shimon prokupecz, thank you. joining me now adam schiff, the ranking member on the committee. what do you think of the last 48 hours and the credibility of the united states and the white house after everything we've seen from rudy giuliani in the last two days? >> that's the thing that stands out is the fundamental dishonesty of the president of the united states. that goes to the credibility of our country, we are in the middle of complicated issues, but in the country and internationally, the summit coming up with kim jong-un, we have an important trade discussion going on with the eu and china right now. we have the continuing situation in syria and iran. and who can trust anything that the president says? he lies every other day. the thing is you know he lies because he is contradicting himself. it's not a matter of him saying something we then have to prove is untrue. he said the exact opposite thing a mere matter of sometimes hours or days before. so i think the credibility of the presidency has never been at a lower point and that undermines everything we're trying to

let's go to cnn's shimon prokupecz live in washington. the notion of a subpoena -- the notion of a subpoena floated in a meeting between the investigators and the president's lawyers. >> that's right, john. this meeting was about whether or not the special counsel would get an opportunity to question the president, his investigators and the fbi agents want to question the president. that is very apparent in all of our reporting and the idea of a subpoena certainly as you guys have been saying all morning would definitely escalate things here, and it would lead to a big legal showdown, all of the way up to the supreme court. the president's attorneys really do believe that they have a shot at preventing this. the president seemingly thinks that he does not have to sit down with the special counsel and it appears based on all of our reporting that he is less likely, at least at this point, to voluntarily submit to questions. the idea of a subpoena would certainly, certainly escalate. he would, perhaps, take this all of the way up to the sup

meanwhile i want to bring in our crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz, also law enforcement analyst and former fbi director tom fuentes. shimon, tell us what you're learning from your sources, and explain what it means when law enforcement officials say the situation is contained. >> i think the whole point now is to really start building out the crime scene and laying sort of the groundwork for what happened here, why did this happen. there is some concern, as we've heard from the sheriff, that there may be some suspicious devices, packages there that the bomb squad is going through. but officials are a little cautious in saying whether or not they are actually explosive devices or what they are. we know about an hour ago the bomb squad was there going through the scene, and that law enforcement was still trying to clear the school. that is, go through the entire school, make sure there are no other people who have been injured, no other people who have been killed, and also generally just to secure the scene. we've heard a lot that the scene is contained. essentially what that rea

and shimon prokupecz has been following. he doing at trump tower and why did mueller want to talk to him? >> that is a great question. and the people that we talked to said that they were there to discuss u.s. and russia relations, how to better the relations. now the question is why did they feel the need to have these discussions with michael cohen who, as you you've said was the personal attorney to the president and what would his role be in bettering any relationship with any country is not clear. but what is interesting in the two guys and they were both questioned about the special counsel, by fbi agents, is because if you follow this money trail, this is what is interesting, now viktor vekselberg is this billionaire with close ties to vladimir putin. he shows up at trump tower, he shows up at the inauguration and his cousin there andrew intraitor donated to the inauguration and hired michael cohen and paid him half a million dollars for a contract. all of that is something the special counsel and fbi agents have foun

let me bring back shimon prokupecz. what are you learning? >> the sheriff's office releasing new information saying that the shooter has now been charged. he's charged with capital murder charges. i'll go ahead and read what the statement they put out. they've officially identified him -- >> this is a mug shot. >> he's a white male, 17 years of age, being held on capital murder with no bond. they say that additional charges may follow. so there you go. he's now booked and as we can see, there is his photo of him and he's facing capital murder charges. >> let's go to josh campbell, who used to work at the fbi and does law enforcement analysis for us. josh, obviously right now law enforcement in and around santa fe high school are concerned about the fact that there may be accomplices they're interviewing two people, but they also want to make sure that there isn't anyone else out there and in addition to that, their desire to execute search warrants on the property of the suspected shooter is complicated by the fact that he is apparently wired

i want to bring in my colleague crime and justice report shimon prokupecz and josh campbell as well. shimon, starting with you, the president has said repeatedly to many of his aides skpal liand a collusion is dead, it's a dead issue. there you have a trump campaign aide saying they seem to have something on it, at least they're intent on going down that path. >> the focus, according to michael caputo, was on russian collusion, and he commented on just how well prepared the fbi agents were and the u.s. attorney and just a mound of information they had. and here's what he said about that to anderson cooper last night. >> i think they're very focused on russian collusion. i think they believe that they'll get to something. they didn't tell me not to talk about this, they asked me not to interfere in the investigation as i exited the room, and i really don't want to give too much details because i feel that interferes with the investigation. however, they're talking about wikileaks, they're talking about d. d.c., all the stuff you would suspect they're looking into, and i'm concerned for

