and then today we find out that sam clovis not -- sam clovis is not only the campaign official that'sly referenced in one of the documents yesterday, but has already spoken to the grand jury in the mueller investigation. if you're in the white house right now, as previously said, and you now find out that george papadopoulos and now sam clovis are two people who have talked to the grand jury. one has already pleaded guilty, as ezra said, this already adds a -- i don't know, a frisson of freak-out in the west wing about who is next, what's possibly going to happen next, and mueller as previously said is not someone to be trifled with. >> and ezra, sam clovis is someone who the president is of course going to have a lot of trouble distancing himself from. i guess we'll wait for tomorrow. surely tomorrow the white house will act as if they don't know who he is and try to destroy all pictures of him being anywhere in donald trump's presence. i mean, this one is going to be an awful lot harder to erase from trump campaign history as they're trying to do with papadopoulos. >> they tried to

his supervisor was sam clovis and sam clovis was due to be in a senate nomination hearing, nominated to be the top scientist at the agriculture department, despite the fact he is not a scientist. at that hearing, democrating already started to signal they had things to ask him about besides his lack of scientific credentials and his potential role at the department of agriculture. of course you would ask him that. once you got sam clovis under oath in front of the united states senate, you would ask him, hey, about this kid who was reporting on the trump campaign and just pled guilty under the mueller investigation, can we talk to you about what he told you? knowing that was going to be the character clovis's hearing neck week and absorbing this new news that apparent lich cloly clovis talking to the grand jury and without notifying the white house he was doing so, today his nomination for that agriculture job was yanked. i'm going to post a link tonight where you can see for yourself sam clovis representing himself as a pentagon expert on russia and on the soviet military. that was

his supervisor was sam clovis and sam clovis was due to be in a senate nomination hearing, one week from today, because the trump administration nominated him to be the top scientist in that department, despite he is not a sicientist. at that hearing, democrats already started to signal they had things to ask him about besides his lack of scientific credentials and his potential role at the department of agriculture. senator patrick leahy, a quote, member of the agricultural committee said he planned to ask sam clovis about the efforts of george papadopoulos to the acquire stolen e-mails from the russians. of course you would ask him that under oath in front of the united states senates about this the kid who, hey, he just reported to the trump cam tain and plead guilty under the mueller investigation. can we ask you what he was going to tell you? and knowing that is the character of the nomination next week and apparently the news that he started to talk to mueller's investigation, and to the grand jury without ever notify i notifying the white house that he was doing so, today, clovis'

implicated that sam clovis did have a few e-mail conversations with george papadopolous in which the government claims that clovis actually encouraged papadopolous to go to russia, meet with russian officials, so that now the fallout we're seeing, sam clovis has withdrawn his name. it is important to note when the washington post revealed sam clovis in the documents, only referred to in the documents as campaign supervisor, sam clovis' attorneys pushed back saying no, he wasn't really encouraging him, that was sort of misread, he was being polite as he would be to any campaign volunteer. so his attorneys tried to push back on this earlier in the week, but, of course, we have seen the fallout with sam clovis withdrawing from the nomination as chief scientist at the department of agricultural. ana? >> meantime we have manafort and gates back in court today, two more witnesses will be testifying before the house intel committee. what can we expect? >> that's right. right now we know that carter page is behind closed doors, he is talking with the house intel. you know, carter page has be

because while sam clovis may be many things, a former air force fighter pilot, a conservative talk show southern sheriff who gets outsmarted by them rascally duke boys, he is not a scientist. clovis himself confirmed that it in a letter obtained by the "washington post." here are his answers to some questions he had submitted ahead of his now cancelled hearing. please list all graduate level courses you have taken in natural science? none, clovis replied. please list all membership and leadership roles you have held with any agricultural scientific, agricultural education or agricultural economic organizations? none, clovis replied. please describe any awards designations or academic recognition you received specifically related to agricultural science? none, clovis replied. have you ever visited the produce section of your grocery store? [ laughter ] of course, trump was probably impressed by that. "he filled out his questionnaire in like a minute. [ light laughter ] i think i picked a real winner with this guy." seriously based on that clovis' interview with trump probably went as wel

