President trump is publicly reveling in the firing of fbi agent peter strzok who sent antitrump Text Messages during the election campaign. The president using the firing to once again attack the russia investigation as a witch hunt and a hoax. Deadly intentions. Stealing an airliner and taunts controllers flying wildly. How did he pull it off . Did he intend from the start to take his own life . Wolf blitzer is off today. Im jim sciutto and youre in the situation room. Breaking news. Cnn learned that the kremlin was pleased with the helsinki summit of President Trump and russias vladimir putin. While President Trump faced sharp bipartisan criticism at home for that meeting, u. S. And western intelligence assessments find that russian officials find it exceeded their expectations. Ill speak with a congressman and our correspondents and specialists standing by now with full coverage. We begin with our breaking news. Cnn exclusive. The helsinki summit may have been panned everywhere else but intelligence sources revealed that russian officials were, quote, pleased with the meeting of President Trump and vladimir putin. These sources tell myself and Jenna Mclaughlin u. S. And western intelligence assessments found that the kremlin believes it delivered a better than expected outcome and that the russians were especially satisfied with the News Conference in which President Trump standing right beside putin voiced doubts about the u. S. Intelligence communitys conclusion that russia interfered in the 2016 election. But a source tells us that the russians were perplexed by the administrations move last week to impose new sanctions on russia for the nerve agent poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in britain. Lets go live now to cnn White House Correspondent kaitlan collins. Whats the reaction from the white house there . Reporter so far, jim, no one commented on the new reporting yet but theyre reporting on the stunning allegations made by a former white house staffer, one of the highest paid white house staffers in the time here and thats Omarosa Manigault newman. The white house and the president issuing several statements hitting back on the allegations and the recordings of conversations with white house staffers and the president himself causing several people inside this white house to wonder why she was hired in the first place. President trump addressing soldiers at fort drumm. Im here to sign the new defense bill into law. Reporter as former white house staffer Omarosa Manigault newman escalates the war with the administration. Omarosa, whens goiats goin . General kelly came to me and said you guys wanted me to leave. No. Nobody told me about it retch secretly taping the firing by john kelly in the white house situation room. One of the most secure places in washington with no devices allowed. I think its important to understand that if we make this a friendly departure we can all be, you know you can look at your time here in the white house as a year of service to the nation and then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation. Reporter trump tweeting today despite intense pressure, he kept her around because she only said great things about me. Adding, wacky omarosa was a vicious colleague. Despite promising this on the campaign trail. Well get the best people in the world. Reporter asked over the weekend, trump said this. Lowlife. She is a lowlife. Reporter she had no defined role in the west wing and raked in nearly 200,000 taxpayer funded dollars and carried the title assistant to the president and also claiming the trump 2020 campaign offered her a 15,000 a month position. If she agreed to keep silent. Something she said she refused to do. Trump admitting for the first time she signed an nda writing on twitter, already has a fully signed nondisclosure agreement. When cnn reported that senior white house staff signed ndas this year, the white house denied it. I cant say that the report that required or asked to sign nondisclosure agreements is not true. Reporter a white house official telling cnn they dont consider her recordings and worried she wasnt the only staffer recording conversations. All this as threatening more trouble for the white house. Do you have more recordings . Oh, absolutely. Are you planning on releasing them . I dont know. Im going to watch to say. Theyre threatening legal action. Trying to figure out how to stop me. Im expecting they retaliate so im going to stand back and wait. Reporter now, jim, the president was more than happy to mention omarosa on several occasions today and theres one critic of his he made no mention of. Thats senator john mccain. Whether the president was today signing a massive defense spending bill named after senator john mccain with brain cancer and who made it a top priority as the president went down his list thanking people for their help in getting that through, he did not mention john mccain once. Jim . Of course, john mccain, a decorated veteran. Kaitlan, thank you very much. The president gloating over the firing of the fbi agent that exchanged a series of antitrump Text Messages with a colleague in the runup to the 2016 election. The president responded on twitt twitter writing, quote, peter strzok was fired from the fbi. Finally. The list of the bad players in the fbi and doj gets longer and longer. Based on the fact that strzok was in charge of the witch hunt, will it be dropped . Its a total hoax. No collusion. No obstruction. I just fight