the president taking great pains to call robert mueller's investigation a rigged witch hunt and he names mueller specifically as part of that evil doing, if you will. >> reporter: that's right. >> we have to expect that the president probably will be asked a question about this when he answers reporters' questions coming up fairly soon. >> reporter: i think that's right, wolf. even if the president decides to call on friendly media conservative reporters, within the next couple of hours, that it's very likely that the president will be asked why he is being so pointed in going after mueller by name in these tweets this morning. of course, this is sort of a rapid fire effect we're seeing from the white house all morning long. not only is the president going after the special counsel's investigation, you're seeing rudy giuliani going after the investigation and talking about all sorts of things in that wide ranging interview with alisyn camerota on "new day" when rudy giuliani was saying if there was collusion, there's nothing wrong with collusion. wolf, one critical question that can be a

why does robert mueller allow donald trump to continue to play the game and rudy giuliani play the gamending donald trump would like to sit down an interview with mueller. a former federal prosecutor has a theory today about exactly why robert mueller has not subpoenaed donald trump, and that's not a good theory for donald trump. of nowhere. you do, too, but not in time. hey, no big deal. you've got a good record and liberty mutual won't hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. you hear that, karen? liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges... how mature of them. for drivers with accident forgiveness liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪ >>> last night when i told rachel about the breaking news report that president trump was told before that russia attacked our election and they showed president-elect trump conclusive proof of that, rachel made an important observation about what that could mean to the mueller investigation. >> if that reporting is true, then every single time the

why does robert mueller allow donald trump to continue to play the game and rudy giuliani play the gametending donald trump would like to sit down an interview with mueller. a former federal prosecutor has a theory today about exactly why robert mueller has not subpoenaed donald trump, and that's not a good theory for donald trump. goooooooaaaaaaaallllllll! that...was...magic. willingham tucks it in and puts the championship to bed. sweet dreams, nighty night. as long as soccer players celebrate with a slide, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. pressure, what pressure? the players on the... pressure, what pressure? for my constipation, my doctor recommended i switch to miralax. stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. miralax is different. it works with the water in your body. unblocking your system naturally. miralax. now available in convenient single-serve mix-in pax. booking a flight doesn't have to be expensive. just go to priceline. it's the best place to book a flight a few d

president trump privately had expressed concerns about possible conflicts of interest on behalf of robert mueller based on a dispute over fees related to mueller's membership at the golf club in virginia. a spokesperson for the special counsel told the washington post that the reporting at that time, the suggestion made by president trump, were inaccurate. the back drop to this frustration with robert mueller are the revelations coming from michael cohen. several sources reporting that cohen is prepared to testify to the special counsel that president trump approved of the meeting in june of 2016 with his son donald trump jr. and russian nationals promising dirt on hillary clinton. it comes on the release of the secret recording made by michael cohen with the conversation with president trump. this weekend, rudy giuliani drawing the voracity of the tapes in question. >> he abruptly ended the recording as soon as the president said check. we are now investigating how did that happen and what actually did happen. what was eliminated? then you have to raise that question with every tape. how many di

we talked about many issues surrounding michael cohen and robert mueller's russia investigation. clarified to me his stance on whether the president would sit down now with mueller for an interview. watch. >> two things. first, i'm no on a sit-down until we get ironed out exactly what they want to do. and then the process is, we have five co-counsel, senior people, who will advise the president. he decides. he's always leaned in favor of doing that. >> harris: what are you telling him about that? >> right now i'm telling him no way. >> as a politician or as a lawyer? >> as a lawyer. >> harris: the mayor went on to say that he takes off his politician hat because he thinks the political landscape now is in the favor of the president on the issue of the russia investigation. he says there's a natural ending that he senses and even some democrats including one sitting next to me says that. guy benson from townhall.com and a fox news contributor on during that conversation with guliani. adrienne elrod, a former hillary clinton for america senior adviser and democrat strategist also on

every time these negotiations have gone down in terms it was trump sitting for an interview with robert mueller and back. i want to remind everybody, giuliani is the lawyer, but it is not the law that mueller has to give all the evidence that shows that donald trump has committed a crime prior to donald trump sitting for an interview. i recall the fact that former president clinton negotiated conditions under which he sat for an interview with ken starr, the special prosecutor back then. however, the conditions included things like closed circuit television feed during the course of the interview. it did not include things like giuliani saying, hey, mueller, show me the evidence before donald trump will sit down. it becomes a non-starter i believe for the robert mueller team. at that rate, why not prosecute donald trump for a crime if you have probable cause that he has committed that crime? >> that's interesting. i'm trying to figure out then who reasoning behind the request and whether or not giuliani can make it. could it fall into the category of discovery for the president's defense? >> ye

