assistance to phil peen counterterrorism efforts. will ripley. cnn. and that's it for "the lead." i'm pamela brown in for jake tapper. i turn you over to my colleague wolf blitzer in "the situation room." happening now. breaking news. russia misinformation. cnn has learned this a controversial move by former fbi director james comey during the presidential campaign was based on russian intelligence comey knew was fake and now sources say the fbi russia probe is increasingly touching on the role trump's is only jahri kushner played. allies at the g7 summit, clashes over trade and climate and his economic adviser reverses course after saying the white house

doesn't have a position on sanctions against russia. nixon comparison. hillary clinton compares president trump to president nixon in a fiery commencement speech at her alma mater and takes thinly veiled swipes as the man whose upset victory ended her white house hopes. here's clinton re-emerging to take on a new role as the president's leading critic and new information about three technocrats always by the side of north korean leader kim jong-un and more news on a missile that could strike the united states with a nuclear weapon and rubbing elbows with the dictator, could they be targets for assassination? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we're following breaking news. sources are now telling cnn that

the former fbi director james comey acted on russian intelligence that he knew was fake when he announced last summer that the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mail server was over. the sources say that comey feared if the fake intelligence became public it would undermine the probe and the justice department itself. also breaking, growing calls from some democrats for president trump's social and top adviser jared kushner to have the security clearance suspended or even revoked. that's in response to revelations that kushner's contacts with russian officials during the presidential campaign are under scrutiny by the fbi as part of its russia investigation. the widening russia probe has hillary clinton preparing president trump to president richard nixon who resigned under threat offism peopl impeachment. clinton blacht what had she called a full-fledgeled blast on truth and reason. new tonight.

details of key players in kim jong-un's inner circle. three men constantly at the dictator's side working to help him realize his dream of a nuclear weapon that could strike the united states. the men include a former air force general and a rocket scientist. we're covering all of that last hour including the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee senator ben cardin and our correspondents and specialists are also standing by. more on calls from some democrat for jared kushner to lose his security clearance over contacts with russian officials. cnn's jessica schneider is working the story for us. the contacts are drawing fbi security any. >> reporter: contacts during the campaign and transition as they move forward in russian election meddling. the focus is on contacts with russians at the end of last year

and social media postings. >> he's very good at poll sistics. >> reporter: he serves as senior adviser to his father-in-law trump, tasked with bringing peace to the middle east and corporate action. now his hackses behind the scene withdrawing scrutiny from the fbi criminal investigation. officials tell cnib that the probe is probing his actions during the campaign and transition. kushner met with russian abssergey kislyak during the transition and they are probing his relationship with fired national security adviser michael flynn who is currently under fbi investigation. a source says kushner and his wife ivanka pushed the president to hire flynn after the election, though a source close to kushner disputes that acount

of kushner's lawyer is saying mr. kushner previously agreed to provide information of what he is asked. there's no allegation of wrongdoing and fbi is casting a wide net, even delving into the white house's data. they are looking into whether russian operatives used trump campaign associates wittingly or unwittingly to aid their own efforts to push negative comments about hillary clinton online. russia's misinformation efforts have also been a key part of congressional investigations. >> i've heard and it's been reported that part of the misinformation, disinformation campaign that was launched was launched in three key states, wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. >> democrat seth moulton pointed to the fbi focus on kushner as

another reason to go further than a special counsel and establish a 9/11--style independent commission. it's hard to find who in this administration is not being connected with suspicious ties to russia, and it just points out how important this investigation is, that we've got to get to the bottom of this for the american people. but former house intelligence chairman pete hoekstra said don't jump to conclusions. >> he's the focus and they will take a look at the meetings. he's not under investigation, not a rgt it a. if mueller is going to do a thorough investigation of russian influence or attempted influence in this election, they are going to touch a lot of people in the trump campaign. >> reporter: now it's not yet clear if the fbi plans to talk to kushner. in fact, a source close to kushner says he was unaware of the fbi's interests and has not yet been contacted. wolf. >> jessica schneider, thank you. we're learning that a couldn't version move by former fbi director james comey during the campaign was prompted by russian

