we don't know that yesterday. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. >>> there is yet another dimension to the effort to keep sex r. sessions involved in the russia probe. jim acosta joins us now with a story he broke. jim, what have you learned? >> that's right, anderson. as jim sciutto was just talking about in the last couple of minutes, there were more officials involved in this pressure campaign to urge jeff sessions, the attorney general, to recuse himself or to not recuse himself in the russia investigation. i talked a source familiar with these conversations just a short while ago. that senior administration official told me, quote, i think it is fair to call it pressure. that is a quote from this official describing these conversations that went on between top white house officials and staff members in the attorney general's office, including the attorney general jeff sessions. and i should also point out, according to the senior administration official, this person described what was going on and the conversations regarding jeff sessions' decision to recuse himself or not recuse

let's bring in our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. jim, the white house is shrugging this off but it caused a lot of heartburn earlier in the day. >> the president of the united states contradicted his own administration's policy on the foreign intelligence act and then contradicted the contradiction and then the white house said there's no reason to be confused. for weeks, the trump administration's support for renewing the new surveillance act -- >> we could not do what we do without the funding that you all help us secure and the investigative tools and authorities, including, as you noted, mr. chairman, section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act. >> reporter: from the director of the cia. >> it's an important component of national security. it allows us, the cia, to observe communications from nonu.s. citizenno non-u.s. citizens that are central to our mission. >> reporter: and from the white house itself. sarah sanders saying that the house should preserve the useful role that fisa plays in protecting american lives

jim sciutto, the news continues here on cnn. febreze air effects doesn't just mask, it cleans away odors. because the things you love the most can stink. and try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. breathe happy with febreze. i got some financial how'd that go?le ago. he kept spelling my name with an 'i' it's bryan with a 'y.' since birth. well, i happen to know some people. do they listen? what? they're amazing listeners. guidance from professionals who take their time to get to know you. >>> good evening. thanks for joining us. with the sheer volume of news now turning every week into what seems like a year, this week felt like two years. today was quite something all by itself. plenty of news broke today. it all seemed revolve around the russia probe. there was news on the president's opposition to it, news on his attorney general's recusal from it. white house efforts to keep that attorney general in charge on presidential rage reportedly when that effort failed and news breaking just now that others

i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm pamela brown. first came out the slow rollout of scandalous allegations from a tell-all book, raising new allegations about the russia investigation and trump's fitness for office. >> that all pointed to a possible obstruction of justice case. and new reporting tonight. a senior administration official tells cnn that white house officials were involved in the effort to persuade attorney jeff sessions not to recuse himself from the investigation. reince priebus and sean spicer did participate in calls between the white house and the justice department. white house counsel don mcgahn reach out, trying to dissuadie ing sessions from recusing himself from the russia investigation. now that you know that you have other officials that were involved in this outreach to sessions, is it reasonable to conclude that social counsel mueller will want to interview them? >> i think those two officials have gone in for their interviews. if they weren't asked about this, they would want to be asked about this. the

for that as well as the larger investigation i want to bring in jim sciutto. so where does the reporting stand on what president trump wanted from jeff sessions? >> well, this is what we know, a source tells cnn that mcgahn, the white house counsel, did in fact reach out to jeff sessions to urge him to not recuse himself from that investigation, despite the fact that sessions had issues that could be potential conflict of interest, including the fact he met with russian officials and had not disclosed those meetings. a white house -- i should say another official telling my colleague jim acosta that others were involved in that effort as well to urge sessions not to recuse himself, those include sean spicer, the white house press secretary and reince priebus at the time who was the white house chief of staff. "the new york times" as this was done under the direction of the president. that the president asked his lawyer and other staffers to reach out to sessions not to recuse himself and that robert mueller, the special counsel, is aware of this and that this

