national and a professor with ties to the kremlin. volunteer papadopoulos e-mailed the co-chair sam clove us and several members of the foreign policy team telling them he met with the russian ambassador, and, quote, putin s niece who discussed a meeting between russian leadership and trump. he replied not to make any commitments and added great work. i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with does. at a national security meeting held in the under construction trump hotel in washington, papadopoulos told trump, jeff sessions, and others about the meeting. according to adviser j.d. gordan, sessions shut down the idea. the president said he doesn t remember. it s a very unimportant meeting. took place a long time. don t remember much about it. a few weeks later in late april the democratic national committee s i.t. department picked up suspicious activity and called in the firm crowd strike discovering a hack that pointed to the russ
interactions that he had with at least one senior russian official at that time. he acknowledges in this testimony he spoke to several key members of the trump campaign. he said he told then-senator jeff sessions about it and now the attorney general and sam clovis, the national co-chairman of the campaign, but also cory lewandowski, the campaign manager who said it s fine for him to go as long as it s not campaign related, as well as hope hicks who is now communications director and a former foreign policy adviser j.d. gordon. in addition to that, page reached out to the campaign and said i can make my remarks tailor made based on if you have suggestions on what i should say. and then afterwards, he sent an e-mail saying i ll send you a readout soon regarding some incredible insights and outreach
where we stand to date, and it s all under a headline that certainly gets your attention. at least nine people in trump s orbit had contact with russians during campaign and transition. this examines the contacts from done junior, jared kushner, trump attorney michael cone, george papadopoulos, paul manafort, carter page, jeff sessions, michael flynn and the campaign foreign policy adviser j.d. gordon. here are just some of the ways trump allies have defended those individuals and those contacts. paul manafort, who is a good man, also by the way, paul manafort was replaced long before the election took place. he was only there for a short period of time. even general flynn was a volunteer of the campaign and then obviously there s been discussion of paul manafort, who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time. carter page is an individual who the president-elect does not know and was put on notice months ago by the campaign.
official in an interview to the russian interfax news agency in september and met with israeli leaders during the inauguration in january as an adviser to the new president. what? after another foreign policy adviser j.d. gordon confirmed that papapopoulos discussed russians in their meeting, this is what the president said friday. reporter: do you remember george papadopoulos during that march meeting floating the idea i don t remember much about that meeting. it was a very unimportant meeting. don t remember much about it. memory, i thought he had one of the harold? you told me that he said he had one of the best all-time memories. he said his brain he told me right before that he told me personally he advises himself. i mean, i can t nick, i m confused. two more stories.
tomorrow just for enough time to vote in the virginia gubernatorial election. nbc news also has some new reporting on special counsel robert mueller s investigation. the headline on this one reads, mueller has enough evidence to bring charges in flynn investigation. three sources say mueller is applying renewed pressure on flynn following the indictment on manafort. as mueller s investigation progresses incrementally, it can be easy to lose the forest for the trees. the washington post has put together a big picture look at where we stand to date. and it s all under a headline that certainly gets your attention. at least nine people in trump s orbit had contact with russians during campaign and transition. this examines the contacts from don jr., jared kushner, trump attorney michael cohen, george papadopoulos, jeff sessions, michael flynn and the campaign foreign policy adviser j.d. gordon.