deal, trump executives denied to abc news that sater had any current role with trump. >> to say he's senior adviser to mr. trump at any point in time would not have been accurate, in my mind, or mr. trump's mind. >> yet, sater was given cards by the trump organization calling him a "senior adviser to donald trump." ( laughter ) >> trevor: oh, man. come on, guys, come on. it's like this is the same lie as the russia one. "i have nothing to do with this guy. oh, actually he's my senior adviser, and i printed it in gold. that's how i did it. i printed it in gold." ( laughter ) you know, like, the big story here, isn't just this shady russian-born criminal was acting as a middle man between trump and the kremlin when trump insisted he had no such connections. the real story here is what the shady guy was saying. >> in emails turned over to congress between sater and trump's lawyer cohen, first reported by "the washington post," sater wrote, "buddy, our boy can become president of the u.s.a., and we can engineer it. i will get all of putin's team to buy in on this." >> trevor: i love how

felix sater wrote this to michael cohen. michael, arranged for ivanka to sit in vladimir putin's chair at the kremlin. i know how to play it. we will get this done. michael cohen's strategy in releasing these documents to the press ahead of him giving them to congress involves him playing down whether or not felix sater would could have been serious about that. he said, quote, over the course of my business dealings with mr. sater, he has sometimes used colorful language and been prone to salesmanship. that said, when the "times" today went to check out felix sater's boast that he was so connected he could arrange for ivanka trump to sit in putin's private chair at his desk in his office at the kremlin. when "the new york times" checked out that boast today, the response from team ivanka was not exactly on brand. ivanka trump told the times she did in fact take a brief tour of red square and the kremlin when she was in moscow with felix sater, but she insists she was only there, quote, as a tourist. i have to say, though, it

that's the way sater thought about it. he talked about working this trump tower moscow deal and the same track as he talked about winning donald trump the election, suggesting that the two might somehow be linked, if there could be support from putin for this project, there could be support from putin or in some way a support that would help donald trump win the election linking those two things together. and then, you know, frankly, you see it with michael cohen as well. he is not going in through the front door to some low level bureaucrat in moscow's planning and zoning office or whatever it is to get permits. he is going straight to vladimir putin's confidant, spokesman, in trying to grease the skids here. that's not the way we like no think about business functioning as being separate from politics. but it is sort of relavatory. this focuses on the business side of things and not necessarily the campaign side of things. this would seem to be firm ground. >> another key element here, the time line here, bringing this o

that e-mail sent by felix sater, with known mob ties. he was behind the trump's soho project in new york city. the recipient of the e-mail, michael cohen, president's long time lawyer and executive of the trump organization. in the wake of russia's interference in the trump administration and amid collusion in the trump campaign the president himself insisted he had no russian ties to compromise it. >> i had no dealings with russia. i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could happen in russia. because we've stayed way. >> while that may have been strictly true when he said it this past january we now know it did not tell the whole story. "the washington post" broke this weekend. the trump organization did seek a deal to build a trump tower in moscow while its chief executive was act live i running for president. that effort led by sater and cohen lasted until january 2016 on the eve of the first primaries. but that point trump was leading the field for about six months. we know that sater and cohen weren't just going rogue beca

that e-mail sent by felix sater, with known mob ties. he was behind the trump's soho project in new york city. the recipient of the e-mail, michael cohen, president's long time lawyer and executive of the trump organization. in the wake of russia's interference in the trump administration and amid collusion in the trump campaign the president himself insisted he had no russian ties to compromise it. >> i had no dealings with russia. i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could happen in russia.

sater wrote. "i will get all of putin's team to buy in on this, i will manage this process."n a statement today, cohen described trump tower moscow as "a building proposal that did not succeed and nothing more." the project was scrapped shortly after cohen emailed peskov, the kremlin spokesman. >> the campaign is on its way to victory. >> reporter: cohen did not take a formal role in mr. trump's campaign but regularly appeared on television to praise the candidate. negotiations over trump tower moscow occurred between september 2015 and january 2016. a period during which mr. trump praised putin and russia. >> think of putin, pretty tough cookie, right? if putin likes me and he thinks i am a good smart person which i hope he believes that i am. actually he's right, i am brilliant, you know that. >> reporter: six months later, the president denied having business dealings in russia. >> i have nothing to do with russia. i have nothing to do with russia. and even for anything-- >> reporter: the white house had no comment on the revelations when asked today if he considered russi

