It provides new insight to what we went wrong. Good morning. Welcome to early start. Im dave briggs. Im christine romans. One year ago today, Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel in the russia investigation. There are important issues marking the milestone. Rudy giuliani said he did not indict a sitting president. Rudy giuliani said all they can do is write a report. They acknowledge that to us after battling with us. It is a point giuliani reiterated on fox. We will see what legal rem y remedies are available to us. Including if they subpoena us, challenge the subpoena. I dont think they agree to the process question. The same reason they cannot indict him, they cannot issue a subpoena to him. Clinton opposed a subpoena and voluntarily complied. If muellers team said if the president cannot be indicted, he is not necessarily in the clear. Guidelines say a sitting president cannot be indicted. That has never been tested in court. Not clear if muellers team is prepared tie on that challenge. If it has criminal evidence against President Trump is unclear. A few questions answered. Plenty of new ones raised after the release of thousands of pages of interviews with participants in the 2016 meeting in june in trump tower with Campaign Officials and russian lawyer. Now five of the eight people in the meeting including donald trump jr. And what they thought the meeting would be about and how they reacted when they learned and what happened when the meeting went public. What did the president know about the meeting and when . Satellite radra murray with a c at the senate intel documents. Reporter good morning, dave and christine. The dirt on Hillary Clinton turned to frustration for top members of the Trump Campaign when the information came up short. Releasing 2,000 pages of interviews of the 2016 trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer and trump junior and Jared Kushner and Campaign Chairman paul manafort. The meeting did not go the way they expected. When the russian lawyer talked about adoptions rather than dirt on clinton, kushner appeared agitated. The man who arranged it apologized for quote wasting our time. The president s son insisted he did not tell his father about the meeting before or offer of incriminating information on clinton because i would not bring him anything unsubstantiated. He never told his father about the meeting, on june 6th, trump junior made an 11minute phone call to a blocked number. Corey lewandowski testified the president s deresidence has a blocked number. The trump team was flailing for a response. They croafted a misleading one when the president was returning from germany. Saying it was focused on adoptions. There was no reason of clinton dirt. As a special counsel probes the meeting it is unclear how involved the president was in crafting it. His father may have commented through hope hicks. The former communications director. He said he did not request his fathers assistance saying hicks quote asked if i wanted to speak to him and i chose not to. Thank you, sara. The Senate Intel Committee breaking with house colleagues by backing with the assessment that russia meddled in the 2016 election. Chairman richard burr said committee has spent 14 months reviewing the sources and we see no reason to dispute the conclusions. The house Intel Committee disagree was the Intelligence Community that Vladimir Putin was trying to help trump. Republican Congress Member mike conway ran the russia investigation. He supports the conclusion and downplayed the differences. And President Trump acknowledging for the first time he repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen more than 100,000 for expenses during the 2016 election. Mr. Trump does not specify the repayment and the lawyers have confirmed cohen was reimbursed for the 130,000 payoff to stormy daniels. The president s representatives say they listed the payment in an issue of transparency. You may find the disclosure relevant. Any inquiry you may be pursuing. He revealed the repayment on fox news a few weeks ago to get ahead of the financial disclosure. The president hosts secretarygeneral at the white house this morning. Natos web site says there is a joint News Conference as 3 00. There has not been a White House Briefing since monday. Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson taking a not so subtle jab at his former boss. Telling cadets at the Virginia Military institute. Respect for truth an pis paramo to democracy. If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grouped in facts grounded in facts, then we are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom. When we go wobbly on the truth, we go would bbly on america. The former secretary said the pursuit of americas future must be fact base and not wishful thinking. The u. S. And china want round two of trade talks. The toughest china critic wont have a leading role. Adviser Peter Navarro will not be a principle player. Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin will lead the talks. Navarro has an issue over trade with the president. Navarro is the protectionist voice. Mnuchin is free trade. Sources tell cnn navarro fought with mnuchin shouting over the direction of trade talks. The argument took place out of view of chinese officials. As chinas top economic officials meet with trumps team, they will miss another deadline for a deal. Naftas deal is supposed to be today. Negotiations are far from over. The writing on the wall is there will not be a new nafta rewrite this year. The clash with navarro and mnuchin seemed months in the making. The president likes to hear what Peter Navarro has to say. He has had protectionist tendencies for years. Especially with china. The president will say where is my peter. Not many other allies. Jer only aome adams coming aid of a passenger on the delta flight. The crew