also want to hear from state department officials. one of those officials that they expected to hear from, that they said that they were scheduling a deposition for next week, was kurt volker, who resigned today. so the question is how are they going to learn from him? are they still going to talk to him? and congressional aides tell me -- one said that they expect to hear everything that kurt volker knows about this scandal. they still want to hear from him because he is in the center of this all, and eventually they'll probably also want to hear from secretary pompeo himself. >> yeah. and also i would assume from the former ambassador to the ukraine, u.s. ambassador who was basically pushed out early from when she was supposed to leave. that of course remains to be seen. >> reporter: she's on their list of folks that they're going to be talking to in depositions over the next two weeks. >> kylie, appreciate it. thank you. i want to go next to the white house. cnn's jim sciutto joins us from there tonight. excuse me, jim acosta. sorr

also want to hear from state department officials. one of those officials that they expected to hear from, that they said that they were scheduling a deposition for next week, was kurt volker who resigned today. the question is, how are they going to learn from him? are they still going to talk to him? and congressional aides tell me, one said that they expect to hear everything that kurt volker knows about this scandal. they still want to hear from him because he is in the center of this all. eventually they'll want to hear from secretary pompeo himself. >> also i would assume from the former ambassador to the ukraine, u.s. ambassador who was basically pushed out early from when she was supposed to leave, that, of course, remains to be seen. >> that's right, she's on the list of folks that they're going to be talking to in depositions over the next two weeks. >> yeah. appreciate it. thank you. >>> want to go next to the white house. cnn's jim sciutto joins us from there tonight. excuse me, jim acastroa. sorry -- jim acosta. sorry, ji

in the united states, second only to the united states department of justice. and there is so much about all of this that has been about really an attack on the integrity of our system of democracy, in particular our elections process, and our system of justice. and those people who are compromising the integrity of these systems, they must be held to account. so that's why i think he should come before us and he should tell us what's going on. >> senator kamala harris, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. >>> coming up next, our legal and political professionals here to bring their perspective to what has been a remarkable day. david gergen joins us. he got his big start of course in the nixon white house. and later, one of the democratic senators the president is trying to deflect blame on to joins us. t-mobile's newest signal reaches farther than ever before. with more engineers. more towers. more coverage! it's a network that gives you ♪freedom from big cities, to small towns, we're with you. because life can take you almost anywhere, t-mobile

i'm a student of the state department and its history. my question to the panel is, it seems like there is this normative executive, diplomatic reading and writing of practice about the nature of public affairs and public diplomacy. that's the first thing. it also seems like some people are privy to those conversations and the making of those procedures and policies and are people there aren't. how do you make the state department more inclusive to be historically maybe not part of that executive narrative? >> i'm not sure i understand the question. >> were all public diplomats when we travel. so, even if there is a school of thought in theory that we are working from its that an academic institution will always have diplomacy that you can obviously participated when he travel and have experiences. we welcome people here as well so i don't know if that's the kind of answer that you're looking for but i know know how else you on his answer it then with a very specific practice inside the department of state that is a professional hole cone

to the state department dealings with ukraine. the state department didn't pass over the documents to the committees and said if they didn't get the documents requested, they would subpoena the secretary of state, mike pompeo. that's exactly what they're doing today. it is interesting, however, that the state department has remained largely silent, even though we know that pompeo himself is frustrated by what rudy guiliani, the president's personal lawyer has been saying. the state department has not said anything more on the record about its personnel and what they have been doing with regard to ukraine. now, pomds was asked about this briefly when reporters caught him in new york on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly. he said everyone to his knowledge at the state department had acted entirely appropriately. the keyword is to his knowledge. were there things happening not to his knowledge? we know that ambassador curt volcker in charge of relations with ukraine from the state department had been dealing with rudy guilian

this goes back to what kind of state department do you want. that is what a lot of us are worried about. >> erin, what do we know about who at state -- the circle of people at state that actually did anything to further giuliani's mission? >> so i should note that we spoke to giuliani earlier today and we pressed him on some of these questions. you know, in our conversation, which lasted about 15 or 20 minutes, he said that representatives from the state department, including volker and mr. sanlin had suggested that he continue talking to the ukrai ukrainia ukrainians. giuliani would not tell us what was relayed from the state department to him in some of these conference calls. we pressed him again and he said i won't tell you what they said. we asked if secretary of state mike pompeo knew what he was up to in ukraine, to which he says i don't know for sure, but i can only imagine that he did know. >> that's interesting. >> yeah. and he continued to sort of lay out to us that the state department, including volker and sanlund had spoken to him

kurt volker, the now resigned state department envoy for ukraine. you know, all of these people from different agencies. what is the likelihood that they're going to get access to some of these people? >> an impeachment inquiry gives you far greater latitude to go after people in terms of subpoenas, compelling testimony. obviously at the heart of this is trump's conduct. but if you saturdtart to pull t threads, it's the widespread corruption of the u.s. government. in the white house someone we know used a secret classification system to take an unclassified call and try to hide it from the rest of the government. in the state department, what we know already is instead of the normal conduct of u.s. foreign policy, you had rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney, people involved in his campaign, interacting with state department officials to set up meetings with ukrainian officials to act on behalf of this corrupt agenda. you had in mike pence, a vice president who was supposed to attend the inauguration of the ukrainian president, held bac

