why is an coming to the trump tower. natr brought a plan using private contractors, which is prince's special. >> there is a nexus. you have this meeting and after the transition you have a nexus because he is involved in this crazy meeting set up in the seychelles that has the security dude for the russian hedge fund guy. >> he's not just a hedge fund guy but the head of the russian direct investment authority very close to putin and leaked e-mails referred as the messenger to president putin and i ask erik prince why did you go to this meeting in the seychelles? he said it was an accident, i had a beer with him. you flew half way around the world with a close ally of vladimir putin to drink a beer? really? come on. these lies are absurd. >> there are many indications that meeting, so there is the august 3rd meeting. >> nine days before the inaugu inauguration. >> the george nater figure. >> and a convicted pedophile. remember, trump surrounds himself with the best people. >> george nater, erik prince, the seychelles me

a blatant lie on trump tower moscow. here's what cohen said in public testimony. >> who were the faep members you briefed on the project? >> donald trump jr. and ivanka trump. >> okay. were they in the regular course of business or the president or family request the briefings? >> this is the regular course of business. >> do you recall a question on the number of briefings. do you recall how many there might have been? >> i'm sorry? >> do you recall how many briefings there might have been? >> approximately ten. in total. >> congressman, this isn't too hard to raise serious questions here, right? cohen is briefing ivanka trump ten times. if that's true. her lawyer signed off on a very basic thing which is a significant lie. about when those trump tower negotiations ended. this could be serious for ivanka trump. she knew that was a lie if she saw the testimony. do you want to hear from her? >> she could come before congress. i'll let the chairs of committees sort out where that is. i don't think her hands are clean at all

felix sater, this russian american businessman as early as next week. >> felix sater was key to trump towerw. he have the one standing to benefit financially. was sending e-mails to michael cohen about our friend putin and how great this is going to be for donald trump. why we need to get this deal done. he was the one who continued pushing the deal, even after that january. i think sater is kind of a key figure here that they are going to want to hear from. >> we will get more on this. let's take a quick break. we'll be right back. so... you're driven, and you have a ton of goals... but you're stuck in the vicious cycle of credit card payments. it's time to get a personal loan from sofi. borrow up to $100k to pay off your credit cards, and then pay us back with one monthly payment. and it's all with zero fees. get a personal loan, and pay no fees. ( ♪ ) get a personal loan, and pay no fees. (burke) at fso we know how ton almost evercover almost anything. even rooftop parking. strange forces at work? only if you're referring to gravity-and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or

he was involved in that trump tower meeting in 2016. i think they'll look to see why he was denied this security clearance but also like to know his ties to other foreign entities because clearly this has plagued the trump administration since day one. >> julia, basically you could just follow the money, right? the fact is that he's an investor and the concern about security clearance is that you could be beholden to foreign adversaries or foreign entities monetarily, and that's the concern. if you just want to boil it down to the basics. >> absolutely. and i think that's where they're going to start out with. a lot of democrats in the committee are concerned, where does his investment, outside investment that came before the trump administration tie into his work in government? what if there is a conflict of interest there? i think that is where democrats really want to get to the root of this. and i think you're going to hear a lot about his foreign dealings financially, well before he joined the trump administration, because that coul

trump, and talked about how the trump tower moscow project would help mr. trump to convince america of his skills and win the white house. >> reporter: felix sater is the man at the center of donald trump's moscow trump tower project, and now he'll testify before congress, sharing with the world what he knows about the president's business dealings. >> i was trying to use this opportunity because i had tried to build trump towers in moscow as well as london and paris. >> reporter: lawmakers will likely grill sater on what trump knew about the deal and when and on possible financing sources. in 2018 sater told cnn if the trump tower moscow project had moved forward, he would have made sure trump was hands on. >> believe me, i would have turned over every rock to make sure everyone was involved. >> reporter: sater was e-mailing trump's permanent lawyer michael cohen in 2016 about the deal. that would have netted the trump business a $40 million fee. he said if the deal had been successful, it would have earned hundreds of millions of dollars for the trump orga

