Takes the stand in the trial of former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. Will the jury hear what rick gates has already revealed to prosecutors . Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Breaking news. The governments key witness is now testifying in the trial of the former trump Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. That comes as President Trump is urged to stop tweeting about that 2016 Trump Tower Meeting between his top advisers including manafort and several russians. A source tells cnn is president is told his tweets are only giving oxygen to the topic. That followed the president s stunning Weekend Admission via twitter that the meeting indeed was about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton which he insists was totally legal. Ill speak with congressman and
correspondents and specialists with full Coverage Lets First Go To ChiefWhite House Correspondent jim acosta covering the president in new jersey. Hes letting his twitter fingers do the talking. Reporter absolutely, wolff of. The president is steering clear of the media today in new jersey after rez recommending the controversy over his son donald trump jr. s meeting with the meeting with the russians at the 2016 campaign and making it all too clear it was aimed to get dirt on Hillary Clinton and not at all how the trump team explained it to the American People initially. Keeping out of The Public Eye on vacation in new jersey, President Trump still managed to ignite a firestorm where else was on the smartphone . Tweeting about the Trump Tower Meeting with the russians in 2016. Worried about his son being in legal jeopardy over the meeting,
A look at breaking news, politics and reports from around the world. Statement. I talked about that before. Reporter a key question that remains, whether the president knew about the meetings true purpose ahead of time. Do you tell your father anything about this . No. It was such a nothing. There was nothing to tell. Reporter despite that, the president s top advisers defend the characterization that the Russian Investigation is a hex. The issue for the president i think is the political argument made by the opponents that somehow he conspired with the russians and helped him defeat Hillary Clinton and thinks thats the hoax. Thats what i understand it to be. Reporter now, as for the worries inside the president s team about the tweeting, theres been concerns inside mr. Trumps team of Legal Advisers for sometime now. A past attorney recalled ty cobb stepped down in part from the position over this concern about the president s tweets on the
russia investigation so, wolff, this is really nothing new and one thing that could be new, were told by dana bash, the president may have a response to the mueller team whether or not to sit down with the special counsels office for that very, very interesting interview that they have been seeking for sometime now. See if they make a Counter Effort to mueller on that. Jim, thank you very much. Lets go to chief National Correspondent jim schutto in virginia. So, jim, getting that shortly but the president s lawyers are urging him as you heard to stop tweeting about the notorious 2016 Trump Tower Meeting and the president tweets about the russia investigation. Why are the advisers so deeply concerned about the comments of this meeting at trump tower the
son donald trump jr. Expected to get out of that meeting . Reporter youre right. They have changed the story multiple times and misleading multiple times and had to withdraw from that, retrieve from that when evidence to the contrarys gone public. Lets go back to more than a year ago when the emails leading up to the june 2016 Trump Tower Meeting revealed. In that first email june 3rd, a quote from it coming from Rob Goldstone, helped arrange the meeting and wrote to donald trump jr. Describing the purpose as follows. This is obviously very high level and Sensitive Information and part of russia and the Government Support for mr. Trump. So very clear expression there that the russians as far as the Trump Campaign was concerned were going to give dirt on Hillary Clinton and also that phrasing there that this is part of the russian Government Support for trump and we know more about that now based on
happens, it raises very serious questions about his knowledge of this meeting and then add to it Michael Cohens expected testimony that the president knew about this. This is a very, very disturbing set of events. The president and the team as you know misleading on this meeting for months now. Why do you think hes finally admitting to the real purpose for the meeting after more than a year . Well, i mean, i think its very clear that the president s concerned about this meeting as he should be. I think hes concerned about his sons exposure. Donald trump jr. Emailed with Rob Goldstone who said, you know, we have dirt on Hillary Clinton. This is part of the Russian Governments effort to help mr. Trump. He said i love it. So theres a lot of evidence that donald trump jr. Knew what the meeting was about when he agreed to do it. Fact they didnt produce stuff, I Dont Know Whether thats true or not is irrelevant. This is a conspiracy to violate the Campaign Finance laws. He clearly had Knowledge Based on the emailed shared with the American People and President Trump has a right to be concerned about his sons liability and then the expected testimony of michael cohen, that is very, very concern for the president im sure. Do you think the president s son donald trump jr. Could be indicted . Well, i dont think theres any question based on what we know that he greed to meet with a Foreign National for dirt on an opponent, a representative or got that information from the Russian Government as part of an effort to help mr. Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. Theres enough evidence there certainly to present this information to a grand jury. Obviously mr. Mueller and the grand jury will make that determination. On the face, this is prima fascia evidence of a conspiracy to violate Campaign Finance laws and with donald trump jr. s admissions of knowing the purpose of the meeting based on
the email the president has liability. From the tweet over the weekend, thchis was a tweet for meeting on an opponent and done all the time in politics. Yeah. Thats wrong. It is not totally legal. When its a Foreign Government offering to do this, its totally illegal and doesnt happen all the time. If any if it ever happens, what a candidate is expected to do is contact the fbi and turn that meeting over. An enemy of the united states, the russians, for purposes of getting dirt on your political opponent, it is a violation of federal law and not done all the time and ought to be of concern of everyone. We heard so much information about the russian participation and certain part rs of ts of th campaign and this is a president ial campaign agreeing to meet with someone who is a representative of the Russian Government saying we have dirt
on your opponent and them saying i love it. And then best later in the summer. This is unheard of in american politics. And it ought to be a concern of everyone, democrat, republican, independent alike. Guess who gets to decide whos going to win american president ial elections . American citizens. We dont allow foreign adversaries to meddle or interfere in our elections and we all ought to be standing up against this. Hope hicks, she traveled aboard Air Force One with the president this weekend as he was heading to another political rally and she spoke with Robert Muellers team earlier this year. Hicks is presumably a witness in the obstruction probe. Does her presence on the campaign trail, congressman, with the target, potential target of that probe raise red flags . I think so. I mean, i think its really inappropriate. Look. Shes clearly a witness to a very important event. How damaging is the testimony by manaforts longtime deputy . Con. Thank you. How many kids . My two. His three. Along with two dogs and jake, our new parrot. That is quite the family. Quite a lot of colleges to pay for though. A lot of colleges. You get any Financial Advice . Yeah, but im pretty sure its the same plan they sold me before. Well your situations totally changed now. Right, right. How bout a plan that works for 5 kids, 2 dogs and jake over here . That would be great. That would be great. That okay with you, jake . Get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change from Td Ameritrade investment management. When it comes to strong bones, are you on the right path . We have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture, so with our doctors we chose prolia® to help make our bones stronger. Only prolia® helps strengthen bones by stopping cells that damage them with 1 shot every 6 months. Do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. Serious allergic reactions, like low blood pressure; trouble breathing; throat tightness; face, lip or tongue swelling, rash, itching or hives have happened. Tell your doctor about dental problems, as severe Jaw Bone Problems may happen or new or unusual pain in your hip, groin, or thigh, as unusual Thigh Bone Fractures have occurred. Speak to your doctor before stopping prolia®, as spine and other Bone Fractures have occurred. Prolia® can cause serious side effects, like low blood calcium; serious infections, which could need hospitalization; skin problems; and severe bone, joint, or muscle pain. If your bones arent getting stronger isnt it time for a new direction . Why wait . Ask your doctor about prolia. When we switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey oh, thats my robe. Is it . When you switch to liberty mutual, you could save 782 on auto and home insurance. And still get great coverage for you and your family. Call for a free quote today. You could save 782. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Multiple Shell Companies, over a dozen, he set up with manafort and never disclosed to the irs. And each time the prosecutor asked him questions about this, gates said it was at the direction of mr. Manafort and telling the jury that manafort directed him to commit the crimes and a willing participant in them. This goes back to a relationship that started in 1995 when gates was an intern at manaforts company and he said he met him at the Office Christmas party, wolf. Did gates admit to other crimes . He did. He said that he had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from Paul Manafort by filing fake expense reports, by overreporting his own income and lying to his own account and. But this also goes to the point Thap Making The Point today saying that gates embezzled from