intelligence that comey knew at the time was fake. our chief political correspondent dana bash is working the story fours. you're getting new information from your sources. >> reporter: that's right. cnn has learned that the then fbi director james comey knew that ait call piece of russian information related to the hillary clinton e-mail investigation was fake, but he felt he needed to take action anyway because he was concerned that if the information became public it would undermine the investigation and the justice department itself this, according to multiple sources talking to my colleagues. now, these concerns were a major factor in comey deciding to publicly declear that the clinton probe was over last summer without consulting then attorney general loretta lynch. you may remember earlier this week "the washington post" reported on this intelligence and doubts about its credibility. fact that comey had to act based on russian disinformation is a stark example of how russian interference impacted

decision-making at the highest levels of the u.s. government during the 2016 campaign. now the russian information at issue claimed that the attorney had been compromised in the clinton investigation because of e-mails between then dnc chair debbie wasserman schultz and a political on sieve saying that lynch would make the fbi clinton probe go away. according to one government official in classified briefings comey told lawmakers that he was afraid the information would drop and undermine the investigation, but comey didn't tell lawmakers that he doubted the accuracy of the information, even in the classified setting. now according to sources close to comey, the fbi director felt that the validity of the information did not matter because if it became public, wolf, they had no way to discredit it because they were worried about sources and methods and compromising those sources. >> you remember at the time, the reason he gave for breaking protocol and having that news conference without even information the attorney or others necessarily in the

justice department was because bill clinton had boarded loretta lynch, the attorney general at the time, her plane and he thought that that was inappropriate. >> that's right, and that is interesting because that is the information he gave publicly even as late as this may but in classified sessions a couple months ago comey didn't even mention that incident. instead, he told lawmakers that the russian information was primary reason he took this unusual step to announce end of the clinton probe. >> can you say that this is another example of russian intelligence successfully impacting the presidential election. >> it sure seems that way, wolf, and this is so fascinating and frankly a little bit scary because if you think about the chain of events that haul of this helped set off. when comey held this press conference announcing no charges against clinton he took the extraordinary and many say inappropriate step of calling her extremely careless. those were his words and clinton aides are concerned that her reputation was damaged with

voters and she never recovered and that press conference wouldn't have happened without russian interference and talking to russian officials and elsewhere, dissemination of fake information is still a major issue. multiple sources tell us that russia is still trying to spread false information, wolf, by talking and getting information to elected officials, officials elsewhere in the government and, of course, trying to talk to the media as well to try to confuse and stir up ongoing investigations. >> operations are still under way. >> all right, dana. good reporting. thanks very much. let's get more on all of this. democratic senator ben cardin of maryland is joining you go, the ranking member. foreign relations committee. senator, thanks for joining us. >> wolf, good to be with you. >> let me get your immediate reaction to this stunnig report you just heard from dana bash. what do you think? >> every day we're getting more and more contacts made between russia and americans, now with jared kushner's contacts. some of these look like they could have violated the sanctions that we had against

russia, so this is pretty serious. everything we've heard is pretty serious so there's two aspects to. this one is the criminal investigation which certainly former director mueller is conducting, but we really need to know what russia is doing. we see how active they have been. they may still be active in our country and that's why we need the independent commission to take exactly what russia's intentions are so we can protect their national security. >> why are we finding out now about the fake russian memorandum that apparently had an impact on comey and his decision to go public last sul in making all announcements about hillary clinton and the e-mail server even though he knew the fake memorandum was not the real thing. >> that is very disturbing. mr. comey made certain snumts. he claims that he was trying to be neutral and not be political. he was anything but that. it turns out to be pretty consequential in regards to the

elections the way that he handled this, so it's very disturbing and it doesn't really add up. doesn't really -- if he's trying to be helpful why did he have the news conference? why did he claim that secretary clinton was extremely careless? all that real el impacted the credibility of the information we're getting right now. >> in your view did comey's decision cost hillary clinton the election? >> well, we'll never know that. we do know russia was trying to influence our elections. we know that they were trying to influence the e-mail investigation now, so they were trying to use every tool at their disposal to discredit the u.s. election and to help donald trump. whether it was the difference between victory or defeat, we'll speculate begun that for the next is hundred years. >> we've known for months that the u.s. meddled in the u.s. presidential election and it would appear they were targeting the american legal system as well with that fake memo. what does that tell you about the capabilities and ambitions of the russian intelligence services? >> well, it tells us not only

are they collecting a lot of information, not only do they use fake news, but they will do anything in order to carry out their objectives, including trying to interfere with our investigations, our criminal investigations in order to influence it. it's not beyond russia to plant fake news. we know that. saw that now it looks like in the clinton e-mail issues, so they will literally try to plant information in order to affect criminal investigations in the united states. they will use fake news in order to try to influence election results in the united states. they will do it here and in europe and we need to take measures to respond to in a. >> senator cardin, how should congress relate to the late breaking and newly discovered developments? >> first of all, the senate foreign relations committee passed on thursday a bill to set up with our european partners defense against russia's cyber attacks and propaganda.

