Page 140 - Compounds News Today

With developing proposals for the lifting of economic sanctions, return of diplomatic compounds and other steps to relieve tensions with moscow, very much in line with what weve heard from the president, himself, when he talked about wanting jim comey out of the fbi, to relieve pressure on this russia relationship. kelly o., whatd the white house have to say about that question today? >> reporter: well, in addition to referring it to the department of state, they are saying some of the reporting...

Compounds, other steps. and this was something that was done very quietly. it wasnt publicly announced. there were taskings to the state department to come up with proposals to relieve tensions with moscow. people in the state department began to hear about this. >> whats it tell you? you got the report, but whats it tell you? >> well, it tells you that they were trying to do something for -- >> was it a payoff for getting him elected? >> you can look at it two ways. i mean obviously trump didnt...

I have to say i find even more striking even after everything that happened in the last couple of months, in mike flynns departure and the stories about jared kushner and the meetings with kislyak, trump still seems determined to push ahead with a better relation with russia. to me the amazing thing although that michael isikoff story is wonderful and revealing, its the fact that were talking about these diplomatic compounds, that trump is going to meet with putin in july, that the statements fr...

The then senator did not have any private or signed conversations with any russian officials at the may flower hotel. meanwhile, the house intelligence committee issued seven new subpoenas including three seeking details of the purported unmasking of u.s. drents by norm national security susan raise, john brennan and former u.n. ambassador samantha power. the congressional source case the subpoenas came directly from devin nunes despite his pledge to remove himself from the russia investigation....

An impact on the electoral campaign in any country. >> vladimir putin insisting russia has never engaged in hacking, but 17 u.s. intelligence agencies say thats not so. they say that it isnt just russia hacking, but putin himself who was involved. and then this news. despite the hacking, president trump is now considering returning two obama administration seized russian diplomatic compounds, one in maryland the other in new york, returning them to russia. last week the russian embassy tweeting,...

Didnt re-brand it, ive met a lot of ceos in my lifetime. ceo sociopaths. they come in, whatever is there, its wrong, has to be destroyed and thats the only way they can validate their existence. thats why he would not re-brand anything or retool anything because it was all wrong before i got there. i worked for those ceos and theyre very dangerous. >> all right. were going to take a short break. when we come back, comey under oath and answering questions about trumps request for him to ease up...

Intelligence related purposes. which is obviously a big deal. the obama administration gave them only 24 hours to pack their things and get out. they physically blocked anyone from russia from entering those houses, how serious this was at the time. tonight, i can report at the top of the show, the russians may be getting another chance getting those houses in the united states back. the trump administration quote moving towards handing back to russia those two compounds. for that, the u.s. want...

Or not. >> well, what my colleagues are reporting is that the trump administration is in talks with russia right now to return these two properties. these are compounds in new york and maryland that are used as retreats, if you will, for russian officials in the u.s. they were seized by the obama administration back in december for retaliation for the election tampering, and trump wants to give it back to russia. its actually not clear at this point what, if anything, the united states would get...

In the election. >> reporter: thats right, and the important thing that stuck out to me in that reporting, the very good reporting by my colleagues here, is that its not clear that the united states is going to get anything in return for that deal. so the trump administration appears to be willing to give back those two compounds, one in maryland and one in new york to the russians that had been seized by the obama administration. but russia is not coming to the table to give us anything back. i...

Moscows interference in the 2016 presidential election. then president barack obama said december 29th that the compounds were being used by russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes, and gave russia 24 hours to vacate them. these are the russian governments playpens here in the united states. they are luxury retreats where russian diplomats play tennis, swim, and sail and apparently plan their attacks on american democracy. the other big breaking news story tonight in the investigatio...