to make that point, shimon prokupecz. i want to read one more quote about this judge.don't want anyone in this country with unfettered power. it's unlikely you're going to persuade me the special prosecutor has power to do anything he or she wants. does this make bob mueller possibly move the investigation faster? >> as shimon reported on august 2nd, the justice department gave mueller this expanded area when he said, what do you want me to do with this case? and now he's saying, why did you give this case to mueller when it seems tied to the russia investigation? you should have given that to new york. it has political sort of legs, but i don't think it has legal legs unless the judge says that rosenstein lacked the authority under the regulations to expand mueller's mandate. so i think it was not a good day from a political optic standpoint, but i'm not sure the judge has legal standing to dismiss the indictment on the basis of his sort of political belief that prosecutors need to be closely tethered to a mandate more so than mueller seems to be, in his estimation. >

let's bring in shimon prokupecz in washington with what you are seeing there, shimon. >> that's right, john. certainly in reading what don junior has testified to, you know, it's pretty lengthy in terms of the sheer number of pages of transcripts here, and it's clear that don junior was sort of tricked here by the russians in some way. this meeting, he thought, was going to be about perhaps some dirt on hillary clinton and then quickly evolved into something about adoptions and the magnitsky act, and it seems, at least he's trying to distance himself concerning matters whether or not he knew that this was going to come up. and then as you said, john, concerning the statements that eventually did, that were eventually issued by the white house and others concerning the nature of this meet, an issue that is now before the special council and something that is under investigation. don junior had this to say when asked about whether or not he knew what kind of detail the president he may have provided and edits he made to the statement. he said that essentially he wasn't sure, but to the

. >>> we have nia malika henderson, jamil jafer, and shimon prokupecz. the president and his supporters have used this word spy, right? reports say informant. that's the word they're using. what do we know about this fbi source? >> right, so, look, i think what is going on here basically is the president is trying to say that the fbi implanted -- used the word implanted, planted some kind of a spy into the campaign to try and soak up information and then that information was somehow then relayed to the fbi and perhaps maybe folks at the obama white house, which is completely ludicrous and not true. what did happen here is there was a concern, a valid counterintelligence investigation by the fbi that was raising concerns about russians that were trying to infiltrate the campaign. and they were using people, there was concern by the fbi that they were using people like carter page to infiltrate the campaign, using people like george papadopoulos to infiltrate the campaign. and so the fbi based on reports introduced a source, someone that they have known, s

cnn shimon prokupecz starts us off. new information at the one-year mark. what are the big questions? >> reporter: john, you hit it right there, right on point. the biggest question is regarding this subpoena. will the president voluntarily submit to an interview with the special counsel, or are they going to have to take that extreme measure and subpoena him? certainly the president's lawyers, rudy giuliani, saying they have no right to do that. but that's not necessarily true. that is really the ultimate thing now, because that seems to be the next, at least, big step as it relates to the president. you know, what we keep forgetting here is that mueller's investigation is much larger than most of us really talk about, because it involves russians, right? there is an entire investigation that centers around russians, that centers around what people in russia were doing to interfere in this election. and the president certainly could be seen as a witness in that investigation and, therefore, mueller could argue that that's why he's needed. certainly the pre

let's go to our crime and justice reporter, shimon prokupecz. what are you learning?it clearly indicates that prosecutors and special counsel seem to be kind of done with george papadopoulos. they just filed this within the last hour saying they are ready for him to be sentenced. they're asking the court to order an investigative report. this is standard practice in these kind of cases where they complete a report that then goes to the judge and the judge will ultimately decide what his sentencing will be. keep in mind he's been cooperating for some time with the special counsel. but the fact that now these prosecutors are telling the court that we are now ready for him to be sentenced indicates that his cooperation is pretty much complete. it doesn't mean they're completely done with him but it seems to indicate that the information he has been providing has now probably no longer needed and he is essentially done with his cooperation. >> let's bring in dana bash. this is a significant development, if in fact they're ready to sentence him. we have no idea what senten