but the sater e-mail says, no, no, no, there is a direct line. if we build this and get pewter pute /* putin on board, that will get donald trump elected. >> well his logic is the world needs to see that donald trump is this brilliant businessman and great negotiator. if we can get him cutting a deal with russia and on the same stage as vladimir putin then the world will see that he he is not just a great businessman he is a great statesman. this will elevate his portfolio. this will show he is the man to bridge the gap, you know, in our relations with russia. again a lot of this, as russia said, a lot of this just showes a willingness by people around trump to kind of grab hold of russia both as business solution and as a political solution. we saw it in the june trump tower meeting. a willingness of the trump campaign to say yeah, i'll take da damning information on hillary clinton. >> and part of this too, it is not complete idle speculation or vaporware they are coming up with, right? what is your understanding of the degree which there are o

he actually did respond to questions under oath in a deposition about felix sater, the twice convictedually pitched the whole trump tower and moscow idea and he said i wouldn't know him if he walked into a room. there are multiple pictures of trump with him, breaking ground for trump soho. sater had a business card that listed his office at trump tower and identifying him as a senior adviser to donald trump when allen garten was asked about this last year, he said the business card was in 2010 and the arrangement that sater had with the trump organization ended six months later. well, these e-mails show sater pitching a project in late 2015 and early 2016 to the trump organization. so there are a lot of reasons to question the credibility of the statements that the president and his top people have made about this for quite some time. >> jill, i've got an important question tonight about a report on subpoenas from the special prosecutor's office. robert mueller has subpoena's a spokesman for paul manafort demanding records related to his work with manafort, seeking that testimony. also

we have felix sater saying this will get our guy elected president. ra knock ash meshen testified before the grand jury. is it possible that the circling never went anywhere other than the circling? >> no. i think it did go somewhere. i think where it went was on the russian intelligence side and not this traditional mfa, the equivalent of the state department. in the case of the testimony, the slam dunk in front of the grand jury would have been if anyone who was in the meeting with don jr. would come out and say not so much what they said to don jr. but admit that they were tasked directly by the kremlin. because they're russian nationals doesn't mean they're russian officials. i do think that there is a link there. at the end of the day, one of the last things president obama did before he left office was to throw out 35 russian spies and seize two intelligence compounds in the united states. i don't think that that was coincidence. i am sure there's a connection here, we just don't know about it publicly yet. >> jill, i want to ask you about anoth

i think the felix sater, michael cohen thing feels like it's in one category.e of the president's rhetoric. it doesn't feel central. this >> yes. i think he is looking at two things simultaneously. he is looking at obstruction, which is the easy one. whi why did he fire comey? why did he make certain statements? why did he come up with an excuse for firing comey? that only makes sense if he was trying to cover up something. you're seeing his efforts to impedes or divert or stop the investigation. i think he's going to go down these two tracks simultaneously. at the end we'll see what he's got. >> it does seem as though that the president, you hear this, he's more comfortable with the power he has on some of these things. i don't think mueller will get fired but a lot of people might get pardons. >> it's almost as if he was sending a message to the broader folks. if you sit tight and you're right by me, not necessarily right by the law, we'll issue pardons your behalf. >> there's no piece of the news in russia the last three days that's been excapultory to this

but now with 2015 and 2016 e-mails from trump associate felix sater coming to light this week, thereose statements were. trump himself tweeted back in 2013 that he'd be planning a tower in moscow. when did that planning ever stop? and also in the russia investigation could robert mueller be putting the squeeze on paul manafort? "the wall street journal" reporting that manafort's former lawyer and former spokesperson have been subpoenaed by mueller and his team. nbc news still working to confirm that report. and here to guide us through all of this is is our russia sherpa, nbc's ken dilanian. thank you for taking the time to kind of explain this. i mean, look, we have been focused very understandably on hurricane harvey. there are a lot of reports, new details from "the washington post," "new york times," from nbc news and you and your team. can you walk us through what you think the top line frame on this, what do we know now about the investigations that we don't know at the beginning of the week? >> absolutely, kasie. a number of things. the thing you just mentioned about this pote