that suggests the campaign was into this idea. >> sam clovis actually brought papadopoulos and carter page into that advisory board to begin with, and so i would imagine that they would have been e-mailing back and forth. you know, clovis has said that he was trying to just be nice in his response. i know that he's since left his role -- pulled himself out of consideration for an agriculture job. actually i think that the fact that he was brought in at all by clovis or anyone was a mistake. and certainly responding in any way to this kid suggesting meetings with russians -- >> 29 years old. >> it's just wrong, right. >> so i guess here's the thing, right. so in is lags, carter page was a weird guy, he went to moscow and we didn't approve it. george papadopoulos was low level and sam clovis was just flattering him and paul manafort was only on the campaign a little bit even if he was aligned with kremlin-backed interests and the meeting at trump tower when they were promised dirt from a russian lawyer on behalf of the government was a one-time fluke event and the meetings with kislyak

multiple campaign officials including former managers paul manafort and corey lewandowski as well as sam clovis now nominated for a high level position at the department of agriculture. the president has not changed his views about clovis but the white house is distancing itself from papadopoulos. >> i think that papadopoulos is an example of actually somebody doing the wrong thing while the president's campaign did the right thing. what papadopoulos did was lie and that's on him. not on the campaign and we can't speak for that. >> in fact, the white house and president trump yesterday belittled him calling him, quote, a low-level volunteer who has already proven to be a liar. >>> time now for a look at your weather on this wednesday morning.

well i think we're going to also be now looking at somebody else who played a role sam clovis sam clovis was another person in the campaign that's who it is appears that george papadopoulos was talking to as well as paul man of fort sam clovis has a confirmation hearing coming up to be the chief scientist for the u.s.d.a. the agriculture department even though he has no science background so i think we'll see the media digging in a little there again the cover a couple of wood responses from each of you melanie is donald trump any closer to impeachment or not i think there's definitely a step closer to him impeachment if not and if not that indictment so i think the walls are closing in on mr trump and he's going to be panicking and it'll be interesting to see what he does as we all know he can be fairly erratic ross. there is no chance of impeachment as of today based on these indictments and with the current makeup of the congress the new whistle thomas. indictment is a legal act impeachment is political and legal we have to see whether in fact there are enough legal facts to carry it

and nbc news reports tonight that sam clovis has also testified to the grand jury in this investigationf the trump white house decides they want to keep distancing themselves from people who have turned up in the russia investigation, distancing themselves from sam clovis is going to be particularly difficult, given not only that he was a national co-chair of the campaign but also that they have nominated him to a senior position at the u.s. department of agriculture for which sam clovis is supposed to face senate confirmation next week, which is probably going to be very, very awkward now. joining us is joyce vance, former state attorney for the state of alabama, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> so reading this document tonight that was unsealed by the court, this is a representation -- first there's the warrant, then there's the terms of confinement under which gates and manafort were released. then there's this 17-page document from the special counsel's office in which they make the case that they believe that these terms of release are warranted, that gate

let's go to sam clovis, apparently the next rung up on the ladder from papadopoulos. he is denying a lot of this. in particular his lawyer is denying that he had anything to do with encouraging papadopoulos to go to russia by saying, well, if he wanted to go on his own i couldn't stop him. that is lawyer talk. nobody said you couldn't stop him. who is going to go to russia on their own dime on campaign business? it seemed to me a very clever way of avoiding, yes, he did encourage him to go. your answers, senator. >> that statement of offense, the plea document, is a remarkable tableau. a chilling story of the collusion that russia was seeking to arrange and the multiple contacts that took place in march and april of 2016. to say it would have been a private, unauthorized trip simply fails to pass the smell test. and what's really happening here is the special counsel is saying to all of the potential witnesses, the train is leaving, this plea occurred on october 5th. it was unsealed only recently. there is more to come. now is the time to follow papadopoulos and coope

the fact is that sam clovis was a western iowa for talk radio personality.had academic credentials. as you know from covering campaigns, most com pains at a high level would never hire someone to do the work he was doing. they would have had traditional foreign policy hands from washington lined up. that was not this campaign. he was someone who truly was in a lot of ways making it up as he goes. the true political outsider. you hire people and you don't know about them. you don't vet folks that come on the campaign. when you win in a surprise, you staff an administration with folks that you haven't vetted. >> i view this as smart politics. i'm not sure what they think about it. the president is watching the television and seeing the news and he is screaming at the tv and calls maggie haberman and said i'm not angry at all. i'm fine. that would be maggie haberman of what the president calls the failing "new york times." he doesn't like them, but he likes to call them. in an odd way smart politically to get the impression out there that i'm fine and this is n