that's what the developer is holding out as a qualification to build trump tower moscow, billed the as building in europe because apparently that was good enough for donald trump. he signed a letter of intent for the developer, r mr. rozov to do just that on the third day of the republican presidential primary debate, a primary he went on to win while saying nice things about vladimir putin. joining us now is andra bernstein. thank you so much for being here tonight. >> great to be here. >> okay. there is the letter of intent signed by drama and andre rozov to build this trump tower moscow. there is an architectural rendering of it. was there any other qualification this gentleman had to build the largest tower in europe? >> this is the strange thing. there are real developers in moscow, on of their names has come up in connection with the trump tower meeting much letter on. an actual developer in moscow. >> right. >> so what is really confusing is we know trump was in touch with a real developer. this developer seems to be a second tier developer. he didn't bring projects to fruition.

at the trump tower in new york.ding to a person familiar to the office lay outat the time. >> that he had an office in the trump tower. >> and on the 26th floor. >> and the 26th floor is important why? >> because it is mr. trump's floor. >> moved to the u.s. in the 1970s. he is a former felon who says he shared a wealth of information with u.s. authorities on a variety of issues for the last 20 years and soon could share some of that with the american people. >> lawmakers will likely want to follow the money and ask about the financing of the project. it will happen in two weeks. president trump denied any wrong doing with regard to the deal which continued into his presidential campaign. >> thanks so much. here is donald trump in 2013 in a sworn deposition. >> i wouldn't know what he looked like. >> here is michael cohen on wednesday asked about that deposition. >> i like to characterize. he doesn't know someone when it suits him. >> he got the coffee. >> look, i think he was very very what he was putting down. he

played a key role in trying to make the moscow trump tower happen. d the project of course we have learned was being discussed all the way until the election despite what then candidate trump initially and publicly and repeatedly claiming which is that he had nothing going on in russia. obviously that was not true. evan perez, former district attorney and also david gergen. how significant is it that mr. sater who had a key role in the moscow trump tower project, the plans, discussions there, will be of be testifying. >> it is very significant because he is at the center of this project that for many months we were told the president had abandoned, that candidate trump had abandoned, that it had been put aside while he ran for president and we found out that was not true. these were discussions we've learned were going on all the way through the election. so i think that it is very important that felix sater who is someone who obviously has mob ties, russian mob ties, going back to the 1990s, that is where he got in legal trouble previously. and yet h

the moscow trump tower deal, for example, is among the most disturbing, because that is is something the president was pursuing throughout the midst of the presidential campaign while saying he was having no business dealings with the russians. that was a deal that stood to make him more money than any other deal of his life, and it was a deal where he was pursuing help from the kremlin, from putin himself at a time when putin was seeking relove from sacks and that is the most compromising circumstance that i can imagine. so we are certainly looking deep into the set of issues around moscow trump tower, we are also looking at persistent allegations the russians have been laundering money for the trump organization. i don't know that that is true, but if it is, again, it is a profound compromise for this president. >> brennan: you said you don't know that that is true. who can answer that question for you? who do you need to talk to? >> well, we will need to talk to some of the banks that have been doing business with mr. trump, like deutsche bank, which has had a history of launderin

felix sater is best known for working with michael cohen to broker the trump tower moscow deal, whichsecretly pursuing during the 2016 presidential campaign. even as russia was attacking our election. felix sater is set to give public testimony before the house intelligence committee which will mean the two primary players in the deal, michael cohen and felix sater will have given testimony under oath to congress. and today less than a week before sater's testimony, the developer that was supposed to build trump tower moscow. in the latest edition of the trump inc pod cast, wnyc go through this letter by the russian developer felix sater e recruited pitched himself to michael cohen. cohen testified he was keeping his boss donald trump apprised of all these developments. in this letter, the developer andre describes his qualifications and projects of suburban development and a giant mall in north dakota and an office building in new york city. maybe not the resume of someone prepared to build a giant moscow skyscraper but okay. what today's trump inc podcast discovered is even those ac