. >> i did it at the request of the state department. and i have all of the text messages to prove it and a thank you from them for doing a good job. >> the president has also been caught red handed trying to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election. by pressuring a foreign leader to target joe biden, an american citizen for political gain. >> "cnn newsroom" starts now. >>> hello everyone, thank you for joining me this sunday. i'm fredricka whitfield. we start with a dramatic new development in the impeachment inquiry into president trump and the pressure mounting. house intel chairman adam schiff is vowing to act your gently after nurnsing there's a tentative agreement for the anonymous whistle-blower to testify before congress and it could happen as early as this week. >> all that needs done is make sure attorneys that represent the whistle-blower get the clearances they need to accompany the whistle-blower's testimony and figure out the logistics to protect the identity of the whistle-blower. that's our paramount concern. thi

state department asked him to reach out to ukraine, but the state department tells a different story. we'll have that for you ahead. >>> plus, democratic lawmakers rally behind the impeachment inquiry. why one says the president's actions may be worse than watergate. stand by in the u.s. and around the world. you're watching "cnn newsroom." one more mile look reply all look own your look... ...with fewer lines. there's only one botox® cosmetic. it's the only one... ...fda approved... ...to temporarily make frown lines... ...crow's feet... ...and forehead lines... ...look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic, may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow, eyelid drooping, and eyelid swelling. tell your doctor about your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions

why did the president go against his own pentagon and state department? >> stephen: there's a tone of judgment in all of your questions, so yes, you are admonishing -- >> chris: that's judgment on your part. >> stephen: i can't speak to every mid-level and low level bureaucrat in the u.s. government -- >> chris: this is the deputy secretary of defense. what you considered john brood a minyan in the state department? in a pentagon? >> stephen: it's the president 'his job and sworn duty to safeguard taxpayer dollars and the united states government's foreign policy. getting to the bottom of a corruption scandal in ukraine is in the american national interest if you want to understand why that complaint is so obviously politically biased, when he says that the president is threatening national security by trying to expose corruption -- when he says, or she, that the president is hurting national security by trying to get to the bottom of a gigantic scandal that nobody has on earth, the president is the whistle-blower here. the president of the united states

she joins the state department in every third 2018. but in the year later she became, she was already assistant secretary but took on the responsibility of the undersecretary ofstate . for public diplomacy and public affairs . two of which were united under the nine, she has led one of the largest restructurings in 20 years so this is a very ambitious, interesting effort which is not created the bureau of global public affairs which she is the head. welcome, she was global corporate communications senior vice president for the waiver set of new york and she has also previously in washington worked for newt gingrich and as a lead member of his medications team. and communications survey. she holds a masters degree in political management from george washington university and ab in political science at ucla and one of the things that impressed me most on this was you was team captain from the usc la gymnastics team . >> thank you so much for being here today on this rainy morning and over to you. >> good morning, thank you very much for

this goes back to what kind of state department do you want? and that is what a lot of us are worried about. >> erin, what do we know about who at state, the circle of people at state that actually did anything to further giuliani's mission? >> so i should note that we spoke to giuliani earlier today and we pressed him on some of these questions. you know, in our conversation, which lasted about 15 or 20 minutes, he said that, you know, representatives from the state department, including voelker and mr. saundland said they pressed him to continue to talk to the ukraines. we pressed him again. he said, i won't tell you what they said. we asked him if secretary of state mike pompeo knew what he was up to in ukraine to which he says, you know, i don't know for sure but i can only imagine that he did know. so -- >> that's interesting. >> yeah. and he continued to sort of lay out to us that the state department, including voelker and saundland told him what else could be done in ukraine in the future whether it was relations with ukraine or work wi

the inspector general must also examine whether the state department knew why the administration was withholding these funds and highlight any communication between the white house and the state department on this matter. second, i called upon the state department to detail all of the records about any support in any form provided for the personal lawyer's efforts in ukraine. likewise, we need to know about any briefings that we are reported to the personnel on his interactions with ukrainian officials. third; the office of management and budget to talk to i congress by the security assistance has been more than two months. it typically take them just five days to review the notifications from the implementing agencies. it is unorthodox and unprecedented and unacceptable. i call upon the kennedys and the foreign relations armed services and select committee on intelligence to immediately hold hearings on the president's purported use of security assistance to pressure ukraine to open an investigation into the political opponents. i urge the churning to fulfill the commitment of holdi