so, possibility that sam clovis may have to step out of the way. lovis strongly, strongly opposed any trips overseas by the aides for the trump campaign. back to you, john. >> joe johns at the white house, we will be watching that closely. meanwhile, more developments in the russia investigation happening now on capitol hill, testimony from two major players, the house intelligence committee behind closed doors with carter page as we speak, his connections to russia go back years and the committee will hear from a russian who was in that trump tower meeting held by donald trump, jr., where he was promised russian dirt on hillary clinton. jessica snyder has the latest for us. jessica? >> a flurry on capitol hill. right now carter page is talking with congressional investigators. he's a renewed interest right now because he's admitted he exchanged e-mails with george papadopolous and carter page said the topic in those e-mails of russia may have come up, but that nothing major was discussed. of course george papadopolous pleaded guilty for lying to th

this enterprise is important. >> dickerson: sam clovis withdrew... >> he's still in the department ofulture. he withdrew from that job. >> dickerson: what did you learn in this deep dive into government. what surprised you? >> the caliber of the people. that's the amazing thing. you now, it sounds simple, right, that it matters a lot why you're in the job, what your motives are, and there are passionate, dedicated, hard-working people who are fighting hunger in america, trying to figure out how we're going to eat 50 years from now. they're trying to make sure that rural america doesn't just collapse. i mean, the department of agriculture is the touch point of government for rural america. and the people who are in those jobs, you know, a lot of them are there for a reason, because they care. they aren't doing it to make money in the private sector afterward. so if you have... this is a spirit of public service that still exists, that is precious, and without it the society collapses. and we ought to treasure that. >> dickerson: michael lewis, great piece. thank you. we'll be right bac

america found out today that, of course, sam clovis will not be having a confirmation hearing to answer questions about the dealings with the special prosecutor. >> the sam clovis story, something about the fact he is a talk radio show host from iowa and makes you think that like maybe this is kind of low level story. he's still a current administration official. he spoke to the grand jury without notifying the white house. he started to speak with mueller's investigators without telling the white house. we have no idea of an immunity agreement with the discussions and brought carter page and george papadopoulos on the trump campaign and oversaw this national security group that involved them that's now posing such difficulty for the attorney general. i mean, sam clovis is listed in the reports of contacting russian hackers to get hillary clinton's e-mails. he turns up again and again and again with all the russ related stories. i think his confirmation hearing next week could have been the most illuminating russia discussion we have had under oath since the beginning of this administra

the timing could not be better this week trump's nominee to usda chief scientist sam clovis withdrewination amidst news that during the campaign he was aware that campaign adviser george papadopoulos, i got it write, was talking to russians. i recently spoke to michael lewis. michael, sam clovis was always an odd choice for not the least of which reasons, he wasn't a scientist. >> well you know, as i've wandered around the trump administration, they're like two categories of appointees. they're the people like rick perry at the department of energy and sam clovis, who when they were offered the job, should have said no. because i'm not qualified for it. and the idea that you're putting in charge of a $3 billion a year science budget, that is trying to figure out you know, how to direct money so we can grow things in a changing climate, 50 years from now, a guy who has absolutely no science background at all. his chief, his chief job qualification was he was a right-wing radio talk show host in iowa who helped trump. you put that guy in charge of that office, is insane. and you just l

michael, sam clovis was always an odd choice for not the at least of which reason he wasn't a scientist>> well, you know, as i've wandered around the trump administration, there are like two categories of appointees. they're the people like rick perry, at the department of energy, and sam clovis, who when they were offered the job should have said, no, because i'm not qualified for it. and the idea that you're putting in charge of a $3 billion a year science budget that is trying to figure out, you know, how to direct money so we can grow things in a changing climate, 50 years from now, a guy who has absolutely no science background at all. his chief job, qualification, was he was a right wing radio talk show host in iowa who helped trump, and he put that guy in charge of that office is insane. and you just look at, you know, the thing i've written. profiles the person he replaced. a woman who for 50 years devoted herself to agriculture science and knows everything about it. so you -- it is -- it's quicksotic and makes you wonder, you got to give your friends political jobs in the admin

