veselnitskaya was in the u.s.time of the meeting as part of her campaign to fight the magnitsky act which back lists dozens of human rights abusers. it was named for a russian lawyer who died mysteriously in prison after uncovering $230 million of fraud by russian officials. american businessman bill browder was veselnitskaya's boss. >> she's been trying to repeal sanctions legislation which putin finds probably the most personally offensive of anything that's come out of the west in the last ten years. >> reporter: the kremlin was so outraged it banned adoptions of russian children by americans. it has denied any association with veselnitskaya saying we don't know who that is and we can't monitor all meetings russian lawyers have both in russia and abroad. veselnitskaya got the meeting through rob goldstone, a music agent, who has been involved with trump's pageant in moscow in 2015. it was one of goldstone's clients, russian pop star emin agalarov who requested the meeting with veselnitskaya. he once wished him

also there, natalia veselnitskaya, a russian lawyer. and there was an interpreter. trump junior says nothing came of the meeting. friday on capitol hill, former trump campaign operative michael caputo met with the house intelligence committee blind closed door and then together to the media. >> with growing demands for information, the trump white house is expanding its internal level team with russian lawyer ty cob who will tackle requests from congress and the media. >> and at this point, the different legal teams are trying to sort out more discipline as it's been described to me. so you'll have the white house attorney who will be dealing with some issues, the president's outside personal council. and find the lanes where family members can talk to each other, where the lawyers can strategize with one another but they don't want them talking to these issues altogether. they're trying to make sure they handle these issues properly so they're not strategizing out of the presence of their lawyers, trying to keep things a little more controlled than what we have see

. >> reporter: natalia veselnitskaya says she didn't have any dirt on hillary clinton.ussian government says they don't even know who she is. but like most things kremlin, there's more to that story. veselnitskaya, who speaks no english, represents a wealthy kremlin-connected family in moscow, the katsyvs. they have lobbied hard to overturn u.s. sanctions against russian officials accused of money laundering. the 2012 law enraged russian president vladimir putin so much that he banned americans from adopting russian children. >> she's like the consigliere of a very prominent russian family. she's not just lawyer, as she's been described. she's a operator. >> reporter: a hedge fundabler bill browder called her a formidable adversary. she said she wouldn't have been in the u.s. lobbying without the kremlin's blessing. >> they don't give out business cards, you're a kremlin lawyer, go to washington and do this. >> reporter: after the meeting last june, veselnitskaya went to washington, organized a screening of a film at the museum, and was in the first row of a congression

acknowledged he took the meeting with russian attorney natalia veselnitskaya because she may have had useful information about hillary clinton and possible ties to russia. >> i've been reading about scandals the people were probably under reporting for a long time so maybe it was something that had to do with one of those things. this was her, perhaps involvement with the russian government. >> trump, jr. play down the encounter, saying that natalia veselnitskaya revealed nothing about hillary clinton and instead wanted to talk about russian adoptions. the president praised the appearance, tweeting this morning: "my son donald did a good job last night. he was open, transparent and innocent. this is the greatest witch hunt in political history. sad!" the matter came up on capitol hill today, lindsey graham pushing fbi nominee christopher wray into directly contradicting the president prayed >> do you consider this endeavor a witch"! i do not consider director mueller to be on witch hunt. >> white house printable deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders backed up her boss basicall

natalia veselnitskaya. >> natalia veselnitskaya. >> is she working for the russians? >> she is. >> so, in june 2016, allegedly she is meeting with don junior, in the -- and the premise of the meeting was russian government is behind trump, and you need to meet with these people, they can help your campaign -- and donald trump says, i love it. and they met with this lady. is that what is supposed to have happened in june question mark >> yes. >> so she is working with the russians, and she is trying to communicate with us that the russians are on trump's side to rid have an email to that effect. is it common -- trump's side. you have an email to that effect. >> yes. >> is it common for russians to play both sides? >> they are in the business of -- vladimir putin is in the business of trying to create chaos everywhere. >> so you have looked at the discourse and you believe fusion gps is actually backed by the russians. they are trying to find dirt on trump, and you believe that the russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya was working for the russians and was introduced to d