what did the state department knew? >> he's putting this on the state department saying they were the one that is directed him to engage with the ukrainians and he met with state department officials throughout this process. on sunday, he was asked during one of his rounds of interviews if secretary pompeo had directed him to have these meetings. he said pompeo did not direct him. he did say last week he spoke with secretary pompeo and he told me he was aware of it. what exactly did rudy giuliani meant aware of it? we are unsure. we are unsure if he knew what rudy giuliani was doing. rudy giuliani had been speaking about it publicly. or if he knew rudy giuliani was consistently speaking with members, state department officials throughout the process as rudy giuliani has alleged. the state department has not replied to our requests for comment. last week secretary pompeo did claim that to his knowledge, everyone at the state department had acted entirely appropriately. we are waiting for an update from them. >> waiting f

state department. that wouldn't absolve him of any allegation of wrong doing, would it? >> pno. it's just people are questioning what in the world was he doing and who was he doing it for as the president's private lawyer. that isn't a typical mission. so his illusion to the saying i'm doing this for the state department is something we can now run down and find if he did have any kind of authority and bhie did he. >> if the state department were working with giuliani, would it be documented beyond those text messages that giuliani is putting out there? >> well, i would imagine there would be somebody in the state department who would say yes we talked to him and he was given this assignment if that was the case. i noticed in the article where he called everybody a moron, that same article, he says the state department is now going to try to distance themselves from me. so i think he may know he has overreached in what he is pretending is his authority. >> the state department, of course, is still part

state department's confirmed it tempted to bribe the captain of that iranian all tank of the dream daria one of the main name might not sound familiar but it will in a minute it's at the center of a diplomatic row in order to detain it now. the adrian daria previous there was a grace one that maybe all fits in the head held by the u.k. in july in gibraltar it was released in august despite protests of the united states which is increasing its pressure on iran it had been heading east since then and was pinpointed in the eastern med region but then it's tracking devices switched off daniel hawkins has the latest this saturday morning. if at 1st you don't succeed try and try again so keen with u.s. authorities to get their hands on a rainy and. they used everything at their disposal 1st came the stick accusing the tanker of moving the world to syria in breach of sanctions they went to the u.k. for help the british marines impounded the ship while it was passing through the strait of gibraltar the spanish foreign minister said the arrest came after a demand from the u.s. to the u.k. . but o

state department confirms a trying to pry be captain of the iranian all time care the center of a diplomatic route so they could seize the bats and ongoing and xenophobe it rides in south africa as foreign owned businesses are looted in the country's largest city johannes think up one time being made to out andi in told pull blamed the brig be from the dead dog bump was there instead i'm think you stand i do play just spewed something for your flow you of schools it's 9 o'clock here a mosque and you're watching altie international lie from are seeking to write with mean need to you that you to welcome to the plant them 1st in what's being described as and historic step 70 prisoners have been exchange between russia and ukraine falling months of talks the ukrainian present met the plane which bought 35 release prisoners back to key have some of their relatives will also there to welcome them while in moscow a plane caryn the other 35 newly freed prisoners touch down at the capitals the neck of a airport eco should darla of was their forests 2 buses part of a special motorcade have left this t

zelensky's aide at the request of the state department. 15 memos make that clear. >> reporter: the state department says mr. giuliani is a private citizen and acts in a personal capacity as a lawyer for president trump. he does not speak on behalf of the u.s. government. but he has spoken for trump many times. >> what you just said is totally erroneous. it is not a crime. >> reporter: attacking his foes, dismissing his critics. the president calls him a loyal ally. >> rudy is a straight shooter. >> reporter: his critics call him something else. >> he is the political henchman for the president. >> reporter: and giuliani is clearly hedging his bets against another potential title he could be saddled with if the ukraine favor gets much messier -- fall guy. giuliani is pledging to defend position as vigorously as he has ever defended donald trump. the big question is will the president stand by him as strongly if the going to gets tough. >> good question. tom foreman, thanks. with us to discuss, all ali hoe and great to have your great legal minds with us. let's start with giuliani and his

state department investigation found that blackwater quote was over billing the state department and manipulating personal records its guards were partying drinking and even crashed an armored car and saw themselves as quote above the law pretty damning the u.s. state department saying this but the company they've given contracts to over billing and manipulating we never paid any fines for anything like that and that's a fact you paid fines for a lot of things the only thing we paid a fine for it was a elation and i gave an example of the own the only thing you paid a fine for you paid $7500000.00 fine in 2012 to settle 17 criminal charges you paid a full $1000000.00 settlement are a department in 2010 for illegal arms sales. 2012 it already sold the business i sold it in 2010 but the cases go back beyond 2010 the criminal charges raided all sorts of things that went back years including south sudan you broke u.s. sanctions to try and sell weapons to south sudan knowing going to there's no weapons.

