Were following breaking news in the russia investigation. The wall street journal reporting tonight that the special counsel, robert mueller, is looking into a claim by trump ally, roger stone, that he met in 2016 with Julian Assange, the founder of wikileaks that released dnc emails hacked by russia. The journal reports that during grand jury testimony, muellers team has specifically asked about an email in which stone said he had dinner with Julian Assange. Ill get reaction from the former cia director, leon panetta. And our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. First, lets go to our justice correspondent, evan perez. Evan, why would the this alleged stone assange meeting be significant . Well, wolf, it would be a big piece of information for the special counsel, simply because this lies at the center of what the special counsel, robert mueller, is supposed to be investigating, which is whether or not there was any illegal coordination between People Associated with the Donald Trump Campaign and russians. Now, the email that were talking about, that the wall street journal said it saw is daytoday august 4th, 2016, and it is from roger stone to sam nunberg, both of them were informal advisers to then candidate trump. And in the email, roger stone says, quote, i dined with Julian Assange last night. Wolf, the problem with this is weve had multiple different stories from roger stone as to whether or not he had any actual contact with Julian Assange, the founder of wikileaks. In the past, he said that he did have contact. He also has said that he had contact with Julian Assange through an intermediary. And just in the last couple of days, weve talked to him at cnn and he now denies that he ever had any contact with Julian Assange. He told the wall street journal, for instance, that he could provably show that he was not in the Ecuadorian Embassy having dinner with Julian Assange during the time of this email, simply because he was flying somewhere and he produced the receipt from Delta Airline fars for a flight. So we dont know what his story is, but its a very significant thing if this email is true. Again, it goes to the Central Mission o f what the special counsel is investigating. The email was an email extend to sam nunberg, one of his associates. And now roger stone says he was simply joking in that email when he says that he actually had dinner with Julian Assange. Right, its par for the course with roger stone. Hes, obviously, one of the many colorful characters that weve run into in this now yearlong investigation by the special counsel. But its important to note that, again, the day after this interview, this email was allegedly sent is the day that roger stone tweets out something about essentially calling Julian Assange a hero. He said, quote, hillary lies about russian involvement in dnc hack. Julian assange is a hero and obviously a few weeks later, in late august, he also foreshadows, seeming to know that the wikileaks was about to release emails that were hacked from john podesta, who helped run the Hillary Clinton campaign. Again, theres a lot of questions here. And this is not the first weve heard that people are being asked about roger stone in the special counsel investigation. And of course, the president during the campaign said, i love wikileaks, and im sure investigators are looking into that, as well. Were expecting a first tomorrow. The first sentencing of someone who has now pled guilty in the Mueller Probe. Right. This is a milestone in this investigation. Alex van der swann is pleading guilty to lying to special counsel muellers investigators. Under the guidelines, he could get between zero and six months in prison. Were expecting, i think its even likely, thats haes going to get no prison time. He also faces 250,000 fine. Look, hes got a baby due in august, wolf. Even though he lied to the special counsel, he later corrected the record, provided the documents that the special counsel said that he was withholding and hes a very key witness, simply because he worked with Paul Manafort and rick gates. Paul manafort, the former chairman of the Trump Campaign, and rick gates, his associate in this Ukraine Business that they had. Now, mueller filed a document in advance of the sentencing, saying that van der zwaan cant say anything publicly about this investigation. He knows whats going on. Talk about that. Right, under this agreement that he has signed with the special counsel, he forfeits or gives up his right to be able to get any information from the spo special counsels office under the freedom of information act. And the reason for this is they say he knows too much about the special counsels investigation, including information that is not yet public. And so the concern here is that he could use information that he has from the investigation and could tip off other people. Its very key here, wolf, that just last week, in another filing in the van der zwaan case, the special counsel let it be known that rick gates was in contact with someone that the special counsel says is a russian spy, a russian intelligence agent. And that rick gates knew he was this person was working for the russians, at the time that he was communicating with him in september and october of 2016. Again, thats in the middle of the president ial