tell congress is that on august third twenty sixteen you were at a meeting during the campaign at trump tower with don jr trump son which stephen miller then a campaign advisor to trump with george nader a former blackwater colleague of yours who works as a back channel to the saudis there moralities you're supposed to be convicted paedophile and also joel's imo an israeli expert on social media manipulation how come you didn't mention that meeting to congress given it so relevant to their investigation. i did as part of the part of the investigations i certainly disclosed any any meetings the very not you i don't in the congressional testimony you gave to the house we went through you didn't mention anything about august twenty sixth meeting in trump tower i specifically asked you what context you have and you didn't answer that. i don't believe i was asked that question you asked whether any communique from all communications or contact with the campaign you said apart from writing papers putting up yard signs no what you said i've got the transcript of the conversation here. sure i mean i

yes, why does he have to make trump tower ten stories higher?ause he has to say he's 6'3" instead of 6'2". this is part of the reason -- and i will do a little bit of a dogleg here, why the mueller report was unable to come up with collusion. i know i have been on the show and talked a lot in the past collusion would be part they had corrupt intent both sides. the problem was they were in heth and compete aechincompeten. coordination wasn't established because they're uncoordinated. it's a corrupt organization. they're incompetent. the russians, who i dealt with a lot, were not able to do these things. we got the story that came out the other day or yesterday, when mueller indicted the 13 people from the agency they came to america and a couple said maybe we should go to purple state. somebody told us that. that was a great revelations for the russia. russians are incompetent, trump people are incompetent. both people lie. that's why it's hard to establish collusion. >> so eli, we don't have to worry about learning russian to survive in trump's

the trump tower meeting is a big one. if you think about who was in that meeting in trump tower, that jared kushner was in it, donald trump jr. was in it, rob goldstone, paul manafort, natalia veselnitskaya. we know it happened. we know it was significant. we don't know if robert mueller found anything criminal took place. people feel that the unknowns remain a big problem for what the american people deserve to know. >> definitely. i think the fact is on the basis of the mueller report so far from what we know from yesterday, nobody called trump or kushner will be indicted. that's why people in the trump world are high-fiving. for them that's a win. at the very basic level, no one is being indicted called trump or kushner. there are several other investigations still going on. what's fascinating for me is, we've watched the mueller investigation over the past two years kind of in realtime, both in terms of court appearances, indictments, prosecutions. think about if we hadn't watched it in realtime over the last two year

that is, michael cohen, himself, who was acknowledged lying about the timing of the trump tower initiativemoscow. and trump, himself. i mean, they're the ones who had a lot to gain from lying about this. and we know that the president lied to the public about his -- his relationship with the trump tower moscow project and how long it went on and how serious it was. so if he lied to the public, i would assume that he lied to the lawyers as well. why wouldn't he? >> gloria, i mean, something as sensitive as this trump tower moscow project and potentially, you know, financially beneficial, what incentive would the president have to stay away from whatever his lawyers were doing with michael cohen's testimony? >> well, you know, he would have the incentive, if he were another president, to kind of stay away because it was sensitive, but if the president knew that the trump tower moscow, in fact, the discussions went on through june, which i presume he did, i think the question is, did he, as michael cohen, himself, has said, you know, did he sort of wink and nod to michael and say, you know, y

the ongoing negotiations about trump tower, well into the campaign. i believe the fact that mr. trump knew about the dump of the wikileaks material. the fact that clearly the meeting at trump tower meeting which was not described appropriately in terms of offering dirt. the president's campaign manager sharing information, polling information with the russians. the earlier instance where russians were offering through one of the campaigns papadopoulos information, to me, that's all evidence. where that evidence leads in terms of a conclusion and we still have other key people to come back, i'm going to reserve judgment until i'm finished, but there's no one that could factually say there's not plenty of evidence of collaboration or communications between trump organization and russians. >> there is a report in the "washington post" that indicates that your committee and the house intelligence committee that one other angle to michael cohen's testimony has to do with a pardon. or pardon shopping. and what more can you tell us about the issue? are you investigating whether a pardon

