Donald trump jr. Released a string of is these during the president ial campaign. This follows a report about these exchanges. Though most of the communications were one sided, trump junior did interact on a number of occasions. Wikileaks told him, quote, a the r. A. C. Is a recycled proiraq war pac. We have guessed the password, it is putintrump. Done responded, off the record, i dont know who that is boo but ill ask around, according to te atlantic he did ask around, including trumps soninlaw jared kushner, telling them wikileaks had reached out. We dont know in what context he was saying that, but kushner forwarded that email onto hope hicks. In a separate exchange, done junior reached out october 23rd
asking wikileaks about an impending release writing whats behind the wednesday leak i keep reading about . Wikileaks didnt respond, but just four days later it released John Podestas emails on the same day as youll recall the u. S. Intelligence community condemned russia for using wikileaks to release the stolen emails. Even is it that, wikileaks reached out again suggesting done junior tweet out a link to his formals to search the leaked podesta emails. John jury tweeted out this. For those who had the time to read about the hypocrisy, all the wikileaks emails are right here. And he included the link that wikileaks had given him. Pam, explain what the campaign was saying about wikileaks during this time period. So wikileaks was communicating with done junior. And behind the scenes, done junior tweeted out the link. Mike pence said on fox news the campaign was not in cahoots with wikileaks. Take a listen. Final question about wikileaks, and that is some suggested on the left that all this bad stuff about hillary, nothing p. A. Bad about trump. But your campaign is in a ka hoots with wikileaks. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think all of us have, you know, have concerns about wikileaks over the years, and its just the reality of america. Life today and the wider world, but it doesnt change the fact that you see the National Media chasing after unstanchuated allegations. So just in the last hour, the have thes spokesperson released a statement that reads the Vice President was never aware of anyone associated with the
campaign being in contact with wikileak wikileaks. Donald trump jr. Released these exchanges tonight after the atlantic story broke. Any more reaction from him or his legal team . His attorney did release a at the same time before he actually released these exchanges. His attorney said we can say with confidence we have no concerns about these documents and any concerns about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum. As youll recall, done junior went behind cloed doors with the judiciary committee. At that time they did not have these exchanges. But someone asked him have you ever had communications with wikileaks, and the source familiar says he applied, yes, i have, and then talked about these messages. After that, the direct messages were handed over to congress. Pamela brown, thank you very much. This reporting about donald trump jr. , what does it tell you, and does it surprise you that donald trump jr. Was willing to direct message with somebody he didnt know on the other side of a direct message from wikileaks weather, it was Julian Assange and think hes having offtherecord discussions . For a businessman, doesnt that just seem moronic . It takes your breath away, anderson. When i read the story earlier theengs, i was shaking my head. I have actually defaulted to the explanation of inexperience and naivete when it comes to some of the campaigns behavior with regard to russia and wikileaks. Theres probably still a fair amount of that, but i have to tell you, these continued discovers and particularly this one, i have to begin to ask the
question were there any limits . Was there any sense of appropriateness . Was there any sense of propriety . Were there any lines beyond which the campaign would not go . Im not talking about it as a legal matter. Ive got no expertise on that. Im asking a question of ethics and american political culture. And there doesnt seem to have been any limits here. The fact that according to the atlantic on october 12th, wikileaks reaches out to donald trump jr. Thanking him for his father, saying something nice about them. I think he said i love wikileaks at rally, and suggesting his dad tweeted a link with the podesta emails, donald trump jr. Doesnt respond, but 15 minutes later from the time the message is evidence is, donald trump sr. Tweets. And then two days later trump
junior tweets out the very link the wikileaks asked him to tweet out. Is it possible its a coincidence that 15 minutes after wikileaks tweets his son that his father does it . To answer your question specifically, is it possible . Sure. I suppose thats possible. Do i believe that to be the case . I dont think so. There are two things that come out. One from the wikileaks side. Very important, anderson. They are quite clear they are in this business to support the donald trump campaign. Theres no other purpose revealed in the wikileaks side of the exchange of communications. And then there are several examples in your time line, the one you just brought up being one of them, certainly examples where the campaign clearly synchronized its actions with the actions of wikileaks. Wikileaks even then was known to be hostile to the United Statesand has already been pointed out in your show tonight. Mike pompeo has declared it to be a hostile nonstate intelligence service. This is the third Person Associated with the trump team that reportedly reached out to wikileaks. Roger stone said he was communicating with cambridge an lit ca. Maybe collusion with a small c in the political cultural sense. Anderson, lets be very candid. The campaign was talking to wikileaks about stolen goods, stolen american privacy. Wikileaks had emails for which they were not the intended recipient. Someone stole them and now were going to violate american privacy and the campaign was,