>> jim sciutto, how do you see it? >> listen, i don't know what reality we're living in, that it's such a small story relative to all the stuff that's going on. listen, it's -- for a portion of his base, it's never going to be an issue no matter what he does. the president has said as much. but even beyond the base, it may just be the reality is, with trump, the standard is lower for this kind of personal character stuff in the public eye. and even the folks who don't like trump so much may not be so surprised by it. and it's not what they're focusing on. >> i would just add to that, with the base, also there's a part of the base that i think would see an fec investigation or a trial as an attack on the president by the deep state or establishment over something that's long ago been litigated, over something that he denies in a way that would make this politically only >> jeffrey, go ahead. >> but just think about the parallel universe we are in. let's change some names. president obama personal lawyer paid the porn st

thanks very much, jim sciutto, reporting for us. we're back with democratic senator chris coons of the foreign relations committee. so, senator, should president trump offer his opinion on the arrest in iran so publicly? he's been tweeting almost every day about it. or is he simply giving fuel to iranian hard-liners by aligning himself with the protesters? >> well, wolf, i do think it's important for leaders in the united states, including our president, to speak out on behalf of and in support of human rights around the world. i was surprised that rouhani, the elected leader of iran, recently said there is a right to protest, something previous iranian leaders have not recognized or celebrated, but clearly the internal security services are already cracking down fairly hard on protests. i think it is important that we continue to speak out in support of the iranian people as they try to pursue their own goals. the regime that has held sway in iran since 1979 is brutal and repressive. i'm the co-chair with tom tillis of north caroli

i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm pamela brown. the president is also fanning fears of interference in the russia investigation. we're covering it all this hour. breaking tonight, the president is mocking the threat of a nuclear war with north korea. in a stunning new tweet, he boasts

i'm jim sciutto. >> and i'm pamela brown. the president is also fanning fears of interference in the russia investigation. we're covering it all this hour. breaking tonight, the president is mocking the threat of a nuclear war with north korea. in a stunning new tweet, he boasts that his nuclear button is bigger and more powerful than

i'm jim sciutto in again for wolf blitzer. the fbi sounding the alarm over a secret republican memo accusing the fbi of abusing its surveillance powers. the fbi issuing a defiant statement just now, saying, quote, the fbi was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. as expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. our crime and justice reporter joins us now with the latest developments. tell us the back story. the fbi is saying this is just fact ch factually incorrect. >> that's certainly their concern. their statement says that they really didn't have a whole lot of time to review this memo. from everything they have seen, that is the fbi director, christopher wray, has seen this memo. from everything he has seen, he has concerns that it is going to be misleading, that there are inaccuracies. this memo, apparently, from fwht i've bee

thanks very much, jim sciutto reporting for us. let's get some raeaction to all of this. we're joined by sheldon whitehouse, a democrat on the judiciary committee. senator, thanks very much for joining us. >> my pleasure. good to be with you. >> the president wouldn't say if he would agree to an interview with the special counsel, robert mueller, but he said, since there's no collusion in his words, it seems unlikely that you will even have an interview. those are his words. does that concern you? >> no, not really, because i think, ultimately, it's not very much his choice. i think if the special prosecutor is able to obtain a grand jury subpoena, demanding the testimony of the president of the united states, he's subject to the law, like everyone else. there are terms and conditions of the interview and the testimony that would obviously need to be worked out, given his responsibilities as president. but the idea that he can just blow off a subpoena from special counsel, i don't think, is consistent with the rule of law. and i don't think would stand up. politically, or

jim sciutto. jim, good evening to you. after the infamous bipartisan vote, the unanimous bipartisan vote, the house intel committee has released the transcripts from this fusion gps co-founder glenn simpson's testimony. what can you tell us? what do you know? >> there are a number of headlines, i think a couple big ones. one is that the ranking democrat on the intelligence committee adam schiff focused on in a statement tonight, and that is glenn simpson talking about allegations, and we should make it clear, allegations, there's no hard evidence of this, but allegations that trump organization was involved in money laundering with russians. and the point that schiff made is isn't that interesting in effect because that's the same thing that steve bannon said in michael wolff's book. he mentioned the possibility of money laundering. again, under questioning. he said he didn't have the evidence but signs, suspicions, et cetera. republicans in questioning by looking at this transcript, don, pushed back hard. they said okay,

i'm jim sciutto. >> and i'm pamela brown. the president is also fanning fears of interference in the russia investigation. we're covering it all this hour. breaking tonight, the president is mocking the threat of a nuclear war with north korea. in a stunning new tweet, he boasts that his nuclear button is bigger and more powerful than the one kim jong-un claims to have have on his desk. and mr. trump says his button works. also breaking, the founders of fusion gps who commissioned the infamous russia dossier, they say they were shocked by evidence in the dossier of extensive and dubious ties between the trump camp and russia that raised questions about money laundering. they say the dossier was taken so seriously because it was supported by information from someone inside the trump camp who was apparently working with the fbi. this as the white house is defending the president's claim of a, quote, deep state conspiracy against him right inside his own justice department. mr. trump is slamming justice department officials for