let's take a look at the level of attack that the president is levelling at robert mueller. it's much more personal than it has been in the past. the president used to sort of question the genesis of the mueller investigation, suggested there were a lot of conflicts of interest among his team. now he's really going after mueller. this is of a piece with a decision that we're told will be coming very soon in which the president and his legal team are likely to say and there's always a chance it could be different but we're told they are likely to say that there will be no interview with robert mueller. the president has got the final say, but there's pretty much unaminomt. there was question that i was going to ask at the press conference had i been called on. the two people that were called on did not bring it up. there's reasons why, a multitude of reasons why the president's attorneys believe that he should not sit down with him. first and foremost, they believe that robert mueller has not made the case that he needs to get information from the president that he can only ge

going after robert mueller, the man investigating. is robert mueller ever going to release his conflicts of interest with respect to president trump including the fact we had a very nasty contentious business relationship. i turned him down to head the fbi one day before appointment as special counsel and comey is his close friend. he fired these off from his golf course. live nearby the president's club, what's the president talking about when he says he and mueller had a nasty and contentious business relationship? >> reporter: anna, we've asked the white house for clarification on that. they have yet to respond to our questions. there is previous reporting out there about conversations president trump has had privately with some, including his own white house counsel, don mcgann, making complaints about what he sees as conflicts of interest on behalf of robert mueller. according to four separate sources who spoke to the "new york times" earlier this year as part of a tirade president trump went on against robert mueller, he complai

they're ramping up attacks on robert mueller at a critical time in the investigation. one of the president's outside attorneys rudy guiliani is moving the goalpost for the probe, making the assertion colluding with the russians isn't even a crime, an odd line of attack as the president repeatedly said he is not guilty of collusion. >> mr. president, mr. president, do you think other -- >> reporter: as his aides were nearly screaming in the ears of reporters asking questions in the oval office, president trump declined to weigh in on the russian investigation. at a later news conference with the italian prime minister. >> do you feel betrayed by michael cohen, sir? >> reporter: a question from cnn about his personal attorney michael cohen and no response. instead, the president unloaded in his usual safe space where there are no questions, on twitter, tweeting there was no collusion, slamming the russian investigation with a personal attack as a robert mueller rigged witch hunt. just as the president was tweeting there was no collusion, rudy guiliani said collusion isn'

why was robert mueller not involved?actually charged by a complaint, which is a little bit difference than an indictment bush still requires a probable cause showing and the reason it's with the u.s. attorney and the district of columbia is is likely of convenience. >> david this could make it more complicated for the president to interfere with this part of the investigation given that these investigations are now are spread out across a few different federal prosecutors' offices. here it is on this historic day in the trump administration history. they certainly knew in washington, d.c. in the justice department what the president was doing today. they didn't wait until tomorrow to do this. >> no, they didn't, and robert mueller didn't wait until next week to indict the 12 russian military intelligence official that is he indicted on friday. now, we don't -- we have a political bent william a look at these things that way. there well could be other reasons. one, my reporting showed that one reason they wanted to arrest

attacking robert mueller.nsel in the most versatile terms yet on this, the eve of the first criminal trial stemming from the russian investigation. tonight the president and his lawyer are sending conflicting messages about mueller's probe of possible collusion. >>> secret discussion. rudy guiliani exposes claims of a strategy session before the infamous trump tower meeting with russians, then denies it ever happened. is mr. trump's legal front man trying to clarify or confuse? >>> considering a shutdown. the president strikes fear in the hearts of fellow republicans as he threatens to paralyze the federal government just weeks before the midterm election. how far is he willing to go to get funding for the wall with mexico? >>> and missing in the inferno, one of the most destructive fires in california history engulfs more homes, takes more lives. tonight families search for loved ones, including children. lost in the ashes. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf bli

he said there are no conflicts of interests with robert mueller. and the notion that the president offered him or considered him for fbi director is unclear. we have never heard mueller's side of that conversation. it could be that mueller went in there to explain to the president that he could not do it and possibly make some suggestions to him what who he should choose. we don't know what was in that conversation. >> exactly. all of this is nonsense because there was a lot of discussion about potential conflict of interest having to do with mueller's golf club membership at a trump club. and some dispute about the fees. and that was resolved a long time ago. it was reviewed by the department of justice. there is no conflict of interest. the president is simply repeating over and over again because it seems to have some effectiveness. he just keeps saying in the same way he says in collusion. and then hopes that his base will believe that, even though it isn't. he argues as he has done, that the facts are not there, that the law isn't there. and, y

