Were following breaking news in the russia investigation. The wall street journal reporting tonight that the special counsel, robert mueller, is looking into a claim by trump ally, roger stone, that he met in 2016 with Julian Assange, the founder of wikileaks that released dnc emails hacked by russia. The journal reports that during grand jury testimony, muellers team has specifically asked about an email in which stone said he had dinner with Julian Assange. Ill get reaction from the former cia director, leon panetta. And our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. First, lets go to our justice correspondent, evan perez. Evan, why would the this alleged stone assange meeting be significant . Well, wolf, it would be a big piece of information for the special counsel, simply because this lies at the center of what the special counsel, robert mueller, is supposed to be investigating, which is whether or not there was any illegal coordination between People Associated with the Donald Trump Campaign and russians. Now, the email that were talking about, that the wall street journal said it saw is daytoday august 4th, 2016, and it is from roger stone to sam nunberg, both of them were informal advisers to then candidate trump. And in the email, roger stone says, quote, i dined with Julian Assange last night. Wolf, the problem with this is weve had multiple different stories from roger stone as to whether or not he had any actual contact with Julian Assange, the founder of wikileaks. In the past, he said that he did have contact. He also has said that he had contact with Julian Assange through an intermediary. And just in the last couple of days, weve talked to him at cnn and he now denies that he ever had any contact with Julian Assange. He told the wall street journal, for instance, that he could provably show that he was not in the Ecuadorian Embassy having dinner with Julian Assange during the time of this email, simply because he was flying somewhere and he produced the receipt from Delta Airline fars for a flight. So we dont know what his story is, but its a very significant thing if this email is true. Again, it goes to the Central Mission o f what the special counsel is investigating. The email was an email extend to sam nunberg, one of his associates. And now roger stone says he was simply joking in that email when he says that he actually had dinner with Julian Assange. Right, its par for the course with roger stone. Hes, obviously, one of the many colorful characters that weve run into in this now yearlong investigation by the special counsel. But its important to note that, again, the day after this interview, this email was allegedly sent is the day that roger stone tweets out something about essentially calling Julian Assange a hero. He said, quote, hillary lies about russian involvement in dnc hack. Julian assange is a hero and obviously a few weeks later, in late august, he also foreshadows, seeming to know that the wikileaks was about to release emails that were hacked from john podesta, who helped run the Hillary Clinton campaign. Again, theres a lot of questions here. And this is not the first weve heard that people are being asked about roger stone in the special counsel investigation. And of course, the president during the campaign said, i love wikileaks, and im sure investigators are looking into that, as well. Were expecting a first tomorrow. The first sentencing of someone who has now pled guilty in the Mueller Probe. Right. This is a milestone in this investigation. Alex van der swann is pleading guilty to lying to special counsel muellers investigators. Under the guidelines, he could get between zero and six months in prison. Were expecting, i think its even likely, thats haes going to get no prison time. He also faces 250,000 fine. Look, hes got a baby due in august, wolf. Even though he lied to the special counsel, he later corrected the record, provided the documents that the special counsel said that he was withholding and hes a very key witness, simply because he worked with Paul Manafort and rick gates. Paul manafort, the former chairman of the Trump Campaign, and rick gates, his associate in this Ukraine Business that they had. Now, mueller filed a document in advance of the sentencing, saying that van der zwaan cant say anything publicly about this investigation. He knows whats going on. Talk about that. Right, under this agreement that he has signed with the special counsel, he forfeits or gives up his right to be able to get any information from the spo special counsels office under the freedom of information act. And the reason for this is they say he knows too much about the special counsels investigation, including information that is not yet public. And so the concern here is that he could use information that he has from the investigation and could tip off other people. Its very key here, wolf, that just last week, in another filing in the van der zwaan case, the special counsel let it be known that rick gates was in contact with someone that the special counsel says is a russian spy, a russian intelligence agent. And that rick gates knew he was this person was working for the russians, at the time that he was communicating