Did the president know and when did his soninlaw tell him . Plus the first shoe drops in a white house shakeup and the first Public Comment from robert mi mueller since he became special counsel overseeing the investigation. You can be smart aggressive, articulate, but if you are not honest, your reputation will suffer and once lost, a good reputation can never ever be regain. And this morning a trademark trump counter punch. She slams germany saying the new chancellor kae chancellor cant always be trusted to lead. Translator trans atlantic relations are of immense importance. They rest on mutual values and interest particularly when we near times as we are now of intense challenges. The last few days showed me that the days where we could completely rely on others are over. With us to share their reporting and insights, carol lee, cnn fill mattingly, perry bacon and Mary Katherine ham. In a moment the goings and comings at the white house. First, though, the investigation itself and why several new wrinkles matter. Heres one. Cnn has learned that during last Years Campaign russian government officials discussed potentially derogatory information about then candidate donald trump and some of his top aides. Dana bash is part of the group of reporter who broke the story and joins us with more. John, two former intelligence officials and a congressional source tell cnn that russian government officials discussed having potentially, quote, derogatory information about then president ial candidate donald trump and some of his top aides. In conversations intercepted by u. S. Intelligence during the 2016 election. One source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussions centered around whether the russians had leverage with trumps inner circle. The source says that the intercepted communications suggested to the u. S. Intelligence officials that russians believed, quote, they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information. But the sources privy to the description said the communications written by u. S. Intelligence cautioned that the russian claims to each other could have been exaggerated or even made up. Now, the details of the communication shed new light on information, u. S. Intelligence received about russian claims of influence. The contents of the conversations made clear to u. S. Officials that russia was considering ways to influence the election even if their claims turned out to be false. Cnn first reported the u. S. Intercepted discussions of russian officials bragging about ko cultivating relationships with Trump Campaign aides including Michael Flynn as a way to influence trump. Following cnns report the New York Times said that Trumps Campaign chairman, former campaign chairman, paul ma nafot was also discussed. Do we know who the russians were specifically talking about in the trump inner nicircle . None of them would say. One of the officials said the Intelligence Report masked the american names, but it was clear the conversations revolved around the Trump Campaign team. Another source wouldnt give specifi specifics citing the classified information. But as for comment the white house tells cnn the following. This is yet another round of false and unverified claims made by Anonymous Sources to smear the president. The real 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 no limit to which the president s political opponents will go to perpetuate this false narrative, including illegally leaking classified material. All this does is play into the hands of our adversaries and put our country at risk. John, the office of director of national intelligence, the fbi, neither kmeptcommented and the president himself has insisted he has had no financial dealings with russia. Let me toss this one at you. Do the intelligence officials in the United States think the russians really had this information about trump and his associates or could the russians have been saying you know what . The United States is listening to us, lets just make something schnupp. That is a really primportant question and we dont know. We know throughout the course of reporting and looking into this whole issue with russia trying to influence the election is how crafty they were and they still are in trying to spread disinformation. Our sources acknowledge it is possible in this case, but we also know that the financial entanglements of some People Associated with trump are part of the investigation into russia meddling. Part of the investigation and knowing the end of that investigation might help us and certainly would help people watching at home. Dana, thank you very much. The president made clear yet again this morning he sees all of it as a joke. Russian officials must be laughing at the United States and how a lame excuse for why the democrats lost the excuse has taken over fake news. Thats in a morning tweet. One of his top aides went on television to defend the president s right hand man who happens his soninlaw. Jared kushner has said from the very beginning hes willing to go and share any information that he has with congress, with the fbi. I think its very important to recognize that the president has expressed full confidence in Jared Kushner and also went on to note the considerable progress and very large important portfolio that jared oversees here at the white house. Just a few points of note here as to why kushner partyima. Jared kushner met with Russian Ambassador in early december during the president ial transition. He then met at the ambassadors suggestion with a russian banker who not only was the subject of u. S. Sanctions at the time but who was well known as a former spy and confidant of vladimir putin. Kesh n kushner failed to disclose those on the form to get his security clearance. Why does this matter . I mean, beyond the fact that we know the president s conduct in firing james comey is under investigation by the have counsel. Now we know the president s right hand man sits across the hall in the west wing has some questions to answer in the fbi and to congress. In the current state of play in this white house, why does this matter . Because this is the closest that this investigation has gotten to the president. This is obviously weve seen this investigation has hung over the white house since the president was inaugurated. But theres always been a little bit of a buffer around the president. Now you have his most senior and closest adviser next to his daughter and who has a very broad part folio and theres still a number of questions that have not yet been answered about his contacts with the russians, the nature of the contacts with the russians, what his motivations were for some of these meetings. Thats why it matters. Its going to be very difficult. I was on the president s foreign trip and when the news of Jared Kushner started to break, you know, you could kind of find it difficult to find white house officials whereas it was easier before that. And thats because this is the most significant thing to happen in the course of this investigation for the president. Obviously the stature of the age matters, the stature of Jared Kushner matters, but its the questions. There simply arent any answers to the stories, the explanations for why certain meetings happen,. I think what this does right now, and its worth noting. Jared kushner and his team have made very clear he is willing to come up and speak with anybody. In march he said he was willing to meet with the Senate Intelligence committee. They have not backed off that claim. Thats saying something, that hes willing to do that without any protection. Clearly shows their kind of position on. This the fact that all of these questions are hanging out there, the fact that that hes that close to the president and this investigation as it moves forward is clearly in more serious phase, the posture of both the senate and House