sam clovis, trump campaign co-chairman implicated, withdrew also, mr.s office documents related to his role in the firing of fbi director james comey. anthony. >> major garrett at the white house. thank you, major. >> the cbs "overnight news" will be right back. wan to ageless skin? take the olay 28 day challenge see visible results day 1. by day 28? years off your skin age. but don't take it from us, take it from one of the millions of real women already in the know it's not often you can say, you know i saw results right away visible results or your money back olay. ageless there is not a friend that i have that will not own this product i had this chest cold, but my medicine kept wearing off. (coughah! i missed you! then i discovered mucinex. one pill lasts 12 hours,and i'm good. why take 4-hour medicine? one mucinex lasts 12 hours. let's end this. your toilet is germ-ridden with mineral buildup. clorox toilet bowl cleaner with bleach is no match against limescale. but lysol power toilet bowl cleaner has 10x more cleaning

been reporting, president trump's nominee for the department of agriculture top scientist post, sam clovisname today for consideration, following reports that clovis was questioned last week by special counsel robert mueller's team and also testified before the grand jury. clovis was the supervisor of george papadopoulos, raising questions about just how much clovis may know about early contacts with the russians. this also as president trump called the "new york times" last night to deny reports of white house turmoil over the mueller indictments. he's also insisting he is not under investigation. joining me now, nick ackerman, assistant investigator, and former foreign policy adviser to vice president joe biden. welcome both. nick, first to you, there is a status hearing for both manafort and gates. presumably they want permission to leave their homes not just for medical appointments or to see their lawyers. they've been described as a flight risk in detailed court filings. what's likely to come out of that? what do we know? >> i think it's pretty likely that they're going to have their

he nominated sam clovis. tist and former talk show host, nothing wrong with that and a trump campaign adviser. clovis withdrew his nomination due to the ties to the russian investigation. sid boughridge, and he has been fired since his anti-muslim tweets were uncovered. >> victoria barton worked as an office manager and bar manager. a confidential assistant was a cabana attendant dealing with chairs and towels as recently as 2015. joinings me is dana, a columnist with the washington post. how did you get the back grounds of these people, i remember when w had the head of the arabian horse association run the federal emergency management that dealt with katrina. that was a laugh. where did he get this cast of characters? >> terrific group called american oversight forwarded all of these resumes and overlaid it with whose been appointed and who worked in the trump campaign and it was quite funny. there's nothing wrong with meineke muffler. i would take my car there, but does the guy who ran the meineke muffler b

sam clovis, trump campaign co-chairman implicated, withdrew his nomination to a top science post at agriculturemp's son-in-law, jared kushner turned over off to the special counsel's office documents related to his role in the firing of fbi director james comey. anthony. >> major garrett at the white house. thank you, major. >> the cbs "overnight news" will be right back. happy anniversary dinnedarlin' i'm messing up every dish, pot, and plate... ...to show my love. ta-da! all this devotion only calls for a little bit of dawn ultra. so concentrated, just one bottle has the grease cleaning power of three... ...bottles of this other liquid. a drop of dawn and grease is gone. try using dawn beyond the sink. i had this chest cold, but my medicine kept wearing off. (coughah! i missed you! then i discovered mucinex. one pill lasts 12 hours,and i'm good. why take 4-hour medicine? one mucinex lasts 12 hours. let's end this. i just want to find a used car start at the new carfax.com show me used trucks with one owner. pretty cool. [laughs] ah... ahem... show me the carfax. start your used car search at

now you have sam clovis withdrawing. says he's going to keep his job right, in the government. help us put this development with clovi into context. >> you may recall when special counsel mueller put out the charges against manafort and his partner and also revealed that george papadopoulos had pled guilty to lying to him about his conversations with russians as a trump foreign policy adviser, in the information filed with -- in court about papadopoulos there were all these references to senior campaign officials, campaign supervisors, to whom he was returning and saying, hey, i've been talking to this professor who seems to have ties to russia. we've been talking about setting up a meeting between putin and trump if we can make that happen. they seem to have e-mails about hillary clinton and dirt on her. and he was being encouraged to keep going and to keep pursuing this dialogue. we think that sam clovis was one of those senior campaign officials who was overseeing papadopoulos and was encouraging him to keep going. an