>> he doesn't have to. >> why is it up to robert mueller to support the president's tweet? >> because he has the conflict not the president. >> what's the conflict? >> i can't tell you. i have an idea, it's one that would have kept me out of the investigation. >> what does that mean? >> what it means is i would have had had a personal dispute with the president of the united states before the investigation that really precluded me from -- maybe it explains why he hired 13 democrats and guy donated -- >> guys also donated to republicans, right? >> no way. >> all sorts of contributions. >> not all sorts of contributions. >> that is totally wrong. >> i think i have a graphic somebody. >> he worked for obama and worked for republicans. we have a $36,000 guy, i don't know any prosecutor that donated a $36,000 to parties. >> you're saying mueller worked with republicans and democrats, yes? >> yes, but hired a guy the justice department prosecutor, andrew wiseman, a complete xroun drel. >> are you saying -- hold on -- >> explaining that wooizman was unethical. >> people should kno

we have heard opening statements, and the lead-off witness in the first trial stemming from robert mueller's russia investigation. tonight, manafort's team is trying to turn the tables and shift the blame to his former deputy rick gates, who is billed as mueller's star witness. i'll get reaction from senate judiciary committee member richard blumenthal. and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first, let's go to our justice correspondent, jessica schneider. jessica, manafort's trial just wrapped up for day. what's the latest. >> it did, wolf. so far, a war of words in front of the 12-member jury. each side gave a 30-minute opening statement with the special counsel's team calling paul manafort a liar and saying he placed himself and his money above the law. meanwhile, his defense team strategy was focused on shifting the blame to not only the people manafort worked with but also the russian oligarchs he worked for. tonight, prosecutors are off to a fiery start in their case against paul manafort, calling him a shrewd liar who orchestrated a global scheme to avoid paying taxe

giuliani himself said that -- based on -- today he said that based on his conversations with robert mueller, he believes that mueller wants to issue his final report on the president by september. but then again, we see the negotiations over an interview between the special counsel and the president have gone nowhere, the president is escalating his attacks, and the bottom line, david, is that nobody but robert mueller really knows how close he is to finishing his investigation. >> all right, jon karl live at the white house. jon, good to have you back. >>> president trump also making news on iran tonight, at his new conference with the italian prime minister today. after ripping up the iran nuclear deal and then exchanging harsh words with the iranian president, today, president trump declaring he would meet, no preconditions, face-to-face, with the iranian president. >> no preconditions. no. they want to meet, i'll meet. any time they want. any time they want. it's good for the country, good for them, good for us. and good for the world. >> not long after that moment, secretary of state m

interesting article from "usa today" that really says that this trial will also test the credibility of robert mueller and his investigation. if mueller wins the conviction t. will severely undercut donald trump's claim that the mueller investigation is a politically motivated hitch hunt. writer also says we should look out in particular for the testimony of rick gates. he was manafort's deputy and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution back in february. his testimony will be, quote, damning evidence against manafort. claire: an unusual auction takesing place in the u.s. beemcy. >> they are moving to a shinier location. as they do they are selling off some the things they don't need n this case it might be a lot of things nobody else will need, either. we have rolls of toilet paper or paper towels. i think one pallet has about 1,200 rolls of toilet paper. broken dyson vacuum cleaners, damaged coffee table, and broken down photo copier. the guardian reports that similar auctions are taking aplace across the world in u.s. embassies. in armenia you can pick up rugs and office chairs with stains on them

i suspect that isn't true, that robert mueller has motivations far beyond that. carrying out a legal investigation -- but i think donald trump's grasping at straws. as is rudy giuliani. take trump's tweet saying robert mueller owes me money and rudy giuliani saying oh, that tape must have been tampered with, although there's sbrult no evidence it was, and that just tells you the idea is to throw up enough mud on the wall, enough smoke in the eyes, that the realities of the trump russia investigation doesn't actually take over and bring him down. >> as the relationship continues to unravel between michael cohen and donald trump and we're seeing their legal team, scott, no longer sharing information, there's also the issue around allen weisselberg being subpoenaed. weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the trump foundation. this is the man who knows all of the financial inner workings. how big of a risk could this be to trump world? >> how big is a mountain? or rather several mountains. just to repeat to viewers, this is now three interlinked investigations.