back a federal judge who was appointed by President Trump today upheld Robert MuellersConstitutional Authority and cited opinions of three other federal judges to back up her decision. Le lets bring in cnn crime and justice correspondent shimon. They dont comment on Personnel Matters so we have not received any comment of them. According to strzoks attorneys and as you can imagine they believe that this was politically motivated. Continuous pressure by the president , the tweets. Certainly maybe theres other pressure. They felt that this is the only reason why peter strzok was fired. You know, of course, you mentioned these texts. Just to kind of remind viewers of the texts were, which created this entire controversy, it was texts between peter strzok and a woman, another fbi employee, lisa paige, that kind of set off the entire events. Certainly there was some interesting texts when he said to her she asked him a question in one text saying, trumps not ever going to become president , right . Right . And then he responds, no. He wont. Well stop it. He had to answer for those texts testifying before members of congress saying he was talking about voters. But whens interesting is that, you know, we have to keep in mind that the Inspector General did an entire investigation into this and people close to peter strzok cite this saying theres no bias here by peter strzok. In the investigation. In the investigation. His bias is expressed in the tweets. Thats right. They say that the internal investigator who is investigated peter strzok didnt recommend that he be fired and said a 60day suspension with a demotion but the Deputy Director went further than that and just on friday fired him tie Deputy Director is a career fbi official. A career fbi official. Mccabe who was fired as the Deputy Director. Of course, he also people close to him say he was fired because of political pressure. Think about it. There have been now three people, high profile people in the fbi who have been fired in some way result of this investigation or had a part in this russia investigation. James comey, Andrew Mccabe and said he was fired because of the russia investigation. Right . Not for because he wanted him to end the investigation. Think about it, all the controversy around the investigation, some of the fallout from it, its really has been something that the fbi has had to deal with. No doubt that they view it as something to put away with the firing of peter strzok and perhaps maybe move on from this chapter. This isnt over for peter strzok. I think his lawyers plan to appeal this and fight this in court. Understood. So president s lawyer Rudy Giuliani going to that part of the investigation and seemed to contradict himself on whether the president asked james comey to drop the Flynn Investigation. Hes said in the past that trump asking comey to drop it, it is okay. Have a listen to how he explained it then. Hows he a good witness for the president saying that the president was asking him, directing him in his words to let the Michael Flynn investigation go . He didnt direct him to do that. What he said is can you give so there giuliani said all he said is can he give him a break . Hes telling cnn that trump never said that to comey in the first place at all. There was no conversation about Michael Flynn. We maintain the president didnt say that. So on the one hand he says, listen, all he was saying is can you cut the guy some slack . Now he never said anything to him at all about Michael Flynn. Whats happening here and how to reconcile it. 180. Only person to answer this is the president and understand why mueller would want to talk to him and keep in mind thats one of the key issues within the obstruction investigation. Did the president try and influence the Flynn Investigation essentially firing the former fbi director because of the Flynn Investigation . This whole idea he told the fbi director, can you see your way out of it and let it go . Certainly the only person that can really answer that is the president. Lawyers spin and say whatever they want. Ultimately, you know, as we said, theres a concern from the giuliani team, from the lawyers on the president s side that theres perjury trap and saying this is why hes the point is, perjury trap. Way to avoid the trap is to tell the truth. Thats what we keep saying. Will the president ever sit down with the mueller team . Thanks very much. Joining me is democratic congressman David Cicilline of rhode island. Congressman, thanks very much for taking the time. My pleasure. First, well begin on the strzok firing. Trump arguing that because strzok played a role in the clinton email investigation and he did that the whole investigation should be redone. Now, we should note thats not what the Inspector Generals report concluded. The Inspector General of the fbi. And President Trump did welcome that report at the time. But how concerned are you about the pressure that the president is applying in public on the fbi and this investigation . Well, i think everyone should be concerned that this president continues to try to influece an ongoing criminal Counter Intelligence investigation. Hes been attempting to undermine the individuals leading the investigation, the conclusions reached but the peter strzok is most recent example. Fbi agents can have personal opinions but set them aside and make judgments based on the law and the evidence. That was not only the testimony of peter strzok but the conclusion of the Inspector