shimon, stand by. jeff zeleny, i want to play you a comment from kellyanne conway dismissing pretty much everything that's come to light so far in all of this. listen. >> well, even the goal post habn moved. we've been hit with what interfered with the election and dictated the electoral outcome. the only people that says that seriously these days is still hillary clinton and nobody believes it. >> systemic stained furtive collusion. kellyanne conway setting this bar, jeff zeleny, i'm not sure actually exists in this case. even periodic collusion would probably be a very big issue. nevertheless, jeff, what are the big questions that remain for you in this story? >> reporter: talk about moving the goal post there, john. the reality is republicans on capitol hill never mind the democrats have said that they indeed don't know if there was collusion. they need to get to the bottom of this. that is one of the things that has frustrated, again, talking about republicans here, the president's own party, that

shimon, thank you so much. everyone stay with us through all of this because this too is integral to the growing russia investigations, i'm talking about the upcoming interviews involving key players in donald trump's orbit. let's talk about all of this with my panel, the executive director of the new york state democratic party, cnn legal analyst paige pate and cnn political commentator alex stewart. so upcoming interviews is what the terminology is of donald trump jr., paul manafort, formerly the campaign manager of the trump campaign, and even jared kushner who is an advisor to the president right now. so, paige, help us understand the distinction now of these interviews on the hill. these are not being called testimonies. primarily these are closed door discussions. >> right. >> what's the distinction? >> well, there are a lot of distinctions but the most critical distinction is this is not testimony under oath. >> so it's not on record? >> well, it's record to the extent somebody will take notes there. the

shimon pr shimon prokupetz. i want to bring in david gergen, and lynn sweet, former cia operative, bob baer, and michael zeldin. he is a cnn intelligence and security analyst and former cia operative. michael zeldin is with us, too, former federal prosecutor, so i want to start with you, michael zeldin and ask you the question about the significance as you see it with this latest development? >> potentially, this has a lot of significance. potentially it's a red herring and turns out to be nothing. on the significance, positive side of it, you have jared kushner meeting with russians who have information, presumably data about hillary rodham clinton, and jared kushner's role is data analytics. he is in charge of their data operation who used targeted date at to push out information positive about their candidate and negative about their opponent. we also know that a few weeks after this, july 22, i believe, wikileaks drops its first dump of data from the dnc. you have this coalescing of events that could be caus

shimon, tell us what we know about this lobbyist? this was a well-known and fairly influential figure? >> yes. quite influential and quite well-known among a lot of journalists and lawmakers. we've talked to hill. people talked to him. lawmakers talked to him. his name is rinat ak met shihme. doing work for a lawyer, for this woman who sort of scheduled this meeting. kind of was in this meeting with the trump folks as well, and don junior and jared kushner. and so he was hired by her to do some of the lobbying on this magnitsky act. >> a major issue, penalizes russian officials al aguards. >> something the lawyer is working hard to overturn. that's right. she hired him to do some of this work and he was in this meeting. a couple questions surrounding him. that he's an intelligence official and -- >> do we know that to be true? >> we don't have that independently. just back in, actually, in april, the head of the judiciary committee, on the senate side, sent a letter to the department of homeland security where he was asking questions

southern new jersey until eight fifteen pm at seven twenty pm a severe thunderstorm was located over shimon twenty four miles east of gloucester city moving east thirty miles per hour hazard sixty miles per hour wind gusts and any size hail source radar indicated and public reported between six hundred thirty and seven numerous trees down were reported in northern camden county impact damage to trees and power lines locations impacted include barna get tabernacle shimon to surf city wardens state forest. one groove bass river state forest chatsworth penn state forest beach haven west which an acre is and when i'll camp for your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building in addition to hail and damaging winds frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm moved indoors immediately remember if you can hear thunder you are close enough to be struck by lightning torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm and may lead to poor drainage flooding do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways repeating a severe thunderstorm warning has been issu