robert mueller is doing his job. what prosecutors do when building a case, interview people to connect the dots and reveal more witnesses. what we do know about robert mueller, we may not know the reason behind his waning to speak to her but we know he will leave no stone unturned. no pun intended. >> i want to get your perspective how this is played out. we heard from roger stone on cnn last night. he's in peril here. he's worried about where it might lead and how to get wrapped up into this legally. what do you make of his approach to be talking about it, be out there, doing interviews and the like. >> i don't understand it. sam nunberg did the same thing when he was subpoenaed by robert mueller. he went on tv and went on this tir tirade about how he wasn't going to comply. what's the point of talking to davis when she knows nothing about collusion and everything she did for me was legal. why make that case? you're not helping her or change mueller's mind about talking to her. i think he should keep his mouth shut.

begins in the trial of paul manafort tomorrow, the first trial to come out of special counsel robert mueller's investigation. but we heard that argument from giuliani, he's said it before, essentially saying that mueller, if you have something, show us. but is there any sense of when mueller will reveal his findings? what are you hearing from your sources? >> reporter: well, giuliani himself said that based on his -- today, he said based on his conversations with robert mueller, he believes that mueller wants to issue his final report on the president by september, but then again, we see the negotiations over an interview between the special counsel and the president have gone nowhere, the president is escalating his attacks, and the bottom line, david, is that nobody but robert mueller really knows how close he is to finishing his investigation. >> all right, jon karl live at the white house. jon, good to have you back. >>> president trump making news on iran tonight. at his new conference with the italian prime minister today, after ripping up the iran nuclear deal and then exchanging harsh

and willing to make the claim to robert mueller. let's bring in former director of the office for government ethics and investigative reporter. author of the making of donald trump. good evening, gentlemen. david, i'll get to you. a lot of what you said has come true. over the past couple years on this show saying a lot has come true. i need to start with walter. i want to ask you about the ramifications of what you have heard tonight. and of this breaking news. >> well, a lot of us ma have suspected this. but who would have dreamed it would actually be provable. and if michael cohen will come in and say that, that really is inconsistent with the things that the president has been saying. and certainly things his people have been saying. and it takes us back in the category of trying to figure out whether they were seeking a contribution of some sort from a foreign government in terms of a thing of value. this opposition research that they may have been hoping to exploit to take advantage in the campaign against their opponent. >> d

tonight the president lashes out against robert mueller claiming conflicts of interest. plus russia gate travels to the worst airport gate in america. don junior and robert mueller treated to the lucid nightmare that is gate 35 x at reagan national airport. at the same time the president's inner circle is fighting it out in federal court and the court of public opinion. later we'll talk to senator chris van hollen about matters foreign and domestic. he floetsz new sanctions for months could you as tariffs start to turn politically toxic at home. but we begin with a series of tweets from the president late today including a greatest hits of grievances against special counsel robert mueller. quote, is robert mueller ever going to release his conflicts of interest with respect to president trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty and contentious business relationship? i turned him down to head the fbi one day before appointment as special counsel and comey is his close friend. >>> michael schmidt in "the new york times" reported back in january that amid the first

someone who has already talked to robert mueller's people about it. joining us is former trump campaign aide sam nunberg. great to have you back on. >> thank you. >> this -- the trump tower meeting, is it possible, in your mind, that donald trump jr. or someone, paul manafort or kushner, would not have told donald trump, either in advance or after this meeting, that it had occurred? >> in the totality, during the campaign, i would assume perhaps donald trump knew about this meeting. but if we're getting to the specifics here about whether donald trump and don jr. are telling the truth against now michael cohen, i believe donald trump and don jr. and let me also say for one quick reason, and you'll understand this once we get into the weeds. remember, goldstone, who works for the agalarov family, he sent that e-mail directly to don jr. if you look at the e-mails, it was never forwarded to rhona graff, then donald trump's executive assistant, but essentially like his chief of staff. >> right. there was, however, a blocked number call made by donald trum

