about his contacts with a russian connected to the intelligence services. in the months after the election, trump and senior officials repeatedly denied any contacts took place. there was no collusion between us and russia. i watched the news this morning reporter: tonight there s renewed focus on the trump team s dealings with moscow after the special counsel s office told a court it sees significance in michael cohen negotiating to build a the in russia while the kremlin was meddling in the u.s. election. mueller s team alleging the trump organization s project in russia, worth hundreds of millions of dollars and continued as trump ran for president, was a lucrative business opportunity that sought and likely required the assistance of the russian government. meanwhile, ahead of paul manafort s sentencing, the special counsel s office revealed manafort continued to reach out to the trump administration after he was indicted and struck a plea deal and then lied about it. why he
and more with senate judiciary member chris coons. our correspondents and analysts are standing by. let s go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. the president s plan to replace john kelly, his chief of staff, have now blown up in his face. reporter: they ve blown up and he is furious about it, wolf. president trump stayed behind closed doors for much of the day, venting frustrations about the russia investigation and scrambling to find a new chief of staff after announcing john kelly will be leaving that post before he even settled in on a replacement. a source close to the president says he is, quote, super that one contender for the job, the vice president s chief of staff, nick ayers, suddenly pulled himself out of the running without the president having a plan b. president trump is trying to convince the world where there is smoke there is no fire. the president is downplaying the latest revelations in the russia investigation, mocking any notion of collusion wi
around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the rich eisen show . you re in the situation room. we re following breaking news on the search for a new chief of staff. multiple sources telling cnn mr. trump is angry and feels humiliated after he was turned down by the vice president s chief of staff, nick ayers. it is possible but not clear if maria butina agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors or if she could advance the russia investigation, but there s no doubt that the legal pressure on the president and his inner circle is ratcheting higher as the gravity of robert mueller s newest revelations sinks in. by cnn s count, contacts between russia and 16 close trump associates have now been exposed. this hour i will talk about that
happening now, courting a spy. an accused russian operative charged with infiltrating the gop and the nra appears set to strike a plea bill. will she cooperate with prosecutors in the russia investigation? russian interaction. we re tracking the growing list of key figures from trump world whose contacts with the russians have been revealed. tonight the number is 16 and counting as mueller prepares to drop more bombshells. felonies and lies. federal prosecutors now have implicated the president in two crimes, and they re digging deeper tonight, focusing in on mr. trump s business and his family. what will they uncover? and not if. a top contender to replace john kelly as white house chief of staff just says no. now mr. trump is said to be furious about how this is all playing out. we re going to tell you what we re learning and who he is blaming. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and
consideration. i m worried about general kelly leaving the white house. i imagine he was one of the people attempting to convince the president not to fire mueller. reporter: earlier today the president tried to compare himself to former president barack obama when it comes to these allegations about campaign finance improprieties. let s put this up on screen and show you the tweet from earlier today. the president saying earlier today that his case is just like obama s. one thing we should point out, wolf, the president tried to compare his payment to the porn star, stormy daniels, to this fine that former president obama had to pay after the 2018 campaign, but that is hardly an appropriate comparison as obama was fined by the federal election commission for not reporting donors. as we know, in president trump s case, his former attorney, michael cohen, has pleaded guilty to a crime, saying that the president ordered him to do this, that he acted at mr. trump s direction. those ar