, no comment from sam clovis and the attorney general jeff sessions. no response yet from hope hicks, the communications director is traveling overseas with the president as well as from corey lewandowski. one member who did receive an e-mail from carter page is j.d. gordon, a former pentagon spokesman, who told me last night that he actually rejected the notion of carter page going to moscow. said it was a bad idea. what did carter page do according to j.d. gordon? he went around him and got approval from senior campaign officials. jake? >> all right, manu raju, thanks so much. my panel is back with me. abby, let me start with you. carter page originally made it sound like he was doing this on his own and didn't have anything to do with the trump campaign. when you read the testimony and how many people on the trump campaign he was talking to about this and the conversations about what he thought this meant for the campaign and whether candidate trump should go over there. it's hard to make the argument that he was freelancing on his own. >> yeah, i t

sam clovis asked carter page to sign an nda.nd a few months later he told sam clovis he was going to moscow. he did not tell him not to go. when he got back, he briefed sam clovis, as well as a number of other officials on the campaign about his trip to russia. >> what you make of carter page? >> you know, carter page is another team member who was eager to use his relationships with the russians to help the trump team. and he even was asking the trump campaign what he should say when he was over there in russia. and just like george papadopoulos, he was trying to arrange a meeting between donald trump and vladimir putin. now this is a theme that we've seen throughout the campaign team. not just papadopoulos. remember, felix seder back in december 2016 is telling michael cohen if we can get donald trump and putin together, we can engineer this and make our boy president there is a theme of trying to get dirt on hillary clinton, trying to connect donald trump and putin. and of course failing to disclose it to anyone. >> there is

communication between papadopoulos and sam clovis, trump campaign national co-chairman.ement citing eflt-mails said the campaign superviser told papadopoulos i would encourage you and foreign policy adviser to the campaign to make the trip to russia if it is feasible. but sanders tried to contradict that account today. my understanding is there wasn't encouragement. >> clovis nominated to top scientific post at department of agriculture, despite questions raised by top senate democrat on the agriculture committee, the white house see no reason to withdraw his nomination. >> major gar aet agarett again white house. thank you. social media executives told a subcommittee that russian linked accounts began trying to interfere with the election in 2015. and they kept at it long after the voting had ended. here is nancy cordes. >> we take what happened on facebook very seriously. >> reporter: executives from facebook, twitter and google told senators today that russian trolls were more prolific than they initially believed. posting 80,000 pieces of content on facebook alone. b

. >>> cnn contributor, selena, i want to start with you on sam clovis.s somebody i talked to a lot during the campaign. he was a fairly early supporter of support, a key iowa supporter of donald trump. and sam clovis, his nomination to serve in the agriculture department could be in trouble. what is his significance inside the trump orb connecting it back to the campaign? >> he is up for nomination to be the chief scientists, and for all accounts, anybody that has ever talked to him is a standup guy. this is the problem with papadopoulos in that somebody like him, somebody who is not a direct employee of the campaign but is a volunteer, so they are trying to make connections, and, you know, move up the ladder, you know, these e-mails are traded and, you know, we don't know if clovis immediately dismissed it, or -- we don't know the context so we don't know where he stands. you might see, though, that the trump administration in an effort to just completely distance themselves from anybody connected is to say, you know, you got to go. >> it will be intere

page suggested that he just mentioned sessions in passing, but he also told sam clovis, who was then a national campaign chairman of the trump campaign, and clovis himself made him sign a nondisclosure agreement as part of this campaign. now, when he was on this trip, anderson, one thing we have now learned is that page many met with a deputy prime minister of russia, one of the senior officials in the kremlin. this is significant because page for long publicly said very that he did not meet with anyone on this trip. he downplays this meeting. at the same time, he said this trip to moscow was not campaign related, but he e-mailed the campaign afterwards saying pretty clearly that he would be willing to brief them on it and also ask the campaign ahead of time was there anything they suggested him to say during his speech to help with the message of the trump campaign, so that's raising questions from lawmakers after that testimony, anderson. >> talk about how carter page's story has changed over time about this trip he took to moscow. when i interviewed him, he said he was just meetin

now, wolf, no comment tonight from sam clovis or the attorney general, jeff sessions. and we're still awaiting whether or not hope hicks has any comment about the interaction with carter page, as well as corey lewandowski, but we did get a response from j.d. gordon, who was one of the national security advisers who did get one of those carter page e-mails. and he told me pretty clearly that he actually tried to reject notion of carter page going to mosc moscow. he said it was a bad idea. but he said that carter page actually went around his back and got approval from other senior people within the trump campaign, and carter page himself, wolf, came before this committee without an attorney. he did not turn over documents to this committee, but he has recently spoken with bob mueller as well as the fbi several timd. and of course he denies that he was involved in any collusion with the russians, wolf. >> all right. manu, thanks very much. manu raju reporting for us. let's get some more on all of this. democratic senator ben cardin of maryland is joining us. he's the ran