perhaps his audience of one he's going for is robert mueller.ut who he needs to be speaking to is the southern district of new york. who is overseeing it. and maybe it's helpful for that reason. >> did you want to say something, renato? >> what i would say, i just think those conversations are better had in private. >> of course. >> let me ask you this. can michael cohen be sued or stopped by the president in any way if he's seen to be breaking some sort of attorney/client privilege, renato? >> no, if he did that, if the president wanted to do that, he would be putting the truth of all these matters at issue in that lawsuit. so if i was advising the president, i would tell him, stay very far away from that. >> and we have to remember, michael cohen has not been charged with anything, that's if he is charged with anything, right, then it will play out the way that you guys have put forward here. >> and don, also remember, he can't assert the privilege now for some of these cases. rudy giuliani and his team, especially on the cash versus check tel

president has said on several occasions that he would like to sit down for an interview with robert mueller, but the chances of that happening, according to people we have talked to are rapidly approaching zero. >> multiple sources tell fox news that president trump and his outside legal team are expected to say no to an interview with robert mueller. in a phone call to fox news earlier today, attorney rudy giuliani certainly appeared to indicate that. >> no on the sit down until we get ironed out exactly what they want to do. right now i'm telling them no way, we are not going to do it. >> president trump has gotten markedly more personal in his criticism of the mueller investigation tweeting about his alleged conflicts of interest, including the fact that we had a

said he would love to cooperate, he would love to testify, he would be happy to sit down with robert muellers point, the recommendation from his lawyers is, no, unless there is some new development from the mueller team. so, it is part of strategy and the timing, of course, is that this is getting closer and closer to midterm elections and one of the biggest audiences for the outcome of the russia investigation, wherever it reaches its conclusion, is the voters. and will there be a change, particularly in the house of representatives, to democratic control, where they could use that authority to proceed with impeachment if they found grounds to do so. so there's a political element, a legal element, and trying to get a sense out of the special counsel team, where they find the president's role in, if at all. obviously, michael flynn, the former national security adviser was charged with lying, paul manafort was charged with financial crimes that predate the campaign. there have been others in the environment. giuliani also told me that he believes that based on the conversations that they've

more now on the special counsel robert mueller's focus on the president's tweets. let's turn to our cnn contributor, the washington investigative correspondent for the "new york times." how is mueller now approaching this question of obstruction of justice as it relates to donald trump's tweets? >> well, the tweets and the public statements kind of wrap into the larger obstruction of justice investigation. and what he is looking at is exactly was trump trying to tamp down the justice department investigation, intimidate witnesses, tamper with witnesses, specifically comey and sessions by making the statements by making those tweets? the bigger question is was this all having criminal intent? that is what mueller has to deci decide. or was this something that would be passable. it is hard to make an obstruction of justice case. this is one of the things, the question that is out there is will mueller try to stitch these things together in order to build a case? >> the other argument, the legal rationale that mueller is referring to is not just obstruction but witness

let's talk about these new attacks against robert mueller as well as giuliani's claim that the cohen tape was doctored with us. former trump white house lawyer james schultz and former prosecutor paul cowen. these attacks against mueller. we learned within the last few days mueller is actually scrutinizing trump's tweets as part of his obstruction of justice investigation and yet the president here is tweeting all about him. if you were still a white house lawyer, what would you tell the president right now? >> look, i've said time and time again, i think the president is well served talking about all the good things that are happening right now with the economy and the tax cuts and regulatory reform and attacking robert mueller is not the best use of his time. >> does it hurt him? >> i think it just distracts from the good things -- like i said, from the good things that are going on. i don't think it puts him in any more or less legal jeopardy. but it certainly distracts from all the good things that the administration's accomplishing. >> paul, a lot of news has broken over the last

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questioning the credibility of robert mueller's ongoing investigation. in a series of tweets yesterday, trump claimed there was no collusion and called mueller's probe a witch-hunt and an illegal school. he went on to right, is robert mueller ever going to release his conflict of interest with respect to president trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty and contentious business relationship. i turned him down to head the fbi one day before appointment as special counsel, and comey is his close friend. also, why is mueller only appointing angry dems, some of whom have worked for crooked hillary, others including himself have worked for obama. and why isn't mueller looking at all of the criminal activity and