j jim sciutto is going to join us after the break. you don't want to live with mom and dad forever, do you? i'm making smoothies! how do i check my credit score? credit karma. don't worry, it's free. credit karma. give yourself some credit. >>> hello, i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us. as the president prepares to address the nation, we begin with new evidence in the russia probe. the house intelligence committee will release a controversial memo accusing the fbi of abusing surveillance rules. meanwhile the president ignoring legislation that he signed into law to impose new sanctions on russia for interfering in the 2016 election. the gop-controlled senate approved the sanctions by a vote of 98-2. the

and let's just go to jim sciutto for context. remind everyone, jim, why, you know, what these fusion guys publicly warned everybody about in that opinion piece in "the new york times" last week? >> reporter: and perhaps even go back further, right. because it was almost a year ago today, i think a little more than a year ago today that the intelligence chiefs presented then presidential elect trump as well as obama, compromising things existed. so goes back more than a year. so i think big picture what this does is if you believe glen simpson, granted this is the account of glen simpson of this whole story, is that it's a couple tear argument to the republican argument that this was a purely political document. right. that it was produced by democrats, directed by democrats, from the very beginning. in fact, here, again, based on glen simpson account, that steele himself, who is a former mi 6 agent, that's british intelligence service, who served in russia for years and knows russia well and had done research for the fbi in prior

let's go to our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. he's been working his sources on this stories story for us. jim, lots of new questions about possible obstruction of justice. >> well, in that vaein, a sourc tells cnn that it is indeed true that don mcgahn, the white house counsel, reached out to jeff sessions and attempted to urge him to not recuse himself from the russia investigation, despite the fact that there were some potential conflicts of interest for the attorney general there. "the new york times" went on to report that that was, in fact, an order from president trump himself, and that robert mueller is now aware of that conversation, that outreach and it's become part of his investigation. cnn has previously reported that obstruction of justice is a focus of robert mueller's investigation, not a conclusion certainly yet, but it is a focus of the investigation principally to this point based on the president's firing of the fbi director james comey. >> there is also some additional new evidence of potential obstruction of

. >> and i'm jim sciutto. also tonight cnn has a copy of this stunning new book that has forced the white house into damaging control to push back on vivid descriptions of a chaotic dysfunctional first year of the trump presidency and also raising questions about mr. trump's fitness for office. >>> a new report "the new york times" details direct attempts by the president to scuttle the russia investigation and describes potentially damaging evidence now in the hands of special counsel robert mueller. "the times" reports the president dispatched white house counsel don megan to lobby jeff sessions to keep control of the russia investigation and not recuse himself. sessions rejected that request. "the times" also reveals that four days before the president fired fbi director james comey one of sessions' aides asked a congressional staff member whether that staffer had damagic information on comey. another startling revelation. a white house lawyer was no unnerved by trump's talks about firing comey he actually

with me, jim sciutto and kaitlan collins. first to you, kaitlan. i understand we got a statement from devin nunes. what is he saying? >> that's right, brooke, in response to that stunning statement from the fbi earlier. and in this statement devin said, quote, having stonewalled congress' demands for nearly a year it's no surprise to see the fbi and doj issue spurious objections from allowing the american people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies. the fbi's intimately familiar with material owe missions with respect to their presentations to both congress and the courts and they are welcome to make public to the greatest extent possible all the information they have on these abuses regardless, it's clear, that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counterintelligence investigation during an american political campaign. once the truth gets out, devin nunes writes, we can begin taking steps to ensure that our courts and government agencies are never abused like this again. worrying ab

jim sciutto is with me, our chief national security correspondent, and you talked to a top official at state about this. what did they tell you? >> well, it's interesting. they acknowledged in effect, one, the reason that he stepped down and it was because -- it wasn't person reasons, family, et cetera, it was because he had very severe differences with the trump administration. but also interesting, the under-secretary of state of state, steve goldstein, acknowledged he has the right to do this. here is exactly what he told me. he said that everyone has a line that they don't want to cross and respect that. we are sorry to see him go. acknowledging that the ambassador reached a point because of where the president's policies and statements that that was crossing a line he couldn't stomach anymore. one more point, brooke, this is a career service foreign officer, in addition to having been a marine. they fight in many assignment as round the world to get to level of ambassador. they don't leave these roles lightly, right? it took a lifetime of work and commitment and travel around the