this all comes down to whether trump family and cohen were negotiating on truch tower through the election as rudy giuliani said they were. cohen claims the statement was reviewed ahead of time by other lawyers including an attorney for ivanka trump and jared cuh kushner. >> the hearings went very well. i believe all the members were satisfied with the statements and the responses that i gave to them. i told them that any additional information that they would want they should feel comfortable to reach out to my counsel and i would continue to cooperate. >> the intelligence chairman called today's hearing productive. said cohen was fully cooperative and provided the committee with important testimony and documents. also tonight just coming out, rudy giuliani is saying lawyers are reaching out to him to see if the president will grant pardons to people who are under scrutiny by the justice department in the russia investigation. here with me now is the california democrat who is member of the house intelligence committee. congressman, thank you for your time. i know you can't get into the s

a major development we are following today involving a little discussed second trump tower meeting during16 campaign. this one involving emissaries of two gulf princes and israeli media specialist and trump campaign officials including, of course, donald trump jr. and stephen miller. in a stunning back and forth between former blackwater ceo eric prince and el gentleman hira prince, confronted why he failed to tell cons he was at that meeting. take a listen. >> i did, as part of the investigations i certainly discloses any meetings. the very few i had. >> not in the congress' testimony you gave to the house. we went through it and didn't mention august 16 meeting in trump tower. specifically asked you and you didn't answer. >> i don't believe i was asked that question. >> you were asked any formal communications or contacts with the campaign. apart from writing papers putting up yard signs, no. that's what you said. i've got the transcript of the conversation. >> sure. i might have been -- i think as trump headquarters. >> trump tower, 2016. >> israeli dude, back channel to the saudis, do

didn't tell congress is on august third twenty sixteen you were at a meeting during the campaign up trump tower don't do new trump some which steven miller than a company advisor to trump with george nader a former blackwater colleague of yours who works as a back channel to the saudis their morality is you're supposed to be convicted paedophile and also joel's imo an israeli expert on social media manipulation how come you didn't mention the meeting to congress given it so relevant to their investigation. i did as part of the part of the investigations i certainly disclosed in the ne meetings the very new i had on the congressional testimony you gave to the house we went through you didn't mention anything about august twenty sixth meeting in trump tower i specifically asked you what context you have and you didn't answer that. i don't believe i was asked that question you asked whether any communicate for communications or contact with the campaign you said apart from writing papers putting up yard signs no what you said i've got the transcript of the conversation here. i might have been i th

statement that he previously delivered to congress about the trump organization's pursuit of the trump towerproject. senior congressional correspondent manu raju is here. what can you tell us about this? >> yeah. michael cohen today providing house intelligence committee with documents, but to explain further the claim that he made in his public testimony last week that attorneys for the president edited and reviewed his statement that he initially gave to congress back in 2017. you'll recall those statements he later pled guilty to, but in those statements he downplayed the trump organization's pursuit of the trump tower moscow project and the 2016 campaign season and he said it ended in january 2016 and he later acknowledged it was through june 2016 and he said publicly last week that the president was involved about the project. what we are told with multiple sources is that cohen actually provided the committee with edits of those documents showing that attorneys were involved with the changes and these documents are provided to explain what he said in his public setting. in that public