when we come back, we're going to be taking it up additional sanctions against russia for the activities that they have had against the united states and our allies. we need an independent investigation, somewhat similar to the 9/11 commission so that we can take the necessary precautions to protect our national security from russia and know exactly what they were doing with americans, and we really need to support mr. mueller's investigation. there's just too many ves, too many contacts made with americans. too many questions that need to be answered, and mr. mueller needs to have a thorough investigation. >> robert mueller, the former fbi director who is the new special counsel taking charge of this investigation. the criminal investigation. the other top story, and you referred to it that we're following tonight, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser jared kushner is under scrutiny for his role in the campaign and transition. democratic congressman ted lewis called for his security clearance to be revoked for

failing to disclose contacts he had with high-profile russian officials during the transition. do you agree? >> well, i'm concerned about a couple of points here. first, as we know, mr. trump did not divest himself of his financial holdings, so he was doing business in russia. now, his son-in-law was meeting with a banker that may have been on our list for you couldn't do business, on the sanctions list. he didn't disclose his contact with russian government officials when he applied for his clearance. all that add up to a lot of concerns that we have about jared kushner that needs to be investigated by director mueller. >> he did fix that security clearance form relatively quickly because as a result of the complaints. >> when you say trump has business in russia. he denies it. what are you referring to? >> he has some business. it's not consequential but we won't release his tax returns so

we don't know the exact of his business interests. we doe know he has worldwide business interests and he hasn't divested himself or disclosed his tax returns. he'll say certain things, doesn't have conflicts, but he won't give us the information to see whether or not he's got it offer. he's the only president who didn't divest or set up a blind trust of his business enterprises. >> saturday kushner's lawyer, jamie gorelick, deputy attorney general during the bill clinton administration, says he's already shared information with congress about the meetings he had with russian officials and will do so if asked. so far he hasn't been asked. >> what questions would you like with jared kushnerer in senator. >> what was the purpose of the

meetings with russia and that he would like to do back channeling. why would he want to do that? doesn't that compromise the ability of, first of all, president obama was president at the time during transition. these are matters that should have been held after president trump took office and should have been done through the proper channels. all this raises questions as to whether these were initiated by jared kushner or whether this was an effort by russia to get contacts to mr. trump. >> the obama administration, as we know, handed over some secret documents related to the russia investigation. have you reviewed them? any of them relevant to the current investigation? >> there is certain information that i got in my role as the ranking democrat on the senate foreign relations committee that was made available to chairman corker and myself and our staffs. we reviewed that information. it was sent to us in a classified manner so, therefore,

i can't go over the specifics, but i must tell you there's nothing different than what has been previously reported. >> so you didn't learn anything from those classified documents, is that right? >> that's correct. >> all right. senator, stand by. we're getting more information. i want to continue our interview right after this quick break. ♪ the sun'll come out tomorrow... ♪ for people with heart failure, tomorrow is not a given. but entresto is a medicine that helps make more tomorrows possible. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow... ♪ i love ya, tomorrow in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto helped more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. if you've had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, don't take entresto. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure... ...kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood.

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we're back with the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee, senator ben cardin as we follow the breaking news. stand by. president trump have beginning the final day of his long overseas trip. there are growing calls at least from some democrats for the president's son-in-law and top adviser jared kushner to have his security clearance suspended or even revoke. let's get the very latest on

president's trip with our cnn correspondent jeff zeleny on the scene in sicily. russia has been looming rather large over the president's first foreign trip. >> reporter: wolf, the president has been out of washington for exactly a week now, but i can tell you he's been keeping a close watch on all of the daily developments, but it's his unusual silence here over russia that has some european leaders worried, not because of the investigation but they are wondering if he'll stand up to putin. president trump and members of his new club of world leaders stood watch today as the italian air force put on an impressive show hat the group of seven summit in sicily. as the about president's debut on the world stage draws to a close, one thing has been clear along the way. he's not eager to talk about russia. >> thank you very much. >> his silence has fueled more questions, in the only about the russia investigation back in washington but also among european leaders quietly wondering whether he's willing