somebody on the veselnitskaya side, ken? >> we believe it was on the veselnitskaya side, that we have been told. we don't know the identify of the person. >> got it. kelly o'donnell, any idea or what is the white house saying about the fact that more revelations keep popping up? are they evolving their story once again? >> not talking any further about it. the president has just returned to the united states might be the first time that air force one went direct paris to newark. that's what happened this afternoon and the president will spend the weekend at his bedminster, new jersey, home. the white house is taking some new steps though, katy. that is to bring in an additional lawyer into the white house to be a part of the team to handle a number of the kinds of requests that typically go to a white house counsel's office. so to allow don mcgahn who has been in the job to deal with the administration's own agenda, but to bring in man named ty cobb. if you heard that name before, he is related to the georgia peach of baseba

veselnitskaya was a representative of the russian governmentm veselnitskaya was a representative of thenment. it was not whether she turned out to be what she said she was it is the fact it was offered and he accepted it with no surprise and did not report it as something suspicious that a foreign power was getting involved in an election campaign. what you don't know with all respect is whether or not there was letting down by the campaign as to whether miss veselnitskaya was actually a russian government official, just because she used the words in the e—mail does not mean she was a russian government official. a lot more on that story on the website as well as analysis about where this leaves the investigations. just a day after declaring victory in mosul, iraqi and coalition forces have been accused of using excessive force by the human rights group amnesty international. this is the report on amnesty international‘s website. among other things, it claims that between february and june of this year, nearly 6000 civilians were killed as a result of attacks by iraqi and us—led coaliti

>> natalia veselnitskaya? >> can i just call her natalia? >> you can call her whatever you want. >> okay. she working for the russians too? >> she's definitely working for the russians no question. >> so here's the deal in june of last year. allegedly she is meeting with don jr. and the premise of the meeting was the russian government's behind trump and you need to meet with these people. they can help your campaign and don jr. said i love it. and they met with this lady. is that the general idea of what happen in june? >> that's apparently what was reported happened in june, yes. >> she's working for the russians. and she's trying to communicate with her oligarch friends that the russians are on trump's side. we got an e-mail to that effect. >> right. yes. >> is it common for russia to play both sides against the middle? >> yes. so what you need to understand about the russians is there is no ideology at all. they're just in the business of vladimir putin is in the business of trying to create chaos everywhere. >> so you have looked at thi

but the film maker along with natalia veselnitskaya did still get a meeting with rower backer later thatvening. dinner with him at the capitol hill club in washington. republican operative lanny wielz who organized the dinner tells cnn they discussed the film and magnitsky. the next day, behind closed doors, house majority leader kevin mccarthy joked, quote, there's two people i think putin pays, rower backer and trump. he said it was a joke, no one believes that. he declined to make him available for an interview when we went there today and didn't respond to our repeated calls and e-mails seeking comment. >>> now, the daily beast first reported rower backer's ties to natalia veselnitskaya and the antimagnitsky movement. rower backer's meetings in russia have also raised eyebrows and back in 2012 the fbi approached him and warned him that russian spies were trying to recruit him. that is according to "the new york times". the congressman also has met with this operative akmechin in berlin this past april to discuss sanctions. brianna? >> fascinating report, brian todd. thank you so much

natalia veselnitskaya. >> she working for the russians?. >> definitely. question. says she is meeting with don, jr. and the promise of the meeting is the russian government behind trompe you need to meet with these people they can help your campaign and the trump says lyle lovett and they met with this lady. is that the general idea in june?. >> apparently that is what is reported. >> she works for the russians and she tries to communicate with her oligarch friends that the russians are on trump's side. so is it common for russia to play both sides?. >> yes. what you need to understand there is no ideology there justin the business of trying to create chaos everywhere. >> see you believe fusion gps is backed by the russians and that natalia veselnitskaya is working for a the russians being introduced to don, jr. by a business partner save the russian government is behind you. that is interesting. so the dnc do you have any doubt the russian soul those documents?. >> i rely on the 17 intelligence agencies of the united states government. >> is that something they wo

veselnitskaya's name on a list of foreign contacts that mr. kushner was required to submit to the fbi to obtain a security clearance. that is a direct contradiction of president trump's story. president trump's story has been that he didn't know anything about this meeting with natalia veselnitskaya until a couple of days ago, until basically last friday when "the new york times" started calling about it. but michael isikoff is reporting tonight that president trump's lawyers, the president's personal lawyers knew about donald trump jr.'s e-mails about the meeting weeks ago. weeks ago, not a couple of days ago. sources told yahoo news that marc kasowitz, the president's chief lawyer in the russia investigation, and alan garten were both informed about the e-mails in the third week of june after they were discovered by lawyers for kushner. now, we told you here already that we know about these e-mails because jared kushner's lawyers found them. that's how we know about them. the first people to read these e-mails after they were sent last year

