well, the spy posing in new york as a veb bank officer, was arrested by the f.b.i. in 2015. he pleaded guilty to spying and was sentenced to 30 months, but we learned today that he is being released this saturday, having served ten months. the house intelligence committee is also investigating russian connections into the trump campaign. today the republican committee chairman revealed that he had a secret meeting on the investigation with a secret source on the white house grounds. we have more about that from jeff pegues. >> reporter: devin nunes, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, said he was at the white house grounds last tuesday to meet a source and look at highly classified information in a secure location. >> i have been working this for a long time with many different sources and needed a place that i could actually finally go because i knew what i was looking for and i could actually get access to what i needed to see. >> reporter: tuesday's visit to the white house complex was the start of several days of unusual meetings and conflicting disclosures

the veb itself was sanctioned by the u.s.ssia's 2014 annexation of crimea. >> i had nothing to do with it. i have nothing to do with russia. i told you. i have no deals there. i have no anything. >> reporter: the president has long denied ties to russia, but the investigation even closer to the oval office. they say he acted as a conduit to foreign governments during the transition. >> he met with countless individuals. that was part of his job. that was part of his role. and he executed it completely as he was supposed to. >> reporter: and so he doesn't believe he owes the american public an explanation about this. >> doing his job? you're acting as though something nevfarious. >> if there's nothing there, we'll say nothing there. if there is something there, we'll follow the intel wherever it leads. >> also on capitol hill, republicans continue to play the blame game over their failure to repeal and replace the affordable care act. after seven years of promises, the gop came up empty. so what's next? don dahler has a look.

in 2016, another veb official, yevgeny burokov used his jock to uisguise efforts to recruit u.s. spice for russia. the veb was sanctioned by the government after the annexation of crimea. >> i had nothing to do with it. i have nothing to do with russia. i have to deals there. i have nothing there. >> reporter: the president has o ng denied ties to russia, but the kushner disclosure moved the russia enquiry even closer to the oval office. white house press secretary sean neicer said kushner acted as a conduit to foreign governments during the transition. >> he met with countless individuals. that was part of his job. that was part of his role. he executed it completely as he was supposed to. >> reporter: so he doesn't believe he owes the american public an explanation? >> for what, doing his job? 'r i'm just asking. >> you're acting as though there is something nefarious. >> reporter: virginia's mark warner is the top democrat on the committee. >> if there is nothing there, the administration should want us to get this right and we'll say nothing there. if there is something there

he is chairman of veb a state run bank under sanctions after meddling in ukraine. >> jared did a job during the transition. in the campaign where he was a conduit and to leaders. and that's until we had a state department function place for people to go. remember, we had a delay in some of these things and that was his role. >> the russians have a different view, veb says kushner met gorkov as his role as head of the real estate empire not as a trump aide. he's been trying to attract financing for a building project in manhattan, all raised that he used his perch on transition to conduct private business with a sanctioned company. >> more context on the trump administration widening entanglement with russia let's go to russia. fred, good morning to you, the key question here this morning, is this russian bank in a position to finance a kushner real estate project in new york? >> reporter: good morning, dave. theoretically they certain would be in position considering that's one of the things this bank does is fund infrastructure projects mostly on behalf of the government but also de

veb said he met as head of kushner real estate empire. he's been trying to vie for a building project in manhattan, this is all that he used his perch to conduct private business with a sanctioned company. >> this all came after agreeing to testify at a hearing, the time of the testimony still being worked out. we know he met once with the russian am babassador kislyak. >> the sanctioned banks very well known there's a long list of banks sanctioned by the u.s. government for the ukraine situation, that's an interesting development to me, why meeting with a sanctioned bank? >> there might be a perfectly proper excuse but why would you meet with a sanctioned bank? let's go live to moscow and bring in cnn's international correspondent fred -- lean back on who exactly this bank is? >> reporter: first of all, good morning, it really is the economic development bank of russia and a bank very close to the kremlin and vladimir putin first of all the bank is state owned, financed a lot of russias very big and glitzy project. the entire infrastruct

he met with the chairman of veb.s a state owned bank that has deep ties to the kremlin and to russia's security service. he was put in the job by vladimir putin and he is a product of the russian academy of the federal security service, which trains russia's spies. of course the obama administration slapp epe epe eps on veb. the meetings -- the meeting adds to the questions about what the russians were up to with all their efforts to reach out to people close to president trump. >> how is the white house characterizing kushner's meeting? >> they defend kushner's meeting. they say all of this was above board. listen to sean spicer describe the meeting. >> jared did a job during the transition in the campaign where he was a conduit to leaders. that's until we had a state department in place for people to go. remember, we had a delay in some of the things. that was his role. he wants to make sure he is clear about the role he played and who he talked to. that's it. >> that doesn't quite settle the issue. veb confirmed t