General who did a very lengthy investigation. Lots of interviews. Thorough examination of documents. He concluded there was no evidence that Peter Strzoks personal opinions affected the judgment in this investigation. And as a consequence, when it was referred to for disciplinary action, they said that he ought to be suspended for 60 days and demoted. That was rejected very unusual to reject the conclusions of the office of professional responsibility and he was fired. We have to be concerned that the president s effort is being successful to interfere with an ongoing investigation. But of course, the president tries to take the firing of peter strzok and somehow say because he was fired for this, you shouldnt be able to continue the investigation about russian attack on the elections. Thats laughable. There are two separate things. Peter strzok i think is being treated unfairly. He acknowledged that he shouldnt sent tweets and didnt affect the judgment and the decision. They should have followed the regular recommendation. Suspension and demotion. Why, in fact, was he fired . We need oversight hearings to make a determination of whether theres political influence in that decision. If i can, the president s lawyer now, Rudy Giuliani revises you might say the explanation for that conversation that fired fbi director james comey recounted and took contemporaneous notes of. The president asking him to go easy in effect on Michael Flynn. You heard first giuliani making the case that, listen, thats okay for the president to do that. He was asking him to go light on an adviser and now Rudy Giuliani said that the conversation never happened. Why does the president s story and the president s lawyers story keep changing on us . Well, it shouldnt. Obviously the facts are the facts. I think hes shown a propensity to sort of change his assertion of facts depending on what he thinks will serve the president. I think its very clear that the special counsel is proceeding both with this criminal investigation and with the obstruction of justice investigation. And i think Rudy Giuliani has decided it would be better for the president if the conversation never happened. That might be true and would be better and the conversation did happen. The president said i fired james comey because of this russia thing. He yucked it up with russians in the oval office after doing it, celebrating what he had done. The facts are pretty clear and recognizing this is a real problem for the president of the United States. When you asked the attorney general of the United States or the fbi director in this case to go easy and see a way to not proceeding in a criminal investigation, thats obstruction of justice. And so, i think hes hoping that he can explain that a way denying it happened and said it happened. Theres tapes of it. Video from television. Yeah. One consistency is inconsistency of giulianis characterization. Right. If i can get your reaction of the controversy of omarosas new book and the conversations that she taped. In his tweets today the president has admitted that he ignored the warnings of the chief of staff about omarosa and the reason he gave he said in that tweet is that she said great things about him. What does omarosas behavior tell you about the broader culture under President Trump where you have virtually anybody that leaves the white house is attacked by this president , often in public . Well, it seems that the measure for this president is not the quality of the people who work for them, not their experience or intellectual ability. It is the loyalty to him and whether they say nice things about him. The real question is, how did omarosa get a job in the white house to begin with . I mean, you look at the people that reason in that white house from steve bannon, Michael Flynn, tom price, scott pruitt, he said, i pick the best people. He doesnt and he seems to pick people based on the kind of respect or admiration for him. Thats not a good measure necessarily for a selecting best people to serve in important portions positions in this administration and i think the American People are sick an tired of it. They want a government to work for them and not the self dealing members of the administration but for the American People. Congressman, thank you for taking the time. Thank you. Coming up next, breaking news. Prosecutors rest their case in the fraud trial of former Trump Campaign chairman paul manafort. Will he take the stand . His own defense before the case goes to a jury . And baggage handler steals a airliner and flies it wildly for more than an hour before crashing. 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Prosecutors have just rested their case in the fraud trial of former Trump Campaign chairman paul manafort. Cnns cara scanell is outside the courthouse in virginia. Cara, about a day later than we expected but the prosecution has rested. Thats right, jim. Ten days, 27 witnesses. The prosecution rested their case just before 5 00 today. This was after they had called rick gates, manaforts righthand man who testified over two and a half days. Its all goes to their allegation that is manafort had filed false tax returns, did not disclose Foreign Bank Accounts which they say he didnt pay taxes on 16 million. The jury also heard a story of how manafort had defrauded banks out of 20 million by not giving truthful information to them about the conditions and the parameters of the income relatting to the loans. The government ened