the biggest browder bombshell is his claim that natalia veselnitskaya, who said that she has no ties to the kremlin, is in fact an agent of the russian government who was trying to convince the trim campaign to change u.s. policy on russia. veselnitskaya has been a vocal opponent of the magnitsky act, specifically the ban on adoption, but browder says in her meeting with term, jr., she was acting as putin's proxy to repeal the act saying the meeting was "an attempt by the russian government to repeal sanctions that annoy them by going to the next possible president of the united states." for now the judiciary committee only plans on hearing from the department of justice and bill browder, but senator dianne feinstein has called on donald trump junior himself to also testify. >> martha: thank you very much. here now is bill browder with his side of the story. good evening to you and thank you for joining us tonigh tonight. you worked extensively in russia, had huge business and investments there at one point and all of that went south when you feel corruption was uncovered by you and

that's where natalia veselnitskaya enters the picture. she was working to have the magnitsky act overturned, meeting with anyone in the u.s. who might listen, perhaps thinking that could be donald trump, jr. natalia veselnitskaya was once married to a former russian deputy transportation minister, postings on her facebook page show she does have an interest in american politics. at least one posting is anti-president obama. others are against former deputy attorney general sally yates, who refused to support president trump's travel ban. and another post is critical of the women's march. meanwhile, "the new york times," citing an anonymous source, reports her activities and those she associated with, have caught the attention of the fbi. though cnn has not confirmed that. it's unclear where natalia veselnitskaya is right now. though she said in a statement to "the new york times" that "nothing at all about the presidential campaign was discussed at the trump tower meeting." she said she never acted on behalf of the russian government. ran

the russian veselnitskaya and the russian rinat akmetshin aforementioned. the translator was in the meeting. someone who has done work for the state department bringing the total up to six known attendees. and it is not known if rob goldstone, the british born who help set up the meeting was there. or if there were other attendees we have yet to learn about. the lobbyist told the associated press, he recognized paul manafort, he said there were others who didn't know them so possibly still some shoes yet to drop. over the past few days, the donald trump jr. defenders, that nothing came of it. that's what the president claimed yesterday. >> in the case of don, he listened. they talked about adoption and some things. adoption wasn't even part of campaign. but nothing happened with the meeting today. zero happen. >> that's not what the lobbyist at the center of all this said. according to him, the russian lawyer brought with her a plastic fold we are printed out dpomts detail what had she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the democratic national commit

s meeting with natalia veselnitskaya. we are getting more information about her.e hill" reports the russian lawyer was initially cleared into the united states by the justice department under extraordinary circumstances before she embarked on a lobbying campaign. this revelation means it was the obama justice department that enabled the most intriguing figure in the russia-trump investigation to enter the country without a visa. we are going to learn more about her connections as time goes on. let's bring in our panel. michael crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for political, editor-in-chief of lifezette laura ingraham and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. >> i'm not impressed by the story about the lawyer. i think it's a red herring the size of a whale. she was a pawn. it doesn't change the fact of the scandal, the email received from an intermediary by donald trump, jr. said a russian government lawyer. the president was wrong. a russian government lawyer would be coming with dirt on hillary and that the kremlin was supporting his campaign and

veselnitskaya told the journal, quote, i personally know the general prosecutor. in the course of my investigation, i shared information with him. so that meeting with the upper echelons of the trump campaign in june of last year, today we learned that it also included a former russian counterintelligence officer who nobody thought to mention before. he tells the associated press that he and natalia veselnitskaya left documents about hillary clinton behind at that meeting for the trump campaign to continue to review. we didn't know that before. we also now know that the russian lawyer who was sent from moscow as the emissary to deliver this derogatory information on hillary clinton, she now admits that she was working with one of the top officials in vladimir putin's government. the seagull guy, uri chaca, one of the highest ranking officials and most recognizable officials in putin's government. so one of the things we have learned just over the course of this week, if we didn't know it before, is don't listen to what they say. don't listen to what they say about