more on all of this by jim sciutto who joins us now. what are you learning about this concern that candidate trump -- concern by steele may have been blackmailed? >> anderson, as you laid out there, the trump line, the gop line on the dossier has been that this was a purely political document drummed up by democrats, pursued by democrats, two political ends with no credibility. if you look at simpson's testimony, which is sworn testimony, when you're testifying on the hill you hear a very different story of this. this christopher steele, a former member of mi-6, who gathered this information and was concerned himself enough to go of his own volition to the fbi in june 2016 because he believed there was a national security threat here, the possibility of a presidential candidate being blackmailed. and in addition to that, when he met with the fbi in september 2016, he was told that, in fact, the fbi had other intelligence in a similar vain, which we now know, as you referenced, anderson, this meeting with george papadopoulos, who told th

i want to bring in cnn's jim sciutto. glenn simpson, the co-founder of fusion gps, claimed in his testimony that steele told him that the fbi had similar intelligence as to what he was telling them from a, quote, internal trump campaign source. is that accurate? >> that's right. and that would be quite an explosive thing for the fbi to have someone on the inside, in effect a whistle-blower. here is the exact quote from the testimony. simpson testified before the senate that the fbi, quote, believed chris, this being chris steele's information might be credible because they had other intelligence that indicated the same thing and one of those pieces of intelligence was a human source from inside the trump organization. i should say that since that, this testimony of course was in august, since that glenn simpson, a source inside fusion has clarified this referrings to the information that the australian ambassador passed on to the fbi. you remember this, that george papadopoulos had drinked in london with the australian am

jim sciutto will have that in a moment. the idea that mueller wants to question president trump about the flynn departure. i understand why he would want to talk to him about the comey departure. the question is, did you fire him so as to stop the investigation in any way? that sounds to me, i'll not a lawyer, that sounds something-ish like approaching obstruction of justice. but then why would he want to talk about the flynn departure? >> isn't that just about going to bat for flynn? the two would go together, it would seem to me. >> pressure on who? on flynn? >> to let flynn off the hook when he was having that conversation. i want to bring in the cnn chief national correspondent jim sciutto right now, who has some news about the "washington post" report. this comes after, as we know, mueller and his team interviewed both fbi director james comey, the former director james comey, and of course attorney general jeff sessions. >> it makes it clear that it is the obstruction of justice. clearly they are taking this line of i

i am jim sciutto for erin tonight. "ac 360" starts right now. >>> good evening, the president has arrived back in washington tonight facing the latest storm over the newest item on the long and growing list. the president calls the latest item fake news. and even before last night's bomb shell about his efforts to fire mueller, president trump mocked the idea that any of his actions so far could be legally problematic. >> now they are saying did he fight back. >> what is collusion mean? >> if you fight back

jim sciutto has been going through the transcript. he joins us now. what have you been learning? >> well, anderson, congressman schiff, of course, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee drawing particular attention to this mention again of money laundering. trump organization, allegation i should make clear, trump organization, money laundering for russian nationals and schiff making this point, isn't this interesting, because steve bannon made a similar reference in michael wolff's book. to be clear, this was, in this testimony, no evidence, hard evidence presented by simpson. fft, he was pressed by republicans, saying, okay, you're making this allegation, what can you show us to prove this is true? so, he granted that, no hard evidence he could present there, but schiff making the additional point then, well, why won't my republican colleagues let us on the committee pursue this? investigate if there is anything there? that's the frustration. if that's not happening in the house intelligence committee, we have a fair amount of confidence that is a line of inqu

wolf. >> jim sciutto reporting for us. thank you very much. >> also tonight, the porn star who had claimed a past affair with donald trump and was allegedly paid to keep quiet is going public. stormy daniels making her first appearance since the story broke in a south carolina strip club. brian todd is monitoring this story for us. brian, this is all turning out to be rather profitable for daniels. >> it is certainly, wolf. she's capitalizing on the attention, booging appearances at adult nightclubs. when journalists approached her at a strip club in south carolina, she was very guarded about the alleged affair with donald trump. then, she made a quick getaway. tonight stormy daniels can capitalizing on her alleged affair with donald trump but not revealing details about it. >> it's the trophy club on the heels of stormy's national publicized alleged affair. >> daniels appeared at this strip club in greenville, south carolina, over the weekend. the owner won't tell us how much he paid her or how much he made but he booked