manafort and gaetes he did file fake expense reports. Interesting. What about the Cooperation Agreement of gates and the mueller team . The prosecution. Well, the prosecutors had him walk through this to to admit that he pled guilty. What he described was helping manafort file those fake returns as part of a conspiracy of multiple crimes including the Shell Companies never reported, income that was never reported and he also said he lied to the fbi and pled guilty to this in a meeting with them while they were investigating Paul Manafort. So he admitted to this and told the jury by lying to investigators that he increased his sentence or potential sentence by a lot. And thats it was at that point that the government shifted to have gates admit other crimes not included so the jury hears the full picture. Thats important. Thanks very much. Clearly some major Bombshell Testimony on the part of rick gates. Well see what happens next. Well get back to you. Coming up, the president may have stirred up more trouble for himself and his son by admitting the purpose of that 2016 meeting over trump tower was with the russians was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton and that leads the president s lawyers to urge him to stop tweeting about that Trump Tower Meeting altogether. Stay with us. Why people everywhere are upgrading their water filter to zerowater. Start with water that has a lot of dissolved solids. Pour it through britas twostage filter. Dissolved solids remain . What if we filter it over and over . sighing oh dear. Thank goodness zerowaters fivestage filter gets to all zeroes the first time. So, maybe its time to upgrade. Get more out of your water. Get zerowater. Were following multiple breaking stories including word that President Trumps top advisers urging him to stop tweeting about the 2016 meeting between a group of russians and top officials of his Campaign Including his own son donald trump jr. Lets discuss the implications. Joey jackson, let me read the relevant part of the law as far as contributions are concerned. This is the u. S. Code on contributions. Quote, it shall be unlawful for a Foreign National directly or indirectly to make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value or expressly or impliedly promise to make a contribution or donation in connection with a federal, state or local election and unawful for a person to
solicit, accept or receive a contribution or donation explained in subparagraph an or b of 1 for from a Foreign National. The key words of other thing of value. What is your interpretation of that . Were any laws broken . You know, wolf, you have your finger on the pulse. Any violation of the law tons on what the law is and the fact. I think theres a very credible argument to be made, yes, the sa chute violated y. . You mentioned the law. It bares for me not to repeat it but highlight critical things. The essence is no foreign actor involved at all. In addition, the law talks about being involved directly either you make the donation or indirectly a third party and goes further to the crux of what you mentioned. Other thing of value. It does not have to be money. So what is the other thing of
value here and remember its not just accepting it. Its soliciting it. Right . So the reality is the other thing of value could be construed as information which would be detrimental to the opponent. To the facts. If we know that the fact is theres such a meeting, we now know that the meeting involved the russians, we know that there was also lies that were told about the meeting and whats the relevance of a lie told . When you tell a lie of what youre doing, we lawyers call consciousness of guilt. We have nothing to lie about. And so, why is it that you say and we heard earlier in the show about trump says im making a major speech. About what . How were you to know to have information to be relevant to the clintons . Blocked phone calls made by don jr. To you. We know you have a blocked number. So theres information that the president was very well aware of this and then, of course, we have cohen and corroborates it. Theres corroboration. So if you look at the facts as
you laid them out, you know, as we discussed the facts, looking at the law and apply the two, its a credible argument to be made the statute violated and that a foreign power was involved in the elections with the knowledge of the parties involved here. Because Opposition Research, that could be interpreted as a thing of value. Right. Rob goldstone, the intermediary, set the stage for that meeting at trump tower between the russians and the Trump Campaign and donald trump jr. In the email just before the meeting, june 3rd, 2016, he write this is to donald trump jr. Obviously very high level and Sensitive Information but is part of russia and did governments support for mr. Trump to helped along by aras and emin, two russians involved this. Donald trump jr. Then writes back to goldstone, quote, if its what you say i love it. Especially later in the summer. This is an early june. Later in the summer closer to november and the elections. Could that offer have been anymore clear . Look. Most people would say, no, it couldnt have been more clear