frankly, excited about that, the continuous quote during the campaign, i love wikileaks. Marco rubio pointed out during the campaign thats not a good idea. Were going to regret saying that someday, and i think hes right. If the October 12th Communication where wikileaks said your dad should tweet this thing out and 15 minutes later donald trump sr. Tweets out basically saying the Dishonest Media isnt paying attention, if you believe that donald trump jr. Contacted his dad or was with his dad and said, oh, wikileaks is pushing this, then the idea that donald trump jr. Did not contact his dad after sitting with a russian attorney allegedly from the Kremlin Informing donald trump jr. That the kremlin is supporting his dads campaigns and has date of birth on hillary clinton, the idea that he doesnt tell his father that seems hard to believe if one believes that he
did tell his father 15 minutes after wikileaks texted him. Added evidence to that, the current president , the candidate at that time made a reference during that time period about making the speech within a week that would reveal an awful lot of dirt on hillary clinton, so theres more truly Circumstantial Evidence that there was synchronization between the campaign and wikileaks. Remember, this was a group wikileaks whose leader was likely already under indictment in the United States of america for what he had done previously with american secrets. I have to ask you about the president s comments that both were sympathetic to Vladimir PutinsPoint Of View calling three officials at the time political hacks. You were concerned about President Trump had to say that you actually called the cia,
your former agency to confirm they stood by their assessment about russia and the 2016 election. Yeah, anderson, i suspected that somebody from the network would call me and i wanted to have a view. And i really wanted to be able to say the agency stood by the Intelligence Community assessment. So i contacted them Early Saturday Morning and very quickly they responded very clearly the agency and director pompeo stood by the assessment that the russians did it. The president walked that back a little bit the next day, but you know, anderson, at the end of that exchange he said he has faith in the Intelligence Community as currentlily constituted, and that statement burned up most of the good will that the front end of the president s statement created when he said i believe american intelligence. General hayden, appreciate your time. Now the panel. Ana in ana, what do you make of these communications . It makes you ask the question what does mueller know we still dont know . Every single day a shoe seems to drop. Its hard to justify done junior didnt tell his father about the meeting. Donald trump was in that tower the same day the meeting occurred. The fact that he tweeted 15 minutes after his son got that tweet makes people question whether or not that was accurate. Also remember wikileaks came across as an objective news site. We got from these direct messages with don junior that why doesnt he release tax returns through us so we can put it out so it did you want look like were pushing antihillary
clinton stuff that were against both candidates at times. They contact with donald trump jr. After the meeting breaks saying im sorry for what youre going through, why dont you give us your emails, well put them out, and that will help us, make us look more credible, but donald trump jr. Ignores that. Exactly. What i would really focus on as well is how quickly the Vice President s office responded. Back in june he hired his personal attorney. This is second time that he said something hast not true. Within an hour you hear a response from him. He has his own attorney that he hired in june with regards to any matters related to the russia investigation. Hes taking this seriously. Were just waiting for the president to respond as well. Was this smart for donald trump jr. To be in communications with wikileaks . Were talking about speculation. Lets wait for the facts to bear
out. Its important for mueller to conduct his investigation. Was that smart . If i was in communication i would tell people. Which he did. He sent out the email and it just continued. Doesnt show donald trump was being proactive. Thats not a direct. I think he sends it to Kellyanne Conway and steve bannon. You want to disclose when someone comes forward with information thats suspect. No one called kauld the fbi. Thats their Vetting Campaign . You have question their judgment sfwluf to question the information that came in, but you have to acknowledge the fact that don did triefrl, reach out to Senior Management and say these people are reaching out to
me. And the manager goes from there. He continued to communicate with them. He was communicating events, news of the day. That conversation had been in the news for two days. Hes not going to disclose whats in the Common Thread of the conversation. Brian . You worked on campaigns. Does this make sense to you . One damning revelation does not a criminal case make. The Trump Tower Meeting itself isnt going to produce an indictment. The bad facts are piling up. The territory available for trump defenders to make a case is shrinking by the day. This is another clear indication of the campaigns willingness to collude. Donald trump jr. Is eager to engage in this chain with wikileaks. Its fluctuation the campaigns actions. Donald trump jr. Is basically taking orders about his twitter