i'm jim sciutto in again for wolf blitzer. the fbi sounding the alarm over a secret republican memo accusing the fbi of abusing its surveillance powers. the fbi issuing a defiant statement just now, saying, quote, the fbi was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. as expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. our crime and justice reporter joins us now with the latest

i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm pamela brown. first came out the slow rollout of scandalous allegations from a tell-all book, raising new allegations about the russia investigation and trump's fitness for office. >> that all pointed to a possible obstruction of justice case. and new reporting tonight. a senior administration official tells

what does all of this say, jim sciutto, about the russia dossier? >> well, he also made a point in here. it's not just about money laundering. that's, of course, the most explosive allegation coming out of his testimony, but what he drew attention to other aspects of the dossier, right? because if you remember the dossier, this is a collection of memos, right, a collection of intelligence leads, in effect. >> put together by a former british spy. >> former british spy with the mi6. overseas spy services who had done previous work for the fbi. so he was not, you know, he was not crackpot out there. but they were just leads. the point simpson made -- which about the dossier, in that dossier, it describes extensive contacts between people close to trump and russians during the campaign, in overseas cities, communications, et cetera. the point simpson makes in his testimony is that what you've seen since then, in some of these regulations, for instance, the trump tower meeting in june 2016, other communications, other trump people who have met with russ

jim sciutto. jim, good evening to you. after the infamous bipartisan vote, the unanimous bipartisan vote, the house intel committee has released the transcripts from this fusion gps co-founder glenn simpson's ketestimony. what can you tell us? what do you know? >> there are a number of headlines, i think a couple big ones. one is that the ranking democrat on the intelligence committee adam schiff focused on in a statement tonight, and that is glenn simpson talking about allegations, and we should make it clear, allegations, there's no hard evidence of this, but allegations that trump organization was involved in money laundering with russians. and the point that schiff made is isn't that interesting in effect because that's the same thing that steve bannon said in michael wolff's book. he mentioned the possibility of money laundering. again, under questioning. he said he didn't have the evidence but signs, suspicions, et cetera. republicans in questioning by looking at this transcript, don, pushed back hard. they said okay

>>> hello, i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us. as the president prepares to address the nation, we begin with new evidence in the russia probe. the house intelligence committee will release a controversial memo accusing the fbi of abusing surveillance rules. meanwhile the president ignoring legislation that he signed into law to impose new sanctions on russia for interfering in the 2016 election. the gop-controlled senate approved the sanctions by a vote of 98-2. the gop-controlled house by 419-3. plus more questions about the sudden action of fbi director andrew mccabe. our all-star team is ready to unpack all these developments, and we will preview the president's first official state of the union address which promises to be, quote, a message of unity. first, though, republicans saying it shows fbi abuse of surveillance powers. democrats say it is false, a total misrepresentation, they say. senior congressional correspondent manu raja is on capito

but jim sciutto, first to you. let's put this in context. was it part of the meeting when the meeting took place. he was a witness to this conversation after the fact and this has been really a focal point. especially the misleading response, drafted on air force one and the investigators on the hill. >> so this report from axios, interesting for a couple reasons. one, this is steve bannon talking about conversations that he said and really the frustration of both democrats and republicans. he was not going to be talking about and with the transition or conversation that's he may have had in the white house. we don't know when this conversation took place with this team. but it relates to something that we know. two things that we know about robert mueller is interested in. interested in both that trump tower meeting in 2016 when jared kushner, don jr. and others met with russians offering information on hillary clinton. the closest evidence we've seen in public so far of at least the potential of some cooperation, collusion, whatever you wa

top democrat speaking to jim sciutto moments ago. >> you're saying you've read the underlying intelligence. when you look at that, it colors these allegations differently? >> absolutely. absolutely. that's what we set out in the document we prepared. it's what the republican members don't want, that the point, the country to see. it pokes holes in this memorandum. they don't want the country to know how misleading their document is. >> let's discuss. with me now, cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider, jamie gangel, mark preston and kim whaley, associate independent counsel during the whitewater investigation into president clinton. thanks for having me. and, mark, just beginning with you, what is this memo really all about? under mining the mueller investigation, undercutting the fbi doj, what? >> it depends who you speak to. the underlying thought is from some republicans perhaps devin nunes specifically that he is trying to undermine the investigation at this point, trying to cast doubt and that he thinks the fbi has run amuck, that they didn't run the clinton investigation correct