meeting now looks a lot more significant. >> reporter: trump junior's lawyer now tells nbc news veselnitskaya was accompanied by two people but didn't name them. it's the latest twist in this ever-evolving drama just three days after the younger trump dismissed concerns that more revelations would follow. >> as far as you're concerned, this is all of it. >> this is everything. this is everything. >> the fact that they failed to mention the presence of this russian american lobbyist is only going to further pique the interest of special counsel robert mueller and other investigators. >> reporter: veselnitskaya this week told nbc news she brought a two-page document that included a brief description of what she believed were questionable contributions to the dnc. and that trump junior asked whether she had financial records to prove it. >> translator: my answer was no, that it was never my intention to collect any financial records to that end. >> reporter: trump junior says no meaningful information was exchanged, and the president's repeatedly defended his son. >> most people would have taken

and natalia veselnitskaya, her mode of operation in the united states is very clear. she has come here to campaign against the so-called magnitsky act an landmark human rights bill aimed at sanctioning russian officials and citizens who had conspired to defraud the russian taxpayer of $230 million and cover it up with a host of crimes, including possibly torture and murder. over which the attorney who uncovered it. this is not a woman who is acting as a freelance or some kind of rogue agent. if she's here in the united states, it is because she was sent here by the russian government. and indeed "the wall street journal" reported yesterday that she has a relationship with russia's prosecutor-general, yuri chaika. >> we're talking about different investigative and legal roads for son donald junior and son-in-law, jared kushner, both of them in the room. the camp has said, perhaps they were naive. they didn't realize they should have gone to higher authorities, that's a very tough explanation for anyone to digest. >> right. >> but as you look at them, in legal terms, wh

trump junior said veselnitskaya's (vessel-nit-sky-ah) statements were "vague" and that they quickly changed subjects...also attending the meeting senior advisor jared kushner and then campaign chairman paul manaforttrump jr. said the meeting was set up by an acquaintance he knew from the 2013 miss universe pageant in moscow and that there was no further contact bob baer/former cia officer "the russians have wanted to get into our elections since the mid-90's, i've seen it and it's something we should have been more attentive about and certainly the trump campaign should have been aware of this."danny cevallos/cnn legal analyst"being asked to come to a meeting, stepping into that meeting and only for the first time learning of a proposal or information that may itself be criminal, is not itself criminal."veselnitskaya (vessel-nit-sky-ah) told the new york times that she and trump never discussed the election.both trump junior, and a spokesman for the president's legal team say president trump was not aware of this meeting. i'm john lorinc reporting. ( mark ) firefighters in contra costa coun

natalia veselnitskaya was a lawyer for a russian businessman, dennis, accused by federal prosecutorsf laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate transactions. the government bypassed the normal visa process and gave a type of extraordinary permission to 10er the country called immigration parole the documents state. that is discretionary act the statute allows the attorney general to do in extraordinary circumstances. democrats say republicans may be overplaying their hand. >> clearly someone in the united states government had to make an exception and what we've learned or what has been reported is that, that was granted in order to allow her to come to the united states to defend her client in a major international trial in new york. that seems like a reasonable use of the parole option. reporter: after the june trump tower meeting with donald trump, jr., jared kushner, then campaign chairman paul manafort, veselnitskaya heads to capitol hill where she is seen in the background of this house foreign affairs committee hearing. not clear what her immigration parole sta

ms veselnitskaya denies that. here she is speaking to nbc earlier today. have you ever worked for the russian government? to have connections to the russian government? translation: no. they had the impression, it appears that they were going to be told some information that you had about the d&c. how did they get that impression? translation: it's possible they were looking for such information and wanted it so badly. we're looking at this from washington, and what we have here and is at the smoking gun so many are looking for? it's hard to tell what a smoking gun is these days. every time we think we've got some major revelation, donald trump seems to find a way of surviving at. this is very big and points to what donald trump jnr was thinking is very big and points to what donald trumpjnr was thinking when he went to this meeting, and he thought he was meeting with someone who was a russian government lawyer, thatis who was a russian government lawyer, that is the way it had been presented, a natalia veselnitskaya denies that. he was posted get informat