campaign. And this is key, because, again, it goes to the Central Mission here, of the Mueller Investigation, which is, proving or showing whether or not there was any illegal or improper contacts between russians and the Trump Campaign. Paul manafort, of course, was the campaign manager. And so this ties together all of those strands. Yeah. And rick gates was the Deputy Campaign chairman and he would stay down in the campaign after Paul Manafort into the inauguration. Thats correct. Ev evan, thank you for that report. As the Mueller Probe continues to look into possible collusion between the trump camp and russia, the white house is now confirming a new overture by the president to the russian leader, Vladimir Putin. The two leaders discussing a potential meeting here in washington at the white house. Lets bring in our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. Jim, while the president makes nice with putin, hes been on a new twitter rant on multiple topics, including immigration. Thats right, wolf. President putin might feel right at home here at the white house, the way the president has been going off on the media and the Justice Department in recent days. Hes also venting his frustration on the issue of immigration. The president sticking to his talking points when it comes to the young undocumented immigrants known as the dreamers that fall under the daca program. But he was suddenly silent today when we reminded him, he ended daca. It was supposed to be very rainy and nasty and cold and windy and look what we have. Perfect weather. Perfect weather. Beautiful weather. Reporter just before President Trump welcomed guests to the white house for the annual easter egg roll, he was hammering away on immigration. Blaming democrats for failing to extend the program that protects young undocumented people from deportation known as daca. Daca is dead because the democrats didnt care or act, the president tweeted. And now Everyone Wants to get on to the daca bandwagon. No longer works. Must build wall and secure our borders with proper border legislation. When we pressed mr. Trump on that at the easter egg roll, he neglected to mention one thing. He terminated the daca program. Mr. President , what about the daca kids . Should they worry about whats going to happen to them, sir . The democrats have really let them down. Theyve really let them down. They had the great opportunity. The democrats have really let them down. Its a shame. And now people are taking advantage of daca and thats a shame. It should have never happened. Didnt you kill daca, sir . Didnt you kill daca . Reporter the president didnt respond. Mr. Trump launched his immigration tweet storm over the weekend, shortly after a segment on the issue aired on fox news. But the president s tweets werent limited to immigration. He also defended the conservative Sinclair Broadcasting company thats come under fire for asking its affiliates to read a statement. The president tweeted, so funny to watch fake news networks, among the most dishonest groups of people ive ever dealt, criticize sinclair for being biased. And he continued to harass the Washington Post and his owner, jeff bezos, who also founded the online retailer, amazon, complaining the post office loses a fortune, shipping packages for the company. He even took a swipe at the department of justice, putting justice in quotes, describing officials there as an embarrassment to our country. The president s hardline rhetoric comes just as aides confirm hes considering hosting a meeting with Russias Vladimir Putin at the white house, a sitdown he hinted at last month. We had a very good call and i suspect that well probably be meeting in the nottoodistant future. Another sign of the chaotic atmosphere at the white house, the back and forth over whether the president actually fired his Veterans Affairs secretary, david shulkin. Shulkin says he was fired. You received a phone call from chief of staff john kelly, who fired you . General kelly gave me a heads up. The tweet fired you . Yes. Reporter while the white house has offered evasive statements, sinsisting shulkin resigned. General kelly called secretary shulkin and gave him the opportunity to resign. Obviously, the key here is that the president has made a decision. Reporter as for daca, the president apparently does not have his facts straight, as he often does with other issues. He keeps saying people are flowing into the u. S. To take advantage of the daca program, but newcomers, we should point out, would not be eligible for daca, because the president , as we mentioned earlier wednesdayed ended it. As for the president blaming democrats, thats also false. The president has rejected those plans time and again. Jim, thank you. Joining us now, the former defense secretary, former cia director, leon panetta. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us. In light of what we now know about the Mueller Investigation, at least so far, how important is this new information that roger stone had an email in which he said he had dinner with Julian Assange. This was being reported by the wall street journal. Well, theres no question that the Mueller Investigation has reached crunch time, in the fact that they are now looking at just exactly whether or not there was any kind of conspiracy between members of the Trump Campaign and the russians. Weve already determined that the rnussians attacked our election system, indictments have been issued on that fact, and now the issue that mueller has to turn to is what whether or not there was any activity here, that involved any kind of deliberate conspiracy. And having this information on the email, indicates that mr. Stone, who was somebody involved in the campaign, obviously was contacting someone to determine whether or not they could get information to be used in the campaign. Whether or not this is the truth, that remains to be determined, obviously, be mr. Mueller. But i think its an indication that we are now embarked on a very critical part of this investigation. Yeah, roger stone says he was simply joking in that email. Lets get to another sensitive issue. Alex van der zwaan, the 33yearold dutch awyer, worked for a major u. S. Law firm, he apparently knew about rick gates contacts with individuals close to russian intelligence. What might we learn from van der zwaans sentencing tomorrow . Well, again, the fact that he is pleading guilty indicates that there was something that was going on. What the full extent of the information he has with regards to gates and contacts with the rup russians, i think will have to be determined, either upon sentencing or as part of the Mueller Investigation. Whats your reaction, mr. Secretary, to President Trumps decision to invite Vladimir Putin to come to the white house and the fact that we only learned about this invitation from the russians . Well, i i have a lot of concern when the president issues that kind of invitation to an adversary. This is an adversary. Putin has been very aggressive against the United States, and for that matter, the world. Hes gone into the crimea. Hes gone into the ukraine. Hes taken military force into syria. He has attacked our election process. Hes now, you know, using nerve agents to go after russian spies. I think putin reads weakness. You know, on the part of the United States and others, for that matter. And to now have the president of the United States give him a call after the election to congratulate him and then not even mention any of these other issues, i think putin just sees that as more of a sign of weakness. You served a it has cia director. Do you believe russian agents would have carried out that nerve agent attack in the uk without Vladimir Putins approval . Not at all. Wolf, i dont know if you know this, but when i was cia director, i was one of those that put together the negotiation to basically exchange ten of the russian spies for their for some of our spies. I think four of our spies, one of whom was the individual who the russians went after. In order to get that exchange approved, putin had to agree to that. And i dont think theres any question that this former kgb agent would not allow the rn russians to engage in a nerve attack in another country without knowing about it and without approving it. Let me get to another sensitive issue before i let you go, mr. Secretary. President trump is ending aide to syrian rebels. Theres 200 million appropriated. Says hes not going to spend it, at least, they havent spent it yet, and he also says the u. S. Will be pulling out its 2,000 troops from syria very soon. Who will fill that vacuum . I think thats a very dangerous step for the president to take. Because what hes doing is issuing an open invitation to russia and iran to have a permanent foothold in the middle east in syria. And if they do establish that foothold, then assad wins this larger war. Then the United States is going to be at a serious disadvantage, because isis will find a place at which they can continue to develop the plans that they have always been involved with, to attack our country. I think it would be a serious mistake for President Trump to walk away from the courage, to walk away from the battle of isis, but most importantly, to walk away from leadership on the issue of what happens to syria. You think hell listen to his generals, who apparently are very concerned about a complete u. S. Pullout from syria. Theyre concerned that the iranians, the russians, hezbollah would effectively have control of a great deal of land. Well, you know, the president criticized the moment when we withdrew troops from iraq, which created an opening for isis. If this president now basically removes our troops from syria, that will leave a vacuum in which isis in iran and russia will expand their influence in the middle east. He will pay a price for this, from a history point of view. Very concerning, indeed. Leon panetta, thanks so much for joining us. Nice to be with you. Just ahead, well have much more on the first sentencing expected in Robert Muellers investigation. What secrets is the special counsel trying to keep under wraps . And the roger stone connection to the russia probe. Well talk about the breaking news on the longtime trump ally under scrutiny by muellers team. Tech at Safelite Autoglass we know that when youre spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. And you dont have time for a cracked windshield. Thats why we show you exactly when well be there. Saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace for her compassion and care. He spent decades fighting to give