i am jim sciutto for erin tonight. "ac 360" starts right now. >>> good evening, the president has arrived back in washington tonight facing the latest storm over the newest item on the long and growing list. the president calls the latest item fake news. and even before last night's bomb shell about his efforts to fire mueller, president trump mocked the idea that any of his actions so far could be legally problematic. >> now they are saying did he fight back. >> what is collusion mean? >> if you fight back, oh, it is obstruction. >> keeping him honest, this is what mueller could be. long and exhausting by no means exhaustive. item 1 january 27 of last year. comey had dinner with the president. he said the president asked him if he wanted to stay on, then said i need loyalty. >> have you ever had those requests before from anybody else in the government? >> no. and at that point, i am the director of the fbi. the reason congress created a ten-year term is that the director does not feel as though they are serving with

jim sciutto joins me to discuss it. >> at least no current plans. jeff zeleny report go that the president has not seen this memo. so what is it? it is composed by devin nunes, the cheryl of the house intelligence committee. although he had recused himself from the chairmanship, from the russia investigations. he went down a similar path of misuse and unmasking of names. this current memo is one where he alleges there's evidence that the fbi misused warrants to monitor, surveil people by u.s. intelligence. specifically carter page. someone who advised president trump during his campaign. you have democrats and republicans taking a very different view of this. many publics including devin nunes saying let's release this. let the american public make their own decision. if there are some concerning things, you have democrats saying this memo doesn't tell whole story. so tune it out for a moment and listen to what the justice department said in a her tow devin nunes last week. as reminder. the justice department run by president trump. i said said they

joining me is jim sciutto, legal analyst michael zeldin and good evening to all of you. jim, so according to this newly released transcript former british spy christopher steele was so concerned that then candidate trump was being blackmailed that he personally went to the fbi. what more can you tell us? >> listen, don, from the beginning the republican argument and really the trump argument has been that the dossier was purely a political document. that it was democratic conceived, manufactured and delivered. but if you listen to the testimony before the senate judiciary committee about christopher steele you hear a different genesis to this. here's christopher steele. he's a former agent in the mi6, the british international intelligence services. he served in russia. he knows russia's intelligence gathering methods. he begins to gather this information, and he becomes so concerned he thinks there's a national security risk to the u.s., a british intelligence partner. so he according to simpson of his own volition, not under the direction or encouragement of the dnc or

joining me jim sciutto, legal analyst michael zeldin and good evening to all of you. jim, so according to this newly released transcript former british spy christopher steele was so concerned that then candidate trump was being blackmailed that he personally went to the fbi. what more can you tell us? >> listen, don, from the beginning the republican argument and really the trump argument has been that the dossier was purely a political document. that it was democratic conceive wrs ed, manufactured and delivered. but if you listen to the testimony before the senate judiciary committee about christopher steele you hear a different genesis to this. he's a former agent in the mi 6, the british international intelligence services. he served in russia. he knows russia's intelligence gathering methods. he begins to gather this information, and he becomes so concerned he thinks there's a national security risk to the u.s., a british intelligence partner. so he according to simpson of his own volition, not under the direction or encouragement of the dnc or democrats, but of h

our jim sciutto is now saying that's george papadopoulos and when going out for drinks with someone. do you think that the fbi saw steele as a incredible source, undermines the president's assertion that steele was a fake spy whose dossier is part of a sweeping political witch-hunt? >> well, i don't think -- you're accepting that on face value. i don't think that's established. chris steele says that's the fbi's perspective. but so what? chris steele also went to the fbi at a time when gps was being paid by the dnc and hillary's lawyers. so the timing is awkward to say the least, in terms of credibility, and i think that also with the first question we started with, that you addressed to laura about michael cohn's suit. as she said "the new york times" standard is very high for defamation cases. but michael cohn is not in the position of donald trump. and he's named in there. so to see a defamation case come outside of the parameters of the political arena, go into a court where truth is a defense, is going to be interesting, to say the least. and i think it may be more elucidating t

sciutto. >> there's a note in these warrants that says on july 6th, 2017, you'll remember this shooting was october 1st. there are e-mails between two accounts. one that the federal government says definitely belongs, they believe to the shooter. another one, they're not sure if it's his second account and he's e-mailing back and forth or whether it belongs to someone else. and they're very clear in saying if it belongs to someone else, we need to find out who it is. the e-mail sent to the shooter says try an ar before you buy. we have a huge selection located in the las vegas area. then sends back to him, later on that day, saying we have a wide variety of optics and ammunition to try. and talks about trying out a bump stock. that is the device that makes a gun very close to an automatic weapon. it works very similar to an automatic weapon. so those are revelations. it does sound odd that he would be e-mailing himself so investigators are clear to figure out who that other person may be. >> 58 people were killed in the massacre. hundreds wounded. it is the deadliest shooting in modern

