Of these detainees. What do you know . Reporter thats right. Two pieces of significant breaking news broken by the president on twitter this morning. The president is really making this announcement weeks away from a potential meeting with kim jongun that would be historic in nature and he says this morning, i am please today inform you that the secretary of state mike pompeo is in the air and on his way back from north korea with the three wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with kim jongun, time and place set. Pompeo and his guests will be landing at 2 00 a. M. In the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting. Now this development is really significant in part because the white house had been asked for quite some time what would it take to get the president in that room with kim jongun. The issue of the detainees had been hanging over the situation and last week we got the first indications that it was eminent that these three men would be brought home but after days we heard nothing and then pompeo was sent to north korea yesterday, the president announced, really under the cover of secrecy and now hes on his way back. Two of these men were detained in the last year in the first few months of president Trumps Administration in may of 2017 and april 2017. They were associated with pyongyang university. A third man was detained in 2015 accused of espionage by the north korean regime. All three of them are americans of korean descent who are on their way back to the United States. The president also saying that the time and place for this much anticipated meeting with kim jongun has been set, but has not yet been released. It will be a huge deal for this meeting to happen, really. The president has said we could do this meeting or we could not do this meeting. Pyongyang has to show that theyre willing to do some things and clearly, right now, they have. Theyve released these three hostages. They have also halted missile tests and closed up a Nuclear Missile test site, so there is progress being made here but clearly theres more to be learned about this situation and well bring it to you as soon as we have it, john and poppy. Just phenomenal news for this country that theyre coming home and for their families. Lets go straight to will ripley, he joins us from tokyo. Will, you have spent significant amount of time in north korea. Youve had access like really no one else and youve interviewed the detainee, the american citizen who has been held the longest. Reporter thats right, poppy. Kim dongchul in early 2016 we went into north korea after they conducted a nuclear test. We were there shortly after that nuclear test and we were actually taken by surprise when kim was presented to us. At that time there was no indication that any u. S. Citizen had been arrested in north korea. That was also around the time that Otto Warmbier was taken into custody which we learned about later but when kim dongchul was brought into the room in handcuffs, he sat down with me, he described in detail the espionage he basically did an on camera confession. We had no idea at that time and i still dont know whether that confession was made under duress or whether he actually was smuggling material out of north korea to activists groups in south korea as he said that he did. We never do know. It was also noteworthy that even though he had lived in the United States previously and did speak some english he had to do the entire interview in korean. We believe that was actually the case with other detainees of korean descent. We believe that might be because the North Koreans were in the other room listening. The rooms are bugged there, writing down every word he said. Here we are now. Hes been in custody more than two and a half years, such a grueling time for his family, for his wife who we spoke with shortly after he was detained and she was obviously very, you know just shaken back then and now this is certainly a very welcome news. These last few days when we heard that the release was eminent and there was no news and each day passed, it must have been excruciating for their families. Will ripley for us in tokyo. We do want to add one of the things the president wrote was the detainees seemed to be in good health which is also wonderful to hear given some of the history. Otto warmbier who passed away shortly after returning from north korea. Thank you, will. Joining us now john kirby and samantha vino grad. This is positive news any way you cut it. We have three americans coming home and we have removed what donald trump and other president s have called a bilateral donald trump has been on record in saying that hostages or detainees in north korea or iran should be part of any negotiation on malign activities. In that sense that has been taken off the table when it comes to north korea. In iran, unfortunately, as weve discussed there are still many hostages and prisoners which unfortunately i dont think are going to be released any time soon. The truth is, these prisoners in north korea have traditionally represented human bargaining chips. They have been used by the regime to try to get concessions from the United States. That is now off the table. We dont know how this will actually impact the nuclear negotiation, however, but overall this is a positive development. Admiral, to that point, where do you think this fits in to this march toward this meeting where President Trump now actually says they do have a specific time and a specific date . Certainly appears to me, john, that this was the last step in the very delicate ca bookky dance that two governments go through before you lead to a summit. Kim jongun didnt react to the exercises that we did recently with our south korean allies. He hasnt committed any launches since the talks about the summit were sort of moving along and of course now hes agreed to shut down sites and stop testing. So all of this is what we call cbm, confidence Building Measures that the state department is looking for to show the north is serious about sitting down. This is a very transactional thing. It tells me that kim and the north korean government are serious about having a meaningful summit. It does not mean that the summit will be successful or well have denuclearization as a direct result of it. It means theyre serious about the summit and they did get a big concession with us in return, they got to sit down with the president of the United States which no north korea leader has been able to do. These are points on the board, if you will, forward president. Otto warmbier came home under President Trump as well. Two of these hostages were taken while President Trump was in office. One of them while president obama was in office, but is there any way to look at this other than big wins for President Trump on his watch . I have been very disheartened by the fact that President Trump has been pointing out when they were taken. Their americans. They were human bargaining chips which is why they were taken. This is most definitely a win for the president. I also think to john kirbys point, this is transactional. I think that the North Koreans are definitely trying to show some measures of goodwill in the runup to a summit but this is not denuclearization. This is the deescalation and the president has been successful in that regard but to date we have not heard anything about what steps north koreas actually taken to do what we want which is in Donald Trumps words to get rid of their nukes. They do know everything to get to that table with the president. Poppy was pointing out to me this morning, this is the second time that mike pompeo has met with kim jongun, first as cia director now as secretary of state in a few weeks. Thats extraordinary. Kim is doing everything he can to get this meeting. Yes. But he is also this gets lost in the