asked if there was a doctor on board. There was. It was him. Adams said he was glad to assist. Though it is not clear what happened on the flight. Airline says the flight intervened when the passenger became ill. He has served in the Administration Since last september. The counterpuncher in chief shows restraint with the president saying north korea is threatening to cancel talks. Live from seoul next. If youre not serious about doing a deal with the president , if you are not willing to give up your nukes for a better life, then dont do it. If you play President Trump, we will have a war and you will lose it. Stark warning from lindsey graham. After the threat of pulling out of the singapore summit. When asked about the status with the meeting with kim jongun. We havent seen anything. We havent heard anything. We will see what happens. Whatever it is. Dialogue is ongoing to keep the summit on track. Lets go live to seoul and bring in ivan watson. Ivan, good morning. A familiar refrain from donald trump. We understand there is dialogue back and forth. Is there any . Reporter there may be something behind the scenes that we dont see. We have to infer. North korea asserted itself by pulling out of the talks on wednesday and pulling out of the summit with donald trump next month. They are showing they are not pushovers and the negotiating process will not be as easy as some expected. Second, with President Trumps response, that says something, too. He did not do his trademark counterpunch. He is not blasting kim jongun on his twitter. He was restrained considering north korea called the National Security advisor john bolton repugnant and accused the Trump Administration of repeating the same mistakes of past american president s. That suggests a waitandsee approach. That is what we see from the south koreans who pulled the north koreas rhetoric growing pains. Bolton who is the target of criticism, he has made a bet in a fox radio news interview that the summit is probably still going to go ahead, but it will be short if north korea is not willing to give up nuclear weapons. In the end, we have to wait and see who blinks first. And nothing new about the name calling. They have been calling him names since 2003. Ivan watson live for us. Thank you. Breaking news. The first time we are seeing video from the deadly ambush that killed four american soldiers in niger last fall. We want to warn you. Some of this may be difficult to watch. The 23minute video seen by congress was given to cnn by the pentagon. It contains drone footage of the body of Sergeant Ladavid Johnson retrieved from under the thorn tree. This shows troops who escaped the isis ambush and escaped into a swamp. They were going after a nearby isis commander. The stated mission was to survey the area. The military record concluded the team was not authorized to kill and capture in missions. A School Resource officer hailed as a hero for stopping a former student who opened fire at the graduation rehearsal. Thats next. Ahh. Summer is coming. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer5 to 500500 to start listening today. Vof hundreds of families, hese hmost proud of the one the heads hes kept over his own. Brand vo get paid twice as fast with quickbooks smart invoicing. Quickbooks. Backing you. If youd have told me three years ago. That wed be downloading in seconds, what used to take. Minutes. That guests would compliment our wifi. That we could video conference. And do it like that. snaps if youd have told me that i could afford. A gigspeed. A gigspeed network. Its like 20 times faster than what most people have. Id of said. Id of said youre dreaming. Dreaming definitely dreaming. Then again, dreaming is how i got this far. Now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. The racist tirade captured on video in new york. It starts with a complaint of workers at the lunch counter speaking spanish. Watch. Speaking spanish. Every person i listen to he has spoken. This is america. Stay out of my country. If they have to come here and live off my money, i pay their welfare. The least they can do is if you are running a place he finishes the rant by threatening to call i. C. E. And a crack of the woman shooting the video. It took the internet five seconds to identify the guy. There are more videos of the same man ranting in a similar fashion. Cnn has reached out to him and we left a message at his law office. We have not heard back. I. C. E. Says its tip line should not be used as an instrument to intimidate or harass. The School Resource officer praised for the actions after the former student opened fire at the illinois high school. It was a gathering near the auditorium for the graduation rehearsal. In a tweet, the Vice President mike pence called the actions heroic. The 19yearold is facing charges of discharge of a firea firearm. The ceo of bumble bee foods in a price fixing scheme. The c oeo conspired with rival companies to keep prices high. He could face a 10 year prison sentence. He is the fourth person to be charged in the price fixing probe. In 2016, the Vice President of sales pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme. Michigan State University reaching a 500 million sett settlement with the girls assaulted by larry nassar. It deals with accusations against michigan state. Not usa gymnastics or the u. S. Olympic committee. A bizarre story out of texas. A 25yearold man faces charges for posing as a teenager so he could play high school basketball. Police say sydney portley lied about being displaced by hurricane harvey. The rouse ended when a coach from ten years earlier recognized him. There was no indication or replaying it in my mind as far as what he portrayed himself as and to abuse that. You cant as a normal thinking person process that. It is not something you would think about. He was arrested on a felony charge of