jim sciutto, joins us now. what are you learning about this concern that candidate trump, concern by steele, may have been blackmailed? >> anderson, as you laid out there the trump line, the gop line on the dossier has been this was a purely political document drummed up by democrats, pursued by democrats to political end. there was no real credible. but if you listen to the sworn testimony, when you're testifying on the hill you hear a very different story of this. this is christopher steele, a former agent of the british national intelligence service, mi-6, who gathered this information and was concerned himself enough to go of his own volition to the fbi in june 2016 because he believes there was a national security threat here, a possibility a presidential candidate being blackmailed. and in in addition to that when he met with the fbi in september of 2016 he was told the fbi had other intelligence in a similar vein, which we now know this meeting with george papadopoulos who told the australian ambassador

. >> jim sciutto, appreciate it. joaquin castro sits on the house intelligence committee and joins us now. these allegation that the trump organization may have been involved with money laundering with russian nationals, can you explain what glen simpson said about that? >> sure, you can see from the transcript that he had this concern basically on a year's worth of research and not just cursory stuff but going into court filings and corporate filings. he had this concern about the possibility of money laundering, this idea that you might have, for example, russians who have acquired money illegally and they're needing to cleanse that money, and they're investing it in trump properties, but, as jim mentioned, and as you see notice transcript, he said at the end of the day that he couldn't provide hard evidence of that. he only saw signs of that, and the reason he couldn't provide hard evidence is because fusion gps is not a governmental entity that can subpoena different entities for information. and the house intell

i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm pamela brown. the president is also fanning fears of interference in the russia investigation. we're covering it all this hour. breaking tonight, the president is mocking the threat of a nuclear war with north korea. in a stunning new tweet, he boasts that his nuclear button issing wi is bigger and more powerful than the one kim jong un claims to have on his desk. and mr. trump says his button works. also breaking, the founders of fusion gps who commissioned the infamous russia dossier, they say they were shocked by evidence in the dossier of extensive and dubious ties between the trump camp and russia that raised questions about money laundering. they say the dossier was taken so seriously because it was supported by information from someone inside the trump camp who was apparently working with the fbi. this as the white house is defending the president's claim of a, quote, deep state conspiracy against him right inside his own justice department. mr. trump is slamming justice department officials

. >> reporter: a team of cnn reporters broke a stunning story -- >> jim sciutto, even perez and carl bernstein and i have all been working on this story. >> reporter: about america's new president. >> claims of russian efforts to compromise the president-elect, donald trump. >> reporter: the president-elect and the outgoing president had both been briefed on the most sensational charges in the dossier. >> allegations that russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about mr. trump. >> reporter: u.s. officials with direct knowledge told cnn that trump had been warned russia could have kompromat on him. that's the damaging information offer gathered through surveillance that vladimir putin is believed to collect on powerful people. >> was your concern that the russians could have leverage over the president of the united states? >> well, that -- yes. >> reporter: former intelligence chief james clapper. >> gaining leverage. that's their objective. if they can compromise somebody, they have a term for it, an acronym, kompromat. >> pamela brown, how

. >> jim sciutto, evan perez, and carl bernstein and i have been working on the story -- >> about america's new president. >> claims of russian efforts to compromise the president-elect, donald trump. >> the president-elect and the outgoing president had both been briefed on the most sensational charges in the dossier. >> allegations that russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about mr. trump. >> u.s. officials with direct knowledge told cnn that trump had been warned, russia could have compromat on him, the damaging information often gathered through surveillance that vladimir putin is believed to collect on powerful people. >> was it your concern the russians could have leverage over the president of the united states? >> well, that -- yes. >> former intelligence chief james clapper. >> gaining leverage, that's their objective. if they can compromise somebody, they have a term for it, kompromat. >> it was our strong sense that the nation's senior-most intelligence officials would not waste the time of the president or the president-elect if it was