glen, how serious of a problem is this for the state department? >> you know, i think it could be a real problem for the state department because the summary, not transcript of the call, but the summary of the call that we now have seen shows that the president is engaged in improperly trying to extract something from the president of ukraine and holding congressionally allocated funds hostage in order to do that. so for the state department to have been involved in any way in furthering that effort is a legal problem. the people that i want to see testify, frances, are the people that ig atkinson refers to in the second sentence of his report because what he says in that report is i have received information from multiple u.s. government officials that president trump is using his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 elections. michael atkinson has told us he's talked with multiple u.s. officials who said president trump is doing wrong. we need to see those people. this is not just one whistle-blower, this is a lot of

>> well, the state department hasn't even responded to our questions about this subpoena. if they will be complying, if they won't. that's not really all that surprising because they haven't replied to any questions, requests for documents over the last few weeks from this committee on the hill. but it is important to note that they have -- this administration has ignored subpoenas in the past. but here it's a little bit more impactful if they do because it would then amount to evidence of obstruction of justice -- i'm sorry. it would amount to evidence -- it would go toward the house impeachment inquiry, right? that would be evidence they're trying to not work with congress, this administration, and it could make things even worse for them. so we're still waiting to hear from the state department here. >> david, in the middle of all this is the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani. he's a central figure in the whistle-blower complaint throughout and he says his outreach -- giuliani said his outreach to ukraine was actually on behalf of the state department, tweetin

and the state department asked me to do this. >> reporter: reporters asking pompeo, did the state department give instructions to the president's personal lawyer? >> to the best of my knowledge, and from what i've seen so far, each of the actions that were undertaken by statement department officials was entirely appropriate and consistent with the objective that we have had to create a better relationship between the united states and ukraine. >> reporter: tonight, an overwhelming majority of democrats now publicly back the impeachment inquiry. house speaker nancy pelosi making it clear this investigation is squarely focused on the president's actions regarding ukraine. >> i think we have to stay focused as far as the public is concerned on the fact that the president of the united states used taxpayer dollars to shake down the leader of another country for his own political gain. the rest of it is ancillary. >> reporter: she also had strong words for the attorney general for how he handle the complaint. >> i do think the attorney general has gone rogue. he has for a long time now. >> repor

the state department. i never talk to ukrainian official until the state department called me and asked me to do it. and then i reported to every conversation back to them. laura, i'm a pretty good lawyer, just a country lawyer, but it's all right here, right here. the first call from the state department. the debriefing of the state. >> laura: why are they out to get you? why are they out to get you? >> i will complement my stuff because i do a good job and they try to destroy everyone. they will not intimidate me. in fact, i'm going to work harder because i don't get intimidated by bullies. i have a chapter in my book about standing up to bullies. and i never realized the depth of the corruption. i always thought joe biden intellectually was challenged, but a nice guy. i never knew the depth of his corruption. it is massive, shocking and if i played a role in getting that out, i do a service to my country and i'm proud of it. everything i do is defensible and everything i did was legal. most of what they

so, i mean, i wanted to say that obviously the state department and we quote the state department in the story saying that this has nothing to do with politic, and this is just process playing out in a legitimate fashion, but the timing, you know, it is raising questions. and yes, so a lot of those who are being pulled into this new investigation got notifications in the august time frame really closely thereafter, obviously, the july 25th call between president trump and the leader of ukraine, and i'm not saying that the two things are linked, but these are looking like instances in which, you know, there are, you know, the president has been fixated on a couple of things, right. he is fixated and constantly on hillary clinton and the e-mail issue, and constantly seeking to revive that issue as a political weapon that he can wield and as recently as this week at the united nations once again talking about it. and then of course, going after joe biden. so, those are the timing here and the linkages to his political adversaries are important. >> and greg, the last question here, the t

state department confirms that attempted to bribe the captain of that iranian oil tanker at the center of a diplomatic route so they could seize the vessel. continue in south africa with foreign owned businesses are being looted in the capital johannesburg coming up we report from people. think of one family planning to add on to its old problem the british from the. day they come to steal your great speeds for you of course because the people thought the. 5000000 was build the wrong here not in my yard residence neighborhood in jerusalem off period of the u.s. embassy there starts to build a huge barrier around its territory which they say blocks the view of the. i come out my house and i want to be able to see the below but i don't want to look at a big stone wall part of a group of neighbors we're trying to see what can be done to stop this. morning just 10 10 am this saturday morning the 7th of september here in moscow very good warning from a kevin and then the rest of the team this is our international i'm here with a 30 minute world news roundup starting with this the u.s. state