families a second chance. But to help others, they first had to protect themselves. I have afib. Even for a nurse, its complicated. And it puts me at higher risk of stroke. That would be devastating. I had to learn all i could to help protect myself. Once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto®. Xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Oncedaily xarelto®, a latestgeneration blood thinner. Significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. It has similar effectiveness to warfarin. Xarelto® works differently. Warfarin interferes with at least 6 bloodclotting factors. Xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor interacting with less of your bodys natural bloodclotting function. For afib patients wellmanaged on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® compares in reducing the risk of stroke. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase risk of stroke. While taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. If youve had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or musclerelated signs or symptoms. Do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures. And before starting xarelto®about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. Its important to learn all you can. To help protect yourself from a stroke. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. Theres more to know™. Looking for a hotel that fits. Whoooo. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. I had a very minor fender bender tonight in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. But what a powerful life lesson. And dont worry i have everything handled. I already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. Which is so smart on your guys part. Like fact that theyll just. Forgive you. Four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With accident forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. And its also a story mail aabout people and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you more and more people are finding themselves in a chevrolet for the first time. Trying something new can be exciting. Empowering. Downright exhilarating. See for yourself why chevrolet is the most awarded and Fastest Growing brand, the last four years overall. Switch into a new chevy now. Current qualified competitive owners and lessees can get this 2018 chevy equinox for around 199 a month. Chevrolet. Find new roads. Breaking tonight, a new report on the special counsels interest in roger stone, a longtime trump ally, whose name keeps coming up in connection with the russia investigation. The wall street journal is reporting that muellers team is looking into an august 2016 email in which stone claimed to have dinner with the wikileaks founder, Julian Assange. Lets bring in our legal and political experts and gloria, how would all of this fit into the overall russia probe that muellers engaged in . What a tangled web hes got to sort of undo here. I mean, what hes looking into is the contacts between people who were in Donald Trumps orbit or campaign and the russians. And so, what you have is an email that roger stone apparently sent to his onetime friend, sam nunberg, claiming that he had had dinner with Julian Assange. Roger stone is, of course, now saying that never occurred. Didnt happen, providing documents to the wall street journal to prove that it didnt happen. But we do know that the email was dated august 4th and the next day, he publicly mr. Stone publicly praised Julian Assange on twitter. So what the special counsel has to do is figure out what is real and what isnt real and were there real contacts with Julian Assange. And i am sure, by the way, that roger stone and sam nunberg are not the only two people they are looking at in terms of Julian Assange, because we know how important he may have been in this campaign in terms of dumping emails out, you know, John Podestas emails, et cetera. And i think thats a very important part of this investigation. John podesta was the chairman campaign for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Laura coates, youre our legal analyst. The first sentencing tomorrow, this 33yearold lawyer, worked for a big u. S. Law firm. Hes about to be sentenced, and what do we anticipate learning as a result of this . Its going to be quite the litmus test, on a number of fronts. Number one, how lenient or accommodating will be the judge be in terms of silencing or putting a muzzle on people about the investigation . Up until now, mueller has held things very, very closely to his vest and with good reason. Because the more he keeps everyone in washington, d. C. And in the inner circle of trump on his toes, the more likely that everyone will be able to jump. So you want that sort of mystery going around. The judge is going to talk about that. Also, why is this person so important . There have been tales about van der zwaan and what he knows and what he doesnt know, but to really single it down what he knows and what gates knew. And about the timing of his contact with somebody with part of the russian spies or the russian Intelligence Officers in some fashion. Also, finally, it will tell us about how much weight mueller and his team is going to put behind sentence recommendations. Probably about six months, hes facing in