sam clovis is an important actor. earlier when he said he was going to leave behind as he heads for this 12-day, master trip to asia. his top economic adviser gary kohn, he joked and said if taxes don't get done while i'm away, and he wants the house bill to be passed by thanksgiving and he wants these tax cuts to be on his desk by christmas. so the president obviously very focused on taxes right now as he has these private briefings preparing for the asia trip where the focus will be obviously heavy on trade and on north korea, more broadly. white house officials say they do hope this provides him an opportunities to focus on agenda items, on issues where they think he appears strong and where he's most confident on taxes and north korea. ittal lo allows them to ignore on twitter. >> we expect in less than a minute to have that tape of his comments. thank you for sharing that with us, peter. the president likely not able to go forward with that agriculture nominee who is so caught up in this investigation. >> they're

he reported to sam clovis. fair? >> i don't. see for sam clovis bii speak for corey lewandowski. pop pock liss hapadopoulos had e campaign. it he wanted to insert with ideas and thoughts would have done it through the foreign policy team, mr. clovis' team but had no formal wheel so ever. >> how does a low-level guy end up on the same list at general kellogg? >> the question we have to look at. how did he end up in that initial lichte? we know about george papadopoulos, originally hired by the ben carson campaign and came highly recommended from a nonprofit organization in washington, d.c. who vowed for his credibility to the carson campaign. when dr. carson got out of the race he joined our team. how he got to our team from the carson campaign as you know, chuck, there were people who fro the carson campaign joined the trump campaign afterwards and perhaps they brought him. i don't know for sure but he was originally on the carson campaign. >> let me ask you this. if you can't say for sure how this george papadopoulos got in here, isn't it, is it that much of a leak to say, geez,

he talked about sam clovis, this guy appointing to head the agriculture department, $3 billion researchost, shows such contempt for science and the department. as a journalist or columnist you think, how can i not write about that, it's so outrageous? if i write about it every week i don't go out and learn all these other things. it's a danger that donald trump is going to suck the brains out so of many reporters and columnists, you spend four years being outraged at him, and you can't even keep track of them. >> i don't want to explode your brain but last night telling the south korean assembly about the woman who won the lpga at -- >> trump course. >> trump course, of course. he's being investigated about some outside group about the emoluments clause, ethics police shouting from the rooftops and he's bragging on a global stage about his courses. >> such contempt. not only for our laws, but good taste of an american president. he's representing all of us over there. and bragging about his golf course. it's such bad taste. >> you have really moved in -- a lot of people have as well, be

sam clovis, immediate supervisor? jeff sessions, supervising the foreign policy advisory committee you saw in that meeting? sessions' people are saying he has no recollection of hearing about that. but you can be sure he'll be asked about that before a congressional committee. >> one of the issues i think for the campaign at this point, you can see it from that meeting that we showed, that photo, this is a very flat campaign organization at this point. right? you got -- one of the things about this operation, it was fairly fly by night, it was very small. particularly in the paid staff. you don't have sort of junior staffers sitting next to mitt romney or hillary clinton or your normal sort of sized campaign. so the idea that this guy's getting offers of dirt and it doesn't make it up the very small chain to the people at the very top of that campaign, including the candidate, might be -- it's less plausible than it would be in a normal campaign. >> i agree. i mean, if you're a 29-year-old campaign volunteer, what els

this comes as trump nominee to a top department of agriculture posts sam clovis this morning withdrawmid questions on his role of the russian probe. he was one of the campaign officials revealed to a correspondent with papadopoulos according to to the washington post. our team of cnn reporters is back with me. i want to go to capitol hill and manu raju, what are prosecutors telling you? >> some republicans are raising questions as well. you'll recall over three hearings this year, including his confirmation earlier this year. there were questions about what he knew about any communications, contacts with russian officials, time after time, attorney general sessions said that he didn't know. he didn't recall some key details and sometimes he denied that there were such contacts that particularly democrats are raising questions about. in the aftermath of the relations of these court documents being unsealed and showing that george papadopoulos did in fact pose a meeting with vladimir putin and candidate trump in a meeting that sessions was president at and sessions rejected. democrats a