us state department admits it tried to bribe the captain of the iranian oil tanker at the center of a diplomatic route so they could seize the vessel. and the foreign owned businesses alluded to in the south african city of johannesburg in a wave of anti immigrant. on sunday night. they did pick this up. and say i'm so scared i just prayed speeds up the schools. are broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is our g. international times from last. night 70 prisoners have been exchanged between russia and ukraine after months of talks the swap took place on saturday morning and the 2 countries' leaders spoke by phone saying the move will help to normalize relations president. welcomed the 35 returning ukrainian prisoners as their plane landed in kiev some of their relatives were also there to welcome them while in moscow a plane carrying the other 35 newly freed prisoners touched a download from the airport or he could have gone off was there for. 2 buses part of a special motorcade have left this terminal for governmental flights carrying $35.00 people $35.00 people tha

then later here said yes, he is working with the state department. he seemed to be telling the truth. those texts he put out with volker seemed to suggest he was working. is there a situation or a circumstance where that is okay for a civilian to be working with the state department doing these types of things with ukraine? >> it's highly unusual. i don't know if it been done in the past but it is highly unusual, not something i've seen in 15 years in government. i think mixing political and person with professional and national security issues is always a dangerous game and never worth it. i think that it's been cloudy at best starting with your interview with mr. giuliani. i think he's acknowledged the very basic top line fact here, which is that the president used his leverage on ukraine to get them to provide dirt on a political opponent. he acknowledged it in front of you, in front of everyone else. that's what changed for me is they were open about it. they didn't seem to be shameful about it, and i just cannot accept that, as an army wife, as

next week three more state department officials are scheduled to be deposed. for more on all of this, let's go to the white house and kelly o'donnell. >> reporter: what this really gives us is an outline of some of what the committee thinks are the best avenues to learn more information. they have been battling with the department of state for a while to try to get information. so ultimately use the power of subpoena which is serious to be sure to level that against the secretary of state who is in charge of all documents as the head of that department and that is a quest for documents, not a request for him to appear. and so will the white house comply? we don't have an answer yet. so far the white house position has been not to comply with a lot of the requests made by congress. and will they take a different position with this sort of new set of facts and new controversy? we don't yet know. the committee used the whistleblower's complaint as almost a road map of taking names from that complaint that helped to fill out a picture of the allegations that were

state department. that wouldn't absolve him of any allegation of wrong doing, would it? >> pno. it's just people are questioning what in the world was he doing and who was he doing it for as the president's private lawyer. that isn't a typical mission. so his illusion to the saying i'm doing this for the state department is something we can now run down and find if he did have any kind of authority and bhie did he. >> if the state department were working with giuliani, would it be documented beyond those text messages that giuliani is putting out there? >> well, i would imagine there would be somebody in the state department who would say yes we talked to him and he was given this assignment if that was the case. i noticed in the article where he called everybody a moron, that same article, he says the state department is now going to try to distance themselves from me. so i think he may know he has overreached in what he is pretending is his authority. >> the state department, of course, is still part

the state department says, mr. giuliani is a private citizen and acts in a personal capacity as a lawyer for president trump. he does not speak on behalf of the u.s. fwovgovernment. but he has spoken for trump in times. >> he didn't obstruct. >> reporter: the president calls him a loyal ally. >> reporter: his critics call him something else. >> he is the henchman. >> reporter: he is looking at a new title, fall guy. he is going to vigorously defendant himself as he did president trump. will the president stand by him if the going gets tough? tom foreman, cnn, washington. >>> the american diplomat best known for challenging the 2003 iraq war has died. joe wilson was the deputy chief to the first iraq war. acting as the go-between. years later, he publicly challenged the u.s. assessment that iraq was trying to buy nuclear materials for nuclear weapons. that way george w. bush led into the invasion of iraq. he was 69. >>> people in afghanistan are braving threats of taliban violence, just by heading to the polls right

email to do state department business. they are looking at why are they doing that, what is going on there? here's the third and perhaps most disturbing part. after the ig uncovered all of this, they chose not to interview any of the key players. they didn't talk to their boss, and there is some real concern between these two senators that this wasn't given a lot of attention given how much they serious conduct was uncovered over the last two months. >> sean: the last question, exit question. do you believe the ig report on fisa abuse, that this was premeditated fraud, because kathleen kavalec come on top of bruce ohr, they all warned the doj, fbi, don't trust this guy. it was never verified. the top of the fisa ward to said verified. i've been told again and again the question is, premeditation. they were all warned, bad idea. they didn't verify it until, as you point out, months and months later, when they laid it all out and 90% plus wasn't true. that was your story also. the question is is that premeditated. will they

