sara murray, cnn, washington. >>> the u.s. midterm elections just 2 of this we1/2 weeks away. tune into see the florida governor's debate, it will be moderated by our own jake tapper, that is sunday night in the united states, monday morning in asia and europe. >>> and in the united states a lot of people played the lottery. and someone in the u.s. may be the lucky person to win $1 billion. it is a lot of money for sure. the mega millions lottery drew its winning numbers just a short time ago. >> and we're waiting it see if there is a winner or winners for the second largest payout in u.s. history. but here is the buzz kill. a significant chunk of the winnings will go straight to federal taxes which would seem to be affordable if you'd won $1 billion. you'll be all right whoever won, if there is. >>> back to our reality, it took nearly $2 billion to get a mission to mercury off the ground. you're probably thinking mercury? what do we need toetplanet? >> that it is hot? >> we'll have that story next. come on in. you're turning 65 soon? yep. and you're retiring at 67? that's the

sara murray, cnn, washington. >> let's talk further about this.me, michael zeldin, legal analyst, former federal prosecutor and robert mueller former special assistant at department of justice. good to see you. >> good morning. >> the justice department arresting elena alekseevna khusyaynova for interfering with midterms, is she potentially someone the mueller team would want to have access to to see if she was instrumental in the 2016 interference or is this an extension of the 2016 interference, meaning her dabbling with midterm elections. >> i think it is continuation of what we saw in the first social media indictment by mueller. in this indictment it is alleged that she was part of the conspiracy that started somewhere in the mid 2014 period, ran through the 2016 election cycle, and carried on into the 2018. so yes, to the extent there's information that the eastern district for virginia prosecutors, ones bringing the case, get that relate back in time to 2016 period which is mueller's mandate, then those officers will share information. >> a

sara murray is out front. what are you learning?> we know that investigators are doing what you pointed out. they are trying to figure out wraej roger stone shared information that he believed was coming from wiki leaks with then candidate donald trump during the election. prosecutors now have audio in which he was talking about this during the 2016 campaign 37 they also have a number of communications after these document dumps came from wikileaks. i should get credit from candidate trump for henning coordinate with wikileaks. both roger stone and his foreign denied he ever provided anything to donald trump or other members of the campaign. and stone said, i had nothing to provide. >> who are the people being looked at as intermediaries of stones? >> stone spent a lot time saying he was in contact with assange in 2015. actually i had an intermediary. but investigators are looking at the notion he may have had multiple intermediaries. they've also questioned a conspiracy theorist and right wing journalist about his contacts with wik

our political correspondent sara murray has been digging into the story for us. ra, what are you learning? >> this is the latest in the saga of an drou miller, a former associate of roger stone. he was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. instead of providing that testimony he decided to wage this court battle and challenge robert mueller. he was asked in a radio interview with an sympathetic interviewer, who was michael caputo, another witness in the saga surrounding roger stone, about how he feels about his case now that kavanaugh is on the supreme court. here is what they said. >> how does it feel to know that brett kavanaugh, who kavanaugh says is a "yes" vote in your case, how does it feel to know he's there? >> i feel nothing but great. i'm cool as a cucumber now. my stress has been pretty much relieved in the fact that i have the disciples, peter and paul, working on my case and alicia dern. i have never been so protected. >> now, wolf, previously we had been told that andrew miller is not a public figure was very stressed out about this case. appar

our political correspondent sara murray is joining us right now. i take it we're getting new information from a key source? >> that's right. our colleague laura jarrett spoke to a source familiar with the investigation in the justice department who says that rod rosenstein has not set any kind of specific date for special counsel robert mueller to wrap up his investigation, but it is expected to wind down by the end of the year. now, that does not mean that this is suddenly going to wrap up as soon as the midterms are over there will be more investigation that continues after that. and this source wanted to make clear that rosenstein is not placing any pressure on mueller to speed things up, to wrap things up, for instance, the day after the midterms. >> mueller's questioning of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort, sarah, is still ongoing. manafort is due back in a federal courtroom tomorrow. so what's expected, first of all, at this court proceeding? >> manafort was convicted of a number of crimes. so they're expected to lay out sort of a