even though under oath in a civil suit trump essentially denied knowing sater. >> if he were sittingeally wouldn't know what he looked like. >> reporter: in e-mails turned over to congress between sater and trump's lawyer cohen first reported by "the washington post," sater wrote, buddy, our boy can become president of the usa and we can engineer it. i will get all of putin's team to buy in on this. in a statement, cohen's lawyer says he briefed trump about the russian project three separate times during the campaign but that the project was ultimately abandoned after problems with government approvals and finances. >> and time after time after time president trump and his campaign denied any contacts with russia. >> this was going on. now we're learning about it from the e-mails. >> brian ross, thanks very much. >>> coming up next here on "gma," harvey's smallest victims stranded. ed. hello, discover card. hi. can you tell me about these new social security alerts i keep hearing about? sure, just sign up online. then we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one

sater claimed to have secured financing for the project with vtb bank, a russian bank under u.s. sanctions. sater was also a former fbi informant who immigrated from russia as a child and grew up in brooklyn. the plans to build trump tower in moscow were abandoned at the end of january 2016, after the project failed to secure financing and government permits. trump is currently facing multiple investigations into his campaign ties to r russia. philippines president rodrigo dutertrte has told police offics to kill suspects if they try to resist arrest amongst his bloody so-called war on drugs. on monday, duterte told a locacl police chief -- "if he resists, and it is a violent one you are free to kill the idiots, that is my order to you." on saturday, more than 1000 faith leaders, residents, and children joined a funeral procession and protest march for 17-year-old kian loyd delos santos. he killed last week by police during anti-drug raid. witnesses say the student's final words before he was shot in the head were -- "please stop. please stop. i have a test tomorrow." duterte met

the copy of "the times," writer sater writes, our boy can become president of the usa and we can get engineer it. i will manage the process. the messages were reported sent to trump's lawyer. this majr macopies do not show cohen responded. he said sater is quote to prone salesman ship also the subject of a third story a "washington post" report that says cohen asked for a putin aid to help out and business deal. it says a top executive from donald trump's real estate company e-mailed vladimir putin's personal spokesperson during the presidential campaign to ask for help advancing a stalled trump tower development project in moscow. according to documents submitted monday. cohen said the organization has reviewed countless opportunities the moscow proposal was rejected. he added, to the best of his knowledge, trump was never in contact with anyone about it other than cohen on three different occasions. the trump organization said it never had any real estate holdings or interests in russia. all of this as it unfolds there is new breaking news for this white house to deal with. north k

bringing in tom sater monitoring tropical storm harvey but it's not finished.been, what, four, maybe five more days of business to do right there in texas? >> yeah. you know, fredricka, last week, even last thursday, the computer models kept the storm in the state of texas until saturday. we have a new model run. i want to show you this model, the european model drops it out late thursday night, but it's still several days of rain. look at numbers. all from different counties in texas. bottom one, harris county, of course, the houston area. i hate to say this. it looks like we may double this number. when you look at the pictures now of the high water and the rescues taking place from the amount of rain that's fallen, can you imagine doubling now whatever you've picked up? get another amount of this. this is what has fall's already in the color of purple. to the east of houston and purple all the way over to near the border of louisiana. you can see a large swath of ten inches plus and inside, many areas 20-plus. and seen that around houston, sam houston toll w

he said sater is quote to prone salesman ship also the subject of a third story a "washington post" report that says cohen asked for a putin aid to help out and business deal. a up to executive from donald trump real estate company. e-mailed vladimir putin during the presidential campaign to ask for help advancing a stalled trump tower development product in moscow. according to documents submitted monday. cohen said the organization has reviewed countless opportunities the moscow deal was rejectsed. he says trump was never in contact with anyone about it other than cohen on three occasions. the trump organization said it never had any real estate holdings or interests in russia. all of this as it unfolds there is new breaking news to deal with. north korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile toward japan this evening. the prime minister of japan called the action reckless, unprecedented and a significant threat. our leadoff panel tonight. white house bureau chief for the "washington post" phil rucker. boston herold chief reporter. and with me in studio former watergate counsel nick ac

i want to get to tom sater in the weather center. tom, this is unbelievable. officials are bracing for more devastation. tell bus it. >> yeah, don. i guess the last 24 hourses or so, the concern was east of houston into eastern texas and parts after louisiana. the color of purple into white is the size of the state of kentucky. when most of this area has picked up a year's worth of rain in a couple days, getting ready for second landfall, we're about five to six hours away. we thought maybe it would be closer to the board of texas and louisiana. you can start to see the bands. we're about five or six hours away from a landfall in louisiana. the problem is beaumont. they have been hammered. beaumont home to over 100,000 people down toward port arthur looks like houston did saturday night. we know what happened come sunday. 15.5 inches today, on top of 16 they've already had. another six to eight tonight. we've got to get resources torres cues. lake charles, you missed out. the band stayed to your north and south. baton rouge, new orleans, you're in the clear. y