>> the message of course being the length of time that the trump tower moscow project stayed and remained alive. >> reporter: that was a subject of discussion in the long day of testimony. cohen provided documents to that committee showing edits that were made by trump's attorneys. the question is what were those edits. we don't know all the specifics quite yet, but there were some edits to try to further explain what he meant. >> all right. thank you. according to the "new york times" at least some of the edits appeared to play down ivanka trump's knowledge about the trump tower moscow project. and two sources tell cnn white house lawyers had no indication cohen's original testimony was even wrong. the second big reveal wednesday, cnn has learned cohen himself authored the false line in his 2017 testimony to congress, that means it was not a change made by president trump's lawyers. >> revelation number three. the "washington post" reports cohen told the house intel committee he personally discussed the subject of a pardon with jay sekulow and rudy giuliani. that doesn't mean that he ask

it's really now moving on into donald trump's businesses, into the negotiations over the trump tower moscow and to donald trump's payoffs to get the stories of his dalliances quashed by american media inc. we've moved on to a much broader constellation of issues. >> that's not exactly what i said. what i said was mueller, i think, based on what i know, had from the beginning a holistic theory of the case that involved a guy with his organization and its way of doing business, either affirmatively not caring about the law and seeking to break it, or being subject to exposure in other ways. >> and all we've had from mueller so far are indictments for perjury or lying to investigators or lobbying crimes that had nothing to do with the election. >> well, i will say this, mueller has been careful -- mueller clearly is careful to keep russia in his purview and to any other crimes, he has put -- because he doesn't want to look like he's violating his -- because he did have a very fairly narrow investigatory path. >> and issues with his business are connected to russia. >> they're connected,

find it exclusively at the home depot. >>> tonight the man who so the up the infamous trump tower meetingof team trump and russians is speaking out. before we talk to him, let me refresh your memory. on june 3rd, 2016, publicist rob goldstone who represented businessman and singer emin agalarov wrote in an e-mail, the crown prosecutor of russia met with his father aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful no your father. this is obviously very high level and sensitive information. don junior responded, writing in part, if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer. rob goldstone is the author of "pop stars, pageants, and presidents: how an e-mail trumped my life." thank you, sir, i appreciate you joining us here. many people see this letter as an attempt at collusion, right? they thought it was evidence of collusion. are they wrong? >> they are wrong. and people say to me, was i surprised by what we've learne

also today provided the copy of his testimony to congress in which he lied about the timing of trump tower moscow negotiations. now, the copy he provided today is the one marked up by president trump's attorneys. now, we do not know exactly what they changed. we do know that cohen says the edits were made to fit the president's russia narrative. >> he doesn't give you questions. he doesn't give you orders. he speaks in a code. and i understand the code, because i've been around him for a decade. >> code perhaps not a direct change. well now cohen's lawyer lanny davis is admitting tonight that cohen himself wrote the false statement, saying the trump tower moscow negotiations ended before the primaries instead of going through the election. as rudy guiliani has stated. okay, so they're saying cohen put that line in himself. but cohen is also saying tonight that ivanka trump's lawyer signed off on the testimony with that lie in it. which could be a major development. >> this is in the regular course of business. >> do you recall, there's a question on the number of abbreviation. do you recal

tell congress is that on august third twenty sixteen you were at a meeting during the campaign at trump tower with don jr trump son which stephen miller then a campaign advisor to trump with george nader a former blackwater colleague of yours who acts as a back channel to the saudis there moralities you're supposed to be convicted paedophile and also joel's imo an israeli expert on social media manipulation how come you didn't mention that meeting to congress given it's so relevant to their investigation. i did as part of the part of the investigations i certainly disclosed in the any meetings the very new i had on the congressional testimony you gave to the house we went through it you didn't mention anything about august twenty sixth meeting in trump tower they specifically asked you what context you have and you didn't answer that. i don't believe i was asked that question you asked whether any community for communications or contact with the campaign you said apart from writing papers putting up yard signs know. what you said i've got the transcript of the conversation here. i mean i migh

when you look at the meeting that followed not long thereafter at trump tower that was prefaced in writing by representation that the russian government was helping the trump campaign, that the dirt on hillary clinton, when you have the acceptance by the campaign, by the president's own son of that help, when you had a meeting and over and acted in furtherance of that at the trump tower, all the lies about the meeting, when you have even the recent revelations about the campaign chairman of the republican campaign chairman providing polling data and not topline polling data but evidently raw polling data to someone linked to russian intelligence, all of this is evidence of collusion and, of course, much, much more. the conversations between and communications between roger stone and wikileaks, the lies about those communications. all of this goes to the issue of collusion. now, what i find equally troubling is the fact that the president was trying to profit from the russians during the campaign. indeed, the moscow trump tower project, which according to the special counsel's office stood

