The latest news from around the world with hosts John Berman and Poppy Harlow. Or a personal statement . This comes from his team. Again this is about a Pharmaceutical Company out of australia that he sat on the board of while he was a u. S. Congressman until just april. Thats an interesting statement from the u. S. Attorney. The government allegation he was passing nonpublic information to his son, cameron collins, who is also dieted. Then the son was passing the information to other people, and they were trading on that information. Look, he was the guy who knew what was going on here. He knew that there were some negative results according to this indictment on his drug trial. And he then took that information, the government says, and passed it along. The other thing i think thats interesting here is that they are using in this indictment they talk about how he tried to conceal the trading and issues surrounding the drug stock. One point in this indictment they mention how his office had issued a statement to a local reporter and the statement said,
people who have gone to prison over things like this, you think about martha stewart, for example, it is not necessarily about the security fraud. It can be about false statements and thats a key here as well. What statements did you make to the authorities when they questioned you about it. Right. That ends up often being, especially large public officials, thats how they often get caught up. Weve heard this again. This has been floating around for years. That behind the scenes, he would bring in folks from nih or from relevant agencies and talk to them about the National Institutes of health. National institutes of health and talk to them about this company and about some of the drug trials. Again, said he wasnt doing anything untoward. He just believed in the company. Just one of those things how is that legal . It kept raising concerns. Look, your questions are the same questions a lot of lawmakers had, same questions a lot of outside advocacy groups were concerned about as well. Thats precisely why the Office Of Congressional Ethics began an investigation. It is why they referred it to the house ethics committee. Paul, you have read through this 30page indictment. Walk me through what stands out to you most. Happened apparently it is alleged here by the justice department, it happened while at a white house picnic. Thats right. And it happened this is a call from him to his son. Now this call comes after collins, the father, the congressman here, according to the indictment, this happens around june 22nd, 2017. The father, christopher collins, gets an email from the ceo of this drug company, innate, basically saying it was to him and the Board Of Directors that the drug trial had been a failure. Right . Pretty big deal here. Then within less than an hour, at around 7 16 so the father, the congressman, gets the call around 6 55. At 7 16 there is a sixminute phone call, according to the indictment, and in the phone call they say that during the sixminute call at 7 16 p. M. ,
christopher collins spoke to cameron collins, his son, and told him in sum and substance that the drug had failed the drug trial. He conveyed, it says, the material, nonpublic information, to his son knowing that it was a breach of his duties to the drug company and anticipating that his son would use it to trade and tip others. So that is the essence of the charges here, of the indictment. Its not clear how they know the sum and substance or what that conversation was about. Whether it was the son or the congressman was being wire tapped or somehow during the investigation maybe the son may have told investigators. But that is essentially paul can talk about this more certainly is the crux of these charges, of these allegations. Shimon, stay with me. Ive got three key players here according to the governments indictment here. Whether they all have the same story, whether they all say the same thing, what these false
statement charges are stemming from are all still big questions. Yes. This series of calls demonstrates that you have information from the ceo of the company, passed along to Congressman Collins who sits on the board, who immediately passes the information, by telephone, along to his son. The son then starts selling shares off the next morning. Now the defense has said, by the way, in a Public Statement already that he lost money on the trade, and therefore this kind of looks like this wasnt an attempt to profit on inside information. But you can profit on inside information by limiting your losses. There may be the claim that well hear later this afternoon that by selling right away when you sell. Yes. Before the public became fully aware that this drug trial had failed and that a particular drug was going to decrease in marketability. You got an advantage over the public. I think it is notable looking at the statement from his defense attorneys, this line. They say, it is notable that
even the government has not alleged that Congressman Collins traded a single share of innate stock. It is not just about you sell or buy or trade on. It is what you pass on and what is done with that. Right. It is nonpublic information that you have and give to the public. His lawyers are making a point. I remember when this happened because there were headlines about the biggest investor, a sitting congressman, got crushed when this when the trial ended up not doing as well as it was supposed to be. Millions of dollars potentially lost. I think he had Something Like 18 , 19 of the stock at the time when it happened. But again, it is not just if he took losses or if he was selling off stock. Its if he was telling somebody else as well which appears to be and are you trying to help your Family Members your son, the father of your sons girlfriend, are you trying to help them profit or at least lose less. Thats key here as well. Lets go to capitol hill. I think we have manu raju
standing by . Whats the reaction . Reporter so far silence. Weve tried to reached out to the speakers office, get a sense on whether they have any reaction. Probably waiting until the Press Conference and Chris Collins releases a fuller statement about this. One thing thats becoming clear from just some early indications from people close to collins is they are going to fight this pretty aggressively. You saw that statement that you were showing earlier saying that they do not believe that there is anything that shows any wrongdoing. They believe that he will be exonerated. In a lot of ways they look at what happened to bob menendez, the democratic congressman senator from new jersey indicted on federal corruption charges but he was acquitted on those counts earlier. They view those as a model of sorts. They believe this is something they can fight, it is going to be a battle a lot of ways in the Pr Battle Ahead of the election time to try to convince voters and try to convince the public that he didnt do anything wrong