setting up that meeting with lawyer natalia veselnitskaya. which was a bust. nonetheless, on june 21st, kushner amended to show his attendance at that meeting. he said he was going to tell president trump. we don't know if he did. >> nothing happened from the meeting. zero happened from the meeting. >> reporter: even though the president calls the russian lawyer meeting meaningless, he's saying he learned of it not in june but days ago. >> he was not aware of the meeting. did not attend the meeting and was only informed about the e-mails very recently by this counsel. >> reporter: kushner interest in that meeting with sharp contacts not initially disclosed because as an adviser all meetings must be listed. >> it seems strange that those meetings were conveniently forgotten by mr. kkouchner. >> reporter: the russian lawyer says neither kushner or paul manafort played much of a role. . amid all of the late revelations, democrats are fuming that kushner was given security clearance at all. >> anybody else applying for clearance with these facts

he agreed to a meeting with russian attorney natalia veselnitskaya on june 9th. she appeared to attend a house for enough foreign affairs meeting. the hearing took place june 14th 2016. we do not know why she was at that hearing, but these are public hearings that anyone can attend. she has denied having ties to the russian government and trump, jr., has reiterated that as well. the meeting took place in june on june 9th according to trump, jr., 2016. the white house is also told us that president trump did not know about this meeting yesterday during an off-camera press gaggle, sarah huckabee sanders maintains that there was no collusion between the campaign and russia. >> julie: thank you. >> eric: meanwhile, that russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya says she has no information on hillary clinton and she was not sent by the kremlin. she spoke to nbc news. >> i never knew who else would be attending the meeting. all i knew was that mr. donald trump, jr., was willing to meet with me. i spoke with a young gentleman for probably the first 7-10 minutes, and then he

trump junior said veselnitskaya's (vessel-nit-sky-ah) statements were "vague" and that they quickly changed.also attending the meeting senior advisor jared kushner and then campaign chairman paul manaforttrump jr. said the meeting was set up by an acquaintance he knew from the 2013 miss universe pageant in moscow and that there was no further contact bob baer/former cia officer "the russians have wanted to get into our elections since the mid-90's, i've seen it and it's something we should have been more attentive about and certainly the trump campaign should have been aware of this."danny cevallos/cnn legal analyst"being asked to come to a meeting, stepping into that meeting and only for the first time learning of a proposal or information that may itself be criminal, is not itself criminal."veselnitskaya (vessel-nit-sky-ah) told the new york times that she and trump never discussed the election.both trump junior, and a spokesman for the president's legal team say president trump was not aware of this meeting. i'm john lorinc reporting. (tiffany) several people including children are recov

i mean, veselnitskaya first of all says she has no compromising information that she could offer aboutary clinton to the trump campaign. despite those e-mails showing that donald trump jr. at least was very keen to receive that kind of sensitive information from her. what this lawyer says that she had this meeting to lobby for the lifting of the u.s. legislation designed to punish suspected russian human rights abusers and corrupt officials. she's also lobbying against the ban on adoptions by american families from the kremlin. just as those explosive e-mails became public, take a listen to what she had to say. >> translator: when it was suggested that i meet with donald trump jr. i met him in a private situation. it was a private meeting not related at all to the fact that he was the son of the candidate. >> reporter: well, veselnitskaya of course denying again that she had that compromising information. she also denied she was sent by the kremlin as part of this campaign to meddle in the u.s. election. the kremlin for that part say they've never even heard of veselnitskaya. >> as to

as for veselnitskaya, we reached out and have been in communication with her.ot agreed to an interview. she did give a statement to the new york times. he does not represent the russian government and she also insisted she did not discuss the presidential campaign during her meeting with donald trump junior in june of 2016. what we do know is there was legislation from 2012 that included sanctions first against russians, when it was expanded, who were implicated in human rights abuses and in large scale corruption. in response to this, the russian government banned the u.s. adoption of russian children, and she was very much involved in this. one other bit that we know about her or these ties are that bob goldstone is who is a president of an entertainment company, he told cnn he helped organize the meeting with veselnitskaya as a request to a client named emin agalarov who had business with donald trump senior with the miss universe pageant of 2013 and president trump actually appeared in a music video of this singer, agalarov. >> the president as we know agre