that would be robert mueller. in terms of the leadership of the federal bureau of investigation only j. edgar hoover served as fbi director longer than robert mueller. while today was the 110th anniversary of the bureau, it was formed back in 1908 as a "force of special agents," which it remains today. and today's anniversary reminds us of mueller's public remarks a decade ago in celebration of the fbi's centennial. >> it is not enough to stop the terrorists. we must stop him while maintaining his civil liberties. it is not enough to catch the criminal. we must catch him while respecting his civil rights. it is not enough to prevent foreign countries from stealing our secrets. we must prevent that from happening while still upholding the rule of law. the rule of law. civil liberties. civil rights. these are not our burdens. they are what make us better. they are what have made us better for nearly 100 years. >> perhaps the second most talked about man in america these days. robert mueller speaking on american life

president is this bit of remarkable news this afternoon, politico's playbook reported a photo of robert mueller waiting to board a flight at reagan national airport in d.c. and look who's waiting in line at the same gate, donald trump jr. wearing that green shirt. mueller says, the other person in the photo was, indeed, trump junior, quote, mr. mueller was not aware of him and had no interaction with him. jim, now the question is, what will trump junior say to the special counsel if and when he does talk to him and will he say to mueller the same thing that he said to congress, that his father didn't know about that 2016 meeting with russians? >> people are going to jail for lying. thanks very much. >>> joining me now is congressman jerry conley, a democrat, representing the district of virginia. thanks for being with us. >> thanks to be here. >> essentially here you have the president's word against his long-time former lawyer and fixer. simply, who do you believe? >> well, i think we have to back up a little bit. cohen is not a -- you know, a heroic figure, but he does have credibility. he re

over time, the attacks of the president and his counsel, rudy giuliani, have launched against robert muellern their toll. today mueller put a lot of new facts on the record that show convincingly this is not a witch hunt, it's a serious investigation that's producing fruit. you have to ask about the timing of this. obviously we've talked about this, ken i think raised the important question of whether the president, when he was briefed earlier this week, would have objected to the timing, whether the department of justice would have coordinated the timing with the president. it is such a hard question to answer because in a typical investigation, we've talked for months about how the justice department and the white house don't coordinate on criminal investigations. that's a big exception to that, and that's national security investigations. with a typical president who is defending the country and responding to an attack on our country, you might coordinate with the white house the announcement of this indictment so the president can go to the meeting with a new piece of ammunition in his p

democrats 57 to 32%. >>> well, washington is still abuzz about that picture showing special counsel robert muelleronald trump jr. at same gate at reagan national airport. mueller's office confirmed that it is his him in the picture but he did not have any interaction with trump jr. kevin, let's start with you because seriously, what are the chances? have you ever been at that gate. >> that gate is the worst gate in america. 35x is -- i mean, i can't -- it's an abominable gate. i've had the inopportunity to fly out of that thing multiple times. you've got to take like an escalator, then a shuttle bus to get to the plane and then i'm like, the one time as a reporter i'd actually want to be at that gate, you know, you've got bob mueller, don jr., what are the chances? like what are the actual chances? only in d.c., a very d.c. moment really, not even house of cards. >> and ken, i mevin, is it poss they didn't see each other? could they possibly have really missed each other? >> i -- i wasn't there, but you know, it's a very small gate. >> and julia, your thoughts on that? >> so there's the gates of h

in the first big court test for special counsel robert mueller, former campaign chairman paul manafort goes on trial accused by prosecutors of hiding millions in secret income from taxes. could manafort turn on president trump to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison? >>> russia attacking again? facebook shuts down dozens of pages that it says may have been tied to russians spreading disinformation ahead of the mid term elections. is the kremlin once again targeting u.s. voters? >>> saving general kelly. white house chief of staff john kelly announces that president trump has asked him to stay on until at least 2020. the retired general has been fighting rumors of an imminent departure almost since he took the job. is that job now safe? >>> and kim's new missiles, a new report warns north korea may be building new long range missiles that could pose a risk to the united states. just weeks after president trump pronounced that north korea is no longer a nuclear threat. i'm wolf blitzer, you are in "the situation room" on. . >>> breaking news, the first trial in the mueller inves