the state department hasn't said much about that. they said that everyone, secretary pompeo, when asked about this yesterday, said that to his knowledge everyone had acted entirely properly at the state department, meaning that no state department officials were getting involved in this politically-driven agenda of rudy giuliani. but what giuliani is saying is different, he's saying he worked closely with kurt volcker on his efforts in ukraine, pushing for an investigation into joe biden. >> i was going to say, kiley, the whistle-blower complaint suggested that kurt volcker went to kiev at one point to work with the ukrainian officials, to guide them on how to deal with the president's demands. >> reporter: exactly. so we know that kurt volcker was talking to the ukrainians in that text message that rudy giuliani put out, was connecting giuliani with one of the top aides of president zelensky, the ukrainian president. so he was involved here. now, the state department has not been backing up volcker over the past week. they haven't b

i was asked by the state department. well, who in the state department? who asked him to do that concretely? and third, he keeps saying, the mayor keeps saying i'm defending my client. well, what crime has your client been in-criminaled natured by ukraine? i don't understand under what legal reason that he would get involved in this. and i've talked to many ukranians and they are asking please keep us out of your domestic politics. let us get on with advancing our sovereignty. we have a new government, a new parliament, this is a real moment of opportunity for breakthrough for ukraine. we should be engaging with this and not dragging them into our swamp. >> michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia, thank you for joining us, sir. we are trying so hard to get all the experts help us understand it and everybody's response is some version of, i mean, this is unprecedented. >> and so let's just make something clear. there are a whole lot of questions. we're not in a position where we are accusing anyone of any sort of wrongdoing. but what we're certain

department it's a little unusual because he's not a member of the state department he's not technically a government official. he's a private individual. but nonetheless, if he was ordered or asked to do something by the state department, in his mind that probably ratifies it and insulates him from criminal liability. but keep in mind all of the immunities that the president enjoys and the powers that he enjoys to conduct foreig affairs, rudy giuliani does not. so from the outset he is always exposed more than the president is to any potential criminal liability. >> in your article on nbcnews.com right now you say that singling out joe biden's son could ultimately compromise the president's potential defense. what do you mean by that >> the president has broad foreign affairs powers, and sometimes he can even withhold foreign aid if the statute allows it. so if the president wants to withhold foreign aid to a country and arguably just say look, your corruption in your country is affecting my country, so i'm going to use my spending power, my impounding funds power to force you, to induc

of the state department, 15 memos to make that clear. >> the state department says mr. giuliani is a private citizen and acts in a personal capacity as a lawyer for president trump. he does not speak on behalf of the u.s. government but he has spoken for mr. trump many times. >> what you say is completely erroneous. it's not a crime. >> the president calls him a loyal ally. his critics call him something else. >> he is the political henchman for the president. >> reporter: and giuliani is clearly hedging his bets against another title he could be saddled with if the ukraine affair gets much messier, fall guy. he's planning to defend himself as vigorously as he has donald trump. the only question is will the president stand by him as strongly if the going gets tough. tom foreman, cnn, washington. >>> an ex-police officer charged with killing a 26-year-old man in his apartment testifies in court about why she pulled the trigger. you'll hear it in her own words when we come back. with my hepatitis c, i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyr

the state department. i never talked to a ukrainian official until the state department called me and asked me to do it, and then i reported every conversation back to them. laura, i'm a pretty good lawyer, just a country lawyer, but it's all here, right here. the first call from the state department. >>> parker, at rudy giuliani held up the phone and incriminated the stapt department, ambassador volker resigned. as we were coming on the news, three house committees investigating potentially corruption of the distribution of military aid to ukraine, longstanding u.s. ally at risk from russian aggression. questions now, those committees wanting to see and wanting documents produced by the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani by october 15th. your reaction. >> well, one this is that's so interesting about this breaking development franksly is for so long, the president and his team have been able to operate with a degree of impunity. the president himself has a sense that he's invincible. this is not th

state department investigation found that blackwater quote was over billing the state department and manipulating personal records its guards were partying drinking and even crashed an armored car and saw themselves as quote above the law pretty damning the u.s. state department saying this but the company they've given contracts to over billing and manipulating we never paid any fines for anything like that and that's effect you paid fines for a lot of things the only thing we paid a fine for it was a elation and i gave an example of the otoh if you say the only thing you paid a fine for you paid $7500000.00 fine and 2012 to settle 17 criminal charges you paid a full $1000000.00 settlement are a department in 2010 for illegal arms sales. 2012 it already sold the business i saw that in 2010 but the cases go back beyond 2010 the criminal charges raided all sorts of things that went back years including south sudan you broke u.s. sanctions to try and sell weapons to south sudan knowing going to there's no weapons in south sudan there was a proposal on the naval you never put a proposal

there is talk of just what this means for the state department, for your state department. a state department here ready to do battle. you hear rudy giuliani talking about the adversarial relationship he has with the department. how worried are you about what happens to foggy bottom, to the state department going forward? >> well, it is america's state department. and it takes years to build strong institutions and not so long to tear them down. i thought that the dismissal of the u.s. ambassador to ukraine was, for no good republican, a blow against professionalism. i think that kurt volker, the special envoy for ukraine, his resignation is a blow against professionalism. i'm sorry he felt he had to leave, but i understand it. the problem is in the pursuit of what appears to be president trump's personal political interest, america's institutions and its standing in the world are damaged. and this is alarming. america is the leader of the free world, and we need to continue to play that role. europeans and others, even the ones who complain about us, seek and want american