to confront the aggression of russian president vladimir putin. >> i'm not 100% sure that we can say today, we meaning mr. president and myself, that we have a common position, common opinion about russia. >> reporter: russia is not allowed to attend the summit, thrown out in 2014 after its incursion into crimea. on russian sanctions the white house raised eyebrows yesterday when gary cohn, the president's top economic adviser declared we don't have a position. amid criticism the administration backtracked with cohn outlining a new position in a briefing call with reporters. we're not lowering our sanctions on russia. if anything we would probably look to get tougher on russia, so the president wants to continue to keep the sanctions in place. >> at a cliffside resort the president and other new members of the g7 took one another's measure and they also called for

a global fight against terrorism and the president wrote at length about terrorism at the start of ramadan saying this year the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the united kingdom and egypt, acts of depravity. one item likely on his agenda trade after the president raised eyebrows over comments that he made with the trade imbalance with germany after visiting nato headquarters and he rushed to clarify the remarks saying that he believed germany is very bad on trade. cohn saying i don't have a problem with germany, i have a problem with german trade. unlike his new counterparts, mr. trump refused to answer questions from the press. british prime minister theresa may and a parade of leaders stood before reporters here and

at the nato headquarters yesterday in bruce es. it's one of the best ways for a leader to drive home their message to a global audience like may did on the intelligence sharing controversy. >> yes, i did raise the issue of leaks of information being shared by the politician with the fbi, wi with president trum. he said that's been unsuccessful. but he's not held a single question-and-answer session with reporters, a break in protocol of most u.s. presidents. a press conference once expected for saturday is no longer. his lower profile is because of that russia storm cloud still brewing back at home. now even though we're not hearing directly from the president, wolf, there is a sense, a sign that some of these leaders are having an effect on the president, that is paris climate accord that he promised to withdraw from the minute he was sworn into office. his advisers now say he's learning and evolving. his top economic adviser says he

doesn't want anyone to think he doesn't like the environment, but, wolf, unable to ask him any questions at all, we're left with many of them as this week long trip comes to an end. >> yeah. sort of surprised he's not having a formal news conference at the end of this nine days he will have been on the road. jeff zeleny, thanks very much for that. want to bring back senator ben cardin, the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee. y can't the trump administration get on the same page when it comes to the question of russian sanctions. seems to have been a parent of sorts since the election. >> well, wolf, this is very disappointing. yes, they are saying there's no immediate design to weaken the sanctions. we should be strengthening the sanctions. yesterday in the senate foreign relations committee we had a long discussion about additional sanctions against russia. we have agreed that when we've returned after the memorial day recess work period, we will be

meeting with secretary tillerson and shortly thereafter marking up additional sanctions against russia so we are now preparing as congress to say, look, we've given you a couple of months. russia's activities have only gotten more intense, not less intense. we have to show leadership. europe is looking to us to show leadership and we should be strengthening sanctions against russia because of their behavior. >> what do you think about the president's comments about trade on germany, widely reported in german publications and called the germans very bad, about to stop them -- he said there's way too many german cars in the united states, but a lot of those german cars in the united states, as you know, they are manufactured, whether in south carolina or other places, in the united states, american workers are putting those cars together. >> when i heard that i thought he was back on campaign trail. it sounded like one of his lines from the campaign. he's now president. united states. it's critically important that we deal with other countries and we recognize that trade done

ride is extremely important to our economy and it's important to u.s. leadership, so those types of comments only can make it more difficult for us to have the type of relationship we need with germany and europe. >> senator cardin, thanks for joining us. >> still ahead, intriguing new details about kim jong-un's inner circle. throw top aides helping him develop a nuclear missile that could help threaten the united states. when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tums chewy bites. i doni refuse to lie down. why suffer? stand up to chronic migraine with botox® botox® is the only treatment for chronic migraine shown to actually prevent headaches and migraines before they even start. botox® is for adults with chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month each lasting