the case today hearing with the jury hearing of a banker saying he would not have recommended the bank give the loan but went ahead because the chairman of the bank had authorized it and he the jury heard testimony earlier in the week he was trying to get a position in the administration and that is why he expedited the loans so, jim, the Court Session is still ongoing and not in there because its a sealed session dealing with some motions filed under seal by the defense. Of course, friday there was no testimony, no activity in the court nearly five hours, all sealed. The judge told us well eventually learn what thats about but not today. Jim . Being in that courtroom last week, defense counsel, some pretty aggressive questioning of the star witness rick gates, manaforts former deputy there. Defense is up next, of course. Do we have an idea of what kind of rebuttal they attempt to present . The judge told the defense to be ready tomorrow to state the case to bring on and if manafort doesnt testify hell ask him in court to say that on the record so its clear that manafort is making this decision on his own. But the defense has not said what they plan to do yet and they have to do that tomorrow but trying to make the case through various witnesses to get the bankers to say that they did know some of the documents were not perfect, that also the bank made errors on the applications. So the Defense Strategy to try to get some punches in where they can against some of the witnesses and well find out tomorrow if manafort will take the stand or if the defense will call any witnesses or just rest their case, as well, jim. Quite a moment. Thanks very much. Coming up, former apprentice star Omarosa Manigault newman reveals she recorded her white house firing and a phone call with the president. Does she have more recordings . President trump gloating over the firing of fbi agent peter strzok who sent antitrump texts in the election campaign. The president once again attacking the entire russia investigation as a witch hunt. Youre in the situation room. E exactly when well be there. Saving you time for what you love most. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace anncr as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. Learning from him is great. When i can keep up anncr thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. At ally, we offer lowcost trades and highyield savings. But if thats not enough, we offer innovative investing tools to prepare you for the future. Looks like you hooked it. 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Senior position. But the president now saying she was terrible at her job. And admitting or granting or explaining that he kept her on because she said nice things about him. How do you explain that . Okay. Well, on one level its true. We know donald trump likes to keep people around who say nice things about him. So some level of transparency, thats accurate. Said that about putin, as well. Right. Nothing else explained, jim donald trump trying to turn it into shes been fired multiple times. She was hired by you repeatedly right . Hired in the first place to be fired. He does like people who call him mr. Trump, defer to him. We know she knew how to play that game. Remember, there were objections to her entering the white house right from the start. He ignored them because he had a relationship with her whether it was because she praised him, he thought she was tough, hes tweeted about that before. But just a hard line to sell that, well, she is a loser and dumb. Then why was she why is this the fourth time according to Donald Trumps own calculations he fired her. Hired her four times. Right. You did the math there for us. Thank you. Did you see that . I was thinking on my feet. Longtime in the u. S. Intelligence community, how serious of a breach is it for omarosa to have taken a recording device into the real si situation room in the white house . Yeah. Jim, theres no doubt that there are National Security implications to taking a recording device into the si situation room. I served in the white house and theres a very good reason. Two very good reasons actually that when you get ready to go into one of the secure spaces you take the devices out, put them in a box outside the room and close the box up. First reason is for things like talking about here today. Individuals might record conversations or sensitive informations collected on the devices. I think the more important reason is these devices in the pockets and other devices are subject to some of the most aggressive spying and espionage efforts on the part of adversaries we have seen across the board and so when you take them in, they seek to access the devices and to listen in on information thats in the room. They also, you know, if youre inside and emailing or you just have the devices in that space, you know, youre a target. So people have said, well, its not a big deal. It is because when you dont really understand until you understand the full capability of the adversaries. You served in the nsa. The president has a phone. To our knowledge. We dont know the level of security on itment he gives the phone number to leaders around the world. Theres been a lot of attention focused on the National Security breach here and by the white house. What risk is the president putting both himself and the country in by using an unsecured Electronic Device . I think he does expose us to sort of a potentially enormous vulnerabilities. The