Judiciary member, congressman ted liu. Our correspondents and analysts are standing by. Lets go to every an perez and murray. What are you learning . This came between discussions of rick yates and Robert Mueller. This is months before rick gates pleaded guilty to charges in the special counsels investigation. According to sources who talked to the court writer, mueller told gates that he had plenty of evidence against Paul Manafort, the former Campaign Chairman of the Trump Campaign, as well as gates former Business Partner. He said he had plenty of evidence against manafort. What he needed gates help with was the core mission of the special counsel which is the ties between the Trump Campaign alleged ties between the Trump Campaign and the russians. What this means is that the special counsel is looking specifically at making the case of russian collusion, that it has not gone away, despite what you hear from President Trump and from his allies. From republican members of the house intelligence committee. They wrapped up their own investigation. Are there any indications of how this is playing out with gates . Were beginning to see a little of that. We dont know exactly what rick gates has told the special counsel but were beginning to see this in some Court Filings this week, wolf. In a separate case against a lawyer who has pleaded guilty to lying to the special prosecutor, in that court filing, the special counsel said that rick gates was in Constant Contact or is in frequent contact with someone who was known to be a russian spy susceptibessentiall. Now were seeing Robert Mueller is connecting the Trump Campaign, Paul Manafort, directly to russian spies. This is again the Central Mission that Robert Mueller was appointed to which was to look into whether or not there were any ties, any coordination, illegal coordination, between members of the Trump Campaign and russia. What is it, sarah, that gates might know that might be of specific interest to Robert Mueller, the special counsel . Its clear the special counsel thinks that gates is going to be useful beyond just his business ties to Paul Manafort, beyond flipping on his former Business Partner and he may have information about potential collusion or coordination between members of the Trump Campaign and the russians. Rick gates, President Trump was never fond of him. He was also close to tom baric, a close friend of trump. When they were on the campaign together, Paul Manafort and rick gates, rick gates wasnt necessarily in every top strategy meeting but he made it his business to know what was going on. For instance, during that summer where there is the meeting at trump tower with a number of russians, he may not have been in that meeting but he may very well have heard about it and heard about whether those russians met with anyone else in the building. Gates stayed on the campaign longer than manafort did. Even after he got fired gates stuck around and continued to remain in the trump orbit and went on to work on the inauguration. So what could all this mean for the president . Obviously weve heard the president call this investigation a witch hunt. Weve heard him complain that none of the charges that have come out so far have anything to do with collusion, anything to do with him and russia because of course rick gates and Paul Manafort are facing criminal charges that have to do with their Business Activities before 2016. The fact that you now have this link between rick gates, between Paul Manafort and this other person with ties to russian intelligence, that tells you that there really is an investigation into collusion going on. This is the first sort of big sign that that is still something that mueller is looking into seriously thats going to take some steam, i think, out of this argument that mueller is looking into a bunch of things that have nothing to do with russian collusion. Very interesting and significant indeed. Good reporting as usual. Jeff sessions resisting a lot of pressure to appoint a new special counsel to investigate allegations of misconduct within the fbi and the Justice Department. Sessions opting instead to name a federal prosecutor to look into conservative claims of antitrump bias. Lets go to our justice reporter working this story for us. Laura, tell us about sessions announcement a little while ago. Reporter sessions has managed to sidestep a growing chorus of calls from republicans on capitol hill who wanted a special counsel in the vain of Robert Mueller and instead sessions has opted to name a prosecutor in utah. Hes a veteran career prosecutor, john huber, who was first appointed u. S. Attorney in utah under the Obama Administration and then reappointed under trump. He received wide bipartisan support at the time but things have clearly changed and hes now entering this fierce partisan battle with democrats saying anything that distracts from mueller is illegitimate or as republicans say the Justice Department simply cannot investigate itself. Sessions spent at least four pages explaining his decision here tonight, wolf, explaining that huber is a career federal prosecutor but also outlining the standards for appointing a special prosecutor and the extreme bar that there is to appoint one, clearly intimating here the standard is just not met. He didnt close the door completely. He explained that huber has the ability to come to him and say that the circumstances warrant appointment of a special counsel but thats clearly not the move right now. At least at this point, wolf, we havent heard anything from capitol hill. No republicans from congress have responded to the news and neither has the president. Im sure there will be a lot of disappointment among conservative republicans and leading figures in the conservative news media as well who insisted that a Second Special counsel was needed because you cant trust the career Justice Department officials to really get the job done. That was their allegation. Laura, thank you for that report. Lets talk to ted liu. He serves on the judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees. How significant is it that the Second Special counsel that so many republicans wanted was denied today by the attorney general . Thank you, wolf, for your question. I think it is significant. This is basically a signal from attorney general Jeff Sessions that he doesnt think theres a lot there for the appointment of a special counsel. The scandal has been looked at