A look at Breaking News, politics and reports from around the world. Things he did 12 years ago. Paul manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. He worked for many other republicans. He worked for me for, what, 49 days . A very short period of time. And the prosecution wrapped up its first witness today. That was democratic consultant tad divine. He worked with manafort in ukraine. They expect to call two other witnesses tomorrow, another consultant as well as an fbi agent. And of course, this isnt the only trial manafort faces. His d. C. Trial is set to start in september, all the while, hes still in jail for allegations of Witness Tampering while he awaits these other trials. Thank you. Jessica schneider reporting. Tonight, President Trump is on the Campaign Trail as he embraces a new line of defense against the Mueller Investigation. Mr. Trump now echoing Rudy Giulianis argument that collusion is not a crime. Of course, this is the same president who frequently denies there was any collusion with russia in the first place. Lets go live to our chief white
threatening to shut down the government to make congress pay for a border wall, insisting thats a very small price to pay and tweeting, i dont care what the political ramifications are. Even fellow republicans are leery of a shutdown with the midterm elections fast approaching. I kind of see it as posturing, to be honest with you. An irresponsible thing to do, i think. Mr. Trumps Border Policy is coming under increasing scrutiny with them admitting to congress that separating children from undocumented migrants equals child abuse. Its a potential for traumatic injury to the child. One of the president s fellow hard liners on immigration, john kelly, appears to be sticking around. Sources confirm the president has asked kelly to remain at his post until 2020, though cnn has learned the Chief Of Staff wanted the story leaked to tamp down reports that he could be on his way out. Mr. Trump arrived in florida with the Upcoming Elections on his mind, throwing his support
behind rob desantis. Build the wall. He reads stories. Then mr. Trump said youre fired. Desantis appears in a new ad teaching his children how to build their own wall. And a show of big league flattery. Big league. So good. The white house closed out the month of july without holding a briefing for reporters today. That means the white house has held only three briefings for the press this month and eight total since the end of may. Theres no other way to describe what the white house is doing right now, the white house from the president on down, theyre hiding from the press, we should point out, over the last hour or so, this crowd has been very rowdy. Coming after us, telling us to go home, but were not going home. Were going to stay right here at the rally and do the news, report on his rally coming up tonight. Good for you. Thanks very much. Thats exactly what youre posed to be doing in a country that appreciates a free press. Jim acosta on the scene for us in tampa. Joining us now, senator
richard blumenthal. A democrat who serves on the judiciary and Armed Services committee. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. So Paul Manafort, the trial has now started. The administration insists this has nothing to do at all with the 2016 Trump Campaign, even though he served for a few months as the Trump Campaign chairman. Whats your response to that . The judge has said that neither russia nor President Trump are on trial, true. But the stakes couldnt be higher for the president here and for the Special Prosecutor as well because obviously, this trial is a critical step, a milestone, in the Special Prosecutors pursuit of both possible conspiracy and collusion with the russians by the Trump Campaign, but also Obstruction Of Justice by the president of the United States. How important is rick gates testimony . He was manaforts deputy for a long time. He stayed on working for the Campaign Even after manafort left. Hes pled guilty. Hes cooperating. Hell be supposedly one of the star witnesses. He will be a star witness. And he has given both the Judiciary Committee and other committees in congress critical information that indicates that he has very compelling evidence against Paul Manafort and the Defense Strategy is going to be to put him on trial. To try to make him the defendant, which is a classic strategy. But does he have kwauberating evidence to back him up . There are more than 400 documents that are going to corroborate his testimony, and they can challenge him. They can put him on trial, but crossexamining a document is very difficult to do. Particularly when it relates to financial crimes, tax fraud, and money laundering, and other kinds of fraud where there is a huge amount of money. Were talking Tens Of Millions of dollars. The president is now echoing his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and saying collusion is not a crime. What does that say to you . That says to me that theyre once again playing semantics. Theyre trying to use word games. Collusion, whether its called that or an illegal agreement, amounts to conspiracy when it involves an agreement to violate the law. 18 United States code, 371. If there is an illegal agreement, whether it is by the center or one of the spokes on the wheel, its a classic Jury Instruction that no defendant has to know all of the purposes of the conspiracy or all of the actors in the conspiracy. If the president was part of a conspiracy, hes violated the law. Lets talk about Michael Cohen for a moment. The president s former fixer and lawyer. He says donald trump jr. Actually told his father about that trump tower meeting in New York City with the russians in advance. But thats not what we hear, what donald trump jr. Told your committee, the Judiciary Committee. Is that right . That is correct. And there is mounting evidence that donald trump jr. Misled or even more likely, perjured himself before our committee and possibly other committees because he denied telling his father about that meeting before it happened. Remember, this meeting was critical. It was the meeting in trump tower that was supposed to be the opportunity to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from Natalia Veselnitskaya and other russian agents, and if he is correct, Michael Cohen, and donald trump, father, knew about this meeting beforehand, it certainly is very compelling evidence. Because if you lie before a congressional committee, even if its Behind Closed Doors, thats a crime. It is a crime, and donald trump jr. Is in increasing jeopardy of being prosecutable for that kind of crime. Its interesting you say that. Yesterday, i interviews steve cohen of tennessee, a member of