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we're following breaking news. "the wall street journal" just reporting now that president trump is considering major changes at the white house,

including a serious shake-up of his senior team. as part of the shake-up, according to "the wall street journal," a teamch lawyers would review the president's tweets. other social media posts before they are actually sent out. let's bring in our specialists and dana let me read. cnn has reported a shake-up could be in the works. some new people coming in. >> yeah. >> a war room being created to deal with all these crises, but what jumped out at me at this new article just posted on "the wall street journal" website. let me read to you, a couple sentences. one major change under consideration would vet the president's social media posts through a team of lawyers who would decide if any needed to be adjusted or curtail. the idea, said one of mr. trump's advisers, is to create a system so that tweets, quote, don't go from the president's mind out to the universe. that would be a pretty significant change if all of his tweets have to be vetted by internal lawyers and private external attorneys who are being

brought in to help him. >> my question is one of those lawyers going to take up residence in the white house residence because that's the biggest issue for the white house staff when they are tearing their hair how the looking at these tweets that don't come from the potus account but come from trump's personal account, at odd hours when he's watching cnn, which he does do and other news stations when he's getting worked up about whatever he sees or hears and also hat night and that's the biggest problem that they have is sort of in the off hours when he kind of, you know, gets himself worked up into a frenzy so the question is whether or not that can really be stopped, and so this isn't so much about the white house in setting a white house structure. this is about setting a structure for one man and that's the president. >> why are they just thinking of this now? >> it goes down to whether or not the president had signed off on this. i mean, his advisers can say here's what we have to do, give him a list, a laundry list, and one of the other things they

said is they were going to limit number of press conferences around him, maybe shuffle up the communications team. again, all of this goes back to whether or not the president will sign off on this, and i don't see the president really handing over his phone and what's going to happen is are these lawyers coming in at 2:00 a.m. in the morning for phone duty and it doesn't make a lot of sense. i think we've heard this song before. the question is will this really follow through. >> jackie, his aides have tried to rein in his tweets from time to time but with not much success and one of those tweets caused him some serious problems, as "the wall street journal" reminded us, he tweeted about taped conversations with mr. comey, suggesting without any evidence former president obama wiretapped trump tower. there have been some pretty damaging tweets. >> well, right, and therein lies the problem, and you -- there was a day last week where you had an aide i believe in "the washington post" saying he knows how serious it is for -- how his tweets are taken and how serious

they are and then that day trump completely undermined all of his aides with one of his tweets. you're absolutely right. they not president to agree to this and maybe he will agree to it and go back on it. what, are they going to password it protect it, that the only lawyers know the password? >> actually not a bad idea. >> hear that. >> already, phil, at least on this nine-day trip overseas very limited press access to the president of the united states. usually the president goes on a big trip and he'll have at least one or two major news conferences, do some exclusive interviews with members of the traveling press core. we've seen none that have this time so there does seem to be some reining in the president. >> you must be an eternal optimist. from day one we eesks pected maturation. we've gotten within weeks, the firing of the national security adviser, the up and down member and already had 120 days of steve bannon showing up offer

the principal's committee and being remoefrkd the debacle of the initial immigration order, had questions about the president's commitment on the initial health care, 120 days in and now we're suggesting with things like controlling his tweets, i hope not actually because i need comedy central to this issue of whether we shake up. white house staff, that there's going to be more control on a president who is 70 years old and has proven not for a moment that he's maturing from day one. i don't buy it. >> shaking up the staff, bringing in some new staffers, bringing in some new lawyers. you don't think that that's going to be make much of a difference? >> i don't. we're suggesting that the character of a 70-year-old is going to change over 120 days. give me one ounce of evidence. he's been quiet for a bit on the european tour and might be quiet on twitter though i don't buy it. >> one thing i will say in just watching the way that the president behaved during the campaign and at various times, allowing himself to be reigned in, the more that he lashes out, the more it's because he's

frustrated and he feels like his people aren't getting it done, for bert or worse, and many times i think probably most times it's not fair to the people who are working around him or working very hard to do the best job that they can, but if he has people around him that he thinks that he is more comfortable with, that does change his mood and actually changes his actions. >> and some of those people do not, with all due respect to people like corey lewandowski and david bosse, don't bring out the best in this president, if the past is any indication, and that articles states that they may be making a comeback as well so maybe we're seeing the president turn to people that he relied hon more in the past and we shouldn't be conflating a president who may be very tired with a president who may finally be saying i need to get serious. >> he had two hours of sleep the night he delivered the major speech in riyadh to 50 muslim nation leaders. >> cory lewandoski and david botte let trump be trump, does