did sam clovis, the campaign supervisor know who is not going forward as agriculture chief scientist? did jeff sessions, the head of this national security committee know? that's what presumably members of congress are going to ask him. >> ken, stay with us for the rest of the conversation. let me bring in mike lotter, mike pence's press secretary, a post he left in september, just in time. what do you know or are hearing from your former colleagues about the ripple effect that ken dilanian described upon learning that papadopoulos plead guilty to lying to the fbi this summer and has been cooperating with them ever since? >> i was in the white house last night meeting with -- >> let me guess. everyone was really zen. >> i wouldn't describe it as zen. that's not a word i would use. this didn't come up. >> why would it come up if they think people might be wearing a wire. >> there are no concerns like that. this is a -- >> there are no concerns that anyone is wearing a wire? >> this is a 30-year-old kid if you look at all the reporting from this. people who have been trying to bring up

well, sam clovis knew what he was doing and that was made public in the mueller documents. >> good work on that. thank you very much. ken delaney. >> i just can't get over the term that keeps being thrown around. he was the coffee boy. >> yeah. that was sort of an unnecessary thing to do. only because it draws a lot of parallels to exactly what the nixon white house said about the burglary in the watergate. right? it was a third rate burglary, had nothing to do with anything. just know you put him out there, made the announcement about -- >> all right. how about every person on your team is respected and nobody should be known as the coffee boy. stick around, everyone. at any second, republicans will unveil their new tax plan. we'll bring that to you live. >>> and another big story we're following, president trump calling for the death penalty in the new york terror attack. how that could affect the suspect's trial. >> this is interesting. >>> and we're going to share new details about the eight people whose lives he took. we're going to remember them next. stay with us. you are watchin

all these different figures, sam clovis and others around the table meeting with the candidate in kind of a ram shod way. it wasn't a formal meeting that you would expect out of a presidential campaign and people like carter page and sam clovis were not part of that beating heart of the foreign policy establishment in washington. that's not any excuse. this is a major presidential campaign. at the same time it was evident to me as a reporter that these were people who were operating on their own islands, sometimes in coordination with the campaign, sometimes on their own, and they were not the people you'd really find as a reporter on foreign policy in washington. >> yeah. i just think people forget the genesis of that and how kind of unstructured this campaign always was. carol lee, i don't want you to engage in ramp ant speculation, tempered by knowing you won't anyway, but what else can you gather from even the publicly available moves you've witnessed from the mueller team. in addition, what you may have gathered and been told about where they are? >> well, i think what you've seen

sam clovis was the nominee for the department's chief scientist position. but he withdrew his name citing the political climate inside washington. sources say that his nomination was in jeopardy anyway over his connections to the russian investigation and to the now indicted trump adviser george papadopoulos. this just into our newsroom. >>> president trump has named his pick to lead the u.s. central bank. the president has tapped jerome powell as the next fed chairman. powell has spent years working at investment firms and he has been a member of the fed board of governors since 2012. now, unlike the last three fed leaders, he doesn't have a doctorate degree in economics. the current fed chairman, janet yellen, became the first woman to lead the u.s. central bank when she was nominated by then president obama. in tapping powell, the president has chosen a republican version of yellen when it comes to interest rate boosts. >>> still ahead, trouble for tesla on the heels of a weak earnings report. >> reporter: production for the much-anticipated tesla model

george papadopoulos, sam clovis, whoever that might be. and those charges would be brought. it would be narrowly tailored toward that specific case, as opposed to one grand case charging everyone which is what we did here to simplify it. >> and professor dershowitz? >> first one brief response. if you made it a crime to knowingly receive at the product of hacked information, the "new york times" would be in prison, the "washington post" would be in prison. they've all published material. stolen material from wikileaks, from the pentagon papers. the united states constitution distinguishes between receiving stolen goods of a physical nature and receiving first amendment protected information. so it is not a crime to use information that you know was stolen as long as you didn't participate in the stealing or in any way help the stealing. so here we have one fundamental disagreement that i think i'm right about as a constitutional matter. terms of the evaluation ifrgs very happy with the evaluation. i think it showed that my strategy seemed to have worked. my strategy was to i