russia are you listening to the trump tower meeting. wikileaks are going to dump some e-mails. trump is a criminal. they believe he committed crimes before coming to office. richard nixon -- two-thirds of america believes that donald trump are crooks. democratic kand dacandidates are right move. you don't need to make the case two years in how bad the guy is. he's today of any modern day president at 53%. jimmy carter at 39% and he lost reelection. i think democrats should make the case. you know why you should not vote for donald trump, sexest and racist and bigot. >> i agree with democrats, don't waste your time, let mueller report do its job. be responsible. we know 2018, that was a referendum. we made it clear. don't vote. we are saying no to trump and what he's about. >> do you agree with that? the reality is these democrats have to make an affirmative case for themselves. a lot of them are the potential jury. i mean it is what it is. >> i am less worried of the jury factor than i am. democrats have to be careful and as dean just said, they got to present a positive case. t

>> i did. >> there's no mention of the trump tower meeting in 2016. why not? they got the transcript wrong. >> so, this was about another meeting that erik prince had, i believe with some other representatives of other countries, in trump tower, the second so-called trump tower meeting, not with russians but with other foreign countries. based on what you heard there, is mr. prince fetelling the tru? >> he's not telling the truth on that interview. there is something wrong with our transcript. there was nothing wrong with the reporter who transcribed his testimony. he did not disclose that meeting to our committee. and as you can see from the published transcript of his interview, he was asked what kind of role he played, if any, in the campaign, and he said he had no role, apart from on his own submitting written papers, hanging a yard sign or making a contribution. and he was also asked about any substantive policy conversations that he might have had. so, his interview was certainly looks inconsistent with his testimony. bob mueller has that testimony alrea

there were issues with donald trump on the moscow trump tower. s son welcomed incriminating information or data about hillary clinton. trump and the campaign knew about the hacked e-mails that were stolen and released. so there is a lot of information about collusion and obstruction of justice. it may not rise to the level of an indictment. proof beyond a reasonable doubt. the special counsel may have concluded he has to abide by the department of justice office of legal counsel opinion. it is not a rule, but opinion, that a sitting president can't be indicted. we need to know a lot of that information. we have an oversight function in congress. we may want to propose new laws. >> i was watching last night at 6:00 p.m. when you were giving the first reaction to ari melber. i want to take a look at what you said. here it is. >> i think there is a strong possibility of additional indictments. including president trump's family. maybe not by the department of justice. but by other offices. >> sir, what specifically are you referring to there? >> the

pursue thed to possibility of building a trump tower in moscow during the campaign. he did not put it on ice, as he said he did. could that have influenced how he views vladimir putin and the statements he made about russia and the rejection he engaged in in terms of his own intelligence community. those are relevant topics. this is not a gotcha investigation. it is a broader look at this picture and trying to fill in lots of blanks. sheryl: a yes or no question. if you find that he violates a clause, it is -- is it an impeachable offense? rep. connolly: yes. how and when and will congress pursue impeachment if that is the full issue in front of us? it is concerning because it is a matter of the constitution, not new york statute -- it was written by our founders to deal with situations such as the one we face with donald trump. investigationsre on the other five committees that have some role in investigating the president. public opinion is hearing from president trump saying he was exonerated, declared completely free by the mueller report. i you concerned if demo

about a matter that was relevant to that proceeding and clearly the topic of the meeting and the trump tower would constitute something that is material to that. interview and he would have had to have specific intent to lie and i think it would be pretty memorable if you were at a meeting with uniting a israeli mossad and don jr at the trump tower hotel if you were to discuss iran policy or any other topic that would be a memorable meeting and erik prince is a person who runs large enterprises is a detail oriented individual. he can show some sort of medical calamity that he has not revealed to the public i think that he clearly would have specific intent which tends to be the hardest element for a prosecutor to prove because he obviously would have remembered this and must have therefore intentionally excluded it from his testimony so i think he's in considerable trouble so what do you think prince had to hide i mean why didn't he tell congress about his meeting at the trump tower back in august twenty sixth especially if as you say it was about a sensitive foreign policy issue like iran.