not gel with the we're going to run his tweets through a team of lawyers and he's going to control those tweets. it's actually the opposite. it's going to be, you know, let him have his twitter whenever he wants so i don't know how those two things can work in harmony. >> let's get back to dana's exclusive reporting, you heard, it phil, at the top of the hour when he's reporting that the then fbi director last summer knew that the russians had posted and gotten this fake memo. it's a wild memo, a new memo and now it was fake but that had a haj impresident clinton on his decision to go out and talk about the hillary clinton e-mail. >> what a farce. the drama of the american election in farce with what the fbi director has done since last summer, four stages and many more that i won't mention, going back to last summer, closing about his investigation and speaking of his personal views on hillary clinton after an investigation is closed. that's not appropriate.

>> that's not appropriate for the fbi. the acting attorney general should do that. >> in either case after the case is closed you shouldn't be commenting on whether her actions are appropriate or not and six months later he talked about huma abedin's personal e-mails to her husband. the case it is closed. she's a private citizen. >> and he was not right about it, by the way. >> and fast forward again to a few weeks ago, the former director of the agency that's responsible for everything from drugs to gangs to counterterrorism says i can't handle a bro hug in a public meeting, are you kidding me? that's unacceptable pressure, like he got a christmas card and he can't take it because it's from the white house and now we have a peeves paper that should not be at the bottom of a bird cage catching parakeet poop and this is the reason he interferes with an american presidential process. i don't understand. he has to open this in an

opening hearing. >> the russians must be sitting back and saying boy, are we good. >> what a small price to pay for a huge reward. the russians didn't even expect for donald trump to win. thought we would have a badly wounded hillary clinton as payback for the 2012 intervention in russia and the american intelligence, for whatever reason, did not take russian intervention and u.s. cyber experts as seriously has they should have. both the president and both the former cia director said to their counterparts, cut it out. why not come forward and tell the american people about it. why be so confident that hillary clinton is going to win as appear not to be partisan that now we're reflecting, everyone is reflecting back on this and saying would have, could have, should have and they so could have been intervening much sooner and a president that hasn't acknowledged that the russian disease what everybody else has acknowledged he did. >> why didn't he tell members of

congress, even in closed door classified briefings, that he knew about this memo, he knew it was fake? he talked about a memo, he wouldn't even give them the details that it was a fake memo. >>ant answer to that, and the sources who i've spoken to also didn't know the answer to that, maybe if we ever do see james comby in public testimony he'll be asked about it and we will get to the bottom of it. whether or not he actually will go before the senate intelligence committee which the intelligence chair said he's going to do after this next week, which is another recess for congress, we'll see if that happens. >> we'll see. >> i have my doubts. >> why wouldn't he tell the gang of eight, the top secret information. you know, there's a memo -- we know it's fake, but he wouldn't even talk about that. the theory is that there may have been an opportunity to -- if he did and if leaked out sources and methods could have been compromised. >> i don't buy that. the gang of eight briefings, that's restricted to members of congress when you have a peeves

intelligence or an investigation that's so sensitive that you don't believe you should tell the full membership, that is viewed in my world at the cia and fbi as a rare moment. this doesn't qualify for a moment like this. we've got false intelligence. all you've got to the do, whether it's in front of the american people or in front of a mull exity saying if you look at the characteristics of this including the fact that the people don't seem to know each other and we can't even find whether the original e-mail economists, all he has to say is this looks like fake information and we're not going to do anything about if. >> one thing i want to claire foy is i'm not sure that he didn't tell specifically that very small group of the gang of eight which is obviously eight people at the highest levels of leadership in the house and senate and the top leaders on the intelligence committee when he did still a pretty small briefing but it was beyond that eight he did not tell them. >> senator chuck grassley, the chairman. senate judiciary committee asked him about it the other day in an opening hearing. comey said basically we can talk about that in closed door session.