the problem is flawed discriminatory policy by the state department. one of the reasons we are confident is a judge ruled in favor of us in similar plaintiffs earlier this year. where he a family just as much as yours. we held our daughter first the moment she was born and we gave her first feeding and sleep was on our chests. we gave her, her first baths. we are family by any definition. we refuse to let anyone, any government officials to tell us otherwise. >> thank you for having us on the show. >> thank you. >> you guys looked great. >> this is ongoing marriage authority. >> if they were not a same-sex couple and had done surrogatcy n canada, this would not be an issue? >> that's right. the government's position is unattendable. we have two dads who are married and both citizens. the idea their child is born out of wedlock is absurd. >> in fact, you have not married for several years now. you got two children and how do they rationalize this decision or this policy? >> i can't explain the rational. we see it as a single discrimination as our lbgtq

that he acted at the request of the state department. president trump is sure to be asked about this at a press conference this afternoon. let's begin with cnn's lauren fox. what a day yesterday and what a morning this morning. >> reporter: that's right. just a slew of events moving yesterday on capitol hill. nancy pelosi has held her caucus back for months. yesterday she finally announced this is an official impeachment inquiry. and president trump will become the fourth president to face impeachment here on capitol hill. >> the president must be held accountable. no one is above the law. >> reporter: how speaker nancy pelosi resisting no more. >> i'm announcing the house of representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. >> reporter: the seismic shift pushing pelosi over the edge. cnn learned that president trump asked his chief of staff to freeze millions in military aid to ukraine. roughly one week before a call with ukraine's new leader in which mr. trump pressed to investigate former vice president joe biden an

the state department. i never talked to any ukraine official until the state department call immediate and asked me to do it and then i reported every conversation back to them. it's all here. right here. the first call from the state department. the debriefing of the -- >> why are they -- >> ambassador volker called me, asked me to do it, set up the meeting, helped me set it up. i debriefed them three times in great detail about it. >> all right. >>> thank you very much, everybody. i'm with the president of ukraine and he's made me more famous than -- i will say he's got a great reputation. he's very, very strongly looking into all sorts of corruption and some of the problems they've had over the years. i think one of the primary reasons he got elected, his reputation absolutely sterling and it's an honor to be with you an we spoke a couple of times as you probably remember. they'd like to hear every single word and we give them every single word, and then they'll say, well, what about today? and i think

the state department. i never talked to ukraine officials until the state department called me and ask me to do it and i reported every consideration ba conversation back to them. it is all here, right here. the first call from the state department. >> joining me now, ambassador wendy sherman who knows something of this, and our msnbc global affair and anne gearan, white house correspondent who knows a lot about everything. what about rudy giuliani acting as an envoy for the state department? >> you know very well because you know the state department so well. a private citizen can take on an objective but they become a special government employee, they have to go through ethic vetting and i suspect it did not happen. i don't believe anything that comes out of rudy giuliani's mouth. he's been all over the place in this discussion and yes, indeed i would suspect at some point the state department may have spoken to him. it could have been because they were concerned of what the heck he was up to. >> anne, w

even though the state department knew his work was shoddy, they continued to push it out. newland kept on pushing this material out, kavalon kept on pushing this material out come of these false allegations related to russia over at the state department. i think if there is an investigation that needs to be done, we talk about the fbi and justice department, the state department is as much a center of the russia gate storm as any of these other agencies because if you remember, sean, the state department is listed as a source or a confirming source in the fraudulent fisa warrants. it turns out, they were using the same garbage that the justice department was using but turns out it's different. >> sean: comes back to hillary's bought and paid for russian lies. the new york times refers to it as likely russian disinformation from the get-go. tom fitton, keep up the great work. we do have a breaking report out of california. you do need to know about this in a big win for the president a federal judge, and the absurdn absurd state laws requiring president trump to submit his

every obamaold on nominee to the state department. unsurprisingly, the state department was dismayed about this. -- forn we do to lift you to lift your hold? as soon as you pass my legislation renaming the street in front of the chinese embassy. i said, what about a resolution? my legislation passed the senate unanimously. senator feinstein did not object. sadly, the republican house killed it. that is a whole other story, onch does not reflect well the house leadership. 2017, let meto finish the story because it is very interesting. rex tillerson is secretary of state. i had breakfast with >>. -- rex. he said when he met with his chinese counterparts, he said among their top three objectives were prevent the street in front of the embassy from being renamed. at the time, he had passed away. part of what i was trying to do was get him released from china but his widow was still there. she was not allowed to leave. she never collected the money from winning the nobel peace prize. here is what i told tillerson. they releasea if him, i w