. >> jim sciutto, thank you very much. and let's go to trey gaudy and sits on the intelligence committee we are talking about, as well as judiciary committee. thaun thanks for joining us. i want to give your chance to respond to this memo of nunes. it says it would be reckless to release that memo without showing it to department of justice for them to review it. what do you say? >> well, erin, thank you for having me on. let me say this at the out seth i have tremendous respect for the deposit of justice and fbi. i worked and with them for 18 of my professional years. so there is no member of congress that holds that department in higher esteem than i do. i have concerns about what was done in the spring and fall of 2016. and i'm not a critic of the department. not someone who alleged the department is corrupt. i'm a fan of the department. and i have concerns about what they did in 2016. so i would say this to my friend steven boyd, let's lower the rhetoric. i don't care if you see the memo. but let's be clear about this,

. >> indeed and there has been some reporting from our own jim sciutto that there's no indication he has. i think that it is fair to assume the national security leadership is most likely advising mr. trump to be very careful on this point. because kim may come back out in public and have something to say about it and we don't blank he would say. >> thank you. >>> new reporting about what steve bannon did say and did not say while testifying to the house intelligence committee about the rush probe. we'll discuss it next. stay with us. thinking like? a basketball costs $14. what's team spirit worth? (cheers) what's it worth to talk to your mom? what's the value of a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. morgan stanley ii need my blood osugar to stay iin control.. i need to cut my a1c. weekends are my time. i need an insulin that fits my schedule. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blo

. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. let's gets back to the breaking news on the president's talks of immigration reform. we're joined now by mark schwartz. she was in that room for the meeting. thanks very much for coming in. did you know that the whole thing, nearly an hour, was going to be televised, that the cameras would be rolling for nearly the whole meeting? >> the president indicated he wanted the american people to see we're anxious to find a deal. >> and one of the purposes to show also he was in charge, to rebut the allegations in this new book that he's mentally unfit, not up to the job. >> i don't think the american people question that, wolf. i think there's some people at cnn and perhaps msnbc that question that. it didn't factor into his decision. he wanted the american people to see where we are on daca. >> i'm glad they did it, by the way. i like the transparency. as a journalist, we always welcome that. let's talk a little bit about what the president has in mind long-term. he says he supports compreh

jim sciutto is outfront. one year into the trump presidency. a lot of people did not think we would be talking about a russia investigati investigation. we are. where is it? >> not for lack of trying by the president. he's attacked the intelligence agencies and the fbi, the department of justice. he fired his fbi director in large part to undermine and end this investigation. by his own public admission. and yet it continues. and keep in mind, you have two major indictments, right? paul manafort, the president's former campaign chairman, rick gates, his former deputy campaign chairman. grant it, for business crimes prior to the campaign. but you have two guilty pleas for one very senior staffer. that being michael flynn and then george pop dop lis who has admitted to speaking with russians about damaging information on hillary clinton. those are four fairly significant legal scouts there. you still have serious unanswered questions. were there financial crimes by people closer to trump? was there any cooperation between trump aids, campaign mem

jim sciutto, david chalian, reporter for the washington post and cnn politics senior writer. welcome. thanks for having me. >> welcome to washington. >> thanks for having me in d.c. first, the memo was at the white house in some classified room. folks within the white house want to keep the president -- they don't want it to distract the president away from, of course, his important task at hand, this speech tonight. but that what do you know is the assumption that after the state of the union he's going to release it? >> if not immediately after tonight, in a five-day window where he has the opportunity to review this all indications seem to be he would like to release this, by the way, against the protestations of his justice department. >> right. >> to me, you say the white house doesn't want him distracted by this, they don't want to distract from the state of the union. yet this is the backdrop upon which he will enter the house chamber tonight. russia investigation at large, this memo story of the moment hangs over -- so while he may not mention it in the speech at all

i'm jim sciutto. >> and i'm pamela brown. this hour we are breaking down all the sunny details on a new book on the trump white house that's triggered a bitter war between the president and a former close ally, steve bannon. among the bomb shells tonight, bannon says the infamous trump tower russia meeting held with the promise of dirt on hillary clinton was, quote, unpatriotic and even treasonous. according to published excerpts of the book, bannon also predicted that donald trump jr. will crack like an egg under the scrutiny of the russia investigation and he alleges that the special counsel's probe is all about money laundering. the president firing back in a blistering statement saying bannon has lost his mind and has nothing to do with the white house, even though he was one of the most powerful advisers at one time. also infuriating the president tonight, that new book is filled with sensational accounts about him and his family that includes claims that mr. trump was hoping to lose the election and was horrified when h