>> the message, of course, being the length of time that the trump tower/moscow project stayed and remained alive. >> jay sekulow called cohen's allegations that trump's lawyers edited or changed his statement to congress completely false. cnn senior congressional correspondent manu raju is on capitol hill. what more do we know about these documents and edits? >> reporter: yeah. we were told that michael cohen did provide those documents to the committee after his public testimony from last week in which he made that allegation saying that the president's attorneys, jay sekulow as well as abby lowell were involved in the preparation of that false testimony in 2017 in which he initially downplayed the role of the trump organization and candidate trump's effort to get that trump tower/moscow project moving forward. now from what we understand, these documents that he's provided show edits that were made to that testimony from the attorneys. it's unclear exactly what those edits are at this point, but they're intended to further explain what he said in that public session. now jay sekulow push

. >> like the trump tower meeting or the providing of private polling data while they were conducting a social media manipulation campaign aiding trump or the trump tower negotiations and there are many more are already in the public domain. what we don't have is the trump/mueller report. we have the barr book report and there is likely to be a lot more evidence of conspiracy, even if it doesn't rise to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. >> i want to put markers done in advance. my position is i don't know what's in that report. i am inclined to think there's not going to be a shocking distance between barr's summary and the report itself. >> my expectation is there will be more evidence of both conspiracy between the trump campaign and russians. and also more evidence of obstruction. number one, the barr book report, its summary of the mueller report says it did not exonerate the president. >> one of the few things it quotes is an explicit nonexoneration from mueller. >> and obstruction is fundamental here because it involves the hindering of investigation, which might hav

he was at the trump tower with russian emissaries. he knew the campaign was engaging in contacts with russia as russia was attacking. yet he goes out there and donald trump jr. did the exact same thing the exact same week. we had nothing to do with russia. donald trump said that while negotiating a $100 million deal and colluding with michael cohen to get help with that. forget about mueller for a second. we already know they're lying about interactions with a foreign adversary and covering up for it. malcolm's right. benedict arnold couldn't have dreamt of doing such an extensive power coverup and that should be enough for outrage, for congressional investigations, and for us to pound our fists every day and say we don't need crimes. >> you know what, sarah kendzior, he didn't have any of that. if it was nixon, he might not have resigned if he had it. >> that's certainly true. we have that as a crisis point. but, you know, the amount of evidence and the public domain is so vast, and one thing i would really encourage people to do is t

last week that the president's lawyers made changes to his previous testimon t aboutt scrapped trump tower project in moscow. >> there were changes made, additions. jay sepalo for one. there were several changes that were made including how we were going to handle that message, the message of course being the length of tim that the trump tower prospect stayed and remained alive. >> reporter: nbc news has not reviewed the alleged documents. cohen has pleaded guilty and lying to congress. the president's attorney jay sekulow firing back saying testimony that attorneys edited ment to ed his sta congress to alter the trump tower moscow negotiations is mpletely false. >> reporter: the white house is pointing us back to its previous comment on cohen's testimony saying it is, quote, laughable that anyone would take a l convicter like cohen at his word. >> kristin, thanks. >>> a devastating diagnosis revealed late wednesday by jeopardy host alex trebek. he is battling stage four pancreatic cancer. we get the latest from nbc's anne thompson. ♪ ♪ >> this is pa"jy." >> reporter: on "jeopardy" he is t