over his meeting with russian lawyers natalia veselnitskaya. >> i think from a practical standpoint, most people would've taken that meeting. it's called opposition research or even research into your opponents. i've only been in politics for two years but i've had many people call up. we have information on this factor or this person. frankly, hillary. that's very standard in politics. politics is not the nicest business in the world but it's very standard. >> eric: also signing off over a new report detailing how the obama-era department of justice let natalia veselnitskaya in the country. listen to this. >> the lawyer that went to the meeting, she was in the halls of congress also. somebody said that her visa or passport to come into the country was approved by attorney general lynch. maybe that's wrong. i just heard that a little while ago but i was surprised to hear that. she was here because of lidge. >> eric: , "the hill" reports that natalia veselnitskaya had been turned down for a visa and 2015 but granted special immigration parole by loretta lynch so she could help defend

he tells "the associated press" that he and natalia veselnitskaya left documents about hillary clinton behind at that meeting for the trump campaign to continue to review. we didn't know that before. we also now know that the russian lawyer who was sent from moscow as the emissary to deliver this derogatory information on hillary clinton, she now admits that she was working with one of the top officials in vladimir putin's government. the sea gull guy. one of the highest ranking officials and most recognizable officials in putin's government. so one of the things that we have learned just over the course of this week, if we didn't know it before, is don't listen to what they say. don't listen to what they say about their own behave your. i mean it is interesting to listen to the trump white house say things because then you can accurately describe the things that they have said. you can quote them. that's data of a form. but it is a mistake to take statements from this white house as an accurate representation of what has happened in the world of what they did, of who was in a meeting,

today, veselnitskaya insisted she was not a kremlin emissary. were you carrying any message or any information from anyone in the russian government to the trump campaign? >> no. no. >> reporter: you seriously think that if the russian confederation could do something like that, they would do it through me? she says, come on, it's just funny. >> and terry moran joins from moscow, and i know you reported the lawyer denies she has a connection to the russian government, saying, quote, i'm not interested in politics, but how does she explain images like this one sitting in the front row at the senate hearing in washington, d.c.? >> reporter: it's a striking image, and she says she was publicly advocating her position on u.s. sanctions. that's not something she would do, she says, if she were a spy. >> terry moran in moscow. terry, thank you. >>> now to the fireworks on capitol hill today. president trump's pick to replace comey in the fbi. front and center, asked about loyalty to the president, and asked about what the president said just today tha

well, veselnitskaya gave an exclusive interview last week and laid out her version of the meeting.says they came to talk about these sanctions and their belief they're based on a fraud, a misrepresentation. what's coming into sharper focus is they also came with information that they believe involved shady contributions to the democratic national committee. they may have had a document that they either left or showed to the trump team. the trump team didn't think very much of this information, didn't think it was significant. >> do we know what was in this document? >> we have an idea that it had to do with allegations about a hedge fund manager pouring money into the democratic national committee. it's not even clear the allegations were these were legal contributions. it doesn't seem to have amounted to much, alex. interestingly, current and former intelligence officials say don't focus on the meeting. that's not the issue. the interesting thing is the russian government in these e-mails offered to help the trump campaign and the trump campaign essentially took them up on the off

music publicist robert goldstone arranged the meeting and natalia veselnitska veselnitskaya, a prominent father and son team in russia. they featured the future president in his music video. the president says he only became aware of the june 2016 meeting recently. >> the president, and this has been averted, was not aware of the meeting. >> reporter: they paid $50,000 to the law firm now representing donald trump jr. just days before he amended his security clearance form, including that meeting with natalia veselnitskaya and one day after cnn asked about it. the meeting didn't become public knowledge for nearly two weeks, but it raises questions whether maybe trump's campaign team knew the disclosure would cause problems. >> the individual that's being questioned or subject to questioning, donald trump jr., retains counsel. it involved an incident that involved a campaign in the meeting when he was doing work for the came pain, paign, so th is not an unusual setup at all. >> we're learning that the house committee will hold the testimony of susan rice. that was originally scheduled for

he only added natalia veselnitskaya's on the final update. senate intelligence committee members say kushner and donald trump, jr. will be called to testify. but first, they are requesting documents from both men. >> we feel it's very important that we have all the appropriate information so we can ask the right questions. >> reporter: kushner's attorneys say he will cooperate with investigators. seth lemon for cbs news, the white house. >>> still ahead, a nightmare situation for some brides across the country when a popular dressmaker closes up shop. the scramble now ahead of the big day. >> plus, it's a staple in many american homes. now health concerns about macaroni and cheese. a bridal retailer shutdown its stores unexpectedly. >>> wedding planning is stressful enough and now many brides-to-be are furious after a bridal retailer closed unexpectedly. customers are seeing signs like this after the company shut down nationwide stores yesterday. brides and bridesmaids were contacted and told to pick up their dresses immediately but some who