activity, not to mention the candidate himself touting wikileaks in the moments after this tweet was received. It widens the circle of people potentially indicated. So all those people i suspect theyve been brought into the grand jury or given an interview already. The circle has widened, the more of these bad facts that come out, theyre only incriminating, not exculpatory. It suggests they have a lot to hide. Jason, does it feel to you like every now and then we learn more and more about communications that donald trump jr. Had . When mueller who has access to all the emails, what else there might be . I feel like were viewing everything that happened in 2016 through a 2017 lens. When were talking about these dates, there was a lot of back and forth and People Werent Sure who was behind the wikileaks. One of the things to keep in mind, you get an outreach from wikileaks, these guys clearly have a lot of tactics and techniques theyre using online. You dont want to miss these guys off, so you wouldnt want to go and blow them off, fine, ill check and play nice. Why would you pick a fight with wikileaks in that moment when you know theyre involved with all this stuff. At that point in the campaign, the only thing we had seen with the fbi is they were basically, from the view of the campaign, seemed like they were in secretary clintons pocket. He went that happened with the fbi and the doj with loretta lynch, that didnt seem like the safest place to go. Im on twitter and i got direct messages from people i dont know. You dont have to respond. You dont have to im sure some nice people or nasty people have reached out to me. You can just ignore them. If you get an email from wikileaks and youre not a
reporter, youre on a campaign, and theres stuff floating out there, its not an we didnt have to respond. He couldnt just pretend, sorry, wikileaks, i never got your message. And then he cant he can mute them. At one point he said what is this news of a potential leak im hearing about. It went beyond it didnt seem like a relationship he was trying to develop or foster. Through all of this theres nothing that don junior did illegal here. Im not seeing anything that was at all illegal and i havent heard in Fact Panelists or experts that have come on seems like hes getting unfairly beat. Up you would want a guy running an International Business to be responding to anonymous people who are direct messaging him and telling them this conversations off the record . For a guy whos in International Business, i know nothing about business, i couldnt run the cooperation he runs, that seems moronic to me. That goes to your earlier point that they viewed themselves as a news agency, otherwise thats why he let me tell you how republicans viewed Julian Assange, they viewed him as a traitor and a National Security threat. This is the part that board they the most. We knew about russia that theyre dr. Dao trying to tear america apart, race, everything. And the part where they direct message don junior and say if your dad loses it would be nice if he didnt concede and challenged the media and other types, saying that the game was rigged. What theyre trying to do, like russian cutout, i dont know how directly involved russia is, but it seals like this could have been very bad for america if
trump lost and refused to concede. It would have torn the country apart even more. Later, the growing calls from Washington Republicans for their Senate Candidate in alabama, roy moore to leave the race. Each year sarah climbs 58,007 steps. Thats the height of mount everest. Because each day she chooses to take the stairs. At work, at home. Even on the escalator. That can be hard on her lower body, so now she does it with dr. Scholls orthotics. Clinically proven to relieve and prevent foot, knee or lower back pain, by reducing the shock and stress that travel up her body with every step she takes. So keep on climbing, sarah. Youre killing it. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. It can detect a threat using ai,
and respond 60 times faster. It lets you know where your data lives, down to the very server. It keeps your insights from prying eyes, so theyre used by no one else but you. It. Is. The cloud. The ibm cloud. The cloud thats designed for your data. Ai ready. Secure to the core. The ibm cloud is the cloud for business. Yours. My hygi. A mouthwash. O try. So i tried crest. It does so much more than give me fresh breath. Crest prohealth mouthwash provides all. Of these benefits to help you get better dental checkups. Go pro with crest mouthwash. Checkup . Nailed it
the amazing new iphone 8 is at at t. And we know youll love it. Because we know you want more. More great Camera Features and more power. And more than just unlimited data, we give you unlimited plans with hbo included for life. Because you deserve more entertainment. And more spokespeople. Talking like this, saying the word more. At t. Its time for more. Am i too close . I feel like im too close. Get the iphone 8 and with all at t unlimited plans, get hbo for life. Only from at t. Julian assange has weighed in on the news. He tweeted, i cannot confirm the alleged dms from donald trump jr. Wikileaks doesnt keep such records and it clearly doesnt have the full context. However, even those published by the atlantic showed that one, wikileaks loves its pending publications. Number two, wikileaks can be effective at convincing even highprofessional people that it is their interest to promote links to its publications. Its the kind of stuff where
you say you cant make this stuff up. He is the weakest link and also the one that the russian lawyer contacted to say, hey, i got dirt that we can share with you theres obviously a sense that were dealing with twiddle dumb. Hi, we have something to tell you, the simple ways that they talk, the language, says they thought going after trump junior was an effective fishing mechanism, and it worked. I think the overwhelming amount of Circumstantial Evidence means you have to suspend disbelief. It goes back to the point that this Mushroom Cloud keeps growing and growing and its not going away. And at some point bob muellers going to come out with the facts. Brian . I would say this. Less than two weeks ago you had senator feinstein asked does she
collusion and her answer was no. So