when i first went in for my interview, they asked me repeatedly about trump tower moscow. even when i left i said to my attorney, i said can you explain, i don't know anything aboutmoscow. i think they did that because i left the campaign in august and it didn't start until september. the only dealings i had is i was working for donald trump when he went to moscow for ms. universe. i didn't go on the trip, but when i saw the tweets like the putin tweet, but when he was talking about the trump tower, those are not things i wrote or suggested should be posted. >> some won't want to turn it over, what's your position? >> i think i am, but i'm going to let the other people review this. i don't think unless anyone contacted me, i don't believe i am. >> me let's go back to 50,000 feet. this part of the world what happened with wiki leaks and julian assange, whether or not donald trump knew about that or not. >> i think the russians gave him that material. i think he announced he would be releasing information about hillary clinton. i think he despised hillary clinton as well as

. >>> we're learning more details this morning about the so-called second trump tower meeting during 2016 campaign. this one also involving donald trump jr. other participants for that august 3rd, 2016 meeting including a israeli social media essentiallyist, republican donor with controversial ties to the middle east and emissary who led the saudi arabia and united arab emirates. last year the "new york times" reported that george nader said that included saudi arabia's crown prince mbs they were eager to help donald trump win the election. the paper reported another participant was erik prince who arranged that meeting. in an interview last friday prince admitted to participating in that trump tower meeting, however before the house intelligence committee in 2017 prince failed to mention that he was actually involved saying he had no formal communication with the trump campaign beyond quote sending papers on foreign policy to steve bannon. watch this. >> how come you didn't mention not meeting to congress given it's relevant to their investigation? >> i did as part of the investigati

we know that there was a meeting at the trump tower with russian operatives. we know that there were at least 17 campaign or administration officials with contact with russia and they lied about it. reason heforget the was appointed was because the attorney general at the time did not tell the truth in his confirmation hearing as attorney general about his own russian contact. therefore, he was required by doj procedures to recuse himself from the russia investigation. i think there is a lot more to learn. this is a four page summary. written up by the attorney general, an appointee of donald trump, somebody who wrote a memo questioning the mueller investigation. partyre are some in your who say it is time to move on. there are members to say that they want to get on with the agenda. there are many people loyal to him in the district that want to get going on health care and the agenda. how do you balance that? >> have been working on the agenda since we took over a. it is not going to stop. there is a silver lining in this summary. it moves the agenda to the

indeed, the moscow/trump tower project, which according to the special counsel's office, stood to make donald trump and his family hundreds of millions of dollars, that would have been the most lucrative deal of his life. and it was concealed from the public. that is such a clear and present conflicts of interest and danger to the country, and the president's response when the deception was revealed was why should i miss out on a business opportunity because i might have lost the election. it may very well be the view of the president of the united states that why should he miss out on the deal after he leaves office, to make all that money from the russians. after all he might not be reelected. that would certainly explain how he seems to be able to criticize everyone in the world with the exception of vladimir putin, and we may have to add kim jong un to the list. on the collusion issue, as i said from the very beginning, the crime is conspiracy. the reason why collusion is an important word is because it shouldn't be that the bar shouldn't be simply that the president of the united

the message, of course, being the length of time that the trump tower/moscow project stayed and remained alive. >> reporter: nbc news has not d viewed the alleged documents. cohen has pleadeguilty to tax and financial crimes and lying to congress, and republicans have attacked cohen's credibility. tonight the president's attorney, jay sekulow, firing back, saying testimony by michael cohen that attorneys for the president edited or changed atement to congress to alter the duration of the trump tower/mosc negotiations is completely false. and tonight the white house is pointing us back to its previous comment on cohen's testimony saying iis quote laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like .hen at his wo lester? >> all right, kristen welker at the white house, thank you. >>> as that plays out, back at the white house president trump is reacting tonight to t alarming images broken by nbc news showing apparent rapid rebuilding of a launch site in north korea. andrea mitchell is in our washington newsroom. andrea, what is the reaction to all this?rd >> lester, yes we showed these