veb bank was under u.s.ions for three years, generally simply meeting with an entity under sanctions isn't necessarily a problem but doing business with it might be. when kushner met with gorkov he was still ceo of kushner companies. at the time the company was true to attract financing for a building project in manhattan. >> jared kushner's position within the trump transition and administration was well known to the people who he was doing some sort of business with, so that's where you get the issue of gray area and lines blurring between what somebody does in his or her private capacity as a business person and what somebody is doing in their public capacity as an official or as an adviser to the most powerful man in the world. >> reporter: veb's bank strategy posted to its website highlights its tight relationship with the russian government stating together with the government we will select the most promising growth areas in the economy. a kremlin spokesman says the russian government was not aware of

and the bank itself, veb bank, is very important for the kremlin as well.rastructure projects, finances them for the kremlin, especially the infrastructure projects around the sochi olympics in 2014. but apparently, it was also responsible for bailing out some oligarchs, especially after the sanctions kicked in. and the bank itself, poppy, has been under u.s. sanction since 2014, so quite a long time, ever since russia annexed crimea, and it does have some holdings, apparently, as well in the east of ukraine, poppy. >> interesting. a bank under sanctions, a banker with close ties to the kremlin meeting with jared kushner. the kremlin now claims they didn't know the meeting happened. is that believable? we will wait and see. frederik pleitgen in moscow, thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. we are waiting on house speaker paul ryan, due to address the press after a closed-door meeting with house republicans. we'll bring that to you the minute it happens. and we're getting new information from inside iraq, where more than 100 civilians were killed in

it was the veb bank that foot the bill for the sochi olympics which cost an estimated $50 billion.it is in the business of making true the dreams of the russian president. >>> a top u.s. commander is now telling reporters there was a, quote, unquote, fair chance that that u.s. load coalition was responsible for the air strike that killed dozens of civilians in iraq. we will show you what's happening there on the ground. cnn is there. >>> breaking news out of iraq. the top u.s. commander says there is a fair chance that a u.s. air strike in west mosul killed civilians 11 days ago. we are learn thg as we are getting devastating new video into cnn showing all this destruction. iraqi officials say the bodies of 112 men, women, and children were pulled from the rubble. many hid in their homes following repeated instruction to stay put. cnn's arwa day man went into mosul near the neighborhood absolutely devastated by that strike. >> the destruction here in western mosul appears to be significantly more vast and widespread than it was in the eastern side. you also see that there are a lot

veb was placed on the u.s. sanctions list following the annexization of crimea. >>> questions surfaced about the source of the intelligence trump seized on last week as vindication of his wiretap claims. hallie jackson has more in this report. >> reporter: tonight, a new plot twist in the surveillance saga consuming congress and the white house. >> if this was a movie, you would turn it off because you wouldn't believe it's believable. >> reporter: the latest bombshell coming from devin nunes, the republican head of the house intelligence committee who first revealed that u.s. spies may have swept up communications involving the trump transition team. it's called incidental collection, and while nunes said there is no evidence to back the president's claim trump tower was wiretapped by president obama, president trump said he felt vindicated anyway. >> i somewhat do, i must tell you i somewhat do. i very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found. >> reporter: turns out, one day before he briefed

like sper bank, veb is also controlled by the russian government. the prime minister on the supervisory bank, in twine that's the bank that paid $4.5 billion to the billionaire who put paul manafort on a $10 million a year retainer to promote the interests of putin's government in the united states and around the world. the oligarch closest to putin for a long period recently. putin shoveled $4.5 billion to him through that bank. this bank is basically putin's to do with as he wishes. he funds his favorite oligarchs. he uses it to mess with countries he wants to mess with. for example, if he wants to mess with ukraine, he'll have this bank drop $8 billion into the hands of his patterns for them to grab a bunch of important assets in ukraine. so then russia's president's friends own all these critical assets in ukraine, that means ukraine is tied even closer to russia and to him. ukraine has even less hope for magnet its independence. that's what he uses this bank for. the sochi olympics, he funded the stuff through this bank. it's his bank. he contr

veb bank was under u.s. sanctions for years. meeting with an entity under ankss isn't necessarily a problem but doing business with it might be. when kushner met with gore cough he was ceo of kushner companies p. at the time the company was trying to find buzing in manhattan. >> the business administration was well known to the people he was doing some sort of business with. so that's where you get the issue of gray area and lines blurring between what somebody does in his or her private capacity as a business person whaen somebody is doing in their public capacity as an official or adviser to the most powerful man in the world. >> vev's bank strategy posting toity website, stating together with the government we will select the most promising growth areas in the economy. a kremlin spokesman says the russian government was notware of the meeting between kushner and gore cough. the senate of the intelligence committee richard burr tells cnn that jared kushner will likely testify under oath but privately to senators. republican se