tampering with government records. Police are investigating claims he was in a relationship with a 14yearold girl at the school. The nbas western conference finals tied at 11 after the rockets blew out golden state in game two 127105. The series moves to oakland for game three sunday. Warriors have won 15 straight at home in the post season. Tied the longest streak in history. Aaron gordon with 27 off the bench. Ahead, the president s lawyer was told by the special counsels team the president cannot be indicted. So what is Robert Muellers move here if he does find wrongdoing . N make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Visit alz. Org to join the fight. Rudy giuliani says the special counsels own team admits it cant indedict the president. What does that mean for the president . One year into the mueller investigation, what does that mean for the probe and investigation . And testimony leading the intriguing meeting with the trump tower lawyer meet and how it ties into the russia investigation. And breaking overnight. Video from the pentagon of the deadly ambush that killed four american soldiers in niger. It provides new insight to what went wrong. Good morning. Welcome to early start. Im christine romans. Im dave briggs. One year ago today, Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel in the russia investigation. There are important issues marking the milestone. Rudy giuliani said he did not cannot indict a sitting president. Rudy giuliani said all they can do is write a report. They cant indict. They acknowledge that to us after battling with us. It is a point giuliani reiterated on fox. We will see what legal remedies are available to us. Including if they subpoena us, challenge the subpoena. I dont think they agree to the process question. The same reason they cannot indict him, they cannot issue a subpoena to him. Clinton opposed a subpoena and voluntarily complied. If muellers team said if the president cannot be indicted, he is not necessarily in the clear. Although Longstanding Justice Department guidelines say a sitting president cannot be indicted. That has never been tested in court. Not clear if muellers team is prepared tie on that challenge. If it has criminal evidence against President Trump is unclear. A few questions answered. Plenty of new ones raised after the release of thousands of pages of interviews with participants in the 2016 meeting in june in trump tower with Campaign Officials and russian lawyer. Now five of the eight people in the meeting including donald trump jr. Explaining what they thought the meeting was about and what they thought the meeting would be about and how they reacted when they learned and what happened when the meeting went public. What did the president know about the meeting and when . Sara murray with a closer look at the senate intel documents. Reporter good morning, dave and christine. Donald trump jr. s excitement over getting dirt on Hillary Clinton turned to frustration for the top members of the Trump Campaign when the request for damage for info came up short. Releasing 2,000 pages of interviews shedding light on the 2016 trump tower meeting. This with the russian lawyer and trump junior and Jared Kushner and Campaign Chairman paul manafort. The meeting did not go the way they expected. When the russian lawyer talked about adoptions rather than dirt on clinton, kushner appeared agitated. After the meeting, trump testified that quote the man who arranged it apologized for quote wasting our time. The president s son insisted he did not tell his father about the meeting before or offer of incriminating information on clinton because i would not bring him anything unsubstantiated. He never told his father about the meeting, on june 6th, trump junior made an 11minute phone call to a blocked number. Former Campaign ManagerCorey Lewandowski testified the president s residence has a blocked number. When the meeting came to light a year later in july of 2017, the trump team was flailing for a response. They crafted a misleading one when the president was returning from germany. Saying it was focused on adoptions. There was no reason of clinton dirt. As a special counsel probes the meeting it is unclear how involved the president was in crafting it. His father may have commented through hope hicks. The former communications director. He said he did not request his fathers assistance saying hicks quote asked if i wanted to speak to him and i chose not to. I didnt want to bring him into something he had nothing to do with. Back to you. Thank you, sara. The Senate Intel Committee breaking with house colleagues by backing with the assessment that russia meddled in the 2016 election. Chairman richard burr said committee has spent 14 months reviewing the sources and we see no reason to dispute the conclusions. The house Intel Committee disagrees with the Intelligence Community that Vladimir Putin was trying to help trump. Republican Congress Member mike conway ran the russia investigation. He supports the conclusion and downplayed the differences. And President Trump acknowledging for the first time he repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen more than 100,000 for expenses during the 2016 election. In a new financial disclosure, mr. Trump does not specify the repayment and the lawyers have confirmed cohen was reimbursed for the 130,000 payoff to stormy daniels. The president s representatives say they listed the payment in an issue of transparency. The office of government ethics sees it differently. Firing off a letter to rod rosenstein. You may find the disclosure relevant. Any inquiry you may be pursuing. He revealed the repayment on fox news a few weeks ago to get ahead of the financial disclosure. Michael cohen got 1 million in exchange and advice for information on the incoming Trump Administration from qatar. This all reportedly coming after a december 2016 meeting with the qat Qatari Foreign minister and michael flynn. The qatari government is not commenting and neither is cohen. Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson taking a jab at his former boss. Telling cadets at the Virginia Military institute. Tillerson did not mention the president by name, but you decide. Respect for truth is paramount to democracy. If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as american citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom. When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth, even on what may seem the most tri trivial of matters, we go wobbly on america. The former secretary said the pursuit of americas future must be fact base and not wishful thinking. Tax cuts left Corporate America flush with cash. One cheerleader says those companies will spend on themselves. Here is bob nardelli. I they are reinvesting. They are adding more research and development. In todays world, you innovate or evaporate. New numbers back up what he is saying. S p 500 companies are spending on factories or equipment. Capital spending. 166 billion during the first three months of 2018. A 24 jump. Capital spending helps the broader economy. Biggest spenders like tech, oil, telecom and carmakers. He criticized the initial rush to spend on the shareholders. Noting share buy backs are unpopular with the public. And in raises or bonuses, 6 billion. And in buyback, 375 billion. That is the windfall is going. Good news if you are a republican running on the tax cuts . I think it is good news. Im glad the companies are spending this money. This could be the best First Quarter in history. I hope we see more of it. The counterpuncher in chief showing remarkable restraint when it comes to north korea. What the president says over the threats to cancel the talks. Live from seoul next. To deliver u hours of sleep support. Number one sleep doctor recommended remfreshyour nightly sleep companion. Available in the Natural Sleep section at walmart. If youre not serious about doing a deal with the president , if you are not willing to give up your nukes for a better life for north korea, dont meet with the president. The worst thing you can do is sit down with President Trump and try to play him. If you do that, then we will have a war and you will lose it. Stark warning from lindsey graham. After the threat of pulling out of the singapore summit. When asked about the status with the meeting with kim jongun. We havent seen anything. We havent heard anything. We will see what happens. Whatever it is. We will see what happens. We heard that from the president before. Lets go to seoul and bring in cnns ivan watson. Ivan, what is the state of play . Reporter the recent comments from john bolton, the National Security adviser who north korea officials spoke out calling him repugnant. It would be a short pemeeting i the North Koreans do not give up nuclear weapons. Christine, there are two real take aways here. The North Koreans after months of a Charm Offensive have shown they will not be pushovers. They asserted themselves and indicated negotiations could be tough going forward. Second, without counterpunching, the way he typically does, President Trump indicated he is willing to try to hang on to this peace process. At least for the time being. He hasnt unleashed his twitter account. He hasnt responded to some of the insults that came from the North Koreans in the last 24 hours. We are in a waitandsee pattern. That includes south korea. North koreas comments is a growing pain in what is a very complicated peace process. Christine. Ivan watson in seoul. Thank you for that. Complicated indeed. Breaking news. For the first time we are seeing video from the deadly ambush that killed four american soldiers in niger last fall. We want to warn you. Some of this may be hard to watch. The 23minute video already seen by congress was given to cnn by the pentagon. It contains drone foot age of te body of Sergeant Ladavid Johnson recovered from the thorn thrree after he was killed. Several escaped and fled into a swamp. The mission was to go after the nearby isis commander, although the mission was to survey the area. The report concluded the team was not authorized or equipped to conduct risky capture and kill missions. A School Resource officer in illinois is hailed as a hero for stopping a former student who opened fire at graduation rehearsal. Ahh. Summer is coming. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer5 to 500500 to start listening today. If youd have told me three years ago. That wed be downloading in seconds, what used to take. Minutes. That guests would compliment our wifi. That we could video conference. And do it like that. snaps if youd have told me that i could afford. A gigspeed. A gigspeed network. Its like 20 times faster than what most people have. Id of said. Id of said youre dreaming. Dreaming definitely dreaming. Then again, dreaming is how i got this far. Now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. 