in pret retrospect, i should have slow the down and said, but i did meet one russian official a couple of times. that would be the ambassador. >> reporter: on the heels of that, more undisclosed meetings. this time at trump tower. that's where donald trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner met with the russian ambassador in december. also in that meeting, the former head of the nsa, michael flynn, who was fired for misleading the administration about his