discussion, john. This is part of his plan too, to get to the Nuclear Capability so that he can then pivot to work on his economy and normalization with the United States. He knows he wouldnt be as credible negotiating with the United States if he didnt have the bomb and he has the bomb and the capability so to some degree we are playing to his song sheet. This is his sort his playbook that hes running and that were going along with it. You give the president great credit and pompeo credit. Absolutely. We need to understand that to some degree kim jongun is calling the shots here and were moving along at his pace. Sam, this comes in the shadow that is less than 24 hours old of the president pulling the u. S. Out of the iran nuclear agreement. Many of the critics of that say, look, that in no way helps us come to an agreement over nukes with north korea. That hurts us because they wont believe that we will as a country stick in the deal from president to president to president. How does that change the calculus at all here . I dont think that kim jongun is going to buy the argument from this administration, believe me this time. You think that when the United States abgri gates its responsibility and leaves a deal, in my mind that will leave kim jongun to hedge on his end with any negotiation with the United States because hes deeply aware that we dont keep our word or the president changes his mind. Pulling out of this deal in my mind makes the United States the iran deal much less safe and the iranians in some respect safer because the iranians are on one side of the line with our allies and with russia and the United States is more isolated. Admiral, iran and north korea, whats the connection . I want to go back for something you said before, john, about relationships. You talked about pompeo building these relationships the do you remember a couple years ago when we had Nine American sailors taken by revolutionary guard naval forces in the persian gulf. John kerry was able to get them released in one day because he made a couple phone calls. All of that was possible because of the relationship that those two men formed over the course of those nuclear talks. Now pompeo has the same advantage here, hes worked in that relationship and now we got three americans coming home. Back to what sam said and its valid, because we broke up the iran deal, now all those relationships that we had, that might have been we could leverage with iran Going Forward are now not there and were not going to be able to get americans out as quickly and easily as we were before. At least five americans in iran still. Admiral kirby and samantha, thanks for being with us. Just minutes from now, what could be a very tense hearing for the president s pick to head the cia, gina haspel facing the Senate Intelligence committee, expected to face tough questions over her ties to the Controversial Torture Program and things just got more complicated for the president s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, what cnn has learned about payments made to him from a u. S. Company linked to a Russian Oligarch tied to putin. Follow the bouncing 500,000, a cnn exclusive next. What might seem like a small cough to you. Can be a big bad problem that you could spread to family members, including your grandchildren babies too young to be vaccinated against whooping cough are the most at risk for severe illness. But you can help prevent this. Talk to your doctor today about getting vaccinated against whooping cough. Because dangers dont just exist in fairytales. Or a canythingo. But ive got an idea sir. Get domo. 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Liberty mutual saved us almost 800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. Liberty did what . Yeah, they saved us a ton, which gave us a little wiggle room in our budget. I wish our insurance did that. Then we could get a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey, welcome back. This guy, right . laughs yes. Ellen. Thats my robe. You could save 782 when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. The question surrounding the president s personal attorney just got bigger, the circumstances just got stranger and the alphabet perhaps just got serilic. Robert muellers investigators have questions a Russian Oligarch about hundreds of thousands of dollars of payments his Company American affiliate made to President Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen after the election. Following, what are the payments for . Our Jessica Schneider joins us now with the details. A lot of Big Questions that are lingering this morning, so what were those payments for and really what is the relationship between Michael Cohen and this Russian Oligarch, so all of these details that the special counsels team is trying to get at. What we know now is that the special counsels prosecutors, they have interviewed Viktor Vekselberg, hes a russian billionaire with very close ties to Vladimir Putin and prosecutors want to know about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments that were made to Michael Cohen through a u. S. Affiliate of vekselbergs company. These payments allegedly occurred in the first half of 2017 and the company that distributed these payments is Columbus Nova. So hundreds of thousands of dollars went right to Michael Cohen. Columbus nova is actually run by voougs american cousin andrew intrader. Columbus nova is distancing itself from vekselberg. He said, as the general counsel of Columbus Nova, i can confirm that the company is 100 owned and controlled by americans. Any suggestion that at any point in time Viktor Vekselberg or any of his companies owned or exercised any control over Columbus Nova is patently untrue. It is important to note that so far prosecutors have not accused Michael Cohen of any wrongdoing in regard to these payments or any other business dealings but his finances have come under increasing scrutiny. All is part of the investigation thats now being handled out of new york. At the same time as were learning about these payments, hundreds of thousand dollars, it turns out Stormy Danielss lawyer, Michael Avenatti, hes also disclosed some documents that appear to show a Shell Company that was set up by Michael Cohen before the election to pay off Stormy Daniels, that Shell Company, allegedly received money from several companies, multinational companies, including Companies Like at t. We heard from at t last night. They say that it did pay the president s personal lawyer for what they called, quote, incites into understanding the new administration. John and poppy, all of these threads, the hundreds of thousand dollars of that came through these companies that might be link today Viktor Vekselberg as well as these other payments from these multinational companies, these are all threads that prosecutors are falling as they continue to in the words that theyve put it in some proceedings weve seen, follow the money. Still a lot of big lingering questions here but all of it going back to the president s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Guys . Stick around for ament. I want to bring in susan hennessy. When you look at this, what are the questions that jump out to you . I think as jessica noted there really isnt quite enough information yet to really speculate on whether or not there are crimes here. The questions that immediately come to mind, is there some kind of quid pro quo. Theres related questions about whether or not particular transactions were structured so as to circumvent Financial Reporting requirements. Its often illegal if you lie about either the source of the money or its intended purpose. Theres lots and lots of reasonable questions here but we dont have nearly enough yet to speculate as to what the answers might be. I think that does make it incumbent on Michael