sara murray reporting for us.here's more breaking news on the investigation into the missing journalist, jamal khashoggi, that's coming into "the situation room" right now. the secretary of state, mike pompeo, is slated to be back here in the united states later this hour, but our special correspondent jamie gangel is getting new information, new reporting tonight on what happened during that meeting between secretary pompeo and the saudi crown prince, mohammad bin salman. jamie is joining us on the phone right now. jamie, that meeting at least at the beginning during the photo-op appeared to be all smiles. what are you learning? >> reporter: wolf, what i have been told is those smiles ended at the end of the photo-op. this is according to a source familiar with the meeting, and i'm told that the photo-op should not be read to indicate that the rest of the meeting was friendly, not at all, that the meeting was blunt, direct and that the secretary of state pompeo told mbs in no uncertain terms that, quote, he had t

let's bring in our political correspondent, sara murray. how did rosenstein go from expecting to be fired to being kept on, in spite of what he reportedly said about the president? >> wolf, such an awkward position that rosenstein has been in. there was that -- the "new york times" broke this story initially that rod rosenstein had brought up the idea of wearing a wire, that he had talked about, you know, the 25th amendment process of removing the president from office. and in the wake of this, rosenstein, of course, assumed the president would be furious. he expected that he would be fired. and i think a couple things transpired after that. i mean, first, it became very clear that the kavanaugh confirmation process was going to be a lot messier than the president and his allies initially expected. i also think they got a sense, the president did, you know, from watching fox news, from talking to some of these allies, that he wasn't really sure that it was true, this notion that rosenstein raised the idea of wearing a wire. rosenstein denie

legal analyst jack quinn who served as white house council during the clinton administration and sara murraycnn political correspondent. jack, nine times in the last months alone, what does that say to you? >> it says he has a lot to offer to the special counsel. and he's giving it to him. paul manafort, his importance is evident by the effort the special counsel has gone to with him. he can talk about the trump tower meeting and the president's awareness of that, if any, he can talk about the change in the party platform at the convention. all of these things are critical because they tied together these activities in ukraine where the rugsz involvement and the platform and so on. >> the allegation of collusion because he worked during the campaign. >> it doesn't mean he makes the case but he can speak to those issues and tie them together and help provide clarity. >> and there's indications now that he's quiet before the storm that shortly after the midterm elections that robert mueller will be releasing more indictments, roger stone, you're doing interviewing on that. >> we're waiting to

. >>> joining us former federal prosecutor and legal analyst laura coates, and sara murray. the report is he's met multiple times now with mueller and his team, presumably provide something pretty useful information. s in a significant development. >> it is. i think one of the thing that will be interesting to see is whether the judge can fehr et out any details about just how much cooperation he's given, how useful he's been to prosecutors so far. we don't have a good sense right now of what kind of information manafort is providing mueller's team. we know he worked on the campaign during key moments, and he also had his own private interactions with a number of ukrainian officials and also ties to russians that we know that mueller is interested in. so it's a big question, what exactly mueller could be provides, but you pointed out it is voluminous. >> in the scheme of things, does it make any difference, laura, if they drop those ten charges that the jury couldn't agree on, whether or not they decide to retry him? >> it largely won't move the needle for sentencing. you al

cnn's sara murray joins me now. e mueller report, we're told, is likely to come out after the mid terms. beyond that, is there any more specific timing? >> jake, mueller has been in this quiet period for a while, but with the mid terms weeks away, that's expected to change. and we are expecting -- we will see a report, potentially sometime between the mid terms, but before the end of the year and that raises the big question of what exactly is going to be in this report? anticipation is building about whether moore indictments are soon to drop and exactly what special counsel robert mueller will wrap into his final report. the report expected after the november election and before the end of the year will be delivered to deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. but it's up to him to decide if it will ever be made public for the american people. one outstanding question, just how much president trump will cooperate. his lawyers are readying answers to mueller's written questions. but in a tuesday interview, the presid