shimon is following this. who is this person? >> reporter: that's right, kate.earned in the last few hours we have been working through the story that more people were in the room at trump tower than initially revealed. a well known russian-american lobbyist who lives here in washington, d.c., told the associated press that he was in the room on behalf of the russian attorney who we have all been reporting about, who claimed she was going there, possibly to give some information about the hillary clinton coampaign, then she started talking about russian sanctions. this other person, this lobbyist who told the a.p. he was in the room lives here in washington, is well known within the washington circle. he has, at times, registered as as lobbyist on behalf of the russian government, something to do with sanctions and he has lobbied on behalf of the russian government and he is also connected to this russian attorney through the act which she has been lobbying to have overturned. this has to do with sanctions against russia. he had connections to her. he did tell t

>> shimon, vladimir putin, the russian leader, is in the room right now to meet president trump. president trump will arrive in a moment. we will keep you posted. u.s. intelligence believes russia stepped up their spying. what, if anything, are they doing to stop it? >> certain measures are in place. however, after the meddling in the 2016 election, both the obama and trump administration have been slow to take measures to respond to these intelligence threats according to the current and former u.s. intelligence. partisan political disagreements over the russian activity and president trump's reluctance to accept intelligence conclusion about russia's meddling in the election. a slowed effort to counter the threat. another issue is an ongoing frustration within the state department over the granting of visas. a state department official would not comment specifically on the visa. john, here is some of what's going on. the fbi's counter intelligence division is keeping track of some of this activity. >> shimon, interesting reporting, appreciate it. i want to discuss all of this.

shimon thank you very much. david singer, security analyst and rebecca, analyst and national political reporter for real clear politics. thank you all for coming on this friday. paul, i'm going to start with you this morning. how crucial is this time line of when jared kushner's legal team found out and donald trump's team found out and why would it matter to investigators? >> it's critical because you, first of all, have the issue of security clearances and when forms were filled out regarding those security clearances. one thing mueller is looking at is were those forms filled out and do they list important meetings that kushner and others may have had with foreign officials. obviously, a meeting suggested, allegedly by the russian government in the russian tower would be an important meeting. time line is going to be very, very important to investigators. also, there's a missing phone call that is referred to in the e-mail chain that donald trump jr. participated in. we don't know if a phone call was made, wh

pamela brown reported the story with evan perez and shimon prokupecz and joins us now. pamela, good evening to you. what have you learned? >> reporter: we learned russian spies are ramping up their intelligence-gathering efforts in the u.s. according to current and former u.s. intelligence officials who say they noticed an increase since the election, so the russians' efforts have not been slowed by the intense focus of the intelligence community's assessment that russia meddled in the u.s. election and since the election, don, u.s. authorities have detected an uptick in suspected russian intelligence officers entering the u.s. under the guise of other business. officials say they've been replenishing their ranks since the u.s. expelled 35 russian diplomats suspected of spying as you'll recall last december and in some cases russian spies have even tried to gain employment at places in the u.s. with sensitive information as part of their intelligence-gathering efforts. now the fbi, which is responsible for counterintelligence efforts wouldn't respond to comments. >> so,

i want to bring in producer, shimon.u are part of the team that broke this story alongside pamela brown and perez. the obama administration kicked out 35 as a result of hacking. now there may be 150 russian operatives here in the u.s. how is that happening and why? >> that's right. we have learned the russian spies are ramping up intelligence gathering in the u.s. officials say they have noticed an increase since the election. the russians have not been slowed by efforts after meddles in the election. officials say they have been replenishing their ranks since the u.s. expelled the 35 russian diplomats suspected of spying last december. in some cases, we are told the russian spies, believed to be here have tried to gain employment at places with sensitive information. the fbi would not comment for the story and the russian embassy didn't respond for request to comment. >> if u.s. intelligence knows this, what is being done about it? why aren't they stopping it? >> there are several things going on. the fbi is continuing