let's go to shimon prokupecz. what are you hearing?early a key move here by the special counsel. it signals now perhaps they are done with george papadopoulos and his cooperation. he's been providing them information for months now, cooperating with them. just within the last hour the special counsel's office pilefia status report, that they are ready for him to be sentenced, that they are ready in about 30 days or so. this indicates, as i said, his cooperation is for the most part complete and whatever information he has been providing to the special counsel has likely come to an end. at the sentencing i think what will happening is that we'll learn exactly just how he's been cooperating, perhaps the prosecutors will put out a letter saying just what kind of information he's been providing, which will ultimately affect the type of sentence that he receives from the judge. you know, brooke, this is just another sign. we have the kushner news today and now this today that is seems that the special counsel is moving through some of these

we have new reporting on that from shimon prokupecz on our justice beat and shimon, you're talking toour sources and asking them, is the president right? what are they saying? >> quite frankly, poppy, everyone we have been talking to about this has said that the president is just wrong. the notion that somehow the fbi implanted, planted someone inside the campaign to spy on the campaign is just not true according to several people we have been talking to. you know, just think about this, poppy, the motinotion that we h at cnn had to call folks and try to explain to them what the president is saying, the accusations that the president is making, and they're having to refute it does not put these officials in the best spot that they want to be. they are taking issue with it. there is an issue, this notion, the idea that they put someone inside the campaign, that law enforcement or intelligence officials planted someone inside the campaign, they're telling us it is just ludicrous. this is an informant, someone that was providing information to the fbi, to the cia, we're told, as well, th

let me bring in shimon prokupecz working his sources, he's got all of this. bring us up to speed, please. >> that's right, kate. this meeting took place in january, around january 9th of 2017, as you said. during the transition. it happened during trump tower, victor vekselberg, you may recall, is a very wealthy, a billionaire, worth some $15 billion, russian oligarch, who has been sanctioned by the united states. he was also recently questioned by fbi agents working for the special counsel after he flew to the u.s. in a new york area, he was pulled off a plane, and questioned by fbi agents. now, at this meeting at trump tower, you see there is video there of mr. vekselberg, there with the hat, his back is to the camera, he's accompanied by his cousin, a man by the name of andrew intrader. as you may recall, we did some reporting regarding andrew intrader. he was eventually hired by michael cohen as a consultant, was paid about $500,000 by michael cohen for what we were told was consulting work. and now this new video which we have reviewed today shows that t

our chief political analyst gloria borger and shimon prokupecz. can the president claim that he knew nothing about this payment? >> no. i think rudy giuliani has some explaining to do and i think tha that's what we'll hear this afternoon. can you imagine a client saying about his attorney, give him some time, he'll get his facts straight? i don't think he should pay rudy giuliani for that. rudy giuliani is new to the case. our reporting is that the other attorneys on this case were appe apoplectic about rudy's media tour the other day, because he doesn't have his facts straight, that michael cohen's attorneys were not happy, either, obviously, because these are different stories. rudy giuliani was supposed to be out there to be a message about how terrible the special counsel is, how the fbi is corrupt, and if he decides in the end not to testify, he can then say, why would i testify before these people who are unfair? so that's the case rudy giuliani is supposed to be making publicly instead of messing up everything that was said before. >> and p

cnn crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz is joining us. what is the latest shake up tell you about which direction this is heading. >> certainly there is concern here that there is a subpoena now looming perhaps over the president. and there is every indication that by with this shake-up, that the president wants to take a more aggressive position and in terms of his relationship in terms of some of the back and forth that has been going on with the mueller team. it is very clear that ty cobb all along has been more of the -- on the position that they should be cooperative, all of the paperwork and all of the e-mails and the records that mueller has been requesting have gone through the white house and his position has always been, we should give them what they ask, there are other people who are close to the president and some of the president's own attorneys who have felt they should be more combative and not as cooperative with the special counsel in turning over a lot of documents already been turned over. but when you think about some