. >> sara murray, thanks for the update. jeff toobin is back with us. can't get enough of us.re. the judge is sick of the delay, he wants the sentencing, but the prosecutor and mueller's team want as much cooperation as they can get. >> prosecutors always want delay of sentencing because they want to keep the hammer of the statement of cooperation over the defendant before he's sentenced. >> no impetus to cooperate once you're sentenced. >> the judge here, judge ellis, very cantankerous guy, hostile to the mueller office. so it's been interesting to read their court filings. they're basically saying, judge, we'll do whatever you want us to do, stop yelling at us. but you know, given the accelerated pace of his cooperation, the fact that he's told them what he's going to tell them is probably all the mueller team needs to know. he's not likely -- it would be a big problem for him if he tells a separate story if he later testifies down the line. i thinki ist's likely a sentencg date will be set, probably not immediately but relatively soon. >> based on what manafort knows and hi

political correspondent sara murray is in washington with more details. great to see you.ut all of this? a lot of activity, but what does it mean? >> what it means is mueller is in this quiet period because the midterms are weeks away. he may not be doing a lot publicly, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes. as you pointed out, manafort is now this cooperating witness. the special counsel's team has also met with michael cohen. they're calling in witnesses related to their roger stone investigation, and what it means, according to sources who are familiar with this investigation, is they believe there could be a lot more activity once we get through the midterms and perhaps even more criminal indictments that are coming, kate. >> and also, a key figure, someone who has become somewhat of a key figure is white house counsel don mcgahn. sources are telling cnn yesterday was his last day at the white house. that seems earlier than everyone thought. >> it was a little abrupt. that's partly because donald trump ran out there and announced his replacement while don mcgah

our political correspondent sara murray is working this story for us.s the special counsel focusing in on associates of roger stone? >> reporter: as you pointed out, steve bannon went in. it was his third day of interviews with the special counsel team, but this time "the washington post" reported that the questions the special counsel's team were regarding roger stone, of course the long-time political adviser to president donald trump. what this tells you is there is still an active investigation in mueller's team into whether roger stone may have communicated with wikileaks. we have learned another roger stone associate, jason sullivan, roger stone's social media he told "the wall street journal" even though we know he previously talked to the special counsel and previously gone before the grand jury he told "the wall street journal" that they're circling back again and has even more questions. again, this all gets back to roger stone's claims he was in touch with wikileaks. part of the stuff that jason sullivan has been asked about are conference ca

our political correspondent sara murray is here with the latest.hy is the president blaming mcgahn for the robert mueller investigation? >> well, wolf, some might say the president's decision to fire fbi director james comey is really what set a special counsel being named. look, we know that the president and don mcgahn have had a rocky relationship. on his way out the door, the president expressed his sort of blame that the special counsel is there at all, that the russia cloud is still looming over this white house. you know, don mcgahn has cooperated extensively with robert mueller in his probe, but i think this is just another indication of the friction between these two men. remember, it was a very awkward departure for mcgahn. trump sort of announced on twitter he was leaving. he announced in an associated press interview who would be replacing him. we know don mcgahn threatened to quit a number of times when he was at the white house. we are told, however, the president did compliment him on some of his stronger suits while he was there, li

sara murray has the reporting behind this possible new timeline. she joins us now.what are you hearing about what's going on, what's been going on? it's obviously, you know, they have been kind of lying low in terms of there is no public indictments, and what are you hearing about possible more indictments in the future? >> that's right. we are a couple of weeks from the midterms. we don't expect any big public announcements. there has been a flurry of activity behind the scenes. sources close to the president, sources familiar with this investigation believe there could be more criminal indictments to come. one of the big characters in this we haven't heard a lot about is roger stone. one of the president's lodge-time political advisors. he has said publicly he believes he could be indicted for some kind of criminal activity. he just don't know what. >> so just to be clear though, there is no reporting saying some criminal indictments are coming out? you are just hearing the possibility of? >> certainly the possibility of. we don't know from mueller's team whether

cnn political correspondent, sara murray, joins me now. what is this russian alleged to have done?he's basically being charged because she was part of this scheme allegedly to try to sow discord, manipulate voters. the justice department said this was continuing in the run up to the mid terms. the justice department charging a russian woman friday with conspiracy for trying to manipulate voters in the 2018 mid terms. as it cracks down on election meddling beyond special counsel robert mueller's investigation. she is from st. petersburg, russian, and managed the financing for a troll agency which sent out these ads and memes. this as former campaign chairman paul manafort was back in a court for the first time since his conviction in a wheelchair. a shock that quieted the courtroom as a judge set manafort's sentencing date for february 8th. manafort, clad in his green inmate uniform, sat with his foot raised off the ground in a sock. his lawyer said manafort is facing significant health issues, related to the terms of his confinement. manafort's attorneys pushed for him to be senten