Our live coverage from houston starts now. Welcome to houston, texas, as you know, i mainly report from overseas, this time im here for a story thats both foreign and domestic. And yes it involves President Trump and russia. In particular, why is it that some of President Trumps most devoted supporters seem to like putins russia. Ive been twrafling in the states, i went to a gun show, i spoke to folks from the christian right. And what surprised me, even when they see all of the reporting about russias attempts to influence our election, and they know that every one of our intelligence agencies reported putin sent his trolls to influence our election. Their answer is, so what . When and why did some on the american right fall in love with putins russia. It did not happen by accident. It happened after russia launched a Concerted Campaign more than a decade ago to gain a foothold in american society. Tonight we have exclusive reporting, weve been investigating someone who lives right here, someone youve probably never heard of, hes an Oil Executive born in russia and who out of the blue started making large donations to trump and the republicans in 2016. As an american citizen, his donations were perfectly legal. Sources familiar with the investigation tell Us Special CouncilRobert Mueller has been looking into him and his donations. And that makes a lot of sense, considering what we found. Heres our exclusive investigation, which we conducted in conjunction with the guardian newspaper. In politics, money buys access, and sieman kukis got his moneys worth. The russian born american businessman donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Donald Trumps 2016 run. That got him and his russian girlfriend right up close to the future president. In political circles, no one had ever heard of simon kukis before. Hes been an american citizen for decades and hes never given a political con contribute use. Robert mcguire worked at the center for responsive politics. Suddenly he starts giving to trump allied joint fundraising committees. And to the Trump Campaign itself. Mcguire and his team tracked donations to both parties. 99. 9 of americans give 2700 or less, thats the maximum youre allowed to donate directly to a candidate. But hes donated 2700 to the Trump Campaign, plus another 273,000 to the Trump Victory committee which distributed the money between the campaign, the rnc and state republican parties. By giving the kind of money he gave, he is putting himself on the radar for the Republican Party for the Trump Campaign. You give that much money, people notice . Exactly. When you make calls, your calls are answered, youre not getting an aide, youre not getting a staffer, youre getting someone in a position of power to help you. The timing also raises red flags, because kuk has started making his big donations exactly two weeks after the now infamous meeting between Trump Campaign officials and the russian lawyer. Right after the trump tower meeting, the one with don junior, thats when the tap is opened . Absolutely. And thats why its so suspicious. The big question is, was this orchestrated to essentially act as a loophole to get money legally into the campaign . If it was orchestrated or done at the behest of a foreign power, would it then be illegal . Yes. Simon was born in russia, to jewish parents in 1946. He worked hard in school and earned a ph. D. In chemistry from this Prestigious University in moscow. Once he graduated in the 70s, he didnt want to stay put in the soviet union. He wanted something bigger and better. So he did something few highly trained russian scientists were allowed to do in the 1970s. He moved here to houston, texas. And joined the booming local oil industry. He became a naturalized citizen in 1982 and rose through the corporate ranks all the way to the executive suite. Then in 1996 kuk is traded in the American Dream and went back to russia. He was hired as the president of a struggling Russian Oil Company called tnk, and promised he would turn it around. The company full of western roads and standards. On a personal level, he was very civilized, westernized, polite. This man worked for the same oil company. He was unlike some russian oligarchs. Russia in the early 1990s was no place for clean cut westernized managers. Theres the wild wild west and then there was the wild wild east. Bruce marks saw that firsthand. He represented a Canadian Oil Company which sued tnk and kukis after tnk tried to engineer a hostile takeover of its russian subsidiary. When i say hostile takeover, i mean with machine guns. So much for western rules and standards. Simon was there with the guys with the machine guns. And the canadian workers, a number of whom i have spoken to sid they were given the opportunity to stay there at a report to kukis under his control or they could leave. Marks lut dragged out for 13 years. In the process he got his hands on an incredible piece of evidence. We got a document that was stamped secret from the cia literally it just came in an envelope in the mail. 2 was astounding, because he admitted to a u. S. Government official that he had paid bribes. Why was he under surveillance in the first place. Hes a u. S. Citizen of foreign dissent whose wielding a tremendous amount of influence, who has a lot of money. And that would have been enough to put him on the cias radar. She would know, she used to work for the agency. Does the cia keep files on all prominent dual citizen americans . The cia doesnt have the resources or the manpower or the time to monitor everyone. He would have had to do something to rise to their level of interest or to be connected to someone. Definitely have connections to russian government without a doubt. He now lives in washington, d. C. , a member of a group of activists who are vocal critics of putins russia, he says the owners of tnk, kukis employers were oligarchs, powerful ones. Theyre extremely closely connected. I would call them the inner circle of putin. Putin was consolidating his power, making his inner circle evenen tighter. Loyal oligarchs got rich, enemies had their assets seized. In 20034, the ceo of russias Biggest Oil Company was arrested on charges of fraud and kukis was picked to take over. That tells me he was in favor in the kremlin. Theyre not going to get rid of someone and replace him with one of his cronies. Theyre going to replace him with someone thats acceptable to the kremlin. He was planning to retire anyway. So he could pursue other ambiti ambitions. 