, felix sater is suggesting this project in moscow that michael cohen was working on, trump tower moscow, was potentially linked to obtaining russia's help in the election campaign, that these were somehow linked and cohen was taking him up on his offer and actually trying to get assistance from the kremlin on this offer. that also shows intent. whether they actually got anything or not and all evidence suggests ha they didn't, nonetheless, that they had acted on something they thought was going to involve russia and be of benefit to donald trump's presidential campaign. that is not to be taken lightly. >> mike mcfaul, this is an interesting one. there was actually a denial issued by a man named dimitri peskov, a press an tash shea to vladimir putin in which he says i confirm among a number of e-mails one from michael cohen came to us. this indeed happened said peskov during a telephone briefing with russian and foreign journalists. if it goes on to say, but as far as we don't respond to business topics, this is not our job, we did not send a response. you found that unusual that somebod

meteorologist tom sater is monitoring tropical storm harvey. there's another tropical storm or system forming as well. what lies ahead? >> in florida last night 7 to 13 inches of rain fell. they had to evacuate several residents over 62 homes were flooded. the storm is actually off the coast of jacksonville. and it most likely will become tropical storm irma. already some watches in effect along the coast. that's another story. we'll cover that one tomorrow. but right now, what we have seen in the last 12 hours is expansion of the precipitation shield to the north and east. with that even some thunderstorms. here are just a few of the locations. these are going to continue to be updated. we have had a 30-inch total already. what's interesting about these, they are all different counties. and the list goes on and on. now i want to share something with you. dr. ryan mou wi study all things weather. he calculated how much rain has fallen in the state of texas. get this. 11 trillion gallons of water with the potential by the time it's done to reach

thank you so much, meteorologist tom sater. before the sun came up, the rain came down in galveston. prop cal storm warnings and voluntary evacuations are in place. ed is there with the latest. ed, what are you seeing? how are people managing to get out? is anyone staying behind? >> reporter: well, here in galveston, you can look here, this is the main road that goes along the beach front here. traffic has been steady throughout the morning here. you can see people are doing their last minute preparations to get ready for this hurricane. here in galveston, we are going to be on the eastern edge of this storm. we are looking back to the gulf of mexico there. this is looking toward the hurricane there. you can see how high the surf has gotten. the tide is low. we are on top of the seawall that will protect much of the city that gives ten feet or so. the storm surge could be high. there is a voluntary evacuation in place. it's more residential and doesn't have the seawall. those folks are urged to consider, excuse me, evacuating t

you can see how deep the floodwaters are in houston and tom sater saying they're not even halfway through yet. >>> up next, the latest on houston's airports and how flooding is impacting inbound and outbound flights. uhhh and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee? guarantee? where we can get our fees and commissions back if we're not happy. so can you offer me what schwab is offering? what's with all the questions? ask your broker if they're offering $4.95 online equity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. s'cuse me. mind if i sit here? not if you want your phone to work. let me guess, you can't livestream your lobster roll. and my mobile pay isn't connecting and i just got an unlimited plan. right plan, wrong network. you see verizon has america's largest most reliable 4g lte network and now unlimited plans start at $40 per line, you know what i am saying? (laughs.) oh this is your seat. definitely. yep. just tucking it in. nah, i wasn't going to pull it out. when it really, really matters you need the best ne

he described those discussions as short and the intermediary he was working with was felix sater.cow to tour this proposal and even suggested to him that he could help him win the presidency. >> which is obviously an incredible thing at the end, to even suggest that he could win the presidency. how significant is all of this? >> well, i can tell you that special counsel robert mueller will likely be interested in this as part of the possible collusion with russia during the campaign investigation. investigators on the hill are interested and they received the e-mails today. he denied having any dealings in russia. michael cohen after the election denied having any dealings with russia and those statements are belied given the fact that they were trying to secure a real estate deal during the beginning of the campaign. >> pamela brown, thank you. >>> april, the trump administration was pursing plans to build a trump tower many moscow. we know that, contrary to what they said before. this went on well into the presidential campaign, 2016. his personal lawyer reached out to putin's t