president casting aside the concerns. I think theres a way that the points of chris and shawn made are related to one another. When you think about how to secure the spaces from Insider Threats it is hard. You dont pat down everybody before they walk into the sich ration ro situation room. You wont pat down the president. And then they seed to be worthy of the trust. Clearly she was not worthy of the trust and you have to ask yourself whether or not the president himself is acting in a way thats worthy of this. Just quickly to that point. It is a culture thing in this white house. Right . Donald trump threatens james comey and said hes taping conversations in the white house. We know Michael Cohen recorded a number of conversations and one we know of with donald trump. Now this. Theres a reason that since nixon we havent had a lot of recorded conversation in the white house. Its culture set from the top. We know that today russia is seeking multiple ways to undermine the u. S. , ill fill trait election, systems, politics, et cetera. Thats without even the general surveillance and espionage they do. Why isnt the president being held to account for not only the managing the white house and i mean these are people working for him but his own habits in terms of Electronic Devices . It is mind boggling. I dont have an answer to that other it may not just be people in the inner circle with recordings. One has to think of more nefarious groups seeking to undermine the u. S. Government or at least gather some intelligence to serve as compromise. Whether it be the russians or chinese or allies for that matter. I mean, you have these stories percolating out there not just the u. S. Media is talking about. This is something thats obviously being reported around the world. Having said that, i mean, out of all of the shocks that we have seen throughout this presidency, having omarosa reveal she tape recorded conversations is probably one of the least shocking pieces of information. I mean, anybody that had followed the apprentice and followed her relationship with the president and the media would know that this day was probably going to come sooner rather than later. Thanks. Its alarming to think with the focus of russia on the u. S. Right now. Thanks very much. Coming up, more on what was really a stunning heist. Why is d a 29yearold baggage attendant steal a commercial airliner and how did he manage to pull it off . Plus, did russia have anything to do with a deadly white sy prem cyst rally . New details just ahead. Just one free hearing test at his local miracle ear helped andrew hear more of the joy in her voice. Just one hearing test is all it took for him to hear more of her laugh. And less of the background noise around him. 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Reporter well, the focus today and into this evening at least is on aviation security. Here in seattle, there is increased security in the public areas and in those secured employee areas and then nationally there is an elevated concern. How do you stop employees with security clearances from stealing a plane . Runway 16 center. Holding on runway onesix center. Reporter new audio from the moments they realized theres big problem rolling down the taxiway. Tries and fails to make contact with the rogue Horizon Airline rogue. Im not talking to him. Flying out of the cargo area. Scrambled now. Reporter thats the moment officials call for military fighter jets to intercept Richard Russell who stole the plane without a pilots license. Pilot guy, can this thing do a back flip . Im going to play video games. Reporter after an hour, russell makes clear hes not landing. No. Its lets try to lane that airplane safely and not try to hurt anybody on the ground. All right. Now, damn it. I dont know, man. I dont know i dont want to. I was kind of hoping that would be it. Young . Just a broken guy. Got a few screws loose i guess. I never really knew it until now. Reporter the plane crashed on a small island exploding in dense woods killing russell. The rogue takeoff raises the stakes for concerns about socalled insider attacks that criminals working as employees planning to do much more harm next time. The airline ceo says russell managed planes from the Maintenance Area by himself. He was in uniform, had the proper credentials and access. Seattle airport Officials Say all security protocols followed on ground and security tighter than even required by law. I think this is really truly one in a million experience. That doesnt mean we cant learn from it and ensure it doesnt happen again. Reporter the wider concern is for hundreds of thousands of employees who dont undergo constant close checks like those required for pilots. 2017 House Homeland Security report warned potential terrorists could take advantage of ground vulnerabilities. A bill passed the house tightening security and stalled in the senate. How do you stop any of this from happening . The only way to stop it is ignition lock devices. On the inition itself. If they dont have the authority, the plane should not turn on. Reporter the washington representative there, representative tarleton said, its natural to secure the planes and many experts say thats not feasible, jim, because you have to focus on keeping the area secure. Jim . Kyung lah, thank you. Just ahead, a republican lawmaker claims that russia helped foment a deadly rally in virginia. Later, more on the president s escalating feud with a fired white house aide. Why did President Trump hire her in the first place . When did you see the sign . 