10 years of hard labor probably waentz one of his pursuits, but thats what he got. Just as the American Campaign season was heating up, kukis suddenly returned to houston and started sending those fat checks to the Trump Victory committee. He was very stingy, and he was never giving donations of his own free will to political parties, all of a sudden, he starts to give big donations, which is very surprising to my friends who know him. What was it about the Trump Campaign that caused kukis to change the habits of a lifetime . Well, we found a possible answer in an email exchange in which kukis appears to be reporting back to a high ranking russian official. If you could take a look at them and tell us what you think we showed moran some printouts. Whats your impression . Those are very interesting and very suspicious. Why suspicious . The way of communicating, theres a vailed subtext behind the words, its clear that Neither Party wants to come straight out in email and say what theyre talking about. The emails were obtained through the dossier center, an investigative project financed d by mikhail horigovsy. After being released he became putins enemy number one. The address they were sent from does belong to kukis. In one message dated july 16, 2016, he addresses the russian official povlosky writing. I have been actively involved in trumps campaign. Let me know how you are doing, and whether you want to meet. I read that as an invitation for pavlovski to meet with kukis to discuss the desires of the kremlin. Hes offering to help . I read it that way. I think he is interested. We have to look at the background of pavlovski a bit. We did. He now has a plum job with the state owned railway in russia. Before that, he was the ambassador general. How connected would be he be to the kremlin . Hes as connected as you can get. If youre a Russian Ambassador overseas and then you come home and take over a major faction of russian injury, youre well connected. He seemed eager to show he was building connections of his own. I was at a dinner with donald trump. I think his chances are very good. In his corner is americas most respected male rudy giuliani. That made my blood run cold, theres so little said and so much conveyed. Whats conveyed . To my, whats conveyed is, i was with donald trump, we have a plan in action, and its going to work. This guy is going to win. Our guy is going to win. Why send the boat toe . The photo is basically what we might call proof that i really can produce what im saying i can produce. Here i am with giuliani. We talked to giuliani, he doesnt remember meeting simon kukis. We looked at the photos metadata, it was taken on august 13th, 2016. When giuliani attended a fundraiser hosted by Woody Johnson at his mansion in the hamptons. Guests paid up to 25,000 to meet and greet candidate trump. Two days earlier, kukis donated exactly in a amount. A few weeks later, he and his girlfriend attended another fundraiser. She posed for this photo. Which kukis emailed to his dear slav. Maybe hes just bragging about a contact. Look, here i am with all these powerful political figures. I dont buy that. Its all related to trump. To me, this reads like an email exchange between a source and a handler, or a source and headquarters. Only hours after donald trump became the 45th president of the United States, kukis received an email from moscow. Congratulations. How is your mood, when are we going to see each other . I mean that speaks volumes. Trump won the election. The efforts worked. The plan worked. Again, this does not strike me as two old friends who want to get together for a few vodka shots. It seems more conspiratorial to you . Much more. The whole tone of the emails is conspiratorial. Do you think these donations were part of a Russian Campaign to influence the election and help President Trump . Absolutely. After reading this email exchange, i have nary a doubt. We wanted to ask simon kukis about his background and this mysterious email exchange. Why was he offering political briefings to a russian official. And why did he send those photos . Was he just bragging . Look at how close i got to a president ial candidate or was there more to it . Unfortunately, he wouldnt talk to us, he did send us an email. He thought donations would help him make contacts in houston. Given all this press, i am very sorry i made the contributions. An rnc official confirmed kukis did attend trump fundraisers. A spokesman for the Trump Campaign told us that simon kukis never had a role there many and the russian official he was reportedly exchanging these emails with, he didnt respond at all. How significant is what we uncovered . Waiting to help us figure that out is david korn from mother jones. Welcome back, watching the story with us from washington is david korn, the d. C. Bureau chief for mother jones. The co author along with Michael Isikoff of a book called russian roulette. The inside story of putins war on america. The book connected a lot of dots and predicted a lot of what weve seen in the mueller d. C. S. Thank you for being with us. Good to be with you. Congratulations on a great spot you just did. Im happy to hear you