. >> interesting as we stay tuned to the story, jared kushner, what was his role with that veb bank. >> 20 witnesses will be debriefed in that senate hearing. thanks for that matthew. secretary of state rex tillerson is in turkey. we're going to go to is sttanbu next. >>> this morning secretary of state rex tillerson is in turkey with meetings and events all day long. he sat down with the turkish president. this is a fight in which turkey plays a very crucial role. good morning to you, a crucial relationship at this time between the united states and turkey. >> reporter: well, good morning. that's right, turkey is a key u.s.-nato ally, it's inconceivable to think the united states would be able to fight isis without some turkish cooperation. for example the united states uses an air base in turkey to launch a lot of bombing runs, that's done with turkish permission. a lot of frayed nerves have taken place over the last year simply because of a number of events that have unfolded. the united states has chose to partner with kurdish groups in syria as they begin pinch and isolate isis

adviser and son-in-law jared kushner and the executives of the russian state development bank known as veb. president obama imposed the sanctions in 2014 over russia's military actions in ukraine. the bank disclosed the meeting on monday and said it was with kushner as the head of kushner companies. this information contradicts the statements of white house press secretary sean spicer who said kushner was acting as a truck advisor during the meeting, not as a private developer. the revelations came on the same day kushner agreed to testify to the senate committee investigating ties between the trump campaign and russia during the 2016 election. mayors across the country are fighting back against attorney general jeff sessions' threats that sanctuary cities would lose federal funding unless the cities require local police cooperate with federal immigration agents carrying out trump's mass deportation plans. on monday, attorney general jeff sessions ordered all cities to comply or risk losing billions , of dollars in n grants to law enforcement agencies. urging states and local jurisdictions

treasury designated veb. >> you say taking the meeting with the bank alone was a mistake. >> yeah. >>pened as a result of the meeting? >> if you absolutely want to do it, or you felt you had to do it, again, be for the cothcomin disclose the information. the fact it is leaking in the media goes to the notion that the trump administration has something to hide. >> this is meeting than meeting with the russian ambassador. >> yes. >> thank you, michael. thanks to you. our international viewers for watching. "cnn newsroom" is next. for u.s. viewers, we have headlines. what do you say? let's get after it. >>> the investigation has ground to a halt. >> they asked you to cancel the hearing. >> nothing has been canceled. >> evidence of a coverup. >> what it says we don't want that testimony. >> the reality is, hold on. at some point, report the facts. >> i have confidence in devin nunes. >> i think senators get their way, this is the first successful filibuster. >> if nominee can't meet the 60 vote standard, you don't change the rule. you change the standard. >> nobody ever told me that polit

this is a bank called veb. it's a very closely tied to the kremlin and the russian government. and jared kushner met with the chief of that bank. his name is sergey and we've had various explanations as to why he met with him according to the white house this was a routine part of him serving as essentially the top conduit for meet shz with foreign officials during the trump transition. we have seen a statement provided by the new york times and they say that they met with kushner in his capacity as a developer, as the president of his own development team in new york. so the question is what -- which story is it? we know the white house has had trouble explaining all these meetings with russian officials. we've even tried to get to the bottom of this in the past week and they've sort of been very reluctant to provide all this information. but this could pose a new legal problem for jared kushner, don. simply because if he's using a transition meeting, an official government meeting for his own business purposes, that could raise some legal questions for him and for the white h

more interesting than that is the active deputy representative for new york of veb is a man currently serving 30 months in ohio because he was a russian spy nabbed by the fbi two years ago. running on wall street trying to hoover analysts and confidential information. it's not even this bank is under sanctions. the head of the bank is kgb. one of those senior executives in new york was arrested for being kgb. did jared kushner know about this? >> we don't know. we don't know if he was knowledgeable of it or what they spoke about. wouldn't you think, david k. johnson, if you're going to do this, right, and you're going to be in the inner circle of the highest levels in government, shouldn't you know all these figures? shouldn't you do your homework about these figures? >> at the absolute most benign interpretation of this, >> jared kushner's behavior is so reckless, so thoughtless. it is inconceivable he has access to the president and secrets in the white house. this is just beyond belief. this bank is a front for russian efforts to undermine other countries' economics. it had a nest