4 51 eastern time. Just about 11 00 p. M. In hawaii. The kilauea volcano still threatening a largescale eruption and putting a dent in tourism dollars. Keeping cruise ships away. Kilauea is not stopping local golfers. Check out this stunning image. A day at the course with ash plumes rising behind them. Crews are still monitoring fissures and toxic gasses. A racist tirade captured on video in new york. It starts with a complaint of workers at the lunch counter speaking spanish. Watch. Your staff is speaking spanish to customers. Every person i listen to he has spoken. He spoke it. This is america. They are undocumented. Stay out of my country. If they have to come here and live off my money, i pay their welfare. The least they can do is if you are running a place he jumped from hearing spanish to my country to undocumented to paying for their welfare. He finishes the rant by threatening to call i. C. E. And make a crack of the woman making the video saying she should not be eating a sandwich today. It took the internet five seconds to identify the guy. There are more videos of the same man ranting in a similar fashion. Cnn has reached out to him and we left a message at his law office. We have not heard back. I. C. E. Says its tip line should not be used as an instrument to intimidate or harass. There is a basic piece of legal logic this legal mind has forgotten. If these people are employed in midtown manhattan and working, how is he paying their welfare . A bit of a flaw. Besides the vitriolic hate. One of the many, many parts that is difficult to unpack. The School Resource officer praised for the actions after the former student opened fire at Dixon High School in illinois. It happened when staff was gathered near the auditorium for the graduation ceremony. The officer mark dallas fled the suspect as he left school. The 19yearold is facing charges of discharge of a firearm. No one at the school was injured. The ceo of bumble bee foods charged in a price fixing scheme. The ceo conspired with rival companies to keep prices high. If convicted, he faces a possible tenyear prison sentence. He is the fourth person to be charged in the price fixing probe. In 2016, the Vice President of sales pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme. Michigan State University reaching a 500 million settlement with the girls assaulted by larry nassar. It deals with accusations against michigan state. Not usa gymnastics or the u. S. Olympic committee. The plaintiffs Attorney Says he hopes this ends the assault of sexual predators in sports. A bizarre story out of texas. A 25yearold man faces charges for posing as a teenager so he could play high school basketball. Police say sydney portley lied about being displaced by hurricane harvey. And enrolled as a 17yearold student at the Dallas High School under a different name. The rouse ended when a coach from ten years earlier recognized him. He courted the loose School Policy that helps displaced disaster victims. There was no indication or replaying it in my mind as far as what he portrayed himself as and to abuse that. You cant as a normal thinking person process that. It is not something you would think about. He was arrested on a felony charge of tampering with government records. Police are investigating claims he was in a relationship with a 14yearold girl at the school. The yanny versus laurel debate. Republican lawmakers weighing in on the viral ear worm. Yanny. Yanny. What name do you hear . I hear laurel. Hand some and intelligent. You agree with chris. Can i reconsider . No. I would like to declare something that is obvious. It is laurel and not yanny. All right . Come on. How many laurel fans here . Okay. Thank you. On the democratic side, Eric Garcetti released this official statement. Laurel. We dont agree on the set. It must be different clips at different frequencies. That is all it is. The pitch in which you play it back. I heard yann yery and yanny. In the middle of the day, i heard laurel. There is more rain on the way along the east coast with flood watches in effect for new england. Lets get to meteorologist pedram javaheri. Good morning, dave and christine. What a week and few days ahead of us as well. Upwards of 25 Million People under flood watches. Additional rainfall and significant rain potentially in the forecast. The past 12 hours, we had a lot of rainfall. 1 to 3 inches. Closer to 1 inch closer to the major metro cities of the northeast. What is ahead of us is impressive. Philly getting rain showers. New york, expect that later on in the morning hours. All of this is dealing with the stationary front which is in place. You take a look at this and additional 2 to 4 inches. Some areas across delmarva could get 4 to 6 inches. There is a flooding concern which remains high. The heavy rain becomes the theme of the forecast across the eastern u. S. At least the next couple days. Guys. Thank you for that. That is the weather. Ge lets get to money. Investors ignored political concerns as raising interest rates. The tenyear treasury hit higher since 2011. Credit macys for the retail boom. Its stock rose nearly 11 . Department stores arent dead. Macys sales surged the first three months. Digital sales grew double digits thanks to the upgrades to the web sites and app. Macys sales have slumped the last few years. They is a new Loyalty Program and better merchandise and tourist bucks at the new york store. Could the senate save Net Neutrality . Fcc will end it june 11th. It passed a measure to keep the obama rules in place. The chairman calls the rules unnecessa unnecessary and harmful. The rules stifle investment, but con siesumers say it ensures a and open internet and your web is not controlled by Big Companies preventing providers from blocking or slowing down content. This heads to the gopled house where . What do you think . It is not likely to pass. This is predictable. Early start continues with the latest on the special counsels oneyear anniversary. Rudy giuliani claiming the special counsel told the White House Legal Team he cannot indict the president. One year into the mueller investigation, what does that mean for the probe and the president . And testimony leading the intriguing meeting with the trump tower lawyer meet and how it ties into the russia investigation. And breaking overnight. Video from the pentagon of the deadly ambush that killed four american soldiers in niger. It provides new insight to what went wrong. Good morning. Welcome to early start. Im christine romans. Im dave briggs. Thursday, may 17th. 5 090 a. M. In the east. Today, Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel one year ago today. Important developments in this marking the