we have shimon prokupecz. what did you learn? >> russian spies are ramping up their intelligence gathering efforts in the u.s., according to current and former u.s. intelligence officials, who say they have noticed an increase since the elections. the russians have not been slowed by retaliatory efforts after it meddled in the u.s. election, according to the u.s. intelligence community. officials say they've been replenishing their ranks since the u.s. expelled 35 u.s. diplomats, suspected of spying last december. in some case, russian spies have tried to gain employment at places with sensitive information. the fbi would not comment for the story, and that the russian embassy didn't respond for a request for comment, chris. >> all right. so, here's the question. if they know that they're stepping up their efforts with, do they have any ability to stop the saime? >> not necessarily stop it, but we know after the meddling in the election, both the obama and trump administrations have been slow to take measures to respond to the in

shimon reported this story along with evan perez. what have you learned? >> russian spies are ramping up their intelligence gathering efforts in the u.s. according to current and former u.s. intelligence officials who say they have noticed an increase since the election. the russians have not been slowed by retaliatory efforts after it meddled in the u.s. election according to the u.s. intelligence community. officials say they've been replenishing their ranks since the u.s. expelled 35 russian diplomats suspected of spying last december. in some cases, russian spies have tried to gain employment at places with sensitive information. the fbi would not comment for the story. the russian embassy didn't respond to a request for comment, john. >> if u.s. intelligence knows or believes there are more russian agents here in the united states and more active than before, why aren't they trying to stop it? >> well, you know, even after the meddling in the 2016 u.s. elections, both the obama and trump administrations have been slow to take measures to respond to th

shimon prokupecz broke the story. >> russian spies are ramping up their intelligence gathering efforts here in the u.s., according to current and former u.s. intelligence officials who say they have noticed an increase since the election. the russians have not been slowed by retaal their efforts after they meddled in the election. officials say they've been replenishing their ranks since the u.s. expelled 35 russian diplomats suspected of spying last december. in some cases, the russian spies have tried to gain employment at places with sensitive information. the fbi would not comment for the story and the russian embassy didn't respond to a request for comment, poppy. >> so clearly, multiple current and former u.s. intelligence sources know this. and this is how you guys got the reporting. what are they doing about it? >> well, that's right, poppy. even after the meddling in the 2016 u.s. elections, both the obama and trump administrations have been slow to take measures to respond to the intelligence threat. according to these former and current officials. now, partisan political dis

and shimon biles generously putting her performance on social media for all of us to see. >> later, we are not in kansas anymore. as we head to break, the photo of the week. a diver flying high with lovely budapest in the background. summer took a hit this morning when frankie popped the alligator floaty. plus, the snacks and drinks are gone, people. and one of us used up all the sunscreen! i wonder who... . we're gonna need some reinforcements...quick. copy that. walgreens makes it easy when summer needs a little help. your summer base camp is just around the corner so you can get in, out and back to those summer shenanigans. walgreens. at the corner of happy & healthy®. now with card, buy one, get one 50 percent off sunscreen. watching this breath savers protect mint neutralize the plaque acids in my mouth. i can't see anything! that's because it's working so hard. hey, what are you guys doing? karen. we're neutralizing. maybe i want to neutralize. you ever think of that? hi. oh, hi! welcome to the neighborhood. i brought you this pie to see if you're weird. wow, that smells intrusiv

po pamela brown are here with us from the justice department covering all of this, so shimon, what haveed or pam? >> i'm going to take it here. >> yeah. >> we've learn that john kelly was so upset with the way president trump handled the firing of director comey, he called comey shortly after he was terminated to say how angry he was, this is according to two sources familiar with the conversation between kellie and comey. at the time kelly was secretary of homeland security. the sources say kelly was particularly upset by the way that comey was treated by learning he had been fired on the news rather than by the president. the call took place while comey was traveling back from los angeles to washington on may 9th after learning the news. i could note comey declined to comment to us about the story. the white house and department of homeland security did not comment. >> there's more to this story. we have learned from our sources that kelly was so angry, he even told comey at the time he was contemplating resigning from his position as secretary of homeland security, as a showing of so