Intelligence Committee system in a different level than it was a couple weeks ago. Bob mueller ratchets things up to a different level. His name being involved makes this significantly more note worthy than it was even ten days ago. In part because Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort dont work at the white house. Now we have someone sitting at the white house who is involved in these meetings who is thinking about the health care bill, thinking about himself as well and if hes in any kind of legal jeopardy. You mean the trump agenda. I want to listen to james clapper. He was the director of national intelligence. Served in several administrations, but was in that job when the Obama Administration ended. Hes talking here want just about Jared Kushner, but he says when he was in the Intelligence Community during the president ial campaign and then during the transition, they saw a number of meetings. U. S. Officials eavesdrop on russian officials. They see these meetings Jared Kushner is having. They see the meetings mike flynn is happening. Listen to this and then saying at the end i think something we can all agree with. I will just say there were a series of communications and dialogues that we grew i say we, the members of the Intelligence Community were aware of this were very concerned about. We didnt know the intent. Didnt know and certainly didnt know the substance of these conversations and dialogues. And so what this merits, what it requires i think is an airing a transparency and play out this investigation. This is something the country badly needs to clear up this cloud thats hanging over us right now. Couple of very important points there. Number one, he pushes back on the president saying this is all fake news. Theres no feed for an investigation saying i dont know how its going to turnout, but we saw a number of things that concerned us that made no sense, that were out of normal protocol and the fbi should investigate them. Then the last point was the point i meant that everyone could say amen which is we need to get this over with and get to a point where theres a report and transparency and whether you agree with the president , disagree with the president , think he did something horrible, that the American People get a report they can trust and move on. Im with him on that is to actually have a conclusion to this. The middle part were in with the dualing leaks actually didnt help us get there. The meeting with the banker is one of the more problematic things weve seen between trump folks. Its something Jared Kushner is willing to come to the hill and talk about it. Reporters in both the flynn story and the most recent one have cautioned themselves to say russians may be exaggerating much of this. Also i would note wasnt everybody discussing derogatory information about the trump candidacy at that time . This is just piling on a narrative which is what the president is upset about. They have given the narrative to people by not being transparent about this. If in fact he was not doing anything wrong, he could have put it on the form. And he could step out. You mentioned, and to his credit, he said hes willing to testify on capitol hill. Do we know when thats going to happen . They have to coordinate with the special counsel investigation. But to the point you made, why was he meeting during the transition at the ambassadors suggestion with a russian banker who go to your search engine, who is kbonown as a banker unde sanctions, a private citizen about to come in to a new administration, a lot of people say should not be meeting with a russian banker close to putin under u. S. Sanctions. Right. And i think the question is the white house has said that he did not that Jared Kushner did not discuss business or sanctions in this meeting. And i think if youre looking at it from the outside, it could be hard to imagine that those issues wouldnt come up given who this bank what this bank is, how close it is to putin, how much the sanctions were important to them. So again, i thaink that we are backed in a place where there are more questions than there are kanswers and its just goin it continue. Thats why we need that testimony. The banker in question, his statement said he discussed kushner and company business, discussed, you know, private real estate dealing business with Jared Kushner. Jared kushner through his spokesman has said no, he discussed u. S. Government business and just essentially having a dialogue with the kremlin about so that they could get off the ground running. The bank also said this meeting was part of a series of meetings and no ones been able to find the other meetings this particular banker has had. The idea that they were on a tour of talking to American Companies and no ones been able to figure out who else he would have met with. And as we move into the next chapter of this investigation, we know the president s new top lawyer, outside lawyer, which was at the white house this weekend, he has been loyal to trump for about 15 years and hes going to be the senior guy. Hes going to be the senior guy who hires a team of washington lawyers. We also know Jared Kushner has a very accomplished taeattorney w was in the Clinton Administration and knows how these things work. As you build the legal teams, what does that tell us about again how this week is different from, say, last week or two weeks ago in terms of a, the legal ramifications and the caution you need to take if youre one of the people involved and what it does to the president doing his job, his day job. This idea that kushner would do a press conference and say no, this did not happen, i think were past that. His lawyers are probably saying no and maybe hell no even. I know jamie and i think not. Its reality, right . Whether or not they think they did anything wrong and the white house makes clear, one, they dont think they did anything wrong, and two they believe this is designed to take down the president by people that are upset with the election results. Thats not a messaging point from them whchlt you ta. When you talk to the white house, there are many people in there who firmly believe this is absolutely a conspiracy. Nothing they saw over the course of the campaign would indicate that they did anything wrong at all. That might be the case. But when lawyers get involved, its a recognition that hey, this is serious. You say stuff right now whether on a social media platform or off the cuff at a press conference or testifying in front of a City Committee that could get you in very big trouble if youre not sure to cross your ts and dot your is. I would say thats the term for me thats interesting. Even if there is no nefariousness, when you get lawyers involved and you get to this level, folks who say things sloppily or carelessly can get themselves in trouble. And then the other thing is once you start lawyering up, a white house, an administration that is sort of understaffed and having trouble bringing new people on is going to have more trouble convincing folks on its smallest of people they trust to come on because theyre going to have to lawyer up maybe at some point. Thats a lot of personal expense. Youre going to a whole other level well get more on that later. You see the president tightening the circle around him at the time he might need more help. Everyone sit tight ahead, one senior white house staffer is out and some new are in. Next, the president fires back in a high stakes sparring match with one of americas most important european allies. What . We gotta go. Where . San francisco. When . Friday. We gotta go. 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They rest on mutual values and interest, particularly when we are in times as we are now of intense challenges. The last few days showed me the days where we could rely on others are over. What are we to make of this in the sense t