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that's what robert mueller will be trying to do with these tweets. jeff sessions, trump almost specifically threatens him. if i had known he would have recused himself i would never have appointed him, and trump threatening sessions to drop the witch-hunt into the presidential election. the president is his boss. you could make the case this is trump trying to pressure his subordinate to drop an investigation into the president. >> can we pull up that picture once again from politico? this dca, reagan terminal 35x. have either of you been there, and if you have, would it be possible to not know. it's small. cramped, right? would you not know somebody else who is potentially boarding the same plane, these two -- >> it's possible if you're absorbed in whatever you're reading and didn't look up to see as people came in and out. but it is not -- it's not a large space, but because of a lot of flights depart from there a lot of people do go through. an amazing terminal. sort of like a green room from outside a cable news show. people from all walks of was

is cohen a bigger threat to the president than robert mueller? what about him? let's do it. ♪ come on. this summer, add a new member to the family. at the mercedes-benz summer event. lease the glc300 for $429 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. well, esurance makes finding the right coverage easy. in fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of $412. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance. an allstate company. click or call. >>> here's the breaking news, sources telling cnn that michael cohen is prepared to tell robert mueller that adopt knew in advance about the 2016 trump tower meeting with russians. rudy giuliani, the president's attorney, had a lot to say about that to cnn's chris cuomo. i would to bring in chris cillizza, scott jennings, and simone sanders. here we go, y'all. this is a clip from rudy giuliani's interview with chris cuomo. watch this. >> i know that he's walking into a situation in which there will be no corroboration. gosh almighty, why didn't he tap

he's a cooperating witness, until robert mueller says he isn't. and he was around this white house, he was around this west wing, in and out of the white house for meetings after paul manafort was gone. talk about his role in the drama starting to unfold there. >> well, what the defense is saying while paul manafort was off in ukraine doing his important work, gates was back home managing the finances. that's going to be the defense story. they're going to put a lot of the blame on gates. i don't think that there's anything in the evidence that suggests that's going to work. but it will be interesting to see how it goes. and he has admitted to lying and he will have to confront that on the stand when he testified. i want to go back to something jonathan said, this trial is going to show that when paul manafort came to the trump campaign, he was broke and scrambling for cash to fund his lavish lifestyle and deeply in debt to russian oligarchs. that makes hip him a ripe target and may have been the most vulnerable trump official, who was the only no

robert mueller is an incredibly serious, ethical prosecutor. were some conflict, he would not be in the position he is in. he is an ethical prosecutor, we do not know much out of the investigation about what mr. mueller is finding. we are hearing from other people , including michael cohen, the president's former lawyer, and reports that he may have been willing to testify that the president knew in advance about the meeting in trump tower with certain representatives of the russian government. if that were true, could that point toward a criminal offense? cynthia: it would definitely go toward a criminal offense. it would be conspiracy to violate the campaign finance laws. it may go to a conspiracy to hacking. it to go to a number of things were that was true. we will have to see. there is been breaking news that giuliani says there was a meeting before the trump tower meeting. what is important about that is it is new information about a second meeting. present in that meeting was rick dates. -- rick gates/ you may know he is cooperating with

when we come back, rudy tries to make a deal with special counsel robert mueller about an interview about everything except obstruction of justice. this is one presidential adviser who says today "donald trump will have to climb over rudy and his dead body to be interviewed by mueller." >>> sex, loyalty and audio recordings. we go inside what "vanity fair" describes as the escalating war with the president and michael cohen. >>> and sean spicer's brand-new tell all. the book is going over about as well as the press briefings he once game, about the size of donald trump's inaugural crowd. stay with us. are you ready to take your wifi to the next level? then you need xfinity xfi. a more powerful way to stay connected. it gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. >>> one of the big outstanding questions in the mueller investigation is what the president will sit for an interview. while an interview with the special c

if you're robert mueller, what do you do? >> i think at the outset, what this tells us is that for a group that is so tight knit, they're terrible at colluding if there was collusion. if you think about it, it doesn't look like they got information from the russians, they have not been able to keep hush panlts quite, or ko men quiet. i think now that he is out there singing like a canary, the fact that cohen mentioned in our reported that there was othered in the room is a key fact that stood out to me in this report. first, as jeffrey mentioned, his credibility is not golden, right? it is in question right now. the fact to me as an investigator he came out and said i met one on one with the president and we discussed this russian meeting, the fact that he opened this now to other people to say there was other witnesses, why would he do that if it was not the truth. next issue here, what does mueller do with this? what does the southern district do with this? they're going to start figuring out who these witnesses are. if the