prison if he were to go to prison. But how lenient he will be in whats called the allocution, meaning, what am i going to offer up to the judge as a potential punishment . Very telling with people like michael flynn, rick gates, and the like. And manafort, if he decides to cooperate and plead guilty, as well. Kaitlan, what are you hearing from the white house about, were just learning today that the president has apparently invited putin to not only have a meeting, he said so a few weeks ago on march 20th, but actually to come to the white house, to the aeoval office. Well, its not that shocking, right . Because right after that call, President Trump said they had a great call, they discussed meeting in the nottoodistant future, but what it shows is just how comfortable and cozy that call between trump and putin truly was. As youll recall, right afterwards, President Trump was widely crazed for not bringing up meddling in the election and not bringing up the poisoning of that former british spy with Vladimir Putin during that call, but he did congratulate him on his election victory, even after his National Security team told him not to congratulate him, because it was what some people like senator john mccain called a sham victory. So it goes to show just how comfortable the president is, speaking with him. He congratulated him, he deid te same with al cici today, another one where neither were going to lose those elections. And it just goes to show how comfortable the relationship between the two of them really is. Hes been very active today on twitter, throughout the weekend. He really went after the fbi and the Justice Department today. So sad, the president writes on twitter, that the department of justice, justice in quotes, and the fbi are slow walking and not giving the unredacted documents requested by congress. An embarrassment to our country. Whats the impact like this, when the president of the United States slams the department of justice and the fbi . Right, wolf, you emphasized those quotation marks around the word justice and doj. The president tweets this as if hes not the president of the United States and this is not his Justice Department headed by the attorney general that he appointed. I suppose the white house thinks this is good messaging to signal to his supporters that he still sees himself as antiestablishment, an outsider. But at the end of the day, this has the effect of undermining americans faith in our institutions of government. And it puts out this very weird and frankly, weak message. This idea that, oh, woe is me. Im just the president of the United States. Im just the leader of the free world. I have no power against this bureaucracy, which, by the way, reports to me. And he raises questions, gloria, whether this is the department of justice. He puts the word justice in quotes. You know how demoralizing that is for people in Law Enforcement, when the president of the United States does that . And you know, i think hes walking a fine line here. Because hes trying to distinguish between the socalled leaders, whom you point out are his leaders. And the rank and file. And, you know, thats very thats a tough line to walk. And people in this country respect the fbi and they respect the job that Law Enforcement does, so hes on the street saying, weve got to support our police. On the other hand, hes dissing the fbi. I mean, thats kind of a mixed message, as far as im concerned. I dont know how far he gets with that, quite frankly. You know, im apro proud aluf the Justice Department. And i was a kecareer official. And its extremely demoralizing to know the people who are there that they have withstood many administration, they have served proudly, withstood political pressure, and to find that the president , the head of the executive branch, which they fall under is shaming them for a variety of reasons, based on news that he is planting in a variety of ways is demoralizing, selfdefeating, and it undermines all of the progress made in the previous two administrations trying to get a Good Community partnership with the Justice Department. The president named the attorney general, the Deputy Attorney general, the fbi director. These are all people that he nominated for those positions. Stick around, just ahead, even as President Trump talks of hosting Vladimir Putin at the white house, with investigators now believe putins government likely approved the attempted assassination of a former spy in the uk. Well go live to moscow. Hey, sir losealot thou hast the patchy beard of a prepubescent squire thy armor was forged by a feeblefingered peasant woman. Your mom as long as hecklers love to heckle, you can count on geico saving folks money. Boring fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Internet providers promise Business Owners a lot. Lets see who delivers more. Comcast business offers fast gigspeeds across our network. At t doesnt. We offer more complete reliability with up to 8 hours of 4g Wireless Network backup. At t, no way. We offer 35 voice features and solutions that grow with your business. At t, not so much. We give you 75 mbps for 59. 