let's bring in cnn crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz and the reporter who broke this story.e probably need to be taking notes at home because there is so much going on. shimon, good evening, i want to start with you. what can you tell us about this? >> yeah, hey, don. mueller's investigators, as you said, have questioned a russian oligarch. his name is viktor vekselberg, and they've questioned him about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments that were made to president trump's personal attorney, michael cohen, in 2017. now the payments went from vekselberg's firm that is linked to vekselberg. it's called columbus nova. it's a financial company out of new york. and it's run by vekselberg's american cousin andrew intraitor. as we've been reporting all night, stormy daniels' attorney, michael avenatti has posted documents where he alleges that a half million was paid to cohen beginning in january of 2017. and then last month, back to where are viktor vekselberg gets into all of this, the trump administration placed them on a list of sanctioned russians for election interf

our reporter shimon prokupecz is working his sources as well. what are you hearing, shimon? >> we have more information about the gunman here, the suspe suspect. it's a student at the school. the big concern, as you indicated moments ago, is these possible explosive devices that could be other parts of the community around the school. that seems to be the big concern right now for law enforcement. they've been asking folks there if they see anything suspicious to call 911 because there is an obvious public safety risk. in terms of the number of shooters here based on conversations we have had with law enforcement, it appears to be only one shooter now. it's not clear why this second shooter was detained, but this happens in these kinds of situations where perhaps something suspicious occurred here and they want to talk to this other person. the other thing will be where are these explosive devices? that would call for some planning and placing them around in locations would call for some planning. that's what they will want to dig into. and obviously the weapon. how did the

let's get to it let's dig into all of it, we'll start with shimon prokupecz with the latest. let's start with the question about -- i'll get to the question about paul manafort in a question. what of these questions stick out to you. >> the manafort question is a big one. obviously that one goes to the heart of collusion. we have done a lot of reporting concerning manafort and outreach. there is information in the intelligence world that manafort or someone was trying to either communicate with manafort or manafort was communicating with someone about potentially help in the campaign, russians, helping the campaign. in the 49 questions, there is a lot of little ones kind of that really paint a bigger picture of exactly what mueller has here and what he's looking at. certainly it goes to the question of obstruction, right. and that has to do with comey and the firing of the former fbi director. but specifically what mueller is asking for here is regarding the decision to fire mr. comey, when was it made, why and who played a role in it. that is an important part because it was

first, let's bring in cnn crime and justice reporter, shimon prokupecz, and cnn reporter, caris ganell. they're learning more about this new twist, a dramatic twist in the mueller investigation. shimon, tell our viewers what you've learned. >> certainly is dramatic in that mueller's investigators, we've learned, have questioned a russian oligarch named viktor vekselberg about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments made to president trump's personal attorney, michael cohen, in 2017. now, the payments went from vekselberg's new york company, it's an affiliated company, called columbus noah, this is a financial company that's affiliated to viktor vekselberg. it's run by his cousin, andrew entrader. and now documents that have just been posted by stormy daniels' attorney, michael avenatti, those documents allege that $500,000 was paid to cohen, beginning in january of 2017. now, as you may remember, last month, the trump administration put the oligarch, viktor vekselberg, on a list of sanctions for russian interference. now, we don't know what these payments were for. we have been to

our shimon prokupecz is in washington with more. >> the latest series of tweets he essentially says thathad picked a different attorney general. now "the new york times" reporting that the president in march 2017 just after sessions recused himself from the russia investigations that when sessions flew to mar-a-lago to meet with trump, they had dinner and that trump there at that dinner berated the attorney general and told him he should reverse his decision to recuse himself from the russia investigation. now the "times" says that that was an unusual and potential inappropriate request and that jeff sessions refused trump's request. now "the new york times" has apart of the special counsel's investigation is looking at this meeting, it's part of its obstruction investigation as well as the repeated attacks on sessions by trump in the media and on twitter. poppy, as we've been reporting here at cnn, trump's lawyers are trying to keep mueller from questioning trump about these interactions with sessions, certainly some of the obstruction issues and about the firing of comey. >> thank you

. >>> joining me to discuss, former obama white house ethics czar nora misen and shimon prokupecz. thank you for being here. i appreciate it. how does all of this, what sarah is laying out, how does this fit into the tangled web that connects the inner circle? >> the fbi, when comey came out and said the former fbi director, they were investigating at some point -- they were investigating the campaign. and it seems that certainly michael cohen's finances have been under scrutiny for some time by the fbi. as it relates to the investigation, everything had to do with the campaign's investigation into the campaign, eventually wound up with robert mueller. and it seems that's where all of this started. we know that in one of the financial transactions, michael cohen was being paid by a financial company, an investment company, with connections, with links to a russian oligarch. perhaps there was some activity there that caught the eye of fbi investigators and that's how mueller started looking into it to see if there was a connection into russia interference because the oligarch that t