here and that he is being a victim of a witch hunt of sorts. The ultimate question, too, is how much does the white house, in terms of the president with being get behind Chris Collins whether or not they believe what Chris Collins has to say because collins was one of the president s earliest supporters, probably one of his earliest supports on capitol hill, day in, day out, during the 2016 primary campaign he was defending donald trump and no doubt the president remembers that and rewards loyalty. What does the president do right now . What does the white house do right now when one of its closest allies has been indicted on some very, very serious charges and which collins himself has said hell fight very hard to clear his name. Well wait to hear what the Republican Leadership has to say. But so far, silence from capitol hill as members start to digest this very surprising news this morning. Quick followup on something you said that i think is important. He said if they try to say,
look, this is like senator bob menendez who had these federal corruption charges against him. It is not really apples to apples. With securities fraud, it is different. With menendez, it was, was it a quid pro quo for these things. The government in the 30page indictment lays out the evidence they have against him. It is not an exact apples to and manies comparison. I would be intrigued to see how they try and roll this out. I think more broadly menendezs defense was explicit and robust and unyielding. I would imagine knowing if Congressman Collins and having dealt with Congressman Collins for the better part of the last couple of years thats absolutely the role that hell take. Again, one of the interesting elements about this is how public hes been and had been about his role at the company, his believe in the stock and his believe in the company. Maybe that plays in to what they say going forward. Apparently we have more Breaking News. I need to get a break in. Stay with me. Everyone, thank you all very much. Ill be right back. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Dinner date. Meeting his parents dinner date. Why did i want a crest 3d white smile . So i used crest. Crest 3d white removes. 95 of Surface Stains in just 3 days. For a whiter smile. That will win them over. Crest. Healthy, beautiful smiles for life. Questioning by the Special Counsel . As you said, Rudy Giuliani this morning saying that theyre sending their counteroffer to the Special Counsel after they had received an offer from the Special Counsel last week, a letter stating that they would limit some of the questions. The key question here is will the Special Counsel be allowed to question that is in person, sit down with the president and ask him questions about obstruction, Rudy Giuliani and the trump team are trying to limit that. Let me read something from Rudy Giuliani that our dana bash got. Essentially what Rudy Giuliani says is that it is a good faith attempt to reach an agreement. He then says there is an area where we could agree. If they agree, meaning the Special Counsel. So clearly negotiations still under way. We dont know exactly what the trump team is trying to do here, what their offer is. We know that they were trying to limit the questions of
obstruction because obviously that is where perhaps they feel that the president has the most sort of kind of chances of perhaps maybe facing some kind of violation, some charges or there may be a report that may be issued which would be negative on the whole Obstruction Issue so they were trying to limit his exposure on that. We dont know exactly what Rudy Giuliani and the team is presenting to the Special Counsel. But nonetheless, significant in that they are still negotiating, still trying to work this out. Okay. Thank you very much for walking us through that. Lets get the legal take on it. Paul callan, we know Rudy Giuliani indicated to politico when it comes to questions about obstruction, quote, well leave a little wiggle room. The issue is not whether the Special Counsel is going to ask the president these obstruction
questions. It is whether they are all in writing as the president s team wants them to be, or whether mueller can get some in this person. Why is that so significant . I think it also goes beyond that. Giuliani has previously said that it is the position of Trump Lawyers that mueller only has the right to question the president about information he cant get from other sources. In other words, by getting it from documents or even from aides that hes interviewed. Whats left . The only thing thats left is what was the president s intent, what was in his brain when he fired comey, when he made various statements. Giuliani said, well, we might let them ask a couple of questions. I can assure you that the mueller team is not going to accept that position because any prosecutor knows that you have to follow up on initial answers. People try to prevaricate and try to avoid getting to the point. Sometimes it takes 20, 25 questions to get someone pinned down on a specific fact. I dont think this is going to be productive at all if this is the position the president will take. This has been a langi hangin months and months, whether the president would sit for an interview. We are also following the trial of Paul Manafort in virginia. The defenses ended his Cross Examination of manaforts deputy rick gates. A live report outside the courthouse next. This is your wakeup call. If you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. Ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. Humira can help stop the clock. Prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened;
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really got into his character and brought out all of the questions about lies, as well as even cheating on his wife. Certainly embarrassing and very difficult to talk about in court. Joe johns, appreciate the update. Keep us posted on what else comes out of that redirect. Again, this is the prosecutions star witness. Jennifer rogers, our legal analyst is with me now. Jennifer, its been quite a few days. Three doays now, and counting, f rick gates testimony here. Talk about all weve learned in the last 24 hours about him. Weve learned personal issues of dishonesty, having an affair, and this all speaks to trying to poke holes in his credibility. Right . By th