The days top stories from around the world, from politics and money, to sports and pop culture. Unleashing a nerve agent in the uk. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. Republican Chris Collins of new york first sitting member of the congress to back the President Trumps bid in february 2016. He was such a strong supporter of mr. Trump collins at the Republican National convention was asked to formally second mr. Trumps nomination to be his partys nominee. I have the honor of seconding the nomination of donald j. Trump as the next president of the United States of america but today the congressman was arrested by the fbi. Moments ago the congressman walked out of Federal Court in new york city where he was arraigned. Prosecutors this afternoon detailing the grand jury indictments of the new york republican, his son and his sons fiancees father for 13
counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and false statements. All stemming from an alleged Insider Trading scheme of an australian Bio Tech Firm for Which Collins was a board member and its difficult not to notice that the president who repeatedly declared himself the Law And Order candidate on the Campaign Trail whose crowds continue to chant that his opponent Hillary Clinton to be locked up, that president seems to have people in the orbit tom to run afoul of the law. Just in the last day, the president s former Deputy Campaign chairman rick gates was testifying about crimes he says he committed with President Trumps former Campaign Chairman paul manafort. Plus, cnn also has learned that the president s former fixer and longtime Attorney Michael Cohen is under federal investigation for tax fraud. Thats just the last day. Within hand, the public can be reassured that american institutions of law enforcement
continue to do their jobs, pursuing criminality wherever they see it without fear or favor with no evidence of inappropriate influence wielded to protect those who are close to the president. Thats good news. On the other hand, those who thought electing President Trump might mean he would drain the swamp, they likely didnt believe so many of the critters in the swamp were the president s friends and allies. I want to bring in cnns bryn gingras. We just learned that collins will hold a Press Conference in a couple of hours. Reporter yeah. Thats right, jake. At 6 30. In buffalo. We saw the congressman and his team of attorneys come out of this Federal Courthouse, jumping into a suv and likely headed in that direction for that Press Conference. Inside the courtroom, the congressman, 25yearold son cameron and soon to be fatherinlaw appeared calm. Anything but calm is what prosecutors say all three men were when they learned about this drug and how it failed the Clinical Trial an the alleged
swift action they took to unload the stocks and Save Hundreds Of Thousands of dollars according to the prosecutors doing all this above the law. Thinking they were above the law. Republican congressman Chris Collins, the first member of congress to support donald trump, appearing in court late this afternoon after federal prosecutors charged him, his son cameron and another man with 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and making a false statement to the fbi. The charges stemming from an alleged Insider Trading scheme. First lady reporter Playing Out On The South Lawn of the white house. At the center of it all, an australian Pharmaceutical CompanyWhere Collins was a board member. Congressman collins was told some confidential and highly Sensitive Information about the drug, the information not yet made public. Namely, that innates main drug, the drug innate was developing to be the backbone of its company was a total failure. Reporter according to the 30page complaint that conversation happened while collins attended the annual congressional picnic at the white house. Federal prosecutors say he received an email at 6 55 p. M. That the drug failed the trial. At 7 10 p. M. , collins responded to the email and proceeded to try to reach his son cameron. Placing six calls over a period of five minutes. Later that night, cameron drove to the home of Steven Zarskas and his wife placed a call to their stockbroker to sell shares of the company according to the complaint. Prosecutors allege that between the opening of the market on friday, june 23rd and the close of business on the following monday, Cameron Collins sold a total of nearly 1. 4 million shares of innate. All in all prosecutors allege that collins and the other
allegations. Of course, well hear more from the congressman appearing for that News Conference in buffalo around 6 30. Jake . Bryn, thanks so much. I want to set the scene for a second. Brynn mentioned this white house none of this has to do with President Trump directly, of course. But on june 22nd, 2017, thats when prosecutors say the congressman got that email including Insider Information and started to calling his son and just so happens he was at the congressional picnic at the white house surrounded by the colleagues, tons of people. Look at this part. This was 7 30. Everyones taking pictures. Collins distracted. Perhaps looking down at the phone. This is exactly 14 minutes after collins according to prosecutors called his son to give him the tip. I mean, it really is remarkable. Again, innocent until proven guilty. People seem to think that there arent going to be investigations or records of these things. I mean, the term that people use, Culture Of Corruption. Him being there in the
environment and making that is literally a Culture Of Corruption. Thats what that is. And at this point, like, with all the people accused of these sort of acts, its like starting to feel like looting. It is starting to feel like people came in and get everything like a Supermarket Sweep of criminality. Running through with the arm out to get everything into the cart and makes me feel like President Trump talking about a witch hunt and see stuff like this, the commerce secretary, the Garden Variety Corruption Issues in the sense that its stuff that has happened more isolated cases in the past and very hard to say that, therefore, its a witch hunt, politically motivated and cut and dry. Somebody took something they werent supposed to take. Very rare to indict a sitting congressman, especially within 100 days of the election. As you said, they will go through the evidence and have a trial but the timing of the email and then the phone call and then the selling of the stocks quite suspicious. Before the bad news comes out to make the stock sink. With all the issues you listed, no one can keep their nose clean and thats been like for a long time in washington but in this administration in particular, no message from the top to keep your nose clean and sometimes quite the obvious. People do not act the way they should and are tempted to act other ways and not told otherwise. I think people surprised to discover you can be a congressman on the energy and Commerce Committee regulating the pharmaceutical industry and sit on board of a company, introduce legislation which he did before this all happened to seem to benefit the company, buy a lot of the stock when the Legislation Looks like it will pass and then a phone call as a director of the ceo i guess and appear to dump the stock or tell your son to dump the family stock or some chunk of it before the rest of the world knows. I dont know. Is it that much to ask maybe congressman not on boards of directors trade stocks and