. >> all right, shimon prokupecz, thank you. >>> despite his new position on trump's legal team, rudy giuliani and the president are old friends. cnn's tom foreman has a look at the, shall we say, evolution of rudy giuliani. >> we love rudy. he's a special guy. he really understands this is a witch hunt. >> reporter: certainly rudy giuliani could understand, after all, he started his career decades ago as a crusading prosecutor. >> this country is in serious trouble domestically from the problem of crime. >> reporter: and he rapidly embralgsed the idea of hunting down white collar criminals abusing their wealth and power through inside trading on wall street. >> both the civil cases and criminal cases help to create a deterrent impact to stop people from capitalizing on they special position. >> reporter: an unprecedented drop in crime in new york city while he was mayor in the '90s and his leadership through the tumult of 9/11 -- >> put your mask on. >> reporter: would earn him a serious shot at the presidency. but today -- >> you guys are so darn unfair to trump. i swear to god. >>

. >> cnn crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz joins us. >> ta >> reporter: both local, state and federal officials on scene. the latest that we've learned is that explosive devices have been recovered from the school and from areas around the school, adjacent to the school. it is active. investigators right now gathering evidence and also trying to make sure that every individual that is in and around this community is safe, asking people that if they sue suspicious packages for them to call the police because, again, they have found pipe bombs and also pressure cooker bombs in some of these areas. they're not giving all of the specifics for strategic and safety reasons, but they are asking people to be on alert. as you mentioned, ten people have died, nine of them students. we also learned that two law enforcement officials were injured. there are at least 12 individuals injured total with multiple gunshot wounds. of course this is a time that's supposed to be of celebration. it's the end of the school year. students and teachers and parents are usually preparing for graduation

cnn's kaitlan collins and shimon prokupecz are here. let's start at the white house.t are you hearing from trump's latest attack on his attorney general? >> reporter: this is just a repeat of what the president has said before, that he wishes that he'd picked someone else as his attorney because of jeff sessions' decision to recuse himself from overseeing the russia investigation, something that has long plagued the president and something that he has never gotten over in this relationship and this goes back to trey gowdy's comment where he sympathized with the president and he understood his frustration and trey gowdy was asked about the new york times report that described in great detail a meeting last march after he'd made the decision to recuse himself after that he didn't disclose he'd met with officials. right after jeff sessions had recused himself, he flew down to palm beach after the president had not been taking his calls and thinking he would be discussing immigration and when he got down there it was a different story. the president was angry, berated him

over to crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz for more on this. eight people killed, that's the number now. what are you picking up? >> quite sad again. here we are, again, right, kate, talking about another school shooting. i want to talk about what josh campbell was saying earlier, the idea that two people have been detained. we believe one of those people is the shooter. we don't have any indication there was a second person involved in this. but as josh was saying, in a lot of these situations, people are detained and questioned just to make sure they're not also involved in this. and really i think everything we gather in talking to officials, they're trying to figure out the motive, what connection this shooter had to the school, and really what sparked this, what started this. and that's going to be sort of the part of the investigation that is just beginning. but it is, again, like a lot really is not known. local affiliates reporting the number of dead and we do know the shooter is in custody. outside of that, just a process for law enfor

i want to bring in shimon prokupecz who covers the investigation for us, the mueller investigation for us right now. any sense where they are in the negotiations, you know, between the mueller team and the president's new legal team on this interview. president keeps on saying he loved it, his lawyer saying i'm not sure if we can believe that. it is a good political argument to say i can do it, but my lawyers say no. where do things stand right now? >> i think it is fair to say, you're absolutely right. this is a political argument for him. the witch-hunt, this whole idea he doesn't want to -- his lawyers don't want to do what he wants to do. but we know that negotiations are under way. things drastically changed after the michael cohen raid. he felt it was extremely unfair. it caught his team, the president's legal team off guard. but the bottom line is, john, and really that this investigation cannot come to a close without the president's participation. it is clear that the special counsel wants to talk to him, the fbi agents there, the prosecutors there, want to talk to him, right?