Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Kate Bolduan 20170530

Now, one source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centered around whether the russians had leverage within trumps inner circle. The source does say the intercepted communications suggested to u. S. Intelligence that russians believed they had the ability to influence the administration through that derogatory information. But the source is privy to the descriptions of the communications written by u. S. Intelligence did caution that the russian claims to each other could have been exaggerated or even made up. Now, the details of the communication, it sheds some new light on information u. S. Intelligence received about russian claims of influence and the contents of the conversations made clear to u. S. Officials that russia was considering ways to influence the election, even if their claims did turn out to be false. Now, as cnn first reported, the u. S. Intercepted discussions of russian officials, bragging about cultivating these relationships with Trump Campaign aides, including trumps First National security adviser, michael flynn, all to influence trump. And then following cnns report, the New York Times said that Trumps Campaign chairman, paul manafort, was also discussed. All of this coming from intelligence and congressional sources. Kate . Right, and so, do we know, jessica, who the russians were specifically talking about in terms of this derogatory information . Reporter well, you know, none of the specific details, none of the sources would actually say which specific trump aides were discussed, but one of the officials said that the Intelligence Report actually masked the american names. And despite that, though, it was clear that conversations did revolve around the Trump Campaign team in general, and another source, they wouldnt give specifics, citing the classified nature of the information. Now, as for the white house, they are giving a comment today. Theyre telling cnn this. They say, this is yet another round of false and unverified claims made by Anonymous Sources to smear the president. The reality is, a review of the president s income from the last ten years showed he had virtually no financial ties at all. There appears to be moe limit to which the president s political opponents will go to perpetuate this false narrative, including illegally leaking classified material. They continue to say, all this does is play into the hands of our adversaries and put our country at risk. The office of the director of the National Intelligence and fbi, theyre not commenting. And of course, the president himself has insisted on multiple occasions that he has no financial dealings with russia. And its clearly very tough to know, since this new investigation is kind of really just getting its feet under it, but is this part of the current investigation now . Yeah, this is all part of this. The fbi investigation is into the russian meddling in the u. S. Election. As we know, recently taken over by special counsel robert mueller, and it includes seeking answers as to whether there was any coordination with associates of trump examining those alleged financial dealings of key Trump Associates. So this is all part of it, but the fbi would not comment on whether any of the claims discussed in those intercepted have, in fact, been verified. Its important to note, by the time trump took office, questions about some of his aides financial dealings with russian entities, those were already under investigation, kate. Thats right. Thats right. Jessica, great to see you. Thank you so much for laying it out for us. A lot more to come on this. Joining me to discuss this new, very interesting information is cnn politics reporter and editor at large Chris Cillizza and former chief legal officer at the cia, john rizzo. He is also author of company man about his 34 years at the agency. Great to see you both. Thanks for being here. John, let me ask you, just a gut check, if you will. Russian government officials discussing potentially derogatory information about then president ial candidate trump and his top aides. As someone who spent a career dealing in intelligence, do you believe them . Do i believe the reports accurate . No, the russians. Do you believe the russians in what theyd be discussing . Not necessarily. I mean, as jessica reported, this could have been, you know, one of three things one it was actually true and they did have derogatory information, two, it was disinformation, they knew it was going to get to u. S. Ears, and three, frankly, based on my experience, it could be a couple russian operatives just sort of puffing to each other. You know, i mean, seeing the potential there and sort of blueskying that, gee, you know, this is during the campaign, the controversy about mr. Trumps taxes and mr. Manafort and the others. You know, that was out there in the Public Domain, so it could have just been to russian agents sort of, as i say, blueskying it. Blueskying it. Thats a good way of putting it. So, chris, the white house responds to this. Jessica laid it out. They denied it, but also, what we have seen before, attacking the leak of the information. Add to that a curious tweet that came from the president this morning. The president tweeting, russian officials must be laughing at the u. S. And how a lame excuse for why the democrats lost the election has taken over the fake news we dont know exactly what element of the russia story that the president is commenting on with this tweet, but regardless, is he helping or hurting the white house response here . They had a very clear response that they put out, and then the president has this tweet. Well, the truth of the matter, kate, is the white house response is what donald trump says the white house response is. You can put out a statement we saw this with why was comey fired . The white house came up with a narrative and donald trump went rogue and said his own thing. I would say broadly speaking, no, its not helping for a couple reasons message confusion. What is it . Whats happening specifically . How is the white house specifically reacting . Second, you know, i feel like a broken record and i just hate myself saying this over and over again, just play it, which is, you can debate the collusion aspect of it. That is clearly under investigation. But the idea that this is a democraticled effort just is not borne out. This is a federal investigation, the fbi, special prosecutor, congressional committees led by republicans who hold the majorities in congress. So, it can be fine, i guess, as a talking point, but its just not factually accurate. Its not something its something he said many times before and something he will say many times again. It doesnt make it true. There are many other tweets that happened this morning well get to later in the show. But john, on this news today, if this derogatory information is true, does that necessarily mean that the president , then president ial candidate trump was compromised . Well, not necessarily. I mean, as i say, it could have just been largely aspirational chitchat. And i say, there was already stuff in the Public Domain during the campaign that questioned his finances, his failure to make public his tax return, all of that. I tell you, what i find interesting about this, kate, is apparently, during the campaign there were, according to your report, there were apparently russian officials giving the possibility of mr. Trump becoming president a lot more credence than a lot of people were in this country at the time. Again, maybe aspirational. Maybe blueskying it there as well, then it also came true. Chris, take this in the context of much more news over the weekend about Jared Kushner. Youve got the fbi is interested in his meeting with a russian banker with close ties to vladimir putin, also reports of russian officials saying that kushner during the transition sought to create a back channel with the kremlin. What does this mean for President Trumps first week back from this big overseas trip . Nothing good, because were talking about it, right . Donald trump viewed and you can debate this, but donald trump viewed that nineday, fivecountry trip as an overwhelming success in his mind. And in terms of message discipline, it probably was. He really avoided or was kept from tweeting terribly aggressively, and he did stay largely on the message they wanted. But what was the talk of the sunday shows . What is the talk of today . Jared kushner. Typically, i would say, kate, that when a staffer makes bad news for donald trump, thats bad news for that staffer. You dont remain a staffer for all that long, but this is Jared Kushner. Yeah, different. Who is also his soninlaw. And its always the question as it relates to putting family in these positions, what do you do in circumstances where the family is doing something or saying something that they shouldnt or doesnt look good . Donald trump usually jettisons them, if his three Campaign Managers is any indication. I dont think you can jettison Jared Kushner if youre donald trump, so the question is what else does he do . Does someone else become Collateral Damage for his frustration at all the negative press that Jared Kushner has brought both on himself and on the administration more broadly . Stand by i guess for that. And john, reaction to this backchannel reporting i guess depends on who you talk to. Heres the secretary of homeland security, john kelly, and also republican senator john mccain. Listen to this. I would just say that any line of communication to a country, particularly a country like russia, is a good thing. My view of it is i dont like it. I just dont i know that some Administration Officials are saying, well, thats standard procedure. I dont think its standard procedure prior to the inauguration of a president of the United States by someone who is not in an appointed position. John, with your years of experience, which is it in your view . Well, kate, maybe its because im a lawyer, but i fall somewhere in the middle. The fact of setting up a private channel, establishing a private dialogue, a mechanism for doing that during the transition period, i dont find that offensive or alarming in and of itself. What is concerning, of course, is the assertiveness of it, apparently. Mr. Kushner, i dont know whether he bothered to check, to get Background Information from the Intel Community about the two russians he was going to be apparently talking to. It would have been useful for him to do that. I dont know if it did. But as i say, the whole, sort of the secret cloak and dagger nature, you know, is worrisome. John rizzo, Chris Cillizza, good to see you. Thank you very much. Never worrisome when you gruy on. I really appreciate it. Also new this morning, new details about where the president s head is right now since returning from the overseas trip. Why are sources saying that hes emotionally withdrawing . Plus, brandnew details just in on the arrest of tiger woods. Were now learning how police found him and what happened when he took a breathalyzer. And a republican lawmaker says he called Immigration Enforcement to round up some protesters at the statehouse in texas. Moments later, chaos breaks out in the statehouse. See what happened, next. 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Investigators are raising new questions about what exactly the motive was for Jared Kushners december meeting with russian banking executive sergei gorkov. Scott glover, he knows a couple things about this banker. He joins me now. Hes cnn investigative reporter. Scott, you have dug very deeply into his bank, bv. Youve dug deeply into gorkov himself. Who is this banker now at the center of this new line of inquiry for federal investigators . Well, mr. Gorkov is chairman of veb, and he was appointed to that post last year by putin. He has the sort of pedigree that putin would appreciate, having graduated from the Russian Academy of services, the cool that trains people to work in the intelligence and Security Services in russia, and that is the sort of thing that putin prizes. How close is he to president putin . You know, im not an expert in that area, but based on the fact that he graduated from the Security Services and that the bank has bailed out some oligarchs who are in favor with putin and funded one of putins pet projects, the 2014 olympics in sochi, i think it would be fair to surmise that the two are fairly close. And scott, this is a man who, as you said, is chairman of a bank that is still under sanction by the United States. Why did the u. S. Impose sanctions . They imposed sanctions after russia annexed crimea. They were placed on the list in 2014. And the meeting that kushner had, you know, is not a violation of those sanctions, but it is something i think that probably adds to the overall picture that investigators are curious about. And another thing is that the meeting was described differently by the white house and by the bank at the time. Oh, thats right. The white house said yes that kushner was there, you know, as an adviser to trump, and the bank said he was there as the head of kushner companies. So, there was sort of conflicting statements at that time, which im sure is something that investigators are interested in as well. Yeah. And now all of this coming back into the spotlight with news of with the reports of kushner seeking a back channel with russia. Who is involved with that, how that would go down, and now this is becoming a new spotlight and a new area of scrutiny for federal investigators. Scott, thanks so much for coming on. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Coming up for us, more on the breaking news. Cnn reporting that russian officials believe they had possible derogatory information on candidate trump and his campaign. Find out how russia wanted to leverage that intelligence, if they had it. Plus, tiger woods apologizes but says alcohol was not involved in his dui arrest. 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