the robert mueller rigged witch hunt is an illegal scam and is robert mueller ever going to are release his conflicts of interest with respect to president trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty and contentious business relationship. i turned him down to head the fbi one day before his appointment as special counsel and comey is his close friend." well, let's, at this point, bring in our leadoff panel for a monday night show. jonathan, white house reporter for the associated press. ellie is here, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and former assistant attorney general in the great state of new jersey and anita, white house correspondent. are we, in fact, watching, as has been theorized, an evolving policy? no collusion, no collusion, no colug, collusion, if there was, it sure wasn't a crime. >> rudy giuliani is the president's lawyer but he's the attack dog that is filling the air waves, sometimes confusingly. but this does seem like a deliberate step, that we have seen as you just traced there, since 2016, these meetings, there was no collu

robert mueller is moving quite quickly. he's secured numerous indictments and guilty pleas. i don't know where these calls are coming from that his investigation is taking too long. he's proceeded faster than any other investigation against a p.m. -- against a president. robert mueller is very aware of the elections coming up. >> let's pivot to talk about the resignation of former epa administrator scott pruitt after a long list of scandals, beginning with those travel expenses, getting into security, the motorcade with sirens and lights he used to get to restaurants in it washington, d.c., the cheap condo he was renting that was owned by a lobbyist, numerous violations of lobbying laws. 15 investigations continue on capitol hill. your reaction to his decision to step down, lo these 15, 16 months after he took the job. >> scott pruitt was a national embarrassment who likely committed multiple criminal felonies. i'm glad he's gone but he should have been fired a long time ago. he's just one example of the trump administration's cabinet of corruption. we now have wilbur ross,

robert mueller is getting to the bottom of this. he did use all of those wikileaks emails to his advantage at the end of the election, the last month of the election especially, on the day the "access hollywood" tape came out, the same day that john podesta's emails started to drop. he used them to his advantage? >> absolutely. and they were done strategically, which is a really significant point. you know, when wikileaks first dumped the 20,000 dnc emails that had been hacked by russian military intelligence, they did it all at once, which is usually the way wikileaks does things. they are self-styling themselves as a transparency outfit. they put it oall out there. with those podesta emails in the closing weeks of the campaign, they dribbled them out to keep the story going. they put a few out each day so that, you know, all the press would eat them up and keep talking about them. so that shows there was a bit of strategic planning here for -- which only had one purpose. to help trump and to hurt hillary clinton. >> and we say --

why do you think robert mueller issued this indictment three days before you and donald trump met? >> translator: i am not interested in this issue a single bit. it is internal political games of the united states, doesn't make the relationship between russia and the united states a hostage of this internal political struggle and it is clear to me that this is used in internal political struggle and nothing to be proud of for american democracy to use such dirty methods. >> do you think mr. miller is trying to sabotage the relationship? >> i don't want to make any assessments about his motivation. congress appointed him and i think the court had some doubts about the procedure of appointing robert mueller to the posting now held. i think american court believes it was done with infringement of the american legislation. >> congress doesn't appoint them. >> i thought the news conference today, my opinion was a bit curious because donald trump spent more time criticizing the democrats and asking about the democratic server than he did criticizing russia and asking about the gr you. th

that's okay. >>> president trump said that he'd love to talk to special counsel robert mueller, but new at least not without a subpoena. according to reporting in "the new york times" this weekend, the president's legal team is making new demands ahead of a mueller sitdown. among them, that the special counsel must prove he has evidence that the president committed a crime. let's get straight to cnn white house correspondent boris sanchez live in new jersey where the president is spending the weekend. boris, tell us more about the president's demands. >> reporter: hey there, ryan. yeah, rudy giuliani apparently telling "the new york times" that the president will not sit down with robert mueller unless the special counsel can prove that some information that the president has is impossible to obtain through any other means. apparently rudy giuliani has told "the new york times" that they must -- or rather that the special counsel must present evidence that the president has committed a crime and that special counsel robert mueller must prove that he has the jurisdiction to pursue an inv

but robert mueller's argument on obstruction, he's using james comey. if you look at the questions that have been leaked, even the -- in "the new york times," right? it was reported in "the new york times." if you look at the questions, the questions that involve michael flynn's firing, because that involves what james comey alleges that donald trump said to him. you look at all of them. they're all interrelated to james comey, and they're also essentially the same way michael cohen was essentially wiretapping donald trump, right? he has his iphone and he's copying it. these contemporaneous memos that james comey say have probative value, which mueller clearly does. then mueller has this relationship with james comey that i find to then investigate the firing of james comey, when you lobbied barack obama for him to be your successor, there's something -- there's a problem with that. >> it does seem, though, that we don't really know -- i mean it's one thing for us to talk about the mueller investigation because of little leaks, things that have leaked o