. >> and ivanka trump got to do that thanks to the intersession of a career criminal, felix sater, aniate of donald trump's. can we -- can you stay with us, congressman? we need to squeeze in a quick break here, and we're going to come right back with congressman eric swalwell. we'll be right back. the average family's hectic home: its witnessed 2 diy duos, 31 crashes, 4 food fights, and the flood of '09. it's your paradise perfected with behr premium plus paint. the best you can buy starting under $25. only at the home depot. if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. if other treatments haven't worked well enough, ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works by focusing right in the gi-tract to help control damaging inflammation and is clinically proven to begin helping many patients achieve both symptom relief as well as remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatm

tom sater joins us with details. so, where is this storm headed and how strong is it going to be?the latest advisory from the national hurricane center that came out at the top of the hour puts it about 270 miles southeast of corpus christi. the winds remained steady, still a category 1. it getting stronger. our concern is here. if you look at the gusts at 10 a miles per hour. this will reach gcategory three status. 16 in warnings, blue tropical storm but well inland from houston to austin and san antonio but this gives authorities a better idea where ground zero will be. after midnight friday night into dark hours of saturday night north of corpus christi, this will be the first major hurricane to make landfall anywhere in the u.s. in the last 12 years. the problem is not so much landfall, it's what happens afterwards. notice we got a little kink here. this is concerning. all the models are in good agreement. where do we evacuate people? we lost a dominate steering current. look at the computer models. they go around in this bird's nest. the last thing you want to see a hurricane

. >> tom sater for us at the weather center. this is live pictures from this neighborhood in northeast houston, the intersection of beltway and caldwell where we've been watching one rescue after another. again, people being guided, trying to walk through, wade through this water, which is knee-deep there, but up to people's waist, and we've seen so many people guided out, first carted out in boats, and if they could walk, they've walked hand in hand through this. lord only knows where they're going next, because so many areas in the city covered in water. there are shelters, thousands of people are now housed in those shelters. again, we're going to keep our eye on this scene as the minutes continue here to make sure that these people are taken care of. the houston mayor has been at the center of the storm, first in leading the local relief effort. second, in taking criticism for not ordering houston to leave. i spoke with him about this just before air. mayor, do you have any idea how many people are still stranded in their ho

. >> and ivanka trump got to do that thanks to the intersession of a career criminal, felix sater, anociate of donald trump's. can we -- can you stay with us, congressman? we need to squeeze in a quick break here, and we're going to come right back with congressman eric swalwell. we'll be right back. you owned your car for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace brad. then liberty mutual calls... and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement™, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. take the zantac it challenge! pill works fast? zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. when heartburn strikes, take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back. take the zantac it challenge. if you've got a life, you gotta swiffer the lincoln summer invitation is on. now get our best offers of the

in one exchange, felix sater wrote this.engineer it. i will get all of putin's team to buy in on this." i want to read that again because yori don't think i get full flavor of that quote. >> buddy, our boy. >> buddy, our boy can become president of the usa, and we can engineer it. i will get all of putin's team to buy in on this. >> i think that's bad. >> there have been attempts in the past. >> wait. what did i tell you? did i tell you there was more? >> you are going to get a blender with it. >> there is more if you call now. >> you get a second donald trump russia story. must pay shipping and handling. >> all for $19.99. >> he suggested he was not a trump intimate, but this is further evidence that he was, and to be trying to make a deal with russia at that time and then to act like they had no business interest in russia, there's no doubt that not just the congressional investigator is interested in this, but so is the impending counsel. stuff is leaking out. every time documents go to the hill, it leaks out. this is goi

i want to go to cnn's tom sater now live for news the weather center. tom, you heard what the colonel said. you've been listening to the folks on air and our meteorologists out in the field, reporters as well. harvey has dumped more than 15 trillion gallons of rain so far. >> 15 trillion. >> what can folks expect on the ground now? >> well, we're looking at least another 10 to 15 in houston, isolated 17-inch totals. i have more of a fear what's going to happen north of houston in the next 24. let's back it up a little bit. that 11 to 15 trillion have fallen already, they've calculated in harris county alone 1 trillion gallons. about 33 inches blanketing the entire county alone. in the color purple is over ten inches and in white, this is two to three feet of rainfall. not only the size of south carolina, but to give you an idea of how much rain, greater than the size of the country of greece. this is an amazing amount of water. many will complain maybe it's poor planning. but no. there is not a city in the world that can handle this amount of rainfall.