i'm not going to talk about that -- you didn't mention it was a fake memorandum did. i'm not going to talk about that in open session. john boehner, the former speaker of the house, jackie, pretty startling words told a global energy conference that aside from trump's foreign policy he said, quote, everything else he's done in office has been a complete disaster. pretty harsh words coming from john boehner. apparently had a man that had been at one point pretty good friends with donald trump. >> john boehner is unleashed. since he's left he hasn't real he a lot of the constraints that he had when he was in office. even when he was in office frankly john bain worry get the candid bug, so perhaps he's getting some choice words from trump at this point, but new john boehner, happy to be out of office and speaking his truth. >> you're smiling. go ahead. >> no, i love it. we have an american political process that's so stabled and john boehner, whether you like him or not, i think he's a replrkable politician and says i

want to smoke cigarettes and drink wine and i'm never running for president. almost a vote to say he should be running for president because maybe we can get somebody to speak the truth. >> offer him some merlot. all about merlot. >> wants to smoke a cigarette, he can smoke a cigarette. >> coming cup, we always see them with the north korean leader kim jong-un so who are the three men in his inner circle and how are they helping his leader become a more dangerous threat to the united states?

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breaking news. including the calling for jared kushner's security clearance to be suspended due to russian connections during the campaign. i will speak with a prominent person who wants to see kushner's security clearance revoked. three men helping their leader perfect a nuclear-tipped missile that could threaten the united states. brian toda brian todd, what are you learn sthg. >> intelligence agencies are watching this man closely. they have a familiarity with kim jong-un that no one else in the inner circle has because they are indispensable to his weapon's program. they are always in the picture. sharing hugs, smiles and

cigarettes with their vicious boss. three officials whose body language and behavior toward kim jong-un are different from the other north korean elites nearby who genuflict in fear. >> job security is what their body language indicates. they can feel comfortable enough with kim jong-un to give bad news. >> cnn is told rival intelligence agencies are watching these three men carefully. they are supernovas in kim's inner circle. the men behind the missile tests. >> at some point they are going to put together north korea's intercontinental ballistic missile. >> a missile that will eventually have the range to carry a nuclear warhead to the u.s. mainland. >> translator: kim jong-un is keeping these techo crats right by his side. it reflect his urgency about missile development. >> of the three young men, a

former air force general, has the most important role. >> set one that provides kim jong-un with the situational awareness. he is the eyes and ears of for kim jong-un in the development in research of nuclear weapons. and conventional weapons. >> analysts michael madden is consulted by intelligence agencies on north korean leaders. he said kim jung sic is an accomplished rocket scientist. it is believed these three men are in such high esteem they get to rubble bowes with the supreme leader like no one else. >> they do get to travel in kim jong-un ajet and in his car, which is not something other core leaders do. they live in an exclusive apartment housing. >> analysts say it is possible rival intelligence agencies could target the three men for assassination. similar to how four iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated a few years ago. >> they could be targeted

through drone strike. other option is essentially finding someone within the another korean government who does not like un. who is disinfranchised and still has access to the activities that they have access to leadership activity who could be an assassin. >> could kim jong-un perth any of the men himself if they fail to advance north cree yeah weapons program? analysts say it is possible but not likely. their scientific and logistical knowledge is too tough for him to replace. >> interesting. u.s. is so worried i'm told about the missile program that these three men are super advising that you're getting word tonight of a crucial missile interception test. what are you learning in. >> that right, wolf. this test is coming up this tuesday may 30th. we're told the u.s. missile defense agency will conduct the first ever test of an intercepter designed to shoot down an intercontinental ballistic missile. launched from the pacific.

interceptor will be launched from vandenberg air force base in california. this is a direct response to the north korean threat, wolf. this is a capability that analyst say the u.s. has fallen way behind in while north korea's missile technology advances. >> could be a critically important test indeed. brian todd, thanks for got reporting. there is breaking news coming up. some democrats are calling for president trump's son-in-law to lose his security clear uns as contacts with russian officials come under fbi scrutiny. break through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. most allergy pills only block one. new flonase sensimist changes everything.

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happening now, breaking news, fake documents.

sources tell cnn that former fbi director james comey knew the russians fabricated a key piece of intelligence. but it still influenced the pivotal move in the hillary clinton e-mail probe. this hour, fbi scrutiny as feds look at jared kushner in the russia investigation. some democrats say the president's son-in-law should be stripped of security clearance. i will talk to a congressman who has been warning about cushman's role for weeks. dangerous maneuvers, armed chinese fighter jet taking action near a u.s. military plane. we are following new tensions tonight in a simmering dispute with beijing. and trolling trump. hillary clinton seized on the scandal, around the president using a commencement speech to suggest mr. trump may suffer the same down fall as richard nixon. stand by to hear her toughest attacks. on the president since the election