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Com new tonight, one year after the deadly white supremacist rally in charlottesville, virginia, a republican lawmaker says that the russian government had a hand in stoking that violence. Our brian todd has been digging into the story. Brian, exactly how is he saying the russians helped move things along here. Well, jim, congressman tim garret says he got the information from the fbi. The bureau is not commenting but he says he was told the russians were stirring up racial tengs on the internet and social media. And he says hes frustrated americas political leaders dont understand the scope of what the russians are doing to sew discord and chaos inside america. Street brawls and murder in charlottesville. A year later protesters faceoff again in d. C. The kind of chaos and dwigds in america that u. S. Intelligence Officials Say the kremlin wants to see more of. Tonight a u. S. Congressman says russian interference played a director role in stirring up tensions last year. Tom garret of the Homeland Security says he was told that by the fbi. I slat in a closed Briefing Session about two months ago about charlottesville with the fbi director and others who asked if election meddling had to do with fomenting the flames in charlottesville, and i was told yes, it did. Did the russians stir up tensions before White Supremacists gathered in charlottesville last year, and how did they do it . The fbi didnt respond. Garret told cnn, quote, it was before charlottesville by a bus, the internet and social media. Fbi director Christopher Ray recently referenced charlottesville in saying foreign entities have stirred up tensions in the United States. To the extent we have domestic terrorism in this country that is spun up by foreign ideologies foreign influence is being used in many ways to capitalize on that and spring up domestic extremist movements to create terror attacks here inside. Congress briefed by the fbi say theres no evidence there was russian influence on the ground in charlottesville. And analysts say White Supremacists and their opponents would have gathered in charlottesville whether the rugs got involved or not. So how could have the russians stirred the pot before those events in. Using those facebook groups we now know russia was using to appear they were left or right activists, using profiles they had setup to look like americans who are just like you and me on one side or the other, these would have been promoting these events, promoting stories connected to the events. Cnn has previously reported russian entities used activists setup under fake groups like blacktists and race divided and russian trolls even helped pay for this scene for an american posed as Hillary Clinton behind bars at a rally in florida. Part of what analysts called russias information war campaign against the u. S. Were not talking about creating an Opposition Group thats yours but creating opposition on both sides so that the enemy is so busy fighting itself they dont have time to realize what youre doing. Russian officials in washington are calling congressman garrets claims absurd, irresponsible and they say theres no evidence russian entities stirred up tensions in charlottesville. Russian Officials Say its easy to shift blame on them regarding those tensions and says it confirms the u. S. Cant get past its racial tensions. The social media stuff youre kind of infecting the division. How do you fight that . How do Counter Intelligence people say theyre going to fight that . As far as u. S. Intelligence officials theyre saying were running u. S. Operations to counter disinformation warfare from the russians. Theyre not giving too many specifics. But Cyber Security experts tell us theyre trying their hardest to expose the most active russian trolls who are working against the u. S. And trying to shut them down. Lot of that work going unnoticed, but they believe the u. S. Intelligence is very active in this. The bots are out there. I see them myself. Coming up apprentice star omarosa reveals she secretly recorded her white house firing as well as a phone call from the president himself. Does she have more secret recordings . And the president gloats over the firing of fbi agent peter struck. The president using the firing to once again attack the entire russia investigation as a hoax. So, hows it going . Well. We had a vacation early in our marriage that kinda put us in a hole. Go someplace exotic . Yeah, bermuda. A hospital in bermuda. A hospital in bermuda. What . What happened . I got a little overconfident on a moped. Even with insurance, we had to dip into our 401 k so it set us back a little bit. Sometimes you dont have a choice. But it doesnt mean you cant get back on track. Great. Yeah, great. Id like to go back to bermuda. I hear its nice. 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Happening now omarosas revenge. The fired president ial aide releases a secret recording of her former boss, and mr. Trump hits back calling her a whacky lowlife. Tonight even the president is acknowledging that this ugly grudge match is not president ial. Better than expected we are learning more about the kremlins take on the trumpputin summit why russian officials were especially please would the u. S. President S Performance there. New reaction this hour to our exclusive reporting. Lying for loans. After more testimony accusing paul