95. Thats more speed than at ts comparable bundle, for less. Call today. So were following the breaking news the special Counsel Robert Mueller reportedly looking into an alleged meeting between a group that hacked emails by the russians. Stand by for more on that. Right now lets talk about the president s latest twitter rant and the people who are apparently influencing him. As you know, gloria, the president spent the weekend down in maralago and palm beach, his resort down there. Have had several prominent fox personnel there. And the suggestion that theyre clearly even a impact on him. Right, its like he took the green room and invited everyone down from the fox green room and said, come on down to maralago. These are people hes had in his living room for years and now hes literally invited them. And i think theres a direct correlation not only between what he watches on fox tv, but what these people were saying to him over the weekend. I dont think its any surprise that he then started tweeting about daca, immigration, justice, which we were just talking about, the fbi, nafta, sort of the discussion de jure that occurs. And i think that were reminding him that his base is unhappy and they represent his base. I think they believe. And that telling him he better shape up on this stuff. And i think the president who, by the way, can sit down with anyone in the world and invited them and of course, don king, to come to maralago this week. And i think its a Comfort Level for him. Kaitlan, you were down there this weekend, down in maralago, right . Thats right. I was. Were you invited to dinner . For some reason, i think my invitation got lost in the mail. But its interesting to see who is there. Who he is surrounded by. Sean hannity, judge jeanine pirro, and whos not there, john kelly, dan scavino, these typical aides who usually travel with the president with respect the werent there. The one who was there was stephen miller, the hardest on immigration at this moment. It is interesting to see who he surrounds himself with. And you can almost guess what he was going to tweet. I pointed out on friday when we got down there, who was with him and who wasnt traveling with him, and its interesting to see what tweets come out of that. He was tweeting about sinclair broadbroadcasting, ther of about 170 local tv stations. And what was pretty shocking, david, the Sinclair Group forced all of these local anchors to read exactly the same copy about fake news. Let me play a little clip. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. [ everyone talking at once ] unfortunately, some members of the media use their platform to push their own social bias and agenda to control exactly what people think. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy. And weve got a map showing these sinclair stations are all over the country. Clearly, they have an influence. Its pretty shocking to hear that. You force these anchors, some of them young, some of them, they need to make a living. They fear if they dont say what the owners they want, they could be out on the street. I dont want to secondguess any individual journalists decision, but i will say this. I think sinclair shot itself in the foot by doing this and trying to ratchet up the bias wars. This idea, no, were not biased, youre more biased. Youre more biased than these people. The idea is that Washington Post, cnn, everyone works hard to get it right and get the reporting out there. And when the reporting is wrong, we fix it. But theres strong reporting, accurate reporting, and then theres inaccurate and not strong reporting. Theres strong opinion analysis and not strong opinion analysis. Thats what matters. Not this whole idea of were holier than thou between News Organizations. Laura, its pretty shocking. The president says, so funny to watch network news anchors, criticized Sinclair Broadcasting for being biassed. Sinclair is far superior to cnn and even more fake nbc, which is a total joke. And the copies these local anchors had to read certainly echoes what the president has been saying. It does. And i dont find propaganda as funny as the president of the United States seems to do in that tweet. Because i think if you really believe in the First Amendment and free press and the role of the watchdog and gatekeeper and also objective informant, you have to allow them to have and exercise their own rights, their own thought process and you cant laugh at the idea that if i give them a script and still call it journalism, people will think we are patriots and believe in the First Amendment. The propaganda has to be directed by anyone who believes in the constitution of america, and i think that should be the president of the United States, the person who is the president made it worse for sinclair by tweeting that he liked sinclairs coverage. Most journalists would rather be working for a News Organization that is challenging the administration, not but sinclair had 15 exclusive trump interviews in 2016. Not one of Hillary Clinton. They had tim kaine for a couple of them. Theyve almost always given money to republican nominees. Its no surprise they are very conservative leaning. Still, i think this was a rejection of what the principles are for journalism. And two more things to add to that you have to keep in mind, a chief political analyst for sinclair is boris epshteyn, who worked with the Trump Campaign and in the Trump White House for a little bit of time. And as youll raul laecall last