the house Judiciary Committee and he predicted that donald trump jr. , Jared Kushner, both of them will eventually be indicted by manafort. They have increasing exposure here, and the evidence is increasing not only in the amount of evidence but also the credibility because for Michael Cohens contention that the president knew beforehand, theres other kinds of evidence as well that corroborates Michael Cohen, which further increases the jeopardy for donald trump jr. You agree with Congressman Cohen that both donald trump jr. And Jared Kushner potentially could be indicted . They have serious exposure, and it could well happen. Lets talk about facebook for a moment. You heard today they have removed a bunch of pages because of allegations, suspicion that foreigners, russians particularly, were involved in spreading disinformation to foment dissent here in the United States, to foment division in the United States, similar to what russia did during the 2016 president ial
campaign. How concerning is this to you right now . Its deeply concerning. But unsurprising, wolf, because the director of National Intelligence told us a week or so ago that the Warning Lights are flashing red. We know from the briefings we have received that the russians have continued their attack on our democracy. Its not only in the social media. Its also in cyber. Today, i introduced two bills on a bipartisan basis with senator graham and senator whitehouse. Aimed at Election Integrity and also countering this cyberattack increasing the penalties for cyber crime, enabling the Justice Department to stop bot net attacks. We need an all of government response. What were seeing from the administration is exactly the opposite. They are not yet even implementing all of the sanctions that we passed almost unanimously in the senate some time ago. I am a cosponsor of the deter act. My colleague Chris Van Hollen of maryland talked about it a little while ago on your show. Very important that we heighten sanctions and also there are other measures that we can and should take. On another really important issue, you heard testimony from representatives of the house of the administrations Homeland Security department. They testified before the Homeland Security committee up on capitol hill. And they gave various explanations why more than 700 children are still separated from their mothers and their fathers. What was your takeaway from hearing that . I found that these explanations, the attempt to explain the continued separation of the children, absolutely outrageous. And incredible. The most moving and powerful part of that testimony today in response to questions i asked was one of the Career Officials told me and the committee that it was the result of a deliberative process, that
actually took account of the pain and trauma that would be inflicted on these children. That career official, jonathan white, testified that the highest levels knew about the concerns that he and other Career Officials raised about this policy. So the explanations have been totally unsatisfactory. And from the day that i went to the border, which was now six weeks ago, there has been no plan, no system to reunite these children. It amounts to official kidnapping. And child abuse. And i should say these Homeland Security officials testified before your Judiciary Committee in the senate today, and a lot of people emerged very, very disturbed by what they heard. Senator blumenthal, thanks so much for joining us. Just ahead, well have more on Paul Manaforts trial and what it may reveal about Robert Muellers strategy as his Russia Investigation moves forward. And well also have a full report on facebooks discovery. Dozens of fake accounts likely linked to russians. Is it 2016 all over again . My car smells good. Repeat of moscows 2016 Election Interference here in the United States is already under way as the midterm elections near. Our Senior Investigative correspondent drew griffin is joining us right now. Drew, these fake sites seem pretty familiar. Almost identical, wolf, to what russian actors did during the runup to the 2016 campaign. Set up fake inauthentic accounts. Gather a bunch of followers, then spread disinformation, fake protests, all aimed at Twieding Americans against each other. Facebook calls it inauthentic behavior, and though facebook cant be sure, it sure looks like russia again. 32 pages with names including black elevation, resisters, being followed by 290,000 accounts. The fake accounts also setting up and promoting real events and protests aimed at further polarizing u. S. Political discourse. Many of the events did occur, including this one last year in New York City, attended by actual americans who likely had no idea that the resisters Facebook Page was probably run by russians. Another event by the same group was supposed to take place in a couple weeks. Resisters set up a counterprotest against White Supremacists at the white house august 10th. Five other real groups signed on to participate. As facebook was announcing its crackdown on these potential russian sites, the u. S. Secretary of Homeland Security was at a Cybersecurity Conference saying theres no doubt Russia Meddled in the 2016 election. Everyone and everything is now a target. And russian actors may be at it again. Comparing the upcoming midterm elections to a looming storm. But today, i believe the next major attack is more likely to reach us online than on an
airplane. Were in a crisis mode. The cat5 hurricane has been forecast. And now we must prepare. Facebook says these current pages all shut down have the hallmarks of the activities the russians did around the president ial election. Though there are some differences, this time the pages didnt lead back to russian i. P. Addresses, and they used thirdparty services to buy ads to boost their posts and encourage people to follow the pages. Wolf, in addition to taking these pages down, facebook is reaching out to anybody who is in contact with them, telling them these inauthentic accounts are most likely russians. We have contacted some of them, wolf, and they are just stunned to find out. These are american citizens surprised to find out that these rallies they attended were most likely organized by possibly russian actors. Hundreds of thousands of followers out there, very, very worrisome, indeed. Drew griffin, good reporting. Thank you. Just ahead, Paul Manaforts
defense. Can his legal team shift the blame to his former partner turned witness for Robert Mueller . And well go to the scene of the California Wildfires as the Death Toll Rises and the destruction reaches historic proportions. How can we say when you book direct at choicehotels. Com you always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed . Lets say it in a really low voice. Carl . Lowest price, guaranteed. Just stick with badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com
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