his day job when he wasn't being a russian spy is he was the number two official for this bank called veb. it is a bank that is also controlled by the russian government. the prime minister is on the supervise ri board of the bank. this is the bank that put putin famously uses for bail outs and stra teej k assistance. in 2009 that's the bank that paid $4.5 billion to him. he is the billionaire who allege bid put manafort to promote the interest of putin around the world. putin shovelled $4.5 billion through that bank. this is basically put in's in's with as he wishes. if he wants to mess with ukraine he'll have this bank drop $8 billion into the hands of partners to go grab important assets in ukraine. russia's president's friends own all of these critical assets. that means ukraine is tied closer to russia and to him. they have less hope of adhoochig independence. the financially disasterous olympics, they funded all of this stuff through this bank. it is his bank. he controls it. his prime minister is on the board of this bank. the new chairman is the guy who started off his career in k

of the employees pleaded guilty in a new york court last year to spying on america while posing as a vebnker. gore kov himself graduated from the academy of the federal security service in moscow, the russian school for agents of the fsb, formerly known, of course, as the k gb. >> if there's anything we've learned is that the russians are not our friends. they cannot be trusted. >> reporter: senator collins saying the russianings can't be trusted, articulating the concerns and suspicions of many when it comes to this russian contact. the key will be what was discussed by jared kushner in his discussion with sergei gorkov. was it as the white house insists, just the legitimate business of the trump transition? back to you, erin. >> thank you very much, matthew. former deputy of homeland security and our senior april analyst. steve, you know a lot about this. the head of the bank graduated from an institution where russian spies are trained. the bank is known for being a cover for espionage. how deep do the ties go? >> very deep, erin. all that pedigree is something you see among russian g

office is also the office that prosecuted the number two official at a russian state-owned bank valued veb. we talked about this last night. the new york branch of this russian bank, the guy the number two guy in charge there was at the same time he was working at that bank also secretly a russian spy. working at this bank in new york as his cover story but really he appears to have been an agent of russian intelligence. and we know that because preet bharara's office prosecuted for it. we now know that the director of that bank, the gentleman on the right here is the guy who inexplicably met with the president's son-in-law, with jared kushner in a meeting not disclosed until yesterday's "new york times." we can fill in a few more details on that meeting or on the man who met with jared kushner. this head of this russian-owned -- russian state-owned bank who had this convicted russian spy as the number two official in the new york office. this guy heading up that bank met with jared kushner in either december or january during the transition. we now know that he was personally appointed to

mounting about kushner's meeting in december with the chairman of the state sponsored russian bank veb. >> the committee will conduct an interview with mr. kushner when the committee decides it's time to set a date because we know exactly the scope of what needs to be asked of mr. kushner. >> reporter: sources tell cnn the committee wants to hear from christopher steele. >> he and i are tapping into everything we can to understand how we increase our reach. >> reporter: the house intel committee at a standstill, all hear iings this week canceled. one house republican says the senate should take over. >> this sounds like they're kind of getting into a stalemate position, paralyzed. the senate is moving on a better trajectory. we're going to have to rely on a senate for a report on this. >> reporter: democrats continue to call for chairman nunes's recusal. >> the hairman will have to find a way to lift this cloud. otherwise, we're going to need someone else to preside over this. i think we need someone else to preside over this if we're going to this credibly. >> reporter: nunes says he

mounting about kushner's meeting in december with the chairman of the state-sponsored russian bank veb sergey gorkov. >> the committee will conduct an interview with mr. kushner when we set a date because we know exactly the scope what have needs to be asked of mr. curb ter. >> reporter: sources tell cnn the committee wants to hear from christopher steele, the former british intelligence officer who compiled a dossier alleging collusion between the trump campaign and russia. >> we're not going to get into names that are on our list, but i can assure you that it's lengthy. mark and i have both agreed that we're willing to issue subpoenas. it's tough to make a subpoena go outside of the united states, so we understand the limitations, but i -- i only say this. that he and i are tapping into everything that we can to understand how we increase our reach. >> reporter: the house intel committee meanwhile at a standstill. all hearings this week were cancelled. at least one house republican says the senate should take over. >> it sounds to me like they are kind of getting into a stalemate pos

veb has been under u.s. sanctions since 2014. this morning a kremlin spokesman called the kushner meeting routine business. senate committee members will ask kushner about his meeting with russia's u.s. ambassador sergey kislyak. >> president trump turns to the environment and jobs and will sign an executive order erasing many of former president obama's climate regulations. margaret brennan is at the white house with new rules for coal mining. >> good morning. the white house is trying to shift back focus to campaign promises it can keep. and while he's previously called climate change a hoax, now white house officials say president trump believes it. despite his change of heart, today he'll repeal obama era regulations to limited. >> global warming and that, a lot of it is a hoax. >> reporter: candidate donald trump often called climate change a fake concept. >> we're going to cancel the paris climate agreement. >> reporter: and promised to scratch the obama era climate change agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions in more