with him in september and october of 2016. Again, thats in the middle of the president ial campaign. And this is key, because, again, it goes to the Central Mission here, of the Mueller Investigation, which is, proving or showing whether or not there was any illegal or improper contacts between russians and the Trump Campaign. Paul manafort, of course, was the campaign manager. And so this ties together all of those strands. Yeah. And rick gates was the Deputy Campaign chairman and he would stay down in the campaign after Paul Manafort into the inauguration. Thats correct. Ev evan, thank you for that report. As the Mueller Probe continues to look into possible collusion between the trump camp and russia, the white house is now confirming a new overture by the president to the russian leader, Vladimir Putin. The two leaders discussing a potential meeting here in washington at the white house. Lets bring in our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. Jim, while the president makes nice with putin, hes been on a new twitter rant on multiple topics, including immigration. Thats right, wolf. President putin might feel right at home here at the white house, the way the president has been going off on the media and the Justice Department in recent days. Hes also venting his frustration on the issue of immigration. The president sticking to his talking points when it comes to the young undocumented immigrants known as the dreamers that fall under the daca program. But he was suddenly silent today when we reminded him, he ended daca. It was supposed to be very rainy and nasty and cold and windy and look what we have. Perfect weather. Perfect weather. Beautiful weather. Reporter just before President Trump welcomed guests to the white house for the annual easter egg roll, he was hammering away on immigration. Blaming democrats for failing to extend the program that protects young undocumented people from deportation known as daca. Daca is dead because the democrats didnt care or act, the president tweeted. And now Everyone Wants to get on to the daca bandwagon. No longer works. Must build wall and secure our borders with proper border legislation. When we pressed mr. Trump on that at the easter egg roll, he neglected to mention one thing. He terminated the daca program. Mr. President , what about the daca kids . Should they worry about whats going to happen to them, sir . The democrats have really let them down. Theyve really let them down. They had the great opportunity. The democrats have really let them down. Its a shame. And now people are taking advantage of daca and thats a shame. It should have never happened. Didnt you kill daca, sir . Didnt you kill daca . Reporter the president didnt respond. Mr. Trump launched his immigration tweet storm over the weekend, shortly after a segment on the issue aired on fox news. But the president s tweets werent limited to immigration. He also defended the conservative Sinclair Broadcasting company thats come under fire for asking its affiliates to read a statement. The president tweeted, so funny to watch fake news networks, among the most dishonest groups of people ive ever dealt, criticize sinclair for being biased. And he continued to harass the Washington Post and his owner, jeff bezos, who also founded the online retailer, amazon, complaining the post office loses a fortune, shipping packages for the company. He even took a swipe at the department of justice, putting justice in quotes, describing officials there as an embarrassment to our country. The president s hardline rhetoric comes just as aides confirm hes considering hosting a meeting with Russias Vladimir Putin at the white house, a sitdown he hinted at last month. We had a very good call and i suspect that well probably be meeting in the nottoodistant future. Another sign of the chaotic atmosphere at the white house, the back and forth over whether the president actually fired his Veterans Affairs secretary, david shulkin. Shulkin says he was fired. You received a phone call from chief of staff john kelly, who fired you . General kelly gave me a heads up. The tweet fired you . Yes. Reporter while the white house has offered evasive statements, sinsisting shulkin resigned. General kelly called secretary shulkin and gave him the opportunity to resign. Obviously, the key here is that the president has made a decision. Reporter as for daca, the president apparently does not have his facts straight, as he often does with other issues. He keeps saying people are flowing into the u. S. To take advantage of the daca program, but newcomers, we should point out, would not be eligible for daca, because the president , as we mentioned earlier wednesdayed ended it. As for the president blaming democrats, thats also false. The president has rejected those plans time and again. Jim, thank you. Joining us now, the former defense secretary, former cia director, leon panetta. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us. In light of what we now know about the Mueller Investigation, at least so far, how important is this new information that roger stone had an email in which he said he had dinner with Julian Assange. This was being reported by the wall street journal. Well, theres no question that the Mueller Investigation has reached crunch time, in the fact that they are now looking at just exactly whether or not there was any kind of conspiracy between members of the Trump Campaign and the russians. Weve already determined that the rnussians attacked our election system, indictments have been issued on that fact, and now the issue that mueller has to turn to is what whether or not there was any activity here, that involved any kind of deliberate conspiracy. And having this information on the email, indicates that mr. Stone, who was somebody involved in the campaign, obviously was contacting someone to determine whether or not they could get information to be used in the campaign. Whether or not this is the truth, that remains to be determined, obviously, be mr. Mueller. But i think its an indication that we are now embarked on a very critical part of this investigation. Yeah, roger stone says he was simply joking in that email. Lets get to another sensitive issue. Alex van der zwaan, the 33yearold dutch awyer, worked for a major u. S. Law firm, he apparently knew about rick gates contacts with individuals close to russian intelligence. What might we learn from van der zwaans sentencing tomorrow . Well, again, the fact that he is pleading guilty indicates that there was something that was going on. What the full extent of the information he has with regards to gates and contacts with the rup russians, i think will have to be determined, either upon sentencing or as part of the Mueller Investigation. Whats your reaction, mr. Secretary, to President Trumps decision to invite Vladimir Putin to come to the white house and the fact that we only learned about this invitation from the russians . Well, i i have a lot of concern when the president issues that kind of invitation to an adversary. This is an adversary. Putin has been very aggressive against the United States, and for that matter, the world. Hes gone into the crimea. Hes gone into the ukraine. Hes taken military force into syria. He has attacked our election process. Hes now, you know, using nerve agents to go after russian spies. I think putin reads weakness. You know, on the part of the United States and others, for that matter. And to now have the president of the United States give him a call after the election to congratulate him and then not even mention any of these other issues, i think putin just sees that as more of a sign of weakness. You served a it has cia director. Do you believe russian agents would have carried out that nerve agent attack in the uk without Vladimir Putins approval . Not at all. Wolf, i dont know if you know this, but when i was cia director, i was one of those that put together the negotiation to basically exchange ten of the russian spies for their for some of our spies. I think four of our spies, one of whom was the individual who the russians went after. In order to get that exchange approved, putin had to agree to that. And i dont think theres any question that this former kgb agent would not allow the rn russians to engage in a nerve attack in another country without knowing about it and without approving it. Let me get to another sensitive issue before i let you go, mr. Secretary. President trump is ending aide to syrian rebels. Theres 200 million appropriated. Says hes not going to spend it, at least, they havent spent it yet, and he also says the u. S. Will be pulling out its 2,000 troops from syria very soon. Who will fill that vacuum . I think thats a very dangerous step for the president to take. Because what hes doing is issuing an open invitation to russia and iran to have a permanent foothold in the middle east in syria. And if they do establish that foothold, then assad wins this larger war. Then the United States is going to be at a serious disadvantage, because isis will find a place at which they can continue to develop the plans that they have always been involved with, to attack our country. I think it would be a serious mistake for President Trump to walk away from the courage, to walk away from the battle of isis, but most importantly, to walk away from leadership on the issue of what happens to syria. You think hell listen to his generals, who apparently are very concerned about a complete u. S. Pullout from syria. Theyre concerned that the iranians, the russians, hezbollah would effectively have control of a great deal of land. Well, you know, the president criticized the moment when we withdrew troops from iraq, which created an opening for isis. If this president now basically removes our troops from syria, that will leave a vacuum in which isis in iran and russia will expand their influence in the middle east. He will pay a price for this, from a history point of view. Very concerning, indeed. Leon panetta, thanks so much for joining us. Nice to be with you. Just ahead, well have much more on the first sentencing expected in Robert Muellers investigation. What secrets is the special counsel trying to keep under wraps . And the roger stone connection to the russia probe. Well talk about the breaking news on the longtime trump ally under scrutiny by muellers team. 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