it's central to how state department and diplomacy. i was speaking with somebody recently who said all diplomacy the public. which is true. everything is transparent now. everything is part of a narrative and conversation. so i certainly hope and think that pd has been elevated through this. hopefully we contributed to that. >> i'd like to jump in for a second. i'm career an foreign service public diplomacy nomenclature is a little odd, but coned. and i'm excited about this. i think it has really elevated public diplomacy to your point and places at the table in those conversations so that the messaging component and how we talk ability american values is core when we're looking at policy implementation. so i'm excited. >> so who wants to be brave from the audience? go in the front here. brave woman in the front. >> thank you very much. >> just say who you are. >> yes, absolutely. my name is greta morris and i'm retired career public diplomacy foreign service officer. congratulations to both of you and to everyone who has been involved

do you consider john rood a minion in the state department? >> it's the president's job and sworn duty to safeguard taxpayer dollars and the united states government's foreign policy. getting to the bottom of a corruption scandal in ukraine is in the american national interest. and if you want to understand why that complainant is so obviously politically biased, when he says that the president is threatening national security by trying to expose corruption, when he says -- or she -- that the president is hurting national security by trying to get to the bottom of a gigantic scandal that nobody has unearthed, the president is the whistleblower here. the president of the united states is the whistleblower. and this individual is a saboteur trying to undermine a democratically-elected government. chris: saboteur, is he a spy? is he committing treason? >> i do not know. chris: the president said that, you know. >> the president correctly pointed out that the behavior of this individual is close to a spy. i don't know who the individual is. all i

department and they want to depose 5 different state department officials were waiting to see if u.s. president donald trump is going to do what he normally does in the situations when congress is trying to investigate him in the last year he basically claims executive privilege so we're waiting to see just how the state department is going to react to the president is going to react up until now they've pretty much just dismissed all of the requests refuse to let people testify they might are facing a much different situation now and i can't stress this enough how much everything in washington has changed because during richard nixon the supreme court ruled that executive privilege in essence doesn't apply when the congress is investigating potential crimes committed by the president so by taking this step the democrats may have outflanked the president's are waiting to see if his lawyers are still going to tell him to go through the process of trying to claim executive privilege try to slow things down but now that they've launched this formal into pietschmann inquiry the courts ar

state department correspondent rich edson has the latest on that tonight. >> hillary clinton, state department emails, a fixture of 2016. >> hillary clinton bleached and deleted 33,000 emails. >> headlines again in 2019. "the washington post" reports that the state department is intensifying its investigation into emails, dozens of former and current department officials sent to hillary clinton's private email address. the focus, whether those officials emailed information considered classified then or retroactively through unsecured systems. former state department officials confirmed to fox news that in the last few weeks they have contacted them and former colleagues. some of the former officials called the inquiry harassment and a politically motivated farce. >> of course he is obsessed with me, and i believe that it is a guilty conscience as much as he has a conscience. >> the state department refuses to comment, those familiar with the investigation point out that it began at the end of the obama administration and that the state department began their inquiry after the fbi concluded the

maybe the state department has information beyond what you and i have. ask the state department. maybe there is diplomacy happening that you and i may not seen. as soon as you see something that you don't understand, you think it white house committed a crime. judge jeanine: that's it. that's it. you have got to let the guy talk. you don't agree. the bottom line is maybe rudy giuliani knew more about the basis of this having represented the president. and the bottom line is they don't want any more meddling and we have to stop it. you know who had their fingers on the scale last time? not russians. the fbi and the deep state. that's all i want to say. that enough. good night. good night. we'll be back an exciting i want some more what's he doin? please sir. i want some more more? he has asked for... thank you well he did say please yes he did and, thank you (all boys): thank you, thank you, thank you. tonight, get excited. i'm hitting the road to celebrate the relief of my brand-new new york times bestseller, "wall street journal" number one washington post resistance and revenge

state department admits it tried to bribe the captain of the iranian oil tanker at the center of a diplomatic route so they could seize it the vessel. and foreign owned businesses are looted in the south african city of johannesburg any wave of anti immigrant. on sunday i don't think the british stuff like that and so still under great speeds at the ghouls. and broadcast one direct from our studios in moscow this is arch international thomas certainly glad to have you with us. all right 70 prisoners have been exchanged between russia and ukraine after months of talks the swap took place on saturday morning and the 2 countries' leaders spoke by phone saying the move will help normalize relations president of. welcome to the 35 returning ukrainian prisoners as their plane landed in kiev some of their relatives were also on hand to welcome them while in moscow a plane carrying the other 35 newly freed prisoners touched down in front of the airport when he goes down off with their force. 2 buses part of a special motorcade have left this terminal for governmental flights carrying $35.00 people $3