can have the same impact as it might have had in 2006 with the mark foley scandals because the news cycle is so fast and so furious. And we have so many of these stories. I think we have seen the impact go down which is regrettable to some extent. Can i Say Something in defense of this town . Theres a culture of integrity. What about the Justice Department . They indicted, trumps Justice Department, people that report to people yes. Its impressive. U. S. Attorney Berman Appointed by President Trump. We should be a little theres a Culture Of Corruption and something impressive about the Justice Department has behaved in this instance. To add a nuance to this, saying how brazen it is, i remember when i was in the state house in Jefferson City and would see on a bill about pharmacy benefits, somebody would say im a pharmacist and going i remember like my head exploding thinking, perhaps then you shouldnt speak on this. Because it has a financial interest for you and i would go back to the idea that frequently and i think this happens in washington, too, people mistake Conflict Of Interest for expertise and so i dont know if thats the case here. Bill, i mean, i agree with you, ridiculous that you can have this sit on a board and be on the committee. I guarantee you, likely anyway, he had conversations like, well, i know a lot about this because i sit on people are like, oh, we should listen to this guy on the board. Thats the problem. They cant tell the difference of Conflict Of Interest and expertise. Absolutely and then this is allowed to go on because the congress, the folks in congress are not necessarily regulated themselves. You know, i would venture to say Congressman Collins isnt only pen on a pharmaceutical board or health board here or there and so who is going to check the checker . That is what the American People i think are asking. Thats one of the things we have seen in this town is ultimately theres sometimes a lot of times that democrats wont take actions that would hurt republicans because theyre
also worried about their own members and who knows Whats Going On with democratic congressmen . You havent seen stampede of people saying we need to clean this up today. It is driven by Self Interest and sometimes partisan interest and looking ahead to like what if i get in the crosshairs of this committee and doesnt feel great to me and getting an investigation upon investigation of themselves in congress and often does not really cut through. Democrats are crazy in my view, challengers against republicans, not to run oh, yes. Murray is running. No nancy pelosi. No business as usual. None of the same rules. Clean the place up. You had her and then you lost her. You had me and then i was like im not with bill. Everyone stick around. President trump responding to bob muellers request for an interview but is it an honest effort for a deal . A Pressure Campaign of ivanka trump by celebrities but is the first daughter willing to
listen to the people she follows on instagram . Stay with us. This is not a bed. Its a hightech revolution in sleep. The new sleep number 360 smart bed. It intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts on each side to keep you both comfortable. And snoring . How smart is that . Smarter sleep. To help you lose your dad bod, train for that marathon, and wake up with the patience of a saint. The new sleep number 360 smart bed, from 999. Smarter sleep will change your life. Who would have guessed . An Energy Company helping cars emit less. Making cars lighter, its a good place to start, advanced oils for those hardworking parts. Fuels that go further so drivers pump less. Improving efficiency is what we do best. Energy lives here. Improving efficiency this is not a screensaver. Game. This is the destruction of a cancer cell by the bodys own immune system, thanks to medicine that didnt exist until now. And today can save your life. Booking a flight doesnt have to be expensive. Just go to priceline. Its the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40 . Just tap and go. For the best savings on flights, go to priceline. Special counsel doesnt seem to be closing the gap of the two sides negotiating for eight months. And instead, it seems to be showing us just how far apart they remain. President trumps legal Team Responding to the Special Counsels latest request for an interview today. We have given him an answer. He obviously should take a few days to consider it. But we should get this resolved. Reporter the president s lawyers declining to characterize their response to robert mueller. We wont discuss the contents of the letter to send but ill tell you this. That our response will be is thoughtful and includes issues that are raised under the constitution so ill leave it at that. Reporter while urging him once again to bring the investigation to an end. We do not want to run into the november elections. So back up from that, this should be over with by september 1st. Reporter the response is latest in the back and forth between the two sides that has
dragged on for eight months now. Mueller indicated last week hed be willing to limit the questions of Obstruction Of Justice maintaining to ask those questions in person. Today, giuliani making clear certain questions are off limits. I could right now give you the answer that hes going to give to the question, why did you fire james comey . He gave it to lester holt. It is on tape. Reporter openly admitting hes worried the president could perjure himself. Start to think that the only reason they want this explanation is so that they can come up with some kind of a perjury thing. Its called a perjury trap, what we have talked about often. Reporter while trump ramped up the public attacks on the Special Counsel hes at odds with his own legal team over the prospects of an interview. The president stated he wants to do an interview. The position of the legal team is we dont advise that. Reporter jay sekulow admitting the decisions up to the president. Reporter now, the president and the reason he wants to get in front of the Special Counsel because he believes he can communicate his innocence to him and bring this investigation to an end. Now, the president s legal team declined the Special Counsels interview request it could be a show down in court over a president ial subpoena and only happened to one other president in office. Jake . All right. Kaitlan collins with the president in new jersey. Up next, the other letter, what we know was in that special delivery, senator rand paul gave to be given to russian president Vladimir Putin in the solo trip to russia. Stay with us. With safelite, you can see exactly when well be there. Saving you time for what you love most. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace
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