point of view about that, whether the president was informed of the meeting, whether he met the actual russians, what the president's mind set was when they were on air force one and drafting their response of statement. bannon doesn't have to have been on the ground at the time of knowledge of those facts. , that w >> that was a meeting designed to obtain dirt on hillary clinton from the russians, who showed up there. everybody stand by. there's more news we're following. the special prosecutor's desire to talk with steve bannon just one in a series of bombshells to drop in the russia probe. on the white house, the flurry of action could also be a sign that the special prosecutor's investigation may be entering its time phase. let's go to our senior white house correspondent pamela brown over at the white house. pamela, take us through these late-breaking developments. >> wolf, there's been an avalanche of russia-related headlines, much to the irritation of white house officials who want to keep the focus on the president's trip to the world economic forum in