>> shimon, appreciate it. >>> we've got rear admiral john kirby, cnn political director david chalian and global affairs analyst and former deputy secretary of state, tony blanken. let's look at all the corners of this, shall we? so putin/trump. the big meeting. sgog it, you are advising the president. where is your head? terms of the coaching that goes into something like this? how do you diagnose the man? how do you diagnose the moment? how do you prep? >> first, the president really needs to deal with the elephant in the room and that's russian meddling in the election. >> why not syria? why not -- >> if you don't throw that away you'll never get to something on syria or ukraine. as long as the president is not seen as confronting it, not even acknowledging it, congress is going to keep tying his hands. they won't let him pursue any cooperation with russia. he needs to deal with it. plus, failure to confront it remeans russia remains emboldened. if they are not confronted, they'll keep doing it. and 2018, 2020, all of that is still ahead of us. that's the first thing. the second th

. >> shimon, joining us from aspen. we learned that robert mueller has instructed the white house staff to preserve all documents related to the don jr. meeting so does this confirm that mueller is looking into this meeting as part of his investigation into collusion? >> yeah, that's right. it certainly does. why else would he send that letter? it seems this has become part of his investigation, whether or not he's actually investigating don jr. or if this is more focused on what the russians were trying to do. you know, i don't think we're at place that we can say that. clearly, this meeting is now part of anything that bob mueller the special counsel and the fbi is now is looking into, as well as, you know, the intercepts that supposedly captured kislyak. that is all part of the so-called russia meddling investigation and what the russians here were trying to do with folks attached to the trump organization, to the trump world. and, you know, the meetings that just came to light last week with don jr. and paul manafor

pamela brown reported the story with evan perez and shimon and

shimon, how does this new revelation about sessions play into the special counsel investigation being led by mueller? >> these are new revelations being reported, publicized, but keep in mind the fabiani has likely been aware of this for quite some time and has been reviewed them. all of this is part of bob mueller's investigation boo into what kind of meddling was going on here, what were the russians trying to do. these intercepts seem to continue along the lines sort of the idea that the russians were trying to target anyone who had access to the president at the time during his campaign obviously and so, you know, as we've reported, there have been other intercepts, other communications amongst the russians indicating that they were trying to reach out to folks inside the trump orbit who can have access to donald trump and who could perhaps influence. this is part of bob mueller's investigation and also the latest revelations which just came, you know, in the last week about the meeting that took place at trump last year in june with the russian lawyer, that, too, is now part of b

. >> all right, shimon, we'll know you are continuing to dig and we'll bring you back in. i want to bring in our panel for now. cnn analyst and national security analyst, former fbi special agent and now associate dean at yale law school and joining her is john, former general counsel to the cia, also the author of "company man." this breaking news, cnn reporting more people in that room than had been previously disclosed, including rinat, a russian-american lobbyist with apparent ties to russian intelligence. your reaction? >> yes, this is the case of the multiplying russians. what this tells me is that somebody might have been at that meeting that has an intelligence and specifically a counterintelligence background is that even the russians expected that don junior might have called the fbi. this is someone who would have been there to potentially spot fbi surveillance, be able to check, you know, for any technical equipment there, so i think that the russians, if someone with an intelligence background was there, they believe this to be an intelligence operation, and i

thanks very much, shimon. here to discuss all of this as the president is in paris, political analyst and national reporter for real clear politics, matt lewis, conservative writer and laura coates, our cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. laura, to start with you on that beat of manafort, if he's compelled to come before grassley's committee next week, is there any way you see him not taking the fifth unless he's granted some sort of immunity deal? >> frankly, poppy, no. and being compelled, i'm assuming you mean there's a subpoena to have him come because i doubt he will volunteer to appear. everyone's very, you know, cooperative until a lawyer gets involved and until you have a looming actual criminal statute that may actually define your behavior, no one's cooperative at that point in time. so what's likely going to happen is he's well aware that congress only has at its disposal two things if he decides to not appear or to not answer questions. and that is he could go for contempt proceedings