say that, im curious to hear your thoughts. What do you think about what we uncovered about simon kukis. You know, thats just another piece in a mosaic that continues to grow. And it fits in with a pattern of big money rolling into trumps coffers during the campaign and after the campaign into the inaugural fund. You talked about the amount of money that kukis gave in january of 2017, a few months later, now were talking about the inauguration, trumps inaugural fund, trump is getting 250,000 from a guy named andrew entrader who is the cousin of victor veksanberg, a tremendously significant russian oligarch. The same time the inaugust ural fund is getting money from american russians who have business ties, a guy like len vlotnik, his company, another individual who gave a million dollars, were seeing a lot of russian related money pouring in, often from people who never before were involved in giving big dollar donations to any political candidate. It certainly raises a lot of questions. Youre saying so youre saying this is part of a pattern, if these emails we uncovered are authentic, how significant is it that kukis is reporting back to a high ranking russian official during the campaign as these donations are being rolled out . Well, it could be highly significant. I liked how the ci expert said it seemed like there was Something Else going on in these communications, and they were there was something veiled going on. This is exactly the type of stuff that you have a special council to investigate. You know, you call people in, you try to find other emails, if these emails exist, there might be other emails out there in the same chain or that go later or earlier, and these are things you can bear down on, depending how far Robert Mueller wants to go in chasing the russian money trail into the Trump Campaign, and theres a whole other russian money trail over the years into trumps businesses. We just dont yet have a strong indication whether mueller is including both those money trails in his ongoing investigation. We thought we knew everything about what mueller was looking at, and now theres this story, these names that you mention, simon kukis about more money going in. Do you think theres going to be even more names that are still going to come out . Listen, Robert Mueller continues to surprise us. Its one of my least favorite cliches, but the whole tip of the iceberg, you only see one tenth of the iceberg, i think his investigation could be going in a lot of different areas, there are a lot of issues about donald trump and his organizations finances. His personal finances, his business finances, and they do overlap to some degree with questions about russia. When i talked to trump supporters, they say this isnt true, theres nothing there, its a witch hunt and others who acknowledge that some of this might be true dont seem to care. Why do you think that is . Well, i think we live in a highly tribalized moment of politics, where people who want to support trump listen to what he says, and if he says its a witch hunt they believe its a witch hunt. And thats not everybody, thats you know, some percentage of the public. I think there are americans out there who when mueller brings out indictments they support his investigation and theyre curious to see what details he has. David, we have a lot to get to tonight, thank you so much for taking time to speak to us. You took a big risk writing a book on the russia connections early on, but so far, everything that seems to be coming out was already said in your book, congratulations on that, we appreciate your insights. Thanks a lot. Thanks so much. Next up, russia attempts to undermine u. S. Democracy have been going on for a lot longer than the past few years, under communism when the ussr courted americans from the far left. Under putin russia seems to have complaininged track, targeting people and institutions from the american right. We have reporting from inside one of those institutions, and youll recognize some of those players, heres a hint, think mueller investigation. Stigation. vo ovewhelming air fresheners can send you running. So try febreze one. With no aerosols and no heavy perfumes. So you can spray and stay. Febreze one. The full value oft wyour new car . Youd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. Im gonna regret that. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement well replace the full value of your car. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. Minutes can mean the difference between life and death. Proposition 11 saves lives by ensuring medical care is not delayed in an emergency. Proposition 11 establishes into law the longstanding industry practice of paying emts and paramedics to remain oncall during breaks and requires they receive fema level training and active shooters and natural disasters. Vote yes on 11 to ensure 911 Emergency Care is there when you or your love one need it. Pg e wants you to plan ahead by mapping out escape routes and preparing a go kit, in case you need to get out quickly. For more information on how to be prepared and keep your family safe, visit pge. Com safety. Some call russias meddling in the 2016 election the greatest covert operation by any Intelligence Agency ever. When did it start and how expansive was it . Moscow had a lot of hooks in the water for a very long time. Some of the key players named by the mueller investigation, have relationships that go back more than a decade. And tonight we have brand new reporting that shows that some of those relationships were forged in the Moscow Office of an organization that was launched by nonother than president Ronald Reagan. At the height of the cold war, president reagan launched a crusade to confront the soviet union, not with more Nuclear Weapons but with ideals. If the rest of the century is to