the russian government attorney is apparently a reference to this woman, natalia veselnitskaya. donald trump jr. was quite reseptemberir receptive to that idea. great, he writes. it will most likely be paul mana port, the campaign boss, my brother-in-law and me. this is clear evidence that the highest level members of the trump campaign were willing to sit with individuals who had been billed, at the very least, as representing the russian government in order to get damaging information about hillary clinton. it suggests on its face a willingness to collude with russia, a foreign adversary of the u.s. whether that collusion happened or not, we do not know. trump jr. denies it. we have a lot of big questions now about what any of this means, and our coverage kicks off with our senior white house correspondent jeff zelany. jeff, donald trump jr. not giving any interviews. he's only willing to talk on his father's favorite channel. is there anything from the white house attempting to explain any of this e-mail chain? >> reporter: the biggest voice at the white house, the president

and natalia veselnitskaya is relevant to the investigation. russian court records obtained by cnn show veselnitskaya represented a military unit tied to one of the country's intelligence agencies in a moscow property dispute from 2005 to 2013. veselnitskaya has previously denied that she was linked to the kremlin. special counsel's office declined to comment in a white house spokeswoman told cnn they do not comment on internal communications. this comes as the trump administration appears to be looking for ways to undercut the investigation. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> reporter: "the new york times" reports the trump legal team is conducting a wide ranging search for conflicts of interest as the president's people publicly question political biases. >> these significant donations by members of the team, they clearly wanted the other person to win. now, whether that prejudices them one way or the other in the investigation remains to be seen, but it is relevant information for people to have. >> reporter: justice department ru

but the public statements that have been made, particularly about the meeting with the lawyer of veselnitskaya, they have all contradicted each other. just keeps dribbling out with new and different facts, in the same way that we just learned about a new russia meeting between the president and putin over at the g20. so, this will be an opportunity for folks to begin to get their stories straight and to tell, as we like to say, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. >> the committee has been coordinating with robert mueller, the special counsel -- the default position by congress has been to sort of make sure that everyone is staying in their lane and to defer to robert mueller when it comes to that. >> absolutely. >> so, this is testimony from paul manafort and donald trump, jr. that was okayed by the special counsel. how do you feel about the level of cooperation that you've been getting from bob mueller's team and from republicans, too? >> i think it's good. we're still in the opening stages, so we'll see how things go. but i do think that bob recognizes that congress has a

government sponsored putin directed operation, this is not some private initiative of natalia veselnitskayahat about some of the other players who were present at that meeting who we now learned were present at that meeting? >> the main other suspicious character is a man by the name of rinat akhmetshin, former or soviet military intelligence officer, that organization has the acronym gru. if you remember back to the obama sanctions against hacking in december, the gru is one of the organizations that was sanctioned. rinat akhmetshin settled in the united states, received american citizenship and works on a number of russian government projects including this one. he was paid handsomely to go out in the corridors of power in washington to hire a number of very influential lobbyists at a high rate, for a lot of money to try to withdraw and repeal the magnetski act, he was the main washington insider that was working for natalia veselnitskaya, working for the russian interests in having the magnetski act repealed. >> thank you very much, bill. thank you for being with us today. >> thank you.

turns out, she's a kremlin-connected lawyer named natalia veselnitskaya. ( laughter ) although she also answers to her bond-girl name, "corruption galore." ( laughter ) ( bond music ) that sound cue was not indicated in the script here. generally, they tell me when that's going to come. ( laughter ) now, remember, don, jr. was there to receive damaging information about hillary clinton, but he was disappointed by natalia veselnitskaya, saying her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. so, obviously, she was hired as a trump speechwriter. ( cheers and applause ) instead, natalia veselnitskaya changed the subject to russian adoption, and don, jr. says, "it became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting." so the excuse is i tried to collude, but i didn't get anything. ( applause ) it's like saying, "yes your honor, i broke into the house, but there was nothing worth stealing. so if you think about it, they were robbing me." ( laughter ) ( applause ) and don, jr. is careful to poin