repeatedly. The republicans seem like they want to spend a lot of time trying to impeach Hillary Clinton, but she is not our president. She is a private citizen. Theyre trying to distract from the special counsels investigation, and thats what we really need to be focused on. On the other breaking news that we had at the top of the hour, the special counsel Robert Mueller, hes looking into information from rick gates who has pled guilty as you know on possible collusion. Not so interested on what Paul Manafort, the former trump Campaign Chairman did, but on possible collusion. How significant is that . That is very significant. Keep in mind that rick gates was also the Deputy Campaign manager for the Trump Campaign. He could have seen and heard a lot. He also stayed on with the Campaign Even after manafort left. He was in contact with a person known to be a russian spy and he knew to be a russian agent. Lets see what rick gates says. Theres also reporting today by reuters that says the Mueller Probe is looking into russian contacts at the Republican National convention. Its very clear Robert Mueller is looking at the collusion issue actively. What questions do you have right now about collusion between the alleged collusion i should say between the Trump Campaign and the russians . We know that George Papadopoulos had advanced knowledge that the russians had hillarys emails. Who else in the Trump Campaign knew that . We know that George Papadopoulos was communicating with some of the highest levels of the folks at the Trump Campaign, did any of them know about Hillary Clintons emails that russia had and were going to release iss and did they act on that. Thats conspiracy and collusion. Reuters is reporting that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, is also investigating russias role and possible influence at the 2016 Republican National convention when the then senator Jeff Sessions, now attorney general met with the Russian Ambassador, kislyak, among others. What does that tell you . Theres been 1,000 stories on russia. It can be quite complicated, but there are three things that are not dispute. One is that the russians interfered with the u. S. Elections in 2016 and they benefitted the Trump Campaign. We know the Trump Campaign benefitted russia at the Republican National convention by taking out language favorable to ukraine and unfavorable to russia. And thanks to a free press we now know theres been communications between the two sides. The issue now is was there some sort of understanding or quid pro quo between the Trump Campaign and the russians that they would mutually benefit each other. Getting back to the attorney general Jeff Sessions now ruling out a Second Special counsel, at least for now, i want you to listen to what the president s allies have been saying in recent days. Listen to this. The chairman and i have looked real close at the fbi investigation of the clinton email scandal and ive come away believing that it was shodly done, that there were conflicts of interest, that there was political bias that may have resulted in giving clinton a pass. The steele dossier was paid for by the Democratic Party through fusion gps. Mr. Steele had associates in russia that could have easily compromised him, and we believe the fisa warrant process was abused and the reason we want a special counsel is crimes may have been committed. I call on us appointing a special counsel, a second one, to investigate the investigators. Youre supposed to give the court the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I dont think they gave them the truth so this needs investigating. The only remedy is a Second Special counsel. The fbi and department of justice arent going to be putting the handcuffs on themselves. Sources telling us there is a very high probability that sessions in fact will act and appoint a Second Special counsel. Well, he did not do that today. Do you believe, congressman, the attorney general can survive in light of all that . I do. Ive looked at a lot of the same evidence that these republicans are alleging, and theres just not a lot there in terms of the scandal, in terms of Hillary Clintons emails. Whether or not anything improper happened, its been looked at repeatedly. When it comes to the fisa warrant, we know that from the democratic memo, the steele dossier was corroborated by multiple independent sources. That ends the matter. So its not clear to me why we need a special counsel to look at that matter again. I think attorney general sessions did absolutely the right thing. When you say it was corroborated, you dont mean all the salacious details, the allegations in there . Was that corroborated . The parts that were used in the fisa warrant were corroborated. But none of the salacious details in there . Thats correct. As we sit here today no one has actually said the steele dossier is false. What theyve said is its salacious and more and more parts of it keep getting corroborated as time goes along. What would you do, congressman, if the president were to fire the attorney general, Jeff Sessions . That would be obstruction of justice and the only reason he would be doing that is to try to meddle with special counsel Robert Mueller. That would be an act that would be violating the rule of law. I think people would take to the streets and i urge the president not to do it. By the way, senator Lindsey Graham who you had played also said the president should not do that as well. Youre talking about firing Jeff Sessions or firing the special counsel Robert Mueller . Both. Congressman ted lieu, thanks very much for joining us. Thank you. Just ahead well more on this new twist in Robert Muellers investigation. What the special counsel, Robert Mueller, is trying to learn from cooperating witnesses and former Trump Campaign official rick gates. And a federal judge denies a move by Stormy Daniels attorney to question President Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, about a hush money deal with the porn star. Is it just a temporary setback . Whether its a big thing, small thing, or something unexpected, pnc will be right there when you need us. Because when it comes to your finances, if you focus on today, mueller, is trying to learn from. Janice, mom told me you bought a house. Okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. Quiet. Im blasting my quads. Janice, look. Im in a meeting. Janice, look. 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