politico was telling people that Jared Kushner believed they had struck a deal with sinclair for better coverage. If you want to do a paid political advertisement and youre sinclair, go do it and say, we provide fair and balanced, or whatever they want to say. But making it a part of your broadcast is something very different. And by the way, the fcc is under investigation through its commissioner right now for giving favorable relaxation of rules on behalf of people like Sinclair Broadcasting to allow them to have even more power and leverage. Theyve got to watch that. Clearly, this story is not going away. Guys, stick around. Just ahead, investigators now are all but convinced that the putin government approved the poisoning of a former russian spy. But the kremlin is pointing a finger of blame at britain. Well have a live report from moscow. If yor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. It can power your apps with Public Services without starting from scratch. It brings your business up to speed, doing more with systems you have in place. It can bring all your apps to life and run them within your data center. It is. The ibm cloud private. The cloud thats built for all your apps. Ai ready. Secure to the core. The ibm cloud is the cloud for smarter business. Your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. In russia tonight, officials are pushing back against mounting suspicion that Vladimir Putins government was behind the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter in the uk. Cnn has confirmed that authorities investigating the attack in britain believe the kremlin is likely kremlin likely gave its approval. Our Senior International correspondent, matthew chance, is joining us live from moscow. Matthew, what are you hearing from rupssian officials . Well, what were hearing from russian officials, wolf, is what weve heard from them time and again, no matter what kind of serious allegation is leveled against them about their alleged violations of International Norms and International Law, and thats categorical denial. Theyve also been flooding the entire Information Space with conspiracy theories and alternative narratives. More than a dozen alternative explanations of what could have been behind the poisoning of sergey and Yulia Skripal on the streets of salisbury if it werent russia. And thats exactly the strategy theyve used in the past and theyre using it again to confront these allegations that it was russia that was behind that poisoning. Take a listen. Reporter there could be a whole number of reasons. And none of them can be ruled out. Reporter tonight, a defiant kremlin lashing out and placing new blame, insisting again that it had nothing to do with a brazen assassination attempt of former russian spy, Sergei Skripal and his daughter, yulia, last month in salisbury, england. No other country has a combination of the capability, the intent, and the motive to carry out such an act. Reporter sources say the sophisticated nature of the attack that included heavy doses of a nerve agent placed on Sergei Skripals front doorknob points directly to orders from the kremlin. Zp translator there are other explanations in addition to those mentioned by our western colleagues. Reporter western foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov shot back monday saying the poisoning may well have been planned by britain to distract from brexit. Translator it could have been beneficial for the british government, who ended up in a very difficult situation. Because it had failed to deliver the terms it had promised to the british electorate for brexit. Reporter this as the Russian Embassy the london launched ede barrage of 14 tweets just under 30 minutes questioning whether other nations were part of the murder plot. How is france relative to the incident with two russian nationals in the uk, the embassy posed. Has it been ascertained that the substance used in salisbury originated from russia . He responded saying, russia has responded to the salisbury incident in the same way they have to every other case, where they have flouted International Law with denial, interaction, and disinformation. Lavrov mirrored that language today, as he told the reporters that the relationship between russia and the west is worse than it was during the cold war. Translator they resort to defamation, disinformation, and outright lies. We respond to that wholeheartedly, insisting that any statements be substantiated with facts. Reporter thougher sergei a yulia scrkripals condition improve, they remain hospitalized. The british authorities, wolf, arent buying those pleas of innocence from moscow. In fact, the uk says its preparing a whole raft of measures. First of all, to defend britain and its people from this kind of attack in the future. But also measures that will raise the cost and punish moscow for allowing this attack or ordering this attack to take place on british soil. Wolf . Matthew chance in moscow, thank you. Just ahead, he could be one of the first people to force President Trump to finally go public with his secret tax returns. Ill speak live with the Maryland Attorney general about a major lawsuit against the president accusing him of violating the u. S. Constitution. S we know that when youre spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. And you dont have time for a cracked windshield. Thats why we show you exactly when well be there. Saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace its ok that everyone ignores its fine. Drive. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. And i dont share it with mom right, mom . Righttt. Safe driving bonus checks. Only from allstate. Switching to allstate is worth it. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months,. With reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. Otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Tell your doctor if these occur. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Tonight americans may be closer to getting a glimpse of President Trumps fiercely guarded tax returns as legal action by the state of maryland and the District Of Columbia moves forward. The lawsuit argues there trump is improperly accepting gifts from state or foreign governments through his business. A judge ruled last week the case can proceed. That could potentially open the door for local prosecutors to force mr. Trump to turn over some of his tax returns. Joining us now the Maryland Attorney general. Tell us why you think this is unconstitutional whats going on. The emoluments clause is the nations original anticorruption law. Its more than gifts, its payments. He cant accept them from foreign governments and can want accept them from the United States other than his salary. President trump violates both of those provisions. Youre saying here in d. C. The Trump International hotel . Yes. Its referred to as the washington emoluments. The president has it by a lease that says no federal official can receive any benefit. Trump has refused to give it up or acknowledge that since his election. Youre arguing the foreign governments doing events there, staying there, bringing money to that hotel and the president personally will benefit . Absolutely. I assume you want to see the president s tax returns. That would be nice. Were enhit tietentitled to discovery. It will be pretty broad. How important are those tax returns and when do you think that might happen . Its hard to protect it when it might but sometimes within the next few months. We wachbnt to know who he is getting money from. Can you release that publicly . The normal rule is its public. I would not be surprised to hear that donald trump wants it to be confidential. I would expect hell resist that. Who decides all this . The judge will decide. Hes federal judge . Hes a federal judge. What is your sense . Youre an experienced attorney. Where is this heading . I think the judge sent a loud, clear message to President Trump the other day. The message youre not above the law. You have to abide by the law. You have to abide by the constitution. You think the president could divest at this point and end this whole thing . He could. He could divest all of his then the lawsuit goes away. If he divests, we how old. Which is what other president has done. Every single one. Now we have breaking news on a member of the u. S. Congress announcing she wont seek reelection after admitting she failed to protect women on her staff from sexual abuse. He faced very harsh criticism. Congresswoman has been under an incredible amount of pressure to resign over her handling of the situation in her office. Tonight hes bowing out. Writing on facebook today i have determined that it is in the best interest of my constituents and my family toends end my ti congress at the end of this year and not seek reelection. She had been under fire for mishandling allegations of Sexual Harassment and abuse within her office. Allowing her chief of staff to remain on the job for three months after learning of his alleged pattern of harassment and abuse against a female staffer. The congresswoman admit ng the terrible situation in my office i could have and should have done better. To the survivor i want to express my strongest apology for letting you down. Its time for her to step aside. He continued to lead the staff for three months after the fact. Today calling for the House Ethics Committee to investigate her handling of the situation. Questioning how did i not know . I do know that wasnt an isolated incident on capitol hill and we must do better to ensure a Safety Environment for our employees. Sources say she spent the weekend working the phones. Nancy pelosi breaking her silence saying her actions did not protect the victim. Tonight he is apologizing to his alleged victim, to the congresswoman and any other people who were hurt by his actions. I think her decision not to seek reelection sends a very strong message to a lot of her colleagues out there as well. They will be very cautious in dealing with these sensitive issues. Thank you so much for that report. Thats it for me. Thanks for watching. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Youre fired. The two words President Trump loves most are the ones getting him in trouble. Twitter tirade stroking fear on over immigration. Facts are wrong. Did he do it to send a racial dog whistle . Tariffs that are hitting state after state that voted trump in 2016. Lets go outfront. Good evening. Youre not fired. The president talks the tough talk on firing but when it comes down to it he isnt saying the two words to some